//------------------------------// // (12) // Story: A Four Letter Word // by RealityDowngrade //------------------------------// “You did WHAT?” Rainbow Dash squawked, attracting the attention of the customers idling in Sugarcube Corner, her friends at the table included, before rubbing the back of her prismic-mane self-consciously, “eh-heh, sorry,” she mumbled to the crowd before turning back to her friends at the table. “Well in some cultures, I believe it is called talking,” Pinkie Pie murmured, eyeing Fluttershy while stroking her chin, “but what the savage is saying I haven’t the darndest clue.” “ha ha Pinkie,” Rainbow Dash deadpanned with a smirk, elbowing the pink-friend to her left before they returned their gazes to Fluttershy. “Um, yes, well, Princess Luna asked me to go to Canterlot to act as a sort of, consultant, I guess, and see if I thought that the nightmare-creature wasn’t so bad,” Fluttershy shrugged, more bewildered than anything, especially now that she was back in the familiar town of Ponyville. “So wait, you actually saw it?!?” Twilight exclaimed, her horn already twinkling with violet-light as she extracted her emergency notepad and quill from her saddlebags, still slightly miffed that she hadn’t been able to see the creature herself after having gone all the way to Saddle Arabia, though she would never admit to something so foalish out loud. “What did it look like?” “Well,” Fluttershy recalled, tilting her head, “he was definitely a primate, though he’s not of any species I’ve ever even read about, and while I couldn’t see exactly what his feet looked like, they were definitely slender given the shape of his boots, and his posture and gait would seem to sugge-” “Boots, darling?” Rarity perked, eyes sparkling, eliciting a groan from both Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “Oh, uh yes,” Fluttershy blushed, “but they were all black, just like his trousers and robe, so I wasn’t really able to make out any details. Sorry Rarity.” “Oh, nothing to trouble yourself over dear,” Rarity smiled encouragingly, “as intriguing as a mystery monster wearing clothes is, it sounds rather tacky.” “Weellll,” Fluttershy hummed quietly, lowering her gaze, but not too much, she was with her friends, not her animal-friends, so she didn't have to worry about her body-langue too much, “it didn’t really look so bad, it actually sort of complimented his grey skin-tone.” That got a round of tensing from everypony, even Pinkie Pie, as they silently speculated on what those colors normally meant from somepony who caused such a stir. “Anyway,” Applejack redirected, throwing a hoof towards Fluttershy, “what did you think about this, guy, was it?” “He was, and, honestly, he was rather nice, if a bit, spooky, it’s just,” she paused, rocking her head from side to side before ending it with a small nod, before saying, “you know how I normally have tea with Discord on Tuesday’s?” Her friends replied to the affirmative, save Pinkie who simply gasped, her hooves moving to close her mouth before it went too wide before whisper-yelling, “You mean Discord got miffed and crashed your late-brunch with the Princess and her plus one?” Fluttershy nodded, “I almost thought Wayde was going to do something scary after Discord called him a villain, especially the way that black sand began to steam out of his mouth like,” she shuddered, “dragon-fire, but, instead he just said that nopony gets to besmirch his honor like that, not even his hero, Discord.” Silence reigned as Fluttershy waited for another question, a response, anything beside the blank, emotionless stares she was getting from her friends, well, at least until the corners of their mouths all began to curve upward, and, as one, fell to roaring-laughter. Even Fluttershy began cracking up, if only because of how silly Pinkie looked bouncing on her spring-curl tail with each unrestrained-giggle. Discord? A hero? Now that was a laugh. *** “Please continue Mr. Molan,” the guardsman about-faced, stopping at attention halfway down the empty hallway, “the Princess is waiting.” “Bu-” I said, already moving. “I don’t have clearance for that room,” he said, eyes forward, staring back towards the four-way intersections I could had sworn we passed more than once on my way to Princess Luna’s ‘Science Wing’. A simple dark metal door was the only other thing in sight, and it was at the end of the hall, though I wouldn’t guess if it was iron, steel, or some other magical metal that only formed in Equestria. Coming to a halt in front of it, seeing it lacked so much as rivet, let alone a knob, I knocked, at least, I felt my knuckles hit the thing, but I didn’t hear anything. I didn’t have to wait long as the door swung in a moment later, revealing Princess Luna sitting in the middle of a large, silvery platform that jutted out from the wall to extend out into, what I assumed, was the