Chapter 3
John scrambles through the dark forest, desperately trying not to trip.
It’s not easy. His flashlight is weak- almost dead. Its feeble orange light is barely enough to see by. What little he can see of the trail is covered with the vague shapes of holes, roots, and rocks. Each one deadlier than any snare.
John risks a quick look behind him. Despite the near-pitch blackness of the forest, he can see the creature as plainly as if it were in broad daylight. The creature looks vaguely like a man; two arms, two legs and a head. Not that it would ever be mistaken for one; the creature’s body is covered with thousands of tiny snapping mouths, each ringed with needle-like teeth. Instead of hands, the creature has two fleshy “flowers” on the ends of its arms, each covered with serrated spikes.
John’s heart kicks into overdrive. Every cell, every atom in him screams for him to run. John is inclined to obey them.
Two lights appear in the distance. John’s heart leaps; it’s his car! He doesn’t know how he knows it, but it’s his car!
John gains a second wind. His body overrides all cries for rest. Aching muscles scream for relief, but John’s brain shouts them out.
Suddenly, John’s left foot catches on a tree root, sending him to the ground. John flips himself over. The creature tenses. It lowers its spindly legs and prepares to leap…
“WE HAVE FOUND YE AT LAST, FOUL CREATURE!”
A brilliant blue light lit the forest like a sun. The creature’s thousand mouths screamed at once like an unholy choir.
“NOW FACE OUR HOLY WRATH!”
A beam of blue light shot out of nowhere and impaled the creature like a skewer. The monster let out an ear-piercing shriek, then exploded in a flash of unnatural black light.
John lay were he fell, too stunned to move. He heard something walk up to him.
“Are you unharmed?”
John looked up. A fuzzy equine shape floated next to him.
“Do not be afraid.” The shape said. “I will not hurt you.”
John slowly picked himself up. “Who…who are you?” he croaked.
The shape wavered for a second. “I do not enough time to explain. We must leave, immediately!”
The shape nodded. Something like a swirling ball of mercury appeared in front of John.
“Hurry, enter the portal. It will be back soon!”
John gathered up what little courage he had left, took a deep breath, and jumped into the pool.
0000
Chaos. Pure, unfiltered chaos.
That was the only way John could describe the place he floated in.
All around John, thought and feelings took physical form. Clouds of happiness wafted by him, blown about by winds of sorrow. In the distance, John saw/smelled islands of tranquility being buffeted by hurricanes of rage.
John could feel his own thoughts start to join the mix. Like streams of liquid plastic, thoughts and ideas leaped from his head. In the blink of an eye they ballooned into disorganized, illogical worlds. He saw decaying ruins became shining cities which then crumbled to dust. Rocky plains became lush forests which became desert which then became toxic wasteland. Sapient species returned to the primordial soup, then came back as beings of pure energy.
John looked down at his body and gasped/screamed. Whatever insanity ruled this place was affecting him as well; one second his body was made of glimmering, metallic crystal. The next it was a shapeless blob of green/gold scales, and the second after that, it was both.
John’s mind rebelled at this insane place. Then it became fearful. Then it became unusually content. He could see his sanity bleed from him in droplets of pink wax..
“Hold fast, mortal!” Shouted/whispered the voice from before. “Try to focus on a single shape!”
Single shape? How could he have a single shape? How could anything have a single shape? He’d always been like this. Had he always been like this? The voice was lying. Was it lying? Everything was lying! EVERYTHING WAS A LIE!
John felt/tasted something slapping him across the face. The sanity droplets flowed back into him. He forced his shifting brain to work.
Ok,ok, one shape. . John imagined himself pushing everything out of his mind, like a man cleaning junk out of his attic. He tried to focus on what he thought his normal body was like;
two arms, two legs, one head, brown hair.
two arms, two legs, one head, brown hair.
two arms, two legs, one head, brown hair.
John repeated the image again and again. His fluctuating body slowly began to stabilize; his arms and legs shrank and grew at random, and his hair cycled through all the colors of the rainbow, but otherwise he was stable.
“We are almost there mortal” John heard/smelled the voice say. He felt a slight pressure pushing against his body, as if he was being pressed against a thin rubber sheet. As if in response to his thoughts, a sheet of rubber as big as a galaxy and as small as a proton materialized around him. As he pushed forward, the pressure grew greater and greater, pushing against his chest, squeezing at his stomach. As the pressure grew, the sheet grew thicker, becoming heavy cloth, then wood, and then steel, and then…
Pop!
-
John found himself laying flat on his face, his mouth full of grass.
"Ugh.. "John groaned, spitting out the strangely sweet grass. Whatever that place was, it had left him with a killer headache. It felt like crazed lumberjack had used his skull as a chopping block.
He was lucky a headache was the only thing he got from that place.
John flipped himself, his head pounding like a kettledrum. Spitting out the last of the grass, he turned his head towards the sky and instantly forgot his pain.
