When the news of Lucky Finds's arrest reached him, Buck Cheap had barely reigned in his ire. Losing his top subordinate, Blackberry Hossmane, and, by extension, his sway over the major crimes of Manehatten, had been infuriating enough. But now he'd lost control over the criminal underworld of Vanhoover?! Once he'd had time to himself, he'd channeled his anger into an antique grandfather clock, rendering it a mess of splinters and clockwork for his servants to clean up, but it'd served the purpose of getting it out of his system.
Even so, this unfortunate turn of events had encouraged Cheap to request a meeting with someone he'd spoken with several years ago.
"To start off, thank you for obliging my request to speak with you," Cheap poured a glass of fine wine using his wings and offered it to his visitor, who used magic to levitate the glass from him.
The glass of wine floated over to a hooded figure with a unicorn horn poking through a hole in the brim, the shadow of the hood hiding the visitor's face as they took a polite sip.
"It should come to no surprise that my family, House Avarice, has spent many generations in building perhaps the most powerful criminal empire this world has ever seen," Cheap bragged but without zeal, as he took a drink and growled, "But lately... my web over this nation has begun to unravel. It was annoying enough with those Evening Hood pissants mucking up my operations and lucrative workings, but losing not one but two cities' worth of crime... Well, it spurs me to take action, especially in light of the Princess's plan to abolish the Aristocracy.
"My subordinate Hossmane was perhaps the most reliable of my captains but he proved how pathetic he really is in taking his own life, and my pupil Lucky Finds has turned out to be a bitter disappointment. As much as it would put a smile on my face to get my hooves around his miserable throat, leaving him to rot in jail holds a certain appeal. But I digress..."
He gave his visitor a careful look, "As I understand it, your... employer is some kind of old adversary of Prince Midnight, yes?"
The figure nodded in confirmation.
"Perhaps your employer and I could meet face to face, discuss a partnership of sorts," Buck Cheap smirked deviously as he drank down the rest of his wine, "After all, the enemy of my enemy..."