The Stone Ones

The pack leader looked on his people, watching them scurrying around at the mouth of cave going about their business. Everything was as it should be, the bitches carrying the water into the cave for the gem diggers as some of the mutts guarded the mouth of cave from predators. This pack was a well-oiled machine, efficient,-

“Damnit Soft Paws!”

The pack leader sighed, mentally cursing his luck as he watched his youngest, Soft Paws, drop her bucket for the sixth time that day. That pony with the silly hat wasn’t helping matters, the mare wouldn’t leave them alone, doing tricks and telling them how great and powerful she was. If their treaty wasn’t so solid with the sun princess the alpha would of just made her into a pony- cabob.

“For stone’s sake Soft Paws!” the alpha snarled at the runt, who flinched. “Do something right for once and Get.The.Water.Now. You drop it this time you’re sleeping outside the cave tonight.” Soft Paws nodded and hurried back to the watering hole. The alpha sighed, that pup was getting on his nerves very very quickly today.

She was the smallest of her brothers and sisters and had the great talent of ruining everything she touched, making the alpha wish, not for the first time, that he had just let her die in the woods. But NOOOOO! Her mother’s final wish was that she nurtured. If he hadn’t loved her so much…

The alpha shook off the thought and snarled as the pony jumped into the air, fireworks shooting all around her. The alpha had had enough “Get that pony out of my sight!” He snarled at two of the guards, both of them nodding, running over to the pony and bodily grabbing her, the pony shrieking as they carried her into the forest.

“That’s better.” The alpha muttered to himself, leaning his back against the cave. The wind picked up, the alpha’s sensitive nose picking something odd. It almost reminded him of the creature that he talked to a while ago, the alpha growled at the memory.

That ignorant fool had brought those demons with him and then demanded that they mine gems for him, for free! Not only had he brought with him the diamond dogs greatest enemies, he had threatened to destroy them if they didn’t do as he said, hell, he even killed two of his sons when he escaped the alpha’s wraith, just to spit him.

The alpha looked up at the roof of the cave and smiled at the goblins heads that were spiked there, at least they had killed-

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR-

All of the dogs looked up, those sounded like war horns.

“Get everydog inside!” The alpha roared, the dogs running into the cave as the mutts ran into the cave to get there weapons and armor, they knew those horns. That bastard creature was back…..

Soft Paws muttered angrily as she walked to the pond to get some more water. She knew that most of the pack didn’t like her; they said she was ‘klutz’ and a ‘walking disaster’ but at least she tried! So what she spilled some water? Or lit that cart on fire? Or-

Soft Paws whimpered to herself, who was she kidding? Her pack hated her. She was-

“Release the great and powerful Trixieeeeeee!” Soft Paws looked up to see that magic pony fly through the air and land right next to her with a thud, two of her pack mates the throwers.

“Stay away if you know what’s good for you pony!” One of them yelled before disappearing back to the forest. Soft Paws sighed as she helped the pony to her hooves, her pack mates were the meanest sometimes…

“Are you okay?” she asked the mare, who was busting off her cape and hat.

“The great and powerful Trixie is fine, no thanks to those MUTTS!” the mare now named Trixie spat. “She will take her show to somepony more-“

BRRRRRRRRRRRR-

Soft Paw perked her ears, was that a horn?...

Soft Paws looked at Trixie, who looked back at her, a mixture of fear and confusion on her face. I should get back Soft Paws thought as she started to walk into the forest, but the rustling of the trees stopped her. Taking a step back she gulped, seeing ugly black figures moving in all around them she looked over to the now scared Trixie.

“Run.” Soft Paws simply said, dropping her bucket and taking off as fast as her paws could take her, Trixie following closely behind, both of them screaming their heads off as a hoard of goblins chased after them, thirsty for their blood….

The process of putting on armor was one that Forge had gotten very good at, not perfect mind you, most of the time he strapped his arm guards too tight, but he was still good enough to dress himself in under 10 minutes. First went on the boots, then the leg guards, followed by his chain mail and so on. That is what Forge was doing today, looking nice and pretty for the new recruits today.

In his opinion he could have just worn his sword and some sweatpants and it would have been fine, but Tia was a stickler for presentation. So it was armor for him, Reaper’s assassin outfit for Reaper, and Longstrider in his stupid looking jerkin with that god awful hat of his. Unnecessary but what were you going to do?

Forge always preferred to put his armor on himself, even though it was the pain in the ass, saying that it was the most calming thing that he had ever and will ever do in his life, besides hammering that is. With the final strap put in place he was finished, just rolling his shoulders and moving around to see if he was restricted at all or not.

