The following day, Smurfette and Jokey were arriving from the forest carrying a bunch of purple flowers that they have picked together.
"Oh, how I love picking flowers out in the forest, and these will make such beautiful Spring Day bouquets," Smurfette asked.
"Would you like me to box them for you as well?" Jokey asked.
Smurfette giggled. "No thanks, Jokey."
"Just thought I would ask, Smurfette," Jokey said. "So what are you hoping to smurf with Empath during the pageant?"
"What do you mean by that, Jokey?" Smurfette asked.
"Well, it's no big secret that the two of you have been seen smurfing time together over the past year since he smurfed home for good," Jokey said.
"Really, Jokey, that's not any of your business what Empath and I smurf together," Smurfette said.
"Me and Sneaky are betting that by the end of the year, you and Empath are going to be married," Jokey said. "What do you have to smurf about that?"
"I think this is one bet you're both going to lose, Jokey," Smurfette said.
"Well, don't say that we didn't smurf you if that ever happens," Jokey said.
Just then, they heard Farmer crying "WHEEEEEEE" as he was riding straight towards them on the back of Puppy, sowing his seeds here and there. Jokey and Smurfette barely ducked out of the way as Farmer rode right past them and dumped seeds on them.
"Hey, that's not very funny," Jokey shouted.
"Well, this is one thing I'm going to tell Papa Smurf about," Smurfette fumed.
Meanwhile, Harmony is making the musicians play his music so loud and so fast that they can barely keep up. Grouchy felt exhausted trying to keep blowing his tuba to the fast pace. "I hate really fast music," he muttered.
"Gosh, Harmony, I can hardly follow the notes anymore," Clumsy said as he tried to keep up with his playing the xylophone.
"Forget about the notes!" Harmony said, tossing the music sheets aside. "Just keep playing louder and faster!"
Elsewhere, Tapper was just approaching Painter as he was working like mad, splashing all sorts of colors everywhere on the canvas. "So what do you think, Tapper?" Painter asked. "It's all coming together, no?"
"Great Smurfiny Crickets, my dear Painter, I could say that it's all running together," Tapper exclaimed, seeing the mess of colors on the canvas.
"I'm experimenting with a new smurf of art," Painter explained. He gasped as he saw something on the canvas. "Ah, I've missed a spot! Stand back, mon ami!" He picked up a bucket of purple paint and hurled its contents right onto the canvas, splattering Tapper's face in the process. "Now that is perfection!"
Tapper walked away looking really concerned. "This is getting a wee bit out of hand! I need to go tell Papa Smurf about this!"
Empath was already with Papa Smurf, telling him what he discovered about the magic orb Poet had possessed. "Are you certain that it's the Orb Of Euphoria?" Papa Smurf asked.
"It is the very same object from the book, Papa Smurf," Empath answered. "We need to destroy it so that the other Smurfs can't touch it."
"Very well then, Empath," Papa Smurf said. "Fortunately I still have the orb smurfed away in my laboratory."
But when Empath and Papa Smurf entered the laboratory and opened the case, they found out that it was empty. "Great Smurfness!" Papa Smurf exclaimed.
"This smurf senses that this case was empty all along, Papa Smurf," Empath said. "Whoever took the case with the orb must have swapped it for this."
"I know who was responsible, Empath," Papa Smurf said, sounding a bit angry. "It's time that we smurfed this problem in the bud once and for all."
"Papa Smurf! Empath!" a few voices were shouting. The two of them saw Tapper, Jokey, and Smurfette approaching them.
"Farmer's been smurfing really crazy out in the fields, Papa Smurf," Smurfette asked. "He almost ran me and Jokey over while riding on Puppy smurfing his seeds around."
"You think that's bad enough, the other Smurfs are all complaining about the noise level from Harmony Smurf," Jokey added.
"And Painter's been smurfing around buckets of paint while he was smurfing on his painting, Papa Smurf," Tapper related.
"This sounds worse than what's been going on yesterday with those Smurfs, Papa Smurf," Empath said. "It makes this smurf wonder about Handy's work of building the pageant stage."
Meanwhile, Hefty was watching Handy work like crazy on the pageant stage that looked like it was built haphazardly.
"It looks real nice, Handy, but if you nail down the curtains, how are we supposed to open and close them?" Hefty commented as he jumped onto the stage to inspect the work.
"I'll figure that out later, Hefty," Handy shouted. "Just leave me alone, okay?"
"There's no need to get mad, Handy," Hefty said. "I was just going to..."
