The Crusaders of Justice

Chapters

Introduction
How it Began
Monster in the Night
The Shining Eclipse

Introduction

Scootaloo ran, she ran like she never ran before. She had to find her, she didn't know where she would be at this hour, though. She didn't care, she would find her. For a split second, she saw a figure in the Everfree forest disappear in it's darkness. She didn't think, she just ran in afterword.

She was in the Everfree at night, those two were never a good combination, but that didn't matter to her now. She just had to find her and see what this was all about. She couldn't see two feet in front of her, but she looked and saw a light in the distance, and a light stuck out like a sore hoof in there. Scootaloo saw her, she was getting in a chariot with no windows. She screamed after her. She heard, but didn't turn back. She merely entered the box with wheels they called a chariot, and the doors closed. She saw an indigo pony with black hair and a light blue cloak to match, as well as a green stallion with a manic grin dressed the same way.

Two large ponies came out in the dark. Like the first two, they wore those same light blue cloaks. They stared at her for a second, before she felt a hoof meet her face and force her to the ground face first. She tried to get up but she was bucked to a tree. Her body slammed into the trunk of the tree and she fell once again. They chuckled at her, and walked over to where she was lying. She suddenly sprang up and hit one. He stumbled back, mostly out of surprise and she went for the second one, who quickly blocked and threw her back on the ground. She saw a crest on the chariot. A crest showing three light blue ponies surrounded by a hurricane.

The red pony came out of the chariot. He looked down on her and grinned. He looked at her, and grinned. She knew it was a threat. Even a child could understand that. He turned around and left, once again entering the chariot. her sight was going. In her last seconds she saw the vehicle take off. So focused on that, she didn't even notice the brand new cutie mark on her flank.

(years later)

A shadow ran through the night, with six Shadows following closely behind. The figure ran through the cold darkness, and darted to the left. She was shot at by a blast of magic from one of those chasing her. She just managed to avoid it, and quickly went to the right, and the gang of unicorns followed closely behind, shooting blasts and levitating weapons. They suddenly got her in a corner, and began to slowly advance towards her. She looked, she had nowhere to run, she didn't have wings, so she couldn't fly away, and she didn't have a horn, so she couldn't blast her way through them and even if she did, there were six of them and one of her. She clutched her saddlebags in a futile attempt to keep them from getting what they wanted.

"You know what we want, just give it to us and we promise you won't die." One of them stepped forward and spoke with a gruff voice. He held out his hoof and stood there, while the earth pony trembled in the corner, he knew they would get what was in the bag either way, but he knew what was in the bag, and who knew what they wanted with it. He gave up, and held out his saddlebag.

"Good" The leader nodded as he snatched it away, and looked inside. The others stepped forward.

"W-Wha?" The earth pony stuttered "But I gave you the bag. What more do you want?"

"Just to make sure you stay quiet. Can never be too careful, you understand" he grinned as the others got in closer. He was backed in a corner with nowhere to go. He proceeded to leave with the acquired item on his back.

They were nearly in her face, she whimpered. Each of them was tall, built and mean. One raised a hoof to attack her, a flash of what looked like red knocked him to the ground.

The leader turned around to see one of his ponies lying on the ground with a black eye. "Crap" he thought to himself "Why did they have to show up? Not now"

"Alright, we're going, everypony. Hurry up"

"Already? We're in no rush" He turned around and saw two figures in red hooded cloaks. They walked up to him and he backed away, cursing to himself As they were now surrounded. These three were a huge problem ever since they made their presence known a month ago to them. They had cost them one of the crystals, too. She nearly had his head for that.

"Get them!" He yelled. The ponies rushed the three. The three unicorns of the group pointed their horns at them and were ready to fire. One noticed, and threw a ball at them.

"Argh!" they growled as a flash of light from the ball momentarily blinded them while of the first one rushed one of the unicorns, knocked him to the ground and disappeared. The other two shook their heads to try and get their vision back, but their eyes still hurt. One was levitated with a green aura and slammed to the wall, while the other was punched in the face by the first cloaked figure.

He noticed that one was still standing in the entrance of the alleyway. Him and the other two earth ponies that were left rushed her. She easily beat down the two lackeys that had charged, but she didn't notice leader who had stopped at the last second, and had something in his hoof, that appeared to be a sort of horseshoe. He grinned while she had just finished handling the other two when he thrust his hoof at her. She quickly turned around and blocked it, but she froze for a split second and dropped to the ground. He grinned as he stood over her.

"This is an enchanted horseshoe. It shocks the nerves of whoever is in contact with its outer structure. Did you think I wouldn't come prepared this time?" he gave her a violent kick in the face to ensure she would feel something tomorrow and ran off while the other two rushed to their friend and ran over to the earth pony who they were harassing. The others got their bearings back and ran, but were caught by the trio.

