A Rather Large Adventure

by BradyBunch

Chapter Fifty: A Weeklong Journey

Light was shining from all around her, and wet blood was speckled on her purple hands, stretching out towards the girl made of fire. Sunset Shimmer reached back imploringly, only a foot out of reach, but Twilight could not breach the distance because Noble Blade was pulling her towards the portal.

“GO!” Sunset bellowed at her, as the flames and magic coming from the crystal around her neck enveloped her even more.

“NOOO!” Twilight bellowed back, reaching ever closer, an inch closer, anything, to make sure that she came with her to Equestria where she could be safe.

The girl made of fire suddenly erupted in a bright flash of light, and Twilight went blind. All was white, except for the darker outline of the girl of fire.

The outline then sprouted two more limbs from the armpit and seemed to claw its way out of her, and the human form barely containing the Nox trembled for a bit, then blasted open.

Twilight screamed in terror as the Nox crawled towards her on all six limbs like some fiendish alien, stretching his jaws out wide and far.

“NOBLE!” Twilight cried, latching all the harder to his arm, but the smooth plate armor she had held onto had transformed under her fingers to black chitin as well, and now another Nox was erupting from the stump of Noble Blade and crawling on his arms and legs for her, and in no time she was lying there on her back as the needled jaws opened right above her eyes and pale yellow saliva dripped onto her cheek and over an eye, and then the jaws closed around her face-

---

Twilight burst her eyes open with a shout of terror and a jolt in her bed.

The black abyss surrounding her was thin and cold, and the blanket underneath her was soaked with sweat. The tent she was in was small but large enough for two ponies to fit. Twilight panted like a dog, lying on her back, as the fiendish memories raced through her brain once more.

There came a rustle from beside her. “Twi... light…”

“Go back to sleep, Starlight,” Twilight weakly spoke, her head still in her knees.

Starlight was evidently too tired to continue because she just rolled over and within a few minutes was back in the land of dreams once more.

Twilight planted the back of her skull against the small bundle of rags she was using as a pillow. Her eyes felt sticky and wet. Tears involuntarily had run down the sides of her head until they reached her ears, but no new tears were coming. She must have shed them in the night.

“Luna,” she whispered. “I need your help.”

Minutes passed, and nothing came. No flash of light outside, no deep but calm voice to reassure her, no nothing.

Twilight squeezed her eyes shut again, twisted around, and pressed her face into the rags instead. She no longer felt tired at all, which only made her angrier, which made her more awake.

This whole thing was impossible. Now they were back where they started, having gained nothing. The whole trip to the other dimension had been proven to be completely pointless, which made the fact that it cost 12 ponies their lives even worse.

No, it wasn’t. You have the map.

Twilight twitched her ears and drew her head up. That thought hadn’t come along by her own power. Somepony had whispered it to her, as plainly as if somepony was next to her ear. And it definitely wasn’t Luna.

“Who are you?” she asked, as loudly as she dared.

No answer.

“Where are you?” Twilight asked, looking around.

No answer.

Twilight groaned in frustration and slammed her face back into the pillow of rags. The voice had apparently gone away.

Her gaze fell to the glinting object embedded in the rags next to her head. Around a golden chain was the gilded key Twilight had taken from the neck of Star Swirl the Bearded. It never left her saddlebags except for when she slept with it. Every time Twilight saw it, she was reminded once more of their impossible journey and the enemy that had slain the greatest wizard of their age.

But now, the key only elicited anger. Twilight felt tears involuntarily come once again, and her teeth were gritted as she let out a sob in her throat with not only despair, but rage.

The Noxxa had kidnapped her, tortured Freedom Fighter, destroyed his tribe, killed Star Swirl, Sunset, Flash, the girls, and the sirens, and destroyed the portal to the human world. Their sins were incalculable already, but their cruelty was unfinished. Twilight’s world had been ripped apart by that foul race, and she was going to make them pay.

“I’ll kill them,” Twilight whispered in rage. She clenched the rags on her head. “I’ll kill them all!”

No.

There was that voice again, that intrusive voice that Twilight had heard before. The purple alicorn ignited her horn and swept it around her, but the only life Twilight could detect was the trees outside and the ponies beside her.

“What do you mean, ‘no?!’” she asked the disembodied voice.

No answer.

Twilight let out another groan of frustration and slammed her head back into the rags she was using for a pillow. Her sleep did not resume again for the rest of the night, and when morning finally came, Twilight stomped out of the tent into the shallow daylight without waking Starlight or Spike.

---

Firestorm felt something soft on his mouth when he regained consciousness. The dream he was having involved a lot of incoherent color and scene changes, and it was mostly a stimulation for his senses. But now that he was slightly awake, all that he could feel was the feel and warmth of something on his mouth.

Firestorm slowly, weakly, opened his heavy eyes, hoping against all hope that he didn’t have a piece of ragged pillow in his mouth.

Luckily, it was a bajillion times better than that. It was the face of Rainbow Dash, who had gotten an early start on breakfast.

A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. He immediately kissed her back with equal fervor.

When she finally pulled away, she was grinning with a limp lock of rainbow hair over her face. “Morning, sleepyhead!”

“Oh…” he moaned without purpose. He rubbed his eyes. “That was the best sleep I’ve gotten... like, ever.”

“I think I know why!” she chirped.

“Why?” he asked.

Rainbow Dash rolled on top of him and put her hooves to the sides of his head. “Because you were sleeping next to me!” she affirmed. “It worked well for, uh... for me, at least.”

Firestorm grinned lopsidedly. “The one and only Rainbow Dash likes to be cuddled, huh?”

