//------------------------------// // Beginnings // Story: Fear Me, If You Dare // by Psyga315 //------------------------------// Knock kno-kno-knock knock… That sound was something Francis had been wanting to hear for the entire month. Francis dropped his video game controller and ran to the door. He grabbed the doorknob and turned it, yanking the door open. “Uncle Niko!” Francis immediately jumped into Niko’s arms as he held him. “Hey, Francis! How’s my favorite nephew?” He asked. “Silly! I’m your only nephew!” He said. Niko brushed his chocolate brown hair and sat him down. “Did you bring me anything, Uncle Niko?” Francis asked. “As a matter of fact…” Niko reached into his pockets and pulled out a coin. “I did!” He flipped the coin as Francis caught it. The coin was much bulkier than the normal loonies and toonies that he had stashed in his piggy bank, and was colored in an orangish yellow than the gold that he had. On it was a gold engraving of a tiger’s face. Francis looked at it in his hands and smiled. “They call it a Medal. I’m giving it to you because you’ll always be first place in my heart.” Niko said. “Thank you, Uncle Niko!” Francis said. Niko took a large suitcase with him and placed it in the living room. Francis walked up to Niko. “Oh! Niko! Is this a maaaaagic coooin?” Francis asked. Niko chuckled. “No, Francis. But that’s a good thing.” Niko said. “Why?” Francis asked. “Do you remember what my old friend says about magic?” Niko turned around. Francis smiled. He knew just what he said: “All magic comes with a price!” They both said. Niko poked Francis on the nose as the two chuckled. Just then, Francis heard his mother walk into the room. “Niko…” She said. Francis recognized this tone of voice. This was the “mother needs to yell at people” tone of voice. He sighed and walked back to his video game console to play more of it. He just needed to angle his alien just right for him to be finally out of those pits. However, the lack of music caused him to overhear what his uncle and mother were talking about. “Where the hell have you been?” She asked. “Val, you know me. I have business in other countries and-” “For months at a time? You don’t even have the moment to contact us?” Val asked. “It’s… complicated. I can’t send you guys a message even if I tried.” Niko said. “Mom’s worried about you. We all are. We nearly lost you once, we’re not losing you again.” Val said. “We’ve been over this, Val. I was in no danger.” Niko said. “So how come every day you’re out there, I’m reminded of the times I visited you in the hospital? Worrying that today would be the day you d-” Valerie was on the verge of tears before Niko hugged her. “Look, I was in good hands before, I’ll be in good hands again. You just gotta trust me.” Niko said. “… Who is it this time? Is it him?” She asked. “No. Hadn’t contacted him since he got arrested. Probably doesn’t need me anymore.” “Arrested!? The hell did he get arrested for?” Valerie shouted and flailed her arms. “I don’t know! Look, he’s out of our hair and this new client is a woman this time.” Niko said. “A… woman?” Val pulled him away and gave a cocky smile. “No. She’s tied down, already… And to be frank… she’s creepy.” Niko said. “Why do you always go for the creepy guys, Niko?” Val face palmed. “It’s not like I had a say in the matter. I was just salvaging some items for my next sale and she turned up and went all ‘no, give them back’. From there, we worked out a deal.” Niko said. Valerie groaned upon hearing the word. “Nononononononono! Niko!” Valerie grabbed Niko’s collar. “Deals! Bad!” She slapped him twice. “Not in front of the kid!” Niko said. By this time, Francis had just beaten the game and began to watch a boy walk around the house as his score increased. He smiled. A pretty easy game once you knew how to play it. Niko was such a good treasure hunter, Francis thought as he recalled how he managed to obtain a whole bunch of them in New Mexico. As he remembered that story, Francis decided that he would like to hear another one of Niko's stories. He turned off the console and walked off to Niko’s suitcase. “Hey, Uncle Niko! Tell me about your grand adventures!” He shouted. “One second, kid!” Niko said to the kid. However, Francis simply shrugged and opened up the bag. He pulled out a pair of black leather boots. “Uncle Niko! Uncle Niko! Tell me about these boots!” Francis said. However, all he could hear were his parents