The Forgemaster was inside Twilight's home, fixing a shattered windowpane. Apparently, Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity had a slumber party and somehow managed to pull a tree through the window. The Forgemaster was currently sanding down some of the recently fixed paneling, so as to provide for a smooth surface. Twilight just so happened to be in the library at the time, she was organizing her books downstairs.

"You wanna tell me just how in hell you managed to get a tree inside of another tree, Twilight?" he asked.

"Well, Applejack saw that a tree was going to fall on Lyra's house because some lightning hit it. She did the sensible thing and pulled it down before anypony could get hurt." Twilight replied from the central room.

"Yes, fine, but how did it land in your bloody bedroom?"

"She… may have pulled just a teensy bit too hard." She replied sheepishly.

The two continued their separate work in silence for a few moments, but then The Forgemaster started to chuckle to himself.

"Want to share what's so funny?" Twilight asked.

"The irony just struck me: you live in a tree, that is also a library, full of books that are made from trees, and I'm fixing damage to a tree with wood from another tree, and the damage to this tree was caused by yet another tree." He chuckled some more, "I just thought it was funny."

Twilight thought it was funny too, and laughed along with him. They continued in silence for a few more moments. The Forgemaster spoke up once more once he was finished.

The Forgemaster walked down the stairs and took a seat on the bottom step, "Alright, I'm done. Still don't know why you couldn't have gotten a pony carpenter. Also, still don't know why you even had a slumber party. You aren't the most outgoing of ponies, Twilight."

"Well, it was either have a slumber party or let my friends go home during a storm, and I wasn't about to do that!"

He shook his head, "Pussies. A storm can't hurt you."

"It had lightning and high winds, Forgey."

"Lightning strikes the tallest object, and that certainly isn't a pony, it'd probably be a tree. This tree, in fact." He said, while rubbing a hand along the wall.

Twilight rolled her eyes, "I'll tell you the same thing I told Applejack; I have a magical lightning rod installed."

"Hmm… I could've made a sexual joke there, but to prove my maturity; I'll hold off on that."

"Ugh, colts are all the same no matter how old and powerful they are."

"First: age and power are relative, compare me to you, then I am both ancient and god-like, compared to Celestia, I'm a teenager and a black belt, while she's a 40 year old and couldn't tell you which side of the sword is the pointy end. Second: if all colts are the same, then why can't girls choose between them?"

"Are you trying to say that you're more powerful than Celestia?" she asked, sounding incredulous.

"No, she has quite a bit of power, what I'm saying is that I have much, much more experience than she does. In a battle between us, I would win because I'm used to it and now what to do, she would lose because she hasn't been in as many fights as I have."

"Well, there's not been a reason to fight anypony in many years."

"Ha! Not with humans. Humans are very, very good at killing. In fact, many cultures are proud of the various ways they can kill, and the various wars they have been in. As a matter of fact, I think I might belong to most of those cultures… disturbing."

Twilight got angry, "Ugh, what is it with you and killing!"

"Hey, if it has to be done, why not enjoy it?" he asked.

"Um, maybe because you are killing other ponies?"

"It's people. And what does that have to do with anything?"

Twilight hung her head in frustration, "Ugh, you're impossible! I think I'll just stop, you'll never change."

"Hey! You're learning!" he laughed at her indignant face.

He stood there for a few moments laughing, while she glared at him. She seemed to do a lot of that, glaring, I mean. She only retorts every once in a while, but often glared at The Forgemaster. He, for his part, took it in stride, never letting Twilight have the satisfaction of getting a rise out of him.

He then walked out the door and was greeted by some of the local ponies in the square. He found the other girls under his care and walked over to greet them, Twilight following behind him.

Then, out of the blue, a panicking Spike ran into the library and started to speak incoherently.

"Rarity... woods... jewels... dogs... hole... taken... Save her!" he stammered out while pointing in the direction he came and breathing heavily.

