Twilight said nothing to me. Instead, she threw random faces of anger at me.
"Look Twilight, I didn't expect something that dangerous in the jungle. I thought that they could handle themselves. Like what they did with the manticore. They handled that well, didn't they?" I ask.
"First of all, Fluttershy handled that well. Second of all, we’re in the middle of the ocean! There's no mercy in the ocean!" Twilight yells.
"I'm sorry. I didn't think that this would happen."
"I'm sorry. I know you couldn't have predicted that. You just need to be more careful."
"Well, why don't we go investigate that room you were talking about?" Rainbow Dash says, joining in on the conversation.
"How do we know they're in there?" Twilight responds.
"Uh... the door that Bruce saw had the same kind of symbol of that door stop that Zecora had. Maybe they were taken by Zebras." Rainbow says.
"Yeah Rainbow. They were taken by Zebras. That is the most logical explanation I have ever heard." Twilight responds. She
rolls her eyes at the theory.
"It could happen."
"It could, but I don't think it will."
"So basically, we landed on an island populated by Zebras." I say, taking Twilights side.
"Well, yeah. Doesn't that explain the pendant and the cave?" Rainbow says.
"Yeah, I guess it does."
"Are you serious? You actually believe her?" Twilight says.
"Well... it makes sense. I say we go and investigate."
"Me too," Rainbow says enthusiastically.
"Okay. Let's say that there are zebras here. How are we going to approach them?"
"Let's get a bunch of weapons, and take them by surprise." I say.
"First: what weapons. Second: I don't think that they're that stupid. They have to have some kind of security system." Twilight says.
"And what would that be, some sticks and rocks?" Rainbow Dash asks.
“No, it would be more like logs, poison darts, giant stones, acid. The usual.
“So, they can’t hit me when I’m goin’ this fast.” Rainbow jumps up in the air, only to come falling back down.
"Look Rainbow, you can't fly. You're wing is broken, get over it. We also have to be prepared for anything. We can't just waltz right in, there's probably an army waiting for us."
“Well I didn't find anything when I checked.” Pinkie says.
“Pinkie, where did you come from?” Twilight asks.
“I just came back from the waterfall that Bruce talked about. I checked that cave behind it, and I found a door. It was a round, black and white door with a gold knocker on it. It also had a swirl around it. There wasn't anything behind it besides a bunch of buttons. I bet that's the way to open something. Do you guys want to come and see?” Pinkie says at the speed of light.
The others give enthusiastic answers, while I just say yes to anything. I can't help but say yes to anything they ask, unless it's something that requires the answer no.
“Well let’s go then.” Rainbow Dash says.
“Um, can I stay here?” Fluttershy says.
“No, we’ll probably need you for something.” Twilight says. Fluttershy simply tries to crawl back, but I grab her. She looks back, nearly giving me a heart attack by her facial expression. It was a scared look, which I expected to come from her. She walks forwards, with me by her side.
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Rarity woke up a few hours later than Applejack. She was afraid to say anything, because she was being studied by a zebra.
He looked kind of like Zecora, except he had a more manly stature. His mane was long enough to stretch down to his calves. He had several bottles, jewels, and pendants, on him. The thing that was more noticeable was a golden necklace that wrapped around his neck like a cobra. After closer inspection, Rarity realized it was a cobra.
The cobra slithered all across Rarity, playing with her fur. The scaly beast wrapped up around her, making it difficult for her not to scream. The stallion looked over her with his eyes partially closed. He eventually backed away, going behind her to expect Applejack. He did the same, but the cobra didn't slither over her. Instead, it eyes her, beckoning her just to attack. Applejack stayed right where she was, returning the stare to the cobra. He retreated back to the group of zebras. The male zebra whispered something to the female. She nodded, and then spoke.
"What are your names?" The lead zebra asks. The two don't respond. "I said, what are your names?"
"First, we need to know who you are, and why you have brought us to such a dirty place." Rarity says. Neither of them have regained their vision. As far as Rarity could tell, it was dusty. From what Applejack could tell, it was old and native.
