Gusty the Great book 2- The crusades

“Guess no creature told you, you mess with the dog you get the pack.” Sarama told them while approaching them.

“Oh yeah?” Fizzy asked her in a challenging tone. “Well let me tell you something miss smart doggie; we also have a pack of our own! Wait, that´s not the word in our case, is it?” she wondered aloud. “But I remember papá calling us a manada, and manada is the same as pack. But I never heard ponies refer ourselves as a pack, they used another word!” she hit her forehead repeteadly as she tried to remember the word. “Aaaah, what was it?!”

Every dog, including Sarama raised their eyebrow confused as they heard her reasoning. Seeing her friend was entering in one of her rabbit holes, though she would rather call it tree branches since she usually ended up in a very different topic from the initial one but still connected according to her, Buttons decided to intercede for her friend.

“What she means is that we still have powerful friends with us and-”

“Oh, you don´t need to tell me.” Sarama interrupted her. “I already know that.”

With a smirk Sarama pointed at her right to make the ponies turn their heads that way. The other dogs made way for some more who coincidentally enough were bringing the captured earth ponies. The unicorns´ jaws hung wide open in horror. Knightshade and Magic Star laughed nervously, while the rest were looking down in embarrassment.

“Hi… It´s good to see you…” said Knightshade while slightly waving his hoof.

The unicorns turned back to Sarama with different expressions on their faces. Glory, Buttons and Starswirl stared at her with worry, whereas Gusty, Lancer and Fizzy were frowning at her.

“Right now, you have two options: Either you give yourselves to us without any fight or resisting. But I warn you, it´s not a good idea to fight having spears so near you, because the moment you move a muscle or ignite your horn the spear will have entered your body already.” said Sarama.

Both unicorns and earth ponies stared at each other, not knowing what to do next. But perhaps Gusty had the answer.

“What about a duel?”

Every pony and dog widened her eyes at her.

“Excuse me?” asked Lancer.

Sarama raised her eyebrow intrigued.

“I won´t use any magic, I promise.” Gusty continued to convince her. “I know it´s an advantage for me over you and it wouldn´t be fair to you. I´ll only use my sword.”

Sarama was genuinely surprised at those words. In spite of being her opponent and surely wanting to win, she still had consideration for her. Theoretically, those were the rules for war, but the moment any creature had the chance, they would break them. That showed her how naive she was. Either that or she was just trying to distract her. Even so, it was not a good idea to listen. Seeing she was still silent, Gusty kept on insisting.

“It is me who you want, right? Well, here´s the good part: either if I win or lose you´ll get me at the end of the day. But if I win, you´ll let my friends go.”

The ponies gasped shocked.

“What is she doing?!” Alonzo asked scared.

Glory reflected to herself. She knew Gusty was really creative in solving problems and getting out of jams, so perhaps this was just a distraction to make them go away and joining afterwards. But she was also willing to put herself in danger for others, which, as noble as it sounded, was not a good idea, considering she was key in defeating Grogar. Either way, she decided to carefully scan her surroundings to know what to do next, should the case require it. Curiously enough, she felt the presence of something underneath them.

Meanwhile, Sarama shook her head.

“The idea is very tempting, I must confess. But it would be a waste of time, especially in a situation so dire as this one.”

“If it was so dire, I don´t think King Crunch would have sent his main lapdog to stop it.”

“Ooooh!” Knightshade Magic Star, Fizzy and Buttons exclaimed quietly.

At the same time, Posey, Shady and Starswirl along some other dogs covered their mouths. The rest of ponies and dogs had their mouths hanging wide open. From the shock, the dogs softened their grip, something Glory noticed. Sarama, in the meantime, widened her eyes in shock. As a foredog, she had heard many insults, both from ponies and dogs alike. But Gusty did touch a fibre there.

“You don´t mean it…” she growled.

Taking advantage of the bigger distance between the spears and her and the dogs´ bewilderment, Gusty teleported right in front of Sarama.

“Oh, I do.” she frowned challengingly.

But her confidence would drop once Sarama trapped her horn between two sickles at great speed.

“Gusty!” Starswirl exclaimed worried.

Sarama chuckled satisfied when she saw Gusty´s expression. She knew she had trapped her at an impasse, because if she tried to resist anyhow, even if it was by magic, Sarama might dig the sickle blade deeper. But luckily, she had weapons by her side. As fast as Sarama had trapped her, Gusty caught her shield with her tail to hit her chest. As a result, she pushed her arms back, releasing Gusty and giving her enough time to get away. However, Sarama didn´t seem fazed. Instead, she masterfully moved her sickles in circles and frowned when grabbing them. That was her way of communicating Gusty she was not to be messed with. Nonetheless, Gusty was still determined to fight her. As a response, she caught her sword and pointed it to her. Sarama giggled.

“This is gonna be fun.” she said with a smirk, making her sickles spin in circles once again.

They both ran to each other and jumped when their swords clashed, swapping their positions. Then, Gusty fought Sarama with her sword. Noticing the dogs were about to join the fight, Glory raised some tall crystals to create a barrier between Gusty and Sarama and the rest of dogs and ponies. Then, she summoned a force field around herself and the rest of the unicorns.

“Oh. A protective magical field. Would have really appreciated to have been invited.” said Magic Star with irony.

Since so much had happened in such a short period of time, the dogs that weren´t circling the earth ponies stayed still, not so sure what to do next. Luckily for them, Argus had an idea. He ran to the crystals and started breaking them with his spears.

