Fake Skins

shinigamisparda

shinigamisparda #1 · Apr 14th, 2020 · 5 · ·

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Skinwalkers. By far one of the most terrifying of Native American creatures.

Foxgear

Foxgear #2 · Apr 14th, 2020 · · ·

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Good atmosphere build up there.

anonpencil

anonpencil #3 · Apr 14th, 2020 · · ·

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Thank you for the entry! Looking forward to it.

chris the cynic

chris the cynic #4 · Apr 14th, 2020 · 1 · ·

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Sunset is pretty much a skinwalker in reverse, but (because of the way the portal functions) she doesn't need a skin to do it.

The term, if the translation I'm seeing is correct, "thing that trots," (as in: this word is literally used to describe horses and ponies), "or otherwise walks on four legs, by using [it]". The "it" is the skin, which is how you get "skin-walker". A person uses a skin to turn into a quadraped at which point they naaldloosh. Except I don't know Navajo, so that isn't ~~declined~~ conjugated properly.

Anyway "naaldloosh" means "is trotting about", "naaldlooshii" means, to Englishify the conjugation, "Thing that naaldlooshes," and "yee" means "by means of [it]". Thus "yee naaldlooshii" is "by means of [a skin] he/she is a thing that trots about."

Sunset was already something that trotted about on all fours, she needed magic to become a biped. Thankfully she didn't need a human skin to do it (I base this statement on the fact that every time someone walks between worlds in MLP they transform into a world appropriate species) but first-movie-Sunset the evil witch walking around looking like a creature she wasn't born as and interacting with human society in ways unhealthy and malicious? She hits pretty much every other point. (The corpse dust isn't a required feature; being a jerk is.)

Whether or not there are tales about reformed skin-walkers is pretty much impossible to tell for two reasons. One is that the people who know the most about such things are the ones least likely to share that information with outsiders. The other is that people who have no idea one way or the other make stuff up constantly, which makes it harder to find accurate information about actual legend and folklore.

Esorial

Esorial #5 · Apr 14th, 2020 · · ·

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meh. Nothing really wrong with it per say, just didn’t do anything for me. The only thing I liked was the hints of Sunflash, but I’m rather partial words that ship anyway.

I suppose my only real gripe would be how nothing of consequence occurs. We get some minor atmospheric buildup, followed by some equally minor pay off. I think simply adding a line or two about either AJ or Flash going missing would go a long way to fixing that, and add a bit of a tragic spin to things.

SRY

SRY #6 · Apr 14th, 2020 · · ·

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I wouldn't worry about it.

Comment posted by FaniC0rn deleted Apr 14th, 2020

GallaicusBrony92

GallaicusBrony92 #8 · Apr 18th, 2020 · · ·

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10179883
I didn't think about that.
It really makes sense! Thanks for sharing this!

Shyinka

Shyinka #9 · Aug 20th, 2020 · · ·

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It was 3:30 AM and I couldn't sleep, so I went out for a smoke. The air was nice and cool, sky full of stars, got me all nice and chill. And then, when I was half the cigarette finished I remembered this story (I read it few weeks ago). Like it wasn't enough, I heard fricking weird and irregular footsteps from the backyard. I couldn't see shit in there, because it was pitch black. Scared the crap out of me. I went back inside so fast, convincing myself it was probably just my cats or something. It couldn't have been another person, I'm here all alone. Or so I thought. TT__TT
So yeah, great story, I'm not sleeping ever again. In my opinion, it's so scary because it's not so hard to believe something like this could actually happen, especially when you're out at night all by yourself. I also love the fact that nothing really happened after that, which means the creature is still out there in the forest, waiting. Makes me shiver just thinking about it, awesome. I love a good horror and this hit me just right. No unnecessary gore and stupid things like that. Just pure fear. Perfect, thank you.

PresentPerfect

Author Interviewer

PresentPerfect #10 · Nov 17th, 2020 · · ·

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I like how Sci-Twi says it can't be Equestrian magic, since they already had to deal with it at camp, as though she knows there can only ever be one magical problem in a place because that's exactly how the series works. XD

Wolfeh05