((5)
Entry Thirteen, Evening
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
...
I can't believe that that made me feel feel better.
***
Sitting around dark wood table, their reflections shifting into clownish proportions upon its well oiled surface with the slightest movement, they delivered their reports.
Applejack, brown Stetson shielding her gaze, sat resolute, her mouth set at a slight frown. Using her family ties and mercantile influences, she’d made considerable headway through the bazaar, but had gained little besides knowledge of a few vendettas between some of the older families and traders in the city and a smattering of wild gossip on the possible market campaign that these nightmares might signify for the city's annual ice sculpture competition. To her left, Rainbow Dash, wings folded to her sides, wore an equally dissatisfied look. Over the course of the previous days, collaborating with the squad of pegasi-guard Princess Luna had sent ahead of them, she'd found nothing out of the ordinary in the local weather readings. Rarity too had also failed to find anything of note from mingling her way through the upper-crust of Riydah.
Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, for their part, banded together to cheer-up many of the affected citizens with a Giggle-at-the-ghosties-Pallooza in the residential district with a quiet picnic/petting-zoo, thanks in no small part to the Mayor and local animal shelter, quietly tucked away near the city's oasis. Much to their equal shock, while the dreams of the citizens were always varied, their was always a disturbing singularity of a tall black creature featured across them. Pinkie, however, had been the one to composite a description of the creature from the stumbling words of the frightened citizenry: A blackened tuft of mane crowning the pale grey skin of its head. Bipedal, almost like a minotaur, but with blunted facial features, almost flat, hornless, and with legs that bent sickeningly forward rather than back.
Princess Twilight and Luna, having worn themselves ragged with their sweep through the dreamscapes of the citizens, had also recognized the disturbing similarity of this creature to the creatures Twilight had found on the other side of The Mirror in Canterlot High School. It was always just at the edges of the dreams, little more than a shell of had been. But, more troubling still, was the utter lack of magic they had found. Even had The Nightmare used a distortion spell to keep anypony from discerning the specific spells it had used, the thaumatic degradation could not have been scattered enough to escape detection enough to not alert them to magical foul play, not so soon, and not with a city this size and with so many ponies hit. But even without magic, it just wasn't feasible. Forget about having a potion that could induce such variabled nightmares with a singularly shared individual stuck into them without the aid of magic, just the simple logistics of transporting such a potion, even if a single drop for each target was all that was needed, it simply couldn't have gone unnoticed. Not at that speed, and not on that sort of scale.
Everypony in the room, save Princess Luna, hung their heads nearly to the table in defeat. None of them were pleased with their lack of findings, especially given where that left them in regards to their options. Looking to the clock hanging over the door, it read 3: 55 PM. Moving silently into position under the pale white crystal glow of the conference room ensconced along the walls, everypony took a seat around the rightmost half of the table, placing Fluttershy at the head. An unused, emerald green cushion sat opposite them, as the makings of tea were brought steaming out of its stasis bubble at the table's center, flanked on both sides by two small trays of sugar cookies. It was Thursday, and that meant tea-time with Discord.
At the stroke of four, the clock chimed daintily, and no sooner had the last crystalline peal faded when somepony knocked softly upon the door. A collective weight drew upon the ponies, an order to evacuate the top floor having been given to the guards earlier this morning, and without exception, as Fluttershy said, “Come in.”
Without pomp, ceremony, or fanfair (I know what I said), Discord politely stepped into the room and shut the door behind him. Fluttershy gave her asymmetric friend a small, heartfelt, smile. Responding in kind, and dipping his head to the other mares, the master of chaos teleported silently towards the open cushion in a puff of lilac smoke that, once cleared, showed the draconequus wearing a deep plum, pin striped suit.
“I don’t suppose dearest Fluttershy,” Discord calmly smiled, lazily inspecting the polished claws on the lion's paw at his right shoulder, his eagle claw, pin-stripe sleeve and all, stretching like rubber to grab a fistful of cookies, “that you’ve invited everypony here in the mere spirit of chaos?” and shoving the tiny morsels into his maw, cheeks bulging out cartoonishly as he chewed to the sound of breaking pottery.
