Summoned Goddess of Nightmares

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.