chapter 1: out of the everfree
One bright and sunny day in the land of equestria everything was rolling along normally, rainbow dash was doing tricks in the sky above, pinkie was planning a party, twilight was walking along reading her latest book from cantorlot, applejack and rarity were arguing, the cutie mark crusaders were trying to get their cutie marks (today in acrobatics), and derpy hooves crashed through a window and into a fine china shop. Yes everything was peacefull, until zecora came running into town with a worried look on her face, she was covered in cuts and scratches the cloak she always wore was tattered and torn like she had just escaped from a war zone. She came running into town faster than rainbow dash during a race everypony stopped and look as she sprinted towards the library, but just before she got there she slammed straight into twilight sparkle sending both of the ponies tumbling towards the library door.
"ow, zecora what's wrong? And why do you look like you got attacked by a manticore?" Twilight asked as she recovered from the hit.
Zecora started to speak franticly in her native language, but soon stopped and began speaking again so twilight could understand "please you must help my purple friend, because I fear on this day ponyville will end."
"zecora what do you mean, is there something headed towards ponyville?"
"not just one but a total three, and at ponyville they soon will be."
"what are they zecora manticore, dragons, ursas!?"
"no those beasts are not around, but three diamond dog will enter town."
twilight was shocked but not with fear, but how ridicules it sounded and as she thought of how "dangerous" the last three diamond dogs were she began to laugh. This only made zecora angry, so she muttered a curse in her native language and limped off towards the hospital to get her self patched up, as twilight stopped laughing she saw that spike was standing over her with a questioning look on his face.
"OK what's so funny twilight?" asked the baby dragon, who was not very amused that he was left out of a joke.
"oh nothing, just zecora saying something about three diamond dogs on their way to ponyville."
"WHAT, diamond dogs shouldn't we get ready for them or something they could be dangerous."
"spike, spike, spike, remember the last three diamond dogs that tried to mess with a pony?"
spike began scratching his head with one of his claws and then finally remembered the last diamond dog incident.
"oh yea, rarity just started whining and they gave up."
twilight nodded, and then started to walk inside of her library with her oldest friend when they suddenly stopped as they heard a blood curtailing howl that seemed to be coming from the direction of the everfree forest. Everything in ponyville stopped as the sound died down, nopony moved or said a word even pinkie pie was speechless, time had just simply stopped in fear of what could have made that sound then in an instant panic and screaming came over the town. Ponies grabbed their foles and headed inside, big Macintosh scooped up grannysmith and the CMC's as he ran back to sweet apple acres, and the six elements of harmony all darted towards the edge of the everfree forest to investigate.
One thought ran through twilights brain as she ran with her friends to investigate the horrible sound, what monster in all of equestria could make such a sound? the group knew before they got to the forest that whatever it was, it was huge and it was mad but when they got to the forests edge were the sound came from, they found something they never expected. They started to notice it halfway down the road, the path was very familiar to the six ponies but there was one in particulate that grew more and more worried as they reached their destination, a small cottage with a stream and bridge in front it was fluttershy's house but instead of its usual peaceful look it was ablaze. Animals ran around in horror, fluttershy and applejack tried to round them up as best as they could, but they had to stop a few times to avoid stepping on a few that looked like they were half eaten, during this the other four were trying to put out the inferno that was fluttershy's house until something distracted rarity, it was a diamond about the size her hoof. However, she quickly saw that under the diamond was a piece of paper, she lifted the diamond and paper with her magic and called the others over when she saw they were finished with the fire and the animals, the six huddled around one another trying to read the note left by some unknown pony.
Dear ponies,
If you are reading this than you have seen are handy work and if you don't want the samething to happen to your beloved ponyville we would suggest you bring every jewel in town to the nightmare moon statue in the everfree forest by midnight tomorrow.
You have been warned.
The six ponies could only stand there with their mouths hanging open at the threat from an unknown pony, until fluttershy finally spoke up.
"wh-why would anypony wha-what to do this to the poor little animals?" asked fluttershy as tears ran down her face.
"I jus don't know sugercube, but ya'll can bet we'll get 'em"
"sorry to interrupt darlings, but how in the name of equestria do we plan to stop somepony that's capable of doing something like this?"
"ooh, ooh I just had a really great idea girls!"
"Pinkie, I really don't think a party could help us."
"of course not rainbow dash you silly filly, we should make a rope trap that way when somepony comes to get the jewels we spring the trap and beat'em like a piñata."
Pinkie flashed an ear to ear smile as the other ponies stared at her.
"Pinkie, I think you just had a great idea." said twilight
"well duh, I have some great ideas."
the six ponies looked at one and silently agreed to this plan and headed back home so they could get ready for tomorrow.
