//------------------------------// // 6. Dog Tired // Story: Sweetie's Shadow // by Note Sketch //------------------------------// The sound of tapping filled the room. It was already quiet as it was, but the constant soft nagging of each tap made it even more apparent...and annoying. Tuck Tick Tuck Tick A pause. For a small while it was quiet again. An ideal environment for Rarity to work with. At once she took her chance and began to look over her designs for the dresses she was making. Still a rough sketch, but it was a start. No doubt they would soon be the most gorgeous dresses her customer had ever seen. Slowly she took a pencil using her magic to begin re-sketching her design....then it began again. Tuck Tick Tuck The mare did her best to ignore it, but it was starting to get too annoying, even for her who had to deal with the great Pinkie Pie at her worst. But really, why could she not get some peace and quiet in her own home? Tuck "Grr..." Rarity said softly under her breath as the pencil pierced a hole in the paper. Tick "Can you two please stop making that noise?!" Rarity shouted as she turned around, her patience at its end. She stared at the ones responsible for her anger, Sweetie Belle and Sombra, who both looked over at her in a confused manner. Between them laid a chess board with pieces scattered all over, no doubt they were a great deal into their game. "But we haven't said a word." Sweetie Belle responded to her sister's strange behavior. "I'm talking about that tapping noise you're both doing!" She replied as she waved her hoof in an angry gesture. Sombra, with a devilish smirk on his face, raised one of his pieces and moved it to his desired location. Tuck "Arrgh!" Rarity shouted as she stood up and made her way to them. "Something the matter mare?" He asked as Rarity came face to face with him, and even though he was laying down, he still came pretty close to her level of stature. "You are so frustrating!" "So I've been told." Sombra replied as he made eye contact with her. They were locked in a stare for quite a while before Rarity finally broke out of it. "Fine, if you two won't be quiet, I'll just take this away!" She said a she turned on her hooves and levitated the chess board and began to make her way out of the room. "But we weren't finished yet!" Sweetie Belle shouted behind her sister. It was too late though, the mare was out of the room and the door shut behind her. "Do not worry, I memorized the position of all the pieces." Sombra said as he laid his head down on his hooves, though as the words left his mouth, he suddenly regretted it. Why did he say that? Sure, it was true, he had indeed memorized every piece's position, but the way he said it made it seem like he would continue the chess game with her later. His plan was to escape this very day, and if all went well, never have to see this insufferable filly again. "Oooh, Rarity always does this! Whenever something bothers her, even a little, she overreacts!" Sweetie Belle said as she jumped to her hooves and began to pace. "You've quite the relationship with your sister it seems." "Quite. Yeah, that's the word for it. She never listens to me! I mean she does, but never like she should! I mean, no...it's just hard to explain!" The filly said as she slumped down on the ground. Sombra looked over at the filly who was so conflicted over what she was saying. It was clear that on one hoof the white mare was a caring sister, but on the other, she didn't seem to be very good at actually being a sister. His eyes grew dull as he looked over at her. The pouting face she was making was quite adorable to most, but it only caused some internal turmoil as he looked over at her. Why....Why did he feel like he should console her? 《=●=》 "I think I might have over reacted a little...." Rarity said to herself as she placed the chess board on a counter nearby. She was feeling extremely guilty, but then again, she had been completely on edge since the day before. "Oh, this is all King Sombra's fault!" She shouted out as she slammed her hooves onto the counter, making everything on it jump. It was then, out of the corner of her eye that she saw something weird. "Is that..." She asked as she turned to look outside the window. Just a few blocks away she saw three alicorns walking down the streets of Ponyville. Speaking happily to one another as they continued to wander around. "It is! It's Twilight and the other princesses!" Rarity shouted out in joy. No doubt now that they were coming they would take the tyrant away from her home so she and Sweetie Belle could live in peace. "W-Wait...where are you going?" She asked as she opened the window and get a better look. The Royal Sisters began to take a turn down another streets even though Twilight seemed to have tried to keep them going to the boutique. "No! Come back!" Rarity shouted as she ran around her home and out the door. Why were they walking away from her home? What could possibly be more important that the Tyrant upstairs? 《=●=》 Sombra had long since stopped looking at his 'master', instead he had laid his head over his hooves as he continued to think. He was lost in his own disjointed thoughts. Mostly, the question that kept reoccuring to him. A simple question to be sure. Why did he even care about the filly? One could say he was forced to by the curse that was cast on him, but that wasn't it, there was more to it, he could feel it. Every time he looked at her it was as if he was looking through her, at something else. Something like an old memory. Sombra's eyes had remained closed up until now, but as his thoughts formed more and more around the filly, the urge to glance at her grew. Opening just one eyelid, he looked around the room for her, though he wished he hadn't. Sweetie Belle, who still had her body planted on the ground, was in the middle of dragging herself around with her hind legs. It was like some strange animal who had lost it's front legs and was forced to push itself cross the ground in a strange fashion. "Filly...." Sombra