Fluttershy knocks her hoof against the door of Zecora’s hut several times before taking a step back to stand by Starlight, a smile on her face at the prospect of seeing one of her good friends again.

“So...this is where Zecora lives?” Starlight asks, looking all over at the tree-made-house. It was a look of curiosity, mostly. Why anypony would decide to live in a place like this was beyond her. But she had to admit, the architecture was impressive.

“Oh, have you never met Zecora?” Fluttershy asks, her usual way of speaking had been returned after the surprisingly calming walk through the woods. “She does things a bit differently then we do back in Ponyville, but she’s a kind mare.”

Before Starlight was given anymore time to admire the simplistic architecture of the building, the door swings open to reveal the Zebra that calls this place her home. “Ah, my old friend Fluttershy! Come in, come in! How have you been getting by?” The zebra states happily, stepping aside to allow her guests to walk inside.

“I’ve been doing just fine as of late, Zecora, thank you for asking.” Fluttershy says with a smile, leading Starlight into the abode. “I hope life has been treating you good as well.”

Starlight’s eyes instantly begin darting all over the single room as she enters the humble hut. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say this was the home of some kind of powerful wizard or alchemist, or maybe just a witch doctor. Regardless, the various potions lining the walls peaked Starlight’s interest greatly.

“Oh ho, and who is this you have brought with you?” The zebra asks, finally taking notice of the unfamiliar unicorn. “Has Twilight added a seventh member to your friendship crew?”

“Oh...I’m Starlight Glimmer!” The unicorn manages to pull her attention away from the various potions for a moment to properly introduce herself, a bit embarrassed by her mindless gawking. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“I can say the same to you,” Zecora continues, walking towards the sound of a tea kettle whistling. “Take a seat my friends, my tea has finished it’s brew.”

'Does she always talk in rhymes?' Starlight couldn't help but ask of herself, feeling it best to keep that question to herself.

And so the three equines gathered around the large cauldron in the hut’s center, sitting on the ground as Zecora owned no furniture outside of her simple bed. Fluttershy and Zecora were engaging in simple conversation as the three casually drink their tea, mostly catching up on recent events in each other’s lives as it had clearly been quite some time since they had seen each other. But to be perfectly honest? Starlight wasn’t paying attention to most of it. She was a little to focused on asking about the mysterious creature that they had left in Twilight’s castle, and very much wanted an answer as to what it could be. But, as a good friend, she decided it would be best to allow the two to catch up. Even if it did take the rest of the day. Eventually, however, Fluttershy was able to get the topic onto the mysterious creature that she had found. Perhaps she used the mundane “let’s catch up” conversation as a way to easily transition into it? Starlight didn’t know for sure, but at least they were finally back on track.

Calmly explaining the situation to the potion brewer, Fluttershy proceeds to go into great detail about just everything they knew about the creature up to this point. Granted, there wasn’t a lot of information they had about it, but she was at least able to accurately describe the creature’s appearance with some help from Starlight. As the description of the day’s events and the mysterious creature these events brought continues to be unraveled, the Zebra merely sits and nods, rather enjoying her tea.

“--and we were hoping that you would know anything about what this creature could be,” Fluttershy finishes, taking the last drink from her tea cup.

“Hmm...it seems you have found quite the mystery,” Zecora collects the three empty cups and takes them over to what was clearly meant to be some kind of sink. “But I’m afraid I know not of this creature, nor its history.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” Starlight asks, walking over to the sink like structure as well. “I mean, it’s probably a very rare creature, but you must have seen it in this past if it lives in the Everfree Forest. Right?”

“For many years I have lived with these trees. Whatever this creature you speak of is, tis not of Everfree,” she continues, not losing her usual mysterious tone of voice. “I’m sorry I could not assist more, as I know it is quite hard to reach my door.”

With the hopes of Zecora knowing about it dashed away, Fluttershy and Starlight move to politely make their leave. The zebra giving them some kind words and a couple of potions that should help the creature recover. While she wasn’t able to help them identify the strange entity, she was not going to let them leave entirely empty hoofed. They weren't anything to special, just a few herbal blends meant to help restore stamina and vitality. With a kind smile and wave, she tells the to Ponies that they are welcome back in her abode anytime.

“I’ve never seen potions like this before,” twirling the potions in her magical grasp, Starlight admired them while making sure to occasionally check that she was still on the path with Fluttershy.

“They’re old zebra recipes,” Fluttershy answers with a soft smile, doing her best to keep her friend on the path. “Not a lot of ponies know about them, but they work rather well.”

The trip back through Everfree was just as uneventful as the trip into the forest was, but neither the unicorn or pegasus were going to complain about that particular fact. Exiting the forest with no issues, the two look up to see the position of the sun. It was almost 5 O’ Clock by this point, so they had been gone for about an hour or so. A bit peeved at how long it had taken them to basically end up right where they started, Starlight let out a tired groan as the two once again approached Twilight’s castle. Hopefully nothing to bad happened in the time they were gone.

This hopeful thought is almost immediately laid to rest as the sound of a loud scream can be heard coming from within the castle, causing nearby ponies to look up in shock and surprise. Several of them beginning to mutter among themselves about what could be happening. Starlight and Fluttershy were no exception to this new trend.

“That didn’t sound like Twilight or Spike...I think the creature woke up,” Starlight whispers, attempting not to cause a panic. Despite this, she was making no effort to hide the utter panic and worry strewn across her face. “And it doesn’t sound too happy.”

