Dawn of the Crusaders

by VietNinja220

Prologue: The End of an Era

Not a glimpse of sunlight shone from the sky that day. Clouds blanketed the sky no matter where you looked. North, south, east, west, all that you could see was cloud cover and the rain that shot against the windows. Sweet Apple Acres was not functional in this downpour and the Apple Family was stuck in their little barn until the rain would subside.

“How could this happen? Ah thought Rainbow Dash cleaned up the sky just hours ago!” Applejack muttered. “There has to be something wrong. The pegasi would never let a stray storm loose, let along something this big!”

A voice squeaked from the corner. “Maybe something went wrong. Ah mean, if the pegasi would not have let this happen, there must be something wrong.”

“Maybe you’re right, Apple Bloom. I’m going to go out there and see what’s happening near town square. Big Mac, I want you to stay here with Granny Smith in case something happens.”

“Eeyup!” The large red stallion yelled, nodding his head in agreement.

“Apple Bloom, Babs said that she was coming today, so I want you to go pick her up at the train station. It’s not going to be a good day to play, but there’s always tomorrow.”

“Are you sure that we should be going out in this weather?” Apple Bloom looked outside in confusion. “Ah mean you never let me go out in the rain without you.”

“It’s going to be fine sugarcube. The rain isn’t too bad and you should be able to make it back before it gets too bad.”
“Alright then sis, whatever you say.” Apple Bloom muttered.

The two ponies galloped out the barn to their destinations. The rain wasn’t too bad, like Applejack said, but it seemed like it was getting worse by the minute. As Applejack disappeared in the rain, the storm strengthened and strengthened. Each step Apple Bloom made felt harder and harder. Despite the rain in her eyes and the wind pushing her back, Apple Bloom kept on going, knowing that Babs wouldn’t be safe if Apple Bloom did not come to escort her back to Sweet Apple Acres. The path was wet and muddy, the wind in her face, relentless, and the rain in her eyes, blinding to the point where Apple Bloom wanted to turn back and ask Big Macintosh to go for her.

“No, I can’t quit now. I’m almost to the train station and I’ve gone too far to turn back now.” Apple Bloom said to herself as she muscled herself through the rain and wind.

At the center of town, Applejack bolted to the marketplace, greeted by none other than Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her group, “The Mane Six”. Twilight Sparkle was rather preoccupied, as she was conjuring a spell that would help alleviate the current situation. Her horn glowed with a bright lavender aura as she pointed it towards the sky. Swirls of magic started rotating around her body, slowly moving towards the spectacle that is her charged horn within the darkness of the thunderstorm. Her face was scrunched up with her eyes closed and a strong focused look as she continued to draw energy in order to power up her spell.

“I hope this works.” Twilight hesitantly said as she prepared for her spell. The horn, fully charged, started glowing hot white. The aura surrounding her body stopped spiraling towards her horn as she was at full capacity. Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes and released her spell. A large purple beam was shot out of her horn. Three purple shockwaves followed the laser as it rapidly ascended towards the unnaturally powerful storm. The beam hit the cloud cover and conflicted with the barrier, a barrier that normal clouds would not have.

“What? How? That’s not possible! Clouds can’t block magical blasts!” Twilight screamed in fear. The Mane six started doing everything they could to pierce the magical barrier. Pinkie Pie brought out her Party Cannon and pointed it towards the sky. Every shot she made, a birthday cake would be released from within the cannon and end up being disintegrated as soon as it hit the cloud cover. Rarity found as many of her precious jewels as she could and hurled each of them at the clouds in rapid fire succession. Although the idea was fantastic, it did not even put a scratch into the clouds. Applejack started finding rocks as fast as she could and started bucking them into the clouds. Needless to say, she was also unsuccessful.

“What are we supposed to do?” Applejack asked desperately. “There’s nothing we can do to stop this rain and the longer we wait, the worse it’s going to be!”

At the train station, Babs was crouched under a chained bench, scared for her life.

“Come to Ponyville during the summer they said. The weather never turns bad they said.” Babs muttered. “This is the worst storm I’ve ever seen! I hope Apple Bloom and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders are ok.” A scream could be heard in the distance.

“Babs! Babs!!” Apple Bloom yelled. “Where are you?”

“Apple Bloom! I’m right here! Underneath this bench!”

“Hurry up, I’ll fill you in along the way back to Sweet Apple Acres!”

The two fillies started their run back to Sweet Apple Acres. What they didn’t know was that they managed to take a wrong road on a random fork along the way back to Sweet Apple Acres. The longer they ran, the more tired they got, until the rain started to let up, just enough for the two to see where they were going.

