• Published 23rd May 2014
  • 16,411 Views, 323 Comments

A Four Letter Word - RealityDowngrade



A meek cosplayer is thrust into the position of the Boogey Man with all the powers (and chains) that come with it.

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((3)

Stepping out of the alley's shadows and into the warmed cobbled street, my sand flowing just behind me before probing into my disgust and falling back into the darkness. Looking down, I watched as my feet ghosted through the bits and pieces of flittering garbage that the wind scooped up from the streets in erratic loops and skittering half-circles.

Moving forward, I could hardly keep track of the myriad colors that were the people and merchandise gleaming under the covered-stalls of the Riydah Bazaar, jewel of the capital city, if the poster near the train station was to be believed. The crowds, however, were still quite thick, even as shops were closing down for the day, though if I wasn't mistaken, just as many seemed to be just as busy putting on lights as there were those closing shutters. Really, I shouldn't have been surprised to find there as more of a nocturnal life her than there was to the town of Ponyville. Pony-snakes, lower half halves undulating across the ground as their upper halves were held in the vertical, hooves folded over the chest, were treated as uninterestingly normal as the sand-colored diamond-dogs that no one bothered to give a second look at, let alone a first. But as much as the new sights pleaded for my attention, when the afternoon sun suddenly dipped off the horizon, as though yanked by some unimaginably large chord, and was immediately replaced by the silvery glow of the full moon, rising smoothly on the opposite edge of the darkening sky, I came to a full and complete stop.

Shivering as another pony in the crowd trotted through, shaking me from any further scientific minded thoughts on celestial bodies and their effect upon the planets around them, I began to walk, letting the awe of what these people considered to be so mundane as to not warrant a single glance to the sky onto the back-burner . But it wasn't just the sun and he moon. When I was pacing through the train, trying to keep ahead of all the doubts and second-guesses trying to plague me, I'd heard ponies gushing over Sapphire Shores and her ability to craft visible sound waves into her performances, of some pegasus's mother managing to craft a flurry of wind to carry their town's anthem across her wind-chimes , and even the train’s engineers, betting on how soon steam engines would come back into style for the nobles now that the new crystal-engines had become standard for mass transport. It was almost frightening to hear how common place these things were to them, but at least it kept me distracted... during the day.

It had been much harder to keep my thoughts of Ponyville as tightly sealed as I might have wanted during the night. Even the cloud of fears that everyone beamed into my head began to lessen as they fell to slumber, replacing it with an aura of happiness and even joy, drowning out their more negative emotions.

What I had done to Lyra was monstrous, the way my fear had raged and expanded, flowing out of me and into her mind, imposing my will onto her dreams. Her whimpering, her defenselessness, it was disgustingly unforgivable, but it would have been so much more bearable if it hadn't felt so... pleasant. It was why I'd ended up spending so much of my nights on the roof of the cars, leaving the wind to whistle a single and constant note through my ears while watching puffs of colored steam pass and vanish from sight.

But here, in this city, filling with its growing night life, it seemed the perfect place to fill my mind with distractions, to, just maybe, get a hold of my mind and the new lists of fears that were daily taking precedence, wanting nothing more than to increase its length by finding new and exotic phobias that worried away at the people I passed. 'I just ant to sleep again,' I thought, siding out of the main thoroughfare and into the nearest alley, pinching down the center of my brow, leaning my head onto the, still warm, yellow brickwork of the wall before me, and exhaled... and continued to exhale... and continued to exhale the air in my lungs which should have been screaming for a new breath of air. 'Huh, neat,' I thought, trying to hold on to the wonder of the feat rather than the inhuman amount of air I had just lost.

inhuman inhumane fear mongering mongrel

That was it, wasn't it. Letting the blanket of fears that continued to wrap and writhe against my thoughts have their say, remaining silent, like a dog, rather than talk back.

Lyra had seen me that day, hell, she'd even tried to chase me. And I'd let her, rather than simply standing my ground. Ah, but the guards, the Elements of Harmony. Right, but if she was taking it into her own hands, was she really so afraid? Did she really think of me as some monstrous threat if little old untrained civilian her was coming after me instead of reporting it to authorities? That could mean I could have tried apologizing to her, could even apologize to her now. Open a dialogue with her and Twilight, just, just anyone who could listen. I could begin to get help. I could be responsible. I could even try and make things right, right?

Looking down, the stone buildings, tents and stalls were already shrinking as a cube of sand had lifted me, unbidden, into the air. But that was fine, I just needed to find the train station, then sit back as it crossed all the twisting and turning tracks back t-

Clenching at my shirt, eyes wide, a pull of what I could only call numbness began to pull down on my chest as warm sand, normal sand pressed against my face, my chest, my legs. My nightmares retreated from me... somehow, but all that mattered as how aware, how real, how textual the feeling of nothingness pulling at what I intrinsically knew, just knew, had to be my vitality, and all the energy from all the fears and nightmares I'd gotten from that one little unicorn. when a queer feeling starting chilling my guts. The sand reacted swiftly to my sudden loss of balance and gently flew me to the ground. It was like feeling the inside of an unturned canteen, the water gently flowing out and into the wide of the world, leaving nothing. And then, a spark of fear ignited.

