Bare My Curse

"What have you done to me...?"

Indigo looked down at his claws as he saw the blue smoke swirl around them, the head of the mare circling him and analyzing him up and down.

"I feel... different... like I have a power that isn't even mine."

"That's because you do."

He looked up at the dark mare as she tapped her horn against his head.

"And it's no longer just you, or me. You're wearing me, and I'm inhabiting you. We're a team, now, young drake."

She wrapped herself around his neck, making him gag as she licked his ear.

"You help me get what I want, and I'll help you get your little payback.~"

"Hey! I see somepony! Over there!"

The two of them turned to the direction of the voice they heard, seeing several ponies walking towards them.

"Aww, how adorable.~ Those Crystal Ponies are sending their guards to scour the Frozen North. Guess they got word their dear old King was free.~"

The ghostly mare sank back into Indigo, but her smoke remained, wrapping around his arms and legs and seeping into his muscles from there. Indigo shivered as he felt tingly all over, almost as if his body was contorting again. Feeling his muscles push against his scales, he slowly took on a hulking figure as his mind was being pushed aside, making way for another to take control.

With his confusion and bewilderment, it wasn't hard for the deity of the helmet to assert herself. His scales became as black as her coat, his underbelly was made dark purple, and his row of spines burst into wild candles of blue fire. The deity's smoke wrapped around his chest, his arms, and his legs, hardening into gloves, leg guards, and a chestplate made of some unknown material; or at least, a material all the bits in the world would cost. On the forefront of the chestplate was a light-blue crescent moon surrounded by a purple blotch that looked like an infectious smudge stain on the armor piece. Closing his eyes tightly, he gripped his head as the last of him was shoved to his subconscious.

"What the f*** is going on...?!"

"Ooooooh, language, young drake.~ Swear like that, and you might convince me you not as innocent as you appeared when I first saw you."

He grunted as his eyes opened, both of them now bearing the turquoise hue and menacing shape of the mare that took him over. No longer able to move his body, she did instead. Stretching out, she let out a relishing sigh as she spoke from his mouth.

"Oh, it is so good to FINALLY be FREE...!"

Looking back at the approaching guards, she grinned as she flexed her new claws, which were sharpened and made just slightly longer by the gauntlets she bore.

"Come, my beautiful host. Let us commence the slaughter. It's been too long, and I'm feeling rusty.~"

"Sir? Sir, are you alri-"

The Crystal Guard that approached the possessed Dragon first didn't even have a chance before several lines of blue, smoky tendrils snatched him up from the snow, ripping him to the deity as as she opened her new maw. Snapping it shut around his head, it didn't take much effort at all to tear half of his face off. Indigo reeled back in his mind as the deity threw the corpse away, now having attracted the hostility of the other guards.

"Sword Smith, no!"

"What the hell is that thing?!"

Several magical shots were fired at the deity as she flinched, humming at the familiar feeling of pain that she hadn't felt for a long time. Doing little to deter her, the guards threw their spears at her. She leaned away from a few, but caught two of them in a single claw, crunching them in half with a squeeze of her grip. She bit down on another as it flew past her head, splinters flying everywhere as she moved back into the blizzard, hiding herself from the guards. Moving around them with surprisingly stealthy movements, she began to pick them off violently and quietly, using her ghostly tendrils to rip them away from the group and splatter their inners into the snow.

When they finally realized where she was, she had two of them in her grasp. Jumping up into the air, she spun herself and threw the guards away, sending them either into a ravine or into rocky spikes sticking out from a mountain. Disappearing into the blizzard again before they could even retaliate, she appeared behind two guard mares in the back, tackling one as her tendrils wrapped around the other's face. The deity tore the forehooves of the guard in her grasp clean off while the whiplash of the tendrils yanked the second guard's head right out of the his neck. Seeing a stallion rushing towards them, the deity lunged at him, front-flipping over his back as her claw wrapped around his throat. Throwing him over her, he went crashing through rough pile of icy snow that was attached to the mountain. Watching him fall into the ravine behind it, she turned to the last guard, smirking as he trembled before her.

"Aww... How adorable.~"

She grabbed him by his mane, hoisting him up to stare her in the eyes.

"Yet another sun-loving peasant..."

Swiping her other claw past his barrel, she tossed him away as he became a blood sprinkler, spraying his dead comrades as he slowly died right then and there. Looking down at her claws, she giggled with glee as she tightened them into fists.

"Ah... You never forget your first kill.~"

She giggled again, only to gag when a part of her chest burst open, a scream of pain eliciting from Indigo within the subconscious. The deity clicked her tongue as she fell to her knees.

"Hmm... A little too much for your body to handle, I'd reckon. You mortals are so fragile..."

She receded from the forefront of Indigo's conscious, shoving him back forward into control as the transformation reversed, allowing Indigo to take on his first form yet again and absorb the armor back into his body.

"You're still weak from the... prior events. We will have to remedy that on the way."

"On the way? To where?"

"You distant or stupid, drake? We're going to Crystal Empire, to settle the score."

