The Fifth Sign

[revenancemods]

Who: Anyone who wants to participate
What: The zapapple harvest!
Where: Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres, the orchard where the Zapapple trees are growing
When: Afternoon
Warnings: None yet.

A lightning storm crackles over the orchard, lighting the sky with electricity for minutes on end. Only when it fades does a rainbow arch across the sky. As if by magic - and it may well be - the gray apples on the trees suddenly grow to three times their size and gain rainbow stripes. It looks like the zapapples are ripe and ready for picking. There's buckets and barrels in the barn - best get started before the sun goes down and they disappear.

As for that howling in the distance...well, surely it's nothing.

[Anyone can join; this plot is friendly for combatants and non-combatants alike; no tag order; further instructions as events warrant. Have fun!]

Comments

Fighting the Nightmares

[revenancenpcs]

[Combatants go here!]

[brodakota]

It was still an experimental tactic, but now was as good a time as any. North positioned himself in front of some of the trees and created a magic shield. How long it would last was anyone's guess.

Theta, in the meantime, clung to North's mane. He was not going to get lost this time.

[fatemeter]

"A shield?"

The small blue pegasus fluttering in the air a few yards away glanced back at the onrush of Nightmares now fanning out across the fields. She could tell they didn't have much time to prepare before their enemies were in melee range, but all the same, she looked uneasy.

"I wonder if this location is really an efficient one..."

[brodakota]

"It's the first one I found," North replied. He'd acted more on instinct than anything else. There were trees he needed to defend after all. "And shields are something I'm pretty good at."

(Although usually with Theta's help.)

"There a better location?"

[fatemeter]

Not wanting to waste words, and privately relieved that he didn't seem to be questioning the idea, Naoto pointed over his head with a forehoof. "Over there. The treeline here forms a natural bottleneck, but that area is more exposed. If we must concentrate our defenses, it seems more tactical..."

But did they really need to? She hesitated for a moment, acutely aware that the growling of their adversaries was encroaching on them.

[brodakota]

North turned his head briefly, calculating the distance as best he could, although it would have been so much easier if Theta wasn't a dragon.

"If there's a way to distract them, I can switch positions. Otherwise, I don't think we should move until these trees are clear."

Re: Fighting the Nightmares

[notquitedracula]

Between one thing and another - the nightmares, the training sessions with Emizel, and what he was beginning to suspect as the beginnings of anemia - Soma had not been very active in Equestria of late. Even so, word of the strange goings-on there had reached even his ears, and so he was on the scene for this particular event. Admittedly, he wasn't very interested in the harvest; he'd picked one or two of the odd fruit, but he was leaving that mostly to others more capable and interested.

No; he was here as security. Those distant howls reminded him far too much of the werewolves he'd fought against in the Castle, and while he didn't have his full range of powers yet, his strength in this strange world had been growing with the increasing length of the night. Enough so that he could use most of his Bullet souls, at least, though he was still unable to access the majority of his Guardians and Enchantments.

Added to that were a set of foreleg armored plates that roughly equated to the fist loads he'd run across in the Castle; they weren't worth much for range and they bore no enchantments whatsoever, but they made effective shields and enabled him to strike without magic if he needed to. The moogles had outdone themselves.

For his part in all this, Soma will be toeing the line just at the edge of the unpicked trees. Between his natural strength, his new weapons, and his regained powers, he should be able to put up quite the formidable wall; approach at your own peril, Nightmares and Timberwolves.

[Sorry for shortness, consider this a placeholder. Soma definitely wants in on some ass-kicking action.]

[onehandsomeslickninja]

The first thing Edge did was go for his swords. That was why he fell flat on his face, since the forelegs that had no actual way to grab his swords also couldn't support him when he was attempting to use them for that purpose. Quickly, he took to the air, pleased with his own reflexes as a pony.

How was he going to deal with this? He couldn't fight them -- well, he supposed he could attack them hand to hand, or hoof to... branch, whatever, but the idea really didn't sell itself. He couldn't use ninjutsu without finger motions, either, so that was out. How was he supposed to fight as a pegasus!?

...As a pegasus.

