//------------------------------//
// Side Chapter: Nightmare Night 
// Story: The Alchemist 
// by Mr_Hippopotomonstroses 
//------------------------------//


Side Chapter: Nightmare Night


Everyone in town looked happy and he entire town was decorated in spider webs and I saw several pumpkins.  I just walked around looking at these Halloween like decorations.  I found the girls as we went to go eat some food at Sugar cube corner.  Ditto was also looking at the decorations.  We were eating when I decided to ask her about it.

"Hey Twilight?"
"Hm?"
"Whats with these Halloween decorations?"
"Hallo...ween?"
"Right stuff isn't the same now.  What's up with these decorations around town?"
"Oh, that.  Wait, you two don't you know?"
"Clearly not."
"It's Nightmare Night!"
"Nightmare night?  What's that?"

And with that question I was bombarded with so many answers followed by 'How do you now know?' or 'Didn't you hear the town talking about it?' or things like that.  From what I understood when the girls all answered me at once, this day was celebrated year around on the day of what happened with Luna, and or Nightmare Moon, being banished to the moon.  And they have this day of remembering what happened but since she came back the mood of this celebration has changed for the better.  I was nodding.

"Okay I get it."
"I don't.  I didn't even understand what you all said."
"Basically Halloween but with a different motive of celebrating the day."
"Oh okay, I get that."
"What is this Halloween you fellas keep talk'n 'bout?"
"It was when the human race, my race, was still alive of this planet.  We celebrated Halloween which is just like Nightmare Night, but we started celebrating because of a different reason."
"Really?  Can you tell us?"
"What?"
"Please?"

I did not know that ponies could do puppy dog eyes.   No that's not it.  More like puppy dog eyes cubed.  Yeah that's a more accurate description.

"Sure."
"Yay!"

Twilight brought out a scroll and ink from somewhere and was ready to start writing.  Then she realized something.

"How could I forget to bring a quill with me!?"

I laughed.  I just got a random fruit and gave it to her as I turned it into a quill.  She looked at me questioningly but  didn't say anything.  she just got to writing as I told her how Halloween started.  How humans had dressed up to scare away ghost or demons and shit like that.  I had to clarify about witches since ponies already have magic.  I had finished explaining it when I got up to get more food, and I collapsed  on the floor.

"Are you okay?"
"You have been acting strange ever since that bat bit you yesterday."
"A bat bit him?"
"Yeah, just yesterday when we passed by the farm."

They looked worried.  They began to talk to themselves.  They just stared at me.  The one who looked most worried was Fluttershy.  I stood up only to fall back down.  They all helped me get to  my feet.  They took me upstairs to a bedroom and laid me on the bed.  With that I passed out.


~Later~


I woke up I got up and felt something behind me dragging.  Probably just the blanket.  I yawned and felt something on my teeth.  I touched my teeth and felt two large fangs.  . . .What?  I went to the bathroom and saw my face.  . . . fangs?  I looked behind me and saw that the dragging feeling was not the blanket but wings.  Bat like wings.  what?  Even my eyes had changed.  The color of my iris was red.  But those things weren't what caught my attention.  It was my ears.

"What the fuck..?"

They were sticking out of my hair and were fuzzy and pointy.  I was so confused.  I just walked  downstairs and saw the girls and Ditto.  The girls seemed extremely worried.  Ditto just seemed to observe my new body.

"Have any food?  I'm hungry."
"Here."

Apple Jack handed me an apple.  I just stared at her.  An apple?  Really?  Whatever.  I just ate it and looked over at Pinkie.

"Hey Pinkie, little offense Apple Jack, can I have some actual food?"
"Wait you don't want apples?"
"Nope.  So Pinkie have anything?"
"How's cake?"
"I'm going to get fat if I keep eating cake.  Sure what the hell."
"Okeydokey."

She brought me a cake in five minutes.  I just devoured it.  I ate half of it.  The Pinkie ate a fourth.  Ditto ate the other fourth.  Once that was over we were talking over my bat like appearance.  They talked on my new body.  Apparently Apple Jack's grandmother had told a story about someone she knew that was bitten by one of the bats that lived near the edge of the farm that sucked apple through their fangs which really did a number on the farm business.  That a pony was bitten by the bat and turned into a bat like pony with the urge to suck the apples dry.

"And that's why you gave me the apple."
"Yes."

I felt a tug on my wings.  I looked back to see Twilight extending my wings to full length and measuring them.  Couldn't even ask?  I pulled my wings back from her grasp as she stared at me and looked embarrassed.

"Please ask me before touching them."
"Sorry."
"So.  How do they feel?"
"Like having extra limbs on your back.  It's hard to explain the feeling."

