“Is that really true, Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash’s brow furrowed in worry. Her eyes trailed up and down as she followed the bouncing blur of pink as she rocketed herself up to eye level, then fell down to the trampoline far below, only to spring back up again. The ‘spy’ mare had brought some rather disturbing news to her cloudbound doorstep.
Twilight had kept herself locked up in the library for a whole week now, only coming out with Spike for the odd visit or purchase on the market. All of them had been getting worried, especially since Twilight had been constantly prolonging Pinkie’s constant attempts to arrange a congratulatory party for Spike’s change. They all had a feeling that something big was coming, and weren’t about to be left in the dark until the last moment. Pinkie, was more than happy to volunteer to sneak in and figure out what had been going on, and just last night she had figured out what it was.
“Yup! Apparently the book that Twilight got was stolen by Starswirl the Bearded!” Pinkie replied before falling once more. Upon her return, she grinned wide and said, “He left a new nifty book for her to read instead, and it’s got all sorts of juicy information! I didn’t understand all of it though.” Once more she fell and soared back up into the sky, this time sporting a pensive and less joyous look, “Though having to fight and kill Spike to make the Spirit, even if he might come back just the same, is still really really not good. Given all the extra notes she scribbled, she seems to plan to do it herself!”
Rainbow shook her head incredulously, scarcely able to believe it. Not just the idea that Starswirl was still alive, but even more so the idea that Twilight was going to do something so dangerous. At the same time, something in the back of her head told her that it was exactly what Twilight would do. She could understand perfectly why, too. If something like this had to be done, it was obvious that Twilight would never let anyone but herself do it.
Waiting for Pinkie to make a return trip into the sky, Rainbow asked, “Is there anything else that you found out, Pinkie?”
On the next bounce, Pinkie returned to her normal joyous giggling self and proclaimed, “Yeah! Twi’s been sneaking out at night to practice something super awesome! I followed her for a little bit, and saw her practicing some amazing new spells, and I saw that she’d brought a special weapon too!”
Rainbow Dash took a sudden step back from the doorway, surprise written all over her face before poking her head out the doorway to shout after the falling mare, “A weapon?! How the hay did Twilight get a weapon? And what kind of weapon is it?”
Zip! Up through the air Pinkie zoomed, topping in front of her once more and pressing a hoof against her nose, “There was some spell in the book for summoning the weapon. It’s a pair of Casts! Apparently, they’re the best weapons for the job!”
“Casts?!” Rainbow blinked incredulously. She hadn’t heard that word in a long time... at least, not the weapon kind of Cast. Her thoughts flashed back in an instant to her childhood, not long after she’d gotten her Cutie Mark. She remembered the weapons well, the beautiful silver gauntlets with intricately woven patterns on them. She remembered trying on one of the family heirloom Casts for the first time back then, the weapon taking shape to form-
“-That’s right! Casts! Oh you should have seen it, her Cast weapon was soooooo cool!” Pinkie interrupted the pegasus’ thoughts on her next bounce up. Flailing her hooves to and fro for emphasis.
“Even so, you felt the raw power that comes off of Spike, didn’t you? Even Twilight’s not gonna have an easy time of this. She may be the strongest magician we know, but she’s not a fighter. I am.,” Rainbow asserted, flitting out of the door and flying down to the ground, where Pinkie bounced lightly off the trampoline and landed effortlessly on the ground. “I’m gonna help her, whether she likes it or not. There’s no way she can do it alone.”
“Good idea, Dashie! I’ll help too! We’ll get that Spirit-thingy no problem if all of us work together!” Pinkie beamed, hopping in a small circle around Rainbow.
This mare really just never stopped, did she? It brought a chuckle to Rainbow, but she quickly pushed it down, stopping her from getting too enthusiastic, “No, Pinkie. You aren’t gonna help, at least, not by fighting you’re not.”
