In Youth Eternal - A Dark Secret

Chapter 11: Recovery

“Hmmmm. I see. You have every right to worry,” said a certain zebra living in the Everfree Forest, in response to the explanation of everything so far, given by Spike and the Mane 5. Zecora put a certain emphasis on the ‘y’ in ‘worry’ to keep up her rhyming speech pattern. Their eyes solemn, they nodded in agreement with Zecora’s statement.

Spike stepped forward towards the zebra. “So, Zecora. Can you help her? Can you help her wake up?” he asked. He looked up at her with hopeful eyes that were on the brink of tears.

Zecora smiled warmly, with a chuckle passing her lips, looking down at the baby dragon. “Do not fear little Spike. To help Twilight Sparkle, I would like,” she said. Applejack laid Twilight on Zecora’s bed for her to be examined.

The zebra had taken a few minutes examine Twilight. Fortunately, it did not take her long to come to a conclusion. Zecora turned to Spike and the Mane 5, whom had looked on, awaiting her answer.

“Okay, Twilight Sparkle will be. Merely unconscious from severe exhaustion and stress, you see,” she told them, with a warm smile and nod. Zecora had come to this conclusion based off her examination and the explanation about Twilight’s little magic outburst earlier. Spike and the Mane 5 were relieved to hear it at least wasn’t life threatening.

“Is there anythin’ you can give ‘er?” Applejack asked, gesturing with hoof. “Ya know, somethin’ to give ‘er strength back!”

Zecora turned to her cauldron in the middle of the room with a smile. “Yes, I know of a potion that will do just the trick! But, I need one more ingredient to give it that extra kick.” Zecora explained, still maintaining her rhyming speech pattern.

“What do you need? We’ll help you get it.” Rainbow Dash offered. She was eager to help Twilight regain her strength and consciousness. The tone of her voice made that glaringly clear.

“Oh, do not worry, Rainbow Dash. It is not far. I will return in flash,” Zecora claimed. She was content with getting it her self, and as she said, the ingredient was not far from her hut. With that, Zecora promptly exited her hut, shutting the door behind her.

At this time, Spike and the Mane 5 could only wait for Zecora to return with the needed ingredient.

*     *     *

Fifteen minutes passed by uneventfully. Most of them spent the time looking around at Zecora’s various herbs and books out of curiosity, and Pinkie Pie was still being Pinkie Pie.

At last, somepony began to speak up. “So, um... Zecora has been gone for a while,” spoke Fluttershy’s soft voice. They all turned to Fluttershy with listening ears. “Do you think, maybe, we should go find her?”

“You’re right, Fluttershy. We outta go find ‘er,” Applejack replied.

“Are you sure? I mean, it is filthy out there” Rarity pointed out, giving a sheepish grin. Spike and the others looked at her, unamused scowls present on their facial features. “Well, maybe she will be back really soon?” she continued, nervously. Rarity was worried about getting herself unnecessarily dirty.

“Well we don’t ALL have to go! Right!?” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, who had recently regained her usual optimistic, bubbly demeanor. “I mean, some of us could stay here and watch Twilight and have some of us go and look for Zecora!” She began to bounce up and down in place, making some sort of distinctive springing sound.

Applejack nodded in agreement. “Ah’ll go n’ look fer Zecora.” asserted the orange earth pony, taking initiative.

“I’ll go too,” volunteered a certain cyan pegasus. “I got your back just incase anything goes wrong!” Applejack smiled confidently and nodded at Rainbow Dash, who quickly responded with a nod of her own, smirking arrogantly.

“Then it’s settled. Me n’ Rainbow Dash will look fer Zecora. Ya’ll stay here n’ look after Twilight,” Applejack ordered. With that said, she darted through the door way to go outside, followed by Rainbow Dash who glided through the air using her wings. Fluttershy closed the door behind them.

Once outside, the duo looked around. “So, which way you think she went?” Rainbow Dash asked. Having been living in the forest for a while, Zecora was experienced with leaving as few tracks as possible to avoid viscous creatures from finding them, which could lead them to her.

“Ah dunno, sugarcube,” Applejack responded.

“Hmmm,” muttered the cyan pegasus under her breath. Her wings flapped more as she raised her altitude. She kept fairly low to the canopy, quietly gliding around in the surrounding. It was then that she heard something.

Off in the distance, it sounded like somepony, or rather, a group, was chattering. Rainbow Dash took note of the direction and promptly returned to the forest floor where Applejack was.

“I thought I heard somepony talking from over there,” claimed the pegasus, pointing a hoof to the north of their current position.

