Light Wanderings

by ed2481

Chapter 18

Edited by TacoTown

“Now GO!” Her aunt shouted authoritatively. Gilda let out a frustrated growl, but bowed her feathered head and began to weave through the crowd. The steel dagger weighed next to nothing in her talons and the urge to strike out at one of the figures as it charged her aunt was incredible. Instead, she shook her head and continued through the crowd. She didn’t know where Dash had gotten to, but she hoped that she’d found her way to safety. The griffin didn’t know what she’d do if someone hurt her life-bond. Actually, she did; she’d kill them.

A noble elbowed her, but the Princess put that out of mind instead of snapping out like she would’ve when she was younger. Instead, she just kept her head down and moved towards the exit of the room while grumbling slightly under her breath all the while.

***

Kane was peering over the edge of the large, wooden beam, using only his claws to keep from tumbling off of it. The cat watched from on high as the griffin Princess fled the room. He’d been to the griffin capital on several occasions and sat in on a session of court several times, so he recognized the crown princess easily. He also noticed that a particular hippogriff was trailing behind her just far enough to remain unnoticed by the Princess and just close enough to be able to strike. Of course Kane, being who he was, noticed the pattern immediately as the bodies writhed below in the chaos.

“Silent, I’ve got a target.” He told the Lunar Guard who was watching the chaos below from his slightly less risky position near the middle of the beam.

“Good, so does this mean that we can go down and split some heads? Because I really, really, really want to crack some skulls! I mean this is my first real fight and we’re just sitting up here and I’m getting really anxious about missing out on it!” Silent replied rapidly.

“No. Well, yes actually but we’re not getting directly involved yet.” Kane replied.

“Aww! But come on Kane! I thought you were a doer and a shaker and an action taker! But all we’ve done all knight is hide up here!” Silent said with a slight pout.

“The target is an amateur, but we need to stay close without being seen for the moment. Does our armor have any enchantments that’ll help you do that?” Kane asked.

“Umm, yeah, it does now that you mention it. It allows me to blend in with the shadows and move without making very much noise. I haven’t had much time to test it out though because I still haven’t gotten to go out on any spy ops, which is something that I’ve been meaning to do but no one will take me with them because I’m still the FNG.” Silent replied.

“Fucking New Guy?” Kane asked quickly as he began to move along the wooden beam.

“Yeah, that.” Silent agreed.

“Huh, I wonder why.” Kane chuckled.

“Wait! I just thought of something. I was called that because I was the greenest one in the guard. But now you’re the newest guy, so shouldn’t you be the FNG?” Silent asked with a grin as Kane readied his grapple.

“Nope. Trust me kid, you’re way greener then I am. Besides, I’m way too handsome and sexy to be the fucking new guy.” Kane replied with a smirk as he aimed his grapple at another of the support beams and fired. The grappling hook shot out and the claws sank into the wood.

“Alright, activate that armor ability and follow me. Try not to bump into anything, it kinda ruins the whole invisibility thing. Trust me, I learned that the hard way with this one queen and a magic potion.” Kane told him while he prepared to leap off the edge. Silent nodded, pressed a small panel on his chest plate, and vanished.

“Why don’t you use your armor’s spell?” Silent asked him.

“Please. I’m an assassin.” Was all Kane said before he leapt off the ledge. The cat fell slowly thanks to the grapple cord, which allowed him to control his fall. He landed all but silently in the crowd a few feet behind the hippogriff who was tailing Princess Gilda. The hippogriff didn’t notice him, nor did anyone but the pony who he landed in front of, who saw that the cat was wearing the distinctive armor of the Lunar Guard and smartly kept his mouth shut.

***

Gilda looked over her shoulder as she left the main room. The hippogriff was still following her a little too closely for her liking. She thought quickly and turned down one of the narrower side passages and increased her pace.

***

If Kane could’ve he would’ve slapped the Princess for being such an idiot. Like all griffins she appeared to be rather hot-blooded and was apparently going to try and disarm the assassin by leading him down a side corridor. Of all the idiotic, stupid, and generally foolhardy things that the Princess could’ve chosen to do she just had to pick this one. Kane really shouldn’t have been surprised considering that she was a griffin but… Kane shook his head quickly and got back to his job of remaining unseen.

