Summoned Goddess of Nightmares

Chapters

Essence of Nightmares (1)
Finding a goddess in your friend's home (2)
Improvised magic lessens (3)
Spell Gate (4)
Starting the first day (5)
Price of entry (6)
Introductory magic lessens (7)

Essence of Nightmares (1)

Author's Note

edits: 12/07/2021

Did some editing to the spelling and grammar that will hopefully make it better to read.
Thanks to everyone that gave advice on how to improve! Especially those that suggested using Grammerly to help find and fix errors.

While there might be some things I missed, the only thing I was not sure about changing was the words that were not the american spelling but were still correct. (I'm from Australia). However if a lot of people find that to distracting I'll probably change it in Grammerly to the other spelling in future chapters.

Essence of Nightmares (1)

Market places, in general, were not the worse place to hang out, but this was admittedly something else. Still technically a marketplace, but its more temporary nature made it feel like a convention without a true focus. Alexander thought he could call it a flea market, yet that did not feel quite right.

He and his four friends had come down to see what was going on. None of them could figure out who organised it. Somehow someone had got an entire paddock rented out for everyone under the sun to set up stalls under. Some were like the lemonade stalls you saw kids selling stuff from in movies, while on the flip side you had sections set up for concerts and even a circus.

Alexander could hear music off in the distance, giving the whole event an even more chaotic vibe than when they first entered. Yeah, chaotic is definitely how he would describe this.

“Hey, where did Nicole and Jenifer go?” he asked looking around. His friend Isaac shrugged, looking down at his phone. Alexander could see Niles looking at a stall nearby.

“Still in the spot where they set up all the clothing stalls. Might have moved onto jewellery.” Isaac said as he scrolled through his phone.

Alexander frowned, not liking the idea of any of them getting lost and separated. There was not much he could do about that. They were all adults with phones in a very public place, it was unlikely anything bad would happen despite what his small spike of worry told him. “What are you even looking at?”

Isaac looked up from his phone towards Alexander. “Seeing if there is any new quality Celestia art.”

“Nightmare Moon's hotter,” Niles said from the side, still facing away from them as he looked through the stall he was at.

Alexander could swear he saw Isaac’s eye twitch as he ignored Niles, continuing on with what he was saying. “Feels like there has been less new content in general despite the new show coming up soon.” He looked back down at his phone in thought. “Maybe I should draw something myself…”

“You’re looking at that while in the middle of all this?” Alexander asked, monitoring to the busy stalls all around them. All he got was a shrug in reply, causing Alexander to sigh in response.

“Hey! Check this out, looks pretty cool,” Niles called out, waving them over. Both Alexander and Isaac came over, the latter still looking down more at his phone. Niles pointed to a hexagonal glass bottle with a glass stopper ten centimetres tall. “Looks pretty awesome right?”

Alexander leaned in to get a better look. The bottle was filled with a sparkling blue-black liquid. The light shimmering through it almost made it look like it was glowing. Reading the label said it was called Essence of nightmares.

Alexander then flipped it over to read the back's description. “100% genuine pure essence of a nightmare. Perfect for empowering various types of dark magic. Handel with caution, direct exposure may cause any of the following: vivid nightmares, night terrors, possession, instant death, slow painful death, eternal sleep, random mutations, freezing to death, being sucked into a black void, and possibly other undocumented phenomena.”

“That sounds kind of badass,” Niles said as he looked at the bottle in wonder. Isaac had even looked up to get a proper glimpse at it.

“And very fictional,” Alexander said, moving to put the bottle down. “Probably also toxic-”

“How much is it?” Niles was asking the vendor, already with his wallet out.

The vendor in question wore reddish-brown pants with a professional green tux and white shirt underneath. He had a goatee and dirty blond hair. “A flat 100 dollars. Quite rare this, so that’s already quite cheap for what it’s actually worth.”

“That’s a bit expensive for a bottle of-”

“We’ll take it!” Niles said happily, forking over a $100 bill and interrupting Alexander before he could protest.

Alexander sighed looking at his friend. “Why did you buy that? Glittering water is not worth 100 dollars.” He still held said bottle in his hand.

Niles grinned, looking at Isaac with his eyes as he spoke. “Because it will look great next to my other Nightmare Moon merch. Maybe set up a small light under it so it glows in the dark.”

Isaac rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, turn away from the sun princess more than you already have. Go add more to your dark shrine.”

Alexander looked between the two, frowning slightly. “I don’t get either of you sometimes.”

Before anyone could say anything else, Isaac was definitely going to with his mouth open, they were interrupted by a female voice calling out. “Boys! Come on! They have a fucking lion in the circus tent! Get over here before all the tickets sell out!” Nicole waved at them.

“Lion?” Isaac and Niles said at the same time before wandering over to an exited Nicole. Her very short black hair stood out amongst the crowd.

Alexander followed behind them with a more quizzical and slightly worried look. “Why do they have a lion? I thought circuses were not allowed to have animals like that anymore.” he thought, putting the strange bottle of liquid in his bag for now. He would have to remember to give it to Niles later before they left.

/---\

Alexander yawned as he turned the key in the lock of his front door, happy to be getting out of the cold. They had spent a lot more time than expected at the market. If it could even be called that. Markets usually did not contain animal circuses, bumper cars, and a pool.

“I suppose they really got everything they could out of all that space.” He quietly said to himself as he moved inside and shut the door, making sure it was locked. Too tired from the day’s events to do much else he decided to get ready for bed.

It was already 11 pm anyway. Alexander casually threw his bag next to the dining table before making sure the heater was on. He had already eaten out, so all he had to do now was clean his teeth, shower, and change before bed. That whole process took twenty minutes before he was able to crash into bed.

Alexander had a strange feeling he was forgetting something. “Let’s see, did just about everything there was. Nicole and Jenifer bought a bunch of outfits and an airsoft gun, Isaac found a giant Celestia plush as big as him. At least that got him off his phone despite how much it cost…” Alexander was honestly questioning the two hundred dollars he had contributed. Two hundred dollars he was most likely never getting back.

They had had to get Niles to ring his father and get him to send over someone in a delivery van to pick up the giant plush. For the tenth or so time, Alexander wondered if that thing had been worth the hassle. It seems to make his friends happy. Even the usually not so fond of the sun princess Niles admitted it was pretty cool.

Alexander had to admit he had been as well. He was not as fanatical about the show as his friends. Despite watching the show and reading some of the fanfiction among other things he never called himself a brony. Never saw the point if he was being honest.

He still felt like he was forgetting something, but it could be put off until the morning. With a yawn, Alexander pulled the covers over himself. The only person in the house, slowly drifting off to sleep. Dreaming of giant Celestias in bumper cars, Nicole shooting a ferocious lion with her gun while heroically protecting Jenifer, and an endless sea of dark starry liquid.

/---\

Morning came sooner than Alexander would have liked. Woken by the sun as he had forgotten to close the blinds for the night. He moved some of his reddish-orange hair out of his eyes as he rubbed them. Looking to the side his digital clock read 7 AM.

Grumbling and yawning he got out of bed and stumbled into the kitchen. Alexander pulled his shirt down properly as he looked around for some bread, his groggy mind on autopilot for the most part. Tea joined newly acquired bread as he sat at the dining table.

Alexander looked around his house as he sat. The decent-sized three-bedroom house was more than he needed while on his own, but it would be good for the future. It allowed him a have plenty of room for his friends as well.

He thought of them fondly. Jenifer with her long died pink white hair, commonly worn dark jumper, and pale skin. Nicole, almost always in a military-style uniform, black hair cut very short with a tan showing just how much she spent outside and in the military. Isaac with his short blond hair, only leaving the house if anyone dragged him out, pale as a ghost as a result; and his eternal rival in the war of which princess was better, Niles. The richest of them all with dark brown skin and short black hair. His father often funded some of their adventures as kids. Dealing in priceless artefacts from ancient cultures seemed to pay quite well.

As he thought about his friend, he could not help but think just how casually he could spend money. Niles was honestly spoiled by his father at times; even now that he was 25. Thinking about it, his last random spending was… “That’s what I forgot.”

Stepping away from his mostly eaten breakfast Alexander moved around to where his bag sat. It was on the other side of the dining table set against the wooden leg; just where he left it. Opening the bag he fished around for the bottle. “I’ll have to call him over so he can get it.” he thought, feeling cool glass on his fingers. He grabbed the bottle, pulling it out to take another look.

Promptly dropping the thing.

With a burst of panicked speed, Alexander made to grab the falling bottle before it hit the wooden floor. Instead, with the side of his hand, he knocked it into the side of the wooden table, the glass bottle exploding on impact.

Alexander almost gasped in shock at how it had exploded. It was almost like the bottle had been made of sugar glass. More pressingly however was the fact that he was covered in both tiny glass shards and sparkling, inky black liquid. “Fuck…”

All Alexander could do was mutter and move slowly and try to shake off the glass, while also moving away without stepping on any. “This is going to be a nightmare to clean up.”

Getting a bit back he did not seem to have any cuts, but that was going to become a lot less concerning in a few minutes. “Why do I feel colder all of a sudden?” Alexander said to himself, looking at what parts of his body were cooling he saw the black starry liquid literally sink into his skin. “What the fuck, is it really that toxic?”

Panic gripped him as he moved to call an ambulance, heart rate increasing along with his breathing. “I am not getting killed or crippled by some prop liquid.” Alexander rushed over to his phone, momentarily forgetting about the glass.

Sharp pain in his foot caused him to fall over, banging onto the wooden floor with a mildly painful thud. But not only that, his legs felt a bit numb and weak as well. Alexander quickly picked a smallish grain of glass out of his left foot, thankful that was the only one. Blood dripped from the cut, dribbling down the sole of his foot and onto the floor.

Alexander’s eyes widened. Not from the cut but what was happening to his arms and legs. They were turning pitch black, both the skin itself and the black fur growing out like a time-lapse of growing grass. It covered his legs smoothly, reminding him of a horse's coat for a moment.

Fear and panic were joined by a morbid curiosity at what was happening. The cold feeling was now beginning to feel like a cold warmth as it spread out from wherever the starry liquid had touched his skin. Arms, legs, the spots of liquid on his neck; all invaded his body, doing who knows what to him.

Alexander panted as his entire body was filled with this feeling. It felt like his body could barely contain this cold warmth, almost bursting to escape. He managed to crawl further away from all the broken glass.

As he crawled, pressure built up in two spots on his back below his shoulders and the base of his spine. In fact, everything felt like it was swelling out, particularly his face and chest. The only thing that did not feel like swelling was his crotch, which instead just felt numb.

Alexander’s clothes began to rip as they became too tight for his body to handle, his top ripped off by two feathered appendages ripping out of his back. “What the hell?” he mumbled, voice sounding off to his ears now.

Thankfully there was no pain accompanying the change. What discomfort the feeling flooding his body caused started to feel normal, still present, but just as normal as having a warm-blooded body. Alexander noticed the bump at the base of his spine start glowing. A hand unconsciously covering the mounds on his chest as he watched his new tail grow.

The newly formed short black tail began to grow glowing blue fur. Was it even fur? Alexander was even more stumped as what was an incredibly thick, blue glowing mist that seemed to sparkle with stars grew from his behind. It seemed to be somewhere between a dense floating cloud and being weighed down like normal hair.

Next Alexander noticed was that the same thing was happening to his hair. His reddish-orange, shoulder-length hair began to lengthen, long enough to fall all the way past his bum. It turned blue as well, puffing out to form another blue cloud of starry mist.

Then there was the headache, sudden, somehow painless, but all the same, Alexander passed out for half a minute. When he came to everything seemed to have stopped. A hand reached up to feel his ears, which were larger and able to flop around at his touch.

“What the hell happened to me?” confusion and curiosity were taking over the fear and panic that had gripped him. It was still incredibly unsettling, but he was not dead as far as he could tell, or sick.

Standing Alexander realised his foot was healed when there was no pain from standing on it. Bringing it up to look at the soul while standing on one leg confirmed that. The underside of his foot was covered in a thin layer of fur as well strangely enough. He also noticed that his nails were sharper, having turned a dark blue.

Of course, the large breasts on his chest were also extremely obvious at this point. A particular suspicion was growing in among his mixed feelings about the situation. With a few shaky steps he made his way towards the mirror in the bathroom.

“This can’t be real, maybe I’m passed out on the ground from the poisonous liquid. There should have been a warning label at least. Well, there kind of was, but, I could not have really turned into-” Alexander's head banged back as something connected to his forehead hit the door frame. Very mild pain reverberated through the appendage from the impact. Alexander was left rubbing it, finding a singular long horn jutting out from his forehead.

“Great…” He grumbled, ducking under the door frame. Finally into the bathroom, he could get a good look at himself in the body-length mirror facing open the shower. What he found was what he had begun to suspect, but still just as shocking that this was real in the first place.

Alexander watched his new teal, silted pupal eyes widen to show his emotions. They were bigger than eyes normally were, but not anywhere near as big as the show. More anime like perhaps?

“I really did turn into an anthropomorphic Nightmare Moon.” Alexander shivered at the new sound of his, or he guessed her voice. Not only that, calling himself that seemed to trigger something in his new body, as if being christened by the new name. Her new voice also did not sound exactly like the one in the show as well, almost sounding more seductive, far less haughty if at all.

That was actually how he would describe his, or her whole new look; Nightmare Moon but not quite.

Outside of obviously being anthro, everything seemed to be what was needed to be Nightmare Moon, but just off. She had the cutie mark; yet slightly more elaborate in design, having more variance of colour in the moon for one. Her mane and tail were obviously still a starry cloud, but they were more detailed and beautiful as they flowed on an invisible wind. Not transparent either.

Alexander ran her hand through her new mane. It felt incredibly soft in a way that was hard to describe. Perhaps like a solid cloud. Solid like a pillow, yet she could also push through if she wanted like water. It was as if her intent changed how it could be interacted with.

It was hard to gauge the exact length of her horn just from eyeing it, 30 centimetres at least. A hint of bluish silver could be seen hiding in the spiral that ran up it. Her wings were also larger than what she would have expected as well. Not oversized, but they covered all her back, the long black feathers falling just above the back of her knees. Speaking of feathers, below the slightly furred rim of her wings the feathers coming off it looked like they had silver and blue glitter sprinkled throughout.

Going back to her eyes for a moment she noticed the eyelids were a shiny purple when closed. The whole thing was real yet with an edge the suggested an incredibly well-made artwork. A snout that was larger than what appeared in the show but nothing close to an actual horse's muzzle. It reminded her how many artists gave ponies larger snouts in their drawings, making them look cuter in the process.

Overall Alexander had to admit she was the most attractive thing she had ever seen. She was taller than before. The proportions of her body just seemed perfect and healthy. Large yet not oversized breasts. Alexander noticed that his inner flesh was a silvery blue from them. It was the kind of attractiveness she had only ever seen in well-drawn art, making her wonder if her new body was influenced by her perceptions of them.

An unsettled feeling still filled Alexander’s stomach. Yet she could not help but find herself more confused and annoyed as feelings of outright fear faded. She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her snout, letting out a sigh. “How am I supposed to explain this to anyone, let alone turn up for work tomorrow?” That question lingered as she looked over her body. “And where am I going to get clothes from that will fit me.”

Alexander's top had been shredded by her new wings, while her pants were still on, but ripped quite severely from the growth of her body. She had been average for her height as a human male. Yet now as an anthropomorphic Alicorn, she could give the tallest of men a run for their money. She supposed it could be worse. If it had been like in the show where they were twice as tall as any other pony… Her horn was already just shy of scraping the roof when she walked as it was.

“Why is it so easy to think of myself as a girl?” She wondered. It was appropriate to call herself that since she was female now, but Alexander was not put off about it as she expected. Chalking it up to an effect of the transformation she decided to leave it at that.

Alexander left the bathroom. To solve her clothing problem she found her largest baggiest pair of pants, which were a dark grey colour. They were a lot more firm now as they squeezed her legs and bum but were not uncomfortable. For a top, she found a large jumper and wrapped it around her chest, under her arms, and over where her wings connected to her back.

