> The Cutie Mark Crusaders Bring About the Apocalypse
>  by BronyWriter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Whoa, What is This Book?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I told you that Cutie Mark Crusaders firework makers was a bad idea," said Apple Bloom, brushing some ash off of her left foreleg. 

"How was I supposed to know that oregano mixed with rosemary wasn't a good substitute for gunpowder?" retorted Scootaloo. 

"Wait, did we need gunpowder?" asked Sweetie Belle. "I don't recall reading that in the book on fireworks that we got." Scootaloo shrugged and stood up. 

"I don't remember it either, but I'm sure if we could have gotten our hooves on some we would have our cutie marks by now!" said Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at their friend nervously. 

"Are you sure we should try anythin' else with explosives?" asked Apple Bloom. "I mean, we nearly destroyed half the town when we tried to be Cutie Mark Crusaders Pony Cannons. 

"But explosives are awesome!" said Scootaloo as she excitedly buzzed her wings. 

"Maybe," said Sweetie Belle. "But I think we should take a break from that kind of thing for now. Maybe we should try pillow testing or gardening." Scootaloo's ears drooped but she still nodded. 

"I guess," she mumbled. 

The three sat in silence once more before a contemplative look crossed Apple Blooms face. Her friends looked at her with interest. 

"Whatcha thinking Apple Bloom?" asked Scootaloo. Apple Bloom sighed and looked towards her friends. 

"Okay, hear me out on this," she began. 

"Uh-oh," said Scootaloo quietly. Apple Bloom gave her a small glare but continued on.

"Now I know we haven't had too much success with gettin' our marks, but what if we tried readin'??" said Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo gave each other curious glances. 

"What do you mean?" asked Sweetie Belle. 

"What I mean is, we should go to Twilight's library and look through some books about cutie marks!" said Apple Bloom. "I think that a book or two would potentially have some good information about cutie marks."

Scootaloo frowned at Apple Bloom. 

"You want to spend the day that we have off of school doing research?" she asked. "Isn't that egghead behavior?" 

"Well duh," said Apple Bloom "But isn't a little embarrassment about the fact that we acted like eggheads for one day worth a lifetime of cutie marks?" 

Sweetie Belle shrugged. 

"I'm up for it I guess," she said. Scootaloo rolled her eyes but she nodded all the same. 

"Fine," she said. "But I don't want to be doing it all day!" 

"We won't!" said the excited yellow filly as her and Sweetie Belle stood up too. 

"Well what are we waiting for?" asked Sweetie Belle. "Lets go to the library!" 



*  *  *  *
 


The three crusaders sped through the town with their wagon and Scootaloo's scooter. Occasionally they would get a wave from a Ponyville resident that passed by, but the journey was overall uneventful. 

Scootaloo felt the warm sun beat down on her and the sound of ponies laughing as they relaxed in the park filled her ears. She groaned, desperately wishing that she could join them instead of hanging out with their friends in the library. Still, any time spent crusading was a good time, no matter what they were doing. She knew that they would have fun with this, even if they were just reading. 

A few minutes later, the trio reached the Ponyville library and Scootaloo screeched to a halt. 

"We're here!" said Apple Bloom. "Let's go read about cutie marks!"

Sweetie Belle walked up to the door and gave it three sharp knocks. The Crusaders listened and heard a voice that was unmistakably that of the town librarian and resident egghead, Twilight Sparkle. 

"Spike, will you get the door?" asked Twilight. 

"Sure thing Twilight!" said the voice of Twilight's assistant. 

The Crusaders heard the pitter-patter of Spike's steps grow louder as he got closer to the door. A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal the dragon. 

"Oh," he said in a surprised voice. "it's you three!" 

"Which three?" asked Twilight as she walked down the stairs to the door. 

"The Cutie Mark Crusaders," replied Spike. Twilight reached the door and gave the fillies a happy smile. 

"Hello girls," she said. "Are you out crusading for your cutie marks today?"

"Yep," said Sweetie Belle. "In fact, that's why we're here."

Immediately Twilight and Spike tensed up and shot each other uneasy glances. The fillies didn't seem to notice and they continued on. 

"We thought that it would be a good idea to read up on cutie marks to see if we can find anything useful," said Sweetie Belle. Twilight raised an eyebrow. 

"That's it? You just want to read quietly in a corner?" she said. 

"Yep," said Scootaloo. "we don't want to be a bother."

"You're not going to try to be 'Cutie Mark Crusaders Book Fort Builders'?" asked Spike.

"Nope," said Sweetie Belle. "We're just going to read about cutie marks." 

"Okaaayyy," said Twilight. "Come on in and I'll see what I can find on the subject."

"Thanks Twilight!" said Apple Bloom. "You're the best!" Twilight flashed them a smile and she seemed to relax a bit. 

The three fillies walked inside the library and followed Twilight into a smaller nook in the library. Twilight squinted as she scanned the rows and rows of immaculate books, looking for one about cutie marks. Her mouth moved silently as she mouthed the titles of the book she was examining, occasionally shaking her head when she came across one she didn't like. The Crusaders knew full well that Twilight was not to be disturbed while she was in this state and thusly, they did their best to stand quietly behind her.

After what seemed to them to be an eternity, Twilight snapped out of her world and nodded.

"Okay," she said as she used her magic to pull a few books off of the shelves. "Start with these and I'll try to find more if you don't see anything you like in them."

The trio grabbed the books out of the air and examined them. 

"Cutie Marks and You, The Illustrated History of the Cutie Mark, and Deciphering Cutie Marks," read Apple Bloom. 

"Thanks Twilight!" said Sweetie Belle. "I'm sure that these will be a big help!"

"No problem at all," said Twilight. "Just let me know if you need anything. I'm going back upstairs to finish up an essay about Equestrian plant life for the princess."

"Well good luck with that," said Scootaloo. Twilight nodded and walked back up the stairs, followed closely by Spike.

The three crusaders went over to a comfortable spot a few feet away and immediately sat down on the floor, cracked open the books that they had gotten from Twilight, and began reading. 

They were quietly reading for all of five minutes before Scootaloo gave a groan of boredom. 

"Have you guys found anything yet?" she asked. "This is taking forever!"

"Well no," said Sweetie Belle. "But there has to be something in here!" 

"Mine might have somethin'!" said Apple Bloom as she flipped through a few pages. "Based on the table of contents, this one gives advice on how to go about gettin' your cutie mark."

"It does?" said Scootaloo with interest, putting her book down and scooting closer over to Apple Bloom. "Skip to that chapter then!" 

Apple Bloom nodded and flipped forward a few dozen pages before she stopped on the one she was looking for. 

"Okay," said Apple Bloom. "Here it is."

Since the dawn of pony civilization, ponies across Equestria have often been interested in obtaining their cutie marks. In ancient civilizations it was considered an important rite of passage and ponies could not begin working or going to school until they had found their special talent. Thus, the desire to obtain a cutie mark is inherent in everypony, whether they know it or not. 

However, many scholars debate on what is the best way to go about obtaining a cutie mark. Some scholars are of the mind that ponies who are searching for their marks should try as many activities as possible until something clicks and they find a hobby or an activity that they enjoy. Others say that ponies should just live their lives out and not focus on it until they stumble across their special talent. Others still suggest careful meditation and an inner scrutiny of the self to find what their purpose is in life.

"Well we've definitely tried that first one," said Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle nodded. 

"Should we try the other two then?"

"No!" said Scootaloo. "I'm not gonna sit down and search my inner being for my special talent, I want to go out there and size as many opportunities as I can!"

"So basically, you want to do just what we've already been doin'," said Apple Bloom. 

"Well yeah," she said. "I'm having fun with it, even if we aren't getting our cutie marks." 

"Is there more?" asked Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom nodded and returned to the book.

Whatever the method, one must understand the nature of the cutie mark itself. It is a statement about the very nature of the pony that bears the mark, and it will be a part of anypony who bears one forever. In order to find your cutie mark, one must have patience and an understanding of the self. Doing something that one does not care about is a sure way to delay the acquisition of a cutie mark to the point that one is a 'blank flank' (to use layman's terms) far longer than is normal.

"Is it just me or is this just repeating the nonsense that everypony else has told us over and over again?" asked Scootaloo. 

"I guess it is," said Apple Bloom as she scanned the pages a bit more. "But what if that means that they were right all along and that we should be tryin' to do stuff we love as opposed to somethin' we don't really care about?" Scootaloo rolled her eyes and grabbed the book from Apple Bloom. 

"I think that this one is a dead-end," she said. "We should look through the other books some more." 

"Well wait, we can't just give up on it because the first few sentences of one chapter aren't any help!" said Sweetie Belle. "If we're gonna get our cutie marks, we have to keep with this!" 

Scootaloo groaned but she gave the book back to Apple Bloom. 


*  *  *  *


One hour later

This simply had to be a record. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were sitting quietly on the floor and had been for the past hour. They quietly flipped through the books that they had been given by Twilight and merely read. Occasionally one would get a look of interest on their face when they thought that they found something interesting, but it would always immediately fall when the sentence turned out to lead to nothing. 

"Anythin' good for you?" asked Apple Bloom, who was nearing the middle of her book. 

"Nothing good with mine," said Sweetie Belle. 

"Me neither," said Scootaloo. "I can't believe that not even books can help us! It's all about boring stuff like discovering who you really are! Who needs that sappy stuff?"

"Well, should we give up then?" asked Apple Bloom. 

"I think so," said Scootaloo, closing her book and putting it down. "We still have a great day outside and I want to go try some more stuff before the day is over."

"Alright then," said Apple Bloom as she closed her book as well. "Let's put this stuff back and we'll head out."

"Shouldn't we ask Twilight to put it back? I mean, she knows where it all goes," said Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom shook her head. 

"Naw, I think that I can figure it out myself. Besides, her and Spike went to go run those errands. They ain't gonna be back for another ten minutes at least."

"If you say so," said Scootaloo. 

"I do say so," said Apple Bloom confidently. Apple Bloom grabbed the book she had been reading in her teeth and slowly walked up a nearby stepladder. 

"Careful now," said Sweetie Belle. "We wouldn't want to make a big mess for Twilight to clean up."

"I'll be careful," said Apple Bloom as she craned her neck forward to put her book in what she presumed was the correct spot. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked on nervously as Apple Bloom's balance became steadily more questionable the farther that she leaned forward. 

"Are you sure you've got it?" asked Scootaloo. "I mean, you wouldn't want to--"

At that moment, Apple Bloom lost her balance and she began falling off the stepladder. In a desperate attempt to prevent herself from falling, she hooked her leg around one of the railings but that merely meant that she toppled the stepladder as well. With yelps of fear, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo jumped out of the way as fast as they could in the hopes that they wouldn't be crushed by the stepladder. Luckily, their reflexes were fast enough that when the stepladder landed with a loud crash on the floor, neither of them was hurt. 

The duo looked over at the crash site, hoping that their friend had suffered no lasting damage. 

"Apple Bloom, are you okay!?" said Sweetie Belle. To their relief, Apple Bloom crawled out from under the ladder. She seemed to be shaken up a bit but not hurt. 

"I'm okay," she said as she dusted herself off. 

"That was quite the wicked crash!" said Scootaloo, buzzing her wings excitedly again. "I wish I had been the one who toppled the ladder!" 

"Uh...yeah, sure," said Apple Bloom with a roll of her eyes. She turned around and surveyed the crash site. Her mouth dropped open in horror. "Oh no!" 

"What is it?" asked Sweetie Belle. 

"Look!" said Apple Bloom, pointing to where the ladder had fallen. The other two Crusaders looked at the crash site and to their horror they saw that the fallen ladder had knocked a large hole in the floor. 

"Did you even know that the floor was hollow underneath?" asked Scootaloo. Apple Bloom frowned. 

"I don't think that it is," she said. "I think it may just be that one spot." 

"Why would just one spot under the floor be hollow?" asked Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom slowly walked over to the hole in the floor and peered down. 

"Guys," she said excitedly. "I think somethin's down there!" 

"What!?" said Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo together. 

"Yeah, I see the outline of somethin'!"

"Can you reach it?" asked Scootaloo. 

"Yeah," said Apple Bloom. "I think the hole in the floor is large enough that I can barely squeeze down there."

Apple Bloom took a deep breath before she pushed the ladder aside and shimmied down the hole. 

"Be careful down there!" said Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom's head popped up.

"Sweetie Belle, the hole isn't deep enough that I'm gonna disappear down here." 

"Can you find whatever is down there?" asked Scootaloo. Apple Bloom looked at her hooves and felt around for the mysterious object. 

"I got it!" she said after a few seconds. 

"Bring it up!" said Scootaloo. 

Apple Bloom picked up the object and placed it on the floor before jumping out of the hole. The Crusaders looked at the object nervously. 

"It's...a book!" said Sweetie Belle. Scootaloo groaned. 

"Not more books!" she said. Apple Boom held up a hoof to shush her and she pushed the book closer to the middle of the room. The Crusaders gathered around and examined the book. It was simply a jet black book, about the size of the usual books in Twilight's library, but on the whole it had no other distinctive features. Despite the fact that it had been sealed away under the floor for Celestia knows how long, it was fully clean of dust. However, the book was clearly very old and it still looked rather fragile.

"It doesn't have a title that I can find," said Apple Bloom. "What do ya suppose that means?"

"Lack of creativity on the part of the author?" guessed Scootaloo. 

"Maybe," said Apple Bloom. 

The three stared at the book for a few moments before Sweetie Belle asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"So should we open it?" she asked nervously. 

"There is only one way to find out," said Scootaloo. 

"What's that?" asked Apple Bloom. 

"We have to open it."

"We have to find out whether we should or shouldn't open it by openin' it?" 

"Yep," said Scootaloo. "Then we'll know for sure whether or not we should have opened it!" 

"I guess that makes sense...kind of," said Apple Bloom. She took a deep breath. "I guess I'll open it then."

The Crusaders tensed up as Apple Bloom reached a hoof towards the book and placed it on the edge of the cover. 

"Okay, on the count of three I'll open the book. One...two...three!" 

Apple Bloom moved her hoof to the left and flung the book open. Instantly the eyes of the Crusaders flashed blood red for a brief moment before they returned back to their normal colors. However, none of them noticed the brief change. Instead, Apple Bloom pulled the book closer to them and began reading it. 

"It's...it's a book of spells and rituals!" said Apple Bloom. 

"Rituals? What kind of rituals?” asked Sweetie Belle. 

Apple Bloom flipped through the pages of the book before she stopped on one. She cocked her head when she read what was on the page. 

"What is it?" asked Scootaloo. 

"It's...it's a ritual to summon the hordes of darkness to our lands to bring eternal suffering to all of Equestria."

"What!?" said Sweetie Belle in shock. 

This ritual is for the purpose of summoning darkness to all of Equestria. When the ritual is complete, the gods of the underworld will arrive and call for their undead armies to conquer the lands. None shall be able to oppose them.

"Whoa!" said Apple Bloom. "Cool!"

For those that complete the ritual, the rewards will be great and they shall be spared the eternal suffering that is to come.

"Rewards will be great...rewards will be great!" said Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle looked at her confusedly. 

"Are you okay?" she asked. 

"Don't you see girls; if we summon the ancient gods of the underworld then we'll get out cutie marks for sure!" 

"But what about our friends?" asked Scootaloo. 

"They'll be just fine," reassured Apple Bloom. "I've got it all figured out. See, we should do this here ritual and summon the ancient gods of the underworld. Then, they shall reward us with our cutie marks before Twilight and the others, along with the princesses I imagine, use their powers to banish them back to the hellish world from whence they came!"

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle mulled this over for a few moments before both of them broke out in wide smiles. 

"That sounds fun!" said Scootaloo. 

"Yeah! We're sure to get our cutie marks if we summon evil gods from the underworld!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"Then what are we waiting for?" said Apple Bloom as she picked up the book and put it in her saddlebag. "Let's start the ritual!"



