Deathrattle

by MaritoEconomico

The curse

A hooded figure was walking through the Everfree Forest calmly as there was no possibility of danger around; Zecora was almost back home and she felt satisfied with the way things had gone that day. She had collected a lot of samples and the particular ecosystem of that forest was perfect for her researches, she had left her home since almost half year but that wasn’t a problem for her.

“BEEP!” alerted the safety radar that Zecora was wearing on her right arm; that version of safety radar was a prototype device created by Zecora herself, able to identify the approaching of anything emitting ML radiation within the radius of twenty metres and it could even show the direction which the potential threat was coming from on a little display.

The ML radiation was a particular kind of energy emitted by every living being, some creatures were even able to manipulate this energy for a large number of application even if unconsciously; “Like the inhabitants of this reign, who ignorantly just call this phenomenon ‘magic’.” as Zecora usually liked to remind herself each time she was working about it; but in that moment she had other thoughts..

“What’s going on?” wondered Zecora checking the radar “I should have used enough disturbers to secure this path; did I mess up anything ? Did anything go wrong?” she considered starting to get anxious.

After identifying where the danger was coming from, Zecora turned to face it pointing the teaser that had as personal defence towards her, holding it with her left hand revealing a dark skin arm; the teaser should have been powerful enough to surprise at least any beast in the forest, giving her the time to escape.

Surprised is not enough to describe Zecora’s reaction when she found out that what she thought to be a dangerous beast ready to attack her, actually was a young equestrian with white and azure hair and green eyes, who, caught off guard by Zecora’s reaction, put his arms up in a gesture of surrender, stopping about ten centimetres from the teaser.

“Whoa, whoa, easy with that thing.” slurred nervous Shadow recognizing the teaser and not interested to deal with it, particularly if in the hand of someone who thought to be attacked from behind.

“I was not exactly expecting company today.” replied suspicious Zecora keeping the teaser in a high position, there was something wrong with that situation even if her mind still messed up couldn’t grape what .

“And I wasn’t expecting to see a suddista so far from his reign and in such a dangerous place, Zecora.” smiled Shadow. From the information he had collected he had already imagined that Zecora should have been a suddista but the absence of the Cutie Mark on her left hand removed any doubt “By the way, I’m Shadow Smoke, why don’t we try to be friend?” he asked politely; now that he was so close to her he could clearly see the dark skin, the hair of different shade of grey and the dark eyes, moreover Zecora was wearing a rustic dress all typical characteristics of the suddisti.

The suddisti were a population living in a reign south of Equestria and physically they were not particularly different from the equestrians; they had darker skin and no Cutie Mark, the biggest difference was the absence of the soul gem that precluded the use of the magic in the way that the equestrians thought, on the other hand the suddisti were marked by a developed mind making them expert scientists and inventors to the point that someone theorized that they had a soul gem in their brain, hidden to any research.

“How did you find me?” asked confused Zecora realizing where that sensation of uneasiness was coming from; the disturbers, that she had planned should have hidden herself and ensured that she couldn’t be found, was the exact reason why they were created. She had tried a couple times to interact with someone at Ponyville but her strange look had always scared everyone; these two factors together made almost impossible to meet someone even accidentally and yet the young equestrian that introduced himself as Shadow obviously was looking for her.

“Oh, that’s what is troubling you?” asked relieved Shadow, which surprised a little Zecora but at the same time tranquilized her; Shadow said “If you really want to know, I wasn’t the one to find you, it was him.” pointing towards the ground at his right.

Looking down Zecora saw a black cat near Shadow that she hadn’t noticed until then, “By the way, his name is Nekuro.” Shadow informed her; “A cat?” thought Zecora “It could make sense, both the radar and the disturbers were meant to work on creature with strong ML radiation, maybe a cat can bypass this system, I wonder why I have never thought about that.” considered Zecora lowering the teaser and feeling safer.

“Meow.” yawned Nekuro visibly bored.

