Another fine, summer morning dawned upon Redmont Fief. The smell of an amazing breakfast wafted from the inn that housed the famous Jenny, protégé of Master Chubb. The smell was an enticing mixture of eggs and fish, with more subtle and spicy aromas mixed within. The aroma was enchanting enough to drag even the laziest of farmhands out of bed, rousing the entire town from its sleepiness; however, the inn itself was leaking customers at a tremendous rate. The villagers were almost climbing over each other, like rats escaping a conflagration. The source of this panic was found inside, where one table still held two customers. One of them was an elegant lady, wearing an unadorned white dress, marking her as a Courier. She was, in fact, Lady Pauline, the leader of the Diplomatic Corp. Her aged face was framed by blond locks, turning silver. Her beauty, instead of being detracted from, was only enhanced by her age, and her poise gave one the impression of a lady who could handle herself in any situation. On her hip, a decorated dagger was sheathed.
Sitting across from Lady Pauline, a small, nondescript figure sat hunched, facing the door. He wore a green, mottled cloak, and had a drab brownish tunic on. At his waist hung a double-knife sheath, marking him as a King’s Ranger. This particular King’s Ranger was named Halt, and his eight-foot reputation intimidated all he met. He held a legendary status in the kingdom and beyond was earned through his many battles. He had a graying, ragged beard that appeared like he cut it with his own saxe knife. The rest of his face was hidden by the deep cowl of his cloak, and the reason the people were fleeing could be seen in the candle-light. Halt was smiling; a genuine smile of happiness filling his face.
In front of the couple lay a fish, surrounded by sautéed mushrooms omelets and bacon, artfully crafted into a work of beauty. Nearby stood a slightly chubby girl with a beaming face, a carving knife slowly cutting through the fish. She portioned out the food, globing generous helpings of the sumptuous breakfast onto both of their plates.
Halt and Pauline’s faces jumped into even bigger smiles, the deliciousness overloading their thoughts. Jenny gave and even bigger smile, pleased that her work had meant so much to the two of them. She soon left to the kitchens however, concerned over the lack of customers. She shrugged, attributing it to a slow morning.
After finishing the meal, Halt and Pauline left the inn, slowly walking back to the castle. Abelard, Halts short, shaggy horse, followed behind. The couple launched into small talk, ignoring the panicked locals running from the smile on Halt’s face. As they reached the drawbridge, however, a young voice launched towards them.
“Halt, Halt!” said Alyss, the esteemed student of Lady Pauline. Halt’s smiled vanished, replaced by the raise of an eyebrow and a roll of the eyes.
“You should not talk to Gilan so much.” Halt said, the amusement he felt locked behind his impassive mask. The young blonde in the white dress in front of him merely smiled, an inner light shining through.
“Oh, so you think I can’t come up with a witty remark on my own?” she said, overplaying the incredulousness in her voice.
“Oh, yes,” Halt said, keeping his voice as impassive as ever, “You may be the unofficially adopted daughter of my wife, but you still need help in the sarcasm department.” He said, laying on his own sarcasm as much as he could.
“Stop it you two,” an amused Lady Pauline interrupted, leaning on the post of the bridge.
Alyss nodded her head in the direction of Lady Pauline, her face all business again. “Halt,” she began, “I have a letter from Crowley. I’ve already given Horace his, and I attempted to give Will his, but I can’t find him. When you next see him, give him this.” Alyss handed Halt two scrolls, one labeled with his own name, and one with Wills. King Duncan’s seal adorned the wax sealing the scroll. Alyss leaned towards Halt again, this time giving him a full blown hug and peck on the cheek.
“And those are also for Will.” She said, ignoring the amazingly Halt-like expression emanating from her mentor. “I need to get some messages to Seacliff as well, apparently a certain Skandian has been sparring a little too hard with the Battleschool Apprentices there while he visited, and the Baron is begging for reimbursement. Too bad the castle has no moat.”
