Chapter 2: Faster than Bamboo
One of the first things that those like Gallus, Smolder, Ocellus, and Silverstream have learned since they came to the School of Friendship is that when presented a problem that is obviously bigger than they could chew: is always get help. Ever since they took down Cozy Glow, they know that by themselves they couldn’t make an impact on anything. But together, they could overcome just about anything.
And when they quickly realized that they have a cursed game that could prove deadly, then it was best to get all hooves and claws on deck. This is why they sought out Sandbar and Yona.
Going into the school’s library, they found that apart of a few students here and there, they spotted their friends at one of the round tables by the History section. Books open and scratch paper nearby as Sandbar and Yona compared notes. Going up to them, their yak friend looked up from her homework.
“Yona’s friends come to study with us?” She asked.
“Not quite,” Smolder glanced over at the wooden box in Silverstream’s arm. “I think we’re in trouble.”
This got Sandbar’s attention. “Trouble? What’s going on?”
“It’s uh… kinda hard to explain.” Ocellus began but Silverstream took over.
“So basically, Gallus and Smolder found this game in Headmare Twilight’s office,” Silverstream held up the game to them. “And we started playing and suddenly our dorm room was swarmed by hundreds of giant ants that bite and we figured out that we’ve accidently started to play a cursed board game.”
“…. Yeah, that pretty much covers it.” Gallus nodded.
“Board game? Cursed?” Yona raised an eyebrow and Silverstream placed the game on the table.
Sandbar turned the game around so he could get a closer look at the name. “Ju…man… gi? I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it. Is it an artifact?”
“No idea,” Gallus folded his arms, glaring at Smolder, “but if it is, we’ve walked into something that we should have left alone.”
“I’ve already admitted that I have the brain of lava rock, can you please get off my case!” Smolder argued and was immediately shushed by the few students around the library.
Sandbar pried the twin panels opened to look at the game itself. “It looks something you would see in Zebraca. But why would you say it’s cursed?”
“Didn’t I tell you?” Silverstream asked, “Gallus rolled the dice first, his piece moved all by itself and that green jewel thing in the middle starts writing out a riddle about ants, and suddenly ants were everywhere. Huge ones.”
“Maybe we should get an exterminator?” Sandbar suggest.
“I don’t think you quite understand.” Ocellus pointed out, “We think that every time any of us rolls the dice, it would release something out from the game into the real world.”
“Seems far fetch,” Yona tilted her head, “What if we always had ants in the dorm room, and their arriving was unrelated?”
“Except, I don’t think it was a coincidence. What we saw were Safari ants – the kind that’s only native to Zebraca, so how did they get all the way out here?”
“It’s not that I don’t believe you guys,” Sandbar raised a hoof, “but I kinda want to see if anything you’re saying is true. For all we know, it could be a coincidence after all.”
Gallus, Smolder, Ocellus, and Silverstream all looked at one another with uncertainty. They knew what this meant. There was only one possible way that they could convince them and what’s more, it could endanger the students that were in the library – though few there were.
“Where are the dice?” Smolder went up to the game to pick them up. Holding them in her claws, she paused, and noticing the few students around she thought aloud, “Do you guys think we should get everyone else out of here?”
“Why?” Yona shrugged, “It’s only game board.”
Glancing over to her friends, they nodded to her before returning to Sandbar and Yona. “Okay but… don’t say we didn’t warn you.” With that, she rolled the dice and got a ten.
Nervously, they watched Smolder’s piece, a jade monkey advanced itself down the twisting path.
“Okay guys, brace yourselves.” Ocellus said as they eyed the gem in the middle that began to form words.
Vines of the jungle stop your fun;
Tangles your legs, you can’t run.
In the stillness of the library, all around there were sounds of cricks and cracks, snaps and groans that seemed to be coming from every direction. Even the few students that were around noticed. And then, out from air vents to cracks in the walls they came. Leafy vines began to grow and push into the space. Twirling and twisting up along the walls and bookshelves, across the ceiling, and even slithering on the floor.
Yona and Sandbar stood up when they saw the rapidly growing plants. Watched how they instantly sprout into dozens of vines and budding flowers. Purple flowers the size of a pony’s hoof sprouted here and there with three long needle-like stems in the center.
While the students were amazed by this sudden growth of fauna in the library, the four players were back-to-back, cautious of what these things could be.
