Isle of She-Beasts

Spike and Applejack were walking through the jungle, on their way back to their hidden camp, when the sound of drumbeats catch Spike's attention. He glanced to the side and happened to notice the small tribe of scanty clad women he's seen, from before.

Spike flinched and nearly looked away, out of shyness. Even though the women were showing lots of skins, thankfully, for Spike, they still had the decency to keep their distinguishing features covered up, from top to bottom. At the very least, this made them more tolerable for the eye. Though, all the same, Spike was rather curious about this group. Aren't all human beings, except for him, Dr. Grogar, and that butler guy, supposed to be Beast-Folks? If so, then what's the story with these women? How is it that they're humans and not She-Beasts?

"Hey, Applejack?" Spike asked the wolf-woman, who stopped in her tracks and back tracked to the man. "Question: What's the story with those women? I thought everyone on this island are all 'beast-folks.'"

"Truth be told, Spike," Applejack answered, solemnly looking at the tribal women. "Those were She-Beasts. They've been on this island a whole lot longer than me and any of the gals. By the time we were brought here, by Newt Chimera, they were already regaining their human forms. But they've lost their memories and any sense of identity...they're neither humans, nor animals...they're just living husks of their former selves."

"Yikes," Spike winced.

A part of him was still scared of these women. But then, another part of him feels sorry for them, having to suffer whatever traumatic and torturous experiments Dr. Grogar performed on them. And then, after some times have passed, they've regain their true human appearances, but have lost their identities and sense of self-awareness. No memories of their past life, before Grogar. To him, it seems these women are living a fate worse than death.

"So...what are they doing now?" Spike asked. "What's with the dancing?"

"I don't know, Spike," Applejack replied. "Either out of instincts...their last desperation of humanity left...or they've got nothing better to do and are just dancing out of their mind to pass the time. Whatever it is, I hope these ladies are in a happier place."

Applejack turned tail and walked away, before she cast a sad glance towards Spike.

"But ya know the worst thing is?" In response, Spike shook his head, "That it'll be us, someday..."

This newfound revelation hits Spike, almost as hard as cold hard stone being thrown at him, or as hard as the trees that he had smashed his face against, during his Rainbow Dash's first flight together. He doesn't want to admit it, but he was actually growing more and more fond of the She-Beasts, forming an attachment, or some form of kinship. Just the thought of him befriending someone one day, only for them to forget the next, scares him immensely. In a way, this is the most conflicting existential crisis he has ever felt.

Both Spike and Applejack cast one last sympathetic glance at the tribal women, before they too turned and took their leave. All the same, Spike couldn't help but feel sorry for these former She-Beasts. He turned his head to take one last look. That was when he noticed the pink haired woman of the group was looking at him. Both Spike and the woman locked eyes for a moment, before Spike came to his senses and took off running, catching up with Applejack.

They hadn't gone far, when Applejack's ears perked up in alarm.

"Spike!" Applejack halted. "Don't move!" She instructed sternly.

"What? What is–" Spike was interrupted, when Applejack shushed him harshly.

"Shhhhh!"

Doing as he was told, Spike stood still as a statue, and not uttering a word. Taking a glance towards Applejack, he watched how pensive the wolf-woman looked, with her ears turning, listening for any signs of movements in every possible directions. Whatever it is Applejack was listening for, her hearing must be intensively acute, to alarm her. The only possible sound that Spike could hear were the sounds of leaves rustling in the breeze, the crashing sound of waters splashing from the stream, where Applejack had bathed, and the assorted sound of animals chirping, hooting, and howling.

Of course, after the horrors and near-death thrillers Spike had endured in the past few days, at this point, he knows for certain that some of the animal sounds are hardly animals, or even human.

Suddenly, without warning, Applejack threw herself at Spike.

"GET DOWN!" She howled, pinning Spike to the ground, just as a large beast burst out from the shrubs, thundering and bellowing in fury.

Spike looked up and his eyes widened at what he saw. On first glance, it looked like a fully grown bull elephant. The only differences are that it is covered in scales – like those of an anaconda – with a hissing cobra for its trunk, and has four tusks – the two upper tusks are curved and shaped like horns of a goat, while the two lower tusks are longer and shaped like spears.

"Oh my god! A grootslang?!" Spike shrieked, in awe and fright.

"You know that thing?" Applejack asked.

"Only in Dungeons and Dragons."

"Huh, Dungeons and Dragons? My brother loves that game."

"Oh! Then, I don't suppose he'd be interested in a playdate with moi?"

"I'm sure he'd like that...on the account we get out of this mess, first."

"Then let's get outta here!"

