CHAPTER 8
Night Ranger's
The three of us stood helpless as we were surrounded by a growing number of armed ponies, many of which were unicorns, levitating rifles and pistols at us, while other simply had swords and spears. I turned back and looked at my friend’s, and saw the equally terrified expression that was plastered on my place, we all turned forth and saw an older stallion step through the other’s, he had a hard glare, as he stepped toward us. “I’ll repeat myself, this is Night Ranger territory, and what are you doing here?” he demanded in a harsh tone.
I looked at my friends again, and they all shrugged and looked at me, as if declaring me the leader of our group, I sighed and turned to the leader pony. “We were in a military convoy, but were not soldiers, the convoy was destroyed, and we ran into the forest, we didn't even know there were ponies out here” I said in a calm tone, trying to let all the ponies know that we weren't a threat.
The leader looked me over with a suspicious gaze, then glancing at the other two, before looking me dead in the eyes. “What are your name’s?” he asked, his voice a bit softer, I sighed at the thought of him not ordering his troops to fire at us. “My name’s Frost Fall, these are my friends, Vapor Cloud and Dust Wind, and before you ask, no, were not imperial soldiers” I said, as my tone grew more confident. I briefly glanced back at my friends, and I saw Dust give me a confident nod. The leader simply stared at me, his expression softened, but he still regarded us with a suspicious glare, he looked back at his troops and spoke up, “search them!” he shouted. The three of us stiffened as a small group of ponies came down toward us, still eagerly pointing their weapons, they moved past me and grabbed my bag, and shook loose the contents. As they did so, they immediately went to patting us down, and I could feel my heart rate increasing significantly.
As they patted down my coat, I gasped lightly as my eyes widened, when the pony felt the bump in my coat, I winced as he reached inside and took out the wrapped medallion, and I could tell we were screwed. The pony frowned and took it over to the leader, “they appear clean, but that one was carrying this, it seems like I might be of importance” he said looking at me, the leader took the wrapped item, glaring at me as he unwrapped it. After removing the last fold, he looked down and his eyes immediately shot open to the widest anypony thought possible, his mouth dropped open in disbelief, as he looked from me to the medallion, and we could tell he was processing his next thought. He looked at me again, and his face took on an angry expression, as he stepped close to me, to the point where our faces were inches’ apart, and I could see the confusion and anger in his eyes, but I did my best to stand tall and strong.
He lifted the medallion up so that I could see it, “where…did you get this?” he asked, in a stifled, angry voice, I looked from him to the medallion but remained silent, but this only made him angrier. “Answer me!” he shouted in my face, making me cringe slightly, but I turned and looked at him, matching the determination in his eyes. “That’s not really your concern is it?” I asked him, which only seemed to make him angrier, he stepped back and levitated out his sword and pointed it at me, I could feel my heart beat faster, but my poster remained as it was, I glanced back and saw the panicked and worried faces of my friend’s, even Dust looked like he was going to faint, which I found mildly amusing, but I knew this would be a bad time to crack a smile.
“I would advise watching what you say to me boy! You have no idea what you’re getting into here, so I’ll ask again, where did you get this?” he asked, with a much more menacing tone, I looked him in the eyes for a few seconds, until I heard Vapor speak up, “just tell him Frost!” she shouted at me, the leader smiled and glanced at her, “I would listen to our friend there, she seems to be the smartest” he said with a brief smile, but it quickly disappeared. Despite the situation, I couldn't help but go over my options, I could tell him and hope he would let us go, or not tell him and have him run his sword right through me, even though he probably wouldn't let us go if I told him, I made up my mind. “Alright, I…I go it from a friend, he gave it to me as a gift, that’s all I know, I swear” I said as I felt my resolve slowly breaking.
At first, it didn't look like he believed me, but he slowly lowered and sheathed his sword and stepped closer, “I sure hope you’re telling the truth, not just for your sake, but your friend’s as well” he said as he turned to the rest, “okay, here’s what’s going to happen, normally we would just turn you in the other direction, but since this is a…unique situation, the three of you will be coming with us, there’s somepony who would like to speak with you” he said as he turned around and shouted to his troops, and they all immediately turned and left, while the one’s around us, shoved us after him.
