Twilight sneaked down to the monster hunter's journal once she was certain that Spike had fallen asleep. It was very dark outside, so the lavender unicorn was as careful as she could possibly be to not make much noise and wake up even the planet. She took the heavy journal in her magic and lit a candle to read in the dark. The mare eagerly flipped the pages written by Spiral Tooth to the section that he warned against reading and transgressed the signs.
"I wonder what kind of creatures are in here?" Twilight whispered to herself. "Why not start with something at random?"
The lavender mare covered her eyes with a hoof and flipped the pages randomly with her magic, taking care to not rip a precious parchment. When she stopped, she opened her eyes to see the name of this creature -Or creatures rather- at the top: Duet.
"Duet?" Twilight mumbled in confusion. "What kind of stupid name is that?!"
She passed a hoof across the page to better position herself for reading and saw the illustration for this 'creature'. It had no real details like most of what the other monsters in this journal had so far. The creatures were represented as two bipedal figures slightly slumped over, holding hands. They had been drawn in such a manner that it appeared they were made with harsh circles of black ink forced into the paper, leaving multiple hollow crescents of paper.
"The Duet, also called 'The First Love' are a spectral entity encountered after a client mistook them for a monster, but what a prize!" the writer had written with excitement. "The Duet are often considered as the very first case of romance in the world, and have been with each other even after death did part them. That being said, I don't understand their intentions or why they remain here if that's true. One takes on the form of a mare with a slender figure; a shining, fluffy, silky mane and tail of chocolate brown, and a soft, velvety coat of pale vanilla. She also has a smile and mannerism to awe and melt the hearts of even the coldest stallion.. The other takes on the form of a tall, well-built stallion with a combed mane of red and orange and an alleged smile to woo mares.
If this were true, why would they bother trying to bring in other ponies? There is no reason. At least, none that I could find. I did learn from one of the very few survivors' reports that, when a pony is deep into their arms, they're taken to the other, completing the 'Duet'. The Duet of the same sex takes their partner's 'partner' and...I'm not sure. The secretive section of the Occult Branch of us Monster Hunters refused to tell me and whited out the interesting bits. I sneaked a peek at one of the victims during transport, and they were completely blank. No mouth, completely white, and with blank eyes. They didn't seem to have any mind of their own, either.
The Duet is one of the oldest of these 'creatures' the Occult Branch had been hunting for a very, very long time. I don't know what they'll do with them, but they always mention 'Putting them back where they belong' for everything they capture."
Twilight pondered. "If they capture them, then they obviously have a place where they contain them. They never bothered doing that with the monsters, if the monster entries are to be believed." The unicorn hummed curiously. "I wonder where they're placed and where this facility is located? Does Celestia even know where they are?" Twilight flipped through a few pages and spotted another entry.
"Not all occult aberrations are creatures, which I personally find boring. 'The Chronalmin Flux' is one such bizarrety in a sea of inexplicable conundrums. It engulfed a tower in a city I'm unfamiliar with, allegedly spitting out only one survivor. The flux is, as the occultists put it, 'alive'. Every test has shown a single face warped millions upon millions of times, then revert to one for nary a microsecond, then resume warping. The tower itself is a playhouse for every conceivable and inconceivable horror, from simple murder ghosts to a sculpture that twists and snaps your body like clay until it resembles a sculpture of 'modern art'." Twilight took a magnifying glass to see tiny text scrawled in the corner of the page that read 'That means it looks like nothing'. She rolled her eyes and resumed reading.
"Everything points to the Flux and all its inhabitants being a single person. Not a monster. Not an elder entity. Not an eldritch abomination, but a single person like me and others. How this happened or how the tower's inhabitants are linked is still unknown. Despite precautions and the highest level of security deployable by the Monster Hunter Association, some thrill seekers got in. They're generally never seen again...and if they are, the flux has warped them body and mind in the most literal sense anypony can fully imply."
Twilight pulled her head back."I REALLY need to show this to Princess Celestia and ask her about this. It's not normal that I've never even heard rumors about these things, and I know from first hoof experience that these kinds of things can exist." She shook her head and sighed silently. "What else is there in here?"
