Chapter 6

Twilight was sitting on her bed with Spike sleeping in a basket next to it, it had just hit her how comforting it was to have the little dragon next to her again at night. Trixie was already long asleep but Twilight couldn’t make her mind stop thinking about the events of the night, yet again Pinkie’s mysterious Pinkie Sense had saved the day, but what worried Twilight was the ease in which the assassin had been able to infiltrate the castle. Twilight made up her mind; she was going to talk to the diamond dog. With a sense of urgency Twilight walked towards the cells where the dog was being kept. There were three different dungeons in the Fourth’s HQ one for pegasi and griffins buried deep underground, one for unicorns and other magical creatures located in the middle floor, and the final for diamond dogs and earth ponies located in a tall tower. Twilight nodded to the jailer as he unlocked the outer gate that allowed Twilight access to the dungeon, she may not have technically had clearance but she had developed a reputation for being trustworthy.

After a few minutes of walking past empty cells she found the diamond dog sitting on the cot in his cell deep in thought. Twilight took the opportunity to look over his features now that he was no longer draped in his black outfit. He was a mastiff if Twilight was remembering her dog breeds right with their traditional regal look; his coat was light gray except for the occasional splotch of black scattered here and there. Easily on display were a set of long sharp claws that looked easily capable of stabbing through a pony or tearing one in half, despite this the claws looked nimble and dexterous.

“You can stop looking at me like that whenever you want.” The mastiff told Twilight, his tone was bored. Twilight was snapped out of her observation and instead looked the mastiff in his brown eyes. “So what do I owe the pleasure?” The mastiff asked sarcastically leaning back against the wall of his cell.

“I couldn’t sleep; I was too busy thinking about you.” Twilight told the dog.

“Well now my parents always called me ugly, but I guess if I can attract a pretty mare then I can’t be too bad.” The dog said with a slight leer.

“No, not like that, as I see it you have no reason to attack our empress. Sure we’re going to go and capture a base of yours and gain one mine, but that’s not worth you risking your life to assassinate the empress. Especially when you’re by yourself, it was a suicide mission.” Twilight told him flatly. The diamond dog threw back his head and let out a howling laugh.

“All you’re doing is taking an insignificant mining base? We received word that the dreaded Fourth Army was marching directly against out capital with your demon queen at the head of it.” The diamond dog continued to laugh. “They must think that this is hilarious, it’s so funny I could kill them. Hey purple could you let me out so I can go and kill the assholes who set me up to die?” The diamond dog asked Twilight his features set into a snarl.

“It isn’t my say, but perhaps you can convince the Empress to let you go, after all I’m sure she’d understand if you explained it.” Twilight said the diamond dog shrugged his large shoulders. “Also would you mind me asking your name?” Twilight asked the dog.

“Me, well since you asked nicely my name’s Dane.” Dane said with a fanged grin, his teeth were surprisingly clean and looked to have been brushed daily.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle, now I need to go talk to the Empress about some things.” Twilight told him. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“I really hope that that was on purpose.” Dane replied rolling his eyes.

***

Empress Cosmosmia sat in thought staring at the desk in front of her; the attack on her life today hadn’t been odd there were many such attacks every week. The thing that had been weird had been the assassin himself. The army was scheduled to take a diamond dog mining castle, but Cosmosmia made it a directive to keep civilian casualties to a minimum. The dog had talked like he expected Cosmosmia to go on a genocidal killing spree. A sudden knock on the door jolted Cosmosmia out of her concentration.

“Come in.” Cosmosmia called, the door opened and Twilight Sparkle entered the room flanked by Disk and Strings. “Twilight Sparkle, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Cosmosmia asked the purple unicorn.

“I was just talking to our prisoner, and I found out something interesting Empress.” Twilight began Cosmosmia motioned with a hoof for her to continue. “As it turns out, Dane that’s his name, was under the impression that the Fourth was marching directly on the capital itself burning everything in our path.” Twilight told Cosmosmia whose eyes narrowed; this explained the dog’s attitude.

“Thank you for this news Twilight, also I owe you an apology for my words earlier, they were hasty and I shouldn’t have presumed to know about a dimension where I haven’t set foot for a millennia.” The Empress said humbly Twilight was taken aback by the unexpected apology.

“Thank you Empress but really there’s no reason to apologize I was telling you things completely out of context.” Twilight told the Empress with a little blush. Cosmosmia nodded and turned to Strings and Disk.

“So what do you two think about this news?” The Empress asked her guards.

