07| New Worlds and New Friends
Readers be like: "Wow, an update so soon!? The last chapter took two months!"
Yeah yeah, I had more free time on my hands lately and my writers block wasn't as bad this time around.
I'm putting this quote box here because knighty should hurry up and add a module that lets people add authors notes to the top and bottom of chapters. People might want to split relevant information between top and bottom.
In Ponyville, Twilight was going about her evening routine when she heard Spike belch from upstairs.
"What did I tell you about eating too much ice cream?" she scolded.
"It wasn't me!" Spike exclaimed as he hopped down the stairs holding a scroll in his claw. "Well it was, but the Princess sent a letter!"
Without any modicum of courtesy, Twilight plucked the letter from Spike's claw and unfurled it.
Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student.
You are aware of the happening of Nightmare Moon reborn into a body of her own controlled by the thoughts of a male human.
As I did with you, I'll be sending him to Ponyville so you can introduce him to your friends. I have faith that you can cheer him up as he has had a rough time trying to adjust as of late. He will fill you in on the details of his being tomorrow morning when he arrives.
Having Pinkie Pie throw him a welcoming party so he feels more welcome would be splendid, as I know how much fun you had at your welcoming party. I believe this will help lighten his mood enough to have a good time and to better adjust himself to his new life.
Yours, Princess Celestia.
"What did the Princess want, Twilight?"
"You remember the Nightmare Moon incident back at the castle a couple days ago after the Elements purged her from Luna?"
"How could I forget? Something happened and Nightmare Moon saved herself."
"Not quite. I'll know more when she gets here."
Spike shot Twilight a horrified look. "What!? Nightmare Moon! Here!?"
"For some reason, Celestia kept referring to her as a 'he', and Celestia has no reason to lie to me. I'm going to do as she asks after talking to him or her or whatever it is called."
Spike waved Twilight off as he strode towards the kitchen. "I'm getting a snack before bed, want anything?"
"No thank you, Spike.”
Twilight rolled up the parchment that the princess had sent her, teleporting it away. She normally sent them to a desk drawer upstairs in her room for safe keeping until she decided it was time to throw them away. She then carried on with her reading as Spike walked back up the stairs with a glass of milk in one claw and a few cookies in the other.
He would usually heat them with his dragon fire to the point where the cookies would become soft and the chocolate would melt partially, where they would become a deliciously warm treat washed down by a glass of milk.
Twilight had tried searching more on the Elements of Harmony in Golden Oaks Library, but even the oldest tomes and books in stock had failed to produce anything worthwhile.
Twilight glanced over the remaining two and a half pages in the last book she had found to have anything pertaining to the Elements, but the vagueness of the information had her conclude that it wouldn't be any more helpful. Given the lateness of the evening, she decided to resume looking tomorrow when Nightmare Moon would show up to inform Twilight of the happenstance surrounding her.
Twilight, instead of staying up late like she normally would, decided an early bed would be in order. After the return of Nightmare Moon, she'd been reading up on the lore surrounding the Nightmare, Luna, Celestia, and the Elements since she got back from the castle. Frustrated with the lack of findings, she decided to sleep.
All she managed to piece together from the myriad of books was that The Nightmare was a high-class demonic entity banished to Tartarus. Over time, its name was forgotten to the land of the living. Nopony knew it's real name, only calling it by what the demon induced. As legend goes, when creature and pony alike dies, they go to either Tartarus or Heaven.
Twilight was thinking that demons have to come from somewhere, right? So what happens when ponies come face-to-face with their own demons? She shuddered at the thought. That would be the one question that nopony would want to answer.
When growing up, someone once told Twilight the definition of Tartarus: The last day you are alive, the pony you became will meet the pony you would have become.
The more she thought about it, Twilight realised that Luna wanted the populace to admire her night, believing herself to be shunned by Celestia's day. Luna refused to acknowledge that it was this hatred and nagging anger growing within that lead her to be possessed by the Nightmare.
As weird as it might have seemed to Twilight, according to one book about the supernatural, demons from the bowels of Tartarus needed permission to enter a host's body, garnering full control of the body and transforming it into an ugly version of their dark side: a twisted representation of themselves, what the host would look like with all their anger, hatred, and other negative emotions brought forth.
Such is what happened to Luna. The elegant Princess of the Night wanted her beautiful night to be noticed so badly, that she let the Nightmare possess her, believing that it could give Luna what she wanted.
But instead, Nightmare perverted her desires. Nightmare wanted to raise the moon and keep it there, and Luna was locked away in her own mind, screaming internally at Nightmare that perpetual night would likely freeze everything. Anything that required sunlight to live would eventually perish.
