White Curse

by Jumpitydude

Chapter 11

"I'm so glad the Headmare let us go to the hive."

Sandbar patted Ocellus on the head. "It's an excuse for you to go home, right?"

"Though given what happened last field trip." Gallus motioned to their accompanying teacher. "I'm shocked she let Professor Rainbow accompany us."

Ocellus smiled at the Griffon. "It's because I asked for her to come with us."

"And the other teachers are very busy right now." Rainbow rubbed her head. "Besides, I would like to meet some more... Huh?"

The students all looked where Rainbow was looking. The only thing they saw was a Pegasus, flying away from the hive.

Yona scratched her head. "Who's that?"

Ocellus shrugged. "Probably just a delivery pony. Remember, Changelings are still integrating themselves into society. They're getting more things from pop culture, but there's still room for improvement."

Rainbow watched the Pegasus for a little longer, then shook her head. "Nah. I'm seeing things."

Gallus eyed his professor. "Is something wrong, professor?"

Rainbow shook her head. "I thought I saw that pony in particular recently, but it's probably just a coincidence."

Sandbar quickly grew concerned. "Professor, if there's something that pony-"

"Ocellus, why did you suddenly want to come here?"

Ocellus cringed, then looked down as all attention turned to her. "... I got a letter from the king. From the sound of it, he found something he wanted me to look at. I would have rejected, but from the sound of it..."

"Is it the Castor Staff?" Sandbar took a shot in the dark, but, judging how Ocellus looked at him, he was right on the money.

"I think so."

"Turns out to be more than that."

The creatures looked up at the black Changeling before them.

"Pharynx?"

The large changeling had a serious look on his face. "The last delivery we received had something that was out of place, and we wanted you to look at that too."

Ocellus went from worried to annoyed. "What am I, a master historian?"

"No, but you're trying to be a scholar, right? Besides, it seems like the book and staff are connected." Pharynx turned around. "Follow me."

---

Ocellus was taking very deep breaths, as she held the staff in her hooves.

"O-Ocellus?" Thorax was very concerned. "Are you-"

"It's okay. The staff just flooded her mind with info." Silver patted Ocellus on the head. "She'll be fine."

Pharynx went from worried to annoyed. "Why are you acting so casual?"

Silver pointed her thumb over her shoulder. "Cus it's gonna happen at least four more times."

Pharynx scowled. "Listen here, brat! I-"

"It's alright, Pharynx." Ocellus took in a deep breath, and let it out. "She's right. I just had a lot to take in from that."

Thorax put his hoof to his mouth. "Do you know why you got its knowledge, even though Pharynx and I touched it plenty before you?"

"Yes." Ocellus wouldn't be so casual about revealing this to most creatures, but she trusted Thorax from the bottom of her heart. "It's because I have the power associated with the Castor Staff. The White Curse."

Smolder quickly grasped her hand around Gallus' beak, keeping his screaming silent. While she shared his sentiments, screaming at a Changeling in front of their king was not a good idea. Then again, she didn't know Thorax that well.

"I see." Thorax then looked, almost glared, at Pharynx. "Well? Are you still going to personally execute any and all White Cursed? Knowing that one of them is one of our most innocent and necessary?"

Ocellus' eyes shot wide with fear. "W-what?"

Pharynx bit his lip and looked Ocellus in the eye. "... N-no."

"That's what I thought." Thorax turned back to Ocellus. "While I called you here about that staff- And yes, I'm letting you keep it- we received an odd book in our last shipment. It was about the White Curse."

Ocellus looked Thorax dead in the eye. "I think I know which book you're talking about."

"We have a copy of it at the school," Rainbow said, "But Twilight ruined some of the pages, so we're missing chunks of information."

Thorax pulled the book from near his throne. "Well, we don't need our copy. You can have it if you want."

"True, but I have a copy book." Ocellus pulled out a book with a patterned color on its cover. "And knowing where a copy of the book is, that the princesses don't, would be really useful."

"Right. They would probably deface your copy too if they found it." Thorax sighed as Ocellus took the book he had and touched its binding to the binding of the book she already had. "I wish I could directly ask them, but they probably would have twice as many questions for me and become very suspicious of our kind. That can only lead to bigger problems."

