Author's Note

Here's a couple new updates. Please spread the word about this story if you like it...

Bow-wow-wow Yippee-Yo Yippee-Yay

It was a day like any other when Omnifarious was sent out for a job; only this time, he was out helping scavenge for gems with Rarity. Apparently she needed them for a dress she’s making for…

“Oh my gosh! Sapphire Shores! The Pony of Pop! She is awesome! I mean, she’s gorgeous and talented and—”

And apparently the tiny dragon riding him wouldn’t let him hear the end of it, “Okay, Spike! I get it.”

“Oh no, I don’t think he does, Spike,” Rarity chimed as she lead the two through the meadow outside Ponyville, “He'll need a more colorful description than that.”

“Look, I don’t know why we're making such a fuss over this,” Omni sighed, causing Rarity to stop to a halt, “I mean, if you think about it, behind all that fame and fortune they’re people like us. I don’t see why putting them on a pedestal should matter.”

Rarity spun around and glared at him nose-to-nose, “You know, I was generous enough to overlook the fact that you have never heard of her, but this generosity could only go so far,” she spun around and continued walking, “And this very generosity is what led musicians like Sapphire Shores to share their voices to the ponies over. It is their gift to us, so the least we can do is give them our praise. So do not presume you know more than I.”

Spike snickered as he hovered over Omni's head, “She’s got you there. You should’ve seen how she was totally flipping out over her.”

“Ladies do not 'flip out', Spike,” Rarity replied, aiming her glowing horn as she paced around, “However, I was quite in awe. Oh, I need to find more jewels than ever before to decorate her costumes. Stopping short, she swung her head one way and another, as if dowsing for water. Finally she picked a certain spot, where s cluster of rocks can be seen below the aura-filled surface, “Ooh! Aha!”

“Did you find some?”

Rarity pointed to the ground where the glow used to be, “Yes, Spike! Right there!”

In no time flat, Spike was clawing away the dirt and digging himself into a sizable hole. He straightened up after a few seconds, having uncovered a handful of gems. His irises and pupils grew several sizes as he took in the sight. He licked his drooling chops, because fun fact: dragons eat jewels, “Ooooh…you look…so…delicious!”

Spike!” Rarity exclaimed, stopping the dragon from diving in, “I promised I’d give you gems to snack on, but we need to collect more first or I’ll never be able to make these outfits for Sapphire.

Spike groaned sadly as he brought the gems to the wagon Omni was pulling, “I will miss you, my sweets.”

“Come along, boys!” Rarity called, “We have many jewels to find!”

“At your service, my lady!” Spike bowed.

As the day went by, the search went smoothly. Rarity would find a buried pack of gems, and Spike would dig them up. Sometimes he’d even shovel them up or jackhammer them out, and all by using his tail.

“You know, it’s rude to stand around while Spike and I do all the work,” Rarity gave Omni a disappointed frown, even though Omni was lugging an ever-growing load in the wagon by the yoke. He was finally able to be free of it only to take a spot marked by Rarity. The moment he started digging, a loud shriek caused him to stop and find a fuming Rarity with dirt in her hair, “Perhaps…you should keep pulling the wagon.”

Thankfully, they managed to gather enough jewels to meet their quota. As Spike was drooling over the payload, Rarity gave him a pat on the head, “You’ve been very patient today, Spike, and for that, you get the finest reward. This is from me to you,” she brought over a large blue gem and dropped it in Spike's opened hands. Those last few words stopped him from devouring it and looked at Rarity with stars between them, “Is something wrong, Spike?”

“No...” he replied in a daze, “It’s perfect.”

The mood broke when her horn flared up and seemed to pull her along of its own free will for a moment, before she managed to take back control, “Bring the cart, Omnifarious! There are more over here!”

After one more, colossal payload…

"Well, I think that's all we can do for today. And these will certainly get me well on my way with Sapphire's outfits. Why don't we start headi..." Suddenly, Rarity's horn began glowing again, leading her to somewhere else. "Oh! What's this? Another jewel. Oh, strange. "It's in the trees. Oooo..." She spotted a gold gem between the bushes, but suddenly a strange creature popped out: a canine whose narrowed, red reptilian eyes have yellow whites. The gem is attached to a diamond-studded black collar, above which is a wide, leering, crooked smile, "Ewww!" Rarity flinched at the sight of the creature, "Uh... uh... Good day, gentle... uh, fellow. Uh, I am Rarity, and this is my friend Spike,” somehow the pony carrying all the gems didn’t matter, “And you are…?”

