Zel Digsite and the Changeling Heart
Zel Digsite and his green companion Cloverveil, were used to being in stupidly dangerous situations. These predicaments were almost always instigated by Zel and his love of relic hunting, much to Clover’s dismay and infinite irritation. But every now and then they take the time to rest and actually NOT get in trouble. The two had been traveling together for about four months now; they've even crossed the ocean to investigate newly discovered ruins in Marelaysia. Zel happily took notes on the Marelaysian Jade Guardian the duo just barely defeated as Clover stared at him with her trademark scowl. She had no idea why she’d decided to go along with this insane zebra on a country hopping, ruin exploring, death defying trip. She had it good in Ponyville, it was quiet and no one bothered her. Hell no one even spoke to her, they were too scared she’d go off on them. Of course that meant the town’s resident party pony Pinkie Pie would try to cheer her up. Clover shot her down every chance she got. She hadn’t wanted friends nor did she need them so as far as she was concerned Pinkie was simply an irritating little filly that was severely pissing her off. This again brought her back to why she was traveling with Zel…The zebracorn was just as outgoing as Pinkie Pie, the two even had a secret hoofshake involving pies and other slapstick objects. Zel’s personality was everything Clover hated so why was she compelled to go with him when he offered to take her around the world? Clover must have been deep in thought as she stared at him, she didn’t even notice he’d gotten right in her face and stared right back at her.
“So…as pretty as your eyes are...this staring thing we’re doing…it’s just gonna lead to mixed signals Sunshine.”
Clover snapped back to reality and headbutt him before a blush could be seen creeping into her cheeks. She immediately wished she hadn’t done that. Zel’s not only bigger than her; he was in top shape and quite solid and that was the exact opposite of what she was. Clover wasn’t out of shape or anything but don’t expect her to plow a field or get in real fight. Plus the mare had back problems and the last thing she needed was to do was hurt herself any more than she already had. Clover trotted to the other side of the fire to let her slight blush recede and to get away from Zel’s overly friendly attitude…of course this course of action usually just makes him pursue her.
“Oh come on Sunshine, we just beat up a Jade Guardian! S’not every day you can get in a fight with one of those. Not only that we found an Arcane Relic! These things are worth a fortune and are always worth researching.”
Clover scoffed and rolled her eyes.
“Sometimes I think you’re just a treasure huntah’, ya’ never find things that ah’ worthless.”
Zel grinned and opened his pack and levitated a sapphire amulet towards her.
“Wot’s this supposed ta’ be then?”
“That’s my one priceless artifact that I found a long time ago with a good friend of mine.”
Clover plucked it out of the sky, dissipating Zel’s orange magical glow and studied it a bit. It didn’t look too old but it was clearly well maintained. She cocked her head to the side when she saw the initials magically burned onto the amulets back.
“ZT? Wot’ the hecks tha’ even stand for?”
Zel looked away and shrugged, she’d find this out at one point anyway, may as well tell her now before they ended up running into her…
“So remember…when I said I’ve had a few companions join me during my travels? There was one I kinda…ended up loving. We discovered a lot of interesting relics; this particular amulet dates back to the old Crystal Empire. The Crystal Empire we have now was time locked for one thousand years, but this…oh, this thing is ancient. At least fifty thousand years old. But sadly there’s not many ways to actually PROVE its age. I could request Princess Celestia appraise it for me, but she’s a Princess and I won’t waste her time on something so trivial. But my companion at the time had the magical ability to do an appraisal that was...mostly accurate.”
Zel looked at the amulet wistfully, eliciting a snort from Clover. She still wasn't seeing the answer to her initial question.
“Oi…would ya’ answer tha’ question? Wot does ZT stand for?”
Zel sighed and went back to his pack and put the amulet in its little holding pouch, before turning back to the green earth pony.
“The Z stands for me and the T…is for Trixie.”
Clover stared at the zebracorn for a moment with a deadpan face before her expression soured.
