A Four Letter Word

by RealityDowngrade

(18)

Catching myself on my knees, the the familiar populace’s fears and belief surged through me, lengthening bones and stretching my skin to a healthy plumpness.

“and- Oh hi Wayde,” Pinkamena waved with a smile.

‘An instant? I was gone for an instant?’ I smiled, waving back to Pinkamena as I tried to dust off the footprint on my jacket with my free hand. I wasn’t in danger of dying now that more than just a handful of people knew who I was. I finally had enough breathing space to … think.

“Whoa, what’s with the frowny face?”

“Yeah, what’s the deal?” Ms. Dash asked, her voice fading into the back ground.

‘Again. Again, I was stolen from finding a cure by some …’

I turn on my heel, glaring at the two orga- ponies beside me. ‘And here they are, still stuck with me leeching off of them. Putting them in danger. My first lead, and I want to send them into a swamp where so much as a single hydra proved too much for Twilight.’

“Ooo, my shadow’s going all wiggly! An- yuh-oh,” Pinkamena mumbled, but I was already ducking out of Sugarcube Corner

Out on the empty patio, I took a breath. Looking up, what escaped my throat sounded more like a yawning roar, but I ignored the distraction, focusing on calling the nightmares. All of them.

Their fluttering wings echoed through what dim shadows the alleys could make in the middle of the day. From under the flimsiest shadows they flocked, up, into the air. Butterflies no bigger than my palm spiraled around me in a twisting, chaotic storm, but all of them keeping their distance.

Opening my mouth, they froze. “You will go out into the swamp, and you will tell everything with a face that The Boogeyman,” I thumped my chest, “seeks an audience with The Bog King. And if anything attempts to hinder your flight, let them.” It did me more good for others to think I had an infinitely spawning army of insects, but these puppets didn’t need to hear that. But, when they still hung frozen in the air, I nearly bit my tongue at their collective stupidity. “GO!”

They jumped, swiping into one another like a cloud trying to tear itself apart as they rose into the air, wheeling around until they found their mark, and made for the swamp. Only then did I notice the screams.

Looking down, ponies were stampeding every which way through town, but towards me, except for a glowing line of purple ligh-

Ducking into shadow, the light flashed in a violet orb above me, revealing Ms. Sparkle, her wings extended in a poor attempt to increase her diminutive stature, but even with her wings it only came up to about my chest. Not that it mattered. She could do just about anything and still be intimidating from the sheer amount of magical power she wielded, but I still had work to do. Stepping back up into the world a few feet away from her, a thin stream of sand now flowing from under my feet and twisting into another messenger, either from fear now blazing through the town or from messengers who were already disappearing.

“Wayde, what are you doing?” Ms. Sparkle asked, eyes wide.

“Finding a cure,” I said, pointing south to the bog as straggler nightmares flew to my command.

“I know you’re upset, but this isn’t right. You’re scaring everypony, and if you don’t stop I’ll-”

“You’ll what,” I dared, towering over the small, insignificant pony, stepping closer. “Will you banish me to another dimension, away from my family or the friends I can count on two fingers? Or perhaps,” I sneered, her ears turning onto her skull, “you’ll curse me to a body that requires others to be afraid of me or else I’ll die? Or maybe,” she flinched back as I took another step, “you’ll grant me the power to fold dreams into reality, but with the genie-like catch that if I feel too much fear myself they’ll tear into my skin, and all while every last one of you filthy organics scream your fears into my head. Is that what you’ll do? Well?”

I waited, my frustration, my anger, my shame burning in my chest. Why wouldn’t they do something about me. A stun spell, a sleep spell, anything. I was a creature of nightmare, and they kept treating me with so much … mercy. It was disgu-

“You know,” a snarky, elderly male voice called from on high, “I was just having tea when a cloud of nasty little bugs flew over my dear friend Fluttershy’s cozy little cottage.” The sound of bubble-wrap popping echoed through the empty square, and just like that, Discord was beside Ms. Sparkle, his lion’s paw draped over her wings as his eagle claw flipped open a brown, leather wallet, pictures of Fluttershy and him drinking tea, laughing, and one of her giving him a stern look as he held Angel Bunny behind his back dropping out in a line in front of her face, “We’re friends you know. Best friends. And oh,” he flipped the wallet back up, stuffing it inside his chest hair like a vest, “I love the way you’ve got all the shadows dancing about. Is it Nightmare Night already?” He paused, looking at a calendar that had puffed into his claws, “No,” he mumbled, “that’s not for a bit.”

“Discord,” Twilight warned in a low tone, “you better not be up to anything.”

“Look,” Discord rolled his eyes, “normally I’d love nothing more than to play coy and push your buttons, but Fluttershy keeps a pretty tight schedule … and I’m not allowed to stay after tea to help feed the animals for another three weeks,” mumbling the last bit, “So, if you can’t keep your little prisoner in line then I will.”

