"Okay so after the windows are wet with the soapy water all you girls gotta do is drag the smooth rubbery part over it and then.." The mare then finished her window washing demonstration by dragging the washing stick over the window. "Viola! Easy as pie, think you two can handle that?"
Two small fillies, one with an orange coat and purple mane and another with a white coat and white lavender swirl mane, stood below her nodded in unison. The mare gave them an uneasy look in return.
"It's okay Aunt Squeegee we can take care of it." Scootaloo said with a quick salute.
"Alright then I'll leave you to it. Just handle the bottom windows and stay off of the gondola you're too young for that."
"Okay." They replied with little smiles.
The grey mare sighed in relief "Aren't you two the sweetest things, helping me with my work. Well I'm on break."
She walked away from the building until she was out of sight. The fillies watched her leave then began to work.
"Scootaloo, no offense but I don't think window washing would be a very fun job." She dragged the stick across the window drenching it in soapy water.
"Oh come on, imagine how cool it would be to have a window washing cutie mark. Or any cutie mark at all we've tried everything but maybe window washing will be it."
"Alright but after this we should do something fun."
They continued washing the windows until they were all spotless aside from the windows at the top of the building.
"See that wasn't too bad huh Sweetiebelle?" They turned to their flanks but saw no new cutie mark.
"Well so much for that." Sweetiebelle turned and started walking away. Scootaloo felt disappointed and looked at the windows they had cleaned. The windows were spotless with not a single mark on them. She started thinking that there must be more to it. She then looked toward the gondola attached to the building and got a big smile.
Sweetiebelle heard the clang of metal and turned to see Scootaloo clambering on top of the gondola. She ran back to her friend with a worried expression. "Scootaloo what are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm going to use this to finish the windows. Could you help me please?" She reached out a hoof but Sweetiebelle had not taken it.
"We can't do that. I'm not going to be a part of this." She began to walk away until Scootaloo crossed the line.
"What are you? A scaredy cat?" Sweetiebelle stopped in place then looked back at her friend.
"I-I-I am not a scaredy cat."
"Oh really? Because it seems like you are. Besides didn't you say you wanted to have fun?" Scootaloo offered Sweetiebelle a hoof again but with a coy smile. Sweetie took it and hopped onto the gondola while glaring at Scootaloo.
They worked the controls and shakily lifted themselves up to the windows of the second story. "See now this is cool!" Scootaloo picked up the stick with her mouth and began washing the windows.
Some time had passed and about half of he windows had been washed. The girls had the most fun messing around with the Gondola. "Okay I admit it, you were right." Sweetiebelle finished the last set of windows for the side hey were on until a spot at the top of it was all that remained.
"Hey Sweetiebelle, can you help me reach that part up there?" Scootaloo pointed to the top corner and Sweetie nodded. Scootaloo began to shakily get on top of Sweetiebelle when the gondola started to creak and shake. She reached out with the washer when the creaks started growing louder. Then as soon as she reached it they heard a loud snap.
"Uh oh." Was the last thing she said before one of the wires snapped. The gondola swung downwards sending the two fillies tumbling with it. The wires on the other side were all that was keeping it from falling. Scootaloo was hanging from the edge of it with her upper legs wrapped around the handles. Sweetiebelle was shakily standing on her hind legs above Scootaloo.
The gondola swung gently until it came to a full stop. The girls stopped hyperventilating and slowly opened their eyes. "Okay okay. We can get out of this." Scootaloo said as she tried to get up to where Sweetie was. Sweetiebelle leaned herself down to offer a hoof to her friend before the gondola groaned again.
They both yelped and shut their eyes once more. At that moment Scootaloo had just begun to regret her decision.
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Applebloom walked down the street towards the empty building that her friends were supposed to be at. She had an extra spring in her step and an extra large smile on because of what she had found earlier. She knew that it would blow her friends away.
She passed by a grey mare with a black mane done up in a bun that was very much asleep and snoring very loud. She continued towards the front of the building, Until she saw her friends up on a swinging gondola holding on for dear life and immediately sprang into action.
"What are you guys doing up there?" She yelled with urgency. Sweetiebelle looked down and smiled as if she had seen the grace of faust herself.
"Applebloom! Thank goodness, we need your heeelp!" The second to last wire that held it up gave way as the gondola swung once more. Sweetiebelle clung to the handle as Scootaloo was losing her grip.
"Alright now Scoots all you gotta do is let go and I'll catch ya. Can you do that?" Applebloom said as she prepared to catch her friend.
"No no I can't just let go I-." The Gondola groaned again under the weight of the girls. "Okay letting go." Scootaloo looked down and saw a four foot drop but despite her reservations about dropping from heights she took a deep breath before letting go.
