Chapter 10
John watched with confusion as Twilight Sparkle combed over a rather generic patch of grass just outside of the Everfree Forest, her face comically close to the ground, almost like a dog sniffing out a trail. Big Mac and Applejack had simply rolled with the sudden halting of their journey, likely no more looking forward to entering the forest than he was, and were talking quietly to each other off to the side. Twilight had been examining the area for several minutes now without saying a word to any of her companions other than to call for a halt. Eventually, his curiosity finally got the better of him and he had to ask.
“Not that ah’m complainin’ ‘bout not goin’ into the big, dangerous forest, but what are we doin’ here? Ah thought we were goin’ to see this Zecora person.”
Twilight looked up from examining the ground. “We are, but I figured I should look around here first. It’s where I found you, so I thought there might be something to find here. Speaking of places we should probably investigate,” she turned to the Apple siblings and addressed Big Mac, “do you think you could find that cliff that your father fell down again?”
“Nope.” He answered.
“That’s too bad. It was a long time ago and you were just a foal at the time, so it’s not exactly surprising, but I thought I’d ask anyway.”
“Have ya found anythin’ here?” Applejack asked.
“No.” She admitted.
“Then maybe we should be gettin’ to Zecora’s.”
“Just a moment longer.”
Twilight’s horn began to glow and an expanding sphere of pink covered the entire area. John shuddered at the foreign feeling as the sphere passed right through him. While not that unpleasant, he would be happy to never experience the sensation again. Seconds later, the sphere faded into nothingness and the area looked just as it had moments earlier.
“Well, that was a bust.” Twilight stated with a frown. “I had hoped to find some kind of residual magic energy that may indicate something unusual happening here, but there’s nothing.”
“So we can get goin’ now?” AJ pressed.
“Yes.”
Twilight began to march into the forest along what appeared to be a barely tread upon path, though calling it that may be too generous, stepping around a patch of pretty blue flowers. Applejack and Big Mac followed after her, the latter of which was considerably more nervous than the two mares. John stared at the forest they were about to enter for as long as he could without risking being left behind and then trotted to catch up with them, glad that he had remembered to take his medicine before leaving this morning. Casually, Applejack glanced behind herself to make sure he was following only to have her eyes widen in panic.
“Stop!” She demanded of him. John screeched to a halt, one hoof held frozen over the patch of blue flowers, mind racing as he tried to figure out what was wrong that she would scream at him like that. Was he about to step on a snake or something? His eyes darted all around him, trying to find whatever the problem was.
“What’s wrong, Applejack?” Twilight had frozen and had her horn glowing in preparation of defending the group against any threat.
“Dad...uh...John here almost stepped in the poison joke.”
“Poison joke?” John’s brow furrowed with confusion. He stepped back from the blue flowers cautiously. Were those pretty little things what she was talking about? Not even inside the forest proper yet, and he already nearly killed himself apparently. A sudden bout of dizziness overtook him and he had to sit down to steady himself.
“It’s a flower that does all sorts o’ weird stuff to those that touch it.” AJ explained.
“Weird stuff? Ya mean it don’t kill ya?” He asked as he tried to calm his racing heart.
“No, it’s not deadly. The joke part is more apt than the poison part.” Twilight further elucidated. “It made my horn floppy and useless for channelling magic, shrunk Applejack, flipped Rainbow Dash’s wings upside down, and a lot more. We can cure it, but it’s best to just avoid it entirely.”
John stared at the not so harmless flowers in front of him. He had enough weird things going on in his life without having a plant mess him up even further.
“Thanks fer the warnin’.” He said as he carefully stepped his way around the flower patch.
“Ah’ll try an give ya a heads up on anythin’ else ya need to watch out for.” Applejack assured him as she stepped protectively closer to John. Part of him was embarrassed at having someone who may as well be his daughter acting that way, but most of him was just relieved at having the extra bit of safety she could provide for him.
The quartet of ponies travelled along that barely visible path through the forest, the low light level caused by the thick canopy of leaves above them making it difficult to see. Despite the low visibility that had John’s sense of direction flummoxed within minutes, Twilight led them confidently through the forest.
“This place don’t seem so bad.” John observed. Other than the low light and those poison joke flowers, it really had been a tame journey.
“It usually isn’t during the day.” Twilight responded. “Most of the truly dangerous animals of the forest are nocturnal, so nights tend to be much more dangerous. That’s why I had us wait until morning before coming here instead of risking getting caught in here at night.”
