The Second Day: A Thorn in Their Sides
From the Eyes of Magic
Dear Princess Celestia,
Today…was interesting, to say the least. I learned a lot about our visitors from another world. For example, they have quite a few creatures with scores to settle. There were two particular monsters that decided today would be a fine time to collect their debts. Kuja made quick work of them, although I disapprove of his methods. Still, what he did is better than letting them hurt any innocent ponies.
I wonder if they were out for revenge…or just out for blood. They weren’t playing games, whatever they wanted. If Kuja hadn’t stepped in, I actually think they would’ve killed us all…
…
We’d been told that Vivi had finally decided to talk to somepony, so we all hurried to the hospital to see him. By the time we got there, he was fast asleep. Nurse Redheart was busy examining him for any sort of lasting physical injury, while Kuja and Mr. 111 were too…happy, I think…to sleep. Instead, they decided they wanted to take a walk. Not sure what to make of it, I suggested we walk with them.
It was uneventful. We walked from the hospital to the edge of the Everfree Forest and back again. However, I managed to overhear the two foreigners talking about what they planned to do for Vivi. Nothing worth noting was said. As we were going back to the hospital, I noticed them tense up. They stopped walking normally and instead looked to be on guard. I didn’t think much of it, simply because we were near the forest: bad memories for them, and all.
We decided to wait with them through the night, hoping Vivi would be better when he woke up. It was…a long night of boring silence. It was punctuated by Nurse Redheart letting her patient out of his room to do some walking. Two days in a bed can be bad for your health, after all. Kuja and Mr. 111 insisted on taking him to the Sweet Apple Acres orchards, and after some slight persuasion, Redheart said it would be okay.
We followed them.
Looking at it in retrospect, we probably shouldn’t have. I think my friends learned more than they bargained for. I might have, as well.
It was a quiet walk, peaceful with a cool breeze. I couldn’t help but wonder what good the orchards would do the little guy, but it felt like a relaxing place to be. Applejack was skeptical too, but I think that had more to do with ‘protecting her apple trees’ than anything else. When I asked about their motives, they simply replied with, “Trust us.”
So I did.
Things got interesting once we reached a particularly large tree.
Kuja began suddenly, breaking the calm silence of the morning air, “Have you remembered anything else, Vivi? You said we were friends. Can you remember our names?” I wondered why they hadn’t told him their names yet. I imagined there was method to their madness, so I kept quiet.
Applejack offered to make everypony pancakes for breakfast, so the others headed off to her house. I stayed behind with the mages, hoping to learn whatever I could from them. I also hoped my presence might be comforting to the amnesiac. Moral support, you know.
“I,” the little mage began quietly, “…don’t. Sorry.” He clenched his fists and looked down at the ground.
Mr. 111 sighed, “Don’t be, Vivi. It’s not your fault.”
“It’ll come back eventually, I’m sure.” Kuja placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder, his expression relaxing to pseudo-happiness. He wasn’t fooling anypony.
A long silence followed his reassuring message. The wind continued to blow gently, sending the scent of apples across the orchard. After a while, Kuja simply sat down against the base of the tree. Mr. 111 guided Vivi beside him, and they all sat together. They looked like a group of brothers, except Kuja would’ve been the rebel of the family…
Once the breeze finally died down, conversation was struck again. With a hopeful tone, Mr. 111 asked, “Have you tried reading your journal, Vivi? Maybe it can help you remember!”
“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that!” Kuja sounded genuinely excited for the first time. He leaned closer to his companion and whispered, “Do you have your journal, Vivi?”
“Yeah, I do, but…” he reached into his coat and pulled out a semi-tattered book, “there’s nothing in it…”
“Oh, that’s too bad.” The larger mage sat back against the tree, his hope fading fast. It took only a second for him to leap to his feet and shout, “What do you mean there’s nothing in it?!”
Vivi flinched, tossing the book at him. He covered his head with his arms and pulled the brim of his hat lower, evoking an angry glare from Kuja directed at the insensitive brother. Then it dawned on me where Mr. 111 was coming from. Vivi had said the book was ‘empty’, but I’d personally seen him writing in it!
“Don’t look at me like that, Kuja! There’s no way the book is empty!” He lowered his voice before addressing the child-like mage, “I’m sorry I yelled. Maybe you opened the book wrong.”
