The tunnels were an entirely new place when the Diamond Dogs inhabited them. The very same tunnels that Raindrop had gone down earlier were now completely cut off by Diamond Dogs digging or lazing in them. It seemed that everywhere she turned, there was another Diamond Dog lurking under a torch to block her escape. It was beginning to fray her nerves, being surrounded by so many of them, and she was almost stunned that she hadn’t been discovered yet.
And all while she looked for an escape route, Sentinel’s words echoed in her mind.
“Get back here!” he had hissed after her as she walked away from him. He had been angry; subdued and quiet, but angry. “Get back here and get me out of this you besotted changeling!”
And each one of his words had made her angrier. She wanted to go back, take the key, and literally shove it down his throat with her hoof. It was as if there was a violent creature waiting inside her, waiting to attack at the tiniest provocation. And while she was angry, she had no control over it.
Or maybe Sentinel was just a massive dick.
Raindrop consoled herself with the fact that the guard wouldn’t be a problem much longer. They’d find her theft of the stone soon enough, and the key right in front of the pegasus there on the stage. And then they’d raise the alarm and that would be that. Raindrop intended to be long gone by that time, though.
The young pegasus had to cut right down a new tunnel, as the one she’d previously used to enter the system of tunnels was now filled with Diamond Dogs. This tunnel was lined with dull blue crystals, too dark to be used in decorating, and thus, pretty much useless. She crept down the length of the tunnel, frowning to herself as it started to slope gently downwards. She needed to go up, not down. The tunnel evened out after a little while, and terminated in a large room heaped high with gems and treasures. There were fat rubies the size of her hoof, sapphires, and even a few clear diamonds.
At the front of the pile of gems, sitting on a pedestal, were the Elements of Harmony. Glittering and shiny, they each had their own pedestal, six in a row. Each of them were shaped as she remembered, from when she had first collected them. But somehow, Raindrop knew these weren’t the real Elements. They didn’t feel right. Somehow, she thought the Elements of Harmony would feel..magical. These just felt inert. They were fakes, like the ones she had brought back to Celestia.
Frowning, Raindrop turned around and headed back up the tunnel she had come from. Her wings were growing sore from carrying the weight of Sentinel’s gem, and the strange stone she had taken on impulse. Something told her that it was important.
Raindrop slunk back into the large chamber where Sentinel was strung up. The guard was trying vainly to reach the key with a hoof, panting for breath. He looked rather...pathetic like that, strung up and straining against his bonds to reach the key sitting so close to him, and yet so hard to attain that it might as well have been at the bottom of the ocean.
And somehow, it filled her with joy to know that she had placed him in that position. That she had this power over a strong male. That she could exert her strength in such a way.
Raindrop shuddered as she realised that she was enjoying putting another pony in pain, and she rushed over to him, bounding a few steps and picking up the key, slotting it into the shackle at his ankle and unlocking it, swapping the key to the next padlock and unlocking it as well.
Sentinel stared down at her, frowning slightly, apparently wanting to say something. Wisely though, he kept his mouth shut.
Raindrop stood up next to him, to where his hooves were bound, supporting his weight on her shoulders to cause the chains to go slack so she could unlock the padlocks, and let them drop to the ground.
The guard slumped as he was freed, and then pushed away from her, dropping down onto his hindlegs first, and then his forelegs, the limbs shaking and then giving out instantly, sending him sprawling out on his chest with a grunt of pain.
“Get up!” Raindrop hissed, moving to his side and nudging him upright. “We have to go.”
“Really?” Sentinel hissed in response, baring his teeth in pain and trying to rise, before saying in a slightly panicked tone, “I...I can’t move my forehooves!”
“Useless!” Raindrop hissed, gripping his mane in her teeth and dragging him off the stage bodily, moving to rest his chest on her back. She moved towards the tunnels again, already regretting her decision to set the guard free, “Now walk!”
