On the late night of Saturday a full moon shone down on a house, the clouds seemed to part to allow the moon to shine as if a strange magic kept it uncovered, the house that the moons light focused on was a regular house that held a regular family, all except for one.
A seventeen years old boy named Blake lived in this house, a somewhat oddity among his family, as his mother had brown hair, and his father had blond, a child of the two would be expected to have either of their hair colours or a mixture of the two, Blake had none of these options as his hair was pure black from the day he was born.
The colour of his hair had part to do with his name, but what really cemented his name was the dark smudge shaped birthmark on his thigh, it was darker than most birthmarks but the doctors had said it was a common thing for children to be born with and that he wouldn't suffer any ill effects from it.
How wrong the doctor was…
On this night of the full moon lying in bed was Blake who had been sick for the last couple of days, an illness the doctor said was a common cold, but Blake had never experienced a cold like this before.
I shivered under my blanket even though I wasn't cold I was far from it, I was sweating and dying from heat but the moment I would take the blanket off I'd be freezing and the sweat on my body would feel like ice water, so I suffered beneath my blanket.
My entire body ached, all of my joints and muscles felt like I had done every exercise known to man without resting, I could barely move without feeling spikes of pain, so instead I remained motionless, sleep would normally be the best option to escape my sickness but tonight I couldn't sleep no matter how tired and exhausted I felt, my body would deny me the rest I so longed for.
Looking towards the digital clock on my bedside table the numbers showed it was eleven fifty eight, almost midnight, and for some reason my body seemed to shake more from that thought, I couldn't tell why but today my body seemed to dread midnight, all day it was like I was watching a countdown timer, all the while not knowing what the countdown lead to.
As I stared at the clock, I suddenly felt a spike of pain shoot through my head, the pain forced me to wince and my vision became blurred, the numbers on the clock becoming unreadable white blobs that took their place, I closed my eyes groaning, a migraine...of course it was a migraine.
I suffered from them often throughout my life, the pain in my head that made me experience an agony I never thought imaginable, like a metal spiked fist punching my brain, it was like a hammer pounding in my head leaving me unable to do anything for hours, I remembered the countless days where I laid in bed for hours suffering through the pain in my head unable to stop it, just leaving me there needing to suffer through it, a wet rag normally on my forehead to try to relive the pain, it never did help much.
The pain would become so bad I'd often ask God himself to just let me die so that the pain would end, afterwards when the pain had ended I'd thank God he didn't answer my prayer, I didn't really want to die, I still had plans for my life.
I wanted to become an animator some day, make cartoons that kids could actually enjoy, unlike most current day cartoons that were lame jokes meant for children to just watch the bright colours and listen to the comedy, I wanted to make cartoons with actual story lines that a kid would be eager to see the next episode, much like I had when I was younger, cartoons had really lowered in quality from when I was young.
These thoughts brought a faint smile to my face before they were washed away by the hammer of pain in my head reminding me of my migraine, normally I'd grab some Advil but they were in the kitchen and my body didn't want to move, my normal escape from a migraine was sleep but I couldn't even do that as of late.
I was screwed, I would have to suffer all night until the migraine would end, most likely hours from now, opening my eyes I saw the white blobs in my vision but forced my eyes to focus on the clock, forcing the blobs to focus so I could see the time, luckily it worked although it came at the price of even more pain from straining my eyes to focus on the numbers as I watched the clock change from eleven fifty nine to twelve o'clock, and with that I felt pain rush through my entire body.
My eyes shooting wide open and causing me to open my mouth to let out an agonizing scream of pain but no sound escaped my mouth, my body felt like hot needles had been stabbed into my body thru my joints and into my muscles, I twisted and turned in my bed causing more burning pain to erupt but I couldn't help it the pain was making me thrash around in agony.
I felt my legs fully stretch out before I heard a popping and cracking sound, fear running through me I forced myself to look towards my feet fighting through the pain, I saw my left foot pointing straight out, it cracked again before it got longer, I clenched my teeth together in pain as I felt the sting from it, my left leg cracked and popped as it changed shape.