With that, Spike and Applejack quickly beat feet, as they turned tail – literally for Applejack – and ran from the massive chimeric beast. Behind them, both Spike and Applejack's ears rang horribly to hear the sound of a menacing bellowing that sounded neither like an elephant, or any average creature. The ground beneath him and the wolf-woman shook as the monster gave chase.

Knowing he would regret it, Spike still turned his head around for a quick look. To his horror, the grootslang beast was closing in on them with at a frightening speed. At any moment, it could gore either of them with its tusks, if it's snake-like tusk doesn't catch them first.

Spike looked ahead to see both him and Applejack were heading towards a fallen tree. With a kick of her legs, Applejack leapt over the fallen tree, while Spike laid flat on his stomach and started crawling under the log.

"Spike!" Applejack called, when she turned her head and saw the man crawling. "Hurry!"

"I'm hurrying!" Spike panted, crawling as fast as he could, while feeling the ground thundering and shaking as the grootslang monster closed in on him.

Without a second thought, Applejack leapt back and strongly pulled Spike, from under the log, and carried him away, just before the grootslang smashed its strong tusks through the tree, shattering it to pieces, and resumed its chase.

Spike can feel his heart beating fast. He didn't need to know that any second closer, and the grootslang could've killed him, had Applejack not saved him. Still being carried away, in the strong arms of the wolf-woman, Spike looked over her shoulder to see the grootslang was closing in on them.

"Is it still after us, Spike?" Applejack panted heavily.

"It's not giving up!" Spike whimpered.

"Well, ya know yer animals! What do we do now?"

Thinking fast, Spike tries to come up with a solution, knowing his and Applejack's life very much depends on it. But his heart was beating so fast from the adrenaline of the near-death experience, that he couldn't think well. His mind was running wild as rapidly as his heart, it was all clouded with fears and doubts.

"SPIKE!" Applejack screamed, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"I'm thinking! I'm thinking!" Spike shouted frantically, when he saw they were running towards a tree. "Applejack! Mind that tree!"

"Whoa!"

With a kick, Applejack banked right to avoid crashing into the tree. The grootslang, however, wasn't quick enough to make the sudden stop and turn. It tripped and fell onto its side, crashing into the tree, breaking it down, with its massive size. This, however, gave Spike an idea.

"That's it!" Spike exclaimed. "It's fast! But not on turns! Keep zigzagging and we'll lose it!"

"Alright then," Applejack nodded in acknowledgement, as both she and Spike continued to run from the grootslang.

Being an ever so persistent creature, the grootslang continued to chase after both she-beast and man. However, both Spike and Applejack continued to make several sharp turns, all the while tricking the grootslang to crashing into trees and every other obstacles in its path of destruction. Despite its obvious disadvantage of mobility, the monster continued to persist, after both Spike and Applejack.

"We can't keep running like this forever," Applejack panted heavily, running out of breath. "We gotta lose this thing!"

Suddenly, Applejack fell forward, causing both her and Spike to tumble down a steep hillside. They rolled, like runaway balls, until they finally came to a stop, and landed in a pile of bones. Bones that were so old that they hardly bear the grotesque stench of decaying flesh. Though, the very sight of the bones scared the living daylights out of Spike.

"Whoa! An elephant graveyard?!" Spike exclaimed.

"Ow!" Applejack whimpered, sounding like a frightened and injured dog. "My leg!"

Spike got up, brushing some of the bones off of him, to find Applejack, laying on her side, with one of her legs bleeding, from a deep gash on her right leg. It was a grimacing sight to behold, seeing a large open wound. So grimacing that Spike could lose his lunch from the overwhelming squeamish sight.

Before either Spike and Applejack could process any further on their predicament, the demonic trumpeting sound of the grootslang brought their attention to the snake-pachyderm hybrid, slowly stalking towards them both for the kill.

"Spike! Get outta here!" Applejack barked to the man.

Spike complied, turning to run away from the beast. But then, he stopped, looking back at Applejack.

"Applejack?" He ran back to the wolf-woman, who stopped him from coming any closer.

"Forget about me, Spike! Jus' go! Run! Save yer self!"

Once again, Spike hesitated. His mind was buzzing with so many thoughts, questioning his next move. Should he run and save himself from the beast and leave Applejack to die? Or can he somehow distract the grootslang and lead it away from the wounded wolf-woman? But what can a man like him do? What can he use to fight off the beast? Let alone save Applejack?

"Spike!"

Snapping out of his buzzing thoughts, Spike frantically looked down at the ground, before he picked up a pebble and threw it at the grootslang beast.

"HEY!" He shouted at the beast. "Come and get me!"

