Bad Future Crusaders

by TonicPlotter


Chapter 9

        “Dashie…!” huffed Fluttershy, “Slow down!”
        “I think… I think we… made it…” said Rainbow Dash between deep gulps of air.
        Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy slowed to a trot a fair distance from Ponyville, and looked over their shoulders to make sure Scootaloo was keeping up. They had to make their escape on the ground since Scootaloo couldn’t fly yet and it would have been far too dangerous to try and carry her the entire way.
        Scootaloo was near exhaustion, but still somehow found the strength to pounce and hug Rainbow Dash’s leg. “Dashie!!! I’m scared!” she cried, “Where’s mom?! Where is my mom?!”
        The two mares didn’t answer her. They only exchanged sorrowful glances through teary eyes before looking back in the direction they had come from. In the distance they could still hear the battle ensuing in Ponyville. It had slowed down as Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna were wearing themselves down and injuring one another in such a long fight, but bursts of magic and explosions continued to roar in the distance and ignite the sky with terrible fireworks.
        “C’mere, kid…” said Rainbow Dash in a caring tone. Her face was scuffed and dirty from their escape but somehow managed to wear a calm, compassionate smile. She sat flat on the ground and rested her hooves on Scootaloo’s shoulders, kneeling down to meet her eye-to-eye. “Everything’s going to be okay. I promise.”
        Her sisterly face dissolved into the blur of tears that overtook Scootaloo. “What’s happening?! So many of them were just lying there not moving! Why’s this happening?! WHY?!”
        Fluttershy took Scootaloo in her trembling front legs and held her to her chest with a quiet ‘shh’. Scootaloo wasn’t at all calmed by her heartfelt attempt; she could hear Fluttershy’s heart sputtering quickly through her chest. Everything had all happened so abruptly that she was disoriented and couldn’t understand what was going on. It had started as a normal enough day. She and her friends had spent the afternoon trying to earn their cutie marks at cross-country skiing, a task that no doubt would have been successful had there been snow. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle had both headed home, and Scootaloo stopped by their clubhouse to rest before walking the rest of the way home. Somehow she had fallen asleep and not awakened until after the sun had set, and began a sprint for home as fast as she could move.
        Then it began.
        A loud blast rocked the entire town and was followed by many more to come: countless explosions dotted the town while panicked ponies ran screaming every which way, shaking the very core of the normally serene town with chaos. Out of fear she had huddled underneath one of the bridges to stay hidden and had watched in horror as Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle tore through the city locked in a vicious battle. Only luck had kept her alive long enough for Rainbow Dash to spot her and lead her away.
        Fluttershy locked eyes with Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow, why is she doing this?! Why did—”
        “DOWN!!!” screeched Rainbow Dash as she leaped onto Fluttershy and pulled both her and Scootaloo flat to the ground. A rogue burst of horrible bubbling black and blue roared above them and hit the ground about ten feet away from the trio, close enough to kick dirt and leaves all over them. Rainbow Dash held the other two down until she made sure it was clear and then let them stand up. Scootaloo cringed at the sight of whatever went past them: It almost looked like magic, but her heart told her it was something too terrible to be magic. She had never seen anything like it, and it horrified her.
        Fluttershy stared at the crater it had left in the ground. “We… I… should have done something.” She said in a breaking voice, “She’d been acting so strange lately… and her horn… yesterday her horn was…”
        “Fluttershy, take it easy.” Said Rainbow Dash. “We have to stay calm. We don’t know why this is happening, but we don’t have time to think about it now.” She looked over her shoulder at the chaos they had somehow outrun. “All we can do is let the princess stop her.”
        Fluttershy wiped the tears from her eyes. “Y-you’re right, Dashie. But what can we do?”
        Rainbow Dash stood tall and unfurled her wings. “We get as many ponies as we can out of Ponyville! They’re aiming at each other, not the townsponies; if we stay sharp we’ll be fine.”
        Scootaloo wriggled free of Fluttershy’s scared grip. Dashie was right; this wasn’t the time to be afraid. Of course she was terrified, but Rainbow Dash always said it took true courage to stand up when you were afraid. “I’m coming too!”
        “Scootaloo…” said Rainbow Dash in an almost motherly tone. “I need you to do something very important, okay? I need you to find a safe place to hide and guard it for me; we’re going to need a hideout for the ponies we save, okay?”
