The Path Of A Zebra

Sokhor's tired eyes finally laid onto the town of Ponyville, he had lost track of time but a least three weeks had past since he had entered civilisation, but he knew that this wasn't going to be the same world as he once knew, he only knew of two zebras in Ponyville, himself and his target. The rest of the them would be ponies, they were a race of many achievement and talents, they used all of these gifts to create a better society for themselves and that gave them great power over the land. When someone would mention ponies in his tribe, he would always think of the two sisters, the two unique ponies that have the power to move the sun and moon at their will, once the other races despised the two sister, they believed that they couldn't be trusted with such power and responsibility, however over time the races came to adjust to the two sisters, accepting them and placed some trust in them to forever raise the sun and moon.

Sokhor saw in the distance, a few ponies flying through the sky. His teacher told him that this was a pegasus pony, it had the gift of flight and could effect weather patterns to make it whatever the pegasus wanted it to be. What kind of advantage that would give the pony, the ability of flight would make travelling much easier and safer, though not completely safe, some of the monsters from his land had wings.

Another thing his teacher told him was that the pony land was a lot more safer than the zebra lands, almost no monsters lived their besides a few secluded places far away from where ponies built their settlements. The only thing he had to worry about was the ponies themselves, he had heard the stories of Nightmare Moon and King Sombra when his was a child, it made him both terrified and curious to learn about the ponies.

Sokhor tried to get a few of the pegasi attention by waving his hoof in the air, none of them stopped or landed near him and he thought a few of them were ignoring him on purpose, none of them had paused to look at him, but a few turned their heads to look when they thought he couldn't see them.

He didn't want to walk around by himself into Ponyville, he had no idea how pony would act around him, if they were ignoring him outside of the town then it could only get worse inside the town. He contemplated finding somewhere to camp for the night, perhaps the ponies would be more talkative in the morning, but he thoughts were interrupted by the sound of hooves hitting the ground behind him, sure enough, a pegasus had landed behind him and looked at him cautiously. She had a greyish blue coat and a pretty bow in her bluish hair.

“Hi...” The pegasus greeted shyly, Sokhor lowered his hood to look at her better, she was very different to what zebra's look like, she was really brightly coloured, he couldn't tell if she used some sort of dye to get that variety of colour.

   “Hello... pegasus,” Sokhor replied with a bow, he didn't know how ponies acted around each other, he didn't know anything about ponies at all, perhaps he should ask her about it.

“Err... your not from around here, are you?” she eyed his weapons and armour cautiously, he knew that ponies were mostly peaceful creatures, so she had a reason to be scared by his deadly sword, as if he attacked her, she wouldn’t be able to defend herself.

“I have walked from the zebra lands, to complete my trials that I have been set,” Sokhor said  to the pony, he had no idea if she would understand where he meant by 'zebra lands', but the shocked look on her face was enough for him to assume she did.

“Really? You walked that far?!” the pony asked, she was really surprised by how far he had walked, zebra lands were far, far away from Equestria. “You must be exhausted. Please, let me show you around the town, its the least I can do to show you some pony hospitality,” she offered, Sokhor wasn't expecting kindness from the first pony he had met.

“That is very kind of you, however I have nothing to offer you and I do not want to interrupted your day,” Sokhor began to walk past the pegasus, but she stopped him gently with her hoof, she quickly moved her hoof back to her side afterwards.

“It would be my pleasure to show you around, and I had nothing else to do today anyway,” the pony insisted, he knew to watch out for ponies trickery and deception, but she seamed rather genuine to him.

“Very well, lead the way...” Sokhor indicated towards the town, the pegasus gladly took the lead but slowed her walking so the two could walk side by side. “So... are you going to tell me the real reason you're helping me?”

“What do you mean?” the pony responded with a confused look, Sokhor looked at her for a while and she cracked, “Well... lets just say it helps to have a pony with you if you're a abnormal species that;s walking into town, the ponies will act more calmly around you, and you need the ponies acting calm around you, with all that gear and... weapons on you... it could be quite frightening,” the pony explained.

