“Why exactly are we doing this?” Scootaloo asked. Both her and her friends were writing on sheets of paper. Between them was a hat.
“Simple,” Sweetie Belle answered. “This way, we won’t argue about what to do for our next crusade. That, and it’s a lot easier than trying to remember what we did and didn’t do.”
“Fair enough,” Scootaloo folded her sheets and tossed them into the hat. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom did the same. “Apple Bloom, care to do the honours?”
“Gladly,” she said. Apple Bloom took put her hoof into the hat and began moving them around.
“Come on, give me parkour,” Scootaloo whispered.
“Please be surgeons, please be surgeons,” Apple Bloom said. After a few moments, she pulled out a sheet. It was unfolded and brought to her eyes. “And the winner is… what exactly is this?” Her friends walked behind her and looked at the sheet.
“Oh, that’s mine,” Sweetie Belle said. “While doing research for an essay, I found an interesting book about that topic. The book outlined some things that were incredible and unimaginable. So I thought we could try getting our cutie marks in that.”
“Well, can’t argue with that hat,” Scootaloo shrugged. “So what do we do first?”
“First, we need some robes. Then, we’ll go to the library to get the book. I think we can find an essential tool there as well.”
*
Two unicorns were walking towards Ponyville’s library. On both of their faces was a satisfied smile.
“Thank you for joining me at the spa today,” Rarity said.
“Thank you for inviting me,” Twilight replied. “Don’t you usually go with Fluttershy?”
“Unfortunately she was busy,” Rarity sighed. “A ferret had injured itself and needed her attention.” She looked around, making sure that no other pony could hear her. She waved Twilight to get closer. “I think it’s something else though.”
“Something else? Why would she lie about that?”
“Ever notice how she has a smile on her face? Not just any smile either, a wistful smile.” Twilight tapped her chin.
“I’ve never seen anything like that before. What are you getting at?” Rarity looked around.
“It’s best not to speak of it in public,” The two of them reached the library. “Actually, since we’re here, do you think I could borrow some books?”
“Of course,” Twilight opened the door. She was greeted by what looked like a religious ceremony. Candles were all around the foyer, arranged in certain patterns. A large glowing circle sat in the center of it all. In the middle of the circle was a wooden altar. Tied to the altar was an unconscious baby dragon. Standing above the altar and outside the circle were robed fillies. The filly standing above the altar had a knife in her hooves. The knife looked as if it were about to drop. All three of them were chanting in some unknown language. Twilight’s eyes widened. “Spike!”
“Gah!” the filly above the altar screamed. She dropped the knife beside her. The circle stopped glowing. All of the fillies turned their attention to the library’s entrance. “Twilight? Rarity?” One by one, they removed the hoods from their robes.
“Apple Bloom? Scootaloo? Sweetie Belle?” Rarity asked in shock. “What in Equestria were you doing?” The three of them looked at each other.
“What does it look like we’re doing?” Scootaloo asked. Twilight teleported to the altar and untied the sleeping dragon.
“It looked like you were about to kill Spike,” Twilight said. “What were you three thinking?”
“We thought we could get our cutie marks in demonology,” Sweetie Belle answered. She held up a blood red book with a pentagram on it. “I found this book while doing an essay last week. It outlines how to summon unearthly creatures.” Twilight held the book with her magic.
“I’ve never seen this book before,” she said. “Where did you find it?”
“Over there,” Sweetie Belle pointed to a shelf with the words “Black Magic” above it.
Twilight blinked. “How did I not notice that?”
Rarity walked to her sister. “Sweetie Belle, you and I are going to have a long talk about this,” Sweetie Belle’s ears flattened against her head. “Now, you three clean this entire room up. Afterwards, we’ll talk about a suitable punishment.”
“Yes Rarity,” all three crusaders said. Twilight, Rarity, and the unconscious body of Spike left them alone. When the door to the library closed, Twilight’s room opened. A baby dragon walked out. The three crusaders blew out the candles and opened the blinds.
“Did it work?” the baby dragon asked. “Were you able to summon the King’s Shadow?” The three fillies shook their heads.
“We were interrupted before we could sacrifice that Mimic you called,” Apple Bloom answered. “I think we could have done it too.”
“That doesn’t really matter,” Sweetie Belle said. “Did we get our cutie marks?” The three of them threw their robes off. Their heads turned to their flanks, unfortunately they were blank.
“Nuts,” Scootaloo said. “I was sure we would have gotten them this time. We’ve each summoned a demon! We were successful! So why didn’t we get our cutie marks?”
“Speaking of which,” Spike walked down the stairs. Following him was a small green blob with large childlike eyes and a mouth, a floating fox wearing a brown mantle and a monocle holding a musket in a pair of hands, and a small purple tornado with glowing yellow eyes. He pointed a thumb at his little convoy. “What do you plan to do with them?” The three crusaders looked at one another.
“New pets?” Apple Bloom suggested. Her friends nodded. “New pets it is.”