Night 5: Into the Briar Patch
Katrina glanced about her as she and Tom stood in Frontierland. Frontierland sat at the back of the Magic Kingdom, right next to Adventureland (but that was for another day) and Liberty Square (which was heavily modelled on New England in the 1770s, around the time of the American Revolution). Much like the other lands which had been ported from California, Frontierland had roughly the same layout as its Disneyland counterpart. Although both Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain had opened first here, they had rapidly made the journey west to Anaheim, and they were both smash hits.
"So," Tom said, jolting Katrina out of her own thoughts for a second. "When I'm done, I'll wait on the bridge for you. Then, when you've arrived from Spash Mountain, we go and do the Haunted Mansion. That sound good?"
"Sounds good to me!" Katrina smiled, and started to walk toward the Fastpass+ line for Splash Mountain. "See ya!"
"Cheerio!" Tom replied, and began to walk toward the restrooms. A few seconds later, Katrina heard a loud cry of; "Oh not again!"
"Sounds like Tom has already got into difficulties," Katrina said to herself. Although she knew it was rude to derive amusement from the misfortune of others (who was also a resident at the Haunted Mansion if her memory was correct), there was something profoundly absurd about these last few days, a tone of absurdity that had not been lost on the Kansas girl. As she walked into the queue line, the speakers were loudly blasting music from the ride at the would be riders, so she scanned her Magic Band on the terminal, waited for it to beep, followed by a short extract of 'There's a Great Big, Beautiful Tomorrow', and the terminal turned green, letting her through and into the queue. Given the line was 60 minutes, this would hopefully cut her wait to half an hour.
Few people know the complicated history surrounding Splash Mountain, but the story is an interesting one, to say the least. The ride as we know it opened in Magic Kingdom in 1989, but the ride is loosely based on the 1946 film Song of the South, which itself is based on the Uncle Remus tales of Bre'er Rabbit, Bre'er Bear, Bre'er Fox and so on, themselves based on old folk tales from West Africa. The resulting film was controversial at the time, as many claimed it glorified slavery and the Antebellum South, although the film is actually set during the Reconstruction period. Anyways, the film remains a difficult topic for the Walt Disney Company, but there's no denying that the film resulted in some amazing music, such as zip- a- dee- do- da (you can always rely on the Sherman Brothers). As a result, the decision was made to adapt the tales themselves into the ride, but ommit the live action aspects of the story. At the same time, an attraction at Disneyland called America Sings had just closed. The characters were based on ones created for a scrapped film called Chanticleer, but the characters for that film had been designed by Wilfred Jackson, who was also lead artist on Song of the South. As a result, Disney chose to be efficient and save money, recycling the old animatronics and moving them to a new home in Florida (with updated animatronic movement, new voices and dialogue, and new skins). And that's before you even begin to consider the ones that ended up in Star Tours as droids!
But I digress. Katrina was now stood in a queue, with a small pile of zip lock bags next to her, as they were the official sponsors of the attraction. She'd already put her phone in a waterproof pocket, but the sun was beating down, and the place was already beginning to heat up. As a result, a splash would actually be quite refreshing.
She put her hand on one of the walls, only to receive a sudden jolt. She recoiled from it. "What is going on around here?" she asked. She knew exactly what was coming next.
Her skin turned a light shade of orange, creating the impression that she had a light tan, and freckles appeared under her eyes. Her hair turned blonde, and she gained a noticable fringe, as well as grew further down her back and tied itself up into a ponytail, with a red band holding it in place. Her height shifted very slightly, so little so that it was practically imperceptible to the naked eye, and her muscles tensed briefly, presuming increasing in density. Whoever this was, it seemed, had great strength despite not having much visible muscle. Her eyes also changed colour to green, a gentle flash briefly being visible in one of the wall portraits.
"Huh?" she asked, looking in the portrait to see who she was. "Well, shoot, I'm Applejack." She also noticed, to her surprise, that her voice had barely changed from her usual tones. "Well, that's not much of a surprise. Kansas is a stone's throw from the Ozarks, after all!"
Her clothes, seemingly unimpressed by the other changes that had occurred, decided to get in on the transformation game, as out of nowhere a leather stetson appeared on Katrina's head. Her shirt turned white, and gained a collar and buttons, now more closely resembling a work shirt than casual wear of any sort. The upper chest area and collar turned green as the top button did itself up, and the sleeves grew longer, until they reached her wrists. Katrina quickly rolled them up out of habit- wait, since when did she do that?- and she quickly gained a belt made of leather, with a red buckle shaped like an apple.
Her pants changed material, the sensation of cotton shifting to denim both weird and fascinating at the same time. The zip vanished, as if it had never been there, and the legs of her jeans suddenly merged together, creating a skirt. This then shrank up her legs until it fell to her knees, and gained two pockets on the front for storage purposes. A small underskirt poked its way out of the bottom as her shoelaces abruptly vanished, creating a pair of boots. They turned brown before gaining heels, and they grew up her legs before stopping halfway up her lower legs. They turned brown, with the toecaps a slightly lighter shade of brown, as a symbol of three apples appeared on the front of them.
Applejack grinned. She was intent on having a fun day, even if she looked more like she was about to go apple picking than riding a log flume. "Yee- hah!" she exclaimed. "Let's go!"
"Applejack?" asked a voice. She looked down to see it belonged to a small kid. "Mom! Look! It's Applejack!"
A mother glanced over, and suddenly grinned. "Hello miss!" she said. "You're my daughter's favourite character."
