A Rather Large Adventure

by BradyBunch

Chapter Forty-nine: The First Day

“Wait, wait, wait,” Applejack said after Twilight finished the recant of what happened at the portal. “I died?!”

“You and me and everyone else?” Pinkie Pie asked, coming off of Applejack’s question.

“Everypony,” Twilight said flatly, emotionlessly, not even lifting her head up from her hooves.

Fluttershy held Noble Blade’s face in her hooves. “But... we aren't. Right?”

Noble Blade promptly got hit with the memories of the massacre on the school grounds. He was holding the dying Fluttershy once again, and his fingers were stained with dark red blood over her arrow wounds. The gentle touch of her lips on his cheek came to him once more. Her drooping head falling back as the life inside her ended replayed in his head in a split second.

Noble Blade let out a short exclamation and held a hoof to his head as tears threatened to overflow from his closed eyes once again. The arrow wound in his side stung all the more profoundly.

“No! No, no, you don't!” Fluttershy hurriedly kissed him on the lips, over and over again, in an attempt to get his mind off the memory. When Noble Blade began to softly kiss her back, that was the sign for her that his mind was off the memory, and soon she pulled away.

“Hey,” Noble Blade protested. “I was enjoying that.”

Fluttershy gave a false show of thinking about it, then smiled, shrugged, and kissed him again.

Twilight had turned away from the other ponies and was using her tremulous magic to lift pieces of the mirror into place around the rim. “What if they aren't all dead?” she muttered madly as a dozen-odd pieces levitated around the rim. “I can get back through! There's no reason why not! All I have to do is…” She made a show of fiddling with the rim of the mirror.

“I, ah, don't think you can put-” Rarity started.

“NO!” Twilight bellowed, and Rarity shrank. “I have to try first!”

“Th’ mirror's broken,” Applejack said to her. “The magic connecting them together's broken as well. If ya somehow manage ta repair the mirror on this side, ya still won't be able ta repair the mirror in the human world.”

The brutal honesty in Applejack's words made Twilight cease holding up the mirror pieces. As they clattered to the ground, Twilight took a moment before slumping to the dirt beneath her and letting out a forlorn moan.

Starlight Glimmer, seeing the state she was in, took a step forward and raised her voice. “Girls! We're in the opportunity to salvage whatever we can from the campsite here. I want everypony…” She glanced at Noble Blade, Twilight, and the nervous Fluttershy trying to pacify both of them. “Except for those three to scout the camp and return with whatever you can find.”

---

The sun had risen at an acute angle across its normal axis until it reached ten o'clock, at which point the seven ponies, Spike riding on Applejack’s back, had all returned from scouting out the grey Noxxa camp. Bundles of supplies lay on their back and on their sides in bags.

“I didn’t see anypony in the camp,” Starlight Glimmer reported once everyone had come into earshot, settling the ragged bundle on her back to the ground. “I saw a couple of bloodied bones from a few captives they took, but they were buried in the dirt outside a tent.”

“What a blessed reassurance that is,” Rarity spoke drily. “It appeared deserted from my excursion as well.”

“Same here,” Rainbow Dash piped up. She had flown above the camp itself to get a birds-eye view.

“And here!” Pinkie interrupted.

“The entire camp must’ve been emptied into the portal to try and intercept us in that dimension,” Applejack hypothesized. She took a glance toward Ponyville and narrowed her eyes. “Twilight, ma guess is they took the portal outta yer castle and settled it in this here camp outta the outskirts o’ Ponyville. Ah can see the Carousel Boutique from here, if Ah squint hard enough.”

“Were there really big, giant bugs just living here all this time?!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed in shock. “That’s really... well, it’s disturbing! They just came across the sea from the other continent, snuck into Equestria, and just planted themselves like a tree!” Pinkie held up a hoof. ¨But not an apple tree. An oak tree. There’s a difference in the way they’re planted.”

“There is?” Firestorm asked.

“Of course there’s a difference!”

“There really ain’t, Pinkie,” Applejack affirmed softly.

“If they really snuck here from across the sea, why didn’t they strike at Ponyville earlier?” Starlight asked.

Nopony spoke for a moment. Then Firestorm slowly spoke. “Maybe... they were waiting for orders.”

“Orders?” Twilight hollowly asked, looking up from tending to Noble Blade’s wound. Her pupils were still small and her eyes were red. “From who?”

“Marshal Malice. Maybe he’ll order little camps like these to pop up and assault places in surprise attacks.”