Although I wanted to scream I couldn't force a single sound out from my mouth, I watched with horror as my leg shifted and cracked looking nothing like a human limb, I even lost feeling in my toes as they all became hard and stiff, forcing my hand to grab the blanket I pulled it back so I could see my leg, the blanket slowly slid up from the end of the bed before I saw something that made me want to puke, instead of a foot I found a fleshy tube like stump, pulling the blankets further back I saw the stump was attached to an animal like leg.
I noticed that my femur had shrunk in length bringing my knee closer to my body while more muscles had grown around it making my thighs appear larger than normal, at first glance I thought that my knee had reversed position but upon further inspection I noticed that where I thought my knee was located was actually the location of my ankle, during the changes my ankle had shifted higher up my leg dew to how the bones in my foot had changed drastically lengthening in shape making my Fibula appear as though it had made up my upper leg upon first glance.
Shaking I stared at the leg, the pain in my body now forgotten as fear had filled all my thoughts, this wasn't something that just happened right? Legs don't just transform like this, was I dreaming? That had to be the answer but I thought you didn't feel pain in dreams? Then this was reality? Or maybe a cold induced hallucination?
My thoughts were everywhere rushing around like bees in a hive, but they were pushed away when my other leg fully stretched out and made a crack and popping sound, shaking my head and grabbing my leg trying to stop what I feared was coming next, it was a futile effort as my right leg transformed to match my left.
After my second leg changed I was left panting and gasping, as the two newly transformed limbs shook and twitched, trying to move my toes only resulted in me moving my new stumps back and forth.
Forcing my eyes shut I tried to think this through, trying to calm my mind of these impossible changes, but once more my thoughts were pushed to the side when I felt a pain in my spine and chest, my back arched as I felt the lumbar vertebrae in my back pop and elongate, I felt something push through the skin on my tailbone as new sacral vertebrae began growing in place, looking behind me I saw what could only be described as a tail growing out from my body, my eyes twitching I now knew I was insane, though that realization would have to wait because my chest suddenly rounded outward and I lost the ability to breathe.
I furiously tried to suck air in but couldn't get any into my lungs, like I had gotten the wind knocked out of me, I gasped and grabbed at my chest pulling at my shirt and tearing it off of my body, I looked at my now rounded out rib cage as my stomach narrowed down and my waist sucked in, my guts felt like they were being forced through a straw now, tears filled my eyes as I feared that I would suffocate to death, as my vision began to go dark from lack of air I suddenly felt a rush of air into my lungs, gasping greedily for breath as much beautiful oxygen as I could while a smile of relief spread across my face.
Thank you God for allowing me to breath once more, panting I looked back at my body finding a very dramatically changed form, all that was left resembling my original body where my arms which now looked strange on my weird hairless animal anatomy, I wasn't even sure what animal my mind had made my body look like.
This nightmare hallucination or whatever it is freaked me out and I wished it would just be over with, but then my right hand started shaking before it started stretching, realizing what was happening I watched my hand as my fingers started to stiffen and merge together, I couldn't move my fingers no matter how hard I tried as they began to change.
I watched as my wrist began moving further up my arm taking it's new place, the humerus in my forearm started to shrink in length while the radius in my lower arm began to grow longer, by the time my humerus stopped shrinking I could no longer make it out from the rest of my body as my radius had now taken the place of my upper arm and the metacarpals from my fingers had now taken the place of my lower arm.
my right arm was now a fleshy tube longer than my left arm, but that changed fast as my left arm began going thru the same changes as my right arm had just moments ago until I was left with no hands, freaking out I waved the stumps around I grabbed at them or at least attempted to as I no longer had anything to grab them with.
I panted and laid my head down on my pillow looking up at the ceiling, I really hope this is a dream or something because I had no way of living a normal life if it wasn't, I was now a human with a hairless animal body.
