Embracing the Night

by NightInk

The Sh*T Hits the Fan

All right, so after about a week, I was still just kind of hanging out in the castle. Granted, I would have killed for beef, but touring by day, tagging along with Luna by night, I couldn’t have been happier. She even let me help design constellations in the night sky some nights. I thought it was hilarious when she actually put a cow up next to the Warrior Pegasus of Equestrian legend. After all that time, though, Celestia hadn’t figured out all the details of the spell. I think we had all forgotten the threat against Equestria for the time being. That didn’t last long though.

By this time, I had met Shining Armor, though not the other Elements of Harmony. Celestia still didn’t like me much, but she was warming up to me. It was still a little weird seeing the usually kind princess so malicious toward someone, but I guess no one is perfect. Things went well until day seven, when the threat was realized. Shining Armor burst through the doors of the dining hall at lunch, out of breath and looking nervous, which is about as scared as I had ever seen him.

“Your Highnesses!! Something is terribly wrong! We have no idea what it could be, but it is very powerful. We need your help!”

The three of us all stood, but Celestia immediately tried to shoot me down, not quite as literally this time. “Oh, no. You aren’t going anywhere. I still can’t entirely trust you, and you don’t seem to have any physical assets that would be of use in this situation.”

I kind of agreed with her, but from what I’d seen of Equestrian villains, any minions that were there seemed to be fist-fightable, seeing as Applejack was able to just buck away the changeling minions. Magic and wings just made it easier. Too bad I had never fought before. Even so, I was going to go, despite Celestia’s legitimate concerns. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to work. I’m coming with. I didn’t have anything to do with this, and I want to help. Not to mention my not being a pony may throw off whatever it is that’s attacking, and I seem to be more imaginative that you, no offense. I can take care of myself. Now let’s go before something goes really wrong.”

I obviously didn’t score any popularity points with her, but she didn’t argue too hard. She may have been secretly hoping I got smashed, eaten , or outright killed by whatever it was We all ran outside to find a huge cloud of purple colored smoke. It reminded me of something, but I couldn’t recall what. As we watched, it began to take on a form. It “grew” four legs first, and slowly became a great purple alicorn. She let out a wicked laugh, and suddenly I remembered what that cloud was. Luna recognized it too.

“Oh, horse apples,” we said in unison.

“Aah, so you do remember me, my dear. And it seems your friend knows of me as well. Excellent.” Nightmare Moon spoke in a sickeningly evil yet alluring voice. “I take it you haven’t learned the truth about him though, have you?”

Celestia shot me a glare that said “I knew it,” while Luna’s look said “What is she talking about?” I just raised my hands in denial and self-defense.

I turned back to the magical villainess towering before me. “Look, Nightmare Moon, I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. I wasn’t even a part of this until you dropped Luna into my bedroom a week ago! I’m no one special, I have no special powers or abilities, I’m just some kid!”

She threw back her head and laughed a laugh that would make a Cerberus whimper. “Oh, that is priceless! The last true remaining threat to me and he doesn’t even know it! I needn’t have bothered with luring you here in the first place!!” She just continued to laugh as Shining Armor, the princesses, and I all looked at each other in dumbfounded confusion. I spoke back up first.

“What do you mean, a threat to you. I’m not even a freaking pony! I have no magic or wings!”

Nightmare Moon continued to laugh for another moment before answering. “As if I’d actually tell you how to beat me! No, I think I’ll let you keep that question on your mind as you die a failure!” She suddenly stopped laughing and aimed her horn at us and prepared to fire a shot. The three magic users on our side, however, teleported us away before she could fire or I could scream. Then with a bright flash we were in the dungeons of the castle, away from Nightmare Moon.

“So, I’m going to assume everyone is confused as to how I’m any kind of hero, but I’d personally like to find out. And to be honest, I think that my not having turned directly into a pony is some kind of clue about it. Is there some way we can just transform me and figure it out?”

Celestia looked at me like I was still a suspect, but a little less angrily than usual. “Well, the spell is ready, but are you sure? If something goes wrong again, you’ll be subjected to the same pain that you felt in the bed a week ago.” I just nodded. The thought of that pain wasn’t exactly what I hoped for, but I at least knew what was coming this time. “All right. Stay still. Even if it works, it will hurt somewhat.” Her horn began to glow brightly, and what looked like golden, magical fabric began to quickly weave itself out of her magic. It wrapped around me loosely, and it made me think of Rarity getting her big butterfly wings. I just hoped my body wasn’t made of morning dew and gossamer, like her wings. I could feel my legs beginning to change anatomically, and Celestia was right: it hurt. But she was also right in that something felt like it was going wrong. The legs didn’t feel like they were both the same, and at my ribcage the pain stopped, like the change wasn’t going any farther. All of a sudden, the magical fabric began to waver and unravel, like it wasn’t getting enough power. But if Celestia couldn’t power it, what could? And what inside me was powerful enough to stop the Day Princess’s magic?

