T H E L E G E N D of E C H O
T H E ~ D I A M O N D ~ D O G
An MLP:FIM fanfiction written by: R U S T
with editing and proofreading by: Nathan Traveler, RaiderRy4n and Flame Runner
cover art and illustrations by: stupidyou3

ACT THE SECOND, CHAPTER THE EIGHTH

In which we return to some old friends, Ginger becomes the Princess of Asskicking, and Pyrite is Toph...

Echo and Daring Do

"You ever get the feeling like we've been walking down this road for months and months? Like, we'll keep doing this forever, and whenever people think of us, the last thing they recall is, 'Oh, yeah, I remember those guys, they set off down a dusty road way back when. I think they're still on it right now. What a lazy deity they subscribe to!'"

On a small path near the outskirts of Aappleoosa, three beings walked through the dappled sunbeams cast through apple trees. A tall, lanky diamond dog, a petite sandy pegasus, and one golden dragoness.

The pegasus glanced to the diamond dog at her side. "Echo, I'm starting to realize that you're so smart sometimes you think yourself into an idiot."

Biting back the sting, Echo let himself drop back a few paces, taking in the scenery instead of continuing the conversation. This was the orchard of Aappleoosa, and if he recalled, owned by one Braeburn Apple. He wondered how much time had passed since he'd seen how this place came to be. Months... or years? The trees all looked very young, but many were baring fruit. Succulent red apples dangled in the midsummer heat.

Somewhere around here, a pack of diamond dogs had made their den. He'd been keeping his ear to the ground, asking for news about the packs whenever he ran across a stray who'd been travelling. This particular group called itself the Dust Devils. They'd been causing havoc for the farms around here for quite a while now, if the word was to be believed.

He was suddenly aware of someone walking beside him. The dragoness had dropped back to join him as well. Her sightless eyes were fixed dead ahead.

For a while, they walked in silence, content with letting the mare ahead set the pace. Then, Echo brushed up against her side, allowing his disembodied voice to fill her mind. "Pyrite, can I ask you something?"

Pyrite shrugged. "The sound is grating to equine ears. I will not deny some satisfaction every time I make them wince." She pointed ahead, to the lone pegasus. "Watch. Ssss-sss-ss-sss."

"...Oh my god." Echo eventually gaped. He put his tongue to the roof of his mouth and blew. "Sssssss!"

Daring Do shot a peeved glare over her shoulder, ears spasming wildly. "Do you two mind? Some of us are trying to brood here."

Echo took a moment to gather the correct words. He knew all dragons were prickly creatures, and Pyrite struck him as even more so. It'd be best to play this carefully. He didn't want it to sound like he was questioning her character, but rather her motives. Eventually he gave up, and just threw it out there, "I wanted to know the real reason you decided it was worth your time to come with me." At her sudden bristling, he gave her a nudge. "Let me finish, first. Pyrite... you are dragoness."

Burn. He let that one slide. At least she was showing a sense of humor. "You had everything dragons desire out of life. A hoard, a legacy, an army of servants to clean your scales while you slept... and yet, here you are. You gave this friendship a shot, and joined up with a group of... of ponies and diamond dogs who had made no promises to even try to like you. I mean, we're an inconsiderate lot. We rarely get along with each other most often, to tell the truth. One big happy family."

"And yet. Again, here you are. You literally gave up all your worldly possessions, the entire measure of a dragon's worth. You gave up your standing with your own kind on a desperate half-baked gamble of mine... I offered you friendship, but I bluffed, guessing you'd be interested in the first place."

"You are doing a terrible job of convincing me this was the correct path." Pyrite slowly opened her mouth, and a long, snakelike tongue dipped out, wrapped around a simple grey pebble. She dropped this into an outstretched claw. Even though her eyes were blind, they focused straight at it. "I assume you made your deductions upon this."

"We're both greedy creatures, but we know one fact; the greatest treasures are not the ones taken, but the ones received. Someone, long ago, gave that to you. As a gift. It is your greatest treasure, despite the fact that your hoard was... insane in its vastness, and wealth, and you kept a unusual amount of slaves for a dragon. I know. I've read the entire section of the Rio De Manero library on dragons."