Then he noticed something; they were nearing the end of the hallway and it culminated in a dead end. Kane’s paw hit his face with a barely audible smack. She’d led him into a dead end; of course she’d led him into a dead end… Kane closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Then he ducked into a side passage and motioned for Silent, who was following a few feet to the right, to join him there.

“What is it Kane?” Silent whispered.

“This is going to be ugly Silent. She thinks that she can take him.” Kane replied back in a hushed tone.

“Can she?”

“Hell no.” Kane replied simply. “If we don’t do this right then she’s going to die and this asshat’s going to start a bloody war.”

“So what do we do?” Silent asked.

“I’ve got a plan but it all hinges on you; are you up for this kid?” Kane asked. Silent thought about it for a second and then nodded. “Good, so here’s what we do…”

***

Gilda looked over her shoulder again and found that she was all alone in the hallway with the hippogriff. She turned to confront him, holding the dagger in front of her like she’d been trained to. The hippogriff stopped and stared at her.

“Really?” He asked incredulously.

“I’m Princess Gilda of the Griffin Kingdom, and if you think that you’re going to hurt me then you’ve got another thing coming.” Gilda replied as if this explained everything while she raised her dagger.

“You’re an idiot.” The hippogriff replied as he strode forward and kicked the griffin in the stomach before she had a chance to reply.

The dagger clattered to the floor as Gilda leaned forward in pain. The hippogriff stepped forward and caught her as she fell forward, and there was a slight clinking sound as a blade spouted from a gauntlet at his wrist and it pressed against the side of her neck.

“And now you’ll die all alone with the knowledge that a war that will engulf three kingdoms will be all your fault.” The hippogriff continued with a sinister chuckle.

“STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!” Silent shouted as he rounded the corner and walked into the dim light of the passageway.

“I kill her in the honor of the Hippogriff Kingdom!” The assassin shouted with a gleeful shout. With that he began to slice downward with his wrist blade. That’s when Kane leapt off of his perch on the ceiling, and delivered a flying kick to the hippogriff’s beak, sending him stumbling backwards.

The hippogriff’s blade still slashed deeply into the griffin Princess’s neck, but not nearly deep enough to kill her and instead only opened a deep gash that made her let out a shriek of pain. Kane was unfortunately much, much smaller than the hippogriff assassin, so his blow did little besides wind the attacker who recovered and let out a screech of rage as he charged at Kane, both wrist blades extended. The cat’s eyes widened and he quickly drew his dagger from its sheath and prepared to meet the charging hippogriff with it held in a reverse grip.

At first, instead of countering the incoming blades with his dagger Kane focused instead on weaving in and out of the maelstrom of slashes that the hippogriff was dealing. He ducked under one wrist blade as it whistled through the air where his head had been only a second earlier, then dodged to the right and narrowly avoided being stabbed in the chest by the second blade. The hippogriff assassin’s beak curved into an evil smirk as they twirled their deadly dance, continually forcing Kane back towards the wall.

Kane’s eyes began to dart back and forth, searching for a way away from his attacker who continued to press him. The dagger in Kane’s paw suddenly slashed out, interrupting a dagger destined for his stomach and then traveled in a wicked arc straight towards the hippogriff’s chest. It was parried to the right by a quick slash from the blade protruding from the hippogriff’s other wrist. Meanwhile, Silent began to apply a tourniquet to the slash on the Princess’s neck that began to slow the spread of red blood that had already soaked a good deal of the white feathers.

“It’s too late! She’s already dead and once I’m done with you there’ll be only me.” The hippogriff told Kane with a malicious grin as his wrist blade swept past Kane’s throat after being deflected at the last second. Kane said nothing, instead choosing to focus on the fight at hand. The cat nimbly whirled through another flurry of blows until one caught him across the left shoulder, cutting through the metal protecting it and opening a deep cut. Kane let out a hiss of pain and stumbled back, his face contorted into a scowl of intense agony.

“That’s what I like about fighting cats, you’re all pussies deep down inside under all that self-assured bluster!” The hippogriff shouted wickedly as he pressed his advantage, wrist blades at the ready. Kane’s mouth suddenly twisted from its scowl and into a smirk.

“Kid, you just described your own race in a nutshell.” Kane said as his smirk got bigger. “Now, because you’re obviously not very experienced, why don’t you let me teach you something about being an assassin?” The cat continued as his dagger slashed out and imbedded itself in the center of the hippogriff’s right hand.

