A Coven of Sisters

“Why do we have to wear these table clothes over our flanks again?” Scootaloo asked, thoroughly annoyed.

Here they had worked so hard to find their special talent, and now they finally had a cutie mark. This was the single greatest day of her and her sister's lives thus far, and it was being marred by a lavender shaded table cloth.

“Because,” The orange earth pony said, tightening Apple Bloom's makeshift skirt. “There's been a mistake. These ain't your cutie marks.”

“They look like our cutie marks.” Applebloom muttered. “Ow! Watch it sis! That's too tight!”

Sweetie Belle stepped in. “Applejack, let me. I've picked up how to sew from Rarity.”

And with that, her little white horn lit up and Applebloom's table cloth skirt smoothed out, complementing her figure, while tightening in some places to stay on while not being suffocating the filly. She repeated the process to her other sister and herself before looking back to Applejack again, knowing it was her who had to get to the bottom of the unexpected twenty questions game. Ever since AJ had seen their flanks, she'd worn a carefully shielded look of fear and panic.

“Now.” Sweetie indicated for her sisters to sit with her, and they did, which only put the orange earth pony even more on edge. “Please, start from the beginning. Why can't these be our cutie marks?”

“Because it's wrong!” Applejack blurted before she could stop herself. Biting her lip she looked at the three fillies, who were confused before she started again. “That cutie mark hasn't been seen in a long while. It's not the cutie mark of a good pony. If others we to see it, they'd judge you before even asking questions and that would make life not only horrible, A'h reckon it might cut you're lives short quite a few years.”

The three chewed that over. Scootaloo looked like she was about complain, but Sweetie Belle gave her a side long look that kept her silent. This was not the time for hot heads.

Applebloom spoke up. “A'h don't get it.” She confessed. “Why are ma'h and ma'h sister's-”

“Sister's?” Applejack cut in. “What sister's. You got me. A'HM yer sister.”

Again it was the white unicorn filly who seemed to be in charge. “We are sisters in blood. We preformed the ritual of the Coven that gave use these powers, Applejack.”

The apple bucking pony's jaw somehow became disconnected with the rest of her head, hanging open in shock. It took her several minutes to gain control of her self enough to speak, and even then, it was a series of 'who, why, how, huh, nah, and buy some apples!'

Sweetie Belle raised a hoof, silencing the orange mare, who looked quite terrified. “Applejack, we will do things your way. We will go see Twilight with you and maybe we can sort this out.”

AJ wasn't sure if she felt relief or fear at that statement. On one hoof, she was glad that the girls saw the wisdom of her words, but on the other hoof, the way Sweetie Belle spoke for all three, and especially how she decided to go see Twilight, put Applejack's teeth on edge.

And so they started to make their way into town, greeting ponies as they went, not acting ashamed or out of place.

“I still don't see why we have to wear these table clothes.” Scootaloo muttered darkly.

“A'h think it's because Apple Jack thinks that our cutie marks are cursed or somethin' like that.” Apple Bloom replied. “But A'h still don't get it.”

Sweetie Belle just kept silent. Out of the three, she had been the more studious of them, and knew why the cutie mark was an ill omen. She even witnessed the power it meant, but that didn't concern her. She was proud of it. For all her life and her now sister's lives, she'd been searching for her spot in the world, what made her different from others and ultimately special, and now she had her answer. She didn't care if they were banished from Ponyville. She knew who she was now, and she'd embrace it, even the nasty parts.

As they made their way through town, they bumped into two ponies that none of them wanted to see.

“Ah, Applejack.” Filthy smiled pleasantly. “Just the pony I was looking for.”

“Howdy Mr. Rich.” Applejack tipped her hat, putting on a cheerful smile that didn't reach her eyes. “An' what can A'h do for you?”

“Well, Zapp Apple season is coming soon, and I'd like to start the usual negotiations about prices.”

As the two adults talked, Diamond Tiara, who's eyes looked red and puffy from the lost of her only real friend, walked out from behind her father to start the usual taunts to the CMCs.

“Why hello there, blank flanks.” She sneered with more malice than necessary. “And what are you three nobodies doing here?”

Applebloom spoke up before Scootaloo to open her mouth and get them in trouble. “Why howdy Diamond. We're just taken a stroll with ma'h sister.”

Diamond glared at the makeshift skirts that hid their flanks. “A stroll? In these dusty old things? Don't make me laugh. Any normal pony would die of embarrassment if anyone saw them in that ugly thing.”

Sweetie Belle glanced at her skirt. “Actually, I thought lavender was a nice color.”

“Oh it is.” D. T. agreed. “IF you're an old biddy, like Granny Smith.”

She laughed and turned for a friendship victory bump with Silver Spoon, before she remembered that she was in a room in Canterlot hospital babbling nonsense. Angry tears rose to her eyes as she lowered her head.

Applebloom, who was the most kindhearted of the three, put a hoof on Diamond Tiara's shoulder.

“A'h'm sorry to hear what happened to your friend.”

For a moment, Diamond Tiara looked like grateful that some pony noticed her pain and cared. But she blinked back more tears, pushing Applebloom back with a rough shoulder shove.

“I don't want your pity rutabaga! I don't need your pity you stupid, brainless farmer!”

Applegloom fell to the ground with a yelp, rolling backwards, but before any pony could notice, both Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were blocking Diamond Tiara's path, eyes angry, both chanting in a strange eerie language.

