The travel to Granite Back was surprisingly peaceful. The only disturbance happened the first morning, when Zira found some diamond dogs playing with her smoking pipe. The ten seconds it took Havoc to jump in and levitate Zira away from them were enough for everyone involved to learn that chimpanzees, despite their short stature, are extremely strong and fierce. Other than that, they travelled smoothly, without spotting anything larger than an eagle.

However, the travel took longer than Havoc thought. Instead of going directly to Granite Back, they flew in circles over a large area around the den, stopping every few hours so a group of unicorns directed by Zira could teleport one of the satellites. When they did arrive at Granite Back, only a few satellites remained and a week had passed.

“You going back to the Crystal Empire?” Havoc asked Zira before leaving the ship.

“Not at all. I have to visit all the cities with receivers and check that the whole system is running without fails. Once I’m done with that I might stay in Black Diamond. The kind of gems I use in my experiments are easier to acquire there than in Equestria.”

“See you later, then,” he replied as he jumped from the zeppelin.

Returning to Granite Back brought back memories from his first months in Equestria. He laughed inwardly at how different he was back then, but the diamond dogs soon stopped his daydreaming.

“Hey, Balto’s back,” one of the two guards at the entrance told the other. “He looks uglier than last time.”

“Smells worse, too,” the other jokingly added.

“I think it’s yourself you’re smelling,” Havoc replied, starting a verbal battle about body odors and ugliness. After a few minutes, the guards remembered that Gwar told them to lead Havoc to him the moment he showed up, so they stopped arguing and took him into the den.

Havoc immediately noticed changes. The entrance’s labyrinth was no longer a death trap for intruders. Now the correct path was illuminated, and there were hilariously badly painted warning signs on all the other tunnels.

“What’s with all the signs and lights?”

“Ponies complain about dangerous traps,” he was told. “If enemies come, we take away lights and signs and it’s dangerous again.”

Once inside the main area, the part previously inhabited by slaves was completely different. There were several buildings where once stood tents, most of them aimed at visitors. There were inns, restaurants and even a clothes store. The guards took him to one of those buildings, which looked like a library.

“You have a library now?”

“Yes, Alpha Gwar takes Drogur’s books here. Says all can read them. He also teaches dogs to read. You will see.”

True to the guard’s words, Havoc found Gwar surrounded by a dozen of cubs, listening intently to him as he explained the letter “C” to them. He gestured Havoc to wait while he finished, so the draconequus took a book and read it while he waited. Fifteen minutes later, Gwar told his students to take a break and approached Havoc.

“Havoc! Welcome back to Granite Back. As you can see, things have changed.”

“True that, Alpha Gwar. I must say, seeing you teaching children their letters was the last thing I expected.”

“I know. I got the idea a few days ago from a cub who was curious about books. He made me realize that there’s not a single school in Gem Fido. This is an experiment, but I think that I’m onto something. If we want to be on the same level as ponies we can’t have our people not knowing basic stuff such as reading and math. Who knows? Maybe the famous diamond dog stupidity is just lack of education and mental activity instead of a natural handicap.”

“Well, I hope your experiment succeeds, but that’s not why I’m here.”

“True. Come, let me show you something.”

Gwar and Havoc walked out of the library and went to the barracks, where the diamond dogs kept their weaponry. There, they got in a room with a large gemstone hanging from the ceiling and projecting light on a map of the surrounding area engraved on a table right below. The light drew sinuous lines and small shining dots on the map.

“This is one of the main reasons Gem Fido hasn’t been razed to the ground by dragons in the last semester. The lines are ley lines, the one who made this up hasn’t found a way to stop them from appearing. The dots are dragons, mostly. Sometimes it’s a powerful individual like you. We were really worried when we found a dot was following the path your zeppeling should be taking as the system began to function, until we realized it was probably you. As you can see, the closest dragon is three hundred miles away.”

“This looks incredibly useful.”

“It is. Now, this part of Gem Fido is quite safe. Midnight Castle’s area is right between the Dragon Badlands and us, and not even dragons dare to fly over there. The only dragons who come here are the ones too weak or too cowardly to try attacking the dens closer to their territory. That’s why we’ve been the last to get the MADAR.”

“MADAR?”