“Hold on,” Spike said quickly, waving his small hands. “Back up!” He slid off Applejack’s back. “You’re telling me that there are places like this one all over Equestria?”

“I will not discount the option,” Noble Blade advised him with a grunt at the end. “I... believe that this was all according to plan.”

“If he gave out orders for this camp to move out,” Rarity mused slowly, “then does that mean…”

“HE’S COMING?!” Pinkie interrupted. “HE’S COMING TO EQUESTRIA NOW AND EVERYPONY IS GOING TO DIE!”

“I don’t think so, Pinkie! Let’s assume there are little Noxxa camps all over Equestria. But he only ordered this one to do something--just because we were going through the mirror portal and Malice wanted to intercept us while we were away. He wouldn’t order every camp in Equestria to pop up for us! He wants to stay hidden for just a little while longer.”

Starlight’s line of reasoning had no protests.

“So... what did everyone manage to salvage?” Twilight asked, her voice still hoarse.

Everyone unloaded what they had managed to collect into a large mound.

Large sheets and poles comprised the bundles. Wrapped in the collapsed tents were things like tools--hammers, saws, hooks, and screws--and practical items such as packs, water skins, cooking supplies, raw rations, leather apparel, and-

“A knife?” Pinkie asked, drawing a foot-and-a-half long sword from the pile. She balanced it on her nose precariously.

“What do we need this for?” Fluttershy piped up, pointing at the pile of weapons that had been assembled as well. Pikes with long, curved spearheads welded to the shaft and three swords with hooks near the tip were among the assembly.

“You’re not suggesting we be defenseless?” Rainbow Dash asked Fluttershy. She picked up a pike and held the shaft between her teeth. “Ee habe to be pwebared bor anyfing.”

“I agree with Rainbow,” Twilight spoke up hollowly. “Each of us needs to have a weapon.”

“I just wish the tools we operate with aren’t so…” Rarity picked up a cruel knife with her magic and observed the dirt in the cracks and the black metal it had been made with. “...obscenely crafted.”

“Don’t worry about it, Rarity.”

“But Twilight! It looks so horrendous!”

“We have to be armed on the road. There might be a time when those three-” Starlight pointed at the three Guardians of the Sun in turn. “-won’t be there to protect us. Our chances for survival will increase if we all have some kind of weapon.”

“Hold on,” Rarity said. “I may have heard you wrong. You said, ‘On the road.’ Am I to infer that we’ll be traveling all the way to the city of Maretania on hoof?”

“What, d’ya think we’ll be takin’ the train?” Applejack asked.

Rarity took a moment before straightening her mane. “Yes.”

“No.”

“Why ever not?” Rarity asked.

“Then our position will be known, and we’ll be attacked again. Not only that, Maretania’s abandoned now. There isn’t a train line running there anymore.” Starlight raised her voice. “Everypony, take a weapon and keep it near you at all times. Assemble a pack and prepare to head out.”

As everypony began to pack up their supplies, Rarity made a few more struggling, protesting noises. As it became clear that nopony was going to listen to her, she let out an exhale through her snout and dragged a strip of leather out of the way. “No lady should have to put herself through this,” she muttered as she began to pack up. “I hate epic adventures.”

As everyone else began to pack everything up, Starlight trotted over to where Twilight was tending the wounded.

“Thanks,” Twilight croaked, still bending over the wound in Noble Blade’s armor. “For-for taking charge.”

Starlight sat down next to her and began to rub her back. “You’re broken,” Starlight hesitantly said.

“Thanks,” Twilight drily repeated.

“No, look-” Starlight started, then broke off and took her hoof off her shoulder. “It’s gotta be hard, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Twilight croaked.

“Losing the friends you reformed?” Starlight continued. “Like the Dazzlings, and Sunset Shimmer, and even Flash Sentry...it’s gotta be tough, isn’t it?”

Twilight didn’t say anything, but Noble Blade slashed his hoof across his throat quickly, and Starlight, taking the hint, shut up.

After another couple of moments, Starlight sighed and stood back up. “I’ll be ready if you need anything.”

And she trotted off.

When she was gone, Twilight finished up the spell and patted the exposed flesh in Noble’s side. “Okay. Let’s stand up now.”

Noble Blade stood up with his front legs first, and his hind legs came up slowly. Fluttershy was helping him the entire time by supporting him under his chest.

“Let’s walk.”

