“Well…I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, but I’m fairly certain this wasn’t it.”

Sky Streak stood stock still, looking rather dumbfounded at the hut in the middle of the clearing. The darkness of the forest seemed to lift as they approached, but all around them, it sat there, like gates into the fastness of the night. They had all felt refreshed to be in the light again, but Sky’s intrigue at a pony living in the midst of the forest had given way to confusion upon seeing Zecora’s hut.

“You’re sure this is the place? I mean, how can any pony live in a place so…so…primitive?” Sky asked, struggling for words.

“Now, now, be nice,” Twilight admonished him. “Zecora has been nothing but good to everypony in Ponyville since they stopped treating her like an enchantress.”

“Ugh,” Spike groaned. “Now I’ve got that stupid song of Pinkie’s stuck in my head again!”

Sky opened his mouth to ask a question, but Twilight beat him to the punch. “Just let it go. It’s better that way.”

“Oh…kay. So, where is this mysterious Zecora?” he asked, looking around.

Almost on cue, a head popped out of a window, and a voice deeper than Sky expected called out to them.

“Twilight! Spike! I knew you would show. But you’ve brought along someone that I do not know!” Zecora said, smiling as she ducked back into the hut. She quickly reappeared in the doorway, holding a strange pink flower in her mouth. She gently lowered it into a vase beside the door, and proceeded to come out to greet the newcomers.

“Hello, Zecora. I hope we haven’t kept you waiting,” Twilight said.

“I am sure you came just as soon as you could, but please introduce your friend as you know that you should!” she responded, looking at Sky with her blue eyes.

“Oh, of course. Zecora, this is Sky Streak. We met him entering the forest earlier, and he’s been traveling with us since. Sky, this is Zecora, the pony I’ve been telling you about.”

Zecora smiled as she observed him, but Sky stared blankly at Zecora, a bit overwhelmed by what he was seeing. After a few awkward moments, Zecora chuckled a bit.

“Many ponies I have met running with many herds, but this is truly a colt of few words!” she said, apparently trying to prompt him from his stupor.

Finally, he shook his head and brought a hoof to his temple. “You…you’re a zebra!” he said at last.

Zecora cocked an eyebrow at him. “Much time it takes you to state something so clear. Are you quieted by shock or by fear?”

“Fear?” Sky responded, feeling his senses starting to activate again. “Fear of what?”

Twilight cleared her throat and spoke up again. “As I was saying before, the residents of Ponyville all thought that Zecora was some sort of evil enchantress back before we all got to know her.” Spike groaned in frustration and walked away, holding his head. “It took a little bit of an embarrassing encounter for us to learn the truth. But trust me, Zecora’s nothing to be scared of. She’s as pleasant and kind as any pony can be.”

“That is true, my good Twilight, but there is now more than that. Will you please come inside where we can all sit and chat?” Zecora offered, heading back to her hut.

“But what about gathering your plants?” Twilight inquired.

“My plants do need tending, but they must wait. Your friend’s coming has hastened a perilous fate,” she said cryptically as she entered her hut.

The temperature seemed to drop for a moment as Sky looked on. All color seemed to fade as the world turned into dull shades of gray. He blinked. What the hay is this?

A sensation of building pressure rose in his head. He looked at Spike, who was standing beside him, but he seemed oblivious to anything that Sky was feeling. Whatever was happening, it was only happening to him. He opened his mouth to speak, when it happened.

A sharp, piercing pain burst in his head, causing the sensation that he thought it would split in two. In an instant, every hair from the top of his mane to the tip of his tail was standing on end. All four of his legs went numb, and his eyes snapped shut instinctively. And in the midst of the darkness of his own mind, clear as day, he saw a pair of red eyes trained on him, intent with malice, yet gleeful in some manner. Sky’s heart froze within him.

Then, almost as soon as the feeling had come over him, it was gone.

“Sky? Sky, answer me! Are you alright?” Twilight’s voice came to him through the fog in his mind.

He opened his eyes. He was still standing (somehow), but his legs were still weak and the feeling in them was slow to return. His vision was blurry, but he could see color again, and the purple blur in front of him he could only assume was Twilight.

“You shouted just now, like you were in pain. What happened?” her voice asked, though Sky couldn’t really see her. Behind her, a mingled grey blur (whom he assumed was Zecora) moved away from him.

“Uh...er…” Sky struggled to form words, but any clarity of mind that he had was set solely on maintaining consciousness. He narrowed his eyes in focus, and he could barely make out the violet eyes of his unicorn companion.

