//------------------------------//
// Shadowed Sanctuary 
// Story: Shifted Crusaders 
// by Poisonberry 
//------------------------------//

“I s’pose there isn’t any harm in looking inside the room,” Apple Bloom huffed as Sweetie prepared to push the door completely open. Apple Bloom told herself that she was worrying over her friends, not the several things that weren’t making sense. 
The door nearly fell off its remaining hinge as the source of the light was revealed. A full moon about the size of them was glowing brightly in the center of the stone room. Dark blue and purple magic speckled with dim flecks swirled tightly around it. Barely any of the magic was being dragged away by the red and black centaur trying to consume it. 
“Tirek?” Scootaloo shouted, causing Tirek to jump and stop his feast. 
“Chr-, wait, ponies! How did you get herer?” Tirek demanded, towering over them even more than full grown ponies did. 
“We could ask you the same question,” Apple Bloom raised her muzzle up to his. 
“Well, uh,” Tirek stuttered. “Ever since you puny ponies used your friendship magic, we got stuck here,” Tirek huffed, forcing each word out. 
“You mean Chrysalis and Cozy Glow are here too?” Sweetie questioned. 
“Um, no. They were here, but then Cozy vanished. Chrysalis got a little upset and cracked the stone. I’m not really sure how, we had already tried to break it before with all our forces combined. After that this thing appeared,” Tirek informed them, pointing his clawed hand at the moon in the middle of the room. “She told me that something had used some special forbidden changeling magic, and that who ever used it could bring about the end of the world. Then she told me to steal the magic from it,” Tirek explained. 
“Then where is Chrysalis now?” Scootaloo asked. 
“And are you harming that thing?” Sweetie pointed towards the moon. 
Tirek consumed more magic as he muttered, “No, its too much magic, and it replenishes too fast.” Tirek wiped his mouth before continuing, “Chrysalis said that she was trying to guide the changelings so they wouldn’t be wiped out. It was a lot to take in, but I remember she said something about a certain type of changeling magic that only she had access to.” 
“How can y’all leave? I thought ya were stuck in the statue,” Apple Bloom inquired. 
“Oh, we are, did I not mention that Chrysalis cracked the stone?” Tirek snorted. “Then she started looking for other ways to get out, and she hasn’t been back for a while now. Okay, I’ve given my information, I want you to return the favor.” 
“What do you want to know?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“How you ponies got in,” Tirek demanded. 
“We fell asleep and woke up here,” Scootaloo responded. 
“That shouldn’t be possible,” Tirek muttered. 
“There was nothing around until we found th-” Sweetie began. 
“There was a trapdoor!” Scootaloo interrupted her. 
“A trapdoor, where?” Tirek asked. 
“Over here!” Sweetie jumped away, leading through the other room to the trapdoor in the ceiling. Tirek reached up to open it, and eagerly climbed through. 
“This looks like what Chrysalis told me about, an endless cloud.” He dispersed some of the fog, and kneeled down. A blurry image of a throne appeared in the opening, a pink blob seated upon it. “I can’t get it to show me exactly what I want,” he huffed, dispersing the fog again. “I trust now that Chrysalis was right, I need to drain that magic. We must get more powerful if we are ever able to stand a chance at beating this other evil to the throne.” He glanced at the fillies behind him, “I, uh, mean save everycreature.” 
“Uh-huh.” Apple Bloom slowly nodded. 
“I’m serious, I need ponies alive to bow d-, I mean teach me the ways of friendship,” Tirek laughed. 
There was an awkward moment of silence before Scootaloo stepped forward. “So how do we get out of here?” 
“Try singing a song about how good of friends you are,” Tirek joked. 
“I’ll start!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. “The st-.” Tirek covered Sweetie’s mouth, cutting her off. 
“I was being sarcastic," he snorted. 
“We could still try,” Sweetie replied, locking gentle eyes with Tirek. 
“All you ponies have to do is want to leave,” hissed the creature that emerged from the fog. 
“Chrysalis, you’re o-, er, what took you so long?” Tirek asked. 
“Preparing my kingdom for this new threat without direct contact is not the eas-.” 
“Wait just a second, did you say we only had to want tah leave?” Apple Bloom questioned. 
“Yes,” she practically sneered, through no hard feelings were behind it. “You three haven’t been sealed away, you’re just using magic to get here. You can leave anytime you want, and come back to our, delight, whenever you wish,” Chrysalis replied, her voice changing pitch on the word delight. 
“Well then let’s get back!” Scootaloo grabbed both of them and dove into the mist, forcing it to let her leave. The three fillies disappeared, no trace of where they were left behind. 
