[Snickersnatch]
By: Quisky
Chapter Nine:
Never Go to the Shady Side of Town . . .
Coming here? Not the brightest or the best of my ideas. But, you take what you can get here. What I was taking was stolen cargo, what I was leaving with would possibly be severe injuries and a unconscious body I'll have to tow behind me. I knew Legion could handle himself in a fight, but Goldguard I wasn't so sure about. He probably has military training and all that, but if what we were dealing with was as serious as they were claimed to be, I doubt running drills and a couple of push-ups would help me.
Still, it was nice to know that I had somebody watching my back. Felt this way too when I had Alamo and Zola with me. Wonder how they were doing? Thinking of them wouldn't help me now, but it was nice. If I returned to Canterlot safely after all this mess, I could possibly ask around, maybe Twilight or Nibsy, and see where my old pals are.
The streets were dirt, the buildings were run-down, and the residents stared at you with daggers for eyes. So warm and welcoming, I was surprised they didn't send out a greeting committee.
"Ah, Neigharlem." Goldguard said, breathing in once more the putrid air and coughing quite thickly.
"What, you've been here before?" I asked as we continued down the road, it being cracked and littered with old newspapers and some substance I did not wish to know the origin of.
"Yeah. Remember the first time I said I came to Manehattan? This was the area I got lost in!" He sounded almost proud of that. "Got mugged down that alley." He said, pointing a foreleg at a certain dark and dank alleyway we just passed.
"What got stolen?" I dared to ask.
"My wallet. Didn't have much in it to begin with, so i didn't mind." He shrugged, sending a chinking sound through his armor. "Ooh, got robbed down that one too." Another point towards another alley, surprisingly the same as the last. "My helmet was taken there."
". . ."
"And down that alley as well. Had my boots taken. Down that one, my chestplate . . . that one my greaves . . . that one my dignity . . ."
"Did you just get robbed on every fuckin' alleyway in this neighborhood?!" I almost shouted, but lowered my voice at the last moment to prevent anymore attention to be drawn to a towering jabberwocky in armor, a pure-white diamond dog, and a royal guard in loud, golden armor.
"Um . . . yes. I did. The Royal Guards found me two days later naked and crying down this alley." He paused. "I can't remember much of what happened . . ." Another pause as he gazed upwards towards a more warehouse-like building. We had left behind the residential area for a more industrial zone, like the area we had just been in with Stock Smith and his own warehouse, except this was appeared utterly abandoned and creepy as shit. There was a heavy presence in the air, like you knew you were being watched by something very malevolent. The walls were rusted, the ground was littered with garbage, and the air was permeable with a heavy stench of something unwashed.
"Except," Goldguard continued. "Except I remember getting beat down by some Talons near this warehouse."
"This is their spot then?" I inquired, stepping forward. There didn't seem to be any real entrance on the side were on.
"Definitely." The armored pony nodded. "I think. Like I said, I have a hard time remembering what happened. I woke up in my bunk the next day sore, armorless, and broke. I had to do grunt work for weeks just to earn all of my armor back."
Legion had ignored our conversation entirely, sniffing around with that keen nose of his firmly pressed to the ground. "Cedar wood. Metal? Metal. Bird Droppings. Sulfur." He mumbled to himself in that many-voiced way. "We could faintly pick up scent of package back in Round Pony's warehouse. It is box. Big. Made of cedar wood, something metal inside. Scent matches what is inside this warehouse." Legion paused to sniff once more. "Twelve griffins inside, ten males, two females. Watch out for females, much more violent of species. One drake, big."
"Alrighty then." I cracked my knuckles one by one and rolled my shoulders, claws itching and fangs grinding. It had been quite a long time since I was in a proper fight. I almost felt ready to bust some heads around and knock out teeth.
The two of us followed behind Legion, his nose being our guide to the back of the warehouse, a bolted metal door with a chainlock greeting us. Before I busted it down, Goldguard placed a hood on my shoulder.
"Wait, we're just going to break in?"
"Eeyup." I nodded.
"No plan? No stealth? Just barge right in and hope we don't get killed?"
"Pretty much."
"Alpha Oddjob normally goes with this route." Legion interjected. "It works most of the time."
Goldguard sighed and took a step back to let me do my work. I nodded at him with a wide grin before pulling my fist backwards, revving it up for one good strike. I sprang forward on my heels, moving my torso in a twisting motion so that the momentum moved upwards and into my fist, slamming directly into the door, which was promptly knocked off of its hinges with a heavy clang.
I wiped off my hands and stepped forward, entering the warehouse with Legion and Goldguard at my back.