Dogs and Bones

by Netap

Rating: teen
Tags: Coco Pommel, Diamond Dogs, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, My Little Pony Comic, Other, Original Character, Comedy, Profanity, Adventure, Violence, Slice of Life, Babs Seed, Sex
Length: 3840

A Diamond Dog moves to the big city in search of a new life

Rex wasn't your normal Equestrian. Because, well, he wasn't even from Equestria to begin with!

As a Diamond Dog, his opportunities for work back home were either Digging in the mines, Digging in the quarry, or Digging into the back of some poor sod's neck.

Sufficed to say, Rex was looking for something that did not include digging for a living.

Now in Equestria, Rex will surely find a job willing to hire him! How hard could it be for a Diamond Dog to find a job in a Pony land?!

It's time to stretch his legs and go on a run! Manehatten is soon going to see Caninia's #1 Goodest Boy in action!

With nothing but the clothes on his back, Rex will do his very best to make his parents proud!

This story is my take on writing a non-pony MC that isn't a Human, Rex is a Diamond Dog through and through, no Human-in-Equestria hiding inside his little noggin!
It's also an attempt of mine to write a bit more of a childish story, with some cartoony aspects that fit with the MLP Show. While still having the usual Netap spin on things that you all should already expect from my stories.

I have no big plan and am simply writing by following my heart, which means this story can go anywhere!

Hope you enjoy!!!

Published 2024-08-17 10:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2024-08-22 11:21:32 UTC

Chapter 1: Welcome to Manehatten

Standing near the bow of a ship making its way into the Manehatten Pier, A Pawstralian Kelpie-looking Diamond Dog was wagging his tail in excitement, his large black and brown body covered by a dark green vest, a dark-brown leather hat decorated with several Crocodile teeth rested on his head, and around his neck was a collar colored a lighter shade of dark green adorned with dots of Amber Topaz.

"You know, It's not every day we get to ferry a Diamond Dog," An old Stallion walked up to the Dog and started talking, his grey mustache twitching in the salty air as the ship made its preparations to dock, "What's your story?"

"Me?" The Diamond Dog turned away from looking at the large city in front of him, "I'm here looking for a job!" He yelled with a smile, the words that would make so many sigh sadly at their lack of occupation were unable to wipe the smile from the Dog's face.

"Then you came to the perfect city, my friend!" The Stallion laughed at the unexpectedly energetic reaction from the Dog, "Manehatten is always looking for more hopeful youths to eat up and spit back out!" The Old Pony shook his head at those words, "So do be careful, okay Big Guy?"

"Be careful of what? What's so dangerous about this City?" The Diamond Dog's tail started to wag a bit slower, his long arms crossing over his chest as he fully turned to listen to the old Stallion.

"Nothing physical, if that's what you're worried about," The Stallion shook his head, "No, The thing that's dangerous about this city is the hope it sucks out of you," He said, his blue eyes staring at the incoming City with a mixture of both Respect and Contempt, an unusual sight for the Diamond Dog to see.

"Everypony enters this place looking to make a name for themselves, to make it big in whatever industry they pick," The Stallion sighed, "Only one in every hundred or so manage to make it, everypony else is left with a dead-end job, washing plates for whatever scraps they can get," He shook his head, "Here's a tip for you, Big Guy, Don't let this city chew you up, Whenever you feel like something isn't working for you, keep moving, If you let it keep you in place then you already lost,"

The Diamond Dog turned back to silently stare at the city, his tail no longer wagging in excitement.

"Heh, you got something wrong there pal," The Diamond Dog said as his eyes roamed over the skyline of the city, watching the towering skyscrapers that could almost pierce the cloud on a moody day, "You said only one in a hundred manage to succeed, That giver upper attitude isn't welcome around me!" The Dog barked with a laugh, and a wide smile grew on his face. His tail resumed wagging, its speed and intensity almost creating a wind draft. "And besides!"