began, getting her attention and making Sweetie Belle pause mid step, leaving her in a rather awkward pose. "What in the name of all things pony are you doing?" He asked as he raised his head and stared down at her. "I'm pacing!" "On the ground? With only your hind legs? It looks like you're in the middle of a strange dance! Well, given you're a necromancer, I wouldn't put it past you." "I'm not a nefomanger!" Sweetie shouted back as she jumped to her hooves. "Necromancer." "See? I can't even say it right!" "Well whatever you were doing, stop it. It's unnerving to watch." He responded as he tried to place his head back on his hooves, though still keeping his eyes on the filly for whatever other oddities she might pull off. "Rarity took our chess board and she's been gone for like ever." Sweetie Belle said as she walked over to the dark stallion. He quickly raised his head again as an annoyed expression came over his face. She allowed herself to fall down and lay on the ground in a similar fashion as him before speaking again. "There's nothing to do!" "What do you usually do at this time?" Sombra asked as he backed a few inches to distance himself from the filly. "At school, but it's destroyed right now. All the students have the day off until we get a new one." Sweetie said as she crept closer again. "Well why don't you go help your sister with whatever she's doing down stairs?" Sombra asked as he looked away, not willing to make eye contact with the rather friendly filly. "If she's still not back, Rarity is probably laying on her fainting couch, sulking over her stolen jewels." She responded as she rolled her eyes. Though the annoyance in her expression disappeared as her eyes shined in glee from the thought that just appeared in her head. At once Sombra knew he wasn't going to like the next few words to come from her mouth. "Let's go find the thieves!" She shouted with a bright smile. Sombra was right, he really did not like what the filly was about to do...or rather, make him do. More over, he needed to remain here. He needed to meet the princesses so his plan might come into flow and he would be released from his prison. "There is no way in Tartarus I am going to help recover any stolen item from one of my murderers. Plus, we still have to wait for the others to get here. What would they think if they came here to find us missing? No doubt they would have thought I kidnapped you or some other farce." "We'll just explain it to them." Sweetie Belle said as she ran around the stallion and climb onto his back. "What are you doing? Get off of me!" Sombra protested, though it was pointless. His body would not allow him to shake her off since it would ultimately hurt her. "King Sombra!" Sweetie Belle shouted out and as she did, both their bodies began to glow in the same strange marking from before. "Help me find the thieves that stole my sister's jewels!" Suddenly a strange sensation spread across Sombra's body. It was the curse's way of letting him know that he was about to feel the pain of disobedience if he did not comply with the filly's request. With a sigh, Sombra began his charge out. Opening the window with his magic, the dark stallion ran and jumped out with the filly clinging to his back. As he reached the outside he looked below to see the ground a few meters down and quickly summoned a black spire of crystal to propel himself up and land on the roof of the boutique. From there most of the town could be seen. For Sombra who had never been to Ponyville, he made sure to make a quick note of the area, no doubt he would need it for when he escaped, thought it was for ill effort. The boutique seemed to be the only lone building for a good block or so except for a few trees here and there. "That was fun!" Sweetie Belle said as she stabilized herself on the stallion's back. Barely sparing her a glance, Sombra walked over to the other side of the building and kneeled down to see the strange prints left behind by the perpetrators from the night before. "Whatcha looking at?" "See those tracks?" "Yeah." "Last night, the thieves left the building through the window right under us. Those probably belong to the thieves." Sombra said as he looked over at the tracks and gestured to them. "Notice anything strange?" Sweetie Belle placed a hoof to her chin as she thought about the question. "Hey! They disappear!" "Not exactly." Sombra said as he leaned back before jumping over to a nearby tree from where he hung by a branch. The tracks ended just at the base of the tree he had leaped to. "Take a look here." "The branch is twisted." Sweetie said as she leaned close to see a half torn branch from where they were at. "The thieves knew they would be followed if they just left on hoof. It seems that they climbed the tree and jumped away from here." Sombra said as he climbed higher up with the white filly still on his back. Reaching the top he looked around as he scanned the nearby rooftops of other buildings. "Look!" Sweetie Belle said as she pointed out a nearby tree that showed the same signs as the one they were in. "I think they jumped onto that tree next." "By the looks of it, you're right. The house over by it seems to have a tile turned over, no doubt by the thieves." Sombra said as he readied another jump. His powerful legs managed to make the leaps over from the tree to the house in quick succession, though as he and Sweetie Belle soared through the air, he couldn't help but think about how difficult this would have been for an average pony. Who are these thieves? He asked himself as he reached the rooftop and began to slowly walk around, looking for more clues. They couldn't be just any old pony. 