Finding that the armor fit right Forge smiled, grabbing his helmet and walking out of his room where Vinyl, Octavia, and Chrysalis were waiting for him.

Vinyl whistled. “You’re looking dressed to kill big guy.” She chuckled at her own joke as Forge snorted.

“Good one…” He said, rolling his eyes. “Now remember that you girls leave have to the soldiers alone, that means you Vinyl.”

“What makes you so sure that I’d do something?!”

“Because you’re you.”

Before Vinyl could retort Octavia stuck a hoof in her mouth. “Don’t worry Forge; I’ll make sure she’s… civil toward the recruits.”

Forge nodded his thanks as Vinyl and Octavia left Forge and Chrissy. Forge motioned for her to follow him as he walked to where the troops were waiting at.

“Are you sure that I’m not going to get killed by one of your recruits?” Chrissy asked, worried for her safety.

Forge snorted. “If they try they’ll regret it.”

“That doesn’t answer my question…” Forge turned to the changeling.

“You’ll be fine Chrissy, I promise. Now go mind the shop.”

Chrissy muttered darkly but went to the shop anyway as Forge walked out of his home to start the idiotic show that was this ceremony. What he found when he got there didn’t impress him, 300 day guard and 100 night guard ponies, all of them standing at attention as Forge got up on the stage, his brothers and sisters already there.

Taking his place next to Celestia he scanned over the troops, realizing that one of the most important one of the guards in Forge’s opinion. Leaning over to his sister Forge asked, “Tia, where’s the cook?” Celestia flinched.

“I hoped you wouldn’t notice.” Forge raised an eyebrow.

“What the fuck do you mean? We need a goddamn cook!”

“Nopony wanted the job…”

“Why the fuck not?!”

“Because of the others that you’re going to train.”

“What do you-” Forge began when he was interrupted by what sounded like an eagle’s cry, a sound that Forge and the other humans had heard many times. Growling Forge put on his helmet and ripped out his sword from its sheath, Longstrider readying an arrow, and Reaper pulling out daggers as what looked to be about a 100 fully armored griffins flew down and landed in a neat row next to the other troops.

The humans training kicked in, each of them trying to attack their longtime enemies. But before any of them could land a blow Luna and Celestia stood in their way.

“Stop it for the sun’s sake.” Celestia said with an eye roll “You know that they’re our allies.”

“What are these pigeons doing here Tia?” Reaper hissed as the leader of the griffins flew up to the stage, a big hen with black feathers and piercing green eyes. She looked about as happy to see the thanes as they of her.

“Captain Steel Wing reporting for training princesses.” The griffin said, ignoring the humans as she saluted the monarchs. The humans put away their weapons and grabbed Tia and Luna, moving then away from the griffin, who they were giving dirty looks.

“What are griffins doing there?” Forge demanded. Celestia sighed.

“They’re here for training too, the griffin’s empress wanted her troops to receive the best training possible. That’s why there’s no cook, nopony wanted to cook for griffins and I know you wouldn’t have a griffin cook.” The humans growled, to them the griffins were still there most hated enemies. Celestia sighed, she knew that this was going to happen, that’s why she didn’t let them know until it was too late for them to act against it.

“Look” Celestia said, trying to calm the humans “I know you don’t like it but I am your princess, and I’m ordering you to do it.”

Before any of the humans could rebuttal, something that would have been along the lines of fuck you miss daisy, they heard a pair of screams. Looking down the road they saw a diamond dog and a pony running helter skelter down the road being chased by something that Celestia had said died out a long time ago, many something’s in fact. All of the troops looked at the goblins, the griffins spreading their wings ready to fight and the ponies surrounding their princesses, some tackling them to the ground, as Forge looked over to Celestia and snorted.

“They’re all dead eh Tia?” He asked a bewildered Celestia as he and the other thanes jumped off the stage and charged their other old enemy, Forge laughing as he ripped his sword out of its sheath…

Soft Paws was not a happy camper. She had been running for about an hour, the only thing keeping her running adrenaline and her not wanting to die. She was tiring though, getting slower and slower, so she could almost feeling the monsters foul breath on the back of her neck. As she and Trixie broke the tree line she saw a large group of guardsponies.

The sight filled her with relief. Thank the stone she thought they can save me! As she got closer to them she saw something running toward her very quickly. The closer it got the worse she felt, the thing that was running toward her looked like it had come straight out of Tartarus. It was a giant metal beast with a helmet right out of her nightmares, the worst part? It had a sword in hand and it sounded like it was laughing.

Soft Paws whimpered to herself, stopping and curling into a ball, her paws covering her face, ready for her death as the monster in front of her got in arm’s length.