-
Back home, all the light pollution turned the sky into a uniform black sheet; if John was lucky, he might see one or two very bright stars, along with a few planes and helicopters. Here, the sky was packed with stars of all shapes and sizes, from tiny, twinkling stars scattered about like handfuls of glitter, to glowing spheres the apparent size of baseballs. Some of these stays were connected by lines of pure light, forming countless constellations
The stars weren’t alone in the night sky. Here and there were massive, colorful nebulae, looking like smudges of colorful paint on a black canvas. Accompanying the dusty clouds were thousands upon thousands of planets, ranging from tiny balls resembling miniature models of Earth, to massive, rainbow-colored gas giants, some of whom sported rings that would’ve given Saturn a run for its money. Lording over it all was an elegant spiral galaxy, slowly spinning like a cosmic pinwheel.
John heard someone laugh with a sound like tinkling bells “I see someone is impressed with our night sky.”
John looked around. All he could see was a field of beautiful, silvery grass, broken here and there by electric-blue flowers.
“Who’s there?” That voice sounded like the one that had brought him here, only not as angry god-like.
The voice giggled. “Of course. Where are our manners? Let us make ourselves visible.”
There was a flash of light, and a dark blue horse appeared on the field.
John looked more closely. No, not a horse. Not any he’d ever seen. Its feet, if one could call them that, were more elephant than equine; short and stumpy, with no visible hooves. Its muzzle was much blunter than a real horse, and its eyes… its eyes were huge! Seriously, John had seen anime characters with less disproportionate eyes!
The horse creature took a step towards John. Its mane looked as though someone had taken a chunk out of the night sky and pasted it to the creature’s head. Topping off the creature’s odd appearance was an icicle-like horn and two comically small wings.
All in all, it was the least disturbing thing he’d seen that night.
“Who, what are you?” John asked.
The unicorn/Pegasus/horse thing pointed a stumpy hoof at itself and bowed slightly. John noticed that its mane blew without any noticeable breeze. “ I am Princess Luna, alicorn princess of the night and co ruler of the fair land of Equestria. May I ask thy name?”
“John.” John dropped to his knees. “My name is John, your, uh, highness majesty omnipo…”
Luna put a hoof to John’s mouth and smiled. “Tis no need for such formalities here. ‘Luna’ will suffice.”
“Ok…Luna.” John pushed himself up. “Where am I?”
Luna waved a hoof over the landscape; “This is my personal dream bubble. ’Tis my place of rest amidst the chaos of the Sea; my port in the storm, so to speak.”
“The what?”
The blue alicorn turned herself around. “I realize that thou has many questions, and I will answer all of them to the best of our ability. But first let us go someplace more suitable.”
Luna waved a fore hoof. A cobblestone path bubbled out of the ground. She motioned with her head “This way,
please.”
John followed Luna down the path. As he walked, a gentle breeze blew across the path, bringing with it the scent of what John could only describe as calm. He could something inside him unwind, like a twisted rubber band slowly untangling itself.
The trail wound into a forest of towering indigo trees- Luna seemed to have a thing for blue. As the duo walked through the ethereal forest, John found the alicorn’s appearance less and less alien. Maybe it was those massive, expressive eyes, that ethereal mane, or that slender, feminine body. Whatever it was, he was starting to find her cute. Maybe even beautiful.
John heard Luna laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
“’Tis nothing. I am simply flattered that thou considers me beautiful.”
John tensed. The alicorn could read minds! He quickly cleared all thought from his head, turning his mind into an empty bookshelf.
“Do not fret.” Luna said. “ I am only reading your surface thoughts at the moment. I would never pry into one’s personal thoughts.”
John relaxed. Good. After all that’d happened tonight, the last thing he needed was someone rooting around in his noggin.
The forest gave way to a grassy meadow, bisected by a silvery creek. Luna waved a stumpy forehoof, and an elegant marble gazebo rose from the ground, accompanied by a wrought iron table and a chair.
“Please, do take a seat.”
John pulled out a wrought iron chair and sat down. At least he thought it was wrought iron. Whatever it was, it was surprisingly comfortable, more like plush than anything else.
Luna stood at the other end of the table. Her horn glowed again, and an elegant china teapot and cups appeared on the table. “Would thou care for some tea?”
John nodded. The teapot floated over one of the cups and tipped itself over, pouring a stream of milk-like liquid into the receptacle. The cup then floated itself over to John , planted itself on a saucer, and placed itself into his hand.
John stared at the milk-like tea for a bit. He shrugged. Oh well, down the hatch.
He lifted the cup to his lips and took a sip, swishing the cream-like tea around in his mouth for a bit, then swallowing. It tasted…it tasted like serenity blended with calm, with a dash of optimism thrown in for taste.
John took a bigger sip. He could feel the tea-whatever it was, circulate through his system; soaking into every nook and cranny of his being. It was as if his blood had been replaced with liquid peace.
