• Published 24th Apr 2012
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic -- Off The Record - The King of Hearts



A new pony is introduced to Equestria just before the fight with Nightmare Moon in Episode 1. Changing the entire story.

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The Ritual - A Crusader Perspective

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The Ritual – The Crusader Perspective
////

Scootaloo sighed, as she lay upside down on her bed, with her head hanging off the edge.

“I’m bored,” Sweetie groaned.

“Where’s Luna?” Apple Bloom asked, “Ahm’ bored!”

The three had been escorted to Scootaloo’s room, and had run out of things to do.

“I can’t believe that Prince Blueblood!” Sweetie complained, “My sister used to have a big crush on him too!”

“Really?” Scootaloo asked.

“Yeah!” She answered, “I’m glad she never got involved with him.”

“We ought tuh show him who’s boss!” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah!” Sweetie immediately agreed.

“I don’t know guys…” Scootaloo said, surprising her friends.

“What are you talking about?” Sweetie asked, “You’re the first one to play pranks on ponies!”

“I don’t want to get in trouble with Luna…” Scootaloo explained.

“Stop yer worrying!” Apple Bloom laughed, “This guy deserves a bit of good spirited fun!”

Scootaloo thought for a moment, before agreeing.

“Sure,” She said, standing up, “At least it’ll give us something to do!”

////

“Where did ya get this paint Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom asked, pushing a bucket of blue paint ahead of her with her head.

“Don’t worry about the pacifics,” Sweetie Belle mispronounced, sneaking down the hall with her friends.

“Here it is!” Scootaloo said, walking up to the door.

“Is he in there?” Sweetie asked.

“Ah don’t think so,” Apple Bloom said, peeking in the crack under the door.

“Perfect!” Sweetie smiled, “Open the door a little bit!”

Scootaloo complied, and pushed it open a crack big enough for them to enter.

“Now what?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Scootaloo, fly this up!” Sweetie commanded.

“Uh… I can’t fly,” Scootaloo said, “And I DEFINITELY can’t fly with this bucket of paint!”

“Hmm…” She said, looking around the room.

“Hey, Ah know!” Apple Bloom spoke up, “Levitate it up!”

Sweetie frowned, “I don’t think I can…”

“Come on!” Scootaloo pushed, not wanting to get caught red-hoofed.

“Why do I always have to do all the work?” Sweetie grumbled to herself.

Pointing her horn at the bucket, she pushed as hard as she could.

“It’s workin’!” Apple Bloom whispered to Scootaloo.

The bucket shook, as a weak aura surrounded the bucket.

“Be careful…” Scootaloo said, as the bucket lifted off the ground.

It slowly ascended evenly until it reached the top of the door. Then, luckily, it landed on the crack above

without incident.

Sweetie finished the spell, and sighed deeply, “I did it!”

“Great job!” They both said to her.

“Now, we just need to leave, and let him walk into it!” Sweetie giggled.

The three then poked their heads through the crack in the door, looking both ways for guards.

“We’re clear!” Scootaloo said as the three quickly exited his room.

“This is gonna be awesome!” Scootaloo smiled, happy that she had come out after all.

“Do y’all think we’ll get ‘n trouble?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Na,” Sweetie said, “I’m sure Luna will understand.

“Me too,” Scootaloo agreed, “Luna’s so cool!”

“Where are we goin’ next?” Apple Bloom asked, not wanting to go back to the room yet.

“Let’s go… to the Library!” Sweetie said, “I’ll bet it’ll be fun there!”

“Library?” Scootaloo asked, “I didn’t know you were an egg head!”

“It’s the Canterlot library It’s huge!” She countered, “I’ll bet there’s a bunch of books on getting Cutie Marks!”

The two perked up at the sound of that.

“Come on! Let’s go look!”

It didn’t take any more convincing than that.

So, the three headed off toward the Library. However, somepony else was headed there as well.

////

“So… Where are we headin’ boss?” The large red earth pony asked lamely the small brown one next to him.

“Yeah boss!” The other large red earth pony asked, “Where we headin’?

“We’re going to steal a spell in the library!” The small brown unicorn growled, not happy with their volume, “So shut it, you two!”

“Shut what?” One asked loudly.

“Yeah boss!” The other bellowed, “Shut what?”

