Happiness
Twilight awoke with a pain-filled groan, groggily shaking her head to clear away the pulsating spots in her vision; those small, black blobs were quickly becoming rather annoying, and her head hurt enough without the mental light show hammering away at her. Struggling to her hooves, the dizziness hampering her ability to correctly command her numb limbs, Twilight weakly called out for Nightmare through the fire, smoke and dust that surrounded them, remnants of the decimated battlefield. However, she stopped dead in her tracks, noticing, to her mounting horror, that her voice sounded...off...
Looking down at her hooves, she froze, feeling the whites of...not quite her own eyes...bulge out of their sockets as they took in the color of her appendages. Black...Not lavender...Black..
Stiffly, Twilight looked herself over, discovering 'her' coat to be the of the same, pure absence of color. Black. Nightmare Moon Black.....
Only now did she notice that she was a few inches taller than what she should be, and that her cutie mark was most definitely not her cutie mark.
A moment of stunned silence suffocated her as she attempted to make sense of it all, but the fact that trying to reason it out with her own voice would make it all worse stopped her completely. She felt her world spin as her mind began to comprehend what had just happened, hoping it was all a terrible, absolutely terrible, nightmare.....
Somehow....She was now stuck in Nightmare Moon's corporeal body! She pinched herself for about a minute straight before she finally accepted that everything she was experiencing was real.
Ultimately, once that fact was made clear, she did the only think that her completely frazzled mind could come up with: scream her bucking lungs out and panic like it was the end of the world.
Twilight would have continued running around in a circle for a couple more minutes if a violent, violet field of magic didn't wash over her, magically sealing her mouth shut and freezing her in place. She recognized this magic's color....
“Would you stop that already?! You're giving me an even bigger headache! Urk....I drive off a mad chimera using magics that haven't been seen for centuries....and this is what I get for it....Bleh...” a voice moaned through the smoke. Twilight gulped as she identified the voice, praying that she was wrong.
“Please....please no. Don't tell me that...” she begged mentally as a smaller figure bumbled through the wall of rising smoke, already confirming her fears. The moment her original body stepped through the wispy gray clouds, Twilight couldn't do anything but stare and try her hardest to not faint.
As soon as Nightmare came into the clearing, she stopped, staring blankly at what appeared to be herself looking back at her, wondering why in the world her body was over there. Slowly, she looked down at her own body, finding it smaller and definitely not her own, having not noticed the change due to her disorientation and headache.
An awkward silence descended upon the pair for a few moments, both mares trying to figure out what in the nine-hells of Tartarus had just happened to them.
“Well...Showering is going to be awkward now...Not to mention going to the bathroom....” Nightmare finally said with an small chuckle, causing Twilight to finally lose it and surrender to unconsciousness.
♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪
It had taken a good bit of shaking to rouse Twilight from her blackout, and the originally, lavender mare began panicking again as soon as she came too. After a few minutes of simply telling Twilight to calm down and analyze the situation, Nightmare was able to soothe her, though only relatively.
“So...any ideas on how this happened?” Nightmare asked, testing out her new limbs, “I mean...I'm not really complaining too much though. Being in your body could be fun. Lots and lots of fun.” Twilight involuntarily twitched at the lecherous expression that the dream goddess was making...with her face no less! She was going to have that one expression haunt her dreams in the upcoming days, no doubt.
“I don't know! But this is bad! Really, really bad! What if this change is permanent!?” Twilight began to panic, trying to go through every possible explanation in her mind, referencing the library of memories she possessed that detailed obscure, magical accidents that resulted in the switching of bodies. However, she came up with absolutely nothing, and it was rightfully freaking her out! Her magic wasn't even her own for Celestia's sake!
“Hmm....I don't think it'll be all that bad Mistress,” Nightmare responded with a chuckle, stretching to work out some of the soreness in her lower back while smiling a mile a minute, “I mean, you do get to prance around as yours truly after all.”
“I fail to see how that's a plus,” Twilight deadpanned, while glaring at Nightmare, finding the goddess' nonchalance and jokes wholly unhelpful and irritatingly vexing. Seriously, did she even understand the significance of what just happened to them?