“Both sides are quite obviously being played; the two main questions that need answering are who the players are, and what the game is.” Strings said rubbing her chin.

“Those were basically my thoughts, but Strings you forgot one thing.” Disk told the grey earth pony.

“Oh and what would that be Disk?” Strings asked the white unicorn.

“What are the players…?” Disk said trailing off darkly.

“Twilight I would like you to join us as we go and talk to this prisoner, your presence may make him more inclined to talk.” Cosmosmia said gravely as she rose from her seat and headed towards the door with Strings and Disk on her tail.

“Of course your Majesty.” Twilight said as she followed the trio out of the room. They walked in silence till they arrived at the cell, Dane looked up in interest.

“Dane the diamond dog, I have reason to believe that we are being played with.” Cosmosmia began.

“Those were my thoughts, well some of them.” Dane agreed scratching his chin with one absurdly sharp claw.

“Instead of having you executed which would be the normal crime for assaulting the Empress, I have two options for you to consider.” Cosmosmia told Dane whose ears perked up.

“Option one, you go to a mine and spend the rest of your days hauling out gems.” Cosmosmia told him.

“I hope option two is better, otherwise I’m going to beg for execution.” Dane said with a slight grin.

“Option two, you agree to sign the contract and become a member of the Fourth, in particular you would act as Miss Sparkle here’s bodyguard.” Cosmosmia told Dane, both the dog and Twilight were startled by the second option.

“But why do I need a bodyguard?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“Because I’ll be damned before I allow Celestia’s number one student to die without saying that I provided her with every advantage I had available.” Cosmosmia said.

“I’ll take option two.” Dane said.

“Excellent, just sign your name in blood here…” Cosmosmia said pulling out a contract.

“Wait!” Twilight exclaimed, there was a pregnant pause as everyone in the room looked at Twilight.

“Why are you delaying Twilight?” Cosmosmia asked the purple unicorn.

“Well if he’s an assassin, then wouldn’t he have already signed a contract of some kind?” Twilight asked Dane coughed.

“I’m not under any oath, call me a freelancer. I go where the money is good, and in this case I was here because I may be a merc but the thought of you equines destroying my civilization left a bad taste in my mouth.” Dane said with a grimace.

“Although it opens up some interesting possibilities about who’s in control and who started this rumor in the first place.” He held out his paw expectantly for the contract which Cosmosmia passed to him, like any experienced merc he read it thoroughly before he pierced the skin of his left paw with a sharp claw and signed his name in blood. Twilight felt an odd surge of energy come off of Dane; it was like she now subconsciously thought of him as an ally.

“Now that that’s done I must be off, I need to inform my daughter of what has transpired tonight.” Cosmosmia said as she turned to leave, Strings and Disk followed her out.

“Time to lay down some rules…” Dane began. “I am your bodyguard, not your bitch, and I mean that in both ways. As such I will lay down my life protecting you, but I will not suffer insults or slights to my honor. I will also not cook or clean for you, and if we’re having sex I’m on top.” Dane said with a grin, Twilight facehoofed.

“That’s all fine with me, I have Spike my dragon for cleaning and cooking, and I never wanted to have sex with you in the first place.” Twilight told the dog who laughed which caused his face wrinkles to move up and down.

“That’s what you say now, but you haven’t known me long.” The dog said and stood up then with a grin as he opened the door to the cell with a quick flourish of his claw in the keyhole. Twilight stood in opened mouth amazement. “What, cat got your tongue?” Dane asked her with a toothy grin.

“You could do that the entire time couldn’t you?” Twilight asked him, the mastiff nodded with a smile. Now that he was standing next to her Twilight realized that Dane was nearly three feet then her when he was standing on his hind legs.

“Yes, but staying prisoner is more fun, you get free food and interesting people to talk to. Plus if you’re going to escape you have to do it an hour before your execution, it’s more dramatic.” Dane told her with a shrug of his massive shoulders.

“Wow, I’ve seen diamond dogs before, but you’re the tallest.” Twilight said looking up at his wrinkly face.

“That’s what the girls always tell me.” Dane said with a slight grin as he followed Twilight out of the prison, apparently Cosmosmia had told the jailer that Dane was no longer a threat because he unlocked the door without comment.

“Trixie is just going to love you…” Twilight said trailing off as she thought of what her partner’s reaction to the large dog would be, she wasn’t expecting much in the way of happiness. Twilight opened the door of the room and turned on the magical lantern, Spike looked up at her grumpily and Trixie eyed her with annoyance.

