Orange You Glad? [FIN]

[Zeig]

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He'd heard about the abundant spellpower of the single-horned ponies living in this land, but...even so, he had not been expecting something like...this.

 

An overgrown forest, yes, the Zebras had warned him about that place. Very near the village he had deemed it best to settle nearby to, a small farming herd - community - nestled away from the hustle and bustle of the mainland he and his sister had disembarked upon. Said forest supposedly did not bend to any magic, Unicorn or otherwise, and was an unforgiving beast, beyond even the skills he'd acquired in the Brackenweald. And there was too, or so he had heard, all too common mishaps from the various Unicorns who took the aether as a form of practice, manifesting it - what they referred to as magic - in ways he and his sister had only heard of from story, and legend.

 

There was fact, there was story, and then there was...this.

 

He blinked at the pumpkin.

 

The pumpkin blinked right back at him.

 

 

It seemed a genial sort of pumpkin, as far as vegetables went, and Daahir N'em supposed that didn't amount for much when, you know, vegetables weren't suppose to be genial at all. So unnatural a thing - when he'd first stumbled across it, skulking around the outskirts of the small town to get a better sense of the area, he'd been downright apoplectic with disquiet, certain that the vegetable had been some sort of cruel trick to play on the unsuspecting and unwary Abada. But even as he'd backed away into the tree line, no ponies had come rushing forth with jibes and pointed hooves, eventually prompting Daahir to take a closer look. A brief touch with his magic, too, revealed deep and embedded roots, far too deep to have grown on a short moment's notice. 

 

Far too deep for any normal pumpkin, at that. 

 

Daahir didn't wish to touch it - but at the same time, he couldn't seem to bring himself to leave it alone. Surely, it had been given unnatural life by some misinformed, or perhaps misguided, Unicorn...but then, why leave it out here at all? Why not destroy it? Though the Abada supposed, seeing the small eyes and wide smile on its, features, brought a certain amount of trepidation to bear. It was a lot more difficult to harm constructs that could mimic or impersonate emotion and pain, even if they couldn't actually feel either of those. 

 

So what could he do?

 

At the moment...nothing, except prod at it a bit more with his magic, carefully and hesitatingly attempting to follow its roots, see if perhaps it had a certain source. Possibly an enclosed and heavily guarded pumpkin patch to return to, from now until the dawn of eternity, preferably. 

 

[PyroBlaze]

Yiska was not sure what was going on here. From what she could tell, some pony was standing around near a pumpkin or something. What were they doing? The blind aerion sat nearby, unknowingly putting herself out of easy sight of the pony as she listened to what little sounds were made from their breathing to try and map out the area.

To help with this, she let out a small noise and jumped back a bit as the sound revealed the obstacle in front of her. She shook her head a bit before moving out from behind the tree and trying again.

"Hey, you." She called to the pony, walking towards them. "What are you doing with that pumpkin?"

[Pretzelparty]

"What's with that big orange thing outside?" Thought the blonde little filly with her snout pushed up against the window. The unicorn's eyes narrowed a bit as she tried to get a better look at it and realized by the shape that it was, one; a pumpkin, two: Gigantic! This was something she -had- to see up close! With a grin she left a note on her grandparent's door and snuck out... surely they'd read it later. The rhythmic clopping of her hooves over the ground and grass was all that was heard before she skidded to a halt. Her jaw dropped... this was incredible! A pumpkin of this size could make so many pumpkin pies. 

But then she noticed it blink...

What. The. Hay. 

Then when she took another look around, her focus on the strange vegetable jarred now by the surprise she went wide eyes for a second. Wow! Did this stallion have two horns?Does that mean he was twice as magically powerful than a unicorn was?! Wait a sec, her parents told her that they saw some folks that looked like Daahir... Abada was their name, right? The second she looked down at her notepad she looked right back up as she was sure she caught a glimpse of an evil toothy grin... but it seemed she made a mistake. She looked back down to her notebook and held it up a moment, "Hello!" it read, "I'm Bebop... did you grow this pumpkin? If you did I think the Apple Family might want to meet you!"

 

 

[tacobob]

 

Wind Walker slowly dried off her hooves while she stared at the bathroom mirror. It was surrounded with an rather uninteresting frame, but the lights that were set up around the frame made it look like an typical backstage mirror, one a famous musician might use.  With the help of an tub of Tasty Pasty (tm) brand toothpaste, the little blue filly was now a singing sensation! "Time for the spectacle! Time for the show! The lights are bright and the colors gloooow!", she sung into her 'microphone'. "I'm just not...erm...oh.". It then dawned on the filly that her good friend Bebop Slide was probably waiting for her to finish up in the bathroom.  She was probably figuring out what exciting thing they could do today! And time is just whizzing by, and what was the blue pony doing?

 

"Bebop!", the filly squeaked out as she left the bathroom. "Where the heck are...oh...duh." Wind Walker felt a little foolish. It was not like her friend would be able to call out to her. She might be able to write one of her notes, crumble it into a ball and throw it her way. After checking a few rooms, Wind noticed her friend was outside. "Erm.", she grumbled to herself as she left the old house. Made perfect sense for her to be outside as there wasn't that many adventures to be found in her grandparent's house.

 

This was a strange sight. Bebop Slide was looking at a Nightmare Night pumpkin, which was also odd, considering somepony was a tad bit late on making this one...Or even too early. Near her friend was what appeared to be an Bat-Pony, like her big sister's favorite trainer, Miss Ember. Closer to the pumpkin was an unicorn, did he have TWO horns? The hay?

