The Diamond City.
Even in its ruined state, with cracks on the walls and rumble under them, and the color fainting off from the palace’s domes, it still was an astonishing to see. E couldn’t help but wonder as he gazed at it how it must have looked during Diamond Empire’s zenith and, with a slight sensation of fear, would the team have been able to breach into it back then.
“Probably not.” he concluded as he followed the other agents toward their target.
Luckily for them, this part of the city’s wall was less guarded. Crys concluded at their earlier briefing that due to city’s new residents being unfamiliar with it, they simply didn’t know about the sewer passage, so they did not bother this having proper number of guards atop of ruined part of wall. If such wasn’t the case, if this section of the wall had the same number of Diamond Dogs on them, the ten agents would have been most likely spotted. It also helped that they all now wore black clothing with a turtlenecks to make their coats less visible. The Director provided them with those as well as with belts that had many useful things. Explosives, which agents were supposed to use to blow the place to smithereens, being chief among them.
“Okay, Mane, get moving.” Cryst told the tan earth pony once they reached their entrance.
Mane nodded and phased through the circular crate blocking the way to the sewer. E wrinkled, his nose like everypony else, due to smell of animal filth. They went over the plan again, It seemed perfect, but... for some reason, he could not help but feel that something would go wrong.
He turned to Filly to quickly discuss with her; only to frown at the sight of her once again staring at the thin air. He gently tapped her sweet spot on her spine, right between her wings, causing her to break from her daydreaming with a slight shrug. Filly glared at him, angry at being touched when others were around, but before either of them could say anything, the gate opened with Mane on the other side motioning for them to follow.
No pony was happy at placing their hooves what they hoped was at least partly water, but it was either that or storming the gate. So without further ado, they began to trot upwards, heading towards animal pens.
The moment they enter the sewer they could hear the sounds of animals that Cryst spoke off, and the closer they got, the louder they were. Soon, everypony relaxed: their greatest fear was not the dangers they would encounter among the Beastmaster Pack, but that all those guards they saw, which there were hundreds of them, joining the fray. However, with the amount of noised the animals gave, the agents could probably host a party here and none of them would by any wiser.
The animals themselves were... well, terrifying, for the lack of better word. Once the group reached the end of the tunnel, they saw huge beasts like nopony have ever seen before. Even if their images were all already showed to them back at the Floating Island, it was still something completely different to behold such behemoths with your own eyes.
“Everypony remembers the plan?” Crys asked, her voice barely a whisper.
E, who was already prepared, had to wonder if those exotic animals were related to dragons and hydras on the account of their scaly bodies. He quickly snapped himself back to reality as he turned his sight to Diamond Dogs. They were all diamondy, and all looked fierce. They must have been, seeing how they were not afraid in the slightest of behemoths locked up in cages as they tended to them. Despite the task they were doing currently, or maybe because of it, they looked as if they are itching for a fight.
But, so was the team.
“On my mark. Sync?”
“Sync.” everypony murmured.
“Mark!” Crys commanded, and like a wave, the group of ten ponies attacked the unsuspecting Dogs.
The agents had the element of surprise and their first opponents quickly fell. Unsurprisingly, those Diamond Dogs fighting prowess was nowhere near the level of their Emperor, and while their diamond-like bodies gave ponies a little trouble, blood soon flowed down the sewer along the filth. After about half of their packmates that were here laid dead, the Dogs finally had recovered, and rushed to open up cages that housed their pets. But it was too late.
As they planned, Balti moved from cage to cage, using her hardening spit that she mastered about a year ago. Her spit had encased the lock of cages in extremely hard substance, making it impossible to release those monstrosities. To ensure that the unicorn would be untroubled, E was assigned to guard her. So he now stood, appearing as four ponies, around Balti.
He hated duplicating himself, for not just because this trick was more taxing than the others, but also because it caused him to be few separate being at the same time, which could make a pony borderline insane. However, orders were orders, so now whenever a Diamond Dog tried to stub Balti with a spear, he found himself getting hit in the face by an invisible force, and the same thing happened to others no matter from which direction they chose to attack. The blast he dealt to them weren’t enough to kill them, even if their faces now looked like broken windows, but the other agents, especially Los, quickly jumped on them and finished what E started.