Fluttershy knit her brows. She knew that Discord, though he’d never admit to it, out loud, was still upset over his recent betrayal to her, his first friend, and even though she still felt a little guilty about taking advantage of him like this, she also knew that it really would do him a world of good to have such a straightforward way to begin earning back some of their trust. “Well, sort of, maybe," she said, tilting to let her mane fall over an eye. "A lot of ponies have been having a case of bad dreams lately.”
Given the present company in the room, most notably the Princess of the Night, Discord raised an eyebrow and took a sip of his teacup, waving his free hand for her to continue, interest piqued but not trusting himself to keep from openly mocking The Princess of Dreams.
“Well, it seems that all this pony has managed to do is give everypony bad dreams, but we’re afraid they might do something more drastic, and soon, given how rapidly they managed to spread across all of Riydah in a single night”
“Impressive," Discord hummed, "but you keep on mentioning they. Don’t you have any clear idea of whom you want me to stop?”
“Well that’s the problem,” Fluttershy said, brushing back her mane away from the lip of her teacup, “Twilight and Luna can’t seem to find a magical residue of any sort, in the real or the dream world. In fact, the only thing we do know is that it might look like the creatures Twilight saw across The Mirror in the Crystal Empire since they keep showing up in these nightmares.”
Discord sat there, stroking his white, billy goat beard, sending unthinking spirals of blue and pink to vanish across it. “Well,” he grinned, tapping the side of his cheek, his suit disappearing into a rising cloud of grape-scented confetti, “isn't this a pickle. Still," floating off of the cushion, "I think I just might be able to help you out. Though of course I’ll have to examine all the pertinent files to this case,” and, without pause, stuck the tip of his tail into his mouth to pull out a wad of soggy paperwork from under his tongue. Leafing through it he continued, “Further- Oh," he groaned, "the inks gone all runny," tossing the illegible words aside. Wiping away the excess saliva from the table, he gave a pointed look to Fluttershy. "And I won’t be doing this for free either. And," raising his hands in a defensive gesture, "before you get your socks in a bunch I'm only taking this as a preventative measure. You wouldn't want me distracted, would you?”
Glares were quickly leveled at Discord's widening puppy-dog eyes, shriveling him into a smoking pile of ash, his yellow-red eyes blinking atop, unaffected.
“Sheesh, if looks could kill,” he mumbled dryly, a pseudo-hand pushing out of the grey pile as he snapped himself back to health. “Look I'm not trying to strike up some Faustian bargain, I simply request that, for my aid, the Element of Generosity shall create for me a set of clothing to my own specifications, and, given the circumstances, it's really is quite the steal... for you," he purred. "So,” he smirked, straightening up, “I get rid of this 'threat', and in return you give me an outfit," sticking out his claw to Rarity "sound good?”
Everypony looked to one another and then to Rarity who, begrudgingly, gripped at Discord’s outstretched claw and shook, eyes widening and quickly jerking it back to scrub away the saliva she hadn’t known was there onto the expensive cushion beneath her, leaving the room to fill with the cries of seagulls and the smell of the sea as Discord departed.
***Three Nights Later***
Princess Luna continued to gaze at the horizon as the stars began to tiredly peek out, what little paper work that could be accomplished so far from Canterlot having been finished hours ago as the other mares staved off their worry in their own ways. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were still engaged in the same hoof-wrestling contest they'd begun four minutes ago as Twilight made another pass around the Mermare Fountain, a, now, perceptible divot just noticeable in the cobblestones. The rest of the girls were busy trying to distract themselves with the exotic flora, fauna, and complementary catering of the palace garden as what looked like another night without word from Discord was about to begin.
Nearly all of the city's population now stood risk of a nightmare strike, some even dreaming on their own of the mysterious figure rather than being visited themselves. Many of those who would normally enjoy a few hours of the night before retiring to bed were now sticking closely to their homes at the fall of the sun, and it was only due to the large population of nocturnal citizens that kept the night from becoming a ghost town, but they too mirrored their diurnal neighbors, hurrying back to their homes before the break of day. And yet, even with tensions mounting, there was nothing, not of any real consequence, to these dream-strikes other than a poor nights rest, and with whispers of others going to bed earlier to combat this change to their lives. In fact, some had even begun to praise the nightmares, saying how much easier it was to get out of bed in the morning when their hearts were already pounding, their usual waking-daze obliterated.