*  *  *  *



Five hours later, Apple Bloom sat alone in the Cutie Mark Crusader clubhouse, reading through the book to get more instructions on what they were supposed to do. She had declared herself the high-priestess for the ceremony and as the high-priestess, she was in charge of making sure that the ritual went according to plan. 

She had sent Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle out for the necessary supplies almost four hours ago and they still weren't back! She was beginning to get worried that they had been stopped. Some of the items that she had sent them to retrieve were a little...questionable, considering what they were going to be used for. 

Apple Bloom sighed and closed the book. She had read and re-read the ritual a million times since her friends had left and soon she would be able to do it in her sleep! Where were those two!? 

Suddenly, she heard two unmistakable voices whispering excitedly between themselves. She breathed a sigh of relief when she identified the voices as belonging to her friends who seemed to be back with the necessary items for the ritual. 

A few moments later, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle walked back into the clubhouse with the items for the ritual on their backs.

"Good, you got everythin'," said Apple Bloom.

"Of course!" said Sweetie Belle as she placed a large sack on the ground as well as a pile of candles. "I wouldn't mess this up!"

"Me neither," said Scootaloo who set down some chalk and three jet black robes. "I can't wait for midnight!"

"Same here," said Apple Bloom who was lovingly stroking the book. She looked up at the sky for a brief moment. "It's almost 7:00. It'll be dark soon and we need to get goin' the ritual. Sweetie Belle, do you have the blood sacrifice?" 

"Yep," said Sweetie Belle, pointing to the sack. "You would not believe how hard it is to catch a chicken without magic." 

Scootaloo looked uneasily at the sack. 

"I dunno about that part," said the uneasy Pegasus. "Do we really need a blood sacrifice?"

"Scootaloo, we need to do the ritual exactly as it is in the book," said Apple Bloom chidingly. "If we don't, we might end up summoning a lesser demon that will be easily defeated by Celestia which means no cutie marks!" Scootaloo sighed and nodded grimly. 

"Okay, I guess it’s fine if it means we get out cutie marks."

"That's the spirit!" said Apple Bloom. "Now, I'm gonna go prepare the alter. You two need to get goin' on stuff like the symbols on the ground."

"Alright," said Scootaloo. "We'll get on that right away!" 

The next few hours passed in silence as the Cutie Mark Crusaders slowly began preparing for the ritual. Sweetie Belle had grabbed the piece of chalk and was drawing the proper symbols on the ground while Scootaloo was sharpening the ceremonial knife that would be used in the blood sacrifice and Apple Bloom was using her building skills to construct the alter. 

It was a slow process to be sure. Apple Bloom had to sneak out of the clubhouse every hour or so to steal more wood from the wood pile near the barn and that would always take ten minutes. Scootaloo, it turned out, had never sharpened a ceremonial knife before and she had to try multiple techniques before settling on holding the knife in her teeth while holding the whetstone on the ground with her foreleg. Sweetie Belle had the easiest time of it. Yes the symbols on the ground were without a doubt intricate, but she slowly, but surely, dragged the chalk along the ground to make the proper symbols. 

The three continued working into the hours of the night until Apple Bloom looked up from her finished alter.

"Okay," said Apple Bloom. "I reckon that it's nearly midnight and that we need to begin the ritual soon if we are gonna succeed." 

"I agree," said Scootaloo who began putting on her ceremonial robe. "The moon is full tonight dear Crusaders. Good fortune shall smile upon us and we shall have success!" Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo confusedly. 

"Why are ya talkin' like that?" asked Apple Bloom. Scootaloo shrugged. 

"I dunno, it just sounded cool I guess," said Scootaloo. Apple Bloom rolled her eyes and put on her robe. 

"Alright then," she said as she looked at the book. "It says here that we need to place the blood sacrifice on the alter and we should kill it when the words of the ancient language have been chanted."

"Words of the ancient language?" said Sweetie Belle. "How will we know what those are?" 

"Because they're written right here," said Apple Bloom, pointing at a page in the book. 

"Oh," said Sweetie Belle. "That makes sense."

"Good," said Apple Bloom. "Now let's get into position; midnight is upon us." 

Apple Bloom opened up the sack and pulled out the chicken. The chicken looked around confusedly before Apple Bloom (with some difficulty) tied it down. Then, she placed the candles on the alter around the chicken and grabbed a match in her mouth which she then used to light the candles.

"Okay," said Apple Bloom as she scanned the book. "I think that I'm supposed to say the words written in red and you two are supposed to read the ones in black." 

"How do you know?" asked Sweetie Belle.

"Well I don't really, I'm just guessin'." 

"Fair enough," said Scootaloo. 

"Okay, here goes nothin'," said Apple Bloom. She cleared her throat. "Iam erant 'iens ut opinor priscosque deos evocare

"Ego coniecto nos id facere potest" said Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo together.

"Sed graviter, qui, mutum est, satis actu legere rituale accersere mortem et interitum?"

"Sed spirituum obscurorum quaedam gubernantia nobis!"

"Mea Culpa"

"Mea Maxima Culpa"

"a alces frenum soror mea semel"

"certe potes non serio"

Apple Bloom hooked her foreleg over the knife and raised it high.

"parvum meum CABALLIO, mea MANNULUS"

"Mirabar quid amicitia posset esse"

With one swift motion, Apple Bloom brought the knife down on the chicken's neck, severing its jugular. The chicken gave a few small squawks before it laid still, blood pouring from the wound on its neck. 

"Okay," said Sweetie Belle. "What now?"

"According to the book, to finish the ritual we need to--"

"APPLE BLOOM WHAT IN THE HAY IS GOIN' ON HERE!?"

The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked towards the entrance of their clubhouse to find Applejack looking at the scene with a horrified expression. Apple Bloom gave a frustrated groan. 

"Not now sis, we're trying to summon ancient gods of evil to destroy Equestria so we can get our cutie marks!" 

Applejack's jaw nearly hit the floor. 

"I...wha..."

"Don't worry sis, once we have our cutie marks you can banish them back to the underworld with the Elements of Harmony!"  

"We just have to make sure to tell the gods we summon to give us our cutie marks before they raise the army of the undead to pillage the land," said Sweetie Belle. 

"Yeah," said Scootaloo with a nod. "I mean, what's the point of having cutie marks if the entire world around you is destroyed, am I right?" 

Applejack's mouth and eyes were still wide open from the shock of what she was seeing and hearing. She sat down on her haunches as the cogs in her brain began turning, hoping that she could make sense of all of this. Sweetie Belle frowned and looked at the book. 

"Is there anything in here about witnesses harming the ritual in any way?" she asked. Apple Bloom scanned the book too and flipped a few pages to see if she could find that information. She turned back to the page they were on with a shrug. 

"I don't see anythin' sayin' we can't have Applejack watch," she said. "She just can't disturb it is all. We’re at a delicate point and one mishap could undo the whole thing!" 

Hearing this, Applejack seemed to snap out of her shock and she jumped up and bucked the alter as hard as she could. It shattered into a million pieces causing the candles hit the floor. Applejack stomped on the open flames and quickly put them out so the whole clubhouse wouldn't go up in flames.

"AJ, no!" said Apple Bloom. "You'll anger the evil demons!" 

Applejack didn't seem to care in the slightest as she wiped the chalk marks away. She grabbed the dead chicken and threw it out of the clubhouse as hard as she could. 

"Uh, does throwing the blood sacrifice out the window count as interrupting the ritual?" asked Scootaloo. 

"I think so," said Apple Bloom as she began scanning the pages again. 

"APPLE BLOOM, ENOUGH!" said Applejack angrily. The three Crusaders looked up from the book to see an absolutely livid Applejack standing in front of them. 

"Uh...sis we were--"

"I don't care what you thought you were doin'," she growled. "I don't know what possessed you to think that you could perform a ritual to awaken evil gods of the underworld, but it is stoppin' right now!" 

"But--"

"Where did you get that book anyways?" she asked. "Who gave you a book of phony rituals?" 

"Nopony did. We found it underneath the floor in the library! We promise that it's not a fake!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"Don't gimmie that!" said Applejack. "Magic like that ain't been seen in Equestria since before Princess Celestia. There is no way that that book is legit!" 

"But it is!" said Apple Bloom. Applejack glared at her and before the Crusaders could do anything about it, Applejack whisked the book away and slammed it on the ground. 

"Sis, no!" said Apple Bloom but it was too late. Applejack grabbed one of the pages in her mouth and pulled it as hard as she could. To the surprise of everypony in the room, the page did not tear. Applejack looked at it confusedly. The paper was worn down and looked like it would tear if a gust of wind blew through the clubhouse. She grabbed the page again and began tugging but the page did not tear. It didn't even crinkle a little. 

Applejack looked at the book a little fearfully. 

"That ain't natural," she said with a whisper. "Books ain't supposed to withstand that kind of punishment unless they..." Her eyes widened some more and she turned back to the Crusaders. "You three need to come with me right now," she said. 

"Where?" asked Scootaloo. 

"To Twilight's house," said Applejack. "I gotta ask her some questions about this here book." 

"Can we at least finish the ritual?" asked Sweetie Belle. 

"NO!" said Applejack. "I ain't gonna let you summon ancient demons, gods, or undead armies to destroy Equestria!" The Crusaders flattened their ears and Applejack herded them out of the clubhouse. "Now come on, we're gonna go ask Twilight some very important questions!"
> The Board is Set
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack walked down the road towards Twilight's house, angry Crusaders in tow. When she had discovered them doing...that in their clubhouse, she had attempted to destroy the book so that there would be no more issues and she could punish them beyond belief. They had even murdered a chicken in their attempt to summon evil demons and that wasn't right at all. 

However, when she had gone to destroy the book, she found that she could not. 

Applejack was by no means the most learned of ponies when it came to magic, but even she knew that if a book containing rituals that were supposed to summon evil spirits was that difficult to destroy, especially when it looked so fragile, that something was going on. Something that suggested that there was more to the book than met the eye. 

The Crusaders followed behind Applejack, looks of anger plastered on their faces. 

"I don't see why you had to go and interrupt our ritual Applejack," said Apple Bloom. 

"Apple Bloom, I don't want to hear it until we get to Twilight's. Believe me, you have a lot of explainin' to do!" said Applejack. A look of unease crossed Sweetie Belle's face. 

"Are we in trouble?" asked Sweetie Belle. Applejack stopped and wheeled around to face the fillies. 

"Are you in trouble!?" she growled. "You better believe that you are in a heap of trouble! You killed one of Fluttershy's chickens in an attempt to summon ancient gods of the underworld to destroy all of Equestria!" 

"But we were gonna let you stop them once they gave us our cutie marks!" said Scootaloo. Applejack turned back around and continued walking to Twilight's house. 

"That ain't how it works," said Applejack. 

"How would you know!?" asked Apple Bloom. Applejack rolled her eyes. 

"Basic common sense!" she said. "Do ya really think that evil gods would just give ya your cutie marks and then be stopped by somethin' as simple as the Elements of Harmony?"

"Uh...yes?" said Sweetie Belle. 

"It just doesn't work that way," said Applejack as they walked up to Twilight's door. 

"We could still try," mumbled Apple Bloom. Applejack shook her head and knocked on Twilight's door. The four of them stood silently on Twilight's porch for a few moments before a very sleepy purple unicorn answered the door. 

"Oh, it's you guys," she said with a yawn when she saw who was at the door. "Come on in."

"Thank ya kindly Twilight," said Applejack. Twilight nodded and yawned again as she moved out of the way so that the four ponies could enter. Once they were inside, she shut the door and turned to address them. 

"I take it you're here because of that," she said as she pointed to the destroyed section of the floor. Applejack looked where Twilight was pointing and she saw the large hole in the floor that the antics of the Crusaders had left that afternoon. She turned back to the Crusaders once more. 

"Did you do that?" she asked, pointing to the hole. 

"Well duh," said Scootaloo. "How else do you think we found the book?" 

"Oh of course. How silly of me to think otherwise," said Applejack sarcastically. Twilight looked at them interestedly. 

"Book? What book?" she asked. 

"This one," said Applejack as she pulled the book in question out of her saddlebag and placed it on the floor. A now alert Twilight walked up to it and reached over to open it up.

"Careful Twi," cautioned Applejack. "Those three there opened it up and they decided to perform one of the rituals in it." 

Twilight's hoof shot back and her eyes widened in horror. 

"What rituals?" she asked in a horrified whisper. 

"I caught them in their clubhouse with fancy gibberish symbols drawn on the floor. They were wearin' these robes here and they had lit a few candles," said Applejack. She pulled out the robes in question and showed them to Twilight. Twilight looked at the robes with concern on her face. 

"Anything else?" she asked. 

"Yeah, there was one more thing," said Applejack. "They had stolen one of Fluttershy's chickens and they used it as a blood sacrifice." Twilight's eyes widened and she quickly backed away from the book with a yelp. 

"What's wrong Twilight?" asked Scootaloo. 

"That's a book of evil!" said Twilight. 

"No duh," mumbled Applejack. 

"I'm not sure which one it is specifically, but I do know that there are seven of these books scattered all over Equestria. Their main purpose is to corrupt whoever opens it so they have a need to perform the spells and rituals inside to summon the hordes of evil upon Equestria!" 

"Yeah," said Apple Bloom. "Can we go get back to that? We were kind of in the middle of it when Applejack interrupted us."

"No you ain't gonna finish the ritual!" said Applejack. "What in Equestria possessed you to ask that!?" 

"The book," said Twilight, pointing to the offending tome. "They're pretty much under its control."

"So what'll we do then?" asked Applejack. 

"We have to contact Princess Celestia right away! I think she'll know what to do!" Sweetie Belle scoffed. 

"Your puny princess cannot stop the all-consuming darkness that is to come. The lords of evil will surely triumph over one as weak as she is." 

"Stop talkin' nonsense!" said Applejack. 

"Remember, they're under the book's control. As time goes on, the book's hold over them will become stronger!" 

At that moment, Spike came downstairs with an urgent look on his face and an official looking scroll wrapped in his claws.

"I just got this!" he said, holding the scroll up to show Twilight. Twilight used her magic to take the scroll and she opened it up and began reading. 

My faithful student, 

I am writing to tell you that I am coming to Ponyville immediately. A great evil may be upon us, something far worse than Discord or Nightmare Moon. I am bringing the Elements of Harmony with me and I will be arriving at your library within the hour. Gather your friends and meet me there. 

Princess Celestia

Twilight and Applejack immediately sprang into action. Twilight used her magic to pick up the book and she placed it in her saddlebag. 

"I'll go get Pinkie Pie and Rarity. You go get Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and I'll meet you back here in half an hour."

"What about them?" asked Applejack, pointing at the Crusaders. 

"Spike, I need you to watch them until we get back. It is crucial that you don't let them out of your sight!"

"For goodness sakes guys," said Scootaloo. "Stop talking about us as if we weren't two feet in front of you."

Twilight and Applejack paid them no heed and immediately ran out the door of the library. 

When they were gone, Spike turned to the Crusaders. 

"Do you have any idea what is going on?" he asked. 

"Oh they're just overreactin' to a little demonic ritual we were performin' in our clubhouse," said Apple Bloom. 

"Uh...what?" said Spike. 

"Well basically, we found this book in that hole over there and we decided to perform one of the rituals in it. See, it said that the ponies who summon the evil spirits of the underworld will be rewarded beyond their wildest dreams and we figured that meant our cutie marks!" said Sweetie Belle. Spike stared at the Crusaders in total shock. 

"Uh...nope, I got nothin' for that," said Spike. 

"I wish they hadn't taken the book though," said Scootaloo. "We could have finished the ritual before they got back! I mean, I know that Twilight has to have candles and some chalk here and we have the ceremonial robes. That table could be an alter!"

"But what would we use for the blood sacrifice?" asked Sweetie Belle. Apple Bloom grinned and inclined her head in Spike's direction. Spike took a step back. 

