//------------------------------// // 23 // Story: Seven Lights // by Fresnor //------------------------------// Aegis Flare stood in the back entrance of her home as she watched the mare running the obstacle course behind her home in confusion. While she wasn't a stranger to finding the course being in use since Rainbow Dash had found out about it, the mare currently running it wasn't one she expected to see. She watched as the blue and pink maned mare came around to finish yet another lap before she leaned against the starting post to catch her breath. With a shake of her head the orange unicorn stepped out of the shadows of her doorway and moved toward the course. “”When I set this up again I really didn't expect it to become as popular as it seems to be. With Rainbow Dash, and now you, I'm starting to think that I should start charging ponies.” With a squeak of embarrassment at being caught, Bon Bon turned to see the unicorn approaching before she started scuffing her hoof on the ground. “Oh, um, sorry for using this without permission. I was just walking around tonight and when I found that you set this up again I just felt a bit nostalgic. That and with how angry I was at Lyra just pulled me into blowing off some steam. I did bring my own mana source to power it at least.” Looking at where the mare was pointing to see a vial poking out of a hole in the control gem's pole filled with a familiar looking silver liquid. “Huh? I didn't know that you could use those to power it. I only remember my mom charging the gem directly. It's fine though, I just didn't expect to see anypony other than Rainbow Dash to show up early in the morning to run the course. Though I'm a bit curious about what Lyra did to make you so angry at her.” Bon Bon sighs as she rubs the side of her muzzle with a hoof. “I shouldn't have gotten so angry at her, but sometime she goes a little too far with her little obsession. I can understand having a hobby but it's a bit too far when she hurts herself trying to walk like those bipedal things just because of her obsession with their hand things.” The orange unicorn cocks her head to the side for a moment as she tries to picture the creature in question but with the vague description only one thing comes to mind easily. “Why would she be so obsessed with minotaurs like that? Sure they don't show up here much but it's not like they are unheard of in Equestria.” The other mare opened her mouth to reply but she stopped herself as she brought her hoof up to her muzzle again. “Right, you haven't seen her drawings. Though I'll have to remember to mention them to her since some of her wild theories can be answered by them. The creatures only look like them superficially though and are different in their legs and head as well as being nearly completely hairless. I still don't understand how she can believe that they ever existed really.” She was only answered with a shrug as the unicorn thinks back to things that she knew of that others didn't. “It would be hard to say if they truly did or didn't exist or not. You should know how things can get lost or covered up and I've had personal experience with something that doesn't exist anymore. I'm not saying that she's right but she probably could use some support from you as well as a few good thumps for when she goes overboard.” Bon Bon just sighs again as she shakes her head in exasperation. “Yeah, you're right. I just can't get as excited as her when she gets like that and holding her back is sometimes impossible. I'm planning to talk with her though in the morning but I needed some time to cool off and...” She pauses as she looks towards the horizon to see the sun's glow starting to creep up before her eyes widen as something the unicorn said earlier finally hit her. “Oh horseapples! It's already morning?! I only planned to be gone for maybe an hour, not all night. Sorry to just run like this but I have to get back and check on Lyra.” With that the earth pony took off leaving the unicorn to just shake her head in bemusement before she starts preparing for another training session with her sister. <><><><><><><> The group of friends were preparing for a picnic that they had planned out for that day though they were missing one of their group. The six knew that Rarity would be late as she was out collecting gems for a rush order that recently came in for her. While the alabaster unicorn had asked the others to go on without her they were still preparing just in case she still was able to make it. “I think that's everything that we need for later. Unless somepony else has any other ideas.” Twilight looks around at the other five while they all just shake their heads at her. She was about to set out with them towards the park but was brought up short when Spike came dashing up, without Rarity. At his urgency they started to rush off in the direction the young dragon came from but they slowed when they noticed that one of them hadn't started moving. Aegis Flare didn't understand what the baby dragon had been trying to say but the words 'jewels' and 'dogs' had stood