Llamas: A Drama

by SkelePone

Chapter Six: Vicuña Has A Crush

LLAMAS
a drama

CHAPTER SIX: VICUÑA HAS A CRUSH

by SkelePone

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Vicuña was the only llama who remained in the Friendship Castle when Poncho had announced that they now owned a sizable cottage on the outskirts of town.

Vicuña had always been taught to respect nature and the spirits that presided over it. He did not necessarily want to move into a building. He felt that settling down would ruin that special link he had with nature. It might even weaken his magic to the point that the only way he could perform spells would be to hold a sacrifice. Even if the spell was as simple as curing snakebite or creating a basic protection amulet.

But, of course… that wasn’t the only reason why he didn’t want to leave the castle.

“So explain to me again how Llama magic works again?” Twilight Sparkle asked. The purple Alicorn Princess was sitting behind a writing desk, levitating a feather quill over a new sheet of parchment. Spike the Dragon was elsewhere. Vicuña knew that he and Rico had gone out to find a few foals for Rico to befriend. And that yellow pegasus by the name of Fluttershy was there as well, but she was downstairs in the throne room. So he was practically all alone in the room with the most beautiful, most gorgeous, most-

“Vicuña? I’m saying your name right, right?”

Vicuña choked for a moment, and hid his face in his dark hood as he blushed furiously.

“It’s pronounced vick-coon-ya.”

“Ah, okay. Vicuña. So please, tell me more about Llama magic.”

Vicuña cleared his throat, allowing his voice to deepen. He licked his lips, and accidentally cut his tongue on his hook-like fighting teeth. Blasted things. Vicuña wished he had gotten them removed when he was a cria.

“Llama magic is… it’s different from pony magic. I hear it’s rather like zebra magic, because we work the magic of the Earth and the magic of nature. But llamas also speak to spirits. We branch out into the unknown to bring out what we do know.” He paused for a moment, looking to Twilight, “You understand what I am saying, correct?”

“Mmhmm! Do llamas make potions?”

“Rarely,” Vicuña grimaced, “usually it’s only for antidotes and medicines.”

“Aha. So how do you shape your magic?”

“We make amulets. From clay, metal, glass. We have to charge the amulets with our magic, but whatever purpose we have built it for, that is how it will operate.” Vicuña pondered what he had just said. “But it is not the most effective way to channel magic. Amulets can wear off. They can be damaged. And a damaged amulet can be a very dangerous thing.”

Twilight nodded in understanding and began to scribble furiously at her notes. Vicuña waited for her to finish. When she did, she hold her quill aloft and looked at him expectantly. Vicuña avoided her gaze, and decided to stare out the window. Be all mysterious. Did pony mares like mysterious stallion? Vicuña didn’t know.

“To manifest the power of our nature magic, we perform blood sacrifices.”

All of Tartarus broke loose.

“YOU WHAT?!” Fluttershy practically shrieked. She had just entered the room as the exact moment that Vicuña had told Twilight that llamas perform sacrifices. Vicuña lost his cool for a moment, looking at Fluttershy with wide, startled eyes. So much for being all mysterious.

“We sacrifice small animals.” He whispered timidly. He almost wished he hadn’t when the yellow pegasus let out a war cry and leapt across the room towards him. The Princess cast a quick spell, preventing Fluttershy from lunging at Vicuña in a fit of rage and wringing his neck with her now very, very dangerous-looking hooves. Vicuña was boundlessly grateful as he watched with horrified eyes as the usually shy mare was now a snarling beast.

“Vicuña… is that true?” Twilight asked. Her voice was low and dark. Vicuña really didn’t like where this was going.

“Um… yes? I think? Is there something wrong with sacrifice?”

“YES. BIG WRONG. BAD. EVIL.” Fluttershy continued to bark out adjectives to describe sacrifices while Twilight shook her head in disappointment. Vicuña felt his ears droop.

