Flight of the Crusaders: an Equestrian adventure

by BrazenSapphire

Prologue: An Inventor's Night

-An Inventor's Night-

Celestia's blistering sun had just begun to set, lowering a cool dusk down over the Equestrian landscape. For this, Applebloom was thankful. She drug her bare forearm across her damp forehead, wiping away the sweat trailing down into her eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief at feeling the shade of dusk envelope her. She sat sprawled out in the grass, leaning back on one hand, and holding a large gleaming wrench in the other. Her toned yellow body was held loosely by a pair of denim overalls, the buttoned straps hardly able to hold the large garments up. To be spared the heat, her body beneath the overalls remained unclothed. This far out in the fields it wasn't necessary to wear a great deal of clothing, however. Applebloom was grateful for the opportunity to work in such an isolated location.A slight breeze brushed past her body, feeling like ice on her sweat matted fur. She shivered raggedly, letting her gold eyes wander up the marvel in front of her.

The large conglomeration of brass, steel, copper, wood, and sturdy fabrics towered massively above her, its monstrous form partially clothed in a huge tarp, just open enough to get a view of the thing. A steel frame held together a boat-like body made of dark wood. The craft was easily the size of a small ocean faring ship, in fact, it had been constructed from the remains of one. Large pillar like masts rose up from the ship, supporting a thick cage frame. Contained within the upper section of the ship, was a group of massive deflated balloons. The sagging blimps, made from powerfully thick fabric, hung limply down from the cage around them. Large metal fins, and ropes hung down off of the balloons, making them appear to be coated in a thick spider web. At the rear of the vessels, three massive, gleaming turbines waited. The large round engines glinted in the fading sunlight, rows of circular fan blades resting at their ends. The turbines had been mounted at the flanks of the ships stern, though it was apparent that one engine from the right side was missing.

The missing fourth engine sat peacefully in the grass beside Applebloom, easily dwarfing her in width and height while sitting. Its up-facing side had been opened, a large brass panel tossed lazily from it to the ground. Various cogs, wires, and canisters had been removed from the inside of the engine, black oil trickled into the green grass from its interior. The same oil coated Applebloom's hands, as well as the large wrench she held. Applebloom held her eyes shut peacefully, breathing heavily. Moonlight began to settle down on her. Applejack would be expecting her back soon, though at this point in her life she was considered a full grown woman. That however, was enough reason to disobey her sister's rule. Though she was tired, Applebloom was far to electric to be able to sleep. Excitement rushed through her body like a swarm of angry hornets. She had been working to perfect her grand creation for almost two years now, and it was nearly complete.

Airships were not unheard of in Equestria, but they were usually crafted by entire teams, requisitioned by the high and mighty in Canterlot, and much, much larger. No pony had ever successfully crafted a working ship in their own home, by themselves. Though nopony had ever been as skilled a builder as Applebloom either. She had taken the vessel out on the skies over the farm, discovered faults in its design, and systematically corrected them. Now, the ship was running perfectly, save for one engine. Once it was finished it would hopefully be the fastest ship ever made, or at least, that's what Applebloom hoped. She rose to her hooves swiftly, feeling a slight ache in her limbs as she did so. It was getting dark, and it would be difficult to work with just moonlight.

Applebloom smiled triumphantly, heading for her unfinished ship. With the grace of a cat she scaled a thin rope ladder leading to the deck. After a short, and slightly painful climb, she landed on the deck. She savored the feeling of her hooves landing with a thunk on the thick wood. She made her way across the dark shrouded deck, creaking slightly with her weight. She found herself standing in front of the large control wheel, flanked by speed controls, and various dials and switches. She scratched her chin in thought, before remembering. Her yellow furred hand danced across a control panel to a red knob. She cranked it fiercely, eliciting a low hum of power from within the ship. Suddenly massive beams of light rocketed from the stern of the ship. The large floodlights attached to the hull leeched electricity from the steam generator deep within, their powerful bulbs lancing pools of white light outward all around. Applebloom's working space down below was fully illuminated, while the tarp covering the ship prevented unwanted lights along the other sides from escaping.

Returning to her now fully lit workspace, Applebloom made her way quickly to the broken engine. She retrieved a few tools from the ground, immediately putting them to use on the innards of the machine. She tinkered with the mess of multicolored wires, cogs, and tanks of fuel. Her nimble hands working quickly within, removing some parts, and replacing others. Bringing in multiple sizes of wrenches, various torches, brass cogs, and all manner of building components, she had finally begun to make progress. She worked for hours, slowly the pile of discarded pieces slimmed as they were either returned or deemed unusable. The moon slid slowly across the sky, passing directly over her head, and beginning to fall in the west. Oil was caked on her hand, and peppered on her face by the time she returned the panel to the now repaired turbine. Her tools fell lifelessly from her aching hands, the muscles in her limbs burning.

