Chapter 0: Greed
Nightmare was thrown around, not managing to move in one direction or another. Victory had been so close… yet it is so far, now.
Luckily, she still had her magic.
After a few more moments, she eventually managed to stabilize herself, realizing that she was high above the ground. Remembering her wings, she flapped them once, bringing her fall to a halt.
Realizing she was clearly visible, her horn lit up blue, cloaking her with powerful magic. Something felt wrong, though.
A moment later, she could sense what was different: Wherever she was, there was almost no magic. She would have to use as few spells as possible. Also, she somehow needed to return to Equestria. She had no intention of living in such a magicless world, where probably even the thought of magic was outside of the norm.
Now curious about the world she ended up in, she drove down, turning ethereal in the process.
Work was exhausting.
I lived alone and was employed as an office worker. During such a day, I usually took a short nap after eating lunch. The job paid well, but it was somewhat unfulfilling. Sometimes, I just wished that I could escape this world.
However, something was different this time. Unlike usually, the room seemed to be much darker, but I thought it to be an illusion. That is until I realized that it was so dark that I could not even see my own hand anymore, and that shocked me enough to look around, trying to find the reason for this.
But I saw, quite literally, nothing.
I see someone staying in the dark even through the day.
The silky, ethereal voice was only there for a moment, but after asking who or where the speaker may be, I received no answer. The room looked grey again, and I could see the room again, if only in outlines.
But I knew I could forget my nap. Maybe some sort of illusion? Possible, but that would be the first time anything of the sort happened to me.
Shaking my head, I walked into the cafeteria, grabbing a glass of water. Just what happened?
While I did wish for something different, this once again showed me that wishing for change is not always a good idea.
That evening, I was quite tired and found that I fell asleep quite quickly. However, something woke me up in the night, but I could not tell what. Looking around, my blood froze when I realized that I once again could not see the room around me.
I do not even wish you ill… I heard the voice again, causing me to shudder.
“What are you?” I asked, my voice far less firm than I would have hoped it to be.
Hehe… look down, little one, I heard, and when I confused looked at the ground, I could see a… moving shadow?
Some moonlight managed to find its way in the room, revealing that instead of a shadow, in front of me now stood a black colored being, a head higher than I was at least.
Recognizing the eyes that seemed to glow with a pale, blue light, I flinched.
“You… you’re…!”
A smile. Somewhere between serene and wicked.
“Yes, child, I am. A Nightmare.”
I then blinked, realizing something.
“Then, why have you not done anything yet?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were extremely powerful in the other world, but you have yet to attack me, be it verbally, spiritually, or physically… what else could you want from someone like me, Nightmare?” I asked, now quite confused.
She sighed, grabbing the chair I had standing next to my bed and sitting down.
“You’re right, there is something I need from you. And unlike most other things, you have to agree freely for me to get this from you. Similarly, I do not plan on deceiving you, as the spell would not work in that case, too.”
She then snarled at me.
“But do not mistake my intentions! You are but one out of nine billion sentients on the planet that I can sense, and you cannot ask for anything from me, as I would find someone willing among them!”
What?
“N-nine?”
She leaned over to me, pushing me back.
“Oh, how innocent you young creatures are. You truly do not know how the world works, do you? But… that’s beside the topic,” she said, smirking.
“Here’s the deal. You know about my world and situation,” she stated, and I nodded, causing her to grin.
“Good. What I need is a new body.”
For a moment, I did not understand what she meant, then flinched back.
“Why would I ever give up my body?!”
She gave me another grin, before placing her right hand on her chest.
“Because I can offer you immortality.”
I was very skeptical, to say the least.
“I cannot return like this to the world I came from. I would be killed. But, if I had a different body, different looks, and different magic, then no one would recognize me. I swear on my existence that in exchange for your body so that I may mend it into one fitting for me, I shall give you immortality and shall leave without casting anything else, unless you wish otherwise,” she said, seemingly covering anything that could have me worried about.
However, there were two tiny details that were quite important.
“I do not want immortality as yours began,” I said, getting her to tilt her head.
“I do not want to become a concept or a being that only exists in dreams. I want to retain a physical, adult body,” I explained to her, getting a nod.
“Turning you into a spirit would be harder to do than what I had in mind anyway, so I would not do it either way.”
“Good. Secondly, I presume what my new body looks like won’t be like my old one looks like?”
“That would be correct. I remember how only a small number of ponies can change their form. You would be stuck with the result, but nobody would believe you to still be ‘you’, that’s your worry, right?”
