The Crusades End

by ColdChimera

12 Problems and Solutions

"What do you mean 'We have a problem'?" Apple Bloom asked moving to one side so that Meteor Storm and Tail Wind could enter. The two Crusaders stepped into the house quickly checking behind them to be sure they weren't being followed.

"We'll tell you later, but we have to find the other two Crusaders now." Tail told her urgently.

"We can't now, ah don't know where they are at the moment, but they're both coming here in the mornin' so you can talk then."

"It would be better if they came here on their own, it would look less suspicious." Storm agreed, looking at his grey friend.

"Y'all can stay here for the night, there'll be enough room." Apple Bloom offered.

"Thanks 'Bloom, we shouldn't be outside to much right now, and we definitely don't want to be seen coming and going between yours and your friends houses." Tail said. Neither stallion was wearing his armour or were visibly carrying weapons, but the did both have a large pair of saddle bags on that nearly covered up their Cutie Marks. Storm had a Cutie Mark of a crossed hammer and wrench and Tail Winds Cutie Mark was a whirlwind. Apple Bloom noticed but didn't say anything. "The rest of my family are just through there," She told them pointing to a doorway on the right further down the hallway. "Why don't you go introduce yourselves." She quietly slipped on her shoes while they weren't looking, sliding the razor edge out in preparation.

"Sounds like a good idea, come on Storm." The two stallions walked away down the hall with Apple Bloom walking behind them.

"Hey Applejack!" Apple Bloom called to her sister who was relaxing in the next room with her brother. "We got some friends who need a place to stay for the night, why don't you come say Hi."

Applejack rose from her place by the fire, recognizing the tone and certain words Apple Bloom had spoken she put on a bladed shoe, normally used for cutting wheat, and walked out into the hall. "Meteor Storm? Tail Wind? What are you two doing here?" She asked as she moved closer. She looked at her sister behind the stallions. Apple Bloom raised a hoof to herself and pointed it at Tail Wind, she then made a swinging motion to her forehead and pointed at Applejack and then at Storm. She silently commanded her sister before getting into position.

"We found a problem and we need to speak to all three Crusaders. Apple Bloom here was kind enough to offer us a place to stay for the night because they are meeting in the mor--" Apple Bloom chose that moment to pounce on Tail Wind pinning his wings to his sides and forcing his head flat against the floor. As her sister jumped Applejack took a step forward raising her right hoof she hit Storm right across the horn before using her left to throw him to the floor and placing the blade of her shoe against the Unicorns throat.

"Alright, ah will give you one chance to save yourselves, answer my question and ah may think of letting you go. Where are Meteor Storm and Tail Wind?" Apple Bloom asked quietly talking to the Pegasus laid flat beneath her. "Answer me!" She shouted when they didn't respond quickly enough.

"It's us Apple Bloom. You did well with that surprise attack, take out your opponents natural advantages and they become weaker earth ponies, very clever." Tail praised her, Storm unable to say or do much with the pain his horn was now causing him.

"Don't lie to me, Storm and Wind don't have cutie marks and they would never have allowed themselves to be captured so easily." The yellow mare hissed at her captive. "Now what have you done to them."

"We haven't done anything to them. We are them! We are wearing patches with cutie marks on them, we use them for infiltrating towns and cities. You captured us because you took us by surprise, in a confined space, and we let our guards down because we are among friends." Tail told her quickly when he felt the blade on Apple Bloom's shoe press against his throat.

Big Mac, wondering what all the fuss was wandered out of the living room and out into the hallway, to be greeted with the sight of his two sisters stood over a pair of stallions.

"Oh Big Mac can y'all come over her for a second, ah need some help." Apple Bloom said looking up to see the red stallion looking very confused in the doorway to the living room. He shrugged and walked up to where the four ponies were. "How do ya remove the patches?" Apple Bloom asked the grey Pegasus.

"A little tab in the top right corner under the saddle bags. Pull it an the whole thing comes off." Tail calmly instructed.

"You get that brother? Can y'all go make sure this ones tellin' the truth, please?" Apple Bloom asked.