Alexander thought about cutting holes in a shirt instead but decided against it for now. She frowned, walking back out to the pile of broken glass. It just occurred to her that somehow none of the glass was on her anymore, somehow getting removed after the transformation. The shards of glass seemed more spread out now, however, like they had been blown across the room. There was also no evidence of the liquid that had caused her transformation.

Groaning Alexander carefully went to clean up, taking stock of the situation as she did so. “So is this like one of the fanfictions then. One of those merchant ones maybe? But I’m still in my house and the vendor was far from shady. Everything else there seemed normal if a little unfocused on a theme. Then again I did not pay that much attention to the stall.”

It was concerning. Other things did not line up with that idea as well. “I also did not change as soon as it was bought as well. Niles was the one that bought it anyway. Maybe if he had been the one to hold it he would have vanished? What else is there, can’t be anything like ‘oh, you were secretly Nightmare Moon all along’. It was definitely the black substance in the bottle that changed me.”

The thought of Niles's father potentially knowing something crossed her mind but was quickly dismissed. He might know a lot about ancient artefacts, but this did not seem to be something that would qualify.

“I’m most likely stuck like this as well aren’t I? I can’t remember any story where a transformed human actually returns to normal for one reason or another. Wonder why that is.” She shook her head with another sigh, the sound covered up by the vacuum cleaner she was using.

“I guess I at least have magic now. How powerful am I anyway? I don’t think any Alicorn except Twilight really got to show off any amount of power. Except for the sisters moving the sun and moon. Speaking of Luna I can’t actually be her either despite looking like her corrupted form. Would that affect my powers?” Alexander looked down at her cutie mark. What did it mean to have it if she was not Luna? It was not like she had earned it.

A ding rang out just as the last of the broken glass was cleaned up. Putting the vacuum cleaner away Alexander walked over to the kitchen bench and picked up her phone. She took a moment to look over her dark-furred hand, running a finger along the side of the phone to feel how the fur was gently tugged. “It’s not been hard to move around at least. Could be worse if I was stuck on four hooves.”

With that thought, she unlocked her phone and checked the new text that had come through, which had been a few minutes ago.

Niles: Hey, just thought I’d remind you, you still have my new bottle of nightmare essence! Me and Isaac will be over in an hour. Was thinking about going back and seeing if we could find more cool stuff later as well. Talk to you more when we arrive.

Alexander was tempted to text back that she was suddenly very sick and to leave her alone for a few days. She would have to call in sick to work tomorrow anyway just to give herself a few days to figure out what she was going to do. Instead, she decided to text back a simple ok. “Going to have to tell someone eventually. Ripping the bandage off as they say.”

Alexander put her phone down and decided to go have a quick shower before they got here. “I’m going to need some help dealing with this anyway.”

Finding a goddess in your friend's home (2)

Isaac drove down the suburb streets, getting slowly closer to his destination. In the passenger seat, Niles laid back with both hands behind his head, smiling smugly to himself. Isaac ignored him and focused on the road ahead. There were not many cars around this time of morning, not that there were many around in the Suburbs anyway.

“Still can’t believe my luck with that find. Are you sure you’re not jealous?” Niles said, grinning towards Isaac.

Isaac would roll his eyes if he was not driving. “Why would I be jealous you found some sparkly liquid? I found a giant Celestia for her sake. That has to be life-sized with how large it was.”

Niles continued to grin. “Because I already got a Nightmare Moon one ages ago. Besides, my dad said it might be a rare concoction of minerals used in ancient wizard scams.”

“Wizard scams?” Isaac asked, looking away from the road for a second to give a confused look.

Niles nodded. “Yea. Basically, someone would pretend to be a wizard or something similar. Then they would approach a king, or someone just as rich. Then they would try to sell their rare supposedly magical potion for a lot of money. This was a bit of a hit and miss with its success rate. Ironically some of these concoctions could end up priceless because of the minerals put into them. Not very many of the scammers that attempted this seemed to realise that. Though it’s suspected some might have been more interested in getting into the history books rather than wanting the actual money.”

Isaac listened to Niles ramble on, nodding occasionally to show he was listening. “You know this isn’t actually related to Nightmare Moon or MLP in general right?”

“Yeah.” Niles shrugged, turning to look out the window. “But I can pretend, right? It’s incredibly thematic for being a coincidence. There is a lot more merch for your goddess anyway, so I need something to catch up. All heathens for neglecting the true night goddess.” He joked.

Isaac groaned, but could not help but smile. “That’s because most know who the true goddesses are! You’re only a part of a small fringe cult misguided in your worship!” He teased in return.

Niles started laughing as he spoke. “We may be few, but when the true goddess returns you will be sorry that you shunned her!”

They both laughed at that. It was not long until they pulled up at Alexander’s house and parked in the driveway. They got out of Isaac’s white car, a large sun sticker on the roof. It was ambiguous enough that most would not get the reference, but anyone that was a fan of the show would recognise it.

“You know,” Isaac started, “ponies would have to become real first before you could actually start to consider your false goddess returning.”

Niles rolled his eyes as they walked to the door. “All I can do is pray can’t I? Hell, I’ll show you now!” He stopped in front of the entrance, putting his hands to his chest in prayer. “Oh, glorious goddess of nightmares and the cold dark night! Would you please grace us with your presence and show this heathen the folly of his ways?”

Isaac could hear the sarcasm. But Niles was obviously enjoying it. As much as his choice of who was the best pony was annoying at times, he had to admit he also enjoyed their banter. Niles made a convincing cultist when he wanted to. “Maybe he should do some acting.” He thought as he pressed the doorbell.

“Coming!” a voice called out from inside.

Niles and Isaac looked at each other in mild confusion. “Does he have a cold or something?” Niles asked.

Isaac shook his head. “Colds usually make your voice deeper and quieter, as well as grumbly. That sounded like a girl.”

“That does not sound anything like Jenifer or Nicole, and we both know he is an only child. No chance he picked up a girlfriend without us knowing.” Niles said.

Before Isaac could reply the door opened. Both turned towards what they expected to be Alexander, only to freeze like a deer in headlights. Both their mouths hung agape as they looked up at the sight in front of them. “Celestia safeguard my soul,” Isaac muttered quietly wide-eyed.

“The goddess returns!” Niles squeaked out with his own eyes wide open.

The anthropomorphic Nightmare Moon looked at them with a frown. She then looked left and right to see if anyone was watching before quickly grabbing them both by the arm and dragging them inside. A wing was then used to slam the door behind them. She let them go so she could properly lock the door again, trapping them inside.

Isaac stumbled back; just barely managing to stay standing after being forcefully dragged in. she was strong, as expected for an Alicorn. She had gripped him gently enough to not cause any pain.

While far from his favourite, Isaac had to admit she looked quite attractive, unnaturally so. The fact that she was only wearing dark grey pants with a white and blue striped towel around her obviously sizable bosom added to how attractive she looked. He did not think he would ever be able to draw her vibrant starry hair the way it would deserve.

Isaac looked over to his companion, little else he could do as he tried recovering from the shock. Niles was just as wide eyes as he was with a grin on his face that would rival pinkie pie if he could break physics. No doubt he had zero concerns as to why his favourite pony goddess was in their friend's house.

Niles then seemed to recover enough to bow, keeping that grin on his face. “I’m sorry we disturbed you, your majesty, I did not realise you were here.” He then looked up, having a more confused and curious look on his face. “Why are you here if I may ask?”

“That’s a good question,” Isaac thought, Looking back to Nightmare Moon. She bit her lip, seeming to take her time to think of a reply as she looked between them. She actually looked a little worried. Somehow that did not fit Isaac’s view of Nightmare Moon. He expected more mad cackling or maybe responding to Niles’s praise with some smug remark.

“Um…” She started. “This is more of one of those; human turns into a pony kind of situations. At least I still have hands…” She muttered out the last part, looking at the two of them almost hopefully.

“Alexander!?” both Isaac and Niles said in surprise at the same time.

There was silence for a minute as they all stared at each other with various emotions and thoughts going through their heads. Eventually, that silence was broken.

“Dam you're hot,” Niles stated as fact.

It was true, but Isaac could not help facepalming hard enough for his face to sting at the blunt statement.

/---\

Niles was currently having the best day of his life. Sure the nightmare essence was gone, but that had been a good trade-off in his opinion for what he got. He and Isaac sat on one side of the table as Nightmare Moon, well Alexander, brought over some tea and sat opposite to them. It was a miracle that he was able to see his dream goddess in the flesh, even if it technically was not her.

She was more Beautiful than any drawing he had seen of her in his life. Niles wondered briefly if it was ok to be so attracted to his friend. It was an unexpected gift. While it would have still been cool, he would have had to be more careful with what he said if she had been the real Nightmare Moon. Unless he had gotten even luckier and somehow got a nice version from a parallel universe. He was not going to push his luck though.

“Luna would have been a good alternative though.” he thought. Niles could not help but let his eyes wander over Alexander’s new body. The way she was dressed just made the whole thing seem lewd to him. He knew there were not any clothes that would properly fit her here. They would have to cut a hole in whatever top they bought to fit those lovely soft-looking wings.

“So… How do you feel?” Isaac asked at his side, sounding a little hesitant. Niles could tell he was a lot more unsure about the situation than he was. He could not think why Izsak would feel like that. This whole situation was Awesome!

Nightmare Mo-Alexander looked a lot calmer than the both of them as she took a sip from her tea. she started tapping her fingers on the table. “I feel ok physically. Still trying to process this emotionally, but I’m a lot calmer than I feel I should be.” It was so strange hearing her new voice and trying to picture Alexander, not in a bad way though.

“So no urges to cause eternal night or cackle madly about taking over the world?” Isaac asked as if that was a serious question. Strange, he was normally more laid back than this. This must be more upsetting to him than Niles thought.

“I will support my goddess in whatever endeavour she chooses,” Niles said grinning at the both of them before taking a sip of his tea. “A little humour is never a bad thing. Might help them relax a bit as well.” Isaac groaned and looked at him, allowing Niles to clearly see the red mark that still adorned his face.

Alexander sighed and rubbed the bridge of her snout as she replied. “My only ‘endeavour’ for now is not getting dragged off by the government and dissected, figuring out more about what happened to me and if it can be fixed, and find some clothes that fit me.” She then took a second to make sure her towel was still secure.

“That last one should not be too hard…” Isaac trailed off. “The other two I’m not so sure. Humans are normally already transported sway to Equestria as soon as they transform in any case I can think of. Nor can I ever think of a case where someone that was transformed went back to being a normal human…”

Alexander nodded as Niles spoke next. “Would that be such a bad thing though? Becoming a hot goddess seems like a big plus to me.” "Maybe the rest of us would end up turning into hot goddesses," Niles could not help but think in his own mind. “Though I would not want to be Celestia.”

Alexander shook her head. “I do not like the idea of outliving everyone, or the idea of being harassed by the government endlessly for all eternity. Even if the Australian government and military are chill about this I can’t imagine the other governments of the world doing nothing with something that could possibly crash the moon into the planet on the loose. Even if I’m not that powerful, the show is going to set a few baseline expectations.”

“Sill a plus,” Niles whispered as he took another sip from his tea. He could see Alexander’s concerns a bit, though was not sure if she should be worrying as much as she was. All three sat in silence for a few minutes as they slowly drained the tea from their cups.

Niles and Isaac could not help but stare at Alexander the whole time. Alexander shuffling a little awkwardly, aware of how she was probably affecting her friends, it was not like she did not feel that herself when looking in the mirror. Plus there was the general surreal nature of having a fictional character sitting right in front of you.

“This just seems too absurd to be real,” Isaac said finally, breaking the silence. He put his head in his hand and took a deep breath in and out.

Niles rolled his eyes as he leaned back in his chair. “Oh please, you would be ecstatic if he had turned into Celestia.”

Isaac glared at him. “No, I would not. Maybe a bit calmer but not ecstatic…” he trailed off. “If we were visited by the actual Celestia on the other hand…” Izsak looked back down at his tea.

Niles chuckled. “I think that proves my point you sun but worshiper~”

“I swear your part pinkie pie sometimes nightmare cultist,” Isaac replied, and then flinched as he looked to Alexander almost apologetically.

She waved him off. “No need to change yourselves on my account. Being treated normally would be nice if I’m going to be stuck like this.” She finished the rest of her tea, then when she saw they had finished theirs, took their cups to the sink.

Niles could not help looking over her backside as she walked, pants tightly hugging her body. He grinned as he noticed Isaac taking a peak as well. Maybe he would get a convert after all; he had previously given up on that idea years ago.

After washing up Alexander came back over to the table. “Do either of you mind going and getting some new clothes for me? I can pay you back. I just don’t think I can leave the house as you can understand.”

“Of course my divine goddess! I’d be happy to help take your measurement so we can get you fitted into some new garments better suited for your divine form,” Niles teased. He stood up so he could do a proper performative bow. Honestly, he thought he could have some fun roleplaying as a kind of ‘servant’ for Alexander; she was pretty much just shy of being the real thing. She would also need all the help she could get to deal with what was happening.

The sound of Isaac face-palming again filled the room as Alexander shook her head while suppressing a small smile. “Thank you for your offer. I guess there is not really much choice in the matter.”

Isaac sighed and stood up as well. The hand print on his face was much more red now that it had been reapplied. “At least you did not get whisked away to Equestria without anyone knowing what happened.”

Niles nodded in agreement. “Yea, then I would have never got to see my goddess for real! Definitely dodged a bullet there.”

“Please don’t jinx it.”

/---\
Candle light filled the basement of the mayor's manor as Rime Rose spoke in prayer, kneeling before a short obsidian pillar. Set on a red velvet cushion atop the pillar was a blue orb that sparked with starlight.

The chamber she was in was just off to the side of the center room of the small underground complex. The main room was where the ritual was being prepared. It would not be long now before they were ready. They were only waiting on a few late members delivering the last of the ingredients needed for the ritual.

“Not long now. So many years of work and research is finally going to pay off.” Rime stood. Her black robles had a sparkling blue rim, stars covering the dark cloth to show how dedicated she was to her faith.

She exited the small chamber, locking the door with the key only she possessed. She was greeted by two of her fellow brothers and sisters, both fellow unicorns working on the ritual circle. Their black robes only had the dark blue rim, lacking its sparkle and the stars that adorned her own.

“How goes the preparations for the ritual?”

Both gave Rime a short bow before the female responded. “Everything is going to plan, my speaker. We are almost done with the circle.” She gestured to lines carved into the ground; filled with a paint made with a mixture of blood and sapphire dust. “Once we have the star crystal and bits shadow walker Night Ray is bringing we will be ready to begin.”

The male pony then spoke up from under his hood. “The Inquisitor has also been redirected else were. The rest of the town also remains unaware of us. I imagine they will go peacefully in their sleep once the ritual is conducted, nightmare speaker.”

“Good.” Rime Rose nodded. “Everything has been going smoothly as we had hoped. Once we have summoned a Divine Nightmare and she has consumed our offering we will be free to expand and serve our mistresses.”

“What of pegasi fortress to the north? Surely they will use our presence once it is known as an excuse to invade unicorn territory. Not to mention Gold Transmute will no doubt send the inquisitor back with a small army once the town goes dark.”

Rime reached up putting her ice-blue furred hand on the mare's shoulder. “All will be fine. Once we have summoned our mistress we will not have to worry about them anymore.” she gave the mare a soft smile before pulling away and heading towards the door on the far side of the ritual room.

The two sleepers got back to work on finishing up the ritual circle. They would have to be promoted for their diligent work before the ritual was started.

Rime Rose entered the dressing room that made up the first chamber one would enter when going down to the basement complex. She hanged her robe on its designated hook, revealing a simple thin white dress underneath that went to just above her knees. Around her neck was a thin silver chain with a pearl on the end.

Rime smiled as she looked at her pearl necklace. It was unnaturally cold to the touch, not that that bothered her. She had found herself bothered little by the cold since gaining the rank of Nightmare speaker.

She slipped on her shoes before climbing back up the stairs to the world above. “The full moon will be here soon, and we will be ready by then. I wonder what our new mistress will be like.”

Improvised magic lessens (3)

All things considered, things had been going well so far. Work was none the wiser to the events unfolding in Alexander’s life and nothing crazy had decided to happen yet. They had told her to take what time she needed off to recover over text. Alexander had told them she would be back in about a week or two, but honestly doubted the truth of that statement unless she suddenly decided to go public.