“First, if you are going to use wrist blades at all then you use them for stealth kills.” Kane said as his blade jerked out of the hippogriff’s talon and intercepted the other, and significantly thinner, wrist blade on its way to his face, where it snapped under the sudden pressure. “There are reasons why nations don’t arm their soldier with these things you know.” He added as he pulled away from the hippogriff so he could dodge a sloppy swing from the arm that he’d already injured.

“For starters, they’re impractical. I mean, even with the nice ones the mechanism can get broken, and not only are they as expensive to fix as it is to make a wealthy queen happy, but that can also happen in the middle of a fight, leaving you with an unwieldy and not to mention heavy blade either sticking out of your wrist or trapped inside its pouch uselessly, doing nothing for you.” Kane lectured as he dodged another sloppy swing.

“Furthermore, they take entirely too long to learn how to use properly when that time could instead be spent learning something useful, like the halberd for example. Hell, halberds are some of the best weapons out there to train people with; I mean just for starters you’ve got a giant freaking axe that can literally slice its way through a layer dragon scale plated armor, then you add in the reach and spearhead of a spear and you’ve got a long range solution for pretty much any close to medium range fight.” Kane continued with a growing smirk as he deflected a slash.

“Although, I’m getting a bit off topic aren’t I?” He asked the hippogriff who let out a screech of irritation and rage as he lunged for the cat, who simply stepped to the side. “Yeah, you’re right. I have kinda gotten off topic, allow me to fix that.” He said as his clawed foot lashed out and caught the hippogriff in the back, sending him tumbling to his knees.

“Now onto my second point, you don’t talk until your quarry is DEAD!” Kane shouted. The hippogriff tried to get back to his feet, but Kane’s foot was faster and it slammed into the hippogriff’s powerful horse leg with a loud snap; he’d been careful to make sure that it landed at just the right angle to break it. “Now I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking ‘why am I talking if it’s so important that you should kill before you talk’, right?” Kane asked the hippogriff, who let out a low, pain-filled moan.

“Well, it’s pretty simple really.” Kane continued with a shrug. “I’m a guard which means that I really don’t have jurisdiction to kill you, unfortunately…” Kane said with a sigh. “Anywho, you don’t talk until after you’ve killed you opponent, it’s called monologuing. It gives whoever your target is the chance to fight back and gain ground. I’m doing it right now and if it wasn’t for the fact that I just broke your leg and had already essentially disarmed you I’d never do it. Besides, the rest of the guards should be here in a few seconds so even if you do somehow manage to kill me we’re at the end of a dead end passage and there’s nowhere for you to go.” Then Kane suddenly leapt forward and his paw caught the hippogriff’s foreleg in mid stab motion, keeping the wrist blade out of reach of the hippogriff’s own throat.

“No suicide for you, asshat.” The cat added disdainfully before he quickly broke the wrist that the blade was attached to, getting another pained scream out of the hippogriff. “Hey Silent, will the Princess live?” He called over his shoulder.

“Umm, yeah I think so, I mean I got the tourniquet in the right place and the bleeding’s stopped, I think. Which means that all I have to do is keep her stable, I think. I kinda daydreamed through the medical portion of guard training…” Silent said, trailing off.

“By Bast kid, I’m giving you a full refresher course on this stuff once we’re done here.” Kane said with a shake of his head. “I can’t have you forgetting something important, like how to breathe, when we’re on patrol.”

“Hey, I’m not that bad. I mean look, it was boring alright, and the instructor had an amazing ass so it’s not really my fault.” Silent protested. It took Princess Luna and a small squad of guards five minutes to get to where Kane and Silent were after they’d received the magical emergency signal from the armor that Silent had sent out once they’d gotten the attacker under control.

“Kane, Silent, what has happened?” Luna asked once she got close enough.

“Well, she went off by herself like an idiot.” Kane said with a nod towards the griffin princess, who was leaning heavily against Silent. “You may want to get her to a hospital by the way; she suffered a severe case of wrist blade to the throat.” Kane added with a shake of his head. Luna’s eyes widened as she saw the blood soaked tourniquet that rested against Gilda’s neck. Then she cocked her head to the side for a second and closed her eyes, opening a second later.

“My sister is sending aid as we speak.” She told Gilda, who nodded gratefully before finally passing out from blood loss.

Luna’s eyes strayed to the hippogriff who was lying on the ground moaning in pain. Kane had been periodically stomping on his broken leg to make sure that the would be assassin wasn’t too keen on the idea of trying to run away. Luna’s eyes narrowed.

