The Final Crusade

by Enfield

To The Outer Banks

The next morning the alarm turned on. It started out quiet then blasted out the beginning bass solo of the song “Woman” by Wolfmother. This took James and Sweetie Bell by surprise.

“Soddin’ hell!” James said as he pulled the K-bar knife from under his mattress and lunged at the source of the music, he was about to stab the alarm clock when he gained his senses and stopped with the blade over his head.

“What is that noise?” asked Sweetie Bell as she covered her ears with a pillow.

“My alarm, but I didn’t set the volume so high,” said James. He hit the off button and then heard the door squeak.

“Who goes there?” James said gripping the knife tighter.

“Only us,” Apple Bloom sniggered, Scootaloo was behind her muffling her laughter.

“Did you have anything to do with my alarm?” James asked.

“I snuck in and turned up the volume,” said Apple Bloom.

“I made sure that you wouldn’t wake up while Apple Bloom messed with your clock,” Scootaloo said, “I held a pillow over your ears.”

“You pair of sneaky buggers,” James chuckled.

“Don’t do that again,” Sweetie Bell said, pretending to be annoyed.

“No promises,” Apple Bloom replied.

A half hour later James managed to be dressed and was downstairs before anyone else, the Crusaders came downstairs a few minutes later.

“Why are you here?” asked Apple Bloom.

“Looking for water,” replied James.

“Why water?” Scootaloo asked.

“You know that dry feeling on the back of your tongue? It’ll only get worse,” James said as he tossed a water bottle to each one of them.

“When do we eat?” asked Sweetie Bell.

“There’s a diner that my dad found,” James replied as he slung his bag over his back, “We can get a decent breakfast there.”
The Crusaders all grabbed their bags and were about to go out to the car when James stopped them. James looked up the stairs up to his parents' bedroom, he looked rather miffed.

“They told us to be up before the sun rose and they haven’t moved,” James said, “Why has it always been like this?”

“I’m guessing that you’re ready before your parents are most of the time,” said Apple Bloom.

“All of the time,” James said as he went to the door of his parents bedroom and loudly banged on the door.

“What?” came a distance voice.

“You bloody well know what,” said James, “Get a move on!”

An hour later Katherine and Dave were finally up, dressed and in the car. They were clueless of what they had said to James last night and weren’t too pleased about being woken up.

“Look James we’re sorry,” Dave was saying as he drove, “We forgot about everything.”

“How can you forget our vacation?” asked James.

“You know us,” said Katherine, “We forget things sometimes.”

“Sometimes too much,” James replied.

The car eventually stopped at a diner, one of the classic chrome looking ones. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo were amazed at the sight of the building, the food as well impressed and satisfied them. Halfway through breakfast Sweetie Bell wondered how long the ride to North Carolina would be.

“James,” she said, “How long is the car ride to where we are going?”
James swallowed the mouthful of waffle he was eating and counted to himself.

“Ten hours,” he said, “Eleven if we hit traffic.”
The Crusaders all stared at him in disbelief.

“Ten hours?” said Scootaloo.

“That’s like, forever,” said Apple Bloom.

“It’s not too bad,” said James, “There are multiple ways of passing the time.”

“How did you pass the time?” Sweetie Bell asked.

“Sleep, watch movies, look at the scenery as it passes by,” said James, “It was rather boring because I was mostly by myself.”

“Well you’ve got company now,” said Scootaloo.

“Indeed I do,” said James.

The next few hours were dull but sped by because James had brought a large cache of DVDs and CDs to pass the time. Not much got in the way, but halfway there they stopped at the Chesapeake bay bridge so they could stretch their legs and get out the stiffness. The sight of the bay was breathtaking, ships and boats dotted the sea and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. However, as James was coming out of the bathroom he overheard something disturbing.

“Can it be them?” one voice said.

“No it can’t,” said another.

“It has to be the Crusaders,” the first voice said. James stopped and looked to the owners of the voice, one of them was rather large with the worst hair James had ever seen, the second was thin and wearing a set of ragged clothes that looked too big for him. James tried to sneak past them when the larger person saw him and called him over.

“Hey you,” the large person said, “Look at this.”
James causally strode over and looked out the window.

“You see those kids there?” the large person said pointing to the Crusaders, James nodded.

“We think they are the Cutie Mark Crusaders from My Little Pony,” the thin person said.

“Bollocks,” James thought to himself, “These two could be those mad Bronies I always try and avoid.”

