Dawn of
THE FIRST DAY
-72 Hours Remain-

Clefairy was looking quite tired and irritated as the duo appeared in front of the Clock Tower once more. "Okay. The last place we have to go is the canyon to the east. Just one more of these, and then I can finally stop Nuzleaf, ditch your sorry ass and leave Termina for the rest of my life. So just don't talk to me. In fact, don't even look in my general direction."

Pichu wasn't paying attention to her. "All right you flea-bitten scum from hell, this time I'm really gonna school you!" he shouted at the Lillipup, throwing on the Dewott Mask and transforming. "If I couldn't beat you as Pignite, then this has to work! EEEEYAAAAAHHHHH!"

Clefairy sighed wearily and sat back to watch the fight unfold, none too surprised when a matter of moments later Pichu was sent flying through the air with a high-pitched scream, crashing through a nearby window. From inside there came a loud shriek and the sound of Pichu getting bitch slapped in the face, and momentarily an Aromatisse threw the door open and hurled him back onto the street.

"Okay. Bad news, I still haven't figured out how to beat the dog. Good news, I saw a naked chick."

"Pokémon generally don't wear clothes as a rule, you know."

"Quit ruining the moment."

Pichu dragged himself over to the Curiosity Shop to buy himself a Super Potion for the injuries he got from the Lillipup, and after that he and Clefairy left Clock Town through the eastern gate and walked through Termina Field in the direction of Ikana Canyon, the one region they had yet to explore.

"Gods help me, I can already tell this is going to be the worst place we've been to yet," Clefairy groaned as they walked through the entrance to the canyon, ignoring the explosions surrounding her as Pichu ran away screaming from the Egg Bomb-holding Pachirisus chasing after him. "Ikana was a horrible bloodthirsty nation, and years ago its kingdom fell in a terrible war. People say only the dead live there now, although that's a huge oxymoron."

"So what, they're ghosts? Zombies? Mummies? Zombie Ghost Mummies? Dude, that'd be a killer summer blockbuster!" said Pichu. "Look, if you're trying to scare me, it's not gonna work. Just so long as they don't latch onto me and try to rape me, I can handle it."

"…Should I even ask what you did in your free time back in Hyrule?"

"Pardon me sir, but you're standing on my foot," came a disembodied voice inches away from Pichu.

"NOOOOOO! DON'T RAPE ME!" Pichu screamed, reflexively leaping away from the voice and scrambling across the ground. He grabbed the Silph Scope and looked through it to see the owner of the voice, only to find an invisible Sentret soldier lying on the ground.

"Oh, my. Can you actually see me?" he said, looking quite surprised. "You're the first person who's ever spoken to me."

"I'm the first person who's ever spoken to you? In your entire life?" Pichu asked dumbly.

"Yes… my parents were negligent at best. Oh, my father acted like he cared, but we all knew he was too proud to ever show it… plus he hit the bottle really hard at night. And the teacher never called on me in class. And when I asked Suzie to prom that one time, she just – "

"I'm about two seconds away from choking you with your own tail. Please just get to the point," Clefairy griped.

"The point is, I've been lying here on the ground injured for many years, waving my arms around and asking for help, but everyone ignores me and passes me by," said the Sentret. "It's been a hard existence. I've subsisted on whatever small plants and insects are nearby, though it hasn't been enough to stop my stomach from partially digesting itself. Plus my muscles are all in advanced stages of atrophy from just lying here for years. Plus you're the first ones to ever talk to me, so I really don't know how to engage in normal conversation. Monkey fish balls."

"…For once I am literally speechless. Pichu, you deal with this guy. This is beyond my skill."

"Uhh, well I do have this Super Potion. Maybe that'll help you get better," said Pichu, pulling out the bottle.

Clefairy did a double take. "You were supposed to use that potion on yourself. Remember? Because the dog threw you through a window?"

"…Oh, crap. I thought I forgot something."

The Sentret had already grabbed the Super Potion and sprayed in on himself. "That feels better, I guess. Marginally. Here, you can have this as thanks," he said, handing Pichu the Stone Mask. "Wearing that will make you unnoticeable, so you can walk by others without them seeing you."

"How does walking around with a rock for a head make him less conspicuous?" Clefairy demanded.