Halt raised his eyebrow again. “Two things: One, I hope you don’t expect me to transfer those in person, and two, doesn’t the castle sit right next to the ocean?” Halt said, amusement edging his voice. Alyss grinned mischievously, before walking off in the direction of the stable.
Halt bade his wife goodbye, hopping on Abelard and heading towards Will’s cottage. Halt forced his demeanor to become grimmer than ever, trying to make up for his previous expression of happiness. As he neared the cottage, however, a genuine frown filled his face. The chimney held no smoke, and Abelard didn’t whinny a hello to Tug. Halt wasn’t fully worried until he checked the archery range. He saw one of Will’s arrows still embedded in the target, looking as if it had been there a while. Halt pulled out the arrow, putting it into his own quiver, and then ran back to the track, scanning the ground.
At first, all Halt saw was a mess of hoof-prints from Tug and, more recently, Abelard. There was no sign of a struggle. He continued to read the tracks, until his keen eyes caught something unusual. In the center of the track, a small circle of perfectly flat ground stood. In the center, a small, spherical, jet-black pebble sat. Inside the transparent pebble, a small, green and blue sphere sat flanked by a small white one and a larger yellow one. Each internal sphere seemed to move on its own. Halt grasped Abelard, reaching for the pebble. The tips of his fingers brushed the surface of the pebble, feeling its smooth texture. However, Halt was blinded by a sudden surge of light that engulfed him; leaving no trace that he had even visited the small clearing.
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Fluttershy turned back to Rainbow Dash, the latter panting on her doorstep.
“Oh, w-w-what kind of monster?” She asked, fear edging into her voice.
“Well, it’s a strange, green thing. It seems to be wearing clothes, but its face is hidden in shadow. Its’ mouth is covered with gray bristles, and it can teleport, but it has no horn. It is friends with a huge cave-pony, and it hardly moves, and it—“ she broke off as Will seemed to melt out of the wall behind Fluttershy, holding up a half-drawn bow, complete with a nocked arrow. “Fl-Fl-Fl-FLUTTERSHY, THERE’S ONE BEHIND YOU!” Rainbow shouted, pulling Fluttershy away. “Leave her ALONE!” She shouted again, spitting at Will. Will, however calmly pulled the bow to full draw.
“Don’t step any closer,” he said in his deepest impersonation of Halt’s gravelly voice. However, the warning was not heeded as the cyan pony stepped closer, menacing Will with her face. Will released the arrow, sending between Rainbow’s ears. A large swath of her mane fell to the floor as the razor-sharp broad head carved through her mane and buried itself in the door behind her. Will nocked another arrow. “Next one is between your eyes.”
Rainbow recoiled, reaching a hoof up to her newly-cut mane. Her equine face scrunched into an expression of pure hate. “You little hay muncher.” She said, her voice going into a low, deadly growl. Will accepted the stalemate here, but he recognized the burly, ‘threatening’ manner that heralded an undisciplined brawler.
Will motioned with his bow, indicating to the two ponies in front of him to go outside. To his surprise, they did so without complaint. Will followed them to the door, pulling out his arrow from the soft wood. He then walked outside, keeping his bow trained on the ponies.
“Turn around, cover your heads with your hooves, and wait.” Will commanded after whistling for Tug. Tug appeared from behind a clump of bushes, his extensive Ranger training having allowed him to fins the best hiding spot. Will swiftly mounted Tug, keeping his bow trained on the ponies while he slowly led Tug down the incline and away from the cottage.
Will turned his back when he was a safe distance away, needing to decide which way the town was. He turned around again, keeping an eye on his charges, but the cyan one was missing. Will searched around, his keen eyes picking out obvious hiding spots and discarding them almost immediately. He looked up as well, searching the nearby trees, but found nothing. The only out-of-place object was a small cloud that was extremely low compared to the other visible ones. Will shrugged, turning his back, testing his theory. He heard a war cry, but he waited. He turned at the last moment, dropping his bow and dragging out his saxe. However, he was taken by surprise by being attacked from the air rather than the ground.
