Orange You Glad? [FIN]

[Zeig]

 

Suddenly, ponies.

 

Everywhere. 

 

At least that's how it felt to the Abada, because from one minute glaring at the pumpkin and keeping a lookout for anymore winding vines, to glancing upwards and seeing even more ponies in his general vicinity than before. The two fillies and two bat-winged ponies were still there, obviously, while the Zebra - Zecora, who strangely spoke in rhymes, but was nonetheless pleased to see another Unyasi in the area, a feeling Daahir reciprocated - seemed to believe the blinking pumpkin was no harm to anyone. 

 

A sentiment which was a bit difficult to agree with, Daahir thought a little sourly as his hind leg throbbed. 

 

He wasn't the only one having problems with stray vines randomly coiling themselves around body parts, the Abada realized, as various shouts were going up from different ponies, all mostly to do with those same vines attaching themselves to unwarranted places. It was the unfamiliar orange pony, however, that arrested most of Daahir's attention - mostly because, according to Wind Walker's exclamation, this orange pony was one of the infamous Apples. And said Apples were, if he understood correctly, near legendary in their farming skills, a feat which could hopefully translate over to this...this, whatever this was.

 

Though that first meant getting through the events that had all led them here, and Daahir had to stifle the urge to duck his head away when Wind Walker pointed him out as the pumpkin's discoverer. It wasn't like he'd done anything! But the Abada still felt a coiling of unease, as if merely discovering the pumpkin had set off a rather implosive chain reaction. The abomination had, after all, seemed to get exponentially more active and unnatural as more and more ponies arrive on the scene. It was nonsense, of course, but Daahir still couldn't shake that feeling of disquiet. 

 

The Apple clan pony, at least, seemed to be living up to her family's reputation, and she pointed out the same anomalies Daahir himself had felt in the earth - only with more accuracy and assurance. Equestrian soil, its fauna and flora, were still much unknown to him, the dirt beneath his hooves telling him little except a vague sense of wrongness. But the Abada couldn't really speak up as Zecora denounced the Apples' claim, insisting that the pumpkin simply needed to be spoken to. Daahir disagreed - burning still seemed like the sensible option - but he would keep his peace, even as one of the bat-winged ponies bodily picked up the pumpkin to -

 

...Wait, what?

 

"Stop!" Daahir yelled, physically bolting upwards from where he had sat his haunches down, one hoof outstretched as if he might be able to pluck the pumpkin out of the other stallion's grasp. 

 

Or off the other stallion's fangs, more likely, as the bat-winged pony bit down onto ripe flesh.

 

And then a moment of serene silence, followed by several things happening all at once. 

 

An unearthly shriek reverberated throughout the field, a mimicry of a banshee and windigo overlaid on top of a deep, graveling rumble, like the earth splitting apart. The sound itself was almost enough to make Daahir clasp his hooves over his ears, but he was too shell-shocked to do anything but stare as, in the blink of an eye, thick vines wrapped themselves around the bat-winged pony which had bitten the pumpkin, completely encasing him in strength that was far too unnatural to not be abnormal. The vines had barely finished their job before they were flinging the same pony towards the Everfree Forest, releasing him to send him dashing against the sturdy tree line, but even as it was doing so, two more ponies became wrapped in its vines - the first bat-winged pony, and the orange Apple pony. These vines extended upwards and out, wrapped tightly around the ponies while it waved them about like a small foal might flail about a rattle. 

 

Abnormal pumpkin, prevailing physical ailments, and strangely winged ponies. This magical land of ponies and Unicorns was cursed. 

 

So caught up in the sudden, abrupt change of the abomination, Daahir almost failed to notice the vines slowly twirling themselves in circles near the pumpkin, over an empty piece of grass rather than right in the thick mass of vines at its base. These vines were not, however, moving to attack any pony...instead, they were simply curling in on themselves, slowly and surely, and yet the movements seemed nearly as sinister as the treacherous vines waving ponies above their heads.

 

[PyroBlaze]

Yiska sighed slightly as she listened to the other ponies talk. Of course the weird rhyming mare and that Applejack would object to the burning. And the cop too, but that one isn't really a surprise. She sighed to herself a bit, standing as if to leave, though she didn't make it anywhere before the screeching started. The bat mare cried out in pain, her hooves covering her ears as best they could as she collapsed in pain. Next thing she knew, she heard something crash into a tree and then was wrapped up in the vines.

 

"Hey! Let me go, you stupid plant!" She yelled, struggling against her vines as she was picked up, though the shaking stopped that as she was disoriented a bunch. Which way was up again? She let out a little pulse of sound, sighing as she found what direction the ground was off the echo. "A little help here?"

[Zeig]

The pumpkin's grip was not letting up, its captives still held high within its vines. Down below, the vines along the pumpkin bed continued to spell out the same word, over and over, winding this way and that but still unmistakable in its request. 

