The Olden World

by Czar_Yoshi


Castle Climb, Four

In the short flight Geribaldi's chariot took to reach the upper sky dock of the Stormhoof keep, Valey realized with a vengeance why she should have been resting instead of pushing herself even though she was feeling marginally better than upon arrival. Moving her wings felt like pushing oars through mud, and only the knowledge that failure would doom possibly a prince and definitely her kept her going. Whoever hired griffons who entrusted the safety of their lord to the completion of physically demanding tasks by complete strangers probably deserved to be dropped fifty meters in a chariot, so she wouldn't be sad if he did fall.

A platoon of six guards moved aside as the chariot landed in the open-air accessway, looking at Valey with suspicion. Before any could demand to know what was going on, the chariot hit the ground and Geribaldi jumped out, hissing. "Guards!" he snarled, back arching aggressively. "It sounds like there's an invasion below! Secure my area and investigate this threat immediately!" The upper keep's guards blinked, stoic concentration broken by the Prince's outburst.

"Hark! The Geribaldimobile approaches!" a new voice sang, and another sphinx swaggered out from behind a pillar, a confident sway in his step. Valey blinked harder, quickly recognizing the other sphinx from the pirate ship, Gazelle, completely unclothed save for a ruby signet ring around one claw.

"What have I told you about jokes, Gazelle!?" Geribaldi took a step back, jaw dropping in bafflement. "Don't pretend you didn't hear me! The keep is under attack! There was a fight right outside my lower study!"

"An invasion, you say?" Gazelle asked, pacing over and draping a wing across Geribaldi's unwilling back. There was a flash of concealed steel, and suddenly two swords were in Gazelle's mouth, one offered to his peer. "Absolutely smashing," he mouthed around them, teeth bared. "Care to go out for round two?"

Geribaldi looked like he wanted to call Gazelle insane, but thought better of it with so much weaponry so near his head. One of his guards spoke up instead: "High Prince, what you do with yourself is your own business to decide, and if you dealt with the situation, we'd be grateful, but His Highness Geribaldi is under our jurisdiction to guard and you cannot simply invite him into danger."

"Thank you!" Geribaldi huffed, throwing off Gazelle's disappointed grasp and striding into the middle of the group of soldiers. "Escort me to the war room, sound the alarm, and lock down the palace at once! And Gazelle, you'd better not ask to compare kill counts after this is all done!"

Gazelle casually waved, watching him and a mix of guards go. Three griffons remained, and none of them was the one who had been friendly to Valey.

"You," one said, pointing a wing at her. "Your service is appreciated, citizen. Now please leave the tower's airspace."

Valey blinked, taking a step toward the edge. The griffons looked like they didn't want trouble, but were perfectly willing to cause it, and Gazelle was there, too, staring right at her. She remembered how he had fought on the pirate ship...

She swallowed, the griffons leaving her alone as long as she didn't appear to stall. This was it: she was in the entrance to the upper keep. This could be the best chance she'd have in a long time if she wanted to reach her friends, and security might get a lot tighter after this incident. At the same time... The guards patted their weapons, all fixated on her, reminding her she didn't have forever before any good graces she had earned from lifting the chariot evaporated entirely. What should she do?

She could try diplomacy... try fighting... give everything she had to reach her friends. On the other hoof, her luck had been ridiculous in getting this far, and while the keep had a startling lack of competent staff and anti-batpony defenses, it could change in an instant. She was tired, sore, the alarm was raised, and she already had a meal in her saddlebags that would last her through breakfast of the next day. There would be so many favorable circumstances she could gain by retreating...

Retreat without accomplishing her goal. The thought stung bitterly in her throat, but the more she thought about her chase so far, the more necessary it seemed. This was a chance to get away without being chased, and all it would take was one stroke of bad luck...

Closing her eyes and grimacing, Valey made up her mind, spreading her wings at the edge of the platform.

Whizzzzzthwack!

Valey whirled at the sound of a weapon embedding itself in the floor... and so did the guards watching her. Half a second later, the bay echoed with three armored bodies hitting the ground in almost perfect sync. "What the...?"

The remaining guards had all collapsed, Gazelle standing behind them with one paw extended and a bemused smile on his face. "What a twist!" he remarked, as if watching a theatre performance.

"Uhhh..." Valey glanced frantically back and forth, looking for witnesses. Her cutie mark didn't put her in immediate danger, which only made the situation raise her hairs even further. "Did you just...?"

