//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 // Story: To Guard Equestria // by BleepBloop2 //------------------------------// Diamond Dogs might not be as stupid as they seem. For example, they do not treat slaves as badly as you might think they do. We weren’t treated well, not by any stretch of the imagination, but I don’t think we were ever treated evilly. Don’t misunderstand me, though. It was more out of good business sense than any sort of compassion. Dead slaves can’t work. We were enslaved for three weeks before I realised help wasn’t coming. We had lost a few more ponies by then, leaving only twelve of the guards still alive. That gave us a total of thirty two slaves capable of fighting. I just needed some sort of push to get them going. Get them willing to fight the hundred plus Diamond Dogs. While underground. In the dark. With no weapons. While tired and hungry. Easy, right? I didn’t spend those three weeks idle. I spent a lot of it working. I did more than my fair share of the work each day, letting the other rest up for when we made our escape. Slave labour is pretty menial, leaving lots of time for thinking. But I kept hitting a snag in my plans. Namely, the lack of weapons. The mining gear is kept in a hut that’s guarded by a trio of Diamond Dogs at all times. It’s an easy job, probably highly sought after. I say the hut, because that what it looks like from the outside, made of solid stone slabs that are all falling against each other, so none of them actually fall. I’ve only seen the inside once, and only for a few minutes. Its more comfortable than most pony homes. I could see the mining gear, mostly pickaxes, with a few shovels and a couple hammers, sitting in a corner. The guards were passed out drunk; it was the wee hours of the morning, and everyone else was asleep. Around my third day I started getting visits from Dogs. They wanted to know what I was. At first, I ignored them, but pretty soon they were pissing me off, so starting the second week whenever they came near me I stopped what I was doing and stared at them. The guards didn’t complain, because I still got more than enough work done, and I guess because it was funny seeing the civilian Dogs scared of me. I was sitting in the slave camp one day, trying to get the dirt and rocks out from under my ridiculously long nails, when a trio of Diamond Dogs decided to pay me a visit. Diamond Dogs had been coming to see me almost every day now. I had added a big, toothy grin when I stared at them. They usually left after a minute or so. I don’t know how I scared them, considering the size difference. When I heard the sound of steps on stone, I looked up. I didn’t recognise the Dog in front of me - they all looked the same to me - but he was wearing armour and carried weapons. It’s armour was metal plates riveted onto a thick cloth. It only covered his chest and his arms, leaving his head, neck, legs and feet unprotected. It’s weapon were a pair of axes, made of steel or iron, and looked well cared for. I didn’t need all the weapons at once. If I could get one or two, I could use them to get the rest. The problem was getting started. I looked down at my nails and had an idea. Though I didn’t know if this was crazy enough to work, too crazy to not work, or just crazy. The armed and armoured Dog came over to me and said, in broken Equestrian, “What you be?” I opened my mouth, as if to answer, but started coughing horribly. It must have sounded like I was hacking up a lung. I tried to speak again, but again I coughed. I grimaced, and spoke quietly. Despite their much better hearing, I was quiet enough he couldn’t hear me over the general background noise. I waved at him to come closer, and he reluctantly did. One of the things you get from mining is upper body strength. Pickaxes are heavy, and rocks are hard. Another is aim. You don’t want to hit the wrong thing and crack something valuable, or damage the pick. As I said, Diamond Dogs aren’t completely stupid. When he crouched down to hear me speak, he would be ready for a punch. So I didn’t punch him. My hand shot out to grab him. He brought an arm up to protect his face and reached towards me. My fingers sank to the first knuckle into his neck. Making a fist, I pulled, tearing his throat open and splattering my face with warm blood. I shoved the Dog backwards, and his two buddies just stared at me in shock. I flung a handful of cartilage at the Dog on the right before snatching up an axe a rushing at the one on the left. I hated the weapon as soon as my hand closed around it. The balance was wrong, the handle was too big for me to grip properly, and it didn’t have a guard to protect my fingers. I ducked the Dogs wild swipe and swung clumsily at its leg. The