A Dog and Pony Show
Our story continues not long after the events of the Best Young Fliers Competition, in the days following the competition, Rainbow Dash had recovered from the exertion caused by performing the Sonic Rainboom, Fluttershy had revealed that she had a talent in staring animals into submission, which she used to save Twilight from a Cockatrice and the group known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders had won a talent contest for their apparent comedy act. We rejoin our heroes as Winter is accompanying Spike and Rarity on a gem hunting trip.
“Oh my gosh, Sapphire Shores, the Pony of Pop! She is awesome! I mean, she’s gorgeous and talented…” Spike gushed before catching the annoyed look Rarity was sending his way.
“Careful Spike or one might think you have a crush on this Shorey Sapphire pony, plus I think our dear fashionista here is getting jealous” Winter said, sending Spike an amused look and ignoring the annoyed look that Rarity had transferred from Spike to him. Rarity rolled her eyes at his antics.
“Her name is Sapphire Shores, Winter and I’ll have you know that I am a lady and a lady doesn’t get jealous of anypony” Rarity rebuked him, which earned her an eyeroll from the white Unicorn male.
“Aye, and I’m sure you didn’t flip out or faint when she strolled into your shop and ordered five sets of your jewel encrusted clothing” Winter replied sarcastically, getting another glare from Rarity.
“Ladies do not “flip out” Winter, though I do confess to being quite in awe of her. Moving on from Sapphire Shores, I must admit that I am wondering why you’re here Winter – not that I dislike your company or anything – it’s just that you’ve never seemed interested in gem hunting” Rarity responded, giving Winter a curious look when she mentioned her curiosity about his presence.
“There’s a gem quarry nearby that has a shipment of rubies I need for my fireworks, the various aspects of the gems are varied to allow for more experimentation when I get them home” Winter answered as they proceeded to wander around a clearing, with Rarity using her gem finding spell to find various jewels and Spike digging them up when they were found. After a while, the wagon they had brought with them was quite full and Rarity decided that they should take a break.
“You’ve been very patient Spike, and that deserves the finest reward” the Unicorn said to the Dragon (who was drooling over the gems in the wagon) as she plucked a very large sapphire from her stash and gave it to him.
It was at this moment that Winter decided to pick up his shipment from the quarry, so after excusing himself, he made his way over to the quarry, unaware that he was in for a rude shock when he arrived there…
“What?! What do you mean ‘we don’t have your shipment’?!” Winter barked at the unfortunate Earth Pony worker, the pony in question backing away from the irate Unicorn “I received a letter from you this morning saying you had my shipment of rubies. Is this some sort of practical joke? Do you perhaps think this is funny? Because I’m not laughing!”
“It’s like I said sir, we don’t have your shipment. We had it when we sent the letter, but we turned our backs a couple of hours ago and when we checked on it again, it had vanished” replied the worker, sweating as Winter fixed him with a nasty glare.
“And how did it vanish? Did it grow legs and wander off? Sprout wings and fly over the rainbow? Or perhaps it decided to fulfil its lifelong ambition of becoming a mole?” Winter snapped sarcastically at the worker, who sighed and decided to explain what they had seen.
“I don’t know about becoming a mole sir, but there was a quite large and deep hole near to where we stored your shipment, when one of us decided to investigate it, he was met with what appeared to be a geyser of soil coming from the hole, which filled it in quite rapidly” he said, getting a raised eyebrow and request from Winter to see the hole. The worker led him over to a shed with what appeared to be a mountain of dirt near the doorway, at the base of this “dirt mountain” was a ring of upturned soil that indicated that something had tunnelled upwards and extruded at that point.
After examining the area and finding no further clues, Winter thanked the worker and apologised for his poor attitude before heading back to Spike and Rarity where he arrived just in time to see Rarity being dragged down a hole and Spike stuck to a tree branch by the plates on his head.
“What in the name of Nightmare Moon is going on here?” he wondered as he freed Spike, though he got no answer as Spike was only able to speak gibberish, Winter sighed “It’s one thing after another around here. I’d best get you back to Twilight, she knows you best, so she’ll know what to do.”
