The clubhouse was filled with nothing but chatter as three fillies brainstormed ideas for what they wanted to do for the day. With school out of the summer, they were free to do whatever they pleased for the rest of the day. The problem is figuring out what.
"We can go to the bowling alley for a game of bowling!" Scootaloo suggested, flapping her tiny wings. "We've only been there once after Applebloom's failed attempt for a bowling cutie mark."
"Nah. Bowling sounds boring." Applebloom disagreed.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo huffed in irritation. So far, Applebloom's the one who disagreed with their ideas the most.
"So, what do you want to do, then?" Sweetie Belle asked with a tint of annoyance in her voice. "You don't want to zipline, make pies, or anything at all!"
"Calm down, I do want to do something with you two. I simply wanted to do something a bit... risky." She said slyly with a wink.
"Like... what...?" Scootaloo asked her hesitantly. She didn't like the look in Applebloom's eyes.
"Please tell us that it's safe." Sweetie Belle quickly added when Applebloom opened her mouth to speak.
"Oh, it's nothin' too dangerous, girls," Applebloom added cheerfully. "But I was thinking we can perhaps... experiment with magic a little. For old times' sake." She said, standing up to look out the window. "Something better than some old game of bowling."
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other. They started to feel a bit excited. It had been a while since they did something magic-related.
"What kind of magic were you thinking about?" Sweetie Belle asked her. The sign of her irritation is completely gone.
Applebloom shrugged. "I dunno. I didn't think I would get this far," she admitted.
"Well, how about cutie mark magic?" Scootaloo suggested to the two. It was the only thing she could think of.
"I'm not sure my unicorn magic is anything interesting." Sweetie Belle pointed out, her eyes half-closed.
"No, not that. Something different. Something better." Scootaloo persisted. "Look, this is going to sound crazy, but what if we swapped cutie marks with someone?"
That time, the other two were silent. They were lost in thought until Sweetie Belle broke the silence. "Is it possible?"
"Oh, it is," Applebloom answered her. "Applejack mentioned Twilight's freakouts when Starlight swapped the Royal Sister's cutie marks. So, it is possible, I guess," she added tiredly.
"I hope it doesn't hurt..." Sweetie Belle muttered softly.
Scootaloo didn't hear her words. "Even if it is possible, who would we switch Sweetie Belle's magic with?"
"Someone powerful." Applebloom smiled.
The unicorn looked uncomfortable by that, but she shrugged it off. "I don't know... but I guess Twilight?" Sweetie Belle suggested.
Scootaloo and Applebloom gave her dumbfounded expressions.
"What? You said someone powerful!" Sweetie Belle defended.
"Yeah, but not alicorn powerful," said Applebloom firmly. "Twilight would never trust us with the kind of power she has, so that's out of the question."
"Fine. What about Starlight, then? She's not an alicorn." Sweetie Belle suggested next.
"But is she powerful, though?" Scootaloo raised an eyebrow. "I mean, I know she took over a village for a while but—"
"And was even with Twilight when they fought each other one time." Applebloom interrupted her. "That sounds pretty powerful to me."
"How do you know this stuff?" Sweetie Belle asked with a suspicious look on her face.
The earth pony didn't seem phased. "I've heard the tales."
"Doesn't mean that it's entirely true..." Scootaloo trailed off. She remembered the day when she saw the unicorn for the first time. She looked nervous and a little jumpy. She had asked Rainbow Dash, who was with her, about who the unicorn was. The blue pegasus had begun to explain how she ruled over a town, and recently time travelled and almost defeated Twilight with her magical abilities. Scootaloo can somewhat believe that a simple unicorn can rule over a town that no one heard of, but going one one-on-one against an alicorn and winning is a different story entirely.
"We can go ask her then." Sweetie Belle suggested. "And if the stories are true, then we can perhaps convince her to switch her magic with me for a day."
Scootaloo stood up when her friends were about to leave. "Wait, hold on. Even if the stories are genuine, she won't agree with this task." She argued.
"Oh, come on. Starlight is way laxer than Twilight. I'm positive that she'll agree with this." Applebloom retorted with a smile.
"And it will only be for a day." Sweetie Belle added. "How bad can it be?"
The Cutie Mark Crusaders were wandering around Twilight's Castle where the unicorn lived. The castle was gigantic, and it seemed like a maze to them.
"We've been in here for 20 minutes, and we still can't find her," Applebloom grumbled.
"She might not even be here. She must be out of town." Sweetie Belle told them thoughtfully. "I don't know, we should do this another time."
"I agree. This seems like a waste of time anyway, since she will not agree with whatever we are—"
The three quickly stopped when they heard hoofsteps, and a voice in the distance.
"This goes in the 'Nature' category?" the voice echoed throughout the halls. "Sweet Celestia, how many books does one need for 'relaxing'? This is the fifth one! Spike must've bought them for her, I think..."
"That sounds like Starlight, alright," Applebloom commented after a moment of listening to the voice.
"So... how do we phrase this?" Sweetie Belle got in front of her friends. "Do we go, 'Hey Starlight, can we borrow your magic, please?' with the usual puppy eyes, or...?"
"No, what we're going to ask is if those stories about her are true." Scootaloo persisted.
"Applejack wouldn't lie!" Applebloom gasped and covered her mouth with her hoof. "And besides, we all know she used to be a villain once. So, it has to be true."
"Well, we're about to find out from Starlight's view." Sweetie Belle said, walking to the room where the unicorn's voices could be heard.
