Rarity walked down the road which leads to Sweet Apple Acres. She had a very important job that needed to be done, as a client had asked her to make more outfits with more gems than she had already. Knowing full well of somepony who could help her in her endeavor, she went to seek him out. The beautiful fashionista saw her friend, Applejack, who was in the middle of carrying a basket of apples on the way to the barn. The unicorn smiles and waves to her.

“Applejack! Good to see you again, darling!”

Applejack stopped and smiled to Rarity, bowing her head in greeting, seeing as her hands were full at the moment. She wandered over to Rarity.

“Howdy Rarity. What brings you by this mornin’? Come to pick up some apple pie?”

She shakes her head.

“Oh no, I need to watch this figure of mine after all. No, I am actually here looking for Zhou. I need someone to help me look for gems for an extremely important client, and with his unique talents, and he would be an absolute big help. Do you know where I can find him?”

Applejack chuckles lightly and shakes her head.

“Your guess is as good as mine, Rarity. He's around the farm somewhere. I know that much. His usual spots are either on the roof of the barn or under the big apple tree that is in the middle of the orchard. He isn’t training’ at the moment, otherwise I'd suggest going to the pit.”

Rarity sighs and whines a little, feeling a little frustrated about that.

“Alright, I will go and look for him, thank you Applejack.”

The farm pony nods and resumes her work. Rarity walks up to the barn and tries calling out to Zhou, hoping he was on the roof.

“Zhou! Are you up there sweetheart?! I could really use your help with something, if you’d be so kind!”

Luckily for Rarity, he was actually up there, napping the day away. The man sits up and lets out a yawn. Shifting himself to sit on the roof with his legs dangling over. He smiles down at Rarity and waves to her, happy to see her as always.

“Hey there Rarity. On my way down.”

He said as he slid off the edge of the roof. Rarity’s eyes widen and a sharp gasp comes from her as she watches him drop quickly. But when he lands, the ground cracks slightly under his feet. No harm came to him however. He smiles and approaches her, though the mare looks up at him with a very unamused and concerned face.

“You are going to hurt yourself one day, Zhou! Don’t scare me like that!”

He laughs lightly and shakes his head, crossing his arms as he puffs his chest out a bit.

“Come on, Rarity. You know better than that. I am an earthbender after all. The ground may as well be my own soft landing pad.”

“Well, that may very well be. But I will not be very happy to see you hurt yourself.”

“What are you? My mom now?”

He asked teasingly. Rarity crosses her arms under her ample breasts and puffs her cheeks cutely. Zhou responds with another chuckle.

“I am just teasing you. It’s nice that you care so much about my well-being. Anyways, what was it that you needed my help with?”

He offered her a gentle smile. For some reason, the way he smiled. She just couldn’t stay mad at him when he did. It was a...charming smile. And for not being a pony, he was quite handsome. And his body wasn’t hard to look at either...even more so she was sure if she’d ever get a peek under that clothing of his.

“I need help with a bit of gem gathering. You can control and manipulate the earth, so I figured you’d be the perfect stallion for the job. I will search for them, and you can unearth them for me…”

She leaned into him and looked up, batting her eyelashes at him, her usual trick to winning a stallion over. However, Zhou crossed his arms and arched a brow.

“Now rarity...batting those pretty eyes at me isn’t necessary. You don’t have to do that to get what you want or need you know. You could have just asked.”

She blinks a few times and steps away from him, blushing a bit in embarrassment. It seems that her lady-like charms are not needed around him. This made her feel...strange about him now, in a good way it seemed.

“O-oh...it’s quite unusual for stallions to not be affected by my charm. That being said however...I think it makes me want to try even harder with you. And I don’t know why…”

Zhou blinked a few times and laughed. Surely she was joking with him about that...right? Nonetheless, they were soon on their way to their destination. They walked side to side, none bothering to speak. It wasn’t that they didn’t enjoy each other’s company, it’s just Zhou didn’t really know what to discuss with Rarity. Though she decided she’d break the ice, as she did want to learn more about the man.

“So, how are you able to do the things you do? Even a skilled unicorn would struggle to move the ground and rock, but you make it look so easy. And the motions of your body seemed to be very intuned with the way the earth flows as you control it.”