“How is our secret recipe?”
John just smiled. He felt good. Real good. It was like his soul had been given a relaxing massage
Luna took a sip herself. She sighed in contentment and set her cup down. “Now, I suppose tis time to answer your questions.”
“Ok.” John said, gulping down the rest of the tea. He wasn’t in any real hurry; might as well learn a little about Luna. “Can you tell me a little about yourself? Your home, your family? You know, that kind of stuff.”
“Certainly. Do make yourself comfortable though, as this may take awhile.”
John leaned back and absentmindedly toyed with his cup, listening as Luna told him about her world. It seemed like an interesting place, to say the least. In her world, what she called “Equestria”, magic was a part of everyday life. It raised the sun and the moon, it changed the seasons, and it let the inhabitants, the “ponies”, warp natural laws at will.
It sounded like a nice place to visit, but he wouldn’t want to live there.
In return, John told Luna what he could about Earth. He tried to make it as balanced as he could, describing both humanity's achievements and its atrocities. Thankfully, Luna didn't seem too fazed by the latter; apparently, Equestria had had its share of black marks, though admittedly, not as many as Earth's.
As the conversation continued, John found himself increasingly endeared to the alicorn’s personality. She explained things formally, but not in a way that made them boring. When she explained a concept for John, she did so in a way that made it easy for him to understand, but didn‘t insult his intelligence. She would have made an excellent teacher back home.
That, and one hell of a prankster.
“…thus, when our sister took a bite of the cake, the spell was triggered and the baked delicacy exploded in her face!”
John doubled over laughing. Booby-trapped baked goods. Classic.
Luna smiled. “Tis good to see you’re feeling better. When you first arrived, your soul was glutted with fear.”
John agreed. He hadn’t felt this good in a very long time.
The alicorns' voice took on a more serious note. “John, we fear that we must change the subject now." She poured herself another cup of tea." If I recall, you asked about that chaotic realm we passed through ?”
John nodded. How could he forget?
“In my land, we call it the Sea of Dreams." Luna said. "‘Tis a realm where matter and thought blend into one; where nothing and everything changes.” Luna took a sip of tea. “It is from this chaotic sea that the dreams of mortals are made”
“As princess of the night, it is thy royal duty to guard the dreams of our subjects. When nightmares arise, we soften them, when a pleasant dream appears, we maintain them.” John decided not to ask about more…erotic dreams.
John raised an eyebrow. “Why do you only look after their dreams?”
Luna frowned. “I beg your pardon?”
“There's a lotta other universes out there who could use your help. Why don‘t you look after their dreams?” Frankly, it sounded kind of selfish to him.
“Methinks you underestimate the sheer size of the realm.” Luna said, a hint of annoyance in her voice. “The Sea is home to the dreams of trillions of intelligent beings from countless billions of worlds. To look after so many dreams from so many worlds is beyond even my ability.”
John shrank back in his chair. “Sorry”
“No matter”. Luna continued. “Despite its chaotic nature, the Sea is not lifeless. On the contrary, it teems with life. The majority of them are like jellyfish made of pure thought; floating throughout the ether and feeding on the scraps of long-dead dreams.”
Luna’s voice turned grave. “ However, there are some who have evolved less benign ways of finding sustenance.”
“Uh, Luna, what does this have to do with my nightmares?”
Luna looked John in the eye. “Tell me, John. Did you notice how your nightmares grew clearer and clearer each night? Did their increasing amounts of detail draw your attention?”
John nodded. He had a bad feeling about this
“That’s because they were not nightmares. Not natural ones at least. No, John, those were feedings.”
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Ah. Dream demons. KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!
3357250
Not demons. Creatures.
Ye, like you was, once upon a forgotten time, a plural. It was used like the royal We as an honorific. In modern old English, this is fine, but Luna'd have said 'thee.'
*MINE. 'Thine' would make it the nightmare-thing's wrath, and the nightmare thing isn't angry (if it has any brains, it should be afraid), it's getting punished by her anger. You could also say "face thine appointed fate" or "face thy doom" if you wanted what the thing was facing to be its own.
Blah blah blah... I only include these criticisms because you request them. This was actually quite engaging, and whining about grammar that hasn't applied in 400 years feels like it detracts from the glowing review I want to give. Please continue.
I really enjoy the characterization of Luna, both as vengeful dreamwalker and gossippy prankster.
3360842
What? She's just doing her job.
3357315 So...kill it with fire?
3365423
Not exactly.
3365537
3365552
Don't worry, I assure you that it will be awesome.
3368928 okay.*sad*
http://i.imgur.com/WBn0uv5.gif
the hamster is a nightmare, Macho Man is Macho Man.
Your story is interesting, but your writing quality could use a bit of work. Your sentences are a bit drab.
3365537
Kill it with....
Kinetic bombardment?
3799615
Nonononono. Kill it with every humanly possible horror and weapon ever designed.