//------------------------------// // Warm Welcomes // Story: Land of Equines // by Daddy Joe //------------------------------// Warm Welcomes November 6th, 2012 I squinted my eyes as they slowly opened, adjusting to the brightness of the sun's rays peering through the leaves in the tree. After rubbing them to get rid of the crust, I began to slowly climb back down the tree while being cautious of the creature that chased me. I jumped off the lowest branch and landed with a grunt. Upon inspection of the bark, I had discovered nasty looking gashes or claw marks on the side and huge paw prints that led towards the opposite side of the woods. "Uh-uh, that ain't happening." I said to myself. I walked back onto the gravel path and looked both ways to remind myself where I was heading to and continued westward. Along the way, I encountered rather smaller and friendly animals such as rabbits, squirrels, and birds. Pretty much the common animals you would see in the woods, but I still didn't let my guard down on that creature I saw last night. It felt like I was walking forever until I came across a T-intersection with a sign that pointed towards Ponyville, and headed to the right. The woods became less dense than before and I could see through the trees more easier. As I continued onwards, I came across something new. There was an apple tree that was filled with bright, red apples. "Alright! Something to eat." I rushed over to the tree and jumped upwards, grabbed an apple, and plucked it on the way down. I then took a big bite into the fruit and my tastebuds were hit with a burst of sweet flavor and a hint of sour from the juice inside. Finishing the apple, I collected two more and continued on down the path for a little bit longer. To my surprise, the sunlight was dimming a tiny bit before I realized that sunset was near. "Sunset already? How long was I asleep for?" I questioned myself. I now needed to hurry because if I wasn't out here when nightfall hits, I had no doubt that monster would not hesitate to come find me again. To speed things up a bit, I started to jog. I had been jogging for a short amount of time before I came across some hoof prints, pausing to inspect them. When I mean hoof prints, I mean the footprints of a horse. The hoof prints were relatively small, could possibly be a small horse or a donkey. This sparked a thought. If there are hoof prints on a path and they go in a straight direction towards the supposed village, then that means there are possibly people with domesticated horses in the area. "Okay, just gotta follow these prints and they should lead me to somebody….. Hopefully." As I was following the hoofprints, the sky was dimming even more. When I looked up, the sun was on the verge of descending. I was now jogging even faster now because I just wanted to get to the end of the trail of the hoofprints before it ended up being too late. But however, there was something up ahead It was something small; yellow and red at the top. I started to close in on it and realized it was a small pony with a yellow coat and a red mane. It also appeared to have a bow in its mane. As I got closer, it turned around and its face made me stop dead in my tracks. First of all, the shape of its face is not like any equine I've ever seen. The head more rounded and has this rounded triangular muzzle. Second, its eyes were big and somewhat resembled a humans, complete with a set of eyebrows and eyelashes, but they do fit the size of the head. Strangely enough, despite all of that, the face, including the body, looks like it was pulled out of a cartoon and put into reality. I was questioning whether I was truly awake or dreaming. I proceeded to pinch my side and nothing happened. "Welp, I guess I'm not dreaming." Me and the pony made eye contact and I could see it was absolutely terrified by the facial expression it made. The pupils had creepily shrunk a little bit and its mouth remained wide open. The pony turned around and got the hell out of dodge before I could continue. "Huh. Must've scared it off." The pony continued to sprint further away then took a left. Shortly after, I heard a voice shouting in the distance that sounded like a little girl and I could make out what it said. It said, "Applejack." The weird thing was that it came from the direction of the pony. Maybe the left turn the pony made was a path that lead to a house and the shout could've been the owner of the pony calling for it. "Yeah, that seems like a pretty legit explanation." I assured to myself. I had to figure out if what I just saw was real, so I decided to follow it. As I got to the left where the pony turned, I quickly took notice to the sign above me that read, "Sweet Apple Acres." No wonder there were apple trees everywhere. It was an apple orchard. The pony came back with slightly larger orange pony…. And they were talking. "C'mon Applejack! Its right here! Some kind of monkey!" the yellow pony exclaimed in a southern accent. "Monkey?" "Alright, Applebloom, let's see