An offer you can’t refuse
Capper walked down the long hallway, looking at the near naked walls on either side of him, the left wall bare of anything minus a few statues and pictures here and there, left over from the previous owner, and the right side occasionally interrupted by a window here and there. Capper could see almost all of Klugetown from the height he was at. As he tried to stop to appreciate the view, one of the guards, a Minotaur, shoved him lightly forward which of course, given his species, was the equivalent of being roughly pushed to the floor.
“Get moving! The Don doesn’t like to be kept waiting!” He snorted.
“Ok ok I’m going!” Capper exclaimed fearfully as he gets back up and walks ‘How did I ever get myself into this mess’ He thought as he continued walking. Then he remembered why he was here; Verko.
After assisting the Ponies in getting home and stopping the Storm King, Capper decided to return to Klugetown. Despite his new friends insisting that he stay with them in Equestria, Capper was firm in his decision; Klugetown was his home, it was a crime-ridden Tartarus-Hole of a city but it was home nonetheless. When he had returned he was met with a still scorched and very angry Verko who stated that since he let those ponies get away now he owed him SIX TIMES the amount he owed him beforehand. Capper was freaking out as he was given one week to come up with the money before he would be in one of Verko’s cages as effectively a slave, doing tricks and cons for Verko until the mole-like creature got tired of him and let him go…permanently. Capper needed out of this mess and he needed it out now. He temporarily contemplated talking to his new friends but decided against it, he wasn’t going to be That Guy, the one who only went to his friends when he needed money or out of a jam. Capper had no doubt that they would help him in a heartbeat, but he didn’t want to bring them back to this city where they might get kidnapped again. No, he was going to deal with the problem himself. He couldn’t go to his regular avenues for assistance as many were getting wise to his tricks and he had just about run out of favors to call in. At the end of his rope Capper decided to turn to the one option he had left, one he didn’t want but felt he had no choice; he would go to Don Vito Corleone, the Biggest Crime Boss in all the city and called by many the King of Klugetown. Capper, along with the rest of the city, had no idea where this creature, who called himself a human, had come from, nor if there were anymore of him. What they did find out, and what Capper heard, was that he was a savvy businessman, a shrewd negotiator, someone who treated others, from the richest to the poorest, with the utmost respect, had a strict code of honor that he refused to break, and had a ruthless streak that terrified his enemies. Rumor had it that he started small, quickly establishing his own gang in one of the neighborhoods, before rising higher and higher until, by the time Capper was in his teens, he was one of the largest Crime Lords in Klugetown. It wasn’t until the disturbance caused by the Storm King’s goons that Don Corleone filled the power vacuum so that even Verko, who had previously been on the fast track to being top boss, had been outmaneuvered. That is what led Capper down the halls of Don Vito’s office; if anyone could help him, it was the King of Klugetown. He had had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for favors but he had finally gotten an appointment.
After reaching the door, the Minotaur guard knocked on the door “Don Corleone, your next client is here” there was a faint noise on the other side of the door which must of been the man himself saying they could come in since the doors opened and Capper was again ‘lightly’ shoved in. The room was dark minus a few hints of light from behind the desk, behind that desk, next to a Griffin showing him numbers was the man himself. He had slick back hair that was black but greying, with a few streaks of white, his forehead slightly prominent, and a thin mustache that graced his lips, he was also wearing a fine business suit that seemed to be tailor made for him. He was in deep conversation with a Griffin before seeing his next client and hugging the winged creature; this surprised Capper as Griffins weren’t exactly known for being touchy feely, but this one not only seemed to mind, but hugged him back
“Thank You Bueto my dearest friend for your time in showing the numbers, now if you’ll excuse me I have another client” he said in a somewhat raspy yet authoritative voice.
“Godfather” The Griffin, Bueto, nodded and went out the door. Capper then saw the guards go outside as Corleone nodded his head towards them. Now it was just him and the most powerful man in Klugetown.
“Mr. Capper, I appreciate you coming in on time” Corleone said officially as he motioned the anthropomorphic cat to sit, which he did immediately.