“May I have the honour to learn your name?” Sokhor asked, lowering his head as a sigh of respect. It was a zebra custom to bow heads when they learn each others names.

“My friends call me Flitter,” she looked at him questionably as he raised his head, he just guessed that the two separate species had different traditions, he'd have to learn the pony tradition as soon as he could if he wanted to fit in better.

“Thank you Flitter for helping me, my name is Sokhor,” Sokhor thanked, Flitter smiled at him as a response, he never really seen many things smile, the zebra race were a serious bunch, whether it was the constant monster attacks or occasionally going to bed with a empty stomach during the cold winter nights, Sokhor guessed that most zebra's didn't have the time to pursue the things they loved and enjoyed, that meant they didn't have much else to smile about.

The two were only into the outskirts of the town and Sokhor was already amazed by pony craftsmanship, unlike the zebra houses, their houses were made of good quality wood and other materials that he didn't recognise. The ponies had also constructed a way of crossing the river that ran close to the town, Flitter called it a bridge and it was made of strong stone that he hesitated to cross over at first, but she had reassured him that it was completely safe. Running his eyes up the river revealed a massive construction, Flitter explained to him that it was called a Dam and generated the town's electricity, he had no idea what any of that meant, but he was sure it was something to do with pony trickery.

When they had reach the town square, Sokhor was overwhelmed by the town, it was all too much, this town was the most populated place he had ever been to and the town hall was the largest building he had ever seen (Except the monastery). He was also getting a lot of ponies staring at him, some where shying away from him while others just watched curiously, he had quite the crowd gathering behind him. He had wanted to raise his hood up a few times to hopefully lose the attention of the ponies, but Flitter stopped him timidly each time, saying it would only make it worse.

Flitter had decided to cut the tour short when they got to the market place, she had estimated that around twenty ponies were following them, plus a few that pretended not to be following them as they would scatter away or quickly fake a conversation between each other. The market place was one of the most busiest places in Ponyville and she quickly regretted taking him here, but she had promised to show him around the town so she wanted to show him all of the popular places, she was hoping that they would have gotten use to seeing a zebra since the last time one was here.

“What is this place for? Why are this ponies all showing off they belongings?” Sokhor looked around, he noticed that a few were passing shiny, circular pieces of metal for the items on the stall.

“Do zebra's not have markets?” Flitter asked, Sokhor shock his head. “Well... when a pony makes something, they can sell it here for money, the pony that wants it can pay money they earn for the things they want.” she explained, Sokhor still looked puzzled. “Ok, I be able to show you instead,”

Flitter looked around the market for a pony that she knew would be able to sell her something without being overly scared by Sokhor. She spotted Roseluck by her stood, waiting around for some ponies to visit her, she should be alright with him.

Flitter walked over to Rose's stand, “Hi Rose, how's it going?” she asked, the mare at the stand looked pleasantly surprised by Flitter's visit. Sokhor believed she was a earth pony, as she didn't have a pair of wings or what he assumed was meant to be a horn, he had seen a few of the other ponies with some sort of bone sticking out of their foreheads. At first he thought it was some sort of trophy, a few zebras would make necklaces or other charms out of the bones of the monsters they have fought and won against, and he thought that the ponies could do something similar, until he remembered that ponies were all peaceful creatures.

“No bad, bit slower today, but its all going smoothly,” Rose replied with a smile, when she realised that Flitter wasn't alone, her smile faded and at the sight of his sharp blade a strong sense of fear grew inside her, but she did her best to keep her cool and stayed professional.

“Err... Rose, this is... Sokhor... Sokhor this is Roseluck,” Flitter introduced them, she had a little trouble getting her tongue to pronounce his name correctly, but she got it right without too much difficultly.

“Pleasure to meet you Roseluck,” Sokhor, once again, bowed his head to her slightly, Rose calmed down a bit after being introduced to him, if Flitter trusted him then she could to.

