Its Whisper Wafts; Its Song Surrounds
Zecora steeps the tea, displays
Selected cakes across their trays,
Attempts to stay relaxed, and more,
Denies her urge to check the door.
Her guests will soon arrive, she knows,
Will raise a magic breeze that blows
Away the dust that fills her soul,
Evicting darkness, making whole.
Prepared, she breathes; she won't allow
Her nerves to jitter, swears a vow
To play the part she's been assigned
And not the part she's left behind...
It's then the aether gives a shake,
Her guests appearing, no mistake.
Another glance around reveals
That all's prepared. She hardly squeals.
A knock before that voice resounds.
"Zecora?" How the tone astounds,
A richness full of honeyed cream,
So warm and bright, a perfect dream.
Concerns abated, cast aside,
Zecora's lost the urge to hide:
"I bid you, friends, to enter, please!
I've sweets and crackers, cakes and teas!"
A glow surrounds the door; it creaks
And opens wide. The princess speaks:
"Exquisite honor flows to thee,
O fertile land, o bounding sea!"
Celestia has knelt, her eyes
Deflected down in ways unwise.
Behind her, Twilight Sparkle blinks,
Zecora fearing what she thinks.
"I'm sorry?" Twilight's face is bunched,
A grimace like her stomach's punched.
"Is it your birthday today or something, Zecora? I would've brought you a present, but I thought we were just coming to a regular tea party!"
"It's nothing, Twilight, honestly:
Your mentor shouldn't bend the knee."
Zecora tries to find the words;
They flee as quick as darting birds.
"Celestia's a joker who
I fear is playing tricks on you."
She offers Twilight half a smile
And swallows sharply rising bile.
The newest princess seems to sway,
Uncertain should she move or stay.
"Well, it wouldn't be the first time. But, I mean, this seems a little extreme for her, and I'm afraid I don't see what exactly the joke's even supposed to be..."
Zecora wants to reassure,
To laugh and say the joke's obscure
Except Celestia has stood,
Her stern expression less than good:
"We hold thy wishes sacrosanct
And leave thee neither known nor thanked
Until we deem our time has passed.
That day has come, I say, at last."
A tightness wraps Zecora's throat,
But Twilight laughs a single note:
"Oh! Okay, I think I get it now! The joke is that Celestia and Luna are retiring, see, and I'll be ascending the throne. I guess Celestia's being all dramatic about it to drive home how serious it is."
With blushing grace, she curls a grin.
Zecora's torn apart within.
Of all the news she thought to hear,
These unexpected tidings sear.
"Celestia?" Zecora asks,
Her mind aswirl with ancient tasks
She doesn't want. "You're stepping down?
And Twilight's set to take the crown?"
"Indeed, my liege. I've therefore come
Presenting sweet encomium
To show you Twilight's qualified,
Fulfilling all that's prophesied."
"This isn't—" Twilight shakes her head,
Confusion turned to care instead.
"OK, it's obvious that something's happening here that I don't understand, but since I've learned over the years that Celestia rarely acts without a reason, I'm just going to ask."
She takes a breath and blows it out,
Her smiling tinged with flecks of doubt.
"I'll even rhyme if that'll spawn
Accounts of what is going on."
Celestia, her plain delight
A lovely, warm, inviting sight,
Declares, "There's no need for that, really, Twilight. I am overacting a bit, but since the covenant Luna and I made with Zecora more than a thousand years ago has certain requirements—"
"You what?" A shout that rattles glass
From Twilight shakes the room en masse.
"A thousand years ago? But that would mean— Are...are you trying to say—? How could Zecora possibly be as immortal as an alicorn?"
Zecora's bones have felt the shift,
The weight that's never quite a gift.
"I'm just a facet, just a piece,
A shadow form, the world's caprice."
"Creation's mistress, master, lord,
And lady, sworn to all accord."
Celestia has squatted, asking, "Have you any of the good old hard stuff, Zecora? For I'm fairly certain Twilight's going to need a bit more than tea once we get into this whole story."
They sit around the table, tea
As much as Twilight asks to see.
Zecora, though, uncorks the wine;
Celestia does not decline.
