//------------------------------// // Halfway In Darkness, Halfway In Light // Story: Phases of Love // by AMinorDisChord //------------------------------// (James' Point Of View) WELCOME TO EQUESTRIA "I don't remember this being here," I muttered, disturbed by the sudden appearance of a new store isle. "It, it can't be!" Nightmare was extremely apprehensive, her entire body shuddering. The expression on her face was one of awe and despair. I could not fathom why she was so upset by the- Wait, Equestria... Equestria. I eventually put two and two together. Eques, meaning horse. She must have recognized the terminology. But still, why would it worry her so much? I had absolutely no idea what was in this area, but I intended to find out. With Nightmare's hand in mine, we prepared to learn this new world's strange secrets. By all that is holy and most things that aren't, was that ever a mistake. I turned my attention to what was in the isle. Nightmare and I began to maneuver our way through the world of pink and rainbow colors. And ponies. "Oh my God!" I whispered harshly under my breath. I saw several of the characters portrayed on the items, and to my surprise, I recognized some of them. Nightmare's dream, it showed several of the ponies, like the green one with the harp tattoo, a white one with a purple mane... And a brown haired stallion with an hourglass as a 'Cutie Mark', as Nightmare called it. His eyes, oceanic blue. I recognized them, not only from Nightmare's dream, but from somewhere else as well. I couldn't remember where. I looked to see a comic cover, and what I saw confused me. That brown pony which had an hourglass on it's rump held a fob watch in his hoof. A multicolored scarf wrapped around his neck and he was looking behind him. A lamppost with a very, familiar design, caught my eye. That is until I saw what he was looking at. A Pegasus, a stone Pegasus on top of a fountain, covering it's eyes with it's hooves. A crying Pegasus, much like the angels in our world. But there was more about it that bothered me. A creature of stone, covering it's eyes, with wings, and a person, pony, staring at it? What!? No, not crying. Weeping. A Weeping Pegasus. And that scarf, I have only seen one that looked remotely like it, and it was- "The Doctor," I heard Nightmare groan quietly. "Nightmare, what's going on?" I turned my attention around to see a sight that worried me. "Don't turn around," I ordered. "Please, trust me, don't turn around." She looked anyway. A piercing scream emitted from her. Behind her, a lifesize plush of a pony stood. A black furred alicorn with a billowing blue mane and tail. Turquoise eyes glared back at my own from beneath a headdress. "Is that, you?" I whispered. "Why, how, what?" She stuttered. "I, you, where did this isle come from? Why am I seeing a pony that you call the Doctor on a comic page, and the pony version of you?" Nightmare suddenly fell to her knees, tears streaming from her eyes. I got down and held her tightly as she began to cry. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> (Nightmare's Point Of View) Why are they here? Why did they have to follow me across dimensions? Why must they torment me? these thoughts streamed through my mind as I gazed at the many objects around me. My home, it was known in this universe. How could this be? I noticed James was staring at a book cover, which showed a very recognizable stallion. "The Doctor," I muttered with a small voice, the surprise gripping my words. James turned around, eyes wide. "Nightmare, what is going on?" He stopped suddenly, eyes widened. "Don't turn around. Please, trust me-" it was too late. I ignored him, and saw myself snarling back. Not my human form, but my alicorn self. James said some unintelligible words, as my attention was entirely focused on myself. No, I thought. No. No. No no no no no no! My worst nightmare. Myself. I have come back to haunt me. Nightmare Moon, an immortal alicorn goddess of the night, was scowling at Diana Magrenith, a sniveling, barely of age, human girl. I tried to speak, but my ability to use words coherently was shattered. I could feel tears stinging my eyes, and I fell. My knees took the fall, and I cried, no attempts to hold back the tears. I felt someone grip me. It was James. I felt everything inside me calm down as his warmth flowed into me. "Nightmare, it's okay, I'm right here," James' words soothed me even further. "Don't worry, I've got you. Sh, it's going to be alright." I returned his embrace almost forcefully and instinctively. He once again managed to hold my hoof, or in this case hand, through my emotional turmoil. For him, I could be strong. For him, I would calm. For him. Those two words, is that what it meant to have a friend? To be willing to give life and limb for that one person? To stop being who you once were if it makes them feel better? If it is, then I am his friend. And let the dead entrap the souls of any who hurt him. Better death reach them first, for I will not be so pleasant. "Thank you," I whispered. I stood up warily, before glaring at my plush self. "You will never hurt the people the people I love again. You will never exist in me as you once did. I will never be you. Never again." I swore aloud, feeling the pain in my heart