Chapter 4
Diamond dogs were not well-known for their… and you could insert almost anything at the end of that statement. They just generally weren’t well-known, and that was at least as much on purpose as it was an accident. Just like the deep ocean, very little was actually known about the vast array of tunnels and caverns underhoof at any moment in Equestria. Even the extent of the caverns wasn’t known -- were all the isolated pockets dug deep into the earth connected? Was there some huge truth waiting if one dug down enough into the rock? What kinds of societies and monsters lived and grew in those places that never saw the sun and moon?
Berlioz had been born not far from Ponyville. His parents had been considered dangerously deviant in that they occasionally traded with the nearby town, going so far as to actually travel openly in broad daylight. Most diamond dogs never saw a pony, and certainly never spoke to one. He’d been so young the first time he’d gone into town that he couldn’t even remember it. It had always just been a place he’d been aware of.
The local clan -- or tribe, or pack, or whatever one wanted to call it -- mostly lived a half-day’s journey down tunnels just outside of town, hemmed in on one side by quarrey eels and on the other by annoying crystalline growths and changes to the local terrain. It had been years before the dogs knew the cause, that pony magic had created a castle and warped the underground, making maps under the town useless and cutting off an old trade route.
“It’s terrible, isn’t it?” Luster groaned.
Berlioz considered his words carefully. “Yes,” he said, finally. “Cake should not be burned around the edge and raw in the middle.”
“I guess you really can’t just turn up the heat to reduce the cooking time,” she sighed. “It was stupid.”
“Not stupid,” Berlioz corrected. He squatted a little so he didn’t loom over the little pony quite so much. “Pony was trying to save time. Pony did not know it would burn. Not trying new ideas, that is stupid. If idea doesn’t work, still wasn’t stupid to try. Stupider not to try and never improve, yes?”
“Yeah,” Luster said, smiling a little. “Thanks, Berlioz.”
“Mm.” He nodded. “And now we know what happens. Pony and Berlioz not make same mistake twice. Making mistake once is how wisdom is gained.”
“We’ll do it the way the instructions say,” Luster Dawn agreed. “If you do the mixing, I’ll get a fresh batch of ingredients from the teachers.”
Berlioz nodded, and Dawn ran off to the Cake twins, telling them what she needed.
“Are you gonna eat that?” Larrikin whispered.
“...It is ruined cake,” Berlioz said. “Not good for eating.”
“It still looks good to me,” Larrikin said. “Think about it -- cake batter is pretty tasty, and regular cake is tasty, and burned cake is basically extra-brown cookies!”
Berlioz rolled his eyes and gave Larrikin the pan. The kelpie happily took it back to the station it was sharing with Arteria, already sticking their maw into it before they even sat down again.
“You shouldn’t encourage them,” Ibis said, from the other side of the room. She and Phantasma had already constructed most of their cake to exacting specifications and were working on minute details in the icing design. “If you let them eat your mistakes, they’ll start thinking the garbage can is another pantry.”
“Berlioz is fairly sure the kelpie already does that,” Berlioz said. “Berlioz has also never seen any creature as hungry as that one.”
“Maybe they’re just always hungry,” Ibis shrugged. “She can’t photosynthesize like this, so perhaps it’s like constant low blood sugar. I’d study it, but…” Ibis hesitated. “I would need more subjects for a control group.”
“That is polite way to say it,” Berlioz said, with a grin.
“And there is perhaps one other problem you hadn’t anticipated,” Ibis said.
Berlioz frowned. “What problem?”
“Oy!” snapped Arteria. “What’s this with you givin’ out snacks t’ my lab partner?” She fluttered over, keeping her eye level above Berlioz’s. “Ain’t cricket to go an’ give th’ wet bandit a free lunch an’ not give me nothin.”
Berlioz sighed. “If pony want ruined cake, pony can make own ruined cake. Berlioz promises it is even easier than making cake the right way.”
“That ain’t the bullseye,” Arteria said. “The shockin yell is on that I’m th’ leader an’ so I should get right of first refusal, you ears my drog?”
Berlioz did not ears her drog, but only because he didn’t know she meant to ask if he understood what she was saying. He nodded anyway.
“Crackin,” Arteria nodded firmly. She adjusted her sunglasses, which were entirely unneeded in the soft indoor lighting of the school. At night. “Just as long as you remember--”
“You’re the big bat that makes all the rules,” Berlioz recited, like he’d heard it a million times. It hadn’t actually been quite so many orders of magnitude but it felt like it.
“That’s th’ right key. Perfect pitch.” She landed next to him and slapped his butt with her wing before strutting back to her station to admonish Larrikin for eating garbage and being even more offended by the kelpie offering to share with her.
“You okay?” Dawn asked.
“Berlioz is fine,” Berlioz said. He rubbed his butt where the thestral had swatted him. “Berlioz sometimes feels like other creatures in school are not fine, and this makes him worry.”
“Yeah,” Dawn giggled. “It must be hard being the stable and dependable one.”
Berlioz nodded. “Pony has no idea.”
“It’s weird, with how nice you are all the time, I thought there would be more diamond dogs at the school.”
“Berlioz isn’t like other diamond dogs,” he said.
“No?” Luster asked.
Berlioz nodded. She’d meant for him to continue. He knew that. He just didn’t want to. “What is first step of making new cake?” he asked instead.
“Well, um, I guess first we mix the wet ingredients…” Luster started, picking up the list.
Berlioz was slowly, deliberately taking notes. When Luster Dawn opened his door without knocking, he didn’t make a mess or misstroke of the pen. He finished the letter he was working on, then turned his attention to the pony who had walked into his room without asking.
