Obliterated. Again.
IC date: Spring 25, 1006
OOC date: April 15, 2012
PCs: Jellybean, Typhoon-Wave, Hayseed, Snowfield, Captain Mwai, Whiplash, Salty
NPCs: None
GM: Fluttershy

Nabber's Curse. It's been circulating in Horseshow Harbor now for some time, and it's starting to put, shall we say, a strain on the little town. Ponies everywhere have their talents going haywire, their special unique abilities turning back on them like a terrible slap in the face. With Jellybean's weather powers going out of whack, the weather's been chaotic at best; with Snowfield's ice magic, the harbor froze over for an entire week with the little pony trapped inside. Hayseed's been sowing horrific amounts of vines and flowers. Almond Flower, the local distillery owner, has been knocking holes through walls with feather touches. There's a touch of panic.

Phosphor, the mysterious pegasus who plummeted into the harbor not two months ago, has been blamed, but she disappeared with a promise to tell Jellybean when she'd make her final attempt to infect the mayor with the curse. Unfortunately, she lied her way through the last few months, so there's no telling whether she lied about that too.

At present, there's a large presence of panicky ponies running about town, trying to keep themselves from going too haywire. The newest buildings in town have held up but some of the older ones — almost six months old!! — have enormous holes in them, or have been iced or flooded. Tiny pink clouds fly every which way, though they aren't cotton candy as one might hope. Sad!

Mwai trots into the square and a unicorn zips by dragged by her horn to some unknown destination, screaming the whole way. "I swear this place is worse than Ponyville."

Snowfield watches the chaos from atop the statue in the middle of the town square, the fountain it sits upon frozen into a beautiful if out of season curtain of water. "She can't have been infected just yet," the unicorn observes to whoever happens to be nearby, "I believe I can identify all of the strange happenings so far. When Salty gets hit, whatever happens shall be… inexplicable, I imagine."

Jellybean is officially the weirdest savior ever. "Everypony, please! There's a cure for the curse and I have it with me!" He's flying overhead with a little vial on a string around his neck. "If you've been cursed, follow me and we'll get this sorted out! I'm going to go find the mayor and make sure that something awful hasn't happened." And with that the hero of the hour flies attaway.

Hayseed stumbles out of the inn, still looking half-asleep. Her house was still… viney. And despite the little carved charm around her neck, she had been unable to bring herself to stay in any one place too long for fear of a repeat performance. As such, she'd been gettign unpleasantly little sleep, even /without/ the curse running rampant throughout the town affecting everyone else.

Well, at least all the crops had grown well. And /fast/. There was plenty of food to be had from her farms! Even if a lot of it had that strange magic-y not-quite-taste to it.

The ponies all look up to Jellybean, and there are cries of 'oh thank Celestia!' and 'Quick! Make it stop!' But the little blue savior is on his way to… The mayor's house, pretty out of the way in the town-square and just out of Snowfield's field of vision, and it is already completely on fire. With blue flame. The mayor herself is nowhere to be found, though the blue fire seems to be emitting purple bubbles instead of smoke. Indeed, it's pretty…inexplicable.

Whiplash trots along the dusty road, muttering over the indignities he had suffered the past week. "The nerve of those simpletons! To throw me… ME! Whiplash! Second cousin (twice removed) of Blueblood himself! To throw me out of Canterlot for suggesting a simple improvement to the rainbow making process! Why, Production would be improved by nearly 12, and it's not like we had any other use for all of those pegasus orphans anyway…" As he walks along grumbling, he looks up just in time to keep himself from running headlong into a small signpost. Whiplash reads it over. "Horseshoe Harbor, 2 miles? Sounds perfectly pedestrian. No thank you!" As he turns to leave, his path is suddenly crossed by a screaming unicorn as she is dragged away from the town into the distance. He then casts an apprasing eye back towards the sea side town, and a grin creeps onto his face. "Perhaps there is some mischef to be had here after all…"

Mwai watches the bubbles billowing from the blue flames. Somehow, their source is completely obvious. Maybe it's something the mystics back home would call fate. Maybe it's twined destinies. Or maybe it's Thursday. "Oh great diamond-jawed horseflies, Salty what did you do this time."

Snowfield may not be able to see Salty's house from here, but she can most certainly see the steady stream of purple bubbles rising into the air from the direction of the mayor's residence. Her eyes narrow as she murmurs, "Perhaps I spoke too soon." She glances around the square and spots Hayseed coming out of the inn, sporting bags under her eyes almost as deep as Snowfield's own.

