Chapter 13: A Topsy-Turvy Day
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The days had once more settled into monotony following Silver's departure. Azure Courage hadn't forgotten his friends' parting words, though he didn't quite see what his blind friend had been getting at. The others didn't seem to act any differently around him than they usually did. He didn't see any evidence that they harbored any other feelings than friendship. The colt had resolved to leave it as "heat of the moment" until he could see more evidence that the dark blue pony's readings were true.
Azure was hard at work on the latest job, which admittedly wasn't hard; he was assisting in building a few extra houses a fair distance from his own home. From where he was, he could just make out the shape of the library several kilometers away. The male unicorn continued to work, using his physical body to move some more lumber into place.
The pony unwittingly found himself compelled to look toward the entrance site. One of the ponies that the boss had sent out for some reason was rushing back to the workplace, looking completely flustered and...frightened?
Azure raised an eyebrow quietly, but said nothing, continuing to move the lumber. He had just gotten the shipment where it needed to go, when abruptly, the voice of his boss cut through the scene.
"Everypony, drop everything and go home right now! You know the reason!" The colt, known for outsizing him in both muscle mass and height, usually sounded tough and intimidating, but right now, he sounded distinctly threatened. The cyan pony felt his jaw unhinge in utter disbelief, and immediately closed the distance.
His boss had to look down slightly so their eyes could meet. His boss had dark blue eyes, and was a physically imposing earth pony with a green-gray fur color and a dark red mane and tail, slicked back yet slightly messy all the same.
"Yes, Courage?" And he always insisted on referring to the workers by their second name as well.
"What exactly is the reason we need to drop everything and run, sir?"
His boss blinked, but he remained impassive all the same.
"You'll find out soon enough if you stay out here like this!" The boss said. "Move it!"
The male unicorn blinked, but nonetheless obeyed his boss's advice and moved out of the construction side, noticing that, as he went, the townsponies were nowhere in sight. Ponyville was a quiet town, but even so, there were several ponies always out doing something. However, right now, not a single one was in sight.
The pony used his magic to lift his hard hat from his head as he continued, utterly perplexed at the town's behavior, rubbing at his mane with a forehoof before continuing his trek, replacing the helmet as he went.
"I don't get it," Azure said flatly to himself, "What's got everypony so nervous?"
Snap!
The cyan colt grunted as he felt something grapple tightly around his back leg. However, his eyebrows lifted in mild alarm when he realized what it was.
"A lass-" The rope tugged hard and jarred him straight off his feet. "-oh!" He was completely in mid-air for most of the journey. When he finally hit the ground, he did so belly-first, which knocked the wind out of him since he was minimally prepared for such an event. Eventually, he was dragged inside a place that felt familiar, but the lights were very dim. As soon as he was safely inside the open door, Pinkie zipped in front of him and slammed it shut.
Before Azure could even fully process he was now in the Sugarcube Corner after being dragged who knows how many yards, the feeling of having rope around his ankle left him, and he turned around, to see the others save for Twilight and Spike also huddled in the dark inside. There was another pony too, a short filly, no doubt early school age, no more than ten-ish, there too. Her body was a cream-yellow, her mane and tail a reddish pink, the former of which had a pink bow in it. Her eyes were a reddish-orange, and she had no cutie mark.
"Sorry 'bout the rope, Az," Applejack said, storing the rope she always seemed to have on her under her hat. "but we had to get'cha in here quickly..."
"You know, if that was an issue, you could have just called me over..." Azure said, getting back to his feet, adjusting his headband.
"That's what I told her," piped in the younger pony, with a very familiar dialect in her tone. More specifically, she had a Southern accent, just like Applejack herself did. Azure blinked, trying to figure if he'd ever seen this one before. He soon found he did remember the pony's appearance, but not her name.
"Wait, Applejack's your older sister, right?" he asked of the smaller pony, who appeared just a little indignant to be remembered in this way.
"Yup," She recovered quickly from this, but in her eyes Azure could still see the childish indignation of being recognized through one's older sibling. The cyan colt had been the youngest of the three cousins, but he couldn't remember a time in which he was in their shadow. "I'm Apple Bloom."
