The trip to the marketplace was mostly smooth. Besides the small breaks to catch his breath and the barrage of questions from the fillies, Star was able to deliver the apples to Apple Bloom's grandfather. He was mostly tired at that point, but a few complimentary pears helped him recover some.

Now, with some directions from the three, the gold earth pony stood before the entrance of the Everfree. Upon seeing the forest, he was a little underwhelmed. "This place looks a lot less spooky than I imagined it to be," he said.

"That's just the outside," Scootaloo said from the less packed wagon. "You gotta go deep for the really scary stuff."

"Is Zecora's house that deep?"

"She actually lives in the safer part of the forest," Apple Bloom said while throwing out a pear core.

"You know, for ponies your age, you don't really sound that scared by this place despite the fact that it's supposed to harbor all sorts of terrible things."

"Eh, it's not that scary once you explore it a bit," Sweetie Belle said. She leaned over the front railing. "At least, not as scary as what you said about your cutie mark."

Star frowned. "Don't tell me you guys are still upset about that."

"Pfft, no!" Scootaloo said. "We're already over it."

Although the orange pegasus dismissed the idea, her tone said otherwise. Ever since Star had told them he didn't care too much about his flank being marked or not, they haven't stopped bothering him about it. They even asked oddly specific questions such as being afraid of getting one because it could limit his life to what the cutie mark represents.

Apple Bloom went up the railing alongside the white unicorn and said, "But if you ever change your mind..."

In an instant, Scootaloo was up beside her friends. "We'll get you your cutie mark in no time!" she said, a little too eagerly.

Star winced from the pegasus' volume. "Hey, can you keep it down! Somepony is still sleeping back there--"

"Star."

All four ponies looked back into the wagon to find the sleeping unicorn now awake. Signs of sleep deprivation were in and under his eyes in the form of bags and reddish hues. Even his mane, the little auburn tuft, managed to look like a mess. He took one quick look at the trio and then to the gold earth pony with an expression a parent would give a guilty child.

"Flax, you're awake," Star said unenthusiastically.

Flax looked over the trio and calmly asked, "Why are there three fillies in our wagon?"

"They are, believe or not, our... guides,"

"Our. Guides," he said as he returned a doubtful gaze to his brother.

"Yes siree," Apple Bloom said. "We were told you needed help finding a zebra, and we just happened to know one ourselves."

"Right... how much is this going to cost us?"

"Cost you?" Apple Bloom looked to her friends who returned the same confused expression. "Why would we make you pay? We're just returning a favor."

The blue unicorn examined the fillies one more time before telling Star to park the wagon. He got off when his brother stationed the wagon beside the entrance of the forest with the fillies following suit. While his brother was removing the harness, Flax walked up to him and whispered so the other three wouldn't hear. "You sure they're not here to take the unicorn horns for themselves?" He asked casually.

Star dropped the harness. "Flax, they're kids," Star whispered. "Why would they want some weird plant they've probably never heard of before?"

"Why wouldn't they want a rare plant that could make them rich?" The unicorn responded with the same tone as before.

Star stuttered as he tried to understand why his brother was being so overly suspicious. Before he could lose himself in his own confusion, he said, "You know what? I'll go ask them myself and show your paranoid flank that they're harmless."

The brothers walked up to the fillies, briefly overhearing them talk about helping out the new 'blank flank' get his cutie mark. The trio noticed the two approaching, the gold earth pony looking slightly peeved, Scootaloo said, "Hey Star! So did you change your mind about your cutie mark?"

"What?" Star said before shaking his head. "No, I just wanted to ask, do you girls know what unicorn horns are?"

The three looked at each other and then they all pointed to Sweetie Belle's horn.

Star turned towards his brother with a smirk. "You see, nothing to worry about."

"So, are you two done talking?" Scootaloo asked.

"Zecora said she would show me something really cool today, and I'm a little curious," Apple Bloom said.

