Sunder careened around a corner and fought to keep his hooves under him. His eyes looked to the door at the end of the hallway and he slid to a stop in front of it. His hooves pushed it open and he jumped through the threshold and into the room where they had been only days earlier. He looked up as Secret came around the corner, his face a mask of anger as the Earth Pony waited for him to speak.
“I trust you have a good reason for calling me here with no explanation?” Secret growled.
Sunder came toward him and nodded. “I do. That pony that reached out to us about the Chimeras?”
Secret looked thoughtful for several seconds before he nodded as he recalled what he meant. “What about him? You said he was a bit of a pain in the ass but trustworthy enough to do business with.”
Sunder snorted and shook his head. “He was a Unicorn and a strong one at that if the feeling I got off of him was right. That’s not what I came to tell you though. He went to buy the Chimera and as it turns out we were fooled.”
“Oh? Did he want more than one?”
“No. He was an illusion.”
“What?” Secret said to him, now giving the Earth Pony his full attention. “What do you mean?”
“It was a pony under an illusion. It didn’t occur to me to check it for any magic in use.”
“Get to the point Sunder.”
“It was the Overlord.”
Secret went silent and his eyes stared at the pony in front of him. Sunder fought back a gulp as the leader of their organization stared at him. Secret was not only the leader, but he was also the strongest without having magic.
“You mean to tell me that this stallion that was buying a Chimera through our supplier was in fact the Overlord of the damned Netherworld Empire hiding under an illusion of magic?”
Sunder gulped and nodded. His head snapped back as Secret lashed out and punched him to the ground. Sunder rolled into a ball to keep himself from being hurt worse but after several seconds he opened one eye and he could see that Secret had spun and was looking at a map of the Empire and Equestria. He slowly got to his hooves and rubbed his jaw as he waited for the other stallion to speak. Sunder said nothing in reply to the attack and waited in silence.
“Well. This is the worst-case scenario. What reason did he have to contact us? Why did he do it?” Secret voiced his voice low.
Sunder waited in silence as Secret looked over his shoulder to the gray earth Pony and he knew that if he simply shrugged he would likely get punched again.
“Could he have simply been after the supplier?” Sunder asked in reply.
“No.” Secret replied. “That one is cleverer than I gave him credit for. He got in touch with us in our city of power and walked right in under our noses. It can’t be that simple. Think Sunder.”
Sunder looked to the ground and his mind raced as he tried to think of what could have been the reasoning behind the contact. “Maybe he wanted us to know that he could find us?”
“Exactly. We danced to his little tune and he got one of our suppliers as a gift.” Secret snarled. “Now we have to do damage control. Where is that supplier located?”
“He was located in Equestria but with the change in the borders he is now within the Empires lands.” Sunder walked up to the map and pointed out the location. “He is now one of his subjects.”
Secrets eyes were dark as he looked at the map. “Damnit. That means we will need to find a way to get them out of there before he gets there.”
Sunder looked away and Secret saw his hesitation. “It’s too late.”
“What?”
“He already has them,” Sunder admitted and stared at the map, trying to keep his gaze away from Secret.
“You’re kidding me.”
“No.”
“So he already has them? He moved while we were looking the other way and he got them in his hooves.”
“Exactly,” Sunder replied and stayed staring at the map. “I found out about it this morning and contacted you as soon as possible. He took them last week.”
“How did we miss it?”
“He moved faster than I thought he would. Nobles take forever to do anything and I assumed he would as well. I sent a letter to Storm about the buyer and I checked in when I didn’t get any notice of there being a purchaser. Storm has always been quick to keep us informed.”
“And what about the rest of the family? And the products?”
“They have been seized.”
“All of them? He arrested them all?”
“No. From what we can figure out he arrested Storm and maybe Creed. The rest we aren’t sure of.”
“What about the Chimeras?”
Sunder shook his head. “I have no idea.”
“You didn’t check?”