“So Ocellus,” Smolder asked, “Any idea what these things are?”
Ocellus shook her head, “Not that I know of, I don’t know any plants that can grow as fast as these things.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t touch them,” Silverstream suggested, “aren’t there poisonous plants in jungles?”
Four pairs of wide eyes glanced at one another and spotting one of the students on the second floor got curious with one of the flowers. The unicorn was almost close enough to smell one of them when suddenly, the flower spat out its needle stems at her. Fortunately, it missed the mare but it surprised the students.
Sandbar and Yona were shocked, “The flowers shoot barbs!” Sandbar gasped.
Ocellus quickly unfolded her wings and got into the air to yell out, “Everyone! Do not touch the vines or flowers! We need to leave the library right now!”
Smolder turned to her pony and yak friend, “Now do you see what we’re dealing with?” While she pointed this out, she didn’t notice that a vine was creeping up her leg. “All of this came out of the game, now are you gonna help us or wha-AH!” The vine around her leg tightened and it yanked her to the floor. Dragging her across the library towards a bookshelf in the corner.
Her friends, including Sandbar and Yona, sprang into action as they ran to grab Smolder. Whatever it was, it was strong, so much so that even with their yak friend gripping her shoulder, it was barely enough from not getting pulled into whatever was behind the bookshelf. Even with her free leg, she tried to kick at the vine but to no avail. It refused to let go.
“Guys, help!” She screamed up at them, “Get this thing off of me!”
The other students who nearby came to the dragoness’s aid, many more hooves grabbed Smolder and the vine itself and pulled at it like a twisted tug-o-war. As they pulled with their might, the bookshelf began to split, and books fell off the shelf until they pulled out something that made everyone there scream.
It was a giant pod about the size of an adult pony. The thing split open into four, large, fleshy peddles that were a bright yellow that seemed to ooze a poisonous odor. In the very center of this abdominal flower was the very vine that Smolder’s leg was being gripped by. And the plant was pulling harder towards its unnatural gaping mouth that threatens to consume whatever was in its way like a Venus flytrap.
Worse yet, the vine, now like a chameleon tongue, still reeled Smolder closer and closer. Inching towards the pod that had black thorns like teeth, threatening to swallow the dragoness whole.
“Get this off me!” Smolder shouted. “Someone do something!”
Looking around for something to cut the vine, Sandbar turned to Ocellus with an idea. “I’ve got an idea; can you turn yourself into an ax?”
Seeing what Sandbar is getting at, Ocellus burst into a ring of green flames and was replaced by an ax. Thinking quickly, Sandbar picked the ax up with his mouth swung his head up to bring it down as hard as he could. It took a few swings to hack away at the near rubber-like vine, but mercifully, it did snap, making those holding onto Smolder collapse to the floor while the plant monstrosity pulled itself away in pain.
“Okay, that does it!” Gallus turned to the students, “Everycreature out!” While the students headed for the exit, Gallus paused to see that the game on the table was left alone. A vine crept up the leg of the table and threatened to snatch it away. Thinking quickly, he snatched the game before flying out the door.
As soon everyone was out, the first thing the students did was to tie it, barricade it with whatever they could find, and Ocellus placed a closed sign on top of it all.
“What was that thing!?” Yona shouted but still in shock.
“We’ve been trying to tell you,” Smolder pointed, “it came out of that game. Now, do you see why we need help with this one?”
“Should we tell the professors about this?” one of the students asked. It was the same unicorn that was almost stabbed by the barbs. “There’s a dangerous plant growing inside the library, nearly at one of the students, and I’m pretty sure that I nearly died with darts to the face.”
“Actually, good idea.” Sandbar nodded, “Go get all the professors, including Headmare Twilight.”
“Wait, should we?” Smolder asked.
“Hey,” Gallus pointed out, “You’re the one that started all this.”
“Do you have any idea how much trouble we’ll get?”
“Depends, do you want to be in trouble or dead?”
“Guys,” Ocellus began but was quickly interrupted.
“Excuse me,” Smolder huffed smoke from her nostrils, “I had no idea the game was cursed.”
“‘Do not begin unless you intend to finish.’ That was clearly a warning!”
“Guys,” Ocellus was quickly cut off.
