A Coven of Sisters

If there was any excitement Applebloom, Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo had about staying the night at Princess Twilight Sparkle's, Princess of Friendship, wielder of the Element of Magic, it was soon gone. No sooner had they agreed to a couple experiments, thinking it'd be fun, before they found themselves strapped to odd devices that measured their blood pressure, subconscious magic output, or SMO, their breathing rate, heart rate, mental stimulation, and, oddly enough, how many times they blinked in a minute.

“This is so exciting!” Twilight clapped her hooves, trying to resist a little dance of joy. “Do you know what this could mean?”

“Yeah.” Spike muttered darkly, taking notes. “I'm totally going to miss this evening's hooveball game.”

AJ, who had gotten Rarity, explained everything, brought her to the castle, and now leaning against the wall with swollen eyes and a large tankard of hard cider, looked up with mild interest.

“Who's playin'?” She asked, her voice tired.

“Cloudsdale's Hurricanes against Canterlot's Knights.” Spike replied back, not looking away from his notes. “I put down twenty bits on the Hurricanes.”

“Ha,” Applejack smiled, for the first time that afternoon. “Sorry bucko. The Knights are alright, but the Hurricanes have Biccepts, Jackhammer, Ironstomp, Rushwing and Blazewing.”

Spike turned, with a smile of his own. “Sure, but you're forgetting one thing. Or rather five things. Bullneck, Diamondhoof, Speedtrain, Stoneface and Rusty “the wrecker” Shoe.”

“Rusty might be a decent player, but the rest are average. None could stop Rush if'n they wanted too.”

“Ppffff, don't make me laugh. Rushwing is so slow, he couldn't make it past Bullneck.”

“Care to up yer wager then?”

“You'd be throwing away your money but, say Rushwing can't make it past Bullneck.”

AJ spat in her hoof, holding it out. “Thirty bits on it.”

With a smile, Spike spat in his claw and shook her hoof. “Nice don't business with y-”

“Spiiiike? Are you getting these readings? Their SMO is phenomenal! Not even Alicorns output that much magic subconsciously!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Spike scribbled a few more notes. He checked the number in question. “Huh, fourteen. Isn't the usual number around nine?”

“Exactly!” Twilight giggled with delight. “This is-”

“Boooriiiing.” Scootaloo cut in. She gave a nervous smile when Twilight gave her a dirty look. “I mean, I'm sure that this is all important, but I though you were going to have us show you what we can do. You know, summon familiars, brew potions, control living and inanimate objects?”

Twilight's expression changed to curious. “Really? Can you summon familiars?”

“Scoot can.” Appleboom supplied. “Ya' see, we've all been trainin' at our own thing to start out with. Scootaloo is more of a summoner, A'h'm more of a potions brewer and Sweetie Belle is more of ah...ah...” Applebloom looked over at her white blood sister. “What are you more like?”

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “I sing.”

“Hold on dear.” Rarity took a step out of the shadows, puffy eyed. Like Applejack, she too had taken the news hard, and had spend most of the last few hours in the shadow of the doorway watching her baby sister, crying silently. “You sing? That's it?”

“It's sorta hard to describe.” Scootaloo screwed up her face trying to answer. “Why don't you just show them Sweetie Belle?”

With a nod, Sweetie Belle started singing, or was it chanting? The strange mixture of the two with words that seemed older than Equestria herself, seemed to echo around the room, bouncing off the crystal walls, ceiling and floor, as if searching for something. A wooden chair, not too far from Applejack, started scooting across the floor, until it had the attention of every pony in the room.

The chair's arms seemed to come unglued from the front two legs, letting it wave them as the back bent itself forward, as if bowing. The magical chair, now alive, started giving a show, tap dancing on all for legs, standing up on two while moving the others as if it's limbs were made of flesh, rather than wood. The chair, now alive and acting on the strange words and sounds that Sweetie Belle was making, went to the crystal table, picked up another chair, which suddenly became attached and both spun about on a romantic dance, ending with a wooden kiss on the arm of the other, before they became chairs again at the close of Sweetie Belle's song.

Silence filled the large room as Applebloom and Scootaloo beamed at their sister, while Applejack and Rarity stared in horror. The only pony who was not looking at the white filly who just brought the wooden chairs to life was Twilight, because she was staring at the numbers on her device.

“T-T-This should be impossible!!” She screamed, making every pony, save Spike, jump. “You girls were riding on a fourteen SMO units since I've hooked you up, but now Sweetie Belle jumped to a  Twenty!?!”

Spike looked up from his notes. “You sure?” He asked Twilight. “Wouldn't be the first time this thing has glitched out. You really should get a new monitoring machine, maybe one that takes notes all by itself?” He offered helpfully.

“No, this is corrected.” Twilight breathed, looking frazzled as the readings destroyed on of the most important laws she understood of magic. “And what would I do with out my number one assistant?”

“I was afraid you'd say that.” Spike sighed.