Noble Blade took a step, then another, and then gave a little gasp and almost collapsed, but Fluttershy supported him, and he stood upright once more. He slowly circled his hind legs, one at a time, and winced as it made the mended wound jostle. “It hurts.”

“It should,” Twilight expressionlessly said. “Your flesh is mending itself under the surface. Give yourself a few days.”

“What if I have to get back into battle before then?”

“Then you’ll have to let us protect ourselves,” Twilight said. Her flat tone was evident from the pallid color in her face and the bags under her eyes.

“I’m the Knight Protector,” Noble protested, taking a hard step, but it made his back leg fall out from under him, and he weakly put more weight on it until he could stand once more. “I can’t just-”

“And Fluttershy’s the Dreadful Bear,” Twilight harshly said. “But she’s not, is she?”

Noble shut up, unwilling to drag Fluttershy into it.

“If you die, then the Elements are rendered useless,” Twilight whispered in ire. “It’s what Sunset-” She stopped abruptly, then rushed out, “What she was trying to tell me before,” and turned away. “I don’t want anyone else dying on this journey!”

Noble nodded. “I... understand.”

Twilight narrowed her bagged eyes and stomped away. “Start packing, Fluttershy.”

Which left Noble Blade and Fluttershy just standing there.

“She has a point,” Fluttershy whispered, nuzzling her head against his chin. “I really don’t want you to die!”

“I don’t really want to die either.” Noble Blade ran one of his hooves through her mane as he thought of something romantic he could say to get her mind off of it. “But for you, I would.”

Fluttershy gave a very small gasp and nuzzled closer. “D-don’t say that unless you really mean it, Noble!”

“My word is my oath,” Noble Blade said, remembering what his father had instructed him. “I would lose my life before losing yours.”

“If you did that,” Fluttershy chided him gently, “then I wouldn’t have any reason to stay either.” Fluttershy ruffled his mane. “I forbid you to die.”

“Well, I wasn’t planning on it…” Noble started, before laughing and kissing her on the forehead, then on the lips. When he pulled away, he was smiling. “I’ll be with you no matter what. After what I went through, I…” Bloody memories hit him like a freight train, and he paused before he continued, weakened somewhat. “I would never let anything bad happen to you.”

Fluttershy initiated the kiss this time, and pulled away only after ten seconds had elapsed. “Come on, handsome,” she whispered to the stallion, and nudged him in the arm. “Let’s get ready to go.”

---

The group struck out from the abandoned camp when the sun was directly above their heads and their shadows were small. Because Twilight was still in no capacity to lead, Starlight Glimmer acted as the unofficial leader of the group, and the ancient yellow map from Star Swirl the Bearded was in front of her, encased in a magical aura.

Their exodus from the camp signaled the beginning of their epic quest. As the grey and smoky remains of the abandoned tents quietly slipped behind them, each of them was filled with energy that raced in their veins and made them all quietly resolute.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t even five minutes before they had to stop.

As the nine ponies waited impatiently at a large rock while the tenth occupied the side of the road behind it, each of them were breathing through their nostrils loudly in irritation. Twilight was in particular annoyed. Leaning against the rock with her eyes pressed tightly shut, she finally yelled out loud, “Why didn’t you go before we left?”

“I didn’t have to then!” Pinkie poked her head out from the rock. “I’m good now!” She bounced around the rock, as happy as she ever was. “I can hike forever!”

And so after the false start, the ponies properly began their trek for the missing Elements by heading for the distant, abandoned city of Maretania.

Their eastward journey took them from the camp into the surrounding woods. They had the advantage of not having the sun in their eyes, so it was one less problem they encountered. Nopony pointed it out, however, because nopony thought of it much.

The woods weren’t like the Everfree, east of Ponyville. These woods were instead thin, and sparse, and the trees weren’t as looming above them like in the Everfree. Branches were long but straight, and the trunks were lighter in color than the Everfree.

They also weren’t trying to kill them.

It was a day when the wind came into their faces, but only sparingly and not with great force. The sun was warm, but not so warm as to make their burdens heavy to bear. And the soil wasn’t soaked with recent weather, but it also was rich and fertile. It was the perfect day for a hike, or for the beginning of a rather large adventure.

They continued like this for about three hours with breaks at tolerable intervals. Nopony complained much at that time, except for the girls that were unaccustomed to bearing heavy loads.

“How are you holding up?” Noble Blade whispered to Fluttershy about four hours after they had first struck out. They were all walking in double file through the thin woods, and they had yet to encounter a single creature.

