Whatever Happened?

     We headed to the destroyed town of Ponyville to warn the work ponies. It took us a few minutes to find them, but we did.

     "Everypony, we need to leave now." I said.

     "But why Princess Twilight?" One of the ponies asked.

     "Listen," Rainbow Dash said. "There's something in a tree over there. The tree was never there. And the thing inside it has pure red eyes and a black suit. I have a bad feeling about it."

     "But--" another started.

     "No. No buts. You need to go now. And that's an order." I said sternly.

     "Y-yes, Princess. As you wish."

     "Good. Now where are you guys staying? I'll come get you when the coast is clear." I asked.

     "We'll be in Appleoosa." One of the stallions sighed. They gathered up their tools and left.

     My head was spinning as the depression of the town being destroyed kicked in. We are postponing the chance of the town being redeemed right now. Our friends are dead, and now there's a mysterious tree by Dashie's house. I felt like going to my brother and crying on his lap. But obviously there was no time for that then. No, we had to kick a tree out of town.

     "Let's go look at that tree now." Rainbow Dash said.

     We flew towards the tree that Rainbow saw cautiously. When we got there, she stopped abruptly. She pushed me back some,then flew forward a bit. She softly shook a branch. *thistle thistle*.  Waiting. *THISTLE THISTLE* a louder shaking came from the inside of the tree.

     "What?" Rainbow asked. She shook the tree again. *thistle thistle*. Waiting.

     *THISTLE THISTLE* "Get out!" A deep voice yelled.

     "How can I get out if I'm not even in?" Rainbow sarcastically asked.

     "Get! Away!" It shouted.

     "First, tell me who you are."

     "You can't make me do anything." It said.

     "Nor can you. So why are you trying to make me leave?" She asked.

     "Because you don't belong here!"

     "I don't belong here?!" She emphasized the word "I."

     "No! You don't!" Its deep voice turning into an annoyed growl.

     "Ugh. I never thought that a tree could be so obnoxious. Or annoying." Rainbow said.

     "That's it!" The figure yelled, then jumped out unexpectedly, right onto Rainbow Dash. She yelped and tried to squirm out of the black figures grip. Now that it was in light, I could see it. It had a dark black cloak, large bold red eyes, with no white or black, and... Very sharp teeth making their way towards Rainbow's neck! I lunged at the large strong figure and knocked it, as well as it's breath out. Dash suddenly grabbed me and pulled me up into the sky. Out of nowhere, the figure grew wings and did as well.

     "Really?!" Rainbow scoffed. "What are you?"

     "I can't tell you." It said. The tension in the air lessened.

     "Why?" I broke in and asked.

     "I just can't."

     "You can. Please tell us. We won't hurt you, we promise." I shot my head at Rainbow Dash and said, "Right, Rainbow?"

     "Yeah, we won't hurt you." She agreed as we flew downwards to the ground.

     "I am," the figure said as it pulled its hoof up to take the hood off of its cloak. I caught a glimpse of a black and white stripe. "Zecora." She whipped the cloak off and her normal voice was used. Her teeth retracted and wings disappeared. Her eyes went back to normal. The size of her body lessened some, but, because she was a large zebra, she didn't shrink much. She dug in her cloak until she found a pocket on the inside and pulled a small bottle out. She dropped it and smashed it to the ground, causing the glass to shatter and the blue liquid to leak out.

     "Z-Zecora?" Rainbow asked shocked. "I thought I killed you."

     "I did too, little mare, but I was in a coma. Ask questions of you dare." She said as her rhymes started coming back to her.

     "Then how are you--?" Rainbow asked as she cut herself off.

     "When I awoke from my snooze, I found myself all cut and bruised." She explained. I knew what happened, Rainbow Dash, even though my head had a huge gash. I know that it was not you who did this. What it really was, was a creature from the forest. The creature scared me while I was pouring the potion called dosarown. So the result made an explosion destroying the town." She finished.

     "So... It wasn't my fault?" Rainbow Dash repeated.

     The frail zebra shook her head. "But" she started. "You do need to leave. The creature that scared me is on the weave. It is large. It is scary. And it is actually quite hairy. But that is not the point, you soon will have learned. The creature is but one of a large herd."

     "How large is it, Zecora?" I asked.

     "It is very large, if my mind is correctly processed. Maybe about the height of two stacked princesses." She answered. Just then, a growl churned from all around us. Our eyes turned to pinpricks as we stared into the forest.

     "Zecora?" I asked fearfully, not taking me eyes off of the trees.

     "Yes, princess?" She replied.

     "Is that the creature?"

     "It is." She answered, not bothering to rhyme. We all backed up slowly in sync as three pairs of yellow eyes pop out one by one. They just stood there growling at us. One jumped out as as soon as that happened, Rainbow Dash grabbed Zecora and flew upwards, as did I. The other two came out too, and they had a powerful jump, so we had to fly higher. We couldn't seek shelter in Rainbow's house because the wolf-like creatures could jump that high. Instead, we we're stuck in high altitudes flying towards a safer place. We weren't really worried because we had one advantage: we (except Zecora) could fly. We took turns passing her to me and back to her. A good hour later, the wolves have up and went back, but we kept flying until we reached Canterlot. As soon as we landed and Zecora got off my back, I went to the castle and told Luna.

     "And that's-- when we-- came-- over here." I finished my story in between gasps for air.

     Luna rang a large bell as a swarm of guards entered the room. "Set up the royal guard line around the border." She ordered the guards nodded and galloped away. I stood in dismay as Luna becomes me to leave with her. I slowly walked out of the room, thinking about what's gonna happen next.