//------------------------------// // Wax // Story: How to Disappear Completely // by shortskirtsandexplosions //------------------------------// "Please...!" Flash Sentry squeaked, covering his sweaty forehead with a pair of trembling arms. "Oh please oh please oh please... don't roll over me!" The Moon had no reponse, but the horned shadow within did. "I cannot harm you, creature," the voice said, strong and bombastic... and yet regal and calm. "And even if I was capable of doing so, you have my promise that I would not." "Mmmmmmmmmm—" Flash stopped squealing like an incontinent ballet dancer just long enough to squint at the giant sphere hovering before him. "Wait..." His heart rose and sank at once. Flash imagined a pair of fuzzy ears perking, but he ultimately had to settle for puny, blushing lobes. "That... that voice..." He swallowed dryly. "I know that voice." The horse in the moon froze—if only briefly. It looked as though it was contemplating the human's last statement. "Indeed you do," the voice said. "Or, perhaps, you think that you do." "But... it c-can't..." Flash gnashed his teeth. It was too stupid to be contemplated, much less pronounced. He did so anyways. "Vice Principal Luna?" "A most interesting title indeed," said the shadow. "Even more interesting that you would give it with such honest conviction." Either the shadow shrank or the Moon enlarged. Either way, the figure stopped being a head and neck and turned into a full-fledged equine... a full-fledged equine with both a horn and a set of wings, that is. Before Flash could register the weirdness of it all, it turned to "trot" towards Flash from the core of the pale sphere. "I assure you, I am Luna... but the honor of 'Vice Principal' must go to somebody else, I'm afraid. And now... I do believe you have confirmed for me exactly where you hail from." "I..." Flash gulped. "I-I have...?" "As Princess of the Night, I am also the Guardian of Dreams. This has acquainted me with every vision that crosses the slumbering minds of Equestria's denizens, both sentient and sapient." "Uh..." Flash squinted. "There's a difference?" "Indeed there is, creature, and you belong to the latter: a very... new and hitherto unique form of sapience that I haven't had the fortune of observing until just recently... when you entered the dreamscape with your consciousness in tow. I can only surmise that you arrived in Equestria less than twenty-four hours ago... and I do believe I know from where." A cold shudder ran down Flash's spine. "Yeahhhh..." Just then, the shadow stopped moving altogether. Its glimmering eyes tilted—along with its head. A gesture of curiosity. "Do I frighten you, creature?" "Mmmmm... j-just a tad." "I see. That is something that I have yet to avoid with my subjects, despite several years of dedicated adjustment. I attempted to fabricate an environment most familiar to you in order to engage in dreamscape conversation. However, perhaps there is still a foreign element remaining that leaves you uneasy." "What... do you mean?" Flash asked. "Please, be calm." Just then, the four-legged shape took on a two-legged one. She came to the surface in a graceful stride, her blue flesh peeling out from underneath the lunar surface like a mermaid surfacing. "There is nothing to fear." Nevertheless, Flash flinched—forcing himself to look in the opposite direction. The redness flushing to his cheeks was more than a little bit pronounced. "... ... ...is something the matter?" the woman asked. "Uh... yeah?" Flash stapled his eyes to the corners of the ginormous closet. "You're friggin' nude." "Nude?" A calm, regal pause. "Ah. But of course. Your species wears clothes for culturally-engrained purposes. Very well." There was a flicker of light. The aura in the room dimmed slightly. The next pronouncement was noticeably gentler. "You may look now." Flash did. Principal Luna stood before him, garbed in the same formal pantsuit he was used to seeing the faculty member in. An image that was unmistakably taken from his mind. "Is this more appropriate?" she asked. "Totally," he wheezed. Then—in a nervous jolt—Flash glanced down at his own self... relieved to be wearing the usual t-shirt and shorts that he wore every night to bed. "Did... you dress me as well?" "Insomuch that I helped conjure your own projected self-image for the dreamscape..." Luna calmly nodded. "Then... yes. I dressed you." "Cool." Flash smiled for the first time—and it was with awkward relief. "Thanks for not putting me in a banana hammock or something." "Curious..." Luna glanced at her suddenly human fingers, flexing them and examining them as if for the first time. "You are a highly-advanced creature capable of deductive reasoning. No doubt you would have fully-understood the projected dream that we are both situated in. And yet..." Her eyes calmly shifted his way. "You nevertheless insisted on modesty when it came to a person who is not here among us right now." "Errr..." Flash fidgeted. "No offense to you—uhh... to her... Vice Principal Luna, I mean... but..." He rubbed the back of his head. "She's... ehhh... kind of like a mentor figure to me... not to mention way older." He cleared his throat. "It would be super weird." "I see." "Heh..." Flash blushed again. "I bet that sounds totally lame, now that I think about it." "I fail to see what is 'lame' about it, young one," Luna said. "As a matter of fact, I find it quite noble... and it further dissuades my fears concerning you and your nature." "I guess... I'll take that as a compliment." "Nevertheless, you still do not belong here," the woman said, folding her forelimbs. "I have intercepted your dreams—from hundreds of miles away inside the Royal Palace of Canterlot—in order to speak with you on the matter." "Right..." Flash stood up straight like a grade schooler about to accept his punishment. "I figured this moment would come sooner than later." "How do you mean?" "This is the point where you kick me out of Horsie Land, right?" Flash paused. His eyes darted about the moonlit closet. "... ... ...I am still... in Horsie Land? Like... my body'n'stuff? My Horsie Land Horse body?" "By that, do you mean your equine self within Equestria?" Luna nodded. "Affirmative. However, I do not mean to imply that this is an interrogation." "You don't?" He blinked. She shook her head. "As a matter of fact, let us start over. I think it is only fair and proper that I introduce myself." That said, she performed the most perfect of curtsies. "I am Princess Luna, Alicorn Bringer of the Night and the Guardian of Dreams."" "Awesome-sauce." Flash smiled... and then that smile shattered. Like a crystal chalice. "Wait... you're... a princess in this land?" "That is correct." "Hah! No shit!" Flash instantly wretched. "Er... what I mean to say is..." Her performed a hideously clumsy bow. "No shit, Your Highness...?"