Episode 13 - A D is a Mare’s Best Friend
It was a day like any other in Ponyville. Pegasi were flying over the town, dragging a heavy payload of stormclouds fresh from the weather factory. Ponies were talking in the street, and conducting secret business behind closed doors. And, like almost every day, a stranger from out of town was causing a ruckus.
In this case, at least, the chaos was a continuation of commerce by other means. He was greedy and seemed to have no manners, though that was quite easy to dismiss as the natural brusqueness of a city-dweller coming to visit. He leapt around the shop like a cyclone, running from one item to another as they caught his attention, and pulling every item down from where it was hanging.
“I’ll have this, and this, and this. Oh my, I have to take this. Oh, and these are simply divine, I couldn’t stand the thought of anypony else getting their hooves on these. Ohhh, that is beautiful, I must have this one.” Rarity watched in shock, almost forgetting her own manners enough to leave her mouth hanging open as the stranger breezed through the Carousel Boutique and picked up everything that wasn’t nailed down. When he finally stopped moving, he had the best part of a month’s work thrown across his back and hanging from his wings.
She should have given him a lecture right there about respecting everypony’s work, and the amount of effort it took to create those masterpieces. She wanted to say that the dresses she made were works of art, created for a specific client and a specific mood, not something you could simply pick up off the peg and expect it to fit. But her tirade was stopped before it even started when the golden-maned pegasus opened a coin purse and tipped out exactly the right price for everything he’d picked up. He knew how much these items would cost, and could do the sums even while he charged around like a bull in a china shop.
The purse was nowhere near empty, either, and Rarity was well-bred enough that she knew different rules applied to the very rich and the very powerful. Around somepony with that much cash to hand, the laws of etiquette said that whatever they did must be right, because there was no way someone so successful could be an uncultured boor. Maybe his servants would be used to adjusting impulse buys to fit when he got them home. But then, it was hard to imagine why a stallion was buying so many extravagant dresses and gowns in any case.
“I’ll need a second copy of everything. It simply wouldn’t do if she was caught without the right costume for the occasion through some spill or mishap. I’ll pick them up on Friday. I assume that’s convenient?”
“An extra one of everything?” Rarity beamed, twitching slightly. Making the duplicates would take almost the whole week, leaving next to no time for any other customers who came in. Still, if she had the favour of someone with so many bits to splash around that surely meant her little boutique was becoming more famous. And she had nothing urgent to prepare right now; even the six dresses from the Gala had been finished, and she had promised herself that this time she really wouldn’t think of any slight modifications that could improve them and start working on them again.
“Of course, of course!” she managed after just a few moments thought, “I’ll start work on that right away.”
“Excellente! We just love the extravagant use of gemstones. She believes diamonds are really going to be in this year.” With that bombshell, the strange pegasus strode out, taking care only to avoid scuffing the heap of fabulous clothes draped across his back.
Rarity, meanwhile, poked her head into the back room, to take a look at the supplies she had. She probably had enough fabric to make everything again, but she’d had so many ideas in her mind over the last week that she’d been cutting and sewing almost every minute. She’d put off digging for gems for quite some time, and the one basket left in the back of the shop hadn’t miraculously become full again since the last time she looked. In fact, it looked like there were a few less in there than earlier that morning.
“Spike!” she guessed immediately, knowing only one regular visitor who had such a fondness for gemstones. Exactly as expected the little dragon popped up from behind a workbench, still nibbling on a large piece of azurite.
“Oh hmmp whaw…” he started speaking with his mouth full, and then swallowed before trying again, “Oh, hi Rarity! I brought some plans Twilight said you needed, a new synchronicity spell, and I brought… umm… But you looked awful busy so I figured it’d be better to just leave them on the side for you.”
“And help yourself to a little snack while you’re here?” Rarity raised an eyebrow. But Spike’s eyes immediately turned to the ground, and his exuberance dissolved in an instant as he replied.
“They were just sitting there, they looked so tasty. I thought maybe… maybe you wouldn’t notice just one?”
Rarity quickly looked around. There were crumbs of a couple of different colours around the room, and they weren’t anywhere near the tools that she would have needed to split gems. But he felt bad enough already, and she knew it wouldn’t be fair to punish him. She was normally quite happy to offer him a gem or two, especially after he’d helped her to dig them out of the rock, and the only reason she was agitated today was that strange customer, and whoever he was buying for.
“Anyway, it’s good you’re here.”
“I brought you a present…” he murmured, uncertain now if it was the right time to be offering it.
“You can tell me on the way. We’re going mining.”
Rarity needed a lot of diamonds, and she needed them quickly. But even working as fast as they could manage, mining was still a relatively leisurely affair. Rarity had long ago mastered the spell that allowed her to sense certain gems even when they were out of sight. So they went to a cave out on the very edge of Ponyville, and Rarity made chalk marks on the walls to indicate caches of jewels. She’d dealt with a couple of miners before, when she didn’t have the time to go out searching by herself. But they always complained about the effort involved, and Rarity couldn’t see finding gems to be any worse than a walk through a somewhat dusty cave, and even that was tolerable as she used a little magic to sweep the path clear ahead of her.
Behind her, the crashing of broken rock and the sound of heavy breathing told her that Spike was so far only a furlong behind her, digging out the treasure that she’d found. She knew it was probably harder work for him than it was for her, but he never complained. It was a perfect arrangement, and meant that she could adorn the outfits she created with all manner of precious and semiprecious stones while still maintaining a price point comparable to other popular designers.
There were quite a lot of caves in the low hills around the town, and many of them turned out to have gems relatively close to the surface. Some historians speculated that they had once been the treasure hordes of great dragons, hidden away to guard against a possible famine, that had been moved around into smaller groups by burrowing animals and shifting earth in the many years since their original owners had moved on. It was a romantic dream, that the stones she was using to make some dress perfect had once been part of a much larger horde, maybe even paid as ransom for the safety of some fair maiden, or as tribute between different nations. Obviously, nobody wanted to return to the ancient stories of war and of rampaging monsters, but thinking about it now could be kind of romantic.
But today, Rarity marked only the most obvious stashes of gemstones, as well as one or two pockets of magicite crystal that she knew Twilight Sparkle would be interested in. She needed quite a lot of semiprecious stones for several of the dresses she would be making new versions of this week, and for each of them she would need several large and hundreds of smaller pieces of the exact same colour. That meant she couldn’t rely on the pre-cut gems that were often found buried around the country. She would need to find a natural vein of the particular mineral she needed, and see if Spike could extract enough pieces for her to cut down into the shapes and sizes called for by each design.
The caves grew darker as they went deeper. It was almost like an oppressive darkness, some phenomenon that Rarity had never thought to analyse in too much depth; the farther from the surface she got, the dimmer the glow from her horn became, and the more magical energy she had to devote to keeping the way lit. It wasn’t as difficult as it had once been, but it still felt like each cavern was darker than the last. Before long, she found the area she wanted. The walls were closer, and made more of rock and less of dirt. And here, a layer of gritstone studded with some of the largest diamonds she’d ever sensed.
