It was another pleasant day in Ponyville, the guys had gathered at Sugarcube Corner to hang out, as this time they were in the mood for something sweet.
“So the fillies really got it good, I hear,” Thunderlane inquired as he bit into one of the cupcakes Pinkie had served.
“Eeyup, Apple Bloom an’ her friends are all grounded fer two weeks,” Big Mac confirmed with a stern look.
“Thanks again fer savin’ them from that nasty varmint, Midnight.”
“No big,” Midnight waved it off, “I felt a bit bad for being so hard on them but… it comes with the job of being a big brother.”
“Amen to that,” the guys hoof-bumped when Pinkie popped up.
“Hey guys! Did you just hear the most incredibly awesome news?!”
“What’s up?” Thunderlane asked.
“Rarity’s reputation is what’s up!” Pinkie squealed. “You’ll never believe who walked into her store… Sapphire Shores!!!”
“Who?” Midnight’s brow rose in curiosity, Pinkie and Thunder gasping at his question.
“Dude, you can’t tell me you’ve never heard of the Pony of Pop?!” Thunderlane was aghast.
“Sapphire Shores is one of the most amazing-est celebrity singers in all of Equestria!” Pinkie added.
“No fooling!”
They all looked and saw Twilight walk in with Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.
“Rarity came by earlier and borrowed Spike to help her out in filling Sapphire Shores’s order,” Twilight explained. “They’re out in some gully by the lake just outside town, looking for gems.”
“Well, I hope Rarity’s not on a deadline,” Midnight commented, “Looking for gems sounds time-consuming.”
“Not if you have a unique gem-finding spell,” Fluttershy debated with a smile.
“Gem-finding spell?” echoed Midnight.
“Rarity got her cutie-mark after she had a magic surge that somehow manifested as a gem-finding spell,” Twilight explained. “She found some gemstones and used them to make the prettiest dresses for her school play back when she was Sweetie Belle’s age.”
“Interesting, I wonder if she’d be willing to teach me,” Midnight pondered.
“AAAUUGGHH!!!”
They all jumped as they looked and saw Spike running in, looking panicky as he ran up to them, spewing, “Rarity! Woods! Jewels, Dogs… hole, taken- Save her!”
“Wha’ did he say?!” Big Mac asked, Pinkie popping up with a nonchalant look, holding flash cards.
Thunderlane read them in quick-succession, “‘Rarity’, ‘Woods’, ‘Jewels’, ‘Dogs’, ‘Hole’, ‘Taken’, ‘Save her’.”
“How did you do that?!” Midnight demanded from Pinkie, unable to believe she just happened to have those flash cards with the right words in the matching sequence.
“There’s no time!” Spike yelled, “Rarity’s in trouble, we gotta go help her!”
As everypony galloped, Spike rode Twilight, giving directions and explaining what had happened.
“I was with Rarity, helping her find gems, when- all of a sudden, these creepy guys popped out of nowhere!”
“Creepy guys?” echoed Midnight.
“They called themselves Diamond Dogs,” Spike clarified, “they grabbed Rarity and dragged her down a hole!”
“Well, then wer’ jus’ gonna have t’ go down that’ hole and get her,” Applejack stated determinedly.
But as they came up a rise they all gasped! The gully was now full of holes!
“Holy moly that’s a lot’a holeys!” Pinkie stated.
“Eeyup!” Big Mac nodded.
“Come on, everypony,” Twilight led the charge, “Let’s get started!”
She approached the nearest hole and peered down into the darkness.
“Hello…?”
She was answered by a growling pair of glowing yellow eyes, making her gasp but unprepared for the spray of dirt in her face. Spitting it out she then saw the hole had been sealed up. In no time at all, as everypony peered down a hole, the same thing happened. Dirt spraying in their faces as the holes were filled up.
Twilight shook the dirt off her face, “Quick! We gotta get down one of these holes before they’re all filled up!”
“Oh my!” Fluttershy gaped at the holes filling up around her. Pinkie Pie bounced before trying to dive head-first into one, only to fall into a mound of dirt. Big Mac tried to fight against one of the spraying sod and force his way in.
“Nnope!” he growled but got pushed back, the hole filling up anyway. “Ain’t no forcin’ our way in!”
“We’ll see about that!” Rainbow Dash scoffed as she rose up and dove straight down for a hole, flapping as fast as she could, but it filled up, making her gasp and pump her wings to slow down, only to be caught on the soft mound.
