“Ow…” Rarity moaned. It was not at all fun to have various pieces of glass and ceramic shrapnel pulled out your skin.

“You’re doing good, Rarity. Just a little more,” Twilight said patiently. For her friend’s sake she concentrated as best she could. and used her magic to pull yet another piece out of her friend. With that done and when Twilight was satisfied there were no more errant pieces of shrapnel to pull out, she dabbed at her friend’s wounds(well, minor injuries, more than anything, but the way Rarity carried on, you’d think she lost a limb or something) with a fresh towel and applied an ointment to soothe the pain.

“There. All done,” Twilight said in satisfaction.

“Thank you, Twilight,” Rarity breathed out.

“Not a problem, Rarity,” was all the unicorn said before levitating all the leftover waste and promptly placing it in a marked bag.

For her part, Rarity looked anxiously at her friend. Twilight had been unusually quiet since they both left the spa for the library. And what a mess it was. That upstart little pegasus had made a right mess of the place, cost Lotus and Aloe a great many bits in damages and sullied their reputation to boot.

Rarity would like to think herself a good judge of character and knew from the very beginning that the little pegasus was not the most socially adept of ponies, but really, who’d have known she’d turn out to be such a boorish, violent brute? The fashionista had nothing but good intentions and… well, granted, maybe hiring out a human to help relieve Febreze’s tense, uptight air may not have been the best way to go about doing things, but her ensuing rampage was a bit of an overreaction.

Regardless of what Febreze may have done, Rarity's thoughts drifted to another matter altogether. She worried that Twilight blamed her for what happened. The unicorn had more than voiced her disapproval at Rarity’s course of action just before everything went to Tartarus.

“Twilight,” Rarity started in trepidation, following her friend into the kitchen. She saw Twilight at the counter, her back turned to her and with a cutting board in front of her, holding a knife with her magic and an apple right in front. Ever studious and abiding by the rules set forth in her many scholarly books, Twilight was in the process of preparing refreshments for Rarity, as a well-educated unicorn would do when they had company.

Twilight’s ears perked as she picked up the sound of her friend’s hoofsteps and looked over. She stared at Rarity in an odd manner. A faint crease lined her forehead and though she fixed her gaze on the fashionista, it was clear her mind lay elsewhere. Rarity and the rest of her friends knew that look. They'd seen it on Twilight many a time when the alicorn thought or concentrated particularly hard on a knotty subject.

“What is it, Rarity?” she said in a tone that lacked her usual friendly quality and came off more automatic than anything. Rarity had heard Spike refer it to Twilight being on autopilot, whatever that meant.

“Is… everything okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s just…” Rarity said delicately. “You’re acting rather odd, darling.”

By this point, Twilight had returned her attention to the apple and in the process did a rather sloppy job of peeling it. “Odd, you say? How?”

Rarity thought it best not to make a mention of one of the alicorn’s many quirks. “I just want to make sure that everything’s okay between us.”

Twilight turned her head with an odd look. Clearly she did not know what Rarity referred to. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

“So… you don’t blame me? For what happened at the spa, I mean.”

Twilight blinked twice and it seemed her attention returned back to the present. “Blame you? No, Rarity, why would you think that? I mean…” she said before Rarity could get a word in edgewise. “What you did was not responsible, but everything after falls on Febreze. There’s just no call for acting like that over a misunderstanding.”

“N-no. You’re right, darling. That was not a good thing I did, but…” she trailed off. “What’s going to happen now?”

“What happens now is we get Febreze to answer for her crimes, misunderstanding or not. I already sent the Guard on the lookout to apprehend her.” Rarity agreed wholeheartedly at this. It just would not do to let such an uncouth brute off with no repercussions. “I also promised Aloe and Lotus to help with their paperwork on insurance for their store. See if the damage can be covered and… oh, ponyfeathers,” she sighed and brought a hoof to her face. “I promised Rainbow Dash I’d keep her company tonight and bring her a few Daring Do books.”

“Well, why don’t I help you out a little? It’s the least I could do after everything that’s happened.”

“Rarity, you don’t have--”

“Nonsense, darling, I insist. You’ve been running yourself ragged with everything that’s been going on lately. The last thing you need is more troubles on your plate.” Twilight was about to object before Rarity continued. “Besides, I am a business owner, darling. I know a thing or two about insurance claims. And don’t worry about Rainbow Dash, I will keep her company tonight while you bring in that troublesome pegasus. I insist on it.”

Twilight took a deep breath before responding. “Well, I have been overexerting myself lately. Alright, Rarity, I’ll take you up on it.”

“My pleasure, Twilight,” Rarity smiled and nuzzled her friend affectionately. She couldn’t help but notice her fur felt softer than the week before. It seemed she’d taken her advice and tried that new conditioner that was all the rage in Fillydelphia. Satisfied that everything was right between them, Rarity bade her friend farewell and went out the door.

However, it wasn't long before the frantic pounding of hooves on wood abruptly resonated through the library. Twilight went on to answer. On the other side waited one of the Royal Guard.

“Princess Twilight, I’m afraid I have news concerning the pegasus you wanted brought in,” the unnamed guard said professionally.

“What is it, Lieutenant?”

“We… have been unable to locate her as of yet, princess. Guards have been posted at key locations and more still have tried to ask the citizens for their help. Unfortunately, while many recall seeing the pegasus, none know where she's taken residence, or if she has family in town, and neither the inn nor the boarding house recalled seeing such a pony,” he admitted reluctantly. "I am afraid she is no longer in Ponyville, princess."

Twilight cocked her head, a slight frown on her features. “How is that possible? I thought the train was not running at the moment?”

“No, princess, it is not. But there are three main roads that lead out of Ponyville. It is possible the pegasus may have gone out either of them. That or she may have flown away.”

Twilight hung her head, a slight hiss coming out her clenched teeth. It was very difficult to track down a pegasus in flight, especially seeing how they could go anywhere they pleased and the clouds themselves provided plenty of hiding spots. “If that’s the case then issue out a warrant to every town and city within a 50 mile radius. I want her found, Lieutenant, and I want it done todayand send troops to search the roads that lead outside Ponyville.”

The guard saluted. “Of course, princess. As you command. However…”

“Yes?”

“As it is now, we don't have a picture of the pegasus we can use on any wanted posters. From what I can understand, you spent some time with her. If you would, it would make our search easier if you could help paint a picture of her."

Twilight opened her mouth to agree, but stopped halfway as a thought came to mind. “Actually, that won't be necessary, Lieutenant.” As she turned around, the alicorn’s horn glowed in the telltale sign of magic and from one of the nearby desks levitated a camera. Twilight promptly opened it and handed the reel over to the guard, who looked at her inquisitively. “As it happens, I took a picture of her just the other day. Take this film and have it developed. You'll have your picture then.”

The guard nodded. “At once, your majesty.” And he left to do his job.

Twilight closed the door and found herself alone in the library. She’d taken on a habit of making herself a nice cup of tea to try and calm down whenever she felt a Want-It-Need-It-Incident level of anxiety coming on.

She might as well be reliving the day, for all the good it did. Advantageous as it may be, having an exceptionally sharp mind came with its own set of drawbacks. It was hard for her to not think, to not dwell, and to not worry about things she couldn’t do much about. But why did she feel this way?

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were doing exceptionally well, all things considered, and her feathered friend was set to be released the next day. Dark Flare had been captured, yes, and while his organization remained up and running, Twilight felt confident it would be unraveled soon. Her human grew stronger and better by the day and save for physical and psychological scarring, he was all set to come home as well. So why is it that she felt so restless? Surely not the whole fiasco with Febreze?

The damage had been done, so why is it that she felt so antsy regarding the volatile mare? Twilight was no fool. She knew the pegasus was hiding something, but she did not know what. In fact, she realized that despite spending most of the morning with her, she did not know much about Febreze at all. Sure, small talk may not have come that naturally to her, but then again, Twilight merely attributed this to her very own personality before she came to Ponyville. Even she, the Princess of Friendship, was not much of a friend those days, she could admit that much, and while the pegasus did not divulge much information about herself, this was not the reason Twilight felt so restless.

There was something off about her, about the whole thing, but Twilight couldn’t put her hoof on it, and it grated on her nerves. After many a minute dwelling on the subject, as well as trying and failing to put it out of her mind, with a frustrated sigh, Twilight threw caution to the wind and stepped out the library. It was obvious that merely sitting at home would get her nowhere and hopefully a nice walk around town would help clear her head.

A few minutes later she couldn’t help but notice it was unusually warm out. It looked like the higher ups at Cloudsdale had scheduled a warm front. It got her thirsty and she pondered going to Sugarcube Corner and maybe get a nice hay and banana milkshake to help fend off the heat.

And that’s when it hit her. Pinkie Pie, of course! She could have almost facehoofed. Capable as the Royal Guard might be, she did not imagine they were all too familiar with Ponyville’s resident party pony and her many quirks and eccentricities. Nopony knew how she did it. Perhaps it was due to the fabled Pinkie Sense, or maybe a variation of it, but whatever her secret, the hyperactive mare could somehow divulge when a new arrival set hoof in Ponyville.

And Twilight herself knew just how much Pinkie loved getting to know new ponies, even if her sometimes over the top friendliness made said ponies uncomfortable. From this, Twilight deduced that if there was anypony who had been in contact with Febreze for more than a few seconds, it would be Pinkie herself, and while it may have been a fairly long shot, perhaps Pinkie could have wheedled facts and information regarding Febreze. Information which would make locating her all the easier. It was a lead worth pursuing and if nothing else, at least it would give Twilight something to help take her mind off things.

So with that in mind she trotted purposefully to Sugarcube Corner. The store itself was already well past the lunch rush but even then, a fair number of booths and tables were still occupied. Mr and Mrs. Cake were similarly attending to their guests, but Pinkie was nowhere to be seen and the owners themselves did not know where the random pony ran off to.

The news disheartened Twilight. Pinkie Pie could be literally anywhere. In the end, she decided looking for the hyperactive mare would take up too much time.

“So, um, Twilight, I don't want to pry, but what exactly are we doing here?” Fluttershy’s delicate voice rang very much clear in the stillness of the Everfree.

Twilight answered, not breaking stride. “I told you, Fluttershy, we’re going to the ruins of Everfree Castle.”

“Well, yes, you said that but… um, why exactly are we going there?”

“There's a possibility a wanted pony is there. We’re gonna go, investigate, and if need be, bring her in.”