“Yes?” he grumbled.
“Hey! I was just wondering if I could get your help for a minute,” Luster said. She walked in like his question had been an invitation. It was something Berlioz had noticed ponies just did, even polite ones. Back home, that kind of intrusion would have been considered aggressive and demanded he defend his honor.
Berlioz knew that wasn’t the way Luster meant it. Ponies weren’t as sensitive about their own spaces as the dogs were. She’d walked in because she assumed she’d be welcome.
“What does pony need help with?” Berlioz asked.
Luster craned her neck to look at what he’d been writing. “There’s a rumor that two ponies went missing from the school, and according to what I heard they were working on spelunking cutie marks, and-- wow, you’ve got really good handwriting.”
Berlioz held up his hands and wiggled his fingers.
“I guess that does help,” Dawn admitted. “But this is like, professional calligraphy, and it’s just notes you’re making for class.”
“If something is worth writing, it is worth writing well,” Berlioz said.
“You sort of say that about everything.”
“Mm.” Berlioz nodded.
“Anyway, can you help me look for the missing ponies?”
“Has pony been asked to help look by Principal Starlight?” Berlioz asked. He was, after all, a cunning and intelligent dog.
“...Not exactly,” Dawn admitted, after a moment. “She might have sort of said the opposite.”
“Principal Starlight told you not to get involved,” Berlioz translated. “Did she say pony would only get lost? That she would have to find three ponies instead of two?”
“That is sort of exactly what she said, yes, but that’s why I want to bring you! You know tunnels, and you can help keep me from getting lost. And I know you’re trustworthy. I kind of worry if I bring Arteria she’ll, you know.”
Berlioz stood up. “Where did ponies go missing?” He could imagine what would happen if she brought Arteria, too.
“Come on. We don’t have to go far.”
“Pony was not joking,” Berlioz said. “Ponies went missing under the school?”
“Nobody knows how deep all the tunnels go,” Luster Dawn said. “There are some spots that teachers and students have reported that we just can’t find anymore. Mister Sunburst swears he lost his favorite cape when he ran into a monster in some kind of glowing magical lake.”
“Mm. Had classes with that pony. Pony also said that he walked uphill both ways to get to class.”
“That’s probably true,” Luster Dawn said. “He went to the School for Gifted Unicorns. Somepony tried to make the campus larger with some weird spells, and now it’s bigger on the inside, but… not everything is connected correctly.”
“Maybe ponies are just bad at making maps.”
“Well, the good news is that I’m amazing at making maps!” Luster held up grid paper, several sharpened pencils, and a book.
“I’m going to map things out as we go using the standard notation developed by experts in the field of exploratory indoor cartography.”
“Pony, book is for a game.”
“Ogres and Oubliettes teaches a large variety of important life skills,” Dawn said. “For example, it has a whole section on diamond dogs, so I’ve been able to learn a lot about your culture.”
Berlioz raised an eyebrow.
“For example, I know that diamond dogs have such a keen sense of smell they can determine which rocks contain gemstones just by sniffing them!” Dawn said.
“Berlioz did not know that,” he said. “Berlioz always thought rocks smelled like rocks.”
“...Really?”
“If tunnel has strange smell it does not mean gems. It means monster. Or poison gas. Usually gas. Do not go into tunnel with strange smell.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. So, um, which way should we go?” Dawn looked around.
“Berlioz thinks this way.” He pointed.
“Are there hoofprints? Some kind of special tunnel sense?”
“Mm. No. Ponies left chalk marks.” He pointed to an arrow scribbled on the rock.
“Are you sure it was them?”
“Yes. It is at pony eye level. Dogs would put it on floor or higher up in wet tunnel. Pony did it wrong, though.”
“What do you mean?” Dawn asked. She made a note on her map.
“Pony has arrow pointing down tunnel the way they went,” he explained. “Dogs use arrows too. Good in strange caverns, smart. Ponies were not entirely stupid. But arrows should point back to entrance.”
“Why? What’s the difference?”
“Mm… come here.” Berlioz motioned her forward to an intersection of four tunnels. “Look. Arrow shows they went down that tunnel, yes? Imagine you are leaving, and do not have map. You come here, and then where does pony go? Arrow only shows way you went, not way you need to go.”
“So they could have gotten lost on the way back,” Dawn realized. “They could have walked out of that tunnel, even this close to the exit, and been totally confused where to go.”
“Yes. That is why dogs mark way back, not way forward. There is always more forward, but only ever one way to return.”
“I’ll remember that,” Dawn said. She paused, then make a quick chalk mark on the floor. “Like this?” She had the arrow pointing, correctly, back towards the entrance.
Berlioz nodded. “Good. Mark is on floor because it is easy to find. Always watching footing in caves, yes? So you see marks on floor. Marks on wall, they can be missed.”
“I’m really glad I brought you,” Dawn sighed. “Okay. So we’ll follow their arrows and see how far they go, then work our way back to the entrance, checking the side passages they might have gone down by mistake. Does that sound good?”
“Good plan, pony.” Berlioz smiled.
They’d walked for a long time before Berlioz suddenly stopped Luster, grabbing her and pulling her to the side and covering her mouth.
“Quiet. Turn off light,” Berlioz whispered. She nodded and the light at the tip of her horn winked out. Berlioz let her go. She was smart enough to stay still and not ask what was going on.