"Nice to meet you," The unicorn quickly tried to blow past the fact he'd known the much quieter Big Mac since last applebuck season and restore focus on his confusion: why the ponies seemed to be so nervous today. "Now, can somepony tell me why--"
"Oh no, Twilight and Spike are out!" Rainbow Dash called out. "We need to get her in here now!"
"Get her in here for what?" Azure asked, utterly at a loss of cognitive function at seeing the normally brash pegasus acting like that. "What's going on?"
Apparently, today was "Ignore the Confused Ponies Day", since the colt's questions were being ignored.
"Get her attention, Pinkie, quick!" Applejack called out. The cyan pony felt his eye twitch, and he rubbed at his temple in irritation, while the party pony scurried over to the front area to do just that.
We stopped Nightmare Moon and helped each other out since then. So why are they all so worried? Apple Bloom actually looks less worried than the grown mares in this room!
"Ya mean ya didn't see her?" asked the small pony, the only one not ignoring his concerns right now.
"See who?" If there was ever a time Azure found himself completely frustrated with his friends...well, Twilight almost always frustrated him during the arguments; but this would definitely be one of those times when they'd done so as a group.
Before Apple Bloom could give him a straightforward answer on that, the colt suddenly found his attention completely diverted to something just inside the building. Namely, a shaft of bright light, coming from a flashlight. Now he could see, clearly, in the darkness, a wincing Twilight and a terrified-looking Spike. Pinkie was the one holding the flashlight, obviously. The others began to move closer to the spectacle, and Azure followed, not knowing at all what was going on, only that the two purple newcomers were, like him, completely unaware of why the town was in the middle of a meltdown.
"Who?! The zombie pony?" Spike asked from atop Twilight's back.
"Z-Zombie pony?!" Pinkie said, apparently just as afraid, shining the flashlight under her own face. Azure almost scoffed at the thought. If it was just one of those, it really wouldn't be an issue. However, if those inane conspiracy theorists from Canterlot were in any way right about a zompony apocolypse--
The smaller dragon immediately freaked out, and hugged on to Twilight's neck. The cyan colt felt himself wondering why the mare didn't squeak from the sudden compression. However, it seemed to be a thing only for him, seeing as how Twilight didn't squeak. Pinkie had since turned off the flash light and had begun moving around in the room.
"Spike! There are no zombie ponies!" The unicorn scolded. Spike appeared to climb off her back now, and was now standing on his legs. After recovering, Twilight sighed, and looked up, though it was clear she couldn't see in the dark. Azure could barely see her or the others, but he knew they were all there. "Pinkie, what are you doing here alone in the dark?"
"I'm not alone in the dark," The party pony replied, sounding completely normal for an earth pony that was in abject terror two seconds ago.
Pinkie Pie followed this up by opening the curtains, allowing some light into the room. Now Azure could at least see the others clearly, though it would probably still be hard to see if a pony was inside through one of the windows.
Twilight realized the others were there with a gasp, looking around the room to make sure that everypony was there.
"Okay then," she started, still seemingly off-guard. "what are you all doing here in the dark?"
"That's what I want to know..." Azure mumbled aloud.
"We're hidin' from her!" Applejack had since moved next to the window, motioning with a hoof to something obviously outside the window. At this, everypony crowded around the pane. Azure could just make out the outline of a hooded figure in the distance. He couldn't much see what she was doing, but she appeared to be tapping at the ground with a hoof. She appeared very ponylike, but when she turned, the male pony saw a pair of yellow glowing eyes, and felt a very weird sense of deja vu.
While the others save for Twilight took to gasping and looking away, hiding out of the window's "sight", Azure took the time to realize something. Even if those eyes were the same as Shadow Ghouls, none of them seemed to be popping out to wreak havoc when the mysterious figure did the same thing. Plus, if this figure was supposed to be behind them in the first place...the colt didn't even want to think about that prospect!
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Twilight looked back to her friends, utterly at a loss. The only one that didn't appear to be afraid of this strange pony was Azure, but given his actions since she'd known him, well, of course he wouldn't be. Plus, he was only there for a week when she'd moved in. Nonetheless, watching her other friends that normally displayed some level of courage hide away from the cloaked newcomer wasn't what one would call inspiring.
