'WHERE IS IT?!' yelled Moe inside his head. As they traveled the city was becoming more and more confusing. He was sure they couldn't of been running in circles, because the area they were in now was lit with the buildings being lit up as well.
Nothing looked familiar to where he was this morning. The buildings were taller and the number of ponies in the streets was starting to increase.
Moe wasn't sure why this area seemed to be lit up more than the rest of the city. But he was no longer being as stealthy as he hoped.
Ponies were noticing them.
Lucky for him they weren't trying to stop them. They all quickly moved out of the way and would only shout or gasp before running away.
The griffins and Pegasi, however, were all collecting into the sky. They wanted to know what was going to happen with this group of 30 dogs and a Lizard.
Moe's anxiety was reaching its peak. He could feel the eyes of everyone watching him. Judging him and every action he was making. All he wanted to do was go home now.
Moes running pace began to slow as he was haveing trouble catching his breath. The 'helmet' kept him from opening his mouth enough to breath properly. All of the dogs slowed down with him, as well as the ones in front. Moe didn't want to be out in the light anymore.
He went down the nearest alley, with tons of things up between the two structures. He hoped to loose his aerial spectators once they couldn't see them anymore.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glarin was seated front and Center of the bar. The second he finished mulling it over he asked for the strongest bottle of liquor.
40 minutes of yelling "PUT IT ON THE ROYAL TAB, AND BRING ANOTHER!" went around the bar and even started to draw the attention of passer-byes who could hear the yelling.
In 40 minutes Glarin had drunk the contents of eight different hard liquor bottles. All of which were the 1.75 Liter variety.
Glarin let out a burp that rumbled the ponies sitting next to him.
"NOW I FEEL LIKE I'M IN THE PRESENCE OF A MILLION GOLD COINS!" Glarin rubbed his round alcohol gut "Such a warm feeling..." He mumbled to himself. He then looked over to the bar tender and pointed his finger at her. Which was a little off to the right.
"HEY, I HAVE A QUESTION FOR YOU. ONE OF SERIOUS IMPORTANCE..." The bartender had seen that look on many a ponies face before. Glarin was rather drunk, but she couldn't tell if he was blacked out or not.
"And what would your question be? I'm your local bartender, you can tell me anything. In a normal voice..." She thought she would humor him, The knight of Equestria should have something interesting to say... Regardless of how drunk he may be.
Glarin leaned in a little closer to the bartender and said in a 'whisper' that was probably closer to being a 6/10 on the volume scale. "Would you Get it on with a Princess if the opportunity came? "
The Bartender, Grace, gave a shy confused smile. "Oh, I couldn't! I mean. I'm married so..." Glarin slapped his hand on the table
"SO YOU WOULD!" shouted Glarin. Grace just let out a laugh
"Maybe, She's the biggest patron we've had, and she IS part of the reason we stay open 24/7 now." Grace gave Glarin the biggest of smiles as she spoke. "Also, she IS covering your tabs tonight. Just thought you'd like to know it's about to hit quadruple digits soon."
Glarin mumbled to himself for a minute. "Coulda swore it was higher then that..."
Glarin got out of his stool and went to the nearest table and stood on top of it.
"DRINK TILL THE BARS DRY! THE CASTLE IS PICKING UP THE TAB!" As Glarin climbed back down the table everyone began to cheer and rush the bar simultaneously.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luna got an odd chill down her spine for a moment before a guard came running inside.
"Princess! There's a large number of dogs running around Canterlots Light districts! They don't seem to have any direction in mind and have begun running through alleys. We suspect the dogs are being led by some small two-legged Diamond Dog. Its wearing some kind of metal helmet and armed with what I'm told is a Mop..." Luna just looked at the guard and furrowed her brow at the last sentence.
"Did...What? Have you tried to stop them?" The night guard, Commander Fluffy dropped his Salute as he spoke.
