Unexpected Beginnings
Roughly four hundred years ago, a particular mountain changed, which mountains are not in the habit of doing. Mountains also don't worry too much about their appearance, so the changes weren't particularly tragic. Altering a mountain is quite a feat in itself, and the forces that did the altering might have taken a moment to appreciate their accomplishment. They might have, if they hadn't been so focused on each other. As these two forces lashed out at each other, the air shook and the earth quaked, and a new crevice was opened in this mountain. This new crevice allowed light to shine into the mountain where light hadn't been since time remembered. Most of this light illuminated a rather dank and unimpressive cave. A single shaft of light, however, pierced a key-hole sized crack in the cave and happened to bounce onto one of the mountain's secrets. Bouncing, instead of ending, meant that this shaft of light illuminated something spoken of but rarely seen- the day-stars.
The Day-Stars
It was nearly pitch black. A single form lay on her side, sleeping peacefully. At least she had been sleeping, until a pesky, bright, shining decided it would annoy her. She shifted, rolling over, but the light was there too. Who told the light it could make her get up, she whined to herself. Unfortunately, the light seemed to only grow brighter. Whimpering, she got up and stretched her hind legs. "Stupid light, no fair!" She rubbed her eyes and opened them. "What, what's this?" Points of light surrounded her. She felt as though the night sky was surrounding her, the stars swallowing both sky and ground until nothing else was left. Trying to find what was up or down, she focused on a small group of the lights. This made her dizzy and she fell back onto her side. The lights were getting brighter, and wherever she was, she wanted to get away. Her eyes adjusted to the dark and she started scampering where she saw solid ground cutting its way through the looming stars. She couldn't see the path too well yet, but guessed that wherever she couldn't see the stars, the path must be there. A sharp yelp rang out, letting her know that what she just stepped on wasn't the ground.
"Watch it!" a strange voice hissed.
"Oh. Hey, where are we? Who are you?" Her frightened questions came out fast as she as she tried to piece together what was happening.
"Go away, I don't have to get up yet. They haven't even whistled food."
"Wait, what? What's going on?"
"What's going on is you stepped on me, and now you're being annoying! Go away and let me sleep!" The form shifted and two green eyes glared up at her. She lowered her head with a whimper and continued to follow the only path she could see available to her. Wherever the path lead, it wasn't near the annoying lights and mean, shrill voices. After stopping, she could now see other forms, some stirring, some barely moving. They were sprawled out along the path. Sometimes there were groups of them huddled together, some were just stretched out in the middle of this path, forcing her to slow down and carefully lope around them.
As she approached the end of the path, she started to squint. The end of the path was brightening and the light started to sting her eyes. She pressed on and felt a rush of warmth as she crossed the threshold to somewhere new.
Being blinded, she first noticed the thick smell of food surrounding her. She clutched her stomach as it churned. She took a deep breath to draw in the smell and doubled over. The delicious smell became intoxicating and then nauseating as her hunger and nose overwhelmed her.
The second thing she noticed was the sound of a piercing whistle. Immediately after the whistle there was a commotion all around her. She cracked open one eye just in time to see a blurry mass rushing toward her. Letting out a yelp, she lept out of its path, finding some support against a wall. Today did not feel like it was going to be a good day. Though she was leaning heavily, she was standing now and took the opportunity open her eye wider.
She found herself in a cave. It was large, probably not as large as the night sky she had come from, but it held line after line of tables with benches. The commotion around her was a wall of dogs that had come rushing by and were now fighting each other. On the other side of the confusion a line snaked deeper into the cave.
A new whistle called out, and this whistle hurt. Both of her hands immediately held her ears in the same way a pup might yank her hand away after touching a pot that had been used on a cooking fire. The commotion in front of her stopped, many of the dogs clutched their head like her. A harsh voice quickly filled the silence that the whistle had left in its wake.
"Mind your manners you mangy mutts!" A large, comically strong dog in metal armor that covered his body pushed forward.
"But master, he pushed me!" one of the dogs cried out from the crowd.
"Oh he did, eh? And I'll bet you weren't pushing or shoving your way back at all. Or do you still have something to complain about?" the guard barked. The entire crowd remained silent. "Good then. That's what I like to hear, nothing. No complaining, no whining. Because when I hear a big ruckus, me and Old Whistler have to come out and see what's what." The guard stopped and waited. No response came back from the crowd. The guard came up from all fours and stood erect. Standing erect, he was ears and shoulders above any dog in the crowd. "Now then, who's ready for food? That's it, nice and easy. Form your line, you first, now you..."
