“When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“How could this have happened!!!! This is a disgrace for the monarchy of Equestria!” A light brown unicorn with a blonde mane and tail exclaimed angrily as he slammed his hoof on the table. The noble stallion know as Rich Perfume had just gotten the news that his ENTIRE gem transport had been successfully stolen and together with the escort that had been assigned to guard it, had fallen into Diamond dog claws.

“Please sir. Rich calm down.” The mayor of Hoovetown said as he desperately tried to calm the ~~angry~~ furious noble stallion that had almost literally broke his door down in his rage.

“Calm down?! Calm down!!! I don’t think you understood me mayor. My entire bucking gem transport was stolen and you want me to calm down?!!” sir. Rich exclaimed even louder than before.

Perhaps those hadn’t been the best words the light blue earth pony mayor could have said, but he just wanted the noble to calm down. “I assure you sir. Rich Perfume, the heinous crimes the as of yet unknown creature has committed will not go unpunished. The Diamond dogs have gone too far this time. We are still unsure whether the thief was some kind of mutated Diamond dog or some kind of creature hired by them. However the case may be we are sure of it, they worked together. I assure you that such acts of aggression will not be tolerated: Stealing and destroying private property, burglary, blackmailing a guard and being accessary for the enslavement of a dozen other city guards. The Diamond dogs have gone too far this time, by both working together with a creature that has committed these types of crimes and partaking in the enslavement of guards as well.”

“I am glad to hear that you know what kind of crimes this beast and his Diamond dog allies have committed and realize that these cannot go unpunished, however what are you going to do against it?” Rich demanded.

That was a good question on which the mayor didn’t have a real answer yet. He had only recently heard the news, so he had not been able to call together a meeting with the town council yet to discuss a possible course of action. “We will send a negotiator to the Diamond dogs to hopefully peacefully resolve the situation.

Rich Perfume groaned internally. He knew very well what negotiations with those beasts meant, namely a long time of useless talking that didn’t lead anywhere or worse they would give up his gems as a way to at least free the captive guards. He needed those gems not the stupid bits, which they would pay him as compensation. With the help of his contacts, he could sell those gems for way more than he would legally be compensated.

“Very well I will wait until the next town council meeting, but I demand that the camp commander of camp Hoovetown is present as well, in case the council decides to require military assistance to resolve this matter.”

Now it was the mayor’s turn to groan mentally. He could not deny the request, but he knew what would happen if negotiations would turn out fruitless which they most certainly would. The mayor knew the dogs and he knew they would not go to these lengths if not desperate, besides that commander Courageous Call was known to be way too impulsive when it came down to matters involving the dogs.

“Very well if negotiations turn out to be unsuccessful, we will ask commander Courageous Call for his presence in the next council meeting.”

“I am happy to see that you are taking this matter seriously mayor. I hope that you have more information about how we are going to resolve this problem next Saturday at the town council meeting.” With that said Rich Perfume exited the mayor’s office letting the mayor alone with his thoughts.

Rich Perfume meanwhile was already thinking over how he could convince the commander and his fellow nobles to allow a military attack on the Diamond dog base. Those mongrels would learn that messing with him would not be tolerated and with them whatever beast had chosen to assist them.

****
Things were going good for Karl. It had been four days since he had managed to return to the Diamond dog pack with both gems and workers and he had been having a good time so far. The dogs were quite pleasant in the intercourse he had with them so far.

Karl was busy mining for gems together with two other dogs. He had decided to help the dogs to the best of his abilities, seeing as he had nothing better to do and above that. He was rather enjoying mining with the dogs, at least a lot more than he had thought he would ever do.

A loud howl which signaled the changing of shifts was heard through the mine system and he and his two companions immediately stopped mining. “Great job Karl you are truly getting the hang of it!” His big brown furred muscular pitbull companion who went by the name Drago congratulated him, on his slightly bigger pile of gems in comparison to his former stacks.

“Yeah you’re a quick learner! You managed to get a sizeable amount of gems already and you have only been doing this for three days! You sure you never did any mining before in your life?” A smaller brown pitbull who listened to the name Ron added.

“I never mined in my entire life before. I swear it.”

“Oh well, you are a natural in that case.” Ron replied.

