The First Ones

Chapter 2

A long time ago, when the world was still new. The Diamond Dogs lived a simple life, they were nomadic in nature. Never settling down to create a village, always moving to a new place.

They lived like this for generations. That was until the arrival of the First Ones.

They came from out of nowhere, arriving in a large army, wearing some of the most impressive armors and weapons the diamonds dog have never seen before. These creatures were dogs like them, but more taller, muscular, and better groomed.

These dogs called themselves the Primal Dogs and they claim to be the very first dogs that was born into this fresh new world. They came here to uplift their brothers from their primitive lives and bring them to the modern world.

The Diamond Dogs found the opportunity too good to let it pass and a large majority of them went with them. A few of them however didn't go, they found the Primal Dogs suspicious and stayed where they are.

It turns out their suspicion was right.

The Diamond Dogs that went with the Primal Dogs soon found themselves enslaved, locked up, separated, and forced to do hard labor.

It was revealed that the Primal Dogs had no intention of letting them joined their society. They viewed the Diamond Dogs as a subspecies, something entirely beneath them. To them the Diamond Dogs were an inferior race and are only live to served the progress of their ever-growing empire.

They forced their lesser brothers to work in the mines, digging up precious metals and gemstones for long hours, with little rest and meager foods. Those who either don't or can't work are punish. Their punishments are out in public, serving as an example to the other prisoners.

Their imprisonment lasted for many years. After many grueling hours of digging and heavy lifting, the day finally arrived when they fought back.

Unbeknownst to the Primal Dogs, the free Diamond Dogs has been secretly sneaking in and communicating with their enslave brethren. Together they carefully planned out a massive revolt that will not only free them, but end the Primal Dogs Empire.

Finally the day came and the massive battle has begun. The once enslaved Diamond Dogs found themselves freed. They then joined their liberators and fought against their former slavers.

The battle was long and bloody, both sides having large casualties.

Eventually they push Primal Dogs to the mines. Instead of finishing them off, the Diamond Dogs pushed them to the deepest parts of them mines and caused a massive cave-in.

The freed Diamond Dogs celebrated their victories over the defeat of their slavers. They return home, happy to be out of that place and back to their lives.

“And well that's pretty much the story.” Captain Finder said as he closed the old brown book. He then look up to see the two royal sisters, sitting on their throne. The big white alicorn sat on the left, while her night blue sister sat on the right.

“Your majesty, do you know anything about this? About these Primal Dogs?”

Captain Finder looked to the two princesses, hoping they have the answers. Sadly, they didn't as they both shook their heads.

“I'm sorry Captain, but I'm afraid that myself and my sister are quite unfamiliar with this legend.” Luna explained.

“My sister is correct, this legend is only known among the diamond dogs, not ponies.” Celestia added. “And while we have lived a long life, we don't know every single thing that happens on this world.”

The captain was disappointed, but understood their reasons. “Well then your majesty, we need to warn everypony about this, we need to assemble an army and-”

“Now captain let's not rush into this, we still don't know anything about these Primal Dogs.”

“What is there to know? If they are a threat to Equestria, then we need to strike first!” He said as he stomp his right hoof on the floor.

Upon realizing what he did, he felt himself shrinking down from the gaze the princesses were giving him.

“Captain Path Finder.” Luna said his name. “While I commend you for thinking about the safety of our ponies, I condemn your decision for making such a drastic action. If these Primal Dogs are indeed dangerous then why haven't they invaded? Why haven't they simply just come to our main capital and slaughter us?”

The crimson stallion had no answers and just remained silence.

“The way we see it, they either don't know of our existence or they are being cautious, indicating that they are not as menacing as they seem.”

After Luna was done, Celestia was the next, to speak. “However, we are not foolish enough to not take any precaution.”

Path Finder looked straight at Princess Celestia, giving her his fullest of attention.

“Instead of sending an army, we want you to pick two other ponies for a small reconnaissance team. Captain, I want you to verify if these Primal Dogs are real and if they are, see whether or not they plan to invade our nation.”

