Manhunger

by Odd_Sarge

Power

Black and gray rock surrounds you. Stone. Artificial.

The sky is the wrong blue. Smoggy. And filled with glimmering towers of glass.

They are forged of Maniron.

The scent of the world collapses in upon you. It is hot, sticky. Damp on your coat.

Salt. Meat. Ichor. Life.

Man.

You are drawn from the Maniron towers. The crowd of Man around you swells, and dark Maniron carriages screech in halting. The world creeps in on you.

The black stone beneath you is dotted with white lines. You trace them to a stumbling figure.

It is a Man with power. His grasp is weak, shaking as he holds a shaped chunk.

A warcraft of Blackiron.

You narrow your eyes.

The scent of salt rises from your own coat.

You light your horn. You unclasp your white cape, and levitate it before you.

Crisply, you form a square of cloth.

The crowd of Man is sufficiently awed by your display.

The Man on the dotted white line approaches your white flag. His grasp is loose, jerky.

You approach in kind.

You meet in the middle.

You bow your head, eyes shut.

You hear the fabric of his clothes stretch as he reaches toward you.

“Easy...”

In reply, you open your eyes. You could not disagree more.

As your horn pierces fabric, shrill screams sound for you.

The blood of Man soaks your white flag, but it does not stain your horn.

The Blackiron chunk clanks against the ground between you and the exsanguinated.

You yank back, showering the white lines with crimson.

The metallic bite of copper fills your lungs.

You push the Man without touch, and cleanse your horn with stained cloth.

The screams of the remaining Man rekindle as you redouble your magic.

You raise the Blackiron of Man from the ground.

You pause.

A sneer careens over your lips.

This warcraft... is not fine Blackiron.

You aim the false Blackiron at the crowd.

A tempestuous crack reams through the air, and a Man tumbles.

Gray, pink, red. Bone. The opening is raw. Viscous. Blood pours as hot wine.

You already long for another pull.

There are yells made in the language of the Man. You adjust the Blackiron again. The weight is estranged from what you desire, but it will service you.

The Man enforcers who approach, now, wield more false Blackiron.

Even in the smoggy daylight in the land of Man, your armor glints with purpose.

Momentarily, wield this false Blackiron. Your goal remains pure.

All Man will bleed until they relinquish what is rightfully yours.

Comments

[NorrisThePony]

I can think of no truer horror than a pony's search for the horrors of Man.

Unsettling, disorienting, and profoundly uncomfortable story.

[Starlight Nova]

Why aren’t there any character tags?

[TearingNose24]

Instructional manual of how to remove dipshit evil unicorns. / What happens next. :D

Seriously though, I doubt our little power-obsessed unicorn really grasps the sheer power he just put himself against. Poor Fool.

[Odd_Sarge]

11628287
Thanks, never written something like this before, so I’m glad.
11628328
It doesn’t exactly need one...

[Time Waster]

The unicorn is gunned down moments later. The end.

[Odd_Sarge]

11628483
That is, in fact, the moral!
I know I sound sarcastic... so. One term to define this fic: unreliable narrator.
Yeah. Don’t kill cops in broad daylight!

[Turbotune]

Interesting…
That's really creepy.
I don't know what happened to cause this to escalate from fire to power, or why the unicorn And the men are there seeing red, but I'm afraid of the truth, because if true power is unleashed, no one will be able to escape.

[Dufa]

Love this. It implies so much to get the mind racing without feeling completely alienating to read

[Bicyclette]

They are forged of Maniron.

oof what an unpleasant name for a building material

The black stone beneath you is dotted with white lines. You trace them to a stumbling figure.

aww, the car-less ponies wouldn’t recognize roads!

Momentarily, wield this false Blackiron. Your goal remains pure.

All Man will bleed until they relinquish what is rightfully yours.

well, a power-mad, armored unicorn crossing into the human world to indiscriminately murder humans until they get taken down, in an apparent misunderstanding of how reality works really is quite the mental image! and it’s always fun to describe the mundane elements of our human lives in ways that feel as alien as they would be to a visitor to our world. i don’t think i’ve ever read this kind of take on a Pony on Earth story, and it is quite refreshing. thank you for writing!

[Odd_Sarge]

11697919
Thank you very much for reading and commenting! I always get a kick out of your comments.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Sometimes you’ve just got the rumblies. That only hands can satisfy.

Oh! Different kind of manhunger. Moving on…

I do appreciate the presentation of humans as an occult entity, dangerous but incredibly useful to those who truck with them carefully. The operative word, of course, is carefully. Not charging into a city and goring someone in broad daylight just because the manuscript you read told you this was how to become an alicorn. I can’t help but think this was a trap to filter out the foolish and overeager, like how Aleister Crowley included rituals that were actually chemistry experiments one should never perform in his books.

All told, fascinating little tale through implication of the dangers of grasping for power without wisdom or understanding. (And it’s honestly kind of funny when one considers the mirror portal. There are much easier ways to access the land of Man.) Thank you for it.

[Odd_Sarge]

11699036
I love how nicely you wrapped up the lessons/precepts that contribute to the naivety of the decisions made herein. I wanted to construct a very, very silly pony, while still draping them in the shadows of amoral ways. Thank you very much for reading, and not shying away from making those connections.

Sometimes you’ve just got the rumblies. That only hands can satisfy.

And I especially appreciate this. It crossed my mind more than once when working on the title and cover art.