The Ranger's Apprentice: Book 'EQ,' Malkalam's Wife

by GordonFreebrony

Chapter 3

A small rise situated in the folds of the lands gave the first view of Redmont Castle to all travelers that venture along the road. One such traveler, astride a massive, bay battlehorse sat peering at the distant castle. He wore a coat of mail over his massive, barrel chest, and a sword hung at his side. On his back, a shield with a stylized oakleaf symbol sat, ready for use at almost any moment. A bulging bag of gear indicated that more armor was hidden within his pack. An open face helm was tied to the saddle in front of him.

“I’ve missed this sight,” the young man, Horace, said to his horse, “what about you Kicker?”

The horse tossed its mane, stepping forward at Horace’s direction. The duo passed through the town, bypassing the gate and heading towards the cabin of his old friend. Horace dismounted, walking forward towards the small house, his massive frame making the steps to the porch groan under his weight. He knocked on the door, only to be met with loud yips from the other side.

“Will? WIIL!” Horace shouted, his deep voice shaking the window shutters. He tried the door, and to his surprise it opened with a loud squeak. A small, black and white dog immediately jumped up and began to lick his face. “Hey, Ebony. Where’s Will?”

The dog ignored his words, jumping to the ground and running around in a display of extreme hyper-activeness. Horace frowned, his mind grinding through the facts methodically. He walked over to the dog’s food and water bowls, refilling the nearly empty water bowl and pouring a small amount of leftover chili into the food bowl. He closed the door behind him, and left for the castle.

____________________________________________________________

“What do you mean where’s Will? Didn’t you say he was given a mission from Crowley?” Baron Arald was sitting behind his desk, the slightly rotund, yet surprisingly fit, man watching Horace.

“I mean,” Horace replied, “That he left Ebony without a caretaker. I was supposed to meet him, and I can’t find him or Halt.”

“Well, they are Rangers.”

Horace nodded, saying, “True, though I know Will. He would never leave Ebony alone…
Something is wrong.”

The Baron sighed, “Why don’t you go ask Pauline about Halt. She probably knows more than me.”

Horace nodded again, backing out of the room with a slight bow. He was still fighting the urge to bow to everyone he met, the time in Nihon-Ja had affected him more than he felt comfortable. Reminiscing about the trip, Horace smiled, images of Duncan’s smile about the engagement filling the warrior’s mind.

Banishing his sentiment, Horace reached the doors leading to Halt and Pauline’s suite. He knocked, waiting politely for the door to be opened. He didn’t have to wait long, Pauline herself opening the door wide.

“Horace! What a pleasant surprise.” She said, ever the flattering diplomat.

“Not so pleasant, milady,” Horace replied, shaking his head, “Have you seen Halt?”

“Not since yesterday morning. Alyss arrived with an assignment, and he left almost immediately. He went off to find Will.”

“Oh,” Horace said, his face falling, “They were supposed to meet with me earlier today. If you see them, can you tell them to meet me at Macindaw? Malcolm needs some help.”

Pauline nodded, remembering the ‘adventures’ her husband had relayed to her about Will. Horace turned around, about to leave, when he thought of something else.

“Umm, milady?” He asked tentatively,

“Just call me Pauline.”

“Okay, Pauline, would you be so kind as to watch after Ebony while Will is gone? I can bring her and her food bowls up here.”

“I would love too. That little puppy is just too sweet.” Inwardly, Pauline cringed. She liked the puppy, alright, but she never liked dealing with her ‘businesses,’ and she was sure she would have to stop it form chewing on her furniture. However, she understood that Horace probably had no idea what to do with it, and that it was very important to Will. It took most of her diplomatic skills to smile and accept the puppy.

“Thank you, Pauline.” Horace stopped himself before bowing, instead nodding and leaving the room. His conscience clear, at least in respect to the puppy, he left for the stables.

On his way, Horace thought upon the scroll given to him. It was a very confusing document, filled with unfamiliar legal terms, but the gist of it was that Malcolm and his tribe had felt an ancient force stirring deep within Grimsdell, and that requested the help of Macindaw, who in turn sent help to Duncan, who sent them. Horace sighed, mounting Kicker. He knew that his mission would prove much harder without Will and Halt. His only hope was that they had left before him.

Before he left, he passed a hastily written scroll to a ‘mailman,’ as he liked to call the people in charge of the mail. He had addressed it to Alyss, writing in a simplified form of code so as to not pass on sensitive information.