Scene Change: Ponyville
Winter was lucky when he arrived back in Ponyville as Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie all appeared to be hanging out together, they all turned to greet the approaching stallion when they noticed the still gibbering Spike on his back.
“Winter? What happened?” Twilight asked, immediately taking Spike off him.
“Heck if I know, he’s been like this since I got back from the quarry to see him stuck in a tree and Rarity being dragged down a hole” he answered, giving Spike a concerned look “I thought you’d know how to calm him down long enough to tell us what happened”
“Rarity. Woods. Jewels. Dogs. Holes. Taken. SAVE HER!!!” Spike suddenly blurted out before starting to hyperventilate.
“Winter, take us to where you found Spike NOW. This sounds like it’s serious” Rainbow interjected as Twilight handed Spike a bag to breathe into. Hearing this, the other mares turned to Winter and nodded getting a nod from him in return before all six rocketed off back to the clearing, with Spike on Twilight’s back.
On their way, Spike had managed to calm down enough for Twilight to ask him what had happened to Rarity.
“Spike, can you breathe now?” she asked.
“Yes, I think so” the young drake responded, though still taking the occasional breath into the bag.
“Good, then tell us what you know.”
“Yeah, because what you told us back in Ponyville ain’t a whole lot to go on” Applejack added.
“Sorry, Rarity and I were in the woods looking for jewels when these creepy guys showed up.”
“Creepy guys?” Twilight asked.
“Not Rarity’s fan club again, I hope” Winter put in, getting a slap round the head from Rainbow.
“That’s not helpful Winter!” she snapped at him, giving him a death glare.
“You’re right, that was inappropriate, sorry.”
“Anyway, who were they Spike?” Twilight asked, getting the conversation back on track.
“They called themselves the Diamond Dogs” Spike answered “They grabbed Rarity and disappeared down a hole in the ground.”
“Well this sounds like an easy fix, just take us that there hole you mentioned and we’ll save Rarity” Applejack reassured him, though her words got an eyeroll and groan from Winter and Rainbow respectively.
“Don’t say that, you’ll jinx it” the two moaned in unison as the group arrived at the clearing to find it was absolutely full of freshly dug holes.
“Holey moley, that’s a lot of holies” remarked Pinkie, getting a deadpan look from Rainbow, Winter and Applejack for stating the obvious as Twilight walked past and told them to get started on finding Rarity. The lavender mare then peered down one of the holes, only to get a faceful of dirt after she announced her presence by calling “Hello” down the hole.
Geysers of dirt then begun to erupt from the holes as the Diamond Dogs started filling them in as the six tried to get down the holes but to no avail. The mares then decided to try and dig their way down but the Diamond Dogs decided to start messing around with them by popping up, pulling their tails or baiting them by appearing in front of them but burrowing down again when they tried to grab the Dogs. This stopped when one tried to do the same with Winter:
“Don’t even think about it” Winter snapped, fixing the canine with a glare as it popped up in front of him.
“Oh, and what are you going to do if I DO think about it, pony?” mocked the Diamond Dog in a voice that resembled Gollum from the popular fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings, getting a smirk from Winter.
“I’ll knock you into the middle of next week. With a pineapple” he retorted before kicking the canine in the face, thereby scaring it off and discouraging future attacks on them.
“Oh, this is getting beyond a joke!” complained Rainbow loudly “how are we supposed to rescue Rarity if we can’t even get down the holes?”
As the mares and Winter debated on courses of action to take, Spike spied an open hole. Remembering the sapphire Rarity had given him, he thought he could lure the Diamond Dogs out by baiting them with it, but he needed something to hold it over the hole.
Quickly scanning his surroundings, he noticed a bit of string that the Diamond Dogs had thrown up with the dirt. He then snapped off a tree branch and tied the string to it, creating an improvised fishing rod, which he then tied his sapphire to and lowered it into the hole. Realising what he was doing, the others crowded round him, but not near enough to the hole to be seen.
“Spike, it is very noble of you to sacrifice the gem Rarity gave you” Twilight said to him proudly, though she had to lower her voice midway through her sentence as Spike shushed her.
“Oh Lady Rarity, my damsel in distress, I shall save you…” Spike said as he proceeded to venture off into fantasy land for a while, which ended when he attempted to kiss Applejack (presumably fantasising about kissing Rarity), much to the amusement of the mare in question.
