It's been years since the evil wizard tyrant known simply as "Davenlork" unleashed an evil upon Equestria from a legendary tower know as the "Steamclock tower". As time passed, Equestria became a more industrial society, reliant on might and money and instead of magic. But as many know, the Davenlork is preparing his armies for something sinister. Crackdowns are occurring in the cities, people going missing, landscapes disappearing into barren grounds, and the tyrant's factories grow larger and larger. A once-rich mogul decided it has been enough and reached out to the populace, gathering a team to take the wizard one way or another. He pleads that anyone willing to take up arms meet him in his factory west of the what was Ponyville, but is now a decrepit cesspool of waste and pollution.
Lupus would show up, most likely first! Her scruffy yet well trimmed appearance a tool of deceit Confusing? Well she was scruffy! But she made sure it was not ugly! Making scruffy look more like, fluffy! But whatever. Her appearance hiding the arsenal of weapons she was carrying, well all but the blade on her back, not pretty, not adorned with jewels or gold, but just an iron blade, straight to the point! She would knock on the door or whatever it was! Waiting for a reply, sitting and looking around. She was called here, and as such, she expected wealth from this! And plenty of it!
Blackvein walked slowly down the main pathway to the factory. He looked around, noticing it seemed disturbingly quiet, the only sound he actually noticed being his "claws" clicking on the stone pathway. "I certainly hope I'm the only one who is going to attempt this... I'd hate to have to keep all those murderous traps and wizards to myself. I wouldn't mind keeping one of the monsters though... I hear they're trying to breed children of Cerberus!" He spoke aloud. As he got closer he saw someone at the door and sighed. He walked up beside her and smiled. "Hello, love. Here to kill a wizard, right?"
The factory door opened on it's own to large courtyard with many ponies in large bulky jumpsuits hustling to and from the bottoms surrounding the courtyard. Bright lights of fire, magma, and hot steel flash from windows of the buildings. Laissez stood out from the rest with a lack of jumpsuit and clean face, he turned to see the pair at the doorway. He wrote a few notes in his notepad before putting it back in his saddle-pack and hollering at the pair . "Ah, you must a few of the adventurers who are responding to cry of help from the people! Come, come, we have much to discuss!"
Lupus tilted her head, looking at Blackvein, out of curiosity "Yes, I am" She muttered, before turning and walking in, looking around, learning her surroundings, getting a grasp for where she was, before being hollered at, her wincing a little, too much noise in here for her, she was used to a quieter environment! With her animals! But she still made her eventual way to Laissez, raising a brow at the checkboard, "Indeed, we are the adventurers~" She was really a mare of few words! You'd never need to tell her to shut up!
Blackvein followed Lupus and looked around, intrigued. "Nice place you got running here. Does it generate enough steam power? Like... for a robot the size of the wizard's tower?"
As Parashadow walked into the remains of what was Ponyville, he choked on the smog. "Damnit, that Steamclock Tower is no good." He walked into the factory, and saw the other ponies gathered there. "This is the place, right?"
Laissez beckoned the other pony over. "Yes, this is the place and no, Davenlork has... requisitioned most of the assets the facility produces, nor do we have access to a giant robot. A straightforward, brute force attack would be a costly move on the Tower, I plan on taking a more subtle and equally effective attack to him. Well, one of many plans anyways..." He flagged down on of his workers and ordered them to remain by the door for any more ponies wanting to join the cause before leading the group up to a small administrative meeting room in one of the factories, overlooking the main factory floor which seemed to producing some form of metal. The room looked moderately cozy with a long hard wood table and several chairs circling, the largest near a window wall looking into the factory. An adjacent wall had a large pinbord with notes and drawing pinned to it. "Take a seat please."
A tan pony, heavily burdened by saddlebags filled with tools, appears before the open door of the factory courtyard. "This is a nice door. I've seen better, but this is nice. Who made this?" He looks to the worker. "Did you make this? I like the wood, most people prefer metal, but metal doesn't have the cold resistance of properly cured lumber. All you need is CO2 and a good chisel and even a steel door is an open invitation. I like the opening mechanism. The weight is good too." A series of lenses on his headset descends over his right eye. "This is a heavy door. Can you hold the bottom? I'm going to remove the hinges." His horn glows yellow and the door becomes framed in the same light as a hammer comes out of his saddle bag. "The balance is good, it would have to be, but I think we can do better, lower the resistance by replacing this with a floating pin and a spring mechanism, lower the energy required to open it by," he pulls out a pencil and begins sketching on the ground, his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth. "...15%. I wasn't kidding about holding the bottom. I don't think I can do it by myself, and once I knock the hinge pins out this sucker better be braced or we'll both be crushed." At this point the hammer begins to swing towards the hinge pin, without the slightest regard as to whether or not anyone is paying attention to his request. "Name's Spring Lever, by the way I'm here to do some work for the boss." Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The worker carried a blank expression on his through Spring's ramblings. After he was done, the worker shook his head for a moment, seeming to snap back to real-life. "Oh, right uh... Bosses office in on the big building to the right, farthest right door. Go through that, up that stairs and down the hall to the door at the end. HE should be there with the others."