 

 

[[ If you've been waiting for someone to post, please just skip them so that this thread can continue moving. If you've been needing to post but just haven't been able to for whatever ever, please let me know so that I can inform others that may be waiting on you. ]]

[tacobob]

 

 

Miss Zecora was a very clever zebra! The odd pumpkin could blink away in code! This would make things much easier. Unless the strange gourd was not blessed with enough intelligence to respond. Wind frowned. What could they do? She did not want to see it hurt, nor could they just leave it alone, especially if it was in fact an ensorcelled pony, doomed to be over-used in an assortment of Nightmare Night related food stuff. The horror! The filly was so lost in though, she failed to notice somepony had the nerve to bite the living pumpkin! At least until the double-horned pony had something to say. “Stop? Huh?”

 

Before she could even react, there was a scream. Not an ‘her mother just saw a spider’ scream, or even the screams found in horror movies. This was a very unpleasant bit of ‘hollering’ as one would say in Ponyville! One combined with a griffon running his or hers claws down a chalkboard. Did somepony try to hurt the magic, blinking squash? There was the possibility that the bat-pony who had just been tossed into a tree had something to do with it. And now the vines were actually writing something? Or turning into words. What did they say?

 

“Domce? What the heck is Domce?” Thankfully her cursive writing teacher was not near, or she would have given the filly a much lower grade than an C for this quarter.

 

[SteelEagle]

(I've been waiting too long. Let's get this show back on track, lasses and lads.)

 

Applejack normally wasn't one to judge a pony for their actions straight up and all quick like, but it was awfully tempting to do so when she saw what that bat fella decided to go do. She was about to respond to Zecora when by all that was hale and hearty in the farm and forest he went ahead and bit the thing, which was just the plum silliest thing. Whatever the hay it was, it was easy to see it was sentient. Y'all didn't go out and start nibbling on sentient creatures like some blood-starved Changeling or some such, you went ahead and tried to talk or, in Applejack's estimation, simply remove it. Especially when you didn't know what the situation was, what with all the strange magic going on. She looked on dumbfounded as he did so, wondering with all the stars in the sky what he was thinking. Not that his actions would take up much of her thought for long.

 

Within a shattering moment of activity Applejack was grabbed by the vines and pulled up into the air. The vertigo, the dizziness, the whole shebang- awfully unpleasant even if it was a silly exercise in a feathered friend's flight. But this wasn't the charged flight of Rainbow Dash, this was the petulant rattling of some awfully magical creature treating her like a toy. It was all the time Applejack had to curl up and try to explode out with her powerful hind legs before she was wrapped up. That plan didn't work. Instead all it did was scrunch her up, her hind legs now pressed back firmly with her back, pinning them up and over her head. All that was coming from the bottom of the vine was her tail. It was one of the most uncomfortable positions she had ever been in, but it had worked in one way- it relieved pressure on her midsection, hopefully leaving the soon-to-be-Zap Apple free of harm.

 

Well, as long as being shaked like a rattle didn't do anything, her hat flying off of her head and landing on top of a tree. All she could see was the word dance being written on the ground, though under what way did that make a lick of sense? "DAAAAAANNNNNCCEEEE?!" She bellowed, her warble going from high to low and back again as she was shaken about by the vines.

[Lux]

Zecora thought that she was about to finally make  contact with the sentient pumpkin, and she would once and for all understand what it was and how it got here.

 

"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."

 

"Indeed a pencil might do us well, but first we must see if this pumpkin can write and spell. But I doubt that this was once a pony, but a creature brought to life magically."

 

Before she had a chance to give the pencil or ask it any questions, a bat pony bit down on the pumpkin! She held her breath at what would happen next when suddenly she felt something wrap around her back legs and lift her into the air! It was then that she saw the word that the vines of the pumpkin said.

 

"It wants to dance. Quickly start doing so while we have a chance. Maybe if dancing the pumpkin will see will be the way to set us free!"

[Zeig]

 

Things were quickly beginning to spiral out of control. 

 

...more out of control than they already were.

 

What had started out as benign had quickly transformed into soulless evil as it pulled ponies this way and that, dashing some towards the tree line while shaking others about like mulberry bushes. Daahir was becoming more and more certain that they should have just burned the thing and been done with it right from the start - like some Abada had suggested, he thought a bit surlily - but there was little time to reminisce as vines continued to wave throughout the air and along the grab, attempting to nab ponies left and right. Only years of cultivating a sense for wild plants in the Brakenweald kept the Abada from ending up in coils like most of the others, and with all the finagling he was doing, it was any wonder he had time to pay attention to anything else.

 

But he did. Because one did not thrive instead the Brakenweald by not paying attention.  

 

"What?!" Daahir shouted, nonsensically, as the phrase was repeated by several other ponies, "why would we think about - at a time like - that's stupid!" Dancing - or domcing, what in the world was even a domcing - was on every one's minds, including the ones up in the air. Hopping about as he was, it took the Abada a few more moments to see it, but once he did, the pattern weaving around in the vines became clear - dance. Even the Zebra, now also held aloft, repeated the instructions, immediately forestalling the protests that wanted to rise out of Daahir's throat. 