“What kind of animals do ya mean? Like wolves an’ coyotes?”
“Not exactly. More like manticores and cockatrices. I was actually turned to stone by a cockatrice once, I’m lucky that Fluttershy was able to convince it to turn me back.”
“Oh...ah see.” John felt the blood draining from his face at the thought of being lost and petrified in the forest, never to be found by anyone ever again.
“We should still keep our eyes open for timber wolves, though, they’re active during the day. They even wander outside of the forest every now and then, too.”
“Yup, ya see ‘em near Sweet Apple Acres from time to time.” Applejack confirmed, eliciting a gulp of fear from John. He wasn’t sure what differentiated these timber wolves from normal ones, but he knew enough about animals to know that predators went for the elderly, sick or injured before most others, and he was part of at least one of those, quite possibly two by nature’s standards and maybe even all three if it turned out he was crazy after all. He really didn't like his odds.
“I doubt they’d attack a group of our size, though, and even if they do I’m pretty sure that we can handle them.”
The group went quiet for a couple of minutes, leaving John with his macabre thoughts. It wasn’t long before he could stand the silence no longer and felt he had to fill the void.
“So, what’s this Zecora like?”
“She’s a friend of ours. She’s a zebra who lives in the forest here where she gathers herbs and such for making potions with. We actually got the cure for poison joke from her. She comes into Ponyville every now and then to sell some of her remedies and to stock up on supplies from the market. She’s more knowledgeable about the plant life of the forest than the animals, but I’d bet she still knows more than any other pony alive.”
“How much longer ‘fore we find her?” He asked, fearfully eying the dark underbrush, imagining that he saw the face of a monster in every shadow.
“Not too much longer.” Twilight assured him.
Much to John’s relief, their party didn’t encounter any nasty creatures before a humble looking cottage crawled into view. A warm glow emanated from the windows, giving a reassuring indication of civilized life in the overgrown woods.
“Here we are!” Twilight announced brightly. Without any hesitation, she trotted up to the door and knocked and, within seconds, a zebra with her mane fashioned into a Mohawk with several golden rings upon her legs opened it.
“Ah, Twlight Sparkle, this is quite the boon. I did not expect to see you again so soon.”
“Hello, Zecora, it’s great to see you again.”
John blinked dumbly at the rhyming greeting. Was that a coincidence? He gave a puzzled look to Applejack.
“Ah guess we forgot to mention, she kinda speaks in rhyme.” Aj whispered to him.
“Why would she do that?”
“To be honest, ah have no idea. She’s always done it.”
“I see you have not come alone, there are others speaking with a whispered tone.”
“You know Applejack already, and the other two are Big Macintosh, her brother, and Honeycrisp or John, her father. Maybe.”
“In your faces I see confusion sown, what makes his identity so unknown?”
“Actually, it’s kind of a long story.”
“You’re all free to come inside, but in me this story you must confide.”
Zecora’s words were accompanied by her returning back inside her hut, and the four of them followed after her. It was a little cramped inside, especially since two of the ponies were exceptionally large, but Zecora was still a pleasant host. She began preparing some tea while they sat themselves around a spooky, boiling cauldron. Over their sipping of tea, Twilight explained their situation, and for good measure had Big MacIntosh go over his story once more.
“Do you think you could help us find the cliff where Big Mac saw his father go missing?” Twilight pressed the zebra when their tales were finished. Zecora pursed her lips for a few moments before answering.
“There are many such cliffs within this wood. I cannot find yours, though I wish I could.”
“Yeah, I thought that’d be the case, but I figured it was worth a shot. How about those glowing, purple creatures that Big Mac saw? Do those sound familiar?"
“That little detail I had not missed, and with that maybe I can assist.”
“Ya mean ya know what they were?” AJ asked, her eyes shining brightly with excitement.
“It is just a guess, I do not know, but what they may be I think best to show.”
Zecora trotted off to a shelf lined with a variety of rough looking books, most of them not looking to be of the production quality that had lined the shelves of Twilight’s library. John hoped that what they lacked in appearances they made up for in content. Within moments, Zecora was returning with one of them held between her teeth, which she passed to Twilight.
“In this tome many creatures can be seen, I suggest you search page seventeen.”
Twilight Sparkle opened the book to the indicated page as the other ponies, minus Zecora, crowded around her for a better look at what was inside. John didn’t see much, but he did catch a glimpse of a rough sketch that looked similar to the creatures that Big Mac had described.