It all went well; despite the earth pony’s misgivings... That is until Mane, who was about to be stabbed, phased through the axe as he brought a knife he picked up along the scuffle into his opponent's neck (the Diamond Dogs should have really rethink the idea of using weapons crafted from material that could cut their diamond bodies like normal flesh). While the strike that was intended for him had continued to swung and hit the cage, which damaged the lock on it.The amber - as Balti called the substance she spitted - held, but the metal to which the lock was attached did not.
The creature in it, sensing its chance for freedom had roared, as it used its massive head to completely bash through the gate of cage. It was huge: it stood good five meters high, if not more, and was long for about twelve, half of which was his massive tail. Its greenish scales shone under the black and golden armor its head, back and tail were outfitted with, similar to those the now-dead Beastmasters wore.
“Wow, that’s one angry looking chicken.” Cant murmured as the beast’s huge head glanced around them.
As it took a few steps, E had to admit that there was something chicken-like about the great lizard. All thought like those evaporated from his head as, with a piercing roar, the behemoth attacked them.
Deciding that he would be of much more use as whole, E became one and used his telekinetic power to hurl few spears at the armored head of ‘Chicken’, but with little to none success. His attack only seemed to anger it, because it turned around and tried to smash it with its tail, which hit one of the other cages as the earth pony blinked away.
“Everypony, keep your distance!” he heard Crys order, and as all of them moved away from Chicken, hiding behind some other cages (which, thankfully, were sturdy enough to withhold attacks of the frenzied animal).
“E!” a shout came from his Beacon. “Can’t you make him see a nightmare or something?”
“It’s an animal!” he replied to Crys’ question. “They don’t feel fear the same way we do!”
“Ugh, great.” she muttered. “Okay, new plan-”
She stopped as they all turned around to watch the Chicken open up its massive maw with too many teeth for their liking, and its ‘helmet’ looking a bit like a head of a Diamond Dog, began to shine and soon, a purple ball formed in front of it. Before any of them managed to react, it exploded, creating as strong energy wave around the beast that blasted them all away.
“Cloud, make it dizzy!” Crys continued as the shook off the pain and minor injuries. “You and Filly will then use those chains to tie its legs together, and Los will punch it! Trot, Hoof, come here! Rest of you, stay clear!”
Happy that he didn’t had to participate in what was basically an animal abuse, E blinked further away, joining Mane and a leaving Trot behind a cage with bat-like reptile in it.
“Be careful...” he managed to hear the tan earth pony whisper as his eye were glued to Cloud who, having dispatched two of her illusion selfs to circle around the head of Chicken, raced with Filly towards the long chains hanging from the wall.
“Don’t worry, mate, she’s not oblivious to her surroundings as you showed to be few moments ago.” Trot jibed before he left, causing Mane to scowl and E to chuckle.
He was worried for Filly, of course, but he knew her, and actually pitied the beast. If it was a male, E wouldn’t be surprised if she would kick it in the balls for good measure before they would kill it. For that what soon happened: the two pegasi mares bounded Chicken’s strong hind limbs with chains, and once it was concentrated on preserving what little balance it had left, Los flew up and punched the behemoth with all his might right in the unprotected bottom of his head. The wobbling beast shrieked in pain, his jaw no doubt fractured, despite its sturdy scales. But soon the roars became that of dying beast once it fell and the base of its skull became impaled by the energy sword from Hoof who, the moment before he was squished had disappeared, and appeared along with Trot a few paces away.
“That was... gruesome.” Mane commented, as the Chicken gave out his last breath.
“You should have been more careful then.” Crys told him coldly, no doubt referring to Mane’s action that caused the very animal to be free. “Is anypony hurt?”
“I’m always unlucky...” E heard Mane murmured, as all the others checked themselves for injuries, save for Cloud who landed next to the tan pony and attempted to brighten up his mood.