“It’s… it’s been a llama tradition since llamas first discovered how to perform magic. We use blood and sacrifices to attract spirits, who charge our amulets and give us power. I never thought of it as wrong…”

Twilight only shook her head once more. Vicuña hid his face under his hood. He really didn’t like where this was going now.

“It’s always been that way. Using a squirrel, a rabbit, or mouse…” Vicuña fought against his fear to try ignore Fluttershy’s new fit of rage as he stared deeply into Twilight’s eyes. They were a stunning shade of lilac. Vicuña felt like his yellow eyes didn’t quite meet up to her’s. They were far too dull for her gleaming irises.

“I-Is there something wrong with sacrifice…?”

“YES!” Fluttershy shrieked, still struggling against Twilight’s spell. Twilight shook her head at Fluttershy and then looked to Vicuña with large, sad eyes. Vicuña immediately felt guilty. He shouldn’t have. He had no reason to feel guilty. But he did anyways.

“Vicuña, you know that killing a small animal just for the sake of magic is like… it’s dark magic. It’s evil. You know this, right?”

Vicuña was confused.

“But how can magic be evil? Magic doesn’t have any alliances. It’s energy. Energy that llamas, ponies, and zebras use. Magic can’t be evil. There is only evil ponies or evil llamas.” Vicuña explained, although he honestly had no idea how pony magic worked. If ponies didn’t make sacrifices, how did they boost their magical energy? That would be a question for later, Vicuña figured.

“Well…” Twilight studied the snarling Fluttershy. The yellow mare had stopped flipping out was now calmly (but nonetheless still disturbingly) staring at Vicuña. The llama shaman felt like she suddenly did not like him.

“Vicuña, you understand that killing… killing in general is wrong?”

Vicuña was stunned. If he hadn’t been wearing his cloak, the Princess would have been able to easily see his shaking knees and his watering eyes. It wasn’t his fault he was taught to perform sacrifice in order to execute a magical spell.

“W-Well… I never… I never saw it as wrong…” Vicuña stammered. Fluttershy recommenced her snarling and thrashing in Twilight’s suspending levitation field.

Twilight shook her head and began to trot away from Vicuña, bringing Fluttershy with her. Vicuña hid even more deeply within the folds of his cloak. He let out a little mwa of despair. Twilight, never having heard a llama’s mwa before, raised her eyebrow at Vicuña.

“What was that?”

“What was what?”

“That ‘em-wah’ sound you made.”

“A mwa?” Vicuña cocked his head. Now he was sad and confused. His two least favorite emotions. Did ponies not mwa when they were frustrated or depressed? “That’s simply a sound llamas make when we are… upset.”

“Are you upset?” Twilight’s expression softened and she turned to look at Vicuña fully. The llama shaman had difficulty avoiding her lavender eyes. Eventually his yellow eyes met hers. He suddenly felt indignant.

“No!” Vicuña announced hastily. “I-I just don’t think that you ponies fully understand llama magic. And you jump to conclusions. Thinking llamas are evil because of how they perform magic. It’s how we’ve been doing it for generations. And we don’t even sacrifice daily. A single mouse can usually attract the spirits who execute our magic for up to a week. Sometimes longer, depending on the spirits we attract.”

“Y-You ponies! You think that it’s your way or the highway. It’s ridiculous! Just because a life is lost does not mean it does not serve a purpose. Sacrifices are sacrifices for a reason. They take a part of us and contribute it to something greater.” Vicuña turned to Fluttershy, who had gone silent in her magical containment bubble. “What about a cria, a baby llama, who was born premature and who is dying? One would need a high-powered amulet of healing. And the only way to make one is to sacrifice a squirrel in order to summon the proper spirit of benevolence? If you do not make the sacrifice, the cria will die. If you wish to heal the cria, the squirrel must die. So who do you choose?”

Vicuña stared deeply into Fluttershy’s teal eyes.

“Who do you choose?” He whispered to her, “The baby? Or the squirrel?”

Fluttershy had calmed down enough to consider Vicuña’s question.

“W-Well… what if there was some other way…”

“There is no other way.” Vicuña murmured.

