“You know why I asked you out here with me, Spike?” Rarity inquired.

Spike looked around the desolate wasteland they were trekking through, and looked back at the small cart he was hauling for his marefriend’s older sister, just big enough to conveniently drag his body to a good dumping ground. “I’m hoping it’s to intimidate me into being a perfect gentlecolt with your sister.”

Rarity stopped suddenly, making Spike bump into her hind quarters. “Why would you hope that?”

Spike gulped. “Because the alternative is you’re not waiting to take the chance?”

Rarity laughed it off. “Oh, Spike. No, no. Nothing like that. I would never intentionally hurt my sister special somepo- dragon. Though I do wish to discuss your intentions toward her while we’re out here. I need you to help dig for gems. I’ve gotten more requests for uniforms like ours, mostly from the guard, but also a few other groups. And they need high quality gems to bare the defensive enchantments your mother provides.”

“Oh! Phew,” Spike said, wiping his brow dramatically. “I can dig up some gems, but we’ll be here all day, unless you know where there’s a deposit to focus on.”

The mare lit up her horn, and a group of gemstones nearby began shining, visibly even through the intervening rock. “Like that one?”

Spike licked his lips eagerly at the tasty morsels, as he approached and started digging them up. “Wow, that is a handy spell.”

“It’s my special talent,” Rarity said.

“I thought your special talent was dressmaking? Though I suppose this explains the cutie mark better,” Spike said as he deposited the first bunch, less a small snack, into the cart.

“I’m much more than just my cutie mark, darling,” Rarity said. “I’m a grown mare, with sophistication, talent, a mind for business, and a taste for fashion.~ None of those came for free with my destiny, dear, I earned them all the hard way.”

“Do you still even believe in destiny?” Spike inquired. “Princess Celestia seems to think Cloud somehow broke Destiny when she arrived here.”

“I’m afraid that’s too deep of a philosophical question for the likes of me, Spikey,” Rarity said as she led them to the next deposit. “Whatever will be, will be. Arguing whether that’s deserving of the name destiny or not seems a little pointless.”

Spike considered that for a bit as they worked quietly. “I don’t know what I intend,” he said at length.

“About destiny?” Rarity asked, confused.

“About your sister. We’re both quite young still, obviously. I planned to take her to the Grand Galloping Gala, and I still intend to. Though that seems so far out right now. Cloud suggested we should just go do fun things together in the meantime. Not worry about what is or isn’t a date,” Spike said. “I’m not really planning anything more intimate than that. Especially not sex. I don’t… I don’t even think I can, not yet anyways. And even when we are old enough… a pony and a dragon? Would that really work?”

Rarity blushed and stammered for a little while, before finally regaining her composure. “Let’s just say that as a unicorn she has enough options to make it work, when you’re both old enough. If you both love each other enough to go down that road.”

Spike raised a claw to question it, then shook his head, and got back to digging. The awkward silence was broken only by the actual work they intended to accomplish until Rarity finally decided to change the subject herself. “So… what are the… Elements of Greatness was it? What are you all about?”

“Oh, that? Well, we’re a group of youngsters dedicated to becoming the best that we can be,” Spike said proudly, jamming a thumb at himself. “It’s no accident we named ourselves after you guys. We’ve seen how hard you all work, training with Cloud, to say nothing of what Twilight does. And we’ve even been on the front lines with you now. We’re… not exactly eager to replace you, but somepony has to be ready to take your place when you’re all ready to retire. Though… from what I hear, we may need to be ready to lend a helping claw much sooner than that.”

“Just how soon do you expect us to retire, Spike?” Rarity asked, halfway between amused and offended. “We’re not that old… barely into adulthood ourselves.”

“Well, sure but… well in the worst case, you guys deal with some dangerous stuff. ‘Retire’ could me more of a euphemism. Even Cloud got incapacitated by a cockatrice just a few nights back. If it wasn’t for one of our members, Diamond Tiara, getting Fluttershy to come help…” Spike shook his head. “You guys shouldn’t be the only ones to shoulder the danger. By the time we’re the age you are now, we’ll be ready to help take up the call. And hopefully there will be another round of youngsters taking our role, beginning to prepare themselves to be the next.”

