> Rise of a Revolution
>  by TheShadowOfZama
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Introductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end. -Alexis de Tocqueville.

A lone figure sat at his desk in the basement of a small house in Canterlot. The basement was small and the only light in the room came from the candle on his desk and the shine of the flames outside. The basement smelled like the food it had stored not such a long time ago. The man took a tissue out of the pocket of his raincoat and held it in front of his mouth before he started coughing. Blood soaked the previously white tissue upon it’s removal. The man averted his glance from the tissue and looked at the hourglass on his desk, the sand slowly but surely falling down to the bottom.

He couldn’t help but recognise the old cliché that the sand represented his life. Oh, the despair it brought him to see it flow so carelessly to the bottom, never to be returned to the top. Such a simple thing as this sand was capable of hypnotizing him and he wanted to keep looking, but he realized his time was running short and he still had so much work.

Once again he contemplated his mutated body. The altered form of his once normal human body still managed to bring him more pain, anger and despair than anything else, yet without it he wouldn’t have had the power or motivation to initiate, and now complete, his grand plan. 

His right arm was subject to perhaps the most notable mutation: where his right hand once was, a grotesque claw now hung. His fingers had become claws nearly 16 inches in length with the exception of his thumb which retained a (mostly) normal size. Each also bore a bizarre metallic sheen quite unlike any natural appendage. Instead of skin, he now bore shimmering reptilian scales on the length of the arm. 

Both of his arms had lengthened to the point that if his arms hung loosely next to his body, his palms would line up with his knees. The muscles and sinew that now stood out from his arms, shoulders and back only served to augment his surreal appearance. 

His left hand, however, had undergone a less dramatic mutation in comparison to his right, although it was no less disturbing. Instead of changing into a true claw, it instead became an elongated, grotesque mockery of a normal human hand. Where the typical human hand ends on a fleshy pad covered only partially by a blunt nail, his ended on razor sharp nails reminiscent of those found on a tiger claw. 

His legs, just like his arms were a lot more muscular, his feet slightly broader so they were able to support the additional weight. He could not completely straighten his legs, instead having them locked in an angle of nearly 45°. The same could be said of his ankles. 

His upper body actually looked relatively typical. It simply looked like the torso of an exceptionally well-toned human.

His face, however, was a different story. He forced himself to not look in mirrors or at his reflection in water because of this most apparent of aberrations. First his teeth: the changes were minor in those of his lower jaw, although they were somewhat sharper and stronger than those of a normal human. His upper jaw on the other hand, while the molars and premolars retained their normal appearance, now sported frightfully overgrown canines capable of tearing through even the most durable flesh. These paired with his increased jaw strength allowed him to inflict truly horrific injury upon an opponent.

The left side of his head and a part of his shoulder were badly burnt. The damage had done no serious damage to his eye or ear, but it had given his left eye a more split appearance. The burns prevented his hair from re-growing, although it looked far worse than it ought to because it had not been treated correctly for a while after he had gotten burnt.

The alicorns known as Celestia and Luna had done this to him. They forcefully tried to change him into “one of their little ponies” (dear lord, did those words make him want to vomit). They said it was to give him a better life. Their true intention was to prevent him from upsetting the status quo that had benefited them so well throughout the years.

The man knew he had been turned into an abomination. He was stuck here in a world that had been both directly and indirectly controlled by ponies. The magical energies possessed by this world hung in the air like an invisible smog and behaved like slow-acting radiation poisoning in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion, slowly eroding his health and sapping his strength. 

It was no help that he had been the foremost enemy of the state for quite a while now.

Was it such a crime to rather die as a human than to live as a pony? The princesses certainly thought so, promoting them to try to change him forcefully, but their little plan did not work as expected. No, their foul magic met with a much purer kind of magic: the magic of Nature. They tried perform their noxious deeds in a place called the Everfree Forest, but the magic clashed with the ambient power of the forest, changing him into what he was now. It had given him more chance to enact his vengeance, and for that he was, ironically, grateful.

He watched the joyful flames through the small window of the basement and thought about everything he had gone through. It had been quite an adventure. It was such a shame that the end was drawing near, but he had the two alicorn princesses he was after (and the other two alicorns as a nice bonus) right within his grasp. He had them cornered like the scummy rats they were. His army had already taken control of the city and were preparing for the final push into the castle.

It was a shame, really. He had brought the authoritarian hierarchy of Equestria down into flames, but he would not see what would be built out of the ashes of his revolution. No, he would die with the flames, be it by the princesses or by the cancer this world’s magic had given him.

The man finally stood up and marched towards the exit. The time had come to join his friends and his troops in the final assault. When he exited the little house he was met by the smell of ash and the heat of fire. Canterlot, the capital of Equestrian, was aflame. The castle was furiously besieged by his ores and badly damaged from the volleys of the catapults and cannons. The streets were covered in debris and bodies both of his own forces and of the Equestrian military lay in pools of their own blood.

“Sir, the others require your presence in the siege camp.” He heard a voice say, making him turn around to see a male gryphon saluting.

“At ease, soldier.” 

The gryphon immediately stopped saluting.

“Commander, are you alright?” the gryphon asked, concern in his voice as he saw his commander’s debilitated appearance.

“I am *cough* fine *cough* *cough* No reason to *cough* worry. *cough*” 

That was all he managed to say before he broke out in a full scale fit of coughing, holding a tissue in front of his mouth.

“Commander please calm down!” the gryphon said, distress audible in his voice as he hurried over to support his leader. He led the man to a nearby bench. By the time they arrived, he had stopped coughing, the white tissue once again filled with blood.

“You know private, I never caught your name.”

“Oh! It’s Windmaster! Private Jorn Windmaster sir!” the gryphon quickly told his leader.

“Well Jorn, when I first arrived here in this world I was called the Outsider, but you may call me Karl. Karl Kempf. In these past few days, I have realized something: I am on the brink of death and no one knows my story. My whole story. Would you like to hear it?” Karl asked as he tried to regain his breath.

Jorn was stunned. The Great Leader, the one who brought an end to the era in which ponies ruled with complete dominance, sat before him now, weak and dying. Here asking for a lowly private to listen to the story of his life! 

“Yes, sir! I would be honoured to hear your story!”

Karl nodded.

“Very well! Prepare to hear the complete tale: who I was before I came to this world, how I got this form, how I started a revolution and how I brought the tyrants of this land down into flames. Everyone has a spark inside them. Let me tell you how my spark became an inferno.”
> The Arrival of an Outsider
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“We never see other people anyway, only the monsters we make of them.”  ― Colson Whitehead, Zone One

Brussels Airport:

“Hey Karl! Hand me the bags. I want to check the papers again.” said a man with short blond hair, brown eyes and a fair skin. The man was wearing blue jeans, red T-shirt and a brown leather jacket. Around his neck hung a small golden necklace with a crucifix on it.

“That’s the 15th time already… and we haven’t even taken off yet! That’s not even counting all the times you checked before we even reached the airport.” Karl grumbled irately, nevertheless handing over the papers. 

Karl had fair skin, but possessed brown hair and green eyes. He wore blue jeans, a white t-shirt and a white-and-blue striped button-down shirt. Around his left wrist he wore a black digital watch.

“You can never recheck stuff like this too much.” Will argued, earning himself a sigh from his friend. 

Will was without doubt the best friend a man could have, but sometimes he thought too much.

“Whatever! Do what you want.” 

After rechecking everything twice, Will carefully put their papers away again. Over the next few hours the men were introduced to how boring planes could be.

“Let’s see… I see what you can’t see and it is blue.” Will said.

“Let me guess; it’s the ocean?”

“How did you know?”

“Because we’re flying above the goddamn Atlantic ocean.”

“You know, just because we’re flying above an ocean that doesn’t mean I’m talking about it when I say I see something blue. Our seats are blue too.”

“You were looking out of the window and you said I couldn’t see what you were talking about. There was a pretty good chance that it was the ocean.” Karl replied, earning him some mumbling which probably contained some cursing.

“Shit is starting to look bad up ahead from what I can see.” Will noted as he looked at the dark clouds in the direction the plane was flying. 

Karl really did not need to hear that: he already felt uncomfortable on the plane as it was. No need to tell about storms as well.

“Fucking great.” He mumbled under his breath and right when he was done cursing he heard the voice of the pilot announcing the dreadful news.
“This is your pilot speaking. There is a storm on our course so we will probably experience some turbulence. Please remain in your seats. Thank you.”

Now it was the waiting game. How long till the airplane would be in the dreaded storm? The answer? Not long enough. Everything started calm enough, but the turbulence quickly got heavier and heavier. He could hear some children scream and their parents trying to calm them down.  He saw a man quickly grab a puke bag from the chair in front of him and empty his stomach into it. The turbulence continued, only gaining force.

Then the masks fell down. Everyone quickly grabbed their own respective mask and attached it to their face.

Both men looked at each other. Karl saw the fear in his friend’s eyes, his own fear was probably visible as well. Both realized the situation had totally gone to shit when red lights started burning. Both men held each other’s hand. Karl thought it might look gay, but in such a moment, that’s hardly what someone should care about.

“See you on the other side.” Will said as he took the crucifix in his hand.

“See you there, man.” 

That was the last thing he said as he waited for the impact which came a few moments later. The last thing he saw was an inferno coming his way. It was probably the most destructive yet paradoxically beautiful thing he ever saw.

He smelled the burnt air and the ash. He felt the heat and awaited the pain the fire would bring before the numbness of death. Neither the pain nor the numbness ever arrived. The firelight quickly faded out, leaving him alone with the dark, but strangely enough, with vague sounds reaching his ears: the chirping of birds and rustling of wind-blown greenery could be heard. Seconds later, the softness and the smell of grass faded into existence along with the feeling of a cool breeze.

This was not death he realized, but what was it then? Life? No, not his life anyway. His life ended by fire and later by water. So just what the hell was this then? He opened his eyes and saw he was lying in a small clearing. He heard the characteristic white-noise rush of a river. Trees, lots of trees. Definitely a forest.

“Where the hell did a forest come from? Am I on an island?” 

Stupid questions. There was no way he survived: he saw the fire and knew there was no escape from it. 

“Maybe this is what heaven looks like.” Karl mumbled. 

Hell he wasn’t a fan of the design for heaven anyway: Walking on clouds? Wings and harps? Belch! Who would want that? He also heard people talk about rice pudding and golden spoons. They could keep that too: he didn’t like rice pudding, and he took pleasure with other types of metal spoons just as easily.

If he was in Hell, then they had given him a bad description. He figured it should have looked a lot more, well… hellish. 
Wherever the fuck they dropped him, perhaps Will was here as well. 

“WILL!!!!” 

Nothing.

“WILL!!!” 

Still no response. 

“Perhaps not.” he mumbled as he tried to get on his feet. 

He could worry about his friend later. First he needed some answers, but where to find those?
****
Princess Celestia was asleep when she felt it: the distinctive aura possessed only by one species in history. 

“Humans.” she said the instant she awoke. 

She detected but one signature, but it was undeniably that of a human.

This simply could not be! The Apes’ Children had been dealt with so long ago: their names had long been forgotten, their cities fallen to ruins and their relics destroyed, yet one had again appeared in her land. She needed to deal with it quickly and swiftly before anyone saw it, before it gained a foothold. Celestia quickly cast a spell to contact Luna, who appeared as an image inside a ring of shimmering magic.

“Sister, why has thou called me?”

“There is a human in Equestria again.” Celestia said. 

As the word “human” left Celestia’s mouth her sister’s eyes widened.

“But how? Our parents destroyed them all during the fall of the Chaos Empire along with the rest of their loyalists.  Even Discord couldn’t bring them back anymore during his second reign.” Luna replied.

“I know Lulu, I know, but one is here! Just now I felt it appear by the Everfree Forest. The chaotic magical signature is unmistakeable!”

“Then we need to deal with him as soon as possible! Out of all the creatures spawned by Discord, Fate ha sent us a human! Its existence cannot be tolerated!”

“Keep your voice down! We can’t anypony knowing that a human has returned!” said Celestia in a hoarse whisper.

“Sorry sister, but of all of the Chaotic creatures, none is as capable of spreading chaos as a human. A Timberwolf is immune to magic, a Manticore is almost unstoppable and a dragon is highly destructive, but out of all of these, humans have the most dangerous minds: watching, adapting, analysing, planning, always raging with ideas. These other creatures may be openly dangerous, but humans have a knack for subtle corruption. ”

“I know. We must address the situation immediately. We cannot allow him to destroy the harmony we and our parents have managed to build and protect through all those years.” 

With that, Celestia teleported her and her sister to where the human was.

****

Karl had just recovered and had come to the conclusion that the universe was out to mess with him. A blinding light that came out of nowhere did not help this one bit. When the light died down and his sight returned to him, where the light had been now stood two… what were they, anyway? It looked like two winged unicorns. The tallest one had a white coat and wore golden shoes and crown. Her mane was rainbow colored and flowed ethereally with the wind.

The smaller one had a dark blue coat. Her mane looked like a starry sky and was flowing in a similar fashion. She wore silver shoes, a silver crown and something that looked like a gorget with a crescent moon on it. 

“This shot just keeps getting better.” Karl mumbled sarcastically to himself.

“HUMAN! WHY HAST THOU INTRUDED UPON OUR LANDS?” 

That horse had one hell of a voice! The sonic force nearly made him fly back.

“Uhm, I got lost I guess.” 

It was a lame answer, but Karl was still busy registering what the fuck was going on. Besides, on a certain level it was probably the truth.

“Sister why isn’t this human shaking in fear or in rage from the mere sight of us like all the other humans have done?” Luna inquired more silently, extremely confused as to why the human didn’t even react to their presence in the slightest, even (or perhaps especially) if they had brought an end to his race.

The human looked different, albeit only slightly, from those she had faced in the past, prompting Luna to cast an analytical spell on him. The results were surprising to say the least. This human possessed neither chaotic magic nor the magic of harmony. He rather appeared to be completely magically neutral, with no magical charge at all. However, she still felt the chaos was there, somewhere in his brain. He was still dangerous even if he didn’t possess the chaotic magic with which Discord and the rest of his race were endowed. 

She told the results to her sister. 

“What do we do now?” Luna asked.

“We cure him from the chaos inside of him,” Celestia said. She had been forced to destroy the humans before because it was simply impossible to cure their chaos inside of them, but this one possessed less chaos than his ancestors so he could perhaps be cured and she was certain of it he would allow it as well for due to his complete lack of energy the magic of harmony was slowly, but surely killing him.

“Human, what is your name?” Celestia asked.

“Uh… Karl.” he replied hesitantly. 

Karl didn’t know what the fuck these horses were, but he sure as hell didn’t like that they were talking so secretively. He didn’t know of a situation back home where furtive speech didn’t indicate that something was afoot, and he was pretty sure that it was culturally universal.

“Karl of the Human Race! We can sense the chaotic energy in you and have come to offer you salvation! Your body is not capable of surviving the Magic of Harmony in this world.  We will transform you into a pony so you can live a life cleansed of chaos and greatly extended. Do you accept?” 

Both princesses awaited the approval which they were sure was to come.

“No.” 

It was a short and clear answer which completely shocked both princesses.

“No?” Luna repeated, confused.

“You heard me. Now leave me be.” Karl said dismissively.

“Perhaps I didn’t make myself clear enough: without the metamorphosis, the magic of this planet will kill you!” Celestia exclaimed.

“So?”

“You can’t throw away your life so easily!”

“Can’t I? At least it’s my own life and not someone else’s I’m toying with for enjoyment! Besides, I happen to care deeply about my humanity. If you want to change that, that’s some tough shit. I’d rather die as a human than live on as one of your patsies!”

Celestia’s surprised look turned into a stern one. 

“I am sorry you look at it like that, but I cannot allow you to throw your life away so carelessly.” 

Well, that, and she wanted to keep him from destabilising the country which was set up so very much in her favour. She also wanted to know if ponification could actually work.

Karl realized that something bad was about to go down. He turned to run, but was enveloped in a golden aura that lifted him off of the ground and a terrible pain came over him.

“This will all be over soon. You will see that you will be a lot happier after you are cured of yourself.”

Karl started screaming as the pain intensified and he heard the white-furred bitch talk to him on a soothing manner like a mother calming her child. Given the setting however, he couldn’t help but hear an undertone of phoniness.

“Listen to me you bitches! Cut this shit out now! If you go through with this twisted, fascist crap, I swear I will have my vengeance! When I’m through with you, you’ll beg for death!” 

He continued by spitting out every insult he could think off as he fell his hands become more stump-like and rounded-off like hooves.

The pain suddenly stopped as he heard one of them scream. When he reopened his eyes, he saw he was still stuck in the golden aura, but to his relief his body started changing back to its original state. Karl looked at the two of them and saw that the blue one was under attack from what looked like wooden wolves who had driven her to the cliff.

Celestia was unable to assist her sister due to the powerful spell she was casting on the human, but if she didn’t act now her sister would die, or at least be gravely injured. Seeing as she could not perform any offensive spells she decided to use the human as her attack.

Karl could only look in horror as he was being swung by an invisible force straight at the wooden wolves. 

*BOOM* 

He hit the first one with incredible power, causing it to collide with the others, who were pushed over the edge. Luckily for Karl, the wooden wolf managed to regain his balance, thus keeping the both of them from falling after the wolf’s companions. Unbeknownst to anyone, Karl’s collision caused the wolf to start leaking a green-glowing, sap-like magical fluid which was absorbed by Karl’s body.

Luna saw her chance to deal with the Timberwolf and sent a fireball its way. Unfortunately for Karl, said fireball exploded and burned the left side of his face and set his clothing on fire near his left shoulder.

“AAAAGHH!”

Karl stumbled back as he could feel the flames licking at his skin and he screamed the air out of his lungs. That fucking bitch had set him on fire! The Timberwolf stumbled over the cliff’s edge. Unfortunately for Karl, his shirt had gotten stuck on the wolf’s splintery side, so when the wolf fell over the edge, it dragged Karl with him.

Never in his life had Karl felt pain that could rival what he felt right now. He desperately tried to keep the fire away from his eyes. He felt himself fall, but couldn’t see it. By the time he was able to open his right eye, he barely registered hitting the water and then more pain.

Granted the water put out the flames, but have you ever put freshly burned skin in water? And natural, unfiltered water at that? It burns like hell. The frigid temperature of the water only made it worse. Karl managed to swim back to the surface and felt the skin on the left side of his face crack open, followed by the feeling of fluids running out of the wounds.
****
This was not how it was supposed to go! Not at all! The sisters had tried to help the human! They had tried to cure him from the chaos! They had tried to extend his life span! But everything went so horribly wrong: not only did the human dismiss the idea of being turned into a pony, even to save himself, but they had actually succeeded in killing him!

The Timberwolves had ambushed her sister, what else was she supposed to do? Let her sister be killed? No, she couldn’t let that happen, so she used the human as bowling ball and her sister had finished off the last wolf by setting it ablaze, but she had set the human ablaze as well and then both human and Timberwolf fell in the raging river down in the canyon. They had looked like a shooting star during their fall.

Celestia had tried to locate him again, but the aura the human had given off when he arrived had vanished, which could only mean he was dead. 

Perhaps it was for the best. The river would surely destroy any evidence of the human as it flowed deeper into the Everfree, so nopony would find the corpse and the humans would remain a legend. Yes, everything worked out, just not as she had planned. She had truly intended to purge the human of the chaos, but death worked just fine. At least now he could rest together with his ancestors and hopefully this was the last Equestria would ever see of the humans.

“Goodbye Karl may you rest in peace… and never set foot in this world ever again.” 

****

Karl had, after what seemed like an eternity, finally been able to swim to the shore, his clothes wet and reduced to rags. His face itched terribly and every time he tried to change his expression it hurt. It was the same when he tried to move his left shoulder, although not quite as severe. He carefully clawed his way to the top of a fallen tree trunk, careful to not get any dirt in the wounds. So far, he could still see out of both eyes so he guessed he had managed to keep his eyes shielded. His hearing was also alright. The flames had by some miracle not reached his left ear.

Karl started searching for shelter, but his body gradually began feeling weirder and weirder. First it was only a tingle, then he started shivering and he got the feeling that he needed to vomit, which he did.

However, while he vomited he was forced to widen his mouth, which in return caused his face to itch and the pain to return. Proceeding to walk away from the shore, Karl eventually found a small cave where he figured he could spend the night. However, the shivering had been replaced by an ever growing pain. He fell into the cave and started squirming in pain. The pain reminded him of that which he felt when that bitch had started transforming him.

‘Is that damn spell active again? No; my hands aren’t being compressed; it’s like they’re growing.’ Karl thought as he looked at his right hand. 

The sight scared him. It looked like his flesh was breathing on its own, pulsing in an up and down motion while it was expanding. He lifted both his hands and his nausea instantly returned: his fingernails had come loose. He didn’t think about those for long, as he felt the bones in his legs start to relocate themselves, but the worst pain would be coming from his teeth. He could feel them crack and shift around. Then they started to grow further out of his skull. 

That was the last thing Karl remembered before he lost consciousness. His body lay limp upon the floor of the cave surrounded by a haze of green light with a slight undertone of gold, the energy carefully making sure that the body would not die from a nearly spent pain threshold as it set about reconstructing the body.
> The Art of Adaptation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You have to keep adapting to the times. If you kind of go with it, it can be kind of fun. -Billy Cogan

Karl awoke to the singing of birds and small rays of sunshine. The first thing he felt was a shooting pain along the left side of his face and shoulder when he tried to move. Memories of the previous day came back to him instantly. He brought his right hand in front of his face, or at least what once was his right hand. Instead of looking at a normal human hand; a huge claw was attached to a grotesquely muscled arm, his left arm being in a similar condition. The muscle mass had completely destroyed his sleeves.  

“What the fuck happened to me?!” Karl exclaimed in shock. 

Did those ponies do this to him? No, they wanted to change him into another stupid pony. Making him into something even more dangerous would be illogical.

He studied his left hand, the mutations on it less dramatic, but still well pronounced. His fingers had morphed into sharp claws, each one the size of a small dagger. 

He found out through experimentation that he could use his “evolved” left hand almost the same way as he did a normal hand. The bad news was that the same thing could not be said about his right hand.

And he was right-handed.

Writing with fingers the size of short swords and a palm so big he could probably enclose a pony’s head in it was not likely to be an easy task. 

‘Look…’ he thought, ‘you can figure that out later. Right now you’re in the middle of fucking no-where.’

He became aware of that extreme, dry thirst that often follows sleep, and as he ran his tongue around his mouth, he quickly found out something was different. He found that they were extremely sharp and jagged. He reached up with his hand to feel them, but only wound up clubbing himself in the face with his newfound claw. 

Karl let out a sigh. He had been awake for barely five minutes and already he had gotten annoyed with this new body. Karl used his left claw to feel his new teeth. He found that the thickness of his new skin had severely dulled its former sensitivity.

“Better check to be sure I haven’t grown a tail or something.” Karl mumbled before proceeding with the examination of his new body. 

The legs of his pants had been destroyed by his new muscle mass the same as had been done to his shirt. 

“I am so going to need new clothes after this.”

He might as well rip off his shirt and under-shirt, as they were basically completely destroyed and what remained made him feel like he was wearing a friggin’ corset. With one powerful jerk he ripped off the tight dirty clothing. Perhaps this could count as Indecent Exposure, but he seriously doubted there were any police for miles.

Fortunately, his pants had managed to keep up with his growth. Walking in the woods with a bare chest was one thing, but going completely bare-ass naked seemed a bit too much. As he tried to stand up, he found out that he could straighten his legs like normal, but he had a lot of trouble walking that way. After a few minutes of adjusting and trying certain possess he found out that he could walk best with his knees and heels at 45° angles.

His shoes were destroyed by his enlarged feet, which still looked more or less like human feet although they possessed longer and sharper nails and looked just a tad more claw-like than before. Karl could live with that. At least the change wasn’t as drastic as that of his hands.

He began to yawn, as is the acceptable early-morning custom, when blazing, shooting pain streaked through his face.

“Fuck my life!” 

Not only had he been changed into some kind of mutant, but fate had also decided to let him keep the burns on the left side of his face and on his left shoulder.

Karl decided he’d better make tracks, though it was easier said than done. While his newly developed muscle was adequate to move his now-enormous frame, he wasn’t completely capable of manipulating his limbs with ease. It felt like he was wearing an inflatable sumo-suit.

****
Karl had been wandering mostly aimlessly through the forest for hours and he was completely drained. Granted, the walk had given him time to get used to his new body, but damn, he needed to train his new muscles if he wanted to do anything productive.

To make matters worse, he was so damn hungry! He should have known that a body as massive as his needed more than a few fruits to be satisfied. He needed MEAT!!!  

The problem? He was near-clueless on matters of hunting. Additionally, the energy that he would need to spend in order to hunt would probably far outweigh any energy he could obtain from a quarry.

Fate finally took mercy on him as he heard what sounded like fighting near his position. It didn’t take long to find the tiger feasting upon some indescribable animal. Karl started planning of his next course of action; he got a new stronger body and he needed the meat to survive, but his fighting skills weren’t very sharp, and… well, It was a ducking tiger!

Eventually, basic survival instinct began to take over, and Karl stepped out into the clearing. The tiger immediately spotted him and a warning growl began to rumble in its throat. Karl readied his right claw as he continued advancing slowly towards the tiger and its prey.

The tiger rose to it’s feet and let out a loud roar which Karl assumed was a final warning. Against his better judgment, he kept creeping closer whilst keeping eye contact with the tiger at all times (it occurred to him later that most animals see direct eye contact as a threat, and thus he probably hadn’t helped his situation any). 

He advanced a couple more steps before the tiger stepped over the kill and towards him while emitting a menacing growl, fed up with the intrusion of this new stranger.

Karl was disappointed. He had hoped the tiger would be cowed enough to simply give up his kill after he had managed to come so far, but now it was clear the tiger would at least try to save his meal. 

“Very well kitty cat. I need that meat, and I’m going to get it.” He mumbled to himself as he readied his right claw to attack. 

This earned him a roar from the tiger. The tiger lunged forward, trying to latch on to Karl’s left arm, only to be forced to retreat by the much more powerful right claw. The tiger clawed at Karl’s right claw, but by that time, Karl had closed some distance and struck with his left claw and hit the tiger on the right side of his neck, forcing it retreat a bit further.

The tiger snarled angrily at him as his coat turned slightly red around the wound. Karl attacked again, his right claw successfully landing a savage blow. The tiger, evidently not getting the message, again lunged at Karl, who was now thoroughly surprised by his ability to match up in physical strength with the tiger.

Karl would have bet that the tiger’s facial expression turned into one of confusion, momentarily hesitating. Karl knew this was his time to strike. A sudden compulsion overtaking him, he bit down into the tiger’s already wounded shoulder.

Immediately he felt warm blood rushing into his mouth along with a combination of meat and fur.

‘Damn, these teeth are awesome!’ Karl thought surprised at the amount of pressure he could put on his new teeth. He could hear the tiger roar in pain and felt him desperately struggle to escape.

Karl released the tiger a few moments later, and it promptly fled the area, trailing blood behind it.

Karl was busy processing what had happened. 

“I beat a tiger! I defeated a fucking tiger!!!! Booyah, bitches!” 

By now Karl was literally jumping around in joy holding a small and utterly ridiculous victory dance when he suddenly remembered the thing he was fighting for in the first place.

Karl made sure that there was no one in the area (hey, even mutant freaks have a sense of dignity) before digging into the raw meat. And you know what? It tasted damn good. He didn’t have a knife, but his claws worked just as well. After he filled his stomach the realisation of what he had just done. 

“I just ate a raw animal! I can’t even believe I liked it! Okay, okay, calm down; there’s nothing to worry about. Just a possible infection of various diseases and parasites.” 

His next problem reared its head as he realized he did not have a place to sleep, nor did he know how to make a fire, not that he had the necessary tools to do so. It probably didn’t matter that much anyway: he doubted he could effectively manipulate any tools with his right arm being so… uniquely augmented. 

He decided that he ought to deal first with problems he was actually capable of addressing, such as finding some water to get the taste of blood out of his mouth and to clean his teeth. He recalled hearing the sound of running water before facing off against the tiger and attempted making his way back to the source of the sound.

This task proved more difficult in execution than in thought, and it involved lots of mud, dirt, vines, heat and angry insects. Granted, his armoured skin offered a great deal of protection from bites and stings, but they were still a pain in the ass. When he found the water source, he started drinking from it once, again not caring about the presence if bacteria, amoebas, or other undesirable matter until it was too late, which made him start wondering if his body contained some kind of automatic pilot. He shrugged it off, deciding that it didn’t matter: so far, that automatic pilot had been correct.

With his mouth free of the taste of blood, his teeth cleaned to the best of his abilities and the sun setting, he decided it was time to find some kind of place to sleep.

He climbed into a nearby tree with ease. Karl climbed until he reached a spot where he could lay against a branch with other branches close to it so he would not fall out of the tree should he move in his sleep. Karl fell asleep instantly whether it came to exhaustion or just the want to sleep he did not know neither did he really care he just wanted the comfort of sleep.

****
Karl woke at dawn the next day. By now he had accepted this was the real, not just a dream. He ate some fruits that hung on the tree before descending towards the ground again.

He tried teaching himself to spearfish just to get something on his plate. He made progress, just not any that was worth the effort. He had given his all for hours and all he managed to catch were three fish, two of them barely the size of his left hand. The third one had been the one that had at least given him a decent meal.

After he finished with his fish, Karl decided to further explore the land. He needed daylight to travel, but he knew that he was not exactly inconspicuous should he encounter someone else. He decided that he was willing to take the risk. Besides, he was fairly confident that he could take anything that came his way. 

His fears later proved unfounded, but somehow that was even worse than if he had run into anyone. A crushing loneliness began to settle over Karl.

The days dragged on. Karl became familiar with the jungle. He became a superb fighter and hunter. 

However, his grasp on sanity became slightly… tenuous, as is the case with most people in similar situations.

“So anyway Mr. Coconut, I said to my pal Will, ‘Don’t play Amnesia while you’re drinking!’ What does he do? He plays Amnesia whilst drinking! Of course he did. Never tempt fate, man. Anyway, he set his beer bottle down in front of him while he was playing, got a good old-fashioned jump scare, and wound up with beer all over his nuts. Oh yeah, and he got killed in the game so he needed to restart from the checkpoint. Boy did I laugh. Ah, those good old times!” 

The coconut, adorned with carven eyes, mouth and nose, said nothing and simply listened respectfully.

“Now let me tell you about that time Will and I wanted to test how hot a certain Mexican sauce was in a certain Mexican restaurant… hey, we’re not in the forest anymore.” Karl lamely finished as he found himself on open soil with hills surrounding it and rock formations scattered across them.

“How the fuck did I not notice this sooner? Did I really start to loose my grasp of reality to the point that I didn’t even notice a change in surroundings? Tell me Coconut, and be honest, did I go crazy in there?” Karl asked before he looked at the coconut expectantly. When he didn’t get any response after a few moments, he spoke up again.

“Dear god!!! It’s worse than I thought! Even Mr. Coconut can’t find the right words to articulate it! What has become of me if even my companion cannot describe how deep I have sunk? But can you blame me? I mean that place would drive anybody slightly crazy, right?”

As Karl was continuing his rant about how it wasn’t his fault, three pairs of eyes had been busy watching him intensively from the safety of the shadows of a rock formation ever since he had come out of the jungle part of the Everfree forest.

“He’s big and strong!” said first pair of eyes, which were yellow with vertical pupils.

“He’s crazy!” said the second pair, which looked the same as the first.

“He’s our only option!” said the third pair, which were green instead of yellow.  “Let’s just move on with the plan!” 

The other two nodded before moving to their respective positions.

Karl had finally finished his mad rant when suddenly the ground underneath his feet started feeling strange. Time to put more thought to the matter was not to be had, as the ground underneath his feet collapsed and he fell into some kind of tunnel, where he got jumped by at least a dozen humanoid dog creatures wearing armor.

His new body was strong, but it still possessed limits. 

Limits such as a dozen or so armored dog creatures dropping down on top of him. He felt them putting what felt like cuffs on him before heaving him to his feet. Some more dogs aimed their spears at him.

“What have we here? I have never seen a creature like you, but I bet you’d make a good miner.” said a voice from the darkness

Karl looked in the direction the voice came from and saw three of the dog creatures which looked slightly different than the others. Instead of wearing armor and carrying spears they appeared to wear jackets and diamond-studded collars.

“Well…” Karl retorted, “…joke’s on you. To the extent of my knowledge, I can’t mine for shit.’’

“Well then I advise that you learn it fast! We need more gems and that means more dogpower.” the one with the red jacket replied.

‘Dogpower?’

Suddenly one of the armored dogs stormed in in a panic. 

“Sir, the ponies from Hoovetown managed to repel our attack on the convoy!”

Karl saw the dog leader scowl. 

“Dammit, Rover; we were counting on the gems of that transport to help fill the order!”

“I know that Spot! What am I going to do now? The Alphas won’t tolerate any more failures!” the one know as Rover exclaimed kicking a stone away.

Now this got Karl’s attention. They hated the ponies too, albeit different than the specific ones who wronged him. Perhaps he could use this to his advantage. 

“It seems like you have a few problems with ponies. Maybe we help each other out a bit.”

The big one snorted. “Why would we want to make a deal with you?”

“You have a problem and perhaps I can help to solve it.” 

The big one wanted to speak again, but was cut off by Rover.

“Let him speak Fido. Perhaps he could be of use to us.”

Karl grinned inwardly. “Now you’re talking! How about you tell me your story and your problem and then I’ll see if I can help.”

“Fair enough. It’s not like keeping you as miner is going to help us much without that other load of gems to fill up.” Rover stated before leading Karl through a tunnel system. 

After a while they arrived at what Karl assumed were Rover’s private chambers.

The chamber was little more than a hole carved into the cave wall, but with a desk, some bookshelves and some blankets on top of some rocks which acted like his bed. In a corner stood a small chest filled with gems. The room was lit by two oil lamps, like the rest of the tunnels. One was attached to a wooden beam on the ceiling and the second one stood on a rock close to the “bed”. On some other rocks lay some cushions to which Rover gestured.

After they got comfortable, the Diamond Dogs began to tell their story. It seemed that they had tried to capture some white unicorn for ransom. They found it rather odd though, that the townsfolk put up very little resistance to the action. The reasons became apparent as the unicorn commenced whining to such a degree that the Dogs actually begged her friends to take her back. In their desperation, they even gave up all their gems just to get the ponies to relieve them of the torturous individual. Somehow though, the Equestrian government had heard what had happened and ordered the Dogs to be forced out of their den despite the return of the unicorn.

Then Rover had led his pack to this spot where they’d had conflicts with ponies from the local town, but in order to acquire the funds necessary to set up their new home, Rover had been forced to borrow money from the High Alphas and the time to return the loan was getting closer and closer. Due to the delay in the construction of the mine, they weren’t able to even obtain gems until fairly recently and they couldn’t mine fast enough to make up for time lost.

Rover had thought of a plan to hijack a gem transport from the ponies in order to make up for the amount of gems the Dogs couldn’t mine quick enough, which, as Karl just learnt, ended in a spectacular failure. By the time Rover finished, he was fuming from rage as he remembered how the ponies had harassed him from the moment he became a pack Alpha.

“What do you know about the town they brought the gem transport to?”

“Medium sized town with a wall around it to prevent creatures from the Everfree from entering. There’s an Equestrian military camp nearby.”

“Do you have a map?”

Rover nodded and stood up to get some maps. After he had retrieved a set of rolled-up maps, he laid them in front of Karl and sat back down. Karl examined the maps. One was of the town the other of the surrounding area. 

“Do you know where they store the gems?”

“No, but we assume here.” Rover pointed to a place on the map. “It’s the local smithy. It’s the most logical place.”

“Tell me, what do you need besides those gems from the transport to get the required amount to pay back your debts?”

“Workers. A lot of them, or maybe even some unicorns who can use gem tracking spells. That white unicorn was annoying as hell, but I have to admit that she was extremely useful at first.”

Karl knew when a deal could be made and this was such a situation “Listen, keeping me here won’t do you any good as I would be incapable of mining the required amount of gems you need, but perhaps I could be of assistance to you in another way.”

“How?”

“I can infiltrate that town and get you your gems and some workers from that city.” 

The three Dogs burst out in laughter, but Karl’s face remained unchanged. The Dogs stopped as they noticed he wasn’t joking.

“Wait, you’re actually serious. Surely you know that idea’s completely ludicrous. It’s a town full of ponies. No offense, but you could even get noticed in Diamond Dog ranks.” Spot stated.

“Yeah; most ponies are fucking racists anyway. Even if you weren’t associated with us. I doubt you’d even get into the city at all.” Fido added.

“I have to agree with my friends and commanders on this one. There’s no way they will allow you access to the town.

“I don’t expect them to voluntarily give me access and to be honest I couldn’t give less of a shit. I’ll get into that town. Just give me a deadline.”

“Fine, but remember don’t betray us! We don’t take lightly to betrayal! Whatever your plan is make sure we get the gems and the workers over seven days.”

“I wouldn’t think about betraying you guys. You are currently my only allies and I take care of my allies, but remember once I deliver those workers I get to keep my freedom. No sneak attacks anymore.”

“Seems like a fair deal to me. We’ll show you where you have to make deliveries of both gems and ponies. We can give you a sword and some pony currency, but if you need anything else, you’re on your own.” Rover said.

Not fifteen minutes later Karl was walking towards the pony town of Hoovetown. Not his first choice of occupation, but at least he had some sort of goal, and he was planning on keeping his promise to the Diamond Dogs if only to have something else to do besides aimless travelling.

“Let the games begin!” Karl said to himself as he was thinking of just what he could do in Hoovetown.
> The Art of Deception
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Never attempt to win by force what can be won by deception.”  ― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

It had been a couple of hours since Karl had left the Diamond dog mine and he had managed to make some good process. He had reached Hoovetown right before the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Getting in would be difficult like the Diamond dogs had already predicted. The walls whilst by far not as high as he had expected them to be more representing a palisade of an old Roman camp rather than a city wall. Unfortunately for Karl unlike a normal palisade this one was made like a wall out of real stone and whilst lower still too high to climb over. 

Karl had always been interested in history especially in Roman culture so he knew quite a few things about Romans and about wars as well seeing as war and history were good friends so to speak as one was forged by the hands of the other. With that knowledge he knew that the ponies attempt at a wall was absolutely pathetic.

Karl shivered slightly as a cold breeze hit him. He wasn’t in the tropical jungle anymore and whilst he definitely wasn’t freezing, he could feel the change in climate. He would need to find some suitable clothes for his new body if he wanted to travel further or he would sooner or later get in trouble if the temperature kept on dropping.

He shook those thoughts quickly off, that were all concerns for later first he needed to keep his part of the bargain to the Diamond dogs. He was still debating over how much of a use the dogs could be for him. They were strong, excellent diggers, from what he knew their economy was quite rich, he supposed they were large in numbers if they managed to keep enslaving ponies without too much fear of the Equestrian army, and they seemed to be loyal at least to their leaders, however on the other side the ones he met minus the three leaders did not give a good impression on their specie’s intelligence and he still did not trust the Diamond dogs their word very much when it came down to deals made with other species.

After his little inner discussion he came to the conclusion that trusting the dogs would either prove to be his best decision ever or his worst and for the moment he believed it was the former. He kept on observing the city and knew the waiting game had begun. And so he waited for the ponies to slip up so he could enter.

****
He waited for two and a half day before he finally saw a way to enter Hoovetown, but he doubted he would enjoy it. Karl had instead of keeping watch on the wall focused his attention on the transports that entered the town waiting in the shadows of the nearby forest on a chance to infiltrate one.

The sun was already setting on the third day when he found a carriage pulled by four pegasi and a fifth one riding on top probably as a watch out. The carriage missed a wheel and seemingly the ponies had no real experience in replacing a simple wheel.

The clumsiness the ponies showed when they failed once more in replacing the wood that kept the carriage standing forced him to resist the urge to facepalm. To his delight the ponies ceased their attempts and huddled together in a circle as to discuss a new strategy he guessed, which gave him time to enter the carriage unnoticed. Whatever they discussed this time they managed to replace the wheel from the first time, so he was happy that they quickly took off.

Karl was still unsure as to why they didn’t replace the wheel inside the city, but hell from what he had seen and heard these ponies were naïve, not very bright and besides their magic they were nothing worth on military level.

The trip was short, but extremely unpleasant; the carriage wasn’t high enough for him to stand upright or at least for as far as he could do that with his new legs, the carriage also suffered from small turbulence causing him to hit his head once in a while due to the cramped space and he lost his balance when they landed causing him to fall on the floor of the carriage.

He quickly got back on his feet careful to not hit his head against the ceiling before readying himself to attack the pegasi in case they opened the doors. He knew that he could not allow them to escape or they would warn the police and if that happened he could say goodbye to his plans. He listened to their conversation.

“Should we unload it now?” Karl heard a heavy voice ask.

“Nah, we deserve a rest. Let’s get a drink and when we finish it, we will unload the stuff.” He could hear some voices cheer before hearing them walk away. Unfortunately it seemed that the pegasi had locked the doors of the carriage, fortunately Karl could simply rip the lock off from the inside with his new body strength.

He carefully opened the doors of the carriage to a small split so he could see his surroundings a bit. He was on a small parking behind some buildings which was good as that meant there was probably no pony in the area. Karl jumped out of the van and looked around to his relief he had been right that there was no one around.

From what he saw the city was constructed in a medieval style. Normally he would have taken some more time to admire the architecture, but he needed to hide. He hurried himself in the darker alleyways, but found himself annoyed a little while later as he realized that he needed to find shelter if he wasn’t going to be discovered.

BOOM!!!!

Karl kicked in a door of what looked like an abandoned house and fortunately he was proven right. The inside was dusty and clearly not cleaned in a very long time, a musty smell immediately entered his nose from the moment he had forcefully opened the door. The room was not very well lighted. The only light came from the opened door as the windows were far too dirty to allow sunlight through.

The empty, dusty, musty smelling and bad lighted room would do the job. Karl searched a spot to sleep and fell asleep almost directly under one of the windows.

He awoke when the night had already fallen. He got back on his feet and got moving. He exited the house after making sure there was no one in the alley. “Now where’s that smith?” He had remembered the location and knew it was around the area he was in, if only he knew where.

“I hate night shift!”

“How many times did you tell me that already since our shift started?” Karl quickly hid behind some boxes that conveniently stood in another alley. He had just managed to hide when he saw the glow of an oil lamp light up the alley and two ponies clad in gold armor?!?!?!?

Karl wasn’t a metal specialist, but he knew that gold was one of the weakest metals so he wondered how big of a deal their armed forces would be should he encounter them. Fate decided to mess with him again as a big black rat made an empty bottle fall over which caused the guards to halt and look towards the boxes he was hiding behind.

It was then that Karl realized that the guards weren’t carrying the lantern around attached to a stick or so, but that the lantern was floating in a golden glow which Karl had mistaken to be light from the lantern. Now he also saw that both guards were unicorns.

“Is somepony there? If so come out now.” The pony who’s horn was surrounded in the same kind of glow as the lantern commanded, making Karl curse the stupid rat.

The unicorn made the lantern flow over to his position. Okay he could do a few things. He could keep hiding and hoping they wouldn’t find him, he could destroy the lamp and make a run for it or he could charge them although the last option did involve killing them.

Before he could pick one he felt his skin become warmer and not the pleasant kind of warmth. This was not the type of warmth you felt when you snuggled under a warm blanket; no this was more the type of warmth you feel when you get too close to a fire by example.

The lantern was floating right above him and it felt as if his skin was itching and burning, his breathing became heavier and more uneven and his stomach hurt terribly.

“It’s just a rat. Let’s go!” The lantern floated back to the guards and as it went further and further away from Karl, the pain started to subside until it was completely gone.

“What the fuck was that!” Karl asked himself. He assumed the rat had hurried away and the guards had connected the dots. He tried to think what had happened; was that lantern perhaps some kind of weapon? It didn’t look like one, but a lot of stuff he saw in this world was strange so why not a weapon in the form of a lantern? Or perhaps he was overthinking shit, what if it wasn’t the lantern? Magic! Didn’t that pony bitch say something about magical poisoning or something along those lines?

He hadn’t thought about it anymore ever since the two weeks she had said he had left passed. He had assumed ever since it had either been a lie or the mutations had somehow made him immune to it. Perhaps he had been too optimistic, perhaps the mutations had only slowed it down or had only made him immune to it if the magic was in a more passive form than how the unicorn had used it.

How it also may be it was something he would need to take into account that at least unicorns could be extremely dangerous to him if what he guessed was basic magic could already trigger reactions like the ones he had suffered than he honestly did not want to know what a combat or restriction spell could do to him.

With him temporarily out of harm’s way, he decide now was probably a good moment to get moving again. He reached the smith a good half hour later. The building was big and he could hear ponies talking from somewhere inside, but after what had occurred in the alley Karl had no interest in getting any closer to the small equines again.

He made his way over to some crates which he used to get on top of the roof. He positioned himself near a window so he could see in the storage and indeed he could see a carriage loaded with gems, never in his entire life had he seen so many gems with his own eyes and they would be his soon very soon together with some workers he had promised to the diamond dogs as well.

His eyes widened in shock as he remembered he actually needed to get his hands claws on some of those unicorns, the mere thought enough to make him shiver slightly. He would need to take them by surprise knock them unconscious before they could use their magic if he even wanted a chance of surviving.

The new discovery surely had managed to bring him in a foul mood. Getting his revenge on those two winged unicorn bitches would sure be a lot harder if what he guessed was basic magic for unicorns could already kill him. It was also a big blow to his pride. He had thought to be superior to those small, multicolored and extremely naïve ponies, but now it turned out that perhaps even some of their foals could easily subdue him.

However they were still naïve and for the moment only unicorns seemed to be able to use magic on a way that actually harmed him and from what he saw he thought unicorns were at least in this settlement the smallest group of the three types he had seen so far. 

