The Crusades End

by ColdChimera

9 Injury time

“Focus recruit, there’s no point in attempting this if you can’t focus on it.” Captain Meteor Storm berated his young student.

“How can you be so calm and focused when Commander Wind and the others are out there?” Sweetie Belle asked her voice strained from concentration and exhaustion. They had spent almost the entire day training. What they were doing wasn’t actually physically draining, but having her magic completely blocked was straining on Sweetie’s system.

“I am so calm because I know Tail can take care of himself, in fact without using magic I’m a much weaker soldier than he is.” He informed her without opening his eyes. “It probably helps that we are meditating.” He added as an afterthought.

“Fine.” Sweetie conceded before closing her eyes again and focusing on taking the stone that her captain was holding in his magic. This is how her and Storms training sessions had been since a week after they had arrived in the candle. Sweetie wore a helmet that blocked all but the faintest possible trickle of her magic; this meant that she could feel her magic properly and from there direct it. She was then to attempt to direct this into taking a stone that Storm was levitating in his magic away from him. She had succeeded once or twice for a few seconds to hold the stone very unsteadily in the air.

She focused herself reaching out with her senses feeling the world around her sensing the unique feel of another unicorns magic. She felt the stone and directed her tiny trickle of magic to pick it up. It was like suddenly losing all the muscle in her front legs then being told to stand upside down on them while they were positioned over a bed of nails, in other words very difficult and quite painful. She reached out with her magic like it was another hoof. She carefully enveloped the other magic with the stone inside it then gently pushed it away from the stone, this felt kind of like squeezing yoghurt out of a tube. When the last of Storm’s magic was gone from the stone Sweetie opened her eyes. The stone was now floating in an aura of light blue magic, and it was stable.

Just then the door opened, slamming loudly against the wall making Sweetie jump, lose her focus and drop the stone. Scootaloo stood in the door way. She was much taller than when they had arrived, a year and a half ago. They had all had growth spurts and she now stood a little short of Applejacks height. However, she had retained her stockiness; they all had to some degree, in the thick corded muscles that rippled softly beneath her skin. Nowhere was the change in her physique more noticeable than around her chest and between her shoulders, they were now thick with bulging flight muscle.

“Apple Bloom’s hurt, she’s in the infirmary.” She told the two unicorns.

“What?! This is why I was worried!” Sweetie shouted at Scootaloo and Storm.

“Report recruit!” The captain ordered.

Scootaloo snapped to attention. “We were all walking back through the dark zone after having delivered all outgoing mail and picked up the supplies and some incoming mail from the Crystal Empire. Apple Bloom was on guard while I pulled the cart and the commander flew air support. As we were walking through the dark band we were attacked by five Vampires. Commander Wind took two down before they reached us then proceeded to engage a third, Apple Bloom engaged the fourth and fifth while I continued forward under the commander’s orders. Apple Bloom destroyed one a little before the commander destroyed his target, unfortunately Apple Bloom’s other target got a good hit in before commander Wind could assist. He helped her onto the wagon and we made for ‘the Candle as fast as possible. We got her to the infirmary before I left to find you two.”

“I assume that Commander Wind has started medical treatment?” Storm asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Come with me, both of you.” With that Storm stood and left the two young mares hurrying to catch up.

When they reached the infirmary they saw Rarity stood outside with a foreleg over Applejack’s shoulder. Applejack turned away from the door she was staring at when she heard their approach. She stood and almost knocked Storm down as she charged straight at him.

“Why won’t he let me in to see her? To help her?!” She shouted at him, worry and fear present in her voice and on her face.

“He won’t let you in because your related, you aren’t thinking clearly and you could make a mistake. At this point a mistake could cost Apple Bloom her life. Tail Wind is one of the best, I can’t count the number of times he’s patched me up.” Storm told her in a calm, placating voice. “Don’t worry she’ll be fine. I’m going in to see if and how I or anyone else can help. Sweetie Belle Scootaloo stay out here and take care of them.”

“Sir.” They threw a salute before moving to comfort the two mares. Storm turned and pushed through the doors.

“Tail, what happened?” He asked the other stallion, who was busy checking over a small yellow form on a stone table covered in a white cloth.