“I… never realized you all took this so seriously,” Rarity said soberly.

“We didn’t, not at first,” Spike said. “Honestly, it was going to be a club for earning cutie marks, but, well, dragon. Blank flank for life, you know? So we picked a different name, went down a different route. Of course the fillies still want their cutie marks, the ones that don’t have them anyways, and hopefully that will come along with our goal of being the best we can be. But recently we’ve started to realize… well. Life can be rough, and it can be dangerous, and somepony’s got to be ready to step in and help.”

They were quiet a little longer before Rarity spoke up again. “You know something Spike? I think my sister’s in good han-mmf”

“Hanmmf? You mean hands?” Spike said before looking back from where he had been digging, now that he couldn’t see the gems anymore. “...Rarity?” He rushed back to where the cart had just been. Neither she nor it was present, but the cart had left enough tracks for him to follow back to where a couple of canine fellows were quickly disappearing from sight, blocking up the hole to the tunnel they had just used. “Rarity! I… don’t worry, I’ll be back with help!”

“Diamond Dogs, you say? Let me go, this instant,” Rarity demanded.

“You in no position to demand, gem hunter. You hunt for gems, or you suffer,” their leader declared.

“I’m warning you,” Rarity said, as a quartet of foot long needles hovered out of her saddlebags.

“And what do you think you do with those?” one of the dogs asked as they closed the distance on her.

Within minutes, the next generation of diamond dogs was cruelly struck down before their time. The current generation, however, had enough fight in them to incapacitate the unicorn before the adrenaline fled and the pain was fully felt.

“Thanks for your quick response, girls,” Spike said, as he lead the band of ponies to where Rarity had disappeared.

“No problem, Spike. Honestly I was getting a bit bored. Still, this is pretty serious. Shouldn’t we get the grown ups?” Diamond Tiara asked. “Not that I doubt we can handle it…”

“Well, it is my sister in danger,” Sweetie Belle mentioned.

“And this is a great chance to show everypony how awesome we are,” Scootaloo said, as she checked her squirt gun. “Everypony armed and ready?”

“Ready,” Apple Bloom said, speaking around the hammer in her mouth.

“Locked and loaded,” Silver Spoon confirmed, after checking her own squirt guns.

“I’ll be your mount, Spikey,” Sweetie Belle offered, bracing herself as the young dragon climbed aboard, reading his small lance. “Just be careful, okay.”

“Of course,” Spike said confidently. “Ready!”

“Then let’s go!” Diamond Tiara said before charging out into the field, the other Elements of Greatness in tow. There were dozens of holes around the field now, making it troublesome to know which was the right one.

They headed for the nearest one, planning to head in to explore it when a canine head popped out of it. “Give us Rarity back, or else,” Diamond demanded, only to get a face full of mud as the dog quickly retreated, filling the tunnel back in behind him.

“Or what?” another diamond dog asked with a laugh from another tunnel. “Go home little foals. You too young to dig, waste our time.”

“Maybe make good snack?” another dog mused, licking her lips.

“You want a snack? Then open wide,” Silver Spoon quipped before opening fire on her. The red liquid splashed her mostly in the eyes, blinding both, while some splashed elsewhere, including the dog’s open mouth.

“Aaah! It burns, it burns!” she cried, flailing wildly and clawing at her face to try to get the hot pepper extract out of her eyes and off her tongue. The Elements bull rushed her, shoving her back into the tunnel and out of their way as they forced their way into the lower tunnels.

Spike and Sweetie Belle emerged first into the cavern below, surprising an armored diamond dog with an attack from behind, where it became clear his armor didn’t cover anywhere near far enough down his back side. The resulting blood and pain was far less humorous in person than it would surely be in the retelling. The furious dog turned to bring his massive fist to bear on his attacker, only to find his face full of green flames, causing him to falter and fall back in fear and surprise. The charging unicorn steed trampled over him, hooves clanging off his breastplate before stomping across his face and leaving him in enough pain he felt it safe to sit the rest of the fight out.