axe bit into its knee, and the Dog went down howling, taking the axe with it. The other Dog recovered from a handful of throat to the face and hit me with a wild swing. It sent me staggering backwards and onto my arse. I kicked one if its legs, then kicked it in the face when it fell. Going back to the Dog I’d axed, I pulled the axe out of its knee, twisting as I yanked it loose. It howled again, and I heard hoofsteps behind me. I put the Dogs down quickly and turned to face the pony coming. It was one of the ponies that had been here before I got captured. Didn’t remember his name. He stopped when he saw the dead Dogs and started babbling. “You’ve killed us. We’re dead. You’ve killed us.” More ponies had come over now, drawn by the howling and the babbling. I recognised one of the unicorns from the guard, and tossed him the other axe. His horn glowed, and the axe came to a sudden stop next to his head. I pointed at the hut were they kept the mining gear, and he nodded. I pointed to a couple other ponies I recognised, a pair of earth ponies, and they nodded as well. I pointed back towards the hut, making a wide arc as I did. They seemed to get the message, because they moved out, moving not directly towards the hut, but still in it’s general direction. The Dogs there had definitely heard the commotion, and would be on their way now. I gave my new axe a few practice swings, trying to get used to the feel of it. I was not a fan of axes. Nor a fan of swords either, really. The crossbow, now that was a useful weapon. Honestly, if the thing I was killing never saw me, then that was fine by me. Some ponies, and a lot of gryphons, go on about fighting honourably. But what use do the dead have for honour? They can keep their honour, and I’ll keep my life. The pony who had came along first was still babbling, now asking why I had doomed them all. It was simple, really, though I don’t think he actually wanted to hear my reasons. There was no way to convince the other slaves to revolt, not a chance in hell. So I forced them to. Sure, some would die, but with luck it wouldn’t be me. Backed into a corner, the slaves would fight like hell, and all of them would fight. The rest of the slaves arrived just as the Diamond Dogs did. It was a pair, both lightly armed and armoured. They saw me, covered in blood and standing over dead Dogs, and charged. They were wearing a thick cloth armour that replaced leather in a world were damn near everything was intelligent. It wasn’t as strong as leather, but it was better than nothing, which is what I had. When the Dogs were maybe fifteen yards away, I slowly raised my arm and aimed. When they were ten yards away, I whipped my arm down and through the axe. It hit the left Dog in the face hilt first, breaking his nose with a lovely crunching sound, slowing him down and letting me deal with them one at a time. The second Dog was on me before I could congratulate myself with actually hitting something. He had a club, really just a heavy stick, and it whistled as it passed over my head. I slide forward and spat in the Dogs face. He flinched backwards, dropping his guard. I punched him in the throat and took him to the ground. I smashed the back of his head against the ground and I kept smashing until I heard it crack and it stopped thudding and started squishing. Picking up his club, I only just got it the the way of the other Dogs blow. The impact went up my arm and damn near made me drop the club. I parried his next swing and then thrust the club at him as hard as I could, hitting him between the legs. I felt something burst. The Dogs eyes rolled up into his head, and he fell into a heap on the ground. He was still for a moment, but then started vomiting. I swung at his skull like I was playing golf, and his skull shattered in a spray of white, red and pink. I went and picked up the axe before passing the club to the last unicorn guard. He looked at it for a second before shuddering and taking it. Well, thats what you get for not helping me. The three I’d sent to the hut arrived back, and brought a double handful of improvised weapons. It was mostly pickaxes, but there was a pair of short daggers and a spear. I took those, as I was the only one with hands. A bullshit reason, because a unicorn could use it, probably better than I could. I just really wanted the spear. I took the armoured Dog’s belt and, after cutting it down to size, used it to hold the axe and the daggers. When I was sure it wouldn’t fall of or annoy me too much, I started hefting the spear, getting used to the weight. It was a bit under half again my height in length, and the shaft was a dark wood I didn’t recognise, because it was dark wood, and I was in a dark cave. Note to self: see if there