Author's Notes:

It's been a hell of a day, but I have the chapter finished. I'll have the blog done tomorrow.

Sorry, but I had some things happen that needed to be taken care of.

Be warned, this chapter is all about Derrick and Nightmare Moon. Lot's of snuggles, flirting, and her being a serious pervert with the man.

Enjoy.

Derrick pressed his lips together in the heat of the moment. He'd thought about little else since he and Nightmare Moon had taken a stroll around the castle with her as his guide and help. "There is so much that I don't understand about this world and myself. Having a mother for the first time, taken away from a world that I'd thought was my home and the only stability I'd ever had now shattered by everything going on in my head. I don't know how much longer I can take having my entire life turn one-eighty."

Nightmare Moon held him tightly and nuzzled where her cutie mark was starting to show, and the glow from the slowly growing moon on his skin flashed. "I know," she admitted softly.

"You knew this entire time I was not human, that I am something else, that I needed to overcome. . . everything that is a lie." Derrick remained still in the garden grass, so that he did not lose his comfortable spot whilst staring up to her moon. It was different from Luna's moon. Smooth and glossy with not a single crate to shape the image of a pony. He hid his expression by looking away from the alicorn.

"Do not worry about the truth," Nightmare Moon said. "You've come back to where you belong. And what happened to you before wasn't your fault, and you should never feel ashamed of it."

"I'm not ashamed, just scared and angry. I'd believed there was no reason for being an orphan and that Celestia and Luna really loved me, but I'd lived a lie with those two using me as relief. I'm not even sure if these feelings you have for me are true. I want to believe it, I feel that I would be better off believing. It's growing in me every day, but it's so damn hard to believe that you, The Mare in The Moon, has a thing for me."

Nightmare Moon should have taken that as an offense, but she understood where he was coming from and felt she should be more his friend than his enemy. She wanted to be mad if not angry for her feelings being compared and questioned to those monstrous alicorns. His situation, however, made her see and realize that belief is not something she could gain with words or affection.

"Do you think I would do the same thing those two did to you?" She asked in a soft voice.

Derrick sighed in his own disappointment. No, I just don't how to feel or think about your feelings. You saved me from being eaten and from the girls taking me back to Canterlot, but I feel lost and confused. It should not be so difficult, but it is."

"You're heart was crushed by those who you believed to be your lovers, and your supposed 'friends' helped in the matter." Nightmare Moon pointed out. "You're mind and soul are not in sync with one another, and without a full heart to bind them, you're lost in the darkness that is loneliness and despair."

Derrick's eyebrow shot up. He turned to the alicorn and stared into her deep, blue eyes tipped with magic sparkling inside them.

His grin was almost contagious, revealing twin dents near his mouth. "You certainly have a very good eye for what a person feels. I thought I could express myself without letting you know what is going through my head."

"You are not the best liar, nor the best deceiver. You're too busy looking in the past and the moments you occasionally have put just too much remembrance," she accused, laughing softly. "I care about you, Derrick, you know that, don't you?"

"I don't know how much though. I don't have much in my name and my entire life is a lie. I don't have all that many ponies to turn too for help. If you ask how I feel, I'd say I don't know." He looked away from her, disgusted of himself.

Nightmare Moon put her hoof on his chest. "There are many ponies here who are your friends and your family. I am one of those ponies, but what I feel for you is deeper than friendship. If I wanted to have you for myself, then I would not hesitate to make you mine. But I know that you need time and space to rebuild yourself."

"So us snuggling in the garden and looking up to your night sky doesn't count as something closer?" He mused, grinning evilly.

Nightmare Moon was quick to offer a rebuttal. "I thought it best to slowly pull you towards me rather than force myself on you." She expressed with a passionate kiss to his cheek, before returning to star gazing. "Besides, I enjoy the slow growth of what we have going on right. It's better developed with you and I being."

"Is it because you respect me?" Derrick asked.

"No," she chirped. "It's because I love seeing your mother squirm in anticipation for us to become mates."

"That's going to take some time. I don't have much to go by with you being this completely different mare, but I do see that how you are is not a lie."

"Are you implying you're convinced that my true nature is to have you and protect you?" She tittered like a filly.

"I guess I am."

