Dog Catcher's Mill Companyby smirkerChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 4Chapter 5Chapter 6Chapter 7Chapter 8Chapter 1Fluttershy was flying through the Everfree Forest and tending to the animals, "Here you all go." Fluttershy said as she fed acorns to the squirrels, she flew around a bit more and went to the wild boars, "Enjoy." Fluttershy stated as she gave them their lunch, she flew around more and went to the last animals, "Here, sorry I'm late." Fluttershy stated as she fed a group of wolves, she flew around and saw every animal was fed, her ears soon picked up on a sound, "What is that sound?" Fluttershy asked as she flew a few yards to the direction where she heard the sound, she listened and heard dogs whimpering, "They sound so sad, I can't imagine how they feel right now." Fluttershy stated as she flew to them, the whimpering got louder, "It sounds so horrible, I can't bear to imagine what they're feeling." Fluttershy commented, she flew more and came to a clearing, she looked and gasped when she saw the puppies. She flew down to the puppies and saw them all in wire cages, "Oh, my goodness." Fluttershy blurted out, she looked and saw the puppies were all dirty and anorexic, they ran to her and whimpered, "Where's the entrance?" Fluttershy asked, the puppies walked and led her to it, she tried to pull it open but could not, "Hold on, I'll be right back." Fluttershy promised, and she flew away. Fluttershy returned about ten minutes later and Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity stood by her while Applejack and Big Macintosh pulled the wire cage apart, "I'm sorry you found this, Fluttershy, there are many of these throughout Equestria." Twilight Sparkle said, "But still, why must they be put in such horrid conditions?", Fluttershy asked, "That is beyond me, the owner won't say anything about it, either." Twilight Sparkle replied, "Who is the owner?" Fluttershy questioned, "A unicorn named Dog Catcher, what you're looking at here is a puppy mill, he uses them to breed puppies and sell to them to ponies for money, but he's really picky with who he sells the puppies to." Twilight Sparkle explained, "Do the puppies get happy homes?" Fluttershy asked, "I don't know." Twilight Sparkle replied, Applejack and Big Macintosh got the wire cage pulled off and the puppies ran to Fluttershy, "There, there, it's okay, I'm here." Fluttershy stated as she petted the puppies, "Still, what's a puppy mill doin' all the way out here in the Everfree Forest?" Applejack asked, "Yeah, that is strange, it's dangerous out here, too." Rainbow Dash responded, "I wonder what the owner was thinking, I can't believe he would make these puppies live in such filth." Rarity said, "*gasp* Look!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she pointed at one puppy, Fluttershy looked and saw the puppy had scars on its bodies, "Oh, you poor thing, I'll get you cleaned up when I take you home." Fluttershy said as she petted it, "Hey, look, the puppies back there aren't moving." Rainbow Dash stated as she pointed into the puppy mill. Fluttershy flew to the puppy mill and gasped when she saw dead puppies, she landed and began to cry, "Ya think there could be anymore mills in the forest, Big Mac?" Applejack asked, "Eenope." Big Macintosh responded, "Let's go, Fluttershy, I'll help you get the puppies to your sanctuary." Twilight Sparkle stated, Fluttershy continued to grieve, "Fluttershy?" Twilight Sparkle asked, she continued to grieve and finished after about twenty minutes, "Let's go." Twilight Sparkle stated, and they did. Fluttershy arrived home and her friends helped her clean the puppies, "Thank you, I can take it from here." Fluttershy stated, and her friends left. She got dog food and began feeding them, the puppies ate slovenly and like pigs, "Hey, slowly now, you'll choke if you eat like that." Fluttershy warned as she helped them chew their food, they slowed down their eating and she went back into her cottage. Fluttershy began tending to her other pets while she heard rustling on the grass outside, she looked and saw a big red fox walking to the puppies, it walked over to them and gave them meat, the puppies ate them and soon gathered around the fox, she went outside to go see it, "Excuse me." Fluttershy stated, the fox just looked at her and turned back as the puppies, and her pet foxes, wolves, coyotes, and jackals gathered around it and bowed, the fox then walked into the Everfree Forest, "Hey, wait!" Fluttershy called out, she ran but the fox was gone, she looked on baffled for the moment but headed back. She began getting all of her pets to fall asleep since it was almost dark, they all fell asleep after a while, she sighed and then laid in her bed and slept. Fluttershy and her pets slept through the night peacefully until they heard voices and the puppies running and whimpering, the door got kicked open and Fluttershy screamed as she woke up, three stallions walked in and they were all earth ponies, one had a light blue coat and long white mane and tail, one had a light pink coat and a short red mane and tail, and one had a light orange coat and a medium-length yellow mane and tail, "There she is." the blue stallion said, and they ran to her. The blue stallion jumped and landed on Fluttershy, she exclaimed as he held her down, he began punching her on the back of her head while the light pink stallion stomped her face onto the floor and light orange stallion kicked her in her face. The animals attacked them and they grunted as they got pecked by her birds, "That's enough, everyanimal." Fluttershy stated, and they stopped, the three stallions got back up and tried to attack her again immediately, Fluttershy whimpered and vines grew out of the floor and tied and restrained them. Discord appeared in front of the three stallions, "My, how rude, I am trying to enjoy my beauty sleep and you three barge in here and disturb my friend." Discord spoke, the three stallions growled, "Who are you three?" Fluttershy inquired, they did not answer, she saw the light blue stallion had a brown saddlebag, she opened it and saw he had a letter, she unfolded it and read it, "I am ordering you three to track down and kill that Pegasus known as Fluttershy, I don't care if she's one of heroes of Equestria, she took the puppies from my mill in the Everfree Forest and affected my business. I want you and your two friends to hunt her down and kill her, just like everyone else who affected my business and haven't agreed with me, now do your jobs as assassins, you'll get paid after you kill your target like always. -Dog Catcher", Fluttershy looked on with horror at the letter's content, "There you go, you have made enemies with the puppy mill owner." the light pink stallion stated, "Why do you all do such horrible things?" Fluttershy asked, "Because we find it to be fun, Dog Catcher is also a childhood friend of ours." the light orange stallion replied, Fluttershy's eyes widened at what he just said, "Tell us, what about those conditions those dogs are in?" Discord questioned, "Dog Catcher's policies, he makes them as dirty as possible so the dogs will live in filth and get sick, he also doesn't feed them." the light blue stallion explained, "Nopony will adopt them if they're like that." Fluttershy remarked, the three stallions laughed, "Adopt? That's not why he has the puppy mills." the light pink stallion responded, "Then why?" Fluttershy inquired, "You'll learn eventually, if you manage to live that long." the light orange stallion replied, "Discord, inform the royal guards." Fluttershy ordered, and Discord made a phone appear and contacted them, they soon arrived and arrest the three, Fluttershy and her pets then went back to sleep. The next morning came and Fluttershy saw the red fox from yesterday tending to the puppies she found from the puppy mill, "Um... excuse me." Fluttershy stated, the fox just looked at her, "Uh... thank you... for taking care of them for me." Fluttershy spoke, the fox went back to feeding the puppies, walking was heard and a big black dog arrived and began licking the puppies. She looked on and sensed something off about the black dog, it seemed supernatural rather than a regular dog. The fox and the black dog ran off and Fluttershy flew up to see where they were going, the black dog was gone, but the fox continued to run past Ponyville and went past the next town before going out of her sight. She flew back down and took care of her animals for that morning. Discord appeared in front of her, "Oh, Fluttershy, I think you might want to read this." Discord said as he held the newspaper, "What is it?" Fluttershy asked, and Discord gave her the newspaper. She read through it and gasped when she saw the three assassins from last night were found dead this morning, "What happened?" Fluttershy asked, "What do you think?" Discord responded, "Um..." Fluttershy muttered, "They were killed by Dog Catcher." Discord spoke, "*gasp* How are you sure?" Fluttershy questioned, "Think about it, Fluttershy, Dog Catcher runs a private company, he sent assassins after you for messing up his business, you called the royal guard and had them arrested, and since Twilight said Dog Catcher is a unicorn, he disposed of those three with his magic to silence them and not have the government know of the conditions of his mills and the fact that he hires assassins to go after those who either ruin his business or don't agree with what he's doing." Discord explained, Fluttershy thought about it and tears began to fall from her eyes, "I set up their dooms." Fluttershy lamented, and she cried a bit, "Now, now, Fluttershy, no need for tears, I think they got what they deserved." Discord said, "You don't understand, Discord, stuff like that lowers Equestria's defenses and makes more vulnerable to attacks." Fluttershy explained, "Really? Does that also apply to animals?" Discord asked, "Yes." Fluttershy answered, "Well, then why don't you try to stop Dog Catcher's puppy mills, yourself?" Discord asked, "I... I don't know where the others are located." Fluttershy responded, "Well, let's go back to the one you found, surely, there's a clue on it." Discord spoke, and they headed into the Everfree Forest. The two went back to the puppy mill and examined it, there was not a single clue on it, "Weird, Dog Catcher's company name and mascot isn't on the mill." Fluttershy said, "Let's keep looking." Discord replied, and they did. They looked at the entire mill and there was no clue on where Dog Catcher's headquarters was located, "There isn't anything here." Fluttershy stated, Discord disappeared afterwards, "Discord?" Fluttershy asked as she looked around, she did not find him anywhere, she got ready to go back to her sanctuary but she heard wolves calling, "*gasp* That's a cry for help." Fluttershy exclaimed, and she flew. Fluttershy flew farther into the forest and saw the howling wolves, they stopped and ran, she followed them and soon heard puppies whimpering, "*gasp* Oh, no, another one." Fluttershy commented, and she flew more and arrived at another puppy mill. She flew to it and saw a herd of wolves trying to get the fence off of the cage, they made way for her and she tried to pull the fence off but could not, she made various animal sounds to call for help and various birds flew down and they all began working together to try to get the fence off. The wolves moved aside and Fluttershy looked to her right and saw the black dog running to them, it grabbed the fence with its teeth and pulled it off easily. The puppies ran out and went to Fluttershy, "It's okay, I'm here." Fluttershy spoke as she rubbed her snout against the puppies, the black dog went to them and began licking them clean, "Who are you?" Fluttershy questioned, the black dog looked at her and her eyes widened at seeing his glowing red eyes, but she noticed it just glanced at her and was not glaring. It went back to cleaning the puppies and they went to Fluttershy after they were cleaned, she waited until the last puppy was cleaned, "Alright, this way, everypuppy." Fluttershy said, and they followed her. Fluttershy began tending to the new puppies while she saw the ones from the first mill were hungry, "Hold on, I'll tend to you guys after this." Fluttershy said, and she cleaned the puppies. She finished after a while and gave all the food she had for dogs and the puppies ate them all, "I'm going to need help with this." Fluttershy stated, and she left. She came back and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were with her, "I appreciate you three coming to help, but are you sure you can handle this?" Fluttershy questioned, "Yeah, Ah mean, Ah take care of Winona every day." Apple Bloom responded, "Well, yes, but that's only one dog, Apple Bloom, look at how many I have." Fluttershy stated as Apple Bloom looked and saw there was about a total of forty puppies, "Oh, that is a lot." Apple Bloom commented, "See, there you go, it's going to be different from taking care of one dog." Fluttershy replied, "Relax, Fluttershy, we got this." Sweetie Belle stated, "Yeah, we'll figure something out." Scootaloo added, "I know you will, but whatever you three do, make sure it's not harmful, be really gentle with them, too, they're scared of other ponies." Fluttershy explained, "Got it." Sweetie Belle answered, "Okay, good, I'm going to go shopping and get some food, Discord will guide you, I'll try to come back soon." Fluttershy said, and she left. She got dog food and quickly came back, she saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders having trouble tending to the puppies, she went to them and gave them dog food and the puppies began fighting one another, "No! You all will share here so everybody can eat." Fluttershy commanded, the puppies calmed down and began eating while looking at her uncomfortably. The puppies finished their meals and the four ponies cleaned up the mess they made and took care of them, "*pant* *pant* This is more exhausting than I thought." Sweetie Belle stated, "See, it's not easy taking care of many pets, you three head on home now, it's getting dark." Fluttershy responded, and they left, she then got her pets to fall asleep and she slept for the night. Fluttershy had nightmares about the puppy mills and assassins that were sent to kill her, she sprung up from her bed and sweated profusely, she felt something poking her front right leg and looked, she saw the red fox from before, "What is it?" Fluttershy asked, and the fox ran outside, "Hey, wait!" Fluttershy stated, and she flew after him. Chapter 2Fluttershy followed the fox and it led her out of Ponyville, "Where are we going?" Fluttershy asked, the fox kept running and arrived into a town to the west of Equestria. She looked and saw limping puppies walking and hid from her when they saw her, "Wait, it's okay, I'm not here to hurt any of you." Fluttershy stated, but the puppies still hid. The fox went over and it bowed down, the puppies looked at the fox and they came out to see it, the fox then began comforting them while Fluttershy walked over. She sat down and held some of the puppies with her wings, "It's okay, I'm here to help." Fluttershy spoke, and the puppies went to her and she began petting them, "Where are your parents and owners?" Fluttershy asked, the puppies began whimpering, the fox rubbed its snout on Fluttershy to get her attention, it ran and she followed it. Fluttershy arrived at a cemetery and looked at the wooden gravestones, she looked at the photos and saw they were all the graves of dogs, "What happened to them?" Fluttershy questioned, the fox ran and she followed it, she saw some of the graves had newspapers with them. She read one and gasped when she read that the dog of the grave was found covered in scrapes and bruises and saw a picture of it, she went to another one and saw the newspaper was the same story as the previous dog, she looked at the ones in her sight and saw all of the newspapers had basically the same story. She soon heard the dogs whimpering from nearby and she and the fox saw the black dog from before, the dogs' whimpering were coming from its body and echoing. Fluttershy noticed it and she walked to the black dog as it just stood there, "You're a ghost, aren't you?" Fluttershy asked, dogs whimpering continued to sound from its body, light blue flames flew out of the graves and into the dog's body, it winced in pain and grew a bit bigger. Fluttershy looked on and the black dog just stood there and looked down, the fox left and she trotted after it. The fox ran back to the puppies and saw them wandering around, it did a gesture with its head to tell the puppies to leave, they heard footsteps and they all ran to hide. Fluttershy heard mares conversing and then a loud thud and dog whimper, she gasped and flew to the area. Fluttershy flew to where she heard the hits and dog whimpering, she saw two earth pony mares, one had a red coat, long pink mane and tail, orange eyes, and her cutie mark was a gray rock, and the other mare had a blue coat, long grayish-white mane and tail, green eyes, and her cutie mark was a fist. The red mare picked up a rock, "Hey, Bluebird, watch this." the red mare stated, and she threw the rock and hits a puppy in the head, the puppy yelped while Fluttershy's jaw dropped, "Nice shot, Cardinal, but watch this." Bluebird replied, and she picked up a bigger rock and threw it at the puppy harder than Cardinal, the dog yelped as it fell over, "There, come on, let's put it in the puppy mill." Cardinal ordered, and they got ready to carry the puppy away. Fluttershy watched the puppy try to struggle to break free from Cardinal and Bluebird's grips, but the two began kicking and stomping on the puppy and it whimpered, Fluttershy's rage went up and she began glaring, "LET THE PUPPY GO!!" Fluttershy yelled, Cardinal and Bluebird looked at her, "If you don't let it go, I'm going to tell your mommies about your behavior!" Fluttershy thundered, Cardinal and Bluebird laughed, "Tell our moms? Look around you, there's nopony around here." Cardinal spoke, Fluttershy did not see anypony around at the moment, "See, there's no one for you tell off." Bluebird said smugly, "Return the puppy to its owner." Fluttershy commanded, the puppy whimpered and her attention got caught, "What did you two do?" Fluttershy seethed as she walked to them, the two mares ran to her and tackled her down. They began punching her while she screamed, she tried to defend herself with her forelegs and wings as the two attacked her, she saw the puppy limping away and Bluebird noticed and ran to get it. They heard snarling and black dog knocked Cardinal off of Fluttershy, she grunted as she fell onto the ground, she then screamed when the dog bit into her neck, Fluttershy looked away and covered her eyes while she heard flesh tearing, she then heard the dog growling again and Bluebird screamed afterwards. The noise stopped and Fluttershy looked back and saw the two mares bleeding from their necks', Cardinal and Bluebird panted as they bled out, "Why did you two do what you did?" Fluttershy inquired, "Dog Catcher's orders." Bluebird answered, "So you just follow his orders and do what you're told?" Fluttershy asked, "There's more, us, including everypony who works under him, are his childhood friends, we hate dogs as much as he does." Cardinal replied, "Why?" Fluttershy asked, "Do you know what it was like for us as kids? Having to hear those dogs barking every night and keep us up when we're trying to sleep? Dog Catcher did us all a favor when he began killing them." Bluebird explained, "That's your reason?! You could've just asked them to quiet down!" Fluttershy fumed, "Yeah, but that's no fun." Cardinal objected, Fluttershy's eyes widened and jaw dropped, "What are you going to do? Put us in jail?" Bluebird asked, Fluttershy had flashbacks of the three assassins from the previous day and whimpered at the thought at the two getting killed in prison, "Look at that, the thought actually traumatizes her." Bluebird commented, "Of course, didn't you hear? Knock Out, Poison Fist, and Lights Out were arrested yesterday because of her and Dog Catcher had to kill them so they don't reveal our doings." Cardinal explained, "Wait, that was you?" Bluebird asked as Fluttershy just stood there and continued having flashbacks, she stopped and came back to reality while shaking her head, "Which ones were they?" Fluttershy asked, "Knock Out was the light blue stallion, Poison Fist was the light pink one, and Lights Out was the light orange one." Cardinal answered, "I see, I'm going to destroy your entire operation, no animal deserves to be treated like how you all do." Fluttershy declared, the two mares laughed but they soon began gagging, they bled out from their wounds and died. Fluttershy looked at the bodies and closed her eyes, she nearly cried while the black dog carried them away. She looked at the whimpering puppy and walked to it shortly afterwards, "Where's your owner?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy limped and she followed it, she gasped when she came to a dead stallion covered in bruises, she ran to the pony while the puppy rubbed its snout on him, "Did those two mares do this?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy barked in agreement, she then laid her head on the stallion and paid her respects, "Where are the residents of this town?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy barked and she understood it, it said the town was very small to begin with, and the residents were all dead because Dog Catcher ordered the mares to kill all dog lovers in the town, "What? Why haven't they been arrested?" Fluttershy questioned, the puppy ran and she followed it. Fluttershy followed the puppy to near the edge of the town and saw another puppy mill, alongside two mares and a stallion, she gasped when she saw the stallion was wearing a royal guard uniform, the mares were unicorns while the stallion was a Pegasus, one mare had an orange coat, long yellow mane and tail, green eyes, and her cutie mark was a magician's hat, the other mare had a purple coat, long light pink mane and tail, red eyes, and her cutie mark was a black pentagram, and the Pegasus had a white coat and blue eyes with his mane, tail, and cutie mark being hidden under his uniform. Fluttershy watched them and saw a green aura on the purple mare's horn, she picked up several rocks and threw them at the puppies in the mill, they whimpered while the orange mare laughed a little, "Wow, Indigo Dragon, your aim's getting better." the orange mare stated, "Thanks." Indigo Dragon responded, "I'm going to try now." the orange mare said, "Good luck, Orange Tiger." the stallion said, she smiled and a yellow aura appeared on her horn, rocks floated up and she threw them at the puppies in the mill, they whimpered while the three ponies laughed, "Come on, Cat Lover, join in." Orange Tiger said, "Okay, here goes." Cat Lover replied, and he picked up a rock and threw it at a puppy harder than the ones Orange Tiger and Indigo Dragon threw, a puppy whimpered loudly and they laughed. Cat Lover walked over and checked the puppy, "It's dead." Cat Lover stated, Orange Tiger and Indigo Dragon began cheering. Fluttershy gritted her teeth as her anger rose, she growled and began making animal sounds to command them, the dogs from the town ran to her and birds flew down and began pecking the three ponies, they screamed as Orange Tiger and Indigo Dragon used their magic to fling them away, Cat Lover tried to attack the birds with his spear but they flew out of range, he tried to fly away but the dogs jumped and pulled him down, the three screamed as the birds pecked them and the dogs bit and scratched them, Fluttershy continued to glare and huff as she heard their flesh being ripped apart. The noises stopped and Fluttershy calmed down, her eyes widened with horror at the sight of their dead bodies, she saw the fox rip the fence off of the puppy mill and they ran out. The dogs bumped their snouts on her to bring Fluttershy back to reality, but she continued looking at the carnage, "I did that?" Fluttershy asked herself, she continued staring on in horror until she was startled by puppies barking, she looked back and saw the dirty and injured puppies, "Let's get you all cleaned up." Fluttershy said, and she led them back. Fluttershy got the puppies together and flew through the ghost town to try to find any cleaning supplies left, she found a few and tried her best to wash the puppies, the adult dogs, fox, and black dog tried their best to help her and some of them looked for food to give them, they found a few vegetables and the puppies ate them, "Hold on, I'll get food from my home." Fluttershy spoke, and she flew away. Fluttershy flew back to her cottage and saw Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle taking care of the puppies, "Oh, good, you're back, the puppies are being hard to clean." Sweetie Belle stated, she looked and saw Apple Bloom and Scootaloo trying to scrub the puppies but they ran away, "You got the hose's water on too high, turn it down so it's weak." Fluttershy said, and they did, the puppies walked to it and began sitting under it, "Wow, it worked." Scootaloo stated, "They're still scared, Scootaloo, so everything has to be done gently when taking care of them." Fluttershy explained, "Y'all two watch me, Ah'll show y'all how to take care of them puppies." Apple Bloom said, and she began scrubbing them gently and pat them, "Very good, Apple Bloom, you two follow her example." Fluttershy instructed, "What about you?" Sweetie Belle questioned, "Dog Catcher's got puppy mills around the country, I'm going to put a stop to them." Fluttershy responded, "Is it that bad?" Scootaloo asked, "Oh, yes, I saw one earlier today, and the ponies at the mills were throwing rocks at the puppies." Fluttershy explained, the three fillies gasped, "Are they okay?" Sweetie Belle asked, "Yes, but... one of them didn't make it." Fluttershy replied while trying not to cry, the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked on sympathetically while she held her tears back, "Ya rescue 'em, Fluttershy, we'll hold down the fort here." Apple Bloom spoke, "Really? Thank you, I'll be going now." Fluttershy spoke, and she got some of the dog food from her cottage and left. Fluttershy arrived back and gave the dog food to the dogs and puppies, the fox and black dog pushed the dog food to the puppies and they ate, "I'm going to look for the rest of the mills." Fluttershy told the fox and black dog, and she flew up into the sky and looked for where in Equestria and other countries Dog Catcher had puppy mills. Chapter 3Fluttershy flew up into the sky and looked for anymore puppy mills, she did not see any, so she flew around a bit and tried to find one, she still did not find one, so she flew down lower and looked again, she still did not find any. She did various callings and the animals responded to her, she ordered them to look for puppy mills for her in their native tongues and described what they looked like, the animals left and began searching. She continued looking for the puppy mills and still could not find one, she kept looking until she heard coyotes barking and howling, she flew down to them and they stopped, "Lead the way." Fluttershy said, and they ran as she followed them. Fluttershy flew through a forest while the coyotes led her, they arrived at a puppy mill and she saw foxes, wolves, other coyotes, and jackals trying to free the puppies. She went over and the canines moved aside, she grunted as she tried to pull the fence off, she did animal calls and other animals came over to help, they pulled on the mill's fence and got it off. The puppies ran out and the other canines comforted them and then led them elsewhere and Fluttershy followed them. She arrived at an area in the forest with many puppies and dogs gathered together, she stopped when she heard growling all around her, she looked and saw big wolves circling around her, she spoke to them in their language and they did not stop circling her. A wolf bigger than the others walked to her while growling and the other canines made noises to communicate with it and it continued glaring at Fluttershy, the wolf looked back at her suspiciously while she sweated a little, it walked to her to get a closer look and saw fear in her eyes, it stopped looking for a minute and the wolf ordered the others to stand down. Fluttershy sighed with relief and she soon heard walking from behind, she saw the fox again and the canines bowed to it, "Who is that?" Fluttershy whispered to a nearby fox, it explained that the fox was a mystical cousin of theirs from a distant island, and he was sent by that island's emperor to help them against Dog Catcher. Fluttershy looked on confused and saw the fox looked like an ordinary red fox, just abnormally bigger than usual. She watched him walk to the big wolf and the two bowed to one another, "What's it doing now?" Fluttershy inquired, and a jackal explained that the big wolf was Wepwawet, and he and his herd were the ones who informed the fox's island that something was wrong, she looked on and the fox followed Wepwawet as he led him to the new puppies that they freed and he began checking them. She watched the puppies run to the fox as he rubbed his snout on them, he finished and he and Wewawet began conversing in barks, "I'm going to go take a look around." Fluttershy stated, and she flew away. Fluttershy flew around and saw various animals in the woods, "It's okay, I come in peace." Fluttershy spoke, and they walked to her slowly, she saw herds of bears, tigers, lions, hyenas, and boars had puppies with them. She noticed that the various animals were glaring at her and standing in front of the puppies, she walked past them and looked around, she flew up into the sky and saw various birds watching her as well, she saw several more scouting the area and she realized they were looking for more puppy mills, she flew away and looked elsewhere. She flew around the woods while all of the animals watched her and wondered what she was doing, a squirrel ran to her and made several squeaks, "I'm looking for puppy mills." Fluttershy answered, and the squirrel ran away and communicated with the other squirrels. She flew around a bit to get an idea where everything was, she heard voices in the distance and flew to where she heard them while she saw various puppies and adult dogs running away, she arrived and saw a unicorn stallion, a Pegasus mare, a Pegasus stallion, and an earth pony stallion, the unicorn stallion had a sky blue coat, short white mane and tail, gray eyes, and his cutie mark was a net, the Pegasus mare had a green coat, long light pink mane and tail, dark red eyes, and her cutie mark was a cage, the Pegasus stallion had an orange coat, long black mane and tail tied in braided ponytails, turquoise eyes, and his cutie mark was a spotlight, he was also wearing black framed glasses, and the earth pony stallion had a purple coat, short gray mane and tail, pink eyes, and his cutie mark was a paw print. Fluttershy watched the four until a puppy ran to her and bumped its head on her leg, she looked at it and it barked several times, it said the unicorn was Dog Catcher, "So he's the one running the mills." Fluttershy stated as she looked at him, she watched the four leave, "Who are the other three?