“Well have you thought Twilight would do to us if she-”
In frustration, Ocellus turned her hoof into a megaphone, “EVERYONE CHILL!” Now she had gotten their attention. “This arguing isn’t going to solve anything! Yes, we’re gonna get into serious trouble. Yes, we might get expelled. But right now, we have Safari ants in our dorm, a carnivorous plant growing in the library, and who knows what else when any of us roll those dice. This is no time to pin the blame on anyone. We need to figure out how to deal with this. The game said that all of this will go away until one of us wins. So, in the meantime, we got to figure out what to do here.”
Letting out a frustrated sigh, Gallus said, “She’s right. We’ve got to be smart about this. Now that everyone’s here,” the griffon placed the game down on a nearby chair. “What do we do?”
Yona went up to the game and putting a hoof on it, thought aloud, “What if friends play quickly?”
“What do you mean?” Silverstream asked.
Looking at the twisting paths on the game, Yona counted the spaces towards the centerpiece. “Yona thinks that if done quick, game would soon be over. As soon as one done, then pass dice until someone wins.”
“That would be a great idea,” Smolder pointed out, “Except for the fact that every time we roll the dice, it could make things worse. For all we know, one wrong move and this could end the world.”
“Which is why we should get the professors involved,” Sandbar suggested. “Think about it, they deal with this stuff every other Thursday. If they can deal with monsters, super villains, and even a God of Chaos a few times, I’d bet that this would be a piece of cake to them.”
“God of Chaos…” Gallus hummed in thought before snapping his talons. “Sandbar! That’s it! Why didn’t I think of this sooner!”
“What are you talking about?”
Taking the game under his arm, Gallus flew down the hall. “We need to find Professor Fluttershy!”
Though not fully understanding where the griffon was going at this, his friends followed behind him. Down a hallway, up a flight of stairs towards the garden section of the school, they went towards the tree where Fluttershy held her class. When Gallus burst through the door, it shocked the professor who was in the middle of eating lunch.
“Professor? Sorry for scaring you but this is an emergency.”
Taking a moment to collect herself, Fluttershy set her meal aside. “Gallus? What’s wrong?”
“Well before we say anything, can you get Discord over here? It’s important.”
“Oh dear, did Discord do something he wasn’t supposed to again?”
“No, at least… I don’t think he did.” Gallus held up the game, “We need his help with this thing, can you get him here?”
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I don’t know how.”
By then, Gallus’s friends have all entered the classroom with the griffon blinking. “What?”
“It’s not like I could just call him up whenever I like. Discord often pops up whenever he wants to. Even if I did know how I can’t guarantee that he would just appear. Why? What’s wrong?”
“In a nutshell?” Ocellus pointed to Smolder and Gallus, “These two found a cursed gameboard that every time we play, something from the game would pop up. We think it’s dangerous given how unbelievably unpredictable it is.”
“Oh?” Fluttershy blinked. “When you say something would pop up, what kind of things?”
The six students looked at one another, “Well…” Yona scratched her head, “It’s hard to explain without seeing for yourself.”
“Okay, can you show me?”
The students looked alarmed, “Uh…” Silverstream nervously eyed the game, “You sure about that?”
“Well, how can I help if I don’t know what it does.”
In that moment’s pause, they looked to one another, as if asking who wants to take a turn at the game next.
Ocellus swallowed, “I’ll… I’ll go next.”
“Are you sure?” Gallus asked and she nodded.
The griffon placed the game down at Fluttershy’s desk and opened it up. Ocellus took the dice in her aura, gave it a shake before dropping it on the gameboard itself.
She rolled a five, and the ivory elephant moves all by itself down the path. Once it reached its spot, the green gem began to spell out in its yellow mist.
She read aloud:
This will not be an easy mission
Monkeys slow the expedition.
From above there was a chorus of wild hoots and hollers that made their professor jump. Unexpectedly, as if they appeared from nowhere and everywhere, monkeys came swinging, crawling, and falling into the classroom. It was as if the entire section of a zoo was dumped on them with rampaging chimpanzees, baboons with faces that resembled war paint, and siren loud black howlers that made the students cover their ears.
When the primates had come, the first thing they did was to cause destruction. Birdhouses were taken off and thrown about. Cages that had the classroom pets were knocked over and animals from mice to snakes were set free. Books and supplies came flying off the shelves. And one baboon had grabbed the wooden game and flung it at Fluttershy. Fortunately, it missed her but just barely, hitting a wall with a bang but it didn’t break. A Chimpanzee grabbed the dice and threw it at Ocellus as hard as it could.
