Noctris Girls

by Blackyoshi

Episode 1: Two Souls

“Is that seat taken?” Lis asked the little pale blue girl sitting alone in the back of the biology lab.

She shook her head.

“Is it ok if I take it?”

The girl looked at Lis before silently nodding.

Lis sat down and took out her things. “Great, thanks. My name is Lis, by the way. What’s yours?”

The girl answered, but her voice was so sheepish that Lis couldn’t understand it.

Lis put a pen on her notebook and slipped both to the girl. “You can just write it down, if you like. You don’t have to talk.”

A smile stole itself on the girl’s face for just a moment. Then she wrote something down and slipped everything back.

I’m Ocellus, nice to meet you.

“Nice to meet you too, Ocellus,” Lis said smiling from ear to ear, “You have a very pretty handwriting!”

Their teacher came in and started the lesson. Lis followed it attentively. First lesson and it’s about humans! Perfect! Writing without magic is a pain, though. But I promised Syri to not openly use magic, and I can see why that’s a good idea.

The only time Lis’ attention was taken away from the teacher was when she told them about human genders, and that they were determined by their chromosomes.

Lis noticed how Ocellus grabbed her pencil harder and muttered something about the teacher being wrong. I’ll definitely have to put a pin in that one, Lis thought.

---

After biology, Lis’ class had a double period PE. She had already changed into her sports clothing when she noticed something. “Hey, did anypo— I mean, did anyone see Ocellus?”

“She’s exempt from PE,” a blue haired pink girl told her, “If you ask me, something isn’t right with ‘her’.”

Lis was annoyed by how condescending the girl sounded. “And who are you?”

“I’m Cozy Glow. You’re new here, right? Wanna be friends?”

That’s the fakest bitch I’ve ever seen in my lives, Lis thought. “No thanks.”

“Oh, pretty please? I would be a way better friend than that freak.”

Lis was about to slap Cozy when another girl pushed her away while saying, “Shut it, Mozy, and get on the field. We’ve got something to settle.”

Cozy put on a smile. “You really should learn to behave like a girl, Smolder, or everyone will think you are a boy.”

“Do I look like I care?” Smolder turned to Lis. “Come, Freshling, just ignore her.”

“You… I like you,” Lis said to Smolder before following her into the gym.

During roll call, their PE teacher, Principal Celestia herself, noticed that Lis was wearing a golden bracelet with three green stones. “You have to take that off… Lysinda, was it?”

“Yes, ma’am, but I can’t take it off, sorry.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

“I… I promised my mom. She wears the other one, and because she’s always gone for so long, we promised to never take them off. Can I keep it on, please?” Lis looked at her with star sprinkled puppy eyes.

Celestia sighed. “I guess I can make an exception, but make sure it doesn’t break.”

Then she explained what they’d do at first. “It’s a version of prison ball played with two balls. We will push two vaulting boxes in the inner courts, and the prisons of each team will surround the enemy field. One member of each team will start in prison as the queen, the others start in their courts. If all players of a team are in prison, the queen enters the court and gets both balls. You can go back from prison to the court if you hit an enemy. If you catch a ball, it doesn’t count as a hit. Any questions?”

Nobody had questions, so Celestia decided that Smolder and Wind Sprint would choose teams.

Wind Sprint began and chose Cozy.

Smolder chose Lis. She walked to Smolder and waited. It was obvious that Cozy was telling Wind who to choose.

“So we get to throw balls at Cozy’s face?” Lis asked her.

“That would be awesome, but not worth the detention Celestia would give you.”

“Can’t we just say that we aimed for something else?”

“She’d just say that it only matters where we hit. And you already look like the kind of kid teacher’s just wait for an excuse to punish, Freshling.”

“Thank you! I’m doing my best… well, worst.”

---

Lis was on her way to the library when she ran into a green haired senior student, causing both to trip to the ground. “Oh, sorry, I should have looked where I’m walking,” Lis said.