"Right," Ocellus said flatly as she raised her eyebrow. As much as she respected her king, she felt like there were times he was a bit too paranoid of upsetting other nations. Or other creatures, for that matter.

Thorax coughed. "Anyway, if you need some time and space to read it, I have a side room ready."

"Thank you, King Thorax." Ocellus turned to the guard. "Pharynx, please show my-"

Pharynx stomped his hoof down. "I'm not your servant!"

Ocellus shot the larger than average Changeling a look that sent a chill down his spine. "Pharynx," Ocellus resumed, her voice a bit deeper, "Please show my friends the hive while I read over the parts I need to. I would appreciate it."

Pharynx gulped. "Y-yes, ma'am."

---

It had been about two hours since they started their tour, but Sandbar was too worried about Ocellus to enjoy it. As they walked down one hall, he started looking into the open rooms (not daring to open any closed doors). As they passed by one, he stopped, seeing a familiar Changeling inside.

When Sandbar entered the room, Ocellus had her head on the book, like she fell asleep while reading. Again. Normally, he would just pick her up and put her in bed. This time, however, she needed to be awake. Not to mention her bed was nowhere near them.

He put his hoof on her head. "Ocellus, it's time to wake up."

"I am awake." Ocellus lifted her head. "I'm just trying to figure out what the Headmare was trying to accomplish."

"... Huh? Why? There must have been something useful that she-"

"There is, but before we get to that, I need to ask you something." Ocellus turned to Sandbar. "Why are you so protective of me?"

"What? I mean, I'm not too protective of you." Sandbar nervously stared at Ocellus' flat look. "M-maybe a little." Sweat started rolling down Sandbar's face. "I'm not that bad about-"

"Yes, you are. We may not get into battles that often, but if there's ever a threat to us, the first thing you do is step in front of me. Heck, it made you somewhat useless during the fight against Professor Applejack."

"Ocellus, I-"

"You're the first one to check on me when I get scared or even slightly injured during Professor Rainbow's class, you always watch me when I talk to someone you don't know, and don't think I'm such a heavy sleeper that I don't notice you moving me from my desk to my bed, which I would have gone to the teachers about if you weren't such a close friend of mine."

"I..." Sandbar rubbed his head. "Geeze, it is getting bad, huh? I'm just trying to look out for you, like... Just, as a friend."

"Thank you," Ocellus said as she wondered what he was about to say, "But I'll be fine. You should watch yourself a bit more. I don't want you to get hurt because you were looking out for me."

Sandbar let out a dejected sigh. "I understand."

"Well, now that we found our missing creatures."

The sound of Gallus' voice drew the pair's attention to the door, where the rest of the field group were watching them.

"Listen, outsider! You're not allowed-" Ocellus' glare quickly made Pharynx backpedal. "I-I-I mean, just because you're Lady Ocellus' friend doesn't mean you're allowed to, uh, interfere with her reading, so if you could... could... what was that word?"

"It's alright, Pharynx." Ocellus stood up. "I'm done researching."

"Before we begin, I have to ask something." Rainbow turned to Pharynx. "Lady?"

Pharynx rubbed the back of his head, smiling nervously. "King Thorax has informed us that Ocellus is to be treated with the utmost respect."

Ocellus giggled. "I was only informed of this recently myself, but because the Changelings are still trying to make a good image for themselves, any of us that can help our image is to be treated as, in the best terms, nobility. Since I'm the one closest to pony society and doing the best at giving us a good image, I'm currently above the others, to the point that the only one that quote-unquote "outranks" me is the King himself."

"I see." Silver smirked at the intimidating Changeling right beside her. "That means if Mr. Bodyguard makes you mad, say by attacking us, you get to put him through the wringer."

Ocellus gave a nice, big smile. "Yup!"

Pharynx coughed. "Yes! Exactly! Now, what was in the book?"

Yona whispered to Smolder, "He nervous."

Ocellus' smile quickly faded as she lifted up the book. "Right. The first thing I noticed was missing is odd that it was; basic history. The way the Headmare put it made it sound like the last group was also the first, but apparently there were several groups before them."

Gallus raised an eyebrow and a claw. "And that matters because?"

"Exactly. It doesn't. All it changes is the sample size of their corruption, and all that does is make the law against the White Curse iffy."