“Tootsie, Bootsie, be quiet!” The Boss whispered loudly, “I snuck you two in, and here you are giving yourselves
away!”

“Whoops!” Tootsie said, loudly again, before catching himself, and clamping a hoof over his mouth.

“Whoops!” Bootsie whispered.

“Just keep it down, ya’ hear?” The Boss grumbled, “They might still be able to hear us in here!”

The two nodded as they headed to the library, moving through several secret passages that nopony patrolled

“And remember, if somepony shows up, you two hide!” The Boss explained, “I have a reason to be here!”

“Yeah boss!” They said in unison quietly.

“Good!”
////

“Wow!” Scootaloo said, looking up from her scroll, “Look at this one!”

She was in the adventure-fiction section of the Library, and had just found a book about a mare that became a royal knight, but disguised herself as a stallion.

“She sounds so cool!” Sweetie said, “Do you think we could do that?”

“Ah’ reckon ah could!” Apple Bloom said.

“Yeah,” Scootaloo laughed, “You’d make a real good BOY.”

The two giggled at Apple Bloom.

“Hey!” She growled, “Take that back!”

“Nope!” Scootaloo giggled, “Mr. Apple Bloom!”

“Well, at least I’m not a chicken!” Apple Bloom countered.

“She’s right about that!” Sweetie agreed.

“Hey!” Scootaloo said to Sweetie, “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

“Yeah, well—“

“Is this the place, boss?” A voice said from across the room.

The three girls looked to each other, and quickly dove behind a nearby book shelf.

A door across the room slid open, and three ponies entered the Library.

“Who are they?” Scootaloo whispered.

“They don’t look like guards…” Sweetie added.

“Maybe they’re jus’ visitin’!” Apple Bloom offered.

“I don’t know where the spell is…” The small one said, “So look fast! We don’t want to get caught stealing!”

“Stealing?!” The three said together.

“Sure thing boss!” Tootsie nodded.

“Yeah boss!” Bootsie said.

“Good!” He said, “Look in the sectioned off area’s!”

The three went to work as they were silently watched from the corner of the room.

“What do we do?!” Apple Bloom asked desperately, “Should we go get somepony?”

“If we move, they’ll see us!” Scootaloo said, “We have to stay here for now!”

“Can you get us outta here, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom asked, pointing to her horn.

“No…” She sighed, “Alex showed me how to move stuff… But that’s all!”

“Horse apples…” Apple Bloom sighed.

“What if we make a break for it?” Sweetie suggested.

“That guy is a unicorn,” Scootaloo explained, “And those big guys could probably outrun us.”

The other two nodded.

“So what?” Apple Bloom asked.

“We wait for a chance to go get Luna…” Scootaloo said, “We just can’t get caught…”

////

The three girls had been watching the thieves for about a fifteen minutes, but nothing had really changed.

The thieves searched the room, but had had no luck so far. And besides a bit of scolding from the little pony, there hadn’t been any conversation.

“This is soooooo boring,” Sweetie groaned, “Can we just run now?”

“No!” Scootaloo instructed, “We’ll wait as long as we have to.”

"Ah need to sit down!" Apple Bloom sighed, and turned around, then, devastatingly, she sat backward, bumping into the small shelf they hid behind, knocking it right over, sending it crashing to the floor.

“What was that?!” The small unicorn whispered loudly, as him and his body guards approached the source of the noise.

“What is this I see?” He asked, seeing the three fillies.

“Uh… Nothin’?” Apple Bloom offered.

“Yup!” Sweetie laughed nervously, “Nothing at all!”

“Grab ‘em, boys!” The unicorn laughed, “Tie ‘em up!”

“Awww…” The girls groaned in annoyance.

“Shh,” The unicorn said to them, “I wouldn’t want to hurt you for being loud-mouths.”

////

“What should we do with ‘em boss?” Tootsie asked, as he finished tying his first a knot on Scootaloo.

“Yeah boss!” Bootsie agreed, as he finished tying his first knot on Sweetie Belle, “Do you want me to knock ‘em out or sumthin’?”


“Of course not, you wing nut!” The boss growled, “We’re here to find a MEMORY wiping spell, do you get it?”

Neither of them got it.

“It means that we can erase their memories of seeing us!” He explained.

