Twilight's Nightmare

by Nightsclaw

CH 86.1 A Moment in Moonlight

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As with many things in Twilight's life, it all started with an experiment. A simple question that required an answer, and this was the result. Twilight lifted her hoof and watched as the muscles, tendons, and bones worked in perfect harmony to manifest the commanded motion. It was a completely mundane event apart from one crucial detail, neither the silver hoof nor the pale-coated limb truly was hers. Well, if she was being technical, legally, the entire body belonged to her. It was as much hers as the soul she carefully cradled.

Said soul seemed to purr even as she usurped total control of its flesh. It had been so easy. Only the fact that Candice had agreed removed any possible guilt. There was simply no possible resistance to a fully ascended Alicorn for a mortal. Anything they tried to command the body to do was like one of Fluttershy's quietest whispers in a room with Vinyl's loudest speakers booming out her music.

She put the hoof back on the ground and stretched one of the oversized wings. She had seen them move before, watched them in flight, and enjoyed measuring every feather upon them as a prelude to intimacy. Now, the feathery appendage moved as if it were Twilight's own. Something so utterly mundane transformed into a barrage of almost familiar sensations.

The giggle that escaped sounded alien, even as she felt every bit of biology that facilitated it. "So this is how you think you sound?" It was not Twilight's voice nor Candice's, at least not how Twilight was used to hearing it.

A little different than that, as my inflections are slightly different, but for the most part, yes. Candice's mental whisper said.

"We take it you were successful?" The voice that sounded almost like Luna's said.

"Yes," Twilight said, nodding with Candice's head.

"You have truly created a work of art with that body. Despite housing you, there is no alteration nor any hint of degradation."

"You were expecting those side effects?"

Luna prowled around her, enchanting eyes hungrily devoured all they saw. "Nothing dire, my dear. Mayhaps a bit of added height or altered colours at the very least."

Being sheltered in flesh had advantages. It allowed for an increase in magic generation, but there were complications. Gone was the detachment that being a naked soul brought. As Luna circled her, hormones and other biochemistry went to work.

If Twilight's usual excitement were a wine, this would be a different vintage from a nearby vineyard. Distinct and unique, but still with all a fragrance that promised a delightful experience.

There was a research paper here somewhere. If only Luna's eyes were not so captivating, she could have started a mental list. Instead of what should have been populated with comparative biology and subjective experiences, emotions clouded Twilight's mind.

A deep calming breath would only bring more of Luna's scent, which would do nothing to aid in her objectivity. A slight push of pegasus magic created a zone of fresh air. All contaminants and particles were forced from the area of effect.

Luna's playful smirk did not help either. What am I feeling? It was another simple question. There was definitely lust. The warm tingly feelings, increased heart rate and focus on Luna clearly indicated that. Yet that was not all there was. There was something new beneath it. It was warm and had a softness to it. It had loyalty to it and wished to wield kindness and generosity for Luna's benefit alone. What is this? It was not friendship, but it was close and yet so very different.

That is unconditional love, and it's what I feel for you as well.

At least Candice was more verbose and elegant than Nova. Unconditional love? That had not been what Cadance had said about love. There were all those rules, conditions and requirements. Cadance could, would and did full walls, blackboards and whole libraries of paper with the prep work for her matchmaking. Even as Twilight's mind focused on logic and reason, a different reaction sped up her heart. They were just simple words, so why did they mean so much. 'It's what I feel for you as well.'

"Night has all our duties in order... if not now... when?" Luna mused under her breath. "Twilight?"

At the sound of her name, she snapped her full focus on the current moment. "Yes, Luna?" Even just saying the name stirred something profound inside. Another data point. Is this like with Nova but based on Candice instead?

Probably. Said mare added.

"Will thou accompany us?" Luna asked, her hoof extended in an invitation, her normal firm eyes held both longing and trepidation.

Trapped between Candice inside, and Luna before her, Twilight's thoughts froze. For the first time in a long time, no plan of action nor mental list formed. Almost before she knew what she was doing, Twilight lifted her borrowed hoof to Luna's. The Night Princess's smile increased in direct proportion to the proximity to contact, and the radiant joy in those eyes was extremely... interesting. More words came to mind, beautiful, glamorous, exquisite, gorgeous, stunning, captivating, alluring... loving. Twilight's mind went on finding more and more words before pausing to sort the list alphabetically. After all, even in an addled state a librarian, or former librarian in this case, had to have some standards.

