I've been fascinated by the idea of Nightmare beings ever since I began thinking up (but not necessarily writing) fan fiction. However, I'm not interested in Nightmare Moon, or in any of the canon characters becoming Nightmares. No, I'm interested in Nightmare OCs...mainly because my main OC is one. (That's something I noticed about myself; I like characters and aspects of the show because I use them in my ideas, not the other way around.)

My OC, the demon-child Daniel Hayes, really is a good example. Though he isn't a Nightmare to begin with (only acquiring the power halfway through a fic I'm writing), he was born with dark powers. Eventually, a certain...event occurs that grants him his Nightmare form. Like Nightmare Moon, his Nightmare form is activated by a strong negative emotion. Whereas Luna's was based on jealousy, Daniel's is based on feral rage. As a result, he has no other thoughts in that form except "kill": "kill the thing that's ticking me off so bad." There are two major restraints, though. 1. The Nightmare form requires lots of rage to maintain, so unlike Nightmare Moon, Daniel will go back to normal if he's allowed to calm down. 2. It takes a lot to make him that angry. You need to be an absolute scum of the earth villain to get him to go Nightmare. In essence, Daniel's Nightmare form is little more than a monster sleeping inside him, but it only comes to the surface in response to something worse.

5057867 2edgy, no different from black-n-red OCs.

5059440 In that fanfic...maybe not. However, I'm currently making a Persona fan game involving him (he takes the role of Teddie) where things are a little different. He'd start out the same way, leading up to a level reflecting his inner fear that he's destined to drown alone in his misery, and that anyone he comes into contact with will just get dragged into the darkness with him to some gruesome fate. After the EQG cast (barring Pinkie Pie; her level comes right after) wades through all that crap, they tell him that he's no longer alone. The latter half of the game has him slowly becoming less edgy and more cheerful as he comes to truly accept the group as friends.

One problem: this is me writing the character into a corner. There was more I wanted to do with Daniel after the Persona game, but this feels like a real good place to leave him. A guy who's never been happy in the 18 or so years of his life has finally found happiness, and I feel like I can't do anything more with him without screwing with that. And I don't want to be a cruel bd and do that.