09| The Fallen
Ambiguous title is ambiguous! Try to figure out what it means.
Picks up where Chapter Seven left off.
All seven of them; Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Joseph, made their way back down into the main foyer of the library so Twilight could see her five friends off.
Since Pinkie Pie found out about Joseph, he had at most an hour—as Rainbow Dash had said it had taken her an hour or thereabouts to put together Twilight's party the other day—before he was surrounded by a horde of technicolour horses. They would likely want to ask him more questions than he felt comfortable with, even the dreaded: why he hasn't gotten his 'cutie mark'.
Joe came down behind everyone, and when they all got to the front door he noticed Pinkie had gone missing. She couldn't have double-backed, Joe would have seen her.
"Hey, where did little miss 'I-mainline-caffeine', go?" he asked.
"I beg your pardon?" Rarity gawked upon hearing Joseph.
Sure enough, when they all looked around, Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen.
"Countdown has started, dude," Rainbow said, hovering off and slightly above Joseph's right. "You have not even an hour before Pinkie Pie has everything set up back at her place then finds you for the party! Trust me, Pinkie will find you."
"I don't know whether to be excited or terrified," he replied.
"We should get you cleaned up so you're presentable for the party," Rarity said.
"What? I had a shower before I came here. You guys have weird showers by the way."
"Pish posh, you need to be properly groomed!" Rarity enunciated her point by using a hoof to make her mane bounce a couple times. "Even you could look this fabulous!"
Joseph’s muzzle wrinkled at the implication. "You do realize while I may be a girl in body I'm still a guy in mind, right? Ain't nobody groomin' me like I'm some sort of ani— goddamn it..." He winced, rolling his eyes in frustration and brought a hoof up to rub at his temple, thinking how much of a pain it will be to watch his words.
"I-it's really not all bad..." Fluttershy said. "I go to the spa with Rarity every so often. It's nice and relaxing."
"With all ya've been through, y'all could do with a back rub!" beamed Applejack. "I don't like that place as much as muh brother, but sure as sugar the ponies that work there sure can get the knots out of muh legs and back after a hard day of buckin' the apple trees."
'When was the last time I had a massage anyway?' Given the emasculating aspect of being groomed, the thought of a massage did have him intrigued, but it did leave him wondering if there was a word along the lines of 'emasculate' to describe his feeling of being less of a human given his circumstance.
"Aloe and Lotus would simply adore a chance to work with coat colours as rare as yours," Rarity added.
Integrity and self respect aside, he figured he didn't have anything else left to lose. Joe grumbled, rolling his eyes as he said: "Fine. What does it involve, exactly?"
"Rarity usually gets her 'usual' treatment," Fluttershy answered for Rarity. "Hooficure, horn filing, then a sauna followed by a mud bath while we talk about what happened during the week."
‘Holy hell, does she really go there that often?’ The corner of Joseph's nose twitched. "Oh goodie," he sarcastically deadpanned.
"See! I knew you'd think so." Rarity chimed.
Joe mentally face-palmed. He thought he heard a snicker, although he didn't think it was from any of the five around him. "Lead the way, then."
"I-I'll just be going, then. See you girls later."
"Nonsense, Fluttershy! So we might be a couple days early, but it this is an opportune moment for us to converse with our new friend here."
"O-okay..."
"I'll see y'all later, Ah've got to catch up on some buckin'."
"I've got some more studying to do when the Princess sends me some books," Twilight added.
"Yeah, and I've got weather stuff to do!" Rainbow announced.
Minus Twilight, they all filed their way out of the door to the library. Hidden behind her long, flowing mane that fell in front of her face, Fluttershy idly pawed at the ground with a hoof as Rarity said her goodbyes while Joseph waited for them to be gone. Once Applejack and Rainbow Dash were out of sight, he followed behind Rarity and Fluttershy while they talked with each other on the way to the spa.
On the walk, Joe tried to avoid direct eye contact with anyone else, but he couldn't help but look up whenever he thought he heard someone whisper. His paranoia kept getting the better of him, eyes looking around to see if anyone was looking in his direction. A few times he was met with sideways glances, horrified stares, snickers and giggles, as well as a few hooves pointed in his direction. Even some of the little colts and fillies were staring. Whether it be at his lack of a cutie mark or just... Him.
He felt like the new kid at school all over again.
Thrust into this completely alien world, everything was assaulting his senses in a manner not entirely similar to starting a new school.
They didn't know about him or how he got here, but the ones that actually said anything said a cheerful hello in passing. Part of him was happy that they were being polite and friendly, but another part was wanting to slink back into his comfort zone.
Or whatever remained of it.
"Darling, you're too quiet," Rarity said suddenly, knocking Joseph from his stupor.
"Wha-huh?"
"Are you ok?"
He shrugged. "I dunno... Saving my thoughts for the spa, I guess?"
"Ah, don't want to spoil everything just yet, I see," she said with a wink.
It took the good part of ten minutes at a slow pace before the trio came to a tall, two-storied building. It was painted largely with Fuchsia and Cream colours and filigree-style decorations around the door, semi-circular windows jutted out slightly in a manner indicative of a display window adorned either side of the main entrance. The style of the windows did have a certain aesthetic appeal to them that a plain old flat building didn't. When his flatemate’s friend, whom worked at a department store told him that was the purpose of the windows, it would explain why display windows in some stores had that curved style of glass: to give off a "look at me" vibe, and adding a certain emphasis to its display. Given it's a spa, Joe would probably come out looking that way.
They stepped in the door, and immediately two mares zipped out from some saloon-style doors that lead into the back. The rest of the front foyer had several vases of decorative plants adorning the room, and the front desk had a bell on the counter. Aside from the hues of blue and pink with some seats opposite the front desk and a little side table with some magazines decorating the main reception area, there wasn't much else to the room.
"Welcome, Miss Rarity and Fluttershy!” one of them spoke.
