The creature quickly glanced around, the Elements of Harmony would surely realize where it was headed within a few hours. Three times now the Elements had defeated her. Once when the Elements were wielded by Celestia over a thousand years ago. On the longest day of the thousandth year she returned, captured Celestia, and was defeated by the new wielders of the Elements of Harmony. The last time she had taken control of one these new Elements, the one representing Generosity, but was still defeated. She thought for sure that without all of their ‘special’ Elements of Harmony on their side she would be undefeated.
She let out an agitated growl, and she remembered that even without the Elements, those who represented them still defeated her. She was once again banished, this time to the darkest shadows, but unbeknownst to Equestria’s heroes she began to gain more power. Soon enough she was out of the shadows, but she still hid in their darkness. It had taken several years to reach this point, where she could finally use enough magic to take on Celestia once again.
First however, she wanted to upset Equestria’s balance and invoke fear in the hearts of all of Celestia’s precious little ponies. Whilst she was biding her time she had studied more magic, much darker magic. Magic that not even King Sombra nor Discord had cast before. Although both were able to change a pony’s form, Sombra could only do it to a certain degree and Discord didn’t ever want to actually harm the ponies. She had neither of their pathetic weaknesses and had found one that not even Discord could reverse easily. This spell could alter a pony’s form, and perhaps even part of their mind, so it was forbidden. It would cost too much magic to use more than once every few moons, and she didn’t care to spend even more of her strength directing it to change certain aspects. It was so much more powerful than the highly advanced, but temporary, species changing spell, as it was made by the changelings thousands of years ago. It was so old and well hidden, known by only the changeling queen and her most elite guards, that it would take ages before Equestria could even start working on the reversal spell. It would show the ponies who their true ruler clearly was.
She was almost to the Tree of Harmony. She breathed out a sigh of relief as she stepped into the comforting, familiar darkness. Her eyes widened in shock, slits getting almost as thin as a blade of grass.
There was no faint glow coming from the magical, crystal tree. All of the Elements were gone, but that wasn’t what was groundbreaking to her.
The Tree of Harmony itself was gone.
She pondered as she slowly walked to the Castle of the Two Sisters, would it be even better for her plans if the tree was gone? She still needed a place of great power, and the most obvious choice would be to start the eternal night there. Even though it had been destroyed quite a bit when she had tried to get rid of the remaining princess of Equestria, Celestia, it was still a place of great power. There would be enough power to amplify her magic to allow her to have the same abilities she had when controlling Princess Luna. She imagined how much power she would have when she took one of the princesses as her host.
She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw that a crystal treehouse had emerged in the castle ruins. It was very clearly the same crystal that the Tree of Harmony was made out of. Then she heard voices coming from inside.
“When do y’all think they’ll get here?” Came a voice that sounded to be rather young, it also had a certain country accent that reminded her of somepony, but she couldn’t place it.
“I hope it’s soon! I can hardly wait another minute! This is going to be the most awesome Nightmare Night party ever!” A rather energetic, yet also young, voice sounded.
“Nightmare Night Eve party Scoots. Don’t worry, the School of Friendship lets out in another 30 sum minutes, then everycreature will be rushing over,” A third voice squeaked.
She knew she recognized that voice, and she was confused why these ponies said everycreature instead of everypony, who were they inviting? Yaks? Griffons? Neither of those options sounded great for a party. None of that mattered now, it was the perfect time to test her powers. Most of Ponyville was wary of the Everfree Forest even more than usual because of her tampering. No pony in their right mind would have let three fillies into the Everfree let alone this deep. That could have only meant they snuck off, how perfect.
She quickly approached the door, and burst through it. She immediately recognized a white filly with emerald eyes and a pink and purple mane. The pony in front of her was none other than the Element of Generosity’s sister, she couldn’t remember the filly’s name.
The filly crouched down, ears folded back, a look of pure terror on her face. Sweetie Belle couldn’t begin to imagine why she was back. Apple Bloom took a protective stance next to Sweetie, and Scootaloo neared closer to them eyes wide.
Nightmare began to laugh, she would not only use the spell she’d been dying to for weeks, but would also get her revenge on this pony for weakening her hold on Rarity.
Nightmare charged up the spell, and fired it upon Sweetie Belle. She left before her target had been hit to prepare the next part of her plan without getting caught. These little ponies would soon learn what would happen if anypony defied her.
~~~
The blast had been powerful enough to knock all three crusaders out of the treehouse, not very hard considering they were standing next to an open window. Scootaloo screamed as she felt a burning pain throughout her body. She could feel a horn sprouting, and her stomach twisted. Her wings felt like they were being pulled far enough to reach her cutie mark. ‘Maybe I’ll be able to fly now,’ she thought as her muzzle seemed to sharpen. She could hardly tell what else was happening, but she thought she could hear screaming through her now burning ears.