She stopped listening as she watched the dogs starting to fill up the benches. Many were scrambling for a place to sit. She stared and and arched her neck to try and find one friendly face, one familiar set of ears, but they were all strangers to her. It was then she noticed that the dogs were coming back with bowls, and in those bowls was food. Her stomach growled, but she was already moving. She found her way in line and tried to figure out what to do next.
She was whimpering by the time it was her turn. Some of the others barked at her to be quiet. She didn't care, though. The dizzying lights, the big cave, almost getting trampled, all her woes came out in the mournful cry of a poor, hungry dog, literally begging to be fed. The server wasn't impressed, though. When the hungry dog reached her paws to take the bowl that was being put down on the counter, a metal spoon rapped her paw.
“You don't get no chow 'till the bowl's on the counter!” The starving dog clutched her paw and fixed the owner of the angry voice with a pitiful gaze, widening her eyes and quieting her whimpering to a whisper. The server contorted what seemed to be a permanent scowl into something nastier. “Don't ya think those eyes'll get you one kibble, neither.” The server barked the last words and shook the spoon angrily, daring any dog to challenge her (the starving pooch thought that the server was a she) authority over putting bowls down on the serving counter. The bowl clinked on the counter and the hungry dog lowered her head and stared up at the bowl-master. “Well, go on,” the bowl-master huffed. The bowl was gone and she was trying to find a seat before the sentence had even been finished.
“Psst, hey!” She stopped, looking around. “Hey, you!” Her nose swiveled around, searching for the source of this new distraction. Three new dogs were approaching her quickly. The one talking was wearing a red vest that had gray-brown fur and was a medium-sized dog. There was something about his voice that she didn't like. He sounded too soothing to be scary, but too sharp to be honest. She snarled as they approached, they must be after her food, she thought. “Hey there, we don't want your food.” As the dog talked again and moved closer, she put her food on the ground and started gobbling it down greedily. “Don't do that, you'll make yourself sick. Hey, aren't you listening?” She looked up and continued to chew, trying to say something between bites.
“Thish ish mime.” Ignoring anything she learned as a pup, she tried to talk with her mouth full.
“I told you, we don't want your food.”
“Yeah, we don't want your food, we want you to get another bowl for us.” The shrill voice came from the smallest dog of the trio who had beige fur.
“Yeah, we want more food.” The biggest dog spoke next. His deep voice boomed even though she was sure he wasn't talking loudly for a dog his size. He was blue-gray but was so stooped over that he was only about as tall as the dog in the red vest.
“So what, what do I get out of it?” She gulped down what she was eating before trying to talk this time.
“Tell you what,” the dog with the red vest narrowed his green, keen eyes, “Get us a bowl of food from that meanie, and you can run with us.”
“So what?” she scoffed.
“Look around,” came the reply, “don't you see we're not all the same?”
“Yeah, we came here from different packs. You need us, you need friends,” the big one stepped forward.
“Sure I need friends, but they don't need to be you,” she bit back.
“Hey, who do you think you're talking to?” The short one jumped angrily at her and she snarled back. The one in the red jacket caught them both by the collar, keeping them at arm's length.
“Enough! Fine, you want to be like the others, you can fend for yourself. Fido, Spot, let's go!”
The three left her sitting by herself and walked over to the benches to start eating. After a few moments, she plodded up to the bowl-master and started talking.
“Rover, why'd we try and make friends with her?” the small one whined. Rover sighed at his companion's shrill inquiry, and looked at his red jacket for a moment.
“Because, Spot, we're new to this pack. We need more friends if we're going to do well here.”
“Yeah Spot,” the large one lifted his head from his bowl, spilling some kibble as he talked, “Things aren't like they used to be, we need friends here.”
All three jumped when bowls of food plunked down on the table in front of them. Rover, Fido, and Spot's eyes all widened. She stood at the edge of the table, looking at the dogs and waiting for something to happen. Rover was the first to speak.
“We, we can just have these?” She nodded. “Why, what did you do?” She shrugged. The other two didn't wait for a response but started fighting over which bowl had the most food and which one was going to get it.
“I don't know, that's what friends do for each other, right? I don't recognize any of these dogs. I guess I just need friends too.”
“We've been at this pack for a week, did you just get here?” She shrugged again. “Don't you know anything?” She lowered her head and shook it mournfully, looking up at the other three with sad eyes.
"I remember what I can do, but can't remember why I can do it." She whimpered a bit at the end, just to get the point across.
