To Sleep, Perchance To… Nightmare?!
This is all a dream… right?
Author: Draconis187
The name is Chris Mann. Yeah, I know strange last name but that comes from my family’s British roots. I live in the Republic of South Africa, Gauteng to be precise (we call it a province, the States call it a… state). Internet is expensive; our taxis are death traps on wheels; there is always some workers’ union on strike, leaving a mess on the streets (the funniest were the garbage strikers, they messed up the very streets they had to clean in the first place) but that is not really of much interest to me.
What was interesting was the news on Equestria Daily and – two days later – the local news. Thank Celestia for DSTV giving us several international news shows that are actually current. Apparently for the past few days, bronies have been turning into ponies. It started with Lauren Faust and Tara Strong turning into Princess Celestia and Princess Luna respectively, no bucking joke (yes, I tend to use ponyisms)! Pinkie Pie had an incident at IHOP (I have no clue what that is), knowing Pinkie Pie’s usual antics I decided to not listen further on that matter. Queen Chrysalis was spotted refusing Discord’s alliance, kudos to her. Fluttershy got shot but she was stable and was going to live. If making her cry was a serious federal offence, killing her would start World War III.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts, I still had people to kill in Bulletstorm. I had a bad day at work and I needed some well needed stress relief (I worked as a waiter at a local restaurant, it never pays well). You’d be surprised how comforting it was to kick someone in their gut, only to blow their head clean off as their body flew towards a man-devouring plant. I looked to my clock after some time and noticed it was 00:21.
‘Played past midnight again’, I thought.
I killed my current mission and put my PC’s media player on. I always liked to listen to music when I sleep. I get too paranoid with every little sound I hear and that makes it difficult to sleep.
07:30 AM
Wagnesday
The alarm on my phone went off from under my pillow (this song). Nothing like a loud noise from behind to jolt you out of Dreamland. My folks had gone with my sister to work, leaving me at home. Luckily for me I didn’t work today otherwise the late night gaming would’ve hit me for a six. I tried to move my blankets out of the way so I could go get myself breakfast but my arms felt strange.
Hell, my whole body felt strange. I looked down my bed and noticed the shape I made under the covers was different. I decided to use both my hands and my legs to kick off the blankets. This plan worked to great effect, throwing the blanket to the floor below. I saw the reason for both the unusual shape in my bed as well as for the feeling in my hands… I didn’t have any hands. I had hooves, fully fledged keratin hooves attached to my black furred legs, which were attached to my black body which had a pair of wings attached to it.
"Well, hol- is that my voice?!" I near shouted. My voice sounded female, hell it sounded familiar as well. Why do I have the feeling that this day is about to get worse?
Shrugging, I tried to get up so I could try and make sense of this situation, after all it couldn’t be THAT hard to walk on all fours, right? I crashed to the ground, landing face first on the floor, but I felt two collisions: one was my muzzle colliding with the floor while the other was a little higher up and felt connected to my head. After getting my head off the carpet I placed my hoof on my head and noticed it made contact with something sticking out of it: a horn. How on this Earth did I not notice this sticking out of my skull when I woke up?
I tried to keep calm as I deciphered who I was. Black coat, horn and wings, that left very few choices but leaving it to the ‘seeing is believing’ credo I tried to get a grip on walking, or at the very least, standing. It took about ten minutes to learn how to keep my balance as I lifted a hoof, I was able to walk – albeit slowly – to my door. I didn’t have to use my teeth as all the doors had handles instead of knobs, ‘me: 2; world: 2’ I thought (me: regaining the ability to walk somewhat, handles on all our doors; world: turning me into an Alicorn, losing ability to walk). I swear to the Nine Divines of Skyrim that if I should ever find the man/ woman/ whatever that said walking on hooves was easy, I would buck them onto the express train to Tartarus in a matchbox.
After I got out my room I made for my parents’ room since they had a full length mirror standing in it. I opened the door with my hoof and was immediately greeted by the mirror’s reflection (the mirror stands facing the door at all times, don’t ask why I have no clue). Looking straight at me was a pony I never thought would actually possess someone since she shouldn’t even exist anymore.
Staring at me with cyan coloured eyes and cat-like irises was Nightmare Moon herself. She was there in everyway as she was in the first two episodes of the first season: the purple colouring on the eyelids with a lighter shade of purple eye-liner on my eyelashes and the purple cloud with a crescent moon Cutie Mark; the gaseous tail and mane with the shining stars in them but one thing seemed to be off: the armour. I looked as I noticed her ceremonial azure armour was missing, nothing was present on my chest, head or hooves. Considering it to be unimportant, my stomach decided to announce its desire for sustenance.