“I see you've bought a guest this time!" the other finished.
Joe stared at the pair before him. They looked like photo negatives of each other. One was blue with a pink mane, and one was pink with a blue mane. Both had the same cutie mark, but it didn't help much to distinguish between the two. While their coat and mane colours were reversed–literally the only way to tell them apart, it dawned on Joe that he would still likely get them mixed up. Were they identical or fraternal twins?
"I'm Aloe!"
"I'm Lotus!"
"I don't even... How do I tell you apart?"
"Simple!" the pink-coat, blue-maned one said. "I'm Aloe."
"I'm Lotus," the blue-coat, pink maned mare finished.
"So... A lotus is a flower. By association, flowers can be pink, but you're not," Joe said, pointing at Lotus. "Your sister is pink, like a flower, but her name is Aloe. Gotcha. Totally not confusing."
"Would you like the usual, Miss Rarity?" Lotus said, turning to Rarity.
"Oh, please! Also," Rarity added, out of earshot of Joseph and Fluttershy, “there seems to be a rash of some kind on my back that seems to be aching as of late. You wouldn’t happen to have any cream for something like that would you?”
“I’ll take a look for you in a moment,” Lotus said in reply just as quiet while Aloe still talked.
Aloe turned to look at Joseph. "Don't worry, miss...?"
"Eclipse."
"Eclipse," Aloe repeated. "Don't worry, you're in good hooves. Shall we get started with a horn filing for the lovely ladies..."
'Must... refrain... from... stabbing...' he told himself upon being called a lady.
"...followed by a hooficure?"
The mention of a horn filing this time around made Joe remember the ring keeping his disguise in place, and it dawned on him that getting his horn filed could cause problems. "Uh, Rarity, a moment?"
"Hmm, what is it? You go along and get started with the hooficure, Fluttershy. Eclipse and I won't be a moment." Fluttershy and the twins went into the back through the saloon doors. Rarity turned back to Joe. "Yes?"
Joe loudly cleared his throat.
"What do you need to tell me?"
He first made sure nobody else was in the room, and to clue her in, used a hoof to tap at the ring on the base of his horn, making his disguise flicker once to wordlessly convey his concern.
"Oh!" Rarity exclaimed with wide eyes.
"See, I don't know if they are going to be able to feel Nightmare Moon through the disguise, or if getting their mitts over me would make it fail somehow."
Rarity put a hoof to her chin in thought and looked him up and down. She tapped the tip of Joe's horn, but nothing happened, then she nudged his right front leg. Nothing about his disguise faltered. To his bemusement, Rarity walked up to his side and draped a leg over his upper back and trailed it down.
"Don’t worry, Darling, you feel like a normal pony to me. So long as nothing happens to the ring itself you should be fine."
Joseph sighed, then Rarity lead him through the doors into the back.
The first thing Joseph noticed was the scent of sandalwood incense wafting through the air. The spa had an atmosphere of relaxation with dim lights and soft music playing in the background. He looked around and saw several ponies lost in the experience of pampered care.
“If you could give us a moment,” Aloe said as she smiled and trotted off to tend to a customer.
Joseph nodded in awe of the spa interior as he spoke. “You weren’t exaggerating about this place.”
He looked around, noticing the lush potted plants and tasteful artwork on the walls. Every part of the spacious room had a personal care station custom suited for some form of personalized care or another. From the mud baths to the massage tables, the whole room made a clear statement that you would leave this place feeling like a new pony.
Aloe came back over to Joe and Rarity when she saw them enter. "Let’s join Ms. Fluttershy. She insisted on waiting for you two."
The spa pony lead Rarity and Joe over to three padded tables, one of which Fluttershy was already laying down in. Laid on her side, the butter-yellow pegasus had her hooves slotted in a giant foam... thing. It looked like the slotted pieces of hard foam that nail technicians used on women's fingers to keep the nail polish from splashing back on the rest of the finger, and to hold them apart to allow ample time to dry.
The tables were mounted on a pole and a base to steady them, and a handle of some description jutted out from the pole. There was a small section of the table that was hinged to the bigger part, two semi-circles of metal attached the top to bottom. It looked as though it was designed to fold up for the ponies to have an easier time sitting up. Aloe used a hoof to press the levers on both tables and they dropped several inches. She also adjusted the headboards to a thirty degree angle.
"Hop on and lay back." Joseph tentatively did as he was told. "Let’s begin with a horn filing while your friend has her hooves done," Aloe announced.
"Uh..." Aloe turned to look at Joe. "Can... Can I skip the horn filing?"
"But Ms. Eclipse, it's necessary to remove any excess keratin and bone that have built up. Too much dander build up and it dampens a unicorn's ability to cast magic correctly."
"See, I'm from out of town, and where I'm from, that was usually done by my mother or father, or myself if I had to. I've not had anyone else do it before, so it's a bit of a no-no spot."
Aloe's eyes widened at what she had nearly gotten herself into. "Oh, my apologies! I completely understand!" Aloe lowered the head board, if it could be called that, and went to get one of the large, cuffed foam boards like Fluttershy was using. "Lets just skip to the hooficure then."
Aloe held the piece of foam upright, and Joseph took the hint to put his hooves in the cut-outs, and laid on his side.
As if on queue, a familiar voice made itself known in his head. Well well well, looks like somepony is enjoying themselves.
"Hey, where the hell have you been?" Joseph asked in contempt towards Nightmare on reflex. Only when several sets of eyes turned his way, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Aloe's included, did he realize his mistake. "Uh, I, uhh... Where have you been all my life?" He tried to save himself, but Aloe just raised an eyebrow at his failed attempt. The spa pony simply turned back to her station and picked up a large file.
You'll like this part. I promise.
'With you in my head, gone the last 24 hours—or thereabouts, it leaves me wondering what you have been up to, so I don't trust you on that.'
