//------------------------------// // ...Come Grand Adventures - Applejack's Awakening // Story: Ponies of the Abarat // by Aslfrasle //------------------------------// The chapter title '...Come Great Adventures' is the name of the arc the comprises the ponies beginning in the Abarat. After this chapter, the chapter titles will only include the name of the specific chapter though at the end there will be an indicator of what part of the arc it is. All that Applejack remembered before everything went black was going on a mission for the Princess with her friends and Discord, but when they found the horn they were looking for in the center of the forest, Discord started acting strange. He acted like someone was ‘controlling’ him or something, like they were getting him to do what they wanted while making it seem like that was what he wanted to do. They had tried to stop him from rushing in without a plan or anything, and they almost succeeded...though it was too little too late. It seemed like the creatures invading the forest set some kind of trap for them, because as soon as Discord touched the horn, everything began shaking, then some strange portal appeared and sucked her and her friends into it’s gaping maw, along with the spirits and all the animals they had subjugated. Once inside, she couldn’t tell what was up, or where anything was...it looked like she was in a swirling mass of chaos, moving forwards while still going nowhere. The last thing she saw before everything went black was Discord casting some sort of spell as they were ejected from the vortex and blasted of in different directions… Applejack began to feel raindrops hitting her coat as she began to regain consciousness. She felt cold, wet stone under her and assumed she must be lying on the ground wherever she landed, and the raindrops meant she must be outside. As she slowly attempted to open her eyes. She had some trouble, as she was still partially unconscious, though after a few tries, and several times where she managed to almost open her eyes only to fail at the last minute, she eventually managed to get her eyes fully open. She could see that she was indeed on some sort of rocky surface and it was raining...there was even thunder abounding indicating wherever she ended up was in the middle of a storm. Another thing she noticed was that it was nighttime, given how the surrounding area looked, she would say it was probably somewhere between 7 and 10 at night, at least this was what the farm looked like at that time of day... “Well, it don’t seem tah make much sense to sit out here in tha rain. I best find some shelter before I catch a chill!’ Applejack said. She slowly shambled to her feet, her hooves sore and locked up from lying outside in the rain. She had never had this much trouble walking before, and her hooves felt very strange as if her back hooves were longer than her fore hooves. She also thought she saw strange appendages poking out from her front and back hooves, though she attributed this to the pain she was feeling and her hazy vision. Once she made it to her ‘hooves’ she hobbled forwards until… “HYAHHH!” she screamed and one of her hooves slipped due to the rain and she fell forwards. She quickly shuffled herself back to avoid whatever was in front of her, and was glad she did so. When her still slightly hazy vision she noticed she had almost walked over the edge of wherever she had landed. She looked around her vision now cleared by her near death experience and realized that she was on some sort of rounded plateau and over one of the sides she swore she saw what looked like a giant stone ear. She looked around some more and found what looked like buildings, and she began walking towards them. When her vision cleared she noticed that there were indeed weird things poking out of her fore hooves. “What in tarnation are these things!” she shouted looking at the strange protrusions. She also saw the same odd things poking out of her back hooves as well, though they were much shorter. When she looked down to see if anything else had changed, she saw these bizarre lumps sticking out of her chest. “An’ what’re these things supposed to be fer?” The raindrops still falling on her head, she remembered she still needed to find solace from the rain to keep from getting sick. She hobbled over to the large spires she had seen and knocked on the door, seeking aid from whomever lived there. A strange creature unlike anything Applejack had ever seen answered the door. She was tall and slender, and looked like those creatures Lyra was always talking about though she had some kind of weird hat on her head. She decided that this creature must be something that lives in this world, and that if it lived in a proper house it must not be wild... “Now what the hay is that there thing on yer head?” she asked of the strange woman. “This, my dear vagrant, is an aquarium hat! They’re all the rage over in Commexo City and only the most popular people here can afford one!” the woman exclaimed. “Now may I ask what you are doing on my doorstep? For I am a very busy