A Rather Large Adventure

by BradyBunch


Chapter Eleven: Surrender

The corridors always looked the same no matter where they were turned. All they knew was that they were being taken down.

Finally, they reached a massive pair of iron doors and they opened with a low creak. They stepped into a large cavernous room that had many whirring machines on several raised platforms. In the middle of the room was an indented space that was perfectly circular. Twilight, Firestorm, and Noble Blade were thrust into that space, their captors still looking at them suspiciously.

The strange pale creature scuttled past them and spoke to a shadow near the top of the room. "Sir," he genuflected in his deep, deep voice. "The prisoners you wanted."

"Excellent," the shadow spoke. His high, cold, clear voice was contrasted by the deep voice of the pale spider creature. The shadow then moved into the light to reveal yet another pale, red-eyed creature. Unlike the other one, however, this one resembled a giant centipede with the head of a dragon and only ten legs. He stood on six of them. Everywhere he was armored, and everywhere there were tears in the armor and scars in his face, which was long and fanged. Two antennae were atop his head and he had four red eyes that burned, sunk deep into their sockets. He towered above everyone else; he was about as tall as Discord. This was Marshal Malice.

Making some attempt at humor, Twilight shakily whispered to Firestorm, "He's a lot shorter than I thought he'd be."

Firestorm whispered back, "A lot uglier, as well."

The Field Marshal heard this and sniffed with annoyance, but pretended not to notice. "This is my lucky day indeed. Never have I thought I would entertain the company of both a princess of Equestria and its protectors. But I'm afraid we're missing somepony, are we not?" He chose each word deliberately, slowly, in a cold, high voice. "I think we can correct that by removing the missing pony from this tangled equation."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked nervously.

"The third Sun Guardian is going to be fitted for a halo," the Marshal explained, grinning nauseously.


Freedom Fighter dropped from his hiding place and leaped, unnoticed, to the cart of crystals and jewels. The dragons tied up to the wall got a whiff of pony and followed the smell to the abandoned cart loaded with tasty jewels.


Malice continued to speak. "I have heard about the Guardians of the Sun. You try so hard to keep yourselves secret, do you not? Not thinking that the enemy you fight is compiling dossiers all about you behind your very back? I know everything, Sun Guardians. I know of your campaigns on Arimaspi Mountain, of your rescue from Midnight Castle, and of the complete embarrassment of yourselves in Skyworld."

Firestorm inhaled sharply, an expression of fear on his face at the mention of Skyworld.

"I wanted to remove both you and an Equestrian princess from your positions of power in one deft stroke. So I forged a letter to get the Princess of Manure out here for us to... relocate her to our humble capitol, knowing that the Sun Guardians would soon follow her. And now with the identities of the traitors revealed, a trap could be set to not only capture the princess again, but also the spies that betrayed us in the first place."

"Betray?" Noble Blade observed. "Last I checked, the only way to be a traitor is if you were loyal to that party in the first place." He was as calm as a rock. "And I was never loyal to you. I answer only to the Princesses of Equestria."


The dragons in bondage were getting infuriated now. These dragons were not normal dragons from the Dragon Lands. They came from Tartarus, where they could not speak, could not think as clearly. They stamped their feet, snarled sharply, roared in frustration. They were so close, both the pony and the cart of delicious jewels, but both were just out of reach, and they could not even see the pony they were smelling.

The pony in question was behind the cart of jewels, keeping his head down, carefully observing the Dark Stone he held in his hoof. He glared at the source of his consternation, then started his second attempt to destroy the Stone.


"Fools," Malice snarled. "You are traitors of a far worse caliber. You betrayed our father! You should have known what fate awaits a deceiving little-"

But he was cut off by a very loud, very obnoxious yawn by Firestorm. "Hooooo boy, I'd hate to cut you off right there in the middle of your prepared speech, but it's just that you're so freaking DULL! I mean, you manage to capture the number one enemies of the state and what do you do? You start to monologue!" He looked around the room when he got no reaction. "Hey, does anyone have an apple I can borrow? I want to look like an even bigger douchebag than usual. I was, you know, planning on taking one bite and just chucking it."

No one offered him an apple. Firestorm shrugged and pretended to hold one anyway.

Marshal Malice curled his lip. "Firestorm, I believe the name is. My goodness, you have certainly grown bold. Do you know what the punishment for speaking out of turn in my presence would be for my subjects?"