“I'm Rover, this is Spot and that big one's Fido.” The quarreling ceased for an instant as the other two waved a paw in greeting. Just as quickly as they had stopped, thought, they started fighting again. “What's your name?”
“I don't know! All I know is that I woke up in the cave over there.” She pointed a paw at the door.
“Oh, the day-stars. They tell us when the day gets going. I never heard of a diamond dog without a name.” Her eyes started to water.
“Don't look so sad! You're now running with the pack that's gonna run this site. We're great diggers, and as soon as the other packs realize how great we are, we're gonna be top-dog.” Spot lifted his head above the melee to shout.
“Yeah! Top-dog.”
A whistle pierced the entire hall and about half the dogs started to howl. “I hate that whistle. When we run the show, no whistles, only barks if they need it,” Spot growled. “Alright, time for work. But first, this extra food from our new finder.” Fido and Spot switched bowls a few times until Rover took one and started eating from it. The other three grabbed the closest bowl and did the same.
Working Like a Dog
She plopped down, exhausted. Work had started as soon as they finished eating their second bowl of food; and the work hadn't stopped since. She had made new friends but hadn't gotten to spend any time with them. They had all been separated as soon as work had begun. Instead of learning more about her new friends, she was busy digging, stopping only to wipe sweat off of her brow. She felt alone as the sea of dogs continued to dig through the earth. Buckets were being passed back and forth behind the main line of diggers to move the dirt out of the way as the shaft grew.
She tried to steal off and take a break, but one of the guards barked, “And where might you be going?” She said that it was her turn for the buckets, and the guard growled and pointed to a place in the line of buckets that was empty. She joined the line and started passing buckets of dirt down the line.
After passing a few minutes by passing buckets of dirt, a dog walked passed her, walking toward the end of the cave. After a few more minutes, another dog passed. It was after the third dog passed her that she thought something must going on. Looking at where the dogs were coming from, she saw two sets of track being laid. On one set was a mine cart that the dirt was being dumped in. As the track got too close for those at the end of the track, they were being sent forward to rest for a few minutes in a small area in front of her.
She became more and more anxious as the tracks slowly approached her. As rail by rail was laid, she became more and more desperate to do anything other than passing buckets. As the pressure built up, she almost yelped for joy when the guard told her to go take her break.
The smell of dirt and other dogs was almost overwhelming as she sat down. She lapped at one of the water bowls, she felt cooler. The pressure that had been building didn't go away, though. If anything, the longer she sat, the more anxious she became. Looking around, she asked some of the dogs if they were feeling any different. Maybe somedog was feeling like she was. They mostly ignored her, a few shaking their head to say 'no'. This made her more anxious. Why couldn't any of the other dogs feel it? What was going on?
Calming herself down a little bit, she took in her surroundings. Dogs were rushing to and fro, but none of them seemed to be going anywhere in particular. Other dogs were working and there didn't seem to be any trouble. She closed her eyes and tried listening next. Any sound that seemed out of place might give her a clue. She concentrated. Around her she heard dogs lapping water and others talking. She heard the clackity-clack of a mine cart in the distance as it was sent away to dump its load of dirt. Her ears twitched as she focused her ears the other direction. She heard the soft clawing of dirt as dozens of claws scraped at the end of the mine.
Now she felt really anxious. Everything was going the way it should. Nothing seemed out of place. If it wasn't her sight and it wasn't her sound, what was it that she was feeling? She tried not to use her sense of sight or sound anymore, to concentrate on what else could be making her feel so nervous. A pull, not from her sight, not from her hearing, not from her nose, but from something else, caught her attention. It was a pull, and it was to her... left. Left? She opened her eyes and looked to the left. She wanted to go in that direction, but couldn't tell why. She shrugged, got up, and went to her left. She reached the other side of the shaft and looked at it. It was a cave wall, but as she drew near, she wanted to keep going.
A quick check confirmed that none of the guards were paying her any attention, so she started digging. The more she dug, the more she became possessed to continue on. She couldn't describe it, but she felt she was getting close to something, something important.
If time was passing, she didn't notice it. As she was digging getting further and further into the earth, the outside world seemed to get farther and farther away. She could barely hear the work going on outside, and her impromptu tunnel was narrowing. She couldn't see anything, but she didn't need to see. The force had grown so intense it was almost as if she was floating along as it pulled her.
