Mid-Nightmare

by killerdarkrai

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Anthro, Nightmare Moon, Drama, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Tragedy
Length: 3048

3k words, Anthro Nightmare Moon TFTG

A man named Marco gets a tattoo from a friend who learned to enchant them with magic, while not learning how to control said magic. Day by day, Marco must now watch as his body is changed to something much more... nightmare-ish.

Published 2023-07-20 17:30:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-07-20 17:30:00 UTC

Mid-Nightmare

The city was bustling with cars on the road, while the sidewalks were not as filled but still had plenty of people. Going down the sidewalk on a black skateboard was a young man named Marco. Marco had short blonde hair underneath his helmet, his face had no facial hair and brown eyes. Since it was cold out, which wasn’t something that happened often during summer, Marco had a puffy jacket and long pants on, with knee pads over them. Beneath the jacket was a My Little Pony t-shirt, since Marco was a bit of a brony, aka a male My Little Pony fan. Lastly was his red sneakers, firm on his skateboard. Marco was heading to a tattoo parlor in the middle of the city. He had finally turned eighteen last week, which means he was of the legal age to get a tattoo. The parlor used to be a magic and novelty shop known as Moonlight Mystics, but it was sold off after the owner went bankrupt due to lack of business. The new owner, a burly and gruff man named Louis, bought it at an auction and turned it into his tattoo parlor, called Phat Tats. Marco wanted to get a tattoo from Phat Tats for a while, but only now was he allowed to get one legally. Nothing else was stopping him since he lived on his own in college, far away from his parents.

After a few more minutes of skating down the sidewalk and dodging pedestrians walking by, Marco slowed down and arrived at the tattoo parlor. He hopped off his board and picked it up, walking inside which caused a bell to ring. Louis looked over to see who came in and waved at Marco, recognizing him. Marco and Louis went to college together, and even though Louis is just two years older than Marco, they attend the same classes and even shared a dorm room together before Marco moved out to live on his own. Marco gave Louis a thumbs up, and Louis gave one back, letting Marco know he can put his skateboard by the entrance. Giving a quick thanks, Marco put his skateboard up against the wall near the door and went over to Louis, shaking his hand. Louis asked his college friend what kind of tattoo he wanted, and since it was his first time, Marco wanted to make it special. Reaching into his pocket, Marco pulled up a picture of Nightmare Moon’s cutie mark from his phone and asked if he could get a matching tattoo on his flanks. Ever since becoming a bronie, Marco had never been shy about letting people know he was a fan of the show. Luckily, Louis did not mind at all, since he was forced to watch My Little Pony with his younger sister while their parents were out on business, so he understands why someone would be a fan of the show despite not being in the targeted age demographic. Once again reaching into a pocket, this time the one on the other side, Marco paid Louis ahead of time, which Louis kindly accepted.

Going over to one of the chairs, Louis reclined it back and instructed Marco to pull down his pants and underwear, then to lay down on the reclined chair with his belly. Marco gave a simple “got it!” and did as he was instructed, having his ass revealed as he laid down belly first. Louis quickly went over and closed the blinds on the parlor windows and temporarily locked the door, not wanting anyone to come in during the process and embarrass his good friend. Afterwards, he went over to Louis and explained the process would be long and a bit painful due to the area, so it would be best if they had some small talk during his time here. Marco gave a thumbs up once again and the tattooing process began.

The topic that Marco chose was about what Louis had to go through to get this place. During Marco’s first year of college, he and Louis shopped around here while it was still Moonlight Mystics, and the two of them knew that the owner, who went by Gekko, was very fond of the place and did not wanna give it up no matter what. Louis explained that Gekko didn’t really have a choice, he had not made enough money with the business. When Louis went to meet with Gekko after buying the lot at the auction, Gekko was relieved at first knowing it was one of his old customers taking over. But after Louis mentioned he was turning the place into his dream tattoo parlor, Gekko’s attitude shifted. He said that it wouldn’t be a very good idea, and went into a long tirade about the past of the lot. Apparently the site had cursed unstable magic that could cause terrible and chaotic things to happen to anyone the owner of the land cared for. Since Gekko cared for each and every one of his valuable customers, he had to do something to make sure nobody would come to harm. So he decided to contain the unstable magic in all of the products he sold. The magic that was infused within what he sold at Midnight Mystics would counteract the unstable magic that seeped into them, canceling each other out and turning them into regular items with no magic in them whatsoever.