"Did you see her, Twilight?" This was Apple Bloom, climbing onto Spike's head to get her attention. "Did you see...Zecora?"
"Apple Bloom!" scolded the older sister. "I told ya never to say that name!"
There was the sound of somepony shifting next to her. Only now did Twilight realize that Azure was still looking out the window. The annoyed look on his face wasn't exactly alien to him, and the purple mare found herself shutting out the urge to kick him in one of his forelegs in hopes he would stay put while she tried to figure out what was going on in a rational and diplomatic matter.
"Well, I saw her glance this way..." The studious pony started, intent on getting the situation resolved.
"Glance evilly this way!" Pinkie interrupted, invading her privacy and leaning on her. Given the situation, the purple mare found it entirely reasonable to gently push her off of her before resuming her statement.
"...and then a bunch of you flip out for no good reason..."
"More like the whole town..." Azure mumbled, though Twilight didn't feel like encouraging or humoring any violent behaviors right now. If anypony were to organize a lynch mob...
"No good reason?!" Applejack exclaimed, completely drowning that thought out before she could entertain it any more. She pulled her sister closer to her with a forehoof, who seemed almost embarassed from the additional contact, "You call protectin' your kin no good reason? Why, as soon as my little sister saw Zecora ridin' into town, she started..." Even though Apple Bloom was now at about hoof's length away, that didn't stop the orange mare from demonstrating her younger sister's reaction, "shakin' in her little horseshoes..."
"Did not...!" Apple Bloom tried to respond through her sister's shaking her, but it was clear that Applejack wasn't listening.
"So I swept her up," the older sister demonstrated by pulling the foal off her feet and putting her on her back, "and brought her here."
"I walked here myself!" protested the smaller pony.
"For safe keepin'." retorted the hat-wearing pony sternly.
Apple Bloom got down off her sister's back on the opposite side, before standing next to her, looking her elder sister dead in the eye.
"Applejack, I'm not a baby!" Now she was indignant. It wasn't like Twilight couldn't sympathize on the grounds that she was the younger sibling, but she couldn't sympathize because her older brother and her didn't have any especially big fights over who had what say, especially in a supposed crisis like this. "I can take care of myself!"
"Not from that creepy Zecora..."
"Wait a sec..." Twilight's ear twitched as Azure mumbled to himself again. "Have I been here before...?"
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Azure just couldn't dismiss the situation. He'd more or less stayed out of the conversation while Twilight tried to sort things out, but there was something about this whole situation that just gave him a horrid sense of deja vu. He'd watched this "Zecora" intently for the entirety of the conversation that Twilight had with the others, and so far, nothing was happening. Shadow Ghouls weren't popping out, nothing seemed to be happening, not even a tendril of smoke that would possibly indicate any sort of magic.
"I seriously feel like I've been here before..." mumbled Azure. "Just...different, somehow."
"She's mysterious..." Fluttershy whispered in response to Applejack's sentiment.
"Sinister..." Rainbow Dash continued.
"And spoooky..." Pinkie added, with her usual tendency to stretch vowels and words when she needed to.
The first one made sense, but the other two...meh, the only thing she has is those glowing eyes, and nothing's happened yet... Azure bit his tongue, not wanting to tell the others about the Shadow Ghoul attack. That would just add fuel to the fire, he feared.
Twilight looked out the window again, and Azure suddenly got pushed forward as the others once again crowded around him. He thought he'd be squeaked again, but even though there was seven ponies and a dragon crowding together around the window, the conditions for that weren't filled.
The distant figure of Zecora reached up with one hoof, revealing golden hoops on the foreleg in question. She let the hood down, revealing what looked like a mohawk for a mane. In addition, she appeared to have stripes running down her mane and forelegs, from what Azure could see. Also, her neck had the same golden hoops around it, and she had large golden earrings.
The others, save for Twilight, gasped openly in fear and drew back again.
"Will you cut that out?" she asked, clearly at the end of her patience.