A pair of wide, tearful blue eyes met Rainbow’s. Pinkie giving her biggest pouty face. The dreaded pout was a formidable foe, and in another dispute it may have won out. That couldn’t be the case this time. She had to be firm. She really appreciated the gesture, but she could not see Pinkie or any of her other friends being able to fight in this situation. It was already hard enough to imagine their Egghead picking up a weapon and fighting. Rainbow just couldn’t see it, she knew that she was the only one with an actual warrior inclination. It was in her blood. Generations of her family had been fighters.
“I said no, Pinkie,” Rainbow asserted, stamping the earth with a hoof. “I am sure you could find a way to help, but fighting won’t be it.”
Wilting in defeat, ears splayed and tucked into her mane, Pinkie kicked a pebble with a forehoof, “Alright Dashie, but how are you going to help Twilight?”
A cocky smirk spread across Dash’s face. In an instant she flitted into the air, striking a dramatic pose with one hoof held high and the other cocked at her hip. “My dad up in Cloudsdale has a set of Casts that have been in our family for ages!” she trumpeted proudly. Turning in midair, she pointed her outstretched hoof towards the other side of town, where the library was. Her eyes were charged with an excited energy. There was no way she was going to let her friend take on danger with nopony by her side. “Twilight may be trying to keep us out o danger, but she needs somepony to watch her back. Once you tell the other girls about this, I’m sure that they will find their own way to help as well.”
Soaking in her own flamboyant display, grinning broadly, her last words rolled in her mind for a moment before suddenly clicking in place. A brilliant idea! “Hey! Let’s go tell Rarity together! I just got an awesome idea for how she can help!”
Pinkie perked right back up, always quick to recover. Her eyes went wide with curiosity, “Oh! Oh! What is it? Tell me, please!”
“I’ll tell you when we get there!”
Hovering over Pinkie, Dash scooped her hooves down and wrapped them around her midsection, straining her wings slightly, but taking them quickly into the sky. Upon reaching an ideal height, her ears flicked in the breeze, an odd sound carried through it. It sounded somewhere between panicked cries and a loud collective murmur. Circling once, she spotted Carousel Boutique in the distance with an oddly large crowd surrounding it. Her sharp eyes could make out the forms of over a score of ponies gathered in front of the building, and between the ponies and the entrance stood hulking-
“Diamond Dogs!”
A switch flipped in the pegasus’ mind. Rarity had to be in trouble! Without a moment’s hesitation, she swung around and pitched into a dive, heading straight for the boutique. Following Dash’s line of sight, Pinkie squinted against the rushing winds as they shot downward.The large, warrior specimens of the species stood in pairs before the shut doorway, crossing large halberds between them, which they hefted in their heavy paws. The dogs seemed intent on preventing anypony from getting near. Really, nopony seemed intent to get close either, keeping their distance from the intimidating soldiers. Most seemed mildly disturbed, while a few were panicking and clinging to loved ones.
Dropping Pinkie only inches from the ground, Dash landed gracefully in front of the crowd, ending in a short mid-air flip. Ever the showpony, she was. Fixing the dogs with a fierce glare, she stormed up to them, hide bristling as she raised an indignant hoof at them. “You guys have a lot of nerve showing up in Ponyville, and especially at Rarity’s shop after what you all did! I swear if you’ve done anything to my friend, I’m going to break each and every one of you!”
“Ooooh! Lookie here!” Pinkie’s head popped up behind the shoulder of one of the large guards, tapping a hoof on his shoulder. She ducked down and appeared behind another of them, tapping this one in turn, “Fancy duds, boys! You didn’t have armor like this the last time we saw you!”
Blinking for a second, Rainbow took a moment to look over the dogs, and indeed they were dressed far different from last time. Rather than the bulky plate armor they bore previously, and the near blinding helms, they now bore a strange glittering cloth armor uniform. The gleaming fabric was colored a lustrous silver, much the aforementioned armor, which must have been why she hadn’t noticed it at first. The uniforms didn’t look very protective, but seemed like they wouldn’t restrict their movement, which was perhaps more dangerous than the clunky armor’s protection.
