//------------------------------// // Chapter 27 // Story: White Curse // by Jumpitydude //------------------------------// Luna looked out across Canterlot from her tower. The guards were practically useless in destroying the shadowy figures, only able to make them back off for a moment. Many of the civilians had managed to escape Canterlot or flee into the castle, which had a barrier of light set up around it. Whatever was attacking them, the light kept it away. Even worse, she had witnessed some of her subjects get captured by the darkness. When they emerged, they looked like a pure black mishmash of parts from various creatures. A couple even looked like smaller versions of Discord, but it wasn't likely he was involved with this. She felt a surge of magic from Celestia's room. She rushed out of her room, down some stairs, and through a few hallways to get there. "Sister! There's something-" As soon as she could see in the room, she found seven creatures, none of them Alicorns. "You're not Celestia." "You sure? She looks like Celestia in the right light." The Dragon pointed at the Hippogriff with her thumb. The eldest of the seven, a Kirin, stepped forward. Luna didn't have to look twice to recognize him. "Goldie." "Hey, Lulu." A moment later, they rushed to each other, kissing as soon as they could and hugging immediately after. All six students smiled at the sight, with Ocellus nuzzling Sandbar and Gallus putting his wing over Silver. After a bit, the kiss broke off. "Oh, Luna." Gold Strike's smile vanished. "I wish we could reunite under better circumstances." "Agreed." They broke off their hug and Luna led the team through the door. "Am I wrong in guessing that the thing attacking Canterlot is the thing you were facing off against long ago?" "It is. And I know you want to fight out there, but doing so could risk Nightmare Moon returning." Gold Strike looked over his shoulder. "And before any of you ask, it's due to the unusual circumstance that it may be able to corrupt someone twice." Ocellus tilted her head. "Something I did want to ask about. How sure are you of what you're saying? Because you said, "could," and, "may," as if you weren't certain." Gold Strike sighed. "Well, for one thing, this isn't exactly a regular occurrence. It's not like Erebus pops free from the seal and attacks innocents on a regular basis. The main reason I'm not certain is because I wasn't ever the team genius. That was Castor. So all I have to go off of is what he told me. I'm just glad we had a good relationship, otherwise-" *Thud!* They all looked at Sandbar, who righted a vase before it fell. "I'm fine. I don't have time to take a break anyway." Gold Strike put a hoof on Sandbar's shoulder. "Are you sure? We can't have any liabilities in this situation." Sandbar nodded. "I'm fine." "... If you say so." Luna cleared her throat. "I feel like it's important to note that a number of civilians are still trapped in Canterlot. Are they gone?" Gallus, in a move that wasn't bold only to him, pat the princess of the moon on the head. "I doubt it. It's probably like what happened to our teachers." Gold Strike nodded. "Its corruption is still its corruption. Any harm that may come to the corrupted civilians will transfer to Erebus itself. The civilians will be fine regardless of what we do to them." "Alright. So what's our plan?" "We have to hold off until two creatures arrive: Our eighth member, and Erebus itself. Until they arrive, we need to be out there fighting." Silver raised a claw. "And we're not waiting in here why?" "The barrier should hold perfectly fine, but that doesn't mean Erebus can't trap us in here. If the darkness creates a barrier around the light one, then we're trapped." Ocellus put her hoof to her chin. "And at that point, all we can wait on is our demise." Gold Strike put his hoof on Luna's mouth. "And no, dropping the barrier if that happens is not an option. That would give it access to the ponies in here, adding fuel to the fire." Ocellus looked at Sandbar, who was still wobbling a bit. "But what if we pass out on the battlefield." "That won't happen. I didn't want to mention this, but-" A monstrous roar came from somewhere outside the castle. "We don't have time to talk about this! We need to go!" Gold Strike started running, followed by everyone except Ocellus. "B-but-" Gallus grabbed Ocellus. "Not now!" Ocellus yelped as she was whisked off. Gold Strike looked back as he ran. "Once we're through the barrier, split up! We can all go all out without