"I'll deal with you later!" I shouted at the dragoness quickly before whipping my sword and ax from the straps they were held in. The worms fell from the ceiling in massive numbers, raining down like a fleshy, and deadly, wave. They weren't all even the same size. Some looked as if they could easily swallow me whole, while others looked relatively harmless. About as harmless as anything with a giant mouth full of razor-like teeth can look, anyway.

Alright, let's think. They're worms, so they've got to be blind right? If I move silently, I can kill them with no trouble. I leaped back to avoid the initial rush of worms, letting loose a metallic crackle from my armored leg plates clicking together. Oh yeah, I can't do that. The worms were almost at me now, so I had no choice but to raise my weapons to meet them.

The first one met my sword with enough force to cut itself in half against my braced blade. As it's body passed, I noticed it had nothing inside of it. No organs, no blood, no unidentifiable goop. I shuddered a bit right before a second worm slammed into my arm. I was knocked off my feet and away from the rest of the falling worms, Robin panicked and flew off my shoulder.

"Oh come on you coward! Ow!" I shouted at him, but was interrupted by the feeling of hundreds of tiny dagger-like teeth digging into my arm. I grabbed the worm with my free arm and ripped it off of me. It hissed and continued to try and lunge at me while I was still holding it. It was only about as big as my forearm, luckily. I threw it on the ground and stamped out it's life quickly while returning my gaze to the chamber to see where the other worms were.

I saw nothing.

All the worms were just suddenly... gone. There were plenty of new tunnels where I had been standing earlier though, and the walls rumbled as the army of worms passed through the walls. I turned and ran to the nearest wall. I placed my ear against it to see if it would help me locate them.

Then a giant worm broke through the wall right in front of me. Once again I was knocked clean off my feet and thrown back into the pile of gems. This worm was so large his mouth covered from the top of my chest to my waist and wrapped around my sides a little. I cried out in pain as much larger teeth bit into my body, very obviously creating large wounds. I dropped my blades and grabbed the sides of the worm to try and pull it off. I didn't work, the worm was attached like a leech.

I could feel myself losing blood to this beast, and quickly. I gave up on trying to pull it off and leaned down to grab my ax. I hacked at the worm as quickly as I could, rapidly separating the mouth from the rest of it's body. With it dead, I ripped the mouth off of my chest to reveal a deep circular gash with triangular teeth marks that encompassed all my other scars. I gasped in pain and dumbly put a hand over part of the gash to try and slow the bleeding.

"Hey, pay attention!" the dragoness shouted from nearby. I looked up to see the rest of the worms rushing me from the same place the first worm had come from. I scrambled to get my weapons and met the wave head-on. I was weaker now though, even though I was ready. I cut down worm after worm with ease, working through them like a blender. I was slowing though, worms skirted through my blades and attached to my arms. More and more made it to me, slowing me down and letting more through. I couldn't hope to handle them all, and eventually I couldn't even move. I was buried under a pile of wriggling flesh with a thousand tiny mouths all trying to take a bite out of me.

I was pretty hopeless, but I wasn't going to go out like this. This was bullshit. This wasn't fair. I was a hero, why did shit like this happen to me? It made me angry. These were worms I wasn't going to let them beat me. I felt some sort of power bubbling up inside me as my anger grew. Like a bomb was ready to go off.

"Today is not your day, champion. Use some of my strength, and you will prevail." I saw the red light as Ravidos spoke to me this time. I was filled with strength, despite how injured I should have been. I could feel my anger grow, even my skin felt hot with rage.

Then all the worms suddenly let go and I was bathed in flames. My anger fizzled in an instant and was replaced with confusion. I looked side to side rapidly to see the dragoness standing next to me, still bathing me in flame. I was about to wonder why the fire didn't... well, burn. Before I could though, she stopped and I jumped to my feet. A large pile of burnt worms had formed around me, but still more were coming from the wall. I didn't say anything to the dragoness, I just nodded and charged the rest of the worms. This time I was full of anger and energy. They never stood a chance.

----------------------------------------

About 10-20 minutes later, the worms finally stopped coming. I stood there at the hole they had charged through breathing heavily, the piles of flesh around me were nearly as tall as I was. One little worm wiggled out of the piles next to me. I let loose a battle cry, dropped my weapons and beat it into the ground with my bare hands for a long while. When I was done, my rage had finally subsided and there was a considerable crater where the worm had been. I stood back up, sheathed my weapons, and brushed myself off to get rid of the large amounts of worm meat that still stuck to my body.

"That... was... amazing!" the dragoness squealed when I saw her on the other side of the piles. I simply ignored her, turned to grab a few of the gems from the pile, then turned back to exit the cavern. Unfortunately, the way was blocked by a small swarm of diamond dogs.

"Great, the fuck do you want? Uhhh... hi." I shifted from foot to foot restlessly while they stared at me expectantly. The dragoness walked up next to my side, but again I ignored her.

Eventually one of them spoke up. "Is the Saver not going to beat the dragon?" he asked.

"Beat? What? Don't be ridiculous, the hero would never lay a hand on--" the dragoness' sentence was cut off by the back of my hand.

"Fuck you I wouldn't lay a hand on you. The dragon... works for me. She just came here to get some food." I lied. An ancient looking diamond dog stepped forward from the crowd. He was decorated in paint and had a horned helm.

"Is this true? You have a dragon as an ally?" the ancient dog asked with flawless speech. I raised an eyebrow at him, he was different from the others.

