Chapter V
Brawl of the Diamond Dogs
As Roxas got into his fighting stance, he noticed how the three diamond dogs started circling around him. As this was happening, Sunset was away from the dogs and Roxas started to think of a way to contact help. The idea suddenly came to her as she turned around towards Philomena. Sunset used her magic to summon a pencil and paper and wrote down a note that she tied to the phoenix's leg.
"Philomena, I need you to go back to Ponyville and find Twilight and give her this note," Sunset said.
"Do you understand, Philomena?"
Philomena then screeched in confirmation.
"Good, now go get Twilight." Sunset said. The phoenix started to flap its wings as it started to fly high in the sky trying to get it's way back to Ponyville to get help.
As the diamond dogs got closer to Roxas, Fido started to run towards him with claws jutting out and made a swipe towards Roxas. Roxas quickly evaded the attack and bashed his key blades into the dog which caused the dog to tumble to the ground in a daze. The other two thought it would be a good idea to double team Roxas. They both started lunging one attack after another at Roxas. Roxas was quickly dodging and blocking the attacks with his key blades. He evaded the attacks and started to get a little distance away from the two dogs.
"There has to be an opening somewhere," Roxas said as he tried to find a way to land a hit onto the dogs. He stood there for a few seconds and started thinking as a sudden realization came to play for him. It was a stretch, but he had no choice.
"Hey," Roxas said to the diamond dogs, "You want my key blades so badly, then you can have them!" Roxas threw his keyblades to the diamond dogs feet and both of them proceeded to pick one up. Sunset started looking at Roxas bewildered by what he had done.
"Roxas, are you insane?!" Sunset said surprised at the actions he made.
Roxas smiled back at Sunset, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." He then turned around to the dogs and started running full sprint.
Both diamond started laughing at Roxas.
"This guy is such an idiot!" Spot said jeeringly.
"You fool, do you really think that you can beat us now that we have your swords," Rover said.
Roxas was up close and personal to the diamond dogs and the dogs decided to swing the key blades at Roxas as he was in their vicinity. Sunset was watching this and thought how this plan was not going to end well, but she nor the diamond dogs didn't expect for the key blades to disappear out of the dogs' hands and back into Roxas's.
"Oh, I think I can," Roxas said as he started laying down hit after hit onto the diamond dogs until he finished with a sideways slash that caused the dogs to hit the trunk of a tree so hard that the leaves fell off of the tree and onto the heads of the two diamond dogs.
"Some plan you had there," Sunset said sarcastically.
"Your sarcasm is noted, besides I didn't see you coming up with anything," Roxas said.
"I could've helped you stopped them," Sunset said confidently.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't have, because someone was too busy talking to their bird," Roxas said.
"Philomena is not just a bird, she's a phoenix," Sunset said as if she was insulted that Roxas referred the royal pet as just a bird.
"Whatever, the point is, I came up with a quick plan, that worked, and I did it by myself, no help needed," Roxas said.
"So, how about we take our gems and head back to Ponyville, I've had just about enough of those dogs to last a lifetime," Roxas said.
"Fine, I still would have made a better plan," Sunset said purposely getting under Roxas's skin.
"Sigh, are you going to be on this the entire walk back," Roxas said.
"Maybe I will, maybe I won't, we'll just have to walk and see."
"First Twilight and now you, add another girl to the list who likes to get her way," Roxas said.
As they started walking away Rover got up and started yelling at them.
"Do you think that we are some game for you to play!?" Roxas and Sunset stopped to look back and see the diamond dog standing.
"We will stop you, take your gems, and hunt you down!" The diamond dog then proceeded to pull out a whistle and started to sound off. Everything was quiet, until the ground started shaking and holes started coming out of the ground to show other diamond dogs with helmets on their head and spears in their hand. Anyone could tell that they were the grunts, and there were a lot of them. Enough for a militia. After a few seconds passes, Roxas and Sunset saw were completely surround by nothing but diamond dogs.
