A Dog's Loyalties

After almost an hour Rufus and the others were gathered at the docks as the boat arrived to take them to the Shuddering Isles where the Changelings were scavenging for the artifact Celestia sent them to find. As they boarded the boat and sailed for the nearby island they saw it was rife with bat ponies, minotaurs, dragons, and other races but the boat stopped short, "This is as close as I'm getting to that infernal place. You'll have to swim the rest of the way."

Rufus let out a small sigh before giving his orders, "Fluttershy and Rarity are staying here, everyone else swims for the island. Be prepared for anything, we don't know what to expect here so stay on guard." Rufus dove into the frigid, slimy murk water first and swam for the shore as the others followed except for Twilight and Dash who flew to the shoreline and waited for them there. When everyone was through and dried off Rufus summoned an axe into his paw and walked on signaling for the others to follow him as they walked through the cobblestone streets as the paper lantern lights slowly danced a slow and elegant spotlight upon the path leading to a large building that stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the dark misty air of the island. When they entered it was flush with all kinds of different races from ponies to griffons to dragons and more. Rufus immediately walked to the bar signaling for the group to disperse into the crowd. When he arrived to the bar he sat beside none other than Quiet Lotus sipping on a fruity looking drink and smiled at her. "Ahh, Quiet I see you still like those fruity drinks." He smiled trying to be friendly so a conversation would start up. "Have you been ok this past week?" Lotus smiled and moved a strand of her mane from her eye as she ordered another drink and gave it to Rufus.

"Why yes I am still drinking them, I remember you liking them too." She kissed Rufus' cheek, "What brings you here? I thought you gave up on mercenary work. Are you here to reconsider?" Rufus chugged down the drink he was given and licked his lips to get the rest as he smiled,

"Actually no but I do have a job for you. I'm willing to pay you to bring your brigade to Ponyville and offer Celestia your services to help in this coming war. Don't do this just because t's the right thing to do, but do it because we were good friends back before what happened..." Rufus sighed as he ordered another drink trying to hide his tears from Lotus. "Please just do it for a young pup that you were friends with." Before he could take another drink Lotus hugged Rufus tightly and smiled,

"Rufus you big dolt, I'll do it for free. Just stop crying ok?" Rufus sniffled and nodded wiping his eyes as he finished his drink. Rufus grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down the directions to the boat and Lotus left with a smile on her face.

Rufus waved over the bartender, but something smelled off. When the bartender came closer the smell got stronger, the smell of a changeling.

"Want another drink?" Rufus remained wordless as he grabbed the bartender's horn and slammed his head on the table making him revert to his changeling form as the others rushed over. As the changeling struggled he hissed and shouted, "You will die!" as other changelings swarmed into the building sending all the others fleeing in a panic as Rufus threw the changeling into the swarm and charging in with an axe in each paw completely foregoing his magic as he carved a path through the horde of insect ponies cleaving through to the boat.

When they got to the shoreline Rufus stood guard fighting off the attacking swarm as the others swam back to the boat before launching a magic blast into the water and sending the boat flying away through the sky before turning back to face the swarms again. Rufus lost that battle.

When Rufus regained consciousness he saw Chrysalis the swarm queen standing before him,

"Ah, so you're the diamond dog Tirek warned me about? The love you feel for those ponies will be delicious when i suck it from your corpse." Rufus growled and snarled as his paws were restrained by strange changeling goo keeping him still for the moment. "you were a fool to stand against us. Now you will die, and I will take your place and grow powerful from the love your friends feel for you until I am powerful enough to destroy Sombra and Tirek myself." Rufus snarled as tongues of flame once again danced across his arms and shoulders.

"NO!" Rufus erupted in fire as he rose to his feet forming an orb of magic within his paws, "I'll DESTROY YOU!" Rufus' pure hatred welled within him. All his negative emotions increasing the heat of the flame within him until he exploded in a torrent of pure fire, burning everything to ash as Chrysalis shrieked in agony and fear until Rufus stood in a scorched hole with nothing but ash and soot around him, panting hard. "My friends will not suffer at the hooves of a monster!!" Rufus waited a while until his energy returned and began his trek back home to find his friends.