It’s Wednesday. I have been in Equestria for over a week, and I’ve grown used to it. Admittedly, I’ve stayed in Ponyville the whole time, but it helps to be in one area when getting used to a whole new place. I still find magic odd, but I’ve come to accept it. Twilight tried some of her magic on me as well. Apparently, I can be affected by magic just like any other thing on the planet, but neither the Ember Celica, nor the many shotgun shells it came with could be affected by it.

Speaking of getting used to things, I’ve become less uncomfortable in Yang’s body. That does not mean I’m comfortable with it yet, though. That will either happen in time or not at all.

Today is the day Rarity and Spike went out to go harvest gems. They left shortly after noon, and I chose not to go with them. I figured today would be a lazy day for me. Well, lazier than usual. I took advantage of my superb jumping ability to make my way up to the top of the Boutique’s roof and just lay out in the sun. It felt nice. I could do this all day.

“Yang!” Spike’s frantic voice rang out from below. I reluctantly opened my eyes, sat up, and looked down.

“What is it, Spike?”

“Rarity’s been captured by diamond dogs! I need your help!”

“What?” I jumped down from my spot on the roof down to the ground. I did not notice the lack of pain from the landing. “When?”

“Almost an hour ago. Twilight and the rest of her friends already went to help her, but they got captured too.”

“So, why do you need me in particular?”

“Pinkie said to get you.”

“That’s it?” I understood that Pinkie had her strange, illogical ways with everything, and I knew I shouldn’t just accept that as reason enough to go, but I did.

“Yeah. Follow me.” Spike began running off in the direction he presumably came from, and I followed him for a minute or so.

“Wait up, Spike” I said. “Something’s telling me to go back to the boutique. I’ll be right back.” I turned around and ran back to the boutique, making it there in less than half a minute. I followed my gut feeling and went up to my room. I found a particular box and opened it. Inside were Yang’s original clothes, save for her boots, which I’ve worn daily. Also inside were the Ember Celica.

I took a deep breath and started changing my clothes, taking off the ones Rarity had made and putting on the ones I had come to this odd world with. For some reason, I found myself in an odd state of calmness during the whole change.

Once I was done and had the Ember Celica on (without any shells in them), I ran back out in the direction Spike had lead me. I ran past where I left him and kept going. I found him fairly easily. There was a gray rock field straight out in the direction he was going, and amongst the many shades of light gray there, Spike’s rich purple and green coloration really stood out.

As I got closer, I could see he was digging into a mound of what looked like fine gravel with his claws. He appeared to hear me, spared me a curious glance, then started digging again. I joined him in his efforts, grabbing as much gravel as I could and tossing it aside.

It wasn’t long before we got to the tunnel that was under the mound, though not necessarily through our own efforts. Two sets of giant paw-like hands (or maybe hand-like paws?) busted the pile, grabbed both Spike and me, then pulled us down inside. What followed was a fast,rough trip through tunnels lit with glowing gems, which concluded with Spike and I getting tossed into a cell. Literally.

“Spike! Yang!” Rarity’s voice said from within the cell. I got up and looked around. In the dim cell, which barely had any light crystals in it, I saw her and her five friends.

“So, what’s going on?” I asked.

“Well, Spike and I were getting gems as usual, with me locating them and him digging them up, when a hole appeared next to me, a diamond dog popped out of it, grabbed me, and took me down here. I told Spike to get the rest of the girls, and he did.”

Pinkie picked up the story. “After Spike had Twilight gather us together, we came out here and tried the same thing we did before. They didn’t fall for the ‘take the bait and drag us there’ trick, and while we were waiting, we got surprised and were nabbed from behind. I told Spike to get you just before Twilight used her magic to toss him away.”

“So, why not just magic your way out of this?” I asked. “I’ve seen Twilight teleport before.”

“Magic suppression rings” Twilight said as she pointed a forehoof at her horn, which did have such a ring on it. Hers was extremely thick, especially compared to Rarity’s. It made me wonder just how I didn’t notice them earlier. “These may not be high end suppression rings, but they can’t just be broken or slid off. I saw parts in these that could release a huge amount of electricity, so if we’re going to safely get these off, we’ll need a key.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound good.”

“No, and to be perfectly honest, I think only Pinkie knows how you can help get us out of here.”

All eyes turned to Pinkie. Pinkie looked back at all of us. “Okay, okay, I do know how Yang can save us, but if I told you how, it would totally ruin the suspense. No spoilers!

