//------------------------------//
// Chapter Eight 
// Story: Shifted Crusaders 
// by Poisonberry 
//------------------------------//

The door swung open, revealing a terrified looking Rarity. “Sweetie Belle?” Her voice wavered as she tried to hide her fearful expression. 
“Rarity?” Sweetie Belle looked at Rarity, wondering what had made her look so terrified. 
“I just want to know if you’re okay, darling,” Rarity said, breathing heavily. 
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Sweetie asked. 
“It’s just,” Rarity paused, “a few things, would you mind joining me in the hallway, darling?” Rarity uttered. 
“Okay,” Sweetie agreed as she got up and walked over to Rarity. “I’ll be back in just a minute,” she said as Rarity shut the door behind them. 

“What do you think that was all about?” Silverstream asked. 
“Who knows?” Gallus replied. 
“I’ll bet that Rarity’s been worried ‘bout Sweetie,” Apple Bloom guessed. 
“That makes sense, she’s probably been busy and drained that she didn’t realize something was wrong before. Both she and Sweetie know that, so Sweetie might not have wanted to distract her,” Ocellus added. 

“She always has been kinda overprotective, in a weird way. It makes m-, augh!” Scootaloo screamed, as a sharp pain shot through her head. She collapsed on the ground as the stabbing sensation became more painful. She heard muffled voices gasping around her. 
 It makes me feel sad sometimes… 

Scootaloo opened her eyes, but everything was blurry. She moved her hoof to her head as pain rushed through her skull. She struggled as she felt darkness threatening to overtake her. Even more pain overwhelmed her, and her sight gave out almost completely. Everything blurred together, and she reluctantly submitted to the darkness. 


	~~~


“Sweetie Belle, darling. I have to know, are you okay?” Rarity asked, fearing her sister’s answer. 
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Sweetie asked. 
“Um, well, you see darling, I keep hearing this dreadful clicking sound. It won’t stop, and the first time I heard it was when you were possessed,” Rarity replied. 
Sweetie froze. “Did you say, clicking?” 
“Yes, is there something wrong with that?” Rarity started to panic. 
“Everycreature just started talking about a clicking, and we started listening to it. It wouldn’t stop. 
“What is this clicking, we have to find out where it’s coming from! Who knows what it actually is?” Rarity decided. 
“I’m not sure what it is,” Sweetie revealed. 

A sudden scream along with multiple gaspssounded from the other side of the door, and it burst open. “Scootaloo just passed out!” Smolder informed them. 
“Yona think Scootaloo in pain!” Yona shouted from right behind her. 
“What?” Rarity ran into the room, the fear that she had just let go of came rushing back. 

She examined Scootaloo, checking that she had a pulse and was breathing. Rarity let out a small relieved sigh, Scootaloo seemed to be fine. She looked over her for any signs of injury, but she didn’t find any. “Scootaloo seems fine right now; I would like to know what happened.” 
“It all happened so fast! We were talking about how you and Sweetie were getting along,” Silverstream started. 
“Then Scootaloo said how you had always been overprotective in a weird way, and she said that, it makes?” Sandbar informed her. 
“After that she screamed, fell on the floor, and struggled to get up for a few seconds,” Gallus finished. 
“Do you guys think it was a magic spell?” Smolder asked. 
The clicking seemed to grow louder, causing the fear to rise even more. 

“I, think, I feel, funny,” Sweetie Belle whispered, breaking the eerie silence as she fell to the floor. 
“Sweetie?” Apple Bloom questioned. 


	~~~


Every second, something changed. A shadow continued to spread. It wouldn’t stop growing, it didn’t want to, but she knew it had no feelings. Why was it looming over her? She didn’t want to open her eyes. What would she see? What had been changed? 
Again, over and over, it was a never ending cycle of changing. 


	~~~


Shocked gasps echoed around the room as Sweetie Belle fell. “What’s going on?” Silverstream panicked. 
“It could be a magical connection,” Ocellus suggested. 
“What’s that?” Smolder asked. 
“Well, certain individuals may have special magic connections to other individuals. So, a magical link between Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle could have caused Sweetie to pass out if whatever caused Scootaloo to pass out is magical,” Ocellus informed them. 
“So what if it’s a magical connection, how do we help them?” Gallus asked. 
“The safest way for us to help could be to finish the connection, that would end it.” 

“So ya want me to go to sleep?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“Yes,” Ocellus said. 
“There’s a good chance that’ll work,” Sandbar said. 
“Chance to save friends!” Yona shouted. 
“Okay, I’ll try,” Apple Bloom laid down, wrapped her tail around her, and waited for sleep. 
“Be careful, we don’t know what they’re experiencing,” Ocellus warned. 

The seconds went by too fast, a breath or a blink, and everything was gone. Everything twisting, eager to cause suffering. They were eager to cause suffering, she didn’t want that. She knew it was hiding, she was hiding. She knew she would never stop hiding it. 