I flapped my wings slightly.  I had pretty good control over the wings.  Considering they were new to me.  I had the wing synchronization down.  I could fold them in and out.  I had decent control over my new limbs.

"Can you fly with them?"
"Probably."
"Try it.  I want to see how you fly."
"Sure."

I flapped my bat wings a little.  Then I gave one strong flap with my wings.  I shot straight up, hit the roof, and fell to the floor in two seconds, no exaggeration.  I just held my head in pain.  They were worried but laughed slightly at the same time.

"Son of a-AGH."
"Are you okay?"
"Maybe."

I stood up and rubbed my head from the hit.

"Ah'l ask Granny Smith what they did to turn that one pony back to normal."
"Okay.  But we should leave it until after tonight."
"What?  Why?"
"It's Nightmare Night.  Isn't this the best, most realistic costume?"
"He's right!  You look perfect!"
"Thank you Pinkie."
"You're welcome!"

I just ate and talked to Ditto.  Time passed, Ditto left to walk somewhere, and night came around.  The kids were dressed up.  The adults were too.  They had games and candy and what not.  I saw Luna walking around dressed in some weird...thing.

"Hey Luna."
"Hello Mimic."
"So...what are you supposed to be?"
"Oh this?  This was my appearance when I was Nightmare Moon."
"Oh, that's what it is."
"I see you have taken the appearance of a bat."
"Yep."

I flapped my wings to hover above the ground for a few seconds and came back down.  She just stared at me.

"They're real?"
"Yep.  Bitten by this bat that gave me this."

She went to a nearby game where you had to dunk your head and take an apple.  She got an apple with her magic and handed it to me.

"No I do not have an addiction to suck apples dry ever since that bat bit me."
"Really?"
"Yep.  Apple Jack gave me the same test."

I took the apple in my fangs and sucked the apple dry.  It was weird.  It was like getting apple juice.  The juice was sucked through my fangs like a straw.  The apple was left completely dry.  I felt something in my teeth.  I spit out seeds.

"Interesting.  So, Nightmare night huh."
"Yes."
"I would think the ponies would be, I don't know, terrified of you during this time?"
"Yes.  That was a problem last Nightmare Night.  Twilight did help me with getting the ponies to accept me."
"Okay.  So the ponies accept you now, that's nice to know."

I felt my wings get tugged.  I turned around and got kissed on the cheek again.  I look at the pony that kissed me.  Blossom.  Why am I not surprised?

"Hey Blossom.  How's it going?"
"It's going great.  I like your new look."
"Thanks.  Luna you remember my friend Blossom, right?"
"Yes I remember her.  Hello Blossom."
"Hi Luna."
"Let us go and enjoy ourselves tonight."
"Agreed."
"Okay."

And with that we left.  All across town, but mostly concentrated in the center, there were games and food.  So much to enjoy and much to see in such a small town.  We walked around and eventually found the girls, who were with Ditto.  They joined in on our little chat.  They all said hi to Luna, to me, and blossom.  Eventually we went to a little train ride that would take a small trip around the edge of the forest.  There were children just getting off the ride, the train ready for new passengers.

"Is this safe?"
"What do you mean?"
"Is it safe for children to be riding this, at night, in the forest."
"It's perfectly safe.  I have many guards positioned throughout the train's path.  The foals will be safe."
"If you say so."

I seriously think something will go wrong.  I will have to keep an eye out.  Everyone just got on the train as it began to make a noise from starting up and soon we were moving along through the forest.  The train was separated into multiple carts.  In the cart I was in held Ditto, Luna, the girls, and three children which were the sisters, and close friend, of the girls.  I keep feeling something is wrong.  I heard something off in the distant.  What was that?

"Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"I didn't hear anything."

. . .

"There it is again."
"What are you hearing?"
"Ah still don't hear anything."
"Maybe you're just paran-"
"HELP M-!!"

. . .

"I heard it that time."

I jumped out of the train and began to ran.  I could hear them yelling something but I still went ahead.  I had to find who that was.  I was running further into the forest.

"Help m-!"
"Hold on!

The voice was definitely getting louder.  I looked around.  I didn't see anything.  Then I saw something.  I saw a pony just laying on the ground.  I put my fingers on his neck.  Hes still alive.

"Help m-!"

I looked up.  I saw Death in the tree.  He jumped down as he held a recorder in his hand.

"Help m-!"
"His desperate cry for help.  I knew you would hear it.  You always heard things others didn't."
"The fuck do you want Death."
"What do I want?  To kill you Mimic.  That is what I want."
"Like that's going to happen."

Death crushed the recorder.  I cracked my fingers as I activated air.  He shot at me, swung his scythe trying to cut my neck.  I shot air from my hand shooting myself back.  I escaped the scythe but by shooting myself away and ended up hitting a tree behind me.  Yeah, that's not fun.  A branch fell off the tree and hit me on the head.