"Are you alright, miss?" One asked. She looked at them, they were still in a dark alleyway, so she couldn't see their faces, but she saw one with wings pointing out of holes in the cloak.

"Y- yes, I'm fine, thank you" she stuttered.

"What did they take from you?" the other non- unconscious pony questioned. She hesitated, then sighed.

"A gauntlet"

"What? What would they want with one hoof gauntlet?"

"There's a legend which states that it is part of a dangerous weapon that can only be activated when all the pieces are together. I don't know if it's true or not, but if it is then we are all in grave danger."

"Thank you" they disappeared into the night. She went off into the darkness. Frightened, how would she explain this to the museum curator?

Applebloom woke up on her bed. She looked down quickly. She was still in her costume, but her mask and cloak were on the side, she looked at it, it was yellow with goggles on the eyepieces. She groaned. Something had hit her, hard. She tried to get up but she still felt that pain. She would have to make some adjustments to the padded clothing.

"Oh good, you're awake" She looked and saw a masked pony with a red hooded cloak that had the hood pulled off. The mask that went down to the neck of the costume was white, with purple shades to cover the eyes. There was also a purple hat on her head which concealed her horn.

"Ah'm fine, Sweetie Belle" she sighed. She was caught off guard, she never expected Hardhitter to come prepared for them. Him and his group had been causing a lot of trouble when the lights went out, and they were collecting these ancient artifacts. Sweetie Belle told her everything, and it wasn't good, now they knew it was for some weapon? She knew they would have to look into this some more. They needed to know that if this weapon could still be dangerous, and where they were hiding the pieces, and where the still- missing ones were first.

"Where's Scoots?" She asked. Sweetie sighed

"On her own, you know she doesn't take failure well. She'll get the indigo dye off her wings then be training by herself for the next couple of days"

Scootaloo took a lot of things way too seriously, but she did understand why. Hardhitter and his gang were annoying, and he had expected them, and . She saw Sweetie thinking about this just as she was.

"where do you think he got that thing from?" She finally asked Applebloom.

"Ah don't know"

"It's not like any known weapon used by the royal guards. considering who they work for, I wouldn't be surprised considering who they work for"

"We knew what we were getting into when we decided to do this"

Hardhitter and his ponies had run off into the dark and stopped at a house. He stopped and looked inside the saddlebags once again

"Alright, I'll deliver this to Diamond in the morning. You all stand guard and make sure those three don't come back." They nodded and entered their small base. It was dirty and disorganized. The type of place a petty gang might hang out. But if they found him, they would trace them back to here and their boss would get off Scot free. They were expendable. She was a mule, but she was a mule with money. That's why he worked for her.

He grinned as he looked at their acquired target. ancient who- knows- how- old artefact. It was actually in good condition Despite its age. He thought back to the mare whom hey had taken it from. Frail, weak. Those words came to mind when he thought of her. He wished she was a unicorn; the theft would have been so much more satisfying if she just had that horn on her head. He shook his head. He shouldn't be worrying about that. It was easy, that was all that mattered.

Scootaloo was in a flew up into the air. She was in a field outside the enlarged town. she flew past the trees in a zigzag formation, just like she saw Rainbow, but nowhere near as fast do. flew up into the air, not going too far up and dived down. She tried to keep herself steady, going in a completely straight line, but she couldn't hold it. She crashed down onto the ground with a face full of dirt in her mouth. She was glad she wasn't alone on this, she was glad she asked her friends for help on this. She was still surprised they said yes, though. Especially since Applebloom now technically worked for Diamond.

She thought about how things had been so bad lately. So bad that they had to go out at night as masked crime fighters was pretty bad. She chuckled to herself. Had it been Diamond Tiara taking over most of the import and exports of the town, or had it been Twilight becoming a shut- in.

Ever since her father has stepped down and given her his business, Diamond Tiara had diversified the business to not only endorse food products like the ones on the Apple family farms, but also construction and the most notable was making weaponry for the guards of Canterlot.

Princess Twilight kept to herself. Rainbow's disappearance had taken it's toll on her, as well as her other friends. It was a sad time for each and every one of them. They were never the same again. Applejack focused more on her work and family than with her friends, Fluttershy was with her animals more than ever, Rarity didn't have the will to work, and Pinkie Pie and Twilight had both become depressed. After a while they had gotten better, they still weren't the same, but the scar had faded. Twilight was close to becoming her old self again. Then, a few years afterwards, Spike was gone. He had been gone for nine years, while Rainbow was gone for eleven. This broke Twilight. She cut herself off from the world, never speaking to anypony again. Scootaloo couldn't recall a time she had left the castle after that. She probably had, but at a time when nopony was outside, like the night time. She heard even Celestia herself tried to get Twilight to leave, but she wouldn't budge.