“Don’t you dare tell anypony else!” his girlfriend hurriedly added, placing a hoof over his mouth. “This stays between you and me. Understand?”

“Why? It’s no secret to the others that you like kissing me,” Firestorm pointed out, removing her hoof from his mouth. He also gathered his legs underneath her. “Watch out.”

Before she could get out more than “Huh?” he had already rolled over so that he was now on top of her, pinning her down with his weight.

“Hey!” She wriggled underneath him. “Get off me!”

“Nuh-uh-uh!” he cried. “I told you, the next chance I got, I would do this. Remember the train?”

Rainbow let out a groan of frustration, but relented. “Fiiine,” she grunted.

“Don’t tell me you don’t want your awesome boyfriend to be on top of you forever!”

“Well, that sounds…” Rainbow swallowed. “That actually does sound pretty nice... But don’t we have to get up for breakfast?”

“Ah, accursed breakfast,” Firestorm mourned. “The bane of any early morning cuddle session.” He flapped his wings and lifted himself off of her. “I’ll meet you outSIIIDE!” He suddenly stumbled on all fours. “Whooooaaaah! Stood up too fast!” He briefly collided with the tent fabric before stepping outside and making all sorts of early morning noises.

Rainbow Dash took a moment to laugh to herself before getting up after him and exiting the tent.

The morning was breaking through the thin tree-tops and slicing through the cool morning air in streams of golden sunlight. As Rainbow Dash blinked to adjust her eyes, she took in her early morning surroundings. Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie were near the small campfire, bending over a pot of oatmeal. Applejack looked fine, but Twilight had dark spots under her eyes and wrinkles in her mane.

“Morning, Twilight,” Rainbow said, coming near.

Twilight nodded limply. A string of her mane stood out on end.

“Dija sleep well last night? I did.”

Twilight, after staring at her for a little bit, walked away from her.

Rainbow Dash leaned next to Pinkie Pie. “What’s with her? Is she still feeling bad about the...you-know-what?”

“How should I know?” Pinkie asked, dumping an entire cup of brown sugar into the pot. She raised both her head and her voice. “COULD I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION, PLEEEEAAASE?!”

“Pinkie!” Rainbow Dash hissed.

“BREAKFAST IS REEEEAAADY! COME AND GET IT IF YOU WANT TO BE NOT-HUNGRY FOR THE REST OF THE DAAAAY!”

The annunciation brought everypony else out of the tents, yawning and rubbing their faces. Starlight Glimmer led Spike from Twilight’s tent, and both of them had bags under their eyes. Applejack didn’t look tired in the least; she was used to waking up early. Fluttershy and Noble Blade came out of their tent together, tired but happy with each other. Rarity still inexplicably had curlers in her violet mane. Freedom Fighter came out last.

“Hey, Twilight?” Applejack called out to her.

Twilight whipped her head around to Applejack. “What?!”

Applejack, after a moment to absorb her hostility, jolted her head at the black warrior. “Ya think we should do sumthin’ ta help ‘im talk again?”

Twilight took a moment before pressing her lips together firmly and nodding. Closing her bloodshot eyes, she summoned a ball of light at the tip of her horn, making her tremble in place. Letting out a snarl, Twilight fired the light at Freedom Fighter. The ball of light entered his side and absorbed into his chest, and suddenly, Freedom Fighter’s thoughts at that moment were announced for the world to hear.

“...And so then I said, Oatmeal? Are you craz-” Freedom Fighter’s other voice stopped abruptly as he realized it was being said aloud. Freedom Fighter took a moment to absorb what happened, then awkwardly stepped back. “Just go ahead.”

As each of the girls nodded dubiously and filled up their wooden bowls with oatmeal, Freedom Fighter trotted over to Twilight and nudged her shoulder. He tried to do it softly, but it was still so forceful she almost fell over. “Took you long enough.”

Twilight glared at Freedom Fighter.

“Sorry, that was the other guy talking. Thanks, Twi.”

When she had been called Twi, Twilight stomped away again.

Freedom Fighter gazed after her, then lifted his eyes to the sky. “What’s got her tail in a twist?”

After breakfast, the tents were put away and shouldered on every mare’s back. The stolen Noxxa weapons were at their sides. The campfire was extinguished, and Starlight Glimmer led the group out from the campsite.

“Another day, another blister.” Rarity kicked a pebble in her way as they struck out. “When I went camping before, I didn’t have to carry everything.”

“This is actually a great way to keep in shape,” Noble Blade whispered to her, suppressing his own feelings of distaste and pain. "It must be a pain to keep your figure so healthy all the time."

At the compliment, Rarity straightened and adjusted her mane once again. “Well, yes, I do admit keeping in shape can be a challenge.”

Noble nodded. “Hiking long-distance is one of the best things you can do for yourself... ever. You’re gonna be burning calories, trimming fat, working muscles you didn’t even know you had.” He then grinned. “Or wanted.”

Rarity looked at him strangely.

“You’re gonna be moving all day.” Noble managed to shrug while walking. “You might even give birth.”

Rarity’s face then contorted to a shocked expression.

“What? It’s happened to Firestorm.”

“To Firestorm?!”

And so began a long day of walking. The thin forest descended in altitude after an hour and gave way to a wet part of the forest, with puddles to either side of the trail and dripping across the pathway. The trees became thicker and wider with more verdant leaves on their ebony branches. Roots sprang up across their path, looking like bent pieces of metal melted into grotesque shapes.

“We’ve made good distance here,” Spike said when they reached this part. He plopped down on a patch of soft moss at the base of a tree. “Why not say we make camp here?”

