02| Explanations
It wasn't long after Joseph fell asleep that he found himself floating in an empty, ethereal black space. What puzzled him is the uncertainty of whether or not he was standing on something solid that blended in with the place he was in, or if he was floating instead. His feet were flat, suggesting he was stranding on something, but that could simply be a trick of the mind, or an illusion.
He looked around more, to gauge what exactly this place was, but it was black as far as the eye could see. He looked down at his feet, and that's when it hit him.
'I have my feet back!'
He couldn't believe his luck. Knowing he had fallen asleep, he wondered if this was the dream, and the other place he was in could be the real world; or at least what could be loosely called real given the circumstances.
So we are finally able to meet, echoed a voice.
"Who's there?" He replied. "What is this place?" Anxiously turning his body on the spot in an attempt to locate the voice, he eventually caught sight of something he vaguely recognized coming into view; the form rippling into existence like dropping a pebble into a puddle while looking at your reflection. Joseph focused on the form with disbelief. "YOU! How can I be... And you... What the heck is going on!?"
Calm down, came the soft reply. I am not entirely sure myself, but I have a few ideas. The form in question looked liked the one Joe woke up in, only the one he was looking at was wearing armour of some description on its hooves, a chest-plate, and a helmet. The cloud-like, well, what could be hair somehow penetrated the back of the helmet to flow behind her.
"Firstly, you can tell me who you are!"
She replied without moving her lips. I am Nightmare Moon.
"So you're the reason why those crazy horse-things have been calling me that!"
Presumably, Nightmare Moon nonchalantly replied.
"That's another thing. You're not moving your lips but I can still hear you? How does that work?"
We are of the same mind and body. Some might call it telepathy, but that would be an easy way to explain it.
'So if I speak in my head like this you can still hear me?'
Correct.
"That's freaky as hell. Can we just stick to not using telepathy, or whatever you call it?"
"Very well. Now as for why you're here..." Nightmare moon brought a hoof to her chin in thought. "When those ponies stripped me off of Luna, they left behi—"
"Woah woah woah, one thing at a time. What do you mean by 'stripped me off of Luna'? Who the fuck is Luna anyway?!"
"The form you are seeing is a manifestation. In the real world, I have no real form. In a sense, I require a host body to survive."
"So what's that got to do with me, and how come I have your body 'in the real world'." Joseph finished the last few words with sarcastic quotation marks made by his fingers. He wasn't quite sure Nightmare Moon understood what he was trying to do with his fingers after the fact.
"You see..." She heaved a sigh before placing a hoof on her temple, contemplating her next words. "My armour—the set you see on me right now—was left broken and shattered. I had placed a spell upon it, that if, or in this case when I got defeated, the shards would find another suitable host."
"I'm going to pretend that makes sense. So what about this 'Luna'?"
"When I said I cannot survive without a host body, that's the part of me that existed in the real world. Luna's soul was becoming more and more tainted with darkness as time went on, and that growing darkness allowed me to enter her body and take control. She would have existed as you see me now."
"So, let me get this straight," Joseph began, crossing his arms. "Little Miss Luna was depressed. You got a hold of her and turned her into you." The last word was punctuated by Joseph unfolding his arms to gesture at the mare standing before him, then refolding his arms. "Then what about these 'Elements' I keep hearing about?"
"The Elements of Harmony are powerful gemstones imbued with magic. They had the ability to strip my form from Luna, which left the armour broken."
"Then the armor somehow chose me as its new host?"
"It would seem that way.
"Then how come I have your body?"
"I am not sure. My best guess would be that your mind controls the reconstructed body, while my ethereal form—" Joseph opened his mouth briefly but Nightmare Moon cut him off. "—hold on! Allow me to elaborate. My ethereal body, as it were, was what some called 'The Miasma'. It corrupted ponies that were weak enough in mind."
"By definition, isn't a miasma an unpleasant cloud of sorts? The kind created when you fart?"
"That's... one way to look at it," Nightmare Moon replied with a perturbed look on her face.
"Let me condense this to where I can understand it. Your armour chose me as a host. You were an evil cloud that corrupted minds, turning them into evil versions of themselves. I am now you, on another world, possibly galaxy, even universe." Nightmare Moon nodded. "Still begs the question of how I got here from Earth."