"Books do not show, only fill naive heads with words they pretend at understanding," Pyrite scowled, emptily contemplating the stone in her claw. "So what if my hoard was the envy of this side of the continent, or that my slaves numbered in the hundreds?"

"I think... you were trying to fill a hole that someone very close to you left a long time ago."

In the space of an eyeblink, he found himself moving at an incredible speed. The breath was knocked straight from his lungs as he slammed into a tree. Pinning him by his neck was a golden claw, talons sunk deep into the bark. He wheezed -- she'd trapped him so that only if he stood on his tiptoes could he hope not to strangle himself.

Up ahead, the pegasus whirled around on the spot at the sound. "Hey! What gives!?" Her wings flared out aggressively, each feather jutting out like needles.

Pyrite held up her free claw at her. "Pleassssse, pony. Give me but a moment here. You can have him back when I have finished."

"My name is Daring. And fine, you can play with him." She snorted, turning around and continuing onward. As an afterthought, she threw over her shoulder "Just know; you break it, you buy it." Echo grimaced. Some sixth sense told him he may be quite literally sleeping in a doghouse tonight. His field of vision was suddenly filled with a row of sharp teeth, rivers of golden fire flickering through the gaps.

Pyrite growled, an impossibly small earthquake in his ears. "Chose your next words very, very carefully, son of earth."

The diamond dog swallowed nervously, trying not to cough. "I... I think once upon a time, you had another friend. A very close one. And that pebble is the only thing you have left to remember them by. What I'm really getting at is... who were they, Pyrite? Who could have left such an incredible impression of friendship upon you that... hundreds of years later, you're willing to drop everything and give it another shot."

Silence. For a moment, he wasn't even sure if she was breathing. Then, she asked in a soft voice, "Why?"

"I want to know who you are, and what shaped you into the person you are today," he said. "I want to thank them for giving me the chance to give you a chance. I think it's important to remember our roots... now matter how deep they stretch."

Surprisingly, though, she helped him up. "They weren't just my friends," she said quietly. "They were family. There were three of us. Myself, Firefly, and her son, Rocket. When I was very, very young... they fished me out of a river. They took me in and cared for me, for I was not well. They... raised me, and confided with me, and shared the wonderful life they had with me. I was not quite a daughter, not quite a sister, but we were family all the same."

"Why were you in a river?" Echo wondered. They had returned to the path. The trees were starting to thin out. Hopefully the end was near.

"I had just been forced from the nest, as all young dragons are. There was a pony outpost near my former home, made of crystal and rock. I felt that I had no need to seek out some dank hole in the ground when a perfectly good dwelling was so close... I attempted to take it, and was sorely defeated." She shook her head. "One whelp against an entire Crystal Empire garrison. I thought I could take on the world. I was wrong. My eyesight was lost to a blast of magefire from one of their unicorns... so I ran. I ran until I fell into a river, after crashing into trees and stumbling through a forest for a full day. I surrendered myself to the current, hoping my worthless corpse might feed some starving predator.

"Instead, before the Last Rest could tighten its grip, Firefly dragged me to the bank. Rocket pumped the water from my lungs while she saw to my wounds." She fumbled with the pebble in her grasp. "This stone shot from my throat when I started breathing again. They kept it... and many years later, as Firefly was laid to rest, Rocket gave this to me, before leaving on a ship to sail across the sea."

Hesitating for a instant, Echo wrapped his arm around her shoulders giving her a squeeze. She flinched at first, but gradually loosened up. "Tell me about them, please."

Pyrite rolled her eyes. A crinkling of a smile formed at the corners of her lips. "Where to begin? Firefly was one of Luna's Folk, a pegasi of the night. She was... very happy, and very vain, but fiercely loving of her family. Her talent was seeing the path ahead... she could fly in pitch darkness, at breakneck speed. She taught me how to see without seeing, as the Nocturni do."