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Almost an hour had passed since we had been forced to walk with the large group of ponies, and although we were walking through a denser part of the forest, there was a large path cut through the tree’s, indicating that they had used this path frequently in the past. As we walked the leader nor any of the troops spoke to us, so my friends and I remained close, but much to my surprise, as we walked along the dense path, Dust slowly made his way up to me, “hey Frost, mind if I ask you something?” he said to me, I glanced at him and smiled, “yeah, sure thing” I said in the most pleasant tone I could muster.
He looked down slightly in embarrassment, but cleared his throat. “back in the clearing, you said I was your friend as well, I know Vapor is your friend, because you grew up in the same town, and don’t take this the wrong way, but you hardly know me, I could have been easily lying to you this whole time, and stabbed you in the back when you slept, so…why trust me so easily?” he asked, I felt surprised by his sudden question, but I could tell he was serious, and he had every right to be.
I looked at him and smiled, “well, mainly because you seemed different from those other criminals, I think that if you were some thug, you wouldn't have even bothered to help us, or at least, you would have robbed us the second you had the chance, whether you still want to or not, were in this together, and we can’t get out of it without you” I said with a comforting smile, he looked away briefly but turned back and smiled, and nodded his head. Just after, Vapor walked in between us, and turned towards me, “so Frost, what was that thing the leader was so interested in?” she asked, and the smile immediately fell from my face.
“well, you remember that stranger pony that sent that weird package, well, I opened it up and there I found that medallion, the owner later came to me, I tried to give it back, but he kept saying that I was meant to have it, and that there was a big storm coming, and somehow I was smack in the middle of it” I finished with a light smile, while Vapor and Dust merely exchanged confused looks, but mostly Dust.
After a bit longer of walking, the troops stopped and the leader turned to us, a smug smile on his face. “welcome to outpost 24” he said, we all walked forward slightly and looked around, nothing more than a simple abandoned mill occupied a large clearing of the forest, to the left of the mill, there was a large wheel, that slowly turned along a small river. The three of us all exchanged worried looks, and followed the leader as he slowly led us to the mill.
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As we made our way into the mill, we passed by multiple troops, all looking at us with curious eyes, and they continued t follow us with their gaze, until we entered the main building. The interior of the building looked just as it would have if it was still in operation, which could only mean that this was more likely a temporary base for them.
As we were lead through the building, some of the other troops stopped and went about their business, while the leader and a small number of troops took us up a flight of stairs, and down a short hall. After we did so, he turned and opened a small door, and gestured for us to go in, we all looked at each other with confused looks, but we slowly made our way in. as we did so, we saw an older pony standing with his back to us, we could only assume that this was his office of sorts, and that he was the leader of this operation.
He calmly turned to us with a calm yet serious expression on his face, after looking us over, he turned to the leader of the group that ambushed us. “Lieutenant? Care to explain what these thee are doing in our secret base?” he said, the lieutenant stepped forward and saluted the leader, “pardon my intrusion sir, but we found these three out in the forest nearby, they say they were in a military convoy” he said, the leader eyed him suspiciously, but then quickly glanced at us. “I see, so tell me, why you not turn them away, like we always did, they could be imperial spies” he said as his voice grew more urgent.
The lieutenant winced slightly but stood proud, “I don’t think so sir, this one had something of greater interest on him, you might want to take a look” he said as he glanced toward me, he quickly reached into his coat, and took out the wrapped the medallion and calmly handed it to the leader. The leader eyes it suspiciously, but slowly unraveled it, and whence it was fully open, his eyes widened greatly, just like the lieutenant’s had, his mouth opened in shock as he looked from the medallion up to me, but before he could say anything t lieutenant spoke up first.
“he claims to have received it from a friend, but he won’t tell us who” he said, the leader closed his mouth and cleared his throat, before finally walked up to me, a smile on his face that only made us more suspicious. “Well, this is certainly a surprise, I never thought I would live to see this day, it’s a good thing you’re here my boy, welcome to the Night Ranger’s".
I was about to ask what he meant, but he quickly turned away, and I felt a heavy blow to my head, and then immediately, everything wet black.