A death that never came.

Forge ran past the diamond dog to tackle the goblin that was about to run the dog through, gutting it before it could get up, the blue pony not stopping for an instant.

Blocking a spear thrust Forge kept laughing. This, this was what he was made for! Gutting another goblin watched as a pair of the creatures fall over dead, each of them with arrows sticking out of their eyes.

The goblins started to back away as Forge kept cutting them down, none of the monsters ready for such a stiff fight, none of them noticing that Reaper had gotten behind them, effectively cutting off their escape. A few arrow shots and chops later the group of goblins were decimated.

Forge wiped the grime and blood from his helmet, frowning at the stupefied group of griffins and ponies that had not helped them at all.

“Thanks assholes!” He called over to them as he walked over to the diamond dog, looking her over. She was about 6 foot with light brown coat and wearing a red vest with some torn up pants. Forge really couldn’t get any better look at her; she was still on the ground curled up in a ball covering her eyes with her paws, shaking like a leaf.

Why aren’t I dead yet Soft Paws thought as she heard screams all around her, making her shake all the harder. It wasn’t until it had gotten dead silent did she get curious. Risking it she opened an eye to see the monster from earlier, except instead of the scary helmet being on it was under the creatures arm, revealing a concerned face with glowing eyes.

She tried to look around but was stopped. “None of that girl, just look at me, you’ll sleep better.”

She looked up tearfully at the metal creature. “Y-you saved me?” She shakily asked, showing off her blue eyes. She was greeted with a warm smile as the creature helped her up.

“Yes I-“Forge began as Soft Paws tackled him in a hug, Forge struggling to stay up as the dog cried on his shoulder. “Shh. It’s okay, you’re safe.” Forge said, holding the terrified dog in his arms as he walked over to the ponies, most of them still too surprised to be sick at the sight and smell of bodies everywhere.

Forge turned toward Longstrider. “Make sure that there are no more of those bastards around.”

“Alright.” Longstrider said, his wings coming out of his back and flying into the air. Trying to calm the dog that had a death grip on him he walked over to where the ponies had tackled his sisters on the ground, both of whom were just getting to their hooves.

“The great and powerful Trixie survived!” Trixie yelled jumping into the air in victory, still breathing heavily and covered in sweat. Reaper stood next to Forge and looked the pony over.

“Sweet Christ that’s the most adorable pony I’ve ever seen.” Reaper commented as he looked Trixie over. “Look at that cape and hat, and she even talks in third person! I bet if you hug her she squeaks.” Forge nodded in agreement as Trixie walked over to them.

Taking off her hat Trixie said, “Trixie thanks you for helping her cr-” As Forge’s luck would have it another group of goblins broke through the tree line. Forge sighed and looked around. The ponies tackled Tia and Luna again, so they wouldn’t be any help. Longstrider was nowhere to be seen and the ponies were useless, and it got better as Trixie jumped on Forge’s other side screaming, Forge now armless holding both of them up.

“Fucking-”

Letting out a chorus of cries the griffins took off toward the goblins, their curved blades in claw.

“Don’t use your beaks, their blood is poisonous.” Forge casually called as he started to kick the ponies off of his sisters. “These two can help you stupid fucks and Mrs. Trixie can you please get the fuck off of me so I don’t get cut into pieces?” But there was no need, unlike the guardsponies the griffins weren’t useless, they took out the monsters with little problem.

Forge had to give credit where credit was do as the captain flew over to them still covered in black blood. “Well struck bird.” He said, outstretching a hand which the griffin took.

“Well struck yourself monkey.” She answered, ruffling her feathers. “Say, do you have a showering facility? Kinda what to get this blood off and I’m sure that the rest of my company want to too.”

“Next to the gym, if you reach the mess hall then you’ve gone too far.” Nodding her thanks she let out a shrill cry and took off into the air, her company following.

Forge looked at the diamond dog that he was still holding, she was fast asleep, still holding him in a death grip. The long and trying day must of tuckered her out. Sighing he looked at Celestia.

“Tia, can you get rid of the bodies? Soon these ponies are going to stop being shocked and I’m not watching a bunch of ponies throwing up.” Forge face palmed. “O I forgot, you wanted me to address the troops” he said sarcastically as he turned to the bewildered group of ponies and turning on the fake cheer. “Welcome to my fort ponies I am Captain Forge, welcome to basic training!” Rolling his eyes he walked past the ponies toward the fort.