“Everyone! Please stop!” Fluttershy tried to talk with the monkeys but none of them were listening. From scratching posts to food pellets, the monkeys continued their rampage and did whatever they wanted. Their professor tried everything she could think of to get them to behave. She even went up to one of the baboons that were pelting Ocellus with books, she tried to get a little more assertive.
“That is enough!” Fluttershy said firmly, “If you don’t stop right now, I will-” She was cut off by a book to the face. It was thrown hard enough that it made her nose sting, but when she looked back up, she was forced to pull out her ultimate weapon.
In all the times that the students have been in Professor Fluttershy’s class, there had been a few times when their teacher had to use The Stare. She didn’t do it very often and never to any of the students – it was usually towards a class pet that was misbehaving, but even then, it was extremely rare. When she does do it, seeing it is an anxiety-inducing sight. With her eyes becoming intimidating, she looked directly at the baboon who paused.
“I said that is enough!” She commanded with a firm voice. “Throwing and making a mess of my classroom is not a nice thing to do. What would your mother say if she saw you doing this?”
After a beat, the baboon gave an answer. It leaped at Fluttershy, pulling on her mane and attempting to bite her wings. To the students watching, this was unspeakably shocking. The Stare worked – it always worked – even on the most terrifying of creatures that nature has to offer. And here, these monkeys took it as if it were nothing.
Among the chaos, Yona got an idea, “Ocellus, what is scariest creature Changeling can think of?”
Ocellus quickly realized what Yona was getting that. She told her friends and her teacher to, “Cover your eyes!”
Her friends and teacher shut their eyes. There was a whoosh of her changing into something. And then there was an earthshattering roar of a creature that none of them had ever heard before. It sounded like something they would hear in a nightmare – a choir of tortured screams with the low rumbling of a behemoth. Whatever Ocellus had transformed into, it scared off the monkeys out of the classroom. Shrilling, terrified yips echoed out as the monkeys made their mad dash out of the classroom and towards the forest nearby.
After Ocellus dropped her terrifying display, she told everyone they could open their eyes. They looked out to the aftermath of a nearly destroyed classroom with books, supplies, and pets scattered everywhere. And there was Fluttershy who turned to her students, shaken but unharmed. Yet she was shocked with her mouth hung ajar.
Silverstream went up to her, “Professor? Are you okay?”
“…. Something is wrong.” She told them, “This is a first because this never happened to me before.”
“What are you talking about?” Smolder got back up to her feet. “You’ve dealt with rude animals before.”
“It’s not just that… I couldn’t understand any of them.” Her student asked what she meant. “You see, when I encounter monkeys, I could pick up on what they’re saying right away like any other animal. But for them… I couldn’t understand a word. It’s like… they look like monkeys but they’re not. It’s like they’re speaking a language I’ve never heard before.”
“And your stare didn’t do anything.” Sandbar pointed out.
“For a moment I thought it did too but… I have never seen anything like this except with Discord. And I know that didn’t work because he’s from an alternative universe.”
Silverstream went over to where the game was thrown aside to inspect it. Despite being thrown quite hard against a wall, it seemed perfectly intact. There wasn’t so much a dent in the wood.
Just then, Applejack came barging in, “Fluttershy, there ya are! Do ya happened to… what happened in here?”
“Let’s just say there was a monkey problem,” Gallus said as he saw the professor that her hind legs were dotted with little red bumps. “What happened to you?”
“That’s what Ah’m here for,” She went up to Fluttershy, “Do ya happen to know where ta find an anteater?”
“You mean Rupert? He’s at the animal reserve. Why?”
“Go get ‘em right now. The school’s been infested by ants. Big ones that bite. I’ve rescued one of the students from bein’ swarmed ta death by the little buggers – uh, no offense Ocellus.”
“None taken,” Ocellus replied flatly.
Then from the open windows, Rainbow came in, “Hey you guys, do you anyone that has really strong weed killer? There’s something coming out of the hallway and the students say that there’s a pony-eating plant that’s growing in the library.”
Fluttershy turned her attention towards the folded-up game. Given that her classroom was completely trashed by some unruly primates, she quickly put together that the infestation had a common source.
“Does anypony know where Twilight is?” Fluttershy asked her friends.
“No clue,” Applejack shook her head.
“I do,” Rainbow said, “she’s gone to her castle with Zecora.”
