Twilight stared skeptically at Nightmare, thinking that any method that the goddess could conjure up could only end in tears, and in turn, the black alicorn spared her a disregarding look, her bold smile relaying nothing but confidence in her plans.
“Why do I get the feeling that this is all going to end up with me looking like a complete and utter foal?” Twilight asked with an exasperated huff, causing Nightmare to pout.
“Don't knock it until you try it mistress,” the dark alicorn countered with a wide grin, “After all, do you have any other brilliant plans to accomplish your goals?”
Twilight sighed, knowing the truth of her answer. “I suppose you're right.” She had been trying to figure out this whole “romance” business for ages now, finding that all of her data and research she had found in books were either outdated, inapplicable...or just downright disturbing. “So what is the first step Nightmare?” the purple mare questioned impatiently, truthfully wanting the answer to her long instilled query.
Nightmare chuckled, finding this eager Twilight rather adorable. “Simple my dear. The first step would be to identify what you find attractive in a pony, other than the fact that they are insanely beautiful and good in bed,” the black alicorn answered cheekily, drawing another crimson flood to make itself apparent on her host's cheeks. Twilight fiddled her hooves nervously, having never thought about what attributes were appealing to her.
“Um...well...knowledgeable, understanding, supportive, loyal...fun?” the mare hazarded, uttering the first five words that came to her mind.
“Hmm interesting. Now how about five things you don't like?” Nightmare offered, finding that outlining limitations and negatives were a good way to weed out particular ponies. Twilight paused, taking a moment to compile a list of attributes that seriously peeved her.
“I definitely wouldn't want them to be mean or demanding. Not clingy or overly arrogant. And absolutely not ignorant,” Twilight said, her voice much more sure and definitive than before; it was much easier to state negatives than positives.
“Well done my mistress,” the dream goddess replied, mentally cataloging Twilight's responses in her memory banks for future reference, “Now then we continue to the real first step!”
“Wha?” Twilight asked, surprised, “That wasn't the first step!?”
“Nope!....Well it is part of it.”
Twilight groaned. She should have known. “What is it really then?”
If it were possible, Nightmare's smile would have easily rivaled one of Pinkie's happiest grins. “Dating! Time to take a leisurely stroll around town my dear.”
Before Twilight could protest and without warning, the unicorn found her four limbs moving on their own accord, propelling her away from the mirror and down the stairs to the main level.
“What!? Hey! What's going on!? Nightmare!” Twilight yelled as her sentient hoof opened the front door without her prompting. She was trying her best to resist, but her own body refused to answer her frantic calls and demands.
“Just trust me Twilight,” a mischievous voice in her head purred, and Twilight could almost feel the smirk plastered on the goddess' face.
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Twilight was scowling as she moved further away from her abode, having regained her ability to control her limbs after stepping away from her dwelling. She didn't quite know what to make of the sudden development, but she did find it highly disturbing and equally frightening. Whenever she tried to re-enter her home, her hooves would just fold up on themselves and turn her right back around without fail, like two magnets of the same polarity coming near.
“C'mon then mistress. We don't have all day!” a recognizable voice cheered from nowhere, much to the growing annoyance of a certain lavender unicorn that was forced out of her home.
“Nightmare...” Twilight growled to herself, resulting in another bout of giggles from the enigmatic goddess, “What did you do!?”
“I merely gave you the right push my dear,” the voice answered simply, a small degree of smugness hidden behind her feminine voice, “Had to do something to get you out here, because I know you would have refused to start right this minute.”
“I can walk on my own you know!” the purple unicorn snapped, finding that being puppeted and marionetted around by another entitiy was insanely invasive and very much unwanted. She tried to deny it, but Twilight was scared...scared of what else the dream goddess could do to her.
“Oh stop worrying so much! I already told you that no harm would come your way,” Nightmare restated with an irritated huff. She had easily filtered Twilight's thoughts and knew her fears. “Shesh, it's like you don't trust me at all.” Twilight snorted.
“Oh no. Of course not! I trust you one-hundred percent,” she answered sarcastically, boiling at what Nightmare had just pulled.
“Great! Let's get to work then,” the dark alicorn pressed on, either ignoring the remark or actually unaware. Twilight would have bet on the former in a heartbeat.
“Work on what!?” All you told me was that the first step was dating,” the purple mare bit out, no amount of displeasure hidden in her voice. “I wouldn't know the first thing about dating.”
“That's easy. We're going to go check out some mares,” Nightmare answered gleefully, mentally prodding her host forward into town, not giving her host a say in the matter.
