//------------------------------// // 3 - Conjunction // Story: Out of Context Nightmare // by LordBucket //------------------------------// This world was strange. Fortunately, on the surface, the cacophony of magical talking voices were somewhat more blocked by the curvature of the planet. There were still at least hundreds apparent, and so far as Luna could determine there was some sort of system in place to propagate their calls beyond the range most casters would find convenient. But the natives of this planet themselves appeared to be completely magically inept. Instead, they used artifice. Having tracked down the loudest and closest collection of voices to their source, she'd found a large tower of metal, as if a giant unicorn horn or novice caster's wand were projecting itself out from the ground. It was an intriguing power crutch for a species that apparently lacked the biology to channel magic directly. But while that inability allowed the creatures to completely bask their bodies in countless broadcasts while only tuning in to one at a time via artifice, it was a terrible nuisance for one such as her who could naturally hear all of them at once. She'd destroyed the tower, of course. But many more remained, and they seemed entirely too useful to simply destroy them all. Walking through the debris around her, she prodded one of the creatures who'd been stationed at the tower, now laying motionless on the ground. Unfortunately there wasn't enough left of his mind to extract anything useful. She would need to search elsewhere. "Look mommy! Look! Look!" "What is it dear?" "That woman has a puppy! Can I pet the puppy? Huh? Huh? Can I?" Clara looked at the woman her daughter, Belle, was pointing at, and stifled a laugh at the fully grown chihuahua hesitantly peeking out of her purse. Her husband, Steve, spoke first. "That's not a puppy, bestest daughter of mine," he smiled. "It's not?" the little girl quirked her head in confusion. "But he's so tiny! How can he not be a puppy?" "Some dogs are just naturally small like that," Clara explained. "Do you remember how small Rover was when we first got him?" "Uh huh!" Belle grinned enthusiastically. "But then he grew up and got all big! When are we going home? I want to play with him!" Clara and Steve both smiled inwardly. Their daughter was a sweetheart, but easily distracted. They'd agreed to let her rescue one dog from the shelter, and sometimes reminding her of the dog they already had was the only way to keep her from wanting to take home every dog in the whole world. "Look mommy! Look! Look!" "What is it dear?" "It's a pony! Can I pet the pony? Can I? Can I? Huh? Huh?" Clara turned to see a black horse wearing what looked like some sort of purple metal halter walking directly towards them. Strangely, the horse seemed unaccompanied, and someone had dressed it up to look like a unicorn with wings. Before she could warn Belle not to startle the poor thing, she was lifted from the ground in a glowing field of purple light. "What...what's happening!?!" she cried, reaching out for her husband, who was frantically holding his arms out as if to try to catch her, despite the fact that she didn't seem to be falling for some strange reason. Equally strange, he seemed completely unable to push through the glow to reach her. "Mommy?" Belle sniffled hesitantly, not understanding what was happening. "Are you ok?" The dark horse let loose with her entirely functional wings, and in a single bound covered the remaining distance, bringing herself nose-to-nose with the stricken woman while her husband balled up his fists and punched at the side of her head to try to protect the woman he loved. Undeterred, the horse simply stared into the woman's eyes, ignoring the rapidly weakening screams for several seconds before releasing what remained of her mindless husk so that it could fall roughly to the ground. At Luna's side, the creature she now understood to be a human by the name of 'Steve' screamed in fury, while the creature she now knew by the name of Belle bawled at her hooves in terror. "No child," Luna spoke soothingly. "Your mother is not alright. But worry not. Soon, you'll both be with her again."