A short story of Folly from Regretevator on Roblox doing some macro shenanigans. She's very powerful when she wants to be. Thumbnail art by  TheShamefulStore .

“Where oh where might you be, fleeting mortal?”

Folly delved through the dreamscape, feeling out for that one tasty morsel of a mind that had called to her. The rumbling torrent of black and red that accompanied her travels parted ways as she searched for that mind she had caught a taste of. A powerful mind that promised to harbour the deepest secrets that she MUST have.

Folly searched through the murk, her senses dulled as she pushed further and deeper into the dreamscape. She felt familiar minds drift past her as she searched with greater ferocity. But soon enough, she felt its presence again. A greatly protected mind that seemed intent on keeping her out. She needed to breach it. Swimming deeper still, she reached out her hand and grasped it firmly.

Folly emerged from the air in a puff of black smoke, appearing in her usual attire of her shoes, eye-laden sweatpants, and snow white sweater and beret. Her mask rested upon her face, with her single crimson eye gazing out of the cracks on the right side.

She stood in a relatively empty grey field, while up ahead was a massive stone wall, a natural border between the dreamscape and the slumbering mind. Said wall appeared to be heavily armored with steel plating and spike, which was something Folly was not unaccustomed to. Many minds were protected out of suspicion or fear while the owner slumbers.

What she wasn’t accustomed to were the massive mechanical beings patrolling the perimeter of the wall. Easily towering above her and their eyes shining like spotlights all across the deserted plains. They resembled those strange ball based animatronics at that burger place Folly despised. Red Ball Diner or something like that? What were they doing here? Creations of the mind perhaps that are tasked with acting as guards? How inconvenient.

Folly disregarded the strange beings and walked forth towards the edge of the wall. She had to get inside. She could feel the congealed emotions of a secret kept, and with such intensity and ferocity that it could only mean it was something worthy prying loose from the mind.

At the base of the wall, a smaller door awaited that was flanked by two similar mechanical beings. Their eyes shone with less intensity, but they still regarded her with suspicion as she approached.

Before she could reach the door, they both moved in front of it and held up their arms in sync.

“HALT! YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED BEYOND THIS POINT!” they repeated. Folly crossed her arms and stepped up.

“Please, let us save each other some time and injuries. Let me pass and I promise you I will be gone soon after” she tried. Both guards shook their heads.

“NO. ENTRY NOT GRANTED. YOU MUST LEAVE AT ONCE” they repeated with no emotion. Folly sighed and held her arms at her side, twitching her claws.

“Fine. Then we’ll do it the hard way.” she said with venom in her words. In a flash of black smoke she leapt forward and dug her crimson claws into the leftmost guard. Or at least, she tried to.

The moment her hands made contact with the guard, they seared with intense pain. Folly hissed and backed up to shake off the pain from her still smoking hand. Before she could fully recover, the guard stepped forward and drew back its fist before slamming it into her stomach.

Folly felt the air get knocked out of her non-existent lungs before she was punched again in the face, sending her flying back across the grey ground. Her face and stomach both ached with the sharpest pain, and she took a moment to breath sharply and get up.

That was not normal. Dream constructs wouldn’t be able to normally withstand such a blow, nor respond with such ferocity. These were something far more dangerous. As Folly recounted the pain she had felt when she tried to grasp them, she had a revelation and sighed.

They were guardians. Not mere constructs, but rather tailor made entities designed to protect minds from prying eyes such as hers, courtesy of that damnable Mach. Trying to take them down head on would be suicide. But luckily, they had one weakness that she could exploit.

Guardians are built off of the foundation of the user’s mind, and as such share many of their own personality, desires, flaws, and most importantly, fears. And fear was something Folly could take handy advantage of. Become something the mind fears most, and the guardians would falter in their defense.

So she sat down out of reach of the guards and placed her hand on the ground. She felt through the subconscious of the mind to weed out any fears she could take hold of. Let’s see.

Fear of losing their house or possessions? Everyone has that it wouldn’t matter much.

Fear of the dark? Of course that might work but Folly could not manifest a fear of that magnitude on such a protected mind as this.

Fear of failure? Who wasn’t afraid of that?

But then Folly found it. Tender, delicious, and completely irrational. A phobia. The achilles heel of a mind. And a completely unresolved one at that. Now what could it be…?

Ahhhhh, megalophobia. Fear of large, vast open structures or spaces. Or beings. And Folly had just the trick up her sleeve to make it a reality. She stood up from the ground and cracked her knuckles and neck. It had been an age since she had utilized this form. It would be utterly delightful to bring it back.

Folly thought deep into her mind towards her form of self, and saw within a vast, massive shadow. A creature designed to crush all who stand before it and to tower above those who would fall victim to it. The great looming shadow of despair and dread.