He chuckles lightly and places his hands behind his head as they walked along.

“All I can tell you is that it is no form of magic. Like i have told Twi before, it is an ancient art passed down for generations. Some of my people were born with it, some are not. But it’s not just earthbending, there is firebending, airbending and waterbending. I would love to have learned all four of them, but sadly that ability belongs solely to the Avatar.”

“And who is this…’Avatar’ you speak of?”

“Well, the Avatar is the one who, back in my world, made sure that the balance of the world was maintained. Before I was brought here, we were at war with the Fire Nation. They were trying to bring down the Earth Kingdom so they could get a good foothold. I am not sure what’s going on there now. But I do hope my people are still safe.”

Rarity listened to him intently as they spoke. She remembers Applejack telling her that he had been here since he was younger. She wanted to ask him about his parents but didn’t want to be so insensitive about.

“You are probably wondering about my parents?”

She blinks a few times. What is he? A mind reader to?! She nodded hesitantly.

“It’s alright. I don’t mind talking about it. I never got to know my mother very well for she died when I was but an infant. And my father...well...he was always busy. It wasn’t till I grew up a bit more and discovered that my father had been killed. Before I came here, I was living on the streets, stealing to survive.”

Rarity could only imagine the life that he had to live. She grew up in a well-loved home, and her parents are still around. She looks up at him and then suddenly brings her arms around him into a gentle hug. This caught him off guard.

“Well, you don’t have to deal with that anymore. You have not only the Apples, but you have me and the other girls to. We are all going to be your family. And should you ever need anypony to talk to, I will happily set aside time for you.”

She said as she lightly pats his cheek.

“Thanks Rarity...it’s very sweet of you to offer.”

She giggles lightly and gives a smile to him, taking his hand and pulls him along.

“We mustn’t waste anymore time! Gotta get those gems!”

After a bit more of a walk, they finally made it to their destination. Rarity smiles and places her hands on her hips, looking around before her horn starts to glow, she walks around until she carves an ‘X’ into the ground.

“Right here, darling. There is a good bundle of gems here.”

Zhou nods and walks over, this was going to be fairly easy since he was just unearthing gems. A simple stomp of his foot and the fly up. Zhou holds out his tough leather bag he had taken from his room before they departed, the gems falling into place perfectly. Rarity was further impressed at how effortlessly he did that.

“My goodness, I should bring you out here more often! Think of the gems we could find together! Of course I’d compensate you for your services!”

He chuckles lightly and reaches up, lightly petting her on the head. She blinks a few times and blushes lightly at his touch.

“Well...just treat me to lunch and we will call it even, huh?”

She nods again after he takes his hand from her head.

“Mhm!”

As they continued to hunt for gems however, Zhou felt that they were not alone here. As he felt the vibrations of multiple footsteps coming from the bushes not too far from them. He looks to Rarity and gets close to her.

“Rarity..we aren’t alone here. Stay close to me.”

She noticed the tone in his voice went from lighthearted and pleasant, to serious and deep. She saw the look in his eyes as they scanned around. She was a bit worried now.”

“Aaah, so you sensed us before we should ourselves did you?”

Out of the bush came three figures of canine-like appearance, on really tall, one short and thick, the other about in the middle. They slowly approach, keeping their eyes on their prize.

“We first thought it was you who could sniff out the gems, but it’s the pony we want. Give her to us, now!”

“I am sorry guys, she isn’t for the taking. Though you are welcome to try me if you want…”

He said before encasing her in a multiple rock shelter. He draws his hook swords and twirls them in his hands., getting into a combat stance and forming rock boots on his feet. The diamond dogs growl in annoyance has the man cuts them off from who they are after.

“You see boys, I am an earthbender. Defense is part of my specialty. So if you don’t want to end up eating rocks for lunch, I suggest you go on back to where you came from.”

The dog grin and start to dig under the ground, and immediately go for the shelter that he had set up. He arches a brow and takes his other sword into his other hand so he’d have a free hand. He lifts it up into the air as the shelter was lifted up, now having a solid stone foundation. A loud ‘thud’ was heard under the ground, the dogs coming up with large knots on their heads.

“You really think I’d leave my shelter to such vulnerable attack? Sorry, but you are going to have to be smarter than that.”