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy barked and it said the Pegasus mare is Chain Link, the Pegasus stallion is Searcher, and the earth pony stallion is Tracker, "Do they come here often?" Fluttershy asked, the dog barked in agreement, "Thank you, you go on now, I'll see what they're up to." Fluttershy stated, and the dog left as she flew and followed them. Fluttershy watched the four ponies and Tracker checked the ground while Searcher flew around and looked for any puppies, "I found some dog tracks here." Tracker said, and the others went, "Search that area, Searcher." Dog Catcher ordered, "On it." Searcher answered, and he flew up, "You think we can build a mill out here?" Chain Link asked, "No, it's too risky here, we risk facing the wrath of every animal if we do it here." Dog Catcher explained, "Where do you suggest then?" Chain Link asked, "Somewhere near the edge of the forest." Dog Catcher answered, "Come on, I'm seeing signs of multiple dogs." Tracker said, "Yeah, I see them, a family is walking a bunch of dogs." Searcher added, "Let's go." Dog Catcher ordered, and they did. Fluttershy followed them and saw them arrive at an earth pony family consisting of a mother, a father, a son, and a daughter walking their pet dogs and puppies. Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker tackled them down and began snatching the puppies away, "My puppy!" the daughter exclaimed, and they tried to take their pets back while the adult dogs tried to fight them, "What are you all doing?!" the father asked, Dog Catcher had a dirty white aura on his horn and held the four ponies and adult dogs up, they began gagging and their souls flew out of their bodies. Fluttershy gasped when the ponies and adult dogs fell onto the ground, she did an animal call, Dog Catcher and his minions looked at where they heard her and various animals came and began attacking them, she heard running and saw the fox, Wepwawet, and various canines run over to help, she also saw the black dog form out of thin air and it jumped onto Tracker and began biting his neck, but he punched it off and all four of them ran away. Fluttershy and the others ran to the puppies to check on them, they went to their owners and parents to check on them, Fluttershy also went and realized they were dead. She laid her head on them and began to cry while the puppies whimpered and howled, they soon heard whimpering echoing in the sky and they looked and saw light blue flames floating in the sky, they changed to the faces of the dead dogs and they whimpered, they turned back into flames and they flew down and the black dog absorbed them. The black dog stood on its own and looked down as the whimpering of the recently dead dogs came from its body, it winced in pain again and grew a little bigger, it then walked to the puppies and comforted them. Fluttershy continued to grieve and Wepwawet walked to her and rubbed his snout on her, she looked at him and looked back to the dead ponies and dogs, she finished grieving after a while and looked at Wepwawet, "Can you look after them for me?" Fluttershy asked, Wepwawet nodded in agreement, "Thank you." Fluttershy stated, and Wepwawet commanded the puppies to come with him and the other canines, they walked with the other canines while looking down. Fluttershy looked at the fox and black dog as they looked at her, she flew to where the four ponies fled and saw a trail of blood on the ground from Tracker's wound, "Let's go." Fluttershy said, and she flew while the fox ran past her and the black dog disappeared. Chapter 4Fluttershy flew and followed the blood trail left by Tracker, the drips got smaller as she got farther, she looked to see if there was anything Tracker took anything from the wilderness to cover the wound but found no signs of him doing so, she decided to fly forward and keep following the blood trail. She heard more puppies barking and took a detour, she arrived at another puppy mill, the puppies were scratching on the cages, "Hang on, I'll get you all out." Fluttershy said as she landed, and she called various animals to come help her and they pulled the fence off. The puppies ran out and she saw several puppies limping and several dead in the mill, she looked down and closed her eyes, the black dog appeared to her left and absorbed the souls of the dead puppies into itself as the puppies' souls whimpered and echoed, it winced in pain again and grew bigger, she noticed the black dog grow even bigger when the puppy souls were louder than usual. She finished grieving and walked to the puppies, "I'm sorry to say this, but my home is far from here, and the nearest group of animals to take you all in is pretty far from here, too, we're going to have to travel together." Fluttershy explained, the puppies whimpered, "No, no, don't be like that, we'll be fine if we stick together, come on now." Fluttershy spoke, and they began walking together as a group. The group traveled together and the puppies had to rest several times due to them being hungry and unfed, Fluttershy saw one puppy farther in the back than the others and having to rest more often, "Come on, try to keep up." Fluttershy said as she picked up the puppy and put it on her back, she flew to the others and watched them, they all stood up after a while and began walking again. Fluttershy and the puppies walked more but they all smelled something in the air, "Smells like a goat. Wait, is it...?" Fluttershy asked, and they heard running and a white canine-like creature the size of a cow and with blue eyes ran to them, "*gasp* It's you." Fluttershy chirped, and she rubbed its snout on it, the puppies moved backed in terror, "It's alright, she's a friend." Fluttershy assured, the white canine-like creature went to the puppies and licked them clean, "This is a cadejo, this one helps and protects others from harm, it's her brother that you have to watch out for." Fluttershy explained, the female cadejo began traveling with them and she led the way while Fluttershy and the puppies followed. The female cadejo ran and the others tried to keep up with her, "Can you slow down a bit, please?" Fluttershy suggested, and it stopped and waited for them to catch up, they did and it walked forward, they entered another forest and saw puppies walking around while the female cadejo stopped, a creature that looked identical to her but black with red eyes walked to them, the puppies stepped back in fear, "It's okay, everypuppy, this is her brother, he's also friendly." Fluttershy explained, the puppies looked at him and he went over and examined the puppies, he did a gesture with his head and the puppies walked past him. The puppies rested while the two cadejos got them fish and they ate quickly and sloppily, they fell asleep afterwards and the female cadejo put moss on them to be used as makeshift blankets, "Where are the other animals?" Fluttershy whispered, the female cadejo walked and she followed her, they saw various other animals watching more dirty and anorexic puppies, "Are they from mills, too?" Fluttershy asked, the female cadejo shook her head and ran elsewhere and Fluttershy flew after her, she arrived at a royal guard's station and entered. Fluttershy entered the station and saw a unicorn stallion with a white coat, blue eyes, and his cutie mark was covered by his uniform, she looked and saw posters of missing puppies on the wall, she also looked and saw the unicorn's nameplate on his desk, it was White Knight, "Hey, you lost or something?" White Knight asked, "No, I've been looking for puppies that have been kidnapped and taken away by Dog Catcher and his people." Fluttershy responded, "Oh, good, there's been several missing in the nearby towns, their posters are on the board behind me." White Knight spoke, and she looked, "How long have they been missing?" Fluttershy asked, "That one there has been missing longer than the others, about a month now, this one here is the most recent one, reported missing yesterday." White Knight replied, "Where were they last reported to be seen?" Fluttershy questioned, "Well, each one's different, but several have been reported to be lost in this woods, and some are said to have suddenly took off overnight and never came back." White Knight responded, "I'll look for them." Fluttershy declared, "Thank you, it seems your status as a hero of Equestria isn't for show after all." White Knight stated, Fluttershy blushed and smiled. The door opened after they looked, they saw two mares come in, a Pegasus and a unicorn, the unicorn had a powder blue coat, long dirty white mane and tail, purple eyes, and her cutie mark was a red cross, and the Pegasus had a dark purple coat, long gray mane and tail, blue eyes, and her cutie mark was a black barbell. The two mares walked forward and went to White Knight, "Oh, First Aid, Personal Trainer, you two are already back." White Knight spoke, "Yeah, Personal Trainer and I couldn't find anypony or puppy." the unicorn replied, "We checked the towns and found nothing." Personal Trainer added, "That's unfortunate, your volunteering to find missing puppies and their owners is always greatly appreciated." White Knight said, "We're done searching for the day yet." First Aid responded, "Oh, alright then, well, this is Fluttershy, she's searching for the missing puppies, too. Fluttershy, this is First Aid and Personal Trainer, First Aid's the unicorn, and Personal Trainer's the Pegasus." White Knight spoke, "Hello there." Personal Trainer said, "Hi." Fluttershy mumbled, "You love dogs, too, Fluttershy?" First Aid asked, "Hmm-mm." Fluttershy replied while nodding, "Come on then, let's search together, we'll take you to where the last puppy we looked for was reported to be." Personal Trainer said, and the three left together while Fluttershy kept her guard up. Fluttershy walked with First Aid and Personal Trainer and watched the two carefully, "So, um... how long have you two been doing this?" Fluttershy asked, "Years, puppies and their owners have been going missing for a while now." Personal Trainer responded, "Yeah, we decided to help once when we moved here." First Aid added, "That's very kind of you two." Fluttershy stated, the two smiled and they kept walking. The three mares headed north and far away from the station, "Here we are." First Aid said, Fluttershy looked and saw nothing, a light pink aura appeared on First Aid's horn and she used telekinesis on Fluttershy, she exclaimed as she was moved forward, she gasped when she saw a puppy mill and Dog Catcher there, "Hey, Dog Catcher, look who we found at the station." First Aid said, and he looked, "Well, well, so you came as well, you two have my thanks." Dog Catcher said, and he cast a spell on Fluttershy and she felt her soul getting sucked out of her body. She wheezed as Dog Catcher smiled and she saw First Aid and Personal Trainer go to a puppy mill behind him, she watched them and saw First Aid force feeding chocolate to the puppies and Personal Trainer was standing on four puppies with each one under a hoof and making them crawl to carry her forward. Fluttershy grunted as she used her willpower to resist Dog Catcher's soul stealing spell. Dog Catcher focused and tried harder to steal her soul as she resisted, she watched and saw the black cadejo running and arrived, he tackled Personal Trainer onto the ground and bit into her neck, she screamed as he ripped her throat out. First Aid held him up with telekinesis and the white cadejo arrived and knocked Dog Catcher over, he grunted as he fell and Fluttershy took a deep breath while the white cadejo knocked First Aid down and she bit into her neck and ripped her throat out. Fluttershy got up and flew to the Dog Catcher while the two cadejos ran to him, but he quickly cast a teleporting spell and disappeared, "Come on, let's go inform White Knight." Fluttershy spoke, and they went back. Fluttershy arrived back at the royal guard station and White Knight was gone, she ran outside and looked around, "White Knight." Fluttershy called out, she and the two cadejos heard rustling to the west and ran. The three arrived into town and saw a blue aura and foals getting carried away while they exclaimed and called for help, she looked and gasped when she saw White Knight holding them up and Dog Catcher was with him. Dog Catcher took their souls and the foals screamed and died. White Knight used his telekinesis to hide the dead foals in the woods while Dog Catcher used his telekinesis to pick up more puppies and teleported away. White Knight walked forward but stopped when he saw Fluttershy scowling at him, "Whoa, Fluttershy, I didn't see you there." White Knight stated, "You work for Dog Catcher?!" Fluttershy inquired, White Knight quickly shot a zap at her and she yelped as she got knocked back, he got ready to fire another beam when the male cadejo jumped onto him from behind and knocked him down while the female cadejo stood in front of Fluttershy and guarded her. White Knight flung the male cadejo away and the female cadejo jumped onto him, she bit into him and he screamed while the male cadejo quickly got back up and the two began biting him apart while Fluttershy looked away. The noises stopped and she heard the two cadejos drag White Knight's body away, they then bumped their snouts on Fluttershy and she looked, they did nudges with their heads, "Right, the puppies." Fluttershy said, and she ran to them. The puppies were awake and ran to her, they licked her and she petted them, "Come on, let's keep moving, there's a town nearby." Fluttershy stated, and she led them while the two cadejos watched them leave. Chapter 5Fluttershy and the puppies traveled together and they saw the fox running forward, they followed it and arrived at the town again, they saw various puppies at one house, they began barking and a unicorn stallion came out of the house, he had a dull purple coat, short white mane and tail, a moustache, dark green eyes, and his cutie mark was a brown dog. The stallion ran to them, "Are they from one of Dog Catcher's puppy mills?" the stallion asked, "Yes." Fluttershy replied, "Bring them in." the stallion said, and they went to his home. Fluttershy and the puppies looked around and saw various statues of dogs in the house, "What are those?" Fluttershy asked as she pointed to the statues, "My family have worshiped dogs since ancient times, they protect us and serve us loyally." the stallion explained, a transparent dog in ceremonial robes appeared to his left, Fluttershy and the puppies looked at it, "So you can see him, what you see here is an inugami, they serve my family loyally, each member of my family gets their own." the stallion stated, "Oh, um, you still didn't introduce who you are." Fluttershy stated, "Oh, right, I'm Canine Warrior, it is my family's duty to protect dogs while they serve us in exchange." the stallion replied, "Where is the rest of your family?" Fluttershy asked, "They all already passed, I'm the last one left." Canine Warrior replied, "Oh, well, I'm going to explore the town and see if there's anyone else here." Fluttershy spoke, "Okay, make sure you don't bother the animals." Canine Warrior replied, and she went outside. Fluttershy headed outside and walked around town, she saw pretty much all of the ponies were gone, and there were only animals there, she saw felines, pigs, boars, horses, reptiles, and birds all in the town and looking after puppies, she walked around while looking at the animals and they all looked back at her for a brief second shortly before going back to tending to the puppies. She kept walking around and soon saw wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals carrying puppies on their backs and walking around, they smiled at her and kept walking while the puppies panted with their tongues out and tails wagged. Fluttershy kept walking and saw various puppies roaming the streets, she stopped when she saw one limping, she gasped and trotted to it, "Come on, it's okay, where are you staying?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy nudged its head to give the directions and they arrived a litter of kittens and a mother cat. She let go of the puppy and kittens rubbed their heads against the puppy while the mother cat walked to it, "Hello there." Fluttershy stated as she walked, the cats got defensive while the kittens growled and the mother cat hissed, "I'm not with Dog Catcher." Fluttershy commented, the mother cat hissed again, "Can I see the puppy? Please?" Fluttershy begged, the mother cat growled until the fox arrived and the felines bowed to him. He did a nudge with his head to let Fluttershy near the puppy and she did, she petted the puppy while it laid on the ground comfortably, she left afterwards and the mother cat began cleaning it. Fluttershy flew forward and saw a shrine to worship the inugami to her left, she went there and saw the fox and black dog praying to the shrine, she soon heard lightning crackling in the sky and looked up, she looked in awe when she saw a dark gray canine-like creature in the sky with yellow lightning around it, "A raiju? Here?" Fluttershy asked, and it came down from the sky and prayed to the shrine with the fox and black dog, she decided to go over and prayed with them. The four prayed until they heard walking and saw Canine Warrior and his inugami coming over, the fox bowed to it and inugami bowed to him. Canine Warrior and his inugami walked to the black dog and souls flew out of it and into the sky, "There, there, hold still, let my inugami relieve you of some of your pain." Canine Warrior spoke, and the souls went high up into the sky until they were out of sight, "There, hopefully, that'll make your quest easier." Canine Warrior said, "Um, excuse me. Canine Warrior, what did you just do?" Fluttershy asked, "My inugami just relieved some of the souls within its body, you may have figured out already, but this black dog here is an apparition, the souls of the dogs and theirs families that Dog Catcher and his minions have killed are absorbed into it, it is a spirit of vengeance created from their souls, until Dog Catcher and his minions are stopped, and the puppy mill company is shut down, their souls cannot rest." Canine Warrior explained, Fluttershy looked and saw the black dog walking around faster and more like a normal dog, it was also smaller, "Come, Fluttershy, I need help tending to the puppies at my house." Canine Warrior stated, "Of course." Fluttershy responded, and they went to his home. Fluttershy helped Canine Warrior and the inugami feed and clean the puppies, they all licked Fluttershy's face and she rubbed her snout on them, "Wow, Fluttershy, you're actually very good at taking care of them." Canine Warrior spoke, "Thank you, I actually have a sanctuary back at home where I tend to almost every kind of animal there is." Fluttershy responded, "Well, that explains a lot." Canine Warrior said, "Wait, you didn't know?" Fluttershy asked, "Sorry, but I am not one to pay attention to worldly events." Canine Warrior replied, "Oh, well, I'm famous throughout Equestria and beyond, and take care of animals in the Everfree Forest." Fluttershy explained, "Ah, well, that explains why you know how to take care of animals, come on now, I need to walk them." Canine Warrior stated, and they went outside. Fluttershy and Canine Warrior walked the puppies and took breaks whenever they were tired, they all stood up after several minutes, "You all ready to continue?" Canine Walker asked, the puppies barked, "Let's go then." Canine Warrior said, and they walked more. The two walked the puppies around the town while the various animals joined them and walked the puppies that were living with them, "Do you all do this together, Canine Warrior?" Fluttershy questioned, "Yes, I start the walk, and they all join." Canine Warrior replied, and they all walked across town and walked back while the animals separated from them when at their homes and Fluttershy and Canine Warrior arrived back, "Phew, I haven't walked that long in a while." Fluttershy commented, "You'll get used to it, when you've done it as long as I have, it'll feel like nothing." Canine Warrior replied, "True, I have to go now, Canine Warrior, I have puppies from Dog Catcher's mills to take care of back at my home." Fluttershy stated, "Go on then, and if you can, bring them here." Canine Warrior replied, and she left while they said bye to one another. Fluttershy began to head home but soon heard wolves calling for help, she flew and saw them, they began running and she followed them. She flew and saw a shack in the middle of the woods, she saw a puppy mill and Dog Catcher, Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker were there, Tracker had a cast on his neck. She heard a puppy yelping loudly inside the shack, the door opened and a unicorn stallion with a whitish-gray coat, short gray mane and tail, black eyes, and his cutie mark was a cleaver. She gasped when she saw the puppy he was carrying had its legs, tail, and teeth missing, "Next puppy." the stallion requested, "Here you go, Butcher." Chain Link responded as she handed him the next puppy, it struggled to break free and Butcher had a gray aura on his horn and restrained it as he brought the puppy in. Fluttershy heard loud thuds and a puppy yelping, the door opened and Butcher came out while holding a bloodied cleaver, and the puppy had its legs, tail, and teeth missing, "Good work, Butcher, just a few more of these attempting-to-escape parasites, and we'll be done." Dog Catcher stated as he handed the next puppy over to Butcher, "Good, I can't wait until all of these dogs are torture subjects." Butcher stated, "None of us can." Tracker replied, they chuckled as Butcher got ready to amputate the next puppy. Fluttershy flew away and she began doing various calls of helps to alert the animals, the fox, black dog, raiju, and various predators came, she directed them to the butcher shop and they began attacking. Fluttershy stood back and watched while Dog Catcher, Chain Link, Searcher, Tracker, and Butcher fought back. Dog Catcher and Butcher cast spells that made the animals turn into skeletons and their souls fly into the sky, Chain Link and Searcher picked up animals and tried dropping them to the ground while Tracker wrestled with them. Fluttershy continued watching and Canine Warrior, his inugami, and the various animals from his town arrived to help, "Fluttershy, me and the animals will fend them off, you and my inugami go in the shack and rescue the dogs." Canine Warrior ordered, "Got it." Fluttershy responded, and she and his inugami entered. Fluttershy looked around the shack while the noises of fighting outside distracted her, the inugami rubbed its head on her leg to get her attention and she focused. She flew around and gasped when she saw severed legs and tails' on the table, she kept looking around and found teeth lying around on the floor alongside several dead puppies. She flew around and did not find any puppies, the inugami called for them and they answered from under the floor, she gasped loudly at realizing they were buried alive. The inugami went through the floor and Fluttershy looked for something to pry the wooden floor with. She got startled when lightning struck through the roof and destroyed the floor, the raiju ran down and the black dog appeared and went under the floor. Fluttershy began helping the three get the puppies and they headed outside, they saw Dog Catcher teleport away while Chain Link and Searcher tried to fly away but the birds pecked them, and Tracker ran away while the animals chased him. The raiju made another lightning strike happen to burn the shack down and Fluttershy saw Butcher was dead, she gave the puppies to Canine Warrior and he and the other animals began taking them to their homes. Fluttershy walked with them and they all arrived at their homes, she checked on every puppy and the animals greeted her warmly, she smiled and checked every animal to make sure they were alright, she also saw the fox, the black dog, and the raiju checking them as well, they also paid respects to their dead companions while the souls of the dead puppies from Butcher's shack got absorbed into the black dog's body. Everycreature got on with their days and Fluttershy got ready to head back home, everycreature heard an explosion at the shrine, "What now?" Fluttershy asked, and she flew there. Everycreature arrived and looked at the destroyed shrine, "It has to be Dog Catcher's doing." Canine Warrior stated, "I think so, too." Fluttershy responded, the puppies yelped as they began to suddenly disappear, they all looked around and saw Dog Catcher floating in the air, he shot a beam at Canine Warrior's house and set it on fire. Fluttershy gasped at seeing the blaze, "Come on, the puppies are inside, let's go." Canine Warrior stated, and they did. Fluttershy and the others went to Canine Warriors house and saw it was on fire, they heard barking inside the house and scratching the surfaces. Canine Warrior teleported into the house and blew the door away, Fluttershy's jaw dropped when she saw wooden boards and realized the doors and windows were barricaded from the inside, "Fluttershy! This way! Hurry!" Canine Warrior hollered, she got startled and ran into the house. She entered and coughed from the smoke and the heat from the fire made her hot instantly, she saw the various animals from around the town inside the house and looking for the puppies, she heard loud yelps of pain and she ran and gasped when she saw some of the puppies were pinned to the floor with nails in their paws'. She looked for something for the puppies to put in their mouths and bite on, she found a piece of wood on the floor, "Here, bite on this." Fluttershy instructed, and the puppy did. She bit onto a nail with her teeth and pulled it out of the puppy's paw while it yelped in pain, "I know, I know, please bear with me." Fluttershy spoke, and she removed the other three nails while the puppy yelped loudly in agony, "Okay, I got you, hang on." Fluttershy said as she picked it up and flew outside. She went back in and saw the various animals carry out many puppies, she flew back in and went over to help, she found a puppy tied to a pole with rope. She grabbed the knot with her teeth and pulled on it to undo it, she had trouble and she heard running, she glared but saw it was the two cadejos, they helped her undo the rope and the male cadejo carried the puppy out. She flew through the burning house more and soon saw Canine Warrior shooting blasts, "Canine Warrior!" Fluttershy hollered, she then saw revived dead ponies trying to catch the animals carrying the puppies and kill them, she saw the fox helping him fight off the revived ponies and Fluttershy tried to go over to help them, the fire burned the ceiling and made part of it fall and land between her and Canine Warrior, "Leave me! I'll hold them off!" Canine Warrior said, "No! I'm not leaving you behind!" Fluttershy retorted, "Go! I'm ready to die! Make sure the puppies make it out safe!" Canine Warrior hollered, Fluttershy watched as Canine Warrior shot zaps at the mind controlled corpses as tears fell from her eyes, "Go, Fluttershy! Kill that puppy mill owner!" Canine Warrior ordered, she then watched the fox running to her and orange flames came out of his body, they disappeared and she looked on in surprise and awe, he has transformed into a nine tailed fox, he phased through the burning debris and went to Fluttershy, she then had a vision in her mind. Fluttershy saw a vision of wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals standing on a hill which were black like shadows and in a light tan background, "I was called here by our canine relatives of your land." the fox spoke in a distorted male voice, she heard the canines howling and making calling sounds, Wepwawet was among them. The picture changed to the nine tailed fox meeting with another nine tailed fox sitting on the throne, it had a crown and cape on, "I was sent to this land by my home island's emperor to investigate what was going on and put a stop to it." the nine tailed fox spoke as the vision changed to him running through the sky. The vision changed to him meeting two nine tailed foxes, one a little smaller than him, and one was a pup, "I bid farewell to my wife and son before I came to this land, they are now awaiting my return." the nine tailed fox continued and the vision changed to him running through the sky, the vision changed to him arriving into Equestria, "I was quickly informed and shown what the problem was...", the nine tailed fox said as the vision changed to him seeing dead dogs and puppies in a puppy mill, "...I now work to put an end to these mills and stop the ones running them." the nine tailed fox added, and the visions ended. Fluttershy came back to reality while the nine tailed fox stood by her side, she watched Canine Warrior fight the revived dead ponies until debris fell on them and killed Canine Warrior, the nine tailed touched Fluttershy with his paw and led her out of the house. The two arrived outside and looked at the animals, the inugami looked down, she comforted him and he soon began howling as the house burned, all the animals paid respects to Canine Warrior while the puppies whimpered. Everycreature finished grieving and the house continued to burn, they all went back while the inugami followed Fluttershy around, "Go on, you should keep him company in the afterlife." Fluttershy stated, and the inugami left, she walked around and birds calling her flew to her, "What is it?" Fluttershy asked, one bird did several caws and told her her sanctuary was on fire, "*gasp* Go help the animals! I'm coming!" Fluttershy exclaimed, and she flew quickly. Fluttershy flew to Ponyville and gasped when she saw her home and sanctuary on fire, she flew quickly and saw her friends and other animals getting her pets out. She flew down and went to her friends and Cutie Mark Crusaders, "Where are the puppies?" Fluttershy asked, they all looked around and did not see them, "What? They were right here." Apple Bloom replied, Fluttershy flew to her house and the fire, "Wait! Fluttershy!" Twilight Sparkle hollered as they went after her. She went past the hot flames and looked around for the puppies, she called out for them and soon heard barking and she looked up and saw Chain Link holding one while flying in the air while Dog Catcher was behind her and holding himself and the other puppies up with his telekinesis, "Looking for this?" Chain Link asked, "Give them back!" Fluttershy demanded, "Go get them." Chain Link said, and she threw the puppy at her home and into the fire. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle screamed while Dog Catcher threw the rest into the fire with his telekinesis, "Spike!" Twilight Sparkle called out, and he flew into the fire to get them while she used her telekinesis to bring them out. Fluttershy flew closer to the fire and quickly began getting the puppies out of it while Rainbow Dash helped her, Rarity also used her magic while Pinkie Pie and Applejack tended to them alongside the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Dog Catcher teleported himself and Chain Link away while they were distracted. Fluttershy and her friends tended to the puppies while they whimpered, "Don't cry, come on, cheer up, look." Pinkie Pie said, and she made funny faces and noises, "I don't think that's going to work, Pinkie." Rainbow Dash stated, "Yeah, Ah agree." Applejack added, "Are they going to be okay?" Sweetie Belle asked, "Well, they weren't there for very long, so burns shouldn't be very serious." Rarity responded, "Still, where were you all of this time, Fluttershy?" Scootaloo asked, "Traveling, Dog Catcher has minions and mills everywhere." Fluttershy answered, "How did ya find 'em?" Apple Bloom questioned, "A nine tailed fox led me." Fluttershy replied, "A nine tailed fox?" Twilight Sparkle asked, they heard running and he came to the puppies, "Wow, I've never seen anything like it." Spike said, "That's because they're not native to Equestria, Spike, they're from an island to the northeast." Twilight Sparkle explained, "What are you going to do now, Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie asked, "I'm going to put a stop to Dog Catcher and his company, he has gone too far this time." Fluttershy declared, "I agree, I say we look for his other mills and minions." Rainbow Dash answered, "It's fine, Rainbow, I have other animals to help me." Fluttershy replied, "Ya sure about that, Fluttershy, it's winter and it's gonna start snowing soon." Applejack stated, "I'll be fine, I promise." Fluttershy responded, and they tended to the puppies and put out the fire. Fluttershy called all of her animals and instructed them to investigate all of Equestria for Dog Catcher's mills and destroy them alongside stopping those working for him, she also told them she was going to shut down his main mill and they all began searching while she looked at the nine tail fox, "Lead the way." Fluttershy instructed, and he did while she followed him. Chapter 6Fluttershy followed the nine tailed fox and went far away from Ponyville, she flew up higher to see where Dog Catcher's main mill was, she did not see it, the nine tailed fox went up into the sky and ran, she flew with them and saw a factory in the middle of nowhere, the black dog ran to it and she followed it. The two arrived at the factory and heard puppies bark from inside, the tried to open the locked door but could not, the inugami appeared and tried to help them but they still had trouble, they then heard lightning crackling and they moved back, the raiju shot a bolt of lightning at the door and destroyed, all five of them went inside. Fluttershy and the four canines entered the factory with her and saw many puppies in cages, they were all dirty and anorexic, some had wounds on them, "Come on, let's free them." Fluttershy ordered, the nine tailed fox, black dog, inugami, and raiju shook their heads and did a nudge, Fluttershy looked and saw Chain Link patrolling the area, a puppy had its paws on the cage and barked, "Get your filthy paws off the cage." Chain Link ordered as she kicked the puppy, it yelped and fell, it began to whimper and she left. Fluttershy flew to the mills and the puppies quivered at seeing her, "It's okay, I'm not with them." Fluttershy spoke, the black dog looked at the puppies and whimpering was heard coming from its body again, "Hang on a bit, we're going to get you all out." Fluttershy stated, and she left. Fluttershy went to where she saw Chain Link go to and saw her in an office with Searcher and Tracker, she ducked and watched the three, she saw them conversing but could not hear them. They looked at a map and Fluttershy tried to see what it was but could not, they then heard knocking at the door and the three began to walk forward. They opened the door and Fluttershy and the four canines hid behind it, Chain Link threw the door back and it closed as they walked away, the five then entered the office. Fluttershy and the four canines looked around the office and found a telegraph there, they also looked at a map and saw red x's the mills Fluttershy and the other animals destroyed. The five kept looking and saw a picture of Dog Catcher's minions, there were red x's on Knock Out, Poison Fist, Lights Out, Bluebird, Cardinal, Orange Tiger, Indigo Dragon, Cat Lover, White Knight, First Aid, Personal Trainer, and Butcher. They looked and saw there were four more minions, they were three stallions and a mare, one stallion had a light purple coat, a long red mane, and blue eyes, another stallion had a yellow coat, a long green mane tied into a braided ponytail, orange eyes, and wore glasses, the third stallion was a unicorn, he had a light tan coat, long dark gray mane, and red eyes, and the mare had a dark purple coat, long blue mane, and turquoise eyes. The five looked and saw the mare was actually stationed nearby while the other three stallions lived a bit far away, they left the room to see what it was. Fluttershy and the canines went and saw Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker with the mare from the picture and another Pegasus mare who had a powder blue coat, long light red mane and tail, pink eyes, and her cutie mark was a sewing needle with a black thread through it, the dark purple mare was a Pegasus in a royal guard uniform. The mare looked at the puppies in the cages, "What do you want?" Tracker asked, "What the? I was told this is an animal shelter." the mare stated, "It is, now what do you want?" Chain Link asked, "I was going to hand over my pet dogs since I didn't want them, but now that I see how filthy this place is, and the injuries on those puppies there, I've changed my mind, I'm handing my dogs over to another shelter." the mare declared, "Give us your dogs!" Tracker demanded, "No!" the mare retorted, the Pegasus royal guard held her down and Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker began beating her up and she screamed. The nine tailed fox, black dog, inugami, and raiju ran to them and attacked them, they grunted loudly and tried to fight them off, "Lavender, get the dogs!" Chain Link ordered, "I'm trying." the dark purple mare responded as the inugami held her down, she managed to break free and flew outside, "Run!" the mare ordered to her dogs, Tracker punched her on the back of her head and she grunted while Searcher covered her mouth. Lavender ran outside and got ready to get the dogs, but the raiju summoned lightning and it struck her. She screamed as the yellow lightning electrocuted her for a few seconds shortly before disappearing and she fell to the ground with black smoke coming out of her body. The ponies looked on in shock and Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker quickly broke free and ran to her, Tracker checked her pulse, "Well? How is she?" Chain Link asked, "She's dead." Tracker responded, "Come on, let's get the dogs." Chain Link said, and they ran after them. Fluttershy flew to the Pegasus and she was panting, "Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, the mare looked up, "Fluttershy?" the mare asked, "Yes, it's me." Fluttershy answered, "You're not with them, are you?" the mare asked, "No, of course not, I'm here to shut down their operations." Fluttershy replied, "Oh, well, can you do me a favor and get my dogs for me while I search around this place for the operating area?" the mare requested, "Of course, I can use some help." Fluttershy answered, the mare smiled and got up, she began walking forward, "Wait, what's your name?" Fluttershy questioned, "Sewing Needle." the mare replied, "Alright, Sewing Needle, I leave finding the machines to you." Fluttershy said, and she headed outside. Fluttershy and the four canines headed outside and looked for Sewing Needle's dogs, she listened and heard animals running in two different directions, she called the birds and told them to look for two dogs alongside Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker, and they flew. The birds flew around and looked for dogs while Fluttershy flew with them, they heard hoofs galloping to the east and she looked, she saw Tracker chasing a dog, he jumped on the dog and tackled it onto the ground, "Searcher! I got it!" Tracker hollered, Searcher flew to help him restrain the puppy and the two began trying to make it unconscious by punching it in its head. Fluttershy did bird calls and they attacked the two stallions, they fought back and the nine tailed fox and black dog attacked them and bit into them, they screamed in agony and Fluttershy turned away when she heard flesh being torn. She turned back and saw Searcher and Tracker have been killed while the nine tailed fox and black dog looked at the dog, she flew down and saw the dog had bruises on its head, "Take it to Sewing Needle, let's get the other one." Fluttershy ordered, and they left. The five went to the west and saw Chain Link holding an unconscious dog with red hoof marks on its head, the raiju cast lightning and Chain Link quickly flew to the side to dodge it while dropping the dog, Fluttershy flew to the dog while the inugami ran, it fell past her before she could reach it but the inugami caught it, the raiju cast more lightning as Chain Link dodged them and quickly flew away. The five checked the dog and saw it had hoof marks on its head, "Let's bring them to Sewing Needle, we'll go after Chain Link and find the other three ponies who work for Dog Catcher later." Fluttershy ordered, and they went back. The five went back to the factory with the two dogs and saw Sewing Needle standing outside, "Fluttershy! It's horrible!" Sewing Needle exclaimed as she ran to them, "What is it?" Fluttershy asked, "The factory, I couldn't believe what I saw in the back." Sewing Needle replied, "You go on home, Sewing Needle, we got your dogs for you." Fluttershy stated, "Thank you, I'll keep them with me before I send them to the animal shelter, and the controls to the factory are in the very back." Sewing Needle responded, and she carried the two and flew home while Fluttershy and the four canines entered the factory. She entered and the puppies barked at her while scratching the cages, "Hold on, I'll get you all out soon, I'm going to shut down this factory first." Fluttershy spoke, the puppies became quiet and she flew to the back. She went past Chain Link's office and arrived at the back of the factory and gasped at what she saw, she saw adult dogs with their legs' amputated and breeding puppies, some of the puppies had scabs and bruises on them. She walked to one of the adult dogs while the puppies ran away from her, "What's going on here?" Fluttershy questioned, a male adult dog barked and said Dog Catcher and his minions were using him and other adult dogs as breeding slaves to create puppies to be used as torture subjects. Fluttershy gasped while reeling up on her hind legs, she looked and saw some of the puppies were missing legs and parts of their ears', she saw one puppy was missing an eye, and some had broken claws, tears began to fall from her eyes as she saw their injuries. Whimpering was heard from the black dog's body and it echoed, it stood in place while it absorbed the souls of the dead canines in the cages and grew considerably bigger, "All of you hang tight, I'm going to destroy this factory." Fluttershy said, a female adult dog barked and told her about Dog Catcher sending away some of the puppies to three stallions, she said they were a light purple Pegasus named Bookkeeper, a yellow earth pony named Weapons Enthusiast, and a light tan unicorn named Black Magic, "I saw their pictures." Fluttershy stated, and she looked at the hall, she put on a brave face and went forward. Fluttershy flew to the back of the factory and saw dead canines on conveyor belts and being processed into meat to be fed to the other dogs, "Come on, let's destroy it." Fluttershy declared, and the raiju summoned lightning that made the conveyor belts exploded and a fire started, the dead canines fell onto the floor and the black dog absorbed their souls while the nine tailed fox summoned fire onto the machinery to destroy them, sparks came out and flew everywhere, "Hold on, let me shut it down first so a fire doesn't start." Fluttershy said, and she looked for the control panel, she found it on the conveyor belt where the meat cuts came out. She went to it and moved the levers with her mouth and turned off everything in the factory, the four canines began destroying everything and ripped the fences off of the cages and freed all the dogs, "What is going on?" Chain Link asked as she came in, all of the mobile canines run and jumped on her and she screamed as they tore her to pieces. Fluttershy looked away and covered her ears while the canines killed her, they stopped and she headed out while looking away from Chain Link's body and went outside. Fluttershy flew up and looked for the houses of Bookkeeper, Weapons Enthusiast, and Black Magic, she called for the birds and told them to help her find the three stallions and they flew around while she continued searching. She looked around for where the three could be until several birds came back a few minutes later and chirped, "Lead the way." Fluttershy commanded, and they did. She flew to the north and heard voices, she realized it was Dog Catcher and a colt, she saw Bookkeeper, Weapons Enthusiast, and Black Magic there as well, "I want a puppy!" the colt declared, "Get lost, kid, only certain people are allowed to buy from me." Dog Catcher replied, "But I want one now!" the colt fumed as he jumped up and down, Dog Catcher glared and held him up with his telekinesis, "Since you won't leave, you can die!" Dog Catcher declared, and he began to suck the soul out of his body, "Wait, Dog Catcher." Black Magic spoke as a brown aura appeared on his horn, "His parents will become suspicious if you kill him." Black Magic said, "Not my concern, since he likes dogs, I assume his family likes them as well, they can die, too." Dog Catcher retorted, and he sucked the soul out of the colt's body and killed him, "Come on, you three, take the dogs." Dog Catcher ordered, "Well, might as well." Weapons Enthusiast replied, "Yeah, we'll look for his family afterwards." Bookkeeper added, "It's fine, I'll do it, myself, since Lavender, Searcher, and Tracker have been killed, I haven't heard from Chain Link recently, either." Dog Catcher spoke, and he and Black Magic teleported away while Bookkeeper and Weapons Enthusiast headed home. Fluttershy followed Bookkeeper to the north to see where he was going and they arrived far away from the factory, she also saw all of Dog Catcher's puppy mills while following him have been destroyed. She arrived at Bookkeeper's home and saw graves in his backyard, he entered his home and she looked through a window. She saw starved puppies in cages and some of them killing other dogs just for food, Bookkeeper watched them and wrote down what he observed in a book. The puppies he brought home began to look for a way out of the house but he flew and caught them and threw them into the cages. Fluttershy screamed when the big dogs in the cage tried to kill and eat the puppies, the four canines rammed the door and broke it down, they jumped on Bookkeeper and he screamed as they tore him apart with their teeth and his blood splattered on a window. The four canines threw his body into the cage and they ate him and calmed down, they went back outside while Fluttershy just looked on disturbed, they bumped their heads on her to bring back to reality, "Sorry." Fluttershy spoke, and she did a calling sound and the dogs and puppies head outside to her, "Oh my, he didn't feed you all, let's see if there's any food in his house." Fluttershy spoke, and they entered and looked for food, "Sorry, but this is the best I can find." Fluttershy stated and she gave them peanuts, "Sit here, I'll be back." Fluttershy said, and she flew elsewhere. Fluttershy flew around and saw more destroyed puppy mills, she called for the birds and they flew to her and led her to the south. She arrived at Weapons Enthusiast's house and saw puppies in his backyard with scrapes, bruises, broken claws, and knocked out teeth, they all backed away from him, "Don't be like that, I got a new toy for you all." Weapons Enthusiast said, and he took out a stun rod. He put it on a puppy and it whimpered as it got electrocuted, it died while he chuckled, "This is pretty effective after all." Weapons Enthusiast stated, and he got ready to electrocute another puppy. The raiju used its magic to make the lightning come out of the stun rod and electrocute him, he screamed and tried to resist, he turned around and tried to throw the stun rod, he did and Fluttershy strafed to dodge it, he then groaned and fell over. Fluttershy flew down to the puppies and they ran to her, "Shh, it's okay, he won't hurt you all anymore." Fluttershy stated as she comforted them, and they calmed down, "Wait here, I'll be back for you." Fluttershy promised, and she flew up and called for the birds, "Lead me to Black Magic's house." Fluttershy commanded, and they did. Fluttershy flew to the northeast and saw even more destroyed puppy mills, she smiled at seeing the animals have freed the puppies, she arrived at Black Magic's house and saw graves in his backyard, she noticed some of them were too big to be for dogs and deduced they were ponies. She looked around and saw puppies in cages in his backyard and he was sitting in a chair, "Come on now, you gotta do better than that, don't disappoint your mommy." Black Magic spoke, she looked and gasped when she saw a puppy being forced to hold an adult dog up with its body while the adult dog had a noose around its neck. The puppy fell a second later and the adult dog's neck snapped, the puppy began to whimper while Black Magic smiled and got another adult dog, "I'll give you another try, let's see if you'll have better luck with your dad." Black Magic said as he put another adult dog on the puppy's body and a noose around its neck with his magic. The puppy fell immediately and the adult dog began to fall, "No!" Fluttershy hollered as she flew forward and held the adult dog up with her hoofs, "Begone, dog sympathizer!" Black Magic hollered as he shot a spell from his horn. The black dog appeared between him and the puppy and the zap hit him but did nothing, souls flew out of its body and they took the form of dogs and they jumped on Black Magic, he screamed as they tore him apart with their claws', they did and went back into the black dog's body. The inugami ran to the adult dog and used its teeth to break the noose, the puppy walked forward and Fluttershy put the dog down, "Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked as she looked at the red mark on the dog's neck, he went over to the puppy and the two howled at the dead dog. She went over to the other dogs and saw burn marks on them from Black Magic's zaps, they ran to her and began licking her, she began to laugh, "Hey, that tickles." Fluttershy stated as they continued to lick her, "Okay, that's enough." Fluttershy said after a few minutes and took them off of her, "I'm going to put an end to their operations today, I'll be back for you all." Fluttershy spoke, and she flew away. She flew up into the sky and looked for Dog Catcher, she flew around Equestria and could not find him anywhere, she only saw destroyed puppy mills and no canines in or around them. She heard a magic spell being cast and she flew to the east, but only saw it was a colt practicing his magic, she flew elsewhere and heard more magic being cast, she ignored them until she heard wheezing in a house. She flew down and looked through a window and saw Dog Catcher in the house, he took the souls of a stallion and a mare and killed them, she looked and saw a picture of the two with the colt Dog Catcher killed earlier, he smiled and teleported away. Fluttershy glared and flew back to the factory. Fluttershy arrived back at the destroyed factory and took the map on where Dog Catcher, his minions, and where his mills were at, she saw his house was marked on the map. She went outside and called for the birds, she instructed them to find Dog Catcher's house and they flew away. She tended to the puppies and adult dogs in the factory while she waited, she heard chirping about 30 minutes later and went outside, they informed her they found his home, "Lead the way." Fluttershy commanded, and they flew and she followed them. Chapter 7Fluttershy flew to the west and the birds guided her to Dog Catcher's house, she arrived at a small wooden cabin with a mansion a few yards behind it, she also saw dead dogs around the house. The black dog absorbed the souls of the puppies and it stood still while in pain, it also grew bigger, "Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked as the black dog just stood still, it shook its head and began moving again, "Good, let's continue." Fluttershy spoke, and they headed over to Dog Catcher's home. She landed and looked around his yard, she saw the dead dogs were already decaying and was luckily spared from the smell due to the season currently being winter, they found various graves under their bodies and the black dog absorbed the souls, about thirty to fifty souls came out of each grave, it grew much bigger and fell to its knees, it had trouble standing. Fluttershy's jaw dropped for a moment and she quickly flew over to the black dog and tried to hold it up, "Come on, we're almost done, just a little longer." Fluttershy spoke, and the black dog huffed a little as it tried to stand. The inugami walked to it and made a staff with six rings appear, it hit the ground with the bottom of the staff and the six rings made a noise. Souls flew out of the black dog's body and into the sky, they went in front of the inugami and they whimpered. The inugami made the staff disappear and did a gesture with its front paw to send the souls to the afterlife while the black dog stood up, "Can you move?" Fluttershy asked, the black dog walked perfectly, "Good, come on now." Fluttershy spoke, and they went into the cabin. Fluttershy and the four canines entered the cabin and looked around, everything looked normal at the entrance, they walked forward and found various tools and torture devices in the next room, each one had fur and dried blood on it. Tears began to fall from Fluttershy's eyes as she looked at each one, she was especially disturbed at seeing clipped and broken claws in several pairs of pliers, "He... ripped the claws off of the puppies with pliers?" Fluttershy asked as she looked on in horror and tears continued to fall from her eyes, the nine tailed fox bumped his head on her leg and she came back to reality, "Sorry, it was too sad for me to ignore, I'm ready to continue." Fluttershy spoke, and they walked around the cabin. She looked for Dog Catcher and did not find him anywhere, they went into the back room and saw it was the bathroom, they checked it and found nothing, they left and checked the last room to the right and it was Dog Catcher's bedroom. They checked and found several dead dogs under his bed, they were contorted with faces of agony, "What did he do to them?" Fluttershy asked, she looked on and came out from under his bed. She walked around the house and went back to the main entrance, "What's this room for?" Fluttershy asked, she looked around some more and saw the door to the attic. She flew up and bit the string and pulled it on it to open the attic, she went up the stairs and saw the attic was a makeshift torture chamber, a tear fell from her eye again and she went back down. She closed the attic and looked around more and found the cellar door, she opened it and went under the house. The four canines followed her down the stairs and Fluttershy exclaimed when she saw dead foals in the attic and she began to cry, she looked and saw one dead foal had a dog's collar in his hoof, another had a photo of her family and pet dog, she cried more while the four canines watched her. She cried a bit and could not get herself together, the four canines dragged her out of the cellar with their mouths and back into the main room, she continued to cry a bit and panted a little as she composed herself, "I... I never seen anything so sad and so cruel." Fluttershy said, she continued to stand in place while continuing to regain herself. She and the four canines heard stomping outside and it was getting louder, they quickly ran into another room to hide. The five hid in Dog Catcher's bedroom and watched, the door flew open