“We were attacked, Bloom here was fighting two at once, and she got hit in the side with a hammer.”

“A hammer? That’s an unusual weapon, not many ponies use them.”

“Yeah well, she’s got a couple cracked ribs and her right foreleg is shattered, she’ll be fine if I can set it, she needs time off while the ribs heal.”

“Good, do you need any help?”

“No, I don’t think there’s any internal bleeding and I can set legs easily. She needs to stop training or doing anything for the next month at the minimum.”

“Alright, I’ll tell them the news they’re waiting outside. When will she be able to see visitors, when the sleep rune wears off? She won’t be able to say much she will need a lot of painkillers.”

“Okay so tomorrow earliest right?”

“Looks about, which reminds me, need you to charge another crystal for me, I like to keep the runes ready to use.”

“Alright I’ll do it later.” Storm turned and exited the infirmary. Stepping back outside he was instantly barraged with questions. “Okay everyone calm down, I’ll tell you everything. First Apple Bloom has two cracked ribs and her right foreleg was shattered by a Vampire’s hammer. Second you will be able to see her tomorrow at the earliest, when the sleep rune that’s in effect has worn off. Third, she won’t be training, or even, I suspect, leaving the medical wing for the next few weeks to a month at least. Finally when you do visit her don’t expect much conversation, Tail is going to have to have her swimming in painkillers.”

That silenced everyone except Applejack. “Well, you can’t keep me from staying with her while she recovers; she’s my sister after all.”

“No I guess I can’t, but only you and you can’t touch her, she needs rest and she needs to stay still. You can’t stay in there the whole time anyway, you’re our head chef.” He told her sternly.

“Fine.” She sighed.‘At least ah can stay with her.’ She thought. “Will the commander tell me where she’s going to be staying?”

“He’ll pass you taking her to the medical rooms they’re over there.” He informed her pointing to a set of rooms adjacent to the medical room they were all standing in front of. “As soon as she’s stable and just needs time to recuperate he’ll move her over there.” Applejack nodded thanking him. “As for the rest of you, Rarity I want you to help out by starting to prepare lunch. Sweetie you’re to continue with our exercises. Use the 20 kilo weight. Scootaloo come with me to the ops centre, we need to debrief.” Sweetie patted Applejack on the back and left back to the room she and Storm had left. Scootaloo followed Storm into the ops centre leaving Rarity and Applejack alone.

Back in their training room Sweetie looked over the equipment they had been using, trying to relax a little. The stone she had been holding earlier was on the floor where it had been left, the ‘stone’ was made of a special blend of Iron and Rodan, which made it extremely difficult to hold in a levitation field. Rodan is an extremely unreactive material making it very hard to control with magic, the Iron in the stone made it extremely heavy increasing the difficulty of lifting it. It was designed to improve fine magical manipulative skills as the Rodan would only move if the right amount of force was applied in the right way. The ‘stone’ wouldn’t stay completely still without those forces however, it wobbled when held in a levitation field unless it was stabilised by small tendrils of force provided by the unicorn. She looked to the weight set, it was similar to the stone in that they were all Iron and Rodan, they were trapeziums with a ring at the top and their weight stamped onto the front. These were designed to increase a unicorn’s strength, not specifically the amount of power they could produce but reduce the amount of power required to lift the weights. An example of this being that Sweetie could now lift the fifteen kilo weight with the effort that most unicorns require to lift a particularly heavy book. She set to work lifting the twenty kilogram weight.

Scootaloo walked into the command centre following captain Storm. They walked to the table with a map of the area laid out on top a few places marked and notes on pieces of paper around the edges.

“Trace your route; mark all the points of interest. Where you entered the city where you left and where the fight took place.” The teal stallion instructed. Scootaloo picked up the pencil in her mouth and immediately set to tracing the route they had taken on the map. The route wound south of the entrance to the candle before sweeping around to enter the Crystal city from the east, it then exited the city at the north western side and took a similar route they had used on the way ‘The Candle’ for the first time passing the ice canyon that housed the sleeping Chimera. She looked over the route and drew a large cross on the route line a little way after the Chimera’s resting place. She also drew two lines one before and one after the cross.