Scootaloo quickly overtook them, shouting in glee as she rode her scooter out of the tunnel and up a convenient ramp, getting some hang time to pick her targets and fire off a pair of shots from her squirt guns. The blue liquid arced through the air, striking two more of the dogs before they could dodge.

The first dog’s head began to swell, expanding to five or six times its normal dimensions before the alarmed dog began to float up toward the ceiling, panicking loudly. The second dog had the opposite problem, his fur suddenly becoming extremely sticky, so much so that he was unable to move his feet from the spot. He reached down to grab one leg and try to pull it free, only to find his hands now affixed to his own ankle, unable to be removed.

“Now that’s what I call a practical joke,” Scootaloo said, about to kiss one of her guns before caution got the better of her. The off chance a bit of the poison joke extract might have gotten on the outside wasn’t worth risking.

“Apple Bloom, over here!” Diamond Tiara called, as she led the way toward some barred off cells. “Rarity! Generosity! Don’t worry, we’ll get you right out.”

The older pony didn’t respond, as Apple Bloom gave the cell a good look over, and then put the back side of her hammer to use, leveraging out the hinge pins. “I’ll have you out of there in a jiffy.”

“Ponies! Get them!” A diamond dog called out, as he came on the scene, leading a charge as more dogs moved in to intercept. But they were unable to clear the distance before they too were incapacitated by the sprays of red and blue liquids. Howls of pain and other assorted sounds echoed through the chamber as the dogs fell.

But the two sharpshooters were unprepared for the indirect approaches the diamond dogs could take. They fell as holes opened beneath them, dropping them in up to their waists and leaving them off balance and vulnerable as dogs opened holes in the ceiling, dropping nets on them that left them unable to fire their weapons.

Apple Bloom had gotten the cell door open, but now they Elements of Greatness found themselves forcibly shoved in through the opening. Their weapons were stripped from them, and the hinge pins returned to their rightful place.

The diamond dog leader growled at them as he approached the bars. “Brave little children, but stupid. Now you work for diamond dogs too! You- hey!” He shouted in surprise and anger as Spike burned his whiskers off with a quick blast of fire breath. He stormed off, promising to return and put them to work soon.

“Spike?... Fillies?... Sweetie Belle?!” Rarity asked as she came to, realizing who was around here. “Oh, no… they’ve got you too? This is horrible.”

“Hush now, sis, it’ll be okay… hold in there,” Sweetie Belle said, though she couldn’t help but frown at her sister’s obvious bruising, to say nothing of the more cosmetic injuries.

Spike made sure none of the dogs were too close before telling the others. “Yeah, we should be fine. I managed to send a message. Let’s just hope somepony can figure out what it means…”

“Hey, Twilight, are you here?” I asked as I entered the library.

“Of course. It’s reshelving day,” Twilight said. Following her voice, I found her surrounded by piles of books, several moving through the air onto and off of shelves as she spoke. She didn’t bother to meet my eyes.

“Where’s Spike?” I asked her.

“At the clubhouse, I believe. Why do you ask?” Twilight inquired.

“He sent me a pile of whiskers. What does that mean to you?” I said, opening my fist to reveal the singed facial hair.

Twilight set the books down to look at me, and them. “I really have no idea.”

“I have an idea. Do you have some way to find who these came from with your magic?” I asked.

“I can try, once I’m finished with this. I’ll need to look up a spell or two, but-” she began.

“Get started now. Make it your top priority. I want to find the owner of these whiskers before sundown,” I said.

“What’s the rush?” she asked seriously.

“I don’t know. Just a bad feeling,” I said.

The bad feeling got worse as I gathered the other Elements of Harmony, only to find Rarity missing. Applejack was the last pony I gathered, and we stopped by the clubhouse to check for the children, only to find it empty. I sent Rainbow Dash to check the school, and the other fillies’ parents to see if they were somewhere obvious and innocent, but when she met us back at the library she had nothing to report.