woman and I do not have all day.” “Pardon me mam, mah name is Applejack, and Ah was wonderin’ if y’all could give me a place tah stay tonight? Ah have no clue where Ah am, or where any o’ mah friends are, so Ah could really use some help.” She explained. “Well, missy, I am not just going to pickup some naked vagrant from off the streets with no knowledge of who or where they came from! I have worked my entire life to get to the upper levels of Yebba Dim Day society and I will not lose it just because some beggar woman comes to me with a sob story! Now, I bid you good day!” She seemed like she was shouting each statement she made, and when she was finished she promptly slammed the door in Applejack’s face. Realizing that there was nothing for her here, Applejack slinked away on her four strange new hooves, back out into the storm, though through the rain she saw some sort of tunnel entrance leading inside of the lower levels of this landmass. She crawled towards the entrance ignoring the shivers from the freezing night rain. Once inside the tunnel she kept crawling forwards, until she reached the other end and saw that the inside of this stone structure was hollow, and the inside was littered with shanty towns, as well as houses where people had created small neighborhoods. There were also tunnels crisscrossing the whole area leading in very conceivable direction. Applejack had no idea which tunnels went where, or how to get to any place in this strange city. She had never been good at traveling through underground tunnels, heck the only other time she had been in one was when Rarity got kidnapped by those Diamond Dogs. Resolving that she couldn’t just stay here in the middle of what she assumed was the street, she made her way to one of the nearby walls, and sat down underneath one of the torches, which seemed to be the only source of light for the whole area. She leaned back against one of the nearby huts and began to try to get a grasp of everything that had happened. It was supposed tah be a simple mission...go and get the horn, stop the spirits from corruptin’ the forest, then report back to tha Princess. She thought to herself. Though somehow it all went to hay when we got tah that clearing. Them spirit things did something tah Discord and made ‘im go an grab the horn, then that weird portal showed up and everyone got sucked up into it. Last thing Ah remember was me an the girls getting through that vortex and everyone ended up getting shot off in some different direct… Her thoughts stopped dead in her tracks as, for the first time since arriving here, she realized the gravity of the situation she was in. Ah ain’t got no clue where Ah am, or where this place is relative to Ponyville, or if it’s even near Equestria. It could be somewhere far off, past Zebrica and the Gryphon Empire, maybe even beyond Saddle Arabia! Also, Ah don’t know where any of tha girls or even Discord are. Mah family probably has no idea where Ah am, and neither does tha Princess. An to top it all off, Ah ain’t got no food, money, or place to live, meanin’ Ah got no resources, no shelter, no support...Ah’m completely alone… Applejack had never felt this alone. Even when she didn’t have much or when she thought her friends wouldn’t like her after losing that rodeo, she always had a place to stay, and a family who loved her. Here she had none of this, and no clue how to get any of it back. She had no idea where the other girls were, what she was going to do about shelter and food, or how to get back to Equestria to be with her family… As these realizations all piled up upon the shoulders of the orange earth pony, her normally stoic exterior was slowly being chipped away by fear of the unknown and depression at her current situation. She wished her friends or her family were here to give her a hug and tell her everything would be okay, comforting her. Though as she had realized, she was alone and this final chip was the final straw. The apple farmer began to sob uncontrollably as she lay against the lean-to, wishing she could close her eyes, and have everything go back to the way it was. She knew this would never work though, and this made her sob even harder. “Ah...miss tha farm, Ah miss…mah friends...everythin here is just wrong!” she cried, her speech broken by sobs. “If...only ah had mah friends...or some way tah reach em…then Ah could probably find...a way to git back to Equestria...” Applejack continued to bawl her eyes out. While she had been sitting there crying, many people had walked by her, heading in both directions, yet none of them had even tried to see what was wrong, let alone help, which made her feel even more alone, as if no one even cared about this poor girl sitting alone crying to herself. After minutes of inconsolable crying, Applejack could not longer see clearly as her vision was clouded by a mist of tears as well as her eyes being swollen from ll the crying. It was then she felt a warm feeling on her shoulder. She turned to she was it was and through half-lidded eyes she saw what looked like a man standing over