Truth
IC date: Spring 23, 1007
OOC date: April 13, 2012
PCs: Jellybean, Phosphor, Snowfield
NPCs: None
GM: Fluttershy

Phosphor. It's the only lead Snowfield has to figure out where this… what did Jellybean call it? The Nabber's Curse? Whatever, the point is it's the only clue the little unicorn has to figure out why her magic has gone all out of whack. Ponies in town are too darn /nice/ to lay a curse willy-nilly, but whoever this Phosphor mare is that wanted to see the mayor so badly… well, it'd be rude to assume that she has some sort of grudge against the town, but Snowfield is in a grumpy mood and not feeling very tactful.

The forest witch is currently following a trail of rumors to Phosphor's last known location, somewhere outside the town limits. Asking after the mystery pegasus is the most interaction with other ponies she's had to have in some time and Snowfield has no intention of doing it again any time soon if she can avoid it.

Jellybean, meanwhile, is following Snowfield. It is a testimony to how cranky she was the last time he saw her that he's actually doing his best to avoid her attention. He just figures she's in a bad mood because of the curse, but that's no reason to antagonize a friend. So instead he's following her quietly, flying behind her a good ways.

Of course, the weather might have something to say about this.

Indeed, Phosphor's trail is a hard one to follow. Half of the town seems to be a little confused as to whom Snowfield is talking about. Mysterious pegasus? Fallen from the sky? Curse? What are you /even/ going on about, freaky forest pony? But eventually, the dark blue pegasus can be found skulking about somewhere in the outskirts, flumped on her belly and staring into a small puddle from recent spring rains. She looks dejected. Saaaadpony.

Dark blue, check. Wings, check. Mare, check. Space alien… yet to be determined. The sight of the pegasus lurking at the outskirts of the town matches most of what she's heard about this 'Phosphor' character and tactless Snowfield sees no reason not to confirm it in the most expedient way possible. "Hey!" she calls out to the beflumped pony, trotting forward purposefully with a sheen of ice freezing over the ground in her wake. "What's your name?"

"Snowfield, you don't need to be rude about it." Jellybean flutters down to land, pawing at the ground. "What's wrong?" he asks of the saaaadpony.

Phosphor's ears flick back as Snowfield approaches, and she sits up, body language automatically pulling away. "What? Me?" She eyes the unfamiliar pony, and the ice following in her wake, and frowns. "Phosphor… Why?" Spying Jellybean, the pegasus' former, brief roommate waves a shy hoof. "Hey, Jellybean…"

Snowfield gives Jellybean an annoyed look when he asks her to be polite. Clearly this boy hasn't known her nearly long enough to not recognize that this IS Snowfield being polite. "Rumor has it you had some business with the mayor," she explains tersely. "I was wondering what that business was." As she waits for an answer the ground around her begins to frost; a side effect of the constant venting of her magic.

Jellybean gives Phosphor a friendly little smile and gently places a hoof on Snowfield's shoulder. "Snowfield and I are, err, kinda cursed at the moment, and we've been trying to figure out what's going on. We were wondering if maybe you might know anything about it?"

Phosphor's eyes widen just a tick. It may not be noticeable to, say, Jellybean, but a misanthrope (…misequine? I don't even) like Snowfield would probably spot it. "C…cursed? Really? What happened?" Snowfield's inquiry gets a shake of her mane as she pulls nervously to her hooves. "Her… her aide, that guy. He wanted me to fill out paperwork. I don't remember much. I…I just wanted to talk to her in person."

"Is that a fact?" Snowfield says, her own eyes narrowing as Phosphor's widen. "What a coincidence. A mare named Hayseed was /also/ trying to meet the mayor a little while back." She raises a hoof and looks at it disinterestedly. "At least I assume so, since she's our resident plant wizard and there were some weird plants growing at the mayor's place right after that break-in a while back."

Oh, but Jellybean just HAD to bring up the curse already, didn't he? "Nothing too serious, Phosphor. Just magic casting out of control, ponies being trapped by their own power, the town being put in great danger and the local economy sundered. You'd think it was just Mayor Salty going on another binge if you didn't know any better." Though her face remains fixated on her hoof the unicorn's eyes dart up to peer at Phosphor through her mane.