 

Wind Walker glanced over at her friend's sign to see what she had 'said' last.  "So, er, we're looking at pumpkins?" Maybe they were getting ready to turn it into a pie! While she was pretty sure that ponies were probably required by law to only enjoy such a delight during the two major holidays, it wouldn't hurt to break the law now and then.

[Zeig]

 

Suddenly, ponies.

 

Quite suddenly, in fact, causing the Abada to start upwards onto his hooves at the sudden voice that originated from his right, where the tree line started. A pony the likes of which he'd never seen was approaching him, and Daahir valiantly stood his ground even as his legs tensed underneath him. Was she planning to attack him? For what purpose? Yemaja's Horns, what in the world was wrong with her wings? They looked like the wings of a bat, not the soft feathered wings of the ponies called Pegasi that he knew inhabited these lands. 

 

Which is when Daahir belatedly realized the pony had asked him a question concerning the unnatural pumpkin, one that sounded rather accusatory, at that.

 

Oh, creators. She probably thought he was the one who'd brought it to life, or something. 

 

But before Daahir could do much more than open his mouth in protest, another small form suddenly made itself known, quickly followed by _another_ scant moments later, as if they were all being summoned from the depths of the sea. The Abada was quick to backpedal away so that all three ponies remained in his line of sight, further removing him from the blinking pumpkin as his orange eyes took in the brown filly's sign, the blue filly's approach to read the same sign, and the bat-winged pony still in his peripherals. 

 

Who had, asked him a rather pointed question, had she not?

 

"I am doing nothing!" the brown Abada protested vehemently, as if all three ponies might suddenly start accusing him of bringing vegetables to life in horrific ways. "It was - I found it like this!" A violent gesture of one hoof towards the pumpkin in question turned up nothing more than few polite blinks from the vegetable, and, if Daahir was being generous, a slight upturning of its smile. Just the sight of it sent another shiver down his spine. 

 

"I was, simply attempting to discern how to dispose of it," Daahir extrapolated, head ducking slightly to stare at the pumpkin from the fringes of his mane. Because there could be no other recourse, surely. It was an unnatural thing, with no apparent purpose or design. 

Plus, he was getting high tired of those beady little eyes staring at him. Judging him. Ridiculous little plant...

[PyroBlaze]

Well, seemed a couple kids were joining the party. Oh well, she didn't really mind. It was a bit strange that the first one to arrive didn't say anything, but hey. The second one was a filly it seemed, though she still didn't know anything about the first.

"Well, that should've been obvious." She said, shrugging slightly at the stallion's response. "Guess it was a bit much to ask to have something interesting happen out here." She added with a chuckle, pausing as she processed his other words. 

"Dispose of it? Why? Smells fine to me. Besides, it's a pumpkin, can't you just leave it there or something?" Yiska asked, her hat slipping a bit as she tilted her head. 

[Pretzelparty]

Bebop's ears and expression fell a bit when the stallion said he had nothing to with the plant, other than trying to think of how he could get rid of it. The brown filly started to circle the plan a bit, her magic holding the little sign up and keeping it at an angle so that Daahir could still read it. 

"But look how big it is! If we brought it back to town we could make the world's biggest pumpkin pies with it--" Her pencil snapped as something dawned on her with the position as to where the pumpkin was. While it wasn't up against the Everfree Forest's edge... it was relatively close. Oh by Celestia, This wasn't something like that sudden plague of big black vines that burst out of Everfree a while back, was it?! Bebops expression of interest was replaced by one of Dread as she galloped right back to her friend Windy and the rest of the little group. 

"WHAT IF THIS IS LIKE ONE OF THOSE PLUNDERSEEDS FROM LAST YEAR?!" She turned to the Abada and looked at him with big, panicky saucers for eyes. "Mister, did you figure out something to get rid of it?!"

[tacobob]

 

Ho-Boy! That double-horned pony.... Actually, would he be called an Duo-Corn? Two horns? And why are Unicorns called Unicorns? They don't have one corn, they have one horn! That's silly! And even sillier was that pumpkin. Wind Walker assumed it was an early or super late Nightmare Night Jackolantern, and while it still may be one, the little filly was very sure she just saw it blink. Strange. But that Duo-Horn sure acted like somepony who was up to something. He was making the same face her older brother Punk Walker would make when he was doing something sneaky. Along with shouting that he did nothing! Ha! That was a classic example of an guilty pony! And now he wanted to get rid of the very festive and possibly magical pumpkin?

 

The pretty bat-pony voiced her concern before Wind could. "Yeah! What she said. That's probably someone's decoration...Or it could be some sort of MAGICAL MONSTROSITY. Why, my friend Double Time has a cousin who swore she saw a flying orange awhile back. Looked like an orange, but had big wings!", she glanced at the large squash, which she would now refer to as 'Blinky', "Maybe some nasty witch turned some poor and helpless pony into a pumpkin! They do that sometimes in stories...Or....ooh! Oooh Ooh!", she was now a very excited little pony. "That's the Headless Horse's pumpkin!", she moved a little closer,"When she doesn't have a head, she usually has a pumpkin. But that face looks like a boy. She'd need eyelashes. And being evil, possibly a more nasty looking expression. So it's probably not hers then."

 

Wind Walker's eyes fell upon her friend, who now looked rather scared! She had not seen the filly with some much dread in her eyes since the time they were lost in the crystal caves with Flakey. "Eh, Bebop?", she glanced down at her pad and let out a 'pffffffttttt' sound after reading it. "A Plunderseed? Don't be silly. That's a pumpkin. Plunderseeds grew nasty vines. Not this cute little guy. I just wonder what this little guy's story is?"

