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Chapter 4

Feedings…

John’s feeling of tranquility wilted like old lettuce. His treacherous imagination conjured up an image of some horrible, fleshy leech attached to his head, sucking at his brain. His throat turned as dry as dust. “fee…dings…?” He squeaked.

Luna poured John another cup of tea. “Here, drink some more.”

John snatched the cup and chugged the tea without even tasting it. As quickly as it came, the image dissolved, while the fear dulled to a strong concern.

“I apologize”. Luna said, hanging her head. “ I should not have broken the news quite so dramatically.”

John waved his hand dismissively “ ’sall right ’sall right.” He said, taking slow, deep breaths. “I’m feeling better. “ He set his cup down. “What…what exactly is feeding on me?”

Luna waved a fore hoof, and an image of something like a blob of soap film appeared in front of him. The instant John saw it, he looked away, his eyes smarting.

Another wave and the image disappeared. “It is called a Phobovore.” Luna spat, as if the word were a foul taste. “In the tongue of the ancient Equestrians, it means ’ Fear Eater‘”. This…thing is a monstrous emotional parasite, latching on to its victim’s minds and tormenting them with horrible nightmares. These nightmares flood the hosts soul with fear, which the Fear-Eater absorbs as food.”

John could see Luna grow tense. “As the foul beast feeds, its appetite for fear grows. The nightmares become increasingly more vivid and detailed, flooding the victims soul with even greater amounts of fear. Soon the victim finds it impossible to fall asleep. Following that are dementia, hallucinations, seizures, psychosis, and” Luna closed her eyes.”…death.”

Tears trickled down Luna’s cheeks. “When that vile creature attacked my world, it murdered several of my subjects and nearly drove my beloved sister mad. Like a coward, it fled before I could obliterate it entirely. And now it infests your mind, feasting on your fear…”

Luna’s eyes lit up with what John could only describe as a righteous fury. “NOT AGAIN!” John found himself pinned to his seat by the force of Luna’s voice. “NOT ONE MORE INNOCENT SHALL FALL TO THEE, ABOMINATION! WHEN NEXT WE MEET, WE WILL BURN EVERY SHRED OF THINE UNHOLY ESSENCE FROM EXISTENCE!” Luna stomped with the force of an earthquake, cracking the gazebo in two.

Luna’s expression softened. She turned to John and pointed a fore hoof at him. “But I can not do it alone.”

John raised an eyebrow “What?” Luna looked like she could crack a mountain in half with a thought. Why would she need help?

“The Phobovore anchors itself to its victims mind by latching on to their greatest fear. Once it is entrenched, it is effectively invincible. I could destroy it a thousand times over and it would still return”

“Then how do we kill it for good?”

“The only way to sever the creatures link is for the host to destroy its dream form. The only way to accomplish this is for the host to overcome their greatest fear.”

John leaned back in his chair, digesting Luna’s words. Face his greatest fear. What was his greatest fear?

“Uh, Luna? We may have a problem?”

“What is it?”

“Well, I kinda sorta don’t know what my greatest fear is.” John said worriedly. He was afraid of a lot of things: spiders, the dark, driving, his landlord, and the like, but he didn’t know which one of them was the greatest.

The alicorn princess hung her head. “I am afraid I cannot help you with that. Searching that deep into your mind could cause terrible damage to your conscious.” Luna sighed. “ ‘Tis something you will have to discover on your own.”

“Uh, yeah, and there’s another problem; I’m not what you would call a fighter.” He held out one of his scrawny arms. “Seriously, does that look like the arm of a fighter?”

“I am getting to that.” Luna said. “You are correct in your assessment of your fighting skills. But keep in mind that you, or rather, your conscious, is not bound by the laws of reality. Physical limitations are nothing.”

“Unfortunately, even so you are still too weak to face the creature. “ Luna’s eyes furrowed. “During its lifetime, the Phobovore has absorbed the fear of countless innocents. When it fed on my sister, its power rivaled my own. Now, with all the fear it has absorbed from your soul, its power is even greater than that.”

Luna continued. “Worse, the creature is now aware that you know of its existence. When we reenter the dream, it will attempt to defend itself. While I may be able hold my own against the creature, in your current state, you would be swept away like a candle before a rising tide.”

Luna’s horn glowed. The gazebo dissolved, replaced by a stone brick altar. Four polished granite erupted from the ground around it, each topped by a sphere of polished blue stone.

“However, there is a way to make you stronger.” Luna’s horn glowed with a soft blue light. “There is a spell known only to my sister and I. One that can temporarily bestow a non-magical creature with alicorn powers.”

