Shifted Crusaders

by Poisonberry

Chapter Four

“Apple Bloom, you’re finally here! Applejack told me everything she knew,” Starlight greeted them. “I want to run some tests on you, for various reasons. I have to check and make sure it is actually you, you know? Anyway, come on in.” The crusaders complied, unsure of what was about to take place. Starlight led them into a large room with several small tables, books lined the far wall, stretching all the way to a large, circular, stained glass window that showed a tree. Smaller windows with trees wrapped until the purple crystal pillars.

“What do you think she is going to test?” Sweetie Belle whispered to them.

“I don’t know,” Scootaloo whispered back whilst Apple Bloom simply shrugged.

Starlight walked to one of the tables and motioned the crusaders over to her, notably, it was the only table with anything on it. “First off, I want you to revert to your new form,” Starlight commanded, looking directly at Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom let her form change, her coat darkened slightly. Her eyes glowed fiercely with an eerie orangish fire. “Okay, so all I need to do is cast this spell, and that will help me che-”

“Wait!” Scootaloo interrupted her, “we got hit with the spell too!”

“What?” Starlight choked out, clearly not prepared for this.

“Yeah!” Scootaloo replied, and at that moment a purple flame surrounded her as she dropped her disguise. Within seconds an orange changeling also stood in front of her, staring up at her with what seemed to be curiosity and a little bit of pride in her pupil-less eyes.

“Okay, so this was bigger than I thought it was, that’s fine. Sweetie Belle, did anything happen to you?”

“Yeah, I think something happened,” Sweetie replied, eyes on the ground.

Starlight opened her mouth to speak, but just then the door swung open. “Hey Starlight, I got that flower you asked for.” Spike walked into the room carrying a dark red flower in his claws. “Oh. Now I understand why you asked for this,” he said as he saw Apple Bloom.

“That’s a Breathing Veil, like the one Miss Cheerilee showed us earlier today!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed. “Spike, why aren’t you glowing at all?”

“Oh, dragon scales are specialized to protect us from extreme heat, and some minor magic. I would glow if I ate it though,” Spike answered, before giving the Breathing Veil to Starlight.

“Sweetie Belle, are you secretly a dragon?” Scootaloo asked.

“Ah don’t think so, that wouldn’t make much sense,” Apple Bloom replied.

“What if I am?” Sweetie countered.

“Sweetie, I don’t think you’re a dragon, but that’s why we’re here!” Starlight assured them. She then walked over to the table, put the Breathing Veil down, and read something on one of the books. “Okay, this spell might feel a little funny,” Starlight warned them, and then casted a spell. Three images circled above Starlight’s head, they were almost ghostly in appearance.

The images floating above Starlight were cutie marks, but not just any cutie marks. The cutie marks were Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle’s respectively. With a subtle magical pulse the cutie marks flew over to their owners. “What’s that fer?” Apple Bloom asked as her cutie mark landed on her.

“That spell can be used to find anycreature, so long as you search using a special connection. I used your cutie marks because they are specifically connected to you three, and through them they connect you to each other,” Starlight answered. “Now, before we start the testing, is there anything else you three can tell me?”

“Do you wanna hear the whole story?” Scootaloo asked.

Starlight’s horn lit up, and with a small flash five buckets of popcorn appeared in her magical grasp. “Yes, yes I do.”

~~~

The crusaders told everything that had happened to Starlight, but Starlight felt like something was missing. It just didn’t all add up, Sweetie Belle fearing for hurting anycreature who was near her when her eyes turned yellow. The fog that had appeared both times Sweetie had saved somepony, yet she still feared herself hurting them and wouldn’t talk to Starlight about her transformation. How much Sweetie Belle seemed to stare at her hooves when they were talking about the transformations. That she hadn’t apparently glowed any color when touching the Breathing Veil, Starlight was going to double check that for sure. When they were first changed by the spell, Apple Bloom was the only one that didn’t scream, but she was also knocked unconscious, and, according to Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle was just sitting there rubbing her eyes.

With all this information, Starlight came to a logical conclusion that something had happened to Sweetie Belle’s eyes. “Sweetie Belle?” Starlight called, grabbing the crusaders’ attention away from the popcorn. “May I ask what happened to you once that spell hit?”

“Um, I, I, uh, screamed,” Sweetie stammered.

“Do you know what changed?”

“I, I can hear, um, hear somecreature,” Sweetie squeaked, her left eye suddenly flickered a warm, yet eerily cold, yellow. “They, they’re trying to convince me to, to…” Sweetie Belle stopped talking, and all her attention was once again on her hooves. Her eyes reverted back to their usual green, and then she screamed.

~~~

The light suddenly died as an inky darkness covered the windows, the candlelight was extinguished. Starlight’s horn flared up in protest, and Scootaloo quickly followed suit. “Spike! Get help!” Starlight shouted, green fire blazed in response.

