White Curse

by Jumpitydude

Chapter 18

Rainbow scowled at Rarity. "You don't care about any of the things I like! It's always about you and your boring fashions!"

Rarity whipped her mane as she turned around. "Oh, puh-lease! You don't even give my interests a chance! You have absolutely no respect for the finer things! No respect, I tell you!"

"I guess we're just not friends anymore!"

"Oh, no, darling. It's far worse than that. Now, we're-" Rarity's eyes went wide for a moment before she looked around. "What? Who's there?"

Hearing that confused everyone nearby. Particularly Rainbow. "Uh, Rarity?"

Rarity looked at the sky and waved her hoof around. "No. You be quiet. I've had quite enough of you."

"Rarity? Are you-"

Rarity silenced Rainbow by pressing her hoof to Rainbow's mouth. "Hush, darling. I'm telling off this corruption. Now listen here, I may have liked my look as Nightmare Rarity, but it gave me serious emotional troubles. I've been to the moon before and it was rather dreary. Most importantly, I do not care for an eternal night!... What? How dare you! Why would I commit such a foul atrocity?"

The five non-pony creatures stared slack-jawed, while Sandbar contemplated what he heard. "The heck?"

"I may not be getting along with her right now, but I cannot deny that she is my friend! And we're in front of children! Do you not care for the youth? Go! Shoo! I will not have you imposing your will under the guise of my will!... There. It's gone. Now, Rainbow, I-" Rarity's eyes got wide, then crossed. "Uh... Bluh?"

Rarity had barely started to fall before Rainbow was there to catch her. "Are you okay, Rarity?"

Rarity sighed. "Yes. I just feel a little dizzy. Do you mind taking me back to my boutique?"

Rainbow smiled a little. "Sure thing."

"Actually," Twilight interjected, "Do you mind taking her to the school? It's closer, and I'd like to ask her some questions once she feels better."

Rainbow looked at Twilight, then at the mare on her back. "Is that alright with you, Rarity?"

"Yes. That's fine." Rarity rubbed her head. "Oh, I'd like a good mystery after this."

Rainbow chuckled. "Yeah, I'd like a good adventure soon."

Twilight smiled and put her hoof to her chin.

---

"But how?" Silver was messing up her mane. "You said that they can't resist it once it takes hold!"

Ocellus was flipping through her book. "That's what I read. I have no idea how Rarity resisted it."

Gallus clutched his head. "So how did she resist it?"

Smolder ran through her head for answers and got only one. "Magnets?"

The other five stopped what they were doing and slowly turned towards the Dragon.

"Maybe she, uh, sewed magnets into her gems and-"

"Smolder." Yona, the one always asking for help on all of her homework, looked like she lost some brain cells. "Stop."

Smolder smiled nervously. "Ehehe..."

"I heard something about Miss Rarity once." Sandbar drew the attention of the other students. "Rumor has it, she was taken to the moon, where someone tried to turn her into the next Nightmare Moon. Her friends and Luna saved her before she was corrupted and brought her back."

"Oooooh." Silver's eyes were practically sparkling. "That sounds amazing!"

"Aaaaand mostly false."

The six friends looked at each other, then turned towards the source of the new voice; a rabbit, dressed in a red and gold satin vest with a matching, ridiculous looking headdress, with flowers on its haunches, cheeks, and forehead.

Smolder's face went pale. "What the- Aren't you just a character in a story?"

The rabbit had its front legs crossed and its head held high as if it was a king. "No, but I'm not him. I took on this form so that if someone sees me, they'll think I'm him and go." The rabbit started flailing its front legs. "AAAAAAAHHHHH! GET AWAY FROM ME! I DON'T WANT TO BE A PART OF YOUR CRAZY EXPERIMENTS INVOLVING COLORS AND MATH!"

The students stared in shock, then Silver covered her beak to hide a smile. "Whahahahat?"

Smolder pressed her finger to Silver's beak. "Don't encourage him! What are you doing here, rabbit?"

"It's Lagmo! And I'm here because, uh..." "Lagmo" tapped his paw to his chin. "Why was I here again?"

The students remained quiet, hoping the odd bunny would give up and hop off.

"Hmm... Moon... Rarity..." It literally popped off the table in excitement. "Oh yeah! I'm here to tell you of the terror of NIGHTMARE RARITY!"

"Nightmare..."

"... Rarity?"

The rabbit placed its paws on its hips. "Back when Lulu first turned into Nightmare Dupe, she met the denizens of the moon, and decided, "I need a legacy! Let's corrupt these cute, innocent moon creatures!" And she did, creating the Nightmare Forces!" The talking bunny leaned forward and put the back of its paw near its mouth as if whispering. "Kinda odd, if you know why she became Nightmare Dupe in the first place."