"It's been kinda hard. I can't do anything about the weather right now: when I try it just starts going wild." He shuffles a little. "We were just hoping you knew anything that might be helpful, but I guess you don't?" He sounds hopeful even as his eyes are doing that big wobbly thing they seems to be designed for.

Phosphor nods a little bit at Snowfield. "Oh…" she manages, and she sinks a little bit in her posture. "I heard about that," she adds lamely. To Jellybean, she shakes her head quickly. "No, I dunno a thing. I don't do weatherwork." Though, rumor has it that it was lighting that struck her down over the ocean, bringing her to the harbor.

"You don't? That's a shame." Snowfield shakes her head in disappointment. She'd been hoping for Phosphor to be a little more forthcoming, assuming that the space pegasus knew anything. She DOES seem to be the common denominator, after all. "Well, I guess we have no choice, then. Jellybean, be a dear and hold her down while I take a lock of her mane, will you?" She gestures with her horn for the other pegasus to move forward.

"What? Snowfield, no, she didn't do it!" Jellybean frets behind Snowfield, trotting back and forth and then finally flying over her and standing between the two fillies. "Look at her! She doesn't have any idea what's going on." He's trotting in place nervously, clearly uncomfortable with being even this confrontational.

Phosphor shakes her head more vigorously now. "I don't! I don't have any idea!" She takes a few stumbling steps back, ears flattening in panic. "What do you want from me?" It's pretty obvious what Snow wants from her; but she's apparently not seeing it. Ish.

"Jellybean," Snowfield says in monotone. "Why must you fail me at the most inopportune moments?" She sighs and turns again towards the rapidly recoiling Phosphor. "We're trying to track down victim zero of this Nabber's Curse… thing. You're the only thing linking together two of the victims, Hayseed and Jellybean, so we thought you might be involved as either the source or another victim. And by 'we' I mean 'I'. I don't know what this guy thinks." She cocks her head towards Jellybean.

Jellybean whimpers and whinnies and trots in place, still trying to stay between Snowfield and Phosphor. "I don't think you cursed me, Phosphor, honestly I don't. But maybe you have it too? It's supposed to be conta, cont… you can give it to other ponies if you're around them."

Snowfield corrects, "Contagious."

Phosphor jumps into the air, flapping her wings. "Well, I didn't start any curse!" she snaps, "And— and just because I know /two ponies/ doesn't make me victim zero! I don't have any Nabbers Curse!" WHOOPS. Phosphor does not at all notice that slip; instead she looks like she's ready to storm away, pegasus style.

"Phosphor, wait. Please don't run, we just want to help!" Well, Jellybean wants to help. Snowfield is Snowfield is Snowfield. He takes to the air after her, but in such a way as to be following and not, for instance, chasing.

"So defensive," Snowfield says smarmily. She's really not good at this negotiation thing. "I didn't say you WERE victim zero, just that we were trying to find who WAS and that you might be infected. After all, it spreads by touch and Jellybean's a hugger." She stays rooted firmly on the ground, what with the whole 'not being a pegasus' thing.

Phosphor, however, doesn't seem convinced. "Well you sure jumped to conclusions fast then, what with the 'hold her down' part!" She doesn't try to avoid Jellybean, but she does quite like her perch in the air. "I don't like you, little pony! You're mean, and I wasn't doing /anything/ wrong…" Oh, yep, there are the tears. Sniffle, weep, sob. (Ugh.)

"I don't think we've met," Snowfield says, the smirk dropping from her face as it returns to its usualy tired, slightly miffed expression. "My name is Snowfield, and I hate everypony." She steps closer to Phosphor, or at least a few steps in the pegasus' direction. The altitude difference makes it a little difficult to actually get 'close'. "All I want is to live in peace, and I'm having a /very hard time/ doing that right now because if I rest for too long I turn into a block of ice, which does terrible things to one's beauty sleep."

Her voice drops close to monotone again as the little unicorn gets serious. "You'll have to excuse me if I am not the most tactful of ponies when weird stuff starts occuring immediately after a new arrival crashes into the harbor and it does its darndest to ruin my life."

Pity poor Jellybean, for he is not nearly smart enough to be following what's going on and just wants to be everypony's friend. "Phosphor, she's just upset because she got cursed, that's all. Maybe everypony could just calm down and we could talk about this like sensible ponies?"

