A Dog's Loyalties

After leaving the crystal castle Rufus found a dimly lit alley to spend the night in, so he pulled his cloak closed and quickly fell asleep from humming a quiet tune. Not even a half hour passed before he was awoken by three diamond dogs,

"Hey stray wake up. We'll take you home." Rufus rubbed his eyes and sat up,

"What? I don't have a home, and my name's Rufus." As his eyesight adjusted he saw Rover, the leader of the three holding out his paw,

"We know, we'll take you home to our pack, you don't have to be a stray anymore." Rufus smiled tearfully at the prospect of family and hugged the three of them.

"Oh I'd love to come home!" Rover led Rufus to the tunnels leading into the mine shafts,

"Just through the tunnel brother, welcome home." Rufus smiled and leapt headfirst into the tunnel and crawled down into his new subterranean home, the moist, dank air welcoming him.

"By the hounds I'm home!" Rufus excitedly sniffed the air as Rover chuckled,

"It's late, you should get some rest." Rover led Rufus to a room with a comfortable looking bed in the corner and Rufus climbed right in.

As Rufus slept a mysterious midnight blue mare appeared in his dreams. "Rufus, "she cooed softly, "Your home is in danger, you must warn the others and defend yourselves." Rover soon woke Rufus up from his dream,

"Are you ok? You're in a cold sweat." Rufus shuddered but nodded,

"I'm fine, but we need to prepare for an attack. A pony warned me in my dreams about it." Rover shrugged but nodded as he handed Rufus some strange devices,

"Bury these under the ground, if we're attacked they'll get a nasty surprise." Rufus hurriedly did as he was told and as day began to break he sat in a mine cart panting hard with fresh dirt under his claws. Rover then approached him as Fido, the larger of the three grabbed an axe off of a table and spot, the smallest of the three, grabbed a sword, "You did good Rufus I'm quite surprised, now grab a weapon off the table and be ready for anything." Rufus stood up and ran for the table but was thrown aside by an explosion as swarms of insectoid ponies flooded the mine shafts. When he rose to his feet a large amount were surrounding him and Rufus summoned the green fire in his hands,

"I'll kill all of you!" Relying on his instincts Rufus charged forward throwing wild punches that caught the changelings off guard and gave him space. Riding his momentum, Rufus grabbed a war hammer off the ground and spun around slamming through their forces with untamed wild ferocity.

Before long the changelings fled unable to break through the solid defense of the diamond dogs. As they fled as Rufus barked after them, "That's right! Fly away you bug freaks!" Rufus stood by Rover panting hard as he dropped the hammer.

"That was quite the fight," Rover chuckled, "You're quite the warrior." Rufus chuckled as he layed himself down to rest,

"Yeah I guess I am." Rufus yawned and closed his eyes for a well deserved nap.

As Rufus slept his ears twitched at the sound of wooden wheels clattering over the uneven ground before being awoken by a crash and shouting. "Damnit,"Rufus shouted climbing up to the surface to find a blue unicorn with a crashed cart, "What the hell is going on?" The light blue unicorn looked from her cart and scowled,

"The problem is that my cart was caught in one of your mud holes now fix it you filthy mud dog!" Rufus' ear twitched at the insult,

"Did you just call me a mud dog?" The pony growled,

"Yes now fix this!" Her shouting made Rufus flinch, but he cracked his neck and spat on the ground,

"I'll fix it alright!" Rufus reached under the cart and lifted it overs head before throwing it right into orbit. "Go fetch!" He growled as he started towards Ponyville trying to slow his breathing.

When he arrived in town, Rufus decided to find and apologize to Rainbow Dash and after asking around he found her napping on a cloud. With no way to reach her Rufus picked up a pebble and hit her on the head with it making her shoot up, "What the buck was that for?" Rufus raised his paw and smiled a bit,

"I wanted to apologize about yesterday, I was out of line and I'm sorry." Dash hopped off the cloud and smirked a bit,

"Yeah I guess it's partly my fault too so we're ok now." Rufus smiled and patted Dash on the head before going to Twilight's palace, the large crystalline structure was somewhat out of place in the small hamlet, but he couldn't worry about that now. As soon as he knocked on the large doors Twilight opened them seeming surprised,

"Oh Rufus, I wasn't expecting you please come in." Rufus put his paw on Twilight's shoulder,

"Twilight I was visited last night by a midnight blue mare in my dreams, and she warned me about an attack that we just fought not five hours ago." Twilight took a deep breath and nodded,

"That sounds like Princess Luna, if she contacted you through a dream it must be important. "I'll take you to her." As they turned to leave Rufus fell to the ground with a splitting headache as a vision flooded his mind.

A pony and a centaur stood before him both grinning wickedly. "Ah the diamond dog. Your power is starting to surge." Tirek laughed as he stared down at Douglas, "You won't survive this fight even with the powers you possess. You'd do better alongside us." Sombra slowly approached Douglas,

"You shouldn't trust them, they don't care about you. Your people dig in the mud while they live in luxury. Join us and we can make your people live like royalty." Before Rufus could have replied he woke to see Twilight above him looking worried,

"Are you ok you just fell over." Rufus just stood up and scratched his ears,

"I'm fine, let's get to the castle."

In Canterlot Rufus and Twilight passed by multiple noble ponies who simply scoffed as they passed staring at Rufus jeeringly, "They're all staring at me Twilight, I don't like their eyes." Twilight took Douglas' paw in her hoof,

"just ignore them, they don't know you." As they walked on, Rufus heard barking and shouting as Rover, Fido, and Spot ran up to them,

"Rover? What are you guys doing here?" Rover was panting but sighed as he stood up,

"You just vanished an we got worried, we wanted to find you." Spot jumped up and grabbed Rufus' paw,

"Yeah, we're family and you should trust us!" Rufus smiled a bit and nodded,

"You guys are right, I should trust you like a family. Come with me and Twilight to the castle."