//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: The cursed misfit // Story: The Misfits // by Cyber System //------------------------------// Laa-Mohr waited for what felt like hours before Zecora finally emerged from her hut with a small phial. "I apologize for having you wait so long, but once you drink this, you will know I'm not wrong," Zecora tried to give the phial over to Laa-Mohr, only for it to slip and break on the ground. Laa-Mohr looked at the shattered glass in horror as Zecora chuckled. "Silly Laa-Mohr, did you think I didn't prepare? When dealing with curses, you must always have a spare," Zecora then pulled out a second phial, which Laa-Mohr immediately took and downed the contents. Nothing happened. "Did it work?" he asked. "I'm not sure, to be honest. This magic is far beyond my ranks, so your curse will still work, but it will only do pranks." Laa-Mohr was confused. "Huh?" "I could not remove the curse forever, it is completely natural magic, but at least you won't have to worry about anything tragic." "So what you're saying is I won't cause plagues, famines, and pestilences anymore?" Zecora nodded. "The tragedies that your curse has struck can now be mistaken for simple bad luck. As for the worse side that makes it forever shower, the worst it can do is minor and lasts at most twenty four hours. I'm sorry I could not remove it all together, but it would be like removing a cutie mark forever." "Oh, well thanks anyway, but will this wear off?" Zecora shook her head. "I made the recipe special and here is why: it will last forever until the day you die." Laa-Mohr smiled. "I thank you, at least I won't cause disasters to Ponyville like I did in Saddle Arabia." "That is truely something of concern, nopony would want their home to burn." "Yeah, but still I gotta be careful, even around The Misfits." "I have heard of this group before, aren't they the ones who help increase other ponies' confidence more?" "I think so, I hope they can see past my curse." "I'm sure they will, Laa-Mohr, and though I don't know a lot, these ponies will accept you, cursed or not." "Let's hope so, but it won't be a surprise if they don't." Zecora's smile disappeared at Laa-Mohr's pessimism. "It seems that this curse has changed your point of view, but come inside and rest until the day is anew." Laa-Mohr shrugged and followed Zecora inside her hut, instantly several bottles fell from their shelves and shattered on the ground once the door closed. "Well, I guess that proves my curse is in effect," Laa-Mohr muttered. Zecora smiled at him. "True that these broken bottles is tragic, but don't you see that none of them contained any magic. And as you can see soon with these misfits to find, nothing of value was broken..." SMASH! "...Nevermind." "Sorry about that." "It's quite alright, you have no control over your curse, at least events could not get much worse." "You really shouldn't say that around me, you know?" It was already night when The Misfits, Twilight, and Marine finally arrived at Ponyville, all ready to just fall asleep. After a quick goodbye to Twilight, The Misfits trotted over to their home. As Cyber opened the door, he almost wished Pinkie did not start the party already. Thankfully she did not. "Nothing beats the feeling of returning home, am I right?" Cyber said as he walked into the home, already things were noticeably bigger, with more rooms. Dusty whistled at how well Clockwork upgraded the house. "Wow, Clockwork outdid himself, where is that robot anyway?" "Probably recharging, he may be a robot and solar powered but even he has his limits," Cyber answered. Pixel yawned. "Who knew predators could party that hard?" "You should see them when they're competing," Fang replied. "Yeah, sure, I'm going to bed," Eclipse said, trotting up to his room. "Speaking of which, where am I going to sleep?" asked Marine. Cyber nearly dozed off. "Hm? I don't know, just sleep in Fang's room or something. I'm too tired to think. Let's go up to our rooms and finally get some shut-eye." The Misfits did just that as each of them went to their respective rooms and fell asleep. That morning, Cyber woke up early to work with Marine and Clockwork, Pixel hung out with Moonlight, Dusty and Fang left to help Applejack, and Eclipse and Mixy spent the day with Twilight. Everything seemed normal, until Fang and Dusty got to Sweet Apple Acres to find Applejack with her head wrapped in a bandage. "Woah, Applejack, what happened?" asked Fang. "I don't know, all that happened was I was pickin' apples off the ground when somepony started throwin' apples at me, then when I tried to get em out of the tree, I was hit by a branch an' woke up in the hospital with a splittin' headache, still hurts." "Eeyup," Big Mac confirmed. "What kind of pony would do a darn thing like that?" Granny Smith said. "I don't know, but there's something strange going on," Fang said. "But for now you should probably just rest your head, we'll take care of the apples." "Well that's mighty kind of you, sugarcube, but I'm alright, mah head's just a little sore, is all." Fang and Dusty shrugged. "If you say so." "Hey, Eclipse?" asked Twilight. "Yeah?" "Weren't you taking anger management classes?" "Yeah." "Why aren't you there?" "I stopped after I burned the