He needed an assistant one that these ponies trusted enough to open the gates to get the carriage out, but he was certain of it that he didn’t have enough currency with him to bribe a man of such position. No, he would be forced to fall back on more drastic measures, but first he needed to find out who was high enough up in the ranks to open the gates.

He let one more glance fall upon the gems before returning to the alley now he had found his objectives; he could continue with the second part of his plan namely moving them out of the city, but for now he would need to stick back to the shadows.

****
Karl stood atop of a roof lurking at a small pony family consisting out of an adult female and male pegasi and a small pegasi child. He had followed the male home after he found out he was one of the lower officers of this town. 

Karl’s plan was simple; first he would convince the male that he held the two other ponies as hostages than he would use the male to convince some guards that the gem transport was moved to another location outside the city and finally he would lead both the ponies and the gems straight in Diamond dog claws.

This plan was not allowed to fail for it was the only chance he had to deliver both workers and gems to the Diamond dogs. He saw the male hug his family before disappearing out of his line of sight, after a few minutes the stallion reappeared outside and after locking the door flew away.

Karl immediately started searching for the little foal, he thought pony children were called regardless he made his way over to the foal’s room. He saw the foal playing with a doll so he assumed it was a girl. He heard some noise and the filly that was the correct term for a female foal if he remembered correctly exited the room.

Good, now he could gather some fake evidence of a kidnapping or should he say foalnapping. Karl opened the window, but found out he was unable to get far in the room due to his frame. “Goddamnit!” he cursed silently.

“Alright what to use as fake evidence?” He looked around and found that the bow the filly had been wearing in her hair was on top of a desk close to the window. ‘Perfect!’ Karl thought happily as he took it together with a doll before quickly getting away.

“Now for the mare.” Karl made his way over to another window where he saw the female pegasi cleaning the dishes and the necklace she wore was laying on top of a small table. “That will do!” He mumbled under his breath. He noticed the house had a balcony of which the door stood on a split.

Careful to not make any noise he made his way over to the balcony and opened the glass door to allow himself entrance. He felt the pleasant warmth of the room surround him as he entered and the smell of what smelled like strawberry pie!!! Goddamnit that smelled so damn good!

Karl could, however not risk losing his focus if they discovered him a real hostage situation would probably be necessary. He quickly took the necklace(how ponies could even use them was beyond him.) and exited the house.

He found the stallion hovering through one of the streets seeing as it was evening already most ponies stayed at home. Karl threw a small rock in the alley he stood in order to get the stallion’s attention which succeeded as the stallion immediately looked at the alley.

“Who goes there?” a small, but very uncomfortable pause followed as the stallion awaited his answer.

“Who indeed? I don’t know the answer on that question myself entirely a lot of stuff happened on such short notice, so let us skip the questions and answers and get straight to the deal making.”

“Deal making.” The stallion snorted. “I don’t make deals with people that hide in the shadows most of the times those deals involve illegal stuff and I am a stallion of justice!”

Karl snorted at that last part “stallion of justice. I need to remember that one.” He mumbled under his breath. “Well stallion of justice I believe we are going to make splendid partners in crime.”

“Are you stupid? I just said I don’t make deals with your kind!”

“And what kind would that be?” Karl asked amused as he was certain of it that the stallion would never have expected something like him when he would step out of the shadows.

“The kind that feeds itself from hardworking ponies.” The stallion snapped.

Oh, the poor stallion had no clue how literally Karl could make that statement should situations force him to commit such act and that was exactly what he was going to use to his advantage. “You’re not a good negotiator are you? Shooting off a deal before even knowing what the deal is.”

“I want nothing to do with your kind their deals!” The stallion prepared to fly away, but immediately halted when he heard the next sentence.

“What a shame! And here I thought you would be able to see your wife and daughter again.”

That was too much for the stallion to handle assuming it was just another lowly thug of the city, he flew straight in the alley preparing to beat the one who dared to threaten his family up. You can imagine his surprise when suddenly instead of meeting a pony body, he saw a huge claw grab him.

The stallion desperately tried to get free from Karl’s grasp but the pegasi was no match for the power of Karl’s right claw. The stallion tried to fly, but found his wings were unresponsive. To say he was in panic was a true understatement, whatever creature was holding him captive had no hold on his wings so he wondered if the creature had done something else to him other than holding him.

Meanwhile Karl was observing his catch. The stallion wore just like the others a golden armor, but his coat was dark blue combined with a purple mane. The stallion was sputtering, but what he found strange was that his right claw started feeling warm, not the unpleasant heat from before, but definitely not he kind of heat you get from picking something furry up.

If he needed to explain how it felt one of the best descriptions would be that it felt like someone injected some kind of warm liquid in his bloodstream not necessarily unpleasant just strange. What also surprised him was that the stallion used all his limbs except his wings who just hung there like he could not even move them anymore.

“Somepony help me! guards!” the stallion was quickly silenced by Karl who started increasing pressure on the pony’s throat. Karl put his left hand in front of his mouth to signal the stallion to be quite who immediately went silent. 

“Now remember this pal. I still got your wife and daughter, perhaps that’s information useful to remember before you do something rash don’t you think?”

“Where are they?!” He hissed only earning a smirk from Karl who dropped the stallion causing him to fall on his rump.

“Good now I got your full attention still feeling the same about my deal?”

“I want to see them!”

“I want a burn free face, but I am not getting that anytime soon am I? So listen to my deal and your family will be safe!”

The stallion wanted to retort, but was at a loss of words. “Fine what do you want?”

“Now you’re getting to the important part! Tell me what do you know off a gem transport that got attacked by Diamond dogs not so long ago?”

“Transport 64? It got attacked, but we managed to repel the attack because we got alerted by an anonymous source about the ambush, it belongs to a local noble sir Rich Perfume.” The stallion stopped with his explanation as he heard the creature chuckle.

“Is there something funny?”

“No, no continue.” Karl said as he motioned the stallion to continue whilst trying to stop chuckling. The stallion clearly had no clue how ridiculous that name sounded to Karl and he wasn’t about to explain it either who knows perhaps the stallion had such kind of name as well.

“Very well then, I don’t know why he needed so many gems, but they are currently stored in the storage of the local blacksmith and are scheduled to be moved to Clappington tonight where it will be put on a boat, however I don’t know to where.”

Karl had to stop his jaws from falling open when he heard that the gems got transported tonight. “Tonight? From where the hurry?!”
“We received another anonymous tip saying an unknown enemy would attempt to hijack the transport on it’s road to Clappington so we decided to get the gems out earlier than planned.”

“You ponies sure as hell got a few useful tips, now I am not a specialist, but tell me is it normal that not one, but two ambushes get ratted out on such short notice of each other and the one giving the tips isn’t even asking a reward which would have easily been given for information of this quality?”

He saw he had made some valid points as the stallion’s mouth dropped a bit and he remained silent. “Let’s not think too much about that. We have our own heist to plan!”

“Our heist?” The stallion asked stuttering slightly.

“Of course you want your family back and I want those gems so in order for you to get what you want. You need to help me get what I want and in exchange I give to you what you want that’s how a deal works.”

“What do I need to do?” The stallion asked defeated while watching at the ground.

“Follow me and I will explain.” Karl said before turning around and walking further in the alley reluctantly followed by the stallion.

The two looked at the blacksmith seeing some ponies load the gems in an armored carriage which was surrounded by guards. “So what’s your plan boss?” the stallion who was called Night Shield asked on one of the most sarcastic ways Karl had ever heard, but he decided to just ignore his tone.

“To put it simple we take down one of those guards and you take his place then you create some kind of distraction which allows me to slip on board and after that well you know the drill get out of the city and give them this.” Karl said before handing Night a piece of paper.

“What’s this?”

“The transport’s new path! Switch it with the original after we are out of the city most of your job is done and I will reveal the location of your family to you. Got it?” Night nodded in response.

“Good the transport leader will arrive in about an hour. Following my information he is a pegasi meaning I can’t get to him so either you trick him to come to me or you deal with him personally. I don’t care which option you choose as long as we get you in commander Righteous flight’s place.”

“Righteous Flight suffered an accident yesterday so he can’t be the transport commander.”

The moment Night said those words time seemed to stop. ‘A different commander they have a different commander!’

“Who?”

“From what I know he is replaced by commander Hoovington, but he’s a unicorn there’s no way I can convince them I am him. He’s a unicorn and I am a pegasi next to that he got a white coat and a brown mane and tail where I have a dark blue coat and a purple mane and tail.” 

The reaction Night had thought he would get never came instead of becoming mad or admitting defeat the creature almost looked determined. “A unicorn can’t fly meaning I can deal with him on the ground. I will worry about your physical appearance after we get him.” 

Karl immediately took off in the direction he knew the unicorn would come from using the rooftops to spy on the streets. Fate showed him some mercy once more as it didn’t take him long to find the lone unicorn wandering through the streets.

Karl just attacked the first chance he got and knocked the unsuspecting unicorn unconscious, scooped him up in his arms and charged straight through the doors of what looked like a costume store closely followed by Night.

“You didn’t kill him right?!” Night asked extremely worried that the unicorn might be death through the blow the creature had given him.

“No worries he’s just unconscious now undress.”

“What?!” Night was taken aback by the strange request.

“You heard me undress yourself. I am going to give you a makeover.” Night saw him dump Hoovington on a few cushions that were spread out on the floor and head to some cans with oh no…

A little while later Night stood back dressed in Hoovington’s armor which covered his wings. His coat had been painted white, his mane and tail brown and like that wasn’t enough humiliation the creature had found a fake horn which he had attached to Night’s head with some special glue.

“ha I should go into the disguise business Night! You look perfectly on Hoovington there’s no one that will see the difference!” Karl said while chuckling slightly.

“You mean until they find out I can’t do any magic!”

“Don’t be like that most of the times commanders don’t do anything else than sit on their buts until the trip has ended or they need to take action. Now come on it’s time to show off your new look to your colleagues! Let us hope they don’t see through it otherwise we could be in big trouble.

Night blushed from embarrassment at the thought of his friends and colleagues seeing him like this. “Don’t be like that Night! Be happy you don’t need to dress as a mare.” This only earned him some mumbling from said stallion.

Half an hour later Karl was happy that his plan was finally going like he had planned so far Night had successfully infiltrated the escort and had managed to switch the map containing the transport’s route all that remained was getting Karl unnoticed on the transport and getting the transport to the given location.

“Damn look at that rump!”

“I need to try this with my wife!”

That was Karl’s cue to make a run to the carriage. Karl had gotten his hands on some play mares which were basically the pony their equivalent to his world play boy magazine and had ordered Night to distribute them amongst the guards as distraction.

Karl quickly climbed inside an empty box which Night quickly marked as full. It took another ten minutes to load the remainder of the cart. After five more minutes he finally felt the cart starting to move.

“You okay in there?” He heard Night whisper.

“Yeah, just keep me updated on the route from time to time and stick close in case I need you.”

“Okay.” It took all of Karl’s willpower to not just fall asleep, but he knew they arrived at the location when he heard the ponies yell Diamond dogs combined with the sound of fighting. Karl kicked the box open and looked straight in the face of Night Shield.

“What the buck! We didn’t arrive at the ambush site yet following the map.”

“I know. I didn’t make that map completely accurate in case another anonymous tip found his way to the guards. I suggest you beat him if you don’t want to go with the Diamond dogs.”

“Not so fast! What about my wife and daughter!” Night demanded.

“Oh yeah about them you see, I did not really kidnap them. I just stole their possessions to make you believe I did so they’re probably home or doing whatever they do at this hour.”

The words hit Night hard. He had been tricked by this abomination. He had made him betray his country and his beliefs for a lie! Don’t mistake him he was glad his family had never been in danger, but getting tricked like this still was a big blow to his pride.

Night Shield wanted to hit the abomination that had so shamelessly tricked him to forsake his beliefs when suddenly he felt something attached to his mane, his neck and stuffed in his mouth. “

Their stuff and thanks for the help now I suggest you beat him.”

Night didn’t need to hear that twice immediately he dumped the armor and took flight. Karl looked the ridiculous looking stallion fly away with his dark blue wings, white painted body, brown painted mane and tail combined with the most recent additions a necklace around his neck, a bow in his hair and a doll stuffed in his mouth.

Karl looked at the fighting only to see that the ponies had been overpowered by the Diamond dogs and were already being led into the tunnels.

“You did it! You brought us gems and unicorn workers!” Rover said happily.

“Yes, I did I guess, so we’re good now?”

“Yes, we’re good! You’re true ally of the pack. How can we repay you?”

Karl thought for a bit. “You know since I probably pissed off the ponies in quite a large area would it be alright if I hang around with you guys for a while?”

“No, not at all you helped us, gave us a chance at repaying our debts on time. You’re part of the pack.” Rover replied, Fido and Spot agreed as well and so Karl got his first allies and friends in this new world.

> Planning and Preparing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move.” 
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

 “How could this have happened!!!! This is a disgrace for the monarchy of Equestria!” A light brown unicorn with a blonde mane and tail exclaimed angrily as he slammed his hoof on the table. The noble stallion know as Rich Perfume had just gotten the news that his ENTIRE gem transport had been successfully stolen and together with the escort that had been assigned to guard it, had fallen into Diamond dog claws.

“Please sir. Rich calm down.” The mayor of Hoovetown said as he desperately tried to calm the angry furious noble stallion that had almost literally broke his door down in his rage.

“Calm down?! Calm down!!! I don’t think you understood me mayor. My entire bucking gem transport was stolen and you want me to calm down?!!” sir. Rich exclaimed even louder than before.

Perhaps those hadn’t been the best words the light blue earth pony mayor could have said, but he just wanted the noble to calm down. “I assure you sir. Rich Perfume, the heinous crimes the as of yet unknown creature has committed will not go unpunished. The Diamond dogs have gone too far this time. We are still unsure whether the thief was some kind of mutated Diamond dog or some kind of creature hired by them. However the case may be we are sure of it, they worked together. I assure you that such acts of aggression will not be tolerated: Stealing and destroying private property, burglary, blackmailing a guard and being accessary for the enslavement of a dozen other city guards. The Diamond dogs have gone too far this time, by both working together with a creature that has committed these types of crimes and partaking in the enslavement of guards as well.”

“I am glad to hear that you know what kind of crimes this beast and his Diamond dog allies have committed and realize that these cannot go unpunished, however what are you going to do against it?” Rich demanded.

That was a good question on which the mayor didn’t have a real answer yet. He had only recently heard the news, so he had not been able to call together a meeting with the town council yet to discuss a possible course of action. “We will send a negotiator to the Diamond dogs to hopefully peacefully resolve the situation.

Rich Perfume groaned internally. He knew very well what negotiations with those beasts meant, namely a long time of useless talking that didn’t lead anywhere or worse they would give up his gems as a way to at least free the captive guards. He needed those gems not the stupid bits, which they would pay him as compensation. With the help of his contacts, he could sell those gems for way more than he would legally be compensated.

“Very well I will wait until the next town council meeting, but I demand that the camp commander of camp Hoovetown is present as well, in case the council decides to require military assistance to resolve this matter.”

Now it was the mayor’s turn to groan mentally. He could not deny the request, but he knew what would happen if negotiations would turn out fruitless which they most certainly would. The mayor knew the dogs and he knew they would not go to these lengths if not desperate, besides that commander Courageous Call was known to be way too impulsive when it came down to matters involving the dogs.

“Very well if negotiations turn out to be unsuccessful, we will ask commander Courageous Call for his presence in the next council meeting.”

“I am happy to see that you are taking this matter seriously mayor. I hope that you have more information about how we are going to resolve this problem next Saturday at the town council meeting.” With that said Rich Perfume exited the mayor’s office letting the mayor alone with his thoughts.

Rich Perfume meanwhile was already thinking over how he could convince the commander and his fellow nobles to allow a military attack on the Diamond dog base. Those mongrels would learn that messing with him would not be tolerated and with them whatever beast had chosen to assist them.

****
Things were going good for Karl. It had been four days since he had managed to return to the Diamond dog pack with both gems and workers and he had been having a good time so far. The dogs were quite pleasant in the intercourse he had with them so far.

Karl was busy mining for gems together with two other dogs. He had decided to help the dogs to the best of his abilities, seeing as he had nothing better to do and above that. He was rather enjoying mining with the dogs, at least a lot more than he had thought he would ever do.

A loud howl which signaled the changing of shifts was heard through the mine system and he and his two companions immediately stopped mining. “Great job Karl you are truly getting the hang of it!” His big brown furred muscular pitbull companion who went by the name Drago congratulated him, on his slightly bigger pile of gems in comparison to his former stacks.

“Yeah you’re a quick learner! You managed to get a sizeable amount of gems already and you have only been doing this for three days! You sure you never did any mining before in your life?” A smaller brown pitbull who listened to the name Ron added.

“I never mined in my entire life before. I swear it.”

“Oh well, you are a natural in that case.” Ron replied.

Karl had become good friends with the three pack leaders and had also improved his relationships with the other pack members. The dogs seemed to respect him after he had returned. Rover had said that by the great service he had done for them, the dogs had come to see him as a hero. The fact he was actively helping the dogs mining to get the required amount for gems of course only gave him more brownie points for his cause. “I just try to mine to the best of abilities, but I would never had gotten so good if not for guys your help.”

Before the others could reply another dog stormed in. “The boss wants to speak to you! Follow me it is urgent!”

Karl immediately ran after the startled dog following him to a tunnel which Karl remembered lead to the surface at the bottom he saw Rover, Fido and Spot already waiting for him. “What’s going on?” Karl asked confused.

“Ponies require an audience with us about our recent ‘recruitment’ of their guards.” Spot explained emphasizing the word recruitment.

“Annoying, but nothing we weren’t expecting to happen.” Fido added.

“Why exactly do you guys need me for this?”

“They also required an audience with you.” Rover explained.

Karl nodded that he understood before looking at the end of the tunnel where sunlight was visible. He averted his glance back to the three pack leaders ad said. “Well let’s not keep them waiting for too long.”

Rover nodded and started marching to the surface followed by Spot, Fido and finally Karl. The four arrived at the entrance on the bottom of a hill and looked at the sole white coated pegasi with a light blue mane that was patiently, but slightly nervously awaiting the four on top of some boulders, as a way to prevent the dogs from mining underneath him and pulling him in their cave system.

When the four where 18 feet from the pegasi they stopped and awaited the pegasi to speak. “Greetings leaders of the pack and Outsider.” This made Karl higher his right eyebrow in confusion and amusement. ‘So they call me the outsider huh, how terribly fitting.’ Karl thought amused.

“We know about your recent enslavement of a dozen city guards from our fair city of Hoovetown and also about your alliance with him.” The pegasi gestured towards Karl. “You most likely know already that your friend has blackmailed a guard into aiding him execute his heinous crimes against our fair city. These crimes also involve stealing and destroying private property, burglary and being accessary in the enslavement of a dozen guards.

“Yes he has told us some amusing stories, containing how he managed to trick your guards. What is it that you want?” Rover asked on rather diplomatic tone.

The pony raised an eyebrow in annoyance. “Isn’t it clear? The leaders of our fair town demand that you release all of the ponies you hold captive, give back the gems you stole and pay for all the damage you caused our fair town. If these demands are met, than our fair town will not legally persecute you, your pack and whatever he is.”

“Let me think about that.” Rover said as he faked thinking it deeply through. “Oh, I got it how about no! I mean seriously what did you ponies expect? That we dogs would go through all that trouble just to return everything three days later?”

The pegasi was shocked to say the least. Didn’t this dog knew the Equestrian military was in the area and that his superiors would require assistance from the military to resolve this situation if needed. “You do realize that we will ask the military for help if you do not accept these terms.”

“Let them come if they want, but we need those gems and workers for a while.” Rover said confidently, although mentally he prayed they wouldn’t ask the military for help, until he at least had enough gems to pay back his pack’s debt.

“You are making a mistake Diamond dog. Our fair town has put up with you and your pack for long enough! We will see to it that justice will get served!” The pegasi angrily threatened before flying back towards the city.

When the pegasi was no more than a dot in the sky Karl said what everyone thought. “They are so going to call their military on our asses.” His companions could only mumble in agreement. 

“We will need a battle strategy!” Fido said as he clapped his fist together to empathize his point.

“You know if you guys would like it, I can work out the battle strategy whilst you guys oversee the mining.” Karl proposed.

“That’s actually a good idea. You have proven to have a certain amount of cunningness in that head of yours.” Rover ticked against his head as he said that. “Do you have any previous experience in making battle strategies?”

“No, but I am familiar with strategies and tactics.”

“Hmpf, You and I work on the battle strategy and Fido and Spot will oversee the mining, but I do warn you! We are Diamond dogs and whilst I don’t know how your kind fights wars, we make our enemies bleed and weep before letting them meet their demise. So if you are like buffalo’s and the ponies from Appleloosa fighting your wars with pies than you better rethink your decision.”

When Rover said fighting your wars with pies, Karl immediately thought he meant spies instead of pies. “Uhm Rover you said pies, don’t you mean spies?”

“I know! I had a hard time believing it as well, when I heard that the ponies of Appleloosa fought against the buffalo tribe using pies!!! I mean seriously pies?!”

“And how exactly did that end?” Karl asked as he made images of the US army fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan by throwing pies at them and vice versa.

“Turns out the buffalo’s enjoyed the pie and in exchange for free pies and the settlers not planting apple trees on their stampede path, they were allowed to plant apple trees upon buffalo land.”

“uhuh, and uh was it apple pie by coincidence?” Karl asked awkwardly at the uh strange way of warfare.

“Yeah.” Rover replied feeling that the situation was quite awkward

Well, uh who would have guessed apple pies were such effective weapons.”

“Yeah, just so you know that well uh don’t bring pies to the battlefield.”

“I wasn’t planning to, you know we humans also prefer to make our enemies uh bleed and weep, instead of serving them apple pie.”

“Good that we agree upon that, now come on we have a battle strategy to prepare!” Rover said breaking the awkward silence, before going back to the tunnels closely followed by Karl. Who kept on picturing human soldiers fighting each other with pies instead of well uh more generally used weaponry so to say.

“Okay, what’s the current situation?” Karl asked.

Rover unrolled map and placed various icons on top of it which made it look like a map in a real war room.  “Okay, this here is pony camp.” Rover placed a small fortress on a spot on the map.

“We estimate they have about 205 active soldiers and Hoovetown has about 60 guards now I doubt the city guards will be involved in the battle, but still it is better that we keep their numbers in mind.”

Karl nodded in response as that did make sense. “They have about 128 earth ponies, 64 pegasi and 13 unicorn soldiers in their ranks.” As Rover said this he put icons on the map each resembling a platoon or a company of race. To Karl’s surprise the equines used almost the same formation and unit types as humans did.

“So they have two platoons of earth ponies or one company, one platoon of pegasi and one squad of unicorns at their disposal.” Karl stated.

“Yes, for military only! Should they use the city guards they can get 45 more earth ponies, 15 pegasi and 4 unicorns. I doubt they will use them, but perhaps if we somehow fight well, they can deploy them as reinforcements.” Rover said.

“Good now we know the enemy’s troop strength what do you guys have available?”

“We leave females and pups out of battle so we have about 120 capable males.” Rover said.

“How many capable males have actually been trained in battle or have seen battle?”

“All everyone even the females have fought before in battle. We had tough lives after being forced from our previous den. We were forced to go through the everfree and let me tell you underground it’s not much safer perhaps even worse. We lost many females so the few we have left are guarded carefully.” Rover said as he got angrier when the memories flowed back to him from not so terribly long ago.

Karl nodded that he understood. Females were not allowed to battle simply because they couldn’t risk losing any more of them lest the pack faced extinction. “What about the ponies did they see much action?”

“No, a few small skirmishes with us as we tried to establish our new mine, but not many and if my information is correct that’s all the action they have seen in their years of service.”

That was good to hear. The ponies had superior numbers, but the dogs had more experience of course the ponies did have some magic wielders and an air force so that was bad. “How many archers do you have?”

“We have no professional archers, but about ten dogs know how to use a bow for hunting.”

Well that threw his first plan out of the window. Ten archers not even professional was by far not enough to suppress an air force of 64 pegasi.

“Are you able to equip your dogs well?”

“Yes, what is your plan? I see in your eyes that your mind is brewing some kind of plan.”

“Are you and your dogs prepared to fight dirty?” Karl asked as he looked Rover straight in the eyes. A sinister smile crept on Rover’s face in response and he replied.

“We love playing dirty.”

“Alright then in that case this is my plan.” Karl started moving the figures on the map and said. “Way I see it our enemy’s advantages are that they outnumber us almost 2 to 1, they have a few magic users, they possess an air force, and got a decent training.

Our advantages are that our troops have more experience, qua body build are superior to theirs and our troops are very good diggers.” Rover nodded that all the points Karl had stated were correct.

“If we fight them fair and square, we will lose, however they are naïve and will not expect dirty tricks that we can pull on them. My plan is that instead of fighting them above ground, we fight them in the tunnels.” After he had said this, Rover got a look of confusion.

“How do you plan on getting them into the tunnels?”

“We lure them to this area.” Karl pointed at an open plain between two hills. “We undermine this area and when they are above it we divide and conquer. Make gaps in their lines by pulling soldiers underground.”

“How do we lure them to the plain?”

“We build fortifications here to protect the garrison from the pegasi and use it as a position to take their main force under fire. However for this plan to work we will need some long range artillery and we will need to get rid of those unicorns in advance.

“How do you plan to keep the ponies in the ambush area for a longer duration of time for they could just run off to other areas?”

“I have noticed that this hill is quite style. The other hill however will be the fun part. We will need to get our hands on quite a lot of oil.”

“We have lots of oil don’t worry about that.”

“Good could you make sure that this hill has some bunkers in it like this.” Karl proceeded to draw some symbols that symbolized the bunkers, the fortifications and the traps he wanted.

“I will get the men on it instantly, gems can wait this is much more important!” And so the Diamond dogs started constructing everything for Karl’s battle strategy.

****
The mayor of Hoovetown who went by the name of Document Paper was busy with his paper work, more specifically the paperwork involving all the havoc that the creature nicknamed the Outsider had caused. The poor mayor had the bad luck that the gem transport belonged to an extremely stuck up and powerful noble, who was putting some real pressure on him. Like that wasn’t bad enough almost halve of the kidnapped guards belonged to a noble house so those nobles were also pressuring him to get this situation quickly resolved.

Don’t take it the wrong way the mayor wanted to resolve this situation, but he wanted to do it peacefully and the nobles well not so much. He was interrupted from his work by a knock on the door. “Enter!”

A yellow female earth pony with a brown mane and tail and a quill with a star as cutie mark entered. Her mane hung down so it covered her left eye (like Rarity’s mane). “Document the negotiator send to the Diamond dogs has returned, may he enter?”

“Yes, see him in.” almost immediately the pegasi negotiator walked in. “How did it go?”

“The Diamond dogs refuse to meet any of the given demands, even when I mentioned a possible military operation against them.”

The mayor put his head in his hooves. “If only they realize how real that military intervention threat could become. The town council meeting is today and with this result I fear for the end of it. “Thank you for your effort, I will tell the council of the situation.”  The pegasi nodded and exited the room leaving the mayor alone.

The situation did not look good for Document, if his best negotiator failed into coming to an agreement, however unbeknown to Document Paper his best negotiator had been bribed by Rich Perfume to make the negotiations fail.

The time had come about three hours later for the meeting to begin. The nobles and the mayor’s helpers entered the room and took their respective spot as last one to enter was commander Courageous Call.

The commander was dressed in a wildly adorned golden armor. The mayor didn’t like the commander at all, he was an excellent example for a stuck up noble. The stallion acted like he had solely won a war in reality the guy hadn’t commanded a single battle yet. The few skirmishes against the dogs that had happened in the past had always been against small group of soldiers whilst he was in the camp.

Perhaps that’s why the stallion wanted a reason to battle against the dogs so badly, as a way to have a real achievement to show off instead of always taking credits for his subordinates minor victories. “Mayor, could you enlighten us on how the negotiations have gone?” Rich Perfume asked or rather demanded.

“It is unfortunate that I need to tell everypony present that the dogs refuse to meet any demands we have given them.” The nobles immediately started yelling.

“How dare those muts!”

“Do they think we will stand for this?!”

“Send the army at them that will teach them!”

“Drive them from our lands! They don’t belong here!”

The mayor tried to calm down everypony when suddenly a loud voice broke through the turmoil. “Silence!!!” No pony said a word as they saw commander Courageous Call had spoken up. The commander was a white unicorn with a blonde mane and tail with as cutie mark a horn and a shield. “Now I heard that you have some problems and I also heard that the Diamond dogs hired some kind of abomination to assist them. As you probably know I am responsible for keeping the ponies out of harm, from both creatures from the Everfree and from those with hostile intentions to our kind in these areas.”

The nobles looked with great interest at the commander. “The Diamond dogs have gone too far this time and need to be taught a lesson. The lesson being that we Equestrians will not accept them stealing from us our enslaving us in their mines!” This earned him applause from the nobles.

After it calmed down he continued. “We the army shall not stand idle as the citizens of our good nation are enslaved and robbed from their rightful rights and property. I shall personally lead a liberation action against the dogs and if they refuse to bow, to my great displeasure we will need to make them leave. We cannot allow those with such intentions to live close to our citizens!”

This was met with cheering from most ponies in the room except for the mayor and his secretary by the name Star quill. “I doubt this will end well, whoever will be the victor.” Document whispered sadly in her ear.

“I fear that as well.” Star replied sadly. Whilst the nobles cheered for the commander, a decent distance away in the nearby hills the dogs were working on their battle plan.

****
Karl was overseeing the construction of the bunkers, the fortifications and the traps that the dogs were building for his plan. Torches were lighting up the entire area. “How is the construction going?” Karl asked Rover.

“Most things should be finished by tomorrow if everyone keeps working hard at least above ground, the underground constructions should be completed by tomorrow evening, if we put everyone on the job.”

“That’s good! They are probably going to start planning their attack strategy very soon.”

“You still haven’t told me, how you want to deal with the unicorns.”

“Yes, we cannot allow those unicorns to ruin our plan with their magic so we will need to deal with them in advance.” As Karl said this he lifted his right claw showing the long sharp claws it possessed.

Rover smirked. “I think I know a way to do so! Follow me.” Karl silently followed Rover deep in the tunnels and after quite a long walk, further than he ever had gone in the tunnels. Suddenly he saw a group of heavily armored dogs. “We are right underneath the pony camp. This is the best time to deal with them, as their commander is away and he probably hasn’t given the order yet that we are now officially the enemy.” Rover explained.

“How are we supposed to kill those unicorns before the other soldiers come to their aid?”

“All races have different living areas this one is from the unicorns.  Can you use a spear?”

“Yes, I used a spear to hunt a lot and why exactly didn’t you just dig a tunnel underneath the city to get those gems?”

“City has a detection spell around it, if we dig underneath then the guard knows where we are. This camp doesn’t have that, although after tonight they are going to wish they had!” Rover said as he handed Karl a spear and some armor made specifically for his body.

Karl had put the armor on with some help from the dogs. It wasn’t the most beautiful of armors. It looked at those the dogs wore and covered only his torso and head, but it was definitely maneuverable and wasn’t that heavy.

“Good now we are ready for some fighting. Drop them!” Rover commanded. Immediately the dogs destroyed the support beams and seconds later the entire interior of the barrack above them fell in the underground area. The dogs and Karl started searching for unicorns in between the rubble and quickly put an end to them when they found one. The first seven went down without a fight, however by the time Rover used his spear to kill the seventh the remaining unicorns had recovered and started fighting back.

The unicorns started shooing fire balls, freeze spells, telekinesis to throw debris at the dogs or keep them locked in place. One unicorn prepared to throw a big rock at Rover, but never managed to even get the rock above his head as a big claw broke his neck. The rock dropped again and Karl stood over the dead unicorn. He would not allow any unicorn to use his magic too long in his presence.

He used his powerful legs to jump on top of another unicorn and this time killed him using his teeth. The taste of warm blood and soft meat was delicious for Karl. Because of the brutality he used to kill the two unicorns their surviving colleagues lost their concentration for a moment allowing the other dogs to put an end to their lives as well. Karl quickly counted the unicorns and to his relief counted thirteen bodies meaning that unless they brought the city guard in the mix they had no battle ready unicorns anymore. 

He heard the sound of hooves coming their way and quickly the dogs and he retreated back into the tunnels. The dogs blocked off the tunnels with great precision and speed. “A master attack, if I ever saw one.” Karl complimented Rover when they were out of danger.

“I thought I would solve one of our problems seeing as how you solved so many of ours already.”

“They are going to be pissed off and scared out of their wits.” Karl stated

“Good, anger and fear both cloud their judgment. Let them come! We will show them that if they mess with the Diamond dogs, they will get the fangs!” Rover stated determined as he clapped his fist together.

> The Battle for the Hoovetown Hills
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ten soldiers wisely led will beat a hundred without a head. - Euripides 

Commander Courageous Call was sitting in his chariot, as he traveled back to camp Hoovetown satisfied with the result of the evening. The plan had gone perfect. He had convinced the local nobles to support him and with them on his side, there was no one standing in between him, the dogs and whatever abomination had decided to assist them.

His evening was just perfect! He would go to sleep in his comfortable bed and tomorrow he would start planning his attack and hopefully the day after tomorrow he could start with the attack. It would be an easy victory, of that Courageous Call was certain the dogs were not very bright and heavily outnumbered as well.

He was interrupted from his thoughts as he heard a lot of noise from the normally quite military camp. Needless to say he was curious as to what was happening so he peeked out of the window of the carriage and saw a lot of his man standing at the unicorn barracks. “This better not be another disagreement about who gets the better barracks!”

Unicorns were most of the time given more comfortable chambers as most of the unicorns in the military were family of a noble somewhere. This of course brought irritation to the other races, not that he cared, as a proud unicorn he himself agreed that unicorns should be given the most comfortable living quarters possible.

He would resolve this situation immediately. Courageous stepped out of his carriage and walked over to the mob. “What is going on here?” He demanded.

“We got attacked sir. by the Diamond dogs and they managed to kill all the unicorns of the camp sir.” An earth pony soldier quickly explained the situation making the commander pale slightly.

“All of them?” He stuttered. “How did this happen? How did they enter the camp?” the commander almost yelled in rage.

“They dug a tunnel underneath the barrack and made it collapse, after that they killed them off down in the tunnels.” The soldier explained whilst stuttering getting unnerved from how angry his commander was.

“Motherbuckers!!! They will pay for this! Are there any wounded?”

“No! sir. There isn’t a single wounded or death besides the unicorn squad.” Courageous Call stormed off angrily before anymore words could be said. He would make those dogs pay for this!

The next day the commander had called together his lower officers. “Like you all by now probably already know, we are officially at war with the local Diamond dog pack. Their low hearted murder of the unicorn squad was the first strike of them to no doubt cripple our force. We will show them that even without magic the Equestrian military shall be victorious over those with ill intentions to our citizens!” This earned him some cheers from the other officers.

“The Diamond dogs have allied themselves with some kind of abomination, a heinous beast of which our sources believe comes out of the deepest and darkest depths of the Everfree! Some mumbles and whispers broke lose under the officers not liking the thought of fighting something from the Everfree, something intelligent.

“This beast has been codenamed the Outsider, not much is known about this beast and he doesn’t matter either for all we know he is simply some kind of mutated Diamond dog from the Everfree who came his brethren to assistance in their well I am just going to say it, in their revolt against the monarchy of Equestria!” After he had said this his officers broke out in a full scale argument with each other.

“How dare they! We allow them on our land and now they simply want to take it away from!”

“We will learn those muts to not mess with Equestria!”

“I want to see how big that beast balls are when facing our troops!”

“Yeah, throw them into the dungeons, that will teach them!”

Courageous Call grinned inwardly as he saw his lies about a full scale revolt did exactly what he wanted them to do. With his officers now completely on his side, there was no way someone could block an attack from him on the dogs anymore.

****
The Diamond dogs were working hard to bring everything in place for the upcoming battle. Karl had shown them how to make some long range slingshots, well long range for a slingshot in any case. The dogs had also finished the bunkers, the fortifications and the traps already so now they were busy with shooting practice and combat training.

The slingshots had not really as meaning really accurately hitting the enemy, although that would be a plus. The only thing the big slingshots needed to do was attract the enemy’s attention and lure them to the open plain. His plan was simple the slingshots would attract them and in the event that the ponies refused to advance out of fear the dogs would fake being out of ammo or something along those lines.

Unfortunately Karl had not really found a way to get rid of the pegasi, but he guessed if he defeated the earth ponies than most of the force the ponies had in the area would be gone anyway and he would find a way to deal with those pegasi on another occasion, should they escape which they probably would.

“Is everything ready?” He heard Fido ask from behind him.

“Yes, I have planned everything as well as I could, now it is waiting for the enemy to come.”

“Good, you know we appreciate what you are doing for us right?”

Karl smiled a bit. “Yes, I know. Do you guys know I appreciate what you are doing for me as well?”

Fido raised a brow. “What exactly did we do for you?”

“Giving me a temporarily home.”

“It’s the least we can do for someone who helped us out so much.” 

“I don’t know how this battle will end Fido, but know that this was one hell of a trip for me.” Fido merely nodded. He did not know what had happened to the human before he walked out of the Everfree, but he knew it had not been good and truth be told that was all he wanted to know.

“I know we have already asked a lot of you, but would you want to fight together with us? It would help inspire the men seeing you with them. It has been a long time ago since the Diamond dogs have had someone in their ranks who managed to pull things off against the ponies like you.”

“I haven’t done that much. I have merely stolen some gems and kidnapped some guards.” Karl said dismissingly not finding it huge accomplishments. Don’t mistake him he did not think it where easy ones, but he did not believe it were achievements that really gave that much of a moral boost.

“Don’t underestimate them my friend! For those who have been drilled as deep as us in society, those small achievements do mean something.” Those words stirred something inside Karl; an understanding, a respect or something else he did not know, but those words made it clear to him and perhaps they were the foundation of a bigger idea, one that he had yet to think of.

“I will remember those words Fido. Thank you for making things a little more clear.” Karl said truly grateful. Fido gave him a small smile and said.

“See you tomorrow then.”

“Yes, expect me on the battlefield tomorrow.” Karl said as he gave one last glace at the field before returning to his chambers.

****
The morning had finally arrived for Courageous Call. The day had come on which he would claim the absolute victory over the dogs. He would drive them out of the area and become the local hero and perhaps his achievement would even earn him a promotion.

He looked around and saw that his officers had already brought the troops in position to start the march to the hills, where the dogs resided. Before the march would begin, he would give a final speech to inspire the men. Courageous walked on a small stage where he began his speech.

“Soldiers of Equestria today we are going to battle against the local Diamond dog pack, not only to free our fellow ponies, but also to drive the brutes out of the area once and for all, so our citizens will never have to fear for them again!!!” This was met by loud cheering from the pony soldiers.

“You have probably already heard that the dogs in their desperation called upon a fiend from the Everfree!” This made the ponies fall back into silence not liking the thought of going up against something from the Everfree.

“This beast has stolen and destroyed private property, blackmailed a guard into thinking he had his family captive, assisted in the enslavement of a dozen city guards and has assisted in the murder of your colleagues a few night ago! This cannot go unpunished! We will hunt this beast down and bring it to justice for all of the heinous crimes it has committed! Are you with me?!”

“Yes, sir!” All the soldiers yelled.

“Then let us not make our enemies wait. March!” Courageous Call exclaimed and immediately the ponies started moving towards the gates in formation marching straight at the dogs.

****
In the nearby hills the Diamond dogs were treated on a speech of their own as well and somehow they had managed to talk Karl into giving it. The Diamond dogs were rallied on the hill that served as command post for the battle.

Karl stood slightly higher than the rest so everyone was able to get a good look at him. “My friends! The moment we all loath has finally arrived the ponies are on their ways to dispossess you from your newly gained land and most likely to arrest me as well.” The dogs began to shout curses and imprecations towards the ponies.

“They come here with the expectations to find a weak horde of stupid mongrels which they can easily drive out!" The dogs stayed quiet.

“But that’s not what they are going to find is it? You know what I see in front of me?! I see a proud people willing to defend their new land with everything they have! I see a people that have been wronged in the past and that rightfully refuse to be wronged again!” The dogs broke out in a loud applause.

Karl waited a bit until the applause died down a bit. “We have all been wronged you and I. Look around you, go ahead look around.” The dogs did as ordered and after a few seconds Karl started speaking again. “No matter at who you look everyone you see has been wronged by the ponies, so when you face them when they arrive do not even think about retreating! Don’t even think about giving up and surrendering! Believe me when I say it is ten times better to die with pride, than to live with shame! The dogs howled and cheered in agreement.

“I cannot promise you victory, I cannot promise you a happy ending. Even with victory I doubt there will be a happy ending. I however can promise you that we will not go down without bringing hell to our enemies!” The dogs now went completely wild cheering Karl’s name, howling, using their weapons to make a melody of clings and clangs.

“For the pack, for freedom and for equality! Take your positions and prepare yourself for the fight of your lives!” The dogs let out a massive final wave of cheers and accolades for Karl, before the dogs scurried off to take their respective positions. The only ones who stayed behind were the three Diamond dog leaders.

“And you said you sucked at giving speeches.” Rover said amused. Karl rolled his eyes at the comment.

“Okay perhaps I don’t completely suck at giving them, but that doesn’t mean I like giving them.” Karl said trying to put as much dignity he could muster in his voice.

“Whatever, let us get in position.” Rover stated clearly seeing that the human or former human (that was still confusing him) had enjoyed giving the speech at least a bit. And so the four went to their respective positions.


Battle for the Hoovetown hills (1002 A.NM.):


Belligerents:

-Monarchy of Equestria                                                                  -Hoovetown Diamond dog pack

Commanders and leaders:

-Courageous Call                                                                           -The outsider A.K.A. Karl Kempf
-Swift Flight                                                                                   -Rover Daltus
                                                                                                       -Fido Bernardus
                                                                                                       -Spot Dogus

Location:

-Hoovetown hills

Strenght:

-128 Earth ponies                                                                          -120 armed workers
-64 Pegasi                                                                                      (including 10 archers and 2 slingshot crews)

The pegasi were the first to arrive on the field of battle almost ten minutes after Karl’s speech. The rest of the army arrived 20 minutes later and formed up a few yards before the hills. Courageous Call scanned the area for the Diamond dog force, but to his annoyance found not a single dog.

“ergh!!! I should have known those mutts would be too cowardly to face us head on!” He cursed out loud. He quickly cast a spell that made his voice audible for the entire battlefield. “Diamond dogs come out you cowards and face the repercussions of the Equestrian people!”

He paused for a few moments to hear if a response came, but when none was heard he continued. “We can do this the easy way or the hard way. Either you surrender yourself to us and leave these grounds forever or we make you move by force. What is your answer?!”
Karl was standing in the bunker containing the two long range slingshots. He did not know how that pony made himself so well audible from such a distance, but he knew one thing the pony wanted an answer and he would get one.

“Give him his answer boys!” Karl said to a slingshot crew who immediately started preparing the weapon. The dogs choice to fire an empty pot. A few moments later Karl could see the pot fly towards the enemy it was by far not close enough to the enemy for them to be alarmed, but that wasn’t the point. The point was making clear, they choice the hard way.

Courageous Call had expected something, but an empty pot he guessed it was landing a few yards in front of them was not the answer he had expected, but it gave him the answer he wanted to know. “Swift Flight!!!” he called his second in command and the platoon leader of the sole Pegasi platoon Courageous Call had under his command.

“You called sir.” A white pegasi said as he saluted before his commander.

“Take your platoon and seek out where that ranged weaponry is hidden and try to take it out and also search for dog troops whilst you are at it.”

“Yes, sir.” Swift Flight said before flying back to his men. “Men! Our mission is to search where their long ranged weaponry is stationed and scout for dog troops. For the princesses!” Swift said before flying to the hills.

“For the princesses!!!” The pegasi yelled before flying after him.

“Reload and hold!” Karl ordered. The dogs started reloading the slingshots keeping them in standby until the order came to release. He saw the pegasi advancing quite swiftly and he guessed they crossed about half of the plain by now.

Swift was scanning the entire area for hidden dog forces in the shadows of the stone formations. “Hold!” Karl repeated as the pegasi were now three quarters across the field.

Swift saw that on the hill across their main force stood a strange looking stone structure and when he looked close it almost looked like it had windows in it. He tried to get a better look at it. The dogs at the slingshots were looking at their commander expectantly as the pegasi were getting closer and closer. “Archers hold ready!”

The archers readied themselves to fire at command. The first pegasi were almost at the hill when Swift managed to see some kind of construction inside the rock formation and his eyes widened in realization at what it was, but it was already too late.

“FIRE!!!!!” A few sounds were heard, but by the time the pegasi registered them it was already too late to react. First came the rocks fired from the slingshots, one pegasi managed to dodge, however by pulling off the manoeuver he flew right in front of Swift’s face. The rock however did not miss as another pegasi was hit by it who fell in his crash on top of another pegasi bringing him down with him as well.

Swift’s eyes widened in horror as an arrow pierced through the pegasi who had suddenly flew in front of him. The force of the impact caused the pegasi to fly against his commander making both of them fall on the ground. Swift was now stuck under his death colleague and to his horror blood started dripping on his stomach. “Get off of me! Get off of me!” Swift desperately tried with all his might to get from underneath the death stallion.

Meanwhile the remaining of his airborne soldiers were still picked off by the arrows and projectiles shot by the slingshots. This was the first battle the ponies had ever seen that had death in it, most of the times the dogs had fled when the unicorns started using their magic.

Karl was surprised to say the least at how effective his strategy was working. The pegasi could easily dodge the arrows and projectiles if they moved further away, however instead of doing that they just kept flying through each other almost guaranteeing a hit each time a projectile was fired.