"Fine," Flax said reluctantly. He looked up at the partially cloudy sky and realized it was around three in the afternoon, the same time Star took his last dose the day before.

Before Star could follow the trio entering the forest, an extended hoof blocked his way. He glared at his brother and said, "What are you doing? My life literally depends on this meeting."

The protest did little to the unicorn, remaining steadfast. He continued speaking calmly and poked a hoof in Star's chest. "Your life depends on whether or not you take another cup in the next hour."

There was an audible knock when Star swiped the intruding hoof away. "The zebra has the medicine I need."

"The zebra might not want to help when she sees this." Flax's horn glowed yellow and a mirror from the wagon floated in front of the earth pony's face.

Star's growing irritation briefly turned into shock when he saw the face staring back. A pony whose cheeks were in the process of melting open bared some rather sharp teeth at him. He snapped his mouth close, but it did not do much to hide the row of fangs. Another swipe, and the mirror was knocked to the ground, still whole.

"I'll be meeting her."

Star returned a unsure glare at his brother, but he gave it up when his brother only gave him the same solemn gaze. He watched as his brother levitated the mirror back and then pulled the necessary supplies to brew a warm beverage.

"Best to make some tea out here. Don't want to start a forest fire."

The supplies were neatly arranged, some even already set up for the earth pony to use. There was a hoof on Star's shoulder, hoofsteps fading into the forest, and then quiet.

Star retrieved the mirror again from the wagon and looked at himself once more. His expression turned into a frown mixed with sadness. Dropping the mirror, he walked over to the ready-to-use kettle hanging over the fire that's yet to be made. He lazily started the brew, his ear twitching all the while.

Apple Bloom stopped when she noticed a few ponies were missing, prompting her friends to do the same. "Hey girls, weren't there two other fellas with us?" She asked.

"What do you mean? They're right here," Scootaloo said, pointing to two pairs of eyes watching from the shadows.

"Wha--Those aren't them," Sweetie Belle said, frustrated. She walked up to the eyes and scolded them for watching her friends, going as far as calling them creeps.

Flax, meanwhile, had just caught up with the fillies and found the unicorn talking down some bushes. He joined the other two watching the amusing sight and tapped Apple Bloom's shoulder. "I don't mean to interrupt, but we should get moving," He said.

Apple Bloom flinched from the stallion's sudden appearance, which also caught her friends' attention. "Oh, Mr. Flax!" She looked around for his brother, but found that he was alone. "Where's Falling Star?"

"He wasn't feeling well so I told him to brew himself some medicinal tea. He would need a fire and I'd rather not have him start one in this dense forest."

"Medicinal? Is he sick?"

"It's..." Flax circled a hoof as he thought, "...a complicated condition. He needs to take his medicine daily."

"Is that why he doesn't have a cutie mark?" Sweetie Belle said.

"That would make a lot of sense," Scootaloo added.

"Well I think he should have come with us anyway," Apple Bloom said as they started walking again, leading the way. "I bet Zecora could whip up a cure for his sickness in no time."

Flax glanced back the way he came while the fillies continued on. If only, he thought to himself before catching up with them.

"Here we are!" Apple Bloom said excitedly.

Pushing one last stray branch aside, Flax followed the girls into another clearing and was somewhat amazed at their destination. Before them was a much wider tree with sacks and masks hanging all around it. A door and holes which act as its windows are carved into the trunk. Through them, flickering light showed that the structure was hollow.

Apple Bloom knocked on the door and waited with the group, an eager smile on her face. An ambient grinding Flax didn't even notice stopped. A pony-looking shadow was seen moving through one of the windows toward the door.

When the sound of hoofsteps reached the door, it opened to show a zebra in need of some rest. Her mohawk had a slight, but noticeable droop, the lids of her eyes only seemed to open halfway, and her balance wavered as she teetered from side to side. She squinted so she could better see the blotches of color on her doorstep.