Folly latched onto the form, and in an instant her body began to shift. She looked down at her hands and saw her fingers crack and snap as they began to bulge out from her hands. Her palms shifted to a deeper black still as her fur began to shrink away slightly, being replaced by ebony black scales along her fingers and palms. Her crimson claws stretched out of her hands and sharped to fine points, which could easily tear flesh from bone.

Folly hunched over slightly as she felt her body begin to change alongside her. It quivered from the sensation of dark magic rolling across her frame before suddenly, she began to grow in turn. Her eyeline rose up from her position on the ground as she could feel her sweatpants and sweater begin to stretch across her frame.

From behind her, a gap appeared between her sweater and pants as a long, cat-like tail snaked its way out of the now open clothing. As it stretched out to its full length, it suddenly quivered and fell to the ground with a loud thump. The fur along its surface began to recede before several blacked scales appeared along it to replace them. The base of the tail widened and it assumed a more triangular shape in turn.

Folly felt her clothes begin to give as her sleeves started to rip along her shoulders. Her sweater was beginning to ebb between smoke and cloth as her body willed it to vanish and let the changes pass, but tears appeared along the seams that exposed her black and crimson patches of fur.

Folly looked down to see her shoes weren’t faring well either, as bulges appeared at the tips of them. She could feel her paws shifting to a much larger form before suddenly, a loud shink noise filled the air. From the tips of the bulges emerged more crimson claws that easily cut through the leather before digging into the ground before Folly.

This was the push her paws needed, as with a large spurt of growth the front of her shoes popped open, her toes wiggling and stretching out of the gap before touching the ground before them. She scrunched them against the grey dirt below as her paws kept expanding and pushing, trying desperately to tear through the rest of her shoes as they kept letting off puffs of black smoke.

Folly held her arms at her side as she hunched over some more, feeling her sleeves ripping along her growing arms further. Her hands had been entirely replaced with black scales while her paws were much the same, pushing out their fur to replace them with hardened scales and soles.

SHRRRIPPP!! The back of her sweater began to rip and dissipate into white smoke as several spikes emerged from her back, with sharpened edges that shimmered in the dull moonlight of the dreamscape. Folly let out a wry grin as the spikes tore open more and more of her sweater, letting even more of her body break through as her growth continued. She was easily twice her normal height now, and wasn’t stopping anytime soon.

Folly’s paws stretched and cracked some more before finally her shoes surrendered and tore apart, letting her step out of them and begin leaving massive footprints in the sand below. The remains of her shoes dissipated into black smoke that was absorbed into her being as her legs began to tear through her eye-laden sweatpants.

Folly focused harder on her new form and in an instant, her beret and mask dissolved into pure white smoke as her face began to shift. Her teeth and jaws enlarged and sharpened into a small snout while her ears seemed to quiver before twisting backwards on themselves and curling into fine points that reached above her head. With a new pair of horns, they were joined by another pair sprouting from the top of her head that rose to greater heights, adding onto her already massive scale. The horns kept dividing and growing, soon resembling a reaching set of branches above her hair.

From above and below her crimson and yellow eyes, two more pairs of sockets appeared, and from them revealed more eyes. She snarled a bit as her eyes turned a bright crimson red, feeling the destructive and wrathful energy course through her veins as the changes accelerated. Rips and tears filled the air as more and more bits of clothing tore off her body only to dissipate in smoke.

Folly was triple her height by this point when her clothes finally reached their limit. Her sweat pants couldn’t hold on anymore and tore away, revealing the deep black fur underneath that thickened and bloated out with muscles underneath. Her sweater’s neck tore away as her own neck easily overtook it, while her torso ripped through the white cloth and it soon vanished into nothing but smoke.

Folly grew and grew even more, the wall beginning to shrink before her as blackened smoke manifested all along her body. From her coat of fur grew long, triangular bits of hair that resembled burnt, cracked leaves. It grew all across her legs and covered up her feet, much like a massive cloak. Her arms grew a similar coat while her hair coiled and stretched out in turn to join with it, giving her the illusion of wearing a massive leafy mantle all across her body. The hairs grew thick and covered up the details of her form, and seemed to distort the very air around them, making it hard to tell just how big she was truly getting.

Folly’s crimson eyes shone through the darkness as more began to appear all along her body. The crimson lights burned through the growing hairs and shone down on the wall and mechanical guardians, causing them to turn towards her. She rose higher still, soon being level with the halfway point of the wall. Her massive branching horns and leafy appearance made her resemble a gigantic aspen tree, although her numerous eyes and limbs betrayed her true form.

Folly soon began to rise higher up to the top of the wall, and was able to see past its great barrier into the protected mind. More guardians were flocking closer to the wall in various shapes and sizes, while just past them she could see a glimmering light. The mind itself, ripe for the taking. She let out a massive grin, baring her mighty fangs as she soared in height, dominating her surroundings.