Gekko exclaimed that unless Louis also sold magical tattoos and got proper training to enchant them, he could end up hurting someone he cared about. However, Louis didn’t really believe his story, saying that it would be fine and if anything happened he would call Gekko to get some help. He wanted to get to reworking the building right away and didn’t want to waste the precious time he had with magic lessons that might turn out to be a scam, so he just said everything would be under control and went off. That was the last time Louis had ever seen Gekko, and even though Gekko had called the business number Louis set up to check on him, nothing bad had ever happened to his customers, so he just assumed it was all good and Gekko was just making things up to scare people away from buying the lot. Marco laughed at the story, thinking it was a pretty ridiculous thing. He had met Gekko before when he was performing magic tricks to advertise Midnight Mystics when himself and Louis were visiting, and Marco seemed pretty convinced that the magic Gekko was performing was real. Still, if real magic was not enough to keep a business afloat, then it probably wasn’t good enough.

The two continued chatting during the tattooing process, talking about what they have been up to during summer break and possibly meeting up tomorrow to have some lunch. The plans were made, and by the time Marco and Louis agreed on where to meet up, the two tattoos were complete. Louis took pictures of them with his phone and showed them to Marco for approval, and they looked just like Nightmare Moon’s cutie mark, even having a soft purple glow to them. Marco said they were perfect and thanked Louis for doing this for him, with Louis saying it was no big deal. As a warning, Louis told Marco that it might sting for a while if he tried to sit down, so he should stay standing for a bit of time, and that it will probably wear off before he goes to bed. Once again, Marco gave his signature thumbs up of approval and pulled his pants and underwear back up, with Louis opening up the blinds and unlocking the door so his friend could leave. Since Marco came in on a skateboard, he wouldn’t have to sit down while going home, so he picked it up and went out. He then hopped onto the board and decided to skate around the city to spend his time until his ass had fully recovered. The rest of Marco’s day was spent skateboarding through town, so once it got dark, he went back to his apartment and got some rest.

Marco woke up the next day pretty late, the sun already high in the sky. When he went to check the time on his phone, it said that it was already 11:30 AM, which was 30 minutes away from when he agreed to meet up with Louis. This caused Marco to panic a bit, since he was never this late of a sleeper in the past. He quickly got out of his big bed and rushed into the restroom. The restroom had plain white tiles and walls, with some carpets to keep the floor from getting wet. Marco hurried and turned on his glass wall shower, waited around a bit for the temperature to get just right, and got inside to clean his body with great speed, washing his hair with shampoo and conditioner and using some soap to scrub his body. Despite the cutie mark tattoo being on him for less than a day, it did not get smudged or washed off at all while Marco was in the shower, even from the soap. Of course, Marco was too busy being in a rush to notice this, turning the shower off and going back to his bedroom to get some clothes on. Since today was much warmer than it was yesterday, Marco picked out a blue polo and black sweat shorts to go along with his sneakers. Running out of his room, Marco got his skateboard, helmet, and kneepads, then went out of the apartment and into the building’s elevator to get to the ground floor. While putting on his protective gear inside the elevator, he went to check the clock, which said he had twenty minutes until the decided meetup time, which should be enough time to skate on over to the restaurant. Once the elevator doors opened up at the ground level, Marco rushed outside and hopped on his board, skating on over to see Louis.

Louis had just arrived at the restaurant and was getting out of his red sports car when Marco arrived, hopping off his skateboard and putting it on his back with his protective gear. Running over to Louis, Marco gave his signature thumbs up to let his friend know everything was good. The restaurant the two had decided to eat at for lunch was Grinderhouse, a burger joint with tons of meaty options to enjoy. Marco had always loved eating here, since he was a huge fan of meat and protein, and it was where he first took Louis to eat when they were in college together, so it had a special place for the two. They went inside and got assigned to their table, where they were handed a menu with all their options. Looking over, Marco was about to order his regular one-thirds pound cheeseburger, but he suddenly didn’t feel like eating meat today, which was odd. Maybe it was a stomach bug or something, but Marco couldn’t explain it. So he decided to substitute out the beef for one of the new vegetarian patties and got some lettuce and tomato on the burger with a side of fries and onion rings and a large soda. Louis didn’t really mind Marco’s differing order, and the two just waited for their orders, and dug in when they got them.