“The border is being monitored.”
“When did that happen?”
“When they tried to take the land from him he put troops on the borders and rumor says that dragon patrols at random times,” Sunder informed him. “We can’t stop a dragon.”
“Damn,” Secret growled and spun to pace the room.
Sunder breathed out a small sigh at the fact that he was not on his back again. Secret paced the room and Sunder stayed silent and waited for him to speak up.
“We have been outmaneuvered.” Secret whispered out.
Sunder simply nodded in reply. Minutes ticked past as Secret moved and Sunder waited. ‘Did he really outmaneuvers us this badly or were his goals simpler than we think?’ Sunder thought to himself. ‘We were tricked with magic there’s no doubt about that but did he truly know more than we thought he did?’ Sunders' mind buzzed with questions and he closed his eyes and tried not to sigh in frustration.
“We need to remove him before he comes after us again. We need to find a way to get him to call on the Princess and then kill her as soon as possible. If we are to come out of this with our position intact he needs to be distracted by something else.” Secret finally paused and spoke.
Sunder nodded and waited to be told what to do. Secret went to the map and his expression calmed and Sunder waited.
“What has our little Princess been up to lately?”
“Nothing. Well, she has been moving back and forth between her castle and Canterlot. We got a look at her castle and it seems that he left some sort of…thing that allows him to come to her castle whenever he wishes.”
“Meaning?”
“He comes and goes as he chooses. She can go with him and then come back hours later. I’m not even sure how to describe the thing he uses.”
“So he can move between his kingdom and Equestria without needing a train or a dragon?”
“Exactly,” Sunder replied with a nod. “He also seems to have left her a…creature to carry letters back and forth. Our informant says it comes and goes pretty regularly.”
“So she has his favor?”
“Seems like it.”
“Good. All the more reason for him to call on her should things get…messy at home. Keep an eye on her and what do we know of him?”
“Nothing,” Sunder growled, his frustration showing. “Haven’t seen him since he went back to his kingdom.”
“Keep an eye out and we will see how the others are doing. We need to have those constructs up and running sooner rather than later. Get in touch with Sky and Hazel and ensure that our plans are moving forward.”
“What are you thinking for a timeline?”
“One month from now. We need to start a fight in the Netherworld Empire and make it big enough to call on his army. Big enough that he will call on the Princess of Friendship. If we play our cards right he might call on all of her friends and they can witness her fall and they will call to arms and maybe lash out at him if things play outright.”
Sunder nodded and moved to leave the room. He glanced over his shoulder for several seconds in case Secret said more to him and he pushed open the door and left the other stallion to his thoughts.
Sunder looked around him at the chaos and noise that went over him. He could see the constructs that they had gotten from the Empire were in the process of being taken apart and reassembled around him. His eyes scanned the room as he looked for Sky. She had informed him through a courier that she would be here and now he was trying to locate the Pegasus mare. He finally found her after scanning the room several times and he began to maneuver his way toward her.
“There you are Sunder dear.” She crooned to him as he joined her. “I trust there is a reason for your visit?”
“Yeah. Secret told me our timeline.” He replied to her silky sweet tone. “We have one month to get these things up and running.”
She looked surprised for a second before her expression evened out. “I see. Well thankfully we are moving forward here and so far we have reassembled five of these things. Our engineer is becoming more acquainted with their design and has even added improvements to them.”
Sunder didn’t reply immediately as he looked to the side of the room where they were assembled and kept out of the way. “That’s good to hear. We were dealt a bit of a blow with the Chimeras so we had to alter things a bit.”
“Oh?” She questioned.
“Yeah, the buyer was the Overlord in disguise.” He admitted with a growl.
She blinked for several seconds before a smile began to tug at her mouth and a laugh broke from her as she tried to hide her smile behind a hoof.
“Yeah, laugh it up.” He sneered as he massaged his jaw once more.
