Chapter 10: The Glow
“There,” Nightbreeze proclaimed, after twenty minutes of painfully slow work. “Not that you’ll wear that again. But if you did want to, you’d be able to.” She carried the last of several hangers into the wardrobe.
“Thank God.” Hayden stretched each of her limbs in turn, feeling as though she’d just had shackles removed from all over her body. “Every time I moved I thought I was going to tear something.”
“Well… you did. Damage the dress, I mean. Not that it matters—one of Luna’s ladies in waiting wouldn’t wear the same dress twice.” She shut the wardrobe, making her way back across the room towards where Hayden stopped, right in front of her shower.
“Oh. Great.” Hayden rolled her eyes. “That sounds like a perfect use of resources. We haven’t invented mass production yet, so let’s just use the labor of dozens of people on my vanity. Shouldn’t they be out… building highways or something? Doing something useful?”
Nightbreeze stopped right in front of her. Close enough for Hayden to smell her. In her way, Nightbreeze was far more interesting to her than Golden Glow. Smelling her was like smelling Elizabeth again, like waking up to her in bed each morning. It had taken this long to stop Nightbreeze from bowing and scraping as she had early on. But now…
“You spent weeks doing something that wasn’t useful,” she said, pointing at the bathroom. Now that the walls were back up, there was little sign of all her hard work. Except for the blacksmith-forged equivalent of human fixtures. The shower she was most proud of, particularly given the water pressure she had managed with such limited resources.
“Wasn’t useful?” Hayden grabbed her with one wing, dragging her towards the sink. “You just haven’t been paying enough attention if you don’t think this is useful. Look.” She pushed the tap with a free hoof. “See? Cold water. Drinkable too, unlike what passes for water around here normally.” She turned on the hot water, mixing it to warm. “Now this. For shaving, or brushing your teeth, or…”
Nightbreeze did not look convinced. Instead she wore a knowing smile, like a parent watching their child slowly realize they’d been wrong all along. “You told me what it would do before you built it,” she said. “Yes, I’m very impressed you made it work. But I don’t see how this is different from what the other nobles do. Some garden, some compose, some design weather. You trapped a stream in the walls.”
Hayden groaned. “I had a rough day, Nightbreeze. You’re supposed to agree with me.” She turned off the water, tugging her up to the shower. “What about this, huh? This is awesome, isn’t it?”
Nightbreeze raised an eyebrow. “A tiny room with tile walls. Yes, a monumental achievement. None in Equestria have ever seen its likeness, before or since.”
Hayden punched her in the shoulder. “Haven’t you noticed that I stopped stinking like everyone else?” She pushed the wooden door open (glass would’ve been far too expensive to have built at the sizes she wanted, and too weak to support itself given Equestria’s limited understanding of material science), before turning on the hot water. It showered down from above, filling the little area with steam that began to drift into her bedroom. “Doesn’t that look just a little bit better than being disgusting all the time? It’s one third of civilization, Nightbreeze! Hot showers, electric lights, and a comfortable bed. Ponies had one. I’m setting up the other two. It’s more fun than whatever else Luna expected me to be doing in here. Composing music, expecting servants to bathe me like I was an invalid? Stupid.”
Nightbreeze reached out, sticking one hoof into the flow. She wasn’t wearing anything—sometimes she wore a hat, or an apron, but generally not even those. More restrictive outfits were the domain of servants with less important roles. “I was… somewhat disappointed,” she admitted. Her ears were flat now, her wings twitching nervously. “I haven’t assisted a noble lady in years. There are lesser servants for that. But you… I’ve enjoyed spending my time with you. Haven’t ever met another mare quite like you. Well… except for Luna herself. But she’s a princess… even as her steward, she can hardly even see me.”
Nightbreeze reached out with her wing, brushing some of the mane out of Hayden’s face. “You’re like her. Her passion, her power, her beauty… but still a mortal pony.”
Hayden took several long moments to find her voice. If she’d been herself, if Nightbreeze had been human, this would be easy. She’d know exactly what to do next. But she was an alien, surrounded by aliens. She didn’t even know where to begin.
Well, maybe she did. She’d seen ponies kiss before. She tried that, silencing Nightbreeze before she could keep going. Then maybe she could try out a few other things she could do in a shower.
Nightbreeze didn’t wake Hayden the next morning, as she had done for so many months. Hayden didn’t resent her for it anymore, even though her body never seemed to adjust to waking in the morning. Though the ponies seem to be able to do it fine.
For the first time in recent memory, Hayden slept in. Slept until afternoon, when sunlight started streaming in from the other side of the tower.
