Getting Started

(present day)

“You know for someone who wanted to hear a story you sure are interrupting a lot.” A small chuckle escapes me.

Sitting on her throne looking completely displeased, arms and legs crossed, a pout spreading expertly across that muzzle of hers. A small ‘hmph’ escapes her. “You said you would tell me a story, so far I am bored.” The sadness radiates clearly in Luna’s voice.

“Fine.” A sigh escapes me. “I’ll just skip straight to the fighting than.”

A smile blossoms across her face but only for a moment. “Guard, bring us a stout drink. We wish to be of the proper mind set for the fight.” She points at a guard, who immediately takes off for the kitchens. “And as for you.” She swings herself back around towards me. The glare sent my way sends a slight chill done my spine. “Your re-telling of combat had better be worth it.”

Silence grows steadily in the intervening moments till the guard comes back with the drinks.

The sudden yet quiet squeal of the door hinges as the guard returns is like akin to a clap of thunder across the room.

“Okay enough awkward silences please.” I say looking up.

Eyebrows around the room rise.

“Who are you talking to?” Our dear Princess of the Night asks.

“The being who is writing this.”

“What?”

Le sigh. “Okay. Try to stay with me. Do you know the multi-verse theory?”

The response I get is a small tentative yes.

“Well let me go over it REALLY briefly. Basically as we exist so do other versions of us. They go through varying versions of similar events as we do. As such major, minor, and irrelevant moments in our lives are different. It is through these differences that each universe makes its own way. So while we sit here talking, there is another universe out there having the same conversation but in an entirely different way. Also the idea of the multi-verse states that the differences go so far as to include a version of us that can ‘see’ what we are doing and even influence it to some degree.”

“So in a sense you could say that those beings could be where the idea of gods and goddesses come from. From a limited perspective they would seem all powerful. When in reality they just happen to have knowledge of what happens next allowing for a certain level of control over events, thus reinforcing the idea of being all powerful.”

“Sorry that wasn’t as brief as I would have liked. But in the end it is feasible that beings exist that would in some way influence our lives and perceptions. To what level of control over us they have is questionable but it is hard not to believe considering my own experiences and memories. Well what few I have of my old world.”

“So to answer you original question, I was speaking to those that may be able to see us here.”

At some point I had started to wander the throne room as I spoke, and ended up turning my back to all of them. Turning back around I got greeted by wide eye stares and slightly fearful glances around the room.

“It’s not as if they are suddenly going to strike us down for what I have said. If they would have gotten upset by what I said I would not have been able to say it.” This seems to calm several of them down. Easily startled much?

“Do you actually believe any of that?” Luna asks. She seems to be the least ‘openly’ bothered by what I had just said.

“It’s a hypothesis based on an idea that can’t really be called a theory or hypothesis. There are too many variables and also if it does exist, it does not explain, solve and prove anything that is currently believed.”

“I see.”

“Nightmare Moon.”

The near silence is telling. I say ‘near’ because the moment the name leaves my lips there is the distinct sound of weapons being drawn surround me. “You want another reason, another explanation. You need it to be something else. You need that darkness not to be your own.”

Her head gently lifts. The poker face she wears is truly impressive, though the cracks are easy to see if you know about trying to hide how you feel.

“You speak as if you know.” She states plainly.

“The very reason I did not like going into my own mind at that time and still don’t to some degree.”

“You claim to have your own ‘darkness’?” A slightly sneer in her voice. It hurts to hear but it’s hard to believe an ‘outsider’ understands such pain.

“Of course I do. Every one of us has dark and terrible urges sometimes. It is how we deal with them before they affect us and after. When I went to Zebrica I spent the first few weeks just meditating trying to deal with the darkness that possesses my soul. By the end I was able to talk to ‘him’. ‘He’ is a representation of my darker self. ‘He’ is me, ‘he’ is just looser in what is acceptable and what is not.”

“Did ‘he’ ever take you from your family?” Her growing ire distorts her voice.

“No, but ‘he’ prevents me from having one. Even now ‘he’ speaks, though ‘he’ slumbers.” Closing my eye I tilt my head up ‘listening’ to his voice.