“Oooooh,” Tootsie nodded.

“That sure is a good plan boss!” Bootsie agreed, “You’re sure smart!”

“But before we begin, find out they’re here!” He commanded, “Bootsie! Lean on them!”

Bootsie hadn’t an inkling of an idea as to the meaning of ‘lean on them.’

So, he did the only thing he could think of.

Walking over to Sweetie Belle, he shifted himself, and leaned his weight against her.

“Hey!” She shouted, as he leaned on her, “You’re gonna mess up my coat!”

“That’s not how you lean on them, Bootsie!” Tootsie said, “You do it like this!”

Tootsie pushed Bootsie out of the way, and leaned his head over, so it rested on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder comfortably.

Sweetie blushed madly, as he sighed happily.

“G-get off of me!” She shouted, flailing about, in her restraints.

“Stop it you idiot!” The boss growled, keeping his voice down, “And quit your yelling if you know what’s good for you!”

Sweetie piped down as the big pony stopped snuggling her shoulder.

“I’m the Princesses great Granddaughter, I’ll have you know,” Scootaloo piped up, not being too loud, “She’ll be very angry when she finds out what you’re doing with us!”

“Please,” He rolled his eyes, “You won’t remember anything in a few minutes, when we find the scroll!”

“Yeah!” Bootsie said, “You won’t remember nothin’!”

“Nothin’ at all!” Tootsie added.

“Now let’s get back to work!” The boss said, turning back to the books behind him, “There’s only a few shelves left to check!”

As the three went back to work, Scootaloo looked to Sweetie Belle.

“What should we do?” She asked.

Sweetie Belle was too embarrassed at this point to say anything.

Seeing this, Scootaloo rolled her eyes, “What do you think Apple Bloom?”

Apple Bloom looked back and forth silently. Nopony had seemed to notice that the guards forgot to tie her up.

“Shh…” She said, inching to her friends, “I’m gonna untie y’all.”

The two didn’t answer her; they simply let her do her thing until they were both free. However, they had to get back into position quickly.

“Bootsie!” The boss whispered loudly, “Go keep an eye on the prisoners! I don’t want any surprises.”

“Sure thing boss!” He said, trotting back over to the girls, “I’m watchin’ you… No funny business!”

The three simply smiled, and nodded.

“So…” He said awkwardly, “Nice weather…”

“Sure is!” Scootaloo faked a smiled, nodding rapidly.

“And that local sports team!” Sweetie added.

“For sure!” Bootsie agreed.

Awkward silence…

“I found it!” A voice called from behind them.

Bootsie immediately turned with a big smile on him face, and headed over to his friends, “Nice goin’ Tootsie!”

“What should we do?” Sweetie whispered.

“We need to fight our way out!” Apple Bloom said, “It’s our only hope!”

“I don’t know…” Sweetie said, “I’m not a karate master like you, Apple Bloom!”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo agreed, “But… what else is there?”

Silence filled the area between them.

“Jus’ listen,” Apple Bloom instructed, “Wait for mah’ signal, an’ we take ‘em out!”

The other girls reluctantly nodded, and got back into ‘tied-up’ position.

“Alright, girls,” The boss said, walking over to them, “Who’s ready to have their memory erased?”

“Ah remember y’all so much, Ah could never forget everythin’!” Apple Bloom said.

“Well… it looks like we have a volunteer,” The boss laughed ominously, as he stepped past Sweetie and Scootaloo.

“Are you ready?”

“Uh… No?” She said.

“Too bad!” He laughed evilly, standing up on his hind legs, and pointing his horn at the ceiling, as he recited the passage on the scroll.

Apple Bloom gave a subtle nod to her friends, to which they both gulped.

“Forget what has happened here,” He recited, as Apple Bloom stood up¸ completely missing her behind the scroll levitating in front of him, “And return your memory to a place when—“

“Cutie Mark Crusader Karate Kick!” Apple Bloom shouted, fully expecting her thundering hit to send him flying away. However, instead, she kicked him between the legs in a VERY sensitive spot, if you catch my
drift.

He doubled over in pain, as the other two girls sprang into action.

“Take this!” Sweetie shouted, as a vase she had been levitating fell on Tootie’s head, knocking him out.