Edge shot up to the low-lying clouds, grabbed one, then hauled it back down into the paths of the oncoming timber wolves. As soon as they were in range, he nodded to himself, mentally reviewed Luna's instructions... then kicked the cloud right in the sweet spot, sending lightning forking down at their attackers.

[yabigfurball]

Another timberwolf came running up from the side, although this one looked slightly different from the rest, with more white-colored bark in its sides and blue markings painted on its face. Ammy was ready to fight off anything that came in trying to hurt people, especially Nightmares. She was attracted by the sudden bursts of lightning, though...that could prove either troublesome, or very useful.

She already knew that it was pointless to try talking to Nightmares, but maybe these wolves native to this land could be reasoned with. She skidded to a halt before the trees, with her Cyber Yog close behind and eager to get fighting. She barked at the fellow timberwolves: Stop! These things aren't yours! Why are you attacking people?

And if that didn't work...well, she had her own tricks up her sleeve.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Wait, was that wolf on their side? (Edge didn't recognize Ammy in this form...) "Hey! Look out, they're gonna attack! They're clearly corrupted or -- or something!"

[yabigfurball]

Luckily for Edge, she was. But unluckily for Ammy, it didn't look like these Timberwolves heard her...or else they didn't care. Maybe they were corrupted by something. Either way, that meant they had to do things the hard way.

Ammy barked that Chu could go ahead, and the Cyber Yog immediately leapt into battle, charging through the oncoming timberwolves and knocking them to pieces with his horns. Ammy decided to keep her distance...she knew that one wrong hit could send her to pieces, and that'd leave her Spirits and Edge vulnerable. She did ready her tundra beads should anything get close enough to her range, and set up her brush once she was certain she could get a line of them at once...

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Yep, definitely on their side. "Go for it!" he shouted -- not to Ammy, but to the nearest tree, where his Hebby Repp had been wrestling some apples out of the branches. The Spirit hopped down, then aggressively charged into the fray as well.

Edge, for his part, dropped onto the cloud long enough to draw Masamune with his teeth. "This is not right," he muttered around the hilt as he lifted the blade up, tapping into its hidden power. Deep magic emerged from the blade to coalesce around Ammy in a Haste spell.

[yabigfurball]

While Chu was doing his best to ram into any and every Timberwolf that came his way, there were still some that managed to get through him. Ammy remained where she was, already ready to fight, when she felt some degree of strange magic envelop her. She wasn't sure what it was at first, but it definitely made her feel quicker!

She stopped time for herself, painted a power slash across a line of three approaching Timberwolves, and then resumed time with her ink practically back to full. The power slash cut the wolves in half, and they collapsed into broken piles of sticks and bark. That would take some time to put back together!

[onehandsomeslickninja]

...what just happened?

Edge paused with a hoof raised mid-stomp, trying to puzzle out the sequence of events. Three of them had just practically exploded for some reason! He squinted down at the friendly one, still confused.

Oh well. Foes down were foes down. Edge leaped off the cloud, flying low over the piles of former timber wolf to swiftly kick them in different directions, the better to keep them from reforming.

[realmenknitplushies]

"Oh, hell no."

What the hell are those things, anyway? By contrast with the - now familiar - shapes of the Nightmares, the wolf-like creatures actually look like a threat.

Kanji's not moving, even though he's visibly unarmed apart from his Pricklemane and his own hooves. He's standing his ground. Okay, so he could still be more used to the whole 'fighting on four legs' idea, but damn it, who would he be if he ran from a challenge here?

"Hey! You lot wanna screw things up?" he yells. "You're gonna have to come through me!"

[wavesinherheart]

The phrasing is a little more crude than Aqua might have used herself, but it's the sentiment when you get right down to it. She doesn't know why timberwolves are teaming up with nightmares, but she knows one thing: she isn't going to let them get to anyone who isn't ready for a fight. Besides, she's managed to figure out how to get the spells she's used to working basically right with her new horn and even if she hadn't, she wasn't going to let that stop her.

She would have been a very poor Master indeed otherwise, and she steps up next to Kanji without so much as a second thought.

"Through us, you mean," she comments, as a glow starts to build around her horn.