“I trust Secret was less than impressed with that.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, then we will simply have to ensure our success in this venture to ensure he does not turn more of his ire on us.” She replied. “Do you need any ice, darling?”
He turned his head to face her, a deep scowl on his face which made his scars show plainly. “No.”
“Just thought I should ask.” She replied to his look. “You are my guest and I should ensure your comfort.”
Sunder bit back a snide comment about her charms not working on him but he held it back. Her charms had gotten her position and he knew better than to bite her. His face turned to look out at the rushing ponies in front of him. He could tell that one of them was directing them from the front but he chose to stay where he was with Sky to avoid slowing down the process. His better sense told him to keep silent and let his betters command from the back and he would put forth his ponies to the front line. He looked behind them as a door opened and Hazel walked nervously into the building.
“I trust you have been informed about Storm and his ilk?” Hazel asked Sky and she nodded. “We have been played for fools. There’s no telling how much information he already has on us.”
Sunder bit back an exasperated sigh at Hazel’s nervous speech. He liked Hazel honestly but he tended to be a bit on the excitable side. Instead of sighing he shrugged and waited for Sky to carry the conversation.
“We can outmaneuver him if we wish to. While I admit we did not think he would confront us this quickly we can still salvage the situation easily enough.” She cooed to the stallion.
Hazel didn’t look convinced as she looked at him, her eyes bright. “So you say, but we are already behind him.”
“While that might be true there is no telling how much he has been able to find out. Our sources know better than to talk about us unless they enjoy not having tongues.” Sky said sweetly to him.
Sunder held back a shudder at her tone and simply nodded. “Storm will keep his mouth shut.”
“But will Creed?” Hazel asked. “He’s not the strong pony in that family. Can we assume that he will talk if pressed?”
“He might but he knows very little,” Sunder replied. “His father knows the ins and outs but he doesn’t.”
Hazel looked unconvinced as he looked out over the warehouse. “Hopefully you have not underestimated Creed.”
“If we have then what he knows will be one-sided,” Sunder said to him and Hazel tilted his head slightly. “Storm knows the majority of it and he knows to keep his mouth shut. No doubt he explained the same thing to Creed. We may have given information to Storm but it was not information that could come back to hurt us too much. If they talk then we will have to alter a few of our plans but nothing dire.”
“I hope your right,” Hazel replied with an uncertain look.
Sky looked between them and a smile stayed on her muzzle as a pony came toward them. She walked forward and Sunder trained his ears forward to listen as they spoke. Sky looked over her shoulder and he knew that she was aware of him listening in.
“Care to join us dear?” She crooned.
Sunder's ears pinned for a second before he walked down to join them. He wasn’t stupid enough to know that she had asked him there for his opinion. She knew he was listening and in his own way, he was always watching for weakness among their members.
“We have come across something within one of the constructs.” The pony said to them.
“What do you mean?” Sky asked him.
“Let me show you.” He said and motioned for them to follow him.
Sky motioned for the Earth pony to go ahead of her and he slid in behind the worker. He stepped over the others and moved easily through the crowds as they worked. Behind him, Sky hovered easily over the ponies and she followed them easily. The pony came up next to one of the partially disassembled constructs and then pointed to something within it. Sunder craned his neck and he looked at it closely. His eyes narrowed as he stared for several seconds. Sky landed beside him and she looked down as well. Her bright eyes were questioning as Sunder began to smile.
“What is it?” She finally asked.
“It’s a magical disruptor,” Sunder informed her. “It’s designed to mess with the magic that a Unicorn uses.”
“Meaning?”
“It can stop magic from being used. Can you replicate it?” He asked the pony that had shown it to them.
“I am not sure. I have never seen one personally.” He admitted.
Sunder cursed under his breath for a second before he stood upright and his mind raced over the possibilities. “Sky.”
“Yes, dear?”
“Can you find a pony within our organization that can replicate that?” He said and tilted his head to the disruptor.