Both happened at roughly the same time and since the Princess of Friendship ignored the city, that gave a lot of ponies a green light to do what they want, mostly Diamond. She got up and looked at a newspaper. She was still the number 1 businessmare in Ponyville. She had enough money and power to do what she wanted. And she did.

She could only imagine what would happen if she got what she wanted this time.

Diamond sat in her chair, a pile of paperwork on her desk, but she didn't have to deal with it. She had a secretary right in the room with her.

"Silver, look through this for me. Tell me what's worth signing and what isn't. Anything that isn't throw out"

"Yes, miss Tiara" Silver Spoon said in a monotone and took it to her desk. Diamond was on top of Ponyville, and soon Equestria.

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How it Began

Scootaloo walked through the streets of Ponyville on the day that would've been Rainbow Dash's birthday today. She spent it with her adoptive mother and sisters. Now she wanted to be alone. She was 22 now. She was in a cider pub. It wasn't cider that came from the apple family, but it was still okay.

"You sure you don't want to go? You've had quite a lot. I'm surprised you can still read the poster" Smalltime said, gesturing to the humorous poster at the side That read "if you can still read this, then you haven't bought enough drinks". She chuckled, she and Smalltime had become acquainted with each other as she regularly drank here Every week.

"You know me, daring as always" she smiled "It IS my talent, after all" she was Ponyvilles daredevil. She often went into dangerous situations, even when the odds were stacked against her. She was a daredevil, but her job was as a mailmare. She would often deliver packages to places that weren't accessible via chariot. Most of those deliveries were to Zecora, though.

She looked at the clock. It was eight. She would get going soon. She got her coat on and had one more drink, before she prepared to go. She paid ten bits, swigged it down and left.

She looked around, no one there. Fine with her, as on as it actually WAS no one, and there was nopony hiding anywhere. She didn't have night vision, so she had to assume everything was alright, and walked on. Just then, a unicorn stallion rushed by her.

"Hey! Watch where you're-" she was cut off as some other ponies rushed past her. Something told her she should follow them. She ran after the group at full speed, knowing she wouldn't be able to see in front of herself if she took flight. They took a right and ran. Scootaloo, in her pursuit noticed something and stopped. A small passage in the road which the group had missed.

She heard heavy breathing coming from it. She walked in and saw him. He noticed her as well and backed away.

"What do you want? Why do you want this thing? What's so special about it!?" He was scared out of his mind.

"Caon down" Scootaloo assured "I'm not wih them. I'm just a curious mare. But why are they chasing you?"

"It's because of this" he levitated a piece of armor for the leg out of his bag. "I found it on a trip to Saddle Arabia. I took it back with me as a souvenir. It's design looked very old, so I decided to get some museum to look at it, I decided to wait until tomorrow. I never took it out of my bag, and they came up to me as I was about to go home. I threw my money at them, but they weren't looking for any bits. Instead they wanted this. Probably should have just given it to them when I had the chance. Hindsight, huh?"

"So what are you going to do now?" Scootaloo asked. He paused.

"Give it to you" he finally answered

"What?"

"In Equestria, anything old has the tendency to be extremely dangerous. I just felt like I shouldn't give it to them, as it could start another potential crisis" He gave it to her

"This thing?"

"I don't think It goes on its own, I think there are more pieces than this, out there somewhere"

"You're pretty smart, but what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know, probably leave as quickly as I can the next day, and pray to Celestia they don't know where I live"

She thanked him, then offered to walk him home. He politely refused, and she left.

It was another day, and Scootaloo didn't know what to do. She had the this apparent artefact, but she didn't know what she should do with it. She could find the other pieces, but she didn't know where to look. She didn't know how to find out who wanted it. She almost got lost in her thinking and forgot that she was meeting her friends at Sweet Apple Acres. She left, putting the legpiece away in her house and left.

She walked through the streets. In the night it was scary, and during the day it was unpleasant. It was as one would expect; dirty, littered and generally not aesthetically appealing. Well, this was the center of Ponyville. It was much nicer around the edges, where it almost looked like what it used to; a quiet and possibly nice place, but this was only in a select few places. Sweet Apple Acres was in one of those select few places.

She finally made it to the Acres. Applejack was bucking trees, it was all she ever did now. It made Scootaloo sad, and she knew how it had affected Applebloom. She didn't show it around her friends, but she knew when she did feel it. After all, she had known Applebloom for years.

"Applejack?"