Firestorm pretended to take a bite out of the nonexistent apple held in his hoof, making all the annoying sound effects it came with in his mouth. He crunched and slurped for a second or two. "Well, yeah. I prob'ly do. It'sh jush that," he said, pretending his mouth was full,"I washn't a shubject to begin with." He then swallowed and tossed the imaginary apple over his shoulder. "I'm an enemy. You can't exactly restrict what your enemies would do or say to you. You're enemies, after all."

"Bolder and bolder," Marshal Malice growled. "To be listed among my enemies is to be put on death row."

"I've been on literal death row before." He shuddered. "Celestia had to pay a lot to Saddle Arabia. I'm about to die. So what? No difference to me."

The Marshal mused for a second. "You interest me," he said after a moment. "I am willing to set you- and you alone- free. I offer you the opportunity now. You can go back. None of us will stop you. But the princess and Noble Blade stay with me. You can go free and live, and continue to work for Celestia alone, and no one will stop you. Or you can die, here and now, in this control room, next to the murderers and deceivers you call friends."

Firestorm put his hoof on his chin. He looked back at the adorkable princess and the light, light blue knight. If it were anyone else in his position, they might have had a bit of a hard time choosing. But this was Firestorm, and so the choice was not a choice at all.

The dirty orange pegasus mouthed to Noble, "Should I flame him?"

He mouthed back, "He's all yours."

Firestorm stepped forward. "All right, look. I've been told- many, many, many, many, many times before- that I should respect my elders. And out of all the elders I've met so far, you by far are the biggest elder of them all- like, you look older than dirt. But I was never one to listen to others. So with that in mind, I'd like to declare, with utmost solemnity," he took a deep breath. "DANG, BRO! LOOK AT YOUR EYES! WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? DO YOU NEED SLEEP?!"


From behind the hangar's inside doors arose two voices, alerted by the dragon's screeching. One of them said, "What in Faust's name is going on in there?"

Freedom Fighter knew he had to hurry. With a well-placed kick, he sent the cart of jewels rocketing to the leashed dragons. They excitedly dug their faces into the cart once it came within reach, and the dragons began to feast on the succulent treats.

Except for a pale white dragon with red eyes, who disappointingly looked at the feasting. He was just out of reach of the others.

Oh no, not you, Freedom Fighter thought. I've got a special treat for you, big boy.


"AND WHAT KIND OF EARLOBE IS THAT? WHAT'D YOU GET THAT PIERCED WITH, A HOLE PUNCHER?!"

"Should I shoot him, sir?" one of the guards whispered to the Field Marshal.

"Let him have his fun," Marshal Malice said. He looked disappointed that his offer had been refused in such an insulting manner.

As he opened his mouth to speak, however, Firestorm recoiled in horror. "PAUSE!" he yelled, so loud that all side muttering from the other guards ceased. He then yelled, "WHAT!", and came forward, getting closer to the Marshal. "IS!" He reared up on his legs, throwing both of his forelegs behind his head, still cuffed and chained. "THAT?!" He then pointed his hooves at Marshal Malice's teeth, which were rotting and yellow, as long as daggers. "HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF TOOTHPASTE BEFORE?!"

Twilight was trying with every fiber of her being not to laugh. Noble just looked as calm as ever.

"BUT I STILL CAN"T GET OVER THIS GUY'S EYES! WHAT IS THAT CRUSTY CRAP AROUND THE BORDERS?!" Firestorm's voice then dropped to a normal pitch. "You know what, I'm not even going to call him 'Marshal Malice' anymore. What do you think, Noble? What should his new nickname be? Scissor-ears?"

"Heck no," Noble said.

"Needleteeth?"

"Heck no."

"Pinkeye?"

"Heck no- wait, wait. Hold on to that one. That was a good one."

"Are you done?" the Marshal growled.

"Not yet." Firestorm shrugged. "I was about to start on your nose, actually-"

The Marshal's arm snatched Firestorm by the neck and held him three feet off the ground. The pegasus's eyes widened and he grinned lopsidedly as Marshal Malice glared at him. "BUT IMMA LET IT SLIII~IIIDE! IMMA LET IT SLIII~IIIDE IMMALETITSLI~"

Marshal Malice threw him to the floor. Firestorm got to his hooves, massaging his sore neck.

"I take it you chose the foolish option and decided to die with your friends."