“Come on, Sarama needs us!” Argus spurred them on.

Though confused at first, they ended up joining him. Meanwhile inside Glory´s force field, the unicorns stared at her work in surprise and awe as she panted heavily. Except Starswirl, whose priority right then was Gusty.

“Wai-Bu- What about Gusty?” Starswirl asked concerned and confused.

“Don´t worry, we´ll aid her immediately but we need to coordinate well.” Glory answered to him.

“Hm… Not to undermine your work or anything but the dogs are destroying it.” Buttons pointed out. “So whatever your plan is you´d better say it quickly.”

“Some of us need to teleport away to get Majesty and the rest need to stay here to keep the dogs away from Gusty.”

“Right!” Lancer put his hoof in front of his forehead. “You and Starswirl come with me. Buttons, Fizzy you stay here with Alonzo, Knightshade and Magic Star to deal with the dogs.”

“Aye!” Buttons and Fizzy imitated his gesture in response.

“Wait, me?” Starswirl asked confused. “But why?”

“Because you´re the only one that can read any language.” Lancer explained. “I mean, the documents you reviewed back at the monastery can´t have all been in pony latin.”

“Well, that´s true, but…” Starswirl turned his eyes to Gusty.

“The best way you can help her is by infiltrating in the library to see if there´s anything about Crunch´s vulnerable spot. You´ll save her a lot of work.”

After listening Lancer´s words, Starswirl changed his mind. Gusty needed to have some mental energy left for Crunch, and she was investing it in fighting Sarama. He nodded to Lancer, who nodded back with a confident smirk.

“On the count to three…” said Glory as the three unicorns prepared to cast the teleporting spell. “One…”

“Two…” Starwirl followed the count after puffing nervously.

“THREE!” Lancer exclaimed before the unicorns disappeared at the same time.

Lancer and Glory reappeared at the stairs, making them growl in frustration. The height of the crystals complicated aiming at them with arrows, not because they couldn´t trespass it but because they risked hurting Sarama. The earth ponies stared impressed.

“You know what? I´m fine with being an earth pony, but at times like this, I really wish I could do what they can do.” Shady said to Posey, who nodded in agreement.

Just after she said that Starswirl appeared right next to them.

“GAH!” Shady hugged Posey.

“I need you to come with me!” he exclaimed fast paced.

Before any of them could ask, Starswirl had already teleported them and himself to the stairs to avoid being attacked by the dogs. Then, they started to run upstairs like Lancer and Glory.

“What the?” the dogs stayed puzzled.

Alonzo, Knightshade and Magic Star took advantage of their shock to attack.

“EN GUARDE!” exclaimed Alonzo.

Sarama noticed them running away while fighting Gusty. Her ears perked up.

“Oh, you´re not going anywhere…” she frowned.

Gusty teleported to her front.

“First you´ll have to go through me.”

Sarama clenched her teeth and came back to combat. Though Gusty had the advantage of magic, she felt like her combat abilities were being put to the test. Sarama struck her sword with such speed that Gusty didn´t even have time to blink nor think. Normally, the main weapon she relied on was her wind and magic but at times like these she was grateful to Majesty and Lancer for having taught her on how to use a sword, since sometimes it was the quickest protection.

“Please, inform us when you do that next time.” Shady said with clenched teeth to Starswirl as they ran upstairs.

Starswirl smiled apologetically.

“I´m so sorry, but it´s urgent. You see I need you to accompany in search of some information about Crunch´s weak spot.”

“So you wanna sneak into the library…” Posey raised her eyebrow playfully. “Good thing that you leant on a castle sneaking expert.”

“You want us to accompany you to the library? But we don´t know how to read!” Shady noted.

“Well, I can a little.” Posey clarified. “Being a spy for your master has its learnings, you know?”

“Okay, but that doesn´t change the fact that I don´t know how to read. How will I help you then?”

“Well, books are often accompanied by pictures.” Starswirl informed her. “You can guide by those to know what it´s about.”

“Really? That´s great! But now that I think about it, if it comes to it, we could capture some guardians and interrogate them!” proposed Shady.

“Geeze, somepony has so much repressed anger.” Lancer joined the conversation.

“You have no idea…” Shady said in return.

He gave her a playful smile. Meanwhile, Glory had her horn ignited, searching for any sign of the guardian dog at the dungeon´s necklace. She gasped when her light shone brighter.

“We´re close!” she informed Lancer.

“Oh, that´s so good to hear!” Lancer exclaimed relief.

“Yeah, but I´m afraid we might have some company…” Posey lamented worriedly before biting her lip.

Everypony widened their eyes and braked when they saw a pair diamond dogs. Apparently, they were just as surprised as the ponies were, which meant they were on land the entire time and had no clue of what was happening down at the mines. Unluckily, these dogs had good reflexes, so one of them drew her sword and attacked immediately and the other howled for more help before joining. Lancer and Glory jumped to the defence. Starswirl covered Shady and Posey and walked away. However, the situation wasn´t as dangerous as it seemed.

First of all, the staircase was the spiral kind, which meant that the space between the walls was very narrow. In fact, that was the reasons the ponies advanced one behind the other. Thus, swinging a sword on such tiny space was not an easy task. So, when the dog swang her sword she accidentally nailed on the wall. Realizing the mistake she had done, she covered his mouth, but she immediately started pulling out. Granted, it was a sword on a brick of stone…

“Grr! Why- Argh! Are these stairs- ugh! So narrow?!” she wondered aloud frustration in her struggle of getting out the sword.