squabbling. So, he decided to do what all boys do to get attention about something. Show it into their faces. Francis fitted his feet right into the boots and walked towards Niko and Valerie. “Uncle Niiiiiiiiikooooo!” Niko looked towards him, alright… But the look on his face wasn’t of delight. He could tell from the raised eyebrows and the dropped jaw that something was up. Though, he didn’t need to know what was going on for long. Suddenly, the world seemed to gray out as he felt himself shrinking. Before he could feel anything else, he wiped out. “Niko! What happened to him?” The last thing he heard from the two was a cry from his mother. CAW! CAW! Francis awoke to the sound of a cawing bird. As he got up, he found himself in a forest. Never before had he seen trees with lush, green leaves that seemingly blot out the sky. He looked at his feet and noticed the black boots. He tried to push the right boot off, but the boot was seeming stuck to his foot, tugging away at every pull. That’s when he saw the hands on his boot… or rather, paws. Francis looked at his hands. They were now cat paws. He felt himself all over. Nothing but fur. He even felt the top of his head. Yes, he had cat ears. “W-what am I!?” Francis shouted. That’s when he heard growling. He turned around and noticed a pair of yellow-green eyes glowing. One by one, a pack of five wolves emerged. However, instead of fur, the wolves had a fine coat of tree bark. Their legs were stuck onto the bark like they were large twigs. The wolves crept up closer to Francis. “S-stay back!” Francis shouted. “Sorry kiddo,” a grovelish voice echoed. “in this place, it’s kill or be killed.” Francis could see a black bird fly overhead him as it let go of a silver rapier. Francis leaped back with a little yowl as the rapier planted itself tip first. Francis immediately pulled the rapier out. As he did, sudden images of a cat played out in his head. A cat with a fine penchant for holding a rapier and fencing. Without even knowing it, Francis held his rapier in the exact same way the cat did. As one of the wolves leaped to him, Francis jumped up, extended his arms and legs, and spun through the air, letting his rapier slice through the wolf. As Francis landed, the wolf landed just one second after. After half a second, Francis could hear a crack as the wolf began to split down the middle. As the two halves landed, two of the wolves ran off in a panic. The other two just growled and pounced at him. Francis ducked and stabbed one of the wolves in the belly. Despite their wooden nature, the wolf howled at the stab and as Francis tossed it away, it was already beginning to writhe and die. With the final wolf, Francis simply jumped a foot into its way and stabbed the wolf in the eye. He then pulled the rapier out and sliced at the legs, tearing the sticks that formed it away and knocking the wolf’s upper half to the ground. With one final swing, he stabbed the wolf’s head with the rapier. The wolf whimpered before it fell apart, back to a bundle of sticks and two large logs, one in the form of a wolf’s head. Francis pulled the rapier out of the head and shivered. “Not bad for a first fight, pipsqueak.” He could hear the voice. Francis tried to find the source of the voice. “But, of course, you’re gonna have to face bigger threats. This forest is filled with many dangers. You won’t know who will fight you… and who will kill you. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be the one.” Francis could hear himself hyperventilate as he turned and twisted his head around. Eventually, he spotted the black bird perched on a tree. He knew it was a kind of crow or raven from its black beak and claws, but he didn’t know what. What he did know was that it was where the voice came from… If only because it spread its wings just as the voice said: “Peek-a-boo, I see you…” There was no time to confirm things. Francis simply bolted in the opposite direction as the bird cawed. His boots helped keep his footing as he ran. He considered using his front paws to sprint even more, but he was well aware that he’ll lose his only means of defense in the process. So, he simply continued to run. Eventually, Francis couldn’t run anymore. However, he needed to keep running. His legs drooped so hard, that he tripped over his own feet, falling right into the path of a nice, shiny rock. SMASH! His eyes slowly opened. He could hear a flapping of wings. Francis struggled to