Applejack nodded. “Alright, ah guess that’s our best lead!” she responded. The two mares took off in the direction Rainbow Dash pointed them, passing many trees and bushes along the way.

It wasn’t long before they came across the location. Applejack and Rainbow Dash decided to keep a low profile, hiding in the surrounding bushes. The duo peaked over them to see who they had hoped. It was indeed Zecora, but she was not alone. The duo spotted a pair of pegasi, adorned with golden armor. They were likely interrogating their zebra friend.

“Royal guards? Out here?” whispered Applejack, turning to Rainbow Dash.

“They must have started making sweeps of the forest, probably looking for us,” answered the cyan pegasus with a whisper of her own. Applejack gulped with concern.

“Think we should get rid of those guards?” asked the cyan pegasus.

“Ah dunno, maybe-” she began, cutting off her sentence as soon as she saw of the guards strike Zecora, yelling something at her at the same time. Zecora was visibly afraid, and a bruise was left where she was struck. The other armored pegasus facehoofed at his comrade’s unnecessary violence.

The two onlookers gasped at the same time. Rainbow Dash became noticeably angry. ‘How dare they hurt Zecora like that!” shouted Rainbow Dash’s inner thoughts. ‘If I get the drop on them I should be able to take them right out no problem!’

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and took off straight for the pair of royal guards from out of the bushes. Leave’s from the bushes trailed out from Rainbow Dash’s sudden charge. Fortunately for her, the guards happened to mostly be facing away from her location. Meanwhile, Applejack quietly took off after the cyan pegasus to back her up, just in case something went wrong.

Rainbow Dash’s strong wings flapped furiously, accelerating her body as fast as they could. Within moments of initially taking off, both front legs outstretched, Rainbow Dash collided with the royal guard who had attacked Zecora, at a high velocity. She had nailed him right in ribcage while his guard was down. The royal guard’s bones shattered, causing severe internal bleeding.

The armored pegasus was knocked to the ground, only able to cough up blood as he writhed in serious pain. His comrade went wide eyed at the sudden attack, only to turn his eyes to anger, gritting his teeth. He  made an attempt to attack Rainbow Dash, who just set herself on the ground in front of him, only to find a pair of orange back hooves bucking him in the side of the head.

Applejack’s years of apple bucking on the farm made her legs a force to be reckoned with. The armored pegasus was knocked unconscious, denting his helmet inward.

Zecora was taken by surprise, but quickly calmed down upon recognizing her saviors. “Thank you, Rainbow Dash and Applejack, ” she stated. The zebra had not yet collected her final ingredient, having been stopped and interrogated by the those royal guards.

“Ah, it was nothin’,” Applejack said modestly, smiling at Zecora. Rainbow Dash on the other hoof started gloating. Applejack quickly got her to stop however, reminding Rainbow Dash of the importance that they help Twilight.

“Anywho, ya’ll right, Zecora?” said the orange, blond-maned farmer, concerned with the zebra’s well being.

A smile passed Zecora’s lips. “Although I am unarmed,” she began, clearly unarmed for self defense, “I am unharmed.”

“Well, that’s good!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “Anyway, so did you get the ingredient yet?”

The zebra shook her head. “Not yet, my friend. But my search is nearly at an end,” she replied, pointing a hoof to patch of exotic flowers that rested a small distance away. Zecora had just reached the location of her ingredient when she was found by the guards.

“We outta stick with ya ‘till ya get back,” suggested Applejack, with Rainbow Dash nodding in agreement. “Just in case ya run in ta’ anymore trouble,” she continued, smiling.

Zecora returned her smile and nodded, before all three went to gather the potion’s final ingredient.

*     *     *

He awoke several minutes later from a dark abyss of nothingness, dazed. He grunted as he stood up, balancing himself on his hooves. He quickly shook himself to his senses. The pegasus glanced around at his surroundings for moment. Nopony seemed to be there. In truth, it did not take long for Zecora, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash to collect the ingredient and move on.

He then noticed that his helmet fit him differently, as it felt out of place on his head. Removing it, he noticed that it was heavily dented on the side.

“Oh, right,” he said to himself. The armored pegasus, named Cloud Runner, began to recall how somepony had flanked him, knocking him out when he tried to engage the cyan, rainbow-maned pegasus in combat. He slipped his helmet back on anyways. Then he remembered something else. “Oh crap!” he shouted, glancing over at his fallen comrade’s location.

He was dead. Blood stained all around his mouth from all the blood the poor pegasus was coughing up until he passed away. Cloud Runner recalled the sudden attack the random cyan pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane had launched, crushing his comrade’s rib cage with a high speed attack while his guard was down. The shattered ribs had lacerated his internal organs, proving fatal in minutes.