while it hit the wall and bounced forward, they saw Dog Catcher come in, "That stupid mare, it's because of her that all of my childhood friends are dead and all of mills are destroyed, my company's done for, I'm going to kill that Fluttershy." Dog Catcher grumbled as he stomped around. He went into the cellar and Fluttershy and the four canines tried to sneak out, she opened the door quietly and it creaked a bit, Dog Catcher cast a spell and teleported into the room, "Well, well, the timing couldn't be any more perfect. Die, Fluttershy." Dog Catcher said as he began to try to suck her soul out of her body again. The four canines ran to him and Dog Catcher teleported elsewhere as he tried to kill Fluttershy, he cast another spell to revive the dead dogs and foals in his house and they attacked the canines. Fluttershy continued to resist while Dog Catcher scowled and focused, he tried to steal Fluttershy's soul again and the inugami made its staff appear and hit the ground to make its six rings produce a noise. Canine Warrior's ghost appeared and it shot a zap at Dog Catcher, he grunted as he fell onto the ground outside and Fluttershy wheezed. The revived ponies and dogs continued attacking them while Dog Catcher teleported away, Fluttershy stood up and tried to carry the canines away from the revived dogs and ponies under Dog Catcher's control while Canine Warrior's ghost began casting a spell to undo it, Fluttershy and the four canines went outside while the revived dogs and ponies focused on him. Fluttershy and the canines arrived outside and they saw Dog Catcher on the roof of the mansion, he cast a spell and all of the dead dogs around his house rose from their graves and began attacking them. The canines held them off while Fluttershy flew up and tried to go after Dog Catcher, but he shot her down with a spell and she began to fall, the revived dogs stood in place and waited for her to come down so they could eat her. She continued to fall and flapped her wings to gain momentum, she did a flip in the air and flew up. The dogs began jumping and trying to bite her, she looked back and saw Dog Catcher was trying to cast another spell, she flew around quickly and he growled. The raiju howled and summoned a lightning strike, it electrocuted Dog Catcher and he screamed, he growled and teleported away. Fluttershy and the four canines tried to get the revived dogs off of them and were getting overwhelmed, she did a canine's call for help, she heard canines far away do the same call and she smiled. Canine Warrior flung the revived ponies away with his magic and tried to cast a spell to break Dog Catcher's control, he had trouble and noticed Dog Catcher's hold on them was very strong. He saw the nine tailed fox used his magic to make an illusion and look like they were dead, the mind controlled dogs walked around and smelled each illusion of a dead body. Fluttershy watched the dogs and noticed they could not find them, she also saw the nine tailed fox standing still and holding the illusion as long as he could. Running was heard and many wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals came and attacked the revived dogs, Wepwawet and the two cadejos were among them, the dogs were mauled to the point of being immobile and Dog Catcher stopped controlling them. The other canines ran to Fluttershy and checked her, "I'm fine, thank you." Fluttershy said, they all looked forward and saw many revived ponies and dogs around the mansion, "You go on and get Dog Catcher, Fluttershy, we'll deal with them." Canine Warrior spoke as his voice echoed, "Okay." Fluttershy replied, and they went forward. Fluttershy and the others headed to the mansion and the other Pegasi tackled her and she grunted as she fell, the female cadejo jumped and tried to bite them but they flew out of range. The raiju howled and summoned lightning and electrocuted the ponies, they were all stunned at the moment and Fluttershy flew to the mansion. The unicorns cast a spell and tried to break free from the paralysis, they heard Dog Catcher growl and his voice echoed from inside the mansion, she flew to the second floor but got pushed back by a force field and fell onto the ground. Canine Warrior began casting a spell to open the force field and the inugami walked around him and was ready to attack whoever approached. Fluttershy tried to get back up but the earth ponies began kicking her, she covered herself with her legs and screamed, the foxes and wolves ran to her and they jumped and bit into the mind controlled ponies, Wepwawet picked up Fluttershy and carried her away while the nine tailed fox's eyes glowed and the mind controlled ponies were set on fire. Fluttershy coughed and gagged from the smell of burning corpses and Canine Warrior managed to create an opening in the force field, "Go, Fluttershy, I won't be able to hold it open for long." Canine Warrior ordered, and she flew into the force field and it closed. She tried to fly up to the second floor again but there was not enough space for her to get through, so she landed entered the mansion at its entrance. Fluttershy entered the mansion and saw big ornate vases to her sides, she walked forward and saw pictures of dead dogs hung on the walls. She walked forward and saw a picture in a glass case, it was a picture of Dog Catcher, Chain Link, Searcher, Tracker, Poison Fist, Knock Out, Lights Out, Cardinal, Bluebird, Orange Tiger, Indigo Dragon, Cat Lover, First Aid, Personal Trainer, White Knight, Butcher, Lavender, Bookkeeper, Weapons Enthusiast, and Black Magic all smiling and each one holding a severed dog's head. Fluttershy looked at the picture for a few seconds before she picked up the glass case and threw it, it shattered on impact when it hit the floor, she then looked to her left and saw the dining room, she looked to her right and saw Dog Catcher's bedroom, she saw a door in the back of the room and opened it, it was the bathroom, she closed the door and flew up the stairs. Fluttershy saw the stairs divide to two paths, she went to the left first and opened the door, she saw it was a library, she looked and saw books on dog anatomy and torture devices, she also found a book on how to build traps for hunting animals. She left the room and went to the stairs to the right, she came into a lab and gagged when she saw a dead dog with its organ exposed on the table, she looked to her left and saw various fences and cages, she realized she was in the supply room, she quickly flew to the back of the room and saw another door to her left, she opened it and entered. Fluttershy arrived in the back of the mansion and was in another room with Dog Catcher there and guiding the revived ponies with his magic, he looked to his left and saw her, "So you did make it this far, I lost my company and friends because of you." Dog Catcher spoke, "What you're doing isn't right!" Fluttershy fumed, "Why not? Those dogs are parasites." Dog Catcher retorted, "Have you ever wondered how many families and hearts of animal and pet lovers you have destroyed?!" Fluttershy inquired, "It's their fault, they shouldn't have been dog sympathizers in the first place." Dog Catcher answered, Fluttershy's anger rose and she tackled him onto the floor, "Don't you regret what you did?!" Fluttershy asked, "The only thing I regret is not torturing and killing more dogs than I already did." Dog Catcher responded, Fluttershy looked on horrified and Dog Catcher shot her away with a zap from her horn and he ran away, she ran after him. Fluttershy went up a short flight of stairs and pushed the double doors open as hard as she could, "Stop where you are!" Fluttershy demanded, Dog Catcher looked back at her with a scowl, he turned around and shot a zap out of his horn. She flew to the side and dodged it easily, she flew to him and tried to tackle him down but he teleported to another part of the room and shot a big blast out of his horn at her, she strafed and dodged the blast, she flew to him and Dog Catcher's eyes widened when he saw Fluttershy flew as fast as Rainbow Dash when she was serious. She flew after him again and Dog Catcher shot several zaps at her and she flew around and dodged all of them, he cast a spell and made an explosion happen all around him, Fluttershy shrieked as the force made her fall out of the air. Dog Catcher held her up with his telekinesis and flung her around the room and hit her into the walls and ceiling, he soon threw her towards himself and shot a big blast at her, she quickly flew to the side and dodged it, Dog Catcher glared while growling under his breath. Fluttershy flew to him and tackled him onto the floor, she used The Stare on him to try to make him stand down, Dog Catcher looked into her eyes and he began to sweat a bit, she continued to stare at him while his eyes widened a bit, he then shot a zap at her and she shrieked as she fell onto the floor. Dog Catcher teleported to her and stood on top of her, he began jumping up and down on her back, she screamed from the pain and he soon heard running inside his mansion, he looked for a minute and saw the female cadejo come in and she jumped onto him and tackled him down, he grunted as he fell. Fluttershy stood up while the female cadejo stood in front of her, Dog Catcher huffed and shot a zap at the two, they moved away to dodge it and Fluttershy flew to him again at high speeds, he made the explosion happen again and Fluttershy screamed as she got shot back, she did a flip in the air and was flying stably again. Dog Catcher's eyes widened at seeing her recover, he desperately shot beams at her and she dodged each one, the female cadejo jumped onto him from his blind spot and he grunted as he fell. She got ready to bite into him but he quickly teleported away, Dog Catcher tried to suck the soul out of the female cadejo but she resisted, Fluttershy flew to him and tackled him down and used The Stare on him again. Dog Catcher looked away but Fluttershy grabbed his face with her hoofs and made him look into her eyes, his eyes widened and he looked on in fear at her, "Alright, I give up." Dog Catcher stated, and he stood down and stopped controlling the ponies. Fluttershy got off of him and she and the female cadejo watched him, his horn lit up and and the aura soon disappeared, "I just contacted that unicorn, I have a confession to make." Dog Catcher said, and Canine Warrior appeared in the room with Wepwawet, the nine tailed fox, the black dog, the male cadejo, the inugami, and the raiju, "Good, now that I have you all in one place, I kill you all at once!" Dog Catcher hollered gleefully while he cast a spell and floated into the air, "Come! All of my dogs!" Dog Catcher stated, and all of the dogs from his puppy mills gathered together around the mansion as they heard whimpering. The mansion began to shake and everybody headed to the roof and looked, they saw Dog Catcher forcibly fuse the canines together into a giant, light blue, transparent dog. Fluttershy and the others looked on at the giant canine and the puppies and dogs that made up its body struggled to break free, "Go after Dog Catcher, we'll hold it off." Canine Warrior stated, "Okay." Fluttershy replied, and she looked for him while the others fought the giant canine. She saw Dog Catcher floating in midair and controlling the creature with his magic, she flew up and tried to reach him but he summoned strong gusts of wind to push her back. She exclaimed as the wind blew her around and made debris fly everywhere, he then shot beams out of his horn at the others and Canine Warrior cast a shield. Fluttershy flew up while Dog Catcher summoned lightning strikes with his magic and a downpour began, the giant canine ducked down and tried to bite the canines and Canine Warrior, they all jumped back while the nine tailed fox tried to shoot fire at Dog Catcher and the raiju tried to make lightning strike him. Dog Catcher floated around while dodging everything, he saw a lightning strike coming down and quickly put up a shield to block it, Fluttershy flew to him while he was distracted and tried to grab and restrain him, he teleported elsewhere and shot beams at her. She flew over all of them and she flew as fast she could and got a hold of him. Dog Catcher grunted as he tried to break free from Fluttershy's grip, the giant canine tried to bite her and she flew away from it. Dog Catcher teleported out of her grip and reappeared behind her, he restrained her by wrapping his front legs around her neck and she gagged, he then went down and offered her to the giant canine for it to eat. The two cadejos ran and jumped, they bit Dog Catcher but he ignored them as the giant canine's teeth came closer and was about to eat her. Canine Warrior shot a zap at Dog Catcher and he grunted as Fluttershy fell, she flew again and saw Dog Catcher teleport again. He reappeared and shot a big beam at the canines while Canine Warrior shot a beam from his horn and the two entered a deadlock, the two were equally powered and the inugami shot a beam out of its paw and it blew Dog Catcher a few millimeters back while his spell stopped. Fluttershy flew to Dog Catcher again but the giant canine bit and held onto her tail, she screamed as it pulled her away from him, it began swinging its head around and bashing her into the ground and the walls of the mansion. The nine tailed fox ran on the air and tried to get Fluttershy while the raiju tried to stun the giant canine with lightning strikes but it did nothing. Wepwawet ran and jumped onto Dog Catcher, he grunted and flew around while Wepwawet stabbed his claws into him. He bit the back of Dog Catcher's neck with his sharp teeth and he screamed, he teleported away and Wepwawet began to fall and Canine Warrior caught him with his telekinesis and brought him back. The nine tailed fox summoned fire onto the giant canine and it winced in pain while the dogs in it yelped, it let go of Fluttershy and she flew again. She flew to Dog Catcher and he shot a giant beam at her and she flew under it, she tackled Dog Catcher and they landed on the mansion's roof. Dog Catcher panted and he was unable to move due to Wepwawet's bite, he quickly cast another spell and transferred Fluttershy into the giant canine's mouth while he teleported and kept himself up in the air with his telekinesis, Fluttershy screamed while the giant canine's teeth sank into her. The wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals that were on the ground ran and jumped onto the giant canine, they stabbed their claws and bit it but it did nothing, everybody watched while Dog Catcher smiled. Loud howling and whimpering was heard echoing and everybody looked and saw it coming from the black dog's body, it glared and growled and began growing to a gargantuan size, the mansion's roof broke while Canine Warrior teleported himself and the others away. The black dog absorbed the souls of every canine killed by Dog Catcher and grew bigger and blocked out the sun, the residents of Equestria saw it and looked on in awe. The black dog walked to the giant canine and slammed its front legs onto its shoulders and knocked it down, it let go of Fluttershy and it began to absorb Dog Catcher's magical energy into itself. Fluttershy flew to the others and watched, "What's it doing?" Fluttershy asked, "It's destroying Dog Catcher's magic energy, the souls of their families and fellow dogs from the mills that have died are all working together to save them." Dog Catcher explained, she watched and heard lots of whimpering from inside of the black dog's body, it absorbed all of the magic and destroyed it inside its body. Fluttershy flew to the puppies and dogs while the black dog walked to Dog Catcher, he shot zaps at it and they became smoke upon touching the black dog's body, it bit him and held onto him with its teeth. Dog Catcher screamed loudly as it bit down on all four of his legs, he began to cast a spell and Canine Warrior quickly shot a big beam from his horn and it hit Dog Catcher's horn and broke it, he screamed in agony and the black dog then threw him onto the ground and it changed back to its normal size. Dog Catcher groaned and heard faint walking, he saw wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals surround him, they growled as they walked closer to him and Wepwawet stood in front of him, "Wait, no. No!" Dog Catcher exclaimed as they all jumped on him and he screamed as they mauled him and tore him apart. The black dog stood and looked down while Fluttershy comforted it, "It's okay, you did great, I'm proud of you for stopping him." Fluttershy said, they and the others walked to the dogs and puppies and saw them get up, "It's over." Fluttershy spoke, "No, not yet, we still need to get them to a new home and somewhere safe." Canine Warrior replied, "Can you teleport them to my sanctuary?" Fluttershy asked, and he tried to cast a spell but could not, "Nope, my body's too tired, I'm not as young as I used to be, we're going to have to walk." Canine Warrior stated, "That's okay, come on, everyanimal, let's take them to my sanctuary." Fluttershy instructed, snow began to fall afterwards, "Oh no, it's going to get cold, we have to get moving now." Fluttershy spoke, and the dogs that could move walked while the ones that could not were carried on the backs of the wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals, "Come on, this way." Fluttershy stated, and she walked while they followed her. Chapter 8Fluttershy walked and led the canines as they walked through the snow, they had trouble due to the snow already being up to their ankles, "Come on now, we have to push or it'll get worse." Fluttershy stated, and they moved slowly as Canine Warrior and the inugami helped the injured puppies move along while the dogs that had their legs' severed were carried on the backs of the other canines. They all walked through the snow and some of the puppies fell to their knees', "No, you can't rest now, you'll freeze to death, we'll rest if we can find shelter." Fluttershy stated, and they got up and walked again, but some fell a second afterwards, the nine tailed fox, black dog, two cadejos, raiju, Wepwawet, and other canines carried them on their backs, they walked through the snow a bit more and some of the dogs began sneezing, "Bless you, are you all alright?" Canine Warrior asked as he checked them, Fluttershy went over and checked them as well, "They're getting sick." Fluttershy said, "They're still young, let's keep moving." Canine Warrior added, and they kept pushing forward. They all walked through the snow and it got heavier, Canine Warrior tried to see if he could teleport them now but could not, "How much farther to your home, Fluttershy?" Canine Warrior asked, "It's pretty far, actually." Fluttershy answered, and the puppies looked down, "I know, but we'll rest if we can find shelter." Fluttershy spoke, and they all kept walking forward. Fluttershy, Canine Warrior, and the canines all walked together and some of the puppies began to pant, the foxes and wolves tried to hold them up as they walked together, they struggled through the snow and Fluttershy began to shiver a little, the canines walked up to her and surrounded her to warm her up, "Thank you." Fluttershy stated, and they continued walking. They went through the snow and Fluttershy was beginning to get tired, she heard many canines panting behind her as they had trouble, the snow got harder and was almost a blizzard, "Oh, I didn't think it was going to snow this hard." Fluttershy stated, "Go, inugami, get help." Canine Warrior instructed, "Wait, let's try calling for help." Fluttershy replied, and she did a calling sound and the other canines did as well. The calling sound traveled through the area and there was no response. Everypony was getting ready for the winter and they soon heard the many canines doing the calling sound, the Apple family's attention was caught, "Someone's dog's in trouble." Apple Bloom stated, "It ain't one dog, listen." Applejack responded, and she heard the calling sounds of hundreds of canines, "I hear them wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals if Ah ain't mistakin'." Granny Smith said, "Wait, could them dogs be with Fluttershy?" Apple Bloom asked, "Now that ya mention it, it might be her, she must be in trouble, we need to help." Applejack responded, "Eeyup." Big Macintosh added, they heard running and saw Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity coming, "We think it's Fluttershy calling for help." Twilight Sparkle stated, "I tried to see, but the snow's blocking the view." Rainbow Dash added, "We think it's her, too, we need somethin' with Fluttershy's scent on it." Applejack stated, "Ooh, I know, let's get one of her pets." Pinkie Pie stated, "That won't be necessary, darling, I have several outfits she has worn." Rarity replied, "Go get one, Winona can find her when she picks up a scent." Applejack ordered, and Rarity teleported while the Apple family prepared a wagon. Rarity reappeared with a dress that Fluttershy wore and made Winona smell it, she began running, "Lead the way, girl." Applejack ordered as she and Big Macintosh pulled the wagon together. Fluttershy and the others continued doing calling sounds but there was no response, "No one's coming, we have to keep going." Canine Warrior said, "Can you at least try a flare signal or something?" Fluttershy asked, and he shot up a beam in the sky that exploded, "There, let's go now." Canine Warrior stated, and they kept walking. They walked slowly and panted as the snow got heavier, everybody began to shiver as they walked and some of the puppies fell again. Fluttershy and Canine Warrior tried to hold them up and the puppies panted. They heard barking and Fluttershy looked back, she saw Winona running to them, "Winona! Did you come here all the way for me?" Fluttershy asked, she barked and licked her, she then heard Apple Bloom and Applejack calling for her, she saw a various silhouettes in the mist and her friends came, "There you are, Fluttershy, you had us all worried." Applejack stated, "Sorry about that." Fluttershy replied, her friends looked at the canines and went to them, "Who are they, Fluttershy?" Apple Bloom asked, "Most of them are puppies from Dog Catcher's puppy mills." Fluttershy explained, "*gasp* Look!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she pointed, they did and gasped at seeing some of the puppies and adult dogs had broken and severed legs', "You poor things, to lose your legs and be unable to move." Twilight Sparkle lamented, "I was going to teleport them, but my body's old and frail now and I wasn't able to." Canine Warrior stated, "You're... see-through?" Apple Bloom asked, "Yeah, I'm already dead." Canine Warrior replied, "Come on, y'all, we're wastin' time, get 'em legless ones in the wagon." Granny Smith ordered, and they did while Twilight Sparkle and Rarity used their telekinesis to carry the ones that were tired, they all then headed to Fluttershy's sanctuary. The canines were taken into Fluttershy's home and she and her friends nursed them back to health, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Spike were called over to help, the veterinarians from the town also came to check on them, the ones with severed legs' were given bandage wrappings on their stumps, "Thank you, all of you, I'm going to need help every day to treat them until they get better." Fluttershy stated, "That's alright, we're here to help." Twilight Sparkle replied, "Yeah, just call us if you need us." Sweetie Belle added, "We can probably get our classmates to help, too." Scootaloo said, "That would be wonderful, I can always use more help." Fluttershy responded, "Maybe a school trip will be good for here, Twilight." Spike suggested, "I'll have to check with the others first, Spike." Twilight Sparkle responded, "Well, thank you all again, I'll let you all know if I need help." Fluttershy stated, and they left. She tended to the puppies with the other canines and her various pets also helped her, some of the dogs died from their injuries and old age throughout the winter and she made a grave for all of them, her friends helped her and Canine Warrior tend to the puppies while the other canines played with them, "Welcome to your new home, everypuppy." Fluttershy stated, and she sang lullabies to them to make them fall asleep and comforted them whenever they had nightmares of the puppy mills. Spring came and Fluttershy began rebuilding her home and sanctuary with her friends and pets while the puppies were all outside and running around, Fluttershy's friends helped her feed and clean them while Winona was playing with them, "Looks like you got everything working, Fluttershy, it's time for me and my inugami to return to the afterlife." Canine Warrior stated, "Okay, thank you two so much for your help." Fluttershy replied, "Remember to tell the dogs that we're watching them." Canine Warrior stated, "I will." Fluttershy responded, and the two disappeared while smiling. Winona began licking a puppy clean while they went to her, the two cadejos and raiju went to Fluttershy next and bowed to her, "Thank you three for your helps, I'll hope you all come to visit again one day." Fluttershy stated, "As always, thanks, you two cadejos, for protecting us from harm when we travel the roads." Twilight Sparkle stated, "Don't go too crazy with the lightning, raiju." Rainbow Dash stated, the others chuckled and the two cadejos ran off while the raiju went into the sky. Wepwawet and the wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals bowed to Fluttershy, "Thank you, all of you, and especially thank you and your herd, Wepwawet, for letting the nine tailed foxes know about Dog Catcher's doings." Fluttershy stated, "Just wait a little, Wepwawet, I'll find something as a token of gratitude later." Twilight Sparkle stated, and he and his herd alongside the foxes, coyotes, and jackals left. Fluttershy and the others tended to the puppies and fed and cleaned them, the nine tailed fox helped them, "Still, I've never seen a nine tailed fox before." Rainbow Dash said, "As I've said before, Rainbow, they're not from Equestria, their home is to the northeast of our land." Twilight Sparkle explained, "Are you going back home soon?" Fluttershy asked, the nine tailed fox nodded and they tended to the canines. The black dog looked over them and the souls of their families and fellow dogs from the puppy mills flew out of its body and went up into the sky, "Ooh, what are those?" Pinkie Pie asked, "They're the souls of the dogs' deceased families and fellow puppies from the mills, now that the mills and Dog Catcher and his minions have been stopped and the winter has passed, I guess they can finally rest in peace now." Fluttershy explained, "Wait, souls? Fluttershy, these black dogs are supposed to be a bad omen for people." Twilight Sparkle stated, "Well, I guess this one was a bad omen for Dog Catcher, it actually helped me stop his company." Fluttershy replied, it looked down and began to fade, Fluttershy trotted to it, "Thank you for your help, you should go rest, too." Fluttershy stated, and it disappeared. Everypony watched the puppies as they played and ran around, they heard running and barking a while later, they all looked and saw a nine tailed pup coming and another nine tailed fox that was smaller than the one with them. Fluttershy looked and realized it was the nine tailed fox's wife and son, they ran to him and the two nine tailed foxes rubbed their snouts against one another and the male nine tailed fox then rubbed the pup's head with his paw. The female nine tailed fox went over to the puppies and rubbed her snout on them, they did various barks and Fluttershy understood them perfectly, "Oh, that's wonderful, if it's alright, I'd like to go to the awards ceremony, too." Fluttershy stated, the male nine tailed fox smiled in agreement, "Come on now, everypuppy, we have to go to their island for a ceremony." Fluttershy stated, and the four carried them over to the island. Fluttershy and the dogs arrived at the island and the ceremony started, the nine tailed fox gave his report and told them about the puppy mills and the other nine tailed foxes looked at them, the emperor then gave him a medal and the other nine tailed foxes howled while Fluttershy smiled, she was also called forward and given a medal for helping the nine tailed fox. The nine tailed foxes howled again while Fluttershy smiled deeply and the emperor smiled back at her. She went back while the nine tailed foxes examined every dog that was brought along, they then gave Fluttershy a big supply of food and medical items, "Thank you, thank you very much." Fluttershy stated, and she headed back home with the nine tailed foxes carrying the puppies to her sanctuary for her. Fluttershy arrived home and it was almost dark, she began singing a lullaby and the puppies fell asleep and dreamed well, she smiled and got the rest of her pets to sleep and then laid in her bed and slept with a smile on her face.
