Chapter 39: The Protector of Ponyville

Dusk feels at peace with all of his friends helping him, in his time of need. Even in his strengthened, and more intelligent state, he knew that it would be a rather stupid idea to try and defeat six diamond dogs on his own. Even though he is in his rage state, and the town is under attack from a pack of diamond dogs, he feels... happy.

He snaps out of his tranquil state, when he feels the ground violently shake underneath him. He knew that he only had a few seconds, until the dogs would burst up from underground.

“EVERYPONY SCATTER!” He yells out to his group of friends. All the pegasi (besides Dusk) take to the air, while the earth ponies, and unicorns run in random directions. He begins to run in a random direction when one of the diamond dogs pops up in front of him, right where Pinkie was a few seconds ago.

“Oh buck...”

He trips over the dog and falls onto the ground, leaving a very disoriented diamond dog in his wake. Dusk’s eyes turn back into it’s usual yellow colour, and he loses his ‘rage state’. The dog that he tripped over, digs into the ground and Dusk breathes a sigh of relief. His relief is gone, once he sees what his happening around him.

All of the diamond dogs have been praying on all of the earthbound ponies while they run. Everypony, luckily, has been quick enough to avoid the canines grasp. Dusk sees a big weakness in the diamond dogs plan. After they lunge at somepony, they leave themselves vulnerable for a few seconds, before they dig back underground.

The ground underneath him starts to shake again, interrupting his train of thought. He runs away in a random direction to avoid the incoming attack, while still watching what will happen behind him.

The attacking canine pops up right behind Dusk, and he lets out a surprised yell. The dog manages to give Dusk a small scratch from his claw before digging back underground again. Dusk confirms his suspicions, the dogs seem to need about 5 seconds, until they can dig underground again.

He decides to call two of the airborne pegasi, while he has the time. “Hey Zeph and Rainbow, I need you over here for a second.”

The two swiftly fly to Dusk’s position, as he explains his plan to them. “Okay, I’ve noticed that after these diamond dogs emerge from the ground and swipe at us, they need about 5 seconds to go back underground, so what I want you to do, is to dive-bomb at them while they’re digging. This should be enough for somepony to give them a swift buck to unconsciousness. You got that?”

“Loud and clear Dusk.” Answers Rainbow Dash. She salutes as she flys up into the air.

“Yep, I got it.” Says Zephyr, who also begins to gain altitude.

Dusk looks around the area once more, Rarity had scarcely avoid a grapple, and had escaped from her canine attacker. Nopony felt any shaking from underneath them, and there were no dogs trying to pull the group into the mines. There was silence around the battle area.

‘They must be planning something.’

He feels shaking underneath his hooves, and so he starts running away, and yells out, “Rainbow, Zeph, one dog incoming!”

“Gotcha Dusk.” The two pegasi fly lower to the ground, preparing for their surprise attack.

The earthbound pegasus could still feel the shaking underneath him, despite there only being one dog attacking. Maybe he was following Dusk, while underground or something. As soon as the shaking gets unbelievably violent, he sprints, just before the diamond dog comes out of the ground.

The dog misses his swipe, and begins to dig underground again, until he is first hit by a light attack from Rainbow, stunning the canine, and then a full dive-bomb by Zephyr, which staggers the dog. Dusk finishes, by...

*CRACK*

...bucking him in the chest. Even in his usual weak form, he still broke a few of the diamond dog's ribs, but he is still on his feet. Dusk moves in for the-

*BOOOOOM*

Dusk sees a torrent of balloons rush past his face and watches as they hit their intended target, knocking out the injured diamond dog. He hears what sounds like Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash celebrating the hit, from a short distance away. He looks around, to see if there is any more traces of the remaining diamond dogs.

He could see Applejack running away from more of the tremors in the ground, and Zephyr was ready to dive-bomb the incoming assailant. The diamond dog pops out, but doesn’t try to attack Applejack as she flees, while Zephyr is still charging at the dog.

Dusk see the ground around the ‘vulnerable’ diamond dog rumble, and it wasn’t even digging back underground. Then Dusk realizes...

“ZEPH STOP, IT’S A TRAP!”

He is distracted by Dusk, but is also still flying towards the dog. Dusk looks away when he sees the diamond dog readying a punch...

*CRACK*

Zephyr lets out a bloodcurdling scream of pain, as he falls onto the ground, with his hooves on his chest. The remaining four diamond dogs have emerged, surrounding the spot where Zephyr lay. They appeared to be celebrating over their ‘catch’ of Zephyr, who began to bleed in a few places. Dusk could hear a collective sound of gasps from all of the other ponies, and he sees Twilight crying.

“NO, ZEPH!” She yells out from nearby. She wanted to teleport Zephyr and herself back to the hospital, but she can’t do that while the diamond dogs are still in contact with the broken pegasus.

They begin to dig their way underground, while holding their pony prize. They were ecstatic with their succuss, and couldn’t wait until-

“Sonic Rain-nuke Detected.”

Every single pony and dog, stopped what they were doing, as they were trying to find the source of the slightly mechanical sounding mare, who said that. Pinkie seems to be the only one who knows what is happening, and she whispers to Twilight

“Get Zephy out of here, while you have the chance.”

Twilight then sees that Zephyr was no longer being held by the dogs, and teleports both him, and herself to the hospital. Pinkie Pie gets out her megaphone, and shouts...

“RUN AWAY FROM THE DIAMOND DOGS EVERYPONY!”

And all of the ponies did so without question. They ran to a safe distance away, and they see an unknown object flying towards where the diamond dogs are still standing. Dusk thought that this mysterious object is a comet. Pinkie has an excited look on her face, and Rainbow Dash was confused about something.

“Pinkie, what is a Sonic Rain-nuke?”

“Oh you’ll see Dashie, I’m sure that you’re gonna love it.”

There was silence around the group, as they waited to see what would happen.

“...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

They hear a diamond dog in the distance, “Boss, what the heck is tha-”

*ka-BOOOOM*

A big multi-coloured explosion appeared where the pack of diamond dogs once stood. There was a mushroom cloud coloured with all of the colours of the rainbow, and the group could still feel the explosion from 300 metres away. Everypony’s jaw dropped, as they admired the spectacular sight right in front of their eyes. It was also backed up by a sonic rainboom, which slowly rippled through the air.

Unfortunately, the explosion did damage the town hall quite a bit, but they were lucky that the explosion did minimal damage to the nearby houses, with only a few windows shattered. The hall, wasn’t in the best of conditions though, with most of it’s left side walls being destroyed. It would take about 10-20 thousand bits to fix up.

None of the group cared about the damages at the moment, as they had to all go see Twilight and Zephyr in the nearby hospital.

All except for one, who had stayed behind to wallow in his regret. He punches the ground repeatedly in his grief.

‘Dusk, you bucking idiot, you should have opened your big mouth. Zephyr is now in the hospital, with his upset marefriend because of you. You are so bloody stupid.’ Next Chapter: Chapter 40: Support Estimated time remaining: 4 Hours, 46 Minutes