Sentinel harrumphed, but gave a few staggered steps as Raindrop had instructed, his upper body supported on her back as she bore him towards the tunnels. The female pegasus nudged him upwards and slipped out from under him, letting him collapse to the ground, snorting at him.
“Gonna hit me again?” The guard asked with a grimace, as he tentatively tried to support his weight with his forepaws.
Raindrop scowled, and then turned away, before thinking better of it and turning back towards him, giving him a ringing blow to the side of the head with a hoof.
Sentinel winced and closed his eye on that side, shaking his head. “Forget I asked...”
The female pegasus scowled at him, her tone dangerous, “I should have left you in the damn chains.”
“But then who would you beat up?” Sentinel asked dryly, as he managed to lift himself to his hooves.
Raindrop paused in her looking about to aim another heavy blow at the side of his head.
Sentinel caught her hoof in mid-air, and then smiled at her.
“I can walk now,” he stated, and then seemed to pause, looking thoughtful, before jabbing her, hard, in the nose, with a rather heavy blow from his own hoof. “And defend myself.”
Raindrop recoiled from the stunning suddenness of the blow, blinking slowly and lifting a hoof to rub her nose.
“That is for leaving me in the chains,” he stated flatly, eyes narrowing at her, taking a step backwards before she could recover enough to retaliate.
The young pegasus took a deep breath, gritting her teeth, turning to face him, biting her words off as she said quietly, “Let’s wait until we get out of here to continue this.”
“Agreed,” Sentinel stated, flexing his forehooves to regain mobility in them.
Raindrop scowled at him, touching her nose with a hoof and looking down at the blood there with a thoughtful expression, before stating, “I might have deserved that.”
“You did,” Sentinel concurred, walking past her and starting down the tunnel. “You forgot to change your eyes back, by the way.”
Raindrop blinked once at that, mystified as to what he had said, before trailing after him as he moved down the tunnel. “There are Diamond Dogs near the entrance. We can’t just walk past them.”
“...Tell me, Raindrop. Do you have wings?” Sentinel asked flatly, peering at her over his shoulder.
The pegasus flushed faintly, her ears splaying back in embarrassment. “Uh...yeah.”
“Use them,” he stated, pointing a hoof forwards. “You fly out of here, distract the guards, I’ll walk out afterwards.”
“You fly out first!” she hissed in response, brows furrowing.
“I don’t even know if I can fly right now. We can’t walk out. So either fly out, or we both stay here skulking in the tunnels until they discover you set me free and find us. Then we can exchange barbed words in chainsm” Sentinel stated coolly.
“Fine,” Raindrop hissed, shaking her head and then dropping the stone and the gem from her wings, directly onto the guards forehooves.
Sentinel bared his teeth, growling faintly at her, before looking down at the two objects, and then looking up at her with a scowl. “The Seeker Stone...You stole that!”
Raindrop shrugged, but didn’t say anything, stretching her wings.to get them ready for flight.
“And this...” he added, lifting a hoof to rest on the stone, his eyes widening. “The Element of Loyalty!”
Raindrop paused at that, turning to look at the guard, and then down at the stone, snorting once, and then pointing out, “The Element of Loyalty is a red crystal on a gold necklace, shaped like a lightning bolt.”
“The Seeker Stone glowed and throbbed when it got close to this, yes?” he asked, nudging the red gem.
“...Yeah?” Raindrop admitted, not understanding.
“Then this is the Element,” he said, picking up the dull grey orb and slipping it under his wing for safekeeping. “We have to get this out of here. Were there any others nearby?”
Raindrop shook her head. “Just the one.”
Sentinel frowned, wrinkling his nose slightly. “That’s not good...they must have been split up...”
“That’s your problem now. Toodles,” Raindrop said, taking several bounding steps down the tunnel and then leaping into the air, spreading her wings.