Celestia couldn’t help but snort. His casual manner to all of this was almost ridiculous, he should be more sensitive toward the ponies; they had never seen death on this scale. She was sure that some of them might even be scarred after this. Looking toward her sister who nodded, both of them pointing their horns at the mass of dead and charging their horns, they incinerated what was left of the goblins leaving only black grass.

Turning back toward the ponies Celestia smiled weakly. “Good work my little ponies….”

Over at Golden Oaks Library…..

Seleis took another sip of her tea as she looked around at what was going to be her home for a while, as well as her new fellow housemates. The dragon was a cool little guy, excited but not trying to tear her scales out for questions about their kind.

The purple unicorn didn’t share his sentiments.

As she took another sip Seleis was considering strongly about just eating the unicorn; that would shut her up. Maybe lighting her on fire? Shoving a ruby up her ass? Any of those could work. Seleis started to wonder about how Tia would take any of those as she kept ignoring Twilight, who was still trying to talk to her. Her thoughts then shifted to her favorite human.

He was probably working out, his muscles flexing as he pounded out a sword…. Her tail curled and she bit her lip. Forge could pound me any day she thought, remembering her snuggle time with him the other day. Why was a man that put so much love into holding someone while he slept be so scared of her?....

….Okay, maybe she wasn’t the gentlest when she was trying to court him, some of the stuff she did could have been called rape….. okay it was rape….. But she was a dragoness! Forge should be clamoring for her! She sighed again, wishing that the purple blabber mouth had given her something stronger to drink.

…Well she could always snuggle with Forge some more when he slept, hopefully he would sleep though her fondling him….

Her mood improved she cleared her throat, shutting Twilight up. “Now Ms. Sparkle” She said, leaning back into her chair to get more comfortable, she was probably going to be there for a while. “Let’s get these questions over with….”

Back at the Fort….

Soft Paws shifted in her bed, sighing in content. It was still hours before dawn so she wouldn’t hav-

Wait a second sitting up Soft Paws looked around, nope definitely not her bed. She was in a room of some kind, too dark to properly see her surroundings, and the only light was a candle on the far side of the room.

As she was about to hope of the bed she noticed 2 things.

One, she smelled like she had just taken a bath.

Two, she didn’t know where her cloths were.

Almost yelping she threw the covers back on her, her face flushed. As she frantically looked around for her cloths as the door opened, blinding her with light. As her eyes adjusted she hid further under the covers, not wanting to be seen naked.

What she saw leaning on the doorway, arms crossed and smiling, it kinda looked like that creature that had saved her from those monsters. She shivered at the memory as the creature looked her over.

“Forge” It called “The pup’s awake!”

Soft Paws huffed at being called a pup. She was a grown dog! She was about to give the creature a piece of her mind when the creature that saved her walked in, carrying her cloths.

“Good you’re awake. I’m Forge, I’m sorry about your cloths; you were covered in goblin blood and your clothes were all ripped up. Good for you we had a griffin that knew how to sew.”

She grabbed her clothes off him and put them on under the covers. The other creature snickering, Forge looked at him and frowned. “Go get that report finished Longstrider.”

Longstrider chuckled and tipped his hat and gave Forge a knowing look. “Why big guy? Finally putting that bed to use?” Forge paled and Soft Paws blushed, Longstrider laughing as he walked away. Sighing at his brother’s antics, he sat on the edge of the bed and patted a spot next to him, signaling for her to sit next to him.

Soft Paws looked over at the bigger human. He looked a lot like a diamond dog, he just had smaller paws and his coat looked funny. She was going to thank him again in a second after she asked him an important question.

“Did you bath me?” She demanded, glaring at him.

Forge flinched. “Not me, but I did get some female ponies to. I was pretty sure that you wanted to be cleane-” She wrapped him on another tight hug.

“ThankyouforsavingmefromthosemonstersIdon’tknowwhatIwouldof-” Forge clamped her mouth shut with a hand.

“You are welcome.” He said, gently peeling her off him. “Now we got an eye witness report from that other one you were running with. I’d like to get one from you.”

Nodding Soft Paws started. “Well I was getting water for my pac-” she gasped. “Omygosh those monsters could of attacked my pack! I need to go and see if everydog is okay!” She tried to rise from the bed but was gently pushed down by Forge.

Calmly looking at the worried dog he said, “Calm down first off, second I’ll get some troops to go with us.”

“Us?” Forge looked at her slightly offended.

“I didn’t save you so you’d get cut to pieces if those goblins if they’re still at your cave. I’m coming to.”

Soft Paws sniffled, trying not to cry. No one ever cared this much about her, and she barely knew him. She hugged him tightly again, causing Forge to chuckle, as he patted her on the head. “Alright little one, let’s get you home to your kin.”