"Of course you are. As I said in my previous statement, you're not good at lying, nor deceiving. You're better off remaining the creator and fixer you are. It's much more interesting."

"Does it not upset you that I was claimed already?" Derrick asked curiously.

Nightmare Moon laughed and shook her head. "Derrick, to be claimed by an alicorn means you bred with Celestia and Luna and developed a bond so deep that no magic in the world can break." She slid her hoof downward until it reached his waistline, and proceed to pat it gently, causing for the man to blush while she gave him a vampish grin. "And I seem to recall that neither mare gave their bodies to you. So don't you worry about being claimed, because that will happen in due time." She leaned into his ear. "In my bed. Under my covers. With me being the mare who claims you."

"You wouldn't happen to have something to eat in that basket, would you?" Derrick asked nervously, his voice cracking under the mare's lustful gaze as she remembered the food he servants brought out for a midnight snack. Reluctantly, she had to pull away from her own devious purposes to search through the handbasket for the few sandwiches she requested.

The undesired separation muted in Nightmare Moon's mind as she rolled away from him. She felt that with the time they already spent together Derrick's feelings for her needed to be understood more clearly. Not just for her own satisfaction but to know if she was going to more or less to him. Her eyes snapped to the handbasket as she stood up, her grin meaning the worst a mare can do to provoke a males lust. She looked down at the nervous man blushing up at the slight view of her genitals. Her smiled curled into something more devilish, her appearance evil in a seductive way. Strands of her tail tangled on his arm, intentionally, bright in the moonlight while the magic flowing from every hair dissipated at his touch.

Beneath the view of her slightly glistening lips, both aroma and musk blew into Derrick's nose, his need to put space between him and her greater than when she snuggled him in her own bed.

"Not the same as a normal ponies vagina, is it?" She husked boldly, making his last breath stop midway. She knew she was right about the difference, and Derrick could not resist agreeing by nodding his head. Unlike the misshapen swelling of a mare's genitals, hers was much smoother and did not reveal itself to the world. Given that it was barely viewable, Derrick was certain it was beautiful with it's slick, small formation.

Nightmare Moon's tail moved to block his view, the smallest of teasing, a mere whine escaping her throat. This betrayed the man's mind and body.

"Naughty lord," she called him, laughing erotically.

Immediately he threw his arm over his eyes and rolled away to make his escape, to spend the rest of his night in peace rather than have a goddess play with him. Her hoof stopped him however, and instantly her breath slithered across his face. Over-head stars glittered a bright pink and the moon glowed a soft yellow while lazy clouds blew in. He shielded his eyes to the best of his ability, but her breath caught his attention.

"Sorry, I forgot that I must give you space." She apologized, though it was not to be sympathetic. "But I guess I just cannot help myself. I hope you don't mind."

She laid back down and pulled back the arm from his face, removing the appendage from his strong eyes, while allowing the moonlight to shimmer in them. She wanted him to be comfortable with her, not afraid or aware that he was alone and unable to trust.

"What is it, Derrick? Are you intimidated?"

Her hooves pulled and forced the man to look up to her. The moment their eyes met, his heart leapt in his chest. She had always been stunningly gorgeous; even when he was manipulated to believe she was monstrous he could not veer from thinking how beautiful she was. As he'd seen Luna in her more natural appearance, his mind became more much more apparent to such beauty being equal if not more with Nightmare Moon. He was wrong though, he was in the presence of divinity that outmatches Celestia and Luna by a longshot. The curvy figure ran strong with Nightmare Moon, giving her a more voluptuous and slim figure, better than he thought, with every inch of her being what he hoped.

"Intimidated is what you feel when we are like this." The alicorn answered for him. She rested as they were originally with face in his neck, hovering the meal in her magic.

There was a little growl to his stomach that caught at her. "Well now," she floated the sandwich closer and locked her wings around him to prevent escape. "Are you that hungry?" She began to trail her breathing, delicately, across his skin.

She felt him tremble, the strongest of shivers, but she did not stop from there, rather she lifted her face subtly so her next kiss brushed the side of his chin. "Derrick, you will heal in time." She kissed him gently and him close, demanding nothing. Asking for nothing in return. Simply through body language telling him she wanted to be more than his friend and holding him were all that mattered in that moment.