Suddenly the floor of the stage collapsed under Hefty, sending him falling through the floor.
"Oh, no! Look what you've done!" Handy shouted as he climbed down the ladder and saw the hole in the floor of the stage.
"What I've done? You didn't built a stage strong enough!" Hefty shouted back.
"Oh dear...more work!" Handy shouted, sounding rather flustered.
"Hey, where are you going?" Hefty asked as he watched his brother leave the work area.
"Don't worry, Hefty, I'll be back to fix everything," Handy shouted.
Hefty decided that he was going to follow Handy to get to the bottom of this. As he followed his brother, he saw that he and Farmer had gathered around Poet's house. They both had really bloodshot eyes and looked like they were going to collapse. "Boy oh smurf, do I really need some more of that energy," Handy said to Farmer.
"Sweet mother of smurf, I could smurf more of it myself," Farmer replied.
The door opened, and Poet greeted the both of them, also with bloodshot eyes. "Come in," he whispered.
"Just as I have thought," Hefty said as he watched the two Smurfs enter Poet's house.
Poet removed the tablecloth that he had hidden the Orb Of Inspiration under. "It's getting so that I can't smurf two lines without needing more of it," Poet explained as he opened the case.
"My smurfness, its glow is weakening," Handy noticed.
"Is it running out of energy?" Farmer asked.
"What shall we do if that happens?" Poet asked.
"Why don't we find out!" another voice broke in. The three Smurfs watched as Hefty rushed into the house to grab the orb. "I think you Smurfs had enough of this thing!" He then hurled the orb into the fireplace, where it was destroyed.
"THE ORB OF INSPIRATION!" Harmony shouted as he and Painter just entered the house to witness its destruction.
"QU'AVEZ-VOUS FAIT?" Painter exclaimed, as he and the other three Smurfs ganged up on Hefty, ready to let him have it.
"You Smurfs better watch it!" Hefty responded, already swinging his fists. "This is Hefty Smurf you're dealing with!"
Just then, Papa Smurf entered the house with Empath and Tapper, carrying the empty case Papa Smurf had found. "My little Smurfs, what's going on here?" he demanded.
"They had the orb, Papa Smurf," Hefty said, pointing toward the other four Smurfs in the house.
"I thought as much, given what Tapper, Jokey, and Smurfette had smurfed me about what they've seen," Papa Smurf said.
"He destroyed it by smurfing it into the fireplace!" Poet said, pointing toward Hefty.
"It's for the best that he destroyed the orb, my fellow Smurfs," Empath said. "This Orb Of Inspiration is actually called the Orb Of Euphoria, and its power had you lying and stealing and doing very unsmurfy things."
"But we need its magic, Papa Smurf!" Handy shouted.
"Aw, fiddlesmurfs, Handy," Hefty said. "It's all in your heads."
Poet and the other four Smurfs objected to Hefty's comment until Papa Smurf silenced them.
"Now, now, my little Smurfs, I agree with Hefty, and in time I'm sure that you will agree with him as well," he said. "We still have a lot to do for the pageant, so I suggest that we all smurf back to work."
Papa Smurf then left the house with Hefty, leaving Empath and Tapper to deal with the other five Smurfs who felt as if their life line has been cut.
"With the way that I'm feeling, I'm not sure that I have the smurf to do anything," Harmony said.
"This smurf senses that you need a break from your work," Empath said. "You five have been relieved from your duties. This smurf will assign others to take care of the tasks that need completion. Under no circumstances are any of you to leave the area of the village in order to seek another orb. Is that acknowledged?"
"Yes, Empath," the five Smurfs said in unison.
"I do feel sorry for how they must be feeling right now, Empath," Tapper said as he and Empath left the house. "This magic power must be so entrancing that they would smurf anything just to have more of it."
"Hefty did the right thing in disposing of the orb, Tapper," Empath said. "This smurf senses that they will have withdrawal symptoms, but those will pass in time."
"But can we just leave them like this?" Tapper asked.
"This smurf can't force them to do what they don't want to do, Tapper," Empath said. "We will watch out for them, but they need to have the willpower to break free of its control themselves."
"All the same, I feel the need to pray for their well-smurfing, Empath," Tapper said.
"If that will help them, Tapper, then you have this smurf's permission to do so," Empath said. "Right now, this smurf needs to find other Smurfs who will replace those who were affected by this orb."
"Aye, Empath," Tapper said, nodding with understanding.