I felt a sudden burning in my back that forced me to roll onto my side forcing my head to look towards my back in the process as I felt my back begin to shift, it looked like something was moving beneath my skin, that was when a pair of strange limbs began to grow from my back,
The strange limbs that had started growing from my back looked like new set of arms at first before their humerus, ulna's and radius began growing to much larger proportions with what looked like misshapen fingers growing from their ends, the metacarpals grew to extraordinary length as they took on a more featherless wing like appearance, they where now laying there outstretched on the bed twitching occasionally, I had featherless wings now….ok….
Shaking I looked away from my back, that was when my neck tightened and began popping stretching longer as my cervical vertebrae grew thicker and longer, I choked as a result from the sudden growth as my neck grew, when were my changes going to end? How much more of me would change?
I was given my answer as I felt my face begin to heat up until it felt like my entire face was starting to burn, my eyes widened in shook at the fear of losing my facial features, but it did nothing to stop it as my face started elongating and my nose melted away fusing into my upper jaw as it extended forwards as I watched it stretch into view, soon I had a muzzle, my teeth suddenly sharpened until I only had canine teeth left in my mouth, feeling around with my much longer tongue I had to remember not to bite down on it when I tried talking otherwise I'd probably pierce my tongue, my eyes began stinging as I forced them closed they then became larger nearly popping out of my skull but they soon transformed as well to fit them, I felt the changes to my ears as they slid up the sides of my head to their new resting place on top growing longer and pointier all the wile.
Panting from exhaustion I moved my stumped hands up and rubbed my transformed face, I now must have looked nothing like my human self, that's when I felt a burning between my legs, no...no no no….I lost my body you are not taking that from me as well!!
Desperately I tried to grab onto the one thing there that marked me as male with my stumps, the burning got worse and I felt as if a hot metal spike was being stabbed between my legs, the pain forced me to let go as it sunk deeper into my body, rummaging the smooth spot that was left tears filled my eyes as I had lost my gender that had now been replaced with the opposite sex, this couldn't be reality, none of this made any sense it couldn't be possible.
Tingling went across my body as I felt tiny pinpricks spread up my body starting from my legs, looking down with fear in my eyes I watched as dark black hair crawled up my body like a blanket of moss, the hair moved around my birthmark strangely but that soon began burning before purple hair grew out from it and in the middle light blue hair grew in the shape of a crescent moon.
The black hair spread up my body covering me completely in black, my face even became covered, the naked wings on my back though soon grew black feathers becoming large black wings, the naked tail suddenly sprouted blue hair that grew longer than the hair covering my body, my scalp burned as my black hair and the last shreds of my old self became longer and turned the same shade of blue as my new tail.
Panting I sighed hoping the changes were over, once more my wishes were ignored as I felt a pain increasing in intensity on my forehead before a spike shot out from my head leaving a small dribble of blood where the skin was pierced, looking up I saw a long black horn sticking out from my forehead.
I desperately needed to see what I had become, I had a full body mirror in my room but it was in the corner of the room and I couldn't see my reflection from my bed, I shakily moved my legs off the bed attempting to stand before collapsing to the floor with a heavy thud, my legs felt weird now and I don't think I could stand on them with my full body wight alone, putting my arms under myself I pushed myself up and shakily stood on all fours, my long arms where now the perfect length to allow myself to stand up straight much like an animal, closing my eyes I had to keep those thoughts out of my head if I didn't want to break down into tears, looking at the mirror I careful but shakily walked there, walking on all fours I was finding it harder than expected especially with these large wings just limply dragging on the floor to my sides.
Making my way there I took deep breaths to try and calm myself, my entire body shook as I got closer to the mirror, my breathing getting quicker the closer I got, I closed my eyes as I moved in front of the mirror, slowly I opened my eyes and jumped back in fright falling to my ass at what was staring back at me in the mirror, what was in the mirror looked like a horse out of someones worst nightmares, it had freaking glowing slitted blue eyes like a cat or snake! Plus it looked genetically modified as it had somewhat human features.
