5 - Welcome to the Jungle
Twilight hadn’t woken Applejack up that morning to say goodbye. That was fine by Applejack; they’d said goodbye to each other last night, because, well, 5:30 in the morning, but she still found herself looking for Twilight for a few minutes before she remembered herself.
“You ought not worry about Twilight,” Zecora said at breakfast on the Flume. “I am quite sure she’ll be alright.”
“‘Course she will,” said Applejack. “I ain’t worried in the slightest, I just wanted to see her again before she left and forgot the obvious.”
“Well, she’s fine, and I’m sure you’ll be fine,” said Ponente, “so it’ll all end up fine. Good luck on your trip, by the by.”
“Speakin’ of which, why ain’t you comin’ with us to Kulikulu or whatever it’s called?”
“I,” Ponente said, thumping her chest, “am the captain of this fine vessel. As such, it is my duty to ensure its safety. Even if that means staying with it at all times and not going into the incredibly dangerous jungle filled to the brim with monsters and hazardous terrain and what have you and instead remain sitting here peacefully in this beautiful town.” She grinned smugly. “Such a shame, ain’t it?”
Applejack huffed.
Idube poked her head into the room. “Do not dawdle,” she said. “We are leaving in half an hour.”
Yesterday, Livingstone had at least been kind enough to set Applejack and Zecora up with a zebra to take them to Kulikulu. Idube, of all coincidences, had this as a job: she escorted travellers from Bandari Mji through the jungle to the outside and vice versa. She didn’t do it alone — she had about a dozen plus a few zebras to help — but she was the leader and the most experienced.
“Trust me, you’ll be fine,” Livingstone had said. “Idube, she’s good at this, yes. She’ll get you through, right as rain.”
Which didn’t make Applejack any happier about being separated from Twilight, but at least now she didn’t feel like the jungle would devour her the moment she set hoof outside of Bandari’s borders.
They were going by boat for the first part of the trip (Applejack wanted to punch someone for forcing her to take yet another watercraft). The main river that fed Bandari Mji’s lake was deep, wide, and slow, perfect for transportation if you overlooked the inherent danger in the jungle. Idube used a pair of boats that resembled tugboats, of all things; not much else besides a broad deck in the back for cargo and a cabin that held the controls, the coal-burning furnace that powered the engine, and a select few vital amenities. The decks had been loaded up yesterday with the food they were taking, as well as Equestria’s gifts to Zebrabwe. On the front, each boat had a mounted crossbow, more like a ballista, with a bow longer than Applejack and a lot of crazy-sharp bolts. “Deterrence,” Idube had said. Applejack didn’t want to see them used.
As Zecora and Applejack tried to make their way to the riverboats, scant minutes before departure, they were stalled by a gradually thickening crowd. Friends and family of the crew going with Idube were there to see them off, and with over a dozen crewmembers, that quickly added up to an awful lot of zebras.
Applejack got separated from Zecora when a few foals ran between them and pushed them apart. Zecora vanished into the crowd, but Applejack had to take a step back to avoid stepping on the foals. By the time she got her footing again, Zecora was gone.
Not just gone, gone gone. Ponies had coats that were all the colors of the rainbow, and plenty more besides. Zebras had black and white stripes, as well as black and white stripes, plus black and white stripes, in addition to black and white stripes (not to mention black and white stripes). It would’ve been trivial for Applejack to find Zecora in Equestria, but here in Zebrabwe, she tried staring into the black-and-white-striped crowd and got achy eyes for her trouble.
Her breathing picked up. This was not good. Not when Zecora was her translator. Think, cowgirl. What does Zecora have that the others don’t? Jewelry, actually. Other zebras had it, too, but none of them were quite as bedecked with it as Zecora was. She started looking again, this time keeping an eye out for the specific golden glint of Zecora’s “bling”, as Rainbow Dash called it.
And… there. Applejack spotted Zecora’s neck rings and earring through the mass of zebras. She ducked and lightly pushed her way through the crowd. Zecora didn’t seem to be looking for her, instead getting into the first of the two boats. Applejack clambered onto the boat after her.
Weird. Zecora wasn’t looking for her in the slightest. In the background, Idube yelled something and the boat pushed off. But Applejack didn’t pay any attention to it. Without Zecora, she wouldn’t be able to talk with anyone, and that would make for one boring boat ride.
“Hey! Zecora!” Applejack called out.