A few moments later, she heard the footsteps too. A diamond dog padded along the tunnel, stopping near where they were hidden in the shadows. The only light in the corridor was the dim glow of some of the gems along the wall. The dog sniffed for a moment before moving on, grumbling to himself with a voice like gravel sliding down a hill.
Berlioz waited for a few long moments before letting Luster move.
“That was a diamond dog,” she whispered.
Berlioz nodded.
“Why did we hide? You could have asked him if he saw where the missing ponies went!”
“That was a deep-down dog. Derggo.” Berlioz frowned. “Very bad.”
Luster looked the way the dog had gone, and there was a clear uncomfortable silence where she was pointedly not asking a question.
“Pony is forgiven for not knowing the difference,” Berlioz said. “There are many tribes of diamond dog. Berlioz’s tribe, they are from near the surface. We can go out in the sunlight. The derggo cannot. They have the deep magic.”
“I’m really starting to think we need to learn more about you,” Luster said. “And they’re… bad?”
“Very bad dogs,” Berlioz confirmed.
“Great. Very bad dogs, and this close to the surface. Why are they even here?”
“Mm. When castle appeared, it changed the land. If the changes went deep, could be wells straight down to deep underdark where the derggo live. Berlioz’s tribe used to protect this territory from them, but we no longer have claim here.”
“Wonderful. So we might have to rescue two foals from them…”
“Yes. And we have to hurry.”
“Yeah. They’re probably terrified.”
“Berlioz is more worried they might already have been eaten.”
“What?!”
“Derggo are meat-eaters. All of them. Even cannibals, in bad times, but for them all times are bad. You understand? Very bad dogs.” He motioned for her to follow. “Hurry. Do not stray. Keep light low.”
“This looks like it was built,” Luster whispered. “There are tool marks.”
“Mm. Yes. These tunnels are old.” Berlioz stopped and touched the wall. “Look.”
“Runes?” Dawn asked, leaning in to bring her light closer.
“They are a record. Tell the story of the mine.” Berlioz tapped the symbols. “Very old. Too old. Should not be dogs wandering dead tunnels like this.”
“Dead?”
“Nothing left to mine,” he explained. “Mm. Maybe explains things, though. Derggo are this close to the surface because derggo mined out all the veins of the earth. No metal, no gems, just dry rock left.”
“Why not just pack up and leave?” Luster Dawn asked.
“Would pony leave home just because times are tough?” Berlioz asked. “No. Leaving would be like… whole city deciding to leave and rebuild. Like Ponyville being abandoned.”
“So it’s like… if nothing would grow around Ponyville. No vegetables or fruits or anything, and these tunnels would be like ponies going someplace they didn’t want to? Like foraging in the Everfree?”
Berlioz nodded. “Yes. Pony understands. The surface is a terror to them. To be this close, the derggo must be…” he shook his head. “Not good. And patrols. So they found the dead tunnels are open now.”
“What do we do?”
Berlioz hesitated. The smart thing, for him and Luster, would be to turn back. Return to the school, report what they found, come back in force. Even among his tribe, it would have been foolish to go against the derggo alone. They had old and terrible magic and he didn’t know enough about it to begin to estimate the real danger.
But on the other hand, there were two ponies that had almost certainly been captured by the bad dogs.
“We go on,” Berlioz said. “We are close.”
Close to what, he wasn’t sure.
The tunnel was dusty, but there was a clear path through it. Berlioz stopped at one point and touched a mark made to the side of the main path. A hoofstep was clear against the dusty stone. They were on the right track, at least until the tunnel opened up to a yawning, dark pit.
“Mm…” he frowned.
“What’s this?” Dawn asked.
“A hole,” Berlioz grumbled, feeling annoyed. “We have to find way down, but…”
“But what?”
Berlioz pointed. A stone platform stuck out from the rock, set into a track dug into the side of the well. “Derggo earth magics move these. Berlioz does not know how to make them work. Guard left this one here, but pony and Berlioz cannot ask him for ride to bottom.”
“Maybe we can figure it out,” Dawn suggested. She carefully stepped onto the platform, as if afraid a slab of solid stone wouldn’t be able to take her weight. Berlioz walked on after her.
Dawn paced around the edge.
“There are runes carved into the rock. Is that part of the magic?”
“Yes,” Berlioz said. “Derggo magic is like, mm. Slave magic. Makes things into servants to do work. This serves by going up and down.”
“The rock is… enslaved?”
“Yes. Difficult to explain. Earth pony might know better words for it. Berlioz and other dogs, we can sense spirits of the earth sometimes. My tribe, only small feelings from powerful spirits. They are like friends or rulers, yes? Dogs appease spirits with offerings, and spirits do things for dogs, but tribe cannot command spirits. Maybe like unicorn with weather -- unicorn cannot make rain come, but can hope for rain, and knows how to build umbrella for rainy season.”
Luster nodded. “And the derggo can bind the spirits somehow.”
“That is why they have bad times,” Berlioz explained. “Mm. Imagine if pegasus ponies decided one day -- no more rain. Days are all sunny and happy for ponies. But without rain, plants stop growing. Everything dies. The earth is not tended. Derggo are like that. They take everything from the earth and do not let it heal. Only care about what they can take. What derggo can own and rule.”
“That’s pretty bad,” Luster muttered. “I’m going to guess your tribe isn’t like that.”
“No. But, some of my tribe are still bad dogs,” Berlioz said. “Once in a while, try to take slaves or steal. Just like some ponies are bad and steal or hurt.”
“Yeah, but if your tribe had taken them we probably wouldn’t have to worry about being eaten,” Luster mumbled.
