A Rather Large Adventure

by BradyBunch

Chapter Seventy-nine: Split

Garble’s explanation of Malice’s rise to power was condensed from only what he knew, but what the ponies needed to know, they got. Malice had come out of nowhere, instigated a fake rebellion, and his servant had killed the Dragon Lord in front of his eyes and pinned it on him. Malice was declared Dragon Lord, and as far as Garble knew, he had sent hunters to track him down and slay him.

Spike seemed to be affected the most by this news. There was a hollow, dejected muffle in his otherwise shining eyes, and his body was limp. He hadn’t said anything since Garble started speaking. Garble had always looked down on the little runt, but knowing firsthand of the close nature he and Ember had shared, Garble at least understood his grief.

What he didn’t understand was the yellow pony’s anger. He had shoved his long weapon into the rock so hard, it burned a shallow hole that kept it upright. His fiery red eyes were thin and his face was lined with disgust and fury as he finally spoke his mind after Garble had said everything. “We kill him, Twilight. Garble has no reason to lie like this, especially considering how he’s acting, so Malice is alive and well. If we take him out of the picture, it’ll make our jobs way easier.”

“But what about the final Element?” Twilight pointed out.

“That’s Starlight’s job, not ours. And besides, if I kill this abomination, my long-awaited prophecy will be fulfilled. We won’t get another chance like this! He doesn’t know we’re here, but we know he is! Twilight, don’t you want him gone?”

“I do!” Twilight insisted. “But we need to focus on the bigger picture here. Star Swirl the Bearded said the Elements are the only things that matter now. Malice knows that too, which is why he even bothered to come here. And when I was held captive by them, they said that Malice needed an alicorn princess for… something. I can’t remember… gah! Anyway, we’ll just be playing into his claws!”

“If he’s gunning for the final Element like you say he is, then we’ll just find him at the Element’s location anyway!” Freedom Fighter argued. “We don’t know where it is. Garble!” he barked, startling the dragon. “Do you know where a volcano temple would be in the dragonlands?”

Garble snorted. “How’m I supposed to know that? I don’t wander the dragonlands all day. It didn’t concern me.”

“Well, it concerns you now,” Rainbow snapped. “Do you know where somepony who knows about it would be?”

Garble shrugged. “I dunno, Dragon Lord Torch?”

“So we have to go to the dragon’s throne anyway,” Freedom concluded to Twilight. “Do you know where it is?”

“Not relative to our location,” Twilight said. “But Garble here’s been running from it for some time now. I’m sure he can retrace his steps for us.”

That did it. “No way!” Garble snapped. “I ain’t gonna be a pony’s little guide dog. You expect me to go back to the place that’s trying to kill me?”

“I expect you to follow our instructions,” Twilight corrected, leaning close to him. “Unless of course, you were planning to die out here in the wilderness instead?”

“If I have to!” he retorted. “I needed your help to get away from that place, not closer!”

“Shut up,” came a harsh whisper. All eyes landed on Spike, who was still looking at the ground with tears in his eyes.

Garble narrowed his gaze. “What’d you say, you little punk?”

“... I am not going to take… this from you!” Spike erupted, balling his tiny fists. “You always were a coward, huh? I thought you were the one that took charge! You were a leader! But no! Nooo, not now! Your own miserable scales are more important to you than getting back at a literal devil!”

“Don’t you call me a coward, you little extra!” Garble shot back. “If you’d seen what I saw, you wouldn’t call me that!”

“You wanna know what I’ve seen, Garble?” Spike yelled, his voice scratching. “I watched myself die! I watched every last one of my friends die in a mirror world! I crawled into the deepest crypts, sunk to the bottom of the sea, and fought the demons that Malice commands! I stared death in the face and walked into a base crawling with evil to rescue a pony I love more than life itself! I walked a battlefield I scorched with my own fire and stood my ground in a hurricane! You wanna know what I didn’t do? I didn’t bleed and cry and crawl my way all the way here just to get called an extra from a yellow-bellied skinny little cold-blooded coward who runs with his tail between his legs from something I march headlong into!”

Garble snarled and lunged at Spike with bared fangs. “You’re dead!”

But Spike had more experience with enemies than Garble, who had led a relatively sheltered life until now. Spike stepped to the side while Garble was moving, and his fist lashed out and caught him on the cheek, diverting his course and sending Garble falling to the rocky ground.

