Chrysalis

When I saw the strategy room I was ecstatic, this looked like the right place to find out who wanted me desperately enough to associate with Diamond dogs. I wasn’t the only one that found them repulsive and abhorrent to work with, most wouldn't never mind the princesses, imagine the scandal.

I quickly went to work on the desk at the back; I needed to get out of this mountain. Back in the cavern I had gotten stupidly comfortable when Ari arrived. After that earth pony had practically told Sunbutt herself with his yelling it would be tempting fate by staying any longer. But, Can you really blame a mare for relaxing around him, when he came charging in, all feral and raw, my heart was beside itself. Now that was a stallion. After seeing and impersonating many mares I can truthfully say most stallions are weak willed and soft. You think after all of the Manticore attacks, Dragon rampages, and Parasprite invasions they would start developing some combat skills. Pony logic said no, in fact all it did was make ponies travel in herds more. Not the herds of old and not the lewd herds of Saddle Arabia, they just walked around in large groups for safety in numbers.

Of course we had only known each other for a couple days, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t appreciate his qualities. His size alone would have the mares swarming, particularly the tall mares. When you tower over most stallion’s traditional pleasure gets hard and awkward to come by. I would be lying if said he was anything but an ideal stallion: protective, considerate, and honest. Okay, maybe I looked for honesty more than the average mare, given my history I felt that it was needed. That and a-

Snap out it!

Looking back at the papers I had pulled from the desk I was having trouble focusing on them. My tail swished and I felt my stomach roll and coil up. Maybe I needed a little more love.

Before I could ask Ari though he called me over, ““Chrissy, where are we on this map? I can’t read it.”

Well that brought a new slew of questions, he had to be joking. “You can’t read this? It’s Equus, your speaking it right now…”

“Actually I am speaking English. Those letters aren’t English.” Ari frowned at the end of his statement; I hadn’t even thought that he being from different planet might mean he spoke a different language. His Equus was flawless after all.

If his entire language is different I wonder what else is different, what did I really know about him? I would have to explore that later, if we going to travel together it wouldn’t hurt to get to know him. He actually had-

“Chrissy?” Ari asked, bringing me back to him. I have to focus! My mind is just a mess lately, I swear I usually don’t breakdown or get lost in my thoughts.

“Right, right. We are here-“I placed my hoof the mountain range behind Saddle Arabia. ”- and the princesses are here in Canterlot.” My hoof went to Sunbutt’s castle in the middle of the map. Ari nodded before turning back to the map with unfocused eyes, glad i wasn't the only distracted one.

Speaking of focussing, I was supposed to find out who wants me. Turning back to the meager hoofful of papers that made the desk their home, I flipped through them. A change in leadership had happened recently according to a letter to Alpha Lograw, a request for more ‘workers’ for the dragons which was code for live food, and some interpack political drivel. Diamond dogs were incredibly petty, they could remember debts from generations in the past. But they never wrote it down, so you could have grandpappy fall in a skirmish and never know about a debt… I think you get the idea. Jewels were their life.

My gasp caught Ari’s attention and he came over. Before us was a wanted poster, my picture drawn with startling likeness and a sum of ten thousand gems printed underneath ‘alive’.

“Wow, I guess they didn’t think killing off your family was enough. That’s a lot of money-“

“That’s not money, that means literal gems and jewels. One gem could be worth fifty to one hundred bits…” Ari eyes crossed and he began muttering.

“So you are worth half a million to one million bits! That is still a lot. Does it say who posted the wanted poster?” Wait, what?

“I thought you couldn’t read?” My eyes narrowed at him.

“I can’t read Equus but it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the numbers under your picture is how much your worth to them.” I blinked, he did have a point.

Blushing, I turned away from Ari and nodded my acceptance. Even though I could feel his honesty through his fur I still jumped to the possibility that he was lying. This whole situation still felt surreal, that I had somepony that cared enough to feed me, to comfort me, and even come to my rescue. Most stallions would have saved themselves rather than helping me, but Ari wasn’t most stallions.

Glancing back to the poster I knew where we were going.

“This poster says the Saddle Arabian monarchy wants me alive. Think we-“ I paused to listen, I thought I heard something. Ari started to swivel his ears trying to pick up any noise as well. Then I heard a light taping and scratching. Ari heard it as well as he started to move quietly towards the door.

