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

[yabigfurball]

She listened through the introduction, and barked once in response to Jeeves' questions, just to indicate that yes, she'd come to help with this.

Ammy gave a short tail wag to Pinkie. Yes, the name was wrong, but she didn't mind the nickname much. To her question, Ammy shook her head no. She hadn't known there were other wolves here at all since just now arriving and hearing them. She should be able to talk to them if they were like normal animals, but she wasn't sure if that was the case with wildlife native to this world.

[juniorganymedian]

Jeeves wouldn't call a sapient wolf 'normal,' but he supposed Pinkie meant physical appearance rather than intelligence. Then again, she was a sapient pony, so perhaps the wolves normally inhabiting her realm displayed the same level of consciousness. He would have to ask when there wasn't an intelligent wolf sitting in front of them.

"It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, miss," he bowed his head respectfully to the wolf. "I hope any wolves in the wood are of similarly pleasant disposition to yourself. May I ask, though, if Vanilla is not your name, are you capable of writing what it should be in any language apart from your native 'wolf?'"

Addresses were important, and he didn't want to call her by an incorrect name. Also, he felt ridiculous asking if a wolf could write. Particularly if it could write in anything apart from 'wolf,' which wasn't even a language. Such was his lot in life here, though.

[sailorlaughter]

"Oooh, can you?" Pinkie's question was more along the lines of 'can you do it for Jeeves this time', as she'd actually seen the wolf write before. She didn't know the language she wrote in (and in fact may have mentally dubbed it Wolf as well), but maybe he would!

[yabigfurball]

Ammy wagged her tail again at the greeting. Chu remained vigilant nearby, but at least looked pleased that Jeeves had shown proper respect when addressing the great god. Konohana, the Wheeflower, gave a bit of an eye-rolling motion at Chu's formalness and flittered around to meet any other nearby Spirits.

As to her name, she wasn't sure if Jeeves could read it, since it seemed like most people she'd met couldn't really get it. But it wouldn't hurt to try. She pulled out a piece of paper that she always carried on her, set it in front of her, and painted the Japanese characters for 'Amaterasu' in broad ink strokes. Although to the other two, it would seem as if the ink was forming itself onto the page.

[juniorganymedian]

Jeeves watched the paper in fascination as the symbols appeared as if they were penned with some form of invisible ink and being revealed with the application of lemon juice. When the process was complete, Jeeves squinted down at the page. "My apologies, miss," he said, "I speak a wide variety of languages, but Japanese is not among them." At least he recognized it. He placed a hoof to his chin, unconsciously imitating the gesture he sometimes used as a human. "I suppose ponies do not have the Japanese language native to their land." It was more comment than question, though he did glance at Pinkie as he said it. "I will attempt acquire the relevant translation guide from the Moogles. It may require some time. May I keep this page until then?"

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie peered down at the paper as well, beaming widely with fascination. She'd seen it happen a few times, but it was still really cool!

"Is that like Neighponese? We have Neighponese. But that's really far away and I don't speak it." Did it look like that? She didn't really know, she'd never met anyone from there. Either way, Vanilla probably wasn't from Neighpon, she was SURE she'd have heard if they had big white magic wolves there!

[yabigfurball]

Ammy sighed, but didn't look upset about it. Most people couldn't seem to read her country's language, and she was used to nicknames from there, anyway. While 'Japanese' didn't sound completely like it, she was surprised how Pinkie Pie described it as 'Neighponese' which...did sound like Nippon. She cocked her head at Pinkie in curiosity.

As for Jeeves, she nodded and pushed the paper forward with one paw. He could keep it if he wanted to!

[juniorganymedian]

Jeeves took note of the way the timberwolf looked over at the mare. Also of the pun. The pun was painful, even for an Englishman who had suffered through many a terrible Christmas cracker in his youth. "It may, in fact, be similar, Ms. Pie. 'Nippon' is, I believe, the term preferred by natives of the Japanese Empire in my world." There may be yet be a way to ascertain the wolf's true name.

Taking the page, Jeeves nodded politely to her and said, "Thank you, miss," before folding it up and placing it in his breast pocket. "Ms. Pie, would you happen to know if there are any... Equestrian-to-Neighponese reference texts in the local library?" He could go look himself, but it never hurt to check. Saying the punny name hurt in his heart, but he would simply have to bear up under the weight of it.

