Trouble In Klugetown

I stepped off the ship onto the dry sand of the southern desert. I glanced back at my armor: there wasn’t a single trace of the Storm King’s logo left on it, in fact I had gone as far as scraping all the paint off of each piece. The sight brought a small smile to my face; a fresh start.

Celeano had docked her ship at an old smugglers den in one of the canyons east of Kludgetown, the spires of Kludgetown were just beyond the rock spires hiding the canyon. The place had been abandoned years ago, it still had plenty of old ramshackle buildings here ready to be fixed up and used as housing. Including an old warehouse. There was a small stream that ran through the middle and provided water, didn't look drinkable though.

Defensible, livable, and far enough from town to not draw attention, I thought.

“We best head down to the underground and meet your new gang,” Celeano commented, stepping off her ship.

“Capper and I will go, ” I stated. “You and your crew…” I stopped, catching the look on Celeano’s face, and I had to remind myself that I wasn’t her commander.

I cleared my throat. “I...suggest you explore and fortify this cove. I have a feeling we are gonna be using this place a lot in the coming months.”

“Hmph,” the pirate captain shrugged. “I suppose we could. Having a storehouse might be beneficial.” She turned to address her crew. “Alright, boys, we’re gonna set up a camp, make this cove a proper smugglers den again.” She looked back at me. “You two just watch yourselves in there, Verko is likely looking for you.”

I nodded in acknowledgment. Capper and I started the mile-long trek to Kludgetown. I had a lot to think about on the way there. Like how I was gonna turn a bunch of disorganized thugs into a police force.

And how I was going to get Capper to shut up. Does he ever stop talking?

Every creature was avoiding Capper and I. Keeping our presence a secret from Verko might be more difficult than we thought.

Capper led me to a dead-end street corner and pulled back a sewer drain over a hole just large enough for me to slip through. “Ladies first,” he gestured, trying not to show how scared he was.

I smirked. “You a scaredy-cat, Capper?” I asked.

His eyes flashed, but I saw his tail twitching. “That’s kinda speciesist,” he grumbled as I slid through the hole into the catacombs.

It was poorly lit with lanterns of glowworms, fireflies, and glowstones. Water dripped from everywhere, and the stone was slick beneath my boots. What struck me as surprising was the citizens passing by as we headed down the narrow path. Sick, malnourished, and very close to death; the sounds of their coughing and wheezing echoed off the tunnel walls.

“This is horrible,” I said aloud.

“This is what happens when Verko’s thugs extort every last bit from others. When the Storm King started his conquest, it made things this much worse,” Capper explained to me.

“So who is this gang leader I am about to challenge?” I asked.

“His name is Mort. He's a particularly nasty Diamond Dog. Verko put him down here to keep the underground population under control. Mort has been demanding gems in exchange for food, medicine, and protection.” Capper dodged around an old bucket filled with vomit. “They have to go into the mines beneath here to find them. Most who go down there don’t make it back.”

“So this is about more than just getting some muscle behind us, this is about cutting off Verko’s primary source of income,” I stated. Good. Cutting off the enemy’s supply would help weaken them.

“Precisely,” Capper said stepping through a tattered curtain.

We stepped into a huge cistern, with sunlight shining down from a massive hole in the roof. This place was old and was definitely part of an ancient city that was long gone now. Sandstone bricks held up this level and four more below us. There were empty buckets on a chain coming from the hole in the rock above, going down into the water below, and going back up full.

As impressive as the ancient earth pony engineering was, it wasn't enough to distract me from the populace. Every bit as bad as it was walking down that pathway, this was worse. The dead lay rotting in corners, polluting the water and making the air stink so bad that I almost vomited. The sick were left drinking the filthy water, and inevitably getting sicker; they were huddled in small groups or wandering around by themselves, shivering and grasping the rags that passed off as clothes or blankets. I looked around more as we walked. Offshooting from the cistern were what looked like hallways of prison cells. Judging by the lack of rust on the bars, these were put here far more recently than the water features.