Phosphor sniffsniff, sob sob. "Well, I'm really sorry! But I don't know what's going on, and I can't even remember anything, and— and" Jellybean's words seem to get through to her though, and she starts to calm down in to mere sniffles. "Okay…I can I can talk, I guess." She hovers close to Jellybean though. Her knight in shining armor?

Snowfield has said her piece. She sits back and waits for Jellybean to ask something, since clearly this annoying filly will only talk with him. How troublesome.

Jellybean floats closer to the ground, trying to encourage Phosphor to follow him. "Well, have you heard of other ponies with a curse like this before? You seem like you've travelled around a bit."

Phosphor shakes her head shyly at Jellybean. "No… but that's not surprising since I don't remember much." As Jellybean floats closer, so does she, until she finally lands softly on Snowfield's level. She looks fretfully at the little filly, sniffling. Sneeff.

Snowfield looks on impassively at the talk of cutie marks. When the dark blue mare finally deigns to land the little white unicorn begins to circle her, trying to catch sight of her flank. "What makes you special?" she asks with an air of boredom.

Phosphor flinches and seems to rotate on her axis as Snowfield attempts to circle her. Perhaps not intentionally, but it happens all the same. "I— I'm a lantern. I mean, my cutie mark is a lantern. I light the way for people."

"Literal or metaphorical," Snowfield counters quickly, continuing to circle Phosphor as the pegasus' own rotation makes it hard to get a good look at her cutie mark. "Are you a guide who shows the way or a beacon to navigate by?"

"I'm…I'm good at finding my way. Or that's what I think. I mean…I've been kinda stuck here, so…" Phosphor keeps rotating, stumbling over her own hooves. "Wh-why do you ask?"

"So you can find /your/ way," Snowfield says. It's not a question, she is just parroting back Phosphor's words. "And yet here you are. Stuck in a middle-of-nowhere harbor town whose only redeeming feature is that it puts all the undesirables in one place."

She continues to circle, her gaze no focused on the pegasus' face rather than her flank, more predatory than curious now. "You're not stuck, you're a pegasus. You could go over the mountains and head towards Cloudsdale if you wanted to. You can see Canterlot on a clear day from the mountains, it's an easy landmark to navigate by. You could take a boat to one of the other port towns, any freighter would be happy to take in a few extra bits by having somepony sitting quietly in steerage."

She finally stops, coincidentally between Phosphor and the harbor. Over the unicorn's shoulder the lighthouse can be seen faintly, too early in the day to be providing a dramatically appropriate light but sufficiently symbolic nonetheless. "Why are you still here?"

Phosphor shuffles, sinks, slinks, and sulks. "I— I dunno. I messed up my wings when I first got here. I just— it didn't occur to me after they were fixed… I-I don't know where to go. I'm lost. I don't know how to get home, or where home is. And— and— maybe the mayor can help?" Flimsy. Flimsy flimsy. It's pretty obvious, by this point, that she's casting about, and badly.

"Snowfield, stooop it." It would probably be more compelling if he didn't whine. "You don't need to be so pushy about this." Jellybean continues to try to interpose himself between Snowfield and Phosphor.

"She needs to hear it," Snowfield says as she shoulders past Jellybean to get up close to Phosphor, craning her neck up to try to get close to the blue pegasus' level. It doesn't really work, although this close to the unicorn Phosphor should feel the air get tangibly colder and see faint puffs of clouds escaping Snowfield's lips with every breath and spoken word. "You're not a beacon right now. You're not a guiding light."

She pauses for a moment to gauge reaction before saying, "You have the Nabber's Curse as well, and you know it. Your lantern's gone out, and it's left the rest of us in the dark."

Phosphor blinks for a moment, and blinks again, before her eyes widen, and her ears flip back, and she shuffles back and forth. "You… I… Yes. Yes I do. That is… yes."

Jellybean spins around to face the two fillies now that they're behind him. "W-well, who gave it to you? I mean, if you were the first one who had it then all we need to do is get you cured and it should fix everypony else." At least that's what he remembers the zebras telling him. Admittely, memory isn't Jellybean's strong suit.

