//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: The Lunar Crusaders 
// Story: The Night's Light 
// by Keeper of time RD 
//------------------------------//

	The sun beat down on the schoolyard, most of fillies and colts laughed and played their recess away, but three particular fillies sat at their favorite picnic bench-table huddled together. One, Apple Bloom, was an earth pony with a yellow coat, red mane, and a big pink bow adorning her mane. Another was a unicorn with a white coat, and a mane that had both pink and purple in it, named Sweetie Belle. The third filly was, Scootaloo, a pegasus with an orange coat, and purple mane.

“Uh oh,” Sweetie Belle said when she spotted two certain earth pony fillies headed their way.

The one wearing glasses was Silver Spoon, a filly with a gray coat, silver mane, and a cutie mark that matched her name. The other, and arguably meaner of the two schoolyard bullies, was Diamond Tiara, a filly with a pink coat, faded purple mane, also with a cutie mark that not only matched her name but the tiara sitting on her head.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the fail mark crusaders,” Diamond taunted the three fillies at the bench the instant she was within earshot.

“Cutie mark crusaders,” Apple Bloom dryly corrected, even though she was sure the mistake was made on purpose.

“Oh really? Because it seems like the cutie mark crusaders are awfully short on cutie marks,” Diamond Tiara taunted. “A shame too, after all that ruckus you three made yesterday I’d have thought at least one of you would have earned a cutie mark for disturbing the peace.”

“Why you…” snarled Scootaloo as she started to get up, only for a white hoof to trap one of her own. With a sigh the pegasus settled back onto the bench, redirecting her glare at the wooden table instead.

Trying her best to not to sound angry Apple Bloom said, “Ya don’t usually come over just to call us names, so if ya got something you wanted to gloat about just spit it out and leave already.”

“Oh you’re in a bad mood I see. That almost makes me wish I’d seen how you three must have humiliated yourselves yesterday. Is it true that they had to call the fire department to get you three untangled?” Diamond asked, with a smirk.

“No! Rainbow Dash untangled us just fine, by herself,” Scootaloo defended, refusing to bring her gaze up from the table.

With a giggle Silver Spoon ran her hoof through Scootaloo’s tail. Taking note of the prismatic hairs mixed in with Scootaloo’s purple tail hair, Spoon said, “Oh I doubt that.”

After sharing a quick laugh with her friend, Diamond Tiara said, “Anyway I actually wanted to ask Sweetie Belle if her sister would be coming to the business society dinner in Canterlot this weekend. I remember seeing Rarity’s name in a decent fashion magazine lately, so I was wondering if her little dress shop was finally big enough to catch the attention of important ponies.”

“No. She hasn’t said anything about any dinner in Canterlot lately,” Sweetie answered softly, lowering her head slightly.

With sympathy so fake it was pathetic, Diamond said, “Aww, that’s too bad. My daddy is going to receive an award there, so he’s bringing me, and I’ll be bringing Silver Spoon. I was almost hoping you’d be there to see it. Don’t worry I’m sure I’ll be able to talk him into letting me bring it to show and tell someday, you know, so all you ‘not special’ ponies can see it.”

With that the two bullies walked away, laughing, leaving the crusaders glaring at the backs of their foes.

Once the bullies were out of earshot, Apple Bloom said, “Can y’all believe the nerve of her? Acting all high and mighty just because her daddy won some award?”

Folding her front hooves, Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah you’d think she won the award or something the way she was acting. Who cares what her dad did, it’s not like that makes her a better pony or anything.”

“Yeah, she’s still a stuck up brat,” Sweetie Belle agreed.


* * * * * * *


In the past two weeks Luna had spent some time with each of the spirits of harmony, and yet her mind kept drifting back to the time she’d spent with Rainbow Dash, and the shadow they’d encountered. The investigation had stalled due to a lack of clues, and with the weather back on schedule, life had returned to normal, even for the weather ponies.

The waking realm had given no more clues to work with, and dream walking at night had proven to be of no help. With a mighty yawn, Luna awoke from her early afternoon nap, and followed it with a sigh, signaling that the daytime dream walking hadn’t helped any either.