slink away. Something in my mind seemed to click, as if falling into place. I suddenly felt, free. I felt free of every worry that I would do what I had once done before, that I could live without losing myself as I once did. I was secure, I had somepony, some one, to hold me back, to keep me grounded. And that person squeezed my side gently as if trying to get my attention. "Nightmare, can you look a me for a second?" James asked. My eyes returned to his, where I now saw a piece of cloth in his hand. He gingerly dabbed around my eyes, which I now saw began to mark the cloth with blue. I could only imagine he was wiping away the mascara, which I thought was strange, but I didn't object. He stopped cleaning my face, and caressed my hand. As we walked away from the isle, a song began to play from an unknown source. Even in my darkest hours, You stand as my living light. Despite my fears and horrid past, You hold me close at night. I don't know what friendship is, But I hope that's what we share. So hold me close and don't let go, As you save me from despair. I've lost one thousand years, And yet you hold me dear. My mind addled with fear, Only knows you are here (for me). You stole my fears away, You claimed I'm not to blame. You spared me all my pain, From the Nightmare I became. I see myself as a monster, You hold my hand without shame. I came from an unknown strange land, You share your dreams all the same. I was forced into your world, Racked with tears and fears and strife. Yet you show me I can live again, Brought some magic into my life. Each time, it feels as though I might cry, you tell me that It's alright, you're always by my side Hold me, when I lose my Sanity, when my tears try to fly free, I now know your my knight. My nightmares, will stop when I know You're there, cause I know that you Do care, even if it's only you So know this, that your warmth has given Me bliss, and how I won't let Me miss, if there's something I can do. I've lost one thousand years, And yet you hold me dear. My mind addled with fear, Only knows you are here (for me). You stole my fears away, You claimed I'm not to blame. You spared me all my pain, From the Nightmare I became. From the nightmare I became. From the nightmare I became. "Where did that come from?" I asked James. "Usually, I would say the intercom," he tried before I gave him a quizzical stare. Keep in mind that all of this technology was still new to me. "I will explain later. Anyway, I would have said the intercom, but the sound wasn't broken enough for it." "What do you think it was?" He was the only one from this dimension in the conversation, so his lack of knowledge worried me slightly. He shrugged. "I have absolutely no idea, but it sounded pretty good. I don't recognize it, though. Maybe Mr. Maublé played it on the big speaker. But why did it sound so clear? It was like the band was right in front of us." We turned our attention over to the manager, who was now walking down the isles, seeming to be making sure of something. James waved him over. "Hey James, hello greenhorn, what's up?" He asked cheerily. "Greenhorn?" I looked to see James give me an expression that I have come to know as I shall explain later. I turned my attention back to the Mr. Maublé. "Um, what was that song?" He gave me a bizarre look. "What song?" "The one that played just now." "I didn't hear anything," he shrugged. "How could you have missed it?" James asked. "It was playing out clear as day," I continued. "Well, either you two are crazy, or I'm going deaf. And since I can hear you two screaming at me at the top of your lungs, I'm going to say that you two cuddle buddies have gone off the deep end," he crossed his arms. I was about to argue further, but James stopped me. He pulled my head close to his own. "Drop it," James whispered. "This isn't his kind of joke. He didn't hear it, what ever it was." "Um, never mind then. Sorry to bother you," I mumbled sheepishly. Another weird look from our employer, before he shrugged. "Is there anything else you puppy lovers need?" This was beginning to get on my nerves. James likely agreed with me on some level. "We are not dating!" James sighed. "Yeah, um, where did this isle come from? Seriously, I was gone for one day, three days counting the weekend. And what is about anyway?" "We'll, the reason I was so upset about not having you here on Friday was because we were adding a new set of merchandise. Apparently it's one of the most popular tv shows, even for adults, called My Little Pony," Mr. Maublé explained. I will spare you the specifics over what it was, since James and I chose to write our tale on this site specifically because it centered around said show. Eventually, our manager began to finish explaining the whole show, which shocked me, a lot. Seriously, learning that you are a character in a 'TV series', as James later on explained what it was, bothered me to a surprising extent. Fortunately, James told me what I needed to hear as Mr. Maublé told of the wonders of Equestria. "We are all characters in some way, shape, or form, whether we believe it or not. You and I may be watched by some random dimension elsewhere with some lonely guy in his room writing our dialogue. But we are our own selves. You are Nightmare Moon, just