“I hope you have a good reason to interrupt our rest Twilight.” Trixie said her voice carrying an edge.

“Well I was out on a midnight walk through the woods and I found this, can I keep him?” Twilight asked and stepped aside to allow Dane to step into the room. Trixie gasped.

“That must have been one enthusiastic walk through the woods.” Spike said with a small smirk.

***

“So let me get this straight, we now have a freaking diamond dog in our unit?” Blaze asked Twilight once she was done explaining the situation.

“Yes.” Twilight answered simply.

“This is awesome; I’ve always wanted a dog!” Blaze said with a large grin Aqua looked up from her ever-present book and raised an eyebrow at Dane who shrugged.

“Personally I’ve always wanted a cat, but that’s just me.” Dane said with a slight grin as he took a seat at the table.

Twilight took a seat next to Trixie and began to eat her breakfast. Battle mages were lucky in the respect that each unit got their own private dining area to eat in, although Twilight and Trixie preferred eating with the rest of the Fourth in the main dining hall the rest of their squad usually ate in private. The room was somewhat crowded this morning thanks to the additions of Spike, Dash, Pinkie, and Dane, but it was still spacious enough not to become too cramped. Twilight was just about to take a sip of blessed coffee when a knock from the door interrupted her.

“Come in just don’t be mad” Angeldust called getting strange looks from everypony in the room. Commander Star opened the door and stepped inside, just as a magical bucket of water splashed down towards her drenching her and her red coat. She looked at Angeldust, who was on the floor rolling in laughter, with irritation then rolled her eyes.

“Aqua would you be so kind as to dry me?” Commander Star asked, Aqua shrugged and the water raced off of Commander Star’s coat.

“Are you ok Commander?” Twilight asked.

“It could’ve been blood, so yes I’m fine.” Commander Star said levelly, apparently this wasn’t the first time Angeldust had dumped fluids on her as she opened a door. “You do realize I could have you court marshaled right?” Commander Star asked Angeldust who just laughed.

“Commander Star we both know that while I’m not quite what in the conventional term you’d call sane, I’m the strongest mage in the army. The likelihood of you court marshaling me is about on par with me acting like a sane and ordinary individual.” Angeldust told Commander Star, it sounded like she was contradicting herself, if you weren’t watching her. As Angeldust had been talking she’d been somehow doing midair back flips without touching the ground. Commander Star sighed, she knew better then to try and continue this conversation.

“Anyways… The reason I’m here is because we’re marching out tomorrow to take down this diamond dog base and I wanted to ask Mister Dane here a few questions.” Commander Star said changing the subject.

“Such as…?” Dane asked with a slight smile on his face.

“…Such as what the defenses are.” Commander Star told him Dane shrugged.

“I couldn’t tell you Ma’am, you haven’t told me what our target is.” Dane told her with a wicked smile, Twilight heard the sound of a snorted laugh coming from behind Commander Star followed by an amused grunt.

“We’re attacking a mining fort known as Daemonis Regni.” Commander Star asked ignoring Stonewall and Stronghoof.

“Well that’s a bad idea Ma’am; Daemonis Regni is one of the most heavily fortified mining forts in all of diamond dog territory.” Dane said with a frown. “It normally houses a hundred thousand of our best troops, along with a battalion specifically made up of mages.” Dane continued as he scratched his chin with one long claw. “What could possibly be so important?”

“We have reason to believe that they’re preparing to summon Stalkers.” Commander Star said gravely.

“That…is a good reason.” Dane said sounding troubled. “I’ve tangled with Voids before and it isn’t fun. I can’t picture a reason for them summoning Voids though, yeah Commander Lemon Eye is a dick, but he’s normally not suicidal…”

“You know the Commander personally?” Commander Star asked Dane nodded.

“Kind of, I’ve done work for him before. He’s one of those dogs who runs his pack viciously.” Dane said his eyes were lost in thought. “Although now that I think about it he did always love to monologue, idiot would always talk my ear off for an hour after every mission about how I was helping the dogs ‘rise out of the depths’.” Dane continued rolling his eyes.

“Why do you call them Voids?” Twilight asked Dane who shrugged.

“It sounds more menacing then Stalkers, plus it doesn’t sound like something that’ll rape you. The Voids will do a lot of things to someone, but as of yet I have yet to witness an actual rape, although I’m sure it would be interesting…” Dane said trailing off when he noticed the looks he was getting.

“Thank you for your information Dane, now if you’ll excuse me I need to go and make some arrangements.” Commander Star said exiting the room. Silence fell upon the room as everyone went back to whatever they’d been doing before Commander Star interrupted them.