Twilight stopped on a page with ponies and bipeds in trenchcoats and wearing leather masks with two glass visors and tubes that number from one to three going into a backpack. There were multiple illustrations, depicting multiple different appearances and traits to these things, such as bits missing or tubes snapped in half because of decay. Interestingly, there was always a silken mist drawn emanating from these bits.
"The Rorch. An entire country's army having become entrapped in a purgatory of warfare that, were it not for the efforts of the nearby countries and the monster hunters association, they would have already stepped out of the forest mountains and laid waste to everything and not stopped there. Nopony knows from where they're from, but they fluctuate like they're in murky water and wander out of a mountain forest near the western Equestrian border and stomp through everything wielding weapons nopony has ever seen before. Metal sticks that spew thunder at an impossible rate, cannons that can level a city block with just one ball, and carriages that drive themselves without magic and leave behind a smoky red residue.
Because nopony knows where these ponies and diamond dogs are from, the occult branch can't figure out how to appease them. However, with the advent of the Chronalmin Flux tells us that these are possibly dead from another timeline fluctuated into our own. It would explain why they always come back after getting killed every month, but it doesn't explain how they change their approach every time, like they're learning. I've killed a few and noticed that they just stare at you before they die, a muffled breathing coming from their helmets. Some of the occultists have tried trapping them with their machines and magic, but it never seems to work. The bodies just turn to mist and vanish. Their 'eyes' blank and unyielding, they kill anypony in their path, destroy when there's a wall, and move forward. They're pretty fun to fight, actually.
Attempts to just destroy the forest have met with failure. Either the flames phase through the trees or they come back at the same time as the Rorch."
Twilight blinked. "Weapons we've never seen? That sounds like something a conqueror would have used to attack his or her less advanced neighbors. I could go for one more before preparing a trip to Canterlot with Spike."
She ended at a page with an illustration of a tall creature with six massive spike limbs. Two served as 'arms' while the rest served as legs. Its face was only a large tube with a circular mouth possessing multiple rows of spinning teeth. Its body was pale and sickly, and it didn't seem to have much meat on its bones.
"A tribal legend known as the Kohkch. Their beliefs were that the Kohkch would be born from the nightmares of good people in order to balance everything out and teach them to face their fears. It was seen as a benevolent creature despite its role, as it would destroy nightmares when unneeded and regulate nightmares to not simply kill the host of terror. They were way off. The Kohkch actually takes possession of the bodies of the particularly weak minded colts and fillies so they can twist their bodies into its own and slaughter their family and revert so the child can see what they had done. The 'ultimate fear', I suppose. One would think it lost its purpose and forgot what was good and bed, but tales of the same creature from other legends seem to tell of the same thing. As I've witnessed with one hunt I was hired to help with let me learn that reverting the child was impossible, and until they slaughter their family or they all die, then they're stuck that way.
I heard from another occultist that one such creature had been kept in captivity for nigh two centuries before reverting and receiving the full blast of aging. Dead before they could even truly experience the world, but the occultist also told me that they won't give up and finding an exorcism for these things. They like to stab ponies with those tree-trunk sized bolts serving as legs, but these things like to get nerves stuck to them, so pulling them out means you're taking your nervous system out with it. They smear these strings all over the walls and floors, which they tend to do with the corpses as well, placing them in positions that would most incite curiosity, such as placing a mother at a kitchen sink with the water running and red running across the floor."
Twilight's eye twitched at the last line. It was both cliché and horrifying, especially if it was a young child who had to see that. That was the final straw. She had to take the journal to Princess Celestia. How would she even react to what's in it? Would she believe the tales? Would she reject them? Would something else happen? Twilight was extremely curious and extremely terrified at he same time.
Twilight and Spike were currently riding a train to Canterlot in the wee hours of the morning, and while Twilight really wanted to teleport to the castle, she just didn't have the strength for it yet, especially with how little she slept.
