Season 10: Dawn of a new generation of Harmony

by xombiekilla

Chapter twenty-eight: Exploring Klugetown

The party arrived at the Klugetown Train Station to meet with Capper as he leaned against one of the support pillars before walking towards Twilight to hug her; "Twilight, man, it has been a long time since I've seen you. How are you?" Capper then sees Starlight, Tempest, Silverstream, and Hero.

"Capper. It's so great to see you, too. It's been years. Nice mustache, by the way."

"Oh, this, yeah. At first, it was a bit disturbing, but after a while, I guess you could say it grew on me. Tempest," he greeted to acknowledge her.

"Capper," Tempest replied as they exchanged eye contact. She was admittedly surprised to see that he grew facial hair; the fact that it was a purple and slightly curled mustache was also somewhat amusing to the unicorn.

"Hey, remember now, no bad blood; we both made mistakes, and we atoned for them. We're cool now, okay?" Capper wore his red coat and a top hat; the cloth was patched from being used over the years, but he did his best to make it look good. "So, Twilight, who's the new kid?"

"Hero, I'd like to introduce you to an old friend of mine, Capper Dapperpaws."

"Sup? I'm Hero; pleased to meet you." They both shook their paw and hoof, respectively, as they greeted. "So, I'm here to help protect my friends and possibly look for Tainted to purge from this place."

"I'm sorry you lost me. Tainted?" Capper raised a curious eyebrow. "Not sure I've ever seen those before."

"These creepy shadow monsters prey on other ponies and creatures. Trust me, you'll know them when you see them; they usually are active in groups." Hero informed Capper so he at least knew what to look for; "They take your heart if you ever fall to them and, worse, they also make what's left of your body into one of them."

"Yikes, now that's scary. Okay, that sounds made up from someone's imagination, but considering what I've seen, I can believe it." Capper fixed the collar around his neck as he cleared his throat; "I mean, just another villain, right? Like how many of those have we already seen by now?"

"Too many," Twilight replied. "We're trying to purge the land wherever we can because they're all over Equestria right now, and I can only imagine them being here as well."

"You guys have been busy, I see. Well, I did make a distress call to you, Twilight, because Klugetown is talking about rumors of monsters; they sound like the ones you're describing to me." Capper chuckled as he gave the group a tour into the city square, rows upon rows of tents and small stands with merchants--many of them looking shady at best, all camped in them. "Yeah, a lot has changed since you've been here last, Twilight."

"Really now? Are the people here trying to be more honest with others?"

"Eh... we're not quite there yet; it's a work in progress." Capper sheepishly adjusted his collar as he quickly composed himself as they continued their tour. "We've been on pins and needles recently; I honestly have no idea why. But now that you're here, you can help me investigate these rumors and hopefully put them to rest."

"Absolutely, Capper. We're here to help you." Twilight happily said as they continued their trek through the market district. They made it to the city's center to hear a commotion that immediately got their attention.

"Aahhh?! What on earth are these things? Eugahhh!" A stumpy and short mole dressed in sharp black attire, tophat, and monocle was running away from what looked to be floating shadows carrying anchors as weapons with a chain and using them like a swinging mace. They had no legs, and their upper bodies were dressed like seventeenth-century, styled clothing, overcoat, and tricorn hats. The Tainted Emblem on their chests made what they were clear.

"Verko?! What kind of trouble has he gotten himself into this time? And those guys do not look like they want to chat." Capper was astonished at seeing them for the first time.

"And that's our cue, Twilight!" Hero got his blade ready to fight the scourge as his friends joined him.

"Alright, everypony, let's clean house!" Twilight hailed as everyone got ready; Capper even joined in the fight.

"Okay, fighting is not my thing, but... I'll offer whatever help I can." Capper then reached into his coat pockets to pull out some cherry bombs to use as explosive projectiles. "Hiyaahh!" Capper tossed them out as their fuses were lit, and they popped, one by one, as the small explosions that were enough to knock them into the air staggered as Hero jumped up to perform some aerial slashes at them.

Twilight fired her magic beams at the few that Hero didn't get to cut into their dark bodies to damage them. Silverstream then flew into one to grab it and slam it down. Tempest used her magic to lift weapons lying on the ground to hurl at the Tainted, and Starlight provided magic defense for the party.

The weapons that Tempest threw at the Tainted impaled a couple of them, which caused their bodies to tear apart into a black mist and release their hearts. The battle ended as Hero delivered the final flurry of slashes to the remaining Tainted. "All in a day's work!" Hero proclaimed confidently as they repelled the forces of darkness once more.

"Okay then, those are the Tainted; good to know," Capper said as he breathed a sigh of relief after their victory. They all scanned the rest of the city square to see if there were any more to their comfort; there weren't. "Okay, Verko, how did those things chase you?"

"Oh, it was terrible, Capper. I.. might have seen two mysterious figures roaming around this place, and I might have... attempted to offer them a fair deal, of course, and they snapped their fingers and summoned those things after me." Verko was retelling his moments before as Tempest held a scowl on her face from their last encounter, even if that was years ago.

"I can only imagine what deals he could be referring to." Tempest jeered as she glared at the diminutive mole man.

"Oh no, I've seen the error of my ways... mostly. At least I'm not locking people into agreements anymore. Progress, am I right?" Verko said with a nervous chuckle as Tempest leaned her head towards his to speak.

"I still dislike you with extreme prejudice." Tempest snapped at him, "Blasting your face was amusing and one of the few things I don't regret doing."

