We did it! We lost more than ten men assaulting their lair but we did it! It's been a while since we've come back with the slaves. That's right, slaves! They were using more than a hundred slaves in order to mine countless gems from the heart of the earth, but we have no idea why they were mining them, and there was the fact that, while sneaking around while the rest of us were distracting the enemy, two veterans overheard a few guards talking about sending out shipments of gems somewhere. It's puzzling, as we can't find any records of where they're sending them, or to who or why.
Anyways, more than half of the slaves we freed were ponies, after we introduced ourselves and fed and treated what injuries they had, they thanked us and opted to go to the nearby town of Ponyville. We insisted on lending them an escort of several men, and they readily agreed. After all, it'd be pretty goddamn frustrating to have rescued them, only to lose them to wild animals or bandits. The rest of the slaves were made up of several young zebras, who say they were sold and shipped off from their distant homeland, then sold again to the 'Diamond' Dogs. And there were also the Griffons, about ten of them, who relayed the story of how they were traveling west towards the Equestrian capital to emigrate. Apparently their home has been politically unstable as of late, and they wanted to be somewhere else if things ended up escalating. While they were passing through the barren lands to the south, which would apparently be the quickest route between the two provinces, they were ambushed. The caravan was sacked and burned, and they were taken prisoner. Both parties admitted they had nowhere else to turn to. So we offered them to stay with us. They seemed surprised that we were offering, but they agreed.
We've given them armbands to denote them as our allies. And we've been doing our best to train the Griffons with small 32. revolvers for defense. The Zebras can't use guns, for obvious reasons, but they can wield a knife or machete surprisingly well with only their mouths, and one of them revealed having been a shaman's assistant before he was captured and sold off, having a knowledge of many different types of herbs with medicinal properties.
I'm sure i'm going to have nightmares about fighting in those tunnels, but when i look up and see our new friends, free of chains and laughing, and singing by the campfires, i know it's worth it.