"You have no idea how much friendship means to me, Pinkeye," Firestorm said strongly. "I'd much rather die fighting with them than live in guilt without them."

Noble blinked. "Was that... sincerity I heard out of your voice?"

"Uh, no," Firestorm said nervously, sweating copiously at the comment. "Wh-why do you ask?"


While the other dragons were greedily feasting on the jewels, Bloodlust the dragon, out of its reach, laid his head on the ground sadly. As he did so, he noticed a small black diamond the size of an apple on the ground right in front of him. It must have fallen out of the cart or something. He sniffed it curiously.


"Then have it your way," Marshal Malice growled. "You will die alongside your friends." He indicated the shield of weapons to be brought to him, and it was brought forward. Marshal Malice took the explosives out of the shield and gave them to a servant. The servant placed them then on a conveyor belt moving out of the room, then went to activate the belt.

Malice selected Noble Blade's broadsword out of the shield and hefted it. "This is the weapon of Noble Blade," he said, more to himself than to anyone else. "It truly matches his name. How ironic it will be that it shall be used to kill its own master." Malice smiled thinly.

"That will not happen. I am in control here." Noble had come forward. Truthfully he was trying to stall for more time so that one more desperate hope could exist for him and his friends. Anything to protect his friends he would do in a heartbeat. He eyed the explosives he had, now slowly moving on the conveyor belt out of the room.

Malice looked at him with the promise of death in his eyes. "So confident you are, Noble."

"Not confident; merely calm." And indeed he was.


As Bloodlust sniffed the strange black diamond, he found that it gave off an aroma of licorice. Curious, he prodded it with his snout.


"We can resolve this situation without further bloodshed. I, for one, am more than willing to accept your surrender," Noble Blade continued.

The last word caught Malice by surprise. Malice laughed derisively and sneered at him. "I'm sure you are." He then tilted his head. "Does this stupid 'I will accept your surrender' line ever actually work?"

"Sometimes. When it doesn't, ponies get hurt. Sometimes they die." Noble looked emotionlessly at Malice. "By ponies in this case, you should know, of course, that I mean you."


Bloodlust, excited by the distinct aroma off of the strange treat, took it into his mouth and started to chew. It was surprising. Most jewels were like potato chips, but this one was more brittle, like a piece of hard candy. He nevertheless chomped enthusiastically.


"I understand. I understand that I will kill you." Malice raised Noble's sword. "Here. Now. With your own blade."


The dragon swallowed the pieces of the chomped stone and they were instantly dissolved in his stomach.


All of a sudden, Noble Blade felt a rush of power flow into his horn, like the feeling of strength coming back to a limb that had fallen asleep. He looked at the explosives on the conveyor belt slowly moving out of the room. Noble said, "I don't think so."

As Malice swung the sword over his head, Noble, to the amazement of everyone else in the room, ignited his horn in an aura and telepathically triggered the explosives on the conveyor belt just before they disappeared out of the room. In the quarter of a second that followed, when even the Field Marshal was distracted by the massive blast that incinerated a fifth of the room, Noble grabbed all of their weapons and sent them flying back to him, all surrounded in a light blue light.

As his sword came hurtling towards him, he lifted his hooves and the chrome sword split through his cuffs before smacking solidly into his hoof. The upturned blade was perfect for Firestorm, who had flipped clean over Noble's head and used the blade to sever his own cuffs before catching his own twin blades and landing squarely in front of Noble after his shield zoomed onto his left forearm and clicked into place. So exactly two and a half seconds after Malice began the attempt to kill them, not only did Firestorm and Noble have their weapons back, but Noble and Twilight had their magic back.

It had all been so sudden that Noble wasn't all that surprised it had worked.

Noble Blade, now upright, looked squarely at Marshal Malice. "Perhaps you should reconsider my offer."

Absolutely furious now, Malice roared, "KILL THEM ALL!"

Twilight had never felt so relieved. It was like having a limb re-attached. Having her magic back felt like a rush of complete power that seemed to crackle inside of her. It needed to release. So as the Noxxa guards came forward, she grunted with power and it all came free. A sphere of pink power came out of her horn in instinct and it expanded throughout the entire underground chamber, throwing Noxxa throughout the room and melting through blinking machines and left them twisted, melted piles of scrap. The very walls themselves crumbled into powder in a flash, and every living being was thrown into the corners and was knocked unconscious.