"How do you do that, by the way?" Echo wondered. "Sorry for interrupting, but that's actually been bugging me."

Pyrite shrugged. "I use magical reverberations, issued from around my body at all times. This creates a representation of my immediate surroundings in all directions. It is impossible to sneak up upon me or any nocturni worth their fangs."

"Magical echolocation..." Echo stroked at his chin. It reminded him a great deal of his Starsight technique, but much more effective. "Thank you. Please continue. You were talking about your friend Firefly?"

"Yes," Pyrite agreed. "She eventually passed of old age, surrounded by her family and friends. And... myself." She chuckled. "Now, her son, Rocket; sired by one of Equestria's many guards, took after his father. He was a pegasus of feather and sun. He was very serious, even as a small child, and had a disturbingly fanatical sense of duty to Equestria, but he also had a mean pranking streak that was hard to believe. His talent was, strangely, the fabrication and detonation of celebratory explosives. Fireworks, he called them. He took to the sea in his middle ages, having no wife or child. He was part of an expedition to the unknown continent on the far side of the ocean. Nobody ever saw the ship again. I waited many years, but I came to realize that even if he had survived what fate lay across the sea, he would too have fallen to the passage of time.

"I soon concluded there was nothing holding me, now a fully grown dragon, from returning to the life I would have led. Many decades of conquest and plunder followed, until you found me fat, old, and docile upon a pile of worthless treasure. This is my story. It is not a particularly happy one, like the ones ponies often tell."

"Don't be," growled the dragoness, but giving him a friendly bump. "Thank you, though, for asking."

Pyrite opened her mouth as if to say something, then paused. "I do not know. The Crystal Empire had not yet vanished from the earth. I have slumbered long beneath the earth since I gathered my hoard. It has returned now, yes?"

"Explosively so," Echo's eyes darted side to side. "Thanks to a dragon, I hear. Spike of Ponyville. Name ring any bells?"

At long last, the winding path ended in a clearing where a large red farmhouse stood. The paint still looked new, and even from so far away, Echo could catch the fresh scent of cut wood in the air. This was the place. This is where they would find the Apples of Aappleoosa. And, with luck, the information he needed to make a move against the Dust Devils.

He was expecting a lot of things. Braeburn and his yelling, mostly. Maybe some awkward introductions; diamond dogs running about in pony society was rarely a smooth affair. But he was certainly not expecting a huge picnic taking place in the dying light of the sunset.

"That's three in a row! Nyah-hah-hah, the horseshoes are going mah way tonight, boys!"

Ponies were everywhere. Sitting on blankets, at tables, little foals climbing in the trees, sprawled out in the grass, playing horseshoes, lounging on the farmhouse porch. Standing in the middle of the chaos was the island of calm; Daring Do, speaking to what appeared to be Braeburn and two other ponies, an enormous crimson stallion, and a certain orange mare with apples upon her flanks.

Echo's rear claws suddenly extended, sinking deep into the earth. Standing perfectly still, as if poleaxed, he could not so much as move, even as Pyrite crashed into his backside with a quiet "Oof!" He watched. He saw Daring conversing heatedly with the three. They occasionally threw glances his way. Every time they so much as looked in his direction he felt as though his heart would give out. He was a deer caught in the headlights.

She followed his wide-eyed stare. "Really? Behind the three-story sculpture or near the pillar of fire?"

"No, she's---" Echo suddenly paused. He glared. "Why do you feel the need to do that?"

After a moment of silence, Pyrite pressed, "I can sense three ponies talking to your pegasus wench. Is the male with the hat this Jack of Apples? Is he some important pony diplomat?"

"That's Braeburn. Applejack is the mare. She... she is one of the Elements of Harmony. A very powerful group of ponies. They banished the spirit of Nightmare Moon, imprisoned -- then reformed -- Discord, stood against Sombra, and sent Tirek back to the slimy pit from whence he came." His face contorted into something between awe and panic.

"That is a disturbingly impressive amount of power," Pyrite murmured. "Even I cowered before the might of Discord. Best we not aggravate her."