The group blinked owlishly at the young dragon, under the combined stares, Spike seemed to calm down and stopped trying to talk though he was still obviously panicking, Spike was hyperventilating and holding his chest, trying to get air in as quickly as possible. The Forgemaster slowly walked over to Spike. He kneeled down immediately in front of Spike and looked deep into his eyes, after a moment of searching, he reached back and slapped Spike across the face.

"Get it together man! Rarity needs you!" he said as Spike absently rubbed his reddened cheek.

Seemingly snapped out of his panicking, Spike said, "Sorry. Rarity and I were in the woods looking for jewels when these creepy guys showed up."

"Creepy guys?" Twilight asked.

"They called themselves the diamond dogs. They grabbed Rarity and disappeared down a hole in the ground."

"Well, what are we doing standing around here? Let's go kick some diamond dog ass!"

With various cries of accent, the group ran off in the direction Spike had previously come from.

"Alright Spike, that sounds mighty easy. Just take us to that their hole and we'll save Rarity."

Within no more than 15 minutes, the group had arrived in the area that Rarity had been ponynapped. According to Spike, Rarity had been taken by these Diamond Dogs into a hole in the ground. Upon cresting the hill, however, it was revealed that many, many holes were present.

Pinkie summed it up best when she said, "Holy moly, that's a lotta holeys!"

"It matters little; logic dictates that all of these holes are interconnected. We merely need to enter one to find our quarry."

The ponies all agreed with him, they went down the hill and entered the plain on which the holes were located, and began to look down into the holes.

Twilight decided to pep up the girls with an inspiring cheer, "Come on, girls! Let's get started."

"For the love of fuck, Twilight! I. Am. A. Male! You are the only one here who refuses to acknowledge that!"

While the other girls laughed at him, Twilight apologized sheepishly to the enraged human. The group then began to look into the holes in earnest. However, The Forgemaster stood apart from the group and watched their activities with a raised brow.

"Why are you all looking into dark tunnels as though you could actually see in there?" he asked the others.

"Do you have a better idea?" Rainbow asked.

"Going into the holes?"

Twilight replied, "Why didn't I think of that? C'mon everypony, into the holes!"

Twilight and the others then dived dramatically into their holes of choice, only to be blocked at the last moment by a mound of dirt filling the hole. The ponies all got mud and dirt all over their faces, causing The Forgemaster to chuckle at their expense. Suddenly, the rest of the holes began to suffer the same fate the others had, and they were filling up quickly.

"Quick! We gotta get down one before they're all filled up." Twilight yelled, and then sprang into action along with the others.

"Really, Twilight? I didn't know that, I was planning on sitting here and doing nothing." He said sarcastically to Twilight.

Twilight didn't respond, but glared at him anyway. The ponies all tried various ways of entering the tunnel system, all of them failing, however.

After a stunning display of both strength and failure, Applejack said, "We can't muscle through it!"

Rainbow Dash replied, "We'll see about that." And immediately dive-bombed the nearest open hole. Unfortunately, that hole too filled in, making Rainbow pull up at the last second.

The Forgemaster looked at all the ponies trying various ways to enter a tunnel and sighed, reminiscing.

"I remember the last time I entered a deep, dark, and dank hole. Last night actually." And chuckled at his small joke, though he got a glare from Rainbow Dash.

She slowly flew over to him, glaring the entire way, and once she got in range, she bucked him in the crotch. He didn't make a sound.

Not looking back, she said, "You're lucky I love you or I would've put that thing through a grinder."

"2 things. First: that's happened so many times to me, I think I'm immune." Rainbow turned in shock to see him standing in the same position as normal, with his arms folded across his chest, "Second: you're a pony, why would you have a meat grinder?"

He then chuckled at the flabbergasted expression on her face. Applejack decided to ruin the Kodak moment and spoke.

"Heavens to Betsy. Now I'm used to pickin' myself up and dustin' myself off but Rarity won't even touch mud 'less it's imported."

