Dungeon Keeper

“SPIKE!!!!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” a haggard looking baby dragon called back to his surrogate sister as he stumbled down a set of warn looking wooden steps “Keep your hooves on.”

“Spike it’s way past mid-afternoon, why are you still in bed?” came a voice from an adjacent room.

“You never woke me and you know how dragons are, sleep and dragons go together like ice cream and Pinkie Pie”

“Did somepony say ice cream?” a pink blob asked from atop a bookcase, one of many that circled the library’s main room. Pinkies sudden appearance did little to faze the Spike who smiled at his friend.

“Nope just some dragon”

“What about all of the serious faced ponies behind you Spiky?”

“Wha-? Aghh TWILIGHT! Why is there an army of ponies in the living room!?. And how did I not see them earlier, are they ninjas?” the purple pony in question trotted into the library’s main room with a scroll floating in a purple haze next to her.

“No they are not ninja’s spike, hello Pinkie, they are a light scout troop that Celestia has given me control over for the next few weeks.” the Unicorn passed the scroll to one of the Unicorns in formation. A dusty gray colt in the dark brown steel armour of the equestrian scout force the pegasi in the formation had a lighter set on that allowed for more movement, whereas the earth ponies present had a ‘heavy’ variant.

“Why would the princess give you your own little army? That sounds more like Luna than Celestia” Spike tapped his scaled chin deep in thought before letting out a gasp, he looked at twilight “Have the griffins invaded?”

“No I-“

“Have the zebra nations attacked?”

“No Sp-“

“Are there zombie ponies in the streets ready to devour us all leaving us to survive in small pockets of safety always afraid of what the next dawn will bring IF there even is a dawn in the post-“

“No spike none of that, the princess just has a bad feeling and is making sure we are all prepared in the event that something does happen. Applejack has been kind enough to let us turn one of her barns into a barracks, so I will be going over there. Now I woke you up so you can look after the library while I’m out.”

“Oh okay, no problem, I am after all your number one assistant.” Spike flexed his nonexistent muscles causing many of the scout troop to smile and one small Pegasus mare to stifle a giggle .

“Hey where did Pinkie go?” the purple mares question caused the assembled ponies and dragon to look around warily for the evasive pink party pony.

“Commander Sparkle.” A silky green earth pony ventured.

“Oh yeah, we will see her later anyway. Troops, to your duties. Fall-out.” Twilight commanded with ease of only somepony who had been around the military or had been in it could. The 30 pony troop filed out of the tree/library/home followed by a grinning Twilight whose thoughts turned to her brother and what he would say to his sister in this instance, being the captain of the Royal Guard and unofficial commander of equestria’s military.

“Bye Spike, don’t eat any junk while I’m gone! have fun.” The young dragon waved in response as he gently closed the door so as to avoid slamming it.

“Now where is that ice cream?” He asked to nopony in particular as he opened the kitchen's magic refrigerator only to be greeted by a pink slip of paper with a crude smiley face drawn on one side.

“PINKIE!!!” Spike wept for all that was wrong in the world, for all of two minutes, before walking off in search of a gem to suck on muttering dark things for Pinkie involving buckets and doors, oh so many doors.

I could not help but smile as my foot came into contact with my own claimed territory. Mana instantly filling me with warmth and power, the gentle thump of my many dungeon Hearts suddenly amplified. They filled my head with their blissful beat drowning out all noise as I strode through my outer bulwark an iron door opening magically at my presence. Some trolls were playing cards on the table pausing there game to not respectfully at me as I walked past, as predicted all of them were cheating.

“Master you have returned!” the high pitched voice come from an older Imp doing his best to finish his cigarette quickly “Have you any orders master?”

“Yes, alert one of the larger Goblin tribes that I will be moving them, tell them to meet in the guard room.” I waved the loyal Imp away and he scampered off. I ran my steel encased fingers along the reinforced wall leading to my outermost Heart feeling energy leave my gloved hand like a static charge leaving a slight crackle and the smell of ozone in the stale underground air which I breathed from deeply.

Finally arriving at my dungeon Heart I steeled myself for what was to happen, walking over one of the three stone walkways just over the fleshy beating Heart, each beat expelling a green blast of excess Mana that electrified the air, reaching out with my right arm my hand closed around a clear gem floating in the air as my fist closed around the flawless glowing tear shaped diamond. A blinding red light filled the room and though the steel, cloth, and flesh I could see the bones of my hand as I pulled the gem from its magical pedestal. The fleshy Heart beneath me turned slowly to stone and the arch that ran over the epicentre of this dungeon folded back into the ground leaving only a stone circle and a horned reapers head engraved in it as all that remained of my heart.

I stood there for a little while looking at the blood red stone in my palm before turning on my heel and walking away to head for the guard room, the smile and spring in my step lost.

