Back in the dungeons, the guards continued dragging a struggling Eugene through the corridor, towards his planned punishment of hanging. Passing a small shelf dug into the brick, Eugene saw a small, delicate unicorn. It had barely registered when the door the guards were about to lead him through slammed shut. Within seconds, all doors in the corridor had been slammed shut and locked. The guards looked around questioningly, trying to figure out what was happening.
"What's this?" the lead guard asked, banging on the door. "Open up!"
A small communication panel opened and Shorty popped up, "What's the password?" he asked, closing the panel again.
"What? Huh?" the guard asked.
The panel slid back open. "Nope." Shorty answered, chuckling before closing the panel again.
"OPEN THIS DOOR!" the guard yelled.
The panel opened again. "Not even close!" Shorty closed the panel, obviously enjoying this.
"You have 3 seconds!" the guard yelled. "One…" as he said one, a hook swooped down and dragged one of the guards up and away. Eugene shook his head, still trying to figure out what was going on and why the thugs from the pub seemed to be helping him now.
"Two…" the guard continued. At this, one of the side doors opened and the guard was roughly yanked through it before it was slammed shut again, leaving Eugene with just the guard who had been attempting to get Shorty to open the door.
"Three." the guard stated, turning around. Eugene stood behind him holding his cuffed hands in front of him with the helmet of one of the guards still spinning on the floor behind him where it had fallen when the guard wearing it was yanked through the door. Eugene shrugged and waved.
"Huh?" the guard asked, confused.
Before Eugene could answer, another one of the thugs appeared behind the guard and, using a frying pan, knocked the guard unconscious. Eugene laughed.
"Frying pans! Who knew, right?"
Hearing a thud behind him, Eugene turned around in time to see a group of guards break through the locked door he had come from and race towards him. Eugene turned and was dragged down another side passageway. The guards following close at his heels, yelling. At some point, one of the thugs had managed to free Eugene from the cuffs as he continued to race away.
The guards were stopped by a hand right before reaching Eugene. The hand was engulfed in a white glove. Ulf, the thug who was into mime had just shown up. The guards looked at him, trying to figure out what he was doing. Ulf mimed the 'trapped in a box' routine before turning, holding his hand above his eyes as if to block the sun when they heard a bellow. The guards turned to look at what Ulf was seeing when they heard another bellow, made by a large thug charging at them. Vlad was charging towards them holding a heavy hammer.
Instead of running to get away or stepping aside, the guards held up their hands and screamed, right before Vlad hit them at a full run. Ulf turned back, holding his cheeks with a surprised look on his face. By now, Eugene had made it to the bottom of a stone courtyard. Looking up he saw guards everywhere, some even crowding down the stairs across the pavement.
Hook Hand picked Eugene up and moved him about 3 feet to the right. Holding his hands in front of him, he began giving Eugene instructions. "Head down."
"Head down." Eugene repeated, mirroring Hook Hand's movements.
"Arms in," Hook Hand continued, bending his elbows and pulling them back to his sides.
"Arms in," Eugene repeated.
"Knees apart," Hook Hand said.
"Knees apart." Eugene stated. "Wait knees apart?" he questioned, before hearing a grunt from above. If he had looked up, he would have seen Vlad jumping down towards him.
"Wait, why do I need to have my knees apart?" Eugene asked again.
Instead of an answer, he was propelled up and out of the courtyard as Vlad connected with the opposite side of the portable lever Eugene had unknowingly been standing on. Eugene tumbled through the air screaming as he went. Clenching his fists and closing his eyes, Eugene landed, straddling something. Cautiously, Eugene opened his eyes to find himself sitting atop of a horse. Max nickered, looking back at Eugene.
"Max?! You brought them here?"
Max nodded, looking like he was almost smirking.
"Thank you." Eugene told him.
Max neighed in response.
"No, really. Thank you, Max." Eugene sighed. "I feel like maybe this whole time, we've just been misunderstanding one another, and we're really just…"
Max just looked at him. Eugene cringed.
"Yeah. You're right. We should go." As Eugene said that, more guards broke through the door behind them.
Max took off weaving and swerving to avoid the arrows from the crossbows the guards were carrying. They were barreling towards the end of the walkway when guards came up from the side.
"Max!" Eugene exclaimed, right as the guards arrived to cut them off. "Max!" he yelled. It was then Max launched and jumped over the guards causing Eugene to scream.
"Max!" Eugene screamed as they landed on the roof of a nearby house, causing the roofing tiles to break away as they slid down the slope. Max jumped again, leaping over Leila and landing with a jolt on the village streets. Villagers screamed as they raced past. Eugene looked back at the villagers before turning back to Max.
"Okay, Max. Let's see how fast you can run." Eugene urged him. Max reared up and took off at an even faster pace and the pair raced over the bridge over the river, leading from the palace and surrounding houses to the forest surrounding the kingdom. Max wasted no time in heading straight for the tower Rapunzel had been held in. Max followed Rapunzel's scent as if he was a bloodhound instead of a horse. Soon they arrived at the bottom of the tower and Eugene jumped off Max and looked up.