Let the Odd Adventure Begin!

Odd burst through the wooden door, almost sending it flying off its hinges. She staggered into the room and tripped over a jar lying on the floor. Landing on her face, Odd groaned. She picked herself up and kicked the jar that had dared to send her to the floor. It shattered against one of the walls but not before knocking a number of tribal masks to the ground.

“Zach! Zumma! I need to talk to you two.” Odd yelled to the seemingly empty hut. “And of course when I say I need to talk to you, I mean right now!”

To the left of Odd a tapestry slid to the side and two zebras entered the room together, keeping in step with one another. They were the exact inverts of one another; where one was black the other was white. This was even true for their cutiemarks. The image of a simple, corked vile half-full of liquid was displayed on both of their flanks. The liquid was pure black for one of the zebras and sparkling white for the other.

Both of the zebras glanced at the broken remains of the jar and rolled their eyes. They both began to clean up the mess Odd had caused with her entrance. This only served to annoy Odd; she hated to be ignored.

The zebra with the white cutiemark spoke first. “I didn’t think you intended to come back today, Odd.” He said, hanging up one of the masks. “I assume this means you intend to collect on one of your favors.”

“Not from you, I’m afraid, Zumma. I’m currently in need of Zach’s specialties.” Odd huffed. She paused before continuing. “Though, while I’m here, do you have that magic suppressant ready yet?”

Zumma nodded and went back into the room he and Zach had emerged from. Now finished with cleaning up the shards of the shattered jar, Zach walked over to Odd. He stood a full head higher than she did and was forced to bend his neck in order to stare her in the eye.

“I need a truth potion.” Odd stated. She returned his stare but it was clear she didn’t feel like playing the game. It had become a tradition of sorts that every time the two met they would enter a staring contest.

Zach could clearly see that Odd’s heart wasn’t in it and gave up. “You know I don’t do truth potions anymore. The last time I made one for you no pony would talk to me for a month.”

“Would you do it if I agreed to forget the ‘Great Cotton Candy’ incident that happened last year?” Odd questioned.

This offer made Zach waver. He’d been trying to work off the Great Cotton Candy debacle since it had happened almost a year ago. Odd had taken the fall for Surprise, Ponyville’s resident party-pony and trouble maker; Surprise also happened to be Zach’s special somepony. If he refused, that kept her in the red-zone with Odd and that as not a good place to be.

“I’ll do it if you throw in the gnome-thing and take half off the Cake Batter Blowup.” Zach said, sticking out a hoof.

“Deal,” Odd said, shaking Zach’s outstretched hoof. She hated getting rid of so many debts in one fell swoop but, at this point, she had no choice.

Zach trotted off to the back room, passing Zumma as he came back. Clutched in his mouth was a vile with a blue-grey colored potion inside. Zumma set it down on the ground in front of Odd but kept a hoof on it just in case.

“This should take care of this morning’s incident, should it not?” Zumma questioned.

“Half-way there.” Odd said, grabbing the vile. She pulled the stopper out with her teeth and tossed her head back. The horrible tasting liquid slid over her tongue and then down her throat. No matter how many times Odd drank that particular potion she couldn’t get over the taste.

Zumma sighed. Muttering something under his breath, he grabbed the empty bottle from Odd and walked it over to a table on the far side of the room. “You know that the more often you take that suppressant, the less effective it is. I’ve already had to up the dose twice in the past six months just to keep what’s stored inside of you bottled up. If you keep burying the magic inside of you, you’re going to make yourself sick.”

“I will never use magic!” Odd spat at Zumma. More to herself, she said, “It will never come to that. I’ll make sure it never comes to that.”

During Odd small outburst, Zach had crept back into the front room. He had in his mouth a bottle with a pitch black liquid inside it. It was slightly ironic that the potion he was so intent on not making was the one he had gotten his cutiemark for.

Odd took a deep breath and collected herself. Zach slid the vile across the floor to Odd, thankful to be rid of it. Picking up the bottle, she carefully placed it inside her saddlebag.

“I relinquish control of that thing. As far as I’m concerned, it doesn’t exist anymore.” Zach said, throwing his hooves in the air. “I don’t know how you intend to use it and I don’t care.”

Odd shrugged. She’d had this conversation with Zach before and it if she pursued it any further he would only stonewall her. It wasn’t worth the trouble; she had learned that a long time ago.

“I’ll be back later this week.” Odd called over her shoulder as she walked out the door. “If you would please have my next dose of magic suppressant ready, that would be great.”

Odd closed the door quietly and walked out into the Everfree Forest. She took a deep breath and tried to shake off her feelings of guilt. Collecting on favors from everypony except the zebra brothers was easy. Holding pony’s debts over their heads was just part of how Odd operated. In Odd’s life most ponies fell into two categories, those that owed her a debt and those that didn’t.

The zebras were one of the only ponies that floated outside these categories. On occasion, Odd actually looked forward to seeing the two of them. In all honesty, she should hate them. Both of them practiced a form of magic, the thing that she despised more than anything in the world.

Odd thought back to the time she first met Zach and Zumma as she walked back to Ponyville. It was about three months after she had moved to town. It had been a particularly bad day for Odd; at school they had been playing tag and a few of the foals had decided to cheat. Rather than being roped in, Odd had informed the teacher. Shortly afterward, she was dubbed “teller” and excluded from every other activity that happened that day. Needless to say, she never “told” again.

Not wanting to go back to her home, Odd had wandered along the edge of the Everfree Forest after school let out. A sudden burst of courage caused her to want to explore the darkest depths. She stepped carefully into thick vegetation, forcing her way through. Thorns from the briars scrapped her legs and chest but Odd didn’t really care. The adrenaline from her fear made her feel alive.

After Celestia knows how long, Odd had stumbled into a small clearing and two medium sized zebras. The three ponies had ended up in a giggling heap. Why they were giggling, none of them knew.  After a few moments Odd realized that being in a pile was not such a good idea and sought to remedy it. She began to untangle herself and the zebras followed suit.

They each took their time to compose themselves. Once the three ponies had introduced themselves and they struck up a conversation. They ended up spending the rest of the light hours talking with one another. Odd found it strange but she was actually enjoying herself for the first time since she’d moved to that Luna forsaken town.

Odd found out that the zebras’ names were Zach and Zumma and that they were brothers. She also learned that even though Zach and Zumma were much older than she was they were the only ones that treated her as an equal.

Odd snapped out of her reminiscing when she collided with something hard. It took her almost a full minute to realize she had hit the ground. Odd tried to push herself up but her body felt as heavy as lead. After struggling for what felt longer than Luna’s banishment, Odd collapsed back into the dirt. She tried to fight back against the black spots crowding at the edge of her vision but it was a losing battle.

As Odd’s consciousness began to fade, she saw a black and white figure dart out from the edge of the Everfree Forrest. She felt herself being lifted up by somepony. The rocking motion of being carried was what sent Odd over the edge. She gave in and let herself be swallowed by the darkness.