Her lips curved into a faint smile while the sandwich was used to taunt him. "Perhaps you are still too weak to eat on your own. I believe you still need somepony to feed you properly."

"I promise you I can feed myself, if you give me the chance." Derrick assured in a nervous voice. "Besides, I still have one good arm to use. It's not like I've lost my arms completely."

"I see. So you wish to be stubborn. . . "

"Come on Nightmare Moon, I'm not as weak as you think I am," he interrupted. "Besides, I really don't to cling onto anyone and want them to take of me."

She laughed, turning her face back down to his throat as she cuddled him. Her tongue brushed licks over the barely noticeable replica of her cutie mark slowly burning on his skin. She was surprised that it wasn't affecting him at all, but, then again, there are so many things about the man that have yet to be discovered. Her tongue stroked caresses there, followed the path to his shoulder. Derrick did not understand why she'd pushed the boundaries. For him? For his love or servitude? Not for herself, he assumed. She'd been so desperate to cling onto him and the suffering she'd gone through to watch the princesses take him must have been unbearable.

Bravely, he slid his hand into her mane, bunching the thick silken strands between his fingers. "You have me so confused. We're two different creatures. There are stallions that could be better for you, but you want me so badly. It's so weird and kind of scary to have this right now."

She laughed softly. "Stallions are nothing compared to you. The most they see in a mare is their physical beauty and how nice their flanks are. But you are very different from that. You have an amazing grasp for what a mare truly is and what she wants." Her lips went back to feathering short kisses in between the smooth stroking of her tongue.

A rush of heat sent magic flickering through his bloodstream. Every muscles tightened, became aware of the mare loving on him. This mare. With every silent moment, her wings brushed his skin intimately. He caught enticing glimpses of her flank, the moon in it's dark blotch rounded to her very feminine curves.

He did not know it, but she was bound to him, drawn by her blood coursing through his veins, barely soul to soul, but it was there, and even a pony as strong-willed as Raven could not separate them ever. He did not try to hide his body's reaction from her. He was scared, but he understood too much to pretend nothing was happening.

She lifted her head to look down at him, her dark eyes glowing with power. "I want you to know that you were meant to be mine. Not Celestia's. Not Luna's. Mine."

Her gave her a faint smile. "That's a little creepy, but I like it," he assured her. "Because there is something about me that Celestia and Luna do not know."

"You have various thoughts of being in a relationship with me." She hit the nail of the head. "It doesn't surprise me. You have a fetish for me to dominate you."

He looked away and laughed. "If I'd known I was being spied on while in Equestria I wouldn't have had Luna change into you and do some foreplay with me."

She mused the subject. "Well your secret is safe with me, though I don't how long you will be safe." She leaned closer to him. "After all, you've never made love with a pony. So that makes you somewhat a virgin; and I just cannot wait to take that from you and shove it in their faces."

"Thanks, but you're gonna have to wait for a little while," he said simply, meaning it. He'd saved himself for that occasion, waiting for someone to take part of him. "I'm not some stallion that will have sex with the first mare who raises her tail. Plus it will be fun on the day I do make love with a mare—"

"With me." She interrupted, her tone stern. "And it will be fun to see how much better a human is than a stallion."

"I figured, since stallions can do nothing but nip and mount, that were is not much intimacy." His eyes went soft, those growing iris' of red she was fond of. "I suppose two minutes is not enough to get a mare to orgasm."

She laughed softly. "Only you would think that, and you are half-correct. Some mares need time while others are very sensitive." She leaned into his ear. "And just so you know, from masturbating as I watched you shower alone, I discovered that I am very sensitive down there."

The amusement faded from his eyes. "Okay, you're going way too far there. I know this is supposed to be your free-time with it being just us two, but flirting with me was not part of the description."

"No pony is here to see what is happening, Derrick," she assured. We're deep in the garden. Even should a guard, your mother, or even Discord appear in this part of the castle, they could not see us lying here. I have created a barrier that no eyes will penetrate."

Derrick took a bite of the sandwich after taking it from the mare while she was in her thoughts. He swallowed hard in nervousness as she collapsed on him, as if that small spurt of lust and energy had gone and she was content using him as a body pillow.