“Oh, Yang, look at that diamond dog! The tall one!” Pinkie said before dashing to the back of the cell. I walked up to and grabbed the barred door and looked at the one Pinkie mentioned. It looked like someone had merged a dog of some kind with a gorilla rather cleanly and gave it a cheap vest. That wasn’t what caught my attention though. What did was a small strand of gold hair on its left forearm. The mere sight of it made me feel something new, something I’d seen before in other people, but never in me.

I felt anger. I also felt something inside me starting to break, like a whole package of spaghetti being broken in half before going into the boiling water. The breaking was slow at first, but the more I looked at that bit of my golden hair, the faster the breaking happened. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t.

The dog turned to look at the cell I was in and smirked. That smirk ignited a flame inside me, which quickly spread through my whole body. I adjusted my grip on the bars and began pushing them apart, which wiped the smirk of that dog’s face. Once I had enough room, I stepped through the door and started walking towards the dog.

Once I was close enough, and I realized that the dog was bigger than I thought, I clenched my right hand into a fist and threw it at its chest. Even though I felt the power in my arm, the dog wasn’t too fazed by my sloppy punch. After I took my fist back, the dog delivered a punch of his own, sending me flying into a wall.

While I was making my way back to my feet, the dog made a series of howls and yelps. In the underground tunnels, the sound echoed quite a bit, so it would travel a long way. That would mean more reinforcements, and the very idea of that got my blood pumping. I was feeling thrilled and excited for the inevitable fight, but there was also part of my mind that was terrified both of the fight and what I was doing.

More dogs came in, including a big one with a flail. I lost my bravado at that sight and promptly hightailed it down the nearest unoccupied tunnel. The tunnel did not branch out, and on the other end was a cavernous chamber, easily over 100 feet tall. The floor was littered with embedded glowing gems, giving me just a bit more than enough light to see with.

It quickly became clear to me that these dogs knew their tunnels and were rather fast, as the one with the flail appeared from another tunnel up ahead and to the side. Before I could stop or change course, he swung the flail straight at me, and I failed to get out of the way of the crudely made ball, which smashed into my face and sent me into a stalagmite.

What does this world want with my face? Is it run by Optimus Prime? That would certainly explain a few things.

I got to my feet and took stock of myself. I had no injuries, and I concluded that auras are awesome. Speaking of the aura, I never really noticed it before, but now that I had one and it was weakened, I was aware of it. I also felt a heat building up in my body, most likely Yang’s semblance. I think my hair caught fire as well, or at least looked like it had. There was a brief sensation in my eyes as they presumably turned red.

A look around me revealed a few dozen dogs, each armored and ready to fight me. The one with the flail, who was bigger than the others, sent a few to rush me.

I activated the Ember Celica, turning them to their gauntlet forms. When the first armored dog got close enough, I threw a full power punch at its chest. My fist connected and sent it flying back into a stalagmite, breaking part of it off upon impact. After that, I took out the others in the initial charge with similar punches. I felt each punch drain a bit of aura as the armor hurt my fist, but that only made each following punch more powerful.

When I heard the flail’s chain being spun, I turned my attention to that dog. I saw the downward swing and charged straight ahead. I heard the ball smash into the ground behind me, but didn’t pay attention to it as I leapt and landed a single punch, sending the dog flying towards a wall.

A couple of dogs tried to run up behind me, but I heard them and let them come to me. I sent the left one flying with my right fist and the right one flying with my left. I heard more charging behind me, so I turned back around and saw the rest of them charging me as a group. I had enough time to take a breath before lashing out with a huge number of punches against all of them.

There was enough power in each punch to send them all flying into the wall behind them, and even cracking it. The cracks let in sunlight, and were quick to spread. The wall crumbled after less than a minute, flooding the chamber with light. I had to hold up an arm to protect my eyes from the light, but not for long. I felt the sensation in my eyes again, presumably signalling their return to their normal lavender coloration.

“Yang!” Twilight called out. I looked back and saw that she and everyone else was there with her, herself and Rarity freed of the rings. They all looked around, and so did I. “Yang, did you do all this?”

I looked between my hands and the destruction around me. What I’d done quickly caught up to me, and my hands started shaking of their own volition. My breathing became a bit rougher and shallower as well.

“Yang, are you okay?” Twilight asked, though the question barely registered in my mind. I felt my eyes roll up as I fainted right there. I was out before I hit the floor, claimed by a dreamless state of unconsciousness.

Author's Notes:

So, what do you think?