Resident Crusader

"Alright, so what are we goin’ ta do this time, gals?" Apple Bloom stood confidently as she waited for her fellow partners in youthful shenanigans. She did not have to wait for long until an answer came to her.

"Well, we have yet to try Cutie Mark Crusader Tightrope Walkers, yay! Maybe we can try Cutie Mark Crusader Cannon Launchers, yay, so I can fly!" This comment was complete with the usual cheer of yay, though said in a normal, conversational tone. It was also declared quite proudly by Scootaloo, their pegasus friend and happily adopted daughter of her beloved idol, Rainbow Dash. She never talked much about her life beforehoof.

"Are you guys trying to get us killed? Cannon launchers would probably earn us a straight trip to the critical ward at the hospital. That’s if we are really lucky! We could die horrific deaths!" This was squeaked by the unicorn Sweetie Belle and full-time dictionary, lovingly teased by Scootaloo.

"Wow, you really bring out the positives of everything, don't you? It is a suggestion. I also don't see you coming up with anything we could do!" Scootaloo refused to back down, clashing her head with the unicorn’s, making sure to not impale herself on her horn. That would have been embarrassing.

"I was just thinking! We have been trying to do various things and all we have to show for it is a sad amount of tree sap and bruises. Can we try something relaxing?"

"What's wrong with my idea? I have been slow to fly, and I feel like mom is getting annoyed. The cannon will really help in my goal!"

"You can get killed, or worse!"

"What is worse than death? There is nothing worse than death."

Before Sweetie could find the obvious fault in Scootaloo's reasoning skills, Apple Bloom decided to prevent the upcoming crisis while they were still being somewhat civil to one another.

"Gals, we were in agreement that gettin’ a Cutie Mark in arguin’ won't help solve anythin’. Jus’ try ta calm down." Both Crusaders turned to look at Apple Bloom, who was obviously annoyed. Glares turned sheepish, and both hung their heads in regret. "Anyway, Scootaloo had a good idea. The attempts really have blurred together, an’ Ah can't remember if we tried tightrope walkin’ yet, but it seems like the best we can do."

They then drew a huge breath and shouted at the top of their lungs, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER TIGHT ROPE WALKERS, YAY!"

Happy that she prevented a future war from breaking out, she waited for the two to walk with her and they ran off to walk across a thin path of rope to roads unknown. Any unfortunate ponies left in the way of the loud chant felt their ears ringing and their eyes staring off into space. Predictably, no Cutie Marks were gained, and hopeful cheer turned to bitter depression. It seemed that they will never receive a Cutie Mark.

"That didn't work at all, no it didn't." Scootaloo hung her head low, and she felt almost sleepy, depressed and defeated.

"That was a little redundant, don't you think, Scoots?" Sweetie's overuse of big words was a result of Rarity overexposure. Too much Rarity in big doses could spell trouble on one's vocabulary.

"What are you, a dictionary?" The traditional insult felt weak this time. This obsessive insult grew tiring, and as a result Sweetie Belle didn't bother to respond. Apple Bloom, though, seemed oddly cheerful despite not obtaining her Cutie Mark.

Finally taking notice of this, Scootaloo turned to the unofficial leader of their gang. "Why are you so cheerful? We failed in our life's goal. We are gigantic failures." She ignored Sweetie's glare.

"Applejack is takin’ me ta the city this weekend ta see Babs. Since we didn't get our Cutie Marks, Ah figured she might have been successful wit’ the Manehatten branch o’ the CMC. Don't be so down on yerself Scoots, we will eventually get ‘em! The good thing is Diamond Tiara seems ta have gotten bored wit’ givin’ us a hard time. It has been three long, glorious weeks. They jus’ pretend we don't exist! It’s the greatest thing ever!"

While true and positive, Apple Bloom's words failed to motivate Scootaloo from the dreaded pits of despair. Ever since joining all those years ago at Diamond's Cute-Ceañera, their pegasus friend seemed determined to obtain her Cutie Mark. She always seemed to be more depressed than the other two. Apple Bloom learned her lesson with the Heart's Desire incident, learning some patience. At least, the kind of patience not associated with magical cheating.

