Five Score: Albedo of the Moon

I hate people.

They’re stupid, selfish and right then they’re keeping me stuck at work. I tried to get around them but I couldn’t. You would think people could stand to the side in a hallway if they weren’t walking. Nope. They don’t do that.

So instead I look like the bad guy when I bump past them.

“Sorry,” I lied, shuffling past.

My coworkers are awful. Just like the customers. Just like everyone else.

Someone stepped directly into my path.

“Hey John, got any special plans today?” my manager greeted me with her typical smile. She knew what today was but she held her tongue. For that, I was grateful so I didn’t frown.

At the sound of our ringleader, several others turned and looked expectantly at us.

However, I was clocked out, so she no longer held any power over me.

“No,” I said, walking past them.

I took the stairs down just so I didn’t have to deal with any more people standing and talking and waiting. I beat the majority of my coworkers to the lobby and then out into the congested streets. The warmth and stench contrasted sharply with the dry, cold office.

I walked faster over the uneven, trash-strewn side walk towards the parking garage. I kept my head down to avoid the sun and eye contact. I was in a bit of a hurry. There were only a few hours of daylight left and then the night would be mine. It’s true I had nothing special to do todaym but the day itself was mildly special.

I took the steps inside the parking garage three at a time, which was easy at my height. When I finally got to my Jeep Grand Cherokee I unlocked it, sat inside and then ripped my tie off and dashed it to the seat next to me.

I instinctively locked the car door and sat while I caught my breath and let my anger defuse. I didn’t even know why I was angry.

I let my mind refocus on something that should make me happy.

“Twenty five.”

I should be excited but instead I was just tired. Twenty-five years alone, frustrated, misunderstood. At least it was Friday. I could spend the weekend alone again. Just the way I liked it.

I put on my seatbelt and started the car so that I could focus on driving.

I didn’t have to stop anywhere, I'd already bought everything I wanted yesterday. I could just go home to my apartment.

Traffic was gridlocked like always. No one knew how to drive. With the state the roads were in, that wasn’t any surprise. It felt like more people got through the light after it turned red than when it was green. Maybe this crap is why my coworkers lingered so long.

I cranked the car stereo louder to drown my emotions in the song’s:
I'm fine with changing status quo, but not in letting go
Now the world is being torn apart
A terrible catastrophe played by your symphony
What a terrifying work of art
I can't sit idly, no, I can't move at all
I curse the name, the one behind it all~

I hit the shuffle button. This song wasn’t helping me right now. If anything it made me angry and melancholic.

The fandom was dying. Most people still around were separated into their little niches. Everyone else had moved on. They’d grown up and got married and had kids or got careers and had no time left for what was, to them, just a silly children’s cartoon that got popular. Either way, they left the fandom with more than when they came into it: they had cultivated talents and friendships along the way.

And then there was me. Did I move on as well? I was always just a lurker. Things never changed. Maybe I should have done more with what time I had.

My mood was dour and bitter by the time I got to my apartment complex. Several times people honked at me even though I had the right of way. They were lucky my windows were rolled up.

I was so on edge I practically begged for my parking spot to be blocked just so I had a way to blow off steam. It was free though. And now, so was I.

I took the elevator up to my apartment. Once I was in and the door was locked, I breathed easier. My sanctuary. I left the overhead lights off like I preferred while I stripped away my shoes and work clothes. Everything was cast aside until I was almost bare.

I was home. Or at least, the closest facsimile of it.

Looking over my darkened abode, I was greeted by a happy face. I'd almost forgot I left her there on my counter.

“Greetings, princess,” I saluted the plushie facing my door. Princess Luna quietly reciprocated my glance.

She didn’t talk much. We both liked the silence.

Sitting next to her was our glorious cake. Chocolate, of course.

I wasn’t hungry yet though. Right now, I needed to unwind.

I grabbed a bag of chips and moved towards the tv and started my console. I'd just bought Destiny 3 but I wanted something familiar today. No progress. Just nostalgia. Something safe.

I started up my usual and saw there was a multiple gig update.

Naturally.

They just had an update. I bet they broke something.
An emergency broadcast siren started up on my phone. I stood up immediately to shut it up.

“What are the odds it’s Russia?” I mused darkly.

I reclaimed it from my pants and saw it was just an Amber alert. I swiped it away and sat back down. I saw I had more relevant messages from family and people I used to hang out with as well: “Happy Birthday” and “We should hang out some time.” and the like. I didn’t want to reply to any of them but I gave some complacent thanks here and there and ignored the rest when I saw something change on the TV screen:

Update complete.

Time to shoot people.

The sun was hardly missed when it quietly went to bed and let the creatures of the night run free. My genocide on digital humanoids controlled by real humans continued well into the night.

