//------------------------------//
// Her Bark Is Worse Than Her Bite 
// Story: Every Dog Has Her Day 
// by SilverNotes 
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"Stop yapping!"

"I am not yapping! I am barking! Do you want to hear yapping? This is yapping!"

Not her finest moment, Precious would admit. Rover, Fido, and Spot could be so infuriating, however, and if they wouldn't listen to her carefully thought out ideas on how to make the cave system they all lived in a bit more, well, livable, then she'd figured the next step was to go with something they better understood: relying on volume. It'd almost worked, too, with them about ready to acquiesce to her desires just to make the noise stop, but ultimately Rover's ego had won out over his sore ears and he'd exiled her instead.

Well, perhaps exile was a strong word. She'd be allowed to come home when the sun set, so long as she went back out when it rose again. She was now on scout duty, having the grand dishonour of going out to the surface and watching for ponies who strayed from their little towns, ripe for the snatching and dragging into the tunnels to pull the gem carts. It was a joke of a post, really, since ponies rarely came into the mountains, but still considered to be necessary, along with making an effective punishment for troublemakers.

Precious huffed, her long ears rising slightly and then drooping. Troublemaker. All she'd wanted to do was help. The caves were drab, and harsh, and cold and if they'd just listened to her idea of making some pillows, decorated with some small gem pieces, instead of calling it wasteful, they'd see the sense in it. There were always finds that weren't of use for magic, and while a few became adornments for collars, not all of them did. There were stockpiles of gems that had their colour and shine as their best qualities, and they could finally be put to use for decorations.

But no. To them, Precious was wasteful. Frivolous. Selfish. The last of those was the greatest insult, because she'd suggested it because she'd wanted to do something that everydog would enjoy. She was always thinking of the best interests of the pack. That's why she'd ambushed Rover with some herbs to improve his breath the week before. It would be doing him, and everydog who spoke to him, a massive favour. 

But it seemed that no good deed would go unpunished, and now here she was. Not that Precious really minded. She'd been on the surface before, for shorter tasks--she had a good nose for gems and there were plenty of deposits close to the surface, not to mention there were other resources that could only be found under the sun--and once the initial fear of falling into the sky had passed, she'd learned to see the beauty in it all, not to mention appreciate the fresher air. A sentiment the other dogs didn't share, apparently, as they were always all too eager to go back into those musty old tunnels.

No, being out here beneath the open sky, with the warm summer sun on her fur and a cool breeze, rather than cramped caves full of far too many other dogs who needed to bathe at least five times more often--they took advantage of the fact that grey and brown fur didn't easily show dirt, but she had no such luxuries with her snow white coat, and even if one couldn't see the dirt so easily, she could certainly smell it on them--was alright with her. Perfect, even.

It was just... a bit lonely, that's all.

She'd been out here for hours. Did anydog miss her, down there? Or were they just glad to be rid of her for the day?

A soft sound caught her attention, and Precious's ears perked. It sounded like a voice, surprisingly, and she realized after a few moments that whoever it was, they were humming. The sound was getting closer, she realized, and she scrambled to find a place to hide. While the vegetation in their mountain home was scarce, there was enough for her to hastily pull herself up into the branches of a tree, and huddle among the leaves, hoping that none of her eyecatching fur stuck out through the veil of green.

The humming creature soon revealed itself, coming around the corner of a large, jutting stone and showing itself to be a pony. It was one of the winged ones, which Precious knew meant it would be a difficult catch, though it didn't look like a very big or strong one, and was all soft yellows and pinks for colour. The pony was wearing saddlebags that looked well-made, if also well-worn, and they hung in a way that said they were likely empty or nearly so. Despite all the cheerful humming, the pony also seemed to be searching for something; Precious didn't really know how to read equine facial expressions well, but saw it in the head movements and the way eyes seemed to be sweeping the stones.

The pony turned in a way that allowed Precious a glimpse of the mark, but she didn't quite register what it was, only seeing a bit of pink. She leaned a bit, trying to get a better look at the image--she didn't know much about ponies' strange magic, but you were always supposed to check the icon to see if it reflected something potentially useful, or potentially dangerous--but those saddlebags made it much more difficult to see.

Crack!

It was while she was in her precarious lean that Precious heard the sound from the branch beneath her, and had only enough time to let out a very undignified yelp as she crashed down and tumbled through the dirt. By the time she could tell which way was up again, "up" now included a lot of yellow and pink and a pair of very large eyes. "Oh goodness! Are you okay?"

