What a night last night. We finally arrive in Bellemare, and deal with the shenanigans of Belle Hop, a Paranormal Investigator moon lighting as a... well a belle hop. Her name is a bit on the nose. Fireheart and I have been having a great time. We've shared the same bed, but she's making me hold out. Still though, it feels good to hold someone so beautiful at night. She radiates warmth, and purrs in her sleep. I didn't think anything could ruin this moment.
Then I heard the sounds of familiar grunts coming from outside the hotel room door. I ignored them because I'm on vacation. Belle Hop could be heard scrambling through the hallway, yelling about something climbing on the cart. Fireheart started stirring, and we smiled at each other. We leaned in for a kiss and I heard, "Noooo-oh-oh-oh-oh-ooooo!" Belle Hop was in distress, but I'm on vacation. Hacking and wheezing could be heard coming up to our door. Fireheart turn my head to face her. We leaned in for another attempt at a kiss, and sounds of Grot thudding across the floor while Belle Hop calls for me. I sigh at the untimely interruptions, but Fireheart pulls me in for a kiss.
We climb out of bed, and Belle Hop comes running back to our room. She begged me to open the door quickly, and sure enough, there was Grot. Clinging to Belle Hop's tail, and dragging behind her a trail of drool and chicken grease. Grot explained she had tracked us down. When I pressed her on why she disappeared, all she did was shake and say she came up the elevator. Meh, whatever. So long as she's not my responsibility while I'm on vacation, then it shouldn't matter.
Then Belle Hop promptly made her my responsibility and ran away from my objections. Grot looked up and reassured me she's learned how to act and sound like a pony. She did a convincing job, so perhaps this will be fine. I'd prefer not to beat her to a pulp, but I'll keep my sap close by in case I have to.
We headed back to the beach. Grot found a hat, and walked up the sand. She was concerned about Bad Greens, the harpies, but we assured her there's nothing dangerous in the water. Wicker Wind built a sand castle with Grot, but Grot's ramshackled sand pit looked a bit stronger. Tangent found a bed of flowers under the nearby trees we didn't notice yesterday. They're pretty and blue, and Tangent certainly took a liking to them. Fireheart looked on in confusion, and I commented that Tangent was destroying them. Wicker Wind used his abilities to grow the flowers back to full bloom.
Balcony Blitz was enamored with the flowers, and picked them to put them in our hair. I normally wouldn't embellish myself with flowers, but I'm on vacation. Fireheart certainly looked beautiful with one in her hair. Belle Hop was called away by the Crescent Moon staff. Her boss wanted to speak to her, possibly about a promotion. It wasn't long after we received the flowers that something felt different. Something was changing in me. My voice, my body, my mind.
It started slowly at first, and then it seemed to happen all at once. Tangent was speaking to voices no one else could hear. Grot turned a shade of red, and was faster than I've ever seen her move. Wicker Wind kept looking over everyone's head. Triple's horn grew much larger despite him trying to hide it. Push Pin grew to a ridiculous size. Belle Hop returned angrier than usual, seemed to not be able keep her mouth shut.
While I spoke to Triple 777's, my voice changed. I felt as though my voice were cracking from being too dry, but no amount of clearing my throat made one bit of difference. Everything had changed. My normal voice swapped for a feminine one. Fireheart seemed to suffer the opposite, as her voice became deeper and far more imposing. A swell of emotions and uncontrolled thought seemed to flood my mind. I couldn't make sense of anything, and all I could think to do was cry. Cry over what? I have no idea, but it seemed all I could do. I demanded to look at the plants Balcony Blitz gave us. I recognized them right away as Poison Joke. DAMN IT! WHY DIDN'T I IDENTIFY THEM SOONER?
I have no idea how to cure this. This is just stupid, and I hate it. It's all Balcony's fault! We attempted to find a cure. Belle Hop knew the local Bannermanes Chapter has a remedy for Poison Joke, so she lead us to their headquarters. The Bannermanes HQ is clearly part of a Temple. We flashed badges and walked in. Grot ran face first into a door. The Bannermanes explained they have the ability to cure us, but the ingredients they need have run out. So many other ponies are in need of the cure as well, so we'd be helping a lot of them. My condition is getting worse as time goes on. I can't stop crying, but eating lots of food seems to help.
The Mainstitch informed us that someone had been stealing the ingredients from them. Grot smelled an open box, and picked up the scent of other Gobbos. She ran quickly to the door, and crashed into a closed door. Then she said, "Come companions, it's this way." We all ran outside to follow her. Grot sniffed around. She didn't pick up on any tracks, but her nose lead her to a hole in the bushes that lead to the underside of the building. Grot took a look into the hole, and we head her fall in. Meanwhile, Belle Hop went into investigator mode, and started thinking of leads to follow up on.
Grot managed to fall onto a bunch of traps, and got cut up really bad. Tangent and I leapt to heal her, and bring her back to full strength. Belle Hop found out that at least 4 Gobbos are involved with digging this hole. A Gobbo tribe known as the Spook Snakes are involved. They're a rival tribe to Grot, and she despises them for using traps instead of fighting head on. We returned to the Mainstitch, and informed him of the Gobbos leaving traps in his basement. I went down the stairs with Grot into a pitch black room. We normally would have asked Triple 777's, but he was staring off into the distance. We had to rely on Grot. I walked behind Grot, and spotted a wire connecting to a bomb. Grot went to work, and disarmed it then took the bomb for herself.
There was another bomb daisy chained together. These traps would have done heavy damage to the building if anyone tripped them. Grot managed to disarm and collect 5 of the 8 bombs. A fatal error tripped the remaining explosives. I barely had enough time to yell out the danger before snatching up Grot and barely getting missed by the shrapnel. Some of us were hurt, but none fatally. The Mainstitch came storming down, angry that we nearly blew up his temple. Shabaka managed to put out a grease fire with ice, and I explained how close we were to disaster. If not for Grot, the temple would have suffered serious damage. We're fortunate the explosion of contained in the basement.
We healed up, and Belle Hop looked around the area to find leads on where these Gobbos are headed. She found out the grease from the bombs came from an animal who's local to an area several days south of Belle Mare. We also found Gobbo hair linking the Gobbos further. We returned to the surface, and I checked the ground for tracks. These Gobbos tried covering their tracks, but I found them. They tried to mislead, and double back, but they are traveling south. The hunt is on, and we're on the trail.
