Chapters If You Go Down In The Woods Today
You'd Better Not Go Alone
"Nopony who's gone in, has ever... come... out!"
Fluttershy often had reason to think back on that long night, when she and her friends had found the Castle of the Two Sisters, but as she walked next to Zecora, she found herself mostly reflecting on what Rainbow Dash had said about the Everfree Forest. She'd been horsing around, of course, trying to spook the new pony in town with ghost stories, and given what had happened immediately afterward, nopony had had a chance to correct her and point out that there was somepony who frequently went in and came back.
Then everypony had found out that Rainbow had accidentally been right, as Zecora wasn't a pony at all. It was embarrassing, in hindsight, for Twilight Sparkle to have to lecture all of them about the fact that the creature who they'd all thought was a strange, striped pony was a different species entirely. It wasn't even that she hadn't heard of zebras, but she'd been picturing something very different. Even now it was hard to look at Zecora and not just see a taller-than-average pony with stripes, but she'd learned the differences slowly.
Some of the body language was similar, but other things very different. Zecora could accidentally give the impression of being stoic, or even look aggressive without intent, like with her tendency to idly paw at the ground with her hooves. She'd explained once that it was a reflex, an outgrowth of an instinct to search for water in a dry environment, that came out when zebras were looking for something or felt lost. A zebra in an unfamiliar place would do it as a way of asking someone to guide them, and particularly anxious individuals would have it quickly turn into a nervous tic.
What the citizens of Ponyville had mistaken for strange, threatening behaviour from Zecora had been a request for help. For somepony like Fluttershy, who regularly cared for animals who had a wide range communication styles themselves, it'd felt even more shameful to have made such a mistake.
Zecora had, however, insisted that it was water under the bridge. She'd been happy to simply have the acceptance of the community and new pony friends, even if it'd been a bumpy road to get there. And Fluttershy was proud to call the kind zebra a friend.
Even now, Zecora was taking time out of her day to help out Fluttershy, the two equines walking into the depths of the Everfree while Harry lumbered a few body-lengths ahead, leading the way. The forest looked so much more friendly with the sun out, light filtering through the canopy and dotting the forest floor with specks of light, and she caught herself wondering why she'd ever been afraid of it in the first place.
"Is it really true that there are no bears in Farasi?" Getting Zecora to talk about her homeland had been difficult--most of the initial information she'd gotten was through Twilight instead--but she'd found that asking more about the location itself than her own past could get the mare to open up, and sometimes there was a gleam of bittersweet nostalgia in those blue eyes.
"There are many creatures that I have known, but no such as Harry are found in my home," Zecora confirmed with a bob of her head toward the grizzly's shaggy back. "I have seen the mighty Atlas bear, but only drawn in ink, for by the time I was born, it was long extinct."
The rhyming had been another thing setting her apart. Zecora had not dodged the question of why she spoke like that, so much as nopony had broached the subject in the first place. Nopony had wanted to be the first to admit that one of the things that had frightened them about her was that they'd thought she talked strangely. As Rarity had put it, "We've already made ourselves look thoroughly backwards, there's no need to add to it by doing something as gauche as commenting on her speech."
Besides, once somepony got accustomed to it, the outpouring of improvised poetry was very pretty to listen to. Though, right now Fluttershy was a bit too preoccupied with the words themselves to properly appreciate their rhythm. "That's so sad." Her ears drooped. "I know that no species lasts forever, but it's still hard to think about all the beautiful animals we'll never get to see because they've already died out."
Zecora smiled gently, and her shoulder lightly nudged Fluttershy's, yellow fur briefly intermeshing with black-and-white. "Have heart, for while some species have met their end, there are many yet for you to befriend."
"That's true. I have all kinds of animal friends." She smiled back. "And even if some species go extinct, we're finding new ones all the time."
"See? While we may mourn the past's demises, the future is full of surprises."
Fluttershy nodded her agreement, then looked ahead again, only to stop in her tracks, blinking in confusion. Where Harry had once been, slowly but steadily blazing a trail through the forest for them to follow, there were now just trees, silent and still. She looked left and right, trying to catch sight of the tracks and flattened vegetation that would normally mark his passage, but there was nothing. She rotated her ears, listening for his pawfalls or his usual grunts and growls, and caught only the far-off sound of a crow.
She looked at the mare next to her, who had also stopped. "Zecora, did you see which way Harry went?"