He turned north, preparing for a long, grueling haul towards Macindaw.

__________________________________________________________

Will sat on the slightly lumpy bed, peering through the bars of his cell into the one across the hall. He had woken up a few minutes earlier, surrounded by dark, mossy stone. The cell was small, about ten paces across and the same deep. It was an average jail cell, with a lumpy bed and not much else.

When he had first woken up, he had instinctually felt for his Saxe, the familiar weight missing from his belt. His throwing knife was gone too, as was his bow and quiver. He still had his cloak and a few of the items in his more hidden pockets. His strikers were still in their holsters, appearing to an outsider to be a decorative piece. Strangely enough, that alteration on the uniform was first proposed by Alyss, learning from the experiences of the new ‘decorative’ daggers that the Couriers wore.

Will’s thoughts were interrupted by a groaning from the cell across from him. Halt slowly sat up, blinking in the soft, flickering torch light that filled the hallway and part of the cells.

“What happened?” Halt said, confusion evident in his voice, “I seem to remember being assaulted.”

“Well,” Will said, “When I heard about you appearing in the center of the town, I rushed in. When I got there, you were rolling on the ground, crying like a baby, while a pink pony thing was bouncing in front of you. I closed the distance, pushing away the pony to find out what was wrong. There was a small dart in your neck, probably poisoned. However, before I could take much more than a cursory glance, two armored unicorns with a net tried to attack. I kept them at a standoff until I was forced to incapacitate one of them with an arrow. I believe I hit it to the right of the knee. After that, all I remember is a glowing field of purple and then a flash of sunlight.”

Halt grunted, disturbed that his memory was so different from what Will just told him. “Wait, did you say unicorns?”

“Yes, I—“

Their conversation was interrupted by a loud, metallic bang, followed by the stomping of armored boots against the ground. Then a white, armored unicorn stepped forward, two bowls of hay floating next to him. Both the bowls and the horn were glowing.

“What the devil?” Halt said, “Damn, I have yet to stop hallucinating”

“Shut it, Prisoner!” The guard bellowed, attempting to cover up his fear by overpowering bravado. To his dismay, however, the two monsters just stepped closer, both of them seeming to menace him with their unnatural height.

“How are you doing that?” Will said, obviously curious, despite his predicament. Halt rolled his eyes, muttering something about this not being the right time for questions.

“I said SHUT IT,” yelled the guard, shoving the bowls through the slits at the bottom of the cell. “Enjoy your breakfast,” The guard said again, forcing the bowls to ‘catch’ on the ground and spill the hay everywhere.

Will eyed the hay lightly. “I hope you don’t expect us to eat this. We aren’t horse— Oooh. Right,” Will began, before realizing why he was given hay.

“You’ll eat it or you’ll starve!” the guard shrieked, his voice betraying him and turning into a squeak. Will had an idea forming in his mind, and he decided to test out his theory. He slowly began to wave back and forth, matching his temp to the flickering of the torches.

“What are you doing?” The guard said, his abnormally large eyes growing larger in fear, “Stop that!”

Will began to chant gibberish, much like Malcolm had when he scared McHaddish. Halt was watching with interest, catching on to what Will was doing. He, too, began to join in, enjoying terrifying the guard. The guard began to back slowly away down the hallway, shaking with fear and holding a spear in front of him with his magic. All pretense of bravado was gone, replaced by pure terror. Then Will and Halt, after a discreet hand signal, melted into the shadowy corners of the room. This was the last straw for the guard, who comically ran down the hallway, shrieking with fear. Will quickly stepped towards the bars, a plan having been formed in his head.

“Halt,” he whispered. “I have a plan. Let’s wait for the guards to burst in. I still have my strikers; we can knock them out and escape!”

Halt, however, saw a few holes in his plan, namely the fact that they had no knowledge of how many guards were here, or where here even was. He shook his head slightly, lying down on the bed and pretending to sleep. He looked up and gestured for Will to do the same. Will shrugged, trusting that his former mentor knew what he was doing. He laid down on the bed, evening his breathing and falling to ‘sleep.’

They only had to wait a few minutes for the guards to come back, dragging the first one along with them.

“N-n-no, don’t make me come back here! They’re gone. They’re GONE!!” The original guard was moaning piteously, while the two others rolled their eyes at him. The right most one rubbed his hoof along the bars, the metal armor clanking against the bars in an attempt to ‘wake’ the prisoners.

