TMP: The Curse of Poni

In a little town of Ponyville things were starting to get snowy and cold, Twilight Sparkle’s friend Tress ‘The Mane-iac’ Ravel just got back from Applejack’s farm where dealing with pigs had gotten really old. So the still somewhat villainous mare that was pulled from a comic book world that now lived in this one with her best friend, she had just gotten finished with a shower and now didn’t know what to do and to what end.

“Ugh, those pigs at the farm even gave Fluttershy trouble.” Tress said as she tromped down the stairs on the double.

Tress flipped her long blue mane and mentally fluffed out her pink coat, her hair powers kept her quite warm as she would like to gloat. From Rarity she didn’t need winter clothing and her regenerative factor kept her healthy and strong, but she still put on and wore the scarf that Fluttershy made her as to do otherwise would be wrong. Fluttershy went to all that trouble to make a cute scarf that was pink, purple, blue and green made with great care, no matter what form she was it always matched Tress’s hair.

Walking forward into the living room moving for the couch, after a hard day of taking on trouble Tress just wanted to slouch. It was their first Hearths Warming coming up in Ponyville which would be later followed by cleaning, after what happened with the pigs Tress figured Fluttershy would still be preening.

Tress didn’t make it to the couch as something on the bookshelf nearby did glow, a book flew out and struck Tress in the head and the anger of the mare did grow.

“Twilight you clocked me upside the head with another book!” Tress roared out to the point that the house shook. During the cold months when there was much snow abound, Twilight’s hairstyling and cutting business found itself lacking customers all around. Trouble taking during the cold months was how they stayed wealthy; else they wouldn’t have enough to heat their home or to stay healthy.

“Sorry Tress I was about to start working on some bread pudding and collecting the stuff I need for the recipe was just done, so why are you coming from upstairs and did you have fun? I just got back myself and you certainly will be fine, to keep you down I’d have to hit you with more than one fully grown pine. You heal fast enough so no complaining, I think you’re just upset because there won’t be any raining.” Twilight came from the kitchen while levitating some tools, anyone allowing her to cook would certainly be fools. Though there is one exception to that rule, Twilight had a knack for making any kind of pudding for which her daughter Barb thought was kind of cool. The comment about the rain was because Twilight knew Tress likes it when it stormed, since where there was thunder it was said lighting was formed. Tress’s powers ran on powerful shocks, not to mention the look of what the rain did to her mane rocks.

“Yeah, yeah, today was certainly quite pleasant, especially after what happened with the one pig and that pheasant.” The mare with the long blue mane stated sarcastically while shuddering and trying to cope, maybe Applejack was finally done with her livestock or so Tress would hope. Once again Tress got glued to a ceiling, her worst nightmare that always leaves her reeling. A lot of things to be said about Big Mac and the word nope, it had took them more than an hour to get Tress down by rope.

“Tress is something wrong here I’m feeling a bit of a change, do you feel like the world rhymes and is acting strange?” It was a small inkling that Twilight the chaotic mare felt all too well, for there was a mild case of zebra pox going around as everyone could probably tell.

“Just go back to what you were doing and please let me rest.” Tress had looked about knowing there was a compulsion to rhyme every once in a while, but when Pinkie caught the zebra pox all it did was make her have a grand smile. “I need to relax, so when are Barb and Smart coming home and please tell me we aren’t hosting a guest.”

“Well Zecora is going to stay with us for Hearths Warming later this week, otherwise there is no other guest I can really think of or seek. They should be here within the next few minutes if Smart is punctual as I am at times, though I still have this nagging feeling that we’re all talking in rhymes.” Shaking her head and well maintained hair, Twilight went off to start on her bread pudding and gave peace to her best friend that was a generally good mare.

“Ignore that feeling as it always happens during the hearths warming season, I personally can ignore it easily enough… well… at least within reason.”  Tress just shook her head and her bump did heal, now what could she do while she was lazing on the couch now that her pain she couldn’t feel. Tress was too lazy to work on her projects downstairs in the basement where the laboratory was kept, so maybe a book was in order before she ate dinner and slept. She decided to wait for Smart who was now in the librarian trade, for once someone could actually use her services aside from the reason she was made.