"Ooohhh... I can still feel the burns on my face..." Verko winced at the awful memory, "but I can tell you all where they were headed, to the main capitol building of Klugetown; no idea why, but I know trouble when I see it." Satisfied with his answer, Tempest returned to give him his personal space as he relaxed his nerves. "E-Even if you're no longer evil, you're still scary."

"Is that so, Verko? I believe those Tainted would be much scarier than I am. What do you think?" Tempest asked rather smugly to the supposed reformed mole man.

"T-That I'd appreciate it immensely that you do not let those things anywhere near me."

"Sure, but no promises, Verko; thanks for helping us, by the way. It's appreciated. Let's continue going to the capitol to continue our investigation." Tempest said as everyone agreed and left Verko to his own business. They went to the capitol to see those two figures.

"Deal with them." The one that was presumed to be Yami said to his other robed friend, who nodded as he vanished from sight in a pillar of darkness. The one that remained just looked at them and then pointed to sea at a lone ship near the port.

"Meet me there, and then, we'll talk." The mystery figure vanished into a dark mist and teleported to that ship, which irritated Tempest.

"Can these guys not be cowards for once, hmph," Tempest replied with an indignant huff.

"Well, now we know that we're definitely supposed to be here. Those mysterious guys are always trouble." Twilight confirmed as they headed towards the port where the sailors frequent.

---

Then the team made it to the port, where they saw the tavern door open to see a familiar group of avian pirates walk out. Twilight immediately recognized them as she greeted them, "Celaeno! It's so good to see you."

"Hmm? Twilight Sparkle? Ahoy there! It has been years. Business has been good for us. So then, what brings you to this unsightly place?" Celaeno asked Twilight as they addressed each other. Boyle saw the others, and then he saw Hero.

"And what be it with you then? Who are you?" He asked Hero.

"My name's Hero. I'm the Element of Courage; my job is to be Equestria's last hope."

"You? You're Equestria's last line of defense?" He began to laugh. "You have to be kidding me. You're like a skinny little string bean of a stallion. Our mizzenmast and rigging be more sturdier than you, lad." Boyle jested as he chastised Hero.

"Oh yeah? Well, maybe I could surprise you, you know? Never judge a book by its cover."

"You got spunk; I like that. Let's hope you fulfill that little job of yours." He looked to their captain, "Celaeno, sir, check this guy out! He says that he's Equestria's last hope."

Celaeno then approached Hero with a smirk as she greeted herself. "So, your name's Hero, huh?" She then reaches out to shake his hoof, "Never mind, Boyle, he can be a bit gruff, but he means well. On the seven seas, you have to tough to survive."

"Hey, it's no big deal; he just hasn't seen me in action yet; that's a pretty normal reaction from anybody."

"Your confidence is flattering. I like those who are confident in their skills; that's the attitude of a true hero." Celaeno then looks at Twilight's company and greets them, "Aye, it's good to see you doing better, Tempest. How's the reformed life working out for you then?"

"Well, it's a privilege to have been given a second chance to do better. Besides, Twilight needs me to keep her soldiers tough as nails, and I intend on doing that." Tempest briefly looks at Twilight, who smiles warmly in return.

"That's right, Celaeno, Tempest really did turn things around. I'm so proud of her, you know? She may have started as bad, but it was feelings of abandonment and betrayal; all she needed was genuine friends." Twilight said as Capper also waved at them as Celaeno acknowledged his presence.

"And I can see you, too, are also doing better, yourself, Capper. Very nice, what of that tiny little gremlin then?"

"You mean Grubber, right? Hmph, I can only wish he chose to be better; he always was an imbecile, even when I was forced to work with him." Tempest bitterly stated. "He's much older now from what I gathered from Twilight, and he's now working with that Queen Bugface."

"So, from one master to another, I see. I guess some scallywags prefer to be subordinated in the end."

"Well, Twilight can brief you in better than I could."

"Certainly, Tempest. Well, we're here because of Capper. He heard rumors of monsters, and those rumors were true. We had to fight The Tainted here not too long ago."

"Oh ho, new monsters? Then what are these Tainted creatures?" Celaeno asked.

"They're just terrible. They look like these creepy shadow beasts that can take many forms and even take control of someone's body once they get your heart; you'll become one of them." Twilight somberly explained, "We've been hunting them down throughout Equestria so far, and it doesn't surprise me that they'd also be this far out at the cusp of Equestrian borders either."

"These bilge rats sound dangerous, alright; any idea who their master is?"

"No, Celaeno, and that's what frustrates me. All we know was what Cozy told us, which should always be taken with a grain of salt, granted, but apparently, he calls himself Lord Yami." Twilight looked to Celeano with obvious distress in her eyes; this was something the pirate captain noticed immediately.

Comments

[xombiekilla]

If they can look past their biased and enigmatic hatred of me and see this story for what it's become and the improvements made, they'd see that it is pretty damn good. I have no idea why it getting lambasted so much with dislikes; humans make no god damned sense to me.

There. Now I've disabled the ratings; now there's no way they can abuse the dislike button for literally no reason at all. And I'll assume it's for no reason if nobody steps up to tell me where I could possibly have gone wrong this time. What else could I assume?

Oh, but my pervy stories like that Ultimate Usurpation of Canterlot got likes through the roof; I think I might know why. These guys are a bunch of horn dogs; they're more into perversion than a serious story designed to be taken seriously.

Their actions deliver a poignant statement to me, making what they want more abundantly clear.