"When I enchanted my armour to find another host when it was torn from the host at the time, I guess I didn't set the parameters correctly. More like; 'When I die find someone else'. I didn't specify whom, what, or where from. It just... Happened."
Joseph's demeanour softened as he relaxed himself. "Before I got here, I saved a women from getting raped. I got stabbed, and I died. The last thing I saw was a lot of colours, then I looked at the moon as it flashed. Next thing I know, I wake up in your body, but without the armour."
She nodded. "I think that's about all I can explain at the moment, at least what is to the best of our understandings."
"The only thing I can think of adding at this point is the spell within the armour somehow picked up that I was dying and plucked me from my world. How it did that is still up for debate."
Nightmare Moon nodded. "Yes. But for now I must go, you have company. I will be with you if you need me. Think, and I will answer."
At that moment, Joseph felt himself being pulled by the chest by a length of rope. His vision swam with black and white colours as he woke up from his dream. Blinking several times, he looked around to see Celestia looking curiously at him from the foot of the bed.
"Have a good sleep?" She asked.
Joe found the question odd. As far as he knew, he's the bad guy. Well, in the body of the bad guy. "I just had the weirdest dream..." He wearily replied.
"It would seem so. My sister wasn't able to access your dreams."
"Wait, WHAT!?"
"That is a story for another time. But for now, I digress." She turned behind her to the door and called out, "Come in, Twilight." The byzantium mare from before walked into the room, levitating a parchment and quill. Celestia turned her gaze back to Joe. "My student here will be documenting this unusual case. Care to shed any light..." She trailed off, realizing she hadn't learnt his name.
"Joseph," He answered. "My name is Joseph Merrick."
"Very well then, Joseph. Tell me your story of how you came to be here."
So for the next while, Joe began recounting the story of the events leading up to him waking up. The office, getting stabbed, the weird thing with the moon, waking up in the castle, seeing Twilight and the rest. It wasn't until he got to the part about the dream that things began to get interesting. Twilight's eyes widened in disbelief, and the scratching of quill on parchment intensified as he gave his best explanation.
Choosing his words carefully, he explained that the armour pieces that were left behind when the Elements stripped the rest of The Miasma away were enchanted. The enchantment was designed to find another host body after its current host got defeated, and wound up picking him via some indeterminate means.
"Fascinating!" Beamed Twilight. "It seems that Nightmare Moon's armour reconstructed her body with Joseph here as its host, while the subconscious of The Miasma still resides within his mind. You control the body, physically and mentally, but one cannot exist without the other in this case. I think that the armour and the consciousness of The Miasma have created a symbiotic relationship with you, where it depends on you to survive as its new host." She paused both to take a breath, and to contemplate her next sentence. "It's almost like the consciousness of Nightmare Moon is fully aware, but in a waking coma. Joseph, meanwhile, is somehow the more dominant of the two, controlling what the body does."
"So why am I a horse?"
Twilight shrugged. "My best guess is that it created the last form it remembered. If you got stabbed, as you explained, The Miasma might not have known about your body's physiology to repair it, so it made one it knew about beforehoof."
Joseph's eye twitched. "Did you just..."
"Just what?"
"Have you not heard of hands before?"
"What are hands?" The mention of hands confused Twilight and Celestia, judging by the looks on their faces.
A lightbulb went off in Joe's head. "The dragon! He has hands!"
"Those are claws..." Twilight deadpanned.
"Call them what you must, but those are the best comparison to hands I can think of."
To which Twilight replied in passing; "Lyra would like to hear that..."
Joseph didn't say anything, he just rolled his eyes in mock contempt. "After all that, what happens now?"
Celestia's expression became suddenly sombre. "I am not sure what I should do with you. I can't very well let you wander around freely; our subjects would go into a panicked frenzy that you—er Nightmare Moon—is still alive."
"If I may, princess?" Spoke Twilight as she rolled up the parchment she was taking notes on and put it in her bags. Celestia and Joseph turning to look at her. "We've established this isn't Nightmare Moon; just her body. The creature—"
"Hey!"
"—person, sorry, is the one in the same before he got pulled from his world. As far as I'm concerned, there's no reason not to trust him. I say give him benefit of the doubt."
"Very well, my student." Celestia turned to look back at Joseph. "I've no reason not to trust you; I'm only apprehensive of whom you resemble. I shall give you quarters of your own that include amenities, as well as access to the staff so you can request food and the like. There will also be books and writing material to keep you occupied."