Quickly, the ponies leveraged the mishap to pass them by teleporting. To make sure they couldn´t pursue them, or at least be on advantage, Glory conjured up a crystal to block their way up.

“You idiot!” the other dog insulted his fellow soldier as he broke the crystal with his sword.

“Help me out brother!” his sister implored him.

The brother sighed after rolling his eyes.

“Just so you know, if you weren´t my sister I would have left you right there. But I´ll admit I had to debate it.”

“Yeah, yeah…”

“Huh! This might be easier than I thought.” said Shady.

“I wouldn´t sing victory just yet…” Posey advised her while pointing upstairs.

In just a matter of seconds, many dogs running downstairs and blocked their way.

“What do we do now?” Shady asked Starswirl.

Starswirl winked while thinking on a solution.

“Okay, time for a magic spell!” he said while hugging both Shady and Posey before making them and himself disappear.

Starswirl reappeared several times between dogs due to both the high number of them and the tiny space between the walls. Luckily, Starswirl was able to teleport away before they could get struck by a sword. They made it to the end of the line safe and sound. Afterwards, they ran as fast as they could.

“Couldn´t you have done it on one time?” Posey asked both upset and curious.

“I wish. But I can only teleport to places I know and have seen.” Starswirl explained.

To prevent the dogs to advance towards them, Glory reappeared in front of them and blocked their way towards her friends with a crystal like before.

“I suppose you fight at the top and me at the bottom?” Lancer asked her.

Glory nodded.

“Okay, then let´s waste no time!” he exclaimed before clashing his sword against the dog´s.

The sounds of grunts, steps and clashing of weapons resounded throughout all the stairs and the doors connected to it, including the dungeons´. Naturally, every creature present in there became aware of a commotion taking place.

“Do you all hear that?” one guard raised his ear up.

In response, every guard did the same.

“Yeah, boss…” they said fearfully.

“Oh my goodness!” the boss guard got up from his seat. “Okay, it´s happening. Everydog stay calm!” the first guard started panicking. “Stay calm!”

“Boss, we are calm, just a little-” a guard tried to talk to him, seeing how agitated he was.

“STAY CALM!”

“But you´re the one-”

“EVERYDOG CALM DOWN!”

“Okay, okay, okay…”

The doberman twins rolled their eyes. The red collared one cleared his throat.

“Okay, that´s enough! Do you all remember the procedure?”

The panicked boss turned around.

“Oh yeah! The procedure, good one, good one! Uh…. You! You all of you to the prison doors!” he pointed at a group of dogs. “And you in the middle!” he ordered another group of dogs. “Go, go, go!”

Every dog moved to the required position, except for the dobermans, who stared at them with a skeptical raised eyebrow.

“We stay here, don´t we?” the blue coloured one asked his brother.

“Of course, this door is the most important!”

Behind said door, the unicorns were listening to every word. Could it be real? They were getting rescued? It sounded too optimistic but judging by all the information they have, perhaps it wasn´t much of a stretch.

Back at the mines, Alonzo, Knightshade and Magic Star fought the dogs to keep them from Gusty and Sarama. A dog tripped Alonzo up, making him fall on his back, and thus dropping his sword. Before he could get it, the dog got ahead of him, laughing maliciously at him when she saw his expression of horror and fear. Luckily, she didn´t get to do anything to him, as a stream of water picked her up, put her upside down and shook her until she dropped both his and her sword. Afterwards, it sent her away. Puzzled, Alonzo turned his head to the left and saw Fizzy holding the stream of water.

“That shall teach you something!” she exclaimed before stuck out her tongue and raspberried. Then, she continued fighting other dogs.

In the meantime, Buttons offered him his hoof.

“Good that you have us for support, huh?” said Butttons while raising an eyebrow.

“Indeed it is.” Alonzo gave her his hoof so she could help him up. “Indeed it is.” he repeated while taking his sword back.

“Alonzooooo!” Knightshade cried while running to him, hugging him very tightly when he got to him. “Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” he asked as he checked him. “I saw you on the ground but I didn´t see what happened.”

“I´m fine, I´m fine.” Alonzo smiled while gently pulling his lover off him. “I´ll tell you afterwards.”

Knightshade widened his eyes surprised when he saw Buttons was holding two swords.

“I didn´t know you had two swords.”

“I don´t. It´s from the dog Fizzy sent flying away. I doubt she´s coming back anytime soon, so I figured that I´d keep it for her.”

“Yeah that´s probably for the best.” Knightshade agreed. Alonzo also concurred by nodding his head.

The sound of clashing weapons caused them to turn their heads back. They got concerned when they saw Sarama pinning Gusty against the ground. Fortunately, Gust managed to kick it back with her rear legs and pick up her sword with her mouth fast to create a wind impact to push Sarama away. Sarama landed on her paws by backflipping.

“Hmm. You´re good at this.” she said before cleaning some blood from her nose. “I think it´s time to raise the level in this, don´t you?”

She spanned her sickles and joined them together, creating a longer weapon, scaring Gusty by showing it off.

“Uh oh.” Gusty mumbled under her breath.

