Fires of Friendship and Ice of Hatred

by Super Ponyman

Chapter 11: Neighpon, Land of Mystery and Monsters

Author's Note:

So last time we got Thorn Horn on the team, he seems to be able to cure pretty much anything with a bunch of herbs and stuff...

The title of this chapter says it all, Shining Armor and Shadow Armor head to Neighpon to look for Quickfire, the next member of the Masters of Nature.

What they don't know is that a villain thought to be fiction is waiting for them... and that Villain has Tentacles!

(Twilight's Castle, The Knights Room)

The Knights Room was the room that many a pony had mistakenly walked into, thinking it was Twilight's Library...

Those ponies were then ejected by a shockwave at high speeds by a very angry Shadow Armor, with Shining Armor trying to hold the black knight back from tearing the intruders apart.

Shadow Armor and Shining Armor were packing up their gear, including their armor and weapons just in case they ran into a monster.

Which was rather common in Neighpon, where there was rumors spreading of a beast that was ransacking the countryside looking for something or somepony.

The news of a monster to fight made Shadow Armor legitimately squeal out loud with joy, which earned a bunch of worried glances from his friends, thinking he went crazy.

So, Shadow Armor retreated to the thing he loved to do, fight.

He'd spar and duel with anypony brave enough to take him on, such examples were Thunder Fury and the rest of the Masters of Nature, Shining Armor, Burning Star, and many of the Main Six except Fluttershy.

Now, he was being sent alongside his light counterpart to Neighpon to recruit a pony known as Quickfire, who apparently was a excellent markspony.

Shining Armor shut his saddle bags and said, "C'mon Shady, we have to get going, what's taking you so long anyways?"

Shadow Armor turned to Shining Armor and said, "Shining... do you know what happens when you die? Ever since our fight with those two Windigos I've been thinking about what Death is..."

Shining Armor scowled and said, "Listen here, Shadow Armor. No pony is going to die on our watch, I'll make sure of it!"

Shadow Armor responded, "What about tomorrow? what about the day after that? Shining, we can't save everypony, and you know that's true."

Shining Armor had Eclipsio up a portal to Neighpon, and said this before entering, "As long as ponies remember you when you die, you memories and knowledge will still carry on to the next generation. That's what I think at least... I know when I'm gone, Twilight will remember that I was her BBBFF."

Shadow Armor thought to himself, "Would Burning Star remember me if I were to die?"

(Neighponese Pagoda, Neighpon)

When Shining Armor and Shadow Armor exited the portal, they were standing on the top floor of a Neighponese Pagoda, which faced the mountain they were supposed to find Quickfire on...

The dormant volcano known as Mt Gallop...

Shadow Armor put on his armor and said, "Shining, I recommend you equip yourself for battle. If this Quickfire is as great a markspony as ponies say he is, then approaching the mountain on foot is too risky. So I got something special for the both of us..."

Shadow Armor pulled out two dark green triangles, that expanded into giant arrow shaped triangles of cloth with metal frames.

Shining Armor gasped, "Are those Gliders?! Did you take those from the armory?"

Shadow Armor smirked, "Yeah, I figured it would be much easier than filing to rent one, waiting forever, then having to sign waviers and paperwork. By the time I would clear up that mess of documents Burning Star would have exploded into a firey inferno and burned up the planet."

Shining Armor wanted to respond to that, then realized that Shadow Armor was kind of right...

Shining strapped the Glider to his back and looked down, they were really high up, probably about 100 feet off the ground.

Shining turned to Shadow Armor and said, "Do we have to be this high? Maybe we should look for a safer way do-"

Shadow Armor jumped from the roof, only to be blown back into the Pagoda, hitting his body on every roof on every floor.

"Ahh! Ow! Godamn! Mother Buck-"

He landed on his face, cracking the earth with his impact.

Shining looked down and said, "That didn't end well."

Shining ran down the stairs and picked Shadow Armor up and said, "I told you s-"

He was interrupted by Shadow Armor blasting him towards the mountain, he said while doing that.