Then Luna took notice of her surroundings. “Did I not slumber at the edge of Ponyville?” Looking around she found the town in question to be well to the south. Glancing down at the cloud she’d fallen asleep on she added, “I do not recall thou being adrift when I started this nap.”

Standing up, Luna spread her wings and was about to take flight when a, peculiar buzzing noise stopped her. It sounded like one of the newfangled inventions of the last thousand years, a motor if she recalled the name of such devices.

Looking to the rolling hills below, Luna searched for the source of the noise. Her ears pointed her to three fillies. Two riding in a wagon, and the third was a particularly familiar pegasus filly towing the wagon from her scooter.

“Good day to you, Scootaloo!” Luna greeted, as she descended from the sky.

Flaring her wings hard, Scootaloo air-braked until the trio had come to a stop. As the filly’s wings came to a stop Luna noted that the motor-like buzzing vanished as well. “Princess Luna!” Scootaloo said, then bringing a hoof to her chin, she added, “What are you doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Wait, am I dreaming again?”

Taking the opportunity to teach, Luna said, “Do this.” She then used one of her front hooves to slap her other front leg.

Lifting one hoof from her scooter’s handlebars Scootaloo slapped her other front leg, and immediately grimaced in pain.

“Did it hurt?” Luna asked.

Rubbing the pain away, Scootaloo said, “Yeah,”

“Then thou are awake, for the part of the mind that perceives pain does not talk to the part of the mind that perceives dreams.”

“Oh,” Scootaloo said flatly, then a second latter her eyes lit up and she said, “Oh! So that’s why ponies slap themselves when they see something they think is impossible!”

“Indeed. As to why I am here, I took a nap and it would seem the cloud I fell asleep on drifted far and wide. However, I am curious as to why three fillies are in the middle of nowhere, and without an adult in sight to oversee them?” Luna asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Long story short, When Rainbow Dash was bringing me back from Cloudsdale I saw some cool places out here, so we’re going to explore them,” Scootaloo answered.

“With just the three of you?”

“Yep!” all three crusaders cheerfully answered together.

With a slight bow of her head, Luna said, “A thousand years of relative peace or not, the world is not a safe place. I am sorry, but I can not allow three fillies to wander the wilderness, without an adult-”

“Aww…” the three moaned softly.

“-So lead on,” Luna finished.

Three young faces spring back to life as the fillies glanced at each other and then back to the princess. “Really?” Apple Bloom asked.

Tapping a hoof on her chin as if considering a serious question, Luna answered, “I said I would not allow thee to continue without an adult. So let us see, I am the princess of the night, guardian of dreams, and being over a thousand years old, I suspect ‘adult’ in on my list of credentials somewhere. So yes, lead on. I shall follow you on thy adventure.”

The trio of fillies turned to each other with smiles that spoke volumes, then simultaneously they each raised a hoof in the air and called out, “Cool! Cutie mark crusaders princess adventurers!” With that Scootaloo’s wings came back to life and they sped forward, leaving Luna to scramble to catch up and take up a position in the sky, watching over them from above.


* * * * * * *


As they neared their destination, Luna took notice of the stones littering the otherwise grassy hills, and wondered if the three fillies below could even tell that they now roamed the ruins of a village. Memories of the buildings that had once been flashed in Luna’s mind with each set of stones, marking what remained of the foundations, they passed. Even now, Scootaloo’s wings pushed the crusaders’ preferred method of transportation down a grassy path, where Luna saw visions of a dirt road.

Scootaloo finally allowed the team to come rolling to a stop before a hill that had been partly carved out, and in the hollow was the only building still standing. Although in this case ‘still standing’ meant that the front wall was almost completely missing, and vines crawled up the remaining stonework walls. If there had ever been a roof there was no evidence of it now. The remaining walls were high enough to make it known that the building had once been two stories tall, but now the only evidence of that was the empty holes halfway up the stonework walls, where the support beams had once been. Added to that, stone pillars on the first floor now stood as idol witnesses, supported nothing.

