The Crusaders of Justice

by WezzaHD

The Shining Eclipse

He panted, he barely had enough energy left. The Everfree had taken its toll on him, but Equestria's deadliest forest was the least of his thoughts. He had just lost his brother, the only one close to him. He had almost died, himself. He himself had escaped relatively unscathed, save for the dozens of bruises he had. Tears fell to the ground. He slowly got up, looking at the slight limp in his left hind leg.

He looked around, he wasn't in the Everfree, but there was still a lot of trees. He dragged himself to the nearest tree, to escape from the heat of the sun. He looked up, there were apples hanging on the branches. He stretched his hoof out, but they were too far away. He noticed that there was a large basket of them on the other side, and went for them instead. He got one out of the basket, and took a few bites out of one.

But it didn't last long, as he felt himself losing consciousness. Everything was going dark, and as he passed out, Dark Runner could hear a pony shouting at him, they sounded angry.

---

Applebloom returned home from buying nails at the hardware store. She walked inside and saw a stranger lying on the sofa.

She looked at him, He was unconscious. He was a tall and slightly skinny pegasus that had a coat of a very dark shade of grey, fairly close to black. His mane was silver but with a maroon stripe, while his entire tail was that same shade of maroon. He wore a black hoodie and there were some saddlebags on the side which she guessed were his.

"Found 'im in the acres while y'all were gone." Applejack came up behind her. "First ah thought he was just tryin' to steal an apple or two. Then ah saw he was barely awake, and brought him in."

"Who is he?" Applebloom asked her sister

"We'll ask 'im that when he wakes up." was Applejack's reply. The Pegasus in question groaned.

"Which, ah guess is right now." she looked at him, his eyes were slowly opening.

"Are ya alright?" Applebloom stared at him. His eyes suddenly shot open

"NIGHT!" The pegasus jumped up and kicked his hind legs out, hitting Applejack in the face. He tried to jump up, but was held down by Applebloom.

"Hold on, calm down!" she reasoned. "You're hurt." He stared at her, then made a certain face, as if he had just remembered something. He clutched his stomach, and laid back down on the sofa.

"Sorry, I just..." he seemed to trail off, and stared as Applejack got back up.

"Uh, you okay?"

"Yeah, ah just got kicked in the face!" she glared at him accusingly.

"Oh, uh, sorry."

---

A pony in a hat and large coat was waiting by a street in Ponyville. She stood there as ponies walked by, occasionally staring at her, due to her attire. Eventually, a chariot pulled up in front of it, and she entered.

In it, there was a large gruff beige stallion on the left, a grey mare wearing glasses on the right, with famous businessmare Diamond Tiara in the middle.

"Thank you for meeting us here, I do appreciate it." Diamond greeted the mare.

"It was my pleasure."The mare in the coat replied. "After all, how could I refuse a client with a status as yours?"

"Indeed" Diamond smiled "Well, anyways, I'm doing a bit of excavation, and I need you for a bit of... guard duty."

"Guard duty?"

"Yes, I often encounter some... intruders that seem to be too much for my guards to handle." She looked at the stallion, who grunted in frustration.

"And you want me to take care of these intruders?"

"Exactly"

"I can do that." The mare smiled, she took off her hat and coat. She was a dark red unicorn with glowing green eyes and a grin on her face.

"Um, why do you wear the coat and hat?" Silver Spoon asked "With your abilities in mind, it is quite odd."

"Be quiet, Silver." Diamond ordered. "Sorry, she knows I don't pay her to speak her mind." Silver glared at her boss

"It's fine, it simply makes me feel safer in the daytime, I can be quite paranoid."

"Understandable." Diamond replied.

"Now, about those intruders..."

---

"Here ya are." Applejack gave him his dinner; a simple plate of hay

"Thanks" Shining Eclipse simply replied; he was very silent.

"So, where are ya from, Shinin' Eclipse?"

"Very far away, I doubt you would've heard of it."

"Uh, okay?"

"Do ya have a family?"

"..."

"Oh, ah'm so sorry."

"It's fine, I just don't like to talk about it; it was pretty recent." there was a silence at the table.

