//------------------------------// // 15 - Across the Line // Story: The Other Side of the Horizon // by Rambling Writer //------------------------------// They’d been there almost an hour, it was just past noon, they’d had lunch, and still the nyumbu kept moseying on. The line hadn’t gotten smaller as far as Applejack could see. It just stretched on and on and on. The thing was, as Applejack looked at the line, it didn’t look all that thick. It wasn’t tightly packed or anything; even a zebra could slip through it with minimal difficulty. Of course, the zebras weren’t the problem; the problem was the carts, which were a lot bulkier and quite unwieldy. But, still, with that much space, surely the nyumbu could step aside for just a few seconds, right? They didn’t even need to stop, they could just go around the cart. Applejack had brought this up with Idube, but Idube was pretty set on not pushing her chances. “It’s just a few carts!” Applejack protested. “I get that they grow food for y’all, and that you don’t want them to stop, but can they really not step aside for a few seconds?” Idube sighed. “I do not know. I have never experienced this personally and I am not sure what to do. I would prefer to not take my chances. I do not like it any more than you do.” Applejack groaned and loped back over to Bhiza, who was trotting in place in desperation for something to do. Applejack kicked at a stone. “Why do the nyumbu all gotta move now? Can’t they go in smaller groups?” “I do not know,” said Bhiza in between breaths. “And they are late this year. They should have gone moon last.” “They’ve got schedules?” Applejack asked, settling down. “They move at end of season each,” Bhiza said. “Change places to grow food as weather changes. I think word is… mi-gra-tion?” She stopped trotting and pulled out her lasso. “That sounds right, yeah.” “They go from place to place to grow food more good. They are late this year.” She began trying to lasso random shrubs around them. She was actually getting quite good at it, getting them most of the time. “Hmm.” As Applejack looked over the nyumbu, she realized none of them were stopping to let the zebras through, or providing bigger gaps. Oh, they definitely saw the zebras; quite a few of them gave the group disdainful glances for a few moments. But at no point did any of them go, Hey, there’s a lot of us and a little of them. Maybe we should let them through. Maybe Idube and Bhiza had a point. Any people that inconsiderate might actually stop food for small reasons. Heck, they’d already done so in the past. But on the other hoof… three carts. If they couldn’t handle that, why hadn’t they flown off the handle already sometime in the past? Were the zebras just bending over backwards for them? But Idube didn’t know what to do. You’d think there’d be some kind of instructions for this sort of thing, just to be absolutely sure your people didn’t piss off the nyumbu. But maybe… “Any chance we can talk to ‘em?” asked Applejack. “Ask ‘em to stop for just a sec and let us through?” “A… sec?” questioned Bhiza. “A second. A short time.” Bhiza looked at the line and her ears stood up a little. “We can try. I can… say your words in nyumbu language.” “Great. But first we gotta get one to stop.” Applejack trotted right up next to the line and cleared her throat. “Uh, hey? Nyumbu?” Even if they didn’t understand her, they’d probably get what she was saying and slow down. Or not. Only one or two of them even looked at her. None of them slowed down. Applejack cleared her throat and raised her voice. “Hey! One of y’all better listen to me!” No result. She looked over her shoulder at Bhiza, who just shrugged. Applejack sighed and took a few steps into the line. The nyumbu parted around her like fish in a shoal, but they didn’t pause at all. “Hey!” Applejack borderline yelled. “Hey, I-! I was wonderin’-!” She kept turning to each incoming nyumbu, only for the nyumbu to turn and go around her. “C’mon, you lily-livered morons, listen to me!” They did not listen, and the only way she knew that they heard her at all was a few of them cast haughty glances in her direction. Applejack huffed and stalked out of the herd. “Bad?” Bhiza asked cautiously. “They’re so stuck up,” Applejack