[Zeig]

 

Daahir wasn't quite sure what he was hearing.

 

Or seeing, or both. One of the small fillies seemed intent on writing down her words instead of speaking them - an insistent fad of her youth, perhaps, similar to the one his sister had had when she'd gone a full month behaving like a monkey. Whatever the reason, she was clearly in dire need of some learning in order to recognize threats that were nearby, because the pumpkin. Had. Eyes. The other filly, too, seemed similarly unconcerned with the situation - at least until her friend had a sudden revelation that apparently meant Bad Things, but which were utter nonsense words to his own ears. And this own filly echoed his own sentiments with a scoff, evidently finding this suggestion of plunderseeds to be a ridiculous one.

 

But it was to the first pony, the adult, that Daahir turned towards, seeking some semblance of an answer that would probably not be coming from the two excitable fillies.

 

"Can you not see," the Abada questioned rhetorically, shoving his snout towards the blinking pumpkin, "that vegetable has life! I may not be accustom to the flora of this land, but I am fairly certain living vegetables have never been a natural state of being in any country, pony or no." 

 

...Was it blinking more frequently, or had he just imagined that? 

 

Daahir didn't have too much time to focus on the pumpkin however, as his attention was once again grabbed by the brown filly and her waving sign, new words scribbled out that caused his ears to flatten on top of his head. "I...no, I don't," the brown Abada admitted grudgingly, glancing back at the pumpkin from the corner of his eyes. "It's roots extend far into the ground, it would be no easy matter to simply uproot it." Daahir stared at the unnatural thing once more, before looking back at the bat-winged pony, eyes narrowing a bit. "But I am unfamiliar with this land. Surely you know of some pony that might discern its purpose, or proceed in destroying it?"

[PyroBlaze]

Yiska listened as the other filly spoke, responding to things that had not been said. That other filly was communicating without words, then. Oh well. The mare's attention turned to the other adult in the area as he spoke again, making her frown and her eyes narrow. She walked up to him, stopping when they were almost muzzle-to-muzzle as she began speaking.

"Actually, no, I can't. See my eyes? They don't exactly work. I'm blind, and unless this Bebop is just weird and don't want to talk, that other filly can't speak. So sorry to inconvenience you." She said, only backing up once she had finished. The aerion fixed her hat with a small sigh before continuing. "Now then, the pumpkin's alive? Why not find a guard or something? Isn't it their job to deal with threats and stuff? At the very least they should know who to go to if they are any good."

With that, she stretched out a bit,sniffing at the pumpkin a bit to try and find anything odd about it aside from it's apparent appearance. Weren't all pumpkins alive, if you got down to it?

[Pretzelparty]

 

Bebop blushed s moment and nodded to Windy. She was right, it was kind of a leap to go from plunderseeds to pumpkin. Maybe the silly filly's mind was basing this on what little knowledge of plants she: Plunderseeds were vines, Pumpkins had vines. It's weird how the mind of the inexperienced can piece such strange conclusions together. The Filly stepped a bit closer to the Pumpkin, she rose up a hoof between it's "eyes" Experimentally... Trying to find out if it would follow it or not.

 

A note was levitated up again, "Maybe Princess Twilight? She knows a lot about this magic stuff. I don't think her specialty is... ominous plant life though." The notepad's page was turned as her pencil worked its magic. Now upon the paper it said that the batpony was right, Bebop couldn't speak. As she continued to wave her hoof around in front of the massive... vegetable? Were pumpkins considered vegetables? Oh well. So far, the pumpkin seemed content to stare at the hoof waving back and forth in front of it.

 

 

[tacobob]

 

 

"You really must be new around here.", the blue filly groaned, "Ponyville has all kinds of crazy stuff happen almost on a weekly basis.", she stated in a matter of fact tone. "Oh, and I'm Wind Walker. This is Bebop Jazz." While the little Pegasus did not care to hear the bat-pony refer to her friend as 'weird', it was obvious that she was not saying that to be mean. "She can't speak." The filly was curious if her friend ever had someone get a really good look at why she was unable to talk. Modern magical medical science was pretty darn impressive nowadays, so there's bound to be somepony out there that could fix her whatever that needs fixing.

 

"As for the guard. Eh-heh-heh.", the filly couldn't help but blush a little, "My dad is an officer of the R.E.A and he's been training some new recruits for the Ponyville guard.", she felt a little bad for her pop. Both he and her mom were supposed to have been retired now, but the Changeling invasion a few Nightmare Nights ago changed a few things, and instead of living the high life in Las Pegasus, they were stuck here in Ponyville making sure another invasion never happened again. But there was always a silver lining as if her parents were able to retire, the filly would have been sent to an Canterlot boarding school.  "Normally they would be around here, but something happened near the Everfree so they're checking it out." There was probably some big and scary monster out there that her dad needed to give a big whooping to.

 

"Still, we have some of the best-test superheroes outside of the comic books and I'm sure at least one of them are here." Wind glanced around to see if she could see any of the mares from where she stood, "Princess Twilight is super smart and knows everything about magic, but I'm guessing one of the Apple family could help out the same. We just better have somepony who knows what they're doing have a good look at Blinky. So please don't go stomping on him just yet as he might be a cursed pony...And come to think of it..', she pondered a few things, "You probably might not want to touch him incase the curse is contagious."

 

"Thankfully summoning one of the Apple Clan is pretty easy as I was taught how to call a member of the well respected family..Let me just clear my throat for a second.", as stated, Wind gave off a few coughs before shouting, "HEY APPLES! GIT YER RUMPS OVER HERE! We need some help! Help!"