The crimson stallion nodded in response and was about to leave before Celestia spoke again.

“Remember Captain, this is a stealth mission. Do not be seen and do not attack unless necessary, if so, try nothing lethal.”

The captain bowed his head and trotted out of the throne room.

As he was trotting the long halls, the stallion was busy thinking about the past. Ever since Captain Shining Armor moved to the Crystal Empire with his wife, the position of Captain of the guards have been left opened.

Out of all the other guards suitable for this role, he himself was picked to become the new Captain. While a part of him was honored for being chosen, a small part of him wish he hadn't. It wasn't like he didn't like his new position, hell all the paper work wasn't an issue since he was used to work at an office before joining the royal guards.

No, the real issue is the fear. Fear of not living up to ponies expectations, fear of not protecting everypony, fear of sacrificing lives, and to put it simply, the fear of failure.

These negative thoughts he buried, deep inside himself. Never revealing it to anypony and never telling anypony about it either. This was a secret he was going to take to his grave.

Entering his office, Path Finder sat on his chair and opened a drawer in his desk. The drawer showed a collection of folders, each one with a name on them. Taking them all out, Path started reading each files individually. He skimmed through them, making this process go much faster.

When he opened a new folder it showed a dark blue pegasus stallion with black mane and blue eyes. Instantly, Path recognize the pony. 'Lieutenant Claymore.' He read the name in his head. Claymore's file has a description of the stallion, from height, weight, age, and short biography. There are also two pictures in the file, one is the stallion's face and the second is his cutie mark, a binocular.

Path met Claymore when they were both in boot camp. They became fast friends during the early days of their royal guard duties. But, soon they were assigned to different places, losing contact with each other. They occasionally meet up again, but it has always been small talks.

Reading his files, Path learned that Claymore has been in a lot of missions that involves sneaking into heavily populated enemy bases. So far, he has never been discovered by anybody during these operations.

Putting that file on the side, Path resume looking over a couple of more files. He came across an interesting unicorn by the name of Moonstone. This young stallion has a silver-gray coat, blank white hair with a single bright blue line. His eyes are purple and his cutie mark shows a cracked blue gemstone.

According to his files, Moonstone hale from the Jewel family. A family known to have exclusive mining operations in other foreign countries and have them imported here. This made the Jewels one of the wealthiest families in Canterlot. Moonstone is the second child of Onyx and Ruby, their first child and his older sister is Jade Emerald.

Moonstone joined the royal guards after dropping out of college. Ever since then, he rose through the ranks and quickly became a sergeant major. Despite being young, the stallion has already mastered some of the more advanced spells. Including his mastery of the invisibility spell.

This piqued Path's interest.

Sure there are other unicorns who can cast the spell, but it says on his file that Moonstone has learned how to do a complete invisibility spell. That means no shimmer whenever you move or when someone is close up.

Besides, his file also said that Moonstone rarely ever go on missions. So this be could some good field work experience, for him.

Closing the folder and putting on the side with Claymore's. Path neatly stack all the other folders and put them back in his drawer. After that he picked the two folders left on his desk and headed out the door.

Shutting the door behind him, the crimson stallion was making his way to one of the two pony he has chosen for this mission, Lt. Claymore.

Outside in the garden where all sorts of colorful flowers bloom, the captain of the guard spotted a bunch of royal guards looking around the place. Some were peaking their heads in the bushes, others were climbing trees and looking inside the foliage, and a couple of ponies were just aimlessly wandering around.

Curiosity got the best of him and he went up to the nearest guard. “Soldier, what are you doing?” Path asked, surprising the pony. He immediately spun around and quickly raise his right hoof up to salute.

“Oh, Captain!” The stallion said loudly. “I was just looking for Lt. Claymore.”

Path, peak his head around the young stallion and saw an opened trashcan.

“You were looking for him in a trashcan?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Why, I may ask?”

“His order, sir.” He explained. “Lt. Claymore hid himself somewhere in this garden and we were order to find him.”

