Chapter Three: How To Make New Friends
The door opened and Twilight was kicked into the room by the Noxxa sentries. The three guards leading tarried a bit to firmly close and lock the door with loud echoing clicks.
There were about twenty Noxxa in the room, the most prominent being a dark-shelled, red-eyed one twice as large as the others. He grinned and said, "Welcome, Princess of Filth, to your final home before your execution. If you weren't a princess I might have offered you more comfortable arrangements." He laughed nastily. "I am Warden to you. Only until Marshall Malice sees you during your interment here, of course. Then you'll be sent back to Canterlot in a matchbox."
Twilight had been at rock bottom all day long, and on the verge of tears for most of it. Now, however, she leaked tears down her dirt-streaked face uncontrollably as she was forced to the ground by two Noxxa, her wing screaming in pain. She thought in despair of her family, her home, her friends. They were so precious to her, and now they were gone. She would never see them again.
She felt her striped mane be forcefully bunched together and raised up as they got ready to cut her mane off. She saw the knife in the Noxxa's claws be drawn back, ready to scalp her-
"Wait," came a voice. Hope? Here, now, in this pitiful circumstance? Twilight looked around expectantly, but it was just one of the three guards that had locked the door coming up behind her. "I want to be the one to do it."
The Warden frowned, but he reluctantly handed the sharp jagged knife to the guard, who took it with glee. He grasped Twilight's mane, forcing her head up. She saw the knife be drawn back, felt the guard's face as he pressed it into her ear, heard the guard hiss three surprising words.
"Prepare for battle," he whispered.
Twilight couldn't be more confused as the guard suddenly forced her head down and saw the knife's blade sail through the air, spinning end over end--
Straight into the neck of the Warden, turning his body into a pile of black powder. The rogue guard let go of Twilight, and the two other guards that had locked the door joined him in forming a triangle around the princess. As the outraged Noxxa around the room drew their weapons from across their backs in sheaths of dirty black leather, the other two guards prowled in a circle around Twilight.
"Three... two... one..." one of them counted down, pausing to breathe heavily between words. And Twilight gasped.
At the count of one, the three had changed, in the twinkling of an eye, from the deformed shape of Noxxa to three ponies. A pegasus, a unicorn, and an earth pony. They all rose as one on their hind legs. The pegasus drew two long, thin blades from off his back. The Unicorn drew a long chrome broadsword off his back with a steely rasp and affixed a large diamond shield with the royal coat of arms on it to his left arm. And the Earth Pony drew two sharp daggers from his armored black bodysuit, holding one upside down in his hoof's tight grip.
The pegasus shouted, "NOW!" from underneath his cowl. And the three of them attacked the Noxxa.
Twilight sprang for cover instinctively as the three started to lay waste to the surprised guards. Even though the Noxxa looked like more capable fighters, the three pony warriors were more than a match for them, each taking on three or four at a time. They were somehow balanced flawlessly on their hind legs as they fought, as opposed to how the Royal Guard fought on all fours and with little to no weapons.
They each seemed to have their own fighting style. The pegasus, in maroon and brown makeshift rags, had metal covering his wings and a black cowl covering his face so Twilight could not see it. He swept his swords fast and low, slashing hard at limbs, sweeping from side to side and ramming into others before slicing them to ribbons. He had increased agility to do it because of his wings, providing a dexterous addition to his movements.
The unicorn was in a suit of battle-worn silvery armor and a brown cape flowing behind him. He had metal covering every inch of skin except for his blue horn that stuck out of a hole in his armor. He was also moving fast, but was focused on a more defensive fighting style. He held his shield in front, ramming it at bodies that came too close. He wielded his sword like it was nothing but a weightless saber, and there was a strong indication that he was more physically elite and muscular than the pegasus. Once Twilight saw him hit a Nox into dust with just a hard hoof to the head, and she shuddered.
The earth pony, however, was a little different than either of them. In an armored bodysuit of utter black, showing no skin at all, he had on his suit a vast assortment of knives of all sizes and types. On his back, on his underbelly, on his arms--there were at least a dozen that Twilight could see, and probably even more that she could not. On his hips were a curious pair of foldable combat batons.
He fought with fury. That's what Twilight thought. He was a veritable whirlwind of death. He had two long knife blades protruding from hidden spaces in his hooves. He jumped and leaped, his movements never off, his flashing blades unpredictable, his hits causing slashes every time. He was too fast to see, and consequently, too fast to fight.