The Diamond Dog turned to look straight into the aged stallion's eyes, "I'm One in a Million! And don't you forget it! Alright, mate?!"

The Stallion stared the brightly shining eyes of a Dog for a moment before a chuckle escaped his lips, then a few more chuckles followed before it turned into full-blown laughter.

"Hahaha! You know what Big Guy? With an attitude like that, I might believe you," He let out a few more chuckles, "My Name is Salty Sail, I've been working in this here shipping industry for the past fifty years! Hahaha! If you ever struggle to find a job in the city, Go to Barnacle Breath at the Dockyard, He'll be able to find a job perfectly suited for a big guy like you! Haha!"

"Heh..." The Diamond Dog let out a breath of air as he too chuckled at the loud sailor, "If all else fails, I might just take you up on that offer Old Timer, The name's Rex! And don't you forget it, mate!"

"Hah! With a reaction like that, I don't think I will!" Salty Sail yelled as he clapped Rex on the back, "Good luck out there, Mate, Even a One in a Million will need it. By the way, We'll be docking in twenty minutes, better go get your bag ready,"

"Thanks for the heads up!" Rex said before he entered the bowels of the ship, making his way to grab his bag.

"Captain!" Salty Sail turned to look at a Younger Pegasus walking up to him, shivering in his sailor uniform, "Why did you talk with that... that Dog? What if he tried to eat you?"

"Eat me?" Salty Sail rolled his tongue at those words before he made a motion as if spitting them out in disgust. "That's Dumb! Have all you young whippersnappers never seen a Diamond Dog in your life?!" He asked loudly as he turned to the rest of the crew standing outside, catching the attention of several of the other passengers in the process, "This is the problem with today's youth, You see someone that isn't a pony and you buckle up in fear! The same thing happened last year with that Griffon family! Grow a spine you lot! How do you think everybody else sees you when you start to shiver in fear at the first Diamond Dog that boards this ship in years, Cowards!"

"We're sorry captain!" The sailor started to stammer, "We didn't-"

"Why, Back in my day, We had a Minotaur on this ship's crew! And that Lug-head was ten times the sailor all you lot are! Now back to work, This ship won't dock itself!"

"Yes Captain! We're sorry Captain!" Salty Sail watched the crew return to their job, the Passengers going back inside to get their luggage as well.

"Tch," Salty Sail clicked his tongue as he turned to look at the City of Manehatten, "Darn Youths, Never even had a conversation with a Griffon and yet think they can call themselves real sailors," He scoffed with a roll of his eyes.

"Hmph, Back in my day-"

"Hello mate, My name is Rex, I'm here for the apartment-" The Diamond Dog was cut off by the tired-looking Earth Pony sitting in front of him.

"Sorry Bud, But you're half a year late, the Apartment isn't available anymore," The Earth Pony sat behind a desk in a dingy office where he would do his landlord duties, the light coming from the windows behind him illuminating the many dust particles swirling in the air.

"Wha- But It's July second? That was the agreed-upon time," Rex said as he pointed at a calendar on the nearby wall, the date indeed showing to be the second day of the month of July.

The landlord turned to look at the calendar as well, before his eyes widened in realization, "Oh! I see the problem here," He nodded, "You wrote 2/7, meaning July Second, while I took it as February Seventh, I understand now, An honest mistake if there ever was one," The Landlord chuckled at the mistake that happened.

"So, does that mean I have an Apartment here?" Rex asked hopefully, only to immediately get his hopes crushed.

"Sorry bub, We don't have an available Apartment right now, The one I was saving for you is now being rented by somepony else," The Landlord took out a paper listing all the tenants in his building, "Here's what I can do, An old pal of mine told me she's looking for a roommate that can help her around the apartment, her job is very tiring so she has problems taking care of her home, I can go have a talk with her and try to explain your situation, She'll basically be your new landlord if everything goes to plan, You follow?"

"I think I do," Rex nodded in understanding.