"Last I saw, he was right in front of us." Her hoof was already starting to dig at the earth, though it stilled when she seemed to notice she was doing it, and she gave a reassuring smile. "But he can't have gone far. No need to fuss."
Both started to walk again, eyes and ears sweeping the surrounding woods in search of their wayward guide. Fluttershy started to call out for him, her mimicry of bear-like sounds leaving her throat sore after the first few times and yielding no answer.
Both were so focused, they didn't notice that more than Harry had vanished, and that the mix of pawprints and hoofprints that had marked their voyage to this point were gone, the woods behind them pristine.
In the distance, the crow kept cawing.
If You Go Down In The Woods Today
There was something wrong with the trees.
Fluttershy was a pegasus, not an earth pony, and her mark was for animals, not plants. Many ponies like her would only ever see a tree from above, their concept of a forest being the view below them as they flew over a sea of green. She could recognize an apple tree by virtue of constant exposure, could pick out a few more types common to the area around Ponyville, and that was where her knowledge began and ended. Yet, some part of her, a deep instinct, knew that something was off. In the hue of the bark, the shape of the branches, the movements of the leaves...
There was no breeze. The leaves shouldn't be moving.
Fluttershy tried to gauge Zecora's reaction, if she seemed to notice something was wrong too, but it was hard. Even as one of the ponies closest to her, there were ways that her body language was still murky to read. She was tense, but her gaze was still sweeping the surroundings in search of Harry, and Fluttershy couldn't tell for sure what any little twitch of muscle beneath the striped coat meant.
Zecora stopped, her ears twitching, and for a moment, Fluttershy thought she may have heard something, and rotated her own ears in hope of catching it too.
The cawing sounded like it was getting closer.
She couldn't hear any other animals at all.
But rather than report a sound, she looked to Fluttershy and asked, "Remind me, dear friend, we were led this far to what end?"
"I..."
She blinked, and for the first time really thought about why she was here. Harry had needed...
Had needed...
"I... don't remember either." Fluttershy's soft voice started to quiver, her body following suit, and she looked around. "I don't see the path anymore." She couldn't remember when she'd last seen the path. "Do you know the way back?"
Zecora shook her head. "The Everfree may be my home, but this is a place within I have not roamed."
The caw turned to a screech, twisted and distorted like claws tearing down a chalkboard.
What descended was not a bird. As the thing towered over pony and zebra alike, most of the body looked indistinct, with the only things that looked solid being the edges of tattered wings, twisted and gnarled claws, and a skull-like head with purple light pouring from its sockets. It was more like something had taken rotting, blackened wood, burning smoke, and discarded feathers and tried to craft something that resembled a bird from the pieces, and the sickening scent of rotten flesh rolled off the creature in a torrent.
no not creature not real not true not animal not flesh not alive figment falsehood will without life
The plants that had been around its miasmic body blackened and shriveled, and she backed away from the wisps of purple that floated on the air as it tried to breathe its rot at her.
magic tainted broken warped poison decay sickness death wants to spread
Then a potion bottle went hurling through the air, striking in the middle of what could have been a torso. "Keep back, unnatural beast! On us, you will not feast!"
A flash of green erupted as the glass shattered, and another screech tore through the air as branch-like claws tore through the air. The not-bird writhing in something that may have been pain was the last thing Fluttershy saw before Zecora's shoulder slammed into her, urging her to turn away and run.
Her hooves didn't stop until she could taste fresh air, and could no longer hear the screams.
If they weren't lost before, the blind run through the woods would have ensured that they were now. When it finally felt safe enough to stop and catch their breath, both looked around, but there were simply trees in every direction, dots of silver moonlight filtering through the canopy.
Moonlight? Hadn't it just been sunlight...?
How long had they been out here?
Everything felt off-kilter, and Fluttershy wasn't sure she could blame that purely on the exertion from running for her life. She looked to Zecora, and felt the urge to cling to her and not let go. She was the one solid, real thing when everything else felt distorted, like if she looked at a branch, a leaf, or a stone too long it would start to unravel and look more like the bird-shaped thing.
She made her way over on unsteady hooves, and opened her wing to drape it across Zecora's back. She stiffened, briefly, at the contact, and then slowly leaned in. The two mares stood like that, two figures in the silent moonlight, until Fluttershy found herself softly asking, "Are... are we even... still in the Everfree?"
Silence, for a time, and then Zecora's head sank. "I don't know."
