Dig a Pony
It was a series of deep, slumbering breaths that woke him, as if a fitful dragon was gargling in the same room. His lavender ears twitched, and soon his petite body stirred as he stifled a heated whimper. Groaning, Eagle Eye sat up, his slender hooves scraping over a flat black floor of industrial grade metal.
He squinted across the claustrophobic room.
Several other equine bodies were lying about in pairs, stirring fitfully under the crimson glow of a single, grated light overhead. It was stuffy and cramped inside the square interior, and the place smelled of sweat and feces.
Eagle Eye gazed around, blinking. He saw bruised and battered bodies, ponies with their hooves worn into blistered limbs, even a few emaciated stallions murmuring incoherent madness into the shadows. Everything that graced his senses was laced with misery and suffering, as if each living thing inside that chamber was simply waiting for its turn to die.
The lavender unicorn blinked at the desolation, turned his head, and instantly gasped. "M-my mane!" He raised two weak limbs and felt the frazzled bangs hanging loosely from his scalp, splotched in several spots with dried mud and chunks of sapphiric crystal. "Ohhhhh..." He bit his lip, sighing heavily through his nostrils.
It was then that he noticed something wrapped about his right hoof. Squinting, he studied the object up close. It was a titanium cuff—a manacle of sorts—and it hung snugly just below the elbow. What's more, it constantly glowed with purple effluence.
Licking his lips, Eagle Eye aimed his horn and shot a bolt of lavender energy into the cuff. In response, it shot a magic bolt straight back to his skull, knocking him back onto his flank.
"Ooof!" He winced, his eyes tearing up slightly. "Okay. That's not getting off so easily." He fidgeted a little bit more with the binding, then froze in place. His ears drooped, and a gasp escaped his lips as brightness swam over his eyes with a horrifically lucid thought. "By the Spark... Belle... Pilate..." He jumped up on all fours, upsetting several of the half-sleeping stallions around him. "Rainbow Dash!"
Hyperventilating, he spun in place, then finally found his eyes locking onto a tall, vertical seam of metal. A heavy door hung on the far end of the room.
"H-hello?!" he exclaimed. "Hello?! Is anypony out there?!" Straightening his torn vest, he ran speedily towards the frame. "You gotta let me out! My friends are in trou—"
His entire body sparkled with purple energy. He gave a high-pitched shriek as the manacle around his right leg pulsed brightly, flinging him back by an elastic band of artificial leylines. In less than a second, he was flung straight into the body of an obese stallion wearing a matching, strobing manacle on his left forelimb.
"Ooof!" Eagle Eye winced all over as he slammed hard into the bigger unicorn's muzzle.
"Mmmmf..." The stallion's nostrils flared, getting a good whiff of the petite mercenary's mane. "Mmmmm..." Josho's bearded face smiled as the unconscious enforcer rolled over and hugged Eagle Eye tight. "Straight Lace. Darling..." He nuzzled Eagle Eye's soft neck, purring. "I've been on the front for far too long..."
Eagle Eye grimaced and sweated profusely. "Uhhh... Uhhh..."
Josho's face frowned. Just then, his bleary eyes opened.
Eagle Eye spat up the tiniest bit of bile.
"Gaaaah!" Josho hollered.
"Aaaack!" Eagle Eye flailed.
"Daaa-aaaah!" Josho flung Eagle Eye out of his grasp.
"Uuugh!" The lavender unicorn flew back—only to be caught once more in the artificial field which flung him straight back into the burly stallion like a living yo-yo.
"Augh!" Josho stood up, this time bucking Eagle Eye away with two legs. "Get off me, you lavender slice of slug meat!"
"You were in league with—!" Eagle Eye scooted away, only to bounce back from the field and scoot away again. "Y-you were in league with—!" The wide-eyed unicorn's body and voice repeated like a broken record. "You were in league—"
"Friggin' cut it out!" Josho stopped him this time with a single, fat forelimb pressed to the shivering stallion's face. "Nnngh..." He stood up, taking a grim survey of the setting. "Obviously we're being held captive by ponies proficient in the art of mana elastibands."
"Mmfmmmff—" Eagle Eye raised both hooves and shoved Josho's hoof from out of his face. "Mana elasti-whats?!"