Big Mac looked confused for a second before shrugging and replying "Eeyup" and walking between the pairs of ponies and looking at the one Apple Bloom was stood over. He lifted the bags clear placing them down behind the stricken Pegasus, he then began inspecting the pony's cutie mark for the tab. A second later he found it, pulled on it and widened his eyes in shock when it came away to reveal the Pegasus had no cutie mark at all. "It comes off alright Apple Bloom, but ah think there's something wrong."

"What?" Apple Bloom asked.

"He don't have a cutie mark." The big stallion rumbled. Apple Bloom sighed and relaxed her stance, getting off and helping Tail Wind to his feet while her sister did the same with Meteor Storm, who was only just recovering from the blow to his horn. Apple Bloom removed the bladed shoes and returned them to their place by the door. When she returned the three Stallions were stood looking at each other awkwardly.

"Big Macintosh meet Meteor Storm and Tail Wind, they are Crusaders like me and my friends." The two Stallions in question stepped forwards and offered their right hooves to shake. Big Mac raised his hoof and shook.

"Lets go in there and I'll explain."

---

"So, you three are all in a secret order of warrior knights, who fight Vampires because you don't have cutie marks and can use any weapon like a pony with a cutie mark for using that weapon?" Big Mac asked looking confusedly at the three Crusaders sat across the room from him. After they had entered the room Storm and Tail Wind had explained everything to the confused farmer, in a similar manner to their explanation to Applejack and Rarity.

"Yes, that about sums it up except that Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are both Crusaders like us." Meteor Storm confirmed gesturing to himself, Apple Bloom and Tail.

"And you knew about this? This is why y'all stayed in the Crystal Empire for nearly two years isn't it?" Big Mac asked Applejack. He didn't talk much but because of this he had more time to think making him much more perceptive than most gave him credit for.

"Yes ah did. Ah'm sorry ah didn't tell you brother but it was for your own good, ah swear." Applejack answered clearly feeling guilty, the apologetic notes in her voice confirming as much.

"We'll talk about this another time." The big stallion muttered to his sister, before looking to the two other stallions in the room. "Ah'll go get you two a blanket, y'all can sleep in here for the night." He told them before getting up and walking out of the room.

"Wow." Apple Bloom breathed. "Ah've only seen Big Mac this angry once before and he shouted at me then, ah kind of wish he would."

"I know what you mean AB." Applejack agreed. "Our brother don't tend to say much unless he feels strongly about something." She informed the two stallions.

"We're sorry if we caused any tension between your family members." Storm said, the blue stallion ducking his head apologetically, Tail Wind nodding in agreement.

"We're a strong family, this won't cause much of a problem for long." Applejack said, giving the two stallions a small smile.

"Hey, Storm? Why did you wear the patches now when you haven't before?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Because we are trying to stay undetected in a major settlement. We don't in the Crystal Empire because we're not trying to hide. The Vampires know we have a base around there but they can't access it." The blue stallion answered.

"Right we need to hit the hay, ah'm bushed." Applejack said, turning to look at her sister and smiling a little.

"Yeah me too. Night Storm. Night Tail. Night AJ." Apple Bloom said as she left the room and climbed the stairs to her room. Big Mac entered the room briefly to drop the blankets and a couple of pillows off before bidding all three ponies a goodnight and leaving to go to his own room.

"So what is the problem you've run into?" Applejack asked when she heard the door to her brothers bedroom close.

"You might as well know, we've found Moon Shadows primary hive." Tail told her. His face showing resignation and worry. "It's near to Ponyville. We'll give out all the details tomorrow, right now I want to sleep." He told her pointedly.

"Alright, ah'll leave you in peace. Night fellas." She called as she walked up the stair to the second floor that held the families bedrooms.

---

Scootaloo lamented the loss of her scooter. She had returned home to find it perfectly cared for, by her father she assumed, but had found that she was now much too big to ride it properly. So she was forced to walk to Carousel Boutique to pick Sweetie Belle up.

She knocked on the door and waited. It was quite early in the morning, well before opening hours so the door was most likely locked, a theory that was proven a few minutes later when the sound of a bolt sliding back was heard from the far side. Rarity poked her head out, looking for the one that had knocked. She spotted Scootaloo immediately and opened the door wider to allow the Pegasus entry.

"Come in, dear. Sweetie and I were just about to have a quick bite of breakfast would you like to join us?" Rarity asked politely, closing the door behind Scootaloo.