is a spell that lets you see better in the dark. The head was iron or steel, with a wavy pattern set into it, and a crossguard where it met the wood. It looked like someone had taken a sword and put it on the end of a stick. It felt perfect in my hands, like it had been made for me. I spun it around in a few flashy moves that would get me killed in a real fight, the few things I remembered from training with the spear as a new recruit. It moved easily, and I found myself grinning. Time to kill some Dogs. The Dogs town was between the slave tents and the exit. Being sneaky wasn’t an option, not if I wanted to take ponies with me. Which I had to; Twilight would be upset if I didn’t. Which left a mad dash for the exit. I’d need a distraction. I looked at the bodies we already had, and the plan slid into place. I looked around the cave. It was wide, maybe three quarters of a mile at the widest, but not very high. I had the unicorns and some earth ponies help me drag the bodies as far from the slaves tents as they could. When we got to the other side of the cave, where the mines were, I sent all but one unicorn back for anything flammable they could find, and while waiting on them I explained the plan to the him. We were going to build a fire here, as big as we could, big enough to start a panic. While the Dogs were distracted trying to salvage what they could from the mine, we were going to go into the town, set anything flammable in there on fire, and get out. If we used the bodies, then the smell of burning fur would probably draw more Dogs than would normally go. Plus, we didn’t have much else to burn.  It wouldn’t be without bloodshed, as not every Dog would go fight the fires, but he didn’t seem to mind. He actually smiled. I spent the time waiting on the other ponies to come back moving the bodies around into a circle, and getting told the unicorns life story. His name was Bright Spark, and he had wanted to become a scholar like Starswirl the Bearded, but Guarding paid better. Which said something about how well scholaring paid. He joined the Guards a year or so after me, and used to be scared to death of me. He still was scared of me, but now it was because of what he’d seen me do, and not because I looked different. An improvement, I guess. After that, we lapsed into silence until the ponies I’d sent collecting came back. And they’d outdone themselves. In addition to the cloth and wood I’d been expecting, they had brought back a keg of alcohol. I don’t know where they got it, and I really didn’t care. We piled the cloth and wood over the dogs. I made a small puddle of it on the side nearest the slave camp, and told Bright Spark to give us a headstart, then throw a spark at that. As soon as he loosed the spark, he was to get away from it as quickly as he could. He nodded, failing to hide a grin. I had the other unicorn carry the keg, and then we made our way back I was maybe halfway there when I felt a sudden heat behind me. Grinning, I looked over my shoulder, and saw Bright Spark galloping towards us, lit from behind by a bonfire that looked much larger than it was because of how dark it had been before. It bathed the cave in a blazing orange glow, throwing harsh shadows and harsher light. I only glanced back, not wanting to be blinded. It wasn’t hard to get the ponies on the move again, and I pushed them to a light run, the sort of pace I could keep up for days without getting tired. Crossing the cavern took me maybe ten minutes at that pace, and the ponies didn’t have a problem keeping up. At first, anyway. I cool down a lot better than ponies, and the heat from the fire behind us, while not much, didn’t help. Back at the camp, I told them to rest as I got the others organised. I passed out what weapons we had, doing my best to keep ponies from wandering over to stare at the fire as I led them to the town, and had someone stuff a booze soaked rag into the hole of the keg. I had to squash a groan when we started moving. I knew ponies couldn’t be sneaky, but fucking hell, it’s like they were going out of their way to make as much noise as possible. We didn’t even get halfway before the Dogs heard us coming. They started pelting us with rocks, arrows, I’m pretty sure I saw a ball at one point, but the rocks were the only problem; they couldn’t shoot to save their lives and the ball seemed to be a toy. I don’t think anyone died to a rock on the way their, but a couple pegasi were grounded, and, as I was leading the ‘charge’, I got hit a couple times as well. When we got close to the wall I had a unicorn light the rag and launch the keg behind the of Dogs. He refused. I told him again, and again he refused. “Look, I get your trying to be true to your morals, but listen to what I’m