“I have something for you.”
Those words hung in the air as the storm raged on. The lightning flashed once more, giving Arcanica a brief glimpse of the stallion. Dark brown coat underneath a large black raincoat. The object on his back was some manner of box from the quick glimpse she got of it. After a minute of silence, he seemed tired of waiting for an invitation and let himself into the store, kicking the door shut behind him. Stopping at the counter, he heaved the box off himself with a loud thud as it hit the wooden surface.
The sound snapped Arcanica back to her senses as she glared at the mystery stallion. “Look buddy, if you’re one of my fans, the proper thing to do is either send a letter or show up when I’m open. Not show up in the middle of a storm to-”
“I’m not a fan of yours, Hoofcraft,” he snapped. She took notice of the stallion having an accent, but didn’t get to place it before he kept talking. “I’m here because I found something that an… associate, or rather… a rival, of mine believes you should see.”
Rolling her eyes and blowing an annoyed snort through her nostrils, Arcanica’s horn briefly lit up as she ignited the lantern on her countertop. To her annoyance, the stallion made no move to remove his raincoat, more of a cloak now that she got a good look at it, and instead shoved the box closer to her along the countertop while neve removing his fetlock from the box, as if he were holding it shut.
“Two weeks ago, I was working one of my usual jobs in the jungles of Eastern Equestria,” he began without prompting, as Arcanica studied the box. It was rather ornately designed, being primarily made of a gold-looking metal. The sides of the box were concave and filled with swirling patterns of the same metal and a dark green stone she couldn’t quite place. Small rubies were inset in points created by the green stone, and the negative space was pitch black.
“You see, I’m a treasure hunter of sorts, and I received word that there was once a cult in this particular jungle known for their worshipping of the apocalypse and their habit of seizing valuable artifacts.”
“And so, you decided to see if anything remained of that cult to make an easy bit,” she cut in, predicting where this story was going.
He chuckled. “You’re just as quick to catch on as my associate. But yes, that was my intention in seeking out that forest.” He looked down at the ground. “My associate, an archaeologist, had a similar idea to me, and we both made our way there. We each had heard of a particular relic that this cult had cherished. A tome of ancient magics, said to be powerful enough that anypony could use them, regardless of race or talent.”
The author, listening to this, let out a low whistle at his description of the artifact. If something like that truly existed, who knows what chaos could be unleashed on Equestria…
“As we do in these hunts, I managed to find the artifact before she could, and planned to seize it. Which is when I found something most unsettling.” Her eyes widened as he raised his head, revealing a grey beard when part of his hood slipped. Don’t tell me… “That cult I mentioned didn’t die out. It was still there, waiting for somepony to try and steal that damn book of theirs.” He shuddered, she assumed from the memory of the cult.
“She and I were both captured, and they planned to use us as offerings to whatever sick and twisted god they worshipped. Fortunately, she managed to get us out, but that cult…”
A heavy silence hung between them, only being interrupted by the storm howling outside. “What happened?” she demanded. “What’s in this box? And how does this all connect to me?!”
“Those damn cultists were so caught up in their abhorrent rituals, they never noticed we had escaped. They were more focused on offering my assistants to pay us much mind.” She put a hoof to her mouth at the thought of somepony deliberately killing another like that. Writing about such a thing was one thing. Hearing about it actually happening though…
“Four stallions later, and they finished some ritual to try summoning their god to this world. They called it ‘The Matron of Scales’, and wanted it to descend upon them, granting them-”
“Lives in the form of her chosen avatar…” He turned to stare at Arcanica as she stood there, a look of disbelief on her face. “That shouldn’t be possible though…” She started pacing, her shadow jumping in the flickering lantern light and the occasional lightning flash. “You have to be messing with me! This can’t be true! I only wrote about that Being about a year ago, there’s no way such a cult could exist, especially when I made up all of that up!”
“I assure you, Hoofcraft. This cult was very much real, and they were trying to summon the Being they called Vehstrak.” Her blood chilled hearing the name of the Eldritch snake goddess that drove one of her books. He even got the pronunciation and emphasis right, something most ponies never did. That was one of the things she never published in any of the letters she would write in place of interviews. She took another look at the box, nervous about what she would find inside of it, and realized the significance of the green stone being placed in swirling patterns. They were snakes.
“What happened to them?” Her question was hesitant. Part of her didn’t want to know what came next, but she knew it was important. “What happened next?”