“You wound me Mistress! And here I thought we were starting to get somewhere too,” Nightmare replied dramatically, holding Twilight's body's hooves to her heart, pretending to faint, “You're so mean. And to think that you were being so nice to me just a moment ago too. 'I would kind of miss you...' she says while clinging to me desperately as if her...” Twilight blushed furiously as Nightmare re-enacted her outburst with her own body and face! It was twice as embarrassing to hear it being said from what appeared to be herself!
“Would you take this seriously?! This is a major, major problem! Just think about the ramifications of this. What happens if somepony talks to us about something important? You...I mean, I have important duties to take care of. I can't do them in this body!” Twilight all but yelled, the fringes of her mane starting to unravel. She was actually going to have a mental breakdown in a moment. Taking a few deep breaths, Twilight mentally did her calming exercises, a habit she had learned after losing it the last time.
Nightmare sighed, placing her new body's hoof on Twilight's shoulder, giving her an encouraging and reassuring smile.
“Don't worry too much about it Mistress. I'm pretty sure that this...condition isn't permanent. If I had to guess, this is some obscure side effect of soul magic,” the goddess replied calmly, completely capturing Twilight's attention, “Luckily, soul magic follows some pretty strict rules, and the soul isn't usually allowed to stay outside of their original houses for extended periods of time without force. Possibly there was some sort of crossover when I supplanted my power and soul into your body to access the rest of my powers....”
Twilight furrowed her brow, thinking hard about this new tidbit of information. It was concerning, especially the last part. She resolved to research more about soul magic later.
“That sounds kind of dangerous,” Twilight replied hesitantly, “Especially the last part...” For some reason, Nightmare's closing remarks sounded more significant than she let on, and the librarian knew it was going to bother her until she figured it out. However, she had never heard of soul magic before. There was definitely not a book about it in the Ponyville Library. She placed it on her mental checklist of things to go back to later.
“Not really. It's perfectly fine...” Nightmare answered, though her voice sounded a bit too cheery to Twilight's ears, but she reasoned that maybe the goddess was just trying her best to put her fears to rest, “We'll return to our original bodies eventually...though, it's really just a question as to when. Magic is tied to the soul after all, so naturally our souls will wander back to where they began.”
“If you say so....” Twilight replied uncomfortably, deciding to give Nightmare the benefit of the doubt for now, “But still! What are we going to do in the meantime?! I mean...It will look weird if ponies see me doing what is supposedly your work.”
“Easy enough. We'll just have to act like each other for a while. Shouldn't be too hard right? I mean look at me? I'm a friendly, totally hot, single librarian mare that likes to fantasize about getting into Princess Luna's Milky Way,” Nightmare said with a cocky grin, giggling at the absolutely mortified expression Twilight was making, though she shook it off quickly to trade back her own barbs.
“Har har har....” Twilight quipped sarcastically, “Yeah, and I'm a perverted, alicorn goddess who likes to mess around with said librarian's head while making none-too-subtle, sexual jokes about nearly anything and everything.” Nightmare giggled, sticking her tongue out in retaliation.
“I do aim to please.”
“Yes I know.”
They stared at each other challengingly for a moment before finally bursting into laughter, finding their banter ridiculous. Standing up together, they finally decided to find their way out of the forest and back to their waiting friends.
♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪
After a couple dozen minutes of flopping through thick vines, splashing through muddy puddles and running from mysterious growls, the pair finally found themselves back on the main road toward Ponyville, much to their relief.
It was a bit strange to walk in another pony's body, especially because the height difference made coordination of the limbs a bit tricky. However, Twilight and Nightmare had about twenty minutes to master it if they wanted to pull off their switching act.
“Why did I think this was ever going to work again?” Twilight moaned unhappily as she stumbled over her newly acquired hooves, nearly face-planting into a patch of poison-joke. She had luckily been saved by a timely levitation spell from Nightmare, however, it still didn't distract Twilight from thinking about the many problems that this condition would bring on. First off, she would be immediately assaulted by her friends who were all out searching for Nightmare a.k.a herself. She would have to explain what she had been doing, and that in itself was going to be a terrible experience; she couldn't lie to save her life.