Fluttershy waited for the second half of the rhyme, and it never came. But after several silent breaths, she started to hear something else.
Distant speech.
It was in no language either understood, but it unmistakably was speech, the voices rising and falling in the cadence of conversation. It was the first sound since the not-bird they'd heard, and so they'd both decided, simultaneously, to follow. Where there was speech, there was something intelligent, and potential sapients meant potential help.
As they walked, the endless trees started to thin, and the light that flowed from between the trunks was... warm. A soft blue-green, she could see glimpses of the glow as the voices shifted from conversation to the rhythm of a chant, and something about it calmed her every time it met her eyes. It felt earthly, felt welcoming...
Almost as if it were calling her home.
She wanted so badly to go home.
As the trees continued to thin, the source of the glow showed itself. A clearing opened up, and within were several stones that towered at least three times a pony's height. The glow came from them, pulsing in time with the voices of the creatures within the circle of stones.
"Oh... they look like deer," Fluttershy breathed as she watched the antlered figures swaying to and fro. "A... little bit like deer," she amended as she noticed the bipeds' forehooves, split into a crude set of what looked like stubby fingers. She glanced at Zecora, who was staring hard at the center of the strange gathering. "Maybe they can help us?"
Zecora shook her head. "While they may resemble deer, something tells me we may have reason to fear."
The motion sent light shining off Zecora's earrings and dzilla, and a glint of gold cut through blue-green. One of the figures turned a masked head toward them, and that was when Fluttershy smelled the blood of the limp, furred something it was holding, along with the knife in its other hoof-hand.
no eyes through the holes no muzzle under the mask
no faceno face NO FACE
ᴛⷮнⷩEͤY CͨAͣN S͛EͤEͤ MⷨEͤ
By the time that Fluttershy came back to her senses, her wings were open, soaring at speeds she often forgot she could reach, and her legs were all pressed to Zecora's barrel in a pressure carry, lifting the larger mare with strength borne of desperation and sheer terror.
Or maybe more than that.
magic called magic wantedi'm here for a reason why did i come here why can't i remember
Fluttershy slowed into a hover, and carefully lowered to the ground, making sure that Zecora had all four hooves underneath herself before she let go. Then she unceremoniously dropped to the ground, trying to catch her breath and trembling in the aftereffects of adrenaline.
She looked up, and thought she saw bruises forming beneath the places where the white fur most easily showed it. "I'm sorry... did I hurt you...?"
Zecora shook her head, though it was followed by a wince. "A small price to pay." She offered a weak smile. "When you've saved the day."
Fluttershy opened her mouth, the words ready to point out that Zecora had saved them both earlier, and so she was just returning the favour. Then a sound left her falling silent, and perking her ears. Zecora briefly looked confused, and then her ears perked too, as she heard it.
The grunts and growls of a bear.
If You Go Down In The Woods Today
Every Bear That Ever There Was
It was hard to get a lock on the sound to follow it. It didn't seem to be coming from any one direction, simply existing all around them, and they ended up trotting in a few circles, ears turning left and right, before Fluttershy suddenly felt she had the right direction and nudged Zecora for her to follow her.
The deeper they moved into the forest, something about the trees started to change. They were taller, wider, and started to give off a sense of age that Fluttershy could feel down to her soul. Even as she followed the bear-like sounds, she found herself looking at the titanic trees, picking out patterns in the bark.
Sometimes, the shapes she saw almost looked like... faces...
Some of the tree-faces looked angry. Some looked more sorrowful. Others seemed like they were afraid, or in pain. But most of them just looked peaceful, dark lines in the bark suggesting closed eyes and little smiles. Picking them out almost turned into a game, like trying to find shapes in clouds floating overhead, shapes that hadn't been deliberately sculpted by pegasi.
Fluttershy found herself humming a tune under her breath, but she'd forgotten where she'd first heard the song.
Eventually, the trees parted, and she spotted a familiar shaggy back. "Oh!" She raced forward, any of the tiredness she'd felt from all the walking, running, and flying today vanishing in her joy. "Harry, there you are. We've been--"
The bear rose onto their hind legs, and turned. There was a green cloak in their claws, and a deft toss had it settling around their shoulders as they looked at her. The eyes were bright with an intelligence that Harry had never had--bears were smart animals, incredibly so, often coming right up to the line of true sapience, but this was beyond that, eyes with a light to them much like a pony, dragon or zebra may have--and while they held recognition, it wasn't the fond kind of her old, fuzzy friend.