Luna got what she wanted, but in a way she never wanted it.
The following morning, Twilight was making her way downstairs all bleary-eyed. She barely got to the bottom when she got interrupted by a knock from the front door. Not wanting to be bothered with the journey across the room to open it, she simply used her magic to lazily swing open the door.
Standing in the doorway was none other than Princess Celestia.
"P-Princess!" Twilight stammered, hurrying over to the door to properly greet the monarch, as she did with a courteous bow. "I thought you were sending Nightmare Moon, not escorting her!"
Celestia stifled a slight giggle at Twilight's antics. After all these years, Twilight still behaved so formally around Celestia. While Twilight did it out of respect, it became a bit of a comical act for Celestia, having repeatedly told her student that such formalities aren't needed from student to teacher.
"While I did imply that I would send Nightmare Moon here, I thought it better to escort her myself instead of with the Royal Guard. It would save for any hoof-pointing if somepony were to catch her and remove the disguise." She stepped into the library, revealing an average-looking, dark-blue mare with an equally dark purple mane.
"Is that her?"
"Him," Joseph deadpanned. "I trust the pronoun issue won't be too much of a problem?"
Twilight seemed taken aback at his response, but Celestia spoke softly between them before Twilight could say anything more. "Luna has acquired a place for him to stay in Canterlot. As I said in my letter, I want you to introduce him to your friends."
Twilight smiled at the prospect of befriending both Nightmare Moon and an alien from another world. She had just gained five new friends, with whom she managed to defeat an evil villain, only to have the same villian reborn by a means unknown. The unicorn gestured with a hoof for Joseph to come inside.
"Spike is making breakfast. You can go help yourself if you like."
"Oohhh, free food is the best food!" Joseph exclaimed with mild glee as he walked past the two mares and through to the kitchen. Twilight just rolled her eyes.
"By the way Princess, while the books here are great, they don't shed enough light on Nightmare Moon or the Elements. When you come to retrieve her later, can I come back with you to the castle to get a few books from the Canterlot Library?" Twilight pleadingly asked.
"Which books do you require? I can have them sent to you."
"Books on demonology and obituaries from the time period any demon of significant status came up. They would be quite old. What I did manage to find is the Nightmare is a demon from Tartarus. According to the book, when ponies die they either go to Heaven or Tartarus. If a demon were to break free of its prison, it can inhabit a host body. I'm thinking if there's records that go back far enough, I could find references to different kinds of demons in a book, and possibly death records that might connect the Nightmare to a pony that died a long time ago."
Celestia's gaze grew more concerned at Twilight's request, but she didn't drop her cheerful expression.
Books about demons and other dark entities did exist, but a lot of the populace was mostly unaware of what lurked in the shadows, and thus the books went largely unnoticed in the Canterlot Library. Sure there were the real creatures such as manticores and parasprites, but Celestia had been around long enough and had seen many things to know that demons such as Nightmare Moon were all too real, and that everypony else brushed off as old wives tales to be told to scare the little colts and fillies during Nightmare Night.
Evil mages that practiced voodoo and other dark magic, whom stood over black, bubbling cauldrons were a popular genre of books, but the history of them was much more sordid than that.
Knowing that keeping possibly helpful information to herself would indeed leave teeth marks on her backside, she relented. "I will try to find you the obituaries and cross reference them with the time period of demons popping up, as per your request, although the death records will be rather difficult to find, as the written language in which they were written at the time could very well be hard to read due to the style and dialect used to transcribe them."
Twilight smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Princess. If we can find something to help... him... then he could live a normal life amongst us."
"Of course he will, that is part of the reason why I brought him here. Now, I must return to Canterlot to begin Day Court before I am missed. Have a good day, Twilight." The Princess gave Twilight an affectionate nuzzle, of which she returned, before leaving the way she came as she was pulled in the direction of Canterlot on the cart pulled by the Royal Guard.
Twilight closed the door and went to join Joseph in the kitchen. Entering, she saw Joseph sitting at the table taking bites out of a slice of toast that had an egg topped with hollandaise sauce.
"I gotta admit," Joseph began with a mouthful of toast and egg. "Your dragon friend makes a bang-up breakfast. In fact, I was just telling him that I only got stuff this good when I worked on the coast at a couple beachside cafes before I settled at my office job before I came here.”
Spike had put Twilight's breakfast on the table with his own, and neatly stacked the pots and pans in the sink for later cleaning. "Who's your friend here, Twilight? And when is Nightmare Moon getting here?"