“Whatever...” Twilight answered, still mad at the alicorn for pulling that stunt. She began walking towards Sugercube Corner, deciding that if she was going to be forced out of her own home, she would at least grab something to eat.
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“She's cute! What about her?” that constant, annoying voice asked for the umpteenth time as Twilight ran into another one of her friends, seriously jarring her state of mental sanity. She was about to go mad.
Twilight looked away from the mare in front of her that Nightmare had decided to comment on excessively, causing another round of blushing to make its way onto Twilight's face.
“Are you okay Twilight?” a soft and kind voice asked, her gold eyes rolling around in her skull periodically as she stared at the flushed unicorn, her bulging cloth bag of undelivered mail hanging by her side.
“I'm fine Derpy,” Twilight answered unevenly, trying her best to keep her voice level as Nightmare continued to comment on the pegasus' fine backside and absolutely adorable set of eyes that no other pony could ever imitate. “Just headed over to Pinkie's to grab a snack.”
“Ooo! Do you think she has some fresh muffins!?” Derpy asked cutely, her whole demeanor and eyes lighting up as she imagined her favorite food items coming fresh out of the oven, their heavenly aroma of buttery goodness and perfect flavor invading her nose as she bit into the exquisite fluffiness of the confectionery delights.
“Uh...Derpy?” Twilight asked as she watched a drop of drool plop down to the floor from the easily distracted pegasus' mouth. The mail mare shook her head to clear her mind of absolute paradise, noticing the strange looks she was receiving from a couple of passerby ponies.
“Whoops....Sorry Twilight. I got a little bit too excited,” the gray pegasus apologized, her wings slightly protruded outward, much to her mortification.
“Oh I can tell,” Nightmare snickered deliciously, filling Twilight's head with all sorts of images that she did not want to dwell on. Twilight mentally swatted the dark goddess away for even suggesting....
“Oh! I know! How about I come with you to visit Pinkie?” Derpy suddenly proposed, breaking Twilight's mental scolding and throwing her back into the realm of reality.
“Huh...what?!” Twilight yelled loudly without meaning to in her disorientation, causing Derpy to wilt a bit at the less-than-happy response. The lavender unicorn flinched a bit as she watched the hurt filter across her friend's face. “Oh..sorry Derpy. Of course you can,” she quickly amended, smiling as a real grin broke across the wall-eyed mare's face.
“Yay!” the gray pegasus cheered, unaware of the mental battle her friend was suffering through.
“Oh..hoho! Look at you, you little vixen. Getting a date already, even before we finished checking out all the mares!” Nightmare said with an elated laugh.
“It is not a date!” Twilight immediately shot back mentally, becoming more and more flustered with each passing remark.
“Uh huh! Sure it's not. From the way you're still blushing, I don't think that's the truth.”
“Shut up...that's your fault...” Twilight answered weakly, trying her best to quell the insistent redness on her face, “It's just two friends going out to lunch. Nothing else.” However it didn't help that Derpy kept looking back at her, smiling all the while and oblivious to the plight of her unicorn friend, her face scrunching up into a joyful grin as they neared the bakery and all of its delectable muffins.
“Oh c'mon! You cannot tell me that that isn't the most adorable face you've ever seen,” Nightmare teased, receiving nothing but indignant spluttering and babbling. The dark goddess mentally grinned; one Nightmare, Twilight love, hopefully literally too.
Luckily for Twilight, she was saved from answering by the arrival of a certain pink pony that loved to pop up out of nowhere.
“Omigosh! Derpy! Twilight! Perfect timing!” Pinkie yelled as she pulled both of the unsuspecting mares into the bakery which was completely empty, “Just what I needed! Some testers for my new, superly awesome, super-de-duper top secret project!”
“Pinkie...” Twilight began to protest before a treat was shoved into her mouth for her to taste, and the lavender mare had no choice but to chew. She bit into the unknown desert, her mouth suddenly flooded with a multitude of extremely pleasurable sensations and favors that ranged from tangy to sweet to spicy. It was like eating happiness given form. “Welllllllll?!?”
“That was absolutely delicious Pinkie! What was that?” Twilight congratulated, earning a high-pitched squeal of joy from the excitable party pony while Derpy shared the same sentiment by merely clapping her hooves in delight.
“Yay!” Pinkie cheered as she danced around in a circle of success, making a mental note to start producing it in mass quantities. “So what can I do for you girls?” she asked as she slunk back behind the counter, almost as if she had been there the entire time. It was a secret project after all. Twilight took it in stride, knowing Pinkie would reveal her creation when she deemed it ready.
