The Substitute Demon

by Reykan

Nightmare Used Substitute. Substitute Weathered the Blow.

It was over. The elements had been awakened. The brats the Nightmare had dismissed as powerless before It, that the Nightmare had toyed with like a cat does with Its prey, had awakened the only force on the planet that could stop It in Its current host. The Elements of Harmony. It would be purged from Its host, and left to rot for the rest of time in some light-forsaken vault. Everything It had worked for would come crashing down around Its stolen ears, because It refused to take a threat seriously.

'No no no no, I will not fall to... that's it! As the Moon's fall led to my rise to power, so will the fall of another save me from defeat!' With every ounce of magic she could rob her host of, she called upon the Substitution spell. With the Elements active in this world, taking over was beyond It for the moment. It had no followers, or none that It had found in the day It had been free, and there was no effective method of hiding Itself once It was purged. No, It would need to look beyond Equis, perhaps even beyond the veil? The amount of power would be staggering, but what did It care? It would not be left to deal with the spell's backlash.

'Let misery beget misery, find the fool who will fall in My place!'

With a brilliant flash, moments before the Elements were unleashed, the Nightmare was gone.

<-(0)->

Nathan was not having a good day. The 27 year old college graduate was late to work due to traffic and engine issues, caught an earful from his boss, the store manager, and even some customers that the previous employee had left waiting the second his shift ended. His bills were due, and the cute girl three apartments over decided he "was a really good friend." Finally, most of his favorite games were down for either patches or server maintenance.

'Man, how could today... Whoa, almost tempted fate there. That was close. Hey! Half Life Three was released today! Miracles do happen!'

Thus, fate passed him by. His roommate, Ted, was not so fortunate.

"Dude, what else could go wrong today."

Thus the spell of the Nightmare, a creature that thrives off of the misery of others, found its target.

<-(0)->

Ted blinked a few times, recovering from a strange sense of vertigo, then immediately saw stars. It felt like someone had shoved railroad spikes into his skull, followed by cracking him in the forehead with a baseball bat. It was one of the most random and excruciating things he'd ever experienced, and left him confused. What had he done that would cause such pain? He'd not gone drinking in months, being too busy with his studies. Shaking his head, his vision finally cleared, leaving him even more confused. One moment he was staring at his computer whin- I mean complaining that his favorite game servers were down, and the next he's staring at what looks like a scene from that little girls show that was all over the internet.

'Did I pick up a virus? I was sure I scanned my computer after I browsed those image sites last night.'

Before he could vow to replace his Norton with something that actually worked, the cartoon characters fired a beam of rainbow light at the screen. No, wait, they fired it at him, he thought a moment later. He could actually feel the heat of the beam as it approached, and could feel the overpressure it caused in its swift travel. Just as the beam struck, he released a manly grunt of fear.

No, he didn't scream, and he'd fight anyone who said otherwise. Just as everything went white, he came to two conclusions: 'I'm never tempting fate again,' and 'God did my voice sound girly'.

<-(0)->

The next thing Ted was aware of was someone talking. Who, he couldn't tell, and he couldn't seem to find the energy to open his eyes. Actually he couldn't seem to find the energy to move anything. Not only that, but he felt wrong. Stiff. He also couldn't make out what they were saying. The strangest thing about the whole situation was that he swore he felt something move his shoulder in an impossible direction, and the sound of something moving out of him. Crying followed, some cheering, then strangely loud footsteps growing more distant each moment. Soon the jumbled voices left, leaving him alone in the dark. Blind? Paralyzed? Deformed? Maybe he was dead, after all no one truly knew what death felt like. It was possible, considering how numb he was feeling. It reminded him of that time he had to fight the Minotaur Myrmidon squad near the town of Bushels. It had been a close thing, but victory was hers, though her neck was injured badly.

Wait a second, when did he fight a minotaur?

Focusing on the odd memories led him to some sort of line. Perhaps a partition would be a better word? On the one side was Ted, 26 year old college student, Criminal Justice major, son and brother to his family of four other individuals, and video game enthusiast. Partaker of carbonated beverages and devourer of hapless snacks. Loyal patron of the great Lord Gaben. And when he could find some people to play with, destroyer of the hopes and dreams of the warriors and rogues brave enough to attempt his D&D campaigns. On the other...

It was more like walking into a library than taking a stroll down memory lane. Memories that weren't his, impossibly organized. Decades of studying spellcraft, cultural nuances of alien societies, country names and governments which had no analogues on earth. Even if he was stuck here for a long time, at least the information would give him something to do. Maybe he could learn how to make a stick glow like Gandalf? Or maybe he could learn to summon a Scamp? Or make an ice patch where that jerk who ran over his bike was driving. Yea, and learn how to shoot lasers out of his eyes! Ok, that last one may be a bit much, going by the types of spells he was seeing here, but he had nothing better to do for now. Oh, and he'd always loved dragons! There was an entire shelf over there dedicated to them. All this information should keep him busy for a while. This wasn't just some place that some people were visiting for the first time in hundreds of years, right?