To which Joseph replied with haste: "Shh, don't tell him," he snickered to Twilight. "By the way, call me Eclipse. Sorry for not saying anything earlier." he said to Spike, with Twilight catching his chosen name as well.
Twilight took the hint in Joseph's remark at not wanting Spike to immediately realise he had just served Nightmare Moon eggs on toast, and her mouth cracked a small grin. She couldn't do that to her faithful assistant.
"Didn't the Princess' letter say she would be here this morning?"
"Yes, Spike, it did."
"No, let him figure it out!" Joseph exclaimed.
"Figure what out? You two aren't pranking me are you?" Spike had sat down at the table by this stage, looking between Twilight and Eclipse with a thoroughly confused expression. Thirty seconds later, his eyes fixed upon Joseph. It took a moment, but his eyes widened with realisation.
"You... her... here... " He struggled to find the right words as the colour drained from his face when he let the full gravity of the situation sink in.
"Calm down Spike, she's not going to hurt us or anypony else."
"Gobble gobble," Joseph retorted with a smirk. "Wait why did I say that?"
"Not helping," Twilight deadpanned.
"Don't worry dude, I'm not going to do anything to you. If I was really out to get you, I could have come and gone before Twilight got to the kitchen. Besides, you made me an amazing breakfast and I'm eating it and not you. That should account for something, right?" Joseph's demeanour relaxed slightly as he finished his sentence with a reassuring look toward Spike.
Spike was still dumbfounded, managing to give a hesitant nod towards the individual in front of him–but he eventually spat out a few words. "I hope you know what you're doing, Twi. If the rest of the town finds out about this there'll be a big panic."
“His name is Joseph, and I’m hoping to properly introduce him/her to the rest of my friends, then if somepony figures out he is Nightmare Moon for whatever reason, they can vouch that she/he/it isn’t going to do any harm, having gotten to know the real person,” Twilight replied.
"Objection!" Joseph comically bellowed, much to the bemusement of Twilight and Spike, drawing their attention with looks of shock and an understandable modicum of fear. "That's pronounist!"
Joseph had an idea that the ponies harboured some semblance of fear towards Nightmare Moon, but he didn't know they would react that way to him raising his voice.
Twilight looked as though she was about to have an aneurysm from Joseph's trivial technicality. She mustered enough self control to ignore the smug, thoroughly amused look upon Joseph's face, turning to look at Spike.
"Can you go and find Rainbow Dash and tell her to get the others and come back to the library please, Spike?"
Spike took a few moments to let the presence of Nightmare Moon sink in, and considering Joseph hadn’t done the dragon any harm, managed to wipe the grin off his face from Twilight's reaction to Joseph's outburst. But, he lacked the self-control to keep himself from vibrating on the spot as he picked up his fork and started eating his breakfast in a failed attempt to hide his laughter from the obviously unamused Twilight. He only nodded in response to Twilight's question.
Rolling her eyes, Twilight got down from the table. "I'll eat when you two are through joking about this. I'll go prepare a room for our... guest, since you're going to be here for a few days at least."
Joseph and Spike watched as Twilight strode out the door believing her dignity relatively intact. The moment they heard the volume of her hoofsteps dissipate, both snorted and stifled their laughter as best they could.
Joseph extended a hoof towards Spike, and the dragon bumped his fist against it
"Is she always that easy to get one over on?" Joe managed to finally ask, taking deep breaths.
"S-sometimes," Spike answered. "She knows me well enough to know how I joke with her, but it usually only lasts as long as there's something fresh to joke about."
The two finished off their respective breakfasts, and without getting up from his seat at the table, Joseph levitated his plate over to the sink and rinsed it off. "You know, where I'm from, magic like this is nothing but myth and fantasy. I never thought I would actually be using it, not in a million years. If someone told me I would be, I would have called a mental hospital and have them admitted. It's absolutely amazing I don't have to get out of my seat to clean off my plate. Hey, if we had this kind of magic where I'm from then people would not need to move at all. On my world, magic consists of deception; sleight of hand, pulling rabbits out of hats–things like that. It's purely mind games, strictly speaking."
Twilight's presence was made known by the sound of her hoofsteps as she came back from upstairs. Spike huffed, and a puff of green flame flew over Twilight's breakfast to heat it up a bit, then he got down from the table and went over to the sink to clean up.
"Duuuuuuddde," Joe said with surprise and disbelief. "I wish I could breath fire! And do other magic stuff..."
"What do you wish you could breathe fire for?" Twilight asked when she walked in.
"Eclipse was just telling me that she'd never used magic before that, where she's from, it's just deceptive tricks." said Spike.
'Might as well get used to the mistaken gender ambiguation while I'm here...'