I got up to go to the bathroom but when I sat back down for a final round of catharsis and rage I felt like I had forgotten something. It was that feeling when you walk into a room and forget why you did.

“...what was I doing?”

I stood back up and headed back to the bathroom for clues. I turned on the light, looked around and checked the mirror and saw the tall bastard in it. Stumped I turned the light back off and came back into the room to look out there.

I saw my cake and realized I’d completely forgotten to eat at all.

That was normal though. That wasn’t it either.

Then I saw Luna sitting next to it. My gaze moved to the window.

It was something urgent. Something to do with…

I walked over towards my window and peaked through the curtains, searching the black, star-less sky for the night’s guardian.

I couldn’t see it from here. Had it risen?

Dissatisfied, I contemplated my response to this…

Then realized I had already made up my mind.

I grabbed my ‘master key’ from its hiding spot and headed for my apartment door. I unlocked and locked it back, even though I wouldn’t be long.

I headed towards the elevator but then took the stairs up.

I reached the top, final door and unlocked it. As soon as I pulled it open I felt the chill of the night seep in past my legs.

I stepped out onto the dark roof and quickly located the moon in its heavenly halls.

A shame it wasn’t a full moon, but it was waxing yet.

“The moon rises,” I told myself as I approached the edge of the building.

I looked for the stars but couldn’t spot any among the light pollution. The moon stood alone as it did every night in this city.

I guess I just wanted to see it. I sighed and watched it expectantly.

When I was little I wanted to be an astronaut, like a lot of children do. Then at some point, I realized we don’t go to the moon anymore and we probably weren’t sending people to other planets any time soon. Then I realized how hard and selective that kind of thing was as well. It’s probably for the best humans don’t leave this planet anyways. We’ve done enough harm here.

Regardless, I still always liked looking at the moon. Long before my… “obsession” with Princess Luna from that cartoon. The moon was quiet but not lonely, it stood a respectable distance away but always watching. And that never changed. Its presence inspired people, technologically and romantically. We literally saw things in the moon. Even if I couldn’t ever really see a ‘man in the moon’ or a ‘bunny making mochi’ or whatever.

I traced my eyes over the craters and tried remembering which part was which. While I was staring though, I could swear something was off about the craters tonight.

Suddenly, I realized what was wrong. There she was: the mare in the moon; the craters were in the shape of a unicorn silhouette.

Just like on Equus… before…

The sound of a police siren in the distance pulled me away from the night sky. Suddenly, I was really cold.

I looked back at the moon, it had moved but it looked like the normal Earth moon again. For a moment I wondered how the moon had moved until I realized how cold it was had something to do with it. I must have spaced out and watched it drift for hours.

I headed back inside for warmth. While scratching my ice-cold thigh I was mentally kicking myself because I was probably going to get sick from this. I thought I should take a shower or something to warm back up but standing around in a daze for hours apparently exhausted a pony. Once I was back in the apartment, I decided to just head straight to my warm bed.

I locked by apartment door, grabbed Luna and beelined for my bed to snuggle her. The apartment was already gloriously dark. Darker than any city sky.

I belly-flopped ungracefully onto the bed and pulled the covers around me and Luna. My body felt heavy and as I focused on the covers I started losing awareness of it almost immediately. I felt myself began to drift away in the tingling tides of slumber.

Equestria was darker and quieter than normal tonight. Something was very wrong.

The street lamps, the candles in the windows, lanterns of the guards, the protective glow of the fireflies in little bedrooms…

All of the lights were gone.

I called out, my voice lost to empty halls. I was alone.

I have to find the one behind this and- How did I get here?

This is a dream.

“Oh how you wish.”

“This is a dream,” I insisted. I looked down at my hands to count my fingers and came across… blue hooves?

Looking away then back at them, expecting hands and… yes. There they were. One, two… three? I didn’t have three fingers on each hand.

“I am dreaming. I am in control.”

I turned in place and focused on my surroundings. I focused on the castle walls and hallways and windows. The world around me faded away as lucidity took over.

I normally loved pony dreams, especially lucid ones. But I didn’t want to be in this Equestria. Something was… wrong and I feared imagining another one would lead me back here, so I focused on normalcy. I thought about my room, on imagining the walls, the television, the bookshelf, the painting above it, the nook with my bed. I imagined the distances between each of the walls and focused on being there.

It was dark like usual. I drew on it until I could see the detail of the kitchen counter, the chocolate cake, then away towards my bed I saw my blankets and I even saw… myself.

That wasn’t too weird, but I saw a loose gold strand floating between us like it was in water. It was as thin as a hair, but shined with a light from within. I approached myself cautiously, careful not to snag on the floating strand or get too close.

“So I’m either having an out-of-body experience or I think I am.”