John’s eyes widened. “You mean, I’d become as powerful as you?”

Luna nodded. “The spark that is your soul will become a raging fire, almost as bright as my own.”

John crossed his arms. “Let me guess, there’s a catch?” There always was. A spell that would turn him into a near-omnipotent demigod had to have a few strings attached.

Luna nodded again. “ You are correct. Non-magical creatures were never meant to wield the powers of an alicorn. There is a sizable chance that the power might utterly consume you. Both your body and soul would become naught but a pile of ash.”

John suddenly started having seconds thoughts about the spell. Eldritch abomination is his head or not, being burned to ashes did not sound like a pleasant way to die.

John shook his head. It didn’t matter. If he didn’t kill the unwelcome guest inside his mind, he was already dead. The only difference was that one method would be much, much faster.

“Alright.” He said slowly. “Lets do this.”

Luna motioned towards the altar. “Stand in the middle of the four pillars”.

“Alright...” John climbed onto the stone platform with the eagerness of a condemned criminal walking towards the gas chamber. He could feel the stone pulse with power like a massive stone heart.

“Okay, now what?”

“Take off your shirt, hold your arms out and stand perfectly still.”

John complied.

“Good. Now, let us begin!”

Luna closed her eyes and began chanting something in some melodic, incomprehensible tongue. Chains of what appeared to be solid stone shot out from the pillars, each one wrapping itself around one of John’s limbs. The spheres on top of the pillars split into halves, which split into quarters, which split into eights and so on and so on. Soon the spheres were nothing a spherical clouds of fine dust.

Luna began to chant faster. Her horn glowed as if there was a star balanced on its tip. The dust clouds rearranged themselves into shining, diamond-shaped crystals, each pulsing with all the colors of the rainbow. Geometric patterns etched themselves on John’s bare chest, drawn with what appeared to be liquid light.
The crystals gave off a bright pulse of light, and something like a liquid rainbow oozed down the chains at an agonizingly slow pace. The impossible liquid neared John’s limbs and hesitated, as if it were having second thoughts, then hurled itself into John’s body.

John stood motionless on the altar, his body wracked with the incredible power flowing through him.

Pain, unimaginable pain surged through his nervous system. . Every cell, every molecule, every atom screamed in agony. John tried to scream, tried someway to vent the horrible agony flooding into him. It was no use; the bizarre rainbow held him in place like a fly on a sheet of flypaper. Even the act of blinking was a Herculean task.

“HOLD FAST, JOHN!’ Luna shouted.

John would have shot back with an “Easy for you to say!” but his body was somewhat preoccupied at the
moment.

Suddenly, the pain stopped. John slumped on the chains, gasping for breath and basking in sweet, euphoric relief. Then another rainbow oozed down the chains into John’s body, submerging him into another ocean of pain. After that there was another, and another, and another. Pain washed over him like a series of tidal waves. John’s body screamed for death. He nerves felt as though they were being deep-fried by some insane fry cook.

Finally, his body could take no more. The world went black and John slipped into sweet, sweet oblivion.

“John?” “ John? “John please wake up!”

John slowly forced himself to open his eyes. Luna was standing over him, a look of strong concern on her face.

“’M’all right, Luna.” John lied.

The alicorn let out a huge sigh of relief. “Thank the Queen! When you collapsed like that I had thought your essence extinguished.”

“Sure…feels like it has.” John groaned, trying to push himself up. His body ached; it was as if he’d just been stomped by a herd of elephants. Elephants wearing cleats.

Luna’s horn glowed. A dark blue aura surrounded John, gently pulling him off his feet.

“Not really sure the spell worked.” John moaned. If anything, he felt weaker than…

John felt something inside him. A sort of warmth in his stomach, like a small fire. The fire began to grow, turning from a small fire into a raging inferno, then a blast furnace, then a star.

The aches vanished from John’s body. “Luna!” I, can feel it!” He felt as though his blood had been replaced by liquid lightening. No, not lightning, lighting was but a spark compared to this. It was as if someone had liquefied a small star and injected it into his veins.

John raised himself into the air, laughing like a child playing with a new toy. He stretched out an arm and snapped his fingers; chunks of earth wrenched themselves from the ground and orbited around him. John held out a palm and concentrated; a beam of intense white light shot out, vaporizing an unlucky tree.

As John played with his new powers, he began to cackle evilly. Lightning smashed into the ground around him, turning the grassy around him to glass. He raised an eyebrow, and an army of glass men rose from the vitrified ground and bowed before him.

He was mortal no longer. He was a god!

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