Embracing the Night

by NightInk

Doubts and Fears

So, coming back to life wasn’t as weird as I had thought it was going to be. It was… Tingly. My whole body tingled. Especially when I landed on the bedpost. Come to think of it, that may have been why I was so tingly. Either way, I felt fuzzy all over and was dazed. Everything for a moment was blurry, including Luna running up to me. If her face wasn’t a big purple splotch, I imagine she would have looked really worried. Or afraid. All I could make out was, “Oh, by Tartarus, what have you been through? Are you ok?”

Looking up at her, I flashed the biggest, goofiest grin I could and slurred, “I’m Bobbin. Are you my mother?” Everything was clearing up quickly, and I could hear someone snort in laughter, probably Shining Armor since it was a deep, manly kind of snort, and I could kind of see Luna roll her eyes.

“Gods, you need to quit doing that. You really are excellent at getting yourself hurt, aren’t you?”

I used the bedpost to try and stand, ignoring the warm, red blood that was covering it. I felt my head and felt the cut. Luckily I just glanced off the bedpost and mostly landed on the mattress, but it still hurt like a bitch. “Yeah, well, everyone needs a hobby. I’m just good at screwing everything I touch up. We’re in your room, right?” As I stood, I noticed I was wearing a long robe, pretty much exactly like Death’s. It was probably a reminder or souvenir of my visit. I still had my old clothes on, they were just underneath.

She stood next to me to offer support, wrapping one wing around me while I leaned on her shoulder. “Yes, we are. The Elements are here, as is Shining Armor. We have evaded Nightmare Moon for the moment, but it is only a matter of time until she comes for us. But right now, I want to know how in the name of the celestial spheres are you here?" Her voice grew stern, like what she was really saying was “Tell me what the hell is going on or I’ll stuff you ass first back to the land of the dead.”

“Yeah, that’s a really long chapter, and we probably don’t have the time to go over it. Suffice it to say, I’m buddies with death now, my- sorry, our world hopping problems are over, and I probably have some kind of hideous or grotesque deformity, which is the side effect of coming back to life. Hey, real quick though, I’ve probably got a mild concussion from the bedpost. Where’s the bathroom?”

Luna helped me quickly wobble over to the toilet and I vomited for what felt like an hour. When I stood up to wash my face, I saw that the sword and moon pendant had fallen out from under the neck of the robes. I picked it up and almost went right back to the toilet. The horrible disfigurement was that my right arm was skeletal! I rolled up my sleeve and saw that my bicep tapered off about halfway down my upper arm. The bottom half of my upper arm all the way down was just bone. Where the skin and muscle ended it twisted around the bone and ended in kind of a twisted mess.

“Oh, hell, I gotta be tripping now, this is beyond a concussion,” I said quietly, turning so that the others could see. Rarity swooned loudly and collapsed onto a pillow provided by Twilight, who just squeezed her eyes shut as tightly as she could. Fluttershy became almost non-existent as she fled to the furthest corner from me and curled into a whimpering ball. AJ’s jaw just dropped and RainbowDash gagged and put a hoof up to her mouth. Even Pinkie let out a less-comic-than-usual gasp of dismay. Shining Armor whispered a prayer to someone, probably Celestia, and Luna crumpled to the floor where she stood, and just lay there quietly sobbing.

I made a fist a few times. It worked just like it always had, it was just skeletal now. I guess magic or something was taking the place of the tendons and ligaments. It would do, I guess. I wasn’t really feeling a lot of emotion about this, being honest though. In the past twenty four hours alone I had had my soul torched by a rainbow, been turned into an alicorn, ought Nightmare Moon, been killed, and came back to life by what I understood as pure, virtuous will to live. This was kind of just another thing to add onto the list. I felt the most sorry for Princess Luna. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through her mind right now. I went over to her to say something, but as I approached she turned her head away. I can’t really blame her. I was in a terrible state, and I probably pretty awful looking.

There was nothing I could say anyways. Right now, I needed to figure out what to do next. I turned to Shining Armor. He was probably the most used to horrible disfigurements. Maybe he would talk to me. “All right, did you guys have a plan before I was a monster no one will talk to?”

“Dude, don’t be offended,” he said quietly. “It’s just going to be incredibly painful and difficult adjusting to this. Even I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Yeah I know, but I didn’t expect this either. This is way worse for me than you guys, especially since this is an after effect of being killed and coming back to life. I just want to finish this fight. No one else should have to go through this. Now come on, let’s get to work. What plan or materials did you have ready before I showed up, then?”

Pinkie was the first Element to start to recover. “Well, I have a magical party cannon that Princess Luna and Twilight think will be able to bind up Nightmare Moon long enough for us to hit her with the Elements of Harmony. We also have two big shiny rocks that can be used as shields if someone levitates or holds them.” She reached behind herself with both hooves and pulled out the infamous party cannon and what I later learned was the good shield. I couldn’t help but notice that she was less than her usually bouncy self.