"She shot them all up with the almighty rainbow friendship cannon," said Echo with trembling tones. "Best pony don't fuck around."

Echo nodded. "There's only one other pony that scares me more than an Element of Harmony..."

GINGER SNAP

"Nyyrrrreauuughhh!" Ginger dived to the side at the last second, her sword cleaving through the air behind her. Slash! The charging minotaur was hamstrung, and plowed facefirst into the frozen ground of the cave, axe clattering to the ground beside him. "Hyyyeeaa!" Screeching, she catapulted herself up high with a thrust of the earth, coming down squarely between the shoulderblades of the toppled giant and stabbing deeply into the back of the neck. The foe gurgled once, before laying still.

Armor scored and dented in a dozen places, cut and bruised countless times, mane and tail flickering like fire in the gloom, Ginger Snap appeared as a creature straight from Tartarus. Her eyes glowed a savage green, and her horn sparked dangerously. Wheezing, she surveyed the cave they had camped in for the night, before the ambush had occurred. Now littered with still bodies and trampled supplies, it was a heaving mess of havoc as more gladiators were attracted to the sound of open conflict.

Nearby, she saw little Zanza riding the back of Vixen the diamond dog, lashing out with a flail she'd found somewhere as the diamond dog whirled around like a dervish, spewing carnage and gore with every flick of her knives. "Why! Do! You! Guys! Want! To! Kill! Us! So! Bad!?" The filly shrieked, punctuating each cry with a lash of barbed metal from the flail. Her furry biped steed lunged, grappling with a pegasus that had been too slow to evade, savaging her throat even as Zanza clubbed at anything that came to close. Behind them, a menacing shape loomed.

Ginger's horn ignited once again, a weary spear of light in the darkness. "Hrrraaak!" She wrenched the massive axe once grasped by mighty fingers and telekinetically hurled it like a buzz saw of death. It spiraled through the air at a sickening speed, before staving in the chest of Roaman that was looming over Vixen.

"Thank you, Cindercorn!" crowed the diamond dog as she whirled from ripping open the neck of the pegasus foe to gut the poleaxed pony with her knives. "But kill blow is mine, that makes twenty two!"

A gout of fire struck down a mangy-looking diamond dog that had tried pouncing on her with her back turned. "Twenty five!" came Ginger's reply.

They battled through the cave, out onto one of the many bridges that spanned the width of the sunken Arena. Out in the open, Ginger cut loose with the elements, slicing ropes and leather with blasts of frigid wind, puncturing armor and shields with spears of ice wrenched from the walls of the pit, scorching and incinerating any who stood before her with powerful flames that sprouted from her horn.

It was not often that Ginger Snap could let herself throw around her full power. In terms of magical strength, she punched far above her weight, inheriting a crushingly intense telekinesis from her smithing mother, Ruby Glow, and a deep elemental connection from her father, Frost Snap. Like all unicorns in the Snap lineage, she was attuned to her own chosen element more than all others: Pyromancy! But she had made it a point to master all of them. Now she wielded these as proficiently as her bloodspattered sword, which she proceeded to set on fire because sweet Celestia she looked cool with a flaming sword.

This was a good time to see what she could do if she truly unleashed herself, she thought, elementally seizing the rock of their former cave and ripping it apart, collapsing the cave and burying any who dared to follow. All those years of training to control herself, to reign in her power! And for what? To meekly subscribe to her father's shadow!? She was twice the mage he ever was! She let out everything. All the frustration of watching her father slowly succumb to madness. All the grief of losing Cloud Nine. All the rage at an unfair world for taking away the mother of a little filly. All the fear of letting that happen to Zanza. Every ounce of repressed emotion bubbled forth from deep within the unicorn and made her veins sing with magic, and by the gods did it feel good.

Ginger's coat turned white hot. Her flickering mane and tail became tinged with hot blue at the bases. Snow and ice began to melt in her presence, and the wooden planks of the bridge they stood upon turned black wherever she set hoof. Her eyes streamed eerie green light. A pair of flaming wings erupted from her sides, and with these she punched out, columns of pure inferno destroying anything that dared raise a blade to her wrath.