Karl had become good friends with the three pack leaders and had also improved his relationships with the other pack members. The dogs seemed to respect him after he had returned. Rover had said that by the great service he had done for them, the dogs had come to see him as a hero. The fact he was actively helping the dogs mining to get the required amount for gems of course only gave him more brownie points for his cause. “I just try to mine to the best of abilities, but I would never had gotten so good if not for guys your help.”

Before the others could reply another dog stormed in. “The boss wants to speak to you! Follow me it is urgent!”

Karl immediately ran after the startled dog following him to a tunnel which Karl remembered lead to the surface at the bottom he saw Rover, Fido and Spot already waiting for him. “What’s going on?” Karl asked confused.

“Ponies require an audience with us about our recent ‘recruitment’ of their guards.” Spot explained emphasizing the word recruitment.

“Annoying, but nothing we weren’t expecting to happen.” Fido added.

“Why exactly do you guys need me for this?”

“They also required an audience with you.” Rover explained.

Karl nodded that he understood before looking at the end of the tunnel where sunlight was visible. He averted his glance back to the three pack leaders ad said. “Well let’s not keep them waiting for too long.”

Rover nodded and started marching to the surface followed by Spot, Fido and finally Karl. The four arrived at the entrance on the bottom of a hill and looked at the sole white coated pegasi with a light blue mane that was patiently, but slightly nervously awaiting the four on top of some boulders, as a way to prevent the dogs from mining underneath him and pulling him in their cave system.

When the four where 18 feet from the pegasi they stopped and awaited the pegasi to speak. “Greetings leaders of the pack and Outsider.” This made Karl higher his right eyebrow in confusion and amusement. ‘So they call me the outsider huh, how terribly fitting.’ Karl thought amused.

“We know about your recent enslavement of a dozen city guards from our fair city of Hoovetown and also about your alliance with him.” The pegasi gestured towards Karl. “You most likely know already that your friend has blackmailed a guard into aiding him execute his heinous crimes against our fair city. These crimes also involve stealing and destroying private property, burglary and being accessary in the enslavement of a dozen guards.

“Yes he has told us some amusing stories, containing how he managed to trick your guards. What is it that you want?” Rover asked on rather diplomatic tone.

The pony raised an eyebrow in annoyance. “Isn’t it clear? The leaders of our fair town demand that you release all of the ponies you hold captive, give back the gems you stole and pay for all the damage you caused our fair town. If these demands are met, than our fair town will not legally persecute you, your pack and whatever he is.”

“Let me think about that.” Rover said as he faked thinking it deeply through. “Oh, I got it how about no! I mean seriously what did you ponies expect? That we dogs would go through all that trouble just to return everything three days later?”

The pegasi was shocked to say the least. Didn’t this dog knew the Equestrian military was in the area and that his superiors would require assistance from the military to resolve this situation if needed. “You do realize that we will ask the military for help if you do not accept these terms.”

“Let them come if they want, but we need those gems and workers for a while.” Rover said confidently, although mentally he prayed they wouldn’t ask the military for help, until he at least had enough gems to pay back his pack’s debt.

“You are making a mistake Diamond dog. Our fair town has put up with you and your pack for long enough! We will see to it that justice will get served!” The pegasi angrily threatened before flying back towards the city.

When the pegasi was no more than a dot in the sky Karl said what everyone thought. “They are so going to call their military on our asses.” His companions could only mumble in agreement.

“We will need a battle strategy!” Fido said as he clapped his fist together to empathize his point.

“You know if you guys would like it, I can work out the battle strategy whilst you guys oversee the mining.” Karl proposed.

“That’s actually a good idea. You have proven to have a certain amount of cunningness in that head of yours.” Rover ticked against his head as he said that. “Do you have any previous experience in making battle strategies?”

“No, but I am familiar with strategies and tactics.”

“Hmpf, You and I work on the battle strategy and Fido and Spot will oversee the mining, but I do warn you! We are Diamond dogs and whilst I don’t know how your kind fights wars, we make our enemies bleed and weep before letting them meet their demise. So if you are like buffalo’s and the ponies from Appleloosa fighting your wars with pies than you better rethink your decision.”

When Rover said fighting your wars with pies, Karl immediately thought he meant spies instead of pies. “Uhm Rover you said pies, don’t you mean spies?”

“I know! I had a hard time believing it as well, when I heard that the ponies of Appleloosa fought against the buffalo tribe using pies!!! I mean seriously pies?!”