Fluttershy’s eyes shrank to pinpricks. “A-a wanted pony? Like, a criminal you mean?” The poor Pegasus was hyperventilating at this point. “B-but what if she turns out to be dangerous?”

“It'll all be okay, Fluttershy. And if anything happens I promise I won't let anything happen to you.”

These words seemed to be of little comfort to the meek Pegasus, but she followed her friend nonetheless. Unlike what most ponies would believe, Fluttershy was not scared of the Everfree forest… or at least, not as afraid as most ponies. Being an avid animal and nature lover, she knew better than most ponies that the Everfree was a place to be respected more than anything. And yes, perhaps a little feared.

By all rights, Fluttershy should not be too apprehensive to be trotting through the darkened woods, but the poor Pegasus’ delicate state of mind has been damaged after her violent altercation with that human.

Her eyes darted around, on the lookout for any unpleasant surprises. Where most ponies would see a bunch of dense vegetation, through Fluttershy’s eyes, the forest painted a very telling picture of the animals that lived within its confines.

“Twilight, stop,” Fluttershy said in a slightly more stronger time of voice. Thankfully, Twilight was able to pick up on it and she halted midstride.

“Why? What is it?”

“There's a manticore den nearby,” she said quietly.

“Manti… what? Are you sure? Where?”

The alicorn princess was on full alert now, wings spread and her horn lit up to let loose a spell at a moment’s notice.

"Close. Close to here, but I don't think the manticores are around."

Twilight let loose a breath of relief. "Good, I'd rather not deal with them now. Come on, Fluttershy, let's keep moving.

The meek pegasus nodded and they resumed their trot.

It had been pure dumb luck that Twilight stumbled on the right track. She had been trotting along the marketplace when she overheard Big Macintosh berating the youngest of the Apple family. Apparently, the filly and her friends, in yet another act of questionable judgment, had wandered into the Everfree forest in an ill fated attempt to claim their cutie marks.

For her part, Twilight did not mean to eavesdrop, but in all fairness, it was a bit hard not to. Big Mac had quite the set of lungs on him when he decided to speak up. It was when the stallion had asked his sister just how they got out of their latest scrape that Twilight stopped in her tracks.

Applebloom spoke of a pegasus, not yet a mare, who had uprooted a tree with nothing but her bare hooves, and did not possess a friendly disposition. An absurd story to anypony else, but for Twilight, a number of pieces finally fell in place.

Nopony had seen Febreze. Nopony knew where she lived and nopony knew where she went at night. There had been some eyewitnesses who faintly recalled her heading numerous times in the direction of the Everfree, but who would have thought she'd dwell within it? The idea was preposterous. The forest was full of dangers, but then again, Zecora lived in it as well. Who's to say a pony wouldn't be able to fend for herself? And if what Applebloom said was correct(and after a brief interrogation on Twilight's part) the pony led them to safety without the use of a map, as though she was familiar with the layout of the forest.

But if Febreze really was the pony they spoke of, where would she even live? Twilight knew of only one place that was devoid of the forest's creatures, a haven for whoever decided to stay within. The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.

It was by no means an open and shut case, but the more Twilight thought about it, the more it made sense. Her first instinct was to call for the guard and have somepony search the castle for any evidence, but thought better of it. In order to do so, the guard would have to wade through the thickness of the Everfree, and while Twilight was very confident they could fend for themselves, she did not wish to put them at risk for the possibility that maybe Febreze really did live there.

However, she knew a certain somepony who would be able to help her get safely to the ruins without much of a fuss and it was with this in mind that she sought Fluttershy's help.

At the moment, the shy pegasus led the way, but stopped short after parting through a wide species of fern. Twilight heard her friend let out a sharp gasp and turned away, eyes closed tight.

"Fluttershy, what is it?"

The poor pegasus whimpered. Twilight frowned and moved forward to investigate. Upon seeing exactly what caused her friend such a reaction, the princess gasped in shock.

Fluttershy was right. There was indeed a manticore nest nearby and the ponies were unfortunate enough to come across it. Lying just beneath her hooves were the dessicated corpses of three manticore cubs, their skin taut and sunken. They'd been like this for some time.

"O-oh, my..." Twilight brought a hoof up to her mouth in horror. She had never seen a dead body until recently, and after this, she hoped she'd never have to again. That these were cubs... babies, made it all worse. Her chest constricted, but whatever she may have felt, she knew it paled in comparison to what Fluttershy must be going through.

She moved to comfort her friend.

"It doesn't make sense," Fluttershy whispered, having run out of tears for the better part of a minute.

"What doesn't, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, a hoof resting on her friend's withers.

"Manticores are good parents. They would never let their cubs..." She trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"It's the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy. It... these kinds of things happen here," she said lamely in a poor attempt to make her friend feel better.

"There's something wrong here, Twilight."

"What? What do you mean?"

"The forest... it's quiet. Something happened. I don't know what, but many animals are scared to come out."

"But why?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "I don't know, but something about the forest feels different. I... I can't really explain it."

Twilight fumed. So many strange things had happened over the past week, and now it spread to the Everfree as well? This was no coincidence. And where did Febreze fit in to all this? Whatever it was, she needed to get to the bottom of it, and by Celestia, she would do it today.

“Are you quite sure this is the right way?” Cutlass asked as our guide kept on leading us through the seemingly neverending tunnels of the diamond dogs. Ari merely shot her an annoyed look and didn’t say anything.

“It’s just that we’ve been walking around for who knows how long and we still don’t seem any closer to the alpha.”

“Maybe this would go quicker if somebody hadn’t caved in all the tunnels, making us all go around aimlessly in hopes of finding a suitable route,” she said and shot me a baleful look. Sheesh, everybody’s a critic.

“So, I don’t want to be a downer here, guys, but what if all routes to the alpha have been caved in?” asked the pegasus.

“They’re not,” I said with certainty. “Plenty of dogs survived. You saw it. It’s just a matter of time before we find the right way.”

“Oh, this looks promising,” Ari said as she came up to another entrance that thankfully wasn’t blocked off. “Do you mind?” she asked me and I made a noise of agreement.

It goes without saying, but given that we stood underground, away from the light, it was very dark inside the tunnels. The diamond dogs got around this by installing torches along the walls of the tunnels, but even without those, they had exceptionally good eyesight even in places void of any light. How exactly that worked was beyond me, but given the state of this world, I’m assuming magic had something to do with it.

Anyway, I sidled next to Ari and conjured a ball of light to light our way, bobbing alongside me as we walked through. For the next few minutes, Ari led us deeper in. It was creepy just how quiet it was, with only our steps being the sole source of noise. At the very least we knew it was the right way, partly because the tunnel we were now going through had been made by those dogs who tried to get away from their tormentors, being the reason why the place we dark and without torches to light our way. Well, thankfully, the tunnel eventually ended in a downwards slope, and Ari made a small ‘hah’ of triumph.

“It’s light. Do you see it?”

I certainly did. Peeking over the slope, I could indeed make out an orange glow.

“That’s the room the dogs escaped from, and if the guard’s memories are correct, from this point on our way should be rather straightforward.”

“You mean no more collapsed tunnels to go around?” asked Cutlass.

“Correct.”

“Well, it’s about time. Let’s get moving, eh? These cramped spaces are really bumming me out.” And just like that, the pegasus went and jumped in before Ari and I could get a word in edgewise.

“What… hey, Cutlass! Stick together you stupid pegasus!” I yelled after her.

“Well, you can’t say she’s not eager,” Ari said.

“Come on, then. Let’s make sure she didn’t kill herself or something.” I promptly jumped in after her.

The dirt was loose enough that I could simply ride the slope down, not unlike an incredibly dirty water slide. Ugh, and now my jeans are gonna stain. Hope I can wash all that dirt out. The end of the slope came into view, and I could see it ended a good fifteen feet off the ground. I struggled to slow my descent, but the loose soil made it hard to get a good hold and despite my best efforts, I ended faceplanting the ground, filling my mouth with gross dirt.

Agh, son of a… I spat and coughed, frantically trying to clear my mouth, and a silhouette above me made me look upwards to see Ari descending the shaft as well. Unlike me, however, she did some magic thing that slowed her descent to a crawl, enabling her to land smoothly in all four hooves.

“Showoff,” I muttered under my breath and hastened to right myself.

“Well now, it looks your new friend has already taken care of the dogs,” Ari commented.

Say what? I looked over and true enough, Cutlass was there, proud as a peacock and standing triumphantly over the still bodies of four dogs.

“I must say young lady, this is rather impressive. Where did you learn to fight?” Ari asked, paying no heed to the downed mongrels and trotting over to Cutlass.

“Eh. Not one place, really. Aunt Del and I travel to all kinds of places, so I pick up things here and there.”

“And is this kind of thing normal for you?” I asked. Agh, I still feel some grit in my mouth.

“Oh, yeah. More than you’d think, really. Not everywhere’s as nice and cozy as Equestria. There’s more than a few places where you’d best learn to take care of yourself, especially if you’re a female. And… well, I don’t wanna toot my own horn, but,” she said, not really bothering to hide a look of smug superiority. “Rough and tumble types can find it hard to keep their mitts off me.” I swear, if she was trying to look nonchalant about it, she was doing a poor job.

“You know, I’ve been meaning to ask you about that,” Ari said. “Is there something you do? Perhaps a special diet or some calisthenics? Your barrel is quite slimmer than I thought possible for a pony, but…"

“Oh, this ol’ thing?” She smiled, clearly reveling in the attention and patted the side of her belly. Hmm, come to think of it, it did look slimmer and more streamlined than Ari’s. Like pretty much all the other ponies I’d seen, her sides were kind of bulging out. “Yeah, the thin look is all the rage over in Zanzabar. About twenty years back this whole fitness movement kinda took over and ponies figured out some exercises to make your barrel slim and trim. You need to follow a proper diet as well and let me tell ya, that’s kinda hard to do here in Equestria. You guys really like to pile on the sugar,” she said a bit reproachfully.

“Hmm, you're right about that,” Ari admitted. “Back in the day I was known to indulge more often than I should. Perhaps later on you could give me a hooves on demonstration?”

“Of course,” Cutlass said brightly. “And it’s real easy once you build up a rhythm. All you gotta watch out for is…”

“Hey, people! Come on,” I said loudly, cutting off the pegasus before kept on talking. “Did you forget we came here to kill a dog? You can trade fitness tips later."

They both shot me an annoyed look.

"Later?" Ari asked Cutlass.

"Sure, no problem."