as I am James Knight, and whether by fate, free will, or story board you are my friend. And that won't change any time soon." How ironic that James and I tell our tale in a story later on, with those exact lines in it. Eventually, Maublé ended his speech about magical ponies, such as yours truly. We thanked him for his, invigorating, tales of woe. "Alright then, I will leave you two love birds to do," he paused momentarily. "Whatever it is you were doing. Just make sure you clean up after yourself." He laughed heartily as I felt my face become rage incarnate. I sputtered as he practically skipped away, whistling a very happy and innocent tune. At some unknown point in time, customers had begun to prowl through the different sections of the store. Mr. Maublé used this to his advantage as he disappeared into the crowd. "Why that insolent little-" I growled. "Relax, Nighty, he's jut trying to get under our skin." James interrupted. "And, this doesn't, bother you?" I was confused by his almost blatant disregard for what his employer had implied. James patted my shoulder, shaking his head slightly. "Some people, you just have to live with them," he smiled warmly. However, this sentence made me feel uncomfortable. "Am I, one of those people?" I asked nervously, sensing, once again, more tears prepared to come out of my eyes. James just hugged me tightly. "Of course not. You are a wonderful person to be around." "Would you be saying that if you were lying? Or telling the truth?" I was still wary. "I am telling the truth. Do you honestly think I would let you sleep beside me, share my dreams, or work in the same place as me if I didn't like you?" "I don't know," I answered. "Neither do I, because that wasn't what happened, Nightmare. I don't tolerate your presence, I delight in it," James admitted. I conceded to his point. A voice that I didn't recognize came from outside of my vision. "Hey James, what's- woah, when did you get a girlfriend?" "OH COME ON!" James and I shouted at the exact same time. I noticed that a couple of onlookers eyeing us, but I ignored them. We reluctantly released our embrace as we turned to see a new face smirking at us. "Hello Eric, nice to see you to, and no, Ni- I mean, Diana and I are not dating," James sounded exasperated, something I could have easily related to as of that moment. There was a brief pause, before Eric spoke up. "Well, aren't you going to introduce me to 'Ni- I mean Diana'?" His face had on a goofy grin, his hand stuck out in a gesture of acquaintance by means of shaking them. I put my own palm into his and shook it lightly. "My name is Diana, Diana Magrenith. And I might assume you are Eric?" I already knew the answer. "That is correct, beautiful. Eric Wayne, at your service," he kept that stupid smile, which was getting on my nerves. "So how long have you two been a couple?" He asked jubilantly. I wanted to smack that grin right off of his face. "We aren't going out!" James and I practically yelled with our combined volume. Eric just smirked. "And ponies fly," he reasoned sarcastically. In my world they do, I thought haughtily, knowing it was best not to say it aloud. "So what's up with you two then if you aren't dating, cause it looked like you were hugging hard enough to-" Eric began. "DON'T YOU DARE FINISH THAT STATEMENT WAYNE!" James yelled to interrupt. Eric shrugged. "I was just going to say you were hugging hard enough to be Siamese twins, but I guess the other way too," he grinned devilishly. One hard smack; that was all I needed, all that I asked for. But my rage had to go without satiation. "Look, we aren't together," James tried to explain. Eric, however, would not drop the subject. "Oh really, where do you live?" I could sense a trap from the question. "Um, in James' house?" I answered questioningly. "Where do you sleep?" "In... My bed," James admitted dejectedly. "And how long have you two been within physical contact with each other?" "A couple of hours-" I stated without actually thinking, before both James and I flew out of each other's embrace, with Eric laughing maniacally. "We are not dating!" "How did you know she was living with me?" James interrogated. I was slightly concerned that we may have been dealing with what James refers to as a 'peeping Tom', but his answer pacified that worry. "Overheard the interview, congratulations, by the way. Now you get to hang out with people as awesome as me. Unlike James over here." Scratch 'only one hit'. I wanted him to be a bloody smear on the ground by the time I was finished with him. How dare he insinuate that James is not as good as him? I had absolutely no idea where that protective part of me came from, but I was more intent on Eric's rude comment, as well as the violent things I wished upon that rat of a man. Unfortunately, he started to walk away, outside of my melee range. "Anyway, peace out love makers," he held the first two non thumb fingers out in a V- shape, as he walked out of view. I forced myself to contain my wrath, before turning to James. "I am really starting to question your choice of where we work," I uttered in disdain. "As soon as this whole 'believing that we are dating' thing blows over, I'm sure it will all be fine." James seemed to try to be convincing himself more so than