Before long, over three-quarters of the Noxxa were dead. Their black ashes covered the floor like a spillover from a sandbox.
Twilight cautiously poked her head out from her hiding place and she immediately felt a claw grab her around the neck. Choking, she stared into the fiendish yellow eyes of the murderous Nox holding her, feeling his wrath with his tightened grip--
And a thin blade suddenly ripped through his forehead right in Twilight's face, an inch away from her forehead. The Nox faltered, the blade sticking right out of his face, and he slowly turned to dust, leaving Twilight's throat free. Twilight's hoof jumped to her throat instantly as she recognized the owner of the sword. The one who held the blade was the pegasus, she abjectly realized, who had almost cut off her mane not five minutes before.
The guards suddenly fell back from the three warriors. After an observation of the bodies scattered to dust, they collectively turned and fled through the side passages and corridors, as the main doors were locked and they could not depart that way.
When they were gone, the pegasus sighed angrily and sheathed his thin long blades across his back. "I hate it when they do that."
"When they do what?" the unicorn knight asked calmly through his visor.
"Disengage and fall back for no reason."
"There's always a reason."
He nodded. "That's why I hate it." He then removed his cowl to reveal a dirty-orange pony with a mane that looked like fire--red and orange subtly mixed with a bright yellow. He had a pair of neon yellow eyes and a face accustomed to grinning. "Princess," he began, turning to face her, "We are here to rescue--DGAH!"
Twilight had launched herself at him, pinned him to the floor, and was now beginning to pummel him as hard as she could.
"Prince-" he started, then caught a hoof on the side of his head and flinched. "Prin-" he started again, then stopped Twilight's hooves in midair. He held them up there for a little, staring at her apprehensively. "Pa-rinnnncesssss", he said slowly. "Would you mind getting off of me? Please?" He widened his pupils to fill his entire eye socket, imitating a hurt puppy.
Twilight, however, paid him no attention, and forced his arms back to lay flat on the floor. "I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers out of you. Whose side are you on?" she veritably screamed.
"I know whose stomach... you're on," he quipped out of the corner of his mouth, groaning at the weight pressed against his chest.
The knightly unicorn came over, his sword now sheathed across his back, but his shield was still on his left arm. "Princess, please get off the poor stallion. He told me he'd like it if he had a mare on him at some point in life, but I'm not sure this is what he meant." He chuckled softly as Twilight blushed in horror and quickly jumped off the dark orange pegasus. He stood up too, rubbing his sore chest.
The pegasus, groaning a little, said, "Well, we're stuck. We might as well let her know about us and assuage her." He pointed at the black-suited Earth Pony. "Freedom, check the exits. What's said here doesn't leave this room."
The earth pony saluted, then saw to the side exits, closing and locking both of them completely.
The knight folded a small switch on the back of his helmet and it split his visor in half vertically. The two halves moved to the sides of his head to reveal a vaguely handsome face. He was a pale blue color, marred a little by dirt and sweat, but that only added to his features, not detracted. His mane was a bright blue that stuck up just a little under his helmet. He had sparkling dark blue eyes, and his smile was honest as he spoke. "Princess, how much do you know about the Guardians of the Sun?" His voice was kind, but also powerful.
Twilight looked at him, drinking in his face.
"Princess?" he asked again.
Twilight remembered that he had asked a question and she blushed. "Not much," she muttered.
The pale blue knight walked to the side of her and began to explain. "The Guardians of the Sun... are Princess Celestia's secret commandos, who were created after the invasion of Queen Chrysalis after she interrupted the wedding of captain Shining Armor and Princess Cadence. Celestia felt like an elite part of the military was necessary for repelling outside and inside threats after seeing the state of matters in Equestrian military. So she, along with Cadence and Luna, formed a small force of the best unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony Equestria had to offer."
Twilight processed this for a moment with just a hint of skepticism. They would have certainly had to show up at some time, right? They had to have been noticed by her at some point, right? "And why didn't I know about this?" she asked him.
"Princess Celestia thought it best to hide our existence from you so you would focus more on your duties as a Princess and not worry about us behind your back. Our existence is actually limited to a lot of other ponies. Not many know we even exist. So the fact that we're telling you now means now is the time that you can finally be trusted with our secrecy."
"How did you even find me? How did you disguise yourself as Noxxa?"