"Spike! What are ya doing?" Applejack asked in confusion, watching as the snake-pachyderm hybrid turned its attention on Spike. "SPIKE!"

Spike was just about to turn and run, when he was picked up by a pair of hands, and hoisted up into the trees.

"WHOA!" The man yelped, from the sudden adrenaline, before he finds himself in the tree branches, face-to-face with a familiar pink monkey-woman. "Pinkie Pie?"

"Where you expecting maybe Minka Mark?" Pinkie joked, before she turned her attention towards Applejack. "Don't worry, Applejack! I'll save ya!"

Reaching into her apron, which likely holds a hidden pouch or something, Pinkie Pie produced a pair of coconuts which she used to hurl at the grootslang beast. Spike watched as the coconuts hit the grootslang and, to his surprise, exploded into colorful flashes upon impact. This scared the grootslang terribly as it turned tail and fled in the opposite direction, away from the friends.

"Whoa! That's pretty cool, what you just did there, Pinkie!" Spike complimented the pink monkey-woman.

"Thank you, Spikey-Wikey!" Pinkie Pie chirped, before she grabbed Spike and a vine, and they both swung down.

"Whaaaa!" Spike yelped, before he and Pinkie regrouped with the injured Applejack.

"Are ya okay, Applejack?" Pinkie asked.

"Aside from a broken leg, some bumps and bruises, I'll live," Applejack sighed. "Thank ya for saving me, Pinkie!"

"Don't thank me yet," Pinkie replied, as she got out a roll of bandages to wrap around the wound on Applejack's leg. "First, let's get ya outta here!"

"Speaking of which," Spike began. "What were you doing out here, Pinkie? And how did you know we were in trouble?"

"I was picking some fruits of course!" Pinkie Pie answered. "I'm making a fruit salad for everyone, back at the camp, when I ran out of mangos and bananas. So, to make my bananarama delicious fruit salad, I went out to pick some bananas, coconuts, and mangos, when I heard you and Applejack were in trouble. So I loaded up on my coconut bombs and swing into action, like Tarzan, Shanna the She-Devil, or Spidey, I swing to the rescue!"

Neither Spike, nor Applejack, were able to catch every words that Pinkie had spouted at them. Nevertheless, they were grateful of the monkey-woman for saving them.

"Right," Spike replied hesitantly.

"Anyway, let's get outta here," Applejack gingerly got up on her legs, with Spike and Pinkie Pie helping her up on her feet.

As the three friends climbed out of the elephant graveyard, Spike turned to cast one last glance at the said graveyard, with a slight pang of sympathy.

'I've once heard stories about these elephant graveyards,' He thought to himself. 'But I never thought I'd see a real deal for myself. They say that when elephants reach a certain age, they instinctively come to these place and die.'

While thinking to himself, another dreadful realization hits him. Because they're on an island of Beast-Folks, then what are the chances that some of these skeletons belonged to elephant-like creatures, that were once human? If so, then who knows what were their last thoughts before they died? Their loved ones from the civilized world? The world where Spike came from, when everyone are still humans? How much they missed being human? Or wanting nothing more than to be put out of their misery?

All these questions running wild in Spike's head makes him come to the realization of how much horror the She-Beasts have had to endure, just as the graveyard looks more bleak and lonesome. Of course, all graveyards are all the same, be it man or beast.

Later, the three friends were at a tree, watching Pinkie Pie climbing up a banana tree, collecting bananas and carrying them all in her apron, that acted like a makeshift pouch for her. After she was done collecting the yellow fruits, she moved onto a coconut tree to collect the nuts, before moving onto another tree, to collect more fruits.

It would've been less awkward, especially for a gynophobic, like Spike, if it wasn't the fact that the apron was the only thing Pinkie Pie was wearing, meaning the poor traumatized man was treated to some flashes of her swelling red backsides, like those of a baboon.

"Uh...not that I was staring or anything," Spike blushed, as he talked to Applejack, expressing is discomfort. "But...does she...have any...other clothes...to wear?"

"She does," Applejack confirmed. "But...she just likes it this way. What with the tropical climate and all, and...how she likes to ...turn up the heat, when she's cooking. If ya catch my drift."

"Great," Spike rolled his eyes. "A She-Beast who's a perverted exhibitionist."

"Hey, now, Spike. No need for that. Just...Just think of her as...an animal, because...she's part animal. And she's just livin' her natural environment and...animals don't normally wear..."

"Applejack, I know you're trying to help me, and all. But what you're saying is just weirding me out and it's making me feel more uncomfortable."

Applejack let out a sigh, before she spoke, "All I'm trying to say is just 'bear with it.' No pun intended. I'm not saying ya have to like it, but...ya gotta accept it. This has been our lot in life, since we've been brought to this island and–"

"Heads up!" Pinkie Pie hollered, as she tossed down some fruits for Spike and Applejack to catch.