“I am sure I can find somepony that can fit your request.” She replied. “But will we be able to make enough to impact our plans?”
“Even if we can only make a few of them it is in our best interest to have them ready.” He replied, careful of who was listening in.
“I see. Then I will work on it and see what I can find out.” She said and turned to leave them behind.
Sunder said nothing more as he looked at the disruptor and for once he felt that they were a bit ahead of the game instead of rushing to catch up.
Hunter looked over the details of their raid on the Chimera breeders and his magic gripped the other reports as they hovered around him. Gnarl stood close by as his Master went over the logistics and the status of the animals and the ponies. The Minion Master was silent as Hunter leaned back in his throne and a snort escaped him as he lowered the papers and considered what his next move would be. They had spent time questioning each of the ponies and he had found that each of them was well versed in the breeding and the sales that came with it.
“Master?” Gnarl questioned and Hunter looked at him. “What will we do with the ponies that were apprehended?”
“Storm and Creed will be judged when I feel I have a fair knowledge of their operations. The others will be held until I find a proper way to punish them.” Hunter replied as he held up the list of names and their places in the organization.
“What of the tiny foal?” Gnarl asked and Hunter closed his eyes as he thought of her. “We are not equipped to handle a foal.”
“I know. For now, she is being housed with Soft Touch and Silk and they seem to be able to entertain her easily enough. But that will not last forever.”
“Shall we have her live within the Tower and learn to serve?”
“No,” Hunter replied easily. “My servants are here by choice. She is too young to make that choice at this time. We will need to look into adopting her out to a family that will watch over her.” He commented as his thoughts went to the small filly, Petal.
“I will start to find a list of names that would fit your criteria.”
“Make sure they have either no foals or maybe one for her to play with. If they have experience with animals then that would be preferred above others. She has grown up around the chimeras so she is aware of how to be around animals. Start in the Empire. It’s more of a climate that she is used to.” Hunter instructed.
Gnarl bowed his head in understanding. “As you command Master.”
Gnarl waddled away for him and Hunter bundled the papers together and set them on the armrest of his throne as he thought over the filly’s fate and that of her family. He knew that he could be lenient with them and allow some of them to leave and pick up their lives. But at the same time, he knew that if he allowed it then they would go to Sunder and his ilk for support and he would have a fight on his hooves. His eyes closed for several seconds as he breathed out a deep sigh and rubbed his face with his hoof. He knew that Gnarl would look through the census and find a proper place for the filly and he would tend to her family and their crimes.
“What to do with the chimeras?” He whispered to himself. “Sorkeno has asked for a few of them to help train the babies how to hunt and I will send the more docile ones to that end.” He went on. “What about the rest?”
Dezhara whined from her bed and she got up and came to him and he leaned forward to run his hooves through her thick fur. Wrath sat on the side of his throne and waited for any instruction from his Master. The Overlord was silent as his mind went over what his options were and his mind fell on the chimera that he had chosen before. Her eyes had shown her intelligence and even now he found himself thinking of her. He pushed Dezhara back and got to his hooves.
He moved out of the throne room and Wrath jumped to his armor as Dezhara stayed on his heels. He moved easily through the Netherworld and down into the lower regions. He passed through the Minion Burrows and down to where the war mounts were kept. He had created a place to hold the chimeras and they were held in their own stalls as they awaited their fate. They had been easy enough to move once he had questioned Creed. The pony had been informed that if they did not move then they would all die in fire and ash. The stallion had quickly imparted how to move them easily to the minions and with that information, the monsters were moved to the Netherworld.
His hooves thudded dully against the stone floors and the lava flowed slowly through the walls and illuminated parts of the pathway. He paused outside the large doors that held the creatures and he gave Dezhara the command to stay as he passed into the room. He breathed in as the scent of the chimeras washed over him and he found himself suppressing a tremble as several roared and called at the sight of him. He had learned from Creed that to silence them one must be stronger than them or have their favor. He knew that he had no favor with any of them and he moved forward as he scanned the tiger faces that looked back at him. He paused as one of them stared back at him. Her eyes were wide as she seemed to know why he was there. He wasn’t sure why she did not attack the bars when all of the others did but instead, she stared back at him.