"They're used by non-unicorns to form equine chain gangs. It's technology that revolves around self-conductive crystalline fragments—" Josho hiccuped and glared at the petite unicorn. "For Spark's sake, kid! How long have you been a mercenary?"
"Grrr!" Eagle Eye scowled, slapping Josho's hoof away and struggling to stand up straight. "Like I would ever want to be graded by a merciless killer like you!"
"Listen, you hyperactive bottle of perfume—" Josho snarled and pointed at himself. "I've only ever been in the business of killing Xonans and monsterous freaks! You should be glad that somepony under the glare of that Prime Enforcing snake-in-the-grass had the stones to not bash your skull in when he was commanded to! Oh, you're welcome by the way, ya little turdlet!"
"Well, you shouldn't have been working for him from the get-go!" Eagle Eye squeaked.
"Like I'm gonna take sass from a would-be soldier who sounds like a deflated balloon!"
"I'll deflate your balloon! C'mere!" Eagle Eye charged forth angrily, galloping and galloping and galloping and—
Josho sighed, holding the red-faced mercenary in place once again with a single hoof. His bloodshot eyes swam across the stuffy, metal interior of the place. "Let's at least figure out how in the Queen's shimmering teat we got here." His graying brow furrowed. "I know I teleported us—but I don't remember being able to shoot myself that far..."
"Why didn't you do it earlier, huh?!" Eagle Eye gripped his limb and all-but-climbed it like a log on the edge of a furious river. "Why didn't you get my friends out of there before that crazy lunatic of an Enforcer turned them to mince meat?! Why didn't you save Rainbow Dash or—" He froze in place, panting. Softly, his features melted, and his eyes took on a pained angle. "Or Cr-Crimson," he mewled like a wounded kitten. He slid off of Josho's forelimb and squatted low, gazing into the rusted floor beneath him. "Spark help me... I should have fought harder. I should have... h-have been stronger..."
Josho opened his mouth to say something, but instead he sighed, staring off towards the metal seam of the door. Then, after a few seconds of weathering the beleaguered breaths of Eagle Eye, he blinked with a piercing thought. He glanced down at the unicorn. "Wait a minute... it was you. You were the one who severed it."
Eagle Eye sniffled, running a hoof through his disheveled violet mane. "S-severed what?"
"My leyline entanglement space burp thingy—I dunno. I'm not a clever pony."
"Hmmmf..." Eagle Eye muttered aside. "That much is certain."
"Look, I'm serious here! Straight as a razor!"
"Heheh..." Eagle Eye deliriously chuckled. "That much is certain too—"
"Nnngh!" Josho knelt down and gripped the petite mercenary's shoulders. "Will you shut up for a second and listen! I know you were the one who freed the zebra's manaballs or whatever from my leylines!"
"Yeah, so?"
"So you're obviously gifted!" Josho grimaced as he narrowed his gaze on Eagle Eye's scrawny figure. "S-somehow..." He cleared his throat and managed a weak smile. "So maybe you can use that snazzy talent of yours to break our binding!"
"Pfft. I already tried." Eagle Eye waved his left, bound hoof around. "It's no use. Besides..." He tossed his head girlishly and glared at the tall walls of the room. "We don't even know where we are! You gotta know who your captors are before you risk running from them."
Josho opened his mouth to speak—gave Eagle Eye's mane a double-take—then shrugged it off. "Look, it was just a thought."
"But I thought you said you weren't a clever thinker—"
"Just lay off!" Josho growled, shaking his hoof threatening. "I'm stuck here the same as you! Rrrggh!" He paced about, dragging a helpless, yelping mercenary with him. "It's those metal mares. I know it has got to be!" He slammed his heavy hooves down, missing Eagle's flinching neck by mere inches. "Spark! What I wouldn't give to rip their horns off and shove it up their—"
"Ask one of these stallions," Eagle Eye wheezed. "Maybe they can tell us all we need to know."
"The heck they will," Josho rolled his eyes. "We're nothing but fresh meat to them."
"How do you know that?! Just ask!"
"A stallion doesn't go around asking for directions! I wouldn't expect a broken vial of perfurme to know anything about that—"
"Ohhhh ho ho ho—don't you start!" Eagle Eye snarled.