muttered, “they’d drown in a rainstorm.” Bhiza cocked her head, but before Applejack could explain it, she grinned, laughed, and clapped her hooves together. “That is good!” she said. “I must try it.” She settled back on the grass, chuckling. Well, at least one of them was happy. Applejack just stewed. Really? It was really that hard for them to make room? Even with a herd that size, you’d think at least one of the nyumbu would stop and talk to them, if only to say, “We’re not stopping. Nyeh nyeh. Bug off.” It’d take forever for the nyumbu to get by. But, then again, none of them had seemed all that bothered about Applejack actually being in the herd… She took one last look down the line. It wasn’t getting any shorter. She squinted up at the sun. It wasn’t getting any cooler. “Screw it,” she muttered. She walked over to her cart and began clipping herself in. “Applejack? What are you doing?” Bhiza asked. “Gettin’ to the other side of that.” Applejack jabbed her head at the line of nyumbu. “But… but th-” “Oh, hush.” Applejack waved a hoof and started walking away from the camp, in the opposite direction of the nyumbu’s travel. “If it looks like they ain’t gonna like it, I’ll stop. It’s just one cart.” Bhiza galloped around Applejack and stood in front of her. She looked worried, but also unsure of herself. “Much of my food comes from they,” she said quietly, “and food of others, also. I do-” “Y’all said the quagga were cut off from their food,” Applejack said. She continued walking, forcing Bhiza to start taking backwards steps. “I get that that’s bad, but what did they do?” “I…” Bhiza bit her lip and flicked her tail. “I do not know. I think they fought with…” She ruffled what little mane she had. “…somebody.” “They didn’t try to cross a line?” “…No…” “So lemme try. This ain’t much. And if they object and try to stop your food or whatever, I’ll get Twilight to come over and talk with them.” Satisfied that she’d gone far enough down the line, Applejack began sidestepping to turn the cart around. “She’s real good with this sorta thing. I’d bet my tail she’s makin’ friends with your king as we speak.” Bhiza chewed her lip some more and looked at the line. She sighed. “If you think that,” she muttered. “I do think that.” And Applejack took a step into the line of nyumbu. She moved mostly in the same direction as the nyumbu, but also a bit to one side, cutting across the line diagonally. With the nyumbu a bit smaller than her, she could move a bit faster than them, and minimize smacking them on the side with her cart. “‘Scuse me,” she muttered to the nyumbu. “Pardon me.” They wouldn’t understand her, obviously, but hopefully they would get the gist of the message. Some of them glared at her and said things in a lowing, braying language, but they never actually tried to stop her. It was going well enough, with Applejack slowly moving across the line and slipping through gaps, and then, in a ridiculously anticlimactic moment, she was on the other side. It happened so suddenly Applejack blinked and looked around at the horizon in front of her. No nyumbu. She looked behind her. Lots of nyumbu. That was easy. Bhiza ducked out of the line and semi-trotted up next to Applejack. She opened her mouth, closed it again. She looked at the ground and lightly kicked at a stone. Applejack couldn’t help herself. She smirked. “Yyyyyyep.” Bhiza rolled her eyes, then looked over her shoulder at the nyumbu. “We…” she said. “We should-” Idube was pushed out of the herd, dragging her own cart and muttering something angry in Zebran. She looked up and, upon seeing Applejack and Bhiza, smiled slightly. “So you did make it.” “See?” said Applejack. “What’d I tell ya?” Idube rolled her eyes, then hollered out over the nyumbu, “Sisi ni nzuri! Kuja juu!” To Applejack, she said, “I decided you had a point, and enough was enough. Why the nyumbu cannot just…” She started muttering again and stepped aside to let the last cart through, swiftly followed by the remaining zebras. With no direction from Idube, the caravan started moving again, Idube still hitched up. Instead of falling to the back like she normally did, Applejack sped up her pace a little to keep up with Idube. “Did y’all never even try movin’ across?” she asked. “It don’t seem like it’s a hard thin’ to try.” “I never ran into the Great Migration before, and I am a wilderness travel guide, not a diplomat,” said Idube. “And the nyumbu… Have you heard about the quagga?” “Sure.” “I do not know whether or not the quagga did anything to earn their destruction, but… one species starving another to death will make you a touch nervous around the former, regardless of the situation.” Applejack looked at the nyumbu. On the one hoof, it was hard to see how they could make Idube all that nervous. Nyumbu were small compared to zebras, even smaller than ponies, and looked rather scrawny. But on the other, she didn’t know their history and she wasn’t depending on them for her food. Hay, others were depending on her for their food. And if she suddenly decided to stop giving them food for some insult, yeah, it’d make others nervous around her. It wasn’t enough to fully convince Applejack that waiting hadn’t been stupid, but she could at least understand Idube’s apprehension. “But we are across now,” continued Idube, “so we should put that behind us and keep moving.” A sentiment Applejack wholeheartedly supported. She dug her hooves in and kept moving. And so, they were on their way again. Applejack was enjoying the Serembarti much more than either the jungle or the mountains. It was hot, sure, but it was a lot calmer, easier to walk through, and if she was ever hungry, she could just stop, lean down, and take a few nibbles of grass. Bliss. She was beginning to feel the strain of pulling the cart, but since noon was past, she was sure she could keep going for the rest of the d- “Are ponies all as full of color as you?” Applejack twitched. It’d been so long since Bhiza had talked to her, the out-of-nowhere question was a surprise. “Uh, what?” “You are orange,” Bhiza said. “Twilight was purple. Zebras are… not.” She grinned sheepishly and waved her black-and-white striped leg in front of Applejack. “What colors are ponies?” “Oh, all sortsa colors,” responded Applejack, gesturing vaguely. “I’ve got a friend who’s got a coat of pure white, an-” “Just white?” Bhiza shifted her pace a little closer to Applejack and stared curiously at her. “No stripes?” “Nah. Ponies don’t really have stripes.” “No stripes? None?” “Nope. Mostly, our coats are just one color, although some have spots.” Bhiza giggled. “Color one? I prefer stripes.” “Well, I won’t deny they’re more interestin’,” Applejack admitted, “but, on the whole, ponies cover the whole gamut of colors.” “Gamut?” “Range.” “Oh. So… ponies can be colors all?” “Yep.” “Blue?” “A friend of mine’s blue.” “Green?” “My granny. Ehm, grandmother.” “Red?” Bhiza’s voice was slowly dropping in disbelief. “My brother.” “Pink?” “Another friend.” “…Pink,” Bhiza said flatly. “Ponies can be… pink.” “And black and yellow and brown and every other color y’all can think of,” Applejack said with a nod. “And every shade of every color, too.” “That is… strange,” Bhiza mused. “But I want to see it. And your manes?” She batted lightly at Applejack’s ponytail. “They come in just as much colors as our coats. Sometimes more, considerin’ they can be multicolored. One friend o’mine’s got a mane with all the colors of the rainbow. Literally.” “Wow. Equestria sounds full very of color.” Bhiza pointed to Applejack’s cutie mark. “And what is that?” “This?” Applejack tilted her rump towards Bhiza as best she could in the cart. “This here’s my cutie mark. It tells me what my special talent is and the kind of pony I’m supposed to be.” “…What?” asked Bhiza flatly. “You… you are told what you will be… by… picture on your rump?” “W-well, it’s a touch more complicated than that, but I guess so, yeah.” Bhiza clapped a hoof to her muzzle in an attempt to stem the tide of laughter. It didn’t work. “You… hehehe… you… snrrk… picture on…” She tripped on a rock and just lay on the ground, giggling. Applejack stared at her for a few seconds, then kept walking on and flicked her tail. It wasn’t that silly. When Bhiza caught up again, she was still giggling. “Picture on… hehe… on your rump tells you what life will be?” “It’s called a cutie mark.” “It is still picture on your rump.” Applejack sighed. “And my cutie mark doesn’t tell me what