“Now Ah’m used t’ ickin’ mahself up an’ dustin’ mahself off,” Applejack spoke up, “But Rarity won’t even touch mud unless it’s imported!”
“Oh Rarity!” Twilight worried as a worse-case scenario filled everypony’s minds, just imagining Rarity in a cold dirty cell, whining as every move besmirched her alabaster coat and royal purple mane, and crying ‘save me’.
“We gotta save her!” Applejack insisted.
“But they blocked up all the holes,” Thunderlane reminded them.
“Then let’s get digging, everypony!” Midnight declared as he jumped onto a mound and started digging, everyone following his example.
But while they were doing so, nopony noticed a grubby paw reach out and snap Pinkie’s tail.
“Ow!”
The tallest Diamond Dog, Fido, popped out of a mound behind Thunderlane and pushed him off of the one he was digging into. Spike ran towards a mound, not noticing a furry leg reach out, and tripped over. Fido and the shortest dog, Spot, popped out of a mound between Midnight and Big Mac.
“Get `em!” Midnight yelled.
But the two dogs disappeared down the mound, as Mac and Midnight crashed into each other.
The lead Diamond Dog, Rover, popped out of a mound, Applejack noticing him. She tried to get him, and the situation quickly devolved into a classic game of whack-a-mole and Applejack was losing.
No matter what anypony did, the Diamond Dogs outsmarted them, tripping them up, pushing them off the mounds, snapping their tails, and vanishing down the mounds before anypony could touch them.
“This is ridiculous!” Midnight snapped, his horn flaring. “Stand back, everypony! I’m gonna split this case wide open!”
He magically raised himself high into the air, his horn flaring with intense light, and Twilight gasped.
“Everypony get back!”
They cleared out just in time as Midnight came down, his magic focused into his hooves as they slammed into the ground. A tremor spread out, everypony yelling as they struggled to steady themselves and they gaped at the slowly-widening crevice Midnight had split into the earth, the walls of the crevice lined with holes leading into tunnels.
But one tunnel caught Midnight’s attention as he saw a tail disappear down it.
“The game is afoot, everypony! Come on!”
They followed Midnight down the tunnel, Midnight and Twilight providing light with their horns, but before long they lost whoever had been ahead of them and came to a chamber that appeared to be the central network of the tunnels.
“All these tunnels, how are we ever going to find Rarity?” Twilight feared.
“Guess wer’ jus’ gonna have t’ start searchin’ `em one by one,” Applejack stated.
“Faust knows how long that could take!” Thunderlane protested.
“There’s gotta be a way to narrow down this search,” Midnight insisted.
“I know!”
They looked to Spike, “I bet they’ve taken Rarity down the tunnel with the most gems!”
“But Spike, Rarity’s the only one who knows how to find gems,” Twilight reminded him.
“No, Twilight, you can! You can copy Rarity’s gem-finding spell,” Spike suggested.
“What a great idea!” Midnight agreed. “Can you do it, Twi?”
“Yes! Rarity showed me how it works a while back,” Twilight replied as she walked up to the mouth of a tunnel. “If I can just remember…”
As Twilight started on the spell, Midnight gasped!
“Oooh, this harness is too tiiight!” Rarity despaired, a rusty metal harness chaining her to a wagon heavy with gemstones, some Diamond Dogs trying to block it out by covering their ears but Rarity’s drama would not be denied.
“It's going to chafe. Can't you loosen it? Oooh, it hurts and it's sooo ruuusty! Why didn't you clean it first? It's gonna leave a staaain! And the wagon's getting heeeavy, why do I have to pull it?!”
…Midnight! Wake up already!”
“Huh, what is it, what?!” Midnight looked around saw Rainbow glaring at him.
“Twilight got the spell going, come on!” she urged and he galloped after them.
As they went down the tunnel, even though they were hidden in the earth around them, the gem-finding spell Twilight was using brightened up the gems, which became increasingly abundant.
“We’re getting close,” Twilight said, “I can feel it!”
Then they heard what sounded like sobbing, Spike pointing, “It’s just up ahead! Come on!”
They came to another chamber and saw a doorway from where they heard the crying, Rainbow saying, “She must be in there, let’s go!”
But from out of nowhere popped more dogs, wearing armor, as they jumped onto the ponies’ backs, growling, “More workhorses!”
And they foolishly threw on rope bridles onto everypony’s muzzle, Applejack narrowing her eyes.
“Hoh, doggies. If you can take this bull by th' horns, y'all better be ready for a ride. C'mon, ponies! Kick 'em up, kick 'em out. Buck 'em up, buck 'em down!”