“Aqua there’s something I’ve been wondering.” Twilight said causing the blue unicorn to look up from her book.

“What is it Twilight?” Aqua asked.

“Well what are you reading? Like I told you I was a librarian and researcher so it’s been bugging me for a while.” Twilight asked.

“I was actually waiting for you to ask Twilight.” Aqua said with a smile “It’s called Entropy Eternity and the Void.”

“Entropy is the universal measurement of degradation right?” Twilight asked Aqua.

“That’s right; it’s a comprehensive study on how the eternal effects of entropy change the void and those that live within it.” Aqua said inclining her head and passing the book to Twilight. Twilight opened the book to the first page and started to read, after twenty minutes she still hadn’t left the first page. In fact she could barely pull her eyes off of the book. “Ok I think that that’s enough.” Aqua said grabbing the book away from Twilight with a small jerk, Twilight almost fell forward in shock.

“Why did you take it, it was so interesting…?” Twilight asked snapping her head to look at Aqua with pleading eyes.

“Sorry Twilight but no, you’d get stuck.” Aqua replied with a sad smile.

“What are you talking about I’d be fine?” Twilight asked in annoyance.

“Twilight you didn’t get past the first page, which means that the book was slowly eating your mind.” Aqua told her Twilight blanched.

“But it’s a book, and you read it!” Twilight said in annoyed miscomprehension.

“Yes I do because I can control it; the book is a manifestation of the three words that it is named for. Only a few can read it without suffering consequences, I’m one of them and I wanted to see if you were too. As it turns out you aren’t.” Aqua said running her hoof gently over the cover of the book

“You’re holding an eldritch abomination!” Twilight yelled.

“And?” Aqua asked with a grin.

“What could you possibly gain from that thing?” Twilight asked scooting a little farther away from Aqua.

“Depends, sometimes it’s information, sometimes it’s power, and sometimes nothing, but it’s always a good read.” Aqua said with a slight grin.

“Why is it that everywhere I go I’m surrounded by insane ponies?” Twilight said, it was hard to tell whether she was asking the ponies in the room or the universe itself, if it was the latter then the universe chose to ignore her and get back to writing.

“Well at least you’ve got me Twilight, I’m perfectly sane.” Spike said with a tiny grin Twilight rolled her eyes.

“I take offense to that thank you.” Dane said as he speared a muffin on one of his claws before he brought it up to his mouth where he ate it paper wrapping and all.

“You just ate paper.” Twilight said flatly.

“I’m a dog Twilight; I’ll eat most things that haven’t already been eaten.” Dane said with a shrug.

“Silly Twilight are you still complaining about that?” Pinkie asked Twilight bemusedly, Twilight sighed and lay her face on the table in defeat.

“Now that Twilight’s done complaining about the universe which doesn’t really give a damn let’s get this strategy meeting started.” Angeldust said, Twilight had completely forgotten why she was there in the first place by this point.

“Dash I’m sorry but you can’t come with us on this mission.” Aqua said looking up from her tome of ancient arcane knowledge.

“Aw come on why not?” Dash asked obviously disappointed.

“There are a plethora of reasons, the main two being that you’ve never held a real weapon in your life and the fact that we’re going to attack an underground fortress.” Aqua told her calmly.

“Fine, I didn’t want to come with you guys anyways. I’ll make my own attack and this one will have blackjack and beer, actually forget the blackjack.” Dash said with a pout Twilight rolled her eyes but Pinkie started to giggle and so did Angeldust.

“Oh and can’t come either Pinkie, mostly for the first reason.” Aqua told the pink pony who shrugged.

“Okay doky loky, I’ll keep Dashie company.” Pinkie said with a smile.

“Spike you can come.” Blaze told Spike.

“Yes! I finally got invited somewhere!” Spike said jumping out of his seat in excitement.

“Why does he get to go?” Dash asked in annoyance.

“Because he’s immune to magic and his scales are strong enough to break the tips of our strongest swords, plus he breaths fire!” Blaze told her with an extremely large smile on his face.

“What do you know about the diamond dog mages Dane? We haven’t fought many who are actually skilled.” Aqua asked the dog who shrugged.

“I can’t tell you much I’m not a magic user myself, but I know they like earth and metals.” Dane replied.

“Hmm, this is sounding fun…” Stardust said a small grin had appeared on her face.

“Oh?” Dane asked her.