Though, both man and wolf-woman were caught off-guard, as they fumbled a bit, collecting the fruits. Applejack tried to catch all of the apples that were thrown at her, while Spike finds himself at the mercy of several fruits dropping onto him, knocking him on his back.

A gasp was heard, when Pinkie Pie came back down to the ground, horrified at what she did to Spike.

"Spike! I'm so sorry," She apologized. "I didn't mean to hit you! I was just...just..."

The pink monkey-woman's apology was short, when she burst out laughing at the state Spike was in. Spike got up, completely unaware that he looked like he was wearing a fancy fruit hat, with the pineapple as the centerpiece, and the bananas looking like earrings.

"What's so funny you stupid, pink...monkey...thing you?" Spike demanded, asking the laughing monkey-woman what the fuss was all about.

It wasn't long before Applejack too joined in on the laughter, that Spike started laughing along, because of how infectious their fun was.

"Why am I laughing?" Spike chuckled.

"Just laugh!" Pinkie Pie advised, as she and her friends continued to laugh together.

After a long while, the sun was just about to set over the horizon. By then, the friends' laughters have died down, and they were collecting the fruits to bring back to camp.

On the way, Pinkie Pie struck up conversation, "I'll bet you haven't laughed like that in a long time!"

"Huh?" Spike replied, not sure where Pinkie was getting at, or how she even knows. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm good at reading people," Pinkie Pie smirked. "You were just a shy boy, back when, growing up in Montana. You had a hard time making friends with kids your age. And the only friends you have are your families and your pets. Am I right?"

"Well, yeah, actually," Spike confirmed, before he realized something startling, "How do you know I grew up in Montana?"

"Just a hunch!" Pinkie squeaked.

"Then, any chance ya have a theory on Spike's fear of women, pray tell?" Applejack asked, wanting in on the conversation. "Sorry for intruding, I just...wanna know...y'know?"

"I might have a few ideas," Pinkie shrugged. "But the question for Spike is, how do you face your fears with women?"

"I...I don't know," Spike shrugged, not having been asked that question, up until this point. "Normally, I try to avoid women the best I could. Just the thought of looking at one, or even talking to some just...it really gets me on edge. I start sweating so much, I...I get this clammy feeling, I feel my blood turning cold, and everything. Honestly, I think it's better if I don't talk to any women at all. Which is why I like talking to animals a lot more than with people sometimes."

"Well, y'know, Spike," Applejack began. "Technically speaking, we're animals."

"And we're women!" Pinkie Pie chirped. "So, in a way, that's kinda the gray area, don't you think?" She smiled.

Spike was at a loss of word, as this newfound epiphany was a lot more for him to process.

"I don't know anymore," Spike sighed. "Female animals are okay. But...but...the opposite gender...of my...I don't know anymore. I'm scared of women. Okay? And...even if you She-Beasts do turn back to your human forms, eventually. I..."

Spike grunted in frustration.

"I'm just so confused! I don't want to be afraid of you gals anymore, but sometimes I am! But then I don't and it doesn't make sense. And now I have a major headache!"

Applejack and Pinkie Pie turned to look at each other, exchanging sympathetic glances, before turning to look at Spike with regrets in their eyes. The man was conflicted with his emotions and they feel worse just seeing him like this.

"Well, y'know, Spike," Pinkie Pie began. "I'm sorry if you're scared of us. But just so you know, we're all in this together."

"And we're just as scared as you are," Applejack added. "We all want to go back home, just as badly as you do."

Spike inhaled a deep breath, before he exhaled, "Yeah, I know...."

"And besides. Feeling sorry for yourself, and trying to avoid problems isn't the smartest way to deal with your fears at all!" Pinkie Pie lectured.

"Oh really?" Spike asked. "Then what is?"

"Well..."

Without warning, Pinkie Pie started to sing a musical number of how she was scared of the dark, until her grandmother gave her a helpful advice on dealing with her problems.

Pinkie Pie's laughter song

At the end of the song, Pinkie Pie was panting heavily, while holding her arms out, and posing on the ground, on her knees. Applejack simply clapped her hands, rather slowly, as if she's heard this song one time too many.

"Cute. Catchy," Spike replied sarcastically. "Didn't work."

Pinkie frowned at that. This young man was going to be a lot harder to crack than she thought.

Suddenly, the sound of a woman's shriek was heard, not too far away.

"What was that?" Spike asked.

"That sounded like Rarity!" Applejack confirmed.

"And she's in trouble!" Pinkie chirped in alarm.