Getting a bit better at walking I was able to get to the kitchen a little faster, walking at a medium paced trot. The next thing that seemed to be mocking my current state was the refrigerator. I knew we had a few veggies stored in the bottom of the fridge and that was my goal. As I tried to use my teeth to open the door a thought hit me, I'm an Alicorn! Not only that but Nightmare Moon herself for buck’s sake! I was about to try to use magic but I decided against it, there was not telling how the fridge would react if I used magic incorrectly, which was very possible, and so I went back to using my teeth.
After a number of failed attempts to get a grip on the door (I lost count after 21), I managed to open the door wide enough to get my horn behind the door and using that, I fully opened the door. Luckily the drawer in the fridge had a small gap at the top and so – using my horn again – I got the drawer open and looked at my prize. A packet of carrots, some Granny Smith apples and some lettuce. Being fond of carrots I grabbed the packet, then used my hoof to close the drawer of the now beeping fridge (if left open for a short time it beeps so you know it is still open) and after letting the door close itself, I walked into the conservatory.
I spent a good hour chomping on the carrots and turned my attention to the weather. Overcast and an estimated temperature of 16°C but I liked this weather. I'm a strange person and I would be the first to admit it, we only recently moved after 3 years so I didn’t have any friends, not even at work. Thanks to Discord’s mess around with our calendar we had a week for the whole year which remained in terms of the number of days, yup a 365 day week.
Wagnesday
11:00
Finishing my carrots and after disposing the empty packet in the dustbin (it was one of those with a pedal that opened it up, convenient, eh?) I decided to head to my desktop PC and check my FimFiction account again. Before this mess I was busy on an OC story involving the Changeling Queen herself. Well, that wasn't going to be finished anytime soon.
I went to my desktop computer and placed my hoof on my monitor’s touchscreen power button, it lit up with my media player being the front most application shown. I found one of my pens on my desk and logged on to the site by using the pen in my mouth. The usual, people don’t seem to like my brand of violent fics. Oh, well I never expected them to do well, I never seem to do anything right in any aspect of my life. I decide to try out something new only to have it blow up in face.
I logged out and just sat on my bed, weighing out my options. I could go to New York and help out, probably get turned back to normal then return to my boring, uneventful life. Or I could stay at home and never leave, hoping that this was all a bad dream. Final option was running away (or galloping away, either way) from home since I have no clue as to how my parents would react to my current state. I started to feel some form of hatred towards myself as I thought of those last two, as if it went against my being to do something like that and yet I've never experienced that before. Sure my self-esteem has gotten low enough for me to consider suicide, but I could never actually go through with it and it was not the same feeling.
I went back to the full length mirror and stared at myself. Of all ponies I would get changed into, why Nightmare Moon? Isn't she supposed to be dead? The Elements of Harmony destroyed her, and left Luna behind. Even before that she was an incomplete being, a parasite in a sense that hijacked Luna’s body when her hate and rage broke a threshold. Looking at myself for a few seconds caused me to blush as I realised I was stark naked! I went back into my room and opened my built-in cupboard.
As I opened it a sight caught my eyes, laid above my shirts was Nightmare’s signature azure armour. Helmet: check; chestplate with cutie mark: check; shoes: check, all four were there. Using my horn, I knocked the armour down to the ground, one at a time. There was a clip for the chestplate and – after several attempts that involved my mouth and hooves – I eventually got it on, for the helmet I just knocked it over and placed my horn through it and it slid down into place with a few encouraging shakes of my head. The shoes on the other hoof were easy, but as I put them on they felt like they would not be as easy to remove but hey, my hooves were protected now. Going back to the mirror yet again I was greeted by the True Princess of the Night (or so she would like to think). I now looked like her exactly, even down to the snide smile. The brony as well as the fan of Nightmare Moon in me couldn’t stop from bellowing.
“The night shall last forever!!” I even tried to add the laugh for effect but it wasn’t quite the same. I wasn’t an evil person by nature so it didn’t do the laugh much justice. It was a few more hours until my family got home so I thought I’d either try flying or magic. I settled on doing both, starting with flying. I got outside easily since my folks never close the doors properly. I did that, especially at night.