While Scootaloo sat down to rest her wings, Sweetie Belle opened her saddlebags and passed out some snacks, consisting of apples and pastries, even offering some Luna.

As they enjoyed the snacks, Luna said, “I remember this place.”

“Really? What was it?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“It was a small town, mostly farmers. Not too unlike your Ponyvilly really.” Gesturing to the building before them, Luna added, “This building, they called it ‘sanctuary.’ Although, as I recall, it was just a house.”

“Why’d they call it that if it was just a house?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Because it was the only building to survive the age of chaos untouched. Most of my memories here were of helping them rebuild the town after Discord’s defeat.”

Sweetie Belle finished her cinnamon bun and asked, “Why did Discord leave this building alone?”

Luna shook her head. “That I do not know. Though knowing him, I imagine it was something as pointless and insane as he flipped a coin.”

Draining the last of her juice box, Apple Bloom asked, “If they rebuilt after Discord was defeated, what happened to make the town nothing but ruins now?”

Again Luna shook her head. “It was still standing a thousand years ago. Though it looks like it has been abandon for many hundreds of years, so whatever caused the ponies to leave must have been soon after my banishment.”

Crushing her own juice box flat, Scootaloo stood up and said, “Then come on crusaders! Let’s explore this place and find out what happened!”

Luna raised an eyebrow. ‘Crusaders’ now there is a term I have not heard in an age. Luna thought, as that was the second time in as many hours that she’d heard the word from the fillies. Although, not wanting to step on the fillies’ excitement, she didn’t ask for clarification on the matter, as the trio stuffed their garbage back into Sweetie Belle’s saddlebags and hurried into the ruined building with a zeal that was oddly fitting for the word.

There really wasn’t much to see as they ventured into the ruined building. Pausing for a moment and looking down, Luna brushed a silver shoe on the grass. The ground floor had either been dirt to begin with or wood that had long since rotted away into nothing, as wild grass had become the new carpet for the ruin.

The three fillies darted from one room to the next, while Luna walked calmly down what would have been the hallway.

Pulling her head out of what was left of a fireplace, Apple Bloom sighed, “Aww… there’s nothing here.”

“I can not say that I am surprised, wood and iron do not stand the test of time as well as steel and plastic,” Luna answered.

“I wouldn’t say there’s nothing here. Take a look at this!” Scootaloo said from the back of the ruined building.

“Kinda a small room ain’t it?” Apple Bloom said, as she approached the place where Scootaloo was.

“Naw, it’s too small to be a room. Looks more like a walk in closet,” Sweetie Belle said.

With a hint of sarcasm in her voice Apple Bloom asked, “What kinda closet has a back door? And what’s with this narrow space? Ah can’t even turnaround in here.”

Sitting in the ‘back door’ Scootaloo just looked at her friends and blinked, the blank expression on her face practically screaming, ‘how can you not notice the cave back here?’ As the seconds ticked by a twitch formed in Scootaloo’s eye. Looking up to the only adult present, she found Luna holding a silver clad hoof over her smiling face, restraining herself from laughing at the other two fillies’ intense focus on the narrow space. When she’d had enough with waiting patiently, Scootaloo blurted out, “It’s a secret door! You’d push the cabinet back and slide it into that space to open the way to the secret passage!”

Backing out of the narrow hideaway, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked past Scootaloo into the darkness of the cave behind her. “Oh, yeah that makes since,” they said together.

Tiling her head to the side Sweetie Belle added, “But Scoot, why do you know so much about secret passages?”

“Because I’ve seen one before,” Scootaloo shrugged off the question.

“Oh yeah? When? You’ve drags us on every one of your hair-brained adventures and Ah’ve never seen any secret passages,” Apple Bloom challenged.

A flash of panic appeared in Scootaloo’s eyes, and they quickly found their way to the grass at her hooves. “Umm… It was before I met you guys.” When she finished speaking Scootaloo gave a small smile.