	~~~


She could see clearly, it felt so different. Everything looked closer to normal, changes still there, but much less noticeable. It felt amazing. 
 She felt…  


	~~~


Apple Bloom opened her eyes, squinting into the bright misty void that seemed to surround her. “Apple Bloom!” A voice squeaked behind her. She turned around, with surprisingly little effort. A familiar filly stood there, inches away from her muzzle. Her ruffled coat was white and her purple and pink mane looked slightly messy. A familiar orange pegasus stood next to her, she had a maroon mane and purple eyes. 
“Girls!” Apple Bloom jumped, “I just saw you both pass out.” 
“Yeah, that felt so weird. I thought I was dying,” Scootaloo said. 
“I felt weird too!” Sweetie giggled. 
“Yeah, well, mine was painful.” 
“You’re bragging about your pain?” Sweetie questioned, amusement sparkling in her eyes. 
“Yes I am, miss I won’t stop laughing!” Scootaloo boasted. 
“Girls?” Apple Bloom said. 
“I can’t help it!” Sweetie giggled. 
“Girls?” 
“What is it, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked. 
“Do either of you know why we’re here?” 
“To figure out everything we can!” Sweetie exclaimed. 
“That works for me, let’s go!” Scootaloo said. 
“I guess we don’t have much else to go on,” Apple Bloom sighed. They followed Sweetie as she jumped through the mist, dispersing it easily. 

They kept walking, endless void seeming to only expand around them. “Sweetie Belle, do you know where we’re going?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“It feels, right,” she replied, losing her tone of humor. 
“Well, I guess there isn’t any better choice,” Scootaloo groaned, a slight bit of annoyance creeping into her voice. 
They continued walking until Sweetie suddenly stopped. She lit up her horn, trying to find the source of the strange, feeling. 
“Sweetie, your eyes aren’t glowing,” Scootaloo informed her. 
“Huh?” Sweetie looked at her, horn still alight, “they aren’t?” 
“No, wait. Do you think this means we’re back to normal?” Apple Bloom asked. Scootaloo changed in response, “It doesn’t look like it.” She glanced back at her wings, they looked like a changeling’s, but feathers lined the edge. “At least not fully,” she remarked, confusion flooding her. 
“Well that’s okay! There’s a trapdoor right here!” Sweetie squeaked, grabbing it in a magical flame, pulling it open. 
“Wha- why? This doesn’t make any sense,” Apple Bloom exclaimed. 
“Maybe it’s not supposed to?” Sweetie replied. 
“What else are we gonna do? There isn’t anything else here,” Scootaloo asked, changing back. 
“Come on!” Sweetie laughed, jumping down the hole. 
“Okay,” Apple Bloom sighed, climbing down. Scootaloo followed right behind her. Sweetie illuminated the room with her magic. 

The room they stood in was littered with papers and a few open books. “Do you girls think that Twilight used to live here?” Scootaloo asked. 
“Either her or one of the other bookworms we know,” Apple Bloom responded. Sweetie read one of the papers. 
‘Run, run, run, they’ll run after you.’ 
“Hey, girls, come look at this,” Sweetie said. 
“What is it?” Scootaloo asked, Apple Bloom right behind her, Sweetie pointed her hoof towards the paper. 
“Who do you think wrote this?” Apple Bloom questioned. 
“It looks like whoever they were, they were trying to hunt somepony down,” Sweetie Belle mentioned. 
“But who? Who can’t run?” Scootaloo asked. 
“Maybe it’s hidden somewhere in here.” Apple Bloom waved her hoof at the scattered papers. 
“Okay, let’s look,” Sweetie squeaked. They read the papers out loud, one at a time, still none of them making any sense. 
“Run now.” 
“Why? What happened?” 
“We’ll never leave your side! You should know that!” 
“Come on, we’ll help you with whatever it is.” 
“Come back!” 
“We won’t let you!” 
“STOP!” 
(I can’t.)
“You, what?” 
“NO!” 
“No!” 
“We won’t stop, you wanted this.” 
“I didn’t… are hurting… I’ll stop… you myself. No matter what… die.” 

“That one sounded different,” Scootaloo said. 
“It has a lot of stuff scribbled out, I read what I could make out,” Sweetie replied. 
“None of these make any sense,” Apple Bloom complained. 
“Maybe we should look somewhere else?” Scootaloo suggested. 
“Where?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“How about in there?” Sweetie Belle pointed towards a door that hung on only one hinge. A faint grey light throbbed inside it. 
“When did that get there?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“When did the broken mirror get there?” Scootaloo asked. 
“Broken mirror?” Apple Bloom questioned. She looked at Scootaloo, who was examining a shattered mirror a little ways away. 
“Apple Bloom, you shouldn’t be worrying so much,” Sweetie Belle said, now in front of Apple Bloom. 
“When did you get in front of me?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“Just now, I told you that you shouldn’t be worrying,” Sweetie replied, giving her a quizzical stare. 


	~~~


The pain came back, but it wasn’t much. Just a little stinging, she wondered why. She decided she had to look. The flames danced around her, and the stinging seemed to calm. Something was changing, something inside of her.