//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Stranger Number Two // Story: The Defective Warp Pipe // by Level Dasher //------------------------------// With me using my borrowed transport device, we made it to the place Fluttershy called ‘Sweet Apple Acres’ fairly quickly, despite it being on the other edge of town. We met the Earth Pony named Applejack outside the gate, and it seemed she was about to go somewhere. We had good timing. Spike called to her from behind me. “Hey, Applejack! Are the Crusaders still out in the orchards?” Applejack turned and noticed us, giving a smile and a bit of a chuckle. “Aw, heya Spike. Heya, Fluttershy. Mr. Yoshi, Ah see yer doin’ well with Scootaloo’s wagon. How’s yer leg feelin’?” I shot Spike a quick look. He knew what I was thinking, and spoke before I even needed to. “Applejack, you can call him just ‘Yoshi’. He said so back in Fluttershy’s cabin.” I nodded. I really didn’t like the formality. When I thought about it, how did Applejack know about my leg? I mean, it was clearly wrapped up, but she must have known about it previously, because otherwise she would have looked more surprised to see me in this condition… “Heh, Ah see that expression Mister—oops, sorry—Yoshi. Scootaloo told me about ‘Fluttershy’s friend’s leg’ when she left to get ya her wagon. Ah knew she was talkin’ ‘bout you. And yes, she went back into th’ orchards with the other crusaders. I’m guessin’ she’s told Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle ‘bout ‘Fluttershy’s friend’ by now. Wait ‘til they meetcha!” I figured if Scootaloo was kind enough to let me borrow a means of transportation, I could at least meet her friends as well. I gave a nod of thanks to Applejack, then turned to roll off in the direction of the orchards where she said the fillies were. I realized we were going to go up over hills of grass, and I was in a wagon. It would have been problematic, but it was Fluttershy’s turn to read my mind. “Don’t worry, Yoshi— I’ll push you up the hills. We can clean the wheels for Scootaloo when you’re feeling better.” These ponies must have been psychic! I breathed a sigh of relief and gave Fluttershy a smile of thanks, to which she blushed a little again. We headed off toward the fillies and found them not horribly far from the entrance to the orchard. As soon as they spotted us over the horizon, I heard them. “Golly, Scootaloo! I never thought yer wagon would actually come in use one day!” “Oh shut it, Apple Bloom. I did tell ya, didn’t I? I knew there was a reason I kept working on that wagon, I just didn’t think it’d be moving on grass instead of road! But I tell ya, he looks good in it!” I was quite glad they didn’t make a fuss over what kind of creature I was compared to them, but I wasn’t totally surprised. Children tend to be much more accepting than adults. Fluttershy wheeled me over to them, with Spike in tow. The moment we approached, I could tell they were about to burst with questions, and so could Fluttershy. Luckily, she got her words in right as the children opened their mouths to start the barrage. “Now girls, before you start asking questions, I need to clear something up. This is Yoshi— he can understand what you say, but he can’t speak in our language, so Spike needs to translate. That means you need to keep your questions one at a time so they can work together to answer everything, alright?” “Yes, Fluttershy,” the three fillies all said in unison. They seemed to have great respect for her. “Yoshi and Spike, I’ll let you take it from here, okay?” I nodded, as did Spike. Satisfied, Fluttershy trotted off to the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres to go after Applejack. Before the girls began their questioning, however, I spoke up with my voice that seemed to startle them. “Before you start asking questions— Scootaloo, I would like to thank you for allowing me to use your wagon to get around. I’d be stuck in bed if not for you. I will make sure to clean it when I get better and can walk on my own.” Spike gave a word-for-word translation. “Aw shucks, it’s not a problem. I haven’t used it for a while— I’ve just been keeping it in fair condition. I guess it finally came in handy!” After about half an hour of questions, including what I was, where I came from, how I got hurt, etc, they finally seemed to be out of ideas. I had asked them a few questions as well, including all of their names, but decided not to get too involved in the origin of their club. Finally, Sweetie Belle asked, “How long are you going to stay here, Mr. Yoshi?” I shrugged, then gave a glance to Spike. “Girls, you can just call him ‘Yoshi.’ He said ‘Mr. Yoshi’ is too formal for him.” Apple Bloom piped up, “Ahright. But wait, how are ya sure? He didn’t say nothin’ to ya!” I chuckled a bit. “Good point, Apple Bloom. He’s told me to tell that to everypony that’s called him ‘Mister’ so far, so at this point, his glance is a good enough sign.” I nodded in agreement. Scootaloo got excited at that. “Hey, that’s cool, Spike! But you should tell everypony you can read his mind! That would be cooler! HEY! Girls, we should try that! