You Must Be Cleansed
IC date: Summer 66
OOC date: August 25
PCs: Sadaka, Siyana, Dream-Daze, Kludge, Dustdevil
NPCs: Butterscotch
GM: None

"SADAKAAAAAA!"

A little blue-haired zebra with her braids bouncing everywhere runs through the outskirts of town, hollering. "Sadaka! Sadaka!!" On the upside, it doesn't sound panicked! Probably!

Bounce~ Bounce~ Bounce~

Because foals really only have two speeds in life. Bounce, and Charge. Anything else is a total illusion! Where Siyana is totally charging about, a little blue unicorn filly named Dream Daze is bouncing after in the charging zebra's wake. Because it's good to take a break from /so much success/ now and then! So much good cheer and good moods going about.

Dustdevil wanders from the edge of that forest border looking deshiveled, looking over his shoulder at forementioned horribile place as he makes his way closer to town. Just annoyed that he found himself there even just slightly. He otherwize minds his business. He can't help but eye the activity.

Well it's hard to miss that hollering. Sadaka blinks and glances up from her book, tilting an ear. She'd been spending the day draped over a bench, reading while she waited for her turn at the lemonade stand to roll around. But now somepony's hollering for her! Her initial reaction is, naturally, to jump up and look around, because something's /got/ to be wrong. What happened, who did it, what's broken, did Maddie do something bad again?!?! PANIC.

Then she spots Siyana and Dream, neither of which appear to be panicked. …Oh. Well. Okay. Maybe she's just late for her shift or something. She scoops up her book and hops off the bench, heading towards them. "Uh… hi, guys. Looking for me?"

Some days you want to wander the town, and some days you just want to think. For Kludge, this is one of the latter days. Yesterday's lemonade was excellent, refreshing him and giving him some design ideas. Today, he was sitting on top of his "wagon", doodling some sketches.

His ears perk up at the noise of the foals, but as nothing seems to be panicky (yet), he contents himself with keeping an ear open as he continues to draw.

"Yes!! I think I have your doll," Siyana shouts, racing forward and practically bowling the other zebra over to roll on the ground. "Also I found out something really! REALLY! COOL!"

Hopping off, she starts bouncing, in an excitable way that Sadaka certainly hasn't seen in a long time from her. "Did you know Miss Ruby can sing? She sings really good! And then! And then I found out something else!"

Dreamy takes a few more bounces to catch up to the zebra party, shifting to a happy trot. Really it's just great to see smiling zebras. For some reason, she was under the impression that zebras just don't smile. Like, ever. One of her ears perks up, eyes catching sight of a pony wandering out of the woods nearby. Which prompts a cheerful wave of a hoof to the stranger!

Dustdevil erffs lightly having become noticed by the little unicorn, he is polite enough to return the wave, and grand enough to present a rather formal wingspread foreleg dropped formal bow to the young one.

Sadaka yelps as she's bowled over, rolling with Siyana and flailing her hooves in the air. "Woah! Doll? What? What's cool?" She rolls back over, shaking herself off a bit and looking up at her, a bit dazed by the sudden whirl of cheer. "No, I didn't know that… what, uh, what else did you find?" She glances over at Dream, giving a small wave in greeting. Then back at Siyana. So much /cheer/.

"I can sing good!" Siyana beams. "I never really tried before, cause… I dunno, we just didn't really sing like that on the Destiny. Well— we sang pirate songs, but that wasn't really singing; it was mostly yelling." She pauses, scratching her chin with a hoof thoughtfully. "Well — anyway. So, she was singing a song, and I tried to sing along, and I could actually /make singing sounds/ with /my voice/!" Beam!!

She pauses as it hits her that she had an actual mission, and she reaches back for her saddlebags and plugs the blue gel-like pegasus plush from within. "Here! Your toy. Right?" she asks, head canting curiously, big ol' smile on her face. So much cheer indeed.

Cleaning off his goggles with his silk scarf, Silver Sky squints in the general direction of the lemonade stand. He had been wearing his welding goggles so long that his eyes had trouble adjusting to the bright sunlight. What time is it? Silver Sky pondered for a moment, trying to remember how long he had been in his workshop.

The plush pegasus, with its coal black eyes, dangles lifelessly from where Siyana holds it. Swaying in the breeze. There was a breeze, right?

