Their Eyes were Watching the Apple Family

Chapter 3

I was shocked to hear that ponies thought they could even get to Siberia. But I was even more shocked because these crazy cousins actually began packing for a trip to Siberia! Applejack threw a suitcase at me yelling, “We ain’t got time to dawdle, pack up something warm for the trip and some food if you wanna snack along the way!” I knew she wasn’t playing around, so hurried to the dresser and pulled out jackets, sweaters, and sweat pants for the trip. Once I finished, the other two had been done for some time and left for the kitchen outside of Applejack’s room.
I came upon them emptying the fridge for all manner of non-perishables and water bottles. “We’re gonna need to carry a lot, so come get some food and drink for your pack too, sugarcube!” Again, I listened and responded immediately to Applejack’s order and gathered up food to fill up my suitcase with. Once we finished raiding the fridge, we ran to the door but only to be stopped by Applejack who blocked the way. “I just thought of something,” She said, “We look like us now, how are we supposed to travel outside of the store without our enchantments on?” Golden Delicious looked at me, hoping I had an answer, which, ironically, I did.

“Well, you guys are only 3 feet tall, I could say you are my children and wrap you up in some of the jackets and pants I have.” Applejack looked at her cousin, then back at me. She sighed, “It could work and right now, we don’t have much other choice. Give me some sweatpants and a jacket.” I pulled out two jackets and two sets of pants for the ponies and let them bundle up quickly. I had to help Golden Delicious get her pants on, but Applejack handled herself just fine. Once they were covered, we walked outside hoping to not draw too much attention to ourselves. Golden Delicious thought of a plan to get to Siberia and decided to let everyone know with a loud throat-clearing. “I know you humans use big metal birds to get to places really far away very fast…..” I cut in, “Those are called airplanes, Golden.” “Whatever,” She continued, “the point is we can get one of those and fly to Siberia, wherever that is.” “Actually, we can just buy tickets. We don’t have to hijack a plane.” I said. Applejack agreed that would be the best approach, and we ran as quickly as we could to Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

We were about 10 minutes from the airport, when Golden voiced her need to pee. Applejack was furious with her cousin’s “weakness”. “We don’t got time for this, Golden! We need to get to the airport now!” “It’ll just be a second, AJ! Sheesh, no wonder nobody sits with you at the reunions, except Applebloom of course.” Applejack turned red, but backed down and let Golden take care of her business. When she finished, we continued on and finally arrived at the airport 3 minutes before takeoff. We purchased tickets quickly, ran to the plane, and sat down just as the in-flight movie turned on. Fortunately for me, it was “Footloose” and I loved that movie probably more than I loved myself.
The flight was long and uneventful, but what made it seem “different” was a passenger sitting 4 aisles down from us. When we first boarded, I noticed the man but thought he was just another passenger. But as we flew for some time, I began to see him watching us, studying us. It was startling, but I still tried to pay it no mind. When we landed at a small fishing village in southern Siberia called Herknov that man immediately walked over to where we were sitting.
My first intention was to grab the ponies and run, but curiosity and fear locked me in place. As he approached, my heart raced and I began to sweat. He didn’t seem to notice, and said “Excuse me sir, I couldn’t help notice during the flight that your child has a brown foot! That is a sign of gangrene around here.” At that moment, I realized Golden Delicious’ foot had slipped out from under her jacket. “Oh, wow I hadn’t noticed, is there a doctor here who could examine her?” I replied nervously. The man looked pensive for a moment while he thought, then said quickly: “There is a man nearby named Doctor Vitaly; he can examine your little girl.” I thanked him, grabbed my “daughters”, and then rushed from the plane onto the icy ground of Herknov.

“Well that wasn’t quite what I expected from being on one ‘a those things,” said Applejack. “Did you know that strange fella? And what did he mean by gangrene?” “He thought Golden was sick because her leg popped out from the jacket and he saw it was brown,” I replied. Applejack tried to speak, but I hushed her and we walked briskly to town. I asked a local where a decent hotel was, but he just laughed and walked away. Eventually, from asking enough of citizens, I learned small towns in Russia like this one don’t have hotels. Instead, they stay in small, family owned lodges usually located at the water’s edge.