“Wouldn’t be the first time I heard that,” Spike wheezed, short on breath from his shouting and crying.

Garble incredulously put a trembling hand to his cheek. The little runt could hit! Which begged the question, why didn’t he ever do it before?

“We’re not asking you,” Rainbow Dash revealed bluntly. “We’re fed up as it is, and if we have to take you in bonds, you can bet your sorry hide we’ll do it.”

Something Spike had said resonated uncomfortably with his innards. Speaking from experiences alone, Spike had faced more danger than he. Spike was walking into hell like it was basically nothing. There was a fair case to be made that Spike… was braver than he was. That Spike was stronger!

And frankly, Garble would have none of that nonsense.

“Look, just shut up,” Garble insisted. “If this is really what you want, I’ll guide you to the dragon’s throne.”

The ponies looked satisfied with that much, which was something Garble was grateful for. But Spike didn’t look satisfied at all. Instead, Spike had come over to him and had offered a hand, albeit a reluctant one. “You okay?”

Garble sneered at the offer and stood up on his own. “What kind of dragon are you? You beat me down and then offer me back up?”

“I just didn’t want you to be hurt,” Spike defended, an edge in his tone. “If you needed help, I wouldn’t feel good about keeping it from you.”

Garble blinked. Something was stuck in his throat. “Well, I’m not weak, okay? I’m strong on my own!”

“Oh, here we go again,” Spike groaned, rolling his eyes.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Another self-important creature who needs a lesson or two in the magic of friendship~” Spike said in a sarcastic singsong-y voice.

“Shut up already,” Garble ordered him, pushing Spike a few steps to the side in disgust.

“There’s nothing you can say that I haven’t heard before.” Spike gave him a glare. “And what kind of strength do you have when you pick on extras?”

Garble scoffed and stormed past Spike and the other ponies to sulk. The ponies were having some sort of conversation that Garble wasn’t interested in, but he heard parts of it.

“Do you think the other ponies are alive?” Rainbow Dash asked Twilight.

“You’re worried about Firestorm,” Freedom Fighter recognized, chipping in from the side.

The pegasus nodded after a moment.

“I am too,” Freedom admitted. “But all we can do is hope and maybe pray. There’s nothing we can do for them here, so we’ll do what we can now to finish our enemy.”

“Do you think they’re having any luck?” Rainbow asked him.

“We’ll see,” Twilight chipped in. “Without a doubt, they’re trying to figure out what to do.”

---

Firestorm squinted at the watery horizon and turned his head side to side. The inside of his ear was still muffled from residual seawater. “Is there anypony else?”

“Fluttershy was the only one that we could find,” Tempest told him, Starlight Glimmer by her side. They were on the edge of the beach. Plants and soil began to replace the sand, but it didn’t go far before overlooking a steep dropoff into a boundless basin tinged with the rust color of the dragonlands. On the edge of the cliff, Fluttershy was lying chest down and trying her best to recuperate from her experience.

“Fine, then. The others are missing. Not much we can do about that. We must have washed up on separate shores, but our mission is still the same,” Firestorm spoke seriously. “Find and obtain your Element.”

Firestorm could tell from the look in her eyes that this was something she knew all too well. Firestorm had once held that very look in his own eyes. This was guidance he could help her on.

“The problem here is that we don’t know which direction to take,” Tempest observed, coming to the edge of the cliff and overlooking the expanse far below.

Starlight, meanwhile, had knelt on all fours beside Fluttershy and parted aside her long, damp mane. “You okay, Fluttershy?”

The yellow pegasus looked thoroughly miserable, as a matter of fact. Her eyes and nose were still red and irritated from the salt water she had been floating face-up in when Starlight had first found her an hour ago. Her tiny lips quivered as her response tumbled out. “I-I’m okay. Just leave me alone… for a little bit.”

“Forgive me, but you don’t look okay at all,” Starlight rebutted her gently. “If something’s wrong, tell me. I can help.”

“I said it’s fine,” Fluttershy insisted, shaking her now-jagged mane. “I only…” She paused. Something was conflicting in her. “...No.”

Starlight waited patiently.

“I’m scared, Starlight…”

“That’s okay,” the unicorn reassured her. “So am I.”

“You don’t understand,” Fluttershy continued, looking down and slumping. “I-it’s about Noble. And Rainbow...”