Of course, there was no beating the company. Hayden could feel the weight of the other pony in bed with her. The bed was large enough that she could’ve shared it with several quite comfortably. But she hadn’t needed to share it with several, only one.
“Should probably be getting up,” said Nightbreeze from beside her, half buried in blankets and pillows. “Catering to your strange whims isn’t my only duty. I have accounts to balance today. I can’t leave the princess to manage them herself.”
Hayden could make out one of her legs stiffen and flex, and the shadow of one of her wings on the wall behind her. Something about it looked wrong, but she dismissed that feeling immediately. She needed to find her glasses.
“Yeah, yeah.” Hayden rolled out of bed, fumbling around until she found where she’d tossed her glasses the night before. She put them on, and instantly the room came back into focus. There were still towels and things on the ground, left over from the mess they’d made and not cleaned.
Good thing Nightbreeze hasn’t gotten around to getting me ordinary servants yet. Wouldn’t want them to walk in on this. She made her way over to the window, opening it with her mouth. That felt like a fitting reversal. “You might want to pop in for a quick shower before you leave. Unless you don’t care if the princess finds out. Get my smell out of your coat.” She would do the same, but she could wait.
“You’re not just good at tearing holes in the castle,” Nightbreeze observed, getting out of bed herself and stretching. Hayden turned to stare, appreciating her friend’s anatomy in a way she hadn’t dared before.
At least until she noticed what had changed, and her eager feeling was replaced with shock. Hayden backed up a step, her flank pressed against the wall. A few weeks ago, and she probably would’ve fallen over completely.
Nightbreeze didn’t have feathery wings anymore. Her coat had gone darker, her ears a little fluffier. Her teeth looked sharper, like Hayden’s own. Oh God.
The former pegasus didn’t seem to notice. She raised an eyebrow, stalking slowly towards Hayden, swaying a little. It might’ve been seductive, if Hayden hadn’t just seen what she had. “I know you want me to stay, Evening. But I can come back tonight. Bring our dinner myself. Or maybe you’d rather have it atop one of the other towers. We’re together so often, nopony will suspect…”
She stopped in front of Hayden, leaning close for a kiss. Close enough for Hayden to see her slitted eyes.
She let her kiss her anyway, though she broke away quickly. “Nightbreeze,” she whimpered, pulling away. Not because her friend looked any less attractive. If anything, she seemed even more interesting. But that wouldn’t make this any easier. “Look in the mirror.”
“If it’s my mane, I already know. It always goes crazy in the morning. I have to really fight it to get it to lie down.” She made to kiss Hayden again, but this time Hayden stepped back, flicking her tail towards the bathroom, and its scavenged mirror.
“Look at your reflection, Nightbreeze. You need to…” She sniffed. “You need to see.”
Even if Nightbreeze didn’t seem to understand her feelings, by then it seemed that some of Hayden’s concern was making an impact. She jumped into the air, flapping her wings a few times and gliding to a stop in front of the mirror. She gasped, staring down at her reflection, pure shock on her face. Then she looked down, inspecting her wings, extending them in the light so that the bones were visible through the transparent skin.
Only then did she look up, tears welling in her eyes and pain in her voice. “Y-you didn’t tell me it could spread! Hayden, I can’t be a bat! I must do my job! My…” She slumped to the floor, covering her face. “I failed my princess.”
“No.” Hayden embraced the bat with one of her wings, holding her close. There was nothing sexual about it this time. “Don’t say that, Nightbreeze. Just…” She swayed on her hooves, trying to figure out what she would do. Her friend looked so pitiful, so desperate. So much for being a mare making this safe.
But she had made this mess. Really had ruined her friend’s life, if it couldn’t be reversed. “Maybe it’s temporary! Maybe…”
“Was it temporary for you?” Nightbreeze shouted back, eyes wide with anger. The first time Hayden had ever seen it. “How could you let me… why didn’t you stop me?”
“I didn’t know!” Hayden whimpered, fighting back her own tears. “I’m not even supposed to have hooves, Nightbreeze! Nothing should’ve happened.” She turned away. “You just stay here, okay? Get cleaned up. I’m going to find Luna.”
There were very few ponies who had the authority to visit the princess without an invitation. Her ladies could, though it was a power she almost never used. Luna did not like interruptions. Knowing her schedule, Hayden would be waking her in the middle of her sleep.
Sorry, Princess. You’re the one who created this problem, not me. You should fix it.
It didn’t take her long to cross a few hallways between towers, and to pass the several guards who stood on watch between her and the entrance to Luna’s tower. She didn’t climb the steps, but flew up them instead, wings filling the tower with wind and sound as she did so. This was far too urgent to wait.