The captain looked around again and saw all the guards still searching the area. “I guess you guys are not having much luck, huh?”

“Well no, but I think we're close to finding him.”

“Pfft, please. You guys are not even close to finding me.” Said a new voice.

Both Path and the guard jumped a little, both equally startled by the sudden appearance of the dark blue pegasus stallion.

“Been flying pass and around you guys all day and you still didn't notice me.”

Path recovered quickly and turn his eyes on Claymore, who is sporting a big grin on his smug face. The pegasus then notice his captain staring at him.

“Oh, hi captain.” He greeted. “Whassup.”

“Hello to you too, lieutenant.” Path replied. “What are these troops outside, playing hide and seek with you?”

“Well Captain Finder, I am personally training these bunch on how to find a hiding intruder. Sadly, these guys failed miserly, as they still haven't found me all morning.” The frown on his face, instantly turned upside down. “But, enough about me, why are you here captain? I know you didn't come out here just to hang out with little old me."

“You're right Claymore, I'm actually here to recruit you for a mission.”

“What kind of mission?”

“The secret kind.”

“Alright I'm in.” Claymore was about to leave with Path, but not before addressing the other guards. “Hey, everypony! You all failed! Get back to the barracks!”

All the guards in the garden gave out a collective groans and grumbles as they trotted back to the barracks.

The dark blue pegasus flew to catch up with his captain. Landing right next to him, his hooves touch the ground and began trotting with him.

“So Captain, where are we going?” He asked.

“We're going to meet our third squadmate.” Path answered.

“Who?”

“Moonstone.”

“Moonstone, you mean the silver unicorn with broken gemstone cutie mark?”

“Yeah, why? You know him?”

“Sort of. We were picked to be bodyguards by some noble looking to open a trade route in Saddle Arabia. Spend almost an entire month working with him and we barely said more than one sentence to each other.”

“Why? Is Moonstone not much of a talker?”

“No no, is just that we have nothing to talk about. Besides our mission we had nothing in common. I was into sports, this guy was into superheroes.

“Superheroes?”

“Yeah you know, like Power Ponies and Mare Do Well.”

The two stallions dropped their topic about Moonstone and went on to talk to each other. It was mostly Claymore doing the talking, but Path doesn't really mind it. The crimson stallion was always more of listener then a talker.

They both continue to trot around the castle, all the while his pegasus companion talked about everything that happened to him, he went over it in complete detail.

From what he gathered from the torrent of information he was getting, Claymore found a great apartment room with a beautiful view of the mountain city. He also found a special pony who he loves very dearly and are currently going through a long distance relationship.

His companion babble on some more, before they finally found their unicorn.

Moonstone was giving a lecture to all new unicorn guards. He was teaching them all the different support spell they are suppose to use to aid their buddies in combat. He even gave them an example and cast a couple of them.

In the middle of this, the silver-gray unicorn spotted both the captain and the lieutenant waiting by the door. He was thankful that they didn't interrupt his lecture and trotted up to greet them.

“Hello Captain Finder.” Moonstone said to the crimson stallion. “And same to you too, Lieutenant Claymore. Do you two want something?”

“Yes, Sergeant Major, we need you for a mission we're doing."

“I see.” The silver-gray pony said. “When are we going?”

“Tonight.” Path answered. “At 1500 hrs, you are to meet me at my office and I'll explain the mission.”

“Very well captain I shall meet you there.” Moonstone then turned around and return back to the new recruits.

Capt. Path and Lt. Claymore left Moonstone to his lecture. Claymore pointed out that they have a couple of hours before they go Path's office and wanted him to go out in the city.

Path politely decline, telling him to go enjoy himself. Lt. Claymore did and left the crimson pony by his lonesome self. The captain trotted along the silent hallways, deep in though. If he wants this mission to be successful, then he will need some more information.

He arrive at the iron door, the one that leads to the abandon dungeon. The same guard was still there by the door. He knew why the captain was here and the two both went in. Once again surrounded by the familiar darkness as the metal door close right behind them.