Then his eyes fell on a pegasi that was stuck underneath a death colleague of his and by the looks of it, he was the one in charge. “You guys on me!” He ordered a group of six Diamond dogs that had been kept as a defending force. Karl opened the bunker so they could exit and once outside he started walking over to the downed stallion, who was still trying to get from underneath his deceased colleague.

It was then that some airborne pegasi started trying to attack Karl and his little group when they noticed him advancing on their downed leader. “Circle formation!” Karl yelled as he and the dogs formed a circle, so that wherever the pegasi tried to attack from they were always met with a spear point.

The stallion had just managed to free himself and rearmed himself with his fallen spar right in time to block a spear point. Swift Flight looked at his attacker and wished he hadn’t, there in front of him stood a creature worthy of nightmares grinning down at him.

The commander hadn’t lied about it being an abomination. Whatever it was it was insanely muscled especially it’s right arm. The arm possessed muscles that made a minotaur’s ones look puny and the sight of the claw attached to it was enough to make Swift want to run away. The claw looked like the smaller version of one a dragon possessed, the left arm whilst less imposing gave off an aura of lethality that made him shiver from fear. The face however was what truly frightened him it’s mouth was filled with teeth that looked like big needles.

The left side of his face was badly burned and probably beyond repair even with help of most healing magic. The eyes however were the scariest with his left eye being more split like. Two green orbs looked Swift in the eyes inside of them Swift saw a fury that he did not even know was capable of existing.

Any further thoughts were quickly silenced as the creature his commander had codenamed “The outsider” used his huge right claw to swing at him. For Swift it was clear that retreat was the only option, however as he tried to take off he could feel the claw make an un deep cut in his left hind leg, to his horror his wings went limp like they were paralyzed.

Swift fell back on the soil underneath him and managed to roll away just in time to dodge a spear that now stuck where his body had laid a couple seconds ago. Swift looked around for help, but saw his men were engaged with the Diamond dog soldiers. Swift jumped on his hooves and tried to run away from whatever demon he was facing.

Karl saw the pegasi run and once again asked himself why they did not seem to be able to use their wings after he had touched them somehow. He could think about that later, but for now. Karl took his spear in his right claw, aimed and threw. The spear hit perfectly as the enemy commander fell down death with a spear through his neck.

Karl looked around and much to his pleasure he saw that his men had managed to kill almost all of the pegasi. The few that managed to escape fled away seemingly deserting as they flew the other way than where the rest of their force was stationed. “Good! On this way I don’t have to worry about dealing with the pegasi on a later occasion anymore!” Karl stated happy for this unexpected course that this battle had taken.

Granted the battle was far from won, but they had taken down the pegasi whilst his plan had not even included a real way of dealing with them. Karl looked back at the rest of pony army which was already almost on the ambush location. Courageous Call who had witnessed the massacre of the pegasi platoon together with the remainder of his men had ordered a full scale attack on what he suspected was the full Diamond dog force.

However in his rage about the death of so many of his men, he had forgotten to take in account that perhaps that wasn’t the full enemy force. Karl waited and waited until the ponies were exactly where he wanted them to be. “NOW!!!” on his command one of his men let out a loud howl that signaled the others to start the ambush.

As the ponies where in a full on charge, the first two lines of earth ponies could not possibly hope to stop in time as the ground suddenly collapsed in front of them. The third line watched in shock as they saw how their comrades from the first two lines fell to their death on the sharp pikes that adorned the bottom of the hidden pitfall.

Some of the soldiers from the third line emptied their stomach in the pit at the sight of the bloodied pikes, their perforated comrades and the guts mixed with blood that lay on the bottom of the pitfall. The last lines tried to retreat only to share the same fate as their comrades from the first two lines as another pitfall this time behind the army was revealed. This effectively trapped the now panicking army on three sides two by pitfalls and one by a style hill.

Courageous Call tried to keep his forces in check, but the sudden change of years that lacked any action into a full scale massacre had installed so much fear that any order was lost. What remained of his army now stampeded off towards the last way out. However the small ditch that had been dug in the hill and that possessed small rock formations that stood into contact with the ditch with some smaller ditches was more than it looked.

In reality the small harmless ditch had been filled with oil when the pitfalls where revealed by dogs in bunkers inside the hill. When the ponies came close to the ditch the dogs lighted the oil effectively locking the ponies on a rectangular piece of ground in between the two hills and the two pitfalls.

To the horror of commander Courageous Call who had lost every command over his in disarray men, various holes from out of no way opened making ponies once again fall to their demise on the sharp pikes that adorned the bottom of each pit. Next to the pitfalls his men also trampled each other in their panic. It all became too much for the commander and he teleported to safety, to the place his army had originally taken up position.

There he broke down into a crying and whimpering mass of flesh as his men were merciless butchered in their rectangular death trap. Meanwhile on the main hill Karl was following everything. He watched the ponies until there were so little left that the dogs hidden in tunnels underneath the death trap came out of hiding and killed those who remained even from where Karl stood he saw the blood on the once green grass in the rectangular space that had become the mass grave of an entire pony garrison. Karl felt no pleasure in their deaths, but neither did he feel any shame for what he had done. He felt relief that everything was over.

Perhaps once he would have felt disgusted with himself, perhaps once had he allowed himself to vomit at the horror sight, but that time was no more. That side of him was death, his new side only cared about survival and revenge against those that wronged him the two winged unicorns would pay!

One side of him found it a shame that the ponies needed to die, but those thoughts were quickly crushed as he reminded himself that there was no way the Diamond dogs could keep so many workers in check. Their death had been a necessary act of defense and he would not allow himself to feel bad about defending himself and those that entrusted their defense on him.


Battle for the Hoovetown hills (1002 A.NM.) Results:


Result:


Decisive Diamond dog victory


Equestrian military superiority around Hoovetown is destroyed


Hoovetown Diamond dog pack managed to keep their independence and land


Territorial changes:

 Local Diamond dog pack managed to keep control over their lands, whilst the Equestrian territories around Hoovetown lay open for attack.

Commanders and leaders:

-Courageous Call                                                                            -The outsider A.K.A. Karl Kempf
-Swift Flight †                                                                                  -Rover Daltus
                                                                                                        -Fido Bernardus
                                                                                                        -Spot Dogus

Casualties and losses:

-128 Earth ponies killed                                                -5 workers wounded
- 54 Pegasi killed
-10 Pegasi missing

When you would have told Karl that these would be the results of the battle of today in advance, he most likely would have called you crazy. Was it wrong that he felt proud of his accomplishments? Man, he didn’t know this was a strange situation. Feeling sad would be wrong and feeling good would be wrong following moral codes so what was he supposed to be feeling?

It did not matter what was done was done and he did not regret it. He did what was requested from him and he would do it again and again if that was required from him. Tonight would be a time of celebrating and tomorrow a time of more planning. Soon Hoovetown would know that there would be a little shift in power around here.

****
Mayor Document Paper was up late doing some paper work, when he suddenly heard some knocks on the door. “Enter!” He called as he looked up from his papers. He saw his secretary Star quill enter. “Star shouldn’t you home by now?”

“Sorry mayor, but I wanted to know the results of the battle today if possible, so I waited until they arrived.”

“So I take it they have arrived.” The mayor stated earning a nod from his secretary before she walked over to him and laid the scroll on his desk.

The mayor sighted most likely it was the letter that told about Courageous Call’s victory over the dogs and the outsider. The mayor felt bad for the dogs again driven from their homes. He opened the scroll and started reading it. Whilst he read his eyes became bigger and bigger, which caught the interest of Star.

“Is everything alright Document?”

“They won.” Document muttered his face paling a bit.

“Who won? The military well that was expected.” Star started wondering why this news hit the mayor so hard.

“No, the dogs won. They killed Courageous Call’s entire force including his second in command.” The mayor interrupted her. Star’s mouth fell open in shock.

“There is not a single Equestrian soldier standing between Hoovetown and the dogs anymore.” The mayor realized as he said it, which made Star’s facial expression turn from one of shock into one of fear. The mare scared of what the dogs would do now there was no one standing in between them and those who requested the attack upon them.

> The Siege of Hoovetown
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Invincibility lies in the defense; the possibility of victory in the Attack.”  - Sun Tzu quotes

It was a new day. Depending on who was asked, it was the day after either the crushing defeat of the Equestrian garrison of Hoovetown or the decisive victory of the Hoovetown Diamond Dog pack in the battle for the Hoovetown hills. 

Karl watched from the hill that had served as the Diamond dog command post during the battle.

The dogs were busy filling up the defensive pits turned mass graves of the pony garrison that had come to divest the dogs of their new home. Karl’s brutal but effective trap had, in one advantage of many, pre-dug the enemies’ graves. All that remained now was to throw in the bodies of a few additional pegasi that had survived the pitfalls only to be killed by the Diamond dogs later on.

Karl did not take any sort of pride from the pony massacre that he had so cunningly executed, but neither did he feel any sorrow. Why should he? His objective had been the defense of the dogs and their land. That objective had been reached, with even better results than he had anticipated.

Whilst the battle had been a decisive victory for the dogs and a crushing defeat for the ponies, Karl realized that more action needed to follow if the battle was to become anything of consequence. He and the dogs had killed off an entire garrison, but what did that actually mean? Nothing: that’s what. A garrison could easily be replaced and retribution exacted. They could not be content to stop their progress here: a garrison being annihilated would be seen as an unfortunate but repairable occurrence. The capture of a town was far more momentous and rectification of such a loss would be much more difficult than the replacement of a few soldiers. Karl quickly realised that taking Hoovetown would be the action that would give the battle for the Hoovetown Hills the desired impact.

Convincing the dogs to go along with his plan had been easy: who could ignore the temptation to get revenge on those that tried to strip you of your rightful property? The recent victory only enhanced these urges. 

Besides revenge, there was the additional fact that having a town under one’s control opened up a whole array of new possibilities: with an armoury at your disposal, you could replenish and augment your weaponry. With a new economic centre, you could boost your finances, which would, in turn, enhance military capacity.

It also also helped knowing that the town wasn’t very heavily guarded and what little garrison remained would no doubt be severely demoralized after hearing the results of the battle.

However, Karl was no fool. He was well-aware that underestimation of an enemy’s capabilities could easily be a fatal error. In addition, the ponies were likely to ramp up their efforts now that they were on the defensive (and knew that they could be defeated). He would try and formulate a battle plan later today. 

He had already sent some soldiers to the area surrounding the town; mainly to prevent the exit of civilians who might spread word of the attack and bring reinforcements, secondarily to start setting up a command post and war-works where additional siege equipment could be constructed. 

Reflecting on the battle while walking around the perimeter of the encampment, Karl realised, much to his annoyance, that the pegasi might actually pose a significant threat. He wanted to keep what had happened yesterday a secret until he had a more effective countermeasure against the pegasi. Then he could simply launch an outright attack on the Equestrian forces, regardless of the pegasus threat. But for the time being, he would have to settle for the next best thing: taking the city before reinforcements could arrive, preferably in a way that avoided as much contact with pegasi as possible.

He came to rest on a large rock beneath a majestic oak tree. At least, he thought it was an oak tree. Everything here bore some similarity to what he had known on Earth, but was always slightly, indefinably different.

Karl surmised that he would have limited time before word of the attack got out and reinforcements were sent; much less time than he needed to construct and organise a sizeable siege force. He knew that the Hoovetown defenses were not particularly impressive, nor were its defenders very skilled in the art of war, but a powerful counterstrike could always arrive from an outside source at any moment. The best course of action, then, was to attack as soon as possible with the greatest force he could muster in the least time. There was simply no time for a better-planned siege. His current plan would have to do.

Karl doubted that he could pull off something like the previous battle again. He knew that the spectacular results of the previous battle were something that even an extremely skilled tactician and strategist needed a lot of luck to witness even once in his career.

“Are you alright?” A familiar voice asked.

Pulling himself from his thoughts, Karl turned to his left to be greeted by Rover. The alpha had become a good friend of his ever since he started helping the dogs. 

“Yeah, I am just thinking about how to take that city.”

Rover nodded. “It’s strange isn’t it? How our enemies still control us even in defeat.”

Karl mumbled something that sounded like an affirmation. He couldn’t deny that Rover’s words rang true. Even though he had defeated the ponies, they were still the ones pulling the strings: every action carried out by Karl and the dogs was done in relation to those of the ponies. His plans hinged on their decisions.

Hell, he couldn’t afford to get all philosophical now: time was of the essence.

“What do they have for defenses?” he inquired.

“The city has about 60 guards left, but it’s very likely that they will be able to conscript some ponies to form a militia. Although I must say that I doubt the effectiveness of a militia, if the performance of their professional soldiers is anything to go by.”

Karl was extremely agitated by the lingering fear he had of unicorns. The results their powers had on his body were frightening to say the least, but it was the speed at which they took effect that disturbed him even more. Never would he forget what the levitating oil lamp had done to him by just being nearby. He wondered if he would survive getting blasted by a unicorn.

“How many ponies do you suspect would join the militia?”

“Don’t know. There’s no real way of telling. It could be one or it could be the whole damn town.”

“Have your men find out how many unicorn guards they still have.” 

Rover nodded and walked away to give the order.

Karl slowly came to his feet, and gestured to a group of four Diamond Dogs, motioning for them to follow. Together, they began to walk slowly in the direction of the town while Karl explained his idea. He had something to take care of before ordering the attack. 
****
In Hoovetown, an emergency meeting had been organized. 

“Where is the army?!”

“Why are there Diamond dogs patrolling around the city?”

“Would everybody just shut up? So mayor, what’s this big, important news you needed to tell us?” 

This last question was asked by Rich Perfume, slightly miffed as he was summoned to this meeting in the middle of a very good massage.

“First of all I thank you all for coming, but I am afraid I have very dire news regarding our military excursion. They have managed to completely obliterate Commander Courageous Call’s forces. His second-in command, Platoon Leader Swift Flight, is among the dead.” 

At this revelation, the nobles flew into a complete panic.

“They defeated the army! We’re doomed!”

“They’re coming for us next!”

“I don’t want to die!!!!”

“Mares and gentlecolts, I implore you! Please calm down!” the mayor yelled forcefully.

Everypony present immediately clammed up. 

“I know the situation is serious, but we shouldn’t lose our heads over this.”

“Hm. Perhaps not the best choice of words for this situation.” he thought to himself 

“Our military detail may have failed, but our city walls still stand strong. We can hold out in here for a good while with minimal military action. However, it cannot go without saying that the five remaining unicorns of the guard are absent due to a mandatory retraining course, and commander Courageous Call conveniently failed to inform his superiors of his plans, so nopony can give us a clear impression of our situation!”

“Can’t we send some pegasi?” a noble suggested.

“I hate to admit it, but I doubt that such an action would be very effective. Not many details are known about the battle as of yet, but seeing as even the pegasi platoon did not manage to escape harm, I believe it’s fair to say that the dogs possess at least a mildly effective way of taking them down. We know they have already surrounded the city so I don’t want to risk getting citizens or guards killed.” 

The nobles mumbled quietly to one another.

Document used this moment to get his breath back and take a nip from his water before continuing: 

“Seeing as commander Courageous Call is either missing or dead, all the other officers are dead and the chief of the guard is on a training course...” 

He paused for a little to scan the expressions of the nobles their faces before continuing. 

“…it is up to me to organize and lead the defense of our beloved town!”
The nobles started debating with each other whether or not to agree to this new leadership. The mayor immediately noted that Rich Perfume was the only one who remained motionless in his seat, eventually leaving the room without saying a word, leaving the mayor and his arguing fellow nobles behind.

At this point, the remaining aristocrats were bickering ferociously and the mayor was trying to suppress an impending headache whilst thinking of how to defend his city against the attackers. It was because of this general disarray that nopony noticed one of the maids leave the room. The maid, a yellow female pegasi with a fiery orange mane and tail by the name of Quick Service, quickly flew home and hesitantly entered the darkened front room. 

“Home so soon?”, asked voice from the darkness which made her shiver in fear. “That must mean you have the information I want. Am I correct?”

“Y-y-yes…”?

Tremors of fear were well audible in her voice as she searched for where her unwelcome guest was.

“Good!” 

The creature that everypony had started referring to as the Outsider stepped into view, coming into the faint swathe of light entering the room through the door. 

Karl’s plan was simple: have the dogs dig a way underneath the city so as to gain undetected access to the town, where he then accosted the nearest pony and, using rather… persuasive methods, convinced her to do a little espionage on his behalf. Among his demands was also the rendering of shelter and a place to hide during his stay in the city, namely her home. Upon entering the dwelling, he found a colt, presumably the love interest of his newly recruited assistant. Karl decided to use this turn of events in his favour, using the colt as a little bit of… leverage.

“So tell me, what news do you have for me?”

“T-they don’t want to s-s-s-surrender to you and the Diamond Dogs.” 

Karl rolled his eyes in annoyance, barely managing to understand what his new helper was telling him through her stammering. Then again, he did hold her boyfriend captive, so he assumed he might have scared the poor dear a bit more than he wanted to.

Karl calmly walked over to her and he saw her trying to step back, but a quick, harsh “Stay!” put an end to that. He lifted his right claw over the cowering mare in what he tried to be a non-threatening way. Perhaps this wasn’t the best course of action, as for the poor pony, the mere sight of the huge claw was already enough to make her start sobbing quietly.
Quick Service did not want to die and when she saw the monster come over to her she assumed her end had come. Perhaps her stuttering had annoyed him too much. Perhaps she had offended him somehow. She quietly said a prayer and prepared to feel the claw, and feel it she did, just not the way she expected it.

The claw took a firm hold on her sides and suddenly lifted her in the air before she found herself in the loving embrace of this freakish creature. He carefully rocked her back and forth whilst whispering soothing words to her. She started sobbing on the creature’s shoulder.
Quick did not know how she could feel so comfortable in her enemy’s clutches, but she did anyway. Even if her wings had gone limp for some reason, the comforting warmth welcomed her.

Karl had replayed a lot of ways this conversation could have turned out in advance to his little infiltration, but comforting his unwilling assistant was definitely not one of the possible events for which he had practiced. He had sensed the mare’s poor emotional state and it had shown him that perhaps he had been too rash with this pony.

Obviously he had underestimated the mental toll it had on the mare and instead of making her do exactly what he wanted her to do, it had almost transformed her into an emotional wreck.
Rocking her in what he hoped was a comforting embrace whilst attempting to administer some form of verbal comfort was the best way he could come up with to make her calm down, which she did after a couple of minutes. He lifted her head a bit so she would look into his eyes. 

“Listen, I’m sorry for all of this. I didn’t want this. I want revenge on those that wronged me and on those who wrong others, but you’re not one of them. You’re innocent in all of this.”

Karl paused, trying to gauge his progress.

“Tell you what, make yourself a bit more comfortable make a cup of tea, grab a snack and then tell me that information you managed to gather, how does that sound?”

“That sounds… acceptable.” She hesitantly answered.

“Good.” The creature said before he released her from his hold, thus leaving her free to move around her house. 

She went to the kitchen to make herself and her captor a cup of tea. Why she made him a cup as well she didn’t knew, perhaps to please him or perhaps to repay him for the understanding he had for her situation.

Quick could feel the gaze of the Outsider resting upon her, watching her every move. It wasn’t a piercing one that made you feel uncomfortable; it was more like one given with the intent to remind you that someone else was still there. A couple of minutes later she was finished and came over with two small cups of tea. She handed one to the Outsider who carefully took it and politely thanked her for it.

Karl took the cup of tea from the mare and gave a polite “Thank you.” He waited until the mare had taken a sip and made herself comfortable before taking a sip himself. The tea was delicious. “This is very good tea. May I ask which flavour?”
“It’s Chamomile, and thank you. I bought it yesterday from the market.”

“Good, now that you are a bit more comfortable and calmed down, shall we go back to the topic at hand?”

Quick was uncomfortable with telling him: she knew that if she followed through, she would betray everypony she knew and cared about. She also knew that the Outsider expected answers and he would get them one way or another, and her dear Fair Flight was still in danger.

Quick took a deep breath before she started revealing the information she had obtained. She told him that the unicorns were gone, that the leading aristocrats had dissolved into chaos, and that the mayor was leading the defense of the city, whilst she doubted he knew anything about sieges. She also told him of how many defenders there currently were and what resources they had at their disposal.

“This information is very satisfying. Much like your tea, I might add. Keep your ears open. I will send a dog into town every evening and you will need to report to him. If any new developments come to your attention, you will need to inform him of them and he will relay all information to me. You will get your boyfriend back when my plan comes to fruition. We can’t have you leaking the details of our collaboration now, can we?” 

With that said Karl opened a hatch that the dogs had built in her absence, a hatch in a place normally covered by a large rug.

“I suggest you cover this up and not open it unless it is requested by either me or the dogs. I think I can trust you not to reveal it voluntarily…”

Here he gestured to Fair Flight. 

“…but if your leaders find out about this, I doubt I will be the only one at risk. In my experience, most people don’t take kindly to those in their own ranks aligning with their opposition. Have a nice evening miss.” 

Karl then closed the hatch and Quick quickly replaced the rug over it.

However, Karl wasn’t planning on leaving the city quite yet; certainly not after hearing how much disorder there was in the commanding body of the town’s defenses. Karl would be a fool to not stir things up a bit now. He would need to say hello to those that tried to get him arrested and his friends dispossessed sooner or later. Why not now?

The Diamond Dogs were contributing 100% of their efforts to his plans: they had been busy the entire day digging tunnels underneath the town. The armed forces were not properly organized yet, so things would have to be kept simple for now. The dogs would use the tunnels to move secretly to all parts of the town and set up ambushes to quietly and quickly take out the defending forces, defending forces who had probably planned very little, if at all. This made them deliciously, irresistibly easy targets.

Granted, his troops would need to act faster than was planned, but with the Hoovetown defense being in such a state of disarray, who would not want to take this opportunity to act? 

“You!” he said as he pointed at a Diamond dog. “Tell the others that operation Mole has started!”

“Yes, sir!” 

The dog saluted before turning around and running away on all fours to tell the rest of Karl’s men (which was about 75 dogs) to start with the ambushes.

“Sir! Doesn’t the operation start tomorrow?” one of the remaining dogs asked, confused.

“Normally yes, but there has been a change of plans. We take Hoovetown tonight! Is that a problem?”

“Not at all sir! For the pack!” the dog said enthusiastically before running after his colleague to join the others in the various ambushes that operation Mole would involve.

“It’s so good to have stuff go right!” Karl mused happily to himself before following his men, as he himself wanted in on the action.


The siege of Hoovetown (1002 A.NM.):
Belligerents:

-Monarchy of Equestria                                                        -Hoovetown Diamond dog pack

Commanders and leaders:

-Mayor Document Paper                                                      -The outsider (Karl Kempf)

Strength:

Town guard: -45 Earth ponies                                               -75 armed workers
-15 pegasi
Militia: -4 Earth ponies
-4 pegasi

Operation Mole had commenced. Like the name suggested, the plan was to dig pitfalls on strategic spots so that the defenders could fall in and quickly be overpowered by the dogs. 

Two Earth pony guards walked aimlessly through an alley. Yet to receive new instructions from their superiors, they had decided to just patrol around the town as usual.

“What do you think is going to happen now that we have those dogs besieging us?”

“Haven’t got a clue. I just hope that if they’re here for revenge that they leave the innocents alone.”

“Damn hoity-toity nobles! If they had just left those dogs alone, then we wouldn’t have been in this position!”

“Damn straight. Those rich dudes always make a mess and then get everypony else to clean it up. And then those buckers buck us over if we demand a small raise!”

“I say let the dogs get ‘em! Some manual labor would do those bloodsuckers some good instead of sitting on their lazy rumps all day.”

“Damn right! I wonder what the dogs do to their POW’s?!”

Suddenly the two felt the ground underneath their hooves disappear and they fell abrubtly into a hole. The duo found themselves in some kind of tunnel and surrounded by dogs. The two had drawn their weapons when they saw some kind of creature march up to them. They recognized it as the Outsider.

“Surrender now and we promise that no harm to you and your companion!” The voice was hard and cold, yet somehow felt honest.

Outnumbered and outmatched, the guards felt they had little choice, but were hesitant to give in immediately.

“When all of this is over, what will become of us? Are we going to become slaves?”

“No. When our operation achieves success, no harm shall be visited upon the innocents. For those who tried to drive the dogs from their land however, I cannot give any guarantees.” Karl replied.  

“Their fate will be decided by the pack”.

For the two guards the deal had been made. The guilty ones here were the stuck up nobles, and neither of them felt like dying or getting wounded for those bloodsuckers. 

“We accept your terms.” Both of them said before throwing their weapons away and allowing the dogs to escort them.

“That went a lot smoother than I had expected.”  One of the dogs stated.

Karl just shrugged. “I’m not complaining!”

“Nor me, sir. Shall we proceed?”

“Yep, let’s go.” Karl said, as he pointed with his left hand to their next location. 

The dogs charged off immediately, eager to keep this up, with their commander following a bit slower behind them.

The dogs’ tactic was quick and effective, but for the defenders it was thoroughly unexpected as they did not even get the chance to put up a fight: they were simply pulled into the tunnels and taken captive before they could even re-gather their wits. The operation was running smoothly and with his dogs’ success against the pony defenders, Karl had decided it was time to end this operation by completing the final stage: the capture of the mayor, whom he’d learnt was named Document Paper (weird name, but by now he decided to just go with it), and the other nobles of authority. With all Equestrian leadership effectively deposed, it would effectively bring about the end of any and all connections to the Equestrian state.

He would need to do this smartly and quietly. His troops’ victory might be certain, but those nobles belonged to that pesky unicorn class that made his entire life so much more difficult than he would have liked.

However, unicorns were like mosquitos: seemingly easy to eliminate, yet surprisingly resilient and insufferably petulant. He wished it weren’t so, but that would get him nowhere. For the time being, he would just need to deal with it as well as he could.

The mayor could only look on in petrified horror as the floor of the meeting room collapsed. Out crawled four Diamond dogs and what he assumed was the Outsider. 

“Guards!!! HELP!!!!” screamed the Mayor in desperation. 

Immediately the door opened and four pegasi flew straight in. Karl was sure the pegasi had intended to crash straight into him, but instead they found themselves almost instantly subjected to a pummelling by the dogs.

Everypony… well, everybody is probably a more correct term since there weren’t only ponies in the room, became quiet as they heard a voice say, “Wait for me guys! Did I miss something? Did I miss all the action?” 

The origin of the voice belonged to a very familiar (to Karl, anyway) dark blue-coated pegasus stallion with a purple mane and tail.

The stallion immediately stopped speaking as he noticed the situation in the room: all of his comrades were already apprehended, and in the centre of the fray… 

“Why? Why, in the name of all that is holy, does it have to be him?” Night thought as he saw a very familiar figure standing amongst the dogs.

“Night! Did you miss your old pal?!” Karl exclaimed happily as he opened his arms for a hug.

“Oh, you have some nerve, Outsider! Just wait ‘till I get my hooves on you… but I am not prepared as of yet!” Night exclaimed in a feeble attempt to save face before he quickly flew away again.

Karl lowered his arms again.  

“Perhaps that was a tad… gay of me. Oh well, I’ll have to clear that up next time I see him. I had such fun with that guy the last time I saw him.” Karl stated blandly to all present. 

Both the ponies and the dogs looked at him with open mouths.

“What? I never said I didn’t like any ponies; Just most of them.” 

The others continued to gape at him.

“Hey guys, we’re supposed to be capturing a town here. Can we please hurry this up? It’s late and I am getting tired.” 

This seemed to snap the others out of their trance and so started the negotiations over the surrender of Hoovetown. 

It was a brief discussion, to say the least.


The siege of Hoovetown (1002 A.NM.) results:

Result:


Diamond Dog Victory, stronghold implanted
Monarchy of Equestria lost control over Hoovetown and all territory in the immediate vicinity 
Equestrian military presence eliminated



Territorial changes:
Hoovetown Diamond Dog pack gained control over Hoovetown and surrounding areas




Commanders and leaders:

-Mayor Document Paper                                                           -The outsider (Karl Kempf)

Casualties and losses:

-None killed, 18 lightly wounded                                		   - None killed, 5 lightly wounded        

That night, the Equestrian flags were lowered and flags bearing the pack insignia of the Diamond Dogs were hoisted against the moonlit night sky. Hoovetown had officially fallen to the rebellion and the Diamond Dog pack had gained a stronghold.

In the office of the former mayor of Hoovetown, Karl Kempf “the Outsider” stood gazing out a window, watching the dogs beginning their patrols of the streets and the formation a defensive perimeter around the town hall.

Karl did not knew what the future held for him or his allies, but for now he believed it was fair to say things were looking up. With that knowledge, he started searching for a place to rest for a while. Morning was fast approaching, and when it came he would have some very important matters to discuss with the three pack leaders.


> Judgment Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.” -Robin Williams

Three days had passed since the fall of Hoovetown. Karl had already explained to the pack leaders why he had made the decision to attack earlier. Needless to say, the talks went without a hitch. The dogs had already transformed the little town into their new home.  Ponies from the town were enlisted (although in a few cases, “accosted and impressed” may have been a better term) to help transport the dogs’ gems from their caves. 

Karl had also requested (i.e. forced) them to help with the upgrading of town defenses and the construction of some artillery.

However, this was not without a minor crisis of conscience. The more Karl thought about it, the more he realised the ponies were being treated as slaves. He assuaged his agitated moral compass with the mental insistence that this forced labour would only be temporary and that in the end, the ponies too would benefit from having better defenses and weapons. 

He shook these distracting thoughts from his head. As always these days, more pressing matters were at hand: the delegacy, transport or whatever they called it that the Diamond Dog government used for the collection of debts would be arriving soon. What with the recent events, it was not unlikely that an attempt might be made to capture the caravan.

Rover alerted him this morning that a messenger had arrived and told them that a transport would arrive in three days. He also said that, going by word of mouth, one of the High Alphas had sent his daughter along with it and she was reputed to be… quite the sight. (Karl didn’t know about this last statement, but he figured he would trust Diamond Dog aesthetic standards.)

While this last bit was more of a rumour than actual fact, Rover seemed to be quite convinced of its truth: Dogs normally didn’t wear anything beyond their vests, nor did they care much for clothing, seeing as their fur covered them quite well enough. Thus it was rather noteworthy when, upon hearing of the impending arrival of the transport, Rover quickly placed several urgent orders to some tailors for himself, Fido, Spot and even Karl. 

Although he didn’t care very much, Karl was aware that his pants looked absolutely horrid. His jeans had actually been long on him before his change, but now they barely came to his knees. They were also filled with various holes and cuts, although luckily these were only inflicted upon the legs instead of other, more embarrassing areas.

Initially, Karl, while not terribly enthused about getting new clothes, did not object to the idea. Now, however, he was beginning to regret his decision, as the damn pony that was taking his measurements was so nervous that she kept pricking him with the needles she was using to make adjustments.

After several annoying minutes, she finally stopped and allowed him to leave so she and her colleagues could work on the outfits. Rover was waiting outside. 

“Well, well. I see you enjoyed your visit to the tailor.” he said with a smirk. 

“Your jesting is not appreciated.” Karl mumbled under his breath, causing Rover to chuckle. 

“Why do you guys need clothes anyway? You don’t exactly get dressed up on a regular basis.” Karl asked, curious for the answer.

“Normally we don’t wear clothes besides our vests and armour, but just like in pony society the higher ranking dogs do wear some more clothing, mostly for special occasions.” Rover explained. “And if the Alpha’s daughter is going to be here, I would say that’s an occasion.”

“Interesting. And while we’re on the subject, can you tell me a bit more about the daughter of Alpha What’s-His-Name?”

“High Alpha Tenlon…” Rover corrected, “… is one of the eight High Alphas and the Minister of Finance for the Diamond Dog Confederacy. His daughter, Kalia, is his only child.” 

“I see. So if I am going to meet her what should I expect?”

“Well, she is elected as the 16th most beautiful female dog in the confederacy.”

“That’s, uh… interesting...” 

Karl wasn’t really looking for that kind of information. He also wasn’t sure how prestigious 16th place actually was, but he decided against divulging his apprehensions. 

“Would you also happen to know what kind of personality she has?” he asked, hoping that a more specific question would elicit a more informative response.

“How am I supposed to know?  I never met her personally, although I did hear that she is quite kind and smart.”

Karl groaned internally, as the information Rover gave him was not useful in the slightest. He was looking for something of a bit more import. Was she quick to anger? Was she impulsive? Was she shy? Things that would be important to know to ensure a smooth first meet and amiable future diplomatic relations. 

“So what’s on the agenda for today?” Karl asked, curious as to what Rover had planned for them.

“Not much Fido and Spot are taking care of the gem transport.” 

Karl sighed almost inaudibly (Rover seemed to be a fount of unwanted and useless information today), but it had been heard by the dog, who started grinning before adding. “That means that we are left with all the… fun stuff in town.”, putting an ominous emphasis on “fun stuff”.

To say Rover had managed to pique Karl’s interest would have been an understatement. Karl knew that if Rover said something like “fun stuff” in such a tone, then it almost certainly indicated that something truly enjoyable was about to occur.

After locating a folded parchment, Rover led Karl through the town, straight into what he recognized as the guard station. The two descended into the cell block where Karl saw the cells being occupied by some nobles, each of whom had some kind of device strapped to their horn. The deposed aristocrats were furiously bickering with each other and complaining to the guards, but instantly abridged their disputes upon the arrival of Rover and Karl, irked by the Diamond Dog and absolutely terrified of the Outsider.

“Say, what are those things attached to their horns?” inquired Karl.

“Those are my brainchild.” replied Rover. “There’s a certain mineral we have in our mines. When it’s just lying around it doesn’t do much, but we’ve found that if you get it close enough to a magical source, it actually absorbs and nullifies any magical energy. We put some in those devices and affixed them to the unicorn horns with a nearly insoluble resin. So in short, no more pesky attempts to levitate the guards’ keys!” 

“Handy.” replied Karl curtly, although he was rather impressed with Rover’s creations.

“Hey, how’d you guys figure that thing out about those rocks anyway?”

“It was a few years ago, actually. Let’s just say it involved an uppity unicorn foal and some miners with a refuse cart full of the stuff. We just never had the capacity to use it in an effective way until now.”

Rover was cut off by a guard dog approaching the two, saying “Sirs, it’s a pleasure to meet you two. May I ask what business you have down here?”

“We have come to bring these ponies before the judgment of the pack.” Rover replied, electing another wave of muffled whimpers and disconcerted cries from the captive nobles.

A devilish grin crept across the face of the guard as he heard the news. Karl couldn’t blame him for it: the poor dog had probably been forced to put up with the nobles and their pathetic complaints for hours. At least he looked like he had been here for hours, if the guard’s features were anything to go by. 

Rover noticed this as well, asking “How long have you been down here guard?”

“Half an hour sir, but it feels like hours.” the guard said, surprising Karl, although Rover not so much.

“Very well guard. I suggest you take a little break to get yourself back together.” Rover told the guard, who literally sprinted away after thanking his superior profusely.

“Alright now. Who’s first on our list?” Karl asked, eager to begin the judicial process.

Rover unfolded his paper and scanned the list of names. “Which one of you is Topaz Crown?” 

A pony with blue fur and a blonde mane hesitantly raised his hoof.

“Alright guards, send him this way.”

“Oh please, no! I swear I will never trouble you dogs again! I promise!!!” The noble cried hysterically, trying to break out of the iron grip of the guard dog that forcefully dragged him out of the cell. It was extremely amusing to watch how the noble tried to break free.

The dog almost threw the noble in front of the duo.  The noblecolt immediately started quivering on the floor, breaking down into a pathetic mass of whimpering flesh whilst reciting what Karl guessed where prayers to whatever god or goddess he worshipped.

“Jeez. This guy’d better not piss himself.” Karl whispered to Rover who nodded in agreement.

“I hate it when they do that. Ponies make quite a big mess.” He whispered back. 

Karl nodded (and paused to consider the implications of Rover’s statement) before turning his attention back to the snivelling aristocrat.

“What are his crimes against the pack?” Karl did not address anyone in particular, but another guard handed him a list with crimes and general information correlated to the names of the accused.

“Let’s see what you have been up to.” 
The pony started pleading inwardly. 
“Well, well, well. It seems like we got ourselves a busy little fella over here! I mean look at this: rallying the populace against Diamond dogs; publicly making racist comments against Diamond dogs; voting in favour of the recent military attack against the Diamond dogs; and falsely accusing Diamond dogs of various crimes including theft, property damage and assault.” 

By now the noble was shivering from fear as the guards in the room would growl louder and louder at him each time Karl named something new.

Karl decided to omit the last two items on the list, fearing that the guards might string him up right then and there. Not that he really cared should that happen, but he felt the need to go through the due process. Besides, he had already thought of some more… creative ways to deal with the noble and the rest of his kind. Reminiscing on these brought a thin, unpleasant smile to his face.

Rover broke him out of his daydreaming, asking, “Do you have some creative punishments in mind or should we resolve to those of the pack?”

Karl turned to Rover, giving a look that asked “How did you know?” before saying. “Why, as a matter of fact, I do have some rather entertaining castigations planned. After all, perhaps we should show some mercy on these poor souls.” 

Karl said it in a tone that did not predict much good, but the noble did not seem to notice it, as he instantly got an expression of relief on his face. Karl noticed this immediately.

He laughed inwardly as he doubted the noble would keep that happy face after he told him what the punishment would be. “Is there anyone who wants to assist in giving out the punishment, or would you prefer to be judged by the pack?”

It was quite amusing for Karl to see how fast the nobles accepted his offer. Those poor fools didn’t have a clue as to what Karl’s creative mind could come up with.

****

“You know Karl, I must admit that I really like your ideas.” Rover said happily as both he and Karl were relaxing on chair with a cooled drink in their claw or paw.

“Hehe, I don’t think everybody would agree on that.” Karl said as he smirked at the nobles who had gotten the honour of entertaining the Diamond Dog pups. Boy, those little buggers had a lot of energy.

“Now remember son; aim for the head.” a diamond dog said as he gave his son a pat on the shoulder.

With the same smirk on his face, Karl turned again to Rover.

“You know, if there’s one thing my race has learnt in its long history of doling out retribution, it’s that nothing quite measures up to public humiliation.”

The little pup nodded happily as he took a pie from a nearby table and made his way over to the throwing area. Once he arrived, he started aiming at a noblecolt who had been dressed up to look like a clown (much like the one Mayor Mare was dressed in for Nightmare Night). The noble was also firmly attached to the stage by chains so he would not attempt to dodge throws from participants.

“Please, don’t do it.” The noble pleaded, only causing Karl and the adult dogs to smile even wider as right behind the noble stood a big sign saying. “Aim for the head!”

The pup was obviously a good shot, as he hit the noble dead in the face. The pup howled happily upon seeing that he had scored a direct hit, and his parents clapped their paws in applause for their son’s achievement.

Karl was certainly proud of himself for coming up with such a punishment. He had figured that since public executions or imprisonments could potentially make these nobles into martyrs, alternative methods were required.  So instead of mutilating the nobles he opted for humiliation, and what was more embarrassing for nobles than to serve as entertainment for young pups or foals? Yes, Karl had allowed for the ponies to also join in this wondrous occasion as a way to form a bond with them, discouraging a revolt and making his own position seem more agreeable to the recently conquered, a tactic the pony leaders would have been wise to embrace. Also, he had figured out that some ponies probably wanted their fair share of humiliating some stuck-up aristocrats.

Turns out he was right. The little, uh…. Fair he guessed it was, earned the approval of both dogs and ponies (minus the nobles who served as entertainers).

And so a relaxing and fun day was made for almost everybody. Karl did wonder how the nobles would react to the 200 hours of forced labour he would later assign them. 

What? You didn’t truly expect Karl to have only given them a day of humiliations, after they sent an entire garrison of the Equestrian army after him and the dogs. Besides, the hard work might do these soft, lazy rich folks some good.

However, Karl still felt like he had forgotten some kind of detail concerning the ponies of Hoovetown, but what?

****
Meanwhile in the dungeons of the old Diamond Dog den, two dogs stood guarding a big cell. The prisoners within began to make some inquiries of the guards. 

“Hey, you guys did say you won right?”

“And that you took over Hoovetown?”

“And that you have committed a peaceful takeover?”

“And that nopony was to become a slave?”

“Yes, yes, yes and yes. Now could you shut up?” one of the dogs barked annoyed.

“Then how come we are still prisoners?” asked one of the pony guards that Karl had captured.
“How are we supposed to know? Do you think somebody tells us about everything involving captives? No! They just say ‘Guard ‘em’ and that’s it. So be quiet!” the second dog replied, earning a deep sigh from all of the captive ponies, who sat brooding on their discontent. 

****

It was the day that the transport would arrive to collect the pack’s debts and Karl had finally figured out what he had forgotten: the captive guards had been transferred from the old den to the town, but so far had not been released from imprisonment even though he had told them that they would not face prolonged punishment.

Karl had just put on his suit (it had arrived near the end of the previous day) in preparation for the transport’s arrival and was just talking a bit with one of the maids. Ever since Karl had put on his new clothes, Rover had insisted that he stay inside to ensure nothing bad would happen to them, however seeing as no one exactly knew when the transport would arrive, it turned out to be a very long, boring wait.

So Karl, bored to death and forced to stay inside, had done what everyone else in his position would have done. He had searched for the most adorable pony that he could find within the town house and had taken her with him to the office to have a chat.

This particular maid turned out to be the sister of the boyfriend of Quick Service, and she went by the name of Sun Flight (although Karl had dubbed her Sunny). Sunny was a yellow coated pegasus with a fiery orange mane and as a brand (Karl refused to use that absolutely idiotic term “cutie mark”) she possessed a sun with a pair of wings.

The ponies however, didn’t take kindly to this re-phrasing. 

“Okay I’ve got one! How about ‘talent mark’?” 

Sunny just shook her head as a sign that she didn’t like it, earning another frown from Karl. Karl had, for the last eight minutes, done nothing else but give suggestions for possible alternatives.

“Argh I give up!” He exclaimed, throwing his claws in the air, earning a small giggle from Sunny.

“Don’t you think for a second that I will give up finding alternatives, but I believe a small break is necessary.” Karl stated.

Sunny jumped out of her chair and walked over to him. She jumped on the couch and laid down next to Karl, allowing him to rub behind her ears. Karl had found out that ponies truly loved getting ear rubs and much to his surprise he found himself enjoying giving them, so it really was a win-win.

“So Sunny, what’s your job around here?”

“Well, I used to be the assistant of the former mayor. Right now I just work as a maid around here. Cleaning, organizing, that sort of thing.”

“Used to be?” Karl questioned.
“Yeah, I once called a noble… what was it… Oh yes, an insufferable prick, and, well, you already know the nobles got quite a lot of power here because of their money, so they put so much pressure on the mayor that he had to fire me after a while.” Sunny explained, obviously saddening as she remembered the event.

“You liked your job as assistant?”

“Yeah. Beats being a maid any day.”

Karl got a big grin on his face, saying “You know I need an assistant. You think you’re up for job?”

“Eh? What…why me?” Sunny stuttered, surprised by the sudden offer and not sure which kind of jobs he would give her. With the mayor she could more or less predict what her next assignment would be, with the Outsider not so much.

“You won’t have to worry about the tasks. Nothing you can’t learn on the job. You can start immediately with your first assignment: greeting the Diamond Dog delegacy… speak of the devil.” 

Karl spotted the Diamond Dog caravan enter the town almost as soon as he finished speaking.

“Let’s go Sunny: time to meet the bigwigs.”

He heard Sunny say a few things, but he didn’t really listen. He just picked her up and brought her along.

Meanwhile, Sunny was trying to comprehend what had just happened. She had just become the infamous Outsider’s assistant! Oh boy, would her brother give her a lecture when he heard about this. Probably something about why she was not supposed to become the assistant of a big, scary and most likely insane creature.

Rover, Fido and Spot could only watch with their mouths open as they saw their new friend coming towards them with a… pony over his shoulders? 

“Uh… this might sound like a stupid question, but why do you have a pony with you?” Spot asked, unsure of what to make of the situation.

Karl came to a stop a few feet before the dogs and put Sun Flight back down right in front of the three dogs who stared at her in confusion. Needless to say she did not feel very comfortable. 

“Hello, boys. Meet my new assistant Sunny. Sunny, meet Rover, Fido and Spot” Karl said proudly, making Sun Flight blush as he used her nickname in front of the new rulers of Hoovetown.

“Hm… So why didn’t I know that you were in need of an assistant? Actually why didn’t I see anyone enter that doesn’t already have a job?” Fido asked.

“Well, it was kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing. You know?”

“So you just picked a random pony didn’t you?” Rover stated bluntly.

“Well, if you put it that way it makes me look like I was desperate to have one. No, I chose my assistant using particular rules.”

“And what, pray tell, may these rules be?” Spot asked.

“He/She needed to have experience in being an assistant and he/she needed to be cute and Sunny is cute isn’t she? Isn’t she?” Karl cooed as he gave Sunny an ear rub making her smile in joy whilst the three dogs face palmed.

“Ugh, whatever. So now you’ve got your assistant. Can we please greet the delegacy?” Fido asked.

“Yes, yes… Where are they?” Karl asked whilst waving his left claw dismissively.

“Right over there.” Rover said as he pointed to where the delegacy was. 

The transport had just arrived on the town square and Karl saw that the dogs looked differently than those he had met so far. There were Diamond Dogs that resembled Rottweilers, German Shepherds, Huskies and wolves mixed in with dogs that looked more like the ones he had already seen.

However, he did notice that many dogs wore a beaten expression on their faces as well as showing signs of fatigue combined with some wounds. Karl guessed they had been involved in a battle. The others also noticed it. The leader of the transport walked up to them and all the dogs saluted each other.

“Greetings Alpha Rover, we have come to collect your pack’s dues to the high Alpha council. Allow me to congratulate you on your pack’s victory over the ponies, although I hope for your sake that it hasn’t stood in the way of gathering the required amount of gems. ” The lead dog said.

“Thank you captain Malgo! I am happy to tell you we can pay back our debts without delay, but if I may say, your men look rather beat-up and I don’t see High Alpha Tenlon’s daughter with you. Didn’t she come with you?”