“Nice to meet you to,” she said, leaning over the counter slightly, “I never met a zebra before, its very exotic, have you travelled far?”

“Around three weeks of brisk walking through swamps and marshes, over steep hill and crossing vast plains. Nothing special,” Sokhor explained, both mares looked shocked, but this was a normal distance for a trial to be set, especially if you are taking the path of the warrior, the further away, the less likely you are going to get help from a fellow zebra.

“Really, all that way? Do you have a camp nearby or some friends with you?” Rose asked, for anything to walk that far was impressive, but if he had travelled through all that alone would be amazingly brave and a bit foolish as well.

“No, all I had brought with me is on my back and no partners or companions accompanied me on my journey,” Sokhor confirmed, both of their jaws dropped further. He had spend his whole life training for long distance travel so he was never surprised by the extremely long distance travel the adventurers went, but to a pony it was a long distance since they never had to leave Equestria.

Rose looked him over again, he did have a muscular build to him, but it looked like he was built for speed and agility rather than strength. She didn't know anything about the zebras, but she knew they weren't as civilised as ponies were, Sokhor seemed civilised enough to her expect for the weapons and armour he paraded around. She couldn't help herself from starting to like the zebra, she had always like mystery and Sokhor was bound to be a bucket full of surprises.

“Well, I'm assuming you will be sticking around for a while then, what are you planning on doing while you're in Ponyville?” Rose asked, shuffling closer to Sokhor.

He paused for a moment, thinking of what he could possibly do, “Well... If I'm truthful, I have no idea, for a start I should try and learn as much as I can about ponies,” Sokhor theorised, Rose nodded her head.

“Well... if you need any... help, with any of that, you let me know and -”  Rose began with a bit more lust in her voice that she had planned, Flitter quickly silenced her by hitting her on the shoulder gently. She was starting to regret her idea of talking to Rose now, she knew that Rose would be friendly and that's why she picked her, she should have known that she might try and get too friendly with him.

“Wow, look at the time, I think we should get a move on Sokhor, I still have lots to show you,” Flitter started to push him away gently, he looked confused with her sudden mood change, but she needed to get him away from Rose before she could talk him into anything.

“Actually Sokhor, can you please wait over their for a minute, I got to have a quick talk with Rose about something urgent,” Flitter pointed over to a well maintained tree, he nodded sharply and walked over to the tree.

Rose gave a small tutting sound, “Should of known you would have already nabbed him, bet you jumped him before he even got to the town,” she sneered, she was watching Sokhor by the tree, he was looking at a nest of birds as the mother bird fed her chicks. “You know that nearly any mare that's single is going be after him,”

“I know... I knew that when I first saw him, but I hoping his weapon might scare them away,” Flitter replied.

“He's got to take all that off at some point, pretty sure his just making for good eye candy at this point,” Rose looked away from him and began scanning over the other market stalls, a few mares were occasional looking over to him, but some looked more frightened by him rather than attracted to him.

  “Guess I should warn him about that...” Flitter gave a loud sigh, Rose nodded her head in agreement, “I should get back to him, before anypony tries to verbally molest him,” she said jokingly.

“Good idea, I better start packing up the stand anyway,” Rose looked up to the large clock by the marketplace, it would be dark very soon and she would prefer to get home before then. “Oh, send him my way if he needs any work, I'm sure I could find a use for him,”

“Alright, see you around,” Flitter waved her hoof and quickly walked back to Sokhor, who was still content about watching the birds.

“Hey... sorry about that, Rose can be a bit too social sometimes,” Flitter said, Sokhor didn't turn to look at her, but stayed fixated on the birds.

“Why do you persist on helping me?” he asked, never turning to look at her but stay still like a statue, Flitter saw he had his eyes closed as well.

She pondered the question for a bit in her mind. She didn't know why she was helping him, she was floating around lazily and enjoying the afternoon sunlight, she spotted a hooded pony off in the distance and flew over to get a closer look. When she saw that it was a zebra and that he was looking back at her, curiosity drove her to land and talk to him.