Starlight Glimmer twisted her head around to address Spike. “It’s not even lunchtime.”

Spike blinked. “So?”

The group continued walking after reassuring Spike that they would find a better place to break camp. At first, the transitory terrain was not all bad, but as time progressed, the forest facade disappeared entirely and they found themselves in a full-on bog, with soupy green pools all around them and heavy condensation in the air they breathed. Any conversation was drowned out by chirping frogs and crickets.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about this change. Applejack and Fluttershy had been in bogs before, and the Guardians of the Sun were adaptable to any environment. They might not have enjoyed it, but they were better prepared. So Spike, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Starlight Glimmer frustratingly trudged along in fetlock-deep mud, grunting as they swatted mosquitos from behind their ears. Pinkie Pie was as cheery as ever, bouncing through the thin mud as if there was no problem at all, while Twilight was just as miserable as she was the previous day.

No spot was dry in the marshland. Everyone sooner or later became soaked with a mixture of sweat, humidity, and dripping water from overhanging branches. Flies swarmed around them, desperate in their bid to glut themselves on the Ten Soul’s blood in mindless glee. Everyone’s hooves were soon wrinkled and hard, and in the afternoon it became painful to even walk.

Many, many hours later, the group found an elevated part of the swamp and decided to make camp atop a rising hill overlooking a thick green lake. Tents were set up as quickly as the day before, but the jungle was so wet that they could not find any dry wood for a fire. Faced with no other option, they all decided to eat raw apples for dinner, along with any berries they could find on the bushes in the camp. Applejack reasoned that the apples wouldn't keep for much longer anyway, but it didn't assuage anyone.

After dinner, as dusk was settling in and the sun had all but disappeared, Rarity was sitting on the edge of the hill, overlooking the swamp below her. Thick green bubbles rose from the surface and exploded in pops and burps. Rarity had her face in her hooves when Noble Blade, stripped of his armor, came over.

“Oh, the joy,” Rarity said without any hint of excitement in her voice. She still had her face in her hooves. “How glad I am to be here in this good old mucky part of Equestria.”

Noble Blade decided to stay silent.

Rarity didn't say anything more, but she instead stared into the distance thoughtfully. The setting flame reflected in her blue eyes without any sort of luster. After she blinked heavily, she gazed thoughtfully into the depths of the swamp below her.

Noble Blade stepped beside her. “Beauty isn't always easy to find,” he muttered. “But it's here.”

“Huh? Oh, Noble.” Rarity raised her head to regard him for a moment, then she dropped her gaze again and scooted away. “Don’t look at me, please. It’s unseemly for a lady to be seen like this.”

“Then why am I feeling the urge to comfort you?” he proposed.

Rarity didn’t say anything at first, but when she did, it wasn’t in response to him. “This journey is making me miserable,” she plainly said. “I’m sore, these blasted mosquito bites haven’t gone away yet, every time I breathe, I’m drinking the air, my hooves are all pruney, my back feels so bent out of shape…”

Noble Blade sat down next to her and laid his arm around her, gazing into the swamp. “ ‘Tis not the most optimal camping spot, I’ll give it that.”

Rarity sniffled. “Well, it’s glad to know somepony sensible understands my plight.”

Noble Blade was struck then with the notion that even though he didn’t say much, Rarity was already feeling better. Simply being there for her to listen for her was enough to lessen her burden, as opposed to trying to force her to feel better like the day before.

The two of them just sat there until the flame in the east died and the navy blue darkness had completely settled over the sky. A single star had appeared, with many more on the way.

“How have you been holding up?” Rarity asked the knight somberly. “This must have been tough for you especially.”

Flash Sentry fell out of his arms, arrows stuck in every part of his body, and Noble dropped to his knees and stared around at every other girl in puddles of scarlet, bleeding their life away in spurts-

Noble Blade let out a cry of shock and put a hoof to his head. The memories flooded back to him hard enough to make his head hurt, like a needle to his temples.

When it finally stopped, he took note that Rarity had seen the whole thing unfold.

“I'm…. going to guess it's still in your memory,” Rarity said laconically.

The knight didn't say anything for a long time, but when he did speak, it was quietly, and with age to it. “I don’t want you to die, Rarity,” he whispered.

Rarity nodded understanding. “I don’t want to die either, Noble. But it’s just so hard…”

“Today was a bad day. But tomorrow will be better.” Noble Blade stroked her back reassuringly, both for her and for him. “I promise you, Rarity. Tomorrow will be brighter.”

---

Fluttershy, with three arrows shaft-deep in her leg and waist and lung, was crawling to his feet, trailing blood and shaking with tears of pain and fear. “Help,” she whispered, and coughed hard in her throat and dropped to her stomach.

Noble, instantly in motion, grabbed her under the shoulders and gently lifted her up to stand, but before she could stand up straighter, she cried out in pain and doubled up again.

“No,” he whispered, and his heart was in his throat. The world was collapsing around him, his chest burned in anguish and despair, his waist cut into his senses with excruciating pain. “No, Fluttershy! Fluttershy, no! Come on!” He began to try and drag her through the portal, his mind finally on frenzied overdrive.

Fluttershy weakly put her hand behind his head and lifted herself up. “Be happy,” she whispered in pain. “I love-”

Noble Blade felt her blood burst onto him as a large bubble popped in her chest, and out of the tight bloody hole came six black legs. Noble Blade screamed as the small black bug wriggled out of her body and opened its jaws wide. The bug jumped at his face-

---

“NO!”

