Outta her mine! [Rufus]

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It was silent, with a heavy, sleepy, almost oppressive silence, as it had been for hundreds upon hundreds of years, except for the occasional, almost musical drip of water from some stalactite into a pool below, magnified by pure contrast to the utter reigning quiet. Those precious drips, few and far between, were the only aural sense to tell that one had not gone deaf. Those drips were the only sign of movement and animation in a world seemingly deserted. That, and the faint clop of a pony's hooves. Which was not normal. Lazuli Rose shuffled along fairly cheerfully, a lantern in her mouth. The lack of sound didn't bother her much. So these were the crystal caves beneath Canterlot! As she swung her lantern to left and right, trying to take it all in, the light reflected and refracted off the shimmering stones all about her. Yet another connection between crystals and unicorns, and surely, somewhere at the bottom of it all, Crystal ponies. Right? The crystalline filly paused and set down her lantern, looking around again. Which way should she take? They were all equally likely. Lazuli had half-heard of a magical, wish granting crystal which had been said to reside 'at the heart of Canterlot' Which must surely be down here, if anywhere. But the story, naturally, hadn't given her specific instructions. Well, she had a couple candles (Don't ask where she got them) and a battered but perfectly functional lantern to put them in, and all the time in the world to explore. What could possibly go wrong?

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Somewhere in a small tunnel underground, Rufus was slowly digging his way through hardened rock. He had heard stories of the crystal caverns while he still lived with his pack; a giant cave filled with equally large shiny crystals, and the ponies had abandoned it for years. Unfortunately though, the close proximity with the city of Canterlot, which was the capital of Equestria no less, prevented any pack from moving in to take the mines for themselves. Rufus however, was not an entire pack. Though he was fearful of getting caught (even if he wasn't sure if what he was doing was actually illegal), Rufus was at least fairly confident no one would notice one Diamond Dog sneaking into the caverns to take some crystals, especially if he got in and out through a self made tunnel. This was a lot easier and safer than trying to mine for gems in dragon territory, and he had managed to do that before. The rock here was a lot tougher than the softer rock that Diamond Dogs usually made their homes in, but Rufus was still managing to dig through it, slowly but surely. Eventually the Diamond Dog finally reached the caverns from below, and from the surface of the caves a hole suddenly appeared in the ground, followed by some dirt getting pushed out of it. Rufus poked his head out with a wary expression, making him look like a giant gopher checking for predators. Although he was cautious in his initial appearance, he failed to immediately notice the crystal filly who was a couple of feet behind the hole he made, but that was likely to change fairly soon.

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Hearing a scuffling sound, soft at first, Lazuli turned around a few times before she saw the hole appear. At first, with a terrified skip of her heart, she thought that it might be the whole cave floor collapsing, and she had scrambled backwards, too frightened to even squeak. But the hole stopped at a fairly small size, and it belched forth a small pile of dirt and rock. That was, to say the least, highly unusual behavior for a collapsing cave, so Lazuli inched forward slowly, trying to shine her light into what she was beginning to suspect was a tunnel. Testing each step for firmness, and trying to be noiseless, the crystalline filly crept up to the hole... just in time for a huge, dirty, hairy head burst out of it! With a squeal of surprise, Lazuli leapt back for a second time, dropping her lantern, which bounced with a tinny clatter and instantly went out. The sudden darkness unnerved the filly even more, and she fairly screamed her terror, which was magnified and echoed by the cavern into a truly unholy racket!

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Rufus turned around just in time to hear a scream and see a lantern clatter to the ground and go out. He could see fairly well in the dark, but Rufus was too busy covering his ears and hiding in his hole to see what was holding the lantern. Little did the unknown creature know that Rufus was just as scared of it as it was of Rufus. After taking a moment to reflect, Rufus realized the scream must have been from someone, probably a pony, who was very young. A voice that ear splittingly high pitched didn't come from an adult. Waiting a moment for the screams to (hopefully) subside, Rufus poked his head back out of his hole in the direction of the voice to see what it was. His eyes hadn't totally adjusted to the darkness yet, but Rufus could make out a small, horse shaped figure. "H-hello? Who is there? Rufus means no harms, he swears!" In the back of his head, Rufus hoped that whoever this was wouldn't tell anyone that he had been down here. But maybe if he was a trespasser, than this pony was a trespasser too?