“How Rainbow know?” Yona asked.
“Saw it through a window during P.E. They were in a hurry when they went in. Maybe something important came up.”
“Okay,” Gallus nodded, turning to his friends, “we need to go see Twilight. If the game came from her office then maybe she might have some idea what to do here.”
The others agreed, and with Silverstream having the game in her arms, they exited the classroom and made a run for Twilight’s castle. Leaving the teachers to scramble to contain three growing problems before anyone gets hurt.
Spike heard an impatient banging on the castle’s double doors. When he went over to answer it, he saw six students standing there with one holding a wooden box under her arm. Before the dragon could get a word out, Smolder asked right away, “Where’s Headmare Twilight?”
“She’s in the library with Zecora, and they said they don’t want to be distu- hey!” He was pushed aside as the students rushed in to head directly towards the library. Spike’s protests went completely unheard when they pushed open the doors and barged in on Twilight and Zecroa.
They were surrounded by piles of open books as though none of them had anything that they were looking for. Flipping still through in hopes to find the solution to their current problem. Only when the students entered, they were snapped out from their intense search.
“Huh!” Twilight looked up, “What are all of you doing here? Class doesn’t start for at least another hour.”
“Headmare Twilight,” Smolder went in front of them. “So… before we say anything, can you promise us one thing?”
“Smolder, we’re in the middle of something important.”
“I can see that, but this is kinda an emergency and before we can say what, we need you to promise us that you won’t get mad.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, “What did you do this time?”
“We…” Gallus rubbed the back of his head, “We did something stupid. Like we should have had our heads be bashed in by a hammer kind of stupid.”
At this point, Zecora looked up, “Children, it’s appreciated you taking responsibility. But as of now, there’s something we need to see.”
“Trust us, this is important.” Smolder said, “Because we… well, Gallus and I were uh… took something from your office that should be left alone.”
This got their attention.
“You broke into my office?” Twilight raised an eyebrow.
“To be fair,” Gallus stepped in, “we did hear a weird noise that we got curious about. It sounded like muffled drums.” Zecora’s face started to pale. “We then found this.” He went over to Silverstream and held the game up to them.
Zecora immediately got up to snatch the game from his claws. Without a word she set the game on the floor and opened it up. “Oh no…” She whispered aloud. “My friend, this is really not good. We cannot reverse it if we could.” With a wild fear in her eye, she turned to Twilight. “Evacuate the students, close down the school! Your students started a game unspeakably cruel! Do not sit there, no time to delay! Now go and do as I say!”
“But Zecora-”
“Go!” she barked at her.
Seeing how serious this was, Twilight galloped out towards the school.
Zecora, now with the students' full attention, asked, “Please answer me truthfully without blame, what so far came out of the game?”
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Looks promising so far, with all the hype and actions.
The plot really kicks in! And we got two curses from the game in one chapter. Nice! Things are about to get really exciting. Can't wait for the next chapter.
Until then...
Well it's nice to see other ponies and creatures helping the young six
good thing those giant mosquitoes are not there yet or as things could have gotten really worse
Okay so the other four students got to Sandbar and Yona explain to them about the situation but unfortunately they don't believe them so they have to show them which of course things got really bad now there are Vines and worse a Venus flytrap that almost ate smolder so after that they went to Fluttershy to ask if they can get Discord to help but unfortunately he's not around of course but when they roll the dice again the bunch of monkeys came around and wreaking havoc around the school so the main five had to get every kids out of the school and the young six has to talk to Twilight and Zecora about the situation boy this is getting very intense I wonder what's going to happen next I guess we'll find out next time
This..... This is good. No... This is excellent. The Administration will continue observing this.
Things are starting to heat up & a very close call for 2nd best dragon in there!
Was wondering if Flutters abilities with animals would work against the ones coming out of the game, guess I got my answer! Although I do wonder what Ocellus turned into to scare those monkeys away like that!
Looking forward to see what comes out next & how our Young Six heroes deal with it!
11133956
*shudders* I remember those things, hope they don't come out......AT ALL!!!
What was the creature ocellus turned into to scare the monkeys?
This is starting to get really good. I'm really glad this is based on the Robin WIlliams film because that movie was true nightmare fuel. Also, I enjoy stories that involve characters playing Jumanji, so good on you for making this story so far.:)
11134022
Likely something eldritch