“I'll take a slice of strawberry cheesecake,” Twilight said, garnering a nod from the baker pony. Pinkie then looked over to the memorable mail mare, already knowing her order, but asking for it anyway.
“Muffins!” Derpy answered simply.
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie said as she disappeared, sinking down and disappearing out of sight from behind the corner, reappearing a moment later with a large slice of her premium cheesecake and a basket of fresh muffins. “On the house! Especially since you two helped me with my project!”
They couldn't protest and simply accepted the kind gesture, receiving their treats with happy thanks. Twilight trotted over to an empty table to enjoy her snack, only to find Derpy setting herself down in front of her, beginning to hungrily devour the cornucopia of muffins that must have been akin to food from heaven for the eccentric mail mare.
“Cuteness overload beware!”
“Shut up!”
Derpy must have noticed the grimace that crossed Twilight's face because she stopped mid-bite, setting down her latest muffin.
“Oh..I'm sorry!” the gray pegasus said, putting her hooves to her mouth in fear, embarrassed at how much fervor she had put into eating her afternoon snack. “Um...do you want one Twilight?” Derpy offered nervously.
The unicorn shook her head and assured the feverish mail mare that she was alright, telling the innocent pegasus to continue as she was. Derpy grinned enthusiastically and continued eating, unaware of the relentless pestering that Twilight was enduring.
“C'mon Twilight. Just ask her out already!” Nightmare insisted again, much to the unicorn's chagrin. Twilight had had enough.
“Look! Derpy is off limits. I'm not the right thing she needs right now....Besides, she's already an unofficial-official couple with Doctor Whooves, and Dinky loves him. I don't want to mess that happiness up!” Nightmare's mind was immediately filled with information relating to the mentioned ponies, and she gasped as she grasped the situation.
“Oh...” the dark goddess murmured, her voice dropping, feeling extremely guilty for pushing so hard. Nightmare didn't want to ruin Derpy's family or anything like that. “I didn't know...”
“You didn't bother to find out,” Twilight sighed mentally, slightly upset. She couldn't blame Nightmare entirely seeing as she didn't know the entire story.
“I might have gotten ahead of myself here...”
“You think?”
A moment of rare silence persisted in Twilight's mind as Nightmare held her tongue as she stewed in her burdened conscience.
“Sorry...”
Twilight blinked, replaying that simple word in her mind, finding it something she believed Nightmare would never utter or even think about uttering. Everything was changing.
“I forgive you...” Twilight answered mentally after a moment of deliberation as she allowed herself to mean those words.
“She's still pretty cute,” Nightmare remarked afterward with a giggle, no underlying, implying tones accompanying her statement, much to Twilight's relief.
Finally, the unicorn did smile as she watched her friend slowly continue through her basket of treats, each muffin accompanied by a smile. “Yeah...I guess.”
“That pink pony is really sexy though. Her plot is totally smoking hot,” Nightmare continued, undeterred.
Twilight groaned, slamming her face into the table. It was going to be a long afternoon.
Well there's the next chappie. Some more character development and Derpy!
It's like Molestia is in her head!
So if this goddess living in Twilight's head(who is clearly NOT nmm, both in how she acts and in what she's said of her and Luna's time as nmm) is the goddess of the night, then what's Luna? Just the goddess of the moon?
Also this is the second fic I caught up with today that then updated shortly after I thought I'd finished.
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In this setting, it seems that the Nightmare is some kind of cursed/banished entity, not a goddess of the night at all. Possibly a god of dreams: Whatever she lost of herself long, long ago obviously resulted in the curse of nonexistence, so she might originally have been indeed a god of nightmares.
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Yeah, I was asking myself that question too. Perhaps it's better to just call Nightmare the goddess of desire.
No Twilight! Stop assaulting the tables! What did they ever do to you!?
Twilight... this is how you do it:
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Twilight, why did you bang you head agaist the table?
1595591 No not really. Molestia would have her tie ponies up and bang them all overnight.
...Yes i just said that.
Come on Twilight... you wanna eat that muffin!
That was great.
I am of the opinion that Derpy does indeed have the finest backside of all ponies.
Part, pony. Part what?
Capricorn is a constellation or something to do with goats. Do you perhaps mean cornucopia, as in a whole lot of muffins?
I'm really enjoying the weird dynamic Nightmare and Twilight have, though. Their running dialogue was hilarious and the pacing was nice and gentle. Nice job with Pinkie, too. A lot of authors take her antics too far, but this was totally believable.
