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// Eye of the Moon 
// Story: Moon Eyed 
// by ZombieDice 
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A few weeks had passed since the lavender pony had discovered all of his new treasures. He kept his cape-let in his room, only wearing it whenever he was sitting and reading all of the information his mother had left him. The urge to practice the magic laid out before him was far too tempting to stay away from. His father always tried to make sure Hex’s magical abilities weren’t stunted by the fact that he was being raised by somepony who had no magic of his own, but sometimes it was hard. Now the colt felt like there was a path laid out for him. There was quite literally a manual that he could follow with so many resources inside of it that sometimes he felt as though it would be impossible to memorize them all. 

There were two sections that interested him the most: The ones about all things spooky like ghosts and monsters, and the section on potion making. As much as he wanted to explore and find all of these monsters, he was only 8 and there was no way his father would allow him to go out on his own to do something quite so dangerous. Potions, on the other hand, were incredibly easy. Thanks to the fact that his father ran a tea shop with loose herbs in jars downstairs, finding most of the ingredients for them would be all too simple. Not setting anything in his room on fire would be a bit of a hassle, but it was all worth it for the pursuit of knowledge. Luckily, there was a spell in his mother’s book for that as well. It took a few tries before he eventually managed to light the fire and keep the containment spell around it. He kept a large glass of water handy beside his mother’s old cauldron just to be on the safe side. 

Hex didn’t even have to worry about whatever smells the potion would make or his father asking him about why he was taking the herbs in the first place. He would simply assume that the colt was making his own new type of tea, which he’d done many times before. The colt set off on his little adventure, hurrying down the stairs to gather the ingredients he needed. It was a relatively simple potion. All he needed was fresh water, some particular herbs, and the magic from his own horn. Once he’d gotten the water boiling the excited pony added each of the herbs, not thinking about the fact that he had completely forgotten to cast a protective circle around his workplace. The room smelled sweet and earthy as the potion bubbled away. He happily trotted in place as he watched the color of the water change to a deep, brown-color. Now all that was left was to say the spell and see if the potion worked! Peeking at the book once or twice, Hex centered himself in front of the little cauldron before him and took a deep breath.


“Grow hearty, grow strong, grow without strife,


Bring my thoughts this day to life,


May this plant be fast to grow,


It is my wish, I will it so!”


The unicorn’s horn began to glow softly as he spoke, his spell gaining more and more power the further he got into it. The potion before him stopped bubbling despite the fire below it. As he finished his spell, a puff of pink smoke burst forth from the liquid as his horn gave a flash; both of which startled the colt and made him jump back a step or two. Even the fire had gone out at this point. What was left was a strange, clear, pink liquid that smelled faintly of strawberries. While he was curious to see if it tasted as good as smelled, this was not a potion for drinking. Hex took one of the tiny bottles from his mother’s trunk and used it to scoop up some of the plant-growth potion before he ran outside with such gusto that he nearly knocked over his poor father on his way out. 

In his haste, he completely forgot to close his door. Bittersweet, now at the ripe age of 5, watched her brother rush down the stairs before her attention turned to the still open door. The tiny yellow Earth pony made her way inside, looking around at all of her brother’s things laid out on the floor. Potion-making wasn’t exactly something that was normally kept a secret. Her own preschool teacher had talked about it here and there when talking about her grandmother. Thus, she recognized the cauldron and the fact that there was liquid inside. Maybe Hex was playing a game! 

Bitter wanted to play too.

Her brother had been spending more time by himself lately and the filly missed him. Maybe if she played potions too, he’d let her join in on his game. But what could she add to it? Sadly, her first idea was not the herbs her father kept downstairs. Rather, it was the cleaning products in the bathroom beside her brother’s room. With a happy little giggle, she made her way into said bathroom. Oh, Hex was going to be so pleased! She could play big-pony games too! Gathering up a bottle of liquid, and a container of the smelly green powder that her dad and sometimes big brother used to clean out the bathtub, she made her way back into Hex’s room. 

Bitter was so exhilarated that she could hardly contain herself. The bottle toppled to the floor as she stopped before the cauldron, and she began to shake the powder into the sweet smelling liquid. A strange froth began to form on the top of the potion, and the smell shifted to something that made her nose wrinkle. That was probably normal. At least, she assumed it was. She remembered her teacher talking about how stinky some potions could be. Opening the bottle was no easy task for her tiny hooves. Somehow she managed it, and as she leaned the bottle onto the side of the cauldron, she could hear hoovesteps heading up the stairs. As her brother stepped into his room, he froze. The bottle dropped from the grasp of his magic onto the floor, and the triumphant smile melted away from his face to form a look of pure horror.

“B-Bitter! What are you doing?!” He exclaimed.

“I’m playing potions too,” the tiny pony said proudly, turning to glance at her beloved brother. “I’m--”

The events that unfolded before him felt much like they were going in slow motion. As the yellow filly turned to look at him, the bottle tilted down. Hex ran forward with all of his might, grasping Bitter in an effort to yank her away from the now toxic concoction. Despite his best efforts, the liquid from the bottle fell into the cauldron, and a deafening BOOM rang through the building with such intensity that everything shook. Blinding pain seared the unicorn’s right eye. A scream was ripped from his throat as he was thrown back against the nearest wall, falling to the floor with his sister still in his grasp. 