Sweetie Belle, on the other hoof, just focused on being with her two best friends. She enjoyed most of what they did together, and when opportunity seemed to knock, she would gladly welcome it. Ever the optimist, she knew that, one day, she would obtain the greatest treasure known to a pony. Teasing by Diamond in her earlier years caused her to want a Cutie Mark, and the happiest day in her life was when she met Scootaloo. A lot of lonely nights huddled in the corner were destroyed with the tom-coltish Pegasus around.

These were three friendships that would be forever. Nothing could tear these three youngsters apart. Even the occasional argument would break apart and die a horrific death after a little while.

"Sweetie, darling, it is time to head for home. I have a gigantic order to complete, and I could only spare a few minutes to pick you up." Rarity had arrived. To prevent Sweetie's traditional complaint, Rarity decided to resort to the next best thing of instant compliance. She really couldn't afford any delays, however small, and decided to resort to bribery. "If you come along now, I will allow you assist me in my work."

Sweetie looked overjoyed, and danced around happily. "However, you can't actually sew or anything, but you can be my personal assistant and help me. You can even stay in the room this time." This caused Sweetie Belle to pause, but since she was allowed to watch and assist Rarity, at least, she decided to stay positive anyway.

"I guess I will see you guys tomorrow,” Sweetie said, a twinge of sadness and regret in her voice. It was always hard to say goodbye to her best friends.

"Apple Bloom, ya might as well hurry along home wit’ me. We have a lotta chores ta do, an’ Zap Apple Season is almost upon us." While Rarity had the Crusaders distracted, Applejack managed to sneak up to the oblivious filly. Apple Bloom shared a goodbye hug with Sweetie and Scootaloo, and stood next to Applejack, preparing to leave.

It was at this point that Rainbow Dash swooped down from wherever it was she had been in the sky. She was done with her routine and Scootaloo had been pestering her to see the latest Daring Do movie. She, despite the last three movies not being the best, had seen them anyway. Much to Rainbow's delight, the younger had taken to Daring Do almost instantly. There was a brief moment of panic when the fan-filly declared a short-lived war on reading. That ended after Rainbow, who knew all the excuses by this point, faked errands and placed the first book in a place where she knew Scootaloo would find it.

Needless to say, Scootaloo grew bored eventually. Since she would fall to her death if she attempted to escape the house, she decided to go snooping. She eventually fell in love with Daring Do and had a moment similar to Dash at the hospital. Attempting to lie her way out of it, she put on her best poker face, and pretended that the most she did with her day was stare into space. Dash, however, proved this theory wrong and caught Scootaloo in her poor lie.

This incident soon turned into a ritual where the two would take turns reading from various Daring books. Sometimes, they would act out favorite scenes. Though this was done when there were no witnesses. She easily caught up to her idol and mother figure, eventually finishing the series before Rainbow did, much to her idol’s bafflement.

When the movies started arriving, both Pegasi were absolutely thrilled about this and faithfully watched them. Now, it was time for Rainbow to collect her young charge and fly her over to the theater to watch the sixth and penultimate installment of this popular movie series. Before she could even begin to say anything, a pink blur appeared out of nowhere and proceeded to babble at a thousand words per minute.

"IamheretogettheplotofthestoryupandrunningandinformyouthatTwilightneedsyouatherhometoshowyouthelatestexpermentshecreated.Wearetogothererightawayandthereistobenodelaysorexcuses.Excusesarethesecondworsewayoflosingafriendandseverelyfrowneduponintheseparts.Usuallythesekindsofsituationsturnoutbad,butIhaveagoodfeelingaboutthis"

When Pinkie Pie finally took a deep breath, she found everypony staring at her, in a weird way. No matter how many times they have been exposed to her random nature, it still caught everypony off guard. Applejack had a glazed look in her eyes, slowly piecing together what her random friend spat out. Rarity looked confused, and Rainbow looked like her brain exploded.

The Crusaders looked a little lost as well, and silently prayed that an explanation would be given. Pinkie, realizing that she still had yet to learn the concept of spacing out her sentences, instantly made things clearer to understand.

"I am here to get the plot of the story up and running and inform you that Twilight needs you at her home to show you the latest experiment she created. We are to go there right away, and there is to be no delays or excuses. Excuses are the second worse way of losing a friend and severely frowned upon in these parts. Wow, I can't believe the author typed that all out again!"

Blank looks greeted her after she finished. "What are you.... you know what? I don't think I want to know." Rainbow had recovered enough to utter that last sentence and she grabbed Scootaloo and placed her on her back.

