My Terrible Nightmare

”Psst. Hey. Hey ZJ. ZJ?”

I jerked awake, looking around and then looking at him.

”Man, you must of been really tired.”

”I mean.. I guess so. What time is it?”

He made a sheepish smile.

”Uh heh, it’s uhm.. its 6 at night. It’s been around 3 hours. I let you sleep, anyways it seemed like you needed it.”

My eyes went wide. I haven’t slept that long in a while, or at all really. I rubbed my eyes.

”Did you ever finish the cutie marks?”

”Oh yeah! I actually have a couple, but I finished it like an hour and a half ago.”

He pointed at the paper on the desk and I leaned forwards picking it up. Wow some of them looked really cool. Then one struck my eye.

”I like this one. Looks.. unique.”

He looked over and smiled.

”Oh heck yeah! This one took me a bit to think of but it’s based off this cryptic god from the far past named Cyrobe. Took ponies souls and controlled their minds like zombies, and the ponies souls went to an abyss that was just like space, floating around in the middle of nowhere.”

He moved his hooves to what he was explaining. The mark did sound pretty cool, and looked cool as well

”Do you have like.. paint or something to put it on my ass? Or uh flank.”

”Oh totally! I’ll go ahead and get it! This is gonna be so awesome!”

He hopped off the couch and trotted to a small door in the wall, usually where people or uh, ponies, put junk stuff in. He pulled out a can of paint and then little paint tubes, and a few different sized brushes.

”I only got this blue in the paint can, but all the other colors I have in the tube! And it does take a bit to make it come off so splashing water on it won’t make it go away as easily.”

He shoved them towards the coffee table with the paint brushes in his mouth and dropped those onto the table. He sat next to me with one of the tubes in his hoof. He was about to reach over to my flank, and I looked at him a bit weird, not realizing my face was a “uhh what are you doing” face.

”Oh uhm, is it alright if I..?”

I shook my head, getting rid of the emotion I had on.

”Oh yeah sorry! I didn’t mean to make a face if I did.”

He smiled shyly as I positioned myself a little better for him to start painting. Course this felt weird, someone drawing on your ass.. well I guess it’s like getting a tattoo, which I just remembered, I actually had a tattoo, but I guess the world didn’t want me to have, probably thinking that ponies will think I had my mark in the wrong spot on my body, or whatever that thing was called.. Cutie Pox? But I think that was from a potion or something.

I felt a cold tingle on my flank as he started to paint, me twitching at the feeling, but then the feeling leaving as I started looking around the room, letting him paint, hopefully not making it anymore awkward.

I saw on the wall a picture of Shadow and what looked like a small child.

”Hey Shadow?”

”Yeah, wassup?”

He didn’t look up, continuing the cutie mark.

”Is that your brother?”

He looked up for a second and then looked back down.

”Oh yeah that’s him! Stripe Hoof. I know it isn’t really showing in the picture, but he’s got a birthmark on one of his hooves that is, you guessed it, a stripe. It’s actually pretty cool cuz it sorta wraps around his arm as well, just starts at his hoof. I was of course born with the white streak in my hair, and I guess he got the stripe on his fur.”

”What do you think his cutie mark is gonna be? If he uh, doesn’t have one already.”

I felt him freeze the brush for a second, him thinking, then continuing.

”I have no idea really. I mean he does like to fly really fast, idolizing a pony named Rainbow Dash, mostly because he’s blue as well, and believes that all the blue pegasi would be just as fast as him. He did say there was a blue pony in his class, but they’re an earth pony.”

I made a slight “hm” sound in response, and then looked back at the picture.

30 minutes passed and he nudged me a bit as I woke up from a small nap.

”Tada! Finished both sides!”

I shook my head slightly from the nap and looked back at my butt, seeing the cutie mark. It looked so weird but also really cool. Kind of makes the area tingle but I mean.. I’ve never had my ass painted on before so, I guess that’s where the feeling is coming from.

”Oh wow thank you, it looks great! But.. what would I tell other people what it is or how I got it?”

”I mean you can say you got it from learning that explosion you did earlier and practiced with it and got this mark. I don’t know if a lot of ponies will know who Cyrobe is since the cryptic myth was so so long ago so, you should be fine.”