“Done,” she stated calmly.

Storm walked over to her looking down at the map, tracing the line with his eyes. “What are these lines for?” He asked indicating the ones either side of the cross.

“That’s where the dark zone was this time, sir”

“I see,” he said. “Good work, very thorough.” he looked over the map again then took a few steps around the table to pick up a few pieces of paper then walked back. Picking up the pencil he started to draw shapes on the map. When he was done he took a step back to observe his handiwork. “What did they look like?” He asked Scootaloo.

“The Vampires that attacked us?” The young Pegasus asked. Storm nodded. “Long dog like fur, bat ears and green eyes, why?”

Storm didn’t answer he looked at the papers he had brought again then back to the map, he leaned against it to get a better view. “Hmm, it looks like Samael is making a move. This could be interesting.” He muttered as he pushed away from the map landing on all four hooves again. “You didn’t look them directly in the eyes did you?” He asked turning to look at Scootaloo.

“No sir.” she responded.

“Good. You are dismissed; go about your training as normal.”

“Yes sir.” she replied before she left the room.

Left alone he looked at the map again. “What are you up to Samael? Will you help me destroy him?” He asked his voice not far above a whisper.

---

The next day Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Rarity stood outside the medical room that housed the two Crusaders comrade. Rarity stepped forwards and knocked on the door. There was a shuffling from inside then the door opened and they were greeted by Applejack.

“Hello darling, I brought you some breakfast.” Rarity greeted her friend hovering over a small basket.

“Well thank you kindly Rarity.” Applejack said with a smile as she took the basket and the light blue aura that surrounded it faded away. “Would oo ike oo come in?” she asked around the basket handle.

“If ‘Bloom is awake sure.” Scootaloo answered the orange mare. Applejack nodded then turned and walked back into the room, leaving the door open inviting the three ponies outside in. The three mares entered. The room was empty of furniture except for the bed and a chair. There was a blanket over the chair indicating where Applejack had been all night.

Sat up in the bed staring at her friends was a young earth pony mare, with a butter yellow coat and a red mane held up in an ever present bow. Apple Bloom looked quite different from the little filly that was bullied at school by Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon. She was now almost twice her previous height and built like Big Macintosh, She had large hooves attached to equally large, well muscled legs. Her chest was the size of a rain barrel and every piece of her was toned and powerful. One of her legs was currently covered in bandages with the end of a splint poking out near the hoof.

“Hi girls.” she called to her friends waving her undamaged leg. Her speech was slurred slightly and her eyes only half open.

“Don’t move too much Apple Bloom, Doctors orders.” Applejack admonished her sister.

“Aw fine.” She sulked. Applejack placed some of the food from the basket onto a plate that Rarity had packed, and placed it into the small table in front of her sister. She then passed some food to the others before finally getting the food herself. They ate for a little while, quietly talking.

"She's dosed up to her eyes on painkillers. Doc said that's the best he can do. ribs're only cracked so they'll heal on their own but it'll hurt a lot until they finish." Applejack explained between bites.

"Is that why she's so...?" Scootaloo waved a hoof in front of her face.

"I believe the word is vacant, darling." Rarity corrected.

"Yes, she woke up a few hours ago and Storm walked in with a crystal, it's just there above her bed." The orange mare pointed to a softly glowing green crystal that was hanging a few feet above her sisters head, well out of Apple Bloom's reach.

They sat and talked for a little while before it was time for the two healthy Crusaders to leave to begin their training for the day, and Rarity had to help in the smithy. They said their goodbyes to Applejack and Apple Bloom, the latter of which waved with a goofy grin on her face. Sweetie and Scootaloo walked to the practice field together. Today was the day they were supposed to learn how to fight multiple enemies at once. Commander Wind and captain Storm had moved that portion of their training forwards in light of recent developments. They reached the practice field in good time and had nearly finished donning their armour by the time the commander and captain showed up, already wearing their own sets of armour.

"Atten-tion!" Storm shouted. The two young mares quickly snapped to attention saluting their superiors. Commander Wind saluted back.