These diamond dogs were really worthless species. Literally all the tunnels looked to be the same. You'd think they'd think to put signs or marks or something. I asked Ari about this, only to find the unpleasant truth that the dogs used... secretions smeared on the tunnels to find their way around. An unspoken agreement formed between the three of us to get out of the damned place as soon as possible and we refrained from touching anything but the ground, and even that was questionable.

In a perfect world, the trip would have gone smoothly, but apparently this was not such a world. We encountered resistance further on. Stupid dogs who mindlessly threw themselves at up. They all wound up the same way whether from fatal slashing wounds, crushed skeletons or a well placed hoof to the brain stem. Still, it was a breeze, more or less. We had to improvise later on, for the earth around us was still very unstable. We'd come across a fork in the path when the earth above us destabilized. There was no room to react and we scurried off in different directions to avoid getting crushed. I took the right fork while the others went left. Ari warned me to not try and move the rubble to clear a path, for fears that doing so would cause even more of the countless tons of earth above us to come crashing down. We would just have to meet somewhere else. Since I had no idea how the tunnels were splayed out, Ari suggested we meet in the antechamber that lead to the 'throne room' that housed the alpha. Apparently, for all the twists and turns of the den, those two chambers and only them resided at the very bottom. Was it a perfect plan? Hell, no. There was a very real possibility that I'd never find my way out or that an unexpected shift in the earth would bury me alive but, lame puns aside, I'd kinda dug my own grave here, and only I could get myself out of it.

Drat, it’s freakin’ creepy wandering the tunnels all alone. It’s times like these that I really hate my paranoid nature, for I couldn’t help but envision scenarios in which the mongrels would spring a surprise and overtake me with overwhelming numbers. That or some other eldritch monstrosity would be waiting for me at the next turn. Giant cockroaches, maybe. Or even worse, giant naked mole rats, with wrinkly leathery skin, buck teeth capable of chewing through steel and soulless, milky green eyes. Revolting.
Come on, girl! Find your happy place. Find your happy place.

Finally, a measure of success. After a turn, I could make our the faint, flickering orange glow of flames ahead, so I extinguished my little ball of light as I drew close, only… I wasn't alone.

There were voices, and to my immense displeasure, as I drew closer one of those voices was very much familiar. As I bridged the distance between us, the enclosed tunnel dramatically increased in size as I went along until it became as tall and wide as a two story house.

I could hear the voices now, clearer and two of them speaking very broken Equish… er, english. Whatever. In any case, the ground I walked in served as a balcony of some sort and further ahead, the ground was indented a good twelve feet. On my level were an assortment of crates, barrels and furniture that overlooked the lower level and I hid behind these before peeking at the creatures below.

My heart sank when there, right before me, was none other than Twilight Sparkle. Said alicorn was facing two diamond dogs… well, three really, but that third member was knocked on its ass. It was unmoving, probably unconscious and the other two dogs slowly advanced on the pony, weapons raised.

“Pony has killed Bingo! Now pony must pay!” one of the dogs said in broken english.

I had to give props to the pony, she faced her attackers unflinchingly. “Your friend is only unconscious. Please, let me through. There’s no need for further violence.” She may be speaking for peace, but her wings were outstretched, her body lowered into some sort of combat stance, and her horn aglow, ready to blast the mutts at a moment’s notice.

Me, I had no idea what was going on here, but whatever the case, the dogs opted for violence and pounced. One of them gave a battle howl and bounded forward, raising a rather large sword with the intention of cleaving the admittedly soft looking pony. Said pony, however, had different plans and blasted the canine with a beam of purple magic with enough force to send it flying back a good ten feet.

But the other dog took advantage of her distraction and launched a spear that Twilight was barely able to grasp in a magic hold before it skewered her. Unfortunately for her, this meant that those few but critical seconds that she used up in halting the implement meant she had to take her focus off the dog, who capitalized on this by jumping forward and swung one of its massive forearms in the pony’s direction.

Twilight was too late to be able to completely avoid the dog. She’d been startled enough that she reared up on her hind legs, but even so, the dog was too close and instead of tearing open her gut, its claws slashed her foreleg instead.

The pony cried in pain as following the dog’s swing were miniature blood droplets that splattered on the ground. Twilight fell backwards and sheesh, it looked like the beast cut her deep. The diamond dog, seeing an opening, jumped forward like a lion, maw open, paws outstretched and ready to tear into its prey.

When you read a book, you oftentimes hear that things go in slo-mo. That the victim can see everything as though it were happening at a fraction of the speed. Personally, I think that’s bullshit designed to sell. Was it that way for Twilight as well? That she could see her impending doom? Who knows. All I know was that in that split second I decided to act.

I’m not sure what it was. Compassion, maybe? Dunno. I mean, yeah, out of all the ponies I’d met thus far, she was one of the very few who didn’t completely suck. Or maybe it was a sort of self preservation. With the shit luck I’d had since coming here, I wouldn’t put it past the universe to take a dump on me should the pony princess perish right in front of me.

Whatever it was, it caused me to act in defense of said pony. Reaching over my cover, I grasped the dog in a telekinetic grasp and roughly shoved it in the opposite direction, where it landed heavily in the ground. At this point I pretty much threw caution to the wind and jumped from my vantage point to the floor below.

Of course, Twilight had very much noticed she was not being mauled to death right now and when I hurled the dog away from her, she’d been looking everywhere for her savior. Once her eyes landed on me, however, her fuzzy pony mug had been overcome by surprise. Her jaw slackened and she gazed at me dumbly, but almost immediately, a dawning look of comprehension started to overtake her features and I did not like it one bit.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on this, for the diamond dog was still very much alive and quite pissed now that it got back on its feet. Ugly thing, really. Its paw reached for a crude war ax strapped near its hip and it charged at me with every intention of slaughtering me. Unfortunately for the beast, I had no plans to die today.

True, all that power I used in caving in the tunnels had sapped me of quite a bit of my strength and fortitude. Enough that the dog could kill me if it so desired. Still, I had plenty of juice left over, so when the beast heaved the ax over its head to bring death down upon me, I raised my own forearm to block it, pumping it with mass amounts of chaos magic that I then used to change the constitution of my skin to be tougher than steel.

A loud resounding twang echoed around the room as the blade made contact with the tip of my arm. The dog had obviously not been anticipating this, for the backlash caused it to drop the weapon in surprise and in a feat of admittedly impressive reflexes, I managed to catch the weapon before it hit the ground and drove it with all my might down onto the surprised beast’s mug, effectively splitting its face in half. Somewhere behind me, I could hear Twilight’s cry of “No!”, but given the situation, I paid it little mind. The dog’s body jerked and spasmed violently a couple of times before falling over, where its death throes quickly subsided.

The other dog that Twilight had blasted with her magic was at this point gaining it bearings and began to stir. This was unacceptable and so acting on instinct, I hurried over, grabbed its head between my hands and twisted until I heard bones snap. Like its ilk, its body jerked and shuddered before going still.

Of the emotions coursing through me at that very moment, I’d be lying if I said guilt or remorse were among them. At this point I was more or less used to death. I mean, I didn’t go out of my way to kill stuff, but during that first week in the forest, practically every monster I came across had the intention to do me in, so it was kill or be killed. You’d be surprised how quickly you get used to it.

So I was there, standing victoriously over the lesser beasts. That sense of elation receded, my breaths slowed, became more paced and for a few moments, there was nothing but silence.

Of course, there was still that massive pink elephant in the room. Her Royal Ponyness had just seen me slaughter two dogs and use magic to boot. I stood still, avoiding her gaze and my mind frantically racing to figure out a way to handle the situation. Thankfully, Twilight seemed to be a little busy heaving and retching, if the noises and the smell beside me were anything to go by.

For a moment I considered snapping her scrawny pony neck and bury her somewhere like I did with that guard, but quickly discarded the idea. Did she come here alone? Bring reinforcements? If so, the last thing I needed was for them to figure out I offed their overlord. Kinda make the whole laying low thing a tad hard. And again, universe.

No, she came here for something, and I’m not sure if it was hubris or whatever, but something told me she came here for me. No, I needed her alive and unharmed for the moment. I had to see for myself what she knew and how much she knew. Only then could I make an informed decision what to do.

So with that in mind, I reluctantly turned to see said pony eyeing me in a mixture of distaste, shock and anger. For several painfully stifling moments we simply looked at each other. I mean, really, what do you say in a situation like this?

“You’re bleeding,” I pointed out, not caring all that much she could hear me talk, and I was not surprised when she did not bat an eye at this.

Her ears flicked in my direction, and her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. You could practically hear the gears in her head working overtime. “Febreze,” she said in a strained voice. Whether from her wound or something else, it was impossible to tell. “You got taller.”

Drat. “How did you know?” I asked in a tone that did not betray my increasingly freaked out state.

She frowned. “You’re not exactly subtle. It wasn’t that hard to piece it together.”

Now, I wasn’t what you would call a wordsmith. I’m more a girl of action, really, so instead of answering, I looked around the room. Whether by pure chance or providence, I spotted a crate with a big honking red cross painted on the surface and true enough, in yet another weird coincidence with my world, inside were a number of basic medical supplies.

As a gesture of goodwill, I brought it over to the downed alicorn and broke it open.

“What are you doing?” asked a confused Twilight.

“What does it look like? You’re leaking all over. Here,” I handed her a number of bottles and tubes full of medicine stuff. “I don’t know how this pony stuff works, so you put it on.”

She gave me an odd look before nodding and got to work, cleaning the wound, which was actually a bit deeper than I thought, but then applied some sort of clotting agent that drastically reduced the blood flow in seconds. After wrapping her limb in bandages, she tried to stand up and gingerly tried putting some weight on it.

“Can you walk?”

“I… think so,” she replied, looking down and tried to take a few steps, hobbling in an irritatingly cute way. “Yes, I’m fine as long as I don’t put too much weight on it.”

“Well, come on, we can’t stay here.” Was I trying to avoid a potentially unpleasant conversation. Definitely. Whether Twilight did not notice or care was unclear.

“Wait,” she said more than a little forcefully.

Damn it. I turned around, eyeing her impatiently. “What?”

Gawd, those abnormal pony eyes looked at me in both anger and sadness. Almost made me feel bad. “You killed those diamond dogs,” she said in a quiet, wavering voice.

I nodded. “Yes I did, now can we hurry along? I got a schedule to keep.”

Great, and now she looked at me with disappointment. “You don’t care?”