"Good, Now don't get your hopes up too high though, There's no promise that she'll accept you as a roommate..." The Landlord looked to his left and right as if afraid someone was listening in to him, "Some ponies have issues with... None ponies like you- I'm not one of them! I have no problems!" The Landlord quickly defended himself, "But the same can't be said for everypony around,"

"I understand that," Rex scratched his chin as he said that.

"I do apologize for this, I really do, But I can't let you stay here," The Landlord truly did seem apologetic as he said those words, "If my friend doesn't agree, I could try and point you to a cheap motel where you should be able to stay a few nights, But I would recommend searching for a different Apartment in the meantime," The Landlord put the paper back inside the desk, "Come back here tomorrow at four in the afternoon, I'll have your answer in regards to the Roommate thing,"

"Is there really no other room available here?" Rex asked for a final time.

"It's all rented out, And unless I kick out one of the tenants, there's really not much I can do bub," The Landlord shut him down again.

"Fine," Rex let out a sigh as he stood up from the chair that was just a bit too small for him, "I'll come back tomorrow then,"

"Again, I'm truly sorry for this," The Landlord said again as Rex opened the door and left his office, making his way back out into the street, searching for a place to sleep for the night.

"Huh? What's this?" Only to stop his walk as a piece of paper caught his eye.

"A Missing pet poster?" The spark in his eyes returned as he ripped the poster from the lamppost it was attached to and put it in his vest pocket, "My first job! Woohoo!" He cheered, ignoring the looks he was getting from the many passers-by.

"With the reward for this, I'll be able to stay at some cheap motel for an entire month! It wouldn't dig into my savings! Let's Gooo!" And with a joyful skip to his steps, Rex made his way toward the address on the poster in order to ask some questions in regards to the missing Pet.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!"
"Hey! I'm walking here!"
"Move outta' the way! Asshole!"
We're trying to walk here! Get lost Fleabag!"

If the words the ponies were shouting at him hurt him in any way, Rex didn't let it show, he was too bust whistling to himself as he made his way down the streets of Manehatten.

"Nobody's gonna break my stride, Nobody's gonna slow me down! Oh oh, I got to keep on moving!"

Author's Note

Oi, Hello mates! :pinkiehappy: 🤠

Imagine this Pupper, make him bipedal, twice the height of a pony, and give him an Australian Accent, and you've got Rex.

This is something that I have no real plan for and I'm just writing for fun, I need something new sometimes to just turn the brain off and enjoy. Trash of the Royal Castle just takes sooooooo much out of me sometimes.

Note: Rex is not a Human-in-Equestria, he's a Diamond Dog through and Through! There will be no humans in this story! I'm also trying to go for a sort of a Sitcom feel with this, the comedic Slice-of-life in the big city feel.

Hope you enjoy, Mates! :)

Chapter 2: Lost Pet

With his tail wagging in excitement, Rex tried to formulate a plan on how he can find the lost pet, this elusive Mr Snuggles.

"First thing is to question the owner, yes?" He nodded to himself, planning on asking questions that would help him narrow down the investigation for the missing pet.

Walking up to the door of the two-story house whose address was printed on the poster, Rex knocked on the door and waited for the owners to open.

"Just a second!" He heard a young mare shout on the other side of the door as the sounds of clopping hooves could be heard coming closer to the door before it opened.

On the other side of the door stood a teenage pony with pink fur and blonde hair, a white petaled sunflower sitting in her hair as a little decoration.
"Yeah, who is-" The teenager stopped herself from almost walking into the wall of black and brown fur, her eyes staring at the dark green vest for a moment before she looked up towards his face.

"Hello, Mate! I'm here to talk about your pet," Rex lifted the poster to show what he was talking about while giving his friendliest and most inviting smile, showing off his sharp white teeth so the pony would understand that he was here with friendly intentions.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" The pony screamed before she slammed the door closed, almost hitting Rex's paws on the way as she could be heard running inside the house on the other side of the door, screaming something about a monster coming to meet her.

