15th Day: Morning, Breakfast Short

"Tell me what you remember." Twilight said, leaning forward with a scroll and quill levitated beside her. "As much as you can. The more the better!"

"Hmm... Well, first it was the Sawer Boys waiting for me outside Big Shop." James said in-between mouthfuls of cereal. Twilight and the girl sat in the middle of the library's kitchen, sharing a small breakfast with three others. Rainbow, Pinkie, and a small purple dragon all sat around the table, listening with varying degrees of interest.

"The Diamond Dogs?" Twilight scribbled notes as she spoke, always keeping her eyes on the girl. "They ventured into Equestrian territory again?"

"Did they now? They had a full on showdown of epic proportions with the Shifters!" James said, arms raised and eyes wide. "Boom! They just showed up from nowhere! Bim! Bam! Whoosh!" Her hands fell to the table with a loud thud, and she shoved a spoonful of cereal into her mouth. "There were like, um... a bunch!"

Pinkie Pie gasped and stuffed her mouth with popcorn of the caramel type. Crunchy sounds left her mouth with every movement of her jaw as James narrated her adventure. Rainbow heard her but kept catching herself zoning out and drifting off into daydreams within her own mind. The rest listened and stayed quiet, keeping themselves rooted to the spot.

"Why, though?" Twilight mused out loud. "From what you've told me of the past twelve nights, these Sawer Boys— these Diamond Dogs have never seen any need to delve deeper into Equestria than, uh," She shifted her sight to a pile of scrolls behind her and pulled out one from the middle, using magic to stabilize the rest and avoid an avalanche. "Gah-Stee Yorshe before."

"Ugh... Have you noticed the weird names they put things? Apool-Taon, Gah-Stee Yorshe, Do-Ohg Cee-Ti?" Rainbow Dash blew a strand of her mane from in front of her face. "I mean, isn't it a little bit weird to you?" She arched her brow. "Hmm?"

"They're the names of Appleloosa, Ghastly Gorge, and Dodge City, but altered after, what I suppose were, hundreds of years of Diamond Dog occupation." Twilight replied without moving her eyes from the parchment. "It's happened to Los Pegasus as well. Canterlot too, but with different owners."

"Don't be silly, Dashie!" Pinkie Pie giggled. "Even I got that one!"

"That's not what I meant." Rainbow Dash sighed. "I mean, isn't it weird? Any of this?"

"Uh, yeah, duh? There's a bunch of chainsaw-crazy dogs that try to kill me every day?" James replied, waving a hand in front of her face. "Obvious it's weird!"

"What are you getting at, Rainbow?" Twilight's eyes left the scrolls alone and focused on Dash. The rainbow pony shrugged and exhaled loudly.

"Nothing."

"O-kay! So, what do you think is going on?" James focused on Twilight once more, setting her mindset to 'Concentrated'.

"Well, for one, I think this means that the Diamond Dogs might be running low on some supplies, which means they have to search farther away to find them. This could also explain why the Shape-shifters have also started to expand southwards, but what I don't understand is how the Diamond Dogs got through Everfree Forest— um, Evef-Eefrest, on their own." Twilight gathered up the empty plates and levitated them to the sink, where they were dropped without much ceremony unto a growing pile that drew anxious looks from the small dragon in the room. "They most certainly aren't the brightest candles in the shelf, so how did they get through the magically unstable mess that is now the Everfree? I mean, from what you've gathered, James, that forest simply doesn't function anymore! Magical storms, detonations, fires, hurricanes... It doesn't make sense how a full pack of Diamond Dogs could get through that unscathed!"

"Beats me-hey, do you have any jam?" James smiled, extending a piece of toast forward. "Pleeeeaaaaase?"

"James! This is serious!" Exclaimed all present at once, with the exception of Spike, who was now battling desperately with the Leaning Tower of Dirty Plates in a battle to keep it from collapsing. As the babbling went on in the background about having to restore the conversation topic from jam to Diamond Dogs and the future of Equestria, Spike was sweating. The tower was leaning. Time was short.

"You need to relax, guys. I mean, this stuff hasn't-"

His claws gripped the base tightly. His brow was sweaty as he pushed with all his might.

"It's the future of Equestria! We need to know how-"

The tower loomed threateningly over the small dragon, jeering and mocking his attempts to contain the impending disaster.

"You need to pay more-"

Spike gasped. The tower groaned.

All hell broke loose.

"SPIKE!" Shouted the three ponies and a human of the apocalypse. "YOU NEED TO BE MORE CAREFUL!"

Author's Note

This is a little short while you guys wait for the nextest Night-time chapter. The idea is to release shorts every other day and post a new chapter each week. \O3O/

Tell me what think!

Also, descriptions have been updated and I'm waiting on some cover-art. \O3O/ Kthnxbye!