The First Steps of the Rest of Your Life

by Rhino

Chapter 42: Liberation

***Monday, Day 30, just past midnight***

“Glare? What are you doing here?” Atom asks as he starts trying to undo the shackles on the yellow stallion.

A small spark of hope appears in the chained pony’s eyes as our shade-wearing friend continues to try and free him, “Officially speaking, I’m AWOL. Unofficially, I got tossed down here for voicing suspicions I had about mysterious guard disappearances and the random charges against me. I’ve been down here for a little over two weeks now.”

Atom continues to struggle with the chains for a moment before throwing them to the floor and explosively growling, “Gah! Hay with this!” He flares his wings to balance as he grabs the green sword hilt he had reclaimed from the warehouse thugs. He holds the hilt in front of him as we the sound of wind moving around. Suddenly a stream of said wind erupts out of the hilt and travels for a few hooflengths before sharply turning and returning back to the hilt. The stream of air trailing from the hilt is now formed in the shape of a pointed infinity symbol blade. Atom looks at the shackled guard and growls, “Don’t move,” before bringing the sword down on the chains, severing them in a single slice.

Spitfire helps Glare onto his hooves as the rest of us stare at the strange elemental weapon our friend wields. I’m the first to break the silence as I ask, “Atom… what is that?”

“This,” he holds up the blade vertically, “is Whispering Breeze. A special weapon passed down through my family.”

I take a step forward to get a better look at the artifact, mumbling half to myself and half to the others, “Fascinating… I’ve never seen this particular combination of runes before… a variant of the crystallization rune to semi solidify the wind, even a series of runes here to define its shape…” I shake my head, reminding myself that this isn’t the time. I focus on Atom as all of us make our way out of the cell and start freeing the other ponies who are also in the same predicament, “Atom, would you mind if I took a look at your sword hilt when this is all over?”

He slashes more chains as he answers, “To look at the markings? I thought most of those were decorative.”

I help a unicorn mare to her hooves and out of her cell, “Not at all, the majority of markings on items, such as yours, are the blueprints for their enchantments. Most ponies simply don’t know their meanings and thus they assume they are merely aesthetic.”

“You’re not going to experiment on it or anything, are you?”

“I’m just going to record its runes and patterns. While I may use those in some other experiments I’m thinking of, I will not use the sword itself in any experiment.”

We finish freeing all the ponies and look over the group now gathered outside in the hall their cells were attached to. Overall, they look like a pitiable bunch, seven in all, not counting Glare. Three of them look to be guards judging by their alert stances similar to Glare’s and Atom’s. The other four look to be civilians or staff, and all of them, guard or not, look malnourished and more than a few bruises are in evidence. The guard’s eyes radiate of rising defiance to their treatment while the civilians show fear of further atrocities. Beyond every eye though, lies fatigue both mental and physical.

I voice my thoughts in a shocked voice at the view before me, “Why would they do this? It’s not like they’re just taking guards, why take normal ponies? What is the point of all this?”

A voice from a cell we thought empty answers, “Their actions are not as mysterious as you believe. While not the main purpose, theirs is a secretive group, and that can only be maintained if witnesses are not heard.”

My ears perk up at the voice, one that sounds not only like that of an older stallion, but also the voice of a young grandfather who is wise to the ways of the world. I look into the cell and notice a series of chains all meeting in the center of the room in a pile. Poking out of the top of this pile is a small foxlike face, its large eyes orange while most of its face is covered in a dark red fur as well as a grey beard on its chin. Resting around its neck is a thick collar, sitting on top of the pile of chains wrapped around its body to an extent as only its head is visible.

I open the door and approach the creature, “I’m sorry sir, we didn’t mean to forget to free you. I guess we assumed only ponies would be down here.”

He speaks again, his voice deeper than I would have thought given his small stature, “Assuming is fine for trying to decide the best course of action. The trick is to not let it blind you to what you may not have known before.”

Wise words indeed.

I look at the large knot of chains around him, “This is going to take a while to get off you…”

“I believe I can get myself out of this mess, if you would be so kind as to get this collar off me.”

I look at the collar and notice the runes on it.

It looks to be a suppressor of some kind… typically for these types of items there should be a release spot… there!

I prod the spot in question and the necklace snaps open and tumbles off the neck of the small creature.

He smiles and cracks his neck, “You might want to stand back.”

He takes a deep breath before blowing hard onto his bonds. To my surprise, he doesn’t breathe air onto them, but instead, he breathes fire! In a matter of moments the stream of fire causes the chains to glow and then melt, falling off of him the same way the collar did. His body is revealed to be about three fourths the length of one of my legs and, similar to his face, is foxlike as well, though there are differences. His form seems to be more bipedal, his tail is not the usual fox brush, but is instead a consistent decrease in thickness as it goes away from his body. His fur maintains the dark red color of his face, the gray patches matching his beard can be seen on the both the tip of his tale and on the underside of his stomach. Perhaps the most surprising thing though, is the pair of red bat wings on his back that he stretches and begins to flap to bring himself up to my eye level and follow me out of his cell.