"Baldy's absolutely having a fit!" Gazelle gloated, grinning from ear to ear. "Now he'll be raising alarms and sending this entire tower into a state of high panic! I can't wait to see the look on old Garland Stormhoof's face when someone gets Meltdown up here to clean things up... She's already down below. Apparently some sort of tantrum with one of the chefs. Any chance you were behind that, too?"

Valey took a step back, Gazelle standing far too close for comfort. "Wait a minute, what's going on? Do you even know what I'm doing? Are you attacking guards and then praising me for sneaking into your castle?"

Gazelle looked mildly offended, curling his lip in a disappointed pout. "My castle? This is the Stormhoof castle! And if you were an assassin, you'd have just dropped him when you had the chance. Whatever you're doing is leaving egg on the faces of some lords who badly need to lighten up, and who have agendas I don't entirely agree with. Don't stop now!"

"I, uhh... Huh?" Valey evaluated him blankly, once again wondering if this was how she had appeared to the general populace of Ironridge.

"Fine, if you're not going to get it any way else..." Gazelle sighed, deflating and looking seriously at her. "This is entertaining. You. Your presence in Stormhoof. It amuses me. I like underdogs, I like sarosians, and I don't like royals who take their entitlements too seriously. If it wouldn't be absolute chaos for political relations, I'd be tempted to do things like this myself from time to time. So how about we strike a deal? Don't give up, keep going for whatever you came here for, get them even more worked up, try not to kill anyone, and when you're either caught or succeed, I'll pardon you in the name of the Empire. The castle's defense is understaffed right now due to recent confidential developments, and I have a good feeling about your skills, so let's say I think you stand a chance. Am I making sense?"

Valey blinked one more time, her mark not warning her about anything. "You're serious, aren't you? This is actually how the Empire does things? One loose cannon running the system?"

Gazelle met her gaze perfectly. "You didn't strike me as the kind of person who would be terribly concerned with that thing, coming in here as brashly as you did. And without an Empress, the system is, in fact, a game of who can get away with what. You're unusually hesitant for someone who blazed relentlessly all the way up here."

"Recent lifestyle changes," Valey answered. "Look, dude prince... maybe I don't look like it to you, but I'm majorly beat up and on my last legs right now. If you're on my side, would you mind just asking these Stormhoof dudes to give my friends back? They came in here on a ship like... earlier today, or something, and they're up in this tower somewhere."

"Now you're pulling my heartstrings," Gazelle whimpered, face firming back up as quickly as he adopted the act. "I'm serious, though, that's admirable. More power to you. But I'm the Empire's High Prince, and I don't just do favors for free, so show me what you've got!" He patted her with a wing, pushing her towards the entrance. "Run! Hide! Kick face! I'll get you out of trouble in the end. I promise!"

Valey gritted her teeth, wishing her cutie mark could also tell her when she was being deceived. She certainly didn't need it to know she was being played with; she had done this exact thing far too much herself to fail to recognize it. Still, it was a free chance...

"Fine. But I'm only doing this," she told him, "because I get exactly where you're coming from with the whole prank-your-enemies thing. Just saying, though... If you gave me the benefit of the doubt and let me sleep first and get my friends back, we might actually get along pretty well? If you give me some credit?"

Gazelle seemed to seriously consider this. "Really."

"Really," Valey repeated, spinning around to face him and drawing her shoulders up until she stood closer to him in height. "See, where I'm from, I had a pretty crazy garbage reputation, but made a game out of sabotaging two sides so much they never caused any damage when they tried to beat each other up..." She raised a hopeful eyebrow and cracked a sure smile. "Give me the benefit of the doubt?"

Gazelle smiled back, the sharpness of his teeth far more impressive than hers. "It sounds like we understand each other! Here's a new deal: I'll go with you."

"Like... messing around in there?" Valey pointed a hoof at the keep.

"Messing around in there," Gazelle repeated. "Taking full credit for any stunts, so long as no one gets seriously hurt. Leave all of telling anyone about my motives to me. Friends?"

Valey stared at his outstretched paw, reading earnestness in his catlike face. If only she didn't have ponies she cared about riding on the line and could risk her life for stupid stunts, this could be a golden opportunity... and she highly doubted he knew about her cutie mark. That would protect her in a pinch if she got betrayed.

"Friends," she answered, hoofbumping, hoping it could even be fun.