“True,” Berlioz agreed. He took a knee to run his paw over the runes. “Must be some way to do this but… forcing will hurt spirit of the stone.”
“It’s not like any spell I know,” Dawn shrugged. “Can you try asking it nicely?”
Berlioz was about to say no, then shrugged. It wouldn’t hurt to try. He put his hand flat on the rock.
“...Is it working?” Luster whispered.
Berlioz had spent a lot of time above ground. Maybe close to half of his life had been spent without rock over his head. He’d only rarely felt anything like the dogs in his tribe described, the deep spirits in dark places, sealed caverns where power echoed and no dog would enter.
But he had met earth ponies.
“What is pony doing?” Berlioz asked, more than a year ago now.
“Ah’m fixin’ up the castle garden,” Apple Bloom said.
Berlioz frowned. He spent a moment looking over what she was doing while he tried to gather the right words. She had plants in tiny pots, barely sprouted in loamy soil, and she was digging little holes in the garden to match.
“Plants grow on their own,” he said, eventually.
“Ah suppose that’s mostly true,” Apple Bloom agreed. “Ah could let this whole bed go wild. Mostly it’d grow weeds, though. Sort of like teachin’ all of you! If we just let all y’all grow on your own, there’d be a lot of weeds in sort of a metaphorical way.”
Berlioz folded his arms.
“What ah mean is, uh…” Apple Bloom thought about it. “Well, some plants are real strong, right? Like these trees here.” She reached over to pat a slim trunk with her hoof. “They’ll outlive you and me unless somethin’ mighty strange happens.”
Berlioz nodded. “Yes.”
“These little guys here, though,” she motioned to the tiny pots. “They’re a type of plant called an annual. They only last one growin’ season. They live, grow, and then die. If we want ‘em in the garden, we gotta replant them every year.”
“Why are flowers so weak?” he asked.
“Not everything has t’ be strong,” Apple Bloom said. “Probably wouldn’t survive in the wild, but it don’t have to. I’m here to tend it.”
“If pony had stronger flower, pony would have to work less.”
“Yep, definitely. But these flowers, they’re beautiful. If you only care about strong plants, you end up with the Everfree Forest. The whole place takes care of itself, but it ain’t a place for ponies to enjoy. It ain’t even a useful place like an orchard. The plants that help us are the ones that need our help too.”
Berlioz nodded.
“C’mere and help me,” Apple Bloom said. “Let me show you.”
He knelt down at her side so he could reach the ground, and she gave him a trowel. At her instruction he carefully dug out a hole, not so deep it would bury the plant, not so shallow that the roots wouldn’t have firm purchase. Berlioz carefully freed the plant from the pot and transplanted it with Apple Bloom cautioning him about how delicates the roots were.
Eventually, after much longer than it would have taken Apple Bloom to do it herself, he patted down the dirt around the seedling he’d planted.
“Perfect!” Apple Bloom said, patting him on the back. “Now there’s just one more step. Y’all gotta name it and ask it nicely to grow.”
“...Why?” Berlioz asked.
“Plants are very sensitive. They can tell if you care about ‘em. A pony who don’t care about a plant an’ wouldn’t give it a name, that’s the same kinda pony that wouldn’t care about a pet or any other creature.”
“Pony names every plant?”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Every single one. If y’all come on down to the orchard ah can tell you the name of all the trees.”
“Berlioz couldn’t remember all those names,” Berlioz mumbled.
“That’s okay! Y’all just gotta remember this one name.” Apple Bloom grinned. “So what’s it gonna be?”
Berlioz looked at the tiny green thing.
“May,” Berlioz mumbled, with his paw still pressed against the cold stone.
“Huh?” Luster asked.
Berlioz shook his head. “Spirit is a slave. Does not have name. First thing, give spirit a name. Maybe not a good name for stone but… good name,” he said, quietly. “Shows that you care, because a thing does not have a name. A person has a name. A slave is not a person, and maybe if spirit remembers it is a person, and not a thing, it will help.”
Luster looked skeptical, but she was a unicorn. Unicorns were naturally skeptical of anything that didn’t have numbers attached to it.
“Please, May, Berlioz asks you to move so he can find other ponies,” he whispered. “Berlioz promises when this is done, he will try to free you. He doesn’t know how to do it yet, but he will find a way. All creatures should be free.”
Nothing happened for a long moment.
Then the whole platform shivered. There was a crack like something in the wall was snapping. Luster almost jumped back into the tunnel, but Berlioz held her back until the slab started sliding down smoothly.
“Pony was right,” he said. “Asking nicely was the right thing to do.”
“I just didn’t expect it to actually work,” Dawn admitted.
It was impossible to tell how deep they went, but the pressure difference made Berlioz’s ears pop, something that usually meant flooding in a mine and made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.
“Oh wow…” Luster Dawn whispered. The far side of the well opened up, and the platform was descending in the open, the well extending down through a ceiling and the platform’s track following a stalactite towards the cavern floor far below. “Is that a lake?”
“There are many sunless seas,” Berlioz said. “Berlioz has never seen one with his own eyes.”
“It must be miles across,” Luster said. “How can a cavern this large even support itself? It should need huge support columns!”
“In other places, the spirits of the earth would keep the rock strong,” Berlioz said. “But here…” He reached out to touch the wall sliding past them as they descended. The rock flaked off like stale pastry. A chunk fell, and he caught it, showing it to Luster before crushing it with his bare paw, tossing the dust aside.
“That makes me really feel good about being down here,” Dawn mumbled. “Are we going to be able to get back up?”