No, the look in the bear's eyes was more of the calm way a host would look to an expected guest, before welcoming them in.
"Oh, my mistake," Fluttershy said softly, taking a step back. "I'm sorry, we were just looking for our friend. He's a bear... just... like..."
Claws on both forepaws lit up blue-green, and all four hooves froze to the spot. The bear no longer sounded like a bear, the sounds taking on a complexity similar to the speech of the circle of not-deer, and as the words flowed, the magic floated and twisted in the air, motes of light twisting and turn in figure-eights along the hulking, furry body.
Suddenly, Fluttershy understood.
The not-bird was an intruder, a violator, a thing that should not be. It would destroy all it touched if not contained. And the forest could contain it, and could protect against it. The not-deer had been feeding the forest, giving it the strength it needed to keep protecting, to keep the rot from seeping out to realms beyond.
The forest just wanted to protect her.
All she needed to do was join it, and she would be safe.
Bark crept up the bear's body, replacing fur, hind legs shifting into twisting roots that sank into the life-giving earth. The magic around its claws shone brighter, beckoning, and Fluttershy found herself walking forward, letting the warmth of the light wash over her fur. All the fearful tension melted from her body as she approached the transforming bear, the light reflecting in her own eyes.
home the trees were calling me home i'd always wanted to be--
"Fluttershy!"
She didn't recognize the voice at first, and didn't know what hit her. The force sent her tumbling through the underbrush, sticks and thorns digging into fur, skin, and feathers as she rolled to a stop. Her head rung and vision took time to focus, her head rising from the dirt with the sluggishness of somepony waking from a deep dream.
She watched the bear be consumed by the magic, forelimbs extending into branches and a few leaves sprouting from the new sapling that had taken root among the old trees. And Fluttershy saw the blue-green light swirling around an equine slightly taller than she was, black and white starting to be consumed by green.
no not her please don't take her
"Zecora!"
Her hooves dug deep furrows in the dirt as she scrambled to stand, and she fought to spread wings that had been tangled in the plant life. She leaped into the air, diving toward the transforming zebra and punching through the consuming light as she reached out with both front hooves.
They rolled through the dirt together, and when they stopped, Fluttershy's muzzle was buried in Zecora's dual-coloured mane. A few heavy, frantic breaths of smoke, earth, and rare spices, and she pulled herself up and off of the other mare, looking her over.
Zecora was laying in the earth, her chest heaving with her own panicked breaths. Her front hooves were frantically tearing at the dirt, trying to pull herself up, and Fluttershy carefully reached out a wing to help her right herself.
Her head, front legs, and barrel looked normal, even if her coat was smeared with dirt and she still showed signs of bruising, but her hindquarters were covered in pale bark, her tail having turned to a budding branch. Fluttershy, in the horror of clarity, asked in barely more than a whisper, "Can you walk?"
Zecora looked back at herself, and Fluttershy longed to be able to read what she was feeling. She slowly lifted each back leg, the wood moving like flesh, and the bottom of each hoof had rings on it like a cut-down tree. "For now. Somehow."
"I... I'm so sorry," she started, "I don't know what--"
Zecora leaned in, and Fluttershy stiffened at the unexpected nuzzle against the side of her face. "This place, it is attacking the mind. I am only happy that I acted in time."
Tears burned in Fluttershy's eyes as she nuzzled back. "We'll get back home, and we'll fix this. I promise."
As they parted, Zecora gave her a sad, yet gentle, smile.
In the final moments of this waking nightmare, Fluttershy would remember that smile.
If You Go Down In The Woods Today
Will Gather There For Certain Because
Fluttershy kept watching Zecora.
She didn't know precisely what she was watching for. Bark creeping further along the coat? Legs starting to grow stiff? Leaves appearing in her mane? She didn't know what this magic was or how it worked, and didn't know if what she'd done had stopped it, or merely delayed.
The path was sunny again, and Fluttershy knew that not enough time had passed for the sun to rise. Her mind felt clearer, after the encounter with the bear, like the rejection of the forest's gift had loosened its hold over her. It left her going over her memories in between her studying look-overs of the other mare, trying to grasp at the why of all of this.
It felt like there was a gap. She'd been following Harry, with the sense that she was needed, but before...
Fluttershy clawed at the fog in her mind, trying to get to her most recent memory before all this had happened. Pushing, searching, trying to get anything that would make sense.
