The Cutie mark Crusaders and their friends end up in a very odd situation.
It's a perfectly normal day in Ponyville,and Sweetie Belle,Applebloom and Scootaloo are relaxing in the playground near the school when a mysterious comic book appears.Each page details a horrific even from Equestria's history,as well as several near catastrophes that were averted by groups of ponies.2 of which are fairly recent. Not knowing what to make of it,they take the comic back to their clubhouse and hide it.
Rated E 10+ by the ESRB. May contain infrequent swearing.
The sun was high in the sky, shining warmly over Ponyville. It's Saturday,and all the young ponies are out and about,enjoying the start of their weekend. For the colts, this means heading out to Whitetail woods and playing Hoofball or Soccer, depending on who's turn it is to bring the ball. For the fillies, it's a chance to hang out and trade gossip stories. But for three fillies, cooped up in a small treehouse deep in the orchard of Sweet Apple Acres, it's time to figure out the meaning and use behind the odd comic book that appeared before them one day.
These three fillies are the Cutie mark Crusaders, two of which are the only ponies in their class for third year students that have not earned their cutie marks yet.
Applebloom Anne Apple, a young earthpony. Younger sister to Applejack and third in line to inherit Sweet Apple Acres. A master builder/repair pony who has yet to realize her true potential. Has not yet earned her cutie mark.
Scootaloo Casandra Darling, a young pegasus born with abnormaly weak wings. Lost her parents due to a house fire in Manehatten and ran all the way to Ponyville to escape her despair. Only the other Crusaders know this and have furnished the clubhouse for her to live in. She took dancing lessons while in Manehatten and was considered a master dancer. Has not yet earned her cutie mark.
Sweetiebella Marie Belle, a young unicorn who frequently travels between living with her parents and living with her older sister, Rarity. Since her parents moved to Las Neighgas she will be living with her sister in Ponyville for an indeterminate amount of time. She loves singing and composing lyrics on the spot for songs she's listening to. Her cutie mark is a songbird super imposed over a heart that she earned after singing in front of her friends at Sugarcube Corner.
"So.We know that the last two disasters in the book are the return of Nightmare Moon and the release of Discord." Sweetie Belle recounted as she drew a line between the two of the events written on the chalkboard.
"The second of which was our fault." Applebloom added.
"Your fault." Sweetie pointed at Scootaloo.
"Yours too." Scootaloo responded.
"How was it my fault?"
"You called me a dodo!"
"Because you were being really stupid that day!"
"Girls! Calm down! We ain't gonna find the meanin' behind this comic if we use it to beat each other over the heads." Applebloom shouted.
"You're right Applebloom."
"Yeah. Sorry."
"Besides. it'd get impaled on Sweetie's horn."
"Well duh." Sweetie rolled her eyes.
"ANYway." Applebloom announced. "The key difference between the events that did happen and the events that didn't is the events that didn't all have pages showin' the ponies that stopped them."
"So then. The events that weren't stopped, couldn't have been stopped because there was no ponies there who could?" Scootaloo asked.
"Exactly!" Sweetie exclaimed. "See. I knew that even with the worst grades in class you were still capable of thought."
"Ye-hey!" Scootaloo yelled.
"So then the question becomes... why do we have the book now?" Applebloom asked.
"Maybe we're the next to stop a disaster?" Scootaloo guessed.
"Maybe we're the cause of the disaster." Sweetie offered.
"Ah'd argue... but we are liable to cause either." Applebloom said sadly.
"Well... I guess we'll have to wait and see." Sweetie said as she stood up. "Anyway. I have to get going now."
"So Rarity won't get mad right?" Scootaloo asked.
"No. My sister's actually been quite relaxed these days. Twilight will get mad if I'm late back." Sweetie sighed.
"Oh right."
"Ah might want to do the same. Mah sister's actually gotten quite a bit more antsy for some reason... might have to do with Granny Smiths fadin' health." Applebloom looked down and trotted out the of the clubhouse after Sweetie.
"I'll let you girls know if anything changes with the comic!" Scootaloo yelled after them.
August 11-August 12
"Girls!I'm glad you're here!" Scootaloo yelled as Sweetie Belle and Applebloom trotted up to the clubhouse entrance the next morning. "Something happened to the comic!"
"What!?!" The two fillies shouted before racing up the ramp and through the door.
"When I woke up it was glowing white and rapidly flicking through it's pages. Then another one just grew out of the book like magic.... and not the unicorn kind!"
Sweetie trotted over and looked at the comic,which now sported a blank page after the defeat of Discord. As she stared at it, a strong suction began pulling her into the book, as she turned and tried to escape, she noticed that Applebloom and Scootaloo were also struggling to avoid being pulled in. "Uh oh."
As she uttered those words, Scootaloo lost her grip on the table leg and tumbled into Applebloom, knocking her loose from the chair she was holding onto, which caused her to fly toward the book, inadvertently kicking Sweetie in the face and knocking her out.
When Sweetie came to she found herself in a curious room. It looked to be a hotel lobby with two strange creatures as the only occupants.
"Ah Sweetiebella Marie Belle." One of the creatures addressed her. It was obviously masculine and wore a black and white tuxedo over his upper half while the clothing that adorned his lower half was something she had never seen before, even in all the time she had spent in her sisters Boutique. "I trust you are well. It is not often the Velvet Room is visited by a species other than human."
"Human?" She repeated questioningly. "Are you a human."
"More or less." the creature replied."My name is Igor and I am the proprietor of the Velvet Room. This is my assistant. Theodore."
The other human stepped forward. This one was a male as well,wearing a blue suit styled after those of hotel bellhops. "A pleasure to make your aquaintance miss Belle. It appears you are the next to be chosen to undertake a quest in search of yourself."
"Not yet she's not Theo. She still has to sign the contract." Igor smiled.
Sweetie took an involuntary step beck.Something about the humans smile gave her the creeps.
Igor produced a piece of paper from thin air and set it on the table in front of him. "There is nothing written on this contract other than the words you see. Sign it,and you'll be given the oppurtunity to do as your sister did, though on a much grander,and more secretive scale."
Sweetie looked over the piece of paper. One simple sentence took up most of the sheet. "I choseth this fate of mine own free will." She read aloud.
"All you have to do is sign your name and the same fate that befell your sister will befall you too." Igor explained.
Sweetie just nodded and picked up the pen in her mouth, clicking it with her tongue and signed her name in the space provided.
"Excellent." Igor exclaimed. "You are now ready to begin your journey towards your true self."
Sweetie nodded again, feeling something inside her swirling about.
"When you next visit, I'll have something prepared for you.Until then,you have to wake up." Igor said before the room faded to white.
When her vision returned Sweetie found herself standing in an empty city street behind Applebloom and Scootaloo, who were calling her name.
"I know she fell in here with us. I saw her fall in after you." Scootaloo said grumpily.
"That was before those weird creatures attacked us!" Applebloom shot back. "Which wouldn't have happened if you hadn't started poking that black ooze with a stick."
"Well how was I supposed to know it was going to rear up and attack us?"
Whatever response Applebloom had lined up was interrupted by a large group of small black creatures charging out from the shadows and taking swipes at them.
"Argh! They found us!" Scootaloo screamed.
Sweetie felt that swirling feeling inside of her again which this grew stronger and stronger before a small voice inside told her to let go from trying to contain her power. A bright blue light shot from her horn, the bands forming a small card that floated in front of her. She reached out her hoof to touch it, causing it to shatter the second her hoof made contact with it.
The sound of shattering glass filled the air as a bolt of blue lightning struck the ground behind Sweetie, throwing up a large cloud of dust. When the dust settled, a large, equine shaped figure loomed behind her in the form of a set of dark gray armor with a black ethereal energy pouring through it that crackled with lightning.
With a shout Sweetie charged forward,the figure following her as she leapt in front of Applebloom and Scootaloo, bolts of blue lightning dropping onto the heads of the creatures that surrounded them and causing them to disperse into a cloud of black mist.
It's purpose done, the armored figure faded away before the city went white.
The three young fillies found themselves back in their clubhouse, the comic book lying on the floor, the empty page having filled in with an image of a blue card with a white and black mask in the middle surrounded by a sunburst.
"Sweetie! What the hay was that? Where were you? How did you summon that thing?" Scootaloo asked, a look of shock on her face. "That was so awesome!"
"Yeah. How did you do that? And where did you come from?" Applebloom asked.
"I don't know... I ended up in a weird room... signed something then got sent to you two and was able to summon that...thing." Sweetie explained.
"Hey! Check out the book!" Scootaloo cried.
Sweetie and Applebloom rushed over and peered at the book,spotting the image of the card.
As Sweetie studied it words began to appear over the card,which she started reading aloud. "Thou art I and I am Thou. Thou hath awakened her ability to summon the Persona Nightmare."
"What are you reading Sweetie?" Scootaloo asked,a puzzled look on her face.
"You girls can't see the writing on the card?" Sweetie asked.
"What writing?" Applebloom asked as she looked at the page. "Ah don't see any writing."
"This is weird..." Sweetie said as she looked out the window. "And it's already sun down."
"What? We were in there all day?" Scootaloo yelled.
"Seems so..." Applebloom nodded. "Sweetie and I should probably get going then."
"Yeah." Sweetie nodded as she trotted towards the door. "I'm feeling really tired after that."
With that the three of them traded goodbyes and went their separate ways.
As Sweetie slept she found herself rushing across what looked like a giant chess board until she burst through a blue door. She found herself back in the hotel lobby with Igor and Theodore.
"Welcome back miss Belle. It seems we were right about you." Igor praised her, "You possess an extremely powerful Persona. Much like the others before you. However, unlike them you seem to lack the ability that comes with it."
"What are you talking about?" Sweetie asked. "And how did I get here?"
"You are here because I summoned you." Igor stated. "I wanted to tell you that while you have an extremely powerful Persona, you lack the Wild Card ability that most of our visitors possess. So you cannot switch Persona's at will." He shook his head. "You are a most odd one. Most of our visitors find themselves aligned with the Fool arcana. But you seem to be aligned with Judgement."
"What does that mean?" Sweetie asked again,still very confused."I don't get it."
"What it means is that the Velvet rooms usual services are not for you. What we can offer you instead is way to strengthen your Persona,Nightmare." Igor explained as he produced a card."This card is called a skill card,when some Persona reach a high enough level of skill they give these to their users.The velvet room has an excess of these so we can afford to part with them...for a price of course."
"I have to pay you for them? With bits? But I'm too young to get a job." Sweetie complained.
"Well then... perhaps we could trade for certain objects that the shadows drop after combat. Bring me Rubies to trade for Agi cards, Emeralds to trade for Garu cards, Sapphires to trade for Bufu cards, Opals to trade for Zio cards and anything else can be traded in bulk for other cards." Igor smiled. "Is that a better deal."
"I guess..." Sweetie nodded.
"Wonderful. Before you go I have something to give you." Igor said as he fished an object out of his pocket. "This key will allow you access to the Velvet room whenever you need it. You just have to find the door."
Sweetie took the blue key in her mouth and nodded as her vision began to fill with white.
August 12-Augsut 13
"Sweetie? Time to get up dear! You have school today." Rarity's voice pierced through the door.
Sweetie sat up and groaned. Her head was killing her and she felt like she had run a marathon. "I don't feel well." She half yelled.
The door to her room opened,allowing her sister, her sisters cat Opalescence and her sisters marefriend Twilight Sparkle to all enter.
"How don't you feel well dear?" Her sister asked.
"My head hurts and everything is sore when I move." She groaned.
"Twilight darling?"
"On it." The lavender unicorn nodded as she bombarded the filly with diagnostic spells. "Hmmm...nothing seems to be actually wrong with her. Just a case of exhaustion."She concluded. "We should probably let her rest though."
"Alright then Sweetie. You can take the day off today." Rarity smiled caringly, closing her eyes. "But Twilight and I have to step out today to do some things. Will you be okay all by yourself?" When the only answer she got was silence she opened her eyes and saw her younger sister was fast asleep with Opalescence curled up next to her.
With a soft giggle the two older unicorns left to allow her some sleep.
The next day Sweetie was back at school, finishing her catch-up work during recess under the watchful eyes of Cheerilee. It was odd... almost like she could feel herself getting smarter with each question she solved. She also felt more and more charming as she answered the vocal parts of her work. Something also made her feel exceptionally brave as she called out Cheerilee on a few mistakes she noted and brought to light. She shook her head and tignored these feelings as she concentrated on her work. 'Maybe we should head back into comic book... try and find some answers. I will be staying with my sister and Twilight for a while so it's not like I have to worry about my parents showing up to take me to Phillydelphia for three months.' She thought to herself as she finished her final question. "Finished." She called out.
"Well done Sweetie Belle.And you still have half of recess left in which to eat." Cheerilee praised her, taking the sheet of paper back to her desk. "Go on.Out you go." She smiled.
Sweetie smiled as she grabbed a small museli bar from her bag and headed out to the schoolyard, where she saw her friends being picked on by the schools resident bullies, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She groaned and began a quick canter to put a stop to the bullying her friends were receiving.
"You two are constantly telling us to quit bothering you! So why are you constantly coming toward us?" Scootaloo shot accusingly.
"Yeah! If y'all don't like us,then stay away from us! Simple." Applebloom nodded in agreement. "We don't get bothered by you and you don't have to be seen with us like y'all are constantly dreading! Everypony wins!"
"And what are you gonna do about it blank flank?" Silver Spoon teased while Diamond Tiara giggled.
"Yeah?" The other filly asked.
Scootaloo smirked. "Well there are more of us then there are of you."
"Pfft. By one." Diamond Tiara said, a bored look on her face.
"By two." A dark yellow pegasus filly with a pink mane and teal mane band with a cupcake as her cutie mark said as she trotted over.
"By three." A pale purple earth pony filly with a flowing cream coloured mane and an EMT line as her cutie mark said after somehow popping out from a nearby bush.
"By four." A teal coloured pegasus filly with a two tone blond mane said as she trotted over from the schools soccer team.
"By five." A chocolate brown unicorn filly with a honeycomb gold mane said as she trotted over from a now empty blueberry bush.
The two bullies sneered and backed away slightly,bumping into Sweetie Belle who was right behind them.
"Going somewhere?" Sweetie asked.
"Uh...umm.uhh..." The two of them stammered before breaking off and galloping around the six fillies in front of them.
Sweetie trotted forward rejoining her friends.
"Thanks Dewey. You too Icing." Scootaloo thanked two of the other fillies.
"And thank you Sunny. You as well Sugah Cube." Applebloom finished.
"No need to thank us." Icing beamed as she trotted fully out of the bush.
"Of course we'd help our friends." Sunny smiled before she was called back over to the soccer team.
"It wouldn't be very nice if we didn't help Aunty Applebloom and Aunty Sweetie Belle." Dewey smiled, her wings fluttering slightly.
"Isn't that the truth." Sugar Cube smiled, licking the blueberry residue from her mouth.
In the fillies bathroom... "It's a numbers game right?" Diamond Tiara asked her friend as she leaned on the side of the stall.
"Yeah. Two-on-three we can work. But two-on-seven?" Silver Spoon replied as she flushed the toilet and trotted out, heading over to the sink and washing her hooves. "There's got to be away for us to get at them more."
"Yeah!" Diamond Tiara nodded. "We can't pick on their families... but I have heard that they have a clubhouse over in the apple orchards somewhere."
Silver Spoon smiled and turned around. "So what do we do, just go around and look for evidence we can use to extort them?"
Diamond Tiara shook her head. "I was thinking we claim it and everything in it as our own. My daddy can probably convince Appleblooms sister to give up the farm."
Silver Spoon looked pensive. "I highly doubt that will work. But the first half of that idea is totally doable."
Diamond Tiara waved a hoof dismissively. "If my daddy has taught me one thing it's that everypony has a price. But even if it doesn't work,we can use the time my daddy will be negotiating to sneak around and try to find the clubhouse."
"Ohhh. Smart thinking!" Silver Spoon giggled as she turned side on next to Diamond Tiara.
The two of them then proceeded to bump their flanks together twice and wrap their tails, pulling each other closer while chanting. "Bump! Bump! Sugarlump rump!" and giggling until the bell that signaled the end of recess rang.
School has ended for the day and Sweetie Belle,Applebloom and Scootaloo are trotting towards Sweet Apple Acres.
"Why are you girls followin' me home? Ah don't have time to play around with y'all today. Ah have to get ready to start mah first year helpin' buck apples on the farm." Applebloom inquired.
"Well I live in the clubhouse, so that's my excuse." Scootaloo said.
"I was going to see if I could head back into the comic book and find some more things out." Sweetie answered with a shrug.
"You what?" Applebloom and Scootaloo yelled. "That's crazy!"
"Well...you girls can come if you want." Sweeite added,trying to appease her friends.
"Ah can't. And even if Ah could Ah wouldn't. That place was dangerous!" Applebloom protested.
"I don't know. Sweetie was able to handle those creatures pretty easily with that creature thing she summoned." Scootaloo tapped her hoof to her chin in thought. "I want one of them too...Let's go into the comic Sweetie."
"I don't think it's something everypony can have..." Sweetie thought aloud,remembering her conversations with Igor. "But it's possible you could have one locked inside you."
As they talked a large carriage rumbled past them and stopped infront of the Apple family house,letting a trio of ponies out.
"Well howdy Mr. Rich.What are y'all doin' here? Zap apple season ain't for another five months." Applejack greeted the businesspony as she trotted over from her chores, leaving her brother to finish up stacking the haybales. "And Ah see you brought your daughter and her friend."
"Well I'm here because my daughter suggested quite a good idea. Rather than simply wait for Zap apple season and then buy the jam wholesale from you before retailing it, she suggested that I purchase the rights to the Zap apple fields from you and simply add you all to payroll as workers for making the jam." Filthy Rich responded, looking quite proud of his daughters prowess.
The friendly look on Applejacks face hardened as she stepped aside. "Why don't you and Ah...negotiate? Ah'm sure your daughter and her friend will find somethin' to keep them amused."
The two fillies smiled and nodded, watching as the two adults headed inside before smiling wickedly to each other and galloping off into the orchard just as Applebloom and the others trotted up to the house door and knocked.
"Sis! Ah'm home!" Applebloom called out as she pushed the door open.
"Little busy sugahcube!" Was the response. "We'll start introducin' you to applebuckin' another time!"
Applebloom sagged. "Aww...alright sis."
""Why don't you take your friends and head out to your clubhouse?"
"Okay..." She sighed. "Come on Crusaders."
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stumbled upon the clubhouse after twenty minutes of searching.
"Too cozy for my tastes." Diamond Tiara scoffed as she trotted up and into the door.
"You're too used to your mansion Diamond." Silver Spoon rolled her eyes and cantered after her. "Hey. Wait up!"
A bright white light shone through the window, accomponied by a pair of loud shrieks before dieing away.
"Did you girls hear that?" Sweetie asked Scootaloo and Applebloom.
"What sounded like a bomb dropping?" Applebloom pouted.
"Or a siren shrieking?" Scootaloo rubbed her ears.
"Yeah! Let's go!" Sweetie said as she galloped toward their clubhouse with renewed haste.
The three of them reached the clubhouse after about three minutes of a full sprint gallop and burst into the door.
"I don't see anything..." Scootaloo said as she looked around.
"Look! The comic!" Applebloom pointed to the middle of the floor.
The comic book was laying open in the middle of the floor. Sweetie trotted over and looked at the page and saw the page had changed to a double spread of Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon screaming,
"I think Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon found this place and got sucked into the comic..." Sweetie deduced. "We need to get them out of there!"
"Why would we do that?" Scootaloo scoffed.
"Yeah? They've been pickin' on us for the past three years." Applebloom agreed. "Ah say, let 'em suffer."
"Even if you two aren't going to help me I'm going to help them!" Sweetie yelled. "Bullies or not they're still ponies! And I'm going to use my power to help anypony in need, no matter who they are!" She told Applebloom and Scootaloo. "I chooseth this fate of mine own free will." She uttered before she leapt into the comic.
"Argh...dammit Sweetie Belle!" Scootaloo half yelled before she dove in after her.
"Hey! Don't you leave me here to have to face mah family with what happened!" Applebloom called out before she dove in as well.
As they fell through the white of the comic and towards the city that resided within, Sweetie spied a small blue door on one of the rooftops. "Crusaders! Aim for the rooftop with the two water towers on it!" She called out as she angled her fall towards it.
"What? Why?" Scootaloo asked.
"Because. It's safe up there."
"How can you tell?"
"I just can."
"Ah trust her!" Applebloom said, angling her fall to follow Sweetie.
"Fine." Scootaloo groaned and flared her wings,gliding toward the rooftop on instinct.
After they all landed (suprisingly without injury) Sweetie told the others to wait where they were and slowly vanished from sight.
Sweetie found herself back in the Velvet Room with Igor and Theodore.
"Ah...greetings once again miss Belle. I take it you are here because you wish to rescue the two who fell in?" Igor asked.
"I am, and one of my friends wants to know if it's possible for her to awaken a Persona." Sweetie informed the human.
"Ah. So your friends could see it. Well I have good news for your friend then. If they can see your Persona, then they can awaken their own. How and when they do...depends on them." Igor replied. "I will start watching your friends through the cards." He told her as he spread a deck of Tarot cards in front of him.
"Where's the Judgement card?"
"You hold that. It's how you summon your Persona, Nightmare."
"Oh." Sweetie said, directing her attention back at the cards to see who would be represented by what.
The Chariot and The Fool lit up, revealing Applebloom and Scootaloo.The Empress and Strength lit up as well, but pulsed with light instead of displaying an image.
"It seems that your friends are close to awakening. I can sense great healing abilities from one and amazing wind strength from the other. But the other two are a great mystery to me. Perhaps they are...acquaintances of yours you have not yet formed a friendship with." Igor elaborated. "Most interesting." He chuckled as he scooped up the cards, somehow stacking them in their proper order and sliding the deck into Sweetie's saddlebags. "You hold onto those my dear, they shall alert you to when another potential wielder is nearby. Only those with the potential to awaken a Persona will be able to see the deck."
"I see. I really only came here for that. I don't have any gems on me at the moment." Sweetie said. "Thank you for the gifts, and sorry to waste your time."
"No apologies are needed my dear. We denizens of the Velvet Room have all the time in any world we visit." Igor smiled and waved as she left. "Do come again."
Sweetie waved back and left,reappearing before her friends.
"Where that hay did you go?" Scootaloo asked.
"Somewhere." Sweetie said simply. "I can tell you both though that you will have access to a summon like mine soon."
"Awesome!"
"Well...at least ah'll be able to fight back soon." Applebloom shrugged.
"Now come on. The sooner we rescue those two idiots the sooner we get our summons!" Scootaloo cheered and leapt off the building, gliding down to the streets below.
Sweetie shrugged and charged forward, leaping off the building with her legs splayed and falling.
Applebloom sighed and and climbed onto the edge, tipping herself over and falling face first after her friends.
Sweetie summoned Nightmare and willed the possessed armor to drop lightning bolts on the creatures that were surrounding them, bracing as one managed to slip through the barrage and make a beeline towards her. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the pain of whatever it was going to do. Whatever never happened as she heard the creature dissipate into the black smog that they were compromised of.
"Don't y'all ever try to lay a hoof on mah friend!" She heard Applebloom yell as her eyes opened. Where the creature had been a few seconds earlier was Appleblooms hoof and a small crack in the street.
"Thanks Applebloom." Sweetie sighed with relief. "That was probably going to hurt."
"No problem Sweetie." Applebloom smiled. "Now come on.We gotta help Scootaloo!"
Sweetie nodded and sent Nightmare over to give Scootaloo some back up while they made their way over.
Scootaloo was using her knowledge of break dancing moves to strike and dodge at the same time, delivering powerful kick flurries and pushing herself into the air to avoid the clumsy slaps of the creatures before her. She smiled as she spun in mid-air and brought her hindleg down in a sort of axe kick to the creatures masked face, enjoying the sound it made as it turned into a black smog and blew away. "Hay yeah! This is so much fun!" She yelled out as Nightmare leapt over her and brought down lightning bolts on the other creatures, killing them instantly.
The three fillies all glowed yellow as they felt a slight boost in their physical strength.
"What the hay?" Sweetie exclaimed. "Did anypony else feel that?"
"Ah did... it's weird. Ah feel a little stronger now." Applebloom nodded, rolling her neck so it cracked. "It's been awhile since Ah had to use mah martial arts."
"Thanks... umm..." Scootaloo scratched her head and motioned to Nightmare.