Resisting the urge to both snarl and facepalm, I approached the pony and said in my best no-nonsense voice, “Look, we could stand here and waste time arguing the merits of human on dog homicide, but unless you haven’t noticed, princess, these tunnels are set to come down soon, so why don’t you move your little pony butt and come help me find a way out of here?”

I promptly turned and walked into the only other opening of the lower floor, not looking back, but sure enough, I heard the unmistakable flapping of wings and Princess Sparklebutt herself landed gingerly next to me. I chanced a look at her and she reciprocated with her own icy glare. Well, she’s obviously not gonna drop the matter, but at least she knows enough that this was not the time or place to dawdle and ask questions.

We walked on in silence and all the while I was praying to God and every deity I could think of that for once, not everything would go tits up. I could only hope something out there would take pity on me and bring down a healthy dose of luck.

Cutlass scrunched her nose in distaste as they headed deeper into the tunnels. The stench of dog and filth only kept on getting stronger the more they walked and she worried it might get bad enough that she'd have to puke. Her companion, however, did not seem to mind the stench. If anything, she periodically raised her muzzle to sniff the air around them in wonder, as if evaluating something within it that Cutlass could not make out.

"Stop," she said suddenly and Cutlass complied.

"What is it?"

"There's many dogs just up ahead. Can you smell them?"

"Kinda hard not to. The whole place stinks of them," she said sourly, waving a hoof in front of her nose. "How is this not bothering you?"

"Changelings smell emotions. Their olfactory systems do not register conventional smells like yours. Now come along and be quiet. We do not want to draw attenrion."

The pegasus followed suit and as the tunnel ended, the pair entered a massive underground cavern, the size of four hoofball fields side by side. It was the 'top floor' of an underground quarry carved hundreds of feet further down, replete with many fouls smells, the stench of misery, the clanging of metal and the impact of tools against rock. Compounding the sight were many slaves toiling under the watchful eyes of their captors.

Diamond dogs made the majority of the workforce, reduced to using crude tools to mine for gems, as their claws had long since been pulled out. But these were not the only ones. A few ponies were scattered throughout, their normally vibrant coats hidden beneath layers of dirt. Unicorns had their horns viciously shattered, pegasi their wings broken and a number of unfortunate, rebellious sods among them had but nubs where their wings used to be, long since scarred. There were the odd mules donkeys and even a cow or two. One thing they all had in common was the permanent look of misery and hopelessness in their faces.

"It's a sorry sight, isn't it?" Ari said quietly.

Cutlass grunted. "Reminds me of the labor camps on Limbo. Not as organized, though."

"We need to cross to the other end. That's the fastest way to get to the main den of the Alpha."

"Can't we just... I dunno. Go around or something? I mean, I guess I could fly over all this, but you'll get spotted for sure."

"We could, if we wanted to be set back an hour or two. But that's fine. It just so happens I know a way around this."

"Oh, good," the pegasus said in obvious relief. "What do you have in mind?"

"See that scaffolding? All the way at the top?" Ari pointed to a structure built on the fringe of the gaping chasm of the chamber. Cutlass squinted and sure enough, at the top, in a ramshackle room lined with wired fencing was a particularly fat diamond dog, twice as tall as the average mutt and three times as wide. "That there's the overseer for this quarry. All the slaves in this section of the tunnels are fitted with collars keyed to an enchanted jewel he carries with him."

"Okay..." Cutlass said uncertainly, not sure where she was going with this.

"You're going to get there and bring me back that jewel. If the dog's memories are correct, it should be a fire ruby about as big as your hoof. Make sure no one sees you and get it back here. I'll take it from there."

Cutlass tapped her chin with a hoof, as if assessing the situation. "Huh. Is that it? I thought it was gonna be hard or something," she said, a small smile on her muzzle.

She unfurled her wings and took to the air. She wasn't worried she'd get spotted. The sounds that emanated from the quarry were loud and grating enough that they'd be able to drown out what little noise she made. The slaves toiled, miserable and looking down, as if afraid to look directly in the eyes of their oppressors. Diamond dogs took such thing as a challenge and the dogs themselves—those who weren't slaves, at least, kept an eye on their charges, making sure no one got out of line.

It was almost ridiculously insulting just how easy it was, but then again, the dogs were either stupid or arrogant enough that they would never consider a lone pegasus conspiring against them.

The overseer himself was equally oblivious, sitting on a wooden, throne like chair and reaching for a bowl of some kind of dried meat next to him. The only clue he got that he was in danger was the split second Cutlass dived from above him, pulverizing his cranium with hooves that struck him like a ton of bricks.

It was possible that any dog from beneath the structure would have noticed the quaking that Cutlass' impact created. Regardless, the pegasus had already liberated the ruby and was already back just when a pair of guards came to investigate.

"One fire ruby, hot and freshly liberated," the pegasus quipped, tossing the gem at Ari, which she caught with her magic.

"Nicely played," she responded with a small smile.

"Now how exactly is this little doohickey gonna help?"

"Well you see, my dear," the unicorn said, her face a picture of concentration, not taking her eyes off the ruby. "It just so happens that the upcoming tunnels are under heavy guard. The cuffs and restraints the dogs use for the slaves do not use traditional keys. Rather, they are keyed to the enchantment placed on this ruby."

"I've heard of those. They're a popular item with slavers, but don't you need to, I dunno, tap the gem to each of the slave's restraints to get them on or off?"

"Normally, yes. But we don't have time for that."

"And I just don't see how messing with the slaves is gonna help us out."

"Don't you?" The unicorn said and fixed Cutlass with the look a parent would give a child who did not immediately spot the obvious answer. "The area ahead is thick with dogs. We won't be able to remain undetected if we try to go through. They'll likely overwhelm and kill us, but if we release all the slaves at once--"

Cutlass' eyes widened in realization. "They'll draw the attention of the dogs and away from us," she said in understanding.

"And we'll be able to slip by relatively unmolested, yes," the unicorn said in satisfaction, returning her attention to the gem.

"I admit, that's pretty smart. Maybe not nice, but smart. So, how are you gonna free the slaves?"

No sooner had she asked the question that the ruby suddenly exploded in countless tiny fragments, drawing a wince from the unicorn and a startled yelp from Cutlass.

"Well, there goes the plan," she said dejectedly.

"Don't be silly, filly," Ari said, busy running a hoof through her mane which was glittering with many minuscule pieces of the shattered ruby. "I got what I needed, just be ready to move if anything happens."

Cutlass watched in interest as the unicorn moved to the edge of the quarry, looking down at the scene below. Her eyes narrowed in concentration and channeled magic into her horn, where quickly enough, a rosy red ball of energy materialized, growing from the size of a pinprick to that of an orange. When she was satisfied the magic reached the desired potency and frequency, Ari let it loose.

The little ball of magic launched from her horn all the way down to the bottom level of the quarry. Its luminescence and trajectory drew many a stare, not that it mattered, for it then floated roughly in the middle between the top and bottom of the quarry when it burst, sending out an ever expanding wave of magic in all directions, starting out bright but diminishing in substance as it stretched out further and further, passing through every living thing in the quarry until it faltered and fizzled out

For several seconds, nothing happened. The quarry had grown silent as everyone did not miss the sight or sensation of a magical field passing through them. Everyone, both slaves and slavers looked around for something, anything that might have happened, but all in all, everything stayed as it was.

Then all at once, the slaves' bindings fell of simultaneously, creating a near deafening clang of metal that encompassed the chamber.

To those who bore witness to this spectacle, their mouths hung open in shock. The slaves gazing in wonderment at their now free limbs, some even going as far as to hold them up close to inspection, as if to make sure this was not all happening inside their heads. Then, acting as one, they lifted their heads to look at their keepers and their tormentors, and a dangerous glint flashed in their eyes. One that spoke of their realization that they outnumbered the slavers by at least thirty to one.

It was mass pandemonium. Years of pent up fury and hatred boiled over all at once, and the former slaves descended on their oppressors without mercy. True, the dogs had the advantage in wearing armor and wielding weapons, but it was all the more irrelevant when they were so laughably outnumbered. They fought off their attackers as best they could, but almost immediately were overwhelmed by the tidal wave of bodies, who clawed, stomped, punched, kicked, bit and otherwise beat the life out of them, leaving them little more than an unrecognizable, mangled mess of flesh. Likewise, some of the guards tried to escape, but there were far too many freed slaves everywhere they turned and soon enough, they too met their end.

They all made a mad dash through to the top of the quarry, their newfound liberation granting them with renewed strength and energy and dispersed to whatever exit they could reach.

Cutlass and Ari watched from a distance, the latter having cast a simple charm to help them go unnoticed amid the fleeing slaves and once the only living things in the chamber were them—with the occasional guard or slave who had been trampled in the chaos and desperately clung to life—they continued on ahead to their destination.

"Well, I had my doubts, but this worked out better than I thought," Cutlass said as they both trotted side by side into yet another configuration of tunnels.

Ari smiled and bowed her head in acknowledgement. "Thank you. I knew I liked you, Cutlass."

"Is that why you convinced Ms. Crankypants to let me come along?" The pegasus quipped.

"Let's just say I had a good feeling about you. That, and the fact that disposing of you might have been... messy. After all, there might very well have been a pony who would come looking for you."

"That so, huh?"

"Was I wrong?"

"Hmm," Cutlass hummed, looking up in thought. "No, not really."

"In that case, I'm glad it worked out."

"Hear, hear!" The pegasus enthusiastically declared. "Wait, do you smell that?"

"I told you already. I--"

"No, not that. I mean... ugh, it smells like something died," Cutlass said, her voice muffled as she held up a hoof to her muzzle.

True enough, waiting for them up ahead were dead bodies. The freed slaves, slaughtered and cut open.

"Hmm. It seems the dogs reorganized rather quickly. No matter, we still go on ahead," Ari stated, wading through the throng of corpses and being mindful not to step on any blood. Cutlass followed suit, trailing after in the air, protecting her nose from the stench of the viscera and holding her breath as well she could.

"How can you be sure this is the way?"

"I don't."

"Do you have a plan for getting out of here?"

"Not really."

"What if we run into more diamond dogs?"

"Then we'll take care of them."

Twilight fumed silently. Her attempts at getting... whatever she wanted to get out of me were unsuccessful so far. At least I think they were.

"Unless you know a way out of here?"

She did a 'hmph' sort of noise and continued on.

"Uh, we're going this way, princess."

"Well I think we should head this way instead," the flippant pony said and took the left path at the fork we found ourselves in.