Suddenly, her claws scratched something hard. Without even thinking, she widened the narrow tunnel and started digging around whatever her claws had reached. She was panting now, trying to get cool, but she had to see what this was. She dug out a side chamber for extra dirt as she continued to dig out the edges of the strange object. It suddenly came loose. She tried to jump out of the way, but her tail got caught underneath as it fell. She let out a yelp and then a series of whimpers as she scrambled to push the thing off with her hind legs.
With a little effort, it rolled off of her tail and onto the dirt floor. She dusted it off and felt what it was. It felt like...a rock? A stupid rock? All her hard work was for a rock? She smelled it. It smelled like dirt. It smelled like... a waste of time. When she held it, all the anxiety and pressure seemed to melt away. Furious, she growled at it and started barking. The lack of reaction from the rock made her angrier. Picking up the rock with a yelp, she flung the stupid thing as hard as she could. She heard a muffled crack as it hit something.
She lay down, realizing how tired she was, and started crawling her way back. It was hot and getting hard to breathe, but she felt her way back... to... the rock... again. She growled, but when she picked it up, a wave of relief washed over her. The rock seemed to be lighter now, and she guessed it must have broken up a bit. She started running back down her tunnel and found the second half of the rock. As she picked it up, she felt another wave of relief.
Coming back into the light, she saw that work had stopped. All of the dogs seemed to be loping their way away from the digging site and back to the great cave they had come from. She fumbled with the two rocks and fit them together. There didn't seem to be any pieces missing. Why should that be important, she questioned silently. A glint of something sparkling caught her eye, and there seemed to be a shard of something shiny in one of the halves. She banged one half against the other and it split open. A hypnotizing gleam sparkled as most of this half crumbled to dirt around two perfect gems. She scooped out the contents and found that the two gems that barely fit in her paws. She gasped and slowly turned her head to the other half of the rock. She picked up the other half and hit it against one of the mine carts nearby. This time, as the rock crumbled, she held pulled out a warped and dusty collection of papers. These, though, were what she felt impressed by. These dusty, drab papers, were shiny to her for a reason she couldn't understand or explain. She sat, dog-tired and utterly confused. She was growing concerned that strange things were happening to her that she couldn't understand. The sudden smell of cooking food made her perk up instantly, however, and she scampered off to find the source of the tantalizing smell.
A Friend Indeed
A sea of smelly dogs had already piled back into the great hall. She looked at the line and saw that it already stretched all the way to the entryway to the day-starts. She started plodding dejectedly to the back of the line, sadly realizing the she was almost in the exact same position she was this morning. She still couldn't remember why she was here, and she couldn't remember how she learned things like digging and tracking. The only difference between this morning and now was that now she was dog-tired. She also couldn't figure out why she had gone through so much trouble for some beat up old papers. Okay, maybe there were two things different than this morning. She starting whimpering below her breath.
“Psst, hey! Hey, you!” Her nose swiveled around, forgetting her woes as her ears picked up on a familiar voice. “Over here,” Rover was motioning with a fore-paw to where he was standing in line. Fido and Spot were standing with him. Her head perked up and she quickly looked around. They weren't standing at the front of the chow line, but neither were they anywhere near the back of it.
“Really?” her face softened from a glower to a hopeful smile.
“Of course! We already told you - you run with us now.” She started prancing excitedly to where Rover was in line, but stopped short when two dogs behind Rover's group started growling. Fido turned and faced down one of the two dogs. His deep, threatening growl was easily louder than the other two combined. The other dog's growl was cut short as he yelped. Spot had nipped his heel without being noticed. Spot was facing off with the other dog now. “Don't worry about those two, they just need to learn some manners. Now, come quick!” Rover waved a paw dismissively. She hurried in to line between Rover and Fido.
“What's all this then?” The commanding bark came from the other side of the line. It was the same guard that had quieted and organized the chow line this morning. She shrank back, but Rover stood up taller and turned around to face the guard. She was shocked at what came out of his mouth next.
“Francis. Nothing at all's wrong. These fine dogs and we just had a... misunderstanding.” She couldn't tell if she wanted to laugh at the guard's name or hide at how Rover almost purred what he said. She was convinced that dogs shouldn't be able to talk like that. The guard put a paw to his face and slowly dragged the paw down. This made the dog's face stretch and snap back into place like it was made of rubber.
“Rover, how many times do I 'ave to tell you, don't call me that?”
“But isn't that your real na--,” Rover was cut short.
“Besides, if you get into trouble, I get into trouble with her.” The guard, Francis, didn't elaborate on who “her” was. “The fact that you three are on loan from your pack means that if you get into trouble, we might lose territory rights.”