With The Forgemaster thinking, 'Who the hell would import mud?', Twilight said, "Oh, Rarity."

The others went off into a little dream universe, he assumed, and fantasized about the conditions Rarity was in, The Forgemaster was not invited…

Snapping out of their dream universe, Applejack said, "We gotta save her!"

"1st place for most obvious sentence of the day goes to Applejack, please come up to the podium to claim your prize." He said, deadpan.

"But, Applejack, they blocked up all the holes." Said Fluttershy, adorably, while indicating the mounds of dirt everywhere, as though the others didn't notice.

Applejack leaped onto one of the mounds and said, "Don't mean we can't dig 'em out. Come on!"

The rest of the group immediately went to work, getting on their own mounds and trying to dig those ones out. Spike was about to get to work when The Forgemaster stopped him.

"Hey Spike, still got that shovel?"

"Uh, yeah, why?" Spike asked, confused.

"Hand it here." The Forgemaster held out a hand, into which a small shovel was placed moments later.

The Forgemaster murmured, "Thanks", and gripped the shovel. He held both hands on the shaft and then twisted in opposite directions before spreading them apart. The shovel seemingly grew before Spike's eyes.

Seeing Spike's awe, The Forgemaster said, "Telescoping handle. Useful for when you grew or if I needed it."

The Forgemaster then went to the nearest pile of dirt and began to work his way through it, moving much faster than all of the other ponies did combined. The shovel was truly doing its job.

Suddenly, Pinkie screamed, "Ow!"

The Forgemaster looked up from his work to see Pinkie on the ground with a canine of some sort leering at her from a mound nearby. But the second thing he saw made him want to throw this whole damn field into the sun. It was Fluttershy, being held by the tail by one of those canines, and then… he dropped her!

'By the ancients and all of the gods and goddesses; that beast will know naught but pain for a fortnight. I shall chop his right leg off and then- before cutting out his- sodomize him with his own- strangle him with his own intestines- chopping off his- making him eat his own- stabbing him in the- removing all of his- with a rusty spoon- heating him gently over- cooking him from the inside out- pouring molten lead into- before healing him and doing the same thing again and again and again!' He thought, enraged.

He leaned down over the shovel, and tapped a series of jewels imbedded in the shovel's blade. After tapping 7 or so, the blade glowed and then began to change shape. When finished transforming, the 'shovel' looked very much like a two-handed battleaxe. In fact, judging by the way The Forgemaster held it while running at the diamond dog, screaming battle cries the whole way, it probably was a battleaxe.

The top half of the diamond dog was sticking out of the mound, so that means that most of its vital organs were just below the top of the pile of dirt. The Forgemaster swung out with his axe and cleaved straight through the dirt pile, unfortunately, the diamond dog retreated down the very same pile he had just chopped through, leaving the diamond dog scared, but very much alive.

Fluttershy had run off scared. The Forgemaster looked from where his target had been to the other ponies; they were all currently dealing with some 3 diamond dogs in their own fashion. However, due to the mobility offered by the tunnels, the diamond dogs were making fools out of them. That is, until, The Forgemaster saw one of them trip Fluttershy.

Howling with rage, The Forgemaster focused his magic and shot out a pulse wave at the nearby dirt mounds. Each and every one that was hit turned into solid glass. Anything and everything that was inside the dirt mound would be turned to glass, including any diamond dogs that happened to be in the mounds he shot at. He continued this rage-filled task, eventually leaving only about a dozen or so untouched mounds of dirt. The diamond dogs did the sensible thing, and retreated.

After the dogs retreated, The Forgemaster stood above the group of ponies and 1 dragon, all of them but he huffing and puffing in exhaustion. He, however, was huffing and puffing in a barely contained rage, struggling to let himself kill everything that resided inside these tunnels.

After a few moments, he seemed to calm down slightly.

