Zecora, as was her usual practice in the evenings, was out in the forest gathering herbs for her various remedies, which she sold in Ponyville Market. Tonight she was going to the ruins of The Castle of The Two Sisters. Apparently at one time Luna and Celestia had a collection of rare plants, which now grew wild in patches around the ruins.
Once finding a group of these plants, she took a small trowel form her hemp saddle bag she was wearing and used it to get at least he roots, which had the beneficial properties she needed. As she worked on collecting the roots she heard a rustling in the leaves, which made her weary. She did have a powdered poison joke leaves, along with several different bitter plants, in small breakable jars, so she could throw them and ward away any attacking timber wolf or other monster. So, as she replaced the trowel, she also pulled out the clay vile with the potent deterrent inside so that she was ready for the ambush.
Instead of being pounced on, like she was expecting, a dark blue stallion holding some sort of paper walked casually out of the jungle saying. "Hey do you know t-" That was all he could get out before the readied and surprised Zebra mare tossed the all-natural tear gas grenade at him.
Realizing what she had done, Zecora started to panic. "Sir! Sir! I apologize sorely, but you can't blame me for being prepared surly?"
"It's fine," He said in between the coughing and sneezing the herb mix produced, "rather ingenious too."
As the stallion stepped out the the inflaming cloud, Zecora was even more surprised by the stallions appearance. He had wings and a horn, along with the tall build common among alicorns, but those were the least notable characteristics of his strange appearance. At the end of each hoof he had white socks, and the tips of his sharp triangular ears and long snout. Along with a long bushy tail, also ending in white, he had a very fox-like appearance.
Zecora immediately was reminded of the stories she was told as a foal: Myths regarding a being called The Fox, who was wise but also mischievous. Many of the legends were of notable heroes or kings of the Zebra tribes asking him for advice, which he would give, though it was vague or attached to some onerous task usually. Still she was shocked and amazed that a creature so similar to that mythological figure was standing before her.
"Hun, a Zebra..." He said as he blinked back tears from his golden eyes. He then took out the old parchment he was carrying and folded out into a comically large area. "I swear I went north from that island of toothless alligators..."
Zecora tried to recover her senses.He might have been odd looking but he still needed assistance. "I don't know your destination, but Equestria is the name of this nation."
"This is Equestria?" The stallion said as he folded the top half of his map down so he could look around the area again. "It's certainly changed" he mumbled to himself. "But I guess I'm that's what I get for being gone nearly three millennia..."
"Three thousand years is a long time to roam." Zecora nervously stated before inquiring. "So I assume this land is your home?"
"Yes, or least it used to be." He said before looking at the map again for a closer examination. "There should be a large city here... Everfree City...I must have gotten turned around somewhere" He then began to start to walk, map in hoof.
"Such a city is not known to me," Replied the Zebra mare as she followed the stallion. "But all this forest is called Everfree."
"How odd... Perhaps..." He seemed to become distant, with a far off look, though he was peering into the past. "No...it was walled...safe... It couldn't have..." He suddenly set off, quick as a lightning jumping from the sky to the ground.
The odd character left the Zebra confused and dumbfounded by her interaction with the apparently ancient being, she didn't even think to pursue him.
He could feel his heart pound as hard as his hooves pound against the ground. He had to know. He had to know if the ones he loved... the ones he...left...were safe.
It wasn't long until he came to the crumbling granite and marble skeleton of what he had know to be a Grand Palace in his time. Built to rear two young sisters in comfort... His sisters.
"Sweet Mother of All... I've been gone for far too long..." He muttered under his breath as he stepped between the rubble piles and under an entry way of an arch. Sunlight, filtered through the canopy and poured through a whole that had opened up in the ceiling, eventually resting and illuminating a large circular mosaic, depicting the cycle of night and day. It's almost luminescent glow made the strange stallion remember when these ruins were not only whole, but a home as well.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
After his exploration of the abandoned residence, he dejectedly rested himself on one of the walls brought low due to a partial collapse. He was filled with a deep sadness. He felt that this could have been one of the lasting gifts he could have left his family.
Zecora, at this time, was passing by where the alicorn was perched, continue looking for those herbs that grew in this area, not knowing that she'd encounter the strange creature again.
"Times a menace isn't he? He could take something worthless and preserve it and it becomes priceless, or he can take something priceless tear it down and make it worthless...but then again... I let him do this didn't I..."
Zecora jumped a little as she turned to face the speaker. "You are certainly quick on you feet. I hope you don't appear so suddenly every time we meet."
"Sorry old habits..." He said before he let himself slink of the wall where we was resting. "We never introduced ourselves properly, my sisters would be ashamed of my lack of manners. I am Cobalt of Everfree, or at least I used to be."
"Zecora is my name. Where I come from there's a figure like you of some fame." Zecora said, being able to relax around the stallion a little more.
This surprisingly seemed unsurprising to the deep blue stallion. "I might actually be me... I mean it has to have been quite a while since I passed through your part of the world... But considering my... memorable appearance and actions..."
Zecora had no words. She was confronted by someone, according to the legends, was sometimes outright malicious for no reason at all. Yet she was talking so cordially with him.
Cobalt gave a small smile of amusement at the Zebra's befuddled expression. "I've made many marks in many places...not all of them positive. In fact..." His look seemed to gloss over, looking through the mare instead of at her. "I put some of my worse marks here... Perhaps time has lessened them for those that live here. but they only get deeper and deeper on my soul..." His gaze once again shifted to looking in the Zebra's eyes. "But these are worries I don't need to share... I suppose I might see you around...Zecora? Was it?"
"Y-y-yes that's what I a-am called, please excuse me if m-my speech is a little stalled." She managed to stammer out.
"It's fine," He said as he began to walk away at a slow pace so that Zecora could follow if she so wished. "In your culture I must be some demon or trickster god or something... Whatever happened here anyways..."
"It was abandoned after many battles fought, the capital of Equestria was moved to Canterlot." Zecora informed the stallion.
"Canterlot?!" He seemed a little upset by this. "How much pandering to the unicorn nobility are we going to allow?!" Zecora was unsure what to say, his strong prejudice against entitlement was very apparent. Still he seemed rather bristled at the idea of the capital being moved. "Everfree was in the center of Equestria, equidistant from everyone. It was a symbolic gesture showing that the government and by extension the law, was to consider ponies from every race in equal measure...Of course, I didn't understand that at the time it was told to me... I was... to foalish to see then..."
"I assume that's where you'll want to go their next?" Zecora asked " I assume seeing the princess is you quest."
"Well of course it's been too long since I've seen Tia and Lu-Lu." He said as he looked to the sky which was being painted with brilliant strokes of fiery orange. "I suppose I should find a stage to take, they would be the fastest way to get there..."
The causal reference to the regents pet names also put the zebra's head for a spin again. Still she managed to shake it off. "You don't have to take a wagon to cross that plain, you can get there in a fraction of the time if you take a team train."
"You already have trains here?" Cobalt said seeming to become intrigued. "I know the Saddle-Arabians were designing some prototypes..."
"If wanted to travel by train is your will, the closest station is a Ponyville." Zecora explained as she pointed him in the write direction of the city.
"Alright then thank you very much." He said before almost immediately starting to bound off, but remember something he backtracked and asked Zecora with an awkward bare tooth grin, with his omnivorous canines glinting. "Umm do you have a cloak I can borrow?"
