Controlling the Beast Within

The day had started out as any other average-looking summer day had, in what anyone would call an average teenager's life. Only, this teenager had just completed some of the most stress-inducing, emotionally straining years of his entire life: high school. Perhaps a bit of an overstatement, but it sure hadn’t felt like it.

Right after having graduated 8th grade, my mother had gotten the idea to pick up and move to my grandparents’ house down south, whom I’d only met on the odd family event. Previously, my mother, sister, and I had lived in a bustling city, so the change in scenery was bound to be rather drastic. However, I’m not one to easily complain. In fact, I was kind of alright with the idea of it all. I mean, I’d still be able to keep in touch with the small group of friends I’d made there over video chat, and I had always wanted to see what the countryside was like...

But when asked what the reason was for this sudden and–apparently final–decision, her only response was, "Because, Nick. I want you to have the chance to get to know the only grandparents you have before you miss the chance!" I didn’t quite understand her reasoning, seeing that the two of them could have just as easily moved up north and lived with us, but when Mom said what was what, you didn’t argue.

Even though, with hindsight, I really should have...

My little sister, who had been too young to remember the last time she’d met our grandparents, had been ecstatic at the whole idea. She couldn’t stop imagining what they could be like, and how cool it was going to be to have grandparents that'd buy things for us, and spoil us, and all that other stereotypical, grandparent stuff. It was kind of cute though, considering she was only six at the time.

So, we packed up and left, leaving our big city lives behind. After a rather long and uneventful car ride down to my grandparent's surprisingly large house, we all unpacked and settled into the guest rooms that had been semi-prepared for us ahead of time. Or rather, my mother and sister did. I got the “luxury” of staying in the attic. Which wasn’t really as bad as it sounds, but… Well, I missed having windows. Plus the place just had that “creepy feeling” to it...

Anyway, back to me graduating from that hell hole... See, whatever “southern hospitality” I had heard of before my moving must have exclusively been dodged by the kids at my new school. The majority of the students there were either indifferent to me, or didn't quite like the idea of a sudden "new kid". The fact that I tended to keep to myself, for the most part, while getting above-average grades may not have helped, either. Judging how most of the students seemed like the “You some kind of big shot, know-it-all?! What the hell are ya’, a queer-bag nerd?!” types, it was kind of understandable. I mean, I wasn’t really anything that special back at my old school, but I’d still somehow managed to out-class some of the more popular kids. And because of that, they’d decided to make sure I regretted coming to school.

Every. Single. Day.

I used to pride myself on having the patience of a saint, but the verbal, and rare physical, abuse had eventually caused me to snap and lash out a few times, getting me in trouble on more than one occasion. It’d started affecting my grades and social habits, too, before I was officially regarded as the trouble-making, school delinquent. It was honestly a miracle I’d managed to graduate without being held back...

But enough of all that boring stuff, and back to my "average day".

It started relatively normally. Wake up, eat breakfast, hang out with my best friend/younger sister, and then eat lunch. Not too bad, if you don't think having your sister as your only best friend is pitiful. But it was better than succumbing to the other idiots my age that I’d come to loathe.

Around noon, my grandfather had come to me later on, asking if I was interested in heading out for some small game hunting. I'll admit, I'm not as crazy about it as he is, but since I hardly ever shot anything I came across, I figured "Sure, why not?"

It was around that time we got into the woods out back behind the house and split up that I started feeling a strange agitation in my stomach. It didn’t strike me as my lunch wanting to put up a fight. It wasn't really a pain, so much a weird feeling I was getting. Like, something was about to happen. The forest going dead silently was around the time I knew something was up.

Side note, getting surrounded by some kind of blackish aura in the middle of the forest and pulled away from existence also added to my suspicion. The only thing that signified someone had even been there was the thud of a pellet gun dropping to the earthy floor.

—————————————~O~o~O~—————————————

Before I could comprehend what the fuck had just happened, my face was intimately greeted by the ground, a sharp hiss of pain releasing through my gritted teeth. I made to lift myself off the ground and check whether my face was any uglier than it had been, but ended up freezing. Unintentionally, mind you. I couldn't move any part of my body, save for my eyes, which quickly took note of the rather tall, black horse-thing that stood before me, peering down at me.