She grew more, and more, and more, until soon enough the wall was just below her head. She could feel the dark magic reaching its zenith as Folly felt her form begin to stabilize. Nearly 350 meters tall now, the air around her crackled with malice and energy as she hunched over a bit. Gathering her strength, she stood up high and let out a fierce roar, which shook the very foundations of the mind and caused many of the guardians to quiver with fear.

“H-HALT. APPROACH N-NO FURTHER!” shouted the gatekeepers from below, their voices seemingly full of fear.

Folly looked down at them, smaller than her claw, and simply stomped on them. They were easily crushed beneath her sole and shattered into pieces, before dissipating into dust.

The other guardians let out screeches of battle as they began to swarm around her. Some produced firearms and others swords, and attempted to attack her. Key word: attempted. They struck her with bullets and blades, but her triangular scales deflected them with ease, as they could hold no power over her as their greatest fear.

Folly crushed and smashed the guardians as they swarmed around her. The larger ones that could actually reach her eyelevel put up a bigger challenge, as they reeled back a fist and attempted to punch her in the face. She held up her arms to block the blow and was pushed back from the wall by it, leaving a massive cloud of dust in her wake.

Folly snarled and held up her claws before dragging them across the sky. They cut into the very air and created a rift, from which emerged a massive crimson eye. It bubbled and crackled with red energy before unleashing a massive red laser with an ear-piercing screech. The massive guardian was immediately bisected and reduced it to a pile of dust, causing the other guardians to hesitate for a moment.

Folly approached the wall once more as the other guardians tried in vain to stop her, only to be crushed under her massive frame. She reached the edge of it and gripped the top of the wall before vaulting over with an impossible speed for a being of her size. She landed on the other side with a massive crashing noise, destroying many more guardians in her path.

Several flying guardians resembling mechanical birds swooped towards her, but she was prepared for this. As they reached her face and got ready to peck her eyes out, her face began to split open. Her snout and jaw parted out of the way as her teeth moved out of the way to reveal a seemingly endless tunnel, with concentric rings that shrunk the further down it you looked. The birds seemed to be shocked and attempted to fly away, but the pressure from the tunnel drew them in and they couldn’t fight as they were pulled into her gaping maw.

Folly closed her face once more and swallowed, feeling the guardians dissolve within the endless expanse inside her body. But as she was ready to keep pursuing the mind, she was smacked in the face by a massive mechanical fist.

Folly lost her balance and merely fell over, but managed to stay steady as she looked over to see a guardian that was matching her in height. It reeled back it’s fist and held up its other hand in a “come at me” gesture.

“YOU CANNOT WIN, INTRUDER. WE ARE ENDLESS AND YOU ARE-” the guardian started, but in an instant, Folly dematerialized and reappeared behind it before grabbing it by the neck and ripping its head off.

Folly was focused now as the hordes doubled in their efforts. She had to admire their persistence despite their fear, but they were no match for the sheer power of malice and dread. Guardians fell by the numbers, and the landscape of the mindscape was crushed and battered on her path towards the light. It was shining ever more brilliant, and right within her grasp. Folly had an almost animalistic desire for it by this point. She was not going to stop until she had that secret it held.

However, a horde of guardians formed a final bulwark between her and the mind, and were battering her with massive guns that would have annihilated a mortal creature. Folly merely stood there and concentrated on her power. She held her arms at her side and all the eyes on her body closed as she took a deep breath.

Above her head and between the numerous branches, a massive rift formed, and from within it a storm of eyes and branches manifested that reached out of it. From their center, a great red orb appeared before it was launched out towards the gathered group. It landed with a soft thud between the guardians, causing them to all look over. Then, in an instant, it glowed an impossibly bright red before letting out all of its energy.

The remaining guardians were annihilated in a massive blast of red energy, which Folly just stood there and ignored like it was just a breeze. All of the guardians were smited in an instant, and the remaining few fled in her wake. Folly’s massive footfalls were the only sound to remain as she approached the great light. She could feel the great secret now. Just within her grasp. She reached out for it and…

In the palm of her hand was the mental figure of Gregoriah, the head of the Red Ball Diner, who was dressed in red and black pajamas and holding a body-pillow of Reddy, the mascot for said diner. He was holding it tenderly and caressed its face before freezing, and looking up at Folly.

“Uh…. you’re pretty big.” he said nervously. Then he realized what he was holding and his face turned a bright pink.

“Now listen… I know what it looks like… but…” he started.

Folly was just done, and crushed the manifestation of Gregoriah in her hand, which would surely cause him to wake up with a start in the real world.
She let out a heavy groan and sat down on the precipice at the center of his mind, just resting her face in her hands.

In her mind, she could feel the Great One laughing at her.