“You can’t blame her, this situation has developed because you rushed to her.” complained Shadow in return; most of the times Nekuro protested because Shadow opted for the slowest approach but sometimes Nekuro was too impatient.

“You can talk with your cat?” asked surprised Zecora, she knew that some equestrians could use what they call ‘magic’ to naturally perform a lot of activities otherwise impossible, but what she witnessed could have been possible only by the clan of the magi characterized by a gem on their forehead, which her interlocutor was clearly lacking.

“Yes.” responded quietly Shadow.

“That’s it!” thought exited Zecora “I’ve found someone worth to study.” to study the flora e fauna of that forest was interesting and already gave her some results but she had always been very interested about the unique equestrians’ ability to use the ML radiation but particularly be the extreme limitation of the clans of the terrestri and volanti inexistent for the magi; “So what do you want?” asked Zecora acting as cool as possible “It’s pretty obvious that you were looking for me.”

“You are right,” admitted Shadow “I was just wondering if you could help me with a little problem I have.” he said remaining vague on his words, tone of voice and look.

Zecora nodded considering her option “My house is not far from here, we can talk more calmly there.” after all they were still in the Everfree Forest and she had to check the disruptors in that zone before feeling completely safe after that unexpected encounter.

“That’s a great idea.” agreed happily Shadow following Zecora and followed himself by Nekuro who still looked incredibly bored.

The house of Zecora was a single big tree, just like the Ponyville’ library, but Shadow could easily tell that it was made recently and that for sure it wasn’t made by terrestri, it just lacked of the stability that only they were able to give to buildings allowing them to resist centuries even without maintenance; so Shadow supposed that that house might have been be made by Zecora herself using some of her creations typical of the suddisti.

But if the outside of the building was nothing spectacular the inside really hit Shadow; the main room was dominated by two long desks on which he could be immediately notice a lot of pages filled with notes, tubes and ampoules containing all sort of things; there were only a few seats but enough for just a person, the windows were big and bright allowing the light to rebound on the light coloured walls Upholstered with bookshelves; all in that room recalled efficiency and effectiveness.

“Nice house.” commented Shadow not trying to cover his amazement.

“Thanks.” answered quietly Zecora; to her eyes that was a simple room with barely the necessary stuff for her complex experiments but he was sure that to the eyes of an equestrian that had to be an impressive view, probably that room could reveal even the biggest scientific association of Equestria considering also that this reign was a very ‘magic’ focus; “So what do you want my help for?” asked sitting on the nearest seat.

After a moment of uncertainty Shadow talked “A curse; I know that must be difficult for a suddista to accept it, but I’m affected by a curse, simply there no other way to describe it.” he explained so seriously that even Zecora doubted him for a second

“A curse?” asked interested but unsure Zecora “I’m not sure what do you mean by that; you should try to be more specific.” she was still sceptical about magic and curse but at the same time she was sure that if a problem existed it could be dealt with the right approach.

Shadow handed Zecora a bunch of papers that he was holding under his shirt saying “This is the summary of the results and study I’ve already obtained, hopefully they will help.” without any trace of emotion; “I’ve already tried various types of magic, but nothing seems to work as it should.”

“What you equestrians call magic it’s nothing more than scientific principles with a side of popular beliefs that you accept because it’s easier than finding the true answer.” puffed Zecora sarcastically; maybe a bit too rudely, but she just could not help herself, she found absurd that idea that ‘magic’ could help to solve any problems without knowing either the problem or the solution.

“I’m happy to hear that you have a so different approach.” smiled Shadow entertained by that demonstration of pride “Hopefully this will lend to better results.” he said politely.

Zecora in the meanwhile started to look at the papers provided by Shadow; at first glance she could tell that it wasn’t the work of a single man and yet all the pages were written with the same handwriting “Probably Shadow had re-written all the information he had had by himself, this proved his attachment to this thing.” she considered; “What do you want me to do about this curse?” she asked casually already imaging the answer.

