//------------------------------//
// Chapter Five 
// Story: Shifted Crusaders 
// by Poisonberry 
//------------------------------//

Scootaloo stared at the ceiling, there had to be at least a million thoughts in her head, she was sure of it. She couldn’t help reliving everything that had happened that day, it had just been so much. She wondered why she had an extra curve in her new horn, and she wondered if that made her a different species that wasn’t a changeling or a pony? She seemed to be a changeling in every other way though, it just didn’t make sense to her. 
She rolled over, facing her bedside window. Soft moonlight shone through, illuminating her horn. Nopony ever came into her room during the night, so there wouldn’t be any pony shocked to see her like this. The light made her wings appear to be made of silver, just like she had seen Rarity and Sweetie Belle’s coats. 
She was able to impress Rainbow Dash by flying, because, as Rainbow herself had said, “You weren’t able to fly until recently? You just flew better than every filly I’ve ever heard of.” Unfortunately Pinkie Pie had to remind Rainbow Dash about several fillies that flew better when they were even younger, including the alicorn foal Flurry Heart. 
Scootaloo gave a sigh, she was finally catching up, but there were so many ponies so far ahead of her. It seemed impossible to even get close to their level. Bits of clouds slowly drifted past her window as the night dragged on. She had to wonder, would sleep ever come? 


	~~~


A dark maroon ribbon wrapped around a base of light lavender. A familiar hum started up again, and purple thread tied the piece together. Miniature amethyst gems flowed along the sides, then were set in place as well. Rarity placed the finished dress on an empty mannequin, and promptly took it off, sewing another ribbon into place. The dress looked off, but it would be perfect for the costume Pinkie wanted, no matter how strange it looked. 
A bell rang, sounding Sweetie Belle’s return. The door clicked back into place, and the familiar tapping of little hooves clacked against the floor. They seemed a little louder than usual, but that was probably just because Sweetie was exhausted. “Sweetie, have you decided your Nightmare Night costume?” Rarity called. 
“Yeah, we got something planned.” She replied, walking upstairs to her room at Rarity’s Boutique. “ It’s actually Apple Bloom’s idea more than Scootaloo’s or mine,” She continued, just loud enough for Rarity to hear. 
“Just wanted to know if you wanted me to make you three one, darling,” Rarity assured her. She turned back to her work, it looked quite strange. The entire dress looked like it was carved from crystal, and somehow ribbons seemed to make the dress seem even more like it was a crystal. She sewed the final jewel onto the dress, and snipped the thread. Not even a second went by before Pinkie Pie burst through the front door. 
“Hi Rarity!” Pinkie shouted, hopping over to her, and somehow not disturbing any of the sewing supplies and fabrics scattered around Rarity’s Inspiration Room. “Did you finish the crystallized crystal dress that looks similar to the crystal castle, the crystal empire, or the crystal Tree of Harmony before it was destroyed by Sombra’s dark crystals because he wanted to destroy our crystal elements of Harmony but couldn’t, yet it’s more like the inside of the castle?” Pinkie asked. 
“Uhh, I finished the purple crystal dress you asked me for, darling,” Rarity stammered, picking up the dress with her magic. 
“I can’t wait to prank Rainbow with this! She’ll be so confused!” Pinkie chirped, grabbing the dress whilst tossing a bag of bits to Rarity. 
“I think I’m already confused,” Rarity muttered as Pinkie galloped out the door. She carefully navigated through her organized chaos, and shut off the light. She cracked Sweetie’s door, which used to be another room for additional organized chaos, not that it had changed much due to the crusaders’ tendency to make catastrophic messes. Sweetie was lying on her bed, sound asleep, and her blankets had fallen to the floor. 
Rarity pulled them back over Sweetie Belle, a faint blue glow illuminating Sweetie a little more than the moonlight did. “Good night Sweetie,” Rarity whispered, heading to her room for the night. Opal followed right behind her, a little bell jingling as the tired fashionista finally relaxed. There would be no more orders because of the holiday, and Rarity was once again pleased with her work this year. 
However, she couldn’t seem to sleep. A soft clicking noise kept her awake, chiming at perfectly equal intervals. Rarity couldn’t tell if it was her imagination, or just some noise from some creature outside. The harder she strained to listen, the more clear it became. 
The clicking was a sound she had heard many times before, though it never sounded quite like this. It was a clicking that her sewing machine would make as it was running. Most creatures wouldn’t have even been able to hear this clicking, and very few would have been able to match it to its correct location. It was always a very faint sound, easily drowned out by the humming of the sewing machine, so much so that one might, if they ever heard it, mistake it for being part of the humming. 
The clicking wasn’t part of the humming though, the sound would be achieved each time the sewing machine moved, but the humming would only sound once the pedal foot was pressed. By turning the hoof-held wheel one could achieve the clicking sound, but there was no one to turn the wheel. 
Rarity could hear the noise, even more quiet than a lone leaf rustling. It was slowing down now, happening every half minute, but it didn’t slow down any farther than that. Eventually she drifted off into sleep, the strange noise never ceasing. It didn’t try to follow her into her dreams, but continued its never ending chorus. “Was it truly never ending?” Rarity wondered, drifting off into sleep. 