He couldn’t hear her calling his name and asking if he was okay. He couldn’t hear his father rushing upstairs and calling out for both. All the colt could do was curl into himself and reach to hold his own eye. His ears were ringing so loudly that they made his head hurt even more. Whenever he opened his left eye, his vision was swimming. His father was there, trying to pull his son’s hooves away from his eye to look at it, but Hex wouldn’t comply. At this point, Bitter was in tears. Guilt welled up inside of her tiny body with such an intensity that she felt like she was going to throw up. All she wanted to do was play. All she wanted to do was spend time with her favorite pony. Not this. Never this.

Her own ears were ringing, her head hurt, her heart hurt, and all she could do was stand there and watch her brother writhe in pain. A soft hissing noise somehow cut through all of the commotion around them, and the yellow filly found herself turning towards the cauldron once more. A strange red ooze was starting to bubble up, glopping over the side of the cast iron container. Large bubbles popped, and the more it seemed to grow and twist, the more dread gripped at her heart and squeezed like a vice. 

“P-Papa,” she called, stepping back from what seemed to be a creature forming out of the disgusting ooze.

“Not now, sweetie, I’m trying to check on your brother,” Puer said, trying his best to sound calm. 

What looked like some kind of arm made out of ooze slapped down against the ground, tilting the cauldron slightly as whatever it was seemed to be trying to get out of the container. Dripping jaws formed into a twisted grin as it let out a louder hiss. 

“Papa!” Bitter shrieked out.

As Puer turned to scold the filly, he instead found his daughter trembling like a leaf and staring at something he had never in his life seen before. With a noise of fright, he reached to grasp her, pulling her close to his chest. The half-formed creature smelled like rotting flesh. Puer could see teeth starting to show themselves from under the glop. They looked like cracked and twisted bones just waiting to tear into the ponies before it. Another arm came out of the cauldron, hitting the floor with another wet smack! Between the creature’s strange, garbled noises and his own daughter’s shrieks and sobs of terror, Puer didn’t notice that his son had stopped screaming. It pulled itself closer, the cast iron scraping across the floor as it reached that long, spindly arm towards the trio.

Puer’s legs wouldn't move. He couldn’t breathe. He wanted so desperately to grab his children run out the door to beg somepony else for help, but he was frozen in place. All he could do was squeeze his eyes shut and hold his crying daughter tightly against himself. And yet, the grasp never came. The claws never reached his face. There was no pain. Slowly, he peeked an eye open to find the creature surrounded by a faint pink glow of magic. Hex stepped up, his legs shaking as he glared at the beast. With each step forward, he pushed it further and further back into the cauldron from whence it came. 

“You leave them alone!” He commanded. 

The beast let out it’s own shriek as it wriggled and writhed in the colt’s magical grasp. Hex Breaker’s horn glowed brightly with all of the energy he had left, not only pushing the monster in, but pulling a vial from the trunk towards the thing. The holy water inside of it had been taken from the salty ocean and blessed by the light of the moon. He showed no hesitation in ripping the cork out of the bottle and beginning to douse the rotten being down with it, making it scream out in pain. 

“Get out of my house!” Hex screamed, shoving it the rest of the way into the cauldron. “Get out! You’re not welcome here. GET OUT!”

The last of the water was poured over its head, and with that, Hex grasped the lid of the container and slammed it down to trap it inside. The colt kept shouting for it to leave over and over again, willing it with every bit of his might to go back to wherever it came from. The fire re-lit under the cauldron, and all Puer could do was sit there in shock and watch his son battle the shaking lid. The more Hex yelled, the less energy the beast seemed to have. A mist surrounded the lavender unicorn as he chanted his cry, completely covering Hex and the cauldron from his father’s sight. 

There was another flash, and as suddenly as the commotion had started, it stopped. Puer could see his son standing there still as ever. The cauldron had stopped moving. The fire was gone. A new mark was on his son’s formerly blank flank: a pentacle with three burning candles atop it, dripping wax down the sides. Yet, Hex wasn’t moving. The pony stared blankly off into space before his body finally fell limp to the floor.


*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~*


“Please don’t be mad, Princess Luna. I didn’t mean to be away for so long.”

Finally home again, Hex had settled into his window seat once more to chat with his dearest friend. A bandage covered his right eye, but otherwise he looked no worse for the wear. His father had cleaned up the mess and, other than a slight stain on his floor, it looked like nothing at all had even happened. 

“I was in the hospital for a few days. I guess I exhausted all of my magic trying to chase away… whatever that thing was. I got my cutie mark!”

With a half-hearted smile, he turned to try and show the moon the mark on his flank. Hex knew he should be proud, but the whole event had been quite bittersweet. Normally ponies enjoyed telling others how they got their cutie marks. It was a moment to be celebrated. The unicorn, on the other hand, didn’t want to bring it up for fear of making his sister feel guilty. 

“But I… also can’t see out of my eye anymore,” he continued. “The doctor said there was nothing he could do. They managed to heal the scarring around it, but…”

He hesitated, running his hoof back and forth along the windowsill. From now on, he would be sure to hide the affected eye with his hair. However, if there was anypony he was going to show it to, it was going to be Princess Luna. Using his magic, he pulled the wrappings away from his eye, moving his hair out of the way to show her. Where there had once been a pretty teal, it was now milky white, and where there had once been a black pupil, there was only a dull grey.

“The nurse said it kind of reminded her of the moon… But I think she was just being nice. There’s no way this ugly thing could ever be as pretty as you are.”

As usual, the moon gave no answer.


The End