At the mention of Kalia, Karl saw Malgo frown slightly. “Some pony officials came around looking for her and got arrested on some trumped-up criminal charges. I know for a fact that she could not have committed the crime of which she was accused, and we attempted to keep her hidden, but someone managed to kidnap her and sell her to the authorities. She’s currently being held at a high security prison near Ironhoof.”

Karl had no idea what Ironhoof was, but he knew the words “high security prison”, and where he came from, they meant nothing good. 

“My troops got a bit beaten up in some skirmishes against the ponies, but we couldn’t stay behind for her. We have gems to collect.” Malgo explained.

“Quite unfortunate. Is she just being left behind?” Karl asked.

Malgo turned his attention to Karl, (somehow) seeming to notice him for the first time. He first appeared shocked, but his visage quickly simmered down into a sort of poorly-disguised disgust.

“Well, you must be the fabled Outsider. I hear that you were instrumental in the capture of this town, but don’t let it go to your head. I’ll have you know that the situation as it stands is rather out of our control! Storming a small town like this is manageable, but Ironhoof is a big city with a big military camp in the vicinity, not to mention that the prison is a fortress on its own.”

“Jeez dude, cool off!” Karl interrupted the Diamond Dog’s rant, earning him some growling from said dog. “It’s not like I told you to storm the place!”

“Well, how else would you break someone out of a maximum security prison than from the outside?”

Karl raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, I get that. But who said you had to launch a full-on assault? You can just sneak in and out so that they don’t even notice!”

“Yeah; there’s your problem! The exit! If the other prisoners can’t get out, what makes you think you can?” Malgo retorted, annoyed at what he found to be a waste of time. 

“I have already informed her father of this unfortunate turn of events, so he can start the negotiations about the terms of her release.” 

Karl opened his mouth to say something, but was instantly silenced by Malgo. 

“Look, I get it: you think you’re some kind of big-shot because you conquered a few bumpkins, but you’re in over your head here. How about you stick to your business and let us deal with ours, alright? I can see you’ve got a good thing going here. Don’t make me ruin it.” 

Karl was certain that he could take the Diamond Dog in a fight, but had no interest in catapulting himself out of the dogs’ good graces. He reluctantly took a few steps back in concession. 

“Looks like you’re not as dumb as you look.” Malgo said before turning around and walking away from the group.

Karl’s eyes were narrowed onto the dog. If looks could kill, then Malgo would have already died a dozen times. 

Sun Flight was still sitting down, glad that she had not been introduced.

Rover sighed.

“Aw, crap. This isn’t over, is it?”

“Hm?” mumbled Karl, trying to appear uninterested.

“Oh, don’t you bullshit me. You’ve got that look on your face that just screams ‘I’m not through with you yet’. What’s the big deal anyway? He’s always been a prick like that, but he’s going to leave soon to rescind our debts, and Kalia’s going to be out of prison in no time if the negotiations go well.”  

“I don’t trust him.” Karl replied after a long pause.

“What do you mean?” Fido asked.

“Call it a gut feeling, but I don’t think he told us the entire truth.”

“Are you sure you aren’t just pissed at him?” Spot suggested.

“Think about it: one of his countrymen, or… countrywomen, a very high-profile individual, was supposed to be traveling with him, but she got kidnapped and sent to prison by some shills in some sort of inside job. This is pretty big news, yet he didn’t even bring it up upon arrival: he had to be asked about it. And even when it was out in the open, he seemed way too concerned about stifling rescue plans. I might be overthinking this, but something underhanded is going down and I think Malgo knows more about it than he’s letting on.”

“You’re not actually planning to go to Ironhoof are you?” Rover asked worriedly. “Even if he is involved in something screwy, he does have a point. There’s no way you can get in and out of that prison… and on top of that, they’ve probably got an arrest warrant out on you.” 

“Good: that means less work to get in. I’ll work out the details later.”

“Are you serious?” Rover asked, beginning to get distraught. “I never knew you cared so much about proving a guy wrong that you would intentionally get yourself arrested!”

“I’m not doing this for revenge. Kalia is an important person within your society… and if I save her perhaps she will do something nice for me in return.” Karl stated.

Rover smirked and shook his head.

“You’re one crazy, conniving bastard, you know that? Look, you can do what you want, but I suggest you not go alone.”

“I wasn’t planning to. I already have the perfect team in mind.” Karl said whilst looking at Sun Flight with an expression that made her uncomfortable. “Tell me Sunny; have you ever participated in a prison break?”
> Another Journey begins
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before.” - Erich Fromm


It was the fourth day after the convoy had arrived, and (thankfully) the last day that Karl would have to deal with Malgo. Karl had suspended his plans to gain entry to Ironhoof lest Malgo caught wind of his intentions. Perhaps the guy was nothing more than a dick, instead of a devious, conniving kidnapper, but one can never be too careful.

Malgo and his contingent stayed for four days to load up the gems and rest up before resuming their journey. Karl, however, wasn’t simply biding his time while these events transpired: in secret he planned and prepared. 

His first action was to glean as much intel as he could about Ironhoof from the locals. Much to his disappointment, Hoovetown possessed fairly little information about Ironhoof and even less about the prison. The only reliable sources his search turned up were some rather vague passages spread across several musty books which he “liberated” from the sparse Hoovetown library. 

Karl mumbled assorted frustrated obscenities as he sat on a couch scanning the books for anything helpful. Sun Flight sat by his side, aiding in the largely futile search. The two had set out to find any useful knowledge of the prison, but so far the rate of success was quite low, to phrase it kindly.

“So what have we learnt from four hours of reading?” Karl asked, slightly irked at the disappointing results of his search.

Sunny took some notes and started relating the entirely of what they had found. After she was done, Karl was barely able to resist the urge to let out an exasperated sigh. “So basically, all we found out in four hours is that it is a prison for the toughest and vilest of prisoners and that only four people successfully escaped that place in all the years it’s existed?”

Sunny nodded and Karl stated what they both thought. “Now that’s just discouraging.”

Karl had already made up his mind that deliberate incarceration was his best bet at gaining entry to the prison, but he was as of yet unable to determine any exit strategy. Not a single mission was truly impossible, but Karl started having doubts whether or not breaking out this prison was within his capabilities. It was a big gamble: much to win, but a lot to lose as well, and besides that, his rewards were uncertain.

If the confrontation with the dogs had gone sour, Karl would have had a chance to escape. This was a different story: once they got him in that prison, there might be no chance at all to escape, let alone break out an additional prisoner.

The one certainty was that he would need help from other prisoners to escape. More specifically, ones capable of flight, that were also capable of transporting him and Kalia out of prison. The only creatures he knew of that fit the bill were gryphons and pegasi, and he wasn’t even sure that he would find a pegasus in a pony-run prison.

Suddenly, the door opened and Rover entered. 

“Hey Karl! I just wanted to tell you Malgo left and… what in all that’s holy happened here?!” Rover exclaimed as he saw the massive amounts of books, notes and assorted papers lying about the room.

“Me getting bored to death.” Karl mumbled.

“Dear god! Remind me to make sure you don’t get too bored in important places!” Rover commented as he saw the mess that had come to existence seemingly because of a bored Karl.

“Will do! So you said Captain Jackass left, right?”

Rover rolled his eyes at the mention of Karl’s nickname for the douchebag captain. 

“Yes, ‘Captain Jackass’ has left and we’ve have started preparing rations for you and Sunny, along with anything else you might need on your trip.”

Sun Flight pushed her head deeper in a pillow as she tried to hide her blush that had formed from the mention of the nickname her new boss had given her. Much to her embarrassment, the dogs had started copying the nickname from Karl. At least the dogs had refrained from using it in public and she had made Karl promise to not call her that in front of her relatives and friends. Unfortunately, in order to get that promise from him, she had been forced to agree to let him use it whenever he preferred in any other situations.

“Excellent! Rover, you are an amazing individual, and do not let anyone tell you otherwise.” Karl exclaimed over-enthusiastically. This earned him a chuckle from Rover.

“And don’t you forget it, human.” He jokingly added.

“So, what’s on the schedule for today?”

“We planned a goodbye party for you two in the town house tonight. We figured it’s the least we can do for the guy who saved our asses, not to mention the fact that you and Sunny are going to try and save the daughter of one of our beloved high alphas.”

“You hear that Sunny? You’re in my service for barely four days and you already get a party in your honour! I bet your former employer didn’t fix you one of those that quickly, huh?

“…and what’s that about ‘try’ to save?”, added Karl, casting a glance back to Rover

Sun Flight just gave him a goofy smile liking the idea of the party partially in her honour, but she did not look forward to organizing a prison break. 

“Awesome.” she forced out, but neither Karl nor Rover seemed to notice her laboured enthusiasm, or simply didn’t care.

“Excellent! Sunny and I shall look our finest!” Karl quickly added, seeing Rover open his mouth, most likely to make a remark about Karl’s definition of “finest”.

“Okay, see you two then.” Rover said before walking out of the room again, leaving the two alone once again.

“So Sunny, do you have a dress at home or do you ponies not wear clothes? I still don’t exactly get that.”

Sun Flight just chuckled at Karl’s still decently limited knowledge of pony society, not that she could really blame him. After all, she probably knew as much of her new boss’ race as he did of hers, if not less. 

“Don’t worry about me. I have some nice dresses lying around at home for special occasions… and just to clear things up for you, we ponies normally don’t wear clothes except for formal occasions.”

“Hm. I learn something new about pony society everyday… and this time in a less awkward way.” Karl enthusiastically said before charging out of the room, leaving no time for Sun to ask what he meant by that. 

She quickly found her answer after she found a Playcolt magazine lying face-down on the floor, open to a certain page. The magazine had seemingly been thrown across the room as she knew for certain that Karl had not been reading anywhere close to where the magazine was lying. The magazine’s existence also raised a few questions, such as “Where and why did he obtain it?” and “Why did he attempt to read it when the subject matter was so prominently displayed on the cover?”

She then looked around to make sure no one was near the room and, with the knowledge that she still had plenty of time before the party started, she decided to read some more interesting material than the one she had been forced to read the last few hours. She surreptitiously turned the magazine over to reveal the open page.

“Jeez! I didn’t even know that could be done!” Sunny said, letting out a whistle from excitement as a telling redness swept across her face. 

Whilst Sun Flight was busy examining her newly gained literature, Karl was busy trying to get his good clothes on. This process was still a major pain in the ass due to the size of his right arm and claw, but it was at least manageable, seeing as the clothes had been made with that in mind.

He didn’t like the fact they had pricked him so many times with their needles, but Karl admitted that they had delivered some quality work.

His outfit was like almost any standard tuxedo: black pants, black jacket, white shirt and a very kindly provided red tie, on which he had gotten a discount of 25% because of the needles (they probably thought he would kill them out of frustration after that). Not that he was complaining. A discount is a discount, right?

“Damn, I am a damn good looking mutant! Or I would have been without the burn, although it does give me a nicely villainous look. Not so great for my PR, but you know I’m not here to make pony friends, but to give ponies the biggest kick in the ass that they’ve ever gotten! And if I decide to give ponies belly rubs in between the ass kicking, then that is my decision.” ‘

Karl carried out this discussion with his mirror image out of sheer boredom. He really needed to get a hobby that did not involve killing, destroying and planning devious schemes. You would not believe how difficult it is for a warmonger to have a normal hobby.

“Hobbies, eh? Which hobbies would be interesting? Reading? I guess from time to time, but that won’t help me on the travels. 

“Archery? That would be useful and most likely fun so that’s on the list. Annoying Sunny? Oh, who am I fooling? That was on the list from the moment I saw her…

“Now wait just a minute… that would be perfect! He he, why haven’t I thought of that one before?!” Karl said before he ran out of the room to give the dogs orders to fix the necessary equipment for his two new hobbies.

****
Sun Flight was just about done preparing herself for the party. She had decided to put on one of her finest dresses. The dress was mostly yellow with beautiful patterns of orange and red, which quite frankly made the dress look rather firey.

She had selected a set of golden-coloured horseshoes to complement her attire. 

She had also made a last-second reservation with the local barber to re-style her mane, on which she had gone all-out. It would be a lie to say she didn’t want to impress her new boss. That said, she didn’t harbour any romantic feelings for him, and even if she did, she had supreme doubts that creatures of his sort would fancy an equine mate. That, however, did not prevent Sun Flight from trying to make his jaw drop as low as she could.

Sun Flight was not, nor had she ever been, a pushover or an icy secretary. Oh, no: she had a sharp tongue and a prankster side as well, which had gotten her into trouble quite a few times when dealing with the local nobles in the past, most of which acted as if they had a steel rod inserted up a certain part of their anatomy.

She probably would enjoy spending time with Karl a lot more if his current objective didn’t centre around breaching one of the top-notch prisons of Equestria (which technically made her his accomplice), although somehow she doubted he would deliberately put her at risk. He just had some kind of unexplainable aura around him that radiated trustworthiness.

She grabbed her lipstick and did her lips before walking to the door, but right before she reached it, she heard a knock.  

“That’s odd: I wasn’t expecting any visitors.” She thought to herself.

Crime was something quite rare, but Sun was a mare who rather took the certainty of the uncertain to heart, so she looked out of the window to see who it was.

There, before her door, stood a very familiar biped. She could not really get a good look at his clothing from the angle at which she was looking, so she decided to open the door.
Karl was patiently awaiting the moment that the door of the house would open whilst praying that this time he had the correct house. Why did getting directions from these ponies have to be so damn difficult? He had stopped at two houses to ask directions and both times had they slammed the door in his face, and only after a little while of negotiating (which may or may not have included threats to break down their doors) did they tell him what he wanted to know.

Probably more bad PR, but he could live with that. He was shaken out of his train of thought as the door opened and he saw Sunny standing there wearing a beautiful dress. He wasn’t really into ponies (even though some people probably would be, but that was their own business, and what they did in their private life was not for him to judge and, and…

“Shut the hell up, subconscious: it’s like you’re falling down the stairs. Stay on track.” Karl thought to himself.

Equines weren’t really his thing, but Karl possessed that instinctive ability to recognise beauty despite any sort of difference in subject matter. (It was kind of like hearing a song in a foreign language, but still recognising its quality despite the gap in understanding.) He knew for a fact if a human woman was wearing that dress he would be picking his jaw up from the ground. To be fair, his jaw actually had slackened a bit upon seeing Sunny, and from the smug look on her face, he knew she had noticed it. 

“Like what you see?” She asked with playful seductiveness.

Karl regained his composure and decided to play along. 

“Oh Sunny! You look absolutely gorgeous! I never knew I meant so much for you, and you’ve only worked for me for a couple days! I wonder what else you have planned for me… if you know what I mean…”

His words had the desired effects as Sun’s cheeks again flared crimson red, whilst he kindly returned the smug look.

“I-It isn’t L-like…”

“Haha, don’t worry about it Sunny. I know you didn’t mean anything. I’m just screwing with you… crap, that could have been phrased better.” Karl awkwardly reassured her as he gave her a pat on the shoulders. 

Just as quick as Sunny had changed into a stuttering mess she returned back to normal returning the smug look.

“Ha. You really fell for that one didn’t you?”

Karl was too surprised by the complete 180° mood change to react intelligently, so he went for the second best thing: 

“Uuuuuuuhhhhhh...”

This earned him some adorable giggles from Sun, who had in the meantime closed and locked the door of her house. 

“Shall we go to the party?”

“Yes, let’s get going. That was some nice acting you had there!” Karl said as he started walking next to Sun.

“Thank you! It was kind of a necessity when dealing with the local snobs.” 

This earned her a small chuckle from Karl.

“I can imagine that’s true, if you want to be able to keep a smiling face while dealing with those guys!”

“Too true! You know, I wish more employers would be a little bit like you.” 

Sun had quickly decided to throw in the “little bit” as she honestly did not want to imagine a world with all employers exactly like Karl. She enjoyed being in his presence, or at least a lot more than one should be after the guy had successfully let Diamond dogs take control over your birth town, but that didn’t dilute the sinister feeling he seemed to exude. Karl was truly an unbridled force, an individual whose actions could not be predicted until it was too late. Whilst she did not have any proof of this, she however did have a small assumption that Karl was, even in the eyes of the Diamond Dogs, an uneasy ally despite his utility.

If his looks and personality weren’t enough to inspire fear, there was the fact that a single touch by him made her wings go limp. It was almost as if he could block magic completely by just touching somepony, yet there was more to it: for a creature who could seemingly neutralize magic, he sure as hell didn’t like it anywhere near him.

She had heard him make more than enough threats to unicorns, saying that if they dared to use magic in his presence, he would have no problem breaking off their horns, making her wonder whether or not her new boss had, for lack of better terminology, a magic allergy. This, of course, was completely ridiculous, seeing as the air was filled with magic and he would have died long ago if that was the case. No, she was probably overthinking the entire thing. She had heard some rumours that he came out of the Everfree, so perhaps he just found magic a strange concept. Yes; that sounded logical. she would leave it at that for the time being.

Even setting all of this aside, there was a question which had burned at Sun since the day she met Karl.

“Why do you actually do what you do?” 
She saw him raise his right eyebrow (the only one he had left) in confusion not understanding what she meant with her question.

“What’s your real reason for wanting to help the Diamond dogs?”

“Why are you interested to my motives?

“It’s just so strange. You help the dogs to a decisive victory, yet you don’t act like most victors would. You don’t brag about it, you don’t actually seem to even care about the fact you won twice against the Equestrian military!”

“Why? Is beating them supposed to be difficult?”

“Nopony has ever won such decisive victories against the Equestrian military in recorded history! So I would say it’s a big deal.”

Karl just scoffed and replied “Then I probably escaped the pleasure of fighting the troops actually capable of combat.”

Here it was again that uncaring attitude, like he didn’t even see the Equestrian military, which was the biggest and most well trained army in the world like anything more than an insect, which he could just crush under his feet. Didn’t the battle in the Hoovetown hills make him at least wary of what the Equestrians could offer? Or perhaps he did, but he deliberately hid it from her.

She was half-correct at least. The Equestrians had left a mark on him and the unicorns scared him, but from what he had seen from the combat capability of their troops, they weren’t much of a significant hindrance. Besides unicorns and perhaps pegasi, the ponies, in his eyes, were little more than a road block on his path to vengeance.

Karl had read that Earth ponies possessed more physical strength which against a normal human would have been useful, but what hope did they possess against someone as physically enhanced as he?

Pegasi, whilst being a nuisance in the air, possessed perhaps the weakest body structure of all four races. Their build allowed for great speed and manoeuvrability, but this advantage came with the loss of resilience against damage.

Unicorns on the other hand were truly lethal, or at least they were to him, seeing as his Diamond Dog companions did not seem to suffer from any kind of side effects while in their presence. This led to the conclusion that either the Diamond dog race was one race that was truly impermeable to magic or his physical aversion to magic was something extremely rare. Perhaps he was the only one on this world that suffered from it. He did not like the last option, seeing as treatment for ailments decreased in availability as their rarity increased. 

The last race was by far the most dangerous, as they possessed the combined characteristics of all the other races, including the pesky magic of the unicorns. Karl only knew of two I’m existence: the same two that had turned him into what he was now. He had yet to obtain the name of their species, but the dogs had told him that the white one went by Celestia and the dark blue one by Luna. (At least he didn’t need to call them Blue Bitch and White Bitch anymore.) Those two seemingly ruled Equestria in peace and harmony for the entirety of recorded history.

It was, coincidentally, this “recorded history” part that actually bugged Karl the most: in his quest for information on Ironhoof, Karl had needed to sift through a great deal of history texts. In none of them did he find even a passing reference to humans, and yet both Celestia and Luna acted as if they knew he would pose a threat. Perhaps this could be attributed to xenophobia, but still didn’t explain how they seemed to know that he was a human without him revealing the fact. Either way, there was no way that Karl would put it past the two of them to revise history in their favour. Even when he asked other ponies, none of them had the faintest idea what a human was. Karl simply couldn’t help but think the whole case had a sour smell to it.

The two reached the party mostly in silence although not an uncomfortable one. Once there, they made periodic small talk with each other. 

Karl mostly asked a bit about Sun’s life in Hoovetown and Sun asked a bit about the Everfree forest. Whilst she did a good job at hiding it, Karl could clearly see that the Everfree made her uncomfortable, a reaction that was not undue, considering that she was probably nothing more than prey for the various predators that called the forest home. 

One time she asked about how he got his burn, and seeing that in the ponies’ eyes the princesses were gods who could do no wrong, Karl decided to lie. He told her that he had been caught up in a forest fire.

The party itself was nothing too fancy, but the dogs clearly had given their full effort to this party. There was music (if a bit bizarre for Karl’s taste), plenty of beverages and a decent enough ambiance.

The party lasted for about three hours or so before guests began trickling out. Karl escorted Sun Flight back home, both out of courtesy and simply because he enjoyed talking with her. After that he returned to his own home where he promptly passed out on the bed.


The next day, everything went rather quickly. He ate breakfast, Rover showed him what had been packed for him and Sunny, and after saying their goodbyes the two left. They had been provided with a profusion of survival material (rope, foodstuffs, knives, flint, canvas tent, etc.) along with a medium-sized bag filled with bits.

The landscape was beautiful, but all things can grow monotonous with time. This monotony was broken by a thick bank of dark clouds rolling in off the north.

“Looks like we’ve got a storm headed our way.” Karl commented, stating the obvious.

“Damn weather control. They usually announce when they have a storm planned.” Sun muttered.

“You could say tha…. Wait, did you say ‘planned’?”

“Yeah, why?”

In that moment Karl struggled to force back the words “Besides the fact they govern the weather, nothing at all!” Instead, he just shook his head no. This world possessed unicorns, magical poisoning, alicorns that tried to change him into a pony, wooden wolves, big talking dogs and assorted additional insanity, so weather control was honestly not as surprising as it otherwise would have been. It was at least remotely scientifically explainable in comparison to magic.  

“It looks like there’s a small ridge over there.” Noted Sunny while gesturing to the wall of a small, grassy valley. ‘If the storm isn’t too bad we could probably wait it out there.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Karl replied as he started heading to the ridge. 

A few minutes later, both of them sat huddled near a small campfire that Karl had using the flint and knife to set fire to some dry branches obtained from a dead tree overlooking the ridge.

The rain started falling about ten minutes later or so. It was a relatively small storm and it couldn’t have lasted more than half an hour, but the sun was already beginning to set. The ridge made a good dry place to rest for the coming night.

“Hey Karl, how does our travel route look from here?”

“We just follow this route until we get to some place called Noonvale. From there we take a boat to Sunfield. I bet you will feel at home there, Sunny.” Karl said as he chuckled at his own joke and Sun Flight playfully hit his shoulder. 

“Regardless, from there we just follow the road to Ironhoof. In other words, you’re stuck with me for a fairly large distance”

“Oh, what noble stallion shall save me from such a cruel fate?” Sun exclaimed, striking a dramatic pose before breaking down in laughter, Karl soon joining in. 

“Oh, nobody shall come to save you! After all if they take you, I would lose my only travel companion, and let’s face it: annoying you is probably going to be the thing keeping me sane all this time.”

Sun stopped laughing and gave him a smug look. “Oh, really now? Well, don’t expect any trolling to go unpunished!” This earned her some chuckles from Karl.

“I don’t expect anything less Sunny. After all, where would be the fun in trolling if there weren’t any counter-trolling?” Sunny gave him a warm smile before cuddling up against him. 

Karl pulled a blanket over both of them before drifting off to sleep.
> Awkwardness with a bug pony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many hands make light work.  -John Heywood

One week. 

That was how long Karl and Sun had gone without seeing any kind of sentient being besides each other. Not that Karl was surprised. After all, this wasn’t like his own highly urbanised country where you couldn’t walk two steps without encountering someone else.

“How far is it again to the village?” asked Sunny

“I don’t know. Without any landmarks, I can’t possibly hope to calculate how far we’ve already walked.” 

Truth be told, the maps of this region found in Hoovetown were lacking to say the least, not even containing the name of the village to which they were heading. When he asked Sunny about this, she said it was because there wasn’t anyone in town that updated that kind of information.

Karl had become bored, and when he got bored, he would either try and prank Sunny or talk to her. Seeing as he couldn’t come up with a good prank at the moment, talking it would be. 

“Say Sunny, you’re the sister of Fair Flight, right?

“If you mean the stallion you used to leverage my sister-in-law, then yes.” 

It had been rather awkward when the two learnt of their indirect connection. Despite the revelation, Sunny seemed rather nonchalant about the entire affair. Almost creepily so.

“Yeah, I already apologized to the three of you. We’re cool, right?”

He heard her chuckle slightly. 

“Yeah, we’re cool. After all, you did treat him well and from what I heard from Quick Service, you were quite nice to her, so no hard feelings… and I really liked your punishments for the local snobs.”

“That’s good to hear. So anyway… you got your eyes on a guy?” 

Karl was grasping at straws here. He had already used up most of his ideas for small-talk, and this was the only subject he could think of that had any semi-rational connection to the conversation.

“You mean a stallion?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Uhm… not exactly. Good stallions are hard to find these days. Stallions in general have been becoming lesser in number, and most of them are cocky bastards whose brains are led by their dicks.”

“Way to sum it up.” Karl commented, humoured by her blunt way of putting it.

“It’s true! Definitely in the bigger cities! If you want to find the big snobs go to Canterlot. Dear Celestia, I have been there just once, and let me tell you this: never again!” 

Ar the mention of the Princess’ name Karl scowled, but Sunny seemed too preoccupied with her rant to notice.

“Yeah, big cities are always infested with those guys.” Karl replied lamely, not that he could really talk about it, seeing as he had never met a wealthy individual in his life and barely set foot in large cities. He did wonder how this ‘Canterlot’ looked though. He knew it was the capital, but he knew little beyond that and the apparent fact that lots of snobbish aristocrats lived there. Perhaps he could pry for some information. 

“Hey, while we’re on the subject, do you think could you tell me a little more about Canterlot?”

For the next half hour, Karl got lectured about Canterlot’s history from its origins to the modern day society. Karl was honestly surprised at the extent of Sunny’s knowledge. He had expected a brief account, not an entire history lesson, but hey; it was a great time killer and he had learnt a lot of valuable information.

“So the blue… Alicorn…” 

That was a close one, he had almost called her “blue bitch” again. 

“…got imprisoned for a thousand years on the moon because she wanted to bring forth eternal night.”

“You’ve got it. Princess Luna only returned just under two years ago.”

‘And already she’s pulling shit like trying to change me in a pony’ Kael thought bitterly. He would have felt a lot more sympathy for the lunar princess if she hadn’t done that and then incinerated the left side of his face.

“And what does this ‘Princess of the Night’ do exactly?”

“She rules Equestria during the night while her sister sleeps and guards ponies’ dreams.” 

There it was again: “ponies”. Not once had he heard a mention of another race. Given the existence of Diamond Dogs, Karl already knew that there were intelligent creatures aside from ponies and it was hard to imagine that none of them could be found mingling with ponies. Unless, of course, the Equestrians were on equally bad terms with all of their non-pony neighbours. 

“You know, Sunny, I’ve only ever heard you talk about ponies. Aren’t there any other species that you would run into in the cities?”

“Well, they are rare to find, but an occasional gryphon, horse and zebra does appear from time to time. I even heard that Twilight Sparkle, that’s the personal student of princess Celestia, has a baby dragon who she almost treats as a brother.” 


Karl mulled this over in his head. 

‘A dragon? That can’t be right. Oh, who am I kidding; I’m walking through a magical land filled with talking ponies. Why am I so surprised?’

Even so, the thought of a dragon living in a house was strange for Karl. It wasn’t exactly something he could readily visualise.

“I thought dragons were giant, fire breathing reptiles who preferred to live in solitude?”

“Well, they say princess Celestia found the unhatched egg in the forest and Twilight Sparkle managed to make it hatch and they adopted him.” 

Karl found it a strange idea and wrong. If his mythology was at all accurate, dragons were proud, highly destructive and greedy. In other words, nothing at all like a pet bunny. Having such a beast comingling with the rather feeble pony race seemed absolutely skewed. Upon maturity it would either end up wreaking wanton destruction or completely unprepared for the austerity of the outside world.

Ugh. He was getting distracted. Why did he care about the drake anyway? Why did he give a drake he had never seen before so much thought? Perhaps because he secretly feared that sooner or later it would stand in his way.


Karl was wont to delve deep into his thoughts when subjected to excessive monotony, and that’s exactly what was happening now. He began to examine his motives.

Karl was unnerved by ponies because of their magic, but certainly not intimidated. What fuelled his burning dislike for them was the realization that their doctrines of peace and tolerance were only meant to be expressed towards each other. While Karl could almost understand their dislike of him individually, the ponies’ blatant bigotry against seemingly all other species was downright despicable. 

Karl glanced at Sunny who was hovering at shoulder height scanning the forest curiously, unaware of the sinister thoughts that were swirling in her new boss’ head.

He felt bad for her, nearly, but not quite, regretting the fact his plans were proceeding exactly as he had intended; giving the ponies just enough information to make them think he was simply helping the dogs in rebellion, making himself look at least vaguely benevolent, while in reality this seemingly small action was only a piece of a vaster plan to grind the Equestrian state into the ground.

Surely a dishonest tactic, but after all he was fighting a dishonest foes. Karl’s mind spun, attempting to rationalise his actions and quell any apprehensions. 

He possessed a body that was extremely powerful and could neutralize magic, whilst it also died by absorbing magic, he possessed the loyalty of perhaps a good two hundred Diamond dogs or so, and he possessed a more cunning mind than his foes.

The ponies on the other hand had control of an entire army, two almighty half-gods as leaders, a vast supply of resources, greater knowledge of this world than he and more allies that they could call upon should they require it. It might just be a matter of personal perspective, but he found the odds were heavily in favor of the ponies. Some treachery here and there was necessary to impact the greater good.

Still Karl did not like doing this: it reminded him too much of what other people did to him when he was younger, lying to and cheating him with the aim of bringing about an even greater loss or humiliation. He despised those people, he hated them and for a long time Karl did not think it was possible for him to hate something with a greater passion. Even though he was differently motivated, Karl’s conscience continued to trouble him.

He hoped they reached the prison quickly so he could send Sunny back home and stop this masquerade. Truth be told, he now found his decision to bring her along to inspire a certain amount of guilt, but what else was he supposed to do? Rover’s words were true: he needed a partner that at least knew this world a bit better than he, and between a Diamond dog and a pony, a pony would be the best choice: a pony would more easily obtain information without attracting unwanted attention. The general mutual dislike between ponies and Diamond Dogs made him unsure whether a Diamond dog would be treated very kindly. It would certainly do nothing to improve his own image, especially if word of the events at Hoovetown had managed to spread.

He realized that even with her he was taking a huge risk, but a necessary one. Without her being capable of buying supplies he would need to resort to stealing and not only was he not a skilled thief, his new body was one easily recognizable. Yes, his whole plan was to get himself thrown in prison, but he wanted to make sure it was the correct prison. 

Besides, he didn’t truly trust the company of any ponies other than Sunny.

He remained deep in thought until Sunny suddenly shook his right shoulder. 

“Karl, look! An inn! We can get a good night’s rest there. Besides, those clouds up ahead do not predict anything good.”

Karl looked at the darkened skies up ahead and indeed those clouds did not predict pretty weather.

“You mean you can get a good night’s rest and I get to sleep outside.”

“What? You can’t be seriously considering staying outside in such a storm!” Sunny exclaimed.

“Do you honestly think that the innkeeper is going to allow me to stay?! I mean no offense, but most of you ponies don’t take kindly to other races, particularly not those that just wandered out of the Everfree.” 

Sunny hated to admit it, but he was right. Just the sight of him he would probably start a panic in the inn. She sighed, exasperated, but gave in to his argument. 

“Fine. I guess we’d better start searching for a place to sit the storm out.”

She was however halted by a firm “No”, to which she responded with a questioning look. 

“You sleep in the inn and I shall search a spot to sleep outside. You have some bits in your bag, which should be enough for room and board.”

“I can’t do that! Not with you sleeping…” She was silenced by Karl putting his left claw over her mouth.

“No complaining! Besides, inns are often times places with a lot of stories. You should try prying for some information about Ironhoof and the prison. Even if they let me in, my presence certainly wouldn’t aid in that endeavour.” 

Sunny nodded and he pulled his claw away from her mouth.

“How long do we stay?”

“Get a room for the rest of the day. We’ll meet back here in the morning and get out before anyone has the chance to remember you.”

“Alright. Stay safe Karl.”

“You too Sunny!” 

With that, the two separated. Karl did not particularly like leaving Sunny alone, partially because he felt he was putting her at risk, partially out of fear of her ratting on him, but he figured he would put some trust in her. Perhaps she would learn something useful in the inn.

However, now was not the time to think about such things: both the evening and the storm were fast approaching. 

‘Damn. You’d think they were aiming these storms at us… Actually that’s not unlikely.’ he mused to himself.

He went deeper and deeper in the forest looking for a cave or some sort of overhand where sit out the storm, but unfortunately failed to find anything at all. 

“Well isn’t this dandy…” he muttered, his voice absolutely dripping

He halted in his tracks as he heard a sound coming from his right. It sounded like the buzzing of bees, but it was too loud for one bee. 

‘A swarm?’ 

But of course with the storm on it’s way, he doubted that any bees at all would be flying.

He was no fan of bees, but his curiosity got the better of him and he decided to investigate. 

“I swear if it’s a giant bee or wasp I am going to…” He kept in the rest of his words as he saw the source of the buzzing. 

‘Okay, positives: it’s not bees. Negatives: I have no idea what the hell it is.’

Whatever it was, it appeared to be severely wounded as it was lying in a puddle of something green that, except for the colour, looked a lot like blood. The creature bore insectoid wings, the general body form of a pony, a horn (instantly raising a red flag in Karl’s mind), chitinous, jet-black skin, a blue carapace on its back and some sort of fin in the place of its mane. The strangest thing however was that it possessed holes straight through legs, and yet this did not seem to be the source of injury.

Karl was torn: he felt the urge to help the creature, but he was also blindingly aware of the fact that horns indicated magical ability. After briefly deliberating, Karl decided that it was probably for the best if he left the creature alone. 

Unfortunately, when Karl started to move away he rustled some fallen leaves and the omnipresent coarse brush, instantly drawing the creature’s attention. 

“Who’s there?!” a weak (though clearly male) voice demanded.

Sure, Karl would have just left, but his conscience persisted. Now that he knew of the creature’s sentience, it was even more difficult to ignore its need for help. Besides, the creature could be useful. He doubted it could even put up much of a fight should the need arise. Karl rose up out of the bushes and started slowly making his way back towards the creature. Although the eyes of the creature were completely blue (Karl found that particularly eerie) they clearly widened in what would be a look of horror.

“Oh no! No stay away from me please I don’t want to die!”

Karl huffed at the creature’s response. 

“You’re doing a good job so far.” Karl complimented sarcastically as he looked deliberately at the pebble of green blood that the creature was lying in. 

The look of horror disappeared to be replaced by a brief look of confusion and finally by a scowl of irritation.

“Why are you here, beast? To mock me in my last living minutes?”

“I am still debating whether to help you or leave you.” 

The scowl softened.

“Help me?”

“Yes. I don’t know what I could gain by helping you, but for the moment I am more interested in lending you some assistance rather than killing or mocking you.”

“How could you possibly not know what I am?! I am a Changeling! We invaded the capital of Equestria not too long ago and we are now on national scale searched and imprisoned by the ponies.”
“I’m new around here. I don’t know a lot about this place. And by the way, congrats on the invasion.” 

Karl started cleaning the wounds of the Changeling.

The changeling’s jaw was hanging open in confusion, amazement and utter disbelief. No, he could not have heard that right. Did this creature just congratulate them for invading Canterlot?

“You know there are more effective ways to catch flies than what you’re doing right now?” the beast mocked him again.

“You realize you’re helping a criminal right now, right?”

“And you are being helped by a criminal, so it’s cool.” Karl retorted as he finished patching up the Changeling’s wounds.

“So what did you do? You know, to make them come after you?”

“I would love to tell you everything about my little criminal activities, but I am kind of on the run from a big ass storm. You don’t know any cave or ridges to hide do you by coincidence?”

“Yeah. I have been living here for a while so I’ve got a small cave not too far away from here.”

“Good lead the way I would say.”

“Uhm listen I am sorry for calling you a beast. My name is 

~~KHMIZSHKUODTZA~~.”

Karl’s ears were assaulted with a harsh, scraping vocalisation seemingly overlayed with the sound of a buzzing insect swarm. Only the most basic semblance of language managed to come through.

“I’m sorry, but could you repeat that?”

“~~Khmiz Shkuotsa~~”

It was clearer, but not quite understandable.

“One more time?”

The creature was clearly getting annoyed.

“Hmyz Škôdca.” he huffed.

“You know what, I’m just going to call you Locust.”

“Then what the hell was all that for?!” exclaimed the Changeling in frustration.

“Sorry man, but I happen to have more important things to do than learning how to pronounce a language that sounds like a plague of locusts collectively hacking up a furball.”

“Ugh. Suit yourself.”

“So how is it that you came to live here? Or have you just lived here all along?”

“I was a Wing Commander in our army before the Equestrians routed us in the last battle over Canterlot. Most of my men were either killed or captured. After the battle, I managed to make contact with six other survivors. This forest was the only place where we could lay low and avoid contact… but one of us was a rat. We were sold out to Equestrian forces by someone within our group. They’ve been capturing us one by one. I’m the only member still left. I don’t know what’s happened to my friends, but rumour has it that they’ve been put in the prison near Ironhoof. I’ve been moving around the forest a great deal lately to avoid capture, but I feel as if they’re about to close in.”

‘Ironhoof?’ Karl mentally noted.

By now the thunder and darkened skies were only adding some more dramatic effects to the already depressing introduction of the former Wing Commander.

“Well that was an uplifting story.” quipped Karl. “You can call me Karl. Karl Kempf. They call my kind ‘human’… don’t ask me what they are: it’s something that truly defies concise explanation. How about we start making our way to that cave of yours?” 

Locust nodded in agreement and started limping towards the cave. The two arrived after walking for the better part of ten minutes, just as the rain began to fall.  

The cave wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small. It was, in fact, surprisingly perfect. There were blankets sprawled on the cave floor as a kind of bed, some personal stuff, but what Karl definitely noted was that it was way too much for one person. 

“At the risk of sounding cliché, welcome to my humble abode.”

“Are you sure it’s safe here? You said that you felt the ponies were on the verge of capturing you.”

“Well, that’s more because of a rather recent occurrence. I was out hunting in the town, but the locals figured out who I was. I got away, but they managed to score a few hits. You know they actually got a mob together with pitchforks and torches? I mean come on! Show some originality!”

“Hold on, did you say ‘hunting in the town’?” interrupted Karl, “What exactly do you mean by that?”

“We Changelings feed off emotion. Our favourite is love, and those sappy ponies are absolutely brimming with it.”

“And you just wander around and take it?”

“Yeah. That’s actually how a lot of my friends got captured: we would take the form of a pony and stroll through the town. That’s also how I know we were betrayed by an insider: they would be the only one that could identify us.“

“I wish I could help, but your diet is quite unique.”

“You can.”

“I am not falling in love with you if that’s what you mean.”

“No. You need to kiss me.” 

If Karl would have been drinking anything he would have spit it out.

“Say what?! Listen, I don’t know how stuff works with you guys, but we don’t just spontaneously generate love whenever we kiss anyone.”

Locust’s expression didn’t change however. 

“I am sorry od I’ve offended you, but we changelings absorb love by physical contact. The best way to so that is by kissing. Even if a pony isn’t genuinely in love with us, we are able to extract pre-existing love. So do you truly want to help me?”

Karl groaned in irritation and mentally cursed the changelings their diet. He couldn’t let a living being starve to death because of him not wanting to maintain his manliness. 

“Fine, I’ll kiss you, but I swear; no funny stuff and no tongue!”

“Okay no tongue.” Locust said before preparing himself. 

Karl just went for it: the quicker he did this, the better. His lips and that of the changeling connected and he felt Locust’s forelegs wrap themselves around his neck probably to better support himself.

‘Damn that changeling knows how to kiss. Ugh. Just imagine he’s a hot chick.’ Karl mentally scolded himself. After a little while Locust broke the kiss to regain his breath.

“Damn you’re good!” Locust complimented as he tried to get his breath back.

“Yes, you’re not bad yourself either.” Karl replied as he also tried to regain his breath.

Suddenly, without any kind of warning, Locust burst out in green flames and in front of Karl stood a blue earth pony with a blonde mane and tail. However, he had felt no pain, almost like the changeling magic didn’t affect him. 

“I thought you deserved a small demonstration after your help.” even the voice was different. The pony burst out in flames again to reveal the changeling’s true form.

“Could you light your horn please?” 

Locust frowned at the strange request, but obeyed nonetheless. Karl brought his claw close to the horn careful to not touch it and once again no pain. 

“Could you please levitate a rock or so to me?” The changeling one again executed the request and once again no pain.

“Could you please transform again?” 

The blue earth pony came back and this time Karl tapped the changeling lightly on the head, which resulted in him immediately changing back.

“What did you do?”

“Can you still fly?” 

Locust immediately started flapping his wings and hovered over the ground.

“Interesting, but it is logical.”

“What?” the changeling questioned curiously

“My body usually drains magic, and it causes pegasi to loose the ability to fly  but it doesn’t seem to affect you.”

“That’s because pegasi are the only creatures that use magic to fly. All the rest of us have natural flight capabilities”

“I see.” 

Karl made a mental note of this. It might be useful when planning his escape from Ironhoof.

“What kind of creature are you? There are plenty of spells and runes that block magic, but I have never heard of a creature that has the capability of blocking magic by merely touching anyling.”

“’Anyling’? Hmph.  It’s better than ‘anypony’, that’s for sure.”

“You know, perhaps a partnership between you and I could be made.” Locust proposed.

“I think I like the sound of that.”

Karl extended his claw to Locust, and the two shook.

“You know Louie, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

“…What’s that mean?”

“It’s a bit of pop culture from my world. Just go with it.”

> There is a savage beast in every man
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“There is a savage beast in every man, and when you hand that man a sword or spear and send him forth to war, the beast stirs.”  ― George R.R. Martin, A Storm of Swords

Karl woke up on the hard cave floor, trying to remember what exactly had happened last night. You know that feeling when you’re on vacation and you wake up in a hotel, but your brain doesn’t quite remember where you are? It was exactly like that, only this was no hotel. 

The memories came back quite rapidly as he noticed the slumbering form of the Changeling resting on top of a bundle of blankets which he had made into his bed. Locust had clearly slept far more comfortably than Karl, but given his injury, he was certainly more deserving.

Said injury brought him to the second problem; Karl had decided that the Changeling was definitely a companion he wanted to bring with him, both because he could be a valued ally and because he wanted to ensure the creature’s safety, but he knew that the Changelings hadn’t exactly had the best history with ponies. How would Sunny react to Locust’s presence? More importantly, how was he going to transport a wounded Changeling?

“Thinking?” he heard Locust ask whilst letting out a loud yawn.

“Yeah, about how I’m going to transport your wounded ass.”

“You look like a strong guy, can’t you carry me on your back or something’?” 

Karl needed to admit that it was a possibility. A normal human would have trouble just carrying the backpack he had with him, but his new body had given him some more strength so carrying both his backpack and the Changeling was possible, but that would leave him exposed to the eyes of others, and Karl was reluctant to do that for previously stated reasons. Unless the guards had heard of what he did back at Hoovetown they couldn’t legally arrest him, but even then his situation was precarious. Being seen with Locust could easily give them the justification they needed.

“No. You might be seen. It would be too risky.” 

Because of the blank, insectoid eyes of Locust, Karl couldn’t be sure, but he would swear he saw a twinge of fear. Not that it surprised him: one could easily liken the Changelings’ situation to that of the Jews in Nazi Germany.

“Be that as it may, how else am I going to get around?” 

Suddenly Karl felt the urge to drive the flat of his hand into his face. 

‘Why didn’t I think of that sooner?’

“Urgh we are such an idiots! I just change into a pony!”

“My thoughts exactly. Although you’re still pretty beat-up and tired. Are you sure you can do it?”

“Meh. I still feel better. It’s a fifty/fifty shot. We’ll have to risk it.”

“Fine. Just don’t go whining to me if you can’t pull it off. Get your crap together and make the change… just not to a unicorn!”

“Why not? That’s my favourite type.”

“Unicorns and I have had a bit of a… coloured history. You’ll just have to take my word on this.”

“Alright no worries.” 

Locust burst out in green flames and in his place now stood a light blue Pegasus stallion with a dark blue mane and tail.

‘Jeez.’ thought Karl. ‘The “Reptilian Shapeshifter Conspiracy” nutbags back home would have a field day with these guys.’

“Awesome. So what’s your name now? Baby Blue?”

Locust gave him an annoyed look.

“Really? That’s the best you can come up with?”

“I have many talents. Picking names isn’t one of them. Let’s see you do better.”

“My name shall be… crap, I’ve got nothing.” 

Karl groaned in irritation. 

“Hey, why don’t you give me a human name?”

“Fine. Your name is Mark.”

“That’s not going to cut it with the ponies! For the Hive’s sake, human names are even worse than Changeling names. At least ours are interesting!”

“Your entire lifestyle is based on assuming the shape of others.”

“There’s a reason why I’m in the field instead of working intelligence acquisition.” 

“Okay, you know what? Let’s just call you Rain Cloud. OK? OK. Case closed. Now let’s get moving.” Karl finally blurted out. 

Organising Locust’s stuff was a quick job as the Changeling had already packed most of it last evening. After Karl ate a bit, he was forced to deal with the most challenging part of getting underway: getting the wounded Changeling in the special carrier the two had constructed. 

“You’re good?” Karl asked when the Changeling had finally managed to squirm himself in the carrier.

“Yes, although this is embarrassing.”
“Tell me about it.” Karl mumbled under his breath before he started walking back to the meeting point.