After the hearty meal and Louis paying for it, saying it was his treat, Marco and Louis went their separate ways once more. Marco wanted to check out the new giant skate park that had finished construction yesterday and was officially opened today, but as he started heading towards it on his skateboard, he began to feel very drowsy. Thinking that it would be pretty dangerous to skate and do tricks while tired, Marco decided to head home for today and take a small nap. He thought he would be just fine considering how much he slept today, but he didn’t really wanna risk anything, so trusted in his decision making skills. Once he got to the apartment complex, he began marching up the stairs to his floor, which made him even more tired and caused him to question why he wanted to even use the stairs at first. But he shrugged it off and got to the floor his apartment was on, using his key to go inside. Marco collapsed on his bed, too tired to even take his clothes off, and fell asleep quickly. While he was sleeping, his tattoo began to glow brighter underneath his clothes.

Marco woke up in the middle of the night. He got up and grabbed a snack from his fridge before he left his apartment, going outside where it was completely dark aside from the moonlight and streetlamps. He decided now would be a good time to use the new skate park, since it would be less crowded at night. He went on over with his gear and skated around throughout the entire night. When the sun would begin to rise, Marco would get tired and go back home, eating some food before sleeping the entire day away. This would continue on for multiple days, a cycle that Marco couldn’t seem to escape no matter what he tried. Wake up in the middle of the night, eat, do stuff around town, go home when the sun rises, eat, sleep, repeat. Not to mention Marco started feeling weird. He noticed some black splotches on his skin near the tattoo, and his diet had completely changed to a vegetarian one. Now Marco was genuinely worried that the cursed magic Gekko was talking about was real.

After a whole week of the strange cycle, Marco had noticed something had changed. Just as he was heading out his bedroom door, though, he bumped against the doorframe, which was odd since he wasn’t nearly tall enough to reach it. He went to rub where he got bumped, but he felt something weird. Looking over at his bathroom mirror, he saw that a horn had grown right out of his head! Marco started to panic, trying to pull the horn off with no luck. He realized what this meant, the curse was real and he was becoming Nightmare Moon. Deciding he couldn’t be seen like this, he started staying home, only opening his apartment door to get food deliveries. As the days went on, his body kept changing more and more. The day after the horn incident, Marco’s hair had grown out long and wavy with a purple starry pattern instead of his natural color. After that, he found out he had a tail with the same color the next day. And the day after that, wings had sprouted out, and Marco couldn’t even wear a shirt anymore. He was just staying in his apartment, naked, which was what caused him to notice the black spots that were now covering his entire body was a light coat of fur. Even his head had eventually transformed to become horselike, with fangs poking out from his mouth. After another entire week had passed, Marco now had grown a curvy pair of breasts and their ass thickened up, along with their voice turning deep and feminine.

Marco decided enough was enough. It was clear that Gekko was right about the cursed magic, and the only way to get this undone was to find him. He spent every day stuck inside researching Gekko, and he had finally pinned down his location. Just as Marco went to open the door out of his apartment, they started to feel dizzy. Their cutie mark tattoo was glowing brighter than ever, and their new horn was glowing along with it. Marco stumbled backwards and fell onto their couch, the full moon shining down on them from the windows at its highest point, midnight. As they stared into the moon’s pale light, the magic from the horn began corrupting their mind, changing their personality to fit Nightmare Moon. Her mind was being shrouded in a thick and starry fog, covering up Marco’s old life with the new one the magic was giving her. She kept blinking from the light in her eyes, causing them to shift color until they matched the pony’s eye color exactly. Not only was the magic changing her mind, but giving her new clothing too. The royal regalia of Nightmare Moon, complete with a revealing light blue nightgown showing off her new assets for everyone to see. She held onto her head with her pitch black hands and kicked her feet around, but it was no use. Marco let out one final scream as they were sealed away inside their own body, with Nightmare Moon having fully awoken in a new anthropomorphic body.

Nightmare Moon stood up tall, walking over to the bathroom mirror. She stared into it with her new eyes, admiring the wonderful transformation that had just taken place. She was free, now having a body to call her own and magic powers that she could use to bring the eternal night. But she would not let herself get beaten, she would make sure nobody could stand against her. Plucking memories out from her host, she checked to see if anyone they knew would potentially be a threat to her. There she saw Marco’s memories of his conversation with Louis at the tattoo parlor a couple weeks back. How Louis mentioned a magician named Gekko who was able to nullify the cursed magic she now wielded by using his own magic. She would not allow a man like that to roam free, not when he was a big threat to her. Nightmare Moon had decided she would trap Gekko in an eternal nightmare, preventing him from ever using his powers against her. Walking over to the bedroom window, she opened it up and proceeded to leap out, letting her wings carry her across the midnight sky. Her breasts and ass shined in the moon’s light as she flew through the sky. Once that pesky magician was out of her way, Nightmare Moon would bring her eternal Nightmare Night.