The knight shrugged. "You sent a letter to Celestia telling her you would be in Saddle Arabia for a week because of the new king's coronation. But Celestia knew that there wasn't a new king, and grew suspicious about the letter sent to you. So she sent us out to follow you. We saw you get foalnapped by the Noxxa, so we teleported in spurts--" he tapped his horn, "--and took a special potion to change our appearance to that of the Noxxa for only twenty-four hours. We infiltrated the tower and so far we've kept an eye on you, though most of the time you were unconscious." He then pointed at the orange pegasus. "Introduce yourself," he abruptly told him.
"Why? I'm the one she tackled," he objected.
"Which is why you should be the one to make amends first."
He sighed, but extended a hoof to Twilight. "Hiiiiiiiiii," he said in a false pleasant voice, giving an obviously fake oversized grin. "I'm Firestorm." Twilight reluctantly shook his hoof.
"And I am Noble Blade," the cyan unicorn said, offering his own hoof.
Twilight was much more willing to shake his armored hoof with a wide smile. "And who's he?" she asked, pointing at the black-garbed earth pony in the shadows.
Before the dark shadow could reply, Firestorm spoke up. "That's Freedom Fighter," he supplied. "He's the best soldier in the entire military."
"Let him speak, will you? You don't have to speak for him," Twilight told him. As she said this, Noble stopped smiling and started to purse his lips in a thin grimace, and Firestorm awkwardly scratched his fiery mane.
After a moment, Noble said, "Princess Twilight, we always have to speak for him. Freedom Fighter lost his ability to talk a while back. He lost his tongue and he... badly damaged his vocal cords."
Instantly Twilight felt ashamed for scolding Firestorm. She looked with pity at Freedom Fighter, who she noticed was looking cold and distant. She could almost smell the anger and unpleasantness stink off of him. Suddenly he held up a hoof for silence, and the Guardians of the Sun were quiet. He crept to the main doors leading out of the cell and pressed an ear to the door. He concentrated, then turned to face Noble. He jerked a hoof at the doors and mimicked the mannerisms of a Nox--crouching low to the ground and swiping a hoof up and down almost mechanically.
Noble looked concerned. "How many?" he asked him.
Freedom tapped his hooves three times.
"Hmmm... not that bad."
Then he made an additional gesture.
Firestorm's eyes widened. "THIRTY?"
He nodded.
"But why are they even here?" Noble asked worriedly.
Freedom Fighter shrugged and pointed at the side doors where the Noxxa they had not slain had ran out.
"Of course!" Twilight realized, with a hoof to her head. "The ones that escaped from us probably raised the alarm!" And, as if on cue, an emergency klaxon blared and red flashing lights appeared high on the overhead walls.
Firestorm groaned and stretched his face with his hooves. "Wonderful," he moaned. "Could this day get any better?" He then started to look around. "Let's go through a window or something. I can carry Freedom, and you, Princess, can carry that, ah, mass of testosterone and metal!" he pointed at Noble.
Noble winced at the merciless description. "You won't get far. Their air defenses will shoot you down in a heartbeat. We can't use magic to defend you while we fly." He thought for a moment. "But if we were to make it so that we could use magic, we could just teleport out of this wretched city."
"You really think we could? Teleporting more than one pony at a time is dangerous--the more, the merrier."
"We'll have Princess Twilight. She can help me do it. Besides, would you rather fly a million miles with a pony on your back?"
Firestorm shrugged and rolled his eyes. "But how do we do that, anyway? Last I checked, there was a piece of an ancient black stone here from the Changeling kingdom that blocks all magi-OH!" he said suddenly, smacking a hoof to his head. "Wait, this is one of those missions where we make things go boom, right? Because I think I know what needs to go boom."
Noble Blade grinned conspiratorially at him for a reply, and Firestorm grinned evilly back.
Suddenly there arose a clamor at the door, and Freedom Fighter's movements grew more frantic.
"We need to escape. Now. We can slip around their movements in the ventilation ducts," Noble said, moving directly under an air vent.
"Ooh! Just like in that one action movie!" Firestorm squealed, coming next to him.
"Which action movie?" Noble asked politely, turning his head.
"ALL OF THEM!" Firestorm heavily said, his previous tone destroyed. "Let's not go in that crowded space, please?" He sounded afraid. "Plus, they'll be expecting that! They'll be expecting us to go in the ventilation shafts!"
Noble rapped his metal armor, making a clang. "It would be too noisy anyway," he muttered. "So what do we do now?"
Firestorm rose up, his leg stiffeners clicking into place, and drew his twin blades. "Why, that's simple, Noble. We entertain this party of Noxxa that's coming in uninvited." He leaped over to the door as Noble drew his chrome broadsword and fell in beside Twilight. Freedom Fighter went behind her, swishing his black tail in preparation for battle.