"Is that Apple Bloom I see at the door?" Zecora said, rubbing her eyes. "Why, it's not just you, but several more."

"Hi Zecora!" Apple Bloom said.

While the zebra's fatigue did not bother the fillies, Flax took note of the behavior. He offered a hoof to her, which she looked at wearily. "Hello Ms. Zecora."

Zecora did not take the hoof, and, instead, had her gaze follow the hoof up to the face of this new pony. "New friend, new face." A tiny puff of smoke from a cauldron at the center of the room startled the zebra. She beckoned the ponies to come inside, saying "Come in, make haste."

Stepping into the hut, everything looked as Flax expected, judging from the exterior. Inside, there were various bottles, jugs, and other liquid containers on tables and shelves. Primitive looking, equine-like masks and numerous roots decorated the walls and hung off the ceiling. At the very center was the cauldron, which, Flax admitted, tied the room together.

"Apologies, but I must ask..." Zecora said, bringing the blue unicorn's attention away from her home, "...if you may speak your name, perhaps?"

"Flax," he answered promptly.

Zecora weakly smiled and gave the pot a stir. "Although I do not often go to town, I never recall seeing you around."

"Oh! That's because he's from a desert village called Somnambulan where everypony hoards green topaz," Scootaloo said, looking proud at how smart she thought she sounded. Apple Bloom lightly elbowed her shoulder and coughed to get her attention, pointing at the ever-serious unicorn looking down at her in slight bemusement. "Was it something I said?"

Zecora stopped stirring, the solution no longer puffing smoke into the air. "Ah, Somnambula." She moved away from the cauldron towards a table with some ingredient partly ground in a bowl. "A friend of mine called it her home. I heard she was very well known."

Flax's eyes went a little wider upon hearing that small description. Now less suspicious, but still cautious, he asked, "This friend of yours... did she come here, looking for unicorn horns?"

There was a brief silence when Zecora stopped grinding with her bowl, making the fillies feel a little awkward. Sweetie Belle muttered, "Didn't Star ask us about that?"

"The horns atop a pony's head are not the ones that were said," Zecora said, still facing away. "He speaks of plants vast in price and power--" her tone turned melancholic, "--the ones Acacia did so desire." She set her tools down and, holding herself upright by keeping a hoof on the table, she turned around to look directly at the blue unicorn. She said to him, "I ask again, who are you, friend?"

"Is something the matter with you two?" Apple Bloom asked. "This talk of desert ponies and pony parts seems to be making you guys upset."

Flax raised a hoof to signal to the filly that he's fine, figuring he might as well tell the zebra enough to get her help. "Children of Acacia," he started, "me and my brother. Though she wasn't our real mother, she certainly treated us like one." There was no other response from Zecora, so Flax took it as a cue to continue. "When the ceremonies for her... passing were held, our minds were too occupied that I didn't see the problem that came with her loss. I remained blind until a week later, when I looked into a near-empty jar which held the one plant no pony else grew except her."

Zecora turned to the table and resumed grinding, her expression unseen by the others. With no emotion in her voice, she said, "So you have come looking for me, hoping I be swayed with pity?"

A bead of sweat formed on the unicorn's head. He realized the attempt failed to win her help.No pony would ever give away something as valuable as a unicorn horn, but he tried his hoof anyway, and it failed. The act of desperation has now put him at a disadvantage. He would have to start offering high payments every week, just to keep the batches barely affordable. Him and his brother's lives would quickly fall near poverty and he would have to work around the clock just to--

"A little excessive for friends in need. Next time you want some help, just ask, say please."

Flax snapped out of his trance to see the zebra offering him a jar full of crushed plant material. Upon taking a closer look, he realized that the contents of the jar looked awfully familiar. To test his hunch, he tried to pick the jar up with his magic. Initially, a yellow aura started to surround the object. Zecora smiled at his curious behavior and made sure to keep a steady hoof for his little trick. The yellow around the jar soon vanished into it like a sponge, leaving the fillies shocked, if not awed, by what they saw.