“And how exactly did that end?” Karl asked as he made images of the US army fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan by throwing pies at them and vice versa.

“Turns out the buffalo’s enjoyed the pie and in exchange for free pies and the settlers not planting apple trees on their stampede path, they were allowed to plant apple trees upon buffalo land.”

“uhuh, and uh was it apple pie by coincidence?” Karl asked awkwardly at the uh strange way of warfare.

“Yeah.” Rover replied feeling that the situation was quite awkward

Well, uh who would have guessed apple pies were such effective weapons.”

“Yeah, just so you know that well uh don’t bring pies to the battlefield.”

“I wasn’t planning to, you know we humans also prefer to make our enemies uh bleed and weep, instead of serving them apple pie.”

“Good that we agree upon that, now come on we have a battle strategy to prepare!” Rover said breaking the awkward silence, before going back to the tunnels closely followed by Karl. Who kept on picturing human soldiers fighting each other with pies instead of well uh more generally used weaponry so to say.

“Okay, what’s the current situation?” Karl asked.

Rover unrolled map and placed various icons on top of it which made it look like a map in a real war room. “Okay, this here is pony camp.” Rover placed a small fortress on a spot on the map.

“We estimate they have about 205 active soldiers and Hoovetown has about 60 guards now I doubt the city guards will be involved in the battle, but still it is better that we keep their numbers in mind.”

Karl nodded in response as that did make sense. “They have about 128 earth ponies, 64 pegasi and 13 unicorn soldiers in their ranks.” As Rover said this he put icons on the map each resembling a platoon or a company of race. To Karl’s surprise the equines used almost the same formation and unit types as humans did.

“So they have two platoons of earth ponies or one company, one platoon of pegasi and one squad of unicorns at their disposal.” Karl stated.

“Yes, for military only! Should they use the city guards they can get 45 more earth ponies, 15 pegasi and 4 unicorns. I doubt they will use them, but perhaps if we somehow fight well, they can deploy them as reinforcements.” Rover said.

“Good now we know the enemy’s troop strength what do you guys have available?”

“We leave females and pups out of battle so we have about 120 capable males.” Rover said.

“How many capable males have actually been trained in battle or have seen battle?”

“All everyone even the females have fought before in battle. We had tough lives after being forced from our previous den. We were forced to go through the everfree and let me tell you underground it’s not much safer perhaps even worse. We lost many females so the few we have left are guarded carefully.” Rover said as he got angrier when the memories flowed back to him from not so terribly long ago.

Karl nodded that he understood. Females were not allowed to battle simply because they couldn’t risk losing any more of them lest the pack faced extinction. “What about the ponies did they see much action?”

“No, a few small skirmishes with us as we tried to establish our new mine, but not many and if my information is correct that’s all the action they have seen in their years of service.”

That was good to hear. The ponies had superior numbers, but the dogs had more experience of course the ponies did have some magic wielders and an air force so that was bad. “How many archers do you have?”

“We have no professional archers, but about ten dogs know how to use a bow for hunting.”

Well that threw his first plan out of the window. Ten archers not even professional was by far not enough to suppress an air force of 64 pegasi.

“Are you able to equip your dogs well?”

“Yes, what is your plan? I see in your eyes that your mind is brewing some kind of plan.”

“Are you and your dogs prepared to fight dirty?” Karl asked as he looked Rover straight in the eyes. A sinister smile crept on Rover’s face in response and he replied.

“We love playing dirty.”

“Alright then in that case this is my plan.” Karl started moving the figures on the map and said. “Way I see it our enemy’s advantages are that they outnumber us almost 2 to 1, they have a few magic users, they possess an air force, and got a decent training.

Our advantages are that our troops have more experience, qua body build are superior to theirs and our troops are very good diggers.” Rover nodded that all the points Karl had stated were correct.

“If we fight them fair and square, we will lose, however they are naïve and will not expect dirty tricks that we can pull on them. My plan is that instead of fighting them above ground, we fight them in the tunnels.” After he had said this, Rover got a look of confusion.

“How do you plan on getting them into the tunnels?”

“We lure them to this area.” Karl pointed at an open plain between two hills. “We undermine this area and when they are above it we divide and conquer. Make gaps in their lines by pulling soldiers underground.”