“Twilight, report,” I demanded, letting my edginess lend some bite to the command.

Twilight cringed before drawing in a breath. “I’ve been able to identify the whiskers as belonging to a Diamond Dog. They’re a violent and dangerous race, resembling gorillas in their overall body shape, aside from more canine features, particularly in the face. They have claws, but not the sharpest, and spiked tails. They have an affinity for gems, though it’s not clear what they seek them for. They don’t eat them, like dragons do. They may just be attracted to the shininess, or value their trade potential, as it’s their most common export.”

“Are they enemies of Equestria?” I asked.

“Well, we aren’t at war with them, or anything, but we aren’t on the best terms,” Twilight said. “Groups of them have been known to sneak into Equestria and set up hidden mining operations, digging up as much mineral wealth as they can before returning to their own country. It’s technically illegal, a violation of quite a few laws in most cases, but unless they do something like murder or foalnapping, we shouldn’t be using lethal force ourselves.”

“And if they captured an agent of the crown, five school-aged fillies and your adopted son?” I inquired.

Twilight’s countenance grew dark as she considered that possibility. Finally she nodded toward my sword. “You know how to use that,” she said quietly, answer enough.

“Spike is among the missing, so we can’t send a letter to Canterlot. Let’s check in with the local guard, let them know what’s going on. And see if those thestrals have made it here yet. Twilight, can you find that dog?”

“I can, only because I have his whiskers. I’ve enchanted this compass to point the way toward their owner,” she said, offering me a small round device on a chain, with a floating needle that pointed nearly south.

“Can you make a second one? Or perhaps one that points toward one of us? On the off chance we need rescuing, I’d like our rescuers to be able to find us,” I said.

Twilight gave a frazzled sigh. “I’ll get right on it.”

“So what do we know about these Diamond Dogs,” I asked as we followed the compass out of town. “Strengths, weaknesses, what?”

“They’re nothing but two-bit thugs, nothing we can’t handle,” Rainbow Dash said confidently.

“We’ve trained for this sort of thing, but we shouldn’t get overconfident. That’s how Spike and the fillies got themselves in the mess they’re in,” I said. “And Rarity is no push-over, with her needles. They also might have her materia, now, and be able to use it against us. The rest of you also haven’t had much experience fighting against people that are trying to kill you. Monsters aren’t usually that clever or surprising. And it’s easier to simply think of them as monsters, and not be let your sympathy for them stay your blade.”

“So… does that mean we’re going to… kill them?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly, the last words barely audible but easy to predict.

“That’s not a primary objective,” I said. “If we get out with Spike and all the ponies, and they aren’t pursuing us, we win. Killing them might be the easiest, or possibly only, way for us to accomplish that.”

“Please, let me go in first. I’ll call for help if I need it,” Fluttershy volunteered.

“You’re sure?” Rainbow asked, concern for her friend quite evident.

Fluttershy nodded with determination equally evident. “I can do this. I have to try. But I’ll need to borrow one of your materia,” she said.

Two Diamond Dogs stood side by side, back to the cell, watching for any intruders that might approach to try to free the captives. The prisoners had tried a few tricks to get them to open the cell, like feigning illness, dishing out insults and threats, to just plain whining. But the Diamond Dogs had a few tricks of their own. One was looking away and ignoring them.

That said, Diamond Dogs weren’t the smartest of creatures.

“I’m going to make you my bitch,” a voice muttered.

“You say something?” the Diamond Dog on the left asked, as he looked toward his companion.

“No,” the other dog said.

The left dog looked at his compatriot suspiciously for a moment before turning away.

“That’s right, you better look away.”

“I know I heard you,” the dog on the left said.

“You’re crazy,” the dog on the right replied.

“Look just shut up. This shift’s long enough without you saying weird shit,” the dog on the left said.

The dog on the right glared. The dog on the left started to turn away when the voice spoke again. “That’s right. Turn that pretty tail my way.” He hadn’t turned fully away when he spun back with a left hook. His victim started to slump, unconscious, just moments before the punch connected, sending him bouncing across the room.