“Say; how did we get this thing built so fast?” he asked Locust, indicating the carrier.

“The writers got lazy and needed a way to move the plot along but didn’t feel like filling in the details.”

“I see.”

Locust went on to give him directions out of the forest. Karl could manage the rest of the way himself.

Of course, luck wasn’t with them (seriously, why would it be? That would be boring.), and they soon heard gruff, angry voices coming from a short distance away. 

“Damn. Where is that Changeling?”

“He can’t be far. Sharp Horn nailed him pretty good!” An enthusiastic male voice said.

“Ugh. Why are we even searching? That Changeling has probably already bled to death with that wound!” Another one whined.

“If that has happened, can you explain why we found the puddle of blood and not the body?” a thicker voice replied.

“I don’t know, maybe some predator took the body with him.” The whining one retorted.

“You sound pretty damn sure, especially considering there wasn’t a blood trail or anything else indicating he was dragged away by a predator.” The first voice stated

“We all saw the shot and we saw the puddle of blood. There is no way that that Changeling could have survived! Besides, you said it yourself: no blood trail. If he got up and left, there should be one.” the second voice once again defended his point

“That’s true, but we don’t know if he had help. Somepony could have shown up and carried him out.” A forth voice stated.

“What pony would possibly want to heal a Changeling?” The first one said on a disbelieving tone.

“Who says it’s a pony? Could have been a Griffon or a D-dog for all I know.”

“Yeah right.”

Karl quickly ducked behind some ferns. 

“Damn. Your blood survived that storm.”

“Changeling blood is like insect blood: it’s all viscous and slimy. There still shouldn’t have been much left, though. Maybe they have a unicorn using a tracking spell.” Locust replied in a whisper.

“Freaking’ unicorns… Hold on though; if they’ve got a tracker, wouldn’t they have picked up on us just now?”

“Not necessarily: most tracking spells I’ve seen follow specifically along the trail taken by the quarry. It’s a quirk of the medium, don’t ask me to explain.” 

“We could probably avoid them, but if they get out of the forest without finding us they would probably call for backup. Of course, I could always kill them, but I doubt the disappearance of four soldiers would go unnoticed. Then we would have an even more serious manhunt on our hands and we could find ourselves with ponies up the ying-yang.”

“There are all sorts of alternate routes out of the forest, but they would take us way off course. Even if we got out of the forest, they would probably set up checkpoints and roadblocks on all the bridges and trails, not to mention patrols.”

Karl groaned inwardly. The situation was deteriorating, and there didn’t seem to be any clear-cut solution. As he was lamenting his luck, the patrol came into view a short distance away. Just as Locust had suggested, there was a unicorn present.

Karl looked at his claws and took a big breath. 

“Look, this might bring us some unwanted attention, but I honestly can’t think of a solution to this that would do otherwise. I say we take these guys out here and now. That would probably buy us the most time.”

Locust nodded, giving an understanding expression.

“Now listen; can you take care of the unicorn?”

“No problem.” Locust replied, wriggling out of his conveyance. “I might be wounded, but I have a little debt to settle with that one: he sounds like the one that wounded me… but do you really think that you can take on three healthy earth ponies?” 

“Don’t worry about me. Just make sure that unicorn stays as far away from me as possible.”

Meanwhile, the ponies were scanning the area for possible tracks of the missing Changeling. 

“Son of a bitch. I’m going to miss breakfast because of this stupid Changeling! Where the buck could it be?!”

Unbeknownst to the ponies, Locust had circled them and was currently lurking in the bushes to their rear, directly behind Sharp Horn.

“Smile!” hissed Locust under his breath, and released a stream of neon-green slime in an extremely focused blast, impacting Sharp on the base of the skull. The unfortunate unicorn crumpled to the ground covered in the viscous matter. He would never get back up.

“Stallion down!” yelled a brown Earth Pony. “It was the Changeling! Behind you!” 

He and the other two immediately charged at Locust who turned tail and ran through the bushes he had appeared from.

Karl lay in wait behind a tree not far from the encounter. Locust came through and ran past, closely followed by the brown Earth Pony, who could only look on in terror as he saw what awaited him on the other side. The last thing he saw before he passed into the great Oblivion was the great beast rushing him head on, with bared claws and a vicious snarl pulling across its face.

His partners had gone around the bush and tried to flank Karl. That, of course, was a terrible idea. Karl grabbed the head of one and used him as a flail to bring down on the other, a sickening crack issuing from the body upon impact.

The last pony had survived being beaten with the corpse of his friend, but before he could plead for his life Locust appeared above him. The Changeling placed his holed fore-hooves upon the pony’s head and pressed. He pressed until a sound not unlike the splitting open of a watermelon issued from beneath him.

The ambush had gone off without a hitch. Karl looked to Locust, noting that he had, due to that last strike, had gotten a bit of blood on his fore hooves, but he just licked to clean like a dog or cat would lick their paws. Kind of cute, really.

“Good. What now? Should we burry them?” Locust asked after he was done cleaning himself.

“No: we’ve already wasted more than enough time. When the folks back where these guys came from realise how long they’ve been gone, this whole area will get shut down. The sooner we get out of here, the better. Now climb back in.” Karl said, kneeling.

“Ugh. Do I really have to? I swear, I feel fine now.”

“That was no small injury you got back there. I don’t care how it feels; if you over-exert yourself, it could just re-open the wound. Now like I said, get in.”

“Fine…” mumbled Locust.

Locust changed back to his Rain Cloud form before wriggling himself into the carrier. Karl waited patiently until he heard Locust say that he was settled, and the two continued on their journey.

After walking for a while, Locust spoke up again:

“You know, thanks for sticking with me instead of abandoning me when you heard about the risks involved.”

“I have given you my word and I intend to keep it. I don’t leave people behind just because it could be dangerous.”

“Hmph. If only there were more creatures out there like you.”

Locust was again quiet for a while before he spoke again.

“Say Karl, that pony companion you mentioned yesterday evening? What’s her opinion on Changelings?”

“You’re guess is as good as mine. Never asked her about it. Hell, before I met you I didn’t even knew your race existed.”

“How come actually? You never told me about that part of your history. The invasion of Canterlot was big news! Like, huge!”

“I lived in the Everfree. You don’t exactly get much news around there.” Karl lied. Obviously, he hadn’t been around during the invasion, but he didn’t like to discuss his origins much, for obvious reasons.

“Yeah, I guess so, still didn’t you see us flying?”

“I haven’t seen anything.” And with that, Karl refused to elaborate any further.

****
Sun was anxiously waiting for her boss to reappear out of the forest. She had gotten some information out of some travelers which she was sure would interest him. After another tense few minutes she saw her boss come out of the forest with a pony sitting in some sort of improvised device on his back; certainly not something she had expected.

“Had a good night rest?” Karl greeted her.

“Yeah, very good… but, uh… might I ask why you have another pony on your back?”

“Oh, this fine lad? Don’t worry about him. I found him wounded in the forest and he agreed to help us get to Ironhoof in exchange for transportation. Say, this fellow’s told me some pretty interesting things about Changelings. How come you never mentioned them?”

“Changelings? Uhm, I guess I never saw the use of telling you about them. It’s not like they’re a threat anymore.”

“How do you feel about them?”

“Well, I don’t particularly dislike them, but I don’t like them either. Why?”

“Because your new companion is a Changeling.” 

Locust transformed back into his real form, startling Sun.

“You’re helping a Changeling?!”

“Indeed! Sunny meet Locust. Locust, this is Sunny. Did you manage to get some information?”

Assisting a mercenary, assisting a warlord, facilitating a prison break and now aiding a Changeling! Oh boy, if the authorities ever got to her, she would have one hell of a record. She shook herself out of her trance and related to Karl all that the travelers had told her.

“So the basic gist is: there’s some unrest in Ironhoof. That should make it a lot easier for me to rustle up some support. Excellent work Sunny!” Karl stated happily. 

“Not to break up the reunion, but we really need to hurry up.” Locust urged Karl.

“Right. We’ll have to go double time so Sunny, I hope you had breakfast.” 

With that, Karl set out, followed by Sunny.

The three walked for a couple of hours. The forest started changing more and more into swamp. After a while, it became so bad that the path stopped and was replaced by a set of wooden planks lain across the liquefied ground. 

“Ugh. No wonder that all of these pony settlements are so closed off if this is the path that connects them!” Karl exclaimed, annoyed at the ill-maintained and rotting wood which now delineated their route.

“This smell is unbearable.” Sunny stated for the fifth time or so.

“Goddamn mosquitos!” Locust yelled out angrily as he lighted his horn to make a flare which kept the annoying insects away from him.

“Locust I swear, if my hair catches fire …”

“No worries. I’m a pro at this.” Locust stated proudly. Having said that, he noticed a small flame was burning on the hair near Karl’s neck, which he quickly blew out.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” said Locust quickly, brushing off the near-crisis.

“I had no idea our road system was this bad.” Sunny said to herself.

“I never knew there were worse places to crash-land than the forest.” observed Locust

“There are always worse places to land. Believe me, I know all about bad landing spots.” commented Karl

“Shh… did you two hear that?” Sunny whispered as she stopped and crouched a bit.

“Not really. How did it sound?” Karl asked as he also crouched and immediately started searching the area for possible dangers.

“I don’t like having the high ground guys!” Locust whispered, not feeling comfortable being still decently high, making him an easier target.

“I just heard some water splattering, like someone took a step in the water.”

An ambush would be bloody perfect considering that the wooden bridge offered no protection at all against any type of projectiles. The safest thing to do would be going for some cover and analyze the situation there, but this was a swamp who knows what creatures lived in that water. 

“You and Locust take the air and stay safe. I will take my chances on the bridge.”

Locust crawled out of the carrier and took the air together with Sunny leaving Karl alone on the ground. Realizing he was alone now he silently cursed his decision, but it was the safest option. Karl just kept on moving the deeper he went, the more he felt like being watched.

This swamp was creeping him out even with his new body, especially the water for only god knew what this world had as fauna in this swamp. 

“I swear, if I need to fight again I will…” The rest of his sentence was cut off as he felt some pain in his right shoulder, right claw and side.

He looked what was causing it and saw arrows sticking in his thick flesh. Immediately, he jumped from the wooden path in order to get some cover behind a nearby fallen tree. To his surprise, the arrows didn’t really hurt that much. 

‘My flesh is probably thicker, so they didn’t penetrate very deep.’ 

He pulled out the one in his claw and only very little blood was visible on the arrow head. The one in his shoulder followed, and finally the one in his side. All of them barely penetrated.

“Good thing these are pretty crappy arrows.” Karl stated as he saw they were stone heads rather than metal ones, not even possessing barbs to prevent him from pulling them out. 

Shitty craftsmanship or not, some payback was in order, and he sat for a while planning his approach. Even with the poor quality of the arrows, Karl wasn’t going to charge straight into what looked like at least three archers.  

“Karl get your ass over here and come and help me with these guys!” He heard Locust yell, and that was all he needed to drop the carrier and his backpack to charge straight at the creatures that had attacked him.

Locust was busy flying around and attacking at least six Earth Ponies. Two others lay dead, one in a puddle of blood, but the other looked like he had gotten a meteorite on top of him, the body lying in a small crater. Four ponies broke off and charged at him as they spotted the new threat. Two of them had spears, one had an axe and the one that looked like the leader had a sword.

He might have big-ass claws and armoured skin, but Karl wasn’t about to charge head in four armed individuals, ponies or not. At least not without a weapon himself. He picked up a rather thick branch and a rock. He threw the rock at the eye of the one with the axe. The pony was fortunate and got hit above his left eye instead of in it, but it managed to slow him down considerably.

The ponies’ lack of combat experience was something Karl soon discovered, mostly because he wasn’t yet injured in the slightest, and he actually managed to break one of the spears with a well-aimed hit from his branch. He wasted no time with that pony and used his right claw to cut the throat of the one with the axe. The range of Karl’s claw also allowed him to take a swipe at the sword-bearing pony in the same motion. The stallion dodged the sweeping attack by jumping backwards, however he had not expected the beast to charge him using it’s claw as a shield.

Karl rushed the stallion and used his teeth to bite at its neck, earning a hoarse scream as the pony desperately tried to get him off. Karl suddenly released the pony’s neck and with full force brought the branch down on his head, fracturing the branch and sending blood and teeth flying everywhere in a fashion that would have made Quentin Tarantino envious.

The third pony tried to stab Karl in his right side using his spear, but his throat was swiftly pierced by the pointed remnant of the branch that Karl still had in his left claw. 

The last remaining pony tried to buck him in a final act of desperation.

Karl simply used the one with the pierced throat as a shield. The body made the sickening sound of bones breaking as it took the direct hit. With the attack failed, Karl wasted no time in making sure that it was the pony’s last attack: He jumped on his back and, with a burning, primitive fury welling up from some deep, hidden place, bit and slashed at the now defenseless pony, his weight preventing another attempt at bucking. Karl only stopped his attack when the pony stopped struggling. He got back on his feet and looked at Locust who was looking back at him with wide eyes, standing next to the bodies of his own opponents. 

“You okay Karl?”

“Yeah. Just letting off some steam.” Karl quickly replied before retrieving the backpack and the carrier.

“Where’s Sunny?”

“I sent her further up the path. I figured this was no place for a personal assistant to be.” Locust replied as he settled himself back in the carrier. Both were dirty and smeared with the blood of their attackers. The two silently walked away from the carnage they had left in their wake.
> A Gryphon and a Lonely Girl
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“The body is a home, a prison and a grave.” ― James Runcie, The Colour Of Heaven

An arrow flew through the air and hit the third ring of a roughly curved bull’s eye in a tree branch. 

“You’re getting there! Keep it up.” Locust encouraged Karl, who was already busy loading a new arrow for another try. He figured that archery would most likely come in handy later, and the sooner he got to practising the better. Besides, it was a great time killer.

It was difficult at first; not only learning it, but also learning how to work with a bow with his claws, but he managed to figure it out. He used his left claw to hold the bow and used the ends of what once was his thumb and forefinger to hold the arrow. 

It sounds easier than it is.

Sunny and Locust were busy playing chess with the set that Karl had asked the dogs to give him. He had always loved the game when he was younger, so now that he was stuck in a world with very little entertainment for someone such as himself, the board game once again found a place in his heart.

About a week and a half had passed ever since those dreadful ambushes in the marshlands, and the trio had managed to locate Noonvale. Karl and Locust had quickly caught up with Sunny. Of course, she asked what had happened, but both Karl and Locust had agreed beforehand that it would be better to keep someone of her disposition in the dark regarding the details and replied to her inquiries only that it “had been taken care of”. The two had washed themselves and their clothes in a small pond they found after exiting the swamp.

The rest of their trip to Noonvale had gone by without any more annoying surprises, for which Karl was grateful. After sighting the town, they had settled in on a hill with view of the city. The city, to those familiar with European history, looked a bit like ancient Roman city of Lutetia. Noonvale sprawled across a broad river, the larger portion located on the land nearest Karl and his friends and connected to a smaller settlement located on an island via two bridges. This second part of the city was considerably less grand, being composed of only a few small houses surrounded by a wooden wall.

He knew that the reason for Lutetia to be like that was out of fear of Germanic raids from the north, so he guessed that some less than friendly individuals lived past the opposite side of the river. He decided to ask Sunny about it. There was no guarantee that she knew anything, but it was worth a shot.

“Hey, how come the city on the other side is so… nearly non-existent?”

“The area between the Sythan River and the Moussus River is a favorite landing spot for the pirates from Nombrus. They use the smaller rivers to travel deeper in the mainland with their ships. Beyond that, the ponies have a pretty tense relationship with a tribe that lives on the other side of the river. That ‘city’ is actually a mercenary camp that offers protection for merchants.”

“The ponies didn’t strike me as the type to employ mercenaries, what with their being all high-and-mighty about their army.” Karl retorted.

“Oh, they don’t like them, but you know they have little chose in the matter. The Equestrian military doesn’t have enough ponypower…” 

Karl snorted and rolled his eyes at the Equestrian variant of “manpower”. 

“…available for escorts in this area, so the only real choices are hiring some mercenaries or letting the land go undefended. Merchants like that second option far less, so they’re willing to put up with hired arms if it keeps them safe.”

“Who are the mercenaries?”

“Gryphons, D-dogs, who knows. Maybe even some rogue Changelings disguised as ponies. Even if the townsponies figured out that they were Changelings, I doubt that they would even care: they’re way too valuable to the local economy to risk arresting. Basically, what I’m trying to say is; if you’re willing to take the money, pretty much anyone can join.”

“Pirates, thugs for hire, this just keeps getting better! How the hell do you guys get away with calling this a nation of peace, love and tolerance?”

Locust laughed a bit before replying. “Yeah, these border territories can be really hazardous for living, but they really are lovely… and crucial to Equestrian business interests.”

“Border territories? Who are the neighbors?”

“The Gryphons live to the north of Ironhoof. The pirates that Locust mentioned live in the marshlands between the two rivers I brought up before. There’s a native group that lives there too. Their full tribe name is really complicated, something like < Skokak-Skitôpák-wuci-Cáquk >. Most of the locals just call them Skokak for obvious reasons. They have some sort of mutual non-aggression pact with the pirates.” Sunny explained, which earned her a nod from Locust.

“Indeed, the only reason that both the pirates and the tribe actually honour the treaty is because it’s needed in order to preserve their individual interests. The tribe is powerful enough to keep the pirates out of the lands if they felt like it and the pirates trade useful things with the tribe that they can’t get from anywhere else. Each side basically has a stranglehold on the other.”

“What species are these… Skokak?” asked Karl.

“We refer to them as ‘Naga’. I don’t know if you’re familiar with them, but they’re pretty much like giant snakes with arms and torsos that stay mostly upright. They break down into a few subspecies. The Skokak are part of one that resembles cobras.” Locust explained. “They’re not entirely reptilian, though. They’re more amphibious: they can be out of water for a certain amount of time, but they need to keep their skin wet in order to survive.”

“So, to add to the previous list, we now have pirates, thugs for hire, *and* intelligent giant snake-people. Fun times.” 

“How are we ever supposed to get in Ironhoof from here? Surely you can’t expect us to get through that swamp alone?” Sunny asked, audible nervous.

“Nope, we won’t stand a chance alone. Hell, forget running into enemies; just surviving in a swamp is hard enough.”

“So what’s the plan?” Sunny asked confused.

“I’ll think of one, but first let’s try and get in that city without attracting any attention.”

“You know, sometimes things are as easy as walking through the front gates.” 

A voice from behind spoke, startling all three of them. Locust readied a spell, Karl prepared his claws to strike, and Sunny bravely… hid behind them. They saw that the voice belonged to a Gryphon. 

“I don’t want to fight.” The Gryphon said, lifting his wings and showing his empty talons to show that he had no concealed weapons. Well, talons and a razor-sharp beak count as weapons, but there’s not much to be done about those, is there?

“How long have you been listening in on our conversation, Gryphon!” Locust snarled.

“Easy, friend. You have nothing to fear from me. For what it’s worth, though, I arrived during the discussion of the pirates’ relation with the Skokak.”

“Why did you sneak up on us?” Karl asked in a neutral tone.

“Perhaps introductions are in order so you can better understand my reasons. My name is Adler Lowegreif. I am one of the local Mercenary Captains. I’ll get straight to the point: we’re looking for new recruits. You Changelings are excellent soldiers and spies, albeit extremely rare for reasons I’m sure you are all too familiar with.”

Locust cringed at the reminder of the loss of his friends. 

“And your friend here… let’s say he is a very unique specimen.”

“Yes, I am one of kind, if I do say so myself.”

“Yes, and since you talked about the Cáqash and it’s inhabitants so much I assumed you wanted to cross it.” 

“Talked about the what?”

“Cáqash. It’s what the tribe calls the swampland and marshes. Some locals think it’s a bit weird using Naga vocabulary, but they’ve called it that for as long as anyone can remember and it’s just kind of carried over into everyday talk.” 

‘Hm. Their name makes a little more sense now… I guess.’ thought Karl.

“As I was saying, when I heard your intentions, I thought we could help each other out. As you seem to already know, my job consists of making sure merchants arrive safely and soundly with their merchandise in Ironhoof. I hire teams to help in the effort, not without a fair share of bits of course. Usually we only have issues with the pirates: the Skokak and the townspeople usually stay away from each other. 

“But lately, things have been getting tough. The relationship between the ponies and the Skokak has been deteriorating and over the past few weeks the Skokak have even been attacking trade convoys. It’s gotten so bad, that… well, my usual crew has been mostly killed off. The thing that makes dealing with the Skokak so risky is that they aren’t bound by rivers water like the pirates are. We have a good idea with the pirates where they try and pull off an attack, but the Skokak influence extends far inland. They say they’re like ghosts; coming out nowhere, savagely attacking travellers and then vanishing again, leaving just bodies behind… sometimes not even that.”

“Good relations, even neutral ones, don’t just go sour for no reason.” said Karl, stating the obvious. “What’s the reason behind the violence?”

“I don’t have a clue. One day things are as normal, the next, they start butchering travellers and tradesponies.” 

“Let me guess; this is the perfect opportunity to get the maximum pay check out of the merchants. You just need a bigger crew to convince them that you’re worth their time and money.”

“Indeed, mister…”

“Karl Kempf, but just call me Karl.”

“Well, Karl, anyone who knows the basics of trade knows that when a product is popular but there is only little to be offered, then the price becomes higher. In the mercenary business it’s no different: the fewer there are of us and the more dangerous our opponents get, the more expensive our services become. Of course, mercenaries willing to risk the natural hazards of the marshes and then potentially taking on both the pirates and the Skokak are hard to come by, no matter the pay.” 

“If they have so much trouble with the swamp, than why don’t the merchants simply use Pegasus carriages?” Sunny piped up at last.

“You’d think that, wouldn’t you! It’s not as simple as it sounds. The swamp is too large to cross in one try, and good luck with trying to land a cart in there without it getting stuck. Of course, there is also the fact that no one really wants to try their luck against the Orodros.”

“Orodros?”

“Yes. Nasty things! Some of the older locals call them Wôpsuqák. They’re basically giant eagles that are at least as large as an adult male Gryphon. I say ‘at least’ because it’s not rare to find some that are easily two or three times my height. They pretty much have undisputed control of the skies above the swamp. Some believe they’re used by the Skokak as scouts or even means of transportation, although I personally have never actually seen any evidence of this. Whether they help the Naga or not, they definitely don’t help anyone else.” 

Karl started thinking about the proposal. 

“Hey, what do you think of this: you help us get into the city, and I’ll see what I can do about your problem.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal. Let’s get going: I can show you ‘round.” 

Karl and the others packed their stuff before joining Adler, who was waiting patiently at the tree line. The four made their way to the gates while Adler gave them information about the job, like the pay, the provided equipment, etc. When they arrived at the gates, the pony guards ignored them for the most part. Only throwing a brief glance of both curiosity and disgust at Karl, but otherwise let them pass without any hindrance.

Now that he was closer to the city, Karl could see just how impressive its defences actually were: the walls were incredibly high, easily one hundred metres in some places, and various towers stood equidistant from each other over the entire length of the wall. The walls were composed of different levels; the upper level possessed a catapult or a trebuchet and the lower possessed some kind of ballista. While these were physically intimidating, Karl couldn’t help noticing that the guards didn’t look all that militaristic or combat-hardened.

“That went easier than expected.” noted Locust, who had again disguised himself in his Rain Cloud form.

“Like I said, individuals like me are commodities these days. They can’t afford to ask many questions, so even if they have no idea who you are, if you’re being led in by a trusted mercenary, they won’t even care unless you start acting like a jackass. In that last case, you might end up with a shitload of fines, but they almost never put us in jail.” Adler explained.

“This city looks ready for a siege, but I can’t say that the soldiers look quite as prepared. What gives?” inquired Karl

“Those guys? Fighting? Hah! Could you actually see those ponies putting up a defense against pissed off Naga? They’re just there for show. Most of them actually buy into all that peace-love crap. It’s way more in their interest to hire me and my friends to do the dirty work for them.”

“You act as a city garrison too?” Sunny asked.

“Yep. We do pretty much everything that’s vaguely violent with the exception of police work. Pissed off the wrong people? Call us. You need an escort through Cáqash? Call us. You need hardened soldiers to defend your city? Call us. Just be sure your pockets are deep enough.” Adler finished with a grin.

The streets looked much like those in a medieval city. A lot of ponies wandered through the streets, but there were also quite a lot of other races. He saw a group of Diamond dogs talking together, two Gryphons were marching on each side of a wealthy looking unicorn and he saw a minotaur having a discussion with a merchant, probably involving the price of his products.

However on the central plaza where the big market stood, Karl truly saw how many different species there were. He saw a group of feline acrobats make a human (for a given value of the word) pyramid. A group of Diamond dogs were holding a drinking competition with a group of Gryphons and what looked like a human-sized lizard. 

Karl’s group passed by a large aquarium containing some Naga and creatures that looked exactly like the Murlocs from the game World of Warcraft, although he had no idea what they were actually called in this world.

A pony stood next to the large aquarium and if Karl had any doubts about why the aquarium stood there to begin with, then those doubts disappeared immediately after he heard what the pony was yelling.

"Can I get 500 bits for this lovely lady?! An ext-ROR-dinary specimen of her kind! I can guarantee you that you won’t quickly find one more unique or more beautiful than this one right here!”

The woman for whom they were bidding was a beautiful Naga. As lower body she possessed a purplish colored tail which was adorned with sharp spines and more pinkish looking fins in between the spikes.

Her upper body looked like a human with a few differences, the main one being that her skin was blue and the vitreous of her eyes were yellow instead of white. Instead of hair she possessed a multicolored fin cascading and tapering, not unlike the general shape of hair, which, closest to her head, was coloured yellow, fading into to a reddish tint and finally a purplish tint, not unlike some bizarre sunburst paint-job on a guitar. The ears possessed smaller fins. Most of her body was unclothed, the sole article of clothing being a brown colored bikini top covering her breasts. What size were they? C-cup, easily…

‘Come on, man! This is not the time or place!” Karl mentally reprimanded himself.

“500 bits from the stallion in the hat. Do I hear 550? Anyone, 550?” The pony said enthusiastically.

A large minotaur raised his hand. ”600!” 

“600 bits from the minotaur in the back! Do I hear 700?”

A Pegasus with a beard flew up and raised a hoof. 

“700 from the bearded Pegasus! 800! Anypony? 800!” 

The crowd started whispering amongst each other, but no one seemed to be willing to offer more. 

“Come now this beautiful lady deserves, at the very least, 800! 800 once, 800 twice…!” 

A Diamond Dog tentatively raised a paw.

“800! Do I hear 900? 800 bits once, 800 twice… sold to the gentledog in the second row for 800 bits!” 

The Diamond Dog was signaled to follow some guards in order to pay up.

“Well, I’m curious to know how the slave trade fits into the ‘love and tolerance’ theme.” Karl asked.

“Hey, money’s money. Who cares where it comes from?” Adler replied. “Kind of ironic, really, that the pirates that cause so much trouble are also the ones who make it possible for the slave traders to become rich and stimulate the economy.” he added

“Why would a Diamond Dog be interested in a Naga, though? And a female no less. I thought the dogs would be more interested in males and creatures that don’t need water to survive in their mines.”

“Don’t ask me. It’s a strange deal indeed. I would say it could be for more… private matters, but that’s going to be some pretty friggin’ difficult sex. Believe me: I once tried it with a willing Naga lady and I can guarantee you that it’s almost impossible.” 

This earned Adler a grin from both Locust and Karl.

“What?!” shouted Locust in mock-surprise. “Naga females are legendary for sex! My pals said so! Of course, we have the added benefit of being able to change shape, so it would naturally be difficult to replicate with Gryphons. I wouldn’t recommend them for anything else than foreplay for all those who don’t share similar anatomy.”

“Damn. There go my dreams.” Karl retorted with overdramatic sadness, earning him a loud laughter from both the Gryphon and the Changeling.

“What are you blabbering about? I’m sure that someone with your size fits in angling, no matter how small they are!” Locust said slyly, which earned himself a small friendly whack on the shoulders from Karl. 

Their free-running, raucous laughter seemed to be eliciting some confused stares from passerby, although it was hard to tell, considering Karl got stares regardless.

By this point the Diamond dog had paid his debt and some guards were busy using a crude crane to get the Naga out of the great aquarium and into one that was basically a carriage with an aquarium instead of sitting or storage space. 

Despite the presumed enmity and bawdy jokes, Karl couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Naga girl. She was actually beautiful, nothing at all like the grotesque image typically painted by the words “snake people”. And while it wasn’t important, if she actually proposed any… amorous activities, Karl couldn’t honestly say that he would reject her. 

As beautiful as she was, it could not prevent an aura of sadness to radiate all around her. Karl briefly glanced at Locust who was obviously getting uncomfortable of being so close to such a massive source of sadness (he did absorb emotions, after all).

The Naga was using her snake like tail as a chair, had her hands folded in front of her lap and looked with sad eyes to the bottom of the small Aquarium while the guards were busy adjusting locks and fasteners, although all the while they were clearly admiring her from all angles possible. It was, after all, the last time they had the chance to admire the beautiful creature, although Karl was sure that their reasons were a lot more perverted than his own.

“Come on, guys. Let’s look at something else. Don’t go getting all depressed on me.” called out Adler 

Karl nodded and followed the Gryphon to their next destination. They wandered a bit across the market until they reached the street.

“So, should we actually agree to this mercenary work, would that give you have enough men to make it across the swamp?” Karl asked curiously.

“Not quite. If you two accept, then we will need at least three more. I know a few guys that would be up to the job, but they’re out escorting a transport for the next three days, and that’s if everything runs perfectly. Even if they agree, they’d probably want a day or two to recuperate. All in all, we’ll probably need to wait at least five days before I can even start the job.”

“Can’t you recruit some other guys?”

“Dude, I keep telling you: ever since the Skokak hostilities have been on the rise, the Ironhoof route isn’t exactly popular anymore. Sure, there are always a few that do it regardless, but honestly, when you’re going up against Naga, you need guys that can and actually want to have your back. You can’t have some greenhorns that haven’t the faintest idea of how to act in a serious fight, but you can’t have crusty old disloyal nutbags that’ll backstab you as soon as they get paid, either.”

Karl sat quietly for a while, contemplating his options. 

“Well?” asked Adler impatiently. “Do we have a deal or not?”

“Yes, we do.” answered Karl.

“Good”.

Adler held out a talon, and Karl shook it without too much hesitation. It was, after all, probably the only chance he had to get in Ironhoof in one piece.

The Gryphon looked at the Changeling in pony disguise as he held his talon out once again. Locust shook the talon as well. 

“Now, your female companion can travel with the escort, but I’m not paying her.”

“Okay… now what?”

“Well, the two of you seem quite battle-ready, and you look pretty experienced, but I’d like to see your skills for myself. We also need to get you on my crew list so that you can legally make use of our training center.”

“So basically just some exercise and paperwork.”

“Yep, but for now let’s regroup with your female companion. I believe she has found something that attracted her attention somewhere on the market.” 

Karl looked around and indeed saw that Sunny was nowhere in sight. 

‘That was probably why I haven’t heard some kind of remark from her yet.’ he thought to himself.

“Listen Karl, why don’t you wait here while me and uhm… what was your name again?”

“Locust.”

“While me and Locust go and find your companion. It shouldn’t take long with flying. We’ll meet back up here in a few.” 

Karl nodded. 

Locust shifted into a Pegasus form, and he immediately took off with Adler, leaving Karl standing at the street side, patiently waiting for their return.

Something soon caught his attention: the carriage with the female Naga from earlier was heading his way. He looked at the girl inside, who had opted to lay on the bottom of the aquarium rather than sit upright, probably hoping to escape the leers and jeers she received from all around.

Karl truly felt sorry for her. He hated, no, loathed being the center of the attention. It hurt his heart that another creature suffering the same thing in front of his face. She was trapped like an insect in a jar. The top of the Aquarium was locked in place, and even if she escaped, where would she go?

Sure, a Naga could live on land for a certain period of time, but how would she manage to reach the Cáqash with the guards on her tail? Karl had no clue how long Naga could survive outside of water. The odds were definitely not in her favour and he, she and her captors all realized that.

The carriage halted in front of him to allow some ponies and other creatures to cross the street. To Karl’s surprise she opened her eyes and looked straight at him, even finding him interesting enough to lift her head a bit and look at him. Karl was never good at interpreting emotions, but he saw clear confusion, followed by shock.

He looked away so that she couldn’t really see the left side of his face. The last thing he wanted was to see the disgust so often displayed by others appear on the Naga’s face. He waited for her to back away in revulsion, but instead her look softened. It wasn’t one of loathing, but rather one of compassion and sympathy.

She felt sorry for him? An unexpected, but welcome change from the normal disgust that normally ensued upon meeting others for the first time. She put her right hand against the glass of her prison and smiled meekly at him as if to console him for his unwanted facial mark. He returned with his own smile as a way to tell her he appreciated it. Her smile grew a bit, but then the moment was broken between the two as the carriage continued its trip. The two kept looking at each other for a while, both glad to have found a companion in their suffering. He kept gazing past the end of the street long after the carriage disappeared from his sight, only looking away when he heard the familiar voices of his companions calling for his attention.
> Training Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

Adler, Locust and Karl were walking through the crowded streets of Noonvale, making their way to the Mercenary Guild’s headquarters. Adler fed them information about the city and regaled them with tales of his own experiences as a mercenary. At least Karl now had some kind of distraction from the plight of the Naga girl, which had been weighing heavily on his mind. 

After nearly an hour of walking, the group arrived at the building. Adler had told them that he and Locust could sleep in the barracks, but since Sunny was not included in the agreement with Adler, they sent her out to book a room for herself. 

The building looked like a somewhat larger version of the other houses in the street. It had the same primitive construction and decrepit appearance. The inside however turned out to be quite a surprise.

The reception looked comparable to that of a five-star hotel. A young female Gryphon was sitting behind a desk and looked up as Adler walked in. The two obviously knew each other seeing as her expression instantly turned from neutral to happy.

“Adler! How long have you been back? And I see you brought some… friends.” She finished with a slightly worried tone.

“Sorry I haven’t come to visit you yet Astrid, but I’ve had a lot of stuff to deal with lately. I’m trying to re-assemble a crew for the Ironhoof route.” 

As he said this a look of worry came on the face of Astrid, but she quickly regained her composure to a more neutral look.

“So I assume that these two gents are now part of your new crew?”

“Yes, but they’re new to the guild. They agree to help this one time in exchange for passage to Ironhoof and a fair cut of the money, so temporary passes should be good for them.” 

Astrid nodded and went to search the right papers.

“You know each other?” Locust asked, stating the obvious.

“Oh, yeah. Astrid and I know each other from when we were young hatchlings in the Gryphon capital. Lovely little place called Gryphus. Ever hear of it? No? Well, I’m getting off track here. We moved here during the Great Collapse in the hopes of a better life.”

“’Great Collapse?’” asked Karl.

“Yeah. No-one’s really sure why it happened, but it had something to do with certain people lending and spending money they didn’t really have. Whatever happened, everything in the Gryphon Kingdom headed on a downturn. Money, quality of life, jobs; everything went to shit.”  

“And how did the move work out for you?”

“We weren’t welcomes at all. Astrid and I were bullied out of Canterlot by the nobles and aristocrats. Even the ordinary citizens got their tails in a twist, saying things about how we didn’t belong there. That went on for about a year and a half until we came here. I just couldn’t deal with all their racist bullshit.”

“I take it if they went at your lady friend here, they’d be pretty fucked.” Karl finished as he got an affirmative nod from Adler.

“Back then there were no pirates so there was no place for mercenaries, so I was still in the position of finding a job. It wasn’t as bad as Canterlot, but a lot of businessfolk around here still discriminated. Other races had to cling together if they wanted any sort of welcome. Gangs and mobs sprang up over time, and I got into them pretty fast. I was able to support both myself and Astrid on the money I raked in. 

“A few years went by like this, then the pirates started showing up. Those sorry excuses for soldiers couldn’t do shit about it. Trade went down when the merchants stopped trusting the guards with their wares and their clients started seeing doing business with Noonvale as more of a money pit. In their desperation they turned to criminal organizations like mine to provide worthwhile escort services. We were hesitant at first though, because there were still a lot of grudges to be held.

“We were eventually given permission to start a guild of our own, and the rest is history. Astrid became a secretary for the Guild, a damn fine one at that, and I was assigned the rank of Captain.” Adler finished his tale.

“Wow. You two are lucky to have each other.” Locust replied.

Adler looked a bit uncomfortable. “We aren’t in a relationship.” This earned him looks from both the former human and the Changeling. “I am thinking of asking her after this job, but I don’t want to bother her with it as long as I am in the Mercenary business. Things might end up bad if we get too close. For the time being we’re just, shall we say, friends with benefits.” 

Karl and Locust both nodded that they understood.

After a couple of minutes Astrid reappeared. 

“My apologies, but I had some trouble finding these documents. .”

Both men took their respective papers and were guided by Astrid to a place where they could fill them in. However Karl found out he had a big problem: before his transformation, he had been right handed. The same hand which was now an unwieldy claw 

“Adler? Could you lend me a hand here?”

“Can’t you write?” Adler asked confused.

“I can, but this claw would screw everything up. If it’s possible, could you fill in my paper while I dictate it?”

“Sure thing.”

“I can read, so no screwin’ around.”

“Aw, you’re no fun.” 

Karl started dictating the information that was asked. One space asked for “Species Name”. After Adler reassured him that these papers would sooner be burned than fall into government hands, he told him that he was a mutated human. This earned a confused look from the Gryphon, who had, just like everyone else in this world (besides those two Alicorns), no idea of what a human was. He didn’t ask about it though, and just kept writing.

Karl made a mental note to try and learn writing with his left hand as soon as possible. He had a couple of reasons for doing so first of all being able to write was always useful and he would lie if he said asking for help with writing wasn’t a bit humiliating for him.

They gave the papers back to Astrid who, after checking them, handed each of the two a small card, which looked like a membership card.

“This is your membership card.” Astrid said. 

‘Nailed it.’ Karl said inwardly. 

“You can use it to get access to the guild’s training areas, barrack were you two will be staying as requested on the forms you just filled in.

“Good. Now that’s done, let’s get you guys to the training court so I can see how good you are with my own eyes.” Astrid rolled her eyes.

“Are you still doing it that way Adler? First making them join and then testing them.”

Adler leaned on Astrid’s desk, and with an innocent smile on his face said “You wound me, Astrid. After all these years of my intuition being right, you still don’t trust it.” 

This caused her to roll her eyes at his childish answer, although she couldn’t prevent a small smile from appearing on her face.

“Just go and train them already Andy.” She smiled at his awkward expression at the mention of her nickname for him. Locust and Karl had trouble keeping their composure, but managed to do it anyway out of that ancient instinct not to laugh at one’s boss on day one.

“Come on lads. We’re going to see how much pain you can take and how much you can deal.”

****

BAM!!! 

Another hit of Karl’s right claw against a wooden pillar was heard across the training court as he once again missed Adler. 

“Come on Karl, hitting those wooden pillars isn’t going to do you much good.” Adler taunted. 

The fight had been going on for ten minutes already. The objective, which sounded easy at first but, as an abundance of evidence was now showing, was not, was trying to hit Adler.

The Gryphon was being a complete pain in the ass and he hadn’t even attacked once. All he did was dodge and it was damned exhausting. A small comfort for Karl was that the actual test for joining the guild, which consisted of sparring against a couple of recruits, was already over and successfully passed.

“You know, if you want I can attack you so you get some more chances at hitting me instead of all the things you hit the last ten minutes.” Adler proposed slyly. 

“You know I would be fucking insane to accept that offer…” Adler’s smile disappeared and a slightly disappointed look came on his features. 

“However, I would be plain stupid if I believed that I am going to hit you in the next half hour at this rate. Bring it the hell on.” Adler got briefly a proud look on his face before he dove full force towards his new recruit to give him the famed first time beating.

****

“Okay, so where does it hurt mister?” asked the young (Karl assumed) nurse who looked like a humanoid Komodo dragon. She wore a standard white nurse uniform and some kind of medallion.

The infirmary he was moved to after getting his ass kicked up and down the training field was quite cozy for a sickroom. The inside looked a bit like a cottage, what with the wooden floorboards and the heavy wooden support beams on the ceiling. There were two beds near two windows, one of which he occupied and the other empty, an examination table, a medicine cabinet, a desk and the posters with medical information on the walls that every doctor’s office possessed.

“You would do better to ask where it doesn’t hurt.” Karl replied trying his best to smile, but his burn mark caused so much pain again. Luckily Adler had not assaulted that place on his face because even without getting a beating there, it hurt like hell.

The nurse threw him a small sympathetic smile. “I assume that the pain of your face wasn’t Adler’s fault.”

“Yeah. If I smile too widely, it burns like hell.”

“May I?” She asked as she gestured to his head. 

He nodded that it was fine. She carefully took his head in her claws and started examining the burn. She carefully caressed the borders of the burn mark with the tips of her claws. It actually felt kind of good.

“By some miracle, it isn’t infected, but it clearly hasn’t been treated well, and that, of course, makes it uglier than it could have been.” She stated as she finished her examination and carefully put his head back on the pillow.

“Jeez. Way to cheer a guy up.” Karl replied sarcastically.

“I can give you some medicines for the rest of your injuries, but I am afraid that at this point in time you need some intensive healing magic to repair the burns.” The nurse replied.

“No need to apologise. At least you politely state a fact… and thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. The whole reason I took this job was because I genuinely like helping people. You should really thank Adler. He seems to have gone a bit easier on you than he normally does for the so-called ‘first time beating’.”

“Oh? How nice of him. I’ll be sure to send him my regards when I heal the hell up. When do you think that’s going to be, anyway?”

A small smile adorned the nurse face. 

“It’ll probably take about two days. Until then I would recommend keeping something or someone at claw’s length for support should the need arise.”

“I can’t imagine a beautiful woman like you would be interested in that job?” Karl slyly asked.

“What a polite flatterer. But I like that. It’s better than the normal gruffness or pervy crap that a lot of these mercenaries pull nowadays.”

“My parents taught me well.”

“Clearly.” She mused. 

“Normally I don’t ask this, but why did you decide to get into the mercenary business? And why this end of the business? Even for those big macho guys, the Ironhoof route is one they’d rather pass by.” the nurse asked curiously as she sat down at the foot of the bed.

Karl gave her a weak smile. “I have some… personal business in Ironhoof. This is the fastest way to get there. The only other alternative is the sea, and isn’t exactly any safer.”

“Is it really important enough to risk loosing your life?” She asked with a small amount of concern audible in her voice.

He took her claw in his own and looked her straight in her eyes. “My life was already taken away from me once. I’ll be damned if it’s taken away again. I only live for retribution and I recognize the danger inherent in that.”

She nodded understandingly and put her other claw on top of his right claw. “Very well. I hope you find your purpose and that those that wronged you will meet justice.”

Karl raised his right eyebrow in confusion. 

“Really? You’re not going to try and talk me out of it?”

She shook her head as she took her claw off of Karl’s claw whilst also slipping her other claw out of his claw. 

“No. We Drakes have our own views on justice. If someone harms you, then it’s only natural for retribution to follow. If you seek vengeance for a just reason, there will be no true Drake that shall forbid you from trying to get it. Honour is an important thing in our society.”

“Say, you’re telling me a lot about your tribe and your people, but I am afraid I have never heard of them before, so not much of what you’re saying is making any sense. Would you mind telling me a bit about yourself and your people?”

“Very well. What do you want to know?”

“Anything you want to tell me. Let’s start with a better way to address you than ‘nurse’.”

“Well, my name is Froă, and we Drakes do not possess family names. In our tribe every male and female knows who you mean, but should the need arise for outside groups to find specific Drakes, our naming system gets more elaborate. For example, my full name is Froă Allarh Nareneþ. This basically says my first name, my job and my tribe: Froă is the name my parents gave me, Allarh means healer in our language and the Nareneþ is my tribe’s name.”

“Would it be possible to show me on a map of where you’re from?”

“Sure thing. Just a moment.” 

Froă stood up and walked over to her desk where she shuffled through a few scrolls before coming back with one of them. Karl opted to sit upright with his back against the wall. She decided to sit down next to him and laid the map open on top of his lap. For the first time, Karl saw his new world, or at least the known part. He noted that, at the very edges, the words “Lost World” and “The Echo” were written. He quickly scanned the map trying to prevent himself from snorting at all of the puns in many of the city names.

“I was born here.” said Froă, gesturing to a small spot labelled “Dragmire Island”.  

“This is about where we are now. Of course, it’s not marked because of how few live here.” 

To say the two weren’t close together would be an understatement. The distance was gigantic. 

“I must say, you were a brave woman to dare make such a journey. I know I wouldn’t have been able to do so.” 

As he said this she looked sadder.

“I didn’t have a choice. It was made for me by slavers. One day, a group of them landed at Dragmire and took us all by surprise. My village was completely ransacked. Males, females, hatchlings; all were taken, and if the slavers couldn’t get them to move, they killed them. They set fire to our houses before sailing from the island.”

“Oh.” Karl awkwardly replied. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring that up.”

At the same time, he thought, ‘Jeez. What is it with these people and slavery?’

“Don’t be. You didn’t know.”

“Although, not to open up any more old wounds, why did they trash your homes? You’d think It’d be in their best interest to promote your population.” 

“You would think that, but being the kind that wilfully abducts others for slave labour almost necessitates a certain indiscriminate dislike of other races. That became abundantly obvious to me in the months following: They locked me up with many others and sold us on the slave market in Nadira where I was brought by a rich Equestrian noble who lived in Camelu. I learned their language from them there. Granted, they probably did it only to order us around more efficiently, but at least it was useful. One day I hit my master as he tried to rape me after he had drunk too much at a party. Drinking alcohol is frowned upon in those areas, but the rich, as always, were often ‘overlooked’.

