A Rather Large Adventure

by BradyBunch

Chapter Fifty-nine: The Battle of Mount Aris, Part Two

Marshal Malice stared at his mortal enemy as he stood up. He felt the urge to recoil when he took a step forward, so he did. Freedom Fighter took another step, and Malice retreated another step.

"There is no escape, Malice." Freedom picked up his divine golden staff and expertly twirled it with one hoof. "It's you and me...alone."

"I cut off your tongue!" Malice gasped. "How can you sp...speak…?"

"And still I pressed forward," he responded derisively. "I keep moving forward, no matter what I lose. Until my enemies are destroyed!"

Malice backed away on six legs while Freedom came forth on three. The dragon was still spurting blood from the accidental wound Malice had given it, and Malice tracked his claws in the growing pool on its back as he backed away.

The dragon…

Malice inexplicably grinned.

"Why are you smiling like that?" Freedom incredulously asked.

"Because Bloodlust...my noble, fierce hell-dragon...is very flexible."

Malice gave a whistle.

As the dragon bent its head entirely the wrong way to point over its back, Malice ignited his antennae and disappeared with a pop. There was now nothing between the dragon's fiery mouth and Freedom Fighter on his back.

The dragon spurted a long gout of fire over its back at the dark warrior.

And it would have singed the Unforgiven to ashes if it weren't for a rainbow that carried him out of harm's way.

Rainbow Dash, holding Freedom Fighter in her arms, grunted with the strenuous effort and circled around the flapping dragon like a strafing glider. Malice had reappeared in his saddle and was looking with fascination at the first of the girls he met in person.

"You want to give that another shot?" Rainbow taunted. "See if you can keep up!"

Bloodlust sent forth another stream of devil-fire into the air, which Rainbow dived under and then came up, then down, and looped around until she came to the dragon's maw. Throwing Freedom Fighter high into the air so he would land once more on the dragon, she drew Firestorm's sword from across her back, ignited the flame on it, and brought it down for a speedy slash.

Malice caught it with the edge of his massive blade. He was using strain, however. Malice's bloody eyes bore deep into the flapping Rainbow's pink irises, which had dilated with fear.

"You're a feisty one," he commented slowly.

Rainbow Dash made no reply. Malice had a hidden strength to him that made it hard to keep repelling attacks.

"You must be Rainbow Dash," he continued, twisting the sword and making Rainbow grunt. "The Stormkeeper, was it? What a pretentious-"

He stopped. And he bared his teeth.

"Stormkeeper, eh? You...should see the Storm King. He has a weapon...you'd be interested in."

Freedom Fighter charged from behind, holding his staff like a lance. Malice evaded by twisting his hips, and Freedom charged by in a stumble, which Malice turned into a kick off the edge. Freedom fell like a stone to the surface of the ocean far beneath.

"FREEDOM!" Rainbow screamed desperately, reaching in vain for his body. She tried to pull away to reach him, but an opposing strike from Malice prevented that.

"Not yet," he spat, blood from his gums trickling down his jutting chin. "Weren't you going to fight me?" He grinned. "Tried to distract me by using yourself as bait, huh? Gonna rescue him? Or face me?"

Rainbow made the choice instantly. Abandoning the wounded demon, she sped for the falling warrior.

As she sped like a meteor to the falling pony, Rainbow Dash could spot him aiming his staff, which was now a converted bow, up at the dragon's belly.

Rainbow swerved aside just in time. The yellow bolt flew by her ear. And far above her, the sound of a squealing dragon filled the air like a colossal boom of thunder.

Rainbow caught his flailing hoof and pulled up just before they impacted on the ocean surface, making the waters part from their velocity. Rainbow slung him over her back and looked up as she flew higher once more. The beast was flailing in anguish, shooting torrents of flame into the dark skies, lighting up the world.

To her satisfaction, one of the streams of flame ended with a nearby airship in its way. The whole ship caught flame, both keel and balloon, and began to sag in the air. Crew members jumped out, while others hung on for their lives. The stream of flame continued spewing onto the ship until the balloon exploded in a colossal fireball, and the clunky wooden hull it was attached to plummeted to the ocean and impacted with a heavy splash.

"One more time! Freedom, get that bow ready again! Don't let this son of a gun get away!"

Freedom knelt on the rising Rainbow's back, drawing back his deadly yellow weapon. The dragon was only several hundred yards above them now.

Then only one hundred. In the next few seconds, that distance had been halved again.

Finally, the wild-eyed dragon spotted them steadily rising. And so did the rider atop its back.

"You cannot escape!" Malice roared in triumph, hurling Freedom's words back at him.

With a greedy glint in Bloodlust's eye, he opened his needle-fanged mouth, and fire began to build up in the back of his throat.

"And neither can you!" Rainbow retorted.

Freedom Fighter fired at that instant. The bolt of solid power went between the dragon's teeth and into the back of its throat.

An explosion tore apart the back of its head. Fire burst from the dragon's eyes, its ears, its nose. The dragon instantly dropped in a spiral, and fire and boiling blood fell along with it.

"NO!" Malice screamed in heartbreak, falling on the mount's back in the same spiral. "BLOODLUST!"

And beneath the heavy clouds, Malice disappeared.

---

The events in the distance had made the combatants all over the field watch, if only for an instant. Pillars of flames lit up the world in the east, setting one airship on fire, and it just stayed that way, hanging there like a bloated firefly until it exploded in a blossom of orange.

Among those was the Storm King. Fighting with the unicorn knight only three blocks away from where the swarming Noxxa were battling Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, he paused from his duel for a fraction of a second to look behind him. Then he shook his head in disapproval. "He's got to reimburse me for my airship now. Shame."

Noble Blade, also observing the fireworks in the distance, caught onto his words. "So...thou art not one of Malice's lackeys or minions. Thou and Malice art confederate!"

"We met up a day or so ago in Maretania," the Storm King said. "He was in a pitiable state. Shining Armor had split his face in half!"

"Shining Armor?" Noble asked in surprise. His upraised sword dropped a few inches. "He was there?"