“Blood, rip, tear. Obliterate. Feed, consume. Burn. Rage. Destroy. Hate, malice. Pain, suffer. WRATH. LUST. GREED. GLUTTONY.” Our combined voice flows from my throat. The effect of ‘his’ voice layered over mine is immediate.

The entire room feels like it dropped several degrees. The guards standing by are trembling ever so slightly. I have to give them credit though, most lose whatever courage they had. These Night Guards are tough. Only a few of them are shaking at the knees.

A few deep breathes returns my voice to normal. “My ‘Demon’ is always with me. ‘He’ is a part of me. I am a part of ‘him’. Without the other we are incomplete. As much as I would rather not have ‘him’ inside me and ‘he’ would rather be free, we are bound together till the day of our death. I do not minimize your experience with your own darkness. Nor am I attempting to say you should connect with it should it still be within you. I am merely saying that in regards to my-self and my own darkness we are inseparable. To do so would be our death.”

“Have you tried?” Leaning forwards on her throne Luna asks concern coloring her voice.

I wave it off. “While in Zebrica the High Priest and Priestess attempted it but the act nearly killed me and the darkness within me. Apparently we are bound together by the dragon’s blood flowing through my veins. As far as we were able to determine at the time is that when I underwent the Familia Binding it bound the darkness to me permanently because it could not determine if it was mine or an outside influence.”

Silence returns to the room. Hesitation across all those present in the room is nearly palpable. “If this keeps happening I am going to make this even more awkward for all of you.”

The silence continues.

“Okay, you brought this on yourselves.” I say.

The entire room stiffens in anticipation of what I might do. Guess what I decided to do was beyond what they expected, because EVERY jaw hits the floor.

You out there reading, watching or listening to this are probably curious as to what I decided to do aren’t you?

I got naked. Yes I stripped down to my birthday suit.

“AAAAHHHHHH MY EYES!!!

“WHAT THE BUCK!?”

“WHY?”

“OH SWEET CELESTIA’S FLANK IT’S SO SMALL!”

“HEY! My species doesn’t have a sheath. So instead ours increases in size by filling with blood. A human penis can be anywhere from 4 inches in length up to at least 12 inches. It varies from person to person but average is between 5 and 7.” Kind of brought that on myself didn’t I?

Looking around the room I can see various facial expressions, ranging from mild curiosity to anger and all the way up to blatant arousal. Though I think the Princesses reaction is the best, the light red on her cheeks stands out beautifully against her dark colored fur. Still don’t understand how a species covered in fur can produce a visible blush but whatever.

“Would you please re-dress yourself it is becoming quite difficult to continue like this.” She asks, barely restraining whatever she is feeling at the moment.

A roll of my eyes is all she gets before I start putting my clothes back on.

“I haz question!” A guard from behind me exclaims.

“Yes Matchstick?”

Looking behind me is a pegasus guard removing their helmet. Underneath the illusion is a pegasus that appears to almost be on fire. “You look a lot like-“

“Spitfire of the Wonderbolts, I know. Princess I would like permission to buck the human.” Matchstick answers and asks in an excited voice.

My reply is calm and simple. “No.”

“Aww, why not?” She asks.

I turn back to Princess Luna. “I have no desire to engage in such activities with a member of any guard or an inhabitant of this world. Not that you are unattractive nor are many of the females I have seen in this world. Sadly due to that simple fact that I am a human means whoever enters into a relationship with me is going to be in for a rough ride. Whether or not a relationship even happens is beside the point, once someone finds out that a member of the Night Guard has slept with me the outcry from the nobles, which run the day to day lives of this land, will be in an uproar, demanding the Night Guard be investigated by an outside party of their choosing. Which has the chance of leading to a potential for them to decide that the entirety of the Night Guard is compromised by me.”

“You seem quite knowledgeable about these types of things. Has it happened before?” Princess Luna seems to be very concerned about how I would know some like this.

“It’s simple politics. That’s all. Also I always assume others will do what is only in their best interest especially ‘nobility’. They are among the worst offenders. Now I am going to finish my story if you don’t mind.”