“What? He,” Ms. Sparkle spluttered, “He’s not a prisoner, he-”

“Fine,” Discord sighed, snapping his talon, an invisible force hooking me into the air by my armpits. “We’ll be at Fluttershy’s. Au revoir.” And then, with another snap of his talon, the force released me, landing me on a thick cushion of emerald green grass.

Blinking at the sudden, stomach churning change in scenery as I tried to get my bearings, Discord squeezed my head between the two left-most digits of his lion paw and he lowered his face to mine.

“Look, we’re behind Fluttershy’s cottage,” he said twisting my head back enough to see the thatched, mossy greenery of her roof in the corner of my eye before twisting me back. “So, you can keep on making those bugs or whatever. Just keep it,” he moved aside, “under the treetops so she doesn’t catch anything from her kitchen window when she goes back to get ME a second helping of her delicious crumpets,” he sighed, drooling a little before mashing his face into mine, “Got It!”

“Yes sir,” I nodded, and that was good enough for him because the next instant he was gone, leaving a dust-cloud in his shape to give me one last stare before it too vanished.

Alone, but for the now, always buzzing data-stream of fear wheeling about inside my head, I slowly crossed my legs, and, cupping my hands in my lap, let what dregs of sand I could call begin to trickle in, twisting slowly until there would be enough for it to fly away, leaving what little room left in my head to fill in with my own thoughts.

***

“Ugh,” Rainbow Dash groaned, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, zipping her way to Fluttershy’s house for ‘reconnaissance’. Having just woken up, thanks to Twilight, who had gotten it into her bloated, egg-like head to wake her up first rather than teleporting to everypony else simply because the cloud she’d been power-napping on had floated overhead. Equestria really had better be in trouble or else a certain recently crowned princess was going to have to answer for cutting into the training schedule of an elite Wonderbolt.

Still, Dash conceded silently, if anypony could make world ending trouble on a sudden whim, it was Discord.

Clearing the tree line, she grimaced. Bunnies, bears, snakes, squirrels, and even a small manticore wearing a white cone around its neck were shivering in a huddled circle in Fluttershy’s front lawn, and once she was beyond the reflected glare from the stream running down the property line, she also saw all the fish schooling in the same area too. But, just before she was about to dive through the window and stop whatever chaos Discord had gotten Wayde into, she saw the skinny guy sitting in Flutter’s backyard, just at the edge by the forest. All the shadows looked fine, but that still didn’t mean he hadn’t done anything to Fluttershy’s animals.

Cracking her neck in two swift movements, she angled on an updraft and then dove for the human, ready to give him a taste of her famous left-hook, well, it was going to be famous … eventually, if he didn’t stop it that is.

“What the hay is going?” she squinted down at him, keeping herself just high enough in to still keep a head above him if he stood up.

“I’ve been making messengers,” Wayde replied dully, a razor winged, black sand butterfly flittering out from his hand and into the gloom of the trees beyond, “and Discord didn’t like how they scared Ms. Fluttershy when they flew over her house, so he brought me here. My apologies for the inconvenience my thoughtless actions have caused.”

“Uhh,” Dash flapped a few wingbeats back, not liking the dull monotone, “you okay?”

“No,” he muttered in the same bored tone one might dismiss having breadsticks added to their pizza order, “That last trip to another of your worlds was decidedly rough, and I worry my empathy for the short time I believed I had killed that displaced monster means that I am coward deep down. What’s more, given what I have seen of 'The Displaced', I also worry that my powers will drive me to some sort of psychosis, be it some degenerative form of autism or megamaniacal sociopathy. And worst of all, whether or not my mental faculties begin to fail me or not, I’ll still be leeching off of you all for housing during my internment. Which leaves me here, trying as desperately as I can manage to find a cure for myself and get back home so I can stop being your problem.”

“I, uhh …”

“Oh, but listen to me prattle on as though real people should concern themselves with my goings on,” he sighed, chuckling quietly, “Terribly sorry, sorrow tends to make me a bit chatty.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called out from the front yard.

“Ohpraisethesun,” she breathed, flapping up into the air. “I’m back here,” she shouted back.

A bubble of purple energy popped beside the two of them, as Twilight, Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity blinked the light from their eyes.

Acting first, Twilight stepped forward and asked, “Rainbow Dash, we saw the animals out front, what’s going on?”

“Yeeee-ah, still tryin’ to figure that one out,” Rainbow said, giving an odd, side-ways glance to Wayde, flapping closer to her friends.

“Wayde?” Twilight asked, taking a tentative step towards the human. She and her friends had turned grey when Discord had changed them, so it was anypony’s best guess if Wayde had been changed or not.

“You needn’t fear Ms. Sparkle, Discord hasn’t done anything to my mind. He really did just want to keep the bugs, which sent the town of Ponyville into hiding as you'll recall, from flying over Ms. Fluttershy’s house. And again, I’m sorry for that, I was being emotional and allowed it to get the better of me.”