Chapter 1Fluttershy was flying through the Everfree Forest and tending to the animals, "Here you all go." Fluttershy said as she fed acorns to the squirrels, she flew around a bit more and went to the wild boars, "Enjoy." Fluttershy stated as she gave them their lunch, she flew around more and went to the last animals, "Here, sorry I'm late." Fluttershy stated as she fed a group of wolves, she flew around and saw every animal was fed, her ears soon picked up on a sound, "What is that sound?" Fluttershy asked as she flew a few yards to the direction where she heard the sound, she listened and heard dogs whimpering, "They sound so sad, I can't imagine how they feel right now." Fluttershy stated as she flew to them, the whimpering got louder, "It sounds so horrible, I can't bear to imagine what they're feeling." Fluttershy commented, she flew more and came to a clearing, she looked and gasped when she saw the puppies. She flew down to the puppies and saw them all in wire cages, "Oh, my goodness." Fluttershy blurted out, she looked and saw the puppies were all dirty and anorexic, they ran to her and whimpered, "Where's the entrance?" Fluttershy asked, the puppies walked and led her to it, she tried to pull it open but could not, "Hold on, I'll be right back." Fluttershy promised, and she flew away. Fluttershy returned about ten minutes later and Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity stood by her while Applejack and Big Macintosh pulled the wire cage apart, "I'm sorry you found this, Fluttershy, there are many of these throughout Equestria." Twilight Sparkle said, "But still, why must they be put in such horrid conditions?", Fluttershy asked, "That is beyond me, the owner won't say anything about it, either." Twilight Sparkle replied, "Who is the owner?" Fluttershy questioned, "A unicorn named Dog Catcher, what you're looking at here is a puppy mill, he uses them to breed puppies and sell to them to ponies for money, but he's really picky with who he sells the puppies to." Twilight Sparkle explained, "Do the puppies get happy homes?" Fluttershy asked, "I don't know." Twilight Sparkle replied, Applejack and Big Macintosh got the wire cage pulled off and the puppies ran to Fluttershy, "There, there, it's okay, I'm here." Fluttershy stated as she petted the puppies, "Still, what's a puppy mill doin' all the way out here in the Everfree Forest?" Applejack asked, "Yeah, that is strange, it's dangerous out here, too." Rainbow Dash responded, "I wonder what the owner was thinking, I can't believe he would make these puppies live in such filth." Rarity said, "*gasp* Look!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she pointed at one puppy, Fluttershy looked and saw the puppy had scars on its bodies, "Oh, you poor thing, I'll get you cleaned up when I take you home." Fluttershy said as she petted it, "Hey, look, the puppies back there aren't moving." Rainbow Dash stated as she pointed into the puppy mill. Fluttershy flew to the puppy mill and gasped when she saw dead puppies, she landed and began to cry, "Ya think there could be anymore mills in the forest, Big Mac?" Applejack asked, "Eenope." Big Macintosh responded, "Let's go, Fluttershy, I'll help you get the puppies to your sanctuary." Twilight Sparkle stated, Fluttershy continued to grieve, "Fluttershy?" Twilight Sparkle asked, she continued to grieve and finished after about twenty minutes, "Let's go." Twilight Sparkle stated, and they did. Fluttershy arrived home and her friends helped her clean the puppies, "Thank you, I can take it from here." Fluttershy stated, and her friends left. She got dog food and began feeding them, the puppies ate slovenly and like pigs, "Hey, slowly now, you'll choke if you eat like that." Fluttershy warned as she helped them chew their food, they slowed down their eating and she went back into her cottage. Fluttershy began tending to her other pets while she heard rustling on the grass outside, she looked and saw a big red fox walking to the puppies, it walked over to them and gave them meat, the puppies ate them and soon gathered around the fox, she went outside to go see it, "Excuse me." Fluttershy stated, the fox just looked at her and turned back as the puppies, and her pet foxes, wolves, coyotes, and jackals gathered around it and bowed, the fox then walked into the Everfree Forest, "Hey, wait!" Fluttershy called out, she ran but the fox was gone, she looked on baffled for the moment but headed back. She began getting all of her pets to fall asleep since it was almost dark, they all fell asleep after a while, she sighed and then laid in her bed and slept. Fluttershy and her pets slept through the night peacefully until they heard voices and the puppies running and whimpering, the door got kicked open and Fluttershy screamed as she woke up, three stallions walked in and they were all earth ponies, one had a light blue coat and long white mane and tail, one had a light pink coat and a short red mane and tail, and one had a light orange coat and a medium-length yellow mane and tail, "There she is." the blue stallion said, and they ran to her. The blue stallion jumped and landed on Fluttershy, she exclaimed as he held her down, he began punching her on the back of her head while the light pink stallion stomped her face onto the floor and light orange stallion kicked her in her face. The animals attacked them and they grunted as they got pecked by her birds, "That's enough, everyanimal." Fluttershy stated, and they stopped, the three stallions got back up and tried to attack her again immediately, Fluttershy whimpered and vines grew out of the floor and tied and restrained them. Discord appeared in front of the three stallions, "My, how rude, I am trying to enjoy my beauty sleep and you three barge in here and disturb my friend." Discord spoke, the three stallions growled, "Who are you three?" Fluttershy inquired, they did not answer, she saw the light blue stallion had a brown saddlebag, she opened it and saw he had a letter, she unfolded it and read it, "I am ordering you three to track down and kill that Pegasus known as Fluttershy, I don't care if she's one of heroes of Equestria, she took the puppies from my mill in the Everfree Forest and affected my business. I want you and your two friends to hunt her down and kill her, just like everyone else who affected my business and haven't agreed with me, now do your jobs as assassins, you'll get paid after you kill your target like always. -Dog Catcher", Fluttershy looked on with horror at the letter's content, "There you go, you have made enemies with the puppy mill owner." the light pink stallion stated, "Why do you all do such horrible things?" Fluttershy asked, "Because we find it to be fun, Dog Catcher is also a childhood friend of ours." the light orange stallion replied, Fluttershy's eyes widened at what he just said, "Tell us, what about those conditions those dogs are in?" Discord questioned, "Dog Catcher's policies, he makes them as dirty as possible so the dogs will live in filth and get sick, he also doesn't feed them." the light blue stallion explained, "Nopony will adopt them if they're like that." Fluttershy remarked, the three stallions laughed, "Adopt? That's not why he has the puppy mills." the light pink stallion responded, "Then why?" Fluttershy inquired, "You'll learn eventually, if you manage to live that long." the light orange stallion replied, "Discord, inform the royal guards." Fluttershy ordered, and Discord made a phone appear and contacted them, they soon arrived and arrest the three, Fluttershy and her pets then went back to sleep. The next morning came and Fluttershy saw the red fox from yesterday tending to the puppies she found from the puppy mill, "Um... excuse me." Fluttershy stated, the fox just looked at her, "Uh... thank you... for taking care of them for me." Fluttershy spoke, the fox went back to feeding the puppies, walking was heard and a big black dog arrived and began licking the puppies. She looked on and sensed something off about the black dog, it seemed supernatural rather than a regular dog. The fox and the black dog ran off and Fluttershy flew up to see where they were going, the black dog was gone, but the fox continued to run past Ponyville and went past the next town before going out of her sight. She flew back down and took care of her animals for that morning. Discord appeared in front of her, "Oh, Fluttershy, I think you might want to read this." Discord said as he held the newspaper, "What is it?" Fluttershy asked, and Discord gave her the newspaper. She read through it and gasped when she saw the three assassins from last night were found dead this morning, "What happened?" Fluttershy asked, "What do you think?" Discord responded, "Um..." Fluttershy muttered, "They were killed by Dog Catcher." Discord spoke, "*gasp* How are you sure?" Fluttershy questioned, "Think about it, Fluttershy, Dog Catcher runs a private company, he sent assassins after you for messing up his business, you called the royal guard and had them arrested, and since Twilight said Dog Catcher is a unicorn, he disposed of those three with his magic to silence them and not have the government know of the conditions of his mills and the fact that he hires assassins to go after those who either ruin his business or don't agree with what he's doing." Discord explained, Fluttershy thought about it and tears began to fall from her eyes, "I set up their dooms." Fluttershy lamented, and she cried a bit, "Now, now, Fluttershy, no need for tears, I think they got what they deserved." Discord said, "You don't understand, Discord, stuff like that lowers Equestria's defenses and makes more vulnerable to attacks." Fluttershy explained, "Really? Does that also apply to animals?" Discord asked, "Yes." Fluttershy answered, "Well, then why don't you try to stop Dog Catcher's puppy mills, yourself?" Discord asked, "I... I don't know where the others are located." Fluttershy responded, "Well, let's go back to the one you found, surely, there's a clue on it." Discord spoke, and they headed into the Everfree Forest. The two went back to the puppy mill and examined it, there was not a single clue on it, "Weird, Dog Catcher's company name and mascot isn't on the mill." Fluttershy said, "Let's keep looking." Discord replied, and they did. They looked at the entire mill and there was no clue on where Dog Catcher's headquarters was located, "There isn't anything here." Fluttershy stated, Discord disappeared afterwards, "Discord?" Fluttershy asked as she looked around, she did not find him anywhere, she got ready to go back to her sanctuary but she heard wolves calling, "*gasp* That's a cry for help." Fluttershy exclaimed, and she flew. Fluttershy flew farther into the forest and saw the howling wolves, they stopped and ran, she followed them and soon heard puppies whimpering, "*gasp* Oh, no, another one." Fluttershy commented, and she flew more and arrived at another puppy mill. She flew to it and saw a herd of wolves trying to get the fence off of the cage, they made way for her and she tried to pull the fence off but could not, she made various animal sounds to call for help and various birds flew down and they all began working together to try to get the fence off. The wolves moved aside and Fluttershy looked to her right and saw the black dog running to them, it grabbed the fence with its teeth and pulled it off easily. The puppies ran out and went to Fluttershy, "It's okay, I'm here." Fluttershy spoke as she rubbed her snout against the puppies, the black dog went to them and began licking them clean, "Who are you?" Fluttershy questioned, the black dog looked at her and her eyes widened at seeing his glowing red eyes, but she noticed it just glanced at her and was not glaring. It went back to cleaning the puppies and they went to Fluttershy after they were cleaned, she waited until the last puppy was cleaned, "Alright, this way, everypuppy." Fluttershy said, and they followed her. Fluttershy began tending to the new puppies while she saw the ones from the first mill were hungry, "Hold on, I'll tend to you guys after this." Fluttershy said, and she cleaned the puppies. She finished after a while and gave all the food she had for dogs and the puppies ate them all, "I'm going to need help with this." Fluttershy stated, and she left. She came back and Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle were with her, "I appreciate you three coming to help, but are you sure you can handle this?" Fluttershy questioned, "Yeah, Ah mean, Ah take care of Winona every day." Apple Bloom responded, "Well, yes, but that's only one dog, Apple Bloom, look at how many I have." Fluttershy stated as Apple Bloom looked and saw there was about a total of forty puppies, "Oh, that is a lot." Apple Bloom commented, "See, there you go, it's going to be different from taking care of one dog." Fluttershy replied, "Relax, Fluttershy, we got this." Sweetie Belle stated, "Yeah, we'll figure something out." Scootaloo added, "I know you will, but whatever you three do, make sure it's not harmful, be really gentle with them, too, they're scared of other ponies." Fluttershy explained, "Got it." Sweetie Belle answered, "Okay, good, I'm going to go shopping and get some food, Discord will guide you, I'll try to come back soon." Fluttershy said, and she left. She got dog food and quickly came back, she saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders having trouble tending to the puppies, she went to them and gave them dog food and the puppies began fighting one another, "No! You all will share here so everybody can eat." Fluttershy commanded, the puppies calmed down and began eating while looking at her uncomfortably. The puppies finished their meals and the four ponies cleaned up the mess they made and took care of them, "*pant* *pant* This is more exhausting than I thought." Sweetie Belle stated, "See, it's not easy taking care of many pets, you three head on home now, it's getting dark." Fluttershy responded, and they left, she then got her pets to fall asleep and she slept for the night. Fluttershy had nightmares about the puppy mills and assassins that were sent to kill her, she sprung up from her bed and sweated profusely, she felt something poking her front right leg and looked, she saw the red fox from before, "What is it?" Fluttershy asked, and the fox ran outside, "Hey, wait!" Fluttershy stated, and she flew after him.
Chapter 2Fluttershy followed the fox and it led her out of Ponyville, "Where are we going?" Fluttershy asked, the fox kept running and arrived into a town to the west of Equestria. She looked and saw limping puppies walking and hid from her when they saw her, "Wait, it's okay, I'm not here to hurt any of you." Fluttershy stated, but the puppies still hid. The fox went over and it bowed down, the puppies looked at the fox and they came out to see it, the fox then began comforting them while Fluttershy walked over. She sat down and held some of the puppies with her wings, "It's okay, I'm here to help." Fluttershy spoke, and the puppies went to her and she began petting them, "Where are your parents and owners?" Fluttershy asked, the puppies began whimpering, the fox rubbed its snout on Fluttershy to get her attention, it ran and she followed it. Fluttershy arrived at a cemetery and looked at the wooden gravestones, she looked at the photos and saw they were all the graves of dogs, "What happened to them?" Fluttershy questioned, the fox ran and she followed it, she saw some of the graves had newspapers with them. She read one and gasped when she read that the dog of the grave was found covered in scrapes and bruises and saw a picture of it, she went to another one and saw the newspaper was the same story as the previous dog, she looked at the ones in her sight and saw all of the newspapers had basically the same story. She soon heard the dogs whimpering from nearby and she and the fox saw the black dog from before, the dogs' whimpering were coming from its body and echoing. Fluttershy noticed it and she walked to the black dog as it just stood there, "You're a ghost, aren't you?" Fluttershy asked, dogs whimpering continued to sound from its body, light blue flames flew out of the graves and into the dog's body, it winced in pain and grew a bit bigger. Fluttershy looked on and the black dog just stood there and looked down, the fox left and she trotted after it. The fox ran back to the puppies and saw them wandering around, it did a gesture with its head to tell the puppies to leave, they heard footsteps and they all ran to hide. Fluttershy heard mares conversing and then a loud thud and dog whimper, she gasped and flew to the area. Fluttershy flew to where she heard the hits and dog whimpering, she saw two earth pony mares, one had a red coat, long pink mane and tail, orange eyes, and her cutie mark was a gray rock, and the other mare had a blue coat, long grayish-white mane and tail, green eyes, and her cutie mark was a fist. The red mare picked up a rock, "Hey, Bluebird, watch this." the red mare stated, and she threw the rock and hits a puppy in the head, the puppy yelped while Fluttershy's jaw dropped, "Nice shot, Cardinal, but watch this." Bluebird replied, and she picked up a bigger rock and threw it at the puppy harder than Cardinal, the dog yelped as it fell over, "There, come on, let's put it in the puppy mill." Cardinal ordered, and they got ready to carry the puppy away. Fluttershy watched the puppy try to struggle to break free from Cardinal and Bluebird's grips, but the two began kicking and stomping on the puppy and it whimpered, Fluttershy's rage went up and she began glaring, "LET THE PUPPY GO!!" Fluttershy yelled, Cardinal and Bluebird looked at her, "If you don't let it go, I'm going to tell your mommies about your behavior!" Fluttershy thundered, Cardinal and Bluebird laughed, "Tell our moms? Look around you, there's nopony around here." Cardinal spoke, Fluttershy did not see anypony around at the moment, "See, there's no one for you tell off." Bluebird said smugly, "Return the puppy to its owner." Fluttershy commanded, the puppy whimpered and her attention got caught, "What did you two do?" Fluttershy seethed as she walked to them, the two mares ran to her and tackled her down. They began punching her while she screamed, she tried to defend herself with her forelegs and wings as the two attacked her, she saw the puppy limping away and Bluebird noticed and ran to get it. They heard snarling and black dog knocked Cardinal off of Fluttershy, she grunted as she fell onto the ground, she then screamed when the dog bit into her neck, Fluttershy looked away and covered her eyes while she heard flesh tearing, she then heard the dog growling again and Bluebird screamed afterwards. The noise stopped and Fluttershy looked back and saw the two mares bleeding from their necks', Cardinal and Bluebird panted as they bled out, "Why did you two do what you did?" Fluttershy inquired, "Dog Catcher's orders." Bluebird answered, "So you just follow his orders and do what you're told?" Fluttershy asked, "There's more, us, including everypony who works under him, are his childhood friends, we hate dogs as much as he does." Cardinal replied, "Why?" Fluttershy asked, "Do you know what it was like for us as kids? Having to hear those dogs barking every night and keep us up when we're trying to sleep? Dog Catcher did us all a favor when he began killing them." Bluebird explained, "That's your reason?! You could've just asked them to quiet down!" Fluttershy fumed, "Yeah, but that's no fun." Cardinal objected, Fluttershy's eyes widened and jaw dropped, "What are you going to do? Put us in jail?" Bluebird asked, Fluttershy had flashbacks of the three assassins from the previous day and whimpered at the thought at the two getting killed in prison, "Look at that, the thought actually traumatizes her." Bluebird commented, "Of course, didn't you hear? Knock Out, Poison Fist, and Lights Out were arrested yesterday because of her and Dog Catcher had to kill them so they don't reveal our doings." Cardinal explained, "Wait, that was you?" Bluebird asked as Fluttershy just stood there and continued having flashbacks, she stopped and came back to reality while shaking her head, "Which ones were they?" Fluttershy asked, "Knock Out was the light blue stallion, Poison Fist was the light pink one, and Lights Out was the light orange one." Cardinal answered, "I see, I'm going to destroy your entire operation, no animal deserves to be treated like how you all do." Fluttershy declared, the two mares laughed but they soon began gagging, they bled out from their wounds and died. Fluttershy looked at the bodies and closed her eyes, she nearly cried while the black dog carried them away. She looked at the whimpering puppy and walked to it shortly afterwards, "Where's your owner?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy limped and she followed it, she gasped when she came to a dead stallion covered in bruises, she ran to the pony while the puppy rubbed its snout on him, "Did those two mares do this?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy barked in agreement, she then laid her head on the stallion and paid her respects, "Where are the residents of this town?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy barked and she understood it, it said the town was very small to begin with, and the residents were all dead because Dog Catcher ordered the mares to kill all dog lovers in the town, "What? Why haven't they been arrested?" Fluttershy questioned, the puppy ran and she followed it. Fluttershy followed the puppy to near the edge of the town and saw another puppy mill, alongside two mares and a stallion, she gasped when she saw the stallion was wearing a royal guard uniform, the mares were unicorns while the stallion was a Pegasus, one mare had an orange coat, long yellow mane and tail, green eyes, and her cutie mark was a magician's hat, the other mare had a purple coat, long light pink mane and tail, red eyes, and her cutie mark was a black pentagram, and the Pegasus had a white coat and blue eyes with his mane, tail, and cutie mark being hidden under his uniform. Fluttershy watched them and saw a green aura on the purple mare's horn, she picked up several rocks and threw them at the puppies in the mill, they whimpered while the orange mare laughed a little, "Wow, Indigo Dragon, your aim's getting better." the orange mare stated, "Thanks." Indigo Dragon responded, "I'm going to try now." the orange mare said, "Good luck, Orange Tiger." the stallion said, she smiled and a yellow aura appeared on her horn, rocks floated up and she threw them at the puppies in the mill, they whimpered while the three ponies laughed, "Come on, Cat Lover, join in." Orange Tiger said, "Okay, here goes." Cat Lover replied, and he picked up a rock and threw it at a puppy harder than the ones Orange Tiger and Indigo Dragon threw, a puppy whimpered loudly and they laughed. Cat Lover walked over and checked the puppy, "It's dead." Cat Lover stated, Orange Tiger and Indigo Dragon began cheering. Fluttershy gritted her teeth as her anger rose, she growled and began making animal sounds to command them, the dogs from the town ran to her and birds flew down and began pecking the three ponies, they screamed as Orange Tiger and Indigo Dragon used their magic to fling them away, Cat Lover tried to attack the birds with his spear but they flew out of range, he tried to fly away but the dogs jumped and pulled him down, the three screamed as the birds pecked them and the dogs bit and scratched them, Fluttershy continued to glare and huff as she heard their flesh being ripped apart. The noises stopped and Fluttershy calmed down, her eyes widened with horror at the sight of their dead bodies, she saw the fox rip the fence off of the puppy mill and they ran out. The dogs bumped their snouts on her to bring Fluttershy back to reality, but she continued looking at the carnage, "I did that?" Fluttershy asked herself, she continued staring on in horror until she was startled by puppies barking, she looked back and saw the dirty and injured puppies, "Let's get you all cleaned up." Fluttershy said, and she led them back. Fluttershy got the puppies together and flew through the ghost town to try to find any cleaning supplies left, she found a few and tried her best to wash the puppies, the adult dogs, fox, and black dog tried their best to help her and some of them looked for food to give them, they found a few vegetables and the puppies ate them, "Hold on, I'll get food from my home." Fluttershy spoke, and she flew away. Fluttershy flew back to her cottage and saw Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle taking care of the puppies, "Oh, good, you're back, the puppies are being hard to clean." Sweetie Belle stated, she looked and saw Apple Bloom and Scootaloo trying to scrub the puppies but they ran away, "You got the hose's water on too high, turn it down so it's weak." Fluttershy said, and they did, the puppies walked to it and began sitting under it, "Wow, it worked." Scootaloo stated, "They're still scared, Scootaloo, so everything has to be done gently when taking care of them." Fluttershy explained, "Y'all two watch me, Ah'll show y'all how to take care of them puppies." Apple Bloom said, and she began scrubbing them gently and pat them, "Very good, Apple Bloom, you two follow her example." Fluttershy instructed, "What about you?" Sweetie Belle questioned, "Dog Catcher's got puppy mills around the country, I'm going to put a stop to them." Fluttershy responded, "Is it that bad?" Scootaloo asked, "Oh, yes, I saw one earlier today, and the ponies at the mills were throwing rocks at the puppies." Fluttershy explained, the three fillies gasped, "Are they okay?" Sweetie Belle asked, "Yes, but... one of them didn't make it." Fluttershy replied while trying not to cry, the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked on sympathetically while she held her tears back, "Ya rescue 'em, Fluttershy, we'll hold down the fort here." Apple Bloom spoke, "Really? Thank you, I'll be going now." Fluttershy spoke, and she got some of the dog food from her cottage and left. Fluttershy arrived back and gave the dog food to the dogs and puppies, the fox and black dog pushed the dog food to the puppies and they ate, "I'm going to look for the rest of the mills." Fluttershy told the fox and black dog, and she flew up into the sky and looked for where in Equestria and other countries Dog Catcher had puppy mills.