get up, but he felt his own body holding him down. He whimpered as the flapping got closer. He closed his eyes. The bird had reached him. However, he instead felt a wet, warm cloth be pressed against his forehead. He opened up and saw a pair of large green eyes. At first, Francis was startled, but he saw who the eyes belonged to. It was a winged horse, large for his newly adjusted size. It was… an unusual color for a horse to be a soft yellow, but then again, he fought wooden wolves, ran from a talking crow, and he was pretty sure he just became a cat thanks to the boots he wore. “Oh! You’re alright!” The horse spoke and Francis could notice her short snout. It was like that of a cat’s muzzle. “I was so worried about you!” She said as she took the cloth out from him and twisted it over a bucket as a mixture of water and blood poured into it. “W-where am I?” Francis asked. The horse dropped the cloth and looked at him. “Y-you can talk?” Her eyes shrunk and she blushed. “Oh my! Er… Wait right here!” She said. She flew out of his sight. Francis had no idea what was going on, but he felt tired after the events of today and he took a nice nap. “And then he talked!” Francis woke up to see the yellow horse returned.  “Ah! He woke up!” Francis could also see another winged horse with her, but this time, the horse had a horn and was a dark purple coat as opposed to a soft yellow coat, with her black hair having stripes of pink and magenta. “Hmm… Hey, Fluttershy, noticed that this cat wears boots?” The alicorn asked. “Yes I did, Twilight, but… um… I couldn’t take them off.” Fluttershy said. Suddenly, Francis’ boots were surrounded in a purple aura as the winged unicorn’s horn also glowed. Like what happened before, there was a lot of tugging, but they just didn’t give way. Eventually the glowing stopped. “This… is very peculiar.” Twilight said. Francis could hear galloping hooves. “You can’t pull them off? Let me try!” Francis then noticed a pink unicorn entering his view. Like Twilight, she too had stripes in her hair, but these were cyan. Like before, the boots and horn glowed in aura, but this time in a light turquoise color. While there were some tugging, Francis could feel like his boots could very easily be pulled off. However, the unicorn began to grunt as veins were popping out of her neck. “Starlight, it’s okay, you don’t need to stress yourself. Let me help you.” Twilight said as her horn began to glow. Francis could almost feel his boots could easily be pulled off his feet, however, before the two could be able to, the auras seemed to just cut off as the two horses fell to the ground, panting. “Wow… It’s… taken a lot out of us…” Starlight muttered. “Yeah… Just as I thought.” Twilight stood up. “These boots are coated with magic not from this realm.” “Not from this realm? What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked. “… You remember that place I had to get the Element of Magic from, Fluttershy? The place I had to go into a mirror to access?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded. “Well, that place and Equestria count as two different realms. And there's been a bunch of different realms, all with their own kinds of magic. I studied a bit on this for a while now, and I’m able to recognize this kind of magic.” Twilight closed her eyes and sighed. “It’s Misthaven Magic.” “W-what’s wrong, Twilight? I-is Misthaven Magic bad?” Fluttershy said. Francis looked at the winged unicorn, hoping she’d answer that. However, it was her pink unicorn friend that answered. “It’s… much worse than that.” Starlight said. Twilight looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “I studied on the topic of realms a lot during my time at…” She frowned. “The town…” She shook her head. “Anyways, the difference between Misthaven and Equestrian magic is like night and day. In Equestria, we share the magic with others and bring smiles to their hearts. In a way, it’s like friendship… But Misthaven Magic… It’s more give and take.” Twilight turned to Fluttershy. “There’s laws on equivalent exchange. You know, simple stuff like turning lead into gold or making steam from boiling water. Then there’s Misthaven’s laws of equivalent exchange. It's... It's difficult to explain." Twilight said. "There’s an old saying in Misthaven.” Starlight trotted forward, and what she said caused Francis to go cold, if only because he knew this exact saying: “All magic comes with a price.”