"If you must know, I am Centika. I am the leader of this group." Centika did a little bow. She motioned two of the zebras to untie the two ponies.
An older zebra walked toward Applejack, while the stallion with the cobra walked toward Rarity. The cobra slithered to the rope that tied up the fashion pony. It bit the rope and the rope fell off. Rarity simply backed away from the snake. It started to make repetitive hissing noises like it was laughing.
The older one untied Applejack by cutting the rope with a knife. His hair was styled much like Zecoras’, but it was a bit more curly and shorter. He seemed a tad bit weaker than the other male, but he was more armed than the other. He had knives all over his body, and they all looked sharp. His body was covered in jewelry, but the scar on his legs took away the attention. His eyes were pure black, even looking at them made you fall into the spell of them.
She rubbed her hoof and looked up at the stallion. He had no expression. Both ponies got up, and faced their captors.
"Thank ya kindly, but now we need to know why you kidnapped us." Applejack says, staring straight at the
"This was a mistake, you were just trespassing." Centika says.
"Tresspassin'?" Applejack asks.
"Yes, we have boundaries around here. This is our home."
"Well we're sorry for trespassing. Now if you would be so kind as to sh-" Rarity almost finished her sentence when Applejack shoved a hoof in her mouth.
"This is your home? How can a tiny little island in the middle o' nowhere be your home?" Applejack asked.
Centika pondered this question for a while until she answered. "You see, our ancestors have come here a long time ago. Long before the Princesses rule over Equestria. They came here to escape the tragedy of war. Our Ancestor's original plan was to come back to civilization after the war was finished, but they became too familiar to the island to leave. Now our home is here."
"Took a while to answer my question." Applejack says angrily.
"Applejack, I don't think we should be rude of them. They are letting us go after all." Rarity didn't really want to stay here any longer than she needed to.
"It's quite alright. There's just a little side effect when the sleeping potion is exposed to a tougher pony like her."
"And what would that side effect be?" Rarity asks
"Temper issues."
"Hmm, okay then. Now could you show us the exit please?" Centika raised her hoof in the direction of a doorway. "Thank you. Come along Applejack."
"I got a few more questions for you. How come y'all aren't talking all rhymey like a zebra we know?" Applejack says.
"Speaking in such a manner is only customary for witch doctors. We are simply the tribe leaders."
"Why aren't there more of you?"
"Most of them are off doing their responsibilities across the island, or in their rooms working on other projects."
"What kind of proje-" Applejack is suddenly interrupted by Rarity
"Okay then! Can you give us a map of the island, so we know where the boundaries are?" Rarity asks.
"Certainly. Dillick, could you bring a map of the island to me?" The older stallion nodded his head, and walked over to a doorway. He returned with two maps in his hand.
"The exit is down at the end of the hall, take a right, there should be a large statue of a zebra. Take another right, and you should end up at the exit. Also, here's the boundary map, and here's the other map." Rarity only had a second to study the other map, before Centika swiped away from her. The map had several arrows in an 128x128 grid map. It had some white areas surrounding a large, green area in the middle. Large areas of blue surrounded the large island with a bunch of rivers.
Before the zebra swiped it away, she managed to make a mental picture of it in her head. Rarity tucked the map in Applejacks hat, while Applejack tried to swipe her hoof away from her.
"I'm sorry, that is the wrong map. Dillick is getting old." Centika says.
"I'm not getting old. I am still the same stallion." Dillick snaps.
"Right. You better be on your way. Night is almost upon us."
"How can you tell, you can't see the sun down here." Applejack says angrily.
"We have this here." Centika lead them over to a strange contraption. It was half of a square. The entire thing had a wood texture, while the inside was complicated machinary. Next to it was glowing, red powder, going over to a square lamp. "It shines through this hole that we made. When the sun is up, it will power this here powder, turning on the lamp. When the sun is down, the machine will turn itself off, deactivating the powder, making the lamp turn off."
"Interesting. And what do you call this." Rarity asks.
