A shooting nightmare: The tables have rotated

by The Psychopath

Mountain white

"You...you're...you're adorable!" Crescent put her forelegs to her face and made a sort of 'overexhilarated' face complete with huge smile and sparkling eyes.

"Huh?"

"You're a foal!"

There was a long pause as Mathews tried to understand what she had said. Then he stared at her with a completely baffled expression and said:"What?"

"You're a tiny foal with little legs! So cute!" Crescent squeezed her face.

"What are you--AH! No! Nonononono! This can't be happening? How? How did it happen? I was expecting a little age regression, seeing what happened to you, but why a pony?!"

Crescent couldn't help herself but stare at Mathews garbling and panic with glee. He was so cute! His body was the color of a purple grape, save for a streak of red wine color starting from the middle of his neck and going along the middle length of his left foreleg and stopping right at the knee. His mane and tail were quite frisky and were a weird mesh between deep red wine and sea blue, making them look like murky water.

The mare raised Mathews in her outstretched arms while sitting on her haunches and closened him to her face. The foal seemed concerned with what she was about to do, then frowned at her comment.

"Now I've got your power."

Mathews' replied by sapping her across the muzzle, prompting her to yipe in pain and rub her snout.

"That wasn't very nice. I...Huh. You're a pegasus, too. How did I not notice that?"

The tiny pegasus looked under his arms, then strained his neck looking backwards to see wings. He was surprised, but felt somewhat giddy when looking at them. Try as he might, he just couldn't get them to move, though. In fact, he was forcing so hard he looked like he was trying to-

"Stop that. You'll hurt yourself," Crescent scolded.

Mathews looked up at her with brows furrowed and lower lip puffed up. He started to yell at her, but he couldn't say anything in this undeveloped body. The mind is the same, but the body must follow its experience, and this one clearly had none. Crescent ignored him and looked around to see where they were. She hadn't yet thought about taking in the surroundings to get a precise location. Luna had been around before. She shouldn't be too lost if she was in Equestria.

The two were standing on a series of wavy ground. It seemed like a very hilly area dotted with rounded mounds of dirt. Of course, the dirt was covered in the richest shade of green Crescent had ever seen in her life. The grass here was just sublime and perfect in length, as though this were a dream. Several bits of white flowers stuck out randomly throughout the landscape, but it changed the appearance of nothing but green as far as the eye could see. Looking upwards, the sky was completely covered in clouds of a varying shade of gray and white, but they were extremely thin, letting the sunlight pass through in an unfiltered shade of white. There was a mild breeze strong enough to blow Crescent and Mathews' manes and tail slightly, and it was rather chilly, too. Far to the left and right, the alicorn could see lines of mountains flanking where they were, so it became obvious that they were in a mountain range...but Crescent didn't know where.

She stood up in fear and began to walk around and try to discern their location. While she did that, Mathews tried to stand up on his hind legs, only to fall onto his back. He wiggled his tiny hooves a bit before twisting himself back on his belly and having a tantrum.

"I don't know where we are. It's clearly Equestria. I can feel that much kind of magic here, but I have no idea where it could be. Umm...Maybe the mountains northeast of Manehatten? Luna never went there," Crescent mumbled to herself while tapping her chin pensively. She looked down to see Mathews whining like a little foal, which he was now, after all.

"Mathews, just because you're a foal doesn't mean you have to act like one now," she scolded.

"Oh, the pot calling the kettle black," Mathews quipped.

"I think it's best that I carry you. You don't seem capable of walking on your own, and this isn't the place to learn it. I'm still confused about this whole thing. I mean, how did we end up here? I'm wondering if it's not your fault, Mathews. You did throw me off when I entered the spell."

Crescent frowned at the tiny foal disapprovingly. Mathews crossed his forelegs and frowned at her with narrowed eyes. The alicorn lift the foal with her magic and placed him on her back between her wings. Once he was firmly in place, Crescent started to move. She needed to find civilization not simply just to pinpoint their location, but also to get water and food. Plus, she didn't have the same amount of magical power as an alicorn due to her separation from Luna so long ago. Come to think of it, what was the date?

"Crap! I didn't ask the old couple if this transported me in the future or the past! I'm really hoping that wherever we are knows what the age is."

The trip across the rounded lands was amazing, to say the least. There were no trees here. In their stead stood several long and curved, white constructs that appeared to look like dragons' teeth. When Crescent got close to one, its exterior erupted into several rising scales from which white fluff erupted. The 'tooth' turned into a cotton ball, basically. Some of the fluff floated down onto Mathews' muzzle. He followed it to the point of becoming cross-eyed, then made a tiny squeak when he sneezed. He rubbed his runny snout then stopped when he saw Crescent looking at him with a face of 'awwe'. He blushed and hid behind her mane.