As we walked down level by level I noticed more and more non-pony creatures. Diamond Dogs, likely Mort’s enforcers, had a number of young dragons in chains, I estimated at least a dozen. They were muzzled, and shackled together to prevent them from flying. A number of bird-like creatures like Celaeno, were being ushered into their cells for the day.

Quiet sobbing caught my ear. There was a small unicorn-griffon hybrid, hiding behind some rubble, I estimated a young teenager by her size. Her horn had been sawed off at the base… recently. Dried blood still stained her face. A passing Diamond Dog barked loudly at her and she squeaked in fear and tried to dig herself further into the rubble.

“Leave her. She is not why we are here,” Capper said, trying to get me to follow him further down.

I stopped, looking at the child. Step by step, I slowly approached her, my hooves seeming to move on their own. She tried to hide from me, shielding her face.

“Easy…” I whispered. “I won’t hurt you.” She seemed terrified for a moment, not that I blamed her. I was tall, scar-eyed, missing a horn like her, and stood in scratched up armor.

But the filly slowly looked up and met my eye with her own baby blue ones. Slowly, she seemed to relax a bit. “Who did this to you?” I asked, crouching down to her level.

She hesitated but spoke. “My… my parents couldn't pay their debt to Verko. So… so Mort killed them, took my horn, and told me that I “inherited” their debt. Then they threw me down here to work.”

I felt my stomach churning. “Well, we can't let them go unpunished can we?” I asked her instead. She blinked, but shook her head.

“Where is that bastard, Mort? I'd like to have a few words with him,” I actually smiled. A very wide smile.

She seemed surprised, pointed with a talon down a corridor. “Thank you,” I said to her giving her a confident smile.

“You okay?” Capper asked me, as we made our final approach toward Mort’s chamber.

“I'm fine. I'm actually looking forward to this,” I grinned and rolled my shoulders, relishing the feeling as my joints popped. Finally an enemy that deserves what he's about to get.

We stopped outside the corridor that led to Mort’s chambers. “Capper, I need you to do something while I’m in there,” I said.

“What is it?” Capper asked.

“We are gonna need some fresh muscle. Those prisoners we saw as we came down, particularly the dragons, we need them on our side if we want to take control,” I explained.

“Completely agreed,” Capper nodded.

“While I’m fighting Mort. I need you to get the guards away from the cells any way you can, and spring the prisoners, see if you can’t convince them to join us,” I instructed.

“Can do. But how do you plan on fighting Mort? He’s a mite bigger than you,” Capper said, holding his fingers a couple inches apart.

I did tell him I fought an Ursa Minor when I was a filly, right? “I’ll figure something out,” I smirked.

As Capper walked away, I took a moment to collect myself; can’t go into a fight with emotions clouding your judgement. After a few deep breaths, I stepped through into his cavern. My nose was assaulted by the stench of moldy water and wet dog. In the back of the cavern, laying on a massive cushion guarded by two more diamond dogs and snoring so loudly I thought that the cavern might collapse, was Mort. He was no bigger than some of the creatures I had fought as I was growing up. Definitely smaller than a Titan Timberwolf, now those are a challenge.

“Hey, asshole!” I shouted at him. Mort started awake, and his guards both turned towards me. “You awake?” I asked as he began standing to his full height. He was fat, and moved about as quickly as a slug that had just woken up, but the muscles on his arms were as thick as steel pipes.

I’m gonna need to be faster, and more agile. “You and me, princess. Let's go, winner gets to lead your gang,” I taunted.

“Mort is challenged? By a… pony? Aha!” He threw back his head and started laughing, his guards quickly joining in. I felt like laughing a bit, too: this dog had no idea who he was dealing with.

Mort finally began ending his laughing fit and smirked at me, wiping a tear from his eye. “Mort tell pony what. Pony make Mort laugh. Mort forget this happen and let her go.” He turned around to go back to sleep.

