Snarling Leader
"Diamond Dogs, huh?" Sombra said as Trixie slowly lowered the both of them down the hole that, according to her map, was the underground location to where the Diamond Dogs in the area lived. Her wagon would have never made it down this hole. She found the hole difficult to go down even with her magic, and she was once again forced to abandon her home with nothing but a shield to keep it safe. "I haven't come into contact with any of them for at least eight hundred years. Has it really been that long? Wonder if they've gotten smarter?"
"Focus, Sombra. I might need your magic in case this all heads south," Trixie said as she finally saw the bottom of the long hole. The two of them hopped off the circle of magic that Trixie had used to lower them down and looked around, Trixie adjusted her saddle bag on her back with a hint of nervousness in her eyes.
"Why are you worried about some stupid dogs?" Sombra asked with a smirk as he sauntered into the tunnel in front of them. "Diamond Dogs are idiots, and I'm certain that even without my genius I could easily outsmart them. So you'll have nothing to worry about while I'm here."
"I'm worried, because Dimaond dogs in these parts are a lot more vicious and less trusting of ponies than they are in other parts," Trixie explained as her eyes constantly scanned the walls, wary in case any dog tried to sneak up on them. "Especially since the ponies here haven't been the kindest to them."
"And why should we? They're idiotic fools that would rather use their fists than their brains," Sombra said with a roll of his eyes as he continued to walk forward. "Why should we show respect to such ignorant creatures?"
"Maybe because we're in their territory, and your voice echoes in here," Trixie said as she slammed his face into the ground. "Hopefully we'll catch them in a good mood and they'll show us to the entrance of the titans. If not, we'll most likely have to fight our way out of here."
"And that's why you brought me," Sombra said with a frown. "But why not bring Armora? She seems like the kind of fighter I'd want on my side, if I had to go into a lair filled with Diamond Dogs, which I do."
"Because I need her to keep an eye on Starshine and I need your magic," she repeated, causing Sombra to chuckle again.
"You are far too trusting. What makes you think she won't kill him the moment we are gone?" he asked her with a smile as they came to a crossroad, where multiple tunnels headed out in every direction.
"Two reasons. One: because despite her being an assassin, she fended off the other ones when we needed her help," Trixie said as she looked around a corner, not noticing Sombra looked away with a bit of a frown. "Second...let's just say I know that there's somepony watching over the both of them right now. I could sense her power."
"Wait, who would that be?" Sombra asked, but at that moment Trixie decided to begin moving forward, leaving the king to try and catch up with her. She came to a stop beside a large rock and dove behind it, dragging Sombra over to her once he had caught up. "What's up?"
"We're in Diamond Dog territory now," she whispered to him, peeking out from behind the boulder to see five Diamond Dogs clawing at the walls. All five of them were standing by the walls of the circular room, none of them looking their way or even remotely looking around. She assumed by the carts full of gems that they were too busy to notice them and turned to Sombra to whisper to him, but he was standing still with his eyes on wide alert.
"There's a breeze behind us," he whispered to her with a hint of worry, but Trixie raised an eyebrow in confusion. "That means our scent is being blown towards them. That means they know we're here." Just as he said this, one of the dogs turned his nose to the air and began to sniff, spinning around with his eyes darting around the room to seek out the scent.
"There's ponies here," he said to his pack, who also began to sniff the air and narrow their eyes while they picked up on the scent. "Spread out." The pack began to look around the room, leaving Trixie and Sombra precious little time to think up a plan.
"Fight or flight?" Sombra whispered to her, flinching when he saw one of the dog's ears flick in his direction. Trixie thought about their choices and figured that they could either go back and avoid a confrontation or fight their way through these dogs.
'And since I want to come in peace, I don't think that fighting is going to be beneficial,' she thought to herself before sharing her thoughts with Sombra, who begrudgingly agreed. The two of them then quietly turned and began to go back the other way, but a howl from that direction caused both of them to stop in their tracks.
"Oh Faust, help us," Trixie muttered to herself as she and Sombra both began to back away, while more Diamond Dogs began to walk down the path towards them.
"Didn't think of you as a believer in fairy tales," Sombra quipped as the dogs behind them howled as well, letting the both of them know that they were trapped.