Firestorm cut out the hinges to the door like they were made of soft cheese and forcefully kicked the door out into the corridor with a hind leg. As it was kicked out, it crushed a few unfortunate Noxxa that were too close to the door. As soon as the door was down, the Noxxa at the back fired a salvo of arrows from the crossbows held in their claws.
Firestorm kept low and launched himself at the troops in front. The arrows intended for him instead went straight for Twilight. Before they could strike her down, however, Noble had raised his shield and the arrows collided with the barrier.
Together he and Firestorm crashed into the mass of Noxxa like a wave crashing down on the beach. Firestorm spun and whirled his blades with expert craft, and the Noxxa were not prepared for such close combat, especially with an opponent like Firestorm. Adding Noble into the mix, who was like a tank as he cut down troop after troop, the squad's numbers began to decrease significantly.
Freedom Fighter lept clean over Twilight's head, hurling an armful of throwing knives into the hallway, each one finding their targets in the head or neck and instantly dissolving them into black dust. He landed on his hind legs, and two short triangular blades emerged from hidden spaces in his hooves. They cut through the neck of one Nox as momentum brought one of his hind legs up and smacked another in the bottom of the chin, twisting his head the wrong way. Both dissolved into black sand almost instantly.
Up front, near the rear of the column, more and more troops started to flee before the tornado of Firestorm's blades. Firestorm ran after them, his katanas angling to the ground behind him. Twilight, Noble Blade, and Freedom Fighter followed, only pausing to collect his knives from the piles of black sand that were all that was left of the Noxxa.
They weaved along corridors and through passages that had much less Noxxa in them than before. The corridors were small and lined with dark grey riveted metal. Noble had one hoof around Twilight, leading her through the red-flashing hallways safely. His grip around her was strong and sure, but also cold to the touch.
Then again, he had on armor, so of course it would feel cold.
Though Twilight was... appreciative, to say the least, of their rescue, it had sickened her to see how easily and ready to kill anything that stood in their way, even a Nox. Yes, they were evil nightmarish beasts, but they still had emotion and could feel, even if they were feelings of rage and hate. Twilight did not want to take the life of any living thing. And now she was in the presence of spies and secret warriors that were the experts on combat and killing. How? Why them? Why Noble Blade?
How could they all be so brutal?
They rounded a corner and spotted the elevator lobby. "Made it! At las-OH COME ON!" Firestorm yelled, before ducking under the knife thrown at him. In the lobby were three assassins waiting for them and one guard at the elevator with a shield and pike three yards long.
Freedom Fighter hurled two daggers at the same time. One landed in the guard's upraised shield, while the other lodged itself in an assassin's head, crumpling him into sand. Noble let go of Twilight and charged, knocking aside the pike with his shield while raising his sword and cleaving the guard's shield in two, breaking the guard's arm. He fell down and as Noble was about to deliver a finishing blow, the two remaining assassins slashed at him with short, curved swords. They slid sparks harmlessly against Noble's armor. Noble spun with his sword out and the blade went through one Nox assassin, then the other, then he reversed his sword and plunged it into the Nox on the ground with a crunch. The lobby was now clear.
Twilight steadied herself against a wall, trying not to be sick. She felt a reassuring pat on the back and found Freedom Fighter standing over her, steadying her. His head was down, thinking about something, but he suddenly straightened and raised a hoof in thought.
"Uh oh", Firestorm observed. "Freedom Fighter's got an idea."
"If Freedom Fighter has an idea, I am more than willing to hear it." Noble then realized the unintentional phrasing he had used and glanced guiltily at the mute. "No offense."
The pony shrugged him off and rolled his eyes underneath the cowl he wore, then started to weave his hooves in an amazingly complex rhythm of motion. Though Twilight had read many books before, and some of them dealt with forms of communication, she didn't understand Equestrian Sign Language as well as Noble did, so Noble translated for the princess as he went along. When Freedom Fighter was done, Firestorm shook his head vehemently, making his fiery mane sway. "Heck. No. No way in Tartarus you're doing that, Freedom."
"It makes sense, Firestorm. If we stay with the princess while he goes off alone, we'll have a better chance of finding that Dark Stone that's blocking our magic. Better yet, if one of us gets captured, the other group's still free to search the tower."
