It was a weird feeling, an indescribable sensation that would best be comparable to someone being unsure if they were awake or asleep. Imagine being awake, but this feeling would instill an overwhelming sense of doubt in your mind that you weren’t sure whether you were awake or still sleeping.
Joseph could only feel his eyes opening, but something felt wrong, like he couldn’t control what he was doing. He could feel his influence asserting itself, but something kept holding him back, almost like there was a barrier keeping him from doing as he pleased. Something needed to give if he wanted to regain control. Even though he had no motor control, Joseph was still able to see and feel and hear through the eyes and ears of whomever he was possessing.
He was standing behind something, what looked like to be one of those over-sized backdrops to a chair of some description. He could suddenly feel himself walking, but not of his own volition. He rounded the corner from whatever he was standing behind, coming to a stop as his voice spoke, thickly archaic in accent but speaking relatively modern English.
“Not another step,” the voice said. He could feel his lips moving, but it wasn’t him speaking. The eyes glanced at an alabaster figure walking slowly towards him, purpose and challenge written across her face. From the peripheral vision, he could see a rather small staircase leading down to the floor, and there was a small bridge of sorts off to the left. He could feel his hosts eyes narrow with anger and rage as the voice spoke again.
“Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?”
He felt movement again, and this time he found himself walking to stand on the small bridge connecting two platforms. Why there was such a small and trivial decoration adorning two small masses was beyond him. Standing with an overly assertive, aggressive stance looking head-on to the regal white mare still walking towards him in a confrontational manner, he spoke again.
“There can only be one Princess in Equestria! And that Princess,” he felt himself bursting through that final barrier keeping him from the control of his body, front legs raising high above his head then slamming down on the guardrail that spanned the small bridge, shattering it into oblivion. “, will be ME!!!”
Shadows leaked out from underneath, pooling and growing all around his feet as he felt their presence snake their way back up his legs. He felt them run up the wall behind him too, cracking it and the window above his head. Stone and glass burst inwards like someone threw a ball through a window, the stone and glass bouncing off him and landing at his feet.
An enormous amount of power surged throughout his body, wings spreading as he felt himself take control of his host. Raising his front legs, he hovered in the air as his magic began to raise the celestial body that roamed across the night sky. Ethereal beams of dark, black energy radiated outward as it covered the sun, their power getting bestowed upon him like an unnatural gift. He felt several beams hit his body, more shadows spreading like thick black oil over him. With each passing moment, his influence grew stronger and stronger over the host.
The shadows coalesced into a ball, swirling around him as he floated mid-air, magical energy permeating every pore of his body, feeling the same essence push the host’s conscious mind to the back of its own mind. With the transformation completed, the shadows dissipated and he felt himself gain full control.
“Ahahaha, ahahahaha, AHAHAHAHAHAA!!!” he cackled villainously, each breath bringing more insidious volume.
He could feel a massive buildup of energy in the top of his head, and he let it loose skyward. The electric-blue beam connected with the ceiling of the room he was in, and he dragged the beam in an arc across the ceiling. Chunks of stone weighing tons fell, peppering the floor with dull, thunderous thuds. With a flap of his wings, he jumped down off the bridge and began walking through the cloud of dust kicked up by the magic partially vaporising the rock and puffing up from hitting the ground.
He stepped forward with determined purpose and broke through the dust-cloud to stand before the figure that looked at him piteously. She took flight to avoid a falling hunk of stone, and he saw the opportunity to release another bolt of energy. He missed his target, hitting the roof again but this time opening a gaping hole on the roof from which the moon shone through. He could feel the raw power gained from the moonlight emanating throughout his body. Joseph felt almost unstoppable.
Celestia landed on the floor, folding her wings after having narrowly avoided the bolt of energy. They stared at each other before Celestia broke the silence.
“Luna, I will not fight you! You must lower the moon, it is your duty!”
“Luna?” he replied humourously. Huffing a small chuckle, he replied: “I am... Nightmare Moon! I have but one royal duty now; to destroy you!!!”
His legs widened in stance to hold more ground as he shot another beam at Celestia’s footing. She took flight again, the beam hitting the floor beneath her and burrowed underneath as it created a crater, chunks of the floor flying outward. His gaze turned upward as his opponent escaped out of the hole through which the moon was shining.
“And where do you think you’re going?” he stated condescendingly. His wings unfurled as his legs bent under him, jumping and flapping the feathery appendages to carry him higher and higher. Celestia paused mid-flight, silhouetting herself against the moon as he fired beam after beam at her.
Celestia ducked and dived, avoiding every shot. Each discharge of magic hit something else; a wall, a sculpture, a tower, and whatever else got in his way. Through a display of combat aerobatics, he closed the distance of his target, weaving through each destroyed monument as it threatened to hit him as it fell. His prey found itself in a wide open area.