"Oh no you don't,” said the dragon. “You're not using me as a blood sacrifice to summon ancient evil!" 

"Your loss I guess," said Apple Bloom. 


*  *  *  *


Twilight ran back towards her library with the sense of urgency and worry that could only come when Princess Celestia was coming to Ponyville. If even Princess Celestia was worried about something attacking Equestria then there was a huge problem brewing. Beside her ran (and bounced) an equally worried Rarity and Pinkie Pie, both of whom had immediately come to Twilight's aid when she had requested that they come to the library with her to meet Princess Celestia. 

On the way back, they ran into Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Applejack and the six friends reached the library in no time at all. 

When they reached the door, Twilight used her magic to fling it open and the six friends rushed inside, hoping that Princess Celestia had not already arrived and was waiting for them. However, the sight that greeted them was far worse than the goddess of the sun waiting for the six friends. 

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had put their ceremonial robes back on and had found chalk which they had used to re-draw the symbols in the book on the floor. The lights were dimmed and the candles were lit on the table in the center of the room. To Twilight's horror, she saw Spike tied to the table, desperately struggling to get free. When he saw the six enter the room, a relieved look crossed his face. 

"Twilight, you gotta help me! These three have gone nuts!" said Spike. Twilight immediately rushed over to Spike and used her magic to slice the ropes holding him down. Spike jumped up and immediately ran behind Twilight, hoping that she could protect them from the fillies. 

"Oh come on!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"Well hold on now," said Apple Bloom. "They brought the book." 

"You're not getting the book!" said Twilight. 

"What book is that?" asked a familiar voice from behind them. The six turned around to see Princess Celestia standing in the doorway of the library, concern and worry etched in every inch of her face. 

"Princess Celestia!" said a relieved Twilight. "Thank goodness you've arrived!" 

"Indeed," said Celestia. "I am glad you are all here too. We have a lot to discuss."

"What's going on?" questioned Rainbow Dash. "Twilight said something about an ancient evil coming to destroy Equestria." Princess Celestia nodded. 

"It seems that way," said Celestia. 

"What do you mean?" asked Rarity. 

"Well," said Celestia. "Imagine that the barrier to our world between other dimensions is like a tough membrane. Somepony could see through it, but they would not be able to break through it unless they had inside help. Basically what is happening is that ancient demons have been awoken from a slumber that has lasted for tens of thousands of years and they are trying to break through the barrier into our world." The six gasped at this news. 

"Can they break through?" asked Fluttershy nervously. 

"Not with their current strength," said Celestia. "It seems that somepony started the ritual to release them on our world but for whatever reason, they did not finish it."

"That's because Applejack stopped us before we could finish it!" said Apple Bloom. Princess Celestia looked confusedly at the Crusaders. 

"Are you saying that you three are the ones who began the ritual?" asked Celestia. 

"Yep!" said Scootaloo proudly. Celestia turned back to Twilight. 

"May I see the book in question?" asked Celestia. Twilight nodded, took the book out of her saddlebag, and put it on the floor before backing away from it uneasily. When Celestia saw it, her look of unease turned into one of sheer horror. 

"Oh no," she said quietly before she turned to Applejack. 

"How far into the ritual were they before you stopped them?" she asked. 

"They had just..." Applejack glanced over at Fluttershy. "Completed the blood sacrifice." Celestia closed her eyes and put a hoof over them. Twilight gave Celestia a nervous glance.

"Princess, how much longer is the ritual?"

"Not much longer at all," said Celestia. "All they need to do is recite the final incantation and the first of two stages of the ritual will be complete.

"Uh...just out of random curiosity, what is the final incantation?" asked Apple Bloom. 

"We don't want to say it, we just want to know what it is," said Scootaloo. 

"You know, just out of curiosity," said Sweetie Belle. 

"We're not tellin' ya so just be quiet over there!" snapped Applejack. 

"How do we stop the demons?" asked Rarity. 

"It's quite simple, we just need to destroy the book and the demons will go back to sleep," said Celestia. 

"Will it snap the three of them out of it?" asked Twilight. Celestia nodded. 

"I believe it will," she said. "In the meantime, we need to keep this book far away from them so they cannot complete the ritual."

"Again, can you all stop talking about us like we aren't here?" said Scootaloo. 

Spike walked up to the book and examined it interestedly. 

"So let me get this straight, even opening this thing has bad consequences?" Celestia nodded. 

"You will become possessed by the book and you will do everything that you can to complete the rituals inside." 

Spike backed away from the book uneasily and the other ponies did the same. However, the Crusaders slowly walked closer to it, their eyes flashing red once more. Celestia's magic glowed around the book and she lifted it up. 

"Now, I'm going to--"

At that exact moment the Crusaders charged. Before anypony in the room could react the Crusaders snatched the book out of the air and began running away from the group. Twilight's was the first one to react and she quickly shot a freezing spell at the three of them, freezing them to the spot before they could go any further. The book dropped from Apple Bloom's grasp and landed on the floor. The Crusaders looked down and saw that the book had opened on impact. 

"Hey, the book opened up to where we were! We can get the incantation now!" said Scootaloo excitedly. Celestia quickly whisked the book away from them and placed it in Twilight's saddlebag. 

"Ya know, you really should be more careful with books like that," said Apple Bloom. "I mean, why didn't you expect us to at least make a small effort to get it?" 

"Enough!" said Celestia. "I see that we have to secure them in Canterlot until this mess is over!" 

"I suppose that could work, if I hadn't read the final incantation on the page." said Apple Bloom. 

Celestia's eyes widened and she fired up her horn, ready to perform a memory spell on them. 

"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you," said Apple Bloom smugly. 

At that moment, all of the lights in the room went out and the very foundations of the ground began violently shaking, sending all of the books and ponies in the library crashing to the ground. Thunder began crashing and lightning began flashing outside, getting louder and brighter with each strike. 

"Apple Bloom, what have you done!?" asked Applejack. 

"Cutie Mark Crusaders Apocalypse Bringers are a go!" said the three Crusaders at once, high-hooving each other. 

"Now we'll get our cutie marks for sure!" said Sweetie Belle.
> Cutie Mark Crusaders, Bringers of Destruction
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Apple Bloom, what have you three done!?" asked Applejack  as she tried to regain her balance after the earthquake. Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. 

"What have we been talkin' about this whole time? We just awoke ancient gods to destroy all of Equestria," said Apple Bloom. 

"I mean, did you guys think we were kidding?" asked Scootaloo. 

Twilight stood up and with a look of fear on her face. 

"Princess Celestia, what are we going to do?" asked Twilight. Celestia slowly got to her hooves before answering. 

"Like I said, we need to destroy the book! If we do that then all of this can be undone and the demons will lose enough power that they can be defeated with the Elements of Harmony! They have not completed the second ritual yet which means that the ancient gods have not actually broken through, but they do have enough power to choose their harbingers." 

"Are you sayin' we need to destroy this book?" said Apple Bloom. Twilight looked aver and gasped when she saw that Apple Bloom had somehow gotten her saddlebag and was now pulling the book out of it. To the horror of all, it was glowing blood red. Applejack slowly began walking up to the possessed fillies.

"Apple Bloom, I just want you to know that we here ain't mad at ya. We just want to stop you from doin' somethin' foolish. Now, if you do anythin' funny with that book, then I will hafta be mad so please, don't do anythin' bad!" 

"Oh Applejack, it'll be okay," said Sweetie Belle, taking the book from Apple Bloom and putting it on the ground. "Trust us when we say that we know what we are doing." 

Before anyone could do anything at all, the Cutie Mark Crusaders all put a hoof on the book. The red glow brightened considerably and it began engulfing the fillies. 

"NO!" said Celestia fearfully but it was far too late to stop what was happening. When the red glow had engulfed the fillies entirely, it quickly switched to a jet black color. Twilight began to walk closer to it, hoping for a spell that could reverse whatever was happening but she was held back by Celestia. 

"It's too late," said Celestia. At these words, a powerful vibration rocked the library, sending books and ponies flying once again. Twilight found herself slamming against a nearby bookcase and she immediately felt a sharp pain in her right foreleg. She groaned and tried to stand back up but the pain in her leg made her collapse once more. She could only watch as the black glow around the Crusaders pulsated a few more times before it began shrinking.

When it completely rescinded, Twilight gave a loud gasp of shock at what she saw, as did the rest of the group. 

The Cutie Mark Crusaders were no longer standing in front of them. Or at least, not the Crusaders that Twilight knew and loved. Instead, before them stood three large alicorns, just as large as Princess Celestia herself, it not a tad larger. The distinct coloration of the three left no doubt in Twilight's mind that these were the Cutie Mark Crusaders. However, instead of their normal eye colors, their eyes were all jet black with a red ring in the middle. 

The three alicorns looked at each other with elated expressions. 

"Look at us!" said Scootaloo excitedly. "We're alicorns now!" Twilight noted that Scootaloo's voice was deeper, but still distinctly Scootaloo's. It was as if the book had aged them twenty years. 

"I know that the book said that the ancient evil we awoke would reward us beyond our wildest dreams, but this is amazin'!" said Apple Bloom. 

"Do you think we have our cutie marks?" asked Sweetie Belle. 

Immediately the three ponies turned to the sides and looked at their flanks. Emblazoned on each of their flanks were white pony skulls with blood dripping from the teeth. 

The Crusaders looked at them quizzically before they broke out into wide smiles again. 

"Heck, I'll take it!" said Apple Bloom. 

"Me too!" said Scootaloo. 

"What do you think they mean?" asked Sweetie Belle. 

"Well," said Apple Bloom thoughtfully. "If the evil voices in my head whisperin' dark commands to my sub-conscious are anythin' to go by, I'd say that they mean that we are the tools of the destruction of these pathetic lands." 

"NO!" growled Celestia. "I will not let you do that!" Sweetie Belle smirked at her. 

"Oh, and who's gonna stop us, you?" she asked smugly. 

"Yes!" said Celestia as she fired up her horn, ready to obliterate the Crusaders. 

"Before ya try that," said Apple Bloom, holding up a hoof to stop her. "I want to take a little poll." Celestia's horn powered down and she looked at them confusedly. 

"A poll?" she asked. Apple Bloom nodded. 

"Yes, a poll." she said. "Okay, so there have been three major threats to Equestria in the past few years right? Discord, Nightmare Moon, and the Changeling invasion. Now, raise your hoof if you had the power to stop Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony."

The room looked at Apple Bloom silently, none of them quite sure where she was going with this. 

"Okay, how many of you had the power to stop Discord without the Elements of Harmony?" 

The room was silent once more. 

"Okay Celestia, this one's for you: when you and the Changeling Queen got in that duel durin' the weddin' which one of you got their flank kicked by the other?" 

Celestia glared at Apple Bloom but Apple Bloom merely gave her a cutesy smile. 

"Now, the Changeling Queen was powered by Shinin' Armor's love for Cadence, right? That's all it took for her to become more powerful than you are." Apple Bloom used her new magic and picked up the book. "But we are powered by this, a book so powerful that even openin' it can possess a pony. It can summon all-powerful demons upon this world to destroy it."

"That's enough," said Celestia angrily. 

"I guess what I'm gettin' at here," said Apple Bloom. "Is that we're more powerful right now than the Changeling Queen was when she defeated you. Much more powerful."

"Princess Celestia," said Twilight. "Your note said that you brought the Elements with you?" Princess Celestia suddenly looked very uncomfortable at Twilight's observation.

"Well...it is a possibility that I left them in the chariot," said Celestia. 

"You left your only line of defense without any protection in your chariot?" said Scootaloo incredulously. "How ridiculous is that!?"

"Twilight, I need you and your friends to get behind me now," said Celestia. "I have a plan." 

"I'd love to hear it," said Scootaloo. 

"Of course," said Celestia. "You see--"

Before the Crusaders could react, Celestia shot a bright white beam of magic directly at Apple Bloom that hit her squarely in the face, knocking her back against the wall. The dazed Apple Bloom dropped the book and Celestia used it as an opportunity to throw it in Twilight's direction. Twilight caught it and quickly put it in Applejack's saddlebag.

"GO!" said Celestia. "I'll hold them off, get to Canterlot as fast as you can!" 

"Seriously Celestia," said Scootaloo. "You have to remember that we're two feet in front of you and can hear every word you say!" 

The six ponies and one dragon ran out the door before Celestia turned back to them and fired another spell at Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle was quick to react and she immediately put a force field up to protect Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom quickly got to her hooves and shot a jet black beam of magic towards Celestia. Celestia easily dodged it and shot a spell that created a giant mirror in front of the trajectory of Apple Bloom's spell. The mirror caused the spell to ricochet and it zoomed back towards it caster who had to duck to get out of the way. The spell hit the wall behind her and left a giant crater in the wall.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both took to the air and began rapidly firing green beams of energy at Celestia, a move soon copied by Apple Bloom Celestia promptly swung her wing over her body, causing a wall of fire to appear that absorbed all of the beams. Celestia fired up her horn which began glowing brighter and brighter with each spell that her fiery shield absorbed. 

At the exact second that the horn was glowing so bright that it blinded the Crusaders, Celestia swung her wing out and a gigantic green wave flew from Celestia, knocking the Crusaders into the wall and reducing the contents of the library to piles of ash. 

The Crusaders laid on the ground, dazed from Celestia's spell. Celestia landed on the ground with a look of grim satisfaction on her face. 

"You may be more powerful than I am, but you are foolish to think that I do not have better control of the powers that I do have. Do you seriously think that I have not dueled beings of immense power before?" 

"Yeah, and like I said, you got your flank handed to you by Chrysalis," said Apple Bloom. 

"I meant besides that!" said Celestia. "What I lack in power compared to you three I make up for in experience and control."

"How about endurance?" asked Scootaloo. 

"What?" asked Celestia. The Cutie Mark Crusaders slowly rose to their hooves, looking no worse for wear. 

"What she means is, how long can you take vicious punishment as opposed to us?" said Sweetie Belle. "I mean, if we can take your worst attacks without much of a scratch for hours on end, then what can you do against ours?" 

Despite herself, Celestia took a nervous step back. The Crusaders saw this brief display of weakness and grinned evilly at her. 

"See, we won't deny that your attack just now did hurt," said Apple Bloom.

"It hurt quite a lot actually," said Scootaloo with a nod. 

"It was well done," said Sweetie Belle. 

"But the fact remains that we are still standin', even after that attack. But what about you?" 

"What could you do against us?" said Sweetie Belle. Celestia's eyes narrowed and her horn fired up once more. The Crusaders steadied themselves and fired up their horns too. 

"Ya know, you really should just let us begin commandin' the armies of the undead," said Apple Bloom. "It would save us all a whole lotta trouble."

With a cry of anger, Celestia rose into the air and began emitting massive amounts of magic. A gigantic whirlwind appeared and everything in the room, Crusaders included, was swept up in the massive windstorm and thrown around like rag dolls. Celestia slammed the Crusaders into every solid surface that she could find as well as shooting beams of magic at them, all of which hit dead on the mark. 

However, the Crusaders were not out of it yet, even in that state. The three of them fired up their horns and began shooting beams of magic at Celestia as well who had to lessen the amount of magic she was emitting to create the windstorm so she could begin focusing on blocking their spells. It was all of the opening that Sweetie Belle needed to send a wave of energy throughout the library to completely stop the storm.

With the Crusaders back on their feet, they began putting more power into their spells. To her horror, Celestia felt herself becoming weaker and weaker with each passing second. The windstorm had taken a lot out of her and she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep this up. 

However, after a few seconds the Crusaders let up and instead stood in front of Celestia without aggression. 

"Give up yet?" asked Scootaloo. 

"NEVER!" said Celestia. 

"Oh come on," said Apple Bloom. "You're clearly tired. We ain't gonna hurt you any if you surrender both yourself and your lands to our dark overlords." 