"Nightmare." Sweetie told her.
"Yeah. Thanks Nightmare." Scootaloo nodded. "I would've been hosed if you hadn't shown up."
The possessed armor simply bowed it's helmet in silence and faded away, waiting to be called upon again later.
"Can that thing talk?"
"Not to my knowledge."
"Hey girls! Look!" Applebloom pointed as another large group of creatures advanced across the road in front of them, a gaseous mass floating above the middle of the group. In front of the group of creatures were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, running and screaming from the writhing black mass.
A single creature noticed the three of them and broke off, the mass of black mist following the small group that broke away.
"Brace yourselves Crusaders." Sweetie announced as she took up a combat stance.
Scootaloo got low, ready to start dancing. "Sweetie. I need music to fight effectively."
"A little bit of music would be nice. It'd make fightin' a little less harrowing, and it'd give us a base line to keep us organized." Applebloom nodded. "Mah sister and brother work to music sometimes to time their bucks."
"Alright." Sweetie nodded. "I'll see if I've got some music in my head that I can play with that spell Twilight taught me." Sweeties horn lit up a pale pink as a musical bar circled around her and a collection of notes winked into existance along it, causing various songs to play as she mentally arranged the notes to find something with a solid enough beat to let them time their moves as well as something that Scootaloo could dance to.
"Anytime now Sweetie..." Scootaloo said nervously as the creatures were nearly ontop of them.
"Hold on... almost got it."
Applebloom reared up and balanced herself on her hindlegs. "Let's see if Ah can still remember those lessons Rainbow gave me."
"No way! Rainbow taught you martial arts?" Scootaloo stared up at her with amazement in her eyes.
"Oh yeah. This I can work with." Scootaloo smiled as she charged into the mass of creatures and started dancing, smacking them away and launching them into the air.
Applebloom shrugged and raced in to help her friend, hitting any creatures she missed with hoofstrikes and snap kicks.
Sweetie watched her friends fight, curious about how she could help them. She couldn't summon her Persona while the music spell was active or else the spell would vanish, she also couldn't do the opposite because that would essentially de summon Nightmare.
Seeing her friends start to get overwhelmed she quickly formed a pair of quavers over her forelegs, sharpening the strokes into scythe like blades and charging in. She kept the song spell active and started clumsily cleaving the creatures in two with her improvised weapons.
"Yee haw!" Applebloom cheered as she pummeled a creatures head in with her bare hooves, unknowingly moving closer to the gaseous mass which suddenly surged towards her.
Appleblooms scream drew Sweetie and Scootaloo's attention.
"Applebloom!" Sweetie called out, stopping the music and summoning Nightmare.
Scootaloo adjusted her pose to warn off the creatures while her and Sweetie worried after Applebloom, who was lying on her side.
The creatures backed off and scurried back up the road to try and reunite with their brethren.
Applebloom slowly got to her hindlegs and sagged, staring at the ground.
"Applebloom... are you okay?" Scootaloo asked, trying to step forward.
Sweetie raised her hoof to stop her. "Where'd the cloud thing go?"
Applebloom looked at them, her eyes completely black, wordlessly taking up a combat stance.
"Applebloom..." Scootaloo repeated.
"The cloud thing took over her body." Sweetie guessed, dispelling her blades.
Nightmare hoofed the ground and snorted, the electricity in it's body crackling violently.
"Gaia" The possessed filly said, a red card appeared in front of her and shattered, a large stone golem erupting from the ground and facing down the other two crusaders and Nightmare.
"No way! She's awakened hers before me? Crap!" Scootaloo complained.
"The thing controlling her forced it awake." Sweetie reasoned.
Nightmare snorted and pivoted on it's forelegs, bucking the golem in the stomach.
Suddenly the loudspeakers attached to the storefronts around them started playing a symphonic rock beat
The golem stumbled back and roared as a piece of it fell away, showing a smaller figure underneath.
"Looks like we have to knock pieces of it off to beat it." Scootaloo said as she noticed the hole.
Sweetie nodded and willed Nightmare to attack the creature with its hooves again.
The powerful buck knocked another piece away before the golem could respond and caused it to roar with anger, swinging its stone fist and knocking Nightmare to the ground.
Sweetie reeled from the impact, her head spinning for a few seconds before she shook it off, Nightmare getting back to its hooves. "That hurt. Nightmare took the hit but I felt it. Scoota-"
Scootaloo growled and rushed forward, doing a windwill kick to launch herself up into the air slightly, spinning into an axe kick and dragging it down the length of the golems face and chest, finally landing on her forelegs and spinning on her head, slamming her rear legs into the golems legs again and again before pushing off and landing on all four of her hooves just out of the creatures reach, expecting a counter attack of some kind.. Which is why when the creature stumbled and fell to the ground she was so shocked.
"Scootaloo!" Sweetie called out.
"Come on Sweetie. Before it recovers!"
"But"
"Come on!" Scootaloo started glowing blue.
"Scootaloo! You're glowing!"
Scootaloo let out a loud cry. "Tempestas!" The blue glow from Scootaloo's body peeled off and took the form of a small card in front of her which shattered, a large green tornado erupting around the pegasus filly.
Sweetie shielded her eyes from the sharp winds, Nightmare fading away to avoid those same winds.
When they faded, a large blue falcon looking bird with a green tornado in place of it's tail was floating over Scootaloo. "Thou art I, I am Thou. I am Tempestas, goddess of the wind."
Another shattering sound was heard as Sweetie resummoned Nightmare and galloped over to Scootaloo.
"Scootaloo... you awakened your Persona." Sweetie gaped.
Scootaloo was panting. "I did..?" She looked up and smiled, chuckling. "Awesome."
"Ugh...ughh..." the possessed Applebloom groaned as Gaia got back to it's feet.
"Lets see what you can do then Tempestates." Scootaloo smiled.
"At your command." The goddess smiled.
"Nightmare and I are right next to you!" Sweetie shouted as Nightmare nodded, hoofing the ground.
Scootaloo nodded. "Alright."
The golem roared and charged.
A small green spot appeared on the ground infront of the living stone before a tornado erupted, knocking the golem up into the air, removing a large chunk of the creatures body when it landed.
"Ah....ahhhh...n-noo...." the thing controlling Applebloom groaned.
"Sweetie!"
"Got it!"
The two of them charged in, Sweetie reforming her note blades as she did, and started hitting the fallen golem with all their strength, their Persona's lending support with lightning and tornados.
More and more of the golems form fell apart, revealing a small purple pony shaped creature with elongated forelegs, what passed as her mane was bright pink flower petals.
"Ga...ga...gaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Applebloom screamed as the cloud seeped out of her body and vanished. The femenine golem's eyes shot open before she faded into a blue card and absorbed into Appleblooms body.
"Ohh... mah achin' head..." Applebloom groaned as she got to her hooves.
"Applebloom!" Sweetie yelled out as she galloped over to her friend, helping her up.
"Are you alright?" Scootaloo asked, her and Tempestates following Sweetie and Nightmare.
"Ah think so... what happened?"
"That cloud thing took over you and made you fight us." Sweetie told her. "It used your Persona, Gaia."
"Gaia?" Applebloom repeated. The blue card shot out of her body and shattered, releasing the odd pony shaped being.
"Thou art I, and I am thou. I am Gaia. Goddess of fertile soil." The being said.
"Whoa!" Applebloom yelled, backpedaling slightly.
"I mean you no harm." Gaia told the filly as she stood up right on her hind legs.
"So... you're mah... Persona?" Applebloom asked as she studied the creature. She had purple fur covering her body and her hind legs ended in hooves, the rest of her body was suitably equine aside from her forelegs which ended in five slender digits each, a constant wind whipped at her mane gently,sending small flower petals scattering around.
Sweetie and Nightmare turned and headed a short distance away. "How come they can talk and you can't Nightmare?"
The armor looked at her and gestured to it's blank face.
"Right...no facial features. Can't you use telepathy or something?"
Nightmare cocked it's head.
Sweetie cocked hers as well, a voice starting to sound in her head. 'Hello?' "Hello... Nightmare?"
The armor nodded, the voice starting to sound excited and more clear. 'Yes. Telepathy works. Thank you.'
Sweetie smiled. "You're welcome. Will I be able to talk with you like this in the real world?"
'In more ways than this actually. If you ever need to talk with me in your world, just think my name or touch a mirror and call me, I'll take over your reflection.'
Sweetie smiled. "Thanks Nightmare. Umm... You're a lot nicer than I expected you to be."
Nightmare chuckled. 'I'm a part of you. So I'm reflected by your mood. If you were angry I'd be a lot meaner right now.'
Sweetie giggled. "Say... you wouldn't know how to get out of here would you?"
Nightmare nodded and pointed to a weird wheeled vehicle. 'Those ambulance's will take you back to your world.'
"Thank you Nightmare."
Nightmare nodded and faded away.
"Hey Sweetie! Know how we can get out of here? Applebloom and I are beat!" Scootaloo yelled over.
"Yeah. That red and white wheeled thing behind you!"
"You sure. It don't look safe!" Applebloom called out.
"Positive." Sweetie said as she cantered over and opened the back doors, revealing a portal to their clubhouse. "Everypony in." She announced before diving in.
Applebloom shrugged and dove through as well, followed by Scootaloo.
The three of them ended up in the middle of their clubhouse, the comic closing behind them.
Sweetie stretched out and glanced out the window. "It's only been a few minutes this time." She noted. "Are you girls okay?"
She heard Scootaloo climb into bed and Applebloom collapse onto a cushion behind her.
"How can you still be standing after that?" Scootaloo asked.
"Yeah... Ah'm exahusted...ah could sleep for two days straight." Applebloom nodded, her eyes barely open.
"I guess because I awakened my Persona first." Sweetie said. "After you awaken them it's a lot easier to summon them later...I think..." She shook her head. "In any case, you two will be out for all of tomorrow. Don't worry though, I'll bring your homework in so you can do it."
"Thanks Sweetie."
"Yeah...thanks."
With that they promptly fell asleep.
Sweetie chuckled and stashed the comic in a drawer before trotting out and heading home.
Condition Sweetie Belle: Good AppleBloom: Tired/Asleep Scootaloo: Tired/Asleep
August 15, 1006 Post Nightmare Moon
Sweetie looked over the meager collection of gems she had accrued from yesterday. 'Three rubies, four sapphires and an emerald.' She thought. 'Probably not enough to trade for anything from Igor.'
'Why don't you ask for a pricing sheet?' Nightmare asked.
Sweetie trotted over the vanity mirror in her room and touched a hoof to the edge. "Nightmare."
Her reflection rippled and looked itself over, looking satisfied.
"That's a good idea but I don't want to be a burden by just popping into the Velvet room to say 'Hey. I only stopped by to have a look at your prices.' and then leave. It's rude." Sweetie stated. "And my sister always says it's not right for a lady to be rude."
"Well you're not a lady yet are you? You're still a little girl." Nightmare replied, her voice an amalgamation of her own mental voice and Sweetie's. "Besides. You should probably tell him about your friends powers."
Sweetie turned and looked at her possessed reflection. "You're right."
All of a sudden a knock sounded on her bedroom door. "Sweetie! It's me!"
"Oh.... ahhhh... Coming Sugar Cube." Sweetie panicked recalling Nightmare from the mirror and rushing over to open the door. As she reached the impromptu percussion instrument, it flew open, smacking her in the face and sending her flying into the wall. "Oww... my nose."
"That was amazing mom!" Sugar Cube gushed from just outside the now open door. "It was stuck fast and you just opened it like it was nothing!"
"Oh it was nothing little one, but to be honest it wasn't really stuck like you said it was. Sweetie just locked it." Twilight's voice sounded out.
"So you unlocked it?"
"With magic, yes." There was a slight pause before one of them spoke again.
"When my magic starts showing.... you have to teach me that spell."
"We'll see little one." Twilight chuckled. "I don't think your other mom would be pleased if I taught you a lock picking spell."
"I certainly would not." Sweetie heard her sister say as she walked past.
"You did that on purpose?" She could hear Sugar Cube pouting.
"I was listening the entire time dear." Rarity said, her voice fading as she headed upstairs.
Sweetie could vaguely hear a Nyaaah sound and guessed that Sugar Cube was poking her tongue out.
Twilight chuckled lightly "Find what you're looking for quick little one, then you and Sweetie have to get to school. We'll be stepping out again today but Spike should be here when you get home." She said before her hoofsteps started getting softer as she followed Rarity upstairs.
Sweetie watched the door swing closed and Sugar Cube trot across to the other bed in the room before she squirmed under it. Finally deciding to peel herself off the wall,she fell to the floor with a thwump. "Ow.... my flank."
Sugar Cube poked her head out from under the bed and looked at Sweetie. "Oh there you are."
"Yeah." Sweetie deadpanned, rubbing her flank as she stood up. "Thanks for giving me a taste of what it's like to fly... then crash. I can officially say I'm glad to not be a pegasi."
"Well that's your fault for locking the door." Sugar retorted before ducking back under the bed.
"What are you even looking for?" Sweetie asked,poking her head under the bed.
"My homework." Sugar answered.
"Why would it be under your bed?"
"Why wouldn't it be?"
"Because that's a stupid place to put it."
"No it's not. I put it there so I forget where it is."
"Don't you mean, so you don't forget where it is?"
"I know what I said."
Sweetie rolled her eyes and grabbed her saddlebags, waiting by the door to their shared room. "Well hurry up or we're going to be late."
"Go without me... I could be here awhile."
"SIS!" Sweetie called up the stairs. "SUGAR'S TELLING ME TO LEAVE WITHOUT HER! SHOULD I?"
"IS SHE STILL LOOKING?"
"YEAH!"
"THEN YES SWEETIE, YOU CAN GO!"
"OKAY SIS!"
"WOULD YOU TWO STOP SHOUTING!!! YOU'RE SPOOKING OWLOWICIOUS!" Spike yelled at both of them. "AND YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN HE GET'S SPOOKED!"
Sweetie trotted through town, past the big, black crater that used to be the Books and Branches library before an... accident saw it reduced to rubble. The cleanup effort had been really quick but the Mayor seemed reluctant to build a new library when so few ponies used it in the first place.
'You might want to watch where you're going.'
"Huh?"
thud
Sweetie folded her forelegs as she went soaring through the air and landed on one of the haybales randomly strewn around Ponyville.
"Is life trying to tell me I should have been a pegasus?"
"Maybe." A brash voice responded. "It's a hay of a lot more fun than being a unicorn."
"What score did I get?"
"That was about an eight out of ten Pinkie!"
Sweetie looked up and saw Rainbow Dash hovering in front of her, Pinkie standing in the doorway to Sugarcube Corner a little ways back.
"Nice distance and height, good horizontal clearance too!"
"Wee!" the Pink earthpony mare cheered and bounced over.
"What hit me?"
"A door."
"A door?"
"Uh huh."
"Why... nevermind. I have to get to school." Sweetie sighed before she jumped off the haybale and trotted in the direction of the schoolhouse.
'Watch out!'
Sweetie stepped to the side as the door flew open again, revealing Pinkie. "Darn. I've gotten everypony else with that twice."
Sweetie just chuckled softly and kept on heading to school.
"Now today we're going to practice music. Now seeing as our fiddle player and guitarist as well our keyboard and piano players are absent.." Cheerliee prattled on as Sweetie took up her usual spot at the microphone. As she did Sunny trotted up next to her, trumpet strapped to her back.
"So where are Applebloom and Scootaloo?" The young pegasus asked.
"Oh... umm... Applebloom is starting work on the fields and Scootaloo is helping her because she's hoping it will get her her cutie mark." Sweetie lied.
"Huh. Well as long as they're learning something I guess." Sunny shrugged and trotted over to the brass section to practice.
Sweetie wiped her brow and tapped the microphone gently. "Test. One, two, tree. Test."
'Nervous?'
'I... uhh... I still get stage fright a little.' She looked out and hoped everypony would be busy with their own practice.
Everypony looked back at her, waiting for her to start.
She sighed softly and started singing the first song that came to mind, a song she had composing in her spare time using the Neighponese that Spike had been teaching her at home. As she sang the instruments slowly began to pick up the beat and time, taking the part they thought would best suit them.
By the end of the song the school house was equaling the noise produced by the record store in town. (some would argue it sounded much better, but that would depend upon your taste in music.)
Sweetie extended the song by starting the lyrics over again, not that the others noticed, using her magic to add a second layer of vocals.
After school ended Sweetie found herself angling towards the town plaza on her way home. 'That's odd. I normally take the route past Sugarcube Corner to get home.' Her curiosity only spiked when she found herself drawn into a nearby alleyway. "What the hay? Is that the door to the Velvet room?"
'Seems so.' Nightmare responded. 'Why don't we go have a chat.'
Sweetie nodded and opened the door, trotting into the spacious lobby.
From behind a trash can, two ponies who had been following her stepped out and gaped.
"Did she just trot through that wall?"
"I don't believe it but, yeah... she did."
"So what do we do now Snips? Without her we can't find out what happened to Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara."
"I don't know Snails. It was your idea to follow her in the first place remember?"
The two colts decided to wait and see if she would emerge from the wall, hunkering down behind the trash can again.
"Ah miss Belle. Always such a pleasure. I assume you are here to report on the awakening of your friends power?" Igor guessed, the creepy smile gracing his face again as he gestured to his tarot deck. "The chariot, Gaia and The fool, Tempestates have awakened within your friends."
Sweetie nodded, taking a small pouch from her saddlebags. "I also have some gems here but... I don't know any prices so I can't trade effectively."
"Ah yes. My apologies." Igor clasped his hands. "I did not think about that. Theodore, would you be so kind as to give miss Belle a copy of the pricing sheet."
"Of course master." Theodore bowed. "I will be right back." He said as he turned and walked off to another part of the Velvet room.
"So what gems have you amassed?" Igor asked.
"Three rubies, four sapphires and an emerald." Sweetie answered.
"So not many." Igor nodded. "Well that's understandable, you haven't been in there for long."
Sweetie nodded as Theodore returned, handing her a slip of paper. "Here you are miss Belle, this is by no means a final product sheet,but we will add more services as you explore the comic."
"If that is all my dear." Igor inquired. "Theodores older sister has requested my help with something."
"For now Igor." Sweetie nodded. "I'll see you again soon."
"I look forward to it." The human said as Sweetie turned to trot out.
Snips and Snails watched as Sweetie Belle trotted out of the wall and back into view, quietly watching as she trotted out of the alleyway.
"Are you two going to just watch me like a pair of stalkers or are you actually going to talk to me?" Sweetie inquired as she stopped at the mouth of the alley.
The two colts looked at each other and bashfully stepped forward. "We were wondering if you know where Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara are..." Snips asked.
"Yeah." Snails nodded.
"I might. But why would I?" Sweetie asked. "The two of them are constantly picking on me and the other crusaders. So why should I care if the two of them have vanished?"
'Being a little harsh there.'
'Not at all. Just telling the truth. I'll save them... but that doesn't mean I have to like it.'
"I... guess that makes sense." Snips looked disappointed.
Snails nodded sadly. "I tried to tell them that they should be more sociable. But they didn't listen."
"Obviously." Sweetie said as she trotted off toward her sister's boutique.
Snips raised his hoof to call after her but thought better of it and turned to follow after his friend.
Sweetie trotted down the street, studying the pricing sheet. "Five rubies for an agi card, five sapphires for bufu..." She mumbled out the rest. "Ten for Maragi, ten for mabufu, ten for magaru... you already know Mazio right?."
'Yes I do.'
"Thought so... so there's nothing here that we can use."
'But you could buy cards for your friends.'
"Yeah." Sweetie nodded. "That's a good idea."
"Hey Aunty!" Sweetie heard Sugar Cube call out. "Where did you go after school?"
"That's what I'd like to know." Spike said, following Sugar Cube over. "I got worried when Sugar Cube made it back before you did."
Sweetie looked up at the sun. "It's only five in the afternoon. I'm half an hour late home."
"Regardless. Come on young mare. Dinner's almost ready and I'll be damned if I'm eating alone." Spike scolded her, grabbing both Sweetie and Sugar Cube's hooves and dragging them back to the boutique.
Applebloom yawned and stretched, slowly getting to her hooves. "Oh... mah head... and mah legs... ah'm sore all over."
"Ugh... be quiet... why do you have to be so loud?" Scootaloo groaned as she fell out of her bed.
"Ah'm whisperin'." Applebloom whispered as she slowly looked around. "We're goin' to need weapons if we're headin' through there again."
"Maybe you and Sweetie do... I can fight just fine with my bare hooves. And you know martial arts... so what's the problem?"
"Ah don't want to get close to those things after havin' that cloud thing in mah body." The earth pony shivered. "You know... mah sister just got a new pitchfork to replace our old one. Ah could probably get mah hooves on the old one to use."
"Like a spear?"
"Ah guess. Come on. Let's go to the tool shed."
"Why?"
"Ah'm gonna need some help to reach the darn thing."
Social stats. Charm: Un-marelike. Academics: Average. Courage: Timid.
Sweetie Belle had zoned out of Spike's scolding and was talking with Nightmare in her head as she trotted next to her adopted niece.
Sugar Cube looked around, spotting an unopened candy bar that somepony had dropped and darted over, picking it up and stashing it in her saddlebags, letting a pleased giggle escape her mouth. Her ears perked as she heard some of the other fillies from school yell out.
"Hey Sweetie!"
"Sweetie Belle!"
Sugar watched as Sweetie's head swiveled in the direction her friends their friends were approaching from.
"Oh no you don't." Spike half growled as he stepped in front of the two charging fillies and suddenly became as hard as a brick wall.
Sugar couldn't contain her laughter at the sight of the two fillies slamming head first into Spike's chest and bouncing back a good six hands, which earned her a brief glare from the three older fillies.
"Sorry girls, Sweetie isn't going to be able to play today. Twi and Rar are out on a date at one of the restaurants in the fancy part of town so I have to look after Sugar Cube and Sweetie."
"Aww come on Spike." Scootaloo begged.
"Yeah. Ah promise we won't need to keep her around for long." Applebloom made a cute face to try and confuse him.
Sugar Cube blinked in surprise when she saw the dragon turn away and look at the ground in thought for a few seconds. She swore she saw abit of a blush on his scales. She looked at the others. Apparently she hadn't been the only one to notice because Applebloom was doing something similar by hiding her face in her tail while Scootaloo wore a grin that could only be described as 'shit-eating'. A quick glance at her aunty revealed a slightly confused look, which was typical.
Spike coughed and drew all their attention back to him. "Well regardless, I have to say no. I'm sure whatever it is you need her help with can wait, and maybe you won't need immediate medical help afterwards."
"Argh!" Scootaloo grumbled. "Is anypony going to let us forget that?"
"I told you two it was a stupid idea to build that thing and then test it yourselves." Sweetie scolded.
"Well it would have been safer if Ah had been allowed to finish it!" Applebloom argued.
"I don't even know why any of you thought it would be a good idea to build a..."
"Enough! We agreed not to mention it again! So why are we mentioning it again?" Scootaloo angrily stomped.
"Good point." Sweetie nodded as she took some papers from her saddlebags and gave them to her fellow crusaders. "Here's todays homework. Why don't you occupy yourselves with this until tomorrow?"
"Fine." Scootaloo said as she sagged.
"Sounds good to me." Applebloom nodded subtley towards the clocktower near the center of town.
Sweetie nodded slightly.
"Alright then girls. I have to get these two home and fed... and maybe cleaned in Sugar's case." Spike said as he waved and started walking back in the direction of Carousel Boutique.
Sugar waved Applebloom and Scootaloo off with Sweetie before falling into trot behind her draconic brother. With a smirk she poked her aunty with her tail.
"What?" Sweetie whispered.
She giggled and whispered back. "Didn't ya see?"
"See what?"
Sugar beamed. "There's somethin' goin' on between Spike and Applebloom. How could ya not notice?"
"I thought she was just embarrassed her ploy seemed to work."
She gave her aunty a light shove. "Oh please, it's about as obvious as you were when you were 'pretendin' ta hit on Scoots at aunty Fluttershy's weddin' reception." She chuckled when Sweetie turned a light shade of red. "Got a thing for wings eh? Or just the filly attached to 'em?"
"Hey. My preference is my business." Sweetie shot back, still whispering. "Besides, I am older than you."
"Pfft. By what? Three years?" She rolled her eyes. "I'm four, you're seven."
"And Spike's two in dragon years."
"Really?"
"He is a baby dragon."
Later that evening...
"Damn it!"
