The Crusaders; Ice Princess

by DJ TR33

Chapter 1

The school bell rang, signifying the end of the school day. Almost immediately, the students began to pour out of the double doors, glad to be free of the rules and strict policies that bound them during the day. Some of them began to wander back to their houses, talking with their friends, while others stayed behind to run the school newspaper. Three fillies in particular rushed out the doors with great enthusiasm, chatting and smiling as they left the school and the playground. Interestingly, the three were the only three ponies left in their class that had not yet received their cutiemarks, the magical emblems on a pony’s flank that signified their special talent. Currently, however, their lack of cutiemarks was obscured by saddlebags carrying school supplies.

The pony on the left was currently talking animatedly. She was an orange pegasus with a purple mane, and relatively small wings. “Ugh, that felt like forever! I mean, when will we ever need to know about what somepony a billion years ago did with his life? It’s pointless!” She slammed her hoof into the ground to emphasize her point.

“Well, Rarity always says that ‘those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it,’“ the unicorn walking on the left said to her friend, imitating her sister’s accent.

“Yeah, like Ah’m gonna start a war ‘cause Ah can’t decide between two stallions,” the filly in the middle said, with a smirk. “Sorry Sweetie, but Ah have to go with Scootaloo on this one.

“Hey, I never said I agreed with Rarity, Applebloom,” Sweetie Belle retorted. “I’m just telling you what she said. I would’ve thought you two would actually like learning about a giant fight.”

“Well, the war was cool and all,” Scootaloo said. “And the giant wooden alicorn trick was sweet. But all that mushy stuff about how beautiful Helen was just made me sick to my stomach. That’s the problem with history; too much of it is mushy happy endings.”

“Hey, maybe we could get our cutiemarks with that,” Applebloom said suddenly, hit by a flash of inspiration.

“What, building a giant wooden alicorn? Didn’t we already try carpentry?” Sweetie Belle asked, confused.

“No, in history,” the earth pony clarified. “We could write a book ‘bout the past, only with all the mushy stuff taken out.”

Scootaloo remained skeptical. “But we’d have to read through all that boring stuff first, wouldn’t we?”

“Nah, we could just read the sections that looked interestin’. We wouldn’t have to read all that mushy stuff,” Applebloom replied.

“That sounds really cool, actually,” Sweetie Belle said, warming to the idea. “Why don’t we do it? I mean, it can’t be that much harder than writing for the newspaper, right?”

The last comment earned her two glares from her friends. She cringed a little, as her words brought back her own memories of the hurt the three had caused with the Foal Free Press. “Um, sorry,” she told the other two.

The three crusaders had stopped, reaching a bush on the edge of the school grounds. Scootaloo pushed against the branches in front of her, revealing a scooter, wagon, and three helmets stashed within,

“I don’t know, it just seems like a kind of egg-heady thing to do, don’t you think?” Scootaloo said, looking at Applebloom and ignoring her other friend’s last comment as she retrieved the gear.

“Hey, y’all like those Daring Do books, right?” Applebloom asked. “It would be like those, but with real history.”

“Ok, fine,” Scootaloo said, figuring if fantasy wasn’t really an egghead thing, history couldn’t be too much of one either. “Where too?” she inquired, and received two looks of surprise and slight contempt. Feeling like an idiot, she asked, “What?”

The two looked at each other, then back at her. Together, they chorused, “The library!”

A short scooter ride later, Scootaloo was knocking on the front door of the library. She walked back to her friends, waiting for it to open. A few seconds later, a small green dragon poked his head out of the slowly opening door. “Oh, hi girls,” he said in a whisper. “What do you want?”

Sweetie Belle was the first to speak up. “Hey Spike. We were wondering if the library had any books on history, but like, fun books,” she asked, matching his volume. “Where’s Twilight? And why are we whispering?”

“Twi’s downstairs. She’s doing some delicate experiment with superfluous magical repositories. Or something like that. I wasn’t exactly listening.” He gave them a little guilty grin, casting a furtive glance towards the door to the basement behind him. “Anyways, she needs it to be absolutely silent down there, or else she could lose her concentration and wreck the whole experiment. Sorry,” he apologized.

“S’okay, don’t worry ‘bout it,” Applebloom told him, continuing at a whisper. “We’ll be super quiet, promise. Y’all got any books like that?”

“I don’t know,” he told them, letting them into the building, and walking them over to a wall of books. “I mean, we’ve got some really great history texts, but they can be pretty boring sometimes. You’re welcome to look through them, though.”

“Thanks, Spike,” Sweetie Belle said to him, before turning back to face the bookshelf with her friends. The shelf had a tiny plaque marking it History, and beneath it lay five rows packed with books on Equestrian History. The girls let their eyes idly drift over the titles, looking for a book that would be interesting for them to read.

“Hey guys, look at this, A History of Zebra Culture,” Scootaloo exclaimed, softly. “Not very interesting, but I bet it would explain a lot about Zecora.” The pegasus reshelved the book, putting it back where she had pulled it from the shelf.

“Wow, a history of Ponyville,” Sweetie Belle whispered a bit later, examining a dark blue book. “Look, it’s got interviews with prominent Ponyvillians! I bet there’s something from Granny Smith here.” She flipped through the pages, searching for a section on the mare.