“It was stupid of me to hit him: slaves can be sentenced to death for something like that… but I guess he realized it was his fault and he decided to ‘only’ give me fifty blows with a whip on the back and sold me again on slave market. It terrified me so much that I begged him to not sell me. It might sound silly, but I would have rather stayed with him than risk getting sold to someone else. In that world, the chances of things getting worse were much higher than them getting better.

“So I was sold after a year of service and put on a big ship full of slaves, with even more slaves than the first ship. We sailed all across the shores of Cervidas and finally also arrived at smaller Equestrian ports. They have laws on the books there about slavery, but as long as the local governments get a cut of the profits from the slave traders, they’re virtually meaningless. How long I was on that ship I don’t know, but one night, a group of slaves somehow managed to escape their shackles and staged an uprising against the ship’s crew.

“We were victorious, but during the fighting the ship had gone off course and wrecked on a portion of shoreline not far from the Cáqash swamp. We decided to travel through there, seeing how it was so dense and offered a great deal of concealment. Many died in attacks by wild animals and from diseases. I believe that it took us a little over a week to reach Noonvale, where the mercenaries were only too happy to absorb us into their ranks. My natural skills as a healer earned me this position.”

Karl put his right claw on her left shoulder. 

“Sorry to hear that someone as kind as you had to go through something like that.”

“Thanks, I am sorry to have bothered you with such a story, but I just want you to know what you could be walking into.” She said as she stood up and walked away again.

“No. If anything I am grateful for the story. Thanks for the warning.”

This earned him a small smile from Froă. 

“I believe your Changeling friend will soon arrive. He mentioned something about showing up around this time and I should go and keep watch on this afternoon’s training should the need for some medical assistance be required.” 

As if on cue, Locust entered the room.

“Am I interrupting something?” He carefully asked.

“Not at all.” replied Froă. “Like I said, I should get going. If you need anything, my assistant Myrna will be in the next room.”

“Ah yes. That lovely Changeling was kind enough to give me directions to the dining room.” 

This earned him a confused look from Froă.

“Oh, don’t look so surprised. Everyone knows that we Changelings can tell each other at a glance, even if were in another form.”

“Of course.” Said Froă, slightly embarrassed at having forgotten such a basic fact. “Have fun boys… and don’t go breaking or stealing anything: I know about that kind of stuff.”

Somehow Karl didn’t doubt those words at all. Froă closed the door behind her leaving the two guys alone.

“So what have you been doing since I’ve been here?” Karl asked indignantly.

“Oh don’t give me that. If I knew that the nurse looked so good, I would have come here voluntarily.” 

That brought a smile on Karl’s face.

“Oh I never said I didn’t like it here. Froă has proven to be quite the conversationalist.”

“I’m sure she could be a lot more than a conversation partner...”

“I’d throw something at you, but I’m so stiff that I still have doubts nobody put some metal bars in my body, so you’re off the hook for now.”

“Yeah, yeah. I just wanted to tell you that you did an amazing job at training.”

“Amazing job? I got my ass kicked.”

“Yes, but at least you figured out the meaning behind the ‘first time beating’! I mean not many recruits get it: they don’t stand a chance, and even if they do, most rather chose to keep fighting until they’re exhausted rather than accepting the beating like you did.”
“So I was right after all.”

“Yep, and that impressed Adler, so he went a bit easier on you. The first time beating is just to show troublesome recruits who’s the veteran and who’s the greenhorn. It also allows the veterans to check up on some traits the recruit possesses. Even though you knew you were outclassed, you chose to accept the direct fight rather than keeping on fighting a battle you couldn’t win.

“You also didn’t surrender which shows you’re determined and trustworthy. It doesn’t measure up to a real battle of course, but a little bit of experience is better than nothing. It helps them give extra attention to the weakest guys in order to prevent them from destabilizing the entire group. Although keep in mind this is just training. It doesn’t mean that if you keep on fighting in training, you should keep on fighting in a real battle!”

“So it’s mostly to teach humility.”

“Yep. I don’t think you needed it, but Adler just wanted to be sure that beating those other recruits didn’t get you to the head.”

Karl didn’t really like to admit it, but unless it had a horn, he didn’t treat most attackers like real threats. Despite what Locust said, he really did need a good beat-down to bring him back down to earth. Granted, they were PONIES of all creatures, but any soldier or strategist knows that overconfidence is often lethal.

“Adler asked me to tell you that your training will begin when you can stand again.”

“Straight to the point. I appreciate that.”

“Well, you need to be prepared a lot sooner than the others to hold your own in a fight against the Skokak. I don’t think he counts on you getting the full training, just enough to be used as a reserve should the need arise. Most likely you’ll be the personal guard of a merchant or a transport and I’ll get scouting duty.”

“So basically, I only get to see any real action if shit gets really bad.”

“Pretty much. Also if an enemy sneaks past our defenses, it’s your job to make sure he doesn’t kill or steal anyling or anything. Most likely, they’ll also call for you if something needs to be built.”

“Built?”

“Yeah. You and some others will need to build roads or bridges should that be required. The pirates and Skokak sometimes destroy the roads to keep outsiders away from their land.”

“Splendid.” Karl said trying to hide the sarcasm in his voice. Repairing stuff other people destroyed was not something he looked forward to. 

“So what have you been up to?” he asked Locust.

“Oh, nothing much. A bit of training, putting our stuff in our lockers and reserving a hammocks in the barracks.”

“Good boy! Here; have a snack!” Karl said as he tossed a small cookie in the air which Locust caught with his mouth and swallowed instantly. 

It took a second for the light to go on in Locust’s head.

“Hey! That’s degrading!” Locust whined, annoyed at being tricked like that. 

Meanwhile Karl was laughing and groaning at the same time as the throw had strained his already sore muscles. 

‘Totally fucking worth it!’ He thought as he saw the expression Locust made while mumbling curses under his breath with his forelegs crossed.

Myrna was busy checking over some paperwork when she heard something that sounded like someone was trying to imitate the laughter of a hyena whilst groaning in pain. She decided to check on the patient and his friend whom she had directed to the dining room earlier today.

She opened the door slightly and saw that the patient called Karl was busy laughing while clearly in pain if his facial expressions were anything to go by, all the while his friend was lecturing him about respectful treatment.

She decided that since neither were in the immediate need of medical assistance she would just leave it be, and headed back to her desk where she resumed her paperwork. 

“Just when you think things can’t get any stranger.” she mused before continuing her work like nothing had happened.


> Training and Bathouses and Organised Crime, oh My!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another. ”
― Anatole France, The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

It had been three days since Karl had been released from the sickroom and he was back to training. Today’s schedule included practicing throwing the pilum. Karl was glad that his new body possessed increased strength, for he did not believe that his human body could have handled this much stress in so short a time. Let’s just say that he wasn’t known for physical strength back home.

Despite the ease with which he manipulated the plum, the chainmail armour which he was made to wear was beginning taking its toll on him. 

“Throw!” called Adler 

Karl again heaved the weapon to its target, which was a carving of a nondescript Nāga etched into large slab of wood. The pilum immediately impaled the target in its “chest”.

The others scored similar hits, one even hit what appeared to be the target’s… ahem, nether regions, causing just about every male present to visibly cringe. 

“Good men you get five minutes rest and then I want all of you running ten times around the training grounds with full equipment! Now go!” Adler said loudly making sure everyone heard the order.

Karl decided to sit on a bench beside another Drake named Zōlak (albeit he did differ from Froă, and thus was probably a different sub-species), a large muscular minotaur named Kaine Thunderhorne, two humanoid felines; one resembling a tiger and named Khan, the other a black panther by the name of Taka and two Diamond dogs named Septus and Salinas.

The last individual on the bench was a stone Golem who said that he had been “cursed to be a Gôlh”. He did not specify what a “Gôlh” was. Whoever had done the cursing had named him Boulder, as the curse had more or less erased his former identity. 

Not the most inconspicuous bunch, but they were good company. Fortunately because he was going to share a tent and probably the biggest part of his day with these guys. For most of these guys it would be the first time they ever did the Ironhoof route just like him with as only exceptions Kaine and Khan who seemingly knew each other from the past. They had told them a few stories about the swamp, although they did add to it that they only did the route twice on the calmest moments that the route had ever known.

They spent the five minute pause in silence, as no one really wanted to waste their breath with small-talk.

“Okay, your five minutes are up. Get your asses off of that bench! I wanna see all of you running ten laps around the complex. What’re you doin’, waiting for an invitation? Let’s go!” 

Adler belted out his orders in a tone that would make the toughest drill sergeant flinch. Everyone grabbed their gear and got to running in formation. Adler taking the lead alongside his second in command, a minotaur by the name of Turok Stonebreaker (nicknamed “Bonebreaker” by just about anyone who met him).

“Are you sweating already men?!” Adler asked.

“Yes, sir!”

“That’s good! Otherwise we might need to pick up the pace! Hey, you know what, let’s do that anyway!” 

And so the Griffin started running slightly faster, forcing the others to increase their pace.

“In that swamp we’re going to meet pirates and monster snakes! Do you know what to say when you meet them?!”

“We say nothing and let our weapons do the talking, sir!” Karl and the others replied in chorus.

“Damn straight! We get paid to fight, not to talk!” Adler replied content with the answer. 

The exercise was definitely one of the more difficult that Karl had been put through since the beginning of his training. He had made some small calculations about the equipment he had been given: he knew that a standard Roman soldier’s equipment would be around 30 kg (this, somehow, was one of the few precise details he remembered from history class). His own equipment resembled that, but seeing as he was far greater in size than a normal Roman and his equipment was scaled accordingly, he believed it was fair to say that his equipment was much heavier.

Even with his new body this exercise was brutal: walking with this stuff was bearable, but running? He dearly hoped that this would be the one and only time that they would be put through this, but had little confidence.

The ten rounds passed far too slow for him, but when they were finally done he was glad that he could get out of his get-up. The dark olive-green tunic he had been given was drenched with sweat, the stench was, luckily, bearable, only making the air around him thick and warm with a faint undertone of an unpleasant smell.

Karl was also the one who had the least trouble with cooling back off, with the exception of Boulder, who didn’t show the smallest amount of fatigue. Hell, the dude was made out of rock! No muscles to be worn out! 

The others, however, had either the problem of fur or, in Zōlak’s case, total lack of sweat glands.

It was no surprise that Zōlak immediately hurried himself to the nearest shaded spot. After a small rest, Adler lined everyone up in front of him. 

“Good work, men! You have performed admirably! Return your equipment to the maintenance service… and move your asses over to the bathhouse as fast as possible! You guys smell worse than a rotting corpse.”  Adler ordered.

“Yes, Sir!” All the men said in chorus.
“And don’t forget; you guys are allowed to leave these grounds after dinner until 10 PM, but not a second later. Is that understood?!” Turok asked, although it was more a statement than an actual question.

“Yes, sir!”

“Good! Now I want to see your asses back here tomorrow, same time as today! You may go.” 

Immediately Karl and the rest scattered, all trying to get to the maintenance service first. It was a kind of friendly competition that they held with each other. That, and Karl really wanted to be first to the bathhouse.

He ended fourth, but all he cared about was getting into the bathhouse. He first took a towel and shorts and headed to the changing room, where he saw various other mercenaries busy undressing, including his friend Locust who, like everyone else, was also (somehow) wearing the standard olive green tunic and wooden sandals, although they looked more like horseshoes. Locust motioned to a spot next to him and Karl immediately headed over. 

“Karl! How’s it going?” Locust asked, happy to see his friend again.

“Great; my team’s pretty good. Some rather… interesting characters. Yours?”

“They’re cool. Are you here to relax or just to clean up?”

“Both. Running around with full equipment one is no joke!”

“Tell me about it! My wings are killing me! They’ve been pressed down against me all day!” 

The two finished undressing and with a white towel and dark olive-dram shorts to cover himself, Karl headed to the cleaning service where you could get your clothes cleaned free of charge. Locust followed, his towel covering his entire body except his head. After both had handed in their clothing they proceeded to the heated baths.

Both of them laid their towels and sandals near the side, careful to not step on the burning-hot floor before carefully entering the hot bath where various mercenaries were swimming or chatting with each other. A green-scaled lizard made his way over to Karl and Locust.

“Karl! I see you did manage to find this place after all.” Zōlak joked, referring to Karl’s first day, on which Karl had asked where the bathhouse was while standing directly in front of it.

“Very funny Zōlak. I guess you managed to cool off again.”

“Yeah. We Drakes are no different from regular lizards: our temperatures change pretty easily. Not always the best thing, but in this case I do believe it’s an advantage.”

“You are in Karl’s team?” Locust asked.

“Yeah. The name’s Zōlak if you hadn’t already heard. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Same. Name’s Locust as noling here manages to understand my real name.”

“Believe me I tried, but it didn’t work out so well so I just named him Locust.” Karl told Zōlak who nodded in understanding.

“I see. So I assume you are with the scouts.” Which earned him a nod form Locust. 

“Thought so: Changelings are usually either scouts or light infantry unless we’re doing some sort of infiltration. At least that’s what Kaine told me.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, I noticed you always wear that amulet. Why is that?” Karl asked, curious, as a Froă also wore such an amulet.

“This thing here?” Zōlak said as he held the amulet. “My kind naturally produces toxic saliva. This rune makes sure I can produce as much as I need to keep my mouth moist without needing to worry about poisoning somebody.”

“Ah, that explains a lot. Ti’s beautifully made.”

“Here, you can take a closer look.” Zōlak offered as he held it out. 

“I wouldn’t do that. Magic and I aren’t the best of friends.”

“How bad?”

“The kind of bad that you may need to recharge that thing. I naturally suck up a lot of magic to the point that it’s potentially poisonous.” 

Immediately Zōlak pulled the amulet back.

“Yeah, never mind. I really don’t want to pay those stupid unicorns a hundred bits just to reload it.”

“That sounds like a shit ton of money just to recharge a little thing like that.” Locust noted, as he kind of knew the Equestrian prices.

“Yeah, can’t lock us up too long otherwise business goes down, so they decide to rip us off any chance they get. Oh well. The pleasure of knowing that without you those snobs would be in such deep shit gives me a bit of pleasure. It’s one of the reasons why I joined the guild.” 

With that, the three continued to make small talk. Some of their respective team members joined in as time went on.

After a little while, Karl decided that he’d had enough of the baths and headed towards the saunas. Here, Karl made sure that his skin never made direct contact with the hot stones providing the heat for the steam. Karl and the others didn’t stay here for too long as the temperature reached over 60°C, and Karl wasn’t really someone who really liked saunas all that much anyway.
He held out for five minutes or so before he and everyone else for everyone really looked forward to getting on to the next part. They headed to the massage room. Most of the masseuses were young, but there were a couple of more elderly women too.

A big sign was placed by the door, reading in large letters: “ALL LEWD ACTIONS TOWARDS MASSEUSES STRICTLY FORBIDDEN” and, in smaller letters, the punishment was listed as a ban of three days (at minimum) from the facilities. This might not sound too bad, but since there were no personal baths, this ban would mean the only other alternative would be bathing in the ice-cold river.

Not to mention that you would miss three days of these massages!

A whole group of masseuses began walking their way and each signaled one of the guys to come over. Karl was picked out by a middle-aged female griffin. While she was definitely not as… youthful as the other girls, she still possessed a lot of charm.

“Alright, big fellah. Just lay down on the table on your stomach.” 

She gestured to a table between Khan and Septus. He did as requested and waited for whatever she had in mind for him.

She used her talons to apply some oil to Karl’s body. 

‘Oh boy, this woman knows how the job is done!’ Karl happily thought to himself as she professionally worked her way all over his body loosening up some knots relaxing his muscles in the process. The fact that he was able to feel the massage through his thick hide

After his entire body was done she picked up a tool Karl recognized as a strigil, which was used to remove sweat, dirt and dead skin cells. She firmly, but still somewhat gently started using the strigil until every last bit of grime was gone. He thanked her and left towards the next stop.

Normally that would be the cold baths, but luckily this society had already discovered that a cold bath isn’t really all that healthy and that a normal swimming pool would be better, so after rinsing off the massage oils, everyone gathered in the giant pool where they swam and talked with each other for a while.

A short while had passed when everyone realized that they probably should hurry the hell up or get punished for not being on time for dinner. Karl and the others went to gather their clothes, which had been washed and dried by this time.

After getting redressed, Karl and the others slowly made their way towards the dining room where they all sat themselves at a large table running the length of the room while waiting for some servants to serve their food.

The dinner consisted of some kind of meat with some sauce, two slices of bread and what Karl guessed was red cabbage. As a drink Karl simply took a glass of water.

Locust, who was sitting next to him, got a blood soup (don’t ask how they got it) with some chunks of meat in it. The Changeling had told him that Changelings gained most of their powers and nutrients from feeding off of love, but that meat still offered a decent amount of both proteins and fats to maintain physical functions and through blood Changelings still managed to gain a bit of love. Locust had assured him that the amount of love he would get out of the soup would equal of what Karl would get from nutrients and proteins from a quarter of his medium sized steak (He called it steak mainly to ease his mind. He had no idea what the hell kind of meat it actually was). 

However, the love energy gained from the blood was also vastly inferior to the one gained directly from a host. Seemingly, love gained through the mental link was automatically refined (or something like that) to make it more productive and efficient, much like how oil must be run through a refinery to produce more useful and efficient products.

Taka was busy telling a story of his he experienced in the southern regions of Camelu near the border of Zebrica. 

“So I see this rich fellah, a big camel who was carried along on a sedan chair with a big mob in the streets watching him. I was like ‘Hey, what’s happening here’, so I move through the crowd to get a better look at this guy.

“Nothing too special; he was sitting alone in that carriage, just looking at the crowd, nothing too strange, and I was like ‘Oh, it’s one of these “events” again!’ Seriously, why people go out of their homes to see some fat stuck up idiot pass I don’t know, so I turned to leave.

“Now as I was leaving the mob suddenly got extremely enthusiastic and I was like ‘What the hell is it now?’, so I turn around just in time to see a whole rain of Zebra Pieces (that’s their currency over there) flying straight at me.

“I was completely unprepared so I get hit straight in the face and those Pieces fall all around me. I was thrown totally off balance and before I could recover I get tackled by the crowd all swarming over me to get those Pieces!

“Holy shit, it felt like I was being assaulted by a horde of angry chickens at feeding time. It’s a good thing that I was wearing a cross protector; otherwise I doubt there would be anything left of my sword down there.

“So after a little while the crowd finally went away, leaving me in the dust. Everyone just continued doing with what they were doing, leaving me laying there on the ground for a good five minutes like I wasn’t even there!

“So after five minutes I finally managed to stand back up and I made my way back to the hotel. I got out of my armor to see how bad the bruises were and suddenly ONE Zebra Piece, ONE stupid Piece falls out of my armor and I was like ‘Are you shittin’ me? All that for one stupid Piece! So I’m angry as Tartarus and suddenly the door opens and room a servant comes in. This boy was a small Camel kid and he asks,
‘Mister have you seen the noble today? There was a big event today in the main street.’ [Taka imitates the kid’s accent.]

“I was like ‘Yeah you could say I was right in the middle of it.’”

“Oh really?” He asks, ‘Did you manage to get any Pieces?’

‘Yeah, one.’ I said, ‘Why?’”

He says, “I will buy you as much bread as you can buy for that one piece if you give it to me.”

“Now for you folks who don’t know, in Zebrica they use the same system as in Equestria. Nickel’s one, copper’s five, silver’s fifty, you get the point. So ?I say, ‘Yeah, sure; buy me some bread’, thinking it was a copper Piece, and I gave him one of my own Nickel Pieces as his own share.

So I wait for like five damn hours for my loaves, and I was like ‘Where the hell is that kid?’ All of a sudden, I hear big commotion in the street. I was like ‘What the hell is it now?’ I just waited for a while longer and the kid suddenly re-enters my room without bread.

I ask him where the hell my bread is, and he signals me to follow, so I follow thinking he left it downstairs or somethin’. We arrive downstairs and he goes outside and I was like. ‘Did you leave my bread outside?’” Everyone nodded and Taka continued.

“I headed outside and in front of the hotel stood this big-ass cart filled with loaves of bread. 

‘Look mister I got your breads!’ The kid happily says. Turns out that Copper Piece turned out to be a really dirty Gold Piece, meaning I now had one hundred loaves or bread. Turns out that each time that rich guy comes to town and does that little money rain, he always adds one Gold Piece to it.” 

Karl and the others were now laughing their lungs out at the misfortune of their colleague.

“I kept three breads to myself, I gave ten or so to the hotel and the rest was given away to the population. The rest of my stay in that little town I got a VIP treatment.”

Taka finished his story right before the bell rang again, signaling that everyone was allowed to leave the room.

Instead of immediately heading outside, Karl headed towards the barracks to grab some stuff. He opened his locker and took out a small letter, which he had been given by Rover before heading off on his journey.

Whilst heading towards the bridge, Karl admired the guild’s buildings. Whilst much was solely meant for the mercenaries, some buildings like the bathhouses were also open to the rest of the population. He saw various groups of mercenaries just talking or hanging around a bit on his way to the central bridge where the guards merely glanced at him.

He still got various looks from almost everyone, but there was no one brave enough to risk a confrontation, so nobody made a remark about his appearance. Karl slowly made his way to the address given in the letter, which he reached within three quarters of an hour.

****
It was in an industrial area near the river on the northern outskirts of the city. The address belonged to a medium sized warehouse which looked abandoned. After a little while of searching he found a door with a bell. Karl sounded the bell and patiently waited for any kind of response.

The door opened slightly and a gruff voice issued forth. 

“What you want?”

“I’ve got a message from the alpha of the Hoovetown Hills Diamond Dog Pack for… Max?” Karl held out the envelope.

The door opened. revealing a beige-furred Diamond Dog. “Alright, you follow me.” 

The dog locked the door behind them before motioning Karl to follow him.

The hallway was not in the finest condition, but at least it looked like it was being maintained, unlike the outside of the building. They headed to the first floor, passing a few more Diamond dogs who just looked at Karl suspiciously. They stopped in front of a door which was probably once the office of the warehouse manager.

The dog signaled Karl to wait as he knocked on the door before entering and quickly closing it again, preventing Karl from seeing what was in the room. Karl was not really feeling comfortable: this entire situation reminded him way too much of organised crime, and he didn’t want to end up on the bottom of the river with weights tied to his feet. Further thoughts were silenced as the dog opened the door again and signaled permission to enter before leaving, presumably back to the door.

Karl cautiously entered the room. The room was actually pretty cozy; on the floor laid a red carpet, the walls were a darker shade of green and in the hook stood a small flower, the wall opposite of the door contained windows looking into the main storage room, on his right stood two large bookcases and to his right was a desk with two chairs for guests and in the big chair sat a Diamond dog who resembled Rover quite well against the right wall stood a filing cabinet.

“Welcome uh…” the dog started whilst motioning to one of the two chairs in front of the desk.

“Karl Kempf, but just call me Karl.” Karl introduced himself as he headed towards the chair.

“Welcome Mr. Karl, I hear you have a message from my brother with you.” That explained the resemblance.

“Yes, indeed.” Karl handed him the letter as he sat down. Max opened the letter and started reading it carefully. 

“I see, so it seems my brother finally managed to regroup his pack again and with your help, he’s… *expanded* into a small town. That’s definitely what we need.” 

Karl raised his remaining eyebrow at that.

“My brother asks here for me to send some reinforcements and resources his way. Seems like he’s planning on making a stronghold of that little town. An excellent idea, wouldn’t you agree?”

“From what I know, yes.” Karl replied, unsure of what to think.

Max nodded before continuing. “You don’t really realize what this means do you?

“Not really.” Karl admitted honestly, in his world conquering a town like Hoovetown was nothing spectacular.

“This is the first home-turf Equestrian defeat of this scale in centuries, but somehow I doubt that it means much to you.” This dog was good, this stuff indeed meant nothing to Karl.

“However, that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I’ll send help.” 

With that Karl prepared to leave. 

“But I need help with something of my own, first. After all, the sun comes up for free, but that’s about it.”

“Help with what?”

“It’s two things, actually. The first thing is an ancient Nāga artifact that recently has been discovered by some pony scientists. A stone tablet with text on it.”

“And you want it, I guess?”

“No; the organization I have a debt to wants that tablet. I don’t mess around with the kind of shit that would drive friends to backstab each other. These guys are above my league.” 

Karl nodded that he understood, not really liking the idea of stealing something and getting himself in such a game.

“And the second thing?”

“First, proof you’ve got the skills and the stones to get that tablet. Then I’ll tell you part two. The less you know, the less you can tell an interrogator.”

“There’s one little problem. I’m in the mercenary guild, so I don’t really have time to *do* much of this.”

“Bullshit. In five days, the guild celebrates the anniversary of its founding. It’s been thirty years now, I think. It’s a big event in the city. The party celebrates the day they wouldn’t have to give fuck-all about the nobles for once. Plenty of time to sneak off, break into the museum and steal that tablet wouldn’t you agree?”

“I guess so.” Karl replied unsure.

“You know, I’m surprised I had to tell you that. I’d think you’d know. Do you have a partner or do I need to arrange one of those too for you?”

“I think perhaps I can convince a Changeling to help me out.”

“Excellent choice. Now, this is the last time we meet before the heist, so follow me. I can give you all the info you need. Emphasis on *need*.” 

With that Max stood up and walked towards the door followed by Karl.

****

“So you understand the plan?” Max asked after having briefed Karl.

“Yeah, but are you certain that this information is trustworthy over five days? That is, how do you know that things won’t change over time?”

“Yes, and should there be unforeseen circumstances then you shall be notified.”

“Hey boss, doesn’t he need a partner?” One of the dogs asked.

“He has a possible Changeling partner.” Max replied, making nearly all the dogs “OWH!!!”

“You know a Changeling?” Another dog asked enthusiastically, getting close in Karl’s face.

“Yes, I have a Changeling partner.”

“Awesome! What’s it like?”

“Uhm…” Karl was not really sure how to answer on that one. “Well uh, I guess it’s pretty cool. Just need to make sure you feed them good, twice a day.” Karl finally replied awkwardly remembering the previous night.

**** Flashback

The barracks were quiet as everyone was sleeping except for one: Locust the Changeling was hungry!!! He had been a bit sick today, so he had not eaten so much during his last ‘feeding session’ with Karl and now he was paying the price for that. He was wriggling in his hammock which was hanging above Karl.

He really didn’t want to bother Karl at this hour in the night, but after a while the unpleasant hungry feeling actually made his stomach hurt until he couldn’t deal with it anymore. He prayed Karl wouldn’t be too pissed off. He used his wings to land on the floor careful to make sure his buzzing did not awaken anyone. 

“Karl!” He started as he stood on his hind legs trying to awaken the slumbering human with his fore hooves. “Karl! I need to ask something!”

Karl meanwhile was having a rather pleasant dream in which he was having a date (actually, he didn’t know what the hell to call it; date just seemed most accurate) with the Nāga woman. She had just showed off a couple of her tricks that she could do in the water and now she was slowly, seductively advancing on him. 

When she was relatively close to him, he heard something that sounded like Locust. 

“Karl, can I have a snack?”

‘A snack? The fuck does he mean by that?’ He thought confused. 

He quickly glanced at where the sound came from which was a little bit to his right. There, he saw a large table full of crisps spontaneously appear. Much to Karl’s dismay, they were paprika flavor.

“Sure thing. Knock yourself out. Go all the way!” He quickly said, having enough of the interruptions. He had more important things to deal with at the moment.

“You sure?” Came a confused reply.

“Yes, now shut up and dig in!” 

With that, he turned back to the Nāga. By now she had crossed the remaining distance and slowly started leaning in for the kiss. Their lips touched and a sweet, sugary citrus taste entered his mouth.

He slowly pulled her in an embrace, deepening the kiss, when suddenly he felt her tongue begin to explore, probing between his lips. He happily obliged and started wrestling with her tongue for dominance. He did everything he could to make sure the kiss lasted as long as possible. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the kiss as much as possible for the last few seconds before he would have to take a breath. Karl found himself leaning back until he was flat on the ground. The Nāga curled her reptilian tail loosely around one of his legs, pressing her body even closer. Fireworks of endorphins and dopamine exploded across Karl’s brain, raging euphorically along his neurons. 

Karl cracked his eyelids open, wanting to stare deeply into the golden eyes of the Nāga, savouring the moment. 

Instead of yellow humanoid eyes, Karl found himself looking into blue insectoid ones. Locust pulled back trying to regain his breath and fortunately due to being low in oxygen. 

Karl managed to keep himself together long enough for his brain to properly register the situation.

“Locust… What... in the holy… mother… of CRAP? What did I tell you about asking permission and about tongue?!”

“You said it was alright! I believe your exact words were: ‘Go all the way’.” Locust defended himself whilst making sure to not wake up anyone.

Karl wanted to retort, but found himself without any valid arguments. He didn’t know what was worse: that he thought Locust was a woman and he had hoped of going all the way, the fact he tongued him, or the fact that he himself had asked for it. So he just sighted. 

“Did you at least get what you wanted?”

“Sure did. That was a good meal. If anything, I’m a bit too full. How am I ever supposed to fall asleep now?!”

“Don’t know. Not my problem. I need to get to bathroom ASAP!”  Karl said before stepping out his hammock and quickly hurrying off to the toilet (while desperately trying to hide his full-on erection from his friend).

**** End Flashback

“Yeah. Definitely make sure they get two good meals before they go to sleep. Otherwise, certain, uh… *things* might happen. Just trust me on this one, alright?” Most dogs looked confused, but nodded anyways.

“Okay. So that heist is in five days. See if you can get that Changeling on board. If not, let me know so I can appoint a dog as partner to you.” Karl nodded that he understood before being led out of the warehouse.

Before closing the door, Max added, “Oh, and one more thing: remember if everything goes to shit, make sure to not mention my name, understood? Not only will they not believe you, but it also makes me a bit more pissed.” Max told him as he patted the dagger he had in his belt.

Karl merely nodded before hurrying away as quickly as possible without it looking indignant.

“And so it starts again.” Karl sighted as he made his way back to the mercenary camp.
> A Museum Heist
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“It's not stealing: it's retrieving.”  ― Mora Early, Twisted Arrangement Dream Landscape

Karl found himself in a rather pleasant dream. He had his human form back and he was laying on a luxurious sofa. His attention was swiftly drawn two rather… well-proportioned women sharing the room with him. One crawled on her hands and knees towards him, pushing herself up to his level. The other climbed onto the sofa, pulling herself close 

They pressed their lips together, deepening into languorous kiss. The taste of sweet strawberries filled Karl’s mouth. While closing his eyes for maximum enjoyment, Karl heaved her up to the sofa as the second woman climbed up on her own...

****

He opened his eyes to look straight into Locust’s face, who still had his tongue in Karl’s mouth. Karl broke the kiss, but once again found himself unable to say anything comprehensible. 

“Sunovabitch! Again?!” he blurted out after a *very* awkward pause. “I get that on the other night there was a miscommunication, but there’s no way that it was an accident this time!”

“Come on Karl, you need to see this from my point of view! Not accepting those kisses of yours is like saying no to free food, and that’s something even you wouldn’t do.” Locust defended himself, and once again Karl found himself without a valid argument beyond “But I don’t like it.” 

Of course, he didn’t actually say it out loud, but it was echoing around his head like a trumpet blast in a cathedral.

“Ugh, fine. Just make sure that it doesn’t get to anything more than kissing.” Karl finally said, making sure to not wake anyone up. The less other people knew about this, the better.

“Will do.”

“One more thing. Do you have strawberry flavor lipstick on your lips?” Karl asked as he tasted some kind of strawberry cream on his lips.

“Yep. Remember when you told me you liked cherry and strawberry flavour? Well I thought this would be smart to do. The more pleasure you feel, the more power I get.” Locust happily stated. 

Karl meanwhile was debating on what to think of this new revelation, but decided that it really wasn’t worth it. Locust was part of a race for whom gender-bending was business as usual. A man putting on lipstick was probably one of the less dramatic things to do in their society.

“You know Locust, uh… do you think you can get off me?” Karl asked as he found out he had another problem more down south.

“Sure thing.” Locust said as he hoped off, making Karl mentally sight in relief. ‘Well at the very least I am spared of that embarrassing fact to be known.’ Karl thought.

“It was getting uncomfortable anyway with your boner against my ass.” Locust drily stated like he it was the most normal thing to say against your friend.

‘Well, shit!’ Karl thought. ‘This day’s already started out great, and the actual heist part still needs to happen.’

It had been five days since the Dogs had given him that mission, so today would be the day that he and Locust (who had agreed without much protest) would have to steal the Nāga artifact.

“Here: put these in.” Locust said as he handed Karl two earplugs.

“Why?”

“It’s almost time for the wakeup call.” Locust dryly stated and Karl immediately put the earplugs. 

Then the two sat and waited. Not a moment too soon. All the others immediately shot up from their hammocks indicating the blasting of the wakeup call.

‘You know, it’s actually kinda funny to watch when you can’t hear anything.’ Thought Karl.

They waited ten seconds or so before pulling the plugs out and started getting dressed. They dressed in the normal attire, consisting of a white loincloth, a dark olive green tunic and their wooden sandals, or for Locust, the closest you could get to sandals for hooves, before heading to the mess room.

They got a somewhat fancier breakfast consisting out of eggs, bacon and toast. Or at least Karl thought it was bacon: it tasted different than he remembered and the texture was slightly off. Locust got a special bottle with fluid love. How love could be fluid, Karl didn’t know, and he didn’t care either. Adler and some other captains gave a small speech and after some small talk the bell rang that officially announced their day off.

The two didn’t immediately head over to the museum though. Karl needed to get some stuff Max had given him. Namely, a forgery tablet meant to replace the one being stolen to keep the museum staff from noticing the theft. They might figure it out eventually, but by the time they did, the real tablet would be long gone.

As they walked past the sickroom they heard some noises from inside. Normally he would just ignore it, but let’s say that for this nurse, Karl wanted to make an exception. He and Locust slowly opened the door and saw Froă and her female Changeling assistant making out on the desk.

“Well, looks like we now know how that Changeling gets her love.” Karl stated with a devious smirk on his face.

“Damn this is hot.” Locust said, stating the obvious. Suddenly the Changeling literally ripped Froă’s shirt off exposing her C-cup breasts.

Karl and Locust’s eyes shot open like window shades.  

“Dammit! This is not what I need right now!” Karl said annoyed, as he felt another erection coming up.

“Tell me about it! My loincloth is way too tight!” Locust complained urgently as he gripped his nether regions in discomfort.

“Too much information pal.”

“How is it different from what you just did.”

“…Shut up. Let’s just beat it… quit smirking, you know what I mean!”

Karl scooped the Changeling up with his right claw and as quickly and quietly as possible made his escape towards the barracks. The two females meanwhile continued without having noticed that they had been watched.

****

About an hour and a half later Locust and Karl were in an alley at the back of the museum, which was, like most of the other businesses, closed because of the festivities. 

Karl regretted not taking the time for more extensive planning. Sure, he’d gotten a basic idea of how to plan the break-in, but it wasn’t exactly easy to work in heist planning while training under Adler’s iron fist. Or should it be iron claw? Whatever. 

“I’m sorry, but how did you say we’re we going to get inside?” Locust asked.

“We need to get up to the roof. See those pipes? Those are for ventilation. We can get into the building through the ducts. Now it looks like there’s a fire escape ladder up there. Do you think we can get it down?”

“Easy. Just wait a second.” 

Karl wanted to ask Locust what he was doing, when he put his forehooves on the wall of the museum and started walking up it like a bug. Karl waited for Locust to reach the ladder, which he dropped down to Karl’s level.

“You never told me you could do that.” Karl shouted up at Locust.

“You never asked!”

The roof was wide with a high wall running around the edge, concealing them from anyone who might happen to look up.

“Hey Karl, look at this.” said Locust, pointing at a padlocked hatch on the roof. “Maybe we won’t have to use the ducts.

“Locust, USE LOCK PICKING SPELL!” Karl ordered as he dramatically pointed at the door.

“...What?”

“Uh… nothing. I was just thinking of a television show from back home.”

“What’s a television show?”

“I said it was nothing! Now seriously, I need you to pick that lock.” Karl urged.

“Cant’ do it: if I break that lock then that alarm rune will send a signal to the guards.”

“An alarm system, eh?” Karl lowered himself to look more closely at the lock. Indeed, he spotted a strange symbol on the door which faintly glowed blue. 

“Does it use magic?” he asked.

“Of course.”

Karl touched the rune and the glow instantly died.

“Handy. Now stand aside.” 

Karl stepped to his left and a small laser-like green ray shot out of Locust’s horn and wrapped around the lock which simply clicked open.

“I somehow doubt that that’s standard Changeling military training.”

“Nah. That’s a story which involves a pissed off pony, a pissed off higher officer of mine and some bottles of alcohol.”

“Sounds like a story you need to tell me sometime, though I can’t imagine how it resulted in learning to pick locks.” Karl replied, opening the now unlocked door and descending the stairs with Locust close behind. 

“Okay we need to get to the basement of this place.” The two descended the stairs until they reached the floor marked G, all the while taking painstakingly light steps on the creaky stairs.

Karl and Locust both pressed their ears against the door at the landing before carefully opening it. Karl scanned the area whilst Locust carefully closed the door again as quietly as possible as to not alert anyone.

“Remember Locust; we aren’t here to start a fight. Nobody’s supposed to even realize that we’re here.” Karl whispered.

“Don’t know how that fake tablet is going to fool the scientists, but whatever.”

“Don’t know. As long as I have the real one and they don’t realize they have the fake for a few days, we’re in the clear.” Karl replied before quietly walking down the hallway. 

Up ahead, the two saw a sign with something written on it, but they couldn’t read it from this far away.

“Seriously? Torches? Are they *trying* to give this place a creepy atmosphere?” Locust asked rhetorically. 

This world confused Karl to no end. These ponies obviously had the technology for lamps, but still lit these tunnels with torches. Perhaps this city did not possess a centre for electricity generation, but if that was the case, how did those other lamps work? Besides, this was clearly an industrialised city. He would think they would have some kind of power plant.

It didn’t matter right now though. All that mattered was that tablet and getting it out of here unseen. By the time Karl had finished with his thoughts, they had walked close enough to read the sign. It said “LABS” with an arrow to the left and “MAIN STORAGE” with an arrow to the right.

“Left it is.” Locust stated, recalling that Max had told him that the tablet had been taken out of storage for lab testing. They reached a double door with another rune lock on it, which was, by a simple touch of Karl’s, deactivated and picked by Locust.

“I am so glad you know that spell. Five days isn’t exactly a good period to teach yourself lock picking, and definitely not with hands like these.” Karl stated as he recalled his attempts with the lock picking set he had been given by Max.

“Yeah, that spell saved my flank a couple times already.” The two sneaked into the lab, only to find that they weren’t the only ones in there. They hid behind a small wall, seeing at least ten guards talking and standing around a weathered tablet on a table. Karl lowered his head and sighted in annoyance at this extremely annoying obstacle.

“Let me guess; that tablet is the one we need, right?” Locust whispered as he caught Karl’s frustrated expression. Karl merely nodded his head in affirmation, whilst he tried to think of a solution to this new problem.

“We need a distraction, something even they cannot ignore.”

“A fire?”

“No; that would attract *too much* attention. Besides, we’re trying to leave behind as little evidence as possible. What about a theft?” Karl replied.

“Oh, and that isn’t going to bring a lot of attention?!”

“It’s going to attract attention, but a different part of the museum. Hear me out: find another lock somewhere nearby with one of those runes on it. If you set it off, those guards’ll hopefully take the bait. When they arrive, disguise yourself as another guard and sneak back here when they aren’t paying attention.”

“It’s not that simple. Those guards have special runes in their armour which I can’t duplicate. In order for that plan to work, we’d have to find a spare set of armour lying around. Even if we found one, the idea’s moot: I can’t morph in this building. I can feel an anti-morphing rune hidden somewhere. Probably installed after the attack on Canterlot when all the ponies started freaking about security.”


“Jeez! What is it with these guys and their runes?! We don’t really have much of a choice though here’s what we’ll do: We find a guard by himself and knock him unconscious. You steal his armour, set off an alarm, and when the rest of the guards show up, put up an act and make sure that you can slip away.”

“That could work if that anti-morphing rune wasn’t active.”

“It doesn’t matter. You just get that armour. Let me take care of that rune. And take this.” Karl said as he handed Locust a small file. 

“This file holds all the information about this place. Guard patrols, their routes, everything. You take down an easy guard not too far from this section, but far enough that I’ll have some time grabbing that tablet. I’ll make sure that rune is taken care of. We will meet back in this room.” Karl said, pointing at a small storage room not too far from their current position.

“Yeah, sure, got it. Good luck with that rune.”

“Yeah, you with that guard.” 

With that said, both headed to their own objectives.

****

Karl could feel the sting of the rune’s magic since entering the museum, but he hadn’t actually known what it was until Locust told him. It seemed to radiate from the rough centre of the museum. 

Adler really wasn’t kidding when he said that the pony guards around here were just for show, but he wasn’t complaining. Karl had only really seen them around the Nāga tablet. Other than some vague talking he’d heard from across the building, there was no sign that any others were actually here. 

Karl made his way to the central dome. He didn’t notice anything too special about it. Underneath the dome stood a giant statue of an alicorn. Based on its clothing (if you could call it that) he identified the alicorn as the white bitch known as Princess Celestia.

The Celestia statue was smiling down at him with a motherly smile, which only made Karl angrier. It looked nearly identical to the one she had given him on his first evening in this place. He also noticed a small tell-tale faint blue glow of a rune on the back of the statue’s head.

“How am I supposed to get up there?” Karl wondered aloud. 

Surely there must be some way to get there. After all unicorns needed to get there to recharge the rune. He decided to walk around the statue to see if he found any way to reach the rune. He walked completely around the giant statue, but found nothing until the small reception desk in front of the statue caught his attention.

Behind the desk, he saw a small wooden hatch in the floor, not sure what purpose it served, he decided to investigate. 
‘Can’t hurt to try.’ he thought.

The hatch was locked, but seeing as he didn’t really need to make it look like an accident, he simply pulled the old wooden hatch out of the lock. He saw a very dimly lit narrow tunnel leading underneath the statue. 

“Well, fuck. That doesn’t look like any place made for someone with my body frame.”

After he put his backpack out of sight, Karl entered the narrow tunnel praying that to whatever god wanted to hear him that he wouldn’t get stuck in this tunnel. He also contemplated the fact that he didn’t notice any security runes on the hatch. They had the damn things everywhere except the door that led to a major security point. 

‘If a unicorn can add magic to a rune, surely a disgruntled one could remove it. Whoever put this door here is either incredibly naïve or these ponies really are that unwilling to commit a crime.”

He slowly, but surely crawled his way all the way up through the tunnel cursing the ponies who build that tunnel with every possible curse his mind could come up with.

****
Locust was carefully and silently making his way through the empty corridors, scanning for anyling. He didn’t really like Karl’s distraction plan, but it was better than nothing, and it wasn’t like he could come up with anything better. He didn’t even know why Karl needed that thing in the first place.

He recalled that Karl had mentioned some Diamond Dogs, so Locust figured that he was either in debt, hired or allied with them. 

Given Karl’s tales of his exploits, he doubted that he owed them: if anything, the dogs were in debt to *him*. Karl didn’t seem motivated by material gains, so the possibility that he was working as a hired goon was also unlikely. That only left the latter option.

As unlikely as it sounded, Locust had to conclude that Karl was doing this purely out of loyalty. This was another strange aspect of Karl’s character that he had noted: if he was telling the truth, he simply wandered out of the Everfree and started working with the Diamond Dogs (Locust got the impression that Karl was leaving something out of that story, though). Hell, the minute he met Karl and told him that he’d been part of the attack on Canterlot, he’d stuck by him ever since. 

Locust carefully scanned the area before taking out the map Karl had given him. He checked if he was on the right spot or not and after making sure it was the right spot Locust decided to hide behind a statue that stood in a niche setting up a good ambush for the guard that was supposed to pass by.

****

Karl had finally managed to get to what he assumed was straight under the ass of that bitch’s statue. He fucking hated this. Not only did he need to climb all the way up in a narrow tunnel straight to the head, he needed to get back as well! That last thought was discouraging. He had considered just climbing down, but there was no guarantee that he could do it without attracting attention.

This museum was so fucked up. In the basement they used torches and up here they used lamps? Why not just use lamps everywhere?! He started climbing again, continuing to curse.

****

‘This was so bucking boring!!!’ thought Locust. 

He’d been waiting in the same spot for a good ten minutes already, and this niche only allowed extremely limited movement. Just when he was about to blow a gasket, he heard some hoofsteps pass nearby, followed by a lone white unicorn guard. The Changeling quietly exited the niche, preparing a stun spell whilst sneaking up on the unsuspecting pony. He unleashed the slimy green magic beam, which hit the unicorn straight in the back of his head, instantly knocking him out. He lifted the unicorn in an aura of green. He undressed the unicorn, breaking the spell which gave all unicorn guards the same white color of coat. The unicorn appeared to have a brown coat and a dark black mane with a black shield as cutiemark. He quickly threw on the armour, which caused his normal black chitin to turn white, but his insectoid wings and Swiss-cheesed body were still obvious. He quickly hid the guard’s unconscious form in the niche. 

“Let’s see if Karl managed to deactivate that rune.” Locust wondered as he tried to morph into the unicorn guard.

****

Karl finally reached the head of the statue and saw the rune. It looked like a small pyramid covered in smaller symbols. He simply touched it with his right claw and saw the glow disappear. 

“Bye-bye morph suppression.” 

Karl sighed in relief as he laid back on his stomach to get back in the way too narrow tunnel. 

“Here we go again.” he grumbled, irritated, before crawling in the tunnel again.

****

Locust was glad to see himself bursting out in green flames and transforming into an exact copy of the unconscious guard. After letting out a little mental cheer, he scanned the area to be certain noling was there before heading towards the meeting point.

****

Karl was not happy. He calculated that it had taken him about twenty to twenty-five minutes to get in and out of those blasted tunnels. He quickly made his way to the meeting point. 