"Was," the Storm King affirmed. "Of course, you know, until I killed him."

Noble's face flew to one of outrage. "Thou didst slay Twilight's brother?!"

"And I told him that Twilight had died as well, just before I chopped his head off. He died believing he was alone." The Storm King leered over him; he was much taller than Noble.

"Thou...art a monster!" Noble cried, gripping his sword tighter in his hoof.

"How kind of you to notice," the Storm King remarked. Without another word, he swung Stormkeeper hard at Noble's neck. Noble backed away as the barrage resumed.

Then Noble switched his tactics to act on offense.

He twisted Stormkeeper as it came in for a thrust, and the sword flew away and landed tip down in the concrete roof.

Noble aimed a chop at the King's leg to cripple him, but the King just drew his leg back to avoid the cut. Then he kicked Noble Blade in the face, throwing him off the roof.

The unicorn hit his exposed head on the rock on top of the pile and tumbled down a pile of rubble, ending face up at the base of the pile. The King, after grabbing his sword from the roof, lept down and grabbed the semi-conscious Noble by the head, pinching his skull between his claws.

"Aww, aren't you going to fight?" he mocked, hurling him down the street. Noble landed and rolled to a halt, right outside the circle of amassing bugs in the intersection.

The Storm King raised his arms high and let loose a loud peal of triumphant laughter.

---

Fluttershy's attention was drawn to the overriding maniacal laugh. Swiveling her head, she spotted the Storm King pick up his golden blade and raise it high in the air.

"And now, foolish knight!" the Storm King bellowed as loud as his lungs would allow. "Die alone!"

Noble Blade! She had to do something!

"HEY!" Fluttershy screamed, and the far-away satyr paused, inexplicably. Her frightened demeanor had vanished in the face of her lover's danger. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, HUH?"

The faraway Storm King lifted his eyebrow. Applejack and Rarity, both at the end of their line, twitched their ears in pain. The battle paused as the shocked Noxxa, devilish as they were, now had to consider a third threat.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST WALTZ UP TO ANYPONY AND PUT THEM DOWN? REALLY?! WELL, I HAVE HAD IT! NOBLE BLADE IS NOT YOURS TO TOUCH!"

" 'Cause she's the only one who can do that," Applejack remarked, panting between words.

"YOU KNOW WHAT?!" Fluttershy flapped up above everyone else to gain enough altitude, keeping the attention on herself to stop the action around her. "I HAVE AN IDEA, YOU...YOU BIG MEANIE! WHY DON'T YOU PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE?!"

The blast of her final shout made the air itself vibrate like a plucked string. The Storm King knelt from the sudden bellow, covering his ears as he screamed in agony. All around them Noxxa plugged up their ears, which were just holes in their head, and scrunched down, gritting their fangs.

After the initial wave of sound had passed, the Storm King raised up with significant effort and pointed the golden sword directly at Fluttershy.

"If I did fight people my own size," the Storm King said, "they'd hit back."

Stormkeeper began to buzz with a sinister hum as if a horde of angry hornets was encased within.

At his feet, Noble Blade's head had cleared just enough to become aware of his surroundings. Only a few sensory facts came to mind. His hoof was gripping his chrome-blue sword. His legs were weak. His head was dizzy. And right in front of him was the Storm King's leg.

And the Storm King was pointing that evil electric weapon at a yellow blur that he could only see if he tilted his head. That yellow blur had pink hair and was hovering in the air.

Noble required no further motivation to act in his pain.

All it took was a surprise swing, turning his sword into a blue fan.

The King's right leg, with a burned red line going through his upper thigh, just sloughed off. The limb thudded to the ground, and the Storm King lost his balance, yelling in surprise and agony, and fell to the earth on his back.

"He's alive! Get him!" came the shouts of the Noxxa on the fringes of the circle, and a dozen of the black devils split off and rushed over to the inert form of Noble Blade. Before long their long, barbed claws were digging into his chinks, trying to pry him out of his armor like he was a lobster. Noble could only struggle and roll as the scratches on his face added up, second after second.

"Kill the filthy bastard!" came the shrieking demons with black, vile tongues. Blood began to run down his face. "Tear his brains out through his nose! Tear his penis off and stuff it down his throat! Strangle him with his intestines! Kill him! Kill him! Now!"

"Noble!" came the faraway voice of the mare he loved. "Noble, please! Get out of there!"

But as much as Noble wanted to, he couldn't. He was just too weak. Barely conscious, beaten alive, Noble Blade had one thought on his mind.

Fluttershy...live on for me…

NO!

The warmth in his chest grew like an inferno had been lit. Noble's eyes popped open.

YOU MUST LIVE ON FOR BOTH OF YOU!

The disembodied voice that had spoken to him only a few times before had entered into him. He felt the urge to move, to act, with the ability to defend himself, rather than just the desire that he always had.

So fight back he did.

Igniting his horn, a sphere of blue magic pulsated outward, throwing Noxxa outward at full force. Bugs splattered into dust as they collided with stone floor and the sides of ancient buildings. His horn burning from the desperate move, Noble used his sword to stand up, leaning heavily on it.

The Noxxa hordes, and the ponies they had been fighting, were now distracted by the lone protector standing on two legs, staring them down with doom in his dark blue eyes. Scarlet blood oozing from the many cuts on his skin was starkly contrasting against his light blue skin, running down his face and continuing in drips down the dark grey armor on his chest. His teeth, bared in a scowl, barely let out the noises wheezing behind them. The blazing blue blade buzzed as it blurred by his beady eyes.

Though the Noxxa were bred to hold no fear in their hearts, their doom was staring right at them, which would make any other being feel their guts churn. For some of them, that churning was felt and amplified.

Some of them took a step back.

Noble Blade narrowed his eyes disapprovingly.

He hurled his sword like a discus. The spinning blade took out two dozen enemies in quick succession without slowing down. Noble sprinted into the body of Noxxa, igniting his horn, and at the end of the sword's journey, it zoomed back into his raised hoof in time for him to make a wide slice through three other bugs in his way.