Thought he mumbled, "Hated the tunnels on Iwo Jima, hate the tunnels here too. Fuck the diamond dogs, fuck them with a brick." Under his breath.

Fluttershy said, adorably, "Oh, those scary monsters popping up everywhere. Oh, poor Rarity must be terrified."

While the other ponies went into their dream land again, The Forgemaster went over to Fluttershy and pulled her into a deep hug, making her squeak in surprise. He held her close, enjoying her soft mane and coat, and whispered into her ear.

"Fluttershy est optimum parvam equum." Ignoring her questions of, 'What?'

He held her for a few more moments, and then set her down on the ground gently, just in time to watch as the others came out of their fantasy.

Twilight cried out, "Poor Rarity! What are we gonna do?"

Spike seemed to look around for a few moments, and spotted what the others hadn't yet noticed: an open hole.

He ran at it saying, "I got it! I'll save you, my sweet."

The ponies shared a communal, "Huh?"

The Forgemaster scoffed at them, and said quietly enough so that Spike wouldn't hear, "It's obvious that Spike is sweet on the mare."

The others said, "Oh…"

He walked after Spike, "Honestly, I'm a dude. You girls should've been able to pick up on that faster than me." He said over his shoulder, the others staring after him for a few moments before following.

As The Forgemaster walked up to Spike, he watched as the young dragon pulled out a fishing rod and a large turquoise. He wrapped the gem in the fishing line and cast it into the hole.

The Forgemaster sat immediately opposite from Spike, he asked, quietly enough so that the 'fish' wouldn't hear, "I thought ponies didn't have fishing rods. I even asked!"

"They don't. You just have to know the right ponies in town to ask. Dragons don't just eat gems, you know."

The Forgemaster was gazing intently into the abyss, "Oh, Spike. You're a lad after mine own heart."

The other ponies by that time ad caught up, Twilight in particular spoke, "Spike, it is very noble of you-"

The Forgemaster and Spike both shushed her very loudly.

She tried again, quieter though, "-to sacrifice the gem Rarity gave you."

Spike seemed to have his own dream for a moment, "Oh, Lady Rarity. My damsel in distress!" he called out dreamily.

After a few moments in dream land, he began making kissy faces at Applejack nearby, prompting her to back away saying, "Hoho there, lover boy."

Just then, the fishing rod began to bend, signifying a 'bite'.

Spike unnecessarily said, "Whoa! Whoa whoa whoawhoawhoa... I got a bite! I got a bite!"

Muttering, 'No shit, Sherlock', The Forgemaster held out a hand and said, "Pinkie! Hammer!"

Pinkie dutifully supplied a fairly large sledge hammer to him, who held it in one hand as though it weighed as much as a feather. The Forgemaster raised the hammer over his head, ready to bring it crashing down on the first thing with canine teeth to burst from the hole. Unfortunately, Spike, along with all of the others ponies, failed to reel in the 'catch'.

He watched as they were all dragged down into the hole, and sighed to himself. Pinkie had gone in last and he didn't feel inclined to follow, if he even could. The Forgemaster stuck his head into the hole and noticed that his shoulders were set to wide to allow him entry. Muttering a quick spell, he shrunk himself down slightly, enough to move through the tunnels with ease. He then jumped down into the hole, and after sliding a good couple hundred feet in a gradually sloping ramp, he flew off the end of the ramp and down into another tunnel opposite it. He quickly stopped himself and attempted to follow the path the others had taken. Unfortunately, the trial was nowhere to be seen.

'Shit. I hate rabbit holes. They lead to human farming machines… Viva la résistance!'

He decided to trust his instincts, his gods, or his luck and just randomly walked down tunnel after tunnel. He swung the axe and the hammer over each shoulder a whistled a tune as he walked. He began to think of all the various ways he would completely annihilate these diamond dogs: they had violated the job he was set to do by Celestia, and by his oath, they would be punished!