Fluttershy was encumbered with a pack of her own, but she had no trouble turning her head and smiling at Noble Blade. “I’m... fine. I’m kinda used to... carrying things the other girls don’t... really want to.”

Noble Blade adjusted the load on her back with his unicorn magic until it was even on both sides. “I just don’t want you to collapse.”

“What about your wound?” she worriedly asked.

“Nothing I can’t endure,” he forced out. “I can keep going as long as Twilight needs me to.”

“Heya, Starlight!” Applejack called out from the back. “How much longer we gotta go?”

Starlight, at the front of the line, took a long look at the map. “I’d guess we have a week or so, going at the rate we’re at, before we even reach the eastern shore.”

Rarity let out a disenchanted groan from the back, and some members could have sworn they could hear a deflating sound.

“This is so exciting!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, bouncing so high she almost touched a low-hanging branch above her head. “We get to be in the middle of nowhere, with nopony around but us and our friends! AAAH!”

“D’ya hear that?” Firestorm called back to Rarity, a sly smile on his face. “An entire week hanging out with me, away from any kind of civilization! I can’t wait!”

“Firestorm!”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up!”

Firestorm shut up, but he did so wearing a smile.

---

The sun was getting low in the sky by the time Starlight Glimmer called a halt. Starlight observed the ground and paced in a circle to see how good the conditions were. “We’ll make camp here!” she called out. “Spread out and set up the tents. Pinkie, Applejack, start on dinner!”

“Can I join dinner duty?” Firestorm volunteered.

Freedom Fighter zipped directly in front of Firestorm and began to shake his head no furiously while waving his arms.

“Aww, what could happen?” Firestorm innocently asked. “It’s not as though I could burn down the woods? Right?”

Everyone looked extremely uncomfortable all of a sudden.

Firestorm’s face fell after several seconds of silence elapsed. “All right, fine,” he sullenly said, stomping off to set up a tent. “Exclude me from cooking. I see how it is.”

“But you’re bad at cooking!” Noble Blade called out to him as he began to erect a tent.

“I know!” Firestorm yelled over his shoulder. “But I’m still gonna be mad about it!”

Noble Blade chuckled, shook his head, and began to set up the tent he had carried on his back. Igniting his horn with his magic, he deftly began to set up the poles and flap the fabric to its position.

“Mind if I help?"

Noble Blade found Fluttershy next to him lifting up a corner of the tent he was setting up. She smiled as she stuck the fabric to its needed spot, and flapped down to the ground. “I don’t want to see you doing all the hard work by yourself.”

Noble Blade caressed her cheek and moved his armor-covered hoof to the back of her head. “Who am I to say no to you?” An idea came to him as Fluttershy shied towards his touch like a contented cat, and he felt his mouth turn dry. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be only setting up the tent.”

“What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked, opening her eyes so large her entire turquoise iris could be seen.

“Maybe you... and I... could share the tent?”

She nodded. “That’s what I assumed…”

“No, I meant, just you, and...me.”

Fluttershy took a moment to give a little inhale of shock. Then, after she fiddled with some tent fabric, she said, “Just... you and... me?”

“Alone.”

Her face drew up, and her eyes sparkled. “I’d love that!”

Noble Blade felt lighter on his hooves even though armor encased almost all of his skin. Him and the love of his life, drifting off in each other's arms…

A pang in his side drew him out of his momentary daydream, and he gave a gasp of pain and clutched his sore side through his plate armor. Fluttershy was over there in an instant, and was trying to pry away the plate armor on his flank. “What’s wrong? Is it hurting?”

“No,” he whispered through his teeth. “I just stretched a muscle wrong.” He groaned and rolled his eyes upward. “So this is how I go out at last,” he moaned dramatically.

Fluttershy tried to restrain a giggle as she continued. “Y-you need to stop that! You won’t d-”

“Yes I shall!” he grandly announced again, holding a hoof up. “ ‘Twas fun while it lasted, mine darling Fluttershy. Into the embrace of sleep I now depart!”

“I forbid you to die, remember?”

“Right! Right. Forgot about that!” Both of them began to laugh again joyously, and Noble Blade’s pain partially dissipated.

Half an hour later, the tents were all erected and dinner was beginning to be underway. Firewood had been gathered by Rainbow Dash and Firestorm, and had been ignited by the latter. A pot of stew was underway, bubbling merrily on a grate of firewood through sheets of flame that licked up through cracks in the campfire.

Twilight was counting the tents. When the last one was counted, she turned irately to Starlight. “Why are there only six tents?”

