Collision Code

Act II: Fateful Collisions

Chapter 1: A Venomous Reminder

Four days have passed since the library break-in. Though wary, the eleven afflicted by the crime remained somewhat normal in their conduct. Ivan took up working at the Sugarcube Corner as opposed to Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie was just as accustomed to her job as Applejack was, but she seemed to be more helpful...in her own way, of course. The Cakes didn't seem to mind the extra presence in their workplace. John took Ivan's place at the farm, and unlike the former human turned earth pony, the former human turned dragon did not mind getting up at the crack of dawn to assist on the farm.

Leo, meanwhile, remained with Rainbow, since she was still willing to at least be around him while he finished working out the kinks with his flying technique. Corey, meanwhile, tried to come to terms with his magic control. He actually made significant strides in that area of development, but still had to take a rest when performing advanced telekinetic feats.

Indeed, for the group, the break-in hung over them like a cloud. Yet, despite this, the former humans' secret has still been kept, possibly against their better judgment. On the surface, life continued as normally as it could in Equestria.

Day six of the former humans' tenure in Equestria begins now.

Four days had passed since he officially started working at the Sugarcube Corner. Ivan really wasn't sure if he was going to be able to keep up with the baking that was demanded of him. It wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be, though. He did have Pinkie tutoring him on how things went together. It seemed simple enough. However, the former human dreaded the day he'd be left alone with the Cakes' toddlers.

He also apparently dreaded daylight, since he was still in the habit of sleeping in. Each and every morning, the brown earth pony would remain out like a lamp. And each and every morning, his roommate, in every way his opposite, would have to wake him up.

The brown earth pony rolled over in his bed. He then felt something bumping up against his snout, and half-opened his eyes to see what it was. His dark blue eyes suddenly got a faceful of pink fur, and cyan-colored eyes.

"Goooooood morning Iiiivan!!!" squealed Pinkie. If she hadn't done something similar to this each morning, Ivan would have been more startled. As annoying as wake-up calls were to Ivan, compared to the one that he got from Applejack, these were at least a little more acceptable. Though she waited for him to bump snouts, he still wasn't entirely sure if this is how Pinkie would greet her roommates normally or if she was being subtle about hitting on him.

"Oh, hi Pinkie," Ivan rolled over, trying to keep his tone light. "Are you waking me up early to tell me I don't gotta do much today?"

"Oh, don't be silly," Now, the pink earth pony bounded over his bed, and faced him directly again. "I'd wanna sleep in if it were an easy day!"

"And I always want to sleep in," The brown colt immediately rolled over such that he was on his belly, and dangling partway off the side of his bed. Sure, he was going to get up, especially now that Pinkie was literally sharing her excess energy with him, but why not make her work just a little for it? She clearly didn't seem to mind it.

"But why?" Now she was on the side of the bed, and when he looked toward her again, he couldn't help but notice that her smile did not fade too much with this revelation. "When the sun is out, everything looks pretty and everypony's out and about and--"

"Pinkie, I get it..." Ivan responded. Something about Pinkie almost always caused his normally neutral countenance to break down and a smile would form. There were exceptions, but had it been anyone else that had given him this wake-up call, the brown earth pony would have been a lot less responsive. "Alright, I'm up..."

The former human hadn't quite gotten around to asking Pinkie out, if only because he was unsure that she was actually flirting with him. He might have had an easier time if it were any of her friends, but when it came to romantic intent, Pinkie was one tough pony to read. He was honestly confused, but did not let it bother him.

He knew, though, that he liked her. She made being in Equestria and, hell, even working, enjoyable.

Meanwhile, in the library, in Twilight's room, two unicorns were sitting at opposite ends of a small table. It was Corey, the former human, on one end, and Twilight Sparkle on the other side. Upon this table was a board, with chess pieces in varying positions on it. A game was well in progress, and the black pieces were clearly overtaking the white pieces. A quick look at their faces would confirm who was winning and who was losing.