“Yes, the Magic Detection And Ranging. That’s the name of this location system. Anyways, now that we have the MADAR we don’t need a group of dragon hunters. We’re so close to the Crystal Empire that we can get help before any dragon arrives. You and our the other two dragon hunters that are here will travel to Black Diamond. My father will then deal with you.”

“Dragon hunters?”

“Oh, did you think you were the only one willing to fight dragons? There are about a dozen of dragon hunters who have come to Gem Fido to help us. Come, I think those two are practicing in an abandoned section of the mines.”

Near the mine's’ entrance they found Goozar, the former slaves’ supervisor, who now was the mining operations overseer. The old dog was amused to see Havoc back, and gave them directions to find the dragon hunters.

“I’m starting to feel powerful magic,” Havoc said after a few minutes. “I bet it’s them.”

As soon as they took a sharp turn, they found the dragon hunters in a large cave. One of them was a light grey unicorn stallion with a black mane and a cutie mark very similar to Celestia’s. The other was humanoid, with most of his body gray, save for his lower abdomen and his long and wide tail, which were purple. Basically, he was a Pokémon, a fucking Mewtwo wielding a giant spoon as a weapon. They were tossing large rocks at each other with their magic, but stopped when they saw Havoc and Gwar.

“Come here, you two!” Gwar cried. “I have important news!”

Once they were close enough so he wouldn’t have to shout, Gwar continued talking. “We finally got the MADAR set up here, so we don’t need you two around anymore. Sir Havoc here has decided to become a dragon hunter, too. I want the three of you to get to know each other and then travel to Black Diamond to receive new orders.”

“So this is the famous Havoc,” the unicorn spoke as they walked out of the mines. “My name is Apollo. Nice to meet you.”

“I’m Mewtwo,” Mewtwo said telepathically, surprising Havoc with his incredibly original name.

“Nice to meet you two. I understand Mewtwo being able to fight dragons, but you’re just a regular unicorn, what’s your secret?”

“You see this cutie mark? It means that my telekinesis is strong enough to move the Sun by myself and that I’m good at heliomancy. Turns out Princess Celestia doesn’t want other ponies messing with the Sun so I learned to use my special talent to throw lances with enough force to kill dragons.”

“Holy fucking shit, how come you aren’t Celestia’s student?”

Apollo shrugged. “She only takes mares as her personal students, and I’m only great at moving things. My other spells are nothing to write about. Like, if I need to protect myself, my magic shields are so weak that it’s better for me to just push everything around me so nothing harmful can get close.”

“What about you?” Havoc said while facing Mewtwo. “Do you have more than four abilities or what?”

“I manage.”

“You manage,” Apollo repeated, sarcastically. “He holds the current record among us: Twenty dragons, all by himself. Once, he defeated three red ones at the same time. Only Griffon the griffon has killed more of them.”

Havoc’s hair bristled. If Mewtwo could take on three dragons at the same time, he was an extremely dangerous enemy. He would need to keep an eye on the Pokemon: any other human could try to murder him at any time, after all.

“This dragon problem…” Havoc thought aloud. “Will we have to kill every last one of them before you’re safe?”

“It won’t come to that,” Gwar said. “Dragons are similar to us in some ways. They respect power, they are greedy, and they eat gemstones. We only need to fight them until they realize we are a force to be reckoned with.”

“They’re really thick headed, so that won’t happen anytime soon,” Apollo said.

“That’s right. Now, you three should get on your way. Black Diamond is a long way from here, and the sooner you get there the better for everyone. Especially me. I’m sick of feeling the whole den shake whenever you two go all out down here.”

The two veteran dragon hunters decided to get something to eat and rest for a couple of hours before leaving, since the training had left them tired. Havoc took that chance to roam around Granite Back and catch up with some of the dogs he’d befriended back in the day. Granite Back had changed a lot, with many new dogs having moved in after their dens were conquered, either by Equestria or the Griffon Dominion. The diamond dogs seemed to have adjusted well to working instead of having slaves do everything, some of them even preferring to get things done by themselves instead of relying on enslaved ponies and griffons.

“Havoc, it’s time to go,” he heard Mewtwo say inside of his mind while he talked to an old former slave who’d decided to stay, having no family or life to return to.

