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Post by Cloud Dreamer on Oct 17, 2011 18:27:55 GMT -5
Cloudy nodded. "It may very well be a disease, would make sense to. I guess when I meant parasect I meant a disease that acts like a parasect." She then heard Applejack question what they were saying. "Oh, I'm basically suggesting that some sort of bug or fungus got into the plants and is making them rot." She motioned towards the rotting plants. "What it is trying to do is fully rot the plant so it can use it as a home to create more of itself, which would explain all the other rot. Whatever this is it better not be contagious to ponies." She shivered at the thought, once again feeling sick. Quickly, she changed the subject.
"I remember the parasprite day well. I spent most of it flinging parasprites away with my levitation. Luckily, they didn't get to much at all. It did take a little repare, but not as much as the rest of Ponyville." Cloudy turned to see some of the alien-like roots, quickly turning back to Twilight. "I just wish Pinkie had come to me, instead of trying to round up intruments. I remember her running by in a hurry, but she didn't say what she was doing. If she came to me, I could have just created the sound of the music in an illusion." The unicorn began an illusion and the air quickly filled with the music that had rung through Ponyville, clearing it of parasprites.
Cloudy continued this happy tune, until she saw the tree. The illusion dissapeared in her discust. It was.... alive! Like those horror stories she told where some object would come alive and begin to kill or haunt. The sick feeling once again filled her, and she galloped off to the side, eyes wide. From behind another apple tree the sound of vomitting could be clearly heard. A minute later Cloudy came back, looking rather pale and green, nervously smiling. "I would say it could also be a root infection." The unicorn said slowly. "Maybe the disease travels underground."
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Post by Twilight Sparkle on Oct 18, 2011 10:09:58 GMT -5
Twilight listened to the music that appeared out of nowhere, smiling at the happy tune. This pony certainly had a gift, one the Twilight had never seen, or for that matter, heard before. "Wow! You have an interesting gift of making music like that. I..." Twilight stopped short as she suddenly heard the music stop and Cloudy run behind a tree and throw up. The unicorn then reappeared with a look like she saw the most disgusting thing. "Are you ok? Hold on, let me try something..." With that Twilight's horn glowed as she cast a spell on the sickly looking unicorn. The spell acted like stomach relief medicine, helping to dispel the nausea. 'This was something I learned while in school when I got nervous before an exam. Now, what happened that made you sick all of a sudden?"
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AppleJack
New Pony
Soup's on everyponeh!
Posts: 12
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Post by AppleJack on Oct 18, 2011 12:41:07 GMT -5
Applejack nodded as she finally started to understand what the two where talking about, swiftly returning to her walk along the maze of death and rot. She soon found herself following roots she had never seen before; were these...pulsing?
"What in Equestria?" She frowned, her forehoof tapping one of the clearly living roots. The contact seemed to make the bark itself shudder. This sight alone sent a shiver down the farm ponies spine, her coat prickling uneasily.
"Well this just ain't right. Not right at all." She sighed, her ears flicking at the sound of Cloudy's sudden lack of control of her lunch, forcing her to turn her head and watch her violet friend attempt to remedy the issue before it grew even worse. She made her way to Cloudy's side and nudged her slightly with her hoof. "Y'all right sugarcube? Yall don't look all too healthy."
With a sigh the earth pony looked around herself, unsure of the next move to make... only to have her eyes meet with what had caused the filly's sudden sickness. Taking a few hesitant steps forward, her emerald eyes widened as she approached the tree, a feeling of both shock and disgust washing through her.
"O-Oh my..."
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Post by Summer Wind on Oct 19, 2011 11:58:37 GMT -5
"Right. We won't get anything done standing here," Summer Wind agreed as he turned toward the path.
Glancing over at the two Earth Ponies as he started off, he compared them to his memories of the various citizens in town. Sagebrush, he could not recognize, but he also couldn't claim to know everypony in Ponyville. Lilypad looked more familiar, or at least her stripes did. Having spent very little time outside of Cloudsdale before moving to Ponyville, he couldn't be sure how common the trait might be among Earth Ponies. Whether he'd ever actually seen them before or not, he still wanted to get to know them better.
"So, what do the two of you do for a living?" He asked as they made their way across the orchard. "I'm a Weather Pony, myself."