Corey was grimacing very clearly as he surveyed the board. Chess just wasn't his thing. It was his father's thing, but the patience for the game wasn't hereditary. Yet, playing the game had helped him somewhat adapt to the levitation spell. He was at least able to levitate relatively small objects with little trouble. If he kept using the games to practice, he knew that he'd be able to use the spell good.

Twilight, on the other hand, appeared very confident due to the way the board looked. She just about had his king in check, and when that happened, it would all be over. She had suggested they play it once, and somehow, this had become part of their routine. Probably because it was helping Corey along a bit in getting control of his levitaition.

Brown eyes surveyed the board, trying to find a move that wouldn't mess him up too bad. He only had a knight (which looked suspiciously human in this world), a bishop, a rook, and a pawn left in addition to his king. He could only make one move, and it would probably be his last given how all their games usually ended up. Well, except the first one, but that was because Twilight, he now fully understood, was going easy on him so he could get a feel for the rules.

A green glow wreathed a bishop, and he moved it into place, taking out one of Twilight's encroaching knights. The purple mare smiled somewhat, but Corey couldn't tell what kind of smile it was, and it worried him.

What worried him more, however, was the fact that whoever broke into the library hadn't been caught yet. A sub-worry of his: the fact that life was just being as normal as it could be in Equestria.

"It almost feels strange to be playing chess like this when we just had a break-in half a week ago," Corey spoke up as he wiped some of the sweat that had gotten on his brow. He was still wondering why ponies sweat, and if they even sweated back on Earth to begin with.

"I know, but there isn't a lot we can really do about it now," Twilight said, almost dismissing Corey's concerns as she turned her attention to the board. "Whoever did it is long gone, and besides, whether or not it's from your world or not, something is bound to turn up sooner or later."

Both took a moment to reflect on the sun princess's response, as well as the aftermath. She hadn't taken too kindly to the news of the break-in, but at the same time, didn't dismiss the prospect that it could have been whoever came out of that other portal. There was an investigational squad looking in on the incident, but so far, there wasn't a lot of progress made on the case. Whoever broke in did a good job of disappearing.

They took a little time to gaze at one another, before returning to their game. Living together hadn't diminished anything of what they felt for each other, but at the same time, the business end of the most recent incident had brought out their workaholic sides. They were both more willing to shut out romantic distractions.

This time, it was a pair of purple eyes that surveyed the board. One of Twilight's rooks quickly moved into place, taking out the offending bishop that had just taken out her knight, causing Corey to slump forward.

"Don't feel bad," said the purple mare. "You're getting better at this..."

"I know..." The green colt said aloud. "But I'm a very impatient pony...or person, whatever, at heart..."

Once again, it was Corey's turn to look upon the board and decide if there was a move he could realistically make with any of his pieces that would allow him to delay his inevitable loss just a little while longer.

Noel, or Leo, as everyone except Ivan called him, reflected on the past few days. He honestly couldn't say that things were going too bad. He'd gotten more control over his wings, and as the days passed, he could have sworn Rainbow Dash and himself were getting closer. She had seemed to be trying to distance herself from him at first, but eventually she began to relent.

Yet, Leo couldn't call that a full victory. Right now, he hated geometry, a subject he always loved. Why? Because he slowly began to realize he was part of a triangle, him being the point at the top, Rainbow Dash being the point on the lower right...

And Fluttershy, the pony he was trotting with right now, on the lower left, parallel to her friend.

"I hope you understand," Leo said to her, turning to the meek pegasus. "I can't sit back and do nothing. It's not in my nature."

The two were walking toward the Everfree Forest. The former human didn't quite know what to expect, but he saw a way he could practice his martial arts, hopefully without arousing the wrong kind of attention. He was going to remove himself from the rest of the population for a few minutes, and see if he could find a way to train his new body to be able to actually use his martial arts as he could in his human body.