No response. Zecora walked over to one of the cargo boxes and tested its restraints. Why was she doing that? Other zebras would do that.
Applejack trotted up to her. “Hey, Zecora, I-”
Zecora turned to look at her, only it wasn’t Zecora; it was another zebra entirely. It wasn’t even a zebra mare; as best Applejack could tell, this particular zebra was a stallion. He had the same general sticky-uppy hairstyle as Zecora, the same jewelry, he was about the same size as her; with Applejack not used to zebras’ stripes, he looked an awful lot like Zecora from a distance. But he definitely wasn’t Zecora.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I don’t speak Equestrian.” His voice was clear, crisp, and weirdly stilted in that specific way that meant he’d learned the line phonetically, rather than knowing what each word actually meant.
Applejack could feel the blood rushing through her veins into her face. How could she make a mistake like that? It’d be like a zebra mistaking her for Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy. She felt like every zebra on the boat was staring at her, even though they weren’t.
“Sorry, sorry,” muttered Applejack. She started staring at the deck and pulled her hat down over her face. “I thought you were someone I knew, and…” Her voice trailed off. He’d just told her that he couldn’t speak Equestrian, hadn’t he? Stupid.
“I don’t speak Equestrian,” the zebra said again, and went back to checking the supply ropes.
“Sorry,” Applejack mumbled, and slouched away.
Well, so much for that. She started looking at the other zebras on the boat, trying to find Zecora. But she couldn’t see her. Lacking coat colors for easy identification, Applejack tried to look for Zecora’s rings among the crew, but she couldn’t see anything of the sort.
But what if she…
It was an idea Applejack really didn’t want to ponder, but it was the only one left. She went for the back of the boat and started squinting at the one following them. Because if Zecora wasn’t here, that meant she was probably-
Yes, she was. Zecora was standing on the front of her boat, surveying Applejack’s. They locked eyes and froze. Embarrassed, Applejack raised a hoof and waved at Zecora. She attempted to grin. Even though she couldn’t see it, she didn’t think it was convincing.
Zecora opened her mouth, like she was going to say something. She slowly closed it. She slouched a little, sighing a sigh Applejack couldn’t hear. Then she planted her face in her hoof and slowly shook her head.
And so now Applejack was on a boat where she couldn’t speak the language of anyone on board. Some of the zebras would speak Equestrian, but she didn’t know which ones, and if she tried going up to one and talking to them and they didn’t speak Equestrian, she’d look like a massive tool who hadn’t tried to learn the language.
Even setting aside the language barrier, Applejack felt like a stranger, an outsider, somepony who didn’t belong. To say she stood out like a sore hoof would’ve been an understatement. Even Zecora had stripes, but Applejack? She was orange in an island of black and white in a world of green. The only way you could’ve missed her was if you were blind. Where zebras had weapons, surprisingly gaudy jewelry, or snakeskin outfits focused on practicality, Applejack just had her hat that served no other function than looking nice. (Very, very nice, though.) She wasn’t even the right size; Zecora, although the size of a pony, was small for a zebra. Everyone on the boat had a few inches on Applejack, most of them had more. One of them was even a whole foot taller than her.
Applejack settled in near the back of the boat (it was called the stern, right?), away from most everybody else. As long as she didn’t bother the zebras, they wouldn’t stare at her and her freakish coat too much. The boat’s engine hummed beneath her hooves, constantly reminding her that she wasn’t on good, stable earth. But the boat stayed fairly level, not the constant rocking and tilting of the Log Flume. She could live with this.
She tried to relax a little, but the air was hot, muggy, and smelly. She constantly felt ready to break out in a sweat, but it never came. Bugs constantly pestered her, zipping in close and buzzing in her ear whenever she let her guard down for more than a few seconds. Eventually, her legs and tail began aching from their constant swatting. None of this seemed to bother the zebras much. It was their indifference to the bugs that really riled Applejack; she could live with the weather, but the bugs were close on unbearable.
With no chances at conversation and a bazillion little gnats buzzing around her like a cloud made of bugs, time crawled. It didn’t help that the trees blocked a direct view of the sun. She could make a guess at the time, but without a way to see the sun, she was lost. She tried looking at the jungle; it helped a little. While not particularly interesting, it was always changing, at least. And in spite of the way it felt like the nastier parts of the Everfree, at least it wasn’t actively trying to kill her. Yet.