He unclipped the seal of the book, dust falling from the cover. It almost looked like it hadn’t been used in years… He flipped through the first few pages before dropping it to the ground, eyes flooding with disbelief. It landed on its cover, revealing the contents of the current page.
That was assuming it had had contents. It was blank. The third page was blank. There were no scratch marks from where his quill would’ve eaten through the other pages, either. I couldn’t believe it! I brought the book to me with magic and scanned each of the first dozen pages closely. Mr. 111 stared at me expectantly, while Kuja simply sat in silence.
Shaking my head, I sent the book toward him. He took once glance at it and I saw the rage flood his eyes. He struck the tome hard enough to knock it from my grip before leaping to his feet and kicking the tree. He let out a primal roar, sending Vivi crawling away in a frightened hurry.
“What the (pardon my language, I’m simply transcribing) hell! What the hell is going on here?” Before I could intervene, he landed a punch against the tree hard enough to send some apples plummeting to the ground. After a few more kicks, Mr. 111 took it upon himself to restrain the frenzied man.
It only took a single slap to knock sense into Kuja. Admittedly, I heard the slap almost like an avalanche, but it was still only one. After that, he settled down and plopped to the ground without concern for injury. The big mage attempted to calm Vivi down with some reassuring phrases, but I was more focused on the impossible notebook.
How—or maybe it’s better to ask why—did everything he wrote disappear? I know I watched him write about our work cleaning up Fluttershy’s home after the manticore attack, so why isn’t that stuff in the book? Is it possible that his amnesia directly affected the contents of the book? Or maybe the pages of ink affected his memories? Is that even possible? Is it possible that a person’s mind and a book could be so deeply connected?
Whatever the reason, I have a feeling it has to do with what followed the brief frenzy.
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget what I saw. It was so…impossible, even by magical standards!
Applejack and the others had just rejoined us, unaware of what had transpired to freak Vivi out and make Kuja so angry. Pinkie Pie tried to cheer the mages up, but it just wasn’t going to work. When they asked what was wrong, all they got was a scoff from Kuja and a sigh from Mr. 111. I refused to say anything, thinking it wasn’t my place to reveal what I’d seen.
And then a cold wind blew from the forest. A cold wind in the middle of summer, colder than any of the breezes earlier in the morning, engulfed us. It sent a shiver down my spine. The sun was just reaching its pinnacle when Kuja actually acknowledged the sudden shift in temperature.
I noticed his muscles tense up as he stood swiftly, looking around. The others shared confused looks, but I knew something was wrong. In fact, they didn’t seem to notice the chill, either. It was just the mages and I, chill bumps beginning to form under my coat. Mr. 111 waited only slightly longer to follow Kuja’s lead, realizing it wasn’t natural. Even Vivi decided to stand up, only his was more in preparation of running than fighting.
And then the voices called out. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were in the middle of some sort of story when they suddenly fell silent. Though they didn’t seem to notice the air, they definitely heard the voices. The two voices were similar in sound, high-pitched and squeaky. I couldn’t begin to picture the owners. When I tried, weird images of beasts came to mind.
First it was a simple taunt, “The children have come to play!”
Then the other voice repeated, “Come to play, have they?”
Again with the first voice, “They have!”
“They have!” the second voice concluded.
I saw Kuja’s jaw drop, while Vivi struggled to maintain his balance. A burst of icy-cold wind sent us flying off of the ground. Disoriented, I noticed my friends begin to frost over. They were freaking out, oblivious to the temperature, until they were finally coated. I felt my limbs lock up, unable to move or speak. Kuja and Mr. 111 held their ground. Vivi ended up crashing against Rainbow Dash’s frozen body, unaffected by the frost. I couldn’t tell if I was frozen, but I was definitely cold.
The wind died down, and two shadows appeared floating just above the tree line. As they moved closer, light began to illuminate their features. Their faces were coated with white paint, eyes circled by black. Their outfits were identical, resembling those of clowns or jesters.
The first voice called, “The kids need to chill, Thorn!” It was wearing blue.
The second voice confirmed, “Make them chill, we will, Zorn!” It was wearing red.
