//------------------------------//
// Prize Of War 
// Story: The Final Crusade 
// by Enfield 
//------------------------------//

The kids let James and the Crusaders down, they each shook their hands and wandered off, eager to tell their other friends about what they had just seen. After James had grabbed a few ticket cups and stuffed them full of tickets, James led the Crusaders to the massive room that was stocked with winnable prizes. The prize room however was blocked by a pair of barriers and a woman behind a desk with a large tub and a ticket counter. 
“All tickets in here please,” she said. 
James and the Crusaders dumped the several cups worth of tickets into the tub. The ticket woman seemed surprised to see such an amount. Nevertheless, she started feeding the tickets in the counter and kept track of the number that showed up on a screen.
“This might take some time,” she said.
“Yeah, we know,” said James.
“Where did you win all these?” the ticket woman asked. 
“On that dancing game,” said Scootaloo, “Me and James beat a super hard song.”
“One hundred percent completion,” said James.
“Which song?” the ticket woman asked as she started feeding another bundle of tickets into the machine. 
“Blue by Eiffel 65,” James said, “I mastered that one.”
“Don’t forget about me,” said Scootaloo. 
“I don’t think I will,” replied James. 

The ticket counter ate up over ten thousand tickets by the time it was done, the ticket woman then asked for a play card and James handed her his. She took the card and scanned the tickets into it.
“Here you are,” she said, “You now have fifteen thousand five hundred and sixty tickets on your card.” 
James was lost for words. Fifteen thousand tickets? He never knew how much he had on that card, James had only been to Dave and Busters three times and he didn’t remember getting five thousand five hundred sixty tickets at one time. James then remembered that he found a massive cup of tickets on his first trip to the arcade, the other times must have been when he got lucky at the big games and the one contest he won. James turned around to see the reactions of the Crusaders. Scootaloo’s jaw had dropped and it looked as if it was dislocated, Sweetie Bell had almost fainted but Apple Bloom caught her, as for Apple Bloom, she was a little more focused on trying to keep Sweetie Bell upright. James turned back to the ticket lady and took his card.

“Fif-fifteen thousand?” he stammered as he looked at the card.
“Unbelievable isn’t it?” the ticket woman asked, “You’re not the first to act like this.” 
“So now what do we do?” Sweetie Bell asked after she regained her balance.
“Go forth and see of we can’t get anything,” James said as he entered the prize room. Scootaloo followed James, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell jogged to catch up. They entered the prize room and then stuck to James like glue, the Crusaders had no idea what James was doing, or what he was muttering as he pointed to various objects.
“No, no, nope,” James was listing on what he shouldn’t get or didn’t need, this continued for a few seconds before he stopped in front of a glass case. James examined the case and then stood back and nodded in admiration.
“What about this?” he asked. 

The Crusaders looked at what the glass case contained, inside were two rather valuable prizes. One was an old fashioned jukebox, but this one was modified to take modern music players and CDs, this was priced at fourteen thousand tickets and looked rather cumbersome. The other prize was a flat screen plasma TV, this was priced at fifteen thousand tickets and seemed like it was fragile and sort of long. James was a little bit unsure if he needed a jukebox, but then again he had a flat screen in his room and in the den. The jukebox sounded nice but James had no idea where to put it, he could put it in the Spitfire hangar but that defeated the purpose of getting it because he would never use it, also it would freeze in the winter. 
“What one do you like?” Sweetie Bell asked Apple Bloom.
“I like that old jukebox,” Apple Bloom replied.
“No get the TV,” said Scootaloo, “That way we can have our own TV in our room.”
“Good idea Susie” said Apple Bloom.
“Can we get the TV?” Sweetie Bell asked.
“No,” James said sternly. The Crusaders looked at him, confused.
“What?” Apple Bloom asked.
“I though we could get what we want,” said Scootaloo.
“It’s not practical,” said James, “You’ll be going home in several weeks and I don’t want to waste tickets.”
“What can we get then?” Sweetie Bell asked, she sounded irritated. James turned to face her and drew breath to speak, he stopped when he saw something hanging from the ceiling behind Scootaloo.
“How about that?” he asked. 