teacher several times just before Pixel joined The Misfits." "Yikes, you really need to control your anger, who knows what could happen if you're furious." "My guess is The Great Fire of Ponyville," Mixy said "Well, he's doing good for a hot head," Spike said on a ladder as he placed books on a high shelf. "Don't push your luck, Spike," Eclipse said, glaring at the baby dragon. Spike gave an apologetic grin, "Sorry." "But Spike's right," Twilight said. "You've managed to handle it so far. But if you don't get that anger under control soon, you could cause something worse than the Great Fire of Hoofington." Then the door opened to show a grey stallion, who walked in and approached Twilight. "Do you have any books on natural curses?" he asked. Twilight searched her memory. "I think I do, Mixy, the book is right next to you, could you bring it over?" Mixy nodded and looked on the self before using her magic to pull a book out. "Is this it? 'Curses and Cutie marks'?" Twilight nodded. "That's it." Mixy started levitating the book over to Twilight when... "AAACHOO!" a jet of fire erupted from Eclipse's mouth and hit the book, instantly it caught on fire. "Eclipse!" Twilight scolded. "Sorry, I'll put it out!" Eclipse shouted before focusing on the burning book, shortly the flames died out. The book was very singed but relatively intact as Twilight levitated it over to her. "I'm very sorry about that, he can't control his anger," Twilight said as she flipped through it to make sure it was still relatively readable. "I sneezed! You can't control that!" Eclipse shouted. "What does sneezing have to do with anger?!. "Anyway, what's your name?" "Laa-Mohr." Twilight handed Laa-Mohr the book. "Here you go, again really sorry about that, you can return it whenever you want, and Eclipse will be paying for it," Eclipse rolled his eyes and groaned. "By the way, do you happen to know where The Misfits are in this town?" Laa-Mohr asked. "Actually there are two members right here," Twilight gestured to Eclipse and Mixy. "Thank you," Laa-Mohr trotted to the two. "So, you're misfits?" Mixy nodded. "Yeah, I'm Mixy, and this is Solar Eclipse." "Why do you ask?" asked Eclipse. "Do you accept ponies in need of help?" The two misfits nodded. "Why?" "Five... four... three... two..." "WOOAAH!" Spike yelled as he fell of the ladder he was on. "I'm ok!" "So, you're some kind of jinx?" asked Mixy. "You could say that." "I don't know," Eclipse said. "Simple bad luck may not be misfit material." "Oh, trust me, I have done much worse before." "Well, have you burned down most of Hoofington like I did?" "Have you caused plagues, pestilences, locust swarms and many other disasters like I did?" Mixy and Eclipse stared at Laa-Mohr in shock, thinking the same thing. "We gotta see Cyber." "When is it ready?" Marine asked excited. "In a minute, Marine," Cyber replied as he continued construction before Clockwork stumbled in rather clumsy and glitchy. "C-C-C-C-C-Cyb-b-b-ber, th-th-th-there is-s-s-s s-s-s-som-me-mep-p-p-p-pon-n-ny-y-y wait-t-t-t-ting f-f-f-for y-y-y-you," Clockwork stuttered. "Clockwork, are you alright?" "I-I-I-I-I d-d-d-don't-t-t-t kn-kn-kn-know-w-w." "Hm, run a viral scan and initiate a reboot. I'll be there in a second," Clockwork shakily nodded as Cyber trotted out of his lab to be greeted by Eclipse, Mixy, and a new pony. "Are you Cyber?" the stallion asked, Cyber nodded. "Yes, I am Cyber System, who are you?" "I am Laa-Mohr, son of nopony and nopony in this world." "Sure, so what brings you here?" "I wish to join your group of misfits, I have been shunned out because of my curse and only wish to be with ponies who don't mind it." "Curse? Why can't Twilight help you with that?" "I already got some help from Zecora but she said that my curse is natural, so it's like removing a cutie mark, which is hard." Cyber nodded. "Yeah, I hear you, I suffered brain damage and not even a lightning strike can get rid of my cutie mark." "Yeah, as of now my curse is impossible to remove, Zecora only managed to weaken it, and I still cause problems, like what happened to your metal friend." "You made Clockwork glitch?" "Yeah, but it should be temporary, and most likely not going to happen again anytime soon, but I would be careful around me if I were you." "Well, your curse shouldn't be a problem, I mean we've got Eclipse and he's controlled himself so far." "Hey!" Eclipse shouted. "He can't control his anger?" Laa-Mohr asked. Mixy nodded. "Yeah, he even burned down most of Hoofington because somepony wouldn't let him get to his marefriend." "I'm standing right here!" Eclipse said through clenched teeth as his mane seemed to grow in size and smoke emerged from his nostrils. "Perhaps I could help," Laa-Mohr suggested. Eclipse's flames dimmed from confusion. "Come again?" "I know what it is like to be out of control, after the shunning and running away gave me a bit of a 'dual personality' or something. I can either be my normal self or a vengeful warrior powered by blind rage. Fortunately I've controlled this and it's like flipping a switch, if you let me in, I could help Eclipse manage his rage." Cyber smiled. "I think you will make a great misfit, so welcome!" "So, I'm in?" Cyber nodded and smiled. "Of course!" Laa-Mohr couldn't help but smile