---

He was dragging his brother through the Everfree Forest. He ached all over, but ignored it.

"Don't worry, Night we'll find somepony to fix you up" he said reassuringly. Though not sure who he would find in the Everfree. What he did find, was a hut... in the most dangerous forest for Equestria. He had heard somepony lived in the forest, but he didn't believe it. He might've been shocked if not for the circumstances. He had also heard that they were gifted in medicine, or something like that.

He knocked on the door. Shining got quite frantic as he heard noises in the distance. The door opened and out stepped an odd made with a coat covered in black and White stripes.

"Hello there, young Pegasus stranger, why are you here in this forest filled with danger?"

"Um, hello, my brother here is badly hurt and I heard that there was a pony in the Everfree that might be able to help." she looked at him and Night Runner, his unconscious brother, because that's all he was; unconscious. When she looked at Night, she had a frown.

"I am fairly skilled in medicine you see, I'll try to help, just give him to me." he reluctantly took Night off his soldiers and put him on a table next to her. She looked at his wound, her eyes widened at it for a moment, but she regained her cool and got a took some bandages out. She wrapped them around Night Runner's Torso and got a book out, it appeared to be something on the different species that lived in Equestria. He watched her inspect the chest, and put her head on Night's torso, a little away from where the wound was.

"I am truly sorry to say this to you, but he's already dead, there's nothing I can do" Shining Eclipse stood there, completely still. The look of surprise quickly turned to anger as he grabbed what he refused to believe was his brother's corpse and ran out of the door. He had no idea where he was going, but he would find it out of this forest. He rushed through some trees, going left to right when he began to smell something odd. He ignored the smell and focused on getting Night Runner out of here and saw five timberwolves, but they also saw him.

He ran, ran as fast as he could from the wooden beasts, that were snapping their jaws at him. He was carrying his brother, and was tired from running, and only got a short rest at that zebra's house. He looked behind him; the wolves were slowly catching up. He really needed to get out, but how could he when he didn't even know where out was? What was worse, was one was right behind him. His back suddenly felt a lot better, and the scent of the timberwolves was fading. He slowed down and quickly looked behind him and there were no timberwolves, but also no Night Runner on his back. His eyes widened, as he realised what heppened.

"NIGHT?" he called out, with no answer. He shouted out again, only to be met with complete silence. He didn't know how long he stood there but he didn't care, he was all alone in the forest.

---

(Night- time)

The three jumped from building to building, in the night as always. They went to the digging site and saw them all using machines to dig through the ground. They got closer, and saw that Hard Hitter was operating one of them, while grumbling to himself.

"Stupid Diamond, getting somepony else to do MY job, and a unicorn no less?!"

The three couldn't hear him from a distance, so they decided to get in closer and hid behind some of the leftover gear Diamond's 'staff' had lying around. As they got nearer, they heard something.

"Hey, does anypony hear something?" Sweetie Belle asked

"Ah hear it, too."

"Where's that coming from?" They each looked around for any danger, but saw nothing. They stood still until the hissing stopped. They calmed down, but weren't prepared for something hitting Sweetie in the face.

They ran over to her, but there was nothing there. It was gone quicker than it was striking. Applebloom and Scootaloo were immediately on guard, looking around for anything moving and hostile. Their eyes quickly darted left, and right. Scootaloo Jumped back when she saw Sweetie Belle, up and perfectly fine.

"Oh, you startled me there for a se-" she was interrupted when her friends hoof slammed into her jaw.

"What the hell, Sweetie?" She said as she bounced back up only for her friend to come at her again. This time, she was able to block it. Sweetie attacked once again, with an array of punches standing on her hind legs. Scootaloo barely dodged them and flew back to get some distance between them. Unfortunately, her friend would not let up and ran towards Scootaloo. Before she got there, she was tackled by Applebloom.

"What's gotten into ya?" Applebloom pinned her friend to the ground. Sweetie hissed and bit her friend.

