White Curse

by Jumpitydude

Chapter 10

"I'm sorry, Twilight." Applejack rubbed her leg. "I wish I could be of more help."

"It's alright." Twilight put away her notepad. "You helped me as much as you could have."

"May I ask why you didn't ask Rainbow Dash?"

"I couldn't. When she brought you back... well."

Twilight's horn started projecting a video on the ground, from her point of view. It started with her watching the students carry Applejack off, then turning to Rainbow.

"What. Happened?" Twilight asked sternly, to no response. "Rainbow Dash, what happened?"

No reply.

"Rainbow."

Rainbow Dash fell over.

"Rainbow!" Twilight ran to Rainbow's side and started looking for injuries.

"I'm sorry."

It was so soft, Twilight almost missed it. She looked at Rainbow's face. It was red, and tears were filling her eyes.

"I'm so sorry. I... I messed up... badly... I shouldn't have... I didn't mean to..."

The recording cut off.

Applejack stared at the floor for a bit after the recording cut off, then turned away. "I did say some things to try and hurt her feelings. I... I feel bad."

"It's alright. You both went through enough. I'm not giving either of you overtime. And, looking back on our discussion, between the canoeing and the nature walk, I was being unfair to you. Even if I knew, or thought I knew, what you were going to say, I should have let you say it anyway."

"It's alright. I think we all learned a lesson after all that."

"No hard feelings, towards me or Rainbow Dash, right?"

"None at all, sugarcube."

The two mares shared a hug.

"Now, your class has been put off long enough, I think. Oh, but I asked Rainbow to address something with some of the students, so they probably won't be there right away."

"Which ones?"

"Guess."

---

A few of the students laughed, while others just looked in sympathy. Smolder couldn't do much of anything but sit there with her face buried in her claws.

"Wow, Smolder. That was worse than the last time you played Bucketball." Rainbow rubbed the back of her head in bafflement. "I know your luck isn't the best, but that took it to a whole new level."

If Smolder wanted to reply, she didn't get the chance, as the school bell rang out at that moment.

"Alright! That's it for class! AJ should be done with Twilight by now, so head on over to her class!"

Gallus patted Smolder on the back, giving her a gentle smile. She sighed and took his claw to help her up.

"Oh, except six of you. We learned of something that needs to be addressed."

All of the students looked at the teacher. Ocellus asked the obvious question. "Which six?"

Rainbow gave Ocellus a stern look. "You're one, and that should tell you who the other five are."

"Ooooooo. Team creature is on the chopping block." Some of the students giggled at the six panic induced friends.

Once all of the students were out of the room, the last one out turned around. "May I ask-"

Rainbow slammed the door in her face, then turned to the six creatures.

"OKAY! FINE!"

Rainbow was briefly distracted by the bitter student, then turned back to the six in the room. "Pinkie let something slip to Twilight."

"P-Pinkie?" Silver started biting her claws. "Is it really that major?"

"It is." Rainbow stepped towards them. "It could cause trouble for you if you keep doing it, assuming you haven't already gone overboard with it."

The six friends collectively swallowed, awaiting something major. Their fight with Pinkie was before they had their disguises, so if she remembered something...

"Due to being classified as a post-graduate school, any students in our academy are legally allowed, in Ponyville, to gamble. The school's rules, however, prevent this from taking place on school grounds, even in the dorms." Rainbow watched the students go from panicked to confused. "What, did you think it was worse than that?"

Sandbar chuckled. "Yes, actually."

"Something that could get you expelled?"

Gallus rubbed the back of his head. "More or less."

"Somethings that could force you apart."

Smolder scratched at her head. "That would be bad."

Rainbow's smile went from amused to sly. "Something like... you being the White Cursed?"

"Would be problem if-" Yona took a second longer than her friends to realize what their professor just said.

Rainbow let out a chuckle. "When one of you told me to fly off, my first priority was to find you kids. When I couldn't, I started thinking and realized something. There wasn't much time between AJ turning into that monster, and the heroes showing up. The only way for them to know that fast is if they were there when it happened."

Ocellus rubbed the back of her head. "Geeze, professor. You can be pretty smart when you want to."

Rainbow wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult. "Uh... thanks?"

"But that means..." Smolder stepped back, her fists clenched. "... You're going to tell Headmare Twilight, right?"

The students stared at their teacher, some ready to fight, some ready to run.

"I..." Rainbow rubbed the back of her head. "... I'm not sure if I should."

All of the students made some confused noises.