"We think that We might have something to say about that!" said a powerful voice from behind them. The Crusaders turned around to see a livid Princess Luna standing in the doorway of the wrecked library. Behind her were Twilight and her friends. 

"Twilight," said Celestia. "What are you doing here? Where is the book?" 

"We hid it after we ran into Luna who was on her way here to help you," said Twilight. "It's in a safe place." 

"Uh, you didn't hide it in the secret cider cellar that my sister keeps insisting we don't have, did ya?" asked Apple Bloom. Twilight's jaw nearly hit the floor. 

"I guess they did," said Scootaloo. 

"Enough!" said Luna. "We are here to put an end to this once and for all! Our sister may be powerful, but when it comes to the art of combat she is woefully lacking!" 

"You can say that again," said Sweetie Belle. Luna fired up her horn and took an aggressive stance. 

"We think that you will find that We are a much more dangerous foe!" said Luna. 

"Maybe," said Apple Bloom. "But why would we waste time fightin' you right now?" 

"Yeah, I mean, we know where the book is so why don't we just go get that and begin our reign?" said Scootaloo. 

Before Luna could respond, the Crusaders fired up their horns and teleported out of the room. Luna fired a beam of energy too late to stop them. 

"Oh no, the book!" said Twilight fearfully. "They're going to get the book!"

Author's note. 

I would like to begin by thanking everypony who has read this story. I wouldn't be doing this without people like you helping me along. In that vein, I would love to submit this story (and others) to Equestria Daily but I am in need of a pre-reader(s). If that is something that interests you, do let me know. Thank you very much! I would also like to say that I do know where I am going with this and I think you'll all be pleased with it going forward. 
> The Pieces are Moving
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle didn't even care that her precious library was, for all intents and purposes, obliterated. She didn't care that hundreds of books that had sat in the library since its inception were nothing more than mere memories at this point. She didn't care that she was pretty much homeless at the moment.

All she cared about was the fact that her mentor had just collapsed on the ground in utter exhaustion. 

"Princess Celestia, are you okay?" asked Twilight.

"I'm fine," said the alicorn. "That took a bit more out of me than I thought it would."

"How powerful are they, Tia? asked Luna. Celestia slowly got up to her hooves and gave Luna a grim look. 

"Far more powerful than either you or I," she said. 

"But...does that mean that we can't stop 'em?" asked Applejack. 

"It's hard to say," said Celestia. "While they are powerful, they still do not understand how to fully use their powers yet." 

"How much of an advantage does that give us?" said Rarity. 

"As of right now, the ancient evil that they have awoken has some influence in Equestria and it is poised to destroy the world, but it cannot just yet."

"Why not?" asked Twilight. 

"Um...excuse me," said Fluttershy quietly but the others didn't hear her. 

"Those three still need to give the final go ahead. Since they are the ones that awoke the evil, they are the ones who can completely unleash it with the second ritual," said Celestia. 

"So, they have some control over the evil that they have awoken?" asked Applejack. 

"Um...not to be a bother or anything--"

"For the time being, yes. Once they succeed in talking over Equestria the spirits in question will not have anything to oppose them."

"But why would they let the Crusaders control anythin' right now?" asked Applejack. 

"If I could just get a word in--"

"That's probably one of the more disturbing aspects of this situation," said Celestia sadly. "You see, what they are doing is giving the three of them so much power that they cannot fail. Throughout the entire ordeal, they will give the Crusaders the illusion that they are in control and that they are the ones who will rule the land. However, once they succeed the demons will remove their power and they will suffer the same fate as the rest of us should they take over. In a way, they are the biggest victims in all of this. They are going to be at the height of power and control before the demons tear them down."

"How do you know all of this?" asked Rainbow Dash. At this, Celestia actually gave a wry smile. 

"It's actually a funny story," she said. "You see, I was rising--"

"Seriously, can I just say something!?" said Fluttershy angrily. The other ponies in the room looked at her quizzically and she shrank back a bit. "I mean...if that's okay with you that is...I guess..."

"What is it, darling?" asked Rarity. 

"Um...well, you see, this expository dialogue is very interesting, but aren't we forgetting something?"

"Like what?" asked Twilight. 

"Like the fact that three nearly all-powerful alicorns possessed by evil spirits and tartarus-bent on taking over the world are currently traveling to get the book that will help them achieve that?"

The others in the room pondered this for a moment before each of their eyes widened. 

"Oh no!" said all of them at once.

Immediately Celestia and Luna took action. They bolted out of the library towards the chariots that had brought the two of them to Ponyville. Both of them got in their respective chariots, followed by Twilight and her friends. Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack went into Celestia's chariot while Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity went into Luna's. 

Before Fluttershy could bring up how nervous she was about all of this, Celestia and Luna combined their magical powers to raise the chariots up before they rocketed towards Sweet Apple Acres.

None of them had ever flown so fast before. The ground beneath them was a mere blur and no distinct features were visible anywhere. They were going so fast that Twilight couldn't even see two feet in front of the chariot. 

All of a sudden, the ride stopped and the chariots screeched to a halt in front of Applejack's farm. Twilight quickly jumped off, eager to be back on the ground. Rainbow Dash jumped off next to her, a look on her face that one could only describe as three levels above pure elation. She turned back to Celestia and, to the surprise of everypony, hugged her forelegs. 

"That...was amazing," she whispered. "When...when we stop the Cutie Mark Crusaders from destroying the world, can we do that again, and again, and again and--"

"Yes Rainbow," said a half-amused Celestia. "But right now we have to focus on the issue at hoof!" 

"Based on your interactions with us so far, I'd say that we're the issue at hoof right now," said Apple Bloom. The others gasped and wheeled around to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing in the entrance of Sweet Apple Acres, evil grins on their faces. Luna looked at them angrily. 

"Thou would do well to stand down!" she said. 

"Uh...or what?" asked Scootaloo. Luna flew a few feet into the air and fired up her horn. 

"Thou shalt have Us to deal with!" she said. "You may have power greater than Our sister's but We are more powerful than she is as well!" 

"Rub it in why don't you?" mumbled Celestia. Sweetie Belle looked at Luna confusedly. 

"Wait, you're more powerful than Celestia?" she asked. 

"But of course!" said Luna with a hint of pride in her voice despite herself. "Why else do you think she needed the Elements to defeat Us when We became Nightmare Moon?" 

"So...if you and Celestia got in a fight right now without holdin' back, you'd come out on top?" said Apple Bloom. 

"Uh Luna, do not answer that," said Celestia nervously. 

"But of course!" said Luna. "We would surely be the victor!" Celestia facehooved Luna and gave a frustrated sigh. 

"She may be stronger but when it comes to basic common sense I wipe the floor with her," said Celestia. 

"So...can we maybe get a demonstration?" asked Scootaloo. "I mean, we're just curious to see if you’re actually right."

"We don't want to see you obliterate each other or anythin', we just want to see if you're right."

"Just out of curiosity."

"NO!" said Luna. "We are here to defeat you three, not fight each other." 

"So you're here for this then?" asked Sweetie Belle. Twilight gasped as she saw Sweetie Belle hold up the book. When Luna saw it, she fired the spell she had been charging up and fired it directly at the book. However, the spell stopped just short of both the book and the Crusaders and dissolved harmlessly. Luna's jaw dropped. 

"What is the meaning of this!?" she asked. Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes. 

"We put a protection spell up because we knew full well you'd do that, duh!" she said. 

"I mean, how dumb do you think we are?" asked Scootaloo. A dark expression crossed Luna's face and she fired up her horn once more. 

"You would do well to hand over the book," she said angrily. "We will go much easier on you if you do!"

"Uh...we'll go much easier on you if you give up right now too!" said Scootaloo. "So there!" 

Luna's eyes narrowed. 

"So be it," she said. 

Celestia's eyes widened and she put up a force field over Twilight and her friends. 

"Tell me she isn't..." whispered Celestia. 

"Isn't gonna what?" asked Applejack. 

"Applejack, how much does one of your apple trees cost?" asked Celestia. "And while we're on the subject, how much would your house and barn be worth too?" Applejack's eyes widened.

"NO!!" she screamed, running towards Luna but it was too late. Luna's horn shone brighter than any of them, sans Celestia, had ever seen it glow. In that moment, the sun itself fell from the sky, giving way to the moon which was raised with a speed that they had never seen before. 

"Oh this is gonna be good, I can tell!" said Scootaloo excitedly. 

Somehow Luna's horn shone even brighter and to the surprise of everypony in attendance, even Celestia this time, the moon's glow began growing steadily darker until it was nothing more than a dark rock in the sky. Luna on the other hoof, was glowing brightly and violently convulsing in the air. 

The fear in everypony's eyes kept steadily increasing as Luna was possessed by the sheer power of the moon itself. Luna gave a loud shout that nearly deafened everypony before releasing the power of the moon upon the unsuspecting farm. 

Instantly everything that wasn't behind a shield of some sort was disintegrated and the sheer force of the spell also blew the dust of what had once been Sweet Apple Acres away. The shields of both Celestia and the Cutie Mark Crusaders shattered instantly and the ponies behind them were flung in all directions. It was all that Celestia could to to protect the wielders from becoming nothing more than a red stain on the ground. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were sent flying as well and the book was flung from Sweetie Belle's grasp. 

However, despite the fact that the effects of the spell seemed to last an eternity, it was really over in a few seconds. 

Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes. She was vaguely aware that she was lying on the ground, but every joint in her body felt like somepony had set them on fire. She began trying to move, but her body violently protested that action by bestowing more pain upon her. 

"Princess Celestia, help me," she said weakly. However, no reply came from her mentor. She managed to turn her head enough to see the alicorn of the sun lying on the ground not far from where Twilight herself was. She was shakily getting to her hooves. 

Twilight bit the bullet and got to her hooves as well, despite every inch of her body telling her to do otherwise. She walked up to Celestia who was casting spells to heal Twilight's friends. Slowly, the other five stood up as well, all still clearly in pain despite Celestia's spell. When Celestia cast the spell on Twilight, Twilight felt much of the pain recede. Or at least, enough pain went away that she could stand up.

"What was that?" asked Twilight. 

"That," said Celestia. "Is a spell that is known by many different names. One tribe of the ancients called it 'wirklich mächtiger Mondzauber', while another called it 'kouzlo, které spisovatel dělal, protože to znělo v pohodě'. I think you would know it best as Luna Rising."

"Speaking of which," said Rarity. "What happened to Luna?" The seven ponies looked over to where Luna had cast the spell. They were horrified to see Princess Luna lying on the ground, whimpering pathetically as tears streamed from her face. Celestia's eyes widened and she rushed over to her sister. Twilight and her friends followed suit. 

"Is she going to be okay?" asked Twilight worriedly as she looked at the whimpering princess of the night. Celestia put a hoof on Luna's forehead.

"Shhh," she said soothingly. "It's over now. You just need to relax for now and we'll take care of everything." Luna continued whimpering and shaking on the ground. "She's going to need months to recover from this," said Celestia grimly. "Nopony can have that much power at one time and not suffer serious consequences."

"Consequences like 'it didn't work as well as you had hoped'?" asked Scootaloo. The seven ponies wheeled around to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders looking at the scene with grim satisfaction. However, the spell had clearly done some serious damage to them as well. Each of them looked twenty years older and their manes were starting to gray a little. While they stood there with confidence, the seven of them could see that they were slightly shaking, as if each of them barely had the strength to stand. Twilight shifted her eyes around to see if she could find where the book had landed. To her delight, she saw it about fifty feet from where Apple Bloom was standing, unnoticed by the Crusaders. If she could just...

"We have to admit that it was the best effort to stop us yet," said Scootaloo. 

"I don't think being run over by a train would hurt so much as that did!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"But, in the end we're still a bit ahead here," said Apple Bloom. "I hafta imagine that Celestia's protection and healing spells, plus her battle with us took a lot out of her."

"Certainly enough that we could defeat her easily," said Sweetie Belle with a nod. Celestia took an aggressive stance once more but the Crusaders were ready for her attacks so they fired up their horns and sent forth a large blast wave towards the seven ponies, easily knocking them back. 

As the ponies recovered, the Crusaders slowly walked up to the shivering Luna and stood over her. 

"Don't you dare hurt her!" said Celestia angrily as she rose to her hooves to defend her helpless sister. 

"Don't worry," said Apple Bloom. "We won't." 

Before Celestia could react the Cutie Mark Crusaders fired up their horns once more and shot a spell that hit Luna directly in the head. Luna gave a shriek of pain before she was enveloped in a large white glow. 

"NOOOOOO!" said Celestia, trying her best to run over to her sister. 

"No no, that's fine," said Sweetie Belle sarcastically. "We don't mind it if you're being stereotypical and overly-dramatic.

As the glowing figure on the ground writhed in pain, Twilight saw it slowly becoming bigger and its features becoming sharper. She turned to Celestia who had collapsed on the ground once more from sheer exhaustion and tried to think of something to say or do to help her. However, there was nothing that any of them could do but watch. 

Slowly the light began to fade, revealing a form on the ground that Celestia herself had thought long since defeated. 

"Hi there," said Scootaloo. "We've been expecting you."

Slowly the menacing figure of Nightmare Moon rose to its hooves, an evil smile plastered over her face. 

"I take it that thou art the ones who have freed me from that pathetic princess' mind?" she asked. Her voice was even more menacing and terrifying than Twilight had remembered it. It was like evil itself had suddenly found a voice.

"Well, not exactly," said Sweetie Belle. 

"Then how am I here?" asked Nightmare Moon interestedly. 

"Well," said Apple Bloom. "It's kind of complicated and involves a lot of math and leaps in logic...or something like that. Basically we're three fillies who awoke an ancient evil and we figured that since you hate Celestia so much, you might as well join in the fun!" 

"Indeed?" said Nightmare Moon. "I suppose that I can get behind that kind of thinking."

Twilight noticed Celestia trying to get up and she did he best to motion over to her. Thankfully, Celestia noticed and looked quizzically at Twilight. Twilight inclined her head towards the chariot and gave a vigorous nod. Celestia returned the nod and went to fire up her horn while Twilight did likewise. 

"What shalt we do now?" asked Nightmare Moon. 

"Now we find the book that'll tell us how to gain control of our army of the undead so we can pillage and burn all of Equestria!" said Sweetie Belle. "I'm pretty sure it's around here somewhere if we can just--" 

At that moment, Celestia and Twilight both fired off their spells. Celestia sent forth a blast wave that, because she was so weak at the moment, did nothing more than make the four alicorns in front of her stumble back a bit. Twilight's spell was a summoning one and it hit the book directly and it quickly zipped over to her before the Crusaders or Nightmare Moon could stop it. When it was close enough, she grabbed the book in her teeth and with every last ounce of strength she possessed, she stood up and ran towards the chariot. She looked back to see her friends and Princess Celestia running towards the chariot as well, each of them clearly in pain from the after effects of Luna's spell. 

To Twilight's surprise, she saw Nightmare Moon's wings unfold as she went to go give chase to the fleeing ponies but Apple Bloom extended a foreleg and held her back. Twilight didn't have time nor the mental capacity to think about why Apple Bloom wasn't letting Nightmare Moon obliterate them on the spot. She just dove into the chariot, followed closely by her friends and Celestia. 

Instantly the chariot rose into the air and zoomed away from what had once been Sweet Apple Acres. 

Nightmare Moon looked at the Cutie Mark crusaders quizzically. 

"Why did you not let me destroy them when they went to flee?" she asked. "It would have been no trouble!"

"I know," said Apple Bloom. "But I get the feelin' that we might be headin' in the same direction anyways. Besides, what's the fun in beating an already helpless opponent?" Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow. 

"Why dost thou feel we are headed in the same direction?"

"Well, if they have the book then they're gonna go to the Canterlot library to see how to stop us," said Scootaloo. 