"I swear, if I get out of this," she cried as they battled through an unending barbarian horde. "I am going to murder him! I am going to murder him so hard! I'm gonna learn necromancy so I can bring him back from the other side, and after his body has been destroyed an uncountable number of times and he knows only the horrible reality of suffering I will raise from Tartarus itself! I'm gonna bind his soul to an outhouse and the rest of his existence will be spent eating the shit of the nation I will found on his stinking! Rotting! Flea-bitten corpse!" None could stand before her for long, succumbing to her dancing arcanite sword and elemental fury.

"Am I gonna get traumatized from this?" Zanza worriedly called from the back of her steed.

"All the trauma!" Vixen cheered, scratching her affectionately with a bloodstained paw.

Ginger snarled over her shoulder, "I warned you, kid! You buckin' asked for this! Be a big girl and crack some skulls, now would ya!?"

Daring Do and Echo

Daring rubbed at the bridge of her muzzle. "Thanks for believing me, Applejack. We've had some pretty rough welcomes before. I'm glad you're willing to at least give us a chance."

Applejack chuckled. "Well, yer darn welcome! Any friend of Rainbow's is a friend of mine! As long as they don't cause no trouble, Ah think we'll get along just fine. Ya'll were just lucky to show up when ya did; the Apple Family Reunion happens only once a year!" She glanced over at the edge of the yard, where a large clearing had formed as Apples began to notice the tall diamond dog and dragon standing in their midst. The dragon was busy poking the diamond dog in the stomach. There were some murmurs, but many had noticed Big Mac and herself talking to the newcomer, and realized the situation was being handled. "Still, though, if it weren't for the rumors we've been gettin' up from down south, Ah might not have even listened to ya. Them Dust Devils have been terrorizin' Braeburn's farm for weeks, now. Far as Ah'm concerned, all diamond dogs are bad news."

Daring waved her hoof dismissively. "Nah, the big guy wouldn't hurt an ant if he could help it. Good with foals, too. Pyrite's a bitch, but Echo won't let her act up too much." She snorted. "Jeez, now if Ginger were here, that'd be a riot."

"She's the one in charge of ya'll, right?" Applejack frowned. "The... uhm..." she struggled.

"That's what Ah meant. Ya said she's off in Roam with the rest o' yer kin... so what are ya'll doin' here in Aappleoosa?"

Daring shrugged. "No clue. Echo here figures he can help out with your Dust Devil problem and further our own cause at the same time. He's the brains," she smirked, "I'm just here to look hot and kick flank. Why don't you ask him?"

"Why do you not answer her summons?" Pyrite prodded at his rear paws, which were still locked into the ground

Sure enough, Applejack was weaving her way through the crowd that had gathered around them. Big Macintosh and Daring Do were trotting close behind. Daring was smirking something heavy. Big Macintosh was Big Macintosh.

Applejack strode right up to him. Somehow, even though she barely came up to his chest, he felt as if he were being scrutinized from a great height, like an insect under a magnifying glass. She tentatively put a hoof out."Howdy there, pardner!"

Pyrite shook her hoof next. "Hello, Jacker of the Apples. I am Pyrite, Scourge of the Southern Continent and Envy of the Dragonlands. Please do not destroy me with your friendship weapon." She smiled.

On one hand, they were some of the most invasively curious ponies he'd ever met. After being fanned awake on the porch by a few of the elder mares, he was swamped by questions and curious foals, who climbed all over him, dangling from his shoulders and perching between his tufted ears. One even opened up his mouth to get an up close look of his teeth! Echo answered questions as fast as he could and all the foals piled atop him spoke as his voice. Which was funny, because each one of them had a different interpretation of what he said. He showed them magic tricks, not real unicorn magic, but the magic of the earth; making flowers bloom with a snap of his paw, identifying gems by taste, using starsight to catch things tossed at him from behind, sending sparkles out of tips of his spinning staff, making his eyes shine like bright pink searchlights, drawing animals in the air with his ghostly claws and sending them prancing around until the fireflies came out. He even managed to breathe pink fire, a trick that he'd been practicing in private for a while.