“So,” Tirek said, leaning forward with a smug smile plastered on his face, “what will you do if you can’t find Cozy?” 


	~~~


“Apple Bloom, hey Apple Bloom?” Apple Bloom opened her eyes, recognizing Smoulder talking to her. 
“Wha?” Apple Bloom yawned. 
“You guys were out for several hours,” Gallus replied. 
“So what did you see?” Silverstream asked. 
“Silverstream, Scootaloo already told us. They went to a void and found something with powerful magic inside,” Ocellus mentioned. 
Apple Bloom was just about to tell them that they had also found Chrysalis and Tirek when Scootaloo called her out into the hallway. “Yona sleep longer,” Yona muttered sleepily at the sound as Apple Bloom left the room. As soon as she was out Scootaloo shut the door. 
“We might have a small issue,” Scootaloo informed her. 
“What? What happened?” 
“Sweetie Belle, might be, somehow, missing,” she whispered under her breath. 
“What? How? Where would she have gone? Why didn’t anyone else say anything? Did you check everywhere? Why can’t I get a break today?” Apple Bloom frantically questioned. 
“I may have lied and said she went to the bathroom,” Scootaloo said. 
“But where would she go?” 
“I don’t know!” Scootaloo replied. 

“Did you check downstairs?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“Yes,” Scootaloo confirmed. 
“How about Rarity’s room?” 
“I looked.” 
“Did you look in the closet?” Apple Bloom questioned. 
“No, I didn’t look in the closet that’s twice as big as her bed,” Scootaloo said sarcastically. 
“Did you try looking under Rarity’s fainting couch?” Sweetie asked. 
“Of course!” 
“Did you try looking in the kitchen?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“Yes, I looked everywhere!” Scootaloo huffed. 
“What are we looking for anyway?” Sweetie Belle asked. 
“Swe- Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom stuttered. 
“Um, yes?” Sweetie responded. 
“We were looking for you,” Scootaloo deadpanned. 
“Why?” Sweetie asked. 
“You weren’t anywhere!” Scootaloo told her. 
“I was right here?” Sweetie replied. 
“Where were you before that?” Scootaloo asked her. 
“I was- I don’t remember,” Sweetie replied. 
“What do ya mean?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“Sweetie stared at her for a moment, eyes piercing through her, before responding. “I do not remember.” Sweetie flicked her left ear as she heard that awful clicking noise again. 
“Great, another mystery, cause we don’t have enough on our plate already,” Scootaloo groaned, heading back into Sweetie’s room. 
“Sorry,” Sweetie sighed as she passed by Apple Bloom, the door half closed behind her. 

“Okay,” Apple Bloom said to herself.” We will figure this all out, because everything is going to make sense. I just need to sleep,” Apple Bloom encouraged herself and turned to the face on the door. 
“Did somepony say ‘make cents’?” Discord asked her, reaching out of the door to show her a bit in his paw. 
“Discord! Why are you here?” Apple Bloom demanded, the last thing she needed was more chaos added to her day. 
“Because, you said make sense, silly!” Pinkie Pie shouted joyfully from a large vase that might’ve not been there before. 
“Of course, I could just be here to check on my most adventurous, mischievous, and kind trio,” Discord replied, snapping his claw to teleport her right next to Silverstream. “I’m rather found of watching your crusades,” Discord continued from the ceiling, sitting at a table with Pinkie Pie. The table had one of their old crusading maps on it, but new options kept appearing until the parchment was a blend of colors. 
“Discord!” Silverstream squealed in delight. 
“Do something funny!” Gallus urged him. 
“No, something awesome!” Scootaloo recommended. 
“Prank Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie added enthusiastically. 
Discord took the paper, folded it in half, and opened it again, revealing a sky blue pegasus. Rainbow Dash was wearing half a suit of royal armor, and she was missing half her body. “What just happened?” Rainbow asked, dashing over to Sweetie’s mirror to examine her lack of hindquarters. 
“We want to see something funny, awesome, and also you getting pranked,” Smolder supplied. 
“Well, this is awesome, like, I’m missing half of my body! So, I think you got all of them,” Dash decided. 
‘Can this make any less sense?’ Apple Bloom thought. 
“I have an idea! Rarity!” Pinkie called. 
“Yes?” Rarity opened the door, and then fainted upon her couch from seeing Dash. She jumped back up within seconds. “Rainbow Dash dear, I do believe your rump has vanished,” Rarity told her before promptly fainting again. 
“I think this armor is worth it!” Rainbow replied. 