"No Ma'am, we got the warning from a local dog catcher. He said the Diamond dog was actually some Lizard, but that's absurd. We just assume the shock scrambled his memory of the event. Since he got a... a mop to the face..." Luna was sure Commander Fluffy was doing his best to stifle back a laugh, his eyes were starting to gloss over and wobble as he finished the last sentence. Luna smirked as the drink was warming her mood.
"I see, But the sound of a Lizard is interesting. It hasn't been announced yet, but were getting some kind of Lizard ponies... or no, Lizard people I think is what Twilight wrote. They walk on two legs and are small, like a dog. Perhaps we have another guest... and Perhaps my night guards started their shifts after the new emissary left with sir Glarin. Perhaps everyone should read the reports besides Commanders..." Fluffy's confused mood was replaced with one of a stress relieved sigh... Perhaps he wouldn't have to explain everything all the time now. That would be nice.
"I see Princess, Should we attempt to stop them? Or...?" Luna thought for a moment, wondering what would happen if the mass of dogs came into contact with Glarin. It could distract him from ever coming to see her.
That could not come to pass.
"First, keep them away from the Prancing Pony. Set up small blockades to detour them away from the light district. At least until Glarin heads back to the castle. In the Meantime, Try talking to the Lizard leader as you set up the blockades. He should understand speech at the very least. Let's hope he's not here in anger. Twilight told me they don't much like ponies. Do NOT hurt any of them, after all, we are all going to become good friends in the coming days I hope. Have Commander Izi take command of his care, and tell her they are to be treated as friends."
Commander Fluffy saluted and hurried out the door. He had some new information to spread.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moe and the dogs had packed themselves away inside of an alleyway where they stayed for a bit of time to order to catch their breaths. Moe was thinking to himself about how he was ever going to possibly get out of this situation and stay out of trouble.
If he could use magic like the Dragon assistants in the old stories then maybe he could just magic himself and his new friends away!
Moe sat in the middle of the ally rocking back and forth holding his knees while he was deep in thought.
He had seen many of the ponies begun to move and block off certain roads and paths. He had no idea what was going on anymore. Were they going to trap him?
When the dogs around him began to growl, Moe looked to the sky's expecting to see a griffon or pegasus.
Instead he saw one of those flying ponies with the bat wings and sharp eyes. Like those the Mor one had at his house! Did the Mor one send him?
But... The Mor one was here as well. Did they find out he went missing?! Moe studied the bat pony again.
His armor was different! Then who sent him?
Moe stood up and gazed at the Bat pony as he put one of his clawed hands onto the dog next to him and began to pat her on the head. Ending the growl from her and the others. The bat pony stared at the Kobold with his own dark vision and realized he wasn't a diamond dog at all.
"Diamond Dogs don't have scales...and that's not a helmet, is it?" Moe shook his head furiously side to side with some muffled words escaping his mouth.
"Wonder if we could find a unicorn to get that offa you... Bet it was a unicorn that put it on you as well. Looks like the kind of muzzle Unicorns use for dangerous animals and test subjects." The Bat Pony shook his head side to side "Tsk Tsk... My names Carl, I'll be right back, Don't leave ok?" Moe shook his head up and down in understanding with more muffled words escaping.
With the nod of his head and a light smile, the bat pony flew back up and out of sight. Soon as Carl was out of sight he chuckled to himself a little.
"He really does have a Mop..." He thought back to the dog catcher who got his face mopped, and pictured the little Kobold rubbing the mop in the dog catchers face in a frenzy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Glarin slammed a hammer fist into the counter. "UNOTHER BOTTLE ON THE ROYUL TUB!" Glarin had taken to building a 3D tower with the empty bottles and glasses. As well as replacing his A's with Us and U's with O's.
"I'm Sorry but..." Grace was cut off by Glarin who insisted he could handle it. She was becoming sick of his change in attitude toward her after the 12th bottle.