On the other, the Apples were probably the nicest, most welcoming ponies Echo had ever encountered. Not ten minutes after he'd finished entertaining them, he found himself sitting at a very large table with a very large number of ponies, each of which Braeburn could somehow introduce with a never ending list of apple-related names.

"That there's Apple Cider, Apple Core, Pumkpin Apple, Apple Crisp, that little filly is Hard Cider --- don't know why her folks named her that -- Apple Crisp, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Apple Strudel, Apple Crumble Red Gala... and this huge lug here is my cousin, Big Macintosh!"

Even though Echo was sitting down at the table, he still had to look up to meet the scarlet giant's eye. Big Macintosh. The stallion, the tank, the legend, the fountain of pure masculinity. Echo's jaw hit the table, flinging a spoonful of applesauce at one of the foals, who immediately kicked the foal sitting next to him, and a scuffle erupted farther down the table.

"Don't mind him, he's just a really big fan of yours," said Daring, "and kind of a goofball."

"Not too often we get travelin' types like yerselves around here. Luckily, yer just in time for the Apple Family Reunion. It's Braeburn's first year hosting!" Applejack gave her cousin a smile.

"I've made sure to prepare food for any occasion!" Braeburn proudly announced. "The princesses themselves could show up and I'd have somethin' to serve."

Pyrite flashed her teeth. "Got anything from a spit, seared and dripping with juices?"

Applejack leaned across the table and flipped the lid of her hat up. "That a challenge?"

Suddenly, a skewer of fruit was held under her nose. "Apple kebab," said Braeburn with smirk.

"I've never had apples before," said Pyrite, frowning slightly. Gently, she plucked off a slice from the stick and popped it in her mouth. For a moment, silence, as the whole table quieted to witness the first tasting of an Apple Family Apple.

Pyrite chewed, swallowed, and dabbed at her lips with a napkin. Calmly, she folded her claws and said, "I think I can see flavor now."

Crickets chirped into the still night air. Above, the stars flickered while the moon hung low on the horizon, a silvery white dewdrop. There was not a cloud in the sky, but a gentle breeze caressed the fur of the diamond dog sitting outside under the starlight. In a nearby tree, golden scales coiled into themselves as a dragoness slumbered lightly.

Calmly, Echo lay upon his back, arms folded behind his head. A crystal cigar hung from his lip, faintly streaming smoke.

He tried to ignore the presence that had crept up behind him for some time, but it was growing harder and harder. He wasn't sure what he would say to her. Or if he should say anything, really. He did not have to wait much longer, though, because a familiar rasp whispered in his ear.

"Hi." Daring Do sat down next to where he lay. She glanced at him, he glanced at her, and they both looked away. "Look, um," Daring tried, "I've been thinking."

Bad thinking? his thoughts gently caressed her mind. She shivered, more from link than anything. It'd been a few days since they'd used it.

"No, come on, dude. Don't be like that, I'm trying to have a heart to heart here." Daring grumbled, prodding at a furry shoulder with her hoof. "Look, I'm sorry I've been kind of a... a not a very nice pony today. I've been trying to sort out a lot. And... it's not entirely bad, okay?"

He uncoiled himself. It took a while. There was a lot of him. Eventually, he sat cross-legged by her side, the pair of them unable to meet the other's gaze so they stared together at the moon.

"I want... this... us... to work," said Daring. "I really do. You are a part of me, as much as I am a part of you now, and for better or worse, we're kinda stuck like that." She shuffled uncomfortably. "We make a good team, don't we?"

Daring soldiered on. "But... we aren't perfect. No couple is. I mean, we're really, really, weird. A telepathic Outlander in skin of a diamond dog, and a kleptomaniacal archaeologist-slash-writer past her prime. That stuff could make a pretty good story. But we have our problems. And lately, we've been having more problems than solutions."