《=●=》 "Twilight!" Rarity shouted out as she reached her friends. Out of breath, the white mare took a moment to get her composure back into place as she tried her best to not look like this was the first time she had ran since their last misadventure. "Oh hi Rarity!" Twilight said with a smile...a large one, one every pony knew was forced and made only to keep the mood up. "I was just telling Princess Luna and Princess Celestia how you were meaning to 'catch up' on current events." She said as she pulled her friend close to the other pirncesses. "Rarity, it's so good to see you again!" Celestia said as she came to hug the mare. "When Twilight invited us over so we could talk we thought we could take this opportunity to get to meet up with all the other elements." "I-Is that so?" Rarity said as she glanced at Twilight with the same forced smile. "But you see, the thing is that back at my boutique there's-" Twilight nudged her friend to keep her from talking. A simple glance around made it obvious that they had spectators. If the word of the Tyrant King Sombra being alive again gets out, it would wreck havoc across Ponyville. If they are all consumed by fear, it will only power Sombra's magic. "What resides at thine boutique?" Luna asked, a little confused by the statement that Rarity had not finished. "Uh...some imported tea from Prance! I thought you two would truly enjoy it." Rarity said meekly. "That sounds delightful!" Celestia said with a smile. "Let's go after we visit Pinkie Pie shall we?" "W-Why not now?" Twilight asked. "Well, we are right in front of her home aren't we?" The Sun Goddess asked as she gestured to the catering shop next to them. "Would be more efficient if we make our visit now instead of later." "R-Right..." 《=●=》 "Where are we?" Sweetie Belle asked as she looked around in the barren place they were traveling across. She did her best to keep herself centered on Sombra as he ran across the terrain. "Tartarus if I know. This is your home remember?" He responded, not exactly happy about how long it was taking to find the thieves. "My home is in Ponyville, we are waaaaay outside of Ponyville." The filly said, quickly making Sombra stop dead in his tracks. "What?! Do you know how this looks like if others were to find out?" He asked as he turned his head to face the filly on his back. "Like...you kidnapped me?" Sweetie Belle said with a nervous smile. Sombra puffed air out of his nose as he tried to keep his body moving. The curse he was under wasn't very patient and the small pause in the search had already began to tingle at his nerves. "Let's just do this quickly, shall we?" "Yeah!" Sombra continued to run across the field. The tracks on the rooftops had led them to the border of Ponyville and now further into a mountain side. Climbing it was nothing for him, but once they had gone up, they reached nothing but dirt and rocks, making the tracks more detailed. Detailed enough to know that they weren't hooves anymore... Sombra's mind raced as he now tried to think about the night prior. He had heard six pair of hooves, but if they weren't hooves, then it meant that there weren't just three ponies...or creatures. Were there indeed six of them last night? "Watch out!" Sweetie Belle shouted out as she pulled Sombra's mane. He was quickly brought back to reality in time to see several holes in the ground. Thinking quick, he jumped over one and landed in a clear spot. "Why are there so many?" He asked out as he looked around. All around there were several dug holes and a glance down one of them told them they went down for miles and miles. "Rarity told me about this place!" Sweetie Belle said as she climbed up a little more and rested on Sombra's head, a motion that quickly irritated him. "The Diamond Dogs live here!" "The what?" "Diamond Dogs. They had a run in with Rarity and she ended up tricking them into giving her all their gems." "She tricked them? Then they are right to seek their gems back." "But they had kidnapped her and tried to force her into mining more gems for them!" "Is that so bad?" Sombra asked as he kneeled down to see further down into one of the holes. "Yeah that's bad!" Sweetie Belle shouted as she leaned in close by his face, though he seemed more interested in the depths of the hole than her and her lack of understanding of personal space. "I had sent my own slaves into mines to acquire more crystals so we might be able to sell them and make enough gold to sustain ourselves." "You had slaves?! N-Nevermind, even if you had a reason, it was still bad!" "Truly? In an empire surrounded by snow storms where we cannot grow our own food, we needed to make gold to feed every pony, crystals were our best option at the moment. They had to mine, there was no way around it." Sombra said as he stood back up. "Still, you-" Sombra's sudden movements interrupted the filly mid sentence. He had spun away from their position to avoid the grip from a creature that had pulled itself from one of the nearby holes. Had he been just any old stallion, he would have been grabbed on to. "Who goes there?!" Sombra asked as he regained his footing, though the culprit was gone, no doubt escaped back into the hole it had crawled out of. "What are you waiting for? Go after him!" Sweetie Belle shouted, though she had forgotten that she was still in complete control over Sombra, making his next action brash as he ran and dived into the hole that the creature that come out off. They quickly descended down several meters before landing abruptly in the middle of a tunnel. "There are some weird ponies up there, I tried to grab them but they jumped away!" A Diamond Dog said to another, though they soon took notice of the newcomers. One of them had steel armor and and immediately got into an offensive position while the other ran away, no doubt to let the others know about the intruders. "Great...." Sombra said with annoyance. "You just had to make us jump in without a plan, didn't you?" "Hehe...sorry." Sweetie Belle said as she sweat nervously on Sombra's back. The news of them traveled quickly and soon dozens of dogs began to come from one of the tunnels. His eyes opening wide in shock, Sombra turned on his hooves and began to run as fast as he could with Sweetie Belle holding on for her dear life. "You insufferable filly!" His shout echoed in the tunnels as he ran away from he pack of dogs.