Starlight, looking at the map, drew her head up. “Hm?”

“Six tents,” Twilight repeated. “Why?”

“Well, we, um, only needed six.”

“I thought you knew how to count, Starlight. There are eleven of us here!”

Starlight put the ancient map away and looked Twilight in the face. “I assumed that we’d be sharing tents.”

“With who?”

“Two ponies to a tent. Maybe you would have Spike with you as well while you were sleeping and the sixth can be an extra tent.”

Twilight processed it and grunted. “All right.” She slunk away, muttering something darkly to herself.

Firestorm, overhearing it, leaned his head to the side to whisper into Pinkie’s ear. “Should I be concerned about her?”

“She does seem pret-ty annoyed,” Pinkie pronounced slowly.

Applejack, however, took on a different tone. Sidling her way next to Rainbow Dash, she said quietly, “Now ain’t that convenient.”

“What’s convenient?”

“Two ponies to a tent, eh? Ya know what Ah’m thinkin’?”

“Well, of course not! I mean, if I knew, you wouldn’t have to tell me it.”

Applejack slowly grew a smirk.

Rainbow Dash adopted a wary look and leaned away. “I really don’t like it when you do that.”

“Sleep with Firestorm.”

“Sleep with him?!” Rainbow Dash bounced in the air comically, waving her legs. She settled to the ground. “You mean, like…” Rainbow paused while her cheeks went pink, then formed a circle with her wing and jabbed a hoof through it slowly.

Applejack widened her eyes and shook her head. “Woho-ho there, Rainbow! Ah meant sleep with ‘im!”

Rainbow Dash let out a breath of relief she didn’t know she was holding. Then her face went into a reflective mood. “Sleeping with Firestorm…” Rainbow Dash paced in a circle.

“How’s that sound?”

“Kinda... nice, actually,” she admitted. She fondled her mane subconsciously.

Applejack jolted her head at Firestorm, who was away at the edge of the camp now. “Ask ‘im now before dinner starts.”

“Um, I dunno.”

“What, d’ya think Firestorm’s gonna refuse?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged after another moment and trotted over to him. Rainbow didn’t have much time to really think about it beforehand, so before she knew it, she was near her boyfriend.

Firestorm brightened when he saw her, and in the dwindling dusk settling over the woods, he shone like a light. “Rainbow! How ya holding up?”

“I’m doing fine. Look, I gotta ask-” Rainbow started, but before she could get very far, she was raised on her hind legs, her arms and wings squished to her side, as Firestorm abruptly hugged her as tight as he could on his hind legs.

“Hey!” Rainbow cried, wiggling like a caught fish. “Lemme go!”

“Ah-ah-ah,” Firestorm said. “You gotta figure out the password.”

“Password?”

“Yeah. Like open sesame.”

“Uh... open sesame?”

“No.”

“Open... wheat?”

“Wrong.”

“Open... uh... oats?”

“Try a more affectionate phrase.”

Rainbow Dash frowned in thought. Her limbs were still pinned to the side by Firestorm, and he was remarkably strong. Affectionate? What did Firestorm have in mind? Then Rainbow thought of the perfect phrase.

“I love you?”

Firestorm grinned. “Correct.”

And he leaned in and kissed her. Rainbow, initially startled, succumbed to his taste and gave back as much affection as she was getting.

When they broke apart and fell to all fours once again, both were smiling broadly.

“Now,” Firestorm said simply. “Needed something?”

“Uh…” Rainbow Dash sifted through her memory for what it was she needed to ask him. After a few blank seconds, she remembered. “Right! Uh, Stormy?”

“Yes, hottie?” he asked, ruffling her mane gently.

Rainbow very nearly forgot what it was she needed to ask him. “Could you and I... sleep together?”

Firestorm’s face fell to a suspicious look. “D’ya mean, like, sleep together, or having you and I do something really, really-”

“Share a bed!” Rainbow’s cheeks erupted into flame.

“Ah.” He bounced his head on his shoulders. “In that case, I’d love to. Which tent do you want?”

Rainbow blinked. She hadn’t expected him to agree so readily.

Firestorm wrapped an arm around her and indicated the stolen Noxxa tents scattered about the campsite. “Do you want the black one, the blacker one, the other black one, the blackish one, the black-colored one, or the black one?”

“The... black one,” she dully responded.

“Perfect! It’s what I was thinking!”

“Soup’s on, everypony!” came Applejack’s call.