The alpha really was having a bad day. If your home was attacked by monsters your day wouldn’t be sunshine and roses. It could have been worse, no dog was hurt, and two of his sons said that they saw most of the hoard chasing Soft Paws and that blue pony. At least she was useful in the end. He thought as he oversaw the removal of the goblins bodies from inside the cave.

One of his cousins ran up to him, panting. “Alpha, others are coming!”

The alpha growled as he started barking orders. “Phalanx! Form the line, form a damn line. We got more company!” His armored dogs formed a line, their shields up and their spears out, the alpha in the front. They waited for the monsters to come back screaming into the mouth of the cave.

What they got disappointed them.

Instead of a hoard of goblins a group of griffins, ponies, one of the princess ponies, and 3 things that looked that like that bastard that orchestrated this raid walked in. The worse part though was who was next to the giant hoo-man, or whatever that bastard called his kind.

Everydog in the phalanx groaned, the alpha right along with them. Damnit Soft Paws, you couldn’t even die right! The alpha bitterly thought as phalanx dispersed, none of the dogs seeing a threat.

The pony princess walked over to the alpha and cleared her throat. “Alpha of the stone paws, I greet you.”

The alpha grunted. “What do you want Celestia?”

“We came to see if your clan was alright and to return the pup Soft Paws to you.” The alpha had to stop himself from groaning again. He had to think of a way to get Soft Paws out of his hair. Dumping her on the ponies seemed like a great idea.

“You take her.” The alpha said, turning around and starting to walk away from her. He heard Soft Paws whimper and something else snarl. He didn’t take two steps when something spun him around. It was the bigger looking hoo-man. Before the alpha could so much as snarl he was hoisted up into the air by the angry looking creature.

“Listen here you flea-bitten mange- ridden gnarly-toothed fuck” Forge snarled. “You are taking this one back or I’m going to skull fuck you; I’ve already had to make friends with the fucking griffins and I’M NOT going to play nice with you!” The alpha flinched, he had about a foot on the human, not to mention he was wearing full armor, but the hoo-man was lifting him up like he was a rag doll.

Looking around he saw that his dogs were moving toward them, starting to pull out their weapons, the griffins doing the same. The alpha racked his brain thinking of how to stop a blood bath.

“She’d be a good worker” he lied. “We sent her up to Canterlot to learn to cook; she’s probably the best cook we have.” That part was the truth, but her cooking wasn’t worth her staying here.

Forge raised an eyebrow and looked at Celestia. “Is this dog telling the truth Tia?”

Celestia nodded. “We did have a diamond dog up at the royal cooking college, I heard that she passed with flying colors.”

Forge dropped the dog and walked over to Soft Paws, who was crying. Gently lifting her chin so she looked up at him he asked, “Is that right Soft Paws?” She couldn’t answer without crying harder so she just nodded yes. Looking over to Celestia who nodded and smiled, he continued, “Well Soft Paws at the moment we are in need of a cook, one that can cook for griffin and pony, can you do that?”

Soft Paws looked up at him, hopeful. Sniffling she answered, “Yes.”

Nodding he looked her up and down. “Then how about it Soft Paws, do you want to stay with us?” She looked up at him and he looked down at her with a smile on his face. Soft Paws was so stunned that she couldn’t speak. Her tears changed from ones of sorrow to ones of joy as she hugged him again.

Picking her up and giving the other dogs the finger, Forge chuckled. “I’ll take that as a yes, and that’s good, I’ve wanted a good stew for 2000 years….”

Later that night…..

What a fucking day The alpha thought as he laid in his bed, the rest of his pack could be heard snoring all around him. At least Soft Paws was gone, and the mutts did get a good skirmish…

The alpha closed his eyes and tried to let sleep take him but something was off. It was almost like something was-

A shadow leapt towards him, driving a sword through the alpha’s stomach before he could get up. He tried to scream but nothing came out. Looking at what had killed him he saw a pair of glowing red eyes.

“Hoo-man…” the alpha said with struggled breath, trying to take the blade out of his stomach, but his arms felt like lead, his strength was leaving him along with his lifeblood.

The human leaned to the alpha’s ear. “This wouldn’t of happened if you would of accepted by deal.”

“Your deal would of made us slaves!” The leader weakly spat, darkness surrounding his vision.

The human sighed, taking the blade out of the alpha as the screams of his packmates could be heard. “Doesn’t matter now, you being nice enough to give me your cave and all” The alpha could almost see the humans smile. “Now be a good dog and die.” The last thing that the alpha heard before the darkness took him was the human’s evil laugh…