On his various wanderings, he came across several groups of what appeared to be diamond dog guards, well, they had armor on, anyway. A swing of the hammer, and even through their armor they were knocked unconscious. A swing of his axe, and their armor didn't stand a chance. Leaving a chamber that was previously full to the brim with diamond dogs, he looked back to see all of them either unconscious, dead, or missing a limb and wishing they were unconscious. Laughing insanely, he went on his way with nary a second thought.

After a few more chambers of dogs and a few more random patrols, The Forgemaster found himself at a crossroads, literally. Left, forward, right, and backwards. Well, he certainly wasn't going backwards, so that narrows it down. He was about to flip his hammer to decide which was to go when he heard crying come from the right tunnel. The crying sounded strikingly reminiscent of Rarity.

With a whoop of joy from finally finding the right way to go, he charged off in that direction.

After a few moments of running, he turned a corner to see 5 diamond dogs running across his line of sight to the left. He threw his axe out at them horizontally and cut through 3 of them with that one attack. The axe sheathed itself in the wall past them as the 3 diamond dogs fell to the ground, already dead. In mere moments, the other 2 were nursing huge holes that appeared in their heads from having a hammer go through them at blinding speed before, they too, fell.

As he watched the last one fall, a familiar call came to his ears, "Yeehaw! Get along, little doggies! What!"

He looked in that direction and saw the other 5 mares he was supposed to be guarding looking at the corpses and turning green, they were evidently sickened by the sight of blood, corpses, and murder. This little awkward 'I just saw you kill something for the first time' moment soon ended when the nearby tunnel that had a gate on it suddenly started having crashing noises, and some that distinctly sounded like Rarity, come through the entrance. Luckily, the sounds were enough to distract the ponies from the grisly scene behind him.

Spike reared up and knocked down a stalactite hanging right above him and wielded the broken rock as a sword.

The Forgemaster rolled his eyes at the display and silently noticed all the wrong ways he was holding the 'blade' as any old master seeing a novice would.

Spike called out, "I'm coming for you, my lady. Hi-ho, Twilight! Away!"

Twilight looked over her shoulder to look Spike in the eye and said, annoyed, "And just what do you think you're doing?"

Spike replied, "Please, Twilight. Just give me this."

Twilight groaned before saying, "Fine." And then literally whinnied and ran towards the room the noises were coming from.

The others were following close behind.

When Spike and Twilight busted down another door, Spike said, "Lady Rarity, I'm here to save you!"

Then, everyone was shocked when the 3 diamond dogs who were bothering them earlier came running at them, begging them to take Rarity away from them.

The Forgemaster didn't listen to a word they said; instead he glared at the one that had hurt Fluttershy. He gave him a look that could literally kill in enough quantity. He entered the conversation when Spike was screaming something to Rarity.

"Rarity! You're safe!" he yelled.

"Why, yes. Hello, girls-"

"And the 2 males!" The Forgemaster yelled back at her, narrowing his eyes.

"Er, right. You are just in time to assist me." Said Rarity.

"Assist you with what?" asked Applejack.

"With those." Rarity looked back at the cartloads of gems behind her.

"You're letting us leave with all these... jewels?" asked Spike, getting a hungry gleam in his eyes.

One of the dogs pitifully replied, "Yes. Take them. And her with them."

Another screamed out, "Please!"

The mares under his protection all gave each other a look before hooking themselves up to the wagons. The Forgemaster followed close behind them, making sure the foolish dogs stayed back. They managed to make their way through the forests without spilling the gems.

"I can't believe you got all these gems!" Pinkie exclaimed.

Rainbow put her 2 cents in, "Heh. I can't believe you tricked all those dogs."

"Just because I'm a lady doesn't mean I cannot handle myself in a sticky situation. I had them wrapped around my hoof the entire time." Rarity said back to her.

The Forgemaster, who was walking next to Dashie leaned in and whispered, "Heh. Sticky situation, that's so dirty."