It is an incredibly strange feeling to move appendages that you never used to have. My wings felt alien and yet they felt as if I always had them. I just gave them a few short, slow flaps so I could get the hang of the general motion involved in flight. After a good number of minutes I felt a breeze go through them, and it felt amazing! My wings made a very faint rustling noise as the wind picked up a bit of speed. I decided to use this to my advantage and – as I turned in the direction the wind was blowing towards – I gave a short run and took off.
The feeling was beyond any form of standard description. Imagine a cripple being able to walk again and you get the general idea. I felt like I was on top of the world… for the two minutes of flying, after that I crashed into the grass with a dull thud. So getting the movement to fly was not quite the same as actually doing it but I kept trying, undeterred to let a foalish thing as my inability to fly due to a new body stop me.
'Wait… foalish? Where did that come from?' I thought.
I was getting better, after two painful hours – and I mean that very literally – I was flying properly. I could hover, fly off and land on a cloud as if it were the ground itself. I gave a very out of character squeal of joy at this accomplishment (I never did such a thing and I don’t picture Nightmare as the squealing type) only to shake my head at myself. In that moment I knew what the plan was going to be: learn magic (duh); wait for my folks (let's hope they don't freak out too badly) and get packed for an intercontinental trip to the Americas. New York and Discord were not waiting for anypony and time was of the essence.
In my haste to learn to fly, I left out one small detail: landing on the ground. I didn't actually crash but my knees still buckled under me as I closed my wings too early and I was still a short distance in the air (not enough to kill me but enough to cause pain). As for magic practise, I was fine with just getting basic telekinesis and the rest I would figure out later should the need arise.
We had a number of lawn ornaments that the previous owners left behind so they became my test dummies. The first one exploded into shrapnel (I had to put my wing in front of my face to deflect the incoming shrapnel) when I tried to picture what I wanted to happen; the next one shot up high into the air and I couldn’t see where it landed ('maybe it will reach space' I thought. I chuckled at the thought of the ornament whizz by an astronaut, ‘Houston, we have a lawn ornament’) and that was when I tried to picture the aura around it. The third flew off and smashed into the wall as I tried to focus energy into my horn. The forth attempt gave me nothing. I was ready to give up until I felt a little light-headed. The ornament was moving! I was able to move it about as if I was holding it in… my... hands.
'Thank Celestia! I finally got the hang of this telekinesis, I thought. Suddenly I felt my stomach go into knots, as if mentioning her name was… ugh, even thinking her name made it worse. I decided to get my mind off that and so I went inside to watch TV. Apparently Luna (I felt a sense of disdain when I heard her name) and Celestia (there goes my stomach again) have gone missing and Twilight was in a coma.
Well, this can't be good, I thought to myself. I changed from the news and watched the recordings I made of Doctor Who (thank you PVR decoder). The Tenth Doctor interested me because he seemed completely insane and yet there was always a method to his madness, which he proved over and over again.
17:12 PM
I heard the sound of my step-father’s Toyota bakkie (a.k.a. a pickup truck) come to a stop by the garage door. My sister and mother all carpooled with my step dad. They didn’t know I watched MLP since we don’t get the Hub here or any other channel that broadcasts the show here in the RSA, I never planned on telling them either. Until today had changed the circumstances. I decided to do what I did best: hide in my room.
My sister was the first to burst through the front door since I heard her shouting back to my mother all the way to her room. My mother called for me to come and help take the groceries out of the bakkie, then put them away as usual. I didn’t answer.
“Chris, come out of that confounded room and help with the groceries!” she began to shout. She scared me when she was angry. I tried my best to disguise my voice but it made very little difference, I sounded like I was being strangled.
“I can't.”
“Are you ok? You're not sick or anything?” I could hear she was right by my door. If she opened it, I shuddered to what her reaction would be. The handle creaked as she opened the door.
“Chr-” She started but that stopped as she saw the evil, armoured equine standing in front of her. “Who are you?”
“Uh, h-hi mom. It’s me, Chris. I seem to have turned into a pony.” She seemed sceptical, that’s my mom: she always needed proof before she believed something. She even thought the whole pony thing was a huge scam or prank that would die out in a few days. I took a deep breath.
“My full name is Christopher James Harold Mann. I have a fondness for dragons; broke my left leg when I was three and the doctor put a metal plate to repair the leg. The doctor didn’t stitch the wound up correctly which left one large scar on my left leg. Which isn't here anymore.” I noted as I looked at my left leg. “Any more proof? I can keep this up until we reach every point in my life.”