"The score..."

Indigo looked down at the bodies of the Dragons, kneeling down in front of his mother and brushing her light purple scales with his enlarged claw.

"Mom..."

"Aww, don't weep for your mother.~ There will be many more families to befall the same fate soon enough. Now get moving. Time is extremely precious in our circumstances."

Indigo looked up from the corpse of his parent, looking towards the tracks in the snow. Several streams stemmed from the massacre, heading through the hoofprints left behind by the guards. Standing up, he began the long journey, going southeast as he followed the steps. As he did, he tilted his head.

"Say... who even ARE you? WHAT are you? I've never seen, nor heard of anything like you before."

"You do not recall the incident of the neverending moon three years ago?"

"Neverending moon? I'd heard about that, but my family was still in migration around that period, and were traveling through rough weather, so we wouldn't have known."

"Hmm, interesting. Well, I suppose I already know your name, so you can refer to me as Nightmare Moon. The only thing you need to know about me is that I saved you, and now you are in my debt, just as I am to you when you chose to free me into your body."

Indigo huffed as he jumped across the ravine, his natural traits in strength still showing proudly, and then some with this new body.

"Somehow, I don't believe you."

"And yet, somehow, I do not care. Believe me what you want, but you and I have a shared goal."

"And what if vengeance isn't what I want?"

"Then you'll want justice, because if we don't stop King Sombra, more families will wind up like yours, as I've stated before."

"Nngh... True..."

Indigo said nothing more as he continued on, watched over by Nightmare Moon as he made his way off the paths through the mountains, looking to take it more directly than safe. This made the deity within him look upon his choices in surprise. Given his purity, she didn't expect him to be a thrill-seeker, but that influence may have come from his brother in the past. Now that he had the extra strength to push him forward, it gave him confidence, which was good. Nightmare Moon did not want a weakling for a host. Landing off of a spire of icy rock, he made to keep going, only to stop when he saw more guards up ahead.

"Hold it right there, Indigo..."

"What? It's just more-"

He was stopped when a blast of bubbling purplish-black magic. Leaning to the side, he watched it fly by him, eviscerating the rocks he'd traversed.

"Guards? Is that what you were going to say?"

Looking back forward, he found these ponies to be different than the ones Nightmare Moon tore apart. They all bore strange helmets, ones that the deity herself recognized.

"Those helmets... Seems like the King is hard at work already. Be careful. I cannot attain control again without hurting your body. Kill them. Show no mercy."

Despite being hesitant, something in his new power gave him a push to do just that. Clenching his fists as the mind-warped guards galloped towards him, he lifted up his foot and kicked one through the squad with enough force to match the strongest of Earth Pony bucks. Jumping over the rest of them, Indigo landed in front of the dazed guard and kicked him into a small cavern, bashing his head on the wall and denting the helmet. Zipping in after him, he took the guard by his throat and threw him to the ceiling. Reeling back a fist, he punched the pony into literal pieces, splattering him everywhere as his blood coated Indigo's arm.

"Yes! An excellent display!"

Nightmare Moon's approval ushered him to continue the small spree. Looking back at the possessed guards, he blocked a hoof strike and wrapped his enlarged arm around it, whirling the mare guard around violently and splitting her in two on the corner of the cave's mouth. Seeing a sword in the next guard's mouth, he punched it out and used it to cleave off half of his head. Throwing the blade to the last guard, it stuck her in place as Indigo took the half of the head flying through the air and rammed it into her esophagus. Nightmare Moon giggled with glee and excitement at the display.

"Well done! Very well done, my host!"

Indigo took his hand out of the mare's throat as he backed up, looking down at the carnage before him.

"Yes... Gaze upon your work, your masterpiece. Think of all that you can conquer with this kind of power and strength."

Nightmare Moon's voice was but a whisper in his ear, alluring him to kill more and see the color red as the only source in the palette, but he knew he was stronger than that.

"No... No one's conquering anything."

He shooed Nightmare's essence from his shoulder.

"These ponies were long gone if Sombra got to them. There are more patrols out there. There's no way there isn't. If he's gotten his shadows on them like he did my brother and parents, there's no hope saving them. The Empire itself is our main concern."

Nightmare frowned before nodding.

"Yes. Well said. You did well to elude my manipulation. Congratulations."

Indigo blinked as he looked up at her when she formed just above him.

"Congratulations? But... I don't understand."

"That was a test, young drake, to see if your will was a strong as your body turned out to be. There will be more temptations, I assure you, but as long as you do not falter, our goal will be accomplished a lot sooner. Now, go. We must continue our journey."

Indigo watched her sink back into him before walking back out into the cold. Shivering slightly, he turned and rushed through the snow, jumping from rock to rock to avoid going around obstacles and wasting time. As they kept going, he could see more of those possessed guards on the ground. Preferring to evade a fight for now, he kept to the top of the rocks.

'Can't afford to stop and fight these guys. I'll deal with them later. Gotta get to the Empire...'

He grunted as he landed on a ledge before the peak of a mountain.

"I just hope they're alright..."