"No thanks Rarity, I've already had quite a big breakfast. I'll just wait for Sweetie Belle in here." The orange mare gestured to the room she was in.

"Well if you're sure, you don't want anything that's fine but I must insist you come along and at least wait in the lounge area I have at the back." Rarity told her, gesturing with a hoof to a door on the right of the hallway. Scootaloo knowing resistance was futile allowed herself to be led into the comfy room and sat upon one of the cushions that were scattered around.

"I'll tell Sweetie to come and get you when we're done." The elder mare told her.

"Alright, I'll just relax in here." Rarity left the room, leaving Scootaloo to her own devices. Needless to say it took her less than a minute to grow bored with the room she was in. It was comfy but there was nothing to do, she didn't have anything to work her wings out with on her and there was nothing she could use in the room, there was nothing interesting to read which was unsurprising, reading was boring anyway.

"What does Rainbow Dash do when she doesn't have anything she needs to do?" Scootaloo asked herself. The answer came to her a second later, sleep. It had been a long time since Scootaloo had thought about her rainbow maned idol. So Scootaloo stretched out onto a fainting couch, closed her eyes and went to sleep.

Scootaloo was woken ten minutes later by Sweetie Belle gently prodding and shaking her. "Wake up Scoots we need to get to Sweet Apple Acres remember?" The Unicorn asked as she helped her friend up off the couch.

"Sorry, I didn't have anything to do so I went to sleep." Scootaloo explained with a sheepish smile.

"Right, well we should hurry if we want to get to Sweet Apple Acres. We can't use you scooter and wagon anymore can we?" Sweetie asked, slightly confused at Scootaloo's explanation but deciding it was better not to ask about it.

"No, I can't fit on the scooter anymore and I don't know about you and the wagon, but I doubt that we will all be moving around Ponyville in it like we used to anymore." Scootaloo informed her.

"Alright, lets hurry then." Sweetie said turning and leading the way out of the Boutique, and then at a brisk trot to the farm.

---

"Hi girls we're meeting in here." Apple Bloom greeted her friends opening the door wider to allow them entry. "We can't meet in the clubhouse anymore, it's too small." She explained before closing the door. They took a few steps away from the door before Apple Bloom stopped them. "Storm and Tail are here, in the living room, there's a problem and they want to speak to all of us. They arrived last night in disguise." The youngest Apple told her friends a, note of worry in her voice. They all exchanged worried looks, they knew the Crusaders wouldn't come down to Ponyville for no reason, especially since there was only a few days of their leave left. Whatever this was it was big, very big.

Apple Bloom showed them into the living room where Meteor Storm, Tail Wind and Applejack were waiting. Applejack had helped move the table from the dining room and the two Crusaders had spread maps and pieces of paper over it.

"Ah good, you're all here." Tail greeted them while Applejack and Storm talked quietly off to one side. "We have a problem, come over here and we'll explain." The Crusaders nodded and gathered around one side of the table with Tail Wind on the other with Applejack and Storm who had broken off their conversation just as Tail had finished speaking.

"Alright, we have searched through all our intelligence on Moon Shadow and on Samael and we have looked at their recent movements. After processing all of this we have found that Samael is moving his minions towards Ponyville, and we believe Moon Shadow has his primary base here." Tail Wind informed them, silence answering his last statement.

"This is extremely fortuitous as these two are the last two and most powerful of the original Vampires, for the first time in the history of the Cutie Mark Crusaders will we have a chance to take out these two Vampires and end our crusade for good." Meteor Storm put in, causing looks of excited determination to appear on the faces of his young friends.

"Exactly, we have seen Samael send his Vampires out to fight before but he almost never enters the frey himself. In the time that me and Storm have been Crusaders we have seen it twice, both time to destroy another leader, one of the original Vampires. Over the years he has made several attacks against Shadow but not gone into battle himself, we think these were just to keep his forces low. This time we have confirmation that Samael is with his Vampires." Tail continued getting visibly excited at the thought of destroying these Vampires and finally ending the last remnants of the Celestial War.