As her friends were deciding whether or not to believe Scootaloo, Luna said, “Considering that even I did not know there was a cave behind this place, It is indeed safe to say that this was a secret passage. Perhaps there was more to this simple house’s name then I gave credence to. What say thee, little ones, shall we explore this hidden cave?”

“Works for me!” Sweetie Belle squeaked, then adding, “Too bad we didn’t bring any flash lights. It looks too dark to see anything in there.”

A soft blue light shown from Luna’s horn lighting the way into the cave. “Lead on my little ponies, and I shall light the way.” With that three crusaders and a princess headed into the cave.

After some stairs leading downward and a short winding path the four ponies came to an open area that had clearly been enlarged from the natural cave. The three fillies immediately darted over to a flat portion of the wall that clearly had etchings on it. Luna’s eyes fell to a dark discoloration on the floor of the cave.

“What do you think it is?” one crusader asked.

“Well duh, it’s a map.”

“I know that, but where do you think it’s a map of?”

“Maybe it’s a treasure map!”

“Hey Luna, what do you think? Do you know what this map is?”

Hearing her name, Luna awoke from her on thoughts and she turned to the map carved in stone. “Let us see. If we presume that these mountains are the Canterlot Mountain range, then this line must be the river leading north, as it was in ancient times. Also of note is that the mapped part seems to narrow as it goes north, only to spread out again at the crystal mountains.”

Scootaloo reached up and ran her hoof along the line that Luna guessed to be a river, and said, “If this is north of our valley, then shouldn’t Cloudsdale be on this map?”

“Hmm, that is curious indeed. Although Pegasopulous was the original pegasus city of Equestria, after it was destroyed in the age of chaos, Cloudsdale was build in its image and likeness in more or less the same place. I find it hard to believe that this map would predate the founding of Equestria,” Luna answered.

Looking down Luna found her musing had fallen on deaf ears, as the trio of fillies had already lost interest in the map and resumed searching the room for anything else to capture their attention. A smile appeared on Luna’s face as she remembered her own youthful exuberance.

As a plan formed in Luna’s mind, she sent out a pulse of magic from her horn, searching the area for a place to create a new secret chamber and conjure up a moment for the fillies to ‘find’ something. She abruptly discarded the idea as the magical scan found a tunnel behind a thin layer of rock already existed. “Well, what have we here?” she said.

“Did you find something?”

Brightening the light from her horn to fully fill the room, Luna said, “Indeed I have. My magic tells me that there is a hidden passage beyond this wall. Search the room diligently little ones, surely there must be a way to open this path.”

Sweetie Belle returned to the map and started pressing her hooves against the various symbols on the map, hoping that one of them might be a button. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo darted around the room, examining every surface that had clearly been altered.

Few things in the room were within easy reach of the fillies, and the two crusaders quickly started looking elsewhere. “Wow, would you look at that!” Scootaloo said, as she spotted the ornate symbols above them, etched in a ring along the walls of the room.

While Scootaloo started doing wing-boosted jumps to inspect the symbols, Apple Bloom tried to climb up on a torch holder, carved into the wall, to get a better look at them. As the farm filly’s weight came on to the torch holder it shifted under her hoof, drawing a yelp of surprise.

A grinding click echoed through the room and the slab of stone before Luna suddenly slid down into the floor, revealing the passageway beyond.

“Way to go Apple Bloom!” the other crusaders cheered as they lined up before the secret passage within a secret cave.

As the four ponies traveled down the new pathway, the crusaders didn’t seem to notice, but Luna couldn’t help but take note of the dark stains marring the ground. On top of that, being more shielded from erosion, the marks were clear enough to see the hoof prints at the end of some of them. Blood stained hooves had once walked this path.

Taking a sniff of the air, Luna found it stale enough to know that there wasn’t much air flow in this part of the cave, but devoid of sent enough to prove that the hidden pathway wasn’t air tight.

A sudden darkness came into sight, revealing that the path was about to open up into a room. The three crusaders marched confidently into the room. As Luna entered the light from her horn filled the room, revealing three stone coffins, the two to either side were sealed, while the one at the back of the room still had its lid partway off.