Daring let the silence stew between them for a bit, trying to get a read on him. Their link let her get dim impressions of his thoughts and feelings if she tried. The sliver of a connection in her mind only conveyed the sense of loss and sorrow. She sighed. This must have really been tearing the big guy up on the inside, but he was always too much of a stoic introvert than for his own good.

"No, stop," Daring pleaded, meeting his gaze for the first time that night. "Just listen. You've hurt me, Echo. Pretty bad, too. I knew from the start there was something strange about you. And whenever I tried asking about it, you just... evaded my questions, or gave me little white lies. And... that wasn't really what you did wrong. I get the need for privacy, I do! Sometimes ponies have things they just don't want to talk about." She sighed. "Its the fact that you didn't trust me enough to know. We're literally bound at the soul, and still, you wouldn't even tell me where you were from. We've shared some strange, indescribable things together, but never that. For whatever reason, you didn't think I was capable of handling the truth. I felt it. Whenever I even came close to the subject --- panic --- and then you crushed it with other thoughts.

"And it was only when you had no other choice, did you finally tell me. When I knew for certain you weren't what you appeared to be. Because whatever you were, was starting to come into me."

Staring deep into his eyes, she remembered the cave. She remembered Pyrite, head bowed and asking for mercy, in her own way.

She remembered the wrath. The anger. The righteous bloodthirst that instilled every fiber of her being to crush the threat, drive it away, burn it and kick it and stomp it down until it was nothing more than a smudge on the floor.

She remembered striking him to the floor in a rage that had spiraled into something rather un-equine.

She remembered the look of fear, of recognition of her actions. Of the fact that it had become too late.

"It was a two-way street. I... was scared of what you were hiding. I realized that if it was so huge that you couldn't even share it with me, than... nopony could know. I... started to make excuses for things, whenever you wouldn't let me in. I thought that if I never found out, it'd never be a problem, and I tried to ignore it as best as I could, but..." Daring dragged a hoof through the grass. "You aren't the only one who keeps things inside, you know," she said bitterly. "See how it turns out? You couldn't trust me, I couldn't trust myself. How bucked up are we?"

A faint sniffle from inside his hood. Daring started, now looking at him in shock. "Echo, are you crying?"

Echo reached up into his hood and wiped at his face, rapidly shaking his head from side to side. He froze when a dusky wing wrapped around his side and pulled him close. Daring held him as he forced the small little shakes his body made to go away.

He hesitated. But the look on her face was too much to bear. A massive paw gently pressed a finger to the side of her head.

There was a flash inside both of their minds, and suddenly they weren't in a starlit apple grove anymore.

There was some kind of fleshy, twisted thing sitting where Echo had been, wrapped in his green robe. Daring did not flinch away. It looked like some kind of mix between pony, and diamond dog, and other. It's shape constantly shifted, as if it couldn't make up its mind as to what it wanted to settle on. She pulled back the hood. "Who are you, Echo?"

The face that gazed back at her was of the palamino earth pony. It looked so much like him, handsome and lean, with those soulful grey eyes and the wide scar across his neck. A split second later, a pale, hairless visage peered in its place. The eyes, the scar, it was still him.

She pressed their foreheads together. "Then you need to trust me. We are a team. You are my best friend, Echo. I will set you back on the right track, if you catch me when I fall." He spasmed, becoming brown and furry, fangs glinting. She did not pull away.

"I'm scared," he said. "Of losing what makes me what I am. I'm scared that, what I once was is slowly leaving me, and I don't know what is filling up the spaces. Every day, I lose a little more. Names, places, little memories of my life. And when that's all gone... who will be left? Will it still be me?"

Daring smiled. "It suits you." She closed her eyes, and planted a light kiss upon his forehead. When she opened them again, they were back in the apple grove, stars pulsing high above. The cooling night air swirled around them once more, and sound of crickets chirping pleasantly filled her ears.

The diamond dog remained with his head bowed low to the ground as she pulled away.

"When you've sorted yourself out... come to me," Daring said. "And we can try again." Turning around was one of the hardest things she'd done in her life, but she left him there in the grass, marching resolutely towards the farmhouse, where Applejack had put her up for the night.