The measuring of her for clothes had gone as expected; Niles making a few of his normal playful comments about his ‘beautiful goddess’, seeming to be having fun with it, but otherwise, the whole thing went without incident.

Isaac and Niles had then left to acquire her new clothes. They returned with a decent amount of girlish stuff, dresses, skirts, lacy underwear. Alexander never realised how comfy girl's underwear actually was, especially the insides of the bra. She wondered why more clothes were not made like that.

Thankfully Isaac had the presence of mind to pick out some more generic stuff. While Alexander did not feel uncomfortable as a girl physically, she did not feel ready to go into wearing girly clothes, let alone adding anything like makeup. Granted, she probably did not need any of that.

Niles on the other hand had thought buying a two-piece swimsuit was a good idea; as if she was going swimming anytime soon. He seemed to think she should have everything she might need covered.

Three days into her transformation had been otherwise uneventful. Alexander had just played a few games on her consoles with her friends to pass the time. It had helped them all relax by just doing something normal. They had learned during that that Alexander’s reaction time had improved. Neat, but nothing too major.

Eventually, they had to tell Jenifer and Nicole. They did not really have a choice. Not meeting up with them again had made Nicole suspicious that something was going on. So she had dragged Jenifer over to Alexander’s to see what’s up.

Which led them to current events.

“I was not trained for this,” Nicole said, leaning back against the couch as she looked over Alexander appraisingly. She currently had a pair of jeans and a black leather jacket on for once, still with military boots on her feet, however. “Should we be calling you Nightmare Moon now?”

Alexander shook her head, leaning into the weight hugging her side as to not fall over. “No Alexander is still fine. Despite the fact that I feel like I could respond to that name normally if used, I have no urge or desire to actually be called that.”

Nicole shrugged. “Sure.”

“You should try this Nicole, she is so soft!” Jenifer said happily as she pressed her face into Alexander’s feathered wings while hugging her waist. The girl with the pink-white hair hummed happily. She was partly covered by Alexander’s starry mane.

Alexander was not sure how to feel about being hugged like this.

“She is, isn’t she? That’s just one more thing that makes her best pony goddess!” Niles piped up, taking a photo of them on his phone.

“I hope you are not going to send that to anyone,” Alexander said with a little concern, idly patting Jenifer’s head. Jenifer had been on the short side before, Alexander’s new height making that far more apparent now.

Before Niles responded Isaac beat him to it. “Even if he does they will just think it's photoshopped.” He was currently drawing something in his sketchbook. “No offence, but even right in front of us, you don’t look completely real. As close to real as you can be, but just not quite.”

“Maybe it’s because the nightmare essence came from another reality or something?” Niles suggested.

“I think we should be more concerned that this can happen in the first place,” Nicole said while crossing her arms. “I don’t want to think about what a foreign government would do if they got their hands on magic.”

“You really worry too much about what the rest of the world is doing,” Niles said.

Nicole looked towards where he was sitting. “You’re not the one that has to deal with them in any capacity.” She lightly fiddled with the tags around her neck.

Alexander let out a deeper breath. “Any government getting ahold of magic will probably end poorly. They either have already known about it for a very long time, or it’s a new phenomenon appearing on our world no one has access to yet.”

“So we should expect more to start appearing around the world?” Nicole raised an eyebrow as she asked.

“Most likely.” Alexander wrapped her wing around Jenifer, who let out a happy sigh. Alexander could have sworn she heard Jenifer mutter fluffy horsey under her breath.

“You’re quite good at controlling that body. I would have honestly expected you to be freaking out more than you are.” Nicole said.

Alexander shrugged. “While I feel a part of it is because of the transformation itself, I would not be able to move around as easily if that was not the case. After how much I have read about these kinds of situations, I’m kind of resigned a bit to being stuck like this. Plus referring to myself as she just makes sense since I am physically female. Others might have different ideas on it but that’s just me. The fact that I have entirely new limbs as well feels a bit more noticeable and relevant.”

Nicole hummed thoughtfully. “Have you tried casting magic?” she asked curiously. The others looked to Alexander with similar expressions.

Alexander shook her head. “I have not. While moving around has felt surprisingly natural so far, and I’m thankful I’m not stumbling around with no idea how to move because of that. But I honestly have not even thought about trying to use any magic.” She looked up to where her horn was, just poking into the top of her vision when she did so.

“Seems like a strange thing to slip your mind given the circumstances," Nicole said.

"Maybe you should try then? I don’t think I have heard of an alicorn that could not cast any magic.” Niles said, setting his phone to video recording.

Alexander hummed before pulling away from Jenifer, giving her a pat on the head and getting an embarrassed blush from her. She then scurried over to a couch to hide behind while watching Alexander.

“Ok… What should I start with?”

“Levitation?” Isaac said. “That’s what everyone seems to start with in stories, and it’s the first thing usually learnt as far as the show suggests.”

“Couldn’t one of the newborn twins' phase through walls after a few days or something?” Niles said as he held his phone up in anticipation.

“That was only because they were having a magic surge,” Nicole said. “That does not mean you will have any idea how to do it as an adult. Assuming you still have the capacity to cast those kinds of spells.”

Alexander took in a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. “Levitation it is then. Let’s hope nothing explodes.” Alexander looked around for something to practice on, settling for a pen. She then set the pen down on the table where Isaac was sitting and began to stare at it.

Isaac leaned away, staying seated while stopping his drawing to watch.

Nothing happened for a moment, only the ding of Niles phone starting its recording breaking the silence briefly.

Alexander realised she would need to try more than just trying to beat the pen in a staring contest. “So I guess I should try looking for my magic. Is that what this cold warm feeling is?” Alexander concentrated on the feeling that had filled her during her transformation.

Nothing seemed to happen at first. Only that Alexander was aware it filled every part of her body, coming more into focus as she concentrated more on it. That did not mean she got it to do anything.

Concentrating on the feeling she tried to grab it, grabbing her pants with her hand to stimulate the feeling. This did not do anything. Alexander struggled to figure out how her magic was supposed to be grabbed. It was like she couldn’t.

“Am I supposed to be able to grab it?” she wondered. Seeing that approach was not working she thought of something else. “Pushing maybe?” Alexander tried that next, and after a bit of effort got it to budge a little, yet without direction, it was little more than a feeling like water sloshing lightly.

She pressed her lips together and tried to push it into her horn. It kind of worked, but it was more like rocking the tub than actually getting her magic to flow. “I’m still missing something aren’t I?”

That stumped her. What was she missing? “Grabbing did nothing, pushing gets it to move but little else, what would work better than that?” it took a bit, but an idea did start to come to mind.

If magic was about intent and perspective, then perhaps that was what she needed, at least for the basics of getting it working. Alexander then tried to make her magic move into her horn. Not push, pull or grab. That would imply it was not a part of her. So instead she tried moving it like a limb, no different than the wings on her back or her arms.

That got much better results. The first thing that told Alexander that she had progressed was an excess of magic flowing into her long horn, followed by the sound of a twinkling hum she was used to hearing from the show. She then opened her eyes, not realising she had closed them. A blue glow could be seen from the top of her vision. Alexander gave a toothy grin at the results.

“Hey, looks like she finally did something,” Nicole said, looking back over the couch.

Alexander’s concentration broke as she looked over to Nicole, the light on her horn fizzling out. Niles and Jenifer were sitting next to her on the couch. “Finally?”

“Yea, you have been standing there for about two hours. The others ordered pizza while you were out.” Isaac said; the only one still where he was originally sitting. He slowly etched away at the drawing he was doing.

Alexander blinked, looking over to Isaac. “It did not feel like I was trying for that long.”

“You were though.”

“Hey cheer up!” Niles said getting his phone back out. “I bet you got your magic working far quicker than ponies normally do without a special talent in it! Just as expected from the goddess of the night~” He leaned over the back of the couch, holding his phone up.

“Their normally children and baby’s when they do though.” Alexander then let out a sigh and turned back to the pen. “Guess I should try moving the pen now.”

Following the steps she had already figured out Alexander relit her horn. It took a minute to get back to that point. Alexander then attempted to move her magic towards the pen.

She was not sure if anything was happening at first. She tried to imagine picking the pen up with her magic like she did when moving it. Alexander could feel the flowing magic start to strain her horn as it was pushed out, like using a new muscle.

A blue aura matching that which surrounded Alexander’s horn flickered to life around the pen. It then started floating up slowly, swaying in the air. It stayed up a few centimetres off the table for about 30 seconds before abruptly falling back to the table.

Alexander panted lightly and rubbed her horn, which was feeling a bit sore now. “Well, that was a bit more exhausting than I expected.”

“Woo hoo! Congrats on your first spell!” Niles said cheerily, having recorded the whole thing. “You will be teleporting around in no time!” he clapped a few times for good measure, joined by quiet slow claps from Jenifer.

“I doubt she is going to be able to cast something that advanced any time soon. Would be hell to deal with in combat.” Nicole said. She then checked her phone and got up, walking towards the door. “Pizzas almost here. I’ll go wait outside for it so there is no risk of someone seeing miss moony here.”

Deciding that was enough magic for now Alexander sat down on the couch where Nicole had been. That left Jenifer to one side and Niles to the other. Jenifer lost no time leaning into Alexander again, using the side of her chest as a pillow.

Alexander gave her a quizzical look. It looked like she was going to go to sleep any second now. Not sure what else to do, Alexander set a feathered wing over Jenifer like a blanket.

Her ear flicked when hearing the click of Niles taking another picture.

Ignoring him she looked at what that had been watching. They seemed to be halfway through the first Home Alone movie. The TV volume was down more than normal, probably so they did not disturb her attempt to practice magic.

Alexander then looked back down to Jenifer. It was a little strange to be hugged so casually by a girl; it was a bit like she imagined someone would do with their girlfriend. Alexander had never really put much thought into having a girlfriend at all, let alone having Jenifer or Nicol as one. She had been pretty content without that kind of relationship with anyone. Just hanging out with her friends had been all the company she had needed.

Jenifer’s current attraction to her was more that of finding a big fluffy animal, rather than anything remotely romantic as far as Alexander could tell. Niles on the other hand was more attracted to her physically and the concept of Nightmare Moon. It made her wonder how she would end up reacting to someone approaching her for a relationship. Switching genders was going to lead to so strange situations in the future, that was for sure.

So far Alexander had not needed to go to the bathroom since her transformation, which was an unexpected boon. It made her wonder what else she could go without, or if there was anything unusual she would need to do because of her new biology.

“What exactly have you been drawing, anyway Isaac. More sun but art?” Niles asked, leaning back over the couch again towards Isaac. He was just lightly touching Alexander’s feathers, seemingly unintentionally.

Isaac looked up from his drawing in their direction, before looking back down and up again. “Kinda. Give me a sec, I’ll show you.” He took a second to scribble a little more onto the paper before getting up and walking over to them.

He approached from behind the couch, reaching over the back past Alexander’s shoulder to show them. “What do you think?”

The image was just a pencil sketch, but a detailed one. Set on a battlefield, Isaac had drawn an image of both Celestia and Nightmare Moon. Both were anthro; something he did not draw too much of. Both Alicorns were facing each other with weapons in hand. Celestia was further back in perspective than Nightmare Moon, a clever way to deal with her having fewer details.

It would be considered strange for Isaac not to put the most effort into Celestia if it was not for the obvious. “I hope you do not mind that I used you as a model while you were just standing there unmoving.” The drawing did mimic Alexander quite well. The addition of armour and a rune-covered long sword adding to the scene being depicted; fallen weapons and armour decorating the ground.

“Looks great so far, are you going to colour it?” said Alexander, not looking away from the image as she spoke.

Isaac nodded. “Yea, I’ll scan it when I get home and colour it on the computer. It’s looking like one of my better ones so I might post it when it's finished.”

“Please do! We need more art of our glorious goddess~,” Niles teased playfully.

Isaac gave Niles a mild glare. “Don’t think I’m not going to make a bunch of Celestia art to make up for this. This was simply practice, not adding propaganda for your false goddess.”

Niles pretended to pout. “Don’t say that! You will make Nightmare sad”.

“I don’t care”

“See? She does not care.” Isaac walked back over to where he had been sitting at the dining table.

Niles folded his arms and mumbled. “Such a heathen to disrespect the goddess.” He then snicked lightly.

“Pizzas here,” Nicole said as she walked back inside, closing and locking the door with one hand. She had six boxes in one arm.

“Isn’t that a bit much?” Alexander asked.

Nicole walked over to the dining table and set the Pizza down. “Nar, we thought you would probably be able to eat extra; especially if you exhausted yourself practicing magic. At worse, someone can just reheat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow or something.”

Now that she mentioned it Alexander was mildly tired. More accurately her horn felt a little strained from her casting attempt. She would have to keep practicing to build up the ‘mussel’ for casting magic. Even if it ended up being the only thing she could do, levitation would be both a fun and useful ability to have easy use of.

“I don’t feel that hungry, but I don’t feel like I could not eat quite a bit either…” Alexander said. It seemed being an Alicorn would also allow for her to have looser eating habits. “Looks like that might be one thing the fandom guessed right about Alicorns without the show telling them.” Of course, there was still the possibility that the nightmare essence had transformed her purely based on her perceptions of what an Alicorn should be like.

Alexander, Jenifer, and Niles got up from the couch and joined the others at the dining table. There was a variety of pizzas to pick from. None of them were picky enough to ovoid a particular type, so they all had a little bit from each pizza.

“Going to practice some more magic after dinner, my goddess?” Niles asked.

Alexander rolled her eyes lightly and shrugged. “I suppose. I think I may try to practice at least three times a day. Like an exercise routine.”

“That’s the spirit. You will be an expert at magic in no time!”

“Do you think she will be able to eventually turn into mist and split herself into multiple bodies?” Jenifer asked quietly.

“That is a good question,” Nicole said before taking another bite of her pizza.

“We would have to assume those powers belonged to Nightmare Moon and were not just an extension of Lunas she had access to,” Isaac said; half eating, half drawing.

“Luna never used those powers past that point so I say their nightmare moons powers alright. Besides, she is a result of Luna fusing with a nightmare, so I don’t think it’s relevant to think she can’t do the same things.” Niles said.

“Alexander might look like Nightmare Moon but that does not mean she is actually her, let alone mimicking the fusion with Luna from the show. We can’t know for sure it will be the same. Being able to levitate objects comes with having a horn so that does not tell us anything either,” Isaac said back.

“I don’t look exactly like my show counterpart either. More than just being anthropomorphic,” Alexander said. She had managed to get through a whole pizza already and still felt far from full. “The subtle details don’t quite line up.”

“That might only be because you are a lot more detailed, close to being real. Rather than the very simplistic designs from the show, limiting what we can see of their true appearance,” Nicole said. She then got up and walked over to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

“What she said,” Niles said and pointed at Nicole.

Alexander sighed and took a deep breath in and out. “We will have to wait and see. I’m still a ways off even attempting any of that anyway.”

The others nodded. Alexander decided to leave a pizza’s worth of slices for tomorrow after practicing magic. While she was not full she was not feeling hungry either. Saving the pizza to help recover after practicing seemed like a better idea.

A stray thought crossed Alexander's mind about how accurate the show was in the first place as a source of information. But it was not like they had anything else to go off of.

/---\

The five friends let the afternoon ware on, continuing their banter about various things. It was a little surreal. Sure a lot of their conversations revolved around Alexander’s transformation into a Nightmare Moon look alike. Otherwise however it was no different than normal. Just hanging out and having fun.

Maybe it was because they had all read enough fanfictions to be desensitised to something like this happening in real life. There was definitely a bit of shock and amazement, but no one was panicking out of their minds.

“I should be the one having the existential crisis over this right now.” Alexander thought as she was getting ready for bed. She looked at herself in the mirror again. Nightmare Moon but not quite. Attractive in that cartoonish way one might think she was not real.

She only had the blue-white bra and panties on Alexander had been given a few days prior. It was strange to think that a few days ago wearing something like this would have never crossed her mind. Now it was most likely going to be a common occurrence from then on.