what this thing i-." the orange pony said in a feminine, southern accent. The orange pony stopped and stared right back me with the same shocked expression I probably had when I saw the smaller yellow one. "My stars... It's wearin' clothing and everything. Who... Who are ya?" Applejack asked. I parted my lips and stood there in silence. I was at such a lost of words for what I was seeing that I couldn't even respond. Confused, I tightened my fists and furrowed my brow at the two ponies. Applejack must've noticed how I was presenting and probably considered it hostile. "Alrighty then. Applebloom, go get Big Mac and tell him to get the rope. I'll keep an eye on him." Applejack calmly demanded. "It doesn't look that harmful. It looks rather friendly to me. Maybe it's lost." Applebloom replied in a sympathetic tone. "Well I've never seen a monkey like this. Maybe we can find someone who can take it back to its natural habitat." said Applejack, sternly. With that, Applebloom took one more look at me before she ran off towards the other direction. Now it was just me and Applejack. She began to scrape her hooves against the dirt, kicking dust behind her, indicating she was about to charge. I was still somewhat lost in a trance of bewilderment due to seeing two ponies talking in perfect English. Before I knew it, Applejack was running towards me. Quickly, I dodged to the left, avoiding the tackle. Finally, I spoke up to the pony. "Hey, ease off! I wasn't going to attack you." I said, hastily. "What in the hay? You can talk?!" Applejack asked. "Yes! And I mean you no harm! I exclaimed. With that, Applejack slowly returned to a neutral stance, still staring me in surprise. "Ah, horse apples. I'm sorry for chargin' yah there." Applejack apologized. "Yeah. Don't worry about it." I exhaled. "You okay?" Applejack asked. "Yeah... Thanks for a warm welcome, pony." I replied, sarcastically. "Hey, I said I was sorry for gettin' to rough on yah'. I just took you for a threat at first." Applejack explained. "Seems like you've never seen anything like me before." I said. "Never in all my days." Applejack replied while examining me with great interest. Suddenly, a big red pony that was much more larger than Applejack came around the corner with a rope in its mouth while lassoing it. "H-H-Hey! Stop him!" I exclaimed to Applejack, prompting her to intervene with the pony. "Hold up there, Big Mac! Turns out he ain't no threat after all." Applejack confirmed. Big Mac quickly came to a halt and stared at me with this look as if he just saw a ghost. "Um... Uh... Howdy there." I greeted to the pony. "Howdy to you too." Big Mac replied in a deep southern voice. "You see, Applejack? I told you it was friendly." Applebloom exclaimed, sprinting around the corner. "Well, you sure did prove me wrong, Applebloom." Applejack admitted The small filly gazed at me in amazement and excitement rather than the shocked expressions of Applejack and Big Mac. "So, this little pony's name is Applebloom?" I asked. "It can talk, too?! I can't believe it! And it said my name too!" Applebloom cried while jumping up in place. "I can't wait to show you to Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo!" "Scoota-what? Who are they?" I asked. "Those two filly's are just Applebloom's little friends. And, Applebloom, you can't just take... By the way, you got a name?" Applejack asked me. "Oh, right. My name is Caleb." I answered. "Nice name ya got. As I was saying, you can't just take Daniel here around as some show and tell item." Applejack scolded. "Don't worry about that, Applejack. If I'm gonna be new around these parts, I might as well make myself known anyways. I'd rather not have a similar encounter like we did a few minutes ago." I said. "Well you do have a point there, Caleb. Sorry again." Applejack agreed. "So... you'll stop over again?!" Applebloom asked, eagerly. "I don't know about that. I'm looking for that nearby village and plan on continuing. So, uhhh, I best be going. Really nice to meet you pony-folk. Have a nice, uh, evening." I farewelled, shaking my head as I just came to terms with talking to multi-colored ponies. Right when I turned to walk away, I was suddenly stopped by Applejack. "Caleb, wait!" Applejack yelled. "Um, yes?" I asked. "Look, we can't just let you out on your own this late." Applejack said. "Why? Would that be because of a certain pair of glowing green eyes?" I asked in curiosity. "Yep. You may be quite the shocker to us, but not to Timberwolves. You would just be a snack to them." Applejack said. That was enough for me to reconsider my decision to venture on. "Yeah, I had a close encounter with one last night." I said. "Well in that case, you should stay for the night. In the morning, we'll give ya directions to Ponyville. How does that sound?" Applejack offered. "Really? Oh, well, uh, I guess I could stay for the night... If you insist. You guys have a house around here?" I asked. "We sure do. Follow us, we'll get you all set up." Applejack instructed.