Applebloom was stood just beneath ready to catch her friend until an unseen force shrouded her in blue light and teleported her two feet to the left. Scootaloo fell down with a thud and groaned.
"I thought you were going to catch me."
"I was ah swear, its just that um." She stopped talking and just turned to Sweetiebelle. "Alright now its your turn Sweetiebelle." She shouted.
Scootaloo then stood up and cracked her joints before looking up as well. "Come on that things gonna break!" She shouted.
"O-o-okay I'm going to jump!"
"Hurry up!"
"Three-" She was cut off as the final wire broke and sent the gondola crashing down. As it hit the ground all noise stopped as the crusaders stared at the hunk of metal with horrified expressions.
"Oh no...Sweetiebelle." Scootaloo fell to her haunches and looked down at her own hooves, feeling guilty as the one responsible. "It's all my fault." The silence was deafening, But then the metal creaked as Sweetiebelle leaped out of the fallen gondola and kissed the ground.
Her friends, feeling relieved, ran to her and hugged her as hard as they could. They all sighed and sat there in each others embraces. "Thank goodness we got out of that alright." She said as they hugged in the dust that had been kicked up by the crash.
"Oh my Celestia, What HAPPENED!" The crusaders then immediately got down and hid in the cover of the fading dust as Scootaloo's aunt flipped out.
"Girls! Where are you?! Oh no I am so fired." She started pacing back and forth as her mind slowly crumbled away. The crusaders knew the dust wouldn't hide them for much longer but they couldn't move for fear of being spotted.
"Girls grab hold of me." Applebloom whispered to them as she reached out her hooves.
"What for?"
"Just do it!" They complied and Applebloom closed her eyes as they all were immediately taken to the side other side of the building in a flash of blue light. The others were completely baffled as to how it had happened.
"What just happened? How did you do that?"
"I'll explain later scoots. Now wheres the Scooter, lets get out of here." The crusaders left in a flash as the wreck they had caused was quite literally left in the dust.
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A buzzing sound filled the air as the crusaders blazed along the trail in the orchard. They had been traveling deep within for quite some time, and Eventually they came across an abandoned barn with broken door handles and faded red paint.
"Here it is" Said Applebloom as she dismounted the wagon.
"So let me get this straight. You snuck in to the highly secured crash site filled with royal guards, found a piece of purple alien metal that you have no knowledge of where it came from or how it was even made, and waltzed out to then learn how to use it in one morning?" Sweetiebelle questioned.
"Yep though ah wouldn't say that place is secure."
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Corporal Shield was stood next to his friend Corporal Nav at their east watch position of the crash sight with nothing to do. Suffice to say he was bored and needed pony interaction.
"Hey Nav do you ever think that maybe we aren't good guards?"
"Why? We're awesome at our job and we would never let anypony get past us. Why do you ask?"
"Well-" As they continued with their conversation a small filly with a red bow fell from a tree and looked at them. She then walked over to the rubble and smiled widely.
"And thats how the self loathing interpretation has seeped into your brain Shield. Remember we're always our most harsh critic. Now lets get back to work."
"Yeah your right we are awesome." With wide smiles they continued being awesome at their job.
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"And besides ah grew up here I know this orchard like the back of my hoof." She went to a switch in the barn and flipped it to turn on a light hanging above them. Showing off her purple armor chest piece that had changed color. "But wait until you see this." She ran over to the very back and reached behind some hay bales.
Both Scootaloo and Sweetiebelle's eyes grew larger as Applebloom pulled out two more identical purple metal chest pieces with alien insignias on them.
"Y'all ready?"
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Inside of the golden oaks library Spike the dragon was sorting out adventure books into the categories Science-fantasy fiction, Fantasy-Science fiction, and sorta sciency fantasy like fiction. He had no Idea why it was necessary but Twilight had explicitly said to sort them in said categories.
He had been mulling over where to put the adventures of the space fairing goblin trolls when there was a knock at the door. He walked to the door and opened it up to find not a single soul outside. "Hello?" He took a quick scan over the area but still found no one. With a shrug he went back inside.
Moving towards his pile of books he continued to sort them out until he heard a strange noise coming from the bookshelf. As soon as he looked he froze at the sight of a levitating book. It had no magical glow around it whatsoever, it was just hanging in the air. He snapped out of his trance when the book started to move up the stairs into the rooms. He followed it all the way up until it stopped at the top and fell to the ground. He stopped but then continued on cautiously towards the top.
His heart was racing as he pondered why the book had moved up here and who was responsible. On his final step he focused entirely on the book and had stepped right on top of a roller skate causing him to fall backwards all the way down the stairs and face plant. He lifted his head and witnessed the lights flickering on and off as the books were thrown across the room. He stood up and backed away from the scene only to hear faint moaning come from thin air.
His eyes darted all around the room until they finally rested on a sheet covered ghost moving slowly towards him. And that was the final straw.