"On one hoof, it feels like keeping this a secret from Twilight would be betraying her. On the other, you did save my life, so I owe you at least that much. Besides, you're just kids. If I tell her, she'll execute you. That's not something you six deserve, especially if you're doing the right thing with your powers."

Gallus scratched his head. "So... you're in a conflict of loyalty?"

"Loyal to Twilight, or loyal to you kids. At that point, it comes down to what is loyal to my personal morals, and that would be not getting children killed."

"That's fair." Ocellus tapped her hoof to her chin. "Though I really want to know the Headmare's side of things. It feels like there's a lot of information we're missing, especially since, and I did check with the librarians on this, the Headmare removed a lot of information from the book about the White Curse. I would like a more complete copy of it."

Silver put her claw to her mouth. "Wait, they saw the Headmare defacing a book?"

Ocellus shook her head. "They wouldn't have let her, or anyone, damage a book intentionally while in the library, but she's the only one, aside from me, to check it out." She let out a heavy sigh. "Which means it was probably fine the first time I checked it out. I had a copy book, I should have just used it."

Yona tilted her head. "Copy book?"

"It's an enchanted book that copies all the pages from another book. I... may have used a couple." Rainbow chuckled. "Anyway, I can see if Celestia can get us a complete copy of the-"

"I don't think she would." Sandbar interjected. "If Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight have the relationship I heard they have, then Princess Twilight probably did it on Princess Celestia's orders."

"Even if she didn't," Ocellus continued, "Princess Celestia would probably approve of what the Headmare did and wouldn't give us a more complete copy no matter what excuse we gave."

"So... no help from royalty. That complicates things." Rainbow's eyes drifted towards the clock in the room. "WHOA! You guys have to go! I didn't realize we were talking that long!"

"Huh?" Sandbar looked at the clock. "Oh, geeze! Our next class! I completely forgot!"

Smolder started towards the door, then briefly turned around. "We'll talk later, right professor?"

"Yeah! Anytime. Now get going!"

The students rushed out the door, leaving Rainbow alone. She turned towards the window... and saw a Pegasus flying away.

"Wait... isn't that..."

---

"Man, it's great to have a professor on our side." Gallus watched the clouds roll by.

Ocellus giggled. "Though it was pretty funny that professor Applejack thought we were gambling with professor Rainbow."

Silver stared at the water emptily. "Yeah, I guess. It's a good thing she's... honesty... or something."

The others stared at Silver, though only Smolder spoke up. "Is something wrong? You were super cheerful until just now."

Silver sat up. "... You know those times, where I feel something for seemingly no reason?... I feel depressed."

"For no reason." Gallus sighed. "It'll be alright. It's gonna pass. Just don't go emo on us."

"Besides," Smolder added with her usual hand sass, "Nothing bad is going on right now."

"Guys." Ocellus stared upwards. "Why is the sky black?"

They all looked up. The sky wasn't blue, but...

"It looks green to me!"

"Why is it pink?"

"It's red!"

"How is it orange?"

"YAK BLAME DRAGON!"

"What? Why?"

"You did jinx it."

"It's alright. I only altered your perceptions."

They all fell silent and slowly turned towards the nearby tree. There, laying on one of the branches, was a creature of indiscriminate features.

"You all know the scrambler spell, right? The one used on your masks? That's why you can't tell what I am."

Sandbar stepped in front of Ocellus. "Who are you? How did you know what we were thinking?"

The figure chuckled. A low, sinister chuckle. "Knowing what you're thinking, I have my ways."

"Mind reading?" Gallus suggested, as a master of saying the obvious answer.

"As for who I am." The figure stood up. "The one that can move as fast as lightning." He suddenly vanished, appearing on the path leading to the lake. "The genius that can outsmart any scholar." He vanished again, appearing on the water itself. "The one that can imprison any beast or monster." He suddenly appeared with his hoof lifting the chin of a very uncomfortable Silver. "And the wooer of the moon herself." He vanished just as Gallus swiped at him, appearing under the tree he was on. "But as far as you six should be concerned, I am Gold Strike."

"Gold Strike?" Ocellus held her hoof over her mouth. "... I feel like I should recognize that, but I don't know why."

"Well, you know it now. And you'd better not forget it." Gold casually leaned against the tree. "Regardless, you are the ones called the White Cursed, right?"

Gallus did not like this guy. "Nope. Never heard of them." How does he know?

"Like I said, I have my ways."

They all stared at him blankly, then Gallus rubbed the back of his head. "Right. Mind reading."