The two of them were waiting for him near the cave’s entrance. Mewtwo was carrying a large backpack and his giant spoon, while Apollo carried saddlebags and a six red lances larger than him tied to his right saddlebag. When questioned, he explained that the lances were made of starmetal, which could pierce dragon scales and wouldn’t melt no matter how much fire dragons breathed on it.

“How could you even forge it into lances, then?” Havoc asked him.

“Heliomancy. I can channel the power of the Sun with my magic. I know it sounds incredibly powerful, but it’s actually really dangerous and only useful in limited situations. Most heliomancy spells can only be casted by alicorns, a unicorn like me would die trying to use them.”

Since Apollo couldn’t fly, Mewtwo and Havoc took turns carrying him while they flew towards Black Diamond. Havoc was slightly annoyed to find that Mewtwo could levitate faster than him, as long as he didn’t waste large amounts of magic to speed up.

Along the way, they talked about how each of them fought dragons. Apollo simply threw his starmetal lances at them until they died. When he was lucky, he would hit a vital spot and kill a dragon with one shot. When a dragon wouldn’t die after he threw his six lances, he would recover them while pushing away dragon fire or whatever else the dragon might use against him. His main weakness was that pushing away a dragon was near impossible due to their resistance to magic, so the most he could do was to slow down their claws and mouths when they tried to crush him.

Mewtwo revealed that his psychic powers were different enough from magic to ignore the resistance to magic that made dragons so hard to kill. Thanks to that, he could deal great amounts of damage with ease.

They didn’t talk much while travelling. It was obvious that Mewtwo was a human, but Havoc couldn’t talk with him about human stuff while Apollo was around. After talking about dragons and why each of them had decided to hunt them, there was little more to talk about. They reached their first stop, a small den called Ironfur, soon after the sunset. The Alpha hosted a feast to celebrate that Mewtwo the dragonslayer and Havoc the conqueror were visiting. Apollo was annoyed because nobody knew about him, but he didn’t let that ruin the fun.

They spent most of the second day’s morning flying in silence, until Mewtwo suddenly changed course. “A dragon hunter is in danger.”

“What are you talking about?” Havoc asked, following him.

“I’m familiar with the psychical presence of all the dragon hunters, allowing me to locate them and communicate with them if they’re close enough. I just felt a presence, and as soon as I made my presence known she asked for help. Come, we can’t waste time.”

A minute later, Havoc felt powerful magic directly ahead, and after a few seconds a medium-sized purple dragon burst from a forest below them. A few meters ahead of the dragon, Havoc saw a small shining dot flying away, dodging firebreath and bites.

Mewtwo threw Apollo at Havoc, and as soon as his magic picked the unicorn up he teleported. Appearing between the dragon and its prey, he pushed the massive creature away with a telekinetic blast strong enough to make it crash against the ground.

“Alright, now I get why he’s the best at killing dragons,” Havoc told Apollo. “Pushing a dragon like that would have taken ten times more magic than I currently have.”

“Get us closer so I can hit him, too.”

Havoc did as we has told, dropping Apollo on a clearing near the dragon’s location. The insane power behind Apollo’s magic amazed him. The first lance hit the dragon’s left hand with such strength that, instead of going through, it ripped the whole hand off. The dragon roared in pain, but then surprised everyone by shouting a word.

“Medico!”

In an instant, a brand new hand grew from his bleeding stump, as if he’d never been injured.

“He knows magic!” Mewtwo shouted, his mental message sounding worried for the first time. “Be careful!”

Apollo threw two more lances, but the dragon shouted “Custodio” and a gigantic magic shield rose around him, stopping them.

“Fools! You thought I would be easy prey like the others?” the dragon shouted. “I, Gregor the Mighty, have learned how to use the true power of my kind, lost for thousands of years. Sanguine alieno entitatem nunc acid.”

Mewtwo dropped to the ground, crying in pain when all the blood in his body turned into acid. Luckily, his recovery powers slowly fought back the damage, but at the cost of leaving him defenseless. Meanwhile, the dragon’s original target approached Havoc and Apollo. The last thing Havoc expected to see was a mechanical suit of armor that was near identical to the one Ironman used in comics and movies. The main differences were that the suit’s shape wasn’t quite human, having a long tail, a neck three times longer than a human’s, and a helmet shaped to cover a snouted head; and that its color scheme was orange and black instead of gold and red.