“There you are.” He said to her and walked slowly up to the cage.
The bars were too close for her to lash out at him with her claws but at the same time, he was not sure she would have attacked even if she had the chance. He could see intelligence that rivaled that of the Dire Wolves if not the minions. He watched as she remained still and her eyes stayed on him. He wasn’t sure how, but she seemed to understand that he was the one who had caged her and she understood it. On his back Wrath watched the female closely, ready to defend if the need came. A sound caught his ear and she still stared at him as he watched her. His ear flicked as a minion came around the corner, a chunk of meat over his shoulder to feed the creatures.
The female looked away from him suddenly and he knew that he had won their small battle of dominance. He had not looked away or blinked and she had given in to his gaze. He looked at the minion and he ripped a chunk of the meat off the bone and held it out to her, held gently in his magic.
“Will you take it from me, the one who just won over you, or will you fight that hunger?” He asked her, his voice quiet. “You seem to understand the basics and I wonder just how much you know.”
The female looked back at him and then her gaze went to the offered food. She sniffed it carefully and then lunged to take it from him. He remained still and refused to flinch at her actions. She took the meat and he released it easily. She swallowed it whole and looked at him as if watching him for the next move. Wrath screeched and threatened from his back but the female ignored him and looked at the stallion who stood in front of her. On the other side of her, one of the chimeras roared and lunged at the bars. Hunter began to look at the other as the female lunged for the wall that separated them and the other yowled and backed away. Hunter was a bit shocked at her actions but he chose to remain still and watch her as she roared and the other chimera gave way to her.
“Interesting.” He whispered and began to walk away from her cage. The female moved with him and he stopped as she followed him. “You’re smarter than you let others think you are.”
She did nothing in reply and simply watched him. Her bright orange eyes blinked as she watched him in return. His red eyes stared at her and once more she gave in to him. She sat down on the other side of the cage and watched. He moved away from her stall and his hooves carried him away from them and out of the room that held them all. He paused and picked up Dezhara and the she-wolf whined and spoke to him as they moved away from the chimera.
Sunder cursed as he looked over the reports he had of the Overlord and how he had taken all of the monsters and the ponies with them. “He left nothing behind.”
He went over the paperwork that had been left behind when he went in with his team to scour the compound. All of the animals and the ponies had been gone. Much of the paperwork that pertained to the business itself had been missing as well. Even a safe that had been hidden had been found and torn open. He had silently raged at the Overlord and all that served him before he had stormed out of the house and began to look for anything that he could use. At the end of several hours of searching, he had found precious little to look over and he was now going through it.
“Why does he have to be this clever? Why can’t he be easily manipulated like the monarchs in Equestria?” He muttered to himself.
He went over notes that he had been taking since the Overlord had come to Equestria and he stopped as something caught this attention. He had been told by an informant that the ponies of the Crystal Empire had been nearly terrified of the Overlord due to his resemblance to Sombra. He stared at the report and then looked over another as it detailed Sombra’s appearance and then he looked at the details of the Overlord. His mind began to whirl as the resemblance was striking and he began to wonder what the chances were of them being related.
“Maybe?” He whispered.
He began to scan what little he knew of Sombra and went over what he knew of the Overlord and the limited information about his bloodline. He knew that the odds were against him but he couldn’t help thinking of it as the wheels in his mind began to spin at a fevered pace. His mind slammed into place as he suddenly had the feeling that he was on the right path. He had never doubted these moments of clarity and intuition that came to him occasionally. They had guided him to his place in the organization and he was not about to doubt them now. They told him that he was right and he suddenly had ammunition that he could use against their enemy. He stood up, his chair falling to the ground behind him.
“Got you.”