Noble Blade awoke with a start and flailed his limbs for half a second before he tensed his muscles. He was shaking in his legs; his face was quivering. Darkness surrounded him and choked his breath to small spurts of air. He was cold, and he was soaked with sweat.

The dream felt so real, he could almost smell the blood and fire from the massacre at the portal. He could actually feel the weight of Fluttershy in his arms. He felt the heartbeat of her warm body cease underneath his fingertips. Noble Blade was unnerved to the point where he patted himself down to make sure Fluttershy's blood was not on him. He was wet, but not with blood. He reached to his side blindly, hoping to feel the fur of the beautiful yellow pegasus that he calls his girlfriend.

However, to his panic, all he felt was an empty sleeping bag.

In a panic Noble Blade sat up and looked to the side, searching for her, his mind on overdrive. Where did she go? She was here a bit ago!

Finally, he found her three feet away, lying with her back facing him.

Noble Blade gasped in relief, slumped back onto his side, and scooted closer to Fluttershy's inert form. She was warm, and soft, and real.

You will not lose her.

The thought came into his mind like someone had planted it there. It certainly didn't come from him.

I will not lose her, he thought to himself, accepting the thought that had been implanted into his head. Never again.

“Never again,” he audibly vowed to himself, wrapping his arms around her and spooning her length against his chest. The feeling of it made his heart rate skyrocket. “Never. Again.”

---

When everyone awoke the following morning, it was raining. Not a downpour, exactly, but it wasn’t a drizzle either. When anyone looked up into the skies, all they could see was a heavy grey color above thick sheets of cold rain in every direction. The first ponies to step outside their tents promptly went back inside.

“Rainbow Dash!” trilled the anguished voice of Rarity from inside her tent. “Make it stop!”

“I can’t!” Rainbow Dash answered back, from her separate tent. “This is what was scheduled for today!”

Rarity let out an angry bellow of resignation.

Getting up and awake was a hard matter. Handling the tents was harder still. The fabric was now heavy and wet and cold to the touch. There were still no campfires to be built, as the rain was so hard that any pieces of wood got soaked even more than the previous day. When the tents were finally all put away, every single pony was soaked to the bone, and any equipment they had was so wet that when they slung it on their backs, water gushed out and dripped down their sides.

The hill they had camped on was now completely encircled about by water and the remnants of the slimy bog they had overlooked. They were now on nothing more than an encircled island, and the distance between the banks of the hill and the shore on the opposite side was forty feet.

“How do we get to the bank?” Twilight asked sourly.

“How should I know?” Starlight asked, rain streaming down her jawline.

“You’re the leader!” Applejack said to her. “It’s yer job to know what ta do in sticky spots like this.”

“Everyone stand still,” Twilight barged in, her mane flat and dark from water. “I'll teleport you to the opposite bank.”

“Not in that state you're not!” Applejack denied. “We neeja ta walk with us, not pass out so early in the day! Ah know how tired ya can get, and these circumstances ain't helpin'!”

Twilight affixed a dirty look at Applejack, but after she ran through the idea in her mind, she stayed silent on the subject except for a small grumble.

Freedom Fighter mostly stood stiff while everyone else was chatting. Water streamed from his forehead into his narrowed eyes, and with every passing moment, he became colder and wetter.

Finally, he stomped off, water splashing from every hoofstep, and came to a nearby tree on the edge of the hill. Raising himself on his hind legs, he erupted the three long claws from his left arm, leaned back, and swiped it through the glistening ebony tree like he was hitting a fly ball. The claws carved cleanly through the soft wood of the tree like a hot knife carving through butter.

With a loud cracking noise that drew everyone else’s attention, the tree keeled over the side of the hill and crashed into the opposite bank, creating a ramp to the remaining ground above water.

“Problem solved,” he said curtly, and he dejected the claws back into his arm.

After they all descended to the ground below, they kept on resolutely heading east. This proved to be a more difficult job than it sounded, since the rain masked the direction they needed to go. Through the precipitation, they could only see about thirty yards in front of them, providing little time to plan out a direction to take once they had committed. This, combined with the pools of rainwater and bogwater all around them, made it hard to stick to a defined path.

The rainwater was a curse, but it was also a blessing, in some strange way. Once they had gotten moving, the rain didn’t seem as cold anymore, and actually felt refreshing because of how sore their bodies were from hiking. Not only that, but it also washed out their manes, which had begun to get stiff and oily. Thy=ey didn’t smell quite so bad anymore--except for Noble Blade, whose wet armor lent him a foul stench. Even Fluttershy couldn’t stand to be near him before her nose forced her to flee, and she hiked at the rear with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie.

By midday, everyone was thoroughly miserable. Outfits were soaked, manes were dripping, and their hooves were wrinkled, making it hurt to take every step. Their progress was slow and wet.

“I’m chafing,” Freedom Fighter complained late into their walk, stretching out one of his hind legs. He then broke into some kind of waddle, keeping all four legs completely stiff. His skintight bodysuit was a clear disadvantage right now. “I feel like I'm getting flogged by the Noxxa again.”

“The Noxxa did you a favor. At least you don't have to worry about chafing your balls.”

“Hey!” He sounded hurt.

Freedom Fighter let out a demented, sick chuckle at his own response, and ignored the looks levied at him by the rest of the group.

---

By 3:00 they had gotten past the last puddle and slogged through the last mud field, and emerged from the swamp into forest again, to the immense relief of nearly everyone. It was also about then that the rain began to let up into a mere drizzle.

They walked the rest of the afternoon with only sporadic breaks, and by the time they stopped for camp in a clearing bordered by fallen trees, the rain had stopped entirely.

“Well,” Twilight said when their dinner of carrot soup was being served, “at least today actually got better near the end.”

