It was midnight. A suitable time to depart on a dangerous journey into the underground world to investigate strange shocks. A story that could very likely be written in large bold writing on the pages of history. It'll depict six pony friends leaving Ponyville.
And a dragon sleeping away in one of their backpacks.
Forced to re-live his nightmare with a lost sense of time, Spike will not awaken until a little later. The six friends will have it a bit rougher.
Twilight Sparkle was waiting by the fountain in the park. She was always the punctual one. She came 10 minutes earlier and has been contemplating quantum mechanics and Pinkie's influence on them for the 10 minutes. Then others started gathering. First Rainbow Dash. She got some sleep because she didn't need to travel so far. She just zoomed across the sky and in about 10 seconds she appeared. With great speed, however, came great impatience, and she quickly found herself flying aimlessly waiting for others to join them.
Next ones to appear, seeming to have met on the way there, were Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack. As always, Pinkie Pie was talking about... something. Fluttershy politely listened and agreed. Applejack gave her honest opinion. What else could you possibly expect from them?
With no surprise, the last one to arrive was Rarity. Groomed mane, large hat... She was just like you'd expect her to appear like. Not really suited to going underground, but they weren't going to leave her. They were all friends.
"Alright everypony. Ready?" asked Twilight Sparkle as sort of a journey beginning ritual.
"YEAH!" shouted all of her friends, except Fluttershy whose "yes." was lost in the cheer of others. Still, the response was given. Twilight turned and started marching. Others joined her side and they walked in a silent rhythm for a few minutes before Rainbow Dash broke the silence with a very obvious question, "So where are we going anyway?"
Twilight grinned, as if she was expecting the question, which she was, "Well, I figured that we'll just take the fastest way underground. By the Diamond Dogs tunnels."
Rarity gasped, "Twilight, surely you don't mean the Diamond Dogs who kidnapped me, enslaved me and made me work for them? They are ruffians I tell you. Dangerous ruffians!"
"Don't be silly Rarity. They may have had bad intentions at first, but they weren't THAT bad."
"Yeah! And they let you go at the end of the episode, didn't they?" Pinkie added.
"Pinkie, what did I tell you? Our life does not happen in episodes." said Twilight, a bit annoyed.
"But Twilight. Their tunnels are very dirty! I don't want to get dust in my mane." stated Rarity.
"Of course. You an' yer mane Rarity. If ya dun' like dirt s' much why did y' go with us on an UNDERGROUND journey?" asked Applejack, clearly starting an argument with Rarity.
"Why did I even speak..." said Rainbow Dash.
"Umm, girls..." whispered Fluttershy.
"WHAT?!" roared the entire arguing rest of the group, scaring the living soul out of Fluttershy.
"We'reatanintersectionandthesignsarebrokenkthxbai!" shouted Fluttershy before speeding past four of the arguing ponies and getting caught by Rainbow Dash.
Twilight looked at the intersection post. Indeed, it was broken. Both signs were on the ground, pointing back towards Ponyville menacingly. She regarded both pathways. One led them through a creepy forest which was a part of the larger Everfree Forest. The other led them out into the plains. Behind the post there was a hut.
"We should ask the ponies who live there." said Twilight, walking up to the door and knocking.
The door opened and two hooded ponies came out.
"Welcome to our hut, young ponies." said one of them.
"We are the pony brothers, Bronies." said the other.
"We think that we should've called ourselves Brocolts."
"But we are brothers who sell many salts."
"Forgive my Brony who can't do right rhyming."
"But I have to keep us within our timing."
"Now look, I don't want to sound like a hater, but can this wait until sometime later? Someone has teared down the road naming logs and we need the path to the Diamond Dogs." said Twilight back to them. The hooded ponies seemed surprised and pleased.
"When asked some questions, and I am no friar, one becomes honest while the other a liar."
"You can ask us one question, the same to both, and I'll point you either West or North."
While others looked confused, Twilight was focusing on the question which to ask them. No ideas came to her mind, "Can I have a while to think about it?" she pleaded.
"Yes!" said one.
"No!" said the other.
Realising what she just did, Twilight facehooved herself. Then Rarity walked up to her, "Don't worry Twilight. It's gonna be alright."
"But how are we going to find the Diamond Dogs now?" asked Twilight.
"Isn't it obvious? I've been there when they kidnapped me. Did you forget already? We're going to the plains." said Rarity, taking the left road, and all ponies following her. While walking beside them, Rainbow Dash spoke, "You should really lay of rhymes. I've heard this stuff to many times."
Fluttershy, walking behind her, added, "I actually thought your rhymes were nice, but your pacing and speed could use some spice."
Then Applejack cut in, "Wait a moment everypony, are we gonna keep rhyming too?"
Pinkie shrugged, "Don't ask me AJ, I ain't got a clue."