Magic built around them so thick that even the air seemed to shimmer. So potent that even with her soul concealed in Candice's flesh, every part of Twilight tingled. With a crash of thunder, the magic imploded around them. Shadows and silvery light enveloped them, and then the pair were gone.

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Miss-cast! Twilight's mind shouted as it snapped into full panic mode. Forty-two separate mental lists were recalled and ready before she registered what her senses were telling her.

The world around her was utterly silent, and no new scents reached her borrowed nose. The texture of the ground beneath her hooves had changed. It had a dusty, almost sandy quality instead of the solid, magic-forged stone of the Twilight Citadel. Finally, there was the fact that magic from her internal reserves was being used to ignore the body's need to breathe, acting as ice water poured over the burning of her borrowed lungs.

Luna's peaceful but slightly tentative smile recontextualised everything. Gravity had less of a hold on her than expected. The dusty planes around her were all a uniform slivery grey, and Luna, most importantly, looked happy.

I'm on the moon. Every bit of panic vanished. She carefully packed away the mental lists, and instead of looking for threats, she allowed herself to just see.

Above, far in the heavens, wrapped in strands of umbral light, an orb hung. It was not the gold of Celestia's sun, nor the silver of beloved Luna's moon. No huge storm systems danced around a globe of greens, blues, whites and browns.

As relief crashed through her, Twilight fell back onto her haunches, albeit in slow motion. I'm on the moon? Amusement and delight floated up from Candice's tiny soul, still safely cradled within. Relief and awe added themselves to the mix, so powerful that a giddy joy rose from deep inside and escaped as a silent giggle, little more than a tremble that vibrated through her body on the airless surface of Luna's moon. I'm on the moon!

A part of her wanted to prance around, to dance in a circle, chanting yes yes yes yes, but another part of her held on to a shred of wisdom. With the Alicorn magic enhancing Candice's flesh there and the lower gravity, there would be even odds the next stop would be Equus. So instead, she just focused on the stunning vista.

It was one thing to see Luna's sky from the ground, a vastly different thing to see it with thestral eyes. To see it from within to look down from the moon's surface was a unique experience, a gift no other could have given her.

Twilight's cheeks heated, but she did not care. The view was far too spectacular to worry about a mere blush.

With a little push of magic to her eyes, the globe snapped into sharper focus, with a bit more power, and the most prominent features snapped into clarity. Canterlot, Ponyville, Manehatten. The burned scars and twisted darkness were all too plain to see. Even more so than when in flight, the land lay before her as if it were a map. It was simple to follow her flight path, retrace her journey and see the devastation Nova's fire had inflicted upon the Griffon's lands to purge the blight.

So this is why satellites would be useful... Twilight thought as one of her many conversations with Sunset replayed in her mind.

She pushed magic to her horn, and nothing happened. Confusion ruled for half a second before she wanted to facehoof. Right, no horn... The magic spiralled around Candice's unique wing structure, and with a magenta glow, some moon dust rose to eye level.

The strange material drank hungrily of the magic and internalised it. Moments later, it radiated its own light, a mix of the moon's silver and her own Magenta.

There were so many experiments, so many things she could do, but somehow with Luna still holding her hoof, it seemed less important. It was odd. There was no seductive nibbling of an ear, no tempting touches, just simply Luna's larger hoof holding Twilight's own.

Twilight's gaze followed from the dark hoof along the leg until Luna's deep eyes greeted her. They were like pools of turquoise so vast they put an ocean to shame, so intense Twilight's mind failed to find any single word that could capture it and started on a process to invent new words and add them to the Equish language.

Luna stepped back, and Twilight's mind ground to a halt. The Lunar Princess made even that simple action into a work of art, a performance that demanded yet more new words to be created to be properly defined.

