White Curse

by Jumpitydude

Chapter 20 2

Gilded Lily stepped out into the courtyard, biting her lip. She looked up in time to see the dirt at the center swelling.

"You're clear to come up, Yona."

The dirt quickly moved out of the way, revealing five different creatures.

"Hey, Lily? Could you stick me in the river?"

Lily lifted the Hippogriff and placed her in the water.

"Oh, that feels good."

Lily looked at the Dragon. "Do you want me to stick you in the oven?"

Smolder chuckled. "I know you're joking, but that sounds like it would feel good right now."

Sandbar rubbed his head. "Hey, Lily? Where's Scootaloo?"

Lily pointed at one of the windows. "She's in that room, but I'd leave her alone. She's not taking any of this well, especially since one of the Washouts revealed that she was allowed on to get back at Rainbow Dash."

Yona frowned. "That's just mean."

Lily put her horn to Smolder's head and lit Smolder on fire.

"Wha- Wow. That actually feels good."

Sandbar stared at the Dragon. "What the heck is Gallus' power? He was teleporting around and made explosions!"

Ocellus tapped her chin as the scars on her legs slowly vanished. "I think it was sound."

"Sound? Where did you get that from?"

Ocellus' head shrunk into her shoulders. "Well he called himself Reverb, and he had a bell. His powers being sound-based also makes the other parts make sense."

Sandbar shot her a baffled look. "Okay, I get riding sound waves to teleport, but EXPLOSIONS?"

"Pressure."

Sandbar looked at Lily. "Eh?"

"Sound is basically a form of pressure. As we talk, we send a pressure wave through the air. An explosion is basically a massive pressure wave. That's why your ears ring when you're too close to an explosion."

"Do you remember those times where he had his right claw behind his back? I think he summoned the bell and rang it to create a bit of sound and held it in place to set those "explosions" up. Meaning he can ride sound, pause sound, amplify sound, and who knows what else with sound."

"That all sounds so cool!" Silver took a moment to realize the pun she accidentally made before giggling at it.

Sandbar was far less amused. "It also sounds very dangerous. I can see why they locked it before he knew how to handle it for sure."

Yona put her hoof to her chin. "Thinking about it, he was pretty loud right after we got our powers."

Smolder sat up and moved her arms and legs a bit. "Maybe that was his power leaking through."

"Scootaloo! Scootaloo!"

Lily looked at the entrance to the courtyard. "I know that voice." With that, she ran off.

"You know what that means, right?"

Ocellus' friends looked at her.

"Gallus stole the bell."

---

Rainbow stirred in the bed she had been placed in. "Uhh... wha..." She rubbed her head as she looked around.

She quickly realized she was in the school infirmary. The curtain was pulled around her bed, so she couldn't see anything aside from her bed and Scootaloo... Wait.

"Scootaloo!" Rainbow immediately grabbed the filly into a hug. "Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did anything-"

Scootaloo shoved Rainbow away. "I'm fine! It's just..." She sighed. "You were right about the Washouts. Lightning Dust told me she just wanted me on board to get back at you and was perfectly fine with me getting hurt."

Rainbow really wanted to gloat about being right, but now wasn't the time. "It's alright. I shouldn't have tried to tell you what you could and couldn't do. And making you feel like you could never be as cool as me was definitely wrong."

Scootaloo smiled. "We're still sisters, right?"

Rainbow hugged Scootaloo. "Yeah. I'd hate to lose a sister as cool as you."

They shared a smile then a laugh.

"Dashie!" Pinkie popped her head through the curtain, then rushed up to Rainbow, wrapping her in a hug. "Thank goodness you're awake! You won't believe-"

As Pinkie rambled on, Rainbow rolled her eyes and placed a hoof on Pinkie's back. After a moment, though, the gears in her head started turning.

"Hey, Scootaloo? Could you leave for a bit? I need to talk to Pinkie in private."

The other two ponies stared at Rainbow, then glanced at each other.

"Okay." Scootaloo hopped off the bed and made her way out of the room.