"Are these..." Flax said as he carefully took the jar with his hooves instead.

"They are."

The unicorn looked the zebra in her eyes, this time seeing compassion and understanding accompanied by a smile. He was wrong to doubt Apple Bloom when she spoke of her friend's kindness. While he felt relieved, a small tinge of guilt hung around. "Thank you," he said. In a brief moment, he cracked a barely noticeable smile. "I suppose preparing these were what made you drowsy."

Zecora acknowledged his observation with a chuckle before laying a hoof on his shoulder. "Acacia spoke of a foal, whose sickness leaves him only woe. I wish to meet your brother, please--" she turned away to yawn, "--After I roast some coffee beans." She left to another room, leaving the unicorn with three fillies who had just witnessed a jar suck up magic.

Sweetie Belle was the first who couldn't hold her curiosity any longer. "How did it do that? Zebra magic? Enchanted glass? I wanna know!" Sweetie Belle asked.

"She never told me she could make light-absorbing jars! That's like... the opposite of a lantern." Scootaloo followed up.

"I don't think it's the jar that's absorbing light," Apple Bloom disputed. "It looked more like the magic was being absorbed by whatever's inside. Wait a minute... you two were talking about some plant earlier. Is that what that is? Hmm... What was it called again?"

"Unicorn horns," Zecora said. "Although delicate in its form, its power you should not ignore."

While Flax left so he could return with his brother, the fillies were allowed to inspect this strange new plant in a small patch Zecora had recently grown. Under the zebra's watch, they experimented with it, trying to see what else it could do... If blowing at it, almost poking with a wing, and covering it with magic counted as experimentation.

After the last of Sweetie Belle's magic was absorbed, causing the petals to briefly glow, she tiredly walked next to Zecora's side. She panted a few times and then looked up to the zebra, saying, "These things really drain you of your energy, don't they?"

"It's how unicorn horns survive," Zecora replied. "Give them magic and they will thrive." At the corner of her eye, she saw an orange pegasus wing drift to close to the center of a unicorn horn.

As Zecora pulled Scootaloo away from trying to poke another one with her wing, Apple Bloom knelt down on the other side of the patch. She looked up to make sure her friends were distracted and then inched her hoof closer to the plant. These things only absorb magic, so touching it should be fine, Apple Bloom thought.

The yellow filly very lightly touched a petal before quickly pulling her hoof back. Nothing. She tried touching it again with a bit more force, and this time, she made the petals sway. Apple Bloom smirked. I knew it! Nothing to be afraid of.

One last time, she touched the white petals. They were soft. Softer than anything she'd ever felt. It was like everything Rainbow Dash described a cloud would feel, but even better. Wanting more of this amazing feeling, she pushed her hoof in just a little more.

Her hoof stopped when she felt something blocking her way. She meant to move her hoof around it, but then she got distracted when the petals started to glow. Suddenly, waves of fatigue flowed through her, causing her legs to give out and causing her to fall on her belly. She tried to pull back, but she felt too weak and tired to even lift her hoof.

"Apple Bloom!" Zecora pulled the filly away from the unicorn horn. "Goodness child, what did I tell you! Only observe, don't touch it too." She held up her head and saw that her colors had faded, even her cutie mark. With two fillies already under the plant's negative effects, she decided to bring them back to her hut.

Apple Bloom leaned against Sweetie Belle, who also felt the drain of the plant, but to a lesser degree. "I'm sorry Zecora," she said, "When you said it only absorbs magic, I didn't think nudging it would do much."

Zecora sighed and dropped a few coffee beans in her cauldron, inducing some small puffs. After a few more stirs with her ladle, she poured the solution into two wooden cups and brought them over to the exhausted fillies. "I feel I am the one to blame for not teaching you this plant's way."