Luna's movement was perfectly in tune with the low gravity environment, completely at ease... finally in her natural habitat. She swept her wings out in a wide extravagant welcoming bow. The motion was old and archaic, and the wide smile was anything but historically accurate, but the meaning was clear. A small part of her mind noted the smile provoked an uptick in her heart rate. It was a lovely smile, after all. That particular bow was used in that historical fiction Rarity lent me...

For the second time that night, Luna offered her hoof. For the second time, Twilight accepted. How could she do anything else? Luna stepped back and pulled Twilight back to her hooves.

There was a turn, another step as the motion faced her to balance on her hind legs. The movement was odd and awkward until Luna's horn lit, and little caresses of aura helped guide Twilight. Without Night or Dreams, it took an embarrassing number of seconds to work out what was happening. This was a dance. Luna had brought her to the moon to dance.

Bit by bit, little feelings, ghosts of ideas floated up from Candice, and Twilight followed them, her movements becoming more fluid, more graceful as Candice's muscle memory helped guide her.

This was not the scientific study that Twilight wanted to perform. There was not a single experiment or even a planned one working its way through her mind. The only thing that mattered was the movement, the dance, and the feel of Luna's coat and feathers when they touched.

They could have danced for an hour. It could have been a year. Every attempt to form a temporal frame of reference failed. Their shared motion had stopped, and their final pose held. One petrification spell, and they would have made the most romantic garden ornament conceivable by quite a wide margin.

Luna closed her eyes. When they opened, they were fully thestralized, and her smile had those alluring little fangs that always made Sweet Dreams look such the temptress.

Those silt eyes held her. They pinned Twilight in place. By how her body was reacting, it should have been terror, but this was so very different. Anticipation, excitement and many more words were starting to lose any meaning as Luna smiled. A part of Twilight's mind scrambled for the dropped mental dictionary. The rest of her bucked that unneeded line of thought into the void of space. One did not need fancy words to realise something far more important was happening.

But Cadance, the rules… the smallest voice of protest spoke up in Twilight's mind. Luna just smiled and traced a feather along Twilight's cheek. Cadance was a long way away, and Luna's eyes were so very inviting.

Luna leaned in closer, her lips slowly, inevitably found Twilight's own. The kiss that followed dominated her senses with the faint taste of mangos and the soft but firm presence of Luna's tongue. Powerful wings enveloped her, and for a time, it was as if nothing beyond existed at all.

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If you had asked Twilight a year ago if snuggling on an airless plane of magical dust would be comfortable, she would have said no, possibly with capital letters and definitely with a few essays and treatises on why such a thing would be true.

At this moment, there was nowhere else she could conceive she would rather be. As thoughts started to collect themselves and form into nice orderly queues for her attention, she had to admit that from a technical standpoint, Sweet Dreams was better. Something about being in Candice's body more than made up for it in the quality of the post-activity experience.

The first rune of a retrieve spell formed, and she stopped. Twilight rocked with silent laughter. Instead of just enjoying the moment, I was… She could not even finish the thought in her head. Instead, she turned her gaze onto Luna.

The large mare had her eyes closed, and if you excused the lack of breathing, seemed asleep. With the fact the larger mare was half pinning her, she could hear her slow twice-a-minute heartbeat like a steady drum.

Twilight snuggled closer and turned her gaze to the planet above What a wonderful night. Twilight thought as she let her eyes close. After all, it's not like anypony would miss her. As far as they knew, she was still down there on the planet. That led to another thought, one final wonder before, for the first time in what felt like forever, she let Luna's realm claim her. I wonder how Night is doing?

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Author's Note:

1st of today's chapters.
Alt titles. The Two Hundred Thousand Celestias High Club / I'm Dancing on Moonlight

Comments

[LegionCenturionMaster]

As callous as I am…not even I can deny the beauty and wonder you have made me feel. My lack of empathy and callous nature is more down to…what I was born with than anything. But this…I felt things I knew the words for, but have little experience with outside of family. Thank you, for reminding me that there is some humanity left in me that I can spare for outsiders. This was a beautiful chapter.

[dragonus85]

This put a smile on my face, thank you.

[cogwheelbrain]

Cadence is going to be so pissed and then she'll demand details.

[KatieBreeze]

This is my favorite Luna/Twilight chapter so far. Simply wonderful