It wasn't precisely the best option to do, but seeing as how his cutie mark had basically given that away when Rainbow asked about the symbol to Twilight, he had to get himself back into shape quick. If he remembered screenshots from the show correctly, the cyan pegasus also knew quite a bit herself. And if he knew her like he thought he did after five days in her company, give or take a few hours, she'd be bugging him to spar non-stop.

"O-okay...if you insist," the yellow pegasus stuttered in response to Leo's statement. The two were now pretty much at the entrance. The silver colt made a move to exit, but Fluttershy had something else to say. "W-wait..."

"Yes?" Leo asked, turning around to her.

"I-if anything happens, you come straight out," she responded. Her voice was soft, yet the former human could pick up a hint of sternness in her words. Her voice became somewhat clearer, "You hear me?"

"Don't worry abou--" Noel cut himself off when he caught the look in the mare's eyes. Her brows were furrowed, and it was a hard, serious look, something that Fluttershy rarely sported. With a sigh, the former human relented. "Okay..."

With that, Leo ventured into the Everfree Forest alone. As he walked down the path, he turned. He could see Fluttershy waiting at the entrance, seeming to fight with herself on whether or not to go in with him, as she merely watched him. The silver pegasus turned away, feeling completely confused, as he hovered away.

God I hate my feelings right now...

John was walking along the path to the library, the state of affairs at Sweet Apple Acres handled for the moment. He wasn't needed for the harvest; the Apples seemed to think that there would be rain in the next two days, a fact which seemed lost on John. He did know that pegasi could manipulate clouds, as he'd seen them pushing them around, on a couple of the days he was here, Rainbow Dash was lending a hoof.

He was mainly needed for more demanding tasks in the meantime: pulling out dead trees on the orchard being the job he was mostly known for. Ordinarily, it was Big Mac and Applejack that did maintenance of that sort on the farm, and for their part, they didn't really need John's strength to help. However, he did help them get that day's work done for the moment. He'd probably be back during the afternoon to see if he could help any further, but he needed some air.

Because the air at Sweet Apple Acres, John felt, was starting to become rather sweet. And not because of the apples growing there. Something else was blossoming down on the farm, and John wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.

I'm gonna blame Applejack on that one, but then again, had she not tried to talk me down, I really don't know what would have happened there... thought the former human turned dragon to himself. That, and over the past four days, we've been getting to know one another. Certainly a lot slower than Twilight and Corey did at any rate...

The image of Twilight on top of Corey in that accidental kiss amused John more than it did discomfort him. He continued his walk, greeting ponies, who by now seemed to have adjusted a bit more to his presence in Ponyville as he went. Finally, he caught sight of the tree which had the library in it, and walked up to it. He raised his fist to the door, and knocked three times.

"Who is it?" This was Twilight on the other end.

"It's John, mind if I come in?" the dragon asked.

"Spike--"

"Already on it," this was the younger dragon answering Twilight's command before she could even finish it. The door swung open, allowing free access. John passed inside, and looked around.

"Uh..." began the black and blue dragon.

"Upstairs, playing chess," said Spike. "Same as every other morning. Why are you here so early?"

"There really wasn't a whole lot of work for me today," John answered. "Other than pulling out dead trees that really had no business being on the orchards."

The former human was somewhat aware of the unicorn couple's new pasttime. For his part, he'd wished he could play one of them, if only to see if he'd gotten rusty. He was a member of the chess club, after all, and knew the rules better than Corey did. He followed Spike's directions, following the path to Twilight's room. As soon as John entered, Corey put his head on the desk, slumping over, looking utterly dejected.

"Checkmate," said Twilight, looking over the board. She carefully reached through the pieces with her forehoof, and took one of Corey's. "Hey, don't get down on yourself, you did better than last time..."

"I lost so many pieces though..." he responded. "I barely even touched yours. I only had the two left..."

John looked carefully at the board as soon as the two finished having their moment. Sure enough, Corey only had his King and a rook left. The two didn't even seem to notice his introspection, both wrapped up in their own thoughts.