        “But Dashie!”
        “I know you’re brave, squirt. That’s why I can count on you to do this for me.” She took her goggles, the same ones she had been given after joining the Wonderbolts, and strapped them to Scootaloo’s forehead. “Here. This way everypony’ll know they can count on you. Right, Scoot?”
        Scootaloo nodded fiercely and saluted. “Yes, ma’am!”
        “Atta girl!” said Rainbow Dash proudly. “Hey Fluttershy. Are you ready to go?”
        Fluttershy was still trembling, but nodded nonetheless. “L-let’s go.”
        “RAINBOW DASH!!!”
        The three pegasi looked every which way, trying to locate the source of the voice that was lost to the storm of terror that still roared over Ponyville. As if on cue, a blast from the town lit up the sky, illuminating the silhouette of a lone pegasus up on the hill.
        Fluttershy sighed with relief. “Thank goodness. Somepony else made it.”
        “It’s been a while, eh wingpony?” Said the pony in a colloquial tone as she walked into view to reveal herself as a pale blue pegasus with bright golden hair. “How’re the Wonderbolts treating you?”
        Scootaloo hugged tight against Fluttershy’s leg. She wasn’t too young to realize that no pony should be this calm considering what’s happening. It was making the friendly tone of the pegasus’ voice seriously threatening.
        “Lightning Dust…? Why are you here?” said Rainbow Dash.
        “Been busy.” Said Lightning Dust, her tone turning from friendly to cold. “You know, even though you got me thrown out of the Wonderbolts and all.”
        Rainbow Dash stepped in front of Scootaloo and Fluttershy. “This isn’t the time for that! If you’re looking to start something, that’s fine! Later! Can’t you see that ponies are suffering?! We have to help them!”
        “Oh, don’t worry.” Chuckled Lightning Dust, as if she hadn’t even heard Rainbow Dash’s speech. “I’m past all of that. I’ve found something to keep me occupied. Made a few friends, too.”
Another well-timed blast illuminated the hill once more, this time revealing the silhouettes of two more pegasi. The only detail Scootaloo could make out about the duo was that the thinner of the two seemed to be wearing a flight cap of some kind.
“And one of those friends sent us out to go and find you, Dash. Ready to go and see her?”
“Fluttershy.” Said Rainbow Dash quietly. “Take Scootaloo and get out of here. Now.”
“But..”
“Just do it.”
        Fluttershy clutched Scootaloo to her chest and wrenched herself into the air as fast as she could, while Scootaloo struggled to break free and stay with Rainbow Dash. She heard three sets of wings flap furiously, headed straight for them.
        “Sparkle wants the yellow one too!” yelled Lightning Dust, “You two after her; Rainbow Dash is mine!”
        Doing as they were told, the two pegasi chased Fluttershy and Scootaloo as Rainbow Dash and Lightning dust faded into the darkness below them. Fluttershy gripped Scootaloo tightly as she flew with all her might, but was simply no match for the speed of the two pursuers who caught up quickly.
        “Hey, c’mon!” taunted the flight cap pony, “We’se just gonna take you to your friend! You don’t gotta make it hard!”
        Fluttershy twirled and kicked him in the face, sending him spiraling downward with a loud cry of pain. The other one, a gray stallion with an orange mane, grabbed Fluttershy from behind in a headlock trying to subdue her. The flight cap pony managed to bring himself around and grabbed onto her wing to pull her to the ground. Screaming with fear, Scootaloo lunged and bit onto the flight cap pony’s face. She ignored his holler of pain and sunk her teeth deeper into his eyebrow, tasting the unmistakable iron of blood. He pulled away and with a grunt of anger punched Scootaloo hard in the face—
        —and she was falling. Out of one eye Scootaloo saw the three writhing ponies sailing upward into the sky above her as she plummeted helplessly to the ground. Fluttershy desperately screamed her name as she broke free and flew furiously toward her. The two pursuers didn’t give up; one of them hurled himself at her and tackled her far to the left, far away from saving Scootaloo. Lost in panic she flapped her wings as hard as she could, but could barely even slow her fall. She had only enough time to scream out loud before everything went black.
        “MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!”
