//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Crusader Camp // by Lighthawk //------------------------------// Crusader’s Camp was a sprawling establishment, covering several dozen acres of tree dotted land along the western edge of the White Tail Woods, just a few hours north of Las Pegasus. The main complex was a collection of wooden cabins, lodges, and various sheds, all spread about in a seemingly random fashion, and connected by a spider’s web worth of crisscrossing paths, tracks, and trails. The land contained between the various hoofwalks varied just as much as the interspaced structures, being comprised of close cropped grass in places, small groves of trees in others, and still others apparently left to grow as they would without any supervision at all. Fire Ruby felt she might be developing a tweak in her neck trying to take in everything. That didn’t stop her in the slightest as she bounded in a circle around her parents and Applebloom in her efforts to survey everything there was to see. Over there was a collection of interconnected wooden beams and pillars to shame any jungle gym she’d ever seen! And over there sparkled a crystal clear lake, with several small docks and a diving board and even a big super twisty slide! And over there was an enormous fire pit, ringed with large stones, a pyramid of firewood tall as her father standing ready to be lit! And right before her, coming down the path at a quite alarming rate, was a bouncing pink blur that was emitting a noise of purest glee and excitement. “RARITY! SPIKE! RUBY!” the blur exclaimed as it rocketed towards the group. “Pin…” was as much as Rarity managed to get out before the blur reached her in a flying-tackle-hug of greeting. “I’VE MISSED YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!!” Once she had stopped moving, the blur resolved itself into a mare with an impossibly bouncy, curly mane and tail, both of a hue slightly darker than her bright, bubble gum pink coat. “Missed you too DEAR…” Rarity gasped as she was hugged with rib cracking force. Before she could think about extracting herself, the pink pony had already dropped her to the ground in order to launch herself at Spike. The dragon seemed to be expecting it, and had braced himself for the impact. Despite that, and despite outweighing the mare a good three or four times over, she still managed to knock him back on his haunches. Her hooves never got more than halfway around Spike’s massive chest, but he still had a bit of a wheeze to his words when he spoke. “Hi Pinkie Pie,” he said, engulfing her in a return hug until it was hard to see anything but her mane and tail sticking out. “IT’S BEEN FOREVER!” Pinkie wailed as she buried her face in Spike’s shoulder and started sobbing hysterically. “It’s been two months darling,” Rarity replied in a slightly exasperated tone as she dusted herself off, a bit out of breath. “FOREVER!” Pinkie insisted. Then like flipping a switch her sobs just stopped, and she slipped out of Spike’s hug with an audible pop to land before Ruby. The filly was ready for her, and launched herself at Pinkie practically before the party pony’s hooves had hit the dirt. “Auntie Pinkie!” Ruby squealed as her own tackle-hug connected, and the two of them went rolling down the path in a jumble of laughter, limbs, and dust. They somehow ended up with Pinkie laying on her back, balancing Ruby up on the end of her legs, hooves to hooves. “Heya Sparky,” Pinkie grinned up at her. “Been practicing?” Ruby shot her aunt a cocksure grin and bounced up off her hooves, her wings giving a quick little beat to help as she performed a slightly off center backflip. She still managed to land back on Pinkie’s waiting hooves however, her balance wavering for only a second or two. Then she threw her head back and blew a small fountain of sparks into the air. “Ta-da!” Ruby announced. Pinkie giggled appreciatively, and she gave the filly a little bounce, quickly sitting upright to snatch her out of the air in a smothering hug. “That was superiffic!” Pinkie gushed proudly. “Aw, it was nothing,” Ruby said casually, though she was smiling proudly at the praise. “It was very nicely done darling,” Rarity remarked with a fond smile, reaching out to brush some of the dust out of her daughter's mane. She glanced down at Pinkie. “Where is little Reasoning? “Oh he’s coming,” Pinkie answered, pointing a hoof down the path she had come rocketing up. Ruby glanced along the line of her