She didn´t even blink and Sarama was already in front of her. Sarama´s new weapon hit Gusty´s sword so hard that pushed her back against Glory´s crystal. Hadn´t it been for her quick reflexes, Sarama would have stabbed a sickle on her head. Luckily, she jumped aside, using a gust of wind to propel herself away further. Once she was far enough from Sarama, she leveraged to take some breath, only to realize she had forgotten to take her sword. Now, Sarama had it. She smirked maliciously. Knowing she was going to get rid of it somehow,

“Incoming.” Sarama told her subordinates as she threw it at the other side of the crystal wall, making Gusty gasp.

The sword landed on foot between Magic Star and a dog.

“AH!” she yelled. “What the?”

Gusty looked horrified at Sarama.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. Pretty basic mistake, don´t you think?” Sarama cruelly teased her while walking towards her.

Everypony entered in panic when Sarama directed the sickle towards the weaponless Gusty. That didn´t mean she had no defences anymore, however. She still had her shield, whose lateral served her to stop Sarama´s strike. Like before, she used her tail to hold the shield. Sarama´s blow broke it somewhat but it didn´t matter since the blade got stuck on it. Gusty propelled herself with a perpendicular gust of wind, making her spin in a circle. This was so she could have enough time to think her next move. After observing Sarama´s weapon, she realized what she needed to do. She teleported herself away from Sarama backwards. By the time she reappeared, Sarama had already taken the blade out of the shield.

“What are you going to do now, huh? You said you would use no magic.” Sarama teased her.

Not so much time had passed before she would regret those words. Gusty threw a wind at her, but this wasn´t like any other wind. This one felt was sharp and cutting like a sword. She could tell because it touched her cheek. Feeling a sting on there, she put a paw on her cheek and checked it afterwards. Yes, there was blood on her paw. Her suspicions were right, Gusty did leave a scratch on her cheek. She stared estranged at her.

“I said no magic because you would be disadvantaged against me. But now I am disadvantaged.”

Sarama widened her eyes surprised. Perhaps that unicorn was more cunning than she had thought.

“Say hello to my wind blade!” she said before throwing the same attack at her.

Sarama jumped aside to avoid being struck again. Then, Gusty used magical blasts as a substitute for her sword. Sarama drove them away with her weapon as if she was hitting stones. Sarama tried to strike her but now that Gusty decided to use magic, she was teleporting herself constantly and very quickly, so by the time she was going to attack, Gusty was gone from that place already. But teleporting was no mere avoidance of getting hurt, Gusty was also being strategic. She did to make Sarama nail her weapon to the ground and cut it back to two sickles with a wind blade.

“Huh?” Sarama muttered surprised while looking at her parted weapon.

Then, Gusty ran towards her igniting her horn. Sarama put her two sickles together to protect herself. But it was no use. Gusty´s attack now was a wind shockwave, which pushed her backwards until she hit Glory´s crystal wall. Due to Gusty´s blow, she let go of her sickles involuntarily. Every dog and pony stopped fighting when they heard Sarama´s blow against the crystal wall. The dogs gasped terrified.

“Sarama!” they exclaimed.

Sarama coughed from the pain and struggled to breathe. Gusty took her sickles and walked to her and pointed them at her. Sarama frowned when her eyes met Gusty´s.

“Tell me how to defeat him.”

Sarama stayed silent.

“I know he has a spot not covered by stone in his body. Tell me where it is.”

As much as she tried to hide it, Sarama´s eyes showed fear. She was having difficulties to breath due to pain in her back and was weak to fight now. There was no way she could defend herself, less alone her soldiers, which was her main concern. If she didn´t say anything, Gusty could kill her on the spot, but if she did, she´d also end up dead either by Gusty or Crunch for betraying him and the dogs would be in danger regardless. Noticing how she was looking at the dogs, Gusty softened her frown. She recognized what she was thinking and feeling. She herself had given her daughters that look when things were getting dangerous. That´s when she realized she was no monster. Like the cats´ case, she was looking for her pack. Gusty breathed out through her nose while closing her eyes.

“If you collaborate, I promise I won´t hurt them.”

“Yeah?” Sarama grunted after asking. “Then what? You´re going tell Majesty to let us go? After what we´ve done?!”

“I-”

“You almost killed me with that blow! For a moment I thought I wouldn´t be able to breathe anymore! And now you´re telling me you won´t hurt them?!”

Gusty looked down in repentance. Her intention was simply knocking her down, not to kill her. She had come a long way when it came to her magic but there were times she forgot how strong it could be for others. Surely that was and advantage when it came to self-defence but this time it was a matter of winning a duel that didn´t need to be deadly, at least from her part. She got too carried away. The remorse felt worse when she noticed the golden ring around her finger.

“I´m sorry… I didn´t mean to hit you that hard. I still learning how to manage my magic, you know?”

Sarama widened her eyes surprised. Normally, an opponent would not care on the slightest whether they killed the other. Gusty, on the other paw, did worry. Of course that could be only because she needed information but she seemed too repented for that. Almost as if she empathized with her somehow…

Sarama wasn´t the only one surprised. The dogs glanced at each other in confusion and so did the ponies.

“Why is she apologizing? She literally almost killed her and she´s the one apologizing?!” Magic Star whispered to everypony. “What´s wrong with her?”

Alonzo shushed her. He understood Magic Star´s concern but he had the feeling that that wasn´t what she was doing.

“You don´t seem to be like Crunch. You do have a heart. I can see you care about the other dogs. So we care about each other. And as such, we have to aid the unicorns of Trottingham.”