The Crusaders span around and looked up to what James was pointing to, it was a two person dune buggy. Scootaloo turned back to James. 
“That?” she asked.
“We might just have enough for it,” James said as he walked over to the buggy. A single sign hung off of one of the wheels, James took hold of the sign and read it.
“Ah bloody hell,” James said in German, he pushed the sign away and walked back to the Crusaders. 
“What’s up?” Apple Bloom asked.
James sighed and rubbed the back of his neck.
“It’s twenty thousand five hundred tickets,” James said, “We’ll never get that.”
“Sure we can!” Scootaloo said, “All we have to do is keep trying.”
“Yeah, I agree,” said Sweetie Bell, “We didn’t come here to leave empty handed.”
“How are we going to get five thousand tickets in under an hour?” James asked as he looked at his watch.
“Easy,” said Apple Bloom, “The same way you got those tickets earlier.” 
James caught on with what Apple Bloom was trying to tell him. The DDR machine had just been reloaded with tickets and this was his only chance to get that dune buggy. Scootaloo agreed to play the game one more time, after all she wanted the buggy as much as James. James and the Crusaders ran over to the machine just as the man with the huge rolls of tickets left. Scootaloo readied herself as Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell ran off to find more ticket cups, James searched for another song that he was good at. 
“I can’t find a bloody thing,” said James. 
“Keep looking,” said Scootaloo. 
James search for an agonizing five minutes then gave up. Nothing was on the list that he recognized, also he couldn’t play the last song because it said that it was “locked out” which meant he could play it, but there would be no tickets for completion. 
“I’ve never even heard of these artists,” James said as he stepped off the game, he sighed and wandered back toward the exit. 
“Hey James, wait!” Scootaloo said. James span around and saw Scootaloo pointing to the screen.
“What is it?” he asked.
“I found another song by that band you like,” said Scootaloo. 
James looked at the screen and saw the same group but a different song, and this one wasn’t locked out. 
“What would I do without you?” James asked. 
“Give up?” Scootaloo asked mockingly, James chuckled and selected the song. Just before it started Apple Bloom and Sweetie Bell returned with a few ticket cups.
“We found some,” said Apple Bloom. 
“What took you guys so long?” asked Scootaloo. 
“We had to scavenge these cups,” said Sweetie Bell, “There aren’t anymore left.” 
“Well lets fill these up as well,” said James. 

He and Scootaloo stood ready as the game started up again, once more James and Scootaloo mastered the song with one hundred percent completion. Once they did, James and Scootaloo cleared the game machine before anyone else had a chance to try and play the game, James and Scootaloo had pretty much ran the machine dry of tickets. Holding three cups overflowing with tickets, James and the Crusaders went back to the ticket woman to cash in the tickets. 
“I’m back,” James said.
“I see,” said the ticket woman, “And you’ve got more tickets.” 
“We managed to win on that dancing game again,” said Scootaloo. 
James dumped the tickets in the tub again and the ticket woman fed the tickets into the machine. Once more James had to wait for the machine to count all the tickets at an annoyingly slow pace. After what felt like two hours to James and the Crusaders the ticket woman asked James for his play card and she put the newly acquired tickets on the card.
“You now have twenty thousand six hundred and ninety tickets,” the ticket woman said.
“Just what I needed,” said James, “Follow me, girls!” 


He and the Crusaders went back into the massive prize room so they could get a better look at what they were going to end up getting with the tickets. The buggy sat where it was when James first got a glimpse of it, he took the card once more and checked it in case it had an extra zero on it. He relaxed when it read twenty thousand five hundred exactly. James took off his helmet and looked up at the contraption. The buggy had a two-stoke engine and a rather large, open air interior, James looked at the card once more and flipped it over, there was more information on the buggy; apparently it’s engine could put out more power than a moped and was capable of reaching thirty miles an hour. James wondered when he might need to go that fast, or why he would want to. The buggy had a compartment that could hold luggage, a little strange but it could come in handy, there was also a headlight and a brake light that were fitted. James hoped that he wouldn’t have to build the whole thing from scratch like a kit car, he might have help from his dad and the Crusaders but it would be a pain to assemble the thing like a Lego model. 
James also realized that the buggy was no bigger than a fairground go-kart but powered by gasoline rather than electricity. James was still reading the card that hung from the wheel when Sweetie Bell tugged on his uniform to get his attention.

“What?” James asked.
“You remember that jukebox you liked?” Sweetie Bell asked. 
“What about it?” James replied.
“It’s gone,” said Sweetie Bell.
James sighed and looked toward the glass case which held the jukebox.
“I knew that it would be gone if I didn’t get it,” he said.
“Never mind,” said Sweetie Bell, “We’re going to get this instead.” 
“I really think this’ll be better in every possible aspect,” said James. 
Apple Bloom and Scootaloo returned a few seconds later with the person who managed the prize room. James watched as the employee walked over to him, occasionally glancing around the room to look at all the expensive prizes that coated the walls.
“This is what we want,” Scootaloo said to the prize manager.
“Okay then,” the prize manager said, “Give me a few minutes to fish out the box in the back, I’m kind of new at this.” 
He ran off to the back of the building and returned a few seconds later with a clipboard and a co-worker. 
“You’re in luck today,” the prize manager said, “We have just one left in storage, after that there won’t be any more for at least four months.” 
“Best we get this now,” said James. 
“Can we take it?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Do you have a sufficient number tickets?” the co-worker asked. 
James gave his game card to the prize manager, the prize manager scanned it in a small machine on the clipboard. He then handed James the clipboard and told him to sign it, James did so and he was handed back his card. The prize manager then directed James and the Crusaders to the back of the prize room where the box containing his buggy was being kept. James followed him and he ended up in a small room behind the arcade, the box was sitting there in the dim light of the room.