Applejack blushed. "Well ain't that sweet. C'mon y'all, let's get these wagons rollin'!"
Splash Mountain was every bit as good as Applejack had remembered it. After launch from the station, they went up a steep slope, and down into a shallow drop that sprayed water everywhere. Then, after another two drops, they went into a dark cave full of singing animals. And the geese from America Sings.
“How do you do?” Mighty pleasant greetin’.
“How do you do?” Say it when you’re meetin’.
“How do you do?” With every one repeatin’
“Pretty good, sure as you’re born.” (Howdy!)
"This music sure is catchy," Applejack smiled. This had always been one of her favourites, not least because of how wacky the whole thing was. Her thoughts were soon interrupted as they plunged into gratuitous drop number 2, although the water spray was considerably less than usual.
Suddenly, they found themselves somewhere very strange indeed.
"Everybody’s got a Laughing Place,
A Laughing Place to go-ho-ho.
Take your frown, turn it upside-down,
And you’ll find yours we know-ho-ho!"
"This is mildly sinister," said a man nearby. "Why is everybody so cheerful?"
"Because this is Disney and you need to loosen up a bit?" Applejack suggested.
Not long after that, they climbed into the final lift hill for the big drop into the Briar Patch. Whilst she had the time, Applejack removed her hat and placed it into the pouch in front of her. The log climbed over the hill, and Cinderella Castle was briefly visible in the distance.
And then the drop opened up below them. The log roared forward, faster and faster down the slope, the wind picking up and blowing all around them, and the log reached the bottom and slammed into the water with a gigantic SPLASH! Water flew through the air, drenching the riders (which was greatly appreciated in the heat), and the log rolled around a loop into the next tunnel.
Which was full of singing animals, cheering and smiling and singing the most famous song from the ride, which everybody joined in with.
"Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
My oh my, what a wonderful day!
Welcoming back Br’er Rabbit today.
We always knew that he’d get away!
"He’s had enough of movin’ on now.
It’s where he’s born and bred in.
The briar patch is where he’s headin’!
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
Wonderful feeling, wonderful day!
"Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
My oh my, what a wonderful day!
Plenty of sunshine heading our way.
We never doubted he’d get away!
"Moving on taught him a lesson.
You’ve learned it well, Br’er Rabbit.
Gettin’ caught’s a nasty habit.
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
Wonderful feeling, feeling this way!
"Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear are gonna get it today.
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
That hungry gator’s gettin’ his way!
"Mr. Bluebird on my shoulder.
It’s the truth, it’s actual.
Everything is satisfactual.
"Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!
Wonderful feelling, wonderful day!"
After Applejack got off the ride, she felt her stetson. Somehow, despite being in the storage pouch, it was completely and utterly soaked. "Oh well," she sighed. "Gotta take the good with the bad." Just then, in the distance, she saw Apple Bloom and Pipsqueak walking towards her. "Howdy, sugarcube!"
Apple Bloom sprinted over. "Hey, big sis!" she called. "How was it?"
Applejack could only grin in response. "It was great, Sugarcube. Shall we go on together?"
"Yeah!" the younger apple cheered. "Let's go!"
"Nice ta see you made a friend," Applejack smiled. "I take it we'll be seein' more of him in the future?"
Apple Bloom had no response. Her face was about as red as one, after all.
The two siblings had a great day around the Magic Kingdom, later running into all sorts of characters. Getting back to the hotel at the end of the day, Apple Bloom yawned and took out her key.
"Ya sleepy, Apple Bloom?"
"Yeah. It's kinda been a long day, and Ah'd like ta get some sleep."
"That's OK by me," Applejack replied. "I trust you'll be fine, Megan?"
"Yes," Megan replied. "I won't dream of fish, just of mildly horrifying 1980s animated ponies."
They all went to their own rooms, and Applejack lay back on her bed (after removing her boots. That'd never do). "What a great day," she said quietly to herself. "It really is true; that Walt Disney World is the happiest place on Earth."
Again, finding art of Applejack's first outfit was surprisingly difficult. If you are wondering why I didn't shift the spelling of the words Applejack is saying, Misty Rose (who created the character of Katrina) stated that Katrina's natural speaking voice is very similar to Applejack's.
Don't believe me? This used to be one of the America Sings geese.
Stats
Page generated in 0.027 seconds
Total duration
889 users online
427,043 hits today, 1,960,719 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Well. That's not something you hear everyday.
9813359
Indeed it isn't. It's also not everyday you tf into a fictional character.
9813364
Touche'.
9813369
Now to see when Misty comes around.
5 nights down, only 3 left to go! :D
9813780
Indeed. What did you think?
9813937
Pretty good :3 Bring on the next night X3
9813941
OK then.
9813948
Heh =3
I know that my next change might have me going through.... well.... a little mental X3
9813961
Possibly. Katrina is yet to be seen, though.
Okay, so, I personally hate steep drops although I can endure them to a point. The last time I went on Splash Mountain, I freaked out a little bit after the first drop because I couldn't remember how many steep drops the ride had and was worried that the ride was going to take the log back up the mountain and drop it again.
It feels a little weird reading this after finding out about Disney's plans to refit the ride. Considering that you went the extra mile in detailing the ride's history, I'm guessing that you have a bit of a soft spot for this ride.
10344649
You would be correct. This attraction will always be close to my heart. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against The Princess and the Frog, but it's always sad to see a classic go.
By the way, Applejack has an Ozark accent not Texas. The Ozarks are a region that seems to be made up primarily of Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. At least that's what I found when I did an image search for maps of the Ozarks.
10344653
Corrected.