"Ah, there it is..." said John. He picked up the rook and slid it to the opposite end of the board. "I can't speak for sure, but I think you might have had Twilight in check here, Corey."

Both of their attention spans returned immediately to the board. Out of curiosity, Twilight returned the board to what it would have been had Twilight not gotten her last turn. Two sets of eyes analyzed the board.

"John's right," Twilight said, pausing to make sure. She flopped down in her chair in a surprisingly humanlike way. "He's right!" She sounded more dumbfounded than anything. Corey stared stupidly at the board, then looked over to John.

"...You play chess?" Corey asked after some silence.

"Member of the chess club," John responded.

"I see," said the green unicorn, facing towards the board, wondering how he could have missed that. Twilight, meanwhile, turned to John, and posed a question.

"Would you like to play me sometime?"

This was followed by the sound of a green unicorn slumping over dejectedly again. Ordinarily, John would have covered for Corey, but seeing as how he had given some signs that Twilight and him were close enough that he didn't need a wingman, the former human turned dragon decided to forgo that.

"Whoa, slow down Corey, she said 'play', not 'date'..."

Twilight turned to the slumped-over Corey, who flinched and appeared to blush into the table from the moment. She giggled somewhat at his reaction, before turning back to John.

"Anyway, to answer your question, Twilight, maybe some other time." The black-and-blue dragon continued, acting as though the previous exchange didn't occur. "Corey, how's your magic control been going along..."

"Doing fine, thanks to chess..." Corey didn't look up, instead opting to mumble his statements into the table on which the board rested. Evidently, it took him a while to recover from embarassing moments that he didn't quite see coming up. "Moving the pieces helped that avenue along a bit..."

"I see...so you haven't learned any new spells, then?"

"Wouldn't know where to begin, really, though I guess I'm gonna need them, if things are gonna get as bad as we think they are..." Corey started looking up. "Twilight? Any recommendations?"

"Well..." Twilight started. Just then, the ponies' ears pricked up, as the sound of knocking once more echoed throughout the treehouse. It was a lot softer than that of John.

"I'll get it," Spike called up from downstairs. The sound of a door opening resonated within the treehouse. "Fluttershy?" At first, his question was nonchalant, but apparently he saw something that currently, neither the older dragon nor the unicorns could see. "What's wrong?" This time, he sounded concerned.

Corey and Twilight both got up, the latter whispering something to herself, but John couldn't quite make it out. All three moved into the main area, to see a distressed Fluttershy looking up toward them. She took brief notice of John, but did not flinch too much. She, like the denizens, had gotten somewhat used to the fact a larger dragon was in the vicinity, but she still had a few more hurdles than most of them.

"Fluttershy? Why are you here? What happened?" asked Twilight, moving down to her location. The two former humans remained somewhat distant, but started moving after her at a slower pace.

"I-it's Leo...he went into the Everfree Forest..."

"And you let him go alone?"

"Y-yes, but I-I s-should have went with h-him...he went deep into the forest and disappeared from sight...I-I wanted to follow him," Fluttershy began to shake. John felt he knew what was about to come streaming from the yellow mare's eyes, and he had a strong feeling it wasn't out of joy. "b-but I-I got s-scared...oh, he's been in there a long time...and he hasn't come out. I'm worried about him..."

Wait a sec... thought John. If Leo went into Everfree Forest alone...and from what I've seen of the show...oh crap...!

A subtle look in Corey's direction revealed they were thinking along the same lines. Thankfully, so was Twilight. Spike decided to stay behind and hold the fort until they got back; he figured he could do something in case the inrtuder returned.

So, with that in mind, the unicorns, pegasus, and older dragon began rushing in the direction of the Everfree Forest...

It had been about fifteen minutes since Leo managed to get deep enough into the Everfree Forest to avoid Fluttershy's eyes. He couldn't exactly train knowing someone was watching. However, he regretted this action. He wasn't exactly lost; all he had to do was retrace his steps. The former human couldn't find a suitable area to practice. The trees were very thick around the area he was in now, and it didn't look like there was going to be a clearing.