Alexander spread her dark glittering wings out, their length filling the bathroom. She continued to examine herself; her figure, her demonic eyes, starry mane and tail, feathered wings, and spiralled horn. All made up who she physically was now.

Speaking of her horn, it was throbbing mildly. Another attempt at practicing levitation had strained it, making her feel quite tired. Alexander had made a few attempts to lift the pen before giving up. There had been noticeable improvement each time by a small amount. Perhaps she could get it down properly by the end of the week.

She ran a hand through her feathered wings and mane, feeling just how incredibly soft both were. She was not sure what the softest feathered creature was to compare them to. Her mane on the other hand made the comparison to a cloud come to mind. She would have to see if she could test that theory in the future to make sure.

The glowing substance squished and flowed around her hand as she played with it.

It was a cold night as well, yet that was not bothering her. It was more comforting if anything. A strange thought crossed her mind; to strip and walk outside to feel the cold wind blow across her fur and feathers. It was a tempting idea.

She shook her head to clear her mind and walked away from the mirror and back to her room. Thankfully she had picked a large double bed previously. Otherwise, it would have been hard to get some decent sleep.

“I have not had any notable experiences with the dream world yet. Do I actually not have that power or is it another thing I will have to figure out like levitation?” Alexander thought as she slipped under the covers. The feeling of fur brushing against the bed's fabric was still different enough to draw attention to briefly before she thought of other things.

Alexander had expected sleeping on her back to be quite difficult with her new wings. Yet that proved to do little to interfere with comfortably lying in bed.

Alexander yawned loudly, holding her hand over her mouth as she did so. She felt the new muscles of her snout stretch her jaw wide, pulling her lips back to more easily reveal her sharper teeth. Everything felt alien yet so normal at the same time.

She closed her eyes, relaxing as her breathing slowed. “I wonder what is going to become of me in the end. Will I truly outlive everyone, or be killed by some other force? What about Equestria itself. Will I ever go there or will earth somehow become Equestria?” There were a lot of things to think about. But they could be put off for another time. For now, Alexander simply allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

Spell Gate (4)

The first week felt like it had practically flown by.

Having all of Alexander’s friends with her had proven surprisingly comforting; almost allowing her to forget about work at the mechanics shop for a bit. Having to text that she was still sick was not going to work forever. Eventually, she was going to have to quit.

Her friends had said they could all pitch in to cover her costs for her. So at least she could afford to, but she did not like having to use her friend’s money to sustain herself. Alexander actually liked her job as well. As strange as it sounds she felt her new body would make fiddling around with machines more fun.

Magic practice had been a good distraction from these kinds of worries. Alexander was a bit amazed at how quickly her levitation skills had improved over a few days of practice. What started as barely being able to lift a pen had turned into managing to lift a wooden chair with some effort.

She spent a lot of her downtime dealing with her throbbing horn and fatigue. Even using a little Panadol the first time she tried moving a chair. These symptoms had lessened over time the more she practiced.

Alexander did not think she could pull off anything crazy. But practice had proved she could now comfortably lift objects she could of normally with human hands. She had even tried moving more than one object at once.

The best she had gotten was lifting two different objects separately provided their combined weight was not too much to handle. Weight and size were very much a factor for how well she could lift something.

Alexander had found through experimentation that a few small objects like coins could be carried together in one group similar to one larger object. They had to be kept together to work but it allowed her to pick up a small pile of stones or a cup's worth of water.

Despite this, dealing with work still crept towards her. Not only that, any other thing that required leaving the house would need to be addressed at some point. How her family would react was also another thing to consider. She doubted she could ovoid them forever.

Sometimes Alexander just wanted to avoid having to deal with it in the first place.

/---\

It was almost midnight. The moon was almost at its apex.

As luck would have it the ritual would be blessed with a blue moon, allowing the ritual to be empowered further without extra effort on their part.

All they needed to do was take advantage of the opportunity given.

“We are truly blessed for such a fortuities event to occur upon the night we plan to summon our new mistress.” Rime Rose thought while smiling, looking up at the full blue moon high above.

It was a perfect night to summon the divine.

The rest of the town was asleep by now. It was almost midnight, no one would be awake to realise what was happening, let alone try to stop the ritual.

As Rime entered the two-story mansion, followed in by her fellow members. The largest structure in the village by far, the inside lit by stray candles. Only enough to allow them to see where they were going; only enough to light the path to their destination.

As they reached the basement each took a robe from the racks along the walls. Many were already inside waiting for them. Anyone not participating in the ritual, which was only family too young, old, or inexperienced to contribute, sat in quiet anticipation off to the side in adjacent chambers.

Rime took her designated Robe, slipping it on before entering the ritual chamber. She felt a bit nervous but more than that she was filled with eager anticipation for what was about to occur. They would be starting any moment now as they waited for the last of their number to take their positions.

“Is this the last of us Speaker?” a voice spoke up. A member of the inner circles that had an important role in casting. He also was the town’s resident noble and owner of the residence they were using as well as the surrounding village. He was largely covered by his robe, but his beige snout poked into the candlelight enough to be seen.

“Yes, Mister Dare. Once everyone is in position we will begin.” Rime said with a nod.

The ritual circle had five circles of intricate runes and lines surrounding a larger sixth in the center. Smaller circles filled in the gaps between each larger one, in these circles, important items were placed; shimmering bluish crystals that had fallen from the heavens themselves.

The five larger circles were for Rime herself and the others capable of the more complex casting to stand in. to her right was where Mister Dare stood, while to her left was Night Ray. The two final members of the inner circle were opposite her.

Around them, anyone capable of contributing to the ritual was forming a circle with linked arms. They would be adding greater stability and magic power for what was to come. They all stood inside the largest circle that filled the entire room. The entire underground complex also had another line of runes surrounding it so they would all be excluded as sacrifices.

Many lit candles on the edges of the room provided sufficient light for them to see. More light was provided by what filled the central circle. Like a pile of treasure, soft glowing spherical objects bathed them in multi-coloured light. They were a large variety of different colours, each individual piece sticking to one colour. They were like sparkling bits of stars; which was why they were commonly called star bits.

The only thing that was not one of these star bits was the dream viewer orb situated in the very center of the circle. The blue starry orb stood out as it was at least three times the size of the surrounding star bits.

Rime rose levitated her spellbook in front of her, flipping open to the relevant pages. Much of her personal book had been dedicated to creating this ritual, and now it was finally going to be used in the summoning itself.

“My fellow brothers and sisters!” Rime rose called out, loud enough for everyone in the complex to hear. “For generations, we have prepared and waited for this day! Toiled and worked under the threat of death by those too afraid of the dark! Worshipers of false idols, only using them as excuses to oppress and seize more power for themselves.”

She took a moment to breathe. “We still have much work to be done before we can be free of their tyranny. But today marks a new chapter in the history books! One where instead of hiding we will fight back! We will make our stand under the leadership of our new mistress of the dark, and pave the way to a better future for us all!”

Cheering erupted around the chamber and for a second Rime worried someone might hear the sound echoing. It was very unlikely and irrelevant at this point.

Without any more fanfare, she gave the signal to begin. All their horns lit up in various coloured aura, all pushing their magic into the ritual circle. The circles glowed red with sparkles of blue sprinkled throughout.

Rime Rose began chanting, quickly joined by everyone else. She could feel the hum of magic fill the air, the veil between their realm and others beyond beginning to open.

It was only a matter of time now.

/---\

“UNO”

“Are you sure you’re not cheating somehow?” Nicole asked, raising an eyebrow towards the dark Alicorn. She was tempted to throw her cards down at this rate.

“Are you really accusing our goddess of cheating?” Niles said. He still had the most cards. Considering he was sitting next to Alexander that was probably a deliberate choice.

“She can’t have just won seven out of ten games of UNO through dumb luck!” Nicole replied, getting a little frustrated.

“Better than a one hundred percent win rate at snap…” Isaac muttered. He set his cards down and leaned back in his chair.

Nicole sighed and looked towards Alexander. She watched the dark Alicorn smile sheepishly, her ears drooping a little as she rubbed the back of her neck.

She honestly felt a little sorry for her at times. Many would love to have the power she obviously now possessed. But it was obvious to Nicole that the more she figured out her new capabilities and practiced them, the more beyond anyone else’s she would be.

It was going to be a lonely path in the end, she was sure of it. The best she could do now was give her friend good memories to look back on in the future once life inevitably became more hectic. Especially when the rest of them were gone for one reason or another.

She felt like everyone had avoided thinking about those possibilities for the most part. A few brief mentions. She could not blame them; death was a scary thing after all.

Nicole knew she would have to eventually pull the trigger on someone herself in the future. Something she had a gut feeling would happen sooner than later. A product of her line of work.

Half-eaten packets of chips and soda cans littered the table around the pile of cards in the center.

“Your just jealous of her divine powers~” Niles teased as he gathered the cards to shuffle them for a new game.

Nicole did not pay much attention to him, however.

She just watched Alexander quietly as she leaned back in her chair. Becoming Nightmare Moon…

Did Alexander somehow relate to her? She could not imagine it. This seemed like something that would have been more appropriate to happen to Niles.

Personally, Nicole related more to Shining Armour than any of the others from the show; probably because of her profession. His willingness to be the shield for his friends and family was an appealing quality.

Nicole had to admit however she would be more willing to go on the offensive if needed. She did not think her friends truly realised what horrors reside in the world.

Nothing mystical or alien, just the normal mundane horrors the human race came up with on its own on a daily basis. She was not going to let that harm any of them if she had anything to say about it.

As she was lost in thought a new round of cards was dealt out. She watched Alexander get up, levitating some of the rubbish with her to dispose of.

Nicole had to admit she had got quite good at that very quickly. She wondered how much could be pick up at once. Would levitation allow for her to wield multiple large guns? Even if that was not so, it would be a very useful skill regardless in combat, and just in general.

Not to mention she also had personal flight; a dream that man had dreamt about for as long as they had been on planet earth. There was a good chance she was not going to be using them any time soon, however.

Nicole wondered how feasible it was to move Alexander to a new and remote location where she would have more freedom. She had not been able to leave the house so far for an entire week.

Suddenly the floor began to glow.

Everyone looked towards Alexander in surprise as the floor beneath her began to glow a solid ethereal blue.

Alexander looked just as surprised as everyone else. Especially when her body started dissolving for lack of a better term; turning fully into the starry misty substance that her mane and tail consisted of.

Everything was then pulled down into the glowing floor before winking out like a light switch.

It happened so fast that everyone just sat there in shock. Slowly looking at each other as the realisation of what just happened slowly sank in.

“We are going to at least try and get her back right?” Isaac asked.

“Hell yeah, we are getting her back!” Niles almost yelled. He almost seemed angry for the first Nicole could remember.

“I honestly should have expected this.” Nicole thought with a frown as everyone started arguing about what to do.

/---\

The ritual was reaching the height of its activity.

The voices of all those gathered had slowly risen as they chanted.

Rime Rose was too busy reading out the more important parts of the ritual to pay much attention to anything around her. However, in her peripheral vision, she could see all the spell components melting into liquid light before melding into the ground and flowing into the ritual circle itself.

The star bits in the center on the other hand slowly lifted off the ground and swirled around the dream viewer, which was slowly floating into the air. It stopped a meter off the ground, hovering in place.

The swirling mass began to speed up significantly, making it look like a rainbow tornado filled the central circle. Slowly it all started to blur together into a prismatic wall of starlight.

Rime could feel the Nightmares whispering in her mind, imploring her forward, encouraging her.

She knew there was an otherworldly audience watching from beyond the veil. Many were too weak for their purposes, others uninterested in passing through onto their plane. Some were too twisted even for her tastes. It would not do to get slaughtered to the last mare after everything they had achieved so far.

Among their number a rare few were too strong to pull through despite everything they had achieved.

She was then whispered a name from one of the greater nightmares present. It was suggesting another instead of itself. Someone that it believed would work for their purposes and achieve great things in the future with proper guidance. Someone with a physical form they could already call upon to enter their plane more easily.

Rime Rose smiled. “I call upon the divine nightmare, Nightmare Moon! Come forth into our realm so we may do your bidding!” she raised her hands high into the air.

As she spoke the name of their new mistress the souls of the surrounding town’s folk rushed into the room from all sides. Orbs of cold glowing light all rushing towards the dream viewer like moths to a flame.

Once the last of the souls were in the orb the surrounding star bits joined them in the melting pot. Light and darkness flashed from the orb, forming and twisting into a new shape.

Rime Rose watched in amazement at the new form manifesting in front of her; the form of her new mistress. She heard cackling laughter radiate from the forming mass as Nightmare Moon was pulled into their reality. A buzz of excitement filled her, no doubt shared by everyone else in the room.

The laughter died down as the divine entity finished forming in the middle of the room, dark sparkling wings outstretched.

Rime was amazed by her beauty and the power she could feel radiating from her. She knew the divine would be awe-inspiring, but she never realised just how much. A goddess of midnight fur, dark glittering wings, with a mane and tail of stars filling an ethereal cloud, and a long horn emerging from her forehead.

She wore some sort of short blue pants made of an unknown fabric. Her top had short sleeves and was a white colour with what looked like a depiction of blue explosions of light, which seemed to somehow look like a painting that had been fused into the fabric.

Her piercing eyes watched them with emotions Rime could not place. But that did not matter. They had succeeded without issue in summoning their new mistress, and Rime Rose had every intention of serving her to the best of her ability; everything that Nightmare Moon would want of them, and hopefully she would be able to help them with their goals in return.

/---\

Alexander had little time to process what was happening. It had been like her entire body was melting without pain, and then pulled into a vacuum cleaner.

She was then pulled to somewhere. It was not hard to guess at this point what had happened. “How am I still even conscious?” she could not perceive anything but a humming sound and shifting blue colour, which could be either her own form or everything around her.

The humming was then joined by chanting. Alexander had no idea what they were chanting exactly, though she supposed that did not matter.

As she felt like she was slowing down a strange feeling flooded her form, or at least what there was of it.

It was like being tickled and filled with the best food she had ever had. It was so much. So much raw energy filling her, adding to her already existing stores of magic and stamina. She felt so much stronger overall.

Alexander could not stop herself from laughing at the incredible feeling. Was this what drugs were like? She barely registered that her body was reforming at first. But as the light around her faded along with the incredible feeling that had filled her she was able to get a look around the room.

Her forced high settled down, but it also numbed any negative emotions she would be feeling. Sure there was still a bit of anger and frustration at being ripped away from everything she knew but it was being largely suppressed for now.

“So this is Equestria then?” Alexander was surrounded by unicorns as far as she could tell. All of them wore robes that largely hid their features, except for the horns sticking out of their heads. If she had to guess they were all between fifteen and twenty centimetres long.

They then all bowed before her. “Greetings glorious Nightmare Moon, we welcome you to our realm with open arms.” The unicorn that looked to be the leader said.

Alexander looked down at the unicorn as she pulled down her hood. She had ice blue fur, while her long hair was white with blue stripes. She looked up at Alexander with wonder in her sapphire eyes.
She noticed that this unicorns robe was the most elaborate out of all of them, so most likely she was their leader. “Greetings?”

Alexander looked around again. Were they all waiting for something from her? In the room, there were about two dozen other unicorns, but Alexander could see some heads poking in to look from the sides. Most of these ones looked like children or the elderly, less in total than who was currently in the main room.

“…why have you summoned me?” Alexander asked, looking back to the assumed leader.

She smiled before bowing deeper for a second and standing straight. “We have brought you here in the hope you would lead us into a new age of glory, and strike down the tyrants of our world.”

Alexander looked at the unicorn as she thought. “So some sort of cult that wants to overthrow the world order. Are they going to ask me to take down Celestia? I don’t want to fight anyone.” “What is your name?”

The unicorn gave another short bow before responding. “I am Nightmare Speaker Rime Rose, leader of our branch of our organisation. To my right is our resident noble Mister Dare, with the rank of Nightwalker. To my left is our town guards captain Night Ray, with the rank Shadow Walker.”

The other two unicorns pulled down their hoods as well, both looked male. Mister Dare had beige fur with blond hair combed back on his head and orange eyes. He smiled and bowed again, “It is a pleasure to finally meet you mistress. We have long awaited your arrival.”

