Our story begins in the Everfree Forest, a place so perilous one would think it was inhabitable. A place full of creatures so nasty, vile, and downright menacing that any sane individual would keep their distance. And while Spike valued his sanity and life, he also needed to go into that forest. Now, Spike was a dragon. Dragons are renowned for being big, scary, greedy, and just plain mean. This dragon was none of these things. His reason for coming into this dreaded forest was to seek out its sole resident, Zecora.
Spike was a rather lanky dragon, being only a teenager. He was tall, his limbs stretched long as he walked on his hind-legs. His scales were a shade of royal purple and his namesake spines the same color as the grass back in Ponyville.
With a tattered map in claw, Spike walked the barely beaten path to the zebra’s hut, hoping and praying he had not gotten himself lost. He had been to Zecora’s home only once or twice before, and even then it was with somepony else to show him the way. Now he was alone, with only this old piece of paper to tell him which way was which. This could end badly.
“Can’t give up now, though.” He grunted to himself, taking another look at his guide as he continued to march.
His trudging was stopped, however, when his acute sense of smell picked up something familiar. The smell of smoke permeated the thick of the trees and dingy, muddy path. His eyes traveled away from the parchment and up to the sky. There he spotted the trail of dark smoke coming from dead ahead. He grinned.
“Either somepony is stupid enough to camp here, or that’s coming from Zecora’s house.”
Spike made a mad dash through the trees, trying to simultaneously keep an eye on the smoke, and watch for the trees and brush. It wasn’t too long before he broke through the treeline and into the small clearing where a solitary hut was carved out of a huge, gnarled tree. Smoke billowed forth from an opening made for the purpose of ventilation. Spike found himself worrying now that he was here.
“Come on, Spike. You know she’s not as bad as she was made out to be.” He growled at himself. “She’s just like everypony else.”
After scolding himself, the dragon took a few steps toward the tree-hut. A sound came from within that was shockingly akin to an explosion. A sudden instinct in Spike, a protective sort of fear caused him to leap into overdrive and run to the door. He wanted to open it and rush inside to make sure nopony was hurt but he held himself back and simply pounded on the door.
“Zecora! Zecora, is everything okay?!” He yelled as he continued to slam his clenched fist into the wood.
“Cease that horrible noise. That is hardly befitting someone of your poise.” Came a voice from within. Spike, feeling rather sheepish, stopped his assault on the poor door. He heard hoofsteps from inside and soon enough the door opened to reveal the glare of a zebra. “The dragon of Ponyville, to what do I owe the honor? i suggest you speak fast, while I’m calmer.” She asked in rhyme, as per usual. It took a moment for Spike’s brain to comprehend what was asked. It wasn’t that he was stupid, he just really wasn’t used to the rhyming thing.
“Uh, yeah. Sorry, I heard a loud noise and sort of... acted before thinking.” His voice cracked, causing him to inwardly curse himself as heat rose to his cheeks. This caused Zecora to open the door a bit more showing she had a smile on her muzzle. She withheld a chuckle at the dragon’s embarrassment.
“You have grown much, Spike. You are no longer a little tyke.” She opened the door all the way and trotted back to a cauldron set in the middle of the main room. Spike entered slowly as the smell washed over him. Whatever was in that pot smelled vaguely of mint and tea leaves. He made sure to close the door behind him. The shelves that lined the walls were decorated with many colored bottles with outlandish things inside them, ranging from simple liquid to even solid creatures.
One of them housed a fish of some type, it’s body squished into the glass prison and it’s eyes rolling this way and that. It must have still been alive. Judging by the teeth that stuck out of it’s maw like misshapen razorblades, Spike didn’t think he wanted to touch the thing anytime soon. Just as he realized he had been staring Zecora’s voice caught his attention.
“You have yet to answer my question. Is there a reason for your apprehension?” Her voice was so smooth that Spike had likened it to chocolate.
”Dang it, Spike, stay on task!”
“I want to learn about medicine.” He said bluntly. “I know you’re the zebra to go to about this sort of thing.” He found himself blushing again as his eyes started to wander all over her body. Thankfully, she never seemed to notice. Damn hormones. Her body was well toned, though not overly-so. She had the strangest golden jewelry around her neck, hind leg, and in her ears. Spike had seen mares with pierced ears or necklaces but these were certainly something else. The way she moved, the way she spoke. Spike would surely get goosebumps if he didn’t have scales.