"I guess now I'd better work on making myself stand out more," the Sentret decided, standing up. Unfortunately the Super Potion seemed to have caused his invisibility to wear off, as he was instantly bombarded by a pack of rabid Pachirisus that threw themselves at him and engulfed him in a wave of explosions.

"I have no idea what just happened here. I didn't think it was possible, but that guy was actually sadder and more pathetic than you," said Clefairy. "We are truly in a cursed land. This can only be an omen for the horrible things that await us."

––

Walking through a narrow pass, Pichu and Clefairy arrived at Ikana Graveyard, a rather desolate-looking place filled with faded tombstones.

"Well, I know when I want to start my day out on a good note, visiting a place full of dead people is what immediately springs to mind," Clefairy griped.

"Aw, cheer up, C-Money. Graveyards are fun!" said Pichu. "Graves are always full of treasures and other stuff you can steal! Or if you have scruples about respecting the dead or something lame like that, you could always just read all the cool epithets about how they died. That's sure to be interesting."

Clefairy glanced at the nearest gravestone, which read "Here Lies Bob: A Reminder to Always Spray for Roaches". "Your idea's not working, Pichu."

"I say there, you two. Have you come to pay your respects to the dead?" asked the grave keeper, a Slaking whom Pichu instantly recognized from his counterpart back in Hyrule. "I am Dampé the grave keeper, who watches over this graveyard."

"Nooo, I'm pretty sure your name was Francesca," Pichu mused. "Anyway big guy, you must know all about this place. If I theoretically wanted to loot all the graves, where would I start?"

"I wouldn't recommend that, child. These graves all belong to members of the Royal Family of Ikana Castle, and it's said that their ghosts still appear at night to haunt these lands."

"Yeah, that's great. But it's not night right now, now is it?"

Clefairy quickly lost her patience and dragged Pichu away, but as they approached the back of the graveyard they came across something very strange. A large stone wall had been erected, and lying underneath it was an enormous sixty-foot-tall skeleton of a Marowak.

"Hey, Monique! You forgot to bury this one!" Pichu shouted over at Dampé.

"Pichu, look what it says here," said Clefairy, studying a plaque on the wall. "'Ye who awaken me, battle me. Then I shall extinguish the furious flame.' Sounds like you're supposed to wake this guy up. I bet that Sonata of Awakening of yours would be perfect for this."

"Huh?" Pichu looked up from where he had been holding a lighter up to the skeleton's toe. "Oh yeah, I guess that woulda worked too."

"YEOOOWWW!" the Marowak screamed in pain as it leapt to its feet and smashed through the wall. "STUPID &*?#ING IDIOT SON OF A &*?#ING SMELLY INBRED – oh, forget it." It suddenly turned around and began stomping off down a path behind the wall.

"Hey, where does this guy think he's going?" Pichu demanded, immediately chasing after the giant skeleton, though frequently a wall of fire would spring up in his way and he would have to defeat a duo of undead Cubones that clawed their way out of the ground in order to get it to lower.

"What the hell is your problem? STOP RUNNING AWAY, COWARD!" Pichu shouted as he finally caught up with the Marowak and proceeded to start slicing it in the leg. In response, the Marowak let out a loud roar and leapt into the air, squashing Pichu flat.

"ACK! STOP ATTACKING ME, COWARD!"

"Well, I can tell this is going to be beautiful," Clefairy sighed as Pichu started running around in circles and screaming, trying to avoid the Marowak swinging its Bone Club at him. Deciding not to wait for him to get killed, she floated up and Meteor Mashed the Marowak right in the skull, causing it to reel back and cry out in pain, collapsing to the ground.

"Wait! It is my loss! Sheathe your weapon!"

Clefairy looked at the Marowak, then down at her fist. "That's going to be difficult."

Struggling to its feet, the Marowak walked back down to the ground below the bridge where Pichu and Clefairy were standing so they could look it in the eye… err, eye socket. "Forgive my earlier aggression. I am Captain Marowak. I commanded the army of Ikana Kingdom atop the hill."

"Yeah, how'd that work out for you?" asked Pichu, having noticed all the dead people everywhere.