I sighed and followed suit.

"Alright, pony. Just come and spit it out. What's your beef with me?"

Said alicorn whirled around, her fuzzy mug twisted in a mask of anger. "My beef? My beef?!" She near shrieked. "Do you realize what you've done?! Since day one you've caused nothing but trouble! You've brought misfortune to ponies... innocent ponies. Rainbow Dash nearly died because of you!"

"Who?"

"You hurt Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy! You've nearly ruined Aloe and Lotus' spa and you... you..." Heh, silly pony. Did she think she looked scary or something? Man, she looked about ready to blow. So much so that words were failing her. "You killed that poor..." Oh, shit! Did she find out about the guard? "Pig." Oh, the swine? Whew, I was almost worried for a second there.

"Well excuse me, princess, but unless you haven't noticed, I'm not like the average human. My body needs meat in order to live, so excuse me for not wanting to die just now."

"That's a lie!" the furious pony screamed, stomping down a hoof. "I don't care what lies you try to sell me, your kind can live on a meatless diet."

I made a disbelieving noise. "Yeah? And you know this how?"

Her mouth was already open to continue her diatribe, only... she didn't say anything. She looked unsure, really. "I... I... I can't do this right now. Let's just go. I don't want to talk to you right now," she hissed with no small amount of venom. "But one way or another, after we get out of this place, you will answer for all your crimes."

She wanted to keep her trap shut? Well, that was perfectly fine by me. Insolent little bitch. Did she think her pissy threat bothered me? What's she gonna do, try to get a dumb human on trial? Wait, do these ponies even have trials? Hmm, given her hippie country's backward state, it wouldn't surprise me if she tried to use her princess power to screw me over in some way.

Still, maybe things were... actually not looking so good for me. What if... no, no. Shit, why am I even worried? It's not like I plan on staying in the mud village and even then, it's not like she can do anything to keep me in place. Nothing that I know of, at least...

For all her posturing, it was obvious Twilight had no idea where to go. She stupidly led us right into the nursery of the dogs—mats made of what looked to be leather on the floor, at least two dozen and in each of them were two or three of the dogs in infant form. Of course, they were not exactly alone.

Six... I dunno, nursemaids or nannies or whatever were also there. They didn't take too kindly to our intrusion, as evidenced by the fact that two of them barked at us while the rest charged forward, ready to tear into us.

Me, I wasn't worried. I'd already figured out at least three ways to kill them. Of course, Twilight was leading the way, and so they went for her first. Being the bleeding heart hippie that she was, the pony tried in vain to talk down our attackers. That went about as well as you might imagine and she was forced to conjure up a magical shield. The dogs howled, bit and pounded at the thing, trying to crack it like an egg. I hung back and watched in interest. Seeing how she seemed to be leaning on the 'dog lives matter' side, I figured it in good taste to let her try her hand at taking care of the situation.

Surprise, surprise. Words didn't work. Eventually, Twilight figured that her pacifistic approach wouldn't work and so she somehow caused her shield to explode outward with a rather loud boom. The pups wailed and shrieked—a noise borne straight out of the deepest pits of hell—so loud I feared my eardrums would burst. At least I had my awesome, superior, highly evolved hands to muffle out the noise. Twilight... well, there wasn't too much she could do, what with her little pony hooves and bore the brunt of the assault. Hehe.

One of the dogs that hung back and was untouched by the exploding bubble went stupid and decided to charge at me, thinking little ol' me to be easy pickings. I enlightened it as to its fatal error in judgment by grabbing it ahold in a magic grasp and shoving it as far away from me, as fast as I could muster. There was enough force in its trajectory that dust, random pottery, hay and even a few of the pups went flying as it sailed past them, smashing with a bone crunching impact on the opposite wall. It did not get up again.

Twilight used her pony magic to fire some sort of bolts on the dogs she'd downed, knocking them unconscious, leaving only one standing, the other dog that had held back in the initial assault. It promptly fled with its tail between its legs.

Of course, the infants were still there, wailing for all they were worth and determined to literally scream us to death. Twilight seemed torn at leaving them by themselves, but I did not give her a choice in the matter. I practically carried her away despite her protests and into another section of the tunnels, sending a wave of kinetic force to collapse it behind us and cut us off from the spawn and their piercing cries.

She didn't take it all that well.

Still, reason seemed to win out as she realized we couldn't exactly hang around. Didn't stop her from being pissed off at me, but at least she allowed me to take the lead. Well, more like I decided to go in front and left it up to her to decide whether to follow or not, but it all worked out. We stumbled in some sort of armory, stocked full of crude and unsightly weapons and armor.

We were relatively undisturbed, and only came across two other dogs at different points. Twilight knocked them out and we continued on. A kitchen—and I'm only using that in the vaguest sense—followed. The stench hit you like a tidal wave and it was enough to make us take a step back. The stink of death was so thick in the air it was hard to breathe.

There, propped atop slabs of stone and wood were corpses that belonged to quadrupeds, some resting, others hanging by rusted meat hooks that probably have never been cleaned. Some carcasses were not yet skinned, and many still had their hooves intact. One thing they did share in common was their heads were severed, carelessly tossed aside to one corner of the room. Ponies, mules, pigs, cows, goats, sheep. The severed heads intermingled with each other and all in varying stages of decomposition.

The ground and floor were discolored by years' worth of blood that in most likelihood had never been cleaned and in a special section all its own were carcasses—skinned, drawn and quartered and much too small to be adult.
Good God, it smells like Satan's butthole.

I scrunched my nose at the smell and covered my face with both my hoodie and shirt, which really helped with the odor. Twilight... well, she didn't take it all that well. You'd think she'd never witnessed death on a mass scale or something. It wasn't long before she doubled over and puked, getting sick on the front of her hooves, body wracked by violent tremors. She kept on heaving long after her stomach emptied its contents, coupled with some very audible sobs. Tears streaked down her face.

I crossed my arms and waited for her to finish with her little episode. At one point in time, I might have considered consoling her in some way, but it was all I could do to keep from retching at the smell myself. It was that bad. Eventually, she regained enough control of herself and dashed through the room to the opposite end and out, keeping her head down and avoiding looking at the carnage around her.

She went silent after that and followed me without a word. She was still crying and the odd sob or sniffle could be made out every now and then. Hm, looks like that display back there really shook her, but in between trying to find our way to the alpha, keeping on the lookout for more dogs and that nagging voice in my head telling me that the tunnels would collapse and bury us alive, I had little sympathy to give. She'd just have to tough it out.

We didn't go far before the sound of diamond dogs resonated through the dirt. There was no other way to go but forward, but we went anyway. Twilight and I hid on either side of the entrance and peeked at the chamber. A sort of dining room—again, only using that word in the vaguest sense—lined with three roasting spits, at least a dozen dogs inside who were feasting on roasted meat. Hmm, smelled pretty good, actually.

Twilight's face morphed into a grimace of disgust.

"Well," I said and cracked my knuckles. "Looks like we'll have to go through those mutts if we want to get out of here."

Twilight's fuzzy mug snapped to me, instantly knowing what I implied. "No, please." There was a weary sort of quality to her tone and she placed a hoof on my arm in a near supplicating fashion. "There's been enough death already." Her voice cracked.

"And do you have a plan to get us through? Call me crazy, but I don't think they'll let us pass just because you ask nicely?"

She looked away, her expression ponderous. Her head swiveled, searching for something. "There." She pointed to the wall beside me where the faceted end of a green gem peeked through. "Can you hand me that emerald?" I did as she asked, curious what she had in mind.

"What are you planning to do?" I asked as she scraped the dirt off the precious stone.

"There's a spell I know. It'll create a distraction and allow us to pass."

"Won't the dogs see us?"

"Well... yes maybe some of them, but trust me, this is going to work." She sounded certain if nothing else. After the emerald was clean she turned to me. "Maybe it would be best if you don't look. You might be affected by the spell as well."

"Just go ahead and do it, princess. Whatever you have planned it won't work on me."

A nod followed after a second of hesitation. Her horn glowed with power and out of it popped out a stream of—you gotta be kidding me—little pink hearts that disappeared inside the gem. A feeling rose up in me... an urge to swipe the thing and claim it as my own, but I managed to power through it and the sensation died down.

Twilight looked at me in scrutination, searching for any sign the spell had affected me. Her fuzzy mug remained ponderous even after and she peeked her head through the opening before taking aim and hurled the cursed gem over to a dog who was still wearing its helmet. A loud clanging noise echoed around the room, drawing the attention of every dog as the gem fell gracelessly to the ground, several sets of eyes following it.

I'm not a hundred percent sure what was supposed to happen, but for several seconds, everything was still. The dogs looked at the gem in slack jawed stupidness as whatever eldritch spell Twilight used overtook their tiny, inferior minds.

Then, suddenly, one of the dogs stepped forward.

"I want it."

Another followed suit.

"I need it."

Huh, I thought they couldn't speak Equi... er, English?

As one, every single dog dived forward in a conglomeration of flesh and metal, all of them vying for that moderately valuable little stone. A satisfied smile spread across Twilight's fuzzy mug, thinking her plan worked and that there would be no more bloodshed.

Yeah, maybe this kind of thing worked if you used it against soft, weak, squishy little ponies, but diamond dogs were another matter entirely. They were brutes, predators, uncivilized and little more than neanderthals and like the beasts that they were, it wasn't long before Twilight's mindwash drove them to massacre each other.

Compelled by a force beyond their understanding, the stupid beasts proceeded to gang up on whatever sap held the gem and simultaneously worked to liberate said item. Of course, this liberation ended up with the 'gang-bangee' literally torn apart. Diamond dogs were strong fuckers. If I had to guess I'd put their strength level somewhere around a gorilla's and if a dozen gorillas grab ahold of you and start pulling with all their might in different directions, aided by stone-cutting claws and vicious fangs... well, that probably won't turn out too well for you.

And that's not even mentioning the mess. I counted at least four dogs who were pulled apart so savagely that they burst upon the strain, splaying blood and entrails in every direction, coating the remaining dogs and the ground in an increasingly growing red stain.

With their numbers dwindled, they couldn't pull off the whole 'tearing each other apart' thing anymore and so their attempts to claim the cursed stone devolved to smaller but no less vicious brawls. A single swipe of those claws could tear open a stomach and more than one dog fell prey to that old disemboweling schtick. Others had entire sections of their limbs bit off. Yeowch, those mutts sure had some serious bite power. More than once did I see cases of thick metal crumpling under those chompers.

