***Monday, Day 92***
**Mid Morning**
Leaves crunch beneath my hooves as I shift my weight from leg to leg. Orion, Rarity, Blue, Atom, and I are currently waiting for Hydro just outside the Everfree Forest. Hydro and I were decided to be the replacements for Twilight and Volt while they were out of town. While this expedition may seem familiar to the others of the group, to me it is eerie. The white pegasus stallion checks the map one more time and confirms the shard is still flaring just as a thump is heard. Another series of thumps follows, and the pattern continues as they get louder and louder.
Finally, the source of the noises crests the hill in front of us and I have to hold back a smile as the others stare open-mouthed as Hydro steers his centaurian machine towards us. It settles a small distance away and a small hiss of air comes out as the cockpit’s cover opens and the earth pony pokes his head out and smirks at us wordlessly.
Rarity is the first to recover. “Hydro... what is that thing?” She eyes the metal construct warily.
My red friend reaches down and pats the mech fondly. “This is D.A.I.S.I. D.”
Atom tilts his head to one side. “DAISI D?”
Hydro nods. “Digging Apparatus Improvised for Situations Involving Diamond-dogs. The last D can be changed to another letter depending on the situation.”
Blue stares in wonder. “So is this what you were working on in that lair of yours?”
He shrugs. “Among other things. Let’s get moving! We’ve got a star fragment to find!” He brings down the cover of the cockpit and the machine whirs up as we all start making our way to the point on the map.
We arrive sooner than we expected, Hydro’s invention making the normally irritatingly thick foliage easily passable as it clears the way. When we get to the point, all that is noticeable is a very large pit that goes straight down for about 100 feet with what looks like water at the bottom. It was likely an underground cavern that was exposed to air when the star crashed through its roof.I reflexively cast Res to attach my feet to the ground as I peer over the edge.
Orion, who is looking between the water and the map, remarks wryly, “No doubt about it, the fragment is down there somewhere. Can you narrow it down for us, Rarity?”
She nods as her horn glows a light blue. The water below all seems to light up at once for a few moments before the light fades again and the fashionista looks at us apologetically. “I’m sorry darlings, but the bottom of this pit is almost lined with gems... I cannot pinpoint the fragment’s location.”
Blue looks down at the water grimmly. “Well, what are we going to do then?”
A small cough comes from behind us. We turn and see Hydro giving us a cheeky look and pointing to himself and DAISI.
Atom lowers his shades. “Wait, is that thing water-proof?”
The earth pony nods. “Completely leak-proof and between the engine and the cockpit I’ve got about 20 minutes of air. Now, let the water pony do his thing.”
The sounds of hissing air can be heard as various points on the mech seal themselves. All of us clear a large path for DAISI to get to the pit. Steadily, it marches over before stopping at the edge. Suddenly, all four of its legs crouch and extend, propelling the machine upward and out into the center of the crater. As we watch the mech fall, a loud crack is heard as the ground falls from beneath us, loosened by the force DAISI had put on it. As we fall, Hydro’s machine hits the water and sends up a colossal splash that meets us in the air before taking us back down to the main body with it.
I close my eyes until I stop swirling in the water. As I slow down, I let my body’s natural buoyancy tell me which way is up, and follow it. I gasp loudly and hear similar breaths of air as I open my eyes and see the others come up as well. I look down, and can now see a fair distance into the water, including the large shape of DAISI that had come to rest at the bottom. A light flicks on from its shoulder as Hydro looks around.
Suddenly, a form rises out of the water revealing itself to be one of the diamond dogs.
“You sure are a noisy bunch aren’t you?” Sapphire says as a gill-like piece of armor vents water out of itself from it’s position on his neck.
Rarity shrieks and swims backwards away from him. “What are you doing here?!”
The diamond dog smiles and holds up the coveted treasure we were looking for, “Why recovering this star piece my dear. Also, I wouldn’t splash around so much. You’ll spread the drug throughout your body much more rapidly.”
Alarm bells ring in my head. “What do you mean ‘drug’?”
The dog folds his arms behind his head and swims leisurely backwards using his feet for propulsion as he speaks. “Well as a lover of marine life I make sure my work leaves as little an imprint as possible. And since this pit was filled with ferocious piranhas I had to put my special drug in the water to sedate them out for a bit. Now you are swimming in the same water I drugged, so you have about 20 minutes before you sleep with the fishes. Literally.”
All three pegasus stallions immediately start flapping their wings to try and get out of the water. Unfortunately, all their efforts do is tire them out, instead of getting them out. I try to Blink out only to have my magic fizzle.
“Really? Moving around some more? My drug affects all things physically and magically, so your efforts are benign. Especially your efforts to fly, since you don’t have pegasus magic to protect your wings from getting wet and last time I checked, wet wings don’t fly. But based on your average group intelligence it doesn't surprise me you would lack that common knowledge.” Sapphire says in a demeaning tone.
We all glare angrily at the dog but dare not go after him since he is obviously faster than us and seemingly immune to his own drug.
The dog begins to make his leave, “Well it has been fun. I hope you all manage to get out of here before you lose consciousness, drown, and have your bodies eaten by the piranhas that will wake up later. Au revoir.”