“Well… I mean… uhm…”

Vicuña clicked his fighting teeth. Fluttershy hushed up. Grateful that she was no longer trying to kill him, he began to explain himself.

“Llamas live in mountains. It’s how it’s been for eons. We have had no contact with no other species until recently. And by the time the Princesses finally contacted us, our magic technique had already rooted itself so deeply in our culture that using any other magical technique would be ineffective.”

Vicuña nodded towards the portrait of the Elements of Harmony mounted on the wall. He recognized them of course. Every llama did.

“Furthermore, without the llama practice of sacrifices, the Elements of Harmony would not even exist.”

Now this peaked Twilight’s interest.

“WHAT?”

“Llamas crafted the Elements. We are creators of amulets. The Elements of Harmony are the most powerful amulet artifacts How could you have not pieced that together?”

Twilight Sparkle began to gape from Vicuña to the portrait of the Elements in surprise. She was so engrossed with this new information that she released Fluttershy from her containment bubble. The yellow pegasus glowered at Vicuña but did not attack.

“Is there anything else that llamas have made that I’m not aware of?” The Princess asked the shaman. He was glad that one was no longer trying to kill him and that the other (and notably prettier) mare was now looking at him like he was the single most greatest thing to walk within her castle walls.

“Well… Llamas also crafted the Alicorn Amulet of old. But that amulet is evidence of amulet corruption, when a crafter does not safeguard the magic against evil intent. There are numerous more that haven’t been seen or heard of for centuries. The Bell of Grogar. The Elements of Heroism. The Elements of Disharmony.” Vicuña said. He began to wonder about the fate of the lesser known elements.

“The Elements of Heroism? Disharmony? There were more elements?” Twilight asked, her eyes widening. Vicuña looked out the window at the setting sun.

“They haven’t been heard of in millenia. Their power challenged that the Elements of Harmony. The Elements of Heroism were… let me see if I remember correctly… Bravery. Wisdom. Hope. Justice. Honor. Tolerance. Llamas were the original bearers. But eventually ponies, griffons, deer, buffalo; they all began to integrate. Work together as one. But then the Elements of Disharmony rose up, created by one of the only evil llama shamans in history. He wanted to destroy the Elements of Heroism, and take over all of the world.”

Vicuña screwed his eyes shut, struggling to remember his lessons. He had learned this history so long ago.

“The Elements of Disharmony were volatile and deadly. The amulets themselves took their energy from the magic of the user. Eventually, the user would die. And the Element would find a new bearer.”

“That’s terrible!” Fluttershy exclaimed, her eyes widening. Her look of rage was replaced by a look of horror. “Elements that kill ponies?”

Now it was Vicuña’s turn to glare at Fluttershy.

“That’s what happens when a sacrifice is not made,” Vicuña snarked, “an amulet must get its energy from somewhere.” Twilight must have sensed another fight, so she interrupted them.

“What were the Elements of Disharmony?”

“Ah… let’s see… Treachery. Lies. Cruelty. Greed. Mockery. Disorder. The powers of these elements were the exact opposite of-”

“The Elements of Harmony.” Twilight breathed, finishing Vicuña’s sentence. The llama shaman nodded. That was why the Elements of Harmony had been created. To counter the Elements of Disharmony.

“But the Elements of Disharmony and the Elements of Heroism were lost over the generations, and now only the Elements of Harmony remain.”

Vicuña, Fluttershy, and Twilight Sparkle were silent.

“Well… I mean… if the Elements of Disharmony were created because sacrifices didn’t happen… wouldn’t there be another way t-to make an amulet? Without having to kill an animal?” Fluttershy winced upon those words. Vicuña could tell that she really did not like the idea of woodland creatures being sacrificed.

“I have to attract the attention of a spirit somehow. They’re pretty stupid, the spirits. The only come when something is ripped apart, to feed off the negative vibrations from the killer.”