Sarama closed her eyes.

“I really wish you no harm. I´m pretty sure you´re just trying to survive by following orders and don´t really hate us. If you help me, I could explain Majesty your case and ask her to lessen your punishment. But if you don´t collaborate, there´s nothing I can do.”

The dogs looked at Sarama, who looked down in thought. The offer seemed pretty good but there two problems. One, there was no guarantee that Majesty would listen to Gusty on being merciful with them, and two, if Crunch managed to win, he would call them traitors and execute them. So, the best option was still standing with Crunch. But that´s when problem three came. If the ponies managed to free Majesty and her army and reunite with Gusty and the other ponies, the chances of winning were not that elevated. Whether this was just a distraction or not, Gusty really put Sarama in a dilemma.

After a few seconds of silence, Sarama finally decided to speak.

“You have one minute to run away.” she muttered under her breath.

“What?”

“I said you have one minute to run away before we start chasing you again.”

Everypony looked at Gusty, wondering if to do next. Gusty nodded.

“Okay.”

Fizzy and Buttons surrounded Magic Star, Alonzo and Knightshade to teleport to the stairs along Gusty. Before hoof, Fizzy grabbed a spear from one of the dogs. When they arrived to the stairs, they started closing the doors.

“Wait!” Sarama commanded.

She got up and ran to them before they closed altogether but it was too late. What´s worse, they had already locked the door. Angrily, she punched it.

“How did they lock it without any keys?” she wondered aloud frustrated.

“Gee, I didn´t know you used manepins to lock doors, Buttons!” Fizzy said to her friend in admiration while they ran upstairs.

“How did you think I acceded rooms when I didn´t feel like asking Bray for keys to the rooms?” Buttons raised her eyebrows smugly.

“Yeah but let´s not pretend like that will work for long. I bet Sarama will open the doors with those sickles of her.” opined Alonzo.

“That´s true but she also has to free the other dogs so that will take her for a while.” Knightshade said on a more positive tone.

“Eh, enough time about my offer.” said Gusty.

“Is that why you didn´t let me throw a sleeping potion?” Magic Star asked her. “Because you wanted her to think?!”

Gusty looked away a bit embarassed.

“Well…”

“You do realize we could get captured because of that, don´t you?” Knightshade asked upset.

“I know, but it´s more complicated…”

“What´s complicated? We´re simply keeping ourselves safe and increasing our chances of winning!” Magic Star refuted.

“Yeah but-”

“But what?”

“She´s married, Magic Star!” Gusty exclaimed. “I saw a ring on her finger, and that´s something I see ponies who love each other wear, even if it´s made of wood and not fancy jewels.”

Magic Star and Knightshade softened their looks after hearing that and seeing Gusty get sad.

“I cannot in good conscience take her away from her spouse, and children if she has any, when there might be other options. I know I´ll have no choice if she decides to remain on Crunch´s side but I want to avoid that if I can.”

Magic Star thought back to her masters who got unjustifiably killed for `witchcraft´. They may not have been her biological family, but they were family regardless. Knightshade looked at Alonzo. Every time they were on a mission or went into battle, he suffered tremendous anxiety of having him taken away from him or vice versa. He dreaded to think of the pain of losing your lover. Gusty was right, if possible, maybe there are better options than killing straight away.

“Yeah… we understand.” Knightshade agreed apologetically.

Coincidentally enough, Sarama was also hearing her. All that time she had her ear on the gates to listen to their plans thanks to her good hearing. She looked down in remorse. Like Glory and Posey, she had kindness for her and saw the good in her despite being in opposite sides. When one´s forced to mistreat another, they start believing they will never earn forgiveness. Sarama certainly has believed that she and her followers were irremediable numerous times, even if she was doing it to protect the well-being of the other dogs or tried to be the least cruel and have some level of respect for the ponies. So hearing and seeing a creature not thinking that was very meaningful for her. She looked at her ring and played a little with it, almost as if she wanted to take it off but was afraid to. She decided to focus instead on breaking the lock door with her sickle and help the dogs break the crystal wall.

Higher up the stairs, at the top, everything was more in order compared to the mines, where it was pure chaos. However, there was some tension in the air. For example, there were four guards around the trapdoor, watching over it as well as their surroundings. That´s what Starswirl noticed from slightly opening the trapdoor with his head. One of the dogs twitched their ear and turned his head back but the trapdoor was closed. Seeing nothing, the dog shrugged and returned to their business.

“So… How´s the coast?” Posey asked him.

“Not clear…” Starswirl regretted. “They know something´s going on…”

“Including Crunch?” Shady asked fearfully.

“We should consider that chance, yes.”

Both Shady and Posey pressed their lips while sharing worried glances.

“Nevertheless, our main concern should not be whether Crunch knows or not, but to get to the library.”

“You´re right, but how are we going to ditch them?” Posey asked him.

Starswirl pressed his lips while looking away.

“I have an idea, but you might not like it …”

Posey and Shady stared at Starswirl estranged.

The dogs perked their ears up when they heard a strange sound.

“What was that? What was that?” they wondered aloud while pointing their spears at the trapdoor.