"I understand you are not ready to embrace what I am trying to give you, and I will wait for a little while. But remember that bringing you here was for me to have you and not those deceivers you'd thought to be you lovers." She looked up to him, her eyes filled with a dark emotion he found to be more exciting than terrifying. "I may be your friend, but you are mine. And should another mare attempt to take you from me, there will be mess for the maids to clean up."

Her confession made him laugh. Why, he did not know. "You are mine?" he repeated. "Nightmare Moon, it's been a little over two weeks since I met you. Plus I'm just starting to get over what happened back in Canterlot."

"A void that I will fill my love and care." She turned her head up to look at him again. "Should I remind you that I spent months watching you grow on those mares. I was capable of murdering them, if I knew you would not hate me or be terrified. I felt an agonizing pain in my heart that grew with every waking moment of you so much as kissing Celestia. Luna, I did not mind so much. But to see you date the one who banished me hurt me so much."

"I don't think you ever have to worry that I will be with Celestia or Luna ever," he assured her. "I've had enough of their bullshit."

"Ever?" she prompted.

To her surprise, he leaned in to snuggle. This time his arm was firmer, a little more clingy He dug deep along the middle of her chest and buried his face.

"I'm not going back or giving them a second. Why would I when the sexiest mare in the world has the softest chest and is holding me?"

Nightmare Moon pressed her snout to his head, a soft loving nuzzle, brushing his hair back and forth over her lips, as if she was already his mare. Her tongue stroked over a tender gash, following his taste, tasting his blood a little tentatively, but growing bolder as she deepened with a relaxed sight.

Loving with such intensity was frightening to her—wonderful—but frightening. She'd never thought herself the kind of mare to fall the man from a distance, and now have him in her hooves. She was not the same monster. She would never be the same. She would have the perfect personality of the emotionless goddess. Admittedly, she would forever need this strange man who lived at his own pace.

She took control of that perfect moment, so warm and inviting. Her wings ruffled in the smooth touch of his shirt overlapping them, anchoring herself to him, her first commanding, yet not controlling move. She waited a sigh, giving her the incentive to remain like this, but her lust remained strong, a creature that would be mistaken to be in heat, holding, still fighting the urge to pounce him.

Her body molded to his for him, more of a physical claim then she'd ever made before, more natural. She timed the sync of her heartbeat to his this time, shocked she'd feel perfection and almost pull away, but her obsession in him overcame any doubts she had and she spread her warmth to him.

The sensation was hot and tingling, a balanced surge sizzling through her veins, snapping along her every nerve ending. Her feelings for him encompassed her, almost infused to their cuddling, so that her need of him, elevating like a tidal wave, melded with love.

She took possession of his hug, so soft and powerful. She watched as he became peaceful, ignoring the sound of his own stomach. Derrick's mind raced, nearly shutdown from the sensation. Nightmare Moon did not know it, but every muscle hardened as blood rushed intensely to his groin. Her kisses were not the same as Celestia's, they were sweet, hot, a haven of ecstasy he wanted to visit over and over. He did not feel this with the princesses. He did not feel passion, but with this mare he does, and just his, but hers as well.

His need for another almost met hers. Almost rose with hers. Synced with hers. Her feelings were unparalleled and un-tutored, and that made it all the sweeter for him. Unlike the Solar Princess, she wasn't hesitant, but still a little shy from time to time. Nevertheless, he followed her warmth willingly, and when he held onto her, there was no as much fear as he had when he felt the princess, only a bizarre need to give her the same pleasure of cuddling.

He allowed her to nuzzle him over and over, allowing himself to drown in her passion, his breath stolen every time, giving her the benefit of his feelings opening to her. This dark, beautiful alicorn had saved him from a horrible death with the power of dark magic running through her and the incredible love she wielded. She had proven him wrong already, a reason to think not everyone is what they are spoken as, and then the thought of being loved by the wrong ponies, when he was lost he believed loneliness was best and no reason to hope, she had risked herself by coming for him.

He lifted his head to look down at her, drawing air into his lungs. Nightmare Moon pulled back, looking at him with her ensnaring eyes, her lashes fluttering down to cover her expression, but not before he caught the curious, nervous look. "You may be a stranger to me, but you are more amazing than them," he admitted, settling into her wings again. "I think I could get used to this."

