//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: White Curse 
// by Jumpitydude 
//------------------------------//

"Stairs are awesome! We don't have anything like 'em underwater 'cause you know," Silverstream turned herself into a sea pony as she spoke, "no way to climb 'em!

The rest of the students, realizing why Silver was so enthusiastic over something so common, let out a collective, "Ohhhh."

Silver turned back into a hippogriff. "This place has everything! If only my family back home could see it..."

"But it is a bit dreary, is it not?"

The six students dropped what they were doing, and looked around.

"Hm hm hm. Don't bother looking for me. I'm not exactly... present."

Smolder yelled at the sky, "Then how are you talking to us?"

"Psychic connection, dear Smolder. And before you ask that's how I know your name."

"How do you know my name?"

Gallus face-clawed.

"Regardless, I know a much better place for you to be. It can help you all stay together for the rest of your lives.

Sandbar looked up and spoke, "Where is it? If it's real."

"It's real. Just step back into the castle."

The six of them looked back at the castle. Silver, having just been on the stairs leading to the door, immediately opened them. Upon looking in, she gasped and shot through the door.

"Silver?" Ocellus rushed to the door as fast as she could, the others right behind them. "What did you see?"

They shoved the doors open and quickly realized that Silver wasn't there. Almost as quickly as they noticed the strange, glowing doorway.

"What is that?"

"The door to a new future."

The five remaining creatures shared nervous glances, then went into the doorway.

Just outside, the Pukwudgies were raiding their food, then sleeping on their pillows. And that's all the teachers found.

"There's the stuff Sandbar got," Twilight observed, "But..." She looked around. "... Where are they?"

"Excuse me." The Pukwudgies hissed at Fluttershy. "We're not here to take your food or beds, we just want to know something." She waited for the critters to calm down. "We just want to know if you've seen some creatures around here, including another pony."

The Pukwudgies looked at each other, then pointed at the castle.

"Oh, thank you! You can go back to what you were doing." Fluttershy flew up to the door, and looked inside, followed by her friends.

"Well, they were here," Starlight said in response to seeing the books on the stairs. "Question is if they still are."

They all split up, but their efforts were in vain. After all, they didn't know about the magical door that was there.





"OHMIGOSH YOU GUYS! STAIRS!"

The five students weren't sure what was more baffling; the immense beauty of the place they were in, or the fact Silver was too focused on the stairs to notice herself.

"Look at all of this."
"Who made this?"
"Is it really alright for us to stay here?"
"Why does a place like this exist?"

"STAIRS!"

"Hold on, Silver," Smolder flew up next to her excitable friend, "Have you checked what's up the stairs?"

"Umm... No?"

"Then let's check! Come on!" Smolder shot up to the upper floor, followed closely by Silver.

Gallus looked around a bit more, then realized something. "Do we have food here?"

"YAK FOUND FARM!"

The other three still there rushed over. Sure enough, there were apple trees, carrots, wheat... anything they could need or want to eat! The room was lit like the sun, with a timing device visible at the back that likely turned the lights off at night.

Sandbar couldn't believe his eyes. "This is nuts!"

"No! This is farm!" Yona said, oblivious to what he meant.

"Guys!" Smolder flew back down. "Bedrooms upstairs! Eight of them!"

Silver popped up from behind her. "Own bathrooms, own showers, walk-in closet! EEEEEE! It's like a luxury motel!"

"Hotel," Smolder corrected her.

"Silver," Ocellus called from the doorway she was looking through, "You like swimming, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Then you'll want to see this!"

Silver flew up by Ocellus, then nearly blew out their ears again. "A SWIMMING POOL!" She suddenly shot towards it, transforming right above it, squealing the whole time. "POOL! POOL! POOL! POOL! POOL!"

Sandbar smirked at Silver. "You have fun."

"Guys! Check this out!"

The creatures not swimming headed over to Gallus, who opened the door to...

"An archery range?"

Sandbar grew skeptical. "This is out of place."

"Watch this!" Gallus had picked up a bow, and drawn an arrow.

*Tak*

And nearly missed the target. Not the bullseye, the target itself.

Smolder laughed. "Let me see that."

Gallus handed the bow over, his pride clearly hurt. Smolder drew her own arrow, and let it fly.

*Tak*

It wasn't close to the bullseye. Better than Gallus' shot, but still not close.

"Did you have to aim for the same target?"

Smolder looked completely baffled. "... I was aiming for the one next to it."

"Wait a second," Gallus said incredulously, "Does that mean you missed? Worse than I did?"

Smolder rubbed the back of her head and blushed. "Ehehe..."

*TakTakTak*

They looked back at the targets and found two bullseyes and one that barely missed.

"So, I should explain." The other creatures turned to the one that made the amazing shot. "General Seaspray made sure I knew how to handle certain weapons in case of emergencies."

Ocellus blinked a couple of times. "Silver? You made that shot?"

Silver rubbed her head and chuckled, blushing the whole time.

"You know, there's still downstairs."

Gallus looked up. "Oh, you're still watching us."

Smolder shrugged. "Well, you heard him. Let's check out the basement."

Sandbar followed the others out of the room and noticed something. "There's still another room up here."

"We can check it out later," Smolder called without turning around.

Sandbar sighed, then followed behind them down the stairs headed... down.

"R-really?" Smolder was taken aback. "What the heck?"

The basement looked like an armory. Weapons, outfits for various creatures, and half-finished projects were scattered all over the room.

Smolder, Gallus, and Yona immediately started digging through the stuff, seemingly without purpose.

Ocellus hung back, looking around the room. "What is this place?"

Sandbar looked at his friends and noticed something. "Where did Silver go?"

The other four looked around for the hippogriff.