Surprisingly, nothing came off from there. That could mean either two things: it was nothing important or an ambush was about to come. One thing was clear though: opening the door was not a good idea, because whatever was in there, it couldn´t be good. So, they decided to wait for some time. Seeing nothing was happening, they decided to go back their surroundings. When they weren´t looking, the trapdoor opened slightly. Nothing could be seen but a small pair blue of eyes. Trying to make the least noise possible, the eyes came to the light, belonging to a grey rat. And there wasn´t just one rat. The grey rat was holding the trapdoor to make way for two other rats, one yellow and the other pink. Once they were out, they closed the trapdoor very carefully. They slowly walked away on tiptoes. Everything seemed to be going very smoothly. None of the guards had started sniffing their noses nor move their ears. Well, none of the guards guarding around the trapdoor.

“AAAAH!” a dog gave out a really high-pitched scream. “RAAAATS!”

Straight away, the dog took out his spear and tried to stab it at the rats. Thankfully, the dog didn´t have a good aim, so the rats were unharmed, although there was a moment one of the rats, most concretely the pink one, almost got her tail caught.

“EEEE!” the rat screeched anxiously.

After that incident, the yellow rat took the paw of her friend to her tail to grab it and simultaneously grabbed the tail of the grey rat.

“What´s going on here?!” another dog passing by asked, upset by all the noise.

Ironically enough, the dog got just as panicked as his mate.

“OH SHOOT!”

The new dog tried to step on the rats, but the rodents ran in circles to hinder the task. So instead of killing the rats, the dog ended up doing a tap dance. Seeing his friend failing, the first dog to see the rats decided to take business on his own paws once again.

“Argh, move away you idiot!” he said while preparing his bow.

He shot an arrow that almost landed on his friend´s feet, had it not been for her to jump before it could reach her. Since the rats were constantly running on zigzag, the dog simply shot arrows all around the corridor so mindlessly, that his friend had to hide for protection. After a while, the dog´s bow rope broke.

“Dang it! Not right now!” the dog yelled angrily.

His friend peeked out of a column he was hiding behind. And sighed in relief. And he wasn´t the only one to do so. A few columns ahead of the dog´s, the rats were hiding behind one to catch some breath. Hearing those words, brought them relief and a perfect chance to escape without being seen. And the best of all, the library wasn´t far either, as they could see through a grid door lots of what appeared to be bookshelves a few steps ahead. Leveraging the distraction. Slowly and on tip toes, they headed towards the library as the dog changed the bow´s rope. Once he did, he stretched the rope with an arrow to check if it worked properly. Well, or at least he tried to, since the rope was too stiff.

“Uugh, what´s wrong with this thing?” he said frustrated while repeatedly attempting again.

“I don´t-”

Out of nowhere, the arrow shot off right away, passing through the dog´s ears and almost landing on the rats, driving into a wall instead.

Once inside the library, the rats leant against a wall and panted heavily.

“Tha- That was the worst experience of my life!” the pink rat exclaimed. “The dark spirits don´t even come close!”

“I told you you wouldn´t like it, but that was the only thing I could come up at the moment.” the grey rat justified himself.

“None taken. At least this wasn´t at the cat castle.” the yellow rat laughed nervously to lighten up the mood.

“Can we go back to our original shapes, please? Everything is way larger than I am, and I don´t like it!” the pink rat begged the grey rat.

“Sure, just let me…” he noticed a heraldic flag on the floor. “Let´s get under there.”

“Why?” the yellow rat asked as she and the pink rat followed the grey rat.

“So, the sound of my magic doesn´t resonate and there´s no noticeable strange light.” the grey rat explained while sliding under the flag.

“That does make sense, I guess.” the yellow rat said while holding the flag for the pink rat. Once she passed, she followed behind.

In an instant, the small lumps formed by the rats turned bigger and higher. The now ponies struggled to get the flag off themselves.

“Geeze, this thing´s so heavy!” Shady complained.

“And dusty too.” Posey added before coughing.

Finally, the ponies had the chance to observe the library with more detail. To their surprise, while it had gorgeous architecture with round arches and columns decorated at the top, as well as carved figures of dogs on both sides of the bookshelves; the library itself looked like it had been abandoned a long time ago. There was dust everywhere, spider webs hanging at every corner, and lots of torn and dirty books and manuscripts on the ground.

“Outrageous!” Starswirl exclaimed bothered. “This is a crime against the preservation of knowledge and cultural heritage! How dare he keep this sacred place like that?!” he complained while dusting off a book.

Shady and Posey reprimanded their giggles. Apart from his friends, but mainly Gusty, getting hurt, they could swear this was the angriest they had ever seen him.

“Um... Starswirl, I hate to break it to you, but we´re not here to do a restauration job.” Posey gently reminded him.

Starswirl realized he was getting off subject and left the book in an instant, though very carefully. He sighed sadly.

“Sorry, it´s just us monks have dedicated and some even gave up our lives to conserve as many documents as possible. Our place wasn´t the cleanest, but we did as much as we could to have them in the best conditions. So much of what we don´t know or forgot about our history, knowledge and abilities lie in here, you know? There could even be books about the history and customs of the diamond dogs even! And seeing all these treasures treated like that hurts me so much.”

He closed his eyes and took some breaths. As much as he was grieving that fact, he knew there was no time to stand still and lamenting.

“But if we defeat Crunch, perhaps we can do this place justice.” he said while standing up. “Let us begin our research.”

Shady widened her eyes.

“You plan to revise all of this in little time? But it´s so much, how are you going to do that?”

“I´m not going to lie, it´s a laborious task, but there are strategies that can help us make the job faster.”

“Such as?”