“What do you think?” the large Brony asked James.
James, being a quick thinker, immediately answered the large Brony’s question, in Russian.

“Yes, they are the Crusaders,” James said in fluent Russian, “They’ve been living with me for the past month.”
The two Bronies stared at James, they had no idea what he was saying.

“Um, yeah, what you said,” the thin Brony replied.

“Do you know what he’s saying?” the large Brony asked his friend, the thin Brony shook his head.

“I would allow you meet them but you might bring something up that I won’t approve of,” said James.

“Is that so?” the large Brony asked, still confused and clueless.

“You’re going to get a rather interesting surprise,” James said, he pointed to the two Bronies, his eyes, then back outside.

“You want us to watch something?” the thin person asked.
James nodded and headed outside, he walked over to the Crusaders who were watching people fish off the dock.

“Hi James,” Sweetie Bell said.

“How’s it going?” James replied messing up Sweetie Bell’s hair, “You enjoying yourselves?”

“It’s a really nice place,” said Apple Bloom.

“Are those warships in the distance?” Scootaloo asked as she looked at a distant destroyer through a pair of binoculars.
James turned around and saw the two Bronies in the window, mouths agape at what they were looking at. James nodded to the Crusaders and pointed at himself giving the clear message that they were living with him, the Bronies then started arguing with each other.

“Who are those two?” asked Sweetie Bell.

“Friendly people,” replied James, “Let’s get back on the road.”

Another three hours of driving later James was pointing out landmarks that helped him keep track of the distance they had traveled. The Crusaders weren’t paying attention because they had become bored of the ride, James could sense this.

“How much longer now?” said Sweetie Bell.

“Hopefully just a half hour,” Dave replied.

“I’ve never been so bored before,” said Apple Bloom.

“How do you think I felt before you three ended up with us?” James said as he watched cars pull into farmers markets.

“You must have been real bored,” said Scootaloo.

“Intensely bored,” replied James, “I could chew through steel I was that bored.”

“I’m gonna sleep the rest of the way,” said Scootaloo, “See if time goes any faster.”
James still stared out the window, the trip was almost over. Scootaloo was trying to sleep and Apple Bloom decided to do the same thing, after a few minutes the two had fallen asleep leaving James and Sweetie Bell to wait out the last several miles awake.

“So how are you liking it here?” James asked.

“Boring,” said Sweetie Bell.

“No I meant living with us,” said James.

“Oh sorry,” Sweetie Bell replied, “I thought you meant what’s happening now. Yeah, I really like living with you guys.”

“Do you think the others like living with us as well?” James asked looking back at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo who were sleeping behind James.

“I know they enjoy it as well,” said Sweetie Bell.

“I do have to ask however,” said James, “How did you end up here?”
Sweetie Bell sighed and turned to face James, he could see that Sweetie Bell didn’t want to talk about it but felt like she had to say something.

“I really can’t remember much,” she said, “What I can remember is a bright light, a lot of pain and a burning feeling. Next thing was that we were lying in some field and that we looked like we do now.”

“What happened afterward?” James asked, eager to find out more.

“Well the first family that found us were farmers or something,” said Sweetie Bell, “Apple Bloom managed to convince them to help us, but after two nights they disappeared. We don’t know what happened but we decided to find somewhere else to stay, after we wandered down a road we were helped by some old people, they were really friendly and they did take care of us. But staying with them was cut short when Scootaloo accidentally broke something that meant a lot to them, after shouting at us they tossed us out and didn’t even open the door once it started raining. After that we then were helped by several families who either abandoned us or kicked us out, we wouldn’t have made it without you. Thank you.”
James again felt his heart stop, he truly had done something he was proud of and it might have changed his life. The only thing now was to assure Sweetie Bell that she would get home eventually.

“You’re welcome,” James said as he put his hand on Sweetie Bell’s shoulder, “I’m doing this for you, you know. My life has been greatly improved by your arrival, I feel as if I’ve done something good not just for myself, but for someone else as well.”
Sweetie Bell smiled and continued to look out the window.

“We’re here,” said Dave. Sweetie Bell reached over to try and wake up Scootaloo when James stopped her.

“Leave them, I’ve got an idea,” he said.

“Why?” asked Sweetie Bell.

“Revenge for this morning,” James replied pulling out a CD.

Comments

[Godiswithus3]

lol. I love revenge.