 

This...made absolutely no sense. 

 

...And still becoming wildly out of control.

 

With a pent up groan of aggrieved vexation, Daahir abruptly switched from skillful hops and ducks around the vines to - he wasn't entirely sure what. Much less skillful hops, and much more ridiculous movements that somewhat resembled the dances his family used to perform around campfires late at night. The moves were foreign to him, his body more resembling an awkward bunny rabbit than a skillful dancer, and Daahir let the curtain of his mane fall around his face to hide to embarrassed flush that painted his cheeks red with humiliation. 

 

"...This is so stupid," he grunted - just to himself, so as not to draw any more attention onto his dancing than was strictly necessary.

 

Which meant only the pumpkin needed to be watching. 

 

And speaking of pumpkin...

 

Its face looked less like a demon spawned from the earth and more innocent, the way it had looked before its vines had completing taken over the area. In face it looked almost...gleeful, as much as a vegetable could look. And, from the corner of his eyes, the vines were beginning to receded, slowly pulling back towards the original patch while their holds on the ponies loosened slightly. 

 

Was it...actually, working?

 

Did more ponies need to start dancing to appease the pumpkin? Even the ponies in the air, now that the coils around them were starting to loosen their grip?

 

 

[tacobob]

 

Wind Walker was very sure they would be able to handle the situation. And besides, she had survived through at least two Pinkie Pie hugs, so even the nastiest of vines would have much of a chance to hurt her. But something was bothering her. She gasped, “Oh no.”, when she realized she had done something very wrong. And that was her need to call Applejack. While the mare was as tough as an ironwood tree that regularly hit the gym, the little foal she was with was not.  They needed to take care of this, and they needed to do it now!

 

"It wants us to dance?" Now that was weird. "Reminds me of those old pictures they had of ponies and other people dancing in the forest. What were they called?", she glanced over at Bebop, who was naturally very quiet. What was she thinking of? Wonder if this is some magical gourd who thinks we need to dance to appease its forestry protectors? The two-horned fella looked like someone who would be seen lurking about the woods. Even his necklace was tribal looking. Reminded her of the cute little one her sister got her after she returned from the lands of the Unyasi. What sort of dance would they do?

 

There was one she remembered that also had a song. Thankfully, she had three of her limbs free. After clearing her throat, she started to shuffle a bit. This was not working! Maybe a little song would help her get into the groove of things. "And you my love, won't you take my hoof." Alright. That was not a song from the Zebra's lands. This was something she had heard when those fairies...little pony creatures...Breezies were in Ponyville. Or maybe it was that cute little pub in Canterlot her sister liked to take her to. They had really good Halloumi Cheese and Chips. And there were usually entertainers. That's where she had heard this song before. "We'll go back in time and try not be aloof.  Where the dew drops cry and the cats meow. I will take you there, I will show you how." *

 

The song turned her awkward shuffle into a festive jig. Huzzah! Maybe this would help!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoiler

* 20 points if you know where this comes from..

 

[Pretzelparty]

 

Bebop's head was still ringing after that unearthly scream. She felt like her brain was rattling around in her skull like the pebbles inside of a maraca! Then the vines came and spelled out that command. The filly grimaced at that request, for pity's sake she didn't dance! Despite Bebop's love for music, dancing wasn't something she had the confidence for.  Rather than obeying, the stubborn filly scribbled down a question on her notepad and held it up to the pumpkin. Scrawled on the paper in haste is asked simply, "Couldn't I just provide music?"

 

To make her offer more enticing she levitated her harmonica from the ground with a nervous, pleading smile plastered on her face. As if presuming the great pumpkin's answer she would begin to play. It was a strange number, the tones drifting between solemn and soothing to bright and peppy without seeming to clash. The music lulled a bit as she took a moment to respond to WIndy's question about the pictures of ponies dancing with other creatures... her response had two sentences on it, one asked what "people" were, the other asked if she wouldn't mind leading her in a dance in case the pumpkin refused her offer of musical accompaniment.

 

 

[Zeig]

[[ The pumpkin seems to still as points begin to hop around, play music, and sing. The vines sway in the breeze as the pumpkin's distorted features begin to relax, beady eyes falling half closed as its fearsome smile turns decidedly more innocent in nature. A long moment passes as the pumpkin continues to seemingly enjoy what its seeing and hearing, the vines bobbing up and down with the music, until, quite suddenly, everything seems to...shrivel away. Within the span of a few heartbeats, the vast landscape of vines has been reduced to a modest pumpkin patch, with the vegetable in question sitting quietly on top. No sign of its previously possessed nature remains - for all intents and purposes, it is an ordinary, if rather large, pumpkin.

 

End

 

OOC : This thread's been stalled and revived quite a few times already, going to just close it out now. Thanks everyone who participated! ]]