"We call it the daylight censor. And this red powder's real name is too long and complicated, so we call it... Redstone."
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It was about nightfall when we got to the waterfall. The entire time, Rainbow Dash kept trying to jump and fly away, but she always came down with a crash. I knew the fact that she couldn't fly was killing her, but I really couldn't do anything about it but tell her to stop trying. She didn't listen.
"Where did you say this cave was?" Twilight asks Pinkie Pie.
"It's behind the waterfall, let's go." She responds. In an instant, the party pony jumps higher than the trees, and lands in the pond with a thundering splash, this soaked us all. Pinkie rises from the water, smiling like an idiot.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Jump in." Pinkie begins swimming towards the waterfall, and then dives into the water.
Rainbow darts over to the water, jumping in. She lands in the water doing a belly flop. I thought that she did this on purpose, but her face said otherwise. It was really hard to not break down and laugh. We didn't really do a good job hiding it, and Rainbow got mad. She followed Pinkie down into the water.
"Um... if it's okay with you, I'll just stay here." Fluttershy says.
"Come one Fluttershy, it's not that bad down there." I tell her.
"I believe you, but I'm not going to take the chance."
"Suit yourself." I walk down toward the water, looking back at Fluttershy. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, yes I'm sure."
"You know there's more to life than being afraid the entire time. Didn't you learn that when you rehabilitated Discord."
"Well... yes... but-"
"It's time to put those lessons into your everyday life." I dive into the water, heading toward the cave.
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"Where's the stupid exit, we've been walking for a while now!" Applejack yells.
"It's been two minutes." Rarity responds, clearly annoyed.
"Well to me it feels like a while." Applejack snaps.
'Sweet Celestia, when will this wear off?' Rarity thinks to herself.
Pretty soon, they're lost in a labyrinth of hallways. So many doors and different pathways boggle their minds.
"Which bucking door did we come from?" Applejack yells.
"There's no need for that kind of language. We'll find our way out of this place." Rarity says, trying not to yell back at her. She
knew that if she did that, then it would fuel Applejack's rage. "Why don't we try this door."
Rarity opens a random door to her left. It's completely dark until Rarity switches a light on. Inside the room are different kinds of paintings. They were quite beautiful. There was a painting of a mountain, the scene from Hamlet where the guy is holding a skeleton in his hoof. Then there was the mysterious portrait of a zebra staring down into an abyss.
"We ain't got time for art. We need to get out of here!" Applejack yells.
"You can't even appreciate art, Applejack?" Rarity asks.
"No, I just want to get out of here. Do you remember where the exit was?"
"I was busy looking at the map."
"Well we better get out of here before somepony catches us!"
"Will you stop screaming for a few moments?"
"No, I will keep screaming if you don't mind!" Rarity gave Applejack a cold stare.
"We better get going then. Why don't you lead the way?" Applejack turns around and walks towards another door.
"This door is locked." Applejack shakes the door knob several times.
"It can't be this way, the exit has to b-" She jumps at the sound of a crash coming from the room Applejack inspected. She turns around to see the door wide open with some massive dents in it.
"Now it's unlocked." Applejack walks inside.
"Applejack, what are you doing? We shouldn't be in here."
"So?"
"Soo, they might lock us up in cages for snooping."
"We ain't snoopin'. We're investigatin'." Applejack looks around. "It's just a dumb work place."
Rarity walks to Applejack. "Applejack, let's get out of here." The office was littered with paper. A small wooden desk was in the corner, also covered in paper. But the only thing on it that wasn't paper was a wooden idol. Applejack walks over to the desk.
"Come on now, before we get caught." Rarity really wants to get out of this place.
"No!" Applejack turns around, knocking over some papers, along with the idol. Suddenly, the wall starts to spin around, revealing a secret room.
"Well now we have a reason to stay." Applejack says. She walks into the secret room.
"Wait." Rarity says while chasing after her. Rarity was more focused on the many potions that filled the shelves of the nearby desk. She picked up a random potion that read "Splash potion of Damage."