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As moments passed and Lazuli wasn't pounced upon, devoured, or worse, her screams died down into fearful whimpers. Whatever that was, it wasn't snarling, snapping, growling, or laughing maliciously at her, and that was something. It had glowing eyes, she could see them from here. But they didn't glare at her, and that was something more. Finally, it asked her, uncertainly, who was there. And it assured her it... no, Lazuli thought it must be a he, meant no harm. He even gave his name as Rufus. That didn't sound like an evil name... "Lazuli Rose..." the filly called back, after a moment's hesitation. "I'm a... I'm a crystal pony. Just a little one. Too little to eat, or anything like that. Could you tell me please, Mr. Rufus... What are you? You're not something scary, are you? I cant see you in this dark." Lazuli's tone was a little shakey, but it had a note of hopeful optimism in it.

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Rufus' ears went from being pinned back to pointing forward in an alert position as things quieted down. He couldn't hear anything other than the pony in front of him and water dripping from the ceiling, which at least assured him that he hadn't caught the attention of anyone else. The small pony introduced herself as Lazuli Rose and called herself a crystal pony. "Crystal Pony?" Rufus said, vocalizing his confusion. This was a crystal cave; did crystal ponies live in crystal caves? Getting a look at the pony in front of him with the specialized eyes of a race all too familiar with dark caves, Rufus saw that she was in fact rather tiny as she had claimed. However, though Rufus could see in the dark he could not see well enough to tell exactly what made this pony a crystal pony and not just a regular pony. Based on her own questions though, Rufus realized she was likely just as unfamiliar with diamond dogs as he was to crystal ponies. "Rufus is diamond dog! Wes big dogs that live underground and like gemses," Rufus stated proudly. He wonder if the crystal pony would think he was scary if she saw him... Rufus knew he wasn't scary and that he wouldn't nor couldn't hurt her, but he also knew sometimes ponies thought he looked scary. "Sometimes ponies say Rufus looks scary, but Rufus not hurt ponies. He assures you he is not scary even if Rufus looks scary." Wanting light for both her sake and his own, Rufus climbed out of his hole and reached out to the filly's lantern to pick it up. Luckily, the dog kept a tinder box in his backpack to make campfires with, so he could use that to relight the lantern. "One moments..." Rufus took out the tinder box and began going through the process of starting a flame. Eventually he made a small fire which illuminated enough to show his arms, then held it inside the lantern to relight it. With the lantern glowing again and illuminating the surrounding area, Rufus gently put down in front of the filly for her to take. Now that Rufus could see Lazuli better he could see that she did seem a little different than a normal pony, but hadn't yet noticed anything particularly crystalish about her.

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Lazuli watched as Rufus kindly relit her lantern for her, and set it down so that she could get a look at him. She took advantage of it immediately, her Gaze traveling far up to start at the pointed ears, the humble and gentle expression of his eyes, the somewhat scary jaw with its sharp teeth. His diamond-studded collar. He had long powerful forelegs... or would they be arms? and she studied his large, broad paws with talons on the end. He did look scary. But somehow, Lazuli was inclined to believe him when he said that he would not hurt her. And surely, his actions seemed to prove his good intentions, didn't they? Lazuli's expression brightened, and as it changed, so did she, her coat luminescing a bit and taking on a crystalline shimmer, throwing back just a fraction of the lantern-light. "A Diamond dog..." Lazuli repeated, her eyes meeting his with curiosity. "I've never heard of a diamond dog, but I like gems too! Right now, I'm looking for a magical gem that I heard used to be hidden in these caves." Like most children, discretion was not one of Lazuli's strong points yet. "I heard it has the power to grant wishes. Have you... maybe seen it? Or heard of it?"