“Is this hippogriff responsible for the princess’s injuries?” She asked quietly.

“Yeah. Bastard was going to assassinate her, luckily he wasn’t too good at his job.” Kane replied with a shrug that exposed his still bleeding shoulder.

“Are you alright Kane? You’re bleeding.” Luna asked him.

“Meh; I have another ten minutes before the adrenaline stops flowing and I actually start to feel pain again, hopefully your sister’s nurses will be here by then.” Kane replied.

“Very well Kane, so long as you seek proper attention once they come.” Luna told him with a nod. “I think I will be having some very cutting words with Ambassador Sharp once this miscreant has been taken to a cell.” She added as she turned to glare at the hippogriff. Kane took this as a good opportunity as any to stomp on the broken leg again. “Please, don’t do that Kane. We don’t torture ponies here.” Luna told him.

“He’s not a pony.” Kane pointed out reasonably before giving the hippogriff one more stomp for good measure.

“No he is most certainly not, but he’s a prisoner and we are forced to treat prisoners with respect.” Luna said with a sigh.

“Fine.” Kane said before he took one last stomp and then spit on the hippogriff. “Hardly worth the trouble anyways.” He added with another stomp.

“Kane…” Luna said fixing him with a glare.
“Just saying.” Kane replied with another shrug and stomp. “I mean, this guy visibly trailed her, and when I say that I mean that a blind minotaur could’ve seen it if he’d been paying attention.” Kane added with a stomp. “And let’s not even go into how sloppy he was-” Kane suddenly found himself floating upside down in the air as Luna fixed him with a pointed, narrow-eyed stare.

“Kane, I do not care. He is a prisoner and as such deserves treatment as a sentient being. That means STOP stomping on his obviously broken leg.” Luna said. Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of voices coming down the hallway. Luna turned to see that Ethan was walking next to Celestia, who had Twilight lying on her back. A group of nurses carrying a stretcher walked along beside them.

“-going to kill Sharp.” Ethan was saying. Then he looked up and saw the hippogriff with the terribly broken leg and suddenly began to smile. “You know, I do have a shotgun… and from what I hear about race horses and broken legs…” He received flat horrified stares from every pony in the room, and several of the medical staff began back away from the man.

“Anyways-” Celestia began before she caught sight of Kane. “…Luna, why is Kane suspended upside down in midair?” Celestia asked curiously.

“Because he wouldn’t stop stomping on the prisoner’s broken leg.” Luna said dryly. This made several of the medical ponies turn to glare at the cat, who shrugged.

“Meh, the bastard deserves it. Oh and can one of you please keep me from bleeding out?” The cat asked with a nod towards his shoulder.

“Oh, I can fix that easy.” Ethan said, stepping forward.

“You’re that Ethan guy, right?” Kane asked as the man took out a hypodermic of some sort.

“I also respond to The Lone Wanderer and That Crazy Son of a Bitch, but I prefer Ethan.” Ethan replied with a chuckle before he drove the hypodermic into Kane’s shoulder. The cat winced as the needle sank beneath his skin. Kane felt a sudden shiver travel up his spine as the skin of his shoulder, and everything beneath it began to heal before his upside down eyes. Then, Ethan took out the hypodermic and put it into a pocket on the suit.

“Wow, that’s a nice little tool.” Kane said as he inspected the newly healed skin.

“Yeah, I used to use these things all the time, then my skin began to grow back by itself and my bones stopped breaking, so I’ve got hundreds of the things lying around.” Ethan replied with a shrug.

“Do you think I could borrow one? Or all of them actually?” Kane asked hopefully.

“I don’t know, what do you think Luna?” Ethan asked the blue alicorn.

“I honestly don’t know whether or not it’s a good idea.” Luna replied with a shrug. “So Ethan, what happened after Celly and I got all of the civilians out of the room?” Luna asked changing topics.

“Frost troll, I killed it.” Ethan replied simply.

“You killed a frost troll… by yourself…” Luna said slowly.

“Well, Sparky helped by getting my stuff from my room, which is why she’s currently passed out on your sister’s back.” Ethan said.

“Of course, of course.” Luna said nodding as if this was a sensible discussion.

“Hmm, I’m impressed. Usually it takes an entire squad an hour of solid fighting to bring one down.” Kane told Ethan. “Oh, and Luna? Would you please let me down?” He added.