The elder princess takes a sip,
Approves with nod and smiling lip.
"Perhaps you should begin at the beginning, Zecora. After all, you were there when the elemental forces of creation called the foundations of the universe into being."
Appalled, Zecora starts to fume,
But drops it, breathes despite the gloom.
"I wasn't there. My consciousness
Is just a slice. I can't express
"The way it happened, can't explain,
My words a stunted mess, inane.
The cosmic forces built this place,
Then squeezed me out in time and space
"To represent their point of view.
I'm nothing: just their residue.
Immortal, yes, alone as well,
Millennia of living hell.
"I moved about Creation's span
As ponies' cultured life began.
I felt myself, my larger mind,
Observing all I went to find,
"But I was simple, incomplete,
Attached while somehow still discrete.
It's why I can't communicate
In prose, unrhymed and plainly straight.
"I don't exist as ponies do
With brains a mass of thinking goo.
I dance on strings that stretch beyond,
Connections strange, unparagoned."
Throughout her talk, Zecora watched
As Twilight Sparkle blanched and blotched.
"You mean," she asks when all is done,
"that whoever created the universe is looking at us through your eyes right now? "
"I have to shrug. I never know
The times my larger self will show.
I'm small and cannot understand
The ways they move, the things they've planned."
Celestia in silence pours
A glass that Twilight still ignores.
"Believe me, Twilight, I know it sounds utterly fantastic, but Zecora has been a friend and staunch ally of Equestria for, well, for as long as there's been an Equestria.
"And more than just Equestria."
With gentle hoof, Celestia
Extends to touch Zecora's face.
"In fact, I would've lost the race,
"Succumbed to utter, deep despair
Without Zecora's tender care.
When Luna went, she heard my pleas
And filled the stretching centuries..."
Zecora's blushes warm her skin,
But stormy weather reigns within.
"It's true, my friend? You'll abdicate,
Abandon all and abrogate?"
"On, no," Celestia responds.
"We're not unruly vagabonds."
She shakes her head. "Forgive me for lapsing into prose, but since I want to be entirely clear on this point, I think it wise not to rely on my rusty rhymes.
"All the agreements that Luna and I entered into will remain in effect until our actual departure, and I feel entirely certain that Twilight will continue to honor those that she sees to be in Equestria's best interests. It's why I brought her here today: so she could learn the truth about you and understand how vital you are to, well, everything."
"But wait." At Twilight's shaky tone,
Zecora wants to shrink and moan.
"If you're actually an aspect of the force behind the universe's creation, why are you living out here in the middle of the Everfree Forest? You could be—"
She stops. Her eyes go wide with thought,
Zecora's muscles tense and taut.
"Except you couldn't be, could you? If you're an extension of the Creator, you're limited by the laws that run the universe, the laws your larger self put into place, right?"
A spark of hope? Zecora reels,
Can scarce contain the joy she feels.
"The universe would buckle, burn,
Destroyed should any trace return
"Of power such as once I knew.
And so my larger self withdrew,
Constructed me, the merest trace,
And watches still behind my face."
It puts Zecora's heart at ease
When Twilight nods. It means she sees.
"No matter how much you want to, you don't dare do anything like what your larger self did when creating the universe, or all of creation would burst at the seams."
Celestia is nodding, too,
Her loving brilliance shining through.
"Zecora can still do a lot to help: nurturing the Tree of Harmony after the Pillars planted its seed; mixing potions that no other creature can; and, well, sharing her immortality."
Another silence stretches out,
Zecora smelling Twilight's doubt.
"Is...is that the covenant you mentioned, Celestia? Because it sounds like you're saying that it somehow binds you and Luna to the power behind Zecora."
"It's not a choice we made lightly, Twilight, but it was a choice we had to make if we were going to keep Equestria safe. And you know Zecora. You've benefitted from her wisdom countless times, and I'm fairly certain you consider her a friend. So how could the power behind her be some monster like Tirek or like Discord used to be? It's not possible!"
Celestia's so very young,
Zecora cannot hold her tongue:
"Unless, of course, it's all a ruse
To lure, entangle, bleed, confuse."