“Well, for starters we are looking for notes, which are kind of like a diary of things you learn. Usually, those are scrolls, so we should focus on those. Another thing that is useful are keywords. Granted, you´re going to revise every document but at least you´ll just have to read it slightly and not on detail to classify it as useful or not useful. In our case, our keywords would be stone, magic and body parts. A scroll that contains those three words could be what we need.”

The more he spoke, the more enthusiastic he caught. Unfortunately, as much as they´d like, Shady and Posey couldn´t share the sentiment. What he was saying was so foreign to them that it felt like he was speaking a whole different language. The two earth ponies slowly met glances, asking non-verbally whether one of them understood what he was saying. Judging by their expression, the answer from both was no.

“We´re so gonna get caught.” Shady buried her face on her hooves.

“I know it seems impossible first hoof, but I promise it´s just a matter of putting yourself into it. Come on, let us waste no time! Our friends need us!” Starswirl said motivated.

“Alright then…” Shady said uncofidently.

“Well… Maybe it´s not that bad…” Posey said to relief both Shady and herself.

“Yeaaaah! It can´t be that hard, right?”

The two laughed nervously.

“Let´s hope so…” Posey muttered with a forced smile.

“Do you think it´s them?” the youngest soldier asked Majesty.

“Who else could it be?” she enquired back.

“I don´t know, the cats maybe? They did imprison one of them after all.”

“Ah, I wish!” the tuxedo cat next to them commented, despite not being wanted in the conversation. Some unicorns frowned annoyed.

“Without their leader? Seems unlikely.” Majesty opined. “Cats are very intelligent and calculative creatures, surely they know better than to challenge a stone dog without any magic.”

“Never say never…”

Suddenly, the unicorns heard a familiar sound, one that is specific of their species, since they are the only ones that can do it: the sound of magical flash. Every unicorn widened their eyes. The unicorns that were able reached the cleft for trays and water to observe what was going outside. They gasped when they saw Lancer and Glory entering through the dungeons by blasting off the door to the dungeons with a zap. The door landed on the dogs that were on the front, so they taken some adversaries out.

“Oh, thank goodness!” one said. “My queen you were right, it is them!”

The unicorns got in four from the surprise. Majesty smirked satisfied and with pride.

“What in the world?!” the boss guard asked both astonished and angry. “Go get them!” he ordered the remaining dogs.

Lancer and Glory frowned when they saw the coming enemies. Afterwards, they entered the fight. Lancer stopped every sword attack directed towards him and walked backwards while defending himself so he could lead the dogs towards the stairs and push or trip them to make them roll downstairs. He even picked them up with his magic and dragged them away when he had the chance. Every prisoner inside the cells, being the majority unicorns, cheered for him.

While Lancer dealt with the dogs at the entrance, Glory went to Majesty´s cell but not without obstacles.

“Where do you think you´re-”

The boss guard couldn´t finish his sentence because Glory restrained him by trapping him between a crystal and the wall.

“Oh come on!” the guard dog complained.

The unicorns opened their mouths wide.

“Glory can summon crystals now?!” they asked in unison.

“What?” Majesty asked confused and fascinated at the same time.

“Ha! See? I told you they weren´t to be messed with!” the tuxedo cat said to the dobermans.

“Roscoe! Desoto! Don´t show any mercy with her!” the guard dog commanded them.

The two dobermans growled furiously while drawing their swords. The two of them threw themselves at her at the same time. Luckily, the crystal magic was not the only surprise she had. She had improved with her sword skills and combined it with her knowledge of her enemies, something they could see by how she constantly teleported to different spots around them, since dobermans were really fast she had to be faster and confuse them. However, there were moments in which the unicorns were terrified, such as when the red-collar doberman restrained her against a cell´s door. Luckily, it was an advantage for her, since she managed to take the keys from his brother. She showed them with a cocky smile before opening the door, making herself and the red dog fall inside the cell, but she teleported away before he could fall on her. She reappeared behind his brother and pushed him inside by dragging a crystal in his direction. Once the dogs were inside, she closed and locked the door.

“What the?! You useless idiots!” the boss dog insulted the dobermans. “She´s literally a mare! You lost to a ma-”

While walking to Majesty´s cell, Lancer punched him in the face so strongly that he saw birds flying around his head before falling unconscious.

The unicorns cheered for Glory as she unlocked the door and the chains holding them.

“Oh my queen! I´m so glad to see ye´re okay.” Glory said to Majesty as she and Lancer hugged her tightly.

Majesty wasn´t the kind of pony who loved hugs, since it was not proper for a leader to show such level of affection. This time however, she made an exception. Lancer and Glory literally just saved her and her soldiers´ lives and she had known them for a long time. In the affectionate sense, Majesty wouldn´t say she was close to anypony, but Lancer and Glory were one of the ponies she trusted the most.

“So am I.” Majesty patted their backs.

“How did you make it into the castle?” the eldest soldier asked.

“Glory let herself get captured as a slave from the mines. And we followed her.” Lancer explained.

“Now that you mention Glory, since when were you able to do all of those crystal spells?!” a hornless unicorn asked Glory.

“I don´t know, I recently discovered I could do all that.” Glory fidgeted nervously with her hooves.

“You recently discovered that?!” another unicorn soldier asked shocked.

“As much as I´m surprised with this new talent and want to know the story behind it, there are more important businesses to attend to.” Majesty reminded her soldiers. “Where are the Wind Warrior and her friends?”