"Just look at those stripes!" Rarity continued as though Twilight hadn't said anything. "So garish!"
"She's a zebra..." The studious pony announced as though it were common fact.
"A what?!" Everypony in the room shouted. Even Azure had to join in, since he had no idea what one of those were. Even so, she seemed ponylike save for the mane style and stripes. And the golden hoops.
"A zebra, and," Twilight drew closer to Rarity as she continued, "the stripes aren't a fashion choice, Rarity, they're what she was born with!"
The white unicorn looked like she was about to be ill, and with a dramatic sigh, she fainted dead away. As soon as the alabaster fashionista was sprawling on the ground in a heap at the thought of stripes being natural, something that had been disconnected clicked in the colt's head.
"Wait a minute!" Azure shouted, a rant on the tip of his tongue. "Don't tell me you all--"
"Born where?" interjected Applejack, as though he hadn't said anything.
"--forgot about--" The male unicorn tried to continue, bringing up what he considered a good example from the past he hoped the girls could relate to.
"I've never seen a pony--" The farmer mare wasn't hearing any of it.
"--Virid's remarks on--"
"--like that in these parts--"
"--everypony in the room--"
"'cept...her!" Applejack behaved as though he were literally a ghost, just a talking head that had a mute button. Not that he knew what one of those were. The way she cringed indicated that she was still in fear of the zebra.
"--not to mention when Silver--"
"Not now, Azure, I know what you're going to suggest..." The purple mare said, acting as though he wasn't offering anything useful. Azure felt both of his eyebrows raise up in alarm in frustration. "Anyway, she's probably not from here, and she's not a pony. My books say that zebras come from a faraway land. But I've never seen her in Ponyville."
Are you kidding me?! They completely ignored what I had to say about Virid's visit and Silver's visit?!
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"Where does she live?" Twilight asked. It wasn't that she thought Azure was going to voice his own fright, but that was the exact problem. The pony would not know of diplomacy if it walked up to him and smacked him right across his snout. He'd have probably gotten the others to face their fears in the exact wrong way.
"That's just it...she lives in..." Applejack began, "the Everfree Forest!"
At this precise instant, there was a massive crash coming from the next room. It sounded thunderous, and everypony jumped. However, Twilight could see into the kitchen clearly, and had discovered Spike had knocked over some things while trying to sneak snacks.
"Spike!" the studious mare scolded.
"Uh, sorry," the dragon responded from the next room.
"The Everfree Forest just ain't natural," The farmer mare continued. "The plants grow..."
"Animals care for themselves..." Fluttershy piped in.
"And the clouds move..." Rainbow Dash contributed.
"All on their own!" All three finished at once. This in turn caused Rarity to faint again.
"And that wicked enchantress Zecora lives there doing her evil..." Pinkie hesitated, apparently trying to describe something she hadn't even seen yet (which was pretty much par for the course save for the strange conditions in the Everfree Forest). "stuff!"
So descriptive! Twilight thought to herself, yet said nothing else, waiting for the party pony to make her own arguments.
"She's so evil I even wrote a song about her!" The pink earth pony began anew, preparing to sing.
"Here we go..." Rainbow Dash said with a sigh, apparently having heard this song at least once before.
"She's an evil enchantress, she does evil dances," The pony jumped up high towards Rainbow Dash, followed by seizing what quite literally looked like thin air while staring off into space, "if you look into her eyes, she'll put you in trances!" The pony's eyes started to swirl in what was supposed to be a hypnotic matter.
Twilight had to give Pinkie credit on something: her choreography was unbeatable, best in Ponyville if not all of Equestria. However, the fact that Applejack was visibly trembling while Apple Bloom wasn't was nothing short of sad in the purple mare's eyes.
"Then what will she do? She'll mix up an evil brew, then she'll gobble you up in a big tasty stew..." While Apple Bloom finally dislodged her frightened sister's grip, Pinkie made her way onto a table, climbing up as she sang the final part of her verse. "So...watch out!" She leapt up onto her hind legs and stretched straight up into a "terrifying" posture. She started to pant from the effort it took to sing that much.