A startled scream of frightened fillies filled the room as the crusaders found the skeleton of a pegasus mare lying on the ground at the base of still open coffin, and at the end of the trail of ancient dried blood. Aside from the bones, enough feathers and tail hairs had escaped erosion to tell that in life the mare’s coat had been yellow and her mane and tail had been green. The complete absence of the smell of death made it clear that the remains had been undisturbed for hundreds of years.

Approaching the remains, Luna reached out with her magic for a moment and then casually said, “I don’t think she’ll be getting up any time soon. Nor do I sense the enchantment of a necromancer’s magic.”

Scootaloo was the first to step out from behind the closed coffin the trio of fillies had taken cover by. “I wish you guys would stop doing that. When you scream like that, it frightens me into panicking too,” she said.

It was not clear if they believed their friend or not, but Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom giggled and played along. “Sorry, but you have to admit it was a little scary to just find a skeleton all of a sudden like that.”

With a slight giggle Scootaloo said, “Okay, maybe it was a little scary. I blame the hair and feathers, those make it look way more creepy than that model Cheeralee teaches with.” 

As if to prove that she wasn’t as scared as hiding with her friends had implied, Scootaloo leapt up onto the lid of the still open coffin. After a quick glance inside she said, “Huh, it’s empty.” Turning her attention to the rim of the coffin, the pegasus filly noticed some wedge-like stone prongs. Putting her weight on one she said, “I think it’s a switch, but it’ll take something heavy to make it budge.” With a smile she added, “Like a stone lid.”

Looking down at the skeleton, Luna said, “That would make since, to grant the last guardian of this place her proper resting place. Come down from there Scootaloo.”

Once the filly had obeyed, Luna wrapped the long-dead pegasus’ remains in her magic and set them inside the coffin. With all three crusaders by her side, Luna stretched out a hoof toward the sarcophagus, enveloped the lid of the coffin in her magic, and said, “Here today, we lay to rest the remains of this noble pegasus. May thy spirit rest in peace knowing that thou has been honored.” Once she had finished speaking, Luna gently waved her outstretched hoof to the side and slid the coffin lid shut with a similar motion from her magic.

As soon as the coffin lid had been shut, the grinding sound of an ancient stonework latch being released was heard. Part of the floor, a flat curricular stone in the center of the room, suddenly fell about a foot and then slid to the side. In its place a small pedestal rose up, presenting a small bronze object, in the shape of a winged horseshoe with a lightning bolt in the middle.

“What do you suppose it is?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“It looks like a horseshoe,” Apple Bloom stated the obvious.

“I can see that! But it looks too fancy to actually be used as a shoe. Plus there’s only one, not a set.”

After a moment of examining the object, the trio of fillies all turned their heads to Princess Luna. The alicorn simply shook her head. “I hath seen many symbols in my time, but this is not among them. You shall have to seek the aid of somepony else on this matter.”

The crusaders all looked to each other and simultaneously all three nodded and said, “Twilight.”


* * * * * * *


Books littered the floor of the privet study within the Ponyville library, and an owl sat on his perch, intently watching as if waiting for the next living cyclone to rearrange the scattering of reading materials.

“Hmm. Yes, I think I have seen this symbol somewhere. Spike! Do you know where the book on ancient pegasus symbology went?” Twilight Sparkle called out.

The purple dragon whelp in question walked casually across the room to the third pile of books from the window loft. After examining the pile for a second he snatched one of the books so quickly that books on top of it fell down in place, preserving the integrity of the book tower. “Here it is!” he called.

As the purple glow of Twilight’s magic snatched up the book, she said, “Spike, have I ever told you that you are amazing?”

“You could stand to say it more often,” he said with a smile, and mimicking a butler’s bow.

“And incorrigible,” Twilight added.

“What’s that mean?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Not sure, but ponies call me that all the time. I always thought they were just saying encouragable funny,” Scootaloo volunteered.