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That is true but I swear, every time I try to picture Nightmare Moon in this, I just keep seeing Molestia dressed as Nightmare Moon.....
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... Pinkie... Pie's... plot... You just had to go there huh Mekon!
In all seriousness, another excellent chapter, doing a great job in staving off my cravings for another of your stories on the other site. : p Really curiosu as to where you plan to take this story here, if it's going to be a TwiLuna story... my heart might give from the awesomeness this story will exude!
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Whoops! Oh the problems one measly letter will do.
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Can't believe I didn't catch that! Dumb spellcheck.
Thanks!
Shesh 1k+ favs already!? You ponies are crazzzyyyy!
Thanks so much everyone for your wonderful support!
its looking good so far. personally i hope you ship twi with nmm, but you know, others are good too.
And now we know the true goal of Nightmare, She wants to become Trollestia/Molestia, for real!
dashie.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw4597-1335650883700.png
1595777 Let me guess: The Many Secret Orgins of Scootaloo by Defender222, right?
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Indeed!
1595954 Thats a scary thought...
I am thinking that she will try to have twili9ght have an orgy with the other 5
this is hilarious **
This is all I found to be jarring. Enjoying this a lot. dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_Sweetie_happy.png
Love the chapter so far, I can't wait for the next chapter^^
I am likeing the character development for NMM, its not something we see all that often,also she is hilarious
Still liking the story. Constructive thoughts:
"In jokes" make for bad commentary in a story. I don't want to read a joke I already laughed at. That said you did a far better job of using the Derpy character than I have seen to date. TwiDerp is going in my things to write list, but this is coming from the guy that wrote a DashMac and a FlutterSorian.
I find characters using "plot" as slang rather awkward. breaking the 4th wall if you will.
show don't tell. "telling the innocent pegasus to continue as she was." could have been replaced with a very cute conversation.
I look forwarded to the next installment!
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I love this. Please keep it going xD
Now, I have nothing against mare/mare pairings. I do read a lot of them, but why is Nightmare only suggesting mares at all? If Twilight doesn't even know what she wants, it's not a given that she wouldn't want a Stallion.
Also, you spelt sugarcube wrong ;)
ar, not er.
But all that aside, good one. I'll be eagerly awaiting your next chapter.
I like how nmm went to mares instead of asking twilight whether she likes stallions or mares more
1632504>>1625094
Subliminal, foreshadowing reasons no?
DERPY!!!!!!!!!!! My favorite mare in all of MLP: Fim and a complete bad ass......I was really disappointed when it was not going to be TwiDerp but you added logic so I guess it's ok....going to have to read a TwiDerp later though. But I loved this chapter, a TwiPie? Count me in!
If that is what it is...I'm down for everything that has to deal with Twi save Big Macintosh, Celestia, Rainbow Dash and Rairity and of course Spike/Rarity.....other then those five I'm seriously down for any other pairing, but thats my option.
You kinda skipped stallions. Logically it would seem to be the first set of options. But I'm not complaining
“Just what I needed! Some testers fro my new, superly awesome, super-de-duper top secret project!”
Wut.
Whoa I'm extremely curious on what the hay Twilight has been researching!
"Outdated"?
How the heck does the concept of "romance" and love become "outdated"? I mean love is probably one of those few things that never changes in the flow of time. The feeling of "love" is the same, it wont evolve unless the species itself evolves.
"Inapplicable"?
The concepts of love and affection are pretty important when studying species survival for example, in the beginning of time love was an instinct that kept the members of a species together. In a group, by taking care of each other through affection, a species chance of survival increased tremendeously. "Love" was also vital for reproduction which prevented the species from dying of extinction.
So yes, "love" can be studied and explained scientifically which makes it very applicabl,e in social studies for example, which Twilight would probably study as well.
"Disturbing"?
OK I don't know if Twilight was studying "romance" from scientific and philosophical books or dirty playpony magazines...magazines which probably have nothing to do with love.
Either way to call love "disturbing" must mean that something went wrong...or her concept of love is just completely wrong.
Remember kids! "romance"/ love and sex are not the same! They can both exist without the other!
Sounds like Nightmare Moon has been looking into some threads and fanfics regarding Derpy Hooves...and probably anypony else.
1969208 Heh... How can love be outdated he says... Someone has never read about Victorian Era courtship traditions. The ... methodology of love changes SIGNIFICANTLY with every generation, mate. The way our generation dates is considered bizarre by our parents' generation.
Twi must be feeling like this
3088643 nah she's feelin more like this