“Diamond dogs?” He whispered.

I nodded and his expression went grim. My thoughts exactly, our stay is over.

His magic wrapped around the door knob as I went over to him, leaving the paper behind. Slowly he cracked it open before peeking out. It was all clear outside but now the sound of the dog's paws were louder.

****

Ari

With Chrissy at my side I entered the tunnel, it was clear for now but I wasn’t going to wait around for that to change. With that thought I continued my quiet pace trying to appear strong for Chrissy, I could feel her heart racing beside me.

We continued along the cavern, both silent for a different reason this time. It sounded like alot of dogs were ahead, their grumbling and growls getting louder as we crept closer to our doom.

I wasn’t feeling quite very confident about killing any dogs now. Like I had said before, I caught the last couple groups by surprise but I wasn’t so sure if my skill level was up for a real fight. Not to mention I don’t think Chrissy is up for a fight, she still had a chest wound the size of my hoof, and she was feeding constantly.

We paused at the entrance to the cavern, it was empty. In fact it was quiet, the pawfalls had abruptly ceased. I lashed my tail and flexed my wings, this felt wrong. I looked at Chrissy, she was flaring her nostrils as she took in scents, I started to as well.

She twitched her tail and shivered, exactly, i had to agree with her reaction, the wet dog smell was really strong. They had passed through here very recently. Thank lady lucky we had missed them. Now I just had to figure out which of the four tunnels led to the outside.

Throwing my head in the direction of the possible exits I caught Chrissy’s attention, she nodded and we starting creeping along again.

Ahead was the cavern I had started in, we had paused in the entrance. My first, second, and third kills lay exactly where I dropped them, her eyes were glued to them. I looked at her eyes, she looked at the bodies then at me. She mouthed “you?” and I nodded. I looked away from her, I didn’t mean to kill them. I still don’t regret it, but there was still the stigma killing had, which being a herbivore now I presume would be even more prominent. Chrissy gave my face a nuzzle, I turned and looked at her with the question in my eye. Was this alright with her? She gave another nuzzle, in confirmation of the unasked question. i sighed in relief and relaxed my shoulders which had tensed.

Chrissy looked at the cavern then back at me, I nodded. It was time to go, there was nothing there afterall.

Halfway across the cavern I started to get goosebumps, like I was being watched, so I stopped and glanced around. The other openings were clear, a dim blue glow could be seen from two of the tunnels. I glanced at Chrissy, she had stopped beside me and looked every bit as on guard as I felt.

I heard whoosh as if something was launched and looked up in time to catch a green sphere in my magic. We stared at it in confusion before looking up; beady eyes stared down at us.

My eye twitched as twenty Diamond dogs dropped from the stalactites. Of course everything has to be up high, berry bushes, dogs, what next?

Chrissy quickly turned to face the dogs on our rear, her horn flaring green, and I widened my stance in preparation for a fight. The exits were blocked and time seemed to freeze as we regarded each other. Five of the dogs wore belts with more green orbs holstered and ten carried clubs. Touching flanks with Chrissy I tensed and tossed the sphere at several club wielding dogs. It missed.

The dogs dove to the side and with that they attacked.

I felt several bodies hit my barrel as I heard orbs sail through the air. Time to test out my magic, catching the orbs in my magic I tossed them back at the throwers. They caught them and grinned with their oversized jaws. I barely had time to rage at them as the dogs that had hit me grabbed my mane and the base of my wings. Don’t touch my wings! My horn flared as I sent them back into the crowd.

Two more dogs came at me and more orbs sailed at me to my increasing frustration. I needed to end this.

Behind me I heard Chrissy grunt and I felt her wobble, loosing contact with my flank. I had to think of something, I blasted second set of dogs off my barrel when it hit me. The club that is, not an idea. Glancing back I saw Chrissy was straining her horn against a club. The other club dog was at my flank, club raised for a second hit. He was still behind me, you think they would know better than to stand behind a horse. I lifted one back leg and gave a quick kick sending the dog sailing back into an orb bearer. Two down, bonus since I had one less source of knock out gas to worry about.

Wait a moment; knock out gas, that’s it!

After sending back the last three orbs that had come flying at me I focused on my biggest threat: the spheres. They need to be captured.