“I understand completely,” Starlight hushed. “It’ll be okay, I promise.”

“You keep on saying pretty words like that,” a destitute Fluttershy whispered. “When has it ever ended up okay?”

“...That doesn’t mean I won’t do my best,” Starlight answered after thinking of an appropriate response. “Life isn’t always easy, but there’s no doubt it’s worth fighting for.”

Fluttershy’s blinking became more forceful as she threatened to overspill. But she kept herself from doing so and laid down again.

“I get it,” Starlight told her. “I’ll be right nearby.”

Fluttershy’s concealed pink head nodded sporadically in response.

Firestorm watched all this out of the corner of his eye, and his chest squeezed. He wasn’t the same thing as Noble, or Rainbow Dash. Both of those ponies he was close to were also close to her, but Firestorm wasn’t a beacon to her the same way those two were. He wanted to help; he really did! But he had a sneaking suspicion that he would just end up making things worse.

So instead he sat on his butt with his legs dangling over the side of the cliff, settled his face in his other hooves, and made a tired sound along the lines of, “Psshhhpbpbpbpbpttbppp.”

A few pebbles dislodged near him, making him turn. Tempest was sitting beside him in the same manner. “How are you holding up?” she asked quietly but casually.

Firestorm picked up a hoof full of grainy dirt and let it drip in brown clouds from his grip. “I… well, it’s tough. And tiring. Can I tell you a secret? I’m not sure what to do in the present because the future is so convoluted and uncertain.”

Tempest sneaked him a glance. “Hm. Curious. I’d have expected the Element of Courage to think differently. A macho, nothing’s-gonna-go-wrong sort of upbeatness. You can fit the bill quite well.”

“I thought you thought I was a hotheaded type.”

She shrugged and chucked a rock into the chasm below. It clinked and bounced on the tilted slope below before shattering. “Not anymore. I know you too well.”

Firestorm nodded along. If he could go back in time a week or two and tell himself he’d be friends with a pony like her… “And how are you doing?”

Tempest stretched her arms above her head. “I dunno. The Storm King’s dead. That’s a plus.”

“Do you feel at ease with that?”

“...I don’t feel at ease,” Tempest said, picking up another stone and fiddling it between her hooves. “But it’s not for the reason you think. I’m not conflicted over his death. He deserved to die. Good riddance.”

“Then what’s the deal with you?” Firestorm pressed.

“... You really believe in Faust, right?” Tempest asked all of a sudden.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Firestorm replied.

“Because what I’m about to say might contradict Her law,” Tempest said, looking away from him. “I’m not sure if you’d want to hear it.”

Firestorm nodded patiently. “I’m listening.”

“Well… if we assume the most important thing in the world is friendship, then the breaking of that friendship is the worst imaginable offense, even worse than murder. I even learned something similar to that from the Storm King. He expected us all to fall in line, and traitorous actions were punishable by death. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think Faust works the same. If ponies were given gifts from her and were close to her, and then they up and betray Faust and sin their pathetic hearts out, I think Faust takes that personally. It would be even worse than ponies that break her law in ignorance--the expectations for Faust’s followers are higher than usual. If she’s real, Faust is a very forgiving Goddess. I think that Faust forgives even murder. But I’m not sure if she’ll forgive ponies that willfully rebel after knowing her.”

Firestorm was taken aback by her assessment. It made a surprising amount of sense, for a nonreligious pony. “You don’t feel any remorse for your old master?”

“He was a despot,” the broken unicorn quietly affirmed through gritted teeth. “Who would?”

“So what does all this mean?”

“What I’m trying to say is… I finally realized something after the Storm King died. Friendship was always important to me too. It was so important that it crippled me when no one accepted me when they saw this scar.” She indicated the white, jagged line bisecting her eye. “And since then, that passion only got replaced by Twilight. I don’t want this time to end in failure too. But I don’t see how it can’t. So mostly, I’m uneasy because I’m… Gah. Scared for our future. I… hope all that made sense.”

Firestorm scooted a little closer to Tempest and rested a hoof on her shoulders. “I’ll do my best to prevent that future. I mean… we’ll get through this, won’t we?”

Tempest’s hard-lined expression softened into a miniscule, hopeful smile. “Yeah. Yeah! If nothing else, we’ll at least survive… for my friend’s sake.” She drew out a golden necklace embedded with a ruby lightning bolt. “She needs this more than I do. I owe it to her to give it back.”