After silence reigned in the Sugarcube Corner save for the panting earth pony, Twilight finally had to say something important.
"Wow, catchy."
"It's a work in progress..."
"This is all just a lot of gossip and rumors..." Twilight started. At this point, however, things only seemed to get worse.
"You know, girls, it just occurred to me," Rainbow said. "We've got Az in town now..."
"What?!" The studious mare immediately whipped her head around at the pegasus's statement, while silence reigned.
"Oh yeah, that pony will attack anythin' if he's got half a mind to it..." Applejack responded.
"You know, I am right here..." Azure mumbled nonchalantly, his tone so devoid of any emotion it was hard for the mare to understand what was going through his head...like every other time he'd ever done something.
"So maybe we can get him to scare that evil enchantress away before she gets somepony!" Pinkie cheered.
"Girls!" Twilight had to cut this off before it got too far. "Don't encourage him! Azure may have a reputation for attacking indiscriminately when it comes to it, but--"
"Actually, I'm with Twilight on this one," Azure cut in. The purple mare didn't even notice what he said straight away, but she could have sworn she heard a pin drop between his last word and when she started to speak again.
"Not now, Azure, I'm trying to--" Only now did she fully realize what he said, and fell completely silent. The entire room was quiet, and the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the others breathing in shock.
"What?!" Spike called out from the other room, setting off a chain reaction.
Everypony, save for Azure, began to repeat the phrase. Even Twilight herself had to say it; the fact he was actually in agreement with her instead of against what she had to offer was absolutely unexpected.
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Azure Courage had observed Zecora passively since he was made aware of the zebra's existence, and at the point he was at, he had concluded that the others were being no better than Virid. The only difference is, Zecora techincally wasn't a pony. But by looks alone, the only difference between her and an average pony was the golden rings and the stripes covering her body. And she hadn't done anything harmful in the time she'd been around...
"What?" The cyan colt asked. "Is it really that shocking that--"
"Yes." Pretty much everyone in the room agreed at the same time.
"Anyway, I can't scare her away..." Azure replied. "For one, I don't hit mares--"
"But you attacked Nightmare Moon without so much as a second thought!" protested Rarity. The male unicorn raised one forehoof.
"And it was pretty much confirmed that she was going to bring about eternal night from the outset, so there wasn't a need to hold back..." The cyan colt said. "And--"
"What about Trixie?" Spike asked from the other room, apparently having seen his first outburst after Twilight fled on that day. "She's a mare, and--"
"Well, she was crossing lines you don't cross with me. And it didn't help she was being smug about it too," Azure replied, feeling himself get angered just by the mere memory of that day. "I guess I'd better amend what I said. I don't hit mares, unless there's convincing grounds for me to do otherwise...and before any of you bring up about how she's not a pony, save for the strange garb and stripes, she looks enough like one to me..."
"Have you seen what that...zebra, does?" Pinkie asked.
"All I've seen her do is poke the ground with a hoof, but I can't tell what she's doing. However, nothing bad seems to be coming of it..." Azure responded. "Anything else I'm not getting?"
"She comes into town once a month," Rainbow Dash cut in.
"Then she lurks by the stores..." Rarity finished.
The cyan colt closed his eyes and facehoofed.
"You know, there's one other reason I'm not buying into all this, but if you don't remember the incident, I'm not going to remind you about it," he sighed, turning away. "Twilight's right, this is just all gossip and I haven't seen a thing that would suggest I'd need to take action. And, frankly, I'm a little insulted right now you brand me as a pony that would attack anything and everything if somepony tells him it's bad."
Azure started to move to another room.
"Azie, where are you going?" The pink earth pony squealed.
"Don't tell me he's goin' outside!" Applejack asked. Azure heard a subtle puff of air, and his eye trailed behind him.
"I'm not," The cyan colt said, "Just going into another room so I can gather thoughts. Yes, I have those." As he walked into the next room over, he could see Spike sneaking sweets and generally playing with pots and pans, completely distracted now, or at least appearing the part. It was apparent, however, he had been paying attention, for when the baby dragon took notice of his entry into the room, the little guy had only one thing to say.