"Not too well, honestly… years ago, those accursed ninjas invaded our kingdom and defeated us on our own soil. So great was my shame that I was forced to commit ritualistic suicide, after committing ritualistic homicide on my soldiers."

"…I don't think that's a real thing," said Clefairy.

"Since then, I have waited for someone to awaken my soul and defeat me in battle," said Marowak. "As you have proven your strength, I would ask that you take my soul and convey my words to my men, who, even in death, remain loyal to me. Tell them the war has ended."

He suddenly stood in a salute and, much to the duo's shock, turned to Clefairy. "Captain, ma'am! May I take leave, ma'am?"

"…Wait, what? You're leaving me in charge?" asked Clefairy. "Oh yeah, I guess I was the one who defeated you, huh? Nice."

"WHAT?! NO!" screamed Pichu, collapsing to the ground and throwing a tantrum. "DON'T GIVE IT TO HER! I WANT TO CONTROL THE SKELETON ARMY! ME ME ME!"

"Don't listen to him. Trust me, you'll be sparing this country from a horrible fate. Well, an additional horrible fate," Clefairy said to Marowak.

"…Err, right. Anyway, I'll be off now," said the captain, collapsing back into an inanimate pile of bones. As he did, the ring of flames surrounding a chest sitting on the ledge opposite them lowered and vanished.

"Woah, does this mean the new mask is mine?" said Clefairy as she floated over to the chest and pulled out the Captain's Hat, a facsimile of Marowak's skull. "Woah! Check it out! All the legions of the undead will follow me when I wear this thing! This is the coolest mask ever!"

Pichu was curled up on the ground and sobbing. "I was so close… so close…"

––

Night of the First Day
-60 Hours Remain-

Returning to the graveyard as night fell, Pichu and Clefairy were surprised to find Dampé was nowhere to be seen, and in his place, an entire horde of Cubones was prowling around.

"Woah… that grave keeper guy was right. Their skeletons do come out at night," said Clefairy.

"Noooo, he said their ghosts, not their skeletons. Geez, C-Money, pay attention."

A group of Cubones who'd been marching around a gravestone noticed Clefairy wearing her new mask. "Huh? Aah! Captain, sir! Excuse us, sir… err, ma'am. Wait, have you always been a woman?"

"Yes. Clearly you scrubs haven't been paying enough attention. That's forty lashes for all of you."

"…Anyway, we've been guarding these graves closely as per your orders, ma'am. We've been awaiting your next order."

"You know what I'd do if I commanded an army of the undead?" Pichu said hopefully.

"Kill yourself within three seconds from your own stupidity. Luckily, I'm not you," said Clefairy. "Look, my puerile sidekick here isn't going to shut up until he gets to go grave robbing, so if you guys could do me a favor and open the grave up, that'd be swell."

"Oh… yes, ma'am! Right away, ma'am!" said one of the Cubones, and he and the others immediately got to work bashing the gravestone with their Bone Clubs until it crumbled away, leaving a wide hole in the ground.

"There. Happy birthday," said Clefairy.

"Oh my gosh! It's my birthday? YAAAAAAAAY!" Pichu cheered, running over to the hole and falling straight in. Clefairy reluctantly followed after him, and the two of them found themselves in an enormous, cavernous underground area that was probably as big as the graveyard itself. There were a bunch of doorways leading off to various places, but only one was currently reachable to them.

"Well, this is terrific," Clefairy muttered as they looked up and saw dozens of Zubats flying around the room they had just entered.

"Aw, this is no problem for me!" Pichu boasted, generating a dome of Sacred Fire that expanded out and killed all the Zubats in the room, as well as lighting the torches and causing the portcullis on the exit door to open up.

"See? Why the hell do you need a skeleton army when you can just set things on fire whenever you feel like it?" Clefairy demanded, trying to ignore all the bat corpses dropping to the floor.

"You're right, I guess I do feel a little better about myself now."

Walking through the door, they found themselves in a surprisingly colorful room with what looked suspiciously like a stage curtain at the very back. However, Pichu was more concerned by what was waiting for them in the center.

"Oh, nooooooo," he groaned, looking at the large Golurk standing motionlessly and gripping a huge axe. "Not one of these! I have so many bad memories of fighting these things and getting my stomach sliced open!"