out in her mind. Before the others could ask her why she stopped she turned in the direction of her home before looking back at them. “You all go on ahead. If we're dealing with what I think we are then I may have something that will help out.” The five mares nod and return to heading in the direction of their destination while the orange unicorn took off towards her home. Once there she slams open the doors in her path until she reaches her room and the various displays that filled her room. She had to climb over her bed to reach the one she wanted as it was isolated in the far corner of her room and she sighed as she looked around at the souvenirs of her past. “I really need to rearrange this place a bit. Of course I never expected to actually need to reach this one again.” Fiddling with the lock for a moment she opened the glass display case before running a hoof over the book and crown inside of it before it settled on the crystalline whistle that was stored with them. Lifting it carefully from the case she tosses the attached loop over her head and closed the case again before heading out to catch up with her friends. What she found when she arrived caused her to slap her hoof over her face in embarrassment at what she saw. As she had thought from the dragon's cryptic words they were dealing with diamond dogs but her friends were going about getting Rarity back the wrong way. When she saw Twilight and Rainbow Dash collided with each other she let out a wince before sighing and bringing the whistle to her lips, while clasping her ears to her head, and blew out a few simple notes. While no sounds was audible to the other ponies, other than Fluttershy who winced and clamped her hooves over her ears, the results were obvious as a half dozen diamond dogs appeared in front of her standing at attention. They looked confused though when they saw that they were standing in front of a pony but one of them recognized the object that the pony had in her mouth. “How does pony have chieftain's whistle?! All supposed to be lost for good!” The diamond dogs all took an offensive stance and the ones that didn't speak were about to charge until they were knocked off of their paws by an orb of energy and were quickly knocked out before Aegis Flare turned her attention back to the speaker. “How I have it doesn't matter. What matters is that you have one of my friends down in your tunnels and you're going to take us to her before a really have to let you have it.” While her dry tone didn't do much to convince the pony, the fact that she took a deep breath while the whistle was still in her mouth was enough to cause him to panic. “No wait! Don't blow, I'll take you I'll take you!” With a nod the orange unicorn gestured for the diamond dog to lead the way as her friends joined her while looking at her curiously. “What they hay was all that about? And how did you get them to to come out as soon as you showed up?” With a glance over at Rainbow Dash Aegis Flare brandished the tool that she had used. “A few years ago I happened to pick this up from a small group of diamond dogs. It was once used by the leaders of their packs to issue commands to those they ruled when certain patterns were blown. I wasn't sure if it still worked but it seems that the enchantments on it still work though they still could have ignored it even if it did work.” The whistle was soon torn from her grasp and drawn to her opposite side where Twilight was, forcing her to move in that direction to keep the cord on it from choking her. As she lightly glared at the studious unicorn she felt a tap on her shoulder from Fluttershy. “Um, why did it hurt my ears if it was meant for diamond dogs? If you don't mind my asking...” The unicorn looked back at her in confusion and she wasn't the only one as Applejack spoke up. “What are ya talking about Fluttershy? Ah didn't hear nothing when she blowed on that there toy of hers.” The others nodded in agreement with the farm mare which caused the buttery pegasus to collapse in on herself a bit. Looking over Fluttershy, Aegis Flare didn't see anything out of the ordinary but she decided to ask since she could only think of one reason why she also could hear it. “Was one of your parents a thestral? Only those with heightened senses of hearing can usually hear this thing.” Still cringing a bit, Fluttershy nodded as she tried to relax again. “Yeah, my father was. But I really don't want to talk about him right now.” The others looked towards Fluttershy with surprise, which caused Aegis Flare to stumble as Twilight lost her grip on the whistle, though none of them tried to push the issue further. The diamond dog soon led the six mares and baby dragon into on of the few still open tunnels and they looked around with worry as they traveled through the constraining spaces. They conversed with each other about what to expect and they soon came to a more cavernous area where they were soon pounced upon by another group of armored diamond dogs. While Applejack glared up at the one that had landed on her back and was about to retaliate, her train