Applebloom quickly followed her along, while Scootaloo slowly followed them after a sigh.
Turning the corner, the three fillies see the lilac-coated unicorn levitating books from boxes and putting them back in bookshelves with her aquamarine-colored magic. She seemed unaware of them entering the room.
"Starlight!" Scootaloo called her name to get her attention.
Starlight slightly jumped at their sudden voices. She turned her head to meet the three Crusaders.
"Oh, hey girls." Starlight greeted them with a nod. She turned back to the books she was levitating. "Twilight and Spike are in town right now, so they're not here."
"Oh, um... we're not here for them." Sweetie Belle shuffled one of her hooves awkwardly.
"We were here for you." Scootaloo put in.
Starlight stopped what she was doing and looked at them again, surprised. "Oh, for me?"
She set the books down on a table and turned her towards them. "What can I do for the three of you?" she asked with a kind smile.
"I was hoping that—" Sweetie Belle was about to say before Applebloom cut her off.
"We wanted to know if the stories were true." Applebloom interrupted, nodding at Scootaloo.
Starlight's smile faltered. "What stories?" she sounded a little tense.
"The stories about your fight Twilight when you tried to stop the Rainboom..." Scootaloo faltered when Starlight's eyes suddenly narrowed, then closed.
Her head slightly looked down at her hooves in shame. "That was a long time ago," she said wistfully.
The CMC gave each other guilty looks. They immediately figured out that this was one of the unicorn's least favorite topics and for good reason. Scootaloo felt bad now. Maybe the stories are genuine after all. Scootaloo thought.
"I'm sorry, Starlight." Scootaloo apologized to the older unicorn. "I should've considered your feelings first before mentioning your past..."
"We only asked because Scootaloo was a skeptic," Applebloom added.
Starlight looked slightly better now, and she opened her eyes and raised her head. "I thought everyone believed my past." She looked more confused than sad now.
"Well... Rainbow Dash can kinda exaggerate things a little." Scootaloo admitted shyly.
Starlight chuckled. Her sadness seemed to ebb away like morning dew. "Yes, she can, sometimes," she added humorously. The CMC smiled. They were grateful to see her starting to feel better.
"Was that all you needed?" Starlight inquired with a tilt of her head.
Applebloom shook her head. "No, there's something else that we would like you to do for us."
"We want you to swap cutie marks with me!" Sweetie Belle suddenly added with a wide smile on her face.
"Only for a day." Scootaloo put in quickly.
Starlight's eyebrows raised and looked tense. Clearly, she didn't expect that kind of request. "Why would you suggest that?" she exclaimed, sounding very shocked.
The CMC frowned.
After seeing their sad faces, Starlight began to relax and the shock in her eyes seemed to fade away quickly. "I'm sorry. I was just surprised, but why do you want to swap cutie marks with me?" She asked more calmly.
"I just want to see how it feels to have such strong power." Sweetie Belle told her shyly, pawing one of her hooves on the purple carpet underneath them.
"Plus, we're really bored." Applebloom groaned.
"What's the danger, anyway?" Scootaloo asked innocently to the mare. "Since you swapped Celestia and Luna's cutie marks and came out fine, this shouldn't be so nerve-wracking."
"I got lucky that time," Starlight told her firmly. "Things would've gotten a whole lot worse if the events played out differently." She shuddered at the thought. "Besides, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash would be pointing hooves at me if something happened to the three of you. Specifically you, Sweetie Belle."
"We promise we'll be careful." Applebloom bowed her head respectfully... for some reason.
Starlight raised an eyebrow with a skeptical expression on her face. Finally, she sighed and shook her head again.
"I'm sorry, but I simply can't go on with this request. The risk is too high." Starlight denied their request again.
Seeing that she was going to be firm about her answer, the CMC nodded their heads respectfully and walked out of the room. They got far away from the room until they were sure Starlight was out of earshot.
"I told you she wouldn't accept such a crazy task," Scootaloo told her friends. "Now can we go back to our original plan: bowling?"
"Forget bowling. I'm rather curious as to why Starlight wouldn't let me use her cutie mark. I mean, her special talent is magic, right?" Sweetie Belle said stubbornly.
But Applebloom was hesitant. "I don't know, Sweetie Belle. Even though I'm disappointed, I want to respect her wishes anyway."
Sweetie Belle huffed. "I wonder if she's hiding something..."
Then Sweetie Belle's eyes lit up. "I got an idea!"
Applebloom and Scootaloo looked very hesitant. "Sweetie Belle, I know you want to know more about magic, but..." Scootaloo trailed off when no one seemed to listen to her.
But Sweetie Belle didn't listen. "Look, I know this is wrong, but I'm desperate to know about her magic now. And besides, we're not hurting anyone."
"Except Starlight." Scootaloo pointed out.
"And how exactly will you do this task without Starlight's permission or ability?" Applebloom asked curiously.
"Simple." Sweetie Belle said with a smug smile. She walked into one of the many libraries that Twilight had in her castle. "We can find the spell in one of these books. It won't be long before we find it."
"That's a lot of books..." Applebloom said, her jaw agape. "What if..."
But Sweetie Belle was already fixated on finding the spell. She grabbed each book that looked like a spell book and started to flip through the pages.
Knowing that there was nothing they could say that would stop her, they reluctantly joined her. Scootaloo and Applebloom knew that as of right now, their day would be nothing but mischievous and guilt-ridden.
Author's Note
In case you were wondering, yes this is a setup to a sequel with more chapters.