"However," said Sweetie Belle. "We're going to Canterlot because there's this statue in the Canterlot gardens that I would like to revisit."
> It Hits the Fan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The chariot touched down right in front of the royal palace at 800 miles an hour, leaving a significant crater where it had landed and causing the very foundations of the castle to shake ever so slightly. However, Celestia's magic prevented any damage to anything except the ground and one or two support beams in the palace, but at least the ponies inside the chariot were safe. 

Instantly the seven ponies jumped out of the chariot, pausing only to flip the keys to a bewildered valet, before they all limped towards the Canterlot Library 

"Are you sure that a way to stop them can be found in the Canterlot Library?" asked Twilight. Celestia dramatically turned back to Twilight.

"Of course!" said Princess Celestia. 

"And do you know what kind of stuff we're looking for?" asked Applejack. Celestia dramatically turned back to Applejack.

"Of course!" 

"And do you know where to begin looking for it?" asked Rarity. 

"Of course...not," finished Celestia lamely. 

"What do you mean!?" asked Twilight as the group turned towards the corridor that led to the library with Twilight taking the lead.

"Well, how often does something like this really come up?" asked Celestia. "Besides, you know how gigantic the library is!"

"Well yeah," said Twilight. "But haven't you memorized the entire library yet? You're thousands of years old!" Celestia rolled her eyes. 

"Twilight, have you memorized the title and location of every book in the Ponyville library?" asked Celestia. Twilight dramatically turned back to Celestia.

"Of course!"

Celestia rolled her eyes and in a few moments, the seven ponies walked into the Canterlot Library. Immediately Twilight felt at home and a large mount of stress faded away as the familiar smell of the thousands of books hit her. The library was an simple affair on the whole. There were hundreds of rows of old books on every subject that one could possibly imagine. The sea of shelves seemed to stretch on forever, something that Twilight always found relaxing. In terms of decor, the library was rather sparsely decorated. The walls were a dark green with very little in terms of actual decoration on them. There was an occasional poster about reading but on the whole, the walls were rather bare. 

"Okay," said Celestia. "We need to find books that could possibly contain any information on stopping the three of them! Pinkie Pie and Rarity, you should--"

"Shhh!" 

The seven ponies looked to the source of the noise to see an irate looking gray mare looking at them with a hoof over her lips. Celestia gave the librarian a perplexed look before turning back to the group. 

"As I was saying, Pinkie and Rarity, check the section on dark magic, Applejack and Rainbow, check the section on evil deities, Fluttershy, Twilight, and I will check the section on evil books."

"Uh, beggin' your pardon Princess, but shouldn't we just be lookin' in that section?" asked Applejack. 

"Yeah, I mean, it sounds like it has the most relevant information," said Rainbow. "Wouldn't it be better if we--"

"SHHH!" said the librarian once more Rainbow glared at her before she continued. 

"Wouldn't it be better if we all just checked that section first?"

Celestia sighed and nodded. 

"I suppose so," she said. "Alright, follow me."

With one last irritated glance at the librarian, something she gladly returned, the seven ponies walked over to the 'evil books' section of the Canterlot Library. 

"So quick question," said Rarity. "Why does the library have a whole section devoted to evil books?" 

"So we have somewhere concrete to go when we are looking for books like the one we are looking for," said Celestia. Rarity's mouth opened but promptly closed again. 

"No, I have nothing for that," she mumbled. 

Despite the vastness of the library, the seven ponies arrived in the evil books section in only a minute or so. The evil books section was comprised of only three shelves, each packed with books. The paint on the walls was somehow darker in this section as if the nature of the books reflected and tainted the area where they sat. Twilight felt a small feeling of dread settle into her stomach as if the books didn't want them to be there. However, she pressed onwards and began scanning the titles.

101 Ways to Start a Fight. No.

Transformers: The Movie Novelization. No.

Why PG-13 Remakes of Popular 80s Slashers are a Good Thing. No.

The Origin of the Pinkie Promise. Uh...

Why Oscar Choices are Always Right. Who organized these things?

The Old Man and the Sea as Presented by the Characters of To Kill a Mockingbird. Wha...?

Insert Title Here. 

Twilight looked up from the book covers with a perplexed look on her face.

"What the heck!?" she mumbled to herself. Celestia looked up from the books she was looking at and saw where Twilight was. 

"I take it that you haven't found anything," she said. 

"No, not really," admitted Twilight. 

"How about How to Stop a Book of Evil?" asked Pinkie Pie. The other six ponies gasped loudly. 

"SHHH!" said the librarian, popping out from the other side of a bookcase. 

"Pinkie, where did you find that?" asked Twilight. 

"It was under 'H'!" said Pinkie in a sing-song voice. Twilight shook her head, there was just no explaining Pinkie Pie, and used her magic to bring the book over to herself. She flipped it open and scanned the pages, hoping for information on how to stop the evil book that currently resided in Twilight's saddlebag. The other six ponies looked at her nervously.

"Are you finding anything useful, darling?" asked Rarity. 

"I'm not sure yet," said Twilight. "I think that this book has us on the right track, but I'm not sure where..." All of a sudden, Twilight's jaw dropped. "Oh no," she whispered. 

"What is it?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"If this book is right, I just found out who can destroy the book and banish the demons back to their world," said Twilight. 

"Why is that a bad thing?" asked Fluttershy. 

"Well...the book says that the only ponies who can destroy the book are the ones who opened it in the first place!" 

"I take it that means us, right?" said Scootaloo. Twilight and her friends all jumped back a few feet at the sight of the Crusaders. Princess Celestia, on the other hoof, slowly got to her hooves and took an aggressive stance. 

"Would you three please stop popping up like that?" said Rainbow irritatedly. "It's getting on my nerves!" 

"I'll bet it is," said Apple Bloom. "But you know what gets on my nerves? What gets on my nerves is that my friends and I come all the way to Canterlot to release Discord but when we--"

"SHHH!!!," said the librarian once more as she pushed a cart of books past the group. Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. 

"--but when we actually get to the gardens, we find out that somepony moved his statue!"

"Of course I did," said Celestia with a hint of smugness in her voice. "Did you think that I would be so foolish as to keep his statue out in the open after what happened last time?" 

"Well...yeah," said Sweetie Belle. 

"I am not so foolish as to do that!" said Celestia angrily. "His statue is safe from the likes of you forever!" 

"We'll see," said Scootaloo. "We've got Nightmare Moon looking for it right now."

"And if any of Luna's memories are still in there, then she knows where you hid Discord and what you used to keep him there," said Apple Bloom. Celestia's eyes widened but she quickly regained her composure. 

"Maybe so," she said. "But I think I have a few tricks left to defeat you three!" 

Instantly Celestia fired up her horn and the box containing the Elements of Harmony instantly appeared out of nowhere. Before the Crusaders could respond to this new development, Celestia quickly opened the box and put the necklaces on each of the ponies before putting the tiara on Twilight's head. 

"Why didn't she do that earlier again?" asked Apple Bloom quizzically.

"Oh yeah, the Elements of Harmony. I wondered when they would come into play," said Scootaloo. 

"Right now it seems," said Apple Bloom. 

"And now they will be used to bring about your downfall!" said Celestia. She nodded to Twilight who fired up her horn, ready to power up the Elements to defeat the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The Crusaders fired up their horns in response, ready to block whatever attack the Elements could throw at them. 

However, before the battle could begin, a certain gray distraction popped up between the fighters. 

"SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Instantly, everything powered down and the combatants looked confusedly at the very angry librarian. 

"Seriously?" mumbled Twilight. 

"If you're going to have a battle of this nature, do it outside!" yelled the librarian. "Otherwise I need you to simply read quietly so as to not disturb anypony else who may be reading!" The Crusaders looked at each other before Scootaloo fired up her horn and shot a beam at the librarian that obliterated her instantly. Twilight's jaw hit the floor. 

"What did you do that for!?"

"Well she was annoying!" said Scootaloo. 

"Ya didn't have to kill her though!" said Applejack. 

"We didn't," said Sweetie Belle. "We just sent her to an alternate dimension where all librarians who try to stop battles like this go."

"She'll have at least twelve other librarians to talk to," said Apple Bloom. 

Twilight looked at the scorch mark on the floor where the librarian used to be before she shook her head and fired up the Elements once more. The Crusaders followed suit and Celestia used some of her partially recharged strength to put up a shield. 

Twilight felt the magic of the Elements of Harmony surge through her and she began focusing on the power of the Elements towards the Crusaders. She felt hope course through her veins as the Elements became more and more powerful. She began to get the feeling that everything was going to be alright, that the elements would stop the Crusaders and they could go back to the way things were before this whole mess had started. 

In the second that Twilight felt the power of the Elements reach its peak, she fired the raw power that the Elements produced at the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

The Crusaders tensed up a bit as the rainbow shot towards them and for good reason. The power of the Elements instantly broke through their defensive spell and engulfed them in its pure cleansing power. To Twilight's delight and horror, she heard the Crusaders give cries of pain and terror as the Elements of Harmony did their job. She gave a grim smile at the realization that they had defeated the Crusaders. 

After a few more seconds, Twilight powered down the Elements and the six ponies stopped levitating and Celestia powered down her shield too. They all looked at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, hoping that they had won. To their delight and sadness, the alicorn Crusaders were lying on the ground, their battered bodies lying still except for the occasional twitch. Applejack looked at them worriedly. 

"Are they..." Celestia shook her head. 

"I don't think so," she said solemnly. "However, I think they are in a great deal of pain. Being stripped of that much power does that to a pony."

Twilight walked up to the defeated Crusaders and placed a hoof gently on Apple Bloom's head. 

"I know this hurts, but we need you to do something if you want to make the pain go away," said Twilight. "We need you to destroy the book." Apple Bloom looked up at Twilight, pain etched across her face. 

"H...how?" she asked weakly. Twilight walked up to the book she had been reading and leafed through it. 

"It says here that you just need to burn it if you want to destroy it," said Twilight. She pulled the book out of her saddlebag and held it up. The Crusaders slowly got to their hooves and looked at the book. 

"Why would we want to destroy it?" asked Apple Bloom. Twilight's eyes widened. 

"But..."

"We have power if the book is still around, we have our cutie marks!" said Sweetie Belle. "Why would we give that up?"

"But..." 

"I mean, what can you do to make us destroy the book?" asked Scootaloo. "Particularly when it's not gonna be hard to get it away from you." 

Twilight's eyes widened some more but she didn't react fast enough to Apple Bloom's spell. Apple Bloom used the last of her strength to rip the book out of the air and pull it towards the Crusaders who instantly placed a hoof on it. Immediately, they were surrounded by a black glow once more. 

Twilight desperately tried to fire up the Elements before the book could do any more damage, but it was far too late for that. The black glow faded to reveal three clearly recharged Crusaders. They looked like they hadn't taken any damage at all over the course of the day as each of them looked fresh and ready for battle once more. Twilight tried to power up the Elements faster but Sweetie Belle shot a spell out of her horn and the Elements promptly vanished. 

Twilight gasped and felt around her head, hoping that the Element of Magic had merely become invisible, but it was no use. Sweetie Belle had made them disappear. 

"Where are the Elements!?" asked Twilight. "How could you have destroyed them!?"

"They didn't," said Celestia. "They can't, nopony can, it's impossible."

"Yep," said Apple Bloom. "But it is possible to teleport them somewhere else."

"Where did you take them?" growled Twilight. 

"Calm down Twilight, we didn't put them that far away and we didn't separate them either." 

"I think that's another thing that's impossible," said Scootaloo. 

"Still, we'd love to stay and chat, but there's a certain god of chaos that we want to meet for real!" said Apple Bloom. 

"So if you'll excuse us," said Sweetie Belle, tipping her head slightly in a mocking bow. 

The three fired up their horns and vanished into thin air. 

The seven ponies stood in place for a few moments, each desperately trying to think of what to do next. 

"Princess Celestia, what do we do?" asked Twilight worriedly. Celestia racked her brains, desperately trying to think of something to do, some new way out of the mess that they had fallen into. The Crusaders had the book, almost unlimited power, the Elements of Harmony could stop them, but they had been transported who knows where, Nightmare Moon had returned, and the only ponies that could destroy the book were the Crusaders themselves. 

"I don't...I don't..." 

"Hey," said Pinkie Pie, looking out the window. "Since when are clouds made out of cotton candy?"
> And Then Knocks it and the Four Fans Next to it Over
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"WHAT!?" said Celestia.

"The clouds," said Pinkie Pie, pointing out the window. "They're made of cotton candy."

Immediately the other six rushed over to the window and sure enough, the clouds were made of cotton candy which was one of the signature moves of...

"Discord," whispered Celestia.

"In the flesh!" said a chillingly familiar voice from behind them. The seven ponies turned around to see the gleefully evil Draconniquus standing behind them with a gigantic grin on his face

"Discord!" repeated Celestia.

"You already said that Celestia," said Discord. "You shouldn't repeat yourself like that."

"Behind me, now!" commanded Celestia. Twilight and her friends immediately went behind Celestia, each knowing that this was a futile effort. Apparently Discord thought so too so he snapped his fingers and in an instant, the Mane Six suddenly appeared behind him. The six of them gasped when they realized that they weren't behind their beloved monarch anymore and they began running back towards Celestia, hoping that she wouldn't be too caught off guard to stop Discord from pulling another stunt like that again. 

At it just so happened, she wasn't and before they got two feet, Discord snapped his fingers with an evil laugh and the six appeared behind him once more. 

"Stop that at once, Discord!" said Celestia angrily as the six and Discord repeated the process. 

"Oh Celestia, why would I do that? This is far too fun!" said Discord happily. "I mean, you should have seen the looks on your faces when I did it the first time!"

"Let us go, Discord!" said Twilight. 

"Why?" said Apple Bloom. "You're probably safer behind him then behind such a weak ruler, don't ya think?" 

"Seriously girls, can you stop just popping up randomly?" asked Rainbow Dash. 

Indeed they had popped up randomly, along with Nightmare Moon and between the five of them, they surrounded the six. Twilight looked desperately at Celestia, her eyes pleading her to help them out of this situation. However, the battle with the Crusaders had clearly weakened Celestia, and there was no way that a severely weakened Celestia could take on 5 powerful beings alone without the Elements of Harmony. 

"Well, well, well, Celestia, it seems that the shoe is on the other foot now, isn't it?" said Discord smugly. Before Celestia could respond, Discord snapped his fingers and instantly all of the books in the library sprouted wings and began flying around. Another librarian, a tired looking brown Earth Pony stallion, walked by the group and saw the twelve powerful beings all ready to do battle and the books flying around. He sighed to himself. 

"I knew that my spilled coffee meant that I'd have a bad day," he mumbled. "I gotta get that Ponyville transfer"

"Never!" said Twilight, "That library's mine!"

"We have bigger issues at hand right now sugar cube!" said Applejack.

"Like what!?" sad Twilight, wheeling around to angrily glare at Applejack now. The room was dead silent for a moment before Twilight realized that four ponies, six demigod alicorns, and a Draconniquus were all looking at her with bewildered looks on their faces. "Oh."

"Are...are you okay?" asked Apple Bloom.

"The child is right, do you really obsess over your library like that?" asked Nightmare Moon.

"I'm fine," said Twilight. "Really I am."

"I mean jeez, it was just a passing comment meant to cope with what he was seeing, calm down Twilight Sparkle," said Discord. 

"Okay, I get it, thanks," said Twilight. 

"I knew I should have arranged for you to room with Pinkie Pie when you first came to Ponyville," said Celestia as she facehooved. 

At that moment, Twilight's mind left her body and she suddenly experienced the alternate timeline that occurred if Princess Celestia had indeed arranged for Twilight Sparkle to become Pinkie Pie's roommate when she had first come to Ponyville. 

However, at that moment, a bizarre version of SOPA appeared which stated that nopony who has a pen name beginning with the letter 'B' can expressly describe that situation. As such, the details of what Twilight saw were lost forever. 

As it was, she woke up on the floor with her friends (and enemies) standing over her with worried looks. 

"Are you alright, darling?" asked Rarity. 