The one identified as Night Ray was a dark blue with short silver hair. He stayed silent, looking at Alexander with purple eyes. He was staying professional in a way that reminded Alexander a little of Nicole.

“I’m never going to see them again aren’t I? Or what little family I have for that matter.” Sorrow began to fill Alexander as the feeling that had filled her upon arrival faded. She thought she had avoided this trope. If she had just been sent straight away she might have found it easier to accept since that’s normally what happens.

But no, she had to be stolen away from everything she knew when her guard was down by a bunch of random cultists. They must have noticed her frowning or something because they flinched back with nervous fear.

She could suddenly smell something tantalising, cold and sweet.

“D-did we do something to displease you Mistress?” Rime asked a little nervously.

Alexander sighed and took a deep breath in and out to calm herself; ignoring the pleasant smell. It would not get her anywhere to lash out here. She could cry about it later. “Just… being ripped away from your home is not a pleasant experience.”

“Oh. Um, I’m sorry we were not able to make the transition more pleasant.” Rime said, not looking sure what she should be saying exactly.

“Not what I meant but whatever.” Alexander looked around the room at all the other ponies present. She was curious about what was going on, but she just did not want to deal with it at the moment. “I’m sorry if you were expecting more from me, but if you don’t mind I would just like someplace to lie down.”

Rime bowed. “Of course mistress, follow me and I will lead you to someplace you can rest.” She then walked around Alexander towards the door on the opposite side of the room. The sweet smell that had appeared a few seconds ago faded away.

Alexander followed, the crowd parting for them, whispering among themselves curiously as they watched them leave the room.

Night Ray also followed them out of the room behind them, still staying silent the entire time.

Rime led Alexander through a changing room and up a set of stairs. They exited into a hallway that had occasional paths branching off. She was lead through the house and up a set of stairs. The building proving to be decently large, lit occasionally by a small number of candles. That small number was more than enough for her improved eyesight.

It was stocked with a lot of old-fashioned but well-made furniture and paintings. Random items decorated as much space as could be filled, but at times it almost felt a little sparse to Alexander.

Eventually, Alexander was lead to a large bedroom with a double bed and dresser to one side. The wooden floor was covered with a carpet that sat in front of the bed. An unlit fireplace sat to one side of the room while a wardrobe sat to the other. A few mostly spent candles lit the room in dim light.

“I hope this is satisfactory to your liking Mistress,” Rime said. She stayed in the doorway.

“It will do…”

Alexander looked back to watch the unicorn bow. Night Ray stood outside the room and to the side watching. “If you need anything Mistress Nightmare please feel free to call us. I will now leave you to your rest.” She then closed the door, leaving Alexander on her own.

Alexander slowly walked over to the bed and sat down. It was decently soft, but she could tell they were still quite behind the comfort of modern beds. She blew out the candles and lay down, staring up at the wooden ceiling.

Her eyes began to feel a bit wet, so she started to rub them as she closed them. “I barely flinch when turned into a mythical creature, but start crying when sucked away to a different world? I suppose one is easier to deal with than the other, but still…”

Alexander took a few deep breaths in and out to calm herself. She did her best to just fall asleep then and there, trying to put everything out of her mind. Eventually managing to drift off to sleep late into the night.

Author's Note

Bit of a question, should star bits and star crystal be capitalised? I don’t feel like they should since it’s like saying gold and silver as a material, but just wondering if anyone thought differently.

I was also thinking about the same thing with the names of magic items, more importantly, should they be put in Italics?

Starting the first day (5)

For a second Alexander thought she was still awake. However, the surrounding area felt a little too fantastical to be real.

Alexander found herself standing on what she could only guess was a strange space observatory out of a game meant for younger audiences. It reminded her of a video game she played when she was younger in how everything felt. Yet nothing here was the same.

She found herself standing on a massive cog slowly turning in the middle of space. Her house sat in the center of the silver cog, surrounded by a circle of grass that ran almost to the cog’s edge. The cog’s indent was filled with water, creating a shallow mote around her home. A more cartoonish-looking observatory tower had been glued to the side of the building.

Piles of junk littered open spaces on the platform; all were things she was familiar with. Broken down cars, including the last one she had repaired at work. Some old computers, books, Isaac’s new giant Celestia plush, a puddle of starry liquid…

A few miniature planets hovered out in space not too far away. Most were just grass and rocks with the occasional splotch of water. Some however had other things, such as miniature versions of her friend’s houses, or Twilight Sparkle sitting at a table with a cup of tea while she studied some small object too far away to make out.

The Twilight Sparkle gave Alexander a wave with her hoof before going back to what she was doing.

“Is this the dream realm?” Alexander said out loud as she took in the scenery. It was a peaceful and tranquil setting, helping to calm her nerves after what she had been through. “Right… I’m stuck in Equestria now.”

Alexander sat down on the cool grass and rubbed both her eyes with her hands, closing them. “Just what was all that. A bunch of cultists looking to take over the world or something?” She thought back to what they had exactly said. Something about overthrowing a tyrannical government.

“What is this Equestria even going to be like? Oh god, I’m going to have people trying to kill me, aren’t I? Summoned and forced to overthrow a benevolent ruler. Unless this is one of those really bad versions of Equestria where everyone is screwed.”

Alexanders breathing speed up as she worried about everything that could happen, as well as the fact that she was pulled to another world against her will with everything she ever knew left behind.

Alexander felt water soak into her pants and fur. Opening her eyes she saw that the water was overflowing from the moat and falling off the edge of the cog, falling down into the void of space.

She lay back in the water, allowing it to soak into her back fur and feathered wings. Alexander took a few deep breaths, “panicking about it is not going to help me, I’m going to have to deal with the real world when I wake up.”

Still, she could not stop herself from crying for long. It was better than hyperventilating at least. The surrounding water reflected her emotions by flowing faster, and in the same way that letting it all out was relieving, the flowing water was soothing against her body.

Alexander was not sure how long she stayed like that, time felt both fast and slow at the same time. Eventually, she found herself back in the large bed she had gone to sleep in.

Her cheeks felt damp, Alexander dried them with her hands. She felt better after that as if she had been crying for a while. “Can I deal with things like grief in my dreams as if I’m awake?” It occurred to Alexander that for the first time since she had transformed she had found herself in the dream realm upon falling asleep. “I wonder what changed.”

Regardless, there was still that numb unsettling feeling in her stomach that persisted when you were upset.

Alexander sat up and looked around the room, finding it the same as it was last night. It was completely dark as well, yet she could still see. It was like someone had put a monochrome filter over everything and dimed it to about mid-day with full cloud cover. It made everything look a bit spooky. She had not paid much attention to this before, since some sort of light had always been present so far.

Alexander saw the candles on the dresser and wondered how she was going to light them. She then spotted a jar full of twisted sticks of paper with an old tinder box sitting beside it.

Getting out of bed she used the old-fashioned method of lighting a candle, using the flint and steel to light the paper, before using that on a candle wick. Colour bled into the room out from the source of warm light. There was a gradual transition from colour to greyscale radiating out of the candle. “Interesting.”

Alexander debated taking the candle with her or leaving it there. Eventually, she decided on leaving it since it should be day by now, and she was able to see fine enough in the dark.

Walking over to the door Alexander stopped in front of it, starring at the wooden double doors. “Beyond those doors are the rest on Equestria, and my first day on this world.” It was tempting to just go back to bed. Her dreams had been much more pleasant, but going back to them was not going to solve her problems.

Alexander took a deep breath and reached for the door handle.

Daylight flooded in from an open window down the hallway. The unicorn from last night was still standing sentinel beside the door. “His name was Night Ray if I remember correctly.” His robe was more loosely worn than it had been before, revealing what looked to be studded leather armour underneath. “That can’t be actual leather can it?”

Alexander just ended up staring at him awkwardly for a few moments. The stallion then bowed before standing back at attention. “Is there anything you need Mistress?” he asked neutrally and professionally.

“Um…” Alexander said, not sure how to respond to him. She did not know what she needed, well besides wanting to go home that is, but she doubted that would be an option. Regardless, she had to say something or this would just continue to be awkward. “…Breakfast?”

Night Ray nodded. “I’ll escort you to the dining room,” he said. He then started walking down the hallway, Alexander following behind him. He led her down the stairs back to the ground floor and along a hallway until they entered a decently large dining room.

Surprisingly there were already a few ponies sitting at the long table, which looked to be able to seat a dozen occupants. It looked a little like they were using it as a community lunch bench. They chattered amongst themselves happily, coming to a stop abruptly as they noticed Alexander enter.

They all stood and bowed to her. Alexander was left staring at them awkwardly as they just stood there. “um, you can sit and go back to what you were doing.” They then did just that; Night Ray taking a spot next to the door to seemingly stand guard.

“Ah, Mistress! So glad to see you are awake. If you don’t mind my forwardness please come sit,” called out a unicorn sitting near the head of the table. Alexander recognised her as Rime Rose, who she still assumed was the cult’s leader. “I hope you slept well?”

“I-… slept as well as I was able to.” Alexander slowly walked over and sat at the head of the table, having Rime Rose sitting to her left and another unicorn to her right, who she recognised as Mister Dare after a moment. She noticed they were eating some sort of soup, containing carrots, potato, and something green she could not identify.

“Just give us a moment to fetch something to eat for you Mistress. We are not quite sure if there was anything you have a preference for. If you need to eat at all?” Rime asked.

Alexander looked around the table. The chatter was still quietly occurring in the background, but everyone was still paying attention to her. “This feels strange.” “I can eat vegetables, fruit, and meat. I’m an omnivore. If you know what that is.”

Rime nodded. “Interesting, I was not sure a creature from the divine realm of dreams would consume the same sustenance as us. But I suppose it makes sense given the relationship you have with the material realm.” she looked to be lost in thought for a few seconds before waving away another unicorn sitting next to her. “Go retrieve the best food you can find for our Mistress.”

The unicorn nodded and quickly left the room to fulfil their task.

Not sure what to say now Alexander started tapping her fingers on the table. Others looked at her tapping but quickly looked away when they saw her looking back at them. She was still a bit frustrated with them for bringing her here in the first place, but she still needed to figure out what she could about this world. “So try to keep it friendly then. No way to know how many people will even be willing to interact with me on friendly terms. This could potentially be all I got.”

“So… do any of you mind telling me about where this is?” Alexander asked.

“Not at all Mistress Nightmare, we would be happy to fill you in on what we can,” Mister Dare said. “Was there anything in particular you wanted to know?”

“I imagine the physical plane is a lot different than the dream realm,” Rime Rose said.

Alexander looked between the two of them. “That’s one way to put it.” her gaze settled on the large window at the far end of the room. Outside was a bright blue sky, the sun no doubt shining high overhead. “What about starting with where we are?”

Mister Dare nodded. “Of course, we are currently in a town called Greennest, located in the eastern province of the kingdom of Unicornia, commonly referred to as the Unicorn Kingdom. To our west is the unicorn capital where the Platinum Palace and the Golden Arcane Citadel are located, the platinum line has ruled over the kingdom for generations. Each province surrounding the capital region has their own rulers as well.”

“To our east is a strip of ocean, and the northeast borders with the edge of Pegasus territory. The west side of the kingdom borders Earth Pony territory. And of course, to the north of us all is the Wall of the World mountain range.”

“I see.” “So this is pre-unification then by the sounds of it. Guess I won’t have to worry about them asking me to overthrow Equestria then. Though would that mean Celestia and Luna are around as children now?” Alexander thought. She was not quite sure if that news was supposed to be good or bad. “Can you elaborate on why you summoned me?”

Now it was Rime’s turn to speak. “As I told you last night Mistress, we were hoping you could help us overthrow the tyrannical Rulers of our world, and provide proper leadership. Our current rulers are more interested in their own power and wealth, backed by the supposed word of false gods. At the same time the Church of the Day puts on a nice face, but mercilessly persecutes anything they find aberrant to their views. Even if it’s just on suspicion alone.”

“Does not sound much different than how it was back in the medieval days.” Alexander had to wonder how skewed that viewpoint was from their perspective. A fanatical cult that attempted to summon a nightmare creature, “and I suppose they technically succeeded,” was most likely not the best source of accurate information.

The unicorn that had been sent off to fetch Alexander some food returned with a plate and cup of water. Setting it down, they stepped back and gave a short bow. “I hope this is to your liking, Mistress Nightmare Moon. This is the best we currently have available on hand…”

Alexander looked down at the meal in front of her. “That felt a bit fast.” There were slices of buttered bread and cooked potato with some sort of gravy. A few carrots were also present, but more importantly, was the cooked steak. Alexander noticed quite a few of the unicorns present were looking at the meat with uneasy expressions, many trying to keep their lunch down.

Rime turned to the unicorn that had brought the meal. “I am curious where you acquired the meat from?”

“One of the cows out back. I thought since they were not going to be put too much use anymore, they might serve a better purpose as sustenance for our Mistress.” She tilted her head a little nervously in Alexander’s direction.

“Wait, cows? Weren’t those sentient in the show to some extent?” She was not going to eat a sentient creature, even if it’s not considered cannibalism by being a different species. “I assume that is a simple livestock animal?” Alexander asked, trying not to look disturbed at the thought she had.

The unicorn adopted a slightly confused look. “Of course Mistress, why wouldn’t they be? If you don’t mind me asking!”

Alexander took a moment to respond as she tried to think of a good response to that. “From what I know different worlds can have very different rules from one another. So a sentient species in one world might be feral in another.” She tried her best to sound informative.

Everyone nodded along, listening a little more intently than Alexander had expected. Then again they were cultists with the object of their fascination sitting in front of them. With that in mind it was surprising they were being as calm about it as they were.

Alexander decided to just start eating before everything got cold. Nothing else was immediately coming to mind as a conversation topic anyway. The food was kind of as bland as she expected for a medieval society. The only thing that stood out was the bread, which tasted more sugary than bread normally should while also having a green tint to it.

When Alexander did not say anything else after a minute the others went back to what they were talking about before. Her immediate companions remained quiet, but the others continued to gossip. It was a little hard to pick out one voice over another; even known they were all loud enough to hear clearly.

Most mutterings seemed to be about the excitement of succeeding with their ritual and their first impressions of her. All glowing reviews obviously; Alexander doubted they would say something remotely negative even if they had any grievances. Not while they thought she could hear at least.

There were some other stranger things, however. Hoping the town was resting well for example or something about a blue moon and a blood moon.

As Alexander ate most of the unicorns slowly filtered out of the room as they finished eating, off to do whatever tasks they had. Two walked in and out as they cleaned up the table. Alexander was left with only the Ponies that had introduced themselves when she first arrived.

“So, what were you all planning to do now?” “Hopefully not ask me to go kill someone,” Alexander asked as she pushed her empty plate away. She leaned back in her chair, pressing her wings into its back. It made Alexander idly wonder how doing that was not uncomfortable.

“We were going to start packing up and move to a nearby town. After finishing the ritual to summon you we won’t have long until someone notices something is amiss. We should have a few days.” Rime said. “We were also hoping you could do something to bolster our forces before we leave. You can use our ritual chamber to help summon lesser shadows, which would provide a lot of help to our small force.”

Alexander just stared at her with the blankest face she could muster, before it broke down to an awkward look. “I’m not sure I will be able to do anything…”

“What, you can’t?” Rime said blinking in confusion. Her look was shared by Mister Dare. Night Ray even leaned in a bit to listen more closely from where he was standing.

“Fuck, think of something to say!” Alexander had no idea what they would do to her if they figured out she was basically useless to them. She remembered they said something about the physical and dream realm. Maybe she could use that. “W-well, it’s just that as you said the physical realm dream realm work differently. So I might have to relearn a few things, or just figure out what can be done here. I can do levitation at least!” to prove her point Alexander levitated a fork.

All three looked at the levitating fork before it was set down. Rime eventually adopted a thoughtful look as she contemplated that information. “That would prove problematic.” She then stood up and started pacing slowly as she thought. “But it’s something we can work around. Would it be ok if we tried teaching you what we know, Mistress?”

Alexander blinked. “I don’t see why not.” They were taking that bit of news better than she expected. A little disappointment and confusion, but they were taking it in stride as if they somewhat expected this. “How safe is being completely honest with them anyway?”

