//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3 
// Story: Faraway Friends 
// by the-pieman 
//------------------------------//

The already dark jungle, now at night, is shrouded in black with very little visibility unless something moves or makes noise. The jungle at night has many things to listen to, but what was once a mere signal of presence becomes a threatening tone to the ears of anything that could be considered prey. In the indiscernible depths of the darkened foliage, the distinction of ‘prey or predator’ becomes very hard for one to make about themselves.

Needless to say, the whole group was on edge.

Constant low-level and ever-present noise filled the jungle, seemingly every creature still awake after the sun’s fall. Knightguy, pulling free a torch and taking a moment to light it, peers out ahead of the group. “We are being followed.” he says, quietly.

Applejack, laden with the supplies, can’t do much, but Fluttershy looks worriedly out into the night, whimpering slightly in fear. The jungle depths aren’t too much like any place she’d gone before, and the darkness of night was exaggerated by the flickering light of the torch. “Wh-who’s f-f-f-following us?” the timid pegasus whispers back.

“Gray tribe - but they have not attacked yet, and that worries me.” Knightguy already has his pike in his other hand.

A confused look crosses Applejack’s face. “Not that I’m complainin’ or nothin’ but why would they be holdin’ back? I don’t see anything that dangerous.”

Fluttershy offers her understanding of nature and the usual hunting tendencies of predators. “If you don’t see it, then it’s a lot harder to get away.”

“Point taken. So what can we do? I don’t like the idea much but if we tried goin’ around and taking a long way, would it be easier in the taller plants around?”

“... I do not think so, no. They would hamper our already limited vision. Whatever is moving out there, it has unsettled both the Gray Tribe members and myself. My tribe tries to avoid going out at night, and I will freely admit this means we do not know much of the dangers, just that they are severe.” Knightguy glances left and right as he talks before slowing to a stop.

“What’s up?” Applejack asks, looking around.

“Do you hear that?” Knightguy looks around, Applejack shaking her head - she doesn’t hear anything. At about the time she does so, Fluttershy feels her heart skip a beat as she recognizes what a suddenly silent jungle means.

“Ah can’t hear anythi-”

Before she can finish her sentence, Applejack is interrupted by a sound like a steam train’s whistle, and the sound of a dozen or so feet tromping at high speed and fury straight at the group!

Knightguy gasps. “Giga-Wiggler! Something has enraged it!” he shouted, moments before a massive Wiggler, easily six times bigger than the ones they’d seen earlier, but also a furious-looking red and pouring steam from its nose. As it stood, the group had to dive to the sides of the gigantic Wiggler’s path to avoid getting trampled, and even then, it was already turning around. Another odd thing about the Wiggler was that it wasn’t just red all over - it had odd white spots and a green coloration to its limbs, as well as its segments displaying white-ridged splits making a ‘grin’ shape on each section.

Tumbling and charging after the enraged Wiggler was a group of eight Shyguys in medium-gray robes, their masks all scratched or cracked, and every one of them either wielding a sword-like weapon or a long spear with a cross-shaped guard right behind the head. The hunting party split between pointing weapons at the trio of travellers and at the rampaging wiggler, even as the angry arthropod started coming right at them.

“Wh- what do we do!?” Applejack yells, as she stares at the notably-hostile Shy Guys in front of them. The Wiggler seems to, for now, have tramped off into the jungle during its mad dash, but that left the issue of the gray tribe Guys that as far as she recalled, were not going to be easy to get around.

Fluttershy cowers behind Knightguy. “Maybe we could... just talk with them?” The lead Gray Shyguy, pointing his spear at Fluttershy, shouts something in the bestial Shyguy language and charges, making the pegasus yelp in fright. “Th-that wasn’t nice to say! N-nor was trying to s-skewer me!” she shouts, having dodged upwards, much to her assaulter’s consternation.

It doesn’t last long though, as the already-weak flier had to contend with her wing having not fully healed; it hadn’t been properly bandaged for more than a few hours. She does manage to get a distance away before she had to land, though.

Applejack, frustratedly keeping the supplies on her back, was also fending off an attack, this time by the machete-wielding pair that had targeted her. Each one came from a different side - one from the front, the other from the back. However, unlike a Wiggler, Applejack could attack in both directions, as she demonstrated by putting a rear hoof into one Shyguy’s mask hard enough to crack it at the same time she planted a forehoof in the other Guy’s stomach, doubling him over and shoving him back. The maneuver, however, had her nearly drop the basket of items.

Overall, the trio wasn’t prepared to make many effective moves without potentially losing or ruining their items. A way to carry them better than just a large woven basket would make moving around easier. As it was though, there weren’t many options that easily involved making sure the supplies weren’t dropped, ruined or stolen.