The creature jumped down on his short hind legs and advanced raising his large forearms, “A Diamond Dog!”

“Oh, really?” Rarity and company started backing away, noticing the collar and red vest stuffed with gems inside, “Oh, well, that explains your fine taste in jewelry. I-I mean, I-I-I know that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and now I know that they’re a dog’s best friend too, hehe... So, um, ahem, you’re out hunting for gems as well?”

“Yes! We hunt!”

“Uh, ‘we’?”

“We hunt for gems,” the dog held his collar, “but you are a better hunter! So now we hunt…for you!”

Suddenly, two more diamond dogs burst out of the ground behind the group. Rarity screamed and ducking a grab by one of them, and Spike did his jackhammer impression on the end of the other’s tail, who took a graceless dive overhead while clutching at his hindquarters. The dragon then bulldoze the leader, “Run, Rarity! Run!” but he got no further before the leader mashed him to the ground with one finger.

The unicorn took his advice, and the half-buried dragon seized one of the henchmen’s hind legs to trip him up when he tries to run. As he fell, one forepaw slaps squarely down on the second henchman’s tail, causing him to fall as well, “Spike! Come on! Hurry!”

However, Rarity was too preoccupied to notice the ground bursting open and the dog leader popping up behind her, “Gotcha!”

While all that was going on, Omnifarious was trying to chew his way through the leather straps of the harness so he could help. But he soon realized that time was against him when he saw Rarity screaming under the leader’s arm.

Omni chased them to a nearby hole which their leader lead his fellow dogs in, all the while Rarity can be heard screaming inside, “Stop! Put me down, you scum! You brutes!” he jumped inside where, after scurrying over Rarity, he bit into the arm that was grabbing her and forced it to released. With them separated, he got in between the two and delivered a powerful kick that launched Rarity clear out of the hole, painfully, as she had mentioned, “Were you never taught to be gentle with a lady?!”

Omni tried to climb back up, but realized he was being held in place by the diamond dogs that captured Rarity, “Go! Get out of here!”

Spike poked his head inside, “What about you?!” he asked, worried.

“Don’t worry about me! Just go and come back with the others—WHOA!” and Omnifarious was dragged out of sight and away from the light...

“Why did we bring him here? He’s useless to us.”

“Not completely useless. Remember we’ve yet to bring a present.”

“Oh right, I forgot about that.”

“Shhh, he’s waking up.”

Omnifarious stirred awake with his head beating like a drum. After shaking off as much of his migraine as possible, he looked around finding himself inside a dimly-lit cave, and to his bigger misfortune, surrounded by the diamond dog trio. And what’s worse, he’s been feeling something attached to him, “What am I wearing…?” he groaned aloud as he felt straps of leather tied to his face on down. Looking between his eyes he found a leather harness around his snout. And looking over his shoulder he found a saddle attached to his back; the same kind of saddle that horses wear He pushed himself up to his feet to confront the dog trio, “So...any chance you guys could take me back home…?” the dogs laughed in response, though it was still worth asking.

“You’re already home; your new home,” the leader said, “And it’s time to meet your new master.”

Omni blinked, “Master…?”

“SANDY!!” after the dog’s yell a trail of elevated dirt made it’s way towards the room. When it stopped between Omni and the dogs another popped out. It was a small tan pug pup wearing a black collar, “Say hello to your new pet, Sandy.”

“Excuse me?!” Omni exclaimed in shock. The pup Sandy went over and started sniffing at him. He tried backing away but he only managed to lead her along. Soon the pup was sniffing from all directions.

“Remember what we do to let others know he’s yours?” the tall dog gave a wicked grin.

“That he’s what—OUCH!” when Omni spun around the pup was already removing her fangs from his backside.

“Good. Now remember what we told you, take real good care of him. Understand?” the pup nodded in response to the tall dog’s question, “Have you come up with a name for him?”

The pup turned back to Omni and cocked her head trying to think something up, “I’m gonna call you…Scruffy!”

“What? No!” Omi argued, “That’s not my name! I already got a name! It’s—“

“It’s Scruffy now!” the leader snapped, “We gave it to you, that’s what we’re gonna call you! So get used to it!” he then turned and lead his group out of the room, leaving Omni with the pup, who’s on all fours with his tail wagging, like she was ready to lunge at him.

“What do you wanna do?” Sandy asked, panting.

“Uh, go home?” Omni said, “I wanna go home.”

Sandy’s wagging then stopped, “But you are home. This is your home.”

“No, I mean my other home. My real home, back in Ponyville. That’s where I need to be.”

The pup sat with a crestfallen look at him, “But…what about here? With me?”