I stood there and watched myself sleeping for a dull length of time.

“Yeah okay this is boring. I’m not wasting this.” I stepped away from the nook and headed for the wall with my window on it.

I walked right through it.

I wasn’t ready for it.

“Oh my god. It’s full of stars.”

The city loomed in shadow but still sparkled like the glint of minerals in asphalt on a childhood day. But then there were the beacons: hundreds - thousands? - Of infinitely thin shafts of blue to white lights filled the city and stretched out past the stars.

The stars!

The city was a dull mirror compared to the sky’s beauty. Above me was a brilliant dark blue tapestry of pinpoints. All the stars glowed bright like they were threatening to burn out. And like a cut in a diamond, an arching scar of light bloomed over the southern horizon: the Milky Way?

This was impossible and yet strangely familiar. It was what I imagined astral projection would be like.

Curious, I flew into the city. The ground stayed distant and the sparse trees and roads passed under me. There was no wind, no flapping, no effort. It was like willing the world closer. It just made sense, it was how I always flew in lucid dreams.

Despite the city being entirely in shadow I found my way around: I was most interested in the lights. Not the static buildings or the dark, lightless cars moving along the roads.

I found a target: there was an especially bright beacon all by itself. Logic dictated to me that one was more important.

From what I could tell, almost all of the shafts of light came from inside buildings. This one however, was coming from under an overpass. There was a pile of clothes that- no.

There was a little girl sleeping. She was using a stuffed animal as a pillow. If I wasn’t led right to her I don’t think I would have seen her in the dark.

I looked around expecting an adult to be somewhere: no beacons or shadowy outlines of one awake.

I floated up and away for a second to look around and figure out where I was. I recognized this street. This was a real street in my city.

A child? Alone? The fun had stopped now: I feared this was premonition or remote viewing. What if there really was a little girl here.

I drew closer to the little girl and reached out to wake her. Before I touched her, my hand passed through her light.

Suddenly the dreamscape shifted and everything tumbled through troubling imagery. There were huge, scary dogs barking and giants whirling past and shouting. I was lost and scared and I- no, this was the little girl and her fear and confusion. A sense of doom and danger was bubbling over with her hot tears. She was in trouble for being lost. She was going to make her family worry and her brother would be so angry at her.

“That’s not true,” I spoke firm but gently. The dreamscape refocused and I could suddenly see the little girl who had been sleeping, who was still sleeping, looking around in her dream now. She was sitting on an unkempt but comfortable front lawn. I was just outside the cone of light around her, coming from a streetlight that wasn’t there.

She turned and looked right at me. I flinched when her eyes landed on me. It startled me: it felt like someone was really in front of me, really looking at me, expecting and waiting for me to react. I could see her eyes, feel them thinking.

She was still scared.

No reason to hide then.

I stepped towards her and tried my gentlest voice.

“No one is mad at you, Destiny,” I assured her. I don’t know where I got that name, she just ‘looked like a Destiny’ to me. I smiled gently at her and lowered myself so I wouldn’t be so big.

“Princess Luna? Is that really you?”

I blinked, which you don’t normally do in a dream, then looked at myself. I didn’t know what form I would have chosen in this dream but I became aware I was blue, unicorn-shaped and I could imagine wings on my back shifting in response to the question.

I looked back at Destiny. I saw the stuffed animal with her now: a Twilight Sparkle plushie! The color of beads in her hair even matched Twilight’s colors. A fellow fan!

It probably wasn’t right to lie to a child, but I could be a trustworthy figure now, not a stranger.

“Yes. It- it is I, Princess Luna,” I said, trying to sound confident. I bowed my head and stepped closer, now with audible hoof clops. “Destiny …what troubles thou?”

I had a pretty good guess already though.

“I was playing and then there was this scary dog and- and then I ran away but then I got lost. And now the street lights are on and I’m gonna be in so much trouble.”

“That’s not important. Your family is very worried,” I assured her. I was pretty sure this was just child logic. “Let’s get you home. Do you know your address?”

Sure enough, she was at the age where she could recite it. Even if she didn’t know what any of it meant. More important than the words though, I could see her home when she said it: there was a bedroom and a hallway and a front porch and a street and many other things. I’d never seen any of them before, but it looked familiar. Maybe because it was familiar to her?

She’s really not that far from home, but it would be tricky to explain to her. The street sign in her vision had fake letters. Maybe she couldn’t read yet.

While wondering how to get her home, I wondered if I’d have to wake up and come get her. Then imagined getting back to this spot in the waking world and her not being there. That would either mean she wasn’t real or she woke up and wandered off: that possibility was too uncomfortable.