He was tackled by the cyan pony from above, wings sprouting from her back. Will tumbled out of Tug’s saddle, Tug kicking at the blue mass that grabbed his master. Will, however, used the unexpected momentum to put himself above Rainbow, his saxe immediately finding her throat. He allowed a huge, evil grin to cross his face. He leaned in close to the now-limp and extremely scared Rainbow Dash. His sharp, white teeth scaring the cyan pegasus nearly to death.
“Look here, princess” Will said, allowing a smidge of Halt-like evil creep into his voice, “You just attacked a King’s Ranger. I currently have enough reason to slit your blue furry throat right now. But you know what? I am—“ He was cut off by a massive force hitting his left side, and a loud scream.
“LEAVE HER ALONE!” shouted an enraged Fluttershy, her previously-unseen wings spread wide, her back legs in a position to where Will realized she had bucked him. Tug reared, attempting to attack the yellow pegasus, but she just turned and looked at Tug, and the ranger horse backed down, almost cowering. Will and Rainbow’s jaws both hung agape, staring at the panting pegasus. She seemed to notice, and suddenly her entire demeanor changed, she suddenly backed down, trying to hide behind her mane. “eep,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper, “just, d-d-on’t fight. A-and don’t hurt my fr-friends.”
Will and Rainbow snapped their jaws shut, eying each other with hate for a moment, before the guilt set in. Will swallowed his pride, stepping closer to Rainbow and Fluttershy. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice returning to its natural, jovial tones, “I… oh, nevermind” Rainbow apologized too, her mane not hiding the blush that suffused her cheeks.
“L-let’s go see what Twilight wants,” Fluttershy said, seeming to be an inch away from tears.
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Halt could not see. He was crouched, still on a dirt road. Abelard was still next to him, but the light had blinded him. He blinked a few times, his vision slowly returning. His head was still bent towards the ground, his hand no longer reaching for the pebble. The world around him was unnaturally quiet. He slowly looked up, and was immediately confronted with the most amount of garish pink he had ever seen in his life. Attached to this large, pink thing a small, equally pink, equine face peered at him. Behind this pink thing, a small ring of equally brightly-colored horses stood, and behind those were a few buildings. One building, which looked like it was carved into a tree, had a small, purple equine with a horn attached to its forehead standing in front of it. This equine had a cyan, rainbow-maned equine next to it. The purple one leaned towards the cyan one, it’s muzzle moving slowly as if speaking. The cyan one nodded, then pulled out wings and flew off into the distance.
Halt crouched stock still, peering through the crowd that surrounded him. Slowly, he sat down, crossing his legs. His thoughts were very angry. In a low, gravelly, world-ending tone, he said “Next time I visit Malcolm, I’m going to grab that pathetic excuse for a healer and shove every one of his mushrooms DOWN. HIS. THROAT.” He closed his eyes and began to meditate, not noticing as the pink horse in front of him cocked its head.
“Hi there! Do you like parties? Of course you do, who doesn’t like parties? I can make cupcakes. OOOHHH, what’s your favorite flavor of cupcakes? Do you have cupcakes where you’re from? What else do you—“ Halt tuned out the manically talking horse in front of him, waiting for his hallucination to end. Abelard snorted next to him, seeming to shut up the pink horse.
“Good boy, Abelard,” Halt said in Gallic, patting his horse. For some reason, the pink horse started talking again.
“What kind of pony is that?” she pointed a hoof at Abelard, “And you know Prench? That’s so coool! What else—“ The pony, Halt realized, began talking again, continuing on and on. Halt again tuned her out, going back into his meditative state. However, when he heard an all-too-familiar clanking sound from behind him, he cursed to himself before leaping into action. He knew that although the hallucinations themselves couldn’t hurt him, his brain could change the reality that can harm him and incorporate it into the dream-state.