There was barely enough room for her to flap her wings without hitting the sides of the tunnel, angling her wings to gain speed, coasting above the bottom of the tunnel, leaving the guard to watch her until she slipped out of sight around the bend in the tunnel.
A cry of alarm rose from a Diamond Dog as Raindrop flew overhead, her hooves almost clipping his head as she moved. The tunnel widened out into the entrance chamber, where a pair of dogs were digging for gems, and they both looked up at the cry of alarm.
Raindrop’s eyes widened and she cried out in dismay as she saw a net thrown in front of her. Her reaction was a little too slow and she collided with the leading edge of the heavy netting, halting her escape almost instantly. She came down hard on the ground, tangled in the netting, struggling feebly for a moment.
Diamond Dogs converged on her, three in total, standing on the edges of the net to keep her in place, so she couldn’t struggle out from under the netting.
Raindrop struggle anyway, planting her hooves and trying her hardest to straighten her hooves and force her body upwards, quivering and shaking for a moment before she collapsed. Growling, she looked around, and saw Sentinel standing in the tunnel, half in darkness, uncertainly watching as the guards held her down.
“We got another pony!” one of them cawed with a grin, prodding her with a claw.
“Let me go,” Raindrop hissed, her tone vehement.
“Oh sure pony. We’re sorry, we’ll just let you go since you said so,” the dog said calmly, crossing his arms and staring down at her with a patronising expression.
“This one is female!” one of the dogs said from behind her, a wide grin evident on his face, his tone elated. “We could have fun with this one before taking her to the others!”
“I warned you!” Raindrop snarled, her body twisting as she rose suddenly to her hooves. Muscles rippled under her hide visibly as she straightened her hooves, causing the three dogs to become unbalanced by the sudden shift in weight. With a snarl, the pegasus reared up on her hindlegs, ripping the net from under the Diamond Dog in front of her, and allowing her to toss it off.
The dog tried to tackle her, throwing himself at her form, arms outstretched.
Raindrop bared her teeth, and smashed her hoof into his face and stopping him in his tracks. Turning, she aimed a double kick with her hindlegs into the chest of another of the dogs, and hit him square, centre-mass.
The poor diamond dog was sent literally off his feet, hitting the third and last diamond dog with a force far above what Raindrop should have been able to produce, sending them both tumbling away until they came to rest against the wall of the chamber, unmoving.
Raindrop stood in the centre of the chamber, limbs splayed, breathing hard, her muscles still rippling under her hide. Her eyes were fully green now, demonic and wild. Her teeth were clenched hard, and she seemed to be trying her hardest to keep her muscles from clenching. Her back arched, and her wings snapped out wide, tensing and quivering as her head locked into place. She arched and shuddered, biting down until she tasted blood, jaws locked, unable to control her own body.
Her muscles rippled again, and she gave a stifled cry, feeling as though all the bones in her body were about to break. The strain was incredible.
Sentinel moved towards her cautiously, nudging the Diamond Dogs to ensure they were properly unconscious as he moved over towards her, pausing a few steps from her. His tone was more curious than concerned as he asked, “Are you...okay?”
“H-help m-me..” Raindrop managed to whimper from between her unyielding jaws. Her body was no longer under her control, and each ripple of her muscles hurt, like her bones were trying to rearrange themselves.
The guard looked her over for a moment, his brows furrowing. Rather calmly, he stepped over to one of the guards, drew a club from besides his body, and then moved back over to Raindrop, smacking her over the head with the club.
Instantly, Raindrop slumped to the ground. Her muscles relaxed, her entire form dropped, and she went completely limp. Sentinel lifted one of her eyelids, and checked her eyes; they were still green and slit-pupilled. And the young pegasus was unconscious, her eyes glassy and unmoving.
Harrumphing, Sentinel considered leaving the pegasus there, before sighing faintly and shaking his head, gripping Raindrop’s hoof and throwing it over his shoulders, starting to drag her from the tunnel system.