The others look silently at the newest liberated creature as he follows me out of the cell and I attempt to introduce him, “Everypony, this is… I’m sorry, with trying to free you I forgot to ask your name.”

He continues hovering and does a slight bow, “Allow me to introduce myself then. I am Ambassador Iroh, Greybeard of the nimbats.”

I quirk an eyebrow, “I’ve never heard of a nimbat before.”

“Then perhaps we can speak once this situation is over, now, I assume you ponies are searching for whoever is behind, among other things, the wrongful imprisonment of myself and the others here?”

We nod.

“Then I believe I can already repay you for getting me out of there. The stallion you want, the one in charge of all of this, is Lieutenant Torchlight of your own guard forces.”

Atom scoffs, “That paper-pushing pony? I don’t believe it.”

“How do you know he is behind all this?” Blue asks.

“The best way, from his own mouth. I overheard a particular conversation regarding the guards that had ‘disappeared’ and those that would follow. Being my size and having flight capability, ponies tend to sometimes not notice I am there, as you saw for yourselves. If you wish to stop all of this, then your best bet is to go after him yourselves. While I would not normally suggest fighting somepony who has infiltrated as high up as he has, having myself as a witness on your behalf should suffice to keep you out of trouble as long as you stop him.”

“Not to interrupt, but I feel like we need to get these guys taken care of first,” Spitfire notes as she gestures to the other prisoners, “Some of these ponies are in bad shape and there is no way I’m letting them get caught while you guys are fighting the jerk who started all of this. I’m gonna take them to the hospital.”

Glare speaks up, “Well, I’m not going. I was the last to be put in here, so I can still help in some ways at least.”

Spitfire nods while starting to escort the ponies out into the main area of the castle on their way out. As she follows the last one to exit she turns towards us, or more specifically, one of us, “Hey Atom… kick his flank.”

Atom salutes the Wonderbolt as she leaves before turning to the rest of us, “Let’s go get this guy.”

Our group sets off through the castle, our resident Nimbat Ambassador flying ahead of us leading the way. We wind through the castle not saying a word, all of us concentrating on the final fight ahead of us. We finally reach a corridor with only one door at its very end. Iroh stops us here before turning to us.

“Torchlight will be in his office down there, do not underestimate him. He may have gotten to his position from an entirely bureaucratic path; he has used his position to remove his physical weakness by way of his armor. I’ll give you what help I can.” He closes his eyes for a moment before opening his mouth to reveal an orange glow that surrounds Atom, Volt, Hydro, Blue, and I. “This is a fire resistance charm. You will need it to fight him. It won’t make you immune to fire, but it will reduce what it does to you.”

“What about me?” Glare asks, noticing he didn’t get the charm.

“You my boy, are coming with me. As much as I know you hate to admit it, you are not at your best after 2 weeks in a cell. The best we can do right now is to seek out one of the princesses, likely Luna given the time, and see to it that she gets here in case things go badly, or at least to become aware of everything that has transpired.”

Glare looks like he is about to argue, but sighs and nods his head instead.

Iroh turns back to us, “Good luck to you ponies. Defeat Torchlight, so all that he has done, might be finally rectified.”

The two leave us with those parting words as we make our way down the corridor to the large door holding our final target. We pause outside the door, looking at each other, before Atom grits his teeth, draws his sword, and kicks in the door.

Inside is a large office, complete with bookshelves, windows on one wall, even a large rug in the center of the floor, and of course, the large wooden desk with an armored unicorn standing behind it. His armor is dark blue with gold trim and is much more covering than standard guard armor. It is more like plate armor than anything else, covering all but his eyes, orange tail, and light blue horn. His eyes widen in surprise at our entrance before narrowing at the black pegasus in our group.

“Vortex, I’m surprised to see you, alive at least.”

Atom’s wings flare in anger at the unicorn that has been the source of all his problems, “So you did send that assassin after us! Why?! Why are you doing this? Why me?”

Torchlight chuckles unpleasantly, “You? It was never about you. You are simply the latest in a long line of guards we have gotten rid of, Vortex. Though your presence here does prove my thoughts about you being more troublesome than most. Yet, here you are in front of me, saving me the trouble of having you sent to that hack town to have you killed quietly.”

Atom stares hard at Torchlight, his voice defiant and unrelenting, “I won’t be dying anytime soon Torchlight! This ends now!” Atom mutters to the rest of us, “Don’t worry guys, I’ve got this guy.”