"Oh, hey, Scootaloo" She sounded tired. It was Rainbow's birthday yesterday, after all. "Ah'm guessin' you're hear for Applebloom?"

"Yeah, she in her workshop?"

"Yup"

"Okay, thanks" Scootaloo left and went into their house. Once in, she found her way to the basement. She could hear a slight bubbling. She made her way down and saw her friend, just then the bubbling turned to fizzing.

"Hey, Applebloo-"

"Duck and cover!" She knew not to argue as she brought her head to the ground and heard an explosion. She looked up and saw an empty cauldron and it's owner get up next to it.

"You Alright, Applebloom?"

"Yeah, just lookin' at the different effects of poison joke. Apparently that's one of 'em"

"You really want to use that in your potions somehow, don't you" Applebloom nodded.

"Alright, I still think it's dumb, but you're the specialist on this"

"Hardly" Applebloom had gone to Zecora's and learned more about potion making in the process. It was only a matter of time before she tried it out herself. That had earned her a cutie mark.

"How's Dinky?"

"She's just fine. She teaches with Cheerilee, now"

"Wow"

"Yeah. Sweetie should be here any minute"

"Oh, you're in here." They both looked up and saw their other friend. She had much longer hair than she used to, and more curls in her hair. Not to the extent of her older sister, whose hair was just one big curl. Her cutie mark had a heart with a music note. She looked around

"What happened here?"

"Poison joke"

"Ah"

"Why don't we all go upstairs? I'm sure it'll be much nicer, considering there was an explosion here just a minute ago" Applebloom suggested

"Agreed"

They left the basement and went up to her bedroom where they each took a seat.

"My sister's making a costume for Nightmare Night"

"You gonna go as that "Mare Do Well" character they created?" Applebloom asked

"No, I want to go as something else this year. Either of you want it?" There was a click in Scootaloo's mind as she got an idea.

"Well..."

The night sky was filled with clouds, with a moon sticking out. All was quiet on that night, and nopony even noticed the shadow up on one of the houses. The figure looked around as it patrolled the night. She had been doing this for a week now and no sign of those ponies who had been chasing that unicorn she met. She jumped from building to saw a couple of sketchy- looking ponies here and there, some in ones and twos, but no groups Like the one she had seen.

She was about to give up when something caught her eye. There were lights in the distance. She jumped on a couple more building to get closer to see from a distance. A chariot was coming in. A chariot, at this hour? This, she had to check out. She spread her wings and flew towards it. She couldn't fly as fast as she could, on account of the Cape. It was so difficult to fly with that thing, she didn't know how Fluttershy had pulled it off in this thing. Once she was close enough, she did indeed see a group. They were dressed in some quite suspicious clothing that didn't make them look very legitimate. Each wore black, with a shiny grey on the upper- bodies, with not many other details, other than a helmet on each of them. On closer inspection, the grey vests looked like metal armour.

They were receiving a package. It was fairly small, and she wasn't sure why it needed an entire chariot to carry it. She got in closer to listen.

"Remember, be careful with this package, you know Diamond will have our heads is there is so much as a scratch on it's contents" The largest one spoke, he was clearly the leader of the group, but it was the name he mentioned that got her attention. Diamond...

"We know, we know." The others talked amongst themselves.

"Hey, if this is meant to be so powerful, why would she be worried about the smallest thing happening to it?"

"She's just paranoid, and that doesn't matter right now. What matters is transporting it. Now just shut up and get it. We screwed up in last week's retrieval with that unicorn. We've still got to find him"

"Be quiet, all of you. Let's just deliver the thing" The leader spoke up and they all listened. The mention of that unicorn was all she needed. She jumped in and kicked one of the back ones.

"What was that?" They turned around and there was nothing except one of their team mates rubbing their head. She kicked one in the jaw where he didn't have armour. This time, they did see him, and this one she had knocked unconscious. Some of them rushed her, except the leader. One tried to hit her, but she blocked and threw a punch back, but it had little affect on account of the helmet, but it did knock him back. She took on another one in the meantime, this one was a mare. A blow to her chest did little as she gave a punch that sent her staggering back. She remembered, she had to hit in places the armour could not protect, and Scootaloo hit her in the jaw, sending her helmet flying, and the third one came at her, but he was sloppy with his blows, making them easily able to dodge. She hit him in his neck and he recoiled, then came at her again, and received the same result, only this time he was no longer standing. She turned around to see where the leader went but was greeted with a punch from the first pony would've been successful is she didn't move out of the way in time, and she knocked his helmet off and slugged him straight in the face. She looked around for the leader but he wasn't there.