"Just the pony I required!" she shouts, hopping off of the statue of Seaform's head and landing on the ground with a puff of snow that manifests from nowhere. She skates over to the taller unicorn on the ice that instantly forms beneath her hooves. "I believe there's someone in more dire need of that charm than you, Hayseed." She does a single lap around the farmer and then dashes down the road in the direction of Salty's abode. "This way! And be swift!"

Jellybean lands near the house and stares at the fire. "How'm I ever going to…" And then a smile of wonder and joy spreads across the face of the little blue pegasus. He takes to the air again, flies towards one of the nearby clouds and pushes it into place over the house. Once there, he leaps atop it and practically dances a little jig on it to release the rain held inside.

Typhoon-Wave is currently caught up attempting (and failing) to chase down the worst of the clouds. Which were a mess. She was coated in pink… something, and her back hooves were… sticky wasn't even the right word, but whatever she was kicking out of these clouds wasn't rain. And she was not very happy about this.

Hayseed blinks over at Snowfield, taking a few moments to register the words. "What? Uh… okay, um…" she glanced down at the charm, gulping, then scrambled unsteadily after her. "Wait up!"

Whiplash walks into the town, casting an appreciative eye at the chaos that is roaring around him. "Holes in buildings, vines everywhere, hmm…" As he enters the town square, he is immediately drawn to the raging inferno that is the mayor's house. "Blue flame! That's a new one." He sits down to appreciate the spectacle of it all.

Mwai sits down and just stares at the destruction. "This is a big one even by Salty standards. And I was a guest at her sister's wedding."

For a moment, it seems Jellybean's valiant effort starts to put out the flames — but after a moment the fire … catches on fire? With more fire. The flames roar up and send his cloud skittering away, with him with it, but at least he was able to /do/ it! How wonderful!

The mare known as the Dread Mayor Saltlick (more or less) stumbles out the front door — but she's swathed in a bright green light emanating from her horn. Phosphor had said she'd tell Jellybean, hadn't she? Did she lie…? Who knows, but the point is that green light is firing off fireworks everywhich way. The fire from her own house is jumping in fireballs onto nearby buildings, and the statue, which Snowfield had previously been perched on, poofs into a…balloon animal.

Jellybean hastily leaps off the cloud before it goes too far away and runs when he sees the mayor. "Mayor Salty, Mayor Salty! There's something you need to drink right now!" Once he's in her presence he takes the vial from around his neck. "Please, Mayor Salty, have a sip of this or everyone in Horseshoe Harbor is doomed!" The mayor has probably had this dream, although in the dream it was probably bourbon.

"We're too late," Snowfield snarles. She pirouettes briefly to allow Hayseed to catch up to her, then leaps up onto the taller unicorn's back (and likely sending one heck of a chill up her spine!). The magic nullification charm around Hayseed's neck is grabbed in the ice witch's teeth before she leaps off.

The tiny unicorn tries to start skating again but quickly trips over her own feet when the spell fails utterly— accursed charm! "Darn!" she mumbles through clenched teeth as she'll just have to hoof it the rest of the way to Salty, rushing headlong into the flames and fireworks with little regard for her own safety.

Hayseed gives a startled squeak at the sudden COLD, shivering heavily; she didn't immediately notice that the charm had been snatched, though she picked up on it quickly enough when flowers and soon enough little vines began growing up around her hooves.

Whiplash stamps his hooves vigerously in applause, before sauntering over to a zebra he sees sitting nearby who also seems to be watching the spectacle. "Tell me, my good sir, what is the cause for all of this delectable discord? I must simple know who I should congradulate!"

Mwai looks at Whiplash a little askance. "That… would be the mayor."

Salty rolls 1d10 (Jellybean) — Result: 10 | Sum: 10
Salty rolls 1d10 (Snowfield) — Result: 3 | Sum: 3
Salty rolls 1d10 (Hayseed) — Result: 1 | Sum: 1
Salty rolls 1d10 (Whiplash) — Result: 10 | Sum: 10
Salty rolls 1d10 (Mwai) — Result: 3 | Sum: 3
Salty rolls 1d10 (Typhoon) — Result: 8 | Sum: 8

Whiplash says "Ah! How wonderful to see an elected official taking it upon herself to liven things up a bit!"