Now, I say horse-thing because last time I checked, horses didn't have horns. Unicorns did, but those didn’t exist. Plus, unicorns didn’t normally have wings like this one did–at least I didn't think they did. That's usually a pegasus, right? But, again, since neither of those were real, I simply concluded that this was a thing. A very evil-looking thing, from its appearance... Those fangs really didn't look like they should be on something that resembled an herbivore. I also judged it had to be about my size, if not just an inch or two taller. Though it was kind of hard to tell since, you know, I was on the ground.

With an appearance that just screamed “FEAR ME!”, I couldn’t hold back a small gasp from surprise. But what really got me was the creature's eyes... Cold, cyan pools that made me flinch a bit, as if they were daggers piercing right through me.

"...What is the meaning of this?" the creature spoke, its voice sounding feminine. And bitch-like, which I don't say all that–Wait... "I’m certain I used the correct summoning spell."

Is that horse talking?! "W-Where am I?! Who ar–" I didn't get to finish my sentence, my mouth being forcefully shut on its own. At a closer inspection, I could just make out some kind of dark blue aura coming from her horn. Oddly enough, I also saw the same kind of aura coming off of me.

"Silence, you miserable little worm!" I wasn't really shocked all that much by the flash of lightning that followed that loud, threatening command. Having watched a lot of cartoons growing up, I couldn’t shake the sensation I was staring at a villain, of some sort... "I will be the one asking questions here, fool."

While I was certain I was dreaming–because come on, this seriously couldn’t be happening–I hesitantly decided to nod my head, allowing her to call the shots. Whatever she was doing to keep my mouth shut had to be some kind of power of hers, and there wasn’t any telling of what else she could do… Where’s Gramps when you really need him, right?

As soon as I could feel some slack from my jaw, I immediately tried my best to smile, aside from the menacing death glare she was giving me. "I-I apologize. I was just so startled, it didn't come to mind that I was before such a, um, strong and powerful entity." She seemed to squint her eyes at me in response to that. "I’ll willingly answer anything you want..."

Whatever I said must have worked. As soon as I finished, I could feel my body return to my control again. Though she still didn’t seem too convinced, judging from her expression.

"Of course you will, you insignificant creature." Ouch. No need for name-calling... Her sudden frown turned rather annoyed. "Seeing as I control you, now. Rise, then, so that I may get a better look at... whatever you are."

I did as she told me, picking myself up from what I now noticed to be some kind of ancient-looking stone floor. A quick glance around told me I may have been in some form of ruins. Large, stone walls that matched the floor scaled several yards up to a ceiling that, frighteningly, appeared to be crumbling in some areas. Gaping holes appeared to be the only form of windows that adorned the walls, allowing the moonlit night to be visible from inside. Though one opening nearby did seem to exit into some kind of balcony.

My small examination of the room was interrupted by the voice of the horse, thing. "No claws, no fangs. Not even a horn!" She didn't seem pleased. "The only thing you do appear to have is a sturdy build, not that that's saying much. Nothing at all like who I was going for. You don’t look very threatening to me..."

Yeah, well, I get that a lot… Just don’t back me into a corner, lady, cause I become a savage animal!

Her expression suddenly grew a very nasty-looking smile and, for a moment, I almost thought she could read minds. "Interesting…” I could slowly feel my blood run cold. “A savage beast seems like just what I could use.” She could read minds! “I'm sure I can make you a bit more... useful, though. Tell me, what manner of creature are you, and from where do you hail?" She even had the nerve to add with a nasty grin, “And I’ll know whether you’re lying or not…”

I paused for a moment, still trying to comprehend what the hell was going on, and wondering the same about her. "A-A human. More specifically, a male human. I hail, as you put it, from the ol’ Empire State." The slight bit of confusion she suddenly gained hinted at what I feared. "America?" Still nothing. "Planet Earth?"

"I have yet to hear of this... 'Earth', as you call it, or any Empire of State. But that means little to me, right now. You can still be of use to me here." And here comes the creepy smile again. "With an old spell of mine... I’m quite curious to see if it will work on something that’s not a pony. I rather hope you like my blessing of the night, human. Maybe you'll be more able to serve your ruler’s needs with it." She then spread her wings out wide, shouting in a rather loud voice, "Behold! Blestemul Lupului!"

That was all I had time to hear before her horn lit up again, though this time with a small black mass forming at the tip. I was just about to haul ass when I was slammed against the wall–which had been several yards behind me, mind you–by said black mass. My body seemed to stay pinned to the wall while I let out a yell as whatever this thing was gained a stinging sensation through my shirt.