“That son of a bitch knows magic!” a slightly distorted female voice said from behind the helmet. “We need to hit him hard and fast before he does to us what he did to Mewtwo.”

“You two keep him too busy to raise a barrier,” Apollo ordered. “Then we’ll see how dangerous he is a with a pony-sized hole all the way through his brain.”

Havoc and the armoured female nodded and flew towards Gregor. Havoc teleported next to a wing and tore open a hole with Infernal Soul, while Ironwoman’s suit launched a barrage of small missiles that harmed his chest.

“Congelat moriatur inimicus meus,” Gregor said, and Havoc felt like his whole body was on fire for an instant, then felt nothing at all. Even his senses were gone, so he couldn’t see anything. The only thing he could do was forcing him magic to heal him and hope for the best.

After several seconds, he recovered his sight and found that his whole body was encased in ice and that he was about to crash against the ground. Instead of trying to heal himself further, he rose his body temperature until the ice exploded in a shower of boiling water and steam. Then he tampered with the fundamental laws of physics so his velocity changed to zero without having to decelerate.

He turned to face where Gregor previously stood, ready to face another brutal magic attack, only to find the dragon’s corpse lying on the ground near him with a hole between his eyes going all the way through which was big enough for him to easily crawl in.

“Woah, that’s amazing.”

“Eh, I didn’t manage to tear the whole head off this time,” Apollo said as he trotted towards Havoc while recovering his lances with his magic.

“Are there any other dragons?” he heard Mewtwo ask as he teleported next to them, showing no injuries.

“No, that was the only one,” the woman said as she landed and took off her helmet, revealing that she looked like a (disturbingly sexy) hybrid between human and snake.

“Why didn’t you warn us about the fact that he knew how to use magic?” Mewtwo asked, scowling.

“Because I didn’t know he could do that until you three arrived!” she replied, taking a step towards Mewtwo. “I was travelling from Pewterhide to Black Diamond when he ambushed me. By the time you arrived I had been dodging him for ten minutes.”

“Well, what matters is that he’s dead,” Apollo said, trying to defuse the argument.

“I’m not willing to risk it,” Mewtwo said. “He could have a spell to bring him back to life a few minutes after death. Come, Havoc, let’s make sure he won’t come back.”

Mewtwo levitated above the dragon and began to destroy the enormous corpse with his powers. Shrugging, Havoc did the same with Infernal Soul.

“This is dire news,” Mewtwo said while they worked. “Were we lucky to kill the only dragon who knew how to use Latin magic, or was one among many? I know that you know about Latin magic because you’re close to Drogur, but the others don’t and it’s in our shared interest to keep it that way, so let’s keep them out of this conversation.”

“Good idea,” Havoc replied, using telepathy too so the other two hunters wouldn’t hear the conversation. ”Gregor did use sentences instead of single words, unlike Drogur and Griffon. What was that he said: I’ve learned how to use the true power of the dragons?”

“Yes. Thousands of years ago, when alicorns were the most common pony race and the cynogriffins still inhabited the skies, the dragon language was Latin. They never spoke it in front of others, for they knew their language was one of the very few tools that all species could use to wield magic. However, as their once proud and glorious society degenerate into what it is today, the old dragons refused to teach the secret language to their offspring, for fear of what would become of them once younger and brighter generations decided to take over.
We must warn Lord Drogur and the other dragon hunters about this new development. If there are more dragons like this we could be in serious danger. We were lucky to have Apollo kill Gregor with one shot, but we could all have died here. How could we ever defeat a team of five or more Latin-speaking dragons?”

“Shit, you’re right. Still, this dragon must have learned Latin somehow. Maybe he found some ruins with teachings? Or an old book? Fuck, for all we know there might be a human around who knows Latin and is teaching it to every dragon he finds.”

“That would be really bad news.”

They kept talking for fifteen minutes, wondering about how Gregor might have learned Latin and its unique properties, until the remains were a pool of blood and gore, and the scales and bones piled together.

“Well, this is disgusting,” Havoc said, this time aloud. “At least now there’s no chance he’s coming back.”