Spike let out a loud yawn in the cabin. "I don't understand why we need to see the princess just because of what's written in the journal. I'm sure she knows about all of these things."
"Are you sure, Spike?" Twilight inquired. "Because I never once heard her talking about these things when I was with her."
Spike rubbed his eyes. "Maybe because he didn't want you to panic? Or anypony else to panic? These monsters are pretty neat, but if the ponies learn about the Gigantis Vesuvius Vulcan, I'm sure there'd be--"
"Not THOSE monsters, Spike!" Twilight corrected him. "These ones. The occult section."
"Oh. OH!" Spike's eyes widened in realization. "Well, I guess she could have trouble knowing about these things."
"Just...Look at this!"
Twilight flipped the pages to an illustration showing stones jutting from the ocean in various fashions, but always ending in a single point at a height rivaling the biggest ship's mast. In its middle were several strokes of a pencil and eyes of several shapes and sizes within it. Strangely enough, this writing was different from the original writer's, and a note in the bottom corner was the writer saying that 'Spiral Tooth' should be happy that they shared this information when they weren't supposed to.
"The CrackerJacks.
A stone formation has been spotted across numerous portions of the oceans and seas, and every time, the sailors who have seen it either vanished from their drifting ships or would be found as mumbling wrecks on the fragments. They would always mention millions of eyes and tiny fingers tapping on the wood and glass despite most of these ships having no such transparent accommodations.
The occult branch have tried to send magic sentries around the stone formations, but there would be no reaction. A research fleet was dispatched to investigate further, but when they approached, the eyes reappeared. Funnily enough, barely anypony reacted to whatever effects were being thrust upon them and started studying the phenomenon. We are too accustomed to these effects, but this didn't last. From the stones came the wrecks of ships lost here forever, and the surviving researchers mentioned the boats having living faces with stretched eyes on the wood. They were, quite literally, skeletons of what they once were and were crewed by those who had disappeared from sea.
Sailors and pirates have become witness to the birth of a new sea legend called the CrackerJacks, and as with all sea legends, rumors abound and treasure hunters come flocking. We haven't been able to secure the area ourselves, but the rumors will become warnings, and tales will surround this phenomenon, preventing anyone from entering simply due to their own fears."
"Sea shanties, yarr?" Spike joked.
"This isn't a joke, Spike!" Twilight scolded. "This is serious! We've seen for our own eyes that these things are real!" she shook the journal in front of the little dragon. "How come nopony has even heard of them?!"
Twilight was literally trying to tear out her mane, and Spike huffed. "You've been repeating the same questions over and over. Maybe you should give a rest and let me read if you're so interested in that book?"
"I...! I...You're right. I'm going crazy again, aren't I?"
Spike answered only with his facial expressions. Twilight conceded and passed him the book, flipping to the next page. It showed a giant fishing hook with a second, smaller hook piercing through the inner curve of its form. All over it were barnacles, sea weed, and coral residue. It was embedded into sea rock, and fish were drawn swimming around it while it glowed brightly. The text was also written in the same hoofwriting as the previous entry.
"Aegiran: The union of two forgotten deities. Many ocean goers and seekers of adventure on the salty seas have heard of this item. While gods can vanish, their powers and artifacts rarely ever follow. The sailor shanties have said that it rivals the powers of Poseidon's trident , the Finger of Oceanus, or the boat of Susanoo. However, where it is told that each of those can control the oceans and reap the curses from those afflicted by the waters or prevent the dead from dominating the seas, Aegiran is the embodiment of the dangers. If one can get these hooks, then they can bring themselves safety and prosperity while dooming their enemies. Those who have found it, if they truly have, were never seen again.