"There are ponies here. Two ponies!" one of the dogs hissed as the five in the room began to move towards them, while three more advanced down the corridor towards them from the front. "Grab the ponies, capture them!"
"So, since we can no longer flee, does that mean we fight?" Sombra asked Trixie, a number of spells on the tip of his tongue.
"Maybe if we explain why we're here, we can get out of this without a fight," Trixie said as she walked forward to the dog that had a gemstone collar around his neck. "Hold on a moment, we are not here to trespass. We wish to talk."
"We no listen to ponies. We know that ponies' words are lies!" the dog said with a snarl as he threw his head back and let loose a howl into the caverns. "We grab all ponies and make them look for gems. And if they can't look, then we simply take them to the destroyer."
"I am not lying to you. The only reason we are here is because-" Trixie tried to explain before another howl reached their ears.
"Trixie, we have a problem," Sombra said as he looked behind them to see about ten more dogs show up to support their pack. "If we don't start blasting soon we might not get another chance!" Trixie thought about the situation they were in, and knew that she should start fighting, that her only chance to get out of there was to attack them.
'No Trixie, that was the old you,' she thought to herself as she stood her ground. "We are here to go to the Land of the Titans!" Much to the surprise of both Trixie and Sombra, these words stopped the Diamond Dogs dead in their tracks and they looked at the two ponies with both confusion and dread. "I know that the location is somewhere down here, but I have no idea where. I came in peace. I hope that you would be able to show me where it is." The Diamond Dogs began to murmur amongst themselves, leaving Trixie and Sombra to watch on nervously. Eventually the dog with the gem-studded collar walked up to her with a snarl.
"We take you to see leader of pack. But if you try any magic, we will crush you." Sombra looked at Trixie with a frown as she agreed, and the two of them were both ushered down one of the tunnels into another one. He waited until the dogs behind and in front of them weren't paying attention before he quickly whispered to her,
"Are you sure about this? You said yourself that the curs around here really don't like us."
"Any act of aggression against them would only worsen the matter and most likely bring the whole pack down on our heads," she whispered back as the two of them entered an area that was filled with hollowed-out dirt mounds that looked like homes. "So you really think we could take an entire colony of Diamond Dogs by ourselves?" Sombra snarled but kept his mouth shut as they were moved through what they assumed to be where the Diamond Dogs all lived, since the homes became more frequent in nature and a large number of dogs could be seen watching them as they passed through.
"Ponies? Here?"
"We thought we were safe?"
"Kill them both."
Trixie didn't like the way the dogs were talking, but her thoughts were distracted by a massive structure that she could only assume was where the main dog lived. It was a palace made of mud and stone, that wouldn't even have been called a palace in the land above, and the only reason she considered it one was because of how much better it looked than all the other buildings. The gates to the building were pulled open by two dogs with their ribs showing and chains around their necks. Trixie cast Sombra a look of confusion that he responded to with a shrug of his shoulders. Inside of the palace was a single massive room where a giant Diamond Dog sat on a throne that was made of bones, bones that both Sombra and Trixie noticed looked an awful lot like ponies' bones.
"So, more ponies down in lair where they don't belong?" the Diamond Dog asked with a smile as he sauntered down from the throne to get a better look. He had a large number of scars on his face and his jaws had blood on them. Sombra looked at his eyes and saw a coldness in them that even he didn't have. "What foolish ponies doing in the home of the mighty Snarl?"
"They say that they are here to go the Land of the Titans," the dog behind Trixie said with fear, causing Snarl to look at both of them with hate.
"No pony will be allowed in the Land of the Titans," he said with an growl and he let out a howl, causing a large number of Diamond Dogs in a greyish armor to come running into the room. "Not as long as Snarl is king. Guards! Take them away!"
"I take it we fight now?!" Sombra asked as the guards began to surround the two of them. In answer, Trixie blasted the ground underneath one of the dog's feet and sent him flying into the ceiling. "Brief and to the point. I like it! RE FI!" Sombra smiled as black flames erupted from the ground and consumed the Diamond Dogs, but his glee turned to shock as he realized the armor that the dogs were wearing was somehow negating his magic. "Trixie, something's wrong. Their armor is cancelling out my magic! EZE FRE!" he roared again as ice formed around the dogs, but the armor shattered the spell once it had come into contact.