“I’ll let you down when the nurses get that assassin away from you.” Luna replied indifferently.

“Here, I’ll help” Ethan told the cat as he reached into his pocket and drew out a sphere. Before he could do whatever it was that he was about to do Celestia’s golden aura grabbed it out of his hand and she shot him a slight glare.

“Do you really believe that it’s a good idea to do that with him right there?” She asked with a nod towards the assassin.

“Hmm… good point Sunny.” Ethan consented with a nod.

“Most of them are Ethan.” She told him frankly.

“Yeah, but then there are the ones like when you threatened me, not that I didn’t have it coming mind you, but I usually take offence to points that involve threatening me.” Ethan told her with a smirk.

“Because you’re an idiot.” Celestia told him.

“Wow, you’re starting to sound like Sparky; then again you are what you eat.” Ethan said with a chuckle. Celestia hit him in the knee with her leg, causing the man to stagger. Then he slapped himself in the forehead. “I left my bag with the Ambassadors; I need to make sure that they don’t take anything.” He told the group before he took off in the opposite direction at a sprint.

“I’ll go with him. Sister, you make sure that this assassin is taken care of.” Celestia told Luna before turning away and following the man, easily catching up with her longer legs.

“So what now?” Kane asked.

“We wait for something interesting to happen.” Luna replied.

***

“NO, we will not violate his trust through theft of property!” Sharp told Nymira harshly.

“Aw, come on Sharpy, you can’t be serious. You saw what those things could do; imagine what either of our people could do with that stuff!” Nymira said in exasperation.

“No, I will not allow it. Besides, I’m sure that he keeps very close track of everything in there. Furthermore, the removal of any item would surly raise suspicion and I currently am in no mood to report to my king that I’ve angered a being who took down a frost troll by himself in under twenty minutes by stealing his things.” Sharp told Nymira firmly.

“That’s a good Sharpy, because I’m already angry enough with you.” Ethan said as he strode into the room and grabbed his bag before turning to face Sharp. Celestia appeared and watched from the doorway as Twilight lay across her back, clearly asleep.

“What have I done to anger you?” Sharp asked in confusion.

“You’ve been playing me for a sucker Sharpy, and I don’t like it when people play me for a sucker.” Ethan said in a low and dangerous voice.

“I cannot fathom what you’re referring to; in fact I find that I do not like your tone.” Sharp told Ethan.

“This whole attack was just a way to get Princess Gilda alone so that one of your hippogriffs could assassinate her, wasn’t it?!” Ethan asked suddenly as he poked Sharp in the chest accusingly.

“WHAT?” Sharp shouted. “How dare you accuse me of doing such a distasteful thing?!”

“Honestly, I’ve got to agree with Sharpy here, it’s not the way his people do things.” Nymira told Ethan with a shrug.

“Then why, in the hell, did one of his hippogriffs try and assassinate Princess Gilda?!” Ethan shouted back.

“Did-did one really?” Sharp asked uncertainly.

“Indeed one did.” Celestia said from her post by the door.

“Your majesty, permission to leave so that I may see to my niece?” Nymira asked.

“Of course you may. She’s unconscious at the moment, but I beilive that she’ll make a full recovery.” Celestia said with a nod of her head. Nymira swept out of the room faster than Ethan had ever seen her move before.

“The king will be furious. Celestia, you must understand that my king would never, ever, resort to assassination. It is the coward’s way out. If I want someone dead then I will do it myself with my own claws or sword in a duel or upon the battlefield.” Sharp told the Princess.

“I know that, which is why you aren’t under arrest.” Celestia told Sharp before turning to Ethan. “Good acting by the way Ethan.”

“Thanks. Now if you don’t mind me I’ll be going to sleep. When she wakes up tell Sparky that I owe her for getting my stuff.” Ethan replied before he walked out of the room.

“I would be… Interested to know if the assassin was captured alive…” Sharp said, giving Celestia a hard look.

“Very much so.” She responded promptly.

“Good. I will see him.”

***

“It has to be tonight. He is tired from his fight.” A cowled unicorn said.

“We are ready my Lord.” Another cowled unicorn replied.

“Good, by tomorrow Ethan Smith will no longer be a thorn in my flank!” The first figure said, letting out an ominous laugh while he reared on his back hooves; the effect was ruined when he toppled over backwards.