The pony was asking if she was okay?

Precious blinked several times, then started to push herself back up onto her paws. "Don't worry, I'm okay," she said quickly. Now having spoken to the pack's future workhorse, she felt at a loss for what to do, and so fell back on more words. "What are you doing so far from Pony-town, pony?"

"Um..." It was those massive eyes' turn to blink. "It's um... Ponyville..." She glanced at her saddlebags, voice growing softer. "...And I'm here looking for gems. My friend is a dragon and--"

Ears went up, eyes went wide, and Precious was pretty sure her heart stopped beating for a minute's time. "Dragon?"

Ponies were fair game, but a diamond dog scout was to never, ever, touch a dragon.

There were a handful of species who were granted such status, to be treated as equals rather than servants. Griffons were one, and she recalled the pack's storytellers drawing images on the walls to show them what a griffon was, emphasizing beak and talons and speaking of them as honourable warriors. Abyssinians were another, the law laid down that no matter how much the feline nature may rankle, they were worthy rivals who had no place in chains. But dragons were shown even higher respect, to be treated with something very close to reverence, because they, too, needed gems to power their magic, and because of that, understood the nature of the dogs better than any other.

If the pony noticed her distress, she didn't show it, her voice instead growing more excited at her questioning word. "Oh yes! His name is Spike. He's been helping me take care of my animal friends, and I wanted to give him some gems as a thank you snack." She then paused, looking around at the dirt, rocks, and few plants. "Um... what are you doing out here?"

"I'm..." Precious's ears pinned back as she hesitated, and as lies went, the one she settled on had the advantage of being part of the truth. "Watching for travelers." She raised her head slightly, sniffing the air, her body thrumming with subtle magics. "I know where gems are. I can help you, pony."

As she zeroed in on the nearest patch that smelled right, she bounded toward it on all fours, hearing hooves behind her. "Oh! Thank you very much, I wasn't sure how long it would take me to find some all on my own." Then her voice softened again, tone sounding more unsure. "My name is Fluttershy. What's yours? If you... if you don't mind me asking."

The pony was asking for her name.

You didn't give names to ponies. You didn't use names for ponies. Names were for equals.

"...Precious," she responded, her own voice gone quiet as her claws dug into the earth. "My name is Precious." 

She scraped layer after layer of dirt away with care, until the multicoloured sparkles of a cluster of different gemstones came into view. She carefully plucked each from its resting place, using the edges of her vest--it was so drab and grey that the dirt was almost an improvement, as the pack didn't let her try to make fabric dyes out of the gems either--to wipe each off before setting it aside. 

She pulled eight out in total, determined that the patch of earth was hiding no others, and then gathered them up. "Here you go... Fluttershy..." she said haltingly, opening one of the saddlebags with caution not to smear any dirt on the cloth. The whole armful slid in with ease. "Take them to your dragon. He'll like them."

Fluttershy was beaming up at Precious, and as unfamiliar as she was with ponies, there was no mistaking a joyful smile. "Oh, I can't thank you enough. Is there something I can do to repay you?"

Run, was the thought that crossed Precious's mind. Run away and never come back, so nodog ever finds out what I did. Instead, she cautiously reached out to pat the top of Fluttershy's head. "No no, it's alright. You'd better get back to Pony-t--Ponyville. It'll be night soon, and it's not good for a little pony to be out after dark."

Night soon. Night that Precious would be spending in the tunnels, until the sun rose again and it was time to get back to her post. Returning to her post every morning, until she'd caught the pack a new pony.

Fluttershy was still smiling. "Oh, I'm not worried about a little darkness, not after the Summer Sun Celebration." She turned around, opening a wing to move it in a way that Precious realized after a few moments was a wave. "Goodbye Precious, and thank you again."

Precious waved back, silently, and watched until yellow and pink vanished to leave Precious behind in the brown, grey, and hints of green. She then looked around, listened, sniffed the air, and extended her magic senses into the earth, making for absolute certain nodog had been there to see that.

She'd spoken to a pony. Given the pony her name. She had fetched gems for the pony like a common canine and then let the pony go.

But it was okay. She hadn't been caught, and surely it would be alright to let one pony go. Fluttershy wouldn't be good in the tunnels, anyway. The winged ones were supposed to be too delicate to pull heavy loads. Precious was doing the pack a favour, as always, ensuring that she didn't just grab any old pony to end her exile, but one who would be the most useful.

Yes, everything would be just fine. She'd just wait until the next one.