Blackvein sat down and looked over the pinboard. "So we have more than one plan, at LEAST 3 ponies and a cesspool factory home base. Sounds like we stand a pretty good chance... Depending on what the plans are that is." He smiled at Laissez. "Care to tell us them, or are we going to wait a bit?"
Laissez smiled as he flopped down on his big chair near the window. "I was hoping to wait a little longer in the event there were more coming but I could spoil one for you." He spun his chair so he facing the window, though he rose a hoof as he spoke. "One of them involves a train and a crapload of dynamite!"
Lupus nodded, following, still looking around intently, eyes keeping noting everything... "Will you be sending additional support?" She asked Laissez! She needed to know facts! She just needed to have a frame of mind in a way she could be certain, that she was able to calculate plans! "And what can you tell us of tower?" Other than was obvious of course! She would also look over the collected folk, odd~ not too many looked like they would actually be too good at this sort of worked. In her opinion. Well, Blackvein looked like me might know what he was doing, but that was it! She sighs softly~
He wasn't the brightest, nor was he dumbest. Blue Flame was late, and this was not a job he took up. He ran, not resting what so ever. Blue flame had just finished up a job before remembering that he accepted the time to take down this wizard guy. Blue Flame finally made it to the location, a factory from the looks of it. The doors opened and he rushed in, "Please forgive me if I'm late, I had several things to take care of."
Imp, a black unicorn with a wild green mane and wearing a beaten black cloak and saddlebags, approaches the door wearily. When she reaches it, her tail flicks with agitation. She turns to the confused worker who is standing there. "I'm here for the job. Is this the right place?"
The worker lead the pair up to the meeting room before resuming his normal watch by the door. "Ah, I feel this is enough for now." Laissez said, his chair slowly turning to the face the rest of the room. "I'm sure you all know why you're here. Please make yourselves comfortable. We have a few things to discuss."
Spring Lever takes a seat, which causes the chair to squeak noticeably. He grimaces and gets off of it. "Here, i have an oil can for that." he says as he peers under the chair. "Nice mechanism, but it could be better," he says applying some lubricant to the metal sections. "We should talk about that front door of yours, I like it, but it could be improved. This whole place is nice, but we could do better. How many ponypower does this plant create? What's the throughput? what are you making here anyway?" He sits back down and notices everypony else. "Hi, I'm Spring Lever," he says, his blue eyes alight, despite one being magnified by a lens that is held in front of it by a headset that carries several more lenses and other geared mechanisms. "Did anyone notice that door out front? It was nice, I was going to knock it off it's hinges and rebuild them, but then I remembered I was supposed to be here, but if anyone wants to help me we can still do it later." He grins widely the entire time, brushing back some of the more burnt bits of his mane.
Imp sits, only acknowledging Spring Lever's chatter with an irritated flick of her notched ear, before looking towards Laissez. "Well, hopefully we have more to discuss about then the state of your doors because I for one would like to know what your planning on paying for this venture. I wouldn't want to risk my neck without proper compensation after all." She pats the coin purse in her cloak for emphasis.
Laissez pointed to the factory floor behind him. "I have a factory and we're taking down a giant monopoly, so I'm not going to pay you in peanuts here. And you don't mess with the chairs too much, please. Or the door for that matter." He hopped out of chair and over to the pin board. "Now, I know most of you concerned about the tower so let's get that out of the way." He cleared his throat as he removed most of the notes and papers from the pinboard before posting up a large picture of a towering, black towering clock-tower of unknown metals over a sprawling industrial factory. "That right there is the Steamclock Tower. 80 stories high, hundreds of rooms, made of I don't know what. At the base of it is Davenlork's own factory producing basically everything he needs to sustain an army. It takes up a over 50 acres across both sides. He has platoons of his army of followers and goblins spaced out over the factory for maximum coverage. Under the factory is tunnel network for trains to move to a fro from his tower/factory to almost every major city it can connect with. In short, it's his own personal nation. Questions so far?"
"When do we get to something we don't already know?" Blackvein laughed a bit to himself, before becoming serious. "Everyone with half an eyeball can see that tower from most major cities. We know what's going on at the base level. Tell us if you know anything about what's going on in the higher floors."