The next day the six ponies gathered at rarity's boutique to get the jewels they needed, and then headed to sweet apple acres to get some rope for the trap and then headed in to the forest to set the trap for tonight. Once the trap was set they simply waited, playing games or reading books anything to keep their minds occupied for the day as midnight approached the six ponies started to hear something in the distance, it was only a low rumble at first but then as it got closer they could make out words and a melody, what ever it was it was singing. The six ponies looked out over some brush they were hiding behind and saw the strangest thing coming into the clearing were the nightmare moon statue stood, a diamond dog so big he put the biggest of the three other diamond dogs they encountered to shame, his fur was a snow white except on his back and the his massive forearms that was a light grey, his eyes were blue and very cold, his teeth long and looked razor sharp, he had a large scar on his hand and walked with a slight limp on his right leg. The girls studied the diamond dog further as he sniffed the air for any trouble he wore heavy metal armor over his upper body and had a huge wooden club with five railroad spikes stuck into it slung over his shoulder, the girls watched as he made his way toward the pile of jewels lying on the ground and about two feet away from the jewels the trap was sprung and the diamond dog was knocked of his feet and was lifted about three feet of the ground by his felt leg. The six ponies began to cheer thinking they had won but then they heard the blood curtailing howl again coming from the trapped diamond dog and watched as he used his claws to cut the rope in one slash and grab the club of the ground next to him.
"I know your here my little ponies, I'm not as dumb as those eastern diamond dogs your use to." the giant dog said as he swung his club through some brush near were the six had been hiding.
The girls watched as he came closer swinging his spiked club in the brush sending animals running and leaves flying, it wasn't until he was right ontop of them that they finally attacked. With a powerful blast from twilights horn the dog was thrown backwards, but landed on his feet still holding his weapon and then charging towards the six on three of his massive limbs wildly swinging his club, the six ready them selves for a fight but before the massive diamond dog was close enough for any kind of use full attack from them, a loud whistle came from the darkness and the dog stopped mid-charge and stared at the ponies with his cold blue eyes. The dog put his club on his back, gave a quick snarl towards the ponies and lumbered off on all fours like an ape singing a new song, something about skinning a pony alive and cooking them on a spit, the ponies could only stand there and watch as the huge figure faded into the shadows. The girls gave each other silent stares, they each wanted to say something but with a near death experience and that it was going on one in the morning they simply decided to head home and talk in the mourning.
chapter 2: the shadow at night
sorry for the delay, but here is chapter two.
Enjoy.
It was a long walk home after a very long night for Applejack, but she finally reach sweet apple acres and found her brother and sister waiting up for her on the front porch.
"APPLEJACK" the little filly said as she bounded towards her sister.
"applebloom, how com' yur not in bed yet?. Big Mac how com' she's not in bed yet?" AJ asked tiredly.
"but, Big Macintosh said I could stay up till ya came home." Applebloom said with a sad look on her face.
"e'yup" Big Mac butted in
"alright, alright, now I'm home so its time for bed, and big Macintosh were gonna have'ta talk." she said hugging her little sister.
"ok,sis." little applebloom aswered before bounding off to her room.
After a few minute Applejack and Big Macintosh walked inside, and relaxed in the houses small living room and talked about the events of the day. Big Macintosh filled AJ in on the days work, which was not as good as she thought, and that the preparations for cider season are on schedule and they may actually have enough to extend it this year by three days. Then Applejack filled her bother in on her day, it was easy at first she told him about how boring it was for the longest time and how rarity never shut up about cantorlot and her newest projects as everypony else tried to drowned her out, this raised a chuckle out of her brother, but once she started talking about the diamond dog she saw and the looks on her friends face as he lumbered towards them in the bushes, she swore rarity was frozen in fear just by the site of it. When Applejack finished and looked back towards her brother she noticed his face went from its content look to more of a fearful one. There was a moment of silence from her brother, she was use to this but this time it felt different more dark and stowik.
However, just outside of sweet apple acres stood a rather short diamond dog only about half the size of a pony and had a sandy brown fur with several black spots on his arms. He had feature like that of fox mixed with a hyena and was missing his left ear making his head look a little off center, he adjusted the black cloak that was draped over his shoulders and back as he looked through a pair of binoculars made of what looked like bronze, when he removed them from his dark green eyes he scoffed.
"finally found this infernal farm, I would prefer some nice fresh meat but foods food." he said as put the binoculars away in a black bag under his cloak also revealing a bandalor with five short throwing knives.
The diamond dog snuck his way through the orchered climbing trees with surprising speed and grabbed as many apples as possible in his paws and then into a sack he pulled out of that same black bag, then he made it to the farm house where saw a light on in one of the windows and being naturally curious he went to look in to see the two ponies sitting there talking with looks of dread on their faces. Then something caught his eye, just in the next room was a large ice box that he was hopping was stuffed to the brim with all sorts of treats that made his mouth water just thinking about.
"lucky me a schoomorges board of who knows what little treats all for me, finally no sharing with that over-grown moron that is my companion." The little diamond dog snickered as he was intranced by his greed and lust for food.
Thinking quickly the little diamond dog dug through his bag and pulled out a round glass object about the size of an orange full of some sort of green liquid.
"thank you general." he said sarcastically.