"Hey Sunset," Roxas said.
"Yeah?"
"You still want to help me out?"
"I'd thought you'd never ask." Sunset's hands were then enveloped in her magic aura getting ready to launch an attack at any of her enemies, and Roxas had summoned his key blades once again to face against now an army of diamond dogs. Sunset would not admit it, but she was actually scared of having to fight this many enemies at once, but being near Roxas made it easier for her to stay focused, knowing that she wasn't alone.
"Philomena, I hope you're close to Twilight," Sunset said in her mind. After a few seconds of a stand still, the diamond dogs started to rush forward and for Roxas and Sunset it was now a state of survival for them to fight back against their many foes for if they showed on inch of weakness, it would be all over.
****
As Philomena flies back to Ponyville she starts searching every inch of the town in order to find Twilight until she happens to collide into someone with full force causing her to fall down to the ground in a dazed position. She quickly recovered herself and looked to see who she had flew into. Coincidentally, it just happened to be Twilight. Philomela started to stretch wildly at Twilight trying to inform of the trouble that the others were in.
"Philomena, is there something wrong," Twilight asked as the bird kept on screeching. She then looked at the phoenix's leg as saw a piece of parchment tied to it. "Is that a letter?" Twilight untied the letter from Philomena and began reading it.
"Twilight we need your help, Roxas and I are at the gem ground, and diamond dogs came and started attacking us. Please come quickly, I don't know how long we can last."
Signed,
Sunset
Twilight was in shock from what the topic of the letter. From her friends in danger to the diamond dogs attacking again, she knew that this wasn't good. "I've got to go save them,but I can't go by myself," Twilight contemplated. Twilight then had an idea come to her mind, she knew who she would bring to fight the diamond dogs, and she started running to the boutique with Philomena right behind her.
****
Sora couldn't take anymore, from answering the kids many questions, to watching the cat to make sure that it doesn't try to rip his face off, he could honestly say that this wasn't the greatest time for him.
"I told you already, he's a duck that knows how to use magic because he is the royal magician of the castle," Sora breathed staring at the three girls."
"And, his name is Donald," Scootaloo said questioningly.
"And, ya have another friend named Goofy," Applebloom said.
"Yeah, he's the captain of the royal guards at the castle," Sora said as if he was speaking things that a normal person would say.
"And, you have a friend, who's a mouse, who's a also the king of the castle," Sweetiebelle said as she looked at Sora confirmation.
"Exactly, and his name is Mickey," Sora said.
The girls looked at him as if everything he said to them were all lies.
"You don't believe me at all do you," Sora said as he slumped his head down. The girls simply shook their head no. Rarity then walked into the room, joining the conversation.
"Honestly Sora, it is hard to believe that something like that exists.
"Sigh, would you believe if I told you that I fought a Hydra," Sora said to the girls.
The girls did a big gasp as they started barraging him with questions about it, instantly believing in him this time.
"I just don't understand," Sora said to himself. As the cmc kept asking him questions there was sudden knock at the door and Rarity was the one to open it. As she opened she saw a panting Twilight trying to catch her breath with Philomena flying over her.
"Twilight, Philomena, care to come inside, Sora is telling some riveting fairytales to the kids," Rarity said.
"They're not fairytales, they're true," Sora shouted. As Twilight started to regain her breath, she began telling Rarity the problem.
"Rarity......Sunset and Roxas.......trouble.....diamond dogs," Twilight panted out to Rarity. As rarity heard the words she immediately became alarmed from the situation that they faced.
"Diamond dogs, I can't believe those brute would try to attack our friends again," Rarity said angrily. "We must go help them."
"Sora, we need your help too," Twilight said regaining her breath back.
"Diamond dogs huh, well, a fight beats babysitting any day," Sora said with a smile. "So, where are we going exactly?"
Twilight motioned the two to follow her out the boutique, "We're going to a gem grounds and Philomena is going to guide us back there, but when we get there,we need to be ready for anything."