When he opened the door he saw a white unicorn guard looking at him, but before he could do anything more than take a defensive stance, the guard spoke with Locust’s voice. 

“Hey, hey! Back it down; it’s me!”

Karl relaxed. 

“White looks good on you.”

“Ha ha. Now come on. Let’s get the tablet and the get the hell out of here.”

“Don’t forget the distraction. Look for a rune on something around here, then break into it.” Karl said as he took the map out of Locust saddle bag. “I’ll wait here until those guards take the bait, then I’ll slip into the lab and switch the tablets.”

“Alright, what happens then?”

“Well, we escape. We’ll both have to find our own way out, so we’ll meet back up in the alley behind the museum. From there we can sneak down into the sewer. It’ll be nasty as hell, but it’s the only sure way to get out without being seen.”

“Okay. Good luck, man.”

“Yeah, you be safe.” 

Locust gave him a small smile before walking off, and so the waiting game started. A little while later the alarm sounded, followed by the sound of a door opening and ponies running towards the alarm. 

‘Idiots.’ Karl thought as he exited his hiding spot after making sure the ponies were out of sight.

He sneaked into the labs and saw only one pony left patrolling around the room. Well, “patrolling” was a loose term. It was more like loafing around with his back to both the door and the tablet. If that guard had been working for him, Karl would have bitchslapped him. What a dope! Instead of paying attention to what he was supposed to guard, he was distracted by… is that pornography?! The guy had his eyes glued to porno mag in the middle of a high alert situation!

Hey, whatever made his job easier. 

Karl didn’t waste any more time and started sneaking up to the table where the tablet was resting. After quickly looking around for those alarm runes, he made sure the switching of tablets happened as fast as possible. 

The guard was still occupied with his “literature”, so Karl exited the lab as quickly as he entered it. He hurried towards the roof, hearing the muffled shouts of the guards. He raced up the stairs, across the roof, down the ladder and onto the streets as quick as possible.

An armourless Locust was already waiting on him, but still in pony form. 

“I hope you got what you needed, because it’s time to make our grand escape through the sewers.”

“Yes, what a grand escape.” Karl replied sarcastically, heaving a cover off of the sewer-hole. 

Locust jumped down first and Karl followed him, after which he replaced the cover.

****

Titus the Diamond Dog was sitting on the terrace of a pub located in the seedier city districts. He was patiently waiting on Karl as Max had told him.

Titus was not the most handsome of dogs: his coat was a dull grey and a big scar was visible on his upper left arm. He was also missing a couple of teeth and a chunk of his right ear. Although considering he had served for nearly five years as a centurion in the Diamond Dog legions and then another two as camp prefect, he wasn’t doing too badly. 

After the defeat of the Diamond Dog Confederacy in the Third Gemstone War, Equestria had forced the thinning of DDC military ranks. By this, they meant copious layoffs, putting the Confederacy in a state of depression soon after. He was one of those guys who lost their jobs, and was since incapable of finding another (legitimate) one.

It wasn’t that he lacked education! He could speak three languages; Dogium, Nazja and Equestrian. He was an experienced fighter and a good organizer, but there was simply way too little work back in the confederacy, and no-one else was willing to hire Diamond Dogs at the time.

Sure, by now he probably would find some work again, but honestly; what was the point? At this point, he wanted nothing more than to subvert the Pony system as much as possible. His current job had a greater chance of letting him have that than any other.

Thus a man whose dignitas was extremely important and had fought in many battles as a Confederacy loyalist was here as a cog in yet another ordinary heist. He would complain about this being degrading and against his character, but after he’d done this for so many years he kind of lost the will to complain about it.

He saw the nearby sewer lid move and then Karl crawled out, followed by that Changeling partner of his.

****

Karl was glad that he was finally breathing some fresh air again. By no means was the outside air clean, but it was a step up from the dank sewer air he had been breathing for about half an hour. He saw some people look at him strangely before just going back to whatever they were doing. Everyone, that is, except a dull grey-coated Diamond Dog which Karl recognized as his contact from the photo in Max’s file.

The dog approached them

“And?” he said in a gruff voice.

“Mission successful.”

“Good. Follow me, both of you.” the Dog ordered before walking off again. 

Karl sighed, but complied after quickly putting the sewer lid back. Nobody said a word during the walk, which took about fifteen minutes. They arrived outside of a brothel and entered the alley next to it. 

“Let me look at it.” Titus ordered and Karl silently handed him.

After looking it over, Titus merely nodded before giving it back to Karl and walking deeper into the alley. They arrived by a back entrance where two sturdy dogs with metal bats were standing on guard. Titus said something to them which neither Karl nor Locust could understand. The dogs merely nodded and allowed them to pass through.

Once inside, the air was thicker and had some kind of aroma in it. Something like church incense. The Dog lead them through a backstage area, including the corridor with the dress rooms where a couple of women (both a variation of the humanoid cats like Karl had seen at the mercenary centre) with extremely little of body concealment eyed them curiously.

They passed by quickly though, and finally stood in front of what Karl guessed was the manager’s office. The grey Dog merely motioned them to go first. The office was obviously meant to be more of the “I don’t come in this room much, so I just put here what is absolutely necessary” kind of room, as the only thing in it was a desk with Max behind it, three chairs in front of it and two bookshelves on the right wall.

“Do you have the artifact?”

‘Straight to the point.’ Karl thought. 

“Yes, here.” 

He took the tablet and carefully handed it to Max with his left claw, who studied it intensely.

“Good job. I am glad that my trust in you was not misplaced.”

“You said before that you had two things you needed help with and that you would tell me about the second thing once I got the tablet.”

“Eager to get to work?”

“No. I just want to spend as little time as possible working jobs that are likely to get me thrown in jail. Not that I would actually care that much, but it would be an unpleasant diversion from my plans.”

“Very well. Follow me.” Max replied, standing up, completely unfazed by Karl’s bluntness. 

Karl was slightly surprised that Max just ignored his tone, but didn’t complain. He, Titus and Locust followed Max once again in utter silence. Max seemed bent on letting nothing on about this second job until they reached whatever destination he had in mind.

They headed over to a storage room. Dressing room? He honestly couldn’t tell. It could have been another dressing room, but there were no girls in there, in any case. At least that’s what Karl thought at first, but he soon noticed there was a medium sized indoor pool.
The pool was not in the floor, but rather looked like an aquarium in which one would put lobsters, only many times bigger, and in it laid the slumbering form of the Nāga woman he had met before. 

“Karl and uh… your name?”

“Locust.”

“Karl and Locust, meet my own personal guest. From what I’ve managed to understand, her name is Saqatuwa. I think it translates over to “tree blossom” or something like that. Nazja isn’t the easiest language to understand. I apologize that she is not capable of greeting you, but let’s just say she is busy sleeping of her intoxication.” 

Both Karl and Locust looked questioningly, first at each other then at Max.

“She’s not drunk in the way you think. You see, these Nāgas are good with magic. Their females in particular are skilled sorceress, whilst the males focus more on physical traits. Most of the Nāga females have four arms. Across all species and subspecies, the ones with two arms are considered to be of a higher class. I’ve yet to figure out the correlation, but it seems to have something to do with the fact that they more closely resemble the Nāgas’ purported ancient ancestors. 

Either way, it’s obvious that they have better control over magic than typical Nāgas, and often times specialize in healing magic since it requires more precision and skill than most other types. It is thus quite logical for these to be quite valuable to Nāga society.”  

Karl and Locust nodded that they understood.

“The Nāgas have a lot of control over the sea, so the pirates are smarter than to make them angry. Unfortunately for this beautiful girl, the Equestrian navy is a whole other matter.”

“Wait, what do ponies have to gain by kidnapping a Nāga?”

“A hostage, mister Karl. The organization with which I am allied is called the Union of the Snake, an organization that, in Equestrian eyes, is one of the most powerful terrorist cells currently active. Although I find the term “resistance organization” a more appropriate title. You have most certainly already heard of their most recent project: the unrest in Ironhoof.”

“What’s up with that anyway? The Equestrian military has a strong grip on that area. Just how long do you think tey can keep it up?” Locust said.

“I don’t know about their exact plans. All I know is that the Nāga support them, and with her as a hostage the Equestrians hope to put pressure on the Nāgas to forsake their alliance.”

“But seeing as she ended up on the slave market I guess that didn’t work out so well.”

“The ponies were overconfident. The Union does not take these kinds of things lightly and completely destroyed the pony ship that transported her, but since she was under the influence of all kinds of drugs (the same drugs responsible for her current state), she somehow fell in the hands of slavers. How that happened, I doubt even she knows, and the rest of the story you already know. We are lucky that the kidnapping wasn’t exactly something that the general public was supposed to know about, so tracking her down will be nearly impossible.”

“That explains the girl. What’s the story behind the tablet?”

“I am not exactly sure. All I know is that the tablet is the reason behind the sudden hostilities of the Skôkak. I have no clue what they want to do with it though, perhaps the girl can help when she has one of her clear moments again.”

“Does she *really* still have drugs in her system? It’s been at least a week since you… bought her.” Karl questioned, as it did sound a ridiculous long time for drugs to stay active.

“Those are very nasty magically enhanced chemicals! Whoever captured her paid big bucks for them. You can’t just stop giving them to her immediately: it would cause her to crash, and hard. The only way to do it is to gradually taper the dosage. I have no idea why they designed them that way. Maybe to motivate slaves to stay, or else risk death.”

“Alright. You’ve explained the situation. Now tell me the second job.”

“You need to get her to Ironhoof.” 

Well, there went Karl’s hopes for minimal difficulties on his journey.

“And how am I supposed to do that?”

“We’ll hire protection for a transport. You can help defend that transport easily, no?”

“I guess…” Karl lamely replied unsure of just what to say.

“Good. So you and your Changeling friend keep an eye on her and everyone will be happy. Titus will accompany you: he’s one of the few that speak Nazja in this city.” 

This seemed to be as surprising to the dull grey Dog as it was to Karl and Locust. 

“I suggest you two go back and go about your regular business. Meanwhile, Titus and I will try and see if our guest can tell us what the text on that tablet means. If your help is required I’ll send for you.”

“I can read most of it, but it’s written in some kind of riddle. Jeez, what is it with these ancient cultures and their riddles? Hopefully she understands it.” Titus added.

“Alright. Until next time.” Karl said, still somewhat frustrated by the situation, before turning around and taking his leave, followed by Locust.

****

“I don’t know about this Karl.” said Locust uneasily. “It feels like we’re getting into something big. Something that could turn right the hell around and bite us in the ass if we aren’t really careful.”

“Yeah, but who cares. It’s just a job. And maybe the rewards are finally getting bigger.”

“I have no clue what you’re looking for Karl, but I trust your judgment. I’m going to see this through with you.”

“Thanks Locust.”

> Into the Cáqash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“‘There are always risks in battle. It's a dangerous business. The trick is to take the right ones.'
'How do you know which are the right ones?'
'You wait and see if you win.’” ― John Flanagan, Emperor of Nihon-Ja

It had been one week since the museum heist and three days since Adler officially announced the guild had a contract for an escort through the the Cáqash. It was one of the largest groups (thus requiring more mercenary assistance) to pass through, even including city guards for the first time since what was known as “the Cloppington Incident”.

The Cloppington incident referred to the event that put a permanent rift between the merchants and the guards regarding the transportation of commodities. 

The way Karl heard it, Captain Cloppington was a former Captain of the city guard who led an immense convoy and hundred guards into the Cáqash nearly thirty years ago. 

It did not end well. 

Cloppington and his personal guards were brutally slaughtered in a the final battle. Of the five guards that managed to escape, three would later die from infected wounds the physicians couldn’t heal quickly enough. 

Of course, all that the merchants cared about was the fact that it was the largest loss of merchandise in remembered history.

The reason for the guards’ presence on this particular expedition was because, in addition to the normal mercantile caravans, it included a military convoy meant to resupply the garrisons that were stationed near Ironhoof. Even if they were just for show, protocol stated that officially appointed guards must accompany all shipments of the sort.

However, Adler had told them they would, as normal, be responsible only for the merchants and their transport. 

Karl was almost certain, and Adler was absolutely certain, that the ponies were going to get butchered and he was planning on using them as meat shields.

Karl and Locust trained as normal, awaiting the day they would finally leave. 

Neither of them really had much contact with Sunny for the entirety of their stay, and to be fair, Karl was thinking about sending her with Max back to Hoovetown. She had simply lost her usefulness at this point. Additionally, she appeared to be getting more distant; as if she were having doubts about the mission, and that was definitely not good. If she was already doubting now, what would she do in the Cáqash or after? Would she still be trustworthy then? If that wasn’t bad enough, Sunny still didn’t exactly know about how his plans for her country and the inherent implications regarding her own life, so she could very well turn on him.

It was definitely something he was debating internally. 

He was currently sitting on a bench in the shade of a big tree near the side of the Sythan river. 

“Karl? We need to talk.” a familiar voice said from somewhere on his right.

“Titus? What brings you here?”

“Saqatuwa’s been dognapped. Or should it be Nāga-napped? Oh, fuck it, you get the meaning!” Titus said, audibly infuriated.

“How the hell did that happed?” Karl asked, not liking the sound of this new information.

“Pony guards searched club and took her! They said she was a “Prisoner of the Equestrian State” or some bullshit, so the deal we had with the slaver was unlawful.”

‘Yeah. *That’s* why it was wrong to buy and sell a person.’ thought Karl sarcastically.

“We managed to save the tablet, but they took her to that fortress over that way.” Titus motioned to the fortress that stood on the island connected to the mainland by the bridge.

“Well, shit.” responded Karl, unable to articulate anything more eloquent.

“They’re planning on sending her with the military transport to Ironhoof, so we have a chance of reclaiming her there.”

“Reclaiming? That makes it sound like she’s property.”

“Reclaiming, liberating; it’s all the same! Now listen: that transport heads out in two days. They’re going to put her back on those chemicals if they get their way and we cannot afford her losing all her strength again! You saw how long it takes her to gain it back!”

“Alright, I get it… did you find anything out about the tablet yet?”

“Yeah, we asked her about it. She thinks it’s a translated page from an Evolved.”

“‘Evolved’?”

“Some guys who once threatened Equestria. Not much is known about them. Their motives, their fate, all lost to history. Most stories say they come from somewhere in the Lost World or the Echo. They appear to be the reason for some rather cataclysmic events in the past. There’re a few vague allusions to a figure referred to as the Slayer who tried to lead a mass violent uprising against pony rule. The ponies and most of the world have forgotten about them. The only reason we know about them is because some of those Evolved are believed to have created our races.”

“So you don’t really know shit about them.”

“Hey! Those guys haven’t been around for at least three thousand years! Besides, even if there was any well-preserved history, the princesses and the aristocrats probably destroyed it: they don’t like their population getting ideas.”

“So what good is that tablet if the people who first wrote it aren’t even around anymore?”

“I don’t know, but Saqatuwa was quite enthusiastic about what she found. She was exhausted pretty quickly and couldn’t elaborate much on what she found, but I’m confident that it’s something big. But she also mentioned something about how the writing seemed to leave off in the middle of a sentence and that there was probably at least a second tablet. She didn’t give any information about where that might be though.”

“Well, there’s no point in getting worked up over things we can’t solve right away. We have more pressing issues at hand. Do you have a plan to undo the effects those chemicals will have on her?”

“Yes, but there’s a big problem with it: I can give her some drugs once or twice a day that suppress the effects of those chemicals, but we can’t do that the entire route. If we let too much build up in her system, the effect could be just as bad as the other chemicals. Maybe even worse.”

“So what do you propose?”

“We can do that for about a week, but afterwards we need to get her out of that water, and that means…”

“Leaving the group and trying our luck in the Cáqash.” Karl finished, earning a somber nod from Titus.

“Why is it so important she keeps her strength? I mean, can’t we wait until she recuperates in Ironhoof?”

“That’s just it: we cannot allow the ponies to reach Ironhoof with her. Then we won’t even have the chance to liberate her. We need to help her escape while we’re still in the Cáqash and we can’t drag a drugged Nāga through the entire swamp, can we?”

Karl sighed. This entire situation had suddenly become a whole lot more complicated. 

“How do you plan on escaping with her? Even if she isn’t drugged, we aren’t just walking her out under the noses of all those ponies.”

“True, but don’t forget; this is the biggest convoy ever since the Cloppington incident. Those pirates haven’t forgotten how they butchered the guards last time, and don’t forget that the Skôkak are involved this time. Surely you realize as much as I do that this can only end badly for them.”


To be quite fair, Karl did get two extremely unpleasant words in his mind when he thought about the mission: Teutoburg Forest. Everything just started to look way too much like that decimating defeat of the Roman army in the battle of the Teutoburg forest and he wasn’t part of the winning faction.

“How about that help Max promised Rover?”

“He keeps his word. I’m the only one who will come with you for this. The rest of the pack leaves the city and goes to Hoovetown. The guards were getting too annoying here anyway.”

“So how exactly do you travel with us?”

“Oh, I’ll be joining with you guys. I have the required amount of military service to qualify, and besides, one of your captains owes me. You probably know him already: Adler Lowegreif.”

“What kind of debt?”

“I saved his ass from jail once a long time ago when there was no mercenary guild and only criminal organizations. He and I worked for the same outfit and we were pulling a heist he got wounded. I managed to get him out of there, but we lost contact for a while after that.

“I found out where he went to when I discovered that he’d joined the guild. I decided not long after to join Max’s fledgling organization. I am not above admitting that the reason I didn’t join the guild was that I refused to aid those stuck-up ponies even after they came begging. No doubt Adler told you that back in those times all non-ponies were treated like crap around here. By the time my anger had subsided a bit, I was already on good terms with Max so I stuck with him.”

“You seem to take the thought of separation from Max’s pack quite well.”

“I know. To be fair, I think it’s finished for us. He was good for me for a while, but what we each want differs too much. I haven’t forgiven the ponies for what they did so many years ago. If I join someone who actively fights them, then perhaps the union’ll offer me the chance that no one else’s managed to give me for all these years. I can’t let this one rest without some kind of retribution.” 

“I understand perfectly: we’re both looking for some payback.” Karl replied, earning an understanding nod from Titus. The dull grey dog stood up from the bench.

“Well, see you in two days I guess.” Titus said before walking away.

“Until then.” Karl replied before resuming his vigil over the Sythan river.

****
“Come on men; PULL!!!” 

Karl and some other mercenaries strained against the ropes connected to a transport that had fallen in the water after the road underneath the car collapsed. With one final grunt of effort, the men pulled the transport back onto the road. That, however, was only half of the work. Now they also needed to re-build the path to allow the other transports to cross.

Karl and the others went over to a cart with tools and materials to arm themselves for the annoying job. Fortunately, Karl and the others had gotten a decently good training and thus were able to complete the small emergency bridge within twenty minutes, allowing the tedious march to continue.

“This is going great: we’re barely in the Cáqash and we already almost lost a transport, and it wasn’t even the work of the pirates or the Skokak.” Bovan stated irritated.

“Yeah, sucks.” Karl stated concisely. 

A sudden commotion in the front line caught his attention. 

“Hey, what’s going on up there?”

“Dunno. Looks like the pony guards have found something.” Bovan replied as he squinted, trying to see what caused the commotion. Locust suddenly landed next to them.

“Locust, what’s going on there?” Karl questioned.

“A warning from our friends the Skokak. They decided to put some of their battle trophies on our route.” 

As Karl got closer, he managed to see the so-called trophies with his own eyes; the skulls of a pony and a minotaur resting on spears embedded in the ground, crossed over each other in an X. Where the two spears crossed hung a sign:

“CIVILLIAN OR SOLDIER, THIS IS YOUR FATE”

“Seems like their variant of ‘Stay the fuck out or we’ll fucking kill you’ don’t you think?”

“Yeah. Don’t count on a warm welcome here.” replied Khan with the obvious.

****

They’d been marching for a good couple of hours when the first signs of hostilities appeared. Four mercenaries from the first and second line fell into a pit lined with sharpened stakes. Everyone thought it was a standalone trap until five more mercenaries had their skulls impacted by a rain of stones.

Karl moved up to fill a gap in the mercenaries’ protective ring when he saw a Skokak for the first time. These Nāga were nothing like Saqatuwa. This particular one was female with two pairs of arms just as Max had described; not unlike the ancient Hindu depictions of Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. Two of her hands grasped short, slightly serrated scimitars. Her scales were an obsidian black striped with fiery red. Her furious reptilian eyes burned in the same shade of red. Inch-long fangs revealed themselves as she let out a harsh, vicious hiss. Her only armour besides her scales was a faded silver breastplate. 

She turned the palms of her two free hands towards each other. A point of orange light appeared between them and quickly blossomed into a raging clump of flames. 

‘Oh, right: their females are good at magic. Greaaat.’ Karl remembered as she hurled the fireball in his general direction.

He ducked behind his shield, which took the brunt of the blow, but held. His colleagues behind him pressed forward with their own shields. This kept him from falling out of position, but kept him pressed between two forces. He prevented from the force being capable of destroying his ribs and recovered from the blow.

The order to ready the pilum was given. Karl advanced, spear in claw. The Skokak female again hissed at the advancing mercenaries and prepared another spell. Karl didn’t what would be coming next, but the color of the light was black instead of orange (‘How the hell can light be that… not bright?’ he wondered), so whatever it was, he was sure it would be worse than fire.

“Throw!” 

The mercenaries unleashed a devastating rain of death upon the advancing Skokak. Many of them were impaled, which in turn caused the Nāga behind them to slow considerably.

The Nāga, now extremely pissed off (that is, more than they already were), started yelling what Karl guessed were war cries in their incomprehensible language. Karl was no expert in language, but that of the Nāga sounded vaguely similar to something he’d heard somewhere before. Indigenous American? He had no idea why, but that was the first thing that came to him.

'Fuck you, brain. Now’s not the time to play linguist.’

The mercenaries unleashed the second volley upon the Skôkak, killing a few more of them, then readying themselves to use their spears.

Right before the first Skôkak warriors reached their lines, the female Skôkak, whom Karl decided was the leader at this point, unleashed her magical attack. The attack was not how Karl expected it to be: rather than humming it directly at him she threw it high in the air. It fell down towards them like a grenade or mortar. Fortunately for him and his companions, she overshot and only a few men in the back were hit. 

That was all it took, however, for the rest to realize what a fate they avoided: the black ball of magic impacted the ground, expanding outwards by a radius of about five feet. This field passed over a few of the mercenaries, who had braced for the impact. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then they began to wither. Four robust, healthy fighters aged several decades in the space of a few seconds before collapsing, their blackened, decayed flesh giving way to bones, which then disintegrated into a sickly white powder.  

Karl (and several others) shook themselves and had to forcefully tear their eyes from the horrifying scene before charging the front lines of the Nāga warriors.

The first Skôkak, a male, hit Karl’s shield with Titanic force as he brought his scimitar rushing down. Karl blocked with his shield whilst stabbing the oversized snake man in the stomach, eliciting a pained moan (since he was part snake, it came out as more of a wheeze) from his enemy. Karl violently pushed his shield against the enemy, the metal boss hitting the Skôkak square in the chest, probably breaking a couple of ribs if not the sternum. Karl pulled out his spear and with a last push of his shield, the Skôkak fell backwards, a gurgling mess of flesh which was rapidly losing blood. Karl stabbed the Skôkak straight where he believed the heart was, ending the Nāga’s suffering

The Skôkak woman scowled at him before turning tail (no pun intended) and fleeing deeper into the marshes with what little remained of the male warriors. The job wasn’t done though: the mercenaries had held the Skôkaks off, but the ponies had more problems as expected.

Their archers and crossbowmen did a good job at thinning out enemy lines, but their infantry was getting butchered. The ponies who didn’t have any shields desperately tried to form a line, but the brute strength of the male Skôkak warriors and the magic support a couple of female Skôkak was enough for the males to break through the lines and start assaulting transports.

“Protect your employers!” Adler yelled as he charged the Skôkaks followed by his men who let out enthusiastic battle cries as they charged side by side. 

Karl, just like many others at this point, had fallen into the ruddy embrace of bloodlust, and lifted his shield to block an incoming swing from a long Skôkak sword. Karl was shoved forward and managed to heave the Skôkak off of his shield. The Skôkak had trouble rebalancing and couldn’t dodge Karl’s spear point on time. He got hit in the stomach and Karl twisted the point, completely destroying the organs of the Nāga who led out a hoarse, pain-filled shriek.

The Skôkak used his free claw to sweep at Karl’s spear and successfully snapped it in two before attacking again. Karl blocked the attack and with full force drove the sharp point of his broke spear shaft straight into the Skôkak’s neck. The Skôkak gurgled a bit before collapsing straight on top Karl used his shield to keep from being crushed.

What remained of the Skôkak warriors retreated, not liking the swiftly closing organized spear wall that had decimated their line with little effort. The Skôkak may look like they would be slow, but they were surprisingly fast, certainly in retreat. Some pony archers tried to get some cheap kills, but let’s just say… they didn’t.

The red glow filling Karl’s vision began to fade as his senses came back to him.

“Men, form a defensive perimeter around the transport for loss measurement… and make sure that pitfall is covered so the transport can continue moving!” Adler ordered as he flew over to the pony captain, probably to discuss some things about his guards’ disappointing lack of skill.

Karl received a pat on the shoulder from Turok. Turok put him to work at covering up the spear-lined pitfall. It wasn’t a pretty sight: the bodies of eight unfortunate mercenaries lay impaled at the bottom. One of them was a minotaur who stared right at Karl with fear-filled eyes glazed over in death. A spear had pierced straight through the back of his neck out of his mouth.

He saw some intestines sticking out of some bodies and blood forming a rapidly growing pool at the bottom. The repulsive smell of excrement and death hit him as he came closer to the pit in order to put down a beam which would allow the transports to cross. There would be no funeral for those who died here today. These particular mercenaries had the most luck: at least they got a pit which they could call a grave. The rest were simply stacked up in a large pile and left for the Skôkak or wild animals to deal with.

As the caravan filed away, Karl turned back and saw a lone Drake approach the heap. He’d seen the Drake before, but he never really got to know who he was. His curiosity was now piqued, however, and he continued to watch as the Drake pressed his palms together and made a slight bow to the pile of dead while saying something that sounded almost like Hindi:

“Haamii marna prakrti kou hou. Mrtyu umkinee kunai upaaya cha. Tapaa'iim arkou jiivanamaa aananda ra shaanti bhari’eekou hous.”

He then took a small amulet from around his neck, kissed it and left it at the base of the pile before hurrying to re-join the group.

He noticed Karl looking at him and hesitated, perhaps fearing being told off for lollygagging. Karl just gave a single nod in understanding and turned to follow the group, the Drake following close behind. The two walked the rest of the way in silence.

Thirty died on this first day: thirteen mercenaries and twenty-five Skôkak. Karl was certain that they were far from the last ones who would die in the Cáqash.

****

There was a sombre atmosphere in the camp that night, and not only because of the losses. The swamp spooked many. Some believed there were dark ancient spirits living in these swamps that had been called up by the Skôkak to attack and harass outsiders. Karl also heard stories about monstrous creatures that rose up out of the swamp and pulled unsuspecting folk with them back to the bottom. Others talked about a creature made of mist which supposedly entered your lungs and choked you from the inside.

Normally tales likes this wouldn’t scare Karl, but he had learnt more than once that things he never thought existed were ordinary parts of reality here. There was magic on this world, so perhaps creatures that existed out of mist weren’t too much of a stretch. He heard sounds coming from the vine-laden trees which he could not assign to any creature. Not even the bizarre ones he had encountered here. 

For those who weren’t spooked by the stories, the eerie mist and general air of danger did the job quite well.

Turok was moving though the lines to select those who got guard duty, and who thus not only needed to stay awake for a while or would get woken up in the night, but who also needed to patrol the creepy swamp. Karl appeared to be fortunate, as his tent wasn’t selected for guard duty.

For dinner, they were handed bowls filled with some kind of stew with filled chunks of meat of ambiguous origin and one slice of bread. 

Karl huddled in a blanket with his back against a rock together with his tent mates near one of the fires so as to dry their sodden bodies and equipment.

Septus was busy rearranging his stuff when he spoke up. 

“I heard that Adler and that pony captain really threw down earlier.”

Salinas nodded. 

“Yeah. Adler called ponies incompetent fools that are going to get the entire escort killed. Ponies accused us of not having their back in their time of need.”

Taka snorted. “So now it’s our fault that they suck at fighting?”

“So it appears.” Boulder replied.

“Why do those idiots even come with us? It’s not like they ever came back here after that Cloppington disaster thirty years ago. Hell, they were pretty useless even before then! What’s their angle?” Khan questioned, clearly distrusting the ponies.

“They gave some bullshit line about how they have to accompany any ‘official state shipments’. They’re also supposed to be reinforcements for Ironhoof from what I heard.” Karl told them.

“If you ask me, by coming through this swamp they’re doing those rebels a favour. After all, dead soldiers can’t fight anymore.” Zōlak replied. 

Suddenly, a familiar buzzing filled the air and a couple of seconds later, Locust landed near them.

“How’s it going guys?” 

Locust was immediately greeted by everybody. Since his introduction, most of the mercenaries had taken to the Changeling.

“Hey Locust, how’s it looking up ahead?” Zōlak asked curiously.

“Calm. The Skôkak haven’t been seen around the camp. Of course, that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. With this fog and orders to not fly anywhere too easily visible, it’s kind of hard to tell for sure.”

“Do you think the Skôkak are going to come back anytime soon?” Salinas asked.

“Yeah, they’ll be back.” Caine spoke up. “Definitely now that they saw how little a threat the ponies pose. I did this route once a long time ago. I never fought against Skôkak before today, but back in that time I heard some guy in a pub tell other mercenaries that the way to minimize the amount of attacks is by giving them a major asskicking. However, with all those pony deaths I doubt they have been demoralized. They may hold off for a little while, but mark my words, for every second we don’t see them, they’re either planning, spying or lying in wait for an ambush.” 

“Alright then. That just means I need to regularly clean my spear and sword. No biggie.” Salinas replied nonchalantly as he continued to inspect his sword.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I am going to try and get some sleep. I doubt that there’re going to be many quiet nights in this hellhole.” Karl spoke up as he suppressed a yawn.

“Yeah, we probably should follow his lead. We should be grateful if those big snakes even stay away for the night.” added Caine 

The group stood up and walked into the slightly cramped tent, positioning themselves under their blankets after wishing Locust good night as he headed over to re-join his fellow scouts.
> Pirate Ambush
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The undertaking of a careless man succeeds not, though he use the right expedients: a clever hunter, though well placed in ambush, kills not his quarry if he falls asleep. – Bharavi


Karl was scanning the area from atop the transport wagon to which he had been assigned. 

At the outset, when the merchants had heard that pony guards would be accompanying them, they opted for protection from these guards, most likely because they trusted fellow ponies more than the mercenaries. 

Following the dreadful failure of the guard at the battle against the Nāga, the merchants quickly rebounded from these sentiments.

Fortunately, Karl had been assigned to guard a wagon owned by an earth pony (which he doubted was a coincidence, given his reputation around magical creatures and object). The merchant chose to ignore Karl’s existence beyond the occasional suspicious glare to make sure he didn’t sneak up on him.

‘Like you could save yourself anyway.’ Karl thought, continuing to scan the area.

To be fair, he actually liked this a lot, seeing as he didn’t even need to walk. 

Of course that happiness evaporated the moment he remembered he was also one of the easiest targets for enemy archers or slingers. Besides, he wasn’t completely off the hook: if the road needed to be repaired then he and some others were the ones that needed to do it.

Not to mention the fact that Locust was out in the front lines and a second ambush could happen at any moment. 

In other words, he had more than enough on his mind. 

Karl briefly looked around at the military transport that was behind them. If Titus spoke the truth, then that was where the Nāga girl was locked up. How Titus managed to give her the counteractive solution he didn’t know, but all that counted was that he’d succeeded.

“Hey Bea…uddy when do you think those big snakes will attack again?” The merchant asked.

Karl suppressed his snort at the failed save from the merchant, but decided to let it slide. If he was a beast in their eyes, at least they feared him. That had to be worth something.

“Don’t know. The entire swamp is a perfect ambush location, although I’m more concerned with pirates at this point. We’re nearing their hunting grounds now.”

The pony seemed content with his answer and decided to go back to ignoring Karl, which was absolutely fine. 

The column continued without any hindrance until they reached a river. The members of the caravan called it Nyr.

This river presented the first major travel challenge thus far (excluding the ambush, that is). The plan was to fasten a rope in the ground on the near side of the shore then row a boat to the other side and connect the rope. The carts, which were designed to be semi-amphibious, would ride atop this rope to the far shore. Karl didn’t very much care for the idea, but just like any other grunt, his opinion was not exactly valued, so he didn’t really have any option other than to just roll with the idea.

The mercenaries gathered near one of the transports on which Adler stood. 

“Okay men; you know the drill. The boat is already on its way to the other side, and we need to secure the location. This would be the perfect place for another ambush.

“Turok, take the second, third and fourth regiments and form a rear-guard. The rest of us will secure a bridgehead on the other side.” Adler ordered.

“Yes, sir!”

“Alright, you heard him! Two, three and four, move your asses over here!” 

Karl and the twenty-six other men formed up in front of the minotaur.

“You all come with me!” Turok said as he walked away followed by his men.

They walked for a little while until he suddenly stopped and ordered them to form a defensive line.

“Now listen: if there’re any thickheads out there who don’t know what a rear-guard is, we’re going to be the ones who make sure that nasties don’t jump up everyone else’s ass.

Now in light of what’s happened so far it might seem a little late to do this now, but I think it might be a good idea for all of us to pray to a god of our choosing, namely to make our job easier and keep the Nāga off our backs.” The men cheered for their commander before taking in a position. 

Karl stood still next to Zōlak who was apparently busy preparing his ritual. After a little while, Zōlak stopped and looked at Karl. 

“You’re not praying?”

“Don’t really know who to pray to.” Karl admitted.

“You don’t have a god?” Zōlak asked, confused.

“I have a god, but I don’t exactly know if a human god is going to be much of a help in a land filled with snake men. I never really bought into religion that much anyway, but the way I look at it, if there is a god, he or she is only as powerful as the number of their worshippers. Seeing as I’m the only one of my kind here, I’m at kind of a disadvantage.”

“You could pray to Zandark, Lord of Swamps.” suggested Zōlak. “I personally prayed to Linara, the patron of Drakes, but I doubt that would do very much for a non-Drake. Zandark is also worshipped by the Skokak, so he should have a fair amount of power, in these swamps at least.”

Karl nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like the kind of guy I need.” 

‘So I pray to our enemy’s god in order to hinder his own worshippers? Whatever. That’s not the weirdest thing I’ve encountered here.’ Karl thought to himself.

“So how do you pray to him? How does this work?”

Zōlak took a kind of wooden pendant out of his satchel, which was carved to look like a miniature mask, almost like the kind Native Americans would use. 

“Put this on and repeat what I say.” Karl put the pendant on and Zōlak started mumbling something nearly incomprehensible, which Karl tried repeating to the best of his ability. It was similar to, but not quite the same as the language he’d heard the other Drake speaking at the heap of bodies after the battle. Different religion? Or was it a regional thing?

Karl just barely managed to repeat everything Zōlak had said and when the Drake was done, he gestured for Karl to give back the pendant. 

“Is that it?” Karl asked as he handed Zōlak the pendant.

“Yes. Zandrak doesn’t always listen, but he’ll always be watching and judging in these places, so behave yourself as long as we’re in the swamp.”

‘Hm. A god that doesn’t listen? Isn’t that nice?’ Karl resisted the urge to say this out loud.

“Sure. I don’t want to piss off a god.”

“Spirit.” 

“What’s that?”

“Zandrak isn’t really a god. He’s more of a spirit who lives in the swamps. He is said to be protector of Cáqash, Lord of Numdran and Ruler of Svárna.”

“What’re those last two?” Karl asked confused.

“Numdran is a gigantic swamp near the Forgotten Sea east of Everfree Island, west of Ti and north of the Echo. Svárna is, or rather, it *was* a city build by Lizard Beasts, my ancestors, that was unfortunately lost. It is said to be based upon a mythical troll city called Lipzaaq, which was the seat of power of the Lizard Beast warlord, one of the legendary Evolved.”

“You seem to know a lot about these Evolved. More than anyone else here, anyway.”

“You probably went to the wrong people. All the major races except the ponies have been created by the Evolved. Each race worships their own Evolved creators, so if you ask a Diamond dog about the Lizard Beast warlord you won’t get much useful information.”

“Okay that makes sense… I guess.” Karl replied as he watched the transports being ferried across. 

The two of them stayed after that so as to better observe their environment

After a long time of looking at the swamp finally Karl heard the horn which signalled that the rear-guard was allowed to cross the river as well. 

“Okay men, pick up the pace. The sooner we’re on the other side, the better.” Turok ordered as he signalled his soldiers to retreat towards the boats that were left behind for them.

They reached the other side without any trouble and for a brief second Karl allowed himself to sigh in relief before regaining his alert composure. 

“I see that the Skôkak have kept themselves quiet so far.” Adler noted.

“Yeah, real quiet. A little too quiet if you don’t mind the cliché. What gives?”

“They’re just hoping that the pirates will drop our numbers so we’re easier prey for them later on. Both logical and disturbing as hell considering that it means they’re probably either preparing one giant bum rush of an attack or they’re setting up an entire string of ambushes for us. Neither is all that comforting.”

“Permission to speak freely sir?”

“Permission granted.”

“Why are we taking those military ponies with us? We’ve always kept our columns small for manoeuvrability, but a column this wide seems to be an unnecessary risk: we’ll be too clunky and too spread out. It’s like we’re begging for an attack.”

“I know that, but remember: we’re keeping those guards on the outside of the column, so they’ll be the first to take any attack. Only the merchants pay us for protection. Besides, they make excellent snake food.” Adler whispered in Turok’s ear, who grinned slightly at the thought of abandoning those stuck-up guard ponies to the Skôkak.

“I did hear that the Skôkak enjoy pony flesh, if the Cloppington disaster was anything to go by.”

Adler pulled back and smiled. “Yeah, those bones were pretty well picked over from what I remember. The pirates did most of the work and the Skôkak got a lot of free meat. ” With that said he turned around and left his second in command to monitor the men.

Karl and the others had taken their positions again mid-conversation, completely ignorant of what their two superiors had just discussed. 

“How’s is the situation?” The merchant pony asked.

“We’re in the pirates’ territory now, so you don’t need to worry about the Skôkak until we’ve crossed the next river.” Karl replied, remembering the map Adler had shown him and the others, on which the territories of both the pirates and the Skôkak were roughly indicated.

“Bucking great.” The merchant mumbled before shutting up again, for which Karl was grateful. 

The merchant didn’t like Karl at all, but at the least he didn’t bitch and whine like the other three. Karl was certain that the earth pony, while still a total a douche, at least did some work, where the rest just kind of sat on their asses while lackeys did their work. He was surprised such types actually joined this journey, but he guessed that they had their reasons.

The column started moving again a couple of minutes later when everyone was back in position, heading deeper into the pirate land.

For the next few of hours everything went as smooth as the rest of the day until they reached a path past a hill. Karl heard something that sounded like something was rolling, and when he looked up to the hill, he was just in time to see a tree trunk roll over a ridge and crush the transport in front his.

The men on top were crushed, but as the transport was at least a little bit reinforced, it managed to stay in one piece for the most part. The wheels were completely shot and most of the roof was caved in, but unless there was anything extremely breakable in that carriage, Karl guessed it was still in decent condition.

However, the now-immobile cart made an excellent blockade for all the transports behind it as the road was too narrow to move around it. Karl and the earth pony merchant jumped off of their carriage, just in time to dodge a rain of arrows which came falling down upon the column.

‘Jeez. That’s two close calls. Maybe that prayer thing actually worked.’

“Take cover!” He heard the commanding officers bark to their troops as they themselves headed for cover form the deadly rain of projectiles. Karl pressed himself tightly against the carriage with his shield covering both him and the merchant alongside some other mercenaries with the same idea.

Karl heard a sound which sounded like a battle cry as the pirates hurled what looked like Molotov cocktails down at the caravan. Karl saw some of the flaming projectiles burst upon the road, carriages, shields and, unfortunately, men, although most of the affected were ponies as they didn’t have shields like the mercenaries.

With a loud ‘THUD’ Karl felt one of the bottles fall upon his shield, breaking and splattering the flaming liquid within. The shield wasn’t the best protection, but at least he and the others weren’t sprayed by the flames. Instead, it flowed off of his shield and onto the ground near their, or more specifically, his feet.

Karl and the others had barely recovered from the little present when they heard a screeching which sounded not unlike Adler, quickly followed by gryphon shadows speeding across the ground.

The mercenaries on Karl’s right and left suddenly fell down, grunting in pain as a huge stone was suddenly dropped on top of their shields, splintering their arms. Karl and the others tried to shelter their fallen comrades.

“Archers; get those gryphons off our backs!” Karl heard someone yell, most likely the pony commander, followed by the whistling of arrows and a pained scream, followed by two or three dull thuds.

Turok and a clump of mercenaries headed past Karl signalling them to follow. 

“Listen up! We’re going to try and flank those pirates. We need to drive them off of the high ground if we want to stand a chance.” Nothing more was said as the minotaur led his troops up the hill.

The mercenaries formed as the pirates send over some archers and infantry to counteract their flanking manoeuvre. The pirates were a mix of nearly all the races Karl had seen so far: ponies, Diamond Dogs, griffins, minotaur, everything. 

“Testudo!” Turok yelled, the men immediately getting into formation, shielding them from the incoming barrage of arrows. 

“Pilum!” 

Everyone grabbed his first pilum, aimed and threw, killing a few enemy archers and other pirates before reforming the testudo as quick as possible and advancing.

The pirates tried to break the formation by throwing some Molotovs, which forced some men to adjust their path or else walk through the fire. 

“Charge!” 

Everyone rushed the pirates. The few casualties that the archers could and would score would be worth the victory. The arrows weren’t very effective against the shields, but still managed to hit two men. Whether they died or were wounded was something Karl couldn’t see as he kept charging the pirates, who by now started to retreat, not liking their chances in close-quarter combat.

By now the main ambush force had noticed the new threat and started falling back, former defeats at the hands of the-well trained mercenaries still too fresh in their minds. 

The pirates were more lightly armed so they could move faster than the mercenaries, but not fast enough to escape the range of the pilum. After a last devastating batch of pilae ripping into their ranks, the pirates beat a hasty retreat into the dense vegetation.

“Okay men; I think we taught those pirates a lesson. Let’s just see how long they keep that lesson at heart.” Turok complimented his men. 

After setting up a defensive line around the column, he headed over to Adler to discuss their next plans.

The column set up camp there, as there was too little daylight left to both repair the damage done by the ambush and search for a better location. The atmosphere was a bit more relaxed than on the day before, the successful fight having brought back the morale of the men.

Deep in the back of Karl’s mind he knew that they hadn’t seen the last or even the worst from the Skôkak or the pirates yet, but for the moment, the semi-safety was sufficient to let him relax as he ate some over-salted meat and a couple of rock-hard biscuits that you were supposed to make softer by mixing them with water and an apple. Not the greatest meal, but it was enough to keep him going, given the circumstances.

“What a day, huh?” He heard a voice say from behind him and he looked at where the voice came from.

“Titus. So you’re still alive.”

“A couple of pirates aren’t killing me now, not when I came so far already. Besides, who else could sneak into that pony transport and give our Nāga friend her medicine?”

“Touché. Still, how are you doing?”

“Besides almost getting an arrow in my neck and a fireball dropped on my head, just dandy. You?”

“Same, except I almost got a freakin’ boulder dropped on me.”

“Seems I got the lucky straw.”

“If you could call it that. Have you seen Locust by any chance?”

“The Changeling? No, not really. ‘S probably buzzing around somewhere.”

“That’s not exactly comforting.” Karl replied, slightly irked.

“He’s probably keeping a low profile with all these ponies.”

“You think they’re going to apprehend him?”

“I don’t think so, not if they don’t want to be killed off. Adler is getting pissed off at those ponies for fucking nearly everything up. If they try to detain one of his soldiers I believe he will gladly help you free him… still, Locust’s had a long history of being chased down by ponies, so he’s still probably a bit skittish.”

“I’d love to see that beat-down, although I hope it doesn’t happen in here: those ponies are fools, but fools that can be used as an excellent meat shields if the situation requires it.” 

It was a shared thought among the mercenaries that Karl voiced.

Titus nodded in agreement. “Yeah I don’t like ponies, but we wouldn’t really gain anything by letting them get killed. We need all the help we can get, no matter how half-brained: the Skôkak are up to something big even if they’ve only sent a small fighting force at us.”

“They’re demoralising and testing the soldiers to see who are the weakest and who are the strongest fighters before letting the pirates thin out our ranks. Then we’ll get the big surprise.” 

Titus nodded sombrely at how Karl summed it up. 

“Which brings me to my next question: how do we get out of this swamp alive with the Nāga woman and the artefact?”

“I don’t know. It all depends on how the situation is by the end of the week, but I suggest we beat it as soon as we get a chance after crossing the Ynnyk… that’s the next river. It’s healthier for her and safer for us to slip away from the group before the real fighting begins.”

“I doubt that safer part, but I do see the logic in it… How is she anyway?” Karl asked, curious and secretly also worried for her health.

“She’s stable for now, but only the gods know how long that’ll last. Like I said, we’re playing a pretty dangerous game with her health. Her environment is still relatively sterile, but I doubt that’ll last much longer: those ponies have no decency at all. What they do to these Nāga is only acceptable for criminals and scum of the worst kind, not for an innocent girl.

“I don’t know what they give her for food, so I can’t judge on that, but they keep her chained to the bottom of the aquarium almost twenty-four hours a day, so I doubt she’ll be in good physical condition conditions with the lack of movement, not to mention her mental state. I’m giving her injections to keep her awake and clear while they’re giving her sedatives to keep her complacent, so the longer we keep blasting her system with chemicals, the worse her health is going to get. This can’t go on much longer.”