“I can’t get a message out!” Spike yelled, “I’ll be back!” Spike charged through the door, getting out right before it slammed shut.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom backed closer to Starlight, but their light seemed to diminish as the darkness grew. “Sweetie Belle!” Starlight called out, terrified at what might’ve happened to the young filly. No pony responded, but the dark blue mist had cornered them.

Nightmare advanced toward her prey eagerly, enjoying how much fear she was causing. That fear would allow her to grow even stronger, and soon she would once again be able to take control of a host. This time it would be complete control, there wasn’t any room for error. Nightmare saw the pitiful ponies, looking desperately for a way out. Stars glittered as her shadowy form, growing more like the night sky, neared the hopeless creatures.

Starlight fired up her horn, and blasted the blackish mist. Nightmare was barely pushed back, and she slithered closer. Terror filled the ponies in front of her, but Starlight ignored her rising fear and attacked again. The attacks pushed Nightmare back, but not far back enough.

“Stay back!” Scootaloo shouted, charging up her own horn with magic. She fired at Nightmare, but, with little understanding of magical attacks, her attack barely even hit.

“What did you do tah Sweetie Belle?” Apple Bloom demanded.

Nightmare chuckled, the ponies believed they could fight her, it was amusing. Didn’t they know? Her power had grown, and there was nothing they could do with how little power they had. She was dragged out of her thoughts as a particularly powerful blast of magic knocked most of her quite a few feet backwards.

“You’re the one who did this to them! Why?” Starlight screamed. She charged up her horn again, blasting Nightmare a couple more feet back. She immediately prepared to cast another spell, determined to push Nightmare up against the wall.

This wasn’t good, she couldn’t lose again. She would never lose, that wasn’t possible. It was time to stop playing games. Nightmare shot across the room, aiming to impale the pathetic purple unicorn that had tried to stand up to her. She stopped short, crashing into a teal force field.

Starlight stood her ground, preparing to use another spell. Nightmare charged again, and split apart. Tendrils of star filled shadows grabbed for the crusaders, pulling them both away from Starlight. “Let go!” Scootaloo screamed, struggling against the mist.

Nightmare pulled the fillies away, forcing Starlight to choose which one to save. Nightmare pounced, ready to kill both if Starlight couldn’t even save one. She formed jaws, big enough to tear a pony in half. She would aim to kill the changeling first, even untrained, magic still could be dangerous.

Scootaloo’s eyes grew wide as she saw the shadowy jaws prepare to crush her. They were inches away from her now, and were already closing. She tried to turn into something smaller, but a thick tendril of mist choked her. She fired up her horn, hoping it would do something as she struggled harder. The magical blast didn’t stop the jaws, and Starlight’s magic failed to push the jaws back far enough for Scootaloo to get out.

Nightmare closed her jaws, and an explosion sounded. The mist dispersed, replaced by a thick, grey cloud. Scootaloo fell to the ground, breathing heavily. She was uninjured, and she breathed a sigh of relief before running back to Starlight. It was getting harder to think, and harder to defend.

Nightmare didn’t have much time left before more enemies arrived, she knew that. She still had one pony in her grasp, she formed herself again. Nightmare flew through the air, dropping the filly, and rushed under the door. Ponies were coming to the castle, they were about to enter. Nightmare burst through the window, charging straight into the Everfree. Several ponies came right after her, and a few rushed inside.

This was fine, all she needed to do was keep spreading fear. They would keep fearing her as long as they couldn’t defeat her. They were hopeless.

Apple Bloom felt herself separate, again. Starlight gasped as she felt a rush of air above her. The smoke didn’t clear very fast, but they could still see through it. “She- She’s gone, she left!” Scootaloo cried. Apple Bloom struggled to put herself together, and Sweetie Belle came to help her.

“You’re okay!” Apple Bloom cried, suddenly flinging herself into the filly. Sweetie Belle tumbled backwards as part of Apple Bloom hugged her.

“Get off!” Sweetie squeaked in protest, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

The door burst open, and several ponies ran into the swirling smoke. “Is everyone okay?” Twilight shouted.

Scootaloo changed back, and Sweetie Belle dragged Apple Bloom. “I think we’re alright now,” Scootaloo confirmed, running over to Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. One of her eyes still glowed yellow, but she didn’t seem to even notice. Apple Bloom reattached part of her, and smoke almost completely cleared.

“Everyone is completely fine?” Starlight gasped, breathing heavily.