When they walked away, the hooded ponies looked at each other.
"Curses! They passed right by our trap!"
"I guess our idea was just very -"
"WE DON'T NEED TO RHYME ANYMORE"
"- bad."
"You are right brother. Now let's get back to selling salt"
That being said, both brothers returned to their hut. Back to our Mane heroes, they had a large problem.
"Pinkie!" shouted Twilight.
"Yes Twilight?" asked Pinkie, standing beside her.
"Why did you think it would be appropriate to fire your party cannon?"
"Well, we were out in the plains, so I thought I won't cause an avalanche."
"I understand that Pinkie... but instead you caused the ground beneath us to shatter. Now we're stuck down here."
"Sorry Twi..."
Twilight Sparkle looked up. They had a very long fall, and she could barely see the top. Then again she wouldn't really see anything during the night. A voice reached her ears, "Y'alright sugarcubes?"
"Applejack! We're okay! Where are you?!" shouted back Twilight.
"We didn't fall! We're- hold on, we're lowering you a rope! Climb up!" shouted Applejack.
Twilight tried from many positions but no matter how she tried she couldn't hold the rope. "I can't climb it Applejack! My hooves are slipping off."
"Oh right... sorry... BITE ON IT WITH PINKIE! WE'LL PULL YOU UP!" shouted Applejack. Twilight bit down on the rope and PInkie followed her. Then the rope started slowly sliding up.
On the top of the hole, Applejack pulled on the rope with all her might. The end of it was tied to Rainbow Dash who was trying to fly away at full speed and speed up the process. It took a few minutes, but they were out of the hole.
"Thanks girls... now we should keep quiet and enter one of the tunnels." said Twilight, pointing at the tunnel holes a few metres away from them. They split up and started examining each tunnel. Then Twilight called them to her, "This one has safe steps. We can go down it." she said, and they started their descent.
By the time they were down there the sun was slowly lighting up the sky above them. The ponies looked around the cave. It was actually the middle of the Diamond Dogs' excavations. Wagons of gemstones were transported by huge burly dogs while the familiar three were overseeing everything. The 6 friends walked up to them.
"Then try digging there... oh, not you ponies again! We said we were sorry! Take that whining one away! TAKE HER AWAY!" shouted Rover, the middle sized Diamond Dog and their ultimate leader.
Twilight stepped forward, "We're not here to stay for long. We have come to investigate shocks recently hitting Ponyville."
Rover's ears twitched, "Shocks you say?" he asked, looking into the shadows past the ponies. Six pairs of eyes were watching them. Rover put his paws into a triangle, "Do you have any idea what may be happening?"
Twilight shook her head, "No, that's why we've come to question you." Rover's paws moved a bit closer, and six weapons being drawn flashed behind the ponies,
"What do you wish to know?" asked Rover.
"Do you know what could've caused the shocks?" she asked. Rover tried to hide a grin as he split up his paws. The ninja dogs hid their weapons and disappeared back into the shadows.
"Well, we have felt them too. They seem to have come from the Dark Tunnel. It's a tunnel we've tried to explore a long time ago. Now we've sealed it off because it was very unstable... and rigged with traps. If you wish to go there, we can open the way for you, but you have to make sure you stay together and advance slowly. We haven't, and believe me, there has been more Diamond Dogs in the past..." he said with a sad expression. Twilight smiled.
"We're sorry to hear that, but thank you for co-operating. We'll try our best to stick together. Show us the tunnel." she said, others nodding. Rover got up, Spot and Fido keeping quiet and following him. They got to a tunnel blocked by a bunch of boulders.
"Once you enter we'll have to lock it away again otherwise one of our young may wander down there. if you find nothing at the end return here and we'll let you out." he said, nodding to Fido. Fido grabbed one of the bottom boulders and moved it, causing other boulders to drop and open the entrance, "It's very dark so I suggest you get some light."
Twilight fired up the light from her horn and entered the cave, others following her. Applejack entered last and looked back at the dogs, "Thank y'all for yer c'operation." she said, before stepping further in. Fido picked up the boulders and stacked them back together. Then six shapes dropped from the cave ceiling and turned to Rover.
"Why did you call us back Master? We could've taken them out within seconds." said the largest one, but Rover grinned, "We have a little bone to pick with those ponies. I want them to witness the full power of our War Machines. Enter the Side Tunnel and deactivate all of the traps. I want them to reach the Main Chamber, then cuff them up from the shadows. Use the Magical Cuffs on the Unicorns and the Strong ones on the Orange one and the Blue one. Without any means of escape, they'll be the first to be ended by out new power." he said, taking a side tunnel to the Main Chamber to power up the machines along with Spot. The road given to the ponies was just a longer path to buy the Diamond Dogs some time to power up their revenge.