“Yes,” Berlioz assured her. “May will hold on until pony and Berlioz are ready to leave.” He touched the platform.
“Sounds good,” Luster said. The lights around the rim of the sea slowly resolved themselves as windows and lights around streets, some of them bobbing and moving as unseen dogs carried them from place to place. “What are they using for light? It can’t be fire, right?”
“No. Down this deep.” Berlioz narrowed his eyes. “Berlioz used fireflies and glowcrystal. Color isn’t right for those.”
The platform slowed as they approached the cavern flow, coming to a shuddering jerking halt not quite flush to the ground.
“Stay close, pony,” Berlioz said. Luster nodded, and they walked out onto what looked almost like a city street, if someone took all the life and color out of a city and replaced it with cold rock. Everything was the same color, a flat grey, all the windows yawning empty gaps in the stone. Half the buildings were ruined, huge stone slabs crushed under cave-ins and piles of rubble.
“Is this whole place falling apart?” Luster asked.
“Yes,” Berlioz muttered. “Pony asked why cavern is so large, now Berlioz is asking it too.” He looked up. “Whole roof is half collapsed. Not natural.”
“And these streetlights…” Luster stopped at the base of one of them. It was a thin pillar of steel and stone topped with a silver cage. Inside, a spark floated like a trapped star. “That’s magic. It’s not a lot of magic power, but…”
“Mm.” Berlioz nodded.
“Hey!” a voice barked in the darkness. “You!”
A diamond dog stepped out of an alleyway between two half-broken buildings. They were wearing armor made of strange grey leather and what looked like the shell of some huge beetle or lobster.
“What dog doing here?” the derggo growled. It spotted Luster and drew an axe, a crude length of bone and sharpened chitin. “You have pony?”
Berlioz stepped protectively between the armed dog and Luster. “Not for you!” he snapped.
The derggo bared its teeth, looking at him for a few long moments before lowering its axe. “If dog comes to trade, go to trade quarter! Rest of city off limits to visitors!”
“Which way is trade quarter?” Berlioz asked.
“Stupid high-land dog, go that way!” the derggo pointed with its axe. “And get collar for slave or else! City has rules!”
“Slave?” Luster asked. Berlioz hushed her.
“We go to trade quarter,” Berlioz said. “Not here for trouble.”
The derggo nodded, apparently appeased, and stalked away.
“Come,” Berlioz said, just loud enough for the retreating dog to hear.
“What’s that all about?” Luster whispered. “Slave? Why would he call me a slave?”
“Because you are pony, and he is bad dog who thinks all ponies with a diamond dog are slaves,” Berlioz said. “If pony saw cat with other pony, would think pet. Cat alone, maybe a stray or lost. Bad dog cannot think of pony as person.”
“That’s… convenient,” Dawn muttered.
“Mm. But we have to make sure pony not mistaken for stray,” Berlioz said. He stopped at a ruined house and looked around before stepping inside, grabbing a length of half-rotten rope.
“What’s that for?” Luster asked.
“Disguise,” Berlioz said. “Sorry.”
Berlioz looked at his friend. The older dog, Tanzen, was leading a pony down the tunnel. Actually, leading was generous. He was mostly dragging the young stallion, who had a rope securely around his muzzle and neck.
“What is dog doing?” Berlioz asked, confused.
“Tanzen found pony digging in old mine,” Tanzen said. “Now pony can dig for us.”
Berlioz frowned and stepped in front of Tanzen. He was a full head shorter than Tanzen and maybe half his weight.
“No,” Berlioz said.
“Pony can dig faster and harder then dogs,” Tanzen said. “Need pony for mine. No more trade with stupid pony castle in the way.”
“Trade with ponies,” Berlioz said.
“Like parents of stupid tiny dog who spends too much time in the sun?” Tanzen laughed. “Ponies are not friends. They do not care about dogs!”
“True,” Berlioz agreed. “Ponies do not care about dogs.”
Tanzen nodded with approval. “So dogs keep pony as slave.”
He tried to step past Berlioz, and the smaller dog got in front of him again. “No.”
“Stop saying no!” Tanzen yelled.
“Ponies do not care about dogs because dogs do things like this.” He pointed at the bound colt. “Ponies care about friends. Dogs must work to be friends of ponies, and then whole tribe will be happy and rich like ponies!”
“Ponies are weak,” Tanzen growled.
“Yes. But ponies are also strong, because weak pony will have many other weak ponies come looking.” Berlioz held out a paw. “Give Berlioz the rope. Pony must go free. Unless dog wants whole pony army coming for this stallion?
“Ponies would not send whole army for one pony!”
“Yes they would,” Berlioz said. “That is why ponies are weak and not weak. You keep pony as slave, ponies will come to make sure no pony can ever be slave again. Give Berlioz rope before pony hangs you with it.”
Tanzen grumbled and gave Berlioz the lead.
“This is humiliating,” Dawn grumbled. Berlioz had tied the rope into a collar and lead, walking her along like she was some kind of reluctant pet.
“Berlioz did apologize,” he pointed out. “But only way to make sure you are not taken. Other dogs think you belong to me. Will leave you alone. Safer.”
“That doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Dawn muttered.
The market was busy. Berlioz had never seen so many dogs in one place. The fact that every single one was a derggo set him on edge. They smelled wrong, like rot and disease. Even Dawn was able to pick up on it. Berlioz saw her scrunch her nose as they passed close to a group of derggo arguing over something.
Berlioz had to walk like he knew where he was going. Instinct told him the best thing to do was seem confident. He glanced around, trying not to look like a tourist even more than his bright clothing and less ragged appearance did.