"I know," she said. "I love you, Echo." And with that, she vanished into the house.

Echo sat alone on the small hill in the apple orchard. Above him, the stars swirled, and a sudden breeze shifted the tree branches around. He wrapped his robe about himself, shivering slightly, before picking his staff up from the ground where he had lain it. He traced a finger across the mystical zebra runes.

In the farmhouse kitchen, Applejack blinked the sleep from her eyes as a few aunts and uncles sat around the table with her. Big Macintosh was working at the stove, the first of many flapjacks sizzling on a griddle. There were many mouths to feed.

Braeburn cantered in. Cheerfully. Too cheerfully, Applejack thought, for this time of day.

"Haven't bothered to look," Applejack muttered. "They don't seem like the kind of folk who get up this early."

Braeburn shrugged. "Well, they're gone. The pegasi's room is tidied up, and Apple Core found a sackful of sapphires on the front porch this morning." He reached into his vest and removed a solid blue gem the size of his hoof. "I think our money troubles are gonna be a thing of the past!"

"That's a half an orchard in yer hoof, Brae," Applejack gasped, rubbing her face. "Ya mean ta tell me they just left those fer us? Fer one night's fee?"

Applejack sat back in her chair. "Whoa." She turned her head. "Mac, did'ja see them off?"

"And did'ja give em the supplies they're gonna be needin'? Point them in the right direction?"

In the lead, a dusky pegasus, whip coiled tightly around one wing, saddlebags swaying on her hips. Forever following, a tall, lanky diamond dog, green hood raised to cast his face in shadow as he plodded along with staff in paw. In the rear, a visibly-relaxed golden dragoness, her long, swan-like neck craned to peer at the passing countryside.

Daring Do checked the map the big red stallion had given her. "We're about a mile away from the den now. Should expect to run into a party of Dust Devils any time now."

Level Up!- Echo Ghostclaws, Beta of the Cinderwings + Dr. Daring Do, PhD.
-Perk: Honor Bound (II): (+10 gentleman, +10 stubborn) Your code of chivalry keeps you on the moral high ground. Whether it's murder or mayhem or falling debris, you're more than likely to make a totally gallant fool of yourself.
-Perk: The Hard Road: (+25 spirit, +10 stamina) Relationships are never easy. But they can be worth fighting for. Don't give up on yourself, Fluffy. Her belief in you makes you stronger than ever.
-Skill Upgraded: Starsight(II): Lady Pyrite's discussions of nocturni (batpony) echolocation techniques had inspired you remaster your technique. Starsight is now twice as effective, has twice the range, and adds the effect of slowing down time for the user to 75% normal speed.
-Perk: Featherbrain: (+30 charisma to party members) Daring, you aren't so good with words, but you've learned the art of getting your point across anyway. You receive a chance to unlock special character interactions when you talk to them!
-Perk: Embracing Your Inner Soulbound Interdimensional Hybrid, a Novel by Twilight Sparkle: (+10 all stats when you lose control!) There's something stirring inside of you, and it doesn't like not being able to breathe. Watch yourself, Daring. It doesn't think like a pony. This one could get you into trouble.

Level Up! - Lady Pyrite, (she of too many titles)
-Perk: Nocturni Echolocation: (immunity to abmush/stealth attacks, +15 speed bonus in dark places) Batman ain't got nothin' on the Lady P. She's been rockin' the Toph-vision for the past eleven centuries. Witty blind-people jokes are to be expected.
-Perk: Dragon(II): (+50 awesome) Still a fucking dragon, still fucking awesome. Like, literally, folks, this is a thing.
Ally Gained!- The Apple Family
-Perk: Buck You, We Can Eat All These Apples! (Unlocked Apple Family Safehouses! Apple-based product discount activated!) Your act of kindess as secured you a place of honor beside any Apple Family hearth. If you're ever on the run, they'll take you in for a few days. They'll also let the bits go a few extra miles when it comes time to purchase some Apple-grade pastry weaponry.

The Legend of Echo the Diamond Dog

by Rust

[II - Eighth] Be Honest