As Jellybean dives toward her, Salty lets out a cry. "Please—!" she yelps, but it's mostly lost in the enormous energy-born /shockwave/ that erupts from her body. The pegasus going after her manages some sort of strange acrobatic twirl that evades the blast of energy, but others are not so lucky. Snowfield gets blasted back ten feet, rump over teakettle, and Mwai finds his own self thrown onto his back. Whiplash, however, manages to stand his ground, lucky for him. Typhoon, also, manages only to get a singed feather or two.

Hayseed, however, gets slammed back into a building, and her powers go suddenly /wild/. And aggressive. Vines whip and flowers snap at panicky passerby ponies.

Still, it seems that actually getting /to/ Salty is going to be a major task. She's still putting off a lot of power.

Whiplash cheers! "Bravo! Encore! Author! Author!

Typhoon-Wave is quite distracted from the clouds by the sudden blast, blinking and shaking herself off, a little mussed but none the worse for wear. "What the hay…"

Mwai dusts himself off. "See this is a pretty rough day even by Salty standards. Usually you only lose a few buildings, maybe some pavement chunks." Mwai waves a hoof around. "I mean, we've got some genuine life and limb risks going on here. Also I'm pretty sure that's a vine monster. We usually don't get those this far South."

Jellybean proffers the vial to Salty. "Mayor, please hurry and have some of this. I need to cure everypony else, too, but right now I think you might be the first one who needs it."

Snowfield rolls 1d10 (for accuracy) — Result: 10 | Sum: 10

Whiplash peers at the writhing mess of vines. "Ah, yes, this area is much too temperate for them. Well, no worries. Once it finishes devouring that mare in the middle there it should quiet right down."

Hayseed yelps as she is flung back, hitting the wall with a loud thud and crumpling to the ground. Luckily, she was sturdy enough that it could be assumed that that wasn't, y'know… fatal, but still, ow. She was, at the very least, quite dazed; enough so that trying to 'control' the sudden eruption of plant monsters wasn't top priority for the time being.

There's a yelp of surprise followed by a cry of pain as Snowfield is knocked flank-over-teakettle backwards, sliding across ground that is unfortunately NOT covered with ice thanks to the magic nullification charm she's holding… was holding? Shoot, where did it go!? The unicorn stumbles to her feet and realizes that it fell out of her teeth while she was being blasted through the air. She takes a few steps forward then stumbles with another cry, pain lancing through one of her legs as she puts weight onto it.

Her own horn flares to life as she decides to use her own out of control magic to try and take control of the situation. "There's no reasoning with her, Jellybean," she shouts at the pegasus. "I'll hold her down, you force it down her gullet! She narrows her eyes and tries to focus the energies racing around her mind, trying to bring some kind of clarity to the fog that the Nabber's Curse has placed her under for the last several weeks.

She remembers the magical overload she suffered after New Year, the way the out of control energies seemed to sing straight into her brain. She mimics the tones with her own voice, a haunting and hollow melody for anypony close enough to hear it over the sound of the raging bubblefire that's rapidly engulfing this half of the town. It seems to help as, at least for the moment, Snowfield manages to control her spell just long enough to summon ice at the mayor's feet. With any luck it'll reach up her body and hold her in place long enough for Jellybean to do what needs to be done.

Mwai waves a hoof at Snowfield. "The one being responsible and dashing is… Snowfield I think. A bit of a grouch but clearly a Hero. Generally I try to avoid heroes, and not just because of the whole," and here he makes air quotes with his hooves, "Villain thing".

Salty rolls 1d10 — Result: 7 | Sum: 7
Salty rolls 1d10 — Result: 7 | Sum: 7

The blue fire has indeed engulfed half of the outskirts, reducing homes to a strangely aromatic charred remnant of what they used to be. The bubbles float away to become … oh! Pink clouds. Well that solves that. … Sort of. Ish. As Salty tries to stagger around, it's not really…seeming like she can even hear Jellybean. And no surprise really, with all that magic rushing through her skull like a powerful torrent. So it's very lucky, then, that Snowfield's rush of magic surges toward her. One hoof — no, two get frozen in place in a crackle of ice crystal that creeps up the mare's booted legs to her calves.

But that's not exactly pleasant, and the mayor panics, as new blasts of now ice-flavored fire blasts holes through the remaining few buildings like a terrifying barrage. Still, she's not moving around so much! Jellybean can probably get in close!

Whiplash Glares indignantly at Mwai. "And just what, my good sir, do you have against the whole" mimmics Mwai's air-quote hooves "Villain thing?"