“Just forget about it,” the senior said walking away, a hand in her bag.

Huh, that’s a weird one. Let’s see where this is going…

Lis shook her head and proceeded to the library. Just as Smolder had said during lunch, Ocellus was sitting between two bookcases in the least frequently visited corner. “Hey, Ocellus.”

“H-Hey, Lis,” she said with a weak smile.

“What are you reading?”

“It’s about occult rituals,” Ocellus said, “but you would probably think it’s boring…”

“Maybe, maybe not. Why don’t you tell me more about it?” Lis said, sitting down beside Ocellus, and was rewarded by her excitedly fangirling about it to Lis for the next thirty minutes.

“...but that only covers the basics of it,” Ocellus ended her monologue.

“Wow, no wonder you sneak away to read about that stuff,” Lis said, “it sounds amazing! But I think we have to go to music class now.”

“Yeah…”

They both stood up and left the library. When they reached the staircase in the entry hall, they could hear a girl rushing down the stairs while shouting, “STAIRS! stairstaristairstairstaris,” on the way down, jumping over the last two and yelling one last, “STAIRS!” when landing.

“You really like stairs,” Lis said with a grin.

“Sure do!” The girl looked closer at Lis. “Hey, you’re the one that kept throwing balls at Cozy’s head in PE, right?”

“You did?” Ocellus asked.

Lis grinned mischievously. “Near her head, yeah. The rules say I can’t hit her in the face, but nothing about almost hitting her in the face, and making her flinch doing so. Anyway, who are you again? I didn’t catch your name.”

“I’m Silverstream. And you’re Lysinda, right?”

“Lis, yeah. But let’s get to music before we end up being late.”

---

Lis wanted to leave the music room as soon as class was over, but she noticed that Ocellus was still sitting in her seat, all her stuff on her table. And she seemed to be shaking a little. So Lis waited until everyone was gone, walked up to her and asked, “Hey, what’s the problem?”

“It’s—it’s Cozy. You really made her angry in PE.”

“Yeah, so?”

“She’s gonna let that out on me, she always does. And I have to take the same bus she does, and that’s for three-quarters of an hour.”

Lis’ face went dark for a moment before softening up again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t want you to get in trouble with her because of me.”

“No! I mean, you don’t have to. It’s not your fault that she’s like that, and she deserves to be put down a notch.” Ocellus sighed. “But I’m still afraid about the bus ride.”

“I wish I could help you, but my bus goes the other way.”

Ocellus calmed down a bit and started to pack her things. “Too bad I can’t just come with you today…”

“Hey, why not?”

“What?”

“Just come with me. We can do our homework together, and you wouldn’t have to go on the bus with Cozy. I can’t see why not.”

“Wouldn’t your parents be mad?”

“It’s just me and my big sis, and I’m sure she’s chill about that.”

“I have to ask my parents first.”

Ocellus got her phone out and texted them. It took them a few minutes, and Syringa promising to bring Ocellus home later, but they eventually managed to get Ocellus’ parents' permission.

---

“... and this is my room,” Lis said while walking through the door.

Ocellus followed her and looked around. “It’s really nice.” It was a large room, and even had a couch and coffee table with a tv on the opposite wall in the back, but apart from that, looked oddly normal for a girl like Lis.

“Thanks! We just moved in, so it still lacks some personality, at least in my mind.” She pointed at the console connected to her television. “Wanna play a bit?”

Ocellus nodded and they started to play an arcade racing game. They had a lot of fun, both winning sometimes and losing sometimes, but eventually Lis asked, “Hey, what’s up with your name, by the way?”

“Wha—What do you mean?”

“Your name, Ocellus. It’s grammatically male, right? But you’re a girl. I was just wondering why that is.”

“Uhm…” Ocellus’ eyes frantically shot around the room. Come on, something to avoid answering that! TV? no. Desk? Not interesting enough. Pile of pillows? She probably just cleared of her— wait, she has no bed! “Why don’t you have a bed in here?”