“I think you might need a bigger pick to get through the rock here,” she mused as she heard his steps approach, “But there’s a lot of gems in this seam. Get me the big ones, and you can snack on the remains while we do the rest of the cavern.” Spike didn’t respond, which struck Rarity as a little odd. He shouldn’t be exhausted and struggling to keep up with her this early in the day, she would have expected an enthusiastic comment about how he’d do anything to please her. She started turning around to see what was wrong, but before she saw him she already knew something was wrong.
Spike’s footsteps weren’t that slow and heavy. His shadow wasn’t that large. His breathing wasn’t deep and rasping, and the sound she’d taken to be a sled loaded with gems being dragged across the uneven ground turned out to be the butt of some kind of spear trailing in the dirt. There were two creatures standing behind her, one in heavy armour and the other wearing a simple red coat and a diamond studded collar.
“Oh!” she gasped in surprise, “I do hope we’re not intruding, I didn’t realise that anypony– I mean, I think maybe we should start with a proper introduction.”
“Fine,” the creature growled, “I’m Spike, and you’re the pony that’s been stealing our diamonds. And don’t even try any magic, if your horn flickers you’re dead. Right?”
“Spike!” Twilight Sparkle’s voice echoed through the cellars of the Golden Oak Library. There was almost a maze of chambers down among the roots of the oak tree, and when he didn’t answer her first call she had to wonder if he’d somehow got lost, or was resting somewhere her voice didn’t reach.
“Spike!” she hollered again, starting to feel a little hoarse now. She was all the way down in the storeroom where she’d found her typewriter, among a whole load of junk. There were maybe a dozen chambers lower down, but half of them were natural spaces formed as the great tree’s roots had grown, and she was sure that if he was there he would have heard her call. She stopped and thought for a moment, it was always possible he was still talking to Rarity. But she couldn’t go any further with her current research without help, so she decided to just search. While she was down here, it made most sense to check every chamber before walking across town to the Carousel Boutique.
The next chamber didn’t contain a baby dragon. Nor did the next, but it did seem he’d been down here quite often. There was a rolled up blanket on a ledge, a basket of small gems for snacking, two quill pens that she hadn’t even noticed the absence of from her desk until now, a bottle of ink, and a tiny selection of books about dragons. She knew she shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but the tableau immediately painted a picture of an isolated orphan, trying to learn more about his race. He’d never known his mother, his egg having been in the care of a school for several years. Twilight had never thought about it beyond what they’d initially told her. But maybe Spike had.
She wondered if he’d been writing a diary of some kind, with pens and ink down here. She could understand why he’d be a little shy about that, and she certainly wouldn’t look inside if she saw one, but she was curious enough to want to know where he was keeping his secrets. She glanced around again, and saw the very last thing she would expect her number one assistant to have in his secret nook.
It wasn’t a diary. It was a letter, with a very familiar seal on the bottom. Twilight blinked in surprise. Even without the seal, she would instantly recognise Princess Celestia’s elegant, flowing script. She knew that Spike read all her letters, he often read them out to her when they arrived, but she had never imagined he would take one down to some private space for whatever reason. Now she had to look; she had to know what he could be secretly studying like this. It could be a letter which mentioned him, and she could understand that, though she would have preferred to know. But when she laid the scroll flatt and read the first few lines, her eyes were wide in shock. She knew she should stop, but she had taken in several lines before she could tear her eyes away.
Spike,
I thank you for your letter, and I must apologise for my lack of tact. Those words were intended only in jest, and I did not to mean any offence, or to imply that you are not truly a dragon. I had similar conversation with your mother when we first transformed her, and at the time none of us were sure whether she was truly a dragon or merely able to look and act like one. But it was always a joke, an academic curiosity that did not affect our relationship. There was no question that she was a valiant warrior, worthy of her reward, and a trusted advisor when I needed her the most. She was first and foremost my friend, and next to that it seemed of no importance whether she was truly alive or not.
But she was accepted in the Dragon Lands, she found love with a dragon, and you were born. I’m sure Twilight Sparkle, being more grounded in the sciences, will tell you that the ability to have children is the strictest test of species. So by the fact that your egg existed, it is proven beyond any doubt that Fang truly became a dragon, and so are you.
I must also thank you for your diligence, as I am aware how hard the current situation must be for you. However, I am less confident that we will ever be able to trust…
The letter wavered in the air as Twilight levitated it back to the place she’d found it, where she now noticed the edge of a few other letters placed flat between books. She wasn’t going to look at them. She shouldn’t have read that one, it was a letter not addressed to her. She wanted so badly to know who the Princess thought she would not be able to trust. But she had violated a confidence, reading someone else’s mail, and that alone would be enough to make her unworthy of trust. It couldn’t be her, could it, that Princess Celestia had chosen not to share important information with? She shook her head, as if the gesture could clear away the negative thoughts that were bothering her.
The rest of the cellars, as predicted, contained no trace of Spike. So with her head still full of speculation about that letter, she left the library and went in search of Rarity and Spike.
Meanwhile, on the edge of Ponyville there was a kind of negotiation going on. Lucky Break wasn’t quite living up to his name, and had to explain that he didn’t quite have the money he’d hoped.
“Times are hard,” he gasped, “You don’t know what it’s like, I’m setting up home for the first time. There’s all these costs you don’t expect, and I didn’t win… I didn’t earn as much as I’d hoped this month. I can give you thirty bits, and I’ll pay double next month. Can you give me that? I swear, I’ll make good on what I owe, to you and to everypony. We just need some time to get settled.” He realised he was babbling, speaking faster and faster.
“No,” it was the reply he’d expected, but delivered with such finality that Lucky Break found himself stepping back in fear, “I don’t offer credit to everypony. I thought you were reliable enough to take a chance on, but I told you up front that there’d be consequences if you couldn’t pay. I have to keep my word, or people won’t respect me.”
“Look,” Lucky gasped, “You’ll get your money, I swear it. Please, don’t make us return it, we’ve paid you part already. We’re just getting over the first hurdles, we’ll pay you–”
“When you first said you had problems, I said I’d give you three chances. This is your last chance, and once I’ve said it I don’t change my mind. Honesty is my middle name.” He gave a brief laugh, which contained almost no trace of humour, and then reached for something on the table beside him.
“Look, if we have to give it back, can we at least get a cheaper one, for what we already paid? I’m telling you, we can get the… What’s that thing? What are you doing?”
“DIAMOND!” The grating, unnatural voice rang out loud enough to fill the room, and Lucky Break could only panic as he saw the monster in front of him.
“Wait, please! You’ll get the money, I just–”
“I’ll get it, alright. I said you got one more chance, and you know my reputation. ‘Honest’ is practic’ly my middle name.”
The door to the Carousel Boutique swung open as Twilight approached, but there was no sign of anypony in the main part of the shop.