Aloe came back over to Joseph, and he caught a glimpse of the file. It looked like a bastard file: a tapered slab of metal with crosshatched, diagonal etchings. He remembered using one to sharpen a spear point when he went spearfishing. Finesse in end results was like trying to practice calligraphy by giving markers to five year olds: the result was always a giant mess, but the idea was to get the basic shape.
She ran the face of the file up and down the bottom of the nail of his front right hoof. He felt the uncomfortable vibrations right up his leg, and the corner of his nose curled to reflect his situation.
"Are you alright?" Aloe asked.
Don't mind me, I'm just watching the pretty boy get a hooficure, Nightmare antagonized.
Nightmare knew that Aloe couldn't hear her by any means. She only said it for the entertaining value of Joseph's reaction.
"It's like dragging sandpaper over my fingernails."
"Excuse me?"
"I... Nevermind." He heaved a sigh and let Aloe do her job.
Nightmare didn't say anything more after that, she just watched through Joseph's eyes as the spa pony went about her job. A few minutes later, a noise like scratching nails down a chalkboard, the so-called "Chalkboard Effect", came from Joseph's hoof making him wince.
"Oh dear, it looks like you've got a pebble stuck in there. Let me get it out." Aloe turned her back to Joe and began picking through her... tools? They looked like farm tools to him.
'Women,' Joe mused. 'Always the same. Even in different universes or dimensions. Gotta have a crap-load of things that men never understand, claiming that each one serves a different purpose. You've been in my head, look through my memories at the stuff sold in stores.'
Aloe turned around with a bladed, hooked instrument. While on holiday, he saw a local using one to craft wooden spoons and axe handles from branches. It looked like a regular knife by comparison, but the bladed portion was bent around a curve, used for carving out the bowl of the spoon and curving the axe handle.
The local also said that spoons were just bowls on the end of sticks. Joe was pretty sure his brain shut down after that. He just couldn't look at spoons the same way again.
He shuffled in his place, clearly worried about what the tool was going to be used for.
"Don't worry, Eclipse, I'm just going to remove the pebble. We offer shoe fittings if you'd be interested. It stops stones and things from getting into the nail and causing problems." She put the blade of the tool just forward of where the pebble was, and pulled on it, gouging out a small, shallow channel that lead to the pebble for the ease of access in removal. She put the hook-knife back and returned with a pair of needle-nose tweezers. They looked like pliers above anything.
Carefully, she grasped the pebble and pulled it free, but Joseph grimaced in pain as it came free.
"Sonnova bitch!" he exclaimed through gritted teeth.
"Sorry, it looked like it was closer to the nerve than I thought. Don't worry, I can fill in the hole with a paste that mimics hoof nail until the nail itself grows back out." Aloe put the head of the tube right in the hole and bit down, squeezing the paste into the hole, which she then scraped off the excess with the flat portion of the file's head. "That'll set in a few minutes, but for now lets continue with the others."
Joe glanced up to see Rarity laying on her back, an expression of what looked to be bliss plastered across her face as her hooves and horn got filed by an employee. "How are you finding the treatment?" she asked.
"I don't know how you women put up with this. I usually just took care of what needed to be done. I don't see much point in going over the top about it."
"You're a mare now, and mares always look their best."
"Yeah, that's half the damned problem."
"Darling, language!" Rarity chided. "Must you always be so... blunt?"
To which Joseph replied in Rarity's direction, voice laced with contempt: "When you get stabbed and thrown into a land of technicolour horses in a different body, I wouldn't blame you if you swore until you passed out from lack of oxygen." He snickered at the last part of his comment. "Speaking of, I don't know how Pinkie manages to keep talking so much."
"It's Pinkie Pie, we just let her be."
To get more comfortable, Joseph tried shifting his position. But during Aloe's filing, a piece of skin on the sensitive, fleshy portion of his hoof, snagged on the file and pinched against the nail. He grimaced and said: "Ok, you know what, could we please stop?"
He pulled a hoof from its slot in the foam and began to push the foam itself free from his other legs. It fell to the floor as Aloe reeled back, letting him do so.
"Are you alright? Something I did?"
Awww, does the pretty pony not like pampering? Nightmare antagonized yet again.
"I hope they have duct tape here, because I'm gonna tape that muzzle shut if you don't zip it."
"Joseph!" Rarity exclaimed, her mouth agape. "I, I mean Eclipse," she corrected. "There is no need to speak to the staff like that!"
He was too caught up in telling Nightmare Moon to shut her trap that he yet again forgot that he spoke out loud. "S-sorry..." His ears flattened against his head as Fluttershy, Rarity, Aloe, Lotus, and some ponies a couple tables down, heard him. "I just... I can't be here, I gotta... go."
Head hung, he quickly made his way through the swinging doors and out the front door to avoid as much awkwardness as possible, but that was an inevitability when you had drawn unwanted attention to yourself, then take your leave as all eyes follow you like lasers tracking targets.
Joseph got out the door and turned right immediately out of the door. He saw an alley go down beside the spa and made his way to the rear of the building, presumably safe in the alley. Unlike extremely dodgy and dirty alleys he often passed in the streets on Earth, this alley looked as though it was used more as a thoroughfare between streets rather than a dumping ground for hookers and dead bodies.
"Are you trying to get me in trouble?" he accosted to Nightmare. "Why can't you mind your own business and let me suffer in peace on this stupid planet?!"
Whether or not you like it, Joseph, I'm stuck here with you. You're going to try and make the best of it, and I'm doing the same thing, although with more limitations in what I can do and where I can go.
"Enlighten me. What have you been doing then?"
Tell me, you remember your parent's names, don't you?
"Course I do they're, C—" He tried to complete the sentence, who his mum and dad were. But it was like looking at a piece of paper having erased a word you just wrote. He couldn't remember the names of his parents no matter how hard he tried. "They're C... and P..." every time he tried to recite their names, he always ended on a random letter. "What the hell did you do to me?"