“Alright you prissies, wake up! Breakfast is here.” Will and Halt ‘blearily’ got up, shaking their heads to ‘clear’ them. They both finished their acts before Halt looked down at the hay on the floor.

“I hope this is not what you mean by breakfast,” He said, nudging the bowl with his boot. Will rolled his eyes, the action covered by the cowl of his cloak.

“Be thankful for what you get. If I was making the decisions, I wouldn’t even give you this.”

Halt lowered his cowl, his gaze penetrating through the guard’s metal visor. “Then I guess you are in charge, because we CAN’T eat this. Even if we could, it is pitiful. I wouldn’t even give it to a packhorse, much less a prisoner.”

The guard recoiled as if struck, the low, dangerous growl coming from the grizzled Ranger sounding far more dangerous than the Royal Canterlot Tone. For a moment, the guard reflexively mumbled a “Yes, sir,” before realizing what he said. The guard shook his head, laughing.

“Your mind tricks won’t work on me. Have fun eating your hay.” The two guards filled with mirth, while the middle one shrunk to the ground, covering his head.

The two slowly pushed their companion into moving, leading him down the corridor. The guard that had yet to speak looked back, and began to speak in an obviously feminine voice. “So, what DO you eat? I can’t wait to bring a large portion down here just to stuff my face in front of you.”

Halt grinned, an evil smile spreading across his evil face. “Oh, I don’t know. My favorite meal would be a nice beefsteak, wrapped in bacon, sautéed with herrings, and surrounded by a brace of duck. Add in a boar, slow-roasted after being covered in a honey glaze, and an apple artistically placed in its mouth. Surround the whole feat with lettuce to catch the delicious grease, and add in a side of roast ox for the main course. For dessert, a nice, sweet, apple and chicken pie.”

The guards visibly paled at his words, whatever colors that were in their white faces fading away. The one who had asked gagged, almost losing whatever lunch she had. The original guard was the first to break the trance, running down the hallway shouting “CARNIVORE,” followed closely by the others.

Will grinned at Halt, his face filling with mirth. “Halt, I guess I should leave terrifying the locals to you.”

Halt, contrary to Will’s expectations, sat down on the bed, holding his head in his hands. “So, why the hell am I seeing colorful horses, or ponies, or unicorns, or whatever. Can you explain that?”

Will shrugged, the grin draining from his face. “I can’t. The best I can tell you is that I am seeing them too. I believe they are real, as I have actually fought with them. Twice. One of them actually bruised my arm.” Will shoved his arm through the bars to give Halt a view, pulling back his tunic’s sleeve to reveal a small, circular bruise.

Halt eyed the bruise, the torchlight making his hidden eyes shine through the darkness of his cowl. “Well,” Halt said through his scowl, “I’m just going to accept this for now and go crazy later. Until then, what else have you got?”

“I have some emergency rations, and by that I mean a few pieces of jerky. I also have a flint and steel, an oiled rag, and small whetstone. Oh, and I have the strikers, like I mentioned earlier.”

“I have pretty much the same, a bunch of useless junk and my strikers. Hmm… Well, for now, why don’t we just…”

_______________________________________________________

A cacophony of sounds reached the resting Rangers, echoing through the hallways. Following the sound, a large group of armored ponies, mostly unicorns, appeared in sight. Leading the small army, a lone unicorn stood. His armor covered most of his body, like the guards he lead, but his mane was a deep blue, in contrast to the gold of the guards behind him.

“You two things are to come with us. The princesses have requested a meeting before your trial.” The blue-maned unicorn stepped forth, allowing the insignia on his armor, a small, blue shield with a purple star in the center, to flash in the torchlight. His horn lit up, unlocking the doors.

Will and Halt walked slowly out of the cells, warily eying the fearful guards in the hallway. Will glanced around, taking in every single detail he could. His eyes chanced downwards, and showed him the unicorn leader had a distinction between his hooves and legs, something lacking in every other one of the equine creatures they had encountered. Will filed that nugget into the back of his brain, focusing in what was happening now.

The group slowly moved through the maze of hallways, Will memorizing the path as best he could, Halt doing the same. They eventually emerged from the catacomb-like dungeons, and entered the castle proper. Will knew it was a castle the instant he saw the magnificent architecture in just the hallway alone.