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS MIND READERS!” They then went speeding out of the orchard. Spike and I both started laughing. I asked Spike, “Do they do that frequently?" He responded, “You’d be surprised. When they get an idea for something they could do to earn their Cutie Marks, they go running off together in an instant to go and do it. Looks like we inspired another idea!” Both of us laughed again. I realized that the girls were gone, but we were still in the middle of the orchards. How was I going to get over the hill? However, it seemed Fluttershy had had another psychic moment and came trotting over the horizon to meet us. “I saw the girls running out of the orchards, so I thought you would be wanting to get back over the hills. Need some help?” I nodded in response, and Spike breathed a sigh of relief. Without much trouble, we got back to the entrance to the Acres. Applejack had returned, and was shooting the breeze with a pony who was introduced to me as her brother, Big Macintosh. We said our goodbyes, then headed back to the library for some rest after the long chat with the three fillies. Fluttershy dropped us off with Twilight and went back home. I made the executive decision that I should still lay low from the rest of Ponyville for a little while. I didn’t want to be too forward with the population, especially since I couldn’t speak to them directly. Twilight had put all her current projects on hold while she did research to find a way to get me home. Despite all her efforts, it seemed to be taking a while. Even though I was worried about Mario, whose missions are a lot tougher without me, I didn’t want to nudge her— she was doing all she could to help me, and butting my oversized nose into her work wouldn’t have been a great way to thank her. After about five days of no results, I was starting to feel a bit down. On the sixth day, however, a new factor was presented to us. While Twilight was doing still more research, and I was casually chatting with Spike, a figure that turned out to be Fluttershy suddenly slammed into the door. She opened it and yelled (or what was considered a yell for Fluttershy apparently) for me. “Yoshi! We need you! Somepony else that’s not a pony appeared out of nowhere nearby the Everfree Forest! Angel found him pretty beaten by a tree, and he was saying your name!” What in Peach’s name? Who would have followed me here to this strange land? “Fluttershy, what did he look like?” Spike asked her for me. “Well, he didn’t say much. He just said your name a few times. But he looked a bit like a big mushroom…” “Big mushroom?” It couldn’t be… “That’s Toad! They don’t send him out except for emergencies! Something big must be happening in the Mushroom Kingdom!” Spike finished translating as I limped back into Scootaloo’s wagon and wheeled right out the door. Then I realized Fluttershy had to tell me where he was first… When I glanced back at Fluttershy, she said, “I’ll bring you to him, Yoshi. He’s out in this direction.” We made it to where Toad had ended up fairly quickly with me in Scootaloo’s wagon. He was pretty battered— it looked like someone had beaten him up something awful. Since Toad was one of the few from the Mushroom Kingdom who understood me, I asked him outright, “Toad, what happened? Are you alright?” His voice was hoarse, and he spoke slowly. “Well… I was tired of sitting on the sidelines while you guys always went looking for the Princess… So, right after Mario left, I started making my way through a bunch of the shortcuts to Bowser’s castle to try and find Princess Peach… She wasn’t there. I thought maybe she was just in another castle, but Bowser came out himself… He started beating me up, saying I was trespassing…” This worried me. Bowser wasn’t usually this cruel, even to Mario. But Toad took a deep breath and continued, “Bowser then did something I never thought he would ever do— he apologized. Apparently he was just really mad. He told me he had been beaten to the punch, no pun intended. Turns out he didn’t take Peach. Someone else did. Bowser told me the whole story.” By this time, all of Fluttershy’s friends had made it to where we were, and were listening to Toad’s explanation. “It turns out that somehow a creature that looks kind of like a dragon-horse made his way into the Mushroom Kingdom during the middle of one of Mario’s missions. The creature caused some kind of time-space loop or something. The timer has been going crazy, all the levels seem to be infinitely blending together, and Mario still hasn’t gotten to the end of level 3-2. It’s pure CHAOS! I don’t know what it all means, but…… what?” Toad had cut himself off. I turned around, confused. We saw all of the ponies, as well as Spike, staring at him with their eyes out of their heads and their mouths open. They all looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Then, as if it had been rehearsed, they all said it in unison: “Discord!”