”Ah ok. It does feel a bit weird having one though, hopefully I don’t get any stares.”

Shadow shook his head and put an arm around me.

”Shhh you’ll be fine. If anything you can say that I “helped” you get it, like having the idea and all.”

I shrugged a bit, then yawned.

”Heh, guess your still tired huh? I mean it is almost 7 o’clock, and I don’t know if Princess Twilight will get super worried or not.”

”Yeah, I would still like a place of my own though, I guess for privacy reasons and so no one will worry where I would be at night so I don’t have to go home at a time.”

Shadow put a hoof under his chin and looked around, thinking.

”I do remember somepony talking about moving to Manehatten, but they said that 4 weeks ago so I don’t know when they’re moving. But I guess you can keep a look out for that. It’s a few blocks down but you’ll still be close to me if you need anything.”

I smiled slightly and got up, stretching my legs, hearing some of the joints crack. I look back at my flank, my eyes laying on the painted cutie mark.

”Thanks a lot. Hopefully those dumbass ponies will stop bullying me, or probably from what you said earlier about, ‘claiming’ me or something.”

He nodded and walked me to the door.

”Be safe now ya hear? You should already know where Princess Twilight’s castle is, right?”

I turned my head a little back towards his direction and nodded, walking out of the door. He waved and closed it behind me, making my way down the road.

I made it to Twilight’s castle, thankfully nothing happened while walking back to her house, except for some stares but other than that nothing to bad. I opened the door and closed it, jumping slightly when I saw Twilight and her friends standing there talking.

”Oh! Hello ZJ!-“

They all gasp, seeing my ‘cutie mark’. I shrink back a bit and hid it by facing them so they won’t really see it, but also shoving my hoodie down a little more over the mark.

”Oh darling! You got a cutie mark!”

Rarity said, but I looked at the ground and shook my head.

”It’s… it’s not.. it’s not real. I had a friend draw one on me because hopefully I’ll stop getting bullied.”

I sat down on the ground and AppleJack walked over.

”It’s alright sugar cube. At least you told the truth to us. But your mark looks mighty fine!”

She said, me seeing her gaze go towards my ass. Everyone else nodded, making agreenment sounds as well.

”Can we see it more?”

Twilight said, trying to get a better view at it. I nodded and I got up, slowly making my way over to them and turning my flank towards them. I saw them all smile, but Twilight had a confused face on, probably trying to understand it.

”That mark looks somewhat familiar. Do you know if your friend knew anything about the mark?”

”He said it was based off of a creature named Cyrobe. Something about taking souls and whatnot. I found it pretty cool so I went with it.”

A few of them blinked in response. I just smiled shyly then shook my head.

”By the way, was I disturbing something?”

”Oh no your fine! We were just discussing about the Gala! Want to join in?”

Twilight said, all of them beginning to smile. Felt really strange but I nodded and walked more closer to them both.

”I heard that you and a friend wanted to come over to my boutique to have some work done before the gala?”

”If it’s not to much trouble.”

”Oh darling your fine! I love to style peoples dresses and suits for the gala, or any other occasion!”

She used her hoof to gesture.

”If it’s alright, I’m going to go lay down for the night. Kind of had an exhausting day. When should I meet you at your place?”

”1 should be fine! I don’t have anything else planned since the gala would be the next day.”

I nodded in response and said goodnight too the mane 6, then walked to my room which was just down the hall. As I closed the door, I felt a wave of nausea hit me. I stumbled a bit and caught myself on the wall. I looked around the room, some objects turning slight shades of purple, then fading out to the usual color. I froze for a bit then looked down at my ass, staring at the cutie mark.

Shadow better not have screwed me over. Unless this is what nausea is to ponies.

I thought. Still staring at my mark for a few more seconds, shook my head, and walked to bed. Me realizing there were no windows in the room since the bedroom was somewhat in the center of the castle. I threw myself on the bed, laying there for a couple seconds then rolling over on my back, grabbing the covers and shuffling under them.

I could easily get a new cutie mark.. guess it would take a while for this mark to rub off unless they got some stuff for things that are stuck on fur. Oh well, let’s see what happens tomorrow.