Simple. A mind is like a palace. Filled with rooms and doors. As you grow older, new doors open up for newer memories to fill. When you learn something, it goes in a room. Now, what happens when one of these doors closes? Although if I close the wrong door while in here I could potentially do myself harm.
"Oh you little douchebag! You've been making me forget things!"
I looked through enough of your memories to discern what a 'douchebag' is, and I can say on good authority that one of those gets more use than you do, Nightmare seethed. You would do to be careful in how you talk to me.
"You've just got cabin fever, don't you? It's my mind too, I can also do things to you as well."
Try me, Nightmare said challengingly.
He thought back to the little chat with Twilight and himself discussing Nightmare, how they thought she was a demon.
Joe remembered ways that cultures from Earth had different belief systems, associating different deities and other beings that lived in their own versions of a heaven and hell. There were even special rituals that used different symbols. Some were to let good luck into the house, and others were to keep evil out, trap it, make wishes, summon various creatures, and so on.
Such was the purpose of a Devil's Trap: a five pointed star sitting inside a circle, with a rune in each segment. Once a demon was inside, they couldn't escape it and were rendered powerless so long as the outer circle was intact. The moment it broke by whatever cause, they could get out.
Joseph sat on his haunches and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, focusing on finding Nightmare within his mind. A few moments later, he found himself standing as his human self in his mind, Nightmare standing a couple meters away from him.
A mischievous grin on his face, he pulled a piece of chalk out of his pocket. "Aren't imaginations wonderful? I can think of anything while here and it becomes real. Well, not as real as something from the physical world, but, still." He let go of the chalk and it hovered in mid air.
Everyone wished the final product of something they envisioned would come out exactly as they intended. Take drawing. Joe tried his hand at drawing when in school, but it just never caught on. He had all these wonderful pictures in mind he wanted to draw, but his lack of an artistic ability meant he couldn't get his idea onto paper.
Until now.
Because without that limitation, anything created in his mind would come out exactly as he wanted it. From memory, Joseph began with a circle of a wide girth drawn around Nightmare while she just stared at him and rolled her eyes. Next he drew five straight lines that touched the circle, forming a five pointed star within. In each section of the circle, he drew five runes.
When completed, he took a step back and smugly crossed his arms. "Try getting out of that, Madam Smokey."
Nightmare only gave an irritated "tschk" and casually strolled out of the Devil's Trap, much to the surprise of Joseph. "That won't work against me," she said amusedly.
"But... Twilight said that—"
"What made you think that Twilight, above everypony else—myself especially, would know what I am? I only got banished to Tartarus, I'm not from there. There's one thing that Twilight's book got wrong."
"I'll bite. What, are you, and what did the book get wrong?"
Nightmare strode closer to Joseph, her muzzle millimeters from his ear as she whispered: "Demon's don't need permission to take over a host body. I, on the other hand, did."
Then it dawned on him. When reading up on the occult and the supernatural, he would often find reports online of possession. Cases like the Amityville house or the Borley Rectory were popular. Whether it be ghost or demon, Nightmare was right. Given demons and ghosts were, in a word, dicks, they didn't need permission. They would remain in control of the host until such time as they were exorcised by whatever means.
"You already know, just think, Joseph."
"You can't be a demon of any kind because the Devil's Trap didn't work on you." Nightmare nodded. "You create nightmares." He realized a small tidbit of information. "Did Luna have something to do with you possessing her, because she could enter the Dreamscape?"
Nightmare gave Joseph a sly smile. "Maybe... Although I wouldn't have had to if my brother hadn't locked me out of the dream world after I got banished to Tartarus."
Brother? Dream world? There was only one being that Joseph knew of that had domain over the dream world.
"Your brother..." Joseph had a moment of disbelief at this. "Is—" He barely got the word out of his mouth when he felt himself shake.
"Hey!" A voice echoed through out his mind. "Are you alright?"
Joseph felt himself get pulled from his confrontation with Nightmare Moon, gasping a deep breath as his eyes fluttered open.
He was still in the alley behind the spa, although someone had found him.
"What's the matter, do you need to go to the hospital?"
"What? No. I just... Fell asleep." He looked up at the pony that had found him. He had a white muzzle that looked like he had dunked his face in milk. The rest of his coat was earthen-brown in colour, which lead down to black-furred legs at the knee. On his head was a hat not unlike Applejack's, although there was no cut-out in the brim. Around his barrel was a simple vest with a breast pocket, the chain of a pocket watch hanging from it.
"Ugh, what're you doing here?" Joseph asked as he got to his hooves, using the stranger's leg for support after he offered it.
"Rather than stick to the streets, I often use alleys to go from one place to another because it saves a lot of time. I was passing through here when I found you."
"Using alleys on a regular basis is hella creepy, dude."
"So is falling asleep in them."
"On the contrary, I was hearing voices and stopped in behind here to chat with them so I wouldn't look like a complete muppet to passer by's," Joe said indifferently,
The stranger's expression contorted into one of concern and confusion when he heard Joseph say 'muppet', and mention hearing voices. "What's a muppet? Some kind of toy? And are you sure you're alright, don't need to go to the hospital? Or... Broadhoof, for that matter?"
'...Damn it.' He cursed himself for using Earth colloquialisms. "I say it in the sense of being an idiot, really. What's Broadhoof anyway?"
"Right..." he said with insecurity, mentally shrugging off the issue of the mare's mental stability, refusing to go near it with a ten-foot, bleach-soaked, barge pole. "Well, now I know you're safe I can go do my shopping," he added abruptly. "Name's Cesar, by the way. What's yours?"
No, not like the salad, Nightmare chided. The first thing that flashed through Joseph's mind when he heard the stallion's name was a Cesar Salad, and Nightmare had told him off for it.