kinda person I’ll be. It’s the other way around; the kind of person I am defines what my cutie mark will be.” Bhiza’s laughter finally petered out. “Even when you are baby?” “Ponies don’t have cutie marks when they’re born. We get them later, when we know what we’re gonna be doin’ in life.” “What? When you know your life? What are you saying?” “Ain’t y’all ever had one of those moments where it just, y’know, clicks? And you’re like, ‘This is what I’m doin’ for the rest of my life?’” “Ooooh. That. Yes.” Bhiza looked over her shoulder and squinted at her own cutie markless rump, then quickly gave it a rub, as if that would cause a mark to appear. “And… cutie marks just… come? On their own?” “Sure. Magic.” Applejack shrugged. “So don’t ask me how it works. I’m not even sure Twilight knows how it works, and if anypony would, it’s her.” “I have not seen they,” Bhiza murmured, still looking at her rump. Then she twitched and whipped around to look at Applejack. “Your friend. Zecora. What does she have here?” She pointed at her rump. “I…” Applejack frowned and scratched her head. “I ain’t really sure, to be honest. Never thought about it. Hmm.” She tapped her chin. “Cutie marks come from magic, but zebras ain’t supposed to have magic. Right?” Bhiza nodded. “Right.” “So… so maybe Zecora has magic in some way.” “You do not know?” “I don’t know her as well as I should. Ain’t never asked her about it. Y’all haven’t heard of any stories about magic zebras, have you?” “Ehh…” Bhiza wiggled a hoof halfheartedly. “Some. Not many. I do not think of them much.” “Hmm.” Applejack looked up the caravan, trying to see Zecora, but couldn’t see much. Not when she was one of the shortest people in the group. “I dunno. She might be magic. I like Zecora, but she’s strange. You heard her talkin’ in rhyme, right?” “Yes. In Equestrian and Zebran. You do not know why she does that?” “Not in the slightest.” Applejack snorted. “Y’know, it’s weird. We’re in the zebra homeland, so you’d think I’d be talkin’ with Zecora all this time, but it’s been just you and me for the last few days.” “Your mistake,” Bhiza said. She grinned slightly. “You got on boat wrong.” “And I ain’t sorry I got on it now, but… I guess I thought I’d be speakin’ with Zecora more. I hope she’s doin’ okay.” “She is good. She knows Zebrabwe more good than you. Why worry?” Bhiza grinned. “I dunno. Silliness, I guess.” “Yes.” Bhiza looked at Applejack’s cutie mark again. “So that shows your… special talent?” “Yep. Like, I’m good with apples, so…” Applejack pointed at her cutie mark and shrugged. “Apples.” Bhiza frowned. “It feels… restricting?…” Applejack nodded. “It feels restricting to say you can only do apples, if-” “Oh, no, it ain’t like that,” Applejack said, shaking her head. “Not at all. Your cutie mark’s just what you’re good at, it ain’t what you have to do. There’s one friend, her mark’s all about flyin’ real fast, but for the longest time, she was just a weatherpony. Got nothin’ to do with her mark, but she liked it and she was good at it. You define your mark, not the other way around.” “Oh. That is good. And… pony every has one?” “Sure.” “Hmm.” Bhiza stared at Applejack’s cutie mark for a moment longer. “Equestria is strange very.” “You bet your biscuits.” Bhiza tilted her head and flicked an ear. “It sure is.” Bhiza chuckled. They kept walking in a comfortable silence for a few moments, but, intrigued by Bhiza had seen her, Applejack caught herself examining the zebras’ coats. It might’ve just been her, but looked like each pattern of stripes was unique. Maybe zebras recognized each other that way? Although she didn’t know whether they were- “Bhiza?” “Hmm?” “Your questions about color gave me one of my own. Are zebras black with white stripes or white with black stripes?” Bhiza smiled and opened her mouth, then froze. Her confidence changed to confusion and she stared at her leg, tilting her head back and forth. She stared at her other leg. She looked up at Applejack, then back down at her leg. “I… I do not know…” Her voice was distant, as if she’d been asked some deep, philosophical question. Applejack let her think as they walked on. Bhiza kept staring at her legs like they held the answer to life, the universe, and everything.