"Son of a-!"

I changed the branch into a scythe of my own.  Death smiled.  We fought each other, our scythes clashing.  This was definitely familiar.  The way Death fought was so very familiar.  We kept hitting and blocking our attacks.  Death swung his scythe to he again.  I jumped back but he threw the scythe.  The scythe had managed to get a cut at the side of my torso.  I activated earth and began to through huge chunks of earth at him.  I took my gun from my  pocket and shot him three times in the chest.  It made him back up a little but that was it.

With my scythe I was barely able to get a scratch on him.  He was getting multiple cuts on me though.  I have to end this. But how?  Death raised his hand as a ball of rock on fire began to form.  I quickly used the wind to try to put out the fire, but to no avail.  As he threw it at me I used earth to throw it back at him.  That did do some damage on him.  Death got a big chunk of rock and threw it at the ground between us.  The rock pulverized as I couldn't see anything.  Fuck!  I was looking around and didn't see him.  Did he leave?

"You have gotten very bad at this Mimic."
"Wha-?"

I looked as he was right behind me.  I turned around ready to fight him.  With his scythe, and incredible force, he hit me and set me flying into the air.  I used my wings to try to save myself from falling.  I was high in the air when an idea struck me.


~Ditto PoV~


Mimic had left us running somewhere.

"Do you think he’s okay?"
"I hope so."
"Wait look up there!"
"What is it?"

We looked up above the forest as we saw Mimic.  He was flying up into the sky.  Why are you flying?  Are you running away?  No, you would never do that.  What are you doing Mimic?  Mimic got higher and higher.  He flew way above the clouds and stopped.  He just stayed there, a scythe in hand.  Then he began to go back to where he came from.


~Mimic PoV~


I was flapping my wings hard as shit.  I had a plan alright.  I just needed speed.  And lots of it.  I continued to flap my wings.  Harder.  Harder!  I was shooting back down to Death like a rocket.  Suddenly I was shot forward as I heard a thunder like boom.  Behind me was a slightly transparent circle of condensed air.  I was going faster that the speed of sound.  I brought my scythe closer to me, ready to strike.  A attack from this speed is sure to leave Death in an extremely injured state.  I saw Death in the forest and aimed for him.  He saw me coming and began to run away.

Your not going to escape me that easily!  I continued to follow him.  Running was just prolonging this attack.  I was getting closer by the second.  Soon I stared Death in the face.  And smiled.

"Try laughing after this!"

With one fell swoop I knocked him back so hard he went flying taking down multiple trees in the forest.  His impact on the ground looked like a meteor had struck the ground.  There was dust everywhere.  I followed the path of broken trees.  When I found where he should be, I saw a massive amount of blood.  But no Death.  He got away.  Little fucker.  I walked back to the pony who had been knocked out.  He was awake again.  We both began to walk back to the town.

I made it to the town when I was tackled to the grounds.  Pinkie, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow were all screaming in my ear, being worried that something had happened.  Luna, Ditto, Apple Jack, and Rarity helped me get them off.  They were all asking what had happened.  Luna was talking to the other pony guard.  Once they settled down I told them what had happened.  My battle with Death, my plan, and losing him.

"Impressive.  I can’t believe you did a sonic boom as well.  Though next time just wait for us.  This was a trap for you.  If they get other horsemen, they will kill you."
"Yeah I guess so.  Well next time i'll make sure to drag you along."
"Yep, figured you would say something like that."
"Hey guys?"
"Yes?"
"Is a sonic boom anything like a sonic rainboom?"
"Sonic rain-what now?"

With that they explained to us the concept of a 'sonic rainboom'.  Ditto and I just listened to their explanation of the sonic rainboom.  They knew for it to occur that the one trying to perform it would have to go at extreme speed, but they had no idea that they had to at a speed faster than sound.

"So you have gone faster than the speed of sound?  That is very impressive Rainbow."
"Thanks."
"So yeah, sound like to rainboom is just a fancier way of creating a sonic boom."
"Very interesting."

Twilight was writing all of this down.  Ditto and I laughed at that.  Once that was over the celebration continued, the guard thanked me once more and went back to work.  The girls, Luna, Ditto and I just walked around enjoying the night.  They were talking and laughing.  Later Apple Jack said there were two ways transform me back.  One was by magic, which obviously can’t happen due to obvious reasons, and the other was a remedy, with ingredients from the forest.  It would take two days to get the ingredients.  So I would be like this for a fair amount of time.  I didn't really mind.  We continued to walk when I heard some of the stuff they were saying.  They talked on when to lower the moon and raise the sun.  That's when I finally thought about it.  . . . They shouldn't have to raise or lower either.