	~~~


A dark blue shape swiftly approached the castle, it had been quite a bit of flying once she was called to Twilight’s castle, but this devastating news would surely be worth it. Starlight had sent a letter informing her of the horrifying discoveries. The three fillies known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders had been all hit by a powerful spell, and it was Nightmare’s doing. Luna wished Celestia a quick farewell, promising to return as soon as possible to continue their game of make believe. After all, who would move the clouds out of the way for the crops to get their sunlight? 
Luna landed, and knocked on the door, a purple mare was quick to open it. “Oh, good you’re here! I was hoping that you might be able to help me with what’s going on, because of your, um, connection,” Starlight smiled sheepishly. 
“Unfortunately no, we have not known that Nightmare was still out there. The power she has gained, if she were to claim a powerful host then we would have no chance of defeating her. Forsooth, all it would take is a single pony to fall to her temptation, but she has yet to take one. It worries me that she will try to take one as powerful as thou, to do so would be devastating for Equestria and the many lands beyond our borders,” Luna answered. 
“Well, do you have any idea of what we should do?” Starlight asked. 
“We are not sure, ‘tis possible that thee could prepare against Nightmare, perhaps increasing magical defenses and willpower.” 
“If that’s all we can work on until we get more information, then let’s work on that,” Starlight declared. 
“Didn’t thou say in thou’s letter,” Luna stopped for a moment, “Didn’t you say in your letter that the crusaders were affected?” 
“Yes, I can’t seem to figure out exactly how they all changed. I know I’m close, but I still feel like I’m missing a big piece of the puzzle. I took lots of notes about them earlier, right after Nightmare attacked us,” Starlight said. 
“Let’s see what you have come up with then,” Luna replied. Starlight led Luna into a large room, books and scrolls were scattered around. A young dragon was organizing a table full of research near the center. 
“I’m gonna go to bed now,” Spike yawned, “Goodnight Starlight.” 
“Night Spike!” Starlight replied, trotting over to the table of research that Spike had carefully organized. “So this is everything we know about what happened to Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle.” 


	~~~


All was silent, everything was dark. A spotlight shined on an orange face, her mouth moved, but no sound came out. Seconds later a yellow face also joined her, along with a pale white one. They were all dressed like rockstars, as they had done for their performance. The noise flooded back, and Scootaloo was nearing their screaming part. “-our story, I’m gonna sing it,” 
Sweetie couldn’t open her mouth, she couldn’t move. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo continued without her, “Very loud!” Her hooves wouldn’t move, nothing moved but her eyes. She looked fearfully over to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, who were giving her strange looks. This was the part where she needed to run backstage to raise the sun, but it was impossible. 
Apple Bloom decided to gallop over to the rope and pulled hard, raising much too high way too fast. Scootaloo continued her line, looking worriedly at Sweetie out of the corner of her eye. Sweetie realized she was smiling, but she didn’t feel happy, instead she felt scared. She was trapped on stage, inside her own body, yet unable to move. 
Sweetie suddenly danced, but she couldn’t do anything. She was being moved by invisible strings like one would move a puppet. Loud blaring alarms blocked out all of the sound, yet the sound they made was simply the sound of hoofsteps, trotting away. Nopony in the crowd moved a muscle, they all watched her with glittering eyes, yet the sound of ponies running only increased. 
They were running from her, but not yet. They would run, there was no doubt that they would run. Two wooden props fell, but Sweetie couldn’t do anything. Scootaloo pushed them back, unable to balance them, Apple Bloom rushed over to help her. The song ended, the background fell on top of them. Sweetie didn’t stop dancing, her friends climbed out of the rubble, and bowed. Apple Bloom dragged Sweetie by her tail backstage, there was no question what would happen next. 
The crowd started to turn away, and then more started to run as she smiled at them. “Sweetie Belle, are ya okay?” Apple Bloom asked, both crusaders were giving her worried looks. 
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Sweetie lied, it was an obvious lie, made even less reassuring by her fake smile. 
“You didn’t do anything that we’ve been practicing on,” Scootaloo countered. 
“Sorry, I didn’t remember,” Sweetie lied, wearing an even bigger grin. 
“Sweetie, darling, something seems to be on your mind, do you want to tell me what it is?” Rarity asked, those were the same words from the morning of Nightmare Night. It was the same exact tone, same exact warm eyes staring down at her lovingly. 
“There is something I need to tell you,” Sweetie replied, yet none of it came out. Instead she repeated the same lie she had said earlier that day, “Nope, it’s nothing, really.” 
“Okay, but if you ever need to tell me something I’ll be right here,” Rarity assured her. Sweetie didn’t know why she lied, why she didn’t just tell her sister that something had happened, that had changed her and the other crusaders. She just wasn’t sure how it changed her exactly, but it was becoming much clearer. 
She was a puppet, somepony was just pulling the strings, so that she couldn’t reveal anything. She had tried to cut some of the strings earlier, but it had only been a temporary fix. The strings only fell when Nightmare came out, she was no longer a puppet, but something was still missing. 
Puppets weren’t able to resist their masters, yet she was able to keep Nightmare from completely taking over, forcing her to come out to attack. She wasn’t a puppet, she was only controlled temporarily, but no longer. It was time for the truth. 
The nightmare ended as the warm sun began to rise. Golden beams filtered in through her windows, shining upon her, urging her to wake. Sweetie climbed out of bed, and slowly walked down the hall. The door was in front of her, and there was no other pony pulling the strings this time. She pushed open the door, waking her sister up, and preparing to tell her what she had been meaning to for a day now. 
“Sweetie Belle, why did you wake me?” Rarity asked, moving herself into a sitting position. 
“I can finally tell you the truth, I’ve been trying, but I couldn’t,” Sweetie responded, curling her tail around her. She prepared to tell Rarity everything she knew, but hadn’t been able to say.