“No no no, Francis. We're good boys, aren't we?” Rover looked at the two dogs that started the confrontation. Spot nodded furiously and echoed the assurance.
“Yeah, we're good boys!” Francis looked over at the two dogs behind Rover's group. The two dogs looked at each other, looked at Rover, then up at the menacing guard. They started nodding agreement, slinking back a little.
“Right. Well then, good. And Rover,” Rover perked up at hearing his name, “Stay out a trouble. You get me into trouble and you'll wish you were a dead dog.” Francis leaned in close for emphasis.
“Absolutely Francis, you're the boss.” Rover was actually looking scared.
“Stop. Calling. ME...,” Francis sighed, dragged his paw down his face, and huffed back to his post.
The hungry dog looked at Rover. He looked back at her.
“You know what? You need a name.”
“But I have a name.”
“A name's no good if you can't remember it. We'll give you a new one. So we can call you something.” She remembered something and reached into her pocket.
“You want to give me a name, right?” Rover nodded. “Friends give things to each other, right?” Rover looked at Fido and Spot. They shrugged at each other and all nodded. She pulled the two jewels out of her pocket. The three dog's eyes glazed over and went wide. The three drew closer and she pulled her paw back a little. Fido spoke up first.
“You'd give those to us? But, why?”
“If I give these to you, I want you to remember that we're friends.”
“What, don't you want 'em?” Rover asked.
“There's something that's more important to me,” she replied.
“Ooohh, they're shiny,” Spot's eyes glistened has he leaned in for a closer look.
“Because I don't have a name, I don't know where I am, and if you promise me that we're friends, I'd call it a fair trade.” Rover nodded.
“Of course, we already said so. Don't you believe us?” She clutched the gems and held out her paw. Rover held out his two paws, and she placed the two gems into them.
“You're right Spot,” he said, “They are shiny.” He stopped and looked up at her. “That's it! That's what we'll call you. Shiny.”
Shiny's tail started to wag.
Rover reached into his vest and pulled out a collar studded with gems. He bent the collar and bit down gently on it right next to a gem. The leather squeaked and the gem came out with a pop. Rover tossed the gem for to Fido, who caught it and glared at it greedily. Smiling, Fido reached into a pocket inside his own vest. He too pulled out a collar. Placing the gem on an empty slot in the collar, Fido gently bit down on the leather and the gem. A squeak and pop let him know that the gem was seated.
Rover had already removed another gem and was comparing it to one of the ones Shiny had given him. He bit down on the gem. For a few seconds, nothing happened. After a sudden crack, however, part of the gem sheared off. Shiny watched with amazement as Rover spit out some small shards, leaving a flat, smooth surface where his jaw had been. She was lost in wondering how such a crude instrument could leave such a perfect cut when a flurry of barks and yelps broke out behind her. She let out a yelp herself and turned around to see the two dogs from earlier. They were holding Spot down and cruelly nipping at him. They let go, however, when and ear-splitting whistle pierced the air. All the dogs whimpered and howled at the sound. Shiny laid her head into the dirt and covered her ears. The whistle's chain clinked as Francis spit it out. He ran up to the commotion.
“Can't I have two minutes of peace and quiet?” he demanded. One of his massive paws reached out and lifted up one of the two dogs causing the disturbance. The dog flailed and whimpered, trying to look away so he didn't meet the Francis' eyes. “Right, what's so important that Old Whistler and I 'ave t' come out and make an appearance?” The dog being held stopped struggling and slowly twisted to the right. The other dog lowered his head and spoke.
“M-master,” he stuttered, “The new ones, the ones from the other pack, th-they're hiding gems they found in our c-c-cave.” Francis dropped the first dog. He fell with a thud and scampered behind his friend, peeking his head out only a little in order to see what was going on. Francis wheeled on Rover and his friends. Rover's ears wilted. The other two crouched submissively.
“Rooover?”
“Y-yes sir?”
“Just hand it over, and we'll pretend this never happened.”
“B-but what do you me-”
“NOW!” Rover looked down at his paws pathetically, and held out his collar. As he held out the collar, the gem caught the dim firelight of the chow hall and came alive in a blaze of blue. “You know the rules Rover, all gems go to the guards. The guards give the gems to the stockpile, and...” Rover cut him short.
“Sir,” he whimpered, “this is all I have left from my pack, please don't take it!”
“Rules are rules Rover.” Francis moved to take the collar when snapping jaws made him pull it back instinctively. With a fury that no one knew (including Shiny) she had, Shiny snapped at Francis' paw, and jumped in between them. She was barking madly.