Noticing the wide arc in which Celestia was travelling, he timed his shot just right so his beam connected with her torso at just the right moment. He heard a satisfying shriek, a pained wail as his target fell out of the sky and fell through one of the dozens of holes created in the roof they flew out of.
He threw his head back in victory, cackling to himself at his accomplishment. He flew a brief lap around the castle to survey the damage done before something caught his eye. A ball of pulsing white and polychromatic light rose from the building with Celestia in the middle of it as she stared him down.
He summoned all the power he could gather from the moon, the dark forces permeating right to the core of his host, his eyes radiating a pure white light from the sheer amount of energy as he readied himself for his strongest attack yet. Celestia and himself fired their respective beams at the same time. Joseph could feel his attack momentarily gain ground on Celestia’s, but in a panic he felt his magic falter. Worry overtook being drunk with magic and power as the multi-coloured beam inched closer and closer.
”NNNNnnnooooooooo!!!!”, he screamed as Celestia’s magic connected with the horn atop his head. He could feel his body de-materialize and rocket skyward. The last sensation he felt was almost like getting flattened by a steamroller as his vision locked in place, cursed to stare down at the blue and green orb with a black canvas dotted by pinpricks of white light as its backdrop.
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Joseph sat bolt upright in bed, breathing heavily. He fell back onto his bed with a soft thunk, arms splayed out to the sides as they hung off the edges of the bed.
“Fuck, I was actually scared I wasn’t dreaming there for a second.”
He took a moment to flick the crusty crap from the corners of his eyes and glanced over to his nightstand to look at the time. Eight-thirty in the morning on Friday.
Being a Friday meant he had a later start at work, giving himself enough time to fix himself a proper breakfast instead of the thrice-a-week, grab-and-go at the diner down the road from his apartment and finish off the papers he brought home last night. Joseph lived in a more rural part of the city. The outlying suburbs let its residents get away from the hustle and bustle of the much noisier city, and starting work at eight-thirty meant Joseph had to get up earlier than normal to ready himself, then drive to work. He usually only had enough time to get up, shower, have a coffee that was being brewed while he showered, put on fresh clothes, and hop out the door with his bag and coffee in hand, speeding towards the city after he stopped off to get breakfast at the aforementioned diner.
He put his slice of bread in the toaster wells and plunged the lever and went to the fridge to pull out two eggs, a jar of chunky tomato relish, and some streaky bacon. Bacon and poached eggs on toast with relish was divine, it gave him the mental and physical energy he needed to do his best at work. If he had gotten his usual from the diner, he’d normally be scratching his head for those extra few minutes trying to figure out the problem from lack of proper nutrition because of the greasy diner food.
Joseph got out his foodstuffs and closed the fridge. Out of the corner of his eye, he swore he saw the ethereal tail from the Nightmare Moon that was in his dreams pull itself out of sight from the door frame.
He shook it out of his head. “Probably hallucinating from the dream,” he said aloud to reassure himself.
He pulled out a bottle of white vinegar and butter from the pantry and two small frying pans from the cupboard next to the stove, each big enough for their respective purposes. He turned two elements on, half filling one pan with water and adding the other half with vinegar and a teaspoon of salt.
When he finished pouring in the vinegar, the water rippled and an image of the helmeted Nightmare Moon appeared. Joe stared in disbelief at the static, transparent image in the water. He blinked his eyes and shook his head to see if it was real or not, and by the time he looked back there was nothing but the heated bubbles in the water floating to the top.
Today was supposed to be good; start at midday and leaving at five. Every other week would consist of getting an eighth of an ounce with a bunch of soda and snacks to last the weekend, while the other weeks would be whisky, takeouts, and gaming. Being single had its perks, usually meaning he had more time to himself, but that didn’t stop him from bringing home some company from time to time.
He carried on making breakfast, and while that cooked he pulled the unfinished papers out from his satchel he brought home last night from the office and got a pen from his desk. Plating up his meal with a knife and fork, Joe sat down at the table to complete the papers. Almost as if on cue, he absentmindedly heard the clip clop of hooves approaching him from behind, getting louder as they approached him.
Joseph turned around expecting to see the creature from his dream, but saw nothing. ’Great, I’m going insane. First I’m dreaming about horses, now I’m having auditory and visual hallucinations about them too.’
With his mood becoming increasingly bitter about the causes of these noises and things he’s seeing, he polished off both his breakfast and papers, putting them back in their folder and into his bag, followed with a shower and clean clothes.
Keys in hand, Joseph left the apartment and made his way to the street where his car sat. It then dawned on him. How did he get home last night?
The last thing he remembered was leaving the office and going to the Turkish restaurant, Abrakebabra, to get his dinner. As he got in the drivers seat, he sat there for a minute thinking hard about he got home. Between leaving with his takeout kebab and waking up, he had zero recollections about what transpired.