"Jeez, Azure, what's with you today?" Spike asked. "Agreeing with Twilight, ragequitting...are you sick?"
"No, just disappointed they'd forget Virid so easily..." Azure responded.
"Virid? Oh, your cousin...what's he got to do with this?" The smaller dragon didn't see the point. And neither did the cyan colt.
"Oh no, I think I'll wait. I'll wait to see if anypony else tries to make the connection..." The cyan pony responded, plopping down on his rump out of sight of the doorway.
He listened in to the conversation. Twilight attempted to pick it back up by saying that all of Zecora's activities could have been friendly. It sounded like Apple Bloom also wanted to join in on the conversation, but the adult ponies were apparently blocking her out. The other ponies weren't listening to the studious pony either, the repeated rumors making Azure want to seize the nearest pot and chuck it through the window in sheer frustration.
The cyan colt closed his eyes and tried to keep focus.
Seriously, girls, of all the ponies in this town that would know to treat others a bit more fairly...
"I am sure there is an explanation for everything Zecora does. And if anypony here were actually brave enough to approach her, she would find out the truth..." Twilight said, echoing his thoughts almost exactly.
Inspirational, Twilight, but too bad none of them will let you do it... Azure felt compelled to look towards Zecora again through the nearby window, and noticed some movement out of the corner of his eye.
The figure was foal-sized, yellow, and had a red-pink bow in its mane. It was Apple Bloom.
"She snuck out...?" The colt whispered to himself. "Better keep an eye on this..." The pony looked behind him, to see Spike still messing around. "Psst...psst...Spike!"
"What are you up to?" he asked.
"Just some foalsitting," Azure responded, quietly. "Listen, I'm going to sneak out too, in case anything happens. Think you can keep quiet?"
"...why should I?" Spike asked after some silence.
"If you don't tell them I snuck out too, I'll make sure to grab you some gems next time I go on one of my long runs..." The cyan pony responded.
If there was one thing Azure felt he could count on, it was the insatiable "gem tooth" Twilight's assistant possessed. From the way the dragon spaced out and began drooling from the thought of having an extra snack, the male unicorn felt he had the bribe secured, but he had to err on the side of caution, a feat which he did rarely.
"So do we have a deal?"
"Yes!" Spike whispered.
With the conditions agreed on, Azure immediately turned to the window and opened it with his levitation magic. After slipping out of the window without much incident, he shut it behind him, and, staying low, began to sneak after Apple Bloom, hoping he could catch up to her before anything happened, and, more importantly, hoping to find out more about the zebra that seemed to be the object of meaningless gossip and harmful rumors.
After what I've seen, I just can't think Zecora's bad at all. Azure thought, quickly trotting after Applejack's little sister. The glowing eyes and cloak are the only things I can see working against her, but the Shadow Ghouls might not have been entirely unknown when they appeared; Fluttershy and Rainbow both lived here long enough...!
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Apple Bloom literally could not believe the actions of the ponies older than her. Or at least, most of the ones older than her. More specifically, her older sister's reactions to the mysterious..."zebra", as Twilight called her, had left her at a loss. And of course, the young filly wanted nothing more than to believe she was contributing to the conversation, but Applejack had shut her out.
Ever since she'd departed the Sugarcube Corner, she had quietly tailed Zecora, not trying to get too close just in case her friends happened to be right about it all, but all the same, she wasn't exactly convinced those rumors were true either.
"Guess Twilight was right..."
Apple Bloom nearly squealed and jumped out of her fur from sheer shock at hearing a familiar, masculine voice that wasn't that of her big brother. She turned to see Azure, who had crouched down next to her. He turned to face her directly.
"I really am a bad influence on foals..." he said.
"Az...!" The foal whimpered, sounding disappointed. "You ain't gonna...take me back, are ya?"
"No," said Azure. "I said it before, I am on Twilight's side, and from the sounds of it, so were you. Honestly, I'm disappointed nopony brought up my cousin..."
"Why would they?" Apple Bloom asked. "Are you related to a zebra?"