My heart was beating a mile a minute as I looked at what was now my new reflection, swallowing with my throat now parched, I stood back up and moved closer to the mirror, my reflection did the same, strangely I recognized this reflection somewhat, it was familiar but I don't know why, it was missing something but I just couldn't put my now non-existent finger on it.
That was until my mane and tail were engulfed in a blue glow as they began floating in a magical like energy, looking like a cloud of stars, and with that I knew why this reflection looked familiar, I'd seen it in a show I had recently started watching and come to enjoy, a character I liked a lot, I was Nightmare Moon.
Now I knew for certain that this had to be a dream, people don't just turn into living cartoon characters...right? I mean I was definitely her, just thinking about the current gender I now was made me sad, of course I liked Nightmare Moon but why did I have to turn into her? I had no problem with the female gender but suddenly being turned into a mare against my will I was not ok with.
This had to be a dream, it just had to, if it wasn't then my life was very much over, my dream of being an animator was doomed, without hands I couldn't draw, even if I could who would hire a freak of nature?? Clenching my sharp teeth and glared at the reflection in the mirror as tears filled my eyes, if it wasn't a dream how was I supposed to love or be loved like this?
Tears streamed down my face as I began sobbing as I fell to my haunches, my new ears folding against my head, my body shaking as the sobs wracked my body, my tears hitting my carpeted floor, I was a freak and my life was over.
As I sobbed my ears twitched and turned to the direction of sound as I heard the door creak open, my eyes widening I looked in fear towards it as a figure stepped into my room.
"Blake…?" A female voice spoke.
Blake's mother had been awakened by strange sounds and as she followed them she heard crying in her son's room, opening the door and walking in she called his name "Blake…?" She tired looked to his bed finding it empty, looking around the room she found it a bit hard to see anything in the dark room but her eyes soon fell onto two blue slitted eyes staring at her there in the dark, jumping back and hitting the door she stared wide eyed at the eyes.
She fumbled across the wall before finding what she was searching for and flipped the lights on, the room was filled with light and she had to squint from the sudden bright light but she saw in the corner of the room by the mirror was a large winged creature sitting on the floor.
The creature had been blinded by the light it seemed judging from its closed eyes, taking this opportunity she looked hastily around the room for her son but froze when she saw Blake's shredded clothes on the bed and floor.
No it couldn't be possible, her son couldn't be dead, but he was nowhere and his clothes were shredded, this monster was in here as well, she shook her head as tears filled her eyes,her sadness turning to anger as she looked at the monster that was now recovering from the light, she ran at it grabbing Blake's bat by the closet "where is my son?!" She shouted with rage as she raised the bat up.
The creatures eyes widened as it went to stand up, she quickly swung the bat connecting with the creatures face, the hit sent a vibration through her arms nearly making her drop the bat, the creature stumbled but pressed itself into the corner shaking and disoriented.
"Where is he?!" She went to hit it again from not being answer but stopped when she looked into it's eyes, those eyes she had thought were monstrous were now full of fear, she could even see the hair surrounding it's eyes were wet, were they from tears? It looked afraid even before she grabbed the bat, but what would a monster like this be afraid of?
It was standing by the mirror when she came in which didn't make much sense, she figured it would possibly try to escape through the window after taking her son but it was too far away from the window, the only reason it would be by the mirror is if it where….trying to see itself...Blake's mother looked at the terrified creature and shook her head, no no what she was thinking couldn't be true it was impossible...but standing in front of her was something impossible, taking a deep breath she spoke "B-Blake?"
The creature nodded its head still shaking.
I nodded my head looking at my mother, shaking after she had just hit me with the metal bat that now had a dent in it, the pain still stinging in my cheek though a lot less than I had expected after being hit by a freaking bat.
My mother dropped the bat putting her hands to her mouth "oh my God...Blake….h-how...how did this happen?"
"I..I don't.." I stopped talking after hearing the feminine voice of Nightmare Moon, looking to my mother she was also surprised by my new voice, I looked back to floor I couldn't look at her she looked so afraid of me "I don't know mom….I..I just became this…" I had once liked this voice from the show but hearing it leave my mouth made me despise it.
