You know, some times I'm forced to wonder just what it is I ever saw in My Little Pony that had me so hooked. Was it the way everyone seemed to just accept everyone else for their weirdness? Maybe the way the show itself kind of reminded me of the cartoons I used to watch when i was little and thought getting up early on a saturday was a good thing. Maybe it was the way that I felt some connection with a few of the ponies, Luna in particular, and could honestly relate to what they went through in their day to day lives as portrayed on screen. Whatever it was I honestly don't regret that I wound up here in Equestria, but I do wonder just what it was that I saw in ponies sometimes... Like how the moment I set paw in that little town I was assured would accept me I found myself stripped of my armor and my axe and once again in a cage. Broken had cried outrage at this, but the ponies just saw a lone creature that looked enough like a diamond dog for them to focus all their hate on... Me.
Make no mistake dear readers, ponies are racist little fucks sometimes. So much so that I have to consider Ponyville to be a mecca of love and tolerance among a world filled to the brim with xenophobia. In this case I suppose I can't really blame them though, from what I learned later they'd been terrorized here by the very same D-Dogs I slaughtered for years and years, so much so that it was a mandatory thing to teach your foals to fight here in this village. I suppose I'd better give you the name, not like you'll find the place though. It was wiped off the map. Colt's Breath Village, population one hundred ponies, mixed fairly evenly between earth ponies and unicorns with the odd pegasus here and there for the weather. Lets not forget one undead worgen who was trying his... Or rather her, damndest not to want to kill everything there.
I'd been in my little cell for a couple days with very little to do. The cell had been made to house unicorns who broke the law, but the gold-cored reinforced bars were strong enough to stop even a raging earth pony, I should know I watched one break both his legs trying to buck his way out of a similar cell. I've been told that the cells were made in a way that helped disperse ambient magic and the gold cores of the bars were inscribed with dampening runes that stopped all magic within. Even my own apparently, and yes I'd tried... I just wound up with the biggest humdinger of a headache I'd ever had the displeasure to make the acquaintance of.
In the time I'd been in that cell I'd gotten quite familiar with my new body, and not in the pervy way you guys are thinking either, I simply inspected certain aspects which had piqued my curiosity. First off was the fact that I indeed didn't have any kind of pulse or heartbeat, no wonder Broken had thought I was dead. That said there was a gentle sort of... Well pulse is a fitting word I suppose, where my heart should have been beating. Don't ask me just how I knew, but I knew it wasn't my heart. This was something else, a soft little drumbeat of icy energy keeping my soulless husk of a body "alive." Second thing I gave a good once over was my skin, and all that took was brushing my fur aside a bit to get a look... By the way, if you often rub your pets against the grain of their fur, don't... It feels weird as hell. Anyways, my skin was that dark blue color that a long frozen corpse gets, so blue its almost black at certain points, and for some reason that bothered me a little. I suppose I can't really and truely complain I could have been something worse than what I was given that Elune's usual chosen messengers were night elves, and who'd want to be purple? Not me that's who.
I was busy inspecting my claws, sort of admiring the play of light over the hard black surfaces of the flesh rending things that used to be my fingernails when I was interrupted by a rather loud bang. I yelped, jumping and winding up smacking my head against the top of my cage before I knew what had actually happened. Apparently the guards had decided to come poke some fun at the caged animal, and let it know just what had become of its things... I was far more focused on the fact that one of these guards just so happened to be my friend.
He'd cleaned up quite well since last I saw him, and for a cute pony he looked rather intimidating in his guard uniform. The cold grey of the iron armor clashed with that warm chocolate colored coat of his, making the armor seem all the more noticeable. What was even more noticeable though was the fact that he shared the very same look as the guards who'd come to make my day even more miserable.
A look of loathing and hate. He was the first to speak, and his words just broke me on the inside.
"Alright bitch, three things. Your armor and weapon have been melted down and used to forge more armor and weapons for the guard. Good quality metal is hard to get this close to the Equestrian border, so we take what we can get even if it comes from some weird mutant D-Dog like yourself. Secondly, You're to be publically executed tomorrow at noon, and we all look forward to seeing that head of your's roll dog... Finally... I want to thank you for being such a nice little tool. Turning you in got me my old job back, and a promotion. I promise, when I bring the axe down on your neck tomorrow it'll only be slightly blunted... Sleep tight Rune, you've got a big day tomorrow."
I stared at him as he turned to go, rocked to my core at how flippantly casual that how little tirade had been. I'd honestly thought of that guy as a friend, even though I'd only known him for a day or so. He'd been kind enough to me, had been the only one to show me even an ounce of human decency since I woke up here.,, Even Elune, though she'd spoken kindly to me, seemed to see me as more of a tool or faithful pet than a person, Broken Wall hadn't done that though, he'd spoken to me like he saw me as an equal of some sort... I was still mulling this over when I distantly heard the door of my cell open and hooves clop closer to me. All thoughts were driven from my mind other than pain when I felt those same hooves begin to beat me into unconsciousness. It didn't matter to me... I just wanted to know why. Why did those I let get close always do something like this. My last thought before a well placed blow robbed me of thought for awhile was that I was going to get my answers tomorrow... And I'd be damned if I went to the grave alone.
I opened my eyes to stars once again, though it wasn't who I was expecting who welcomed me to the astral plane this time around. A voice I knew well enough from a certain show rang out behind me, and it didn't sound all that happy to see me.
