“Don’t look at them! Their stares can turn you to stone! Discord!” Starlight sounded really upset.
Another talon snap, and Scootaloo peeked out to see that the wagon was now rolling through the Everfree Forest.
Discord smirked at the fuming Starlight. “Nopony likes a backseat driver, Starlight. Honestly, when are you going to realize that this isn’t your narrative to control? Wait until you’re asked for help, or you’ll ruin everything these little heroes have planned.”
“Is it safe to look yet?” Sweetie Belle whispered.
“That depends on yer idea of safe,” Apple Bloom whispered back. “Look!”
She pointed. Through the trees ahead, Scootaloo spotted Auntie Eclipse and the rest of the Moon family. They were too far away to hear, but she could see they were standing by a familiar barrier of twisting vines. Scootaloo knew what that meant.
“She’s trying to break into the Livewood again,” Scootaloo breathed.
“Then we have to stop her—” Starlight blurted, and caught herself. “I mean… good luck, you three. I’m here if you need me.”
Discord nodded approvingly. “Better.” He brought the wagon to a stop. As everypony climbed out, he reached down and folded the whole vehicle into a small square before slipping it into a pocket. “Need to keep it safe. Convention exclusive, you know.” He winked at Scootaloo. She had no idea what he was talking about.
“Thanks for your help, Discord,” she said.
“Don’t mention it,” he replied with a wave of a claw, then added, “Seriously, don’t. If creatures start thinking I’m ‘nice,’ they won’t leave me alone. And then I’ll never finish writing my rock opera.” He waved his hands like a conductor, and several boulders nearby grew mouths that belted a high note.
And with that, he disappeared. The curse was back, and the Crusaders and Starlight were on their own.
“Stay close,” Starlight reminded the others as they crept through the underbrush toward Auntie Eclipse. She didn’t need to tell them twice, Scootaloo thought. The Crusaders were practically pressed to Starlight’s flank, huddling in her protective bubble. This was definitely not the time to tempt bad luck.
Quietly, the four ponies sidled up as close as they could to the clearing around the Livewood. Blue Moon stood on top of one of the three gnarled pillars of earth and rock that faced the barrier of serpentine vines. Ambermoon was just climbing up the stairs that surrounded the second pillar, and Lumi Nation was steering Lilymoon toward the third. Behind them, Auntie Eclipse chanted a spell, her horn glowing with bloodred magic. Apple Bloom gave a soft gasp.
“They’re using their matching cutie marks to open the Livewood,” she hissed.
“Not if we can help it,” Scootaloo murmured with determination. She looked at Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom. They nodded. It was time.
“Watch our backs, Starlight. We’ll tell you if we need help,” Scootaloo said. She could see that Starlight was struggling not to give them advice, but finally, the purple Unicorn nodded, too.
“Got it. Whenever you’re ready,” she said. Scootaloo began their special count of three.
“Cutie…”
“Mark…” Sweetie Belle chimed in.
“Crusaders!” Apple Bloom finished. Then the trio of fillies burst into the clearing with Starlight at their heels.
Lumi Nation snapped her head around to see what was going on. Without her guidance, Lilymoon froze on her way to the pillar. Scootaloo could see that the filly’s eyes were vacant and staring. She was still under some kind of zombie spell.
“Stop them!” Auntie Eclipse snarled. “Nothing can interfere with my spell!”
Wanna bet? Scootaloo thought. And with that, the Cutie Mark Crusaders turned from the pillars and charged straight at Auntie Eclipse.
Scootaloo could feel the change in the air as the three of them left Starlight’s bubble of safety. The curse didn’t waste any time getting to work. Apple Bloom stepped on a banana peel that Scootaloo could swear hadn’t been there a moment ago. The Earth pony lost her footing and slid sideways into Sweetie Belle, who bounced into Scootaloo. The ponies’ momentum sent them sprawling forward to land in a heap.
Right at Auntie Eclipse’s hooves.
Auntie leered down at the Crusaders.
Behind them, Starlight had her hooves full, fending off Lumi Nation’s magical attacks. Ambermoon and Lilymoon stared into space, faint smiles on their empty-eyed faces. Blue Moon grinned maniacally atop his pillar. Nopony would come to their aid now. The Crusaders were on their own. Scootaloo gulped. If this was the end, at least she had her friends by her side.
“Enough of these filly games,” Auntie Eclipse said mockingly. “It’s time I finished you three troublemakers once and for all.” Her eyes gleamed as she lowered her horn toward the Crusaders. It spit red sparks, wreathed in dark magic. Scootaloo winced.
And an overripe melon fell from the vines above to splat down on Auntie’s head.
Auntie staggered. Yellow juice ran down her mane and into her eyes. If she hadn’t been so scared, Scootaloo would’ve burst out laughing. The sticky melon clung to Auntie’s head like a mushy helmet. Furious, the evil Unicorn tossed her head, splattering the Crusaders with flying melon pulp.