Tress didn’t wait long as the door opened and in flew Smart Esmeralda Pants Sparkle the pixie that at its core was still Twilight’s old toy, said Smart was as her name implied and at times she could be quite coy. The little pixie was a sneaky attractively beautiful little thing, to the hybrid dragon Barb that was Twilight’s daughter a lot of joy did she bring.

“Please don’t tell me you left mom alone in the kitchen, you know that she can’t cook!” Barb’s pony like ears twitched in fear as she shook.

“It’s okay since she’s not trying to make dinner, to let her try that would have me feeling less like a winner. Despite how tempting it would be, even if I were still at my most evil even I’m not quite that stupid you see.” Tress in a quite few words quickly defused Barb’s panic; she then turned to Smart with a grin that looked quite manic. “Say Smart I’m in need of a book to read while I’m taking a break, I had a long day with pigs, pheasants and a dirty ceiling phobia that I still can’t quite shake.”

“Why does everyone rhyme all the time now, is there another town wide gas leak in Ponyville or something again? Ugh, I had to save every single pony in town that day with Barb because you and Twilight were busy in the Ever Free Forest fighting off those encroaching cookie elves.” Aside from Smart, Barb was around for it and they found a fix for the strange situation their selves. Barb following in her mother’s hooves in saving the day was a chip off the block; she was coming into her own magical might with power in stock.

“Don’t remind me of those stupid little guys, if I didn’t have super powers then all of that sugar they forced on me might have went to my thighs. No one is going to put the Cakes out of business thanks to Pinkie taking them out to pasture with relative ease, so how about that book now if you are willing to please?” Tress was not going to scream bloody murder about all the rhyming; she also was also trying to ignore all the mentally thinking it in a similar timing.

“Fine what kind of book do you want, another gore fest with tons of action in it or can I suggest something more classical?” Smart wasn’t put off by the rhyming, in fact she kind of found it hilarious that it didn’t affect her one bit because she technically wasn’t a living organism. She was trying to ignore the incredible fact that she might be slowly gaining her own sentience over time.

“A Hearth’s Warming tale sounds good right about now and I’m in the mood. Maybe something involving hair and as long as it’s not the ‘Gift of generosity’, that story really gets Twilight mad every single time she even hears it being read. She’ll go on ranting for hours that a homemade gift from the heart is more meaningful than any store bought item from the heart.  Maybe you could get something with a bit of romance even, something that has a sweet ending and a story I haven’t exactly read yet.” As Tress spoke she realized something in kind. “Hey, would you listen to me I’m not rhyming anymore, well that’s a load off of my mind! I mean it, ugh you have no idea how annoying that is and Pinkie actually enjoys it spreading it around all over the place she was even coughing on ponies so I gave her a good old nice right hoof to the face for it.”

“Well at least your powers helped you to get better; I’m going upstairs to take a hot bath that will make me wetter.” Barb stalked off in an angry huff shaking her head while blushing given that her phrasing sounded so wrong as she was still stuck with the rhyming addiction, in Equestria it was quite a common and a very heavily spread affliction.

“Well… that was awkward wordplay. Okay, I think I might have just the story for you Tress, I’ll be back in a minute so don’t go to sleep.” Smart watched as Tress leaned back while crossing her hooves not saying a peep. The pixie flew towards the front door with a flash, around the doorknob and out the door she closed behind her with a loud bash.

Five minutes later the pixie returned with a relatively large tome, Tress took it with her mane from the Pixie as she struggled to magically lift it through the door to the ponyville Sparkle home.

“The Curse of Poni, a story about two ponies incidentally cursed by their destinies and coming together? Eh, it’s worth a shot, goodness knows Twilight’s cursed with horrible cooking for the rest of her life and I still love her anyway.” After sighing contently, a blank look crossed Tress’s face as she looked up from reading the summary of the book. Her attention was now on Smart realizing what she had just said out loud.