in return. Mixy was confused. "What, no oath?" "There's too many members for the oath to work out, so I'm probably just going to change it to paperwork or something soon, anyway, I'm sure you'll fit in just fine Laa-Mohr, whether or not you have a curse. It would just be like a common case of bad luck, we'll get over it." Laa-Mohr was speechless, nopony has ever talked to him that way after his curse arrived. But if he had to reply in any way he would say, "Thank you." Cyber smiled. "No problem, why don't you let Eclipse and Mixy show you around while I get back to business?" Eclipse and Mixy led Laa-Mohr on a tour through Ponyville and introducing him to the other misfits members as Cyber entered his lab again. "What took you so long?" Marine complained. "I just had to introduce a new member of The Misfits, that's all," Cyber said as he returned to his work. With nearly all the apples harvested, Applejack decided to rest her head in the barn with Granny Smith after it started pounding. "Hey, ain't that Eclipse and Mixy?" asked Apple Bloom, pointing to the pyrokinetic unicorn and Changeling hybrid. "Eeyup," confirmed Big Mac. "Who's that pony with them?" asked Fang. "I think that's what they're going to tell us," Dusty added, waving to his fellow misfits. "Hey, Apple Bloom," Eclipse said. "What's the commotion going to be this time? Every time I'm near you, there seems to be some kind of thing that I'm involved in that nearly burns down Sweet Apple Acres." "Well, my friends and I were gonna see if we could earn our cutie marks in fire dancin' if you could-" she was stopped as Eclipse made a very menacing glare at her, making her chuckle nervously. "Heh heh, or maybe not." "Better for all of us," said Mixy. "Anyway, I'd like you all to meet Laa-Mohr, the newest member of The Misfits." "Hey, I'm Fang." "And I'm Dusty, what makes you a misfit?" "I'm a jinx," Laa-Mohr answered. "Ain't that what someponies call me an' my friends that sometimes?" asked Apple Bloom. "Nnope," Big Mac said. "Good, because I've caused pestilences, plagues, and famines with my jinx." "What's this about a pestilence?" Applejack asked as she emerged from the barn. "AJ, what's a pestilence?" Apple Bloom asked "It's when a disease comes an' infects everypony for a very long time," Applejack answered before clutching her bandaged head again in pain, which seemed to have rung a bell in Laa-Mohr's memory. "I thought I saw you from somewhere, sorry about that head injury by the way." Applejack looked up at him fiercely. "What, you did this?" she fumed. "Ooh, I'd whack you all the way to the Crystal Empire if my head wasn't poundin'," the rage made her head hurt again. "Look, it's not really my fault, I'm cursed!" Laa-Mohr argued. "There is no such thing as curses!" "Says the pony who thought poison joke was a curse," Apple Bloom muttered. "If curses aren't real, then how did I knock you out by just standing there?" "I don't know, you took some apples an' threw em at me?" "I didn't even go near your apples until after you were knocked out." "And you stole apples!? You're so lucky that my head ain't workin' with me right now." "If I was lucky, I wouldn't even be here!" "Well, I oughta-" "SHUT UP!" Eclipse roared as he burst into flames for a brief moment. Mixy spoke up once their attention was directed away from each other, "I'm sure that each side has their own story to tell, but let's start with Laa-Mohr." Laa-Mohr nodded. "Look, yes I am a thief, but I have a good reason. I was one of the most popular colts in Saddle Arabia, I was smart, handsome, and a really good sword fighter. But everything changed when I got my cutie mark." "What? They realized you were just a fake?" Applejack said. Laa-Mohr shook his head. "No, I was the real deal, and I was also an orphan, adopted by the right-hoof stallion to the Sultan, I never loved anypony more than I loved him as a family. But then when one day I woke up and I had my cutie mark. While other ponies have hunting, apple bucking or even digging for a cutie mark, mine was different," he pointed to his cutie mark. "This is the Saddle Arabian eye of misfortune, anypony who has it is cursed with disaster and bad luck, which is what happened to me as disasters fell upon my home and city all thanks to my cutie mark. Because of my curse, I had to be exiled, and it still followed me and hurt everypony I was near. I was hungry, alone, lost, and the only ponies I could look up to were back in the one place I couldn't even step in! "I was lucky to have met Zecora, who weakened my curse, but it's still here as we speak, so if you wonder why I do what I do, just look at my flank!" Laa-Mohr quickly calmed down as everypony looked at him in sympathy. "I- I- I'm sorry, Laa-Mohr, I had no idea you had a rough life," Applejack said. Laa-Mohr nodded. "First a peasant, then royalty, then a hermit, that is why I am nopony in this world." "Well, you sure are somepony to The Misfits!" Apple Bloom said. "Eeyup," Big Mac confirmed. Laa-Mohr looked at Mixy, Eclipse, Dusty, and Fang, each were smiling at him. "I know, that is why I am glad to be a misfit." "It's why all of us are glad to be misfits, Laa-Mohr!" Dusty added. "I suppose that is true," Laa-Mohr smiled. "Now, wasn't there other members that you wanted me to meet?"