//------------------------------//
// Cool Hoof Josho 
// Story: Innavedr 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	"Dig harder, poniesssss!"  A diamond dog hissed as he patrolled the crystal pits with his lash.  "The Killasssss do not sleep.  The Killas see all that you do and don'tttttt do!  Only we will feed you and only if you work so workkkk!"

"When I return to Blue Slope from all of this I am shooting every friggin' dog I see," Josho grumbled as he heaved his massive drill around and rammed it into a chunk of crystal.  As he began to prime the machine, he heard labored breathing.  He threw a nervous glance to his side.  "Come on, kid.  You're making us look bad."

"I... c-can't help it..."  Eagle Eye whimpered.  He was flinging his pickaxe as hard as he could against the fragmentary walks of sapphiric ore, but he hardly made even a dent.  His lavender face was pale and his brown drenched in sweat.  "Just... so weak... th-these crystals..."  He gulped.  "I-I don't know what's in them..."

"Look, you'd better shape up!" Josho uttered, cranking the drill to life.  A dull hum filled the crook of rock where they were surrounded by fellow, laboring slaves.  "If they see you collapsing like a ragdoll..."

"Nnnngh..."  Moaning, Eagle Eye slumped down to his forelimbs, dropping his pickaxe altogether.

Gritting his teeth, Josho glanced over his shoulder, then squatted down beside the younger stallion.  "They're going to rip out your throat, kid," he whispered.  "They're gonna kill you and toss your meat to their puppies."

"Why..."  Eagle Eye stammered, writhing in dizziness.  "...d-do you care?"

"Pfft.  Believe me, I don't..."

"Then... j-just let it end..."

"What you going on about, kid?"

"It's all done with..."  Eagle Eye wheezed, his eyes thin and glazed over.  "The Blades Guild... Rainbow Dash...  Belle and Pilate..."  He gulped.  "Crimson is gone.  I... I can't ever return home.  Not even my father will have me back..."  He exhaled heavily, turning his head aside as if about to fall asleep.  "Save yourself the trouble.  I'm done with..."

"Dammit, you're a soldier, aren't you?"  Josho frowned, his teeth showing.  "So be a soldier and get up!  I mean it!  On your hooves!"

"It is finished..."  Eagle Eye murmured.

Josho was about to protest louder when a whip slashed at his flank.  "Augh!"

"What is going on here, pony?!"  The canine jumped down, wearing a gas mask.  His muffled voice hissed as he coiled the whip tighter and loomed over the two.  "There is no resttttt if there is no digggg!  Do you want to eat tonight?!"

"Look, just give him a friggin' moment!" Josho grumbled from behind his shoulder.  "Can't you see he's sick?"

"Sick, you saaaaay?  Dead ponies don't get sickkk."  The dog took a deep breath, then slipped off his gas mask to reach for a whistle.  He brought the brass instrument to his lips.

Josho glanced at the dog, then at Eagle Eye.  He sighed long and hard before ultimately muttering, "Ohhhhhh screw this with a ten foot sausage and a side of grits."  His horn glowed and Eagle Eye's entire body levitated.

The canine paused in whistling to do a double-take.  "What...?!"

"This is what!"  Josho spun and threw Eagle Eye at the dog's skull.  The lavender unicorn's horn flew straight into the canine's neck, sticking in deep and spilling blood.

Eagle Eye woke instantly, gasping.  Instinctually, he shot a burst of magic out of his horn.

The dog took the pulse of mana to his skull, and his eyes exploded in bloody fountains.  When Josho floated Eagle Eye back, the dog fell back, clutching his face as his screams gargled on a copious vomit of blood.

Several slaves gasped, staring wide-eyed at the carnage.  A few chuckled deliriously.

Eagle Eye stumbled on his haunches, shaking his head dizzily.  He raised a hoof to the trickle of dog blood on his skull, then looked at Josho.  "What d-did you do?"  He looked down at the bloody, eyeless diamond dog and gasped.  "What did I do?!"

"Congratulations, kid," Josho was in the middle of slamming his drill repeatedly into the wall.  "You're officially a veterinarian."  The machine broke apart, and the elder stallion slid the many sharp components out from its metal innards.  "Send me the bill later."

A bullet ricocheted off the quarry wall just inches above their skulls.  Slaves ducked as the two unicorns spun to look.

A canine overseer was reloading his gun while two of his lackeys ran down the craggy hillside with their whips.  "You are dead meatttttt, ponies!"

"Back at ya, Fido!"  Josho roared as he mashed the metal bits together with telekinesis and flung the wave of shrapnel back up at the dogs.  "Haaaugh!"

The first two stumbled as their faces were sliced to ribbons.  The gun-toting canine had a shard of metal fly into his paw.  He fell back, shrieking in pain.  Whistles sounded off and the air filled with loud barks.

"By the Spark!"  Eagle Eye shrieked, wide-eyed.  "Are you mad?!"

"Something like that."

"Wh-what do we do now?!"

"You kidding?!"  Josho tugged Eagle Eye along with him as the two bounded uphill by their manacles' binding.  "We gallop like hell!"