"Or what?" Josho hiccuped. "You'll giggle me to death?! Just why'd you desert the army to begin with?! You felt that the color yellow matched your vest?!"
"No—!" Eagle Eye stood up, quivering in anger, and glared up at the obese warrior. "I abandoned the forces of Ledo because me and every courageous stallion I ever cared about was sick and tired of working for soulless machines who would slay innocents to get the job done! Heck, if a grunt as dense as you woke up to that, maybe you would have had the opportunity to spit into that Prime Enforcer's face years ago!"
"You think I enjoyed what I did?!" Josho hollered back, staring down the petite unicorn. "I gave up my entire career to save your sorry flank, ya half-pint!"
"Hah! Some career!" Eagle Eye sneered. "What kind of medal do you call that you're wearing, hotshot? The 'Five O'Clock Bronze?!'"
"Rrrrgh!" With raging telekinesis, Josho effortlessly lifted Eagle Eye up, slamming him against the metal wall and raising a fist to pound his face in. "That's it! You're about to become Franzington's latest casualty! The youngest basket of fruit in history to earn an iron cross!"
"Unnngh..." A haggard earth pony sat up besides the fitfully slumbering prisoner he was bound to. "Will you two newbies shut the heck up? This is our only time to catch some z's before the Killas put us out to work again."
Eagle Eye and Josho blinked down from where the bigger pony was near-strangling the tiny one. They exchanged glances and looked at the earth pony again. "The 'Killas?'"
Suddenly, a loud hiss emanated throughout the chamber. Everypony instantly woke up and ritualistically stood up as the door to the room slid open.
The earth pony rolled his eyes and struggled to his hooves. "Don't say I didn't warn you..."
A blinding swath of golden light swam through the room. Josho squinted, craning his neck curiously. He dropped Eagle Eye to the floor with an unceremonious thud.
"Whoah!" Eagle Eye tumbled, wincing.
Through the blinding light, a dozen armored figures walked in. They stood upright, although with hunched bags. Several braying noises filled the room, like the whimpering of jackals. As everypony's gaze came into focus, the first of several glaring, canine faces loomed into view.
"Diamond dogs...?" Josho murmured aloud.
"Dogs?" Eagle Eye wheezed looking up. "They don't look like any puppies I've ever nuzzled."
"Shhh! Shut up, kid."
"Make me..."
Josho almost growled something—but the obese stallion froze upon the approaching glare of the tallest canine. The snarling alpha male stomped towards him, wielding a heavy club that sparkled with electrical energy.
"Hrmmmf... New pony flesssssh..." The diamond dog hissed, a pair of mucousy eyes leering from beneath a metal pith helmet. "Your graying bonesssss still good enough to haul rocks?"
"How about I haul your smelly carcass into a field and poop you into an anthill?" Josho dared.
With a bark, the diamond dog slammed the hilt of his club into the stallion's gut.
"Oooof!" Josho doubled over, losing his breath.
"Heheheheh..." Eagle Eye squeaked, grinning and slapping the floor with his hoof. "That was actually pretty great—"
The same diamond dog slammed Eagle Eye in the chest.
"Gaaah!" Eagle Eye doubled over, rolling into Josho. "Ow ow ow ow..."
"You talk... you hurtttt..." The canine snarled, addressing the newer, more frightened souls collected in the pen. "You fight... you ssssscream. You work... you eatttt." He slammed his club into the ground and barked even louder. "You are all property of the Killas! Now and forever! When you die... you die by my company's time!" He pointed a furious paw out into the blazing light. "Now... go! Go and dig, you mangy mulesssss!"
"Unngh... I got it... I got it..." Josho hissed as he clambered up on all fours. He caught Eagle Eye by the tail, yanking him out of a fetal position and forcing him to trot by his side.
Soon, both stallions joined a flood of ponies lurching out of the room—and out into the blazing light. They squinted, finding themselves descending a metal plank that extended to a chamber built into an enormous brown tank of metal. The vehicle was easily four stories high and hundreds of feet long, parked on gigantic tank treads as its steam engines hissed over the crest of a giant quarry. Down below a sloping crest of rock, Josho and Eagle Eye saw a gaping pit full of hundreds of exposed, oversized sapphires. What's more, the gaping chasm was crawling over with twice as many quadruped slaves, laboring endlessly with pick-axes and drills to unearth the valuable crystals. Patrolling the grounds were heavy-set dogs, the self-appointed "Killas," all carrying clubs and manarfiles trained on the sweating, suffering ponies.