They were all clustered around a fire, sitting on fallen logs and stumps and flat rocks. The fire produced a lot of smoke since the wood was so wet, but the fire was a fire, and it was the first time they had been properly warm all day.

“Yeah, today sucked,” Firestorm said to her, already scooping his bowl clean. “But that just means tomorrow will be better.”

“Ah still feel plenty tuckered out from t'day,” Applejack admitted with a hoof to the head. “It took everythin’ in ma willpower ta make dinner.”

“I kinda wish today didn't exist,” Starlight Glimmer added. “The rain wasn’t the best counterpart to today’s hike.”

“I'm still cold and wet,” Fluttershy moaned, wrapping the blanket Noble Blade had supplied for her tighter around herself.

Firestorm, on seeing everyone's mood not improve, leaned left to Freedom Fighter. “I know! Let’s play This is a Spoon.”

Freedom Fighter looked surprised at first, then he shrugged, clinking the armor on his bodysuit and jostling the weapons attached to him. “Might as well. This’ll be the first time I can play it.”

“What’s that?” Twilight asked, her curiosity piqued.

Firestorm held up his tin spoon with his hoof. “This... is a spoon.”

“A what?” Freedom Fighter asked.

“A spoon,” Firestorm said.

“A spoon?”

“A spoon.”

“Ah! A spoon.” Freedom Fighter took the tin spoon and proffered it to Fluttershy, who was sitting next to him. “This is a spoon.”

Fluttershy just looked confused at what to say. The sentence coming out of the imposing warrior was so bizarre that she locked up in place.

“Say ‘A what.’ It’s part of the game.”

“Okay... A what?”

Freedom Fighter turned his head to look at Firestorm. “A what?”

“A spoon,” Firestorm clarified.

“A spoon!” After another pause, he said, “Ask A spoon, Fluttershy.”

“...A spoon?”

“A spoon?” Freedom Fighter asked Firestorm for clarification.

“A spoon,” Firestorm confirmed.

“A spoon,” Freedom said affirmatively. “Now say Ah, a spoon, and take it from me and give it to Noble.”

Fluttershy took the spoon with her wing and held it to Noble Blade. “Here you go.”

Noble Blade looked at the spoon and burst into laughter. “You’re supposed to say This is a spoon.”

“But you already know what a spoon is,” Fluttershy protested.

Noble Blade just laughed even more. “That’s the point of the game, Fluttershy. The lines of dialogue get more and more stretched, all the way back to the original person who started.”

“Oh!” Fluttershy bounced in place on her log, making her long pink mane jump. “I get it now!” She held up the spoon to Noble Blade. “This is a spoon.”

“A what?”

“A what?”

“A what?”

“A spoon.”

“A spoon.”

“A spoon.”

“A spoon?”

"A spoon?"

"A spoon?"

"A spoon."

"A spoon."

"A spoon."

"Ah, a spoon!"

And so it continued as more and more of the party got invested in the game. It got increasingly comedic the further around the spoon went and the number of times the word spoon was repeated. When somepony would forget what to say or stumbled on their lines, laughter broke out until everypony was howling with giggles.

The high point of the night came when Rainbow Dash held up the spoon to Pinkie Pie and in an attempt to catch her off-guard spoke in a Prench accent. “Zis... is a spoon.”

Pinkie Pie leaned her head back in shock and lowered her voice to a deep grumble. “Dear Faust!”

“Zere's more,” Rainbow said, on the brink of laughter.

“No!”

The way she said it set everyone off. By the time the spoon had gone full circle, nopony was moody anymore.

When dinner was over, no one went to bed angry or sad, and sleep came easy to everyone. Even Freedom Fighter and Twilight, who both had nobody to sleep closely to.

---

The isolated city in the distance was a gargantuan tree situated on a jagged mountain. Dark clouds of trouble lingered over it like a shroud, and the Abysmal Abyss split the mountain in half like an axe stroke.

All this was observable at a distance. The swirling dark clouds made it harder to discern more than that from several miles out. At this distance, it was scarcely bigger than a hoofprint.

There was silence, apart from the rumble of the clouds. The monstrous tree remained small yet majestic.

Flap.

Flap.

Flap.

The puffs of air made a leathery whistle as the milk-colored dragon ascended, above the altitude of the surrounding peaks.

The dragon's rider had six sharp legs in the saddle and four longer, spindlier ones at the chest. Two of those legs clutched the harness in the dragon's mouth, while the other two were folded across his hard-shelled chest. Marshal Malice parted his sickly lips, revealing interlocked white needles for fangs, and narrowed his four wild red eyes.

Griffinstone. The city of legends, of long-ago kings, of prosperity beyond all imagining. Now it had fallen into a pathetic ruin, a mocking semblance of what had once been deserving pride.

Marshal Malice would enjoy watching it perish.

Other, smaller wing beats sounded next to him, and the pale rider turned to the right. A tar-colored, dragon-winged Nox had ascended alongside him and was holding a long, wicked pike in two of his six legs.

“What is your command, my lord?” he asked in a hideously deep baritone.

Marshal Malice already had an idea of how to tumble the almighty tree from its perch. His already sick smile widened to the point where his blood red gums were visible. “We muster our forces. Select two hundred soldiers...” Marshal Malice pointed below at the flat plain at the base of the mountain, where the trees stopped before the mountain began. “...and put them there.”

---

The morning came early and bright for the ponies. Sleep was soon abandoned, and the still-damp tents were taken down after a breakfast of what Pinkie Pie observed to be not gruel, but instead, gruel substitute. The Noxxa had apparently forfeited any pretense at nutrition when it came to feeding their armies.