He leapt up, turning towards the sound while kicking away the pink pony and pulling out his bow and nocking an arrow. This entire action became one fluid, graceful motion. The pink pony let out a gasp of air, whilst the clanking sound faltered. Standing in front of Halt were two ponies in full plate armor. They had horns on their heads and both were glowing. A large net hung between them, glowing in the same color as their horns. Halt noted this, aiming his bow at the horn of one of the guards.
“King’s Ranger, drop your weapons!” Halt shouted, infusing his voice with as much of the authority as he could muster. The two guards faltered again, confusion entering their eyes. Then one of them shouted back in an equally authoritative tone.
“Royal Guard. Drop your weapons!”
Halt cocked an eyebrow, the expression hidden by his cowl. He figured that these ‘unicorns’ were his brain’s interpretation of the Royal Guard, though why Duncan would send them after him was unfathomable. He lowered his bow, reaching into his tunic as he replied to the guards.
“Do you see this?” he pulled out his silver oakleaf, “My authority is sealed by King Duncan himself. Unless the king has signed a specific warrant for my arrest, I suggest you back off now before you find yourself missing a very important organ.” His bow was still lowered towards the horn of the foremost ‘unicorn,’ his hand returning to the string.
The guard looked confused for a moment, but then resumed his stance. “You dare to threaten a Royal Guard of Canterlot? By the authority vested in me by the Princess, you are under arrest. If you resist, extreme force will be used.”
“What the devil?” Halt murmured, raising his bow as the ‘unicorn’ stepped forward, “What does Cassandra want me arrested?” He raised his voice again at the guard inching closer. “And what does Cassandra want with me?”
The guard looked taken aback. “Cassandra? Who are you talking about. Certainly you don’t mean Princess Celestia, the sun princess!” Halt furrowed his eyebrows, noticing the quiet sound of someone attempting to sneak up on him.
“First off, tell your friend behind me that if they take one more step, your ‘horn’ may find itself having a rather large protrusion splitting it in twain.” The footsteps behind him stopped.
The standoff continued, Halt occasionally loosening his grip on the string, going from half-draw to full draw and back, making sure the tension would not harm the yew longbow. It probably would have lasted all day, until the order of the leader of the guard echoed across the small area between them.
“Alright, lets try this.”
Halt pulled the bow back to full-draw, about to say something, when a deep thrum echoed across the small area in the town, followed by a hiss-thump. A gray-shafted arrow with goose-feather fletching appeared between the front hooves of the guard.
“Drop your weapons!” A young, familiar voice followed the arrow. Halt shouted over his shoulder
“Malcolm got those shrooms to you again too?”
Will laughed, his young face walking forward and parting the sea of ponies. He was astride Tug, followed by the cyan pegasus and a yellow pony. The guards in front of Halt stopped unsure of what to do. The arrow had scared the two guards to the bone, but they stood their ground, trying to protect the townsfolk. Will jumped down next to Halt.
“You know, usually, I’m the one in the bind, and you’re the rescuer.” Will laughed, earning a sharp glance from Halt. “I say skip the tip.”
Halt nodded, understanding Will’s plan instantly. The two rangers turned towards the guards, twin grins filling their faces. A blurry motion followed by a double thrum and hiss heralded the arrival of two arrows. They sped towards the guards, the broad-heads barely touching the tips of the horns before burying themselves in the wall of the building behind them. The effect was instantaneous. The two guards screamed in pain, collapsing into the ground, the net falling on top of them. The townsfolk screamed all at once, running in every direction possible. However, six mares stood their ground, sharing an expression that was equal parts fright, anger, and appall. The rangers brought up their bows reflexively, aiming at the purple unicorn that led the band.
A large purple field surrounded the rangers, pushing them against the wall of the building behind them. Halt and Will struggled to get free as the purple unicorn advanced. Tug and Abelard ran to their masters’ aid, bucking at the outermost. Tug attacked a pink pony, which seemed to disappear before reappearing on Tug’s back, whilst Abelard was stuck in Fluttershy’s Stare. Then a huge flash of sunlight blinded the two rangers, the sheer power behind it knocking them out instantly.