center of the pyramidally-shaped room. ‘At least the walkway looks real,’ I thought as I walked through the white-walled expanse of a room. I couldn’t imagine where any of the illumination was, and I suspected that if there weren’t any lines to mark the tiles, I might have mistaken the room for being endless. “Welcome to Morpheus,” Princess Luna said, her words echoing across the room as I stopped just a few paces in front of her. “Thank you?” I said, letting my gaze wander. Hadn’t she said something about experiments? “As I’m sure you’ve guessed, this room is rather special,” Luna said, I nodded. “Well, suffice to say, this is the most suitable room to test your dream-shaping capabilities on such short notice.” I nodded again, “Oh,” I interrupted as she took a breath, “I need to tell you about this morning. See, I, well, this weird light that screamed inside my head and I just kinda followed it where I ended up sticking out the side of a shaft in the caves below Canterlot where I caught some little kid who was falling down it, and then I, he just feared he’d never see his mom again and it led me to his house, and then I just left him there.” Taking a breath I added, “And I kind a remember something like that happening on the train in the desert, but this time when I got back I didn’t pass out.” Realizing I was starting to babble I clenched my fist to stop my fingers from twiddling, and calmly added, “I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, I just thought you should know. Apologies for not telling you sooner.” “Thank you for keeping Us informed Wayde,” Luna nodded, “it is appreciated.” I nodded back, still a little off from the stark whiteness of the room. “And yes, Raya is doing quite well for herself. If you should wish to see her, I’m sure she would be quite happy to entertain the company of the stallion who saved her.” ‘… oh.’ I thought, nodding when it dawned on me she’d actually meant what she’d said. “On to science,” Luna said, “tonight we shall attempt to learn more about your dream-shaping powers.” That sounded like a terrible idea, but before I could protest on their only being two people in the room, one being a terrorist and one being a princess, Luna’s horn lit in a sheen of crackling blue and white energy, where one stream of the miniature lightning struck her just above the crown of her head while the other began to spread out before her like a movie-screen before it began to bubble out into a more nebulous three-dimensional shape, where, inside, the grey-bubble began to clear away to show a small island with a sleeping Luna stretched out beneath the soft light of the lily-flower above her and a pond that so peaceful it reflected the mingling hues of the starry night’s violets, blues, and blacks so seamlessly that if I couldn’t just make out the marble-white sand of the pond at the edges of the scene I would have thought it to be a mirror. But the oddest thing of all was the way it made the sand give a call in the back of my head. Almost as though it were- “This is one of Our dreams,” Princess Luna said coolly, “now, I’ve heard how you think you have affected so many of our subjects, but I require some firsthoof experience before I can give you any direct pointers. So, if you would kindly,” she gestured with a nod to the dream floating before us. ‘Heh, magic’ I thought, taking a step forward and just sticking my hand into the thing like normal. Luna winced, the dream shaking before the night-sky within began to draw in on itself, the stars pulling closer together leaving an inky-blackness in their wake. They almost looked like they were going to turn into a pony, but, instead, a more human shape took its place before reaching a galaxy-infused hand to pluck the sleeping dream-Luna from the ground by her starry mane, which quickly drained out of her into the me-monster, leaving it a pale-blue before seemingly growing bored with the pony who had still to gather her wits, before causally flinging her away with a flick of its giant-wrist before it started to claw away at the dreamscape, the gashes of color flowing into each other like wounds and draining into each other until the whole of the dream threatened to become a lifeless gray morass. The magic from Luna’s horn retreated, the dream with it, as she continued to look at my hand, which had remained touching the dream up until the star-creature formed and I began to spread its terror through the dream. “Alright, let’s try that again,” Luna said, the dream-cloud reforming exactly as it had before it was struck by nightmares, “But this time, see if you can make it come from the water.” I froze. I’d never tried to shape a dream before, it never even occurred to me to try. It sounded monstrous, especially considering all I’d even done with it, but maybe- Stretching out my hand, repeating the word ‘water’ to myself as I connected with the