“Th-th-thank you sir, for seeing me on such short notice” Capper said nervously as he sat down. He twiddled his thumbs for a bit before finally saying “So Um…your probably wondering why I’m here?” He looked up at the Don as he looked at him in silence. “Right um…I need your help. You see a while back I got into debt with Verko. I owed him a lot of money, so I tricked some colorful ponies to come to my house so that I could pay my debt off.” Capper winced on the inside as he admitted this out loud; that moment wasn’t his finest hour. “Anyways the deal was going to go down when Tempest Shadow, who worked for the Storm King, comes in and wrecks the meeting, zaps Verko, and the ponies get away and I’m like ‘well I can’t let them get caught after what I did’ so I lie and say they’re headed to a different location, then I ended up on an airship with pirates, i helped save Equestria and..and..” Capper stopped mid-story to see Corleone giving him a serious businesslike look “and you don’t care about that. Got it. Anyways I go back home and Verko tells me it’s my fault the ponies escaped, which I guess if you stretched it out a little it was, but it wasn’t. Anyways he says I now owe him Six times the amount I owed before, one for each pony lost. Six times the amount! It’s ridiculous! Anyways I was hoping you would convince him to….you know…drop the debt entirely?” Capper finished with a smile before looking at Corleone’s unchanging face. He scratched his chin a little before leaning over his desk.
“Capper…Capper…what have I done to you to make you disrespect me this way?” he finally said, sounding generally hurt.
“Wh-excuse me?” Capper asked confused.
“This is the first time you ever come to me for help…understandable of course…you were small time, figured you could slip through the cracks without noticing, you figured you didn’t need a friend like me. But now you say ‘Don Corleone I need your help’…but you don’t say it with respect. You see me as a force of nature rather than a friend, you don’t even think to call me Godfather” he got up from his chair and looked down on Capper with the same authority that a father would when chastising his son. “If you were my friend, if you had come to me for work, the debt you have wouldn’t be there now…your enemies would become my enemies…then they would fear you…I spoke to Verko earlier, he said you conned him out of a lot of money, that’s what led you to your debt in the first place…now your asking I deny a man his just rewards, his payment for your deceit…that’s not good business.”
Capper gulped. It was true, he had conned Verko out of money, but he had to to survive, but he could also see it from Corleone’s point of view; Verko was a prominent underworld figure with power and money and connections, Capper had none of those, he was just a small time con artist who had gotten in over his head. Finally he looked up at Corleone “Please….I’ll do anything you ask or say…I don’t want to end up in one of Verko’s cages. Please help me…Godfather”
Don Corleone scratched his chin again before looking at Capper and then motioned him to get up. After doing that he walked him to the middle of the room “I think every man has potential Mr. Capper, if pointed in the right direction, I see potential in you…which is why I’m paying off your debt to Verko.”
Capper felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders “oooooh, thank you, thank you!” He said as he kissed Corleone’s hands “much appreciated Godfather, if there’s anything I can do..”
Corleone raised his hand and then said “Good. Someday…and that day may never come…I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this gesture as a gift from your new friend.” The doors opened and Capper begins backing away gratefully “thank you thank you! Your the best Don Corle-I Mean Godfather!” Capper made his way out and the office closed as Bueto came back in.
“Verko won’t like that Don Corleone, he’s been gunning for Capper for some time, how are you gonna convince him?” He asked as he watched their latest client skip down the hall in joy.
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” said Corleone with a note of finality. Nodding his head Bueto went back to work as Don Corleone opened the blinds and stared out of Klugetown, his Klugetown. This world was very different from the one he was from, very different indeed, yet he had survived as he always did, he had rebuilt his fortune and empire in a shorter time than last time, and he was even more respected and fears than he had ever been in New York. Yet he wasn’t entirely happy…he had no children. His eldest was dead and his other two were in the world he lived in before dying. He shook his head as he looked out at the city; the past could wait, now it’s business time.
As Capper got home it suddenly began to dawn on him what his situation was now, it made him lose his skip and made him contemplate and worry; he had just agreed to do what Vito Corleone wanted him to do in exchange for settling his debt. He smacked his own head at his stupidity “ARRRRRRGH! CAPPER YOU IDIOT!” He kicked a wall leading to him nursing a hurt big toe. As he sat down and ate a meager dinner, he once more contemplated Don Corleone’s request; he’d have to do a service for him at some point, but what?! Would he have to steal? Smuggle? Kill?! He had never killed anyone before! What if he fell short of the Don’s expectations, he might end up like Kingsnake, a gang leader who crossed the Don, he had ended up dying from falling from a high building. What’s worse was that the time frame was ‘someday’, Capper had no idea when that would be, he felt on edge and finally asked himself “did I just hop out of the frying pan and into the fire?” He’d have to wait and see.
Author's Note
Hello everyone! I decided to make this a series of one shots. I love The Godfather, and I’m hoping this story is good. Expect more in the future. How will Verko react? Will Capper be forced to take a life? How did Vito get here? All good questions that will be answered! Soon!