Mwai shrugs. "Only that it's inconvenient being one sometimes."

Typhoon-Wave blinks, growling faintly and darting over towards the source of /new/ evil pink clouds of pinkness and not-rain. "What the hay is going /on/ here?!" she asks nopony in particular, not at all sure what to make of all this… magicsplosion. Again.

Snowfield's wordless melody tapers off into a gasp for breath, the strain of trying to fight the curse coupled with the pain in her leg quickly getting to her. Unfortunately, the ice spell is still fully woven and proceeds to do its thing on the next best target: Snowfield herself. "Oh, ponyfeathers," she coughs as she is promptly frozen to the ground from the chest down.

Whiplash lets out a hearty (and slightly crazed) laugh. "Quite the contrary, my dear Zebra! I find it opens so many wonderfully twisty paths to the mind!

Jellybean finally just leaps in to handle things all on his own. Timing it for a moment when the mayor's mouth is open he flies in and practicaly crams the vial in there, long enough for a portion of the precious cure to work down her throat before taking the vial back. Safe? Who knows!

The 'vine monster' was, indeed, causing chaos, smashing at any buildings nearby that still had enough left to smash at and growing up what was left over after /that/. Flowers were springing up around it, snapping at anypony who tried to get close — not that many were dumb enough to. Because snappy flowers.

Whiplash 's ears droop and his eyes grow wide as he points at the encroaching vine monsters. "Perhaps this would be better discussed at another time…"

Salty rolls 1d10 (O Jellybean, what is your fate?) — Result: 9 | Sum: 9

Mwai waves a hoof around effusively. "Yeah but then you've got all these do-gooders chasing you, the Gods don't act in your favor, and you get really unlucky with takeout orders. Oh and Death gives me the nastiest looks whenever I have to cheat her into leaving me at the spa instead of Tartarus."

Whiplash slowly backs away from the talking zebra as the vine monster's… vines begin to rise up above him.

Swish! Smack! Glug!

There's one last final discharge of magic, one last final explosion that sends Jellybean summersaulting backwards in the air. It's a powerful blow, but luckily there's a Typhoon-Wave to cushion it when he goes crashing into it! … Yay? The buildings literally /shatter/, pieces of detritus flying this way and that in a hailstorm of terror. Ponies scream, and some even faint — as that seems to just be the thing to /do/, you know? — and in the middle of it is Salty.

The mayor is still locked in place, but with that last discharge, she slumps over. All the way to the ground, if she could, but the ice stops her, so she just mildly topples a bit instead. Down, but not out.

The pink clouds start to fracture and disperse. The blue fire dissipates with a >thwip<. The vine monsters … well, they don't disappear, but they become passive, with great yellow flowers sniffing curiously toward Whiplash rather than smack him down.

Mission accomplished? Perhaps!

Snowfield turns her head away to shield her eyes as there's a final flash of magic, her own icy prison unfortunately not shattering along with the nearby buildings. She's still stuck in place for the moment.

Typhoon-Wave squeaks in surprise as suddenly, Jellybean! Thump and tumble. She instinctively held onto him as best she could, trying not to, y'know, drop him, as she flapped her wings frantically to try and stay right-side-up and in the air. Well, she was half-successful; she wound up on the ground on her back but relatively unscathed. And blushing like all getout.

Jellybean lands, looking quite dazed. "Hey everypony," he says, muzzledly, "why not try some cure? It's good for what ails you…" and with that, thud.

Whiplash blinks rapidly, trying to clear the afterimage of the blast from his sight. As his vision clears, he pushes the overly affectionate flowers away with a slight sneer. "Well that, appears to be that" he mutters, mostly to himself.

Whiplash turns quickly to Mwai, sweeping his cloak aside with a flurish of magic. "Ah, where are my manners! Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier! I am Whiplash, a humble traveler and scholar. Whom have I had the pleasure of watching this wonderful display with?"

Mwai says "Captain Mwai of the Destiny Caravel. Hopefully the harbor will be less… solid… shortly and I can get to Brewtown and finish a few deals."

Whiplash says "A pleasure to meet you. Perhaps we shall meet again. I think I shall make the quaint hamlet my residence for the forseeable future. It has such… potential.""