risking each other's safety! Those things won't have an elemental advantage in this state!" Yona glanced at Sandbar, who wasn't as wobbly as he was earlier. "What if we need help?" "We have telepathy!" As soon as they reached the edge of the barrier, Luna skidded to a stop and watched the others leap or fly off in different directions. "ALL UNITS! RETURN TO THE CASTLE!" Gallus, did you- That's the Royal Canterlot Voice. "I REPEAT! RETURN TO THE CASTLE NOW!" Gallus chucked Ocellus off somewhere that none of the others went. As soon as she landed, Ocellus rolled into a wooden ball that started sprouting limbs, soon becoming a wooden golem, swiping at the comparatively small creatures of darkness below her. Gold Strike, what were you about to mention? That thing you didn't want to? How to put this... You've heard of the phrase, "Fighting fire with fire," right? Ocellus launched a number of branches off towards the creatures. Yeah, but what does that... Wait! Are you saying that our powers come from Erebus? Yes and no. A long time ago, there was no way for us to face this thing at all. Eventually, someone did what Rainbow Dash did, intentionally getting themself corrupted, just with more success. They refined the power they were given and turned it into- Ahh! Gallus rang his bell to clear out the street he was on. Ahh? That's not a creative name. Gallus threw the bell behind him, bouncing it off of several creature's faces before it arced into the air and landed back in his claw. Sorry, that thing caught me off guard. Anyway, one major benefit that you probably didn't ever notice is that we can absorb Erebus' power as well. Sandbar blew away a number of the creatures. So it's not friendship that makes us stronger? Sandbar grabbed the creature right behind him, spun it around, and threw it into two other nearby creatures. He followed it up by teleporting near several other creatures and kicking them in rapid succession. Friendship does make us stronger, just don't expect fights against things that aren't influenced by Erebus to go as well as your recent fights. Erebus' influence makes us stronger and our opponents weaker. Smolder created at least eight fire pillars, three of which missed their targets. That's good to know. Anything else we need to know about this? She pulled all of the fire in towards herself into a ball, then shot it off in two large waves down both ways of the road she was on. The only other major thing would be that our power doesn't make us immune to corruption. In fact, we become more dangerous when corrupted. Silver sat on a building next to an inundated street. It doesn't make us more likely to be corrupted, right? Hey, stop climbing out of the water! She created a claw of water and smacked the escaping creature back into the water. We're just as likely to be corrupted, but we have our own power stacked on EREBUS'! NO! YOU GET BACK! Sandbar looked in Gold Strike's general direction. Uh, Gold Strike? It's fine! It's perfectly FINE! I'VE GOT THIS UNDER CONTROL! Silver scratched her cheek. That doesn't sound fine. She casually knocked another of the creatures back into the water. IT'S ALL GOOD! IT'S ALL GOOD! I got this. Yona launched herself towards Gold Strike, creating a shockwave as she landed. Oh! Oh, thank you, Yona! Yona looked around. What freaked you out? None of these creatures seem different from the other ones we've been fighting. Well, it's just that there's so MANY OF THEM! Yona whipped around and shot a rock at each of the creatures approaching Gold Strike. That was only three! Gallus chucked a bunch of small bells he found in a department store, creating a bunch of small blasts. You don't do well with crowd control at all, do you? Ehehehe... Sandbar sighed. We'll have to work on that. And with you, of all creatures? I'm sorry! I've never had to deal with more than ONE AT A TIME! Yona smashed the creatures shambling towards Gold Strike. At least try to fight them! Silver swept the street she was near clean of her water and moved to the next one. Ah, Gold Strike. Supreme hero, greatest of his kind. And he can't handle a couple of critters. STOP TEASING ME! Smolder saw something that made her fly into the air. Silver! You dolt! You sent your water my way! Oh, uh... Sorry? Ocellus was curled up in her wooden ball, laughing so much she cried. We're all such children. Sandbar knocked a few more creatures to the ground. Are you alright, Ocellus? He didn't even see the creature behind him until a vine knocked it into the air so the