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"Oooh," Rufus said in awe as the crystal pony shined just a little bit in the lantern's light. Looking at her closely now, Rufus noticed that her eyes were a bit different than a normal pony's too. He couldn't help but think to himself how pretty the crystal filly was, though he realized that his opinion was fairly biased. It did make him wonder though if other ponies thought that crystal ponies were pretty too. He briefly considered poking her to see if Lazuli was actually made of crystal or even just felt like one, but he decided against it. The already curious Rufus was now intensely interested in the crystal pony though, and he wanted to know more about her. Rufus' ear twitched at hearing something about a magical gem. Regular gems alone were enough of a reason for Rufus to be searching these caverns, but magical ones? He could only imagine how pretty a wish granting gem must be. Thinking about what he would wish for, Rufus didn't feel strongly enough about any one thing to say for sure what he would wish for if he could. But if Lazuli was searching for it, she must have something she really wanted to wish for. "Rufus not hear of magic gemses, but he has idea. Rufus is good at finding gemses, so if he finds magic gemses yous can wish with it and then Rufus will keep it after it runs out of magic wishing powers." It of course never occurred to Rufus that such a gem might not actually exist. The filly seemed confident that it existed, so why would he doubt her?

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Lazuli brightened even more at hearing Rufus's offer. At this point, she was almost outshining the lantern. "Really? If you find it, you'll let me use it?" Lazuli pranced in place with eagerness! It felt like she was getting so close to having her wish granted! "I don't need all the wishing powers, I only have one wish... You can have it right after that! It's a promise, okay?" Suddenly, Rufus didn't look scary at all. He looked like... well, like a good dog. A big, friendly, good dog! He was going to help her find this magical gem! And since he was an expert, surely it would go much faster than just her aimless wandering through the caverns would have been! "Can we get started? How should we begin? How do you look for a specific gem?" The crystal filly asked eagerly, looking around as though there might be some old sign 'Ye magic gem this way' or something. There wasn't one, of course.

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Rufus' own eyes sparkled a little at the sight of the bright and shiny crystal pony standing before him. He had heard about how beautiful pony princesses were before, but he had also heard that they were tall, and Lazuli was anything but that. Perhaps she isn't a princess, but she is related? "Yous must need wish more than Rufus if yous were looking for a wish granting gemses." He hadn't thought about the gem possibly having the power to grant more than one wish though. How much power were wish granting gems supposed to have, anyway? "Rufus not have anything to wish for though...maybe one thing, but pony's wish comes first." He was still more interested in the gem itself than getting wishes from it, but if he could wish from it, he had an idea as to what he would wish for. Rufus looked around, then started sniffing the area around him. As he feared, there was far too many crystals around to be able to sniff one particular one out, even if it was special and granted wishes. "Diamond Dogs good at finding gemses! Normally we sniffs for them, but finding crystal in crystal caves is like finding... needle in hayfries?" Rufus said in a confused tone, not sure if he used that pony simile correctly. It wasn't like using his nose to find gems was very precise in the first place (otherwise Diamond Dogs wouldn't need to kidnap unicorns to find gems for them), but in these caverns it'd surely be impossible. "But Rufus' gemses finding intuition says that the rarest and bestest gemses are always found deep underground, so we will find it if wes go as deep as we can!" Unlike his nose Rufus couldn't say his intuition never lied to him, but in terms of finding gems it had a pretty good track record.

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Lazuli didn't much like the sound of trying to find a needle in hayfries. That seemed like a really unpleasant accident waiting to happen. She'd only eaten Hayfries once before in her life, but she hoped to have them again someday. Not if they came with needles in them though! Well, when she had magic, she would learn a spell that would check for needles in her food. When. It gave Lazuli a tingly, joyful feeling to say when. She took a second, more thorough look around. "That passage slopes downwards," she pointed out to Rufus "If we need to go deeper, then I think we should take that path! Come on!" She scooped up her lantern and trotted as quickly as a little-legged pony could! The slope of the passageway started off gentle. Lazuli and her lantern tossed flickering light upon its crystal walls, showing traces of embedded amethyst and agate. Nothing too valuable yet. As the tunnel began suddenly to narrow, the grade become steeper, but since the floor was smooth, without kinks or cracks in it, the danger of tripping seemed minimal.