Pain? By God, it felt like I was getting branded on the chest while my blood turned to magma. My whole body felt like it was on fire! Oh, but that wasn't all. Have you ever broken a bone before? An arm, a leg, maybe even a rib? Yeah, well how about having all your bones break all at once? I couldn’t form words over all my screams of agony.

Funny enough, it was around this time that I finally realized I wasn't dreaming. Oh, but I bet that fucking horse was grinning from ear to ear from this sudden realization... Then suddenly, just as soon as it had started, the pain stopped. Well, kind of stopped. I fell to the stone floor, none of my limbs wanting or being able to move. I could still feel my broken-up body, every limb just laying in a very off position.

Then, the real ‘fun’ began...

All at once, my bones started shifting, followed by the excruciating feeling of all my organs deviating to new locations. Muscles practically melted and remolded themselves, increasing in some places, and thinning out in others. Claws of some kind soon replaced any nails I once had, along with what I swore was a tail extended out from my rump. I could just barely feel the least painful thing happening along with the rest: what felt like bristled fur growing from every inch of my being. Save for the undersides of my hands and feet, which felt more padded.

However, I think the last of it was the worst of it all. The agonizing stretching of my jaw and nose, my teeth changing and shifting to their new places while my broader forehead shrunk back a little while my ears grew upward to a point. A longer set of canines presented themselves from where my smaller ones used to be, a now canid tongue hanging weakling as shallow huffs of breath escaped from me.

Evil laughter from the winged beast was the only thing that seemed to keep my pain and agony company during the whole excruciating transformation. When it felt like my new body had finally stopped changing, leaving me utterly exhausted, I had no choice but to listen to her gloating, "I am Nightmare Moon! And you are my beast!"

I could feel the rumble in my chest even before the sound of a terrible growl started emitting from my throat. Uneasily, I forced myself up onto my unfamiliar feet, slouching over slightly, and raised my now blazing amber eyes at the soon-to-be-dead Nightmare Moon. But before I could launch myself at her, her horn glowed again, sending a wave of pain through my head. Clutching it with my huge, clawed hands, I fell to my knees, letting out a pained roar into the stone chamber.

"You WILL obey me, mutt!” She let out in a terrible screech. “Now listen to my commands, or I will make you wish I had killed you already!"

After a moment more of the surging headache in my skull, the pain slowly faded away, leaving me to wonder if I would have preferred she had. Glaring back up at her, I knew my only choice was to go along with her little game. I was extremely careful, however, not to think anything negative about her, remembering that she could still somehow see through my thoughts.

Nodding, I managed to get back up on my feet.

Nightmare grew that awful smirk again. "That's a good boy." I had to force back another growl. "I do not have time to explain everything to the likes of you, so I will simply tell you this. You are to make sure that a troublesome mare does not overpower me in the highly unlikely chance she and her comrades get here with the intent to try to exterminate me." She pointed her hoof toward one corner of the room, the one behind me and to my right, before continuing. "You shall hide behind that broken pillar and strike at the first chance you have."

Turning my head over to where she had pointed, I saw the crumbled pillar she spoke of before turning back to her with another nod, growling my confirmation. Without another word, she changed into a swirling mass of her mane, and flew out the window, leaving me confused as hell, beyond furious, and still not used to this body.

I was hard-pressed to listen to any orders she gave me. But with whatever powers she had which allowed her to hold me against my will, turn me into what I was certain was a werewolf, and shoot blistering pain through my skull, I also wasn't very keen on risking my hide by crossing her. Not to mention, she may not have even left yet, and was only testing me to see if I’d try to escape. So, over to my position, I went, taking a seat on my new haunches. Which felt extremely... unnatural.

I better not get fleas...

After what seemed like forever, but in reality, was probably half an hour later, I could hear the sounds of hooves on stone coming from somewhere else in what I had concluded was an old castle of some sort. Thinking, and oh so hoping, that it was Nightmare Moon returning, I prepared myself behind the pillar. My suspicions were disputed, however, when I heard what sounded like several female voices; none sounding like hers.

"The Elements of Harmony! We found them!" exclaimed one.

The next one was higher pitched, almost bugging my now more sensitive ears as she counted something. "There's only five!"