Applejack was more intrigued with the machinery. Most of it was in the shape of a square. There was a particular machine that looked like a surprised face. A lever was right above it. As you'd expect, Applejack flips the lever.
"Applejack, stop messing wi-" An arrow flies above Rarity's head. It strikes the wall, making a loud thunk.
"If only that was a little lower." Applejack says, making an evil smile.
"Ha ha ha, that was quite funny. Now if we could just-"
"What's this?" Applejack says. She was directing her attention towards a large sphere covered in cloth. As quick as a bullet, she ripped off the cloth.
"Are you going to keep this up for the rest of the day?" Rarity asks.
"I'll keep this up until I wanna stop."
"Great, that's great, you're acting like a spoiled child."
"That comin' from you." Applejack didn't even realize what was under the tarp until Rarity gasped. "What the buck is that?" Floating around in the sphere was an unconcious Octavia.
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Fluttershy walked towards the water very slowly. 'Come on Fluttershy, you have to do this.' She took another step.
She knew that her friends were probably at the door by now. She took another step. 'Just go in the water. What would mom think?' She stopped in her tracks. Memories came flooding back to her like a wave.
She remembered the little cloud home that she used to live in. She remembered that specific day that her father left her and her mother. A sad memory that Fluttershy never wanted to remember.
The sound of yelling was all the Fluttershy ever heard those days. Her mother always messed up on the cooking, her job, even simple tasks she messed up. It wasn't her fault that she had an accident years before.
Fluttershy couldn't exactly remember what she did that day, but it was enough to set her dad off. Fluttershy's dad was a bulky pegasus. His coat was a brilliant shade of white. Fluttershy used to call him the god of hide and seek when she was really young. He had a grey mane that never changed color as he grew older. She never found out why.
Her dad used to be the nicest stallion that she ever met. But that all changed when he lost his job. He resulted to gambling to make money for the family. That's when he got into drinking. It got so out of control that one day. She remembers screams of pain and crying coming from her parent’s room. The screaming stopped after several hours. Fluttershy was lucky that she didn't get that much pain like her mother.
The day he left, her mom came into her room. Her wing was broken, and she had a black eye. She wasn't crying though. She instead had a blank expression. She lied on Fluttershy's bed for a long while before she said it. A simple phrase that Fluttershy could never, ever forget in all of her days. "Don't be afraid." Fluttershy's mother then got up from the bed and left. She never saw her again. Fluttershy rarely raised her voice ever again, only when it was necessary. She hated it when people argued around her. It reminded her of that terrible day.
That's when Fluttershy went to the flight camp. That's when she met Rainbow Dash, and they became friends. All of this floated around her head until she opened her eyes. She leaped into the pond with a great swan dive.
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The cave remained as it was when I found it. The door was slightly open like it was before. But inside was like Pinkie said. Buttons.
"I can crack this." Twilight says.
"How, it can't just be 1 2 3 4. It's gotta be something else." I tell her.
"It's just a simple Canterlock system, it'll be easy." Twilight stares at the machine intently. Then she bashes the lock by kicking it right smack in the keypad. The door opened just like that. We all give her a shocked stare. "You go a little mad when you're stuck on an island." She happily trots inside.
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"Well don't just stand there, get her out of there!" Rarity yells at her.
Applejack looks at the control pad. "Aaw, buck it." She violently kicks it, and the cello playing pony gently falls to the ground.
After a few moments of a motionless silence, her eyes open up wide. She quickly grasps the reality of the situation, and she
beats the glass with her hooves. Her screams are silenced by the glass.
"What's she saying, I can't understand her." Rarity says.
"Well no duh, idiot." She kicks that glass as well, scaring Octavia.
As the glass falls, Octavia shields herself from them. "What the hay was that for?" Octavia yells.
"A simple thanks would have done it." Applejack says.
"Whatever. But right now, we need to get out of here."
"Why?" Rarity asks.
"No time to explain, we just need to leave. Now!" Octavia quickly rushes away.
"Now can we leave?" Rarity demands.