A sip from the drink and the two started to feel as lively as they were before. Sweetie Belle finished hers first and was about to jump off until she remembered she was keeping Apple Bloom from falling over. "Wow Zecora, this is great! What did you put into it?"

"Coffee, a root, a lemon's squeeze, but most importantly are these," Zecora said, reaching behind her.

To the fillies' surprise, Zecora held in her hoof a few petals of the plant that drained them outside. If Apple Bloom didn't finish her drink by then, she would have surely done a spit take. Instead, she dropped her cup and anxiously shouted, "Zecora no, you'll go limp!" Despite her warnings, the zebra continued holding the troubling petals, and still stood. "You're... fine?"

"I told not, for I saw no need." Zecora gently placed the petals onto a pile next to a stripped, black stem. "I was wrong, for you have fatigued."

"Wha... How are you not tired--"

"Wooohoooo!"

Just then, an orange pegasus flew into the room, doing a small loop de loop before landing, wings confidently outstretched. "Hey guys! Feeling better? Because I sure am!"

"Scootaloo!?" The refreshed fillies said, mouths agape. What followed was a series of failed attempts at asking their friend about how she achieved such a feat, all sounding like a bad case of stuttering.

"Oh, this?" Scootaloo said as if she understood and flexed her wings. "I volunteered to taste test the brew while you two were still outside." She launched herself into the air again and flew around the room a few times. When she had enough fun, she stopped and hovered in front of her friends. "Who would have thought unicorn horns could do this!"

"Unicorn horns!?" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, shaking her head. She looked at Zecora and pointed an accusing hoof at the pegasus. "How come she gets that, while we get... this!?"

"What? Didn't Zecora already tell you?" Scootaloo asked. Zecora shook her head while Sweetie Belle glared at her and Apple Bloom stared confusingly. "She didn't? Well it's really simple actually. You see--" she dropped to the floor and walked over the table with the stripped ingredients, "--the petals are what holds the magic. It's also what zecora put in the pot." Pointing to the black stem, she said, "This part absorbs magic. It's probably what you touched, Apple Bloom."

"Really?" Apple Bloom said. "How come I had to touch that itty bitty thing before it tired me out?"

"I think it has to do with something about magic being contained in our bodies or something. If you weren't directly throwing your magic into it like Sweetie Belle, it has to touch the most magic-y part of your body, like an earth pony's hooves." Scootaloo looked to the zebra. "Right?" She received a slow, confused nod as confirmation.

"Scootaloo, how do you know all of this?"

"Yeah, I thought you don't pay attention to this kind of stuff," Sweetie Belle said.

"You're not wrong," Scootaloo said, "but look at what it could make me do!" She reared up and flew around the room one more time before coming to a halt, still hovering. "I'd say it's worth knowing which part makes you collapse or gives me super cool magic!... Plus, Zecora maaay have scolded me a few times for almost putting myself in your position."

While the fillies watched their friend with either envy or confusion, they noticed her slowly descend to the ground. It wasn't until the pegasus felt her hooves touch down that she realized the wonderful feeling in her wings fading. She tried taking off again, but her flapping was only able to keep her afloat for just a little while. "I guess I also forgot to say that the effects..." she sighed and lowered her head, "...are temporary."

"That's quite impressive Scootaloo. You said it better than I knew." Zecora patted the pegasus on her back, getting a reassured smile in return.

A yellow glow surrounded the front door and sounds of running hooves approached. The door flew open and in came Flax, still holding the jar of unicorn horns bits. Unlike the unmoving face he had before, parts of his expression have already broken, accompanying the worry in his voice. "The wagon's in ruins..." he huffed, "and Star is gone."

Author's Note

Writing is fucking hard. How do those other artists do it? Props to them for staying focused on this shit.

Also, edited the description because I felt it was a little misleading, and I may go back to edit some shit in the earlier chapters. Or most of it.