Cloudy Crusades

by wlyteth

Buccaneer Blaze

It was Applebloom's turn to take care of Rainbow Dash so she was gathering some food from the Sweet Apple Acres kitchen. It was well past her bedtime and the only light was from the sliver of moonshine that filtered through the window. "Lets see... I can take the rest of this apple pie, and these carmel apples... oooh apple fritters!" She stuffed the food into a sack and climbed up onto a counter to get a thermos from the shelf. Applebloom hummed a quiet tune to herself as she poured apple juice into the thermos. Suddenly she could hear somepony else humming along. Eyes wide she slowly turned her gaze to the doorway of the kitchen where a large shadow loomed.

"Gettin yerself a snack little sis?" Big Macentosh's said in his deep voice. "Yer getting juice on the floor."

"Oh!" Applebloom realized that she hadn't stopped pouring and the juice was overflowing the thermos. "Um, yeah Big Mac, I was just a little hungry and didn't want to bother nopony so I was fixin a snack."

"Same." He replied sitting down at the table. "Iffin you don't mind I'll eat with you."

"Uh.. uh.. ok yeah um lets eat then." Applebloom dragged the sack over to the table and gave Big Mac some of the food she had planned to give to Rainbow Dash.

"Why'd you put food in a bag? I hope you weren't plannin on eating in your room again, you know Granny don't allow that."
"I was going to be extra careful..." Applebloom lied hoping he would finish his food and go back to bed.
Big Mac nodded and chewed. Applebloom pretended to take a bite of fritter. She was very full from dinner and didn't want to get sick from over eating. "Sooooo... what was that big town meetin about? Applejack seemed pretty upset afterwards."
Big Mac swallowed another fritter before answering. "Seems like her friend Rainbow Dash has gone missin. Everypony is real worried about her being gone. Be a right shame iffin somepony knew where she was and didn't fess up. That pony could be in a whole heap of trouble seems like. Welp, I'm off to bed. Sleep well little sis."
"...night Big Mac."

Applebloom laid her head on the table, it wasn't right to worry folks, but she didn't want to betray her friends. But if there were really making ponies worried it wasn't right to keep quiet.

"Big Mac!"

"Eeyup?"

"We have her! Me and Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo! We didn't mean no harm to nopony its jus she was sick and we thought we could make her feel better and get our cutie marks at the same time! I'm so sorry I was bad!"
She burst into tears and as Big Mac came over and hugged her. "There there 'bloom theres no harm done. Now lets go take her out of that cramped treehouse and let her go home."

Applebloom looked up at him in surprise. "You mean ya... ya knew?"

"Eeyup. But you needed to see it was wrong on your own." He lifted her gently by the scruff and put her on his back. "I'm sure iffin we ask Miss Rainbow nice she won't let anypony get mad at you nor your friends."

---

Back at the treehouse Scootaloo was pacing back and forth in front of the ramp, a small stick in her mouth. Sweetie Belle trotted down the ladder and Scootaloo stopped in front of her. "Halt! Is the prisioner secure?"

"She's not our prisioner Scootaloo! She's our patient! How many times do I have to keep telling you that?"

Scootaloo leaned in closer to Sweetie Belle and narrowed her eyes. "Maybe you have to keep telling me until I understand!"
"That doesn't even make sense, agggh forget it, where's Applebloom? She's late."

Scootaloo dropped into a crouch and slunk around. "She must have been captured by eneimy spies."

"Spies? Really? You can't be serio-" Scootaloo pressed a hoof over Sweetie Belle's mouth, interuppting her. "Shhhh. I hear something" She wispered loudly. The two fillies stared into the dark forest for several moments. Hearing nothing further the two ponies relaxed.

"See, I told you there was no spies, no danger, no... gigantic monster!" Sweetie Belle screamed and Scootaloo charged forward with her stick. "Back you monster back!" With a flying leap Scootaloo launched herself at the large shadow that had stepped into the clearing from the forest.

"Wait Scootaloo!" Applebloom cried as she jumped off Big Mac's back. The orange pegasus couldn't stop however and colided head first into Applebloom.

"Ow..." They both said as Big Mac shook his head. Sweetie Belle ducked her head down in shame. "I'm sorry I called you a monster Mr. Macintosh." Big Mac gave her a silent nod to tell her there was no harm done.

"So..." Applebloom looked towards Big Mac before continuing. "I um... well you see... what we did to Rainbow was um bad. We shouldn't have ponynapped her against her will even if we had good inten-... itren-... uh."

"Intentions?" Sweetie Belle offered.

"Yeah, those. So I don't want us to get in no trouble so I think we should let Rainbow Dash go home."

"No way!" Scootaloo yelled. "We did all this work and she can't go until she teaches me some awesome tricks!"

Before anypony could say more the treehouse started to shake, the boards rattling so much that the nails started to shoot off in every direction. There was a crack of thunder and the treehouse exploded with a burst of multicolored lightning as Rainbow Dash flew into the sky, dragging the splintered wood in her wake.

"Tricks like that one..." Scootaloo said softly as the four ponies stared at the swiftly disappearing pegasus.

(Author's note: I really wanted to get this chapter out DAYS ago but I came down with a cold and then my prereaders came down with a case of laziness. This story is going slightly different than I first imagined, but I like it. Seems like you guys do too, so I'll try not to disappoint.^.^; The next chapter should be the last as soon as I decide how I want to wrap things up. I'm going to stop talking now and go take some NyQuil.)

Comments

[Pen_Palomino]

Wow, This story is great. your characterization and dialogue is excellent and the Cutie Mark Crusaders are hilarious ("She's refusing treatment! Get a rope!" ). Also, loving the Big Mac screen time and his big brotherly advice, what a sweetheart . I can't wait to read the next chapter. Well done.

[Chip Unicorn]

If you don't get well... we'll send the Cutie Mark Crusaders to your place to make you well!

And I adore your characterizations!

[PaulRap Raptor]

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