Twilight gasped, beaming a massive grin in Joe's direction. "You don't know how to use magic!?"
"I can do this." Joseph used his magic to pick up his half finished glass of juice from the table. He drank the rest of it and levitated the empty glass over to the sink.
"Impressive!” Twilight beamed. “How did you manage to do that from somepony who hasn't used magic before?"
"Well... I just imagined me picking it up with my hands is all."
Twilight magicked a scroll and quill out of nowhere, jotting down a couple things. "What else can you do?"
"That's about it really. I can only pick up one or two things at a time."
"Only two? Not three, four, or five?"
"I only have two hands!"
"Well magic lets you pick up multiple things. Like this." In a show-off display of her magic, pots, pans, plates, glasses, and Spike’s knife and fork on the bench where Spike was cleaning the dishes levitated up off the counter, hovering in a byzantium aura. "See! Try imagining more hands, I guess."
"Maybe later. So what's next on the list?"
"I'm glad you asked!" The scroll on which Twilight jotted the note about Joseph's use of magic disappeared with a flash as another replaced it. Joe's eyes widened at how much bigger it was compared to the last, and his jaw hit the proverbial floor as the bottom of the scroll hit the literal floor. Through the transparency of the parchment, he saw single lines of writing with boxes on the left of them. "I'll show you to your room, then while Spike’s out getting my friends, I'll try to teach you a bit of magic."
"Works for me. Why is that so long?" Joe asked, pointing a hoof at the floating scroll with a hint of trepidation.
"What, my checklist?"
'Oh no, she's one of those people...'
"It keeps me organized."
"Major OCD, dude..."
"No, it's CDO. The letters are in order that way. This is a library after all," Twilight indifferently replied before she rolled the scroll back up and poofed it away. "Now follow me and I'll show you to the room."
Twilight exited the kitchen as Joseph began to get down from the table. He turned to Spike. "Dude, run while you can."
Twilight showed Joseph around the library, taking him to his room first. It wasn't much, just a small guest room with a bed against the left wall and a two-drawer chest of drawers, the top of which sat flush with the mattress and doubled as a nightstand. Aside from those two things and the window above the set of drawers, it was pretty average.
She lead him back down the hall, pointing out the bathroom, shower room, and any other amenities he might need for his brief stay. What took Joseph by surprise was the sheer amount of books Twilight had in her own bedroom: a platform with a bed at one end and Spike's basket at the other, shelves on both sides of the windows. Each end of the platform was stocked with books. When asked how she got up and down there every morning and night, Twilight said she simply teleported.
Joe rolled his eyes at something he should have realised by now, but he was still in disbelief about teleportation.
The foyer that lay spread before Twilight's bed-platform as Joseph aptly named it, had a desk sitting under a window with an ink pot and a candlestick next to it. The rest of the walls were lined with books. The only other thing in the room was the stairs that lead into the main library below and the corridor they both just came down from.
Spike had left after Joe satirically warned him about Twilight's OCD to fetch the other five ponies, whom Joseph saw when he woke up at the battered old castle a few days ago. They made their way back downstairs and saw Spike walk in the front door.
"Find everypony yet?" Twilight asked.
"I found Rainbow Dash and told her to round up the other four and bring them here. If there's anypony that can do it fast, it's her."
"Should I take off the disguise?" Joseph asked, although clearly unsure whether or not it would be a good idea. "I won't have any of the armour on like the regular Nightmare Moon did so I won't look nearly as bad."
"Not downstairs, but that might be better done upstairs so nopony walking by will see an evil demon in their town's library. No offense."
"None taken..."
The three of them went back into the kitchen and Twilight took out three bottles from the fridge, setting one down in front of Joe as she magically popped the tops on all three.
"I'll take this upstairs and read my comic while I wait for the others," Spike declared before he hopped down off the table, bottle in claw.
"So I guess that leaves you and me, sparkle-butt. By the way," Joseph began as he took a large mouthful from the bottle. "What is this? It tastes like apples I know, but as for what it is?"
Twilight growled at Joseph, shooting him a poisonous glare. "Apple Cider."
"Isn't that alcoholic?"
"This stuff isn't, which is why I let Spike have some." She was bound to have said something else in return, regarding Joseph's remark about her cutie mark before a knock came at the door. Much to Twilight's disappointment, she didn't get the chance to teach him any magic just yet.
"Just open it!" a voice bellowed from the other side. "She knows we're coming!"
The door to the library burst open, and a blue blur streaked through the library and into the middle of the kitchen, hovering above its three occupants. Revealed to be the pegasus that was wearing the red lightning bolt necklace from back in the castle, Joseph looked her up and down to see if she'd recognise him. She didn't bat an eye at him, fortunately.
