//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: The Humanitarian... // Story: Close Encounters of the Sixty-Third Kind // by Yoshirocks341 //------------------------------// *We have to go (thirty minutes) back in time…* “Hello? Is anybody home?” The purple earth pony knocked on the door that was stationed on the outside of an old tree. Its trunk was twisted and demented as it winded its way upward. The roots partially stuck out of the ground. They also had gaping holes that you see right through. Leaning against one of these roots was an ancient tribal mask that looked to have African descent. Another mask that was very similar to it dangled over the top of the door. Vials of some sort hung over a couple of the serpent-like branches. They seemed to contain potions of varying sort, each vial being a different color. The tree was overcasted with a dreary look, due to the fact that the sun was completely blocked out. Applejack had decided to visit this dismal tree to see if the owner could help him out in any sort of way. The colt who owned this tree in Applejack dimension had a way with strange magic. Applejack was hoping that this colt’s counterpart could help him and his friends out, like he had done before. Applejack rapped on the door for a second time. This time Applejack caught a glimpse some movement through one of the two windows that were carved out of the front part of the tree. He suddenly heard a strange voice call out to him. “Oh my, who could it be? Come inside, so I can see!” Applejack pushed open the door and entered the gloomy tree. Inside, he saw an assortment of jars and vials. Some were hung from ropes just like the ones outside. Others were stationed on wooden shelves that were placed in random corners. Masks, like the ones placed outside, were tacked high on the walls and over saw the whole room. A few vines grew on the light green wooden walls, giving a constant reminder to all who saw that they were now inside a tree. In the center of the room, there was a giant black cauldron that had a fire going underneath it. The owner of this fine establishment stood there, mixing a brew inside the pot. She was definitely one of the strange sorts. She was covered from head to toe in a light grey color and had black markings accenting it. Some of the markings were just stripes, like ones that circled around her legs. Others were jagged lines, like the ones that sat on her back. Her hair took the 20s black and white TVness and the 70s Mohawk style. She wore a bunch of gold on her. Some of it was in the bands that had around her front left leg and neck. The rest of it was contained in the dangling gold earrings that she had on. She had a dark grey spiral placed on her butt. The only thing normal about her was her black and grey tail, which hung there typical fashion. “Hello there, you are new. Come on, say it, who are you?” she asked with a deep African accent. “Mah name’s Applejack,” the southern responded. “Hmm, I do indeed know that name,” a thoughtful look appeared over her face, “but you and her are not the same.” “Well,” Applejack responded, “that might not be exactly true miss.” She looked at him with an intrigued look. “The reason Ah come to you is to ask for some help,” Applejack continued, “You see, me and mah friends are from a different dimension. There everyone is the same as the ponies here in this dimension, but they all have their gender swapped. Ah’ve come to ask if you can help us find a way back home, using some of your magic.” “Well, there’s one thing I must say. Call me Zecora, if you may,” she replied. “Okay.” Applejack was getting anxious for an answer, “Is there anything you can do Zecora?” Zecora lifted the metal spoon she was mixing with out of the pot. She walked over to its proper shelf sat it down. She turned back to face Applejack. “I may not be of any use,” she rhythmically uttered, “and that is not my normal excuse. I have never heard of things like this. This is something I can’t dismiss.” She reached for a heavy book that was tucked away on an old dusty shelf. Applejack observed the books on the shelf. The only book she had up there that Applejack could read the title of (most of the books were written in a foreign language) was How to Rhyme All the Time by Gruntilda Winkybunion. Zecora pulled down the book she had reached for and gave a quick blow to remove all the dust covering it. “However there is something I must ask, to help on this little task,” Zecora opened the book and the pages starting to quickly fly past her face, “How did you end up here? This is a story I must hear.” “Well, I reckon it all started when Dusk Shine, a good friend of mine, asked me and mah friends to meet up at the library for somethin’ or another,” Applejack began. “He never did explain why before we all got there. When we all arrived, he started to talk about somethin, but Ah didn’t pay complete attention to what he was talkin’ about. A weird blue portal thing had appeared behind him and that took all of my attention. We all went and looked at it and before we knew what hit us, we were all sucked right in!” “This is definitely one strange tale,” Zecora slammed her book shut; shooting out little bits of left over dust and cobwebs. “Have you met with one of the female?” “The plan was not to, and Ah’m glad to say that the plan has worked so far.” “Well now it’s time not to be glad.” Zecora gave the book a quick shove as she put it back in its place. “For my news is sadly sad. I have searched through the whole book. You can even take a look. There is no