Firestorm nodded with resolution. “We’ll both do it for her. And that means getting Starlight to the temple. Hey. I have a task for you. While we walk, talk with her and see how well you two click. She’s the closest thing to Twilight we have.”

With that said, he flapped up and urged Starlight and Fluttershy with a hoof. “Let’s move.”

“Just a little bit longer,” Starlight replied, indicating Fluttershy. “Give her some more recovery, for pity’s sake!”

“We can’t afford to stay here,” Tempest refused. “Let’s just make it down the cliff for starters. I’m not sure how we’ll find the volcano, but I think we’ll know it when we see it.”

“And I’m sure the others are making their way as well, wherever they are,” Firestorm added. “Let’s not show up late to the fireworks.”

Fluttershy nodded, wiped her face, and rose onto her hooves. Starlight came to the edge, peeked over, ignited her horn, and enveloped herself in an aura of magic. With deliberation, she floated slowly down the slope. Gesturing with his eyes, Tempest obeyed and sullenly climbed onto Firestorm’s back. The two pegasi on the edge flapped into the air and followed Starlight’s descent.

It didn’t take long to reach the bottom. Once they got there, however, their next task awaited: Crossing the basin and entering the blasted wilderness beyond.

Firestorm circled his wings and yawned. “Hoo boy. Who’s ready for a vacation here? It’s warm, the population is scarce… who wouldn’t want to stay here?”

“We’re going to a temple of doom,” Starlight told him with a flat face. “It drowns out any positives this place has.”

“Low real estate, then!” Firestorm continued, unfazed by the news. “Come on, let’s explore! It’ll be fun! We’ll meet up with the rest of our friends at the volcano temple of devils and death.”

“You really think they’re going to be there when we are?” Fluttershy whispered as they all got moving.

Firestorm stared into the sun-kissed wasteland. He didn’t know where anything was, but he’d hope anyways.

“I have faith in my friends. They’ll lead the best way they can.”

---

Noble Blade scanned the area yet again, but there were still no signs of anypony else near. He and the girls were indeed on their own out here.

“Ya done?” came Applejack’s drawl behind him. “Can we go now?”

“Sorry,” Noble quickly said, turning and sliding back down the gravelly embankment to end up in his small group once again. He had miraculously held onto his sword, but his shield had been lost in the ocean in the chaos of the hurricane. “I’m just…”

“I know you’re worried,” Rarity assured him. “Fluttershy is dear to me too. And I want to see Spike the same way you want to see her. But we won’t do that by staying here.”

“Cheer up, you guys!” came Pinkie’s bubbly squeal. “Mopey-dopey faces aren’t useful!”

“Pulled grins aren’t useful either,” Rarity pointed out.

“What’s our direction?” Applejack asked Noble Blade, ignoring the discussion the others were having.

“I don’t know,” Noble admitted, a hoof to his head. “And I’m not sure how to find out, either.”

“Jus’ our luck,” Applejack sighed, sitting on the ground on her butt.

“Any ideas?” Noble asked nopony in particular.

“Well, if we come across any citizens, we can ask, right?” Rarity assumed.

“And this is how it’ll go: ‘Howdy hey there, ol’ dragon pal! Ignore the fact that you dragons don’t like ponies and answer me this: Ya ever see a volcano temple in the middle o’ nowhere?’”

Applejack’s analysis did not inspire confidence in the others. Nopony really made a response to that. But Pinkie was predictably the first to break the silence.

“Well, let’s just start by-” Pinkie started, then froze and began to quiver.

“What is it?” Rarity asked, rushing to her side and gripping her shivering shoulder tight.

“Pinkie Sense!” Pinkie cried, her voice shaking. Her eyes rolled in their sockets with a cuckoo clock sound and her tongue shot out like a frog, then she coughed and crouched. “Get down, now!”

Nopony questioned the order. Noble, Rarity, and Applejack hit the dirt and pressed themselves into the edge of the embankment. Their breathing was quick but quelled into a quiet puffing.

And true to Pinkie’s senses, there came steadily-rising voices on the beach, and they were none too kind. The group’s nervous eyes were drawn up a few feet, where on the other side of the embankment, argumentative voices clashed.

“This is where some of the wreckage washed up, Brimstone. But no ponies!” squealed a thin wheeze.