“How dare you? I found those fair and square. I get to do with them what I want, and you can't just take what doesn't belong to you. That's all Rover's got from his home, his own den, you hear me? You think you can just take it away? Where are your manners? Were you raised by HYENAS? Hey, look at me!” Francis' eyes were fixed somewhere else; he was staring at the ground. Shiny didn't care what he was looking at, and started growling, instead of barking, to catch her breath. Francis boxed her ear faster than such a large dog should be able to. She went sprawling. He reached for the ground with one paw and snatched Shiny's scruff with his other paw before she could recover. He started dragging her off as Shiny kept up her verbal assault of insults and protests. The pack of Rover, Spot, and Fido followed behind, whimpering for mercy.
Digging Deeper
Shiny was hoisted into the air like a feather pillow. Her paws clambered for footing on thin air.
“Ma'am, there's something I need you to see.”
Rover, Fido, and Spot were huddled together in the corner. Francis and Shiny were near the edge of a jewel studded cave. A red satin rug ran from the entrance to the cave to a throne in the middle of the cave. A line of small braziers marked either edge of the satin rug as it led from the cave's entrance to the throne. A number of larger braziers formed a ring around the edge of the cavern, dimly lighting its expanse. Shiny held her paws over her eyes as they adjusted from the near blackness of the tunnel to the new light source.
“Francis, my dear. The only thing I see is you is brutalizing a poor pup.” The new voice was wizened but not weak. The voice was soft, but not because it had to be. Though it was hard for Shiny to pick it out, it was as if the owner was purposely talking quietly.
“Ma'am, she...”
“You are my loyal hound, Francis. You have served me well by keeping the workers in line and on the job. Now, we are close to finding the great vein. Don't make me question your judgment.”
“No Ma'am.” Francis carefully lowered Shiny.
“Now, what is it you have brought me, child?”
“May I?”
“Well come on, I'll fall asleep if you wait any longer. You know how us elders love our naps. I was actually dreaming of being young and enjoying some vast, green, fields before you disturbed me.”
“I apologize-” Francis started to approach the throne, but was cut short.
“Oh, there you go again!” The hooded figure on the throne clapped a paw on one of the throne's arm rests and leaned forward on a staff. The figure pushed to her hind legs and swiftly approached Francis. Shiny looked at Francis. He gulped and went to one knee. “Honestly! What are you doing now?”
“Groveling, your highness.” The cloaked figure rapped Francis' helmet with the staff. The blow was so swift and strong that Shiny could hear the ring dying away for a long time afterward.
“Well, stop it. Now, for the final time, what have you brought me?” Francis got to his feet.
“Ma'am, the new workers you asked for. One of them found this.” Shiny patted her vest for her papers. She struggled when she realized that Francis was handing them over to the cloaked figure. That must have been what he was looking at on the ground. The cloaked figure gasped and lowered her hood to reveal an old face with white, spiky fur. One of her eyes had a scar and was the color of cloudy milk. Both of the eyes went wide with astonishment. She stared at the papers, then the pup, then the papers again.
“It's you! Yes, it's you! Oh, I know about what you did to the serving bitch earlier. Don't worry though, I'm not mad. I was actually having you watched, but I never thought you'd find anything so soon, let alone the other half.” Shiny slumped and stared, unable make ears or tails of the situation. “I'm sorry pup, are you confused?” Shiny nodded. “Well, her we are. My name is Sharna. Ever since I realized what I was, I've been fighting to survive and thrive. By the way you were trying to get those papers back and the way you honey-talked my servers to give you extra food, I can tell that you have magic, too. With this magic I have been able to find gems better than any diamond dog ever could. That is why I am the leader of the Western Pack now. That, and I fought the last Alpha. It didn't end well for him. Follow me.” Sharna's staff made a rhythmic clicking as she loped to one edge of the cave. As they approached, Shiny noticed that there was another room she hadn't noticed before. It was lit by the same type of braziers that lit the throne cave, and the cave walls gleamed with similar gems. The room was indistinguishable unless a dog was very close to it. “You three, too, come on.” The other three dogs followed at a distance as they all entered a room.
