A Dog's Loyalties

Later that evening Rufus, along with Rover, Fido, and Spot were walking through the streets of Ponyville on their way to Sugar Cube Corner when they crossed paths with Snips and Snails. "Snails? You're heading to the party too?" Rufus asked as the two groups walked side by side. Snails nodded with a somewhat dopey smile,

"Yeah, Pinkie's parties are the best. She always knows how to make every pony smile wide." As they continued walking together Snails moved closer to Rufus, "Are you doing ok Rufus? You kinda took off in a hurry last I saw you. Did every pony laughing at you hurt your feelings?" Rufus shook his head and gave a slight smile as he grabbed Snails and scrubbed his fist over Snails' head,

"No I'm fine, I just had something to do is all. I have a thick skin."

When they arrived, there was a large group of ponies outside as well as inside as loud music was playing and every pony was dancing, eating, or drinking as the air was ecstatic with the joy and energy from the party. As Rufus entered Pinkie rushed over and hugged him tightly, "You came! I knew you would," Pinkie took Rufus' paw in her hoof and led him to the bar where Twilight, Rainbow and a few other ponies were waiting, "These are my friends. I know that you know Dashie and Twilight but you haven't met the others. This orange farm pony is none other than Applejack, a hard working and one hundred percent honest owner of Sweet Apple Acres." The orange mare tipped her hat to Rufus as Pinkie continued on. "This is Rarity, She's the best seamstress in all of Equestria." The snow white mare smiled politely as she shook Rufus' paw,

"A pleasure to meet you darling." Pinkie then turned Rufus to a timid looking pegasus with a beautiful pink mane,

"This is Fluttershy, she's a very kind and shy type of pony but she's the best friend a pony could have." Rufus smiled a bit to be polite as she smiled back obviously somewhat uncomfortable with the situation,

"Umm, hello, it's nice to meet you." With introductions done and the party still only just started, Rufus went straight to the snack table and began eating and drinking his weight in snacks and punch with the sudden onrush sugar giving him a high burst of energy as he danced, sang, and socialized, -all quite poorly- through the night until he suffered a sugar crash and passed out late into the night.

As the sun began it's slow wayward climb into the sky Rufus started to recover from his sugar crash as he sat up with a throbbing headache. Looking around he realized both his vest and collar weren't on his body and looking around he found his vest on the floor and his collar on Fluttershy's neck of all places. Rufus yawned and pulled on his vest as he gently shook Fluttershy awake. "Hey Flutters, you're kinda wearing my collar." When Fluttershy opened her eyes she yawned and pulled it off holding it towards him. "Yeah, you lost it during the party so I put it on to make sure you didn't lose it since I don't have any pockets." Rufus smiled and pulled on the collar as he walked outside letting the warmth of the sun seep into his fur while watching the black clouds oddly pass through the sky. He watched somewhat dazed as they came closer to the ground before realizing that they were Changelings! They came swarming down to Ponyville as far as the eye could see, but Rufus let a smirk play across his lips as he subconsciously summoned a sword into his paw and charged headfirst into the swarm swinging it wildly as he blasted dangerous and destructive magic from his free paw as they struggled to fully prepare a counter attack at first. As Rufus kept battling other Ponies began to realize the threat and charged to the defense of their homes with whatever they could grab as a weapon to use as the changeling forces snarled and hissed. With a full blown battle in their midst Rufus began to struggle as the changelings properly moved to defend themselves from his guerrilla-like fighting style. As Rufus struggled to keep on the offensive Rover, Fido, and Spot all erupted from the earth with weapons in paw as they grouped back to back with Rufus forming an outward facing wall of swords giving Rufus much needed respite from the sudden Changeling assault and pushing them back. As the battle raged on for an hour the Royal Guard of Canterlot swooped in forming a pincer attack upon the attacking bug ponies as the residents of Ponyville fought valiantly despite their lack of training or ability. As the battle dragged on the Changelings began to flee by flying away through the sky pushing past the few pegasi that were in the air, but Rufus wasn't satisfied. "They're fleeing! Onward comrades, CHARGE!!" But before Rufus could follow them Twilight and Rover grabbed him.

"Now isn't the time to chase after them Rufus, it could be a trap or they could be trying to regroup with possible reinforcements," Twilight exclaimed trying to clutch his sword paw without getting stabbed by the sword as Rover held the wrist of Rufus' free paw,

"The pony's right, you'll just get yourself killed!" Rufus growled and snarled trying to pull away from them like a wild beast for a moment before regaining his composure and calming down.

"Right, you're both right. Sorry I guess no matter how hard I try I'm still a savage raider." Rufus gave a slight smirk to hide the anger he was feeling as he calmed down. After the ponies had a moment to calm down they took stock of the small amount of destruction caused to Ponyville as the guard captain, Shining Armor, rushed towards Twilight,

"Hey Twilight, are you ok? Did you get hurt?" She only gave a small chuckle and nodded,

"I'm ok Shining, really. They couldn't cause any real trouble because our friend Rufus was able to stop them at the beginning and help hold them off." Shining smiled and hugged his sister as he turned to Rufus.

"Hey Rufus Celestia said for you and the other diamond dogs to come to the castle as soon as you can." Rufus gave a nod as Rover, Fido, and Spot smiled at him and the four wasted no time to get to the castle rushing through the busy Canterlot streets ignoring the scoffs and rude remarks of the wealthy ponies as they ran to the castle. When they arrived Celestia and Luna were both looking quite worried as Twilight and her friends entered just a minute behind them. Rufus stepped forward and bowed politely,

"You wanted to see us, Princess? What is the occasion?" Celestia took a deep breath and studied diamond dogs and ponies before her,

"There is an urgent matter that must be dealt with. The changelings have been scouring an island not too far from the coasts nearby. We need you all to travel there and acquire an ancient artifact that we fear the changelings are searching for. If they find it first we will be that much closer to destruction. Rufus you have the most combat experience so I'm putting you in charge of this quest."

Rufus smirked as he imagined the endless slaughter of changelings before him. Despite leaving it behind, Rufus knew his old raider life would never leave him. "I won't fail you Celestia, you have a diamond dog that'll fight a few dozen ponies for a mug of cider. It'll be no different with this artifact."