Thus, the occult branch went on a hunt for information for several months, finding only shreds of information in books and witnesses. Sadly, it is with the help of Spiral Tooth-" Spike blinked slowly when he saw 'That's me!' written in the space between sentences. "- gave us the idea to use the sea shanties as the first clue, and it worked. We sent a scouting ship to a follow a trail of clues which led us to an inverted column of water with a stormcloud brewing within it. If the shanties are true, then the vortex, which spans several kilometers in diameter, hides a deformed island of sharp stones and jewels found on the sea floor. Unfortunately, another obstacle came into play: Yollom. Similar to the Kraken, this creature is gifted four giant eyes of yellow and possesses many tentacles to pull ships down, but it never rises from the ocean floor it's on, preferring to creepily glide across it and charge towards those trying to escape its grasp.
Attempts at sending our ocean savvy monster hunters served no purpose as all attacks phased through the creatures tentacles and bodies. It has also demonstrated the ability to break off pieces of its tentacles and infest the bodies of the living on the ships, mutating them into vicious octopus-like creatures hellbent on killing everyone around. When struck down, the tentacle grows out of its body, reattaches to the host, and the corrupted is absorbed into the body. Many times was it noted that the victims would cry out for help. Occultists present stated, with many grievances, that the souls of these poor sods were absorbed by the Yollom. We have found no solution to harming the main creature, and it has found it sporting to chase us until a certain distance. This hasn't stopped treasure hunters and pirates who followed us from trying to reach the vortex, though."
"Woah. An artifact that can control the oceans?" Spike whisper-shouted.
"And it can bring terrific harm to anypony that the user doesn't like," Twilight added with a whisper. "We would need to get that artifact to prevent anypony else from using it!"
"But...what's to say that we wouldn't misuse it either? And that thing has been protecting it so far. Why not just leave it there?"
Twilight ground her teeth. "There's always the possibility...but if it's something that belonged to gods, then it's been there for a very, very long time." Twilight let out a slow breath of air. "You're right. I should relax, but I will still tell Princess Celestia about this. Anything else you want to read?"
"Well..."
The little dragon reached another page showing the ocean bubbling with foam and wooden ships sailing on them. The sailors were drawn with various forms, but a common theme of them being emaciated with glowing eyes was shared amongst all of them. The boats were covered in moss and algae and dripping with sea water.
"Day Sclams. Named after the giant clams that would only surface during the day at an island that has since been sunk, these undead creatures appear on seafoam during the day, laying siege to anyone they see. They'll take the ship and kill the sailors aboard, tossing their bodies overboard. The ship itself will be engulfed in the foam and reappear the next day fully crewed by these emaciated creatures. Their provenance isn't known, but they appear around random locations in the world and attack anyone they see: Lovingly stealing ship and loot alike.
It makes matters worse when navies confront them, only to view their efforts fail because the ship and its crew reappear the next day in sea foam, or that the Sclams shift with the rays of the sun. Our labs have determined it to be an effect similar to light refraction in the water, but to an exaggerated extent. It can also be contributed to a mirage effect. The ship isn't actually where one expects and will somehow appear out of nowhere. Entire fleets of these vessels can appear out of nowhere, but one ship has stood out amongst most: A massive ship of yellow and white adorned with fanciful golden railings and giant lanterns sporting four decks of heavy cannons and its captain.
It's become a rather amusing thing to talk amongst the Occult Branch's colleagues. Considering that these occult creatures are ones that disappear during the night and only appear during the day. It's proof that not every 'scary' legend stays in the shadows. After all, is it not scarier what is in plain sight than what hides in the dark. You never see the one you can actually see. The best course of action to repel these creatures is to have something blessed by the night attached to the prow of a ship. It doesn't necessarily need to be the prow, but sailors have their tiresome superstitions.
During a violent exchange, we had captured several of the 'sailors' of the ships, but, when taking away sea water, they shrivel up and become little more than inert mummies. Applying sea water to them doesn't change anything, so we had to toss them back into the sea for further testing. It seems that they need the sea to 'work'. The exact functions are still unknown to us. Rumors have also directed us to some people selling items that the Day Sclams have looted in a bid to get newer weapons for their ships. It is something that comes a massive, incomprehensible oddity. Are they aware of technological developments?"
The train slowly came to a stop and whistled.
"Canterlot station!" a pony shouted. "All passengers for Canterlot station please disembark!"