"Don't attack them directly. Use the environment against them," she said quickly as she ripped a chunk of rock out of the wall and slammed it into two dogs that had tried to attack her. Sombra followed suit by having the ground beneath some of the dogs swallow them up, causing him to smile before something hit him in the side of the head. He grunted and looked down at the greyish material that hit the ground, realization dawning on him a moment before another piece hit Trixie in the head.
"Do they really think throwing rocks will be enough?" Trixie asked Sombra with a smile before she realized that none of her spells were working. "What did they do to me? Why isn't my magic-?"
"Because they hit us with anti-source material," Sombra said as he resigned himself to defeat by sitting down with a sigh. "It's a material that cancels out magic that it comes into contact with."
"How long?" Trixie asked as the Diamond Dogs began to swarm them.
"Depending on the exposure, it can range from a few minutes to permanent loss of magic," Sombra said as Trixie tried to fight against the dogs, but he allowed himself to have chains placed on his neck, biting his lip as he felt the draining power of the anti-source. Trixie fell as three dogs tackled her to the ground, placing a collar on her as well.
"To the special pony dungeon with them," Snarl said with a wicked grin as both Trixie and Sombra were dragged off, smiling as he watched them go. "Oh, I hope they are good workers. Or at the very least, I hope they taste good." He began to snicker to himself as he turned back to his throne, imagining the meal that he would have later.
/T\
"No. Stop. Give it back," Sombra said in a bored voice as the Diamond Dog that had been escorting the two ponies to the dungeon of the castle ripped off the collar that Trixie had forced him to wear. It snarled at him before staring in amazement at the emeralds on the collar, slamming the cage cell behind it as it walked off. "How do I keep ending up in cages?" Sombra asked himself as he looked at the grey bars. "A cage of ice, a cage in the Changeling Empire; I'm actually beginning to feel at home here."
"Enough of your jokes. We need to get out of here," Trixie said as she tried to use her magic, but the anti-source prevented her from doing so. Sombra watched her try for a few minutes before he shook his head and laid down.
"Give up. We can't use our magic, so unless you can punch through solid rock, we're stuck. You're better off conserving your strength."
"How can I give up?" she growled at him as she kicked the bars with her hind legs, only to stagger back while wincing. "Every second I'm in here I can feel my magic beginning to slip away! We need to get out!"
"Yes, because it's so terrible to be a unicorn and not able to use magic," Sombra said sarcastically, causing Trixie to walk over to him with a snarl. "If we had simply killed the dogs back when we first entered, we wouldn't be in this mess," he quickly added.
"I don't like resorting to killing if I don't have to," Trixie said as she sat down on the ground, panting heavily as she continued to feel her magic slip away.
"I don't know what to make of you," he said with a sigh of frustration. "You say that you are trying to make up for what you did when you worked with Morgaine, but from what I heard, the ponies that were most affected have already forgiven you for your wrongdoings. You also say that you want to help ponies in need, but you actively avoid towns and places that ponies need help. What is your real goal, Trixie?" Trixie closed her eyes and laid down next to Sombra, remaining quiet for a few minutes before she decided to answer.
"I just want to be forgotten," she answered in a sad voice. "I have done nothing to benefit others in my life, and everything I seem to do just ends up getting others hurt. I almost got you and Starshine killed when we went to Chrysalis's land, and now we probably will die here. I just bring pain wherever I go. I'm just a monster."
"Fair point, but Starshine told me that you had helped him off the streets and gave him a home," Sombra reminded her. "And let's not forget that when you found me, I was having my insides re-arranged by a monster. Saved my life there. So I find it funny that the only ponies that don't see you as a monster, are the ones that society have deemed monsters themselves." Trixie raised her head and looked at Sombra with some confusion on her face.
"And what about you? From what I read in the books, you are supposed to be the most evil pony in all of Equestria," she said. "You've had plenty of chances to kill me and take everything I have, especially since you can use spoken magic. But from what I've seen from having you along with us, you just seem...bitter and lost." Sombra closed his eyes and rolled onto is side so that he wasn't directly facing Trixie.