One stall, stinking of vinegar, had dogs pulling wet mats of grey fungus out of vats and stretching them on racks, making the strange leathery material that many of the dogs were wearing.
“Careful,” Berlioz muttered, tugging the leash when Dawn wandered too close to another stall, keeping her out of reach of something with dozens of spider-like legs ending in claws.
“How long are we going to walk around?” Dawn hissed.
“Ponies have to be here somewhere,” Berlioz mumbled. “Too many smells, but ponies are valuable. Some dog must be buying or selling them.”
“What are you going to do when we find them?”
“Berlioz will figure that out when he has to.”
It was a very good question. He wasn’t even sure where to begin. He couldn’t fight his way out even if he wanted to. Running would be difficult. The thought of trying to negotiate with the derggo wasn’t particularly attractive either -- it was unlikely they’d be willing to listen to anything close to reason.
And then he spotted something that gave him hope.
“Tanzen?” he asked, surprised. The bigger dog turned to look, just as surprised as Berlioz.
“What is Berlioz doing here?” Tanzen rumbled.
“Berlioz asks same thing.” It could be taken as questioning why Tanzen was there, though if one was slightly better with Ponish they might catch the sarcasm. “Dogs from tribe should not be here.”
“New rules,” Tanzen said. “No trade, and new tunnels mean shared border with derggo. We must have either peace or war.”
“Mm.” Berlioz nodded.
“The derggo are strong,” Tanzen said. “Their ways are different, but dogs can be strong again with them. Look at city. Much bigger than tribe. Derggo have magic and weapons.”
“Derggo are--” Berlioz forced himself not to snap at Tanzen. This wasn’t the time or place for it. “Derggo ways are different. Berlioz is surprised chief of tribe would allow trade.”
“Chief is weak,” Tanzen shrugged. “Berlioz is here now too, with pony slave. Berlioz is smart enough to know where strength is, yes?” Tanzen grinned, showing sharp teeth. “Ponies are weak.”
“Yes,” Berlioz agreed. “Does Tanzen know where slave market is?”
“Here to sell?” Tanzen asked.
“Maybe,” Berlioz said. “Berlioz wants to see first. Berlioz heard some ponies here already.”
“Want to wait for them to run out of ponies to sell at high price?” Tanzen cackled. “Berlioz is smart dog! Yes, Tanzen will show you. Might take time. Some ponies just went to market.”
“Mm. That is unfortunate.” Berlioz said, following the bigger dog through the crowded street.
Luster shot him a look. He shrugged.
“Please introduce yourself to the class,” Miss Sweetie Belle said.
“Berlioz,” he said.
Sweetie Belle waited a few moments for him to continue, or say anything at all, really. He just stood at the front of the class silently.
“Why don’t you tell us about yourself?” Sweetie Belle said.
“Berlioz is diamond dog,” he said. “Tribe lives outside of town. Under quarry. Berlioz’s parents trade with ponies.”
“Your parents sell gems to Rarity, don’t you?” Sweetie asked. “I think I’ve seen you around town.”
“Mm.” Berlioz nodded. “Rarity pony is known to all dogs in tribe.”
“I thought she did all her own mining,” said a strangely damp pony in the back corner of the room. “Doesn’t she have diamonds as her, um, what’s it called… booty call.”
“Cutie mark,” Sweetie corrected. “Not that you’re entirely wrong.”
“That’s what she said!” the damp pony said, crowing with laughter. Sweetie Belle’s cheeks turned red.
“Berlioz does not get joke.”
“Good,” Sweetie said. “So can you tell us why you decided to come to the school? You’re the first diamond dog we’ve had here. I bet we can learn a lot from each other!”
“That is why Berlioz is here,” he said. “Dogs do not know ponies, but ponies do not know dogs either. If dogs and ponies are going to live close to each other, there must be understanding. If friends, then even help each other when things are bad.”
Sweetie smiled. “That sounds like a pretty big burden on your shoulders.”
“No. Bigger burden would be doing nothing,” Berlioz said. “This is better. Berlioz is here because he might be able to do something.”
A very large winged cat sitting in the geometric center of the room spoke up without looking away from the book she was paging through. “The poet Lord Teddybear once said ‘Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier.’”
“That is what Berlioz hopes,” he said. “Things were bad for ponies too before they were friends. If dogs and ponies are friends, both will be happier.”
“This is more than two ponies,” Berlioz mumbled.
The slave market had over a dozen ponies in twisted, too-small cages with cold iron bars, most of them shivering, dirty, and thin.
“Ponies are very valuable to derggo,” Tanzen explained. “Ponies are full of magic. Derggo take magic from ponies and use it to fuel city. Since derggo can’t go to surface, rest of dogs can make big profit!”
“Dogs from tribe captured ponies?” Berlioz asked, stopping in his tracks.
“No,” Tanzen scoffed. “Dogs all stupid. Tanzen go to tribe say we can finally get what we want, can finally have the respect and fear we deserve but no! Chief say Tanzen wrong! He knows nothing! He not smart like you and Tanzen.”
“Pony philosopher once said that wisest pony in all of Pegasopolis was pony who knew only that he knew nothing,” Berlioz mumbled. He was trying to come up with a plan that would get them out of this without a fight and coming up with nothing.
“Hah! Yes. Sounds like something ponies would say,” Tanzen laughed. “Not all ponies are stupid. One even smart enough to sell other ponies to derggo!”
“What?” Berlioz blinked. “Pony selling other ponies? Who?”