"Watch your language Sweetie" Spike scolded.
"Coming from the dragon who taught me how to curse in Neighponese." She muttered. "I accidentally gave my homework sheet to one of the other crusaders..."
"Really?"
"Uh huh. Should I go get it?"
"Yeah... that'd be a good idea. Take Owlowicious with you. He'll make a great guide in the dark. And he needs to go to the bathroom."
"Ewww..."
Meanwhile...
"She knew something!" Snips complained to his brother.
"Obviously. But what can we do?" Snails asked, looking up from his magazine. "And stop pacing... you'll leave a groove in the carpet."
"We should investigate their clubhouse at the next Rainbow Dash fanclub meeting."
"That's not until next week though."
"I know. So we should start planning now."
"If you say so."
At Sweet Apple Acres, the Crusaders clubhouse...
"I'm here girls!" Sweetie announced as burst through the clubhouse door.
"Sweetie?" the other two fillies shouted in surprise.
"Sorry. I accidentally gave my homework sheet to one of you." Sweetie panted.
"Did you gallop all the way here?" Applebloom asked.
Sweetie nodded as Owlowicious landed on her back.
"Well that's some good exercise." Scootaloo nodded to herself. "So we gonna head into the comic?"
"Do we have enough time?"
'Nightmare?'
'Yes?'
'The time distortion from the comic?'
'Is fairly small today. For every hour you're in there only one minute will pass.'
"Yes we do."
"Alright then!" Scootaloo stood up. "Grab your weapon Appleboom."
"Way ahead of you." Applebloom smiled as she grabbed a pitchfork from under the table while Sweetie retrieved the comic and opened it to the next blank page before diving in, followed by her friends.
The trio landed on the same rooftop and leapt off the side like they did before, landing in the street below.
Applebloom stood on her hind legs and hefted the pitchfork over her shoulder. "Looks clear for now."
"Spoke to soon. Here comes the welcoming commitee." Scootaloo said as she pointed towards a group of approaching creatures.
"What do we even call them?" Sweetie asked.
"Well... they're gooey blobs on the ground... Shadows?" Scootaloo suggested.
"That works." Sweetie shrugged, forming her tonfa.
"You girls relax. Ah got these." Applebloom smiled maliciously. "No pony uses mah body like a hoofpuppet." She held the pitchfork out in front of herself and charged forward, knocking the five shadows aside and stunning them.
"Are you girls ready for some payback?" She called out.
"I am! What about you Sweetie?"
"Hay yeah! Let's go all out!"
The shadows had somehow clustered near each other as the three fillies ran in and started pummeling them into a thick, black tar, leaving behind a skull shaped black mist as the shadows evaporated.
"And done." Applebloom proclaimed as she shouldered the pitchfork again.
"Well that works." Sweetie nodded.
"Sweet!" Scootaloo half shrieked
Sweetie looked down the road and saw the spot that Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara had been chased down two days ago. "Come on crusaders... we have a job to do."
"Gaia!" Applebloom shouted before she rammed her pitchfork through the card that appeared, summoning her Persona. The minor earth goddess appeared and shot a bolt of fire straight at the the charging automaton.
"This thing is a shadow?" Scootaloo asked as she pushed herself into the air, over the lance like appendage of the robot.
"I think it's like a shadow possessed suit of armor." Sweetie called out as she summoned Nightmare to hit the chaotic clockwork contraption with a bolt of lightning and knocking it off balance.
"Let's go!"
"Okay!"
"Alright!"
"Allow me!"
"Who the hay..?"
When the mist evaporated the three crusaders found themselves staring down a disheveled Silver Spoon, a pipe clutched in her hoof like a short sword.
"Oh thank Luna! You're actually real!" She cried out, the pipe slipping from her hoof. "Diamond and I got separated while those... those things were chasing us and then this weird fairy thing showed up and encased them all in ice... I've been running from it ever since."
"Fairy thing... did it say anything when it appeared?" Sweetie asked.
"Y-yeah... something stupid like 'I am you and you am I' or something similar...can we get out of here before it shows up again?"
"In a minute." Scootaloo told her.
"I art thou, thou art I." Sweetie said.
"Yeah! That!" Silver Spoon called out. "You've seen it too?"
"It should have said something after that. 'I am so-and-so, deity of blah-blah.' Did it say anything like that?"
"I... I think so... why?"
The three crusaders looked at each other and nodded.
"Nightmare!"
"Tempestas!"
"Gaia!"
Silver Spoon's eyes widened as the three creatures erupted from the crusaders bodies.
"This is why."
"K-k-k-k...." the frightened filly stammered.
"Keh..."
She clenched her eyes shut, a voice ringing through her head. 'Khione... goddess of snow.' "Khione, goddess of snow!" She shouted out, her eyes flying open as the card appeared in front of her and shattered, summoning a pixie like creature wearing a battle armor made of permafrost, her wings assembled from millions of snowflakes, her hair was a constant blizzard.
Sweetie and Nightmare nodded to each other. "Just as I thought."
Gaia and Tempestas nodded to their fellow deity who curtly returned the nod.
"Wha... wha...what is that thing?" Silver Spoon asked.
"Your Persona." Applebloom told her.
"Per... per...persona?"
Before Applebloom could respond Scootaloo cut in. "Before we get into that... Do you have a weapon or some equivalent back at your home?"
"Huh?"
"What?" Sweetie and Applebloom asked at the same time.
"Time out Scootaloo!" Sweetie yanked her friend over with telekinesis. "What are you asking her that for?"
Scootaloo shrugged. "She knows where Diamond was last, she's got a Persona. We may as well let her help us look for her."
Sweetie opened her mouth to argue but couldn't find any words. "Well...." She glanced around. "Shit...that actually makes sense."
Scootaloo smirked in triumph and trotted back over to Silver Spoon. "So do you?"
"Ye..yeah... my dad used to be a royal guard before he met my mom... he still has his old training sword I think." Silver Spoon answered. "I play around with it sometimes when Diamond and her dad go off to do business... whenever he catches me he scolds me and then tells me that I was holding it wrong or something."
"So that's how she's been fighting off the Shadows." Sweetie said and turned to Applebloom.
"Perfect. You have a Persona, you have a weapon. How about you help us find Diamond Tiara when we come back here later?" Scootaloo asked, extending her hoof down to help the filly up.
"W-w-well... what if I say no... if I'm too scared?"
"Then we do it without you, it'll take longer and she might not survive, or she might think we're fakes made by the shadows and gallop further in, getting lost forever." Scootaloo told her.
Silver Spoon looked thoughtful for a second before taking Scootaloo's hoof and shaking it.
Scootaloo smirked. "Alright Crusaders! Flanks in gear, let's get out of here!"
Silver Spoon gave her a grateful smile and picked up the pipe she had been using.
The four persona's all faded back into their wielders bodies as the four fillies began searching for an ambulance.
Applebloom and Scootaloo watched as Sweetie Belle and Owlowicious trotted off, Silver Spoon was being escorted home by Appleblooms big brother, Jensen Macintosh.
"Ah can't believe they bought that bunch of manure we told 'em. Wanderin' around lost in the orchard." Applebloom shook her head in disbelief.
"I'm not complaining." Scootaloo yawned.
"Neither am Ah... Ah just can't believe they bought it."
"Well... whatever... I'm turning in for the night. You should do the same. As long as Big Macintosh is taking Silver Spoon home we don't got nothing to worry about."
"Ah guess... g'night Scootaloo."
"Night Applebloom."
Sweetiebella Marie Belle: Level 5. Persona: Nightmare: Level 5/ Arcana: Judgement. No change to equipment.
Sweetie Belle groaned as she trotted down the street with her niece. She'd taken a few nasty blows in the comic world and her head was swimming from the exertion of moving.
"You okay aunty?" The chocolate brown filly asked.
"I'm fine Sugar Cube. Just a little headache from all the running I did last night to get my homework sheet."
Sugar Cube shrugged. "Makes sense. Doesn't explain the bruise I can see through the fur on your shoulder though."
Sweetie froze and glanced at her shoulder. Sure enough there was a large bruise, easily visible through her fur. 'Oh crap.... did Twilight see it? Did my sister see it? Did Spike see it?'
'Is something wrong Sweetie?' Nightmare's voice echoed through her head. 'You're very loud today.'
'Oh just fretting over this huge bruise on my shoulder that is visible through my fur. Nothing too big.' Sweetie responded sarcastically.
"And there you go, staring off into space again like the airhead you are." Sugar Cube said boredly as she trotted onward toward a place that wasn't the schoolhouse.
"And where are you going?" Sweetie asked the wayward filly. "The school is that way." She motioned with a hoof.
"Which is exactly why I'm going this way." Sugar Cube responded. "More fun, less rules and less learning."
"Come on Sugar Cube. My sister and Twilight wouldn't like it if their daughter, my niece, was skipping school." Sweetie said as she used her magic to yank the chocolate brown unicorn back over towards her and drag her all the way to school, ignoring the protests as they came at a steady pace.
The lesson was a boring one, the history of Equestria. Sweetie had already learned alot of it from her sister and Twilight, and she was getting irritated looks from Cheerilee whenever she started pointing things that were wrong. Not that she really cared. She got rewarded when she got back to her sisters boutique and relayed the news, and delivered the letter that went with it.
The issue was mostly to do with the younger foals in the class with them being taught a different set of history now that Luna was the sole Princess after Celestia misread her calendar and tried to cast the Armageddon.
She was also quite well versed in political knowledge due to Twilight's connections in Canterlot and the seat she held on the royal council.
And she knew Luna wasn't really in control of Equestria. At least not while she was living in SugarCube Corner and engaged to Pinkie Pie.
All these facts she was relaying to the class under the ireful gaze of their teacher.
The younger foals, including Sunny, Icing and Dewey were watching her with awe. Applebloom was sniggering at the look on Cheerilee's face and Scootaloo was doodling in her book, casting the occasional jealous glance at Sunny.
"...so the head of the Royal Council holds the current seat of political strength, the head being Ponyville's own Twilight Suzanne Sparkle, as decreed by Celestia before her banishment to the sun." Sweetie finished up her lecture and sat down while Cheerilee rubbed her temples.
"Thank you Sweetie Belle. I'll be expecting your sister and her marefriend in here tonight seeing as those letters I've been sending with you are going unheeded." Cheerilee sighed.
"I'm sure my sister and Twilight will have a few things to talk to you about regarding our curriculum too." Sweetie smiled innocently.
Cheerille just groaned and let her head slam into her desk. "I'm calling a half day today. You can all go home. Sweetie. I'll be following you to talk with your sister and Twilight."
Sugar Cube was the first one out the door and found herself galloping headlong towards Sweet Apple Acres, at least until she barreled into a yellow and pink winged wall, falling flat on her haunches. "Owww..." She rubbed her nose. "Watch where you're going!"
"Oh..." A meek voice answered. "I'm sorry. But... you're the one who bumped into me." A light pair of hooves picked her up and set her back upright before gently putting pressure on her nose. "It doesn't feel like anything is broken."
"If it is it's your fault ya bleedin' idiot." Sugar Cube snapped. "Get your dirty hoof off me nose!" She slapped the hoof away. "It smells like you've been touching dogs."
"Hey!" Dewey shouted. "Leave my mom awone! It was your fault for not watching where you were going!"
Dewey sighed. "And injured creatures will wash out at what hurt them." She finished. "I know I know mom."
Sugar Cube blinked and looked up, finding the smiling face of Fluttershy looking down at her. "Oh. I'm sorry Aunty Fluttershy. I didn't know it was you."
"It's okay Sugar Cube. You apologized so I'm not bothered." Fluttershy smiled. "Though I might have to have a word with your mothers regarding your language." Her demeanor suddenly turned stern.
Sugar Cube gulped. "No no. Please. Just.... old habits I picked up from my dad before he got caught."
Fluttershy let out a light chuckle as she trotted past and gave her daughter a motherly nuzzle. "It's okay Sugar Cube. It was just a little joke."
"Some joke." She grumbled before cantering off, angling towards Sweet Apple Acres. Her belly rumbled and thoughts of pilfering fresh apples from the trees filled her head.
Scootaloo and Applebloom had managed to build a considerable lead over Sugar Cube on their way back to their clubhouse, Silver Spoon following after them at a slight distance.
"You don't have to keep throwin' those glances at Sunny like she's done somethin' to personally offend you. Ah mean, okay, you're Rainbow Dash's biggest fan here in Ponyville. Fair enough, but you're givin' her such a hard time about it. It ain't her fault she is who she is." Applebloom scolded her friend.
"That's not what's getting to me." Scootaloo defended herself before withering under her friends gaze. "Well okay... maybe that's part of it. But what really irks me is just.... how similar she is to me. And yet so different at the same time."
"Explain."
"Well, our wings are both weaker than the average pegasi's, and we've both found something to keep our minds off it. But where as I've set my time to finding a way to validate... these!" she gestured to her woefully underdeveloped wings. "She's ignoring her lack of flight and....grah!" Scootaloo groaned as she put her hooves to her face and stood on her hindlegs, tipping back and falling to the ground. "Soccer. Damn Soccer. She's going to get famous like her mom, and what am I going to be? The head of a faceless corporation that no pony knows? An obscure star in a sport dominated by earthponies?"
"She's reminding you of your own shortcomings and it's drawing your attention to your own flaws." Silver Spoon spoke up. When she noticed the looks she was getting she shrugged. "My aunt's a psychologist at Ponyville general. I've had to spend a few afternoons getting psycho-analyzed because I've gone home upset after she's stopped in for a visit."
"Your point?"
Silver Spoon shrugged again. "My point being, she's everything you want to be in one way or another. She's in the family of your idol, she's not bothered by her lack of wing power and she's found an interest that could make her as famous as her mom." She looked down at Scootaloo. "Stop hating her for what she has that you don't, and try actually being her friend and not faking it. That way you can say that you're friends with the daughter of your idol. And who knows, maybe you're being a bigger influence on her life than you think."
"Which ones life?"
"Take your pick."Silver Spoon said before trotting ahead of the pair.
"She makes a good point." Applebloom said.
Scootaloo just grumbled and got up, trotting after the pair.
Sugar Cube headed right to the center of the orchard and started pilfering apples from the trees that grew around the CmC's clubhouse.
"Mmm... so juicy." She smiled as she took another bite out of the apple in her magic's yellow grasp. Her thoughts drifted to her magic. She knew basic levitation and telekinesis but anything beyond that was an immense strain on her.
"So what are we going to do today? Sweetie isn't with us so..."
"We can go into the comic if we want, it'd be good practice for Silver Spoon."
"Ah don't think that'd be wise. Sweetie got hers first and she seems to have a bigger clue about what's goin' on in there than we do."
"We're just going to head in, beat up some of those Shadows, maybe look around for Diamond Tiara. Nothing too hard or stressful."
"I don't think that's a bad idea myself. I would like to start searching as soon as possible."
A sigh. "Alright. If y'all want to do it that way."
Sugar Cube sat under the clubhouse window, waiting for any more conversation to take place. After about five minutes, and four apples, she got bored and started the journey home.
Equipment change: Silver Spoon: Weapon: Short lead pipe - training short sword. ---
"Khione!" Silver Spoon shouted, cleaving the card in two with her sword. The card shattered, releasing the snow fairy which charged forward, forming a pair of ice swords in her hands and hitting every shadow in front of them three times each.
Scootaloo leapt over Silver Spoon and slammed her hoof into the nearest shadow's face, watching as the creature reeled and disappeared in a puff of smog before ducking low and sweeping her hind legs out around her in a circle, tripping over the large bi-pedal globs of inky blackness.
Applebloom planted her pitchfork into the ground and flip kicked one of the monstrosities, killing it and causing it to disperse into a smog of inky blackness She yanked the pitchfork out of the ground and stabbed it's forks through the head of the other Shadow, causing it to stagger back.
Silver Spoon bolted forward and launched herself into a somersault, bisecting the shadow from head to toe with her sword, leaving the two halves to fall perfectly away from eachother before they exploded into the familiar inky black smog.
"Boom!" Scootaloo cheered and pumped her hoof. "That wasn't that hard!"
"And... and you three do this often?" Silver Spoon panted. "that was the seventeenth fight in a row."
"It gets easier once you've been through it once already." Applebloom shrugged and hefted her pitchfork. "And this is like the fifth time Scoots and ah have been in here."
"The fifth?" Silver Spoon's jaw dropped. "How are you three still alive?"
"Easyily." Scootaloo bragged. "It's not like they're hard to kill."
"True." Applebloom nodded. "They are astoundin'ly weak some of 'em. And by the way Scootaloo, it's easily."
Scootaloo stuck her tongue out before replying. "Besides, Applebloom can heal us if we get too injured." She nodded.
"Alright, time to cut the chatter. Here comes another one!" Applebloom announced.
Sweetie Belle sat at the dining room table,resting her head on her forelegs as she listened to Cheerilee struggle to keep up with the fountain of knowledge Twilight was pouring out. The novelty had long since worn off but she wasn't allowed to leave the table because her sister had told her to sit still and pay attention.
She groaned out of boredem and let her head slam into the table.
"Hey Auntie Sweetie!" Another fillies voice rang out.
"Sugar Cube?" Sweetie looked up in the direction of the sound.
"Oh yes. Sugar Cube." Cheerilee looked at the filly. "I have to talk to you two about your daughters behavior in regards to my class..."
Sugar Cube gulped as Twilight and Rarity raised their eyebrows and looked at the young filly.
"Sweetie." Rarity addressed her little sister.
Sweetie looked up. "Yes sis?"
"You can go dear. Take some bits from my purse and spend a few hours at Applejacks. Use the bits to buy yourself some dinner, check back here after you're done and if Cheerilee hasn't left, you can spend the night with your friends."
Sweetie perked up at what her sister told her. "O-okay sis." she smiled, taking ten bits from her sisters open purse and stuffing them into her own, slinging her saddlebags on and trotting out.
Sweetie got dazed as she hit the alley way wall, her saddlebags flying toward the wall at the other end. When she tried to move she felt a hoof pin her against the wall.
"We don't want any trouble miss. We're just lookin' to get some bits is all." Her assailant whispered to her. "We ain't lookin' to hurt ya. So just leave ya saddlebags with us, and we'll let ya go."
Looking out the corner of her eye, she spyed a figure moving to pick up her saddlebags. "Please... I have fifteen bits in my purse, you can take that but leave the rest, it's all notebooks and schoolwork." She pleaded.
The figure pinning her against the wall answered with a dismayed voice. "Only fifteen bits?" He shoved her harder against the wall and started ranting quietly. "Fifteen bits won't get me an my friend jack shit. We take your saddlebags, you leave with your life, does that sound good girly?"
Sweetie closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. "Please... I need those notebooks, they have nothing but schoolwork in them."
"She's not liein'." the other figure grumbled. "We wouldn't get nothin' for the notebooks, but we could probably get a decent price for the small sack of gemstones in here."
The figure holding her against the wall slammed his free hoof into the wall next to her face. "You holdin' out on me girly? Gemstones would go for a good price back in Manehatten."
Sweetie swallowed her breath as she willed one of her magical tonfa's into existence around her pinned hoof,
"We've seen you headin' to that dress makers shop down the road, must be where you got those gems from. am I right girly?"
Sweetie didn't say anything, her horn started softly glowing pale yellowy-green.
"Hey! Don't you go tryin' anythin' funny girly!" The figure loudly whispered before pushing on her back some more, only to be met with a burst of magic flinging him backwards into the wall behind him.
The figure which had been rifling through her saddlebags turned to see what all the commotion was before charging Sweetie.
"Please work." She whispered as her horn built up a charge before she vanished, allowing the charging figure to slam face first into the wall. She reappeared next to her saddlebags and quickly scooped the bits back into her purse before throwing everything else back in and slinging them over her back again.
She looked up to see the two figures charging her again, realizing she didn't have time to try another teleport Sweetie charged between them, the blade on her tonfa flickering and cutting the gemsack that was tied around the second figures foreleg.
"Get back here Girly!"
"Please please please please please." Sweetie begged as she closed her eyes, her horn lighting up blue. She leapt into the air and twisted so she was facing the two figures, who she could clearly see were a pair of raggedy looking earthpony and pegasi colts. She looked up at her horn and noticed it was glowing blue, she smirked at the two would be thieves. "PERSONA!"
The three fillies panted as the large shadow finally fell. Applebloom keeping Gaia out to heal them all back to a reasonable shape.
"That.... that was a challenge... i'll admit..." Scootaloo puffed and panted
Silver Spoon shot the orange pegasus a glare. "A.... A challenge? That thing nearly killed us! Mulitple times!"
Scootaloo raised a hoof to say something but Applebloom cut her off. "Ah ain't denyin' that thing put up a fahght." She puffed, her country twang becoming more pronounced due to her exhaustion. "But ah also ain't denyin' that we caught a glimpse of Diamond Tiara... We saw her run lahke a pony possessed when she saw that Shadow."
"Yeah... but now she's headed down this... road thing and the gates closed behind her." Silver Spoon pointed out. "Ugh... I'm exhausted."
"Me two." Scootaloo let out a breath.
"Me three." Applebloom agreed. "Ah think we should bring Sweetie along if we ever plan on doin' another exploration lahke this."
"Agreed." the other two fillies chimed in before they piled into the nearest amublance and reappeared in the clubhouse.
They then proceeded to fall asleep where they stood.
August 17 1006 Post Nightmare Moon--August 24 1006 P.N.M
Sweetie flew backwards from the shot fired by the armored shadow, tumbling horn over haunches before landing heavily on her side and rolling into some trash cans, which upended and covered her in muck.
"Sweetie!" Applebloom, Scootaloo and Silver Spoon cried out in concern.
Taking advantage of the distraction,the Shadow's turret aimed at the overturned trash cans and let out a resounding boom!
"So how was she doing big bro?" Twilight asked her older brother as he sat across from her and Rarity.
Shining Armor took a sip from his teacup before answering. "If you want the honest truth Twily, she could barely hold a shield for longer than five seconds and even then, it was extremely taxing for her."
The dust cleared, revealing a solid green bubble around the small filly,which summarily collapsed, leaving her panting heavily. "Try... harder... scrap... heap..." she rasped between breaths,taunting the large vehicle before downing a juice box to restore her mana.
The large vehicle revved it's engine menacingly and started spraying machine gun fire at the fillies as Sweetie performed a short teleport back to the gap in her friends formation.
"What about basic combat spells?" Rarity asked pensively. "Some ponies claim to have witnessed my younger sister use a very powerful lightning spell."
"That, Miss Rarity, is a whole different story." Shining Armor smiled. "I've never seen a filly with such potential for storm magic as she does, and imagine my surprise when I tried to teach her blade casting, only to have her produce a pair of tonfa blades modeled after musical notes. What I wouldn't give to have somepony with her aptitude in the Royal Guard."
"Bladecasting?" Rarity looked aghast. "Where in Equestria did she learn that?"
"I asked her where she learned it too. Apparently she taught herself that spell as an exercise when her magic started to manifest." Shining Armor shrugged. "Seems a little advanced for a first spell, but we all have to start somewhere. If she wants more training though, I told her to ask my sister here." He motioned to Twilight. "She was one of the best junior bladecasters in Canterlot."
"Aheh heh heh..." Twilight sheepishly giggled at her marefriends face. "I picked up on the spell when Shiny used to take me to his guard training... I started practicing the spell and was matching blades with the guards after about a year. I kept it up to keep fit mainly."
"Kept a lot of recruits on their toes too." Shining chuckled. "I remember the looks on their faces when Princess Celestia would come down with her prized student and call out a raw recruit to duel her."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "I became the yearly hazing ritual."
Sweetie sneezed as she dodged another shot, shattering her Persona card with a quick flick of her tonfa, prompting Nightmare to appear and drop a lightning bolt on the large Shadow, stalling it's engine.
"Are we ready girls?" She called out.
"You know it!" "Always!" "Of course."
"Then let's go!"
The four fillies piled onto the vehicle and began hammering at it until it exploded into a black cloud in the shape of a skull and crossbones.
After collecting their rewards (which consisted mainly of gems{which were given to Sweetie} and eight hundred bits which was divied up equally between them.) the quartet turned their attention towards the alleyway in front of them, in of which laid an unconscious Diamond Tiara.
"Diamond!" Silver Spoon cried out as she galloped forward and sat down in front of her friend, the three crusaders hanging back to guard the entrance to the alleyway.
"Are you alright Sweetie?" Scootaloo asked her unicorn friend. "You don't look too good."