Fluttershy suddenly squeed and flew from the room at lightning speed. Vicuña spun around on his hooves, crashing to the floor hard as he slammed into the ground. He looked behind him to see the throne room door slam shut. Dazed, he slowly picked himself up.

“Where did she go?” He asked the Princess.

Twilight shrugged.

Several moments, Fluttershy returned carrying a fuzzy little thing. Vicuña recognized it as a bear. Only this bear was much, much smaller than the great bears of the Alpaca Mountains. And this thing wasn’t even alive. Vicuña realized he was looking at a pony foal’s toy. Why in Equestria would they want to give their children a toy that resembled a predator? Vicuña remembered what Poncho had told him when they first came to Ponyville. Now, the shaman agreed with their leader.

Ponies really were odd creatures.

“Here!” Fluttershy thrust the bear into Vicuña’s cloven hooves. The shaman pulled down his hood and studied the toy.

“What is this?”

“A teddy bear! You can rip that open instead! I mean, if you want to…” Vicuña continue to squint at the bear. Both mares gasped as Vicuña violently ripped the teddy bear’s head off.

The stuffing from the bear’s body spilling out onto the floor. The room suddenly got much colder, the chills magnified by the crystal walls. Vicuña nodded in approval. Then, dropping the teddy bear head, he pulled out a peculiar looking pendant, shaped like a donut. The amulet began to glow as the spirits that had entered the room charged it in thanks. The amulet’s glow continued for a good long minute before dimming once more.

Then the room returned to its normal temperature.

“I can’t believe that worked,” Vicuña breathed. Fluttershy only nodded, but Twilight cocked her head at the amulet in Vicuña’s cloven hoof.

“What is that for?” She asked, pointing her own hoof at the bright orange loop that sparkled in the blue light of the cutie map.

“An amulet of protection. Defends against evil spirits, minor curses, and most poisons.”

“Really?” She gasped.

“Yes.”

Twilight looked at the amulet. Vicuña noticed that she was staring at it with a face full of curiosity and wonder. Vicuña’s heart leapt as he realized what he should do.

“Would you like it?”

Twilight was flabbergasted: “Oh no no no no no, I can’t possibly accept. That seems to me to be a powerful amulet. You keep it.”

“Princess,” Vicuña said with a smile, “I have countless amulets. And honestly, I would feel better if you keep it. It would protect you from the dangers most commonly found in magical studies.”

The Princess levitated the amulet from Vicuña’s hooves and looped it around her own neck. She smiled brightly at the shaman, who smiled back. Fluttershy said nothing, but she too admired the way that the orange medallion sparkled on Twilight’s chest. The Princess beamed.

“Thank you, Vicuña.”

“You’re welcome, Princess.”

Author's Note:

I know this chapter seems a little skippy, but it's mostly about Vicuña's relationship with ponies and the way that llamas tie in with Equestrian history.

Regardless, I hope you enjoyed it, and I'll have Bonita's chapter out next. Then Rico's. And THEN the twins' chapter.

Comments

[Raistlin]

I don´t get it.. how can a doll work as a replacement? In Aztec Religion, spirits and gods must be fed from the blood of the sacrificed. No blood, and the god weakened until no longer could perform his duties... like maintaining Nature.

Also, one can only wonder how many sacrifices took to create and power up the Elements; I bet that time weren´t animals.

[SkelePone]

Note that Vicuña said that long ago llamas sacrificed llamas (and maybe even ponies). And there are no gods in Equestria. Only spirits. And spirits aren't attracted by blood, just by violence. So using a teddy bear instead would work, because it still generates violent thoughts and emotions that spirits feed upon.

[SomeBloke]

Another amazing chapter, my friend:)
I also have a question: will Rico fall in love? And if so could it be Silver Spoon?

[SkelePone]

6485394 Nahhhhhh Rico's too young. He could end up getting romantically involved with one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders somewhere down the road. I also plan on having Rico become an honorary Crusader.

[TheArbiter1]

6485150
Well, this story is based on Andean myth where the most common form of sacrifice was strangulation with the occasional blood one.