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.”