The scout troops marched through the town in file despite being dismissed by Twilight earlier. The troop marched in a column, four rows of eight, earth ponies leading the way as young foals jumped up on their armoured backs playfully and inspected the dull brown plates the big ponies were wearing. The pegasi in the troop were next, hoof-falls in time with their earth pony counterparts, wings held high and straight so they could fly off if they needed, they too were accompanied by young local foals mostly pegasi who stick their wings out and sloppily copied the synchronised march looking up at the troop in adoration. Finally flanking the force came the unicorns who were levitating a small number of foals around the street electing playful squeals from the floating foals. Local ponyville farmers and artisans tucked sweet tasting flowers into the passing troops armour passed apples and sweets into their saddlebags everypony was happy to greet Equstria’s defenders on their impromptu parade.

As the troop left the outskirts of the town there was not a grim face amongst them. Most of the colts were dopy grins from the odd mare who kissed them in passing, the mares too wore smiles from the kind words of admiration they had received from the local colts and even a few mares. Twilight herself was not spared from the towns sudden celebration, receiving just as much affection as the troops she lead leaving her with a happy grin and a confident stride.

“Hay Applebloom. Pass the apple pie over here.”

“Aright Applejack, it’s still mighty hot though.” the young filly Applebloom winced as she nearly burnt her lips on the hot plate the delicious looking apple pie rested on, Applejack moved the plate into the middle of the long table where it met an impressive array of apple based food. Granny Apple and Big Macintosh were also helping set the table for the 30 or so guests they were about to receive.

“I haven’t seen cousin AppleSlice in years. Who’d thought that the trainin them military folks do would take so long.” the large red stallion said excitement clear in his simple tones.

“You can say that again Big Mac. Well I bet aint none of em have had any good home cookin in a long time.” the present apple clan nodded in affirmative as the rhythmic clop of the troop signalled their imminent arrival.

“Hello Applejack. Thank you for doing all this on such short notice, I had no idea how I was going to feed them until you volunteered.”

“Well it’s all right Twi but I got to ask what’s with the flowers... and lipstick?” the orange mare pointed a hoof to twilights cheek which had a lopsided kiss mark were an adventurous mare had sloppily kissed Twilight during the parade through town, Twilight also sported a crown made from flowers. At their mention Twilight attacked her face with a hoof trying desperately to remove the suggestive mark on her cheek.

“I um it-I”

“Hay AJ Twilight was just all over that mare her little army had to forcibly separate them I saw the whole thing.” a rainbow coloured cloud mocked parting to reveal a lean, rainbow maned Pegasus mare who landed between her friends with a back flip.

“Hay rainbow why are YOU of all ponies wearing lipstick?” Applejack inquired.

“I-I No! I just ate a glazed donut pffft me? Wearing lipstick? Ridiculous, hay is that pie?” the cyan speedster joined the scouts before any more awkward questions could be asked just as they began to dig into the available food thanking their hosts as they went. Applejack watched the ponies dig into their food with gusto and after roughly half an hour Applejack looked at her cousin.

“Hay AppleSlice, c’mere” Applejack waved over her cousin who quickly excused himself from the table.

“Hay Applejack, what’s up?” AppleSlice asked embracing his cousin.

“Well look at you part of the equestrian army, got some fancy armour too.”

“It’s a big honour to serve equestria.” AppleSlice said proudly standing up straighter.

“It’s good to see you AppleSlice now we got to get all of you into the barn for a good night’s rest.” both Apples turned to see the happy fed troop with Applejacks friends who were all sleepily joking and it looked like a few of them were asleep already, nopony wore a sour face but instead all had content smiles.

The sound of digging through rock was rhythmic and one that I had grown accustomed to, so when the sound was broken to a hollow scraping sound there was little doubt that we had reached our destination. With a steady scrape than a sudden crash my Imps broke through the stone brick wall kicking up a cloud of dust that obscured the end of the tunnel. Without missing a beat I walked into the dust cloud flanked by four skeletons holding rusted broken swords and shields, behind the skeletons were six Dark Elves scanning the darkness crossbows held out in front of them, at the Elves heels was my main force, forty Goblins all using short swords, a few of them even had helmets.

Around us was a dark, stale, unused basement. Rotten empty crates and barrels littered the floor and my invasion force occasionally disturbed a rusted piece of nail or scrap with their footfalls. Out ahead of me my Imps were lighting wooden torches on the walls that had stood unused for an uncertain amount of time yet lit the subterranean room with an even warm glow.

"Master, a staircase." my faithful Imp pointed out the passage blocked by a simple heavy wooden door that hung on its last hinge. After walking up the small staircase I found myself in a long hall perhaps a Throne room yet the Throne was long gone, were it should be was instead a semicircle of shattered rock lit by a thick beam of moonlight, something that enthralled my minions.

Seeing a slight glow in the distance I moved closer to one of the shattered stain-glass windows and peered out into the darkness. There past a thick forest was the unmistakable glow of an inhabited town nothing a force of thirty seven Goblins couldn't fix. I felt the smile that had been lost to me since I closed down one of my many dungeon Hearts returning. With a delightfully evil grin I spun on my heel and gave the order for the Goblins to march on the settlement. The Skeletons and Dark Elves set up defensive positions around the abandoned ruin in case of counter-attack. Taking the blood red Heart stone from my plate sleeve, I flicked it into the air where it remained, feeding me Mana witch I used to summon a golden throne that Reapers were so fond of.

"It’s good to be bad."