"LUSS! I CUN STILL STUND WITHOOT MOCH EFFORT!" He demonstrated his ability to stand by falling out of his stool and then standing.
"GRUCEFOL US UN ELF!" He finished by holding his left arm behind his back and his right hand outstretched up to the light, as if he was trying to grasp it.
Only because he was trying to grasp it and ended up falling over onto the bars counter. He looked up to the bartender with a pleading look. For the second time, he stopped yelling.
"Pleuse luss, I still don't huve the cooruge to go sleep with royulity! She shoold be looking for some mule she could huve offspring with. Not some, one trick impotent dwarf like me..." Glarin trailed his sentence off as he slopped his head around the counter. Grace paused for a second as he didn't slur the word dwarf...
"Well I'm not giving you more because I won't, it's because The Bars Run DRY! You drank half my stock alone, YA Bottomless PIT!" Glarin just looked up to Grace a bit bleary eyed and looked around the bar to see everyone else in just as bad a shape as him or asleep.
Apprently she wasn't denying anyone a drink, and after they ran dry, the patrons were starting to become angry with the waiting staff. Grace took a deep breath and calmed herself a bit.
"I know everyone's drunk, but what you and the princess do, or end up doing, is no business of mine. And from my understanding, she has plenty of children already." Grace ended the sentence with the outstretching of her hoof toward the ponies that had been traveling with him the whole night.
"Bot they ure not of her blood. Woold the citizens even sopport one of them tuking her pluce when the time comes or if something were to huppen?" Grace smacked Glarin upside the head with the back of her hoof. For two reasons, the first was in hopes he would stop slurring his speech like that, it sounded so weird. The second was because of what he said.
"I know you aren't from here, But that whole civil dispute is long over and I will not have word of it mentioned again in my restaurant." Glarin held his face not from physical pain, but emotional pain because his beloved bartender hit him. Glarin had a moment of clarity and calmed himself.
277 years of drinking experience with an extra 20 of them being from before he was an adult, He knew when he had to pull himself together so as to avoid trouble or fix a problem. In this case, it was to calm the upcoming riot from this drunken crowd.
"OYE YOO LOT! I DRUNK THE LUST OF THE BOOZE! WE OOTTU HEUD ON OOT!" Grace sighed as the slap didn't seem to fix his speech. But at least he was rallying the mob outside now.
As Grace came out from behind the bar she took a deep sigh and looked around with the rest of her crew. She would have to make some calls for taxis to get those who fell asleep out of here, or perhaps a trip to the hospital for some stomach pumping would be better.
"Um, Ms. Grace I noticed Glarin never got up to visit the bathroom once." Grace thought for a minute and realized he had been 'talking' to her or ordering another bottle the entire night. Not once did he stop yelling at her and get up to use the bathroom.
"How did, Where did it all go?!" She discovered several of the empty liquor bottles had been filled and placed inside of the 3D pyramid of empty glasses and bottles. Several of those bottles in the middle were filled with a yellowish liquid. One looked like it contained some vomit. They all had a napkin stuffed inside the necks with the lid screwed on.
"HOW DID NO ONE SEE HIM DOING THIS?!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Moe was sitting quietly with all of the dogs huddled around him, either laying down near him or nearby in a pile.
Carl had returned on foot with a unicorn wearing the day guards garb.
"Alright Saber, I'll need you to get it off him so we can figure out what's going on here." Saber yawned as he walked down the alley behind Carl. Moe stood up along with many of the other dogs. They didn't bark or growl this time.
The day guard was slightly intimidated at the sight. He had a brief thought of the little kobold being some warlord from the sewer people like in that comic he was reading yesterday. He shook the thought from his head and began to illuminate his horn and magic the muzzle off. It popped over next to him and he caught it into his hoof.
"Once you learn how to teleport yourself, teleporting small objects becomes simple. Although teleporting it onto something is kinda... Ehh, messy, if you don't have a lot of practice anyway. I'm sure we can narrow down the number of dog catchers with a licensed unicorn down to only a few."