“Any advice for these things?” AJ asks her guide. “If I had a rope or somethin’ I could do more but I can’t do much with this basket on mah back!”

Knightguy, stuck in a spear-duel, shouted back, “Trip them if you are able, all of us have a hard time righting ourselves if flipped over!”

“Dunno if ya noticed but y’all don’t make it easy to get at yer feet, being so short ‘n all.” Applejack points out. Her harassers being only as tall as her legs made the notion difficult unless she had something to trip them with. “Seriously, anythin’ you got that I could use as a rope?”

Fluttershy was being harried herself and at this point had run out of use of her wings. She could only move away on foot but this just served to separate her from the group further. In her panicked state she didn’t have many options aside from moving about as much as she could and hoping she wouldn’t lock up. “Oh this can’t be happening, this can’t be happening...”

Without warning, the Wiggler stormed into the area again, leaving them with a large clearing - this time, however, the Giga-Wiggler was circling the area angrily, still snorting steam. As it charged around, it smashed into the Shyguy chasing Fluttershy - but it didn’t just trample him. Instead, the front of the Wiggler opened wide, showing a toothy maw that snapped shut on the gray-clad Shyguy, before chewing twice. After those two extra bites, the massive Wiggler opened its mouth again... and belched forth a massive fireball at the other gray tribe Shyguys, setting two on fire and knocking a third and fourth prone. Having been in front of the two now on fire, Applejack reared back in surprise, barely keeping the basket of goods on her back as the vicious shyguys began to panic - those robes are exceptionally flammable, it seems.

Backing up, Applejack gets tripped up for a moment as her hind leg is snagged on some undergrowth. It doesn’t take more than a few sharp tugs before she gets her leg out, but it does give her an idea. If she could get some thicker vines, she might be able to fashion a rope out of it, as fragile as it was in relation to the usual hempen weave she was used to. “Any chance of us cutting up some of these vines? I could do something with that, I bet!”

Knightguy dodges a stray fireball just barely, his metal armor being more resistant than the robes, though it certainly heated him up a bit. Sweaty was better than dead, at least. “We may have bigger problems now. That large creature seems to be some sort of crossbreed of Wiggler and Piranha Plant, which, if you can imagine, puts us in a much less favorable position!”

“C- could we just run away?” Fluttershy pleads, thankfully overlooked by the insect-plant monster for the time being.

“Actually... Ah may have an idea. If it’s a plant, Ah may have a way to at least calm it down a bit. Fer now, dodge that fire and try to lure those gray guys into the Wiggler - we can’t beat ‘em and keep the supplies safe, but the Wiggler can.” Applejack said, grinning.

“If you have some form of calming a Wiggler down after it’s already infuriated, I would be most interested in your technique. Such an act has not been seen or heard of across any tribe on this island.” Knightguy says, skeptically. The mentoning of the poor odds, while normally demoralizing, does more to urge Applejack on, however.

“Jus’ give me a bit of time and I’ll show ya what an Earth Pony can do. But get these darn gray fellas away from me, I can’t focus if they keep pokin’ at me!”

The second gray shyguy harassing Fluttershy, getting fed up with its previous attempts, tries throwing its spear at the pegasus, who manages to barely duck away from it with a painful but only shallow cut along her side. She may be hurt and cowering, but her assailant was now weaponless and the Piranha-Wiggler makes another pass. The unarmed gray shyguy takes notice and, as the terrifying beast charges over, the hunter makes a horrified, screaming wail as it makes a mad leap away... only for its suffering to be prolonged as the monster lands a tremendous chomp and bites its prey’s legs clean off at the torso. The severed upper half of the once-hostile shyguy’s inarticulate wails crescendo as pain overtakes it before the charging feet crush it into the undergrowth, ending its suffering instantly with a wet crunch. Fluttershy wishes she hadn’t chosen then to look up from covering her face. 

The Wiggler, in passing, had looked at her, its grin red and wet and full of teeth to put a bear trap to shame. Her first instinct is to lock up and freeze as usual, but instead manages to push herself into making a mad dash to the side. As fast as the monstrosity was, it didn’t seem too keen on cornering during its charge.

Applejack, seeing the oncoming pain-train, turned and gave a two-hoof, full-power buck to one Shyguy’s mask, throwing him backwards and straight into the waiting maw of the Giga-Wiggler, leading to her turning a bit green and gulping. “Whoops. Only meant ta knock him out...” she muttered, feeling guilty in spite of the circumstances.

Granted, most of the things she used her full strength on weren’t half her height and a quarter or less of her own weight. The end result, however, was roughly the same as what she wanted. One less problem to worry about, and she was now free of the small islanders. She decided that now was the time for her to begin concentrating on the biggest problem.