Omni sighed, “I want you to listen, I don’t belong here. I belong in Ponyville with the other ponies there. That’s where my home is,” but Sandy only replied with a pleading look, “Look, I’m sorry but that look won’t change my mind. I can’t just stay here forever,” she added big watery eyes and a quivering lip to her look, “Listen, just pretend you’re in my shoes and you were taken from your home. Trust me, you won’t like it if you had to—“ Omni looked over Sandy at the diamond dog leader who was peeking out behind the door, smashing a nearby rock with his bare hand. Omni sighed, “What do you wanna do?” Sandy sat with a wag and a smile.

First order of business turned out to be playtime. Sandy brought a ball they could share. Whenever she bounces the ball to Omni, he knocks it back. And when the ball bounces away, she’s always quick to catch it before it went too far. She must really liked that ball.

Next he had to be taken out for a walk, or the other way around it seems since Sandy was the one riding him on a saddle. As embarrassed as he is having to wear one of those things, how he had to be lead across a long, well-occupied corridor of ogling diamond dogs like a parade float was worse.

Which lead him to this point, where Sandy was showing off her new pet pony to her fellow pups, having him perform tricks he had to learn. He even had to chase his own tail, which was hard to do since he had a very short pony tail.

That was when Omni decided he had enough. Being a spectacle was fun for a while but it was time he found a way back home. So when everyone else were gathered around Sandy awing her, he snuck away around the corner and made use of an old talent he never bothered telling anyone about, and dug a hole through the cave wall.

It was only a matter of time before Omni was able to dig his way back to the surface, where the sunshine and fresh air was waiting for him. Except he failed to notice the one thing standing in his way…

THWACK!!

The dazed blue pony got dragged back into the caverns and tossed into the room he first woke up in, surrounded by the three dogs and Sandy.

“I caught this one trying to dig to the surface,” the dog that dragged him said.

“You tried to escape?!” the dog leader growled at Omni.

“I was just getting some fresh air,” Omni groaned.

“You lie!” the leader snapped, “You were running away from protecting Sandy! Something bad could’ve happened! It’s time you get punished!”

That was when he pulled something out from under his vest, something that caused Omni to flinch and back away, “Whoa! What is that?” although he knew all too well what it was. Every kid’s worst nightmare: the riding crop.

“This is what we use on bad ponies who do bad things!” he then turned to Sandy, “You will be the one to do it.”

Sandy stepped back from the crop presented to her, a worried look in her eyes, “But I don’t wanna.”

But the leader wouldn’t accept that answer and put the crop in her hand, “You have to Sandy. The best way to make sure your pony in obedient is through discipline. And a crop makes it easier.”

“Or, I can just say sorry and forget any of this stuff happened,” Omni hopefully suggested.

“His words mean nothing!” the leader said, “If something like this happens again, and he isn’t around to protect you, it will only be because he isn’t loyal to you. This way, you can fix that,” he lowered the crop in front of Sandy, who, after a few moments, took it with a solemn look at it. After that, she walked towards Omni.

“Uh, you’re not really gonna go through with it, are you?” the blue pony asked, beginning to panic as she padded around him out of sight, unable to see any further as he was being held down by one of the bigger dogs. It was only a matter of time before…

WHAP!

“Ow!” was forced out of his mouth as he felt the leather surface of the crop lash against his backside. The same happened the second time, then the third, and continued on when he was in too much pain to process counting.

Eventually, Sandy thankfully stopped as he felt himself get teary-eyed. She walked back in front of him and ruffled his hair with a paw, whining to him, “I’m sorry, Scruffy. I only did it because I love you.”

“And let that be a lesson to you,” the dog leader added, “Now don’t let me catch you separated from your master again!” he then stomped out of the room with the others following, leaving the pup with her pet.

Later that day, Omni was stuck following closely behind Sandy, who’s had her nose dragged along the dirt as she walked. From what he recently discovered is that diamond dogs are capable of literally sniffing out gems. That must be how they got so many stockpiled.

Eventually they reached a dead end, where Sandy was sniffing more feverously against that end's wall. She then jumped back onto all fours with her tail and tongue wagging, “There’s something here!” she yipped before getting to work on scraping the wall. And for further reference she was a fast digger; because in no time at all she managed to unearth a very large diamond. And that was no exaggeration. This diamond was just as tall as Omnifarious and twice as wide.

“Now that is one big rock…” Omni couldn’t help but mutter in awe. But he was looking at the surface as Sandy continued digging around it.