"Like I said, you can't believe everything you read," he responded quietly. "As for why I haven't killed you...what would be the point? Yeah, I kill you and take your wagon, but what would it matter? I would be no closer to my goal and I would have to travel Equestria hoping that the princesses didn't find me before I was ready."
"Ready for what?"
"To bring them down," Sombra said with venom. "But since a direct battle against the princesses is suicide, I needed to find another way to hurt them, another way to get back at them. But with Twilight and the Elements being almost as strong as the princesses, I can't fight them."
"So that's what you want to find in the temple of Star-Swirl?" Trixie asked. "A way to get back at the princesses? But all they did was stop you when you were a tyrant and ruled over the Crystal Empire with an iron hoof. You got what you deserved, if you ask me." Sombra grunted but was saved from responding further by a coughing that could be heard from the next cell over. "Who's there?" Trixie asked.
"Like your friend in your cell, only a relic of the past that is hoped to be forgotten," an old voice responded.
"Great, more riddles," Trixie said with a growl. "A name would be helpful."
"I am Bark, the former leader of this pack of Diamond Dogs," the voice responded, causing Sombra to lift his head in surprise.
"So by former leader, do you mean that you got too old and it was time to retire, leader? Or is this, they throw you off the throne and take over the kingdom for myself kind of leader?" The dog in the other room chuckled, which was followed by some coughing.
"Both, if you can believe it," he responded with a dry chuckle. "See, I'm a blind dog, so I am considered weak by my fellow pack members, and as much as they loved me, they figured it as time for a new pack leader. I was all for it, but I was not happy with the choice that they selected to replace me."
"And I take it that Snarl wasn't happy about you not supporting him?" Sombra guessed.
"You have it. So for too many days to count, I've been kept in this dungeon, barely given enough food and water to survive," he said with a sigh. "So why were the two of you caught in here? I thought that I tried to make it clear to ponies, during my rule, that they shouldn't be down here."
"We came here looking for the entrance to the Land of the Titans," Trixie responded, gaining her a small chuckle from Bark.
"The Land of the Titans...oh, how I have so long awaited to go to that place," Bark said with another laugh. "But you have wasted your time and quite possibly your lives. The door cannot be opened unless Star-Swirl himself does it. See, back when he came here to speak with the Titans, the dogs in the area were none to kind with him. So he cast a spell on the door to the land so that only he or one that he deemed worthy could open it, and he told the dogs to keep an eye on it. But over the years they have become very protective of the gate, deeming it the promised land that they cannot reach. The dogs may be the gatekeepers, but they do not have the key."
"Great, so this was a bust," Sombra said with a growl as he turned to face Trixie. "So, any last-second plan on getting us out of here?"
"The only plan I have right now is that a certain somepony is going to tell Starshine and Armora what happened," Trixie said as she watched the air across the bars shimmer with silver before returning to normal. "Until then, we do as you suggest and wait."
"Great, the one time she listens to me and it's in here," Sombra muttered as Trixie and Bark began to speak again, but he rested his head against the wall and tried to feel the magic in him as it slowly grew harder to grasp. 'But the more that I think about it, maybe it's best that I'm stopped here. After all, I would never be able to go to Atlantis. Not after last time.'
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I'm hoping Trixie gets a Diamond Dog companion, more friends are good and gives the group more versatility. Maybe Bark has a son or daughter who would want to get out of Snarl's territory???
Nice update! I look forward eagerly to the next chapter!
3951701 Dragon Age party system FTW!
I take it Sombra sank Atlantis.
Material that negates magic and range to permanent loss? Now where have I heard of something similar to that before?
3956267
Sounds like a magic version of kryptonite, of the golden variation to be precise.
Good chapter by the way.
3959205 In the DC universe antisource is the best way to fight magic users (I think). Batman used antisource batarangs against Morgaine in the first story. Scootaloo has an antisource batarang as a breast plate to prevent direct magic attacks.
Achievement earned: I have your Scent (enter Diamond Dog territory)
7246403 possible "game over" scenes:
random Diamond Dog: Should have quit while you were ahead (nods off-screen) Put the others in chains!
Snarl: (points to you while looking off-screen) Let this me a reminder of why I am the Alpha around here!