“Hi Rarity,” Twilight called out, raising her voice slightly to ensure it would carry to all the back rooms, “Is Spike still here? He didn’t get back y– Oh.” She saw a sign on the counter, and walked forward to read it. It was just a simple thing, a folded piece of paper standing up to tell the world that Rarity had gone to find materials, and that anyone who wished to place an order could try again later or leave a note for her. In many places, a shop open with nobody there would be an open invitation to any thief who happened to notice, but theft wasn’t such a big problem in Ponyville. And in any case, Rarity’s customers mostly wanted something made to order or at least adjusted. They came here for the service, not just the merchandise.
The sign was more interesting to Twilight right now because of the handwriting, which she easily recognised because she saw it most days. Spike had penned the little notice for her, and his calligraphy skills certainly gave it a professional appearance. Twilight pondered waiting for them; if Spike was helping Rarity to carry whatever she needed to buy, then he would be back here before he got home. But she didn’t know how long that was likely to be, until she glanced at some smaller numbers on the back of the paper. It was Rarity’s writing this time, a rough note with attempts to calculate what she would need and how much for some designs. Twilight wasn’t the biggest expert on fabric, but a quick glance around the back room revealed plenty of all the coloured fabrics on the list. So Rarity would have to be out collecting gems.
Twilight wasn’t sure how long that would take, but she was always organised. The books on mineralogy she’d sent Rarity on her birthday were neatly stacked on the end of one workbench, in mint condition and without a trace of dust on them, like books should be. Twilight had to admit that she didn’t know anywhere as near as much as she could about her friend’s special talent, so it seemed reading up a little would be a great way to pass the time until Rarity and Spike returned.
Three hours later, her patience was starting to wear thin. The books were interesting, and she was learning a lot, though she was pretty confident Rarity would still know more. But there was a whole chapter on different excavation techniques, including digging by magic and using dragons. Even accounting for the fact that Rarity could cast her signature gem finding spell without any ritual and without needing to rest after an hour, digging up the number of gems listed on those notes would take them three full days of labour, and that didn’t seem to leave enough time for actually making the dresses. Rarity would have to go to a jeweller or wholesaler to get her precious stones for this order, which in no way explained her absence for several hours, when she often said that the early afternoon was one of the busiest times for customers coming to the Boutique.
Twilight carefully re-shelved the books, ensuring that she treated them with just as much care and respect as Rarity would. Beside them she found a flame ruby, a peculiar gem which had formed with variations in density that made light shining through it appear to flicker like a candle flame. Twilight had read that they were said to be a symbol of romance in some cultures, and after she’d mentioned that Spike had insisted on giving one that he’d found as a gift to Rarity. All the time denying that he had a huge crush on her, of course. Whether he’d given it to Rarity and she’d placed it on the bookshelf as a conversation piece, or if he’d come over shy at the last minute and left it there, Twilight couldn’t bring herself to leave something of such intrinsic and emotional value on display in an empty shop. She took the ruby for safe keeping; Spike and Rarity would never forgive her otherwise.
Then she hesitated for a second, wondering what to do. Fear was crystallizing in her mind, worrying about both a good friend and her loyal assistant. She didn’t know who she was more concerned about, and as much as she told herself they could have just got delayed somewhere, she couldn’t quell the sense of worry. Even the analytical part of her mind said she should look for them, because she couldn’t continue with her work until she had Spike’s help anyway. If she found them enjoying a long lunch or a spa then the little dragon had earned a stern lecture.
First, she gave a little surge of magic to the Element of Joker, which sat in its usual place on her collar. It moved against the metal contacts, and glowed briefly. It had taken her and Rarity weeks of research to make the collars work properly, but she was sure the effort would be justified now. Wherever they were in Ponyville, the collars of her five friends would light up and let them know she was worried about something.
Or four, in this case. She’d spent so long fine-tuning the spell, working so close to the magic she was studying, that Twilight could feel the flow of energy into and out of the Element now. And she could tell immediately that Rarity wasn’t wearing her collar. That ruled out any possibility that Rarity could have neglected her business to enjoy the spring sun in a pavement café, or anything of that sort. Something was very wrong.
“What’s up?” Pinkie Pie set the door swinging back and forth as she charged through, “Something’s wrong and Rarity can’t help? Hey, where is she?” She bounded around the room with her usual exuberance, looking at Twilight from every angle as if there might be some position from which the unicorn looked less concerned.
“She’s not here. She went to buy gems, and she’s not got her Element. Something must have happened.”
“Buy gems? Doesn’t she normally get Spike to dig them up?”
“She doesn’t have time. If she went mining, even assuming ideal layout of gem deposits, and if she didn’t sleep when she was actually making the dresses,” there they both paused and groaned, remembering the troubles they’d had when Rarity had last been making dresses for them, “She’d miss the deadline for her current project by nearly two days. Even without drawing a proper critical path analysis she must have known she wouldn’t have time.”
“Hey! What’s up?” Rainbow Dash burst in through a high window, and this time managed to check her speed enough to land with some measure of grace on the far side of the room, “I came as quick as I could.”
“Rarity’s missing,” Twilight answered, speaking more quickly now she realised she was probably going to end up repeating the explanation again, “Spike too. I was hoping I could sense her location when I activated the collar, but she’s not wearing her Element.”
“Right,” Rainbow Dash was the fastest to come up with a plan, a quality she probably prided herself on even if it wasn’t the best plan in the world, “I’ll fly over town a few times, see if I can spot her from the air.”
“We know she went shopping, so we can go round the jewelry stores and see who saw her last,” Pinkie grinned, “I bet we can find her by talking to people faster than you can by flying.”
“You’re on!” and Rainbow Dash was out of the Boutique again, soaring through the skies over Ponyville. Twilight hesitated just a moment, and then added a note to the bottom of Rarity’s sign explaining the situation. Hopefully either Rarity would return and see it, if her Element had somehow been stolen, or anypony else who came in would join in to help them with the search.
“You can’t do this to me!” Rarity screamed, “I am a delicate lady, I can’t do manual labour!”
“We can do what we want,” the dog standing over her growled, from behind fangs so long he always seemed to be behind bars, “You stole our gems, you took our pups, and you’re taking all our customers. You’re gonna make that right, starting with–”
“Noooo!” Rarity yelled, her voice cutting through her captor’s tirade, “I never hurt any pups. Do you think I’m some kind of monster? If you need the money, I’m happy to buy gems, but can’t we negotiate in a civilised manner? Over tea, maybe, and without stealing my choker.”
“Uh-uh,” the creature shook his head, “Fido saw a pony with a magic stone, you’re not getting that back.” Rarity just nodded, and tried to think where she could start negotiation. There had to be something in common that they both wanted, and Rarity knew that talking was one of her strong points.
“Have you seen Rarity today?” It was a simple enough question, but Twilight’s progress around various jewellers was slowed by the fact that everypony they asked wanted to know what was wrong. Many of the jewellers had bought gems from Rarity in the past, when she’d found caches of a colour or type that didn’t suit the dress she was working on at the time. And several of them had sold her jewels or even complete pieces when she was in a hurry to complete something. But none had seen her today, and in every store Twilight ended up recounting the story, saying that she’d been supposed to meet Rarity and had some reason to be worried about her friend.