With a sigh, Noel shrugged.

"Guess I'd better head back," he thought to himself, starting to walk back toward the entrance. Just then, there was a terrifying, blood-curdling roar, one that momentarily froze Leo's blood. A loud thud snapped him out of his freeze-frame. He turned, and saw a creature that he'd saw in the pilot episode.

It was a massive, orangish-yellow lion creature with a red mane. However, setting this apart from the lion was the tail, which was dark red in color like the undersides of its wings.

Just my fucking luck... thought Leo. He knew full well where he'd wandered now. He must have gotten too close to manticore territory. And this one didn't appear to have a thorn in its paw. He didn't want to have a fight with it, but given how suddenly it had appeared, he did not appear to have much of a choice.

He decided to use a trick he'd somewhat perfected over the past few days. He flapped his wings, which by now had been endurance trained quite a bit, until the front part of his body lifted. Like this, he could stay bipedal as long as his wings could hold out. Noel knew quite a few styles of martial arts back in the human world, and he knew that he did come here to try and replicate them somehow without his human body.

He meant to use an inmobile target, however. Not one that was probably looking for lunch.

The wild beast before him lunged, its massive body proving difficult for Noel to avoid, but he somehow managed to pull it off, stumbling a little on his hind legs as he moved.

"Oh to heck with it!" Leo grumbled, pushing his body in the air, still maintaining his pose as the manticore charged again. With a battle cry, he twisted his body, kicking the manticore across the face. All this really managed to accomplish: one, Leo was able to get some breathing room once more; two, the manticore just became more pissed off. It scratched the ground, appearing to want to charge.

Calm down, Leo...calm down... Noel thought to himself, now starting to believe his old name was nothing more than a memory. He'd gotten so used to being referred to by that name that, save for Ivan's occasional greeting, he was believing he was "Leo". The force of a body pushing against his snapped him out of the thought process quick, and Leo was being pushed back.

"I've got to get out of here...!" grunted the silver pegasus colt as he saw that the duo was nearing a few obstacles. "Should have listened!" He struggled to get free, but somehow managed to wrestle his way out of the death charge, leaving the beast to crash into the trees, causing loose branches to fall and the nature constructs to jitter as the massive monster crashed into them.

Leo panted, keeping an eye on the manticore's movements. It got up, and uttered another ferocious roar.

"Darn it!"

The silver pegasus turned and tried to fly away, taking Fluttershy's advice to heart. The pegasus checked over his shoulder, hoping to not be leading the manticore into town. When he turned back, the same lion-like beast jumped down in front of him. Leo applied the brakes, dumbfounded.

I should have expected this...!

Just then, a scorpion tail lashed out, catching Leo just above the left eye, the pony closing his eye out of reaction. The pony kicked the manticore back, panting heavily. He'd taken a hit. To his surprise, a red liquid began to drip into his line of vision.

Blood...?

Just then, his vision began to blur, and his breath suddenly became harder to maintain.

No way...do these things have venom too?!

Fluttershy couldn't lie to herself. She felt absolutely terrible for not accompanying Leo into the forest. But she was too scared of what was within the trees. With a large dragon and two unicorns now backing her up, however, she was easily able to manuever through the forest with minimal freezing.

"He could be anywhere in here...!" Corey grunted, his voice betraying a slight fear. He almost looked as though he wanted to say more, but cut himself off. John said nothing, only occasionally breathing out gray smoke as he ran.

"We've got to find him, before something else does..." Twilight piped in, only raising the meek pegasus's guilt more. The four continued to gallop/run through the forest, until a loud roar sounded nearby, causing the four to stop.

"What was that?!" John yelled, the smoke coming out of his mouth now a darker gray. He was clearly getting angered now.