“Keep looking!” came the response, from what was obviously Brimstone. His voice was deeper, gravelly, and held a tone of authority.

“What do you think we’ve been doing for the last few hours?” came a lispy, high voice. “Combin’ the desert, combin’ the sand, combin’ the beach. We ain’t found sh-”

“It’s impossible!” yelled out a fourth voice, bombastic and cruel but unmistakable female. “We should have found at least somepony by now!”

“What if nopony’s come ‘ere yet, Warcane?” came the thin wheeze, coming ever closer to the edge of their embankment. “Or they drowned?”

“There is no way, Spindlestick,” Brimstone’s deep bass rumbled. “These are the Elements we’re talking about. They’ve come here. Or they’re very close to coming.”

Spindlestick’s hoof dislodged some dirt on the embankment, making everypony’s heartbeat jolt as his face appeared into view. Miraculously, he wasn’t looking down, letting the ponies get a glance of him. His fur and mane was deathly pale and white. Black tattoos spidered and curled up his neck and into his mouth. Light brown leather armor covered the front of his chest.

Before he could take a look down, he was yanked back by some unknown force. The ponies beneath breathed a collective sigh of relief.

“Don’t wander off,” came the restrained fury of Warcane. “You’re too weak to do anything, dimwit!”

“Big words coming from a little pony,” said the deepening bass of Brimstone. “You were the one that exposed us to that dragon yesterday!”

“They’ve grown bolder!” Warcane defended. “I don’t know what it is, but it was like a sudden switch flip in their minds.”

“We’ve grown bolder too,” the lispy, high voice contributed. “We’re venturing out from Mount Nevermore. How many times do we have the chance?”

“What do we do?” Spindlestick wheezed. “We can’t go back to the temple empty-hooved.”

“Yes we can,” Brimstone rumbled. “Nothing is expected of us if we didn’t find the Element bearers. If we found them and failed to subjugate them, it’s another issue.”

A loud snarl of hate came from the unhinged female in the group. “I will not be undermined by a dozen pastel snot drops! I need to bring back at least one body, Brimstone! I won’t be able to live with myself otherwise!”

“Then die.”

Silence drowned out whatever anyone else was going to say. Warcane’s breathing became quick and loud.

“What. Did you. Just say?!”

“And I hope you do,” Brimstone continued. “I won’t have to put up with your temper. Unless you want to die right here and now, shut your blasted jaw and follow our navigator back to Mount Nevermore. Goldie?”

“Yes, ser,” said the high lispy voice, Goldie. “If’n you’ll follow me…”

The gripping of cloth could be heard. “You and I know the only reason you’re still in charge is because-”

“Because you lost,” Brimstone finished for Warcane. “We can go at it again if you want, Warcane. But if you lose again, it will be your position that is vacant instead.”

After a pregnant pause, Warcane grumbled and released Brimstone. “We’ll see about that.”

“You won’t,” Brimstone promised her. “You’ll be dead by then if you keep this up. Back in line, little filly.”

Warcane kicked some sand over the edge of the embankment angrily, showering the ponies in the stuff. But she complied, and the hoofsteps gradually receded into the distance.

Nopony dared to speak for some time, but when they felt safe enough, they whispered their thoughts.

“Those tattoos,” Rarity observed with a shiver. “They were the same as on the three warriors at the tree!”

“Renee, Bloodrayne, and Cookie musta been the leaders of this renegade band,” Applejack theorized in a hush.

“Which means they came from the same place those three did,” Noble concluded.

“Our primary objective!” Pinkie realized in a stage whisper. “The volcano temple!”

“How far do you think we can keep our distance?” Applejack asked Noble Blade, inching up the embankment to peek one emerald eye over the edge.

“Enough so we can barely see them,” he replied.

“What if they do spot us?” Rarity asked in worry, inching her head up to peek as well. “Do we fight or run?”

“Those four are our only way of navigation,” Noble replied. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but keep them alive as long as possible.”

“Maybe…” Pinkie thought out loud. “Maybe they already know! And they’ll lead us into a trap!”

“Wouldn’t be my first time,” Noble muttered. “Let them try to trap us, then. We’ll still get where we need to go. Just as how I lost my shield, the time of defending is gone. Now is our time to strike. No pony, Nox, or dragon will stop the Elements from reuniting.”