Then actually acting like Diana was going to be another whole problem in itself...She actually didn't have a clue as to how Nightmare acted around her friends when she wasn't around. Most of the time, Twilight had been near or within earshot of the goddess.
Additionally, there were the hygiene problems that Nightmare had just mentioned....Simply thinking about showering with Nightmare's body sent a hot blush to her cheeks and uncomfortable tingle down her spine. She cursed the fact that there was a mirror installed in her bathroom. The bloody thing had been the cause of all her problems! Celestia, just stepping out of the shower would give her a heart attack! Plus, there were all of the other essentials, and just knowing Nightmare was doing the same things with her own body sent another wave of crimson to her face.
“If you think about it too hard, your brain is going to fry Mistress,” Nightmare said with a teasing grin, “Though, I can understand that looking at my body after showering is a rather stimulating sight.” Twilight twitched, face-hoofed and cursed every known celestial being for the existence of mind links.
“Ugh...”she groaned, deciding to just not think about it, mainly because it wouldn't be worth the trouble. They walked on silently down the path, letting the unnatural sounds of the Everfree Forest envelop them. Normally, Twilight would be rather wary of walking around in here, but since Nightmare was close, she reasoned they would be fine....Though, thinking of where they were raised another question in her mind...
“Nightmare?” Twilight asked suddenly, causing the other mare to hum in response, prompting her to continue, “Why did you walk off in the first place? Was something bothering you? You kept talking about how you're not real...and stuff like that...What was that all about?”
The dream goddess didn't answer and simply slowed down, trying to decide what she wanted to say. She didn't want to burden Twilight with her worries, but she also wanted to talk to someone about it too.
“Celestia always told me to talk about our problems or else they fester and become an even bigger problem later,” Twilight encouraged, knowing that something had seriously been troubling Nightmare. Still, the goddess was worried. She didn't want Twilight to know about her depressing thoughts and worries. She was afraid that her first friend in eons would think badly of her if she told. “Don't you trust me Nightmare?” Twilight asked softly, a bit of hurt in her voice that made the Nightmare wince guiltily.
“Of course I do....” she answered truthfully, her voice soft and meek, “It's just...I feel like I'm being selfish by telling you my problems....I'm supposed to be helping you with your problems, not the other way around.”
Twilight chuckled kindly, “Friendship is a two-way street Nightmare. One of the first things I ever learned from friendship really.” The dream goddess laughed softly, finding it ironic that she was the one being lectured to now.
“You're right....” Nightmare answered with a sigh, though she was still hesitant.
“So? Are you going to tell me or not?” the librarian asked, pretending to pout in impatience. After a moment, Nightmare nodded and sat down on a nearby, tree trunk, looking up to the sky to brace herself. Likewise, her younger companion sat down next to her, staring up at the darkening sky, able to make out the faintest stars in the sky.
“I was scared....” Nightmare whispered, looking down at her own hooves to distract herself from looking directly at Twilight, “Luna told me how she met you, and it reminded me a lot of myself and how I was for a really long time...I still remember the loneliness and darkness...How I had no real friends until I met you really...”
“Weren't you Luna's friend though? I mean you acted as an evil super-villain for her and all that,” Twilight asked curiously, earning a soft chuckle from Nightmare.
“Yes...and no...” the dream goddess answered, closing her eyes as if to remember those times, “I was her friend yes...but I was also her business partner, her cohort in crime and her comrade in rebellion. Do you think we had heart to heart talks? Tea time? Nice long walks along the beach?”
Twilight snorted at that last bit, but remained thoughtful. “I never quite thought of it that way....and I highly doubt the last one.”
“That's just how it was. She needed me to be something for her, and I did it because she asked. Just like I did for all of the past ponies I've tried to help. They wanted something from me to achieve something, and I did everything in my power to help them. I've 'lived' for so long as a tool that I forgot how it was to actually be my own pony....how it was to actually have friends....how it was to just live and be....happy. You're the first pony in the thousands of years of my curse that didn't require me to be anything or really do anything or want something from me...”
“I don't quite follow...” Twilight said, confused, looking at her friend who seemed to be lost in her own world, “I asked for you help so that I could....well you know...”