He had left. She punched the wall in anger, and was about to confront one of those she had fought, when she looked at the helmet she had knocked off one of them. She looked at it under one of the street lights. There was a symbol on it. There was a crown on it above writing that read "Tiara Industries". She knew who she had to go after now.

Scootaloo woke up. It was a Sunday, so she could sleep in. She had a few bruises from the fight, one of which consisted of a black eye, so she didn't want to alert any of her friends. She looked at that artefact again, and got up to get herself something from the fridge. She looked through it's contents, when she heard a knock on the door. She quickly got some sunglasses and went for the door. It was Applebloom and Sweetie Belle again.

"Hi again, you two"

"Hey. Belle wanted to check if the costume was alright and ah decided to tag along"

"Oh, sure. Come right in, girls" She let them in when something caught Sweetie Belle's eye.

"Why are you wearing sunglasses?"

"Well, uh it's sunny outside"

"But you're inside"

"They make me look awesome!" she finally settled on that. Sweetie looked at her for a second, then turned back.

"Where's the costume?"

"It's in the cupboard" They went and saw it hung up. Sweetie looked at if for a second.

"Have you been wearing this?"

"Well, I tried it on, if that's what you mean?"

"It looks kind of dirty"

"I guess I haven't been taking good care of it, then" Scootaloo was looking away. Sweetie tried to make eye contact and saw what looked like a black eye. She was shocked, but didn't show it.

"Scootaloo, is everything alright?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't it be?" Her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked a her friend through sunglasses.

"Alright, see ya" She said and she and Applebloom left. Their friend wasn't telling them something.

Scootaloo put the costume on. She was going to infiltrate Diamond's company and find out more. She contemplated how to get in and saw a window open a couple of stories up. She spread her wings and flew to the window. She looked through the day indie and there was no one there, so she entered, not knowing who was looking at the cameras at the time.

"Are ya sure we should be doin' this, Belle?" Applebloom asked as she watched her friend pick her other friend's lock.

"Scootaloo's keeping something from is, and I think it might be putting her in danger. I saw she had a black eye through her sunglasses. She didn't have one yesterday. Besides, we did knock and there was no answer." Applebloom still didn't look convinced. "I know it might be meddling, but if she's getting hurt, we need to help her as friends. If we find nothing, I'll apologise to her in the next morning."

"Alright" She sighed as Sweetie successfully broke in to her friends house. Maybe she was just being paranoid, Applebloom had every right to call her that, but she was worried about her friend. Some lights were on, but not all of them. Sweetie crept up, and the first place she went was Scootaloo's bedroom. She instinctively looked in the wardrobe. Just as she thought.

"The costume isn't here, and neither is she"

"She could be getting it looked at, it was dirty, after all" Applebloom reasoned.

"At this hour?"

"It still doesn't prove she's doing anything dangerous, she does do dangerous things"

"If it was just another one of her stunts, she would be open about it. She's never hid an injury before" Sweetie explained as a dim light in the corner of the room caught her eye. A lamp was on, and she saw two objects. Both looked like pieces of armor, except one looked old. The other was a helmet, turned upside down. She looked at the logo that the light was focusing on. It was one of Tiara's. There was also a picture of the building, there as well. She realized what her friend was doing.

"Oh Celestia, she's not..."

"What?" Applebloom asked.

"Scootaloo's gone to Tiara industries"

"What? But she knows that mare is pure evil. Always has been, always will be"

"I still don't quite know why, but we have to ask her."

"Ah know we have to go after her, but how?" Sweetie thought for a moment, then got an idea

"My sister made more than one costume"

She ran through the rooms, being careful not to be noticed. It had been very quiet and she had seen little to nopony. Maybe this would be easier than she thought. She arrived in what she guessed was a testing room, to test their new products, and weapons. She took another step and the lights turned on. It was that big pony that got away yesterday.

"Hello there." he said "it's you again" He had more ponies with him than before. "You got me in a lot of trouble, you know. Not as much trouble as my outing before that, but trouble nonetheless" She glared at him as he continued

"But I digress. One interference is one too many. It was very convenient of you to come to us. Saves us the trouble of coming prepared. Now..." he pointed at her "Get her" They rushed forward. each had some sort of weapon with them, unlike before. They all thrust their weapons at her, and she darted out of the way of each. They all wore armor but she couldn't hit them in their blind spots. Soon, they had her cornered.

A cloud of smoke fell on the room. Nopony could see anything that wasn't a couple of inches in front of them. Scootaloo lliked momentarily shocked, theno saw two ponies dressed in the same costume as her.

"Let's go!" Scootaloo recognised that voice.

"Applebloom?"

"No time to explain, let's just get out of here, though you're the one with the explaining to do" Scootaloo didn't have time to argue as she went with both of them. The smoke cleared, and she was gone, they looked around until they all suddenly felt itchy And started scratching themselves vigorously.