"Is she new?" Rainbow asked. Twilight nodded. "Does Pinkie know about her yet? You don't want to keep a new pony in town from her. I'm Rainbow Dash by the way," she said turning to Joseph. "Fastest flier in all of Equestria!" Her statement was punctuated by flying a couple laps around the kitchen, sending napkins flying and pots and pans that hung above the oven clattering.
At that stage four others walked into the room. "Eclipse,” Twilight began. “This is Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack." Joseph recognized them all from the castle, minus the necklaces. The pink one rocketed forward, getting more involved in Joseph's personal space than he felt comfortable with.
Then again, being trapped in the body of a demonic horse didn't exactly have any personal space or boundaries to begin with.
"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! What's your name? Is it something super dark and creepy? What about something fun and cheery? Nah, that doesn't seem right. Where are you from?" She gasped, inexplicably pulling Joseph closer by the scruff of the chest. "Has Twilight been hiding you from me!? I bet she was scared that I would throw you a bigger welcoming party than hers!"
"Pinkie!" Twilight barked. "This is very important!" Pinkie and Rainbow asides, the other three fixed a curious gaze upon Joseph. "You all remember Nightmare Moon from the castle?" They all nodded. "Let us go upstairs for this."
Twilight lead the way. Once they were all upstairs, she turned to look at them as Joseph sat to her right in the middle of the room. "Well, to begin with, this here is Eclipse. Princess Celestia sent her here and she's going to be staying with me for a few days, and I thought we could all show her around the town. She just arrived in Equestria a few days ago."
Joseph just silently huffed to himself at the misused pronoun. Granted he didn't like it, but he wasn't going to outright fault the ponies. It's not like they're doing it on purpose. Anyone else would make the same assumption first glance. For the purposes of his visit, in every sense of the word, he'd need to just tolerate the effeminate pronouns.
“Where ya from sugarcube?” Applejack asked.
"You can tell them now."
"Tell us what, darling?" Rarity said. "Rainbow Dash said you called us all here to discuss Nightmare Moon."
Joe looked to Twilight, whom nodded, letting him know it'll be OK to take the disguise off. He reached up towards his horn to slide the ring conjuring his disguise off. With baited breath, he felt it slide over the spiral grooves of his horn, the image of his disguise flickering the higher up it went. The girls began to go wide-eyed when they caught glimpses of who was underneath.
The ring hit the floor with a plink, and Joseph stared down at the floor while everyone stared at him. There wasn't any immediate reaction. It seemed as though everyone's breathing had hitched. Given the surprise, it was understandable.
"Ni-n-n-n-m-m-m-m..." Fluttershy mumbled, her eyes rolling back in her head as she slumped to the floor.
"Fluttershy!" exclaimed Rarity, using her magic to bring over a pillow from Twilight's bed and put it under Fluttershy's head as Rarity looking her over.
"Ya see what she did to Fluttershy!?"
"Applejack, she fainted," Twilight calmly stated. "It wasn't Joseph's fault."
"Twilight," Rainbow Dash said in a sharp, hushed manner. "What is she doing here!?"
"Wait, say who now?" Applejack quizzed.
"I am not who you think I am. I am not from around here either," Joe said, carefully looking up at the mares.
"Y'all better start explaining yourself!" Applejack declared.
With a heavy breath and looking up from time to time, Joseph recounted his tale of what brought him here, to the best of his ability. From the office to the alley, saving the woman and getting killed as a result. That would be the epitome of cruel irony Joseph thought. The part that still had everyone confused was how he actually got there, and none of the other five—or four, as the case may be—could make heads or tails of it, despite all of them having different ideas.
It was speculated that Nightmare's enchanted armour wasn't, as Joseph and Twilight agreed, 'calibrated' correctly. The armour was only instructed to "find someone else" to make its host, and it did just that. Nightmare didn't specify anyone in particular, from any point in space-time or any planet, whether they be dead, dying, or still alive and kicking.
As far as Nightmare was concerned, the spell had served it's purpose, but at the cost of locking herself away in her own body. He briefly explained that the Nightmare was still present in his mind and that he could talk to her, adding that she seemed to be inactive at the moment, which had him mildly concerned.
It did help shed a small amount of light upon the situation, everyone having contributed towards solving the issue. But the remaining issue was that Nightmare was inside his head, and Twilight got out the same scroll and quill from before, noting all the theories and ideas that were mentioned.
"So, uh, y'all are a he instead of a she?" Applejack ventured.
"She's a she-he!" Pinkie giggled. "What about a he-she? A he-she-she-he?"