Suddenly he felt a small tremor under his feet, which soon grew larger, eventually enough for Sandy to notice and stop digging, “What’s going on?!” Sandy’s answer came in an instant when the ground suddenly crumbled and collapsed from under them, causing the two to fall straight down deeper into the caverns.

They met ground eventually, but so did the rocks that came tumbling with them. And there came a loud yelp reminding Omni that he wasn’t the only one in danger.

“Sandy!” he lunged towards the pup and stretched himself over her to protect her from the rocks the crashed down around them…

When the rumbling stopped, Omni lifted his head to find the both of them surrounded by walls to fallen rocks and boulders, and interestedly, the giant diamond plugged over their heads like a ceiling.

“Are you alright?” Omni asked as he backed away to check on the puppy, who rolled over to her side, whimpering as she clutched one of her paws, “What happened…?” he asked in concern.

“One of the rocks fell on it,” Sandy whimpered, “It really hurts…” another tremor was then heard, only this time it didn’t come from below but above their heads. The rocks can be heard shifting before things calmed down again, “What was that?” Sandy whimpered.

“I don’t want to alarm anyone but I don’t think these walls are gonna last,” Omni said in a worrying tone, “If we don’t find a way out then everything's going to fall on top of us and crush us to death.”

Flinching, Sandy stumbled to her feet and limped to the nearest wall, trying not to put pressure on her hurt paw. She could only manage a few shallow scrapes before Omni had to pull her away when the walls made another tremor, “You don’t wanna do that! Those rocks may be the only thing keeping the walls up! That cave could collapse faster like that!”

“Then…we can’t dig our way out? We’re stuck in here? But I don’t wanna be crushed!” Sandy whimpered before crying in her heathy forearm, “It’s not fair! I want my mommy and daddy!” she stood there a few more moments sobbing, until she was picked up and held in Omni's arms.

“I miss my mom and dad too,” he said.

Sandy sniffled, “You have a mommy and daddy too?”

“Well yeah, everyone does. I started missing them the moment I was forced to stay here. I might never see them again and it scares me,” he looked down at the diamond dog pup, “How would you feel if someone took you away from your family just to be someone’s pet?”

Sandy looked down in thought for a moment before answering, “I wouldn’t like that at all.”

“Which is exactly how I feel. Do you think I’d like to be separated from my family?” a moment passed before Sandy shook her head, “So, if I were to leave this place right now, and be with my family again, would you be okay with that…?” yet another moment passed…

…and Sandy nodded.

“Good girl,” Omni pup the dog down and stood to his feet, “But first thing's first, we need to get out of here before this cave collapses.”

“But how? We can’t dig without the cave collapsing.”

“Actually, it’s the walls that are unstable…” Omni tapped on the floor, “But the floor isn’t. We can dig through here, then tunnel around the cavern so we can make it back up top.”

“But my paw hurts. I can’t dig that well anymore.”

“You can’t, but I can. I may not be a diamond dog, but I can still dig a hole,” there was yet another quake, so Omni lowered himself to the floor, “Now hurry and hang on! We don’t have much time!”

After Sandy jumped onto Omni’s saddle, the blue pony himself started digging away as the walls started crumbling away. Soon he managed to make a hole deep enough to leave the cavern before it became buried in rubble…

Eventually the two managed to find a way out as they dug their way back up to the nearest cavern floor above. Sandy jumped off the saddle and latched onto Omni’s face, giving him a hug, “You saved me, Scruffy!”

“I’ll take that as a 'thank you’,” Omni muffled through Sandy’s grasp, adding a light smile. When Sandy’s let go the smile dropped as Omni gave her a serious look, “But did you remember what we talked about a while ago, about how badly I wanted to go back to my family?” it was then that Sandy lowered her gaze and her ears folded down. She must’ve gotten the message, “I think it’s time for me to go.”

“But…” she looked back up with pleading eyes, “You’ll come back someday, won’t you…?”

After a moment, and idea lit up in Omni’s head, “Let’s do one better: whenever you’re in Ponyville, look for a giant treehouse; you can’t miss it. We can hang out then.”

Sandy’s eyes lit up, “You mean…I get to come visit you?” Omni nodded, and in response the dog latched onto him in a crushing hug. Omni pated her back in return.

“I take it you’re okay with that?” Omni asked.

“Yes!” Sandy yipped, “I’ll be sure to visit you the first chance I get!”

“Make sure it’s on Sundays. I got a crazy work schedule.”

The diamond dog then let go and jumped back in front of him, “But…can you let me rub your belly, one more time?”