Scootaloo jumped up and faced Bootie, “You think she’s good at karate? You should see me!”

The fear in his eyes was immeasurable. His being terrified led immediately to him turning around and running in the other direction. However, when he looked over his shoulder to see if he was being pursued, he
missed the giant pillar in the center of the room. He looked forward just in time to blast his head into the pillar, knocking himself out.

“Yeah!” The three shouted together, “We did it!”

“Nice job girls!” Apple Bloom congratulated, “They’ll think twice before messin’ with us again!”

The three were so involved in their celebrations, that they missed the unicorn putting the scroll in his saddle bag, and booking it for the door of the library.

“Hey!” Sweetie shouted, “Get back here!”

The three ran off after him, slamming the door open as they entered the hallway in pursuit.

“He’s rounding the corner!” Scootaloo shouted, as he turned at the end of the hall.

Quickly catching up, they saw him dive head first into the wall. They expected him to head butt the fall and fall down. But, instead, the wall spun as he ran into a secret passage.
The three didn’t think, and dove into the wall after him.

When he passed the wall, he hadn’t expected the three to follow him. But, instead, he got the three of them flying toward him with forelegs outstretched.

And before he could respond, he was met with the only attack that they knew worked on him.

A Cutie Mark Crusader Karate Kick between the legs… Multiple times.

And, after the three were satisfied, they stopped.

But, he made one last attempt to escape.

“Get him!” Scootaloo shouted, as they all dove on top of him, knocking him back to the ground.

“Girls!” A voice called from behind them… It was Luna and Celestia! “What are you doing with him?”

“He was stealing magic from the library Princess!” Sweetie Belle explained, “But we stopped him!”

“He tried tuh take this!” Apple Bloom said, pulling a scroll out of the stallions saddle bag, and tossing it to Celestia.

Levitating it up, she opened the scroll, and was shocked to see that it was a powerful mind wiping spell.

“He tied us up, and tried to use it on us, when we found out what he was doing!” Scootaloo explained.

“He… what?!” Celestia asked, horrified.

“But we escaped and took care of his thugs!” Sweetie explained happily.

“Pardon…?” Luna asked.

“An’ then we chased him down and captured him!” Apple Bloom finished.

“How did you—“

“And I would have gotten away with it too…” He growled, “If it hadn’t been for you meddling fillies!”

The Princesses were awe struck.

Celestia leaned over and whispered something to Luna.

“I have no idea, sister…” Luna said, “But… we should deal with this for now…”

Celestia nodded, “Girls, please retire to Scootaloo’s room.”

“But we need to make sure he doesn’t escape!” Sweetie squeaked.

“He won’t,” Luna assured, “Just go to bed, we’ll talk in the morning.”

They all reluctantly nodded as they walked past the princesses, out of the secret chamber.

“Wow…” Apple Bloom said as they headed back to their room.

“Guys…” Sweetie said slowly.

“That… Was… Legendary!” Scootaloo shouted, as a group of guards rushed passed them toward the end of the hall.

“We’re like… Heroes!” Apple Bloom beamed.

“Yeah!” Sweetie agreed, “Do you think we got our Cutie Marks in Heroics?”

They all looked at their flanks expectantly, but were disappointed to see nothing.

“Aww…” They said collectively.

“But who knows?” Scootaloo said, “Maybe we’ll find our talents tomorrow!”

“So we should go to bed right now, so we don’t sleep in!” Sweetie Belle agreed.

“What’re we watin’ for?!” Apple Bloom asked quickly, “Let’s get to bed!”

And with that, their night ended. It would be one of the more memorable ones, from the many sleepovers they would have at the castle. Of course… There were many more.

////
?
////

“He failed, he was caught by some… fillies…” He said from safely outside the castle.

“What do you mean ‘fillies?’”

“I mean, three little girls beat the crap out of him and his muscle!” He shouted at his invisible spell, earning some odd looks from the few ponies around him.

“What kind of ponies are we getting ourselves involved with?”

“I don’t know…” He said seriously, “But that doesn’t matter… We don’t NEED the spell, we’ll just do it the old fashioned way.”

“It had BETTER work. You know what’s at stake.”

“Believe me, I know.” He sighed, ending his spell and considering what needed to be changed in his plans.

He just hoped he never encountered those fillies.

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