of thought was broken as the attention of the entire room was pulled away by loud cries of pain. “YIPE! YIPE! YIPE!” Everyone looked confused as they watched one of the burly diamond dog guards drag his rear along the ground as he tried to put out the flames on his tail. Looking in the direction that he was fleeing from they were greeted by the sight of a unicorn entirely bathed in flames. While the other ponies didn't react much the diamond dogs went into a full on panic as they turned on the one that led the ponies into the tunnels. “You idiot! You brought fire pony into pack tunnels! Fire pony will kill us all!” With a bit of scuffling between them to be the first to escape the area soon emptied of diamond dogs leaving only the six mares and dragon. After watching the ambush party run of in a panic the others turn to look at the seemingly burning mare before Twilight edges closer. “Not that I mean to belittle your strategy, but do you think that you could maybe stop being on fire? I'd rather not suffocate down here while you consume all the oxygen.” Aegis Flare, who was breathing a bit heavily at the surprise of having the diamond dog land on her back from nowhere, blinked a couple times before she looked down at herself. Shaking her head she dimmed her horn and banished the flames around her before looking back at her friends. “Eheh, sorry about that. It's become a bit of a reflex when I'm in an area that I think of as dangerous. You don't have to worry about running out of air though, I've been practicing with a different type of fire that doesn't consume oxygen but magic instead. As long as it doesn't hit a concentrated source of magic then it will burn itself out pretty quickly.” Twilight just gave her a blank before she scuffed a hoof at the ground for a moment before she pulled something up with her magic. “You mean something like this?” Staring at the gem for a moment the orange unicorn wasn't sure what she meant until her pupils shrank as she realized what she was looking at. As she identified the gem being levitated in Twilight's magic she brought a hoof up to rub the back of her head sheepishly. “Oh right, diamond dogs hunt gems. I probably shouldn't do that again unless I wanted to leave a giant crater, should I?” The purple unicorn just gave her a deadpan stare while the other mares just shifted nervously in place. She would have said more but she was rudely shoved aside by an overly enthusiastic dragon. “That was so awesome! It was just like Wildfire from the comics how you just went 'fwoosh' and burst into flames!” Most of the mares just looked at the young dragon in confusion though the one he was speaking to took a different route by putting a hoof over her muzzle. “Ugh, of course you would read those comics. I was wondering where Scootaloo was getting those from.” Seeing the looks the others were giving her she shook her head and explained. “A comic by the names of the Power Ponies came out a couple months after we beat Nightmare Moon. I may have came up with that trick from there, though without the hormone-driven loss of clothing every time I use it.” The mare holds up the cord holding her whistle to show that it was completely undamaged. The others, after realizing what she was describing, blushed at the thought before Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. “Yeah, that's fine and all but how are we going to find Rarity now? We just lost our guide and this place is like a maze.” Looking around the others notice that she is correct and anxiously examine the surrounding tunnels. The dragon pointed out how the diamond dogs were after gems so finding the path with the most would most likely lead to her. Twilight, after being reminded that she had been shown Rarity's spell, tried to remember how to do so but before she could cast the spell both Fluttershy and Aegis Flare winced before they pointed at one of the tunnels. “She's down that one.” Twilight looked at the two curiously before she finished casting the spell and determined that they were correct as the gems were heaviest in that direction. She was curious about how the two knew that as well as why they were still wincing as they proceeded down the indicated tunnel. Eventually they found who they were looking for but were surprised to find that the alabaster mare had everything under control. As they were leaving bother Fluttershy and Aegis Flare were rubbing their ears and eventually the unicorn spoke up to the fashionista. “Rarity, I applaud you for what you did back there but please, PLEASE tell me you won't make a habit of that. I don't think our ears can handle whining of that magnitude to often.” As the unicorn became a bit flustered about this the rest of the mares started laughing. Eventually she just shook her head at having been caught like that and sighed. “Oh all right I won't do that again if I don't have to. Just as long as you don't spread around how unladylike I had to be to get out of there.” With a nod the two agreed with a smile as they pulled the load of gems the mare had earned that day back towards her home.