Since Omni was being given the pleading puppy dog eyes, he forgot about saying no. So he smiled, and rolled over on his back, giving Sandy access to one last belly scratch. If there’s one thing Omni'll miss, it’s those belly scratches. After they were done, Omni jumped back on his feet, “Well, I guess I’ll be waiting for you when I get back.”

Suddenly, Sandy reached out for the moment to give Omni a quick lick on his nose, “Goodbye, Scruffy. I love you.”

Onmi gave a quick nod and dug into the nearest wall to get back to surface…

The blue pony dropped tiredly in front of the library before knocking lazily on the door. Soon after, it was answered.

“Holy smokes! Omni?!” Spike gasped before zipping back inside, “Twilight! It’s Omni! He’s here!”

“What?!” a few stamps down the stairs later and Twilight skidded to a stop at the door, looking down worried at the pony, “We’ve been waiting for you all day, Omnifarious! Where have you been?!” Omni could only reply with a groan from his planted face.

The next day, Omnifarious went back to Rarity's tailor shop. After he knocked on the door, he heard a familiar humming closing in before the door opened to reveal Rarity herself.

“Welcome to the Carosel Boutique. How may I help—” but when she spotted the pony in front of her, she dropped her introduction as well as her cheerful expression, replacing it with a blank stare and a small, coy smile, “Oh…hello, Omnifarious…”

“You don’t sound too happy to see me,” Omni flatly replied.

“No, no, it’s just… Surprising to see you here unannounced.”

“…Anyway, I came to get my payment.”

Rarity blinked, “Pardon?”

“You hired me to lug around gems you harvested. Don’t tell me you already forgot.”

“Ohhh, right. That…” the white unicorn tilted her head, looked away slightly and chewed her lower lip. Why does this not look good? “You see, this thing happened and, well… I’m afraid I don’t have the funds to pay you at the moment. But don’t worry, I’ll come to you when I have it.”

Rarity was ready to shut the door if it weren’t for Omni’s foot being propped against it, “That’s not fair, Rarity, you said that the last time you hired me, and I still haven’t been paid for that.”

“To be fair, between having poor fashion sense (no offense) and kidnapped poor Opal (some offense)…” you could hear the anger escape through her teeth over the second part, “You didn’t do a satisfactory job at the time and as your employer I have the right to withhold any payment due to poor workmanship.”

“Then what’s your excuse for this time? What exactly happened that you couldn’t pay me like you promised?”

“You know, it’s rude to pry into a lady’s affairs.”

Suddenly, the beeping sound of an answering machine cut their argument short, “Hello. This is Rarity, owner of Carosel Boutique. Please leave a message. *Beeep* Hi! It’s me, Pinkie Pie. I just called to thank you for that awesome spa day yesterday! It was mighty generous of you to pay for all of us, even Spike! Although I still find it weird that the sack you paid the money out of said 'Omni's Pay' on it.”

“Um, let me just…” Rarity scurried away from the door and a series of clacking and banging sound can be heard as the message continued.

“I also find it weird that Omni disappeared this whole time. I was sure he was doing a job for you yesterday. Oh well, I’ll ask him when I see him…” then a loud smash can be heard, replacing the recording as the machine was on the ground in pieces, “Anyway-see-you-at-the-spa-next-week-bye!” after that there was a click.

“So that’s how you spent my money?” Omni growled, “After I saved you from those dogs yesterday!?”

“About that, they came back and caught me before I can get back to Ponyville,” Rarity stated, then adding a dose melodrama as she swayed around like a damsel on the verge of fainting, “And you cannot begin to understand the horrors I have been through! I was forced to ruin my carefully-done hooficure by digging holes for them! I got dirt in my perfectly-styled mane! And worst of all, I had to wear a yoke! A YOKE! I had to relieve myself as only a proper day in the spa can, so I can forget about all the horrible things I’ve been through!”

“What about me?!” Omni’s temperament rose, “I went through pretty much the same as you! Worse, I had to drag myself all the way back home! Are you saying you can catch a break but I get nothing for my troubles?!”

He was expecting at least a look of concern from the white unicorn, but all he got was a blank stare, as if she could care less. In fact all she did was wave a slip of paper through the door and slipped it into Omni’s vest pocket.

“Here. A coupon for a free day at the spa. Now if you would excuse me, I have some dresses to design. Thanks-for-stopping-by. Bye!” and Rarity ended her sickly sweet farewell with a slam to the door in Omni’s face.

And that’s how Omnifarious spent most of yesterday as an underworld slave, left to rot, and stiffed out of his pay in no less than 24 hours.

…But at least he made a new friend out of it.

Please Read and Review.