“How do we lure them to the plain?”

“We build fortifications here to protect the garrison from the pegasi and use it as a position to take their main force under fire. However for this plan to work we will need some long range artillery and we will need to get rid of those unicorns in advance.

“How do you plan to keep the ponies in the ambush area for a longer duration of time for they could just run off to other areas?”

“I have noticed that this hill is quite style. The other hill however will be the fun part. We will need to get our hands on quite a lot of oil.”

“We have lots of oil don’t worry about that.”

“Good could you make sure that this hill has some bunkers in it like this.” Karl proceeded to draw some symbols that symbolized the bunkers, the fortifications and the traps he wanted.

“I will get the men on it instantly, gems can wait this is much more important!” And so the Diamond dogs started constructing everything for Karl’s battle strategy.

****
The mayor of Hoovetown who went by the name of Document Paper was busy with his paper work, more specifically the paperwork involving all the havoc that the creature nicknamed the Outsider had caused. The poor mayor had the bad luck that the gem transport belonged to an extremely stuck up and powerful noble, who was putting some real pressure on him. Like that wasn’t bad enough almost halve of the kidnapped guards belonged to a noble house so those nobles were also pressuring him to get this situation quickly resolved.

Don’t take it the wrong way the mayor wanted to resolve this situation, but he wanted to do it peacefully and the nobles well not so much. He was interrupted from his work by a knock on the door. “Enter!”

A yellow female earth pony with a brown mane and tail and a quill with a star as cutie mark entered. Her mane hung down so it covered her left eye (like Rarity’s mane). “Document the negotiator send to the Diamond dogs has returned, may he enter?”

“Yes, see him in.” almost immediately the pegasi negotiator walked in. “How did it go?”

“The Diamond dogs refuse to meet any of the given demands, even when I mentioned a possible military operation against them.”

The mayor put his head in his hooves. “If only they realize how real that military intervention threat could become. The town council meeting is today and with this result I fear for the end of it. “Thank you for your effort, I will tell the council of the situation.” The pegasi nodded and exited the room leaving the mayor alone.

The situation did not look good for Document, if his best negotiator failed into coming to an agreement, however unbeknown to Document Paper his best negotiator had been bribed by Rich Perfume to make the negotiations fail.

The time had come about three hours later for the meeting to begin. The nobles and the mayor’s helpers entered the room and took their respective spot as last one to enter was commander Courageous Call.

The commander was dressed in a wildly adorned golden armor. The mayor didn’t like the commander at all, he was an excellent example for a stuck up noble. The stallion acted like he had solely won a war in reality the guy hadn’t commanded a single battle yet. The few skirmishes against the dogs that had happened in the past had always been against small group of soldiers whilst he was in the camp.

Perhaps that’s why the stallion wanted a reason to battle against the dogs so badly, as a way to have a real achievement to show off instead of always taking credits for his subordinates minor victories. “Mayor, could you enlighten us on how the negotiations have gone?” Rich Perfume asked or rather demanded.

“It is unfortunate that I need to tell everypony present that the dogs refuse to meet any demands we have given them.” The nobles immediately started yelling.

“How dare those muts!”

“Do they think we will stand for this?!”

“Send the army at them that will teach them!”

“Drive them from our lands! They don’t belong here!”

The mayor tried to calm down everypony when suddenly a loud voice broke through the turmoil. “Silence!!!” No pony said a word as they saw commander Courageous Call had spoken up. The commander was a white unicorn with a blonde mane and tail with as cutie mark a horn and a shield. “Now I heard that you have some problems and I also heard that the Diamond dogs hired some kind of abomination to assist them. As you probably know I am responsible for keeping the ponies out of harm, from both creatures from the Everfree and from those with hostile intentions to our kind in these areas.”

The nobles looked with great interest at the commander. “The Diamond dogs have gone too far this time and need to be taught a lesson. The lesson being that we Equestrians will not accept them stealing from us our enslaving us in their mines!” This earned him applause from the nobles.

After it calmed down he continued. “We the army shall not stand idle as the citizens of our good nation are enslaved and robbed from their rightful rights and property. I shall personally lead a liberation action against the dogs and if they refuse to bow, to my great displeasure we will need to make them leave. We cannot allow those with such intentions to live close to our citizens!”