"Pinkie, please! Now's not the time!" Rarity scolded the hyperactive mare.
"Yes. I am a human male trapped in the body of a female horse. The biology is messing me up something fierce. My mind is telling me I'm male and to do guy things, but I don't really have any means or capabilities to do so. Not to mention the equipment..."
Joseph tapped the side of his head. "I don't know if this brain is mine either, but I'm guessing it's not. A human brain doesn't have the neural links, connections and the maps in the to be able to flap wings and use magic." Joseph punctuated the point by giving the feathery appendages a solid flap which blew Twilight's scroll from her magical grasp, much to her bemusement, but it earned him a chuckle from Rainbow Dash. He also demonstrated his magical abilities—or lack thereof—by bringing the other pillow from Twilight's bed over and putting it underneath the other to further support Fluttershy.
She must have been a light sleeper, because that movement of her head stirred her from having fainted. Her eyes blinked open, and the first thing she saw was Rarity looking down at her with a smile, glad that she was awake.
“Are you ok there, Fluttershy?” Rarity asked. Fluttershy weakly nodded, carefully eyeing up Joseph as she slinked in the opposite direction.
"I gotta show you how to use those things better," Rainbow chuckled, floating over to Joseph to look over the pair of black wings. "They're not just to annoy Twilight, you know."
"Hey!"
Joseph smirked. "But you would need to consider what would happen if others saw Nightmare Moon galavanting around a quaint little town during the middle of the day. They'd think I'm trying to eat you if you're teaching me to fly while I'm chasing you to keep up."
Rainbow sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. "Oh, yeah... What about at night? Everypony's normally asleep then."
"Could work. Although if someone woke up, we would have the same problem."
"Can I interrupt here?" Rarity said. "I understand why you wanted to show us this, Twilight, but what are you going to do about her—I mean him!"
"Well... I was kinda hoping all of you could show him around. You know, get 'Eclipse' better acquainted with the town so if something happened to the disguise, on purpose or by accident, then the townsponies won't think ill of who they would assume to be Nightmare Moon. Granted they would be scared at first, but the means to the end is to get them to see Joseph for his character, and not who he is in body."
"'I suppose it's a good idea. Although somepony might let something slip at some point, and then the rumours would spread like wildfire."
Twilight levitated the ring off the ground and slid it back onto Joseph's elongated horn. Although longer than a regular unicorn horn, the disguise fooled the onlooker into seeing a smaller one, as he went from tall dark and scary to the size of the six mares present. From the girls' perspective, he was no longer imposing over them like a foreboding shadow.
"Pinkie's party would be a great place to start," Rainbow said. "When I first got here she had one set up in under an hour. The Cakes' whole place was filled with balloons, streamers, gifts, and other ponies! Beats me how she did it."
"Shhh, it's a secret!" Pinkie replied, her intention to whisper it into Dash's ear but within earshot of everyone.
"Uhm, how long have the six of you known each other?" Joseph queried. "You seem to be rather closely knit."
All six mares exchanged glances for a moment before Rainbow spoke up again. "Well, Fluttershy and I have known each other since flight school. She moved to Ponyville after getting her cutie mark and started taking care of everypony's pets. I knew Applejack from her selling apples to everypony in town, Pinkie Pie throwing parties and inviting literally everypony, and I didn’t really know Rarity up until now, but she makes dresses and other clothes. We've known each other in passing, but only just the other day did we become friends because of Twilight." Rainbow paused, looking Joseph up and down once more. "Oh, Nightmare Night is in a couple weeks, too! You would be super awesome if you went without your disguise to scare everypony!"
Rainbow finished her sentence and flew over to Twilight, wrapping her front hooves around the purple mare's neck in an appreciative hug. "Group hug for Twilight bringing us all together!" Pinkie Pie declared.
Everyone ran over to Twilight to join in on the wrapping of appendages around one another's bodies. Joseph stayed in his spot, awkwardly observing the spectacle. He let out a heavy sigh through his nostrils, reminiscing all the times he had shared hugs with his parents, family, friends...
How wonderful it would be to feel them in his grasp yet again, how happy he would be to see them alive once more, even for a minute. He never did get to say his proper goodbyes to his mum and dad before they passed, which only added insult to injury watching these friends hug one another. Just one minute was all he needed, one minute to say he loved them one more time. Then, he could live better knowing he had at least said his final goodbyes to the two people most important in his life.
"Never take the people in your life for granted," his mother once told him. "You never know when they might be gone." He knew it first hand all too well. He did stay in the hospital for the good part of five weeks staying by their side as their conditions worsened.