[Zeig]

 

What - what was this ridiculousness? 

 

It came in the form of the bat winged pony suddenly marching straight up to him, causing Daahir to startle onto his hooves and subsequently back up to match pace and keep a suitable distance away from the strange character. Did she have no concept of personal space? Was she attempting some sort of bizarre, Equestrian custom upon meeting a unfamiliar pony? Was she after his horns?! 

 

None of the above, it turned out, as the strange pony only hissed some words at him, though with the spike of paranoia from her abrupt advance, he almost didn't understand them. As it was, they soon became clearer as Daahir peered into her eyes - from a safe distance - to discover them dull and muted, as if a pall had been cast over them. Similar to the eyes the elder Abada of their tribe had had, before she had passed on. His parents had told him that her eyes had failed with age, that it was common for the elderly, and even sometimes the young. Blindness, strikes down from the moment of birth. 

 

So she was blind, that was no excuse for - oh.

 

Ah.

 

"...I, hadn't realized," Daahir murmured, his eyes fixed steadfastly on the pumpkin. No, he hadn't, not when the bat winged pony had been far removed from his own self. 

 

And the young filly was afflicted with muteness, as well? Great plains, was all of Equestria so similarly stunted with physical defects? Something poisonous in the water? Despite the strange circumstances he found himself in now, Daahir was almost ironically glad of it. Now he knew to purify any drinking water he and his sister accumulated, less the two of them fall prey to much the same.

 

Still, it was clear the bat winged pony had been offended by his word choice, unintentional though they may have been. "I apologize," Daahir offered stiffly, still rigid with tension at the uncomfortable approach of the bat winged mare. And that would be all there was too it. 

 

At least the young filly did not seem overtly offended - and her blue filly friend was currently letting out a stream of words that Daahir was having difficult following, perhaps because they made absolutely no sense. Something about getting help, yes - but also about books, and sparkles, and summonings...and yelling. Though somewhere in the midst of all that, the blue filly did offer her name prompting a short "Daahir N'em," from the Abada, before he returned to steadfastly staring at the pumpkin, willing it to give him all its secrets.

 

Which is how he noticed the vine encircling one of Wind Walker's legs.

 

And one on his own. It was loose enough - a good shake had the vine curling off of his hoof - but when had it even gotten there? Glancing back at the pumpkin, Daahir realized that the mass of vines around its base was even thicker than before. None seemed to be moving, or attempting to sneak up the legs of other ponies...but, what.

 

"These...Apples," the Abada questioned lowly, eyes trained on the innocuous pumpkin even as he spoke to the blue filly, "they can contain this, abomination?" 

 

[PyroBlaze]

"Yiska Noctis." She replied as the rest of the group was introduced. She only gave a small snort at the stallion's words about not realizing, nodding once at his apology and sitting down. She listened to what the others were saying, not at all prepared for the yell that followed Wind's words. The loud noise caused her to jump back a bit, giving a yelp as she covered her ears a bit. 

 

She could handle yelling usually, but it wasn't usually that loud, that close, or that unexpected. As it was, it kinda hurt, but there was nothing for it now. 

 

"Apples? That's that farming family, right?" The Aerion asked, rubbing her ear as she settled back down. "What do you expect a bunch of earth ponies to do with a pumpkin that's alive? Magic's probably the best bet."

[moonshineTheleocat]

Sometimes… a bat has just got to curse his life decisions. All was well in his childhood home… as much as a cave it literally was… it was a good colony for bats. Dark day and night, and you sleep whenever you’re tired. And he traded that for what? Working in the big city, outside of the small world he knew.

It was a nice trade indeed, he became a detective – got his own cushy little home. But now? Here Detective Hard Boiled was, flying away from some pony’s home somewhere in the south. Reason? Possible information about an on going case. But from what the buck had gathered, none of it seemed legit. Like the pony was making a jab to try and get the reward money on a warrant. Still… protocol requires him to investigate it… no matter how much a time waster it was.

Which came to another point… flying around in the sky’s in the daylight for an Arion? Not fun… it’s like free falling in a bright fog of fire and smoke… you can’t go too fast or risk running into something bad. And go to high, and you have a poor view of any land marks. And now? Hard Boiled might as well be flying with his eyes closed.

“Tch… guess I’ll stop by Ponyville. Might as well catch the train… or pick up some fruit while I’m here.” The Arion thought to himself. A white stick was clinched between his lips… it swirled lightly as he banked to the right for a landing.

His landing was a slow and wide one, constantly watching the ground as he dropped hoof by hoof mark till his hooves were on the ground. The stallion adjusted his sunglasses, re-corrected his fedora, and pulled his wings back under his trench coat. He thought about removing the MPD insignia from the front of his fedora... but decided it might have been best to just leave it in place for now. He was heading back to the city after his small detour. And just as one hoof lifted up to carry the Arion's mass, he winced as an incredibly loud and obnoxious voice tore through his ears.

Apples? Was that a foal’s voice? From the sounds of it… seems like it was near. The stallion tilted his ears and then frowned as he heard creatures shifting about the brushes. Yep… right near the Everfree… seems that foals never learn to stay the tartarus away from the place.

The stallion sighed, and turned around to begin trotting to the direction of the voice. And it wasn’t long before he a few blurry forms came into view. Their forms growing more distinct the closer he got to them in this bright haze.

 

Before he spoke, his right wing moved to clamp it's claw down on the stick between his lips, and gave it a tug. The bulb of a red sucker easily slid from his jaws just as he took a moment to lick his lips casually.