The day before...
We'd... just arrived back from Appleloosa. It'd been a long train ride and I hadn't seen my animal friends in days. I spent all my time cleaning things up, making sure nothing bad had happened and that everyone was okay. Looking over the injured animals to make sure they were healing well, checking the food stocks to see if anything was running low. Angel wouldn't leave my side the whole time; he's always so clingy after I'd been away for a while.
Fluttershy paused, blinking.
Then I... laid down for bed.
Is this a dream?
The stinging of her wounds from the thorns objected to this theory, but she still closed her eyes, digging her hooves into the earth and focusing her mind on herself, still safe in bed, home in Ponyville, where all of her friends were a short walk away and Zecora was home and whole too, in her hut in the Everfree.
Wake up.
She opened her eyes, and the forest was still there. Closed them again.
Wake up wake up wake up WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP
When she opened her eyes the second time, Zecora was looking at her, and Fluttershy, in that instant, could read her friend perfectly, without a single word exchanged. She already knew what Fluttershy was doing, because she'd been trying to do the same thing.
Fluttershy opened her mouth, even if she wasn't sure what to say, when a familiar screech cut through the air.
The not-bird was slightly more solid this time, more of its wings in view and Fluttershy able to pick out what may have been some facsimile of a ribcage. It was hard to tell exacts, however, because this time, it didn't land. It appeared and swooped, and both mares flattened themselves to the ground to try avoid its rotted claws as it soared overhead.
Zecora managed to avoid the strike, but Fluttershy felt pain tear through back, and purple-tinged blood struck the earth as her stomach heaved and her veins burned from the inside out. Yellow fur blackened around the wounds as her mouth opened in a soundless scream, and the next sound from the not-bird sounded like wet, bubbling laughter.
Her vision blurred and her head pounded. The rot had claimed her, and she would decay from the inside out, until she was the agent of the infection. She had rejected the forest, and now, she would be its undoing. And she would do it with a smile.
And then she heard the rotten beast screaming in pain.
Blue-green eclipsed Fluttershy's vision, consuming the creeping purple in her eyes, and all at once, the corrosion ceased. It wasn't gentle; the infection burned on the way out as well as in, the purging leaving her body throbbing from nose to tail, and she didn't know how long she laid there, weighed down by aches and fatigue and the fear that if she moved, she'd be subjected to a fresh assault.
Eventually, however, she opened her eyes, and what she saw made her wish she hadn't.
There was nothing left of the rotted not-bird, and Zecora's eyes were glowing with the forest's light. The bark had crept forward over her body, consuming her right to the base of her neck, and even when the light faded, her eyes were now a rich, forest green. Wooden legs slowly moved as she walked over to Fluttershy, and helped her to her own, trembling hooves.
Even with so little of herself left, Zecora smiled at her. The smile that could have, at any other time, made Fluttershy feel like everything would be okay, that the wise mare had a solution that nopony else had, that she would go back to her home and brew something that would make everything better. The smile of forgiveness, of kindness for all creatures that made her compelled to help without a thought to her own wellbeing.
Maybe the Element of Kindness should have chosen her instead. Maybe, in another time, another life, she was there on that long night, and it did. Fluttershy could so easily see the zebra mare standing in front of Nightmare Moon, refusing back down in the face of such power, standing steadfast next to her friends.
Fluttershy wanted to thank her, to apologise again, to make another promise to get them home. Instead she collapsed against Zecora, and sobbed.
Even after rejecting the forest, it had given Zecora the power to protect her.
She wished it had just let her rot.
Let me wake up.
Let us both wake up.
View Online
If You Go Down In The Woods Today
Today's The Day The Teddy Bears Have Their Picnic
It was moonlight streaming through the trees again, and the walking had slowed. Fluttershy knew that Zecora would never say anything about it, but she'd noticed that her movements were growing slower and stiffer, her legs seeming to resist moving more and more. She'd considered offering to pick Zecora up and fly again, but hesitated. She'd hurt her the first time, applying the kind of pressure necessary to carry her, and she didn't want to make it worse.
She couldn't see the bruises anymore, through the bark. She couldn't see anything, where it had replaced flesh. The transformation had even robbed Zecora of her cutie mark, with bark along her flanks not even showing a hint of the sun shapes that had once been there.