"Yes." The two ponies dart towards the other one. Before they chase after her, Rarity grabs the potion that she was looking at.
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The first thing that catches my attention is the statue. I expected something like a pony, but I saw a zebra. It looked like Zecora, but it was a male. There was a plaque that said: 'Rovern. Founded the great island of Giba. 1850-1931'
It was a giant room with nothing else in it.
I wondered why it was this large when there was just a small statue in it. I expected something else, but this was it. It didn't seem that this room would have any kind of relevance to the architecture to the rest of the area.
"Shouldn't we be looking for Applejack and Rarity?" Fluttershy says. She startled the rest of us just by speaking.
"I thought you were still at the beach?" I ask her.
"I thought about it, and you were right. I need to take a step out of my bubble for a change." Fluttershy blushed a little.
"We're just glad you made it." Pinkie Pie says. Her smile suddenly fades from her face. She looks down at her knee.
"What's wrong?" I ask.
"It's nothing, it's just my knees are a little pinchy." She smiles again, and then her eyes pop out of their sockets. Everypony gasps.
"What's going on?" I ask again.
"It's her Pinkie sense." Twilight tells me.
"Her what?"
"Her Pinkie sense, when she gets random movements in her body, something happens."
"Yeah. Like when my tail starts to wiggle, it means something’s about to fall. And when my knee gets pinchy, it means something scary is about to happen." Pinkie says, sounding scared.
"Didn't your knee just get pinchy?"
"Yes *gulp* yes it did."
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Octavia leads the escape. Her eyes look all around the place, trying to find a sign that says 'EXIT'. "Do you think you made an alarm go off when you broke the sphere?" Octavia asks.
"If we did, then shouldn't an alarm go off?" As if by command, a loud blaring sound fills the hall. "I guess that answers your question."
"Can we ask what you are doing here now?" Rarity yells at Octavia.
"They're trying to summon something by using my body as an offering."
"What are they trying to summon?" Applejack asks. The cello player doesn't answer. "What are they trying to summon?"
"Him!" Octavia leaves it at that. Applejack looks at Rarity with a confused look.
"There!" Octavia points out an exit sign. "Hurry, they're probably on their way!" At the exit sign, Octavia makes a sharp turn to the left.
Applejack nearly crashes into the wall, which makes Rarity react a little more cautiously. Running as fast as they can, they eventually find a statue room with some other ponies in it. At first she thought they were zebras, but she realized they were the other four ponies that were missing from the group. Then she notices the human. She thought she saw it all, but she hasn't even scratched the surface.
This makes her pass out.
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"Who the heck is she?" I ask.
"There ain't no time for that! Let's go!" Applejack yells.
I didn't see the point in arguing when the alarm went off. I guess that’s what the scary thing was. Quickly, I pick up the grey pony, being surprised by how light she was. I run towards the others who were far ahead of me.
Just when I'm about to escape, I hear some hissing coming behind me. A giant cobra is slithering towards me with impossible speed. I mean seriously, I don't think cobras can go that fast. It jumps at me, but I kick it away. It hisses again, and it tries to bite my leg. Again I kick it away, and I run towards the others.
It takes no time for me at all to get in the water, because I simply jump into it. I still have my grasp on the pony, so she doesn't fall out of my arms. Pretty soon, we're in the jungle and being followed by menacing zebras. I was moving slow, while they were picking up speed. I managed to slow them down my pulling a tree branch back and then letting it go. It hits one of them in the face, and he gets tackled by the other ones. I would have laughed, but I don't think it would be very appropriate in this situation.
After a long run in the jungle, we finally arrive at camp. The pony in my arms is still passed out, so I just put her on the ground. I thought we escaped them, but they come out of the trees, scaring the crap out of me.
Just when they were about to attack me, a glass bottle flew at one of them, cracking the vial on his head. Both the zebras fly backwards, hitting a log behind them. I look behind me to see Rarity in a sweat. She discarded the bottle by throwing it aside.
"What’s happening here?" I ask.
Rarity takes her sweet time before answering. "I think there's something bigger happening on this island."