Deep Breath

You wake up and stretch. Sleep was dreamless and uneventful, though you do have to rub a good bit of crust from the corners of your eyes. The ponies start to stir, and you manage to pack up the tarp by the time they are awake and ready. Before leaving, Chrysalis warns you to stay alert. Timberwolves can sometimes blend in with fallen trees, and under no circumstances should you allow yourself to touch any part of a blue flower called poison joke. You would receive another random curse on top of the one you already have. No thank you.

After another bit of double backwards talking, the ponies determined that a brisk march would be the best tactical option. You can only keep up a pace like last night for about an hour in a half, and even if a cure for the curse comes easily, it could take until the end of the day to reach the next safe location should something go wrong.

The good news about poison joke is that they grow in patches that are easy to see and avoid. However, these patches are massive. Your group had to walk around track field sized patches to make way in any direction at one point. The question of how a flower that curses everything that touches it propagates became both asked and answered the moment you came across a particularly monolithic patch surrounding a beehive.

The bees attending to the flowers were absolutely affected. Some were huge and did not need to move much to reach another flower. Some were fast and zipped from flower to flower. Some started making honey at alarming rates to feed the others. One would finish attending to a flower then fly straight up, sending pollen far and wide as they spun. No one dared to go near, not that there was any forward in that general direction with the patch of poison joke. The only direction was to go left or right. Chrysalis started off towards the left, but immediately halted and turned around going the other direction. Taking a glance to the left, you figure she doesn’t want to take chances with that pile of logs and brush in a clearing ahead, and wordlessly follow to the right at a safe feeling distance from the bees.

After a while of not coming across any more poison joke patches, Gentle is the first to spot a structure in the distance.

“There’s the zebra hut. Should we go in disguises?”

“I imagine you hold your magic reserves dear. You need not disguise yourselves here.” A female zebra pops her head up from behind a bush, plants held in mouth as she speaks. Stunned by the surprise of being seen already, all of you are frozen long enough for the zebra to make her way around to you. before speaking again, she places her most recent harvest in saddlebags half full of what you guess to be herbs or ingredients for something.

“I am Zecora. I sometimes catch you keeping a respectful distance as you go past. To what do I owe you the pleasure of meeting you at last?”

“I am Chrysalis. This is Gentle Breeze and Soft Light. We do not mean to cause trouble or intrude, but we found this, erm, person on the edge of the forest. He is cursed to where every word he says vocalizes backwards, and his own name makes no sound at all. We are hoping to find a cure for this aliment.”

“Ti si yrev tluciffid ot kaeps siht yaw.” You add in.

“Such is a strange magic, but I have cured ailments akin. Please allow me to invite you in.”

You follow the zebra into the hut, stylized masks seeming to greet you in on the way. It is a single room space with a great number of plants, jars, books, masks, and vials that are shelved on the walls with still a comfortable floor space to accommodate all of you. A cauldron simmers in the center of the room. Someone who lives here must have a way of hiding fire from or downright deterring timber wolves. Zecora tends to the coals, adding a log, then tastes the brew. Satisfied, she fills four bowls and passes them around.

“I can cure you fairly quick, but potion on an empty stomach will make one sick.”

You do not complain. You don’t recognize the herbs or broth, but you appreciate any soup with slow cooked potatoes in it so freely offered. Taking in the aroma, you blow on the soup and take a gracious drink, letting out an audible “ah” before giving a thankful bow to Zecora. You all eat quietly as Zecora jars the rest and fills the cauldron with water.

“You came from the direction of Ponyville, and with a person of such unusual feature. Please tell me of how you came across such a creature.”

“We were passing nearby when we heard the sound of an axe hitting wood near the edge of the Everfree. Pinky Pie heard it too and went to greet the stranger. She can get vigorous and he looked like he was in distress, so we separated them and offered to help him. At least this way he would be able to clear things up with the ponies for himself when he is cured.” Strange way to put it. You take note; one more thing to talk about when you can talk normally.

“All must be curious to where he came from, and what’s more, his teeth reveal him to be an omnivore.” Light, Gentle, and Chrysalis all turn to you, wide eyed. Of course, these are equines; they are probably vegetarians. You put effort in to replying with proper words.

“Yes, I am. I am not a… threat.”

“One more detail to sort out, I suppose.” Chrysalis eventually says after some consideration. The water comes to a boil, and Zecora adds ingredients to the cauldron. The brew turns green then purple as she stirs and a new earthy scent fills the room.

Turning to you, she says, “I need one ingredient to make this complete. Would you happen to have some preserved meat?” Without ceremony or hesitation, you take a bag of meat out of your backpack and offer it to her. She sniffs it.