"Roger," Sora said saluting to Twilight.
"Pardon me Twilight, but how are we going to get there," Rarity asked. In her sudden burst of worry, Twilight forgot about how they were going to get to the ground in time to save their friends.
"Wait, I have an idea," Sora said as he screamed into the sky, "CARPET!"
"Um, Sora, pardon me, but did you just say, carpet," Rarity said confused on what Sora had just said a few seconds ago.
"Yeah, I have a flying magic carpet that we can sit on while we follow Philomena," Sora said to the girls.
Twilight looked at Sora with very little trust in her eyes, "Sora, there is no way a carpet is capable of flight nor can it hold up a person."
As Twilight said this a carpet came flying by above her and landed right in front of Sora leaving her speechless as she just looked in surprise. Sora then petted the carpet and it allowed him to get on.
"Come on, you guys, there's no time to lose," Sora said as he held out his hands for both of the girls to grab onto the carpet. With the time to save their friends diminishing, the girls quickly grabbed Sora's hands and made their way onto the magic carpet.
"You can lead us now Philomena," Sora said. Philomena nodded her head and started flying towards the direction of Roxas and Sunset. The magic carpet quickly started following the phoenix so that they could save their friends.
"I hope we're not too late," Sora said.
****
One after the other, a diamond dog grunt would strike at Roxas only to be forcefully knocked back by his key blades. Another grunt came up to Roxas and launched a series of punches trying his hardest to make contact, but Roxas was blocking each attack with his key blades. One punch was able to break Roxas's guard and leave him open for an attack. The grunt saw this opening and launched another punch towards Roxas. Seeing the attack and not having enough time to react, Roxas was just a painted target for the grunt to attack. Roxas prepared for the worst, but what he didn't expect to come was a green blast of energy that would hit the face of the attacking diamond dog forcing it to fall to the ground in pain. Roxas, surprised at what he just saw, looked around and saw Sunset with her hands surrounded by a magical green aura. Sunset then used her magic to levitate the grunt and in an instant she launched the dog back into a hole. As Roxas got his footing back, he was surprised to see how well Sunset was actually handling herself in a fight.
"Hmph, not bad," Roxas said.
"Told you I can help," Sunset said with a smirk on her face.
"Hey, don't want to ruin your confidence but there seems to be more heading right for us," Roxas said as he looked over to see the three original diamond dogs and their grunts charging at them with spears in hand. Sunset and Roxas looked at each other with devious smiles as they both prepared for the battle.
Roxas charged at them armed with his key blades. As Roxas got closer to the pack of enemies, the tallest diamond dog tried to lunge his spear at Roxas, but Roxas caught the spear between his arm and his side and jerked it out of the hands of the diamond dog. He used this opportunity to attack the weaponless dog, but the other diamond dogs blocked Roxas's way through. To give Roxas a helping hand, Sunset decided to use her magic to push the diamond dogs out of Roxas's way long enough to get a view of the leader. Rover was starting to become angry from how the odds were against him.
"That insolent girl!" Rover said.
As Roxas was fighting off the diamond dogs, the tall diamond dog started thinking of a plan to get the jump on the keyblader. When he had thought of the idea he couldn't hold back the sinister smile that was plastered onto his face. He went over to one other grunt and started giving him orders.
"The girl, I want you to stop the girl" he said. The grunt saluted to him and went underground, digging towards Sunset. The grunt had dug right behind her and quickly rose from the ground. Before Sunset could react, the grunt had put her in a master lock, and unable to use her magic and completely defenseless she did the only thing she could do.
"Roxas, help!" Sunset screamed. Roxas stopped his fighting and turned around to see Sunset in her predicament. As he started running towards to save her, Roxas was dealt with a hard punch to his side causing him to fall down to the ground. Roxas looked up to see who his attacker was and it was Fido, the big dog from before. Roxas struggled trying to get back up on his feet.