“It might just be confused, it did wake up in a foreign environment,” Fluttershy responds in her own whisper. Though if one were to be honest, it wasn’t that much different from her regular speaking voice. “I’m sure it’s just a little startled, that’s all.” The explanation from the animal expert gave some ease to Starlight’s worry, it probably was just startled by the sudden change in --

And just like the first optimistic thought the unicorn had mustered up on the approach to the castle had been silenced by the sound of an unknown creature screaming, so to was this thought quickly put in the ground to join its older sibling. This time however, the scream was much louder. The unicorn and the pegasus give each other a glance, the expressions on their faces speaking countless words, before they turn back to the castle and quickly dash inside, Starlight locking the entrance behind them as to not let anypony else barge in and mess anything up.

Quickly running up the stairs and towards the room where they had left the creature, the two ponies are greeted by the sight of a young dragon being catapulted out of the room as the door slams shut, the visage of Twilight’s magical aura present around both. As Fluttershy moves in to check on Spike, Starlight goes to see if Twilight is all right.

“Do NOT go in there!” Spike swiftly shouts, holding a claw up to his snout, which had been hit against the wall during his flight. “That thing will probably scream again, and Twilight will toss you out like she did to me!” He warns in only a half sarcastic tone, rubbing his sore but otherwise unhurt snout.

“Well can you tell us what happened?” Starlight snaps back, turning to the baby dragon and taking a few steps forward. “Why was it screaming like that? Is Twilight OK?”

“I don’t know. I heard screaming, I came in to see what was wrong, there was more screaming, and the next thing I know I’m in an intimate relationship with this wall.” The dragon explains in a disgruntled manner, patting his free claw against the crystal wall for emphasis.

Hearing the strange creature scream again causes Twilight to panic in turn. Not seeing any other solution at the moment, she acts fast to get her young dragon friend wrapped in a mystical aura, as well as the plate of food he had brought in. With one swift motion, the tray is pried from the dragon’s claws, set on the nightstand next to the stack of towels, and the dragon is ejected from the room with what might have been an excessive amount of force. Quickly slamming the door shut and locking it with magic, as to prevent any other intruders from startling the already terrified creature, she turns back to examine her unusual guest.

Said guest had devolved into a quivering mass huddled into the corner, its arms warped around its own head in an attempt to protect itself. Visibly shaking and lightly sobbing, it would be clear to anypony who looked at it even for a second that this thing was terrified. Whether this fear was of the Alicorn, the dragon, or just the unfamiliar situation was hard to tell at this point though. It was likely still uneasy from whatever event had left it in such a sorry state in the Everfree Forest. The sounds of Spike quietly shouting about something could be heard just outside the door, along with two other voices that Twilight recognized. That meant that Starlight and Fluttershy had come back. But given what just happened, Twilight elected to keep the creature mostly isolated for the time being. At least until she could get it to calm down.

“Shh, it’s okay. Nopony’s going to hurt you,” the Alicorn Princess reassures in a calm tone, once again getting close to the ground to try and make herself seem less intimidating. “You’re safe now, you’re going to be okay.”

Still taking short and quick breaths, the creature shifts one of its arms to look at the Alicorn kneeling before it. This gives Twilight a better view of one of the creature’s eyes, seeing that it is intensely dilated. Likely--obviously out of panic.

“...W-what are you?” The unknown entity manages to ask between gasps, keeping its one exposed eye locked firmly on the Princess before it.

“...I’m a pony, an Alicorn if we’re being specific,” Twilight explains in a somewhat confused tone. It was rare that a creature capable of speech didn’t know what a pony was, but then again they had no idea what IT was either, so it made sense. Slowly standing back up she takes careful mind to not venture to close to the still quivering creature.

“My name is Twilight. Twilight Sparkle. Can I ask who...and what, you are?” She responds in a way trying to make herself seem as polite as possible. True, asking somepony what they were seemed a bit to direct, but they needed to know what this creature was so they could help it.

The creature’s gaze shifts from Twilight to itself. In particular one of its hands. There was a moment of silent contemplation “I’m...human...yeah, that's the word...human,” the now identified creature manages to say, slowly picking itself up off of the ground and into a sitting position, still maintaining some distance from Twilight for the time being.

It, or rather ‘he’ based on the sound of his voice, was still clearly a bit flustered. But the human was at least making some progress. It was clearly capable of understanding and replying to speech , meaning this whole process would go much smoother. This acted to relieve some of the Alicorn's stress, allowing herself to shift into a sitting position on the ground as to try and help the human feel more at ease.

The human does not notice this gesture, however. He seems to be to busy staring deeply into his own hand, the expression on his face changing from pure fear, to confusion, to a mixture of the two. Slowly lowing his hand, he looks back to the now sitting Alicorn. While his expression was mostly of confusion, there was something she could see in his eyes. Fear. Uncertainty.

“I...can't remember...” the human continues, the pupils in his eyes slowly shrinking back down to a more regular size as his emotions return to a more balanced state. "...I can't remember who I am..."

This statement undoes any sort of relaxation that the Princess had managed to attain in this stressful situation was shattered like glass in an instant. True, while she had finally managed to figure out what this creature was called, and that it was smart enough to communicate, there was now a much bigger issue on her hooves.

Author's Note

I hate trying to come up with rhymes.
But I did it! because I wanted to.
Now the rest of the story can progress.