“Ah think we’re now,” Apple Bloom said.

~~~

The sun set, and many of the ponies who had come to help left, they didn’t really understand what was going on anyway. Fluttershy had also left, needing to tend to her animals, but Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Twilight all remained.

“You didn’t even think of saying anything to me? You just, just…” Rarity huffed, then screamed in rage, and left the room. Sweetie Belle folded her ears down, and Apple Bloom was extremely glad she told her family.

“If everything’s settled, we should figure out as much as we can right now,” Starlight pointed out.

“You’re right, let’s all meet up again tomorrow,” Twilight suggested. They all nodded and got up to leave.

“See ya tomorrow,” Applejack said.

“You’re gonna have to show me your new power!” Rainbow Dash yelled to Scootaloo, flying out of the room.

“Farewell, I will see you later, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity practically scolded, and then turned back around.

~~~

“Okay, now we can hopefully get somewhere,” Starlight sighed, levitating a scroll of paper over to her. She wrote something on it with a quill before turning back to the crusaders. “Now, I’m going to perform a few more spells, and expose you three to certain magical herbs to see what effect they may have on you.”

The first spell was to find new or more powerful points of magic. Apple Bloom had more powerful magic everywhere, so her magic increased in general. Scootaloo’s magic had strengthened in her wings and new horn, and was just a little bit more powerful in other places. Sweetie Belle’s magic seemed rather powerful, but upon further examination this was just the result of her using magic as a grown pony before reverting back to her actual age. There was nothing unusual about her magic, but it did seem stronger than other unicorns, but this could have easily been caused by a number of other factors.

Starlight then touched all three crusaders with the Breathing Veil. A dark red glow enveloped Apple Bloom before darkening to a black. Sweetie Belle didn’t glow at all when she touched the flower, and Scootaloo glowed a light red. “Okay, just in case, Sweetie, eat this.” Starlight gave her the Breathing Veil. Sweetie took a petal off of the flower and ate it, but she didn’t glow. “Interesting,” Starlight observed.

The second spell Starlight cast would help her understand more about the new forms of the crusaders. The spell would relay some information depending on what or who it was aimed at. Apple Bloom, clearly undead, but also not a zompony like one would assume. Scootaloo, clearly a reformed changeling, but it seemed as though her main form was altering its true state slowly. Sweetie Belle, her eyes were clearly altered, but there was something strange that Starlight couldn’t comprehend about them. Starlight wondered if her vision had changed.

Another few spells were cast, revealing a strange extra curve on Scootaloo’s horn, Nightmare was no longer hiding inside Sweetie Belle, and the fact that Apple Bloom wasn’t rotting at all. Starlight then took a few different herbs, revealing that Sweetie was not a dragon, and that Spike was rather annoyed by the dragon sneeze branches in the castle.

Starlight grabbed the final herb, Poison Joke, and touched each of the crusaders with it. She made sure to get the antidote from Zecora beforehand, just in case. They waited for an hour by playing games in order to let the Poison Joke take effect.

Apple Bloom ran across the room, hurrying away from Scootaloo. Scootaloo dashed after her, reaching out her hoof to tap the young farmpony. Sweetie Belle sat, frozen in place, waiting for Apple Bloom to tag her. Scootaloo was mere inches away from Apple Bloom, until she sneezed.

Scootaloo transformed into a different creature, before sneezing and reverting back to her new form. She sneezed again, her form changing each time she sneezed. “I think the Poison Joke works!” Scootaloo yelled before sneezing again.

Starlight gave her the antidote, and waited to see if the other two crusaders would be affected in any way. Time passed quickly and the Poison Joke didn’t do anything to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle. With plenty of notes and midnight nearing, Starlight sent the crusaders home.

“I’m still missing a piece of the puzzle, no, I’m missing lots of pieces. I’m missing one big piece, and a couple of small ones. This just doesn’t make sense, something else is going on with all three of them, but I can hardly understand what happened to Sweetie. How did neither the Breathing Veil or the Poison Joke affect her? She ate the Breathing Veil and nothing happened, I don’t understand,” Starlight grumbled to herself.

“What am I missing? Could I be close? How does she make those explosions, and why is there always so much smoke?"

Author's Note:

I hope this chapter was well worth the wait, but you better start thinking.

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

“You didn’t even think of saying anything to me? You just, just…” Rarity huffed, then screamed in rage, and left the room. Sweetie Belle folded her ears down, and Apple Bloom was extremely glad she told her family.

Okay I understand you're a little upset Rarity but right now your younger sister needs your help right now

[Yoshifan30]

Okay the situation is getting tougher by every minute and a lot of question needs to be answered as well although I felt like Rarity was a little bit too harsh on Sweetie Belle I get it she didn't tell her about the condition she was in but still Sweetie Belle needs help right now especially they have no idea what kind of magic that smoke affected them and speaking of smoke the nightmare was basically attacking them threatening to kill them but Sweetie Belle unleash her power but almost destroying the place luckily she gained control but she was still afraid that she will hurt anybody so Starlight still have no idea what kind of magic it is and why did the flower failed on sweetie I guess we'll find out next time

[Poisonberry]

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Side note:
Sweetie isn't afraid she will accidently hurt anyone anymore.