I nodded. That was the second point, and in my opinion, it was of similar importance like the first one.
“Yes… yes, that could work. I believe I can create something that would allow you to create an illusion of your old form over your new one. But, I cannot use much magic in this world, so I need you to agree to this deal now and to promise me not to tell anyone about me, at least until I have left this world again.”
She then looked thoughtful.
“But something like that requires extreme precision. I have not been for long in this world, so do you know if there is a way to easily create precise magic circles?”
I thought about it for a moment, then I had an idea.
“Yes, but I’d rather do this tomorrow afternoon… I’m quite tired.”
“Very well. I will meet with you again,” she said, before pushing me back down so that I laid in my bed.
“Now sleep,” she commanded, and I found myself falling unconscious in a matter of seconds.
When I got home from work the next day, I found a woman with black hair and a blue suit waiting in front of my house, but something about her was off.
I blinked, noticing that she had no shadow. Because having a shadow would mean that she would be standing in the sun…
“Nightmare?”
“Not bad. So, what did you plan?”
“Do you know what printers are?”
She shook her head.
“No. Is it one of the machines you worked with during this, urgh, day?”
I nodded.
“A printer is a machine capable of bringing symbols on paper,” I responded, leading her in my house and picking up a print-out from an email I got earlier while ignoring that her statement essentially meant she was spying on me.
“That’s extremely useful. Ponies have mostly hand-written correspondence. Sometimes they use magic, too, but still… given that I see this weird symbol here, I assume they can create more than just letters?”
I nodded, pointing to a theatre placate I had hanging on my wall.
“That’s an image from a printer, too. Granted, it was better than the one I have, but you see what I mean, right?”
She took a look at it.
“I thought that for a painting, or some sort of magic, although I should have known better than to suspect the latter. Yes, that could become extremely useful, but it has a small problem. The ink is not magical, after all, I have not seen anyone use magic yet in this world.”
I thought a moment about it.
“Well, could you use a carving with the right form to guide magic?”
“Yes, but it would have to be made out of very strong wood, gold or platinum.”
“Of those, the only viable option is wood, but I believe I can get some.”
“Excellent. Now, how do you plan on carving the wood?”
I shrugged.
“You can order engravings. While it will cost a bit, it will be cheaper than buying gold.”
Over the next few hours, I showed Nightmare how to work with a computer, and we discussed many times how and when we would cast the magic. During this time, I also realized that Nightmare was both an extremely focussed, and extremely intelligent individual.
A good example of this was when I decided to download a drawing program on my computer so that she could design the spell. She, as far as I knew, looked then for the first time truly at a computer, and understood it quickly, far too quickly for my liking.
It took her only a day to finish the design of the spell after I introduced her to a graphic program.
I was very glad that she at least seemed to be on my side.
“I have finished the spell, but how do we get this design engraved? As far as I know, printers do not work on wood.”
“Export it as an image. We can send it to a company that works with wood along with the dimensions we wish for it to have.”
“Where is that function?”
“File, I think. Or image.”
“Got it. That’s far easier than carving out something like this myself.”
I shrugged.
“Accomplishing something yourself without outside help is something that is very satisfying, too,” I responded, causing her to chuckle.
“True.”
It took only about a week from the day that I met Nightmare for the first time until the moment that we had a big package standing in front of my door, containing a one meter by one meter wooden ‘floor’ engraved with thousands of symbols I’ve never seen before.
“So, this all is just so that I can put an illusion of my old body over my new one?”
Nightmare laughed. It was not an evil laugh, just one of amusement. It was the laugh one had if they did something without the others knowing. Her eyes glinted mischievously while she explained what those symbols really did.
“No, those are all the spells we’ll use. Image spell, which will burn the magic equivalent of a ‘file’ into the wood here,” she said, pointing to an empty portion of the wood, “inside of the spell that will be used to create the illusion. Simply cut this part out later and activate it; I’ll teach you how to as soon as you have access to magic. That is because in this instance I am bound to the intent, not the wording of our agreement. Next, the spell that will remodel your body, and lastly the one that will swap our souls,” she said, pointing to the different parts of the spell.
The next twenty minutes were spent heaving the wood on the (flat) roof.
This night would be a full moon, perfect for what we had in mind.
“Strip.”
“Why?”
“Because if you don’t, the spell will record your image whilst including your clothes.”