“I feel like a cement mixer,” Pinkie Pie grumbled after her first bowl. She jiggled her tummy by poking it, and a thick sloshing was heard.

“Oh, ew!” Starlight Glimmer exclaimed.

“That's unsettling,” Freedom Fighter said disdainfully.

“I don't see what the big problem is.”

“Nopony asked you!” Freedom Fighter snapped at himself.

When the group set off, they soon emerged from the foliage and came out into a field of tall grass, with nothing to break the sight of the bright blue sky. Bundles of grass waved in unison in the faint wind. Green and yellow bunches were sparking with water, which made their hooves cold when they trampled clumps under their hooves. Soon everyone was glistening with cold water once again.

“I wish I was in my bed,” Spike mumbled as he trudged along.

“Pretend that you're walking towards your bed,” Noble Blade whispered to him. “At the end of the day you'll be safe and warm in your bed.”

Spike’s posture corrected itself like he had been yanked up by the neck. “All right, bed,” he snarled. “I'm coming for you!” Spike began to jog at a leisurely pace, his previous feelings left behind in the grass.

“Nice job,” Twilight whispered to him. “I was beginning to worry about him.”

Noble agreed with her. Spike didn't have much to say over the past three or four days. He was becoming quite reclusive and withdrawn, always allowing the other girls to talk and keeping to himself. This was so much like the actions of Freedom Fighter that Noble Blade had developed a small doubt in his mind that the miserable week they had was molding him into a bitter young dragon.

After a lunch of raw apples and raisins mixed with cashews on a pile of rocks jutting out of the field, the group continued. The yellow grass eventually shrunk down, thinned out, and eventually deposited onto a small dirt road that was overgrown with vines and weeds. The broken road winded eastward between tall looming red rocks spotted with green shrubbery.

“From bad to worse,” Rainbow Dash said resignedly. “Oh joy.”

“Yay!” Firestorm exclaimed.

Rainbow Dash shot him a confused look.

“I can make you happy now that you're sad!”

She then smiled. “I'm already happy because you're here, you know.”

“Then my job here is done.”

Rainbow Dash, upon hearing it, leaned into Firestorm's shoulder. “Of course, now that you mention it, I did feel miserable while I was walking.”

“Then I'll give you a few back rubs when we make camp at the end of the day.”

“Deal!” Rainbow nodded with a gleam in her eye.

They all followed the overgrown road for hours and hours until the sun disappeared. They made camp in a rock cave on the side of the road once it was too dark to walk. An hour after that, the tents were up, a fire was crackling with dry roots and vines, and potato soup was boiling. True to his word, Firestorm was atop of Rainbow and kneading out the knots in her back, and Noble Blade took inspiration from him by rubbing Fluttershy's shoulders from behind.

“Hey, look.”

“What is it, Pinkie?” Rarity asked.

“I can see the ocean from here!”

Rarity, along with any others who heard, looked out from their camp. Their angle allowed them to look out from the road down the slanting way to a thin forest, and then, past the forest, a sliver of bluish-silver that was the Celestial Sea.

“My word, you're right,” Rarity said, a hoof over her eyes as she squinted. “There's the ocean!”

“Which means Maretania,” Starlight Glimmer said grimly, looking at the old map.

“Which means the Elements.”

“Which means a party!”

Rarity shook her head. “No, Pinkie. We'll only find one of the Elements there, and we most certainly won't have a party.”

“Unless it's a welcoming party from the Noxxa or some other foul beast,” Noble Blade added in. “In that case, we must be the ones to surprise them.”

“You remember when you surprised us the first time I threw you a party?” Pinkie Pie asked suddenly, erupting into giggles. “You just appeared behind all of us and I threw a pitcher of fruit punch at you and you acted like you were bleeding to... death…” Pinkie's voice trailed off as she remembered just how close to reality the last part was. Pinkie cleared her throat noisily and hopped away with several boinging noises.

Dinner was served a little while later. At the behest of Pinkie Pie, they played This is a Spoon again when they finished, and they all felt a little bit better when they went to bed.

When Rainbow Dash and Firestorm entered their tent, Firestorm cricked his back leg and let out a groan. “Oh boy! That's gonna hurt.” He flopped down on his sheets.

“You want me to help stretch it out?” Rainbow Dash asked him playfully, resting her hoof on his leg.

Firestorm straightened his leg. “Ah, nope. Nope, I got it. Ah, that's better.”

Rainbow Dash settled next to him and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing herself into his stomach. “You know,” she said into his chest softly, “this isn't all so bad. At least I get to settle down next to you at the end.”

Firestorm's heart melted at how sincerely she mumbled it. He pressed gently against her back, pushing her face deeper into his chest. “I will cuddle you into submission!” He suddenly squeezed.

Rainbow Dash squirmed. “No! No, not the cuddling!”

“Yes, the cuddling!” Firestorm announced, rolling to the side and taking Rainbow atop of him. “I shall cuddle you until ya fall asleep in my arms!”

“You know what?” Rainbow said, suddenly and with an abrupt change in mood. “I'd like that.”

And she settled down on top of him and ceased all movement.

Firestorm, being extra careful to not move her, just cuddled with her on top of him until he felt her breathing settle to a slow inhale and exhale. He smiled softly, leaned forward, and kissed her on the forehead, and when he finished he set his head back down on the pillow of rags. “I love you,” he whispered. He ruffled her limp mane and gathered some of it into a clump, which he then straightened out.

Rainbow Dash was already asleep.

Firestorm noticed this and rolled his eyes. “Here's the part where you say ‘I love you too.’”