They landed next to where Apollo and the snake-woman were waiting. The woman no longer wore the suit of armor, which was lying on a pile next to her. Now she wore only a black suit that seemed to be made of spandex. She was around seven feet tall, and her scales were orange with black black lines around red colored saddle markings. Apollo introduced her as Medea to Havoc right before Mewtwo’s voice reached all of their minds at the same time.

“Given what just happened, we need to be careful. Apollo, you’ll come with me to Pewterhide so we can warn them about the possibility of facing dragons who can use magic. Meanwhile, Medea and Havoc will go to Black Diamond. No one should travel alone, for all we know all the dragons in the world learned how to use magic last night.”

“Sounds reasonable,” Apollo said.

Medea took a deep breath, then nodded. “Time’s a-wastin’, let’s go.” Spreading her arms, she stood still while pieces of the Ironman suit propelled themselves up to her, assembling around her in seconds.

Havoc flew behind her, struggling to keep up with the speed the armor’s thrusters could achieve. “Hold on, I need to do something,” he said with telepathy so she would hear him over the sound of the wind. When she stopped, he turned into his snake form and curled around her neck.

“Now I won’t have to waste magic trying to keep up with you,” he added.

“Of course you had to turn into a snake,” she groaned.

“It’s the most practical form given the situation.”

Medea resumed her flight without answering. Now that she didn’t have to slow down for Havoc’s sake, she sped up until breaking the speed of sound, and then some.

Bored, Havoc began to talk through telepathy. “So, where did you get that armor? Did you run into copyright issues?”

“None of your business.”

“Alright, sheesh,” a few seconds later, he spoke again. “What can you do with it? That’s my business because we’ll have to fight together.”

Several seconds later, Medea replied. “Since you’re also a human, and you probably watched the Ironman movies, I don’t need to explain everything, do I?” Havoc shook his head and she continued. “This armor has pretty much everything you suppose: enhanced strength, incredible durability, lots of weapons, et cetera. No protection against magic, though, so don’t expect me to block any spell for you. I have a bigger armor, but I can only wear it an hour per day.”

“What do you mean, a bigger armor?”

“I have an armor which is about 4 meters tall, very bulky and far more powerful than this one. I can call it whenever I want, but it takes half an hour to reach me and after an hour or so it’ll leave to recharge and it won’t be available again until the next day. I never fight a dragon without it, unless I’m surprised by one.”

“Wow, you have your own Hulkbuster armor. That’s so awesome. But, what about fighting without the armor? Do you have poison glands or magic or anything like that?”

“No, I don’t. I can take on ponies, maybe even diamond dogs and griffons, but that’s it. I stand no chance against a teen dragon of my size. I’m not venomous and I have no idea how magic works. My tail is strong but nothing out of the ordinary and, while I’m much more flexible than humans, that’s not going to help me kill a dragon.”

Havoc tried to learn more about Medea, but she wouldn’t answer any of his questions. Since she didn’t ask about him, either, he eventually gave up and admired the views while they traveled. Thanks to the armor’s incredible speed, they arrived safely at Black Diamond before the sunset, saving Havoc a full day of travel. In a matter of minutes, they were in a meeting room with Lord Drogur and Lord Wartooth. The room followed the diamond dog tradition of digging a small cave in the wall of a larger cave. However, this one sported a MADAR map, good illumination, and writing utensils; three things one was unlikely to find in a diamond dog den.

“Not you again,” Wartooth complained when he saw Havoc, who just shrugged. “What are you doing here of all places?”

“I heard about the dragon attacks and decided to help.”

“Good, that’ll keep you busy and away from Black Diamond. Now, what’s so important that both Drogur and I have to know about it immediately?”

“This morning, I got attacked by a purple dragon named Gregor,” Medea began. “He didn’t stand out, until Havoc, Mewtwo and Apollo joined the battle. Then he began to use magic against us, saying phrases in a different language.”

“Apollo got a lucky hit and killed him, but he could have killed all of us if we hadn’t been lucky,” Havoc elaborated. “We became worried because we don’t know how he learned to use magic. Our fear is that he’s not the only one, that more dragons are learning -or know already- how to use magic. He used magic just like you and Griffon,” he added, looking at Drogur. “But with a dragon’s vast magic reserves powering the spells. It was insane. I’ve fought alongside Queen Moon, and against Tirek, and this dragon was on a similar level.”