Silence greeted her before he decided to continue his tale. “I’m not sure on the specifics, but from what my rival told me, they managed to muck up the ritual and instead dragged some monster down upon themselves. Apparently, their leader was the one keeping it there since he used the book, yet it made sure to save him for last.” He choked up, and she recognized the sound he made as somepony trying to keep themselves from emptying their stomach. “The mess it left when it was done…”
She shuddered at the thought of what such a creature would do. If her own writings were any indicator of this apparent truth, any creature associated with Vehstrak that wasn’t a worshipper was not something you would wish on your worst enemies. “When it finally left, we recovered their spell book and its container before quickly leaving the area, lest any more of them find us and try finishing their work.” She barely noticed he was done talking; she was in shock hearing this story. Her works couldn’t be real… the just COULDN’T BE!
A loud grinding snapped her out of her stupor; shocking her until she realized he was just shoving the box towards her. “My associate, she knows of your work. And she was able to recognize not only what this is, but how dangerous it is. She said if anypony knows how to keep this safe, it would be you.”
“There’s nothing to keep safe!” Her shock had finally given way to the annoyance that had been there when he first arrived. “There’s absolutely no truth to my works, there can’t be an ancient cult to something I just wrote about last year, and I’m positive there’s nothing dangerous in that box!”
He stared at her for a long while before chuckling. “Sure there isn’t, Hoofcraft. And I lost four of the best stallions I know to a damn daydream!” he snapped back at her. “Believe me or not, this… thing is your responsibility. After what it happened to my companions, I don’t want this, she says it’s evil incarnate… You wrote about it, you keep it!” His piece said, he turned and stormed his way to the door, leaving the box on her counter. “My rival is like you, you know. She says her books are nothing but lies, but she and I both know the truth.” He opened the door and stepped out into the rain. “Just keep an eye on that thing.” With that, he took off running, leaving her to close and lock the door to her shop.
“My books being real…” She snorted at the absurdity. “Please, how gullible does he think I am?” She chuckled before she felt her nerves act up as she looked at the ornately designed box. “There’s nothing serious in here… there just can’t be.” Staring at the imposing box on her sales counter, she weighed her options when it came to the mysterious box. On one hoof, if she simply scrapped the box entirely, she could simply forget it was ever there and go on with her life. On the other, if there really was something significant in it and that stallion was telling the truth, throwing it out would be dangerous. But what if it was dangerous to keep it?
It couldn’t be something from her books. She wrote fiction, as in, fantasy. Although, there was that point where she found out she had unintentionally picked an area for her next book that already looks as though there was once something there. Who knows how many other coincidences there were in her books? Against her better judgement, she grabbed the box and levitated it up the stairs, making sure to extinguish the lantern.
Once she was settled in her sitting room, her brightly lit sitting room, she decided to study the box in greater detail. The box was rectangular in nature, with the two wider sides bearing the swirling decorations that she noticed before. Now that she was in better light, it was now much more apparent that the green stone was meant to resemble the bodies of snakes. A stone she could not identify and showed no signs of being multiple pieces that were inlaid on the box. For all appearances, it was as if whoever made the box had carved the stone as one single piece. Each of the ends was entirely that deep, void-like shade of black, with the exception of a single decoration inset on each end. The decoration was in the shape of a three-pointed star, with a serpent, again made of green stone, wrapped around the star to form a circle with its body. The symbol of Vehstrak.
In terms of weight, it felt consistent with the box being decorated in actual gold and stone. There was no way for her to be positive there was anything even inside of it as it didn’t make any sound when she shook it. Knowing it was unavoidable, she took a deep breath before seizing the lid with her red aura and slowly easing it off the box. No reason to be completely reckless investigating what was most likely a prank. Once it was off, and nothing came out, she decided it was safe enough to look inside the box.
The interior of the box itself was lined with a black material that she very much hoped was velvet and not something more macabre. This black interior was molded around an indentation that snugly held its prize that was currently wrapped in dark green cloth. Despite her unease with the entire situation, the cloth-wrapped bundle was quickly pulled from the confines of the box and placed on the table.
“Ok, Arcanica… You’re doing fine, there’s nothing dangerous about this. Just somepony trying to pull a fast one on you.” Despite trying to motivate herself, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen. With a deep breath, she pulled the cloth away from the object and stared in awe of the object before her.
Like the supposed treasure hunter had said, it was definitely an ancient book. One that she knew all too well from the number of times it appeared or made a reference in her works. The cover was made of black leather, with the stitching forming a large spiral made of three-connected lines. A quick attempt at riffling the pages revealed they were stiff and yellowed, as though they were ancient beyond measure. If it was like the way the book was described in her writings, though, they were stiff for an entirely different reason.