"Connect-six with a scrunchie band on the underwater moon," mumbled Twilight. 

"Speak a little more rationally if you please," said Discord. Twilight glared and stood up. 

"Where were we?" 

"Tangenting," said Pinkie Pie. 

"Ah yes," said Twilight. She cleared her throat. "You'll never get away with this, Discord?"

"That's the best you can come up with?" asked Discord who promptly turned Nightmare Moon's helmet into the one Sauron wore. "I think that you will find that we are more...imaginative than that."

Twilight and her friends formed a tighter circle as the five evil beings came closer to them. 

"I call Rainbow Dash!" said Scootaloo. 

"Uh...what!?" asked Rainbow Dash weakly. 

"ENOUGH OF THIS!!" said Celestia angrily. "I will not let you harm them!" 

The five turned to Celestia with evil grins on their face. 

"And how are you going to stop us in your weakened state without the Elements of Harmony?" asked Nightmare Moon. 

"Yes Celestia," said Discord. "I could make them endure the torture of being turned to stone for thousands of years. It is truly maddening but you wouldn't know because like I said before, I don't turn ponies into stone!!!"

"Uh, 'scuse me, Mr. Discord?" said Apple Bloom. Discord turned to look at Apple Bloom with a look of utter bewilderment on his face. Clearly he had never been addressed as 'Mr. Discord'.

"Y...yes?"

"So you say that you don't turn ponies into stone," said Apple Bloom. 

"Yes, that's right," he said. 

"Why not?" 

"Huh?"

"Why don't you turn ponies into stone? Do you have the power to do that?" asked Apple Bloom. Everypony in the room began looking at Discord curiously. Discord looked deep in thought but he slowly began nodding. He turned to Celestia and snapped his fingers. 

"NOOOOOO!!!!!" said Twilight, reaching out to Celestia. 

"Again, we really don't mind if you're overly-dramatic and stereotypical," said Sweetie Belle. 

However, despite Twilight's dramatic display, the goddess of the sun, the ruler of all Equestria was turned, not into stone, but into a giant Celestia plushie. Twilight's eyes widened in horror. 

"Uh Discord, that's not stone," said Scootaloo. 

"I know," said Discord, walking up the plushie with an evil grin on his face. "But she has the consistency of stone!" He rapped his paw on Celestia and sure enough, she had the consistency of stone. Scootaloo shrugged. 

"Close enough," she said. 

The six friends stared in horror at their solidified leader, each silently wondering what in Equestria they were going to do now. Applejack leaned in next to Pinkie Pie. 

"Uh Pinks, anytime you want to use your physics breakin' powers would be okay with us," she whispered. 

"I can only do it when it's funny," she whispered back. Applejack grimaced. 

Unfortunately, their whispers had attracted the attention of the evil beings in the room. They stared at the helpless ponies with looks of evil joy in their eyes. 

"Isn't it so fun being evil?" said Discord. 

"Oh yeah, this is great!" said Apple Bloom. 

"I don't know why we didn't try to get our cutie marks in evil before now!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"This is way more fun than zip-lining!" said Scootaloo. 

"The night will last forever!" said Nightmare Moon. She then burst out into evil laughter that struck terror into the hearts of the six ponies lying helplessly on the floor. They didn't know what to do! Rarity leaned in next to Twilight. 

"Twilight darling, do you think you could teleport us out of here?" she asked. Twilight blinked for a few moments before she facehooved. 

"Oh yeah, I completely forgot about that!" she said. She fired up her horn and began the mass teleportation spell. Thankfully the five evil beings were still laughing so the initial part of the spell went unnoticed. However, they were not nearly as unobservant as Celestia could be at times so they noticed what Twilight was doing pretty quickly. 

"Hey!" said Sweetie Belle. "You can't leave yet!" 

However, Twilight's spell had reached its full potential and the six teleported out of the library. However, the last thing in the library that Twilight saw was Discord grinning at them and snapping his fingers. 

The six landed somewhere outside the gardens. Thankfully, nothing much had changed outside (it seemed Discord only had time to change the clouds before the confrontation) and the five evil beings had not come after them yet. They all stood up and dusted themselves off. 

"Thanks for remindi...huh!?" said Twilight. Her eyes widened when she got a good look at her friends who were all looking at each other with looks of horror on their faces too. 

"What did he do to us!?" said a horrified Twilight.










Author's note: I am writing this to do two things: First, I would like to thank everypony who has read this. It means a lot to me that people read my stories like this and genuinely enjoy reading them. Secondly, I know that I put out a lot of chapters but I am going to have to inform you that I am not sure how frequent I can be in the near future. You see, in a move tat Scootaloo herself would be both proud of and embarrassed by, I crashed on my scooter (a simple razor scooter) and instantly snapped my left clavicle in half. As such, this chapter was written with one hand or with both, the other one just being in a sling. I would also like to attribute anything you found too weird to the pain meds I am on. Now, I can continue to write like I am now, but I may need surgery to fix my clavicle so don't be surprised if you don't see anything from me for a small while. Thank you for your understanding and above all, thank you for reading! 



> Replacing the Axe
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight Sparkle stared straight forward at...herself? No, there was no way that she could be looking at herself! However, Discord had gotten a spell (or whatever it was that he did) off before Twilight teleported the six of them out of there. Still, how could she be looking at herself? How could herself be looking at her with the same level of confusion?

"What did he do to us!?" said Twilight. Good, it was still her voice. 

"I...I think he switched our bodies around!" said herself in...Rarity's voice? Twilight's jaw hit the floor, only it wasn't her jaw anymore: it was Pinkie Pie's. She looked down at her body and let out a yelp. Sure enough, her body was bright pink and her mane and tail were bright and bouncy. 

"This can't be happening!" said Twilight.

"But it is," said Applejack's voice coming out of Fluttershy's body. "I think Discord changed our bodies around!"

"No duh!" said Rainbow Dash's voice coming out of Applejack's body.

"Woo hoo! I've always wanted to be Rainbow Dash!" said Pinkie Pie's voice coming out of Rainbow's body which was happily bouncing up and down.

"Oh dear," said Fluttershy's voice coming out of Rarity's body.

"What do we do now!?" asked Twi...Pie...TwiPie? PinkieDash screeched to a halt in midair. 

"Is this some bizarre form of shipping?" she asked angrily. 

No there will be no shipping involved ever, but what else were they going to be called? PinkieDash shrugged. 

"Makes sense to me," she said. 

"Okay, PinkieDash's weirdness aside," said AppleShy. "We need to find the Elements of Harmony; they're the only thing that can stop this!" 

"But where would they have sent them!?" asked RariLight. "They could be anywhere across Equestria!" 

"Well," said RainbowJack thoughtfully. "If the Crusaders are the ones that banished them, do you think that they banished them somewhere familiar to them?"

"What do you mean?" asked FlutteRity. 

"Well, RariLight (gosh, it sounds so dumb when you say it out loud doesn't it?) said that they could be anywhere across Equestria, but to transport something somewhere, you have to have a good mental picture of the image, right?" 

TwiPie nodded. 

"Yeah, otherwise the teleportation just flat out doesn't work!" 

"Exactly," said RainbowJack. "So, we know the girls haven't really every been outside Ponyville before, right?" 

"Except for the weddin'," said AppleShy. 

"Right, but they weren't here long enough to get a good mental picture of anything here and I doubt that they would send them someplace where we could collect them in a few minutes which leaves..."

"Ponyville," said RariLight. 

TwiPie's eyes widened. 

"Of course, I'll bet the Elements are in their clubhouse! It's the only place that I can think of that the three of them could visualize well enough to teleport the Elements to!" 

"Do you think the librarian's there too?" asked FlutteRity nervously. 

"There's no time for silly questions!" said TwiPie. "We have to go get the Elements!" The other four whooped their approval and they began to rush towards the Canterlot train depot. 

However, they were stopped when they saw the most unusual sight in front of them: Discord, Nightmare Moon, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders were running towards the Canterlot Statue Garden with looks of pure elation on their faces. Discord was holding the Celestia statue over his head like a surfboard and giggling like a maniac while the other four ran behind him. 

"I suggest we put that vile alicorn right where your statue once stood!" said Nightmare Moon. 

"Too stereotypical," said Discord. "She needs a new, special spot to occupy. 

"Face first in the Canterlot Pool?" suggested Sweetie Belle. "On the off chance that she turns back to Celestia, she would wake up underwater!" Discord and Nightmare Moon cheered at this suggestion and they all ran towards the Canterlot pool. 

"Remember the deal, after the first ten years I get to send her statue to the moon!" said Nightmare Moon. 

"Yes, yes, we get it," said Apple Bloom. "You want her sent to the moon; you don't need to say it eighteen times."

"Oh no," mumbled TwiPie to herself. "They're going to...uh...well, you heard." 

"What can we do without the Elements?" asked AppleShy. 

"I don't know, and frankly we can't do anything without them so we just have to get the Elements then come back to Canterlot to free Celestia, Luna, and the Crusaders before trapping Discord." 

"Are you sure we have that much power in us?" asked RainbowJack. 

"We have to try," said RariLight. "We have to take baby steps."

"Uh, RainbowJack," said PinkieDash. "Why did you break a Pinkie Promise!?" RainbowJack looked at PinkieDash confusedly. 

"I don't recall breaking a Pinkie Promise!" she said. 

"You did," said PinkieDash. "You Pinkie Promised that you would help Twilight move clouds over her library but you went and took a nap instead!" TwiPie's eyes widened as she remembered the incident. 

"That's right, you did do that!" said TwiPie. "I wondered where you were."

"Look guys, I think I would recall breaking a Pinkie Promise!" said RainbowJack. 

"But you did!" said PinkieDash. "I'm remembering it right now as if it was my own memory!" 

"But how is that possible?" asked AppleShy. "We only switched bodies!" 

"It's possible because I made it so," said a malicious voice behind them. The six wheeled around to see Discord reclining on a bush with the other four around him. 

"What do you mean?" asked TwiPie nervously. Discord grinned and sat up. 

"I made it so that your memories begin to switch as well as your bodies. Slowly but surely your minds will switch to the same body!" 

"So...I have my memories right now, but Pinkie's body," said TwiPie. "But eventually my mind will take on Pinkie Pie's identity?" Discord grinned and nodded. 

"But won't that mean that everything is back to normal? We'll still be around with no significant changes!" Discord stood up and leaned his elbow against Nightmare Moon. 

"A man named Jason who calls himself David once posted a variation of this riddle in a book he wrote with a tragic ending:

A man buys an axe from a hardware store and on the way home; he is attacked by a giant spider as large as a man. Naturally, he takes his axe and uses it to chop off the spider's head. However, in the effort the handle shatters so he goes back to the hardware store and buys a new handle for the axe. However, on his way back home, is attacked once more by an insect as large as a man, only this time it is a gigantic wasp. Once more, he chops the wasp's head off with the axe but he finds out that in the process, he made several large dents in the head of the axe. So, he once again goes back to the hardware store where he buys a new axe head. The riddle is this: is the axe he has now the same axe that he purchased that morning?


The same applies to you six. Will you cease to be Twilight Sparkle once Pinkie Pie's memories take over your own or will you still be Twilight Sparkle only 100% Pinkie Pie at the same time?" 

TwiPie's mouth opened to respond, but she immediately closed it. Discord grinned at them. "It's something to think about, isn't it?" 

TwiPie shook her head to clear it. 

"Enough of this! We're going to find the Elements of Harmony right now!"

"Good," said Apple Bloom happily. "'Cause we're goin' to go to the spot where the book wants us to go to officially summon the armies of the undead. Once they take over, the true evil spirits behind all of this will take over completely and we will rule the word!" 

"Seriously though, I call Rainbow Dash!" said Scootaloo. 

"What does that even mean!?" asked RainbowJack. 

"Well, the evil voices in my head are telling me that we each get to keep one pony to spare from the wrath of the ancient ones and I want you to know that I'm choosing you!" said Scootaloo happily. RainbowJack's jaw hung open as she formulated an answer.  

"Uh...Yeah, I got nothing," she said. 

"Uh girls," said FlutteRity nervously. "Maybe we'd better go get the Elements now!" 

"Yes, go!" said Sweetie Belle with a wave. "We'll give you a five minute head start and then we'll see you later!" 

TwiPie was in too much shock over everything that had happened to even argue the five minute head start. She turned tail and ran towards the train station, followed closely by her friends. 

As she ran, one of Pinkie Pie's memories shoved its way into her head. She immediately screeched to a halt and looked at PinkieDash with a bewildered look on her face. 

"What?" asked PinkieDash. 

"So THAT'S the reason for your Pinkie Sense, why didn't you tell me!?" PinkieDash looked at her confusedly. 

"What is?" she asked. TwiPie opened her mouth to speak, but she remembered that because she now had the memory, PinkieDash didn't. She shook her head and began running again. As she ran, she smiled to herself and shook her head. 

"It all makes so much sense now!" she mumbled to herself.
> Bickering Demigods Like Making Lamb Stew: Everything Goes to Pot! 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Cutie Mark Crusaders watched with smiles as the wielders of the Elements of Harmony ran towards the train station, hoping to find the Elements of Harmony so that they could stop the Crusaders. Discord and Nightmare Moon watched the retreating figures with frowns on their faces. 

"Are we really giving them a five minute head start?" asked Discord. "If I learned anything from my time against them last time it's that giving them the Elements always leads to disaster!"

"I agree," said Nightmare Moon with a solemn nod. "We should destroy the foals on the spot, the they cannot stop our plans!" 

"Don't worry guys,” reassured Sweetie Belle. "Even if they do find the Elements, they can't do anything to stop us."

"Yeah, they already blasted us with the Elements and the book merely recharged us. They can't do anything." said Scootaloo. 

"Speaking of that," said Discord. "May I ask what our plans are? What do you mean 'ancient undead army to take over all of Equestria'?"

"Oh that," said Apple Bloom with a grin. "Well it's quite simple really. See, all we gotta do is go to the ancient castle of the two royal sisters in the Everfree forest and chant the last words of the ancient ritual and the army of the undead will be fully awoken and we can take over all of Equestria! Once we do, the gods of the underworld will break through to this world and darkness and evil will rule the land forever!" 

Discord's eyes widened when he heard this and to the surprise of the Crusaders, he took a step back. 

"You would awaken the ancient ones?" he said darkly. 

"Why of course!” said Apple Bloom. "What'd you think this was all for anyway?" 

"We thought that you merely intended to bring chaos and darkness to the world through your own means," said Nightmare Moon. We did not think that you actually intended to awaken the ancient ones."

"What's the problem with that?" asked Scootaloo. 

"The problem with that is that nopony will survive their rule," said Discord. 

"Well duh," said Sweetie Belle, rolling her eyes. 

"No, when I say nopony, I mean NOPONY. You three will not be spared the terrors that will come down on this lands of the ancient ones are awoken," said Discord. 

"Sure we will," said Apple Bloom. "The ancient ones said so."

"THEY LIE!" said Nightmare Moon who almost looked afraid at the very thought of the ancient ones returning. "They will not spare you just because you are the ones who awoke them."

"But the book said that we'd be rewarded beyond our wildest dreams!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"You were," said Discord. "But if you finish the ritual then they will take it all away from you."

"We cannot allow that to happen!" said Nightmare Moon angrily as she fired up her horn. "If you awaken the ancient ones, it will mean death for us all!" Discord also took a fighting stance. 

"I'll grant that I've had even more fun than I had last time I escaped my stone prison, but the novelty has worn off! It's time to get serious. I cannot allow you to let the ancient ones rule the land."

The Crusaders glared at the two beings and fired up their horns as well. 

"And who's going to stop us, you!?" asked Apple Bloom. 

"Don't make us laugh!" said Scootaloo. "Not even Luna's Lunar Rising spell could stop us, nor could the Elements of Harmony!"

"While we have the book, nopony can stop us!" said Sweetie Belle. Discord and Nightmare Moon both narrowed their eyes. 

