“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.

Author's Note

Hello everybody! I hope you enjoyed reading the chapter and once again I have some announcements to make.

The first announcement is that this is the first chapter of mine ever to be edited, and I believe it is fair to say that mister Vlasislas32 has done an amazing job with editing.

The second announcement is that I am about to start with my exams, so that's why the chapters are going up slower. I will try to get at least one chapter up a week, but like I said I need to find time to write and my editor needs to have time for editing.

I hope you enjoyed reading it and if you did please leave some support behind, both for me and him, for I believe it is fair to say that he deserves credits as well. Finally I hope you keep on reading the story and have a nice day/night wherever you live and until next time.