I took the ponies back to the outskirts of town where we got off the plane and asked the landing engineer if he knew where one of these lodges was located. He said he did and pointed to a small black dot in the distance about a mile away. The ponies and I began the trek, and Golden started to Applejack about something. I couldn’t hear them since they were whispering, but once they finished talking; Golden turned to me and said: “Do you remember what that weird guy on the plane was talking about?” “Sure, he said something about going to see a doctor. “ “Yes and what do doctors do?” she asked. “Well they help people get over sickness.” I replied. “Do we have to spell it out for you, sugarcube,” Applejack cut in, “That doctor could have makeup equipment to disguise ourselves with!” I thought how she crazy she was sounding, and then I remembered that after I had my own nose surgery back in 8th grade after Austin Poff hit me, the doctor gave me some makeup to cover up the scars after surgery. “I get you, we go to this doctor and see if we can snag some of that after-surgery makeup stuff to make you guys look more like humans with human skin color, right?”
AJ and Golden nodded in unison, and I knew what we were going to do the next morning. After we took care of that little “business” we decided to strike up a conversation about the differences between our worlds, and Applejack talked about how wonderful it would be to go home after they finished their job here. She still didn’t fully trust me yet, I could tell. But this was living, breathing honesty, the most dependable of ponies. I couldn’t imagine her wanting to use me so she could get what she wanted; it just didn’t sound like her. I dismissed the depressing thought as yet another one of my crazy ideas, and kept quiet the rest of the way to the lodge.

When we arrived, the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Baskov, greeted us warmly and ushered us inside. “You 3 must be tired, how far did you walk,” asked Mr. Baskov. I told them we only walked 1 mile to get here, but Mrs. Baskov began to panic about that. “My word, you travelers are awfully brave to not only walk here, but to walk such a far distance!” “Why? Is there something dangerous about that road?” I asked. “You all are definitely travelers then,” said Mr. Anatoly, “otherwise you wouldn’t have said that.” Mrs. Baskov went into the other room to get the keys for our room and to make some hot cocoa. Mr. Baskov began to tell the story of what had been occurring in the area for some time.
Apparently, there was a йети, or yeti, that had been attacking travelers on any of the local roads outside of town. However, he would only attack travelers in groups less than twenty, and only at dusk. So I began to see why the Baskovs were concerned over us. Mr. Baskov continued to tell about how numerous bounty hunters had come through Herknov asking about the yeti. A bounty of 100,000,000 Rubles had been put on the yeti’s head-that’s a little over 3 million U.S. dollars! “Why is the bounty so high?” I inquired. “The yeti has been attacking and killing for almost 4 years, now. The beast has killed 4,500 people, so the bounty is high for a reason.” He replied. I was stunned, but let him continue the story. Many bounty hunters and trappers had come to kill the beast, and all have not returned from the hunt.

One man, who was thought to have the skill and ability to kill the yeti, also came. He was a popular Russian hunter named Boris Aleksandrov. This same man also was a T.V. show host for his own program-“Hunting on the Tundra.” “But this man wasn’t like any standard hunter,” said Mr. Baskov, “this man actually did hunt dangerous animals as a hobby, so it was thought he could actually kill the yeti. Unfortunately, when he went out, he didn’t come back either.” So he finished the story with the hope that someone would be able to come and kill the yeti, and bring back their son, Viktor. “Your son went to go hunt the yeti, too?” I asked. “Yes, and he hasn’t returned either, so it is our hope that another hunter will come to kill the beast and rescue our child, if he still lives.” At that moment, Mrs. Baskov returned, and the ponies and I went upstairs.

“Wow that’s pretty crazy what’s been happening here. I never thought yetis exist!” I said. “They exist in Equestria though. As a matter of fact, the Griffins had to remove a herd of them that holed up in their mountains.” said Golden. I thought about what Golden just said, and what Mr. Baskov said about his lost boy and the hunter. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if we didn’t try to get that boy and the hunter back here, dead or alive.” Applejack and Golden looked alarmed, and replied in unison: “Are you crazy? That thing will skin us alive and swallow us whole!” “Well, Golden just said the Griffins had to get rid of some of them. Obviously you have had contact with the Griffins in their domain then, yes?” I replied. Golden looked nervous, but said: “Yes I have, but what is your point?” “My point is this,” I replied, “You know how to get rid of a yeti don’t you?” She knew I was telling the truth, and while she didn’t want to do it, and I could tell she REALLY didn’t want to do it, she nodded her head.

“Then it’s settled, we’ll go to town in the morning and get what we need to go get that boy and the hunter back, and anyone else that may still be alive!” Applejack must’ve thought we were crazy, she just shook her head and walked into her room. Golden walked into hers, and I retired to mine for the night. We had a long day ahead of us in the morning, and I feared what the future would hold for us should we fail.