Suddenly my mother grabbed me, sobbing. I put my hooves around her to try and consol her but it wasn’t very effective. She looked at me and I wiped a tear from her eye with an armoured hoof. I tried to give her an innocent smile but all I succeeded in doing was a more sinister smile.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to phone in for you for work. Heaven knows how people would react.” I laughed, she was quite correct.
“I’m not the only one in South Africa that changed and I doubt I’ll be the last. Which reminds me, I need to get to New York and help out Celestia with Discord.” Why oh why is my stomach trying to do the tango whenever I mention that name?!
“Why you? Didn’t that Celestia character want these harmony people? Who exactly is this Discord the news was going on about?” I shook my head.
“There are many more ponies than the six Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. I got turned into the very first villain from the show. I doubt I would get much support since this pony wanted to plunge the world into eternal night but I still want to help anyway. As for Discord, he is a form of chimera that loves to cause chaos and suffering wherever and whenever he can.” my mother nodded.
“Ok, pack as many necessities as possible. We’ll get you a direct flight to America, so you can land in New York without having to worry about a long journey. Uncle Norris is currently in New York on business, I’ll call him on Skype so he will be waiting for you when you land. He’ll give you room and board until this all blows over, ok?”
I nodded my head and went with my mom to get the groceries. As I was about to grab a packet when my mom stopped me.
“There isn't a need for you to grab the groceries. You don’t have any hands.” I chuckled at her and my horn glowed. The packet I was about to get then levitated into the air, shocking my mother.
“It’s called magic or more specifically this is telekinesis. You’d be surprised what I've learnt to do since I got up this morning.” I chuckled.
My father was sat on the couch in the living room, oblivious to the world around him as he watched Real Steel (my step-father loves his boxing movies).
We eventually sat down for dinner. My mother made me a salad while everyone had sushi (the biggest thing I miss right now). My step-father just looked at me with that poker face of his while my sister was playing with my wings. She eventually pulled out a feather – whether on purpose or by accident – and made me jump.
“Why did you have to pull out my feather for, you foal?!” I accidentally used the Royal Canterlot Voice as I shouted (made sense, she did use to be Luna so she was basically royalty). I was so loud her hair looked like she had put head in a blender and put it to maximum. I muttered a small sorry as I levitated a piece of lettuce into my mouth.
“So I guess you can't date girls anymore.” My step-father said with a smile. He always was - as the term goes - a shit-stirrer. “Oh well more for me, right babes?” he said as he gave my mom a kiss. I knew he was joking, his sense of humour was always a strangely twisted one.
I never minded my step-father, he was an interesting person. Worked as a salesman in a steel company. He was no stranger to travelling, he was out the country quite often, at least once a month for a week or so. He had a personal travel agent who booked all his flights. Never met him/ her though.
“Well I’ll see about getting you a flight tonight, so after you finish you had best get packed.” He said. That’s my step-father for you, acts on impulse and worries about the consequences later.
My sister didn’t bother me again after the feather incident but we did apologise to each other for our respective actions before she went off to bath. After I ate I had a shower, the telekinesis was a great help with the taps. I pity those who just have hooves, they deserve a lot of credit for being able to use them, it’s an incredible achievement.
After the shower I got my stuff packed, some clothes - that could fit - for in case the weather turned nasty. I found a very large cape with a hood that my parents used for a party two years back, covering me almost completely (my gaseous tail stuck out a bit and my horn made a hole in it). I set about getting my blanket packed, along with my mp3 player and headphones. My mother knocked on the door and came in with her laptop’s carry bag.
“Here, I know you can't take your computer so use this. Oh, and your father is giving you his phone since it has international roaming. It’s in the bag.” She said, patting the bag for emphasis. I transferred all my music from my desktop to the laptop and my mp3 player. I also took some of my wallpapers and transferred them to the laptop as well.
The flight my parents got me was for 01:30 which was in three hours. I put my bags in the back and hopped in afterwards while the rest of my family sat in front and we went to the airport. The ride wasn’t particularly uncomfortable but as we went along the highway I switched the laptop on. I changed the password and some settings along with the wallpapers and theme. I looked out of the window and saw a strangely nice view, even if it was the Central Business District. Why do I have the worst feeling the trip to New York is going to be longer than it should?