"Oh, well this is just lovely," Josho grunted.
Eagle Eye's lips quivered as he got an eye-ful of the agonizing day ahead. He gasped as a growling dog shoved a heavy hammer into his grasp. He glanced at the tool, his eyes watering a bit at the shape of it. Gulping, he calmed his nerves the best he could and stumbled forward with the line. "Okay... I-I can do this. I... can totally do this..."
"No offense, kid..." Josho shouldered a heavy drill, utilizing his telekinesis as he wheezed and limped to the right of his unwitting cohort. "But I think your mane has a greater chance of outlasting this than you."
"Oh hardy har—"
A whip cracked overhead as another alpha dog shouted, "No gabbing! Only digging! Mush! Mush!"
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Diamond Dogs, Minotaurs, same thing, really.
I can only hope that Eagle Eye channels Rarity and is able to whine his way out of this one.
2238377 Dig, dig, dig for manacrystals to trade. ...And hopefully not for another door to the machine.
whew, a new story again.
this time having 3 words for the chapter. :3
is this series going to reach the point where the chapter titles will contain 6 words each?
aw well~
favorite, thumbs up, and then read~
YUS!
Needs more dakka.
Aw, i thought EEand Josh would be friends.
Oh yeah, what's up with these ponies and Queen Ledo's mammarys?
Because Rainbow Dash keeps flying East, that's why.
now these too are pretty funny together.
This story progresses very slowly.
I love it. Most writers set a single goal and get there quickly.
Your main objective (midnight armory) has made close to no headway in around 200 chapters.
YOU ARE AMAZING.
Some might mistake this for sarcasm.
Not at all. I appreciate this like a classy lady not giving it up on the first date.
Or the 400th.
Annoyed slightly but excited for when the big finale really comes.
I am so so glad that EE is still alive, and seeing Josho breathing as well is also good.
I want to see him up against Shell in the future.
I'm like 60 chapters behind. Soon as I'm done with everything today. READING THE FUCK OUTTA THIS STORY.
EE is awsome. That is all.
Oh boy another one! THEY SHALL NEVER END!
It has begun... AGAiN.
HA HA HA yes it's here! *favorites*
AI'm going to love this duo.
HEEEEEEERRRREEEE WE GO AGAIN!
SAME OLD SHIT AGAIN!
MARCHING DOWN THE AVENUE!
197 CHAPTERS, AND WE'LL BE THROUGH!
):(, Of to a great start. Also, I really like how this one just dove right in to it, n o slow start this time. Forty-five pushups for the kickass start. Knock 'em out!
I haven't even started reading the series yet, but I'm extremely impressed by its track record. In nearly seven months, the series has only missed updates on five days. Five days! That's a powerful testament to the creative mind of the author, and I'm really looking forward to reading from beginning to end.
EE is alive!
The interactions between him and Josho are most entertaining! I hope to see more from these two.
When I came on FiMFiction and saw that I had a notification, I said to myself "That better be Imploded Colon posting the sequel to Eljunbyro." I was not disappointed.
As a side note, I see now what you're doing with the titles. Austraeoh, Eljunbyroo, Innavedr; guess the next story is going to have a title starting with an O, followed by one starting with a U. Assuming the pattern holds true, I suppose this will end with 1000 chapters, and honestly, that's fucking nuts, especially since chapters are released on a daily basis. Congratulations to you on maintaining such an impressive schedule, coupled with amazing writing.
So far, we know what's up with Rainbow Dash and Eagle Eye/Josho, and really, neither of them are in ideal situations. Rainbow is better off by far, but despite Roarke seeming to have good intentions, she's very unpredictable, and Dash isn't entirely safe with her. Eagle Eye and Josho are in a pretty rough situation right now. These diamond dogs seem even worse than the ones from the show, and it's doubtful that they're as inept. I expect that they'll team up to try and escape, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Heh, called it. I thought that these two would make a great duo, and I'm not disappointed.