Chapter 3Fluttershy flew up into the sky and looked for anymore puppy mills, she did not see any, so she flew around a bit and tried to find one, she still did not find one, so she flew down lower and looked again, she still did not find any. She did various callings and the animals responded to her, she ordered them to look for puppy mills for her in their native tongues and described what they looked like, the animals left and began searching. She continued looking for the puppy mills and still could not find one, she kept looking until she heard coyotes barking and howling, she flew down to them and they stopped, "Lead the way." Fluttershy said, and they ran as she followed them. Fluttershy flew through a forest while the coyotes led her, they arrived at a puppy mill and she saw foxes, wolves, other coyotes, and jackals trying to free the puppies. She went over and the canines moved aside, she grunted as she tried to pull the fence off, she did animal calls and other animals came over to help, they pulled on the mill's fence and got it off. The puppies ran out and the other canines comforted them and then led them elsewhere and Fluttershy followed them. She arrived at an area in the forest with many puppies and dogs gathered together, she stopped when she heard growling all around her, she looked and saw big wolves circling around her, she spoke to them in their language and they did not stop circling her. A wolf bigger than the others walked to her while growling and the other canines made noises to communicate with it and it continued glaring at Fluttershy, the wolf looked back at her suspiciously while she sweated a little, it walked to her to get a closer look and saw fear in her eyes, it stopped looking for a minute and the wolf ordered the others to stand down. Fluttershy sighed with relief and she soon heard walking from behind, she saw the fox again and the canines bowed to it, "Who is that?" Fluttershy whispered to a nearby fox, it explained that the fox was a mystical cousin of theirs from a distant island, and he was sent by that island's emperor to help them against Dog Catcher. Fluttershy looked on confused and saw the fox looked like an ordinary red fox, just abnormally bigger than usual. She watched him walk to the big wolf and the two bowed to one another, "What's it doing now?" Fluttershy inquired, and a jackal explained that the big wolf was Wepwawet, and he and his herd were the ones who informed the fox's island that something was wrong, she looked on and the fox followed Wepwawet as he led him to the new puppies that they freed and he began checking them. She watched the puppies run to the fox as he rubbed his snout on them, he finished and he and Wewawet began conversing in barks, "I'm going to go take a look around." Fluttershy stated, and she flew away. Fluttershy flew around and saw various animals in the woods, "It's okay, I come in peace." Fluttershy spoke, and they walked to her slowly, she saw herds of bears, tigers, lions, hyenas, and boars had puppies with them. She noticed that the various animals were glaring at her and standing in front of the puppies, she walked past them and looked around, she flew up into the sky and saw various birds watching her as well, she saw several more scouting the area and she realized they were looking for more puppy mills, she flew away and looked elsewhere. She flew around the woods while all of the animals watched her and wondered what she was doing, a squirrel ran to her and made several squeaks, "I'm looking for puppy mills." Fluttershy answered, and the squirrel ran away and communicated with the other squirrels. She flew around a bit to get an idea where everything was, she heard voices in the distance and flew to where she heard them while she saw various puppies and adult dogs running away, she arrived and saw a unicorn stallion, a Pegasus mare, a Pegasus stallion, and an earth pony stallion, the unicorn stallion had a sky blue coat, short white mane and tail, gray eyes, and his cutie mark was a net, the Pegasus mare had a green coat, long light pink mane and tail, dark red eyes, and her cutie mark was a cage, the Pegasus stallion had an orange coat, long black mane and tail tied in braided ponytails, turquoise eyes, and his cutie mark was a spotlight, he was also wearing black framed glasses, and the earth pony stallion had a purple coat, short gray mane and tail, pink eyes, and his cutie mark was a paw print. Fluttershy watched the four until a puppy ran to her and bumped its head on her leg, she looked at it and it barked several times, it said the unicorn was Dog Catcher, "So he's the one running the mills." Fluttershy stated as she looked at him, she watched the four leave, "Who are the other three?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy barked and it said the Pegasus mare is Chain Link, the Pegasus stallion is Searcher, and the earth pony stallion is Tracker, "Do they come here often?" Fluttershy asked, the dog barked in agreement, "Thank you, you go on now, I'll see what they're up to." Fluttershy stated, and the dog left as she flew and followed them. Fluttershy watched the four ponies and Tracker checked the ground while Searcher flew around and looked for any puppies, "I found some dog tracks here." Tracker said, and the others went, "Search that area, Searcher." Dog Catcher ordered, "On it." Searcher answered, and he flew up, "You think we can build a mill out here?" Chain Link asked, "No, it's too risky here, we risk facing the wrath of every animal if we do it here." Dog Catcher explained, "Where do you suggest then?" Chain Link asked, "Somewhere near the edge of the forest." Dog Catcher answered, "Come on, I'm seeing signs of multiple dogs." Tracker said, "Yeah, I see them, a family is walking a bunch of dogs." Searcher added, "Let's go." Dog Catcher ordered, and they did. Fluttershy followed them and saw them arrive at an earth pony family consisting of a mother, a father, a son, and a daughter walking their pet dogs and puppies. Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker tackled them down and began snatching the puppies away, "My puppy!" the daughter exclaimed, and they tried to take their pets back while the adult dogs tried to fight them, "What are you all doing?!" the father asked, Dog Catcher had a dirty white aura on his horn and held the four ponies and adult dogs up, they began gagging and their souls flew out of their bodies. Fluttershy gasped when the ponies and adult dogs fell onto the ground, she did an animal call, Dog Catcher and his minions looked at where they heard her and various animals came and began attacking them, she heard running and saw the fox, Wepwawet, and various canines run over to help, she also saw the black dog form out of thin air and it jumped onto Tracker and began biting his neck, but he punched it off and all four of them ran away. Fluttershy and the others ran to the puppies to check on them, they went to their owners and parents to check on them, Fluttershy also went and realized they were dead. She laid her head on them and began to cry while the puppies whimpered and howled, they soon heard whimpering echoing in the sky and they looked and saw light blue flames floating in the sky, they changed to the faces of the dead dogs and they whimpered, they turned back into flames and they flew down and the black dog absorbed them. The black dog stood on its own and looked down as the whimpering of the recently dead dogs came from its body, it winced in pain again and grew a little bigger, it then walked to the puppies and comforted them. Fluttershy continued to grieve and Wepwawet walked to her and rubbed his snout on her, she looked at him and looked back to the dead ponies and dogs, she finished grieving after a while and looked at Wepwawet, "Can you look after them for me?" Fluttershy asked, Wepwawet nodded in agreement, "Thank you." Fluttershy stated, and Wepwawet commanded the puppies to come with him and the other canines, they walked with the other canines while looking down. Fluttershy looked at the fox and black dog as they looked at her, she flew to where the four ponies fled and saw a trail of blood on the ground from Tracker's wound, "Let's go." Fluttershy said, and she flew while the fox ran past her and the black dog disappeared.
Chapter 4Fluttershy flew and followed the blood trail left by Tracker, the drips got smaller as she got farther, she looked to see if there was anything Tracker took anything from the wilderness to cover the wound but found no signs of him doing so, she decided to fly forward and keep following the blood trail. She heard more puppies barking and took a detour, she arrived at another puppy mill, the puppies were scratching on the cages, "Hang on, I'll get you all out." Fluttershy said as she landed, and she called various animals to come help her and they pulled the fence off. The puppies ran out and she saw several puppies limping and several dead in the mill, she looked down and closed her eyes, the black dog appeared to her left and absorbed the souls of the dead puppies into itself as the puppies' souls whimpered and echoed, it winced in pain again and grew bigger, she noticed the black dog grow even bigger when the puppy souls were louder than usual. She finished grieving and walked to the puppies, "I'm sorry to say this, but my home is far from here, and the nearest group of animals to take you all in is pretty far from here, too, we're going to have to travel together." Fluttershy explained, the puppies whimpered, "No, no, don't be like that, we'll be fine if we stick together, come on now." Fluttershy spoke, and they began walking together as a group. The group traveled together and the puppies had to rest several times due to them being hungry and unfed, Fluttershy saw one puppy farther in the back than the others and having to rest more often, "Come on, try to keep up." Fluttershy said as she picked up the puppy and put it on her back, she flew to the others and watched them, they all stood up after a while and began walking again. Fluttershy and the puppies walked more but they all smelled something in the air, "Smells like a goat. Wait, is it...?" Fluttershy asked, and they heard running and a white canine-like creature the size of a cow and with blue eyes ran to them, "*gasp* It's you." Fluttershy chirped, and she rubbed its snout on it, the puppies moved backed in terror, "It's alright, she's a friend." Fluttershy assured, the white canine-like creature went to the puppies and licked them clean, "This is a cadejo, this one helps and protects others from harm, it's her brother that you have to watch out for." Fluttershy explained, the female cadejo began traveling with them and she led the way while Fluttershy and the puppies followed. The female cadejo ran and the others tried to keep up with her, "Can you slow down a bit, please?" Fluttershy suggested, and it stopped and waited for them to catch up, they did and it walked forward, they entered another forest and saw puppies walking around while the female cadejo stopped, a creature that looked identical to her but black with red eyes walked to them, the puppies stepped back in fear, "It's okay, everypuppy, this is her brother, he's also friendly." Fluttershy explained, the puppies looked at him and he went over and examined the puppies, he did a gesture with his head and the puppies walked past him. The puppies rested while the two cadejos got them fish and they ate quickly and sloppily, they fell asleep afterwards and the female cadejo put moss on them to be used as makeshift blankets, "Where are the other animals?" Fluttershy whispered, the female cadejo walked and she followed her, they saw various other animals watching more dirty and anorexic puppies, "Are they from mills, too?" Fluttershy asked, the female cadejo shook her head and ran elsewhere and Fluttershy flew after her, she arrived at a royal guard's station and entered. Fluttershy entered the station and saw a unicorn stallion with a white coat, blue eyes, and his cutie mark was covered by his uniform, she looked and saw posters of missing puppies on the wall, she also looked and saw the unicorn's nameplate on his desk, it was White Knight, "Hey, you lost or something?" White Knight asked, "No, I've been looking for puppies that have been kidnapped and taken away by Dog Catcher and his people." Fluttershy responded, "Oh, good, there's been several missing in the nearby towns, their posters are on the board behind me." White Knight spoke, and she looked, "How long have they been missing?" Fluttershy asked, "That one there has been missing longer than the others, about a month now, this one here is the most recent one, reported missing yesterday." White Knight replied, "Where were they last reported to be seen?" Fluttershy questioned, "Well, each one's different, but several have been reported to be lost in this woods, and some are said to have suddenly took off overnight and never came back." White Knight responded, "I'll look for them." Fluttershy declared, "Thank you, it seems your status as a hero of Equestria isn't for show after all." White Knight stated, Fluttershy blushed and smiled. The door opened after they looked, they saw two mares come in, a Pegasus and a unicorn, the unicorn had a powder blue coat, long dirty white mane and tail, purple eyes, and her cutie mark was a red cross, and the Pegasus had a dark purple coat, long gray mane and tail, blue eyes, and her cutie mark was a black barbell. The two mares walked forward and went to White Knight, "Oh, First Aid, Personal Trainer, you two are already back." White Knight spoke, "Yeah, Personal Trainer and I couldn't find anypony or puppy." the unicorn replied, "We checked the towns and found nothing." Personal Trainer added, "That's unfortunate, your volunteering to find missing puppies and their owners is always greatly appreciated." White Knight said, "We're done searching for the day yet." First Aid responded, "Oh, alright then, well, this is Fluttershy, she's searching for the missing puppies, too. Fluttershy, this is First Aid and Personal Trainer, First Aid's the unicorn, and Personal Trainer's the Pegasus." White Knight spoke, "Hello there." Personal Trainer said, "Hi." Fluttershy mumbled, "You love dogs, too, Fluttershy?" First Aid asked, "Hmm-mm." Fluttershy replied while nodding, "Come on then, let's search together, we'll take you to where the last puppy we looked for was reported to be." Personal Trainer said, and the three left together while Fluttershy kept her guard up. Fluttershy walked with First Aid and Personal Trainer and watched the two carefully, "So, um... how long have you two been doing this?" Fluttershy asked, "Years, puppies and their owners have been going missing for a while now." Personal Trainer responded, "Yeah, we decided to help once when we moved here." First Aid added, "That's very kind of you two." Fluttershy stated, the two smiled and they kept walking. The three mares headed north and far away from the station, "Here we are." First Aid said, Fluttershy looked and saw nothing, a light pink aura appeared on First Aid's horn and she used telekinesis on Fluttershy, she exclaimed as she was moved forward, she gasped when she saw a puppy mill and Dog Catcher there, "Hey, Dog Catcher, look who we found at the station." First Aid said, and he looked, "Well, well, so you came as well, you two have my thanks." Dog Catcher said, and he cast a spell on Fluttershy and she felt her soul getting sucked out of her body. She wheezed as Dog Catcher smiled and she saw First Aid and Personal Trainer go to a puppy mill behind him, she watched them and saw First Aid force feeding chocolate to the puppies and Personal Trainer was standing on four puppies with each one under a hoof and making them crawl to carry her forward. Fluttershy grunted as she used her willpower to resist Dog Catcher's soul stealing spell. Dog Catcher focused and tried harder to steal her soul as she resisted, she watched and saw the black cadejo running and arrived, he tackled Personal Trainer onto the ground and bit into her neck, she screamed as he ripped her throat out. First Aid held him up with telekinesis and the white cadejo arrived and knocked Dog Catcher over, he grunted as he fell and Fluttershy took a deep breath while the white cadejo knocked First Aid down and she bit into her neck and ripped her throat out. Fluttershy got up and flew to the Dog Catcher while the two cadejos ran to him, but he quickly cast a teleporting spell and disappeared, "Come on, let's go inform White Knight." Fluttershy spoke, and they went back. Fluttershy arrived back at the royal guard station and White Knight was gone, she ran outside and looked around, "White Knight." Fluttershy called out, she and the two cadejos heard rustling to the west and ran. The three arrived into town and saw a blue aura and foals getting carried away while they exclaimed and called for help, she looked and gasped when she saw White Knight holding them up and Dog Catcher was with him. Dog Catcher took their souls and the foals screamed and died. White Knight used his telekinesis to hide the dead foals in the woods while Dog Catcher used his telekinesis to pick up more puppies and teleported away. White Knight walked forward but stopped when he saw Fluttershy scowling at him, "Whoa, Fluttershy, I didn't see you there." White Knight stated, "You work for Dog Catcher?!" Fluttershy inquired, White Knight quickly shot a zap at her and she yelped as she got knocked back, he got ready to fire another beam when the male cadejo jumped onto him from behind and knocked him down while the female cadejo stood in front of Fluttershy and guarded her. White Knight flung the male cadejo away and the female cadejo jumped onto him, she bit into him and he screamed while the male cadejo quickly got back up and the two began biting him apart while Fluttershy looked away. The noises stopped and she heard the two cadejos drag White Knight's body away, they then bumped their snouts on Fluttershy and she looked, they did nudges with their heads, "Right, the puppies." Fluttershy said, and she ran to them. The puppies were awake and ran to her, they licked her and she petted them, "Come on, let's keep moving, there's a town nearby." Fluttershy stated, and she led them while the two cadejos watched them leave.
Chapter 5Fluttershy and the puppies traveled together and they saw the fox running forward, they followed it and arrived at the town again, they saw various puppies at one house, they began barking and a unicorn stallion came out of the house, he had a dull purple coat, short white mane and tail, a moustache, dark green eyes, and his cutie mark was a brown dog. The stallion ran to them, "Are they from one of Dog Catcher's puppy mills?" the stallion asked, "Yes." Fluttershy replied, "Bring them in." the stallion said, and they went to his home. Fluttershy and the puppies looked around and saw various statues of dogs in the house, "What are those?" Fluttershy asked as she pointed to the statues, "My family have worshiped dogs since ancient times, they protect us and serve us loyally." the stallion explained, a transparent dog in ceremonial robes appeared to his left, Fluttershy and the puppies looked at it, "So you can see him, what you see here is an inugami, they serve my family loyally, each member of my family gets their own." the stallion stated, "Oh, um, you still didn't introduce who you are." Fluttershy stated, "Oh, right, I'm Canine Warrior, it is my family's duty to protect dogs while they serve us in exchange." the stallion replied, "Where is the rest of your family?" Fluttershy asked, "They all already passed, I'm the last one left." Canine Warrior replied, "Oh, well, I'm going to explore the town and see if there's anyone else here." Fluttershy spoke, "Okay, make sure you don't bother the animals." Canine Warrior replied, and she went outside. Fluttershy headed outside and walked around town, she saw pretty much all of the ponies were gone, and there were only animals there, she saw felines, pigs, boars, horses, reptiles, and birds all in the town and looking after puppies, she walked around while looking at the animals and they all looked back at her for a brief second shortly before going back to tending to the puppies. She kept walking around and soon saw wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals carrying puppies on their backs and walking around, they smiled at her and kept walking while the puppies panted with their tongues out and tails wagged. Fluttershy kept walking and saw various puppies roaming the streets, she stopped when she saw one limping, she gasped and trotted to it, "Come on, it's okay, where are you staying?" Fluttershy asked, the puppy nudged its head to give the directions and they arrived a litter of kittens and a mother cat. She let go of the puppy and kittens rubbed their heads against the puppy while the mother cat walked to it, "Hello there." Fluttershy stated as she walked, the cats got defensive while the kittens growled and the mother cat hissed, "I'm not with Dog Catcher." Fluttershy commented, the mother cat hissed again, "Can I see the puppy? Please?" Fluttershy begged, the mother cat growled until the fox arrived and the felines bowed to him. He did a nudge with his head to let Fluttershy near the puppy and she did, she petted the puppy while it laid on the ground comfortably, she left afterwards and the mother cat began cleaning it. Fluttershy flew forward and saw a shrine to worship the inugami to her left, she went there and saw the fox and black dog praying to the shrine, she soon heard lightning crackling in the sky and looked up, she looked in awe when she saw a dark gray canine-like creature in the sky with yellow lightning around it, "A raiju? Here?" Fluttershy asked, and it came down from the sky and prayed to the shrine with the fox and black dog, she decided to go over and prayed with them. The four prayed until they heard walking and saw Canine Warrior and his inugami coming over, the fox bowed to it and inugami bowed to him. Canine Warrior and his inugami walked to the black dog and souls flew out of it and into the sky, "There, there, hold still, let my inugami relieve you of some of your pain." Canine Warrior spoke, and the souls went high up into the sky until they were out of sight, "There, hopefully, that'll make your quest easier." Canine Warrior said, "Um, excuse me. Canine Warrior, what did you just do?" Fluttershy asked, "My inugami just relieved some of the souls within its body, you may have figured out already, but this black dog here is an apparition, the souls of the dogs and theirs families that Dog Catcher and his minions have killed are absorbed into it, it is a spirit of vengeance created from their souls, until Dog Catcher and his minions are stopped, and the puppy mill company is shut down, their souls cannot rest." Canine Warrior explained, Fluttershy looked and saw the black dog walking around faster and more like a normal dog, it was also smaller, "Come, Fluttershy, I need help tending to the puppies at my house." Canine Warrior stated, "Of course." Fluttershy responded, and they went to his home. Fluttershy helped Canine Warrior and the inugami feed and clean the puppies, they all licked Fluttershy's face and she rubbed her snout on them, "Wow, Fluttershy, you're actually very good at taking care of them." Canine Warrior spoke, "Thank you, I actually have a sanctuary back at home where I tend to almost every kind of animal there is." Fluttershy responded, "Well, that explains a lot." Canine Warrior said, "Wait, you didn't know?" Fluttershy asked, "Sorry, but I am not one to pay attention to worldly events." Canine Warrior replied, "Oh, well, I'm famous throughout Equestria and beyond, and take care of animals in the Everfree Forest." Fluttershy explained, "Ah, well, that explains why you know how to take care of animals, come on now, I need to walk them." Canine Warrior stated, and they went outside. Fluttershy and Canine Warrior walked the puppies and took breaks whenever they were tired, they all stood up after several minutes, "You all ready to continue?" Canine Walker asked, the puppies barked, "Let's go then." Canine Warrior said, and they walked more. The two walked the puppies around the town while the various animals joined them and walked the puppies that were living with them, "Do you all do this together, Canine Warrior?" Fluttershy questioned, "Yes, I start the walk, and they all join." Canine Warrior replied, and they all walked across town and walked back while the animals separated from them when at their homes and Fluttershy and Canine Warrior arrived back, "Phew, I haven't walked that long in a while." Fluttershy commented, "You'll get used to it, when you've done it as long as I have, it'll feel like nothing." Canine Warrior replied, "True, I have to go now, Canine Warrior, I have puppies from Dog Catcher's mills to take care of back at my home." Fluttershy stated, "Go on then, and if you can, bring them here." Canine Warrior replied, and she left while they said bye to one another. Fluttershy began to head home but soon heard wolves calling for help, she flew and saw them, they began running and she followed them. She flew and saw a shack in the middle of the woods, she saw a puppy mill and Dog Catcher, Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker were there, Tracker had a cast on his neck. She heard a puppy yelping loudly inside the shack, the door opened and a unicorn stallion with a whitish-gray coat, short gray mane and tail, black eyes, and his cutie mark was a cleaver. She gasped when she saw the puppy he was carrying had its legs, tail, and teeth missing, "Next puppy." the stallion requested, "Here you go, Butcher." Chain Link responded as she handed him the next puppy, it struggled to break free and Butcher had a gray aura on his horn and restrained it as he brought the puppy in. Fluttershy heard loud thuds and a puppy yelping, the door opened and Butcher came out while holding a bloodied cleaver, and the puppy had its legs, tail, and teeth missing, "Good work, Butcher, just a few more of these attempting-to-escape parasites, and we'll be done." Dog Catcher stated as he handed the next puppy over to Butcher, "Good, I can't wait until all of these dogs are torture subjects." Butcher stated, "None of us can." Tracker replied, they chuckled as Butcher got ready to amputate the next puppy. Fluttershy flew away and she began doing various calls of helps to alert the animals, the fox, black dog, raiju, and various predators came, she directed them to the butcher shop and they began attacking. Fluttershy stood back and watched while Dog Catcher, Chain Link, Searcher, Tracker, and Butcher fought back. Dog Catcher and Butcher cast spells that made the animals turn into skeletons and their souls fly into the sky, Chain Link and Searcher picked up animals and tried dropping them to the ground while Tracker wrestled with them. Fluttershy continued watching and Canine Warrior, his inugami, and the various animals from his town arrived to help, "Fluttershy, me and the animals will fend them off, you and my inugami go in the shack and rescue the dogs." Canine Warrior ordered, "Got it." Fluttershy responded, and she and his inugami entered. Fluttershy looked around the shack while the noises of fighting outside distracted her, the inugami rubbed its head on her leg to get her attention and she focused. She flew around and gasped when she saw severed legs and tails' on the table, she kept looking around and found teeth lying around on the floor alongside several dead puppies. She flew around and did not find any puppies, the inugami called for them and they answered from under the floor, she gasped loudly at realizing they were buried alive. The inugami went through the floor and Fluttershy looked for something to pry the wooden floor with. She got startled when lightning struck through the roof and destroyed the floor, the raiju ran down and the black dog appeared and went under the floor. Fluttershy began helping the three get the puppies and they headed outside, they saw Dog Catcher teleport away while Chain Link and Searcher tried to fly away but the birds pecked them, and Tracker ran away while the animals chased him. The raiju made another lightning strike happen to burn the shack down and Fluttershy saw Butcher was dead, she gave the puppies to Canine Warrior and he and the other animals began taking them to their homes. Fluttershy walked with them and they all arrived at their homes, she checked on every puppy and the animals greeted her warmly, she smiled and checked every animal to make sure they were alright, she also saw the fox, the black dog, and the raiju checking them as well, they also paid respects to their dead companions while the souls of the dead puppies from Butcher's shack got absorbed into the black dog's body. Everycreature got on with their days and Fluttershy got ready to head back home, everycreature heard an explosion at the shrine, "What now?" Fluttershy asked, and she flew there. Everycreature arrived and looked at the destroyed shrine, "It has to be Dog Catcher's doing." Canine Warrior stated, "I think so, too." Fluttershy responded, the puppies yelped as they began to suddenly disappear, they all looked around and saw Dog Catcher floating in the air, he shot a beam at Canine Warrior's house and set it on fire. Fluttershy gasped at seeing the blaze, "Come on, the puppies are inside, let's go." Canine Warrior stated, and they did. Fluttershy and the others went to Canine Warriors house and saw it was on fire, they heard barking inside the house and scratching the surfaces. Canine Warrior teleported into the house and blew the door away, Fluttershy's jaw dropped when she saw wooden boards and realized the doors and windows were barricaded from the inside, "Fluttershy! This way! Hurry!" Canine Warrior hollered, she got startled and ran into the house. She entered and coughed from the smoke and the heat from the fire made her hot instantly, she saw the various animals from around the town inside the house and looking for the puppies, she heard loud yelps of pain and she ran and gasped when she saw some of the puppies were pinned to the floor with nails in their paws'. She looked for something for the puppies to put in their mouths and bite on, she found a piece of wood on the floor, "Here, bite on this." Fluttershy instructed, and the puppy did. She bit onto a nail with her teeth and pulled it out of the puppy's paw while it yelped in pain, "I know, I know, please bear with me." Fluttershy spoke, and she removed the other three nails while the puppy yelped loudly in agony, "Okay, I got you, hang on." Fluttershy said as she picked it up and flew outside. She went back in and saw the various animals carry out many puppies, she flew back in and went over to help, she found a puppy tied to a pole with rope. She grabbed the knot with her teeth and pulled on it to undo it, she had trouble and she heard running, she glared but saw it was the two cadejos, they helped her undo the rope and the male cadejo carried the puppy out. She flew through the burning house more and soon saw Canine Warrior shooting blasts, "Canine Warrior!" Fluttershy hollered, she then saw revived dead ponies trying to catch the animals carrying the puppies and kill them, she saw the fox helping him fight off the revived ponies and Fluttershy tried to go over to help them, the fire burned the ceiling and made part of it fall and land between her and Canine Warrior, "Leave me! I'll hold them off!" Canine Warrior said, "No! I'm not leaving you behind!" Fluttershy retorted, "Go! I'm ready to die! Make sure the puppies make it out safe!" Canine Warrior hollered, Fluttershy watched as Canine Warrior shot zaps at the mind controlled corpses as tears fell from her eyes, "Go, Fluttershy! Kill that puppy mill owner!" Canine Warrior ordered, she then watched the fox running to her and orange flames came out of his body, they disappeared and she looked on in surprise and awe, he has transformed into a nine tailed fox, he phased through the burning debris and went to Fluttershy, she then had a vision in her mind. Fluttershy saw a vision of wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals standing on a hill which were black like shadows and in a light tan background, "I was called here by our canine relatives of your land." the fox spoke in a distorted male voice, she heard the canines howling and making calling sounds, Wepwawet was among them. The picture changed to the nine tailed fox meeting with another nine tailed fox sitting on the throne, it had a crown and cape on, "I was sent to this land by my home island's emperor to investigate what was going on and put a stop to it." the nine tailed fox spoke as the vision changed to him running through the sky. The vision changed to him meeting two nine tailed foxes, one a little smaller than him, and one was a pup, "I bid farewell to my wife and son before I came to this land, they are now awaiting my return." the nine tailed fox continued and the vision changed to him running through the sky, the vision changed to him arriving into Equestria, "I was quickly informed and shown what the problem was...", the nine tailed fox said as the vision changed to him seeing dead dogs and puppies in a puppy mill, "...I now work to put an end to these mills and stop the ones running them." the nine tailed fox added, and the visions ended. Fluttershy came back to reality while the nine tailed fox stood by her side, she watched Canine Warrior fight the revived dead ponies until debris fell on them and killed Canine Warrior, the nine tailed touched Fluttershy with his paw and led her out of the house. The two arrived outside and looked at the animals, the inugami looked down, she comforted him and he soon began howling as the house burned, all the animals paid respects to Canine Warrior while the puppies whimpered. Everycreature finished grieving and the house continued to burn, they all went back while the inugami followed Fluttershy around, "Go on, you should keep him company in the afterlife." Fluttershy stated, and the inugami left, she walked around and birds calling her flew to her, "What is it?" Fluttershy asked, one bird did several caws and told her her sanctuary was on fire, "*gasp* Go help the animals! I'm coming!" Fluttershy exclaimed, and she flew quickly. Fluttershy flew to Ponyville and gasped when she saw her home and sanctuary on fire, she flew quickly and saw her friends and other animals getting her pets out. She flew down and went to her friends and Cutie Mark Crusaders, "Where are the puppies?" Fluttershy asked, they all looked around and did not see them, "What? They were right here." Apple Bloom replied, Fluttershy flew to her house and the fire, "Wait! Fluttershy!" Twilight Sparkle hollered as they went after her. She went past the hot flames and looked around for the puppies, she called out for them and soon heard barking and she looked up and saw Chain Link holding one while flying in the air while Dog Catcher was behind her and holding himself and the other puppies up with his telekinesis, "Looking for this?" Chain Link asked, "Give them back!" Fluttershy demanded, "Go get them." Chain Link said, and she threw the puppy at her home and into the fire. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle screamed while Dog Catcher threw the rest into the fire with his telekinesis, "Spike!" Twilight Sparkle called out, and he flew into the fire to get them while she used her telekinesis to bring them out. Fluttershy flew closer to the fire and quickly began getting the puppies out of it while Rainbow Dash helped her, Rarity also used her magic while Pinkie Pie and Applejack tended to them alongside the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Dog Catcher teleported himself and Chain Link away while they were distracted. Fluttershy and her friends tended to the puppies while they whimpered, "Don't cry, come on, cheer up, look." Pinkie Pie said, and she made funny faces and noises, "I don't think that's going to work, Pinkie." Rainbow Dash stated, "Yeah, Ah agree." Applejack added, "Are they going to be okay?" Sweetie Belle asked, "Well, they weren't there for very long, so burns shouldn't be very serious." Rarity responded, "Still, where were you all of this time, Fluttershy?" Scootaloo asked, "Traveling, Dog Catcher has minions and mills everywhere." Fluttershy answered, "How did ya find 'em?" Apple Bloom questioned, "A nine tailed fox led me." Fluttershy replied, "A nine tailed fox?" Twilight Sparkle asked, they heard running and he came to the puppies, "Wow, I've never seen anything like it." Spike said, "That's because they're not native to Equestria, Spike, they're from an island to the northeast." Twilight Sparkle explained, "What are you going to do now, Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie asked, "I'm going to put a stop to Dog Catcher and his company, he has gone too far this time." Fluttershy declared, "I agree, I say we look for his other mills and minions." Rainbow Dash answered, "It's fine, Rainbow, I have other animals to help me." Fluttershy replied, "Ya sure about that, Fluttershy, it's winter and it's gonna start snowing soon." Applejack stated, "I'll be fine, I promise." Fluttershy responded, and they tended to the puppies and put out the fire. Fluttershy called all of her animals and instructed them to investigate all of Equestria for Dog Catcher's mills and destroy them alongside stopping those working for him, she also told them she was going to shut down his main mill and they all began searching while she looked at the nine tail fox, "Lead the way." Fluttershy instructed, and he did while she followed him.