Dreamy grins at Sadaka, hopping once on her hooves, sending a quick mental image of Ruby and Siyana singing and drawing in a /huge crowd of ponies/ to the lemonade stand. It was suuuuuuch a great musical number!

Dustdevil eyes that the forest over his shoulder, and PBBBBBTS at it then turns his attention to the local populace, 'painted ponies, odd sort they be' he ponders somewhat aloud to himself more or less. He shrugs and meanders a little further from that cursed forest

Sadaka blinks at the doll, tilting her head. "…Huh. How did… I don't… /remember/ bringing that by the stand." She frowns faintly, reaching out for it. …Hadn't she had her doll last night? And she hadn't been by today… weird. …Oh well. "Thanks, Siyana."

She blinks and grins faintly at the vision. "Yeah? That's great!" She smiles up at Siyana, admittedly glad to see her something other than grumpy for a bit.

Siyana seems quite pleased that she's gotten the doll back to her owner. Yes, yes indeed. And she looks over at the filly curiously. "Hey, I haven't actually talked to you in a bit," she comments with a frown. "How've you been?"

A dark umber colored pony, creaky in the joints with maybe a small case of the crazy eyes leeeeans up toward Dustdevil, all of a sudden. "That thar's the forest," he wheezes. "Y'DON' WANNA GO THATTA WAY." His eyes widen. He might be a more than a little crazy. Maybe.

Dreamy sets her rear down, all grins and sunshine. Doll rescue, awesome lemonade, they're practically town heroes, aren't they? Saving the world from grumpiness, one pony at a time. She turns her head to regard Dustdevil again, her head tilting. She's getting curious… But that elderly pony is scary.

Kludge glances at the creaky, possibly crazy pony with a raised eyebrow. Crazy as that pony might be, Kludge has been to the forest's edge, and the depths of the woods look to be so complicated it makes his blueprints look like stick figures.

Dustdevil glances to the wild eyed elder, "umm, yeah, I got lost on landing atop the brambles on um" he jumps skyward gazing about, "Umm from uhh, well near those mountains ish" he offers, though his means of discription seems either confused or just unknowing of exactly where he entered the forest at. "I think" he mentions as he alights nearby the elder one. "Think I got my directions a bit off, that way I think, whereever the heck Equestria Proper is" he notes with a confused shrug and a grumping pout, Its obvious he's either extremely lost or just plain confused. "Thatway I think" he points roughly where he thinks he came in from.

The elderly stallion steps a little closer. "Y'run inta any problems? Any kelpies? Portals? Mount'n lions? /Snowbunnies/? Y'got the forest on ya! Y'need t'be CLEANSED!" He waves his arms wildly, prompting Siyana to look up with a blink. And another blink.

"Hey, what's going on over there? Who's that guy?" The zebra looks to her two friends, blinking again. "C'mon, let's check it out!"

Dustdevil kinda cowers, though certainly doesn't back up, backing up would mean back to that dreaded wood. He does give a wide eyed extremely confused stare at the elder, "C cleansed? B Bbut I'm perfectly clean, forest smelling, its its downright macho scented, like, like a woodspony right" he almost squeaks, thinking to himself, 'that pony is whacked! dur' "Where did I just fly into?" he genuienly asks. He looks to the 'natives' "Problems, other than being freekin lost for a day or two, er' maybe more, I urr" he counts on wing feathers, "yeah Two, right? Two days there"

Sadaka blushes faintly, rubbing the back of her head with one hoof. Yeah, it had been a… bit. "I, uh… I've been… alright. Um…" she tilts an ear, instinctively hugging the doll slightly. "Things've been… okay." Come on, Sadaka, don't mess up the /cheer/. "Oh! Uh… Mr. Blackbird got adoption papers through. So, um, I guess he's my papa now!" Which is definitely something to be cheery about.

She blinks and looks over at the slight chaos going on. "…I dunno, I've never seen any of 'em before."

The doll squishes in an oddly pleasant way squeezed. One could almost imagine it squeaking.

Well! If her friends are going to be curious too, Dream doesn't feel nearly as scared to approach crazy ponies. Nothing like a little backup to steel ones nerves. No sooner does Siyana suggest investigation than Dreamy's already bouncing merrily over.

"Not that place — th' woods is CURSED!" The old pony wheezes. "CURSEDDD!" And he slings his arms around Dustdevil, apparently intent on dragging the poor pegasus toward town. "Now let's get y' cleaned up—"

"What's goin' on?" A youngish zebra filly with blue braids down her neck tilts her head curiously, her friends beside her. "Is he bothering you, sir?" she asks of Dustdevil.

