The speeches were over, the sun going down, and as the motley group gathered in their penthouse hotel room, the mood was largely celebratory. The astronauts were thoroughly enjoying their five-star meal after three days of terrible freeze-dried rations, the guards were chatting in their spots, lounging near all the doors and windows, and nearly everyone had a soda or (in the case of the astronauts) a beer.
Except for Luna. She was shivering in a corner, still traumatized by whatever the Nightmare had said. Neil had been very pleasantly surprised to find that the Nightmare hadn’t killed anyone in her little jaunt, but Luna had sworn that “the words of that speech will never be translated into English, ever.” After that, she’d had an amusing and mildly disturbing argument with the Nightmare (if they got heated, things started being spoken out loud, and seeing two very different voices come out of one mouth, often nearly simultaneously), which ended in a victory for Luna, as far as he could tell.
It might have had something to do with her threat to kill herself and take the Nightmare with her in the event of a repeat. Whatever that speech had been, it had been bad. Really bad.
Even though he didn’t want to, he couldn’t help imagining what it could have been. That was probably the beer’s fault.
In any case, he felt sorry for the alicorn, and, slightly wobbly, he moved over to her. “Hey, Luna,” he said brightly. “Enjoy the moment! We made it, we’re safe, and we’re heading to the mainland tomorrow.” He took another drink. “Then we’ll have a fun time answering a whole bunch of questions. This is the only time you’ll have for a while to relax, and more importantly the only time to have a beer.” He offered her a bottle.
Slowly, she looked up. “Is imbibing alcohol a popular activity among humans as well?” she asked, tilting her head. “Ponies drink as well, but I have never seen the point of becoming mentally impaired.”
The Nightmare included, “You’re already stupid enough when you’re sober.”
Neil blinked. “Have you ever actually gotten drunk?” he asked.
“No, my duties did not allow for overdue consumption of drinks,” she replied. “And I never liked the taste, anyway.”
“Then that’s why you don’t understand,” he insisted. “It has to be experienced to be understood, Luna.” The offered beer jabbed itself forwards, and he placed it in her folded hooves. “Just let free for the night. Things’ll be serious enough tomorrow.”
She looked down with a frown. “I don’t believe I’ll…” In one fell motion, her horn glowed, the cap popped off, and the bottle deposited itself in her mouth. Reflexively, she swallowed, before grabbing it out of her mouth with a gasp.
“What was that?” she demanded. The Nightmare just laughed maniacally.
“I know the real reason you don’t imbibe,” it hissed smugly. “Any second now…”
Luna’s eyes widened, then shrunk to pinpricks. “Oh my.”
Then, without any fanfare, her eyes rolled up in her head and were promptly replaced by the Nightmare’s gleeful ones. “Heh,” she chuckled. “You poor souls stuck in bodies are so weak, aren’t you?”
Neil blinked muzzily. “What did you do?” he asked.
“Alcohol doesn’t mix well with magic. For the usual magic-user, it just means they can’t hold their liquor. But for an alicorn like moonbutt here, the stuff screws up stuff big-time almost instantly. It’s like a tranquilizer, so I made her gulp a bottle of the stuff. She’s so drunk and woozy it was child’s play to take over.” She snickered. “Ironically, now that I’m not fighting her directly, it’s much easier to take over.”
She attempted to go somewhere, but she stumbled and swayed so badly Neil couldn’t tell what direction she’d intended to go. Several tries only resulted in her successfully slamming facefirst into the wall before slumping against it.
“Why are these hooves so clumsy?” she lamented with a frown.
“Well,” Neil guessed, “If Luna’s drunk, you’re sharing bodies, right?”
“Yes, but I… oh.” Hoof tried to meet face, but ended up missing by several inches, and the overbalance deposited the Nightmare on her rump.
“So I think you’re drunk, too.”
“I am a Nightmare!” she flared, stumbling to her feet. “I am beyond pitiful things like being drunk…” She tottered, only barely catching herself. “I cannot express my disgust with this pitiful sack of flesh adequately in any language.”
Luna’s voice slurred out, “Serves you right, you sneaky parasite.”
The Nightmare snarled, “Shut up!” and punched herself in the mouth. Then, she blinked, temporarily slightly more lucid from the pain. “…I’m not just drunk. I’m completely wasted. My superior mind has reverted to assaulting my own body. I’m going to save myself the embarrassment.”
The cat’s-eyes fled, replaced by normal pupils, as Luna (still drunk) returned to dominance. “That sneaky little creature,” she mumbled. “Get back here so I can yell at you for getting me drunk!”
Neil suddenly found he couldn’t stop laughing as Luna began to rap on her own head in retaliation. He solved that problem by downing another drink.
-----
A heartbeat monitor sped up.
“He’s waking!”
------
Shots rang out in the early morning, the area under the thick foliage still as dark as night. Soldiers called out to each other in confident tones, “We’ve got this ambush counterpinned well and good!”
“Two gooks down!”
“Braley’s hit! I need a medic!”
“Just die already!”
Away from the calls and the gunfire, two terrified men huddled, injured, in the shelter of some tree roots. Or rather, one terrified man and one corpse. Softly he muttered prayers to any god he could think of to save him as the gunfire petered out, occasionally punctuated by calls of discovery. These were invariably followed with jeers, and then two shots.
A flash of light blinded him, and he brought his one working arm up to shield his eyes.
“Hello there,” a voice whispered softly. “I suppose you’re hoping that someone will save you?” It chuckled. “Well, your prayers have been answered, though maybe not in the way you think. I’ll give you the power, but you’ll have to save yourself.”
Another flash heralded a rush of fire through his veins, burning every nerve in his body, and as he screamed, he heard, “I’m sure they heard that. Just remember, the fire is your friend.”
He gazed in wonder at the flickering flames on the ends of his fingertips, bright and burning though they did not hurt. Then, a terrible smile graced his face as he rose to confront his enemies.