“Zecora! We need help! Something’s wrong with Sky! We should get him inside.” Twilight’s voice echoed in his ears, as though it came from a great distance away.

“It has passed now, do not worry. But come in now, and please hurry!” Zecora said, an unusual urgency mingled into her speech.

Sky felt a claw reach up on his left side, as though to steady him. On his right, he felt another pony move up beside him. “Come on, Sky, let’s get inside.” With an effort, he started forward. It was only after he started walking that he realized that he had been trembling the entire time.

“Does…does she always talk like that?” he asked, saying the first words that came to his mind. He was still feeling shaken. He stared after Zecora into her hut. She obviously knew something. But what? And how?

“Yes, but you’ll get used to it,” Twilight replied, gently leaning up against him. “But most ponies don’t respond to her like that. You don’t look so good.” She looked at him square in the face, and her eyes were full of concern. “Are you alright?”

Sky shook his head in an effort to focus his mind, but the feeling was slow to pass. “I’ll be okay,” he said at last. “Let’s hear this important message that Zecora has for us.”

It was only a few minutes before they were all resting on the ground of Zecora’s hut. She had made them all a warm beverage of some sort from her many plants, and she had kindly added a little something extra to Sky’s drink to try and help him calm down. A few sips later, he was feeling much more like himself, though a vague sense of anxiety hung in the back of his mind.

“Now, then,” Twilight began, “what’s this you have to say about Sky Streak and a perilous fate?”

Zecora closed her eyes and sighed. “It is the darkness,” she said. “It stretches far and near. But with it goes a sense of terrible fear. A malevolent spirit, and a will of its own, it chills ponies’ hearts and cuts to the bone.”

Spike looked up with wide eyes. “A malevolent spirit! Sky, that’s what you told us that Princess Luna said that she thought was behind the shadow in the forest!”

Sky turned his head towards Spike, but his eyes were cold and threatening. “You know, Spike, it was my intention of keeping my errand a secret, but it seems that every pony from here to Foalumbus will know about it at this rate,” he said in a low voice.

Spike recoiled, and both Twilight and Zecora looked at him in surprise. “Sky, don’t be so harsh! Spike didn’t mean to let that slip like that. Besides, Zecora is perfectly trustworthy! Your secret will be safe with her,” Twilight said in a gentle but firm tone.

Sky locked his gaze with her for a moment, then closed his eyes and sighed. “I’m sorry,” he began, “but I guess I really don’t feel like myself at the moment.” He took a sip out of the cup in front of him. “I was so eager to perform any duty when the Council gave me this task, and I set out determined to see it done. But now that I’m actually here…” His voice trailed off, and he made a sound that sounded like he was stifling a cry. “Now that I’m here, it feels like each step is just bringing me closer to something I can’t bear to face. And everyone I meet is being drawn into it with me. And if I can’t face my task, then how am I supposed to protect those that go with me?”

He buried his face in his hooves and let out a frustrated yell. Twilight looked at Spike, who shrugged and looked uncertain of what to do. Turning to Zecora, she saw that the zebra had arisen from her place and had walked over beside the pegasus.

“A great heart of pride has taken you this far, but it will not take you past here. A heart full of courage is required if you wish to conquer your fear,” she said in a soothing voice.

“Courage…” Sky echoed softly.

“Once, long ago, the hooves of the ponies governed this land. But since those long days, they have been led by an invisible hand. But now it is revealed, menacing and black. And if stretches out to take something, it will not go back,” she continued.

“Stretches out for what?” Spike asked, wringing his claws.

“Wherever it goes, ponies flee the land. It will gather everything it can.”

“It’s after all of Equestria, then?”

“So spoken by you, I hold to be true.”

“Then we have to let the Council know.” Twilight, Spike, and Zecora all turned to see Sky sitting up again, his eyes closed, but his voice was steady again. “It’s almost funny, you know? How this is all playing out, I mean.”

“How’s that?” Twilight asked, looking confused. Beside her, Spike appeared equally bewildered.

“Well, when I set out from Canterlot, I was bound and determined to see this through to the end. I felt so strong, so important, so…invincible, I guess. But the further I get into this forest, I feel less and less able to go on. If I hadn’t met you two, I wouldn’t have even gotten this far,” Sky replied, his voice again cold with frustration.

“But you did make it here!” Spike said in an attempt to console Sky.

“It was less like coming and more like being dragged along,” he said gloomily. Then, seeing the hurt in the eyes of his friends, he quickly added, “I mean that in a good way.”