"I...it's going to be ok Blake...I'll...we'll figure this out" my mother went to touch me but I flinched at her approach, I didn't mean to but after she had hit me my body had just instinctual expected another assault, seeing her reaction made me want to cry, she looked shocked quickly followed by being horrified at the realization of what she'd done, she pulled her hand away "I'm...I'm sorry...I'll get your father…" she rushed out of the room.
I thought to follow her but decided against it, I didn't need to freak dad out the moment he woke up, shaking I remained where I was but it was getting harder to stay put, the light it hurt for some reason, It felt like I had a bad sunburn, I needed to get out of the light but I couldn't just leave the room or hide under the blanket no I had to stay here and wait for my parents, but it was getting harder to stay in the light it hurt so much, my entire body shook.
I can't, I can't stand it...the lights hurts to much, make the light go away... make the light go away...MAKE THE LIGHT GO AWAY!!! With that yell a feeling of warmth engulfed the horn on my forehead causing the light bulb on my ceiling fan to shatter casting the room in darkness.
I jumped from the sudden pop and looked up at the ceiling fan with the now smoking and shattered bulb...did I do that?...as this thought passed through my head I suddenly heard rapid footsteps coming closer form down the hall, fear gripped me and I scurried deeper into the corner for the room.
The door burst open and there standing in my room was my very tired looking father, he was squirting his eyes trying to look around in the dark, I shook remembering my mothers reaction, my father would react very poorly and I don't think I'd survive a bat swing from him.
My father looked in my direction and he jumped most likely seeing my eyes, he then began looking around the room quickly and with a sickening knot in my stomach I realized he was looking for a weapon to hit me with, cowering to the floor I awaited his assault.
More footsteps rushed down the hall before entering the room as my mother quickly walked to my father "honey calm down it's Blake!"
"What?! Blake doesn't have those eyes!" My father yelled.
My ear swivelled away from my head as I heard a clicking sound, I recognized it was my light switch being flipped.
"What?....Blake honey what happened to the lights?" My mother asked softly.
"T-the... the bulb popped…" damn that voice, it sounded nothing like my original and most definitely put more doubt into my father's mind making him less likely to believe that I'm actually me.
"Well replace it-" my mother spoke before being interrupted by my father.
"Rebecca forget the damn bulb! There is some…" my father fumbled with his words lost in thought trying to find the correct word to describe what I was "..thing...in our sons room and our son is missing!!" His anger returned.
Thinking quickly I remembered a moment from my past "d-dad….remember when I was eight a-and we went sledding during the winter and we found a large snow covered hill, and I went down it on my sled b-but we didn't know that at the bottom the snow was pushed up to form an unintentional ramp and I was sent flying through the air before landing upside-down" I chuckled from the memory, though frightening at the time it was funny to remember, looking down at my new hooves I doubted I'd be having those fun times ever again.
Looking back up I saw my father with a shocked expression "I...only we would know about that….Blake?..is that really you?"
I nodded "yeah dad….it's really me…"
"I.." my father put a hand to his head struggling to process this.
"We should wait till morning to talk about this more" my mother offered "and maybe Blake will return to normal by then…"
"Rebecca…" my father seemed to try and doubt her words but gave up "yeah...maybe your right" he sighed rubbing the bridge of his eyes before heading out of the room "Rebecca, you coming?"
"I will in a bit, I want to make sure Blake is alright" she looked to my father who nodded and left, she then turned to me.
"I...don't think I will be alright for a while" I sighed hanging my head.
My mother frowned and walked over before hesitantly rubbing my cheek, she then looked surprised "oh wow...your covered in hair…."
I chuckled softly "yeah…"
"Sorry I was surprised, come on let's get you into bed and we can all try and get some rest" she motioned for me to follow her to the bed which I complied and followed her to the bed, currently I was equal height with her which was something new, before I was at shoulder height with her, lifting my long forelegs I climbed into the bed before laying on my side and resting my head on my pillow.