It was harder than it might have been, because Twilight didn’t want to mention the powers of the Elements of Harmony. There was no way of knowing if one of the storekeepers, or one of their customers, or a curious passer-by, might find a Gaia Memory and become the next dopant to rampage through Ponyville. So she didn’t want the typical mare in the street to have any idea precisely what kind of powers the Elements gave them, how they worked, or what kind of limitations they might have.
She asked the jewelers; Sapphire Glaze, Pure Fire, and Morning Glory. She asked the geologists, who traded in gems among many other earth-created commodities but without being fitted into a setting. And having read part of the books at Rarity’s place, she knew her friend might have gone to see a builder’s merchant instead. Anyone who cut large quantities of various types of stone for building with might come across gems amid the rock, and local specialists such as Rock Solid, Heavy Bargain, and Honest Joe, who had their own small quarries, might not find enough to justify hiring a full time mineralogist to cut, sort and polish the stones. It could be a bargain if you used enough gems to have your own tools, which Rarity clearly did.
Everypony gave her the same answer. They hadn’t seen Rarity, but they knew of her and they were worried enough to need a full account of where she’d last been seen. By the time she’d recounted her carefully censored version of the story ten times, Twilight was already exhausted. She stopped for a moment outside the last shop, hoping that Pinkie would have more luck with her half of the list. Then she finally noticed the unicorn sitting distraught by the side of the road.
She didn’t particularly stand out from the crowd. A pale coat that could just as easily be pale gold or white under golden sunlight, and a short red mane that hung down in waves to almost block her view of the world. The only reason Twilight’s instincts had been screaming at her to notice this mare was because she’d seen her so many times over the course of the morning. Now she was paying attention, she noticed that the other unicorn was sitting staring at the ground, and her mane parted around her horn just enough for the sadness in her eyes to be visible.
Twilight Sparkle didn’t hesitate. “Hey, is something wrong?”
“What’s it to you?” the other pony didn’t even look up as she mumbled a reply. She kept on staring at the ground, and at the wedding ring she was turning around and around on her hoof.
“Because you’ve been a few steps behind me or ahead of me most of this afternoon, so either you’re following me or maybe we’ve got the same problem. You’re visiting jewelry stores, right, wondering where your friend has got to?” The pale unicorn nodded, eyes still fixed on the ring on her hoof.
“Your special somepony is missing?” Twilight hazarded a guess, and was rewarded with another almost imperceptible nod, “Then we should share who we’re looking for, see if we can help each other. And a nice cup of tea while we talk might help you calm down some. My name’s Twilight Sparkle.”
The other pony looked up, and there was a long pause. Then she got to her hooves, and mumbled “Heart Flush” as she followed Twilight to the most convenient café.
Heart Flush and Lucky Break had been the perfect young couple. Everybody said it, though their parents didn’t exactly approve of the direction they wanted to take their relationship. Lucky’s father wanted his son to inherit the family farm, and provide him with a half dozen grandkids to dote on. Heart Flush’s father was a skilled blacksmith disappointed that he didn’t have a son to follow in his hoofsteps, so a strong son-in-law seemed like a godsend. But the young lovers had their own plans, which didn’t involve taking on either of their family legacies.
They’d made it, though. They had a home of their own, without any help from their parents. They’d worked extra jobs on the side, hauling lumber at weekends or waiting tables in the evening while every day was devoted to building up their own family business. And they had saved up just enough to afford a wedding on their own, hoping that showing they could look after themselves would earn a little respect from their families. The biggest problem, it turned out, was the ring.
A wedding ring, with an enormous diamond. Even Twilight was impressed by the size of it, it would be impossible to miss. It was the kind of jewel that ponies like Filthy Rich would make sure to provide for their kids when the time came; not something a struggling young couple could save up for even working three or four jobs.
That, Heart Flush explained, was where Lucky had really benefitted from his natural luck. It was a big stone, and the ring was well made, but the ponies rich enough to afford something like that were currently following trends for subtle jewelry, something less gaudy, and it was on special offer. On great terms, too, if Lucky took it straight away, because the store didn’t have enough space in the safe for all their larger stock. Then they could pay it back monthly, and if they paid a little extra when their business venture turned a higher profit, they’d never have to worry about the interest.
It had all been fine, until some of the bird monster’s explosive feathers had damaged the roof tiles of their home during a battle. They’d had to choose between paying back the ring, or fixing up their home so it didn’t leak in the rain. And then the young couple had found one problem after another that required just a few bits to make it right. Lucky had made some bad bets, and they had to miss a payment. That was fine, but the next payment would be double. He’d said that should be easy, he’d heard from some of his friends in Cloudsdale that one pegasus, Meadow Song, had been doing more training than ever before and was bound to win the Best Young Flyer competition. They’d gambled their repayment money on her, with a side bet on Cloud Kicker in case the tip wasn’t as hot as he’d thought. It was a plan that couldn’t fail.
Then Rainbow Dash had won the competition, a result they couldn’t ever have expected. Lucky Break had a plan, though. He knew how they could find just enough bits to catch up on paying for the ring, if the jeweller would just give them two weeks to gather the cash. He’d gone out in the morning to explain the plan to the jeweller, saying that if the pony wouldn’t accept it then he’d beg and plead, and finally agree to return the ring. He promised he’d be back for lunch. And though his schemes didn’t always go to plan, he was invariably punctual. A great number of the tricks that powered their business depended on it.
“And he didn’t show?” Twilight answered as the tale trailed off. Heart Flush was staring into her teacup, not quite crying but with every sign that it was taking all her willpower not to.
“He sent me a message, said the jeweller wouldn’t give us a week, and he wasn’t sure what was going on,” Heart muttered, and then seeing Twilight’s raised eyebrow she had to explain: “We worked out how to use an old bit of magic that he found in the library years ago, he can send a message, just a few words, and I hear it like he’s right next to me. His horn flickers so quickly that nopony would notice unless they’re looking for it, so he could let me know while they’re still discussing it.”
That caught Twilight’s interest in a whole new way. There were all manner of communication spells available to a unicorn who wanted to study them, but all took either significant time to prepare, or required a clear line between ponies, or the messages travelled only as fast as a typical bird. She knew the one Heart Flush was talking about; she knew the book as well, it had a page torn out before she arrived in Ponyville and so far she’d been unable to find any data on the missing part of the spell. If Lucky Break had recreated the ancient scholar’s work, she would be able to offer him quite a few bits towards paying off his debt. But she immediately guessed that this young couple hadn’t revealed their discovery to the world because they had a much more lucrative use for it.
“You know there’s a law against betting on races that have already finished, right?” And the sudden eyes-wide panic confirmed her suspicions. “Don’t worry, it’s not my problem right now. But I think I see why your parents don’t approve of your business venture. So, Lucky Break sent you a message, you didn’t have any more time to pay. So I’m guessing he went to try and make some money real quick?”