But Applejack liked to do stuff. At least on the Flume, there were things she could do, even if it amounted to cleaning out the bilge (ugh). On the boat, she just sat and watched the jungle go by and didn’t talk with the zebras and sat and watched the jungle go by and didn’t talk with the zebras and sat and watched the jungle go by and didn’t talk with the zebras and sat and watched the jungle go by and didn’t talk with the zebras and sat and watched the jungle go by and didn’t talk with the zebras and sat and watched the jungle go by and didn’t talk with the zebras and blah de blah de blah and after several hours the lack of anything happening was utterly unbearable. There wasn’t even enough room on the boat for her to pace around.
Applejack sighed and looked down at the deck, counting the number of whorls in the floorboards. She slipped into autopilot, and when she couldn’t decide whether she was at 67 or 68, she realized one of the whorls wasn’t in the floorboards; it was a thin rope lying discarded and abandoned on the deck. It looked to be a fine rope, strong and tightly woven but still thin and flexible. It showed enough signs of age for Applejack to know it’d been well-used, but not enough for her to doubt its integrity.
She followed the rope, and both ends were untied. It must’ve been a spare someone had forgotten about. Probably wouldn’t be missed. That put an idea into Applejack’s head, and she tested the length. A lot longer than she would’ve preferred, but that was fine. She’d just coil up the slack.
She took one end and began tying a loose knot. It could’ve been tricky for her, being an earth pony, but she’d been tying knots of the same kind practically since she could walk. This was easy.
Once the knot was done, Applejack slid the other end of the rope through the loop she’d left in the knot, and bang: a good, old-fashioned lasso, something she could relate to. She began twirling it. It felt good, bending easily where it should. Out of habit, she began looking around for something to catch.
She turned and dropped the lasso in shock, one end dropping overboard. A zebra mare was sitting just a few feet from her, apparently having come up while she was working on the lasso. The zebra wasn’t large, as zebras went, but it was still enough for Applejack to scooch back an inch or so. Her mane was cut incredibly short, almost to the point of being shaved off completely, and for jewelry, she had (Applejack cringed) a nose ring. On both forelegs, she had some kind of rotatable sword gauntlets. At the moment, the blades were stored and level with her legs, but Applejack knew a flick of a hoof would have them out and ready at a moment’s notice, if trouble arose. She was staring very intently at Applejack, not attempting to hide her curiosity at all. Yeah, I think you’re weird. What’re you gonna make of it?
Applejack smiled halfheartedly, fished the lasso out from where it was trailing in the water, and said the absolutely most important phrase to know in Zebran, the one she’d committed to memory and that would serve her well in her time in Zebrabwe. “Samahani. Sizungumzi Kipundamilia.” Sorry. I don’t speak Zebran. It was slow and halting, and she tripped over the specific syllables; Twilight said it was see-zoo-ngoo-mzee, but Applejack couldn’t help but say it see-zoon-goom-zee, no matter how hard she tried. But it was still semi-coherent Zebran. Hopefully, it’d be enough to dissuade the zebra.
No dice. The zebra merely cocked her head the other way, kept staring, and said, “My Equestrian is not good very, too.” Her accent was thick enough that Applejack had to think a bit to fully get what she said, and her words were, if anything, a little bit slower than Applejack’s. But she could still speak Equestrian where Applejack couldn’t speak Zebran.
Applejack tried to go back to her lasso, flick the water off of it, but she could feel the zebra’s eyes boring into her. After a few fruitless moments, she looked up at the zebra again. “What’re you lookin’ at?” It came out a bit more hostile than she intended, but if the zebra didn’t want to attract that sort of response, she shouldn’t go around staring at people.
“You.”
Well, if nothing else, she was honest. And blunt. (Of course, Applejack complaining about either of those would be a tad hypocritical.)
“And that.” The zebra pointed at the lasso. “What is that?”
“What, this?” Applejack looped the lasso over her foreleg and held it up so the zebra could see it better. “Y’ain’t never seen a lasso before?”
The zebra blinked at Applejack and flicked her ears.
Applejack bit back a groan and reorganized her thoughts. “Y’all’ve- You have never seen a lasso before?”
“No,” said the zebra. “That is… la-so?”
“Lasso,” Applejack said, nodding.
“Lasso,” repeated the zebra. “Lasso lasso lasso. What is it for?”
“We use it to catch critters wh- To catch animals when they’re bein’ all panicky. We throw it, and… Actually, why don’t I show you?”