'Regardless,' Princess Luna thought, gaze steeling upon the heavens, 'if Discord does not report back tonight, even if it's merely to relay his own lack of knowledge, I will seek out this threat to my ponies. I have sat idle as it is for long e-'
The sound of thunder boomed across the sky as brief flash of jagged, yellow lightning spiraled in its wake from the conference tower, casting shadows of orange and blue across the city and the dunes beyond. And, before anypony else could respond, everypony in the garden began to cough as the taste of smoking brimstone filled their lungs, sending tears to their eyes. Beating her wings, Princess Luna pushed at the sudden cloud of smoke, clearing it enough to see the towering form of Discord looming above her.
“That thing" he said through gritted teeth, steam whistling out his ears, "is in the conference room. Release the sleeping enchantment at your own risk. I am not going after him again. And you,” he said, energy crackling darkly around him, turning to point a yellow talon at Rarity, “you now owe me two outfits.”
“That wasn’t part of the deal,” Rarity managed to gasp.
“I am altering the deal. Pray I do not alter it further,” he growled, snapping himself away, stealing everyponies breath as the toxic atmosphere vanished.
In the filling rush of quiet, everypony looked slowly up to the conference room and to the hidden creature within that had managed to get Discord, one of the most mercurial of creatures in existence, steaming out the ears with anger.
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Deer god, another one.
There is no "bending backwards", it's the fucking ankle!
Pony skeleton:
th00.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2011/282/d/9/mlp_skeleton_by_tickedoffspoonbender-d4cbsrj.png
Some joints view:
derpicdn.net/img/2012/6/25/20931/full.jpg
Digitigrade skeleton (horses/ponies walk on toe tips evolved into hooves):
ohsewgeeky.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Digitigrade1.png
3.bp.blogspot.com/_GhcCFcMfw-k/TSn5cqQIx2I/AAAAAAAAAQ8/31yKPe5LIVw/s1600/ACorless_equine%2526human_312.jpg
5165698 maybe the ponies don't know that. Maybe they think his ankles are his knees.
5165744 I don't like justifying authors knowledge shortcomings. Not smothering them in a bud can led to spawning more of them, and if that happens, it'll be too late.
Besides, Twilight would correct that assumption, as she saw how human leg looks like, because she herself had one.
5165763 true, true.
5165698
Thank you for the update.
5166368
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Even your's is valid, but try to stay away from expletives since they tend to degrade your side of an argument. Further, I can personally attest to seeing that person leave positive comments on stories they like, and you know what I didn't like those stories ((though for all I know they could have commented on stories I might like, it's all a matter of personal taste really. There are more than a few stories on this site after-all where we could both like the same thing, or maybe not)). But that said, a broad comment of dislike without constructive criticism does send mixed messages.
5166590
Art joke?
fc04.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2013/217/1/c/baroque_works_by_donaco-d6gpt7s.jpg
5166607
And I'm terribly sorry, that particular comic arc has been out for a nearly a year and assumed it didn't fall under spoiler territory. As for the future, I do have definite plans to make another reference but I don't think it will harm much, I think.
To be honest, the idea of LoHAV fails for me, if:
-The protagonist could resolve his problems if he talked and did it right. A bit of smarts and, if you are not evil, you have peaceful life with powers
5167175
I do hope I haven't failed you, have I?
5168305
Well, the protagonist himself mentions that if he just talked to Lyra, it might have been better. I understand people can be scared, and considering the position our protagonist is in, it's understandable. The fic itself is good, it's just...
LoHAV = League of Humans Acting Villainous.
But there is no need to act villainous if one can explain themselves if they are not evil. A lot of people just can't explain themselves.
Considering our Pitch Black can have journal, quills, etc, he can affect environment. Couldn't he lift objects, write stuff on the ground to show his name, etc, to prove he is real? Couldn't he visit others in their dreams without scaring them, instead of that talking to them about himself?
5168737
Funny you should mention that, because even in the movie they don't properly explain things. For instance, if Jack Frost wanted so badly to be seen, then why not just start writing words into the snow? I understand the cognitive dissonance that this can bring up, and while I am not a fan of such things but I still enjoy the concept of Pitch Black's powers. That's why the focus of my character has been on the mortal peril he thinks and actually is in, both of which makes higher thoughts harder to come by, especially when you have to set aside effort to try and remain calm on the inside and try to truly not be afraid lest your own nightmares fall upon you.