“So, one of my books you wish to borrow?” With an understanding smile, Zecora motioned to her bookshelf, filled to the brim with tomes of medical knowledge and other assorted things. “I only ask you return them by tomorrow.”
Spike twiddled his thumbs, speaking up, “If I wanted to read books on medicine I have plenty at the Library. What I came here for was, well... To see if you’d take me on as a student.” He was feeling rather out of place, though kept on talking. “I learn much better when I use the hands on method, you know?”
The zebra was silent as she made her way to her cauldron and began to carefully stir the mixture within. The smoke from the fire underneath was starting to get to Spike. Sure, he was a dragon and all. He should be used to this sort of thing, but the fact of the matter was that he lived in a library. Fire wasn’t exactly commonplace with so many books around that could easily catch aflame.
The silence hung in the air so heavily it would surely crush Spike underneath if it actually had literal weight. Instead, it made him fidget nervously every time Zecora’s gaze fell on him. He took this time to look everywhere but at her (or that fish-thing.) The hut was rather sparsely decorated. A few potted plants, which Spike imagined were more for potions then decoration, were placed about the room. No real seats, sadly, forcing Spike to stand all the while.
It felt like hours before she finally spoke again, and it nearly made Spike jump out of his scales at the sudden noise. “I will take you on as my student, if you promise to be prudent.”
“Really?!” His voice cracked again. He coughed into his fist and cleared his throat. “I mean, really?”
“Of course, but there are certain duties you must uphold. My lessons are more valuable than gold.” She versed.
Spike nodded, he didn’t expect this to be free, even if he had hoped it would be. “What kind of duties, Zecora?”
“Apprentices are to live and work under my orders. You must reside within the Everfree borders.”
Spike’s eyes went as wide as saucers, surely she was joking? Living in Everfree Forest? That was suicide! There were monsters, poisonous plants, and all manner of creepy-crawlies out here! Oh, but he dearly wanted to learn from the best and that so happened to be Zecora. He wanted to deny the offer now that it was on the table but instead he sang a different tune.
“Where would I be staying?”
Zecora thought for a moment, and only a moment, “Everfree lacks many havens to spare, perhaps my home we can temporarily share. You may wish to return home to your peers, so that you can alleviate their fears. Now move along quickly, you, so that I can prepare this place to house not one but two.” She rattled off rhymes like they were nothing special. Spike found himself pretty amazed by the sheer amount of skill she had with words. Then the implication of her suggestion sunk in. He felt his face grow hotter as he tried to swallow, only to find his mouth to be incredibly dry at the moment. He would be staying with a mare other than Twilight? This definitely wouldn’t end well for the poor dragon.
“I-If you say so.” He choked out, his face red as a cherry instead of it’s usual violet as he stumbled backwards for the door. Tact, thy name is Spike. His hand grasped empty air more than a few times before it finally found the knob. With a quick turn and a tumble outside, Spike found himself with his back in the dirt, staring up at the sky. Well, he made it outside. Score one for the purple drake with hormonal issues.
With a noise that was a lovechild of a sigh and a groan he brought himself to his feet and with as much dignity as he could muster he began his journey back to Ponyville.
Twilight Sparkle was an understanding mare. A kind pony that only wanted the best for Spike. She practically raised him once Princess Celestia had given guardianship of the dragon over to her. If he wished to pursue higher learning in the form of an apprenticeship then by Tartarus she would find the best teacher ever for him.
“The Everfree Forest?!”
Twilight Sparkle also worried too much. Now, yes. This was the Everfree they were talking about here. That place was surely dangerous, but Zecora had lived there so long without trouble. Spike really couldn’t understand the issue. So what if he was moving out? He wasn’t going far, and even then they had a magical means of communication!
“Look, I’ll be staying with Zecora, Twi...” He tried to ease her worries along with his growing headache as two of his fingers massaged his temples. “I really don’t see the problem.”
Twilight stamped a forehoof in agitation. He had repeated that line about four times now and it still did very little to ease her fears. What about the hydras, the timberwolves, the cockatrices, and all those other monsters who would make a snack out of the young dragon?!