Before he knew it he had broken through the enemy ranks and joined Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy in the middle of the circle. He felt exhilarated, on a supernatural high, burning through his body and making his mind cloudy.

"We could use a knight around here," Applejack was saying, which Noble barely caught. "These guys are a bit of a challenge. Wanna take the right flank?"

Noble just nodded and stumbled off to Applejack's right, gripping the hilt of his chrome sword as if it was the only thing tethering him to reality.

And in the crowd, in three different places, other ponies entered the fight.

Three other screams joined the terrible din as Starlight, Pinkie Pie, and Spike appeared from three separate directions, battered and bruised from their own fight elsewhere in the city. Starlight was firing solid beams of destructive energy as she ran, tearing through the Noxxa like thin sheets of paper. Demons fell twenty at a time as her green laser passed by and shore them in half.

Pinkie Pie had leaped onto the back of one spiny insect and spun her body like a fan with her hooves out, hitting him rapid-fire on the back of the head with slaps until he collapsed. She boinged like a spring off his inert form and landed on the head of someone else, face-planting him into the ground.

"Hey, Noxxyyyy! Come and play tag! Comeoncomeoncomeon!" She began to stomp on him, flattening him into the ground. "Aww, you're no fun. Whee!"

She leaped off and landed in a circle of Noxxa, whose attention was piqued by the pink pony. Hyperactive and uncaring of her environment, Pinkie Pie's attacks came quick and hard.

Punching in the face of one with machine-gun blows of her hooves, she grabbed his disintegrating remains and hurled him into the crowd. His dust got in the eyes of at least half a dozen others, temporarily blinding them and making them cough when some dust got in their lungs. Applejack and Rarity cleaned them up from there.

Spike, though without a weapon, did his part. He jumped and leaped between opponents, sliding under their bellies and over their backs, and the Noxxa trying to reach him got entangled with their fellows, slowing them down to allow the fighting ponies time to react. Sometimes spear thrusts aimed at him hit the necks of other Noxxa.

Between all of their fighting, the ground soon became covered with powdery black sand that stuck on the bottom of the girl's hooves.

Applejack found herself nearby a fallen boulder twice her size. Seeing ten Noxxa come for her in a semicircle, she eyed the boulder, then spun around, lifted her legs, and gave the rock the hardest buck she could manage. Splitting into three separate parts, they collided with three demons apiece and tumbled to a halt with black body parts beneath them.

"I'll take it from here, Applejack!" Rarity declared, galloping over to the largest piece. Using her magic, the rock lifted into the air and began to crumble. In under three seconds, it had collapsed into a mound of tiny pebbles only slightly larger than molars and incisors.

Then Rarity abruptly swung her head at the nearest collection of amassing insects, and the pebbles flew through the air like birdshot. The storm of small projectiles tore through bodies and embedded right into their heads. Black sand flew everywhere as Noxxa perished left and right.

The barrage of deadly rocks continued until the pile had been exhausted. By then, Rarity had managed to cut a large swath through the enemy lines, which new Noxxa were trying to fill in.

The problem was, the Noxxa were running out of attackers. Even for a disposable army, their numbers were not inexhaustible. Between Firestorm blasting them to pieces high in the sky and the Elements of Harmony battling them on the ground, their numbers began to substantially thin. Some of the Noxxa hordes noticed this and looked around with trepidation and anxiety for the order to retreat.

But Malice had been shot down, and the Storm King was injured, and Tempest Shadow was off somewhere trying to sedate Twilight. With no direction, and little will to think on their own, the Noxxa simply flung themselves into harm's way without regard for their own lives. As a result, the girls were pressed harder to hold them back.

"Where'd you guys come from, anyway?!" Applejack wondered loudly, bucking a Nox in the head so hard his neck snapped the opposite way.

"We were running to the base of the mountain!" Starlight supplemented, sweeping her head in wide arcs and cutting through multiple Noxxa at once. "But we didn't get far before an entire division cut us off! So we ran all the way back, and we, well...decided to help you out! Where's Twilight? Still fighting that Tempest mare?"

"I think so!" Fluttershy interjected, high atop the crowds on a large slanting pillar stretching out of a mound of rubble. A Nox snaked his way up, fangs bared and ready to devour, but Fluttershy extended her rear legs and kicked him off onto the ground once again.

"Well, who's going to get her? We need to leave, now!"

"Another wave, incoming!" Noble warned, unsticking his sword from a Noxxa's chest. From the direction Noble was pointing, at least two dozen more troops were running directly at the fight. The Noxxa they were fighting were finally running out, but the Elements were growing exhausted.

"Where'd they come from?" Rarity incredulously asked, swaying in place from fatigue.

"They, um, were the ones chasing us back. Guess they finally caught up, huh?"

Rarity collapsed, both in exhaustion and lack of will. Pinkie and Fluttershy gasped and ran over to tend to her.

The assembly of reinforcements paused while they were still far off. The leader, painted an unnatural red on his face, jabbed at the inert white figure. "Look! An easy one! Listen up! I got a job for you all! I've always wondered if white ponies like her could even bleed! I want you all to test it!"

The troops he was commanding whooped their agreement and resumed their charge.

Spike pushed Applejack aside with his little fists balled at his side. "Oh, no you don't." He creased his face into one of defiance. "No one harms Rarity!"

He inhaled and expelled a torrent of green flame that soared and clung to one black bug after another, and then jumped and wrapped its emerald embrace around the nearest victim. The Noxxa fell, crying aloud and rolling on the ground, which really didn't work at all. Finally, with half of them consumed by the fire, the remnants gathered together and fled as fast as their spindly legs could take them.

Noble Blade turned his wondrous gaze to the young dragon. "When could you do that?"

Spike blew a casual tongue of flame onto his palm. "I'm a dragon. What made you think I couldn't?"

Noble gave an acknowledging jerk of the head.

