Dangerous Dog and Pony Show

Meanwhile, 14 miles outside Ponyville...

The Diamond Dogs were concerned. Not long after the escape of their new prized gem-dowsing pony, helped by a powerful unicorn and this massive dragon, they had went to the entrance of their cave to have a look around. What they found at the first entrance was a large group of armed ponies - earth, pegasi and unicorns, waiting for them. They explored the rest of the caves entrances and found them all similarly guarded. The Dogs were going nowhere, not without a large fight at least.

♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦

As soon as the Princesses protege had issued the order, the Royal Guard had started posting a garrison at every cave entrance. Subtlety was now not required given that Twilight Sparkles friend had been rescued and the protectors of the kingdom found no reason not to let the dogs know they were here. They scoured the whole mountainside to identify every exit and entrance, and had them all covered.

As the day wore on, all the officers met up to discuss the situation. They had a good perimeter and with a mix of all types of ponies they sure they would be able to fight the dogs if it came to that. Of course they had been given the order just to contain the dogs, but there had been a number of arguments when they had received news of Rarity's injuries.

Lunas Guard were even more outraged than the Day guard - the elements of harmony had brought back their commander in chief to them, and Luna had expressed to them in no uncertain terms how important she regarded the six heroes that her freed her. Therefore, to have one of them injured by these animals was more than they could stand.

The captains of the day and night guards starting arguing over the next steps, with their various officers backing each of them up with cheers and roars.

"We were told to wait for further instructions, and thats what we are going to do!" the day captain thumped down his hoof for dramatic effect

"We could be here days, weeks even!" The night captain complained.

"If thats what are orders are, then we follow them! Got somewhere else to be?"

"Come on, it wouldn't be that difficult to provoke these dogs into a fight, which is all the excuse we need! You know you want to teach these animals a lesson as well as us!"

"Yes, I do. But we were told to wait..."

"From a unicorn filly?" the night captain interrupted

"The princesses put us under the command of their Protege directly, and if you disrespect her by referring to her age or gender again, and you'll find out what I'm capable of"

"Whoo, I didn't mean it like that. It's just I think we know about these things better than the Princesses or their protege. We're the experts, they are just..."

"Rulers of the land, and the pony they singled out as something special?" the day captain replied sarcastically.

"Okay, but what's the worse that could happen?" the Night captain asked.

"Do you really want to annoy the element of magic by ignoring her, especially now she has a dragon pet the size of castle tower?" the day captain quipped "And whose brother is the captain of the whole guard? Think about what their parents, which raised all three of them, must be like?"

"Good point...well made. But we'll see how we all feel in a few days."

♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦

The leader of the Diamond Dogs was worried - the dogs hadn't been on the back-paw since they took up residence in this part of Equestria, and these mountain caves, many centuries ago. The ponies had driven them away from their main town and cities after they rose to be the more powerful animals in the land. They had gone from being the top dogs, down to be scattered amongst the land, taking shelter in the more rural areas.

But as ponykind continued to expand their kingdom, and the numbers grew, the dogs found it harder and harder to stay out of trouble. They tried fighting back, but they were beaten by the two Alicorns - beasts with the power of the strong ponies, wings like the flying ponies, and magic like the horned ponies. They learnt to live away from ponykind, and only fight the earth kind.

The temptation when seeing the white unicorn finding gems all too easily overrode everything the Dogs had learnt after all these years, and it was clear they had made a huge mistake. The small battle with the lavender unicorn, and their dragon companion, had taught them that ponykind had grown much more powerful and that now they were surrounded their end may be near.

The leader finally decided on a plan - given they had lots of food hoarded, and fresh water supplied, they decided to block all the entrances and seal themselves in. They could wait for months and hope the ponies had left by then.

♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦---♦

The Royal Guard watched as the entrances were sealed up one by one. This led to a massive argument that they should have acted earlier, but of course it was too late to do anything about it now. Besides, a powerful unicorn could easily move the blockades out of the way.