Sweetie took a few deep breaths before answering. "No... no I'm not. I can barely do any magic aside from levitation. That shield spell took a hay of a lot out of me."
"How did you learn that anyway?" Applebloom asked. "It seems mighty useful."
Sweetie sat down and retrieved another juice box from her saddlebags. "Twilight..Twilight called her brother down to teach me some self defense spells."
"Ah didn't know Twilight had a brother." Applebloom tilted her head.
"Yeah me neither." Scootaloo agreed as she scanned the street.
"Captain of the Royal Guard. Knight Captain Shining Armor." Sweetie recited after taking a long sip from the juice box.
A few seconds of silence reigned. "Is everypony in her family that important?" Scootaloo asked.
Sweetie shrugged. "She doesn't really say."
"So if that's everything then?" Shining Armor asked as he finished packing his saddlebags for the trip back to Canterlot. "I've got to get back to Canterlot and start the new recru-oh. I almost forgot." He exclaimed.
"Forgot what big brother?" Twilight asked, watching her brothers head dive into his saddlebags.
He emerged a few seconds later with an envelop in his magical grip. "The royal council asked me to deliver this to you."
With a small groan Twilight opened the letter and began to read it to herself.
Closing his saddlebags again, Shining Armor turned to Rarity. "So, if you don't mind me asking, what is my sister doing living with you? I heard she got her own place at the town library here while I was off on a diplomatic mission to Zebrafica."
Rarity gave a light chuckle. "There was a bit of a...mishap with the library one evening, so I offered her and Spike a place to stay in the interim."
"I see." Shining said as he appraised the mare with an up and down gaze. "Well then, I guess I should figure out a way to thank you for looking after my sister huh? How about lunch if you're ever in Canterlot? My treat."
Rarity gave a dainty giggle and smiled politely. "Well, a charming offer Knight Captain..."
"Please. Just Shining will do, that or mr. Armor."
"Well then, Shining. As charmed as I am for the offer, I am already spoken for." Rarity said politely.
"Ah. I should have known." Shining chuckled. "May I ask the lucky colts name."
"Well I.."
Before Rarity could finish Twilight trotted back over and pecked her cheek gently. "It looks like I'll have to head to Canterlot at some stage next month to help the council usher in a new Princess. Will you be okay with Spike and Sugarcube here?"
Rarity smiled and returned the peck, draping her tail over the lavender mares back. "Of course darling. You say that like watching over two fillies and a dragon could be hard."
Twilight giggled. "Just making sure." she smiled before nuzzling Rarity's neck.
With a loud cough and light blush adorning his cheeks, Shining Armor brought the attention back to him. "Well then. If that is all. I shall be off."
"Of course.*Twilight smiled,breaking away from her marefriend to give her brother a hug. "Tell mom, dad and Cadence I said hi, and that I'll be visiting soon."
"Will do Twily. We can catch up when I see you in Canterlot." He smiled before looking up at Rarity. "Miss Rarity, it was a pleasure to meet you."
"Likewise Knight Captain."
Twilight released him and waved as he teleported out.
Sweetie shivered suddenly as she helped Silver Spoon carry Diamond Tiara to an ambulance.
"Are you okay?" Silver Spoon asked.
"Yeah. I just get the feeling my sister and Twilight are being all touchy feely again." Sweetie answered.
"Ah get the same feelin' when Applejack is off with her coltfriend too." Applebloom shuddered. "Leave's you feelin' a bit dirty don't it."
Sweetie nodded as she levitated Diamond into an ambulance, climbing in afterwards. "Like I need to shower really bad cause I'm covered in slime."
August 24 1006 Post Nightmare Moon--August 30 1006 P.N.M
The sun was beginning to set over Ponyville. Most of the stores had closed their doors and the families within getting ready to hunker down for the night.
Only Sugarcube Corner remained open as a certain group of friends, minus one, were getting together for a small party.
"Well howdy Twilight! And good evenin' to you too Rarity. Looks like you two are the last to arrive." Applejack greeted the two unicorns while Pinkie bounced around inside, serving cakes and muffins to the ponies already inside.
Both unicorns replied at the same time. "Good evening to you as well Applejack."
"Oh oh oh!" Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced over. "Is everypony here now?"
A soft chuckle drew the four friends attention to the pale blue alicorn. "I'd say that's everypony Pinkie, yes."
As the orange earthpony ushered her two horned friends in, over at Sweet Apple Acres.. another party was about to get started.
Applebloom laid on her back, watching the stars as they danced about. She was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't notice the sound of somepony, or dragon, approaching.
"Mind if I join you Applebloom?" Spike asked.
"Huh?" The filly asked as she looked beside her. "Oh. Hi Spike. No, go right ahead."
"Thanks." The young dragon smiled as he laid down next to her. "Huh. No moon, that's odd. Would have thought Luna would have raised the moon by now."
"Ah'm guessin' she's a bit busy with whatever it is our kin are all doin' over at Pinkie's."
Spike nodded. "I guess that makes sense." He said before sitting up. "So what are you doing out here all alone?"
Applebloom turned her gaze to the dragon and smiled softly. "Ah'm just enjoyin' the evenin' view like ah always do. Helps me relax after a long day at school." 'and fightin' Shadows in the comic world.' she thought to herself.
"Ah. The stars have a habit of doing that don't they?" Spike smiled. "Even when you're majorly pissed at somepony, just five minutes under all these twinkling lights can make it all wash away."
"Yeah. They sure can." Applebloom agreed as a large flash appeared from Ponyville. "What the buck!?!?" She asked as she rocked herself into a sitting position. "Spike did you see that?"
"I felt it. That was a magic shockwave. From a failed spell."
After a few seconds of listening to Sweetie and Sugar Cube yelling and clutching their heads from the magical feedback, silence resumed and Spike let out a sigh of relief. "Well... that couldn't have been mom or Luna, or even Rarity for that matter."
"Huh?" Applebloom asked.
Spike smiled. "Well if it was Rarity's magic, then we'd all be 2 hands deep in the ground right now. If it was Mom's, we'd be plastered to the barn wall. If it were Luna's, well we'd be on the other side of the orchard."
"oh." Applebloom said. "Spike?"
"Yeah?"
"Who did you mean when you said mom?" Applebloom asked, giving the dragon an odd look.
Spike blinked as he regarded the filly. "Well, Twilight. She's the one who hatched me, took care of me and raised me. So she's my mom."
"Oh. That makes sense. Ah guess." Applebloom thought.
Spike just nodded and siddled closer to the filly and hugged her.
Applebloom leaned into the hug as she looked out over Ponyville, the glow already fading.
Groans sounded from all around the floor of Sugarcube Corner as the occupants began to rise. Rainbow Dash managed to pull herself up using a nearby chair before carefully moving to her husbands side.
The lime green unicorn stallion rubbed his head, a few pieces of his chocolate brown mane getting spread across his forehead as he slowly sat up.
Applejack was having a similar experience with her coltfriend, attempting to help the dark grey unicorn to his hooves and brushing his light brown mane out of his eyes.
Luna slowly pulled herself off Pinkie from where she was shielding the pink mare from harm and shook her head to clear her vision.
Pinkie for her part slowly sat up, rubbing her forehead and groaning.
Twilight and Rarity laid sprawled behind the counter of the storefront that they had taken cover behind, Rarity slowly getting to her hooves while Twilight snored softly on the floor.
"Is everypony okay?" Rarity called out.
"Ah...ah guess." "Seems that way." "I feel a bit odd... but not hurt in anyway."
After that last statement everypony finally got a good look at each other.
The screams could be heard in Canterlot...
August 30 1006 Post Nightmare Moon--August 31 1006 P.N.M
"Hold on a second." the large red stallion said. "If ah'm gettin' this right, then what ya'll are sayin' is that that light show from SugarCube Corner was a failed spell of some kind.."
"That resulted in everypony there swapping bodies." Applejack finished. "So I'm not your sister."
"No.. that'd be me." The dark grey unicorn said as he stepped forward. "So... ah kinda won't be around to help you with the harvest this week."
Big Macintosh chewed on his hay stalk for a few seconds. "Well.. Ah'll find a way to deal with this mahself. Y'all just try to find a way to get back to normal."
Their conversation was interrupted by a panting little dragon running over. "Applejack... please tell me Twilight and Rarity are home and I can grab Sweetie and Sugar Cube and get out of here. The Crusaders by themselves are a pain,but with all the foals here..."
'Applejack' glanced at the unicorn stallion' before answering. "Sorry sugahcube. they said they wanted a little extra rest before you three got back. Ah'd wait until after school lets out."
"But... but..." The dragon stammered before a rope fell around him. "Oh no... I thought I was done with this after the iron pony conteessssst..."
"Got him!"
"Nice job Applebloom!"
Big Macintosh watched the dragon being dragged towards the barn while hogtied. "Ah guess a better go and make sure they don't do anythin' they're gonna regret. Gears. Sis."
The two ponies nodded their farewell and began the trot back to town.
"Ugh." Spike groaned as he was untied. "What was that all about?"
"We need to go do something at our clubhouse." Sweetie explained. "We want you to make sure no pony else follows us. And keep anypony away from it until tomorrow afternoon."
"Oh yeah?" Spike asked the unicorn filly. "What's in it for... is that an amethyst?" He asked as the unicorn levitated a small pink gem in front of his nose.
Sweetie giggled. "Yup. And there's plenty more where that came from." She smiled, producing a small bag of the gems and passing them to the dragon along with the lone gem. "So. Do we have a deal?"
Spike looked in the bag and his eyes bulged. "Yeah.. yeah we do."
"Alright Fillies!" Sweetie called out as she clapped her hooves together. "It's Saturday, so let's get ready! Everypony have their gear? If you think you forgot anything go grab it now, because we are not leaving the Shadow world until tomorrow afternoon, or for the next three days if we factor in the time distortion."
"Ah'm all set!" Applebloom answered back as she tugged her ribbon tighter and hefted her pitchfork and tied it to her back just above her saddlebags.
"Same here." Scootaloo answered as she shadow boxed to warm up. The video camera and spare tapes sitting in the bags next to her.
"Ready when you are." Silver Spoon confirmed as she unsheathed her sword and tied the scabbard to her back, her own saddlebags bulging with food and drinks.
"U-um... I guess I am..." Diamond Tiara nervously answered before meeting Silver Spoons gaze and taking a deep breath. "Yeah. Yeah I'm ready." she breathed, hoisting her laptop bag with several spare and fully charged batteries.
"Right. Let's get this over with. Thanks to what Diamond told us we have an objective, a tower in the center of the city that has a weird lock on it. Once every tape for the camera is full, or we run out of supplies we head back to the safe zone and leave." Sweetie explained as she passed a bag of emeralds that were glowing slightly to Diamond Tiara. "Thanks to what Captain Armor taught me about shield magic, coupled with what I've learned watching my sister work with gems, I have charged these gems with enough shield magic to last for up to five hours at a time. So we won't have to leave somepony behind to guard Tiara while she works on analyzing enemies.for us. Just smash the gem to activate the shield."
Diamond nodded and took the bag, adding it to her saddlebags.
Scootaloo stuck her hoof up to speak next. "And everypony remember to equip the armor we tricked Applebloom's brother into making for us."
"Alright then." Applebloom finished as she slid the thin steel plate over her body and strapped some greaves to her legs. "Let's get goin'!" She cheered before diving into the open comic, the other fillies following after her once their own armor was donned.
"Sweetie Belle!" Spike called out as he walked up to the Crusaders clubhouse deep in the heart of the Apple families orchard, a bored looking Sugar Cube trotting after him.
"Come on.. can't I go home by myself?" The filly groaned.
"No. Because you'll get distracted and wander off like you always do." Spike responded. "Sweetie come on! Your sister said it's okay for us to head back to the boutique so get that flank in gear and let's go so I can start lunch."
Only the cold silence of two minutes greeted him. "Alright young filly. I'm coming up there. Sugar Cube wait here in case she tries to slip out the windows." The young dragon ordered as he marched up the ramp and flung the door open. His face dropped when he looked around the empty clubhouse, spying a comic book open on the floor, and a deck of cards on the table. Curious he picked up and thumbed through the comic. "Wow." he breathed. "The quality of this artwork is amazing. If this is what they've been working on, then that explains why they've been being so secretive." he said as he closed laid it down on the half drawn page he found it on and walked to the deck of cards, one of which sat face down next to the rest of them.
He rubbed his eyes quickly. Was it his imagination or was one of the cards glowing? Cautiously he picked it up and turned face up in his claw. "The Aeon?" He wondered aloud. "This is a Tarot card." He said as he put the card back on the table and picked up the deck, shuffling through it. "And this is a deck of Tarot." He frowned. "But five cards are missing." He tapped his chin with his claw as he spread them all on the table to look at them, mouthing silently as he repeated the names in his head. "The Fool, The Chariot, Strength, The Empress and Judgement. Wonder why those are missing?"
With a shrug he picked up the glowing Aeon and studied it intently. "Must be enchanted... but I can't see any markings. Guess I'll show it Twi and see what she can make of it." He shrugged again before poking around the clubhouse for any clues as to where the Crusaders vanished to before giving a slight shrug and heading back out.
"Ugh... Sugar Cube where did you go this time?" Spike dragged his free claw down his face in annoyance.
After finding and dragging his adopted younger sister back to the boutique, it became apparent to him that something was... off. Twilight had been parading around wearing dark, gothic themed makeup and looking for a suitable matching dress before retreating to Rarity's work room to make one while Rarity lay on the couch, with her glasses on and her mane and tail let down, reading a book, looking up to smile and shake her head in amusement at Twilight's antics.
After making lunch, and a mental note to ask Twilight about the card when she wasn't acting weird, he had grabbed a sling bag and about a hundred bits to go shopping when he bumped into Pinkie Pie.
"Greetings Spikus." The Pink mare smiled.
"Uhh... hey Pinkamena..?" he shrugged. "Is everything okay?"
Pinkie tilted her head. "Of course. Why dost thou ask?"
"Umm... Because Twilight and Rarity were acting odd when I got back... and you're talking like Luna. And this morning I could swear I heard Applejack speaking with a slight Germanic accent while Gears had a country twang." Spike counted off on his claws. "Did something happen in that light show with the magic shockwave last night?"
Pinkie's eyes shrank to pinpricks at the mention of last night. "Y-you could see that?"
"See it? I felt it. So did Sweetie Belle and Sugar Cube." He looked up. "Also, what's the deal with the sun? It's been mid afternoon for the past... twenty hours. Shouldn't Luna do something about that?"
"I.. uh... I...I gotta go." Pinkie blurted out before dashing back to Sugarcube Corner.
Spike simply raised his eyescales and shrugged, continuing on his way to the grocery store. "This town is weird sometimes." He muttered as he walked past Applejack as she made her way back to Sweet Apple Acres. "At least somethings are still normal."
He passed by the record store,which was suspiciously quiet. "Probably because Dash is still asleep, guess being pregnant again so soon after having Sunny is taking a toll on her."
"You could say that." A voice called from above.
Spike looked up and noticed Rainbow Dash's husband, Dizzy, hanging from the side of the roof by his hind legs doing leg ups. "Uhh... Hey Dizzy.. what's up?"
"Nothing much." The green unicorn smiled as he pulled himself up and peeked over the edge. "Where ya headed?"
"Just out to do some groceries." Spike replied. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to be able to read enchantments would you?"
"Nope. Sorry. If you needed me to use two sticks to bang on something really loud and fast, then I could do it." Dizzy answered, pointing to the drum kit that was his cutie mark.
"Right, well maybe you could tell me what exactly happened at Sugarcube corner last night? I ran into Pinkie earlier and she suddenly got all panicky and took off when I asked her." The purple dragon shrugged. "Applejack seems unaffected and it's almost like Twilight and Rarity have done a complete personality swap. And the sun has been stuck in the same spot since eight o'clock last night when it suddenly raised to the five pm position."
"O-o-oh... why.. why do you wanna know about that?" Dizzy asked nervously. "I-it's nothing. i-i'm sure everypony is just a little dazed after what happened.... yeah.. that's it. Dazed. A-anyway.... I gotta go..." he laughed nervously before slinking off.
Spike kept staring at the space that held the unicorns head for a few seconds before blinking and continuing on his way. "Weirdo." He muttered.
"Oh Spike! Spike, darling!" A voice cried out, causing the dragon to turn around. "Could you be a dear and do a little something for me on Monday?" Rarity asked as she cantered over to the dragon and slipped a piece of paper into one of the bags pockets. "Just head to Rose Luck's jeweler and drop that note off for me would you please?"
"Yeah. Sure I guess. No problem Rarity." He shrugged.
"Oh thank you Spike. I knew I could count on you." the white unicorn smiled before she turned and cantered back towards the boutique.
Spike blinked a few times. "Huh. Sounds like something Twilight might say." Shrugging yet again he continued on his path to the grocers when he was stopped yet again.
"Spike!" A dark grey unicorn stallion called out as he came galloping up. "Have... have you...seen Applejack?" He panted. "Whew nelly... I'm out of shape.."
Spikes eyescales went up another level at the use of the phrase. "I passed her about six minutes ago heading towards the her farm. Why? Is something wrong Gears?"
"Oh shoot.. Look. I'll talk to you later okay Spike?" The unicorn responded before bolting off after his marefriend.
The dragon scratched the back of his head and swore under his breath, "Kyō wa hen'na kusodesu." Before looking around for anymore distractions that might come his way. After finally judging the area to be clear he started walking towards the market district.
Thankfully the trip back had been uneventful, but a quick glance at the clock tower had told him that the time he'd wasted one the way there had made it so as soon as he'd gotten back to the boutique he had to start dinner.
Apparently a note had been found in Sweetie and Sugars room that explained that she wouldn't be home because she was having a sleep over at the clubhouse with Applebloom and Scootaloo. It wasn't until after dinner that he'd thought to show Twilight the card.
"What card Spike? There's noting in your claw but air." Twilight told him.
Spike took a mental picture of the expression she wore as she gave him a confused smile. "It's a tarot card, the Aeon, and it's glowing blue, how can you not see it Twi?"
"But that's just it. I can't. Maybe the enchantment is to hide it from pony eyes." She guessed.
"I suppose..." Spike said, skepticism creeping into his voice. 'This is creepy.' He thought. 'Her facial and vocal expressions are almost a perfect match for Rarity's.'
"Are you okay Spike?" Twilight asked as she waved a hoof in front of his eyes. "Hellooo." she almost sang. "Equestria to Spike."
"Huh?" He shook his head. "Yeah. just thinking. Anyway. If you can't see it then maybe you're right. Maybe you can try to undo the enchantment on it tomorrow."
"Oh. Of course." Twilight smiled sweetly before giving his cheek a light, motherly peck. "Good night Spikey."
The dragon poked his tongue out and rubbed where he'd been kissed. "Yeah yeah. Good night."
Sugar Cube cantered briskly through the busy streets, swiping candies and snacks from open saddlebags with a deftness that would leave most ponies baffled. In her own mind, the little filly was a chocolate furred ninja, liberating snacks from prisons before welcoming them into a better world in her stomach.
She emerged from the other end of the market place crowd with her saddlebags bulging, full of her pilfered foodstuffs. With a smirking glance over her shoulder and a giggle she trotted off to her favorite hiding place, under the crusaders clubhouse. "Didn't even know what hit 'em." she giggled triumphantly.
"Oh. Sugar Cube! Hey Sugar Cube!" A voice called out from behind her.
'Oh Blimey..' Sugar Cube thought. 'Don't you draw attention to me and my loot you little git!'
The teal pegasus filly with a two tone blonde mane and tail cantered over, her wings buzzing as she panted lightly.
"And here I thought you were the soccer teams star player." Sugar Cube remarked. "Just goes to show how good the team as a whole is."
The pegasus shot the unicorn a glare before taking a deep breath and straightening out. "The ball hit my chest pretty hard in training and I'm still a bit winded. So shut it. I just wanted to know if you know where Sweetie Belle is?"
"Not a Luna damned clue." Sugar Cube said matter-of-factly. "Now if that's all?"
Sunny drooped visibly. "Well...can I tag along with you in case you run into her?"
The chocolate brown unicorn filly stopped and thought. 'If I do bring her along, then I have somepony to shift the blame on, saying she tricked me into doing it.' A smirk crept to her face as her line of thought continued. 'But that also means I'd have to share it with her...'
The teal pegasus watched the unicorns face scrunch up in thought. 'wow... miss Twilight and miss Rarity really got a blank slate to mold in her.'
"Alright fine." Sugar Cube finally answered. "I was heading out to their clubhouse to eat anyway."
Sunny buzzed her wings happily. "Thank you Sugar Cube."
Sugar waved her hoof dismissively. "Yeah yeah. But if anypony asks, it was your idea." she said as she started trotting off.
The young pegasus stopped and tilted her head. "Huh? H-hey! Wait up!" Sunny called out as she struggled to keep pace with the older filly. "I wanted to ask, have your parents seemed off to you?"
Sugar Cube gave the pegasus following her a weird look. "Nope. Not at all. Why?"
"Oh..." The pegasus dropped again.
'She droops any lower and her head will be carving a ditch through the town.' Sugar Cube thought to herself.
"Well because my mom and dad have been acting really strange. Mom's taken to being really careful, and she seems to have somehow gotten really good at drumming since we had that sleepover at Aunty Applebloom's. And dad has become... well sort of a fitness nut, and can barely use his magic at all." Sunny explained.
"... are you sure the ball hit your chest and not your head?"
"Hey!"
"That wasn't very nice Sugar Cube." Icing said as she trotted over.
"Hey Icing!" Sunny smiled and waved the pale lavender earthpony over. "Have your mom and Luna been acting weird too?"
The young earthpony fell in line behind Sunny. "Not really acting... well Princess mommy has been acting weird, almost like she's scared of something. But mommy hasn't. She has been talking weird though."
As the other fillies talked with themselves, Sugar Cube took the opportunity to dart into a nearby alley between two houses and hide, watching as they kept trotting, unaware that they were now short a member. With a small smile, Sugar Cube's horn took on a light yellow glow, her hooves becoming enveloped in the glow. With an experimental stamp of her hoof she confirmed that the silencing spell had worked just fine and slipped out of the alley,heading back towards Carousel Boutique.
"Mom! Mom! Big Brother! I'm home!" Sugar Cube called out as she closed the door behind her, trotting towards the stairs that lead up to the second floor of the building.
"Welcome back Sugar Cube, darling."
"Welcome home little one."
"Hey sis! I thought you were gonna head to Sweet Apple Acres to see if Sweetie's ready to come home."
"I was, but Sunny and Icing distracted me. Besides. Aunty Sweetie is a smart pony. She can find her own way home."
The two mares and one dragon looked at each other as the brown filly trotted upstairs, her saddlebags making noises suspiciously similar to candy wrappers.
"Well she is right but I'm still worried about Sweetie." Twilight frowned slightly.
"You and me both." Rarity frowned along side her marefriend.
"It's not like it's the first time she's stayed over at Appleblooms. What's the big deal?" Spike asked as he turned the blue card over in his claw. "blank." he whispered.
"I'm not sure. Something just feels... odd." Twilight stated.
Rarity nodded. "Agreed."
Meanwhile...
"So explain to me again sending Sweetie back to Diamond for supplies was a good idea!?!" Scootaloo yelled as she ducked under a Shadow's fist and pummeled it's belly with her forelegs, before windmilling to sweep another Shadow's feet out from under it. "Luna in the moon I feel stronger though."
"Well how was Ah supposed to know we'd be jumped by all these Shadow's?" Applebloom yelled back before skewering a bunch of weaker Shadow's on her pitchforks forks. "What about you Spoon? Anything to add?"
Silver Spoon's sword was a dervish as she parried the strikes of a sword wielding Shadow and upended it, skewering it's wrist and making it drop it's sword, kicking the Shadow away from the blade before cutting another three of the Shadow's weaker friends in twain. "Sorry. I'm a little busy here! Ask me again later!"
Scootaloo rolled her eyes as she blocked another Shadow's punch. "Glad one of us is ha-uh?"
A Persona card flitted across the battlefield before a white streak slammed into it,shattering in a cloud of dust.
Bolts of lightning struck out, knocking many of the Shadow's off their feet and killing the rest.
"Come on girls, we have an opening!" Sweetie called from the dust cloud. "What say you?"
"Ah've about had it with these things! Ah'm in!"
"Yeah! Been waiting for this moment!"
"I too grow tired of this, let's end it!"
"Time to go wild!" Sweetie smirked as the dust cleared from her face.