“He sound scared in the last message. I waited ten minutes then tried to call him back. And I couldn’t reach him, it’s like he wasn’t there at all.”
“Hmm,” Twilight considered this. She wanted to try to find some rational explanation, but it felt like too much of a coincidence for Lucky Break and Rarity to both be missing when they’d gone looking for a jeweller. “Could he have tried some spur-of-the-moment scheme to make an easy bit, and got into a fight? Maybe he’s been knocked out, and that’s why you can’t reach him. I hope he’s not badly hurt, but it’s possible I could help you pay back what you owe if that will…” Heart Flush was gently shaking her head, and Twilight stopped as soon as she noticed.
“I can tell if he’s asleep. And even if he’s out cold, I found out after he ran into a door of all things, I can tell how injured he is and how long he’s likely to be out. If we understood the old writings right, I should be able to tell what condition he’s in even if he… he’s…” she couldn’t even bear to say the word.
“Then I’m sure he isn’t,” Twilight insisted. “Possibly a broken horn could change his heart signature, which would make your spell unable to find him, but in that case he’d need to be in a hospital. Did you check there yet? Or some kind of magical effect that blocks your communication spell, though using something like that would imply they know about your spell, and that’s worrying in itself.”
“I’ll check the hospital,” Heart Flush nodded, “I can’t believe he didn’t tell me which jeweller it was. I thought it was just because I’m practical where he’s romantic, he didn’t want me to know how much he really spent, and I trusted he’d be able to handle it. But now I don’t even know who to ask about him. You think it’s like revenge? But we never hurt anypony, why…”
“I’m worried about my friend as well,” Twilight hoped that would be reassuring, “She left a note to say she was going to buy gems, but she didn’t come back. We’ve got a kind of communication spell too, and I can’t reach her. If there’s magic that can block it, they could be in the same place. Is that reassuring? Because there’s a chance whoever it is doesn’t just have a grudge against your husband. And two heads are better than one, right?”
“Yeah…”
It was the following morning that the Elements of Harmony and Heart Flush gathered together in the Carousel Boutique. Rarity was still missing, and there had been no sign of Lucky Break either. They’d checked everywhere that might sell gems, even pawnbrokers and armourers, and nopony admitted to having seen either of them. Applejack glared with some anger at Heart Flush, but even she could understand the fear of a young mare who was fretting over her special somepony. Judgment on the fraudsters could wait.
“There’s one more place,” Twilight said, looking down a list of the responses they’d got, “One of the jewellers said they sometimes get stones from the Diamond Dogs. Sounds like a group of shady characters, famous for mining skill but not for their morals. Most of the reputable stores were only willing to deal with them when there weren’t enough other sources of gems. Now there’s enough supply that the buyers can pick and choose, these Dogs might be losing a lot of business. Enough to start… I don’t know. But desperate ponies do stupid things, and don’t care about the rules so much anymore. And what kind of attitude prompts anypony to call themselves ‘The Diamond Dogs’? That sounds like the name of a nefarious gang to me.”
In their tunnels, the Diamond Dogs were indeed getting desperate. Now, two of them were following a lone pony as quietly as they could manage. They were large creatures, with skin they liked to claim was as tough as the rock that surrounded them. Their claws were tough, and strong enough to dig through shale or even loose gritstone, but that meant they weren’t so good for moving quietly with gravel underfoot. If they’d been given to introspection, they might have concluded that walking on two legs wasn’t the best way to make no noise, because every step ended up supporting their whole weight as soon as the other leg was lifted. Still, the pony didn’t seem to have noticed them.
He was an earth pony stallion, walking with some confidence. The cloak over his back was clearly expensive, made from silk or velvet, or some other fancy material that the dogs had no reason to have heard more than the name of. He was carrying a small pouch of jewels as well, maybe a half dozen stones but larger than anything the Diamond Dogs had ever had the luck to unearth. They couldn’t stop staring at those gems, but as they drew closer to the strange pony they managed to fix their eyes on his hooves. If they were quick, they could take him out before he had a chance to strike back. The gems would be theirs, and all their troubles would be over. It wasn’t a perfect plan, especially if the stallion turned out tougher than he looked, but it was the only one they had.
The Dogs pounced.
Rarity’s head twitched around when she heard a scream of terror from one of the tunnels, but the sound was abruptly cut off.
“What was that?” she asked, nervous.
“Probably my brother,” the Dog who seemed to be in charge scowled, “Fido, go make sure he’s okay. Maybe he’s slipped or walked into a wall or something. You don’t worry about that, pony, you find gems. Right?” He punctuated the statement with an angry glare, but Rarity wasn’t used to taking any cheek from anyone who didn’t show respect.
“And ruin my manicure? I assure you, that is not going to happen. I’ve marked enough diamond deposits for you, all you have to do is dig them up. Or is even that beyond your abilities?”
“Hey!” the Dog snapped, “Diamond Dogs dig faster than any pony, faster than dragons even! You don’t cheek the Dogs, pony, ‘til you’ve seen what we can do.” Rarity nodded, and smiled to herself. It wasn’t an ideal situation, and she’d much rather not be a prisoner when she had such a big order to work on. But at least her captors had one thing going for them: they were dumb as a box of rocks, remarkably easy to manipulate, and they seemed to be all bark and no bite. The next step was to get her choker and the Element of Generosity back, but she could address that once they trusted her a little more, and once she’d had them dig out enough gems to finish off her current projects.
The Diamond Dogs lived in tunnels, according to the gem merchants. Twilight and Heart had both asked about them, but there was little other information available. Nopony wanted to talk about them, maybe because the reputable jewelers didn’t want it to be known that they’d ever bought from less salubrious sources.
“We should go back and ask again,” Rainbow Dash suggested, “We’re the Champions of Harmony! If anypony won’t give a straight answer we could report them to Celestia.”
“That’s probably not necessary,” Twilight was already starting to get frustrated with Dash’s excitement today. She was bounding all over the room, as if if moving fast would eventually lead to a solution even without direction. “Pinkie?”
“Right,” Pinkie Pie walked to the middle of the floor, and her eyes closed. Twilight Sparkle stood opposite her, and slid the Element of Joker into the Driver. It was a ritual they were both quite used to by now, and seconds later Pinkie was standing in the middle of a library infinitely vaster than the Golden Oak. She had always talked in her sleep, and that could be useful for passing messages out to the others while she was dreaming; while she could hear Twilight’s voice from the real world thanks to the powers of the Elements of Harmony.
“Keyword: Diamond Dogs,” Twilight spoke confidently. It was pretty obvious that was going to be the first lookup, but she felt like once they had a routine for these things it made sense to keep following it. In Pinkie’s imaginary library, one intangible shelf flew over or past another, bringing every book that mentioned Diamond Dogs right in front of her. Unfortunately, there were many more than she might have expected.