"T-that was...!" Fluttershy stuttered, knowing full well what that roar was. A quick look in Twilight's direction confirmed that she already knew as well.

"A manticore...oh no!" Twilight screamed, realizing the danger Leo was in. "Leo...!"

Realizing the state Leo could be in right now froze Fluttershy's blood thoroughly. It was a disturbing thought to her. Manticores could sometimes be nice, but most of the time, they weren't the friendliest creatures to come across, especially if you wandered into their territory by accident. The sounds of steps became distant.

"Fluttershy?" Twilight asked. "Are you coming?"

"Y-yes!" And with that, the yellow pegasus was off again, this time taking flight and flying after her friends, forgoing her galloping. The four followed the direction of the roar, and found themselves staring at a scene nopony should have to see their friend be put through.

Leo was pinned to the ground, trying to dodge claws to the face that probably would put him in bad shape. What really underlined his condition, however, was what color his face was. It was a paler silver, and with a stab of anger, Fluttershy realized that he had been hit by the scorpion's tail.

John gave a terrifying roar, but Fluttershy wasn't paying attention. Her anger was kindling. It had only rose to this point a few times in her life. The pegasus did not consider herself an angry pony, but when an event or person managed to anger her, she couldn't stand by and watch it anymore. She merely hovered, staring at the silver colt.

John charged, knocking back the manticore as it tried to smack Leo again and catching it by the chest. It staggered back. Now John had its full attention.

"Corey, Twilight, Fluttershy, get Leo out of here!" he roared back to them, the smoke a complete black fog as it spewed from his mouth in his obvious anger. Fluttershy followed the two unicorns as they approached Leo. Twilight was the one to lift Leo away with a levitation spell, and set him down near the other three. Corey seemed to be shocked that Leo was injured.

"Leo, can you hear me?" Twilight asked. "What happened?"

"It got me with its tail..." Leo weakly answered.

Something stirred further within Fluttershy. Her face set into an expression of anger, and almost immediately, she knew what she had to do...

John held his ground as the Manticore charged him again. Unsurprisingly, the dragon was being pushed back by the manticore, but he wasn't making it easy. The body of a dragon came with strength and endurance beyond that of a pony; John made sure to use it to his advantage. Of course, he also knew that if he stayed this close to the beast, he'd probably wind up in the same condition as Leo. He took a deep breath, and almost immediately, he felt his stomach fill with heat. He blasted a fire stream into the manticore, singeing its fur and mane, causing it to back off and, after it recovered from the attack, launched itself to John.

The dragon was on the verge of lunging forth himself, when a yellow body suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Stop!!!"

John abandoned his fighting posture, looking up toward Fluttershy. He could not see her facial expression from the angle he was at, but he looked back at the manticore. What he saw nearly made him step back out of fear alone: the manticore looked as though it was about to wet itself.

"You want to hurt my...friend?!" She hesitated only briefly during that statement, making all present wonder about Fluttershy's real feelings for Leo. "You'd better not! You've done enough!" She was clearly angry, and John could only guess she was glaring at the manticore. The beast sit down, looking both frightened and angered. "Now, don't you dare go near Leo again, do you hear me?!"

The former human turned dragon could not believe for an instant what the hell he was looking at. Even if he'd watched all the show, he knew he still probably wouldn't comprehend what had just unfolded. Fluttershy was so quiet and shy it was hard to imagine her becoming angered, let alone to this point. What made the moment even more chilling was that the manticore looked like it was about to bolt.

And it did, causing John to hold his breath.

What...the...hell...was...that?! thought the dragon to himself, remaining frozen. Fluttershy watched the manticore scamper off like it'd been spooked, and by all rights, the beast had obviously been. The pegasus landed on the ground, and after a few seconds, turned back to John, with only a slight trace of rage on her face.

"John, are you alright?" she asked, returning to her soft voice.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine," John responded. He hadn't fought the manticore long enough to actually incur any serious injuries. "We'd better check up on Leo, though." There was one thing the former human did know: Fluttershy could be incredibly scary sometimes.