The four fillies picked a set of targets from the ten Shadow's and pummeled them until they vanished into the familiar black skull and crossbones.
Silver Spoon watched the others collect the spoils from their battle as she studied the sword the Shadow had left behind. It was massive, easily one and a half times bigger than she was. "Yeah... I don't think I can use this."
"I could!" Diamond Tiara's voice sounded from the earpiece she was wearing.
"What? Really?"
"I'm stronger than you give me credit for Silver."
"Well... I guess I could try and haul it all the way back to you."
"Would you?"
"Yeah. I'll try."
"Cool! Thanks Silvia!"
"No problem Danielle."
With that Silver Spoon hefted the blade onto her back and followed after the three fillies in front of her. Hopefully they could find a place to stow it in the clubhouse...
Spike sprinted through the town,ducking under hooves and leaping over boxes, casting a sidewards glance at the schools clock tower.
"Shit shit shit!" He cursed as he picked up the pace.
As he sprinted across the town center, four pairs of eyes watched him.
"Where do you think he's off to in such a hurry?" Scootaloo asked no pony in particular.
Sweetie shrugged and leaned against the tree a bit more. "Probably a last minute errand for my sister or Twilight."
"Speakin' of which. Ah hope they ain't too worried you were gone so long." Applebloom spoke up from her patch of grass. "Ah mean, you've stayed the weekend with Scoots and Ah before, but normally ya'll give them a bit more warnin' than a note in your room."
"I know I know." Sweetie waved her hoof dismissively. "So. You girls pick up any interesting gossip?"
"Nope"
"Nuh uh."
"What about you Icing?"
"Huh?" The pale lavender earthpony asked, her pale blonde mane shifting slightly as she turned her head. "Oh... uh not really. Sunny was asking me if my mommies were acting weird. But you'd have to ask her for more information."
Scootaloo shrugged. "So aside from the rumors circulating that Applebloom and Spike are a couple..."
"Which we're not!" Applebloom yelled, blushing.
Sweetie swore she caught a glimpse of a frown on Icing's face as she mouthed something. She shrugged again. "Looks like we'll have to do some fact finding tomorrow after school."
"Oh...tomorrows no good for me. I need to help mom run the store." Icing frowned even more.
Applebloom nodded. "Ah heard about that. The Cakes set up a second shop in Manehattan huh? So they took Pound and Pumpkin and moved there a few months ago givin' Pinkie the shop here. Ah forgot about that."
"Oh yeah." Scootaloo nodded, remembering. "But wait. Isn't your cutie mark an... electro... card game line or something?"
Icing rolled her eyes. "An Electrocardiogram. A heart monitor." When she received blank stares from everypony present except Sweetie she sighed. "The thing in the hospital that when somepony dies makes the long beeping noise."
"Oh!" They all replied at once.
"You'd have to go to medical school before you could do anything related to your cutie mark huh?" Sweetie guessed.
Icing nodded. "Much like you'd have to find a talent agency and start with small gigs."
Sweetie poked her tongue out. "No thanks. That can wait until I'm done with high school."
"Same." Icing agreed.
"Anyway..." Scootaloo spoke up. "It's just going to be the three of us doing the investigating is it?"
"Ah think we could convince Sunny to help us out. And Ahcing would be able to gather information while she's workin' with her mom." Applebloom nodded.
"I could do that. Yeah." Icing agreed.
"I'll see if I can't rope Sugar Cube into helping us as well." Sweetie smiled before covering her ears.
Almost on cue, Applebloom and Scootaloo took a deep breath and shrieked. "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DETECTIVES! YAAY!"
Icing cringed as her ears started to ring. "I never realized how loud those two can be..."
Sweetie giggled, noticing the strange looks her two friends were giving her. "Something wrong girls?"
"Yeah. You didn't join in the chant." Scootaloo noted.
"Why didn't you chant with us?" Applebloom asked.
Sweetie looked back at them confusedly. "Well... I got my cutie mark... so I'm not a crusader any more."
"That ain't true!" Applebloom protested. "We told you that in Sugarcube corner when you got your cutie mark!"
Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah! Just having your cutie mark doesn't mean you're not a crusader anymore! Once we've all earned our marks, then we can hoof our cloaks to the next batch of blankflanks to be the crusaders."
"Yeah!" Applebloom agreed. "Only then do we stop bein' the CmC!"
"CmC?" The other three fillies present exchanged confused looks.
"That's what mah sister calls us when we're together. Ahem." Applebloom cleared her throat and proceeded to put on a thicker accent, attempting to mimic her sisters voice. "Those three fillies, the CmC, real chaos makers. Ah'd say they rival Discord for the amount of mischief they create."
The giggles this elicited from her friends were short lived though as another thought popped into Scootaloo's head.
"Hey Sweetie?"
"Hmm?"
"A couple days ago while we were...." The orange pegasus glanced at the other earthpony, carefully choosing her words. "...doing...something... you said you could barely do any magic that wasn't levitation...what about those teleports, the shield spell and.... well the other spell."
Sweetie blinked for a bit, before a fuse connected in her brain and she realized what her friend was asking. "Oh... well they all drain my mana reserves really quick. which isn't a problem for burst spells like the teleport and... the other spell. But the shield...I just don't have the magic to hold it up for long." The unicorn filly shrugged. "Well... at least according to Twilight. My music making spell is part of my..." She deliberated before holding her forelegs in the air to do air quotes. "Signature spell. Like Twilight's Blink spell or my sisters gem finder spell."
"You unicorns and your weird magic rules, Twilight could do all those things and not break a sweat, explain that."
"Twilight isn't normal." Applebloom blurted out without thinking. "Ah- ah mean... she ain't a normal unicorn, her magic is easily three times stronger than normal."
The other three fillies looked at her and shrugged.
"Oh hey Scoots. I think I was able to put together a new bit of music to help you fight. Wanna hear it?"
"Huh? Yeah sure. But first I gotta use the little fillies room, gonna come with?"
"Okay." Sweetie nodded as she trotted off with Scootaloo, leaving Applebloom and Icing behind.
"So you like Spike do you?" Icing half snarled after the other two were out of earshot.
Applebloom jumped at the other earthponies tone. "Wha- well ah mean... it's possible."
Icing wasted no time getting in Applebloom's face. "Stay away from him, he's mine."
"Who's yours?" another voice asked.
"Spahke!" Applebloom exclaimed before she galloped over and hid behind him.
The young dragon looked at the pale yellow filly and back at Icing. "Am I interrupting something?" He asked as he hefted a bag onto his shoulder. "If I am i can leave."
"Please don't." Applebloom whispered. "Ah'll pay you, three amethysts we found while plantin' trees last week, to escort me home."
"Amethysts?" Spikes eyes lit up at the mention of a sweet gem. "You got a deal!" the dragon exclaimed,gently taking Appleblooms hoof in his claw, an act which only drew the filly more ire from Icing. "After you lady Anne." Spike gestured after helping the filly to her hooves, his years of Canterlot gentledragon upbringing kicking in.
Applebloom set a brisk pace, eager to get as far away from Icing as quickly as possible.
"I told you, mom gave me the bits to go out and buy some groceries and use the leftovers to get some candy, but everything she sent me to get was sold out so I spent it all on candy!" Sugar Cube protested as trotted along side her aunty.
"Give it a rest Sugar. I talked with my sister and Twilight and neither of them said anything about giving you the bits to do any shopping, especially after Spike did it not even two days ago." Sweetie rolled her eyes.
Sugar Cube pouted. "So remind me again why I'm not going to just take off and leave you to do whatever it is you and your friends are going to do today?"
"Because if you don't, I'll tell my sister how you keep getting the chocolate and candy." Sweetie smirked.
The chocolate brown unicorn filly huffed and pouted mumbling under her breath. "Tattle tail."
Sweetie just rolled her eyes and lead the young unicorn toward Sweet Apple Acres. Thankfully they had no school even though it was a Tuesday, due to miss Cheerilee taking her bi-monthly day off to relax at the spa, which left the group of fillies to do as they pleased.
"Sweetie, Sugar!" Applebloom yelled as she bounded down the path towards them. "Sweetie! We got a problem! A big one!"
"Applebloom! How big?" Sweetie asked.
"What problem? Is Scootaloo trying to throw herself off a cliff to force herself to learn how to fly again?" Sugar Cube asked.
"Well... not quite that big." Applebloom glanced around before pulling Sweetie in close and whispering in her ear.
"We don't know. Scootaloo woke up, went to check on it, and it was gone. We have no ahdea where it could be." Applebloom shook her head. "This is bad."
"Bad? No? Bad would be a page got torn out. This is horrible! What if somepony finds it and falls in? Or if it get's thrown in the trash?" Sweetie panicked. "If we can't get to them in time, somepony could very well die!"
Sugar Cube just blinked as she watched on. "Did you three build another catapult and lose it somehow?"
"What? No!" the two fillies said.
"After Tweedle Dee" Sweetie gestured to Applebloom "and the absent Tweedle Dum nearly bled out from our test of the first one why, why in the name of the Princess's would we build another one?" she asked. "Besides even if we wanted to, we can't. Bloom destroyed the blueprints she drew up for it."
"Mah sister made me do it." Applebloom pouted.
"Where's Scootaloo?"
"She went off to grab the others. She should be..."
"I'm back!" Scootaloo called out as she trotted over with Icing and Sunny following along behind her. "I also told DT and SS about you know what." The orange pegasus winked to Applebloom and Sweetie.
"Good. We'll need all the eyes we can get looking out for it." Sweetie nodded. "Now then..." She turned to Applebloom. "Anything we should know?"
Applebloom shook her head. "Just that mah sister ain't been around at all since the dinner they all had at Sugarcube corner."
"Well then, that's a start I guess. Do you know where she's staying then?"
"At Gear's store... ah think."
"Alright then, you should go investigate there, which pretty much gives us our teams then doesn't it?" Sweetie nodded to herself. "Applebloom, you take Icing, Sunny, you're with Sugar Cube, you two investigate your house. I'll take Scootaloo and see what I can learn from my sister's store."
"Oh." Sunny spoke up "Maybe I could go with you instead.."
"Uh... and ah'd feel more comfortable with Scootaloo at mah side..."
Sweetie blinked and swept her gaze across her friends. "Well then I guess that leaves.... Where's Sugar Cube?"
"She bolted as soon as you started rattling off names and destinations." Scootaloo rubbed the back of her head. "Guess that means Icing has to go by herself or form a trio with two of us."
"I'll go with Applebloom and Scootaloo." Icing spoke up.
"Alright then." Sweetie sighed. "Everypony meet back here in about... two hours."
The five fillies looked each other in the eye and nodded before breaking into the two groups and heading off.
Applebloom paced back and forth at the gate to her family's farm, casting occasional glances to the sky. "Anythin' new happened you two?"
A burst of static sounded over her earpiece. "No not yet. It's still producing new pages at an alarming rate. Silver Spoon has collected all the pages that appeared around town, but nothing bad has happened yet."
"Okay... if you can get in touch with..."
"Sorry." Another voice burst onto the line. "Sorry. Sunny got me distracted by something, what's going on?"
"You explain it to her Diamond. Ah can see Scootaloo approachin' now." Applebloom pushed a button on her earpiece and turned it off. "Whatcha find Scoots?"
"Paydirt. I'll show you later. But for now."
"Right right. Focus."
"I saw Sweetie and Sunny making their way back here. They shouldn't be long."
"Who shouldn't be long?" Sunny's voice came from right behind Scootaloo.
"What's going on Applebloom?" Sweetie asked, Diamond Tiara's voice still barely audible through the unicorns earpiece.
"As we got near Gear's store, mah sister came out and started trottin' back to the farm. We quickly ducked into an alleyway and started followin' her. We followed her back here after ah sent Scootaloo to go get you."
"I see. Well... this is bad, not going to lie." Sweetie sighed. "Has anypony reacted to it yet?"
"Not that ah saw. Scoots?"
"Nope. Seems we're the only ones who can notice it, possibly due to our Persona's."
"Well we can't deal with it now."
"Ah agree, it can wait for a few days. We have our last test for this year startin' next week."
"Argh... I completely forgot about that."
"Hey... what are you three talking about?" Sunny asked.
The trio froze up and began to whisper amongst themselves before turning around.
"We weren't talkin' about anythin'." Applebloom lied.
"Nothing at all." Scootaloo nodded.
"Well I wouldn't call test preparation nothing..." Sweetie added.
"Oh... that's right we have a test next week don't we?" Sunny sighed.
"In any case, we came here for a reason." Sweetie spoke up. "The game.... is ahoof!"
"Anything?"
"No. They're still applebuckin'."
"I get it's a big orchard... but aren't they usually faster than this?"
"And doesn't Applejack normally help kick the apples off as well, rather than just standing there catching them in a bucket on her back?"
"Maybe she hurt herself while at Gears?"
"What could she possibly do there to hurt her back?"
"...too many things you don't want to hear about."
"How do you know?"
"You don't want to know how I know."
"Focus girls. We have a piece of evidence forming. Listen."
"...ah'm just sayin' it'll look mighty odd if somepony comes around here and see's you ain't buckin' any apples."
"I understand that, but well... i'm still a bit out of touch with what happened. Isn't there some injury that flares up from time to time that would make a good excuse?"
"Well... eeyup. Applejack's always had a bit of a bad back since she took a nasty fall when she was just a filly."
"Then I'll just say that's what is happening."
The conversation ground to a halt as the sounds of barking drew the two ponies attention. "Hey!"
"Winona!"
"Shush! They'll hear us!"
Appleblooms head poked out from the trees after the brown blur that darted out, barking and growling. "Ah think they already did."
Big Macintosh stared at the Apple family dog, and with a stern voice, gave the Border Collie a command. "Winona. Heel!" Instantly the dog skidded to a halt next to the red stallion, growling and barking at Applejack. Casting a look at the family pet to silence her before glancing towards the five fillies as they step out. "What are you fillies doin' spyin' on us? Especially you Applebloom, what are you thinkin' spyin' on yer family like that?"
"Well... uh...." Applebloom stammered.
"It was my idea!" Sweetie spoke up. "I noticed something weird was going on and convinced the others to help me find out what exactly it was."
Big Macintosh looked the white unicorn filly up and down. "Well... ah reckon if ya'll were curious, all you had to do was ask."
"Alright then." Sweetie nodded. "Why was Winona barking and growling at Applejack like she's a complete stranger?"
"Ah...ah'd lahke to know that too... it's plum confusin'." Applebloom added meekly. "Ah mean... Applejack was the one that got us Winona raght? So why is she actin' lahke she don't know her."
Big Macintosh nudged the orange mare gently, who had been standing stunned next to him.
"Huh?... Oh oh!" She cleared her throat. "She can probably just smell somepony else on me and it's makin' her nervous." She held her hoof out for Winona to smell before patting the Collie. "See?"
"Hmmm...." Sweetie narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing over the orange mare. "I guess that makes sense..."
The silence continued awkwardly.
"Ain't it gettin' a bit late out girls? Ah reckon ya'll should be gettin' home." Big Macintosh spoke up.
"But it's only...." Scootaloo trailed off before looking at the clock tower back in Ponyville. "Whoa... 7:15. That does sound like a good time to get home. I just gotta head back to the clubhouse to pick up my scooter." she lied before trotting off into the orchard.
"Ah... ah guess..." Applebloom nodded, trotting past her two siblings and their pet, towards the family house.
"Y-yeah." Sunny nodded and turned before Sweetie grabbed her foreleg and took her aside to talk.
"Would you like an escort back to Sugarcube Corner Ahcing?" Big Macintosh offered.
"What? Oh uh.. yes please mister Macintosh." The filly nodded, watching as Sweetie and Sunny trotted down the path back to town together, talking and laughing before falling in step beside the large red stallion.
Sweetie jumped over the low swing from the Shadow that had ambushed the group and twirled in midair, slicing it's head in half before spring boarding off it's head and cleaving straight through another that thought it would be a good idea to dive bomb the group. The unicorn landed in the middle of her friends, summoning Nightmare as she landed, and charged forward with them, screaming a battle cry as explosions of thunder, fire, wind and ice erupted from all around them.
"Uh oh..."
"What's wrong Diamond?"
"The world is starting to... pulse. It's like a wall of something is approaching and is about to...." The rest of the earthponies words where drowned out as a sudden white light enveloped the group and the rest of the Shadow world...
"Ughh... my head... is everypony okay?" Sweetie asked as she looked shook her head. "Girls?" She looked up after there was no answer. A big empty street surrounded her, which became a canyon as sky scrapers towered hundreds of hands above her. Growling softly at the annoyance she reached up to activate her earpiece, stopping short when her hoof met the fur on her ear. Her eyes widened as she felt her other ear in the hopes that she had somehow put it in the wrong ear, feeling the soft fuzz of her fur instead of the plastic of the earpiece she had 'borrowed' from her sisters stash of fashion show equipment. "Oh no.. Rarity is going to kill me if she finds out..." A horrible screeching sound drew the fillies attention as she found herself set upon by a multitude of shadows. With a panicked squeal she threw up her shield and hoped it would hold...
a few minutes earlier...
The series of soft knocks drew the attention of a white unicorn who lay on the couch in the living section of Carousel Boutique. Gently laying her book down on the end table and flicking her mane out of the way she stood up and trotted to the door, peering through the peephole to see who was there. After getting a good look at the visitor the mare opened the door with a smile.
"Dizzy.... or Dash?" She muddled her brow in thought. "Who are you right now?"
"Oh... it's uh me in here... Rainbow is back in herself too.. So are Pinkie and the Princess. So who are you?" The lime green stallion replied, his brown mane bobbed around his horn. "Am I speaking to Twilight or Rarity?"
The mare gave a deadpan stare. "If you can't tell by looking then maybe you should be the one wearing glasses."
"Oh..." Dizzy rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "No make up and your mane isn't styled.. sorry. So that means the pulse didn't reach this far?"
"Pulse? You mean the light show at Sugarcube Corner?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah.. so you saw it?"
The white mare nodded. "It was hard not to."
"Drat.. that means we need to find a way to swap Applejack and Gears back too." Dizzy mumbled. "So is Rarity in?"
"Yeah. She's upstairs. Do you want me to go get her?" Twilight asked.
"That'd be great." the stallion nodded.
Twilight turned and trotted upstairs, leaving Dizzy alone in the living room, his curiosity got the better of him and he peeked at the book on the table and blinked.
"Dizzy! So good to see you." a voice said as a lavender unicorn mare trotted into view. "Twilight tells me you managed to reverse the effects of this horrid spell."
"You say that as if it's a bad thing we got stuck in each others body for a few days." Twilight mock pouted as she trotted down and waited on the bottom step.
"Oh you know I'm only teasing you sweetie." Rarity giggled daintily. "But I do have orders I need to fill and your magic hasn't the finesse I require."
Twilight smiled and pecked her marefriends cheek.
"Well then... uhh... Rarity." Dizzy said, drawing attention back to himself. "Since you're in Twilight's body...you're the one who's going to have to cast the spell that will get you two back to normal. I uhh... take it you know about dual casting?"
"Oh... umm... no.. I'm afraid I don't." Rarity smiled sheepishly.
"Oh.. well uhh...it's a simple process really... all Twilight has to do is start the spell... and at the correct point in time you just have to charge the spell with your magic as well..." He stopped. "Maybe correct point wasn't a good term, because we want this to fail again."
Twilight absentmindedly patted a spot of her mane down as she looked over the spell book Dizzy had placed down in front of them, her trained eyes picking up on the intricacies of the spell in seconds. "Well that explains why when the spell failed it did the way it did."
"Huh? What do you mean sweetie?" Rarity asked as she looked up.
"This is a mind reading spell. So when the spell mucked up here." She pointed to a paragraph a quarter of the way down the page. "It turned into a mind exchange spell."
Rarity squinted and sighed softly. "I'll have to take your word for it darling. All I need to know are my geomancy spells and my telekinesis."
Twilight giggled and nuzzled Rarity lovingly. "And you've done more with that than I ever have with my whole arsenal."
"Well... since you two seem to know what you are doing... I'll just step out to make sure nothing bad happens by me being in the way." Dizzy nodded to himself before bolting outside in a gallop, leaving the two mares with comically large beads of sweat rolling down the back of their heads.
"Well then...shall we?"
"Let's."
Sweetie fought for her life as more and more Shadows came at her and Diamond Tiara. "Can you sense the others yet?" Sweetie asked as she clashed her tonfa against the blades of a quartet of humanoid dancers, kicking out at her Persona card to summon Nightmare.
"Ngh..." Diamond grunted as she blocked flurry of blows from a large automaton Shadow with her great sword. "Not yet. I need to get free of this to summon my Persona!"
Sweetie let out a roar as cluster of lightning bolts erupted from Nightmare's armor and struck all the Shadow's,knocking them to the ground. "Run! Now!" She screamed as her Persona absorbed back into her body before she bolted down the street away from the stunned Shadows with Diamond Tiara hot on her hooves.
"I hope the others are okay." Diamond panted as they galloped down the street.
"No offense to them... but let's worry about us first!" Sweetie gasped as she skidded into an alleyway and dove behind a dumpster with Diamond following swiftly after her.
"Uh oh...." Diamond said as she peeked around the dumpster. "It's happening again..."
Sweetie opened her mouth to groan but the sound was swallowed by the white light.
When the light show died down the two mares were stumbling in place before the lavender one fell to her side, the white one catching her and sweeping her until she was parallel to the ground.
"Oh Sweetie!" Rarity practically squee'd. "I'm me again. Beautiful me. And you're you. Sweet,gorgeous you!"
Twilight simply smiled and pulled Rarity into a passionate kiss, which the couple held for a few minutes.
Dizzy popped his head in the door and blinked. "Did it work?"
Rarity finally managed to pull herself away from Twilight to nod enthusiastically. "Yes yes yes! It worked wonderfully!" Rarity swooned. "I'm me again, and Twilight's herself again. All is right with the world!"
"Not just yet it's not." Twilight muttered, just loudly enough to be heard.
Rarity turned toward Twilight. "Whatever do y-" her sentence was cut short by a gasp as her eyes settled on Twilight's form as she crouched the front half of her body low to the ground, a small felt box gripped in her magic.
"I was hoping to save it for a better moment. But I guess the moment doesn't get much better than this." Twilight smiled as her magic opened the box.
Rarity gasped even louder as Dizzy let out a low whistle. The ring band was pure platinum and just large enough to fit halfway down a unicorn's horn. Atop it sat a generously sized, yet still practical, opaque white diamond which shimmered in the sun, casting pale light all over the boutique.
"Rarity Jeanne Belle..." Twilight began. "will you marry me?"
All of Ponyville stopped dead at the sound of their resident fashionista's gasp. Breaths were held, some prayed to Luna quietly hoping the cause wasn't anything bad. In the silence four ponies galloped through town towards the source of the noise... well three galloped, one flew.
All of Ponyville waited... and waited tensely.
Sweetie was ragged, her mane and tail were a mess and her coat looked like it had been brushed the wrong way in places. She stood on her hindlegs, tonfa's ready as she slowly stepped in circles to keep all the Shadow's surrounding her in sight for at least a few seconds. "Come on you.... things! Come on... just one of you make a move..." She grumbled to herself. "Just one...that's all I need... if all of you do..that will be even better." Her horn was covered in a bright blue flame as she waited... and waited...
"Anythin' Tiara?" Applebloom asked as she formed a phalanx with Scootaloo and Silver Spoon in front of the fourth filly.
"Nope... can't sense her. She's out of my range." Diamond responded, drawing her sword and galloping over to help her friends. "We have to move further in."
"Great..." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Well, no sense in standing here waiting... let's get them!"
A small crowd had gathered outside Carousel Boutique, stopped in the doorway by a green unicorn colt. the crowd peered in the windows, with a small dragon watching from the staircase, his jaw on the floor.
Rarity hadn't moved, she was just staring at the ring and the lavender unicorn holding it in her magic. With a monumental effort she managed to shake the shock from her body and find her voice. "Y- yes?... Yes! Yes I'll marry you! Yes yes yes!"
Almost all at once the small crowd cheered as the rest of Ponyville let out their breaths with relief.
Twilight's eye's lit up as she levitated the ring from the small felt box and slid it over Rarity's horn.
The crowd of six finally spilled into the boutique as some passers by peeked into the window to see what all the commotion had been about.