The surprise easily registers on our faces along with uneasiness as I answer, “Atom, are you sure? Iroh told us not to underestimate this guy.”

“Considering I’m one of the best swordsponies in the guard and he’s a paperwork pony with armor, he shouldn’t underestimate me either.”

The large armored unicorn laughs once again, “Very well Vortex. Come!”

With his gaze fiercely locked on his opponent, Atom twirls his sword in hoof with increasing speed. Papers fly into the air and books slide out of their shelves as a hurricane of a rage and betrayal stirs in the room. It was if Atom’s anger was forming a great storm to intimidate his unmoving foe. Yet he has little notice of the chaos that brews around him. The combatants act as if there were only two ponies in the room at that moment and unfortunately the armored antagonist felt not the winds that brutalized everything in the area. Not like the rest of us by the door, having to shield our eyes in order to keep an eye on the two fighters.

In a split second Atom charges the statue of an opponent and raises his blade above his head holding it in both his hooves. The blade of wind comes down with great force only to hit only hit air and the stone floor. Torchlight had dodged his attack and is now a few feet away from Atom, but made no attempt at a counter attack. Atom takes advantage of his inaction and follows up with a diagonal slice only to end up missing again.

This time the armored lieutenant makes his move and strikes out at Atom with his fore hoof. Atom in the nick of time manages to side step the hoof as it hits the ground creating cracks on the solid stone. Distracted by the surprisingly powerful impact Atom pays no heed to the hoof of Torchlight as it strikes him in the abdomen, launching him back a few feet. Barely shrugging off the staggering blow Atom once again charges his opponent with a horizontal slice. To his and every pony else’s surprise his attack is stopped by a smug looking Torchlight with Atom’s blade wielding hoof held in his grip. The Lieutenant throws his opponent across the room into one of the bookshelves resulting in a loud crash.

The black and green Pegasus stumbles out of the broken shelves with his blade barely held in his grip. With a deep breath he roars and charges back at the armored unicorn with a fury of slashes hoping to land a hit. Torchlight moves quickly, dodging Atom’s sloppy blade work with only a little bit of caution. With a flare of his wings Atom dashes forward and swings his sword in a desperate lunge attack and scratches Torchlight’s armor. This causes the Lieutenant to make a hasty retreat to the far side of the room. Atom, not ready to let up on his assault, once again lunges forward with is blade ready for another strike.

“Enough of this” booms the unicorn’s voice.

Torchlight’s horn glows bright blue and a ball of blue fire the size of a bowling ball flares into existence. This ball of fire is followed by two more, then four more, until eventually around thirty of the fire balls inhabit the room. Atom slows and looks at the display in sheer awe at the unexpected display of magic, stuttering, “How?” Seeing this, the pyromaniac unicorn launches a fire ball at the dumbfounded Pegasus. Regaining his focus immediately, Atom leaps backwards barely dodging the fire ball as it explodes on the ground. He looks up only to see another one already halfway to him. Atom swings his blade and cuts though the fire ball causing it to disperse, but the intense heat also causes his blade to waver. To his dismay two more fire balls are already on the move toward him with increasing speed and accuracy. He tries moving out of the way only to find that these were following him and getting closer every second.

In desperation, Atom swings his blade at the two balls of fire only for his weapon to completely fizzle out after taking both the hits. With his focus on the victory over the two balls of combustion Atom fails to notice a third ball had approached him from his blind spot and immediately impact against the Pegasus. With a yell of pain Atom tumbles across the room and hits the stone wall with his blade a few feet away from his body.

“To think it only took five fireballs to defeat you Vortex.” Torchlight said smugly as the fire balls he had previously used come back into existence one at a time.

“Atom!” I yell as the rest of us crowd around him.

The pegasus opens his eyes with a groan as he tries to stand, “I… might not have this.”

We sigh in relief at our friend’s lack of serious injury, turning and facing our armored foe while in our own battle stances.

Blue says to both Atom and Torchlight, “That’s what friends are for, Atom, having your back when you’re down.”

Hydro finishes the statement, “And taking down the one who put you there.”

Comments

[(I*R) Surge]

And Atom thought this fight would be a breeze.

[RLYoshi]

1591095 I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE.

[darkironpony]

Kick his butt guys! Nice chapter. And a character named Iroh breathing fire. Hehe.

[Desert Storm]

1591095 Volt, you and your cheesy puns can brighten up even the darkest of days

[Atomic Vortex]

Ok, I'm pissed now! *cracks hooves* Let's try this again.dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Spitfire_rape.png

[Fragment12]

Seems legit.

[Pylons]

Iroh? As in Iroh from Avatar?

Wat.