As they drew closer to the diseased trees, Summer Wind couldn't help but wrinkle his nose at the sight of the swollen, oozing fruit. He then did a double take as he noticed one of them twitch. "Uh... Those apples are moving. Should they be moving?" Spreading his wings and kicking off from the ground, the Pegasus hovered over to the branches of the nearest tree to get a closer look at the strange fruit.
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Post by The Storyteller on Oct 24, 2011 1:07:58 GMT -5
[ Note: After Sagebrush's next post, this thread will be free for all, meaning there will be no posting order. ]
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Post by Sagebrush on Oct 24, 2011 15:41:33 GMT -5
The emerald pegasus and the intriguingly striped newcomer were now his teammates as it were, and as Summer Wind made his way onward he followed in tow. He smirked just a tad as their winged counterpart said he was a weathe rpony. This wasn't particularly surprising considering his species. "I'm what's called a shaman, or a medicine pony." He replied to to Sumer's query. He didn't exactly expect most of these folk to know what that was, or if they did, they probably thought him a wielder of dark magic. He'd find out soon enough, he supposed, and decided elaboration wasn't needed since Lilypad had yet to reply. He smiled at her slight hesitation before they moved on, and found himself already taking a liking to her.
As the little band walked further on, Summer's disturbing words made Sage's ears flatten against his skull in dismay, and his turquoise eyes followed the other stallion as he took to the air and inspected a grossly oversized fruit. The trees themselves had grown larger as well, outsizing the trees farther back by a few feet. Sage had to pick his way along the ground carefully, as the grass was slick with something. He stopped to pick up a forehoof and sniff at the substance before peering back up at the diseased apples. "It's the juices..." he grimaced, noticing shiny rivulets of the stuff dripping slowly from what otherwise might have been a crop worth boasting about. "Think you could kick one of those off the branches, Summer Wind?" he said, peering up at the pegasus.
Despite how large they'd grown, he saw absolutely none of these strange apples on the ground around them, and he wasn't about to try bucking a tree only to send a spray of them down upon their heads. With their size, if he or Lily had gotten pelted by one, it probably would've meant quite the nice lump!
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Lilypad
New Pony
What is love~~Baby don't hurt meee
Posts: 21
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Post by Lilypad on Oct 25, 2011 7:16:25 GMT -5
The leggy mare followed in hot pursuit the emerald Pegasus and the earthy brown stallion. Her tufted tail flicked back and forth, as she dazed off from the conversation and rather focused on the sight around her in the orchard. A Pegasus that was a weather pony wasn’t exactly new, but she liked him she decided, despite talking too much. Lilypad shook her head and tuned back in on the conversation again, as Sagebrush told about his profession. “A shaman? Really?” She asked gently, rather fascinated by that, her ears pricked up curiously and she looked at the stallion practically in awe as she continued to race down the path, slowly considering it. “I’m a florist myself, I uh. I like flowers” The timid mare even offered a small smile at that, flicking her ears forward again.
She looked around, she shuddered slightly, she wasn’t exactly sure why, but something sure didn’t feel right. As they reached the end, the cream mare came to a halt and stared in disbelief at the enormous apples. Muzzle parted as she took a few steps closer to the nearest tree, ears pinned backwards and she gave a small rear as she came as close as she dared. “Summer Wind, be careful. I’m not sure if you’d want to get the juices on you. It doesn’t look healthy” Lilypad said, concern in her voice as she carefully placed a front hoof on the bark. “This isn’t natural. Not the slightest chance. Whatever that has caused this…” She said as she dropped herself to the ground and moved back to Sagebrush, ears kept low. “..it has to be magic. Right?”
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Post by The Storyteller on Oct 27, 2011 12:59:51 GMT -5
Before any of the ponies could manage another response, the inevitable occurred. Like a bomb primed for explosion, the engorged, bulbous apple Summer Wind was closest to detonated, sending a sickly spray of rotten apple guts all over the hapless pegasus. The juices were as thick as maple syrup, and once they clotted the stallion's wings, it became incredibly difficult to flap those appendages and keep himself airborne.
It was as if the trees were priming some sort of defense mechanism. A bombardment of those diseased fruits started to tumble from their branches, detonating with disgusting 'splorches' as they smacked into the earth at the hooves of the two earth ponies.