"So be it," said Nightmare Moon. The evil alicorn immediately fired a spell at Sweetie Belle's saddlebag, causing it to split open. The book fell out and Discord snapped his fingers, causing the book to appear in his hands. Sweetie Belle fired a spell that hit him directly in the chest, causing him to fly back and drop the book. Nightmare Moon encased the book in the most powerful protection spell she could muster before turning her attention back to the Crusaders. 

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle began dueling Nightmare Moon while Scootaloo began working on breaking the protective shield around the book. She fired spell after spell at it but they all bounced harmlessly off the shield. 

"I can't break it!" she said. 

"Foals! Did you seriously think that you could defeat me without your precious book?" asked Nightmare Moon as she absorbed a green beam of light fired at her by Sweetie Belle. "I know that you are weaker without it in your possession!" 

"We're still stronger than you are!" said Apple Bloom, rapidly firing bright red beams of light at Nightmare Moon.

"But not stronger than both of us!" said Discord who had gotten back up to join the fight. He raised his arms into the air and immediately all of the plants around them tripled in size and transformed into predatory animals that Discord immediately sent after the Crusaders. Scootaloo gasped and blasted one of the plants with a fire spell but it was quickly repaired by Discord. Discord then brought his arms down and all of the statues in the garden (Princess Celestia included) became animated and attacked the Crusaders as well. 

"You cannot hope to defeat us," said Discord. "We'll crush you and leave you as nothing more than a statue in these gardens."

"Never!' said Apple Bloom who shot a powerful blast that disintegrated one of the statues. Nightmare Moon used the opening to fire a wall of fire at Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle only barely managed to put up a protective spell in time to prevent Apple Bloom from being roasted alive. 

Meanwhile, Scootaloo was battling Discord by blasting aside all of the statues and plants he had brought back to life. However, Discord was repairing them as fast as she could destroy them and Scootaloo knew that she would have to increase the power of her spells to completely disintegrate them as Apple Bloom had. 

Discord raised his hand to the sky and called upon his cotton candy clouds that formed a into one giant mass before he sent the mass hurtling towards Scootaloo. He scored a direct hit and Scootaloo found herself trapped in a giant, sticky mass. She began heating up her horn, hoping that the heat that it generated would cause the clouds to catch fire but it was a slow process. 

Satisfied that Scootaloo was secure for the time being, Discord moved his attention towards the battle between the other two Crusaders and Nightmare Moon. 

It appeared that of the three of them, Apple Bloom had the most power as she was able to fire spells at Discord's plants while at the same time protecting herself from Nightmare Moon's attacks. As it was, Sweetie Belle still had to jump in to block some of her quicker assaults while firing back some spells of her own. Discord noticed that Nightmare Moon was beginning to tire out and that he was running out of plant assailants. 

He raised his hands to the sky once more and the very rocks of the ground began to tremble and rise up. Sweetie Belle saw this and fired a beam of red light towards Discord. Nightmare Moon noticed Sweetie Belle's attack and she countered it with a spell of her own. Seeing an opening, Apple Bloom began rapidly firing beams of green light at Nightmare Moon, all of which hit her in the chest and head, knocking her back and sending her flying. With Nightmare Moon stunned, Sweetie Belle fired a powerful blast at the mass of clouds, instantly freeing Scootaloo who on the whole looked no worse for wear. 

However, Discord's rock projectiles had finally come out of the earth and he sent them flying towards Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom fired blasts at the rocks that proceeded to melt them in the air. However, the sheer size and quantity of them meant that at least a dozen of them repeatedly slammed into the Crusaders. 

Scootaloo would have helped them, but she was busy fighting a newly recovered Nightmare Moon who was blocking every attack that Scootaloo threw at her. With the other two Crusaders down for the count at the moment, Discord turned to help Nightmare Moon fight Scootaloo. He raised a few more of his rock projectiles, as well as a few more statues and plants, and he attacked Scootaloo. 

It was all Scootaloo could do to block their vicious assaults. She tried both blasting Discord's attacks aside as well as blocking Nightmare Moon's attacks. She unleashed a powerful spell that knocked her two combatants back for a brief moment and used it to catch her breath. 

She saw that Sweetie Belle was flat out knocked out and Apple Bloom wasn't faring much better. The two made eye contact and Apple Bloom promptly looked at the book which was still encased in Nightmare Moon's shield. Scootaloo nodded and at that moment, Nightmare Moon and Discord recovered and advanced once more towards Scootaloo. Apple Bloom fired a red beam that hit Nightmare Moon in the side of the head and distracted Discord while he analyzed the new threat in the battle. It was all the distraction Scootaloo needed. She fired a spell at the shield which, since Nightmare Moon was weakened from the battle and stunned at the moment, shattered instantly. Scootaloo fired up her horn to retrieve the book but Discord raised his arms once more and the very ground opened up and swallowed the book. Scootaloo fired a spell at the book that made sure that it was still partially above ground before the Earth closed up. 

Apple Bloom got back to her hooves and used the distraction to knock Discord back once more. Nightmare Moon tried rising to her hooves again but Scootaloo and Apple Bloom both fired powerful spells that hit her in the head, knocking her out. 

At that moment, Discord stood back up and faced the Crusaders, now joined by a newly revived Sweetie Belle. 

"Stand down, Discord!" said Scootaloo. "You can't beat us!" Discord narrowed his eyes. 

"Perhaps not," he said. "But I can make sure that you cannot find the book for a long time. By now the Wielders will have reached Ponyville and if I know Twilight Sparkle, she knows where you sent the Elements."

"But they already blasted us with the Elements!" said Scootaloo. 

"Yeah," said Sweetie Belle. "And look at us now, we're stronger than ever!"

"Face it Discord, you've lost," said Apple Bloom. "We will call the ancient ones and they will destroy the world!" 

"And you with it," said Discord. "Does not the fact that not even I or Nightmare Moon would dare awaken the ancient ones give you a clue as to their intentions? If they really meant for the ones who awoke them to keep the kind of power that you now possess then I would have awoken them a long time ago." 

The Crusaders looked uneasily at each other. Was Discord telling the truth? He picked up on their unease and continued. 

"Take it from someone who has been alive a lot longer than you: don't mess with the ancient ones!"

The Crusaders glanced uneasily at each other and then at the book. Discord slowly walked up to the book and took it out of the ground.

"If you blast it out of my hands, then this will all be over. The ancient ones will not wake up and we'll all get to go our merry ways. You just need to destroy the book!"

"Then what'll happen to you?" asked Apple Bloom. "We'll lose out power and you won't have anypony to stop you from takin' over. You or Nightmare Moon will come and take over."

"Well I..."

"If we destroy the book, you win. I know that you won't let the wielders get the Elements, you wouldn't willingly go back to your stone prison just to stop the ancient ones. You're too smart for that," said Scootaloo. Instantly, Sweetie Belle summoned the book to the Crusaders. 

"If we awaken the ancient ones, you don't get to rule the world!"

"Neither do you!" said Discord. 

"How do you know?" asked Apple Bloom. "Have the ancient ones ever awoken before?" Discord stayed silent. Instead, he just looked at the book, wondering how to get it away from them. 

"I don't suppose I can stop you from taking over the world," he said. "But I can delay you for a long time." 

With that, he snapped his fingers and the book vanished. The Crusaders gasped. 

"Where did you put it!?" asked Scootaloo angrily. 

"The same place you took the Elements," said Discord smugly. "By now the wielders will have found them and they can stop you from making a mistake that will destroy us all!" 

With a snarl of rage, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle all fired a bright beam at Discord. Before Discord could move out of the way, the beam hit him directly in the chest. His screams of agony at being hit slowly faded away as his stone form slowly began creeping up on him. Within seconds, he was a statue once more. 

The Crusaders looked over at Nightmare Moon who was still knocked out. With a nod, the Crusaders fired a beam at her and instantly the mare in the moon appeared once more. The Crusaders all high-hooved each other now that their greatest threats were defeated. 

Apple Bloom looked up at the night sky and gave a contented sigh. 

"Come on girls; let's go get our book back!"
> Right Here at the Clubhoooouuuuuuse!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The ride to Canterlot had been faster than then the six friends had remembered. Having said that, they couldn't really trust their memories at that point, could they? That was the conclusion that TwiPie had come to during the ride back to Ponyville. Each passing moment meant that she was more Pinkie Pie than Twilight Sparkle at that point, and she was finding it harder and harder to think straight. She kept trying to focus on finding the Elements, but to her surprise, her mind kept wandering to...cupcakes? She shook her head. No, she had to think about the Elements of...a good party! NO!

"TwiPie, are you alright?" asked AppleShy. 

"Yeah, I've never seen Pinkie Pie look so...serious and deep in thought," said RainbowJack. 

"I'm fine, it's just that Pinkie's memories are starting to take over!" said TwiPie. 

"Yeah, about that," said PinkieDash. "I'm finding it harder and harder to remember my own memories as Pinkie Pie. Granny Pie said that I had what the super-smart scientists called an...an..."

"An Eidetic Memory?" offered TwiPie. PinkieDash shrugged.

"I guess so," she said. TwiPie looked deep in thought. "If Pinkie does have an Eidetic Memory, then that means that she can remember pretty much everything that goes into her head."

"Which would make a lot of sense when ya think about it," said AppleShy. TwiPie nodded. 

"Right, it would be how I remember everypony's birthday and what happened yesterday oh my gosh do you remember when we were fighting Discord and I was all gray? Wasn't that super hilarious and--" RariLight clamped a hoof over TwiPie's mouth. 

"Focus, darling," she said. TwiPie opened her mouth and closed it again before she groaned and rubbed her temples. 

"The process is speeding up," she said grimly. 

"How long do you think before we're all changed completely?" asked FlutteRity. TwiPie shrugged. 

"How much of you is left as it is?" asked TwiPie. The other five shrugged. "Okay, what did Applejack have for breakfast this morning?"

"Toast and apple slices," said RainbowJack. TwiPie nodded. 

"Our long-term memory is being replaced faster," she said. "I'd give us about an hour before we're the other one."

"Is that such a bad thing?" asked RariLight. "Nopony, ourselves included, will even know the difference!" TwiPie sighed.

"I guess it goes back to Discord's riddle: will the real Twilight Sparkle be gone when Pinkie Pie's mind takes over?" 

The ponies all looked at each other uncomfortably. Would their real selves be gone once the identity of the other took over?

After a few more minutes, the train reached the Ponyville station and the six disembarked. 

"Quick, to the clubhouse!" said AppleShy. To everypony's surprise, AppleShy suddenly shrank back and looked at the ground uncomfortably. "I mean...uh, if that's aright with you...I guess."

TwiPie rolled her eyes and RariLight used her magic to push AppleShy forward. 

"Come on, we have to get moving!" said RariLight. 

"Rarity's right, darling," said FlutteRity. "We have to stop my sister and her friends!" TwiPie didn't even have the mental capacity to continue making a big deal out of their changes. She began...bouncing towards the clubhouse. Wait...bouncing!?

With a yelp, she felt her hooves leave the ground as she began bouncing up and down. 

"Help me!" she said as she continued to bounce forward. 

"Oh come on sugar cube," said RainbowJack. "You know that Pinkie Pie moves almost exclusively by bouncing!" TwiPie groaned and simply decided to go with it. She continued bouncing towards Sweet Apple Acres, hoping that she could make it to the Elements of Harmony. 

As she bounced, she could feel her memories slowly fading away, being forcibly replaced by Pinkie Pie's. Her memories of her third birthday party were replaced by memories of Pinkie Pie getting a new rock hammer for her third birthday party. She was surprised to see how sharp the memories were. She attributed that to Pinkie's photographic memory. She tried to stop focusing on her rapidly dissolving identity. She needed to focus on the Elements. She had to focus on the Elements. 

Behind her, RariLight stumbled on the road and fell face first into the dirt. 

"Are you okay?" asked TwiPie. 

"I'm fine, let's just keep going," said RariLight in...Twilight's voice. 

"Rarity, you just spoke in my voice!" RariLight frowned. 

"No, you just spoke in my voice, Pinkie Pie," said RariLight. "How did you do that!?" 

"Are you alright sugar cube?" asked RainbowJack in...Applejack's voice. "Discord musta really done a number on ya if you suddenly got Twilight's voice. 

"Okay, Pinkie Pie talking in Twilight's voice is weird and all, but we have to keep moving!" said PinkieDash in Rainbow's voice. PinkieDash took to the air and pointed in the direction of the clubhouse. "Come on, let's go get the Elements!"

TwiPie stared at her friends in horror. That was it, they had all completely transformed into the other pony. They didn't even know that they had been another pony in the first place. In their minds, they had always been the pony that they were now. 

TwiPie collapsed on the ground and her friends walked up to her with concerned looks on their faces. 

"Come on sugar cube," said RainbowJack...no, Applejack now. "We gotta keep movin'."

"I...I...I..." she put a hoof over her mouth as her voice went from the voice she had always had to a high pitched sugary one. "Oh no!" she said. 

"Pinkie, what's wrong?" asked Twilight. 

"Pinkie Pie!" said TwiPie, reaching out to Rainbow Dash. Rainbow looked at her confusedly. 

"Uh...you're Pinkie Pie, remember?" she said. 

TwiPie fought the memory change. She couldn't just become Pinkie Pie, she had to be Twilight! She was always Twilight, she had to stay Twilight! The Elements would fix this! The Elements would fix this and she could be totally Twilight again she just had to...she completely passed out. Her friends gasped in surprise and they rushed over to her. 

"Pinkie Pie! Pinkie can you hear me!?" said Rainbow Dash who was cradling TwiPie's head in her hooves. TwiPie twitched for a brief moment before her eyes fluttered open. 

"HI guys, what's wrong?" asked TwiPie as she slowly stood up. 

"You were actin' all funny just now!" said Applejack. "You just passed out for a moment there."

"Yeah and you called me 'Pinkie Pie'," said Rainbow Dash. TwiPie giggled. 

"Aw, well that's silly!" she said. "I'm the only Pinkie Pie there is!" Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. 

"I'm so glad that's over with. Come on, let's go get the Elements!"

"Okie dokie loki!" said Pinkie Pie happily. 


*  *  *  *


The Cutie Mark Crusaders fired up their horns and teleported as far as they could towards Ponyville. They knew that their power could get them close, but not in the town itself. No, they needed to have the book with them for that kind of power. 

When they appeared, they saw that they appeared only about a mile away from the own itself. 

"We're almost there, girls. I can see Twilight's library in the distance!" said Apple Bloom. 

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go get out book!" said Scootaloo. 


*  *  *  *


The six friends burst into the remains of Sweet Apple Acres, hoping that the clubhouse was still intact. To their utter shock, the clubhouse was not only still standing, but in perfect condition. 

"I knew my sister was good at buildin' stuff but wow, I didn't think she was that good," said Applejack. 

"I think other forces might be at play here Applejack," said Rarity. "Something's protecting this, I think that much is certain." 

"Look, it doesn't matter if the clubhouse is still standing," said Rainbow Dash. "What matters is that the Elements are inside!"

"Rainbow's right," said Twilight. "We have to focus on the Elements right now, they're our only chance!" 

At this, Rainbow flew directly towards the clubhouse and looked inside. 

"YES!" she said with a loud whoop. 

"Are they in there?" asked Applejack. 

"Are they ever!" said Rainbow Dash who exited the clubhouse carrying the Elements. "And look what else I found in there too!" 

The other five gasped as Rainbow Dash put the book on the ground. 

"It's the book! How did it get here!?" asked Twilight. 

"Discord did it," said a voice behind them. 

The six wheeled around and to their horror, they saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders standing behind them. 

"Thanks for the book Rainbow; we've been lookin' for that."
> Awake
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"What are you three doin' here!?" asked Applejack. 

"We're here to get the book, duh!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"It's nice to see that your intelligence level hasn't changed, even if your bodies have," said Scootaloo. The six friends looked at each other confusedly. 