Everything felt like it had slowed down to Sweetie as all the Shadow's broke out of their collective stupor and charged her. Yelling as loud as she could, Sweetie launched herself into the air and spun, angling her body so she was perpendicular to the ground, she whipped one of her tonfa's out and shattered Nightmare's card before focusing her magic into her other tonfa and slamming it into the ground to create a shockwave to knock the Shadow's back. "Nightmare! Mazio!"
The dark armor reared back and stomped the ground, loosing eight large bolts of blue lightning from various points on it's body.
Sweetie covered her eyes to shield them from the flash. "That...that's not a Mazio."
'No it wasn't.' The animate armor replied telepathically. 'I've gotten strong enough to advance to the next tier of my abilities. I believe that was a Mazionga."
The armor rattled as a dark wave of energy washed over it's body, Sweetie's body glowing golden for a couple of seconds after the last of the group of Shadows dissipated.
"You okay Nightmare?" Sweetie asked as her Persona reared up and stomped the ground, causing four pillars of black fire to erupt from the ground.
"Oh I'm better than alright." The armor responded through the solidified mouth poking out of the helmet. "I'm feeling a little more whole now."
"Uhh... okay.." Sweetie tilted her head before recalling the entity and glancing around.
"Whoa....did anypony else feel that burst of energy?" Diamond asked as she glanced around. "It felt... malevolent and dark."
"Relax Tiara." Scootaloo shrugged. "Sweetie probably killed a Shadow with Mudo again."
The pink earthpony shook her head. "It felt bigger than that."
"Then maybe she got strong enough to use the next version of it." Applebloom offered. "Luna knows the Shadows have been awful aggressive today. Ah'm feeling at least three times stronger than Ah was when we came in here earlier mahself."
"I guess..." Diamond sighed as she pulled out her laptop and opened it up. "I'm still getting a reading on her condition... her mana is almost empty... I think, and her vitals are looking... I'm not sure. A doctor or a nurse or some pony with medical training would be able to read these better." She grumbled as she looked over the vitals for the other fillies. "I can read earthpony vitals just fine because of my mom, but pegasus and unicorn vitals, don't have a clue." She closed the computer and slipped it back into her saddlebags. "We all need to get out of here and rest up. So let's go find Sweetie Belle and get out of here."
The others all nodded and cantered further down the mist covered road.
"Oh... dear Celestia... in the sun..." Sweetie panted as she lay splayed out on the floor of the Crusaders clubhouse with her friends. "That.... was as close to Tartarus... as I EVER want to get.... I don't care if our school suddenly grows into a tower in the middle of the night, I'll happily explore it as long as we name it after something other than the gate to the underworld." She groaned and rolled onto her back. "All in favor."
A chorus of "Aye" erupted from the other exhausted fillies.
Semi silence reigned as the five fillies lay on the ground panting with exhaustion.
"I want to go home...but I'm too tired to move." Sweetie complained.
"Me too." Silver groaned as she dragged herself across the floor with her forelegs, slumping down in front of the door and glaring at the door knob.
"Me three." Diamond whined as she joined Spoon in glaring at the round sphere.
"Ah say we lay here until somepony finds us, if they do at all." Applebloom added, curling up on a cushion.
"See? I told you she wouldn't believe us!" Scootaloo crossed her forelegs proudly.
The pale yellow pegasus filly pointed her hoof at Scootaloo and nodded. "You should wisten to her."
"But ah'm tellin' you, it really happened!" Applebloom stomped her hoof in frustration. "Just cause your mom took you with her on her honeymoon don't mean nothin' happened here."
The young pegasus flipped a bit of her pink mane out of her face and adjusted her teal headband. "But a whowe swarm of changewings repwacing everypony in town for two weeks and then weaving for no reason is a bit far fetched." she glanced at the two extra earthponies in the corner of the clubhouse and pointed at them. "and what are they doing here?"
Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara looked up and over to the group of fillies glaring holes in them before trotting up next to Scootaloo and Applebloom.
"We're here because we're their friends." Silver Spoon said.
"Yes we are." Diamond Tiara nodded.
"WHAAAT!" The other fillies chorused in shock.
"What did they pay you three?" Icing asked.
"When did this happen?" Sunny chimed in.
"Why did you say yes?" Dewey demanded.
"Meh." Sugar Cube shrugged. "S'none of my business." The brown unicorn filly got up and turned to trot out, only to stop dead in her tracks.
"Hey uh.... is everythin' alright there Sugah?" Applebloom asked.
"D.-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-" the filly stuttered as she started shaking in place.
"D what?" Scootaloo blinked as she trotted over and looked into the doorway. "Oh. Hi Winona."
The Apple families border collie wagged her tail and barked a greeting to the young pegasus.
"DOG!" Sugar Cube finally shrieked before she barreled out of the nearest window and galloped back to town as fast as she could, leaving the eight fillies and one dog tilting their heads in confusion.
"I guess.... she's afraid of dogs?" Sweetie tilted her head. "I'm going to talk to my sister about that."
"Oh! Speaking of Rarity...." Silver Spoon started before breaking into giggles.
"Yeah. You gotta tell us Sweetie! Is it true?" Diamond Tiara giggled along with the grey earthpony.
"Is what true?" The white unicorn asked, her head tilting slightly, causing her mane to bob.
"Oh like you don't know." Icing added.
"It's all anypony will talk about." Sunny nodded.
"I've onwy been back in Ponyviwe for a coupwe of hours and I awready heard about it." Dewey smirked.
"Ah've been wonderin' the same thing ever since mah sister came home and told mah brother about it." Applebloom smiled.
"Hay. I even overheard Dash talking about it with her husband." Scootaloo chuckled. "So is it true? Are Twilight and your sister getting married?"
"Oh. That." Sweetie shrugged. "Yeah. She said yes, so unless they have some massive fight or something then yeah, they are."
Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara both let out ear piercing cries of "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
"So many marriages in Ponyville over the last few years." Diamond Tiara gushed.
"I know and they've all been so different!" Silver Spoon agreed.
Diamond hopped back and forth on her hindlegs. "Oh Fluttershy's second marriage was amazing, and the reception was brilliant!"
Silver pulled her friend into a hug. "Oh and Rainbow Dash's was such a casual affair, I had no idea you could have a wedding as relaxed as that!"
The pair of them, bounced in place, holding each other and continuing to gush. "And Pinkie's royal wedding to Princess Luna! Oh wasn't that just to die for? And now Twilight Sparkle and Rarity are going to have theirs shortly!" They separated and broke down giggling. "Ponyville! Wedding capital of Equestria!"
"Is anypony else's ears still ringin'? Or is it just mine?" Applebloom asked as she held her hooves to her ears.
Scootaloo staggered around before collapsing ontop of Sweetie. "i think my eardrums are burst."
"I'm used to it, Rarity's voice can get pretty high pitched when she gets excited." Sweetie stretched her forelegs out to try and stand back up, a light blush crossing her face.
"You're fine Scootaloo, your ears aren't bleeding." Icing confirmed as she put her ear light back into her saddlebag. "Anypony else think they have damaged eardrums?"
two hooves shot up almost immediately.
"Me!" Sunny called out
"Over here!" Dewey answered.
Sweetie sighed as she looked out at the town. "I hope Sugar Cube remembers that my sister and Twilight are in Manehatten for the next week, and everypony else has gone camping."
"Hmm... yeah... would be kinda bad for her to spend the next week banging on the door to the boutique when nopony is home wouldn't it?" Icing agreed.
Sweetie shook Scootaloo off her back and trotted to the door. "I'll go get her and bring her back." she sighed, "It's gonna be a long week on Sweet Apple Acres."
Sweetie trotted through the eerily empty streets, glancing around. Everything was bizarrely quiet, especially seeing as the sun was still setting. Her ears twitched as the wind howled down the street she stood in, the rustling of a nearby bush catching her attention.
"Sugar Cube?" She asked as she trotted towards the sound, her voice echoing for what seemed like eternity.
The rustling stopped after she spoke, inciting her to reach forward and pry the branches apart.
"A-aunty S-Sweetie?" the chocolate brown unicorn filly muttered up from the fetal position she was curled into. "T-the dog didn't follow you did it?"
Sweetie shook her head and pulled the shaking filly into a hug. "No she didn't."
Sugar sighed and leaned into the hug, her shaking gradually reducing. "The emptiness around town didn't help me calm down at all.... I could hear dogs howling."
"Yeah... it is oddly empty isn't it?" Sweetie nodded, a small twinge running down her tail. "Sugar Cube did you notice anypony else around?"
"Uhh..." Sugar nodded slowly. " I saw...what's her name... big purple glasses with the lisp."
"Twist." Sweetie said absentmindedly as she scrutinized the dark corners and alleys of the street they were in. "Where was she? I'm thinking we should grab her and take her back to Appleblooms place."
"I saw her... near...the clockwork store." Sugar eventually managed to get out. "Can... can I just start making my way back there now... this place is creeping me out... It's too quiet."
Sweetie shook her head. "Stay close to me... it feels like we're not alone and I don't want you running off and getting hurt."
"Okay." The brown unicorn nodded.
"Actually.... Go. Gallop back. It's not far. I'll try and find Twist then follow after you." Sweetie said as she broke off a sharp stick from the bush the other unicorn had been hiding in it and passing it to her. "And tell Diamond Tiara to turn her laptop on and open the program."
Sugar Cube blinked a few times before taking the stick in her mouth and galloping back towards the farm as fast as she could.
Sweetie waited until she couldn't hear her niece's hoof falls and trotted towards the alleyway which housed the Velvet Door.
"Ah. Sweetie good to see you!" A cheerful voice greeted the white unicorn as she stepped into the familiar hotel lobby. However, instead of the creepy and polite Igor sitting behind the desk with Theodore off to his right, she found herself greeted by two faces she had seen around Ponyville.
"Mr Whooves? Ditzy? What are you two doing here... wait..... how did you even get here?"
The brown stallion chuckled and ran his hoof through his mane. "Funny story, we're filling in for my good buddy Igor and his assistants until he gets done helping some other ponies in another universe in a very similar situation to yours that isn't really similar at all."
Sweetie tilted her head slightly.
"But I'd probably give you a massive headache from trying to explain the fundamental properties of space-time and how they can be manipulated on a local scale."
"I still don't understand most of it." The grey pegasus mare spoke up, the skill card compendium tucked under her wing.
"I... see." Sweetie shook her head. "So when can I expect Mr. Igor back?"
"Oh... uh in about a year... give or take a month." The stallion replied.
A sigh escaped Sweetie's lips as she closed her eyes. "Well um... Mr. Whooves."
"Professor" The stallion interrupted. "I have a PhD in quantum mechanics and am authorized to teach others about it."
"Okay.... Prof. Whooves... you know what... never mind... I'm still to confused by all this... I'll come back later." Sweetie shook her head. "I spent all my gems trading for cards with Theodore last time I was here."
"Okay then. See you soon." the Stallion replied, waving goodbye as the white unicorn retreated back through the door.
Sugar Cube burst through the door to the clubhouse panting, dropping the stick from her grasp. "Dia.... ara.... aptop.... program...." she gasped out before collapsing from exhaustion and falling asleep.
"What?" Silver Spoon asked the sleeping filly.
Applebloom shifted and looked at Diamond Tiara. "Ah think she was tryin' to give us a message from Sweetie."
"Oh." Diamond nodded as she fetched her laptop and powered it on, the desktop showing an image of her own and Silver Spoon's cutie marks side by side. "Right right... Here it is." A few clicks from the track pad later and a map of Ponyville appeared, a small image of Sweetie in the upper left corner above a red bar which itself was above a blue bar. A line drew itself from the picture of Sweetie to one of Ponyville's central streets, pointing to a small blue dot, which was surrounded by around eight red dots in a semi circle. "Uh oh.... Applebloom, Scootaloo, Silver Spoon, in front of the abandoned recording station. Go!"
The three filled looked at each other and nodded, Scootaloo leaping out of the window and onto her scooter, followed by Applebloom who knocked her tail against the cupboard under the window as she leaped out of the same window and landed in the wagon attached to the back of the blue, pegasus propelled scooter. Silver Spoon was the last out, undoing the braids in her mane as she followed suit, grabbing her sword from the weapon rack which had slid down from beneath the cupboard.
Scootaloo smirked and buzzed her wings before the trio took off down the dirt track towards Ponyville, leaving Dewey, Icing and Sunny confused and staring at Diamond Tiara, who watched as the three fillies pictures appeared on screen with a similar set up to the picture of Sweetie.
Sweetie trotted through Ponyville, looking around for Applebloom's friend, her head swiveling left and right as she studied the dark alleyways and corners of the town for any signs of movement. "Twist! Twiiiist! Where are you?"
"Th-Thweetie Belle? Ith that you?" Sweetie's ears swiveled as she looked up at the radio tower sticking out of the old radio station.
"Twist?" Sweetie asked as she spotted a small white and red shape halfway up the tower. "How did you get up there?"
"Thweetie... thank Luna it'th you... can you help me down from here? I wath walking home after getting thome ingredientth to make more peppermint thtickth when the clocktower made a weird chime thound." The small white shape explained. "Everypony ditthapeared around me... I left my thingth jutht inthide the door to my houthe, then came back out to get thomething I forgot... I uh...blacked out and woke up here... My hindleg ith caught.. and all the blood ith ruthing to my head.."
Sweetie just blinked and started towards the door of the building, intending to climb up to the roof and try to levitate the other filly down somehow, when a gurgling noise distracted her. "Oh... you have got to be kidding me.." Sweetie said as she ducked down, avoiding the razor sharp blade of the Shadow as it tried to skewer her.
With a quick pulse of her magic she knocked the Shadow back and materialized her tonfa's. She parried the second blow as she quickly stood on her hindlegs and lashed out at the Shadow's floating head, cleaving it in two and letting it vanish in a plume of black smoke.
She instinctively took up a defensive stance as she watched the eleven other Shadow's appear and take shape. "Well... I can certainly think of better ways to go out."
"Teww us what's going on Diamond Tiara!" Dewey demanded as she shoved the earthpony away from the computer and tried to study the screen.
"Hey! Get away from my computer muffin top!" Diamond shoved back, taking her spot back at her computer. As she closed the program and started the computer's shutdown sequence she felt a sharp pain in her cheek before she hit the ground, she looked up to see Dewey shaking her hoof as she hovered in place, flapping her wings. Diamond put her hoof to the corner of her mouth and felt a small trickle of liquid, when she looked at her hoof she saw streaks of her own blood marring her hooficure.
"Ouch... I think I sprained my ho-oooof" Dewey grunted as she was tackled out of the air by a pink streak and took a blow to the stomach, winding the pegasus and making her curl up and dry heave.
"No pony hits Diamond Tiara and gets away with it." Diamond growled as she stood up and swept her laptop back into her saddlebags which she locked in a cupboard on the far end of the clubhouse. Just as she turned around to glare at the others she was tackled off her hooves by a winged blur, accompanied by a sharp pain to her left eye.
"That...." Dewey panted. "That... was for the cheap shot... you gave me.... bitch..."
Diamond Tiara let out a roar and slugged the offending pegasus in the nose, causing her head to snap back as a trickle of blood began pouring out.
Dewey looked back down at the light pink earthpony and backhoofed her, making Diamond spit blood onto the floor.
The other two fillies cowered in the corner of the clubhouse as the brawl continued, having moved Sugar Cube to the bed in the other room after the two had shoved each other.
Icing pouted as she watched the fight continue. "I'm going to have to do so much to get those two back in shape."
The two fighting fillies spilled out of the clubhouse and onto the porch that ran around the small building itself before plunging under the hoof rail, with Diamond Tiara landing on top of Dewey in the dirt below, punching her in the cheek repeatedly before Dewey scrunched up her hindlegs and kicked the earthpony backwards and into the tree.
Sunny and Icing watched from the window as the two combatants shakily got to their hooves and charged each other with a scream, butting heads and knocking each other out.
Sunny gasped and covered her mouth in shock while Icing rolled her eyes and trotted back into the clubhouse to retrieve her medical kit.
"So yer sayin' those Shadow's were in Ponyville cause the gems they dropped in the comic absorbed the negative energy from the two colts who tried to mug you, and they were scattered into the Everfree forest and they just happened to make it back into town today?" Applebloom asked.
"Well yeah... I guess.. do you have a better explana-" Sweetie stopped as she opened the door to the clubhouse. "What the hay happened in here?" she exclaimed as she trotted into the building with Applebloom, Scootaloo, Silver Spoon and Twist.
"Looks like a fight broke out." Scootaloo said as she noted the blood stains on the floor and table.
"Ah knew we shouldn't have left Diamond here with the others." Applebloom sighed.
"Well we don't know that Diamond was involved in this." Silver Spoon told them before adding to herself. "at least I hope she wasn't."
"I think we're about to find out." Twist said as she pointed towards the approaching Sunny.
"Oh... thank goodness you're all back... Dewey and Diamond kind of... had a fight." Sunny sighed.
Silver Spoon facehoofed as the other crusaders rolled their eyes.
"But Dewey started it." Icing said as she trotted up beside Sunny. "I patched them both up. Dewey has a bruise on her forehead, some slight nausea, a sore jaw and I think her nose is broken. Diamond Tiara has a black eye and a bruise on her forehead. So Dewey came off second best."
Applebloom and Silver Spoon smirked slightly at the obvious reason for Diamond's better state. Earthpony toughness.
"So.. what exactly happened?" Sweetie asked.
"Well..." Sunny spoke up as she started explaining.
Sweetie Belle made her way down the middle of the market street, flanked on either side by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon.
"Oh that trip to the spa was wonderful." Diamond sighed as she stretched her neck, a dumb smile plastered across her face.
Silver Spoon nodded, her own expression making her seem as though she just visited heaven.
"Speak for yourself, I don't know what that masseuse was thinking.." Sweetie groaned. "Thank the princess the spa bath was right after that."
"Oh but that sauna was amazing...your sister really knows how to set up a spa day Sweetie." Silver smiled
"The sauna? I adored that mudbath!" Diamond exclaimed. "And that hooficure..." the pink filly heaved a large sigh. "My hooves have never felt so good..."
"Oh you two are missing out on the best part though." Sweetie giggled. "A horn file and polish is the greatest feeling in Equestria!"
"Well neither of us have horns Sweetie." Silver chuckled and rolled her eyes.
"Well that's just unlucky on your part isn't it?" the unicorn filly giggled.
"Hey... you think we got rid of all the Shadows from the gems that were in town yesterday?" Silver asked as she looked at the clock tower.
"Don't think so... there was like two hundred gems in there, we only killed like twenty of them." Sweetie frowned.
"Great... so now we have a two front battle ahead of us." Diamond sighed.
Sweetie looked around the market street, a shiver running up her spine. "Hey... does it seem quiet to you two?"
The three fillies stopped in their tracks and looked about.
"Yeah... now that you mention it..." Silver shivered as she pulled her sword from the hidden scabbard on her belly.
Diamond just nodded and pulled a small glass orb from her saddlebag and threw it at the ground,grabbing the large sword that appeared on the ground in a puff of smoke.
"Thought so." Sweetie said as she stood on her hind legs and flared her horn, her tonfa's winking into existence as she got into a combat pose, Silver and Diamond following suit.
"Thweetie, Thilver, Diamond!" Twist's voice rang out in their heads. "Thank the printheth I wath able to contact you."
"Twist?" Sweetie asked as she looked around. "Where are you?"
"I'm with Applebloom and Thcootaloo. We're thurrounded by thadow's. I thummoned Helioglobath to navigate.for them, I thent a couple of bugth to find you three. can you make your way to the park outthide the thchool?" Twist asked.
"Yeah...we should be able to make it there hopefully, unless we run into any trouble or a large Shadow horde." Diamond affirmed, hefting her great sword over her shoulder.
"Okay... thank you girlth, hopefully we'll thee you thoon." Twist said before the trio of ladybugs that had been perched, unseen on their ears flew off.
'Sweetie! Duck!'
In one move Sweetie shoved Diamond and Silver away and dropped to her belly.
A split second later a loud bang rang out and something impacted the cart in front of Sweetie,splintering it.
"Damn it... how did you dodge that?" A familiar voice sounded from behind the trio of the fillies, who all stood up and turned to face the newcomer.
"Tempestas! Magarula!" Scootaloo yelled as she thrust her hoof through the floating blue card that appeared before her. Freeing the large blue bird from her body, allowing it to flick it's tail forward and launch a quintet of green tornadoes at the shadows, sending them spiraling into the air and throwing the poison that Applebloom's Persona released a few seconds ago around, poisoning the Shadow's and slowing them down.
Applebloom charged forward and leaped over the barrel of one of the vehicular shadows, reaching down and grabbing the cannon with her forelegs before heaving it up and over her head,slamming it into a similar shadow with a roar.
Scootaloo let out a war cry and dove through the explosion of black mist and launched her hoof into the face of a nearby shadow that looked like it had been nailed to a spiky wheel, knocking it down. With a twitch of her right ear she launched into a backflip and drove her hindlegs down, slamming the feline shadow's face into the ground.
Applebloom dodged to the side to avoid another feline shadow's paw and threw a flurry of hoof strikes into it's belly, kocking it back before throwing one of her hindlegs out behind her and catching a small scale dead center and knocking it to the ground.
"Any word on Sweetie, Silver and Diamond there Twist?" Scootaloo asked as she backflipped across the back of the shadow she was standing on, letting the vehicle shadows blow chunks out of it for her before she charged at them and hit their barrels so hard they twisted together and exploded.
Twist shook her head from inside the large swarm of ladybugs that was her Persona. "Nothing, thomething ith blocking my ifleunthe around them."
Sweetie galloped for her life, ducking and dodging the projectiles that were destroying the wooden carts around her. She could see Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara dive into an alleyway ahead of her.
'Don't go in there. They're aiming for you.'
Sweetie nodded and raced past the two earth ponies hiding spot. Pulling up a quick shield to stop the projectile from potentially hitting her two friends, the impact causing her to stumble slightly and trip behind one of the carts. With a shove of her magic she sent the cart rolling towards where she thought her attacker was coming from before galloping towards the fountain at the marketplace's center. After a quick breather she circled around the fountain and readied her Persona card and getting her first good look at her attacker.
Dewey stood on a bench under a nearby tree, a smoking revolver gripped in her wings. "I don't know how you were dodging those buwwets.. but I'm onwy going to ask this once."
Sweetie frowned as she stared at the young pegasus, Nightmare's card hidden just behind one of her hooves. "Normally I'd try and be smart, but you don't seem to be to concerned about using that thing, so I'll hold my tongue."
"Smart move. Keep your hooves where I can see them." Dewey ordered.
Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara looked at each other in horror before turning their attention back to the two filles.
"Where did she get that thing?" Diamond Tiara asked.
"More importantly,why is she such a good shot?" Silver Spoon questioned.
"What's your question Dewey?" Sweetie shouted.
Dewey scowled. "Where are the reaw Appwebwoom, Scootawoo and Sweetie Bewwe?"
Sweetie frowned. "What are you talking about?"
"Answer me!" Dewey shouted.
Sweetie cracked a smile and let out a short laugh. "I don't have to."
The pegasus's eye twitched as she let out a scream and pulled the trigger.
"Did you girlth hear that?" Twist asked as she turned toward the resounding cracks that were echoing through the empty town. "It thounded like it came from the town thenter."
Scootaloo stretched her hindlegs and buzzed her wings. "Well then let's get moving. Sounds like something big found our friends."
Applebloom nodded and fell back to her hooves before taking off in a gallop, the other two fillies following behind her.
They didn't get very far before another group of Shadows burst out of the nearby alleyway, impeding their progress.
"Durnit!" Applebloom cursed as she vaulted over one that tried to tackle her.
"Hopefully between the three of them they can handle it." Scootaloo hoped as she crushed Tempestas's card in her hoof, allowing the large avian to erupt from her body.
"Well..wortht cometh to wortht, Tiara can navigate for them." Twist said from inside Helioglobas' swarm.
Just as the three fillies got prepared to do battle with the blobby invaders, a series of knives flew down from a nearby rooftop, killing them before they could take shape as a fourth filly landed just at the edge of the knives whipped her right forehoof forward, the blades lifting out of the grout between the large stones and back into a series of holsters along her hindlegs.
"I-icing?" Scootaloo asked. "You can move in this...what did Sweetie call it?"
"Dead Time." Applebloom answered as she rose to her hindlegs, taking up a combat stance, eyeing the other earthpony warily.
"Yeah. Wait... Twist can she.." Scootaloo started to ask.
"No. At leatht not yet... there ith thome thort of power within her, but it'th dormant." Twist answered before the orange pegasus could finish.