“Encouragable isn’t a word. Incorrigible means unruly, hopeless, or otherwise unwilling to learn to be better or break bad habits,” Sweetie Belle explained.

“What are you, a dictionary? Why do you even know that? Did you read the dictionary from front to back or something?” Scootaloo responded.

A blush became visible through the fur on Sweetie Belle’s cheeks. “I was little! I got all they way to the definition of ‘dictionary’ before I realized why the story in that book was so boring! Okay?”

The other two crusaders burst into laughter at the unexpected answer from the unicorn of their group, and even Luna couldn’t help but smile.

Twilight Sparkle, however, placed her hoof on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder and said, “There is nothing wrong with reading a dictionary front to back. It helps build vocabulary, and helps you understand what ponies are saying.” Lowering her self to come face to face with the pegasus filly, Twilight continued, “Like with you Scootaloo, I bet when ponies called you incorrigible they always left you confused didn’t they?”

Lowering her gaze to the floor, Scootaloo answered, “Yeah… I never did understand why ponies would say I could be encouraged, usually right after I crashed my scooter. But now that I know what it means, I guess they were calling me hopeless.”

“Good, now that we have established the importance of learning, let’s see what we can learn about this artifact you found,” Twilight said, finally opening the book on pegasus symbology. After scanning through the book for a moment, Twilight set her hoof down on a page and said, “Ah here it is! Let’s see, according to this, the symbol of the winged horseshoe and lightning bolt is one of the oldest symbols of the pegasus tribe, and was only used in the early bronze age. After contact with the earth pony tribe the symbol was abandon to further distinguish themselves from the earth ponies, who used a horseshoe in many of their symbols, in favor for an increased focus on wings, clouds and lightning in pegasus symbols.”

Once she’d finished speaking, Twilight turned the book around and set it on the floor, allowing everypony to see the image on the page matched the artifact that Luna and the crusaders had found. As the others looked over the picture in the book, a look of concern found its way on to Twilight Sparkle’s face. “I’m sorry, Luna, where did you say you found this?”

“In the hills just north of town,” Luna answered with a stern yet knowing tone in her voice.

“That makes no since. If the dates in this book are right then the pegasus tribe stopped using this symbol thousands of years before the founding of Equestria. It shouldn’t even be possible for one of these to be found here.”

Luna nodded. “I agree, Twilight. And that is not all that was odd. It is my understanding that the pegasus tribe was not in the habit of burying the dead prior to the founding of Equestria. If memory serves, that was an earth pony tradition, let alone the use of fancy sarcophaguses, more akin to the traditions of unicorns, like the ones we found in the tomb.”

“So what do you think happened? How did this artifact get here of all places?” Twilight asked.

Luna shook her head. “I can not say for certain. However, judging from the evidence, it would seem that a particularly bold group of pegasi ventured forth from the ancient pegasus tribe, found this land ages before the founding of our nation, and chose to stay rather then return and make known what they had found. Finally choosing to prepare a unicorn style tomb for themselves rather then use pegasus traditions of dealing with the dead.”

Twilight brought a hoof to her chin as she considered the theory. “I guess that’s plausible. Especially once you consider the ease of movement pegasi enjoy, it would stand to reason that adventurous pegasi would have found many places long before they were recorded as being ‘discovered’ in the history books.” Looking back to Luna, Twilight Sparkle asked, “So what do you plan on doing with it? The artifact that is.”

“Me? Not a thing, these three are the reason it was found, it is theirs to do with as they please,” Luna answered, motioning to the three fillies in the room.

Twilight’s eyes went wide as she listened to the princess’ answer. “Umm, girls. Before you get too carried away, can I suggest you let me donate it to a museum, where it belongs?”

The three crusaders looked at each other, an unspoken conversation passed between them with nothing more the looks in their eyes and the smiles on their faces. When they had all nodded in agreement, Apple Bloom spoke for them, “Sure, you can do that. Once we’re done with it. But first, we are so bringing this to the next show and tell.”

With that the three crusaders cheered. Twilight hung her head in defeat, and muttered under her breath, “I just it survives that long in their care.”