Twilight's curse more than did its job and in the end, only one single dog was left victorious. Well, more in the sense of Pyrrhus than anything else as it struggled to cling to life in spite of there being a rather large amount of fur, skin and flesh missing on its side. Still, in spite of the horrendous pain it must have felt, the beast had only eyes for the little green trinket, which at this point resembled more a ruby than anything.

I looked down at Twilight. A look of pure, unbridled horror and shock graced her features. Her little pony mouth hung open and her eyes, if possible, widened even further than their already absurd gargantuan size. In spite of myself, I could only feel a macabre sense of humor at the situation. Irony... such delicious irony. The little hippie pony princess set out to put a halt to wholesale slaughter, only to singlehan—what the hell, I'm feeling a little ponified at the moment—singlehoofedly orchestrate a massacre far more visceral and atrocious than I could ever achieve.

I whistled in appreciation. "Well, not exactly how I would have gone about it, but hey, whatever gets the job done," I promptly patted her on the back and stepped forward. Hmm, I think she's paralyzed from shock or something.

From somewhere behind me I heard the pony retch yet again. Well, more dry heave than anything as her stomach had long since been emptied. I sighed and covered my nose again, waiting until she was done and we could move on.

Christ, I think I'm getting used to the smell of death.

That... can't be healthy for me.

The sound of flesh hitting the ground thumped behind me and there was Twilight, sitting like a doggy, head hung low, eyes glazed over and staring into nothingness.

"Uh, you okay there? Hellooo? I'm talking to you, princess." I tried waving a hand in front of her and even snapping my fingers. I even went so far as to give her a few awkward pats on the back. Nope, didn't help.

Well that's great. That's just great. What am I gonna do with a catatonic pony princess?

In spite of my best judgment, I lifted her over and continued on anyways. Cutlass and Ari should be getting really close to the alpha right about now and I'll be damned if I miss my chance because I was forced to coddle the soft little pony. So with that in mind, I slung her over my shoulder, was mindful to not step on the large puddles of blood(I had to use some of the 'clean' dog corpses as stepping stones) and continued on. Well, if there's a silver lining to this, I'm pretty sure Twilight will be too out of it to see me off more dogs, should they choose to impede my path.

Things were more or less quiet after that. Whether it was luck or the dogs decided it was a good idea to leave me alone was anyone's guess.

It was after about ten minutes that Twilight finally emerged from her catatonic state. I guess being responsible for wholesale slaughter must have really messed with her head. These freaking ponies...

Seeing how she was such a bigwig in her wretched little village, I made sure to inform myself at least a little on what kind of pony she was. Apparently, friendship was a big deal to her, going so far as to have been crowned the Princess of Friendship.

Princess... of Friendship...

I honestly wish I was making that up. Silly little pony. Such a title might have served for her hermetically sealed mud town, but her fortitude was laughably weak when confronted by the more visceral aspects of the world. Well, hopefully she's toughened up at least a little by now. I really don't want to have to carry her again because she experienced a deeply traumatic moment that would probably stay with her for the rest of her life. Hell, no one helped me, and I was able to... mostly move through it, and I wasn't even royalty or anything of the sort.

"Hey, keep up, princess!"

She hurried her gait a little more, still looking down.

We were close. I could feel it.

The path led us to an antechamber of sorts, cleaner and more robustly furnished than the previous rooms we visited and in the middle, crudely carved from stone was a replica of a massive dog covered head to toe in armor. The alpha, maybe?

Perhaps, but my attention was then drawn by three other diamond dog guards splayed on the floor, blood still leaking from vicious slashing wounds. Looks like Ari and Cutlass have come through here already.

"Come on, princess, we're almost there."

Twilight broke out of her reverie and tore her sad gaze away from the dogs. Well, at least she finally shut up.

The pony trotted over to me, where I waited impatiently and was still so deeply shaken that she could not hope to see what came next.

From the corner of my eye there was a sudden movement. My head snapped towards it, but I only managed to catch a fleeting glimpse of an object that whizzed by, a bony 'thunk' and Twilight dropped with a cry of pain, unconscious from the stone that had struck her noggin.

Already I pooled magic into my palm, ready to crush whatever dog had the nerve to ambush us when there, peeking out from one of the mini mountains of gems was a familiar, fuzzy little green mug.

"Cutlass?"

Said pony shot me a sheepish smile and fluttered over to me. "Ah... hey," she said lamely.

"Cutlass, what the shit?!" I screamed, pointing to Twilight's still, but thankfully breathing body. "Do you realize who this is?"

She continuously tapped the tips of her hooves together. "Um, princess Twilight Sparkle?"

"You almost killed her!"

"H-hey now, I didn't want to kill her, okay?" The pegasus said quickly, holding up her hooves in defense. "I just... panicked." I shot her a glare that demanded an explanation, and she picked up on it. "Well, you see," she cleared her throat nervously. "Aunt Del and I... we're not exactly... well, we're the sort of ponies who'd rather avoid the law. Ah, princesses especially, because—"

I facepalmed. "Oh, my God. Are you criminals?"

"No, no! Well... I mean, maybe some parties would consider what we do to not be... wholly within the bounds of the law, but—"

I facepalmed again, this time followed by an aggravated snarl.

"—but, yeah. Aunt Del wants us to keep a low profile and when I saw the princess, well..." She shrugged helplessly and shot me an apologetic smile.

"Go easy on the filly. Cutlass did the right thing."

Gaah! What the—

I nearly jumped as Ari materialized out of nowhere, right next to me.

"Truth be told, I probably would have done the same. We have enough to worry about without the princesses getting wind of us."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the one she's found out," I bit back accusingly.

Cutlass snorted. "Yeah, but come on! I mean, did you really think you wouldn't be found out?"

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Look, I know I haven't known you that long, but still, I can at least make out that you're not exactly..." She trailed off, rotating her hoof midair and her face scrunched in concentration, trying to find the right word.

"Subtle?" Ari suggested.

"Yes!" Cutlass cried out triumphantly. "Or... did you actually think you'd be able to go unnoticed by them?" Both ponies looked at me expectantly. Smartasses...

"Can we just focus on the task at hand?" I asked through gritted teeth. "Because the alpha still needs taking care of."

"If what I know is correct, then he should be in the next chamber," Ari pointed to the corresponding exit.

"Alright. You." I pointed at Cutlass. "You're staying and watching over princess Sparklebutt. Wait here and Ari and I will go take care of the alpha."

"Wha—no! Why do I have to stay here?"

"Because you freaking knocked her out! I've spent enough time babysitting the waif. We're not taking her to the alpha and I sure as shit am done watching out for her."

"But—"

"Maybe that would be for the best," Ari said placatingly and placed a hoof on Cutlass' shoulder. She gave the pegasus a pointed look and Cutlass sagged, slumping into a doggy position and balefully glared at both of us.

"Fine, I'll stay and look after the princess," she muttered sullenly. "Don't have too much fun without me, ya hear?" She capped off with an unenthusiastic wave of her hoof.

I mumbled something and responded with a halfhearted wave of my own. Ari's was more enthusiastic.

"So give it to me straight. What can we expect when we come across the alpha?" I asked Ari as we walked through the tunnel and closed the distance to the upcoming chamber.

"Well, there's the alpha. Guards as well, but they shouldn't give you too much trouble. Ah, and he also drags around a number of concubines."

Gross. "Don't you mean sex slaves?"

"That too, but, there's something you should know."

"Hm?"

"The alpha is... quite a bit bigger and stronger than the average diamond dog."

"And he'll go down like all the others." Ari sighed and placed a hoof on my arm, halting my advance.

"Pay attention, little girl. I'm not joking here. Maybe if you were at full strength you could take on the alpha with no problems, but I can see you're getting weaker."

"I can take care of myself."

"And it's that kind of reckless, self-serving attitude that will get you killed. I don't know if you intentionally deluded yourself into thinking otherwise, but there are some very real limits to what you can and can't do. You forget, little human, I glanced at the inner workings of your body. My knowledge and experience with magic far outstrips your own and you would do well to heed my advice."

She challenged me to a staring contest and—damn—I folded. "Fine, I'm listening."

"You will challenge the alpha to a one-on-one duel to the death."

"Huh?"

"Per diamond dog law, the alpha may be challenged to single combat in order to claim ownership of the throne."

"And when did I say I wanted to rule over a bunch of filthy weredogs?"

"The point is for you to have an opportunity to fight the alpha alone, because if all other guards join in, you will most certainly die. I will as well and I didn't stay around for over a thousand years to die by the paws of some common diamond dogs. That would just be insulting."

That gave me pause. Shit, I did not consider that she might die as well. “If that's an issue then just stay here. I'll take care of the alpha myself.”

“You're being stupid again. Just listen to what I told you and... well, you'll probably succeed. Now let's get a move on. My coat feels dirtier just standing around in here.”

She led the way forward, not looking back and I followed. At the end of the tunnel were a pair of massive, honest to goodness doors made of wood, mud and stone. Ari stopped in front and I took this as my cue.

A well placed kick slammed the doors open and we rushed inside. Almost immediately, several sets of eyes darted in our direction. Ari hadn't been kidding. If anything, she undersold just how filled to the brim the place would be.

The 'throne room' was cavernous and large as a football field sentries were posted all along the perimeter of the chamber, consisting of particularly large diamond dogs. In front of us, situated between ourselves and the throne at the opposite end and carved into the ground was a rectangular crevice the size of a swimming pool, filled with all sorts of unusually shiny precious stones. So polished and of high quality that they caught the light of the torches lined throughout the room and refracted shimmering motes of various glittering colors to every corner of the chamber.

Had the situation been different, I might have considered being in awe of the pretty colors, but the sight of fugly, armored weredogs in every direction really dampened the mood.

My eyes darted in every direction, searching for the alpha, and almost immediately I found him. Ari said it would be big, but damn!

There he was, clad in armor head to toe, chainmail visible beneath the thick plates. Going by first appearances and the shape of his muzzle, I would peg the beast as a Doberman. It seems that I'd interrupted him while he was pacing in front of the jewel-filled pool, but he, like every other dog in the chamber, boggled at us in utter astonishment, eyes wide and mouth slackened.

The beast recovered quickly. It's features filled with rage and in one powerful motion of its hind legs, it leapt over the pool, landing on its paws with such force that dirt expelled outwards and glared with unnervingly intelligent eyes down on us.