"Ahhhhhh!" He ran from the library screaming his head off all the way. And still in the library were three little fillies laughing on the floor.
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Diamond Tiara was sitting down outside of the milkshake shop. She had ordered a specially made deluxe chocolate shake with whip cream on top and chocolate shavings from the finest chocolate the store could offer, she was a bit of a chocolate nut. She waited there with a pouty face as she wondered why it was taking so long before it had finally arrived.
About one inch away from touching the straw she heard a clang in the alley behind her. She shrugged and turned back to her drink until a non existent breeze knocked her tiara off her head. She gasped and jumped from her chair to catch it. Luckily it had not touched the ground and landed in her hooves safe and sound.
With a sigh of relief she turned around and dawned her tiara again. When she looked at her table her world had stopped. The drink she had been waiting for, craving, the drink that her father said she could only have once a week or she'd get a "sugar rush" was gone. Today had become one of those days.
She vigorously searched for the drink but to no avail. Her butler then walked up to her and tapped her shoulder.
"My dear I am afraid that is all the time we can spare for the detour we must continue to the manor."
Diamond Tiara looked up at him with pinpricks as one of her eyes twitched.
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"Man this shake is delicious." Scootaloo sipped the heavenly drink out of one of the three straws inside.
"You can say that again. Hey Applebloom you want some." Sweetiebelle offered her some but Applebloom turned it down.
"Uh no thanks. I'm good." The others shrugged and removed one of the straws.
"You know teleporting is a given for sci-fi stuff but I would've never guessed it could make us invisible too. This thing just keeps on giving!" Scootaloo happily patted her chest piece twice causing it to start blinking. This in turn caused the other pieces to start blinking as well. The crusaders stared in astonishment as they had never seen it before.
They blinked in unison until they stopped and changed colors to blue. "Lar ba sakul makazie!" A loud phrase erupted from the plates in a foreign language. Before the fillies could make sense of it all three of them were engulfed in a white light.
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After the light faded their senses were cut off. They could barely hear anything and their vision was a blurry mess. After some time the crusaders gained their bearings and could hear and see again. They found themselves inside a prison cell of some sort with metal bars coursing with electricity holding them in.
All over the walls were alien markings yet for some reason the three fillies understood what the markings said. They were various things such as help, forgive me, And a tally that counted the days a prisoner spent inside. With each second the girls grew more scared.
"Where are we?" Scootaloo asked not really expecting a location.
"I don't know but I don't like it."
"How can we understand these markings? Why?" Applebloom had then stepped on something on the floor. Upon closer inspection it was a type of pad that lit up with the words wolves flashing by. It then began to playback a video recording.
"Girls check this out." She said before the others joined her. Then the video began to play.
An alien with a football shaped head and four arms backed up as a larger alien that looked like he had white crown for a head smacked the other across the room. As the smaller one struggled the larger one stepped on his back and then proceeded to rip off the smaller aliens blue cloak leaving the ripped piece behind as a type of scarf. The larger one had a matching blue cloak that was longer and more regal looking.
"Please no!" The smaller creature yelled in a female voice that the crusaders could fully comprehend.
"Please let me explain Baron Darr! I was simply-" The larger alien grabbed her neck and slammed her to the ground as the sound of of a bone within her body cracked loudly. She screamed bloody murder, and the crusaders were in shock of what they were seeing.
"ENOUGH!" He yelled as he kicked her. "You bring shame and dishonor to the entire house of wolves. It fills me with disgust to acknowledge you as Eliksni." He stepped back and yelled, then two other aliens that looked very similar to her appeared bearing large axes. They grabbed her and placed her on a table with her top arms behind her back and her bottom arms stretched out on either side of the table.
The two servants then gave their axes to the larger one who took them with two arms each. They used their arms to hold her bottom arms out as she begged for mercy.
"Please no don't do it! I'll do anything please don't dock them! Please!" She cried out loud, but no matter how hard she tried her pleas fell on deaf ears. Not the Baron nor her fellow Vandals moved an inch.
"For the crimes of conspiracy against the House and theft of Ether sups. I hereby demote you, the Vandal Shīe to Dreg!" He positioned his Axes above her lower arms and lifted them as high as he could, ignoring her cries. Then in one swift motion he brought hem down. However before they made contact with her skin the tablet was filled with static and ended in a black screen.
Utterly shocked the crusaders could say nothing of the recording they had so torturously watched. Until Applebloom broke from her stunned trance.
"We have to get out of here." The others merely nodded in agreement. Applebloom put a hoof on her chest plate but then the tab lit up once more. They gathered around it again and saw the new recording. This time it started with it looking at the same wall with the same markings as the one they were standing in that very moment. Out of screen they heard something open.