"I will take Scootaloo ahead, and meet you girls at the Library. Twi has been experimenting a lot lately, and maybe this time won't be a dud." She promptly disappeared, utilizing her superior flying skills to rocket off into the clear blue.

It didn't take long for the other two to scoop up their charges and follow the flight path of their friend. Only Pinkie remained behind, and she stayed quiet for a little while.

"Yeah, it is totally cliche what happens, but what are you going to do? I hope he at least has the decency to switch things around a bit." Anyone who would have been nearby and heard Pinkie utter this cryptic announcement would have been lost. One brave soul decided to step forth and do the unthinkable.

"What the hell are you talking about? There is nopony there." Pinkie giggled and stared at the pony who dared to question her, a slightly manic expression on her face.

"That is why, you weren't the intended audience here. The author of that sentence and its intended audience will know just what I am talking about. That is all that matters. If you value what little sanity you have left, you will drop this conversation and move on." Nopony dared disobey her. Pinkie’s word was law and to disobey it would end somewhat badly in the sanity department.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Twilight smiled at her gathered friends. She glared slightly when Pinkie finally appeared, muttering some excuse about entertaining the audience, which was promptly ignored. Rarity had been complaining that she needed to work on an order, but made no movement toward the door. Fluttershy was her usual quiet self and cheered up slightly when Rainbow put a wing over her in a comforting manner.

Applejack, unlike Rarity, wasn't actually in a hurry or anything, and waited patiently for Twilight to elaborate her point of bringing them there. Twilight happily obliged Applejack's unspoken plea. "Thank you all for coming. I have under this sheet a device that allows you to bring anypony from history to the here and now." Nopony saw Pinkie’s eye roll. They missed her quiet, hissed comment, "just typical". They were too focused on Twilight's motivational speech.

"Being an avid reader, I got to wondering what it would be like to actually meet somepony from a book or ancient history. I asked Spike if he thought it was a good idea. Sadly, he declined to comment, but I am glad you are all here to witness as I make history." She took hold of the sheet with her magic, and paused purely for dramatic effect, finally unwrapped the sheet in what could be purely an over-the-top fashion.

Silence greeted the room, and Twilight grew nervous as no one spoke. Finally, Scootaloo decided to be brave and utter what everyone was too stunned to mention.

"What is it?”

Such simple words, and they were the truest anypony could speak. The machine was huge and had a glass door with a button panel nearby. It looked ominous and foreboding, seeming to suck the air out of the room.

"I can understand that this machine looks rather, let's say, menacing, but I am 97.999 percent sure that it will work. The theory is, I put a book in that room, enter the pony's name in the module, and wait approximately five seconds. The pony I have chosen--and many stimulating conversations-- will appear."

Nopony spoke for quite awhile. Eventually Fluttershy, much to everypony's shock, decided to break the tension in the room.

"Forgive me, but how do you send that poor pony back? Seems to be rude to randomly pick up a pony from their world and keep them here when they eventually want to return home."

Silence. It was so quiet that Fluttershy could hear everypony's heart beat and random shuffling noises. Twilight grinned sheepishly and raised a hoof to rub the back of her neck. She hadn’t thought that far ahead and she really needed to start doing it more. She could only do so much.

“I didn’t actually think that through. I was actually excited about the prospect of meeting an important figure from one of my favorite part of history. I am sure I can figure out the kinks as time goes on though.” She pretended to not hear the sighs of annoyance from her friends. They were always doing that.

“This one actually sounds impressive, Twilight. So you say you can meet any literary character, huh? Can you do fictional characters?” Anypony who knew Dash’s current obsession knew where this was going from a mile away.

Twilight snickered slightly, enjoying the fact she had a literary buddy. “Why of course, Rainbow. Goodness, you can probably be transferred to her world once I have the kinks worked out. Going to worlds is temporary, seeing as how I wanted to meet Starswirl the Bearded at the time this idea popped into my head. But,I am sure it is possible.”

Her smirk grew as Dash allowed a small squee to escape. She had the chance to meet Daring Do! How awesome was that? For a while, nopony else said anything. Each was absorbed with the information that Twilight just shared with them.

“I actually have quite a lot to do, but I really wanted to show you what I have been working on.” She grinned a little. “I would actually like to work on it now. Of course, working here is quite lonely and now that you are all here, it will be doubly so when you all leave.” She trailed off, hoping that somepony would pick up her hint.