[realmenknitplushies]

Company? Kanji glances over at her and grins. "Damn right," he says, stomping at the ground. Got to admit, he's glad that he's not going to be doing this alone. Not that he plans on going any easier with her here... She's come to fight with him - and he's not going to let her down.
He glances down to his side - his Dream Eater does a happy flip, eager to get down to business as much as its person is.

"You ready? Let's do this!"

And here come the first Nightmares...

[wavesinherheart]

"Yes," Aqua answers with a nod, ignoring the slight shiver of worry that shoots through her as the Nightmares draw closer. She's fought the Keyblade a time or to - she's been in Ponyville long enough to run into the local nightmares - but this is important. She can't rely on her Dream Eaters, and both of them look as ready for battle as Kanji's does.

But she isn't going to let him down any further than he means to let her down, and she watches as the Nightmares draw just a little closer. Normally she wouldn't wait so long, but with things not be quite as certain here as with the magic she knows best, she's not leaving anything up to chance.

He first spell is a blast of lightning that seems to spring from the tip of her horn before arcing into the nearest nightmare. A pegasus could probably have managed something more impressive, yes, but she's only a unicorn and it does seem to doa not insignificant amount of damage to the nightmare.

[realmenknitplushies]

Lightning, huh? Oh, he likes her style. Still, he can't really hit anything long-distance right now himself - but he'll take advantage of her weakening the Nightmare she's hit, charging in and delivering a vicious kick. Good job he's been warming up on the apple trees, really!

He's moving quickly, here, switching targets and hitting however he can. The smaller Nightmares? Shouldn't be a problem...

[wavesinherheart]

No, not between her own pair of Dream Eaters and Kanji's Pricklemane. It's the timberwolves that are going to be the problem, and after another blast of lightning at the nearest Nightmare, she turns her attention the the timberwolves. But this time it's not lightning. No, it's fire that she sends at them, and a sort of fire that seems to almost home in on them.

How well it will work... that she doesn't know, but it certainly looks like they're made of wood and it's not such an unusual jump to assume fire in that case.

[raisethemoon]

Luna, meanwhile, hadn't shown up for apple harvesting at all. She was only there to keep watch over the proceedings; any group of so many at a singular event, especially in her world, was something she needed to monitor.

The attack from the forest was almost expected. Luna stood and swooped down from the cloud she'd been sitting on, firing a bolt of magic at the approaching wolves and Nightmares.

[unrecovered]

Once it had become apparent that they were under attack, Wash had separated himself from the harvesters and run at the pack of Nightmares and Timberwolves head-on. He wasn't the best at fighting as a pony, but that wasn't about to stop him. He knew how to take a hit, at least. He reared, knocking an oversized die back at a Juggle Pup, then leaned forward and bucked, catching a Timberwolf square in the chest with his kick and knocking it to pieces. "Melody! Puddles! Now would be good!"

The cat and the giraffe poofed into existence when called and immediately set to work. Melody sprinted off to the side, made sure nobody important was above her, and called down a bolt of lightning on a pair of Iceguins, sending them staggering. Puddles charged himself and sprinted through a group of Timberwolves, whinnying loudly and crackling with electricity.

It was only when magic shot down from above and completely obliterated several Woeflowers that Wash looked up. Aerial support. Good. "How many are we looking at?"

[raisethemoon]

"Roughly twenty of each group," Luna called down, hovering to do a quick battlefield survey. It probably wasn't accurate down to a head, but close enough for the purposes. "Timberwolves which have fallen apart - " She paused to blow another one up. " - will reassemble unless burnt to ash, do not turn your back on them."

[unrecovered]

"They what?" Well, this just kept getting better. Wash galloped forward, dodging around a Juggle Pup and turning to shoulder tackle another one. It fell to pieces upon impact and he kept moving, mindful of Timberwolves and where they'd fallen. "Tell me you can do fire."

With their person leading by example, Melody and Puddles kept up the assault. Lightning was working pretty well for the both of them.

[raisethemoon]

"They reform!" Luna repeated louder, apparently taking his question literally. Several of the fallen bits of wood burst into flame as she followed behind him, noting their locations. "'Tis my sister's realm, truly, but I can manage."