She reached the top, and the massive wooden doors separating Princess Luna’s chambers from the outside. There were two more guards here, both of which rose hastily as they saw Hayden land. “The princess is asleep,” one of them said. “She doesn’t usually take visitors for another few hours.”
“I know,” Hayden answered, striding right past him. “But this is urgent. She’ll want me to tell her about it.” Hayden didn’t know that, but she sounded like she did, and that was apparently enough. The guards just shrugged, and went back to the card game.
Hayden banged loudly on the door with one hoof, betraying a little of her nervous energy. “Princess Luna!” she shouted, as loudly as she could. “It’s Hayden! I have something urgent to discuss with you!”
There was a distant sound, though Hayden couldn’t make it out clearly. A groan, perhaps? Then she heard a voice, still dazed with sleep. “Enter.”
Hayden tugged the door open, snapping it shut behind her.
The princess’s chambers were exactly as she remembered—spacious, beautiful, and lonely. The bed at the far end of the room was even bigger than the one Hayden had. Come to think of it, the tower seemed far more spacious than it looked from the outside. Could there be magic involved, or some illusion?
She didn’t have time to care just now. The princess herself sat up in bed, her eyes half-closed with sleep and her mane lacking any of its usual patterns. “I am… hopeful you have a good reason for this, Hayden,” she said. “I have a long night ahead of me. I do not plan on spending that night deprived of sleep thanks to needless interruptions.”
“Sorry.” Hayden stopped in front of the bed, not sounding sorry at all. “Something happened, Princess. Something bad. You need to know about it, before… before news gets out some other way. I don’t know the damage it could do.”
Luna blinked, taking a moment to soak that in. Then she nodded. “Very well. Explain.”
Hayden swallowed, considering a way to share without revealing what she’d done. Hayden didn’t know anything about the rules of sexual conduct among these aliens, after all. The books professed only strict propriety between married partners, but what she had seen and heard suggested that was only a polite fiction.
“Something happened to Nightbreeze,” she eventually said.
“My steward?” Luna raised an eyebrow. “We’re safe in the castle, Hayden. Not even the dragons could breach the walls.”
“Not an enemy.” She blushed, her ears flat against her mane. “She, uh… went to sleep a pegasus, like normal. But when she woke up, she… looked like me.” She held out her wings to demonstrate. “Like a bat.”
Luna stared up at her from the bed, speechless. Then there was a flash of light, and suddenly she was only inches away, meeting Hayden’s eyes. “What happened?”
She swallowed, but didn’t look away. She can’t hurt me! She’d only be hurting herself. She told herself that, and felt a little better. Even if she knew it wasn’t completely true. “We, uh… spent the night together,” Hayden eventually said.
Luna’s eyes widened, and she stepped back a little. “You and the steward? As…”
“Yes!” Hayden cut her off, tail tucked between her legs like a chastised animal. “We didn’t think anything would happen! I’m sorry if I broke the rules or something, but that’s not really what matters right now!”
“Yes.” Luna sat back on her haunches, smiling for the first time that morning. “That is… not the reaction I expected, Hayden. Everything you say about ponies was always tinged with disgust.”
“Is that really the take-away from this?” Hayden retreated, her embarrassment replaced with frustration. “Princess, don’t you care about Nightbreeze? Don’t you care what ponies think about her? What happens to me if ponies start thinking I can spread my curse around?”
“Apparently you can,” Luna said flatly, rising again. “But you’re right. As happy as I am to hear Nightbreeze finally accomplished her goal… we need to intervene on her behalf. Did this occur in your quarters or hers?”
“Mine,” Hayden answered. “And no, nobody saw.”
“Good.” Luna levitated her regalia over from where it hung beside the wardrobe on a row of neat hooks, each one glittering and polished. “I will instruct Star Swirl to meet us there in all haste. I have no doubt his magic is the equal to whatever… strange effect you have produced. The laws of magic preclude permanent transformation spells from lasting when cast on organic targets. Whatever you’ve done we will reverse—either through spellcraft, or simple waiting.” She strode past Hayden, still grinning. “Relax, daemon. You have not done more harm than can be repaired. I will meet you in your quarters.” She vanished in a flash of light, leaving Hayden alone.
Hayden might not know that much about magic, but Nightbreeze’s changes did not look anything like temporary. God, I hope you’re right, Princess.
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On one hoof, yay for romance!
On the other, I bet Hayden didn't intend to spread his new species like this
Let's just hope Nightbreeze can stay with her. And that she doesn't suffer too much from the transformation... Or that Celestia doesn't try to make things "better" in her own way.