"Freedom Fighter won't be captured. He'll be killed. He fights until he wins or until he dies. And he's gone through too much to die in this forbidden place." Firestorm glanced at all of them.
"Are you saying that he can't handle himself?" Noble sounded amused.
"I'm not saying he can't handle himself! It's just that--" He sighed and looked Noble square in the face. "You ever hear of the expression united we stand, divided we fall?"
"You ever hear of the phrase two heads are better than one?" Noble retaliated. Firestorm fell silent. "We are not divided. We're simply... working separately to achieve the same goal. You remember that one time we split up to capture that one corrupt ambassador that was going to start a war in the Dragon lands?"
"And look at what happened in the end," Firestorm grumbled. "The dragons went and rebelled and there was a huge brawl there. The only thing that went right was that Dragon Lord Torch still reigned in power and the corrupt ambassador was killed."
Noble laughed, a hearty, pleasing sound. "All right, bad example." His face turned serious. "Yet after all that, after all of the danger we've ever faced, we're still here, working together to overthrow evil. We have a higher chance of doing that if Freedom Fighter goes off alone, steals the Dark Stone, and destroys it while we divert their attention by trying to escape. If all goes well, we can regroup via teleportation, assuming the stone is destroyed."
"I still don't like it," Firestorm muttered. "I feel bad about this idea."
Noble rested his hoof on Firestorm's shoulder, his magical blue eyes sparkling. "Firestorm, as one of your closest friends, you should know that at this point in our friendship, where we are ruthlessly honest with each other, that I really don't care about your feelings all that much."
"Thanks," Firestorm replied uncertainly.
Noble nodded again. "No problem, then. If this is something Freedom Fighter wants to do, you should let him do it. After all, what are you going to do, stop him?" He grinned lopsidedly, then faced Freedom Fighter."Are you sure you want to do it alone?"
Freedom nodded vehemently. His body language made it absolutely certain about his decision.
"Do you have an idea of where to start looking?" Noble asked him.
Freedom Fighter nodded again and started to make a cranking motion with his hooves, then pointed his hoof below him.
"The generator room. Good choice," Firestorm complimented. "How are you going to destroy it? Charges and explosives?"
Freedom Fighter nodded, then asked a question.
"Yes, we're armed with them too," Noble answered. He unfolded a hidden stripe in his armor to reveal a bandoleer of explosives. Firestorm showed him an identical one under the maroon and brown rags he wore.
Freedom Fighter did a few more gestures, swishing the short black tail that stuck out of his bodysuit.
"And after that you'll sabotage the generators?" Noble asked. Upon seeing him nod, Noble put his hoof on Freedom Fighter's shoulder, an unusually somber look present on his face. "Then the best of luck I wish to you, my dear friend. May we meet again soon."
Freedom nodded, then suddenly turned around and hurled a hidden blade into the doorway of the lobby as a Nox charged through, then stopped as the blade entered his head. He dissolved into dust, but more were coming behind him.
Twilight pressed the elevator button and the doors chimed, opening both the elevators at the same time. They wasted no time in their extremely convenient luck as Freedom Fighter raced for one and Twilight, Firestorm, and Noble bolted into another. They both pressed the bottom button, and as the doors closed, they were completely cut off from each other's contact.
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This is pretty good.
Okay, I'm starting to like these guys.
I Love Firestorm b/c he's sort like Rainbow Dash in a way! Noble reminds me of Elves from Lord Of The Rings! Freedom Fighter reminds me of Ninjas!!
I'm in love already!!!!!!
This is getting exciting!
I don't know, you tell me, Mr. Narrator. You're the one telling this story.
Dgah? Again?! He's always getting into trouble, that boy.
And? And what? YOU NEED TO TELL ME THESE THINGS! IT'S VITALLY IMPORTANT!
It takes about one second to say 'oh come on'. If these guys were trained assassins, that's presumably more time than the knife needed to fly the distance between Firestorm and the knife thrower. I guess talking is a free action?
I don't know why Firestorm's concerned for Freedom Fighter here. Based on this chapter, the Noxxa all seem to be absolute chumps in a fight. Marshal Malice (or Marshall Malice as you called him in the beginning of the chapter) definitely needs better employees.
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I know, I know, I'll re-edit these chapters. I thought at first these guys would have more of an overwhelm-them-with-numbers kind of strategy. Kinda bullcrap, now that I think about it.
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Hey, overwhelm-the-enemy-with-numbers is a perfectly valid strategy, if you can pull it off. Otherwise, it just makes you look foolish. Ask the Red Army.