Except for Noble, who had raised up his shield to block the magical blast, and Firestorm, who had hidden behind Noble. The three ponies stood alone in the middle of a blast zone, the ground blackened and smoking and debris scattered everywhere by the release of Twilight's magic. Twilight panted hard as the magic cut off.

Firestorm gaped at her. "If I knew she could do that with her magic I wouldn't have annoyed her as much," he admitted.

There came a shifting sound from the front of them and all three ponies turned to the sound. Climbing slowly out of the rubble and shifting the rocks off of him, Marshal Malice was crawling pathetically, shaking a bit of dust off of him.

Noble, upon seeing this, took his sword in both hooves and twisted the dark part near the handle. There was a small, indiscernible click and suddenly the entire sword erupted in a bright aura of blue light as the enchantments on the sword were activated. Noble was now holding a humming blue cross of power, and he walked on his hind legs, keeping the blue sword at his side. The Field Marshal looked up at him.

"Marshal Malice," Noble said, as though he had accidentally met some pony on the street that he secretly loathed, "My offer is still open." He spread his arms wide, the brown cape coming out of his armor falling freely.

Marshal Malice glared at him with baleful eyes. He spat a pale, sickly saliva at Noble's hooves. "Do you honestly think I would surrender to you now?"

"I am still willing to take you in alive." Noble waved the sword around the blackened remains of the tower's control center, a trail of blue following it as it sliced through the air. "So far, nopony's been hurt."

A piece of ceiling fell from the top of the cavern with a loud CRASH, making Noble wheel around. He looked around at the devastation for a little bit, then he frowned.

"Notice how he said no pony," Firestorm observed before Noble could say anything.

Marshal Malice stood up, grasping his head in pain. "You don't understand, do you?"

"Understand what?" Noble asked politely.

"That you think you have me cornered and helpless."

"You kind of are," Firestorm said.

"That's one of the many things that you don't comprehend about me," the Marshal snapped as he weakly limped to the side. "But I can let you in on one of my secrets."

"And what may that be?" Noble asked. He angled his sword into a thrusting position.

Marshal Malice grinned. "You weren't the only ones that had their magic blocked by the Dark Stone." And his antennae glowed grey, there was a bright pop and a flash, and he had disappeared.

Noble activated his magic desperately, his horn covered in a cyan aura of power, but after five seconds of concentration, he deactivated it.

"Why'd he flee?" Twilight asked. It felt so good to have her magic back.

"He's not an idiot. He may be powerful, but he can tell when he's beat. Him, up against two Guardians of the Sun and the Princess of Friendship? It doesn't take a scientist to know the odds were against him," Firestorm said. "We're just too epic."

"So what now?" Twilight asked.

Noble shrugged, then twisted his sword again and the blue surrounding his sword disappeared. He then sheathed it and fell to all fours. "We return you to your castle in Ponyville. And this would be a perfect opportunity for us to learn about your friends as well, for I have heard of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony before, but I have not so far had the chance to meet them face-to-face."

"Why? You were supposed to watch over the princesses in secret, so why haven't you seen my friends before?"

"We've been away on missions all across Equestria."

"But I've never heard of threats all across Equestria. I had no idea they existed."

"You're welcome," Firestorm said with a smile.

"So what do you know about my friends, anyway?" Twilight said as Noble came next to her.

"I know that thou and thy legendary friends have conquered such beasts and monsters such as Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Lord Tirek, besides others. However, I am afraid that is the extent of my knowledge on that point. We were never assigned to Ponyville, so we are ignorant in such matters, I'm afraid. I do not even know what they even look like."

"Well, let's change that!" Twilight said. "I'll introduce you all to them and we can get along fine!"

"Hooo boy." Firestorm sighed. "Friend making. Oh joy." He then put a hoof on his chin. "Do you think they can know about our, ah, occupation? We are a secret to most other ponies. Can we tell them that we're a secret force of princess protectors?"

"I think so. After all, they are the Elements of Harmony. If any civilians ought to know about us, they can." Noble put his armored hoof on Twilight. "But before we do, let's pick up Freedom Fighter and tell him about what happened. Let's teleport to his location."

"But I don't know where he is," Twilight pointed out.

"That shouldn't matter. All you have to think about is where he is and you should be able to appear there. It's the technique I use when I teleport short distances," Noble said.

"You can teleport?" Twilight asked excitedly. Normally only highly-studied unicorns advanced in magic were able to teleport.

