//------------------------------// // Scroll 9 "getting the first piece" // Story: Shadow of the Crusaders // by Spore Harvest //------------------------------// The rest of the week went by in a routine. First I got up went to school, did our homework, goofed off until night and then we would train during the night. We were already showing some improvement. I was getting a little bit more muscle on me. Scoots was killing it with here maneuvers and Sweeties magic was at a new high point. She knew some more spells, besides the regular levitation she was now able to control the four elements of nature she also learned how to camouflage herself and others, since Mike said that that is going to be of great importance. That is basically all she learned as for me I also learned the camouflage spell and I also learned how to summon in Mikes war hammer, which as Mike said looked a little different but only in colouring. It had a black hammer top with two red and green apples on its side it also had a red pole. It definitely looked interesting and that is how far we were able to train. On the night before we would go to Canterlot we had a combined training session with Mike. "Okay girls you made some real progress. I'm very proud of you all. Now as for us getting to Canterlot, how are we going to do it?" Then Apple Bloom raised her hand. "Yes AB." "We can take the train the only real problem is our respective parents, but thank Celestia I already thought of that." Then Sweetie decided to take over. "We are going to have a slumber party tonight. So if we want to go we can do it tonight." Then Scootaloo said. "The slumber party is going to take place at Sweeties house, since she is the closest to the train station. I already bought the tickets, so that we could go." She pulled out the tickets out from her pocket. "Great job girls I knew you would come up with something. Now for the gear we are going to need. We need gloves so that we don't leave any fingerprints. I don't know where exactly in Canterlot the piece is located, but if I had to guess, it is most definitely located in a museum." After that Sweetie spoke up. "Wait are we going to break into a museum." She said in a fear filled voice. "Lets hope not, but I rather be safe then sorry. As for clothes bring with you something that you can run in and of course caps so that we don't leave any DNA evidence. Can you do that?" The crusaders all nodded. "Now that we know what we need to bring lets talk about our disguises. Sweetie and AB you two know the spell right?" They nodded. "Okay then Sweetie you are going to think of a disguise for you and Scootaloo while AB is going to think of her own. That is your homework for the evening make sure to do them okay, because I really don't want to get you in trouble. With that said lets go have some fun." I was stopped by Scootaloo. "Hey what do I have to do besides getting the clothes." "Ah Scoots. You are going to be on a very important job. You are going to be on lookout duty, since you are a pegasus and therefore have the best eyes out of all of us here. You are the one thing that can ether make or brake this mission so make sure that you are well rested okay." That semed to have satisfied her, because she had the biggest smile on her face. Then I decided to sweeten the deal. "And if I am right this might be the chest plate and if we get that you will be able to fly in real life as well." Then she jumped at me and said. "Really am I really going to fly in real life too?" I simply nodded and she rocketed into the sky. "Man I've never seen her this happy." Said Sweetie. "Me ether." Said Apple Bloom. "Lets just hope this goes down according to plan." Then Scootaloo landed in front of us and she said. "Well then lets have some fun what are we doing." That put a smile on my face. "We are going to watch a movie, but not just any movie we are going to watch one of my favorite movies ever made Deadpool. So, who wants to watch?" Then I saw six hands raise into the air and one hook. "Okay then sit back and enjoy the awesomeness." With that i summoned in a giant TV and started playing the movie. *** "Man that movie was awesome, it had a little bit of everything, comedy, action and a nice story to boot." I said. "Well I'm glad that you enjoyed it. It's not often that I find someone who has the same tastes in movies as I do." Mike said to me. We were on our way to Sweeties. To get ready for the quote on quote slumber party. "So why couldn't we talk about the movie at school." I said in a pouty voice. "Well you could, but then people would ask question that we don't want to get asked. Scootaloo. Ten a clock." Then I turned left and there she was speeding down the street on her scooter. She promptly noticed me and stepped on the breaks. "Hello Apple Bloom are you ready for tonight." I just showed her my bag and she understood. "Okay then lets go." and with that we went of to Sweeties. When we arrived we knocked on the door and sure enough Sweetie opened the door. "Oh hello there guys. You're a bit early, but I guess that means we can have more fun. Come on in." With that we all stepped inside. When we entered we heard a sewing machine and a soft humming. It was Rarity. She was currently working on a dress, but