This was met with cheering from most ponies in the room except for the mayor and his secretary by the name Star quill. “I doubt this will end well, whoever will be the victor.” Document whispered sadly in her ear.

“I fear that as well.” Star replied sadly. Whilst the nobles cheered for the commander, a decent distance away in the nearby hills the dogs were working on their battle plan.

****
Karl was overseeing the construction of the bunkers, the fortifications and the traps that the dogs were building for his plan. Torches were lighting up the entire area. “How is the construction going?” Karl asked Rover.

“Most things should be finished by tomorrow if everyone keeps working hard at least above ground, the underground constructions should be completed by tomorrow evening, if we put everyone on the job.”

“That’s good! They are probably going to start planning their attack strategy very soon.”

“You still haven’t told me, how you want to deal with the unicorns.”

“Yes, we cannot allow those unicorns to ruin our plan with their magic so we will need to deal with them in advance.” As Karl said this he lifted his right claw showing the long sharp claws it possessed.

Rover smirked. “I think I know a way to do so! Follow me.” Karl silently followed Rover deep in the tunnels and after quite a long walk, further than he ever had gone in the tunnels. Suddenly he saw a group of heavily armored dogs. “We are right underneath the pony camp. This is the best time to deal with them, as their commander is away and he probably hasn’t given the order yet that we are now officially the enemy.” Rover explained.

“How are we supposed to kill those unicorns before the other soldiers come to their aid?”

“All races have different living areas this one is from the unicorns. Can you use a spear?”

“Yes, I used a spear to hunt a lot and why exactly didn’t you just dig a tunnel underneath the city to get those gems?”

“City has a detection spell around it, if we dig underneath then the guard knows where we are. This camp doesn’t have that, although after tonight they are going to wish they had!” Rover said as he handed Karl a spear and some armor made specifically for his body.

Karl had put the armor on with some help from the dogs. It wasn’t the most beautiful of armors. It looked at those the dogs wore and covered only his torso and head, but it was definitely maneuverable and wasn’t that heavy.

“Good now we are ready for some fighting. Drop them!” Rover commanded. Immediately the dogs destroyed the support beams and seconds later the entire interior of the barrack above them fell in the underground area. The dogs and Karl started searching for unicorns in between the rubble and quickly put an end to them when they found one. The first seven went down without a fight, however by the time Rover used his spear to kill the seventh the remaining unicorns had recovered and started fighting back.

The unicorns started shooing fire balls, freeze spells, telekinesis to throw debris at the dogs or keep them locked in place. One unicorn prepared to throw a big rock at Rover, but never managed to even get the rock above his head as a big claw broke his neck. The rock dropped again and Karl stood over the dead unicorn. He would not allow any unicorn to use his magic too long in his presence.

He used his powerful legs to jump on top of another unicorn and this time killed him using his teeth. The taste of warm blood and soft meat was delicious for Karl. Because of the brutality he used to kill the two unicorns their surviving colleagues lost their concentration for a moment allowing the other dogs to put an end to their lives as well. Karl quickly counted the unicorns and to his relief counted thirteen bodies meaning that unless they brought the city guard in the mix they had no battle ready unicorns anymore.

He heard the sound of hooves coming their way and quickly the dogs and he retreated back into the tunnels. The dogs blocked off the tunnels with great precision and speed. “A master attack, if I ever saw one.” Karl complimented Rover when they were out of danger.

“I thought I would solve one of our problems seeing as how you solved so many of ours already.”

“They are going to be pissed off and scared out of their wits.” Karl stated

“Good, anger and fear both cloud their judgment. Let them come! We will show them that if they mess with the Diamond dogs, they will get the fangs!” Rover stated determined as he clapped his fist together.

Author's Note

Hello to all my readers!

I hope that you enjoyed the story so far. I assume you did, otherwise you probably wouldn't have kept on reading it until now.
Anyway I am happy with how many of you favorite and liked the story so far. Also a big thanks for the positive reviews!

However seeing as no one sent a message for becoming an editor/pre-reader, it seems that I will have to find one myself so yeah let's see how long it takes for me to find one.

I have a question for you guys. I don't really get how the import from google docs button works, so if someone can send me a guide or something that explains step for step how you need to upload from google docs to fimfiction that would be appreciated.

Please leave some support for the story and perhaps a follow for my account if you feel up to it and until next time!