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Post by Cloud Dreamer on Oct 27, 2011 18:50:45 GMT -5
Cloudy felt a lot better as the spell was cast on her. It hadn't really saved her from vomitting, but she no longer felt sick. The unicorn gave Twilight a weak smile of thanks. "Whatever this is, your trees are pretty messed up. I don't think I want to know what's going on. We should take causion in getting to close to that big tree, I'm not sure what in Equestria might happen." Carefully, she used her magic to break off one of the feeble branches of a tree and prod the large roots with it. It didn't try to grab the stick or explode, so Cloudy felt it was safe.
"Alright Twilight, let's break open the tree. I want to see if my rotting-the-tree-on-the-inside-to-take-it-over theory is somewhat logical." Thinking of how Applejack may react to one of her own trees being destroyed, she turned to her. "Don't worry Applejack. This tree will never weild edible fruit again by the looks of it, it won't be any loss." The unicorn turned back to Twilight, readying her magic. "On the count of three use your telekenisses and try to snap open this tree. One, two, three!" Cloudy grabbed from the branches to halfway down the tree with her magic, pulling with all her might. Of course, she wasn't pulling the tree towards the three ponies, but away. If something did happen to be lethal, she didn't want it landing on them.
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Post by Twilight Sparkle on Oct 27, 2011 19:30:43 GMT -5
Seeing that Cloudy was better the two immediately got back to figuring out the problem with the tree. "Ok then. Let's check out the tree on the inside. Don't worry Applejack. I'll help you plant a new apple tree if you like." At the count of three Twilight grabbed the other side of the tree with her magic and began pulling it in the other direction. It was difficult to do even with magic as Twilight wasn't the most athletic pony. Finally with a loud rip Twilight suddenly went flying, hitting against another diseased tree. Immediately a rotten apple fell onto her head, soaking her mane. "Eew! This is disgusting," the purple unicorn said as she tried shaking off the majority of the apple goo, "Now I'm really going to need a bath when I get home."
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Post by Summer Wind on Nov 1, 2011 3:23:04 GMT -5
Summer Wind had only heard of Medicine Ponies and Shaman in fictional stories of Cowponies and Buffalo, but he figured if any of it was to be believed then the Earth Pony stallion was probably well suited to the task at hoof. Since a florist would also likely know a thing or two about gardening, he decided he would just have to listen to whatever the two Earth Ponies told him to do.
Nodding as both an affirmative to Sagebrush's request and an agreement with Lilypad's advice, he selected an apple near the end of one of the branches and hovered over to it. However, before he could knock it down, it burst right in front of him, causing him to jerk back and raise a hoof to protect his face reflexively as the juices splattered all over him. He quickly found maintaining his altitude more difficult than it should have been as the viscous substance mucked up his feathers.
"Whoa! Look out!" He called a warning to the two ponies below when he noticed other apples beginning to drop from their branches. Swooping rather awkwardly over to his companions, Summer Wind kicked away a few apples that had looked like they might land directly on the other ponies, which had the unfortunate side effect of splattering even more of the juices across his hindquarters.
When the branches above them looked to be running low on fruit projectiles, he fluttered haphazardly back from the tree and set his hooves down in the grass, albeit landing a bit harder than he had intended. With the goo messing up his wings, he felt like he was trying to learn to fly all over again.
Looking himself over, he was sure he was a sorry sight. His feathers and tail were starting to mat up from the thick juices soaked into them. More of the disgusting fluid was also splattered generously over his barrel, haunches, and flanks. "I don't suppose this will be enough for you to work with?" He asked as he glanced over at Sagebrush.
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AppleJack
New Pony
Soup's on everyponeh!
Posts: 12
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Post by AppleJack on Nov 2, 2011 16:10:52 GMT -5
Before she had a chance to react Applejack was forced to watch one of her once beloved trees be wrenched apart. If that wasn't enough, not a moment after one of her best buddies was sent flying, crashing with a very painful sounding thud into another of her topiary's.
This was all moving so fast, AJ Was having trouble keeping up. She did however run to Twilight's side, helping her lavender friend back to her hooves despite the foul smelling puss that leaked down her mane.