“Curiosity I guess, why a zebra would walk all that way to get to Ponyville, must be pretty important stuff,” Flitter replied, Sokhor opened his eyes and turned to her, and smiled.

“Very well then, I hope I will be able to sate your curiosity soon, but not now,” Sokhor replied, “Shall we get moving?”

Flitter smiled back and began walking with him following beside her, “Well... I guess I'll take you to my house, you look like you could use a good rest,”

Sokhor looked back at her with discomfort, “Are you sure?... I don't want to intrude on your family, I'll be happy to stay outside for the night,” he was thinking about spending the night by a camp-fire, looking up at the stars like he had done for all of his nights since he entered Equestria, back in the zebra lands, the stars were like tiny blimps that he thought were just figments of his imagination, but in Equestria they all shined brightly in the dark night sky, he enjoyed look up at them. sometimes he even felt like they were looking back at him.

“Don't worry about that, its just me and my sister in the house, besides its far too cold for you to stay outside,” Flitter insisted, they had already reach her house, it was nothing special and was just like every other house in the town, she lifted up the doormat and pull out the key for the door.

“Sister?” Sokhor mumbled as she opened the door, he had never been inside a pony house before, looking through the door revealed a cosy hallway with a staircase going up, it was one of the nicest houses he had ever seen.

“There you are, I was wondering when you were going to show up!” a voice boomed from the large door frame to the left. Another pegasus that looked similar to Flitter, but had her hair shaped differently and her colours were darker than Flitter's, walked out and into the hallway.

The mare looked at Flitter, but paused when she saw that she had a visitor with her, “Hey sis, didn't know you were bringing a new 'friend' around,” the mare said with a giggle, Flitter looked down at her hooves in embarrassment. “I'm only joking, how's it going dude,”

“Cloudchaser... this is Sokhor... Sokhor Cloudchaser,” Flitter didn't look up from her fore-hooves as she introduced them.

“Hello Cloudchaser,” Sokhor gave a little bow like he did to all the pony he met so far.

“A zebra huh? exotic...” she commented with a pause,“So... are you two just friends or...” Cloudchaser began

Flitter looked up and quickly tapped Sokhor's shoulder to get his attention.“Come on, lets get you settled in,” Flitter said, trying to ignore her sister question, Sokhor nodded in response and followed her up the stairs, Cloudchaser muttered a lewd comment as she walked back into the side room. She led him to her room, he started looking around but kept his hoof to himself as he looked over all of the furniture and decorations in the room, finally his eyes landed on the king sized bed in the centre of the room.

“What is that?” He asked, to him it looked like a large meditation mat with lots of cushions spread out over it.

“What? the bed, it's what I sleep on, don't zebra have beds?” Flitter asked.

“That's a bed? Its huge!” Sokhor exclaimed, poking the bed with his hoof with curiosity.  when his hoof began sinking he quickly moved his hoof away. “And to answer your question, we do have beds, but made of animal furs and feathers in a pile on the floor,” he explained, she scrunched her nose at the thought of laying on animal fur to sleep.

  “Doesn't sound comfortable at all, must be horrible to sleep on the floor every night,” she pondered, Sokhor nodded his head with another smile on his lips.

“If today is any indication, our worlds are very different to one and another,”  Sokhor said, Flitter thought over this in her own mind as well, he was a pony that had trained his whole live so that he could live and adapt to any environment he might find himself in. He had walked hundreds of miles in a short time with barely any supplies so that he could come to Equestria to 'complete his trial' that he was set, when he arrived many of the things that she used daily were completely alien to him. What kind of world would something have to live in if carrying a weapon was necessary for survival?

He was right, their worlds were very, very different.

“Yeah... but I will try my best to make you as happy as I can in my world,” Flitter vowed to him, his world must be full of sadness and void of all happiness, she wanted to share some of the happiness that her world had in abundance.