“Why can’t you learn from somepony else? I’m sure Nurse Redheart would be happy to take you as an apprentice.” She tried, but Spike was adamant. He shook his head as he packed away anything and everything he would need. Twilight had rubbed off on him just a bit.
Well, not literally. That would be weird, though the thought still crossed his mind. Spike feared if he blushed anymore today he was sure he’d explode or something.
“I’ve made my choice, Twi.” He said firmly, crossing his gangly arms over his chest and looking down at her sternly. “I’m not a little kid anymore, I can take care of myself.”
“But what if-” She tried, only to be cut off by a glare. “Ugh, fine... You know I only worry because I care about you!”
Spike released a sigh. He walked over to the mare he considered family and wrapped his arms around her in a loose hug. “I know.” He murmured more to himself than to her. Twilight returned the hug, her eyes beginning to tear up. He was right, she knew. He was growing up, he needed to eventually.
She just wished he had stayed her little Spikey a little while longer.
Back in the quiet of her home Zecora was busying herself, laying out a mat on the floor of the backroom. While it was originally used for storage it would now serve as a makeshift guest room. Spike would just need to live with the smell of these ingredients and reagents for a good while. As-per usual her mind began to wander in the dead air. The scent of dried roots and plants all but forgotten as harsh memories came to the front of her mind.
“You are a gem.” It was almost as if she could hear his voice once more. “My shining jewel of the savannah.” Almost as if he were there, whispering in her ear of her beauty like before.
Her thought process was stopped, thankfully. The only issue being what stopped it. From the main room of the hut a resounding crash was heard. Zecora’s body jumped into defense mode, tensing as she listened carefully for a few moments. She heard some cursing. Somepony had broken into her home. A foolish decision to make.
Out in the main room Spike dropped his bag on the floor, letting it lean against a sturdy looking shelf. The key part of that sentence being “sturdy looking.” For as soon as the bag put even a bit of it’s weight onto the structure it toppled like somepony was trying to play Jenga with it and failed horribly.
Spike watched with a horrified look on his face as the shelf fell sideways and shattered against the floor along with all the glass jars and bottles it held. Along with the one that housed that strange fish creature. The dragon felt a pit grow in his stomach as he spoke every curse he knew, slowly growing louder and speaking them faster as before his eyes the fish creature became a fish monster, one known and feared throughout the seven seas and a lone lake in the middle of nowhere. “El Barto Diablo” the silent terror of the deep. Bart to his family.
Steadily, Bart grew in size until he was the length of Spike’s arm. Serpentine in nature, the monster was now free from his glass prison and it was hungry. He bared his fangs at the tasty looking purple meal before it. The thing looked a little scrawny, and probably wasn’t all that good for his figure, but maybe a snack like this wouldn’t hurt?
As Zecora looked through the doorway at the scene before her she was both relieved and agitated by the sight. Nopony had really broken in, but somedragon had royally messed up. She watched as the leviathan she had worked so hard to capture bit into Spike’s right leg, causing him to howl in surprise. Thankfully for the drake, his scales were tough as can be and the dagger-like teeth just couldn’t pierce his hide. Sadly, the leviathan had a strong body and easily whipped Spike off his feet and onto the ground as it tried to gnaw through his natural armor.
Now think for a moment on how Zecora must feel in this situation. She spent a lot of time and effort trying to catch a living leviathan and now some klutz of a dragon releases it to wreak havoc on her home. Watching as the sea monster whipped said dragon around, casually knocking him into her furniture she knew she would need to end this sad playdate they were having soon, lest she lose all her precious belongings in the process.
“It would seem my guest is fast becoming a pest.” Zecora groaned to herself. Surely she had something around here to settle this little dispute? Ghosting her way back to one of the many boxes of reagents in the “guest room” she began to root through them. Bottled frog breath, oak root, a few of lavender petals for scent, and a pinch of powdered rosebud. Once the proper ingredients were mushed tightly in a clear jar, Zecora shook the mixture gently. The sound of Spike being hurled into another of her things caused the zebra to frown slightly as a crimson smoke began to seep from within the jar. Her concoction ready for use, Zecora ran back to the ongoing conflict and with a professional pitcher’s aim tossed the smoking jar between the two.