Karl had the urge to massacre some ponies and immediately put an end to her suffering, but he quickly pressed down his emotions. 

‘For everything there is a time and a place. You’ll just have to wait.’ He chided himself. 
“Alright: the first chance we get after we cross the Ynnyk. Got it.”

“Good. It’s not going to be easy, but if everything goes just right, then we just might be safer than if we stick with the convoy.” 

With that, Titus stood up and left Karl behind to brood.
> Going Rogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You want stealth? Be a rogue in 'World of Warcraft'. - John Romero

Three days had passed since the pirate ambush, and the caravan had lost at least fifteen more men: thirteen ponies and two mercenaries. The deaths came mainly by poisonous snakes and assorted other animals. One from an infected wound and a second one would most likely soon follow.

Today they would cross Ynnyk, the last major river they would need to cross until they reached the Mossus.

“Son of a bitch, these pirates are annoying as hell!” Locust exclaimed as he landed next to Karl.

“What happened?”

“Can’t you see it?” Locust stated, angling his head to give Karl a better view of the deep dent in his helmet.

“Arrow or stone?”

“Arrow, but I have some from stones too if you want to see them.” Locust said, exasperated.

“Nah, I have some of my own.” He patted his helmet with a matching dent in it.

“Blasted love shield. If that useless Captain and Whatsherface Cadenza hadn’t managed to get together, then right now I’d be living a good life in Canterlot with plenty of pony love to feed on. But noooo. Here I am, a wanted criminal serving as a scout in one of most the barbaric parts of the world getting shot at on a daily basis!”

“I feel for you man.” Karl replied, Locus grumbling something in return. 

“Still; being defeated by a pink shield of love is pretty freakin’ funny.” Karl chuckled a bit at the thought of a big pink love shield blasting Locust halfway across the country. 

“Yeah, yeah. Wait until *you* get blasted by a ‘pink love shield’. I want to see how you would feel after it.”

“I would be dead. Either through impact, which could be quick due to a vital impact or incredibly slow from something like a lung puncture, or my body would just melt while I’m alive until I die from cardiac arrest or major organ failure.” Karl stated in an emotionless tone.

Both continued scanning their environment in silence.

****
An hour or so later…

Karl was sitting in a boat operating one of four oars together with Zōlak, Khan and Taka. The others intensely scanned the opposite bank trying to see any hidden Skôkak warriors. Their shields hung on the side of the boat to protect against projectiles. Rearguard and vanguard had switched out. Not exactly a welcome transition, but someone needed to secure the beachhead and it could do everyone some good to get fresh eyes on it.

The boat was almost on the shore where the dirt road continued, when the accompanying scouts bounded ashore. 

“Anything?”

“No sir. A few animals, but no sign of the Skôkak.” The commander of the Scouts, a creature that looked like a flying squirrel about the same height as Locust, replied. 

Karl and the other rowers had by now pulled the boat to shore and were busy gathering their equipment from the boat.

“Form up men! I want this location secured as soon as possible!” Turok ordered as he joined his men. 

Contrary to nearly everyone’s expectations, there was no ambush waiting for them. 

The company continued uneventfully until the crossing of the second river which went just as smoothly as the first.

Karl was again assigned to his normal spot on top of the Earth pony’s carriage. He was tired from having to be on constant alert, but the fear of attack gradually faded into a vague apprehension as hostiles continued to remain unseen. He was relaxed for a while, but it eventually just got worse as he began to realize that the Skôkak or pirates could quite easily be anywhere around him. 

‘This must be how the Vietnam vets felt in the jungle.’ he thought to himself.

He was grateful when Taka signaled him it was time to switch. Some walking might wake him up a bit. He hoped that he didn’t have to be sentry tonight a good night’s rest would help a lot.

****

Karl awoke at the sound of a blasting horn and some officers yelling.

“Wake up! On ‘yer feet! Ambush!”

Immediately Karl was awake and scrabbled to his feet along with the others in the darkness-induced chaos. He put his mail armor and helmet on before quickly grabbing his belt with his sword and dagger, followed by his shield.

He headed towards the battle lines, proceeded by Boulder (how that pile of rocks could move so fast Karl had no idea) and Caine.

The mercenaries formed a shield wall around the encampment as they saw how various pony soldiers were locked in battle with Skokak that were pressing ever closer. 

“It won’t do any good to fire at their front ranks! We have to thin the rest of the herd so that they have no backup! Take aim!” Turok ordered, and the mercenaries retrieved their pilae.

“Throw!” A rain of the deadly projectiles ripped into the rear ranks of the Skôkak.

“Forward!” The shield wall started to advance towards the Skôkak lines. Karl was the positioned to cover Khan. Karl aimed his spear at the enemy, searching for any openings that a Skokak might take advantage of. The Skôkak had learnt their lesson from the last battle and fell back as the shield wall advanced. The ponies were attacked brutally with no hesitation, but the mercenaries were treated like they were infected with the Black Plague.

“Spread the men out! Hell, we need to guard the damn *guards*!” Adler ordered, his bloodied sword gripped firmly in his right talon. 

Turok started barking orders for the men to relocate until only he and Adler remained.

“Sir, they are spreading us out thin. This can’t be a coincidence.”

“I know that Turok, but if they break through the pony lines, ours are bound to fall as well. Those stubborn fools won’t leave any of the carriages undefended!”

“Damn them. Good luck. Let’s show those overgrown snakes what we’re made of!” 

Turok gripped Adler’s free talon and gave it a strong shake before they both separated and joined their men in the fight.

****

The Skôkak seemed to be throwing everything they had into this fight. They’d tested the limits of the men and now they were using that knowledge to their full advantage.

“Take cover!” 

Karl didn’t know who yelled it, but he hid behind his shield, and not a moment too soon: a fireball whizzed over his head and hit a carriage behind him setting it ablaze. 

“Oh, fucking *great*. More magic fire.” Karl cursed as he scrambled to get back in position.

To say that the pony guards were in trouble would quite possibly be the greatest understatement of the decade. By the time the mercenaries had arrived to back them up, the Skôkak had already broken through the line of guards, forcing the mercenaries to, again, form their own defensive line. They still couldn’t make up for the space lost by the guards, with some carts falling behind enemy lines.

The ponies fled through the mercenary ranks to the newly created safe zone (for a given value of safe). 

Karl was doing his best to fight off some skirmishers when Titus took position next to him.  

“What’re you doing here?”

“Reinforcing. You need all the men you can get and I figured I might as well keep my friend company while I’m at it.”

The Skôkak mages fired another two fireballs at the ranks, both of which missed, coming down behind the line. 

“For an amphibious species they sure seem to love fire.” Karl mumbled.

“If you think that’s strange, wait till they start using lightning bolts.” 

Karl paled at that thought. 

Titus and Karl formed up, aligning their shields next to each other when all the guards had passed through the opening, or at least the surviving guards.

Some of the dead ones, and even one living guard, were dragged away from the battlefield. 

“I don’t like ponies, but you have to be sorry for that one. Poor fool probably gonna wish he could use his balls to drive a dagger through his heart.” A mercenary somewhere on Karl’s left stated.

Karl didn’t really know what the Skôkak did to their prisoners, but if that statement alone meant anything, it didn’t sound very good, and he didn’t intend to find out any time soon. 

“Take cover!” 
Karl *again* managed to raise his shield just in time to find cover from various rocks that were shot their way. A couple of mercenaries were hit and after the barrage was over they were dragged behind the line to safety.

The Skôkak let out a loud shriek before they all rushed the line (Karl didn’t know a snake could charge). Karl braced himself and said a last prayer to whatever god was willing to hear him out. The first Skokak ran himself through on Karl’s spear, but the impact still pushed Karl back. The Skôkak threw all of his weight on the shield whilst trying to stab his sword into Karl’s torso. Karl used his shield to redirect the sword, making it come down behind his shoulder. He twisted the spear so the point caused more internal damage. The mercenary behind him pressed his shield in Karl’s back, giving him the extra force to throw the Skôkak back from his own shield.

Karl needed to focus on not getting his spear pulled out of his grasp as it was still stuck in the falling Skôkak. He had just enough time to pull his spear out and aim at the next Nāga who, unfortunately for Karl, managed to break the spear. The Skôkak threw himself at Karl, certain of it that the mercenary before him had been disarmed and wouldn’t have time to draw a sword.

Unfortunately for the Skokak, Karl’s secondary weapon wasn’t a sword, but his claws with which he stabbed the completely exposed stomach of the Skôkak warrior. The Skôkak gasped for air, confusion written on his face. Karl twisted his claws inside the Skokak’s body for optimal damage. It felt just like it sounds.
He pulled back and the Skôkak clutched his stomach in pain, but before Karl could finish him off he heard the signal to switch out with the second rank and he fell back with the rest of his companions as reinforcements filled the gap. He immediately headed over to a weapon cart to replace his broken spear.

He took a new spear and looked to the chaos all around him. Everywhere he looked there was fire and corpses. Mercenaries and ponies tried desperately to hold the various lines against the Skôkak warriors. 

Titus touched Karl on his shoulder.
“Karl, it’s high time we get the girl and get out of here.”

“Maybe you didn’t notice: we’re kind of under siege here.”

“Haven’t you noticed that there is no one near that ridge over there?” Titus signaled to an unoccupied ridge that lead to lower ground. 

“That’s rather convenient.”

“The Skôkak don’t expect anyone to try escaping. Even if they do, that would only be in their advantage. They wouldn’t bother going after a couple of deserters, at least not right away. Follow me.” 

Karl didn’t like the feeling of deserting his fellow fighters, but he knew that this could be their only chance to make a clean getaway, so he did as he was ordered. Titus led him to a metal carriage and after checking for any prying eyes, he jimmied the lock open and opened the door. Within lay the Nāga girl and she looked downright sickly.

Her violet scales had now taken on a dirty, pale pink colour. Her blue skin looked the same as it had, but her breathing was uneven. Karl could barely tolerate standing near the tank due to all the magical material in the water.

Titus had no trouble picking open her cuffs and dragged her out of the water. He grabbed two buckets, one for himself and one for Karl, and took some water from a nearby pool and splashed the water on her. Karl was worried about her complete lack of reaction to anything. Titus grabbed a towel and cleaned her off before splashing water over her again. 

“Good?” He asked Karl.

He didn’t feel any magic anymore from her or at least not enough to bother him. 

“Yeah. I should be fine now.”

“Okay. You take her upper body and I’ll take her tail. You can call your Changeling buddy now.”

“His ‘Changeling buddy’ is already here.” Locust stated, startling them both as he appeared behind them carrying some of their bags. 

“Wow. She looks a little, uh… ill.”

“More than a little.” Titus stated as he grabbed his stuff.

“Locust you’re our lookout. Give a shout if you see anyone following us.” Karl ordered while taking his own backpack before lifting the Nāga girl’s upper body as Titus picked up her tail, commencing the slow process of moving her to safety.

****

They crossed the ridge to the lowlands and had been walking for a good half hour and they needed to rest. Neither Dog nor (mutated) man seemed capable of carrying an adult female Nāga for more than that period. They found a small cave with a pond in it in which they laid the Nāga. She obviously liked the clean water as she seemed to form a smile and curl up a bit.

“You think the Skôkak are going to find us here?” Locust asked Titus.

“I don’t know. If we’re lucky, they’re too busy and content hauling off their loot to search for escapees like us.”

“Let’s hope. I don’t feel very confident in fighting those guys with our current odds. I don’t even have my shield.” Karl complained, upset about leaving his faithful shield behind.

“I agree. Let’s just keep quiet and hope that they don’t find us. I’ll take the first watch. Karl you’re second and Locust you’re third.”

“Fine by me.” Locust replied.

“Ditto. A (hopefully) good night to both of you. I hope she’ll be capable of moving on her own tomorrow.” Karl replied as he searched a comfortable spot.

“Don’t count on it.” Titus replied.

“A man can hope.”
> Capture
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“No matter how bad things are, you can always make things worse.” ― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture

Karl woke up feeling refreshed, a sensation he had grown used to lacking. Locust was still gazing at the cave entrance not noticing Karl. 

“’Morning Locust.”

“’Morning Karl, sleep well?” He didn’t divert his attention from the entrance.

“Can’t complain, but I doubt that’s going to last.” 

Karl stood up, supporting himself against the wall with his claws. 

“Did she move?”

“No, she’s still out like a light. I hope she wakes up soon: I doubt we have the capacity to deal with a coma patient.” 

Karl looked at the Nāga’s slumbering form on the bottom of the small pool and was thinking about how peaceful and happy she looked, blissfully unaware of her situation. He was interrupted from his thoughts as Titus began to stir.

“’Morning. How’s she?” Titus asked after yawning and trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes.

“Still sleeping.” Karl replied before heading to the exit. “I’m going to take a piss. If you hear something walking your way, please be sure it’s not me before you blast it.”

Locust nodded and Karl headed over to a bit of vegetation.

A few minutes passed before he returned from his constitutional.

“So what’s the plan, Titus?” Karl asked.

“We wait until she recovers. Like I said before, we can’t drag an unconscious Nāga through Cáqash. At least not in a timely or secure manner. We can only hope she wakes up soon and that she’ll get better in the days to come. She needs to get healthy enough to move around on her own. We only have swords and spears; no shields. Any confrontation with the Skokak, if we’re not outnumbered anyway, would be too much of a risk.”

All three men suddenly shut up as they heard a shuffling noise coming from within the cave. Looking up, they saw Saqatuwa sitting upright in the pool with her back against its sides and a dazed expression on her face.

‘Well isn’t *that* a convenient turn of events.’ thought Karl

Titus stood up and slowly walked over to her. A brief look of confusion passed over her face before relaxing again at the recognition of Titus. 

Titus started saying something that Karl didn’t understand. It had that strange bubbling complexity typical of many ancient languages back on Earth, unaltered by modern linguistic influence. Titus’ soothing and gentle tone led to Karl’s concluding that he was most likely issuing some sort of consolation or comfort.

Saqatuwa turned to Karl and Locust, casting a soft smile in their direction, recalling the pair from before. Titus continued telling her something in her own language. She sometimes asked questions, or at least what were inflected like questions. She pointed at Karl and Locust and Titus replied to all of her questions patiently. It was rather agitating for Karl to not know about what they were talking about, particularly when it was about him.

After Saqatuwa and Titus made a bit of… small talk?... Titus motioned both of them to come closer. Saqatuwa motioned him and Locust to come even closer until they were almost touching each other. She motioned Karl to kneel so they were on nearly equal footing and then she embraced him repeating something that sounded like “táput ni” a couple of times, before releasing him and doing the same with Locust.

“She thanked you.” Titus clarified. Karl shot a look at Locust who was obviously comfortable in her embrace. He nuzzled her face like a puppy.

“Seems like someone enjoys Nāga hugs.” Karl teased. Saqatuwa released Locust again and the Changeling staggered a bit like he was in a daze.

“Oh, yeaaah… that’s the good stuff.” Karl and Titus shared a laugh and after Titus translated what Locust had said, Saqatuwa giggled a bit at the Changeling’s bliss. She said something in reply.

“She says she is honoured to see that her emotions are giving you such a reaction.”

“Tell her the honour is mine. Most of our experiences with Nāga haven’t exactly been very positive. I had no idea they could be so… gracious. Makes a Changeling wonder how their true love would feel.” 

Locust mussed that last bit to himself. Saqatuwa suddenly asked something again making Titus point to the cave entrance. She moved to exit the cave, but suddenly became unsteady, if something that slithers can possibly be described as “unsteady”. Titus put an arm around her shoulders and guided her out through the mouth of the cave, leaving Locust and Karl alone.

After a little while both Saqatuwa and Titus came back. 

“Morning piss.” Titus clarified as he helped her back into the small pool. 

“Alright, so as it turns out, she’s not fit enough to travel on her own. We’ll still need to stay here until we reach that stage. I should probably teach you two a little bit of Nazja so you can give her some basic orders in certain situations, but first let’s eat a bit.” 

They ate a bit of the food Locust had managed to grab from the encampment and the surrounding area, also giving some salted meat to Saqatuwa, which she greedily swallowed down almost whole. Karl realised that she was part snake, and hadn’t honestly expected anything different, but the situation was made a bit more unnerving by her apparent lack of difficulty in dealing with the dreadfully dry, rock-hard meat.

After breakfast Titus started learning both Karl and Locust some basic stuff in Nazja like; “be careful” (nuqusunásh), “keep silent” (ciqunapsh), “run” (qaqish, which truly meant “slither”) or look out (kunamsh). Karl knew this was going to be no easy feat. Remembering stuff like this in a normal situation that was hard enough. He couldn’t imagine that the tension of their situation or the heat of battle would help any.

“Alright, now let’s test what you know. I want you two to give me these orders, but in Nazja.” Titus handed them each a paper with a couple of orders on it.” You first, Karl.”

The first order was “lay down”. 

“Sipsunsh.” 

Titus laid down.

…

Karl made no mistakes, but he was rather slow in giving a couple of them. 

“Okay, you did well, but you can’t afford to think for so long on couple of those orders. They need to be like second nature. Locust, your turn.”

Locust ran into the exact same problem, hesitating a bit too long, and speaking a bit too slowly.

“Same problem. Work on your speed and you should be fine!” 

With that, he walked over to Saqatuwa, on his way grabbing a bottle with a green coloured liquid in it. Titus carefully shook the sleeping Nāga and after gaining her attention he showed her the vial.

Saqatuwa asked him something. Titus nodded his head, causing her to sigh.

She took the bottle and slammed it back like a shot. Almost immediately her face crumpled in disgust, almost like a little kid after taking his cough medicine. 

Titus offered her his canteen, which she gratefully took. After taking a few small nips she gave it back, saying something which prompted Titus gave her a smile and some quick words. She retorted something before coughing on the aftertaste.

Most of the day went by pretty quickly as they all told a bit about themselves, with Titus translating what Saqatuwa had to say. She was a member of the Môyikowak, a special order, the membership of which was limited to two-armed female Nāga, that focused on healing magic. She told them that the Môyikowak were invaluable on the battlefield, aiding the injured and lending magical support, both defensive and offensive. The Môyikowak were also the guardians of something called the “Táhkikam wuci Kitiyayôk”, the closest translation for which, said Titus, was “Well of Life”, an ancient pool filled with healing magic said to have been extracted from the earth by an ancient Nāga emperor, one of the fabled Evolved.

Much to Karl’s disappointment, she did not go into further detail about these figures, but seeing as she had been otherwise forthcoming, he doubted that she knew more than what she told them. 

He still had one more thing in his sleeves, or rather, his backpack, that Locust had brought with him.

When he took out the stone tablet, she immediately went silent and her eyes grew in amazement. It was a funny sight, reminiscent of how his face would have looked if he got his hands on a new game release, or some new piece of tech churned out by the relentless electronics industry. 

She warily slithered over to him and motioned to the tablet. Karl held the tablet out to her. She carefully took it in her hands and supported herself on her tail as she inspected it. 

“You just made her day, boy: you don’t know how much she wanted to get her hands on that tablet.”

They waited for a bit until Titus asked her something, to which she replied… well, something. 

“She’s on to something.”

After a while, everyone had decided to leave Saqatuwa to her own devices as they did not want to disturb her, when suddenly she addressed Titus with an enthusiastic string of words. 

“Hmmm… She says that the tablet is a lost segment of one of their sacred manuscripts. It describes how to create some kind of summoning rune.”

“Hey Titus, can you ask her if she knows why the Skôkak are so hell-bent on getting that tablet?” Karl asked. “I mean, beyond the obvious, there must be a reason why they want it *now*.”

Titus nodded and asked Saqatuwa to which she replied something.

“She says that the rune is needed in order for an ancient Skôkak ritual. It is this rune which enables them to bring Sarkânas: an ancient gigantic snake used in battle by the Evolved. They were led by Mácitôkwa, easily the most powerful and dangerous of the lot. The Sarkânas were killed off after Mácitôkwa’s army was crushed and she was imprisoned. The details of the battle that led to this are either vague or lost to history. The Skôkak are all that remain of her followers and ever since that event they’ve been searching for a way to bring the Evolved back. If they get a hold of this tablet, they’ll find that way.”

“So instead of snake people we could have to deal with giant snake people?”

“Oh, I doubt the Sarkânas are the only creatures that they are planning on bringing back. There are older and fouler things than Skôkak in the dark places of the world. Many of them were allied with the Evolved in their time of power and they have long awaited an opportunity to make a comeback. Once it gets out that the Skôkak have a means to return their ranks to their former glory, and trust me, it’ll be obvious, these creatures will come flooding out of their hidden places looking to do the same. The Skôkak are too smart to not know this, so they’re probably counting on these others to join their ranks. That’s really something we don’t want happening.” Titus said on a tone that really did not promise much good.

“Can you bring back any Evolved with that ritual or only this Mácitôkwa?” Karl questioned.

“In theory you can bring back any Evolved you want, but you need a whole lot more than just that rune for that part of the ritual. The Sarkâna ritual is decently simple because you just call upon some of her powers or some crap like that to allow you to start the summoning. Not too complicated for an experienced practitioner, but bringing her back requires a way to open a portal that can essentially generate matter out of nothing. If they can’t pull that off, they need a body that can serve as host for her spirit. She won’t have any of her physical capabilities, but her magical abilities will be fully restored, and that’s dangerous enough.” 

“How do you know all of that?” Karl questioned.

“Most of my life has been spent traveling all over this world. You have no idea what kinds of info you can pick up that way.” 

“…Alright, that’s a long enough history lesson. What are we supposed to do now?”

“We wait.” Titus replied.

****

It took three days for Saqatuwa to heal enough to be able to handle movement on her own, or at least as healed as she was going to get: her imprisonment and exposure to those magically enhanced sedatives had induced advanced muscular atrophy, and only movement could solve that problem.

Unbeknownst to Karl, magic apparently also took a toll from lack of use. Titus would occasionally ask her to exercise her magical abilities, namely, to create a fireball. Until now, she produced an exchange of orange sparks between her palms, nothing more. On perhaps the 9th attempt, much to her happiness, she finally managed to make one roughly the size of a human fist. Karl had never seen the Nāga so happy. 

He was glad that they finally got back underway: he was starting to go a little stir-crazy in that cave. Of course, leaving the relative safety of the cave meant they would again have to face the dangers of the swamp. Somehow, Saqatuwa’s presence eased him. Even in her weakened state, she seemed to exude an aura of safety.
Of course, that was only a desperate attempt by his brain to create some kind of false security in this dangerous area. Titus had told him about the Môyikowak and, despite their obvious prowess, they were considered only the third best female warriors the Nāga had to offer. Ahead of them were the female part of the royal elite guards and some kind of female-only warrior order the name of which he had since forgotten. Still, third place would have sounded damn good if she weren’t incapacitated.

The males were the better fighters, because the Nāga females were more sorceresses that gave the males support when needed. Males were more physically capable in a fight, whereas it seemed that nature had compensated for the females magical abilities with weaker bodies. 

Saqatuwa said something to Titus who nodded. 

“Hey, Karl; Saqatuwa asks what your weapon of preference is.” 

Karl was taken aback by the question, but answered nonetheless.

“I guess it would be a spear, but I prefer to just use my claws and teeth. Easier to use.”  Titus translated his answer for Saqatuwa who nodded in agreement and replied.

“She says that the males of their race also prefer using their natural weapons, but that she and most other females prefer to use either swords or tridents for mêlée. Most females try to use magic when possible though.”
“Could you ask her if she has experience fighting Skôkak?” Titus nodded and a couple of seconds after asking he got an answer.

“She says that she has never fought the Skôkak before. The Skôkak rarely come into contact with other Nāga. She knows a little of their language; it’s in the same linguistic family as Nazja and the two languages probably used to be almost the same, but due to the Skôkak isolation, it’s developed very little where Nazja has undergone a variety of augmentations and modifications over time. She also says she probably forgot most of it, but many Skôkak do also have a rudimentary understanding of Equish due to their contact with the pirates, so there’s likely to be some common ground for communication.”

The trek continued on without much conversation.

After about five hours Titus spoke up. 

“Do you guys still remember the Cloppington disaster?” 

Karl and Locust just looked at him unsure of why that was suddenly important. 

“Well, we’re going to enter the path of that caravan and I doubt the pirates or the Skôkak cleaned up very well. Expect to see some bodies… or what’s left of them anyway.”

Not so much later the first skeletons were adorning the path: bones crisscrossed the path while empty-eyed equine skulls leered at the party from every direction. It became impossible to walk without stepping upon a bone. Karl felt skulls being crushed under his sandals. 

After a while it became apparent that the bones were not simply strewn about, but were rather organised in an almost artistic fashion. Bones were arranged in geometric patterns on the ground and suspended from trees while skulls were placed on stakes and placed strategically along the path. The skeletons that hadn’t been disassembled were propped upright on their “feet” with sakes. One tree was wrapped in hundreds of teeth suspended along a cord like a macabre Christmas decoration.

“Damn. The Skôkak have a pretty twisted sense of décor!” Locust said, stating the obvious.

Saqatuwa was just slithering on, not seeming to care a bit about the bones. 

“This place must have reeked to high heaven a week after that battle with all of those bodies decaying here.” Karl noted. 
The path of death continued for a while. The density of remains varied, indicating where the most casualties occurred.

****

The sun was had almost disappeared behind the horizon when they arrived at a hill where the ruins of some small, wooden, hastily assembled buildings stood. Most of the wood had fallen or was decaying, but a decent amount of it had somehow remained standing.

“This is where Captain Cloppington and what was left of his men made their last stand. It’s also where we are going to sleep tonight, so get comfortable.” Titus announced to Karl and Locust before translating it to Saqatuwa. 

She looked almost as disgusted at the prospect as Karl and Locust. There was, after all, a difference between walking over corpses and sleeping next to them.

Not that there were many other options: there was far too little daylight left to search for another spot to set up camp, so unhappily and reluctantly, they all followed Titus to the hill. Skeletons were littered everywhere within the remnants of wooden palisades. Titus headed to a very small shack that probably served as the officers’ post. The shack consisted of four wooden plank walls and a wooden ceiling that already had some cracks and holes in it. Dirty, but devoid of skeletons. 

“This’ll do. We’ll take turns on watch: Karl you take the first shift, Locust has the second, I’ll take the third and Saqatuwa has the fourth.”

“Fine for me.” Karl replied.

“Yeah, it’s alright.”

“Good.” Titus said before translating it for Saqatuwa who nodded that she understood.

Karl waited and waited until it was time to wake Locust. After waking him, Karl dozed off happily into a pleasant dream involving fighting off zombies with other people like he was playing co-op in a game. The zombies were slow and his guns seemed to possess infinite ammo. He gallivanted all over the map, kicking ass and having the time of his life.

That was until he was roughly woken up and he saw a couple of Skôkak standing near him with spears and swords in their grasp. The others had already been secured; Titus paws were bound behind his back and he had a rope around his throat to prevent him from running. Locust was nowhere in sight, but one of the Skôkak had a moving burlap sack over his shoulder and some muffled sounds came from it. Saqatuwa was bound with her hands and tail to a large and thick stick held up by two muscular Skôkak warriors in the same fashion as a hunted beast that had been caught. Both Titus and Saqatuwa had cloth gags firmly affixed across their mouths. One of the Skôkak held out a rope to Karl. Every inch of Karl’s body screamed out to fight, but his rational side realised that he didn’t stand a chance, claws and teeth regardless. He sighed and put his claws behind his back to allow the Skôkak to secure him.

****

He was shoved outside and after getting another rope fastened around his neck connected to Titus’ rope they were led into a village, which they reached a couple of hours later. The only consolation was that it was at least in their intended direction of travel. He would need to get out of the village alive to actually make use of that though.

They earned quite a lot of glances from the civilian (for lack of better terminology) Skôkak. Karl and Titus were bound back to back to a wooden post and the bag containing Locust was put on a hook. Saqatuwa meanwhile had been brought to another side of the small square, still tied up like a hog on a spit. Karl saw she was saying something, probably trying to negotiate with the Skôkak (now that they were side-by-side, Karl could see how different the two types of Nāga actually were), but she was cut off by one of the Skôkak females who pressed her finger over Saqatuwa’s lips.

A couple of Skôkak women gathered around her. Karl’s curiosity got the best of him and he began to study the scene. First the female Skôkak started touching and prodding her, studying the patterning of her scales and the contours of her body. Then one of them started touching Saqatuwa’s breasts, varying from firmly grasping them to gently massaging her nipples. In spite of her situation, sleek moans escaped Saqatuwa’s throat as she involuntarily writhed in pleasure. Another of the female Skôkak started working on where Karl guessed was her nether region, alternately using her tongue and fingers. The remaining two alternated between kissing her and caressing her belly with their long, thin tongues.

“So Karl any last wishes?” Titus questioned.

“Yes: let them end me with this view and I’ll die a happy man.” Karl mumbled dreamily as he kept his eyes display.

Titus looked around to the best of his ability. He was confused as to why Karl would want to die looking at some dusty squa... oh!!! Titus managed to get Saqatuwa and the Skôkak females in sight that were still continuing their make-out session.

“As much as I would like to agree with you, I can’t help but think we’re witnessing some kind of sex crime.” Titus muttered.

A spike of unease went through Karl as he realised the truth in Titus’ words. He honestly hadn’t considered the possibility before now, and now that it was at the front of his mind, he didn’t like it one bit. 

Annoyingly, his libido kept humming despite the objections of his rational brain.

After a few more minutes, it seemed as if the Skôkak women were finished with Saqatuwa, each giving the sweating and exhausted Nāga a last kiss whilst massaging her beautiful breasts one last time before departing, leaving her hanging like some fresh caught prey who was sweating and panting of exhaustion.

Ironically that was the closest thing they all could be compared to Karl thought grimly. He saw some of the male Skôkak slithering towards them. 

“They’d better not expect the same of us! I already do some of that stuff with Locust.”

“Come again?”

“Uh…. Nothing.” Karl awkwardly replied. He felt their bonds loosen from the post, but his claws were still bound behind his back. He was roughly hauled to his feet and shoved in some direction by the Skôkak. He heard Titus curse behind him as he got poked by some warriors with their spears, which earned him a slap on the head.

They were led through the town towards a grouping of big rocks that did not give Karl a good feeling. 

“We’d better figure out a way to convince these guys to allow us to leave. And by convince I mean bust the hell outta here.” Titus said.

“Yeah, I was thinking along those lines as well.” Karl replied before adding. “Say uh… you think they would make those women give us a turn?” 

A loud scream suddenly came from somewhere on their right. They saw a pony guard strapped to a large stone altar-ish construction with three male Skôkak around him, one of them holding what looked like a sacrificial knife.

The pony hadn’t been harmed from what Karl could see, but suddenly the… priest?... firmly grabbed the pony’s balls and with quick precision made a clean cut in the scrotal sac, causing the pony to issue a scream. The Skôkak squeezed the slit sac, causing a white testicle to fall out onto a plate that was put underneath it. He quickly cuts through the vas deferens before repeating the process with the pony’s remaining testicle.

Fortunately the pony had already lost consciousness from pain-induced shock by the time the Skôkak started to work on the second. 

“Yeah. About your earlier question Karl, uh…. I think the answer is no.” Titus mumbled in a state of abject disgust. Karl could only mumble something inaudible as he gawked at the garish scene. 

Their guards roughly prodded them forward.

“I think we better think of a really good reason if we don’t want to end up like that guy.” Karl stuttered still in light shock at both the image of the pony and the thought that unless he convinced these snake people to let them go, his balls were going to join the pony’s ones.
“Yeah we better start thinking.” Titus replied.

> Dining With Skôkaks
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. -John F. Kennedy

Titus and Karl were escorted to a hut that stood on a small hill overlooking the village. 

“Wait here.”, one of the guards gruffly ordered before slithering into the hut, leaving the man and dog outside. 

“I hope they aren’t cooking Locust right about now.” Karl said, only half joking.

“This is not the time to worry about him.” Titus replied. 

Karl hated to admit it, but Titus was right. Unless they came up with a good reason for the elders to let them live, they all were pretty much fucked… perhaps a bit more literally in Saqatuwa’s case.

Any further thoughts on the subject were interrupted by the lead Skôkak slithering back out of the hut and motioning them to enter, which they hesitantly did. The inside of the hut was mostly bare; only some rough-looking carpets with pillows strewn about upon them, a few crude shelves, and in the farthest corner, a large bundle of blankets presumably serving as a bed.

In the middle of the room stood a black Skôkak, most likely the chief if his adornments were anything to go by. He was wearing a chest plate that matched the colour of his scales. Atop his head rested a headdress made up of opalescent rods that tapered to points. If Karl were to guess, he would say they looked like massive porcupine quills or stingers. 

”Greetings, travellers. I am the chief elder of this village. Who are you?” the Skôkak asked, although it was more an order than a question.

“I am Titus Publius Severius of the Diamond Dog Confederacy.”

“I am Karl Kempf from the Everfree Forest.” At this the Skôkak made a movement that would be the same as perking an eyebrow, without having an eyebrow.

“The Everfree, huh? Now what would bring a beast from the Everfree into the Cáqash?” The Skôkak demanded looking Karl straight in the eyes.

“I seek passage to Ironhoof.” 

The Skôkak grinned maliciously. 

“Why face hazards you don’t know rather than the ones you do know?” 

Karl realized the Skôkak was referring to the fact that Karl could have simply gone through the Everfree forest to get to Ironhoof rather than through Cáqash.

“Because I only knew I needed to go through Cáqash when I was already too far from the Everfree and going back would have wasted too much time.” Karl replied as calmly as he possibly could, although he bet his voice cracked.

“What are you after that is so urgent that you dared to cross the land of the Skôkak without permission?!” the elder asked.

“A girl and vengeance.” Replied Karl.

‘And why the hell do we need your permission?’ he asked himself. He considered voicing his perturbation, but figured that it was not in his best interest.

The elder actually grinned at that. 

“That’s one I haven’t heard in a long time. Most excuses are about money, glory and adventure and other crape like that. Perhaps you’ll be interesting enough to listen to for a while before I kill you.”

“Does that offer also count for my companions?”

“Yes: neither you, the Changeling or the dog will end up as dinner tonight.”

Karl didn’t care for the open-endedness of that statement, but it was a start.

“And the Nāga?” Titus questioned urgently.

“Oh, she was never in real danger, why would we kill a Nāga that the rest of us can amuse ourselves with?” 

Karl cringed.

Shaking off his momentary disgust, Karl pressed on.

“Could you enlighten me about that last statement of yours?” 

“It’s quite simple; your Nāga companion is part of a special order. Members of that order are believed to bring good fortune and fertility to those who engage in intercourse with them.”

“Well I suppose that explains a lot.” Titus mused thoughtfully.

“And rules out the possibility of getting similar treatment.” muttered Karl under his breath.

“Indeed.” continued the elder, apparently not hearing Karl’s remark. “She shall be used to bless all the women of the village and after that she is free to go.” 

As much as he found the prospect of a friend being subject to forced ritual group sex a bit irksome, Karl’s arousal couldn’t be helped.

“I will spare you and your companions for now because you have managed to catch my interest and because you were so kind to bring back something that was stolen from us. I would like to invite you and your companions to attend our feast tonight.”

“We gladly accept.” Karl replied. He wasn’t thrilled at the prospect, but he supposed that feasting was superior to castration.

“Splendid. I will have my warriors escort you back to the village. Your Changeling friend will be freed. You can freely walk around the village as long as you behave yourselves and don’t wander off to far. Or else I may have to… recant my offer.” the elder finished dangerously.

Karl and Titus shuffled out of the hut more than a little rattled.

“Well, we’ve still got our balls and our lives, so I guess that counts for something.” Karl said, relieved that the negotiations had gone fairly smoothly for the time being.

“Yeah… I wonder how the Changeling is doing.” Titus mused.

****
Locust was not having a good day. 

If it wasn’t bad enough he’d been stuck slogging through a dangerous swamp, now fate had decided to let some Skôkak put him into a potato bag! He was a Wing Commander, dammit! Okay; former Wing Commander of the Changeling army. Either way, getting stuffed into a damned potato bag was degrading!

Like that wasn’t bad enough on its own, he was also in the claws of some cannibalistic overgrown snakes. 
And he was alone. 

He was alone for the first time since Karl had found him back in the forest. Granted, he thought Karl had a screw… no, scratch that: *many* screws loose on more than one level, but still he trusted him. Why wouldn’t he? So far, Karl had given no reason for distrust and had even allowed Locust to feed on his love, and that was something Locust had never heard of before.

There was a reason Changelings needed to change forms: no-one voluntarily gave their love to the eerie-in-appearance Changelings and the few that did were certainly not enough to feed all of them. That would be like expecting one little bakery to feed an entire metropolis.

Besides, it gave him an excellent opportunity to get some good old-fashioned revenge on the ponies for blasting him with a love shield and hunting his kind like animals. 

Well, technically, they were animals, but that’s beside the point. 

He felt his bag getting grabbed. No, not like *that*. Get your mind out of the gutter.

‘Oh, great. What fresh hell is this?’ Locust asked himself as he began to panic anew.

The bag turned upside down, dumping him straight out on the sandy ground, only to be gripped by his neck before he had a chance to stabilize himself.

Locust quickly scanned his surroundings. He was definitely not anymore anywhere near the shack. The killing ground he’d seen before his capture had been replaced by a tribal village. The village didn’t look very impressive: mostly wooden houses with leaves as roofs. Much to his horror, the place was lousy with Skokak (he didn’t honestly expect much else, but it was still disconcerting).

He was being carried by the scruff of his neck by a green male Skôkak with black strips like a cub by its mother; definitely degrading for someone of his position. He was quite uncomfortable in the Skôkak’s grip, but he knew he would have to endure it out of fear of somehow irking them.

After a couple of minutes of utter silence, Locust saw Karl and Titus being accompanied by some Skôkak themselves. 

“Th’ hell have you guys been?!”

“We managed to convince their big boss to keep us alive. Temporarily, at least. What have you been up to?” Karl replied.
“Oh, you know; just hanging around a bit. What the hell do you think?” 

Perhaps if they hadn’t been surrounded by giant hostile snakes Karl would have laughed at that.

“Where’s Saqatuwa actually?” 

Titus and Karl fell back into an uncomfortable state. On one hand it was actually pretty funny and sexy to think about, and at the other hand there was still the thing about it being sexual harassment. 

“I hope she doesn’t get any trauma from that.” Karl said to Titus, ignoring Locust.

“It’s not unlikely that she’s gone through worse than an involuntary all-female orgy, and she’s gotten through that just fine.”

“True.”

“What the hell are you two talking about?”

****

Karl, Locust and Titus were sitting in the small hut the Skôkak had put them in after having given them a small tour around the village. Their nerves were killing them. The feast was in twenty minutes, give or take, and all three were fairly convinced that whether or not they got out of here alive was riding on their conduct at said event.

Karl and Titus had told Locust about Saqatuwa’s situation and immediately the Changeling had started whining about all of the love energy he’d missed out on.

A large snake entered through the large curtain that served as the hut’s door. 

“Dinner time.” He announced brusquely.

Titus stood up, Karl and Locust silently following suit. The walk to the Elder’s hut was a bit too quick for their liking.

They were led across the same path as earlier, with a view of the same stones where the captured pony guard had lost his balls earlier that day. Karl’s crotch began tingling uncomfortably at the thought of what would happen should dinner go badly.

The three were led into the Elder’s house. Three cushions had been placed on one side of a low table which contained all kinds of foods and a plate with a silver lid over it. The Elder and a female Skokak that the trio didn’t recognise had already taken their places on the other end of the table.

“Ah our honoured guests! Welcome again to my humble home. I must apologise for not introducing myself sooner: my name is Sôqum and this is my mate Nuwikco. Please sit down.” 

All three men immediately took a seat. Karl sat straight across from Nuwikco on the left side of the table, Locust sat in the middle and Titus sat across from Sôqum on the right.

“Please; take what you want!” Nuwikco said kindly. 

Karl studied the female Skôkak and realized that she showed much resemblance to the first female Skôkak he had encountered when he was still with the caravan. Her scales were also an obsidian black striped with fiery red. 

‘Oh great: I am in the same room as someone who can pretty much suck your life out. No pressure.’

If she recognised him, she didn’t show it. He decided to start eating so as to not appear rude, even though he hadn’t the faintest clue what was eating.

“You have to try these!” Sôqum stated enthusiastically as he held a large bowl filled with what looked like eggs. 

There are moments when Karl would have politely declined the offer. However, this was one of those moments when he was desperately trying to prevent his bladder from emptying out of fear. He politely accepted one of the eggs.

They didn’t exactly have the same texture as any egg he had eaten before: more like some kind of meat. He just put it in his mouth and started chewing. Titus and Locust had done the same. 

‘This egg tastes strange. *Bad* strange.’ Karl thought, trying to prevent his disgust from showing on his face. 

Sôqum took another of the egg-like things in his claws, whilst munching happily on another. 

“Ah, testicles! Aren’t they just amazing?”

Karl felt the blood leave his face. He was still chewing on a bit of the organ and was forced to swallow it despite his most visceral objections. 

Sôqum swallowed the testicle in his mouth before bringing the next testicle that he was holding in his claw to his mouth, obviously enjoying the flavour, his mate following suit, both of them closing their eyes to savour the taste. Karl took the opportunity to glance over to see the reactions of the others. Both of his friends’ faces were utterly blank.

After the tensest small talk Karl had ever experienced, the main dish was presented. Nuwikco lifted the silver lid. Much to Karl’s relief, it wasn’t a disembodied pony head that greeted him; rather something that looked like a wild boar. 

“Ah Wild boar. Good meat. Scarce too. Makes it that much more delicious when you can eat it, you know?” 

Karl, Locust and Titus nodded their heads rapidly in affirmation.

The wild boar was, in fact, quite delicious. Actually, minus the testicles, the entirety of the meal was the best Karl had eaten ever since he had arrived in this world. 

“Now you three probably wonder why I’ve kept you all alive for so long, right?” Sôqum asked after everyone had finished. 
Titus, Karl and Locust nodded in confirmation.

“Don’t get the wrong idea: this is most definitely not the normal way of business. Normally we like to dispose of intruders as quickly as possible. However, when we captured you… well, let’s say it’s been a long time since I have seen such an interesting bunch. We do not get a lot of groups wandering in Cáqash composed of a Nāga, a Changeling, a Diamond dog… then there’s you, Everfree, we don’t know what the hell you are, but somehow, you ended up with a tablet that had been stolen from us by thieves.” Sôqum stated.

“With all of that in one small group, you caught our attention. Would you care to explain how your little group came into existence and what you are doing with our tablet?” Nuwikco asked calmly and with a small hint of curiosity.

Unfortunately for Karl, both Titus and Locust looked at him with expressions that said “It’s all you, bro.” 

Karl let out an almost inaudible sigh. He truly hated it to be the one explaining this to a couple of Skôkak that decided whether he and his companions lived or died. 

****

Over the next half an hour Karl told most of the story about what he was doing in Cáqash, how he met his companions and why he needed to get to Ironhoof (the parts he wanted them to know, that is), answering whatever questions the couple had, occasionally getting assistance from Titus and Locust. The Skôkak couple remained silent mostly only breaking the silence to ask a question every now and then.

“That was quite an interesting story, wouldn’t you agree?” Sôqum asked after Karl finished.

“Very true. I do want to ask what this Union of the Snake is planning on doing with the tablet.”

“I am sorry ma’am, but I do not know the answer to that question. You know as much as we do.” 

She nodded at this answer and then seemed to start thinking about the answer.

“Hmm… you three are particularly difficult cases. I like this little plan of yours: it puts a thorn in the ponies’ side and perhaps creates even more division within Equestria than you realise. Here’s the deal; you are all allowed to leave Cáqash with our tablet as a gift. Does that sound acceptable?”

This offer shocked all three men, they had expected to debate and pray for their lives and yet everything they wanted had just been handed to them on a silver plate. This had to be too good to be true. Perhaps the Skôkak just wanted to give them a fall sense of security. 

Or maybe they really did have a taste for Realpolitik.

“Definitely. I… *we* thank you for your more than generous offer.” Titus tried to say with the least amount of stuttering possible.

“Excellent. I suggest you leave tomorrow: nights in Cáqash are quite… tricky to survive.” 

“That’s probably for the best.” Locust polity accepted the offer for all three men.

“Your female companion will be prepared for travel by tomorrow morning. I shall see to that personally.” Nuwikco added, for which all three men profusely thanked her.

After saying their goodbyes to the Skôkak couple, they were escorted back to their temporary quarters.

“Well… that went a lot better than expected.” Karl said allowing a small smile on his face.

“Yeah… a bit too easily if you ask me.” Locust replied, making sure their guard couldn’t hear it.

“I’ll only be happy when I am out of this swamp.” Titus replied.

Locust and Karl wholeheartedly agreed. 

****

The next morning came faster than expected. The three men were finally reunited with Saqatuwa, who was having trouble hiding her embarrassment from them and was obviously eager to get out of the village. Titus asked her a couple of questions to which she gave some short replies that Karl couldn’t understand. Titus spoke to her in a kind and comforting tone and asked another question to which she nodded her head.

The Skôkak treated them to some breakfast (which thankfully did not include severed gonads) and gave some rations to them.

Right before they left, the trio saw Sôqum and Nuwikco slithering their way.

“We’ve come to wish you good luck. I hope that you all make it out alive.” Sôqum said in possibly the least inspiring pep talk in history. 

Nuwikco just rolled her eyes at her mate.

‘Titus is right.’ Thought Karl. ‘This *is* way too simple. I don’t suppose we have many other options though.’

When the little group was walking back towards the swamp, Karl’s eyes fell upon a snake that was staring at him with an almost sapient intensity. Karl brushed off the strange notion as a fabrication of his imagination.

****

As the little group disappeared from sight, the snake’s eyes glowed a dim green.

“I bring the Serpents!” 

The faint glow then vanished and the snake slithered quietly out of sight.