Quietly, carefully, Fluttershy chambered the next dart, even as she whispered a nearly silent “Thanks, John.”

“No problemo,” John de Lancie answered, not bothering to whisper. Now that his summon had ended, only the one bearing his materia could hear him, after all. “And nice shot. It was truly a thing of beauty, especially with the distraction of returning from the ether.”

Fluttershy nodded slightly, careful not to disturb her cloak too much. Movement disrupted the illusion the kept the other guard from seeing her. He was still looking pretty proud of himself when her second dart found itself in his neck, and he slumped to the ground.

Not wanting to make the mistake of overconfidence, Fluttershy carefully crept across the cavern in small jaunts, stopping to let the cloak settle at even the slightest sound, until she finally reached the first guard, and recovered her empty dart. After moving on to the second she realized one of the tricks the Diamond Dogs had been smart enough to use.

“Fluttershy, is that you?” Spike whispered.

“Yeah, it’s me,” she whispered back. “The guards don’t have the key.”

“The leader has it. He’s in the next room, I think,” Spike whispered. “Down that tunnel, anyways. And that’s the direction they took our gear. Everything but our uniforms. And they took the enchanted gems out of those.”

Diamond Tiara came to the bars as well. “How can we help with this rescue? What do you need from us?”

“I need you to make some noise, Tell them… tell them a ghost attacked their friends,” Fluttershy said.

“They won’t believe that,” Diamond said.

“Not at first, but they don’t have to believe,” Fluttershy said. “Just do it.” A flash of colorful lights heralded her sudden silence.

But the captives soon filled the silence, with banging of bars and loud shouts. It took a while, and they were getting tired of the effort, but finally another Diamond Dog entered the room, saw the unconscious guards, and retreated. When he came back, he had the leader and three other dogs with him.

“What happened here?” the leader demanded.

“A g-ghost attacked them!” Diamond Tiara informed them.

“A ghost? You saw this ghost?” the leader asked mockingly.

“Well, no, of course not. It was an invisible ghost!” Diamond insisted.

The dogs laughed. “An invisible ghost knocked our guards out?” the leader smacked one of the others. “Stop laughing! And you, ponies, stop lying. What really happened?”

“You really should believe them. They’re telling the truth,” John said. “Didn’t you know this tunnel is haunted?”

The dogs spun, ready for a fight, but there was none to be had. The leader sniffed around a bit. “Fan out boys, there’s another pony hidden here somewhere.”

Three of the dogs started tracing back Fluttershy’s path to the entrance, while the two others spread out in opposite directions, breaking away to search by other means. Meanwhile, the pegasus sniper faded back into existence, cloaked, right where the five of them had been standing. The second lone dog had a dart in his neck before the first hit the ground. And the lights of the summon magic had faded by the time the sounds of the two dogs dropping had caused the other three to turn and look for their assailant.

John laughed, loudly, the voice echoing and seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere. “Foolish mutts. You dare to mine in my domain?! Grab your fallen and flee, if you want to live!”

The Diamond Dogs hesitated, looking to their leader. It was a precarious spot for him. Looking too weak would cost him his role, but facing a foe they couldn’t defeat could cost them their lives. “You’re just a ghost. What can you even do to us?” The dog challenged.

“I can make you disappear… just like these ponies!” John declared.

Fluttershy faded into reality, invisible, amidst the prisoners, and then summoned John again, the magical lights having no obvious source before everyone in the jail cell vanished before the Diamond Dogs’ eyes.

That was enough to tip the scales. “Let’s go. Bring them,” the leader commanded, leading his followers to the other tunnels. “Everydog, move out. This tunnel’s haunted! Move it!”

“That was amazing, Fluttershy!” Scootaloo complimented her fellow pegasus. “That. Was. Awesome.”

“Oh, well, it was nothing. John de Lancie did most of the work,” Fluttershy said, hiding behind her mane and blushing.

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” John told her. “It was truly a pleasure working with you. We should do it again some time.”

“Thanks… though maybe next time we could do something less… violent? How do you feel about tea parties?”