"Oh! Oh!" Silver had that look that she had a theory, and the rest of the group were ready for it to be a dumb one. "Maybe someone found a way to control the White Cursed, and they didn't want us to know it!"

Sandbar looked at Silver, baffled by her words. "And you're basing that on..."

"Nothing! Just thought of it."

Ocellus bit her lip. As silly as it sounded, it wasn't entirely impossible. "Anyway, that was the oddest thing she removed. The other things had some logic to them."

Smolder tilted her head. "Such as?"

"Theoretical powers. While the one that wrote this only had anecdotal evidence and second-hoof information, there are a number of powers listed here, such as the fire user apparently turning their body into a black, stone-like material, likely obsidian."

Gallus rubbed his chin. "That sounds cool, but why remove that? It's useless unless you have the power in the first place."

"Some of these sound tempting to have, especially to particularly selfish creatures. If someone found this and decided they wanted to use one of these powers, it would be very problematic."

Rainbow got it before some of her students. "So Twilight removed any mention of those abilities to prevent anyone from wanting the power. If you can't do anything cooler with the power than you can without, why take the risk?"

"Yak get it!"

"That means you don't get an excuse, Gallus."

"Shut up, Smolder."

Ocellus continued in spite of her friend's antics. "The most interesting part, to me, is the explanations of why each power aligns with each personality trait."

That got Sandbar's full attention. "I've been wondering about that! I feel like strength being earth is the only really obvious one."

"That, and fire being that the confident ones generally have a "fiery" personality. The others are very interesting, though." Ocellus caught a glimpse of Gallus' hopeful face and sighed. "And to get this out of the way, I still don't know what Gallus' power is."

Gallus, even with Smolder keeping his beak shut, was still screaming loud enough to frighten Pharynx.

"But whatever it is, we want to learn what it is and fast. From the sound of it, it's assigned to loyalty because it's so dangerous, only those that would never stab their team in the back should have it."

Rainbow's eye twitched. "How... dangerous are we talking here?"

"'Wipes out armies in one fell swoop' dangerous. If we can get Gallus that power, we'd be nigh unstoppable."

"You guys are convinced I'm loyalty, huh? Is that why you're always teasing me? Making me the butt of your jokes? Because you figure I wouldn't ditch you?" One would expect Gallus to be angered by this realization, but he sounded... happy? "Because you're right. I wouldn't ever betray you guys. You're pretty much family at this point."

Silver, Smolder, and Yona all hugged the Griffon, who froze up for a second before returning the favor (though not without trouble, due to Yona's size).

Sandbar smiled at the sight, then turned back to Ocellus. "Any idea what kind of element it could be."

"Oh, it's definitely not an element."

The rest of the students replied with a collective "Bluh?"

"At no point does the book refer to our powers as elements. I couldn't figure out why, but there are apparently two more powers that a White Cursed can have: The cautious types get color control, and the mechanical types get magnetism, with the implications that there may be more types of powers depending on personality."

Silver put her claw to her beak. "Wait, what does mechanical mean?"

"It means they can put things together. Like roller coasters, trains, airships, things like that." Ocellus flipped through the book. "And since I know you're going to ask, no, it's not the same as being creative. This book classifies the creative types as artistic, like actors or painters, and the mechanical types as practical, creating things that have use."

Silver scratched her head. "I... think I get it."

Pharynx stepped forward. "Actually, shouldn't we go back to Thorax? He'll want to hear this, and I don't think I'll be able to remember all of this well enough to tell him."

"Right. He would be interested." Ocellus closed her book and put it in her bag. "Let's get back to him."

As they were headed back to the king, Silver remembered something important. "Hey, Sandbar? Are you mad at me?"

That caught the colt off guard. "Huh? No. Why?"

"Well I had a dream where you..." Silver suddenly turned away. "Never mind."

Gallus leaned over. "Suffocated you while saying it was your fault?" He watched the two creatures look at him in shock. "I know... because I had the same dream."

Author's Note:

*Writing writing writing* ... "This is getting long. I should split it."

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

"You guys are convinced I'm loyalty, huh? Is that why you're always teasing me? Making me the butt of your jokes? Because you figure I wouldn't ditch you?" One would expect Gallus to be angered by this realization, but he sounded... happy? "Because you're right. I wouldn't ever betray you guys. You're pretty much family at this point."

Awww thats so sweet gallus 😊