“Wait.. This isn’t the way home.” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “This is the way to town square! Hey, let’s go see if Applejack can get us a place to hang out until the rain lets up a bit more before we head on home.”

“With this kinda rain, I think it would be better if we stopped halfway through rather than go through this stupid thing!”

At town square, all the pegasi’s efforts were useless. Even Rainbow Dash’s well known Sonic Rainboom would not even move the clouds, but rather making the rain even worse.

“Alright, let’s try this again.” Twilight muttered. “This time, let’s put a little bit of some Magic Barrier breaking magic into this blast.”

Twilight went into her casting stance again. Hooves spread apart, horn pointing towards the blackened sky, face scrunched up, eyes closed, and rain dripping all over her coat. Her horn started to glow once again, but this time, it glowed a deep purple. Magical aura started attracting towards the large collection of pure energy atop Twilight’s horn. As all of this was happening, Apple Bloom and Babs were getting closer to the light at the center of town.

“Hey look, there’s Applejack!” Babs yelled.

“Yeah, but I think we shouldn’t really go over there just yet, Babs! They could be doing something dangerous!”

The longer Twilight charged her horn, the brigher the aura became until it was a huge sphere of violet. She tilted her head until it was perpendicular to the ground. Readying to launch the beam, she gave a small sigh.

“Here we go..again..” Twilight muttered underneath her breath.

“Wait Babs! Let’s stop until Twilight does whatever magic she’s doing!” Apple Bloom yelled at the top of her lungs. Babs kept going while Apple Bloom halted to a screeching stop.

“Applejack! Wait!” Babs yelled.

“What? Babs?? Apple Bloom?? Get away now!!! Ya hear??”

“No! Not now! Babs, get away! Ahhh!!!” Twilight was knocked back by the shot. Her concentration was broken from Babs’s cry for Applejack. The “beam” that Twilight was attempting to create was shot out as more of a small condensed ball. The sparkle flew towards the cloud at lightning speed. The cloud was hit by the misfired spell. A violet barrier became visible and slowly started cracking as the ball impacted. The clouds started slowly dissipating. Twilight had saved Ponyville once again. What wasn’t expected was the direction that the ball went after the barrier had broke.

“No. Nonononono! Everyone run!!” Twilight screamed as the ball started shooting straight back at the Mane Six and Babs.
A flash of light appeared a split second after. The blinding light made it impossible to see more than a few inches away. Apple Bloom, despite being several blocks behind the explosion, was knocked back by the might of the misfired spell.

About fifteen minutes have passed since the explosion. Apple Bloom laid on the ground, still not able to see anything after how bright the explosion had been. She could hear some galloping in the distance, the sound of 8 hooves coming her way. It was too bright to see anything and it felt like her days were over.

“No.. Rarity..” A small voice squeaked.

“Rainbow Dash..” Another small voice squeaked.

“Apple Bloom, get up. Please.” The voice said again.

Apple Bloom started to be able to see once again. Above her she could see two ponies. Both were looking at her. Her vision was still too blurry to identify them, but she could tell who the pony on her left was by the white coat and pink and lavender mane. To her right, an orange pony with a wild purple mane-do.

“Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo. You’re here.” Apple Bloom said weakly.

“Yes.. but.. our sisters aren’t.” Sweetie Belle stuttered as she started to cry.

Apple Bloom started to rise up. Her eyesight started to become clear once again. She couldn’t believe her eyes. In the site of the explosion was a giant crater. No trace of any of the seven ponies remained. A beam of light descended upon Apple Bloom and her friends. The rain had stopped.

“Sis.. Babs.. why?” Apple Bloom choked. Tears started flowing down her cheek as she looked at the town square that was her sister’s last mission.. as the element of honesty.

Author's Note:

So, this is my first fanfic and I'm not really good at Language Arts, so pardon any spelling and grammatical errors. Yeah, this scene was very heavily based on the prologue from Golden Sun and all that good stuff. I hope you enjoy the prologue! Hopefully I'll be able to make something like a chapter weekly.

Comments

[flutterbythebay]

“There has to be something wrong. The pegasi would never let a stray storm loose, let along something this big!”

I think it should be alone, but I'm not really sure on that one

Each step Apple Bloom made felt harder and harder. Despite the rain in her eyes and the wind pushing her back, Apple Bloom kept on going, knowing that Babs wouldn’t be safe if Apple Bloom did not come to escort her back to Sweet Apple Acres.

It might be nicer to just say she instead of Applebloom a second time

This is an amazing story!! My definite favourite! It's awesome! Please don't stop writing it! I can't wait to read more, and I think you are wonderful with the language arts!

[Zelda Spectrum]

i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/6934045952/h6BBB0FF8/