Sandbar barely kept up with the bunny's motor mouth. "Wait, why did she-"

It suddenly pointed at Sandbar aggressively. "HEY! QUIET IN THE BACK! I'M NOT DONE! Anyway, Nightmare Dupe came back and the bearers of the Elements of Crazy Redemptions went, "BWAAAAAGH!" And Lulu was Lulu again! But the Nightmare Forces remained, ready to create a new Nightmare Moon!" The rabbit hunched over and rubbed its paws together. "So they visited the Elements of Color Nukes and went, "Surprise! You get nightmares now!" And decided Rariry would be a good next Nightmare Dupe!" It shrugged. "Must have been the voice."

Silver was completely engrossed in the story. "Ohh! This is getting intense!"

"So her friends took Lulu and hopped on up to the moon to save Rariry! But by the time they got there, SURPRISE! Rariry was Nightmare Raggedy! Then she TICKLED THEM TO SUBMISSION!" It leaned down and tapped itself on the head. "Or something. I didn't pay attention to that part."

Gallus put his claws to his beak. "Boo! Bad storytelling!"

"I SAID QUIET! Anyway, Lulu returned and warned Sunbun about what happened, and they readied for battle! That's when Nightmare Raggedy made a stupid mistake and left one little guy behind to guard the Elements of Leaky Energy! All of a sudden, BAM! They purified him of darkness! Then they rode him back and used that power to purify Rariry and the other moon creatures! Kind of a dull ending."

As much as the story was to process, Ocellus latched onto one thing. "Wait, I understand why you called them the Elements of "Crazy Redemptions" and "Color Nukes", but why "Leaky Energy"?"

"You don't know?" Lagmo's voice went low. "The Elements of Harmony are losing their power."

Sandbar's eyes went wide. "What? How? They're Equestria's greatest asset!"

"Isn't that friendship?" Lagmo laughed. "Anyway, that's another story, and I only tell one story per session. The short version is that they run off of the power you have, meaning your powers are draining the Elements of their powers."

Smolder was shaking. "No. You're lying!"

A tear filled Silver's eye. "It can't be."

"Iiiiiiit's true! By the end of the month, that super-powered jewelry will be nothing more than super pretty jewelry. And there's nothing you can do about. And don't bother trying to use your powers on the Tree of Harmony, hidden in a pit in the Everfree Forest that you have no way of sensing. That totally won't do anything."

"Hey." Sandbar stepped towards the talking animal. "Who's side are you on?"

"Well, the boss guy's always flipping sides, but I'm always on the boss guy's side. It'd be a problem if I wasn't since I'm an aspect of him."

"Boss guy?"

"You know him, don't you? AU hitter?"

Silver scratched her head. "Alternate universe punch guy?"

"No." Ocellus was shaking. "AU is the alchemical symbol for gold, and to hit something means to strike it. So this rabbit is an aspect of..."

The other students gasped. "GOLD STRIKE?"

"DING DING DING! THAT'S CORRECT! I am a part of Gold Strike! Created to-"

Gallus let out a growl. "That's it! Come here, dinner!"

"Dinner?" Lagmo leaped away right as Gallus grabbed for him. "Sorry, but I don't plan to get eaten!"

Ocellus kept her eyes on the critter. "Hey! Wait!"

"No!" Lagmo landed right in front of the door. "I won't wait! I hate waiting! I waited once, and some half-witted reptile got the better of me because of it! After that, I learned to make sure to value my time!"

Smolder cracked her neck. "And where do you plan to go? You know we'll just follow you."

"How can you follow me if you can't see me? Or anything for that matter?"

There was just enough time for the students to hear that before Lagmo let out a bright flash of light, blinding the students.

"Gah!"

"What the-"

"Have a nice trust!"

Once their sight was returned, the students saw that the door was wide open and the bunny was nowhere to be seen. Gallus shot out the door but saw no sign of the rabbit.

"Forget it, Gallus." Sandbar moved past the other boy of the group. "We need to go to Professor Rainbow, fast!"

Gallus raised an eyebrow as the girls started following Sandbar. "Why?"

---

"Here it is." Rainbow stepped into the cave that hid the Tree of Harmony, then turned towards her students. "But do you think it was telling the truth? That the Elements and the tree are losing their power?"

Sandbar trotted past his teacher. "We won't know until we check, right?"

The girls stepped up to either side of Sandbar. The colt held his hoof up and created a small breeze directed at the tree. The gems on the tree started glowing.

"Lagmo wasn't lying. The tree feels weak." The leader glanced at his sides. "Come on, girls. Let's see if we can power it up."

"But didn't it say-"

Sandbar held up a hoof to cut Smolder off. "I know what he said. That doesn't mean we can't try."