'I've told you what'll happen if you keep annoying me like that. Don't make me think of butts like last time.' He heard Nightmare audibly growl with anger in his head, but she didn't say anything further.
"Eclipse," he said after a moment.
"Well then, Eclipse, have a good day and do try to be careful." He punctuated his farewell with a polite, yet curt tip of his hat and exited the alley.
Shaking off the tired sensation from being asleep the last few minutes, Joseph exited the alley and looked left then right to try and spot Cesar, but for some odd reason he seemed to have disappeared quite quickly.
When he looked to his left again, standing muzzle-to-muzzle with Joe was none other than Pinkie Pie.
"Gyah!" he screamed, staggering back and bumping the wall behind him, causing him to fall on his side.
Looking down at him, Pinkie just giggle-snorted. "It's just me, silly!"
"Yeah, remind me to check your arm, or... leg, for track marks."
"What for? Tracks are for walking or running! Oh yeah, party's ready!" the hyperactive mare declared.
Joseph felt a sense of dread wash over him. "Balls..."
Meanwhile, in Golden Oaks Library...
It had been about half an hour after everyone left that Celestia sent Twilight the books she requested: death records and obituaries, and a book titled "Gods and Demons: A reference to all things Tartarus and Heaven ". It wasn't nearly as old as the several tomes containing the aforementioned records, but they, however, were a compilation of old, leather-bound books with yellowing pages that jutted out at varying angles, bulging with various thicknesses
Having unrestricted access to all books in Canterlot; ones that are off limits to the public, forbidden, not in circulation—but could be requested, and even ones that nobody knew existed, meant Celestia had a wealth of knowledge unsurpassable.
Twilight looked up at the pile of records as tall as she was and picked out the oldest one, bringing the reference book closer and flicking it open to the 'Demon' section, using the index to find the oldest ones.
It wasn't as much of a daunting process as Twilight thought by looking at the records stacked as high as she was tall. She got through half the first set of records in half an hour by cross referencing dates ponies had died with the approximations of dates that any demons had popped up. She couldn't read half the names since they were written in a style unreadable; like a foals' scrawl, but she could tell it was more put together than the latter. The dates seemed to be consistent: a number followed by an image of the sun for the Nth day in that month, a number with a crescent moon for the month, then the year was a fifty-fifty image of the sun and moon.
She simply used her magic to copy the writing as best she could by using carbon paper between the pages of the records and her notes to try and decipher for later.
The style of writing looked to be ancient, Twilight guessed. Possibly older than Celestia. By the time Twilight had finished cross-checking names and dates against the demons from the book, none of the demons she had written down next to the names and dates of the deceased ponies matched the capabilities of what Nightmare could do. They were all just your generic, run-of-the-mill demons who got sent to Tartarus.
She put the first set of notes off to the side and began on the second set of records, although this one looked slightly more neater and put together than the last.
By now, Pinkie would have found Joseph for his party. Twilight chuckled to herself, thinking of what he could be possibly going through, remembering when she accidentally poured the hot sauce into her drink instead of the clearer, more aromatic and stronger-tasting liquid she originally intended.
A further half hour later and more cross referencing of demons that didn't match up to Nightmare Moon, as well as the demon section of the reference book, Twilight bookmarked the page of the record book she was in the middle of, she turned to the front half of the book to read up on some of the deities for a change of pace. Her hoof slid up and down the index until she saw something that caught her eye. The index was written alphabetically, listing all kinds of deities and angelic beings.
Not surprisingly, she found "Alicorns" under the "A" section. She wanted to see if it had anything about either Celestia or Luna, but was disappointed when the book only said how they were created.
A pegasus and unicorn of immeasurable power would reproduce, and the excess magic had potential to manifest in both wings and horns of the offspring. So powerful was the magic that it even affected their lifespan. The unicorn and pegasus parent would certainly outlive a normal pony of their own race, given their magical potential, and the same was even more true for an alicorn.
It was still possible for alicorns to reproduce, but with an ordinary unicorn, pegasi, or earth pony, there was an equal, one-in-four chance of what the child would be. The child would possess only a fraction of the alicorn parent's power depending on their race, but that would innately increase the magical affinity of whatever race the pony was born into by comparison to somepony else of the same race. However, if two alicorns reproduced, an alicorn was almost certain to be the product, and the magical capabilities in the offspring would grow a fraction, but the process would take infinitely long to surpass any godly level.
The alicorn would still have wondrous power that any ordinary pony would lust after. Some tribes across the world saw alicorns as abominations: cross-breeding between unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies was seen as very taboo and more often than not the tribes would believe they needed to keep their bloodlines and lineage "pure". Quite often, two tribe leaders would often try to reconcile differences with one another through forming alliances, to helping each other where needed.
One case, studied over five centuries ago, found a leader of a unicorn tribe and the leader of a tribe of sky-dwelling pegasi in constant argument with one another for contrived reasons. Each tribe's most respected elders suggested that if the two tribes were to get along, then a marriage between the leaders would need to be planned.
Begrudgingly, they went through with it, uniting the tribes for a brief period. Together they had a baby colt. The baby was supposed to mean they could get along, but the offspring was born deformed: with wings and a horn. So disappointed were the parents that they cut off the wings and horn and exiled the stallion when he came of age. Whatever happened to him beyond that is unknown. Whether he be alive or dead, even to this day is unclear. He has wandered for so long that he eventually became a wandering traveler, forever hiding the scars on his body.
For Twilight, she was appalled that somepony would do that to their own child. She felt the urge to hug Celestia and be thankful that her mentor hadn’t suffered the same fate. Twilight knew about alicorns from books, but from the ones she did read growing up, none of them actually mentioned how they were created to begin with.
Twilight flicked back to the index. Like the demon section, anything under each letter was written from the earliest documented date, forward. When the tip of her hoof got halfway down the 'S' section under 'Gods', she saw the word 'Sleep'.