“And that's all you wanted...my help. You didn't want me to become your personal power battery or grant you a wish. You didn't want me for any of my divine power. All you wanted was my advice...like I was already your.....” Nightmare muttered softly, stopping just at the end.
“Friend....” Twilight finished for her, her eyes slightly widening.
“Even though we started out a bit rough....It made me happy....to think you just saw me as another pony....”
“You make it seem like it's a crime for you to be happy Nightmare....”
“It's selfish of me...I'm supposed to be thinking of your happiness not my own...” Nightmare replied softly, her voice quivering a bit, “When Luna told me her story....I remembered what it felt like to be alone...and I began to wonder...What was going to happen when I finished helping you? A part of me wants to selfishly prolong this for as long as possible so that I can stay around and experience a bit more happiness...but it would also make me unhappy, because it would be taking your happiness...”
Twilight didn't know what to say, and attempted to reply, only to be cut off by her own struggling voice. How long had Nightmare been thinking about this?
“Even now...I'm confused and scared.... What am I supposed to do? I want to help you. I want to help make Luna fall in love with you. I want to see you two happily together...but then what happens to me? Do I fade away again until my curse simply summons me to another wayward soul? Would you forget about me and would all the friends I've made forget about me too? Would you hate me if I tried to prolong this? Is it selfish of me? To want to experience being happy some more....even though I don't deserve it?”
Nightmare screwed her eyes shut, trying her hardest to stem back the flow of emotions that threatened to overwhelm her, but she still couldn't stop the flow of tears that escaped her eyes. Twilight wrapped her friend up in a tight hug, wanting her to know she wasn't alone.
“I don't think it's selfish at all...And I think you're one of the most selfless ponies I know...” Twilight murmured, rubbing Nightmare's back soothingly, feeling a bit strange to be rubbing her own back, but it was the thought that counted, “Every good pony deserves some happiness....No matter what you've done in the past. You've been punished for hundreds of years....You deserve to be happy.”
“But...If I stay happy...I can't make you happy. It'll be my happiness at the cost of yours....I don't want to do that to you...”
“And it's the same for me,” Twilight replied simply and firmly, “Besides....If I lose one of my friends, I'll be unhappy. So I swear, I'm going to find a way to end your curse so you won't have to go away ever again. I'll make it so that we can all stay together. I won't just let you disappear from our lives. You're my friend. You're working hard for my happiness, so I'm going to work hard for yours.”
Nightmare couldn't reply and simply hugged her Mistress tighter, having not heard such caring words for several centuries. It made her cry and sob and shake....but most of all...it made her absolutely, inexplicably happy.
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Holy shit, you're back!! It's been awhile!
AWESOME!
That was half a year? No one told me a damn thing.
IT LIVES! Finally, in my grand list of TwiLuna story reviews, I can at last remove the "Incomplete / likely abandoned" tag from this one. Can't wait to see Twilight trying to be an utterly unsubtle perv to convince everyone she's Diana.
were are all the comments
but thank you 4 updating it was a great chapter
Wut
WHAT
Seriously?
You first you derail a funny "two minds/one body" story to give NM a body and turn it into an "uninvited abnormal house guest" and then, just as THAT storyline is finding its footing, you pull the rug out from under it and throw us this clichéd ass "body swapping/acting like each other" plot!
What the hell?!?!
It's not a BAD chapter, per se. It's no worse written than any of the others, and the NM/TS quips are still pretty funny, if a bit stale from overuse. It's just that this story is jumping around like it's the love child of a Mexican jumping bean and a kangaroo!
You need to FOCUS!
I haven't given up on this story, but you better get it tied down to one plot line or you're going to completely lose your readers.
Written with love.
New chapters, woo
Welcome back!
About time Nightmare Moon just told what she was trying to hide.
...update? There's an update? ...update? Update? Update? Update? Update? UPDATE?!?! UPDATE!!!!
cinemablend.com/images/news/40985/_1389128763.gif
hey.
I'm kinda' with 4098671 on this one. I think I can actually see what this is going to do for the characters, but it's a really off the wall way of going about it. I'm not sure if I like the implications because the story was getting somewhere but now it's going to have to deal with this instead.