Rime nodded. “If you don’t mind me asking… how old are you Mistress?” that question got the other two to focus on Alexander more.

“…25?” Alexander said almost questioningly, not sure why that was exactly relevant.

Rime hummed. “That would explain a few things.” She bowed. “Please excuse me for a moment Mistress, I’ll go organise something that might help you figure out how to use your powers in our realm.”

Alexander just nodded. “Ok, you go do that,” she said. Rime then stood from her bow and left the room.

“I suppose I should be off to help organise our provisions as well, hmm… I believe the blacksmith had a few minor magic items in his shop.” Mister Dare said out loud. The second part seemed to be more to himself than anyone else. He stood up as well, giving a short bow. “If you will excuse me, Mistress.”

Alexander watched him walk towards the door. It crossed her mind that she had nothing to do. It sounded like he was going to walk across town, so getting out seemed like a good idea to pass the time. “Wait!” Alexander said getting up a bit too quickly.

Mister Dare flinched at the sudden order. “Y-yes Mistress?” he had been just about to walk out the door.

Alexander took a moment to clear her throat. A mild sweet smell hitting her nose for a moment. “If you do not mind, if you are going for a walk I would like to come with you. Seeing as I have nothing else to do.”

He noticeably relaxed after that and nodded. “Of course Mistress. Follow me if you don’t mind. Perhaps you will find something to your liking at the blacksmiths.”

He waited for Alexander at the door before heading to the front entrance of the building. Night Ray silently fell in behind them as the three of them walked.

Bright light shone down as they left the building. Alexander ducked to not hit her horn on the doorway and squinted her eyes at how bright the sun was. It looked like it was almost mid-day from its position. Then again that might not mean anything with how she assumed the sun and moon moved in this world.

While the mansion itself was large the rest of the houses were a lot more mundane. Made of wood, stone, and thatch, they looked to be built more for their practicality than anything else. The roads were simply dirt paths that lead in any direction that had regular traffic; with the only exception being the stone path leading up to the mansion.

Alexander lamented not having shoes on when she was summoned. The ground was soft at the very least.

It did not take long for Alexander to notice that the town was deserted. Apart from the wind, an occasional bird tweet, and their own footsteps, the entire town was dead quiet.

Alexander wondered if she should ask why no one was around despite it being day. Yet she felt a little too awkward to bring it up. She eventually did see someone walk past a building, but whether they were a member of the cult or not she had no idea.

After about twenty minutes of walking, they came to the blacksmith's place. Unlike the other buildings, it was almost purely stone. It looked like someone had built a house and then added two-thirds of another to the side while forgetting a wall. Through the open wall, Alexander could see a basic forge and anvil, along with a bench covered in tools and a bucket.

“Here we are Mistress. I believe the blacksmith should have his valuables inside.” Mister Dare said. He walked to the door of the main building, his horn glowing yellowy-orange for a brief second. There was a click from inside before Mister Dare pulled the door open and stepped inside.

“How can he just walk inside like that, is the blacksmith away? So are we robbing his house before skipping town then?” Alexander thought. They were a cult after all so it should not be surprising that they would just steal from someone. Still, she expected there to be more people around to see them.

Alexander ducked slightly again as she stepped inside and looked around; Night Ray coming in behind her and taking a spot next to the doorway. The interior had more stone furniture, but also a few wooden ones. It looked like a living room with a small kitchen on the side. Closed doors on the far side of the room lead to other rooms. One to the right would lead to the forge area.

“So… what were you looking for exactly? Magic items you said?” Alexander asked. She looked at a few blades that were hanging up on a wall next to an armour stand, which only had a helmet and chainmail shirt on it.

Mister Dare hummed and approached one of the far doors. “Yes, Mistress. While nothing spectacular any magic items he might have created would prove useful. He is the only one in town that had a licence to do so…”

The room Mister Dare opened looked like a small storage room. Alexander walked up to peek her head through the door. Most of the items were simple metal tools, pitchforks, hoes, etc. there were also a few basic spears, swords, and shields propped up along the wall as well. She also noticed some sort of greenish-looking leather armour.

“Is the armour enchanted?” Alexander asked curiously as she walked up to it.

Mister Dare looked back from a large chest he had stopped in front of. He looked at the armour for a second before responding. “No, why would you think it is?”

“It’s leather but it's green.” Alexander lightly brushed the smooth green leather with a finger curiously.

“Ah. That’s because it’s made out of hide plant. It a good source of leather-like material, without the need to get it from where more carnivorous species acquire it from.” he then turned back to the chest in front of him. His horn glowed again, resulting with a click from the lock. He opened the chest and had a look inside. “Ah! Looks like the old stallion was holding out on us after all.”

Alexander peaked over his shoulder to get a look in the chest. There were a few weapons, a long sword, two short swords, and a few different daggers. What also stood out was a pair of gloves and a bluish oval stone.

Mister Dare picked up the stone and examined it. He taped it twice on his arm, causing it to start glowing with white light. Tapping it twice again turned it off before he pocketed the stone.

Next, he picked up the gloves. “You know I always wanted a pair of these. It’s surprisingly difficult to buy them despite the spells themselves being quite simple.”

“What do they do?”

“They’re a set of gloves of cleanliness repair. They never get dirty themselves, and they have the ability to remove dirt, dust, and stains from a small area, as well as being able to fix small breaks and tears.” He put them on, examining how they fit. “I do know how to cast the respective spells the gloves contain. But the usefulness of magic items in general is being able to continue casting spells without spending your own magic to do so. Of course, there are exceptions.”

Alexander just nodded. They looked clean but otherwise plane. She wondered how he could tell they were magical. The only one that stood out was the longsword, which has a line of simple runes carved into the blade. “What about that one?” she asked, pointing to the longsword.

Mister Dare picked up the blade and examined it with a hum. “I’m not as knowledgeable as someone like Speaker Rime about all thing magic, but if I had to guess it’s a Flame tongue.” he held the blade away from himself.

Suddenly the blade caught fire. Alexander jumped in surprise, not knowing how he turned it on. No one seemed to notice her reaction.

“hmm.” Mister Dare waved his hand above the fire curiously. “The flame is a bit too weak to be effective, probably incomplete or the result of attempting something beyond his capabilities. However, it’s still an enchanted blade which will have its uses.” He stood back up and turned to Alexander. “Would you like it Mistress? I know it’s not as fitting as it should be, but it would be something to defend yourself with until we find something better.”

Not sure what to say Alexander gave a “sure.” She took the bade from Mister Dare after he had put it in its sheath. It came with a belt she could fit around her waist, which was a tight fit. “Oh come on I’m not that thick. Well not proportionally at least. I’m tall but that does not mean I’m a twig.” she sighed, walking back out of the room.

She left Mister Dare to collect the rest of the magic items. Night Ray was still where she last saw him by the blacksmith’s entrance.

Not sure what else to do while she waited, Alexander decided to explore the rest of the house. She moved to the next door that was unlocked. She opened it and had a look inside.

It was a bedroom; simple with a bed, cupboard, and table. The room also had its own chest which Alexander wondered what it contained. Yet as Alexander entered the room something felt off.

It took her a moment to realise there was a mildly off-putting smell in the air. More noticeably however was the lump in the bed. The unsettling feeling slow grew in Alexander’s stomach.

Hesitantly Alexander moved closer to the bed. “God I have a bad feeling about this.” Slowly she pulled back the blankets to reveal a brownish-grey unicorn.

He looked to be asleep, and Alexander would have assumed he was if it was not for the faint rotting smell she could now pick up and the glossy complexion his fur had. “If I remember correctly corpses release oils early on when they start decaying.”

Alexander shuddered and stepped back, feeling sick as she stared at the dead pony.

“Ah, I see you found the blacksmith.” Mister Dare said, looking in through the doorway. He seemed to have thrown most things into a bag while tying the larger weapons into a bundle.

“W-what h-happened to him?” Alexander asked, finally looking away from the body. Her voice was a lot shakier than she expected. Mister Dare looked at her with noticeable confusion, as if he was not sure why she was reacting that way.

“Well without a soul the body dies.” He gave her a concerned look. “Are you alright mistress?”

“How can I be alright? I-t’s a dead body, how did he even lose his soul? How would you even know that!?” Alexander’s breathing was starting to get faster, despite her best efforts to keep calm.

Mister Dare’s confused and concerned look persisted as he spoke. In hindsight, Alexander should have guessed what he was about to say much sooner.

“Well, a ritual of the calibre we commenced would require a sufficient offering be given to the summoned being, especially if we wanted a powerful one. I don’t understand why you are reacting this way. You accepted the intake of souls upon being summoned didn’t you?”

Accepted the intake of souls.

Alexander froze as she suddenly realised what the feeling that had flooded her body when she first arrived in this world truly was.

Author's Note

(I think you can see why i posted this and the next chapter at the same time)

Price of entry (6)

Alexander was frozen in shock as she processed what she had just heard.

“H-how many?” she asked in a whispered voice, hardly realising she had said anything.

“The town’s population was last recorded to be just over two thousand. Quite a good population size for a simple farming town.”

Alexander felt sick. An entire town's worth of people killed just to bring her here.

Two thousand souls that had been absorbed into her body; all stripped of any possible afterlife. And it had felt incredible. The thought of that on its own caused a strong sense of revulsion.

And she had thought just seeing one dead body was bad enough. Now there was an entire town of them around her, all because she had been brought here.

Alexander had to put a hand on the wall to stay upright as she almost lost her balance. She vomited as well or at least tried to. Nothing came up despite just having breakfast, not even a little. The best was a small amount of spit that dripped onto the ground. The dry heaving continued longer than she would have liked, her entire body shaking the entire time.

“th-their dead- and i-Inside me.” Alexander looked up at the cultist in front of her. Concerned about her behaviour, but uncaring about what they had done.

One of the people that had taken her away from her friends, home, and family. Stuck in a world that was promising to be a hell hole. All for what? Because they decided they should have power?

Anger mixed in with all the other emotions she was feeling. Grinding her sharp teeth together with a growl escaping her throat Alexander lunged towards the cultist.

She did not grab him, simply slamming her fist into the door frame, heavily cracking the wood. “You fucking murdered all of them!” Alexander did not notice the air slightly cool and frost around them.

Mister Dare stumbled back in shock. “I-I- But Mis-”

“I don’t care about what you have to say! You took me away from everything I ever knew and killed over a thousand innocent people to do it! On top of that, you stuffed them all inside me!” she practically yelled, looking right into the cultist's eyes.

“we-ll, th-they would ha-ve been absorbed-.”

She almost hit him then; yet before she could that same cold sweet smell filled her nostrils again. She could just see it now; a dim ice blue ethereal fog wafting off his body as he looked at her with apparent fear.

She was reminded that her body liked what had happened. The fear was a tantalising feast to her senses, the souls bliss unlike her had ever felt before.

Alexander felt almost just as disgusted with herself as she did with the cultists at that moment. She just needed to get away.

Mister Dare was thrown to the ground as Alexander ran past him. She forgot Night Ray was there as she ran past him, but his presence was inconsequential. She just needed to get away.

As soon as she was out of the building Alexander pivoted north and ran as fast as she could. She had to escape the town, escape all the dead present here.

She started crying at some point. When, she did not know, nor did she care.

Alexander ran past each house and building. She passed someone that yelped in surprise before running off somewhere. She did not care what the cultists would think of seeing her like this.

Alexander ran out of the village and into the forest. She kept running until she began to feel mildly tired. She could probably go a lot longer if she wanted, but her feet were sore from running without shoes on.

Alexander stopped beside a tree and collapsed, leaning against the trunk as she continued to breathe heavily.

“Why me? What did I do to deserve this?” All she did was drop something meant for someone else. Adventures in stories were almost always entertaining, but no one ever seemed to put much thought into what it would actually be like to be in them.

“Why would anyone want to go through this?” Alexander could not understand why this had to happen to her. Why her out over everyone that could have been summoned? Weren’t they're demons that should have come through more eagerly instead?

There were too many questions and not enough answers.

Alexander sat there shaking and crying. She wrapped her soft wings around her body while hugging the starry cloud that was her mane. She just remained there, headless of the sun slowly passing over her head and the figure watching her from nearby.

/---\

Rime scribbled down arcane writings into the blank book she had managed to find. “Mistress Nightmare Moon should find these spells useful.” They were mostly ones copied from her spellbook. She did not have access to much else, but it was more than enough for an introductory to Arcane magic. “Night Ray should be able to teach her the sorcery side of things.”

She found it strange their new mistress did not seem to know how to use much magic. Most creatures, especially divine creatures, had innate magic that came to them almost instinctually. Her age might explain that. Twenty-five what though? Rime was a little annoyed with herself for not asking for clarification. “She could just be holding back though.”

Despite all that, Rime Rose found herself a little giddy with excitement at their success. She thought their mistress was going to be a bit more demanding and aggressive than she turned out to be.

Not only that, but she was also incredibly beautiful. They could have easily got something far more monstrous, which was always a risk with summoning creatures from beyond; especially when it came to the pure creatures of the divine realm.

Rime’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. “Come in!”

Rime turned to face the wooden door as it opened. She watched a nervous-looking Mister Dare step into the underground room. “U-um, Speaker, may I have a word with you?” Mister Dare tapped his head with a gloved hand, a colourless glow emitting from the gloves as the sweat on his head vanished.

Rime raised an eyebrow at his behaviour. “Yes. What is troubling you Nightwalker Dare? We can’t be under attack; otherwise, you would have already said that with more urgency.”

Before answering he looked back out to see if anyone was around before closing the door and locking it, an action which surprised Rime. “I think we may have a problem…”

“What problem would that be?” She asked. If they were not under attack what could spook Mister Dare so much?

“I was out retrieving what magic items I could find at the blacksmith's residence. Mistress Nightmare Moon had decided to come along since she has nothing else to do.” He paused, seeing if his Speaker would interrupt him. When she did not he continued. “Everything was fine at first. We arrived at the blacksmith’s without issue and found more than I expected. But then Mistress came across the body of the blacksmith…”

“And?”

“She reacted quite badly. I would not think she would have had a problem seeing a dead body. Especially one whose soul she had consumed in the ritual. It was like she was unaware of what happened as if she had no choice in the matter.” He sighed, leaning back against the wall. “For a second I thought she might kill me.”

Rime frowned as she listened to Mister Dare recount what happened. This was sounding stranger by the second. “Why would Mistress be so disturbed like that? Death is a common enough occurrence, especially for a creature from the divine realm. Just what thoughts and feelings coalesced to give birth to her?” “Where is she now?”

Mister Dare looked back towards the Door. “She made a mad dash northward. I have no idea how far she has gone. Shadow Walker Night Ray has gone after her, but that is as much as I know.”

“I imagine no one else knows what has happened currently?” Rime asked.

“No. Everyone has been busying themselves preparing for our departure.”

Rime nodded. “Good. We would not want this to cause our brothers and sisters unneeded distress.”

“What would you like me to do now, Speaker?” Mister Dare said.

Rime Rose got up from her seat, picking up her spellbook and holding it under her arm. “For now you will continue with our preparations as if nothing is amiss. I will go see if I can sort this issue out myself.”

Mister Dare bowed. “Of course my Speaker. Oh! If it helps you find her quicker, I gave our mistress the blacksmith’s admittedly lackluster attempt at creating a flame tongue.”

“thank you, Mister Dare,” Rime said before both of them left the room and went their separate ways.

Rime took a moment to slip on some sandals before leaving the underground complex. “You are proving to be a strange mistress indeed.” Rime Rose could not help but smile at the thought. “Perhaps not the best for our plans, but our lives are sure going to be interesting because of it. Perhaps I’m being a bit too hopeful, but this might turn out for the best. Now, how was locate object cast again?”

/---\

Alexander felt like she had been sitting there for hours. She had run through her grievances with her situation several times in her head by now. Eventually, she tired herself out; stopping her crying. Alexander just sat there, feeling miserable, bundled up in her wings and mane.

As her temper cooled she had time to think about how she reacted to everything that had been happening. “I have never been so angry before in my life.”

“What’s going to happen to me now?” Alexander’s thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps disturbing the undergrowth. Her ears perked up instinctually and faced towards the sound.