Moe just reached about his face and felt his lovely scales unobstructed by metal once again.
"MOES HEAD BE FReE AGAIN!" Said Moe with a crack to his voice. Carl and Saber both looked at the little Kobold. The tone in his voice with the voice crack made him sound young.
"Who send you? Was it the Mor one? Did they find out I broked the rules? And then followed them to the white city?" Carl sighed. Yeah, he was young. Carl chuckled to himself a little.
"Um, No not exactly, Princess Luna sent us. She hopes we can all become friends in the coming days. Judging by what you had on your head and who you're with. We can only guess what happened." Moe shook his head up and down.
"Ugly pony in pretty dress screamed at Moe and ran away! Then a u-knee-corn up and magic'ed me in the eyes! Then before Moe could even explain himself! He magic's that helmet on me! And says he didn't want me to bite him! Moe never bite anything that still be alive! Besides maybe a grub... or two... and sometimes Dalila's leg."
"I See, What terrible treatment!" said Saber in a slightly sarcastic tone. "I'm sure we can do some detective work and bring this mean dog catcher to justice. Or at lest, inform him on the new species joining us, like how we did with the griffons." Saber cracked his neck by tilting his head to one side.
"Either way, I'm going back to bed. I'll see you when we trade shifts again at 5:45 Carl." Carl just nodded his head and turned to face Moe.
"Don't mind Saber he gets cranky when he's up too late, or woken up mid sleep. Anyway, what are we gonna do with you now?" Moe looked around a bit and then twisted his foot a little.
"Could you maybe...Send Moe home with all his new friends? Without telling everyone that Moe broke the rules?" Carl cleared his throat in place of a chuckle this time as he looked around him.
"Perhaps, I'll uh, See what I can do. Wait here alright?"
"Moe wait for the Carl the Trusty! Moe call you trusty now cause you help Moe so far!"
"Uh, Thanks." Carl got a smile on his face as he flew back to make a report to his commander.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Luna never told us what to do once they cooperate! We assumed she would talk to em or something!" The two luner guards who were stationed the throne room door just shook their heads.
"Sorry Commander Izi, Soon as Glarin walked through these doors they've been locked with everyone being kicked out ever since."
"W-what did you guys hear?" They both kept stoned faced
"Nothing...Nothing at all... besides some yelling. Perhaps some yacking as well... He basically crawled into the throne room." Commander Izi's jaw dropped for a brief second. Sighed and shook her head.
"Alright, But he says he wants us to take them all back home. I'm guessing that's Ponyville then?" They both shrugged
"I don't know, reading the days news and facts is mostly just commanders... Commander." Izi ground her teeth a bit.
"Luna damn it... I don't wanna skim back through that 20 page report..." Izi mumbled as she walked away to go do some reading.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Commander Izi was beginning to arrange things for their return home herself. Since the last thing she remembers was that they were all going to be friends. So she should help them get back home. And if he didn't want anyone finding out, then they would just perform one of their silent recon's with a tiny payload.
No one would ever know, except Luna. When she gets the report later...
The Lizard, Moe, was still in the alley, but he was waiting with Private Carl, or Carl the Trusty. The little Kobold had only good things to say about him. She never expected him to of just been lost after sneaking after his dad and Sir Glarin.
The only problem she was haveing, was finding enough available night guards to fly em all back to Ponyville.
How the little guy traveled with so many dogs unnoticed until recently was beyond her. The day guards must be sloppy, or perhaps there's more to the story.
She shrugged "Screw it, We'll just use the Lunerator to transport them. Could use the dusting anyway." Izi gained a smile across her lips.
"Carl and I should be able to control it ourselves if its just them inside... I wonder if that autopilot was ever corrected." Izi hadn't used the Lunerator since its creation and test runs. She couldn't wait to hear it purr again.