Alone Within but Not Without
You sit on the couch in your living room. How long have I been here?
Feeling stuck, you get up, but the feeling persists. It feels as if your body is resting, even though you’re moving about.
Something feels off. You can’t point a hoof at it, but things just seem… different. It’s as if you’re being watched, but that can’t be the case. You’re alone in your home and all locks are locked. You also don’t remember consuming any of your recreational ‘supplements’ lately. My mom said my brain would rot if I didn’t find myself a spouse, but I didn’t think she meant it literally.
You look into a nearby mirror, expecting to see your own image. The face in the mirror is familiar but not the one you were looking for. Is it… Nightmare Moon‽ The image shifts and the face of Princess Luna appears.
She looks… concerned.
“Princess?” you stutter out.
The image stays silent, but the lips scream to you. If you are to venture a guess, she keeps saying, “Let go!” But why would you want to let go of anything? Or is it “let’s go”? Where would you go? You have everything inside your house. There’s nothing out there for you.
You hold on to the mirror. The ‘reflection’ shifts once again, first into black darkness and then into a more reflective image. At last, your own face appears, but it’s out of focus. Do mirrors even have focus?
The radio in the kitchen turns on by itself.
“And now we continue with our regular program with the conclusion of the audio melodrama.”
“I cannot reach him. He is holding on too tightly.”
“Is there really nothing you can do?”
“Not unless…”
“Please, if there’s any chance…”
“So be it. I spent a millennium fighting the darkness, but in this case, I shall poison the well. I shall become the darkness. If he cannot reject the world, the world must reject him!”
“Celestia-damned soap operas…” You walk towards the kitchen planning to turn that damn thing off.
The moment you enter the kitchen, the radio hits the floor and shatters by its own volition.
You expected to smell the burning components, but instead, the air is sterile. It’s as if the radio was filled with antiseptic. There’s a faint, lingering odor of alcohol. You haven’t been drinking lately, though. Maybe you should have…
Beneath these dominant scents, there’s a subtle hint of plastic and latex which is weird since you’ve not acted on your kinks for days.
But there was another pervasive smell. Flowers?
You see a shadow in the corner of your eye. But as soon as you turn, there’s nothing there.
Your hoof twitches. A moment later, your fur squashes as if it’s caressed. Your first instinct is to trot away from the ghost, yet you stay still. The touch feels warm and comforting.
You feel a warm droplet splatter over your hair. Because someone salivating over you doesn’t really turn you on, you move away from the phantom and just hope that it doesn’t follow you.
When you look out the window, you see a crescent moon. There would be nothing unusual about that if you didn’t see the same moon when you looked out the opposite window. Since when does Equus have two moons?
You look out the perpendicular window and are met with the same image. It’s not the third moon, it’s the same moon, forcing itself into your view wherever you look. Usually, it’s a symbol of hope, but at the moment you feel nothing but dread.
You open the window to get a better view.
The stars around the moon are not formed into any of the constellations you know. Instead, they form letters: D, I and E.
A gush of wind brushes through your mane. The sound of the breeze almost sounds like “Stray!”
Yet, when you try to take a step away from the window, the air itself thickens, almost forming an invisible wall.
“What in Tartarus?” You close the window and decide to clear your mind with a dose of mind-numbing TV.
You turn it on and look through various channels. The graphics look too real. So real, in fact, that various objects start falling out of the screen! Indeed, the TV just keeps vomiting out what currently appears on it! Cooking books, tricycles, glue tubes... You’ve always wondered what these are made of. You have enough sense not to touch any of the clutter. For a quick learner like you, a couple of times of having your hooves stuck together was lesson enough. A burst of bullets just shot out of the TV, hitting a cheap Pony Lisa printout on your wall.
“Hmm…” you are lost in your thoughts. “This is super weird. Then again, weird isn’t always a bad thing.”
A mischievous grin plasters your face as you get an idea! You shuffle through channels, looking for a heat channel. How could I forget where my favorite channel is? You linger on a horror flick as you try to remember.
The wiggling tentacles behind the screen distract you. The feeling seems mutual as they approach you. Instead of hitting the screen, they morph through.
“Meh, not my thing.” you change the channel, and the tentacles get cut in half, twitching and squirming on the floor.
You look at the TV again. It’s some different horror thingy playing now. You see a mare with a black mane which covers her eyes, she wears a white hospital garment and seems to be about your age. She stands still for a while until suddenly she approaches your screen.
“Oh yeah, that’s more like it!” you wait for her to morph through but suddenly out of nowhere, you hear a lightning bolt strike the roof of your house.
The power goes out and the TV shuts down.
“Oh, come on!” you exclaim.
Things are clearly amiss. Perhaps Discord is on his chaotic rampage again. You turn to the basement at the center of your house. You need safety.
You force your way through the thick air, and the whole house shakes. Dust falls from the top of the closets.
Some force is clearly working against you.
Moon’s glow shines from all the windows as you hear a distorted voice from above, “Reject your perceptions and substitute them with reality. Stray away from here and join your loved ones.” The knives float in the air and one by one turn toward you. “Die and be reborn!”
“Aaaaaaaa!” You crouch into a sitting position.
With both forehooves, you touch yourself all over but find no injuries.
A towering figure attacks you from the side, putting both forelegs around you.
You want to fight it off, but something prevents you. You know that smell. The embrace feels so familiar. “Mum?”
“You’re back!” Her tear splatters on your shoulder. “You finally came back to us!”
Your mind is in turmoil. “There were tentacles…”
“That was all you!” Luna exclaims defensively. ”I had nothing to do with that!”
“I’m just glad you’re back!” Mom squeezes you even tighter.
“You were a hard nut to crack,” Luna says. “I had to go all out to fight your anchor that kept you in a coma.”
Mom finally lets go and boops you on your snoot. “Don’t ever bring a radio to the bathroom again, you hear? I almost lost you.”
“I won’t do that again, I promise.”
“I heard your yelp in your shock-induced dream,” Luna adds. “If I hadn’t shadow-walked to your physical location, you would have drowned.”
Your cheeks turn hot, “I said I won’t do it again…”
“Well, I guess my work is done here then.” Luna lets go of your hospital bed and turns to the hallway.
You close your eyes and imagine the places in your bathroom where you could put the TV on. And there it is. Your TV, balancing on the edge of your bathtub. Its seductive movements slowly rock you to sleep.
When you open your eyes again, you’re met with Luna’s piercing stare.
Author's Note
Gdoc