---

Tempest slugged Twilight in the jaw once more before picking her up with one hoof and hurling her as far as she could. The battered Twilight landed only five feet away from the edge of the long, slanting cliff face that dropped for hundreds of feet before ending at a collection of jagged rocks in the tumbling, roiling ocean.

"Give it up, Twilight," Tempest boredly said, clinking her way over. Her expression hid the pain she had underneath her armor; Twilight had given as good as she got. "You're making me exert myself far too much."

"Give me a reason to," Twilight wheezed, standing up yet again. Only a few feet away was the cliff. Twilight positioned her hooves accordingly with care.

Tempest arched an eyebrow. "Tell me, what keeps you going?"

Twilight just glared back at her.

"Is it the magic of friendship?" Tempest asked with scorn. "Or is it just your endurance? Maybe it has to do with you being an alicorn."

"I had magic...before I became an alicorn, you know."

Tempest scowled, which was her perpetual resting face, and her stubby little horn sizzled. "Not everypony is as lucky as you, princess."

"You think I didn't know that?" Twilight asked. "I know that everypony has something sad hidden within themselves. Everypony has a darker side to them." Mental images of Freedom Fighter flashed in her head. "If you could only draw the poison out-"

"And resign myself to the notion of friendship? Princess, don't take me for a fool." Tempest's cloudy turquoise eyes grew resigned. "Friendship failed me once before. I'd rather not expose myself to the same wound twice."

Tempest stomped closer to the princess. "Now, speaking of wounds...how many more do I have to give you before you have to stand down?"

Twilight, using her magic with strain, fired at Tempest, but the breastplate she had on absorbed and dispersed the blast. Seeing her attack fail, she feigned a lunge to the left, then threw herself to the left and began to run.

Tempest's sparkling horn rose to a crescendo at a pitch so high it hurt Twilight's ears. Twilight, recognizing the warning, was only able to put up a pink shield in time for the stream of lightning to erupt from her horn and streak to Twilight and slam into her shield hard enough to drive her back.

Tempest cut off the attack. She galloped over to Twilight and leaped above her shield, flipping as she did so, and brought her chopping hoof down for an unstoppable strike. The King metal on her hooves split through Twilight's magic shield and knocked her right on the tip of her horn with all her force. Twilight bellowed and dropped the magic sphere around her.

When Tempest landed she swung her hoof in a wide arc that just barely missed Twilight's face. Twilight responded with a hard jab at the end of Tempest's swing, and with a sharp crack, Tempest Shadow's nose broke.

The jade-colored mare stumbled back. Her face was covered with a more scarlet liquid, more scrunched than usual.

"Oh!" Tempest grunted. Blood ran into her lips and dripped in fat, wet drops onto the white marble beneath them. "Oh, that's unforgivable."

A swift armored blow to Twilight's chest made her fly a few feet. Tempest followed up with an uppercut, and Twilight's world went deaf and white for only a moment. Finally, Tempest grabbed the helpless mare by the tail, swung her around once, and slammed her down into the marble floor hard enough to crack it.

Twilight couldn't move an inch. Her breath came hard but weak, and her lungs felt squished. Facing up to the inky sky, her eyes began to glaze.

Tempest appeared upside down in her view.

"Don't. Get. Up."

Even if Twilight wanted to, she couldn't. She had been rendered immobile.

"I have to say, Twilight, you've given me more trouble than I expected," Tempest boredly said, looking up to the sky. "But I think I liked it better this way. Pain makes you feel alive, doesn't it?"

Twilight couldn't say at the moment.

After another quiet moment, Tempest spoke again. "What's up there?" She spoke in a whisper. "You look to the heavens. What is there to see? Is it...hope? Or is it another hell beyond the world we live in now? Nopony knows. But the ones who press on figure it out. Eventually." Tempest looked back to Twilight, not noticing a glow of orange in the sky coming their way. "I see untapped power up there, mine for the taking. What do you see up there, Twilight?"

Twilight, who had noticed the orange glow, smiled and found the strength within herself to respond. "Firestorm."

Tempest frowned. "Firest-?"

Normally, people finish sentences. The only exceptions are when they are interrupted. In this case, Tempest had been interrupted by a divine fiery comet that had slammed into her and flung her for two dozen feet before hitting her head on the edge of a broken home and caroming off to the side, knocked unconscious in an instant.

Firestorm, enveloped in a glowing nimbus, settled to the ground and folded his wings at his side. "Nothing personal!" he called to the Storm King's lieutenant. "You were just, you know, about to kill my princess and all that. So, I, uh, took initiative. Don't take me knocking you unconscious the wrong way. Okay?"

"Firestorm!" Twilight groaned. "Little help?"

The glowing pegasus turned to her and gasped, galloping over to kneel next to her. "Oh, crap. Holy heck, princess. I'll get you out." He gathered her up in his arms, holding the princess bridal-style. "Don't worry about my glowing, by the way. The Element recognizes you as a bearer, too, so...it isn't gonna harm you."

He took off and flapped his way over the ruined city. Twilight could see the devastation if she craned her head, and it made her stomach lurch. Dust hung low over the entire scene as she flew by, adding a tint to the battle. Rubble, fresh and old, littered every street and every home. Flames were sprouting up like weeds in the ruins, smoking in thin streams. After several moments, Twilight was able to spot a collection of bright splotches of color among the monotonous grey of the city. Those, she recognized, were her friends.

Firestorm settled down in the midst of them and helped Twilight stand on all four hooves once more. It took her a moment or two to steady herself, but after a few wobbles, she managed to get the hang of it.

Applejack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Starlight, Spike, and Noble Blade gathered with anxious expressions at her weakness. Starlight, in particular, stepped forward to hold her still under her chest and hug her in reunion. The scene was uneventful as of a minute ago. The last Nox had been slapped to death by Pinkie Pie, leaving nothing but a thick carpet of black sand as a testament of the Noxxa who had been slain. Not one living bug remained.

"We need to leave, Twilight," Fluttershy meeped. "And that airship directly above us is our best bet. What's your plan?"