The dogs gave no notice to the invasion of personal space by the hyperactive Pinkie, except by swinging their halberds to cross more tightly before the doorway, more adamantly preventing entrance. They gave no answer to Rainbow’s outburst either, though Diamond Dogs weren’t exactly known for being talkative creatures. That didn’t make it any less irritating. They were standing Dash and her friend, and that always got on her nerves. “Darn it, let me in, right now! If you get in my way, you’ll all be tasting dirt!”
A rustle came from behind the doors of the boutique, followed by a familiar voice, “Rainbow Dash? Oh my, I’m so sorry, could you please let her in, boys?”
In unison, the Diamond Dogs lifted their menacing polearms and slammed a paw to their chests, bowing to the pegasus that had just threatened them. That was... odd. So Rarity was okay? She didn’t know what to think about the Diamond Dogs being here just moments before, and now she had even less of a clue what was going on. These dogs were listening to Rarity? Motioning to Pinkie Pie, who joined her at her side, she walked between the brutish dogs as the door was opened up with a field of an unfamiliar amber magic glow.
Inside Carousel Boutique was a far more baffling sight. Sitting at the dining table, drinking tea, was Rarity, pouring herself over several pieces of paper that she had levitated around her. Her casual, unworried state was not the strange part though, it was the one sitting across from her. Reclined upon a rather plush pillow on the seat opposite her sat a medium sized male Diamond Dog, not nearly the giant that the warriors outside were. It bore a black spotted white hide, a dalmatian subspecies of dog, and looked to stand only a head above average pony height. In its hand, it held a long wooden staff, curling at the tip in a long arc. The arced tip glowed with the same amber light that had surrounded the door, and once they were inside, he simply flicked the staff and the door shut behind the two ponies. The sound of scraping metal resounded from the other side of the door as the guards repositioned their weapons to block entrance.
A Diamond Dog with a magic staff? A Diamond Dog capable of using a magic staff? What the hay was going on here?
The Dalmatian Diamond Dog glanced over to them, an unmistakably calm and intelligent look helf in his golden eyes as he spoke, “I am very sorry for the disturbance that my guards have caused. They are rather adamant in their duty of guarding me.” Stepping down from the chair, the spotted canine walked up to Rainbow Dash, staff clicking against the ground in time with his steps. Holding a paw out in a gesture of polite greeting, he said, “Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Bowser.”
Without looking away from the papers surrounding her, Rarity chimed in, “This marvelous specimen of his species is quite the sophisticated pooch. He came here with a letter of introduction from Princess Cadance since word of the Dragoons has been spreading to every corner of the world. He’s come here with a truly tantalizing proposition of partnership between me and the him. He wishes to produce special wartime garb for ponies, and I’m to work his designs into something that will fit our kind.”
“War garb? Awww darn it, that was what I was gonna come and ask your help with!” Rainbow grumbled. How could her brilliant idea be beaten to the punch? Ah well, at least it was going to get done, maybe even faster if this Diamond Dog could be trusted. Reluctantly, after making Bowser wait for a prolonged time, Rainbow held a hoof out and shook with the dog. A polite smile was given to her in return, unbothered by her discomfort. He seemed to understand the stigma attached to his kind. “Well, I guess the only thing we’re needed for here is telling you what Twilight’s been up to for the last week. Pinkie got the information we wanted.”
Setting the papers down in a neat stack, Rarity got down from the table and trotted up next to Bowser, smiling with all the winning charm she was known for, “Yes, that would be nice. Please tell me what’s going on. Since Bowser here is going to be my partner, I have no problem with hearing all of this.”
Raising a skeptical brow, Rainbow looked to Pinkie Pie, who beamed wide. Taking a deep breath, she retold everything she’d learned last night.