Black needles slowly crawled up my arms as I pushed against the shuffling sands beneath me, but I was so dulled, its stings only registered enough to remind me that that one, stinking, piece of organic filth WASN'T AFRAID OF ME!

'How?' I thought, trying to walk, to stumble away rom the emptiness. 'How was it possible to suddenly stop believing like this? No marked decline, no wavering. It was just gone. But this could only mean that something, or one, had to be purposefully getting rid of Lyra’s thoughts and memories of me. Yes, it had to be one of the six. No, the princesses! They were trying to kill me, to make her forget.'

"Oh, hoh hoh, but you're not dealing with some idiot who needs to prattle on, some mental reject ho needs to brag of his conquests to his living enemy. Oh no," I grinned, lines of nightmare sand now pricking along my legs, sensation slowly returning to them. "I can fill more people with fear than you could ever possibly make forget," I declared, pointing to the moon.

The moon? Beating me? Ha! Never.

Sliding into an unseen divot in the desert sand, my stomach churned as nightmares clouded around me, softening my fall. I was outside the city. I shouldn't have been outside the city. Growling as I pushed my chest up from the ground, I had to hand it to them. That had been a good attack, I would admit that much. But I'd had less than this when I'd popped into the miserable little world. I had knowledge now. I knew what to do now, and more importantly, the nightmare's still knew what to do too, just like the first night.

Thrust into a new home, I began shifting myself through the rooms, finding nothing for my trouble but empty beds. But that just meant they were probably nocturnal, the place didn't have any windows after all, and that just meant I could get them in the morning. Moving on to the next house I was rewarded with a sleeping mare swaying in a hammock. Reaching out my hand, as angry as I was, as hungry as I as, a silent word of apology still squeezed itself out from the melee of thoughts devouring my attention. Pressing into her skull, my fear swept into her dreams, engulfing the sunny the beach, the cool misty breezes, and equally cool drinks of a tropical getaway, and destroyed it. The trees withered away, falling as they crusted into blackened husks, blowing away to add to the growing blackness. Catching the breeze the black sand clung to everything within the wind's reach: towels, cabanas, nothing in the dream was safe, and soon the growing tide of shimmering black swept consumed the dream like a parasite consuming its host, leaving nothing but a blackened beach and a muddied ocean for the terrified mare to enjoy.

The nightmare accomplished, my growing cloud swept me from the room and its occupant's piercing screams. I needed more, much more than the fears of a single mare.

***

Constellations and galaxies swirled sluggishly across Luna's gaze before she gave a tired sigh, blowing back the bits of errant mane that hung over her eyes as she stepped out of Morpheus, the enchanted silver door sliding silently closed. Much of her time this night had been spent in Vanhoover thanks to another of the technological leaps she had missed during her time locked upon the moon. This combination of both sound and moving pictures had become quite integrated within the culture, all but destroying the work of bards, though most everypony seemed to enjoy them, including her sister. However, what had garnered her attention this night was the festival's chosen theme of horror. Whimsical tales of nightmares come to light, the idea being to frighten ones's self, much like during Nightmare Night. But, willingly agreed to for merriment's sake or not, many a sleeping pony, both young and old, had benefited from a gentle reminder that they often had more power than they gave themselves credit for, especially against a flickering image on a screen.

Stretching her wings, glad of the extra wide hallway, she began her journey to the hall and her lounge beyond with the sole intention of falling onto her new favorite piece of furniture, the beanbag chair, and enjoying a well deserved snack, or as her sister was want to jest, second breakfast.

Pushing open the deceptively simple door with a flicker of teal-tinged magic, Luna was greeted with the plush interior of her lounge. The creamy-white circular carpet took up much of the black marble floor, of whose flowering crystal veins, present throughout, had been enchanted to hold gentle twists of blue and white light. Ringing the carpet were a number of black beanbag chairs spiraled with white, leaving enough room for anypony to easily weave around even a room fully occupied. Taking the farthest chair from the door, Luna fell upon it with a superb lack of grace and let the downy-softness embrace her.

Quieting her mind, The Princess of the Night had just discerned what tonight's craving was when the silence of the room was abruptly shattered from the armored hooves clicking into the room without so much as a knock.

“Princess, you are needed in the courtroom.”

A flash of blue, and Princess Luna stood at the ready before her night guard, mane once more immaculate, and strode after the retreating soldier who was trotting double-time down the hall towards The Night Court, which had ended hours earlier tonight.

Perhaps I have forgotten a late arrival,’ Luna thought, years of politicking suppressing a blush of embarrassment at the thought of repeating a mistake she had done naught but three weeks past with an ambassador from the gryphon kingdom, an owl-leopard hybrid. The words for a diplomatic apology she was organizing, however, died quickly in her throat as she was greeted with the silent stares of several of the more high-ranking night-guards as well as a single day-guard who was putting up a valiant front of alertness despite the particularly late hour. Something was very wrong.