"The cave complex that we think Moon Shadow is hiding in is here." Storm pointed to a cave on the map that was several miles to the east of the town. "The plan is to wait for Samael to attack, then we slip in through this side entrance here, Samael is approaching from the south so we will go in from the west where we will be obscured by these hills." Storm indicated the features he was referring to on the map. "Tail Wind is going to use some explosives to destroy these three entrances here when the attack starts to force Moon Shadow to fight, our entrance is much too small for more than a few Ponies to escape at a time so it is unlikely that we will encounter resistance and if we do it will be quite light. From our entry point we will move to find the largest chamber which is where the bulk of the fighting will be, we will utilize stealth to avoid the Vampires and to find Samael who will be fighting Moon Shadow, we wait for one of them to win then we attack together overwhelming whichever one wins before they can recover. After that it's a simple mop up of any Vampires strong enough to survive the death of their masters." Storm looked up after he finished outlining the plan. "Samael should arrive around this time next week, we have four days to prepare and set up for the attack. Any questions?"

"Yeah, What are we supposed to use as armour? We didn't bring any with us from 'The candle'." Scootaloo asked.

"I have your armour in my saddle bags, Tail has some basic weapons for you all, Scootaloo your primary weapons are the steal wings which are part of your armour so I have them but Tail is carrying the swords you normally use as well. Sweetie I have one of your swords, Tail has the other and Apple Bloom you have your primary but we brought a second set. If you require anything else it's procure on site." Storm informed them.

"How can y'all carry all our armour in those saddle bags?" Apple Bloom asked, unsurprisingly confused due to the low weight of the bags and the fact that if the armour took up a lot of space.

"Enchanted saddle bags, the interior can store anything up to ten sets of full combat armour. I also used a gravity spell on it to reduce the weight until the armour weighed almost nothing, it'll wear off when the armour is removed from the bags." The Unicorn explained. "Same with Tail's bags."

"What about these explosives, where are they and how are we using them?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"I'll make them, and you're not going to use them only I have the necessary training, they aren't like normal weapons so you can't pick them up like we usually do." Tail Wind explained.

"You seem to have thought a lot about the entry but once we're in you're a little light on the details." Scootaloo observed.

"There are only three outcomes of this plan. One, we destroy all the Vampires and walk out the front door. Two, all or some of us die and we take down all the Vampires. Three, the Vampire that survives kills us and escapes. Obviously we are trying to stack the odds favour of the first outcome." Storm replied. Sweetie gulped.

"H-how likely are the other two outcomes?" She asked hesitantly.

"About twenty percent for each if we're under prepared." He replied honestly. "Don't worry we have been training you for this type of thing for nearly two years on the trot, you are among the most elite fighters I have ever met, which reduces the risk to about twenty percent combined." Tail Wind quickly reassured, he walked around the table to stand next to the three Crusaders. "Look, we will be fine, we have trained and fought multiple times in these conditions and only once have we not come back completely and utterly unscathed, and even then it was only a minor injury and we were caught completely by surprise. We know so much more now and we will be much more careful. We will be fine."

"Alright, thanks Tail." Sweetie said, feeling much better after his speech.

"More than welcome Sweetie Belle, more than welcome."

"Alright, we need some things still, after we have got them we will need a place to train. After that it's just general pre-attack preparations, weapon and armour care and rest." Storm informed them pushing a list across the table to them. "Get ready Crusaders this is the Crusades end."

---

The Crusaders split up outside the farmhouse, returning only ten minutes later. Tail Wind and Meteor Storm were surprised to find that the Crusaders already knew where they could find all the ingredients for explosives, but when they asked the only reply they received were sore ears and the words "Cutie Mark Crusaders Demolitions Experts!" Applejack allowed them to use the barn to train in relative secrecy.

As the days passed the Crusaders honed their skills to the highest they had ever been, always conscious of the chance that any slip up could cause them all to die. They trained like that for four days, Storm tutoring Sweetie Belle on magic in the spare hours while Tail flew with Scootaloo and Apple Bloom lifted weights and worked on stealth tactics. On the fifth day the Crusaders checked their weapons and armour were clean and in good condition. They made sure they could sneak around in them and ensured their weapons were sharp and strong.

Storm stood looking at his four friends. "Well then, we have nothing left to do, we are as prepared as we can be. It's time to end this."

Comments

[DestinyAroura]

I love the story ! Keep on going !Out

[ColdChimera]

2746286

Thanks.