"Oh!" Fluttershy said, galloping over to Corey and Twilight. John remained rooted to the spot, while he processed precisely what he just saw.

How the hell is she afraid of anything?

Finally, though, John realized what he was doing, and jogged over to the ponies, realizing there was something far more important than Fluttershy being afraid of him, yet being able to scare away a beast by screaming at it.

Leo was obviously in danger, far more danger than John would have expected out of Equestria, even given the fact he had some knowledge of what was in this forest.

Twilight stood over Leo, feeling completely stunned. The silver colt that was once a human had taken on a manticore, and had obviously lost. However, his breathing was somewhat strained. She had to be sure.

"Leo, what did it do to you?" the purple mare asked, looking down upon the injured former human. Leo turned his head toward her.

"It hit me with its tail," he repeated, his voice sounding somewhat weaker. As soon as she heard it a second time, Twilight realized exactly what happened.

"Twilight?" Corey asked, apparently noticing the look of concern etched into her face. "What's wrong?"

"The manticore's tail...you saw it, right?" she asked, trying her hardest to keep herself calm despite the overall look of the situation.

"It looked like a scorpion's--!" Almost immediately, the green colt understood the situation exactly as well as she did. She could tell just by the look on his face. "Darn it...! Is there anything we can do?"

"What's the damage?" asked John, who by now had reached the site of conversation. "You guys don't look too good about it..."

"He was poisoned, John," Corey announced bluntly. "The...manticore, you said, Twilight?" Twilight nodded when he turned to her. "The manticore's tail was a scorpion's tail! It contains, what I assume, a very potent poison. Leo got a faceful of it..."

"We don't have a lot of time," Twilight cut in, feeling down on herself. "But I don't think we can reach the library and find an antidote for manticore venom before..."

The four fell silent. For a moment, no one really knew where to go from here. Just then, a soft, gentle, feminine voice broke the silence.

"Z-Zecora..." whispered Fluttershy.

"Huh?" Corey asked, turning to Fluttershy. "What'd you say?"

"Twilight," Fluttershy spoke up, somewhat dodging Corey's direct question. "do you think Zecora could help?"

Twilight looked from Leo to Fluttershy, blinking. Zecora...the zebra who helped them through poison joke even after all that Ponyville had put her through, the zebra who had correctly identified the parasprites as a source of trouble, and the zebra who had taught her a very important lesson, one she later applied to Corey and his friends: don't judge a book by its cover.

The situation did appear hopeless, but given that Zecora lived not too far from here, it actually seemed like there was a way Leo could make it out.

"That's right!" Twilight called out, somewhat startling Fluttershy. "She might know a way to cure Leo's poison! John, do you think you could--"

"On it!" said John, already lifting the still-conscious Leo over his shoulder. "Fluttershy, Twilight, do you know for sure how to get to wherever she is from here?"

"It isn't far!" answered the purple mare. "Don't worry, Leo stands a good chance with Zecora!"

"Who is 'Zecora'?" asked Corey as the quintet took off. Twilight turned to him with a small smile.

"You'll find out," she began, "but trust me when I say this: Zecora knows more than I do about remedies for situations like this."

"I trust you completely, Twilight," Corey whispered. "You know more about this world than I do..."

The purple unicorn merely smiled to her green...special friend as she lead the way to Zecora's hut. The five wove through trees, startled birds, and, by some form of luck, had managed to reach the abode of the mystical denizen.

"Is this where she lives?" John asked.

"Yes..." Twilight responded. "Leo's going to be in good hooves, believe me..."

Twilight cast a look over to Fluttershy, who appeared unbelievably relieved at this. It seemed likely that Leo was going to be just fine...

Leo's in some kind of pickle now! Nice going, dude! Well, this ends the posting of already posted chapters. From here on, it's entirely new chapters. I think everyone's IC...and to those that are concerned, this story is going to turn out long.