On a pedestal in the center of the room lay another collection of papers, similar to what Shiny had taken from her. She gasped. “Now, about two and a half months back,” Sharna continued, “we were digging toward what I thought was a great vein of gems. The pull of magic was insatiable, so I was naturally convinced we would find gems. After a month of digging, all we found was these strange papers. I tried all I know, but they refuse to cooperate. They look like they're written in pony words, but I can read normal pony words, and I've never seen words like these before.” Shiny's nose peered over the tome as she looked over the pedestal, sniffing the dirty papers. She felt drawn to them. As if the closer she was, the happier she got. She also was aware, though, that she wanted to be near both the loosely bound piles of paper. She snatched her papers from Sharna's paw and brought the halves close together so that she could be near both stacks at the same time. Wait, when did she start believing they were two halves-
Shiny's papers suddenly flew from her paws. Though no dog had touched them, the papers on the pedestal flew into the air. Both Shiny's papers and the stack that had been on the pedestal met in mid air. The air crackled and burst with energy, flinging the papers across the room and knocking the other dogs to the ground. Sharna recovered first and crept over to the papers on all fours. She came back, holding a bound, well kept, and completely in-tact volume.
“Well, pup. Looks like you and I aren't the only ones with magic.” She tossed the book at Shiny's paws. Although the book slid across the floor, no dirt seemed to stick to it. “Well, how do we make this pony witchcraft work?”
“I-I don't know.”
“How do you like that, Francis? The pup speaks.” Francis was still in the corner, trying to right his massive frame and straighten his helmet, which had been blown backwards. Sharna rapped his helmet again and gave a chuckle. “Over here, metal face. Well, what do you make of it? How does it work?”
Shiny stared at the book. She tried to open it, but the covers snapped shut every time. Even Francis couldn't pry the book open. After whimpering at it, reasoning at it, cursing at it, and staring at the book intently, Shiny asked the others if they had any suggestions. The other suggestions proved just as useless. Spot had surprisingly strong jaws, but he couldn't open the book either.
After a few hours, Shiny got angry again, picked up the book, and threw the book across the room. A wave of panic struck her, and she felt foolish. Why did she even want the book? Sharna said it was magic. Maybe that's what was drawing her. Maybe...
Shiny leaped to the other side of the room, picked up the book, and set it on the pedestal once more. She stood over the book and stared down at it.
“Did you figure something out?” Rover asked.
“Yeah, tell us!” Spot squeaked.
“Calm down, now,” Francis barked.
“All of you, quiet!” Sharna hissed.
“Don't worry guys, she'd let us know if she found something, right Shiny? Shiny?” Fido put a paw on Shiny's shoulder and then pulled it back. Shiny was still. She was rigid. Her stare was blank. In front of her the book let out a soft glow and opened to page one.
Deeper Still
I looked at my hooves and felt the dull warmth of the tea soak through. I felt that perhaps today would be a good day. I thought, maybe I wouldn't have to worry today.
“So, whaddaya think?”
“Spectacular, darling! It looks wonderful.”
“Yeah, it's awesome! I think we're ready.”
I cringed. The fact that my friends were so close meant that I needed to say something. No! I could just let it go for a day. After all, I could still tell them tomorrow. But then I'd be putting it off. Saying something was the right thing to do. I needed to say something now, while I had the chance, before we got caught up in what we were going to do today.
“Um, girls.” I spoke up. I could hear myself fine, but they kept talking.
“Oh, you're just saying that.”
“No, I mean it, this is gonna be great.” I must have been too quiet, so I tried again.
“I- I think something's wrong.”
“Are you sure? Maybe we should go about this differently.” Now, I was positive I was loud enough then. Why were they still talking? Were they ignoring me? No, they wouldn't do that. But, this was too important to not say anything at all. I felt a sudden rush. I jumped to all fours.
“No way! We need to stick together. We need to stop this before anypony gets hurt.”
“Don't you mean-”
“GIRLS!” They stopped, turned to me and stared. My chest was heaving. The sun hat I was wearing came off. It gently wafted to and fro toward the ground, beating a hasty retreat from my sudden burst of anger. Or maybe it was a sudden burst of energy. Either way, the summer sun reminded me that I'd have to be nicer to my hat.
“Fluttershy, darling. What is it?” I was relieved that they heard me... but then I realized how flustered I had gotten. Oh, Fluttershy, I told myself, you're so hot-headed!
“Um, I'm sorry,” I gently replied.
“Nonsense.”
“Yeah girl, what's got you going?”
I looked at my two friends. I'm glad I can talk to them about anything, I told myself, and felt relieved. “I... I don't feel right about this. About any of this. We've been changing, we all have. Ever since, well, you know.” I looked at the ground sorrowfully.
Rarity was on the left, and I saw a hint of sadness immediately replaced with a warm smile. With a hoof, she brushed back her purple mane from her brilliant white coat, and she looked at me. Rainbow Dash was on the right, beating her wings so that she gently hovered above the ground. She looked back and forth between Rarity and I, watching to see what was going to happen. As she spoke, I got lost in her blue eyes. I heard her speak, but I only saw her eyes.
