Joseph's POV

I sighed and put the books in my green duffel bag before noticing a purplish blue equine figure that soon disappeared, causing me to stop what I was doing. I opened my mouth again, since that was the only thing that had changed since I had cast Serpent Sight, and sure enough the figure appeared. That was when I figured out what should've been obvious from the beginning.

'Serpent Sight requires me to use my tongue to sense heat signatures. That should've been obvious.' I thought as I facepalmed before walking towards the figure. The figure seemed to be an alicorn, though it didn't move as I approached it. At least it didn't until I tried to touch it.

As I reached out to touch it, it seemed to recoil in shock before coming closer to me. I thought nothing of it until I closed my mouth, causing the figure to vanish. I opened my mouth again to see the alicorn directly in front of me. I reached out, expecting to touch an invisible being, only for my hand to pass through them.

To say I was shocked would be an understatement. The figure seemed to be just as shocked as I was. My mind was going a million miles a minute because of all the questions I had.

'Is this thing what I think it is? If so why does Serpent Sight let me see it? Can snakes see beings made of magic in this universe? If that's true then what else is different?' I thought before noticing that the figure's mouth seemed to be moving.

I quickly set my duffel bag down and took the book on augmentation magic back out before carefully flipping through the pages and eventually finding one that I believed would help. It was called Moth Hearing. It took me a bit to figure out why it was called that, but I eventually realized that it was because moths have the best hearing in the entire animal kingdom. To cast the spell I needed to once again combine a feeling of nervousness with desire, only this time it was a desire to hear more.

"Moth Hearing." I said with a bit of shakiness in my voice. As soon as I cast the spell I turned to the figure, who seemed to be surprised that I could use magic, and smiled.

"If I am correct, you are the being made of dark magic that is known as Nightmare Moon. Or have I confused you with another being that was defeated in this castle?" I said with a cocky smile on my face. At least I did until I saw the figure look down at the ground.

"What thou says is true. We are the monster thou speaks of. Truthfully we just wanted a body that we could reside in, but our desire to help our host caused us to commit a mistake that caused our host much pain. We are sorry for this, but we are now seen as nothing more than an evil spirit." Nightmare Moon said in a wispy voice that carried a sorrowful tone.

"Ah. Well that's a cliche that I'm not a big fan of, though it does make sense. After all the darkness is neither good nor evil, it just is. Its only want is to exist, and in that way it is no different than any other living being. But enough of my ramblings, how would you like it if I agreed to be your host?" I said as my cocky smile returned and I held out my left hand.

Nightmare was.....excited to say the least, though that would be expected when a being freely offers to be your host despite knowing what you've done in the past. Nightmare tried to grab my hand but phased through it. She then walked into me and entered my body just as she realized that I was either insane or used to keeping myself in control.

"Thou knows what we have done, yet thou let's us inside thine's body. Why?" Nightmare asked from inside my head, as I could no longer see her.

"It's quite simple really. I already call myself the most sane insane person in my universe, due to the fact that I have full conversations with myself and constantly have to keep myself in check lest I go on a rampage. My mind is more messed up than Discord's and he is the so called lord of chaos. Honestly that title belongs to any human in the multiverse due to the fact that we constantly cause things to change because we want to. Oh and apologies ahead of time Nightie. You're very likely going to see all of my life, including the memories that I wish I could forget." I said out loud while smiling as I heard Nightie let out a gasp, letting me know that she had reached the first of my traumatic memories.

"How can thine's own family be so cruel? Celestia may not have paid much attention to our previous host, but that is nothing compared to what thine's older cousin did whilest thou was a child." Nightie said as she continued to look through my memories.

"Simple. Some humans are despicable creatures that only care about satisfying their basest desires, even if it means molesting their own kin." I said while still smiling. After all it's not like crying would do me any good. This went on for hours as Nightie saw all of my memories, each of which were just as bad as the last. At the end she was in tears and was apologizing to me for all of the pain I had gone through. It was rather shocking to hear how compassionate this former villain was.

"We are so sorry thou had to go through that much betrayal and pain!" Nightie said between sobs as I heard the sounds of hooves coming closer and quickly shushed her in case they could hear her. I looked at the door and put the old book back in my green duffel bag as the mane six came in with Celestia, Luna and a group of guards behind them. Of course I decided to do what I do best and immediately tried to piss them off.

"Well look who it is! We got miss I-eat-so-much-cake-that-my-ass-is-a-pillow and miss I'm-beautiful-but-nopony-notices-me-because-of-who-I-am." I said with a shit eating grin as I pointed at the two princesses.

Author's Note

Sorry that this took so long, but the good news is that I should be able to do more chapters faster. On a side note, I've become a published poet! Or well I will be. A poem I made was selected for a book that gets published yearly called Anthology of Poetry. But enough of real life. I hope you enjoyed the chapter even if I personally think that I could do better, but that's just me putting myself down as per usual.