Also, good job on working in the origins of mana-crystals/mana-energy, Colon. I'm looking forwards to more freat world-building.
Had a niggling feeling that at least EE was still alive. I mean, Crimson survived his drop. Glad that niggling feeling was right.
Anyways, depending on how much is known about the Killas and how they play into Ledomare society, it could be a long while before EE and Josho get rescued, or even see a bit of a chance to escape.
IT BEGINS
OH, YOU ARE SO GOOD TO ME, IC
Eagle Eye and Josho are easily shaping up to be my favorite segments in this fic. This one chapter sold it for me.
Also, last time I didn't get my Vorkuta-style escape back in Blue Shelf... maybe this time?
2238508 A little bit through Eljunbryo.
Like can some one summarize whats this story about? I seen different ones with the sentence Rainbow dash continues to fly east, please some one explain
Why does the Diamond Dog's vehicle thing remind me of a Jawa's Sand Crawler?
Also am I right to pronounce it "In-Ah-Vay-Dur"?
Those two are hilarious togeather!
come on EE, pull a Rarity.
*gets shot for last comment*
Well... this is awkward... I thought EE had died...
I knew there was a reason why I loved this series so much, and this chapter basically summed it all up. Keep it up, Scolon!
2239651
That's my pronunciation. No idea what it means, though. Checked anagrams - unless it's "Darn Vine", we'll have to keep searching.
2239565
It's Rainbow Dash, flying east.
It's something that you have to read from the start to get it.
Something that is best enjoyed when you discover things as it goes.
2239565 It's a three-part (so far) series by Imploding Colon/Shortskirtsandexplosions that began with Austroeh, then continued with Eljunbyro, which just finished yesterday, leading to the creation of this one.
Each day, a chapter or two is typically added, chronically Rainbow Dash's journey east, including her adventures along the way. There's a lot of suspense, and emotion as well, and it's all handled very well, to the point that I was literally biting my nails when I finished Eljunbyro yesterday.
The story is a hefty read, at somewhere around 440,000 words, and grows by about 1,000 everyday, but I very much recommend it. People who keep up with it say it's a highlight of their day (I can corroborate this).
If you get the chance, go ahead and read the first few chapters of Austroeh. You'll be almost instantly hooked.
Dash is about to become 20% cooler and become IRON PONY! What could be better than Dash in a bucking robotic iron man suit with the element of loyalty around her neck and to top it all off... RAINBOW DASH IS INSIDE THE SUIT!!!
Get ready for some kick flank chapters ahead!
Ps. I told you guys that EE didn't die...
PPs. I'm really sad that RD didn't do a sonic rainboom or a rainbow nuke.
I'm still reading Eljunbyro btw. Guess world'll burn in nuclear lolocaust before I catch up. That makes me kinda sad (not the world burning).
2239944 thanks for explaining me with so much detail
Alright, so it looks like we have yet another slave labor operation in the story. That's 3 for 3 so far. I wonder if and how RD is going to bust them out of it this time...
GAH!!!
YOU'RE ALREADY ON YOUR 3rd!!!
And I've only just started your second...
Dig a pony?
Well you can celebrate anything you want
Yeeeeeees, you can celebrate anything you want
Oooooooooooooh
I'm celebrating this story then.
And how it started much sooner than I expected!
Agh! the last one ended and i missed it!
I still don't see why everybody thought EE was dead
.
fuckin this.
Just noticed the 1-2-3 word chapter title thing going on here. Hmm.
Seriously? I just started the first one, still have all of the second one to go, and now a third one?
This is going to take forever.
You started another sequel? YES! Now I get to finish the last one in one go!
Oh, EE is still alive! And still as fruity as ever! Hooray!
2239565
Please, start reading from Austraeoh, this is an amazing series and to try and summarize would do it no justice, regardless of how poetically I tried to put it.
The author for this story is amazingly talented and more punctual than any other author on this site. Please read this, I know it seems long, but it is so very worth it!
The... Killas? THE KILLAS?
Colon, I think I fucking love you.
I would also pay you to work this song in somehow.
Aww, c'mon. Rainbow Dash should have circuited the world for the second time by now...