The band of thieves had ditched their stolen train and holed up in an abandoned quarry. It suited their needs well enough, isolated, with a few shacks they could stay in till the heat died down. One of those shacks, a little set back from the others, held their captives. It was unguarded, mostly do to the fact that they wouldn't. Stop. Talking.
"This is all your fault Scootaloo!"
"And what makes you say that Sweetie Belle?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe the fact that it was your idea to try to catch the bank robbers."
"Well if you thought it was a good idea, why did you agree to help?"
"No, Apple Bloom agreed to help, you two just roped me into it, literally."
"AJ's been teachin' me some tricks. No rodeo cutie mark just yet, but I thought they might come in handy."
The three young fillies, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom, were a club called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and tartarus bent on finding their cutie marks. Unfortunitly, this resulted them in getting into some form of trouble on a regular basis, case in point, trying to earn criminal catcher cutie marks while on a school field trip to the Canterlot Museum. Needless to say, it went less than spectacularly.
The three fillies continued bickering until they heard the door open. They immediatly clammed up, remembering the bandit's all too believable threat that they wouldn't get fed if they were caught arguing again. They looked up to see who it was, and their hearts sank.
It was Mr. Cruger.
This was not the first time that they had met, that had been a rather explosive situation involving an attempt to gain chemist cutie marks, but they remembered what he had said that day, "the next time I see you girls do something this stupid, I'm telling your folks." They were not looking forward to the punishment they would receive when they got home.
"Well well well, why am I not surprised?" Cruger asked while drawing his sword, "let's get you home and you might not get in trouble, for missing dinner anyway."
The fillies groaned as Cruger cut the ropes binding them. As Sweetie Belle was rubbing her wrists in an attempt to restore feeling in them, she noticed something, or technically the lack of something.
"Mr. Cruger, if you're here to rescue us, how come I didn't hear you beating up those big bullies?"
Cruger smacked his forehead with mock indignation, "I knew I forgot something."
The three fillies were gripped with fear at the thought of the bandits still out there, until Cruger turned it into anticipation with 2 simple words.
"Wanna watch?"
One could compliment the bandits on their racial tolerance, of the five, 3 were Earth Ponies, 1 was a Diamond Dog, and one a Minotaur. They were all male, so sexist comments are still valid.
One of the Earth Ponies was nervious, "I don't think going south was a good idea. Word is that there's a new division of the guard stationed down there."
The Minotaur, Bronze Horn, merely laughed. He was the leader of the band, and the largest Minotaur any of them had ever seen. At his side was a massive hammer, which he used to break down the door of the vault in one hit. "There is no need to fear the guard, I could take down a dozen of them with a single strike. As for why we're going south, those girls will bring a handsome price in the Roamin Underworld. Besides, those cowardly guards can do nothing while we hold them hostage."
"Unless of course the cowardly guard rescues them while you're all on your butts doing nothing."
The Bandits turned to see that Cruger had walked up, alone.
Bronze Horn laughed even harder than before. "One guard, I almost feel insulted."
Cruger grinned and brought up his personal Delta Morpher, it had been a long time since he said these words.
"It's time you learned the difference between quantity, and quality. SPD, EMERGENCY"
The bandits took one look at the strange armor their opponent now wore, one at each other, and charged.
Now this Cruger was different than the one he dressed up as all those many years ago. First off, he liked to listen to music while he fought.
One of the Earth Ponies charged him with a woodcutter's axe, Cruger sidestepped him easily and knock him out with a swift strike of the hilt of his blade to the back of the idiot's neck. The others took this as a sign to take a bit more care. Another Earth Pony fired an arrow from a crossbow, which Cruger deflected with his sword. He then showed another difference between himself and his fictional counterpart.
He could use magic.
Raising his hand, Cruger returned fire with a blast of navy blue energy. As the remaining Earth Pony and Diamond Dog stood watching the impossibility of a non-Unicorn using magic, Cruger charged his blade and knocked them down with a flying slash.
Bronze Horn was rather impressed, this guard had bested his entire crew in less than a minute. However, they were hired only to help carry the loot. Nothing could defeat a Minotaur warrior in single combat. Gripping their respective weapons, they circled each other, waiting for the other to strike.
Bronze Horn swung his hammer around, forcing Cruger to back up. Normally Cruger would wait for the pause when he started to swing the hammer back, but Bronze Horn instead used the momentum to loop the hammer around his back for a second strike. Cruger was impressed, he hadn't had this much fun since that time with the griffin mad scientist and his golem army. But it was time for Cruger to finish this, and decided to bring out his signature technique.
Dimension magic.
Back when he was the princess's guard, he found that he an aptitude for spells that handled manipulating dimensional energies, probably because he came from a different dimension. In fact, while Starswirl the Bearded invented the teleportation spell, Cruger refined it so that it didn't take nearly as much energy. Over time he combined it with his sword play to create the still legendary Silver Fang magic sword style. To this day it was studied by many unicorns, but none but it's creator ever mastered it. However, all practicioners agreed that if you mastered it, you were invincible.
Cruger flipped the catch on his sword, opening the wolf's head on the hilt. A flash of light traveled across the blade, turning it blue as it was infused with dimensional energy. With a flick of the tip, he conjured a small portal portal in front of Bronze Horn's hammer, shrinking it as the head went through. As Bronze Horn struggled to pull his hammer free, Cruger laid him out with a swift left hook. Cruger smiled, all the suspects were stunned and in a small pile, time for his favourite part of the job.
"You are charged with theft and kidnapping," Cruger stated dramatically, pulling out his Delta Morpher, "now face, JUDGEMENT!"
Cruger pressed the button on top of the morpher, revealing two panels, one with a blue circle, the other a red X. The bandits looked on with fear as the symbols flashed, until finally it stopped on the X.
"Guilty as charged," said Cruger, putting his morpher away. He then brought his sword in front of him, running his fingers across the blade, charging it with an obscene amount of dimensional energy.
"Lunar Fang style secret technique, Sealing Slash!"
Cruger let loose a charged flying slash of pure dimensional magic, which completely enveloped the Bandits. When the light died down, all that was left were five metallic cards, which apparently now contained the villians. Cruger reached down and picked them up, regarding the bandits now pounding at the walls of their new homes, "justice is served."
The suspects now in custody, Cruger waved his hand, dispelling the dimensional duck blind the girls were safely ensconced in. As they were stunned speechless by the display, Cruger thought it was a good time to ask an important question, "now what in the name of Celestia's morning tea possessed you to try and take on a group of bandits?" Sweetie Belle was the first to break the silence.
"It was Scootaloo's idea."