"Now be careful there Twilight, Ya'll alright? Ya' can take a moment to steady yer'self ya know" She smiled, using her hoof to wipe off some of the putrid bile that was stationed so firmly on her friends pelt.
After spending the next few moments trying to get the sticking substance off of her own hooves she made her way over to the now split tree, an ever saddening frown growing on her vermillion face.
"Poor darlin' didn't stand a chance, specially to whatever this is." She paused nuzzling one of the clearer roots of her tree before looking around herself once more. Alot of the trees around her where in much worse states than what this young sapling used to be.
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Lilypad
New Pony
What is love~~Baby don't hurt meee
Posts: 21
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Post by Lilypad on Nov 2, 2011 17:30:47 GMT -5
Lilypad jumped a few feet back startled as she watched Summer Wind’s attempt to shake the apple down, causing so many to fall. “Holy Celestias front hoof!” She squeaked out surprised and took another step or five backwards watching the Pegasus. The leggy mare looked around before finally giving up and moved to hide behind Sagebrush, deeply regretting coming to the farm. Tufted tail flicked about nervously, and those pale lavender eyes of hers carefully watched from the safe distance as the first apples exploded all over the Pegasus.
Then another and a third, the zebra mix shook her stiff mane and snorted out a soft breath of air, confused by the entire ordeal, and did her best to avoid the apple juices. “We.. we should find protection! Right? Summer Wind, are you ok? I don’t think you should fly before your wings are cleaned…” She hesitated, looking around to see what they had to work with, then back at the tree that had dropped the disgusting apples.
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Post by The Storyteller on Nov 4, 2011 20:36:51 GMT -5
[ Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Cloud Dreamer ]
As soon as the roots were perturbed by magic, a violent chain reaction ripped through the underground root system of the surrounding vegetation.
The ground fissured steadily--then erupted in several places, roots of varying sizes and shapes bursting forth tips first, their endpoints tapered down to a sharpness that replicated a knight's lance. An unholy groan that sounded similar to old, creaking trees bowing to the gales of the wind coursed through the atmosphere from everywhere and nowhere. Something 'living' had been agitated.
Deep furrows began to slither through the grass like snakes through an underbrush...directly towards the fillies nearby. Those sharp roots were heading for them now!
[ Summer Wind, Sagebrush, Lilypad ]
More of the apples began to languidly tumble from the trees, some of them erupting into gelatinous goo, and some not. The ones that remained oddly solid then began to actually move of their own accord!
About four or five of them pivoted around in place, facing the ragtag trio of equines. They contorted and shifted, as if something beneath them was literally bending the innards of the apples to it's own whims. Like clothing seams splitting open, faces resembling that of jack-o-lanterns on Nightmare Night began to tear open upon the gigantic fruits, baring snaggletoothed grins and narrow, hungry eyes. Rotten apple juice poured down their 'chins' like drool, worms of varying species trickling free of their eye sockets to plop helplessly on the grass.
With a bestial shriek, one of them launched itself directly at Lilypad, it's maw wide open and unveiling a further hovel of squirming insects within.
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Post by Cloud Dreamer on Nov 5, 2011 11:49:17 GMT -5
Cloudy was used to using her levitation for heavy and hard things, ever since she was a filly she was lifting as heavy an object as she could find. It was light weight training for building musucles, only building magical strength instead. It did wear her out a little though, beads of sweat dripping down her face. The tree gave and Twilight flew back, the blue unicorn turning with a gasp.
"Twilight! Are you alri-" her voice was cut off by the ground cracking like an earthquake was beginning, Cloudy turning quickly to see roots coming from the ground. Her eyes grew like saucers, quickly doing the first thing she could think of. "QUICKLY, THEY ARE ATTACKING!!!!!" Cloudy cried at the top of her lungs, using her telekenises to grab some roots and attempt to hold them in place, only succeeding in holding one in place and slowly three others down a little, greatly wearing her out. She tried to back up, being slowed by her deep forced concentration to try to hold back some roots.
Cloudy looked over at Twilight and Applejack to see how they were doing. Big mistake. One slithered right past the four she had kept away from her and the others and straight towards her, threatening to pierce her. Cloudy still did not see it. "Twilight, there has to be some sort of spell to stop these!!!" the unicorn cried, desperite.
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