"Heh, is that all you go-" was all Roxas could say before he kneeled over in pain from the attack, using oath keeper as a way to balance himself so that he would not fall completely to the ground. Rover then confronted Roxas in his downed state and maliciously smiled and laughed at him.
"This is the end for you boy," The diamond dog leader said and he snapped his fingers together and was handed a spear from a grunt.
"Bring the magic user over her, she will witness the death of her friend first hand," Rover demanded. The diamond dog grunt then forcefully brought Sunset over to where Roxas was down. Despite her struggling to get free, she could not escape the grasp of the diamond dog grunt. All she could do was look at how Roxas was kneeled over about to face his demise.
Rover pulled the spear back and immediately lunged it towards Roxas. Sunset couldn't handle the situation so she closed her eyes not wanting to see what was about to happen to Roxas. Roxas tried his best to move, but he was in too much pain. As the spear came closer and closer, the chance of Roxas escaping was getting slim, until something had blocked the spear from hitting Roxas. In front of Roxas was the Kingdom Key which had been thrown into the ground, ultimately stopping and breaking the spear.
"No way, it can't be," Roxas said mesmerized by the sight of the Kingdom Key right in front of him at this moment.
"And you talked about how could do better, speak for yourself Roxas," A remembering voice said. Roxas looked up and a flying carpet above his head with three friends on top of it.
"Sora?" Roxas said surprised to see him here.
"That's my name," Sora said nonchalantly. "And, I brought some friends along," he said as he pointed towards Twilight and Rarity.
"Man, am I glad to see you guys right now, I could really some help."
"You shouldn't be so easily distracted!" Rover said as he started charging towards Roxas with another spear. Seeing this, Sora jumped from the magic carpet and in a split second before he touched the ground, he summoned his key blade to his hand and parried the attack leaving an opening on the diamond dog, and Sora used this opening to his advantage and did a three hit combo on the dog causing him to fly back.
"I don't know who you are and I don't care, but nobody hurts my friends no matter what!" Sora said with a serious demeanor.
During this, Twilight saw Sunset being held by the diamond dog and decided to use her magic to attack the dog and save Sunset. A beam of magic shot from Twilight's hand and it hit the dog dead in the face causing him to let go of Sunset and Sunset then used her magic to launch the dog into the sky.
"That's what you get," Sunset said while looking where she had launched the diamond dog.
The magic carpet had landed near Sunset, and Twilight and Rarity got off of it. Sunset tried waving to them to get there attention but her for some reason was in pain.
"Sunset, darling, are you okay, did those diamond dogs hurt you," Rarity said in a worrisome tone.
"No, I'm fine, it's just that diamond dog really had a tight grip around my arms and it's just a little pain, but they really hurt Roxas while he was fighting them.
"No problem," Twilight said. "I'll just use a healing spell to get you two back well again, but while I do that, Rarity, I'll need you to protect us while I get them back well.
"Absolutely," Rarity agreed.
"Alright then, let's go!" Twilight said as they initiated their plan.
A few diamond dog grunts started to walk up on Sora as they had saw him attack their leader and were rightfully mad at him.
"You guys want to fight huh, then let's go-" Sora was stopped by Rarity as she cut him off of his sentence.
"Oh that's alright Sora brute force won't be necessary this time," Rarity said as she stepped in front of him.
"Oh...... okay then," Sora said dumbfounded by Rarity's comment.
"Oh no, it's her again," one of the diamond dogs said. "Did she really have to come back?"
"Sounds like they already know you," Sora said.
"I had a... complication not too long ago and let's just say, they're not entirely too happy about the outcome," Rarity said. "Well, let's get this started shall we?" Rarity used her magic to create a force field around her and her friends so that they would be safe from the diamond dogs attacks as Twilight healed Roxas's and Sunset's injuries. Sora looked at the two girls and saw how well they both worked together. He saw how well they controlled their magic and how calm and collected they were. Seeing them reminded him of Merlin and Yensid. They both really showed.........Wisdom.