"Thank you..." Breathed Joseph, relaxing somewhat.
"But I also need to inform my sister about the situation. She will want to be aware of what has transpired here. I'll have a guard show you to your room."
Celestia curtly nodded, and turned to leave through the door with Twilight. She muttered a few whispers outside, and a guard poked his head through the door to look at Joseph. Through the golden armour and white of his coat, the guard turned an even paler shade of white than anyone thought possible. The guard calmly—and rather comically as Joe found himself smirking at the guard's reaction—withdrew his head from the door.
"Please tell me that isn't whom I think it is, your majesty!" He whisper-shouted, much to Joe's amusement.
"They are a guest," she replied sweetly. "You will award them the same courtesy as anyone else. Have I made myself clear?"
"Yes, your majesty," was the reply. He stuck his head back through the door. "If you'll follow me, please."
Joseph made an attempt to get out of bed. Still rather unfamiliar with his new body, he put his front hooves on the ground over the edge of the bed, and used those to pull himself off the mattress as his rear hooves fell to the ground. Shakily standing on his hooves, he took a step forward. The guard must've be enjoying the sight, because Joe heard him snicker.
"What?" He snapped, and shot a dirty look at the guard.
"Pardon me, but I've not seen somepony act like that."
"Somepo... Did you just..." Joe looked at him with an, are you fucking kidding me, face, his nostril twitching with irritation. "*Ahem* Tell me something," he added, still trying to garner his new motor skills. "Why do you creatures seem to have it in for me, or rather, this Nightmare Moon character?" He looked down at his hooves trying to think of what one to move first so to not tangle it up in the rest. He found that moving one front leg and the opposite rear one, then repeating the action felt surprisingly natural. Apprehension apparent, he carefully walked over to the door where Celestia still stood outside, presumably to lower the enchantment on the room she was keeping Joe in.
Celestia must have heard his question, for it was she whom answered. "That is a rather subjective topic. I do believe you will find some answers to those questions, and more, about this realm from the books in the room I'm providing you with."
Joseph began walking, flanked by Celestia on his left and the guard on his right. Through wide corridors they went and many corners they rounded, until the three of them came to a corridor that had doors opposite each other every five metres or so. They kept walking until they came to a stop about the third of the way down, stopping at a seemingly random door on the left. Celestia's horn glowed, and so did the door handle as it turned, the door itself opening inward.
Joseph entered the room first, followed by Celestia as the guard turned to, well, guard the door. She shut the door behind them and gestured to the room with a hoof. "This shall be your room for the time being," she said.
The room was quaint; a large bed base and mattress sat against the left-hand side of the wall, complete with sheets and dotted with pillows. At the far end of the room was a dual-shuttered window, complete with glass too. The right-hand side of the room contained two bookshelves set either side of a desk, the table portion of which was slanted forward slightly. The chair had no legs. It was comparable to a chair that royals on Earth would have used, one with a high back, except this one had no legs. The base of it sat freely against the stone floor.
At the back of the room on the left was a door-less entrance. Joseph walked over to it and peered through. It was a basic bathroom; an odd-looking—what could be a shower or bath—on the left, and a squat toilet comparable to the ones found in Asia at the end. He turned to look back at Celestia, whom was watching him explore his surroundings.
"Is it to your liking?" She asked, kindness evident in her voice.
Joseph looked down in disdain. "I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be feeling about this. As it stands, I was ripped from my home world; from the life I lived and loved. But at the same time, I was dying after having saved someone. I got a new life, but that much is bittersweet."
"In what way?"
"How are you supposed to live a life that is not your own? One where you're painted as the villain for crimes that you did not commit. By the sounds of things, this 'Nightmare Moon'... She's done some pretty abhorrent things. It would explain why that guard looked at me like I was going to gobble him up."
Celestia walked up to the disheartened mare and put a comforting wing over Joseph. "None of what happened was your fault, that much is true. But if you'll excuse me, I have duties to attend to. Feel free to entertain yourself, and you have access to the maids and chefs if you like. If I may be so bold as to say, I think it best if you not leave for the time being until I can get this mess sorted out."
Joseph heaved a sigh. "I understand. But how will I get the attention of the maids or chefs? I've no way to talk to them."
Celestia realized her mistake at that moment. "Normally I would say to use your magic..."