“I think you’ve got a bite” Winter put in, pointing at Spike’s fishing rod, which begun to bend as something in the hole began pulling on it and pulling Spike in as well with the strength the thing in the hole was pulling on the line with.
“Hold on little feller” Applejack said, grabbing his tail in her mouth, but the force started pulling her in too, the rest of the Ponies there began grabbing onto each other, each with their own thoughts to add as they did so (and were pulled into the hole.
“Applejack!”
“Twilight!”
“Why don’t you ever think about these things Dash?”
“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!”
“Wheee!” (Three guesses who that was)
The group was then pulled through a series of tunnels (with shouts of joy and delight coming from Pinkie) until Spike lost his grip on the rod when they were pulled down a vertical tunnel and landed in a heap underneath.
“I guess we’ve finally hit rock bottom” joked Rainbow, though her voice sounded distorted.
“I would’ve found that joke a lot funnier if you didn’t have your hoof in my ear, Dash” replied Winter in a deadpan voice.
“Well, if you would remove your leg from its current position on my nose, I would be able to remove my hoof from your ear, Winter” snarked Rainbow in return as the Ponies in the pile slowly untangled themselves from each other.
“Ha ha, it worked, we’re in! Now all we have to do is save Rarity” Spike happily declared before his bubble was burst by Twilight.
“Um, which way do we go? With all these tunnels, how are we ever going to find Rarity?” she asked, getting a rather dramatic response from Spike and a thoughtful look from Applejack.
“Guess we’re going to have to split up and go down them one by one” she said, getting an outraged look from Rainbow.
“That could take forever!” the rainbow-maned Pegasus snapped.
“Not to mention it’s unwise” added Winter, getting confused looks from the mares and Spike, he sighed then explained “We don’t know how stable these tunnels are, where they go or what’s down here. It’s safest to stick together, that way if something goes wrong, we can help each other out easily.”
“Wait, what if we go down the tunnel with the most gems in it? Those Diamond Dogs mentioned that they were hunting for gems when they kidnapped Rarity, so they’d take her down the tunnel with the most gems in it, right?” Spike interrupted after doing some thinking.
“Great ide Spike, good thing Rarity showed me how to do her gem finding spell a while back. Now let’s see if I remember…” Twilight trailed off after her horn lit up and started showing ghostly silhouettes of the gems that were buried in the surrounding rocks and soil, with a significantly larger concentration being focus around one particular tunnel, which the Ponies then proceeded to charge down as Spike leaped onto Twilight’s back.
As they continued further into the tunnel, they began to hear the sound of a mare crying, they headed towards the noise until they came to an opening with a series of tunnels and iron barred doors. The sound of crying was coming from one door what had been left open.
“She must be in there” declared Rainbow, pointing at the door before a bunch of dogs clad in grey armour jumped on them and fastened basic rope bridles on them.
“More work horses” grunted one before a certain stallion lost his temper.
“GET OFF MY BACK YOU MANGY, DROOLING FLEABAG!!!” bellowed Winter, bucking about and slamming the dog into a wall, the dazed dog was then thrown off by Winter’s bucking who then plucked a large lump of stone out of the ground. By this point, the other Ponies had bucked off the other dogs and were standing in a line behind Winter, knowing what was coming.
“Come on, there’s six of us and one of him” grunted one dog as the others cowered away “Besides, what can one pony do?”
“I’ll teach you to jump on a pony’s back without permission you stupid. Cowardly. Scummy. Flea-bitten.” Winter emphasised every word with a blow to the head on an individual dog with the lump of stone he’d found and continued ranting and bonking the dogs on their heads as he spoke.
“Run away from the scary Pony!” cried one as the group of Diamond Dogs turned tail and ran down a tunnel, Winter pursuing them.
“GET BACK HERE YOU ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT BUFFET FOR TICKS!!!” He shouted as he went, striking the nearest ones with his rock, leaving behind five sweatdropping mares and a Dragon.
“We all agree those idiots deserved that, right?” Rainbow said to the rest, getting some chuckles and nods as they continued in their quest to find Rarity.
