Whimsyshire

Bad Juju

Zecora then took in the rest of the figure before her as it raised itself to its full height on its hind legs, towering over the Zebra. The creature had seemingly no hair on its body, and had a chocolaty brown skin hue. Zecora took in the cruel looking dagger on it's belt, and its clothing that was adorned with various bones and skulls. One thing gave her a start even more than the mask did however. It had a Voodoo Fetish Doll that hung from the opposite side of its belt as the dagger. At full height, the figure was maybe a head shorter than Celestia herself.

A squeak could be heard from within the hut as Fluttershy dug herself under a rug to hide from the terrifying creature at Zecora's door. This caused the figure at the door to let out a small chuckle as it reached off and took off it's face. No, it was merely a mask thought Zecora. Zecora beheld a bald face, and a black mane atop its head. The smile the face held allowed Zecora to regain her posture as she stood back up.

"I have never seen a creature such as you, but it must be you who seeks my bubbling brew." Zecora said as she stepped aside from the door and motioned for the figure to come inside.

"I thank you for your hospitality, and I apologize for scaring you and your friend here." replied the dark figure.

Zecora perked up as the creature spoke in an accent familiar to her own. She wondered if maybe this being came from her homeland, for truly strange things that are still unknown lived there.

"My question may seem crude, but would asking who and where you are from be rude?" inquired Zecora.

"My name is Ayida of The Umbaru, and I come from a land very far away." replied Ayida.

"Hmm, from Zebrica do you hail? or do my assumptions for you fail?" returned Zecora.

"I am not from this land of which you speak, I come from the southern jungle in Sanctuary." explained Ayida, who noticed the Zebra glancing at the dagger and Doll that hung from her sides.

"Ah, you wish to know of these?" Ayida said motioning to her weapons. "They are traditional weapons of an Umbaru Witch Doctor."

"Oh, how rude I did not share my name. I am called Zecora, and i keep this forest tame." Zecora said to her company.

Fluttershy seeing that Zecora was perfectly fine, slowly crept out from under the rug, and crept towards the bag of medicine Zecora had left by the jar.

"And who might this be?" The Witch Doctor said noting the yellow mare.

At this Fluttershy looked shyly over to Ayida and made a certain Lovable noise as she smiled and dropped the bag noticing she had been caught.

"This is Fluttershy, don't mind her she was just dropping by" Zecora said winking at Fluttershy, signaling that she could go.

Fluttershy gave a thankful look to Zecora before she grabbed the bag and sped off to help her animal friend. The Witch Doctor watched in amusement, then turned to the cauldron. As she walked up to it she recognized the familiar concoction.

"This is a potion for finding what is lost is it not?" Asked Ayida.

"The spirits asked that I make this for you, but may I ask what with it you will do?" Asked Zecora.

"My travelling companion and I got separated, and i need to find my way to him. However, he is not the easiest to follow unless he gets into trouble." Replied Ayida.

At this Zecora gave a questioning look, wondering about the odd statement the Witch Doctor had made. Why would trouble cause someone to be easy to find?

"Judging by your look you don't know what I mean. If he finds himself in trouble, he resorts to the simplest and most effective method he can think of. And that is usually as he says, 'smash it and bash it'. You can easily follow the noise or destruction he leaves in his wake when he is opposed." Explained Ayida.

"He seems rather rash to me, but a warrior also you seem to be. May I ask what you plan to do in this land? Please tell me an invasion is not at hand..." Asked Zecora with a pleading look.

"We did come for conquest of a sorts, but what we seek is not to take over but to vanquish evil. Though we do not share religions we both battle for our spiritual beliefs. Sadly, i do not think we will find what we seek in this land. So far all that has been offered to us is a peaceful forest and a calm land."

"Have you been outside the forest as of yet? How many other ponies have you met?" Asked the Zebra

"The forest is all that I have seen, but I do not know if the old one made his way out or not, which is why i asked the spirits for help, and they led me here."

"You find the forest to be calm? Perhaps for your mind i should make a balm... The forest is known by ponies to be a place of danger. It has no mercy, not even for a stranger."

The Witch Doctor laughed at this, a true and hearty laugh. It seemed to Zecora that what she said might have been one of the funniest things Ayida had ever heard.

"This forest is what is known as dangerous in your lands, truly this must be a land of nothing but peace. Where I am from, this forest is less dangerous than some of the cities. But now, i must find my friend lest he get us into trouble with the locals. His kind have had problems with others fearing them just because of their looks."

Ayida then cupped her hands together and dipped them into the still boiling brew. This caused Zecora to jump in panic as she saw the Witch Doctors hands receive burns from the steaming liquid. But then to Zecora's horror, Ayida drank the still boiling potion and sat down, going into a trance. Zecora could only watch in mute horror at what Ayida had unflinchingly done to herself, who in their right mind would do that?

As suddenly as the vision took her it ended, providing her with the knowledge of where the old one was. Ayida turned to the Zebra and winked as looked down at her already healing hands, then smiled and spoke with newly healed vocal chords.