Throughout that whole ordeal, he felt completely numb, void of any emotion. The bags under his eyes were becoming more and more prominent from his lack of sleep, and not getting enough added to how shitty he was feeling overall. All he could do, seeing his parents' condition worsen throughout the weeks was just sit at their side, or outside the quarantine area and wish they get better. Not being able to do anything to help speed their recovery in any way made Joseph felt utterly useless. Had his parents gotten better, it would have warmed their hearts to know that he stayed by their sides as long as he did, and at the end of the day that’s all that really mattered.
"Darling, you look positively upset," Rarity said.
Joseph looked up at the six girls staring at him. Fluttershy looked positively sheepish, like Joseph was a wolf about to eat her. “I… I know you’re Nightmare Moon and all… But…We're not going to leave you out of this.”
“You died,” Rarity added. “You deserve a nice big hug.”
“I-if you want to, that is..." Fluttershy concluded.
To Joseph, a hug sounded fucking fantastic. He weakly meandered up to the group, placing his front hooves around Rarity and Twilight, who in turn pulled him closer, giving Joseph the tightest, most comforting hug he had felt in years.
Stats
Page generated in 0.042 seconds
Total duration
1,021 users online
1,586,670 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Yes, this is good
this is how i imagine Fluttershy
and this parasite route I can accept a bit.
5633679
Yeah pretty much
5633684 you should put in there that she made a goat sound. and if you are having writer's block PM me. I might be able to help.
new4.fjcdn.com/thumbnails/comments/Well+_dbc2b0c37c17362c36bb059b414bb97f.jpg
5633724
I've got a little bit of the next chapter planned out, so I should be OK. But thank you anyway, I will keep your offer in mind and take you up on it if I need to.
encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTXhmPa5im8Neu3tLng1LExTOtPPfPs00S-LAly85vkDC8DcKMrvg
You mean old mare's tale there. They even say it like that in the show.
5634158
Fair point, but I still want to leave it as is. It's not entirely incorrect, it's just we've heard "old mares' tale" but not the former.
5634173 I kinda like to make one whole comment chain of my thoughts of the chapter, instead of making multiple comments...
I feel like there is a better choice of words...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwwEpGAfftc
but due to his magical strength, he broke their backs in the hug
I'm sorry to any Twilight fans out there, truly I am. But I loved this chapter. Messing with the paranoid, purple unicorn just seems like it'd be too much fun to resist.
I think i'd be terrible in a situation like this, since I'd likley find myself with a significant number of memories consisting of me, stood next to Dash and Pinkie, grinning like an idiot while watching Twilight rage about something.
well i'm all cot up, looking forward to more
stayclassy
5635948
I love messing with people, that's basically why I did that
I'm looking forward to NMN! I'd like to see Nightmare Moon and Luna strolling side by side through the festivities, with NMN helping Luna reintegrate with small town society rather than a small purple unicorn as seen on TV. (What a twist!)
SparklebuttEr, Twilight should also beware of Pinkie and Dashie talking a jokester of a human into joining them on their pranking. He will agree readily of course (who wouldn't???). They probably tried to talk Rarity into it as well as other unicorns since they already have Pegasi and Earth Pony abilities covered in some unholy trifecta of prank-dom teamwork.5646352
There's still a couple chapters to go yet. I want to fit in Rainbow teaching Joseph to fly, Twilight teaching him magic, building a little bit of a rapport with the others too. That might be split into two chapters, but the next chapter I want to spend building on Joe's character more so at the moment it's at least another two chapters before NMN
5646434
I'm surprised Rarity isn't frothing at the mouth in a "creative frenzy" at the very prospect of dragging the alicorn back to her place and playing dress-up for the next... month.
Applejack might regret having a full-grown alicorn trying to help on the farm. One kick will either snap a tree in two like a twig or rip it, roots and all, into the air and land on the far side of the field. He's still human and a human would rather just use their hands. In his case, it would be "magic hands" (that's what all the girls say, heh heh).
I wonder if Twilight still has the mad scientist lab equipment from the "Pinkie Sense" episode? (Yes, I guess it does look like- I mean, no! It's not a colander with wires stuck to it!)
Anything to do with Fluttershy will just be awkward. Adorably awkward that is...
Not sure if working with Pinkie will turn out like the party pony hopes... "Welcome to Cupcake Corner, I'll be your nightmare for tonight. Would you like to order from the menu now or shall I get you a glass of water once you stop screaming?"
Remember to tip your waitress or she'll eat your soul!
...
My friends and I were completely engaged with the 'CDO' thing at school a few weeks ago...
How the hell did you get that joke?