Opening it back up to the first few pages, she drew in a shuddering breath as she saw the dark red scratches that adorned the page. “Whoever made this paid incredible attention to detail…” she muttered, still telling herself it wasn’t real. As she looked over the writing, a language that was supposed to be older than the royal sisters, she shook her head. “Honestly, they couldn’t have even tried inventing… a… language?” It was right there, in dark red, was a gibberish language… that looked unusually familiar to her. A thunderclap shook her house as she poured over the first page.
“That can’t be right… Let’s see here…” It shouldn’t have been possible, but the writing seemed almost legible… in a passage that she knew for a fact was never touched upon in any of her own writings.
Harken to the cries of Them
Lords of Void beyond the coil
Heed Their calls, dwelling in slumber
Awaiting in peace, in an Eldritch brood
The masters of Their plane and all beyond
This tome of knowledge, held dear to Them
A volume of death, of great might
She set the book down and stared at the open pages, her mind temporarily on hold after reading what nopony should know opens this particular book. “There’s… there’s no way.” She shook her head, her mane hitting her face proving she wasn’t dreaming. “This can’t be the real thing. It’s just some random pony trying to be funny and make me think he’s got the drop on me. Well it’s not working!” Slamming the book shut, she quickly redid its wrapping and slammed the lid on the box.
“It isn’t real. It just isn’t…”
Arcanica let out a heavy yawn as she walked into Sugarcube Corner. She was supposed to be at her store, but after the week she had been having, she needed a pick-me-up this morning. Ever since that book had arrived at her store, she had been much more stressed out than usual. For starters, her paranoia was back full force since that strange stallion came to her store during that storm. For somepony to show up and deliver a strange box with a far-too accurate recreation of a fictitious book was setting off a lot of red flags.
Furthering her problems was that since then, she had been having that strange dream a lot more frequently. After the first couple times, she was able to realize she was dreaming of Yak’Shek. Since then, she had been spending most of her nights wandering the empty streets of the fallen cult city. She was exhausted from constantly dreaming of running through those lost streets, constantly being followed by a disembodied voice in her head. Not even coffee was fixing her sleep problems.
So, she decided to treat herself this morning to something excessively sweet but oh-so delicious. “Good morning, Pa- I mean, Arcanica,” came the friendly voice of Mrs. Cake. “How can I help you this morning?”
“Hi, Mrs. Cake.” She gave the married mare a smile in spite of her soul-weary exhaustion. “Can I get a slice of Triple-Choco Delight and a slice of coconut cream pie?”
“Oh of course. Coming right up!” Setting a white cardboard box on the counter, she started setting up Arcanica’s order when a timer went off in the kitchen. “Oh dear, I need to get that. Pinkie, can you come down here and finish this order?” she called loudly.
“Sure thing, Mrs. C!” The pink pony came sliding down the railing as Mrs. Cake disappeared into the kitchen. “Heya Arcanica! Whatcha getting?” Saying hello to her friend, she repeated her order to the Party Pony. “Okie Dokie Lokie!” Humming to herself, she set about gathering up Arcanica’s order for her, neatly packing it away in the box. “Alright, that’ll be 7 bits!” As she went to pay her friend for the pastries, the door slammed open as Rarity, Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy came running in with Applejack’s little sister.
“Pinkie shut off the lights!” yelled Rainbow Dash as she started yanking all of the curtains closed. “Zecora is back in town!”
“WHAT?!” They heard a crash in the kitchen as Mrs. Cake screamed at the name of the strange figure from the Everfree was yelled. Pinkie quickly ran around the room turning off the lights once the bits were safely in the cash register.
“Great,” muttered Arcanica as she joined the others in securing the bakery. “The one day I leave my shop and she comes to town.”
“Twilight! Over here!” Pinkie was quickly peeking her head out the door trying to get the mentioned Unicorn to get indoors. After far too much back and forth, she was finally able to convince Twilight and Spike to get inside the bakery.
Once she was inside, they were quick to reveal to Twilight that they were all hiding in there, much to her continued confusion.
“We’re hiding from her!” Applejack was cautiously holding one of the curtains open, allowing them all to look into the town at the hooded figure currently pawing at the dirt in the middle of town. When the figure turned to look their way, all of them quickly ducked out of the window, except for Twilight.
“Did you see her, Twilight?” Apple Bloom was clinging to Spike as she tried making eye contact with the librarian. “Did you see… Zecora?”