Its actions quickly broke the rest of the dogs out of their stupors. The beasts howled and barked as they converged around us, weapons pointed and ready to skewer us at a moment's notice.

With a few measured strides, the alpha closed the distance between us and glared down at Ari with murderous intent... and it completely ignored me!

"I am Steel Fang! Leader of Clan Gargaroth! You have trespassed upon the inner sanctum of my glorious den and have shed our blood. By all rights, you should be dead already!" The beast's unnervingly articulate speech was made all the more imposing by its deep and booming voice. I swear, I almost felt it vibrating my bones. Ari stood her ground and despite her smaller size, somehow managed to look down on the much larger dog with poorly disguised contempt.

"But my clan mate has advised me that you be allowed to leave and spread word to your cities and your princesses of Clan Gargaroth's coming."

"That's a very generous offer," Ari said. "I was under the impression diamond dogs did not let intruders live."

The beast, apparently called Steel Fang snarled and paced in front of us, trying to look intimidating. "By letting you leave, you can tell your pups stories of how you bore witness to the majesty of Gargaroth and its ruler before our clan rises to conquer your lands."

Ari raised an eyebrow, not impressed in the least. The beast kept on talking.

"As we grow in strength and numbers, Clan Gargaroth will ascend from the deepest recesses of the earth and spread across your kingdom in a sea of blood," the beast raved.

We shared a look of disbelief. She turned back to the alpha, clearing her throat and trying not to sound like she was talking to a retard. "I admit, I haven't been keeping up on current events. What did ponies do to deserve such treatment?"

Steel Fang bristled. "Your ancestors drove mine from their rightful place in Oghrum. They drove our kin from their homes so they could bathe in the riches that belonged to the noble race of the diamond dogs. We were wronged! But the time comes when we will right such injustices and then, we will have our revenge!" It was so caught up in its rant that he kept on speaking, growing more furious and agitated with each passing word. "When Gargaroth takes up arms, all other clans throughout Oghrum will be in awe, and they will assimilate into our clan to drive you all back to whence you came. The scattered tribes of the diamond dogs will convene into an empire, with me and my clan mate as its ruler. All surviving races will frighten their offspring with tales of what the Gargaroth Empire did to the ponies. The buffalo will scream as their home is consumed with fire! We will topple the griffons and keep them as slaves and eat their eggs as delicacies! Your descendants will serve us as draft beasts and—"

"Sweet Christ on a stick, do you ever shut up?"

Ari sighed somewhere beside me as every eye in the room swiveled in my direction. The alpha was stunned enough that his tired ramblings ceased and he looked at me with bulging eyes.

"What sorcery is this? A talking human?" He then turned to Ari. "Your paltry parlor tricks are useless against me, pony. My mind is one sharpened and honed through many years of countless—"

"Hey, asshole. If you want to talk to someone, you're talking to me. Now shut your trap."

A collective intake of breath permeated the room at my disrespect for the 'roided mutt.

"How dare you speak to a clan leader in such a way, human?!" Steel Fang bellowed in fury. "your kind are but beasts and food to the superior diamond dog race! You are lucky that you are still alive and not filling our bellies with delicious meat. But I am as merciful a leader as I am strong. Leave now, and never come back, and tell your friends and family on the outside that the glorious Gargaroth Empire will soon—"

Good god, am I in a Quentin Tarantino movie or something? Nah, if it is, it's a shitty one. At this point I'd give anything to stop the beast's endless ramblings, so with lightning fast speed, I juiced up my arm with that sweet chaos magic and bitch slapped the dog with enough force to send it crashing down.

Outraged howls and gasps chorused from all around me as the dog got back to its feet.

"That does it! You have taken advantage of my hospitality and my mercy and for that you must pay the ultimate price with your lives. When this is over, the clan will feast on your flesh and use your bones as toothpicks and your corpses will serve as reminders to the rest of your species that—"

"Steel Fang, I challenge you to a one-on-one duel to determine which of us is best fit to rule Clan Gargaroth!"

Cries of outrage followed the bold proclamation. The beasts around us howled and shook their weapons, but I had only eyes for the alpha, whose eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets. It quaked with rage, no doubt due to the prospect of a human leading a diamond dog den.

"Blasphemy! Heresy! No human in the history of Oghrum has ever become clan leader, and no human henceforth shall ascend to such a position. The very prospect is an insult to the noble race of the diamond dogs and for that, your deaths shall be slow and painful."

"Hey, that's cool," I said and held up both hands placatingly. "I mean, if you're too afraid to go up against little ol' me, then—"

"Silence yourself, wretch! I fear no one, lest a scrawny human such as yourself."

"So why so hesitant?" I teased, linking both hands behind my head. "If you're so powerful, you should not have any problem beating me. You are Steel Fang, after all, leader of Clan Gargaroth and soon to be Emperor of the diamond dogs. Sure, you could killl me here and now, but what will the diamond dogs say down the line—that their supreme leader refused a challenge, even if from a human?"

"Then I will outlaw such heresy, and those who even think to whisper of it shall be skinned while they still live!"

"You know, you are right," I said casually, resisting the urge to sneer in contempt. "But then, that will just make the masses even more curious. You can kill whoever you want, but the truth will get out and those who are discontent with your rule will use this example to prove that maybe, just maybe, you are not as tough and mighty as you like to think—that is, unless you want to kill all diamond dogs who are watching us right now."

The beast's mug trembled with fury and a very visible drop of sweat trailed down its left temple. No, I'm not even gonna express the absurdity by which a dog could sweat. The dogs around us shuffled restlessly and shot nervous looks back and forth, obviously not putting such an action beyond Steel Fang, and the beast itself picked up on it.

Its face strained, warring emotions visible under its mug until finally it bellowed out, "Fine! If the human wants to die a warrior's death, let it! Back away, all of you, and witness how your leader did not yield from a challenge!"

The dogs immediately backed away, and after a moment of hesitation, Ari followed suit, but not before giving me a look that said 'don't die'.

"Come, meat, and step into the challenger's circle where I will proceed to disembowel you!" The dog then jumped over the pool to its opposite side, where carved into the ground was indeed a fighting ring of some type. From a nearby weapon's rack it retrieved a massive warhammer, nearly twice as long as I was tall and with a head the size of a jaguar's skull, made of tempered steel. I followed at a more sedate pace and tried to keep my hands from shaking.
Ok, it shouldn't be hard. I got magic on my side. This'll be a cakewalk. Yeah...

Steel Fang stood opposite of me on the other end of the ring.

"If there are any last words you wish to say, speak now, for the duel will now begin!" The dog boomed.

"I will piss on your bones and dance on your grave. Your clan mate shall be my personal slave and your pups will serve to feed me for the days to come," I said for no other reason than to rile it up. It worked.

"Such blasphemy will not be tolerated! The duel begins as of now. Prepare yourself, human, for your last moments on this world will be of pain and agony."

Steel Fangs charged, far faster than I could have expected of such a massive beast. So fast that I barely had time to guard against his attack. Well, guard may be putting too fine a point on it. His charge startled me so that I staggered backwards and tripped against a rock, sending me on my ass and his horizontal swing with that absurd weapon missed me by mere millimeters. I even felt it dragging some of my hair.

The beast recovered quickly and with practiced ease, heaved the warhammer over its head with the intent to bring it down upon my skull. I was just barely able to catch it. Magic pumped into my arms, but even then, I could feel it starting to put a strain on my body. Shit. I needed to end this fight and I needed to end it now.

If only the beast was a team player...

Seeing how his death blow failed and I still latched on to his weapon, he abruptly lifted the hammer, so suddenly that I did not get a chance to let go and I was taken for a brief ride through the air before it came to a painful end. The beast swung the weapon, with me still attached to it into a nearby pillar of stone that shattered upon impact.

Pain exploded out my side and a hoarse scream came out my mouth. Fuck, I think I busted a rib or two. At least I think I did. I extrapolated from the fact there was a stabbing pain on my side, yet there was nothing that punctured my skin. But goddamn, did it hurt. I'd never felt anything like it before and the sheer agony was nearly paralyzing.

Steel Fang approached while I lay there atop rubble. His steps fell heavy on the earth. Asshole looked down at me in sure triumph, as if always expecting our little scuffle would end this way and all of a sudden, wrath overtook me. Oh, sure, the pain was still there, still stabbing and still soul wrenching, but the sheer levels of pissed-offness that shot through my body were enough that, while not able to ignore it, I was able to fight through it.

I reached out with my hand and an unseen force levitated the mutt off his feet. The startled look on his face was priceless, but I was still too out of it to properly appreciate it and with a flick of my wrist sent him flying up, and up, and up until he struck the hard-packed ceiling and crashed back down in a heap of flesh and metal.

A vindictive sneer found its way across my lips as the beast stood. Still alive, but his movements jerky, his face twisted in pain and clutching through his armor to his side. Heh, it looked like the fall had broken a rib or something. Asshole.

"Like that, ya mutt?" I taunted, my voice strained from pain as I got to my feet. "I hope it freaking hurts." I winced and a hand went to clutch my side.

The beast glared at me, though he couldn't stop pain from coloring his fugly mug. "This is nothing!" He bellowed, but then immediately winced and let out a whimper of pain. Looks like being loud further aggravates his injuries. Heh. Hehe. At least he'll have to shut up now, imbecile. "I have faced and felled foes far greater than you, worm, and you shall soon die like all of them.

"Tough talk from an overgrown mud dweller. You think anyone will take your delusions of a diamond dog empire seriously?"

"My cause is one just and noble, wretch! When our brothers and sisters hear of my accomplishments, they will flock to me and become part of my noble crusade."

"Noble, schmoble. You're nothing but an overgrown beast, hopped up on steroids and delusions of grandeur. You... are... nothing!"

"Silence!" The beast practically shrieked. "You will not address your betters in such a way!"

"Better how?" I sneered. "You sit here, dwelling in dirt, throwing tantrums and plotting in secret like a rat, afraid you'll be found out. Hell, you can't even kill a single human girl. How will you defeat the ponies who have bested your ilk time and time again?"

In spite of the pain it undoubtedly caused, Steel Fang roared in fury and charged, bounding on all fours. I kinda hoped the well worn cliché was true. Enrage your enemy enough and he'll become sloppy. Time to see if it's true or I just screwed myself.

Gritting my teeth and pushing through my own agony, I met the beast head on. Power coursed through me, granting me strength, dulling the stabbing pain, only to replace it with a fresh wave of agony all over. Typical.