when she noticed us coming in she stopped and said. "Ah hello there darlings your a bit early aren't you." She said in a very posh voice. "Yeah we know we just wanted to get some more time for playing games before we go to bed." I said to her. "Okay just make sure to not stay up too long." With that she returned to her work and we vent upstairs to Sweeties room. "So we have a couple of hours before we have to go so why don't we play some games. Hey Mike do you know any god games?" Asked Scootaloo. Then Mike appeared and he said. "Well lets see." After some time of him thinking he snapped his fingers and asked. "Has anyone of you ever played Card wars." We all shock our heads. "Well then I'm going to show you how to play it." Then he summoned in a board with a honeycomb patern, a bunch of cards and four stacks of different square chips. Then he explained how to play it. It wasn't anything too difficult to grasp and after he finished explaining it we played for the next two hours or so. "That was certainly a nice game we should probably pitch the idea to a game company. Of course if you allow it Mike." Said Sweetie. "Sure, maybe after we restore my empire, for now what is the next activity." I gave it a little thought and then I said. "Why don't we play a little bit of truth or dare." Scootaloo and Sweetie were completely om board, but Mike said. "I'll only play if there is no kissing involved otherwise I'm in." With that detail committed to memory I nodded and we sat into a circle. Sweetie grabbed a bottle and placed it in the centre of the circle. Then Sweetie said "Well Mike why don't you go first?" "Okay then." With that he spined the bottle and it started to rotate. After a couple of moments it started to slow down and then it stopped on Sweetie. "Okay Sweetie truth or dare." "Truth." Then Mike looked thoughtful for a moment and then a smirk appeared on his face. "Do you have a crush on someone and if you do who is it?" After that Sweetie looked as red as a tomato. After some time she gulped and then she answered. "Y-yes I do." "And." I said. "Who is it?" Said Scootaloo. After she gulped once more she whispered. "It's Button Mash." After that we were exited. "Oh I knew it Scoots now you owe me ten bits." Then Sweetie said. "Wait you knew?" "Well it is kinda obvious, but don't worry your secret is save with us." Then we did the signs to the Pinkie promise and then Sweetie spined the bottle. It stopped on Mike. "Truth or dare." After some time of thinking he said. "Dare." Then Sweetie smiled. "I dare you to put on the puffiest dress that you can think of and start singing opera songs." Mike just looked dumbfounded. "Well played and jokes on you I'm actually going to enjoy this." With that he snapped his fingers and the puffy dress appeared on him and to complete the look he also had a giant wig and make-up on. Then he started to sing and dance. We were laughing so much that I was barely taking in breath then he stopped snapped his fingers and he was back to his normal self. "So did you enjoy my performance?" after we calmed down enough we said in unison. "Yes." Then I said. "I haven't laughed this much since I've seen the baby pictures from my brother and sister. Man, as funny as it was it was also spectacular. You have a great singing voice." Then he said. "Why thank you, now lets go back to the game." And with that we played the game until we were ready to head out. Of course we had to keep it down since we didn't want to wake up Rarity. When we were ready to head out, we dressed up in our clothes and put our backpacks on. Then Mike said. "Okay then crusaders are we ready to go." We all nodded. "Okay then I'm going to check on Rarity and you go and camouflage yourself." With that Mike went to Rarities room. Me and Sweetie used our magics to change ourselves into something different. Then we heard mike say "Okay girls Rarity is completely knocked out." Then he turned to us and opened his eyes wider. "Man these are great disguises. Okay now that we are ready put your backpacks on and go." Then we slowly made our way down stairs and out the door. After a short walk we finally arrived at the train station, we boarded the train and sat down in a both. Then Mike asked. "How long does this train ride take?" After some thought I said. "About an hour, why?" Then he looked thoughtful and then he said. "Well since we have so much time to waste what do you want to do." "We could play Card wars some more." Said Scootaloo. "Okay then." With that he summoned in the game and we played. *** After an hour of us playing the game we finally arrived at Canterlot. "Well here we are." Said Mike. Then I asked. "So where do we go now?" "Now we go down the main street until I find where the signal is coming from." Canterlot was very lively with guards at night, so this might cause a couple of problems. Since we had no other options we went down the main street. We didn't pay too much attention to our surroundings, because we were to concentrated on following Mike, who decided to appear to better search for the armour piece. After about twenty minutes of searching Canterlot, Mike signaled us to follow him down an allyway. "I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the armour piece is