I smiled from ear to ear. “Girls, this is incredible!” I said. “I’m proud of you! This is a great idea! The reflective capabilities of the stone from the Caves should be enough to knock back any of Nightmare Moon’s spells back at her, and the enchanted party cannon is a stroke of genius! Who came up with these?”

AppleJack finally caught up with the conversation. “It was the princess. She came up with a real hum-dinger of a plan for fightin’ Nightmare Moon since you were… ya know… dead.”

I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly with my skeletal hand. I could feel all the different bones of my hand run against the skin of my scalp. It was strange still being able to feel with the hand even though I had no skin. I guess even Death and magically-dead things like being able to feel too. “Yeah, yeah, I was dead, I will give you that. Had a really nice talk with Death, though. Ben, his real name is Ben. Seems strangely fitting, like I’ve associated it with death before… Huh. Either way, I was dead, and this plan is great. We need to get working though. Can everyone kind of start to function a little bit? At least if you ignore the arm?”

Everyone nodded and started to mutter in agreement, even Rarity, who Twilight had been able to wake up and keep from fainting again while I was talking. Luna was the only one who didn’t move. She was taking it hardest of all. She was still lying on the floor crying. I told Pinkie to make sure her cannon was in working order and find a place she would be able to easily aim at the windows, then had AJ reinforce the door and secure the shields to the windows. While everyone tried to help where they could, I went to try and talk to Luna. She hadn’t said a word since she had demanded an explanation for my being alive again, and if we were going to make it through the fight, we were going to need her. She was still the most powerful magic user we had.

“Uh, Luna?” I approached slowly, rolling my right sleeve down to cover my entire arm except for the hand. As I got closer I knelt and put out my good hand to her. “Can we count on you for some help? You have the most magical ability out of all of us, and we’re going to need that when the time comes. Plus, you know the most about Nightmare Moon-”

“NO!!” she screamed, turning furiously on me. “I don’t know anything about Nightmare Moon!! When I was Nightmare Moon I never killed anyone!! Despite the Nightmare Night legends about the children and all of the destruction brought, I NEVER killed!! Especially those I loved!! Through the madness that is the Nightmare, there was a LINE!! This is nothing like the Nightmare Moon I knew!! I!! AM!! USELESS!!” She collapsed back into a heap, crying harder than ever.

The outburst stopped everyone in their tracks. All had heard the legends and stories, and even I assumed that somepony had died in the first invasion a thousand years ago. This was news to all of us. I let my hand fall slowly and stood up straight. Moving to the center of the room, I crouched and focused all my energy into the magic that now resided in my body. Something good must have come out of the blow to the head and cosmic, back-to-life befuddlement, because I knew how to transform between my human and pony forms. I let the cloak fall and I realized that it was also covering up a set of huge wings that hadn’t been there when I was dead. Next time I was human I was definitely going to have to play with those possibilities. No more walking to class for me. But I was letting myself get distracted. If I was going to pull this off, especially for the first time, I had to be totally committed.

I felt the change happening again, and this time wasn’t so bad. I winced as my legs and pelvis remodeled themselves, but that pain was becoming old news now. The change of my midsection went better too, what with my wings already being there. The part that really interested me was when my front legs formed. Since my skin wasn’t in the way, I could see the bones bending and to some degree actually breaking down to form my equine bones. When the change got to my head, I felt the indentation of my skull fix itself as part of the transformation. Apparently broken bones fixed themselves when I changed, just not any other medical issues, like cuts or scrapes.

When the change was over, I stood a tall alicorn again. The pendant was still around my neck, and my front right leg was still skeletal. I walked up to Luna again and knelt beside her, drawing her close with my wing. Shedding pull away, but didn’t quite look at me either. “Hey, come on, look at me. Just ignore the leg. It means nothing.” I made sure to try and speak softly, like I was comforting a child. She looked up at me, her eyes bloodshot from having been crying for the last ten minutes. “See? I’m still the same guy I was before I died," I said, smiling a little. “I still make bad jokes, even by human standards. I still don’t back down from a good cause. That’s the reason I was able to come back. I’ll explain that all the way later. I’m still a kid in a young adult’s body, and I still love you.”

In that moment, we were the only two in the worlds. It felt strange saying it flat out like that, but it was good to say it like that, rather than dropping hints like in front of Nightmare Moon. She looked at me for a second, eyes as big as full moons and as beautiful as her own night sky, and shimmering like the stars of her constellations. She finally smiled. She put a hoof forward and put it on my skeletal leg. She looked at me for just a second more and quietly said, “I love you too.”