They stare. Zecora doesn't blink
But grabs her glass and takes a drink.
"Unlikely, yes, but can we tell?
I'm just a part; I can't compel
"My larger self to testify,
To swear the story's not a lie.
I love this world and all of you,
But trust a puppet's word is true?"
They both respond with wings unfurled
To hug her tight. It means the world.
Their voices, mixing, reassure,
Declare they know her motives pure:
"Through all the long centuries that I've known you, Zecora, you've always stood with ponykind!"
"Even when we were running and hiding from you..."
"And despite the circumstances of your life, I can't imagine you ever behaving in any way like a puppet!"
"Besides, if you ever wanted to contact your larger self, I've got a couple ideas we could try."
Zecora pulls away to stare.
Celestia's is more a glare:
"Twilight, I hate to dampen your natural enthusiasm, but the force or forces that created the cosmos might be a bit much to be running experiments on."
"Oh, but they wouldn't be experiments, Celestia: I mean, not under laboratory conditions with hypotheses and predictions and observation and all that. I'm thinking some light hypnosis and a sensory deprivation tank, just a way for Zecora to relax, to feel more deeply this connection she has to these external forces, and to maybe open a channel for some basic back-and-forth communication."
The shrug that Twilight gives appears
With nonchalance, but perking ears
And twitching nostrils show the truth.
Zecora grins: infectious youth...
She almost laughs but stops before
The sound can bubble out and pour
Unpleasant ice on Twilight's zeal.
Instead, she answers plain and real:
"Indeed, I've used those same techniques
Without success. I've gotten peeks
Behind the curtain, as they say,
But never more, to my dismay."
She touches Twilight's hoof and sighs,
Decides to speak what's pure surmise.
"I've never felt they aim to harm,
But what they are should cause alarm."
Celestia's expression skips,
The slightest twitch upon her lips.
"Zecora, you've been saying things like that for as long as I've known you, and that's getting on toward what we can honestly call thousands of years at this point.
"And yet you've never been able to explain what exactly it is about your larger self that makes you so uneasy. They created our universe, and everything they've ever done has proved them benevolent."
She finishes her glass of wine
And seems to think the world is fine.
Zecora wishes her belief
Extended so. She sighs her grief.
"Perhaps I'd think them more benign
If just for once, they'd grant a sign,
"If just for once, I might implore
Their notice, might create rapport!
They lurk and simmer right behind
My every move! It's quite unkind
"To never speak, to never wave,
To never let me know the—" Grave,
She almost says but bites it back,
The thought a sudden, sharp attack.
Celestia is reaching out
To brush a hoof against her snout.
"That's the trouble with speaking in rhyme, Zecora: your listeners can often guess what you're going to say whether you'd like them to or not."
From Twilight, after shocked surprise,
Determination fills her eyes.
"Zecora, I...I can't begin to imagine what your life's been like, and I'm only just starting to understand what immortality is going to mean for me. But if there's anything you ever need, please ask me. We'll figure it out."
Again, Zecora's throat is tight,
But now the feeling's more than right.
"I thank you, Twilight, deep and true,
And make a matching pact with you.
"Whatever's mine is yours to share
To free our hearts from all despair."
Another thought, however, lurks,
As sharp as hidden, stabbing dirks.
"And yet, Celestia, I fear
If you and Luna don't adhere
To all the terms implied within
The contract, might it mean your skin?"
"I doubt it," Twilight answers first,
Then blushes, plainly unrehearsed.
"I mean, yes, I'd like to see these contracts before we do anything else, but do either of you recall a clause that specifically says the benefits cease if a signatory stops being a princess?"
Zecora blinks and shakes her head.
Celestia replies instead:
"'Princess Emerita' has a nice ring to it, don't you think? Because Luna and I may have moved out of Canterlot Tower, but we certainly aren't going anywhere."
The warmth that spreads throughout the room
Dispels the final touch of doom.
Zecora beams upon her friends
And knows their story never ends.
The night descends with laughs and smile,
Connections formed and strengthened while
Beyond the reach of time and space,
Contentment smooths a faceless face...