The roof was a good twenty meters above them, with buttresses of white marble adorning and supporting it. Huge stained-glass windows were set into the outside, overtop of shorter, clear glass ones that lent a view into the amazingly green land far below them. They passed through these gilded halls with complete silence, save for the clanking of the overly-protected, armor-clad ponies behind them.

Finally, the group reached a large, golden door, flanked by two expressionless guards. The blue maned unicorn sorted his troops into two distinct lines, one behind Will and one behind Halt. He then took up a lead position and opened the doors in front of him. The group proceeded to march forward, into an ornate throne room. Rows of empty benches and seats flanked the small red carpet beneath their feet and hooves. Columns rose every few meters into the vaulting ceiling above. At the far end, a half-dozen ponies, unicorns and pegasi, three of which looked familiar to Will, sat around two towering equines with horns and wings. At a glance, Will surmised that the smallest one would be about Tug’s size, while the larger one would have been slightly taller.

A jolt ran through Will’s mind. I forgot about Tug! He thought to himself, mentally beating himself over the forehead. At this point, the group, which had stood still while they waited to see the Ranger’s reactions, began to move forward again, driving Tug from Wills mind. Halt, meanwhile, had continued to dart his eyes around the room, finally picking up on something.

A discreet hand signal went towards Will, who responded in kind. Halt then proceeded to motion first for the direction in which he had seen what he saw, and then another direction, using the hand-signals taught in the Ranger Corp. He then preformed a ‘choose your target’ motion towards Will, who responded with the second direction Halt had indicated. The grizzled Ranger nodded, sending the ‘wait’ signal to Will.

During this exchange, the guards looked on, figuring that it was some sort of cultural thing with the two obviously intelligent creatures in front of them.

Halt waited until they were less than five meters away from their targets before giving Will another hand signal. Almost immediately, the two Rangers pulled out their strikers, each having threaded them together in the cell. With a fluid, practiced motion, they flung the heavy metal cylinders, putting as much force and accuracy into their throws as they could.

The effect was immediate. Their targets dropped, falling to the floor with twin thuds, while the guards around them lowered the spears and crossbows at the Rangers. Simultaneously, a dark blue field engulfed their torsos and heads, pulling them forward while a dark purple field dragged their feet towards the door and a light blue field engulfed their arms, trying to hold them where they were.

Looking back, Will could only liken the feeling to what he thought being drawn and quartered would feel like before your limbs were chopped off. He had heard about the barbaric practice while talking with the Tuscan general before heading off to Nihon-Ja.

“ENOUGH!!!” The word echoed throughout the room, with enough force to shake the ceiling and make the guards to drop their weapons. Instantly, a bright, white light surrounded Will and Halt, releasing the hold of the multi-colored fields that had been slowly pulling them apart. They were lowered to the ground, where they collapsed into twin heaps of groaning human.

“Tia! Hast thou gone mad? These things have tried to attack thou and thine! What if they had not missed? What would thou have done then?” Will and Halt looked up to see the smaller of the two winged unicorns, with a dark blue coat and billowing, starry mane, talking to the larger, white-furred and rainbow-maned one. Both of their manes moved on their own, seeming to be filled with sparkling powders and unearthly powers.

“Luna, I doubt these creatures could miss unless they wanted to. In fact, I am under the assumption that they hit their targets perfectly, and for that, I thank them.” The larger one, Tia, said.

At this, Rainbow Dash stepped forward from the group of stunned ponies flanking the two larger equines. “What do you mean, thank them?!” she asked incredulously, “They attacked you Princess! I mean this is, this is… INCONCEIVABLE!”

A purple unicorn stepped from behind the princess. “Rainbow, the princess is right. Besides, I don’t think that word means what you think it means,” The purple unicorn said.

“You’re right, Twilight,” The Princess replied, casting a hoof towards the edges of the room. “Look, Luna, Rainbow. These creatures may have just saved us.”

At the walls, two small, black shapes were crumpled in separate piles, both wearing the golden armor of the Royal Guard. Next to them, two small crossbows sat haphazardly on the ground. The entire room gasped, save for the two green-cloaked humans that were just beginning to stand up, grimacing at both their pain and their success.

Comments

[GordonFreebrony]

Well, here it is...
And before you ask, no I did not pull that dart out of my flank in order to fix my mistakes for last chapter.
...
...
...
OK, maybe I did, but hey, it adds another plot twist.

Also, see you guys after Spring Break is over, I won't continue writing till then. Probably.
Anyway, Happy belated Easter!

[kpatkoch]

Princess bride quote