'What gods have the ability to control sleep?' she thought, flipping through the pages until she came to the section that piqued her curiosity.
The God of Sleep, Twilight began reading, gave every creature under creation the ability to sleep soundly. Together with his wife, The Goddess of Relaxation, they had four children. The eldest created the Dreamscape: an ethereal realm within the minds of creatures big and small to dream of things. Next in line was The God of True Dreams, who patrolled and kept dreams as they were supposed to be.
Things went well for the four of them until The Goddess of Relaxation fell pregnant for the third and fourth time, bearing two more sons. The third was the God of Illusory Dreams, and he created dreams where creatures saw what they wanted to.
Twilight saw the next entry in the book, and it sent chills down her spine. Her breath and heart rate quickened, sweating from her discovery. Her hoof trembled as she moved it across the words as she read on, but only four words stuck out at her.
The God of Nightmares.
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The God of Nightmares. this is a vary interesting twist. ware is this all heading?
5798550 life.biblechurch.org/slifejom/images/stories/Julie_Moore/RiverSongSpoilers.jpg
even if I have a idea of ware things are going I only give hints and often they are to miss lead the readers.
or are they.
good job keep it up
So you're totally leaving the earth ponies out of the alicorn equation?
5798678 They're earth ponies. Unless they've got some kind of green thumb where they can magically grow things with a touch then I'm gonna say yes I am leaving them out.
To an extent, this is largely my own headcanon too, so I'm sorry if it doesn't sit well with you.
oh i get it devils and demons don't need permission to possess someone but angels and gods do.
stayclassy
5798999 Well, if the Supernatural show is anything to go off, Lucifer needed permission to possess Sam (if you know who that is), but normal demons and ghosts don't. If that's what you meant by 'devil', heh
I'm calling it. Discord is her brother. He did illusion dreams easily enough.
5799741 I have plans for him, but he's not going to be making an appearance.
5798696 they can punch thru rocks
5799807 Twilight can shoot lasers through rocks. No effort on her part, thus no contest from the earth ponies hehe
5799517 i don't watch the show as much as i would like, but i figured that mite be the case
stayclassy
5799761 I'm not saying he will appear I'm just saying that Discord is her brother
5798678
they don't have the right magic, they just have a different passive magic, that's not arcane, earth magic, or something along those lines.
Up untill now night,are wasn't really being a jerk....seems odd for her to just become a villain again out of no where.
Alicorns are NOT born from pegasus and unicorns, otherwise they would not have the abilities of the three pony races, that book is probably outdated and full of lies. Even if some information might be accurate, a lot of old texts just reflect what was believed by the time they were written.
5801599 I do have to agree with that. Heck we know that unicorns can for sure ascend and like Pegasi if Cadance's backstory is canon. The sisters were always alicorns and we know that the three tribes can interbreed. I say it's like this. Unicorns have the best chance to ascend since they heavily use a wide variety of magic. Pegasi are next since they easily use there magic. Honestly i would not be surprise if Rainbow is at the edge of doing that. Earth Ponies likely have the hardest time since their magic is so subtle that most forget they are even using it.
5801599
5801652
This is largely my own headcanon, so like I said to someone down below sorry if it doesn't sit right with you.
Look at it this way. From what I said, and if you could just momentarily accept that alicorns could have been born from unicorns and pegasi mating, I did say that with each generation of alicorn born their magical prowess would increase slightly, which would mean over time they would eventually have enough magic to say that their strength is on par with earth ponies. So I did account for it, but somehow you've both overlooked that small detail.
5802374 Dude you have an exempt from my ban list on the whole parasite thing because i do want to see where you go with this.
5802393
I don't get it explain what you mean by that??
5802413 Normally stories that have Nightmare Moon originating outside of Luna are on my do not read list. The idea weakens Luna as a character and I generally hate that. The one loophole I usually allow is Nightmare Moon is a parasite but only after the elements are used on her the second time. For she still comes from Luna in the end.
Yours is now clearly showing that Nightmare came from outside Luna and that is normally a goodbye from me but since this story was based off my idea i stay.
5802374
Pegasus + unicorn = Alicorn .That was a season one fanon no one uses anymore.
Still, if Twi is reading very old books, the books can be wrong. Heck, books published today sometimes have facts and things wrong.
5802438
Like I said, this is headcanon: my own version of how things were created.
I've read stories where alicorns where the original inhabitants of the planet but then Discord split them all into the three races we know. That is headcanon too, much like what I wrote is mine.
Besides, I'm pretty sure that a freak of nature like that could happen as do people born with seemingly larger than life capabilities that seemed out of the normal scope of a human.
I'm just trying to say that you shouldn't be so quick to knock the idea. Afterall, this is a work of fiction.
5802459
Well, at most they would be fake alicorns, like in Overworked Alicorn.
And the reason I blast the theory away to stardust is because is early season one fanon.
POSSIBLE SPOILS AHEAD, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
The Fallen? The meaning behind it is a little bit obscure but I understand. Fallen. By (one) definition it means to move rapidly downward. Nightmare's family was most likely looked upon well by the pantheon (if one exists in your headcanon; just taking a guess) of gods, up until the time that cute baby god (Nightmare) became a depraved destroyer of dreams. Where her/his/its family, who gave ponies peaceful sleep and relaxation, was good, she/he/it was a psychopath depriving ponies of a good night's rest. Now, having a psychopath in, say, a CEO position at a company is not a good thing right? Such is why she/he/it was locked up in Tartarus to rot for eternity. All things fail, so it (sticking with that pronoun) escaped and became the monster the world wanted it to be. It "corrupted" Luna with temptation and attempted to fulfill its host's desires. Since Celestia had an overpowered deus-ex-machina godkiller on her side, its plan predictably failed. Because of that she became petty, blaming Celestia for her predicament. Luna was just ashamed, and learned HER lesson. Skip to the present and Joseph arrives, stealing Nightmare from its endless cycle of hatred and loathing of Celestia. Nightmare was quite at first, biding its time to "corrupt" Joseph slowly, when he discovers it is not a demon, but a God. I won't go further and ruin any more major plot points, so that's about it for history.