Alexander looked up, moving her wings just enough so she could see who was coming.

Out of some bushes and trees behind her, Rime Rose stepped out. “Ah! Mistress there you are! I have been trying to look for you for a while. You were able to run quite far.” She was smiling. Though that looked softened as she saw the state Alexander was in. “You look like you have seen better days.”

Alexander growled at her and looked away. A little shocked at how feral her growl sounded. “Go away you fucking cultist.” She grumbled out loud enough for Rime to hear.

Instead of leaving, Rime slowly walked next to Alexander. She sat down on the grass two meters away.

They sat in silence for a few minutes with only Alexander’s mildly heavy breather to interrupt it.

“I heard you did not like the condition you found the blacksmith in,” Rime finally said, looking towards Alexander.

Alexander looked in the other direction, hugging her knees and grumbling out her response. “Well if you came across a dead body you would react the same way.”

Rime hummed. “I suppose. I did not react well to seeing my father run through with a sword.”

Alexander looked at Rime, Blinking a little in surprise and to clear her tears.

“The world is a harsh place. It’s one of the reasons I want to change it.”

Alexander scoffed. “And killing thousands of innocent people to do it is justifiable?”

Rime leaned back on her hands, looking up at the sky. The sun was slowly passing over head, much closer to setting than it had been hours earlier. “Sacrifices need to be made sometimes. But I can tell that has upset you quite a lot.”

“That and you ripping me away from my home while shoving the souls of a bunch of dead people into me,” Alexander growled. She shivered as she reminded herself of what had happened to her.

“That’s another thing I don’t understand. Why are you so upset with your summoning? You accepted didn’t you?” Rime leaned over, propping herself up on her hands.

“No!” Alexander snapped, jerking to face the Rime. “I did not ask to be ripped from my home and get dumped in the middle of a group of maniacs!” Alexander’s wings partly flared out behind her.

Rime flinched from the sudden outburst but made no other notable reaction for a few moments. When she saw Alexander was not going to continue her outburst she continued. “I-I. It probably does not mean anything to you, but for what it’s worth I’m sorry Mistress. The ritual should not have been able to summon someone unwillingly.”

“Stop calling me that...”

Rime moved closer to Alexander, stopping when Alexander started leaning away from her. “I’m not sure… would you be willing to tell me what happened? If you do perhaps I can help in some way?”

“Could you send me home?” Alexander quietly asked.

Rime looked Northward. “Divine beings normally would have their own way back to their divine realm, or they would be sent there when slain on the material plane. I get the feeling that will not work for you?”

“I highly doubt it.” Alexander gave off a frustrated sigh.

“Well, Nightmare Mo-.”

“Don’t call me that either, even if I can respond to it.”

Rime blinked in surprise. “Can you explain? I cannot help if I remain ignorant to your plight.”

Alexander took a minute to debate whether she should tell the cultist anything. She was a little surprised she was being so willing to listen; especially after being willing to kill an entire town to achieve their goals. “I was not always like this. I used to be normal, at least normal for my world. I then became this.” Alexander gestured to herself. “After coming into contact with something called essence of nightmares. A week later I end up being pulled here against my will.”

Rime Rose adopted a thoughtful look as she listened to Alexander. “You are extraordinarily lucky to still be yourself as you are then. I have not come across the divine substance myself, but I have heard of what it can do if not handled properly. As for why you would be pulled through unwillingly… I can only imagine greater forces are at play here. What of your name?”

Alexander sighed sadly. “Alexander. I think I might have accidentally given myself a ‘true demon name’ when saying I look like Nightmare Moon. Who in my world is a fictional character.”

Rime nodded. “I see. That explains a few things. A named Nightmare is much easier to get in contact with and quite often stronger as a result. Again, I am sorry for what trouble we may have caused you.”

Alexander scoffed again and looked away. “I really doubt you are.”

The silence continued between the two of them for a minute before Rime moved again. This time she dropped her robe onto the grass and placed her spellbook on top of it; leaving her with nothing on but her thin, short white dress, and the silver pearl necklace.

She then crawled in front of Alexander, who leaned back into the tree in surprise. Rime’s clothing was mildly transparent, allowing Alexander to see that she had nothing on underneath them. “What are you-?”

Rime leaned forward and hugged Alexander, pressing her snout into her neck. Alexander almost threw her off, but the warm physical contact was too comforting after all the stress she had been under. She was still not very pleased with it. Alexander could not stop from blushing slightly as well.

Rime then pulled back a little to look up into Alexander's eyes. “Miss Alexander, I have been willing to give up a lot to get where I am now, to try and change things for the better. That includes giving myself wholeheartedly to my Mistress, which, if you have not noticed, is you.” She gave a soft and surprisingly sympathetic smile.

“All I have left are those you have already seen. I know this is not something you want… but would you be willing to stay with us? I will not ask you to do anything you do not wish to. That would not be my place even if you were what we expected. Just… Allow us to show you the world we live in, and then make your own decision about what you will do. Please?”

Alexander’s better judgment advised against continuing to interact with the cult and just take her chances on her own. But the fluffy pony was being a bit too cute to completely dismiss her. After some internal deliberation Alexander's need for physical contact and companionship won out.

She wrapped her arms and wings around the smaller pony and grumbled. “Fine, but that does not mean I am going to like you. Don’t expect me to help you do anything evil.”

Rime hummed in acknowledgement and nuzzled into Alexander's starry mane. “Of course Mistress. I am all yours after all~”

Alexander rolled her eyes. Not calling her mistress did not last very long. Both of them laid there under the shade of the forest trees. Looking up Alexander noticed that the sun had moved position from where it had been earlier. “Wait, does that mean the sun moves on its own here?”

That thought did not distract Alexander for long before her thoughts drifted back to recent events. She was still upset, but she could only be so mad and cry for so long. Now she was just emotionally exhausted and wanted to sleep. Testing if she could properly sleep in the dream realm would be her next objective then.

She looked down at the cultist hugging into her chest. She just seemed so innocent like this. More like a fairy tale princess in that moment rather than the leader of a cult. Then again that might be why she was the leader. Above all else, a leader needed great charisma after all.

Alexander mentally sighed and leaned back against the tree, closing her eyes. The two of them quietly stayed like that for a while, long enough for the light of the day to noticeably dim. For Alexander, this meant the saturation of colour around her began to lessen a little.

Eventually, Alexander gently pushed Rime off her. “Ok, enough of that. It’s getting late.”

Rime got up, rubbing her eyes. It looked like she had almost fallen asleep. She looked up at the sky before quickly levitating her cloak on and spellbook to her hand. Her horn and levitation aura glowed a teal ice blue colour. “you're right Mistress, we should be off before it gets dark.”

Alexander got up and dusted herself off, stretching before she started to follow Rime back.

They had only gotten a few meters before Alexander spotted Night Ray leaning against a tree while he silently watched them. She most likely would not have spotted him at all if it weren’t for her darkvision. “What. How long has he been there?”

Rime glanced at him for a moment as she walked. “He never left your side as far I know.”

Alexander looked from Rime to Night, who only gave a short nod as he fell in line behind them. Alexander grumbled as she realised he had been watching her the whole time. She was not sure to be angry he had been watching with her out her knowing, or be thankful he had had the presence of mind to give her some space.

Alexander shook her head, It was not important now. She then looked back to Rime as she was leading the way. “if I am going to be staying with you, no more sacrificing people.”

Rime stopped long enough to bow as she spoke, “If that is what you wish Mistress.”

Alexander frowned slightly. “I feel like you’re being too calm about all this. I can imagine I am not what you wanted when you summoned me.”

Rime shrugged. “We planned to summon someone to lead us against the tyrants of the world. That has technically not been proven false so far. It just might take longer than expected.”

“What if I decide not to?”

Rime paused as she thought. “I highly doubt you will Mistress. Not after you see our world for yourself. If you can find a way to solve everything without violence I will support that as well. But I doubt that is anywhere near the realm of possibility.”

Alexander sighed, looking towards the horizon as it began to turn orange and pink. She was still not sure what to think of the cultists overall. They had been surprisingly nice to her so far. However, it was evident that they could commit atrocities without batting much of an eye if they felt it necessary. “Perhaps I can keep them from doing that if they're so intent on listening to me.”

“Oh! And Mistress, If it’s alright we can start teaching you more about magic tomorrow. I think you would prefer to go to sleep tonight correct?” Rime said.

Alexander nodded, a little more sleepily now that she was thinking of sleep. “Sure. Just don’t wake me up too early.”

“Of course Mistress.”

Author's Note

(feels a bit weird after writing more emotional bits. Hope I'm getting things like characterisation right well enough

Introductory magic lessens (7)

Author's Note

29/07/2022: Since its been a while i'm going to put the chapter up. i did write it a while ago, but was going to go over it more later when i had written more stuff for the future. But since i have procrastinated so much i have looked over it again for obvious mistakes and put it in.
its a bit of a more relaxed chapter anyway, so nothing intense like a cliff hanger.
thank you all for your patience!

Introductory magic lessens (7)

Sleep came easy to Alexander after the emotional exhaustion she had felt throughout the day. Leaving her back in the same dreamscape she had found herself in the night before.

Not wanting to feel like she was awake in any way at the moment, Alexander made her way into the dream’s recreation of her house and went to the bed inside. Thankfully everything inside was exactly the same as she remembered it, a small comfort with everything she had been through so far. The idea that this was only the beginning filled Alexander with dread.

“Time to see if I can sleep in a dream,” Alexander thought. Still full of mental exhaustion Alexander covered herself with her blankets and buried her head in the pillow.

It took no time at all for her to fall into an even deeper sleep.

/---\

breakfast was about the same as it had been on the first day; though a little quieter as Alexander refrained from conversation, eating a recreation of the previous day’s meal. It was apparent that world of her outburst had not spread, as none were acting any differently than the day before in her presence.

Rime Rose, Night Ray, and Mister Dare had been a bit quieter on the other hand, at least for the short time since she woke up. They were still polite and friendly as ever, though they had picked up on the fact Alexander was not enthusiastic about talking to them. Too bad she would have to for her magic lessens. “I wish I could just go back to sleep and talk to that imaginary Twilight. Would be a lot better than all this.”

Alexander ate her breakfast at a slow pace, allowing the cultists to slowly filter out of the room and go about their business. By the time she was done, the only one left in the room with Alexander was Rime, who sat patiently as she waited for her to finish.

“I hope your meal was to your liking, Mistress?” Rime asked as Alexander set her fork down.

Alexander shrugged. She still felt a bit emotionally fatigued. “It was the same as yesterday.” She then leaned back in her chair, sighing while closing her eyes for a second. “You said earlier that you wanted to do magic lessens after breakfast?”

Rime nodded. “Yes Mistress. I think it would be more beneficial to learn sooner than later. We have no idea how soon knowing magic will become necessary for you.”

Alexander looked towards Rime, feeling a little suspicious of her intent. “And why would I need to know it so soon?”

“Self-defence obviously. Though just knowing a few utility spells will be quite helpful for just about any situation you find yourself in,” she said with a smile. Rime then took a final sip of her tea before putting the cup down on the table. “So, if you wish Mistress, we can go get started right now.”

“Sure… Lead the way I guess.” Alexander then got up from the table. She left her empty plate where it was, seeing as one of the cultists would clean it up like last time. “Practicing magic will give me something to do while I’m stuck here I suppose.”

With a nod Rime Rose lead Alexander back down to the basement complex where she was first summoned. The central room had been cleaned up by now, leaving it empty compared to before.

Rime then led her into a side room she had not been in before. It looked a little like an office, containing a basic desk, chairs, and book shelf. It also was in the process of being packed if the half-filled boxes were anything to go by.

Rime went over to the other side of the desk and sat down, waiting for Alexander to sit as well before speaking. “Last night I wrote a few basic spells down. It will help you with the basics of magic, even if no one else is around to teach you.” Rime the picked up a brown book with a blank cover, sliding it over to Alexander.

Curiously Alexander picked the book up and skimmed the pages quickly. The vast majority of the book was blank, but the first few pages were covered in writing and obvious arcane scribble. Alexander was a little surprised she was able to read some of the general text, even if it did not look exactly like English; same structure but different symbols. She even felt some vague familiarity with the more abstract parts.

Alexander did not want to think about why she was able to read it so easily. Suppressing a shiver she focused more on the lesson to come. “Ok, so I guess I will be writing things I lean down in this? What are we starting with?”

Rime nodded, pulling her own spell book out and putting it on the table. The blue book with a rose made of ice on the cover looked a lot fancier than what Alexander had. “Until we can find material for a better spell book, yes. As for where we start- You already know how to access your magic since you can use basic levitation. Is that all you are aware of?”

“Yeah, I have only had magic for just over a week, and have only been practicing levitation for a few days,” Alexander said. She lightly taped the table with her fingers.

Rime nodded again. “Let’s start with the two basic areas of magic. Technically three if you wanted to split one into passive and active.” Rime took a moment to compose herself, thinking of what she needed for this short lecture.

“The first kind of magic is commonly referred to as sorcery. Night Ray will help you figure out what you can do specifically in that area, but it’s something everyone has if you have magic. Sorcery is in reference to any natural ability a creature has that uses magic. A Pegasus’s ability to walk on clouds, or a dragon’s breath weapon for example. These can also be considered as passive sorcery, since they are done casually without being thought about.”

Alexander just nodded and listened to what rime had to say. If she had to guess her own abilities they would most likely have something to do with dreams at the very least; maybe something with shadows as well. She could not remember if the Nightmare Moon from the show had done anything more than shapeshift her own form.

“Active sorcery is when you manipulate your innate magic in more complex ways. Doing things that magic allows you to be capable of, but requiring practice to get it right. To use pegasi as an example again, some learn how to manipulate electricity and the wind as a natural extension of their innate magic. While any creature with magic has access to sorcery, it is naturally very limited to whatever powers are innate to you, and nothing outside that.”

Alexander nodded. It seemed a simple enough concept to her. “Ok, what of the other type of magic?”

Rime grinned, looking down at her spell book before speaking again. “While sorcery is limited in its diversity, it’s usually easier to learn. Arcane on the other hand is the opposite; with increased complexity you have a lot more diversity in what you can do with it. As long as you have the right formulas, materials, and amount of magic, you can do just about anything you want with it. Thought that’s easier said than done.”

Rime pointed at their spell books. “What arcane magic does is take your raw magic energy and allow you to use it to do things beyond what your sorcery is capable of. You do this by picturing a magic formula in your mind, sometimes needing to preform chants or physical actions as well, and then channel your magic through a magic focus.”

Rime then pointed to her horn. “For creatures such as unicorns, our horns act as natural magic focuses. Many take that fact for granted, but having some sort of focus is required for arcane magic to work. Even if that focus is a simple material component related to that spell. Mana infused crystals are a common enough magic focus for creatures without a natural one.”

“Ok.” Alexander said, looking back down at the pages of her new spell book. She flipped through it lightly, looking over the pages more. “What spell will we be learning first?” despite Alexander’s reservations about her situation, she had to admit she was getting a bit eager to learn how magic worked, and how to cast it. It was a similar feeling to what had led her to looking into how machinery worked, as well as many other facts she had searched up online out of curiosity.

Rime smiled. “We will get to that. But first, how good are you at math and literacy?”

/---\

Alexander sighed, mental exhaustion evident in her tone. She did not know what she had expected, but a spiritual repeat of school was not it. Rime had spent a lot of the day just teaching her about arcane spell formulas, wanting her to actually understand what each component of arcane script actually affected in a spell’s casting.

Alexander knew that was useful to know. It was tiring though. The alternative was trying to follow the formula without understanding what it meant. It was a bit like mimicking someone talking in a different language. Sure you could copy what they said and understand its general meaning to get results, but that did not mean you understood what any of the individual sounds and components meant, or how it would look in writing.

The advantage to leaning the finer components to arcane magic meant she could potentially develop her own spells by herself, or at least that’s what Rime had said.

The only actual spell they had practiced was the glow bulb spell. It was relatively simple, but still complex enough to be good for beginners practice. Alexander had managed to pull it off by the end, much to her own wonder. The spell created a small floating orb of light the size of a light bulb, which floated above the casters head by default and followed them around. Naturally its brightness and how long it lasted was partly reliant on how much magic she used. Later Rime said she would show Alexander what to add to the formula so she could change its colour.