Tanzen shrugged. “Tanzen does not know.” He paused and looked troubled. “Pony was very strange. Wore all red with gold mask--”
“A gold mask?!” Dawn gasped. “Was there a sun embossed on it? Did you get their name?”
Berlioz groaned. “Dawn.”
“What?” Dawn asked. She looked down at what she was doing. She’d run ahead and grabbed Tanzen. Dogs were watching them from all around, because she’d torn the lead right from Berlioz’s paw. “Oh. I, uh. I might have blown our cover, huh?”
“Sound alarm!” Tanzen snapped. “There is--”
Berlioz punched Tanzen in the snout. “Dawn! Free other ponies! Berlioz will keep him busy!”
“But what about--”
Tanzen threw Berlioz back, slamming him into a cage.
“Just do it, pony!” Berlioz snapped. He grabbed a rock from the ground and hit Tanzen with it. It was a dirty move, the kind of thing that could kill. Except, of course, that the rock was about as solid as a clump of mud and dust. It crumbled into a cloud of loose gravel when it hit Tanzen’s head. That was almost as good as a real blow, the sand getting into the bigger dog’s eyes and blinding him.
Berlioz looked around for anything else he could use as a weapon.
“How are we getting out of here?” Dawn asked. She was yanking at a cage, tugging at the lock with her magic until the crude mechanism popped open.
“Can pony do any magic that will help?” Berlioz asked.
Tanzen swept his leg in his moment of distraction, and Berlioz landed hard on his back, and the big dog pounced on him, jaw snapping shut only a paw-width from his face.
“You are weak dog!” Tanzen yelled.
“Yes,” Berlioz agreed. “But Berlioz explained this to you long ago. Weak things are strong when they work together!”
Hooves slammed into Tanzen’s tail, and the big dog yelped in pain. Berlioz head-butted him, and Tanzen’s eyes rolled back. The bigger dog went limp, and Berlioz grunted as the dog’s full weight fell on him. More hooves grabbed his shoulders and helped pull him free.
“Thank you,” Berlioz said, as three of the ponies that had been in cages helped him up. “Dawn, does pony have idea on how to escape?”
Before he even finished the sentence, the ground shook under them, and rocks fell from overhead, everything from dust and sand to boulders the size of houses landing around them. The lights flared up and changed colors before plunging the cavern into darkness.
Dawn’s horn lit up, and two more of the ponies did the same with their own magic, creating dim, flickering light.
“What did pony do?” Berlioz asked.
“They were using pony magic captured in crystals,” Dawn explained. “I’ve seen it before in a class I took with a professor from the Crystal Empire. If you use the right resonant frequency you can disrupt its ability to actually hold onto the magic and force it to just dissipate it into the air--”
“Pony, Berlioz feels this is time for short, simple explanation.” As an emphasis, a rock as big as Dawn’s head slammed down between them, cracking in half on the ground.
“I broke all their magic stuff!” Dawn said. “And, uh, that’s as far as I got with my plan!”
“Pony…” Berlioz sighed.
“It seemed like a good idea at the time!”
“Does pony remember way back to tunnels?” Berlioz asked.
“Yeah, I think so,” Dawn said. “But some of these ponies are too weak to walk.”
Berlioz sighed.
“Oh thank the stars, it’s still here,” Dawn said, as they got back to the platform. They’d somehow managed to get back despite the chaos and confusion, mostly because the derggo were too busy fighting and stealing from each other and fleeing downwards to actually do anything about it.
Berlioz grunted and put a pony down on the stone, then two more. Then the two hanging onto his shoulders got off and managed to walk the rest of the way on their own.
“May is good spirit. She trusted we would come back.” He patted the platform.
“If it gets all the way back up, I’ll admit she’s the best rock I’ve ever met,” Dawn said. “Can it handle all of us.”
“Yes,” Berlioz said. “I think so.” He got onto the platform. “All ponies are here?”
Dawn looked around, counting under her breath, then nodded to him.
“Okay.” Berlioz knelt down to press his hands against the runes. “May, please, Berlioz asks you to make one last trip. These ponies were going to be slaves, just like May, and Berlioz begs you to help him set them free.”
There was a long, tense moment, and then the platform lurched into motion. There was a distinct sense that it was overloaded, struggling to move up.
“Thank you,” Berlioz whispered.
“Since we made those arrows showing the way out, we’ll be able to lead everypony right to the school,” Dawn sighed. “I can’t believe we got out of there!”
A fist-sized rock hit Berlioz’s shoulder, and he fell to one knee, cradling his injured arm.
“From below?” He asked, peering over the edge.
Armored derggo were riding a second platform up on a parallel track. One of them had a bag of stones and a sling made of the fungus leather.
“Ponies stay down!” Berlioz yelled. “Back from edge!”
A second stone zipped through the air, missing him.
“They’re catching up to us,” Dawn said. Berlioz glanced over at her, then pushed her back. A rock went right through where she’d been standing.
“Pony has bright light on head!” He chastised. “Derggo aim for light! Berlioz told you to stay back!”
“It won’t matter if they’re going to be level with us in a minute!” Dawn countered. “We need to come up with a plan!”
Berlioz grumbled, because she was right and he, unfortunately didn’t actually have anything even approaching a plan.
“We could reduce the weight,” one of the other ponies said, quietly. “That would make us go faster, wouldn’t it? I’m in no condition to go on anyway…”
Berlioz shushed the pony. “No. That is the kind of plan bad dogs would come up with. No pony is left behind. And Berlioz isn’t going to jump either, so no dog left behind except all the bad ones. We need different plan. Pony know any spells?”