"Augh!" Applebloom jumped off her friend. The hoof that was bitten was bleeding. Sweetie advanced on her friend, going in for another attack, but was hit in the face by... herself. Somehow, she was on the ground, but right next to her was also her. The Sweetie Belle not on the ground turned to Scootaloo, who was looking back and forth between the two duplicates.

"That's not me, girls! Get her!" Scootaloo took what her real friend said into account and flew for the imposter. She was sure she'd land a blow at the speed she was going, but the false Sweetie Belle moved out of the way quickly. Applebloom ran to attack but the importer once again dodged. As she continued to attempt strikes, she felt herself getting slower; as if she was stiffening.

Sweetie Belle noticed Applebloom was having some trouble and started to shoot some magic at the imposter. Eventually, one hit and the disguise broke, and the true face of their attacker was revealed.

"A changeling!" Sweetie Belle was the first to see it. A dark red changeling with green eyes, a horn and some wings.

"My turn!" She shot a last of magic from her horn, but Sweetie jumped out of the way. She fired more shots, which Sweetie continued to avoid.

Applebloom tried to catch her by surprise while she was focused on Sweetie Belle, but once again found herself getting slower and slower. She was going to hit the attacker, but found herself stopping in her tracks. "C'mon, MOVE!" She thought to herself as she fell over helplessly while her friends continued to fight.

"Bloom!" Scootaloo noticed her first.

"Must be something to do with that bite." Sweetie inferred, then pointed at the changeling. "What are you, some kind of assassin?" she chuckled in response.

"THE Assassin to you, my darlings." Sweetie Belle ran for Applebloom, while Scootaloo distracted The Assassin.

"Run, Scoots!" Sweetie shouted and Scootaloo flew up, and they made a tactical retreat. While running back, Sweetie Belle noticed somepony watching them on a building; it looked like there was a black pony with red eyes that were following them. He was most likely also with Tiara, maybe even another changeling. This made the two trot more quickly.

---

They rested Applebloom down on her bed, hoping nopony would notice that she was unconscious. They thought for a moment, then decided against leaving her there, an decided to take her down to her potion lab, so nopony would notice if she was missing, and they'd leave a note outside her room and it told nopony to disturb. It also allowed them to use her stuff to see if they could help her. They got out some of her potion books to see of there was something on potions and remedies for blackouts or paralysis, but it didn't help that they knew little to nothing about changelings.

They kept looking until Scootaloo let out a huge yawn, and they realized how tired they were, so they went to sleep so they could figure out what was wrong with their friend with full energy. They dosed off on the floor, still not wanting to leave Applebloom.

The sun was shining from the small window at the top of the wall in the basement as the three woke up.

"Ugh, what in Tarnation happened to us last night?" Applebloom asked.

"We failed, Applebloom. They got us by surprise and they bit you and you... fell unconscious." Scootaloo trailed off. Her friend had been bitten, but was awake now, perfectly fine like nothing happened.

"Wait, which one of ya found the cure for me? Ah don't even have any books on changlings. How long has it been, again?"

"It's just been eight hours, Bloom."

"Does changeling poison last that long?" She looked at her potion- making equipment, it had been used very recently. There was a knock on the door just as she began to think.

"Applebloom?" it was her guest "Everything alright in there?"

"Thanks for the concern Eclipse, but everything's fine." Applebloom replied.

"Okay, well your sister told me to tell you that breakfast is nearly ready."

"Ah'll be up in a minute!" There was no reply, which meant Eclipse had left and was probably downstairs.

"Y'all should probably go, ah doubt ya told everypony that you're here, if ya came back in the middle of the night."

"Sure." Scootaloo replied, and she and Sweetie left after they took of their costumes off. They left and Applebloom went for breakfast. Her family and Shinin' Eclipse were at the table.

"Are you sure you're okay, Applebloom?" Eclipse asked again.

"Ah said ah'm fine, ah appreciate the concern but why do ya keep askin'?"

"You just seem a bit... stiff is all."

"Well don't worry about me, worry about where you're going to go."

"Oh, I think I'll stay in Ponyville for a bit, it seems... interesting here."

---

Next Time:

The Crusaders Take Manehatten

Author's Note:

Shining Eclipse belongs to "YOUR M0THER"