wooden golem could knock it away. I should be asking you that. Gallus used his bell to clear out the area around him as he stared at the sky. Am I going crazy? Or are there faces in the sky? The rest of them looked up. Sure enough, there were a number of faces shown in the dark clouds above them. Soon after, a claw, a paw, a hoof, and a hand came out of the clouds and brought the faces down with them in a dark mass. Then a mouth separate from any of the faces opened and let out a roar. EREBUS! Silver started moving towards it. How long will we last against that thing? Minutes at most! Ocellus leaped out of her golem, letting it fall apart. What are the odds of the seal succeeding without our last member? Uh... It needs all eight to be stable, but I don't know if we can make it work without all eight. Sandbar stared Erebus down. Is it worth a shot? Gold Strike moved as close to Erebus as he dared. "... We're dead if it fails, but we're dead if we don't try!" With that, Gold Strike shot a bolt of electricity at the abomination. This was quickly followed by a pillar of earth, several vines, a stream of water, a blast of fire, visible ripples, and a small tornado. The seven elements created an orb around the massive monster. With another roar, Erebus started pushing back. The team of seven started feeling a ton of pressure on their bodies, and a few of them were struggling to stay standing. Sandbar looked right at the beast. Come on! His vision started going cloudy. We're so... close... Far behind Erebus, a horn pointed at it and shot out a beam of ice. Once it made contact, Erebus let out another roar, and the others were able to right themselves. Moments later, it let out one last cry before disappearing into a small ball of swirling colors. Gold Strike smiled. "It's over. We're done." The orb shot into the sky. "Hey!" Smolder tried to chase it but only succeeded in stumbling forward. "It's alright." Gold Strike sat down. "It's going where it should be." "Sandbar!" Ocellus rushed over to the colt, who had fallen to the ground. Gold Strike looked at the two lovers. "He should have been out after that crazy stunt he pulled against the princesses, but our power sensed that he needed to stay awake and kept him up. Now that the threat has passed, he can finally rest. He should survive." Ocellus nuzzled the sleeping colt and laid down next to him. Gold Strike looked across his teammates, who were weary at best, then looked at the two mares that were approaching. "Wait, you? You're the eighth member?" One of the mares, the last member of the team, prodded her horn, then she smiled at the Kirin. The Kirin shook his head around and blinked a couple of times. "Sorry, aren't you a terrorist?" Twilight laughed. "That was a while back. It's been quite a while since Tempest has turned over a new leaf." "Tempest Shadow." Silver didn't turn her head at all. "Servant of the Storm King. That's where I heard your name before." The Hippogriff laid down and smiled. "I'm sure we'll be good friends." Gold Strike tilted his head. "So you're firmly on our side?" Tempest nodded, opened her mouth... and promptly rolled onto her back. Twilight flared her wings. "Tempest?" The princess started looking over the suddenly unconscious unicorn. "Wake up! What happened? Tempest? Are you alright? Please answer me!" "Oh right. That's a thing." Twilight blinked twice before looking at the yellow creature. "Eh?" Gold Strike smiled with half of his mouth as he tightened the outside of his brows. "I kinda maybe forgot about the adapting period." "Adapting period?" Twilight stared at him blankly for a second, then raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that you need to let your powers adapt to your bodies before using them? Why didn't you say this earlier?" The Kirin rubbed the back of his head. "I forgot. It's kind of a good thing I forgot because we would have been dead if she hadn't used her power when she did." The alicorn's eyelids dropped halfway down her eyes. "And how long will she be out?" "How long has she had this power?" "About half an hour." "Then a day and a half." Twilight bared her teeth. "Really?" Gallus rolled his eyes. "Oh, no. She's sleeping for a day and a half. That's so much worse than being dead, clearly." Twilight made a string of noises with her mouth for a bit, then let out an exaggerated sigh. "Fine. You're right." Silence. None of them were sure who laughed first, but they all started laughing after a few seconds, aside from the two unconscious ponies.