Kuja retorted angrily, “Like hell you will, you clowns!” I…don’t exactly believe what I saw happen after that, because I was dazed from being thrown by the wind…
But a giant burst of fire launched from Kuja’s hand, exploding just in front of the clowns. He squatted down and pounced from the ground, a large white spear manifesting in his hand as he darted through the air. Mr. 111 raised his hands up, wind beginning to swirl around them. As he stood in place, dust and dirt started to be drawn toward his cyclones, culminating in mini-tornadoes which he launched upward at the clowns. The smoke from Kuja’s initial attack faded to show the clowns, hands locked together, simply floating in place, taking the blows.
Kuja landed several strikes and stabs, drawing blood and groans from its targets, but he had to retreat when his friend’s cyclones engulfed the pair. The big mage was quick to continue his assault, sending large chunks of the field beside him hurtling toward the creepy couple. As they made contact, the wind dissipated, and Kuja darted in to continue his assault. This carried on for a few moments until the two eventually plummeted to the ground.
Kuja hesitated to stop, but decided he would wait and see what was next. He scoffed heavily, “You aren’t fooling anyone, idiots! You didn’t even throw a punch!”
Mr. 111 groaned, “Why aren’t you attacking?!” He sent more chunks of rock at the hole where they landed, not giving them a chance to get up.
With a wave of his hand, Kuja stopped the attack. He sighed, “Fighting them like this won’t do any good. They’re two parts of a whole. You have to strike the core, not the shell.” I didn’t understand what he meant at first, but it only took a few minutes to figure it out.
A bright light burst forth from the hole, sending a shockwave of energy to knock the assaulting mages back further. When the light dimmed out, I realized what he meant before. Above the hole, in place of the clowns, stood a monstrosity that I couldn’t have ever imagined in my darkest dreams. It was a grotesque abomination of nature.
It looked like a clump of bloody flesh molded into shape like an urn, a sapphire gemstone in the center of its chest and two demonic heads sprouting from the torso. In place of arms it had three small tendrils on either side that twitched in a dysfunctional manner. Sprouting from its back it had two wing-like appendages that lashed out angrily. Its lower half looked to be the bottom of a nightgown or robe, while the center strip of its body pulsated like veins.
I wanted to vomit, but not even my stomach could react under whatever was plaguing me. Kuja seemed entirely unfazed by the beast. He spat, “Meltigemini, the beast given birth by the Mist to devour eidolons and hunt those capable of using magic. To fulfill its desires, it split in to two separate but identical wizards, using the shape of humanoids to blend in.” Turning to wink at me, he added, “Don’t worry, it doesn’t eat animals.”
A smile stretched across his face. He was…happy to be fighting the monster. His eyes shined with a joy I hadn’t seen in them at all. Even the moment he learned his Lord Avon was our Starswirl paled in comparison to the joy he showed at that moment. He chuckled as he turned back toward it, raising his spear high in the air.
Mr. 111 stepped away from it, seeing Kuja’s ecstatic expression. With a wave of his arm, he cheered, “The honor’s all yours.”
“Thank you.” He launched off of the ground once more, looking ready to obliterate the monster. He released a blast of silver light ahead of him, using the spear to swat it like a ball at the beast with even more speed.
The light exploded, sending the demon recoiling in pain. It took a swipe with one of its wings, to which Kuja reacted by slicing right through it. Gore burst from the severed limb while the excited fighter continued to strike its many other appendages. It only took a few minutes for the monster to be reduced to nothing but a shriveling pair of heads. The last piece Kuja struck was the glowing gem, and once he did, the beast began to melt.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Nothing like that should be possible! Why did that thing exist?! What kind of magics had to mix to form such a gruesome abomination of nature? It…simply melted into the ground, almost as if it never existed to begin with. And once it was done melting, the two conjoined heads burst into flames, the figures of the clowns reappearing in whole. They had smiles on their faces.
“The end is coming, fools!”
“Coming for you all, the end is!”
“You can’t stop it!”
“It can’t be stopped!”
“Only pain, no hope!”
“No hope, only pain!”
“He will be here soon…” The blue one burst into ash.
“Soon will He be here…” The red one followed suit.
And with that, the frost coating my friends shattered, returning their mobility. I found myself suddenly able to move, but without the energy to do so. I couldn’t begin to understand what had just happened. Even once the beast was gone, Vivi simply sat curled up against Rainbow Dash, arms over his head. The poor kid…
Kuja fell back on his butt and sighed, “A blast from the past, eh Vivi?”