“Seven thousand, two hundred and two results,” she announced in a dreamy monotone.
“For one gang?” Heart Flush gaped in surprise, “They must be big news, why haven’t we heard of them?”
“Maybe they’re not a gang. Could Diamond Dogs actually be a species, a race, or a culture? All we know about them so far is they live underground and sell diamonds. If they’re a whole race, then there’ll be books about their history, culture, laws, everything.”
“Wait,” a word Dash rarely said, “That’s all in Pinkie’s head?”
“Luna left some stuff there,” Twilight explained, “There’s a whole library in her dreams. And Pinkie knows everything about everypony anyway, she’s probably found the books of everyone who’d had dealings with these Diamond Dogs.” As they spoke, Heart Flush looked back and forth between the two, not quite understanding how this lookup was supposed to work, but happy to accept that it did.
“Okay, we got this,” Twilight dragged the conversation back on topic, “Keyword: Lucky Break.”
“Thirty eight results,” the answer came back right away.
“Maybe we don’t need them all,” Twilight tried looking at the problem in a different way, “Pinkie, just get Lucky Break’s book. See if it tells you where he is.”
There was a long pause.
“Pinkie? Are you there?”
“Yes. I found the book for Lucky Break.”
“So what does it say?”
“I think we got a big problem.”
In the library, Pinkie Pie stood with one book in front of her, on a lectern. The cover was much the same as the books she had containing everything she knew about everypony else, with the title ‘Lucky Break’ and a representation of his cutie mark emblazoned on it in gold leaf. She tried to open the cover, but it was clear pretty quickly that wasn’t going to help. From the spine side, the book looked perfectly normal. But on the other edge, it was immediately obvious that it didn’t have any pages. Where the book block should have been, there was just a large, oblong diamond sandwiched between the covers.
A little more research turned up the location of the Diamond Dogs; and with a stroke of lateral thinking from Twilight, they looked up Rarity’s book to find out that she was at least somewhere in that area. They couldn’t find out much information, though; it seemed that even with whatever magic Luna had added to the library, it couldn’t be used to spy on other ponies.
Still, they knew that Rarity was with the Diamond Dogs, and they knew where to find them. But nopony could decide whether they thought this would help them to find Lucky Break or not, and whether they even wanted it to be relevant. If the Diamond Dogs had done something to him, then they knew at least who to fight. But at the same time, that meant that Rarity was in the same danger, and there was no way to know if the changes in the book meant that Lucky Break was lost forever.
Still, as soon as the morning came they headed out to the area where Rarity had last been looking for gems. Now they looked, they could see pits in the ground that bore the distinctive marks of Spike’s drilling technique. They knew they were close on the trail of their friend, and all they had to do was follow the hoofprints and tracks on the ground until they found the Diamond Dogs.
“Right,” Twilight looked around, “we need to be careful. We know they managed to stop Rarity calling for help, and they maybe got Lucky Break before he could even send a message to let his wife know what was going on. That means that whatever kind of attack they’re using, it’s fast. I say we transform now, Pinkie and I will go on and everypony else can wait outside.”
“I’m not doing it?” Rainbow Dash was surprised more than angry, “We know they’re fast, it should be me going in. Me and Fluttershy can become Double Dash, the fastest of any of us.”
“Normally I’d agree. But we don’t know exactly where we’re going once we get down there. As far as we can tell from outside, the tunnels are a maze and they could be changed quite easily, so we need to be able to find Rarity once we’re down there. And I’ve studied her gem-finding spell. Maybe it tires me, and I have to stop to reinforce the magic occasionally, but I can see the gems. I can see the ones they dug up, and I can see the ones she tagged to dig up next. And I think if Rarity is trapped down here somewhere, she’ll remember that spell. She’ll be able to see the deposits I’ve sensed, as well, it might give us a way to communicate through the rock.”
“That’s assuming she thinks of it. What’s the chance of that?”
“Better than no chance at all. We can always swap out if we need your skills in battle. In any case, we don’t know that speed will help. You certainly can’t fly down here. I think that if we’re trying to find the most effective team for fighting these monsters, we should be thinking about Apple Pie. Strength might be worth more than speed, depending what they try to do. But I’m hoping that before it gets to that, we’ll have a chance to persuade them to let Rarity free.”
“I think Twilight’s right,” Fluttershy was as quiet as ever, but in the silence of this darkened cave every sound seemed too loud. “She can make light, too, so they won’t need to carry a lamp.”
“Fair enough,” Dash shrugged, “But you have to call us in once you find an enemy for us to fight. Promise?”
“It’s a promise.”
Back in Ponyville, it was all the other three could do to wait. They tried to comfort Heart Flush too, but there was no way to hide how worried they were about their own friend. No matter how many times they said they were sure it would be okay, they didn’t seem so confident at all.
Twinkie progressed ever deeper into the tunnels. She found lots of hidden caches of gemstones, both raw veins and already cut stones. There was evidence that there had been mining here, but haphazardly, like somepony drilling blind. They didn’t have Rarity’s gem-finding spell, that was for sure. It was like somepony was filling in the tunnels and digging new ones every week, and just taking whatever precious minerals they happened to run across. For some distance the spell could tell them which way Rarity had gone, but then there was nothing. Still, Pinkie was glad that Twilight was with her, because lighting up their horn was effortless and meant that they had slightly-creepy shadows dancing on the walls rather than total darkness all around.
They didn’t see any sign of Rarity, and after a while it would have been hard even to find the way they’d come. But between them they seemed to have a perfect sense of direction, able to tell which way was North and to easily form a mental map even of these twisty passages, all alike.
They still weren’t quite sure how it worked, but with the two of them sharing a body it seemed to be possible to put more power into a spell, almost like working magic with the benefit of an earth pony’s greater physical strength. It was only raw power, with little finesse, but when it didn’t seem they were getting anywhere Twinkie couldn’t see a better option. Their horn lit up like a firework, and there were no shadows at all in the narrow passage for a while. And they knew the location and type of every precious stone within a mile; even a few jewels in somepony’s collection in the nearer parts of Ponyville, the spell didn’t discriminate. And with one extra surge of power that would leave them a little drained for a couple of minutes, they found what they were looking for.
In the distance were gems that the same spell had already detected. The spell was supposed to distinguish between gems you’d already found and new ones coming into range, to prevent confusion, but it didn’t distinguish between different ponies using the same spell. And some of those were moving, which could only mean they were being mined. That meant that even though Rarity didn’t have her collar or her Element, she must be conscious and perhaps even unharmed. Twinkie had to wonder if she’d been enslaved and forced to work in the mines; or if she’d lost her Element somehow but decided to keep on digging for gems anyway. As much as it sounded crazy, it was only as strange as trying to dig up four days worth of gems in a single day; they both knew Rarity could focus on her work to the point that common sense took a back seat.
Twilight cut the power to that spell, and they started navigating the twisting tunnels in search of a way to that area of the caves. They might have found Rarity almost right away, if they hadn’t heard a startled yelp and sounds of a scuffle from a side passage.