her. “Now, what’re you lookin fer mister?” she had calmed her tears to talk to the man properly. “Ah ain’t gots no idea where Ah am, nor who you are. An if’n yer lookin to rob me, Ah ain’t got no money, nor anything else but mah hat, an Ah’m not lettin yah take that!”she told the old man. “No my dear, you misunderstand me. I am simply an old man living out his retirement here, and I was wondering what some naked, and if I may be so bold, very beautiful woman is doing crying her eyes out on against the wall of my plain little hut.” The old man said. “By the way, my name is Samuel Hastrim Klepp the 5th, writer of the book Klepp’s Almenak.” “Oh, Ah’m sorry fer assumin...mah name is Applejack, and Ah was supposed tah be on a quick and easy mission with mah friends, when some crazy portal came outta nowhere and sucked us all up. Next thing Ah know, Ah was on top o’ this big structure lying out in the rain. Then Ah noticed that mah body had changed inta whatever this is…” The orange mare explained. “Well, I’m very sorry to here about your present misfortune, though if you sit out here then someone will most certainly come to rob you or worse, kidnap you and sell you to some freak show on Babilonium!” he exclaimed. “Why don’t we continue this discussion inside my house where we can discuss everything that’s happened and I can try to help anyway I can?” The warm smile she saw on his face seemed to be genuine; Applejack had always been good at judging a person or their motives. Drying her eyes for the last time she got back onto the new hooves she had grown and began following the man into his home. Seeing this the man asked. “I’m sorry my dear, but what are you doing?” “Shucks, Ah’m just walkin. Ah may’ve grown these weird new things on mah body, though this is how Ah’ve always walked!” she exclaimed. “Whatever makes you feel the most comfortable my dear, though if you keep walking around like that, people are like to stare and question you,” he stated a concerned look on his face, “I would certainly like to discuss this as well.” The pair walked around the front of the shack, and entered through the front door. Applejack was feeling a little better now that she knew there was a kindly old man who was willing to listen to her problems, and was even offering to help her for nothing when everyone else just ignored her and walked by. Once inside, the kindly man offered Applejack some soup he had been making in a kettle The soup smelled of lettuce, carrots, onions, and sparse amounts of other vegetables, she also could’ve swore that she smelled apples in the soup as well. “It’s not much, though this might help fill your belly,” said Samuel handing her a bowl. “It’s a simple vegetable soup I made, though to spruce it up I added some of the apple cider I had been saving.” Applejack grabbed the bowl as best as she could with these ‘new’ hooves of hers, she didn’t know what the things poking out were but she figured this was not the best time to try to find out. Instead she grabbed the bowl with the sides of her hooves and managed to hold it there without it falling. She then lifted the bowl to her face and was instantly hit with the smell of apples. The familiar smell did remind her of the home that was currently lost to her, though it also soothed and comforted her and did a little to alleviate her pain. Once she took a sip of the soup she began to feel even better. It seemed that while she was unconscious she had worked up quite the appetite, and the soup help fill her rumbling belly. Halfway through her meal, Applejack looked up from her bowl to get a better look at her benevolent rescuer. He was a strange looking man to say the least, he looked similar to the woman she had seen in that tower earlier though he was less ostentatious in his attire. He was wearing a large, sleeveless full-body suit, that was red at the bottom and changed colors as it went up, with orange in the middle and yellow at the neck. The whole suit also had black polka-dots all over it, which seemed strange to the farm pony. Over this he wore a simple blue coat, though it was his bodily features that truly interested Applejack. His feet were strangely stretched and pointed, almost like triangles, and from his scalp and chin, he had bizarre curled wisps of hair that seemed to look like tentacles, which scared her a bit. She decided she would look past this and try to befriend ‘Samuel’, which seemed like a strange name to her, though he had saved her from her loneliness and sadness when no one else would. It was then that he began to question her about what lead to her arrival on the island. “If I may ask, how did you ever end up here? The only entrance to the island is the port down below, but I doubt any person too poor to afford clothes would be able to charter a boat from any of the other islands. A boat from the nearest one, Huffaker would cost about 30 zem.” “Ah don’t know anythin bout no other ‘island’ or what in the hay ‘zem’ are.” Applejack began to explain. “Though Ah come from a land called Equestria ruled by the two Princesses, Celestia and Luna. An Ah