me. "Let's just keep going," I wanted this day to be over as soon as possible. "We just have one more place to head over to, although I'm not too sure about showing you it," he stated uncertainly. "Why is that?" I asked. "It's the break room," he dead panned. "Which means more people, who will think that we are in a relationship, and misfortune will ensue." "Does this kind of thing usually happen to, new recruits?" I asked tentatively. "No, but seeing how close we have been acting to each other, an outsider would only assume that-" "Hey man, I heard the news. Did you finally get yourself a date?" Another new voice came out. "Oh, dumb question. Dude, you hit the jack pot!" ... Oy vey. "EXCUSE ME?!" James howled. "I, she, you know what? Yes, we are dating, Max. We are in freaking love and we don't give a crap about what other people say about it!" James gave up, gripping my sides close to his and began nuzzling my head, which I found to be wonderful, but it was somewhat disconcerting that he said we were dating. "Seriously?" The man who I assumed was named Max asked, surprised. "No, of course not! How in the world would I get someone as amazing as Diana here to date me?" He stopped his nuzzling, partially to my disappointment. Wait... Amazing as me? What? "Look, sorry man, it's just-" Max began. "I know, I know, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gone off like that," James interrupted. "Look, how about I introduce you to Diana. Diana, this is Maxwell Bonsa, our friendly neighborhood, forget that I tried to say that, I need to show you that part of culture as well. Jeesh, I have a lot to catch you up on. Anyway, Max, this is Diana Magrenith, our newest coworker." "What's up?" He asked, which I found to be a strange question, but answered anyway. "Stars, skies, anything and everything," I replied sagely. "That, is a new way to put it," Max hesitated. "I have my work cut out for me," James moaned quietly, probably to keep me from hearing. That obviously didn't work, but I could understand his hesitation to let me hear that. Luckily, I was honest with myself here and acknowledged the truth that James did have a lot to teach me about this world. Perhaps too much. "Yes James, you do," I replied aloud, making him jump and Max just look at me. "If you're not going out, then how did you know what he was thinking so easily?" Max inquired. "I heard-" no, I was going to do this the fun way. "I'm an evil enchantress with the ability to read minds and bewitch poor souls like James over here to do my bidding in this physical plane." James reacted to my statement almost immediately. His entire body stiffened, eyes partially closed, and uttered strange, haunting noises. Max just shook his head. "There is no way in any universe that you two aren't a couple." "Okay, fine, you have discovered our secret plans to hide our relationship from you for some evil plot for which we have yet to reveal to the public," I replied sarcastically. Then I had a cruel, and almost self-destructive plan. But that didn't stop me the first time. ... Or the second time. ... Or the ones after those. ... Maybe I should stop while I am ahead... Nah! I turned my gaze over to my 'enchanted' friend. "Hey, James!" His entire face snapped towards me questioningly. I quickly snatched his head into my hands, leaned in, and almost kissed him. Almost. I stopped a centimeter from his own lips, confusing him to an even greater extent than if I had fully kissed him. But he quickly discovered my intentions, and pretended to lean in even more so into the kiss. We held each other within a hair's distance, but we never actually made contact with each other. That would be just plain weird... Right? We pulled out of our 'kiss', and I heard a voice I recognized as Eric's scream out "I knew it!" "This isn't going to work well if you wanted people to not think you're together," Max warned. "Cause it honestly, to me, seems like you are as much of a good couple as a pair that had been married for thirty years without a hitch." "I guess we have to go and explain ourselves later," James looked downcast. I couldn't have that. "Meh, we could always play along," I whispered to James. "To think that we should insult such poor bystanders by pretending to be dating when we clearly state otherwise at the same time?" James gave a mocking tone, before grinning darkly. "I like the way you think." "Well, if you haven't already found out, you two are the talk of the town," Max mentioned. "Oh great!" James and I moaned in unison. Max gave us a look that has been mirrored by those before him. "Are you sure you two aren't together?" "Certain," I nodded my head to confirm James' answer, right before coming close to planting a kiss on James' cheek. Max accepted this with a false smile, and moved away quickly. He waved goodbye without another word. "I think we are going to have fun with this," I said optimistically. "I'm with you on that," James concurred. "This is going to be, at the very least, slightly entertaining. Tiring, but entertaining," I hypothesized. "Somehow, we will get through this," James vowed. "Some how, we shall persevere. But for right now, lunch break, dear." He put great emphasis on the courting nickname. "Lead the way, my hunky piece of masculinity and manliness," I was having difficulty holding in my laughter at my overly extensive and dramatic description. Oh, this is going to be fun! I thought jubilantly as James and I walked hand in hand. As a 'couple'. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> (James' Point Of View) The thing about being around Nightmare is that you have to be extremely... Flexible. You have to be able to do practically anything without feeling uncomfortable, and you have to react fast. Not trying to brag here, but I felt I could give myself a pat on the back. I'm going to hop back to the point when Max came in. Right as Max said "dude, you hit the jack pot,", I may or may not have lost it a little bit. I should have kept myself under control, but the constant bombardment of people claiming that Nightmare and I, or rather Diana and I were special someone's to each other... Sigh. Let's analyze where Max went wrong. Do you see his mistake? It's that little part where he referred to Nightmare as a 'jack pot'. That was one of the most 'complimenting' insults I have ever heard. Sure, Nightmare is a wonderful girl, both in her persona and her looks, make no mistake about that. But one of my personal pet peeves is that he judged her based on her appearance, not her personality. Kind of helps when you grow up with an alien great uncle, am I right? So yeah, I was not very happy about that. And thus, my first layer of inner madness broke out. I raged about how we were in love, and I began to nuzzle Nightmare. I felt so guilty, putting Nightmare in such a confusing predicament. I planned on apologizing later, but I had to keep whatever dignity I had left to properly introduce Max and Nightmare. I may or may not have whispered to myself that I had a lot to help Nightmare with. And of course, little miss princess over there decided to hear me... That sounded a bit rude, didn't it? I imagine it was, and I would never usually think of Nightmare in such a crude manner, but I was tired of the relationship thing. And I was partially annoyed that I wasn't in a relationship still, despite all that was going on, but that was more outside of my knowledge at that point. So of course, when Nightmare replied to my whisper, Max thought we really were going out, since he probably didn't hear my words. Then Nightmare decided to do something completely random, saying I was some sort of mind controlled person under her will power. What else could I do but play along? Not much. Thus I let my face become blank and my body stiff as a board. That sort of thing is really uncomfortable if you didn't already know. But Max had quickly come to the idea that we were so used to each other that we had to be dating. And then, and then, Nightmare took things a step further, coming close to kissing me, stopping a small distance away from my lips. Confusion, 2.0. She could have kissed me and let things make more sense, but I guessed she still thought of me as a friend, so she wouldn't go through with the kiss. She probably didn't know how amiable she could be within friendships, something I knew I was also going to have to rectify later on. I knew that from any other point of view, with Nightmare's hair curls blocking the outside view, it seemed as though she was trying to tongue me. I couldn't make it seem as though I was going to hurt her by denying it, so I pretended to kiss back. I figured that at this point, she didn't really need me to apologize to her about nuzzling her head. After all, we were pretending to smooch our way into oblivion; anything we did at that point couldn't be considered too weird. As a side note, I was acutely aware that Eric yelled out "I knew it!" I really wanted to knock that guy's head against the wall. I may not be violent, but goodness gracious, he loved to piss people off. And that would be putting it lightly! After that madness, we decided to play along with us dating, for the time being... Hopefully. I knew that neither Nightmare nor I would be able to maintain the illusion that we were in love for long. Anyway, we used contrasting statements and actions, such as Nightmare kissing my cheek after saying that we weren't dating, or me nuzzling her head again while stating that nothing was going on between us. I think we may or may not have completely alienated Max. So yeah, I now have a very, affectionate Nightmare Moon trying to get people under the impression that we were dating. That was going to be very, very taxing. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Nightmare in the slightest, I can't even say I dislike her. She can just be, an extremist, at times. Not really her fault, but still, I hoped that most days would not be as exciting as this one. Thankfully, we were interrupted by the fact that it was time to eat. "But for now, lunch break dear!" I went went along with our crazy, nutty, self injuring fool of a plan to be fake dating. "Lead the way, my hunky piece of masculinity and manliness," Nightmare replied. Dang, she knew how to take things to the furthest. When I first met her I thought she was some lonely, timid girl. Well, she was, but that phase mostly blew over quickly. Along with most of my sanity. And thus we marched off, arm in arm, like lovers. Yeah, this couldn't possibly go disastrously wrong.