He groaned. “Just listen to me! I can’t even talk without saying something that can be taken the wrong way! I almost feel like I’m becoming a different pony, one that I’d rather not be like at all.”

“Then be who you are, not who you may abhor! That is why you have friends, and that is what they are for,” Zecora admonished him.

“Zecora’s right,” Twilight chimed in. “We’re with you because we like you, and we’ll help you face your fears. Eight hooves are better than four.”

“Throw in some claws, and you’ve got yourself a team!” Spike shouted, jumping to his feet. “Of course, if I had hooves, then I’d let you use them, too.”

Sky looked into the eyes of his friends and saw nothing but warmth and comfort. He swallowed, and he felt the darkness disperse a bit. The gloom lifted off his shoulders, and he was Sky Streak, simple pegasus on a mission for the Royal Council, once again.

“Thank you,” he said, and he meant it. “But there’s still a lot to do. A threat as significant as this is something that I can’t just wait to report. Spike, take a note.”

The dragon had his quill and paper in a flash, and took perfect dictation. Within a few minutes, the letter disappeared in a puff of green flame. “They’ll be getting that soon,” Spike said as he closed the journal. “But what do we do now?”

Twilight looked over to Sky, but his eyes were downcast and uncertain. “I guess we keep looking for the source of the darkness,” she said at last. “But where do we find it?”

“I have told you everything I had to say,” Zecora said softly. “The remaining answers you must find on your way.”

“I know one thing.” Sky’s voice was quiet, but solemn. “I had a feeling not long after I set out from Canterlot that the forest was watching…no, more than that, waiting for me. And I felt it again when I arrived at your hut, Zecora. That’s what shook me up. But this…thing…is waiting for me. For some reason, it’s expecting me to come to it. So I gotta figure that if it wants me, it’ll lead me.”

“Speaking of creepy…” Spike said with a shiver.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Sky? I mean, you know enough now to report back to the Council. You could leave this to them,” Twilight said, her brow furrowed with worry.

“Heh, just look at you. You haven’t even known me a full day, and here you are, looking out for me like you’d known me your whole life. But this is my task, and I don’t know enough to report back to the Council. I have speculations, but nothing more. And I wasn’t sent to find speculations; the Council has plenty of those. I came to find the truth. Besides, this thing is after me. Not you. If I don’t go after it, I doubt anyone will be able to find it.” He smiled as he spoke, but Twilight could see the fear in his eyes.

He turned to Zecora. “You said that my coming was the sign of a dangerous fate approaching, Zecora. What did you mean by that?”

“Indeed the darkness waits for you, my dear Sky,” Zecora said. “And from it you cannot now fly. But in your heart burns a great light, and I believe the darkness will fear to face that fight.”

“A great light? In me?” he asked. “But I can hardly stand to think about facing the darkness. What kind of light is that?”

“Where the mind may fail, the heart may still prevail,” she said, and there was a flicker in her eye.

“Huh?”

Zecora shook her head and snorted in amusement. “When all appears dark when you come to the end, the greatest power comes from the touch of a friend.”

“We had better get going,” Twilight said from behind. “But once all this turns out, then we’ll be back to help with your plants, Zecora.”

“Until that time I shall eagerly await. But next time, perhaps, you shall not arrive late?” she said with a sly smile.

“If I can get Spike to wake up at a decent hour, then maybe we can arrive before noon,” she said, casting a glance at the dragon sitting on Sky’s back.

“Try dimming the lights at night,” he shot back.

“Wish us luck!” Twilight said as they set off towards the black walls of the wood.

“And courage,” Sky added under his breath.

They had not traveled far into the blackness again before the air returned to its heavy feel and stale taste. It felt oppressive now, though they each attributed that to more than just the lack of the wind.

“Zecora’s quite an interesting character,” Sky said, breaking the monotonous silence.

“She most certainly is. I’m glad you approve of her,” Twilight said.

“Though I do wish that she would speak more clearly.”

“Zecora’s words usually find their meaning when you need them the most. At least, that’s what I’ve found to be true. It’s a good idea to remember them. You never know when you might find out what they really mean.”

“I’ll do that,” Sky said, though he was still unconvinced.

“It’ll all turn out in the end, Sky,” Twilight said, looking him in the eye. Her reassurance lightened his mood, but the look in her eyes was one of both pity and sympathy, and he felt a tug on his heart.

“You’re sure?”

“It always does.”

Author's Note

If you're wondering why I gave this story the "Dark" tag, this chapter is the beginning of the answer.