We kissed for only the second time, but it was the best kiss I had ever experienced. The first thing to break our eternity there was Pinkie Pie sobbing tears of joy and blowing her nose loudly, confetti and sprinkles flying through her handkerchief. “Oh, ho, ho, that’s so sweet!! “ Suddenly, she stopped crying and began to bounce off the walls, more literally than I would have thought possible. “Oh! Oh! I know! When all this is over, I’ll throw a “Nightmare-Moon-is-defeated-happy-love-to-you-enjoy-your-skeletal-limb-and-new-weird-human-wings” party!! And we can have cake and balloons and streamers and candy and chocolate and play all sorts of party games and we’ll all have a super-duper happy-fun time!!”

Everyone began to laugh, lightening the mood. It wasn’t for long, though. We finally ran out of time, and Nightmare Moon could be heard laughing madly outside the window. Clouds began to gather and lightning filled the skies. A stormy tension filled the air in the room, and wind could be heard tearing across the land. Without warning, the shields on the windows were blown off their half-finished stands, the large one flying harmlessly across the room and the small one nearly decapitating Rarity.

“Aww, how touching. What a lovely scene. I hope it was sufficient, because this time I’m going to make sure you can never come back from the dead!” Nightmare Moon’s voice echoed through every crevice of the building, it seemed. She sounded as if she were everywhere. I had a much cleared idea of what I was going to do this time. She had probably learned from our past encounter and wouldn’t talk while she was reforming. That means she could be anywhere. But the trait I could cash in was that she was taller than anyone else in the room except me.

I stood and backed into a corner of the room where I faced everything. I began to charge my horn with magical power again, and after a few moments let it out in a much more concentrated blast. Rather than covering the entire area, I hit everywhere just above the tallest of my allies, which was at that point was Shining Armor. There were flaws in the idea, I admit, but it worked again. Nightmare Moon must have seen it coming only a second too late, because when it struck her it only hit the top of her head, simply knocking her to the back of the room.

We weren’t going to get a much better chance than that to fire the cannon at her. “Pinkie, quick, go!” I yelled, firing a quick shot to distract her. Pinkie was already next to the cannon, so all she had to do was turn and shoot. But her shot went right through Nightmare Moon without even fazing her.

“Ha!” Nightmare Moon began to gloat. “You really thought an enchanted cannon was going to help against me?! This is your most pathetic attempt yet!!”

Now I was nervous. I really thought that it was going to work. And I already knew I couldn’t over power her. The only luck I had ever had was…

When I did the dumbest thing I could think of.

Comments

[ParadigmShift]

Hi, scary skeleton arm! How you doin? Consumed any souls lately?

[Fireeaters]

YaaaaAAaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~

[NightInk]

1502266 yeah, that's probably the part I'm happiest with! Except maybe the Crossroads. That may be an area I carry into future stories, with Death slightly altered for whether or not I have humans in the story.

[RainbowDragon]

*reads last line of chapter* oh shi-
edgecast.metatube-files.buscafs.com/uploads/videos/image/img_webmaster_1219439117.jpg

[NightInk]

1503571 I still don't know who Gary stu is. Which story is that?

[Avenging Shield]

Well then this is a cliff hanger god I hate these and btw may I possibly use Ben in a story just wonderin peace!

[NightInk]

1507826 Yeah, I don't mond! Just use him well!

[Blaze Song]

When I did the dumbest thing I could think of.

Bitch slapped her with your skele-hand?

[Scoutboy25]

I made a fist a few times. It worked just like it always had, it was just skeletal now. I guess magic or something was taking the place of the tendons and ligaments. It would do, I guess. I wasn’t really feeling a lot of emotion about this, being honest though. In the past twenty four hours alone I had had my soul torched by a rainbow, been turned into an alicorn, ought Nightmare Moon, been killed, and came back to life by what I understood as pure, virtuous will to live. This was kind of just another thing to add onto the list. I felt the most sorry for Princess Luna. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was going through her mind right now. I went over to her to say something, but as I approached she turned her head away. I can’t really blame her. I was in a terrible state, and I probably pretty awful looking.

Change that to Fought

[Scoutboy25]

When the change was over, I stood a tall alicorn again. The pendant was still around my neck, and my front right leg was still skeletal. I walked up to Luna again and knelt beside her, drawing her close with my wing. Shedding pull away, but didn’t quite look at me either. “Hey, come on, look at me. Just ignore the leg. It means nothing.” I made sure to try and speak softly, like I was comforting a child. She looked up at me, her eyes bloodshot from having been crying for the last ten minutes. “See? I’m still the same guy I was before I died," I said, smiling a little. “I still make bad jokes, even by human standards. I still don’t back down from a good cause. That’s the reason I was able to come back. I’ll explain that all the way later. I’m still a kid in a young adult’s body, and I still love you.”

She Didn't