The three rushed out of the building and went to Scootaloo's house, she explained everything on the way. Once home, they each took their masks off.

"Thanks, girls. I don't know what would've happened if you weren't there. I'm not going to stop. Whatever Diamond is planning, we all know it won't be good. That being said, I also know that I can't do this alone. One pony won't bring them down, and I think don't that they're the only ones we need to bring down. Will you two help me?" Applebloom and Sweetie Belle merely stood there, staring at her, then looked at each other. They held out their hooves to her.

"Okay, but we'll need do some training, first" Sweetie said. And that was it, the forming of the Crusaders

"Also, y'all might want to go to Zecora's. That smoke bomb was poison joke"

Next time:

"Some ponies have been saying there's a monster in the sewers. It's meant to be huge, with glowing green eyes"

Author's Note

This takes place about 4 months before chapter one. It is technically a flashback, but I didn't want the whole thing to be in Italics

Monster in the Night

"I am running, I don't care where I was or how I got here, I just ran. My feet splashing on the ground, I could hear myself breathing. They won't be far behind, and I can't control myself, it's happening again..."

Two ponies in hooded jumpers walked down the street, not doing anything in particular. One was messing around with a knife with his magic, while the other was focusing on what was in front of him.

"Sure is chilly tonight." the first one said.

"I know." the other replied, not wanting to make conversation, and preferred focusing on making sure they didn't run into anypony dangerous.

"Hey, wanna go find somepony to scare? I bet they'd be terrified of us." the unicorn asked, his knife dancing around in his magic.

"No, we're only meant to use those if we come across a pony who isn't joking about mugging us."

"Mum's just being paranoid, nothing's gonna happen, everypony is too scared of each other to come out, anyway. But hey, I'm not complaining." He grinned, and jokingly pointed his knife in front of his sibling "Stop, your money or your pitiful life." he said in a pretend threatening voice. The other couldn't help but chuckle lightly. It lightened the mood, until they heard something.

"Stop." The earth pony alerted his brother.

"What?"

"I can hear something. It sounds like roaring" he inferred. The two slowly backed away from where the noise was coming from. Soon, it died down, and they calmed down.

The unicorn was about to return to playing with his knife, when they heard growling, coming from right behind them. The unicorn was thrown into the air and his body slammed into the wall, dropping his knife. The Earth pony saw the creature advance towards his brother, and he bucked it's leg. All that did was get its attention as it turned around, and he saw it's angry green eyes.

Scootaloo was just about to deliver, she had all the mail in her saddlebags, she was just like her mother, except for her eyes. She didn't have as much skill with this sort of thing with her mother, as well. She was about to fly high up above the town, she had been practising her skydive a lot And wanted to try it out. She may have a schedule to keep, but she would catch up later. She readied her wings when...

"I saw it! I swear, it was right there!" She stopped in her tracks as she looked below. It was an orange unicorn in a jacket and a red earth pony. The unicorn was standing on a box.

"The monster attacked us in the night! It was huge. It threw me into this very wall!" he pointed at the wall behind him.

"Not another one." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. Ponies like him had been yelling about a monster that had been roaming the streets at night. These ponies were either crazy, or attention- hungry, or both.

"This is what it did to me!" Just then, the unicorn undid his jacket. The small crowd looked at it. There were bandages on his torso, which he slowly removed. There was a large purple mark on his side. "Two broken ribs from that thing!" Scootaloo could see that he was experiencing a mild pain from shouting.

A blue- green unicorn stallion stepped forward. He was wearing a jacket of his own, but it looked thicker. He had a coldness to him that made Scootaloo look at him curiously.

"What did this monster look like?" he inquired

"We didn't see it up close, it was too dark. But we did see two large emerald- green eyes. It was roughly bigger than a Minotaur." the Earth Pony spoke, this time.

"I see." he replied. "And that's all you saw?"

"Yes, it is." the red one answered, and the blue- green unicorn simply walked off. Scootaloo suddenly realized that she was behind schedule, and flew off.

(Later that day)

"Alright, everypony, that's enough for today. See you all again soon." Sweetie said as her choir Got their belongings together and got ready to leave.

"Bye, miss Belle." a light beige pegasus waved to her.

"Goodbye, Pound Cake." she smiled sincerely. He left, as well. As soon as everypony had left. As soon as they were all gone, she went to make sure everything was put away, she went. On her way home, she saw Scootaloo, who was waving.

"Hey, Sweetie Belle. How was choir?"

"Hi, Scoots. It was great. Pound's voice is really coming along and he's starting to not be so quiet. How were the deliveries? Did you give anything to Zecora?