Clefairy looked him up and down strangely. "Really? You look fine now."

"Yeah, life's weird like that. Anyway, I came down here to loot and steal things, not suffer actual consequences for my immoral actions. I'm outta here."

He didn't get very far before Clefairy grabbed him and hurled him at the Golurk, causing it to immediately spring to life with a mighty roar.

"WHY THE &*?# DID YOU DO THAT?!"

"Sorry, it's the mask. I'm going mad with power. I think I'm starting to hear voices."

Pichu could only scream and frantically run away as the Golurk slowly advanced on him, swinging its axe back and forth as it went. Unfortunately this room had no convenient walls or pillars to hide behind, meaning he was finally forced to do the non-cowardly thing and actually attack it.

"Okay, fine! You're gonna be like that? You just messed with a guy with an inordinately high survival instinct!" Pichu snapped at the Golurk, leaping into the air and hacking at the oversized foe with his Shiny Leaf. The walking suit of armor bellowed in pain as Pichu sliced and diced it until some of its armor came falling off and clattering onto the ground.

"Haha! Now that's what I call – "

Without its extra armor weighing it down, the Golurk came charging at Pichu with the speed of a footballer, body checking him and sending him crashing into the wall.

"WHY HAVE YOU BETRAYED ME, SURVIVAL INSTINCT?!"

"Hang on… that thing's a Ghost-type, isn't it? I know what to do," Clefairy said to herself as Pichu attempted to climb up the wall to get away from the rampaging Golurk. Predictably, it wasn't working. Within seconds it had thrown him to the ground and repeatedly bashed him over the head with its axe.

Pichu dazedly lifted his head up. "I like my sitar, I like my sitar, I play my sitar, sitar, wherever I go..."

No longer sensing Pichu as a challenge, the Golurk turned its attention toward Clefairy and stalked over to her. "Oh please," Clefairy scoffed, putting on the Captain's Hat. "Don't you know who I am? I'm the captain of all you ghosty types. I order you to kill yourself."

The Golurk paused, seemed to consider this for a moment, then shrugged and axed itself in the head, immediately collapsing to the ground as it was consumed in a purple fire.

"Yessss, I'm definitely starting to see the benefits of this," Clefairy said evilly.

"So much power… I could have had everything…" Pichu moaned.

To the duo's surprise, the curtain at the back of the room suddenly rose up, revealing a large stone slab with words engraved in it. The air around it began to grow dark, and a Duskull appeared.

"Ho there, boy. Are you the one who freed my soul just now?" asked the ghost.

"Yep, that was… wait, no, that was Clefairy again. Entei damn it! I'm zero for two!"

"Well, whatever. The point is, I am one of the composer brothers who served the Ikana Royal Family. I am known as Flat," said the Duskull. "The songs connected to the Royal Family that remain here were all composed by my brother and I."

"'By my brother and me'," Pichu corrected. Flat thoughtlessly used Hex on him without turning to look at him, leaving Pichu choking on the ground and turning blue in the face before he continued.

"Unfortunately, I was locked into this tomb by my brother Sharp. He sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his unholy Guitar Hero skills and betrayed me. You who do not fear the dead, I must ask you to do this for me… learn well the song that is inscribed behind me."

"Oh, fine."

"And if you ever meet my brother, I'd like you to inform him… the thousand years of raindrops summoned by my song are my tears. The thunder that strikes the earth is my anger!" said Flat. "Oh yes, and the billowing black storm clouds represent my indigestion. And the harsh blowing winds are my impotence."

"Stick to music, not lyrics," Clefairy said irritably as Flat vanished from sight.

Pichu walked up to the stone slab and examined the song that was inscribed on it. "Heyyyy… wait a minute. This is the Song of Storms! I already know this song!"

"Hey, yeah. That's the song you keep playing when you're supposed to be playing another song and screw everything up."

"That's right! Check it out!" said Pichu, whipping out his Pokéflute and attempting to play the Song of Storms, but instead playing the Song of Soaring.

––

Pichu and Clefairy found themselves warped to Snowhead, buried up to their necks in snow as wind blew in their faces. "Wait, I think I did that wrong," said Pichu.

––

A/N: Oooh, I'm very much looking forward to the rest of this part. Particularly Ikana Castle.