Rainbow Dash made no answer.

“I love you too, Firestorm!” he mimicked in Rainbow Dash's voice, fluttering his eyelashes. “You're so charismatic... and good at voice impressions.”

Nopony was around to laugh. Firestorm eventually contented himself with the weight of Rainbow Dash on his stomach, and after he basked in her aroma for a length of time he didn't measure, he joined her in the world of sleep.

---

The city was in chaos. The dilapidated state of Griffonstone didn’t add relief to the panic that had set in only a few hours ago, when a delivery griffon called Gabby had flown to the base of Griffonstone and spotted a large black mass of terrible monsters at the base of the trees around the mountain. Gabby had panicked and flew back up to report it to her hometown.

Eventually, by the end of the day, the entire city had heard about it, and a thousand griffon volunteers had joined together to take up arms.

The volunteers, young and old, male and female, had gathered at the southern end of the mountain of Griffonstone, inches from the edge. Three thousand feet directly beneath them was the invasion force of black, dirty insects. The day was clear but cold, and the wind whipped at their feathers in gusts of power.

An old and gnarled shape entered their field of view, and some griffons clutched their spears apprehensively before recognizing it as an elderly griffon named Gregor, who had a bad wing in his old age. Gregor landed and instantly clutched his wing with a wince.

“How many are there?” a griffon with a glass eye demanded intrusively.

“Less than us,” Gregor moaned, stumbling off to the side and taking his place among the rest of the volunteers. “We oughta be fine.”

“How close did you get before they saw you?” another griffon asked.

“Close enough for me to take a good long look at them.”

“What did they look like?” Grampa Guff, the griffon with the glass eye, continued.

“Big, black, and ugly. Giant bugs with spikes and weapons and metal welded to their bodies.”

That got everyone substantially worried.

“Why didn't anyone see them coming before it was too late?” came a random question.

“Yeah! Why didn't Celestia warn us about these guys? Celestia’s supposed to know everything!” came the random response.

“Oh, shut up! Celestia didn't care about us before, and she still doesn’t now. We were well enough off without her, anyway. We can get rid of these creepy crawly things ourselves!” Grampa Gruff snapped. He gripped his measly wooden spear tighter and stared ruefully at the black mass thousands of feet below him. “Hey, Gregor! You, buddy! Ya made ‘em angry, didn'cha? Made ‘em notice you with that heavy flapping and breathing and groaning, eh? What kinda scout are ya?”

“Sorry,” Gregor snapped. “Why do you ask?”

“They're moving toward the mountain!”

Every griffon volunteer leaned forward to observe. Indeed, the black mass was now moving slowly past the edge of the tree line and hovering towards the base of the mountain.

“Let's get ‘em!” a middle-aged griffon whispered excitedly. “We outnumber ‘em and we're on high ground. Let's wipe them out now!”

His exclamation spread throughout the rest of the griffon volunteers until everyone was nodding and muttering and drawing their weapons. Swords and spear tips flashed brightly and reflected the light all around them. Everyone's muscles were tense, and the same thought was on everyone's mind.

It was only a short time later before the dam of pent-up pride broke free.

“The griffons were once the proudest nation on the planet Equus,” a strong griffon said, stepping forward with three sword blades in his claws and tail. “Our wealth exceeded the dragons. We were prosperous and powerful, and only after hundreds of years did we begin to decline. Now is the time when we prove to ourselves, and to Celestia, that our power has not diminished or broken!”

All one thousand griffon volunteers cheered and lifted their weapons.

“We don't need any outside help to destroy this threat. This will be the beginning of the rebirth of our influence on this world!” He flapped into the air and held out his three swords in his claws and his tail. “One of us is equal to fifty of them, and fifty of us can hold off thousands of them!... whatever they are.” He said the last part quietly, but lifted his voice again. “We won't go out in fear! We will not turn tail and run from these abominable creatures! Let us show the world how griffons are the greatest creatures on Equus! CHARGE!”

A roar erupted from the ranks of the volunteer army as they all lifted off from their spots and flew down over the edge of the mountain. The griffons were a swarm of brown feathers and glinting steel as they swooped down and plunged towards the Noxxa on the ground below.

“Turn tail and run!” Grampa Gruff shouted triumphantly at the small black army as he rushed down on wide-spread wings. Oh, Gallus, when I get back home, I'll show you why we were so triumphant in my day!

They were only a hundred feet from the ground when a powerful bellow sounded from the sky, halting every griffon's movement and forcing them to look up in the middle of their charge. Flapping above the tree line no more than a hundred feet away was a tremendous dragon the color of old white bones, whose wingspan was longer than a house.

And if some of them squinted, they could see, on top of the dragon, that there was a monstrous white centipede taller than two griffons with the head of a dragon himself, holding a black sword as tall as he was.

“Wh... what... the Tartarus?!” exploded an adolescent griffon flapping next to Grampa Gruff.

The small figure on the large dragon drew out one spindly white arm and held it up in the air for several seconds.

Then he leveled his arm horizontally.

It was as if the world exploded. A war bellow louder than a volcano thundered from the tree line amidst cracking branches and rustling trees. In a split second, shadows melted away and sprinted as fast as they could out of the forest, in the shape of six-legged Noxxa clambering over each other. Thousands and tens of thousands ran out on the ground alone like the waves of the unstoppable sea.

At the same time, black shapes lifted up out of the top of the trees like smoke from the burning earth. The number of bugs in the air made the Noxxa on the ground look paltry and small. A hundred thousand Noxxa with dragon wings and curving legs and sharp-tipped claws buzzed as one gargantuan body out of the endless forest and shot towards the now-measly griffon force.