Snowfield rolls 1d100 (Come on, critfail!) — Result: 66 | Sum: 66
Salty rolls 1d100 (GM fiat!) — Result: 71 | Sum: 71
Snowfield rolls 1d100 (I'll app Harmony Charmer on a 1!) — Result: 58 | Sum: 58

Whiplash walks away from the town square, but not before noticing a glint in the dirt at his hooves. With a questioning look, he knocks the dirt away revealing a strange pendant. He attempts to levatate it with his horn, but the trinket seems to be immune to his magic! Akwardly he picks it up with his hoof and stowes it away in one of his cape's many pockets. This would have to bear further investigation. With a glance back at the ruined square, he begins to chuckle to himself. Oh yes, he was going to like it here.

Mwai looks around for Polaris, and upon realzing he's nowhere to be seen, sighs heavily and trots over to Salty. He gently bucks the ice loose around her hooves and eases her to the ground. "Well, now you won't wake up with anything sprained at least."

Typhoon-Wave blinks and blushes furiously, freezing for a moment before gulping. "Uh… J-jellybean? …You okay?" she finally stammered awkwardly.

Jellybean makes a series of adorable little noises, then shakes his head and sits up. "Hmm? Hnah? Oh, Typhoon, hey. Y'wanna help me get everypony cured?"

Snowfield continues to be a frozen lump, not at all bitter that Salty is getting freed and she is not. Dumb mayor…

Typhoon-Wave gulps a bit and fidgets shyly. "Oh, uh… cured? Of… that… infection… thing? Well, uh, sure, I… I can… try and help?" Unless of course she made it worse inadvertently. That could happen too. After all, this day had gone /so/ well so far.

Jellybean beams a happy smile at Typhoon and throws her a quick hug before getting up and trotting over to… the frozen lump of Snowfield. "How're we gonna get her out?"

Mwai notices a grumbling ice structure and draws the correct conclusion. "Woa, hey, are you alright?" Mwai goes to work on Snowfield.

Typhoon-Wave would probably have turned red by pure blush-power now if that were possible. She rolled to her hooves, giving herself a light shake and trying to get loose of the last bits of pinkness from the clouds. "Well, uh… I dunno… I don't wanna kick it, could hurt somepony…" Snowfield might be little but she was not a cloud.

"Took long enough," Snowfield mumbles grumpily as Mwai begins chipping away at her ice. "Watch your hooves, I haven't had that antidote yet and it might try to freeze you to the ground as well. Where'd that darn pegasus escape to, anyway?"

(OOC) Snowfield, unable to turn around and see Jellybean is /right there/.

"Uhm, hi Snowfield." He trots around to face Snowfield properly and hold out the vial of antidote. "Here, have some of this and you'll feel tons better."

Oh, there he is. Snowfield narrows her eyes at Jellybean suspiciously before craning her neck forward and grabbing the vial between her lips. She tosses her head back for a moment to take a short swig.

After a few seconds the perpetual glow that had been surrounding her horn for days and days begins to fade away. "…it's quiet," the unicorn says cryptically, giving Jellybean a hard-to-read look halfway between wonder and disappointment before her horn flares brightly and the ice that hasn't yet been chipped away by Mwai bursts into a shower of snow.

"That's better," she says simply before tossing what's left of the antidote back to the pegasus. "I hope you've learned a valuable lesson from all of this, Jellybean," Snowfield says disapprovingly, clarifying that lesson with a sharp, "Never hug me again," and trotting off in the direction of the forest. It's much easier to reach now that the nearby buildings have been reduced to splinters; she doesn't have to navigate those pesky city streets!

Mwai murmers at Jellybean. "Don't mind her. She's a Hero. They're like that."

Typhoon-Wave blinks after her, tilting an ear. "…Not even a 'thanks'… she's not entirely friendly." She didn't seem upset about this as much as… well, stating a fact.

Jellybean makes a little sad face when he watches Snowfield walk away, but sighs. "She's just being Snowfield. It's okay, though, because I got to help her." He smiles. "I like helping ponies."

Mwai wanders off, muttering something about "everypony's a hero in this bloody town"…

Typhoon-Wave smiles over at him sheepishly. "That's… a good hobby. I mean, uh, it's nice of you and all."

Jellybean beams. "I think that ponies helping each other is what makes a town work. Speaking of helping, I was going to go make some clouds now that I can do it without things going weird. You wanna help?"

Typhoon-Wave blinks. Clouds… making clouds. She'd been trying to avoid that for… well, weeks. But… it'd be harder to mess it up with help, right? And it /was/ sort of her job and all. And it wasn't really fair to refuse after all the stuff he'd already had to do and all… "Um… s-sure, I can… give it a try."