“Their magic is too weak for anything,” Dawn said. “I could make a shield, but that won’t stop them from just getting ahead of us and catching us in the tunnels.”
Berlioz nodded. “Shove them with magic? Push them off the platform?”
“I can try, but if they fall down that far…”
Berlioz hesitated. “Dogs are tough. They will live.” He was actually pretty sure of that. The fall from here was enough to break a few bones, but it wouldn’t be fatal. He just didn’t want to think about what the derggo would do to dogs that were too weak to defend themselves. They had to get meat somewhere after all.
“Okay. Tell me when.”
Berlioz cautiously looked over the edge. A rock caught him in the chest, where it would have been the head on a pony.
“Now!” Berlioz barked.
Dawn ducked out over the edge and fired a blast of magic. Unlike the dogs with their crude sling and rough ammunition, she was perfectly on target.
Also unlike the rocks, her magic vanished in midair, slamming into a field of energy. One of the dogs on the other platform raised an iron rod tipped with a ruby as big as a hen’s egg, the energy of Dawn’s spell tearing apart and being sucked into it like a lightning rod.
“Okay, that’s not good,” Dawn said. “They can do that?”
“Berlioz has never seen that before,” Berlioz admitted. “Does not look like dog magic. More like pony magic.”
“Yeah, I’ve heard of a few things like that. Null rods, metamagic staves, but they have to be made by unicorns.”
“When pony and dog get back to dorm, pony can talk to big cat about mystery,” Berlioz said. “Can pony do anything?”
“No. I’m not sure what spells would work, and it could be dangerous to start casting at random because some items like that can be used to--”
The dog holding the ruby rod pointed it like a conductor waving their baton, and the force spell Dawn had used fire out of it, the magic’s color tinged unnaturally red. It struck the edge of the platform and the whole slab of stone shook, cracks appearing in the surface.
“That,” Dawn said. “They can be used to do that.”
“We’re going to die!” one of the other ponies wailed.
“Not today,” Berlioz muttered, narrowing his eyes. Maybe if he picked the right moment, he could get to the other platform and… and distract them, at least. Do something. It was always better to do something instead of nothing, because action was hope and inaction was slow death.
The shuddering slab under them vibrated faster, and there was a sound of straining metal and rock as it began accelerating.
“What’s going on?” Dawn asked.
“...May is trying to save us,” Berlioz said. He could almost feel it. Like a desperate sprint on an injured leg. Like ignoring pain because other dogs were counting on you. Like hearing the landslide at your heels and staying barely ahead of it.
“I can see the edge!” One of the other ponies shouted.
“We’re going to get there first,” Dawn said. “Okay, as soon as we stop, everypony run for the tunnel! If you can’t run, have somepony help you. I’ll go last because I can block the way with a shield.”
“Berlioz won’t let pony sacrifice herself.”
“I’ll be right behind you,” Dawn said. “Besides, you need to carry some of these ponies or they won’t get out at all.”
Berlioz frowned and nodded tersely.
The platform they were on skidded to a halt with the lurch of an exhausted runner collapsing after the finish line.
“Go!” Berlioz yelled.
Ponies ran off, and he grabbed the ones that couldn’t do it on their own. The whole stone slab tilted before he was even off, listing to one side, and he had to jump, nearly dropping the ponies and barely getting them to safety.
He watched in mixed horror and amazement as the elevator broke free of its track and fell, as precisely as any professional diver, onto the second platform.
“May…” he whispered.
The impact broke the other elevator free as well, and both of them fell into darkness along with the derggo riding them.
Berlioz put the ponies he was carrying down and walked over to the edge. There was a lump of stone there, no bigger than his eye. A single rune was carved into the one flat surface.
He picked it up after a moment of silence, then stood up.
“Let’s get ponies home.”
Much later, after happy reunions, a quick trip to the hospital, and being chewed out by Principal Starlight for doing something so dangerous, Berlioz was outside, and mostly alone.
He took the rock out of his pocket.
He looked at it for a while, then put it down where it could see the stars and sat with it in silence for a long time.
Berlioz wasn’t a stone shaman. He wasn’t a fighter. Neither of those were what his tribe needed. His tribe needed someone who could make friends.
“The lights in the sky are called stars,” he said, to the stone, and whatever lingering spirit might still be there. “Berlioz was a very young dog the first time he saw them. Berlioz’s parents once told him a story about how the stars were made. ow Berlioz will tell May…”
Stats
Page generated in 0.019 seconds
Total duration
616 users online
904,593 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Derggo.
The Groomer Mystery? With so many Easter eggs in this story, you should have saved it for Palm Sunday.
Dude. Stop making me cry over a boulder.
9996511
May was a good rock, the best of them.
I love how you are weaving such incredible depth of D&D life into Equestria.
May is best rock.
Dang, this story is just full of good ideas.
We need a Romance sequel. May and Boulder.
Now
We've already seen otyugh and beholders, I really hope there aren't drow or mind flayers down there ...
Go Berlioz!
Okay ... the derggo are like the diamond dog equivalent of the derro (or maybe the falmer from Skyrim) ... and there are ancient caverns and tunnels running across much of Equestria ... no pony can ever sleep soundly again
So, how long before the rock children get saved. Also Dreggo get kicked out, i guess.
Nice.
Berlioz is a good dog indeed. Also, he knows his tunnels!
And yes, May is the best rock. Sorry Tom, Boulder; that's just the way it is.
This was a great chapter and it shows than some very bad things are going on.
"Derggo". I just...
How'd this guy get to be so dang wise?