There was a decently sized rock at my hooves. I kicked it into the air, turned, and bucked with my hind hooves, sending it flying across the cavern right into the back of Mort’s head, knocking him face first into his pile of gems. He didn’t get back up. Well, that was disappointingly easy.

Mort’s guards were shocked, it took them a little time to react, but they charged me with their spears. The first guard coming from my right, was holding his spear in front of him rather than beside him. Rookie mistake.

I kicked it down into the rock floor, where it stuck into the ground. Unable to stop, the dog wound up pole vaulting over my head and crashing into the wall in a heap of flailing limbs and crashing armor.

The second started swinging his spear wildly at me; clearly, Mort didn’t hire these guys for their brains. I waited for him to stab at me, then grasped the shaft and punched at the wood, snapping off the end in a loud crack. Taking the broken spearhead in my mouth, I drove it deep into his gut: his blood washed over my face, hot and stinking, and I felt his breath leave his body as he fell. He was dead in seconds, blood from the overgrown dog was pooling at my hooves on the cave floor.

“Still think it’s funny?” I sneered, feeling the hot, wet blood dripping off my face.

Mort was standing back up. The smile gone from his face. He looked down at me standing in the pool of his guard's blood.

“Pony die now!” He howled sending an echo through the cavern and out into the tunnels. He surged down the pile of gems and across the cavern to me.

“Oh shit!” I shouted as I leaped out of the way of his jaws. He was faster going in a straight line than I expected.

“Hold still pony!” He barked and snapping at my legs.

As he pursued me again I drove me hoof down hard into his nose, as he recoiled, I stepped on the his foot, hard, and then kicked at the joint snapping it.

As he howled in pain the smacked me aside and I slammed into the cavern wall. I wish I was wearing a helmet, cause I hit my head pretty hard.

He was hobbled a bit but not out of the fight. I was getting back to my hooves as he bared his teeth at me. I wouldn't be able to take another hit like that, I needed a weapon.

What I wouldn't give to have a crystallization bomb right about now. I scanned the room for those spears. The one I had used to kill the one guard was buried in his gut, so that was unavailable.

The other spear was laying a few yards on the other side of where Mort stood. I had to get to it, it was my best option. I charged to the left, Mort attempted to cut me off, that is when I used my speed against him. I jumped over to the right and got around him.

Mort corrected faster than I expected and snapped at my tail ripping out a few hairs. I took the spear in my forehooves and held it up at him. It sank into his chest and blood gushed from the wound, it hardly stopped him though, he was still trying to bite my face.

With every attempt at biting me the spear sank another cenimeter farther through him, he was using his claws to pull himself further down. He was only an inch away, I was out of options. Instinct took over and my horn sparked with uncontrollable magic. It happened so fast.

A magic explosion manifested in his mouth and sent bits of skull and brain flying around the cave. Some bone shrapnel managed to find it’s way into my skin. But otherwise, I was fine and he was dead.

I let his body fall to the side, some diamond dogs had apparently been watching the ordeal as they were starting to surround me with spears. I thought for sure Capper had deserted me. Right before the Diamond Dogs got within striking distance they were blasted from behind by a stream of ice immobilizing them.

“Woo! That was close.” Capper said from behind the pupsicles.

“I was wondering if you were coming back!” I called. I stood up and moved around our first prisoners.

Standing with Capper were three adult dragons. A pale blue diomond-scaled stone dragon female. A flat white ice dragon male. Finally a black and blood-red winged fire dragon, he appeared to be the leader of the group.

“We understand it was by your order that we were freed?” The large black dragon asked.

“It was.”

“I am Agreh, Harbinger to Clan Hilk. We are in your debt.” He moved to bow to me.

“Stop, I don’t want any of you to be in my debt. Rather I’d like to employ you.” I said quickly.

Agreh seemed confused. “What do you have in mind?”

“I need soldiers. We plan on making this slimeball town into something big, and we need help, in this way you can repay that debt. Work with us, and not only have honor to your names, but treasure too.” I persuaded. Agreh looked to his brother and sister, they responded with a nod.

He smiled, “We accept, General.”