"No..." Scootaloo was disappointed to not get to go into the Everfree on work hours. "But something else happened today. There was a guy talking about that monster that everypony's worried about."

"Monster? Oh yeah, I think I heard some of my students mention that. What's it about?"

"You don't know?" Scootaloo questioned "Some ponies have been saying there's a monster in the sewers. It's meant to be huge, with glowing green eyes."

"Sounds kind of odd, do you think a manticore or Timberwolf got out of the Everfree, or something?"

"No, a manticore doesn't really have green eyes, and a Timberwolf isn't big enough. Maybe we should investigate it."

"You think it's true?" Sweetie Belle questioned

"No, I'm just curious as to what's causing all this fear."

"You think we should check it out?"

"Yeah, we should."

(nighttime)

The three jumped from building to building. Looking around, for anything that might be close to a monster. After getting a brief look around, they found a hole which lead directly into the sewers, and jumped down on it. They looked around and Applebloom picked it up the threw it to the side, making some noise but not attracting any attention, and jumped in.

They stepped silently carefully through the dark, the only sound being the water running through the oversized pipe they were walking in. Light was non- existent.

"Y'all see anything?" Applebloom whispered

"What do you think?" Scootaloo replied annoyingly.

"It's not mah fault we're in a sewer. It's yours! You wanted to check out this whole 'monster' thing"

"Can we just look?" Scootaloo changed the subject and they continued to focus on the search.

"Ah'll just use these" She got out a small jar. It was filled with fireflies. She hung the jar around her neck, so she had some light source. Since she couldn't find enough, she was the only one with light.

They searched for a while, looking through the smelly underground maze for signs of life. Going in all sorts of directions, looking for something, but not finding it.

"Well, we should probably go back up, this 'monster' turned out to be nothing at all!" She shot a small glare at Scootaloo, who didn't notice, since the light was rather dim. They nearly walked past another tunnel, until Applebloom suddenly stopped them.

"Ah think ah saw something." She went to the entrance of the tunnel and shone the light around the walls. There were marks on the wall, as if something had hit them. There were even scratch marks.

"Something was strong enough to make scratches on solid stone" Sweetie Belle observed, with a hint of fear in her voice.

"We should keep going" Scootaloo said. "We're obviously getting close" They crept through, trying to make themselves quieter. They looked through the paths, seeing more and more of the marks all over the walls. They eventually lead to an unused part of the sewer where the water didn't flow. They went forward, but stopped once again. What they saw, was two glowing green orbs in the distance, and they could almost make out a body, as well. They slowly moved closer, causing the creature to quickly retreat into the blackness.

"Follow that monster!" Scootaloo called out and they attempted to catch up to it. Running quickly, they took the same turn the creature had but saw it had gone. They went further into the abandoned tunnels, and saw frequent marks on the walls, even more than before. They looked and saw a dim light in one of the tunnels, and immediately started to tun towards it. What they found, appeared to be some sort of room.

The room appeared to be lit with a single torch. There was an old dirty carpet in the centre that was old and torn and looked like it was found in a dustbin. Very plain, but Sweetie Belle was looking at the torch.

"What kind of fire is green?" she thought to herself. She would've continued thinking, had she not heard a growl, that was too close by. They all looked around, not seeing anything. It appeared to be coming from all directions. They suddenly all got slammed into one of the walls.

They all quickly got up and saw what hit them. It stood on two legs, it also appeared to be taller than a minotaur. It was covered in black fabric, and it had those green eyes staring down at them.

Scootaloo was the first to get up, and jumped for a kick to the creature, who seemed unaffected and simply tossed her back, again. The other two got up and made sure they were alright, before Applebloom threw smoke bombs at the creature, allowing Sweetie Belle to run under it and shoot a beam in the back of it's head with her magic. The creature stumbled slightly forward, then hit Sweetie Belle with it's tail, and Applebloom with it's arm. They all tried to rush it, giving it an array of blows while moving around. The creature was able to block most and even dodge some, despite its size.

"We're in that things domain now" Scootaloo said, just before the torch was blown out. Applebloom got out her makeshift lantern and saw that the creature was gone. They each ran out of it's lair and back to where the dirty water was flowing. They briefly saw a silhouette take a turn for the left and quickly followed. They took the turn, and it was nowhere to be seen. Each looked around and Scootaloo turned. There appeared to be a light circle in the distance.

"There better not be more of these" she grumbled, as she, Bloom and Sweetie ran towards it. Once they got there, they all saw a fairly large open marehole.

"He must've gone outside" Scootaloo said

"Ya figure that by yourself?" Applebloom remarked. Swweite Belle rolled her eyes, and jumped up.