Chapter 6Fluttershy followed the nine tailed fox and went far away from Ponyville, she flew up higher to see where Dog Catcher's main mill was, she did not see it, the nine tailed fox went up into the sky and ran, she flew with them and saw a factory in the middle of nowhere, the black dog ran to it and she followed it. The two arrived at the factory and heard puppies bark from inside, the tried to open the locked door but could not, the inugami appeared and tried to help them but they still had trouble, they then heard lightning crackling and they moved back, the raiju shot a bolt of lightning at the door and destroyed, all five of them went inside. Fluttershy and the four canines entered the factory with her and saw many puppies in cages, they were all dirty and anorexic, some had wounds on them, "Come on, let's free them." Fluttershy ordered, the nine tailed fox, black dog, inugami, and raiju shook their heads and did a nudge, Fluttershy looked and saw Chain Link patrolling the area, a puppy had its paws on the cage and barked, "Get your filthy paws off the cage." Chain Link ordered as she kicked the puppy, it yelped and fell, it began to whimper and she left. Fluttershy flew to the mills and the puppies quivered at seeing her, "It's okay, I'm not with them." Fluttershy spoke, the black dog looked at the puppies and whimpering was heard coming from its body again, "Hang on a bit, we're going to get you all out." Fluttershy stated, and she left. Fluttershy went to where she saw Chain Link go to and saw her in an office with Searcher and Tracker, she ducked and watched the three, she saw them conversing but could not hear them. They looked at a map and Fluttershy tried to see what it was but could not, they then heard knocking at the door and the three began to walk forward. They opened the door and Fluttershy and the four canines hid behind it, Chain Link threw the door back and it closed as they walked away, the five then entered the office. Fluttershy and the four canines looked around the office and found a telegraph there, they also looked at a map and saw red x's the mills Fluttershy and the other animals destroyed. The five kept looking and saw a picture of Dog Catcher's minions, there were red x's on Knock Out, Poison Fist, Lights Out, Bluebird, Cardinal, Orange Tiger, Indigo Dragon, Cat Lover, White Knight, First Aid, Personal Trainer, and Butcher. They looked and saw there were four more minions, they were three stallions and a mare, one stallion had a light purple coat, a long red mane, and blue eyes, another stallion had a yellow coat, a long green mane tied into a braided ponytail, orange eyes, and wore glasses, the third stallion was a unicorn, he had a light tan coat, long dark gray mane, and red eyes, and the mare had a dark purple coat, long blue mane, and turquoise eyes. The five looked and saw the mare was actually stationed nearby while the other three stallions lived a bit far away, they left the room to see what it was. Fluttershy and the canines went and saw Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker with the mare from the picture and another Pegasus mare who had a powder blue coat, long light red mane and tail, pink eyes, and her cutie mark was a sewing needle with a black thread through it, the dark purple mare was a Pegasus in a royal guard uniform. The mare looked at the puppies in the cages, "What do you want?" Tracker asked, "What the? I was told this is an animal shelter." the mare stated, "It is, now what do you want?" Chain Link asked, "I was going to hand over my pet dogs since I didn't want them, but now that I see how filthy this place is, and the injuries on those puppies there, I've changed my mind, I'm handing my dogs over to another shelter." the mare declared, "Give us your dogs!" Tracker demanded, "No!" the mare retorted, the Pegasus royal guard held her down and Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker began beating her up and she screamed. The nine tailed fox, black dog, inugami, and raiju ran to them and attacked them, they grunted loudly and tried to fight them off, "Lavender, get the dogs!" Chain Link ordered, "I'm trying." the dark purple mare responded as the inugami held her down, she managed to break free and flew outside, "Run!" the mare ordered to her dogs, Tracker punched her on the back of her head and she grunted while Searcher covered her mouth. Lavender ran outside and got ready to get the dogs, but the raiju summoned lightning and it struck her. She screamed as the yellow lightning electrocuted her for a few seconds shortly before disappearing and she fell to the ground with black smoke coming out of her body. The ponies looked on in shock and Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker quickly broke free and ran to her, Tracker checked her pulse, "Well? How is she?" Chain Link asked, "She's dead." Tracker responded, "Come on, let's get the dogs." Chain Link said, and they ran after them. Fluttershy flew to the Pegasus and she was panting, "Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked, the mare looked up, "Fluttershy?" the mare asked, "Yes, it's me." Fluttershy answered, "You're not with them, are you?" the mare asked, "No, of course not, I'm here to shut down their operations." Fluttershy replied, "Oh, well, can you do me a favor and get my dogs for me while I search around this place for the operating area?" the mare requested, "Of course, I can use some help." Fluttershy answered, the mare smiled and got up, she began walking forward, "Wait, what's your name?" Fluttershy questioned, "Sewing Needle." the mare replied, "Alright, Sewing Needle, I leave finding the machines to you." Fluttershy said, and she headed outside. Fluttershy and the four canines headed outside and looked for Sewing Needle's dogs, she listened and heard animals running in two different directions, she called the birds and told them to look for two dogs alongside Chain Link, Searcher, and Tracker, and they flew. The birds flew around and looked for dogs while Fluttershy flew with them, they heard hoofs galloping to the east and she looked, she saw Tracker chasing a dog, he jumped on the dog and tackled it onto the ground, "Searcher! I got it!" Tracker hollered, Searcher flew to help him restrain the puppy and the two began trying to make it unconscious by punching it in its head. Fluttershy did bird calls and they attacked the two stallions, they fought back and the nine tailed fox and black dog attacked them and bit into them, they screamed in agony and Fluttershy turned away when she heard flesh being torn. She turned back and saw Searcher and Tracker have been killed while the nine tailed fox and black dog looked at the dog, she flew down and saw the dog had bruises on its head, "Take it to Sewing Needle, let's get the other one." Fluttershy ordered, and they left. The five went to the west and saw Chain Link holding an unconscious dog with red hoof marks on its head, the raiju cast lightning and Chain Link quickly flew to the side to dodge it while dropping the dog, Fluttershy flew to the dog while the inugami ran, it fell past her before she could reach it but the inugami caught it, the raiju cast more lightning as Chain Link dodged them and quickly flew away. The five checked the dog and saw it had hoof marks on its head, "Let's bring them to Sewing Needle, we'll go after Chain Link and find the other three ponies who work for Dog Catcher later." Fluttershy ordered, and they went back. The five went back to the factory with the two dogs and saw Sewing Needle standing outside, "Fluttershy! It's horrible!" Sewing Needle exclaimed as she ran to them, "What is it?" Fluttershy asked, "The factory, I couldn't believe what I saw in the back." Sewing Needle replied, "You go on home, Sewing Needle, we got your dogs for you." Fluttershy stated, "Thank you, I'll keep them with me before I send them to the animal shelter, and the controls to the factory are in the very back." Sewing Needle responded, and she carried the two and flew home while Fluttershy and the four canines entered the factory. She entered and the puppies barked at her while scratching the cages, "Hold on, I'll get you all out soon, I'm going to shut down this factory first." Fluttershy spoke, the puppies became quiet and she flew to the back. She went past Chain Link's office and arrived at the back of the factory and gasped at what she saw, she saw adult dogs with their legs' amputated and breeding puppies, some of the puppies had scabs and bruises on them. She walked to one of the adult dogs while the puppies ran away from her, "What's going on here?" Fluttershy questioned, a male adult dog barked and said Dog Catcher and his minions were using him and other adult dogs as breeding slaves to create puppies to be used as torture subjects. Fluttershy gasped while reeling up on her hind legs, she looked and saw some of the puppies were missing legs and parts of their ears', she saw one puppy was missing an eye, and some had broken claws, tears began to fall from her eyes as she saw their injuries. Whimpering was heard from the black dog's body and it echoed, it stood in place while it absorbed the souls of the dead canines in the cages and grew considerably bigger, "All of you hang tight, I'm going to destroy this factory." Fluttershy said, a female adult dog barked and told her about Dog Catcher sending away some of the puppies to three stallions, she said they were a light purple Pegasus named Bookkeeper, a yellow earth pony named Weapons Enthusiast, and a light tan unicorn named Black Magic, "I saw their pictures." Fluttershy stated, and she looked at the hall, she put on a brave face and went forward. Fluttershy flew to the back of the factory and saw dead canines on conveyor belts and being processed into meat to be fed to the other dogs, "Come on, let's destroy it." Fluttershy declared, and the raiju summoned lightning that made the conveyor belts exploded and a fire started, the dead canines fell onto the floor and the black dog absorbed their souls while the nine tailed fox summoned fire onto the machinery to destroy them, sparks came out and flew everywhere, "Hold on, let me shut it down first so a fire doesn't start." Fluttershy said, and she looked for the control panel, she found it on the conveyor belt where the meat cuts came out. She went to it and moved the levers with her mouth and turned off everything in the factory, the four canines began destroying everything and ripped the fences off of the cages and freed all the dogs, "What is going on?" Chain Link asked as she came in, all of the mobile canines run and jumped on her and she screamed as they tore her to pieces. Fluttershy looked away and covered her ears while the canines killed her, they stopped and she headed out while looking away from Chain Link's body and went outside. Fluttershy flew up and looked for the houses of Bookkeeper, Weapons Enthusiast, and Black Magic, she called for the birds and told them to help her find the three stallions and they flew around while she continued searching. She looked around for where the three could be until several birds came back a few minutes later and chirped, "Lead the way." Fluttershy commanded, and they did. She flew to the north and heard voices, she realized it was Dog Catcher and a colt, she saw Bookkeeper, Weapons Enthusiast, and Black Magic there as well, "I want a puppy!" the colt declared, "Get lost, kid, only certain people are allowed to buy from me." Dog Catcher replied, "But I want one now!" the colt fumed as he jumped up and down, Dog Catcher glared and held him up with his telekinesis, "Since you won't leave, you can die!" Dog Catcher declared, and he began to suck the soul out of his body, "Wait, Dog Catcher." Black Magic spoke as a brown aura appeared on his horn, "His parents will become suspicious if you kill him." Black Magic said, "Not my concern, since he likes dogs, I assume his family likes them as well, they can die, too." Dog Catcher retorted, and he sucked the soul out of the colt's body and killed him, "Come on, you three, take the dogs." Dog Catcher ordered, "Well, might as well." Weapons Enthusiast replied, "Yeah, we'll look for his family afterwards." Bookkeeper added, "It's fine, I'll do it, myself, since Lavender, Searcher, and Tracker have been killed, I haven't heard from Chain Link recently, either." Dog Catcher spoke, and he and Black Magic teleported away while Bookkeeper and Weapons Enthusiast headed home. Fluttershy followed Bookkeeper to the north to see where he was going and they arrived far away from the factory, she also saw all of Dog Catcher's puppy mills while following him have been destroyed. She arrived at Bookkeeper's home and saw graves in his backyard, he entered his home and she looked through a window. She saw starved puppies in cages and some of them killing other dogs just for food, Bookkeeper watched them and wrote down what he observed in a book. The puppies he brought home began to look for a way out of the house but he flew and caught them and threw them into the cages. Fluttershy screamed when the big dogs in the cage tried to kill and eat the puppies, the four canines rammed the door and broke it down, they jumped on Bookkeeper and he screamed as they tore him apart with their teeth and his blood splattered on a window. The four canines threw his body into the cage and they ate him and calmed down, they went back outside while Fluttershy just looked on disturbed, they bumped their heads on her to bring back to reality, "Sorry." Fluttershy spoke, and she did a calling sound and the dogs and puppies head outside to her, "Oh my, he didn't feed you all, let's see if there's any food in his house." Fluttershy spoke, and they entered and looked for food, "Sorry, but this is the best I can find." Fluttershy stated and she gave them peanuts, "Sit here, I'll be back." Fluttershy said, and she flew elsewhere. Fluttershy flew around and saw more destroyed puppy mills, she called for the birds and they flew to her and led her to the south. She arrived at Weapons Enthusiast's house and saw puppies in his backyard with scrapes, bruises, broken claws, and knocked out teeth, they all backed away from him, "Don't be like that, I got a new toy for you all." Weapons Enthusiast said, and he took out a stun rod. He put it on a puppy and it whimpered as it got electrocuted, it died while he chuckled, "This is pretty effective after all." Weapons Enthusiast stated, and he got ready to electrocute another puppy. The raiju used its magic to make the lightning come out of the stun rod and electrocute him, he screamed and tried to resist, he turned around and tried to throw the stun rod, he did and Fluttershy strafed to dodge it, he then groaned and fell over. Fluttershy flew down to the puppies and they ran to her, "Shh, it's okay, he won't hurt you all anymore." Fluttershy stated as she comforted them, and they calmed down, "Wait here, I'll be back for you." Fluttershy promised, and she flew up and called for the birds, "Lead me to Black Magic's house." Fluttershy commanded, and they did. Fluttershy flew to the northeast and saw even more destroyed puppy mills, she smiled at seeing the animals have freed the puppies, she arrived at Black Magic's house and saw graves in his backyard, she noticed some of them were too big to be for dogs and deduced they were ponies. She looked around and saw puppies in cages in his backyard and he was sitting in a chair, "Come on now, you gotta do better than that, don't disappoint your mommy." Black Magic spoke, she looked and gasped when she saw a puppy being forced to hold an adult dog up with its body while the adult dog had a noose around its neck. The puppy fell a second later and the adult dog's neck snapped, the puppy began to whimper while Black Magic smiled and got another adult dog, "I'll give you another try, let's see if you'll have better luck with your dad." Black Magic said as he put another adult dog on the puppy's body and a noose around its neck with his magic. The puppy fell immediately and the adult dog began to fall, "No!" Fluttershy hollered as she flew forward and held the adult dog up with her hoofs, "Begone, dog sympathizer!" Black Magic hollered as he shot a spell from his horn. The black dog appeared between him and the puppy and the zap hit him but did nothing, souls flew out of its body and they took the form of dogs and they jumped on Black Magic, he screamed as they tore him apart with their claws', they did and went back into the black dog's body. The inugami ran to the adult dog and used its teeth to break the noose, the puppy walked forward and Fluttershy put the dog down, "Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked as she looked at the red mark on the dog's neck, he went over to the puppy and the two howled at the dead dog. She went over to the other dogs and saw burn marks on them from Black Magic's zaps, they ran to her and began licking her, she began to laugh, "Hey, that tickles." Fluttershy stated as they continued to lick her, "Okay, that's enough." Fluttershy said after a few minutes and took them off of her, "I'm going to put an end to their operations today, I'll be back for you all." Fluttershy spoke, and she flew away. She flew up into the sky and looked for Dog Catcher, she flew around Equestria and could not find him anywhere, she only saw destroyed puppy mills and no canines in or around them. She heard a magic spell being cast and she flew to the east, but only saw it was a colt practicing his magic, she flew elsewhere and heard more magic being cast, she ignored them until she heard wheezing in a house. She flew down and looked through a window and saw Dog Catcher in the house, he took the souls of a stallion and a mare and killed them, she looked and saw a picture of the two with the colt Dog Catcher killed earlier, he smiled and teleported away. Fluttershy glared and flew back to the factory. Fluttershy arrived back at the destroyed factory and took the map on where Dog Catcher, his minions, and where his mills were at, she saw his house was marked on the map. She went outside and called for the birds, she instructed them to find Dog Catcher's house and they flew away. She tended to the puppies and adult dogs in the factory while she waited, she heard chirping about 30 minutes later and went outside, they informed her they found his home, "Lead the way." Fluttershy commanded, and they flew and she followed them.