Suddenly, a metal arm shoots out of the water and grabs onto Sapphire before dragging him down into the water.
***Third person***
“Well well, a new challenger has appeared.” Sapphire states.
Hydro’s voice can be heard slightly muffled through the glass as he glares. “Darn right I did! Now, give me that shard!” The stallion pushes a lever and one of the arms lunges towards the dog.
Sapphire narrowly avoids the attack. “Hmm. Faster than I expected...It doesn’t matter, I’m still more maneuverable.”
The water pony allows the mech to sink to the bottom of the crater and quickly pushes off with it’s powerful legs as he again extends an arm towards the canine. Sapphire manages to dodge, but the sudden turn and speed of the attack means that he did not escape unscathed as a section of his leg armor is highly dented from a grazing blow. The diamond dog recovers quickly, continuing to dodge and weave through Hydro’s onslaught, proving himself to be superior in speed under water.
However, this does not mean Hydro is at a disadvantage. When he does make contact, it counts. On one particularly memorable strike, he manages to land an open-palm strike on Sapphire’s chest plate, sending the dog into the opposite wall with a thump and large imprint of the mech’s grasper. This goes on for what seems like minutes until the mechs body seems to slow to a halt.
“Performance issues?” the dog says snidely.
Hydro struggles with the controls as nothing seems to get a response. He slams a hoof down on a console in frustration. “What the... Oh come on you hunk of junk, move!”
The blue-clad dog smirks as he floats up and taps on the glass. “Having trouble? Would you like to know why? Well, if you had done your research you would have known I use chemical bubbles, and all that time you were creating a commotion you did not notice me releasing my bubbles around your robot. They proceeded to pop and clog your joints leaving you in an what amounts to an anchor.”
“What’s with the generous exposition?” Hydro growls questioningly.
“Well you see, I plan to finish you off instead of leaving you like we did before.” Sapphire then proceeds to attach to Hydro’s cockpit and start smashing the glass. While the material is reinforced it eventually succumbs against the dog’s relentless onslaught and cracks, letting the water start to fill the cockpit.
Sapphire gives a satisfied smiles as he sees the fruits of his attacks. “Isn’t it poetic when one builds their own coffin?”
Hydro begins mumbling to himself as he begins fiddling with the controls. “Windshield compromised... hull still intact... power supply acceptable... I could wrench the joints... just reroute it here...”
The dog takes notice and resumes his barrage of blows on the cockpit while baring his teeth. “I won’t even give you the time.”
***Rhino***
As the battle raged under the surface, the rest of us had made our way to the edges of the pit sides. It had been agonizingly slow, only making the most basic movements and essentially floating over to them. Each of us had found a hoofhold to try and keep ourselves afloat without moving as we watched the two combatants. We watch as Sapphire begins tearing into DAISI and our eyes widen in alarm.
Orion is the first to speak up “What are we going to do?”
“I think I might have an idea to distract him for a few moments.” Rarity inputs.
I look over to her as I worry for my friend. “Well whatever it is, if you think it’ll work, do it!”
She starts concentrating the magic in her horn with much strain due to our numbing bodies. The pit’s bottom suddenly begins to glow. It grows brighter and brighter until all of us have to look away. She keep this up for a few precious seconds before passing out as the effort and drugs take hold. Luckily Orion is nearby to grab her and help hold her afloat.
“Let’s hope it helped.” He remarks as we all look back down towards the battle.
***Third person***
Hydro’s mech is barely holding out as the cockpit fills with more and more water. Suddenly, Rarity’s spell takes effect and the underwater bottom blooms with ever increasing light. Hydro is spared due to his shelter in the mech. Sapphire, however, is not as fortunate as he slaps his paws over his eyes as he howls in pain.
“My eyes! The goggles, they do nothing!” He screams out.
The earth pony is not one to let chances pass by. With a final series of switch flicks, he once again grasps the controls for DAISI’s arms. He wrenches the controls and with the squeal of metal on metal the graspers surge into movement towards the canine.
The first blow is a vicious uppercut to Sapphire’s abdomen. The next blow slams him back down towards the bottom. Strike after strike assaults the stunned dog’s form as Hydro yells out an incoherent battle cry of rage even as the water still slowly seeps into his cockpit. Each piece of the blue finned armor is shattered until finally, all that remains is the hound beneath it all. With one last blow, Sapphire is tossed clear out of the water and lands on a protruding rock on the wall of the pit.
Hydro grabs the slowly dimming star fragment and surfaces near us, opening up the glass cover of the mech to let the water flow out. He takes one look at the rest of us barely hanging onto our safety rock before he sweeps us up and plops us onto the top of DAISI along with Sapphire.
He pilots the machine over to one of the walls before announcing to us, “Hold on everypony!”
*Slam*
One of the arms buries it’s digits into the wall as it grasps onto it and pulls the mech up a few feet before the process is repeated with the opposite arm. At first, all of us worry that we’ll be knocked off, but we each find a spot to hold on to.
Atom looks back at our canine rider and asks with disdain. “So, what do we do with this one?”