“Eeyup!” Big Mac agreed and with one buck, he sent his unwelcome passenger soaring.
Midnight gave his an evil look and the dog whimpered in fright before he suddenly jumped off howling in pain while holding his rear end.
“Heh, I knew that electrical armor spell would pay off!”
In no time at all, everypony had bucked off their unwelcome rider, the guard dogs running off with their tails between their legs.
“Yeehaw!” Applejack cheered, “Gitalong, lil’ doggies!”
“Really? “ Midnight deadpanned with a smirk at her obvious pun.
They noticed the doorway shaking, which meant trouble. Spike reached up and pulled down a stalactite, wielding it like a sword as he held onto Twilight’s reins.
“I’m coming for ya, milady! Hi-ho, Twilight! Away!”
Twilight gave him the stink-eye, but he pleaded, “Come on, Twilight, just gimme this!”
Sighing, she groaned, “Fine!”
Twilight reared up and charged! They crashed through the door, trotting into the room, Spike declaring, “Lady Rarity, I’m here to save y-”
Their eyes popped as Rover, Fido, and Spot came running, the other ponies piling behind Twilight, as the dogs kneeled at their hooves, making whines and pleads.
“Excuse me?”
“So picky!"
“And critical!"
“She won’t stop talking!"
“And crying!”
“We, uh, give her back, yes!”
Then Rarity appeared from behind them, lugging a wagonful of gems. Spike jumped down and ran over to hug her, “Rarity, you’re safe!”
“Why yes, hello everypony!” greeted Rarity, sounding sunny and quite pleased with herself. “You’re all just in time to assist me."
“Assist you with what?” Thunderlane asked.
“Why with these, of course,” Rarity pointed out several more wagons full to the brims with gemstones
Spike eyed them hungrily as he asked, “You’re letting her leave with all these… jewels?”
“Yes, take them!” Rover demanded as he and his brothers hid behind a stalagmite, “And her with them!”
“Please!” Spot whimpered.
In no time at all, everypony pulled out a wagon from the chamber but Midnight lagged behind as he gave the Diamond Dogs a look.
“What you want, pony?! We give you your friend back, not to mention all our gems!” Rover complained.
But suddenly, the dogs felt a change in the air and whimpered as Midnight’s eyes glowed pure white, radiating a harsh light that made them feel like mice staring up at an owl.
“You tried to enslave one of my friends and make her do your dirty work for you, you greedy mongrels!”
While Midnight spoke, he cast a few spells, the first to ascertain that his friends had all made it aboveground. The second was akin to sonar, spreading out until Midnight found what he was looking for in the tunnel system, the third was in reserve until he had his say.
“Well, I can tell you now that you’ll never again threaten another pony, nor will you ever again enjoy another gemstone, farewell!”
He released the spell, unleashing a powerful shockwave that broke all the support pillars throughout the tunnels. Immediately, the earth around them shook, the dogs all panicking as rocks and gems rained down around them.
“Please!” Rover begged, “Don’t do this!”
But Midnight coldly turned his back and was gone in a flash, leaving the dogs to be buried alive.
Midnight reappeared and found himself aboveground as the others were talking and apparently had not missed his presence.
“I can’t believe you tricked all those dogs, Rarity, kudos!” Thunderlane complimented her.
“Well, just because I am a lady does not mean I cannot handle myself in a sticky situation,” Rarity held her head high, proud of her accomplishment, not to mention the fringe benefits of the gemstones.
“I had them wrapped around my hoof the entire time.”
“I can’t wait to write to Princess Celestia to report what you taught me today.”
“Me, Twilight?” Rarity gave her a confused look. “What did I teach you?”
“Just because somepony is lady-like doesn’t make her weak,” Twilight replied, Midnight adding just to be an ass, “In fact, a seemingly defenseless pony can be the one who outsmarts and outshines them all.”
“Mmm, outshines is right!” Spike agreed as he munched on a ruby. “Now you have enough gems to complete Sapphire Shores’ costumes!”
“Not if you eat them all, Spike,” Rarity giggled as she took the ruby from his grip right before he was about to chomp it.
Everypony laughed but in a corner of his mind, Midnight was starting to feel bothered. Even if they’d tried to make Rarity a slave, the Diamond Dogs hadn’t really deserved the fate had he given them. Had he done the wrong thing? No, a monster that dares to take somepony’s freedom deserves no mercy, he decided darkly.