“I’d like you to remove it, obviously.” confirmed Shadow “Or at least weaken it to the point that it can be controlled.” he said with a tired look; “I will provide all the raw materials myself.” he added.

“Good, since it seems to be a long work.” said Zecora continuing to study the papers, it looked as if most of the efforts had been concentrated to contain some kind of energy, that in the papers was called obviously magic; “First, before I start working I have to know what this ‘curse’ is about; it is not mentioned in the papers.” she said calmly. After all she had nothing to worry about , a simple superstition about curses.

Shadow needed more than a moment to consider his possibility “Fine, I’ll show you,” he sighed anything but excited “but I’m warning you: brace yourself this is not going to be pretty.” he warned her getting seriously but with a melancholic look.

In that moment a big portion of the Everfree Forest was filled with a single simple emotion, the most primitive and overwhelming of them all, the emotion called terror, and Zecora’s house was its origin; the bravest of the creature that felt it started to run for their lives, the smartest feigned death in the hope not to be noticed and the rest were just too traumatized to do anything apart from shivering and waiting ,because every single beings that felt that terror knew exactly one thing: their lives were at the end and there could be no choice by their part; but as fast as this emotion spread, it ended after a second.

Zecora was trying to realize what had happened, but she was sure of one thing: she was no longer seated, she was lying, fallen on the ground bringing with her a couple of ampoules that she had grabbed trying to hold to the first thing at hand, resulting in the destruction of one of those despite their resistance, and throwing the papers she was holding all over the place; and now she was shivering uncontrollably staring at a perfectly normal Shadow.

“Sorry, sorry, it was my fault.” said humble Shadow starting to collect what had fallen without haste or surprise, every single movement followed by the scared eyes of Zecora who couldn’t dare to move any others muscle; then when he had finished he walked to Zecora “Wait, I’ll help you up.” whispered reassuringly offering his hand to help her.

Zecora hadn’t taken her eyes off Shadow’s face for the entire time he had cleaned up, but when he offered his hand a glance to that hand approaching her was enough to cause a new reaction of fear, but her feet couldn’t quite find the grasp on the ground allowing her to slide only for a couple of centimetres on the clean floor; seeing that Shadow drew back looking in Zecora’s eyes with a sad look, there were no surprise or rage nor resentment in his eyes just understanding saddens.

“So, you can do something about it?” asked a bit embarrassed Shadow, after a long second of complete silence just as the animals restarted their normal lives filling the forest with its naturals sounds.

That simple question was the safety for Zecora; in fact it forced her mind to reactivate, to think, to remember who she was; she was a scientist, a woman of intellect that was able to face any problem with clear mind until she could find a rational solution; she had no reason to be scared of something called curse just because she didn’t know how it worked “I’m not sure, but surely I’ll try.” she said with trembling voice while slowly getting up.

“Good.” exclaimed Shadow happy; then he started to make his way to the door, where Nekuro was waiting still with a bored expression on his face, “I have big hopes for our cooperation; I’ll wait to know what you need, don’t let me wait too much.” he said excited.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll tell you soon.” smiled Zecora without been able to sound too excited about it.

Shadow was just about to cross the door when he stopped and turning his head to Zecora said “I think it’s unnecessary but, you know what will happen if you tell anyone about what you saw, right?”

Zecora could see only the right eye of Shadow but that was more than enough, not rage, not sadness nor sympathy just an iron determination and t a promise that gave her the chills in the back “Yes.” she answered looking down at the floor; then Shadow left without adding a word, followed by the silent Nekuro.

Short after Zecora was studying the papers that Shadow had provided her ,trying to understand a possible curse of action “This time you get yourself turned around very troublesome, right Zecora?” she asked to herself “But damn if it’s something thrilling!.” She thought excited; she knew that she had found something unique, something that no one had never studied before; and that was enough for her to ignore that whisper of her mind wondering about those who had provided the information she was reading.