“The Captain will definitely want to hear about this,” he said aloud solemnly, despite nopony but himself being there to here it. Giving one last look at the corpse of his fallen comrade, his wings lifted him into the air and above the Everfree Forest canopy.

Without wasting time, he quickly took off towards the makeshift base to report the incident to Captain Strong Wing.

*     *     *

Captain Strong Wing sat in his personal tent, finishing carefully reading through the scroll that Princess Celestia had sent him. He rolled it back up, setting it on his makeshift desk, having no further use for it. He began to think to himself about the situation.

‘Hm. Who would have thought Princess Luna was involved with thattoo,’ spoke his inner thoughts as stared off into space, his face calm. ‘Would have been nice to know a little earlier though.’ He stood up and briefly stretched his legs. The Captain (somehow) grabbed his helmet with his hooves and slipped it over his head, letting it fit nice and snug.

The Captain made his way to the entrance of his tent to give the order for Scarlet to send out the messages to order the troops back to base. However, he was stopped by a sudden sound. It sounded like rushing wind, followed by a thud. It sound like several hoof steps that sounded simultaneously. He opened the entrance to his tent to find an armored pegasus with a dented helmet standing before him.

“Sir!” the guard shouted, giving a salute.

“Ah. Cloud Runner. I see you have returned early. Where is Tempest?” inquired Strong Wing, arching a brow.

“That’s just it, sir,” replied Cloud Runner, his voice solemn. “We were ambushed. Cloud Runner was killed by some cyan colored pegasus with a rainbow mane.”

Captain Strong Wing’s eyes narrowed, recalling a run in with a certain pegasus pony of that description. “Go on,” he insisted, wanting the armored pegasus to continue his report.

“Tempest’s guard was down while we were interrogating a local, and she crashed into him at high speeds from out of nowhere! It shattered his ribcage...” continued Cloud Runner, his voice slightly frantic now, but still mostly maintaining a calm demeanor. “And before I could engage her, somepony else flanked me and knocked me out.”

Captain Strong Wing shut his eyes. “I see...”

“I will deal with this soon,” said the Captain, his eyes reopening. “For now, get some rest. I’m sending out an order to bring the troops back here. Then, I will fill you all in on the new developments.” Cloud Runner gave a nod in response and saluted before heading off to get a bit of rest.

Captain Strong Wing stepped out of his tent and tracked down Scarlet, who was predictably found in the communications tent.

“Scarlet.” said the Captain. The scarlet-colored unicorn was briefly startled, turning around to find the Captain had entered the tent. She dropped the scrolls she was handling at the moment.

“Sir!” she shouted, saluting.

“At ease, Scarlet,” Strong Wing said calmly, nodding his head.

Scarlet nodded back before using her magic to pick up the scrolls she dropped. The Captain waited patiently for her to finish organizing them. Once she was, she turned to him. “So, what is it, Captain Strong Wing?” the unicorn asked.

“Send out a message to all the troops that are still out patrolling to return to base,” he commanded with his gruff voice. “We have some new developments.”

*     *     *

Zecora was stirring the crimson liquid that sat in her cauldron, gripping a large wooden spoon of sorts in her mouth. A low fire below the large metal pot kept its contents warm. It was almost ready, as the zebra had already mixed the flower roots in with the strange elixir. The aroma of the crimson red liquid was similar that of a cherry.

Spike and the Mane 5 stood around patiently, keeping themselves busy with idle chatter or twiddling their hooves. As usual, Pinkie Pie was still being Pinkie Pie.

After a minute or two further, the zebra pulled the large wooden spoon out of the potion-filled cauldron. She tapped it on the edge of the large black metal container to remove any of the potion that remained on the spoon.

A glass vile was resting on a stool next to the cauldron. With it, was a ladle. Zecora picked up the ladle with her teeth and carefully scooped up some of the crimson red liquid. The zebra slowly brought it to the glass vile, and tipped the ladle, allowing the strange elixir to flow into the glass. Afterwards, she set the ladle down.

“So, is it ready?” a certain baby dragon asked with hopeful eyes. Spike was eager to see Twilight back to her old self as soon as possible.

The zebra replied with a simple warm smile and nod. Zecora tilted her head and gripped the glass vile containing the potion. She carefully brought it over to the unconscious lavender unicorn. Spike followed her over to Twilight, holding the mare’s mouth open to be able to receive the warm vitality potion.

The glass vile hung over Twilight’s mouth, gripped by Zecora. The zebra carefully tilted her head in the other direction, allowing the the crimson liquid contents to flow out of the container and into the mouth of Twilight Sparkle.