"It will take more than a hot brew to do me harm for long. But i must be going now, perhaps we will meet again my new friend." said a beaming Witch Doctor as she headed out the door. Zecora watched her go, dumbfounded by what she had just seen. Then, she noticed the direction that Ayida had taken...

Straight to Ponyville...

Above the forest circled the three night guards, already growing weary. They were about to head back and report that they found nothing when a strange figure emerged from the hut after the yellow mare. The leader of the three couldn't believe his eyes, did they miss it entering? How? Then the answer came to him as the figure disappeared into the shadows again, blending in with the forest. They would not be able to track the creature like this, and worst of all... It looked like it was heading for Ponyville before it faded from view. All they could do now was warn their princess of what they had seen.

Rainbow Dash sped off to Fluttershy's cottage, her shy friend had forgotten about the girls' morning picnic apparently, and Dash was sent to see if she was okay. As she crashed through Fluttershy's window, she landed in the mare's lap having pushed off a brown furry creature that was there a moment before.

"Oh my, hello there Rainbow. What brings you here?" asked Fluttershy.

Rainbow looked over to the bear cub that was waking up from being pushed off Fluttershy's lap. She looked back up to Fluttershy and made an apologetic smile.

"Sorry 'bout that Shy, but the girls and I were worried because you didn't show up for our picnic."

"Oh no! I completely forgot after i had to fly to Zecora's this morning to get my friend here his medicine."

"Aww, poor little dude, but c'mon Shy, the girls are still waiting!"

"Okay, bye little guy and make sure you get lots of rest so you can feel better!"

The bear cub smiled and let out a yawn as it fell back to sleep on the floor. Fluttershy and Dash then took off to join the rest of their friends for a picnic. The spot they had chosen was close to the edge of the forest, and was atop a hill, near the Boutique.

Applejack had brought some fresh apples, along with some apple fritters, and a couple of apple pies fresh from the oven. Pinkie had brought a multitude of cupcakes, muffins, and a large cake from Sugarcube Corner. Rarity had provided the stylish blanket they sat upon, and had brought some sandwiches Twilight had helped her make this morning. The only thing missing were the two Pegasi.

Pinkie looked up and smiled ash she saw the two fliers making their way over to the picnic.

"Ooh! i see them!" shouted Pinkie.

"Tarnation, its about time." said Applejack with a playful smile.

"Sorry i forgot girls, one of my bear cubs was sick and i needed to get medicine for him. And when I was at Zecora's there was something who showed up and gave me a fright. Luckily they seemed to be nice though.

" Don't you mean somepony Fluttershy? asked Twilight.

"No, it wasn't a pony, it was very strange and scary looking, I thought it was a monster until it started talking with Zecora." replied Fluttershy.

"What did it look like?" Twilight pressed on, curious of what Fluttershy had seen.

"Well it was very tall! just a little bit shorter than the princess. And it stood on its hind legs and had no hair on its body. Its clothing looked very scary too, I think i even saw some metal in its clothing-"

"You mean it was wearing armor?!" exclaimed Twilight cutting off Fluttershy

"I sure do hope it doesn't show up here if its clothing is as ghastly as you say Fluttershy." Quipped Rarity.

"Ah, don't worry 'bout it Rare, no matter how scary it looks I'm sure i could take it down with an easy one two with these babies!" boasted Rainbow as she held up her front hooves.

"Don't be so sure sugarcube, if what Fluttershy said is true, its sounds awful big n' menacin'." stated Applejack

"Ooh, did it look anything like that?!" shouted Pinkie pointing to the stream.

There drinking from the stream was a behemoth of a creature. At the sound of the girls' gasping and having his thirst quenched he turned his head towards the noise. He silently scolded himself for practically walking right past them without noticing just because he was almost dying of thirst. As he stood up, the girls realized in horror just how big this thing was, easily able to dwarf Celestia in size. He was armored from head to toe in black and red heavy metal plates, and he was carrying a large sword upon its back, along with a pair of viscous looking axes at his belt.

As the creature turned to run back for the treeline, not wanting to cause a scene here, he was stopped by the sudden appearance of a pink curly mane coming out of his helmet.

"Ah! How in Bul-Kathos' name did you do that?" spoke the creature in a deep voice looking embarrassed having dropped his helmet with the pony sitting in it.

"I hopped in silly!" replied Pinkie nonchalantly

The creature then scooped up his helmet and dumped the pink party pony out of it before replacing it on his head and running for the tree line.

"Not gonna follow him Dash?" Asked a surprised Applejack.

"You kidding? even I'm not thick headed enough to charge directly at that thing..." replied a shaken Rainbow Dash.

Suddenly as if by the divine willing of Darwin himself a shout echoed across the field...

"Chaaaarge!" Cried out a member of the royal night guard, as a unit of guard ponies 30 strong of all kinds took off in the direction of the metal clad behemoth, resolute on making sure it didn't harm any of the citizens they were charged with protecting, especially since they were the Elements of Harmony.

The giant looked back to the charging force of guards and muttered under his breath, "Anicents, what have i done to deserve this?"

He then set down his pack and even his weapons, not wanting to kill them for doing their job. He cracked his knuckles underneath the steel plated gauntlets and took a boxer's stance.

"Lets get this over with..." Sighed the Barbarian.