Laying down felt so odd now, my body was so alien to me now, the long legs that ended with hard hooves made it hard to tell where the leg ended and the hoof began, I couldn't see an edge or anything, pulling my legs in close to my barrel I forced my eyes closed so I wouldn't have to see the body that I now inhabited, but even in my mind I couldn't escape the feeling of it.
Thoughts of my ruined life went through my mind, I couldn't go to school like this, I couldn't face my friends at least the few that I had, by now any hope of making more was crushed as I looked like some real life cartoon freak!
Tears formed in my eyes as I pushed my face into my pillow, my mother seemed to have noticed as she sat down on the edge of the bed and began stroking my new long neck, she ran her fingers through my mane which helped to calm me, when I was younger she'd do the same thing to help when I had nightmares, the irony in that didn't amuse me.
"It's going to be alright Blake…" she cooed as she ran her fingers through my mane.
"I hope so.." my voice is soft as I'm beginning to fall asleep, my eyes feeling heavier and heavier before sleep takes me.
I laughed evilly before reading up on my hind legs and slamming my fore hooves down onto the elements, their shattered fragments scattered around me, the pathetic little lavender unicorn in front of me looking distraught "you little fool! Thinking you could defeat me! Now you will never see your princess or your sun, the night will last forever!!" I laugh maliciously as my mane and tail swirl above me.
My laughter is cut short when I heard indistinct shouting coming from down the hall, the lavender unicorn gasps before smiling "you think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony just like that?" She turns to me looking far braver then before.
I frown not liking where this is going.
"Well your wrong! Because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!" She yells as five other ponies Rush in and stand by her, two pegasi, another unicorn, and two earth ponies.
The elements shards begin glowing and shaking before floating up around me "what?" I exclaimed in surprise and confusion.
"Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of honesty" the lavender pony calls as some shards float to the orange earth pony.
The lavender unicorn looks to the yellow pegasus "Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of kindness" more shards flew to the yellow Pegasus who looked confused and scared at first.
"Pinkie Pie, who banished fear by giggling in the face of danger, represents the spirit of laughter" she looked to the pink earth mare who excitedly watching shards fly to her.
She looked to the white unicorn "Rarity, who calmed a sorrowful serpent with a meaningful gift, represents the spirit of generosity" more shards flew through the air and surrounded the white unicorn.
"And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire, represents the spirit of loyalty" she looked to the blue pegasus as shards surrounded her "the spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us".
I looked over the five ponies with the shards floating around them "you still don't have the sixth element, the spark didn't work!"
"But it did, a different kind of spark" the lavender unicorn turned to the five ponies "I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you, the spark ignited inside me when I realized you all…" she had tears of happiness in her eyes as she turned back to face me "are my friends!"
Light erupted from above the six ponies as the sixth and final element descended down, I held a foreleg up to shield myself from the light the element cast.
"You see, Nightmare Moon, when those elements are ignited by the uh...the spark that resides in us all, it creates the sixth element...the Element of Magic!" The lavender unicorn smiled and closed her eyes as the sixth element turned into a white ball of light above her before exploding outward in light, each shard came together forming a necklace on each of the ponies necks except the sixth one that formed a crown on the lavender mares head, each of the six ponies floated in the air engulfed in the magical energy before a rainbow energy formed above them heading for the ceiling when it abruptly bent down towards me.
My eyes widened as I watched the display, the rainbow energy flew towards me "Noooo!! Nooooooooo!!!!" I yelled as the rainbow energy circled me, the energy burned directly into my very being, it ripped and tore away at my flesh vaporizing it as I was being taken off like the shell of my host, I struggled and thrashed trying to break free as the rainbow crawled up my body destroying my form, panicking my mind raced for an escape and I realized one, pointing my horn up I focused all my magic and sent it off, I shall be reborn and I shall take my vengeance on these pests!! The night will reign forever!!!!