"Well that makes scouting for more members of the team a lot easier I guess." Scootaloo said as Tempestas settled next to her.
"Ah don't think she's here to join us.." Applebloom voiced her concern.
She was proven right a few seconds later when a knife flashed through her ribbon, leaving a small cut and causing one of the loops to fall in on itself.
"Ahcing." Applebloom spoke in a flat voice, her fringe having fallen over her eyes, hiding the monumental rage that had built up instantaneously. "Do you have any ahdea what you just did?"
"I caught up to the two... three fakers who replaced my friends." the pale lavender filly replied. "Honestly I don't believe a word of that, but that's what Dewey seems to think, I'm just seeing it as an opportunity to get what I want."
"And what do you want?" Scootaloo asked.
Icing smirked as she took a knife in her hoof and flung it at Applebloom.
The pale yellow filly caught the knife in her hoof, squeezing it so hard the wooden handle shattered. "You made a big mistake cutting mah ma's ribbon Ahcing."
The lavender filly huffed. "Just get her to make you a new one then."
Scootaloo winced. "Damn Icing... uh she can't... her mom died like three months after she was born, that ribbon and her sister's hat are like the only things they have to remember her by."
"You expect me to believe that nonse-argh!" Icing never got to finish her sentence as Applebloom tackled her, hard. She glanced up into the yellow fillies eyes and saw red instead of the normal rose.
"You! Came! From! An! Orphanage!" Applebloom screamed, slamming a hoof into the back of Icings head with each word, "You know what it's like to lose family, to not have any family! And you'd mock me for losin' mah ma? And why? Is it because Ah have some biological family left who still loves me and cares for me?"
"H-holy shit...." Scootaloo cursed.
Twist just winced as she watched. "The wath doing tho well too."
The young pegasus looked at the filly inside the swarm of ladybugs. "Huh?"
"Applebloom and her thithter are really protective of their mom'th thingth."
"I can imagine." Scootaloo watch as Applebloom heaved the unconscious and bloody filly into a trash can nearby and hurl insults at it, she winced at some of them. "... I can kinda understand how they both feel..."
"You can?" Twist looked at the pegasus in surprise. "How?"
Scootaloo smiled sadly. "I lost my parents to a house fire in Manehatten... I was so devastated that I took my scooter... which was the only thing that survived the fire, mostly because I was out with my friends at the time... and I just ran..."
"Thcootaloo.... I had no idea." Twist said sadly as she looked at the pegasus, a new light having been shone on her.
"Not many do... only Applebloom, Sweetie... and now you..." Scootaloo said as she trotted forward and placed a hoof on Applebloom's shoulder before pulling her into a hug. "Hey.... Bloom... come on... I'm sure Rarity can fix it without the need for stitches.. we just have to wait for the Dead Time to end."
Applebloom had shifted gears at her friends embrace and was crying her eyes out into the pegasi's barrel. "Ah'm gonna be grounded fer years." she wailed. "Applejack is gonna be so mad with me... ah ain't gonna have a good excuse to get me out of this one..."
Twist stepped in to join the group hug as well, helping calm down Applebloom.
As the throng of ponies that had been trotting around doing business not even an hour ago reappeared, Scootaloo and Twist vanished into the crowd, carrying Applebloom, who had cried herself to sleep, on their backs.
Twist and Scootaloo threaded their way through the crowd of confused ponies in the market district, eyeing the wrecked carts as they carried Applebloom toward Carousel Boutique.
"Well...Sweetie had quite a fight on her hooves it seems." Scootaloo noted as the dressmakers shop came into view.
"It thowth." Twist said as she pointed forward. "The'th limping pretty badly."
Scootaloo turned her attention forward and noticed the young unicorn leaning on Silver Spoon, her right foreleg held slightly off the ground. "Oh... you know what I just remembered?"
"What'th that?" Twist asked as Diamond Tiara made her way over to them.
"Twilight and Rarity are still in Manehatten. The boutique is locked." Scootaloo groaned.
"Just because it's locked doesn't mean there is no way in." Sweetie called over as they got closer. "Come on, everypony bunch up."
Diamond carried Applebloom over while Twist and Scootaloo exchanged looks and joined the group huddle.
"So what are we gonna..." Scootaloo started before Sweetie's horn took on a bright emerald shine.
There was a large whoompf sound as the six fillies landed sprawled on the floor of the boutique.
"...do... ow...." Scootaloo groaned as she shook her head.
Diamond groaned as she pushed herself up. "Well... ow... she did warn us that she hadn't done a group teleport before."
"Ugh.... mah eyes and head hurt... and ah feel like ah'm made of lead." Applebloom groaned as she woke up.
Scootaloo stumbled over to where her friend was laying on the ground and offered her hoof. "You feeling okay Applebloom?"
"No." the yellow earthpony groaned as she took her friends hoof and was pulled up. "Mah head hurts, mah eyes are dry and mah throat is achin'."
Sweetie hissed as she pushed herself up on her injured foreleg. "I don't suppose you could use Gaia to heal us." She asked as she nursed her foreleg even closer to her chest. "I got a little roughed up during my fight with Dewey."
"Ith that what happened?" Twist asked as she adjusted her glasses. "We were ambuthed by Ithing."
"Did she spout off something about you three not being real because you're suddenly friends with us?" Silver Spoon asked with a toss of her mane as she acted as a leaning post for Sweetie Belle again.
Scootaloo looked over at the other trio. "No, she mentioned that Dewey thought that but seemed to have her own motivations, not that we got to hear them before Bloom beat her unconscious and left her in a trashcan."
"She'll be fahne." Applebloom grumbled. "Ah think ah knocked her hard enough that she can't remember what happened."
"Still, we'll have to be on guard around them, and potentially Sunny too if they manage to rope her into it." Diamond Tiara grumped. "It'll be nice to have the numerical advantage for once."
Sweetie looked about the room in thought. "Hey Silver, would you mind helping me upstairs to my room? I left something in there that might be a help."
The grey filly blinked and nodded, helping the injured unicorn up the stairs and out of sight.
"Oh shoot...." Scootaloo groaned as she caught sight of Applebloom's ribbon. "I can't believe I forgot that again..."
"Forgot what?" Diamond inquired as she looked around.
"Sweetie's sister is out of town still, there's no one here to repair her ribbon." the pegsus's hoof scuffed the ground sheepishly.
Applebloom deflated a bit at hearing that. "Darn... mah ma's ribbon..."
"I can fix it." Sweetie said as she lumbered down the stairs with Silver. "I've seen Rarity do it lots of times."
Applebloom grimace. "No offense Sweetie... but none of us have a sterlin' record when it comes to fixin' stuff."
Sweetie shrugged. "That's true, but it's not like you have anything to lose. and if I can't fix it, I'll hold it for you so Rarity can fix it for you when she gets back."
"But what'll ah tell mah brother if he see's me without ma's ribbon?" the earthpony groaned. "If ah lied about losin' it ah'd be in a heap more trouble."
"Well.. we're going to be moving our base for our team out to Zecora's hut right? Just say you left it there by accident" Scootaloo suggested.
Applebloom looked thoughtful for a second before sighing and untying her ribbon, watching as it got wrapped in the green glow of Sweetie's magic.
"Whoa... it feels enchanted... I wonder..." Sweetie mumbled as she willed the two broken ends near each other, willing the enchanted fabric together like a glue.
Applebloom gaped as the cut slowly began to fade away until it was completely gone, blinking as the glow around it stopped suddenly and letting it fall into her hooves. "That was... how did you do that Sweetie?"
Sweetie panted a bit, now sitting on the ground. "I just willed the enchantment to remove the damage... holy hay it tired me out though."
"Is there anything to eat in the fridge? I'll see what I can rustle up." Silver smiled as she trotted to the kitchen.
"I'm not sure... Spike would know better since he normally cooks." Sweetie held a hoof up to her temple and shook her head. "I've wasted too much mana today..." she groaned before she collapsed to her side.
The checkerboard pattern rushed across Sweetie's view as the familiar blue door appeared in front of her, once again opening perfectly to let her in as just seconds before she would have impacted her, filling her vision with a blinding light. When her sight returned she found herself standing in the lobby of a blue hotel. Behind the counter sat a very familiar and welcome sight.
"Welcome, to the velvet room." Igor began. "I have summoned you here within your dreams." Sweetie opened her mouth to protest. "Do not be alarmed, you are fast asleep in the real world."
"Igor! Theodore!" Sweetie exclaimed. "I thought you two were busy in another world."
"Time means nothing to those of us in the Velvet room miss Belle." Theodore explained. "But your world is odd. Normally we can spread ourselves across as many different timelines and dimensions as we want. But your world has safeguards in place that not even we cannot cross, it is curious. I have called in assistance from my sisters on this manner." The young male human explained as he gestured for the unicorn to look beside her.
Sweetie looked in the direction gestured and spotted two female humans staring at her, both held a book similar and yet different to the book that Theodore was carrying.
"Curious isn't she Margaret?" the one with short hair asked the other.
The long haired human nodded. "She is indeed. I thought you were joking when you called us in here brother."
"I was just as surprised as you were my dear sisters." Theodore nodded. "A guest who does not possess the wild card."
"Wait... you're not surprised I'm a small talking pony who can do magic?" Sweetie cocked her head.
The short haired girl laughed softly. "We have served much curiouser creatures than you little pony."
"Elizabeth." The long haired girl.... Margaret, the other had called her, chastised her before turning her gaze back upon the young filly. "I'd like to apologize on behalf of my younger siblings, they do not understand as much of the worlds outside ours as they think." Before Sweetie could reply, Margaret had opened her book and cast a glare at her sister as she drew a Persona card. "Come Elizabeth, i shall teach you another lesson in manners." With that declaration she closed her book and shattered the card, causing a large humanoid creature garbed in white and wielding a large spear to appear beside her.
"Oh sister, you always take things so seriously." Elizabeth smirked as she drew a card from her own book, "But I will indulge you and take yet another try at defeating you." With her own declaration finished she closed her book and shattered the card in one motion, causing a rather large humanoid, dressed in a dark blue coat and encircled by a ring of coffins. A white helmet looking object sat over it's face and holding a large sword in it's claws to appear behind her.
Igor chuckled, drawing Sweetie's attention back to him. "Such spirit in those girls. They are the holders of the Persona compendiums, lists of the creatures of the heart that the users of the wild card are free to swap between at anytime. Had you a wielder of the wild card, Theodore here would be holding a compendium for the Persona's you would be using." the long nosed human smile creepily. "But back to the matter at hand, I have summoned you here because there is something I wish to clarify about you. Would you kindly summon your Persona."
"Uh....Sure...." Sweetie focused her magic, pushing aside the regular green mana that she called her own, drawing forth the power of her heart, her horn took on a blue glow as a sheath of blue fire appeared around the appendage. The small card appeared in front of her and with a flick of her hoof she shattered it, allowing the large suit of pony shaped armor to appear in front of her. roiling blue mass of energy inside the armor pulsed with black lightning.
"Hmm... most interesting..." Igor's smile widened while Theodore's mouth curved into a small frown. "Thank you my dear. That is all I needed. I shall send you back to the land of the waking now, but worry not. the professor and his assistant will be ready to help you should you need it." Igor waved his hand in a small arc. "Until we meet again..."
September 15th, 1006 PNM
Sweetie groaned and opened her eyes slowly. She blinked a few times as her eyes adjusted to the light that was streaming in from the window.
"Hey. I think she's waking up." she heard somepony whisper nearby.
When her sight was clear enough she noticed that she was in a bed, she could tell just by feel that it was her own. "Ugghh... how long was I out?"
"About ten hourth." the voice that had to belong to Twist stated.
"We had Applebloom heal you while you were out, Dead Time happened again while you were out." a voice that sounded like Scootaloo's answered.
Sweetie shook her head, trying to clear out the sleep fuzz. "it did?"
"Yeah." Diamond Tiara answered from the door way.
"Twist said she was able to detect two active Persona's in town, but she wasn't able to find the wielders before time returned to normal." Silver Spoon added from a chair next to Sweetie's bed.
"Where did you girls all sleep?" Sweetie asked.
"Scootaloo and ah took your sister's bed. Diamond and Silver used the spare room and a couple of campin' cots that were in there and Twist slept on the couch downstairs." Applebloom told her.
"Any news on our assailants?" the unicorn asked as she rolled out of bed and onto her hooves, rolling her neck and shoulders.
"Dewey found Icing and took her to the hospital." Scootaloo yawned before nudging Applebloom.
"But there is somethin' you should know Sweetie." Applebloom said as she stepped forward and laid a piece of paper down on the ground. "That was at the foot of your sister's bed."
Her horn glowed a pale green as she lifted the paper and glanced at it. The image showed a pair of colts from school. The brothers, Snips and Snails, falling into a void while screaming. "To steal a line from Twilight, Celestia in the sun..."
"Well Sweetie?" Scootaloo asked, her orange wings buzzing.
"Well what?" Sweetie asked back.
"What are we gonna do?" Diamond clarified.
Silver Spoon nodded. "How do we prepare for this? What do we need to stock up on, how are we gonna go about doing this?"
"Why are you asking me?" The unicorn filly asked, looking at each of her friends in turn.
"We took a vote while you were pathed out." Twist told her. "And dethided that you thould be our leader."
"Ah mean, you were already actin' as commander while we were in combat and the comic world." Applebloom spoke up with a smile. "So it only seemed natural to make it official."
"So then... I'll ask again." Scootaloo smirked at the look of disbelief on Sweeties face. "Well leader?"
After a few seconds Sweetie shook the shock from her body and cleared her throat. "Well then, Crusaders... listen up!"
"Remind me again why we waited until Dead Time started to move our weapons over?" Silver Spoon shouted as she jumped back to avoid an earth pony shaped shadows strike.
"Well for one it means no pony else can see our gear, we have to stay under the radar with this!" Sweetie Belle called back as she vaulted over one of the sword wielding shadows and kicked off it's head, summoning Nightmare and frying it to a crisp with a blast of lightning.
"There'th one to your left Thcootaloo!" Twist called out from inside her sphere of ladybugs.
Scootaloo planted her hoof on the ground and swung her hindlegs out in an arc around her, knocking the shadow into the air. "Tempestas!" The card appeared in the path of her hindlegs and shattered, allowing the large blue bird to appear and loose a series of large green tornados to hit all the shadows, flinging them all into the walls nearby.
"Alright Scoots!" Sweetie cheered as her eyes took on a sinister gleam. "Now let's finish this! Silver Spoon. Buff me"
"On it!" the grey earth pony acknowledged as she skewered her Persona card, the ice fairy blowing a tailwind behind Sweetie Belle to help guide her attacks.
The unicorn filly nodded and smirked, as she brought her hoof down and shattered her own card. "Nightmare! Ma-"
"Mahama Trumpeter!" Another voice shouted as four pillars of light erupted around all the shadows. After a few seconds the pillars erupted into white flame, killing all of them.
"No way..." Twist and Diamond both uttered. "I didn't even detect them..."
The last shadow had slid down the wall in time to dodge the pillar aiming for it and had gotten back to it's feet when a soccer ball shot over Sweetie's shoulder, impacted it in the face, and left a gaping hole through the rest of it's body before it dispersed into the black mist that the others had.
"Good shot...Sunny." Sweetie said without turning around.
Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara took up a combat stance, ready to react should the other filly turn hostile.
"Are you here to attack us like Icing and Dewey did yesterday?" Scootaloo asked, her tail twitching in anticipation.
The teal pegasus filly trotted through the gauntlet of four fillies to the white unicorn at the edge of town. "Would I have destroyed those....things if I wanted to fight?"
Sweetie's ear twitched, a small smile gracing her muzzle. "Well then Sunny, consider this an initiation." She turned and raised her voice. "Crusaders!"
In an instant, the other five fillies formed a V out from her, with Twist taking a spot behind Sweetie and between Applebloom and Scootaloo.
"Sunny, you have the rear guard, get behind Twist and watch our backs!" She ordered.
Sunny nodded and fell into her assigned position silently as the group of seven fillies marched into the Everfree forest.
"Look out!" Sweetie yelled as she tackled Silver Spoon out of the way of a shot from a large tank Shadow, the explosion from the flaming bullet sending the two fillies tumbling off a nearby hill and into a ditch.
"Sweetie! Silver!" Applebloom, Diamond and Scootaloo cried out together.
"Oh come on!" Sweetie yelled up. "Did I do something to offend those Shadow's or something?" her sigh could be heard. "I don't think we're making it back up there... Applebloom!"
"Yeah?" The earthpony asked as she ran her pitchfork through the armored Shadow.
"You're in command until we reunite!"
"Alright. Come on fillies Let's move!"
"Wait!" Scootaloo called out, peering over the edge. "Why can't Sweetie just teleport herself and silver back up here?"
Silver Spoon finally spoke up,confirming that she was still conscious. "Remember what happened yesterday?"
The orange pegasi's ears drooped. "Oh yeah...but wait,isn't that cause she teleported all of us?"
Before Sweetie could answer she heard Sunny speak up, the normally cheerful tone of voice she held had returned. "The creature's dead."
"Okay, question time over. You five move out... Silver Spoon and I will try to rejoin with you later." Sweetie ordered,waving the others off.
"You really think we'll be able to rejoin them without leaving the forest and traveling back through it?" Silver Spoon asked.
A puzzled look spread across the unicorns face. "I hope so." she said before standing up and dusting herself off. "Now let's go. we might have to reach the old castle and head back from there."
Silver Spoon nodded as she got up and followed after Sweetie, her eyes drifting to the songbird cutie mark on the fillies flanks. 'huh...she's actually really pretty now that I look at her...' she thought.
It was a few hours and a few close shaves before the two wayward fillies reunited with the rest of their friends outside of Zecora's hut.
"Ah Applebloom, the final trip for you and your friends I presume?" The zebra asked as she opened her door, watching the seven fillies locked in combat with seemingly nothing.
"A little busy here Zeco- wait...how come yer here?" Applebloom asked incredulously as her pitchfork was snapped in two by a Shadow's attack. "Durn it...." She griped.
"Use it like a quarter staff." Silver Spoon suggested as she hopped over a sweeping strike from what looked like a pink polka-dotted manticore. "just jab like normal and see how that feels!" she finished up as she charged up the manticore's tail and slashed at her Persona card, Khione appearing and charging through the air behind her. The manticore's end was spectacular as both filly and fairy leaped into the air and twirled, kicked off a low hanging tree branch and skewered the shadow through it's face. The grey filly hadn't even hit the ground before she used the force of the exploding Shadow to propel her into a second skewer attack that finished off the Shadow threatening to attack Diamond Tiara from behind.
Sunny just watched as Trumpeter bellowed out Mahamas and Maragis from his trumpet like they were the judgement of Celestia, the skeletal pegasi's robe fluttering behind him as his wings worked the valves with a deftness that would have even the best trumpet players in Equestria jealous. She glanced over in time to see Diamond Tiara slam her great sword into the ground and propel herself into the air, the large blade trailing behind her as she flew. With little effort she heaved the blade over her head and angled it towards what looked like a golem made out petrified wood, wielding a small crescent moon and a sword twice as large as the blade that the pink filly was now surfing on.
With a resounding thunk, the blade penetrated the Shadow, causing it to drop it's sword. Diamond was quick enough to dive off her trapped sword and grabbed a hold of the Shadow's Zweihoofer. With a grunt she managed to heft the sword, which towered above her, and let it fall into the Shadow's head, the sword in half, but killing the Shadow. With a deftness that once again belied her size, the pink filly snatched her own sword out of the air and skidded to a halt next to Silver Spoon.
All of them had finished off their opponents by that stage except Sweetie Belle. The six fillies watched as the unicorn ran up a Shadow's face and twirled horizontally in mid air, imitating a saw blade and cutting the Shadow to ribbons before summoning Nightmare and decimating the last three Shadow's with a mamudo.
"Now then... back to mah question." Applebloom spoke up, turning to face the zebra behind them. "Miss Zecora, how are you movin' about durin' dead time?"
"A time of spirits interlude? No wonder the beasts did elude." Zecora mused after taking a sip of her tea. "Manticores,I have been hunting for awhile. Their venom I need to fill this vial. If I return to my home with samples uncompiled, then from my tribe I will be exiled."
"I've heard about these sorts of things." Sweetie spoke up from the back of the room as she peered out the windows. "A pilgrimage right? You have to leave to gather up objects that may be of use to your tribe, and since you're a.. druid?" She questioned, unsure if she had used the right term. When the zebra mare nodded she continued. "So you make potions and other items needed to heal Zebra, like anti venoms, I'm guessing there are a lot of rare medicinal plants and lots of unique venoms out here."
"You are correct little filly, but this next part to you might seem silly." Zecora smiled. "Like a cutie mark to you, my pilgrimage will pay me back a very important due. To earn my true name you see, that is what is important to me."
"Yer true name?" Applebloom asked, her head tilted in confusion.
"Hey I'll be right back, I think I saw something getting a bit too close." Sweetie interjected as she made for the door. "Silver, Diamond, with me."
The two earthponies nodded and followed the unicorn out, their weapons slung over their backs.
"Yes Applebloom I did not mispeak, my true name is hidden like a misty peak." Zecora continued as the door closed. "The name you know is just a placeholder, to earn my stripes I must be bolder. For my current name lacks personal zest, in my tongue it simply means Zebra I must confess."
"Wait...you're a zebra, and your.. 'false name' is Zecora, which in your mother tongue means zebra?" Scootaloo wore a dumbfounded expression on her face.
"While technically true, false name is incorrect Scootaloo." the zebra smiled gently. "This practice is unique to my tribe, the full rules would take a while to scribe. Until you have proven yourself like a thieve, you are like water draining from a sieve."
"So yer either useful or yer nopony?" Applebloom frowned. "That don't seem right in mah eyes."
"While it may not seem right to you,for the good of the tribe it is something we must do." Zecora cleared her throat. "To be weak in the desert is wrong, to survive we must be strong. That is the way I have been raised, though the methodology is not to be praised. I have learned a great deal during my time in this land, I hope to impart that wisdom to my home in the sand."
Before Sunny could voice her support the door to the hut opened up as the trio of fillies returned. "We got you a present Zecora." Sweetie chuckled as she placed a manticore's severed tail tip on the alchemy bench near the back of the hut, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara doing the same. "Trio of manticore were sniffing after our trail. It was fun." The unicorn smiled,her eyes flashing cyan for a second.
"Ah,thank you Sweetie Belle. You bested the manticore's? Do tell." Zecora quizzed as she went to work milking the stingers for their venom.
"It was easy." Diamond Tiara smiled,slinging her great sword onto her back.
"Yeah. Sweetie just knocked them all out with a maz... blast of lightning, then Diamond and I cut the stringers off." Silver cheered.
"Lightning spells at such an age? She may soon be quite the mage." the zebra chuckled as she stowed the three vials of venom in the special padded pouch of her saddlebags. "And that is the last of my hullabaloo,the key to my hut is yours Scootaloo." She smiled,dropping a keyring over the orange fillies ear.
"Mine?" She blinked, hoofing the key out of her eye.
Zecora nodded from the doorway. "Your heat bears scars of quite a load,one a wish for a proper abode. So this is a gift from me,not something to be used sparingly."
"Before you go, Zecora... what is with the rhyming?" Sweetie asked.
"A side effect of my birth, as a second seer on this earth." Zecora nodded.
"A second seer...your mother was a seer then?" the unicorn asked.
"That is untrue, I expected better of you. One entrusted with a key, to unlocking your true destiny." the zebra smiled. "With that I'm afraid I cannot dawdle, to miss my ride would simply awful." she said as she closed the door behind her.
"Wait what?" Sweetie yelled as she charged the door and flung it open to find nopony outside it. "How... what...where did she...?"
"Somethin' wrong Sweetie?" Applebloom asked as she trotted up beside the confused unicorn.
"What was that about a key?" Scootaloo asked from the doorway, holding the one to her new house in her hooves.
"Darn it..." Sweetie grumbled. "As much as I want to to chase her down and find some answers... Crusaders! Make your preparations. We're going for a dive!"
The seven fillies gawked about in awe at their new location as skyscrapers forty stories tall surrounded the three floor apartment block they had started on Towers of opaque glass and steel mingled with their brick and mortar elders as far as the eye could see.
"Th-this ain't the small city we normally end up in...." Applebloom gulped as she gripped her quarter staff pitchfork.
Scootaloo nodded as she looked around. "This place is massive. It's like..."
"A forest." Sweetie finished for her, eyeing the blue glow of the Velvet Room's door in the side of the stairwell entrance.