“We’ll pick out the black one after dinner,” he whispered, and they walked together to the campfire, where everyone else was gravitating toward.

Applejack tapped the pot with the wooden ladle to shake off some drops of soup as Pinkie Pie passed out bowls. “Ah’ve got a treat fer y’all t’night,” she said cheerily. “Potato and cabbage soup, mixed with herbs right from th’ wild!”

Every dish was poured, and everyone dug in as they got it. For all of her various strengths, Applejack was a great chef, and soon everyone had eaten at least one bowl. Even Freedom Fighter had expressed his pleasure of the dish, and everyone knew that he had no way to taste it.

“This is really good!” Rainbow breathed between bites.

“Th’ potatoes Ah found were a little old, but Ah did what Ah could,” Applejack modestly replied. She inclined her hat so that her face was hidden.

“Eh. Could use a bit of frosting,” Pinkie criticized. She then began to salivate. “Creamy, creamy frosting…”

“I think it needs more black, horrid-tasting crud at the bottom of the pot,” Firestorm said. “I could help you with that the next time we cook.”

“Then you can make yer own awful food yerself, and we’ll all eat good food instead. Deal?”

Firestorm beamed. “Deal!”

“I love it, Applejack!” Fluttershy gently spoke, sending one of her heavenly smiles across the campfire to her.

“It’s... agreeable,” Rarity said dourly, looking into her bowl.

Applejack blinked. “Agreeable?” she asked in a deceptively calm voice. The tone had switched abruptly.

Rarity sighed. “I’ve been walking all afternoon with a pack on my back, and my hooves hurt! I’m starving, and I just feel like I deserve better after a hard day of hiking!”

“So this dinner Ah made ain’t good enough fer ya?” Applejack asked monotonously. “Ah hope yeh’ve noticed this yerself, but we’re a little short-stocked on fancy food. Ya want me ta make a coupla hors d'oeuvres or sumthin’ ta satiate that appetite fer yer fancy-shmancy tomfoolery?”

“Well, it’s better than nothing,” Rarity protested, clattering the wooden spoon in her bowl and setting it down. “But I’m just... I want more out of today than a bowl of soup.”

“Rarity,” Noble Blade whispered. He was sitting next to her, with Fluttershy on his other side. “Eat your dinner.”

“I-” Rarity started before letting out a grunt of frustration. “I’m tired, and I hate walking for hours on end. I haven’t bathed in two days, and my mane is all mussed up and stringy, and I got stung by a mosquito on my cutie mark! I deserve better than this!”

“Oh, you think two days without a bath is bad? I haven’t bathed since…” Firestorm started in a joking tone, but upon seeing the venomous glare Rarity leveled at him, he widened his eyes, shut his mouth, and developed an extreme interest in the bottom of his soup bowl.

“Rarity,” Noble Blade said, a bit firmer this time. “We know that this is hard for you, but this is all we’re getting tonight. Eat your food.”

“This has got to be the worst day I’ve had in recent memory!” Rarity mourned, placing her face in her hooves. “I don’t think I can feel worse than I am now!”

“I saw Fluttershy die today!” Noble Blade shot out of nowhere, setting down his own bowl much harder than he would have otherwise liked. His speech rapidly descended into archaic tongue as he became more impassioned. “She died! In my arms, riddled with arrows, breathing out her hopes to me before she died! I hath suffered today, Rarity, beyond what any mortal probably should, but behold! I have had to trudge the same path thou hast, with an arrow wound in my side! Thy concerns are sufferable enough!”

“What about everyone else?!” Twilight shouted at him from across the campfire. “All the other girls that died in front of your face, they don’t mean squat to you, huh? You can’t see anyone except for Fluttershy! But Sunset Shimmer! The Sirens! Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Flash Sentry-” She had tears erupt from her tear ducts now. “-they don’t matter, do they?! They did to me! I was broken a thousand times over! And you want to talk about suffering?”

“I have an idea,” Fluttershy said angrily and abruptly. “How about we all argue over who suffered most today? Huh? Because that’s what friendship is all about, isn’t it?! Seeing who can suffer more than the other pony! It’s all a competition now to see who’s had the worst day ever!”

Twilight, Noble Blade, and Rarity fell silent and stared at the ground, their words taken away.

“I’m sorry for yelling like that,” Fluttershy demurely said afterwards, sitting back down. “I just don’t like seeing all of you argue.”

And then the conversation was filled with reassurances from the other girls that of course they didn’t want to make her upset, that they would stop it right then, and the conversation melted away.