spell that I can find, that could give help of any kind.” “There’s got to be somethin’!” Applejack exclaimed. Zecora just shook her head. “There is nothing I can do; I have looked completely through and through. If I get an idea though, I will make sure to let you know.” “Okay,” Applejack couldn’t hide a hint of disappointment from seeping into his voice, “Thank you for at least tryin’!” Applejack turned and headed out the door. When Zecora heard the door close and his footsteps start heading away, she went and got the metal spoon she had been working with before. “I do hope he stays out of trouble,” Zecora muttered to herself, “or his problems will surely double.” ************************************************************************************** Applejack’s mind wondered as he started to wander his way back to Ponyville. “You know, Everfree Forest ain’t as bad as it usually is on a sunny day!” Applejack thought as he looked up to see the sun had come out of hiding and had thrown itself front and center. “Why does it seem like every time someone has to go in here it’s at night!” Applejack glanced at the mangled branches and the twisted vines that threw themselves together into a huge lump. “Sure, it still ain’t the prettiest sight to see,” Applejack's brain commented, “but it ain’t bad when you can see more than three feet in front of your face all the time.” As he reached the end of the forest, he turned to give one last look at the unnatural piece of nature. “Ah always wondered,” Applejack pondered to himself, “why is the end of the forest so dang sudden? It’s pretty strange.” He did a quick 180 with his head and looked at the trees that were placed along the next part of his route. They were perfectly normal trees, without any obvious blemishes. Some of them stood tall and straight and reached for the skies with all their might. Others were stout in appearance and seemed to try to throw as much shade as they could upon the ground. None of them resembled the twisted nature of the trees he had just past. “Ah guess that adds to the fact Ah’ve said before,” Applejack gave a quick shrug; “this place ain’t natural.” ************************************************************************************* Applejack had been mozing himself along for a few minutes now. He knew that he should be back in Ponyville by now. Something was up. “Ah knew Ah should have taken a left turn at that old stump back there,” Applejack said regrettingly, “Now who knows were Ah’ll end up! Ah guess there’s little use in turnin’ around though. Only goin’ to get mahself more lost.” He continued on the invisible path in front of him. Weeds had started to spring up ahead of him. It wasn’t hard for him to get through these though; he could easily trample them as he walked. As he went farther and farther though, he noticed something strange about a certain few of them. “What in tarnation is this?” Applejack scooped one up to get a closer look. The weed was perfectly normal is every way, except that it had a good-sized hole pierced right through the middle of it. The very tips of the edges of this hole were black, almost like it was burned. “What on earth could have caused this?” Applejack wondered. As he raised his gaze from off the weed, he noticed that a number of other plants had this similar hole situation going on. All the holes seemed to be in the range of a pony’s height. “I wonder what happened here….” Applejack pondered. ************************************************************************************** Nothing out of the ordinary happened to Applejack until he happened to find a pile of carrots sitting out on a path. They seemed relatively clean for lying on a dirty path and looked good enough to eat. Applejack’s stomach responded to this newcomer with an accompaniment of growls. “It has been a while since Ah last ate hasn’t it?” Applejack gave a short laugh. “Ah haven’t eaten since beginning mah work and that was before all this stuff went down.” Applejack sat himself down next to the heap of carrots to enjoy a quick snack. He picked one up into his hooves and munched on it. “Mmmm, not bad Ah say,” Applejack said with pieces of carrots bouncing around in his mouth. As Applejack chowed down on his new find, a rabbit appeared from behind one of the bushes only about ten feet away from the pile. He was a small white rabbit, with a bushy tail and small beady eyes. His head was bigger than his torso, but it somehow had no problem being supported. His long white ears stuck out from the top of his head like any other rabbit in existence. Three thin white whiskers stuck out from each side of his face. His small mouth, which was underneath his tiny pink nose, was stationed in a neutral position. Applejack was beginning his second carrot when he noticed the rabbit. The rabbit began to beckon to himself with one of his hands. “You want one of these little fella?” Applejack asked pointing at the pile of carrots. The rabbit gave a quick nod. Applejack reached over into the heap and tossed a carrot out to him. He caught it and placed it behind him. However, this seemed to not have satisfied him, as he repeated his first action again. “Sorry fella, Ah’m only to give you one,” Applejack explained as he finished off the second carrot. The little rabbit was not going to be bossed around by a random pony. He charged ahead at the pile of carrots. “No you don’t!” Applejack exclaimed as he clasped his hooves around the rabbit in mid air. The rabbit had tried to jump into the carrot pile. Applejack stood up and put the intruder