Everything changed back to human form all at once. Really, that’s what caused the most pain. At least when it was changing the other way, it was gradual and I could brace myself for the next few seconds. This was just the feeling that every bone below my ribs was broken at the same time, then instantly re-knit itself. It was better than last time at least, probably because I did know what was next. As I lay on the floor recovering, though, Celestia looked really worried.

“I just don’t know what went wrong,” she said. Just then, a little grey pegasus with a bubbles cutie mark crashed through the doors of the dungeon, a lightning cloud tumbling after her throwing lightning bolts in every direction.

“Oopsie!” she said as she and her cloud rolled to a halt. “ Sorry! I just don’t know what went wrong!”

As she quickly flew back out of the castle, Celestia’s jaw dropped. Come to think of it, so did Shining Armor’s and Luna’s. I was hysterical. But we gathered ourselves and refocused on Celestia’s magical mess-up. “Well,” she said, “I just don’t-” She stopped suddenly. Looking at the door, she rephrased. “I don’t know why that didn’t work the way it was supposed to. If you were to be a unicorn like Luna believes, your magic shouldn’t be strong enough to block mine. And there isn’t a more powerful source of magic in Equestria other than the elements of Harmony. Who we need to help fight Nightmare Moon anyways.”

It was Luna’s turn to talk. “We’ll go to Ponyville and bring the others back. In his bipedal form, he can ride me like humans do on his world. Shining Armor, I know what you are going to say,” she cut him off before he could start to protest, “and I know what I’m doing. You and Tia are going to be needed here to protect the castle and the city. I am less experienced in combat after having been in the moon for a thousand years. I will be more useful on this particular mission. We are going. It will also remove him from danger for a time.”

Celestia and Shining Armor couldn’t really argue with that. We were the best choices for going out, so the four of us split into our respective pairs and went about our missions. Luna and I snuck out the back way while Celestia and Shining Armor distracted Nightmare Moon. After mounting Luna, which was the highlight of my freaking life, we began to fly away, trying to stay low. As we flew, we could almost feel Nightmare Moons influence fading and being replaced by another: the feeling that we were being followed. As I looked over my shoulders I saw we were right. Dark shadows, like little bits of Nightmare Moon that had detached and flown off, were following us at a distance. We were losing them, but they were there and we knew we would have to confront them by the time we got to Ponyville. Despite neither of us being fighters in the strictest sense, we were going to have to learn, and fast.

...

Once we arrived, it was easy enough to gather the Elements. We saw Twilight first, and she ran to get Pinkie, Flutershy, and RainbowDash while Luna and I went for AppleJack and Rarity. AppleJack, being down to earth and sensible, took my presence rather well, after I assured I ate apples and would love to try her farms particular brand when it was a more prudent time. After that she quickly grabbed her necklace and came with us. Rarity, on the other hand, was a bit more excited thinking about all he custom made clothes she would be able to design specifically for a biped. Every few seconds, she would shout out “Ideaaaa!!” in a sing-songy voice and would run for her paper and pencils. We only got her out of the Boutique by promising I would spend a full three days doing nothing but modeling and spending time in her Boutique after Nightmare Moon was defeated. But by the time we all gathered together again at the library, the Nightmare Spawns had caught up to us. We had to stand here, at least for a time.

“Oh, dear,” Luna muttered. “What do we do now?”

“Well, if I were to try and diffuse this tense situation, I would say something silly and childish, like, ‘we play the song ‘Tubthumping’ by Chumbawamba, and hope that they all break into dance’. However, in the spirit of maturity, I’d like to suggest that we play the song ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and hope they all break into dance,” I joked. Judging by the blank stared I got from the others and you, the readers, it didn’t land. “Never mind,” I said. “you don’t know those songs anyways. Or at least ‘Tubthumping’.”

“We just have to fight them,” Twilight said. “It’s kind of how it goes. But this time, the Elements aren’t going to work as well. There’s less of a corporeal form to attack. It‘s difficult to aim at living magic.”