Twilight hung her head. "I...don't have one."

Applejack blinked in astonishment. "Ah thought Ah'd never live ta see the day."

"You have to have something!" Rarity protested.

"But I don't!" Twilight snapped, and Rarity recoiled. "I'm at the end of my line here. I'm beaten. I don't know...what more I can do."

The group fell somber.

The sounds of smashing rubble came all of a sudden, and the girls swung around to see the Storm King, buried under a mound of fallen rotting timbers, stand up with splinters raining down his snarling face. His right leg was gone at the mid-thigh, though his wound was cauterized so it wasn't bleeding. He was leaning up against a jagged edge of a rock to keep him steady.

"All right, that's it." He charged Stormkeeper with a heavy buzz. "I've gotta do this myself. Stupid stinking Noxxa."

Noble, who had put his sword away, tried to draw it again. But the strain to reach that far once again made him cringe and stop mid-movement.

"Any last words, Elements?" the Storm King asked maliciously, unaware of the colorful object rocketing at him from behind.

"Yep," Applejack said. "You talk too much."

Sensing the motive for her words, the Storm King swiveled around, finally aware of the loud noise shooting at him from behind.

But it was already too late. Rainbow Dash, carrying a maskless Freedom Fighter on her back, was holding a flaming sword out to the side. Right above the King's head, she cleaved downward.

It didn't go through his skull, but it cleaved through something.

The King cried aloud once more as his right horn clattered to the hard rubble at his foot.

Rainbow Dash circled above her friends like a hawk, eyeing the weapon the Storm King possessed. The golden sword didn't look very interesting. But there had to be something special to it. Otherwise, the Storm King wouldn't be gripping onto it for dear life.

"Come on!" Rainbow encouraged, tossing the fiery sword to the awestruck Firestorm. "I'm getting tired here. Let's get going!"

Twilight spotted the stone form of Queen Novo lying on her side, caked white by the dust in the air. "First I need to do something!" Twilight said.

Using her magic, she picked the statue up and gently settled it next to the fountain she had been gushing about before her immobilization. It had somehow survived the chaos. Twilight took a moment to keep it there with some semblance of respect. Then she took a deep breath and turned around once more. "Let's go."

Fluttershy grabbed Rarity under the arms and began to ascend. Twilight flapped into the air with Spike on her back. Noble Blade gathered Applejack to his side and, after a few tries and flicker-flashes of his horn, disappeared. Firestorm just gaped at the rising Rainbow, then whispered, "My girlfriend can kick butt!" and sheathed his swords and picked up Pinkie. Starlight Glimmer disappeared with a flash of white light.

Their goal was a small, speedy blimp hovering directly above the mountain like a bee. As the flying ponies flew up and up into the atmosphere to reach the boat, they could hear grunts and groans from the deck, and white, furry Storm King minions were hurled overboard. By the time the rest of the party had arrived, Applejack, Noble Blade, and Starlight Glimmer were finishing wiping the deck clean of any crew members.

The flying ponies dropped off their cargo and collapsed spread-eagle onto the wooden deck, heaving their chests. The victory was certain, and the route was clear.

---

Malice emerged from the black waters, sputtering and gasping. The corpse of his dragon, his magnificent, glorious dragon, was bobbing in the water and leaking blood into the cold depths, and it was to this corpse that Malice clung to.

Of all ponies to have appeared today...it had to have been the Unforgiven. Just his luck! And it had rocked him to the core, knowing that there was a chance, a possibility that he could die. The tribal prophecy was not yet dead. He could still fulfill it!

Malice looked up with seething anger into the heavens against his mother, who had given him the destiny of killing Malice, who had thrust him out of heaven and called him a monster. Malice hated her beyond what any mortal could compare.

He looked up at the mountain and observed that an airship above it was breaking ranks and was about to leave them behind.

"No," he spat, wheezing in pain. "No, no, NO! Unforgiven! Twilight! You both are mine!"

Stretching forth an arm (he had nine now, what a shame) he poured forth his will into the stone in the mountain itself, glowing his antennae.

"O mindless rock, do my bidding," Malice incanted. "Destroy the bearers and halt them in their tracks!"

He released his power at that moment.

A tremendous long spike of white rock, created from the stone within Mount Aris, shot out from the ground, hundreds of feet long but thin like a needle, and impaled the dirigible right in its tracks. The keel split almost entirely in half and hung on the end like a piece of barbecue.

Malice, satisfied with his work, felt weariness overcome him like he had been covered by a blanket. Collapsing onto the body of his mount, floating side by side, Malice curled his legs and fell unconscious.

---

Tempest Shadow's period of restlessness ended when she heard a tremendous crackling of rock. Opening her weary eyes and lifting her head a few inches before the pain kicked in, she saw that the majority of the city she was in was just...not there.

It had been replaced by a massive pillar of white stone, starting wide at the base, but thinning out as it grew longer, until it had skewered an airship high above them, hanging from the tip and sagging.

That ship must have been the ponies! Tempest was sure of it. Malice must have taken initiative and used his magic that way, just as he had done in Maretania.

Where was the Storm King? Tempest was frightened; without him, she had no future. If he had run into the ponies, there was no telling how bad things were. He may be injured, or dead.

Tempest found a crossbow at her hooves with a single arrow inside. They could usually hold more so they could be fired in quick succession, but this was the last shot. She needed to make it count. Tempest picked it up and slung it over her back.

"If you can," Tempest whispered, speaking in general to the remains of the rubble on every side, "I need you to get away. Leave them to me." She stared up once more at the broken airship and knitted her brows together.

"I'm going to put an end to this."

Sprinting at full gallop to the pillar of stone, she planted her hooves on the slanting acute side and began to run up as fast as she could.

---

Each of them had been thrown to the deck as the center of the ship exploded in splinters. The fatigued ponies looked to the source. It was hard to miss the long needlepoint of rock that had impaled them in midair.

"What the heck was that?" Pinkie screeched.

"Are we seriously going to stop because of this?" Starlight demanded.