Rex turned to look behind him to check if he could find this monster the pony was screaming about, finding instead a small crowd of pedestrians who all stopped what they were doing to watch the scene.

"She said she saw a monster after she slammed the door," Rex told the crowd of onlookers, a worried frown on his face, "Did any of you fellas see something like that? I want to help her get her pet back, but it's going to be bad if there's some beast scaring everyone," Rex lifted the poster of the missing pet in order to show the crowd what he was talking about.

The crowd decided not to answer the question regarding the monster, afraid of making themselves look like bigots in front of strangers in the street.

"Did you see a monster?"
"No, did you see a monster?"
"Not at all, Maybe they saw a monster other there."
"Yes Yes, Other there! Not here!"
"Yeah! Other there, Let's go!"
"Let's get out of there!"

And with that, the crowd hurriedly left, intent on not embarrassing themselves further.

"Huh, maybe I'll have to look for that monster later," Rex mumbled to himself before he turned back to the door, hearing a softer set of hooves coming towards him.

He watched as the door slowly opened a crack, a green eye peering out of the crack towards him.
"Is it still there? Make it go away!" He heard the teenager from before saying something from behind the new pony, so Rex spoke up once more.

"Hello, Mate! I'm here to ask some questions about your missing pet, but apparently there's some monster around here so It's not so safe to be outside," He showed off his toothy smile, "May I come in?"

The eye on the other side of the door seemed to think it over before the door closed once more, the sounds of locks moving around could be heard before the door opened once again, revealing an orange filly with red hair and a trio of freckles on each cheek, trying her best to look confident as the teenager from before could be seen peeking her head from behind the doorframe deeper into the house.

"You can come in," The filly says as she turns away from Rex and walks inside.

"What?! Babs are you crazy?! He'll eat you!" The Teenager screamed, still too afraid to get closer.

"There is no need to worry about the monster you saw before!" Rex tried his best to reassure the teenager of her safety, "The people outside said they saw it run away to the next street over! And if it still bothers you, I'll give it a good wallop, Mate!" Rex softly punched his open paw in an attempt to showcase to the pony that she has nothing to fear.

"Sunflower! Stop yelling," The orange filly, Babs, turned to yell at the teenager, causing the Pony to squeal in fright before running up the stairs and into her room, wrapping herself in her blanket, and hiding from the horrible werewolf who was going to eat her sister, and then it was going to eat her!

"Don't worry about the Monster!" Rex gave his toothy smile again, not noticing the filly cringing in discomfort at the sight of his sharp canines, "But as I said before, I'm here to ask some questions in regards to your missing pet,"

"What do you want with Mr Snuggles?" Babs asked, leading the Diamond Dog to sit at the kitchen table, where the two sat in front of each other.

"I want to find him, Obviously," Rex told Babs.

"Why do you want to find him?" Babs asked.

"For the reward money, of course!" Rex tapped a finger on the poster, and at the reward money that was written down.
"2,000 bits for a pet? It must be an exotic one! I'll definitely find it for ya!"

Babs' eyes widened as she looked at the number printed on the poster, "Oh, Ehh, I'm sorry, I think there's a problem here."

"Huh?"

"The reward is twenty bits, not two thousand..." Babs shuffled in place awkwardly as Rex's jaw dropped, "I would have paid more, but twenty is all I have in my piggy bank... It was supposed to be 20.00, to show that it's just twenty bits, we learned about this at school last week, but I guess Sunflower made an error with the Printer service."

"So... The reward is only twenty bits?" Rex asked heartbrokenly.

"Yeah..." Babs sucked her lips at the awkward silence that followed, "Sorry?"

Rex sighed tiredly before he lifted both his arms and clapped his cheeks, "Okay! Let's do this!" He said, pumping himself up, "I want to ask you some questions, let's start with something easy, what is Mr Snuggle's favorite food?"

"Huh? You're still going to search for him?!" Babs sat up on the chair, shocked that the Dog was apparently still going to search for her pet.