As Applejack reprimanded her sister for saying the mysterious figure’s name, Twilight promptly voiced her concerns about their behavior. Of course, Arcanica didn’t expect somepony like Twilight to completely understand why Zecora was so damn terrifying. When she took another look out the window at her, with everypony else following her lead, they were able to see Zecora remove her hood.
“Just look at those stripes! So garish!” Twilight leveled an annoyed look at Rarity.
“She’s a zebra.”
“A what?” Arcanica was amazed at most of her friends, they never heard of Zebras before?
“A zebra. And her stripes aren’t a fashion choice, Rarity. They’re what she was born with.” The white Unicorn collapsed at the horror of such a thing.
Of course, once the others started explaining how the Zebra lived in the Everfree Forest, and Pinkie debuting her newest song, Twilight got down to brass tacks. “What have any of you even seen Zecora do?”
“Twilight, she’s a zebra for Celestia’s sake. Haven’t you heard what they’re like?” demanded Arcanica.
She raised an eyebrow while looking at the author with an expression of unamused skepticism. “Arcanica, have you heard what they’re like?”
“Of course I have! They’re a shaman-like culture. They travel around in caravans spreading curses on any who get in their way! Those stripes are meant to represent their dabbling in the darkest of magical arts!” The others gasped at her revelation while Twilight rolled her eyes.
“Do they really place c-c-curses on everypony?” Fluttershy was doing her best to hide behind Rainbow Dash in case she needed to get out of sight.
“There’s no such things as curses and Zebras are naturally that color!” snapped Twilight. Her eye twitched with annoyance at Arcanica’s failure to help the situation. “Tell me, what does Zecora actually do when she comes to Ponyville?” This led to a heated back and forth between the whole group until they noticed something extremely concerning: Apple Bloom was gone and the door was wide open.
“She must have gone after Zecora!” The mares all charged through the door, with Spike staying behind in case Apple Bloom came back before them. The mares were at a full gallop as they took the road that ran through Ponyville to the Everfree.
As they ran into the Everfree, they found a path that looked as though somepony had cleared it relatively recently. “Apple Bloom! Where are ya?!” From her place towards the middle of their formation, Applejack was trying to call out to her sister.
“There she is!” yelled Rainbow Dash from above the group. Sure enough, the mentioned filly was currently on the other side of a patch of bright blue flowers with Zecora further ahead of her.
“Apple Bloom, there you are!” She turned around to see the group of seven mares charge through the patch of flowers. Applejack quickly scooped the filly up and placed her safely on her back.
“Beware, beware you pony folk!” came a booming voice. As a mysterious fog filled the air, Zecora stood on the other side of the clearing from them, her eyes glowing with an unnatural light. “Those leaves of blue are no joke!”
“You… you keep yer creepy mumbo-jumbo to yerself, ya hear?” threatened the apple farmer as she stood her ground.
Rainbow Dash landed beside the group in the flower patch, backing her friends up. “Yeah, was that supposed to scare us?!”
Arcanica stamped a hoof in defiance as Twilight rolled her eyes. “Get out of here with your voodoo curses!” The zebra only backed away while telling the group to “Beware.”
“Right back at you!” Once the zebra was out of sight, the group breathed a sigh of relief only for Applejack to begin berating her sister.
“See Twilight? What did I tell you?” Twilight glared at Arcanica as she had a smug look on her face at being proven right. “Zecora just tried putting a curse on us.”
She let out an annoyed growl. “Arcanica, there’s no such thing as curses. I’m honestly shocked that somepony as well-read and intellectual as you even thinks stuff like that about zebras!”
The red Unicorn stuck her nose up. “Hmmph. Say what you will, Twilight, but ponies wouldn’t have ideas like those if there wasn’t a basis for them.” As the two Unicorns argued over the existence of curses and whether zebras could cast them, the group began their return to Ponyville, confident in having driven Zecora away.
Arcanica let out a heavy yawn as she stretched her forelegs over her head. “Wow, I can’t believe I slept so well last night!” As she shook her head to clear away what little weariness remained, she felt something wet hit the side of her head, making her sigh and roll her eyes. “Or maybe not, if my mane is that drenched in sweat.” She raised a hoof to brush her mane to the side, only to feel something much… meatier and to actually feel the hoof itself. “What the hell?!” Shocked at feeling something out of the ordinary, she fell out of her bed.
Groaning from the impact, she got a look at her tail, now exposed from her fall. Seeing her lovely tail, she screamed in horror of what happened to it before noticing some of her main in her face… and how it looked exactly like her tail. Her terror renewed, she let out a terrified screech, knowing all too well what had happened.
Zecora had cursed her.