ain’t to poor to afford clothes, Ah got plenty back at mah farm! It’s just that where ah come from folks only wear clothes in high-society places like Canterlot or at special occasions.” “That is certainly interesting my dear, but here in the Abarat, people always wear clothes as a matter of public decency and Zem are the currency we use on all the islands. Speaking of which, if you could put this on for now, we can discuss your story and find you some proper clothes later.” He handed her a large cloth with a hole at the top for her head. She quickly put it on and they got back to their conversation. “Now it seems to me that you came from a different world, as you have no idea what this world is, and I have traveled this whole world yet never seen any placed named ‘Equestria’. Do you remember anything about how you got here perchance?” This was the kicker. This man had travelled the entire world she was currently in and had never ever heard of Equestria. Hearing this Applejack realized she must be in some different world or something, like those stories Twilight was always telling her about. She would call them science fiction, or Sci-fi for short. Applejack almost began crying again, the very thought of being on another planet so far away from her own was almost enough to give her another breakdown. She knew though that no amount of crying and sobbing would bring her back home, she had to dry her eyes and find a way herself if she wanted to go back. “Alls Ah remember is me an mah friends goin’ on a mission fer the Princess. We were supposed to go and find some dangerous horn or somethin’ in the Everfree forest; Discord was there too; and when we finally found it, it created some kinda weird portal! Next thing ah knew, all mah friends got pulled off the ground and startled hurtlin’ towards it, and all of us got sucked into it. When we finally made it tah the other side, some weird explosion happened and every one of mah friends got shot off in a different direction, an Ah got no clue where they are!” Applejack nearly began crying again as she recounted the sad events that lead her here. “Next thing Ah knew, Ah was on top of this here structure lying out in tha rain an Ah had these weird things stickin’ outta mah chest, along with these weird appendages on mah hooves. Ah almost fell off the edge, though Ah managed to regain mah footin’. Ah tried tah find somewhere tah get outta tha rain, though the first person Ah found in those towers up top screamed at me and slammed a door in mah face. Then Ah walked over to one of them tunnels, after which Ah walked down tah here where yah found me leanin against yer house...” she went back to sipping another bowl of soup after she finished describing her story to Samuel. “That’s certainly an interesting story you have there missy. From your mention of how you used to have hooves, I’m guessing you were some sort of equine-like creature in your realm?” Samuel asked, a smile still plastered on his face as it had been since they met. “So y’all believe me? Just like that? Ah say that mah friends an Ah used tah be ponies and y’all just believe me, simple as cider!?” she asked incredulous at his capacity to trust. “Well, I met a young woman some time ago with as strange and wondrous a story as you. She also came from another world, though one more closely linked to this one, known as the Hereafter though she called it Earth. I was one of the few people who believed her story, and she turned out to one of the most important people here saving the whole of the Abarat from certain doom.” He explained as a look of amazement appeared on the farm pony’s face. “From that I learned never to turn someone down just because their story seems crazy.” “Ah noticed y’all keep usin’ that word ‘Abarat’ an Ah been wonderin’ what that means?” Applejack inquired. “Oh I’m terribly sorry my dear, the Abarat is the name of the world we are currently in.” he began to explain. “This world consists of 25 islands surrounded by a large body of water called the Sea of Izabella. Each one of the islands is ‘located’ one might say at one hour of the day, and that island will be that time in perpetuity. This island is known as the island of Yebba Dim Day, also known as The Great Head, and it is located a t 20:00, or 8:00 at night, depending on what system your world uses. This means that here it will always be 8:00 at night here though it will also never be 8:00 at night anywhere else!” “If the sun and moon never move here, is that because y’all don’t have a Princess to move the sun and moon to change tha day? Also if it’s always nighttime here, then how do y’all know when to go to sleep an when to wake up to do your daily work? She inquired. “Your world days and nights must be very interesting if you have night and day everywhere, that’s similar to how it is in the Hereafter. Though I think it would be better to discuss this world since it’s where you are right now. In answer to you previous question, everyone here just does their normal daily routine until they feel tired, then they sleep until they aren’t tired