not located in a museum. The bad news is that it is located in the sewers." We all head faces of disgust and the whole scene was punctuated with us saying eeeev. Sweetie especially voiced her disgust. "Do we have to? I mean don't get me wrong but isn't it first going to be difficult to get down there, with the guards walking around and second do you want us to pass out from the smell." Mike then thought for a minute and then he said. "To answer your first concern I'm going to quote myself no guts no glory. As for the second one you and AB can create nose plugs for the stench. Any other questions?" We all shock our head l. "Good then lets find a nearby man hole and get this over with." With that me and sweetie created the aforementioned nose plugs and followed Mike. When we arrived at the man hole Sweetie used her telekinesis to lift it up. Then Scootaloo jumped in, then me and Sweetie would be next, but then we heard a male voice say. "Hey you stop!" It was one of the guards. With that Sweetie quickly jumped in and I used my crystals to lock the man hole completely. "Well we better hurry up. We have about three minutes before the sewers are over run with guards." Then Scootaloo decided to ask. "Are we fugitives now." Then Mike decided to say. "No we are hooligans now, but when we take that armour piece we might be considered as fugitives. Depends of if they catch us." And with that we quickly and quietly made our way through the brick laid sewers. It didn't take us long to run into trouble. At one point Mike stopped us and said. "There are guards around this corner. They seem to be looking away. Now lets quickly make it across this intersection and we are home free to get the armour piece." With that in mind we quickly crossed over and made a break for it. After some time Mike stopped us again. "Why are the guards standing watch over the armour piece?" That made me curious and I took a peak and sure enough there were at least four guards who were watching over a black blue and purple chest piece. Then I poked Mike and told him my idea. "Why don't we use what you taught us to ether lure the guards away or take them on and knock them out." Yeah it was a stupid idea, but it was the best one that we got. After some time of thinking he said. "Okay Sweetie you use your magic to create a sound further down the hall they are probably going to follow it. Then we make a break for it, we take the armour, Scoots puts it on and we make a hole into the ceiling and she flies us back home. Did everybody get that?" I nodded and summoned in my gauntlet. Scootaloo and Sweetie both nodded and we started our plan. Sweetie made a ball of raw magic in her hand and threw it across the hall from us. It made an explosion and the effect was immediate. "Hey what was that!" One of them said. "We should probably check it out." Said another. Then they all abandoned their post to check it out. Then we made our move. We quickly ran towards the podium and after checking and disabling the alarm we took the armour piece and gave it to Scootaloo to put it on. Before she put it on I gave her a cloth to bite into. She looked at me confused and then I said. "Trust me you need to bite into this. This i going to hurt." Then she took the cloth and put it in her mouth, after that she started putting on the armour. When she finally finished nothing seemed to happen for a second, but then it started to glow and I definitely heard some muffled and I guess I wasn't the only one, because I heard some guards coming our way. "Hey intruders stop!" Well I guess it was time for plan B. "Sweetie cover me." With that said I summoned in my battle axe and charged at them. One of the unicorn guards wanted to shot something at me, but sweetie beat him to it. With a clear shot at the guard I launched him at the wall where he promptly collapsed then I did an uppercut motion and sent another one into the ceiling. The last one promptly ran away. "Well that was easy." "Don't say that yet. You two cower us while I get Scoots back to her senses. This will take a couple of minutes." Said Mike. With that said me and Sweetie went into our battle positions and waited. After some time we heard allot of footsteps approaching us. "Um Scoots it would be lovely if you stopped being in a comatose state and helped us out." With that me and Sweetie made some walls to block them off. "Wow that was a rush." We heard Scootaloo say. "Yeah good for you now get over here pick us up and fly us out of here." With that she completely snapped out of it picked us up and we made our way to the ceiling me and Sweetie blasted a hole into it and we flew up just in time, because the guards finally broke down the walls, but we were long gone by that time. With that we made our way back to Ponywille to get some sleep. *** When we got back we flew to Sweeties house and got inside through the window that led to her room. When we got in we collapsed into our sleeping bags. We dispelled our enchantments and promptly fell asleep. Before I knocked I heard Mike say. "Ah crusaders sleep well tonight, because the future holds even more trials that are going to be progressively more difficult. Goodnight and sleep well." With that said I quickly fell asleep with a smile on my face.