She aimed her horn at the Crusaders again. And with a cry of rage, she let loose a powerful red blast of magic.
But the rind of the melon around her horn interfered with the spell. Instead of hitting Scootaloo and her friends, Auntie’s bolt of power ricocheted at an angle…
And struck Blue Moon! With a groan, the Unicorn fell to his knees atop the pillar.
Auntie gaped. Then her eyes narrowed as she looked at the Crusaders.
“Very clever. You discovered your curse affects ponies near you. But all I have to do is walk away.…” Auntie smirked. She tried to raise a hoof to take a step… and couldn’t. Instead, with a squelching sound, she began to slowly sink into the ground.
Scootaloo had never been happier to be stuck in quicksand. When the ground around the trio had turned marshy, she knew their bad luck had kicked in again. Fortunately, Auntie was just as vulnerable as they were.
With a furious scream, Auntie charged up her horn again. A blast of power rippled from it, knocking over the Crusaders like a chilly wind. The ground suddenly firmed up beneath them, and the melon dropped free of Auntie’s horn.
The curse was gone! Scootaloo’s plan had worked!
Except that meant that Auntie was no longer cursed, either.
“Starlight! Help!” Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo shrieked in unison.
Ducking past Lumi Nation’s attack, Starlight turned her horn toward the Crusaders, hurling up a shield spell to protect them. The Crusaders shrank back as Auntie leveled a blast of red magic at them. It bounced off the shield, nearly hitting Auntie. She ground her teeth in frustration.
“Run!” Starlight called as Auntie turned her attack toward the purple Unicorn.
The trio charged for the safety of the trees… but suddenly magic froze them in place. Scootaloo looked out of the corner of her eye to see that Lumi Nation held them with her horn.
“You’re not going anywhere,” she snarled. A blur of blue crashed into Lumi, sending her tumbling and breaking her spell.
Scootaloo blinked to see Blue Moon standing over them. His eyes were clear, and his strange smile was gone. He looked like the Unicorn Scootaloo had seen in her vision from the mementorial, but older and more careworn.
“Everypony, down!” Starlight bellowed. The Crusaders and Blue Moon dropped and flattened themselves to the ground as a huge burst of Auntie’s power rolled through the clearing. The heat of the spell sizzled over Scootaloo’s head. It singed the leaves and left scorch marks on the pillars. Auntie wasn’t messing around anymore. That was Princess Celestia–level magic.
Starlight poofed into place beside the Crusaders.
“Time to go!” she said urgently.
“Take Blue Moon, too!” Scootaloo blurted.
Starlight looked ready to argue, but she seemed to remember her conversation with Discord. Shrugging, she put one hoof on his shoulder and one on Scootaloo’s. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom grabbed Scootaloo’s wings, and with a powerful bampf they all teleported out of the Everfree Forest.
“It’s weird to see him look so serious,” Scootaloo whispered, eyeing Blue Moon as Twilight led him to the front of the throne room.
“But way less creepy,” Sweetie Belle murmured back.
“That curse finally did somethin’ right,” Apple Bloom said softly. “When Auntie’s magic hit him, it musta broken the zombie spell she put on him.”
“Guess it turned out to be some good luck after all.” Sweetie Belle smiled.
“Tell that to Matilda,” Apple Bloom said.
Applejack cleared her throat and looked pointedly at the Crusaders. They quieted down as Starlight and the rest of the Mane Six took their places.
“We’ve heard your story from the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Blue Moon. But we still have some questions,” Twilight began. “Is Auntie Eclipse really trying to open the Livewood? And is it true she forced your family into helping her?”
Blue Moon nodded sadly. Scootaloo could almost feel sorry for him. Almost.
“Auntie Eclipse has had no other goal since I met her. She believes she will take the helm of Nightmare Moon and lead Equestria into an age of darkness. She could have used any family,” he said bitterly. “But when I grew sick, she tricked Lumi into pledging our loyalty to her in exchange for curing me. Now I wonder if Auntie made me sick to begin with, just so she could force Lumi to do what she wanted.”
“Waiiit. So you weren’t both under some kind of zombie spell to serve her? You did it willingly?” Rainbow Dash asked, flying to get into Blue Moon’s face.
Blue Moon didn’t flinch. Scootaloo was impressed. It took a lot of courage to stand up to Rainbow Dash when she was in cross-examination mode!
“I usually was. But not always,” he admitted. “When Auntie Eclipse wanted Lumi to behave a certain way, she would put me back under her spell until Lumi completed whatever Auntie demanded. It was as if I were wearing a mask and not in control of what I was doing. Just riding along, like this…”
Blue Moon’s face slipped into his terrifying grin, and Scootaloo shuddered. That she remembered.
“Why not just keep y’all under her spell the whole time?” Applejack wondered.
“A compulsion spell takes lots of magic.” Twilight frowned. “Holding power over even one pony for that long is a challenge.”