“I hope I don’t have demons or anything inside me…” he nonchalantly said as he started the car up. In doing so, he looked through the rear-view mirror at the road behind him to see if there were any oncoming cars he’d need to avoid hitting as he pulled out. Only one car drove past, a black Lamborghini with a number plate that made Joseph do a double-take as it sped past.
‘IAMNMM’
“Oh piss off!” he exclaimed, rolling his eyes as he angrily threw the gear stick into reverse. He backed up far enough so he had enough space to drive forward and out of his parking space. With an aggravated huff, he began driving towards the city and his job.
He was on the motorway when the same Lamborghini passed him. Again. And again. Multiple times, in fact. It got to the point where Joseph was getting rather fed up at wondering how the same car can keep passing him multiple times on the same stretch of road when there wasn’t any off ramps for a good distance for it to turn off. That said, the driver would need to be driving extremely fast to keep up with the flow of traffic on the road.
Angered frustration began building in the form of tension in his muscles. He began to depress
the gas pedal harder, shifting into a higher gear to speed up to change lanes into the one the black car kept driving down. Several minutes passed without seeing the car, and a small amount of tension began to alleviate itself. It didn’t last long as the car appeared at his left. It honked several times at him, slowing down enough to pull into the same lane behind Joseph.
He kept looking at the car the whole time, not paying enough attention to the movement of his hands. They slowly pulled the wheel to the left as he began to inadvertently change lanes into the one he changed from ten minutes ago.
He should have been paying attention.
A large food truck carrying deliveries for various eating establishments collided with his car. The front of the truck hit the rear left bumper, and that’s all it took for his car to become perpendicular to the front of the truck as it kept driving down the road. Panic set in, and Joseph began frantically yelling at the driver to stop what he was doing. Pounding the horn didn’t do any good, it was almost as if the driver either didn’t care or didn’t notice his predicament as they continued down the motorway.
Joseph then heard the same evil cackling from his dreams as it drowned out every other noise. His head darted around trying to locate the source of the noise. Not even the sound of the metal grinding on metal could be heard over the cackling.
He caught sight of the source. Nightmare Moon was flying in circles around his car, taunting him. She stopped at a hover in the middle of the road. She bared her teeth, so big and fearsome were they that even the teeth of the Goliath Tigerfish looked as tame as butter knives by comparison. Nightmare Moon’s jaw widened to an impossible size as she charged at Joseph as he stared with abstract fear into the black abyss of her mouth, the last thing he saw before throwing his hands up as a defense.
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For the second time, Joseph sat bolt upright in bed, the last action he performed in his dream duplicating itself as he accidentally threw himself off the bed and onto the floor.
Hey lay there as the startling realization dawned on him; he was still stuck in this god-forsaken world in this stupid girly body sporting wings and a horn.
“Uuggghhhhhh…” he piteously moaned, dragging himself up to lean with his back against the bed with the covers tangled around his limbs..
Nightmare? asked Nightmare Moon, still apparently aware of him.
“Oh shut up, that was you poking around my head,” Joseph replied aloud, not caring if anyone heard since he was in his own house. He glanced right to the clock on the nightstand, seeing it to be three-twenty-five in the afternoon, about two hours after he initially went to sleep after arriving at the house. “Cause me to have nightmares again and I’ll start thinking of sexy mare plot which you’ll be forced to look at.”
You wouldn’t dare… Nightmare Moon seethed.
With a devious grin, Joseph got to all fours and walked over to the window and pulled the curtain to one side, looking out on the street below as various ponies walked by.
He spotted a mare with a grey coat and a charcoal black mane sporting a treble clef cutie mark. As she walked, Joseph stared at her rear end and began picturing what colour lingerie she would look good in. “You know,” he began. “The softer purple of her cutie mark would look great contrasted against the same shade of purple and soft pink striped socks with dark purple panti—”
STOP! bellowed Nightmare Moon from within Joe’s head. I am the night! I should not have to put up with a pretentious human mortal fanticizi—
“So are you going to stop giving me nightmares?” he interrupted, still visualizing the scantily clad legs and booty. “That’s another thing. How did I go from one dream to another? I felt like I was in your body and mine at the same time.”
I do not know, but I theorize that because there are two of us in one mind at the same time, it could mean that our memories would either get replaced, deleted, written over, or merge together. But most likely you were experiencing my past as a dream.
“Well, I don’t want to forget about my life from Earth. I’m getting a snack and going to see Luna about it. Be on your best behaviour or I’ll start thinking about stallions too,” Joseph victoriously replied.
Even though he couldn’t see her, he was positive that Nightmare Moon would have been positively fuming with rage as his default victory. Joe headed downstairs and out the front door after grabbing an apple which he levitated in his aura, taking periodic bites out of it. Luckily enough he still remembered the way to the castle. Nightmare Moon’s comment about forgetting memories lingered in his head, and Joseph became increasingly uneasy about what else he was beginning to forget, what was already forgotten, or what was already lost.