“Kiddies, I’m no Apple, but I don’t need to be –one- to tell you that shouldn’t be hangin around the woods.” The Arion drawled lazily. His head tilted a bit as he turned to look to what may have been the supervi-…

Looks like that thought might need to wait for later. What… what is that creature? Two horns and the tail of a lion. Talk about strange. Tribal styled marking on the flank, and stripes on the hooves. Maybe it was a zebra? He thought that they’d be… white and black. Not brown and green.

[Pretzelparty]

 

Bebop Gave windy a rather flat look when she simply said she can't speak. There was a bit more to that explanation; namely that at birth her vocal chords were incredibly undeveloped, but technically not damaged. It would take a highly specialized talent in order to create the biological materials in order to make them and ponies with such a niche talent and magic were difficult to come by... and even if she did come by them and somehow got them to agree to such a thing as trying to develop vocal chords inside a still living filly, why would she? She'd already spent the time to learn how to write incredibly fast, she enjoyed making little musical notes to show her mood. IF she suddenly got a voice it'd take a way so much character from her!... well at least in her mind.

 

The filly swiftly wrote down her thoughts on the paper, showing it to windy and Daahir. "What about Miss Zecora? Sometimes I think she may know more about magic than twilight does!"

 

 When Daahir introduced her, Bebop smiled and held up her little magic-written notepad. It had said, "Nice to meet you!" In a rather elegant looking type of calligraphy, A bit fancy but still readable. Following that her notes mentioned that while magic of unicorns (or in twilight's case, alicorns) may be more useful to the situation in regards to potential darker magics if it was heavily related to the aether and things like that but if this was purely earth magic based the apples may know a way to deal with it. She cited one example of Applejack growing an apple larger that Daahir himself was. She also mentioned a zebra who lived in the forest relatively nearby who may help but it would be... difficult getting to her house if she was there.

 

The arrival of another batpony was only making this situation a bit more interesting. So interesting that with the chance two see three members of ungulate speceies kept Bebop's mind occupied until she noticed a weird squeeze on her leg. She looked back to notice in all her writing and wonder about the situation, the pumpkins vined had creeped up and covered most of her hind leg. Lucky for the filly she was able to shake it off and step a few paces back, gulping nervously. She looked to the detective on the scene and waved to him with a slightly dorky smile.

[tacobob]

 

"Bless you!", the little filly was pretty sure what the odd horned pony had just sneezed when he said 'Daahir N'em', but sneeze or not, he had a very important question to be asked and she was the one to ask it. "Yep! The Apple family own and run the largest farm in Ponyville. Heck, it's probably the biggest farm in all of Equestria!", she added with a smile. "I read that their family even founded Ponyville.  So if there are ponies out there that could figure out what this curious cucurbita is, I'm sure it's the Apple family...And geez.", she glanced around and even listened for the sound of hooves. They should have heard her mighty cry and should have been here by now. Applejack would be perfect! And maybe Big Mac? He was super strong, but she was pretty sure he could only say 'eeyup'. Apple Bloom's grandmother would probably be idea, but she was like a million years old.

 

"Well.", Wind was surprised the Aerion knew so little about her fellow ponies. "No other ponies know as much about agri.....angry.....agraa...dirt stuff than Earth Ponies! I mean, it's in the name. -Earth-", she pushed her front right hoof into the dirt to emphasize the point and noticed a stray vine had started to encircle one of her legs. "Yah!", she quickly shook it off and found a safer spot to stand. She made sure the others saw it as well. "Might want to watch out for these guys."

 

The little Pegasus pony's ears perked up as she heard somepony coming! Who could It be now? Her excitement quickly shifted into disappointment when she caught sight of the newcomer. Was that Pocket Change? Same dumb hat. Similar coat color. But something was off.. His legs..And more importantly, this guy wasn't an unicorn! Good! Last time she was stuck with the snarky stallion, he nearly got Bebop, Flakey and herself killed in a nasty underground cavern.

 

"Well, obviously." He was not an apple. He had some sort of egg on his flank. He was probably an expert on poultry. "We're just trying to figure out this here strange magic pumpkin.", she waved a free hoof towards the odd be-faced gourd "We're pretty sure it's alive. But we wanna know what it's supposed to be. An enchanted pumpkin of evil? An cursed pony? This is a mystery!" 

 

Her eyes fell back onto her friend and her ever useful writing pad. "Miss Zecora? She's super smart, and my sister Fire says zebras know all about plants and potions and. Oh.", she looked over at the strange pumpkin and frowned. "My sister did spend some time in the Zebra countries and she taught me a few of their special words. Like this one should help us get Zecora.", she cleared her throat before shouting out. "Njoo hapa! Njoo hapa!" Hopefully that would bring them the wise zebra. "Oh, and Bebop. You might want to avoid those vines. They might end up in places you don't want them to end up in!"

[Lux]

 

Through the sounds of life in Ponyville, one could hear the squeaking and creaking of an old cart moving through town. While this wasn't an unusual sound, there was another that accompanied it: singing. This wasn't normal singing heard everyday in town but one that had unfamiliar lyrics and sounds, making the listener feel like they were in a faraway land. The music came from Zecora: Ponyville's resident herbalist. The Zebra wasn't as much of a strange sight to the locals and in fact welcomed by the town. She had a hoof in this shift of perspective, making it an effort to venture out from her hut in the Everfree Forest more and meet with ponies. Today was no exception as she needed food and supplies from the market. 