"So what is it? Oh! Do you want to plan a party for Scootaloo? Maybe make it a big-"

Rainbow put her hoof over Pinkie's mouth. "Actually, it's about the White Cursed."

Pinkie moved the hoof off of her mouth. "Are you loco in the coco? I don't know anything about-"

"It's alright. I know who they are too."

Pinkie paused, then looked away. "... I'm used to dealing with secrets, but this is something on a whole other level. If I let this slip, other creatures will die."

"Yeah. I know. But at least you're used to keeping secrets of any kind. I'm used to running my mouth about anything and everything."

"How did you learn who they are? And how did you know I knew, for that matter?"

Rainbow rubbed her head. "Spending too much time with Twilight, honestly. I realized something was off back when Applejack went mad, and the only way for things to fit into place was if they were the White Cursed. I realized you knew just now. I remembered what happened when I lost it, but you somehow didn't? That didn't make sense."

"So you realized that I was hiding something, and you already knew what I was hiding." Pinkie chuckled. "You're right. You have been spending too much time with Twilight."

"Did you ever talk to them about it?"

Pinkie shook her head. "By the time I got the chance to, I sorta figured that it wouldn't really change anything. Besides, if they knew I knew, then I would just be-"

"Rainbow!"

Both mares flinched and turned in the direction the voice came from. The curtain pulled back, revealing a very unhappy Twilight.

"What were you... Pinkie, get off the bed."

Pinkie giggled and hopped off the bed.

"What were you thinking?"

"I just wanted-"

"NOT YOU, PINKIE!"

Pinkie shied back. "Okay, not the time."

Twilight shot a glare at Rainbow. "Well?"

Rainbow bit her lip. While she had seen Twilight angry, it was never this bad before. "Well, you remember what happened with Rarity, right?"

"Yes, I do."

Pinkie tilted her head. "What happened with Rarity?"

Twilight turned to scream at Pinkie again but realized that Pinkie didn't actually know. "That darkness that's been possessing the faculty tried to get her, but somehow couldn't."

Pinkie whistled. "Go Rarity."

"Well, I figured the corruption was similar to Nightmare Moon, and that stuff took Rarity over in the past, so there may be a one-time possession limit."

Twilight's eyes were wide, but she still managed to raise an eyebrow. "So you took a chance on the current incident being connected to Nightmare Moon somehow, and let yourself get corrupted?"

"You remembered what Fluttershy said back when Pinkie got corrupted? Before we knew any details about this stuff? She said it was similar to what happened with Luna and Stygian. That's why she recommended using the Elements of Harmony on Pinkie."

"So you figured the rest of us would show up with the elements and use them without the White Cursed showing up?"

"I knew it would be the White Cursed stopping me, I just thought I would have more control if I was willing to let it-"

"Did you?"

Rainbow opened her mouth to respond, only to close it and look away.

"That's what I thought. Now, let me run down all of the issues we're facing because of your rather public corruption."

"Wait, what? How long was I out?"

Pinkie shrugged. "A couple of hours. Either way, you'd think ponies would write it off as another oddity in Ponyville."

"You'd think." Twilight flipped through a couple of papers she had. "The first issue can actually be tracked to a certain group of ponies, as the Washouts are claiming this is far from the first time this happened. I managed to weather that storm by claiming they had no official access to prove their claims and reminding everyone that these kinds of incidents are not one of a kind and we have ways of handling them before anything major can come of it."

"Are you gonna punish them for that?"

"We can't. Not without raising further questions. The second issue is something I have to worry about; regardless of your justification, what you did could be seen as betrayal. When I realized that, I checked on the Tree of Harmony, and the Element of Loyalty was darker than the rest."

Rainbow's eyes went wide. "Y-you mean..."

"The Elements may not work anymore. We either need a new Element of Loyalty, or you need to convince it you still deserve the title."

Rainbow bit her lip.

"The last issue is..."

---

"... Then I teleported to you guys, took out Rainbow, teleported back to the train, and did nothing until I got back."

Gallus' friends shared a look. He knew what they were thinking without diving into their minds.

Sandbar was the one to say it. "I'm sorry, but we can't just take your word about that."