"I am already clinging onto someone I met two weeks ago," he said, his tone skeptical. "I must be losing my mind or so desperate to not feel lonely that I'm hanging onto you."

He heard her snort. A little shiver went down his spine when she opened her eyes. She looked as calm and as happy as ever—the beautiful goddess in his eyes—but there was something in the timbre of her voice and in her eyes that told him she was very serious.

"Silly man, you don't realize that what you are doing is meant to happen." Before he could speak, she laughed softly. "You may feel desperate, but I do not consider it."

"I need to get some air," Derrick said, blushing. "I'm feeling hot."

She smiled deviously. "Yes you are."

He shuddered. "I don't think you understood what I meant. I'm not trying to flirt with you. I'm trying to be as honest with you as I can. Plus it's not that I want to get away from you, I just haven't thought about what's going on between us."

"That's my job right now, not yours," Nightmare Moon said." I am to think about what will be happening with us, while you rest and heal. We are all waiting for you to recover so Raven can make certain you're ready to stand with us as a royal. She wants to give you training and lessons when the time comes. It's not subtle, but she is a very good teacher. You'll need to be strong in order to move past your regrets."

Derrick stroked his fingers over her mane. "I'm lucky to be alive and have such help when I need it. But don't you think it would be a bad idea to put me in a position I'm not meant to be in?"

"Don't ever say that again, Derrick. Can you imagine what it would be like for Raven hearing you do not want to take what was stolen for you?" She asked in a very serious tone. "It is your birthright to rule with us, and Raven wants to see you be the lord you are."

He turned his head to look away. "I'm not a leader." His voice was weak." I can't imagine myself being someone in power, seeing as how I am far different from everyone."

"You are not that different." She brushed another kiss over his cheek. She held his arm and turned his head, forcing him to look. "You have the blood of the Night Mother running through your veins. You have alicorn blood, her blood, in your body, and she wants to see that bloodline awaken you. She loves you with all her heart, but she wants to see the true colors of your inner self. She wants to see your inner demon."

"Rather than see that I am nothing but a weak man," he said very soberly. Her retracted his arm and retreated. "I know I have to face the truth and how hard changing will be. I'd rather just wake in my room on Earth and think this is all a dream."

"So you would rather think that I was a dream?" she asked in a hurt tone. She retreated. "Is this new life of yours so terrible that you wish for it to be a dream, including me?"

He sat up, wincing, as she scooted away. "You don't understand what I have been through." He told her firmly. "Imagine if everything about you suddenly felt fake and everyone around you felt unreal. That's how I feel right now with you and the others."

She frowned at him. "I understand completely, seeing as how I was nothing more than jealousy and hatred that manifested before the elements gave me a body of my own."

She shook her head in disappointment, whipping her mane aggressively to the man. "You have no idea how lucky you are to have somepony to call a mother. At least you are somepony that is original and not a creature born from another's emotions."

He frowned, studying the perfect image of a her coming to life through the elements. A broken and lonely mare with no one to turn too, stuck in the loneliness, tracing her own hoofprints. He could feel where she was going with this and that he was wrong.

"I'm sorry. . ."

Nightmare Moon's expression dissolved to sadness for the man. She was still angry, but thought she hadn't considered that his life was thrown into a firestorm of lies and deception or that every moment in the company of the princesses gave him meaning to be happy. And with that happiness destroyed he had so little to smile for. She knew he was being unreasonable, and so was she.

"You need to eat something to regain your strength," she pointed out gently, returning to cuddling his bandaged chest. She levitated the sandwich he stopped eating while his expression changed to confusion. "And do not resist this time. Just open your mouth and take a bite, please."

The intimacy in her voice, that soft, almost strong note sent tingles of desire teasing down his skin, testing his willpower. He was taking a serious liking to this alicorn. Perhaps more than what he would consider friendship. His body shuddered with pleasure at the thought.

Derrick waved his hand over the alicorn's neck to pull her close. He wasn't looking forward to walking the new path that leads him to this new life, but as long as he had someone like Nightmare Moon next to him, the journey would not be as hard.

"Yes, honey." He joked before taking another bite.

Nightmare Moon's smile returned. "So I'm your 'honey' now." She mused.

Fuck me!