These ponies are much more interesting than whatever designs Kludge was working on! He's paying attention to the discussion instead of his sketching.

Dustdevil just looks absoloutely frazzled, totally confused as to just what the feathers is going on in this town. "Cleaned up? cleansed? Whatare you talking about" he kinda goes along with the elder, not that he seemingly has a choise in the matter. The wide eyed pegasi is obviously lost, beyond confused, and is just going with the flow more or less, and the flow is apparently the old pony, whom is either crazy or just knows alot, or both. When the Zebra intrupts the flow of sanity/confusion/creepy old pony, the pegasi, just looks wide eyed to the painted pony (his version of zebra as he's not seen them before) "Uhh, I don't know, I, I don't know whats going on here, where Am I, Exactly? he asks of the Zebra as he gets dragged off more or less.

Sadaka trails after the other two fillies, looking a bit uncertain. It wasn't really their place to butt in on strangers' business, was it? But it was a little late for that. But then, this pony seemed kind of… well, nuts. …But then again, the forest /was/ creepy. Then /again/, she might be a little biased, considering she'd nearly been drowned by a kelpie once!

Dreamy bounces along with her friends, naturally completely alright with the concept of butting in on others' business. How else is one supposed to make new friends and cheer them up? Siyana's already got the question out there though, so she plays good backup and puts on her Concerned Face, looking from Dustdevil to the old pony and back.

"This's Horseshoe Harbor, sir!" Siyana supplies. "Are you from the forest? You look pretty normal for comin' out of the forest." The old pony is pulling poor Dusty inexorably along, and Siyana scrambles after. "HEY! Old guy! What're you doing with him?"

"Name's Butterscotch, whippysnappy young thing, and I'm gettin' the FOREST offa him!" the old pony snorts. They pass by Kludge's cart as they go, the old pony giving him a proper eyeing as well. It's more than a little creepy.

"But how're you gonna do that?" she asks. "Give him a bath?"

"Good ol' fashioned rum bath," he replies, "with some patented Wollerstomper medicine." He pauses, and gives a great big half-toothed smile. "An' then we burn 'im!"

Kludge's eyes widen at Butterscotch's description of the cleaning regimen. "Burn him?" he asked disbelievingly. If this craziness gets too far out of hand, Kludge will have to take steps to protect the foals.

Dustdevil is plainly lost, feathers all rustled up and has this look of 'where the heck am I' He looks to the locoal poupulace's gathered zebras and random unicorn with a look of utter confusion, "Ok, Ok, one minute I'm flying storms, cruising top speed on the edge of a stormfront, next thing I know I land atop these trees and well they're not like any trees tops I've played in, I mmisstep and can't get up out o the woods" he wide eyes as he hears the discription of the old one, "WaitWhat, WHAT?" that spooks the feathers out, and the Pegasi bolts skyward in a tremendous musclebound rocket shot straight up, "Rum fine, I'll drink all you want" he squeaks as he hovers well out of hoof reach. "Horseshoe Harbor?! Where, Oh Feathers!" The pegasi looks unsure of EVERYTHING. "ok, Ok, Ok" he just shakes his head, "Feathers! is pegasi burning common here?" he keeps his distance.

Sadaka blinks and gapes over at them in alarm. "You're gonna /what/?!" That doesn't sound good! Or right! Or… or… or… "He's not /from/ the Forest, he's just a pegasus. There's nothing wrong with him, is there?"

At mention of rum baths and burning, Sadaka's saddlebag flap lifts juuuuust a little, letting two coal-black eyes peer out at the elderly pony and everything. This sounds like an awful lot of mischief!

Dream Daze hops back when Dustdevil suddenly takes off! Well… She can't really /blame/ him, what with there being talk of fiery cleansing and whatnot, but still! Surprising! She keeps her Concerned Expression, and stomps right up to the old coot to pout at him. How dare he scare a stranger like that!

Siyana looks, at least, downright flabbergasted. "What! Mister Butterscotch, we don't burn ponies from the forest! Or else we'd hafta burn Sadaka for living there for so long!"