“We already got, like, a summary of that from Granny Smith herself,” Scootaloo retorted, not taking her eye’s from the shelf. “I don’t think you can get much better than a history of a town from one of the founders.” Sweetie Belle nodded her agreement, closing the book and shelving it. A few minutes passed in silence once more.

“Hey, Scoots, you’d like this one,” Applebloom said, pulling a book with a bright pink cover from the shelf. “A History of Prominent Romances, by L. Y. Heartsmith.” The filly smirked, fighting down a chuckle.

“Oh, hardy har,” Scootaloo responded, rolling her eyes. “That’s so funny, I forgot to laugh.” The crusader paused, noticing a book she hadn’t seen before. It was somewhat inconspicuous, a light blue colored book at the edge of the shelf. She wouldn’t have noticed it if it hadn’t been for the golden letters that were embossed on the outside, catching the sun’s light.

Scootaloo walked over to the book, pulling it from the shelf. Turning it, she saw an image of a pegasus in a battle pose, standing on his hind legs, beckoning with his hoof. “The Pegasi Monks. Yeah, this is what I’m talkin’ about,” she said quietly, gazing at the book with a smile on her face. “Hey, Applebloom, found anything you like?” she asked, as loud as she could while still whispering.

Applebloom showed her a tomb she had also retrieved, a brown book with green words on the front, Warriors of the Earth. Beneath it was an image of a black blade. Scootaloo nodded her approval, turning to her other friend. “What about you, Sweetie?” she asked.

Her friend was engrossed in a black book, idly flipping through the pages. “It’s called Battle Magic. I thought it looked pretty cool,” she responded, looking at some of the illustrations. On one page, there was a diagram illustrating a unicorn releasing a blast of magic from his horn, gouging the ground beneath him.

“Awesome,” Scootaloo told her.
The clock in the center of the towns square rang out, chiming four times. The sound was somewhat muted as it came throught the thick walls of the building, but loud enough for Scootaloo to look around in surprise. “Woah, is it four already? Geez, I really need to get home.”

Sweetie Belle also looked up. “Rarity I’ll kill me if I’m late again,” she responded, agreeing. Applebloom turned away from the shelf.

“Spike?” she asked, louder than before, although still quiet. “Is it okay if we check these books out?”

Spike emerged from the other room, carrying a half eaten ruby. It was clear they had caught him halfway through his dinner. “Yeah, that’s fine. One sec, let me just see the books.” The fillies gave him the books, and the dragon scratched down the titles next to each pony’s name on a checkout sheet.

“Thanks!” Scootaloo said as he gave them their books back. The three ponies each put their books in their bags, then tightened the straps. “When are they due back?” she asked him.

“Two weeks.” He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed by her gratitude. “It was nothing, really.”

The fillies went to the door, opening it as quietly as they could. “Ah hope Twilight has good luck with that experiment of hers,” she told the dragon, before gently shutting the door behind her. The three got back on the scooter, sitting where Scootaloo had parked it.

It was only a few minutes before the three pulled up at Sweetie Belle’s house, known to customers as the Carousel Boutique. “Thanks,” she told Scootaloo, going up to the door and entering the house. “See you tomorrow!” The two ponies on the scooter responded in kind as the door shut behind the unicorn, and the scooter was once again in motion. The remaining crusaders were quick to cover the ground between the boutique and the farmhouse where Applebloom lived, Sweet Apple Acres.

“Thanks again, Scootaloo,” Applebloom told her, getting out of the wagon on slightly wobbly legs, which she promptly shook out.

“No problem,” the pegasi told her. “’Til tomorrow?” she asked, stretching out a hoof towards the other pony. Applebloom bumped her hoof in return.

“’Til tomorrow,” she answered, turning and walking up the dirt drive to the farm. Once more, Scootaloo began to flutter her wings, producing enough power to propel herself across town. Behind her dragged the now empty wagon. Of course, the pegasus could travel much faster when she didn’t have to deal with the wagon, but after the few times when she had forgotten it and had attempted to balance all three fillies on the main body of the scooter, the pegasus had gotten in the habit of taking the wagon wherever she went.

The pegasus left the town, traveling instead on a dirt road that was bordering the Everfree forest. She quickly came to a cottage that almost looked like it had been grown out of the ground, with grass covering the roof and numerous animal dens and nests surrounding it. She pulled her scooter up to the side of the house and dismounted, leaving it lying against the wall. Scootaloo walked around to the front of the cottage, knocked on the door a few times, then let herself in.

“Fluttershy!” she said to the empty house, careful not to raise her voice too much. “I’m home!”

Comments

[BenRG]

Yeah, by all means let's let these three, three intelligent, imaginative and fearless fillies, learn about the warrior ways of the past. I can't see how anything can possibly go wrong with this plan, can anyone else?

Scootaloo, one day a certain colt or filly will catch your eye and your idea of 'mushy' will change forever. Not too soon though, I hope; time enough for that in years to come so enjoy being a foal first.

[butterfield pancake]

I like this chapter

[DJ TR33]

For those wondering, this will be updated every week. That's mainly so I can write for NaNoWriMo, and still continue this story line without taking a month's hiatus. I'll try to get these up every Wednesday. Thanks for coming to my story!

[InarJollyhound]

Looking forward to an update.