"Uh...huh?" said Twilight. The Crusaders all looked at each other before wide grins split their faces. 

"Oh don't tell me that they don't know!" said Apple Bloom. 

"I don't think they do, I think Discord removed that memory entirely!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"What memory?" asked Rarity. Scootaloo shrugged. 

"I guess you'll never find out," she said. "Tragic." The other two nodded in agreement. 

"Speaking of that," said Pinkie Pie. "Where is Discord?" Apple Bloom groaned and rolled her eyes. 

"Those two," she said irritatedly. "They tried to stop us from awakenin' the ancient ones!" 

"They turned on you?" said Rarity with interest. 

"Darn right they did," said Scootaloo. "We actually had to get in a big battle with them for the book!"

"We won of course," said Apple Bloom smugly. 

"Then we turned Discord back into stone and sent Nightmare Moon back to the moon!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"YOU DID WHAT!?" said Twilight. 

"You heard us," said Apple Bloom. The six friends looked at each other worriedly. If even the combined powers of Nightmare Moon and Discord couldn't stop them...

"So, now that we've gotten that out of the way, hand over the book!" said Scootaloo menacingly. 

"NO!" said Rainbow Dash angrily as she flew up into the air, cradling the book in her hooves. "I won't let you get the book!"

"Come on Dashie," said Scootaloo. "I already said that I choose you to survive the horrors that are to come by my side! You won't have to die!" 

"And I want to choose my big sister Rarity!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"I'm choosin' AJ, of course," said Apple Bloom. 

"Enough of this 'choosin'' nonsense!" said Applejack. "You three need to undo what you've done, right now!"

"Or what?" said Apple Bloom. "You ain't holdin' any cards here sis, we are!" 

"There is literally nothing you can do to stop us," said Scootaloo. "We've grown far to powerful for that.  

"What happened to your plan to let us save the world after you got your cutie marks!?" said Applejack desperately. "Don't you want that to be the way it goes anymore!?" 

"Of course not," said Apple Bloom.

"If we did we would have destroyed the book a long time ago!" said Scootaloo. 

"We still haven't gotten the powers that the book promised us!" said Sweetie Belle. "This is a but a taste of what is to come!" 

"Girls, you don't want the world to end! You don't want everything you know and love to be destroyed!" pleaded Twilight.

"Why not?" asked Scootaloo. "Why settle for less when you can have more?"

"Why settle for more when you can have it ALL!?" said Apple Bloom. Twilight looked sadly at her friends and they all exchanged nods. 

"So be it," whispered. as a single tear ran down her face. She fired up her horn and the Elements of Harmony immediately flew towards the corresponding pony. Her horn flared brighter as the Elements began to power up. 

"We're sorry that it has to be this way," she said. The Crusaders looked at each other and exchanged nods of their own. 

"So are we," said Apple Bloom. Instantly the Crusaders fired up their horns and bright red beams shot out of them. The beams from their horns connected and shot straight at Twilight. The lavender unicorn only had time for one quick yelp before the beam encased her. Instantly the Elements powered down and Twilight began to glow red. 

"Apple Bloom, what have you done!?" said Applejack hysterically. 

"What we had to," said Apple Bloom. The red glow around Twilight began to brighten and soon she was merely a bright red light. Rarity instantly fired up her horn and shot a red beam of light towards Sweetie Belle who casually blocked it with her wing. 

"Don't bother sis," she said. "Just don't even bother." At that moment, the Crusaders powered down their horns and the red light around Twilight faded away. The remaining five ponies gasped and the Crusaders looked at their work with grim satisfaction. 

"You turned her to stone!" said Rarity. "How could you!?" 

"It was that or risk being hit with the Elements again," said Sweetie Belle. "And trust me when I say that I don't ever want to be hit with the Elements again. 

The five ponies looked on in horror at their petrified friend, a look of horror etched on her face forever. Even her Element had been turned into stone. 

"Oh no," whispered Fluttershy. 

"Unfortunately, we're not quite done yet," said Scootaloo. The eyes of the other five widened and they tried to run but it was too late. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom fired red beams at Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie while Sweetie Belle quickly fired freezing spells at Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. However, the freezing spells only served to freeze them to the spot; they were still awake and fully alert. 

"NO!" said Applejack, trying to struggle out of the spell. 

"Stop this at once!" said Rarity. "Stop this or I'll hate you forever!" Sweetie Belle turned and angrily faced Rarity. 

"No you won't," she said. "You never will." Rarity screamed in terror when she saw that Sweetie belle's eyes were now completely blood red and some of the red seemed to be dripping from her eyes. 

"Sweetie Belle, your eyes!" she screamed. 

"They're fine," said Sweetie Belle. "I'd worry more about your friends."

"Or your new statue collection," said Apple Bloom. Rainbow, Applejack, and Rarity all looked over at their friends and sure enough, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were both statues as well. They had the same looks of horror on their faces that Twilight had. 

"No," whispered Applejack. Sweetie Belle wordlessly took the Elements off of the necks of the remaining three wielders and placed them at the feet of the statues. 

"Come," said Apple Bloom. "It is time for our appointment with the ancient ones."
> The Ancient Ones
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"No," said Applejack angrily. 

"No?" asked Apple Bloom. "You can't ignore a direct order from the future ruler of Equestria!" 

"You ain't gonna be the future rulers of Equestria!" said Applejack. 

"Sure we are," said Sweetie Belle. "The voices told us so."

"Don't listen to them!" said Rainbow Dash. "They're lying to you!" 

"They haven't led us astray yet!" said Scootaloo. "Everything they've promised us has happened, every power they've said we'd get, we've gotten. Why would they start lying now?"

"Because they're evil!" said Rarity hysterically. "What wouldn't they have to gain from lying to you!?" 

"Face it, you three are just their patsies," said Applejack. Apple Bloom sighed. 

"Deny this all you want sis, but this is happenin' whether you want it to or not."

"You'll get used to it, we promise," said Sweetie Belle. 

"I don't want to get used to it, I want things to go back to the way they were!" said Rainbow Dash. 

"Okay let's see, Luna is back on the moon, Celestia is stone, and half of the wielders of the Elements of Harmony are encased in stone as well. Yeah, I don't see things ever going back to normal, even if we do destroy the book." 

"But they will!" said Applejack. 

"But we don't want them to," said Scootaloo simply. The three remaining wielders glared at the Crusaders. Sweetie Belle sighed. 

"Okay, normally this is the moment when we say 'join us or be destroyed' but why would we say that when we'll just make you join us anyway?" she said. 

"Don't you dare-" began Applejack but it was too late. The Crusaders fired up their horns and the six ponies were instantly teleported to the outside of the ancient castle where they had found the Elements. 

"We're heeeere!" said Apple Bloom. 

"AB, don't!" pleaded Applejack. 

"You know, we're going to save ourselves a lot of time if you just eliminate that word from your vocabulary," said Apple Bloom irritatedly as the Crusaders walked up to an empty spot and opened the book. 

"You don't need to do this!" said Rarity. 

"Same goes for that, sis," said Sweetie Belle. 

"We ready?" asked Scootaloo. 

"Ready," said Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle excitedly. 

The Crusaders took a deep breath and together, they spoke the last phrase of the ritual. 

"Transform the room until we are alone in the dark!" 

Instantly the whole forest began to shake as if the very Earth was coming apart at the seams. The trees around them began to splinter and one by one, they fell to the ground with a mighty crash. 

"This is it!" said Apple Bloom. 

The very stones of the castle of the ancient pony sisters began to dissolve in front of them and a mighty gust of wind blew forth and the ashes of the castle blew away, making it seem as if there was never a castle there to begin with. In its place, a bright light began appearing. The Crusaders looked eagerly into it as it grew brighter and bigger. The three wielders could do nothing other than sit and stare at the light, each wanting to tear their eyes away but not being able to. 

After a few minutes, the light expanded to the point where it was in their entire field of vision and three figures began coming out of the light. 

"Ooooh!" said the Crusaders in awe. The three wielders wanted nothing more than to run, to chance being in a place where the imminent end of the world would not affect them. Maybe they could find a new place to start their lives anew...

However, it was clearly too late for that and the three figures each stepped out of the light. 

The first thing that struck the Crusaders was how odd they looked. They looked like ponies, but they were much taller than even Celestia. They were each jet black and had matching manes and tails. The one on the far left had an explosion cutie mark, the one in the middle had a football cutie mark and the one on the right had a video game controller cutie mark. 

"Greetings," said the one on the far left. "I am Yaeblamich, the Demon of Destruction."

"I am Yuamesmiwot," said the one in the middle. "The Demon of Confusion"

"I am Lowubel, Demon of Pride," said the one on the right.

"Together we have come to bring destruction upon these lands!" said the three of them together. 

"Woo hoo!" said Apple Bloom. "We did it!" 

"You are the ones who summoned us?" said Yuamesmiwot.

"We sure are," said Scootaloo. "And we're here to help you conquer the world!"

"That won't be necessary," said Lowubel with a wave of his hoof. The Crusaders looked at each other confusedly. 

"But you said that--"

"We lied," said Yuamesmiwot with an evil grin. "You have brought this upon yourselves and you shall suffer the same fate as the rest of these." The eyes of the Crusaders widened. 

"But you said we would be rewarded beyond our wildest dreams!" said Sweetie Belle. "We chose who to save and everything!" 

"Did we not already give you rewards beyond your wildest dreams?" asked Yaeblamich. "Have you not already experienced power unlike anything that anyone has ever experienced?" 

"Well yeah but--"

"We never told you that you would get to keep it," said Yuamesmiwot. "You were rewarded and now you shall receive your eternal reward!" Scootaloo's eyes narrowed and she fired up her horn. 

"No, I won't let you do this!" She fired a beam of energy directly at the book. However, Lowubel fired up his horn and teleported the book out of the way before Scootaloo's attack could damage it. The Crusaders took up aggressive stances but the three demons merely laughed at them. 

"Foals, do you really think that you can stop us?" said Yaeblamich.

"As powerful as you are, our leader can take it all away in an instant," said Lowubel.

"As he has always been able to do," said Yuamesmiwot. Apple Bloom fired up her horn and began to attack, but she could only watch in horror as her horn's power stuttered out and faded away. 

"My horn!" she said. "What happened to my horn!?" 

"You all should have listened to your friends," said Yuamesmiwot. 

"Now you will pay the price for your lack of vision!" said Yaeblamich. 

The three demons stomped their hooves on the ground and instantly, the Crusaders were knocked back. The remaining wielders watched in horror as the Crusaders slowly began shrinking down. Their horns and wings either shrunk down or disappeared altogether and their bodies began rapidly shrinking. Soon they were nothing more than the three fillies that they had been before this whole mess had started. 

"NO!" said Applejack, reaching a hoof out to Apple Bloom. 

"No no, just go ahead and be stereotypical and overly-dramatic, we don't mind," said Yaeblamich. Applejack shot an angry glare at Yaeblamich and rolled her eyes. 

"Don't even get me started," she said. 

"It matters not how they act," said Yuamesmiwot. "Only our mission to our leader matters now."

"You are right,"' said Lowubel. The three demons nodded to each other and they fired up their horns. The Crusaders and the wielders tried in vain to run away, but the demons proved to be too powerful and soon the six ponies found themselves in a completely white space. The white faded away to reveal that the demons had sent them to...the Crusaders' clubhouse? The six ponies stood up and looked around confusedly. 

"What in the hay are we doin' here?" asked Apple Bloom. Applejack looked outside the window. 

"I dunno, but I refuse to just sit here and wait for the end! Come on girls, let's go stop the demons! Maybe the Elements'll work on them!" The other five didn't have the heart to remind Applejack that the Elements were encased in stone right now along with half the wielders so they merely followed her outside the clubhouse. However, before they even managed to get five feet, they all blinked and found themselves back in the clubhouse once more. Applejack looked around wildly. 

"W...what!? I don't understand!" Scootaloo looked around for a brief moment before she sighed and sat down on the floor. 

"They're not letting us leave here," she said sadly. Sweetie Belle sat by her and sighed dejectedly. 

"No, I guess they're not," she said. One-by-one, the other ponies in the clubhouse all sat down until only Applejack remained standing. She looked at the group furiously. 

"So that's it!? You're all just gonna give up, just like that!?"

"Just like that!? We've all put our blood, sweat, and tears into this fight. Celestia herself probably hasn't had to fight this hard against a foe like this!" said Rainbow Dash.

"We did our best...no, we did better than our best but I'm afraid that it's time to hang up the sewing needles," said Rarity sadly.

"Yeah...we're awful sorry for causin' the apocalypse," said Apple Bloom. 

"We really didn't mean for it to go this far!" said Sweetie Belle. 

"We'd take it all back if we could!" said Scootaloo. Rainbow Dash and Rarity wrapped the Crusaders in a hug. 

"We know that you were possessed by that book, kid. We know you'd never do anything to hurt us otherwise."

"Besides," said Rarity. "What good is it spending your last few moments being angry at those you love the most?" Applejack sighed and trotted over to Apple Bloom and sat down. 

"Shucks," she said. "There's no reason we can't go about this whole thing with the utmost dignity."

"I agree!" said Rarity with a nod. "I couldn't have picked a better pony to spend the end of the world with than my sister." She squeezed Sweetie Belle into a tighter hug.

"Same here," said Applejack, squeezing Sweetie Belle into a hug. 

"Same here," said Rainbow Dash. Scootaloo looked up at her and her eyes filled with joy. 

"Do ya really mean it? Am I really your sister!?" she said. 

"Yep," said Rainbow Dash with a smile. "I'm making you my honorary sister until beyond the end of the world kid. You can be my kid sister forever if you want." Scootaloo gave a squeal of delight and hugged Rainbow Dash tighter than she had ever hugged her before. The other four ponies looked on with smiles of their own. 

Suddenly, Sweetie Belle was struck with an idea. She reached over and pulled her saddlebag over towards her and opened it up. 

"I was saving these for a special occasion," she said as she dug through her bag. "But now is as good of a time as ever, right?" 

"Right!" said Apple Bloom. Sweetie Belle gave a grunt of triumph and she pulled the item in question out of her saddlebag. It was a pack of cigarettes. Rarity gave a loud shriek at the item. 

"Sweetie Belle!" she said angrily. "Where did you get those!?"

"Pinkie Pie gave them to me," she said. 

"Pinkie Pie--"

"Relax sis, they're only candy!" said Sweetie Belle, taking one out and showing it to Rarity. "Gosh sis, do you really think I'd be dumb enough to actually smoke a real one, even if the world is ending?" Rarity was still in shock but she calmed down some. 

"No...no I suppose not," she said. Sweetie Belle put the faux-cigarrette in her mouth and passed the pack around. Everypony took one and soon the whole clubhouse was having one last smoke. 

Rainbow Dash took a puff and leaned back on the wall. She gave a contented sigh and patted Scootaloo on the head. 

"You know, as last moments go, this isn't the worst way to go," she said. The others nodded in agreement. 

"I'm sure there are a lot of ponies out there who are spendin' their last moments in agonizin' pain and fear," said Applejack. 

"But here we are, surrounded by our family and smoking candy cigarettes," said Sweetie Belle. 

"One could do worse," said Scootaloo. 

"Do you think there's anythin' after this?" asked Applejack. "Are these our last moments forever?" 

"I don't think so," said Rarity. "I think there will be something beyond this, even if this world is coming to an end. 

"I doubt that ancient evil could destroy the afterlife too," said Rainbow Dash. 

"Well then," said Applejack as she ate the remains of her candy cigarette and pulled another one out of the pack. "I suppose I'll see y'all on the other side then." 

"To the other side," said Rainbow Dash, raising her hoof in the air. The others followed suit, wide smiles on their faces. 

"To the other side," they all said in unison.

At that moment, a giant demonic hand crashed through the ground and obliterated the clubhouse in an instant.