Meanwhile, Winter continued chasing the dogs down the tunnel, shouting various insults and striking them with the rock until they reached an opening where the dogs seemed to find their courage again as they stood by a cage door.
“Game’s up Pony, now you face our most recent guard. He will scare you to death and then eat you!” grunted one dog as they opened the cage to reveal the Hydra from Froggy Bottom Bog, it exited the cage and then hissed upon seeing Winter.
“Really? That’s the best you can do? What’s a Hydra doing down here anyway?” Winter deadpanned, much to the Diamond Dog’s confusion “Doesn’t matter, get out of my way or I’ll give you a sound bonking too.”
The Hydra did not appreciate Winter’s threat and roared at him, resulting in Winter swinging the rock into one of it’s heads and continuing his insults and chasing of the Diamond Dogs, this time adding a Hydra into the group he was chasing. This continued until the group ran into a clearing with three more Diamond Dogs on their knees in front of the Mane Six, distracted by this, Winter stopped his chase, allowing the others to escape and he wandered over to see what was going on.
“Assist you with what?” he arrived in time to hear Applejack say. He then saw Rarity look over to five more carts – complete with rusty chains and harnesses – filled with various types of gems.
“Why, those of course” the fashionista replied, confirming Winter’s suspicions that they were what Rarity wanted assistance with.
“You’re letting her leave? With all those jewels?” Spike asked, getting frantic nods from the quivering Diamond Dogs
“Yes, take them! And HER with them!” the Gollum sound-a-like answered.
“PLEASE!” begged a second, the smallest of the bunch.
“Wait a second, nobody’s going anywhere before I find out what happened to my rubies” Winter interrupted as the mares began hooking themselves up to the carts and heading for the door “Did you idiots take them?”
“And what if we did Pony?” snapped Gollum, suddenly finding his courage now Rarity was leaving “We take what we want, when we want to take it. You’re not getting those rubies back!”
“Right, I’ve had a long day and have no patience for this. It’s Bonking Time, let’s see if that’ll sort you out!” snapped the white stallion as he proceeded to strike the three over their heads with his rock.
“Okay, fine, they’re over there, just please stop hitting us” Gollum cried as he and his two friends ran away, Winter chasing them until he reached the entrance of a tunnel.
“Clear off! Go on, scat! Annoying mutts! And don’t you go coming back” he snapped after them, saying the last line at normal volume while shaking his hoof at them, he then turned and picked up a sealed box from the corner of the room which was marked with the name “WINTER SHIELD” and followed the Mane Six out of the tunnels. He eventually caught up with them shortly after they managed to exit the mine and in time to catch the end of their conversation.
“I can’t wait to write to Princess Celestia and tell her about everything you’ve taught me today, Rarity” Twilight said, getting a confused look from Rarity.
“Me? What did I teach you?”
“Just because a pony is ladylike, it does not mean she is weak. In fact, by using her wits, a seemingly defenceless pony can be the one that outwits and outshines them all” Twilight answered the fashionista with a smile.
“Yeah, outshines is right” cut in Spike while biting a ruby in half “Not to mention you’ve got enough gems here to finish Sapphire Shore’s order.”
“Not if you eat the all Spike” Rarity playfully replied, taking the ruby off him with a playful smirk, resulting in him biting down on thin air and all the other mares laughing.
“Now now, let’s not tease Spike too much” came Winter’s amused voice from behind them “After all, it was because if his quick thinking and ingenuity that we were able to get to you Rarity… although the gesture now seems a tad pointless.”
“Nonsense Winter, I am very grateful to you all for coming to my aid, although I was able to handle it, you did not know that and I am very glad that I have such good friends who would drop everything to help me out” Rarity said, looking at them all when she said it
Scene Change: Winter’s Hut
After getting back to Ponyville, helping Rarity getting her gems into the Carousel Boutique and depositing his own box of rubies in his cellar, it was quite late and Winter was tired, so he decided to turn in.
As he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, he suddenly felt odd, as though he was flying through the air. Opening his eyes, he saw that he was laid on a blue cloud with stars twinkling in it, but when he looked around, he could see nothing but darkness. Winter then felt a presence behind him.