Engulfed in a cloud of rather pleasant smelling smoke Spike kept his thrashing about in a vain hope that he would wriggle out of the damned thing’s death grip. He began to cough and hack as the cloud filled his lungs. Bart gasped for air, his clenched jaws gradually becoming slack around his dinner’s leg, which wasn’t all that tasty. Eyes drooping and struggling slowing the pair eventually gave up their fight for an unexpected nap.
Zecora clicked her tongue in bemusement before trotting passed the sleeping duo and opening the front door to allow the smoke to clear better. The sleeping monstrous leviathan started to return to it’s natural size, and her draconic apprentice was curled up next to her downed shelf. She must have inhaled some of the mixture because at that moment she felt sleepy as well. With a small yawn she set to work re-bottling the baby leviathan. Of course, there was a matter of the wreck she called her home.
“An eagerness to learn he may possess, but I’m sure as hell not cleaning this mess.”
You know that feeling you get after a night of hard drinking? The kind where you can’t remember what happened, your throat burns, and you could have sworn there was a fish monster chewing on your leg. Well, Spike sure wasn’t familiar with the feeling, and as he shook his head to rid himself of the cobwebs, and rubbed his eyes to get the red spots to go away an odd noise reached his ears. Somewhere nearby somepony was humming a tune he didn’t recognize, and as he turned his head to pinpoint where the oddly alluring music was coming from his vision finally snapped into action.
“......Wow.” Hunched over her cauldron looking completely focused on whatever brew she had created, was a familiar zebra, and in Spike’s slowly reddening face was a healthy striped backside. A few seconds passed at a painfully slow rate as Spike couldn’t for the life of him tear his eyes away from the sight, it wasn’t long before Spike’s head was reminiscent of a ripened tomato.
“When you are done enjoying the view, I have a great many chores for you.”
Of course, all good things must come to an end. This end just happened to be abrupt and awkward. Clapping a palm over his face Spike groaned as, once again, his face heated up to surprising levels to show his embarrassment. To further his embarrassment the now shrunken Bart seemed to be snickering within the confines of his new jar at his ex-meal’s predicament.
“Enough of this laying about, you still have a mess to sort out.” Without taking her eyes off of her current concoction, Zecora gestured to a mop leaning next to the door frame, and the still various knocked over chemicals. Some which were still smoking, while others gave off some unique sounds.
“...Uhh, yeah, sorry about that.” With a sheepish grin, Spike scurried towards the cleaning utensil and began to hastily swab at the spills that dotted the room. Zecora nodded in reply, and started to stir the cauldrons contents, after a few minutes had passed she resumed her humming. His ears twitched the moment that strange music began to fill the room again, and Spike couldn’t help but wonder the history around it. Instead of voicing his question, however, the drake merely listened intently. It wasn’t a terribly complicated tune, though that didn’t stop it from captivating the dragon’s attention.
As Zecora continued to hum on, and began to sniff the subtle aroma that escaped from the cauldon, Spike cleaned up the mess in silence. Being a bit of a social creature Spike had wanted to start up a conversation, but given his current track record for making a fool out of himself in front of his new teacher the dragon opted to keep his mouth shut. Luckily for Spike, the silence was broken by Zecora after a pleased “Mmm.” Was emitted from her.
“Finally, I’ve finished the stew, with plenty to share between us two.” Turning away from the large pot, Zecora fixed an inspecting eye on Spike while he finished cleaning the last bits of the mess. As miffed as she had been at her new apprentice for trashing her hut, and for the slightly inappropriate behavior, Zecora had to admit that he was great at cleaning a spill.
“Food sounds great right about now.” As he laid the mop to rest back next to the door, Spike became aware of a gnawing hunger within his belly. Peering into the vast cauldron Spike could only make out a boiling moss green liquid with several lumps bobbing into view. A long sniff did little to clue the young dragon in on what he was about to ingest, as it smelled nothing like anything he had eaten before. “Uhhh, if you don’t mind me asking... What is this stuff?”
“In my land this dish has great fame, though you may have a hard time pronouncing it’s name.” Zecora informed with a light-hearted chuckle. Spike had never really thought about Zecora’s homeland, family, or anything really. In fact, he had barely even spoken to her before becoming her student. But now he found himself very curious as to the zebra’s past. The drake was sure that she would have some very interesting stories to tell.
That is, if he could muster the courage to even ask her.