“Oh, and what are you going to do? Make my mane fall off with you're silly mumbo jumbo?”

“As you wish.” Scootaloo's voice grated like a steel door with rusty hinges as Sweetie Belle continued the chant, adding some hard consonants and hisses.

Diamond Tiara had enough. She started laughing, doubling over and rolling on the ground. “Ohh, you two morons are too much!” She rolled back up, eyes full of joyless mirth. “As if you-” A stray strand of mane fell into her eyes. Not even thinking twice, she brushed it back into her mane and around her ear. “As I was say-” She stomped her hoof.

Squelch.

Diamond Tiara started to shake, as her eyes looked down to the ground, seeing the soft thing she was standing on. Her breath caught as she tried to scream, staring at the clump of hair with bloody scalp under her hoof. Then she felt something that shocked her whole system into ridged stillness. Something warm, started trickling down her left ear, from her scalp, slowly rolling down, streaking the once white and pristine white coat with a single strand of dark red.

Shaky hoof raising, the bully put it to her face and then held it before her eyes, feeling the warmth pulsing more as her heart started to race faster and faster as she stared at her own blood from the rotted flesh from where her hair should have been.

“Diamond Tiara!” Filthy Rich caught his daughter before she hit the ground in a dead faint. He stared at the gore on the ground and his daughter, with her rotted scalp. “H-h-how?”

“Some fillies are just rotten.” Sweetie Belle replied, no sympathy in her voice.

“Rotten to that core.” Applebloom added, getting off the ground. She dusted herself off and stood in line with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, ignoring the horrified expression Apple Jack was giving them behind Filthy's shoulder.

Filthy Rich didn't even reply, he just scooped up his daughter to his back and galloped as fast as he could to the nearest, and only, health clinic in town.

“Girls!” All three fillies turned to Applejack, who flinched at their gaze. “Did you do that?!”

There was a moment of silence as all three blinked back at her, as if the question held the answer to itself.

Applejack didn't know what to do. She didn't know if she COULD do anything. She was just a simple farm pony, and dealing with magic and stuff like it was beyond her ability to control. Wordlessly, she continued to led the three to Twilight's castle, hoping that her friend would have the answers to this problem.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“What do you want?” Spike yawned, being awoken from his early afternoon nap. There was still a little drool on the corner of his mouth.

“Sorry to interrupt your dream session with Rarity.” Applejack jibed with a hidden smile. “But I need to speak with Twilight. There's...” She glanced at the girls. “An urgent problem that she needs to be tended to.”

Spike folded his stubby arms, putting a claw to his chin. “Well, I would say you could see her now, but she's speaking with Mare Mayor right now. They're discussing the logistics of Twilight holding court.”

For a moment, AJ seemed curious. “Court? Like all them big fancies do at Canterlot with Princess Celestia and Luna?”

“Yeah,” Spike nodded. “But the issue at hoof whether or not Twilight's judgments to what hearing she deals with over rule the lay ponies judicial system. You see, th-”

“That's fascinating.” The orange earth pony cut off with a smile. “But like A'h said. This is urgent.”

Spike pouted. “And I'd been doing studying on the local justice system for weeks now to know that.” He grumbled. “Head to the map room. She'll see you in there.”

“A'h'm mighty grateful to ya', Spike.” AJ sighed.

“Yeah, yeah.” Spike muttered as he made his way to the little thrown room. Truth is, it was actually just a fairly convenient room they'd found, but for their current purposes, they'd converted it to a little thrown room to hold 'official royal business'.

Spike knocked at the door.

“Spike? That you?” Twilight's muffled voice answered after a moment.

“Who else would know the exact room that you are in at the exact time?” Spike asked.

“I see your point.” The young alicorn replied, fighting back a face hoof. The discussion at hoof had been long, arduous and, Twilight concluded, more than pointless. She was either acting as Princess, thus disbanding the current courts, or she was just a Princess figure, and thus other than direct orders to royal guards, which she had none, her authority was pointless.

“Anyway, AJ's here with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She wanted to see you.” Spike said through the door.

“But, I'm busy.” Twilight told him halfheartedly, looking at the Mayor of Ponyville. True, she wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible, but she didn't want to appear rude, especially since this was an important discussion and AJ was a social call.

“I don't know. She said it's urgent.”

Twilight's ears perked. “Urgent?” She put a hoof to her chin in thought. “What could be so urgent that Apple Jack would come to me at a time like this?”

“You mean in the early afternoon when not much is going on except for the absolute best time to take a nice nap in the sun? I have no idea.”

The sarcastic tone of Spike's voice got him a dirty look, which he could not see because of a door which Twilight hadn't even opened through their dialog.

“This can wait.” Mare Mayor said before Twilight could reply to Spike. “And, if I might say, Princess, you've given me a lot to think about. Truth is, I wasn't all that prepared for today's discussion on the matter of Ponyville's justice system. I'd like to think about this for a few days before we make any finalized decisions.”

Twilight flashed the Mayor a grateful grin. “Very well. We'll talk another time. If you excuse me.”

“Of course.”

Twilight opened the door, revealing a very unhappy Spike looking at where he knew Twilight would be.

“And you couldn't have done that a few minutes sooner?”

“Sorry Spike.” Twilight apologized. “Let's go see what's got AJ so worked up.”