Sora stopped dead in his tracks in a gulf of light enveloped his whole body for a few seconds. While this happen, everybody else sat back and stared at what was happening to Sora. When the light stopped, the first thing that everyone noticed was his change in clothes. His clothes had changed color from black to blue with his shorts also adapting blue flames to it. He was holding his key blade backhand as well. Everyone was in awe of his transformation. They were so surprised that they didn't notice that the magic shield was going down.
"What, what's going on, my magic's gone," Rarity said.
"This can't be, my magic's gone too," Twilight said surprised at the occurrence.
"It might be because I'm in Wisdom Form," Sora said to the girls.
"Wisdom Form?" Both the girls said.
"I'll tell you later but right now," Sora then looked at the diamond dogs, "I have to handle something."
"Ho hum,so you just changed the color of your clothes so what?" Rover said as the rest of the diamond dogs laughed at his comment.
Sora pointed his key blade out and blue magic started swirling around him. He then shot his magic at the diamond dogs and this caused for a few of them to fall back. Sora smirked at knowing that this battle was in his favor, he then dashed towards them and stood proudly in front of them. The diamond dogs surrounded him and they attacked Sora at once. As they did this, Sora put his hands out beside him.
"Reflect!" Sora said as magical barriers of light started to surround him. As the diamond dogs came into contact with the barrier, they were hit with sprays of light that forced them to back away from Sora. Then,in a instant, Sora started running around the diamond dogs faster and faster until it appeared as if he was sliding on the ground.
"What is he doing?" Rover said.
"Whatever he's doing, it's making me dizzy," Fido said as he started stumbling around the other diamond dogs.
Electricity started to surge around Sora as he summoned his key blade and pointed it towards the sky.
Sora shouted the word, "Thunder!" and a series of thunderbolts came to shock the helpless diamond dogs.
The rest of the girls just stood back and saw how much magical prowess that Sora had. To the girls, it was surprising to say the least.
As Sora finished his thunder attacks on the diamond dogs, his magic started to surge around his body.
"This next move, I learned from a friend," Sora said. He made his key blade vanish and only used his hands for this move. Sora snapped his fingers and a blast of magical energy hit a few more diamond dogs. "Oh, and by the way, he's a duck." He then started hitting all the dogs with the magical attack until he was ready for the coup de grace. Sora then charged his magic for one final attack.
"It's time for you to go, Comet Rain!" Sora shouted as a ring of magical energy circled the diamond dogs and barraged them with magical attacks over and over again. Sora summoned his key blade and charged up a magic shot and fired at the diamond dogs. This caused the diamond dogs to fly into the sky and fall back into the holes from where they came.
"Good riddance," Sora said. As the battle finished, Sora started walking back to Roxas, and the girls.
"Are you guys alright?" Sora said calmingly despite the battle that he had just faced.
All the girls were so dumbfounded by Sora's display of magic that they literally sat there with open jaws.
"I'm just going to assume that you're okay," Sora said. He then turned to look at Roxas who was still in pain from the earlier fight.
"Well, while I'm in this form I might as well use cure," Sora said as he summoned the spell and used it to heal Roxas of his wounds.
"Thanks," Roxas said quietly, almost ashamed that he was not able to handle that situation without the aid of Sora and friends.
"No problem," Sora said.
Sora's Wisdom Form reverted back to his normal form and Twilight and Rarity were able to use their magic again.
"Well.......that was.....something," Twilight said still trying to get what had just happened.
"I don't know what just happened," Sunset said.
"I think it's time for us to go back to Ponyville," Rarity noted. Everyone nodded and agreed that it was time to go back home. As they started walking back to Ponyville, Sunset spotted a phoenix coming at her.
"Philomena," Sunset joyously said. Philomena started motioning Sunset forward.