bloody saying. Launch the keg behind the Dogs! Not at them, behind them! I don’t want to set them on fire, just distract them.” Not entirely true. I would be A-OK with have them set on fire. I wouldn’t enjoy it, but I wouldn’t complain. The unicorn nodded and his horn flashed. The keg soared over the Dogs and shattered against a building behind them. The flaming rag ignited the alcohol in a flash. Some of the Dogs were on the edge and got splashed, which made those next to them panic. The town didn’t have a wall, but it was basically a labyrinth, which made keeping momentum hard. I would only be a little surprised if it was designed that way. When the stones started getting aimed instead of lobbed, about ten yards away, I broke into a sprint. The Dogs were instantly on the defensive. They had the old, the young, the otherwise unable to protect. The ponies were backed into a corner, and even a normal peaceful species gets violent there. I am not normally peaceful. The spear is an amazing weapon. It can slash and pierce, bludgeon and trip. You can fight more than one thing at a time with it, and do it well. I flowed through the Dogs like burning oil over ants. I never stopped moving, kept my spear spinning. The first Dog to get in my way didn’t even have time to raise his weapon before I swept his legs out from under him and sliced his belly open. The second fared no better, losing an ear and a finger before I slipped a thrust past her club. The blade slide into her neck, and I swept it sideways, tearing open the artery or vein in her neck in a spray of deep red. After those two, I spent most of my time herding ponies, stopping them from chasing after any Dogs and pointing them towards the exit. Fighting our way through the town was long and brutal; we paid with blood and sweat for every step. The unicorns died first, followed by any pegasi to stupid to stay on the ground. Earth ponies fared best, but it was less because of their size and strength, and more because they seemed to know when Dogs would pop up from below, and would get in place to give the Dogs a two hoof hello. We were actually doing fairly well, getting around halfway with only a couple casualties. Then they started throwing water at us. Only the few of us at the front even got wet. I wiped my face clean and froze. It wasn’t water. It was oil. Over the sound of battle, over the shouts and curses and final words, I heard flint and tinder spark. To my right, a pony whose name I didn’t know went up in flames. His screams caused a momentary halt in fighting as everyone flinched. They were raw and ragged things, those screams. They stopped quickly as the flames stole the air from his lungs even as it burned them from the inside out. And the smell. The burning fur was terrible, but under it, masked but still there, was the smell of cooking meat. And it smelled so good. I want to blame that on being half starved, but I don’t think I can. His scream outlived him as echoes in the cave. He went down, still on fire and still alive, screaming without sound. When I next had a moment, I put him out of his misery. I like to think he was grateful, but he probably just hurt. The Dogs never tried to light anyone else on fire. I didn’t have to finish any Dogs off after that. The ponies put them down when they could, and left them for dead when they couldn’t. The Dogs seemed a bit disheartened after that. They were less ferocious, less willing. Or maybe they were just tired. The ponies certainly were. I could probably go for a few more hours without slowing down. I don’t know exactly when, but some time after we reached the tunnel I started singing. We were down to fifteen, including me, by this point. The ponies were tired, and so were the Dogs at the front. But there were many more of them than there were of us. But my singing did something. Ponies walked taller, swung truer, moved faster. I’ll admit, I was not feeling my best anymore. I’d been at the back, in the thick of it, and had been injured enough that I probably shouldn’t be standing, magic be damned. But singing made me feel better. Maybe it was hearing English for what may very well be the last time, or maybe everyone just loves a good song. I don’t know. It seemed to be the last straw for the Dogs, which I understood. They had killed more than three quarter of us, set one on fire, and came out of the walls, the floor, the ceiling, and here was me, singing at them. “The moon is out looking for trouble,”  I opened a dog from side to side across the stomach and kicked her backwards onto the Dogs behind. “The moon wants a scrap or a cuddle,” The tunnel began to thin. I was the last one in line. Thankfully, the tunnel was too cramped for a Dog to pop up behind me. On the other hand, I