"Yep! I already took the job, I can't abandon it now! How can I call myself a Dog if abandon a job before even starting it?!" Rex smiled widely at the filly, "The Reward money is slightly disappointing, seeing as I'll have to dig into my own savings for a motel tonight, But I already took this job!" He slammed his paw on the poster, a wide smile on his face as he locked eyes with Babs, "So as I asked before, Mate, What does Mr Snuggles like?"

What followed was a set of questions, such as Mr Snuggle's favorite food, his favorite locations to hang out, any places that street animals might go to, and other such things.

What came next was an hour and a half of asking around pedestrians, sniffing the air for the scent of his favorite food, and searching the places he likes to visit.
Rex used the many skills he trained and acquired back home to hunt the most elusive prey of all!

A house cat.

And as the sun started to set over the towering building of Manehatten, Rex made his way down the street, an orange tabby cat struggling to escape from his arms, as he walked up to the door and knocked at it with his foot, seeing as he currently had his arms tied with Mr Snuggles.

"Babs! He's back!" Rex heard the Teenager yell from the second floor of the house as she peeked out of the window.

The door flung open, the small filly staring up at Rex as he walked around her and entered the house, opening his arms and letting the orange cat jump out of his arms.

It hissed at him before running into the living room and diving under the couch.

"You... You actually got Mr Snuggles back..." Babs said as she crouched down so she could look under the couch, her eyes meeting Mr Snuggle's vengeful glare.

"Of course I did, I said I would, so I did," Rex said with a smile, his tail wagging with pride at his accomplishment.

A Minute later, Babs came back with a piggy bank, opened it and poured all the coins inside out onto the table.
"Here you go!" She said with a smile as Rex started counting the coins.

"-17, 18, 19, 20! That's it, Mate!" He put the bits in his wallet, placing it in one of the inside pockets of his vest.

"Oh! And another thing!" Babs spoke up again, catching Rex's attention.

"Yes?"

"Remember how you said you need to search for a dingy motel for the night?" Babs raised an eyebrow at the Diamond Dog before smiling smugly, "Well, I decided that in order to repay you properly for finding Mr. Snuggles, you can stay here for the night," Babs nodded her head with confidence, "Although you'll have to sleep on the couch, I don't think Ma' will let you sleep in her bed, and Sunflower won't let you onto the second floor," She let out a puff of air from her mouth, pushing away her hair from her face.

"But you already paid me," Rex told the filly, "You really don't need to do more than that,"

"But I want to!" Babs crossed her legs, "What are you gonna' do? Pay for some dingy hole to sleep in? Or sleep on this couch for free?"

"...Look kiddo, I'm thankful and all that, but you really don't need to do this just because you printed the wrong number-"

"Hey! I didn't print the wrong number, Sunflower did! And besides, Maybe helping you will help me find my very own Cutie Mark!" Babs pointed at Rex, trying her best to look intimidating as she glared at the large Diamond Dog.

"You do not need to do thi-"

"I know! But I want to! There!" Babs smirked up at Rex, "What will you do now? I'll cry if you refuse, do you want to make a filly cry?" She raised an eyebrow.

"Well, My Dad always said that if you refuse someone's gift three times and they keep insisting you take it, then you should just take the gift," Rex shrugged and let out a sigh, extending his paw over the table, "My name is Rex," A toothy smirk found itself growing on the Diamond Dog's face, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mate,"

"Heh, The name's Babs Seed," The Filly stood up on her hind legs so her front legs could reach Rex's hand, "The Pleasure's all mine!"

And they shook.

Author's Note

Chapter 2 is here! Rex has a place to sleep for the night, Sunflower is scared of Diamond Dogs, Mr Snuggles is back home, and Babs Seed has been introduced!

Sunflower!

This story will have a bunch of Comic exclusive Ponies in it, that's why 'Other' is listed in the tagged characters.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Alright, Mate!