"What are you trying to show me Philome-" Sunset stopped as a big smile came across her face and she started to laugh. In front of her were the gems that they had collected before the diamond dog skirmish. They were completely forgot about, until a known phoenix came to remind them the reason they came here in the first place.
"This is why you are the best phoenix ever," Sunset said. Philomena blushed at the compliment and hid her face in her wings. "Hey guys, I'm gonna need some help with these," Sunset said as she pointed the crates of gems. After seeing this, Rarity gasped in delight.
"Those gems are beautiful!" Rarity said in a dreamlike tone.
"Well, you can have some if you'd like," Sunset said.
"Sunset Shimmer, do you actually mean that?"
"Of course, I mean I have more than I really need so as soon as we get back to town, you can take as many as you like."
Rarity then hugged Sunset and started jumping up and down in glee.
"Thank you ever so much Sunset, this is so generous of you," Rarity said pleasingly.
"Don't forget I still need some of those gems too," Roxas said.
"Don't worry there should be enough for everyone," Sunset said. "But we need to get going back to Ponyville. I don't know about you guys, but I really want to just relax for the rest of the day."
"Make that two," Roxas said.
"Speaking of relaxing, one day we all need to go the spa, my treat," Rarity said. The group of friends laughed at her comment but Rarity was not joking.
"No, I'm serious, we all need to go to the spa, I don't know why people think I joke when I mention the spa."
The group of friends then started their walk back home to Ponyville, with plentiful gems in their inventory and a story to match.
As they got closer to Ponyville, the sun started to set and the group started to split up and go home. As they passed the Apple Family Farm, Sora and Roxas were the first to say goodbye. Then, it was Rarity with her crate of gems behind her to say goodbye to Twilight and Sunset. The two students were the last ones of the group and they both started walking to the library.
"So, how was your alone time with Roxas," Twilight slyly said to Sunset. Sunset started getting defensive about the comment.
"What do you mean , we were just finding gems together that's all," Sunset said defensively.
"He must be very interesting to you then, if you're willing to sneak off and spy on him to see what he does," Twilight playfully said.
Sunset blushed at her last comment as Twilight chuckled at her embarrassment.
"I see Princess Celestia has been teaching you her way of joking," Sunset said.
"Maybe just a little,"Twilight said.
"Remind me to send her a letter when we get back home, telling her to never do that again." Sunset said.
The girls had finally made it home and after everything that happened, they couldn't wait to get in the bed and call it a day.
****
We now go back to the Apple Family Farm where Sora and Roxas are both getting ready for bed.
"Man, what a day, first babysitting, and then having to fight an army of gem stealing dogs, how's that for a story?" Sora said to Roxas. Roxas was just lying in his bed minding his own business most likely thinking about the experience with the diamond dogs.
"So, what were you and Sunset doing in that field anyway?" Sora said.
"Wasn't it obvious, we were digging for gems," Roxas said. "I was trying to find some so that I could synthesize some items that could be useful.
"Well, how did the diamond dogs come into play?"
"While we were digging, they just happened to show up, totally ruined my day. I was doing a pretty good job with holding them off, but then they called the entire pack and well, you know what happened then.
"Yeah." Sora said. "But, what I don't understand, is why did I go into Wisdom Form back there without Donald being here?"
"Well, it clearly had something to do with Twilight and Rarity since their magic was cut off while you were in that form." Roxas said.
"What about Sunset?"
"No, her magic wasn't affected because when the girls were watching you fight in Wisdom form, she was actually treating my injury while she was injured herself."
"Sunset sure was worried about you Roxas, even while she was hurt herself she only cared if you were okay." "She sounds like a good friend to have around." The room went silent for a few minutes as the conversation had ceased after that line. Sora turned the lights off and went to sleep. Roxas was still pondering that word,"friend", in his mind. Did Sunset really think of him as a good friend? Was she really a good friend in Roxas's mind? Someone to go to when there was nowhere else to go? Roxas closed his eyes and uttered one word before he went to sleep.
"Yeah."