  “And I will hope I will be able to return the favour one day,” Sokhor replied in turn, pressing a hoof to him chest as all zebra's did when they made a promise they swore to keep.

After a hour or two, Flitter had finished explaining where everything was around the house and what some of the things did. She took him back in the bedroom. “Alright dude, I'll let you chill around, I got to explain some things to my Sister,” she said, she wasn't going to enjoy explaining this to Cloudchaser, but she had to do it. Sokhor nodded his head in response and she went the stairs to find her sister. She was sitting in the living room with a book, lazily turning the pages.

“Hey sis,” Flitter greeted hesitantly, her sister slammed her book shut and shuffled over to let her sister sit next to her.

“So... who is he?” Cloudchaser asked, looking at her sister inquisitively.

“To be honest, I don't know...” Flitter admitted with a sheepish smile, “He just walking around outside of town, I couldn't just let him wander,”

“So your telling me, that you found a random zebra that was walking around aimlessly in a field, and you brought him into your bedroom for the night?” Cloudchaser uttered, completely stunned by her sister flawless logic.

“When you say it like that, it sounds pretty bad,” Flitter joked

“Sis, it is pretty bad. You can't just invite random ponies into the house,” Cloudchaser stood up and walking into the kitchen, Flitter followed her and turned on the oven for her while she searched through the fridge for something nice to eat.

“Chase, trust me he's harmless, I just finished explaining to him how to open a door,” Flitter countered, she took a step back and let her sister have the run of the kitchen, she was the chef of the house since she barely knew how to use the microwave.

“Ok, he might be a bit of a idiot, but it doesn't change the fact that he has a sharp sword, and judging from the look of him, he knows how to use it,” she may of only seen him for a minute, but it was hard to miss all the scars that refused to fade away. “You should be careful around him, we've all heard the stories of what zebra do,”

“I know... but he seems alright, I think he just wants to learn about us,” Flitter said, Cloudchaser nodded her head in understanding.

“Well, if he wants to learn stuff, take him to the library, there's a whole section on pony history,”  Cloudchaser advised, Flitter thought about it for a moment.

“Good idea, I'll tell him that,” Flitter started to walk out of the room and up the stairs.

“Hey, ask him what he wants to eat!”Cloudchaser shouted as Flitter reached the stairs, she didn't replied and kept walking up the stairs to her room. The door was still ajar like she left it, so he hadn't left the room while she was away.

Sokhor had removed the bags from his sides and emptied some of the content onto the floor around him, he held in his hoof, a rag and in front of him laid his sword. On the rag in his hoof was some dried blood stains, indicating that he had killed something recently. The rest of the bags contained bottles of labelled potions, but were wrote in symbols that she couldn't understand.

“What's are all of these bottles?” Flitter asked, picking up one of the bottles to get a better look at the label, she couldn't read what it was called, but the skull symbol gave her a clear idea on what it did.

“Some are healing potions... some are poisons... for example, this one helps clean and close wounds, but one drop of this one can stop your heart from beating,” Sokhor explained, indicating to the two bottles.

Flitter quickly put down the bottle she was holding, as it was the one that stopped your heart, “Why would you ever need a potion like that!” she exclaimed

Sokhor looked up at her, “Mercy...” he said simply, she looked at him curiously. He stayed silent for a while, thinking of a way to explain it, “If I ever needed to kill myself quickly so I didn't have to suffer. if you were left out in the cold with no one nearby to help you, wouldn't you want to die quickly rather than over several days?” he spoke grimly then returned to polishing the sword, making sure the gems encrusted in the handle shined like they did when he was given it.

Flitter sat down next to him and shuffled closer to him, “You're world sounds so horrible... but you're in Equestria now, no horrible monsters here,” she reassured him, she looked over his armour, red marks where it had rubbed were clearly visible against his white and black coat and some of the pads themselves had red stains that had dried over time, it was blood, but this time it was his own.

“Lets get you out of this armour,” she said, fiddling with one of the straps so a shoulder pad could fall to the floor, showing off more of his strips.

