//------------------------------// // Path 1.1: The Don // Story: Pony's Story // by Philosophical Tree //------------------------------//         “That way.” Her hoof rested on the first path, with the sign declaring “Don Pach E. Derm’s Territory” written in a bright red scrawl. She didn’t know what that meant, but shrugged. ‘Ah guess Ah’ll figure it out when Ah get down there.’ Smiling, she trotted off down the path, determined to find out if it led to her friends.         The dim sun shone down above her as she trotted past the plains and trees that littered the watercolor landscape. The path was long, but straight, so she didn’t mind the walk. As a matter of fact, she rather enjoyed it. It was a lovely day, she could hear the birds singing in the paper trees, and nothing seemed to be bad or dangerous. It wasn’t long, however, before that changed. She was looking at the trees on her right, wondering what kind of fruit they produced, when she heard a noise ahead of her. She turned to look, and saw something quite strange.         Where there had been nothing before, a mysterious pony was now walking on the road in front of her, its back to her. It appeared to be wearing a bright red hoodie, with a strap of brown leather wrapped around the hood. It also appeared to have no tail and no cutie mark, which Applejack found odd. But what was most curious was the sound this pony was making. She couldn’t quite describe it, but to her, it sounded almost like it was saying “Hei-ho” over and over again.         “Um, howdy?” She said tentatively. The pony took no notice of her. Frowning, she spoke much louder. “Hey! Ah’m talkin’ to ya! The least ya’ll can do is be friendly and look at me.” The pony stopped in its march and chant, and turned to look at her. She froze, her eyes going wide with fear at the face of the pony.         Or lack thereof. The pony was wearing a mask that was purest white. There were two holes cut where the eyes should be, and another, smaller hole located near the mouth area. She could see nothing of what lay under the mask, but the mere sight of it made Applejack tense up, ready to fight if need be. But there was no need. The pony merely stood still, looking at her curiously. She sighed, relaxing as she remembered just what it was.                  “Ah get it. Ya’ll are a Shy Pony, ain’t ya?” The pony didn’t react, but she knew she was right. The description matched from the original story: ponies that wore hoods and masks, but never seemed to be truly unfriendly. Just... lost. As if they were looking for something or had somewhere to be. Applejack felt sorry for the poor thing in front of her. Having his whole world altered before his eyes, and without knowing what he was there for. She pitied the poor pony. But a sudden thought put that pity at the back of her mind.         “Ah wonder... what’s under there?” She stepped forward hesitantly, watching to see if the Shy Pony would react. It made no move to stop her, only tilting its head as she advanced slowly. At last, she was close enough where she could easily reach up and remove the pony’s mask. She did so, slowly, watching for a reaction. The Shy Pony didn’t move. As the mask slipped off, Applejack looked up with a smile.         Her smile faded as she screamed, dropping the mask as she cantered away as fast as her little legs could carry her. She ducked behind a bush, panting heavily with her mind racing ‘What in the wide, wide world of Equestria would produce somethin’ like THAT? That... that was scarier than giving Granny Smith a sponge bath.’  She peeked out to see what the Shy Pony was doing. To her relief, the pony had put his mask back on, turned about, and resumed its journey down the path. She sighed, stepping out from her felt hiding place and following at a safe distance, not wanting to incur the wrath of the monster she had just seen.         “If anypony asks... that never happened. Nope.” She repeated this to herself as she walked, not really paying attention to anything around her. It was for her benefit that she wasn’t, as Shy Ponies were everywhere on the road and fields, wandering around. Some were carrying fruits, taking them to Celestia knew where. But this was all lost on the filly, who was still trying to calm her nerves. To her, she had just starred the equivalent of the Pony Devil in the face and lived to tell the tale. It was not something she liked to think about.         After several minutes of uneventful walking, Applejack heard a noise that brought her out of her somewhat insane murmuring. Looking up, she noticed that the Shy Pony had vanished. Looking around, she saw that there was literally nothing living in sight. Not that she considered Shy Ponies to be alive anymore, but there was nothing around to make the sound. But she heard it again. It was a dull thump, like something heavy landing on dirt. And it was coming from the path ahead. She steeled herself and pressed on, determined to figure out what lay before her. As it couldn’t be Shy Ponies, she wasn’t as afraid of it as she had been of them.         It didn’t take her too long to find the source of the noise. But when she did, she was surprised again. Two large elephant like creatures were standing on the road in front of her, unaware of her presence. They were bipedal, and wearing very fashionable suits with fedoras on their head. Applejack was glad that Rarity wasn’t there, because she was sure that the fashionista would have given her position away. And, judging by the violin cases they were holding, which were bright red with a white hand painted on it, these guys were not friendly. Her theory was confirmed when one of them swung about, glaring right at her.         “I thought I smelled a pony here.” His voice was deep and booming, with an accent that she couldn’t quite place, but sounded a little bit like Babs Seed, albeit a little overdone. “Whaddya think youse is doin’ here, little pony? Don’t you know where youse is?” Applejack shook her head, unclear as to what the elephant was getting at. His partner, who was watching the proceedings, stepped forward, his footstep producing the thud that she had heard.         “Youse is in the Don’s territory, and he don’t take kindly to little ponies stickin’ their muzzles where dey don’t need to be.” In quite the contrast to his companion, this elephant’s voice, although masculine, was higher, almost cracking as he spoke. “Now, youse has got ten seconds to run before we rough youse up.” At this point, Applejack narrowed her eyes at them.         “And who exactly is this here Don? What’s he got against ponies like me? And, just so ya’ll know, it would take a whole lot more than all ya’ll to stop me.” The elephantine creatures laughed at the filly who was threatening them. In hindsight, Applejack realized, she had sounded much more intimidating as a mare than she did as a filly. It was no wonder the elephants didn’t believe her.         “Youse got guts, hick, I’ll give you dat.” The deep voiced one stopped his laughing, instead taking to glowering at her. “But youse have no idea who youse is messing with. We’s Don Pach E. Derm’s best men. I’m Pach, and dis is Derm.” He gestured to his companion. “Now, scram, vamoose, before we get mean. I don’t like hurtin’ kids, no matter how slow dey is.” Applejack’s voice caught in her throat, and she lowered herself to the ground, poising to strike. He had overstepped his boundaries with her, and she wasn’t gonna let insults like that stand. Before either pachyderm could react, she bounded forward, spinning on her hooves and bucking as hard as she could. It was a clean strike to Pach’s chest, and he collapsed without a sound, thoroughly winded.         By the time Derm had caught on to what was happening, he felt Applejack’s hooves crack him in the knee. He cried out in pain, hopping up and down and clutching at his injured leg. Applejack took the moment to dash past the two with a “How’s that fer slow, ya lumberin’ varmints?” By the time the two pachyderms had recovered, she was long gone down the path. Pach punched Derm in the shoulder.         “You idiot. Youse let her get by you. The Don’s gonna have our trunks for dis.” Derm shrugged the hit off and gestured off the path.         “Yeah, yeah, whatever. You wanna go bowling?” Pach shook his head and groaned.         “How many times do I gotta tell you? We don’t do grand theft auto. Mostly ‘cause none of dees little ponies have cars.” Derm waved him off and started walking away.         “I’m goin’ bowling. See you later, Pach.” __________         Applejack had stopped running, and was now trotting at a leisurely pace, laughing to herself at the antics of the two mafia pachyderms she had bested. She couldn’t believe how easy it was. They had just stood there and let her hit them. She felt like part of the challenge had been robbed, but she wasn’t complaining. She just wanted to find her friends and be done with this place. So she pressed on.         But she didn’t get too far before she found her path blocked again. It was another one of the pachyderms, but this one was clearly the Don that the other two had been referring to. He was huge, at least twice as big as the other two, but looked almost the same as the other two. Nice suit, fedora, violin case with the stop sign painted on it messily. Applejack had to strain her neck in order to look up at the massive face of the titan before her. It was a wonder how she missed seeing him earlier. He was a little bit taller than all the trees around her, and should have been easily visible for miles. Instead, she had nearly bumped into him.         “What’s dis we have here?” The titan thundered, bending down to gaze at her in contempt. “A pony... don’t tell me. Those two blundering idiots managed to let youse by, didn’t dey?” Applejack shrugged.         “Actually, Ah kinda kicked ‘em outta the way.” She tried to put a calm face on, but the Don’s stare unnerved her to no end. She was visibly sweating under his scrutiny, his cold, black eyes never leaving her for a second. After a long while, he smiled.         “Dat’s impressive, little pony. I am impressed. But youse has made a big mistake comin’ here. I don’t take kindly to little ponies. What’s to stop me from crushing you where you stand?” Applejack didn’t respond immediately. She knew for a fact that there was no way she could fight this monstrosity. She remembered the Pachyderms from the original story, but they were nothing like this. And this titan was not among them. So, instead of violence, she went with a more diplomatic approach, something she was not used to, but willing to try.         “Look. All Ah wanna do is get on by so Ah can get the Element of Honesty back. Ah’m not even supposed to be here. Ah know ya’ll don’t like me, but maybe we can get along and ya’ll can just let me on by. Whaddya say?” The titan eyed her warily. She grinned nervously under his stare. After a moment, he lifted himself up, crossing his massive arms across his chest.         “Alright.” Applejack opened her mouth, preparing to try reasoning with him when his answer registered in her head. She closed her mouth, tilting her head in confusion.         “What?” The titan chuckled and shook his head.         “I said, alright. I’ll let you go.” Applejack noticed that he dropped his accent as he continued. “I’ve lived here long enough to know when the world is not as it should be. And for the last three years, something dark has been changing the world around us. Things just aren’t right anymore... and if you’re who you say you are, then you’ve got a lot to do. I may be the bad guy, but I’m not all evil.” With that, the titan stepped to the side of the path, each step causing massive vibrations in the ground. Applejack nearly fell over more than once as he moved out of her way. Once he was on the side, he gestured for her to go. She nodded, and was about to run past, when she stopped.         “Ah hope ya’ll don’t mind me askin’, but what’s with the get up?” The Don shook his head with a laugh.         “This? This was the idea of those two blockheads. I’m the head of our little group, so after things started getting all strange, they thought it was a good idea to be a mafia. If it weren’t for the fact that we’re the only three of our kind, I’d throttle ‘em both. Their almost as annoying as the Shy Ponies. Those guys are all sorts of weird. Now go on, scram. You’ve got a job to do.” Applejack nodded and dashed off down the path. The Don watched her go, a small smile playing at his lips.         “She reminds me so much of the others that used to pass by here. I hope she’s as good as they were. If anyone can break this nightmare, it’ll be them.” __________         At long last, Applejack found the end of the trail. She had been running for quite some time after meeting the Don, and along the way she had stopped to free a small dog from the clutches of a chain and post along the way. The dog was now dashing by her side, as he had immediately taken a liking to her. As the pair crested a small hill, Applejack smiled as she saw a familiar object floating in the air in front of her, held aloft by magic. It was the Element of Honesty.         “There ya are,” she panted, wiping her brow with her foreleg. Trotting forward, she reached out and took the Element from it’s place. It seemed to recognize her, and immediately gave off a small burst of light. Applejack covered her eyes, as the light shone directly in her face, but when it had cleared, the world around her had changed once again, and she found herself face to face with a very confused Twilight Sparkle.         “Applejack!” The unicorn cried, dashing forward. She had, in her relief, forgotten about the barrier that held her and the others back. As she attempted to wrap her friend in a hug, she bounced off the magic wall, landing hard on her rump. Applejack realized what was going on, so she moved forward, preparing to go into the room to her friends. But she stopped when she heard a whine from behind her. Turning, she looked at the small dog, who was watching her sadly. She smiled and gave him a quick hug.         “Don’t ya’ll worry ‘bout nothin’. Ah’m sure ya’ll will find yer old master right quick. We’ll help as much as we can.” She rose from the hug and turned about, smiling as the canine leapt to his paws. “Now go on. Be free. And find the one who needs you.” The dog barked once and dashed off, around the door in the world and away, into whatever lay beyond. Applejack smiled sadly, then stepped inside the room, into the embrace of her waiting friends.         The moment her final hoof had set down on the wood, the wall closed up behind them. Twilight was the first to break the fond embrace and find her voice once more.         “What happened? We saw you step out, and then the door shut on it’s own. And how on earth did you get back there?” Applejack turned and looked. She found that she was standing on the opposite side of the door, and that she had just walked through a wall. Frowning, she looked back at Twilight.         “How long have Ah been out there?” Twilight paused, glancing upwards.         “I’d say... fifteen minutes. It was enough time to get us all worried.” Applejack gaped. Surely she had been out there for longer. She told Twilight as much, and Twilight nodded thoughtfully. “It seems that wherever you were and this location run on different speeds of time. Interesting...” It was then she noticed the necklace that Applejack was sporting. “You found it!” Applejack nodded.         “Yep. It was actually pretty easy, too. Didn’t have too much of a hassle...” Pinkie, on a whim, popped a question in as Applejack trailed off.         “Did you see any Shy Ponies? What do they look like under the mask?” Applejack froze, turning to set a blank stare on Pinkie. The party pony ignored the strange look that she was being given, instead hopping giddily, awaiting her answer. Applejack scrunched her mouth up and looked away.         “Nope, didn’t see any. Sorry.” Pinkie frowned.         “Aw, that’s a bummer. Oh well.” She hopped away to the left hoof wall. After a moment, Rarity, Rainbow, and Fluttershy followed, leaving Twilight and Applejack alone to talk. Twilight was giving Applejack a stern look.         “You did see them. Why did you lie?” Applejack sighed, shaking her head.         “You do not want to know, Twi. The things Ah’ve seen... they’d scare even that Sombra feller.” Twilight didn’t probe any further, not wanting to inflict further mental trauma than had already been done. Instead, she turned to look at the door behind her.         “Well, we managed to get one element back, but that doesn't solve our problem. I haven’t been able to open the door. The magic latch is gone. I wonder...” She walked over, focusing her magic on where the latch had been. To her relief, she found it once more. “I got it!” She cried, bringing the other five to her as she flung the door open. The sight that awaited them wasn't what they expected, and they were all shocked. But Rarity's reaction topped it all.         “How filthy!”