"Bullshit I have magic!" Joe interrupted, aghast.
Celestia returned his comment with an aghast look of her own. "F... Forgive me, I've not heard such language like that in a good long while..." Celestia cleared her throat audibly, and shook that word off her mind. "I will post a guard outside your door so you can call for him if you need anything or to have him fetch the maids to provide services for you or the chefs to cook." She punctuated the end with a smile, which made Joseph feel more welcomed.
Celestia left and spoke briefly to the guard outside before disappearing in a flash of light. Joseph went up to the door and cracked it open. "Excuse me, but what's your name?"
"Morning Glory," replied the guard.
Joseph needed to do a double take at that name, a small snicker lodging itself in his nasal cavity. "Pardon?"
"My name is Morning Glory, ma'am. I am with the Solar Guard of her Highness, Princess Celestia."
That... That just killed it. Joseph was ready to burst out into laughter, but when the guard added the rest of that schpiel, Joe found that the humour in his name dissipated rather quickly. "Do you have a nickname?"
"No ma'am."
'Damn. I half expected his buddies would've nicknamed him Woody or something.'
"Thank you, Morning Glory." Joseph closed the door behind him, and took another cursory look over the room. 'Books, writing, bed, and a shower. Not much to work with...'
Nightmare Moon's voice echoed around inside Joe's head. You could do to educate yourself on the citizens and the land while you've got nothing but time on your hooves.
'Bitch, I was a human, and we say hands' Nightmare only scoffed. 'Why don't you tell me your story while we're here, hmm?'
Go over to the bookshelf on the right. Look for a brown book with gold brackets holding the spine together.
Joseph did just that, scanning each of the dozen or so shelves for the aforementioned book. Eventually, second shelf up from the bottom, he found the spine of a brown book with gold brackets. 'This'll be a mission trying to get it off the shelf.' He began pawing at the top of the book's spine, trying to dislodge it from its place. Eventually he knocked it loose, but the book fell on its spine, rendering his current method for attempting to get the book out futile. Without a second thought, he opened his muzzle and bit the top of the book, pulling it out that way.
Finally victorious, he went over to the bed and lay the book down on the covers as he got on top of the bed too. Turning it over from its face-down position, he glanced at the title. A History of Equestria, emblazoned above a carving of a golden bust of a unicorn. He flipped open the cover, and began reading.
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4852124
Read the comments and authors notes...
Looking interesting so far
4852129 I cant find any comments or authors notes
but yea it does seem similar
4852258
THE AUTHORS NOTES ARE AT THE END OF THE FIRST CHAPTER
Twilight is still OOC. Not sure if you're just having trouble with her or if it's intentional. Celestia... well, we don't have much to go on for her but your doing a decent job with her I suppose. With the exception of her interactions with Twilight. Still too cold. Other than that, good so far.
4852269
cant find them at the beggining
4852282
It depends on what story you read as to whether or not any character is OOC. Someone could paint Celestia as from the show, another story could paint her a tyrannical, narcissistic bitch in another. It just depends on the authors writing style and how they write the characters as a whole; it's almost entirely subjective.
Goood good I approve of this story
4852313 Not really... OOC is usually in reference to Canon material (the show). Anything outside that is "alt universe" material (a tag you have so I'm not sure if your making variations for Twilight or not).
4852269 its sad to see that while people like reading, they don't read everything
Have to wonder why Nightmare is actually being pretty complacent considering her history. And I don't really think it can be explained away as her not posessing Luna, and thus not being crazy; as the way it was explained the miasma was pretty evill by itself just by invading the minds of people who were depressed or whatever.
So, what? Is the miasma secretly a genie like thing that tries to make people in a bad situation feel better? Or is the semi-coma responsible for it? Also, if the first, get a better name ya derpy ponies, miasmas were what olden times' called clouds of plagues.
Hrmmmm, interesting developements... I like how things go so far.
Poor Joe should have less trouble, but that won't happen anytime soon, I suppose.
Nevertheless, it's interesting to see all this happen... and a Nightmare Moon so friendly towards our guy! It is honestly surprising!
Welp, let us see more!
-Zeph
nicely done
4852360
You make a good point, but I still disagree. Not having a capital after a question mark or exclamation mark just greatly irks me. Either way I think it's grammatically correct.
AAAWWW you went the parasite route for NMM.
Never liked that theory for it weakened Luna in my book. Well first major difference in my story and yours. 