Old Butterscotch wheezes, suddenly turning eyes on the littlest zebra, since his previous victim has shot straight into the air. "No creature from the forest should be suffered t'live!! The creatures in there, they taint you! They TWIST you! I DIDN'T HAVE THIS THIRD EYE AFORE THE FOREST!" He points wildly to the blank spot on his forehead, where he definitely does not have a third eye.

Unfortunately, Dusty gets little confirmation about whether there are pegasi common around here. For now anyway.

Foal from forest + crazy old coot who wants to eliminate anything from the forest = This could become very bad, very fast. With that bit of mental math, Kludge prepares to tackle Butterscotch and/or rescue the youngsters.

Dustdevil looks down to the first seemingly sane mind here, that of Sadaka, "I didn't come from the forest, I got lost in the forest!" he notes, "I, I just, don't know quite ur, how, to get back where I came from, I don't see" the pegasi just trails off with an obvious look of 'oh feathers' He still maintains his hover though looking from crazy old pony, to the other locals. He lowers his altitude as he certainly didn't want to spook foals, but he keeps his distance from the crazy one. "No, forest just messes up your sense of direction, maybe the direction of your mind, was a bit umm not quite right. Ok, "Got lost in the forest, not lived there, or that, m' not one of' 'them' you speak of" he flares his wings now a bit concerned for the others nearby this crazy old pony, is off his rocker! "I'll take ya up on that rum offer, but not the burning, no thanks, not my thing," He lowers his flight pattern again more to infront of the inquisitive foals, fore hoves kinda prancing the air in more of a 'defender' pose nobody's gonna get him, nor anypony behind him either.

Sadaka blinks and squeaks, backing up a few steps. "Wh-what? No, I… I'm not… I m-mean, I came in on a ship, I j-just, uh… lived in the forest for a wh-while, but not… I mean… it was a while ago, anyways, and…" she gulps faintly, fidgetting.

Wha!? Dream Daze hops back half a step when Dusty dives right back down all protective-like! She gingerly steps out from behind the pegasus, giving him a 'What are you /doing/?' sort of look, then stamps a hoof at the old geezer! She wishes she had a mirror right about then to show the old-timer just how wrong he was about that third eye thing!

"Wha— you don't have a…" Siyana eyes the old coot up and down skeptically, and then gulps as well, backing up with Sadaka. "Hey now, you listen! I don't like the way you're looking at my friend!" She steps closer to the other zebra, though really, she's /profoundly/ grateful that the new pegasus is fluttering in front of them protectively. Yay for grown-ups! And then Dream is taking a stand and she yawps. "Dream!! Get back here!"

The old geezer flails his arms again. "You're all tainted! TAINTED! Full of IMPURITIES! Cleanse them all, with fire! FIRE!" (Well, at least he's in the right town for that.) On the upside, he's lined up just right for Kludge to tackle him with no outside casualties!

With a quick lunge, Kludge launches from the top of his wagon, plowing into Butterscotch's side and knocking him away from the foals. "Aw, shaddup, you pyromanic pile of popcaps!" he yells.

Dustdevil is doing his right best to keep the foals behind him the crazy in front of him, and all well out of harms way, well exept for that bold little Unicorn, but at least the Pegasi has his head on straight for once actually protecting the foals whom are certainly not cleanse worthy. Well, at least not to the effect of what this loonjob is proposing.. He lands on seeing Kludge take the old nutjob out more or less. The Pegasi still is in protective mode more or less and has his wings all out like shielding them from harms way. He may well not be from around here, but he recognizes a threat when he sees it, "Come on, come on, behind me, behind me" he practically begs of the foals.

Well you don't have to tell this zebra twice! Sadaka scampers around behind the protective pegasus, gulping. "I h-haven't been in the Forest in… I-I'm not tainted… am I?" She looks over at Siyana and Dreamy, biting her lip.

Dreamy blinks back at Sadaka like she were crazy for even thinking something like that. She gives a firm shake of her head! Then hops up next to Dustdevil. She simply refuses to be 'protected'! She doesn't know the true meaning of fear, darnit, and when Kludge up and tackles the old geezer to the ground, she feels all the more justified that it was the Right Thing To Do to be part of the whole standing up to danger thing.

Besides, honestly, it was an old pony. What was he really going to do? Flick matches at them?

Either way, when Kludge and Butterscotch go down, Dreamy puts on her pleased smile, turning to first hug Dusty's nearest leg, and then bouncing right up to hug one of Kludge's legs too. Heroic big ponies for the win!