“If you can.”
Applejack took a quick look up and down the boat. It looked like she had enough space. “Can y’all move back a little?”
The zebra nodded and shuffled a few feet away from Applejack. Applejack took a few steps back of her own, bit down on the end of the lasso, and began twirling it above her head. Although it wasn’t the rope she usually used, it was still flexible enough to work just fine. The zebra stared at the lasso, entranced, her muzzle making a small circular motion as she followed its path.
After a second, Applejack flicked the lasso at the zebra. It arced smoothly through the air and landed neatly over her head, not touching her until it settled on her shoulders. She nickered a little in surprise, but didn’t flinch. “Vhen,” said Applejack around the cord, “y’all gib i’ a flig, li’e so.” She lightly yanked on the lasso, tightening the loop slightly. The zebra whinnied in shock — the cord was around her neck, after all — and reared, pawing at the loop.
Applejack quickly released the lasso so it wouldn’t strangle her, and the zebra fell to the deck in a tumble. A few other zebras glanced at the two of them, snorted, and went back to whatever they had been doing. The zebra glared up at Applejack, her ears back, and set to work about pulling herself out of the loop.
“And y’all use that to control animals that’re all a-tizz- that’re panickin’,” said Applejack. “You gotta be careful to not choke them, though.”
The zebra managed to get the lasso off her head and slid it back over to Applejack. “You use lassos much?”
“Yeah. I’m pretty good with ‘em, if I do say so myself.” Applejack grinned. “Gotta keep order ‘round the farm, y’know. It ain’t all sunshine and roses all the time. Ehm, it isn’t peaceful all the time.”
“Oh.” And the zebra went right back to staring at Applejack and the lasso.
The good feeling had been building up inside Applejack with some actual communication began bubbling away again. She had to keep this going somehow. “What’s your name?”
“Bhiza.”
“Bizi?”
The zebra shook her head. “Bhiza. Zaaah.”
“Bhiza.”
“Bhiza,” said Bhiza, nodding. “You?”
“Applejack.”
“App-le-jack?”
Now it was Applejack’s turn to nod. “Right.”
“Why are you here, Applejack?”
Applejack’s mind went back to the first encounter with zebras on the beach. Bhiza’s Equestrian might not’ve been the greatest, but hopefully it’d be better than theirs. “Do y’all know what ‘diplomacy’ means?”
After a few moments, Bhiza hesitantly nodded. “Government friendship?”
“Close enough. My friend’s here for that, and- Hey, Bhiza?”
“Hmm?”
“If I say anythin’ y’all don’t understand, just tell me, okay? My translator an- The person who speaks Zebran for me and I got separated, so I might forget that y’all can’t speak Equestrian all that well. Don’t be afraid to speak up.” Already, Applejack caught herself slowing her speech down to make it easier for Bhiza to understand.
“Yes.” Bhiza made a “continue” gesture.
“Alright. My friend’s here, representin’ our government, and she’s tryin’ to get your government to be friends with ours. I’m here to help her with that.” Applejack glanced upriver and muttered, “If’n we’d stayed together, at least.”
“Why?”
Applejack shrugged. “Why not? It’ll make sure we’re never at eac- It’ll make sure we don’t fight, an-”
“No, no,” Bhiza said, shaking her head. “Why did you come with she? Why are you here?”
“‘Cause sh- Because she asked me to help her. I didn’t have a real good reason to say ‘no’.”
“You crossed ocean because she asked?”
“Absolutely. Why not?”
“Dangerous.”
“It could be worse.” Applejack glanced around the jungle a bit, and everything Livingstone had said came to the forefront. “Okay, maybe not that much worse, but still. And I didn’t know it’d be this bad when I came.”
“You come if you knew?”
“Darn tootin’. Um, absolutely.”
Bhiza cocked her head and began smiling. “You are pony brave very.”
It took Applejack a few moments to parse that sentence. “Thanks,” she said. “I try not to make too much of it, b-”
Idube yelled from the front of the boat and within seconds, everyone on the boat went silent. The rumbling of the engines went down several notches and the boat slowed. Even the jungle seemed quiet. And they weren’t just staying quiet; all the zebras had stopped moving and were staring stiffly at the water. They were readying their weapons, the ones that had been untouched for most of the trip.