newly-formed dream, almost as if to spite me, a pink mountain drew itself up from the shore before it shattered into a thousand floating-pieces, where they all turned to a smoky-crystal, some remaining pink, while the others turned to a pale blue or green, and began to ascend into the heavens, and angled the star-light through themselves to shoot a barrage of laser fire into the sleeping dream-Luna who’s sliced remains began to scream soundlessly in pain. “Try again,” Luna said, collapsing and reforming the dream. Again the nightmare failed to have anything to do with water as flaming asteroids, each one split by a human-like mouth twisted into a sneering grin, began peppering the dream with holes which erupted into an acidic orange-smoke. Luna ended that one quickly before things became too gruesome for her counter-part. “Again,” Luna said, hardly blinking. Clenching my fist, a bit of sand leaking over my knuckles, thoughts of drowning, cold water, burning lungs, coughing, and slowness bubbling in my mind, I exhaled loudly through my nose, and slowly placed my hand on the dream. Much to my surprise, the pond began to blacken, refusing to reflect the star-light from above, and slowly began to rise up along the shore of the small island where the sleeping-Luna stirred and lazily rolled to her side, further up the island, but to no avail. The water clung to her in glossy-black ribbons, but all too soon she was shaking from the cold as the water wrapped around her like a straightjacket, cinching in her wings and limbs as it flowed up her sputtering horn, extinguishing it, and then then bowled around her head in a small sphere before slowly bringing her and the island into the water without so much as a ripple. “Interesting,” Luna said, “what did you do with your sand there?” “Nothing, I said, brushing off the last few grains off my knuckles on my pant leg, “they just sort of appear when I let my emotions get the better of me, I mean, they’re, they’re really just, sort of, fears, but they seem more theatric than anything,” I grumbled, thinking about how poorly they were able to hold onto mere books but had been able to shear through those weird robots like wet-paper. ‘Hey, buddy, remember, the golden sand-man used the sand to give children good dreams, so maybe Pitch could do it too. And hey, that just means you just dismissed the words of someone with centuries of experience in both life and dreaming.’ With that sucker-punch of a thought, my shoulders fell. “Is something the matter?” Luna asked, the dream slowly taking form once more. “No,” I said, shaking my head, squaring my shoulders, “I was just wrong.” Putting some thought into it, and this time bringing up my sand with it, I felt for something more spidery. Letting the growing ribbon of sand extend from my palm, it floated languidly over the dream, slowly unraveling into individual grains that then peppered the outside of the sparkling-bubble before sinking in. Inside the dream, the stars began to lengthen, dropping from the sky like thread as others began to grow in size, eventually showing themselves to be the sparkling-abdomens of great black spiders that moved in concert to pull the remaining stars down in a great net which fell upon dream-Luna, who only woke when the spiders had all dropped from their perches and begun to move in a frenzy of legs and drooling-mandibles towards the helpless mare. There was a slight popping sound as the dream vanished, and Luna asked, “Was that all intentional?” “Well, I wanted spiders, but I didn’t know that that was all going to happen.” “Hmm,” was all she said, reforming the dream before saying, “try making a single titan-sized spider from the shore.” “Yes ma’am,” I nodded, thoughts of golems and sand-sculptures playing in my head. *** “I think we’ve made some progress tonight,” Princess Luna cheered as she stepped into the castle hallway. “Yes ma’am,” I answered, careful the swallow the drool that’d begun to pool in my mouth. It was kind of funny, in a detached sort of way, to have a hurt in your mind when your body feels fine. ‘Ow.’ I thought, flinching, nearly falling backward without the benefit of muscle-fatigue to weaken the impulse, sending my arms reeling, my sand too… too... something to catch me instead. I was going to do this again tomorrow too, owing to Princess Luna’s relatively clear docket for the Night Court. Not that I could refuse. I was living in her house, so it was her rules. ‘At least I –ow- can still sleep,’ I _______, ‘I’d h –ow- ate to think what Princess Celestia might have me do me do if I couldn’t anymore.’ And with that thought quickly fading to the noiseless hum poking at… somewhere around my think, I couldn’t tell anymore, I made my way to my bathroom with the singular hope that maybe, just maybe, if I ran a cold-shower and laid down next to it, it would make enough white-noise to soothe my mind-ache.