Rainbow laughed at his admittedly awful joke. While Twilight and Rarity were having a conversation about something or other, The Forgemaster continued to speak with the others.

"Hey Pinkie, you got any of those explosive charges left?"

"Yeah! You can have all you need!" she enthusiastically replied.

"Good, I have a plan…"

2 weeks later

It had taken 2 long weeks, but everything was prepared.

No longer would his revenge be denied.

All diamond dogs would die!

'No one so much as twitches a finger in Fluttershy's direction I anger, lest they earn my wrath. These dogs certainly qualify.' The Forgemaster thought.

The Forgemaster was lying down on the hill that he had crested when searching for Rarity those long 2 weeks ago. He had, in his hands, a marvelous piece of human engineering, lovingly recreated by The Forgemaster himself, each piece enchanted and hand-crafted to be most efficient at their job. A deadly weapon, each and every part that would normally have been machined was crafted by hand, with expert accuracy.

'I'm normally not a big fan of firearms, mainly because they don't require much skill to use, but there's just something about the sniper's rifle that I love. That, and revolvers. Gods, I love revolvers. Probably because they required skill to use, like in the Wild West. Sniping is difficult as well.' He thought.

In his hands was a true master-work sniper's rifle, ready to take the head of each and every diamond dog.

Phase 1: Boom.

He reached into his pocket and drew the detonator Pinkie had supplied. With a flick and a press, the detonator was engaged. Off in the distance, a loud rumble could be heard: the result of over 40 satchel charges that Pinkie innocently supplied.

Phase 1: Success.

Phase 2: Pin Down.

The diamond dogs had doubtless heard the rumble, and more likely felt the tremors from such a large explosion. Logic dictates that they would leave their burrows to investigate. The Forgemaster was not disappointed.

The Forgemaster cocked his rifle, and put a bead on the first diamond dog to appear's head. With a *boom* the unsuppressed rifle made its presence known. The diamond dog fell back, missing a head and most of its neck. This process was repeated 7 more times before the dogs stopped leaving their burrows.

Phase 2: Success.

Phase 3: Red Tide.

Unknown to the diamond dogs, but the rumble and tremors from earlier were a complete and utter disaster for the group. What the explosions had demolished wasn't anything important; rather, it was a large stretch of land that was carved out of a field for seemingly no purpose. A large trench now pointed the direction straight to the diamond dog burrows.

The Forgemaster reached out and activated his second detonator, this one being only a single satchel charge, but it was enough.

A small piece of land, that held back the free-flowing river from rushing into the trench the explosions had made, suddenly vanished in a flash of light and thunder. The water, true to its path of least resistance, now flowed directly towards the plain in which the diamond dogs were burrowed.

Not 5 minutes later: the water arrived.

Not 4 minutes after that: the burrows were mostly flooded.

Not 2 minutes after that: the diamond dogs panicked, and rushed to the surface.

As The Forgemaster looked through his scope, he could see the struggling forms of many, many diamond dogs. With yet another boom the dogs were already beginning to fear, more diamond dogs died, turning the water blood red.

After many such booms and many such deaths, the water was very, very red.

What diamond dogs that weren't dead on the surface were drowning underneath.

The Forgemaster looked across this killing field, this mass of destruction he had wrought, and felt nothing…

For what exterminator glories in the death of a cock roach?

That is all they were: vermin. And he was their exterminator.

He reached into his pocket one more time and withdrew yet another detonator. With a press of a button, a cliff was collapsed, and the river was restored to its former path. In a few days, the water would dry up, but the diamond dogs would be gone.

He readjusted his scope, and zoomed in on one particular floating corpse. A corpse he had wanted to torture to death over and over again.

He fired on it a dozen more times.

'No one… hurts… Fluttershy!'

Phase 3: Complete Success.

“BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE! LET THE WHOLE WORLD BUUURN!”