"I hate being a baby again. This sucks. How did Crescent deal with this?" Mathews shivered. "Am I going to have to snuggle next to her like a cat the way she did with me?"

The tiny foal's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of reverberation coming from above them. Several white creatures with long bodies and wide wings were flying through the air. Their tails, back linings, and wings were covered in fluff, making them look like a hairy hotdog. They appeared to be avian, judging by their pale yellow beaks. Several of them started to perform acrobatics, much to the amusement of the two ponies. Whilst looking at them, Crescent yelped in fear and jumped back, making Mathews smack his face against her neck.

"Ow! What's wrong with you?!" he yelled. The foal grabbed his muzzle in his hooves and rubbed it to soothe the pain.

A white shape grew out of the ground and looked like a wad of gray clay. It was quite round and the alicorn didn't know how to react to this thing. She didn't even know what it was. It rose to twice the mare's height and had a very rounded top area, similar to a surf board. Without warning, eyes opened at that top and looked down at her, making the mare flinch. The eyes were red with black pupils and seemed soul less. Crescent stanced herself to prepare for an incoming blow, but felt fear grab her as an enormous mouth with human-like teeth began to form under and started to form into a smile.

Crescent couldn't hold it back anymore and yelled.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed.

The creature separated from the ground and grew two long arms and a curvy, shrimp-like tail and started to yell as well. It was frightened. Both were yelling after the other, making Mathews facepalm...er, hoof.

"What is this, a sitcom? Next we're going to hear Seinfeld? 'What's the deal with airplane food?'," Mathews mused to himself.

The yelling stopped when the creature used its two long arms to run away. Its form began to change as it fled, but it went too far for Crescent to recognize anything. Bits of snow began to sprinkle from the sky, although it was mint-colored and seemed more consistent with the fluff all around this place.

"What's wrong with this place and this weird white stuff?" Crescent asked aloud.

Mathews bopped Crescent on her head and pointed to the left. There appeared to be a few buildings a bit further away, and there was movement there, too.

"Oh. Thank goodness. Thanks for finding that, Mathews. I need to get away from this craziness and get you somewhere safe."

"I SHOULD protest that...but she's right. I hope someone there has a solution to this...I wonder if they're all cute and cuddly like Crescent."

They didn't notice the creature looking at them from behind a stone cliff.

Comments

[clearshot01]

... Somehow, I find myself wondering 'Cowardly Clayface?'...

[The Psychopath]

5917233 Clayface the cowardly thing.

[clearshot01]

5917246 Would he come from a world where Batman actually laughed?

[The Psychopath]

5917250 Oh. I was thinking of Courage the Cowardly Dog.

[Ascent-Express]

So how old is Mathews now and what kind of things will Crescent have to do to take care of him? I'm am now rather intrigued by this twist.

[The Psychopath]

5917314 A twist? Eh? Well, M.Night Shyamalan IS helping me with this.

[zeldawolffang]

5917321 Oh god not M.Night Shyamalan!!!!!

[clearshot01]

5917286 Ah. I remember him... have you ever wanted to shove Eustace into a blender with all the stupid things he does?

[The Psychopath]

5917370 Oh. He was already plenty punished in the show near the end.

[clearshot01]

5917476 Really? I never got to see the last episodes of it...

[The Psychopath]

5917558 I meant at the end of each episode.

[clearshot01]

5917586 Ah... dammit, I keep imagining him being shoved into a wood chipper!

[Ebonheart]

Well, Curse real life and all delaying my fanfiction addictions.
A bit late to the party, but I seem to remember some antagonistic eldritch force messing with little Nightmare in the first story.
Now we find her following the dubious advice of old weirdos and jumping blindly into a vortex she can only assume leads to Equestria...
...With barely a farewell to the man that raised her...
Can't tell is she is being a thoughtless impulsive teenager or what.

Also what did she think her father was going to do?
Let his little girl, the only reason he has to live blindly throw herself into the literal unknown?
So we now have a socially inept alicorn teenager responsible for her pegasus foal father... in a land neither have a slightest clue how to navigate.
Also one of their party is known as the fallen goddess of death, destruction, and nightmares... and wearing the iconic armor.

This can only end in tears... or laughter. But probably tears.

[The Psychopath]

6014504 HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL THIS?!

[Ebonheart]

6015762
Because?
Ham.
Evil Ham.
It speaks to me.

[The Psychopath]

6016991 Is it green?

[Ebonheart]

Plaid.
6017032

[The Psychopath]

6017381 Then it's above hyper-speed.

[Codes and Ponies]

6017393 So it's at the velocity actually labeled "ridiculous speed" on the speedometer?

[thetinybrony]

6615277
No! Ludicrous Speed as evidenced by this clip from Spaceballs