5647211
I've heard it all over the place. Why?
the way you put it (it's normally what they do), it sounds like you mean that's not what they actually did
okay, that's the best laugh (or at least in the top five) I've had all year (and I don't just mean since the beginning of January. I mean 365 days...)
redundant pony is redundant
there's something you don't say every day... But it seems a little OOC for Rarity. I would've expected something like that from Pinkie Pie, or maybe Rainbow Dash, perhaps.
5650937
Did you ever notice how in cartoons how things get pulled out from literally fucking nowhere? Yeah.
It's a bit of a joke I put in the chapter. I've always noticed how some women start at a point way off from the actual story they're telling.
It's a rhetorical question to the effect of: "Why do that instead of this?" It's not something to seriously consider.
5651208
What I meant is there's often a slight variation of routine. By saying 'usually' I'm implying that he does it from time to time and not all the time.
Glad I could deliver
Edited out thank you
When you write any story you run the risk of any character being OOC when you write them. So long as it's believable then I've got no problem if I read a story where Rarity is a serial killer.
5651959 Cartoon figures, or universes that align to their laws and physics, seem to have somesort of hammer space dimension hidden out of sight that can be tapped into, and the characters can pull out literally anything the need.
It depends on the properties and personality of a character how they can use it, and when they can use it or if they can even use it effectively.
Most of the time, comedy situations is what fuels this hammer space to be open and accessible.
5664656
Pretty much exactly what I meant
this story is shaping up really good I am hoping as you move away from the mane story line and add in some of Supernatural TV series things will really tack off.
you have a good plot line going here and good story line do keep up the good work.
Bringing Supernatural into the mix sounds like an awesome idea, being a Supernatural fan myself.
5633679
Makes sense to me.
wouldn't "but" be a more suitable word there? I think either works, but "but" just sounds better to me. Also, I think most people capitalize "harmony" when referring to the magical artifacts.
unless you mean to say that she's continuing to refuse, you should probably change that to
...or something. It definitely doesn't quite feel right.
wait, I thought we were talking about Twilight Sparkle? The long-reigning Princess of Technicality (and more recently, weaponized Friendship)
I added the part in green, as I feel without that, it would imply an insult to Twilight, seeing as she tends to be serious about everything, especially magic.
Just to reiterate (seeing as the message may be drowned out by all this criticism along with the fact I haven't said it since the last comment I made on the story) I really do like this story, it's just I happen to be noticing a lot more things to fix today, on account of rereading the chapter. It usually takes me a second time through to actually start noticing any of the more minute "mistakes"
5651966
looks like you took two steps forward and one step backwards. I would put "it" back where "brain" was
I suppose, and on a side note: cool, you like BronyWriter's The Secret Life of Rarity, too?
"No, it's CDO. The letters are in order that way.
What is a cdo? Organisation (order) for items?
I saw the joke about ocd and cdo being different order of letters, but what types of organisation of lists there is?
I wasn't expecting that joke from twilight!
"Take away a man's light, his clothes, his food, his friends, his air, and you leave him with nothing but himself. And for most that is not pleasant company." -RT
No, it's ABCD; aggressively brainy compulsive disorder.
This is the fourth story arc i've read on Fimfiction since i discovered it, and I must say the quality of fanfiction in this website is much higher average, thanks Alcatraz, keep up the good work!
5635948
As a Twilight fan, I can say her antics are just as funny to most of us. Including people who mess with her. She usually has the best reactions.
6266564 it's the alphabet dude
Argh... just.... argh...
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/33/14/0f/33140f269655fd7b32fe74864a157c3d.jpg
6885953
Aggressively Belligerent Compulsive Disorder
8843174
bruh! your name though! i really don't think that's a good idea...
to give pinkie caffeine is like giving a flamethrower to a 13 year old and telling him "do whatever the hell you want with it!"
VOODOO ISN'T BAD! IT'S JUST KINDA CREEPY! Voodoo is also a religious thing.
But, she already explained herself to them in the bullet first chapter...
10130443
He didn't exactly explained that he was a "he" before, but your point still stands. Author should've made it that he never did introduced himself beyond basic "I'm not NMM"
10429695
😇 😘
Okay, you might consider this a mess in need of a rewrite and proper outlining. You’re probably harsher on it than it strictly deserves, though. If it’s a mess, it’s a funny mess, and that’s the best kind!
And I totally cracked up at “gobble, gobble,” not gonna lie.
So if you do rewrite this instead of continuing it, I’ll be quite happy to be along for the ride. Excuse me while I peruse the remainder of the mess.
Hugs are nice and can be surprisingly effective.
Maybe over time they can upgrade to cuddles?