As the morning Sun shone above the Pies’ Rock Farm, Igneous’ yelling was filling everypony’s ears, waking them up in horror
“Thieves! We have THIEVES in our territory!” what can now be read as a terrified voice sounded firm, angry and a bit violenta t it’s core “get up anything you can use as weapons and SHOVE THEM DOWN THEIR FLANKS”

Marble, who was the first to be awaken by the screams, was the one to be, in fact, terrified.

She heard something Lime had Said, about… Dogs?

Diamond Dogs?

Marble didn’t know much about them. Except they were huge.

And carnivore.

Slowly walking throught the irregular ground, nervously holding na old pitchfork in her mouth, trying not to drop it whenever she heard anything.

Suddenly, she heard a low mumble, coming from somewhere near her. Thinking it was her father, she trotted happily to follow the voice.

Untill it was followed by a bark.

Marble stood still, as if she had been hit by a lightning. Shivering, she held her breathas long as she could, and tried to listen anything that was possible.

The dog’s voice was masculine, a bit hoarse if she heard well.

Sounded tired.

He said something…. About famine. Money.

Survival.

While barking orders, Marble could clearly hear his panic between words. She remembered one more thing about the species they were handling with: Diamond Dogs gattered gems to trade with ponies for food like pork and fish. They came from dry and sandy areas, choosing to live in the underground.

If they couldn’t gatter gems, they wouldn’t have any way to obtain food, at least not enough to survive, as the animals in their habitat were scarce and usually very small.

Touched, Marble dropped the pitchfork and walked towards the voice’s origin. She didn’t know what she was doing, but she felt it was right. While walking, she stepped on a relatively small purple rock. The dog must have dropped it.

Shyly approaching the dog, who was big and gray-bluey, she poked his shoulder.

The dog turned quite quickly and roughly, accidentaly hiting Marble and throwing her at the ground.
Realizing what he had done, he started to panic

“Oh my oh my oh my! I-I’m so sorry mi- M’am! I’m truly sorry for that I didn’t mean to hurt you!” He was breathing heavily. Surprised by his kind attitude, Marble sat up and calmly told him she was fine.

“Gee m’am I… I’ll call back my group and we’ll leave everything where it was and retrieve to our lai-”

“No… I-it’s ok, really” Marble interrupted, slowly putting the rock she had found in his enourmous paws “I suppose you dropped this mister? Did you steal this? Is it…. Is it because you’re starving?”

“I- Why… Yes” He admitted humbly “My name is Fido, and my gang has been suffering from hunger for months. We couldn’t find any way to get gems so when we heard about this place we Just… Decided… To steal”

Hearing that, a sparkle shone inside Marble’s head while gazing at Fido’s body.

“I don’t think you’ll have to do that any longer. Say, you’re pretty strong huh~?”

“Hm yeah?”

“Name’s Marble Pie, one of the owners of this farm. I think you and your group could work here, for us. We could pay you with gemstones so you could trade them for food. Besides, I think we have enough space for a dog or two”

“R-really?” Fido’s eyes were glowing. That was the BEST news he had on AGES “OH thank you SO MUCH miss Marble! I promise my boys will not disappoint you!”

“blushes mhhmm”