Curses!
Twilight didn't remember getting home, but she still woke up in her bed.
Everything after the... impact was a red-tinted blur. Somepony had obviously helped her home and somewhere in that time she had washed up. But none of it had stuck to Twilight's mind. Everything was fragments after Trixie....
After Trixie...
Twilight's soul lurched. She was going to need time to handle this. And coffee.
Several minutes later, she descended the stairs with none of the regal manner of a Princess. She was barely managing to hit 'functional adult pony', but the somber air that permeated all of Ponyville said she wasn't the only one. Possibly the only one that wasn't crushed by it was Spike.
Faithful, diligent, perfect Spike. Whose response to the tragedy was not to think of himself but to throw all he had into his work. Work that, in this moment, took the form of a legion of pancakes on the table.
"Haybacon's ready in just about two minutes!" He huffed, running from stove to table and back again. "I pulled out four kinds of syrup, too! You'll..." Spike halted at the side of the stove, head tilted in rapt, confused curiosity as he looked at Twilight. "...Why are you wearing Trixie's hat?"
Twilight's bleary eyes blinked. Slowly. She was wearing a hat? A touch with her hoof confirmed it - somehow, she hadn't felt it on her head before. And it had somehow stayed on through the entire night's rough sleep and falling out of bed in the morning. Still, she was able to take it off now - which in context seemed even weirder. Not having it on felt off, somehow.
But the hat being set aside seemed to satisfy Spike. And Spike satisfaction meant pancakes. "Well, this should help. Getting something in you can't hurt, right? Now - syrup! Maple, praline, strawberry or boysenberry?"
It was a critical question at this point in the morning. But an easy one to answer. "Twilight Sparkle will have the praline."
Spike froze. "...What?"
"The Great and Powerful Twilight Sparkle shall have the--" Now it was Twilight's turn to realize what she had said. "Twilight didn't-- She means that--" Panic started to set in. "Spike, something's wrong! Twilight can't-- argh!" She tipped out of her chair, hooves holding her head. "What's going on?!"
A zombie named Starlight Glimmer groaned from the doorway, slumping in at the smell of pancakes. She still reeked of cheap liquor - enough so that Spike pulled back for fear his breath would ignite hers.
Despite the stench, Twilight lunged to grapple her ex-student. "Starlight! The Great and Powerful Twilight Sparkle has found something is wrong!" She paused as what she said sank in. "What Twilight has just said is what's wrong! She can't control this!"
It broke Twilight's heart to see the pain in Starlight's eyes - well, she couldn't see it through the liquor but Twilight was certain it was there. Hidden behind it all as Starlight grieved in her own way. The words managed to break in, however. Starlight's frown wasn't one of grief, but of concern. "Hold... hold on."
Stepping back, Starlight's horn glowed. The spell was easy enough for Twilight to recognize - Witching Brew's Toxin Purge was a well-known medical spell to handle poisons and a crucial tool for surviving wild parties. (Not that Twilight had them herself, but most unicorns who needed it weren't in any condition to cast it themselves and were desperate for rescue before the looming hangover hit.)
A full-body shudder ran across Starlight as a not insignificant percentage of her bloodstream was transmuted. She wobbled - momentarily woozy - but got her balance fast enough. Even with her hidden tears, Starlight was strong. She had a heart like a manticore. It was part of what Twilight admired about her.
"So." Blue eyes locked to purple. "Talking in the third person? Giving yourself the title? And I'm betting you keep finding her hat on your head."
Twilight reflexively reached a hoof up to find that the magician's hat had somehow ended up on her head again. She yelped and tossed it away. "Starlight, Twilight swears she isn't doing this on purpose!"
"I know you're not." Starlight wrapped her forehooves around Twilight and hugged her. "But I've got bad news, Twilight. You're cursed."
The kitchen was silent for a moment.
"Twilight is what."
With a deep sigh, Starlight squeezed her teacher and broke away. "Cursed. You're going to want to sit down - there's a story to tell."
All three sat at the table, pancakes shared around. Briefly Twilight resisted in her grief, but Spike's glare would brook no disagreement. So they ate slowly as Starlight began.
"Trixie warned me about this when I started as her assistant. Since I was working with her, I was the one most likely to be affected." Starlight cut her pancake up slowly, magic aura moving at a somber pace. "Long, long ago, a powerful unicorn wizard predicted that one day a terrible evil would arise from the accursed city of Tambelon. It would take a spellcaster of great power to defeat that evil, but there would only be one chance to stop it. Since nopony could afford to try unless they really were the destined great one, he cursed himself."