As she went for one of the buckles that held on his main chest padding, he raised his hoof to hold her back, “Don't worry about it Flitter, I can do it by myself,” he insisted, putting the sword back into its protective sheath and moving it away from the two of them.

“no please, let me,” Flitter insisted, after a few seconds he gave a loud sigh and lowered his hoof so that she could continue taking the rest of him armour off.

As each part of his armour fell to the floor, she began to notice that the strips weren't completely random, but instead formed a swirling pattern around his whole body, she didn't know if he was born with these swirls on him or if he had styled them himself, but either way they looked beautiful, he was more like a canvas than a pony. Removing his armour was also a good excuse to look at his body closely, his muscle were as hard as stone and unlike all the muscular stallions she had seen back in flight camp, his had all been pushed to the limit multiple times, he hadn't grown these muscle by lifting weights or running laps around a field, but were earned in the wilderness and through harsh training on a day to day basis.

The final piece of armour fell to the floor, “There we are, that's much better don't you think,” Flitter smiled at him, he looked down at the pieces of armour that rested by his hooves, most of it looked beaten and worn down, but could be easily repaired with the right materials.

He stood up and looked around the room for a mirror, he hadn't seen himself for months, since mirrors were rare and most water came from wells in the village or in water bottles so he couldn't look into his reflection in them either, looking at the armour told him that he might have some battle scars from some of the more hairier fights.

He stared into his own reflection. He could barely recognise himself, dirt and mud concealed some of his strips and red sores or blood stains were dotted around his body, hair was all messy and  his eyes carry dark rings that weren't part of his original pattern.

Then there was Flitter, a well maintain mare with her hair brushed and trimmed neatly, her coat was well groomed with wings kept in near pristine condition. She was leaned against him closely so she could fit into the mirror’s reflection, she still had a smile on her lips and her raspberry coloured eyes were staring at him in the reflection.

“What do you want for dinner?” She asked randomly, backing away from him and looking directly at him.

“I'm sure anything you make will be fine,” he replied, turning to look back at her, she nodded her head and began to walk out of the door, he followed her but stop when he reached the stairs. “Do you mind if I take a shower before having dinner?” he asked, he didn't normally care about the way he looked and preferred to be more practical than looking fancy, but if he was going to be having dinner with Flitter and her sister, then he would prefer to look his best.

“Of course, you remember where everything is?” she said in reply, Sokhor nodded his head and walked towards where the bathroom was, Flitter continued to walk to the kitchen, her sister was still cooking the food when she stumbled in and sat down at the table, head in hooves.

“What'd he say?” Cloudchaser asked, Flitter began explaining most of what she knew about him and all of the things he had said to her.

She didn't know what to think of Sokhor, when she saw him waving at the pegasi that flew near him, he looked lost and alone with nopony to talk to, but when he started talking to her about his homelands, she was starting to think that nothing nice could come out of a place were weapons and poisons were carried around so casually...

Sokhor rarely felt 'clean', baths were a rarity back in the zebra lands and when he did have them it would only be a few minutes before he would start to sweat or would have to start crawling in the mud as part of his training. This time was different, this time he wasn't going to have to train or do anything at all, he was just going to stay in with Flitter until the morning. He had never had time to relax before with others, but a part of him knew that he was going to enjoy himself.

He looked back into Flitter's mirror, he looked much better, the pattern in his coat was much more visible than before since it was no longer distorted by the mud or dried blood that had sunk into his fur. His hair was left untied and was hanging down by his shoulders, he would normally tied his hair back so it wouldn't blow into his face whilst meditating and break his concentration. But he wasn't going to tie it up, he wanted to look his best and many zebra than had seen him with his hair down would comment on how nice it looked, his teacher described his hair to be like a manticore's mane, thick and fierce in every aspect but still looked smooth on the eyes. He had given up on understanding what he teacher meant when he said things like that.