So... apparently batponies are an STD?
Wait, did Luna just call Hayden a daemon? Is that a new thing, or did I just forget? Because if it's new, that doesn't seem like a very good turn in their relationship.
8452078
The spell which brought Hayden to Equestria was designed to externally manifest all of Luna´s self loating into a being. Both she and Starswirl refuse to believe he/she was another person, an alien, who existed before said spell.
And Celestia thinks he/she is an eldritch abomination in pony form.
A single bathroom isn't going to change the world, Hayden. Not yet, anyway.
Hayden missed this in her justifiable panic, but I didn't. How long has Nightbreeze been angling for the next best thing to Luna?
Hopefully this is as reversible as Luna believes. If not, it could be all the ammunition Celestia needs.
8452078
Hayden's pony body is a Goetic daemon, a physical manifestation of an aspect of Luna's psyche. In this case, her loneliness and sense of alienation. That was the purpose of the spell at the start of the story; it just wasn't meant to drag an alien consciousness into the daemon.
So... if Hayden's physical form is transmissable, is the connection to Luna's mental state as well? I mean, that's what the spell that started it all actually did, right?
Is Luna's sense of loneliness and reclusiveness going to be represented by two people now, and maybe eventually more? That kind of seems like something that could end up making Luna go Nightmare Moon crazy...
8452101
8452096
I know both those parts, but was she in the habit of just straight-up calling him such? Because it seems a bit reductive to do so, especially so given that a name would fit much better in this case.
well that happened to her out of the left field blue I was kind of hoping for a build up in the transformation at least then sudden species change in a night
That, ah... escalated quickly.
8452021
There is only one other story that I've seen that uses the same sort of thing.
8452096 If it acts like one, might as well treat it as such.
I'm a MUCH better liar.
Uh huh... and what, pray tell, do impermanent magical transformations look like? What traits of them suggest that they are or are not reversible? How can this human-in-a-pony, a complete novice on all matters magical, even begin to guess what is and is not irreversible? If this is a narrative device meant to suggest to the audience that the transformation into Bat Pony is permanent, then it's not framed in a plausible way. This should be a concern from Luna's point of view... something she could possibly glean from the information given since she knows vastly more about magic and its durability. She has expertise to actually base a opinion upon.
But from the human's; he knows less about magic than he does about, say, nuclear physics... and no one would put any weight on his guesses regarding that subject either.
I have to ask, how are you defining daemon here? Are defining it as being synonymous to demon, or is it more along the lines of benevolent spirit?
OK, that's a good plot weasel. I approve. The story cries out for a moral panic now!
8452709
More in the "His Dark Materials" benevolent spirit sort of way.
Well. Score one for Evening and/or Nightbreeze, depending upon how you're counting, but then like -50 for both of them. That was clearly not safe sex, which is a little surprising considering the genders involved.
Celestia is absolutely going to lose her shit if she finds out about this.
8452141
She more commonly calls him by name (and did so like ten seconds previously), but apparently "daemon" is an acceptable alternative, perhaps like "man". Perhaps her thoughts turned more in that direction given the subject of discussion.
8452892
I'm not so sure about that. As far as we know, it could just be feeling of being connected to somepony is enough to spread it. That doesn't exactly require extravagant sex, and I highly doubt it has anything to do with diseases. It's entirely a magical transformation, meaning there just has to be a trigger to cause it. It can't just be being in the presence of someone, else Nightbreeze would have transformed a lot sooner.
8453136
Well, that's one possible reaction, but it depends on a lot of factors to consider. If it really is only transmitted via sex (and what counts in this case, considering they are both the same gender?), that limits how it would spread. It's not like you could exactly hide that you had "the bats", and if it was known how to catch "the bats", you'd probably not see ponies putting themselves in that position. That's hardly something to burn them over.
If it spread like most normal diseases just from sheer proximity, that would be different, but this doesn't strike me as that. In fact, I'm not entirely sure sex is the cause of this, as I have a feeling it's something else.
8452021
It would appear that way o.o
8453559
>Expecting her to think rationally about it when her last reaction was slamming her into a wall from just existing, only to stop when it hurt Luna.
As for how it spreads, and it's nature... I'm sure that smart lad Star Swirl might have some answers.
8453538
Maybe it's as in Robert Asprin's M.Y.T.H. series, where "demon" is a misspelled contraction of "extradimensional traveller".
Get your applications to the night guard here! 12 hour processing! Limited time offer!
8699357
daemon means a spirit, manifestation... not same as demon