“The nightmare wisp.” Twilight read aloud for her companion’s benefit. “These creatures live in small swarms inside the Everfree Forest. They teleport their prey to their nests, where they feed off of their nightmares. Once there, they use a stinger on their tails to inject a magical toxin that both induces nightmares and puts their prey into a form of stasis, halting nearly all bodily functions, staving off imminent death, and even putting a stop to the aging process. While impressive in its effects, this toxin is incapable of affecting larger creatures unless they are already in a considerably weakened state or it is applied in incredibly large doses, and as a result it is rare for the nightmare wisp to feed on anything larger than a small dog.”
“Ah dunno.” John spoke up once Twilight finished reading. “Ah’m a lot bigger than any dog ah’ve ever seen.”
“You should not be so quick to dismiss, the fact he fell you seem to miss.” Zecora said directly to John.
“Yeah, ah reckon that fallin’ down a cliff would put ya into a weakened state fer sure.” AJ pointed out.
“Wait...’he fell’?” John pointed out the odd wording, considering she had been talking to him directly with that line. “Do ya mean ya don’t think ah’m him?”
“I can’t be certain if he is you, but altering memories is something wisps don’t do.”
“Ya mean that even after all this, we still don’t know if he’s my dad or not?” Applejack groaned with frustration.
“I am sorry for your sorrow, Applejack, but the answers you seek I’m afraid I lack.”
The rest of the visit was pleasant, at least on the surface, but it had an undertone of disappointment. John realized that they had learned a lot today as to the potential fate of the real Honeycrisp, but that there was still more to discover. Either he was the real Honeycrisp and they had to find out what happened to his memories, or he wasn’t and the real one was either lost somewhere out in the forest, or dead.
It was as John was thinking on his situation that Twilight announced they should be leaving. Their group bid Zecora farewell and filed out of her hut into the forest. The return trip wasn’t as light hearted as the initial journey had been. There was very little talking between them, and in its place quiet contemplation. As before, there weren’t any attacks from any dangerous animals and they made good time in nearing the edge of the forest.
A stray root snaking its way out above ground on the path happened to catch John unawares, tripping him. He fell painfully to the ground with a cry. His back had barely pained him at all the entire day thus far, something he had been quite thankful for, but his landing sent a lightning bolt of agony through his back.
“Dad!” AJ shouted with worry, not quite sure as to what had happened, and ran to help him back up.
“Ah’m okay....ah jus’ tripped.” He waved off her concern as he tried to get back to his hooves, but fell back to the ground as another shock of pain coursed through him. AJ’s eyes hardened as she saw him struggle.
“Ya may have jus’ tripped, but ya ain’t fine, ah can see that clear as the nose on my face.”
“No, ah’m fine.” John insisted as he finally managed to get his hooves under him, his face strained under the pain.
“Nope.” Big Mac said as he stepped beside him.
“Hey! What’re ya doin’?!” John shouted in protest as the two worked to force him onto the broad back of Big Mac.
“Ya’ve been on yer hooves enough today, jus’ let Big Mac carry ya the rest o’ the way.”
John gave up struggling as he realized the futility of it and lay limp on his son’s back with a sigh. His face burned with embarrassment. He hadn’t been carried like that since he was a foal..err...kid. A feminine giggle split through the air and John glared impotently at its source.
“What’re ya laughin’ at?” He groused.
“Oh, nothing.” Twilight Sparkle stifled her giggles. “I’ll just leave you three to your family bonding.”
Twilight directed one final, amused grin his way before she briskly trotted off ahead of them.
“Ya got him?” AJ asked her brother.
“Yup.” He confirmed
“Good.” She said with a satisfied grin and then started walking again at a slower pace so that she wouldn’t outrun them. Though he couldn’t see his son’s face from his position on his back, John had little doubt that he had a big ol’ grin on his face too.
“Ah can walk, it was jus’ a bit o’ pain. Ah’m fine now!” He tried one last time to convince his children. Applejack twisted her neck to look at him as she continued moving forward.
“Ya ain’t walkin’ no more, an’ that’s final!”
“AJ?”
“Ah said no.”
“AJ!”
“What?!” She responded irritably to John’s prodding.
“Yer walkin’ in the poison joke.”
Applejack halted suddenly as the colour drained from her face. She looked down and sure enough, she was standing right in the middle of a beautiful patch of blue flowers.