The griffons had been lured, and now they were caught.

As the numbers of the enemy blocked out even the light of the sun, and the Noxxa closed in with black blades, Grampa Gruff's last thoughts were of his grandson Gallus, and how he had failed.

He and a few griffon warriors were encircled about by demons and black steel. Everyone else had already fallen without taking any Noxxa down.

Then death closed in around him, and Grampa Gruff disappeared in the chaos and darkness.

---

The only griffon who was nearby to witness the disappearance of griffons into the swarm was a vivid blue adolescent named Gallus. He stood on the edge of a wooden branch with wide eyes and a sinking heart.

His caretaker had been among those who had volunteered to charge against the intruders. Grampa Gruff wasn't the most pleasant to be around, but he was shrewd and stoic for his age, and seeing the swarm of black demons envelop the group of griffon warriors, Gallus felt fear creep into his insides.

Please be alive, he hoped against all hope, rocking back and forth on his four legs.

But the cloud of malignant monsters merely absorbed the fighters and moved up the mountain. Gallus thought he could see a bubble in the waves of insects right where they had surrounded the warriors, fighting against the flood, but it died down and flattened out before long.

Gallus felt his legs tremble beneath his weight. He fell to his knees and drew himself up with despair in the pits of his eyes.

This was supposed to be a glorious display of power for the griffons. The day had finally come when they would have proved their independence, and in half a second, it had ended. Gallus felt himself trembling, but not in rage.

To his left and down, an entire settlement of small huts had been set ablaze by the black spiny bugs. He could see griffons driven out of their homes by the demons and instantly speared through the neck by their chitinous claws. Flame and smoke covered his field of vision.

To his right and down, those demons had trampled through the market square and had broken any semblance of a standing structure in their path. Bodies lay sprawled to the side of the street, lifeless and bloody.

Why am I standing still?” Gallus wondered blankly. My city is being destroyed, and all I can do is watch?

Before he could formulate another plan to action, something very large and white arose from the air under the balcony he was overlooking. Gallus stumbled back and fell down as the white dragon settled on the thick tree branch of the city of Griffonstone.

Gallus still didn't move. He had never seen a dragon before, one so long and disjointed and pale like bone. Gallus then jumped as he saw another dragon head on its back, just as white and stretched and fanged.

Gallus's vision blurred. Smoke was rising from all around his home, and darkness obscured the sky and blocked the rays of the sun. His lungs hurt every time he breathed, and he heard the snapping of flames and the cries of his neighbors all around.

“Oh, you poor thing,” came the voice of the second dragon head. “You should not have been born in this tumultuous time.”

To Gallus's horror, the second dragon head sprouted set after set of long, thin, white legs from behind, spidering out to clutch the sides of the dragon mount. The head rose up to reveal an armored centipede body. Across the monster's back was an enormous black claymore.

“Why must you look so terrified?” the monster asked, in a cold and clear voice. He slowly drew the massive sword from off his back. “I shall not hurt you.”

Gallus, in his absolute fear, scooted back and responded with his trademark sarcasm. “Yeah, right! What're ya gonna do, give me a piece of candy instead?”

The monster actually grinned as he held the massive sword out to the side, still atop the bone-colored dragon. “You are headstrong, but you lack conviction, as all griffons do.”

He stepped off the dragon and landed on six sharp legs, leaving four upright. He still held the black sword out to the side, reeking of the promise of devastation. He began to slowly crawl on his six legs to the blue griffon teen.

“Wha-” Gallus gasped, scooting back on his butt. Intense warmth scorched his back when he went too far, and he noticed a glow behind him, and Gallus knew there was a burning hut right behind him. He went no further, but instead kept his gaze on the upright centipede, shrouded in encircling smoke and illuminated by the light of flames.

“What are you... doing?” Gallus asked, his heartbeat going a mile a minute.

“I said I would not harm you,” the draconic centipede calmly said, raising his sword above his head slowly. “You shall not feel any pain when you depart from this earth. It is a privilege, youth. Treat it as such.”

Gallus had a moment's decision fleet across his mind. After only a second of doubt, Gallus snarled, slowly rose up on his wings, looked up at Marshal Malice, and balled his talons into fists. “Not if I have anything to say about it!” he shouted bravely.

The last thing he felt was the sword cleaving him in half through the shoulder. The last thing he heard, right before it, was Marshal Malice's spiteful admonition.

“Oh, trust me. You don't.”

Comments

[FanficReader920]

ANd now Gallus. Is. Dead. Jeez, you're racking up quite the body count, aren't you?

[BradyBunch]

9326152
This is the end of Equestria as everyone knows it. I have to have a lot of death to make everyone nervous when I put the protagonists in a sticky spot.

But yeah, I think it's already higher than most other fanfics.

[A Man Undercover]

Another really eventful chapter, if I do say so myself. Also saddening, really, what with how much blood is being spilled.

I can’t help but feel glad that this isn’t headcanon in real life.

[BradyBunch]

9344589
I always imagined this to be the finale to MLP since the idea first came to me. This naturally involves finishes. Loose ends need to be tied up, characters need to be seen for the last time, and a final push against the leader of all darkness needs to be made.

[Just_Me123]

9357680
I'd go with Freedom Fighter, he seems the strong silent type. He seems a little bit like Clint Eastwood somehow, if you could imagine Clint acting without speaking. I'd love to get your take on FF doing the whole "Do you feel lucky?" speech, without one of his buddies there to translate...

Mind you, I'm just approaching chapter 20 right now, so who knows if that'll change.