"At ease recruits. As we have told you we're going to be fighting more than one opponent today. To that end you will be fighting each other and us at the same time. There will never be less than two Vampires to fight in the field, so you will not fight less than two people at once in training from now on. Pick your weapons and we will begin." Storm informed his pupils as he walked over to the weapon storehouse and unlocked it.

Scootaloo was the first to emerge with a hoofblade on each foreleg, followed soon after by Sweetie Belle who carried a large battleaxe and a bow on her back. They returned to their previous position, standing shoulder to shoulder at attention, hooves raised in a salute.

"Okay, first we'll have a little sparring match to assess both of your skills then I will teach you the best way to fight groups of similar pony tribe." Storm told them readying his meteor hammer in his magic, while Tail Wind did the same with his Steel Wings and hoof blades, taking off and hovering a foot above his previous position.

"Sir, yes sir." The two Crusaders declared in unison, dropping down into fighting stances and readying their own weapons.

---

"Welcome to Know your enemy 101. My name is captain Meteor Storm and today I will be teaching you both the strengths and weaknesses of the three pony tribes. Lets start with an easy one, What is the major weak point on a Pegasus?" The teal stallion looked at his slightly sore students who were sat on the ground to the right of the practice field. Scootaloo's hoof raise lazily into the air. After receiving a nod from Storm she answered.

"The wings, they are easy to break and if they are the Pegasus will be grounded and in a load of pain. They won't be able to think clearly and their major advantage over the other tribes will be gone until they heal."

"Correct, Scootaloo. Earth ponies have no defense against Pegasi, due to their ground based nature. However, if the Pegasi were to be grounded a strong earth pony would have very little trouble. Unicorns next I think."

Sweetie raised a hoof. "Aim for a unicorns horn, while they are channeling a spell it can become incredibly sensitive. They can also be disrupted by having a Rodan sheath placed over the horn, it will weaken or totally stop most unicorns magic."

"Correct, I expected you would know about the sheaths usual purpose after we trained with it." The captain smiled at his pupil. "Now how about Earth ponies? What's their weakness?" No hooves were raised right away at this question. Slowly Scootaloo raised her hoof, slightly unsure of her answer.

"They are grounded so... Pegasi could do flyovers and damage them that way, and unicorns can blast them with magic."

"That is correct, other than their unique strength and durability they have no innate strengths," Storm informed them. "The best way to deal with Earth ponies is to take them at a distance with magic or ranged weapons. All the tribes have weaknesses but they also have strengths, when three ponies from each of the tribes work together in absolute harmony they have no weakness."

---

Six weeks later.

Apple Bloom ducked under a wide swing from Scootaloo's sword, moving quickly she twisted it round so the Pegasus couldn't place it back on the floor. She kept running side stepping quickly as three razor sharp metallic feathers landed in a rough triangle, right where her neck had been only moments before. She looked up to see Tail Wind turning quickly to make another pass. She ran as fast as she could for Sweetie Belle who began to charge up a spell. Just as the white mare was about to release the spell and put an end to the young Earth pony Apple Bloom grabbed her roughly and turned her head so it was pointing at the commander. Shocked at this Sweetie panicked and did the only thing she could think of, she released her spell. The ball of magical energy with a comets tail flew with the speed of Rainbow Dash after a sonic Rainboom, impacting the commander in the place where his neck met his shoulders. He locked up and plummeted to the ground. Apple Bloom turned from the falling stallion long enough to slip a Rodan sheath over Sweetie's horn and bind her front legs. She returned her gaze to the Commander to see him floating in a teal aura of magic ten feet away from the floor.

"Well done Apple Bloom. That was some quick thinking, redirecting Sweetie Belle's horn to takeout Commander Wind." Captain Storm commented as he walked around a corner, his horn glowing as he lowered the stricken Pegasus he was holding to the floor and undid the stun spell Sweetie had cast. "However, you pretty much left Scootaloo to disappear and attack you at another time."

Just as he finished speaking there was a flurry of movement in the corner of Apple Blooms eye, she turned quickly to find her eye an inch away from the tip of Scootaloo's sword.

"Apart from that one mistake though you passed with flying colours, just like your friends." Storm smiled as he delivered his news. "Welcome to the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Captain Bloom."