"Could this day get any better?!" Rainbow Dash asked incredulously.

"Hax!" Firestorm screamed, jabbing at the tower of stone emerging from the opposite end of the ship. "I call freaking hax!"

"The ship is lost!" Applejack said loudly above everyone else. The farm mare pointed at the nearest ship drawing nearer to them, which was twice the size of the other boats and had three engines instead of one. "It's time ta get a new one."

"Darling?" Rarity asked with nervousness, knowing perfectly well what she meant. "What do you mean-"

"Fly over when it gets closer!" Twilight instructed, spreading her wings.

"So let me get this straight," Spike whispered to Twilight as the ponies gathered at the edge of the deck. "We're going to pirate a pirate ship from pirates."

Twilight gave a little jiggle of her head. "Yeah. Great plan. Isn't it?"

"Um...no."

"It's gonna work," Applejack reassured him. "Trust me."

The ponderous ship swung closer their way.

Freedom Fighter's cut mane whipped behind him, exposed to the outside in a rare circumstance. He banged his staff on the deck of the ship and let out a militaristic grunt. Firestorm and Noble followed his example by stomping their right hooves and grunting alike.

The airship's deck was soon right beneath them. They were so close they could see the small satyrs roaming around on the deck, affixing the harpoon guns and cannons.

"Attack!" Firestorm commanded, jumping down from the deck.

The rest of the ponies followed. Applejack and Pinkie Pie had no way to slow their descent down, so they rolled on impact with the deck and quickly straightened themselves. The rest of them, however, landed softly and began fighting the Storm King's forces.

Noble Blade's sword had plunged halfway down the blade into the deck. Twisting his arms, Noble made a circle in the wood and kicked it out and over the edge. "Rarity! Pinkie! Come with me!" And Noble jumped down into the hole, followed by the white and pink ponies.

As they landed on the sub-level hallway, they quickly discovered three hulking Storm beasts, who made some unintelligible hoots and lifted their claws.

Rarity flung one of them back so he hit his head on an overhanging beam. Pinkie had hit another rapid-fire in the belly so hard he fell on his face. Noble finished the last one with a pierce through the heart.

"Clear out!" he instructed Rarity and Pinkie, pointing in both directions. "Take care of any beasts you may find. I'll try and see what's in the center of the ship."

Rarity bolted to the bow while Pinkie sprinted to the stern. And Noble went along the hallway, lit by lanterns, and came to a metal door, which he sliced apart and kicked open in one fluid motion.

Noble came into the room and was amazed by how cavernous and large it was. He was standing on a walkway that led down to the main floor, where a single cage was illuminated by dull red light in the center of a hexagonal catwalk system.

Inside the cage were two weather-beaten and bruised ponies on the brink of survival. Noble could see the tarnished golden armor on their bodies, the dirty red cuts on their faces. One of them turned their face to him.

Noble was petrified. The Storm King had been lying. Shining Armor wasn't dead after all.

"Noble...Blade?" Shining Armor asked. His voice was so weak, so hoarse.

"I'm here," Noble said breathlessly, looking for a control panel. Spotting it on a lower level of the catwalk, he galloped down the stairs, set his hoof on a lever embedded into the ground, and yanked it.

With a series of clinking chains, the red-tinted cage began to rise off the floor and up into the outside through a sliding door.

---

Twilight flung another beast into a wooden beam of the mighty airship. Beside her, Applejack reared up and punched a beast in the stomach, doubling it over.

Spike and Firestorm had ran to the pilot stand, housing a steering wheel, a throttle, and an instrument panel. On it were two creatures, one much shorter than the other.

The shorter one held up his hands when Firestorm leveled his fiery blades at his face. "Wait a thecond! Wait! I'm not the commander! He'th the commander!"

Firestorm kicked the hulking beast off the pilot stand to land on the ground in a daze.

Grubber looked at the ground forlornly as he realized his mistake. "Guess...I'm the commander now..."

Spike blew a torrent of flame onto him, making Grubber scream and speed away in midair like a cartoon animal. He dove off the side of the ship and disappeared.

"I think this is the last of them!" Starlight called, after firing her magic like a machine gun and blasting half a dozen satyrs in the face and stomach and groin.

"Now the only problem is ta get the heck outta Dodge!" Applejack whooped. Galloping to the pilot house built on a stand, she raced up the stairs and began to twist the steering wheel and push the throttle. The airship lurched to the side and steamed its way out of the vicinity of the other ships, which were in pursuit. But the speed of this particular boat had outstripped the others spectacularly.

Soon the other airships were way behind them. The tall figure of Mount Aris began to grow fainter in the distance as they sped away on the stolen Storm King's personal airship.

Until a hovering Storm King balloon cut them off only several hundred meters ahead of them.

"Whoa Nelly!" Applejack exclaimed, furiously spinning the pilot wheel.

"Is the ship ready to fire?" Twilight asked. "Fluttershy, take Applejack and get below decks. Check the harpoon guns and cannons."

"I'm on it!" Fluttershy saluted. Applejack jumped down from the pilot stand and sprinted with her to the stairs reaching below.

"They're not going to make it in time!" Starlight protested to Twilight.

"I know." Twilight indicated the ship ahead of them. "This may have to fall to us to take down."

Starlight ignited her horn in a lance of green. Twilight did the same for her purple horn, though it took some effort. They had just been in battle, after all.

A series of clinks came next to them as somepony trotted over. Firestorm was there, stretching out his wings. "I can take care of this. Don't worry-"

Twilight and Starlight's combined magic lasers cut him off, zinging fast and powerful to crash into the war balloon and set it ablaze. The basket hanging beneath the oversized balloon caught fire, and the beasts inside let out ridiculously high-pitched screams. One of Starlight's lasers pierced the balloon itself and began to burn through the tough fabric, and the balloon descended slowly beneath the cloud line, never to be seen again.

Firestorm was standing completely frozen, pointing at where the balloon was. After a moment he folded his arms while flapping in midair. "I was about to wreck that thing." He sounded like a pouty child.