Smolder shrugged. "No idea."

None of them realized Silver went to a room not far away.

"Well," Gallus said, rubbing the back of his head, "She couldn't have gone far."

"Yeah! No worries!" Yona cheerfully said as she tried on a helmet that was clearly not large enough for her.

Sandbar, aware of what typically happens in horror stories, looked down the hallway that branched off.





"R-really? What the heck?"

Silver looked at the armory, curious if she could see anything she could recognize.

"Don't worry about that, Silver. I need your help."

Silver's ears perked up. "What do you-"

"That hallway."

Silver looked down the only hallway that she could see.

"The third room on the right holds what I need you for, young warrior."

Silver, somewhat unconsciously, moved down the hall, into the third room on the right. Inside was the oddest thing.

A mirror.

Nothing else, just that mirror.

"A mirror?"

"Touch it. That's all I ask of you."

"But..." Silver's eyes glazed over. "Why?"

No response.

"Why do I... n... need to... touch..."

As Silver spoke, her head started spinning. She slowly walked towards the mirror.

"We can't rely on others!"

"A... auntie?"

"They will only betray us when it's convenient for them!"

Tears welled up in Silver's eyes. "D-don't... say..."

As she stumbled forward, more words from her past filled her head.

"She's a complete idiot! She'll be killed the moment she leaves the water!"

Words of distrust.

"Don't let Silver know. She'll probably run off after that stupid myth."

Words of abandonment.

"I don't care if she's related to the queen. She's dumber than a box of rocks."

Words that broke her heart.

"Trust me. I can free you from your pain."

Silver reached towards the mirror. "P-please."





"Silver? Are you here?"

Sandbar checked the rooms as he crossed them. An infirmary, a bathroom, a room full of chemicals, another bathroom, a room full of furnaces...

Then he got to the third room on the right.

"SILVER!"

Hearing Sandbar shout, the others dropped the various armor and weapons they had (save Smoulder, who kept a tight grip on that small hammer), and ran towards him. Entering the room Sandbar and Silver were in, they saw something horrible.

Sandbar was pulling on Silver, who was pulling against the mirror.

And the shadowy thing wrapped around her front leg.

"Help!"

They didn't need to be told twice. Ocellus turned into a Bugbear, and wrapped her claws around Silver's stomach and pulled. Gallus and Yona grabbed the shadow covered leg and tried to yank it free. Smolder dropped the hammer she had, grabbed Silver's other claw, and pulled.

Tears streamed down Silver's cheeks. "Help me!"

"We're not letting this thing- urk- get you!" Gallus slashed at the shadow, only for it to move away enough to bare some of Silver's coat, then immediately cover it back up.

Smolder looked at the mirror, then at the shadow, then back at the mirror, then finally at the hammer sitting by her feet.

"The more yak pull... Rrrgh... the more it... pull back!"

"Just hold on, Yona!" Ocellus dug her stinger into the ground as far as she could. "We'll get her free! Just keep-"

"Smolder!" Sandbar yelled, "What are you doing?"

The others looked at Smolder, who propped herself between Silver and the mirror. "I'm not... letting this thing... take her... without me!"

Silver could only stare at her friend. "S-Smolder?"

Smolder smirked. "Besides... from here... I can do... THIS!"

She whipped her tail, wrapped around the hammer, towards the mirror. The moment the hammer made contact, the mirror shattered. A horrible, unnatural scream echoed through the room as the shadows finally let Silver go. The six friends tumbled away from the mirror.

Smolder quickly crawled up to Silver. "Are you okay?"

Silver quickly wrapped Smolder in a tight hug. "Thank you! Thank you all so much! I... I..."

Their relief was short lived.

There was a sudden explosion from the mirror, knocking them all further from it and each other. When they all looked up, there was a large, oozy mass of shadows. A pair of glowing dots that seemed to be eyes stared at them until the mass shot through the ceiling without breaking it.

Silence.

Silver was the first to speak. "I'm sorry."

"We really screwed up." Sandbar started helping his friends up.

Smolder stared at the broken mirror. "I guess breaking it was a terrible idea, huh?"

Gallus patted Smolder on the shoulder. "You didn't know. None of us did."

Ocellus looked around the room. "We should probably leave here."

"Yak don't want friends to get possessed."

They all made their way back to the doorway they came through. Unaware of the figure watching them.





"What do ya mean they don't know anything else?"

Fluttershy cringed. "Th-they said they last saw the students enter the castle, but none of them saw the students leave."

Rainbow flew up next to Fluttershy. "What if they're lying to you?"

"Th-they don't have a reason to! They don't eat meat."

Rarity looked back at the door. "But we checked the entire castle. They weren't anywhere in there."

Pinkie decided to handle the situation in a way only Pinkie could. "They probably found a secret room to have a super duper exciting party in without getting bothered!" The other ponies stared at Pinkie. "What?"

Twilight sighed. "We checked all the secret rooms we know about, and there aren't many we don't. If we don't find them, the other leaders will start a war!"

"War?"

The teachers turned back to the castle, where the students were standing in the doorway all of a sudden.

Rainbow jumped on the obvious question, "Where were you guys?"

Smolder rushed forward. "What was that about a war?"

Silver flew up next to Smolder. "Are we really that important?"

Starlight trotted up to them. "Apparently. They all want you guys to come back, or they'll go to war!"

Ocellus was incredulous. "E-even Thorax?"

"... Actually, no. He's not threatening war, but he may not get a say."

"Unless we get back!" Gallus turned towards his friends, "Come on! Let's go!"

All of them started to run or fly back. Except for Applejack.

"So, any chance I could-"

The Pukwudgie hissed at her.

"Never mind! Enjoy!"

She then ran to catch up to the others.