Right?

<-(0)->

'I was wrong. So very, horribly, excruciatingly wro-ho-ho-hoooong.' Ted sobbed in boredom.

Time had no meaning to him in his current predicament. There was honestly no way he was alive, going by how he still wasn't hungry or sleepy. How long had it been; had any time passed at all? Truthfully, it was meaningless in his current state. Darkness, silence broken only by the sound of some stone falling in some far off place, something bumping into some part of his body as it walked by; the last had freaked him out at first, but it stopped being important after the forty-third kick to his thigh. Besides, if he was alive, whatever had kicked him would have eaten him already. Was he truly that far out of the way that no one had noticed him? Was the myth of the dead not being able to pass on until they were buried true?

Ted was running out of mental options. The library of memories was a lie, once one looked closer. Like someone had tried making a quick copy of every book in the library of congress, and thrown them into a bus hoping for the best. All the sections were there, but he had found Dracadonian ethics with the spells, a remedy for sore wings with Minosian customs, and a healing spell under offensive fire spells. Sure, some cultures viewed fire as having purifying or healing effects, but he doubted that was why the spell was in that section. He even found something about unicorns celebrating Christmas! While reorganizing the memories had taken some practice and a great deal of patience, Ted was reaching the bottom of the barrel of things he could do to keep his sanity. Not only that, it was only possible to do so much with all the holes in the memories. Even worse was when he tried going over a memory that had a name he didn't recognize. He was fairly certain the original mind wasn't thinking of a German Shepherd made of diamonds holding a spear. I mean, how would it hold the weapon with a paw? It was a recurring issue with trying to remember someone else's memories. He kept running into inconsistencies, as everyone's ideas of experiences are based off of what they already know. Sure he got the jist of things, but there was only so much he could do with the swiss library of memories he had to work with. He felt like he was trying to put together a puzzle with only half the pieces, and most of those were broken!

After he'd managed to piece together a good amount of the actual memories of the individual he'd somehow ended up sharing memories with, he had a decent idea of what happened to him. The woman, a Lunacae Nocturnas, was either insane, or an alien. Probably both, considering her memories. He'd found quite a few of them that were nothing but hours upon hours of depression and self-loathing. Finally, in a fit of despair, she'd exhausted herself venting in a remote desert. Afterwards, she was attacked by a parasite that called itself Nightmare. It whispered sweet nothings in her ears endlessly, and when she fell far enough, it was able to suppress her will altogether. It then let her watch as it waged war against someone, a woman with floating hair, her sister perhaps? Yes, sister seemed to be the right title, it was the same he felt for his older sister. Finally, in a big battle, the older sister did something to make time pass really fast. The next memory was of reversing the stasis, of restarting the war, and finally of ending up losing to some heroes. The last parts were honestly the most vivid of them all. He could smell the musty scent of the castle, feel the chill of the wind on her skin, feel the weight of the armor he wore. Some heroines were unleashing some magical maguffins that would save the world, and the Nightmare used a substitution spell.

Wait...that son of a bitch had grabbed him from his comfy chair and left him to get hit by whatever doom-cannon was being directed at it! Worse was the fact that the Nightmare was currently free to wander his home in his body!

This of course left him with the question: If the Nightmare had his body, and Lunacae was being saved by the hero's, thus probably had her body back, where was he?

Ted was broken out of his musings, and his descent into boredom induced madness, by the sound of approaching voices. His soul once again filled with hope at being discovered, he eagerly awaited whoever was coming. Hell, he'd welcome a conversation with Wilson at this point.

'I'd get some coffee ready for you, but I'm feeling little stiff at the moment, heehee.'

"I'm telling you, it's around here somewhere. The scrying spell specifically pointed out the throne room of the old castle. No, not Canterlot castle, this one. Spread out and look for it." A few grunts of affirmatives followed raspy's orders followed by a ton of footsteps. Good gravy, did they have an entire search party out here?

'Aw, that's so sweet, you didn't have to do that for me!'

"Ma'am, I found it! Looks like it got scattered off of the dais."

"Excellent work, brother!" The entire search party seemed to converge on his position in a matter of moments following the announcement. "The Nightmare's Raiment's! Soon the Mistress of Living Shadows will live again!"

'Heeheehee, they're cultists...I hope they like surprises. I like surprises. They make me feel happy, unless they're a bad surprise, like a parking ticket. This one time I got a ticket for parking...'