The next spoke with a more... well, simply put, tomboy-ish voice, "Where's the sixth?"

These must be the ones Nightmare Moon wanted gone... But why? It really wasn't any of my business to worry about them, but I couldn’t push away the nagging concern I began to feel about that bitch messing with these girls, too.

"-a spark, the sixth will appear," the first one spoke up again. Just from the tone of her voice, I could tell she appeared to be the leader of the group.

After what sounded like a fourth voice speaking up, this one having a very distinct southern accent, more hooves, and small chatter could be heard until there was only silence. Then I heard the sound of wind picking up, and the peculiar sound that something swirling in the air makes. Then there was a small scream, followed by a farther-off yell of "Twilight!".

I knew I had mere seconds before what I thought was going to happen, happened. I wasn't sure if it was pure dumb luck that I had for some reason decided to bring my keychain with me this morning into the woods, but I quickly went about searching for them. As soon as I saw them near my ripped pants, I was instantly upon them, grabbing hold of the small flashlight I had attached to it, because ‘why not, right?'. Without delay, I meandered my way over to the window in hopes that someone would spot the signal I was about to send out. I might be forced into taking orders, at the moment, but I could at least give whoever I was supposed to be ‘taking care of’ a heads up.

Flicking the small light on and off with werewolf hands was not an easy task, I will say that much. Thankfully, just as I was picking up on a strange sensation, I heard a voice from some ways out the window shout about my lights, making me turn off the small device just in time for a ball of light to appear on the other side of the room. Ducking behind a nearby pillar, I watched what looked to be a lavender… unicorn? ...fall to the floor. After coughing a bit, she shakily got to her hooves to see... her appear, with several large orbs that seemed to be made of rock. I was kind of too busy glaring at Nightmare to pay too much attention.

And of course, cue the lightning effect. So predictable... However, what did cause me to pause in what I hoped was my stealthy advancing toward Nightmare Moon was the unicorn preparing to charge at her. She's either an idiot, or really stupid.

"You're kidding..." Apparently, Nightmare thought the same. "You're kidding, right?"

Unfortunately, she wasn't. The unicorn's horn started glowing and the two began charging one another. But just when the lavender unicorn was about to reach her, she flashed away, reappearing a moment later by those strange rocks. I stand corrected. That was pretty smart.

My silent praise went short, however, when I saw Nightmare Moon swirl into a miniature tornado of sorts, rushing at the unicorn from behind... I, on the other hand, wasn't going to allow that, and met the swirling mass halfway, getting carelessly tossed aside like a puppy. What's more, she seemed to use that migraine trick on me again, for as soon as I hit the ground on the other side of the room, I was grabbing at my head in pain.

I was able to catch the smaller of the two doing something with her horn on the rocks, and when I saw her get knocked away by some kind of spark before Nightie appeared by the orbs, I almost thought that whatever she had been trying to accomplish had worked. The rocks started to glow and levitate slightly, then drop, nothing happening. Well, that was disappointing...

The unicorn began gaping in shock, asking aloud with a gasp, "But where's the sixth element?!" Nightmare Moon only answered by laughing evilly and rearing up on her back hooves before slamming back down, shattering the rocks into small slivers of some kind of crystal.

"You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me?! Now you will never see your princess, or your sun..." As she began laughing again, I swore she meant 'son' instead of 'sun'. That alone forced me to get to my hands and knees through the increasing headache. I could also tell some kind of shit was about to hit the fan when her mane and tail started rising into the air and swirling together like a storm. "The Night. Will last. FOREVER!"

I was nearly to my feet, or rather 'paws', when voices started coming from the hallway.

About freakin' time you all got here!

Then I felt something. Another strange feeling. I glanced over toward the unicorn to see her pupils very enlarged and I thought for a moment she was about to fall over. Until she swirled around to face Nightmare Moon one more time, a more confident look on her.

"You think you can destroy the Elements of Harmony, just like that?" she asked, staring the larger horse thing down. "Well, you're wrong! Because the spirits of the Elements of Harmony are right here!"

Just as soon as she said that, the small fragments began to shimmer and glow, rising off the ground before a shocked Nightmare Moon. "...What?"