None of them were hurt, although the blast the Chicken caused made their bodies ache with pain a bit, but they all shook it off as they gathered near a big corridor, that was used to transport the animals to amfiteatr. On Crys’ mark, they marched, but they haven’t even gone half way before they met with more Beastmasters. Apparently, their alpha male managed to hear that something was off in that last roar the Chicken ushered, and send some of his Dogs there to check if his packmates needed any help.
They were a tad too late.
“What is the meaning of this!” the big Diamond Dog in the middle of amphitheatre arena shouted as the agents threw corpses of his people out of the tunnel.
Instead of answering, the group quickly moved to attack. While they have already dealt with half of Beastmaster Pack back in the previous room, those present here were quicker to get a hold of themselves and fought back with fury matching their beasts.
This was going to take a while.
Rasta, alpha male of Beastmasters Pack, was astonished to see those little ponies emerge from the tunnel leading from their precious pets. He growled inwardly, already planning strong retribution for those of his Dogs that tended to the mighty dinoes for letting some pathetic ponies sneak past them.
“Have you come to witness the rebirth of the Diamond Empire?” Rasta asked them, pretending to be mildly curious, but failing, as the words that came out of his mouth where laced with venom.
He shrugged, not really carrying. What mattered was now dealing with those intruders before the Emperor would found out about them. The Beastmasters gained his favor by offering him their animals, in preparation for war His Imperial Majesty wanted to wage on those weak ponies of Equestria, and the whole pack present here was granted the Gift, which returned them to the form of their ancestors. Rasta was not about to displease his liege, not just out of loyalty, but out of fear, too: there were terrible rumors coming out from Steel Muzzle Pack about what had happened to some Dogs that incurred the Emperor’s wrath.
And so, instead of sending messenger as ten ponies battled his warriors, Rasta took hold of his battle axe and joined the fray, while uttering his war cry.
To his slight annoyance, the little ponies proved to be hard to hit. The dark blue one with wings even smirked at him as his axe came close, but barely missing its nose, then it kicked with one of its hind-leg right to his groin...
The pain he felt was tremendous, even with him being Diamond.
Now furious, he swung at it, only to find his axe blocked by an invisible force. The pony looked around, surprised, and then he felt something hit him with the power of a mighty trihorn. Whatever it was, it threw him away from the battle ground, making cracks in his perfect body, and broke few of his bones as well. Rasta rose, spouting blood, and saw to his shock and fear that most of his warriors were dead. The handful that was left gathered behind him, all trembling.
“What now?” one of them asked, as he gets closer.
“Pathetic weakling!” Rasta shouted in rage, disgusted by the fear his voice trembled with. “We are Diamond Dogs of the Beastmasters Pack! We fight to the end!”
The Dog nodded, getting better grip of his dagger.
“I thought you would say that.” he replied, sounding almost happy.
Rasta, pleased, turned his head back at the ponies-
-and choked as dagger pierced his neck.
“Well, that took care of them.” Crys commented as she changed back into her true shape.
All around them laid corpses of Beastmasters. Once their alpha male fell, they actually took their weapons and stabbed themselves, as if not wanting to outlive their leader...
... or face the wrath of their Emperor.
She shook her head. If the plan worked, they wouldn’t even crossed paths with him.
“Okay ponies, one minute to catch our breaths, and we move out.” she instructed others, most of which sit on the lowers seats of the amphitheatre. After frowning, she had teleported to get closer to them. “Now we’ll split: me, Cant and Mane will go plant the charges under their defenses, and the rest of you will head for the palace. Don’t use the Beacons; unless you want to be found out... although, we will probably know that immediately. Filly, you’ll lead the palace group.”
The pegasus nodded. While Crys disliked some parts of her character, she had to admit that younger mare was a great agent. She would do fine in leading the other six.
Once everybody rested a bit (as much as you can rest within stronghold of an enemy), Cryst gave the signal, and they trotted their separate ways: her group going back east, through different passage, and the other straight north.