"SHUT UP!"

(Neighpon, Mt Gallop)

After what seemed like hours, the two knights approached the mountainside and looked up, sighing as they began to climb up the mountain, and that took much longer than the walk to the mountain.

it was nearly nighttime when they reached the top, and stared into the caldera, both screaming when they saw lava puddles boiling inside of it.

Both knights slid down the caldera slope, freezing the puddles of lava with an ice spell.

Shining Armor said to his dark copy, "I thought you said this volcano was unable to erupt... so explain why there is lava down there?!"

Shadow Armor snorted out, "I said it was DORMANT! Not EXTINCT! Dormant means that it is just sleeping until it is disturbed in some way that causes an eruption."

Shadow Armor's ears perked up as he heard the slight sound of a crossbow being drawn, he grabbed Shining Armor and tackled him to the ground as an arrow impacted itself into the ground.

A voice came from the other side of the caldera.

"Had you not dived out of the way, you would both be dead."

Shadow Armor began to run to the other side of the caldera, getting shot in the legs and leaving him on his knees.

Shining Armor rushed over to his dark companion and used his shield to block another arrow being fired from the pony that was most likely Quickfire.

Said pony jumped out of the shadows with a quiver on his back as well as a pair of miniature crossbows on his sides in holsters.

Shining Armor got a good look at him, Quickfire was an unicorn who wore black and orange-red armor, his mane was a dull navy blue and was tied back into a top knot and his tail was cut very short, probably to reduce the odds of being detected. He had a orange-red and black mask on, with one eye visible and one eye covered for reasons unknown.

Quickfire stepped forwards and said in an unidentifiable voice, "Impressive. You blocked one shot, but I still have all these arrows, white unicorn."

Quickfire must wear a voice distorter, cause he sounded terrifying.

Like on King Sombra levels of Terror!

Shining Armor fired off a bullet of magic, to which Quickfire responded by drawing a katana and deflecting the shot back at Shining Armor, who was flung backwards from the impact.

Quickfire rushed over to Shining Armor and put the point of his katana against his throat. He said, "You lose, White Unicorn."

Shining Armor drew his sword and parried Quickfire's sword, and the battle began.

While Shining Armor wasn't used to fighting with a sword at first (he was more of a spear guy), Shadow Armor taught him various types of swordplay since the "Nightmare Ponyville." Incident.

Ever since then, he had been training to make himself a better warrior.

Quickfire was used to defeating opponents of any species, Unicorn, Pegasus, Earth Pony, etc.

But this Unicorn wouldn't quit! He knew swordplay well, and this surprised the assassin. He countered every move he made, which was very impressive.

Shining Armor, then Shadow Armor were eventually disarmed and Quickfire once again put his katana against his throat.

He said to the two knights in his indifferent voice, "You fight with the fury of a raging fire, before I end you, tell me... who was your teacher?"

Shadow Armor gasped out, "Burning Star, the Alicorn of Fire. We came to ask for your help, but you are really making it hard for us to ask you. Is it a common thing for you to try and kill your visitors?"

Quickfire facehoofed, "I wasn't trying to kill you two..."

He pointed towards the edge of the volcano's caldera, "I was trying to kill HER."

Shining Armor and Shadow Armor heard a mad cackle as a mass of green tendrils reached Up over the cliff, and pulled a pony wearing a tight purple spandex suit. She had wild red and green eyes and a mad grin on her face as she climbed down into the caldera.

Shining Armor instantly recognized her and his jaw dropped as he said,

"MANE-IAC!"

Shadow Armor looked at the insane mare's mane and saw that it was moving and wriggling. This made him a little nervous, which was unusual...

He then asked his white knight counterpart, "Shining, care to inform me who this "Mane-iac" is?"

Quickfire answered instead, "A villain from the "Power Ponies" comic series, she was a hairdresser who fell into a vat of chemicals that made her go insane, as well as granting her a mutated mane that can turn into tentacles to grab things or lash out like whips or spears... she is also insane."