 

The Zebra had only entered town when she saw an assortment of ponies gathered in a group. Some she recognized like the fillies Wind Walker and Bebop Slide. There were also two Aerion too, ponies she never had the chance to meet but heard about from others. The fifth one was the most interesting, an Abada, which she saw a few in her homeland of Unyasi but again time and circumstance didn't let her meet any in the past. She was about to introduce herself to the ponies when she noticed the very large pumpkin in the yard. It certainly was a true sign of agricultural triumph and... wait... did it have eyes and a mouth? It certainly was no Nightmare Night pumpkin. That was when it blinked. 

 

"Hiyo ni nini?!" The Zebra exclaimed in her Unyasian language, meaning "What is that!?" 

[Zeig]

 

There was another one.

 

Why was there another one? 

 

Another of the bat-winged ponies, and his sudden appearance caused Daahir to falter back slightly, ears lowered on his head. He seemed amiable enough - and he wasn't blind, it didn't seem, though the Abada peered relentlessly into the other male's eyes to make sure. No...no, he did not carry the same glazed look in his eyes. Still, where had he even come from? Had the nonsense of noise coming from the blue filly's mouth been a summoning call for him?

 

...Exactly how many summoning calls did one little filly, possess? Equestria was turning into more formidable a mystery than even he had initially imagined. 

 

Though at least this summon was a bit more familiar, and Daahir couldn't help starting slightly as a familiar language caught on his ears, making the Abada swivel his head around so quickly it was a wonder he didn't break anything. The Zebra that appeared on the scene was both a familiar and welcome sight, for while Daahir had no knowledge on farming apples, or earth-based versus dark magics, or bat-winged ponies with strange little candies on sticks - while he might be clueless on subjects such as those, he did know that Zebra were highly intellectual, with a way of looking at the land that was uniquely lost to the ponies of Equestria. 

 

"Salamu, mama," Daahir greeted the Zebra with a respectful incline of his head, "we require assistance." All other suggestions of different ponies to turn to seemed lost in the face of the Zebra's appearance. "This...thing...has been given unnatural life. We've been seeking to dispose of it, but its roots are - ack!" Daahir exclaimed mid-sentence as he was abruptly lurched sideways to end up on his side in the dirt, pain radiating from his hind leg. The Abada shook the dust from his eyes, glare on his face, before looking down towards his leg to see what had caused the -

 

Spirits.

 

It was another pumpkin vine, only this one had gotten his leg in a rather vicious grip, and no amount of shaking seemed to be getting it off. It had pulled him, yanked him hard enough to send him crashing onto the ground - and towards the innocuous orange vegetable still situated in the middle of a tangled mass of vines. "It should be burned," Daahir said darkly as he picked himself back onto his hooves, and circled around himself to simultaneously stomp on the offending vine and yank his hind leg backwards. The vine valiantly held for a small moment, before snapping under the stress, and Daahir shook off the remaining plant life, glaring back at the offending pumpkin.

 

It...it was definitely blinking more rapidly, now. 

 

[PyroBlaze]

Yiska rolled her eyes a bit at Wind's response, looking in the filly's direction before speaking. 

 

"Well duh, if this was just some overgrown plant than of course they'd be best, but apparently there's some magic at work or something, so a race that regularly deals with magic would be better. I doubt he's looking to move it or make it bigger, so a farmer isn't what he needs." Yiska said before another stallion showed up and spoke to the two foals. She looked towards him, only to cover her ears after Wind's latest yell. What was up with that kid?

 

By the time she had recovered from that one, another mare arrived and got some strange greeting out of Daahir. She tilted her head as she mouthed the words he had said. Mama? Were they related? Maybe, but it didn't matter t-

 

"Ah!" Yiska yelled out as she suddenly found her foreleg yanked hard enough to make her fall onto her face. She grumbled about that for a moment before she got back to her hooves, the three available anyways, and jumped backwards suddenly with the help of her wings, slipping out of the vine's grasp. 

 

"Ugh. Burning sounds good to me." She said after landing with a backflip and fixing her hat. "Who are you two anyways?" She asked, looking between where she remembered the newcomers being after they had spoken earlier. 

[Pretzelparty]

 

While Bebop may know that Daahir was actually an abada... but that was pretty much all she knew. To a filly who was only raised with the equestrian languae taught to her, Wind's shouting, Zecora's response, and Daahir's response to that response was more or less gibberish to her. The filly casually side stepped away from the group as she caught a glimpse of some more of those nasty little vines creeping towards her again. Oh no you don't! She'd think to herself as she backed up a bit... only to be snagged by another fine that seized her leg and lifted her up into the air upside and shaking her. 

Several items fell from her bag, many of them falling on and bonking her blue friend on her head! First was a backup notepad, another notepad, another notepad, a picture of some rocker from trottingham named Power chord, A harmonica, a kazoo, a small pan-flute. The rapid swinging was starting to make the filly kinda dizzy . She used all the will she had to get a spark on her horn and snap the vine holding her... only for her to fall down on top of Windwalker, looking like she was feeling rather sick. After some faces that made her look like she was tryign not to wretch she heard Daahir's idea... to which she gave an unhesitating nod.

The filly levitated a page of her notebook over to herself and looked around to see where her pencil had gotten to, only to see the pumpkin was currently waving it about in front of her face like a pony with a cat toy... The filly took the pencil back and wrote down two things. One was an apology to wind, the other was a query if she could be the one to light the fire.