Taking a deep breath in, he pried himself away from the mirror, assuring himself that he was  perfectly fine and that it didn't matter if he didn't have his hair up or his armour on, he was only going to eat dinner with two ponies that he had only recently met. He was going to have to get use to this, learning all of the different customs of a races that lived in the world and adapting to enjoy their company, this was just a small step on the long path of become a successful diplomat.

Sokhor could hear the two ponies muttering to each other, he could hear exactly what they were saying nor did he care, for the absolutely mouth watering smell of well cooked vegetables caught his attention and the grumbling of his stomach made him want to run into the kitchen like a mad pony, but he managed to control himself and peered into the kitchen through the large door frame. Flitter was sitting at the table and her sister was by the counter, mixing something into a bowl and pouring the content into three smaller bowls. Flitter saw him in the doorway and beckoned him to sit next to her.

Flitter looked at him in awe, with his hair down and flowing freely as well as the patterns in his coat now clearly visible, he looked enchanting to say the least. “Hey Sokhor, nice shower?” Flitter asked as she patted the chair that he was walking over to, she looked over to Cloudchaser, who was staring at him with googly eyes like she did back in flight school to some of the stallions.

“It was enjoyable,” Sokhor replied with a grin, he sat down in the chair and glanced over to the other pony in the room. Cloudchaser quickly regained her demeanour and brought two of the bowls over to the table, placing them in front of Sokhor and Flitter.

Flitter began eating her meal as soon as in landed in front of her, but Sokhor waited for all of the ponies to be at the table before eating. He wasn't sure what he was about to eat, however the gorgeous smell and look of it was enough to make him want to face-plant into it.

Cloudchaser sat down opposite him with her own food and looked at Sokhor curiously, he knew how to use a spoon and picked it up like Flitter was doing, taking a experimental spoon full of the chunky liquid and engulfed it into his mouth. A explosion of flavour hijacked his taste buds and sent his mind spiralling out of control, he was grounded to a halt, mind completely fazed by the incredible taste.

“You alright dude?” Flitter asked, waving her hoof in front of his face to get his attention, he was able to quickly reel back his mind.

“This... This is amazing,” Sokhor uttered his praise, moving his spoon to get a second mouth full of the sensational liquid, Cloudchaser gave her sister a reassured smile.

“See... told you he'd like it,” Cloudchaser said to Flitter, “Besides, It's only some vegetables mixed into a stew, why wouldn't he like that?”  she added on, she spoke like he wasn't in the room or was trying to ignore him for some reason.

Flitter gave a sheepish smile, “I just wanted to make sure that Sokhor here would enjoy his first pony meal,” she tapped him on the shoulder, making him look up from his food.

He had the feeling she was prompting him to say something, “Y-yes, the food is very nice, thank you,” Sokhor stuttered, the group stayed mostly silent for a while, each one slurping at their food. Cloudchaser kept on glancing over to Sokhor in between mouth fulls of her meal.

Cloudchaser had waited long enough, she wanted an explanation, “So... am I ever going to get an answer?” she asked, catching both Flitter's and Sokhor's full attention.

“What do you mean?” Flitter said, curious on how her sister was going to reply

“How'd you two meet?” she questioned, leaning in closer over the table

“She found me wandering outside Ponyville, she was kind enough to help me and showed me around,” Sokhor replied, looking innocent and apparently not picking up on what Cloudchaser was implying.

“Ahh... how sweet, she could never resist a lost stallion, well at least not the last one she brought in like it was a stray dog,” Cloudchaser chuckled despite Flitter scornful look.

“Chase, I thought you say you'd never bring that up,” Flitter grumbled behind her hooves. Sokhor looked between the two, but stayed silent.

“Alright, I won't talk about it,” Cloudchaser replied, a smile still on her lips as she turned to look at Sokhor, “What about you then? What's your story?”

Sokhor thought of a good way of explaining his trial to them without telling them too many details, “I'm looking for someone, a zebra, no name or description, hopefully that would be enough information, zebra are apparently very rare around here,” he said, both Flitter and Cloudchaser fell into thought.

