Ben and his newly appointed cultist finally reached the BLU base after 1 hour of teleportation. Normally, Ben could easily transport thousands of servants between worlds instantly, but most servants are not two young fillies who have to ask about EVERY SINGLE THING that he does and how he came to power. Ben would of course oblige and rant on for a time about his many epic feats and how his power was beyond their comprehension. But at last they had finally made it. The sagely dragon was not at all surprised to view the shocked but hopeful faces of the BLU team ponies as they saw the very fillies they were questing for appear before them. Applejack stepped forward.
“A-applebloom? Is that really you sis?”
The red manned filly smiled and embraced her older sister.
“Yep it’s me sis, and look ah finally got my cutie mark!”
Tears of joy fell down her face as Applejack hugged Applebloom all the tighter. Rarity had similarly embraced Sweetie bell, though she recoiled slightly at the sight of the filly’s dirty unkempt coat.
“Oh Sweetie Bell, you MUST let me bath you get all of that filth out of your mane!”
Sweetie started to reply but stopped as Scootaloo suddenly burst through the crowed of ponies to hug her friends.
“Applebloom, Sweetie Bell I am so sorry I didn’t try to rescue you, so much happened and-”
Applebloom held up a hoof.
“It’s fine Scoot, ah know you did everything you could, we aren’t mad right Sweetie Bell?”
Sweetie nodded, “Of course not, Cutie Mark Cultist- I mean Crusaders stick together no matter what.”
Scootaloo cocked her head in confusion.
“Why did you say Cultists? Did we change our name after I left or something?”
Ben choose this moment to intervene, they had rejoiced long enough.
“That is the organization’s name while under my employ; you are a member are you not? You are of course welcome to join them, otherwise we will return to my base without you…”
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes as she looked up at the dragon.
“So you saved these fillies from the RED team just to kidnap them?”
Ben simply chuckled at the infuriated Pegasus.
“Of course, they were valuable recruits for my cause, and it was an act of kindness granting them the honor to serve me in the first place. I doubt they would have survived much longer had I left them in their cages.”
Twilight approached Ben and asked with a determined look in her eyes,
“Well we are defiantly grateful, but could you release them from service please?”
Ben glared at her as a smirk slowly formed.
“I may, if you prove to be worthy of the servants that I handpicked to serve me…”
He paused in thought before continuing,
“Defeat the RED team in various locations of my choice and if you are successful, I may consider releasing them to you, do we have a deal?”
Twilight gasped. How could she let him take the fillies away after they had just been reunited? But there was no way short of the assistance of one of the Princess showing up that they could defeat him and escape. She glanced around and saw that her friends all had grieved looks on their faces. They knew what she would choose, it was the only choice they had.
“O-0k, we have a deal…”
Ben smiled and bared his fangs at the ponies.
“Wonderful, I will begin preparing immediately, farewell and good luck.”
He then whispered a string of incompressible words and he along with Applebloom, Sweetie Bell, Silver Speech, and Midnight Page was gone in a poof of dark smoke.
Applejack burst into enraged tears at the disappearance of her young sister as Rainbow Dash slowly guided her and a wailing Scootaloo away to their room. Rarity had also stated to cry as Fluttershy attempted to comfort her. Twilight felt her own tears fall at the thought of what she may have condemned the young fillies to. She just hoped that she had made the right choice…