“Who’s there? Are you okay?” Pinkie called. The Champion of Harmony turned aside from their path without hesitation, knowing that if somepony was in trouble right now, they had to make that their priority.
“Monsters!” they heard the panicked cry before they saw the pony emerge from the shadows and run towards them, “Run, they’re going to eat us!” He bolted past them as quickly as his legs could carry him, and kept running without pause. Twinkie didn’t run, and didn’t even hesitate. Twilight tugged at the Joker Memory with her magic, and half the lights on their armour disappeared. If it was a monster that sought to eat ponies, she reasoned, it would be most easily subdued with overwhelming physical strength. Maybe the thought was shared with the others on some subconscious level, they didn’t really know too well how the communication properties of the Elements worked just yet. But for just a second before she disappeared, Twilight could see the orange form of the Element of Honesty shimmer into existence in the driver’s open slot.
“LAUGHTERᏔHONESTY!” the Driver’s musical voice boomed even more than usual in the enclosed space of the tunnels, and Applepie wondered for a second if Rarity might have heard the resonant echoes all the way from whatever corner of this place she was trapped in. But then their attention was captured by the next arrival from around the same corner: three bipedal monsters with giant claws, two of them armed with a club and a spear respectively, and all wearing identical expressions of hatred.
“More of them!” one barked, and Applepie couldn’t think of a more apt word to describe the gruff sound, “Kill them quick, and we can get after the other one.”
“Are you the Diamo–” Pinkie started, but there was already a harsh metal spear jabbing towards her. Her first reaction was to try to dive out of the way, like she would with anything that seemed dangerous while she was doing a big song and dance. But the wall was close here, and there wasn’t anywhere to dive to. In the circumstances, she let Applejack’s reflexes take over. She lashed out to knock the spear aside, and then dived closer to deliver a solid kick to the chest of the Dog wielding it. He sailed back through the air almost two feet before his head hit the rock wall, and then he crashed to the floor.
“Quit that!” Applejack yelled, “Can’t we talk this out?” The two remaining Diamond Dogs looked at each other, and almost a mirror image, shook their heads. The one with the club, a huge length of iron with spikes on the end, raised it over his shoulder and tensed the muscles that would start it swinging down across the passage in a devastating arc. There wasn’t time to get in close, or even to back away before the blow landed. But this time Pinkie was ready, she knew from previous battles just how quickly the Driver could allow them to respond. Two hooves came up to the Driver on their chest, and knocked the two Elements just a little bit deeper into their sockets.
“LAUGHTERHONESTY: Maximum Drive!” They were rewarded with a cheer from the Driver, and suddenly they were holding a party cannon that hadn’t been there a moment before. The Dog with the club continued to swing, but his eyes went wide with surprise as he saw the size of the weapon in front of him. There was nothing else he could have done, and Pinkie knew that if she aimed right, the cannon could be as effective a weapon as it normally was in entertainment. But she wasn’t here to fight, and she didn’t think she could live with herself if she unleashed their powerful Memory-breaking attack without knowing exactly what these Diamond Dogs were.
(“They must be monsters, just blast it!” Applejack’s frustration echoes through their shared mind, but Pinkie had already made her decision)
(“Even if they’re monsters, that doesn’t mean they’re evil. Look at all the terrible things living in the Everfree, Fluttershy can make friends with half of those. And we don’t know what the Maximum Drive will do to something that isn’t a dopant.”)
(“They look like dopants to me, with those claws,”)
(“No. And even if they were, only one of them would be. Right? You need to know somepony’s got the memory before you hit them with a Break. No, this plan’s better.”)
The Dog with the club was still blinking. They could almost see the slow progress of a thought across its face, but it wasn’t obvious yet if it was going to continue attacking or run. Pinkie jinked the cannon to one side just a second before the tunnel was filled with flying confetti, streamers, cake, and flags. Applejack soared out of the cannon, and kicked out at the two Diamond Dogs as she passed. She hit one squarely, and it fell to the ground, but only managed a glancing blow against the one who seemed to be their leader.
Using the Maximum Drive meant that the two ponies who were Champion of Harmony had separate existence for a moment, but as soon as their one shot ended, they were a single pony again. Applejack turned back into Applepie, pink streamers spreading out from the cutie mark on her right haunch until she was half pink.
(“Awesome! We got to find more chances to do that now!”)
Applepie’s hooves hit the ground and she went from cannon-powered soaring to just running in an instant. It took the remaining Diamond Dog a few moments to realise what was going on as he rose up from a partly-stunned crouch to find that his enemy was now at the far of the tunnel behind him. When he made the connection, they were still close enough to hear his scream of rage as he barrelled after them.
Applepie didn’t have a light with them now, but they knew Rarity was somewhere in this direction. They ran as fast as they dared, one hoof darting up to follow the wall and give them some idea which direction they needed to head in. Now, they were just searching for Rarity again and they couldn’t waste time on anything else. The yells behind them faded off, telling them that the Diamond Dogs weren’t quite so skilled at navigating through darkened, twisting tunnels while slightly stunned, so they were likely to be safe for now.
Rarity was hard at work now, counting the baskets of gemstones in front of her. This, at least, was a task she could accomplish without damaging her dainty hooves. And she was quite impressed with the Diamond Dogs’ haul. In less than a day, they’d dug up diamonds that would have taken her and Spike more than a week to excavate. The only problem now was getting those jewels out of here.
“Rarity! You’re safe!” Spike ran up and jumped towards her, almost knocking over the pile she was counting, “I was so worried! But there’s all these little tunnels, between cracks in the rock. Places I’m small enough to hide in, but they’d never think to look. And a way through, once I found it. I’m here to rescue you!”
“That’s adorable!” Rarity beamed, “But I think it’s not time for a big rescue mission just yet. While I’m down here, I’m in the perfect position to find out what’s going on. I think there might be a dopant involved, but I haven’t seen any proof yet. If there is, Twilight and Rainbow Dash and the others will have to come down here, and it could be dangerous to go in unprepared if the enemy is as cunning as I’ve surmised.”
“You don’t need a rescue?” the little dragon seemed somewhat downhearted, disappointed even. Rarity knew that it must have taken a lot of courage for him to come and find her, rather than looking for an escape route. So the least she could do was help him to feel useful.
“Well, I can’t escape right away in any case. Those Dogs took my Element, and there’s no way I can leave without it. The whole fate of Equestria could rest on that little crystal. Do you think you could find it for me, darling?”
“Will do, m’lady!” Spike pulled off a gesture that might possibly be a bipedal version of a military salute, and vanished back into a tiny fissure in the cave wall. If he managed to find it, it wouldn’t be too hard to get out of here with all the gems she needed. She’d already found that nopony liked to see a lady in trouble, and these Diamond Dogs were just the same. She felt a little bad about not helping them when she’d said she would, but that would be easier when she met the others.
She’d just finished sorting a basket of almost-pure rubies when she heard an echoing in the distance, so quiet that she wouldn’t have been able to recognise it if the Dogs had still been digging: “laughterᏔhonesty!”