Tl;dr, Nightmare is a bitch because Fate flipped her the double bird and forced her to fall from grace.
EDIT: I've really gotta find something better to do with my life than showing those people who can't figure it out on their own what the author wants them to know ;-;. Also, you guys in the comments below really gotta learn that it's HEADCANON, not CANON. That means he makes the story, not Hasbro. Learn it and learn it well, because the clopfics aren't the only fanfics with headcanon.
EDIT2: Goddamn it, I did it again!
5804173 You're right about one thing but wrong about the other. I bet you if you read the chapter again it'll come to you
The clues are all there, albeit a tad obscure.
Perhaps Fallen is in reference to Fallen Angels? Another name for Demons since that's what they are supposed to be, the angels that followed good ol Satan on the highway to hell. Really... what a douch.
5805733 That's basically what I meant, but I might have worded it wrong. Despite her not being a DEMON, per se, instead being a god, the fallen angels were also good at one point before they fell.
5805760 5805733
You're focusing on Nightmare Being a demon/god too much, trying to find a way to correlate the name of the chapter to her, but are you sure it's Nightmare that it applies to? Like I said, the answers are in the chapter
5821526 Well, I didn't really plan out Joe's character. It was a case of winging it largely. I tried fleshing him out more in the interlude, but his lack of a relateable character (to an extent) or solid personality in another sense throws you off. The next chapter is where things start picking up. Well, at the end of it anyway, heh
Well, it’s been some time since this came out but imma gonna comment anyway...
Seriously guys? No one's thinking that the fallen might be a reference to Caesar who most likely is that one alicorn dude the book mentioned ? Seriously?
I mean ok i haven’t read all of the commentd for this chapter, but i find your lack of creativity disturbing. It would be much to obvious if it was about the gods/demons. It wouldn't make sense for the author to phrase the authors note the way he did. No, there is more to it than that...
5837463
'splain
Fcnfnvncuwncjd s
(LOL I just find the Alicorn :3 basically at the end though So...LOL
it all makes since..)
5921967 Not exactly sure how I'm supposed to reply to your comment or what you want me to say. This was written on a whim because the story I based it off had potential but was poorly executed. In hindsight, I don't know why this got featured for three days. I do try to write a good story, but looks like the quality has been getting gradually worse. I don't know if the story is too late to save or if I should just see it through to the end and try my best until such time. When I started it, I greatly improved on what was then realised I had no direction to take it. As things progressed, I thought of ideas and things I could introduce to give a new twist on the MLP lore, and I still intend to do that down the track with what I've got planned.
As for the gender thing, it's supposed to be a joke above anything. It's not supposed to reflect real world transgender people in any shape or form so I don't know why you would bring up that statistic. It's a male human trapped in the body of a female horse and the other characters are not (in my view) entirely used to something like this happening so they mix up their pronouns. That's all it is.
The story itself is resoundingly mediocre, I'm sorry to say, but man, that cover image is stylish. It actually makes a pony look cool.
6010779 I also found this one. i.imgur.com/xhZ4GWw.jpg I don't know if I should change it or not, but I don't really want to. Kind of one of those "been there since the beginning" things, heh
But yeah, the story as it is, is as you said, mediocre. Probably the biggest contributing factor towards 1100 favs and just shy of 9000 views is because people have a tendency to gravitate towards more well-written (from a grammatical and punctual point etc) story. If you saw the one I based it off you'd know what I mean. And because of that, more people were interested in seeing where this one goes
Statistic-wise it's my most popular story too
I'm still working on it, though.
6011032
I think I like the old one better. It's less cartoony, what with the big googly eyes and all.
Honestly, I think a really, really big improvement to the story would be if you could get off that sesquipedalian loquaciousness trip you're on in the earlier chapters. You keep trying to use all those ten-dollar words to make the characters give sophisticated-sounding speeches, but you use them all wrong and it's sort of a bit cringe-inducing.
Instead, use words that you are comfortable using, don't force yourself to write above a level of diction you feel at home with. Your characters will naturally follow along and sound clever when they're saying something insightful all on their own.
6011053 Can you sight a sentence or a paragraph so I can see an example?
6011065
Sure, give me a moment... aaand there we go:
"Respective" is used when you have a bunch of different things and say things about them in order. Like "In his left and right hand, he held a hammer and a dozen nails, respectively." It doesn't really make sense in this context.
That's one of the big examples. It sounds very awkward in general, but some words and subsentences just don't make any real sense.
"Impose" is not technically wrong, but rather inappropriate. "Imposing on your relatives" is something you do when you crash at your cousin's house after a night of drinking - a minor thing, not something like making a world freeze to icy death. Taxes and laws are also "imposed." The context makes it sound strange.
"Of which I am not" literally makes no grammatical sense in that sentence. "Which I do not" would be better.
"Prejudicial" does not actually mean the same as "prejudiced," it just sounds very similar. That's a straight-up misused word right there.
"Perform to such abhorrent expectations" is just a very awkward and pretentious-sounding sentence in general, in addition to the fact that you don't "perform to" expections, you "live up to" them. That's usually a positive thing, though - when you get a college degree, you "lived up to the expectations" of everyone who believed in you. "do such a horrible thing" is what you meant to say, content-wise, but I can't think of a nice and formal way to phrase it myself right now.
There are other examples I could give, but I think you get the general gist of it.
6011067
That's... I want to say a 'narrow' way of looking at it, and here's why. By definition, 'respective' means belonging to or relation to two or more people or things. Your example is correct, but you're correlating it in the wrong way to the quoted piece. As far as I'm concerned saying "in his respective body" is still correct: here you've got two characters in one body and Joseph had his own body, and when you've got multiple characters sharing bodies saying "in their respective bodies" (as a ubiquitous example) then your example begins to become synonymous with the latter.