However, as the other Smurfs took over the jobs, Poet and the four other Smurfs felt that they need more of the orb's magic, and so, against Empath's orders, they went out into the forest to seek Allura. They traveled near the area of the brook, which was where Poet first found her.
"Allura! Allura!" Poet called out.
"Uh, I don't know about this," Farmer said, dragging his feet as he followed behind the group. "Maybe we should have listened to Empath and Papa Smurf. The truth is, I haven't been feeling so smurfy ever since I started smurfing the Orb Of Inspiration. Why don't we return to the village where we can..."
"Why, my little Poet," a friendly female voice greeted. "I see that you've brought along your friends."
Poet saw that it was Allura. "Yes, I did, Allura. Well, you see...the Orb Of Inspiration that you smurfed me...it got broken."
"Awwww, that's too bad," Allura said consolingly. "Well, eventually it would have run of magic anyway."
"I was just wondering...uh...could we please have another one?" Poet asked.
"Why, of course," Allura answered. "I have one right in my home. You're more than welcome to use it. Just come and follow me."
Poet and the other four Smurfs started to follow her. But then Farmer stopped in his tracks. "Come, M'sieu Farmer, what are you waiting for?" Painter said as he noticed Farmer lagging behind.
Farmer found himself fighting with his conscience. "Oh, very well, I do be a-coming," he said as he raced to catch up with the others.
Allura led the five Smurfs up a trail to a snowy mountainous region of the Smurf Forest which looked rather foreboding. Farmer felt increasingly nervous as they got closer and closer to wherever this Allura lived.
Soon they have reached a rocky snow-covered fortress. "There it is," Allura announced. "The orb is waiting right inside the entrance."
"Better watch your step," Handy warned as they started to cross the narrow bridge that led to the entrance of the fortress.
"Oh dear," Farmer said, looking fearfully at the long drop on either side of the bridge.
"Come, my little friend," Allura encouraged. "There's no need to be frightened."
"Uh...maybe some other time," Farmer said. "I've got to get smurfing back to my fields."
Allura watched as that Smurf ran back down the trail into the forest. Her voice nearly cracked before it resumed its gentle harmless tone. "Well...it appears that there will be more of the magic for you to share," she told the other four Smurfs. And then, when they finished crossing the bridge, she announced, "There it is, just like I promised."
All four Smurfs looked at the orb that was sitting on a pedestal on top of a raised platform. "Wow...look at the size of that thing!" Handy exclaimed.
"At long last!" Poet said as the four of them entered the fortress and went over to the orb to touch it. Allura smiled wickedly as she watched them feel the energy flowing through them.
"Ah, tres bien, I feel so much better," Painter said.
"Thanks, Allura, we really need that," Handy said.
"Now I feel that I can smurf back and finish up my poem," Poet said.
"Anytime you need its magic, you know where to find it," Allura told the group.
"Let's smurf back to the village and smurf our tasks again," Harmony said.
"We'll be seeing you, Allura," Poet said as the four Smurfs headed out the door.
"You most certainly will," Allura muttered in her actual evil voice.
As the four Smurfs crossed the bridge, Harmony said, "Now I'm feeling a whole lot better..." And then suddenly his walking slowed. "...well, maybe not a whole lot better..." And then his walking stopped. "...well, maybe not much better at all."
The other three stopped walking as well. "Come to smurf of it, I could use a bit more of the magic orb." Poet said.
"Quelle misère! So do I!" Painter said.
"What's happening to us?" Handy exclaimed.
They all ran back across the bridge into Allura's chamber. "Back so soon?" she asked.
"We had to, Allura," Poet explained. "The orb's magic just isn't lasting."
"That's the way it is with the orb, my little friends...you can't live with it, and you can't live without it!" Allura laughed as she transformed into her hideous hooded form before their eyes and one of her horrid-looking winged pets landed on her shoulder.
"We...we've got to get out of here!" Harmony said, sounding very frightened.
"But what about the orb?" Poet asked.
"I told you that you can use it whenever you want...except that from now on there will be a catch," Allura said. "As long as you're here, you're going to be working as my servants." With a wave of her hands, she caused mops, scrub brushes, and buckets of water to appear before them. "And you can start by scrubbing the floor of this chamber."
"And what if we refuse to smurf that?" Handy asked.
"Then no more orb!" Allura answered.
Poet gulped. "I was afraid she was going to say that."
"With all the work that I have planned for you, you're going to need as much of its power as you can handle," Allura said, laughing as she now cast chains on their legs to keep them from ever escaping.