The whole thing had been a good distraction from everything else, and had helped cheer Alexander up a little. Still, the feelings she had about the last few days did not go away that easily.

Now she was being escorted outside by Night Ray. The quiet unicorn cultist wanted to practice outside as it began to get dark.

Alexander looked around as they walked around the mansion. She felt a little sick in the stomach as she looked at some of the surrounding houses. Images of the dead blacksmith came to mind, following by imagining what the other victims would look like.

Alexander felt a spike of anger again at what they had done; but it was quickly replaced by disgust at herself as she remembered just how good the souls felt when they had been shoved into her body. “I got turned into a monster, didn’t I?”

Thankfully Night Ray was leading them away from the rest of the houses. It seemed the mansion was on the edge of town, the only thing past it being fields.

Around the side of the house Alexander saw a few carts and carriages lined up. A few cultists were packing boxes into them, stopping to bow as she passed. Interestingly, an animal that she had never seen before was hooked up to the carts.

The creature was some kind of furred lizard with the body structure of a horse. As odd as it looked, Alexander supposed they had to find something to take the traditional roll horses filled.

As they got past the mansion, her mind still lingered on the townsfolk. Alexander finally got the courage to say something. “What… what are you going to do with them?”

Night Ray stopped, looking back at her with a raised eyebrow. “Do what with whom?”

Alexander looked back towards town with a little nervousness before quickly turning back. “All the people that died… are you just going to leave them there?” She did not feel like just leaving them all there was the best thing to do. Alexander did not want to do anything herself though. She did not think she could look at another body so soon.

Night Ray looked towards the town with a neutral expression. He did not seem to show much emotion in general. “If you’re suggesting we try to bury them, Mistress. We don’t have the time or ponypower to do so. A small number that were well known by some members of our group have been buried. But there is too many to do that with more, and burning the houses would just attract too much attention to quickly.”

He then started walking again, leaving Alexander to stumble a little to catch up. She felt like she should say something else, but nothing came to mind. From a brutally practical point of view he was right, which still did not quite sit right with her. Both of them continued to walk in silence for the next few minutes.

“This should be a good place to practice, Mistress” Night Ray said, suddenly stopping.

They were on the edge of where a wheat field intersected with the edge of a forest. The fencing along here had broken down, rendering its useless in what it was designed to do. By now it was beginning to get dark. Long shadows were cast over everything as the sun set over the horizon.

Alexander took in a deep breath as she admired the surrounding scenery. Everything was quiet and peaceful. Nothing hinted at the horrors that had went on in town. “What do we start with?” Alexander asked, turning to Night Ray.

Night ray nodded. “I will start with an explanation of sorcery before getting onto demonstrations. That is alright with you, Mistress?” he asked.

Alexander nodded, leaning back against one of the more intact pieces of wooden fencing. “If this is anything like with Rime, I’ll be here for a while.”

Seeing as she was ready Night Ray started his explanation. “As Nightmare speaker Rime has already explained to you the basics of sorcery, I will try not to repeat what she has said unless you wish for a reminder. Each type of sorcery is usually universal to a species or subspecies of creature; though exceptions that give individuals unique powers beyond their species natural capabilities exist.”

To show his point, Night Ray held out his hand. Just above the palm of his hand, all light vanish, creating a ball of pure darkness the size of a clenched fist.

Alexander watched this curiously. Her new dark vision made the sphere look transparent, where almost everyone else would see solid pitch black. Everything seen through the sphere looked grey, as if it was a lens that drained all colour from the world. “That looks cool. I wonder if I can do that?” “I’m guessing it looks transparent because of my darkvision?”

Night Ray nodded, dispelling the sphere. “Darkvision is a form of innate sorcery that many nocturnal creatures possess. It normally does not allow one to see through magically created darkness however. That form of darkvision is generally obtained through the practice of shadow magic. Demons and Nightmares are the only ones that I am aware of to have this innately.”

Alexander suppressed a wince at being told demonic creatures have the same ability as her naturally. She did note that he said Demons and Nightmares separately though. “Ok… so what can I do actively?”

Night Ray held up his hand briefly. “We will get to that. First I want to go over all of the passive abilities of each pony tribe. You appear to have the form an alicorn, a creature that legends states contains the abilities of all three pony tribes. So it’s likely you have all of those abilities as well in addition to what you get for being a Nightmare.”

“I have really got him taking with this. I wonder if it’s a subject he is interested in, or is only talking so much because it’s actually necessary,” Alexander thought. While not exactly emotionless, he had been doing quite well to remain calm and show little emotion beyond that.

“Passively from unicorns you gain the ability to levitate objects, fire beams of pure magic, and your unicorn horn, which acts as an innate spellcasting focus.” To demonstrate Night Ray picked up a stick with his levitation, before shooting it out of the air with a thin beam of purplish blue magic.

“I cannot demonstrate the other two, but there not complex to get the idea of. Pegasi have the ability to interact with clouds, being able to both walk on them and manipulate them into structures. Their passive magic also makes them a lot lighter than they should be for their size, as well as allows them to fly despite their wings not being big enough. They also resist blunt force trauma, which makes hitting them with a weapon such as a hammer less effective. Though they are not so resistant to it that they can’t take damage if hit hard enough.”

“That’s pretty much what I expected from the show.” Alexander thought. “Is he just going to only repeat what I already know?”

“Finally we have earth ponies. Their passive magic gives them both physical strength and endurance enhancement, as well as what we call plant enrichment.” Night Ray took a deep breath. He did not talk this much very often. “Would you like me to clarify anything, Mistress?”

Alexander shook her head. “I have the general idea. I’d like to figure out what I can do. How would someone go about learning about what they can do and then improve it from there?” she asked, hoping to be able to learn how to do something before going to bed.

The sun had fully set by now, leaving them both in complete darkness. Both Alexander and Night Ray could easily see each other thanks to their darkvision.

Night Ray nodded. “As you wish Mistress,” he said before taking a bit to compose his thoughts on the subject. “Active sorcery is either obtained by someone trying to tap into the innate magic of their species to expand upon, or completely by accident, commonly through a stressful event. For ponies in particular, they may discover active sorcery unique to them when they discover their cutie mark.”

“Once you have discovered it, all you need to do is practice using it, as well as push its limits. Sorcery in general is build up like muscle, without it decaying from disuse; at least when it comes to raw power. You limitations are your creativity and force of will, as well as the limitation of what your sorcery encompasses. Some have trouble coming up with new ways to use it after they become too used to what they can already do.”

Night Ray then stopped, silently standing there and waiting.

“Is this is?” Alexander questioned, seeing he was not saying anything else.

“Yes Mistress, when it comes to general knowledge anyway. Now we just have to figure out what you can do in particular. The only thing I can attempt to teach you is shadow sorcery,” Night Ray said.

Alexander nodded again. “What do I need to do then to lean shadow sorcery?”

Without a word Night ray held up his hand again. With a grabbing motion he seemingly clung to thin air. What happened however was that some of the shrouding shadows seemed to become more solid, distinguishing them from the surrounding darkness. The shadows Night Ray was holding looked a bit like how floating water would except more misty, being distinct from its surroundings but still see through.

“To learn shadow sorcery you first need to be able to feel the shadows around you so you can identify what you are trying to control. To do this, first concentrate on your magic. Then try grabbing onto some of the surrounding darkness until you are able to feel it. Closing your eyes might help as well, as being blinded temporarily is often used to get in tune with shadows,” Night Ray explained.

Taking a breath Alexander closed her eyes as she started following Night Ray’s instructions. She felt for the cold warmth of her magic and tried directing it like she had when she had figured out her levitation, only this time directing it to her hand instead of her horn. “It does not sound like it would be too different to levitation.”

She reached out and tried grabbing at the surrounding shadows. However, as much as she tried to, all she could feel was thin air. “How am I supposed to grab something that’s not supposed to be ever solid? I probably have to have the proper mindset.” Despite knowing that, Alexander found she was having trouble picturing darkness as anything but a lack of photons.

After more time than she cared to admit trying and failing to grab onto the surrounding shadows, she let out a frustrated growl. Alexander jumped slightly from the unexpectedly feral sound and the fact that she even made it in the first place.

Taking a deep breath to calm down she opened her eyes again and looked at Night Ray. He was watching her calmly, standing straight and professionally. More frustration and sorrow built up insight of Alexander for a moment as looking at him reminded her of everything that has happened so far.

With a sigh, Alexander asked him a question, “do you have any other piece of advice for me that might help?”

Night Ray looked thoughtful for a moment. “Well, one technique used to help get in touch with an element is to remove your clothing so your entire body is expose to the element you want to attune with; naturally this means being surrounded by it. In our case that would be shadow, which the night of quite useful for.”

Alexander gave him a blank look. “Seriously?”

Night Ray gave a short bow, looking at the ground as he responded. “Of course mistress, I am only giving a suggestion that might help.”

Alexander gave him a stern look, not sure what to think of his suggestion. “It does sound like something one might do, but that’s more just because I’m ignorant to how this actually works. I have no idea if he or any of the other cultists have any ulterior motives. That said, out of everyone I have met so far he has been the most professional and straightforward about everything…”

Alexander continued to think it over before coming to a conclusion. She did not think any of the cultists would try doing something to the object of their obsession without her consent. At least she hoped so. “Fine, but you are going to go behind a tree and face the other direction until I say otherwise, understand?” she said sternly.

Night Ray bowed again, more deeply this time. “Of course Mistress, I will follow your command to the letter.” Night Ray then turned around, waking toward a particularly thick tree before taking up a standing position behind it; quietly waiting for Alexander to call him back.

Alexander paused to make sure he was not trying to peak before she hesitantly started to remove her clothing. “I guess I really am doing this in the name of learning how my magic works.” Blushing, slowly her body was revealed to the cool night air, sparkling black fur illuminated by her glowing mane and tail.

Alexander found that the cool night air did not bother her in the slightest; in fact it was quite soothing to her senses. She was reminded of when she had the random thought to go outside nude while she was still on earth, which caused a sense of home sickness to swell up inside her.

Pushing the feeling down she instead focused on the sensations of the cool night air. Oddly enough it felt right to be complexly nude, having the elements exposed directly to her fur. “That is strange. I am definitely not an exhibitionist, so where is this feeling coming from?” for a moment as she thought, Alexander felt like she would prefer to walk around like this from now on, only for her normally sense of nudity to come back shortly after.

Curiously she crabbed each of her breasts with her hands, holding them up and feeling their weight and softness. She found herself admiring her own beauty again for a second. “I get the feeling if I ever did decide to go about without clothes no one would complain…” It felt surreal that this was her body, the odd sensation washing over her. Alexander then shook herself off, trying to dislodge the strange line of thinking from her head. “I need to focus on figuring out shadow sorcery, not that.”

Alexander then relaxed her body, letting her arms fall to her sides as she closed her eyes again. She started going through Night Ray’s instructions again in her head. Only this time she tried to feel the shadows over her body.

She tried to picture them more like a blanket over her body. As Alexander could not completely disassociate herself from the scientific technicality of what shadows were, she instead tried focusing on the feeling of being stuck in a dark place.

At first Alexander was not sure she was going to feel anything except the cool night air blowing across her body. It felt like minutes had passed as she concentrated. Alexander reminded herself that it did take her a while to figure out levitation, so this might not be that different.

After a while though, Alexander felt a mild weight settle over her form, weighing her down ever so slightly. It blocked out much of the wind like a thin cloth, feeling somehow both dry and wet at the same time.

Opening her eyes Alexander held up her arms to look at them. She could see the shadows covering her body, looking the same as what Night Ray had grabbed. It seemed to waft off her body like steam as it clung to her. Alexander even felt some of it get into her mouth, the shadows having a strange airy texture to them along with the mix of wet and dry sensations.

“Well I can feel it now. What do I do next?” Alexander thought. Curiously she tried to get the shadows to do something in a similar manner to how she got her levitation working. Alexander only succeeded in pushing the shadows off of her body and losing her current progress.

She gave off a frustrated sigh before trying again; then thought better of it. Turning to look where Night Ray was, Alexander was not sure if he was still there from how quiet he was. “Well, at least he is not peaking.” “Night Ray, are you still there?”

“Of course, Mistress. Do you need any assistance?” Night Ray said as calmly as ever.

“I have gotten the shadows to cover my body. How exactly do I control them?” Alexander covered herself with her wings just in case Night Ray accidentally looked around the tree.

There was a short pause before he spoke again. “I would suggest to try grabbing a ball of shadows in your hand. Now that you know how they feel, try picturing it as a substance that is malleable, such as clay. At the same time concentrate on your magic and allow it to flow.”

Nodding, even if it was not seen, Alexander followed his instructions. Concentrating, she focused on the previous steps, only focusing it more on just her right hand. Now that Alexander knew what the feeling was she was able to grab onto some of the shadows as she tried picturing the substance like clay.

It seemed that mixing how she had originally used her magic with what she had learnt tonight was what was needed. With effort Alexander took the shadows she had managed to grab and press them into a small ball. It was straining to do so in a way that was hard to truly describe, like the shadows were not all there, partly slipping through her fingers at times.

There was a bit of a strain from it, but the task was not draining her magic in any noticeable way. Alexander could not help grin happily at the fact that she was able to learn how to use more magic. “The basics anyway. This is going to take a lot of practice. He did say this kind of magic is built up like a mussel, so like my levitation I’ll just have to keep practicing this to get anywhere significant with it.”

“I got a ball of shadows in my hand now. What’s next?” Alexander asked, looking from her hand back to the tree.

“May I see, Mistress?” Night Ray simply said.

“Um, yeah, just give me a minute to get dressed,” She said. Alexander let the ball of shadow dissipate before putting her clothes back on. She then concentrated on creating another ball of shadows, something that took a little bit longer than she would have liked. But it was more fun now that she felt like she was getting somewhere. “Ok, you can come back now.”

Obediently Night Ray came back around from the tree. He walked over to Alexander and examined the orb she had made. “Well done Mistress. Quite well for never having tried this kind of magic before.”

Alexander liked her success, grinning as a result. Though her mood quickly dropped when she reminded herself of who was in font of her. “I wish I could be learning this kind of thing from someone that was actually nice and not a cultist capable of mass murder,” she lamented. Definitely a mood killer. “So… what next?”

Night Ray took a moment to think before taking a step back and bowing. “I believe it would be a good idea to retire for the night if that is all right, Mistress. While you have made good progress, you will need to practice more getting a feel for shadows before we can get to any practical application of them,” he said.

Yawning lightly, Alexander found that she agreed with the idea. “That sounds like a good idea. Lead the way then.”

Nodding, Nigh Ray started leading Alexander back into town. He went back to being just as quiet as he had been before.

As Alexander got closer to the mansion, and subsequently the rest of the town, she could see the rest of the cultists had already gone to bed, leaving the town dead quiet except for their footsteps.

The quiet reminded Alexander of just how many people had died here. She started feeling sick in the stomach again at the reminder. She shivered a bit as the long shadows cast by the moon and the houses added even more to the creepy atmosphere.

Alexander’s mood quickly plummeted from there. She had been able to mostly distract herself from what had been happening to her with her magic lessens. Now as her bed time was approaching, those feelings were creeping back up to the surface.

Starting to feel a few tears in her eyes, Alexander sniffed and started walking a little faster. She tried not to think about any of it; being summoned here, finding so many dead, and all the souls that she had unwillingly consumed.

Alexander put her hand on her chest as her breathing started to increase. Ignoring the cultist looking to her, she took a deep breath to try and clam herself. Alexander then forced herself to focus on her path back to her room.

She quickly closed the door behind her, not caring what the cultist following her did. Alexander flopped onto the bed, mental tiredness creeping up on her from everything that had been going on.

Alexander remembered that she had not eaten that afternoon, or the previous one now that she thought about it. As she was not hungry however, she did not find that she cared.

Giving off another yawn Alexander slowly went off to sleep, trying not to cry as she tried to stop herself from replaying the past week in her head as well as worrying about the future.

“I’m going to die here aren’t I?” she muttered before finally falling to sleep.