The pixie floated there was a blank stare; Smart wondered whether or not to start laughing while giving off a twirl with a gleeful little flair.

“Um that didn’t come out right, but please tell me you didn’t hear that anyway!” A very mortified Tress knew she was caught red hoofed.

“Say what?” Smart said with a sly smile. “I lost my sense of hearing for a second there; I may need Twilight to check to see if my enchantment matrix isn’t flagging a bit and for some reason I can’t remember the past few minutes.”

“Exactly, you have no idea what I said at all.” Tress never said it, but Smart having Twilight’s childhood imaginary friends personality really helped in this situation and she tended to be more like what subconsciously went on in Twilight’s head at times. Smart was a true friend even if she wasn’t really physically alive, though she certainly acted like it at times. “Thanks by the way, I’m glad that you’re as equally one of a kind in the friendship department as Twilight is.”

“Still wish Twilight would make another one of me, even if the enchantments would cause us both to go up in an explosion within minutes it’d still be nice to have friends my size.” Smart lamented sadly, she wanted another enchanted imaginary friend personality toy pixie to spend time with outside of just hanging with Barb.

“Why don’t you teach Barb how to make one, doesn’t she use magic on a different frequency or something and wouldn’t that allow there to be another one of you but with whatever personality Barb gives it?” This was suggested immediately by Tress, it was the first thought that came to mind and since she felt she needed to pay the tiny pony pixie back.

“…” Smart immediately zipped off upstairs with a blank if rather thoughtful look on her tiny face leaving Tress to her book.

The super powered mare shrugged and tried to open it. It was a fresh book and hadn’t been opened yet judging by the noise it made when she pulled at the cover, most likely fresh from the library and Tress was the first one to touch it. It was kind of nice of Smart to go through all that trouble of getting her a new fresh unopened book.

Tress cracked open the book to read the tale, everyone else was busy so she had some quiet time now and would be able to do so without fail.

“This tale that is spun does not begin on a dark and stormy night or once upon a time, in fact it starts with a mare who was cursed because of an uncommitted crime.” Tress sighed in a lamenting manner; as she looked over the next few words as apparently the book started in rhyme to her ire. There was just no escaping it; she may as well continue reading maybe to be even accompanied by a choir. “The mare who didn’t commit this crime was a pegasus with a mane of blue, framed she was for her coat color which was purple in hue. It was a case of mistaken identity and what was carried down the family line to every pegasus mare was this unjust curse, despite the real culprit being found the curse was never lifted which was even worse. What the real thief stole was a powerful artifact that curses those who would wield its incredible might, to be free of its curse you had to spill the blood of an intelligent creature at night. Many murders were committed with the cursed artifact but oddly never has a pony ever been cured of its effects no matter how intelligent the beings in the dark that were killed; the curse forces a random form of madness upon the wielder until the requirements to lift it are filled. The thief had perished because of the madness born of the artifact which was carefully returned to whence it came, the now cursed pegasus mare having been forgotten was not to blame.”

Pausing to think for a moment Tress was incredibly be intrigued by this story, she took a look around to see no one listening to her read. She continued on a lot more interested in the story as it had all started with a tragedy which planted the seed. In fact it didn’t say exactly what the unwarranted curse on this particular family line did in oh so many words; just that it only affected pegasus mares that would fly free like birds.

“This was the start of the ‘Mane Queens’ line carried down through the centuries where marrying a pegasus was considered highly taboo as the curse was still very much alive and in the carried blood, eventually the cursed artifact that started this mess fell from the sky in a great storm where it was lost in a mighty flood.” It made Tress wonder what a Mane Queen was with worry; this story was beginning to really drag her in as the next few words were the set up for this whole story. “The law of every curse that has ever come about, it is to be known that they always have an out. The out is always in the form of a puzzle, each and every one that exists will always leave you scratching the underside your muzzle. For that is usually where the cure is found, once that is done to the curse you are not longer bound.”