anymore. Similarly they eat whenever they feel hungry instead of at specified eating times.” Said Samuel. “This is gonna be kinda difficult fer me...I used to live on an apple farm with mah family and we would always wake up at the crack o’ dawn, work all day buckin’ apples, then at night we would turn in, to recharge for tha next day.” She said. “Though I would sometimes go out into town to sell apples or help mah friends with whatever they were doin that day, we never really changed that routine…” “Don’t worry my dear Applejack, I’m sure you’ll fit in here swimmingly, and soon you’ll get the hang of it. Though if you don’t you can always go to a different island that’s a different hour!” he exclaimed in glee. “If Ah do any travelin’ it’ll be tah find mah friends...That’s right! I gotta find mah friends!” she shouted, suddenly visibly distraught. “Ah don’t know which islands they might have landed on, or if they even landed on islands at all! Mister, Ah know this seems a little crazy, but do y’all know any way Ah might be able to find out where mah friends are?” “I’m sorry, but I don’t know where your friends are, or who might know, though I did a shooting star that matches the description of you and your friends sailing through air earlier.” He began to explain. “I saw it when I was out on my ‘morning’ walk, when I saw this strange light flying across the sky towards the island of Jibarish far to the East.” “That might be one a mah friends!” Applejack exclaimed finally feeling some hope after her long ordeal. “It’s a long way but if you’re truly set on going, I could offer you some aid since it is a long trip. I have an old copy of my book here, Klepp’s Almenak, it’s essentially an encyclopedia of everything Abaratian. I also have some food and drink that could help with nutrition while your traveling. My final gift for your journey is the necessary money to charter a boat to the island of Jibarish, as well as those clothes I promised.” Samuel said with a smile, as he pulled out a dusty trunk from his closet. He opened it up and Applejack saw that the clothes inside were perfectly preserved, he must have cared a lot for these clothes. “I received these clothes from the very same girl I mentioned earlier, Candy Quackenbush was her name, and she gave these to me as a gift in return for the more Abaratian clothes I had given her.” Applejack looked at the clothes he had given her. She had no idea what they were, or how to wear them, though they were kind of similar to clothes from Equestria. She grabbed the red shirt and tried poking her new hooves through the arm hole and her head through the remaining hole. It was at this point that Samuel pointed out an important fact about the clothes. “I don’t have any undergarments for this outfit, though if you’d like I still have some clothes from my wife that are still in perfect condition. They are over in her room if you’d like to take look.” Said Samuel, a look of embarrassment on his face. Applejack gingerly picked up the clothes and made her way to the room to pointed out. Inside she looked through the drawers in the room and found a pair that seemed good. After spending several minutes finding out how to put them on, she moved back to the clothes. Again she started with the red shirt with its shortened sleeves. The she grabbed the blue pants, to her they felt like they had been made of some sort of canvas as they felt very rugged and strong, as if they had been made for work. The final piece was a blue jacket made of the same material as the pants. Once she was fully clothed she made her way back to the room where Samuel had been continuing his dinner. “Those clothes certainly do look good on you.” He said as she walked back into the room. “Thank you kindly Samuel, now if Ah could just get the rest o those supplies, Ah’ll be on mah way to that other island!” said Applejack a new look of determination and self-confidence burning in her eyes. “Well, I’m certainly liking the new determination you’ve got, though You’re definitely going to need to learn how to walk properly if you’re going to travel the islands…” He stated flatly. “I think it’s probably best for you to stay the night learning to walk, while I tell you more about the Abarat. After a good nights rest and a hearty breakfast in the morning, You can set off to find your friends, okay?” “Ah don’t really like tha waitin, though Ah guess Ah ain’t got much choice…” the farm pony said, while sighing. “So how’s this walking thing work anyway?” “It’s quite simple my dear. You use your back hooves, known as legs to support your body weight you have feet at the bottom to hold yourself up. Your front hooves, called arms are used for balance and help keep you from falling over. At the end of your arm you have a hand, which used to be your hoof, and it has five ‘fingers’, which you can use to grab things” He explained. “why don’t you try to pick up that empty bowl with your new fingers?’ Applejack tried unsuccessfully to un-ball her hand and use her fingers though she had a great deal of trouble doing so. After many attempt she finally opened her hands and had gained full control of her new fingers, clenching and unclenching them a couple of time to see how they worked. She grabbed the bowl with her now opposable fingers and realized this was much more useful and precise than hooves were. She handed him the bowl, and he walked over and put it into a water-basin with his own bowl. “We’ve got as much time as you like and can practice until you feel sleepy, so would you like to try standing up on your new legs?” He asked while walking back to the fire pit Applejack was sitting by. Applejack nodded to him and crawled over to where he was kneeling down. “Ah’m gonna need yer help to support mahself since this ain’t somethin Ah ever done before, all right?” She asked him. “Certainly, I believe one should always help those in need, especially when that person is one’s new friend.” He calmly stated. “Yah mean yah really think of me as a friend? But we just met!” Asked Applejack while propping herself up on the man’s shoulder. “As part of my ‘never turn someone down’ philosophy I also try to make friends with the people I meet, because to me the more friends you have, the happier you’ll be!” He exclaimed his smile growing larger. “Yah remind me of mah friend Pinkie Pie, she would always try to become friends with everyone in town and spent her days makin everypony in town happy…I really do miss her and the girls.” She said, suddenly crestfallen. “Well then my dear, the faster we get you walking, the faster we can get you out into the wide world of the Abarat to search for your friends!” He shouted. “Then let’s do it!” the farm pony exclaimed still propped up on his shoulder. “So, Ah just use these feet and take a step forwards, like normal walkin?” “Yes, my dear that’s exactly right.” Answered Samuel. Applejack took a single step forward and nearly collapsed, unused to putting all her weight on one or two of her hooves or in this case feet, though Samuel caught her before she fell. “Don’t worry my dear we have all night to practice, I’m sure you’ll catch on quickly!” he said attempting to comforted her. “Thanks Samuel, now let’s try that again!” She responded with a look of determination in her eye. It took several hours of practice and hard work though after many falls, and a great deal of effort from the farm pony, Applejack had finally learned how to walk. After that Samuel brought her back out into one of the tunnels outside his house and taught her to run. “It’s just like walking,” he said, “you just move faster!” Learning this did not take as long as she already knew the basics, though she did fall a couple of times. After all this exercise she was feeling very tired and Samuel suggested they turn in and rest. The next morning Applejack gathered her supplies and was ready to venture out into this new world to find her friends, and Discord, and get them all back to Equestria where they belonged. Before leaving Samuel made her a hearty breakfast, he offered her eggs, though she almost instantly vomited at the thought. She said that she had only eat fruits and vegetables, as well as flowers since she was young and decided to stick with that. Once they were finished she went over to Samuel and to thank him for his kindness. “Yah could’ve just left me out there to wallow in mah own sadness, but yah didn’t an fer that Ah’ll always be grateful to yah Samuel.” She began as she gave him a great big hug. “An Ah’ll never forget the kindness you did me by giving me all this stuff to help find mah friends. What Ah’m trying to say is, Thanks fer everything, an Ah’ll never ferget yah.” “No need to thank me dear Applejack, I simply enjoy helping others, and that’s enough for me.” He was still smiling, and Applejack wondered if he was ever anything but happy. He really did remind her of Pinkie Pie. After a final goodbye and a wishing of safe journeys from Samuel, Applejack picked up her supplies and the other gifts she had been given, and placed them in a makeshift rucksack. He said that he had made it while she was sleeping since he thought that carrying all those supplies with just her arms would be tiresome and unpleasant. She placed the supplies in the rucksack and slung it over her back like her saddlebags back home, and for this first time she realized, what had happened to her saddlebags? They must have flown off when she was flying through the air though she decided to check where she had landed just in case. Up on the top of the island she started looking around when she noticed a small red apple out of the corner of her eye. There on one of the ledges hanging from a jutting rock was her saddlebag. She quickly retrieved it and checked to see if the contents were still safe. The bag was undamaged and nothing inside had been harmed in any way. It still contained the apples she had gotten from Big Mac, a scarf from Granny Smith, and an extra hat from Applebloom with a note that said ‘Have a safe trip!’