"Only in short distances. I'm not the best at it, I think. The most I ever got was a quarter mile."

"That's really impressive!" Twilight smiled. "Being able to teleport at all is very impressive!"

Noble nodded. "So shall we go then?"


He had done it! The Dark Stone was finally destroyed! From behind a small chopper in the landing bay Freedom Fighter sighed in relief. And it had been accomplished with only minor distractions this time.

No thanks to me, his other voice said without a hint of modesty.

Freedom Fighter waited until he was sure that the dragons were all fed satisfactorily, then started to sneak away into the shadows leading into the tower.

Until the doors burst open with a loud BANG, startling him a little. There was a single Nox there.

"Wha's goin-" he started to say, then spotted Freedom Fighter before he could conceal himself. " 'ey you! Stop roigh' theah!" he snarled, then drew his sword with a steely rasp and ran after him.

Freedom groaned internally. 'Let me have a moment, will you?' he asked silently before he ripped a single combat baton off his hip and flipped it out, doubling its length. As the Nox drew close, he spun around and slammed the two-foot stick into the Noxxa's neck, throwing him to the deck. Freedom pounced on him as he gasped for breath and he plunged the staff into his skull with a loud CRACK. The body under him dissolved into powder and he took the long stick out of the pile of ash that had once been his head. He shook it to get the powder off of it, then re-hinged it and re-attached it with a single flourish.

A POP then came directly behind him and he instinctively spun around, drew a thin dagger out of a hidden spot on his arm and hurled it-

-almost into the face of Firestorm, who had materialized behind him with Noble and Princess Twilight. The blade had been stopped by Noble's magic an inch away from the tip of his eyes. Firestorm yelped and jumped backwards. Noble, however, cried aloud with joy and ran forward. He roughly embraced him and Freedom Fighter was squished in a literal steel grip as the armored pale blue unicorn hugged him in relief.

Firestorm had recovered from the sudden shock and had moved out of the way of the knife, suspended in midair by a light blue aura. He yelled at Freedom, "What the heck, dude? You could have killed me!"

Breaking off the embrace, Freedom Fighter made a few motions to Firestorm.

"THAT WAS THE IDEA?!" Firestorm yelled incredulously, throwing his head back and making his fiery mane bounce behind him.

A few hoof gestures. Freedom Fighter grinned under his cowl.

Firestorm threw up his hooves in exasperation. "The universe is out to get me," Firestorm grumbled.

Freedom then came to the knife floating in the air and grabbed it. He sheathed it, then turned to Noble Blade and saluted.

"What took you so long?" Noble asked.

Freedom Fighter explained exactly what had happened- that the stone was harder to destroy than he first thought. Then he made an out-of-nowhere obnoxious comment that he facehooved at.

"Was that your other voice talking there?" Noble asked.

He nodded.

"Well, keep him in check and continue on."

So he did. Continuing in sign language, he let him know that after he had secured the Stone he had gone to the catapult level to try to destroy it. But the explosives didn't cut it, so he had wandered over to the landing bay they were in and discovered dragons from Tartarus. After realizing that dragons could digest rocks and gems and crystals, he had the idea to feed the stone to one of them.

"Which one?" Noble politely asked.

Freedom Fighter jerked a hoof at the pale red-eyed mount of Marshal Malice.

Firestorm began to hoot with laughter. "I can't believe it!" he exclaimed. "His own mount devours the thing protecting this tower from attack!"

"How many Noxxa did you kill?" Noble asked with a tinge of sadness. "I know you don't like them very much, but how many of them did you kill?"

Freedom Fighter tapped his hooves together eight times, then made an additional upward gesture to indicate the number moving into the tens place.

Noble winced. "That's a lot."

Freedom Fighter nodded gravely. Then he looked out of the landing bay at the landscape. The sun was starting to imperceptibly move down over the black sand desert of the Noxxa's land. Celestia was doing her job with the steadiness of an experienced ruler.

"Shall we go to Ponyville, then?" Firestorm asked Twilight. "Let's get you back home."

Noble Blade and Freedom Fighter came to Twilight's side and each laid a hoof on Twilight's back. Twilight ignited her horn and began to charge her magic. Noble also activated his magic to help alleviate a bit of her magical stress.

And as they reached the necessary power to teleport out of the tower, there was a pop, a flash, and Twilight, Noble Blade, Freedom Fighter, and Firestorm disappeared.