Silver Spoon looked around the group. "Hmm...."
"Bit for your thoughth Thilver?" Twist asked
"I was just thinking... our group is getting a bit big don't you think?" The grey earthpony spoke up. "It'd be hard for Twist to keep track of all of us at once in a combat situation."
"And it'd be hard for Sweetie to give decent orders at the same time." Diamond added, catching on. "There are seven of us..."
Sunny nodded. "Six of us are combat ready, somepony would have to stay behind to watch over Twist while she does her work."
They all nodded before Sweetie spoke up. "Well.. Captain Armor said that squads of guards are often deployed in fours."
Silver Spoon nodded. "My dad says the same thing. A group of two is too small, a group of five is too large. Three and four are the perfect numbers to move quickly and efficiently."
"That meanth two of you are going to have to thtay back and guard me." Twist noted. "I gueth we have to leave that up to Thweetie to dethide."
All eyes turned to the sole unicorn of the group as she furrowed her brow in thought. "Applebloom. Your Persona can heal and this is unknown territory. You're with me."
"Aye Aye ma'am." Applebloom saluted and made her way to Sweetie's side.
"Silver Spoon. You're the most well rounded among us. With me." the white filly nodded to the grey earthpony.
"Yes Ma'am." Silver saluted, taking a place opposite Applebloom.
"Sunny. I want to see what you can do. With me." Sweetie pointed at the teal pegasus.
"Alright." Sunny nodded, moving behind Sweetie and completing the small diamond.
"Scootaloo, Diamond, You're the fastest and strongest of us, so I'll leave guarding Twist up to you." the unicorn nodded to the remaining two fillies.
In semi unison, they saluted and moved over to where Twist was standing, taking up positions to guard her.
"Twist, are we set?" Sweetie asked.
"Give me a thecond...." The cream earthpony smiled and adjusted her glasses, the lenses reflecting the blue glow of her Persona card before she tapped it. "Perthona! Heliogabaluth, Extend!" The card shattered, loosing a swarm of ladybugs, the majority of which began buzzing around Twist herself. Four bugs flew out and landed in the manes of the combat team, connecting them telepathically to Twist. "Tethting tethting....can you all hear me?"
"Loud and clear." Sweetie responded.
"Ah hear ya." Applebloom nodded.
"Ten-four." Silver snapped off.
"Yup." Sunny shrugged.
"Okay then... I have your vitalth and locationth marked...thomehow.... I think a bunch of the ladybugth have put their wingth together like a thcreen....it'th...kind of odd." Twist's voice echoed through their heads. "I can't thee much of the thity though... I hope it fillth in the more you girlth move through it."
"That'd be bad if it didn't." Silver nodded. "We wouldn't be able to find our way back."
"Well we won't find out just standing here." Sweetie smirked. "Crusaders. Move out!" She ordered before charging forward and leaping off the edge of the building, the other combat team members following suit.
"That didn't take long!" Silver yelled as she parried a polkadotted manticore's tail stinger with her sword before catching it in an upswing and cutting it's face in half, leaping onto the defeated shadows back and using the explosion to propel herself to Sweetie's side, helping the unicorn fend off a large blue and yellow Timberwolf tied to a ball and chain.
"Applebloom, we need a fog cover!" Sweetie called out as Nightmare pummeled the wolves head into splinters with it's hoof.
"Ah'm on it! Sunny cover me!" The yellow earthpony called out before pulling back slightly and summoning Gaia.
"Right." Sunny responded, catching her balls rebound by chesting it into the air and leaping up, kicking it backwards over her head and through a pair of Shadow's hoping to catch Applebloom off guard. The ball rebounded off a building and shot through another Shadow's head before the pegasus filly headed it and bounced it on her head. "Trumpeter! Slow 'em down!" She called, out letting her ball fall through her Persona card and summoning up the skeletal figure who played a note, creating gusts of heavy wind, forcing the Shadows to brace themselves or get blown away.
The purple mist the Appleblooms Persona released was caught up in the wind and blown right into the shadow's weakening them further.
"Sunny!" Sweetie called out.
"Alright." Sunny nodded.
"Mamudo!"
"Mahamoan!"
"Silver Spoon! You're up!" Sweetie told the earthpony next to her.
Silver Spoon nodded and drew her blade, cleaving her Persona card in two as pillars of dark flame and holy light erupted around her. "Khione! Blade of Fury!" The ice fairy burst forth from the cards remains and formed a sword out of ice before flying out side of the battle area and creating waves of cutting ice, cutting any shadows who managed to dodge the dark and holy assault in half, ending the battle.
As the Persona's returned to their wielders bodies, the four fillies panted and wiped their brows.
"S-Strange... I'm not as tired as I normally am after a fight in here." Silver noticed as she sheathed her sword and flexed her foreleg.
Sweetie nodded, her nose twitching slightly. "Does anypony else smell that?"
"Yeah. I do...what is it?" Sunny asked. "I feel...more alert but.. calm at the same time."
"Ah know that smell!" Applebloom declared. "That's peppermint. The same kind that Twist uses in her Pepppermint sticks!"
"Wait... you girlth can thmell my peppermint thtickth? But I didn't bring any with me." Twist's confused voice sounded through their heads. "But if it'th helping you feel better after a fight I gueth it can't be anything bad."
"I'll second that... it's like some of the stress of the battle just wore off." Sweetie nodded.
"Wait... your mana levelth are up by five perthent what they were during combat... and your pulses are all lower than they were a few thecondth ago... it'th like the thmell ith healing you..." Twist reported, awe creeping into her voice.
"Well it's helpful... if it's something that happened because of you Twist, that's going to make things a lot easier." Sunny said as she stretched. "Can we get moving again already?"
Sweetie nodded. "Right, we did come here to save Snips and Snails. Let's keep moving Crusaders!"
"So...." Applebloom spoke up. "Which way do we go?"
"I say we go left." Silver Spoon nodded, pointing her sword down a path full of Shadow's. "The path with the most resistance is usually the correct one."
"I say we go right." Sunny shrugged in the direction of a mostly empty passage way. "They weren't captured,so they'd probably have fled down the path of least resistance."
Sweetie groaned at the non-sensical scribblings that passed for a road sign. "Twist...any luck finding them?"
"No, thorry Thweetie... Heliogabaluth ith trying but thith plathe ith mathive." The earthponies voice echoed around Sweetie's skull.
"Right." Sweetie sighed. "Well I hope you can track two teams at once." There was a pause from Twist's end. "Twist?"
"What? Oh, thorry. Thcootaloo and Diamond Tiara are having a bit of trouble with a large thadow."
"Three teams then." Sweetie corrected herself. "Sorry to put more strain on you,but we hit a forked path."
"It'th okay, I'll handle it."
"If you say so, I'll tell the others to take it easy on communications unless necessary." The unicorn nodded. "Crusaders!" The three fillies snapped to and cantered over to her. "We're splitting up. Applebloom,you take Sunny down the right path." She ordered, passing a sack of supplies to the earthpony. "Your Persona can heal and I've just given you most of the mana restoring items. Silver and I will take the healing items and head down the left path, and keep communications to Twist as low as possible, emergency situations only. Finding one or both of our targets counts."
"Got it." Applebloom nodded as she stowed the supplies in her saddlebags. "Come on Sunny, looks like clear sailin' fer us. Yee haw!" she cheered before galloping down the path, Sunny hot on her hooves.
Sweetie turned her attention to the earthpony still with her. "Ready to kick some ass?"
Silver drew her sword and smiled. "Always."
"Well... we certainly got the more fun path!" Sweetie grunted as she backflipped over a small puddle shadow, watching it get annihilated by the shell of the giant tank Shadow that had attacked the two of them. "I swear to the sun, I have no idea what I did to piss these things off."
Silver Spoon giggled as she swept her sword low and cut the legs off a large robot bringing it up to block the downstrike from the Shadow's own sword. "Maybe they like yo- whoa!" she stumbled back from the force of blocking the robots followup slash, her sword getting obliterated by the next shell from the tank's cannon.
"Need some help Silver?" Sweetie asked as she charged the tank, her tonfa's flashing into being, the aura from her horn lighting up the smoke from the explosion of the shell.
"I'm good." the earthpony replied as she sidestepped the next swing, bucking the robot's wrist and disarming it. "Khione! Bring ice to all!" She cried out as she bucked the robot's chest through her Persona card, the ice fairy stabbing her sword into the ground, causing ice pillars to erupt from under the Shadows, impaling them and knocking the robot's sword into the air. In one motion Silver Spoon leaped up and grabbed the sword with both hooves, bringing it down to perfectly bisect the robot, landing and sheathing her new sword.
"Nice moves." Sweetie complimented from the end of the tank's twisted barrel, the machine gun off the turret hovering in her magic.
"Thanks." Silver panted slightly. "I see you got a new toy as well."
Sweetie chuckled. "This thing? No, it's half empty already, I just grabbed it cause I cut it off with my tonfa and needed something to hold off the small fry. I'll keep it until it's empty though."
Applebloom and Sunny had both slowed to a trot as they continued down the road, casually batting aside any Shadow that tried to attack them.
"Ah kinda expected them to get stronger as we continued on our way." Applebloom spoke up as she skewered a dolphin made of paper scrolls with her quarter staff.
"I'm not complaining." Sunny shrugged as she had Trumpeter incinerate a green and blue scale with an Agidyne. "They're probably all zeroing in on Sweetie and Silver Spoon right now."
"Ah wonder...do you see that Sunny?" The earthpony pointed with her free hoof towards a cross roads a little further up from them.
The pegasus followed her friends hoof, her eyes coming to rest on weird lump in the middle of the cross road. "I think I can make that shot.." she said, placing her soccer ball on the ground in front of her.
"Not yet." Applebloom held her hoof up to stop the pegasus striker and began trotting towards the lump. "If it turns hostile send it packin'."
"Alright." Sunny shrugged, resting her hoof on the ball to keep it from rolling away. "Just yell if you need any help."
As Applebloom got closer to the lump she squinted, trying to make out more details. "It looks kinda familiar..." she mumbled. "Twist, can ya hear me?" Silence reigned for a few seconds. "Tammy?"
"Thorry Anne. I'm here, Thcootaloo and Diamond are getting thwamped over here, I've had to call back Thweetie and Thilver but they got thidetracked by more Thadowth. What do you need?" Twist's voice echoed around Applebloom's head.
"Sunny and Ah found somethin'. If ya'll can move closer to us..."
"Twist, do it. Silver and I are diverting to Applebloom and Sunny. There are a lot of Shadow's heading their way and we're going to need all hooves on deck to fight them off." Sweetie's voice suddenly sounded through the earthponies head.
"All right... We'll get moving, thee you all there." Twist said before cutting the connection.
Applebloom hardly noticed the latter half of the conversation as she stared at the lump up close. "How did this happen? She was just fine on Friday." she breathed as she looked down at the purple pony laying on the ground in front of her. "Miss Cheerilee..." She was snapped out of her shock as the sounds of Shadows from every direction and Sunny galloping up behind her.
"Come on Applebloom, we gotta move or we're gonna be feeling like the net in a penalty shoot out."
"Hold on Sunny... we have to wait for Sweetie and the others." the earthpony spoke up as four large tank Shadow's aimed their turrets down each road and fired. Applebloom pulled a small emerald from the bag Sweetie gave her and dropped it on the ground and stomped on it...
"Sorry Spike. I haven't seen them since they went into the forest a couple hours ago to hang out with Zecora." Davenport rubbed the back of his head as he weathered the baby dragon's glare. "Uh... still need that quill..?"
Spike slammed the door in the stallions face before grumbling and storming off to the next storefront. "Supposed to be back five hours ago. Making me waste my time looking for them..." he grumbled before throwing out a long list of profanities in various languages. He stormed past the clock tower as it chimed eight times, not noticing the sky turn blood red as he slammed his fist into the door to the shop owned by the flower trio. "Come onnnnn!" He growled. "I saw you pack up your store like five minutes ago. I know you're in there!" He yelled as he started punching the door. "So. Open. Up." He quickly withdrew his claw as the sound of splintering wood reached his ears, a large hole now sitting in middle of the door where his fist had slammed into it. "uhhh... oops..."
The young dragon looked about to see if anypony had come out to investigate the noise, thanking his lucky stars that it seemed they hadn't. With speed that would put Rainbow Dash to shame he bolted down the road and back towards Sweet Apple Acres. "Guess... guess I d-don't realize my o-own strength...." he puffed as he ran. "I guess I should be thankfu-ooof" He grunted as he fell back on his tail, rubbing his nose with his claws. "Ow ow ow..." he mumbled.
The sound of boxes falling to the ground behind him startled him to his feet. "W-who's there...?" he stuttered, small green embers spraying from his mouth. "D-don't you know it's not a good idea to scare a d-dragon?" he brandished his claws threateningly.
Spike's eyes darted about, flicking to each source of movement as he noticed them. "I-I'm warning you... I might fry your flank to a crisp..." A weird gurgling sound drew his attention to a storefront cloaked in shade as several shadows with no casters suddenly wandered into the light, gems popping up out of their centers and emitting a black gunk that took the shape of several small timberwolves covered in green and orange stripes, as well as a miniature hydra in black and pink.
"W-well...." The dragon smirked. "You guys I can go all out on." he smiled before letting out a guttural roar that would rival a griffon's and charging forward, breathing gouts of emerald flame, incinerating the timberwolves in one blast.
The hydra charged through the green fire and swung two of it's four heads at him like boxing gloves. Spike managed to dodge out of the way of the vicious but slow blows before rolling around behind the oddly coloured reptile and leaping up, swinging his claws and decapitating all four heads at once and breathing flame to cauterize the stumps, preventing more heads from growing back.
"Yeah! That's right..." he panted. "Don-don't mess with a dragon... even if he is a baby..." he chuckled before turning around. All the colour fell from his purple scales and his lime green spines drooped as he came face to face with an army of garishly coloured timberwolves, hydra's and manticores. Along with a large and solid black Ursa Major. "Well... fuck." he swore before clutching his head. "B-bad time for a dizzy spell...." he muttered. "I h-haven't even breathed that much fire today... my inner flame shouldn't need anymore stoking..."
He peeked through his claws as the assortment of creatures charged him. "...d-don't think I can rely on my scales to take that much abuse..." he muttered weakly before his cheeks puffed up. "urp... a message... now? From wh-who...?" Before he could check the magical signature attached to the message, the build up got too much, snapping his head back and his jaws open as he let out a mighty belch of sapphire tinted fire.
The attacking mob halted in their tracks as the fire slowly took on a shape of it's own. A very draconic shape. It took little more than a few seconds for the colossal flame to take on the visage of a massive dragon, the flames shrinking to reveal black scales and glowing pink eyes.
Spike had fallen onto his tail again as he gawked at the large wyvern before a look of twisted glee appeared on his face. "Oreichalkos! Dragon of metal! Heed my words and smite all foes who stand before me!" He shouted as he jumped to his feet, throwing his left claw straight up and bringing it down to point at the horde of creatures.
The dragon responded with a deafening roar before it turned it's glare upon all the animals, a twinkle was all the warning that came before a massive wave of pure gravity crushed them all into nothingness, leaving only the Ursa Major, now the size of a Minor, standing.
Spike picked his jaw up off the floor as he pulled the Aeon tarot card he had been carrying around out of a small lift between his scales, watching the massive dragon above his head absorb into the card, which raised out of his claw before slipping through his scales and into his body. "Whoa...I feel like I could tear a building a part just by looking at it..." he smirked up at the Minor sized Major and pointed at it. "Last chance to run away."
The large bear simply glowered at him and charged forward.
"That's what I thought." the dragon shrugged. "Oreichalkos!" Spike yelled, the card appearing before him. With a casual slice from one of his claws he cleaved the card in two, freeing the now much smaller dragon from within. "Crush it to dust!"
Oreichalkos roared and glared at the bear, it's eyes twinkling again as another wave of gravity slammed it's head into the ground, causing it to hang at an unnatural angle for a second before the whole thing disappeared in a puff of smoke, a large diamond rolling to a stop at Spike's feet before all the other gems that lay on the ground absorbed into it.
As Oreichalkos faded back into his body, Spike leaned down and picked up the gemstone. "Huh... this doesn't even look tasty... odd."
New Persona Wielder!
Spikus James "Spike" Diamondscales Sparkle: level 35
Persona: Oreichalkos: Level 30/ Arcana: Aeon
Equipment: N/A Natural def: 84 Natural eva: 38
Weapon: Claws: Dam: 98 Hit: 99
Skills: Mazandyne, Heat Riser, Ragnarok, Mind Charge, Cool Breeze, Endure. Apt Pupil, High Counter.
Sweetie rolled over before teleporting a few feet into the air. She landed heavily with a loud klong sound as she bounced off the giant vehicle. She was barely able to keep herself awake as she flung her tonfa into the armor plating on the turret,using her magic to hang on for dear life.
"Girlth... I hate to put a ruth on thingth but Thweetie ith barely conthiouth right now." Twist reported as the rest of the group covered Applebloom and Cheerilee.
"I got her!" Diamond called out. "Silver,can you handle two at once?"
"No problem." Silver smirked as she drew her new sword.
The pink earthpony nodded and galloped away from her section, snatching up the turret gun that had been left near Applebloom with her mouth as she went. She exchanged nods with Scootaloo as she barreled down the pegasi's pathway spraying tiny shards of ice from the Shadow weapon in her hooves, scoring a lucky hit on one of the vehicular Shadows outside the intersection and causing it to collapse in on itself in a puff of black mist. The spent weapon clattered to the ground and disappeared in it's own puff of mist as Diamond pulled her great sword from her back and charged the nearest Shadow with a battle cry, her charge matched by Lakshmi as she shoulder charged through her Persona card, the platinum skinned sylph with wings of crystal and a dress comprised of interlocking amethysts letting the light refract off the facets of her dress and wings to create blasts of white lighting that killed any Shadow foolish enough to get close.
"She is.... scary strong." Scootaloo blinked. "Stronger than Applebloom even."
"Ah highly doubt that." the yellow earthpony deadpanned.
Sunny watched impassively as she kept her side clear of Shadows.
---
Sweetie was vaguely aware of falling to the ground as the Shadow she was hooked to exploded into mist before a pink pony shaped blur moved into her vision. She thought she could hear something but it felt like her ears were full of cotton, she tried to sit up but it felt like she was underwater and her muscles ached.
"-eyes open Swee-" She heard the blur say. "-loo, do-" It was getting harder for her to hear and see, but she managed to spot the Shadow aim it's cannon at her and the blur.
With a supreme effort she sat up and pushed the blur away before she heard a muffled whump and was vaguely aware that she had started flying through the air shortly after, though the impact with the wall shook all the cotton from her head and ears. She suddenly became acutely aware of the fact she couldn't feel... much of anything on the left side of her body aside from a roaring sensation of pain. She managed to guide her gaze to her unresponsive left half and noticed that both her foreleg and hindleg were missing, bloody stumps connected to her shoulder and flank where her legs used to be. She supposed that given the case she should have been screaming and writhing in pain, but really... all she could do was laugh. It was wet and interspersed with fits of hacking and coughing but she was laughing, at least up until she started coughing up blood, prompting her to just slump against the wall and watch her friends slowly get overwhelmed by the influx of Shadows.
Her vision slowly began to turn black as she watched Sunny get skewered by a dancer and Scootaloo get electrocuted by a large mare sat atop a floating pyramid. By the time Applebloom got gibbed by a pair of dice suicide bombing her, her vision was barely a line.
Her last sight before she breathed her last was a beaten and bloody Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon getting flayed by a whirlwind conjured by a small scale.
---
"Hey... wake up." A sharp voice rang through Sweetie's ears. It was like someone had carved a dagger out of ice and was poking her ears with it. "Well... I guess wake up is the wrong term. How about you open your eyes."
It took a monumental effort, but she managed to do just that, and after everything stopped being bright lights and blurs she noticed she was on what looked like a road, tinted with blue lights and coated in an endless fog, in the distance she could just make out a pair of red lights that seemed to be getting further away every second.
"Where..." She started before the voice cut her off.
"Hey. Turn around, it's rude not to look at the person talking to you." When the young unicorn did she noticed a human girl had been standing behind her. The girl was wearing what looked to her like a sleeveless shirt with a black tie over the top, her neck adorned with a red choker that had a gold lock pendant attached to it. A blue cap that she could only describe as belonging to a papercolt sat on her raven black hair, a gold pin with a large V engraved on the front of it sitting just above the brim. Her arms where wrapped in long fingerless gloves covered in red and black stripes that stopped just before her shoulders, her right arm clutching the strap of a blue shoulder bag with a golden circle clasp.
Try as she might though, Sweetie couldn't see through the fog to get a good look at the girls lower half, though her silver eyes looked both annoyed and disinterested.
"That's better. Hey. Names Marie. I guess I'm like your personal Record Keeper or something." The girl said, a hint of boredom in her voice.
"Record Keeper? Where am I?" the unicorn managed to finish her questions this time.
Marie shrugged slightly. "Beats me. The nose just told me to wait here for someone to come by and then send her on her way. Though if you're anything like me, you just came from a bad universe."
"A bad universe?" Sweetie cocked her head.
The girl nodded. "Yeah, like me." She made some grand gesture with her arms. "The nose says that there are all these universes out there that hold different versions of all of us. Some of us succeed, others, like you and me, fail."
"Oh.." Sweetie sagged, her ears drooping as she remembered what happened. "I got me and my friends killed..."
Marie just nodded impassively. "Yeah, you got your shit pushed in pretty good alright." she said, which earned her a glare from the filly. "But, like everyone else who failed, you get a second chance, and it just so happens there's an opening in another universe for a displaced soul like you."
"What?" Sweetie blinked.
"Another you lost her soul to a Mudoon from a Shadow, so her body is just empty. I can send you to take over her body and resume where she left off." Marie explained. "There will be a few differences in this universe though, but it comes with a little bonus."
"What sort of bonus?" The unicorn asked.
"Well.. I can only do it once a week, and it doesn't roll over, but..." Marie began. "If you die in that universe, in that body, and you've stood in a circle of blue butterflies that you find in odd places, like your room or your hideout, then I can reset time to that point and give you a second chance. But like I said, once a week only and they don't stack. If you want more chances, better hope you have some revival items or one of your friends knows a revival skill."
"I...see... I guess it'll make more sense once I've seen it." Sweetie nodded slowly. "But... alright."
"Cool." the girl nodded, a small smile flickering across her face for a fraction of a second as she rummaged around her bag and pulled a Persona card from it's depths, which she then placed on the ground. "Alright, stand on this."
Sweetie did as she was told and the card expanded, the Gemini mask flashed as she felt her magic contort somewhat.
"And there, you should be able to use the Persona the other you had now as well, I think you'll find it a lot easier to use anyway." Marie explained. "See you later I guess. I'll be in the Velvet Room with the professor and his assistant if you need to talk to me again."
Sweetie blinked as the whole world turned white....
---
"Hey... She's awake!" A voice called out as Sweetie opened her eyes again. As she sat up she noticed her friends, and a few more surrounding her.
"How long was I out?" She asked as she slowly got to her hooves.
"Only about theven minuteth." Another voice, one that was undeniably Twist spoke up.
"Incoming Crusaders!" Diamond Tiara's voice rang out as everypony readied their weapons.
Sweetie smirked as she rolled her shoulders and flared her magic. 'not gonna let my friends down again. I'm here, I'm alive and I'm..' "In command! Crusaders! Standard formation! Silver Spoon, Applebloom, Scootaloo, with me! Diamond Tiara, you're in charge of Sunny, Dewey and Icing!"
Everyone stared at her in shock as a pair of tonfa made of magic appeared on her forelegs.
The white unicorn noticed another short sword on the ground where she had been laying. With nary a thought she picked it up with her magic and levitated it to Silver Spoon. "Twice the swords, twice the fun." She smiled as everypony glanced at her horn and her flank, noting her newly appeared Cutie Mark.
"Sweetie, somethin's a bit different about ya... but we'll discuss that later." Applebloom smiled. "You heard the filly Crusaders! Let's kick some flank!"
Sweetie watched as Diamonds group surrounded a group of Shadows and started fighting. "We aren't gonna let Diamond Tiara's group beat us are we girls?" She smirked.
"No way!" Scootaloo yelled out.
"Ah don't think so." Applebloom agreed.
"Nuh uh!" Silver Spoon echoed.
"That's what I thought. Now.... let's go all out!" Sweetie cheered as she lead her group into a headlong charge.