“I remember that there is a zebra around here somewhere, don't know where she lives though,” Flitter informed, Cloudchaser nodded her head in agreement.

“It's not much, but better than nothing, thank you,” Sokhor looked down at his mostly empty bowl, even if he didn't know where she was, at least she was still nearby, Ponyville wasn't a massive town, he will be able to find her shortly.

“Why do you need to find this zebra, is it important?” Cloudchaser asked him

“It's important to me... not anyone else,” Sokhor chuckled, they both gave him confused looks, “This is my trial, my test to prove my worth, to put everything I have learned over my whole life into action, if I succeed then I get everything I have ever wanted, if I fail... well, I try not to think about that,” Sokhor explained.

Flitter patted him on the back gently, “I'm sure you won't fail, you've come this far,” she reassured him further with a warm smile, he gave her a small smile in return.

Time past quickly as Sokhor told them about life back in his homeland, skipping the horrible and unnecessary parts, he didn't want to talk about the horrific monsters that crept the woodlands and rivers, he tried his best to paint a positive image of his homelands to the two ponies listening. They asked him questions and he answered the truthfully and explained things as best as he could, but he was no poet or word-smith, so he couldn't explain things well and left them with many questions.

Sokhor tried his best to fight back a yawn, but he couldn't. Both Flitter and Cloudchaser joined him and yawned too, he didn't know how long they had been talking for, but it had been a least a few hours.

Cloudchaser looked over to a clock in the comer of the room, “It's getting late, it might be a good idea to go to bed,” she suggested, they were all tired and the thought of a comfy bed was very appealing to them all.

“Yeah... that's a good idea,” Flitter said as another yawn escaped her lips, “You must be tired to Sokhor, lets get you to bed,” She stood up and began to tug his foreleg lightly to get him to move.

“Ok...” Sokhor replied as he stood up, he walked slowly beside her, but turned back to look at Cloudchaser, who was still sitting at the table, staring off into space, “Are you coming Cloudchaser?”

Cloudchaser shock her head, “Nah, I'll got to do something real quick, you two run along,” she replied, resting her head onto the table.

He wanted to ask her if something was the matter, but Flitter kept on dragging him towards the stairs.

The two slowly dragged themselves into Flitter's bedroom, Flitter quickly crawled into her bed while Sokhor grabbed both of his bags and placed them next to the bed.

“What are you doing that for?” Asked Flitter, Sokhor looked up at her as he finished organising them into a pile.

“Making a pillow so I can sleep,” Sokhor replied.

“Don't be silly-” Flitter shimmied over and tapped the mattress with her hoof “- we can share,”

Sokhor hesitated, “A-are you sure?”

“Yeah, hop in,” she gave him another smile, he slowly crawled onto the bed. His body sunk into the mattress and his head rested lightly on the pillow, he had never felt this comfortable in his life. “Isn't that better than sleeping on the floor?”

“It's much better, thank you” Sokhor thanked, she blew out the candle that rested on the bed side cabinet and the room fell into complete darkness.

They both laid there in silent, the room was completely peaceful. until he heard Flitter edging towards him, “Hey dude... feel free to say no, but can we cuddle up, its pretty cold in here?” She asked awkwardly, the room was indeed, cold, but he was sure that wasn't her only reason.

“If you want,” he said, he was too tired to argue with her and he didn't mind her laying close to him. she quickly moved closer to him and he raised his hoof to let her slide closer to him. She rested her head against his chest as he wrapped his foreleg around her.

His chest was a lot softer than she thought it was going to be, despite all his muscle his chest was still as soft as silk and make for a good pillow, “Good night Sokhor,” she whispered to him.

“Good night, Flitter,” he whispered back. The room was once again, peaceful, the only sound he could hear was Flitter's soft breaths and the tickle of warm air that she breathed out of her nose. Slowly his muscles relaxed and he fell into a blissful sleep.