“Ya’ mean ta’ tell me that ya’ dated Trixie…that blue unicorn attention whore? ARE YA’ DAFT?! She’s a lying little twit and is utterly USELESS! Who gave ya’ a damn doctorate? Ya’ have ta be medically brain dead ta’ even be able ta’ stand three feet of her!”
Zel simply looked at her as she went on about why Trixie was a less than personable pony. When it looked like she was finally finished he just laughed.
“Wow Sunshine I didn’t know you disliked her so much. Yeah its true Trixie isn't the most sincere mare but that’s just a mask she believes she’s been forced to wear.”
“FORCED?! Forced by WOT?! Oh did her mum not hug her enough as a filly? She can get right the fuck in line on that one eh? She get picked on in school? Welcome to society dammit! There’s no FORCING somepony to be a bitch Zel!” The zebra sighed and magically poked the fire to keep it going. He'd expected Clover to explode on him and he was right in his assumption. But he'd been around the green mare long enough to just weather through her little rage outs with a smile and snappy retort.
“Look Clover, I don’t know exactly what happened to you in your past and I agreed not to ask about it until you were ready to tell me, but you can’t put Trixie in the same boat as you…she’s only wearing a mask because she’s too weak to better the real Trixie, you're strong enough to not need one. That’s where I came in I guess. While she was with me she kept her act up for a while but eventually she started to let it go. After a while I got to see the real Trixie…she was honestly a very sweet mare if a little arrogant. She was just so afraid of being a failure one day that she had to make the Great and Powerful Trixie just to keep herself from giving up.”
Clover stood up and growled. How could he even think of defending her? NOTHING about Trixie was kind or wholesome. If anything Trixie was the embodiment of all the traits Clover hated.
“Was it tha sex? Was the sex soooo good you just overlooked her bullshit? Cause ya’ obviously didn’t see tha’ shit she pulled a few months ago. Face it that blue tramp played you. Its ponies like her that prove that I was right in not trusting anypo-anybody.”
Zel laughed again and shook his head. This is why he liked traveling with Clover, the mare had no filter and was more passionate about things then she let on. If he didn’t know better he’d think she was jealous.
“Sure the sex was fun but that had nothing to do with her relapsing when…right. Anyway my point is just because she felt too afraid to show the world she’s not “Great and Powerful” doesn't mean you need to condemn her. She has no one to help her cope anymore, so she went back to being the other "stronger" Trixie. Besides…you say you don’t trust anyone…but you seem to trust me. Even if it’s a little, trust is trust. These past months have changed you, you just haven’t noticed.”
Clover blushed at how he casually responded to her asking about sex, she was expecting him to avoid the topic but yet again she’d forgotten that Zel was a zebra and his whole outlook on life was different from hers. Clover grit her teeth and after a moment finally deflated and turned away to look out over the ruins. She turned her head to look at Zel again, her face somber.
“So why’d she leave? If she was doing so well with ya why’d ya send her away? Ya’ planning on sending me away when ya’ done with me too?”
Zel’s expression darkened for a moment before he brightened back up. Clover saw it for just a second but she certainly saw quite a bit of pain in that one flash.
“She…missed the stage so, we had to break up…She wanted to stay in Equestria and my job needs me to be mobile...so it was better for the both of us. So before we went our separate paths, she gave me the amulet. It was the one thing she’d excavated on her own, so that made it priceless to me.”
Clover stared at him a bit longer before nodding and looking back out over the ruins.
“So…who else have you traveled with? I mean ya’ ain’t exactly old…”
Zel shook his mane out and stretched out in the dirt next to her. He'd always wondered when this talk was going to happen, and he was more or less ready to answer her questions.
"Well...I've only had about seven traveling companions including you. Four of whom were mares. The first was Professor Sienna Pathfinder, brilliant mare. You know she was the one they based Daring Do on."
He was fond of his time with Sienna, he'd truly missed traveling with her. She was just as curious and adventurous as he was and her quick wit saved the two of them on many an occasion.