"Looks like becoming a Dreg wasn't enough. So now you get to spend the rest of your worthless life in here." He threw a Dreg into the cameras view and laughed.
"I will escape. Just see." The voice was the same as the Vandal from the previous recording but it was more raspy.
"Yeah lets see you try." Then the sound of footsteps drifted away.
The pad filled with static and shifted to another recording. The wall in the cell had started being filled with tallies showing she had been there for two weeks.
"Here's your food. Hows that escape coming along?"
Shīe did nothing but growl at him as he dropped a tray on the ground.
"See you around Dreg." He spat as he walked away. The pad continued to follow his patter until the tallies were too many to count. Until the final entry started.
The Dreg was kneeling down over something on the ground. The only noises she made were low grunts and growls. Then a booming voice erupted through the speakers. "Worthy scavengers arise!" She then ran and hid in the darkness and climbed up the wall. Just after that a white light appeared in the middle of the cell.
Out of it came the crusaders who had looked around the cell and talked amongst themselves.
"Where are we?" Scootaloo said
"I don't know but I don't like it." Then the recording cut off once more. With their jaws dropped they looked up and were met with an angry looking Dreg hanging from the ceiling. The room grew so quiet that the sound of a pin dropping could be heard.
The realization that they were trapped in a small cell with an angry alien hit the three fillies hard as a tear rolled down Sweetiebelle's cheek. Then in the blink of an eye the Dreg lunged at them.
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Nala had been sitting silently inside of the cell just thinking to herself. Now that they were no longer in free fall she asked herself why Xaya had been sent to such a place. What that tentacle face Xür had to do with it, and when Rex's super would be ready.
"Okay it's finished." Rex said before standing up and pulling out a knife. "You ready?" He asked.
Nala only replied by pulling out a knife of her own. They stared at each other then attacked, and before long only their Ghosts remained. Then in a burst of flame Rex self resurrected and revived her. Both had all of their gear.
"See Rex. I told you it would get us our gear." She holstered her auto rifle and looked to the cell door. "Now let's find our friend." She cracked her knuckles then punched the door down in a burst of electricity. They ran up to the door and listened for any noise.
They heard footsteps coming their way and crouched on either side of the door readying their weapons. As the door opened they sprung into action and hit the two guards on the backs of their heads with the butts of their rifles. Motionlessly the guards fell to the ground and the guardians continued through the building.
They entered a hallway that was dimly lit, in a corridor to their left they heard what seemed to be cell phones ringing left and right. At the end of the hallway was another turn that had a sign reading emergency exit. Nala motioned for Rex to take point as they continued to the exit.
When they got to the door Rex tried opening it but it wouldn't budge. "Ghost could you get this door?" He pulled out his Ghost and placed him on the door to unlock it.
"Buy me some time. They may come for us."
"Really? How hard could that possibly be?"
"Hey! Who's there?" A voice called out from the hallway. Footsteps approached them as Ghost tinkered with he door.
"I got it. And I suggest we move." His Ghost disappeared and they bolted through the door and out of the alleyway. Their helmets materialized around their heads as they stopped on the sidewalk of the street. They ran down it until they were sure they weren't being followed. As they pushed past the ponies walking below each one just ignored them as walked by.
They had clearly seen weirder things or just didn't care enough to glance at the two guardians that towered above them. "Fascinating." Said Nala's Ghost that she called Spirit.
"These creatures greatly resemble equines from earth. Yet these ones have horns or even wings. If I ever get the chance I have to study them." His observations caught the attention of the Titan looked down and saw that Spirit was right. Though the wings seemed too small to actually work she noticed that some were hovering in the air as well.
"Nala." Nala's train of thought was interrupted as Rex called for her attention. "I can sense her Ghost. Shade is setting a marker, come on!" The two of them raced through the street in between carriages that had stopped at a red light. The waypoint led them north of town but eventually had stopped at a train station.
"Where is it?" Rex asked while looking around.
"It is very far and if we want to find him we need to use the inter-city transport. So lets find a time and find the settlement that is closest to his location." The guardians looked to each other and sighed. They went to the train schedule and saw that the closest settlement was a town called Hayseed.
There was a mare inside of the ticket booth who looked at them and cleared her throat. They both looked to her and she spoke. "Next train'll be here in an hour or two." She informed them lazily.
Nala reached into her back pouch and pulled out 250 Glimmer shards. She places them on the counter and as the light hit them they glowed a magnificent blue. The ticket mare's eyes popped out at the sight of such stunning gems.
"Will this be enough for two tickets to Hayseed?" Nala asked. The mare just nodded her head slowly and got two tickets out, not once taking her eyes off of the pile of Glimmer.
The Guardians accepted the tickets hesitantly and went to sit down at the waiting area. "Hopefully we find her soon." Nala said. Rex agreed with her then they both sat there and waited for the train to come.