        Scootaloo’s eye tore open as she screamed, only to find she wasn’t where she thought she was. She had only hit a hardwood floor after falling a couple of feet from the bed that had been given to her by the friend that had reappeared in her life. She was safe.
        “A nightmare…” she mumbled sleepily, “Just a nightmare… just a nightmare…”
        She fumbled to stand and fought the blankets that had cocooned around her as she thrashed in her sleep, and found that she was literally drenched in sweat. She threw the blankets off of her and spat loudly trying to get the taste of blood from her mouth: she had bit her tongue in her sleep. She stood in the room motionless, staring at nothing until her breathing had slowed down. The dream was already gone, exiled to that place where dreams go to be forgotten, but somehow the raw fear of death lingered on to haunt her.
        Scootaloo shook her head and walked up to her still-sleeping friend to check if she had awakened. Apple Bloom hadn’t moved from the spot she had fallen asleep from, only turned onto her belly with her blanket held tight around her as if she was cold. Her hat had fallen from her head, with a trio of photographs poking out of the tattered lining within. Her fear almost entirely forgotten in an instant, Scootaloo curiously scooped them up.
        The first of the three photos was tattered, weathered, and showered pure happiness over her, enough to wash away the terror left behind by her nightmare. It was a brand-new barn on Apple Bloom’s farm, with her entire family standing before it in a crowd. In the middle she could easily pick out Apple Bloom’s older brother and grandmother, and lying casually on her side in front of them was Apple Bloom’s sister. Scootaloo only had vague memories of the three, but what memories she had were all pleasant. Beside the trio was a lineup of fillies, led by two very familiar young ponies. One was Apple Bloom in her youth smiling and care-free with her ridiculously oversized bow, a sight which made Scootaloo laugh happily. The other was Apple Bloom’s cousin Babs Seed, who Scootaloo could only hope was still out there somewhere living a happy life. Still giggling, Scootaloo wished she had managed to keep a few photos herself and flipped to the next one—
        —And found an image that only confused her. It was in much better condition than the last one, and featured a young Apple Bloom that couldn’t have been more than a couple of years older than she had been in the last one. She was smiling happily with her sister’s oversized hat on her head and her bow tied into a loose ascot around her neck, and standing beside two young zebras that appeared to be the same age as her. The one in the middle, a colt, was grinning ear-to-ear with his front legs wrapped around Apple Bloom and the other zebra’s shoulders, and the other, a filly, smiled warmly and wore a neckerchief similar to Apple Bloom’s . The odd trio stood on what would have looked like a farm if not for the odd metal contraption that sat behind them, riddled with pipes and hoses that ran every which way.
        Trying to make sense of it, she flipped to the last photo and was only more confused by what she saw. It was obviously the most recent of the three photos; Apple Bloom didn’t look much younger than she did right now. Apple Bloom stood in the center wearing a faint ghost of a smile with a large bandage on her cheek, with her head leaning gently into the neck of the now much older zebra colt from the last photo. Beside the duo was the zebra mare from the last photo, lost in thought and glancing in the direction of the camera, and a large griffon with his beak somehow twisted into an almost geeky smile. They were all four wearing pale green coats, obviously uniforms of some kind, and Apple Bloom and the two zebras were all carrying the same odd popping weapons that Apple Bloom still carried with her today. The griffon had a similar weapon, though much longer and far more menacing in appearance. The group was posing in front of a large machine the likes of which Scootaloo had never seen: It was a large vehicle on treads, like a crane from a construction site, but covered in metal and fitted with a huge cannon which gave it a rather sinister and obvious purpose. Not a single thing in the photo looked normal, as if it had been taken in another world altogether.
        Scootaloo stood for a moment, looking at the photos over and over until, like having a mountain fall on her, it all of a sudden hit her hard. Apple Bloom had left Equestria, she had found a family, and there was only one reason why she would have come back. Only one reason why her friend had so obviously avoided talking about it. Her new family was gone, and judging by the last photo they had left her very recently. Scootaloo’s stomach felt as if it had fallen into her legs, and she felt almost sick with guilt as she put the photos back and gently patted her still-sleeping friend’s head.
        She didn’t want to think about it any longer. She slumped back to the bed and curled up under the covers. “Give me a good dream this time…” she pleaded as she rolled over and slipped off once more into slumber.