“They stayed at the mines, fighting Sarama and the dogs at the mines so we could come to you.” answered Lancer.

“Then we must reunite with her. Let´s go!” she ordered every soldier.

“Yes, and once we have, we need to go up to the library.”

“You mean to get information about Crunch´s spell? It´s a good idea but I don´t know if we´ll have time to do so.”

“Yes, but we have backup there that are doing so…” Glory informed her.

Majesty narrowed her eyes confused.

“Backup?”

“Let´s just say we got some help on the way….”

“You managed to recruit more unicorns?”

Lancer and Glory looked at each other, not knowing how to answer.

“Hm…” Lancer smiled nervously along Glory. “Kind of?” he moved his hoof from side to side.

Everypony raised their eyebrows confused.

As they left, every prisoner behind cells gave them words of encouragement, including the tuxedo cat.

“Yeaaaah!” she clapped. “Yeah, go get them and free everypony!” she exclaimed and laughed joyful but also bittersweet. “Aaah... I´m gonna be locked up here forever, aren´t I?”

“Almost there…” the dog siblings said in chorus as they were doing one last push to get the sword out of the wall.

Finally, after minutes and minutes of trying, the sword came out unexpectedly. The sister fell on her brother. They both laughed victoriously and somewhat manically while observing the sword on their paws.

“I can´t believe it, it´s over!” the brother cried tears of joy.

For their misfortune, though, just when their ordeal had just finished it would restart again in a matter of seconds. A few seconds after taking back the sword, Gusty, Fizzy, Buttons, Magic Star, Alonzo and Knightshade came across with them. The dogs quickly got up and charged for the attack but Fizzy took out both the sister´s and the brother´s swords and put them on the same spot the sister accidentally put it on. While staring with jaws wide open, the unicorns took advantage to teleport themselves and the earth ponies behind the crystal Glory conjured up to block their way.

“SERIOUSLY?!” the sister dog shouted frustrated.

The ponies ignored her yelling, although they slightly sympathized with her, since they had been through it too. Whether in training or in battle, that mishap was never fun, not to mention quick and easy to fix.

Some upstairs ahead, they started hearing steps ahead of them. At first, they prepared their weapons, but after listening the steps with more attention, they realized they sounded like hooves.

“Those three got information already?” Knightshade asked everypony.

“Three? Sounds like there are more to me.” Magic Star raised her ear.

“It seems so…” said Alonzo when he saw who was in front of them.

Gusty, Fizzy and Buttons widened their eyes. Lancer and Glory managed to free Majesty and the rest of her army. Although some had more severe wounds, like a lack of horn, everpony was standing with strength and energy. Most importantly, Majesty was in a pretty good health state despite what she had gone through.

“Queen Majesty!” the three unicorns ran upstairs to reunite with her.

They bowed when they were a few steps near her.

“It´s so good to see you!” Gusty said relieved to see her leader alive.

“I could say the same about you, Wind Warrior. Apparently, in my absence you and your fellow soldiers managed to do extraordinary things.”

The three unicorns scratched the backs of their heads while blushing.

“Yeah well, we didn´t do it alone, you know.” Gusty said while looking at the earth ponies, who smiled in gratitude.

Majesty was so focused on Gusty, that she didn´t realize there were more three ponies accompanying her and her friends. She drew her sword, the rest of the soldiers imitating her afterwards. The three earth ponies raised their forelegs scared.

“Who are they?” Majesty asked distrustful.

“Whoah, whoah! It´s okay, my queen.” Lancer lowered her sword.

“Remember the backup we were talking about earlier? These are.” Glory explained.

In surprise and confusion Majesty widened her eyes and then narrowed them. She stared at the earth ponies and then back to Lancer and Glory.

“Those earth ponies are your backup?” she pointed the sword towards the earth ponies and then to the unicorns.

“As you hear, your majesty.” Alonzo bowed politely.

“My queen, let me introduce you to Alonzo, Knightshade and Magic Star.” Gusty introduced the earth ponies to Majesty. “They took part on Katrina´s defeat.”

“But- How?”

“Let´s just say we had a bit of an incident that forced us to make a stop on Marenada at first…” Fizzy smiled nervously.

“And like Gusty told you before, unicorns are not the only ones rebelling. So seeing that we had similar interests regards Katrina, we made an alliance.” Buttons finished the explanation.

“Hmph. Well, I´m not so sure what your abilities are, but if you got to this point, that means you´re useful allies. And from what Glory told me, I suppose there´s more of you up in the library.”

“Two to be precise.” Magic Star concreted.

“And also another unicorn.” Knightshade added.

“So you did recruit unicorns.” Majesty said to Lancer and Glory.

“Only one, but that´s correct my queen.” confirmed Lancer.

“Are they a good fighter?”

“He needs improvement, but he knows quite a lot about magic and has taught us so many things we didn´t know.” claimed Gusty. “He´ll pretty pleased to meet you.”

“Well, you´ll tell me more about him once we´re finished with Crunch. Right now, let´s focus on the task at hoof. We´re moving!” Majesty ordered everypony.

After her order, everypony started running upstairs.

“So, um… how are we supposed to call you?” Knightshade asked Majesty.

“Just focus on getting to the library, earth pony.” the queen plainly replied, leaving the earth ponies astonished.

“Gee… If she wasn´t a unicorn, she and Moochick would get along pretty well…” Magic Star muttered to Knightshade, who nodded in agreement.