[sailorlaughter]

Pinkie snorted to herself. "Well, that's silly. Why don't you just call it that too, if that's what it's called?" After all, the people who lived there ought to know what the real name was, right?

"There might be! I'm not the librarian! But we could go look?" It might not be totally the same language, but maybe it was close! And even if it wasn't, then they'd all know Neighponese! Wouldn't that be neat?

[yabigfurball]

Ammy barked once at Jeeves upon hearing the word 'Nippon.' Yes, that was the name of her country! At least someone had heard of it!

This idea of looking for these language translations seemed a little strange to her. So...there could be another Nippon that was a part of the ponies' world, different from her own? Would it have all the same gods and spirits? But she had thought that Celestia and Luna handled the duties of the sun and moon in this world. She had to admit, she was kind of curious (and a bit confused) about it.

[juniorganymedian]

Jeeves wasn't entirely sure that Pinkie would understand the historical context of Chinese-Japanese relation and European exploration during the 15th and 16th century well enough to understand the answer to her question. He left it at simply, "It is the artifact of a translation convention, Ms. Pie. Nothing more. I would be most interested in checking the library, though. I would very much like to know your proper address, miss." He offered a very small smile to her.

"I must admit I am somewhat wary to leave the harvest given the persistent howling, though." His ears flicked toward the forest and his countenance grew grave again. "Perhaps it might be best to finish the task quickly before leaving the others."

[sailorlaughter]

"Yeah." Pinkie turned back to buck another apple tree. "The timberwolves don't USUALLY get like this. Maybe it's 'cause no one did the pan thing! But as long as they don't all merge into one giant scary timberwolf, it's probably okay!"

[yabigfurball]

Ammy smiled back, and wagged her tail again. Hopefully they could find it! Although she couldn't really comment on foreigners translating 'Nippon' wrong...in hundreds of years she'd never seen any foreigners, aside from the Moon Tribe.

If they had to get all of these down before trouble came their way, then it'd be best to get going and have everyone doing it at once to shorten the work. To that end, she found a wooden bucket and pushed it up against the nearest zapapple tree. She couldn't buck a tree -not without her losing some branches and sticks in the process- but she had her own methods. She looked up and painted a power slash across a couple of the tree branches, severing the zapapples from them and allowing them to fall into the bucket.

She turned and looked a little bit worried at that last statement from Pinkie, though. Did wolves...normally all merge into one giant wolf in this world? That was a little unsettling, most of all for the wolves involved.

[juniorganymedian]

Jeeves was equally troubled by the thought of wolves... merging. It brought to mind fairy tales of highlands and moors where demon spirits were said to roam as great animals. He didn't believe them for his own waking world, but here, they might be harder to discount.

The stallion began pulling more apples down from the trees with his magic and depositing them in the baskets. He glanced over at the white timberwolf, noting her own apparent consternation at the mare's words. "Ms. Pie, could you, perhaps, expand on what you mean by merging? How might this occur?" He didn't particularly relish the idea of facing down enormous monsters.

[sailorlaughter]

"Well, they only did it the one time! I'm not even sure we knew they COULD, before that!" Pinkie ran to gather up the apples that fell from her bucking, putting them back in the baskets as need be. Her aim wasn't really all that good still. "They got mad at us and turned into a big giant king timberwolf! Like, probably about as big as the barn."

[yabigfurball]

Ammy still looked pretty concerned about that. That sounded less like normal animals and more like something demons would do. Were the wolves of this world really like that? Or was it just a matter of if they got angry?

She shook out her head, deciding that she didn't really want to think about that. Ammy pushed her bucket over to the next tree, and again power slashed the zapapples off of their branches. At least it seemed like they were getting this done quickly.

Shall we call it a wrap here?

[juniorganymedian]

"I see, miss." The sense that timberwolves fell more in line with the demonic creatures of legend only intensified. Jeeves found himself in full agreement with the white wolf's concern. how did a wolf made of sticks and leaves even express concern so clearly? Another mystery of animal communication. "One hopes that we shall not encounter such a creature."

So saying, he turned to the task of magicking apples down from the trees with gusto, ears occasionally swiveling toward the howls and marking their relative distance. With luck, the animals were just being particularly vocal for the day and would keep to their own. Men could live ever in hope.