“Fluttershy, dear. There are things that aren't going to change. We're still friends. We still have each other. After everything that's happened, we're going to get through this, and nopony is going to get hurt. We've made sure of that.”
“Yeah.” In a flash, Rainbow Dash zoomed over to me and gave me a hug. “Don't worry. After what Twilight did for us, nopony's gonna get hurt ever again.” I felt her puff out her chest. “I'll make sure of it!”
I buried my face in her blue coat and let out a sigh that I didn't know I was holding.
“You're right,” I knew my voice was muffled, but I didn't care, I just needed to be close to my friends, “I just wish we could talk about this. I wish we didn't have to do this now.” Rarity had trotted closer and put a hoof around me, too. I felt her lean in and she spoke directly into my ear.
“I know. After tomorrow, we'll take all the time we need. But right now we have to be strong. We have to do this for Equestria.” I felt her grip grow stronger and she lowered her voice to barely a whisper. Her body started to shiver a little bit. I felt like some small part of what she was feeling was leaking out. However, her voice remained calm and steady. “We have to do it for him.”
--------------------------------------------------------
The book dropped to the floor with a thud. Shiny saw Rover, Francis, Sharna and all the others standing, just staring at her. Shiny looked left and right to try and see what was so interesting.
“What?” Shiny blinked.
“You're back?” Francis asked the question as if he was shocked to see Shiny just standing there. Had she fallen out of a hole in the cave? “You're not hurt?” The second question made Shiny start to feel nervous.
“No, I feel fine, what? What's going on? I haven't moved at all.”
“You're right.” Sharna stepped forward and pointed her staff at Shiny's nose. “For a few minutes you were just standing there. Fido tried to get you to move, but you just stood there, rigid. What happened, what did you see?”
“Nothing,” Shiny started to say, but then a memory glinted in her mind. She looked at all the dogs that were standing there. “I was a pony. A flying pony. I could feel the wings. I could feel her, I saw what she saw. I said what she said.”
“A pony? That doesn't make any- ow!” Rover started to speak, but Sharna smacked his paw to keep him quiet.
“I was called Fluttershy. I was talking with...” Shiny scratched her head. Remembering the details were hard, like she was trying to remember a dream. “We talked about something. Something big was about to happen, and I was scared, but I had friends there trying to comfort me... It was weird, I was a pony. I had wings.” Shiny flapped her paws for emphasis.
“Magic,” Sharna's eyes glinted in the firelight. “Pony magic. Who else was there?” Shiny thought hard.
“One of them was Rarity.” Fido howled and Spot pulled on his ears.
“The whiny one, boss! The whiny one!” he cried. Rover tried to quiet them quickly, but Sharna had already noticed.
“You know these ponies?”
“Well, I guess the rabbit's out of his hole,” he muttered. “That's the name of the pony that made a fool of our pack.” Rover looked dejected. “She had gem magic, like you. We tried to make her work for us, but she made terrible sounds.”
“Horrible!” Spot interjected.
“She wouldn't stop whining,” Fido agreed.
“Big Alphas you all are,” Sharna mocked, “That's why your pack sent you. They thought you were useless after one bitch cried you out of house and home.”
“It wasn't like that,” Rover whimpered, “She was worse than old whistler. At least he stops making such a racket.”
“Night and day. Day and night,” Fido added. Sharna smiled.
“Good. Then, you're going back to your pack. You're going to find these ponies, and you're going to find out why they were here.”
“Not fair, not fair,” Spot cried. Francis gave a loud bark and a challenging growl. Spot stopped talking.
“They're the reason why we missed the great vein the first time. They distracted us from the mountain's secret with this magic, and none of you are coming back until you find out why. Find out and I'll make sure you're pack leaders. Don't find out and don't come back to our pack at all.”
Rover's eyes sharpened. “Fine, but tell me one thing. Why? Why do you care so much?”
Sharna appraised the pup. At least he was a pup in her eyes. “This mountain has secrets. All the older leaders didn't care. I'm going to make us a great pack. No more caves. We're going to have a great city. This mountain is the key to that future, and I'm going to know all its secrets before I visit the pack's great den.” Both her good and bad eyes shone with conviction. “Magic. Might. Mammon. When any creature thinks of these words, they're going to think of this pack. They're going to think of my pack. Come back with what I want or don't come back at all. Now get going!”