Starlight paused to put something in her empty stomach. Pancakes were good, no matter the circumstances. "The curse was that he would never be able to call himself anything but the Greatest and Most Powerful - and that any pony strong enough to defeat him would take that curse instead. His hat and cloak would go with it, as well, to ensure that it couldn't be faked. That way, when the day finally came? The curse would show who was truly the strongest wizard in the land at the time and they could be called on to save the world."
Twilight considered this. And she frowned deeply. "So the curse is a calling card? To identify the strongest unicorn?"
"And to provoke others at the strongest by being infuriating, though that's just a theory of mine," Starlight amended. "That way, not only would only the strongest have the title but they would also be constantly challenged by others to improve. It was meant to be a trial by fire to prepare for the task ahead."
There was a long pause. "So a curse to determine the strongest and most magical of all unicorns." Another pause. "So how did Trixie get it?"
Starlight's jaw dropped. "Twilight! Really?! That's my dead best friend you're talking about!"
And instantly, Twilight held up her hooves in surrender. "Twilight Sparkle was joking! She swears!"
That only mollified Starlight a little, but moved her down from aghast to merely grumbling. She did provide a little context, however. "Also, it was a wagon accident. Trixie ran the previous curse-bearer over."
Twilight took a moment to process that. It did make sense - Trixie had always been bad about proper load distribution on her wagon and was infamously terrible at using appropriate tie-downs to keep the weight from shifting. So that part was explained. And that left only one more terrible task ahead. "The Great and Powerful Twilight Sparkle understands. It is a great burden, but she shall bear it and prepare to fight this--"
"Happened three hundred years ago."
Twilight stopped dead. "Pardon?"
Starlight repeated herself. "It happened three hundred years ago. The ancient evil's already been defeated. But the original caster never put an end clause on the curse, so it's still going. And will continue to keep going."
"You're pulling Twilight Sparkle's Great and Powerful leg." Twilight just.... stared in disbelief.
"I know, so unprofessional, right? Calling himself the Greatest and Most Powerful while leaving a mistake like that in his legacy spell?" Starlight rolled her eyes. "It's no wonder he was killed and lost the curse almost immediately."
Finally bringing over the haybacon, Spike interposed himself. "Missing the point, Starlight. How do we un-curse Twilight?"
The question was dismissed with a wave of her hoof. "Oh, we can't. I absolutely tried to remove it from Trixie." Her voice dropped to a mutter. "Believe me, nopony was sicker of her third person boasting than me." Starlight cleared her throat, pulling back to the topic. "I'm really sorry, Twilight, but you're stuck with it. Trixie always thought I would be the one to accidentally cause her death with a trick that went wrong - you getting it was just... bad luck."
Haybacon and pancakes were chewed over just as much as the information. It was a lot to take in and it could take days to decide how to hand--
"No."
Starlight looked up. "Huh?"
"No. The Great and Powerful Twilight Sparkle refuses to accept there is such a thing as an unbreakable curse." Twilight stood up from the table, eyes flashing with determination. "Twilight will find a way." She adjusted the wizard hat that had appeared on her head again and marched out with grave purpose.
The two remaining occupants of the breakfast table didn't say anything for a good minute.
"I really hope she succeeds," Starlight finally half-whispered.
"Yeah," agreed Spike. "I hope so too."
Starlight picked up another strip of haybacon. "Because Trixie talking like that was bad enough, and Twilight's immortal."
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Can't wait til Celestia find out about this.
A teaser for next chapter:
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I can't wait to see her reaction as well. I hope they can all find a way to lift the curse.
I've thought of one way to possibly end this Great and Powerful Curse, but it could have some serious consequences though.
Okay. Chapter 2 down, and I’m interested, since the easiest way to break the curse is to bring Trixie back. All Twilight needs is some necromancy and a shovel... or I guess a mop and bucket, considering the kersplat...
Drink a bucket of milk. Should remove the effects.
I feel like there is going to be some sort of banishment coming since no one could deal with the constant mannerisms. The Great and Powerful Prrrrrrrincess of Friendship is gonna get damn old fast.
Don't tell me Celestia forgot to mention this! Also love the Dark / Sass meter, but it could have been more to the right.