“Listen to me, Destiny,” I looked her in the eyes. “This street you are on,” I pointed at the spot. We were no longer on that lawn: we were back to the overpass where I found her. “You can get home from here. You need to get up and go down the street towards…” I glanced around. “Towards the moon! Then… on 52nd street, after you’ve passed the orange cones, you need to go left…” I could see the comprehension in her eyes as I gave her the next two turns until we would be on her street. “Do you understand?”

She nodded solemnly, she understood but something was on her mind.

“What is it, Destiny?”

“...can you walk me home? It’s dark and I’m scared.”

“I- Destiny, this is a dream. I can’t… ”

“I’m dream-?” Destiny got out before everything was silenced and the world collapsed inward around her.

A little disorienting but I was standing under that overpass again. This time, the little girl giving out the bright white light was replaced with a small, squirming shadow.

She was awake.

I reached out to touch her, trying to trigger the dream communication again. My hoof stepped right through her.

“I’m sorry, Destiny… I didn’t mean to wake you up,” I talked to her.

I didn’t know if she could hear me but she stayed there.

“The directions still work though. You can get home from here. You’re not far. Do you remember the directions?” I hoped.

Again, I heard no response from the formless blackness.

Then, I thought she stirred and moved towards me.

On instinct, I stepped out of her way.

She got down to the sidewalk and stood for a moment. I imagined she was thinking.

I looked up and saw the moon. It was setting but still very visible.

She headed off in that direction.

“Oh, thank Celestia,” I said. I supervised the shadowed child down the street. She was very slow and when she stopped I would almost lose her, but she was making progress.

“It’s not that far. You see the orange cones, right?”

We got all the way to 52nd street and then I saw her stop, right past the orange construction cones. I was hopeful until I saw her start to go right.

My heart sank.

“No- no no no, left!” I shouted after her. I saw my dream vision blur. As I practiced, I started slowly spinning and taking in my surroundings. “I am in control. I am in control….” I calmed myself then once I felt stable ran after the shadowed body. I stopped in front of it and raised a hoof as if to stop her.

“Destiny, left is the other way. Go the other way.” I commanded.

To my relief, I saw the black body stop before my hoof.

Then after a heavy pause, she started moving in the opposite direction, back towards the intersection.

I sighed in relief and started walking next to her silent form again. I didn’t know if she could hear me or sense me or if she just realized her mistake, but she was headed in the right direction now.

It took an agonizingly long time and it felt like I had to goad her to move a few more times. The blue shadows of the world were turning orange. I could still make out the stars, but the sky was losing its glorious blue.

Finally, once we were on her street, she suddenly took off.

She recognized her street!

Excited as well, I followed after her until she turned and ran up an overgrown lawn. It was the house, it was ‘home'! There were lights on and several cars filled the street nearby, including a police car.

I couldn’t see or hear anyone but I felt satisfied. Accomplished, I relaxed and suddenly felt… weak.

There was a noise happening too… a vehicle? Listening closer, it was someone’s alarm clock going off.

Oh.

On waking, I found my arms wrapped around Princess Luna. We were both still on my bed, which had been tenderized from a long, glorious sleep full of lucid dreams. I felt incredibly relaxed, my body felt like it was humming, like I'd spent the entire night in a deep state of relaxation: the ultimate drug.

The only thing wrong right now was the alarm on my phone was going off somewhere. I could just make out morning light trying to slip through the cracks of the blinds, ruining the lovely, deep dark.

“What a dream,” I mumbled, trying to replay it all in my head and copy all the details down mentally before my waking mind swept it all away. The imagery with all the lights couldn’t ever leave me. I’d never forget that sky.

Eventually I got up to and found the sound of my phone on the floor by the couch. I bent over to fish it out and shut it up when I spotted something black stuck to my thigh.

Holding my phone with one hand, I tried brushing it off with the other.

It wasn’t coming off. This large black splotch…

My ass had a huge black splotch and a white crescent moon in the middle of it.

This was Princess Luna’s cutie mark. On my upper thigh. In perfect detail. It even had the extra splotches separate from the main blob.

Half-awake, I looked across the room at the plushie, trying to figure out if somehow it had rubbed off on me.

No, she still had them…

I looked at my other side.

My phone’s alarm clock was still going off but I was ignoring it because on the other side I had her cutie mark as well.

“Oh.” I unceremoniously dropped my phone and looked at my hands.

I counted my fingers… and counted exactly ten.

Looking back at my thighs I saw the cutie mark was still there. It had to be just a hallucination though.

I looked at the clock on my wall, noted the time, looked away, then looked back at it. The time didn’t change.

This had to be a dream. I rubbed my thighs until I could feel it starting to chafe. The immaculate recreation of the moon princess’s cutie mark was unmarred.

“Why can’t I wake up??”

In desperation I took my thigh between my nails and squeezed hard.

The pain made me stop immediately: I was awake.