"Well, maybe as an ally, but he's not my--" Once again I cut the dragoness off with a backhand. Harder this time, the sound echoed around the cavern. She rubbed her jaw and looked up at me with confusion.

"Yes, she's a sort of employee of mine, if you will." I lied again.

"B-but--" I just raised my hand this time and glared at her. She flinched and clamped her mouth shut.

"Ah, then you are truly as powerful as I have been told." the ancient dog mused. "The dogs in this pack have been spreading word of your legendary heroics, most every dog knows of you."

"Alright... well, pardon my ignorance, but who the heck are you?"

"Forgive me, it had never occurred to me that you would know nothing of our traditions and race. You see, I am the Elder Alpha. The eldest and wisest leader of all our packs. Sort of the big dog, pardon the pun."

I cracked a smile at his joke. I had a feeling I could get to like this guy.

"I came here to hear of your tales myself, right from the source." he paused for a moment. "Truth be told, I did not believe the stories at first. Even if the final tale ended in your supposed death. After seeing you here and seeing you in action though... I do not doubt you."

"Well, that's cool and all. You guys can thank me later, but I have things to do. So..." I started to head towards the doorway, but the ancient dog help up a paw. I sighed and continued to wait patiently.

"I was not quite finished. May I know your actual name, Savior?"

"My name is Sharky, Sharky White. I can give you the full name along with my titles, if you'd like." I offered sarcastically. The old dog smiled slightly.

"I understand you are busy, but this is important to us. Just a bit longer. Now, we would like to thank you for all the deeds you have done for our kind. For your selfless risking of your own life to make life easier for the pack."

"Alright, you're welcome. We fucking done here?"

The elderly dog slowly walked up to me and placed one paw on my arm. "Sharky White of Equestria, we would like to give you the title of...

Diamond Soul!"

Suddenly the whole world around me changed. I saw the world as the diamond dogs did. Every gem was beautiful, and mine to unearth. They had to all be found, every last one. The world was incomplete until all beauty in the ground could be seen! However, They weren't the most important thing to me. The pack was everything. We lived together, worked together, played together. Every single dog was my family, my friend. We could conquer anything together, so long as we stayed together. I would do anything for them!

Then it was all gone. I looked around the cavern for a few seconds, feeling a little lost. Where was my pack? My senses started working normally after just a little while, and I looked at my new family happily.

"You are one of us now. No matter where you go and what dogs you meet, they will know you have the soul of a diamond dog. They will accept you as a member of their own pack. This is the highest honor we can give and... We truly believe you've earned it for protecting us like you have."

I was at a loss for words for a long while. Mostly because I felt pretty bad. Almost every time I had 'helped' these guys... no, every time I helped these guys it was really only me getting something from them. Eventually I just gently placed my hand on the Alpha's shoulder. "I.... Thank you. This means a lot to me, and I'm sorry for rushing you earlier." It was big deal for them to basically proudly declare me one of their own. It really was touching.

"It is our pleasure to have you in our pack, Sharky. Now, I believe you had somepony you were looking for..." the Alpha clapped his paws and a dog brought forward Unity and another escorted Fang to me. I took my son from them carefully and gave him a stern glare.

"I swear kid, you're gonna be the death of me..."

"I was curious about that infant you carry with you, Sharky... He has much potential." the Alpha looked up into my eyes. "Make sure you raise him right."

I had a feeling the Alpha knew exactly who my son was, or used to be. Unlike the rest of the dogs. I simply nodded respectfully and placed one of the gems in my free hand in Unity's mouth. "I will, thank you."

"Excellent. Then I think it's best you started heading home. Oh, and pack! Load up a cart of gems for Sharky's dragon companion!"

A few dogs came forward and quickly loaded a cart as the rest of them moved out of my way to let me through the cavern. Robin came down from wherever he had run off to and landed on my shoulder. I wanted to be mad at him for running away, but the truth was he simply was not much of a fighter. Eventually we all made it back to the surface and I couldn't help but look back for a little while.

"Well that was pretty cool, huh?" the dragoness suddenly piped up beside me. I glared at her, but she didn't seem to notice. Instead she seemed really interested in my right shoulder. "Whoa, that's cool! I didn't see that before." I looked down at my shoulder to see what she was talking about. Sure enough, on my shoulder there was a faintly sparkling paw print where the Alpha had placed his paw while declaring me Diamond Soul.

"Oh shit, he branded us!Yeah, that is kinda cool." I agreed. Then I turned on my heel and started to leave. "Bye."

"H-hey! Wait up!"

"Oh yeah, you're right. I forgot something." I mumbled as I turned around. Right as she got close to me, I reared back my right hand and punched her, sending her flying across the dirt expanse above the mines. "That's for the Arena!" I shouted after her angrily. I walked after her, and she cowered under me when I got to her.

"P-please don't hurt me! I was only doing what I knew, please!" she begged.

I sighed and patted her on the head. "That's for trying to save my life back there. It doesn't by any means mean I forgive you, but it's a start."

"H-hey... I didn't try to save your life, I did."

"No, I would have been fine without you. Now, leave this place. I have family here, mares that love me and a home. I won't have your arrival screw that up, and Celestia knows what my marefriends would do to you."

"I... I'm not leaving. I told you I loved you and I intend to earn your love in return."

"Look, I'm sorry to tell you this but it's never gonna happen. Just go, find some other guy. Preferably some other dragon guy."

The dragoness was beginning to tear up. "N-no! I won't give up!" she shouted before spreading her wings and blasting herself into the air. I looked at her cart of gems and sighed.

"Bitch." I mumbled as I turned to head home.