“Hey,” Applejack said to Bhiza, “wha-”
Bhiza planted a hoof in Applejack’s mouth and vigorously shook her head. Her eyes were wide and her mouth had tightened. She looked over at the water for several moments, then leaned in close to Applejack, close enough for her nose ring to touch Applejack’s muzzle. When she spoke, her words were almost inaudible. “Quiet,” she hissed. “Quiet very, very.” She made a motion just above the deck with her hoof.
Applejack nodded, and Bhiza slowly withdrew her hoof. “What’s goin’ on?” whispered Applejack. “What’s happenin’?”
“Nyokakubwa place,” whispered Bhiza. She pointed to the shore. After a few seconds, Applejack spotted them: several rotting hulks of boats similar to theirs, all overgrown by the jungle, were scattered about. They all had holes in them, at least the size of a pony; some of them had been smashed nearly to pieces. Scattered around them were other bits of debris. Maybe even some bones.
Applejack turned around. There was more on the opposite shore.
She swallowed. Oh boy. Oh boy. Ooooooooh booooooooy.
“Snake big,” murmured Bhiza. “Lives in this part of river. Dangerous. Dangerous very very very.”
“Can’t we go ’round it?” whispered Applejack. Go through the jungle or somethin’?”
Bhiza shook her head. “Jungle is even worse.”
Great.
The boats crept along in near silence. Applejack began to feel twitchy. Just the thought of something big enough to destroy all those boats was making her skin crawl. She wanted to run, but this was a boat; there was nowhere to run to. Even worse, outside the boat was just the jungle.
She started watching the zebras. When the nyokakubwa came out, they’d be the first to see it. If they reacted, she’d… panic, really. There wasn’t much else to do.
One of the zebras tapped her hoof on the railing and pointed at the river. Immediately, everybody turned to look. Something was stirring beneath the water. It was too dark to make out clearly, but it was definitely big. Very, very b-
The something burst out of the water and Applejack’s blood went cold. “Big” was an understatement. It was a snake large enough to swallow a pony whole, and its body was thick enough to crush their boat if it wrapped around it. Its head resembled a grotesque amalgamation of bear and snake; it was like a snake’s head, but thin and tall rather than broad and short. Its mouth was filled with teeth, each at least a foot long, while its front fangs were thicker than Applejack’s legs and several yards long. Two giant tusks curved out and around from each side of its mouth. A long, grubby tentacle hung from its chin, flicking this way and that as if it was looking for something. Its eyes were disproportionately small and beady, filled with anger and malice.
The nyokakubwa turned those beady eyes on their boat. Idube yelled something and the boat’s engines roared to life. Applejack was knocked off her feet as the boat shot forward, speeding for shore.
The nyokakubwa roared and lunged for the boat.
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Great chapter again. Good thing Twilight isn't on the boat, as we know how much she fears snakes!
Honestly Applejack shouldn't be too surprised such things exist, I mean her backyard is the Everfree. Dragons, Ursa's, Quarry Eels, Hydras, Mega Timber Wolves. Giant monsters really shouldn't phase her too much . I do suppose it's more the shock of mega Fauna living in the middle of a trade route that would disturb her, sure she goes though fire swamps regularly with Chimera and probably runs off Timberwolves form the farm constantly but ponies generally avoid foggy bottom bog so as not to annoy the Hydra, and keep out of Ghastly gouge since the Eels never leave it. So yea the kaiju sized stuff in Equestria isn't as in your face as Nyokakubwa
to punch someone
An excellent chapter. Bhiza is very charming.
Lasso it! You made the lasso so it's a moral imperative to use it as soon as possible.
You forgot the ones that have white and black stripes!
I see what you did there.
Also: This are the official(?) coat colors of Applejack and Zecora (see expanded description). Took me forever to do this.
Very nice, indeed. Every stallion of Ponyville can confirm that.
What did she do again?
Good story.
I can't put my hoof on it, but in my opinion this is the best chapter so far.
Let's hope the nyokakubwa won't add another ship to it's list.
Question: Where does the name 'nyokakubwa' come from? Something like 'Gondwana'?
7221142 The nyokakubwa itself is essentially the grootslang, an African cryptid. But "grootslang" is Afrikaans, and since I'm using Swahili for Zebran, it'd sound out-of-place. So since "grootslang" translates to "big snake" or "great snake" in English, I just translated "big snake" into Swahili ("nyoka kubwa") and stuck the two words together.
Great work.