Having had a second, twin-sized serving of Shyguy, the monstrosity belches a supersized sphere of sizzling flame, and this time, Knightguy is given less time to evade and he, as well as his dueling partner, are well and truly toasted.

Knightguy himself is knocked clean off his feet and smoking just a tad as he lands at the base of a tree. His opponent, however, is much less fortunate. The gray robes that made up its clothing catches instantly and engulfs it in a blazing inferno that, for the briefest of moments, seemed not too dissimilar to a traditional Pyro Guy before the flames continued to eat ravenously at the screeching assailant's body which is reduced to a pile of rough ashes.

So far, the only thing keeping the jungle around the area to not be burned down or even catch at all was the intense amount of humidity everywhere saturating the plantlife with enough water both inside and out to be practically fireproof, as well as the muddy ditch that marked where the Wiggler had rampaged acting as an excellent firegap.
.
With the Shyguy hunting party defeated, Applejack took stock before pausing and taking a deep breath. “Alright, here goes nothing...” as she felt outwards with the natural magics inherent in all Earth Ponies, and strongest in those that have worked the land.

Knightguy, unsure what was happening, very nearly interrupted her concentration until he felt the faint and subtle hum of magic, and Fluttershy looked in wonder as the Wiggler began to slow down, cherry-red color slowly fading to a duller, but still crayon-grade shade of crimson. As well, the Wiggler’s eyes were no longer creased with fury, and it blinked a few times, looking around.

Applejack concentrated a bit harder, a nearly invisible aura around her hooves matching one atop the Wiggler’s head as a small sprout grew there, finally budding and producing a miniscule piranha plant that looked around in confusion of its new life. As the apple farmer sighed and came out of her trance-like state, she noticed the Piranha Wiggler take a moment to sniff her before simply starting to toddle off into the night. Nobody noticed the tiny apples now growing off the small Piranha Plant on the Wiggler’s head.

“Whoo... never done anything like that before...” She huffed in exhaustion. “Didn’t even know I could get it to work so fast. It just seemed... a lot easier’n usual. Dunno what it is. Like it’s in the ground or somethin’ I guess.”

“That... what was that?” Knightguy asks, now back to his whispering tone. “I have never seen anything like that before.”

“Well, it’s somethin’ that Earth Ponies can do if they work with plants a lot. I dunno how Twi explained it exactly but we can sorta just help the plant grow or what-have-ya. Like we’re talkin’ to it, but not really. It sounds weird ta me, but it does make sense why Earth ponies tend to grow bigger and tastier plants than a unicorn or pegasus can. Twilight said it had somethin ta do with our connection to th’ earth an’ stuff but... I just assumed it was ‘cause they never talked with plants. Flowers like that a lot so I figured it was that or...” In trying to detail her explanation further she just ended up confusing herself further. “Ah dunno how it works, it’s just somethin’ ah do, but it’s a lot easier hereabouts.” The farm mare pulls the thankfully undisturbed basket of medical supplements onto her back. “Now, let’s git ‘fore more a those guys come back. How much further we got yet?”

Knightguy takes a moment to respond, still trying to parse the barebones explanation, not helped by the fact that terms like ‘Earth Pony’ made no sense to him to begin with. “Oh, well...” He looks around and, finding his bearings, locates the direction back to his tribe. “We’re not too distant. Should hopefully be back well before midnight. It won’t be long, assuming we are not interrupted further.” He takes a moment to sit and let his armor cool as he retrieves his other pike. He notices Fluttershy’s cut where the spear had tagged her earlier. “That... will need dressing as soon as possible. We should make haste. I’m not sure of this band, but the Gray Tribe has a penchant for poisoned weaponry. Larger prey, after all, are easier to kill if weakened significantly.”

Fluttershy and Applejack gasp at the idea, before getting a move-on, Knightguy lighting another torch from the cinders of the fireballs.


===========


The rest of the trek was made thankfully easier by following the churned path of the Giga-Wiggler’s wandering, taking them much closer before it veered off to go in another direction; still, the path it had left was dead silent the entire time, the jungle hushed for nearly two full minutes behind the Giga-Wiggler’s retreating backside out of fear of attracting its attention.

Likewise, the group had remained quiet.

However, they approached the great trees of the Knightguy’s home, finding plenty of light being cast upon the jungle floor (kept meticulously clean during the day) by primitive spotlights, as well as the elevator system being already lowered.

“It’ll be good ta get some rest.” Applejack said, already feeling more tired at the idea of getting to lay down. “Wasn’t expectin’ ta have that kinda workout this mornin’.” The tired farm pony stepped onto the elevator, sitting down heavily with the supplies on her back shifting place.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a couple of spare beds, would you?” Fluttershy asked quietly, also settling onto the elevator, Knightguy behind her.