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Seeing the little crystal filly being so excited about finding the magic gem in turn made Rufus feel happy too. He had come here nervous that he caught but with a hope that he'd find something special, but now his worries had nearly faded away. He certainly wasn't worried about getting lost either; when you're a Diamond Dog lost in a cave, you always have the option of simply digging upwards to get to the surface. Rufus kept pace with the filly, which due to his much larger stride was more of a leisurely power walk than a full sprint. The large dog's admiration of shiny gems was certainly apparent in the way he looked at the crystals imbedded in the walls. If they weren't too big for him to stuff into his backpack, he probably would have tried to take them. Rufus could tell that the quality of the gems was improving the deeper they went in, making him feel confident. "Rufus thinks wes heading right way. Yous picked a good way to go; Rufus thinks maybe you have some gemses finding intuition too!" It made sense to Rufus that a pony who looked like a living crystal would be good at finding crystals themselves. It takes one to know one, right?

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When Rufus suggested that Lazuli might have some kind of 'Crystal Sense' the filly turned her head to look back over her shoulder. She was unable to speak for fear of dropping the lantern, but the friendly, happy smile she gave him expressed her thanks far more eloquently than she could have done. And it made sense to Lazuli. Although she'd never made an effort to study gemstones and crystals... or anything, really, it hadn't been allowed- She couldn't help but be exposed to significant quantities of them, since hers was the Crystal Empire. Probably she just got a natural instinct for them from exposure! A benefit she didn't know she had! Of course, if she had been a unicorn, she could have told her new friend all about this while floating the lantern above her head with her magic. And perhaps, if she had been doing that, she would have seen, as the passage turned sharply, the point where the floor had buckled and collapsed. But she wasn't, and she hadn't, and she didn't. So when the first foot touched the place where the stone should have been and wasn't, The little filly gave a yelp and tumbled forward!

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When the little crystal filly smiled at Rufus, the big dog looked back at her with a toothy grin. He sure hadn't expected to make a friend in an ancient crystal cave underneath Canterlot, but he was glad that he did. If all crystal ponies were as friendly as Lazuli was, then Rufus was sure he wanted to visit the Crystal Empire sometime soon. Lost in his thoughts, Rufus also didn't notice the collasped floor at first. That is, until he looked at Lazuli again when she was about a step away from the hole. He was too late to warn her; just as he was about to say something, she took another step and fell forward with a yelp! "Lazuli!" At that moment, Rufus sprung into action. Not considering the risk of leaping into a hole, Rufus jumped after Lazuli, one arm extended to catch the filly and the other arm held back to try to grab the side of the hole. Thanks to his long arms Rufus just barely managed to grab Lazuli by the tail with one paw and grab the edge of the hole with the other, leaving the two of them dangling precariously over whatever was below them. It was also thanks to Rufus' strong arms that he had the upper body strength to be able to hold on to the hole's edge with only one paw, even with a crystal filly in tow. Rufus breathed a sigh of relief, but with only one paw free he was having trouble figuring out how they would climb back up.

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One moment of horrified weightlessness, and then her fall was arrested as Rufus seized her tail in a remarkable mid air catch! The lantern, however, was not so lucky, and she watched the light fly down the hole for what seemed like a very long time before the faint tinkle of it being smashed on rocks below echoed back up to them. For once, her Sombra-inspired instincts served her well as, once again confronted with a terrifying danger, she didn't kick or fight or struggle, but rather hung limply, noiselessly, as though by being still, the threat might somehow overlook her. Such things didn't work on gravity, of course, but they did make her significantly easier to hold on to! Fear had also, of course extinguished her own light, and naturally, she was blind in the dark. This prevented her from seeing exactly how much danger they were in. After a moment or two of silence, she cleared her throat softly. "Um..." she began, rather afraid she was going to sound demanding. "Do you think you could... maybe... pull me up? If its not too much trouble?" She was unaware of Rufus's own predicament, of course.