The unicorn then began going into some explanation, stating how it seemed that each one of her companions had done some kind of action during their journey here that represented these 'Elements of Harmony'. However, I wasn’t really listening to the whole thing. What I was doing was climbing up one of the pillars that were nearby, being sure that both parties didn’t see me. Once I was at the top, which was conveniently broken and allowed me to stand on it, I watched the scene below again, waiting for the opportune moment to leap down onto that damn horse. Maybe tear her throat out. I blinked at that thought but didn’t question it.

Nightmare seemed to be shuffling slightly from what was most likely nervousness, though, hastily stating something about a “sixth element” before glancing back toward where I should have been from the corner of her eye. The panic I felt radiating off of her doubled when she realized I wasn’t there anymore.

But just as I was about to make my attack, the lavender pony from before shouted out something and took away my concentration.

"The sixth element... is Magic!"

And that's when the load of fifty whales’ worth of shit officially hit a fan the size of a Ferris wheel.

A swirling vortex of, get this, rainbows shot out into the air, headed straight for Nightmare Moon. This, thankfully, scared her shitless, causing her to fully release me from her mental grip. I foolishly took that chance to haul ass at her, claws out and jaws open. I also had the bright idea to jump right at her just as the Friendship Beam was hitting her, causing it to hit me as well. I got thrown back, the rays swirling around me as a painful dose of happiness shot into me, making me shout out in... Well, to be honest. It isn’t even that ba—Holy fucking mother of sweet baby Jesus Christ!!!

From the sounds of it, Nightmare Moon wasn't having a good time either.

Before I could even fully understand why I was in such pain, I found myself slipping into darkness, a small part of me praying that when I woke up, I'd be back home and in the woods.

Sadly, that wasn't to be… Instead, my mind felt like it was getting split in half, before images that I couldn’t quite make out quickly flashed before my tightly closed eyes. My ears were in pain from what sounded like millions of voices all speaking out at the same time, overlapping in a jumbled mess that didn’t allow me to make out any single phrase being made. And then a heat started building in my chest, like a miniature ball of flame, before spreading outwards until my entire body felt like it was engulfed in an inferno. I couldn’t imagine what sounds I was making during the whole experience, but I’m sure they weren’t gonna win me any vocal competitions anytime soon.

I must have passed out, because I soon found myself regaining consciousness at the sounds of others seemingly coming to, muttering and shuffling to their hooves.

"Ugh... My head," came the familiar-sounding voice of one of the ponies.

"Is everypony okay?" asked the rather southern-accented voice.

I was just about to get up and speak out when I realized one of two things. First, I had hands again. My hands. On closer inspection, I could see that I was no longer a beast. Though, that brought me to the second discovery. I was now naked, the clothing I’d been wearing having been turned to scraps and rags during my forced transformation. And where were those rags? Behind the six ponies.

Great… Now I get to show off my ridiculously sexy body to a bunch of miniature horses.

"Indeed you do, " came a rather gentle voice from somewhere. I about pissed myself there and then.

A rather bright ball of light seemed to start shining in through the window on the opposite side of the room, and for a moment, I figured the sun was coming up. However, the sun doesn't usually float into a room and turn into a white horse. With wings and a horn.

God damn it, there's another one?!

Before I could react, Purple Unicorn ran-or is it galloped? Eh, whatever. She made her way over to the bigger horse-thing with great haste and embraced her. "Princess Celestia!"

And that's when I noticed all the other ponies bowing. Not paying attention to the shreds of clothing behind them.

...Starting Mission Impossible.

I could just overhear some form of conversation going on with the group as I tried my best to quickly and quietly get to my pile of scraps discreetly, although I couldn't really make out much of it with the spy music I had playing in my head. I did, however, catch the large and over-exaggerated gasp just as I was kneeling down to get what was left of my pants...

Looking up, I found myself getting stared back at by five utterly shocked and surprised ponies, one completely terrified, yellow, pegasus, and one rather stern-looking horse-thing. Funny that after the half a minute that we all took to just stare at each other, I was the first to react with a light wave of my hand.

"Uh... Hi?"

The reactions I got were mixed. The rainbow-maned pegasus and the cowgirl couldn't help but smirk, however, the orange pony was more controlled in hers, before regaining their warry composure. The Lemonade Pegasus just up and fainted. The pink pony just started looking at me with what I felt was a bit too much enthusiasm, while the two unicorns' mouths just hung open wide. The princess, if I had heard right, however... She just kept her extremely unamused expression.

Something tells me I'm in trouble...