“Wayde!” came an echoed shout from the front of the house.

Everyone froze, not quite believing the angry voice they'd heard. It couldn’t have been, but there was no mistaking it. It was Fluttershy.

A pink and yellow streak arced over the house, a snort of hot air venting from her nostrils as she came to a stop inches from the grey man’s face, and, forehooves crossed, said, “What makes you think you can just scare innocent creatures like that?”

“I didn’t” Wayde said quickly, looking up, his words chocking back into his throat as he was met with the full force of what Ponnyville simply knew as The Stare, his skin going ghostly pale.

Fluttershy squinted, increasing The Stare’s focus. “Now I know that nopony would do anything like this if they weren’t upset,” she said in firm, motherly tone, “but that’s no excuse to take it out on Beary or his friends, especially when one is still in recovery. So, you had better make things right and apologize to them for scaring them so bad.”

Wayde just sat there, staring back, silently, the air thickening in the silence.

Nopony had ever stood under Fluttershy’s Stare like this without some sort of pleading, acceptance, or … something.

Another string of silent moments crossed again, and then, Wayde stood up.

Skin flushed, tears of embarrassment hot in his eyes, voice cracking at the edges, he said, “I didn’t do anything to your stupid animals. Just like I didn’t ask to work with half a brain every God damn time one of those mind-numbing Displaced starve me of fear. And especially how I didn’t Ask,” his fist shaking around a thickening ball of nightmare sand, “for these stupid POWERS!” Eyes wide, tearing them from Fluttershy’s, he hurled the ball into the woods, and then fell into a heap as it bounced off a tree and into his face, shattering.

***

I gasped for air, sand spiking along my legs, catching in the blankets atop me. I had to get off my back.

They’re going to eat me!

But … they weren’t … here?

Gulping for air, the presence of reality began filling into my thoughts as the the last of my own nightmare ebbed away, my sand still picking at my legs to remind me of my weakness. Wincing at the golden light from the window, my own fears were pushed aside as those Ms. Fluttershy, Pinkamena, Ms. Dash, Ms. Sparkle, and …

Tossing the blankets aside, glad of the relatively high roof and ignoring the head rush from my sudden movement, I lowered my head and said, “Please forgive me, I didn’t mean to ruin your day sir.”

“Hmmph,” Discord scoffed, scratching the back of his neck. “A rather high opinion of yourself if you think you can ruin my day.”

“What?” Ms. Dash nearly squawked, “you knock yourself out with one of your own sand balls, have Twilight carry you in with her magic as Fluttershy tries to make sure you don’t have a head injury, and the first thing you do is suck up to this, this… ugh, you know what forget it. Twilight can handle this. I’m gonna go fly,” and winged out the nearest open window, spilling the seeds of hanging birdfeeder in her wind-wake.

“I um,” Fluttershy hummed, breaking past the others, hair covering half her face, “I wanted to apologize too. I,” she rubbed the back of her foreleg, “talked things over with the animals, and they said you made them feel scared. Not that you did anything to them, most of them didn’t even see you, but they said they felt scared anyway, and, I … I think your very presence just scares them. I’m sorry.”

“Oh,” I sighed as a new facet of my existence added itself to the wonders of my super-powered life. “I’m sorry too.”

The silence grew for a few moments, and then, “Look,” Ms. Sparkle said bringing a hoof to her nose, “before thing’s get a chance to escalate again, let’s just call this a day, and see about penciling a fresh start tomorrow. We can do breakfast, set a few ground rules, and figure out a plan for the foreseeable future. Sound good?”

“Ooo. Yeah! I can come over and help Spike make pancakes. What do you want strawberry or blueberry? Well wait,” Pinkamena said turning to face me, “do you even like pancakes? You said you don’t really like cakes so?”

“Pancakes are just fine,” I smiled, a small part of me writhing at the thought of someone going to the trouble to cook for me. Part of Ms. Sparkles rules had better include some form of chores or work in compensation for all this.

“Oh goody,” Discord cheered, a sleeping cap suddenly adorning his head, “I love freshly made pancakes in the morning. I like mine poached. So mind you don’t break ‘em,” and vanished with an echo of laughter before Ms. Sparkle could form a reply.

Twilight sighed then said, “Well, at least he let me know he was going to show up. So, that’s an improvement, right?”

Pinkamena and Ms. Fluttershy only response was to look briefly at each other before shrugging at Ms. Sparkle.

“Yeah,” Ms. Sparkle smiled tiredly, “figured as much.”

Author's Note:

I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter.

Comments

[stephen51991]

Author's Note:

Meh, I enjoyed it.

[microdrago]

It was good, really makes us think on how much Wayde hates his powers, and how much he despises other Displaced.
Good work man, keep it up.

[Light Verse]

Like it hope it doesn't end too soon.

[Adjier]

Wayde needs a pick-me up.

I can't wait for more.

[Dracochangewing]

update please