aunt’s foreleg, and let out an excited little squeal as she saw the figure of her cousin Circular Reasoning come calmly trotting into view around a patch of particularly wild looking bushes. “I’m gunna go say hi!” the filly declared as she slipped free of Pinkie’s hug, and went galloping away before anypony could give or deny her permission to run ahead. Reasoning saw Ruby coming, and the colt seemed content to stop and wait for her, taking a seat in the grass alongside the path. He waved as she approached, though after a moment the motion became a bit hesitant and uncertain as she continued towards him at top speed. He froze for half a panicked second, and then tried to jump to his hooves and get out of the way, but realization of his cousin’s intentions came a bit too late. There was a delighted shout, a grunt of impact, and an instant later the two were sprawled out in the grass with Ruby perched triumphantly on Reasoning’s chest. “Hi Pi,” the filly smirked down at him. “Sparks,” Reasoning gasped faintly, looking up at her with a slightly annoyed expression. It didn’t last long though, a mild smile slipping over his features. “You’re getting heavy.” “Maybe you’re just turning into a wimp,” Ruby shot back. “Or maybe you’ve been scarfing down too many diamonds,” Reasoning replied calmly. “You know those things go right to your flanks, right?” “Hmm,” Ruby hummed thoughtfully. “Well maybe I just need a bit more pony in my diet.” She flashed him her teeth as she spread her wings wide, rearing up with an overly-dramatic growl. Reasoning just rolled his eyes, and Ruby suddenly felt something seize her by one wing and tug. It wasn’t anything strong, but she wasn’t in a very balanced position as it was, and it was enough to make her stumble off to one side. Reasoning quickly rolled back to his hooves, shaking out his dark grey coat and running a hoof through his coal black mane in an effort to brush out the grass clippings. Ruby meanwhile was staring at her wing in surprise, certain she had seen an electric blue glow surrounding the limb out of the corner of her eye. Her shock turned into realization and she glanced back at Reasoning. “You got your magic!” she exclaimed, her eyes flashing to the stubby horn poking up out of the wild, spiky mess of Reasoning’s mane. “Yup,” Reasoning replied simply. “That’s awesome Pi, what else can you do?” Ruby asked brightly. The colt just shrugged. “Pick stuff up, move it, put it back down.” “…that’s it?” the filly demanded after a pause, her smile turning into an expression of disgust and disappointment. “It’s only been a few weeks since my horn lit up,” Reasoning said, a bit defensively. “You flying yet?” “Yes!” Ruby declared hotly. “Kind of,” she amended as Reasoning eyed her doubtfully. “I can glide a little anyway,” she proclaimed loftily. “Uh huh,” the colt smirked. “Shut up!” Ruby retorted with all the wit of youth. Before the conversation could devolve further though the filly felt her ear seized in an all too familiar magical grip. Nothing painful, unless of course she struggled against it, which she knew better than to try. “Fire Ruby Belle!” Rarity’s voice crashed down on her as the adults finally caught up. “What have I told you about pouncing on ponies!” “Pi doesn’t mind!” Ruby whined as the magical ear lock turned her head around to face her mother. “That is not the point!” Rarity retorted. “You didn’t make a fuss about me jumping on aunt Pinkie,” the filly complained. “Oh don’t you even,” her mother warned her. “You know full well that Pinkie is a special case…in a lot of ways…” “Aw, thanks Rarity,” Pinkie Pie beamed. “Now then, apologize,” Rarity went on, choosing to ignore the party pony for the moment. Ruby sighed as she felt her mother’s magic let go of her ear, and she spun around sullenly to face Reasoning. “Apologizes,” she muttered half-heartily. “Accepted,” Reasoning replied easily. “Ahem…” Rarity pointedly cleared her throat, but before she could go on Reasoning slipped in front of her with an expression full of childish excitement. “Aunt Rarity, Aunt Rarity!” he suddenly bubbled, nearly as well as his mother, eyes wide and demanding attention. “Look, look what I can do!” His horn glowed, and a pebble lying beside the trail wobbled into the air. A look of determined focus spread across the colt’s features, and the rock flew into a lazy, erratic circle around the group. “Oh Reasoning that’s…uh…” Rarity paused, her mind momentarily derailed as she was