I look forward to seeing how the great and powerful twilight is going to find out how to mulligan this curse if this goes by the movies its based on.
This was a great line.
If I were her I'd just take a break from politics until I got it fixed.
This sentence doesn't seem quite right.
Wonder what the curse would do if the previous bearer perished of old age or contagion. Also in thinking about it I wonder if it can be bypassed by other means of communication, such as writing, telepathy, other languages, non spoken languages, semaphore etc.
Twilight should trick Celestia into temporarily killing her or something. Or better, trick Luna into killing her, for a while, just to shift the curse. And then watch the show:
I would like to see that dialog
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Of course I miss one right at the beginning in editing. Corrected - thank you!
Gonna bet Twilight is going to slowly transform into Trixie.
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One can only hope.
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What can I say: Y'all know for me going through my transformations of course X3
Knew I should have said wagon instead of house, but I was really attached to the Wizard of Oz reference.
Wellp I am extremely glad I was wrong, and enjoying this chapter very much, tone was perfect.
Oh. Snap. I didn't even think of that.
Wait, so let me see if I’ve got this straight. An ancient evil from Tambelon? A powerful unicorn wizard with knowledge of such? 300 years ago, i.e. a few thousand lunar cycles?
Goat demon incoming, load the Orbital Friendship Cannon!
The fact that this curse did not have an end clause was a horrible oversight....maybe twilight can look at the spell matrix and augment it to include a non-fatal end clause to free herself...BUT thats the easy way out of the story so it probably won’t happen...could lead to fun shenanigans if there is a tamper-deal on it though
Well, good thing immortal does not necessarily mean invincible. One interpretation of it, which TVTropes calls "The Ageless," means "does not age" but does NOT mean "cannot die." You can still get your head chopped off and off to the Great Beyond you go.
Maybe Twiggles will find a spell to temporarily kill her and convince someone else to cast it. Perhaps an elderly pony on their deathbed who probably only has a few hours left. "Sure, Princess, I'll do one last good deed."
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Have you ever tried to drink an entire bucket of milk before? Easier said than done. You'l hate yourself by the end, not least of which because iron doesn't taste good.
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It's...It's a Minecraft reference.
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... that's why I didn't call you an idiot, and instead made a joke about how the only reason that plan wouldn't work is because you wouldn't like the taste, yes.
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But, Steve doesn't seem to mind. Nor does he have any problem chugging an entire bucket like nobody's business.
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Not a bad idea actually.
Typo:
Whose
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Ah good, thank you. Corrected.
And that is the truly scary part of this story, that the Great and Powerful Frazzle agrees with.
I completely lost ITV here.... I almost did a spit take realizing hen implications of this sentence...
Remember when you didn't believe in curses at all, Twilight? Back during the poison joke thing? A full-grown, adult, unicorn wizard taught by the immortal princess of the sun herself, and you managed to not find out that curses were really a thing until you were 20 or something. That was really silly.
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Good times. Goooood times.
poor trixie
Also French toast.
The curse can't be that bad. I mean, Trixie would never have intentionally committed suicide just so she could deliberately shift the curse onto Twilight instead of her best friend Starlight, right?...Right?
Also, 300 years ago for the big bad of Tambelon? I hope Spike is writing this down in his journal and keeping the time proper, because in 700 years it'll have been 1000 years since the big bad was defeated, and we all know evil threats like to return on a 1000-year timescale
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I mean the first chapter does say that:
So I imagine her death here is entirely accidental.
You're proberbly dead on about Grogar coming back after 700 years or so though.
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Most every dictionary I have looked up uses the phrase: "exempt from dying" or "exempt from death" which cover all factors (not just aging). People however tend to rewrite things to suit their needs, so it honestly doesn't surprise me that people are tending to refer to immortal and ageless as the same thing.
Given some of the things the writers were toying around with, and the lack of alicorns outside Twilight in the final episode, I am not entirely convinced that alicorns are naturally either, Ageless or Immortal.
I wouldn't trust wheels after that, either. The Great and Powerful Gadot would find them most suspicious if they caused her to befall such a curse.
I feel bad for laughing as much as I have already, even though this chapter is slightly less dark than the previous one. Nice callbacks to G1 (I think?) with Tambleon and Grogar.
My favorite!
I forgot to take that into account. Welp, the Great and Powerful Twily shall rule Equestria fairly after her ascesion to the Equestrian throne! For Eternity!