And half the problem is Twilight and NMM simply accepting the swap and moving on. They didn't try reversing the effect and they didn't try asking Zecora, who apparently is a wiz with these things (the gem itself, after all). As funny as a body swap might be, I'm not entirely convinced of the setup or the necessity.
WOOOO NEW CHAPTER!
good to have ya back.
What the! It actually updated. I'm either still really drunk or this is the best three o'clock ever!!! Thank god this didn't get abandoned
It has been too long for one of my favourite stories on this site.
This story is one of my favorites, I was so happy it updated that I stopped everything I was doing and read it.
4098730 SPACESHIP!!!!!!1
Huh... it's back.
No worries guys to those who are worried about the implications of this chapter. This body switch dealio probably won't last more than a chapter or two for those who are worried this is gonna mess with the plot line or whatever. It's all part of the master plan to further the plot. You'll see I promise! (Hopefully not in half a year either!)
No worries about the delay, college is the more important thing to focus on if you need to choose between that or this.
4099368 So we can expect twilight to be back to her body in lets say, two or three years for us. Wink Wink Nudge Nudge
Read through a couple chapters. Ellipses man, ellipses; they have a space after them.
A little cliche that they are going to try at act as one another. Better to just come out and tell everypony that there was an accident, what Diana really is, all that jazz. This hiding stuff in every story makes things a little repetitious.
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Body swap? We're doing this now?
*sigh*
That heart-to-heart at least was good.
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So this cheered me up a lot seeing it in my update feed!
eeeeee!!!!
This chapter has so many feels... (Happiness)
*closes and hides dark magic spellbook*
oh, uh, it randomly came back. Woo!
Good chapter. The body swap brings mixed feelings, but I can't wait to see how the other characters react to Twilight and Diana behaving oddly.
Found a few mistakes, two of which were just commas.
“I asked for your help so that I could....well you know...”
“You make it seem like it's a crime for you to be happy, Nightmare....”
“It's selfish of me...I'm supposed to be thinking of your happiness, not my own...”
Just finished the whole current story in one go
I'm waiting for the next chapter!
Cheer!
"New installments are on a weekly schedule."
Seems more like bi-yearly currently.
Wonderful story so far, hoping for more soon!
So I'm probably not the only one who wants to know, what did Nightmare Moon do to get cursed in the first place?
4099368
*six months later...*
I hope there is more soon this is good
Darn for a bit i thought Twilight was stuck in the NMM body not Diana's
I SO want the change to be permanent.
Why is it that every story in the "The Hero... Nightmare Moon?" groupis incomplete and hasn't updated for months!?
I can't take it anymore.
Mekon... Please come back
After having read this I'm torn in two. I'm glad to have read it but I wish I hadn't as it hurts to not have it finished.
The story is so good that I loved reading it and have reread quite a few times but thinking that this won't get finished makes me quite sad. So Mekon I hope you come back and finish this.
However if this is the end, hail and farewell.
The only thing that bothers me about this story is the fact that it hasn't been updated in such a long time. Had me hooked, and now I'm left wanting.
Here's hoping you find the time or inspiration to keep things rolling.
*sigh*
Yet another story I might have liked but have to discard due to a lack of activity. Oh well, moving on.
not online for over year, sigh and I actually found this absolutely hilarious.
Oh boy. It's 2016 and no update. Did I expect one? Nope. Then why did I check this? Cause I'm crazy.
Firstly. insta-fav!
Secondly. MOAR! WE NEED AN UPDATE!
Thirdly. Welcome to my <<I think its dead, but still waiting for a miracle >> folder.
7025897
just as that. bookshelf called "Waiting for miracle" though
good story I would like more please, if it not to much of an issue that is.
7381653
Hey! What right do you have posting on comments three years old?!
But seriously how and why did you even find and reply to that comment.
What was the point in that?
This story hasn't updated in over two years, how did you find it?
4099368 yes but ummm WHEN ARE THOSE CHAPTERS COMING OUT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?
7590063
Likely never. Author has been MIA for over 2 years.
I am so sad that this story is dead it was one of my favorites
I found you again, and it's still dead. This one was good.
Still, it ends on a high enough note to be perceived as the end of an arc.