also couldn’t swing my spear properly anymore. I had to go on the defensive. I am not very good at defensive. The Dogs were also having trouble swinging, being much larger than I was, so I guess the small tunnel was a good thing. “The moon is face down in a puddle,” I managed to trip the Dog in front of my without also tripping myself, which put some distance between me and the Dogs. I stepped back, and felt warmth on my skin. I thrust at a Dog, feinted left, right and then stabbed straight forward, slicing open his thigh and nicking his calf. He went down on top of the other, blocking the tunnel . “And everyone’s here!” I turned and sprinted out the cave. The land was as dead and empty as I remembered. Not like much could have changed in a few weeks. The ponies had collapsed, grins on their faces, all eight of them. I don’t get why they were so happy. We weren’t safe yet. Then I heard one say, “Oh, Celestia, how I’ve missed your sun!” That didn’t make sense to me. Eyes unused to the sun were blinded by it, skin unused to its warmth was burned. The sun could kill as easily as it gave life. I guess you just had to get used to it. “Don’t rest yet,” I warned. “Sure, we’re out, but we aren’t safe. Ponyville isn’t far. We can get there in half an hour.” That got me a lot of mutinous looks. “Think of it. Good food, clean water, warm beds.” Still looking murderous. “Six mares for every stallion.” That got them standing up. Not the food. Not the water. Not the soft, clean beds. The mares. I will never understand ponies. We heard the Dogs in the tunnel growling. The mares got them up, the Dogs got them moving. We made good time. From the Diamond Dog mine to Ponyville in twenty six minutes. And when we arrived, the residents started screaming. I was crouched, spear in front of me, facing the way we had came before I had actually registered the screams. I scanned the way we had came, didn’t see any Dogs. Then I looked at us, and sighed, realising I had missed something out. It had been easy to ignore in the caves, where we couldn’t see it, but we were all covered in blood. Most of it was probably our own. I was too tired to deal with this. Not physically tired, at least not much. Mentally tired. I couldn’t put up with this shit right now. So, ignoring the screaming ponies, I pointed the survivors to the spa, said to tell them I’d cover and walked towards the library. I looked up to the sky to try and guess the time. It was early morning, an hour or so after sunrise. Twilight would be up, even without the screams to wake her. The door opened before I could knock. Twilight looked up at me, fearfully at first, but then with a flash of recognition, and then shock. “Michael?” she asked, incredulous. I heard voices from inside the library, but they could wait. “Hiya, Twi’,”  I said, smiling. “How’ve you been?” She stared at me for a few seconds more, then smiled. Soon she was grinning, and then she started dancing. I don’t have the words, not in English or in Equestrian, to properly describe the way Twilight dances. If I were to try, I could use words like enthusiastic, uncoordinated, carefree, spontaneous and dangerous, and while it is each of those things, even together they fail to capture the essence of the matter, the Twilight-ness of it. She was dancing around me in a circle, like she did as a foal when she got full marks on a test. I reached down to stop her and help her insatiable curiosity when some instinct in me screamed at me to move. I felt a flash of adrenaline as I spun to my left, reversing my hold on the spear. A blue blur sped past, and I brought the spear down hard. I hit a wing, and heard the delicate bones crack. The pony let out a high pitched scream as it plowed into the ground. Hoofsteps, coming from behind. I kept spinning, swept my spear low. The pony fell to the ground. I raised my spear- “Wait!” I blinked. Applejack was laying on her side, staring up at me with wide eyes. I looked over to the first one. It was Rainbow Dash. Planting my spear point first into the ground, I pinched the bridge of my nose with one hand and hauled Applejack to her hooves with the other. I could feel a headache coming on, and this had probably caused it. As soon as she was standing, Applejack started talking to Twilight, whispering to her as they trotted over to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash was curled up in a bright blue ball, laying on her side with her injured wing spread out flat. I crouched down next to her. Her wing was definitely broken, but it didn’t seem a bad brake. She could probably be moved without having to worry much about making it worse. “Twilight, mind going and getting Nurse Redheart?” Applejack’s head snapped away from Rainbow Dash. “Wait, no, I’ll