Finally, the pain faded away, and Scootaloo carefully got up and opened her eyes. Sweetie was rubbing her eyes and Apple Bloom was laying on her side, facing away from Scootaloo. “Sweetie, snap out of it! Apple Bloom needs our help!” She shouted, racing past Sweetie Belle over to Apple Bloom. Scootaloo wasn’t actually sure if Apple Bloom needed help, or if she was even hurt at all, but it did make Sweetie follow her. “Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo nudged her friend.
“Huh?” Apple Bloom stirred, rubbing her eyes.
Sweetie Belle noticed something once she reached them, the normally pale yellow filly was much darker in color, whilst her mane and tail were more pale. Her bow didn’t seem to change, probably because it wasn’t alive. It also appeared that she was soaking in the sunlight, though nopony would be able to tell unless they were skilled in magic, which Sweetie wasn’t but that hardly made a difference. It was almost as if her vision was better than it used to be, much better. Scootaloo meanwhile, was most definitely a changeling. Sweetie Belle had seen Ocellus before, she was coming to their party, so she knew the difference between an evil changeling and a reformed one. Scootaloo was definitely a reformed changeling, but she still had her cutie mark. Apple Bloom had hers too, Sweetie turned to check her own flank and let out a sigh of relief.
Apple Bloom lifted her head up, rubbing one eye with her hoof. Scootaloo froze in place, and Sweetie continued trying to figure out what had happened to Apple Bloom. “What Scoots?” She put her hoof down, revealing her other eye.
Scootaloo took a tentative step back, “Aa-apple Bloom?” Apple Bloom stared at her quizzically, “Why are, are your eyes, red?” Apple Bloom’s eyes were a black with deep reddish orange glowing in them.
“What?” Apple Bloom whispered.
“Why are you a changeling?” Sweetie countered, confused by both of them.
Scootaloo stopped and looked at in shock Sweetie, before examining herself. “I think we might need a mirror.” The trio looked at themselves in the crystal’s reflection. “I do look like a changeling,” Scootaloo remarked, “WAIT! Can I fly now?” She screeched, clearly excited at the prospect of flying. She tried, but it was quite clear that changeling wings were more like a bug’s than a bird’s. However, Scootaloo had always only been able to use her wings like that of a hummingbird, so she made it a few feet in the air before slowly coming back down. “That was AWESOME! I can fly!”
Scootaloo was overjoyed, and the other crusaders cheered for her before settling down and focusing on Apple Bloom because Sweetie couldn’t find anything that had changed about herself and Scootaloo was still unnerved by Apple Bloom’s eyes.
“Wait, shouldn’t the Young Six get here soon?” Sweetie prompted. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom exchanged a worried glance, neither of them looked like their normal selves. Scootaloo focused really hard, hoping that would cause her to change back into a pony somehow. It seemed to work, and Scootaloo once again looked like her normal self.
“What about me?” Apple Bloom breathed heavily, she definitely didn’t look like a normal pony. “What can Ah do?”
“Calm down Bloom,” Sweetie said, grabbing Apple Bloom’s shoulders to force her to look directly at Sweetie.
“We’ll figure this out together!” Scootaloo reassured her, putting her head in between them before stretching out her arms so they were all in the circle together. “You’re pretty cold Bloom,” she said once her foreleg had touched Apple Bloom’s.
“Really?” Sweetie asked, completely oblivious to the temperature difference between Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. She received two questioning stares.
Shortly thereafter, the crusaders could hear Yona’s hooves approaching them. They had relocated inside the treehouse, unsure of what they were going to say about Apple Bloom’s appearance. “Nightmare Night costume?” Sweetie suggested.
“Yeah, we’ll go with that,” Apple Bloom replied. The trio got ready to jump out from behind a table. The tell-tale sound of hooves, claws, paws, along with their chatter told the CMC to jump out in 20 seconds. They looked at each other, each mentally counting down the same time in unison. All at once the trio jumped into the air and yelled, “SURPRISE! Nightmare Night Party!” This would be the Young Six’s second Nightmare Night party, though this one was the night before.
Gallus launched himself into the air in surprise, Ocellus changed herself into a mouse, Smolder chuckled at Gallus’ surprised flight, Edith sprang off of Silverstream and almost froze Yona, but ended up turning Sandbar to stone instead, and Silverstream had hardly noticed as she was bursted with delight.
“Definitely, uh, surprising,” Gallus huffed, smoothing his feathers and trying to hide his embarrassment, Smolder’s grin grew even wider.
“Silverstream, Yona thinks you tell Edith to help Sandbar,” Yona said. Edith turned back Sandbar before Silverstream could reply. He hardly seemed phased.
“Good girl,” Silverstream stroked Edith under her chin. The Crusaders weren’t expecting that to be their immediate concern. Apple Bloom stared at her reflection in the crystal as the others nervously glanced over. Apple Bloom looked completely normal, her eyes were their usual orange, and her coat was back to being pale with her mane having darkened.