Still, it was enough. Steel Fang launched himself through the air, poised to tear into me like a fat kid on a Christmas ham. I met his lunge with my own charge, smashing my shoulder into his midsection with chaos-augmented force.

A loud, resounding clang, not unlike a gong, permeated the room as Steel Fang was sent flying backwards where he crashed into one of the pillars of stone that dotted the fighting ring, taking it down with him.

His roars, while filled with fury, were also laced with pain. As the dust cleared, Steel Fang lay on his back. There was a big, me-sized dent where I struck him and it was undoubtedly pressing down on his chest, if his clawing at the spot was any indication. Still, metal was metal and he couldn't simply unbend it.

I slumped to the ground, tired but victorious. Steel Fang would die from asphyxiation as the bent armor pressed on his chest. Probably wouldn't be quick but, oh, well. I was willing to wait him out. In the meantime, I looked around the room. The dogs' eyes were wide in astonishment and a few had even dropped their weapons. More still had their tails between their legs, but I paid little attention to them.

I searched the crowd for a familiar pony shaped object, but by the life of me, I couldn't see her among the throngs of dogs.

Thing about the beasts, they were stubborn things, and Steel Fang was the most stubborn of the lot. All I wanted was for him to die of asphyxiation, but he couldn't grant me even that.

A familiar roar broke me out of my stupor and following it were the furious strides of paws on dirt. Before I could react, a steam shovel-sized paw grabbed me from my midsection and squeezed. I shrieked in agony as the beast's paw pressed against my internal wounds. Tears sprang from my eyes and I was hurled back down to the unforgiving ground. I swear, I blacked out for a second or two.

As the stars cleared, the oppressive bulk of Steel Fang bore down on me. One of his massive paws pressed tightly against my chest, pinning me in place and I couldn't help but notice he was no longer wearing the plated armor, leaving his torso in only chainmail. He spoke again, his words were distorted, his features filled with rage.

Funny thing, my life didn't flash before my eyes, even as he opened his maw wide and brought it closer. No, instead a sort of desperation filled me. I did not want to die today, not here in the dirt and certainly not at the hands of a lesser creature. Cliched and tired as it may sound, it was like time slowed down and even though my brain felt like mash, I was still somewhat in control of my actions.

One of my arms was still free. A piece of rubble lay nearby, about the size of a toddler. Straining, trying to recall how to go about it, I channeled magic through my palm, the rubble sailed toward me, as did Steel Fang's namesake. But providence... I did not die that day. I jammed the piece of rubble onto Steel Fang's maw. Driving it forward as hard as I could. The beast's muffled sounds clearly spoke of surprise as the rough stone scraped against his rather sensitive mouth.

My desperate action worked as Steel Fang's lumbering form withdrew. This was my chance. I encompassed a field of crushing pressure around him, bringing him down to the ground. My head pounded with the effort, but this fight was over. I kept my spell running, but I was weakened enough that it wouldn't kill him. Well, theoretically I could, but I couldn't guarantee the strain wouldn't knock me out as well.

Luckily for me, Steel Fang's warhammer was just a stone's throw from me and I shuffled towards it. Panic was evident on the beast's eyes as it realized what I intended to do and his efforts to free himself from my spell doubled. I too doubled the power I pumped through it, and Steel Fang collapsed under the pressure. Christ, I swear I saw stars for a moment.

I heaved the absurd weapon. It must have looked somewhat comical. Me, a girl under 110 lifting a weapon twice my height. Certainly not comical to the beast, who eyed me in both terror and fury as I approached. He spat any number of crude words and threats, but I figured it was nothing I'd have an interest in and so I ignored him. It was only after I heaved the weapon over my head that his composure broke and begged for mercy. Unfortunately for him, I had no intention of allowing him to live.

The warhammer struck down with the fury of a locomotive, and where not a moment ago was a whole and very alive head, now was a pulpy mess of bone, blood and brain matter.

I let out a long sigh. About fuckin' time. Now to get back home.

I shambled back to the entrance, trying not to look too beat up, to show how tired or how in pain I was. Didn't want the rest of the mutts to get any ideas after all. Not that I had to worry. The dogs parted before me as I neared the entrance and let out scattered gasps and noises of wonder as Ari reappeared next to me. Huh, wonder how she does it. Some sort of invisibility spell or something?

Well, I couldn't find myself caring much at the moment. I merely walked, shooting the dogs the stink eye, daring them to challenge me. None came forward. Ari's horn lit up and the doors closed behind us, sealing us from the room full of dogs.

"Aagh, fuck," I moaned, not able to hold it in any longer and slumped against a wall, cradling my side.

Ari's horn lit up again. A sound not unlike an explosion boomed from the throne room. Muffled cries and yells could be made through the thick doors, frantic pounding and scratching as well, complimented by what sounded like an honest to goodness rock slide. Soon, the dogs' cries were silenced and the rocks too ceased their thunder.

"What... what happened?" I rasped.

"Detonation charges. At least a magical version of them. I set them up throughout the room while you were busy dealing with the alpha."

"Are they..."

"Dead? Probably. Let me see that." She pointed to my busted side and slowly, wincing, I lifted my shirt. Fuck, that didn't look good. Sure enough, there was a lump sticking out of my side, itself discolored in red and purple and blue.

"Are you a doctor too?"

"I know enough to get me by. Never bothered to get an official degree. Just to treat any immediate injuries." Her horn lit again, and my body was enveloped in her magic's glow for a few seconds before she withdrew it. "Good news, nothing's punctured, so you're not in any immediate danger. You'll really need to see somepony to fix those ribs, though."

"Can't you do something?"

"I told you, I'm not a doctor. Least I could do is numb the pain, but you'll need to see somepony more qualified to fix you."

"I'll deal with that later. Let's just get out of here."

"Hey, guys, what's going on?" Cutlass' loud voice followed said pony, who landed nearby. "I heard this explosion type thing. Felt it, too. Are the tunnels all coming down?"

"No. That was just me," Ari said, horn still aglow and scrutinizing my wound.

"Oh, alright. For a moment I thought... ooh, you're not looking so good," she winced after catching sight of my state.

"Thanks," I muttered bitterly. "Where's Twilight? Has she woken up?"

"Nah, she's still asleep. Well, she was starting to wake up, so I kinda had to knock her out again. Heh... sorry," she smiled apologetically. I groaned and dragged a hand through my face.

"Let's just get out of here," I said as the flaring pain on my side dulled considerably.

"Be careful with that. It only dulls the pain. If you strain yourself or damage your body, you're going to regret it."

"Yeah... got it." Ahh, that was better.

"Awesome. Can we get out of here now? I'm bored."

We doubled back, Cutlass hefted Twilight over her back and our trek back to the surface began. What few dogs we encountered were dispatched by the resident unicorn impersonator, but these were few and far in between and other than that, the journey was uninterrupted. Well, we did see dozens of corpses that belonged to a variety of creatures. Apparently the two ponies had used some slaves as a diversion or something. Probably encountered armed guards and met their end. Well, I guess it's a better fate than being in servitude for the rest of their miserable lives. I dunno, the whole trip was a bit foggy, to tell the truth. Almost like a dream.

Finally, we broke through the surface and tasted sweet, sweet air. Okay, not really. The stench of death was still thick, but it was moderately better than the stench of death and dog. Regardless, I couldn't help but laugh a little in relief of being free from that wretched place. Cutlass too celebrated, fluttering a few feet off the ground(inadvertently dropping Twilight like a sack of potatoes in the process) and stretched her limbs.

"Well, I don't know about you two, but I'd call that mission a success," the pegasus said as she backwards stroked through the air.

"Not yet," Ari said. She powered up, her horn enveloped in a white aura and all beneath us, the ground shook. I almost lost my balance. The earth around us collapsed in on itself, leaving it a ravaged mess. "Okay, now it's a success," she said, pleased with herself.

"Did you just collapse the whole den?" I asked.

"That's right."

"Hey, didn't you say you were low on power or something? How could you even do that?" Cutlass asked curiously.

"The power doesn't come from me. All I have to do is place a charge and allow the ambient magic around it to power it. When I want to detonate it, I simply release the spell. Instant explosive force," she said smugly. "Not one of my most important discoveries, but it gets the job done."

"Heh, neat. Well, I need to get back. Aunt Del's gotta be worried about me by now. See ya!" The pegasus turned to leave, but I put a halt to such plans.

"Hey, hold it!"

"What?"

"What about her?" I pointed to Sparklebutt's body.

"What about her?"

"You're bringing her back."

"But I—"

"Knocked her out, yes. And I'm not exactly in any shape to be dragging around a pony."

She then looked at Ari.

"Ah... I'm not exactly a manual labor type of pony," she said lamely.

"Seriously?"

"Besides, Jacqueline and I did most of the work."

"Hey yeah, we took out most of the dogs. You only got a handful."

"And if it wasn't for you, the princess would be awake right now."

"Wha... but you said I did the right thing."

"True, but you did it nonetheless. I had nothing to do with it."

Cutlass facehoofed and muttered under her breath. Still, she went and picked up Twilight again. "Fine, fine, I'll get her. Let's just go already, it's almost my bedtime."

***

"Wait."

"What is it?"

"There's someone coming," Ari said and extinguished the light from her horn.

"You mean like monsters?" I swear, no matter how many I killed, the Everfree was still teeming with them.

"No. I don't think so. They don't... feel like monsters."

"Can't you tell properly?"

"Give me a break, I'm still not all that familiar with this body."

"Uh, I could go and take a look," Cutlass offered, speaking up for the first time. Once again dropping Twilight carelessly(I swear, if something permanent happens to her and they blame it on me, there'll be hell to pay) she spread her wings and rose over the canopy of the forest. We did not have to wait long before she came back.

"Well?" I prompted.

"Soo, you're not gonna like this, but there's a dozen or so guards headed our way."

"What?!"

"Yeah."

"But... how?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ari said. "The princess told somepony where she'd be, and now they're coming for her."

"Shit. Can we go back or something? Go around?"

"Actually, I have a better idea."

"Hey, what are you..." Ari turned to me and rose on her hind legs, propping herself against my shoulders. She was still somewhat shorter than me, but her horn, which started to glow, was very much at eye level. "What... what is..." My speech slurred. A feeling washed over me. I felt... sleepy. Warm. My eyes grew heavy. I never even felt myself fall backwards and into the dirt.

Author's Notes:

Thanks to Schroedingers_Katze for pre-reading and allowing me to borrow her character, Steel Fang.