go. You stay here, Twi, and, eh -” her eyes flicked over to me “-stop Dash from movin’.” The farm pony didn’t wait for a response, trotting towards Ponyville before she had even finished speaking. As soon as she had turned a corner, I heard her start galloping. Rainbow Dash let out a few whimpers I checked her over. Aside from the wing, she had some scrapes and bruises from landing badly. Pretty good, considering how fast she was probably going. Twilight wasn’t willing to try healing spells without more practice, so we got some ice to put on the break, to help keep swelling down. And that was pretty much everything I learned first aid about how to treat pegasi wings. The only other thing was being reminded not to do anything else. Pegasi wings are incredibly complicated. Aside from all the little fiddly bones and joints and blood vessels, there are also the, ah, mana vessels, I think they’re called, that help the flow of magic throughout the wings and enable flight and cloud manipulation. When I was sure Rainbow Dash would be stable, I took a quick shower. I didn’t want anyone else attacking me. I also cleaned my spear, checking it for nicks or scratches as well. Feeling clean for the first time in weeks, I went back outside. Applejack was back, and had Nurse Redheart with her. They were standing over Rainbow Dash, making concerned noises. I hung back for now. I wondered were Spike was. I hadn’t seen him in the library, and he would have came out when he heard Rainbow Dash screaming if he had been there. I hadn’t seem him in Ponyville either, but Ponyville isn’t the smallest town in Equestria, so I may have just missed him. Nurse Redheart seemed to be finished looking over Rainbow Dash, and was trying to figure out the best way to move her. I went over and gently lifted her, the same way you hold a baby. She didn’t make a sound as I picked her up. Turning to Nurse Redheart, who was glaring at me, I said, “Lead the way.” The trip to Ponyville hospital was quiet. The ponies either didn’t make the connection between the blood-soaked monster and myself, or they did, and were happy the blood-soaked monster wasn’t going to hurt them. Even though he was carrying a world-saving celebrity towards the hospital. Ponies are weird. At the hospital, I was directed towards a room by Nurse Redheart. After lowering Rainbow Dash onto the bed, I took my leave. Twilight and Applejack came with me, after getting assurances from Nurse Redheart that Rainbow Dash would be fine. Back outside the hospital, I asked Twilight where Spike was. “He’s at Fluttershy’s, helping her with some work. He should still be there. Why?” “Need to get a letter to Luna. Oh, and I’ll need those bits I left in your library.” Her horn lit up, there was a flash of lavender light. A bag of bits the side of my two fists was on the grass in front of us. I picked it up, trying to judge it’s worth by the weight of it. It should be enough. Ignoring Applejack’s shocked look, I let Twilight lead us back to Ponyville. I stopped by the spa to pay my tab - I paid for Twilight to go as well - then headed over to Fluttershy’s. Applejack left as soon as there were other ponies around, but Twilight stuck with me. Finding Fluttershy was pretty easy. I just went were the giant flock of birds was. They scattered as soon as I got close. She was outside her cottage, feeding the zoo she keeps. How she affords it, I don’t know, but she gets by somehow. When the birds fled, the two of them looked up and did a double take upon seeing me. “Michael!” They both shouted that at the same time. I was surprised to hear Fluttershy shout, and even more surprised when she flew over to me and tackle-hugged me. If she hadn’t been a pegasi I probably would have fallen on my ass, the speed she was going when she hit me. Twilight cleared her throat, and Fluttershy let go of me so quickly she dropped to the ground. She landed with a tiny ‘oof’ and a huge blush. She flashed an apologetic smile at Twilight before mumbling something about animals and disappearing. I decide to ignore all of that, and looked at Spike to see him glaring at me hard enough to cut steel. He stopped as soon as I looked at him, and said, “Captain. Good to see you alive. Celestia said you were dead.” Celestia said I was dead? That explains why Twilight hasn’t let me out of her sight since I got back. “Need you to let Luna know I’m not, Spike.” Twilight cleared her throat again. “And Celestia as well.” I didn’t have to see Twilight to know she would be smiling. I could feel it, like the wind in my hair. Twilight got some parchment and a quill from somewhere, though were she kept them I don’t know, and Spike sent off the letter. A reply came back almost immediately. It was two words long. Canterlot. Now.