After a few more uncomfortable moments, everyone started to put their dishes away, bid their friends good night, and head for the tents. Firestorm and Rainbow Dash touched off their seats like birds alighting off a branch. “We call the black one,” Rainbow said to the others, and she and Firestorm headed off for a random tent.

“I’m sorry,” Noble whispered to Fluttershy as both of them headed for the tent they had both set up. “I just wanted Rarity to see things in perspective.”

“But that isn’t what happened, is it?” Fluttershy sagely replied, holding the tent flap open for him to enter. “So let’s just let it go.”

The inside of the tent was small, but large enough to stand in and take a few steps. A candle was dutifully burning on a collapsible table, covered with a glass bulb. Three layers of blankets were on the ground, and two bundles of rags used for pillows were at the head of the whole thing.

Noble Blade activated his horn and used his magic to remove the layers of plate armor on his breast and legs. As he stripped out of his skin of metal and stepped out of the shell, he finally exposed his body for the first time since the previous day, before they had even entered the portal to the other world. He took an immense breath of relief and stretched his lean muscles properly. He fell into that body range that was envied by stallions everywhere--muscled but not bulky, strong but lean.

When Noble Blade realized that Fluttershy was sitting cross-legged, watching him strip and stretch with a small smile and a heavy blush, he held up a hoof. “You, um, don’t have to watch.”

“Oh, yes.” Fluttershy smiled wider and stretched herself out on the blankets, affixing him with a drooping gaze all the while. “You’re right. But... we normally don’t wear clothes, you know.”

Noble Blade wiped away the sweat that had accumulated on his forehead. “I guess...” He then pointed at her. “But if I were to watch you strip out of a dress, that would be inappropriate, right?”

Fluttershy blinked in acknowledgment and drooped her head down. “Yeah. I guess.”

Noble Blade, leaving the empty armor shell standing like a sentinel by the tent flap, settled down next to Fluttershy, taking extra care not to stretch the mending wound in his side. The wound looked like a deep bruise, but twisting downward into his flesh without bleeding.

“That looks really bad,” Fluttershy whispered, running her cool hoof over the wound in his hip. “Does it hurt?”

Noble Blade nodded.

“Would you like me to kiss it to make it better?”

Noble Blade felt a jolt of electricity run through his hooves. “Dahh... yyyes. Yes, sure.”

Fluttershy planted her lips directly over the sealed wound and moaned in her mouth briefly before pulling away after five long seconds. “Feel better?”

Noble Blade nodded numbly. It felt strange for her to do so, but he was happy she did.

“Better from the wound? Or... from the day?” she continued, her caring expression faltering towards a nervous one.

Noble Blade wasn’t sure. Everyone he had seen or loved had been murdered in front of his face, and he was obligated to run from the danger rather than face it down. His stomach had been twisting all day, and though he hadn't spoken about it or shown it, that didn't mean it wasn't there, twisting his stomach like a den of vipers was in him, and buzzing in his head like wasps had hatched in his brain.

Fluttershy's face twisted to one of anguish as her defenses gave way to concern. “Oh, I just want to be here for you!” she whispered to him suddenly, moving closer to him on the blankets and nuzzling into his soft blue chest. “This must really have been the worst day ever! I don’t know what I would do if I had to see you die!” Fluttershy had to stop there as a whimper came into her throat, and she gently spooned her entire body length into his sideways embrace, nuzzling him all the while.

Noble Blade, feeling numb to all other sensations, feeling only the warmth and pressure of her body against his, pulled her closer and hugged her back, first gently, and then tighter and tighter as tears threatened to come to his tear ducts. What would he do without her?

“I need you, Fluttershy,” he breathed in her ear. “Now more than ever.”

“I’ll always be here,” she promised, her voice muffled by being pressed into his chest.

“I love you,” he whispered with his soul.

“I love you too,” she replied instantly, firmly, perfectly.

Fifteen minutes later into cuddling, Noble Blade extinguished the candle with a wave of his magic, then drew his head up to see the golden face of Fluttershy, peaceful and perfect in the dark.

After several long moments, he felt Fluttershy’s chest rise and fall steadily against his, and her breath come in little whispers through her nose, and he knew that she must be asleep. Closing his eyes ever tighter, he felt the soft body of Fluttershy beneath his hooves and pressed harder into her body to squeeze the troubles and cares away, and within several more minutes, he nodded off and fell asleep as well.