“Aw, snake whiskers!” She voiced bitterly.
“Ya gonna be okay?” John asked, glad that Big Mac had stopped before he too had gone into the poisonous flowers.
“Ah’m fine, fer now at any rate. Poison joke don’t affect ya right away. Ah’ll have to head to the spa an’ get Aloe an’ Lotus to run a bath filled with the cure before it pulls whatever joke it feels like pullin’ this time.”
“A joke, huh?” John chuckled suddenly as a thought came to him. “Maybe yer gonna turn into a human, then we can both be in the wrong body.”
AJ stood motionless and blinked a few times at him.
“Alright, ah know it wasn’t a good joke, but it ain’t that bad, is it?”
Still neither of them responded and silence continued to reign. AJ looked over to her brother for a moment and then back to John and her shocked expression transformed into a thrilled grin. He returned the stare and let out one completely bewildered word.
“What?!”
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Oh, now there's an idea. I can already see where this is going.
You really had to say that, didn't you John?
I thinks AJ got herself an idea...
Hrm... I'm interested in where AJ is headed with this.... however, I caught something in the book. Nightmares are anything that can be perceived. The wisps pulled whatever information Jon had, and made up a nightmare for him to live in. He had no family, due to reasons. However kept his "family" (horses) ties, just to keep him from complete despair.... ah shoot. I had a a better thought train than this but bleh. Can you think. Too late/early for this.
Huh. So... compared to Honeycrisp John life could be called a nightmare. Zero relatives instead of large family, no children, from little to no friends and thanks to bad injury he more or less lost everything that he have and care about.
I'm not sure that John actually Honeycrisp but... There is possibility.
Nice, looking forward to the next update to see what AJ has planned.
Ahh! Apple love!
Thanks for writing, looking forward to the conclusion!
7303282 I was thinking that maybe the fall had not only injured him, but caused a bout of amnesia. The Nightmare Wisps then doing their work would also explain what he DOES remember.
Also
it's a thought.
Look out, look out! AJ be havin' herself an idea.
7304369 Not even amnesia. People who have had super traumatic experiences, or are coming out of it, do have horrible nightmares, and are confused and dazed. Just like ol' Johnny-boy here. However, if he's kept there long enough, it could've suppressed his actual memories, and leave behind a jumbled bunch of confusion and shenanigans..
Well ain't that interesting. If he had run through the poison joke looking for Big Mac its effects could have done something. If Honeycrisp really was in that type of situation then his memories would be all he had left to stay sane. And since the poison joke loves screwing with a pony's base self I could see it either giving him amnesia or making him believe he's human. I doubt the cure would do anything for him since he seems to have returned to thinking pony thoughts but it may help. At the very least it may soothe his back.
If true that just leaves one question. Why would the wisps let him go? Was the fact he had poison joke affecting him which shaped his nightmare to give him access to a gun so rare? Surely other ponies would have been driven mad enough to try and kill themselves in their dreams? Or was it that the dream couldn't find a way to make the gun not work?
Big Mac thros him into poison joke.
A bit annoyed at the level of assuredness in stating nightmare wisps can't affect memories. Regardless of whether it is the case or not, how can Zecora say that? If the common victim are dogs and other small, none-sapiant, none-talking species, than it would be incredibly hard to collect data on how nightmare wisp venom affects memory. Even then, how many cases have been recorded of sapient creatures suffering extremely prolonged exposure? Twelve years of being constantly drugged by what can be compared to as a potent hallucinogen would probably have all sorts of adverse, long term affects on the brain. And, even if the long-term poisoning doesn't have noticeable side affects such as chemical imbalances or fried neurons, that's still twelve years straight of psychological torture. That is an immense amount of strain to be placed on a psyche without expecting it to crack.
Basically what I'm saying is that it was unrealistic for this thought not to have crossed either Zecora's or Twilight's minds and for them not to suggest it. I hate portrayals of what are supposed to be intelligent characters as juvenile thinkers. This was just simple, cut-and-dry, black-and-white thinking what with them taking a quick excerpt from an old book as undeniable fact despite the extenuating circumstances surrounding this particular case.
...Phew, now that that is out of the way, yeah, I'm guessing it's the poison joke messing with his memory because you took the time to have them talk about it and all. Chekhov's gun, ya know? Or maybe it was a red herring...? Nah, your not that skilled yet. Poison joke it is, then.
AJ? ... What are you planning?