Had the cultists any clue of just what they'd truly found, there's a good chance they would have just left the armor where they found it. It would have saved them all a very large headache in the near future.

Author's Note:

I've read quite a few "Dude gets turned into NMM" fics, never really liked how they were done. Therefore, this will not be like them; Ted will keep his balls. May end up calling himself Tuna every now and again, though.

Comments

[Alondro]

Sooooo, if the Nightmare used THAT MUCH POWER... wouldn't it have basically destroyed itself, given that it used more power than it actually had if we think about it a lil bit?

Or are power levels still bullshit?

Ah, thanks for clearing that up, Vegeta.

[dragon_claws]

Half Life 3 getting released then taken away from him.

How dare you.

[Pinklestia]

Yeah, cause "Male alicorn OC" is Oh so very popular...

[CMDR Kovacs]

5910852 Poor Ted, getting pulled away before he even realized HL3 was out! Nathan likely only knew because of all the copies of it that he checked.

[Lord Of Dorkness]

Have to admit I'm a bit bothered by the Elements here.

Surely an artifact that potent should have some way to sense if it's used on somebody that truly deserve it?

Then again, I do recognizance that's something that near needs to be hand-waved away, or the rest of the story simply wouldn't happen.

On the whole an intriguing start, and I think I'll give this a chance.

[cotas]

Norton isn't an antivirus program; it is a virus that they pass off as antivirus software.

[Lupus]

Nice bait-n'-switch

'I'd get some coffee ready for you, but I'm feeling little stiff at the moment, heehee.'

[Bronzer]

the Nightmare was currently free to wander his home in his body!

Where she has no idea about anything. In a world us, the dominate apex predators and with our advanced technology, struggle to survive. She's doomed.

[Cloverleaf]

5916702 It's been theorized the elements kind of go off a small wish fulfillment of sorts with their hosts. The Mane six didn't notice the swap, so as far as they knew, it was still NMM, and boom, there we go.

[TheAceOverKings]

Thus, fate passed him by. His roommate, Ted, was not so fortunate.

Ah, the old dimensional snatcher switcharoo.

he released a manly grunt of fear.

My sides.

[kotor511]

5918241 Na its just a bunch of maleware and adware put into the same fucking software.
slowing your computer by 20% guarantied!

[TheBlackPony]

Ted will keep his balls

Holy shit, you mean, like for once, a story that turns a dude into some pony in the universe and doesn't force upon them a feminine gender crisis that ultimately ends with them probably having kids somewhere down the line? I'm game...

[fractalman]

I like the concept.

But.

Your scene transitions could use a little work in this chapter.

[WiseFireCracker]

Therefore, this will not be like them; Ted will keep his balls. May end up calling himself Tuna every now and again, though.

I am suddenly more interested in this fic.

[Voltrasin]

5913294 Not male alicorn OC, human in R63 Nightmare Moon body. Drastically more likable.

[ThEvErYdErPyBrOnY]

May end up calling himself Tuna every now and again

TUNA LET US EAT THOU

[The Shade]

I have no idea what's going on.

[LakeyallOfHeartsEves]

5952350 I don't eat fish c:

[Lycanthromancer]

Just now opened the first chapter and noticed that the title has a typo.

Not exactly auspicious for future expectations.

[Marsara]

Hey! Half Life Three was released today! Miracles do happen!'

D@MM!T VALVE!!!!!! WHY DO STORIES GET HL 3 BUT WE DON'T?!?!?!?!

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Crap this is a freaking Nightmare Moon wasn't actual;ly Luna story, sigh

[Enigma In the Jungle]

and a healing spell under offensive fire spells

Healing and Harm!

[DEAD_ACCOUNT_01]

"Half life 3 came out today!" Oh. This is set in the year 2115.

[PrinceJonathan]

Half Life Three was released today! Miracles do happen!'

Since when could Gabe Newell count to three?

[Tome Turner]

5989885
Because impossibilities can only exist in fiction.

[ssokolow]

5928689

The whole antivirus/antimalware racket is a scam. Enumerating badness (making a list of bad things to refuse) is doomed to failure because there are many more bad things than good ones and there will always be new bad things, so you have to keep paying them for updates.

That's why newer technologies like web browsers, Google ChromeOS Apps, Android Apps, iOS apps, etc. are built on the principle of "X, Y, and Z have legitimate uses. Everything else is disallowed... oh, and you can't interact with other apps except in these carefully audited ways."

(And most of the holes bad guys find in browsers so they can attack users exist because the programming languages they're written in are also from the naive old days and, as such, rely too heavily on the merely human programmers being perfect.)