The dogs growl loudly and leap out of their holes, charging for the man, who got in a fighting stance, ready to see what these new hook swords are capable of. He takes on the first one, sliding across the dirt as if he was skating on ice. This was one of his signature abilities he incorporated, it was like his father’s ability he used, but without the flat rock to aid him. He takes the hook end of his sword and latching onto the dog’s leg and pulls hard, making him flip five times in the air before landing on his face.

“Come on guys, you won’t get very far if you are sloppy!”

He said with a big smile on his face. Rarity watched through the small hole he had left in the shelter he made. He has gone back to a more lighthearted tone and he seemed to be..enjoying the battle! It was like a game to him! She watched his toy around with the dogs as he slid around and hit them with his hook swords. He was hurting them without actually hurting them. There were bumps and bruises sure, but not a single cut or bit of blood shown.

He continues to glide across the ground with that smile on his face, avoiding their attacks like it was nothing.

“You know, if you dig underground, I am sure you have lots of gems stored somewhere don’tcha? How about you go and retrieve those for me? My friend and I would greatly appreciate it!”

That made them angrier apparently, as they came on more with their attacks, trying the best to catch the slippery earthbender, but either end up on their face or on each other.

“Well, if you will not cooperate, then I have no choice it seems!”

He said with that smile of his, sheathing his swords and encases them all with a quick motion of his arms, stones squeezing around their bodies and squeezing tight, there couldn’t move. What happens next though, frightens Rarity a bit as she watches on. He walks up to the dogs and crosses his arms.

“So then, are you going to be good pooches and do as I ask?”

“Never! We will never give you our gems! They are ours!”

Said the leader as he struggled in his stone prison. However, once he said no, his and his companions’ prisons got tighter around their bodies, they all let out a cry of pain as the rocks dig into their body, the tightness slowly but gradually furthering.

“Hmm, unless you want to be crushed by these rocks, you better rethink your answers on that. Or better yet, how about I just destroy the ground entirely here?”

The dogs seemed to really hate the idea of him doing that as they growled at him again, another weakness for him to exploit.

“Well, I didn’t really think you wouldn’t care...but seeing that response on your faces and the growling, I can imagine there must be something VERY valuable here.”

He walks over to where Rarity was and breaks down the shelter, allowing her freedom again.

“Rarity, if you’d please maintain a safe distance behind the tree line please?”

“What..are you going to-?”

She was cut off by him slamming his hands into the ground, his muscles throbbing under his clothing as the ground around the whole area begins to crack and crumble over time, this wasn’t easy work however, as this was a new technique that Zhou had been working on, sweat now dripping down his face as the ground began to collapse in on itself and part in the middle, the whole area was shaking from the tectonic movement that he was inducing. The dogs eventually fell through the large cracks as the rock that was holding them had broken apart. Rarity did indeed make her way to somewhere safe, but watched on in awe as this one being was able to move and destroy the land around him so easily. After all the dust and rubble had settled, there, in the large hole he had made, sat a large pile of gems, jackpot. He must have hit one of their storage rooms. He stands up and starts bending the crystals, they are a form of rock, so it really wasn’t that hard. After filling up each of their bags, Rarity had more than enough gems they needed for her client’s outfits. There were only a few left, so Zhou tossed them back in the hole and looked down to see the dogs huddled together, shaking in fear. He lifts a hand and waves to them.

“Thanks guys! We may be back for more!”

They made their way back to Ponyville. On the way however, Rarity couldn’t keep her eyes off of Zhou.

That was so scary...but at the same time, he went out of his way to make sure I was protected. While he may not be a p0ony, he is quite the gallant knight. I could really fall for a stallion like him..

“Thank you Zhou...for helping me with the gems and keeping me safe from those brutes.”

He looks over to her and shakes his head.

“No thanks are necessary...though after that last bit of bending...I am really REALLY hungry. I could definitely eat a place out of business…”

She can’t help but let out a loud but adorable laugh as he said that.

“Well, then let’s get these back to my home and I will get you whatever you want, you earned, my dear.”

Author's Note

Here ya go guys, another one! And no, no rarity shipping happening here! :P

May the darkness grant you peace.