“Wha-” Apple Bloom stuttered before Scootaloo cut her off.
“This party is gonna be awesome!” She shouted.
“Yona happy to party with best friends!” Yona cheered.
Ocellus morphed back, “That does sound rather fun.”
“Well what are we waiting for?” Smolder joined in, her loud raspy voice being a strange shift from Ocellus’ quiet and soft one.
“Let’s get this party started!” Pinkie Pie shouted, floating up to one of the windows with several balloons tied around her waist. No creature decided to question this, it was actually quite normal for Pinkie to conveniently appear when a party was mentioned several times in a couple of minutes. Pinkie then set several trays of various deserts out on the table before zooming away, “Sorry I can’t stay, I gotta help Mayor Mare set up for Nightmare Night tomorrow! Cheese Sandwich is going to be helping me!” She giggled in a singsong voice, within mere seconds the mare was out of sight.
“We didn’t plan that,” Sweetie Belle said.
“No creature can ever plan where Pinkie may be,” Sandbar calmly chuckled. Smolder hungrily eyed the open box of a dozen gemstone cupcakes that Pinkie had brought. Gallus took a Griffon Scone that definitely had baking soda, it was clearly made by none other than Gilda, but there shouldn’t have been any possible way to get to Griffonstone and back in time to keep the scones still warm. Against all logical sense the scone was still indeed warm,
The crusaders had calmed down since there seemed to be no way for the Young Six to see whatever Apple Bloom had become. This made explaining how Apple Bloom looked much easier, there was no need to. The question of ‘how’ was lingering in the back of their minds, but they put it off and joined in the fun.
Everycreature was having a blast, currently they were doing a small game of charades with Nightmare Night being the theme. It was Yona’s turn, she pretended to howl, taking the common posture that would depict a wolf.
“Timberwolf!” Apple Bloom shouted, Yona shook her head, then raised her forelegs in the air. She tried to balance on her hind hooves, but toppled over within seconds.
“Nightmare Moon?” Smolder guessed, but Yona gave a small shake of her head.
“Statue,” Edith clucked, only being understood by Silverstream, Ocellus, and, strangely enough, Scootaloo. Ocellus opened her mouth to translate what Edith had said, as she had been doing during the entire game.
“Edi-”
“I GUESS MOON!” Silverstream excitedly shouted overtop of the quiet changeling.
“Yes, Yona’s word was moon,” Yona declared, causing Silverstream to practically explode with happiness.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders left the game, everycreature was enjoying it so much that they wouldn’t notice the fillies leave. “So what Ah wanna know is what the hay’s going on with me?” Apple Bloom basically voiced all of their thoughts. “Ah mean, everything goes back to normal when Ah get scared about any creature seeing me like Ah was?”
“I don’t think so,” Sweetie Belle whispered. “Earlier when you looked, different,” she hesitated, “you almost seemed to be soaking in a small amount of sunlight.”
“Then you turned back to normal to stay safe,” Scootaloo assumed.
“Okay, Ah guess that makes sense,” Apple Bloom said. “It would be kinda like an instinct.”
“Yeah, probably,” Scootaloo stated.
The trio went back to the Nightmare Night activities until it started to get late. The sun had gone down only a few minutes before the group decided to play the ultimate game of Capture the Flag. The only rules against magic were that it couldn’t be harmful, or turn a creature into stone.
The teams were Yona, Sandbar, Silverstream, Edith, and Sweetie Belle with the green flag; and Smolder, Gallus, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, and Ocellus with the blue flag. The game was taking place right outside the treehouse, close enough to it that most of the creatures in the Everfree Forest would stay away.
“Go!” Yona shouted, not caring for a countdown. Apple Bloom watched as Ocellus disguised herself as Silverstream and rushed over to grab the flag. Edith quickly got confused, Sandbar and Yona focused on which Silverstream was real, and both Silverstreams were either trying to tag each other or run away. Bloom snuck over to the flag, hoping that Ocellus was providing enough of a distraction.
“Not so fast!” Sweetie’s voice squeaked as she pinned her to the ground, Apple Bloom wasn’t near the flag yet, and she had moved too far away from the line to easily be spotted by her team. “Now you have to wait for somecreature to rescue you.” Sweetie let go, Apple Bloom saw her freeze as fear showed on her face.
“Sweetie, ya good?”
“Bloom, your eyes, they’re turning red!” Sweetie exclaimed in a hushed tone. The whites of Apple Bloom’s eyes had started to darken, along with her irises, whilst her pupils began to shine a bright reddish orange. Her coat was growing darker, and her mane and tail seemed more ragged and paler. “It must be because you only stored up a little bit of sunlight before transforming, and now the sun is down. We gotta get you out of here.”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders Secret Guardians?” Apple Bloom asked, smiling knowingly.