“It’s a bit bigger than I expected,” James said as he walked around the box, which was twice the size of the buggy.
“Well good luck getting it out of here,” the prize manager said. 
“You won’t help us?” Sweetie Bell asked. 
“Nope, I’ve got my own part of this place to run,” the prize manager said. He left with the co-worker.
“I didn’t know that the buggy was only twenty thousand tickets,” the co-worker said as he walked out of the room leaving James and the Crusaders with a heavy box and no help.
“So now what?” Scootaloo asked. 
“Simple, we get it out of here,” said James. 
“But how can we carry this?” asked Sweetie Bell asked. 
“We can try,” said Apple Bloom.
“No point in giving up,” James said as he tried to lift up a part of the box. He grunted with the strain and put it back down. James shook his head and walked around the box. 
“Would be nice if you helped,” he said.
“How can we?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Try and lift it,” said James.

The Crusaders and James took hold of the box and lifted it up, they almost dropped it but they managed to carry it out of the back room and through the arcade. James wished that the people in the arcade would stop staring at them. Just as James and the Crusaders put the box down to figure out how they would get this down to the car a friendly passerby decided to help.
“Hey there soldier,” the passerby said, “Need help?”
“Yes, thanks,” James panted.
The passerby helped James and the Crusaders carry the box through the arcade and out toward the front door.
“Are you an Enforcer?” the passerby asked.
“Yep,” James grunted, “Passed the intuition only a few hours ago.” 
“Nice work,” said the passerby.
“What’s your name?” asked James.
“Bill Hellion,” said the passerby, “What’s yours?”
“James Rogers,” said James.
“And the kids?” Bill asked.
“Abigail, Samantha and Susie,” said James, “They’re under my care temporarily.” 
Bill, James and the Crusaders set the box down in front of the front desk to the restaurant. 
“Wait, what do you mean ‘temporarily’?” Bill asked. 
“James is fostering us for a while until we can got back to our families,” said Apple Bloom.
“It’s sort of complicated to explain,” said James.
“I know how you feel,” said Bill, “I got adopted by the Hellion family when I was ten, Hellion isn’t my last name.”
“What is it?” Sweetie Bell asked.
“That’s the thing, I don’t remember,” Bill said. 
James’ mother came out of the restaurant, once she saw James with the massive box she came over to see what James and the girls had won.   
“What did you four get?” Katherine asked.
“A buggy!” said Scootaloo.
“We can drive this you know,” said Apple Bloom.
“But why did you want this?” Katherine asked, she then looked to Bill.
“Who is this?” she asked.
“This is Bill, he helped us carry the thing out of the arcade,” James said.
“Nice to meet you,” Bill said. 
“Thanks for helping us,” said Sweetie Bell.
“No problem,” said Bill, “I can help you get this to your car then I have to get back to my airbase.”
Scootaloo heard ‘airbase’ and wondered if Bill was in the Air Force.
“Are you a pilot?” Scootaloo asked.
“I’m part of the special forces branch of the Air National Guard,” said Bill, “I’m a Reaper.” 
“Reaper?” James asked.
“Basically the Enforcers of the sky,” said Bill.
“What do you fly?” James asked.  
“F-18 Superhornets,” said Bill. 
“I’ve always wanted to go in a fighter jet,” said Scootaloo. 
“Same here,” said James.
“Can you fly?” Bill asked.
“Only a Spitfire but that’s about it,” said James. 
“I’ve always wanted to fly,” said Scootaloo.
Bill stroked his chin and nodded. 
“I have a little idea,” he said, “Do you have clearance to the Enforcer Compound firing range?”
“Why yes I do,” said James.
“How does this sound? You take me in there as a guest and let me try out my new guns and you and one of these kids get to ride in the back of me and my wingman’s jets,” Bill said. Scootaloo couldn’t believe what she was hearing, she grabbed James by the arm and pulled him closer to her. 
“Accept the deal!” Scootaloo said excitedly. James pulled his arm out of Scootaloo’s grasp.
“Sure,” James said, “I’ll help you out.” 
“Good thing we see eye to eye on this,” said Bill.