“Wait, it would be easier to aim at them if they were attached to someone?” I asked.

“Yeah, that’s the gist of it,” everyone kind of replied at once.

“Ok, I have a really, stupid idea, and I can’t really tell you what it is because you might try to stop me. All you need to know is that on my signal, or at a good time, you need to use the Elements of Harmony on us.”

“Oh, silly!” Pinkie cried. “There’s no such thing as a bad idea! Everything can be a good idea if given the opportunity to show how it can shine!!”

“Yeah, Pinkie, I’d be tempted to agree with you usually, but I know what I’m about to do, so I’m counting this as the exception to that rule. Just, do what I said, ok? You’ll know when to use the Elements, and remember: do not hold back in the slightest.”

“Wait!” Luna cried. “When you were just talking, you said ‘aim at us.’ I think I know what you are going to do, and I know I can’t really stop you either.” She hung her head sadly and a tear began to roll down her cheek. “But… I wish there was another way…”

I looked at her and felt her tear tear my heart and soul in half. “Luna,” I whispered, putting my hands on her shoulders as best as I could, what with her long equine neck and all. “I’ll be fine. Ish. I’ll be fine-ish. Maybe. Don’t worry. Doing things without really thinking is my specialty, remember? Seriously, don’t worry.” I’ll admit, I had a singly, manly tear roll down my face too. There wasn’t much left to say at that point. You can’t really say much about that. But I couldn’t just turn away from her. We leaned together and kissed right there as Nightmare Spawn closed in on us. It was strange, kissing an animal, albeit a talking one, albeit Princess Luna. But it was right. I knew that much. We were supposed to be together like this.

But it couldn’t last forever, as much as we wanted it to. The soft humming of the Nightmare Spawn was getting closer, and that meant I had to go. I turned and ran directly towards the glowing shapes. The Elements were still a little stunned and a little confused, by both the kiss and the realization of what I was going to do, but they pulled themselves together beautifully. As the Spawns attached to me and tried to get inside me and take me over, all I could do was yell in pain. Luckily, the girls took that as their signal, and the next thing I knew I was on the receiving end of a freaking friendly nuke.

AUTHORS NOTE: So when I said no human on pony action, I meant sexually. Don’t worry though, this is the extent of it.

Comments

[NightInk]

1484789 It goes a little slower after this, I'm just not sure how to slow it down at this point without sounding like I'm padding or just rambling

[Derpy Forever]

Well i was about to go to bed after i got done reading a story then i came across this at 3 in the morning....
And after this i saw another story i want to read, so thanks to you i will be pulling an all nighter, not that thats a bad thing
couple of apple fritterz and some coffee and i will be good, bye the way i love this story keep it coming

[NightInk]

1485004 haha congrats! You are the first all nighter I've helped cause! Glad you like it!

[BronzeFog]

img2.moonbuggy.org/imgstore/post-moar-fools.jpg
yourmotivational.com/uploads/10552.jpg
weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/yes-moar-of-that-biden.jpg
forgifs.com/gallery/d/42843-1/Moardor.jpg

[OverClock]

I wish i could pay you to write more faster but since I have no money, i shall pay you in moustached spikes : that shall suffice

[lunafan]

I wonder how the ending whill bee.... whil he be a pony... or stay a human... oh GOD THE TENCION IS KILLING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NightInk]

1485813 wow, those are some awfully nice mustaches.... I'll try to post the next (and longest) chapters tonight! Maybe this afternoon depending on how my classes work today. It's written and ready though!

[Kazigami]

[img]131952148546.jpg[/img]

[Kazigami]

damn did not work sorry for the blank

[Hollyhock]

I woul not minds some human on pony action......

[jamie9897]

1535273 Neither would your avatar

[Science-Mare]

2712536
My avatar is my reaction to that comment

[Rubae]

don't you love it when writers refer to the giant rainbow in the sky as a friendly nuke

[Bimtzy]

“Well, if I were to try and diffuse this tense situation, I would say something silly and childish, like, ‘we play the song ‘Tubthumping’ by Chumbawamba, and hope that they all break into dance’. However, in the spirit of maturity, I’d like to suggest that we play the song ‘Eye of the Tiger’ and hope they all break into dance,” I joked. Judging by the blank stared I got from the others and you, the readers, it didn’t land. “Never mind,” I said. “you don’t know those songs anyways. Or at least ‘Tubthumping’.”

oh my god this got me good