“…” The little mage continued to cower.
Rainbow Dash placed a shaky hoof on his shoulder and sighed, "What was that...thing?"
"It looked like the most evil thing my eyes have ever seen! It ain't from around here, that's for sure!" Applejack placed a hoof on the mage's other shoulder, attempting to comfort the still-frightened child.
Fluttershy's voice whispered to us, muffled by the grass her face was buried in, "That thing wasn't...real...was it?"
Kuja simply nodded in confirmation of how real it had been. Then Pinkie Pie's voice exploded in our ears, "Kuja that was so awesome! You were all like kaboom and it was all like grahh, then you were all like schwing schwing and it was all like--!"
The voice was suddenly silenced by Rarity clenching our energetic friend's muzzle with her hooves. She scoffed, "I think he gets the picture, dear." She carefully let go and turned toward the exhausted man on the ground. With a bit of anger in her voice, she whined, "Well? Are you going to tell us what that thing was or not?"
“I suppose I do have some explaining to do. But I think that can wait until after lunch, right?” The victorious combatant turned toward me and smiled sheepishly. His spear vanished into thin air, and he fell on his back and looked to be embracing the grass.
Mr. 111 groaned, “That was a Gaian monster.”
“And…?” Kuja mumbled.
“That doesn’t bode well.”
After we finally calmed down, we went to Applejack’s house and ate some of her homemade cooking. After we ate, Kuja decided to explain what the monster was, where it came from, and why it wanted to kill us. He then explained to my friends what the clowns meant by ‘the end is coming’. I confirmed his explanation as best as I could from what I knew about Starswirl the Bearded’s play, and tried to help them understand exactly what I knew.
Vivi remained quiet during the whole discussion. He simply shivered in fear of what he’d seen, unable to grasp the concept of the monster being real. He really was just like a kid.
That is, until the end of the discussion, when everypony fell silent and all we had to listen to was the breeze outside. He had finally stopped shivering, and we all began to settle in. We had planned on spending the evening together in silence, letting everything soak in. Finally, the sun began to set, and we all decided to get some early sleep. Just as the atmosphere shifted from confused to sleepy, Vivi managed to choke out one word…
“…Ei…ko…”
…
You can probably imagine that Kuja freaked out when he heard the word. According to him, Eiko was one of Vivi’s friends from their other world, and he had developed a sort-of crush on her. The older mages attempted to probe Vivi’s mind to see what all he remembered about the word. Sad to say, it wasn’t much. He could remember the name and her appearance, but he had no recollection of any specific events involving her.
As the moon rose in the sky, we settled down again, the hype for his memory vanishing slowly. This time, it remained peaceful.
So I decided to write this to you before falling asleep. I imagine you’d like to know exactly what these visitors are involved with before inviting them to Canterlot. I want to trust them. I want to help them. But it’s hard to trust someone you know nothing about. And now that I’ve seen exactly what kind of world they lived in, it’s even harder to accept them. I don’t hate them, and I won’t ignore them. I know they want to help us.
But isn’t the road to disaster paved with good intentions?
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
1,022 users online
1,677,252 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
That part was genius
2987520 Super sweet.
Yeah zorn and thorn were some of the creepier characters in FFIX. Intense
Hmmm. Mysteries deepen.
Don't like how helpless the ponies were though. Sure the Gaian monsters, especially that one, are very different from what the ponies are used to, but how will they ever level up without participating?
2991742 (I've been waiting for an excuse to use this. Forgive me.)
lowbird.com/data/images/2011/07/pr0gramm-1311072466207.jpg
It's a shame Ice>Pony, ain't it?
2991842
No salvation, no forgiveness!
derpicdn.net/media/W1siZiIsIjIwMTMvMDMvMjEvMjBfNTFfMDRfODk3XzI3NjEyOV9fVU5PUFRfX3NhZmVfZzNfc25vd19teV9saXR0bGVfcG9ueV9nM19nM19wZXJpb2RfNV9pY2Vfd2hpbXNleV93ZWF0aGVyYmUuanBnIl1d/276129__safe_g3_snow_my-little-pony-g3_g3-period-5_ice_whimsey-weatherbe.JPG
Looking forward to see what happens next.