“…fair,” I commented, vanishing in the bathroom and returning in a robe a few minutes later.
“Could you answer a question before we start?”
“Sure, what’s on your mind?”
“What made you accept this deal? I’d have expected most, if not all would outright decline this, especially if they knew who I am.”
“True, but you forgot one thing, Nightmare. And that’s that humans are selfish.”
I turned around, smiling.
“Humans are selfish! And they always will be. I am selfish, and I fear death. If I am immortal like you are, I am sure I can someday, somehow still die – but I do not have to fear death anymore.”
My expression became serious.
“And I value my life over my body. If I can become an immortal by turning into a swarm of robots, or by turning into a computer, I’d do it. Having access to magic is just a bonus for me.”
“I see. I can only guess what made Luna accept my offer in the beginning,” she responded, looking up.
“It is almost time. Please, step on the wood, but you do not need to remove the robe yet,” she responded, and I now saw her use magic for the first time since we met. Incredibly deep blue magic flowed along her horn, falling down, and filling the lines in the carving.
She stepped on it, gesturing for me to step on another marked part, which I did. While I waited, I could see the magic flowing into the channels in the wood, turning into a beautiful, intricate pattern. Of course, I had turned my back to her, to prevent her from seeing anything.
“It begins,” Nightmare commented, and I nodded, removing the robe and throwing it off the side.
A few seconds later, I could see a blue light passing over my body, and a blue flame in the area Nightmare indicated earlier, burning some symbols that looked quite weird into the wood.
However, for some reason, I felt like they were… oddly fitting. As if I had seen them before.
It was very interesting, especially considering this was the first time I ever saw real magic.
That was when the pain started. A burning sensation passed over my body, and a second later, it had evolved into a burning feeling, and another second later, it had become burning hot knives stabbing me everywhere, tearing at my flesh, breaking my bones, and opening long wounds along my back. I quickly passed out.
Waking up and looking around I noticed that I was in my living room. I found that I was sore and could not move without feeling a burning sensation in my body, so I stayed still and just looked around. I noticed a unicorn sitting on my desk, working on something.
“Nightmare?” I tried to croak, but it came out of my mouth more like a groan.
“Oh? Ah, you’re awake!”
She stepped closer, seemingly inspecting my body. Her fur had now a silver color, indicating that she succeeded with whatever she did. However, she no longer had wings.
“It has been about half an hour, but your soul is still changing. I had not anticipated that throwing a magicless being’s soul in a body overflowing with magic would have… side effects.”
I gave her a deadpan stare.
“Just sleep a while longer. Your body has no magic right now, so you’ll probably be asleep for at least twelve hours. I took the liberty of informing your boss via your computer that you got sick and are taking the day off.”
Thankful for that at least, I gave a very small nod, closing my eyes as I felt my exhaustion catch up to me.
…
When I woke up again, I could see that it was already evening. I just hoped I’d get my sleep schedule in order again soon.
I was still a bit sore, but it was not too bad. Stretching – and getting surprised when I could feel something on my back I identified as wings – I stood up, noticing that I, too, now had fur.
Midnight black fur.
Wait a second…
Looking down, I saw what I suspected: Breasts. I had become female.
Nightmare had followed the agreement she made with me to the letter… and to what she thought was the intent.
Her old body was immortal, after all… I sighed. I knew I should be far angrier and more shocked, but this was partially my own fault, too. Plus, I was tired – meaning I had not really capacity for any strong emotions right now.
Still…
“What the hell, Nightmare?!”
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... weird.
Instructions for reading the original for those who are confused. Following the link will take you to a page of gibberish. In the upper right you will see a "Download" Download the text and open it using an internet browser. Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Explorer / Edge and it will come up in a readable format.
Whats going on is that the original is saved as a webpage. (thats all the gibberish text)
The Monk
10486931
Better?
So this a rewrite? If so, I'd suggest changing the status from Complete to Incomplete, otherwise kinda seems like the entire thing's just been wiped.
10487986
Oops. Thanks for the reminder
10487687
Didn't have to change it, Just gave instructions for those who might not be familiar with HTML
Monk
You're in the mood for rewrites, aren't you? I must commend you for that, I wouldn't have the patience to rewrite most of the stuff I write (ahh, all those unfinished stories that I never bothered to publish >.> ...). I like this version quite a lot :3
10496068
Don’t worry, it gets worse with time lol.
In all seriousness, I’m trying to not get into too absurd territory this time.
Hah!
10496068
It would seem so. :3