"We get it!" Starlight boredly said. "You're awesome. You don't need to constantly prove it to us."

"That's not what I-" he began, and then just sighed and relented. "Fine."

"Well, to be fair," Rainbow Dash said, coming next to him and nuzzling his cheek, "you were pretty awesome today."

"No u. You can kick some serious booty! Just...please don't kick mine. Please."

"Wasn't planning on it," Rainbow playfully denied. "But I'll only keep my hooves off you if you don't stare at my booty."

Firestorm became visibly reddened. "That's...going to be hard."

Rainbow laughed. "I'll bet on it!"

A clinking chain drew the attention of everyone else. In the middle of the deck, a panel had opened, and a pulley above it was clattering as it drew up a small cage from its depths.

Noble Blade appeared from the stairs leading down and approached the purple alicorn. "Twilight, I've found something."

"What...is it?" Twilight asked, her attention on the rising chain pulling up the top of the cage.

"It's in there."

The cage had appeared at the top of its route, and when it stopped it jolted, swinging the cage and its captives within. Noble Blade, Firestorm, Freedom Fighter, Twilight, Starlight, and Rainbow Dash all saw the captives: Shining Armor and Winter Gleam.

Twilight's heart lurched in her ribcage. What was he doing here? He looked so terrible...When it came to family, Twilight felt a special place reserved in her heart burst open. And Shining Armor was one of the greatest ponies in her life.

Twilight's brother, as soon as his eyes adjusted to the sudden light, let out a gasp of pained relief and struggled to reach his hoof out of the cage. "Twily!" His bloodshot eyes were threatening to burst. "Twily, you're not dead! Oh! Thank Faust you're all right!"

Twilight, who had stepped to allow him to caress the top of her head, just whispered, "I'm just happy to see you…"

"Marshal Malice told me you were captured!" he continued. "And you were being tortured on another airship…"

"No," Twilight affirmed. "I managed to complete part of my mission. We have two of the four lost Elements. What...were you doing here, anyway?"

"We were looking for you!" Shining Armor said. "You had sent a letter saying you were trapped underneath a lot of rock. Celestia sent me to rescue you."

Twilight's memory was hit with recollections of the Rolk. "Ah..."

"Well, at least we don't need rescuing anymore!" Spike cheerfully said,nudging Twilight with his elbow. "Now we all have a way back!"

From fifteen meters away, hidden in the pilot stand, a wine-colored pony with a jagged mane pointed a crossbow at the middle of Twilight's back.

Shining Armor was the only one to notice in time. He pushed Twilight away, yelling, "Behind you!"

Twilight spun around the exact instant the crossbow in Tempest's hoof fired, aiming right at Twilight's heart.

A figure in black lept in front of the path of the sharp missile, and it struck him in the hip and went out the opposite end. Freedom Fighter went down, stuck like a pig, and as he landed the arrow snapped at the end, and the Black Blade arrowtip bounced away.

Starlight had enveloped Tempest's head in a bright green aura and willed her to come, and Tempest zoomed headfirst to Starlight like a magnet. When she was close enough Rainbow Dash held her left hoof out to the side, and Noble Blade struck her in the small of her back with an armored hoof. Tempest Shadow went onto two knees, with Noble Blade and Rainbow Dash holding her forelegs out to either side.

Firestorm, crying aloud in terror, ran over to check on Freedom Fighter, while Twilight and Starlight stared with fury at the struggling mare.

"When are you going to learn your lesson?" Tempest asked with a snarl. "I'm never going to stop fighting until you give me what I want."

"You monster!" Twilight screamed, jabbing her in the chest. "Who do you think you are, huh?"

"What a bimbo!" Rainbow agreed, pushing on Tempest's shoulder the wrong way.

Firestorm was kneeling over his close friend, terror in his neon yellow eyes. Freedom Fighter's face was twisted in an expression of agony, distorting the already-present scars on his face.

"Don't move," Firestorm shakingly advised, pointing a trembling hoof at his side. "We'll keep the arrow in to plug the bleeding. Just hang in there, all right? I'm going to get you out of this."

"Oh, this?" Freedom Fighter let out a pained chuckle. "What's another scar?"

"Dark humor isn't making this any better, man," Firestorm said, ignoring him. "We'll just-"

Freedom Fighter coughed hard, and splatters of mucus and blood shot out of his mouth in disgusting globules onto the deck. His bodysuit was getting soaked with the blood running from his open wound.

"Help!" Firestorm cried hoarsely, breaking down at last. "I need help!"

Starlight galloped over, her horn glowing. The flow of blood from his open wound decreased gradually.

"Don't even bother with that," Tempest called out to her, who was doing her best to ignore the broken-horned unicorn. "Black Blades cause permanent damage. He's already halfway dead, isn't he?"

Firestorm's eyebrows knitted together as a dark shadow passed across his face. Turning away from his friend, he marched over to Tempest Shadow, still restrained by Noble and Rainbow Dash.

"Is your nose broken?" Firestorm asked, calm and collected.

Tempest winced and nodded.

Firestorm looked her in the eye, almost sympathetic. Then in a fraction of a second he inhaled through his nose and shot his hoof into her face, and the armored hoof broke her nose a second time in another place, making her pain redouble and forcing her to cry out in pain.

Firestorm's sympathetic look returned upon seeing her pain. "Oh, sorry. I am so sorry. Here, let me just-"

He pounded his hoof on top of her broken horn without any semblance of sympathy and ground it in deeper, breaking off miniscule pieces, and Tempest began to leak tears from her eyes.

"Oh, that's painful, huh? Well, you need pain to feel alive! Don't you like it?! You should like it! Want some more?"

"Enough!" Noble admonished him, trying to pull the captive away.

"NO!" Firestorm lunged for her and punched her in the nose again. Blood ran afresh down her face. "She needs to die! She's killed him!"

"We need to interrogate her later!" Twilight protested, appearing in Firestorm's way. "That means she can't die!"