“Of course we will help you, Twilight. I have to make an important dress and finish it tomorrow anyway. It’s just because it is such a high-class client that I thought I needed to work on it sooner. Sleep is for the weak-minded anyway.” Rarity laughed nervously and glanced once toward the general direction of her boutique.

Her agreement was shared by everypony. Twilight clapped once with her hooves. She loved when her friends helped with her projects. “Thanks everypony! Only a few more things to actually do, but it shouldn’t take too long to complete it. Most of my material is in the basement, and it is kinda scattered,” she finished, feeling slightly embarrassed.

After some muttering and slight cursing from an unknown source, they followed the librarian to the basement. Rainbow muttering excitedly from her side. In the excitement, both the machine and the Crusaders were left alone. Sweetie had a glazed faraway look that said she was miles away. Apple Bloom stared at the machine thoughtfully. Scootaloo just sat there, waiting for something to happen.

“Well, Twilight’s new machine seems to be a success. I wonder how she intends to work it.” Nopony had an answer to Sweetie's unspoken question, but they weren’t attempting to find out. It looked really foreboding to them and to tinker with it, would spell disaster. Normally they would be all over it, but not this time.

A low rumbling seemed to drift out of nowhere, and all three heads turned around. There was nothing on all sides that they could see, and it worried them that they started to hear random noises. It was a general sign of madness, and they were too young to experience even a fraction of it.

The machine started to shake a little and gave off angry and hungry-sounding noises. Sweetie Belle started edging toward the basement door, her face scrunched up in fear.

“Twilight, your machine is leaking!”

Silence greeted these words. No hurried hoofsteps signaled that help was on the way. Again, the frantic filly tried to gain the attention of the adults. Each of them were backing away and Sweetie kept trying to signal to an adult. Such blasphemy! Everything was going to chaos, and they hadn’t even done anything.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about the adults, little pony! That gifted unicorn created a true portal to another world. In fact, this is strictly necessary.”

That voice wasn’t Apple Bloom or Scootaloo at all. It wasn’t even somepony they knew. Leaning against the machine, looking calm was something else entirely. If Sweetie Belle had the thought process to shriek, she would have done so.

It was a monster that was leaning against the machine.

It wasn’t ugly like most monsters she knew of, but the creature standing before them could be filed in the “strange” category. It stood upright on two hind hoofs. The figure wore what looked to be an all black outfit with strange looking red straps attached to it’s chest. She had sunglasses on, so she couldn’t see what color the eyes were. It looked feminine, but she wasn’t an expert on strange figures. Whatever it was, it wasn’t equine at all.

“To answer your unasked question, no, I am not a monster. Your world doesn’t see much of my kind. Though, in a little while, you will see a different world. Your destiny is in a dangerous world, filled with various monsters. I am what is known as a human. Three souls will have a marked destiny in two worlds.

“Though he has skill, I am afraid that things will be a lot harder this time around. A deadly threat from his world will affect everything and anyone he holds dear. Soon, both worlds will collide, forcing allies in the unlikeliest places. When the time comes, one of you will be forced to make a horrible decision, but you should prevail. The road ahead will be harder than what you are used to. Not to mention, a lot more dangerous.”

Silence greeted these oddly prophetic words, and nopony moved. Finally, Scootaloo, always the brave one, decided to speak up. “Just what the hay are you talking about? Just who the heck are you to decide that we are to go?”

The woman grinned, showing her teeth, startling them a little. “All in due time, young one! Such bravery is admirable, but unnecessary. Your world will be in danger as well and the Elements will have their work cut out for them. No, my little ponies, I need your help. It will be an adventure, and you will find out a lot about yourselves along the way. Adventures are always rewarding in that respect. Just know, I am not your enemy.”

Sweetie still tried to get the attention of the adults, but it was proving to be useless. Not one hoof step up those blasted stairs. Just what were they doing down there? It was scary enough, that this creature seemed to know about their world.

Again, a bright white started to fill the room, enveloping her friends, who vanished from sight. This freaked the unicorn enough to shriek and pound violently against the door. “RARITY!!!”

Almost as if to spite her, just as the white glow seemed to surround her, Sweetie Belle could finally hear the hoof steps she so desperately wanted to hear.. The last thing she saw before the void took her were the shocked expressions of her sister and Twilight. Sweetie Belle’s face was composed of shocked awe, mixed with guilt.