"Impose", by definition, means to forcefully impose an unwelcome decision or rule unto someone.
Lets break this one down. Saying "of which" is referencing Nightmare Moon here --->
As a generalization, using "of which" in a sentence is referencing the latest pronoun/noun, and by adding "I am not" is essentially saying "I am not Nightmare Moon." Your example using "Which I do Not" would make the sentence sound like this:
That doesn't make sense to me because I am talking about the character; so there would be a seperation of talking about the eternal night and NMM herself.
Prejudicial: To cause unwanted harm to someone or something.
Prejudiced: Forming erroneous, and unfavourable opinions before being informed of relevant facts.
Judgemental: Overly harsh/critical statement; concerning the use of judgement.
Let me break down the sentence.
Sentence as-is:
Sentence expanding upon definition:
Not misused, no.
This one I agree with. I looked up several examples and they seemed to correlate with what you're getting at with this example. But as far as I'm concerned they're somewhat synonymous, but whatever.
6011484
Sorry, but you're wrong about those things (except for the "I do not" thing, where I accidentally forgot the "share" at the end. Sorry, my bad.) It all sounds reasonable enough at first glance, the way you explain it, but to a more practiced reader, those things are still visibly out of place, even if you don't see it. It's that kind of attitude that causes you to make mistakes like that to begin with - you don't have enough fine sensitivity yet for how good writing in English flows to notice these things, so you keep misusing them when you go outside your comfort zone. There are things like non-standard usages and different levels of formality that you mix up more or less randomly and end up producing a fairly incongruous mess out of it as a result.
I understand if you don't want to take me just on my word there, but it is well-meant advice. It's not a put-down, just something I notice because I've probably got at least 10 more years of practice at using (and especially reading) English than you do and have been writing academically for at least 8 of those.
6011564 We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this matter. I can't see anything wrong with them outside of you saying "Not entirely incorrect but could be better", in a sense.
I don't know why you brought up academics either. This is the internet; I'm going to take everything with a grain of salt. I don't know if you're being serious; saying you've got an eight-year academic writing career (or at least that's what I gathered).
Here's the most irksome thing you've said thus far. Flat-out saying "you're wrong" and "I've got more practice than you do" is extremely condescending, because you know literally nothing about me or my education. It's also a rather arbitrary and irrelevant thing to bring up, so I respectfully ask you to cut the attitude.
6011666
You know, previously I was going to say that I really appreciate people who can take criticism well, because they're certainly a rarity here, but given the degree of petty indignation in that post, I think I would be wasting my breath. You go do your thing, it's really not my problem anyway.
6011695 I can take criticism well, provided it's constructive that is.
You only began to get sore after I questioned what you said concerning your academics, saying it was "petty indignation" on my behalf. Where is the indignity? I said I didn't understand why you brought it up. It's the internet; what difference is it going to make?
Saying you know better than someone when you know nothing about them is the epitome of fallacies, and it is that, which I called you out on above anything. It is, all at the same time: petty, arbitrary, and irrelevant to say that you've had eight to ten years more experience than me when you, A, don't know how old I am, B, you don't know what my level of education is. For you, it's speculative at best
Simply put, going into a story, asserting and plainly saying someone is wrong—which you should never do by the way—and that you've got more experience than someone (you don't know, dare I say for the Nth time) is not a trump card you can play fairly or in any justifiable manner
So please, tell me how old you are and show me your schooling records if you wish to prove that you're worth your salt
If you couldn't tell, I'm being facetious with that last comment
1) People can make a reasonable guess about the language education of an individual based on apparent writing skills, but it's not always accurate considering not everyone considers it worth putting too much effort into internet writing.
2) As tempting as it is to passive-aggressively boast of your own skills in English by publicly providing unrequested edits and corrections to someone's story, it usually ends in tears and one, both, or third parties looking like jerks. Personal experience speaking. Probably best to keep that stuff to private messages and not continue, despite your surety that you're being helpful and succinct, if it seems unwelcome.
3) They're both cool images, but I prefer Nightmare's depiction in the first one, even if the armor is a bit impractical in places. Getting the Shredder/Magneto vibe from the helmet and shadowed face.
6024041
Interesting point, but I think it's a moot one since you said "it's not always accurate".
I don't know about you, but I try as best I can to provide my viewers with the best I can, and if that falters then I can only get better at it.
Quite right, ol' chap
If there's legitimate spelling errors and concerns, then I'll typically leave a comment in the comments section of the story with a quote and suggest corrections where applicable. Even with editors sometimes things get overlooked. Sometimes I'll offer to edit for people if the story is in its early stages, and that's where I've picked up a few friends from. I've had a few people send me PMs with suggested edits because they thought it rude to do so in the comments. I don't care either way, though, but personally I'll do it in the story.
The eyes in the second one I put in my comment reply throw me off a bit
6024214
I think a better word might be "redundant." I didn't have to emphasize the guesswork, but I did. When we miss, we can miss wildly.
I mean for forum posts and such. Writing stories for fanfiction sites is a different kind of internet writing where increased effort from the author is actually justifiable over something like an off-hand Youtube comment.
Bowling balls.
maybe he hasn't been doing enough?
"not entirely similar"? Isn't it usually "not entirely different"? Yes, I'm nitpicking again, but I'm just in that sort of mood. Lucky you
6011032 I like the current cover better
wait, what? Which way are you going to draw the contrast? I'm confused...
wait, the latter of what? Oh, the foals' scrawl? Maybe you should make that a bit more clear...
2 things:
A. This draws such an adorkable image that I just want to go on Google right now and order myself a Twilight plush.
B. That first sentence should probably start with 'For Twilight's part', because as it is, I don't think it's grammatically correct.