"I'll make her wish she could!" He pushed Twilight aside, making her fall on the deck. Before he could deliver another strike to her, Noble lashed out behind Tempest and punched him in the forehead. Firestorm staggered a bit and stared at the knight with incredulity, wincing.

"She's going to answer for this," Noble told him, on the verge of tears himself. "But not from you!"

Firestorm stared back at him with venom, and pointed to their wounded friend. "She-!...You can't just let it-" He let out a groan of fury and stomped away. "Make her rot!" he called back before opening the door in the side of the upper deck and vanishing.

He came out a second later, and a mop fell on the deck. "That was a closet," he muttered. He opened the correct entrance a little further on and slammed the door shut.

Starlight had managed to seal up his wound by then. The arrow was still embedded in his flesh, but it was securely in there to prevent bleeding out. Freedom Fighter's face was pained, but acceptant of his wound.

Meanwhile, Twilight had opened the cage her brother was in, and he and Winter Gleam stepped out, stumbling and fumbling their way to a banister. The crying Tempest was then thrown in, but not before her hooves had been removed of their armor.

"My face," she whispered through her pain as the door to the cage was clanged shut. "My face! Agh…It hurts!"

"You should have thought of that before!" Rainbow belligerently interrupted her.

"Am I at least going to get a painkiller?"

Twilight set her face in stone. "No."

The alicorn then pulled the cage to her face, making Tempest jiggle forward and forcing her to listen to what Twilight had to say next.

"Don't. Get. Up."

With a glow of her horn the lever holding the cage up dropped, and the cage sunk beneath the deck and the doors closed. The last thing Twilight saw of Tempest Shadow was her pleading turquoise eyes, one with a long white scar over it. Then the doors banged shut and the cage disappeared from the world.

---

For three hours, the airship plowed on northward. It was nighttime and the stars were shining brightly above them, which Twilight used for navigation.

While commanding the ship from the pilot stand, her thoughts reflected on the battle on the mountain. Were the hippogriffs all right? They had been sheltered from the worst of it in the underground caverns. Was the Storm King pursuing them? Was he even in any condition to fight on, anyway, losing a leg and a horn like that? Come to think of it, what was his relation to Marshal Malice? Was he an accomplice or a minion, or an entirely different party? And where was Malice, anyway? He had taken a bearing, that was for sure. He was in no condition to pursue them, not with the forces he had.

And then there was the nature of Tempest Shadow. Why was she working with the enemy? She was a pony! Which made her a traitor to Equestria. But why did she need Twilight?

She thought back to the crippling event that recently had occurred. Freedom Fighter, asleep in the medical bay in the stern, had selflessly thrown himself into the path of the deadly arrow. Her admiration for the injured, schizophrenic veteran had soared.

Freedom Fighter was the Element of Sacrifice. How much more did he have to give? He needed to be showered in good things to make up for the crappy life he was living in. But how could she make that happen? What could she do for him?

Not even Twilight could come up with a realistic long-term answer for that.

When the moon had reached its peak in the midnight sky, Twilight passed the job on to Starlight Glimmer and made her way to the cabins.

Finding an empty one somewhere at the end of the halls, Twilight opened the door and collapsed onto the thin mattress in the corner.

---

Freedom Fighter was naked and afraid.

Lying on his back on a medical bed, with a splinter of thin wood in his body exposed through the bandages at both ends of entry, trying not to move a muscle, he was trying to fall asleep. But he had on no blanket, and his bodysuit had been thrown into a corner. His scar-stretched body smelled like blood.

"I'm scared," he whispered in his mind, folding his hooves into his armpits. The metal hoof was colder than his fleshy one. "I'm going to die."

"No, you're not. You're just going to become wracked with the pain while the wound heals, and you'll survive anyway."

"Hey, Faust?" he wondered aloud
His gut twisted inside of him, making him choke on his own breath. "If you want me dead, just kill me. I'd welcome it at this point."

No answer came.

Freedom Fighter, for a lack of breath, leaked tears from his ducts, and they streamed down the scars and channels on his worn-down face. "Kill me already," he whispered. The pain was so terrible! "Oh, Faust!" His inhales were ragged and weak, tearing at the back of his throat. "Oh, Faust, help me!"

Instead of words echoing in his head, he felt his chest compress for a moment. He felt very woozy all of a sudden, and unwilling to move his body. He still felt plenty cold, however.

In no time at all, Freedom Fighter fell fast asleep.

Author's Note:

Sooo...what'd you guys think?...I would love feedback on this battle more than anything else in the world.

Comments

[InsertNameHere]

Amazing chapter and great battle! Can't wait for the next chapter to see what happens to Freedom Fighter.

[Jade Dawn]

You know, it only now occurred to me how ironic the situation is. In this version, it's Tempest cowering in a cage while Twilight stares daggers at her.

Call it a gut feeling, but I'm kind of getting worried that Twilight's gonna snap at some point. Like she'll just go utterly crazy and start massacring the bad guys left and right, and when confronted about it, she'll just say, "But at least they can't hurt us anymore! Because now they can't come back!"

My only real gripe about this chapter is this:

"Am I at least going to get a painkiller?"

It may be just me, but that sounds just a wee bit out of character for Tempest. That's like Darth Vader crying for his dead mom when Luke chops off his hand in Return of the Jedi. I would've thought she'd just grit her teeth and, as Ember said, "push past the pain".

[FanficReader920]

Honestly, Freedom just needs to leave the fight and live a happy, peaceful life.

[A Man Undercover]

Finally finished reading this chapter. Apologies for not finishing it sooner, my good friend, but things have really been piling on me as of late.

Having finally read the whole thing, though, I must say that everything was as vastly epic as always. I never guessed that Tempest would all of a sudden be hitching a ride for this journey, but she did. The same with Shining Armor and Winter Gleam.

The only thing I can’t help but feel confused about is this:

Is the Storm King dead? Or the opposite?

[BradyBunch]

9975065
The Storm King isn't dead. Yet. And neither is Marshal Malice. Or Freedom Fighter.