Snowfield sits back down, allowing Phosphor to shuffle back if she so desires. The ground around the unicorn begins to frost over again, accursed uncontrollable magic. "Don't pressure her, Jellybean," she says in a clear 180 from her earlier attitude. "I won't say something cliched like 'try to remember'. If you're really amnesiac you won't be of any further help to us. If you've just been hiding things, well, I can't provide you with incentive to change that but I would like to think that you have greater character than that." She personally thinks it's the latter scenario; amnesia doesn't happen like that anywhere outside of storybooks. Luckily, Phosphor's special talent isn't mind reading.

OR IS IT

But not really. Phosphor stares at Jellybean, and has the grace, for the moment anyway, to look guilty. Especially when Snowfield gives that analysis. She shakes her head a little, and shuts her eyes, trying to wrestle with decisions. And morals. Oh, goodness gracious.

Jellybean is quiet for the time being, waiting for all the people who have any idea what's going on to say their peace. But he is doing the lipquiver, and any moment now the eyes could come into play again. Nopony wants that.

Snowfield watches Phosphor squirm with a look of complete apathy upon her face. "Come on, Jellybean, this isn't getting us anywhere," she says as she stands back up and turns to leave. "We should track down Hayseed again. At the rate the curse has been making magic go further out of control I'm afraid that charm we got her may not be sufficient to stop her from being strangled by her own plants. I'd like to keep a closer eye on her."

Oh the guilt. The guiiiilt. "R…Redmane." The pegasus looks up through her vivid green hair, guilty frown on her face. For once, she seems genuine. "Redmane. Captain Redmane. He started all this." And, having said that, she looks profoundly uncomfortable as she takes a step back, eyes going back to the ground.

Jellybean blinks? "Who's captain Redmane? Why did they do it?" He doesn't sound insistent, more curious than anything. But he takes a step back. "Sorry. I shouldn't be pushy about it. Just, how can we help?"

Snowfield continues to walk away. As useful as the name drop is she has no intention of going back on her word and is going to go check in on Hayseed to see if the mare has managed to wrap herself in a vine coccoon again.

Phosphor shifts her stance again, head and shoulders sinking lower. "I…It's…" Her eyes flick up through her bangs again, before she murmurs, almost too quiet to hear. "Captain Redmane…wanted…me… to… to infect the…the town. With the curse. To…to destroy it."

"Why would he want to do that? What did we ever do to him? Does this have something to do with the mayor? Did she try to stop him? Is he…" he can't even bring himself to say it. "…is he some kind of pirate? Like the little fillies in the town all pretend about?"

Phosphor sinks a little lower. "I shouldn't have said— I'm sorry. I don't think— just… here." She yanks a hair from her tail and drops it at his hooves. "Take that. The zebras can make a potion, and it'll cure the people who drink it. Just… make sure you get everyone. I should go."

Jellybean says "Phosphor, wait. You don't have to go. I mean, if this pony was telling you what to do it isn't really your fault. You don't have to leave like this."

"Well, Jellybean, I agreed to it. I did it on purpose. I infected you on purpose, and Hayseed on purpose, and I've been trying to get to the mayor to infect her too, okay? Because if her talent for chaos goes off, the town will get wiped off the map. That's what he wants. He and Salty are … old friends. Put it that way. So. You go cure ponies. I'll leave the town and go… I don't know, hide where he'll never find out."

Jellybean sniffles. "But if you do that, how will I find you?"

"The point is you won't," Phosphor mutters. "I don't have the Nabbers Curse. I'm a carrier. So. Best to leave sleeping ponies lie."

Jellybean whimpers. "I don't want you to just disappear, though. Aside from the whole curse thing you really seem like a nice pony and I hate losing friends."

"Well… you seem nice, too, Jelly. Hate to make you lose a friend. I was just lying before anyway. You don't know if I'm really a nice pony or not. All you know is I tried to poison you and your friends, and that I've been lying the whole time. So…" The dark pegasus shakes her head.

Jellybean sighs, wings fluttering in an unhappy-looking fashion. He trots forward and nuzzles the other pegasus a little before turning around and walking away. "You know where I live, okay? I understand if you need to hide right now but when you're ready you should come back."

"You'll probably be the only pony thinking that," Phosphor mutters sourly, but she stays where she is awkwardly at that nuzzle, and then finally flaps her wings to take into the air. "Listen. I'm still going to try to get to the mayor. I'll tell you when, and if you guys are cured by then, feel free to stop me. At least I can tell him I tried."

With that, the pegasus waves a hoof, and flies off into the sky, toward the forest and away from town.