Gold let out a laugh. "You're quite the characters. So, what do you know about the Night's Embrace?"

Smolder took a nervous step back. "Only that Headmare Twilight is concerned about them."

"She has every right to be." Gold's smile faded. "They're terrorists."

They all fell silent.

"Terrorists?" Sandbar echoed. "You mean..."

"They cause mayhem and destruction in the name of the moon, so they claim. They follow the lead of Nightmare Moon-"

"And you're in charge of them."

The figure stared at the Changeling. "So you heard my name in association with... them?"

Ocellus put herself into a fighting pose. "That's what I overheard Headmare Twilight say about them. And you."

Gallus also got posed for battle, though with a smirk on his face. "So you're the bad guy!"

"So all of this is... you against me?... If only it were that simple."

"What do you-" Pain shot through Sandbar's head, causing him to squeeze his eyes shut. "Urk!"

Once he opened his eyes, he was treated to the image of Twilight sitting at her desk.

"No matter what you think of them, the Princesses are not on your side. They're after you as much as they're after me." The image changed to a strange looking Pegasus digging through some books. "Although there are those who will see to it that you're not only successful in your endeavors, but also that you survive. Such as this mare."

Sandbar then saw a group of hooded creatures, probably ponies. "And the Night's Embrace are not behind the monsters you're fighting. They have so far been uninvolved in current events, but don't be surprised if that changes soon." Then the colt saw... the EEA? "If that's not enough, there are even more parties that can mess things up for you. Such as those who would love to see the School of Friendship torn apart, rendering you six incapable of fighting those monsters."

The image then changed to a black pony with holes in her legs, horn, and bug-like wings.

"Queen Chrysalis?" Ocellus said, apparently seeing the same things Sandbar was.

"And she wants to see your teachers suffer, as revenge for being heroes themselves. An awful lot of third parties in this situation, isn't there? I may have to do something about that."

A bright flash of light forced Sandbar to close his eyes again. When he opened them, he was back at the lakeside.

"So you're gonna kill them, huh?" Gallus accused Gold of.

"No." Gold's voice was... angry? "I'm no killer."

Gallus smirked and shrugged. "Say what you will, a killer's always a-"

The sound of thunder rang through their ears, as Gold Strike appeared in front of Gallus and grabbed him by the throat. "I'M NO KILLER! HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF MURDER!"

All of a sudden, Silver, for some reason, screamed in pain and fell to the ground.

As suddenly as he grabbed Gallus, Gold Strike vanished. "If we need to fight, I'll come for you. Never take your opponents lightly. It will not end well."

"Silver?" Gallus helped Silver off the ground. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I-I don't know. I tried to grab him, but..." Silver stretched her back. "At least I don't feel depressed anymore."

"Well, that's good." Smolder put her hand to her mouth. "'Never take your opponents lightly'? Does that mean..."

Gallus waved his claw dismissively. "We don't need to worry. Those monsters have been complete pushovers so far."

"Yeah! No sweat!" Silver fist bumped Gallus. "We can take them all out easily!"

"Please, not me. Please, not me. Please, not me." Smolder quietly chanted, knowing exactly where a line like that leads.

Author's Note:

And here's the chapter where you go, "Wait, what?" And no, I won't be answering most of the questions you have. Some of the pieces are already there, I won't put them together for you.

Though I do have a question for you; Is this story tagged right? I keep feeling like it isn't, but I don't know why. I'm hesitant to add the "comedy" tag, since the coming chapters are going to get... dark.

Comments

[Frustration in Excelsis]

The genus that can outsmart any scholar

"Genius"?

[Jumpitydude]

8948488

That looked wrong to me, but neither my spell-checker nor my pre-reader caught that, so I thought it was fine. I should have looked that up to make sure.

[fanreader999999]

Superheroes

[Yoshifan30]

I'm glad that rainbow dash is on there side Despite she going behind twilight I'm she'll understand and gold strike is something Else his he an enemy or an alliance Well I guess we'll find out soon

[Yoshifan30]

"On one hoof, it feels like keeping this a secret from Twilight would be betraying her. On the other, you did save my life, so I owe you at least that much. Besides, you're just kids. If I tell her, she'll execute you. That's not something you six deserve, especially if you're doing the right thing with your powers."

Gallus scratched his head. "So... you're in a conflict of loyalty?"

"Loyal to Twilight, or loyal to you kids. At that point, it comes down to what is loyal to my personal morals, and that would be not getting children killed."

Wow thats pretty awesome rainbow dash