"I see another one of you aliens has made it here... And theres a touch of a foreign moon upon you too. So who was it who sent you then? Artemis? Tsukuyomi? Speak up girl, I haven't got all night you know."
I turned around, ears falling flat and a soft whine escaping my throat as I looked up into the disapproving face of Luna herself. I shuffled from paw to paw for a moment before I answered. "Elune..."
She snorted and shook her head slightly, a bit of the hostility falling away. "In that case, I'm sorry for what's coming for you girl. She's almost as bad as Sharr sometimes, not because she's a dark goddess mind you, but she cares little for those in her charge, Rest here in peace then, you look like you need it."
Just like that she was gone, leaving me alone in a field of stars. The astral plane was really quite beautiful when you didn't have anything to distract you just so you know. Since I didn't I sighed a bit and laid myself down, watching the stars all around spin through their celestial dance for awhile. Sleep took me unawares, but I wasn't going to complain, it was too peaceful here for me to care.
I awoke once again, and I woke to pain. There wasn't an inch of me that the guards hadn't pummeled, or so it felt. With nothing but fur between me and their hooves, it was no wonder I was sore as hell and hardly able to move.I really had to thank whatever it was that allowed me to heal as fast as i did, otherwise I'm sure I'd have been sporing enough broken bones to make me rattle when I moved.
As it was, moving hurt like a bitch... I hate that word... Moving hurt like a mother buzzard, there thats a bit better. I found that out the hard way as I pushed myself up onto all fours, a surprisingly natural position for me to be in. In effort to stretch out some serious kinks I padded around my cell as I was, and found the motion of walking about like a beast to be easy, in some ways easier than walking like I used to. I kept pacing for awhile, it was kind of calming even if it did make me feel like a zoo animal.
Noon rolled around and with it came the guard, and for once there was something else in their eyes as they looked at me besides blind hate and self righteousness. There was fear. For that matter I could smell it on them, an acrid stink akin to piss and sickness that made me wrinkle up my snout in disgust. They took a step back at the sight of my teeth, one's they'd broken in their beating the day before, once again whole and ivory white. It didn't deter them though, they had a job to do and a "Diamond Dog" to see dead. I let them slip the iron collar around my neck and lead me outside.
They lead me to a raised platform that was topped with a simple chopping block stained a rusted red, and I could smell the old blood on it, old blood and old darkness clung to it tightly. Broken stood nearby, a large iron axe resting against his side. If the block was blood stained, the axe was drenched in the stuff. It had a history... It had a certain... something to it, and that something whispered to me in a way my old axe hadn't. I knew I wanted that axe though and it wanted me... It was kind of... Exciting in a way that sent a shiver down my spine. A shiver that the guards chuckled at. "That's right, this is the end for you bitch..." he stage whispered, drawing a laugh from his fellow guard pony.
I was lead atop this platform and staked down, head centered over the block and my eyes facing the slowly growing crowd. I glared at them all, hating them a bit, but unable to blame them for this. No the one I blamed with busy hefting that axe up, holding the long haft in his mouth by the leather wrapped handle.
"For the crimes committed against the Equestria ponies by your kind and for heinous acts committed against the ponies of this village you are sentenced to death by decapitation. May Celestia have mercy on your soul, for we shall not." proclaimed one of the guards, and I took that as my cue. I clenched my clawed hands tightly against the wooden planks on which I stood and pushed down as hard as I could. With a thunderous crash I broke the platform around the chopping block, sending it falling though and dragging me right along with it as gravity took over. Even so, that axe came whistling down, and pain exploded throughout my head as it connected with my skull, deflecting off the bone and tearing a long ragged gash in my scalp.
I snarled, doing my best to ignore the pain and blood as it dripped down my face to splatter against the block below me. Gritting my teeth in effort I took hold of my chains and gave them a massive tug, shattering them and letting myself drop fully into the hole I'd opened up while Broken was busy trying to get the axe up for another swing. I wasn't having that, not at all. No, this bastard was going to answer me before he met the reaper. Just as he got that axe in position again I grabbed his forelegs and yanked him in after me, fouling up his swing and rendering that axe useless in the tight confines beneath the platform. Under here, I had all the advantages, claws, fangs, and a frame that allowed me a better range of motion in such tight confines, he had hooves and I made sure to lodge him up under one of the cross beam supports so he could get up well enough to put em to use.
"Why'd you do this, Broken?" I asked him, fangs bared an inch from his face. He just spat and did his best to hit me. Resigning myself to a bit of grim work I dodged around his flailing hooves, though the blows I took were pretty ineffectual as his position robbed them of much force, and dug a claw into his stomach, just ahead of his hind legs.
""Good bye then Broken Wall... Or Broken Promise as you should have been named..." I said, mostly to myself, as I gutted him, leaving him there to die under the stage as he flailed about in pain, panic, and his own spilled intestines. I turned back once as I was leaving after grabbing up that axe, that look of blind hatred hadn't left his eyes, nor had he taken them off me much despite the way he was obviously distressing. Shaking my head I climbed out of the grave I'd turned this little stage into and that day I made ninety-nine more... There was one other grave made that day too, a grave for who I used to be, now even I had to call myself a bloody demon, nothing else would put an entire town to the axe just to save its own skin.