of his carrot peace a good distance away and went back to his carrot munching. The white rabbit was surprised by the athleticism of the carrot protector. He stood there and tried to think of an idea on how to get the treasure placed in front of him. Suddenly he whipped around and stuck two fingers into his mouth. He blew as hard as his little lungs could and sent a piercing whistle into the air. After a few moments, two more rabbits appeared from out of the bushes. One was a little skinnier than the rabbit that had summoned him and had a spot of black fur pasted over the top of his right eye. The other rabbit was shouter in size and was almost completely brown. His tail was rebellious to the brown cause by being pure white. They each had a black line underneath both of their eyes. The creature that had brought them together made some quick hand motions to them indicating something. The rabbits understood what they meant somehow and they sprinted off and disappeared into the forest. They came back as quickly as they left, however they had gained no more possessions then what they left with. Applejack started to chow down on his third carrot. He looked down to see three angry rabbits staring back up at him. “Umm…hello?” he asked them with a hint of nervousness in his voice. The rabbits quickly pounced on top of Applejack. They kicked him and smacked him with their little limbs. Surprisingly, these tiny limbs’ impacts actually hurt Applejack. The rabbits seemed to have the upper hand at first, with the element of surprise on their side. Applejack had stumbled away from the pile and fell into the weeds behind it, causing an explosion of leaves to fly up in the air. Applejack recovered from the first attack and was able to gain back some ground in this war. One by one he was able to throw the attackers down in front of him and pin them to the ground victoriously. The noise of this chaos must have been pretty loud, because when Applejack looked back up, he could see someone running over to him. She stooped down and gazed at the aggressors. “Are you alright?” the mare asked them in a quiet caring tone. She slowly stood up and turned to face Applejack. Applejack saw that the new comer was a light yellow color from head to toe. Her hair was a rich pink color that flowed down off her in two main strands. One fell down the back of her neck and hung by her side, while the other one flew over the front of her face. Her long pink tail reached the ground with ease and almost formed a mini puddle of hair. The presences of wings on her back showed to Applejack that she was indeed a pegasus. When he glanced at her face and her turquoise eyes, he saw that there was a look a panic and worry. “Why are you standing on top of Angel?” she meekly asked Applejack. “Who?” Applejack was trying to figure out why this mare ran so many bells in his head. “One of the little bunny rabbit that you are standing on,” she responded softly. “He’s my friend.” “Oh,” Applejack looked down at his prisoners, “Well your friend here just attacked me. See the bruises?” The caring mare spotted the discolorations of skin that had started to appear across Applejack’s body. She bent down low and focused her attention back on Angel. “Angel!” she exclaimed in the same volume as everyone else does normally, “That is not a very nice thing to do!” The white rabbit just gave a quick shrug of the shoulders. The light yellow mare returned her attention to Applejack. “I’m so sorry for his actions,” she apologized. “He’s normally not like this…” Applejack gave a quick chuckle. “Alright. Ah believe you. Ah’ll let him go for you.” He raised his hoof and the newly freed prisoners stood up and brushed themselves off from being pinned to dirt. “Now you apologize for what you did to him,” the pegasus softly told Angel. Angel shook his head in a horizontal direction. “Please?” She leaned down closer to him, almost being eye level with him. Angel gave a deep sigh and disappeared behind the two ponies. He returned with the carrot that Applejack had first given him and placed it back on the carrot pile. “Thank you,” she quietly replied with gratitude. “Ah’m sorry,” Applejack turned his attention from Angel back to the mare, “Ah haven’t introduced mahself at all. Mah name’s Applejack.” “Mine name is Fluttershy…” she replied timidly. When Applejack raised his hoof to shake hers, she flinched backwards in fear. Applejack raised one of his eyebrows. Fluttershy, then seeing that he just wanted to make a formal greeting, shook the outstretched hoof. Suddenly, a sharp whistle pierced their ears. Applejack and Fluttershy looked down to see that Angel had released another call into the air. Before they could ask him what he was up to, a hoard of rabbits popped out of the bushes surrounding the area. Some of the rabbits were helping to hold a rope. “Uh oh…” Applejack started to slowly back away. The rabbits charged at Applejack, paying no attention to Fluttershy. Their numbers easily over powered Applejack’s number of one and brought him to the ground. As Applejack struggled to get back up, the group with the rope quickly delivered their product to the whole mass of rabbits. They quickly tied all his feet together, preventing him from moving in the slightest. They somehow managed to pick up their new prisoner and carry him away to some undisclosed location. “Wait!” Fluttershy called out in a meek voice, “Please, don’t do that to him!” Fluttershy quickly started to chase the rabbits and their captive, “shouting” soft commands and timid statements after them.