“Why, it cost you practically an arm and a leg!” Discord chuckled. Almost everycreature burst out into laughter, leaving Apple Bloom trying to return order. She tried to think, but no creature was letting her solve this, let alone helping her piece everything that had happened together! 
Rarity awoke from the noise, “You are all going to wake up the entire town!” She huffed. 
“Ack! It is already late? I better get going.” Silverstream flew out the door, quickly saying her goodbyes. 
“Oh, I’m afraid she’s right,” Discord pouted, “ we’ll have to resume this discussion another day.” Discord teleported away, fixing Dash and removing the table, leaving Pinkie Pie standing alone on the ceiling. 
“I guess that’s my queue,” Pinkie said, dropping to the ground and jumping out the window. Everycreature said their goodbyes and filed out the door until the crusaders, Rainbow, and Rarity were the only ones left. 
Rarity looked between them for a moment, before glancing back at Sweetie. “If Rainbow allows it, and you fillies don’t get me in trouble with Applejack, you can stay the night with Sweetie.” 
“Don’t go on a late night crusade,” Dash added, gaze penetrating through them. The mares both walked out, but Rainbow quickly turned back. “Unless you invite me of course.” A mischievous glint shone in her eyes as she silently sped off. 

“Okay girls,” Apple Bloom started, hearing the door click, “we need to find out what the hay is going on!” 
“I don’t know Apple Bloom, I’m getting really tired,” Scootaloo said, pulling another one of Sweetie’s spare sleeping bags into her pile. 
“But, what about figuring out how to stop Nightmare?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“We can do that in the morning,” Scootaloo replied, “Sweetie, why do you have so many sleeping bags?” 
“No, I’m busy sleeping,” Sweetie said, her back to Scootaloo. 
“Sweetie Belle!” Apple Bloom protested. “I thought that you would help me, you were so excited when we were in that fog!” 
“Well, I’m not really energetic right now,” Sweetie grumbled. 
“You did seem a lot more like normal in there though,” Scootaloo mumbled, already drifting off to sleep. 
“What is that supposed to mean?” Sweetie asked, but Scootaloo was fast asleep. 
“I guess we’ll have to wait until morning fer her to get up,” Apple Bloom huffed, and laid down, sleep taking over. 


	~~~


Shadows swirled around Apple Bloom, the previously bright cloud had been reduced to a dark grey. A figure on her left darted away, but it was too dark to see who they were. “Wait!” Apple Bloom shouted, charging after it. The figure gave no reply, unwilling to reveal itself. Apple Bloom pushed herself harder, catching up with the figure, a cloak hid it from view. Apple Bloom grabbed the creature’s cloak, yanking the figure down. “Who are you?” Apple Bloom asked, holding the creature down. It was about the size of her, but she wasn’t going to trust that it was her age. 
“Some sort of ghost,” it said in a high-pitched, distorted voice, kicking Apple Bloom off. 
“What do you mean?” Apple Bloom yelled, recovering quickly. She yanked the figure’s cloak again, still not tearing it off. 
“Shattered, because of her,” The figure told Apple Bloom. 
“Who?” Apple Bloom asked. 
“Her, she controls, she clicks, she doesn’t care about anything except herself, except us.” 
“Who is she?” 
“Me,” the figure chorused, the same repeating voice blending together. Apple Bloom reached for the figure’s hood, yanking it off. The cloak fell down in a heap, revealing no creature. “I can't help you yet, Apple Bloom,” the voice whispered. 
“Wait!” Apple Bloom yelled, running in the direction of the sound. “How do you know my name? Who are you? Who is she?” The voice did not reply. 

Apple Bloom stopped. No wind was blowing here, the shadows stretched forever. The air was freezing, and her fur stood on end, but not from the cold. She felt something else coming towards her. A powerful creature, shrouded in the shadow. “Who are you?” Apple Bloom asked, pushing her fear away. 
“I should be asking you, I haven’t seen another wielder of dark magic for, centuries,” the large creature replied in a gruff voice. 
“I’m Apple Bloom, and I can’t wiel’ dark magic,” Apple Bloom replied, confusion filling her. 
“Oh, yes you can, little filly. Here, I’ll teach you,” the silhouette offered. 
“If you want to, I don’t suppose it could hurt,” Apple Bloom reasoned. 
“Just one rule,” the creature slinked around her, putting its face close enough to be seen. “Don’t tell anyone.” 
The creature’s face was one Apple Bloom had seen before, although never this close. She had despised him, though, she supposed, anycreature could change; and she was going to need all the help she could get. “I promise I won’t tell anycreature-” The creature grinned upon hearing its own name.