The girls shared a look of concern. Yona was the first to join Sandbar, holding up her hoof and creating a small twister of dirt directed at the tree. Smolder was next, holding up a finger and creating a small thread of fire. Silver held up a claw and created a small stream of water. Ocellus was last, sending out a small vine from her hoof.

The tree pulsed with light. As time went on, the pulse got faster and faster.

"It's working!" Ocellus let out a laugh. "It's working!"

Silver started laughing in excitement. Smolder started laughing as well.

"This is amazing!" Sandbar stared at the tree in amazement. "Even if we have to stop fighting, we can still help Equestria like this!"

Gallus watched in amazement. If only he could join them...

That's when it happened.

Gallus heard a sound like shattered glass. The color of everything around him was inverted. Everything in motion stopped.

He looked around. "What's happening? What's going on?"

"Gallus."

Gallus' eyes shot towards the source of the voice. The tree. He moved around his frozen friends and saw something he never expected. At the base of the tree was the silhouette of a female Griffon.

"Are you... Gabriella?"

"Yes. I am. You're troubled. Why?"

"I don't have your power."

"What do you mean?"

"I..." Gallus squeezed his claw shut and winced. "I don't know what your power is, so I can't use it!"

"... That's intentional."

Gallus flared his wings. "Huh?"

"You're not supposed to know yet. It's very dangerous. You've almost killed your friends with it already."

"I've- Tha- Wha- HOW? How could I have done that-"

"Your powers can activate emotionally. It may not be active yet, but strong emotions can cause it to activate regardless."

Gallus was stunned. Not only had his power nearly killed his friends, but his predecessor took steps to ensure he couldn't use them? "How? How do I activate my powers?"

"I hear it in your voice. Loyalty is not simply protecting your friends. It's being their sword as well as their shield. It's being there to give them your body when their's fails them. It's laughing with them when you get in trouble for their antics. Very well. I will tell you."

Gallus held his breath. What did he have to do? Kill a monster? Break the sound barrier? Go up to his friend and-

"You must find my weapon."

Gallus felt his brain stop.

"Well, it's not so much a weapon as it is a tool."

Gallus shook his head to clear the sudden haze. "What? That's it? Why would that-" Gallus' eyes went wide. "That's right. When the others found their weapon, they also got the knowledge of how to use their powers."

"That's right. I don't want my successor to use my power unless they know how."

"So where is it?"

"I would tell you, but you will find it soon enough anyway. Do not change your plans, but return as soon as you can."

"What do you-" Gallus' eyes went wide as he heard a scream. Looking around him, he was suddenly in a barn that was shaking. As the scream grew louder, the shaking got more intense.

"Return. Before it's too late."

As soon as the scream got deafening, the barn collapsed. Gallus' eyes shot open and met with Silver's tearful eyes.

"G-Gallus? Are you... alright?"

Gallus looked around. The others were staring with a mixture of shock and worry. "What happened?"

"The others were doing their thing, and you just... passed out. For no reason." Rainbow put her hoof to Gallus' head. "Are you feeling okay?"

Gallus sat up and rubbed his head. "I... I think the tree sent me a message."

Smolder's eyes shot wide. "The tree? Are you high?"

Ocellus looked at the tree. "The tree is the source of one of the most potent magical artifacts in all of Equestria. It's not a long shot to think it is sentient or at least sapient."

Sandbar held his hoof out to Gallus. "Did you learn anything about your power?"

"Yeah." Gallus took the hoof and stood up. "It's locked."

The others reacted in the same way. "What?"

Gallus shrugged. "I guess it's more dangerous than we thought. Apparently, I can unlock it by getting Gabriella's "tool", but I don't know where that is."

Yona patted Gallus on the back, nearly breaking it. "Let's hope we find it soon."

Rainbow looked at the sky. "Let's hope no one wonders where we are. Let's get back to the school."

The teacher led her students out of the cave. A minute later, another creature entered.

"The Tree of Harmony is powered by the White Curse? Why? Did the White Cursed help make you?"

They touched the crystal-like tree, causing one of the gems to react.

"No. It was the Pillars of Equestria. There's no way they would associate with the White Cursed. They should know better."

They pulled their hoof back and admired the tree.

"... I should know better. They weren't around when that power was outlawed. They probably would have collaborated to create something to protect Equestria in case neither are around."

They smiled.

"And they did."

Author's Note:

Casual reminder that you can read the next chapter early at my Patreon for 20$ a month, over at https://www.patreon.com/Jumpitydude.

Also did some grammatical clean-up on the earlier chapters. No major re-writes yet, though.

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

Oh wow rartiy You basically Resist the corruption way to go And it makes sense because she was corrupted before and that bunny thing Lagmo is kinda weird and he's friends with gold strike huh hmm Suspicious and apparently gallus is very powerful that we can even imagine huh wow thats something and I wonder who are those mysterious characters are anyway i guess will found out and