“We’ll need to ask the elders, but it should not be hard to find one... or possibly just make a bedroll. We have plenty of leaves, after all.”

“That works.” AJ replies sounding more tired than even seconds before. “Can’t be too diff’rent from sleepin’ on hay in the barn.”

“I’ve slept on leaves plenty of times... sometimes, you just need to hug an animal to sleep, and they don’t like being inside.” Fluttershy said, yawning quietly.

“Well, let’s get you patched up first. Y’all said it could be poisoned? How do we fix that?”

“The elders will know how to make a restorative stew to fix any poisons - the Gray tribe wouldn’t risk anything they couldn’t fix themselves, after all, or their kills wouldn’t be edible.”

“All this huntin’ and killin’ stuff is real gruesome. How do ya deal with it so often?” Applejack turns to Fluttershy for the question.

“Well... well usually it isn’t very slow. Mostly it’s either avoided entirely or over in a few seconds. The chases are the long parts, and animals don’t usually throw s- spears to slow prey down.” She was rather shocked at how brutal things got when tool users more advanced than birds acted so savage. “It’s not much like that very often.”

“Shucks...  Ah S’pose that’s true...”

“I... I guess it’s just really hitting me because of the things they were saying when they were attacking. It was so horrible...” Fluttershy shivered. “I’d rather not think about it, if that’s okay with you...”

“Ah don’t have a clue what they were saying anyways. Was all grunts and noises ta me.” She pauses and looks to Knightguy. “No offense or anythin’. I just can’t tell the difference between you guys talkin’ and a bunch of birds fightin’ over an ear o’ corn.”

“None taken - we patterned our language and dialects after local animal sounds to hide our speech. Sometimes makes things awkward with the Peter Birds. They’re named because they’re incessant repeaters of any sounds they hear.” Knightguy said.

“Oh, parrots!” Fluttershy said, with a bit of tired cheer in her voice as the elevator reached the tree platform, and the trio was swarmed by grateful shyguys. “Parrots are so lovely...”

“Heh... excitable little guys. You always this energetic?” Applejack asked. Between coming here and the trip through the jungle itself, most of their time was spent with the tribe members rushing around back and forth and carrying the ponies along with their work as if they were a living tidal wave. They just rush in and move everything along with them.

They were very efficient and quick, but just watching the bustle immediately made Applejack tired enough to yawn louder than she had in weeks.

Neither pony really paid much attention as they were bustled along, both of them being ushered towards a large pot as the farm pony’s load was rapidly lightened by pulling vegetables out of the basket as the tribesmen deigned. Almost immediately, the smell of something delicious cooking met the trio’s tired noses, and even Knightguy sighed appreciatively at the scent.

One of the large, red mushrooms was dropped into the pot, followed by a green one and a handful of various leafy herbs, and the stew began to bubble instantly, a pair of shyguys standing next to the cauldron (which was easily four times taller than themselves) stirring frantically but rhythmically to keep it from burning.

Finally, moments later, the ponies and Knightguy are passed bowls, even as another bowl is shuffled towards the chief’s home, and the two Equestrian’s both sigh in relaxation as they tasted the revitalizing brew. “Whooee! It’s strange, but this tastes like home - even though Ah ain’t never seen anything like those plants what went into it... and hey, I only feel sleepy now, not dead tired!”

“These are very powerful restorative herbs.” Fluttershy agrees. “But you’re right. I don’t know of anything this effective if only ground up and mixed. Even Zecora’s solutions are... well, solutions. And they take a while...” She takes a hungry slurp from her bowl and her side where she was scraped by the spear immediately felt better, like she hadn’t been hurt at all. “This is incredible.”

One of the shyguys nods and chitters happily, before heading off to pass her compliment to the chef.

Several more bowls are filled and emptied for them both (the bowls are barely the size of teacups for them, after all) and at last they prepare to bed down for the rest of the night, glad they will be able to sleep the rest of it away...


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The leaves of the canopy break silently, a small figure wreathed in the shadow of night is somewhat illuminated by the moon above the treetops. Several more appear and converge, the small propellers on their heads holding them aloft with a near-silent whirring noise. They group together and share a few whispers, reporting what each had seen. It had been quite a while since anything happened on this island in particular, and the Toady who had it as his purview finally had quite a tale to tell.

More near-silent discussion later and they decide that the discovery was detailed enough to be worth reporting. After assignment of others to continue monitoring the strange newcomers, and much more closely, the remaining group took off. Their surprising speed coupled with their nigh-undetectable movement through the nighttime cloud cover meant they would get to the Koopa Kingdom in a few short hours. One voice was a bit louder, due to the excitement of the speaker. “Master Kamek will absolutely need to hear of this.”