Drogur and Wartooth exchanged glances. “That’s… Really bad news, Havoc,” Drogur said. “We’ll have to send words of warning to everyone: the other dens, the dragon hunters, Canterlot, the Crystal Empire, even the yaks and the griffons. We still have those weather pegasi lying around, right?”

Wartooth thought for a few seconds before replying. “Yes, they aren’t leaving until their replacement arrive, which should be in two days.”

“Then we’ll have them carry the letters.”

“We also need to prepare our soldiers for this. Dragon scales work against this kind of magic, right?”

“Indeed. We have no choice but to stop selling what we loot from dragon corpses and turn it into more weapons and armors. We’ll equip any dragon hunter who needs it first, then the Wonderbolts and the Black Wolves. We just don’t have enough stocked to equip every dog with the stuff.”

“Maybe we could send a full set of armor to every Alpha. There’s been some unrest for the last weeks among them, so a gift would placate most of them. It also shows how worried we are about their safety. That would make them take this threat seriously,” Wartooth added.

“Hm… Giving out dragonscale like that might hurt us in the long run, but I agree that it must be done.”

“Write it down. I’m going to call the others for an emergency meeting,” Wartooth said as he walked out of the room.

Drogur stared at Medea, the spoke. “I don’t remember your name. Anyways, could you leave us alone? I wish to speak to Havoc about personal matters.” Rolling her eyes, Medea walked out of the room.

“I’m glad you’re here, Havoc,” Drogur said as soon as they were alone. “The other dragon hunters have been a great help, but I don’t trust them. They all have their own agendas, and most won’t hesitate to abandon us if they think dragons pose a real risk to their lives. Don’t forget that, or you might find yourself in danger because you expected the others to endanger themselves to help you.”

“I won’t.”

“Good. I’ve seen what you can do, and I’m sure that dragons will learn to fear your name in a matter of days. Remember that the only reason they kill us and rob us is their greed. Their volcanic land is plentiful in gemstones, which practically rain whenever a volcano erupts. They have more than enough to never be hungry, and even hoard the leftovers, but they always want more. There is only one way to change it.”

Drogur stared at Havoc with such intensity that it took all of his willpower not to avert his eyes. “We must break them. Teach dragonkind a lesson they will remember in their bones,” he stated, the only emotion in his voice a cold determination to see it done no matter the cost.

“That won’t be easy, especially if there are more dragons who know the language of magic.”

“You’re right, This could be the worst thing to ever happen to diamond dogs. Maybe even the entire world. However, it could prove to be an opportunity! You said the dragon used full phrases, instead of spare words. He must have learned the language somehow. Maybe we could find his source and learn the full language ourselves. You probably don’t care because you already have full control over magic, but the vast majority of us would greatly benefit. Imagine a world in which everyone has access to magic. A world in which unicorns don’t need to train for decades to master a few dozens of spells. Instead, they would just learn a language and say out loud what they want the magic to do.”

“It’d be also a world where anyone with a charged gemstone could say: make this person’s head explode.”

“The benefits outweigh the drawbacks,” Drogur replied, dismissing Havoc’s concerns. “Havoc, I want you to try to learn how that dragon learned magic. Force other dragons who use magic to tell you, take their families hostages, torture them, read their minds against their will, I don’t care. Just get it done. Obviously, you’ll be alone in this mission. You are the only one I trust enough to do this. WIll you do it?”

For the first time, Havoc hesitated instead of blindly following Drogur’s orders. Trying to learn how a dragon learned Latin was one thing, but torture, interrogation and kidnapping were not the kind of activities he approved of. Still, Drogur’s mission was too important to just reject it.

“I will do it,” Havoc replied, promising himself to do what Drogur wanted without resorting to evil acts.

Drogur smiled. “I knew you wouldn’t disappoint me. Now, while the others arrive, tell me about your fight against Tirek. I’m looking forward to hear how he beat the shit out of you.”

Author's Notes:

Well, would you look at that. We're back to Gem Fido!
I thought this would be a good time to put an updated map.

This is the map of the area after the Gem Fido war. Gem Fido no longer exists as an independent nation. Instead, it's been split between the Dominion and Equestria. It is, however, far from being fully integrated into Equestria. There is no weather control, and most ponies and dogs keep to their sides without ever considering moving.