4852391
I guess you could call it style at that point. I just always correct it in stories I have been asked to edit and most other editors agree with me.
I lost it right here
Why do I feel the Easter egg is woody...
That was pretty good, enjoyed it all except that last bitch. Everything else he said was pk, but that one felt off.
4852460
Nuff said...
Minotaurs.
4852354
NMM is now literally trapped within her own body and mind, unable to control them. What has she got to lose?
MMMMMMMM yes... This shall do with my reading hunger for now... SO MAKE MORE FOR THE PLATE SLA-
I mean... GOOD CHEF!
4852283 I swear, this had a different title last time I read it
4852667 I think you're talking about this story.
4852679 Ruin my fun why don't you?
Resemble would fit better than represent since he doesn't represent anything.
Second bold section is missing a b before that lone e
Needs the exclamation point moved to just after bullshit and then end with a question mark or keep the exclamation point there, add a comma after bullshit, and put the contraction don't between I and have.
4852667 I know its weird
I also think it got a better picture
I find it strange that nobody commented on Morning Glory's name, which I feel could only have been better if it was actually Morning Wood, but whatever. Also, will Joe ask his partner in bodily possession to teach him magic in the future?
4852772
I fixed the first part, but I disagree with the second. Moving the exclamation mark to after bullshit then adding a question mark at the end of magic sounds contradictory to me. I don't like the way it looks or sounds when I read it. Besides, one sentence can be said with incredulity rather than splitting up four words to deliver the same incredulity with a question at the end of it. Just think it's tad confusing...
Nothing wrong with how it is anyway.
4852604
I can't help it! Stories I like get long comments full of little typos and such. Though, if you don't want that I can just seethe on my end.
4852889
You can make suggestions all you want, but if an author disagrees with how something is written (even though there's nothing wrong with it, as much it's a case of personal preference) then don't argue the case. It's redundant and frustrating.
I shall now implant a subliminal Idea into your mind!
johblogs.com/wp-content/full_moon.jpg
peacethroughpie.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/baked-pie.jpg
4853001
A moon and a pie? Are you referencing my Lunar Domination story?
4852360
4852911
Yes, you are an ass for trying to help out someone that is doing it wrong.
4853001 THE MOON IS A PIE!
too bad I dont like pie very much.......
maybe if it was made out of cheese I could use it for a burger
I love how this is going. I am torn about NMM's personality still being there though. I think NMM doesn't need to be in his head. I think this story is awesome enough without it but meh, too late and no big deal. I do like how NMM is not giving him a hard time or making things worse for him and is being downright cooperative but I can't help but wonder why? She admits to being a super evil mind corrupting fart but is being very civil and helpful. Why?
Did she become good all of a sudden or is she still evil and just biding her time til she can take over once again? Since there's a Dark tag, my money's on the latter, not the former. 50 bits says our human gets mind raped and then becomes evil in NMM's name and body.
4853025
Oh shush you, no throwing gasoline on the fire. Jezza will never be able to make it through the next challenge if you are so wasteful.
4853025
I wasn't completely and utterly wrong. It's a personal preference above anything else, but either way is still grammatically correct as far as I'm concerned.
4852651 So the semi-coma then. And I'd argue she has little to lose, but much to gain; as she probably has a chance to finagle her body back because anything can happen in pony world.
4853189
4853272
I actually REALLY like those ideas A LOT!
Addressing the info dump issue; it's more dialogue heavy than anything. I've had some ideas come to me last few days so with what I wrote, and compared to what I've got in store it's only half of it.
All that's there is the explanation of how Joseph came into the world.
4853351
Just you wait, I got an idea in mind
4853402 And I'm sure they're excellent, I just like making a game out of guessing how each story I read will progress.
I'm admittedly pretty terrible at it, but, oh well.
wow, im not actually gonna read this but i love the cover art!
I was thinking NMM being evil have something to do with weak minded and or naivety and or having dark thoughs (including but not limited to extreme depression, don't have much going for mental defence and offence, can be influented easily, dark magic...) with certain desires. Yes, NMM is sorta evil but not that much... Based on what I have seen so far, I think it is more amplifying the dark aspect. And people with not enough will power can not fight the dark side and take advantage of it.
If you're having this many problems with commenters, maybe an introductory note might be in order.
Interesting, I'm giving you a palm here...