“Do you know what the worst type of nightmare is?” came a voice out of the darkness and echoed around him; it was a feminine voice, hard and cold but still strangely familiar, Winter turned but could see nothing “The worst nightmares are those born from memories, the memories that haunt you. The memories that make you curse yourself and your decisions, that make you desire to forget them, just so they will stop taunting you.”
“Who are you? Where are you?” Winter called into the darkness, his voice echoing back to him almost mockingly.
“So why is it that your nightmares are filled with events that did not happen in your lifetime? Why are you haunted by these memories that shouldn’t be there to begin with?” the voice continued, ignoring Winter’s question.
“How should I know? Even if I did know, why would I tell someone who won’t even show themselves?” Winter snapped back, getting mocking laugher in return.
“You don’t know?” the voice parroted, laughing again “Oh, I think you do. I think you’re just too scared of the truth to tell anyone. But why do you fear the truth? Do you fear it will make your friends fear you? Revile you as a monster? Abandon you?”
“Sh-show yourself!” barked Winter looking around him for the one taunting him, his voice cracking a little as the voice in the shadows laughed again.
“Why hide the truth from those you care about? Why lie?” it taunted him again, the laughter still mocking him from all sides. Winter grit his teeth and pawed the ground.
“I’ve told no lies and I’ve hidden no truths, so why not face me and explain why you think I have?” he said to his surroundings, lowing himself into a fighting stance.
“What’s the matter? Getting worried that if a random stranger can find your little secret out, how long will it be before your precious friends catch on?” the voice laughed again, which sounded odd after it had practically spat venom when it said the word ‘friends’ “What would your sister say, if she knew?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about, now show yourself before I get really angry!” the stallion snapped, the accusations hitting sensitive spots and easily getting through his usually good self-control.
“Ooh, why so defensive for a stallion with nothing to hide? But if you insist on denying the truth, then I suppose I should be polite and tear your lies apart face to face” the voice said before shifting metal could be heard, followed by the ‘Clank’ sound of an armoured hoof hitting the floor. More clanks came as the source of the voice grew closer, the clanking growing louder and Winter found himself stepping back as the clanks drew nearer as he felt an emotion that he was not experienced with. An emotion that he had only truly felt twice before: Fear.
“Why do you hide behind the form of a grouchy, eccentric Unicorn when you are so much more? Why do you hide everything you are from your so-called friends behind a mask of lies? Do you truly care so little for them?” said the voice again as the clanks briefly stopped, the only visible feature of the voice’s origin being a hoof clad in navy blue armour. Winter’s eyes narrowed when he saw it, recognising the design but not quite able to remember where he could recognise it from.
“You… how are you doing this? I know you from somewhere but I can’t remember where…” Winter trailed off as the being laughed again, the laughter starting to get on Winter’s nerves.
“Why should I tell you anything, when you tell those you claim to trust nothing? And don’t think I haven’t noticed that you have failed to answer my questions” the being replied as the hoof moved forward to reveal it belonged to a midnight black leg. More clanks were heard as the being began to slowly reveal itself to be a midnight black Alicorn clad in navy blue battle armour with a Cutie Mark of a crescent moon surrounded by purple gas and a mane and tail that resembled blue smoke with stars contained within it. She had Winter pinned with the gaze from her slitted, turquoise eyes and a wide, almost bloodthirsty grin on her face, showing all of her sharp, jagged teeth that seemed wildly out on place on an equine animal.
“So Dark, care to explain your need for all the secrecy and lies?” she said mockingly as Winter swallowed, now realising that he is in a dream and – as a result – completely at Nightmare’s mercy and for the first time in many years, felt true fear take hold of him.
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Nice chapter, keep up the good work!
MORE MORE MORE MORE PLLLLLEEEEEEAAAASSSSEEE
Is this story abandoned? If so, is it going up for adoption?
9574402
No, it's not abandoned (I'm actually working on a new chapter at the moment), my update schedule is just very unreliable.
However, if you want to write a similar story to mine, I'm more than happy to discuss ideas for it if you want to
9578906
Nah, this is a great story, and if just hate to see it discontinued after all of the other good stories I've seen get abandoned. Hopefully the next chapter is up soon (as soon as your comfortable with it)
9578906
YEAY! New chapter! You all have read it! It will happen! Hussah!