“Pardon my ignorance,” Rarity had walked quietly next to Twilight, eyes still full of tears. “But I'm not understanding what all you're saying. Why is having a higher than usual SMO bad?”

“Ah'n what's an S'm'o?” Applejack added, following her friends course, standing on the other side of Twilight.

Twilight looked from AJ to Rarity, biting her lower lip. “SMO stands for subconscious Magical Output. Glitter Shine's theory of Magical Balance states that what ever level you're SMO begins at, state of magical reserves while not using magic, it will lower when you're using magic. She theorized that any magical creature has only a certain amount of magical unites and any magic taps into those reserves. It takes time to rebuild those reserves, but an average reserve count for Pegasi is seven, Earth pony at six and Unicorn at eight. Alicorns, because of their unique properties are at ten. Fourteen is much too high a number as is, but twenty?”

Both AJ and Rarity looked worried.

“Twi, we need you to be straight up with this. Is there anything we can do? And how much danger can they be?”

“Danger?” Rarity blinked. “My dear Applejack, I'm as worried as you are, but our sisters are just fillies. I dou-”

“You didn't see what I saw, Rar.” Applejack cut looking at the ground, her mouth dry, and the feeling like she was going to hurl in her stomach. “You didn't see what they did to poor Diamond Tiara.”

Rartiy's eyes flashed. “What about Diamond Tiara? That little tramp needs a lesson in manners if you ask me.”

“Oh she got one alright.” AJ's face paled as she looked to the angered Rarity and the curious Twilight. “I was talkin' to Filthy about this comin' season of Zapp Apples, when I saw Diamond Tiara reach up to brush her mane back. Her mane came off. They had rotted her scalp so even a touch would rip it off.”

Silence. Rarity didn't even try to run for the bathroom. She just ran a few steps away from the others and threw up everything in her stomach. Twilight's face blanched and she sat down hard, eyes wide as dinner plates. Applejack nodded, pure will power keeping down her lunch and afternoon drinking.

“Spike,” Twilight whispered. Spike, glanced over, too far away to hear the conversation at hoof. Twilight beckon him over. “Take a letter, and make it fast.” Spike raised an eyebrow, but pulled out a new sheet of parchment. “Dear Princess Celestia and Luna. I have reason to believe Ponyville is in danger. I am in Danger. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo have formed a witch's coven and have already attacked at least on pony. Help! We're at my castle, and they don't know we know. Twilight Sparkle.”

Spike, eyes widening as he took down the letter, rolled it up and sent it off without delay.

“Was that to the Princess?” Scootaloo asked from right behind Spike.

AJ, Twilight, and Rarity's ears shot straight up as Spike jumped.

“Y-yes!” He answered. “T-to let her know to expect you all tomorrow. We are going to go see them, and we thought that they would want to know. Heh heh heh.”

“But wait.” Applebloom cocked her head, also out of her testing station, next to her blood sister. “Didn't ya' already send a letter?”

Spike gulped. “Well, you see, I was originally thinking that you'd all would be taking the eleven thrity train, so the first letter was based on that. After talking, we thought maybe the eight thirty train would be better, plus they serve breakfast, so I sent another letter with the correct time.”

Sweetie Belle walked up to him, a stern look on her face. “You're not lying to us, are you?” Twilight, Applejack and Rarity held their breath as Spike shook his head. Sweetie Belle's face brightened. “I hope she'll have a parade for us! That would be soooooooo cool!”

“Aweseome! I want a parade for us now!” Scootaloo grinned.

Applebloom smiled too. “A'h say, a parade would be mighty fine.”

“I wonder when she'll reply?” Scootaloo asked, now hopeful of a parade in their honor.

Not a moment went by when Spike burped out a letter in a spray of green fire. Before he could catch it, Sweetie Belle levitated it to herself as her two sisters crowed in to read it with her as she read it aloud.

“Dear Twilight,

We're on our way! Run! Keep them in the Castle if you can, but keep yourself safe! Witch Covens are very unstable, and even young Witches can preform magic that Alicorns can't, so stay hidden the best you can! Beware angering them as their unusually high magic level very much effects their judgment! We'll be there in thirty minutes! Good luck!

The Royal sisters, Celestia and Luna.”

Scootaloo blinked. “It says nothin' about a parade in here.”

Applebloom glared at Spike. “Or a change in time of train rides.”

Sweetie Belle looked up, eyes glowing and a very, very unhappy look on her face. “We will give you all thirty seconds to get out of our sight before we start hunting you down for this treachery!” No pony moved. “One.”

Twilight, Applejack, Rarity and Spike ran out of the room, as a booming voice echoed behind them.

“They Royal Sister's asked for you to stay in the castle, so in you'll stay.” A loud booming could be heard all throughout the castle as the front door and every window or terrace entrance and window shutter slammed shut, locking with magic that only the three little fillies could unlock.

In a sing song way, the three giggled as thirty seconds ticked to a close. “Ready or not, here we come~”