---

‘How long do you think it’ll be until they realize I can’t talk normally again?’

I’m betting at least another day, at least. At most, maybe a week.

Freedom Fighter let his thoughts stew inside of his mind for another few moments as he slowly peeled off the black bodysuit covering him. They occupied his mind so much that he didn’t even notice he was out of his armored bodysuit until he noticed it lying on the ground like a discarded snakeskin. He shook his head, and his matted black hair went into his face before he parted it to either side of his head again.

He was alone in a tent by the edge of the camp. He had pleaded with Starlight before dinner to have a tent to himself because of his condition, and Starlight had agreed. Freedom Fighter was observing himself in a mirror, and all of his slashes and scars were on full display, with his mechanical left arm emerging from a stump in his shoulder and clashing with the color of his pale yellow fur.

‘I’m really lucky, you know? I get this tent all to myself, with nopony around to see me naked and afraid.’

Naked and afraid? Sounds like a suspenseful and dramatic statement of ambiguity. You could trademark that.

‘Did you see Twilight today?’ he asked himself. He flicked his ears, and the pierced-in-half holes in them accidentally got some hair in them. ‘She looked bad.’

You were there. You saw how all of her friends died right in front of her. Sunset Shimmer especially. She has every reason and every right to look bad.

‘What can we do to help her?’

Why do you care?

‘Because she’s my friend, you idiot.’

Are you sure it’s not because you thought she was pretty when you first met her?

Freedom Fighter clenched his mechanical hoof so hard it creaked. ‘I thought we were past that.’

Ah-ah-ah! I’m your subconscious, remember? I bring up things in your past that are uncomfortable all the time. For example--Remember that time in the Rada village when you were just a foal, when you crossed the road in a funny way, and a couple of village girls noticed you and began to giggle, and then you went home, cried, and thought about it-

‘I’m twenty-five years old!’ Freedom Fighter screamed in his mind, cutting off his thoughts. He collapsed backward onto his blanket. ‘And now I’m lying on the cold hard ground.’

Ooh, good reference.

‘Thanks.’

I’m still here, though. TWILIGHT, TWILIGHT, LUSCIOUS, LOVELY TWILIGHT!

‘Shaddup, shaddup, shaddup!’

TWILIGHT, TWILIGHT, TWIIIIILIIIIIGHT!

‘I’D MUCH RATHER HANG OUT WITH VINYL SCRATCH!’

You think both girls are pretty… the other voice sang in a singsong-y voice.

‘I-’ he started, then he banged the back of his head against the ground. ‘Yeah…’

So go and do something for Twilight! Maybe she needs comforting after, I don’t know, seeing everyone she love die in front of her! Having a big, strong pillar of support is what she needs right now. It would help if you were good-looking as well, but there’s nothing we can do about that now, is there?

‘So the only reason I should help out Twilight is because I think she’s pretty?’

Don’t blame me. Blame the testosterone making you gravitate to helping other ponies because they’re prettier than others.

‘Yes... that’s what you are. That’s literally all you are!’

Ohhh... right... forgot about that.

'How do you just forget? You're a thought!'

That's the joke, you dolt!

‘I won’t let you get in the way. She has everyone else to support her. If I start telling her that I love and support her no matter what, everyone else will think I’m just doing this because I want to flatter her.’

You mean, you’ll think you’re just doing this because you want to flatter her?

‘I…’ He made a deep rumbling noise in the back of his throat while lying there on his back, and pressed both his hooves to his damaged ears. ‘Shut up.’

Freedom Fighter forcefully drew the blankets up to his chin and laid on his side with his legs pulled up to his chest. He lay there, curled up in a little ball, with his mechanical arm there in the way.

It only took fifteen minutes for him to fall asleep, but even with a blanket, he felt cold.

Comments

[FanficReader920]

That fireplace sequence was very well-done. Excited to see what else may come of this journey.

[BradyBunch]

9306248
Thanks for the feedback. It helps, pointing out a specific scene like that. I hope to deliver in the future!

[A Man Undercover]

I can’t wait to see what happens next. This was a pretty interesting and emotion-wracking chapter.

I definitely want to see Freedom do something to comfort Twilight and help her feel better, as well as see her find out the spell isn’t working on him at the moment. All in all, I would love to see the two of them share more scenes in the future.

[drone_r0m-3]

Naked and afraid? Sounds like a suspenseful and dramatic statement of ambiguity. You could trademark that and use it for a TV show.

Shhhhh! Are ya trying to get sued?!