Gallus chuckled. "Can't take the Griffon's word, huh? I get it."

"Gallus." Silver put her claw on his shoulder. "Do you feel okay? You seem... different."

Gallus rubbed his neck. "I think Gabriella left more of herself in the bell than the others did in their tools. I'm still trying to sort out my thoughts from her's."

The others looked at each other again. "Well, that will have to wait."

Silver gripped Gallus' claw. "Just close your eyes. This will only take a second."

Gallus closed his eyes, followed by the others. He didn't feel anything at first. Once he did feel something, it was more like someone was holding his brain and massaging it. A moment later, it started to hurt. Once it became unbearable, however, it suddenly stopped.

"You can open your eyes now."

Gallus opened his eyes and looked around. "Did one of you do something? My head feels more clear now."

Ocellus giggled a bit. "I kinda helped you sort out your thoughts a bit."

The others gave Ocellus either smiles or raised eyebrows (Sandbar gave her both).

Smolder coughed. "Even if you were telling the truth, you still stole the bell."

Gallus nodded. "I'll let Gruff know what I did the next time I see him and see what he wants me to do. There's probably some way for me to-"

There was a sudden knocking on the door. "May I come in?"

The students looked at the door in worry. "Uh, sure."

The door opened and Pinkie Pie stepped in. "H-hey guys."

The moment the teacher closed the door, Silver spoke up, "Is this where you reveal that you know our big secret?"

Pinkie paused for a moment, then looked right at Silver. "... Sorry, you just did something I do, and now I know why it weirds out my friends."

Sandbar chuckled. "You mean that thing where you guess something completely random?"

"Yeah. And end up being right. I know about you being the White Cursed."

Ocellus' jaw dropped. "How do you know? Did Professor Rainbow tell you?"

Pinkie giggled. "I actually knew before Dashie. I said I forgot what happened to me while I was possessed, but I remember it all pretty clearly."

Smolder raised an eyebrow. "And you didn't tell us because..."

"I wasn't sure how you'd react to knowing someone else knew. You might have- No. Not the time for that, Pinkie. Anyway, when Dashie told me she knew and you knew she knew, I felt more comfortable with talking to you about it."

Yona nodded. "I understand, but it's always nice to have someone else to talk about it with."

Pinkie took a deep breath. "Right. Onto the important stuff. Twilight brought up three things to... well, Dashie, but I was right there. One of them doesn't involve you guys, so I won't mention it, but the other two are... worrying."

Sandbar felt a chill go down his spine. "What are they?"

"The first is that the Washouts publicly declared that ponies have been getting possessed. It would probably have been written off if you hadn't had an audience for that last fight of yours. Twilight calmed them down, but that doesn't mean it won't affect what you're doing."

Gallus raised an eyebrow. "I don't see how that will affect us."

"Well, the other thing will have a more clear effect on things. Princess Celestia is freeing up her schedule to make regular visits, and she's sending out a bunch of guards to watch Ponyville at all times, with one always being at the school. There's going to be a bunch of ponies keeping an eye out for anyone that gets corrupted. And you."

Author's Note:

Wow. What a reveal. This seems like a good time to plug my Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/Jumpitydude

In actuality, I'd like to inform you that I lowered the prices of the tiers. So if you looked and thought, "That is way too high for the reward," you might want to look again and see if you would be willing to pay it now.

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

"We can't. Not without raising further questions. The second issue is something I have to worry about; regardless of your justification, what you did could be seen as betrayal. When I realized that, I checked on the Tree of Harmony, and the Element of Loyalty was darker than the rest."

Rainbow's eyes went wide. "Y-you mean..."

"The Elements may not work anymore. We either need a new Element of Loyalty, or you need to convince it you still deserve the title."

Ohh wow thats suck for rainbow dash Is it because she's keeping a secret about who the white curses are Going behind twilight or something

[Yoshifan30]

Wow I didn't know pinkie pie knew about them being the White curse That's pretty cool to have another person or pony or creature to know what's going on but unfortunately now they have a big problem now princess Celestia is more Suspicious about what's going on now there's even more worries that they will be found out soon yikes