Lis looked like she was just caught doing something bad, and Ocellus saw her chance. “It’s your room, but there’s no bed. Where do you sleep?”

“Oh, uhm… I forgot about that,” Lis giggled nervously. “Tell you what, I tell you why I don’t have a bed, if you promise to explain what’s with your name. Deal?”

She offered Ocellus her hand to seal it with a handshake. For a moment, Ocellus thought that she saw a weak, blue aura surrounding Lis’ hand, but it was gone in a blink. She took her hand. “Deal.”

“Ok, then. The reason I have no bed is that I don’t have to sleep. And the reason for that is that—” Lis took off her bracelet. Her pupils became slits and her teeth turned into pointy shark teeth. A magical glow surrounded her and lifted her off the ground. Her legs turned into hooves and she grew a horn. She turned in a pirouette, drawing a rainbow in the air above her head“—I’m a magical princess from another dimension!”

Ocellus was speechless, her mind blank.

“Specifically, a Nachtmare,” Lis went on to explain, “We’re creatures with a very strong connection to the dream realm, and we have two—”

“Two souls!” Ocellus exclaimed, “One being asleep, the other awake! I read about that in a book a bit ago. I thought your kind was just a legend!”

“Well, I’m as real as it gets. Although in the end, reality is an ambiguous thing, right? We’re just characters of a bigger story.”

“What?”

“Oh, just ignore that. But yeah, I’m not a legend, at least not yet. But this form is kinda tiring, so...” Lis turned back into her human form in a flash of white light.

“But I thought your kind dies in sunlight?”

“In our world, yeah. But this world’s sun lacks the magical punch of ours, so it’s safe. Even though I’m not used to how bright it is during the day. How can you bear that your entire lives?”

“Sunglasses.”

“Huh, yeah, that might work.”

“What’s the bracelet for?”

“It’s a suppressor for my magic. If you grow up with it, you kinda just use it by instinct. But it would be a bad thing if everyone just knew about me. It’s not working properly, I still can use magic when wearing it, but I really have to put in the extra effort. So I can’t use it accidentally.

“So, I kept my promise, now it’s your turn.”

“Yeah, I know. But promise me to not tell anyone.”

Lis put her hand on her chest. “Hand to heart, I swear on my lives to keep your secret.”

“Okay…” Ocellus avoided looking at Lis’ starred eyes. “The reason for my name is that… that I’m… I’m… trans. And my parents gave me my name when they still thought I was a boy. I haven’t changed it yet, because honestly, you were the first to notice that it’s not a girl’s name”

Ocellus expected a shocked reaction, or confusion, or even disgust. All things she’d had to face when coming out to someone in the past. What she didn’t expect was Lis’ actual reaction.

In a casual tone, Lis said, “Makes sense.”

“You… You know what that means, right?” Ocellus asked.

“Yeah, born in the wrong body, in your case a boy’s, but you’re actually a girl. I honestly thought the story of your name is more interesting.”

“You think that’s boring?”

Lis seemed embarrassed. “I mean, it’s not boring, just not as interesting as I expected. Of course, it’s cool that you understand yourself so well already. That is interesting. But it’s not something I’d make a fuss about. You’re trans, so what? I care more about how people are on the inside, anyway. So why would I care if you got the wrong packaging to your pretty mind?”

Ocellus pulled Lis into a hug. “Thank you! Just—Thank you for being understanding!”

“Hey, no problem,” Lis said surprised.

Ocellus let Lis go and took a step back, now with the same glow in her eyes she had had in the library. “You have to do a lot of catch up for school, right?”

“Unfortunately, yeah.”

“Why don’t you connect us? I read that Nachtmares can link two minds together, and that those two than share their knowledge.”

“That really would be a lot of help. And you really would be ok with that?”

Ocellus nodded enthusiastically. “Reading about the occult is great, but experiencing it is even better!”