She stood up from the repaired machine, taking a deep breath. More slowly than before she returned to the ship, shutting down the floodlights. Not bothering to retrieve her tools, she returned to the earth and shuffled drunkenly in the direction of her home. Her eyes barely managed to remain open, her muscles protested, and her memory began to falter, repeatedly she forgot how to get back to the farm. She knew, even like this, her ship was safe. No pony ever came onto their land, and even if some sort of thief had shown up, there was now way they could even start the ship. Finally, after an eternity of lazy near sleepwalking, she could see the farmhouse. She approached the darkened home groggily. Silently she creaked open the front door, moving in like a shadow, quiet as to not wake anyone, especially not Winona. She darted noiselessly about the home, moving without sight in the black, relying on feel alone. Soon enough she found her room, successfully not waking her older siblings.

After lighting her messy room, Applebloom immediately set about removing her overalls. Despite the chill of the night, her skin felt as though it were on fire from the demanding labor she had preformed. She quickly undid the straps, letting the large clothes shed from her yellow body. Feeling frigid air soothing her body she makes for one of the random piles of discarded clothing on the floor. She sifts through the mess, finding a bra and panties to wear for sleep. She slides into the striped undergarments easily. Slowly she makes her way to a small writing desk in the corner, stopping at her body-length mirror. She takes a moment to admire herself for a moment. Her body was well toned and muscular. Like her older sister she had a perfect combination of womanly beauty and obvious physical power. Her bust and hips were slightly larger than the average mare, and her muscles were visibly stronger than one would expect. Her eyes were drawn to her flank, her current light clothing exposing her cutie mark. It was simple: a hammer crossing with a wrench over a brass cog. It was unusual that her special talent had nothing to do with apples, but her skills as an engineer had been widely useful to the farm.

Seeing that her figure was still in good condition, she smirked pridefully before moving on. Her hooves clicked softly on the wooden floor of her room as she approached the desk. Sitting on the desk were a pair of neatly folded and sealed envelopes. Each bore a name scrawled on its surface: Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Letters to her old friends, long since moved away from her. One would be traveling to Appleloosa on the frontier, while the other would be going to the regal city of Canterlot. Her heart nearly skipped a beat at the thought of seeing her best friends again. She would be mailing the letters tomorrow, about a week before her departure, to give them time to prepare. This was going to be an adventure for the storybooks, she was sure of it.

It had been years since their little club 'The Cutie Mark Crusaders' had disbanded. It didn't make much sense to keep the group alive, they all had gotten their cutie marks at the point. Soon after things began to change, and she wouldn't say for the better. Many famous residents of Ponyville had moved on: Rainbow Dash had been accepted into the Wonderbolts and now lived in Cloudsdale, Twilight, being a princess, had moved to Canterlot, Pinkie Pie and the Cakes moved on to Manehatten for bigger and better business, both Sweetie and Scootaloo moved away as well for their careers, and Spike had left for the Dragon kingdoms far to the south to negotiate peace between the two peoples. Those that stayed behind didn't have much choice in the matter: members of the Apple family couldn't leave for obvious reasons, Rarity never did tell anypony why she didn't leave with her sister to Canterlot, and Fluttershy would never survive in a big city, and her animals would never survive without her.

The farewells had been sad, and Applebloom wished things could stay the same forever. But, like Applejack had once told her: "Ya' can either face the flood o' change, 'er get outta its way. The ponies who try to stop it get swept away, an' the ponies who live with it get to live another day, even if it did do some damage." Applebloom's respect for her older sister was absolute, so while others wallowed in sadness, she moved on. She made new friends, and learned to live without her old ones. But, that didn't mean she couldn't visit her old friends, and go on one last adventure.

Waves of sleep threatened to drown her, and she decided it was time for bed. She shuffled her miserable feeling body to the few candles she had lit, blowing them out sharply. Soon the room was black except for the pale moonlight drizzling in through the open window. With high spirits for the days to come, and eyes far too heavy to keep open, Applebloom crawled desperately into her soft bed. The cushioned bed embraced her like a silken mother, but the butterflies raging within her wouldn't allow for easy rest. After tossing and turning for what felt like ten hours, the bed won out, and numbing sleep settled over her. Her thick snoring resounded down the halls of the home for well into the afternoon, long after she was needed for help on the farm.

Author's Note:

Thanks to all who read, please be sure to leave feedback. This is my first story so I hope I'm doing a good job so far. So once again thank you for choosing to read this story and I hope you enjoy it.

Comments

[silver doctor]

Cool! Nice description and how old are the cmc in this?

[Gamer Script]

Oh... My... Poor little... Well... Big Applebloom... I know how much it sucks to lose your friends... I wonder how the goodbye went between Spike, Rarity, Sweetie and each especially Twi... Must've sucked...

[Sandvich Brony]

I like this. I noticed you slipped between past and present tense a few times, but otherwise appears just fine. Kinda sad to see this story on hiatus, though.