The Crusaders

by GJT_Productions


All Botched Up

"Rarity, we're going NOW. Rainbow's restless over here, and you've been dartin' from window to window for the past half-hour."

"But certainly Miss Rarity is entitled..."

"With all due respect, SIR, we ain't stayin' another minute in this fancy shoppin' district. We're goin' to pick up the Crusaders NOW!"

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"Applejack, no, let go of my tail! Rainbow Dash, help me!" Rarity shouts out as an irritated Applejack applies a direct method of removal from the window shopping trance - biting down on Rarity's tail and pulling in the opposite direction.

"Must say, this is a very bizarre situation." Guard Upper Class Lyacon nervously comments, Rainbow Dash drilling a glare into him as he does so.

"You're up to something. I know it and Applejack knows it. We're going to the castle, and not taking any more of your 'suggestions'." Rainbow darkly threatens, pushing off the ground into a hovering position so that she can push a forehoof into the Guard's snout.

"I can assure you, I am not..." Lyacon tries to explain with a nervous grin.

"RAINBOW DASH!" Rarity shouts out, losing her battle against Applejack's tugging and beginning to be dragged down the street as fellow upper-crust shoppers watch in shock and horror.

"Don't worry, I'm comin'!" Rainbow Dash calls out, zooming away from Lyacon's position. The Guard, seeing his control of the situation slipping away, chases after the blue pegasus mare.

Rainbow Dash zooms up and, instead of pulling back on Applejack's tugging, lifts Rarity off the ground to make it easier for the earth pony! Rarity glares in indignation as Dash smirks at Rarity's face smushed between her forehooves.

"I thought you didn't want to get your coat all dirty." Rainbow smugly points out to the off-white unicorn.

"Shut up, 'ainbow 'ash!" Rarity tries to say through her smushed face, the indignant glare growing more angry as Rarity continues to be carried along by her two fellow Element Bearers toward the castle. Guard Upper Class Lyacon, having no control over the situation now, fights down panic as he struggles to keep up with the young mares...

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A LITTLE LATER IN CANTERLOT CASTLE...

The owl spying on Lieutenant Troilus' intent in the name of Princess Luna was zooming through the hallways, banking left and right in quick dodges of staff and other Royal Guards on patrol. Although it left them all confused, the owl was moving too fast for anypony to catch or even try to tell anypony else where it was going in order to set up some kind of catching effort.

It finally breezes through an open door, where Captain of the Guard Gibraltar, Lieutenant Captain Stratocumulus and Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas were huddled in meeting. The owl lands on the Captain's desk, the fluttering wings scattering paperwork everywhere as it does so.

"What's an owl doing active at this time of day? And doing flying in here too?!" Captain Gibraltar naturally asks, trying to gather up the scattered papers with unicorn magic as he does so.

"I think this is Princess Luna's pet, sir." Stratocumulus comments with alarm, referencing his previous night shift work as he does so.

"Well what's it doing here? Princess Luna doesn't have any daytime engagements today." Fidelitas asks, looking at the owl in extreme confusion.

"Who! Whowhowho!" the pet of Princess Luna exclaims, pointing a wing toward the side of his body near his tailfeathers repeatedly as he does so.

"Where is he pointing?" Gibraltar asks, looking up as he tries to reorganize scattered papers.

"I think it's where a cutie..." Fidelitas begins to state, but was interrupted by an exclamation from his fellow Lieutenant Captain.

"The Crusaders! They must really be in trouble, not just a maybe." Stratocumulus states.

"We already know Shining Armor did not actually sign off the assignment change, now I think our fears are realized. We're not waiting to catch Troilus after the shift change, we're going now!" Gibraltar exclaims, paperwork again scattering all over the place as the stallions rush out of the office, the alerting owl right behind them...

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ELSEWHERE IN THE CASTLE...

Lieutenant Troilus grits his teeth as the sabotaged VIP Suite door shudders under another hit from the ramming Crusaders - he had braced himself against the doors to prevent them from spontaneously popping open due to the combined effort of the three fillies on the other side ramming into them. Already he had to shoo away several concerned staff members, plus a Royal Guard that fortunately he could simply order to keep quiet about the whole thing. He looked up at the clock, hoping for just a little more time...

"I told you to stop! The princess is going to make you pay for the damage to that door! Why won't you just do what I say?!" Troilus shouts out, the door shuddering again right afterward.

He hears a stampede of hoofsteps coming from one direction down the hallway, turns to face it... and is horrified to see his superior officers rounding the corner coming in toward him! Captain Gibraltar, Lieutenant Captain Stratocumulus and Lieutenant Captain Fidelitas are three wide in the hallway, two lower-ranked escorts and Luna's pet owl right on their tails.

"LIEUTENANT, YOU'D BETTER HAVE AN EXTREMELY GOOD EXPLANATION FOR THIS BEHAVIOR!" Captain Gibraltar shouts at full volume as his group closes on the location, his eyes full of fire.

Troilus desperately looks down the hallway in the other direction and was prepared to make a run for it when the doors he had been keeping shut finally swings open under the repeated rammings of the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, knocking Troilus flat on the floor and subjecting him to the indignity being trampled underhoof by the fillies as they spill out into the hallway.

With his enraged superiors still closing on him, Troilus scrambles back on his hooves and blows by the shaken but unharmed Crusaders as he makes a break for it. He rounds a corner... but comes screeching to a halt as he nearly bowls into Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash scrambling through the castle hallways. To the horror of the unicorn Lieutenant, he sees his subordinate Guard Upper Class Lyacon scrambling to keep up with the trio, themselves enraged and shouting in Troilus' direction about the fillies in apparent danger.

Lyacon makes a "last-ditch" attempt at restraining the trio using unicorn magic to pull on their tails, which only delays them long enough for the Upper Class to get ahead and join his superior officer, who is rapidly backing into the corner he just turned. The two rouge Guards look back and forth between the two angry groups, and realize there will be no escape for their current predicament.

"I'm sorry, sir, I tried my best to delay them, honest!" Lyacon begins apologizing in pleading tones to Troilus, all but confessing to their unwholesome intentions in the process.

"Never mind, Lyacon, I think we're bucked no matter whether you did your job or not..." Troilus replies, looking over in fear as the two angry groups close in with nothing but menace behind them...