“Salt and black pepper. This will do. One by one, drop half into the brew.” You do as she says. The other occupants frozen, not knowing what to do. Zecora continues.

“Your newest friends seem to be ready to choke. Tell us, was this from an animal that spoke?”

“No. Non-… humans do not speak in my… world. No magic. No wing or horn pony.” The floor is wooden and your hands are busy, so you make your best slow effort to make the words come out forward.

“Another world you say? Tell me how you came to be here today.” You shrug.

“I did not… travel by land or … sky or sea. I was… chopping wood and then I was here.” You finish and Zecora continues stirring. Chrysalis stands up and approaches you.

“I can tell that you are not lying. I just want to be sure of something. Do you eat equines?”

“We, on! Ew, no!”

Chrysalis, Light, and Gentle all let out a breath, but jump when the masks on the walls all let out a snort. Zecora immediately jumps to the side and opens a trapdoor that you would not have known was there had she not opened it.

“Quickly, you must hide. Stay quiet and stay inside.”

All three of the black ponies are inside before she finishes speaking. You grab your backpack and follow suit. In the dark, Gentle, Light, and Chrysalis are huddled in the deepest part of the hidden basement. You take a defensive stance halfway between them and the hatch. You wait in silence. The only indication of what is going on is what you can hear. There is a pop of a sealed vessel opening, then nothing. What was that alert? How far can whatever those masks sensed be coming from? What do they warn of? After about a minute, there is a knock at the hut door, and Zecora’s hoofsteps move across the floor calmly.

“Greetings and good day, Princess Twilight Sparkle. What brings you this way?" Twilight. The pink pony sought out this one when Chrysalis saved you.

“Hello Zecora. I’ve received word that a particularly dangerous and chaotic being may be stalking the Everfree, and I wanted to check on you and let you know. The Princesses Celestia and Luna will be searching through this part of the woods with their guards soon.”

“Three alicorns at once! I have lately seen nothing near. What sort of creature can cause such fear?

We don’t have a full description yet. So far, we know that it is a mostly hairless bi-ped, brown hair and eyes, and it is most likely accompanied by changelings. Would you happen to have anything that can help detect them?”

Chrysalis gets in front of you, taking a defensive stance of her own. In what little light that makes it through the floorboards, you get the feeling that Chrysalis’s black skin had blanched.

“Perhaps I may try to see what I can scry.”

You are distracted by the pony in front of you. She uses the side of her body to push you back and nods to the others. Looking back, Gentle and Light are still huddled, trying to make themselves so small as to not exist. They shiver more than you have seen in any distressed animal; these ponies fear for their lives from whoever this princess is. You sit beside them. Your calm will help here. You take a gentle, silent breath. Someone would have to be watching you closely to notice you exhale. Almost as if sensing it, the cowering ponies reached out, wrapping their hooves around your body, and resting their heads on your lap. You pet their finned manes. The conversation above is no longer within your attention. Chrysalis lays down in front of you. She places a hoof over Light’s back, and then lays her head on Gentle’s, shooting you a look that you don’t understand, then closes her eyes and she too takes a silent breath to calm herself and the others.

Chrysalis later told you that Zecora’s scrying revealed no present dangers nearby. She then gave Twilight poultices made to treat various rashes that plants from the Everfree caused. They were meant for another pony named Fluttershy who has an animal sanctuary near the edge of the forest. The sound of the door closing followed Twilight Sparkle promising to bring any unused poultices to Fluttershy after their search.

You waited still. It would be safer to let the visitor gain some distance from you than to immediately make a sound. Zecora apparently had the same idea as it took her some minutes to open the hatch to the basement. Light and Gentle stayed close to you once all of you climbed up. You have so many questions. So many more after hearing that encounter, but before they spill out of you as nonsense, Zecora holds a potion vial in a hoof in front of you. You take it and drink without ceremony. You think to keep it down no matter how strange it might taste, though you surprisingly taste nothing. Surprised by a more or less sensationless experience, you look to Zecora questioningly. She signals with a hoof for you to just speak. You take a breadth and test out your voice.

“Hello Hello? Testing testing, one two three. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”

The ponies collapsed to the floor in front of you. Chrysalis turned to Zecora.

“Was that potion supposed to be temporary?”

You would clear up the confusion, but laughter has suddenly overtaken you. Your thundering cackle filled the room and your senses. You are laughing so hard and continuously that you can’t breathe anymore. Your limbs are going numb. You’ll soon lose the energy to stand, so you slowly grab a shelf and weakly guide yourself down to a sitting position. Head above the heart, and temple on a shelf. With a final slow and dying “Aahh” you black out.