 

 

[SteelEagle]

 

Some days, the work was hard. Other days it was brutal and unfair, and today had been one of those. And unlike her normal toil which resulted in fine returns and prosperity for her family, this work was merely to get through the bramble-thorned bush of problems that had started to cascade around her. She wasn't a mare demanding of much except herself, but her patience was being sorely tested by what seemed to be a lack of progress, yet she had been working her tail off.  Very annoying days on the farm. She had woken up early to see about cutting some of the problems off at the pass but it had done little. She was at a point that she had to wait for some other horseshoes to fall before she could do anything else, and it was eating her up something fierce.

 

The harvest had been an absolute disaster. It had started several weeks ago when the first Golden Crisps came up all sorts of spoiled within a day, and over three quarters of the eggs the hens laid were simply bad from the start. It continued- just about everything that was coming up was bad. Nothing, absolutely nothing, wasn't coming up bad, and they were dealing with Timberwolves like never before. Applejack was having some trouble sleeping and Winona rarely wanted to leave the house if she wasn't directly next to Applejack. A silo had caught fire during a rainstorm and the fruit bats had left their section of the farm, raiding other parts they weren't allowed into. Everything was bad, nothing was good, and Applejack wasn't having the best of times.

 

But she wasn't alone. Most of the farms were dealing with something like it, so much so that the Mayor had called a Farmer's Conference to get a situation report and see if they needed outside help. The current thought process blamed it on the Everfree and a particularly nasty bout of some magic. That would be bad news. Like most farms next to the Everfree, Sweet Apple Acres had a rather extensive and expensive magical barrier system around the farm.If it had failed and magic had accumulated until it reached this point, the fix could cost ten thousand bits or more. Could the Apples pay it? They sure could, but it would be a lean time for the Apples- especially with the harvest cutting into their profits so badly she was only opening up the stall in town two days a week for four hours.

 

But that was then. With her family most out and about at the moment busying themselves with things they could do rather than with things they couldn't, Applejack had sent herself flying into the arms of the Watering Hole. S\he got herself a few ciders and played herself a few games, leaving there with a certain pep in her trot that belied her weariness. She had lots of trouble but no doubt they'd get it solved, and Ponyville would be fine in the end. She'd be fine. The Apples would be fine and Sweet Apple Acres would be fine. All she had to do was formulate a plan of action and see it through. She had to. With her own foal on the way, she needed to ensure that the farm was in good order.
 

While walking back, she heard somepony yell for the Apples. Well, she was an Apple and with the brief spurt of positive energy that the good tidings of the Watering Hole had given her,  Applejack made her way towards the call for help.
"What the hat y'all doin' this close to tha Everfree?" Applejack asked the group in large as she trotted in. My oh my, was this a colorful collection. She recognized some of them, didn't recognize others, but she saw a pumpkin blink- and any introductions would have to wait. Somepony had called for aid and she wasn't gonna waste time trying to talk her way into a soulution when there was work to do.

 

"Sweet sugarcanes, what tha hay is a pumpkin doin' blinkin' like that?" She asked in shock, looking around it. The fact all these ponies were around it told her it wasn't actively snatching them yet, but it was the Everfree. It was a question of if, not then.

 

She allowed herself to simple observe and feel around as she walked around it, tugging at vines and smelling the dirt, getting her hooves good and deep. You didn't have to be an Earth pony to know what felt right and wrong in the ground below you, but you had to be an Earth pony to have that innately. And if you were a farmer, you would know a few other things that could help you identify hat exactly this abomination wasn't. "This thing ain't just unnatural- thar ain't no way it's from around these parts ta begin with. Even for tha Everfree, these roots are a bit stringier an' leaner than the ones around here. See?" She said, tugging at one of the roots. Well, maybe they couldn't see, but she could see. It was all wrong. It felt wrong.

 

"Who found it? Whatcha'll doin' here?" She asked, putting the root down and looking around. Fillies and colts, Zecora and an Abadada or whatever they were called, them batponies and a strange pumpkin. This was started of some bad joke that Applejack wasn't sure she even wanted to know the punchline to.

[moonshineTheleocat]

Well… a new creature soon stepped in. This one is more fitting to the description Hard Boiled has heard of about zebra’s. Sadly, he failed to see the mysticism behind it. True, she may bear a talisman for a cutie mark, but the jewlry she wears is more akin to what they believe in beauty. On that note, he could see the beauty in such adornments… and that’s coming from a cynic.

"Salamu, mama,"

 

 

 

 Shame though, the exotic mare is apparently a mother. And looks rather young for her age. Not rather… very young for her age. Almost comparable to the other… more brown and less striped zebra. Still he’s been fooled by appearances before. She probably just takes real good care of her body.

Time to throw that thought out of the pan though, and turn his attention back to the pumpkin in the center of the patch. The bat’s sharp eyes slowly scanned over each vine, looking for any signs of cuts… or flowers that had been before. And yet… there wasn’t any.

It… seems that this is the only pumpkin in the patch. And is quite large. He couldn’t locate any other bulbs, so it’s not like it had been cultivated by some pony and then forgotten. Whatever this thing really was, is here on its own accord.

The stallion swirled the lolly’s stick in his mouth, before finally pulling out as he spoke up.

“Arson is an idea. But not always a good one. At least one I can't condone as a cop,” he sighed as he finally stepped into the vines. He paid no mind to the vines that had began to curl around his hooves, they couldn’t get a solid enough grip as he approached the blinking pumpkin.

Once he was close enough, he streatched his wings out and lifted the vegetable from the ground. He looked deep into its blinking eyes for a second and began to turn it around slowly between his fleshy appendages.

“One thing that’s not so bad about being in a bat colony for so long is that most of the stories from old have not been localized too often, and are retold as they were,” The stallion said with a contemplative tone. His wings finally rotated the pumpkin to get a look at its back and underside. The vines were beginning to creep up on him. But a flick of the tail was apparently all that was needed to scare them back… or at least get yanked hard enough to tear them.