A complex subject to be sure, and I can only hope I can do such a concept a sliver of the justice of what it deserves. But onto the LOHAV bit, the reason I've put him under such a heading would be to due to the unknowing and unwilling violation of entering another's mind. Further, the reason I haven't started contacting others in dreams is that I want it to be a learned skill, much the same that someone can start a raging fire with two sticks but many degree higher in difficulty to safely concentrate that energy and then place it into the application of cutting something as simple as a sheet of metal and making it a piece of art.
5169630
That makes sense and explained all that had to be explained...
...however, in the spirit of yet to come Halloween I will just say one thing.
2spooky4me
5166408
While everyone is entitled to an opinion, the term 'If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.' Still holds true. If he mentioned why he didn't like your story, then at least it's useful criticism. As is though, it just feels like hate with a thin excuse of 'Not my style.'.
Nice chapter by the way.
5177082
Thanks you, and yeah, that's why the last sentence on that comment is about the mixed message. Tentative prevention of possible group hate, would rather have people focus on the story than a decidedly rude comment.
5177167
I forgot to say, I'm looking SUPER forward to the next chapter where he's force to talk to the ponies, specifically Luna. I do hope Luna doesn't see him has evil.
It's good to see this update, especially after I felt cheated by the ending of your CGotG story. Seriously, you chess-verse guys need to either post "Hero" or "Victim" in your story description so we know if we're going to read a story with a potentially happy end or one with a doomed ending.
Anyway, yeah, really love this one, and excellent reference to an old MLP villain.
I, must wait, must wait, must not not wait. Maybe, how long is estimated? Must wait. Muuuuussssst wait.
5244900
If it makes you feel any better, the reason this next chapter is taking so long ,this time, is because I managed to get someone to agree to do a crossover with me. So, hard to say with tests coming up repeatedly week after week and another person's life a schedule to work with.
I MUST HAVE MORE!!!!
All I could think about upon seeing the title was "I'm Mr Meeseeks, look at me!"
Can't wait to give this a read.
MOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR, DAMMIT!
5305859
Alright, jeez, I'll have something out no later than Friday. (but thanks for the motivation)
*whimper* but...., but..., it was just here this morning...., whyyyyyyyy? Please, I didn't have time this morning!,,please put it back!
Dear Reality.
Oh daddy like. Daddy like a lot. Rise of the Guardians was one of those movies that I thought was going to utterly bite, but upon seeing it, had to make sure everyone in my god dang friend circle experienced it's utter glory. Which leads me to Pitch, I absolutely , love him. He's calculating, he's clever, he's witty, and down right scary. In fact, I'm tempted to say that he's Freddy Kruger, minus the blood lust ( but I won't because I don't like gravy with my skittles). But I digress, this person forced into the role of Pitch is in fact quite likable, he acknowledges what he's doing is wrong and he feels genuine sickness in doing what he's doing (for now). But at the same time, he needs to keep this up lest he perish into nothingness. A truly pitiable predicament to say the least, and one I look forward to continuing in the next update.
Sincerely Yours, The Cake Devil.
5308504
Working on it, please check the blog post.
5309498
img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140317141627/mlp/images/5/5d/Fluttershy_blushing_embarrassed_S4E18.png
THANK YOU, DAMNIT!!!!5305870
Great story. Can't wait to see what happens next.
Star Wars déjà vu.
Oh, you disgusting cowards! Humans would simply mentally prepare each night in such a situation. Forewarned is forearmed, after all. That would enable us to better deal with any nightmares, if we know they might be coming. If they kept hitting the same person then exhaustion would reduce the effectiveness of this, though.
Your weak, alien Will shall fail before the indomitable human spirit!
And not even any fun fair, either. It's outright depressing, really.
Kudos for the Discworld reference. I really don't see enough of those here.
back, similar to
I feel like that's the wrong word. I don't know what the right word is, I know it's similar, but I don't think it's that one.
Shouldn't that be Tirek?
6738553
I know this isn't strictly canon, but I found it intriguing all the same.