Applepie moved as quickly as they dared down the narrow tunnels. They knew the direction they should be heading in now, as long as they didn’t get turned around too much. Once or twice they heard movement around the next corner, but when they arrived there was nopony there. No dogs, either.
(“They’re running,” Applejack contributed to the internal dialogue, “Makes our job easier, but there’s something wrong there. I don’t like it.”)
Then they came to a larger cavern, with water rushing quickly across the floor. It was clear, some kind of mountain spring before it sprung out of the ground, maybe, and they could see it would be deep enough to sink in, and too fast to easily swim. There were stepping stones, but irregularly placed and with too much space between them. Applepie could leap from one stone to another, but then ended up balancing precariously with three hooves on a single stone that wasn’t large enough to accommodate the fourth.
(“You best take over, I’m not so hot at prancing around without solid earth under me.”)
(“Right!”)
Then the Diamond Dogs started throwing rocks at them. There were maybe six of the creatures this time, all around the chamber on high ledges that would be tricky to scramble up to without the Dogs on the other side throwing rocks.
“It’s a trap!” Pinkie yelled, almost more excited than afraid. She leapt onto the tallest of the stones in sight, just about keeping balance on two hooves. A stone clanged off their magical armour, and another hit their shoulder in a way that would almost certainly leave a bruise. Pinkie didn’t bother to discuss her plan, even at the speed of thought it was quicker just to pull out her Element from the Driver. All the way back in the library, the Driver would be appearing on Fluttershy’s chest, and it would be pretty obvious to everypony that they needed wings to fight here.
“KINDNESSᏔHONESTY!” the Driver sang out, and Fluttershy instinctively cowered as she saw more stones flying towards her. But unlike Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy’s wings had light but rigid armour plates on, and as she cringed they proved quite effective at sheltering Flutterjack from the continued bombardment. She might not have the speed or power, and she was too nervous to fly when carrying one of her friends even if they were technically sharing one body. But her wings were more than adequate to keep them from falling off their rocky perch, and to keep the majority of missiles from hitting any area not covered by the Driver’s armour.
(“Those bullies can’t hurt us!” Fluttershy muttered proudly, surprised at how effective her armour was, “My wings are like a shield of steel!”)
(“We can keep dancing forever, but to stop them we need to be up there. Time to trade places, I guess.”)
“KINDNESSᏔLOYALTY!” The boom of the Driver’s voice was enough to make the Diamond Dogs dizzy in this tight space, and a surge of light from the pony’s body seemed to knock all the stones out of the air for a moment, as well as dazzling them.
There wasn’t room to build up speed for a sonic rainboom, though they could possibly have managed it using the Driver’s power. Fluttershy didn’t like that idea, though, reluctant to hurt someone without at least knowing why they were fighting. So they flew up to the centre of the chamber while the Diamond Dogs were still reeling, and picked out one standing on his own, with pockets full of gems. It was hard to tell, but just maybe that meant he was the leader.
Two pegasi in one body meant two pairs of wings. And that meant they could fly much faster than either of them could alone. Even in the width of the cavern, they were moving fast enough to hit that one Dog with the force of a runaway cart, knocking him maybe a hundred feet back down the tunnel whose mouth he had been throwing rocks from.
“Where’s Rarity and Lucky Break?” Dash growled, her armoured hooves effortlessly pinning the creature to the floor, “What have you done with them?”
“We only took one pony, we thought she was the one taking our pups, and our friends,” the dog growled. He struggled, as well, but there was nothing he could do against the combined strength of two ponies, more than doubled by the power of their transformation. “If you’re going to do that thing, then do it. It won’t help you, we’re keeping the white pony until you give our pups back.”
“We haven’t got your pups. What would we want with dogs?”
“What would we want ponies for?” The dog was getting more confident again now, having realised he wasn’t going to be subjected to some cruel and unusual punishment, “We saw the white pony do it, with a magic gem thing like those you got. What is it, he kidnaps our pups and you’re his bodyguard?”
“Which white pony? You said earlier you were blaming Rarity, but you know she’s not responsible. Did you see who did it, or are you just blaming everypony?”
“My brother saw… saw a white pony tur–”
“Mare or stallion?” Dash snapped angrily, realising that the Dog’s surrender had somehow turned into an interrogation. Her prisoner just looked confused, so she added: “A boy pony, or a girl?”
“Don’t know,” the creature shrank back, as if sure he was going to get beaten for this answer, “All ponies look the same. But white! And with magic crystals.”
(“Gaia Memories,” Fluttershy sighed, “I knew it was going to be.”)
“There’s ponies that use those things to do bad stuff. It’s our job to stop them. So, let Rarity go, and we’ll help get your pups back.”
“Uh-uh,” the Dog just shook its head, “And don’t try to hurt me. Won’t get you anything. We would have got him if you hadn’t come. Bring our pups back, then your friend can go. So we can be sure.”
(“He kind of has a point,” Dash mused, “I mean, it’d be dumb to trust us if they haven’t heard of us. And if there’s a monster with a Memory out there we’ll have to fight it anyway.”)
(“But Rarity’s trapped down here, she must be so scared.”)
(“I don’t think there’s a right answer here. But the sooner we beat the monster, the sooner they’ll let her go. We can’t go beating up these guys when their kids have been taken, can we?”)
“Right,” Dash took over speaking for both of them, “But we need to know more about this white pony. He uses a Memory, one of those crystals, to transform. Right? What does he change into?”
“He doesn’t change. But our pups do. And the Dogs who try to fight him alone,” the pause that came next could have been evasiveness, the Dog wondering just how much he had to say to stop them standing on his chest. Or it could have been doubt, wondering if he’d be believed. Or, just maybe (and the possibility he seemed most likely to deny), he could be hesitating due to fear. “Changed into diamonds.”
In Ponyville, a certain store owner had just got back, and switched out the long cloak he used for venturing into the mines for something less dust-marked, and more businesslike. He’d never liked dealing with the Dogs, even when they sold diamonds at the cheapest prices around. It seemed wrong to pass over his hard-earned bits to creatures from some other race. Now, with the constant threat of futile violence, he hated it even more. But at least he didn’t have to pay for the gems.
He emptied out the cloak’s pockets before stashing it away. Seven gems this time, and pretty large ones. He quickly pressed them into the settings of rings whose original stones had been damaged. Of course, there was no way he could possibly repair jewellery like that. But with the special diamonds, it seemed to work. They flowed like hot wax, fitting to the setting almost as if they were still alive. And they had such brilliance, such fire within them, that he knew he was going to make a fortune on these.
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This has an air of the Money Dopant, one of the few episodes of W that I actually saw.
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I was thinking more of the Jewel Dopant when I wrote this. I can see the similarities to Money as well; I think they have quite similar arcs. This one was half inspired by a MLP episode, and half a W episode. Not sure which is strongest, but I find that those episodes are the ones I enjoy most.