"Just be glad we don't have to be in here, anymore." Sweetie Belle added

They were in an alleyway, a small one with brick walls. Scootaloo remembered when Ponyville didn't have alleyways.

"Look! It's up there!" Sweetie pointed to one of the buildings and they saw it running on one of them. Applebloom and Sweetie Belle both got their grappling hooks out and shot them at the structure, while Scootaloo flew up. Once up, they jumped from building to building, trying to catch up with it.

"Where is it even going, anyway?" Applebloom questioned

"We found out where it lived. It's moving" Sweetie Belle inferred. They still couldn't see its features, it was covered in some sort of black fabric. They picked up the pace, and were getting nearer. They were closing in on it, when it suddenly stopped. They didn't pay much mind, but then they saw what it was looking at.

There were eleven ponies in light blue cloaks. Each wore the same mask, of a sapphire pony. Each was wielding a weapon, which were mostly crossbows and spears.

One which they guessed was the leader stepped forward, staring at the creature and spoke

"Time to come home. Don't make this difficult." He was holding what looked like some sort of collar with a gem on it. The creature growled and the other ten looked ready to fire. They began to make a circle around it.

"Who are they?" Applebloom asked. Scootaloo was simply in shock, standing still. Nothing was moving except for her eyes. She was looking over their cloaks, searching, searching for it, it had to be there, it had to be on the cloaks! There it was; three light blue ponies in a hurricane. Sweetie Belle began to whisper

"Alright, we need to come up with a plan to-" she was interrupted as Scootaloo flew right into them, knocking one over. Sweetie and Applebloom had no choice but to follow. Two came up and fired their crossbows at Sweetie, who was able to dodge one and catch the other with her magic, despite its speed.

"How did you do that?" One wasn't trying to hide his surprise, which gave her an opportunity to jump up and kick that one in the face and punching the other in the gut.

Applebloom threw her smoke bombs at three, and they were fired in random places, allowing the applebucking crusader to jump in and deliver individual punches.

Scootaloo was flying through the remaining four, not including the leader. She dodged everything they had, and she dealt blows with everything she had. Once she had made sure everypony that she faces was unconscious, she turned around and flew straight up to their leader.

"WHERE IS RAINBOW?" She snarled at him.

"Why, where is who?"

"Rainbow Dash! Where is she?" Applebloom and Sweetie Belle stood back, looking at her in confusion.

"Uh, Scoots?" This was a side of her that they had never seen before. Sure, she was prone to anger, but this was something else. The leader laughed, and Scootaloo hit him in the face.

"You really have no idea what you're dealing with, do you?" he let out another laugh. Scootaloo suddenly felt cold in her hooves. She looked down, ice was forming. She quickly let go.

"Who are you?" she asked. He brushed himself off.

"We are, The Wind" he said, and he was suddenly gone in a breeze, along with the others. It was now just them, and the creature. They were slowly stepping towards it, but stopped when the green flames were building up in its mouth. It jumped over to them, bringing its hand down to the ground where they were, causing them to jump out of the way. It opened its mouth fully, and the fire was not aimed at any of the Crusaders, but itself. It engulfed itself in its own fire, and suddenly it was gone. They stood silently, as they were the only ones left there now.

They were all in Scootaloo's house, thinking over what just happened. She was so close, so close to finding out where Rainbow Dash was. And it was ruined. But she knew what she was looking for, now, but she also knew it was another problem to take care of besides Diamond. Then there was that monster on the loose, which Sweetie Belle was pondering on.

"Somehow I don't think that'll be the last we'll see of whatever that was."

"No, it wasn't." Scootaloo replied.

"Uh, Scoots?" Applebloom spoke up

"What?"

"Y'all were pretty brutal out there." she sighed

"I know, I just thought I'd finally find her, after all these years."

"Ah know she was like a sister, and maybe even a second mother to ya, but we barely know anything about these guys. Ya can't just rush into it otherwise y'all will never find her." Scootaloo smiled

"Thanks, Bloom."

"No problem, Scoots. Now we need to get these suits off."

Next chapter:

The Shining Eclipse

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Who is he?" Applebloom asked her sister

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Uh, you okay?"

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

"Oh, uh, sorry."

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

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

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

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

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

"Guard duty?"

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

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

"Exactly"

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

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

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

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

"Understandable." Diamond replied.

"Now, about those intruders..."

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

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

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

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

"Uh, okay?"

"Do ya have a family?"

"..."

"Oh, ah'm so sorry."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Night- time)

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

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

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

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

"Ah hear it, too."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

"Bloom!" Scootaloo noticed her first.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Next Time:

The Crusaders Take Manehatten

Author's Note

Shining Eclipse belongs to "YOUR M0THER"