A Zebra's Pen

The room was enveloped in an eerie blue glow as a liquid boiled away in a small cauldron placed at the center of the room.

A figure was leaning over it with both hooves on a spoon. She was stirring the cauldron, tracing the shape in large looping motions and chanting away in a strange but hypnotic language. Reaching down to pick up two phials from a short table near her, the zebra carefully scooped out some of the deep blue liquid and placed it into one of the empty phials. She did this with the second one, but unlike before inside this phial was the head of a beautiful white flower, it’s large open petals glittering with golden pollen. When the flower touched the potion it dissolved, turning the deep blue liquid clear and colourless. Swirling it around revealed that the golden pollen had remained, and was swimming through the liquid like hundreds of tiny stars.

The zebra stood up and balanced the two phials on her back before moving over to her guests, picking a third phial of orange liquid up in her teeth along the way. She stopped in front of the red stallion first, and dropped the orange phial in front of him.

“This will stop you sounding hoarse. Drink a little every day, for a successful course.” She then placed the other two phials in front of the yellow pegasus. Pointing her hoof at the blue liquid she said, “Taking this will change your voice to that Of Flutterguy. The deep sound will let you sing, so long as you still want to try.” She then moved her hoof onto the next phial. “Bathing in this one will bring you back to normal health, and will return you to your old self.”

Zecora then took a step back and addressed all of her guests, “Is that all that you require or is there something else that you desire?”

A white unicorn replied with a shake of her head. “No that’s quite all right dear. You’ve done more than we could have asked for by giving Big Mac a cure for his throat and giving Fluttershy a way of performing.”

Zecora smiled, nodded and watched in silence as the trio got ready to leave. The three guests all said their goodbyes before hurrying out of the door and rushing back towards Ponyville. The zebra sighed in relief as she had no need to rhyme, something she believed was an honour to her guests no matter how confusing it may be. “That should be all the visitors I get today, now I can spend the rest doing as I please.”

Trotting back to her workstation Zecora collected her ingredients and took them into the store. As the zebra walked down the stairs into the underground floor, she started listing the ingredients she had used and making sure she placed the leftovers back in the appropriate places.

“So that was; one head from the silversun flower, five stems from the poison joke, two mint leaves and three cloves of garlic...” She paused as she walked past an empty container. “That’s odd. I could have sworn that I still had some rocknuts left.” She sighed, “Looks like I need to make a trip into the Everfree. I should really start growing some of these things; it’s not as if I don’t have enough space down here.” She continued to look through the shelves and containers, noting anything that she was beginning to run out of.

After a few more minutes Zecora left the store room and walked back up the stairs. Taking a quick detour into her bedroom, she picked up her empty saddlebags, hanging them over her rump and fastening them tight against her fur. Placing the list into one of her bags, she trotted out of her house and continued down the main path, her hooves kicking up light clouds of dust behind her.

“Now where are those bitter Redstems…? Ah!” The zebra stopped when she came across a small group of flowers with bright red stems and glistening black petals. She picked a few of them, slowly easing each one out of the ground trying to keep the roots intact. She then placed them in her bags making sure to mark the flower off the list.

Zecora then delved deeper into the forest, moving off of the main path choosing to follow one of the smaller tracks of trampled ground, made by hundreds of hooves travelling through the same place. She slowed herself to a walk, listening to the sounds of the forest. The wind flowed through her mane, and rustled the trees, knocking a few leaves from their stems and carrying them away on its gentle breeze.

A sharp crack came from the brush behind her and all sound died.

Silence enveloped her as the wildlife chose to be silent and flee as quickly as possible. Slowly turning around, Zecora peered into the dark undergrowth trying to locate the source of the sound.

“Who goes there?” she called, hoping that whatever was behind the green wall of plants was friendly.

A growl broke her focus. Her eyes shrunk to pinpricks and she pawed at the ground, beginning to step away from the bush she was facing. The growl came again, slightly louder this time and Zecora whipped her head around the dark path trying to locate the source of the sound.

A red bolt of colour flew out of the undergrowth, landing on the path before her blood dripping from a carcass in its maw. She whimpered and jumped back hitting up against a tree. A drop of sweat ran down her muzzle as she pushed against the rough bark.

The mare was pulled out of her shock as she felt her stomach rumble. A slight blush creeping along her face, “It looks like I was mistaken.” She looked carefully at the animal that jumped onto the path. Its small body was covered in a soft red fur. Its small beady eyes stared back at the relaxing mare. Zecora laughed and addressing the fox she said, “You’re not the great beast I was expecting.”

As if it had been insulted by Zecora, the fox snapped its head away and strutted off into the Everfree to enjoy its newest meal in peace.

Taking a deep breath, Zecora calmed her nerves and reached into her bag to take out one of the flowers from earlier. Placing the head in her mouth she bit it clean off the stem and began chewing on it. The slightly bitter taste was soon replaced by the sweeter core as the flowers natural properties held back her hunger. Swallowing it she said, “That was more excitement than I wanted to have today.” She put the flower’s stem into her saddlebag and got back to her current task.

As she disappeared around a thick tree, a shadow jumped down from the forests canopy rolling as it hit the floor. Raising a clawed hand to its lips it let out a short but shrill whistle. A moment later a great black wolf leapt out of the trees, coming to a stop at the shadows feet.

The creature held its hand under the wolf's mouth. Looking the beast straight in the eyes it said

“Drop.”

The wolf did so, placing a mangled corpse in his master’s hand. The creature instantly threw it away and watched as the corpses red fur flew into the darkness of the forest.

Placing his clean hand onto the saddle, the creature hoisted himself onto the wolf, and with a snap of the reigns, bounded off into the gloomy plant life.

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