[EverfreeSparkle]

I've read quite a few "Dude gets turned into NMM" fics, never really liked how they were done. Therefore, this will not be like them; Ted will keep his balls. May end up calling himself Tuna every now and again, though.

Yeah, I haven't really read this type of scenario before that actually turned out interesting. It's usually the same thing. I hope you can deliver where others have not! Sad that he gets to stay male though, them staying female was always very interesting.

[Ocean Waves]

6080749

Or, you know, that one fic where the 'dude being turned into NMM' was a chic to begin with...

[Emperor]

You know this is fiction because Half-Life Three was actually released.

[ViktornovaMk2]

Just started reading this, and got the point where NMM switch with Ted, and am wondering if NMM gender-bends his body?
Either way Nate is going to have some interesting times ahead.

[Fourpony]

'Man, how could today... Whoa, almost tempted fate there. That was close. Hey! Half Life Three was released today! Miracles do happen!'

I feel so much worse for Ted, he missed HL 3... This is really, REALLY fucking cruel.

Before he could vow to replace his Norton with something that actually worked

He picked the wrong anti-virus and said those unfortunate words. Let that be a lesson to the rest of us. Never pair "what else could go wrong" or any similar form of it with Norton Anti-Virus.

Loyal patron of the great Lord Gaben.

Followed, Favorited, Liked, Read Latered, Subscribed, Retweeted, Re-Posted, Watched, and... and... I can't think of more ways to PRAISE!
pinkie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw2660_medium.png

Decades of studying spellcraft, cultural nuances of alien societies, country names and governments which had no analogues on earth.

Earth should be capitalized. And I might not comment much after this chapter, this is a lot of words to get caught up on. Lot of people recommended this story as well.

[Nagel Navari]

6072019
I recommend Eset.

[NoLongerSober]

6295146 Blasphemer! Comodo all the way! ;)

[Seizure Specialist]

That part with Nathan "not tempting fate" and then introducing another protagonist entirely was clever.

Well played.

[Muranuse]

6363476 The good old 'bait and switch'! Someones been on TV Tropes!

[Wasko736]

OMFG!!! I already love this story. And I'm laughing hysterics.

[The almighty bread god]

those image sites

[NUDGING INTENSIFIES]

[BeardedRedMane]

'Man, how could today... Whoa, almost tempted fate there. That was close. Hey! Half Life Three was released today! Miracles do happen!'

Thus, fate passed him by. His roommate, Ted, was not so fortunate.

Oh my Gaben that was clever, my sides have been destroyed!

[Rhombicosidodecahedron]

Fun fact: The early versions of Norton were so shitty, you could sometimes get a notification saying that an application is looking at all your files, and if you chose to delete it, then Norton would delete itself /╲/( ͡° ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° ͡°)/\╱\

[Doctor REDACTED]

Nathan was not having a good day. The 27 year old college graduate was late to work due to traffic and engine issues, caught an earful from his boss, the store manager, and even some customers that the previous employee had left waiting the second his shift ended. His bills were due, and the cute girl three apartments over decided he "was a really good friend." Finally, most of his favorite games were down for either patches or server maintenance.
'Man, how could today... Whoa, almost tempted fate there. That was close. Hey! Half Life Three was released today! Miracles do happen!'
Thus, fate passed him by. His roommate, Ted, was not so fortunate.
"Dude, what else could go wrong today."
Thus the spell of the Nightmare, a creature that thrives off of the misery of others, found its target

Yes! YES! Yeeeeeeeeees!

[Gerbold]

7235939
That was actually genuinely funny
Thanks for making me laught good sir.
(Wondering if I should change up the sir, since we are on the internet and I don't know if it should be sir or lady )

[DracoBrony]

'Heeheehee, they're cultists...I hope they like surprises. I like surprises. They make me feel happy, unless they're a bad surprise, like a parking ticket. This one time I got a ticket for parking

strangely Q / discord like thoughts

[Life Beat]

5952350
img.memecdn.com/oh-my_c_154750.jpg

[-SBRS]

Your writing is...

Well, it's not what I'd call conventional.

... I like it.

[Crowsong]

The plot is interesting...but in truth, I stayed for the Tuna

[XerainTheBountyHunter]

7756357 NOT CONVENTIONAL!!!

That means... "Unconventional"

That means...
Unusual
Irregular
Unorthodox
Uncommon
Atypical

Sounds...
Chaotic

[Cobalt Comet]

Would have found it funny if the Elements sensing Ted was not evil tried to give him his own body and that wound up with Luna pregnant with him.
Luna: Honestly sister we hath not been 'fooling around'!

[Pizza_Bot3000]

7394110 you could call em chief.

[IcefireInfinite]

May end up calling himself Tuna every now and again, though.

Ted shall forever forth bear the name Tuna.