forced to shift from the role of disciplinarian to that of properly supportive relative. Technically Reasoning was no more her nephew than Pinkie was her sister, but over the years those had become the roles they had filled in each other’s lives, and Rarity was not one to shirk the duties and expectations of such relationships. “That’s quite wonderful darling, very well done,” she managed after just a mild hiccup in her word flow, her tone quickly shifting to a happy, if slightly over blown, tone. “Very nice,” Spike rumbled, casting a smirk at Pinkie. “Though I guess that means you can’t just hide the cookies up on the top shelf anymore.” “Oh please…” Pinkie scoffed playfully. “The top shelf stopped being challenging for my little cupcake before he was out of diapers. Why just last week he managed to find the stash hidden behind the fake wall in the secret room under the subbasement’s bolt hole.” “Mmm, white chocolate chip…” Reasoning said in a reminiscing tone, the light around his horn fading, letting the pebble crash to the ground. “So uh, how do ya’ll keep him out of things he’s not spose’ to be in if’n he’s that good at finding stuff?”Applebloom asked. “I just tell him not to,” Pinkie answered as if it was obvious. “Wait, that works?” Rarity demanded. “Should it not?” Pinkie asked. “Well, so far in my experience…” Rarity grumbled slightly, looking pointedly at her daughter. “Hey look at that!” Ruby exclaimed, loudly and suddenly, pointing off vaguely down the trail. “I wanna go see…whatever it is! Come on Pi!” “Ruby!” Rarity called after her as she bolted, but the filly just pretended not to hear her mother. “Young lady, you get back here this instant!” “Mom?” Reasoning asked calmly, glancing up at Pinkie. “Go on sweetie, keep an eye on your cuz for us, k?” “Thanks mom,” the little colt said. “Aunt Rarity, Uncle Spike, Miss Bloom,” he added with a polite little nod. Then he turned and scampered after the frantically fleeing form of Fire Ruby. “Oooo, when I get my magic on that girl…” Rarity growled. “Uh oh, I think we’ve got a grump-a-saurus on our hooves,” Pinkie sing-songed. “Darling, please,” Rarity half snapped. “Aww cheer up Mommy-saurus,” the party pony said, unfazed. “Let em have some fun, it won’t hurt anything.” Rarity glared at Pinkie for a bit, though quickly gave up the attempt. It would take far more than what she currently had to make any sort of dent in Pinkie’s armor of cheerfulness. Instead the unicorn took a moment to take a few deep breaths and compose herself. “I don’t understand Pinkie, how do you do it?” Rarity asked finally, her tone only lightly tinted with annoyance. “Do what?” “Get him to listen to you like that,” she elaborated. “Sometimes it feels like it’s all Spike and I can do to keep Ruby out of trouble. How do you manage little Reasoning so well, and all on your own?” “Hmmm…” Pinkie pondered, tapping her chin with one hoof. Then she shrugged. “I dunno, I just make sure to tell him how much I love him and all that he means to me and how happy and blessed I am to have him in my life and then ask him very nicely what I’d like from him and he does it most of the time.” “And when he doesn’t?” Rarity pressed. “Oh, well then I get kind of unhappy and disappointed and he gets all sad and teary-eyed and promises me he’ll never-ever do that again, and he doesn’t.” “W…wait now, Pinkie, did you just admit that you guilt trip your son in behaving?” Rarity asked in a scandalized tone. “Is that what it is?” Pinkie asked back innocently. “I just always thought of it as being a good, loving mommy.” Applebloom let out a short laugh. “I guess it’d be best to put Reasoning in Sweetie’s group then. She’s pretty good at keeping order by making everypony afraid of disappointing her as well.” “Hmm, you know,” Spike mused. “Come to think of it, Ruby has always been pretty well behaved whenever Sweetie has watched over her for us.” Rarity gave a noncommittal grunt of a response, though she did look somewhat thoughtful as she watched her daughter running on ahead, her full on gallop slowing for a bit to let Reasoning catch up with her. The two of them quickly vanished off around a bend in the trail. “Do you think they’ll be alright, off on their own?” Rarity asked. “Ah wouldn’t worry ‘bout em,” Applebloom said, putting a reassuring hoof on her shoulder. “Me, Scoots, and Sweetie used to go running ‘round on our own at their age all the time, remember?” “Yes, I do actually…” Rarity said with a shudder.