My horn glowed yellow and the already airborne spheres froze in my field, increasing my focus I grabbed the remaining orbs from their holsters to the dog’s surprised gawking. The dogs on my side of the circle seemed freeze as I levitated the dozen orbs filled with gas in front of me. It seems they understood my plan as they halted their approach and widened their stances in preperation to dodge my attack. I sent the orbs left; the dogs went to the right.

Gotcha!

I changed the orbs direction last minute. Increasing the speed of the spheres the dogs had no chance, fourteen down. Glancing at Chrissy I immediately turned to face her opponents. Without any knockout gas left in the battle I felt like I could win.

Rearing up I roared at them, they turned their attention to me and roared back. It seems they are more confident in a pack.

Chrissy’s horn was sputtering a green glow as she blasted two of the dogs back into the cell door. But she was starting to shake after that.

This had to end, Chrissy wasn’t doing soo well and if I’m to be frank I feel a little light headed myself.

My horn went through the dog’s skull as I charged forward, tossing his twitching body at the others, I shouted. “Run!”

The remaining three dogs were trapped under the body and tangled in their limbs so we made a break towards the nearest tunnel. As soon as we reached the entrance a dog poked his head out, I charged ahead of Chrissy and impaled him.

I aimed too low this time.

The dog was skewered through his stomach but still very much alive. All I could see was him, his paws grabbed my neck, claws digging in. My thoughts slowed as pain took over, I grunted at the stinging of his claws and started to shake my head him trying to dislodge him. But that only made him dig deeper into my neck. Warmth trailed down my neck and my heart beat faster. I shook my head faster, feeling out of breath and nauseous from his close proximity to my nose.

A green magic field pulled him off my horn, sending him careening back into his packmates, and splattering my face in his blood as my horn left his body. I looked at Chrissy in relieve, I had forgotten about my magic for a second.

We shared a weak smile and headed down the tunnel leaning against each other. I could already feel my adrenaline fading but I carried on feeding her and walking. It was almost over, I could rest soon. Ten minutes into the tunnel we saw a faint light ahead, freedom!

I squinted against the sunlight as we stepped out of the tunnel. After being in such dim caverns this was quite a change to my eyes, they stung as the ultraviolet rays assaulted them. We stood on a ledge above the clouds, I could see a river of clouds all the way to the rising sun. I took in a breath of the cool mountain air.

We were free.

“Where did you want to head first?”

Chrissy’s eyes were struggling to focus on me, “Somewhere without dogs.”

“Can do…Do you think I could lift you?” I spread my wings and gave them a good stretch.

“what?!” She looked scared now.

“Well, the way I see it. Since you cant fly and we are on a cliff I could either fly us down or we could go back in, look for another exit, and hope that we don’t run into more dogs.”

She sighed and her tail twitched, “keep a good grip on me.”

With that I flung my wings into a down stroke. I thought I had put less power into it but I still shot up a hundred feet. Slowly hovering down I positioned my chest over her withers, with my hooves around her barrel I slowly ascended again. She was tense for a second, wing and tail hitting me as she adjusted to the sensation of being carried.

Now where to first, below us was surely the forest we had left. These must be the mountains that I had seen before. She said Saddle Arabia wanted her, which was north of here. The princesses were also north. The sun was almost down rising to my right so that made in front of me north. So With a strong flap we started north, away from the dogs.

Chrissy stayed silent as we soared over wispy clouds, I didn’t mind as I was too tired to maintain any sort of conversation anyway. My wings started to act on autopilot, angling to weave between the mountain tops that ran like a row of canines along the range was done without a thought.

We were past the mountain tops now and before me was the rock field where we had been at yesterday. The land turned yellow as the rock turned into sand, it just kept going as it went into the horizon with fewer and fewer plants to be seen as it went on.

I shot a worried look at Chrissy as I felt her go slack in my arms. She was asleep.

Looking for a safe place to land I spotted a small grove of trees just before the dessert, they were perfect.

My landing was less than perfect; I went too fast and landed on my passenger. Chrissy just grunted and rubbed her head into the sand in her sleep. I couldn’t make myself move, there were trees overhead now, I had a warm body pillow, and I was exhausted. It wasn’t that she was heavy to carry; it was more like I had been going all night without rest, fighting and running. I felt my muscles cry out in protest at any movement and my eyelids drooped as her warmth lulled me into sleep. My wings folded over us and I slid off her down her back, forelegs still wrapped around her barrel.

I would deal with this later.