Siyana stamps a hoof and pulls Sadaka into a big, tight hug. "Of course you're not tainted! If anyone's tainted, /he's/ tainted. He's crazy as a bucket of bolts!" Said bucket of bolts, meanwhile is flailing and screeching madly under Kludge, but it's pretty apparent pretty quickly that he is weak, old, and not liable to do any damage. "The end times! THE END TIMES! BURN THEM ALL BEFORE THE END TIMES!" he screeches, beating his hooves on the ground. "The forest is impure! IMPURE!"

Kludge gives Dreamy a small hug and a smile, then returns his attention to Butterscotch. "Butterscotch, was it? You're going to leave these foals alone now, and if I EVER find you threatening them or other foals, well…" He flashes a vicious grin. "Being tackled will be the /least/ of your worries."

Dustdevil just stares after the unicorn with a dumbfounded expression, of 'ok, what the feathers just happened?" Otherwise the Pegasi is pretty much spent. He promptly just sits down, tucks his wings in all neatly like and sits there wide eyed and pretty much spent. So much for the day, escaped that forest, found crazy pony, crazy threatened death and 'cleansing' yup he's pretty much overwhelmed by this whole ordeal, "Ok, I give" he just sits there watching Kludge and his victom. "Yeah, no threatening foals, thats just not right" he mentions, though looks over his shoulder to the foals then back. He shrugs.

A slight breeze seems to blow through the area…

Sadaka relaxes slowly at the reassurances, though she still looks a bit unsure. She /is/ like some sort of walking bad luck charm, isn't she? :< She rubs the back of her head with one hoof, twitching an ear. But… that didn't mean somepony should /burn/ her. Or anypony. Burning is bad.
Dustdevil looks over his shoulder to Sadaka, "You're not screwed up, and me, I'm just lost. That" he motions over with a hoof, "Thats messed up, you're just fine" He nods a little and gives a shrug, "must have been in there awhile" The pegasi shivers some at that thought.

Bounce, bounce, bounce~ Dreamy hops back to the foal group, stops in front of Dusty, and studies the pegasus intently. She's got her Concerned look again, her head tipping back towards the zebra pair to shoot them a quick mental image of a pegasus in a doctor's office. Maybe they should escort!

Siyana ruffles Sadaka a bit, and then smiles brightly at Kludge. "Um… thank you, sir!" she says, around Butterscotch's hootin' and-a hollerin'. "Maybe we should take /everyone/ to the doctor," she says to Dreamy, head tilted. "Couldn't hurt to have a check-up. And then maybe they can help you find your way outta here, sir!" The last, of course, to Dusty.

Kludge gives Siyana a smile in return. "You're welcome. Are all of you okay?"

Dustdevil looks down to the suddenly intent Unicorn foal. He looks puzzled at her, under fed yes, dischevled yes, he has been wandering that wood for the past two days so he's bound to be a bit out of it. He doesn't stand, weather its him just being nice so the Uni wouldn't have to look up, or because he's just that out of it. He turns to look to Siyana (stomache grumble) then down to his stomache, then back to the Zebra foals, "Doctor, er, I guess" he nods again looking over to the nutso old pony, "Yeah he needs it, some serious time with some long sleaves" he than looks over to Kludge, "uh thanks for bailing us all out, I'm a little unprepared here, just um, yeah" he just shrugs

Sadaka nods slightly. "Maybe so… I think the doctors are still okay." Hopefully Maddie hadn't replaced /them/ too. And it'd probably not be the best idea to leave this crazy pony out here wanting to burn ponies.

Dreamy beams, and trots around behind the slumped pegasus to start nudging him in the back. Once an idea's been presented she wastes no time in getting it moving! Ponies need help!

Siyana nods quickly. "Yeah, let's get everyone to the doctor." She gallops ahead, to lead the way! To the doc!!

Dustdevil perks on finding the Unicorn proceeding to poke his back, "erk, Hey" he gets up all grumbly like, does a little prance in place and and gets up for the sake of the now impatient little Unicorn, "okay, Okay, I'm going" he mumbles a bit worn out, but he's not gonna resist the persistant little foal. No, not him! He's going where pushed or led or whereverr, just NOT with the crazy old thing.

Kludge motions for the others to go on ahead, then goes to put his sketches away. However, they have already been tidied up and jammed into the door. He looks at the tidied mess, then lets out a breath, finishes putting them away, and trots off to catch up with the others.