“And a good number of them were based on truth. There was a pony by the name of Jack O Lantern. A king of some forgotten country, and a daft one at that. In his rule, he gave bizarre orders to his subjects, and demeaning tasks. That’s as far as I know of. But… like all kings in time… comes the time of ruin. And on his terminal breath he outlawed death… and used his magic to move his soul to a nearby pumpkin patch.”

Hard Boiled gave gave an aloof shrug. “Truth or not, it’s something to think about. Personally… I’d suggest relocating it and forgetting about it.” He said… just before sinking his elongated fangs into the top of the pumpkin. Perhaps he was just trying to provoke a reaction from the pumpkin.

[Lux]

Well, this was escalating quickly. Zecora had come to see what the commotion was, only to see comments raised of this pumpkin being done in! She needed to take care of this quickly or else risk a mob on her hooves. 

 

"Salamu, mama we require assistance. This...thing...has been given unnatural life. We've been seeking to dispose of it, but its roots are - ack!"

 

"Salamu to you too. "I admit I'm pleasantly surprised to see another from my homeland of Unyasi. I, since moving here, did not another Zebra like me. Besides no Zebra, your presence here makes you the first Adaba. I would like to speak to you of the lands we live, but first some advice I must give."

 

The Zebra cleared her throat and spoke, "Everypony gathered here, I do not believe this pumpkin you must fear! The Everfree is wild and at times dangerous indeed, but there is something else you must take heed. The forest is home to much that is beautiful and also very useful. Before we seek to end this plant's life out of out own fears and strife, let us examine it more to see what it is here for." 

 

"This thing ain't just unnatural- thar ain't no way it's from around these parts ta begin with. Even for tha Everfree, these roots are a bit stringier an' leaner than the ones around here. See?" 

 

"Dear Applejack, this pumpkin might not act very naturally, but such is the nature of the Everfree. Magic works different there they say, as if the place holds it own way. As to who found this here, it was not me I fear. I saw the group here and heard them call for me, and so I came to investigate you see." 

 

 “Truth or not, it’s something to think about. Personally… I’d suggest relocating it and forgetting about it.” 

 

"A wise decision truly, to move it and let it be. But before we decide on that more, perhaps about it we should learn a little more." 

 

She then turned directly to the plant and said, "Dear pumpkin we do not mean harm, but your presence has caused quite alarm. If you understand the words I say, blink three times if you may." 

 

Spoiler

Hope I didn't skip anyone!  Also, great to be back playing Miss Rhyme all the Time!

 

 

 

 

[tacobob]

 

 

Wind Walker seemed rather pleased when Zecora showed up. While she had never met the zebra, the little filly had heard stories about Ponyville's resident herbalist and storyteller. Thankfully her big sister had been to the Zebra's lands more than once and taught her a few sayings in their native tongue. It was also rather keen that Zecora lived near the border of the extra creepy Evergreen forest.

 

She could not believe her little blue ears. The adults wanted to burn the pumpkin! While the enchanted Nightmare Night gourd would be wise to keep its vines to itself, it was at least not trying to hurt the small group that stood before it. And while it seemed to snap at the others with the animated plant life, it still had not actually hurt anypony. The vines once again found a pony to harass, and this time it was her friend, Bebop!

 

She did not have time to act, as a small scattering of the filly's thing started to rain on Wind's head. "Hey! Ouch!", she yelped. Not wanting Bebop's stuff to get broken, the little Pegasus pony managed to catch the rest of the goodies before the last of them fell. This one was a little hard to catch as it was Bebop herself. Thankfully she was able to break her friend's fall without breaking any bones. And while there were bound to be a few bumps and bruises, she felt a little better knowing Bebop would remain unharmed.

 

As the vine waved one of the filly's pen's at the pony. A few ideas started to pop up in Wind's little blue skull. Some of Zecora's words also helped. And a small bit of pride found itself in her and she caught sight of Applejack. Both of her calls worked! Would she soon be able to summon other creatures? Dragons? Hordes of animal life? This would have to be tested later, as there were more important things that needed to be done. She hoofed back over nearly all of Bebop's items, except for one of her backup pads and pencils. "If this gets broken, I promise to get you a new one.", she whispered.

 

"Oh, and hey Miss Applejack.", she couldn't help but notice the heroic mare was looking a little weary. But that was probably a normal thing, as the good pony spent her time either saving Equestria with her friends, or working on a rather large field and farm grounds with an surprising small number of farmhands. "It's not much of a story. Mister Da....Da...hear? Daa...Him.", she waved a hoof towards the two-horned pony-sort-of guy. "Found this Nightmare Night pumpkin and he, and later the rest of us have been trying to figure out what the hay it's supposed to be.  And while the others want to burn or dump it in the woods, I really think there's more than meets the eye with this fella."

 

On 6/29/2016 at 7:31 PM, Lux said:

She then turned directly to the plant and said, "Dear pumpkin we do not mean harm, but your presence has caused quite alarm. If you understand the words I say, blink three times if you may." 

 

"Miss Zecora, that's a good idea, but maybe I could try handing our pumpkin friend this." she placed both the pad and pencil near one of the stronger vines and backed away. "I'm just worried that this might be someone who was turned into a pumpkin, and they're trying to communicate with us."

While those words sounded much better in her head, the filly wanted to be sure this wasn't some poor pony that had been turned into a silly pumpkin by crazy magic, or even if the gourd was alive in a sense...Like people...