Chapter 7Fluttershy flew to the west and the birds guided her to Dog Catcher's house, she arrived at a small wooden cabin with a mansion a few yards behind it, she also saw dead dogs around the house. The black dog absorbed the souls of the puppies and it stood still while in pain, it also grew bigger, "Are you alright?" Fluttershy asked as the black dog just stood still, it shook its head and began moving again, "Good, let's continue." Fluttershy spoke, and they headed over to Dog Catcher's home. She landed and looked around his yard, she saw the dead dogs were already decaying and was luckily spared from the smell due to the season currently being winter, they found various graves under their bodies and the black dog absorbed the souls, about thirty to fifty souls came out of each grave, it grew much bigger and fell to its knees, it had trouble standing. Fluttershy's jaw dropped for a moment and she quickly flew over to the black dog and tried to hold it up, "Come on, we're almost done, just a little longer." Fluttershy spoke, and the black dog huffed a little as it tried to stand. The inugami walked to it and made a staff with six rings appear, it hit the ground with the bottom of the staff and the six rings made a noise. Souls flew out of the black dog's body and into the sky, they went in front of the inugami and they whimpered. The inugami made the staff disappear and did a gesture with its front paw to send the souls to the afterlife while the black dog stood up, "Can you move?" Fluttershy asked, the black dog walked perfectly, "Good, come on now." Fluttershy spoke, and they went into the cabin. Fluttershy and the four canines entered the cabin and looked around, everything looked normal at the entrance, they walked forward and found various tools and torture devices in the next room, each one had fur and dried blood on it. Tears began to fall from Fluttershy's eyes as she looked at each one, she was especially disturbed at seeing clipped and broken claws in several pairs of pliers, "He... ripped the claws off of the puppies with pliers?" Fluttershy asked as she looked on in horror and tears continued to fall from her eyes, the nine tailed fox bumped his head on her leg and she came back to reality, "Sorry, it was too sad for me to ignore, I'm ready to continue." Fluttershy spoke, and they walked around the cabin. She looked for Dog Catcher and did not find him anywhere, they went into the back room and saw it was the bathroom, they checked it and found nothing, they left and checked the last room to the right and it was Dog Catcher's bedroom. They checked and found several dead dogs under his bed, they were contorted with faces of agony, "What did he do to them?" Fluttershy asked, she looked on and came out from under his bed. She walked around the house and went back to the main entrance, "What's this room for?" Fluttershy asked, she looked around some more and saw the door to the attic. She flew up and bit the string and pulled it on it to open the attic, she went up the stairs and saw the attic was a makeshift torture chamber, a tear fell from her eye again and she went back down. She closed the attic and looked around more and found the cellar door, she opened it and went under the house. The four canines followed her down the stairs and Fluttershy exclaimed when she saw dead foals in the attic and she began to cry, she looked and saw one dead foal had a dog's collar in his hoof, another had a photo of her family and pet dog, she cried more while the four canines watched her. She cried a bit and could not get herself together, the four canines dragged her out of the cellar with their mouths and back into the main room, she continued to cry a bit and panted a little as she composed herself, "I... I never seen anything so sad and so cruel." Fluttershy said, she continued to stand in place while continuing to regain herself. She and the four canines heard stomping outside and it was getting louder, they quickly ran into another room to hide. The five hid in Dog Catcher's bedroom and watched, the door flew open while it hit the wall and bounced forward, they saw Dog Catcher come in, "That stupid mare, it's because of her that all of my childhood friends are dead and all of mills are destroyed, my company's done for, I'm going to kill that Fluttershy." Dog Catcher grumbled as he stomped around. He went into the cellar and Fluttershy and the four canines tried to sneak out, she opened the door quietly and it creaked a bit, Dog Catcher cast a spell and teleported into the room, "Well, well, the timing couldn't be any more perfect. Die, Fluttershy." Dog Catcher said as he began to try to suck her soul out of her body again. The four canines ran to him and Dog Catcher teleported elsewhere as he tried to kill Fluttershy, he cast another spell to revive the dead dogs and foals in his house and they attacked the canines. Fluttershy continued to resist while Dog Catcher scowled and focused, he tried to steal Fluttershy's soul again and the inugami made its staff appear and hit the ground to make its six rings produce a noise. Canine Warrior's ghost appeared and it shot a zap at Dog Catcher, he grunted as he fell onto the ground outside and Fluttershy wheezed. The revived ponies and dogs continued attacking them while Dog Catcher teleported away, Fluttershy stood up and tried to carry the canines away from the revived dogs and ponies under Dog Catcher's control while Canine Warrior's ghost began casting a spell to undo it, Fluttershy and the four canines went outside while the revived dogs and ponies focused on him. Fluttershy and the canines arrived outside and they saw Dog Catcher on the roof of the mansion, he cast a spell and all of the dead dogs around his house rose from their graves and began attacking them. The canines held them off while Fluttershy flew up and tried to go after Dog Catcher, but he shot her down with a spell and she began to fall, the revived dogs stood in place and waited for her to come down so they could eat her. She continued to fall and flapped her wings to gain momentum, she did a flip in the air and flew up. The dogs began jumping and trying to bite her, she looked back and saw Dog Catcher was trying to cast another spell, she flew around quickly and he growled. The raiju howled and summoned a lightning strike, it electrocuted Dog Catcher and he screamed, he growled and teleported away. Fluttershy and the four canines tried to get the revived dogs off of them and were getting overwhelmed, she did a canine's call for help, she heard canines far away do the same call and she smiled. Canine Warrior flung the revived ponies away with his magic and tried to cast a spell to break Dog Catcher's control, he had trouble and noticed Dog Catcher's hold on them was very strong. He saw the nine tailed fox used his magic to make an illusion and look like they were dead, the mind controlled dogs walked around and smelled each illusion of a dead body. Fluttershy watched the dogs and noticed they could not find them, she also saw the nine tailed fox standing still and holding the illusion as long as he could. Running was heard and many wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals came and attacked the revived dogs, Wepwawet and the two cadejos were among them, the dogs were mauled to the point of being immobile and Dog Catcher stopped controlling them. The other canines ran to Fluttershy and checked her, "I'm fine, thank you." Fluttershy said, they all looked forward and saw many revived ponies and dogs around the mansion, "You go on and get Dog Catcher, Fluttershy, we'll deal with them." Canine Warrior spoke as his voice echoed, "Okay." Fluttershy replied, and they went forward. Fluttershy and the others headed to the mansion and the other Pegasi tackled her and she grunted as she fell, the female cadejo jumped and tried to bite them but they flew out of range. The raiju howled and summoned lightning and electrocuted the ponies, they were all stunned at the moment and Fluttershy flew to the mansion. The unicorns cast a spell and tried to break free from the paralysis, they heard Dog Catcher growl and his voice echoed from inside the mansion, she flew to the second floor but got pushed back by a force field and fell onto the ground. Canine Warrior began casting a spell to open the force field and the inugami walked around him and was ready to attack whoever approached. Fluttershy tried to get back up but the earth ponies began kicking her, she covered herself with her legs and screamed, the foxes and wolves ran to her and they jumped and bit into the mind controlled ponies, Wepwawet picked up Fluttershy and carried her away while the nine tailed fox's eyes glowed and the mind controlled ponies were set on fire. Fluttershy coughed and gagged from the smell of burning corpses and Canine Warrior managed to create an opening in the force field, "Go, Fluttershy, I won't be able to hold it open for long." Canine Warrior ordered, and she flew into the force field and it closed. She tried to fly up to the second floor again but there was not enough space for her to get through, so she landed entered the mansion at its entrance. Fluttershy entered the mansion and saw big ornate vases to her sides, she walked forward and saw pictures of dead dogs hung on the walls. She walked forward and saw a picture in a glass case, it was a picture of Dog Catcher, Chain Link, Searcher, Tracker, Poison Fist, Knock Out, Lights Out, Cardinal, Bluebird, Orange Tiger, Indigo Dragon, Cat Lover, First Aid, Personal Trainer, White Knight, Butcher, Lavender, Bookkeeper, Weapons Enthusiast, and Black Magic all smiling and each one holding a severed dog's head. Fluttershy looked at the picture for a few seconds before she picked up the glass case and threw it, it shattered on impact when it hit the floor, she then looked to her left and saw the dining room, she looked to her right and saw Dog Catcher's bedroom, she saw a door in the back of the room and opened it, it was the bathroom, she closed the door and flew up the stairs. Fluttershy saw the stairs divide to two paths, she went to the left first and opened the door, she saw it was a library, she looked and saw books on dog anatomy and torture devices, she also found a book on how to build traps for hunting animals. She left the room and went to the stairs to the right, she came into a lab and gagged when she saw a dead dog with its organ exposed on the table, she looked to her left and saw various fences and cages, she realized she was in the supply room, she quickly flew to the back of the room and saw another door to her left, she opened it and entered. Fluttershy arrived in the back of the mansion and was in another room with Dog Catcher there and guiding the revived ponies with his magic, he looked to his left and saw her, "So you did make it this far, I lost my company and friends because of you." Dog Catcher spoke, "What you're doing isn't right!" Fluttershy fumed, "Why not? Those dogs are parasites." Dog Catcher retorted, "Have you ever wondered how many families and hearts of animal and pet lovers you have destroyed?!" Fluttershy inquired, "It's their fault, they shouldn't have been dog sympathizers in the first place." Dog Catcher answered, Fluttershy's anger rose and she tackled him onto the floor, "Don't you regret what you did?!" Fluttershy asked, "The only thing I regret is not torturing and killing more dogs than I already did." Dog Catcher responded, Fluttershy looked on horrified and Dog Catcher shot her away with a zap from her horn and he ran away, she ran after him. Fluttershy went up a short flight of stairs and pushed the double doors open as hard as she could, "Stop where you are!" Fluttershy demanded, Dog Catcher looked back at her with a scowl, he turned around and shot a zap out of his horn. She flew to the side and dodged it easily, she flew to him and tried to tackle him down but he teleported to another part of the room and shot a big blast out of his horn at her, she strafed and dodged the blast, she flew to him and Dog Catcher's eyes widened when he saw Fluttershy flew as fast as Rainbow Dash when she was serious. She flew after him again and Dog Catcher shot several zaps at her and she flew around and dodged all of them, he cast a spell and made an explosion happen all around him, Fluttershy shrieked as the force made her fall out of the air. Dog Catcher held her up with his telekinesis and flung her around the room and hit her into the walls and ceiling, he soon threw her towards himself and shot a big blast at her, she quickly flew to the side and dodged it, Dog Catcher glared while growling under his breath. Fluttershy flew to him and tackled him onto the floor, she used The Stare on him to try to make him stand down, Dog Catcher looked into her eyes and he began to sweat a bit, she continued to stare at him while his eyes widened a bit, he then shot a zap at her and she shrieked as she fell onto the floor. Dog Catcher teleported to her and stood on top of her, he began jumping up and down on her back, she screamed from the pain and he soon heard running inside his mansion, he looked for a minute and saw the female cadejo come in and she jumped onto him and tackled him down, he grunted as he fell. Fluttershy stood up while the female cadejo stood in front of her, Dog Catcher huffed and shot a zap at the two, they moved away to dodge it and Fluttershy flew to him again at high speeds, he made the explosion happen again and Fluttershy screamed as she got shot back, she did a flip in the air and was flying stably again. Dog Catcher's eyes widened at seeing her recover, he desperately shot beams at her and she dodged each one, the female cadejo jumped onto him from his blind spot and he grunted as he fell. She got ready to bite into him but he quickly teleported away, Dog Catcher tried to suck the soul out of the female cadejo but she resisted, Fluttershy flew to him and tackled him down and used The Stare on him again. Dog Catcher looked away but Fluttershy grabbed his face with her hoofs and made him look into her eyes, his eyes widened and he looked on in fear at her, "Alright, I give up." Dog Catcher stated, and he stood down and stopped controlling the ponies. Fluttershy got off of him and she and the female cadejo watched him, his horn lit up and and the aura soon disappeared, "I just contacted that unicorn, I have a confession to make." Dog Catcher said, and Canine Warrior appeared in the room with Wepwawet, the nine tailed fox, the black dog, the male cadejo, the inugami, and the raiju, "Good, now that I have you all in one place, I kill you all at once!" Dog Catcher hollered gleefully while he cast a spell and floated into the air, "Come! All of my dogs!" Dog Catcher stated, and all of the dogs from his puppy mills gathered together around the mansion as they heard whimpering. The mansion began to shake and everybody headed to the roof and looked, they saw Dog Catcher forcibly fuse the canines together into a giant, light blue, transparent dog. Fluttershy and the others looked on at the giant canine and the puppies and dogs that made up its body struggled to break free, "Go after Dog Catcher, we'll hold it off." Canine Warrior stated, "Okay." Fluttershy replied, and she looked for him while the others fought the giant canine. She saw Dog Catcher floating in midair and controlling the creature with his magic, she flew up and tried to reach him but he summoned strong gusts of wind to push her back. She exclaimed as the wind blew her around and made debris fly everywhere, he then shot beams out of his horn at the others and Canine Warrior cast a shield. Fluttershy flew up while Dog Catcher summoned lightning strikes with his magic and a downpour began, the giant canine ducked down and tried to bite the canines and Canine Warrior, they all jumped back while the nine tailed fox tried to shoot fire at Dog Catcher and the raiju tried to make lightning strike him. Dog Catcher floated around while dodging everything, he saw a lightning strike coming down and quickly put up a shield to block it, Fluttershy flew to him while he was distracted and tried to grab and restrain him, he teleported elsewhere and shot beams at her. She flew over all of them and she flew as fast she could and got a hold of him. Dog Catcher grunted as he tried to break free from Fluttershy's grip, the giant canine tried to bite her and she flew away from it. Dog Catcher teleported out of her grip and reappeared behind her, he restrained her by wrapping his front legs around her neck and she gagged, he then went down and offered her to the giant canine for it to eat. The two cadejos ran and jumped, they bit Dog Catcher but he ignored them as the giant canine's teeth came closer and was about to eat her. Canine Warrior shot a zap at Dog Catcher and he grunted as Fluttershy fell, she flew again and saw Dog Catcher teleport again. He reappeared and shot a big beam at the canines while Canine Warrior shot a beam from his horn and the two entered a deadlock, the two were equally powered and the inugami shot a beam out of its paw and it blew Dog Catcher a few millimeters back while his spell stopped. Fluttershy flew to Dog Catcher again but the giant canine bit and held onto her tail, she screamed as it pulled her away from him, it began swinging its head around and bashing her into the ground and the walls of the mansion. The nine tailed fox ran on the air and tried to get Fluttershy while the raiju tried to stun the giant canine with lightning strikes but it did nothing. Wepwawet ran and jumped onto Dog Catcher, he grunted and flew around while Wepwawet stabbed his claws into him. He bit the back of Dog Catcher's neck with his sharp teeth and he screamed, he teleported away and Wepwawet began to fall and Canine Warrior caught him with his telekinesis and brought him back. The nine tailed fox summoned fire onto the giant canine and it winced in pain while the dogs in it yelped, it let go of Fluttershy and she flew again. She flew to Dog Catcher and he shot a giant beam at her and she flew under it, she tackled Dog Catcher and they landed on the mansion's roof. Dog Catcher panted and he was unable to move due to Wepwawet's bite, he quickly cast another spell and transferred Fluttershy into the giant canine's mouth while he teleported and kept himself up in the air with his telekinesis, Fluttershy screamed while the giant canine's teeth sank into her. The wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals that were on the ground ran and jumped onto the giant canine, they stabbed their claws and bit it but it did nothing, everybody watched while Dog Catcher smiled. Loud howling and whimpering was heard echoing and everybody looked and saw it coming from the black dog's body, it glared and growled and began growing to a gargantuan size, the mansion's roof broke while Canine Warrior teleported himself and the others away. The black dog absorbed the souls of every canine killed by Dog Catcher and grew bigger and blocked out the sun, the residents of Equestria saw it and looked on in awe. The black dog walked to the giant canine and slammed its front legs onto its shoulders and knocked it down, it let go of Fluttershy and it began to absorb Dog Catcher's magical energy into itself. Fluttershy flew to the others and watched, "What's it doing?" Fluttershy asked, "It's destroying Dog Catcher's magic energy, the souls of their families and fellow dogs from the mills that have died are all working together to save them." Dog Catcher explained, she watched and heard lots of whimpering from inside of the black dog's body, it absorbed all of the magic and destroyed it inside its body. Fluttershy flew to the puppies and dogs while the black dog walked to Dog Catcher, he shot zaps at it and they became smoke upon touching the black dog's body, it bit him and held onto him with its teeth. Dog Catcher screamed loudly as it bit down on all four of his legs, he began to cast a spell and Canine Warrior quickly shot a big beam from his horn and it hit Dog Catcher's horn and broke it, he screamed in agony and the black dog then threw him onto the ground and it changed back to its normal size. Dog Catcher groaned and heard faint walking, he saw wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals surround him, they growled as they walked closer to him and Wepwawet stood in front of him, "Wait, no. No!" Dog Catcher exclaimed as they all jumped on him and he screamed as they mauled him and tore him apart. The black dog stood and looked down while Fluttershy comforted it, "It's okay, you did great, I'm proud of you for stopping him." Fluttershy said, they and the others walked to the dogs and puppies and saw them get up, "It's over." Fluttershy spoke, "No, not yet, we still need to get them to a new home and somewhere safe." Canine Warrior replied, "Can you teleport them to my sanctuary?" Fluttershy asked, and he tried to cast a spell but could not, "Nope, my body's too tired, I'm not as young as I used to be, we're going to have to walk." Canine Warrior stated, "That's okay, come on, everyanimal, let's take them to my sanctuary." Fluttershy instructed, snow began to fall afterwards, "Oh no, it's going to get cold, we have to get moving now." Fluttershy spoke, and the dogs that could move walked while the ones that could not were carried on the backs of the wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals, "Come on, this way." Fluttershy stated, and she walked while they followed her.
Chapter 8Fluttershy walked and led the canines as they walked through the snow, they had trouble due to the snow already being up to their ankles, "Come on now, we have to push or it'll get worse." Fluttershy stated, and they moved slowly as Canine Warrior and the inugami helped the injured puppies move along while the dogs that had their legs' severed were carried on the backs of the other canines. They all walked through the snow and some of the puppies fell to their knees', "No, you can't rest now, you'll freeze to death, we'll rest if we can find shelter." Fluttershy stated, and they got up and walked again, but some fell a second afterwards, the nine tailed fox, black dog, two cadejos, raiju, Wepwawet, and other canines carried them on their backs, they walked through the snow a bit more and some of the dogs began sneezing, "Bless you, are you all alright?" Canine Warrior asked as he checked them, Fluttershy went over and checked them as well, "They're getting sick." Fluttershy said, "They're still young, let's keep moving." Canine Warrior added, and they kept pushing forward. They all walked through the snow and it got heavier, Canine Warrior tried to see if he could teleport them now but could not, "How much farther to your home, Fluttershy?" Canine Warrior asked, "It's pretty far, actually." Fluttershy answered, and the puppies looked down, "I know, but we'll rest if we can find shelter." Fluttershy spoke, and they all kept walking forward. Fluttershy, Canine Warrior, and the canines all walked together and some of the puppies began to pant, the foxes and wolves tried to hold them up as they walked together, they struggled through the snow and Fluttershy began to shiver a little, the canines walked up to her and surrounded her to warm her up, "Thank you." Fluttershy stated, and they continued walking. They went through the snow and Fluttershy was beginning to get tired, she heard many canines panting behind her as they had trouble, the snow got harder and was almost a blizzard, "Oh, I didn't think it was going to snow this hard." Fluttershy stated, "Go, inugami, get help." Canine Warrior instructed, "Wait, let's try calling for help." Fluttershy replied, and she did a calling sound and the other canines did as well. The calling sound traveled through the area and there was no response. Everypony was getting ready for the winter and they soon heard the many canines doing the calling sound, the Apple family's attention was caught, "Someone's dog's in trouble." Apple Bloom stated, "It ain't one dog, listen." Applejack responded, and she heard the calling sounds of hundreds of canines, "I hear them wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals if Ah ain't mistakin'." Granny Smith said, "Wait, could them dogs be with Fluttershy?" Apple Bloom asked, "Now that ya mention it, it might be her, she must be in trouble, we need to help." Applejack responded, "Eeyup." Big Macintosh added, they heard running and saw Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity coming, "We think it's Fluttershy calling for help." Twilight Sparkle stated, "I tried to see, but the snow's blocking the view." Rainbow Dash added, "We think it's her, too, we need somethin' with Fluttershy's scent on it." Applejack stated, "Ooh, I know, let's get one of her pets." Pinkie Pie stated, "That won't be necessary, darling, I have several outfits she has worn." Rarity replied, "Go get one, Winona can find her when she picks up a scent." Applejack ordered, and Rarity teleported while the Apple family prepared a wagon. Rarity reappeared with a dress that Fluttershy wore and made Winona smell it, she began running, "Lead the way, girl." Applejack ordered as she and Big Macintosh pulled the wagon together. Fluttershy and the others continued doing calling sounds but there was no response, "No one's coming, we have to keep going." Canine Warrior said, "Can you at least try a flare signal or something?" Fluttershy asked, and he shot up a beam in the sky that exploded, "There, let's go now." Canine Warrior stated, and they kept walking. They walked slowly and panted as the snow got heavier, everybody began to shiver as they walked and some of the puppies fell again. Fluttershy and Canine Warrior tried to hold them up and the puppies panted. They heard barking and Fluttershy looked back, she saw Winona running to them, "Winona! Did you come here all the way for me?" Fluttershy asked, she barked and licked her, she then heard Apple Bloom and Applejack calling for her, she saw a various silhouettes in the mist and her friends came, "There you are, Fluttershy, you had us all worried." Applejack stated, "Sorry about that." Fluttershy replied, her friends looked at the canines and went to them, "Who are they, Fluttershy?" Apple Bloom asked, "Most of them are puppies from Dog Catcher's puppy mills." Fluttershy explained, "*gasp* Look!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she pointed, they did and gasped at seeing some of the puppies and adult dogs had broken and severed legs', "You poor things, to lose your legs and be unable to move." Twilight Sparkle lamented, "I was going to teleport them, but my body's old and frail now and I wasn't able to." Canine Warrior stated, "You're... see-through?" Apple Bloom asked, "Yeah, I'm already dead." Canine Warrior replied, "Come on, y'all, we're wastin' time, get 'em legless ones in the wagon." Granny Smith ordered, and they did while Twilight Sparkle and Rarity used their telekinesis to carry the ones that were tired, they all then headed to Fluttershy's sanctuary. The canines were taken into Fluttershy's home and she and her friends nursed them back to health, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Spike were called over to help, the veterinarians from the town also came to check on them, the ones with severed legs' were given bandage wrappings on their stumps, "Thank you, all of you, I'm going to need help every day to treat them until they get better." Fluttershy stated, "That's alright, we're here to help." Twilight Sparkle replied, "Yeah, just call us if you need us." Sweetie Belle added, "We can probably get our classmates to help, too." Scootaloo said, "That would be wonderful, I can always use more help." Fluttershy responded, "Maybe a school trip will be good for here, Twilight." Spike suggested, "I'll have to check with the others first, Spike." Twilight Sparkle responded, "Well, thank you all again, I'll let you all know if I need help." Fluttershy stated, and they left. She tended to the puppies with the other canines and her various pets also helped her, some of the dogs died from their injuries and old age throughout the winter and she made a grave for all of them, her friends helped her and Canine Warrior tend to the puppies while the other canines played with them, "Welcome to your new home, everypuppy." Fluttershy stated, and she sang lullabies to them to make them fall asleep and comforted them whenever they had nightmares of the puppy mills. Spring came and Fluttershy began rebuilding her home and sanctuary with her friends and pets while the puppies were all outside and running around, Fluttershy's friends helped her feed and clean them while Winona was playing with them, "Looks like you got everything working, Fluttershy, it's time for me and my inugami to return to the afterlife." Canine Warrior stated, "Okay, thank you two so much for your help." Fluttershy replied, "Remember to tell the dogs that we're watching them." Canine Warrior stated, "I will." Fluttershy responded, and the two disappeared while smiling. Winona began licking a puppy clean while they went to her, the two cadejos and raiju went to Fluttershy next and bowed to her, "Thank you three for your helps, I'll hope you all come to visit again one day." Fluttershy stated, "As always, thanks, you two cadejos, for protecting us from harm when we travel the roads." Twilight Sparkle stated, "Don't go too crazy with the lightning, raiju." Rainbow Dash stated, the others chuckled and the two cadejos ran off while the raiju went into the sky. Wepwawet and the wolves, foxes, coyotes, and jackals bowed to Fluttershy, "Thank you, all of you, and especially thank you and your herd, Wepwawet, for letting the nine tailed foxes know about Dog Catcher's doings." Fluttershy stated, "Just wait a little, Wepwawet, I'll find something as a token of gratitude later." Twilight Sparkle stated, and he and his herd alongside the foxes, coyotes, and jackals left. Fluttershy and the others tended to the puppies and fed and cleaned them, the nine tailed fox helped them, "Still, I've never seen a nine tailed fox before." Rainbow Dash said, "As I've said before, Rainbow, they're not from Equestria, their home is to the northeast of our land." Twilight Sparkle explained, "Are you going back home soon?" Fluttershy asked, the nine tailed fox nodded and they tended to the canines. The black dog looked over them and the souls of their families and fellow dogs from the puppy mills flew out of its body and went up into the sky, "Ooh, what are those?" Pinkie Pie asked, "They're the souls of the dogs' deceased families and fellow puppies from the mills, now that the mills and Dog Catcher and his minions have been stopped and the winter has passed, I guess they can finally rest in peace now." Fluttershy explained, "Wait, souls? Fluttershy, these black dogs are supposed to be a bad omen for people." Twilight Sparkle stated, "Well, I guess this one was a bad omen for Dog Catcher, it actually helped me stop his company." Fluttershy replied, it looked down and began to fade, Fluttershy trotted to it, "Thank you for your help, you should go rest, too." Fluttershy stated, and it disappeared. Everypony watched the puppies as they played and ran around, they heard running and barking a while later, they all looked and saw a nine tailed pup coming and another nine tailed fox that was smaller than the one with them. Fluttershy looked and realized it was the nine tailed fox's wife and son, they ran to him and the two nine tailed foxes rubbed their snouts against one another and the male nine tailed fox then rubbed the pup's head with his paw. The female nine tailed fox went over to the puppies and rubbed her snout on them, they did various barks and Fluttershy understood them perfectly, "Oh, that's wonderful, if it's alright, I'd like to go to the awards ceremony, too." Fluttershy stated, the male nine tailed fox smiled in agreement, "Come on now, everypuppy, we have to go to their island for a ceremony." Fluttershy stated, and the four carried them over to the island. Fluttershy and the dogs arrived at the island and the ceremony started, the nine tailed fox gave his report and told them about the puppy mills and the other nine tailed foxes looked at them, the emperor then gave him a medal and the other nine tailed foxes howled while Fluttershy smiled, she was also called forward and given a medal for helping the nine tailed fox. The nine tailed foxes howled again while Fluttershy smiled deeply and the emperor smiled back at her. She went back while the nine tailed foxes examined every dog that was brought along, they then gave Fluttershy a big supply of food and medical items, "Thank you, thank you very much." Fluttershy stated, and she headed back home with the nine tailed foxes carrying the puppies to her sanctuary for her. Fluttershy arrived home and it was almost dark, she began singing a lullaby and the puppies fell asleep and dreamed well, she smiled and got the rest of her pets to sleep and then laid in her bed and slept with a smile on her face.
