//------------------------------// // Encountering Diamond Dogs // Story: Why Did I Choose to be Trixie? // by Mike the Red //------------------------------// After leaving Ponyville, I had hoped our trek to Las Pegasus would have gone as smoothly and without incident as our earlier travels. Unfortunately, this was not the case. About a day or so after leaving Ponyville, we encountered difficult terrain as the map didn't indicate geographic topography at all. Worse than that, we were set upon by a pack of Diamond Dogs about four days in and dealing with them proved tricky. Trixie and I resorted to blasting them with lightning, injuring several of them and scaring the rest of them off. We had hoped that scaring them off would be enough of a deterrent to keep them from trifling with us, but the following day, three packs of twenty of the dogs showed up. Their leader was not a happy puppy, to say the least. "You two are the ones who hurt some of my dogs," the leader shouted at us. "We have your little wagon surrounded!" We had been sleeping in the caravan over-night and the dogs had come up very close to it. We looked out the window and were quite frightened by the sight of so many Diamond Dogs around it. "Amethyst, what are we going to do?" asked Trixie as she clung to me very tightly. "Stay inside, I'm gonna handle this. Things could get a little messy," I advised coolly. I teleported to the top of the caravan, amazed to see sixty Diamond Dogs of various sizes, shapes and breeds, though most of them were quite large. Nearly all of them bared their fangs, growling with hostile intent. I stood on my hind legs and cracked my neck and addressed the very large pack. "Now, I know you're not all here to watch Trixie and me perform for you, so I am giving you ten seconds to leave before I start raining lightning bolts down on all of you. Now how many of you want to die today?!" I asked, using magic to amplify my voice so the pack could hear me, even in the back. Some of the ones in front backed down a little, backing into the others behind them, causing some to trip and fall over. "You can't scare us with threats you can't back up!" the leader shouted at me. I responded by magically creating a large dark cloud to cause a lightning bolt to strike very close to the leader, who jumped out of the way. The sound of thunder booming scared off a bunch of the dogs, but there were a few brave ones who stood their ground, and some of the others started advancing toward the caravan. I glared at them, narrowing my eyes. More of the dogs started advancing, some of them readying spears. I sent a few more lightning bolts at them and one of the more unfortunate dogs holding a spear saw a bolt hit the tip a little too late -- he was singed and ran away, yelping in pain as he did so. "Let that serve as a warning to you all! You threaten us at your peril!" I shouted at them. The leader called on them to attack anyway, offering double gems to any who would dare attack. None stepped closer, and some of them started leaving, entering holes in the ground. "We won't forget this! We will wait for you! We will not give you a chance to defend yourself next time!" the leader shouted at me. "Next time, I won't be so lenient on you! Consider yourself lucky to be alive!" I shouted back at him. I waited for him to make his next move, but he chose to stand his ground. Several of the dogs returned as it appeared the encounter was not over. I turned around in a circle, still atop the caravan, to see how many dogs were still around. I counted about fifteen or thereabouts. I glared at the leader, narrowing my eyes to slits. "I think it would be a good idea for you and the rest of your dogs to leave now unless you have a death wish," I growled at him, using magic to amplify my voice, trying to make the threat sound as ominous as possible. To emphasize my point, I sent another lightning bolt crashing near the leader, who once again jumped out of the way. Damn him and his lizard-like reflexes! "These were warning shots -- next one's gonna strike you down!" I shouted at him. He reluctantly made his way down another hole, the other dogs silently following him down other holes in the ground. I used magic to seal the holes as best I could, though I wasn't sure how well that would work. "Hey, Trixie, I think I managed to scare them all off. Can you cast an invisibility spell on both of us and the caravan so we can keep moving without being seen?" She gingerly opened the door and peered out, checking to see if they were all gone, then stepped outside. She lit her horn, casting the caravan and both of us in her pink aura, making us invisible. "Trixie thanks you for saving her ... again." "No problem. How long can you keep the invisibility up?" I asked, almost nervously. "Only a little while -- Trixie's magic is not as strong as yours, Amethyst," the azure mare stated, still glancing around to check for any more dogs. We hitched up the caravan and kept moving -- we were able to travel about five miles while invisible, which I figured was good enough. There was another town waiting for us about another six hours travel away, where we performed our act again and bought some more supplies. The next town was another three days out and we hoped we wouldn't be running into any more Diamond Dogs any time soon.