Fluttershy realized that she'd never asked what Zecora's mark was for. It was one of the ways it was so easy to mistake her for a pony, being one of the few other species that had marks, but while with ponies the subject would naturally come up... Zecora had never breathed a word of the meaning of the sun mark, nor had she ever showed any curiosity about theirs.
Did marks not mean as much to zebras? Were they something more private? Fluttershy didn't know, and she found herself feeling a fresh wave of shame for her ignorance. When--
If
--When they got out of this, she would ask Zecora about her mark, and apologise for not having done so before.
The forest had been silent for so long, no sounds of animals, no speech, that when Fluttershy finally heard something, it had her jerking to a stop. She didn't even register what it was at first, just that the quiet had broken, and when she was certain that she wasn't feeling any unusual compulsions and that nothing was swooping down on them, she rotated her ears and gave a proper listen.
Birdsong. Specifically, the songs of the earliest birds as they woke right before dawn. Fluttershy stood there, listening for the moment that the sounds would distort, that the nightmare would continue, but it never did, the birds just continuing to sing their announcement that they'd survived yet another night.
She looked back at Zecora, whose own ears were perked, and they both shared a hopeful smile.
The sky was in transition, the first rays of dawnlight shining through. The birdsong had had new voices join the chorus. If she concentrated, Fluttershy would be able to hear the meaning of each note, but she was trying to conserve her energy after all of the walking, running, and flying, and keep an eye on Zecora.
One of her back legs was barely moving anymore, and Zecora was half-dragging it as she walked on the other three. And Fluttershy wasn't sure whether the leaves she saw in her mane had fallen from the branches of the trees above them, or if they'd grown there.
They needed to get back, and soon.
So focused she was on monitoring Zecora, she almost didn't notice the ground, until one of her hooves slid into the dip in the earth and she pulled back with a start. She looked down at the marks in the dirt, and her eyes widened when she realized what she was looking at.
Zecora started digging at the ground when Harry disappeared. These are her hoof marks!
Fluttershy looked around, and spotted her own hoofprints. There were no paw marks, but the two sets of hooves were clear as day, leading off into the forest.
She looked back again, gesturing at the prints with her wing with delight.
This time, Zecora's smile back was more strained.
"Zecora, look!"
Fluttershy flapped her wings and flew the short distance from the hoof prints to the packed dirt that led through thinner trees. She could hear more than birds now, her ears moving to hear scurrying paws of rodents, wings of bats settling in for a day's rest, and the far-off roar of a manticore, all the familiar sounds of morning in the Everfree.
"It's the path we took! We can follow it back to Ponyville and..." She stopped, realized that Zecora hadn't walked up to join her, and looked behind her.
Zecora hadn't moved. She couldn't. Her wooden hooves were planted against the ground, and twisting roots extended from each, sinking into the earth. "I'm sorry... but I think you'll have to finish the way home alone."
Fluttershy didn't wait for a rhyme. She raced back, and grabbed one of Zecora's legs with her teeth. The taste of wood made her grimace, but she still pulled, trying to yank the roots from the ground. She dug her hooves in and pulled until her jaw and neck ached, and her teeth felt like they might leave her gums.
When Fluttershy let go, she shook her head sharply. "No, Twilight will know how to cure this!" She went around behind Zecora instead, ignoring the way the bark bit into her shoulder as she tried to push. "And if she doesn't, she can send a letter to the princess! Celestia will know what to do! She's a thousand years old, she must have seen this before!" Fluttershy's legs slid from under her during her hardest shove, sending her into the dirt while Zecora stayed rooted. "You're going to be okay."
"You'd better go," Zecora said softly. "We don't know how long it's been. Your friends will be worried about you."
Fluttershy had never asked about the rhymes. None of them had. Yet hearing their absence was more frightening than anything within the forest had been.
"They're our friends!" She walked back around to Zecora's front, and stretched out her neck so that she could lay her forehead against that of the taller mare. "I'm not leaving without you."
Zecora didn't say anything more. She just closed her eyes, and they stayed there, like that, until Fluttershy felt bark against her forehead instead of fur. She pulled back, and through the tears in her eyes, she saw a new, zebra-shaped sapling, with a pattern in the bark that looked like Zecora's sad smile.
"NO!" Fluttershy's hooves pounded against the wood as tears rolled down her face. "You can't take her!" Her wings flared open in defiance as the edges of her hooves clawed at the bark, wild with the thought that she may be able to find the familiar striped coat beneath. "Give her back! Give her back! "
Tears, sweat, and blood mixed with the dirt as she threw herself to the ground, and birds fled branches at Fluttershy's anguished scream.