. Upon seeing all this Applejack nearly broke out in tears again, though she steeled herself thinking crying don’t solve nothin, Ah gotta find mah friends and then we can all go home. With new determination Applejack used a hook to attach the saddlebags to her waist and made her way back down into the islands tunnels. It took quite some time for Applejack to find her way to the docks as she did not know her way around the island that well, though she eventually made her way there. She looked around to find some ship to take her to Jibarish but every time she found a ship captain they would always immediately ya no when she said she needed to get to Jibarish. Every one of them kept saying they would never go near that cursed island, not even for all the paterzem in the islands. She was about to give up hope when she saw a smaller boat out of the corner of her eye. “Hello there missy, anything this fine boatsman can help you with” He asked. “Ah’m lookin fer a ship to take me to the island of Jibarish though no one here is willin tah take me…” She explained to the strange man. “Well, that’s understandable. Most folk think that island is cursed.” He explained. “Things don’t go the way they’re supposed to there, rocks are liquid, fire is cold, and the air messes with your speech, t’aint right.” “Oh, Ah understand, and Ah guess yah ain’t willing to take a nice girl like me there either right?” asked Applejack dejectedly. “Certainly not missy!” he shouted. “I think me crew and I are just crazy enough to take you there...so long as you got the coin to pay us for our trouble.” He said, a glimmer of gold in his eye. “Mah new friend Samuel gave me some money for mah trip, let me get it.” She said looking through her rucksack for the money. Samuel had given her 63 of the little coins called zem, and 7 of the larger ones he called paterzem. He said that the larger ones were worth 100 of the smaller ones. “How much would yah be chargin fer such a voyage?” she asked. “Well, given the distance from here to Jibarish, along with the fact that it’s Jibarish that we’d be going to, I’d say that the cost of 3 paterzem and 50 zem would be a perfectly acceptable cost.” He explained while scratching his chin. “A quarter of the cost of a new boat in case anything happens to this one on our voyage, though if anything does happen I’ll be looking for reimbursement. “Consider this an investment, if nothing happens then you’ll get your voyage for less than the normal cost, but if something does happen you’ll have to pay double. Do we have a deal?” “Ah don’t seem to have much choice, since yer the only person willin tah take me, so sure we got a deal!” she exclaimed, though she let out a sigh afterwards. She gave him 3 of the paterzem coins, and counted out 50 of the smaller zem coins which she also gave to him. “Welcome aboard lass, let’s introduce you to the crew!’ He shouted “Hey boys, come up here and meet our new financier for our next journey!” Three people came up from below decks; two men, one older and one younger; and a woman who seemed to be near Applejack’s age given her body size being similar. “This here is my first mate Mizzel,” he said pointing to the older man. Then he moved to the younger boy “ and this is my own boy Charry!” He then pointed his thumb towards the woman. “that’s our cabin girl Galatea, she’s not much though she does help out on the ship often. I am their illustrious captain the Great Perbo Skebble of the Parroto Parroto, at your service.” “So boss, where are we taking this girl?” asked Mizzel. “Yeah dad, which island are we goin to this time” asked Charry. “Well boys, and Galatea, believe it or not we’re taking this here girl to the island of Jibarish at 23:00!” he shouted with a confident air. “But Boss, that place is haunted and cursed!” Shouted Mizzel obviously distraught. “I know, but there’s 3 and a half paterzem in this for us, and that’s too good to pass up.” Perbo shouted back. “Wow, that much!” asked Charry, “We could almost buy a new house with that kinda money!” “I’m certainly in if that’s the money we’re getting.” Said Galatea. “Yeah, count me in too Boss!” bellowed Mizzel. “I love going on adventure with you dad, the money is just a bonus for me!” said Charry. “Welp, looks like the crew is eager to go and get that reward,” said Perbo. “You ready to set sail on the great sea?” “O’ course Ah am!” retorted Applejack. “Ah need to go find mah friends, and one of em might be on Jibarish, so the sooner we get there the better. Applejack climbed on board with Perbo, as Mizzel and Charry began undoing the mooring lines. Galatea was already up in the crow’s nest unfurling the sails and readying the ship for it’s journey. After a few minutes the Parroto Parroto set sail on the great Sea of Izabella. As Applejack began to feel the sea breeze on her face, a sensation she had never felt before, she thought of her friends, lost on different islands…Ah’m coming to find you girls, don’t worry. The night before a similar light to the one that carried Applejack to Yebba Dim Day, another light had been traveling in a different direction. This one, a pale yellow light, went to the North, past Odom’s Spire towards the dense forests of the lush windy island known as Speckle Frew at 5:00...