Mane-iac giggled, "Why thank you, Quickfire, where I come from in Maretropolis you're known as the greatest assassin around."

Shadow Armor saw Mane-iac's mane sprout into dozens of green tendrils of hair, he then said.

"Tentacles. why is it f--king tentacles!"

Shining Armor looked confused, "What's so bad, Shady?"

Shadow Armor said in a concerned tone, "I know enough about Neighpon to know that tentacles are a nasty subject to bring up, Before we came here I decided to research some of Neighpon's media, when I finished the section labeled "Hentai"... I needed some eye bleach afterwards."

Quickfire whispered into Shining Armor's ear, and Shining Armor recoiled in disgust.

Mane-iac cackled and picked up a boulder with her mane, before throwing it at the trio of Ponies.

Quickfire pulled out an explosive device and threw it at the boulder, it detonated, reducing the boulder to a pile of pebbles.

Shadow Armor and Shining Armor wasted no time and scattered, hoping to divide up the multiple tendrils of hair, it didn't work and they ended up face to face with the psychopath.

She said to the two knights, "Did you really think that through? I've dealt with Matter-Horn and easily bested most of the Power Brats, you can't beat me! I'm going to enjoy using the acid that created the marvel that is my mane to turn your psyche to mush! Hahahahaha!"

Shining Armor smirked, "Sorry but we have a job to do, Mane-iac! Don't underestimate the two of us!"

Quickfire delivered a double kick with his hind legs to Mane-iac's chest, breaking her grip on the two knights.

Shadow Armor said to Quickfire, "Why did you save us?"

Quickfire simply said, "Well... bringing her in will earn me a hefty payday, I'll join up with you if you help me take her down, got it?"

Mane-iac lashed out with her mane acting like spears, attempting to impale the trio on her tendrils.

Quickfire tossed Shining Armor and Shadow Armor a coil of chain, saying "Use this to tangle her mane up, I'll cut it with my sword!"

Shining Armor and Shadow Armor did what they were told and used their magic to wrap the wire around Mane-iac's mane when it flew at them.

Quickfire seized the chance and began to cut away the hair tendrils, eventually slamming the psycho Mare to the floor. But not before Mane-iac sent an uppercut to his mask, knocking it off and revealing his real face.

She giggled, "Oh, Quickfire. We must play this game again one day. Once my mane grows back, I'll come for you personally. Heheheehe..."

Quickfire shuddered at the thought of him and Mane-iac together and smacked her unconscious, before turning around and saying to both knights, "Good work... a fine display of skill. But if you are going to stop the windigos you're going to need some serious firepower. For example, me."

Shining Armor looked on in shock at the sight of Quickfire's face, he had many thin white scars running down his chin and cheeks, and one of his eyes was missing!

Quickfire snorted, "I guess the whole masked assassin bit is up, so yeah... this is what my face looks like."

Shadow Armor used a portable wormhole device he had to create a portal back to Ponyville, Shining Armor stepped through it first, still shocked silly.

Shadow Armor was about to enter it as well, before stopping and saying, "So... what happened to you?"

Quickfire sighed, "Where I'm from, I'm a mercenary, these scars are from some of my targets and from monsters..."

Shadow Armor raised an eyebrow, "Wait... How do you know us so well? And more importantly, you paused when you had a perfect chance to land a killing blow on Shining Armor, why?"

Shadow Armor didn't have To ask another question as Quickfire stepped towards the portal.

The other Warrior shrugged, "Heh. A lot can happen out there... I'll see you back at Ponyville, Shady."

With that, Quickfire stepped through the portal and Shadow Armor followed suit, leaving a squirming Mane-iac behind, laughing like the madpony she was.

Shadow Armor thought to himself, "This Quickfire knows way too much about us. He is hiding something from us... and why does he seem so alike Shining Armor?

Comments

[BradyBunch]

So Quickfire's like Freedom Fighter from A Rather Large Adventure, only a lot less secretive...and can talk...and works alone. Anyway, he's cool.