“But controlling one pony in order to make another pony do your bidding is clever. Half the magic, twice the result,” Starlight reasoned. The others glared at her. She rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on! I’m not saying it’s a good idea. Just effective.”
“And now she has the fillies under her spell?” Twilight sighed heavily. “Auntie must be more powerful than we thought.”
“She didn’t try anything on our girls until yesterday,” Blue Moon admitted. “Auntie has been very careful, plotting each step. But now she’s using as much magic as it takes, because she knows you all are onto her. And these three brave fillies,” he added, nodding to Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom, “are the only ones who have stopped her plan so far.”
All eyes in the room turned to the Crusaders. Sweetie Belle blushed, Apple Bloom stood proudly, and Scootaloo just hoped this meant they wouldn’t be in trouble for sneaking into the Livewood.
“Poor Ambermoon and Lilymoon,” Fluttershy said. Scootaloo could see she was feeling bad about not having trusted the two fillies. “How could you let that horrible Unicorn turn them into zombies?” She frowned at Blue Moon.
“Lumi Nation and I have tried to protect our daughters,” Blue Moon said, looking down in shame. “Lumi is the strongest of all of us. Auntie always had a hard time controlling her. But the contract that binds the two of them will give Auntie our daughters if Lumi doesn’t serve her. We are truly caught in that witch’s web.”
“At least you’re free now,” Pinkie Pie said, trying to find a bright side. “That’s gotta mess up her plans!”
But Blue Moon shook his head. “Auntie Eclipse gave four of us matching cutie marks. She needs only three ponies to open the Livewood. She liked having a spare. She’s a planner.”
Silence fell over the room as the gathered ponies realized what this meant.
“Then we have to stop her, right now!” Twilight said, stomping a hoof in determination.
“No,” Starlight said.
Everypony turned to her in surprise, even Scootaloo.
“We don’t have to stop her. They do.” Starlight nodded to the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“Darling, what are you saying? Of course they’re brave, and they’ve done so much already,” Rarity said, moving to put a protective hoof around Sweetie Belle’s shoulders. “But one doesn’t send fillies against an ancient sorceress!”
“Princess Luna chose them to be Defenders of the Livewood. We can help them… but this is their story,” Starlight said.
Scootaloo might have been imagining it, but she thought she heard Discord sighing in relief: “She can be taught!”
“How do you feel about this?” Twilight asked the Crusaders. They shifted from hoof to hoof, and finally Apple Bloom spoke up.
“We know it won’t be easy.”
“And we’re scared,” Sweetie Belle added.
“But together, we’re stronger than anypony,” Scootaloo said. Twilight smiled, looking proudly at the three fillies.
“I know you are,” Twilight said. Then she turned to the assembled ponies. “We don’t have a lot of time. I’m sure Auntie Eclipse is attempting to open the Livewood as we speak.” She turned to look at the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Let’s do what we can to get you three ready to save Equestria.”
Scootaloo glanced at her friends. Apple Bloom swelled with pride. Sweetie Belle looked mildly nauseous. Scootaloo wasn’t sure what was going to happen. But she was ready. She knew they could do this. Right now, she felt as if they could do anything. The moment was only slightly ruined by Applejack leaning down to whisper…
“But after you save Equestria… y’all are still grounded.”
Lumi Nation watched helplessly as Auntie Eclipse directed her daughters slowly up the pillars. She was furious with herself for doing nothing, but she knew how powerful Auntie was, and she was well aware that standing up to her wouldn’t accomplish anything. She had tried. Many, many times. Lilymoon took her place atop the first pillar, staring ahead with the familiar grin Lumi had come to know so well. Moments later, Ambermoon reached the top of the second pillar, wearing the same blank expression. Auntie Eclipse turned to Lumi, her horn glowing a sickly bloodred.
“At least I don’t have to waste any of my power on you, do I, dearie? You know what happens to your little brats if you try to stop me.”
Lumi sighed. She did know. At least her beloved husband had escaped. Maybe once this was over and Auntie got what she wanted, she would let them all go? It was the only chance Lumi could see of getting her life back.
“Until now,” Lumi whispered to herself as she slowly walked up the twisting steps of the third pillar.
“What was that?” Auntie snapped.
“Nothing,” Lumi called down to her. But that wasn’t true. For the first time in forever, Lumi saw the narrowest chance to escape this nightmare without putting all of Equestria at risk. Lily and Amber’s friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They had succeeded in thwarting Auntie where so many ponies had failed. Lumi felt something fluttering in her chest she hadn’t felt in years.
Hope.
She took a final step and stared out at the Livewood atop the third pillar. Lily’s and Amber’s cutie marks glowed brightly. A burning pain in Lumi’s flank caused her to suck in a deep breath as her cutie mark glowed along with theirs. Ever so slowly, the twisting vines of the Livewood began to untangle and pull away from one another.
&nbs
p; Beyond them, in the shadows, bells chimed sadly.
The Livewood was open.
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Cursed Crusaders Page 4