He moved close to the front door of the house a pressed his body against the wall, then ever so carefully pushed the door open so the two ponies would not notice and shook the small glass orb causing the liquid inside to bubble. Finally when the door was opened enough he peered inside to see that nothing was disturbed and began to walk in, until he heard small hooves coming down the stairs and quickly tried to pull back outside. Too late he was spotted by Applebloom who let out a shrill shriek that alerted her two older siblings to come running towards her, the diamond dog quickly threw the orb towards the two older apples who side stepped out of the way. The orb shattered behind them in the living room releasing it liquid content that quickly began to eat away at everything it landed on.
"what in tarnations." Applejack said as she quickly looked back to were she and her brother were sitting.
"well I guess the acid grenade is not a total failure." the diamond dog said shrugging."now anyway I should be on my way."
he quickly turned and ran away from the home on all fours giving him some extra speed, but Big MacIntosh was right behind him and chased him right into the barn. The little diamond dog was trapped as Big Mac moved in on him, the diamond dog then opened his cloak and pulled two of his knives out and threw them at the rather large work pony. One missed completely, the other merely scratch the ponies side causing him stumble a little from the scratch. However, this only made big Mac angry which was rare for him and caused him to charge the small diamond dog. The hit caused the dog tumble off to the right of the barn, while he was trying to get to his feet big Mac readied him self for another charge. He watched the dog as he stood up and then began to ran to the door, but got tripped up and stumbled to his knees and began to crawl but to no avail. Big Mac smiled seeing his chance and charged again, but this time the dog quickly jumped over him and while starring in awe big Mac slammed full speed into an anvil.
"ah, just as I thought all brawn no brain." the diamond dog said with a laugh.
Then as he began to walk away the dog heard a noise that caused him to jump back pulling a knife ready to throw, but then stood down as he saw that the sound was the anvil cracking in two.
"well, not any more." then he made his way back towards the door.
He made it out of the barn without any further delay only to be stopped by a loud yell from the house yet again.
"stop ya no good varmint." Applejack yelled towards the small dog.
"crap, forgot about you." the small dog replied.
He then quickly bolted towards the orchered to head back to the forest, but was quickly stopped as a rope caught around his legs. He looked up to see that applejack was holding the rope between her teeth, then applebloom joined her and the two ponies began to pull him towards them and most likely his doom. The diamond dog quickly pulled out a knife and began to saw through the rope, but the knife he had was dull and was not doing anything to the rope.
"damn it, that idiot didn't sharpen my knives guess its time for plan B." He said as he reached back in his bag and pulled out two more acid grenades.
Quickly shaking the two small orbs he lined up his shot towards the two ponies that were dragging him then threw them. The two earth ponies quickly ducked trying to avoid the attack, then applebloom looked up.
"HA, missed us." the little filly shouted as her sister stood up.
Then the two started to hear something and looked to either sides of them to see that the dog did hit his targets, the supports of the awning they were standing under.
"awww, pony feathers." Applejack said as the awning toppled down on top of them.
"well, that was easy." the dog remarked as he released the rope around his legs.
Then without hesitation he grabbed the sack of apples that he greedily filled earlier and headed back towards the forest.
Deep in the everfree forest a small camp sat, two diamond dogs sat around a fire one looked at a map that sat on a make shift table, the other was sharpening the railroad spikes on his huge wooden club. As the two sat they heard something coming from the forest, the large dog lifted his club ready to charge the other pulled out a single shot pistol ready to fire, but when a small diamond dog walked out of the woods they put down their weapons. The large dog bounded towards the smaller one while the other went back to his map, before the smaller dog cound react the sack that was thrown over his back was grabbed up and he was knocked out of the way by a huge back hand.
"what the hell is this?!" the huge diamond dog said as he pulled out a hand full of apples that he quickly crushed.
"I was told to get food so I got it." the small dog said as he got to his feet.
"shadow you stupid mutt, when daggers said get food he meant meat." The huge dog yelled at the smaller one as he threw what was left of the apples at the him.
"sorry bones, but maybe if some imbecile sharpened my knives like he was suppose to I could have killed those earth ponies, and maybe we would have some meat if that same imbecile didn't try to kill a dragon and force him towards that cottage with all of those animals." shadow said as he blocked the apple left over's with him cloak.
"shut it the both of you." the third finally yelled.
This caused bones to let out a low growl and shadow to bow in respect, the third in their group was about average size for a diamond dog, had pitch black fur and wolf like featured. He wore a long black duster, and a brown leather belt that held two black powder pistols, a horn that held powder and a bag that held shot. He glared over his left shoulder revealing a furies look from his golden eye, this caused the two other dogs go their separate ways and sit.
"now you two get some sleep." Dagger said as he walked towards the fire.
"why boss?" bones asked.
"because, you two have a big day tomorrow."
"and what, may I ask, do me and that moron have to do?" asked shadow.
"simple, our note didn't work," he said looking over at bones "and since to night they now know there is most defiantly more than one of us," he said looking towards shadow "we must now use drastic measures."
"like what?" bones asked as he lade next to the fire.
"we take a hostage." dagger finished rolling on to his side.
The other two dogs did the same not bothering to ask questions and closed their eye readying for the morning.
please relay if I missed any spelling errors or if there is any thing I could do to better my story.