Her sides heaved with heavy breaths and wet sobs. "Please..." she begged, her voice barely a raspy whisper. "It was me you wanted... Take me instead..."
The plea was spoken from the depths of heart and soul.
Light poured from the new tree as the magic answered.
Few could deny that Ponyville was a strange place.
A stone's throw away from Canterlot and a stop that many travelers took between there and elsewhere, it looked like any small township in Equestria at a glance. The majority of citizens were earth ponies, but there were enough pegasi to keep the weather managed, and it wasn't hard to find a unicorn either. Plenty of cows, sheep, and pigs lived on the outskirts, hosted by farms, and there was one elderly donkey jenny who was such a quiet, peaceful presence that most forgot about Matilda entirely until she was right in front of them.
However, things happened in Ponyville, and the more often you had contact with the place, the more likely it would be that it would happen to you. An Ursa Minor rampaging through town, a nearby dragon filling the air with choking smoke, a swarm of insects devouring buildings, a cockatrice on the loose...
But one of the strangest sights was also one of the most benign, and even here, spreading out their picnic blanket to enjoy the spring day, some of the townponies were giving Zecora and Fluttershy a wide berth. Or maybe they were just wary of the grizzly bear who was sunning himself nearby like a gigantic housecat.
After they'd both come home, Twilight had gone through every book she could find for information on what had happened to them, and when that had turned up nothing, she'd sent a message to Canterlot. It'd taken mountains of books, combed through for any scrap of information, to slowly put together a picture from accounts of what had, previously, been thought of as fanciful folktales or the ramblings of madponies.
It had taken all that time to even have a name to apply, to the place and its magic both: The Wyld. A place that could only be found if it let someone in.
From the point of view of their friends, Fluttershy and Zecora had been gone for a single night, appearing with the next sunrise, and so nopony had realized yet that either were gone at all. Harry had no memory of leading them into the depths of the woods, but Fluttershy hadn't expected him to; she'd figured out before reaching her cottage again that it had never really been him who'd beckoned her from her home in the middle of the night.
The why was still a mystery. Why her, why them. But Fluttershy had a feeling that it wouldn't happen again. The Wyld had allowed them to find the way home, and so it likely wouldn't try to call them again. If she went out into the Everfree and asked to return, maybe, but she had no plans to test that theory, not when she was finally home.
As for what had happened to them, nothing had been able to reverse it. Twilight hadn't been able to find a single spell, potion, artefact, nothing that would revert them to what they were before they set hoof within the Wyld, and Fluttershy had eventually gently asked her to stop trying. Both of them were just happy to be home.
Fluttershy set down the basket full of sandwiches, and then stretched out across the blanket, soaking up the sunlight. On the right side of her body, light reflected off her yellow coat and feathers, marred only by the set of scars along her back from where she'd been slashed by rotted claws. On her left, the light instead bounced off of pale white bark similar to a birch tree, and her wing was replaced with a branch dotted with soft green leaves and pale pink flowers. More pink flowers filled her mane and tail, and her eyes constantly burned with a slight green glow.
Zecora settled onto the blanket as well, mirroring Fluttershy in more than just body position. The left side of her body was as it used to be, covered with black and white stripes and her flank carrying a mark of a styled sun. Her right, instead, was coated in bark, mostly white like Fluttershy's but occasional cut through with darker patches. Her tail was still a branch, and more leaves had grown there, as well as her mane having nearly been replaced entirely with long leaves mimicking its old style. Her eyes had the same green glow, flickering with the magic trapped within.
Nopony came near them. Some were likely still afraid that the condition was contagious, and Fluttershy couldn't blame them. They'd been dubbed magically stable, able to safely be among others, but this was something new, and ponies instinctively steered clear of what they didn't fully understand.
That was okay. Fluttershy had been a pegasus who chose the ground over the sky, and Zecora had been a zebra among ponies. Neither had ever entirely fit in even before this, so they could handle being even more apart from the herd.
Fluttershy looked at Zecora, laying with her eyes closed, a peaceful and truly happy smile on her face, and was content. Even if things never went back to normal, life would go on, and they'd have their friends, and each other.
And if the rot ever did seep out, slipped the Wyld's containment and tried to sink its claws into Equestria... the two of them would give it a nasty surprise.