“Well I’m an earth mage primarily, stone, metals, and of course dirt. I’ve been looking for a good place to test myself against other earth mages, but there aren’t many ponies who specialize in it, it isn’t flashy enough; their loss.” Stardust replied with a dismissive shrug.

“You may not find it so fun when we’re facing them in combat.” Dane told her spearing another muffin and casually sliding it into his mouth. “From what I’ve seen their real monsters.”

“I’ll be fine.” Stardust said with a small wicked smile appearing on her face.

“I love it when you smile like that Star; it means that tonight is going to be fun!” Angeldust said with a large grin.

***

“So Commander I take it that we’re going to be asking for help?” Stronghoof asked Commander Star as they walked down the hallway.

“Yes, as much as it pains me to admit it I can’t successfully fight an enemy that has me outnumbered two to one while simultaneously trying to take down what is surly an extremely well defended castle.” Commander Star replied with a sour look on her face.

“It isn’t that bad, after all you like the other Commanders.” Stronghoof said encouragingly, Stonewall grunted and smiled at her.

“Yes and pride isn’t my sin, still this is going to be extremely vexing. Not only am I going to need the support of at least four other armies, I’m also going to need to handle the logistics of getting all 25,000 of them into position and feed them. Besides the fact that I’m also going to have to obtain the cooperation of at least one general, and I know that that’ll be a treat.” Commander Star said ruefully.

“So who are we brining?” Stronghoof asked.

“We might as well just ask my mother for the First, the Second, the Third and the Fifth, it’ll keep things simple.” Commander Star said with a resigned sigh. “This of course means that we’ll have to work under General Archangel…” Commander Star trailed off with a frown, Stronghoof and Stonewall exchanged glances.

Archangel had been the most decorated Commanders in over a century; despite this he was an occasional hotshot who charged into action headfirst and choosing overwhelming force whenever possible. Even when it worked his lack of overall strategy still irked Commander Star when a subtler option would have worked better with fewer casualties. Commander Star stalked through the halls heading for her mother’s room to request the needed support. She found her mother sitting behind a table her mighty red feathered wings tucked carefully against her body while her horn glowed gently as she brought a piece of paper up to her face for a better view. When she noticed her daughter standing in front of her Empress Cosmosmia set down the report and smiled.

“It’s good to see you daughter, what do you need?” The Empress asked.

“I’m requesting the other four armies that make up the First mother.” Commander Star said her voice was tight.

“Ah, I see which means that a certain General will be joining us as well… I still don’t understand why you harbor such dislike for General Archangel Daughter; he’s a very brave pony who has sacrificed a lot for the empire.” Cosmosmia told Commander Star who shrugged.

“Sacrifice or not I just don’t like his strategy.” Commander Star told her mother who shrugged.

“To each her own I suppose, just don’t start any arguments for the sake of arguing, we don’t have enough time to spare.” Cosmosmia told her daughter.

“Please mother I would never cause an unnecessary problem.” Commander Star replied looking slightly offended by the idea.

“Oh course not.” Cosmosmia said sweetly while she rolled her eyes. “I seem to remember the last time the two of you were together…”

“That was a long time ago mother, I’ve grown up.” Commander Star interrupted coolly causing Cosmosmia to chuckle lightly.

“Yes you have daughter, yes you have. Regardless of that however I need you to support him, the others Commanders know of your differences and seeing the two of you agreeing will boost their morale.” Cosmosmia told her daughter who nodded and sighed.

“I just wish there was another General who was available.” Commander Star said with a shrug.

“Sadly most are out campaigning so you’ll have to make due.” Cosmosmia told her daughter who nodded and left the room.

“How do you suppose it will go your Majesty?” Strings asked as she absently tucked a lock of her black mane behind her head.

“I’m predicting that things are going to be getting interesting around here.” Cosmosmia replied.

“Awesome I love it when things get interesting, when things get interesting I get to kill them.” Disk said enthusiastically causing Strings to roll her eyes.

“Disk will you ever grow up?” Strings asked her marefriend.

“Admit it you love it.” Disk replied with a playful smile.

“Well yes I do, but still!” Strings said exasperatedly.

“Would you two get a room?” Cosmosmia asked her two guards who laughed.

“Aren’t we already in one?” Disk asked with a wry grin.

“I believe that you’re right Disk it appears that we are already in a room.” Strings said as a smile stretched over her face. Cosmosmia rolled her eyes and went back to work ignoring her guards’ banter. Meanwhile the sun outside the window had taken on a reddish tint as it looked down on the world.

Next Chapter: Chapter 7 Estimated time remaining: 3 Hours, 40 Minutes