“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.

Author's Note

Let me start by saying Thank you each day this story is getting more and more views and favorites! I cannot thank you guys enough for that.

Secondly I would like to ask if someone is interested in being a spell checker if so PM me or something along those lines and we can work out details.

I have eight followers already so the shadow army is growing. Stuff is going well for me and I have you guys to thank for it so once again thank you!

Let me know if you liked the way Karl got the job done.