“Then let’s do this! Grab a pillow and sit down.”

Ocellus took a teal coloured pillow from the pile and sat down on it in the middle of the room.

Lis sat down cross legged in front of her. She rested her arms on her legs and held her hands to Ocellus, the right hand with the palm up, the left one with the back of the hand up. “Hold my hands the same way. So that your hands mirror mine.”

Once they were holding hands, Lis said, “Now, close your eyes. I have to give you a tiny bit of magic first, that might tickle a little…

Ocellus stopped feeling her surroundings as soon as the magic arrived. That felt like falling asleep, but being awake… She opened her eyes. “I’m hovering in a black void.” She knew that she was talking, but her voice seemed to come from somewhere far away.

“That’s normal,” Lis said in a clear voice, “don’t worry. Now imagine yourself to be in a room.”

“What room?”

“Whatever you feel comfortable in. You’re using the dreamscape to create a magical mind palace for yourself. You’ll need that for the connection later.”

Ocellus focused, and her own room appeared around her. But it was horribly crammed with everything she can remember. “Ok, I did it.”

“Good. Are there any things in there that you don’t want me to see?”

“Yes.”

“Imagine your room to have a door, leading to another room. Somewhere to keep your secrets in.”

Ocellus concentrated, and a closet door appeared in the wall next to her. It swung open, and everything she wanted to hide flew through it. Once the last thing was in it, the door closed shut and locked. “Done.”

“Good. Now create another door, a door that leads towards my own mind palace.”

As Lis was saying that, Ocellus noticed another presence on the edge of her mind. She concentrated on it, and a door appeared opposite to the closet. She walked towards it and opened it.

A small, white unicorn was standing outside. “Very good, Ocellus.”

“You’re a pony!” Ocellus said surprised. Aww, she’s cute like that!

“Well, yeah, I told you. It’s just easier for me to take that form in the dream world.”

“Makes sense.” They stood there in silence for a moment. “Why don’t you come in?”

“You have to invite me in.”

“Oh, okay. I invite you to enter my room. So, how does the connection work exactly?”

“The gist of it is that we link one of your rooms with one of mine,” Lis explained,” and we then have access to what is in each other’s room. I would make another room where all school knowledge goes to, or whatever else you want me to know. I did the same on my side.”

Ocellus nodded and a third door appeared. She walked through it and entered the library she just created. The shelves filled themselves with books about everything she had learned in school. “And what now?”

“You have give me something from this room, and I give you this from me.” Lis levitated a necklace of a crescent blue moon into Ocellus’ hands.

Ocellus tried to decide which book to give lis, but then she had another idea. This is a dream, I can just make whatever I want. She created a necklace of her own, with a green bug symbol instead of a moon, and gave it to Lis.

Lis nodded. “Thanks. I just need to get back to my room for a second.”

She disappeared, but Ocellus could hear her voice. “Concentrate on your necklace. Try to move your dreamscape towards it.”

The wall on the far side of the library dissolved as soon as she did, revealing Lis’ room, a chaotic array of desks and pinboards, with sheets of papers scattered everywhere, connected by multiple, different coloured strings of yarn. Well, can’t say I’m surprised about that, Ocellus thought. “That’s it?”

“Yes,” Lis said grinning brightly, “I can remember all the stuff you learned, and you should remember what I learned. And the best thing is, it will update itself automatically when we learn something new in school!”

“So, we’ll learn twice as fast?” Ocellus asked.

“Huh. I think so. I think so, yes. Since we learn it twice automatically. And if we concentrate on it.” We can even talk telepathically!

How did you do that? Wait, how did I do that?

Magic!

Comments

[DatBronyMan]

That.... that was amazing! I honestly had a huge grin on my face for the entire time I read that. That Star Vs. reference made me laugh my head off, even though I knew about it already, and I LOVE Lis as a character.

[SamSwordsman123]

Well I tried reading this but it just didnt grab me.