"No," the colt responded. "But I know a pony who'd make all of that stuff they'd said back at the Sugarcube Corner...oh, I don't want to even repeat what he said to them..."
"Why not?" The yellow filly wanted to know exactly what Azure's cousin had said.
"It's not important," Azure deflected, "What is important is getting to the bottom of this, so...well, hey, if any of those rumors play out, I'm right here. And if they don't...well, I was bound to get yelled at anyway, so...why don't we go see what's up with Zecora before she goes in the forest too deep?"
Apple Bloom nodded. With, as her sister had called him recently, "the most headstrong and reckless of ponies" at her side, she felt a little more assured that nothing was going to happen, particularly since he'd caught up to her right when she'd reached the edge of Ponyville and was about to enter the forest. Of course, they'd almost lost the zebra's trail, and had to run after her to catch up.
By the time they'd caught up to her, the foliage had grown thick and blocked the sun, giving the place an ominous feel. Also, there were blue plants all around, but none of them seemed to be directly in the way, given neither pony nor zebra trudged directly through them, and it almost seemed like Zecora was taking special care to avoid them.
"I guess I'd better say something..." Azure said, taking a few steps forward. He inhaled, preparing to call out to the zebra--
"Hold it right there!" The voice forced Apple Bloom to halt dead in her tracks. The sight of a lasso snapping around both of Azure's back legs and yanking him backwards into the air was almost funny in its own right, and the filly couldn't help but watch as the unicorn sailed over her head and to the left, slamming back first and upside-down (somehow) into a tree and falling headfirst into the blue flowers.
Applejack rushed forth immediately afterward, with a "And you! Get back here right now!"
Apple Bloom felt herself get scooped up onto her sister's back faster than she could gasp. Zecora, seeing this, offered up her own two cents on the incident...
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"Beware! Beware you pony folk!" This was a new voice, probably Zecora, speaking up. The accent wasn't southern or posh, nor did it sound like anypony Azure knew, so he assumed it was the zebra. Not that he could see from where he was. "Those leaves of blue are not a joke!"
Leaves of blue...? Azure thought, beginning to look around from his upside-down position, in a great amount of shock and pain from being chucked through the air like that. He looked up towards the trees, trying to figure out what exactly the rhyme meant--
"Y-you keep your creepy mumbo-jumbo to yourself, ya hear?!" Applejack totally sounded threatening and not threatened when she said this, and this in turn triggered three of the others to join her in screaming at Zecora, drowning out Azure's thoughts on the matter.
Darn it, I lost my train of thought...thanks girls, thanks... The male unicorn thought to himself, trying to get back to his feet quick before he got reamed out for letting things get this far. Eventually, he managed to get to his feet, and discretely freed his feet from the snare of the lasso using his magic. If there was one thing he didn't want to deal with, it was a furious sister...and three or four of her friends.
"Beware! Beware!" Zecora began to fade out, spouting her warning over and over again.
Azure began to walk away slowly, hoping that nopony would notice his disappearance. He still wanted to have words with that zebra, if only so he could prove that there was nothing to fear, but right now, he wanted to keep from being henpecked.
"Yeah, back at ya, Zecora!" Rainbow called back, "You and your lame curse are the ones who better beware!"
That didn't sound like a curse at all, for the love of Celestia... Azure grumbled mentally.
"And you!" Applejack called. Azure put his head back, and thankfully Applejack was scolding her little sister. "Why couldn't you just listen to your big sister?"
Apple Bloom's reply to her big sister was almost unintelligible, but she sounded guilty.
"Who knows what kinda nasty curse Zecora could have put on you?" The orange earth pony continued.
"Just like in my song!" Pinkie piped in, starting to sing the same song she had earlier.
"And you!"
It was obvious from the tone and volume she was now talking to him. Azure stopped dead in his tracks, looking over his shoulder.
"Don't you run, Az!" Applejack yelled. "You know what you did!"
"Snuck out the window while you were arguing and followed Zecora?" The cyan colt asked, only vaguely sarcastic in his tone.
"No, ya let Apple Bloom follow ya'll out here!" The farmer continued to scold away.
"I didn't!" Azure protested.
"He's tellin' the truth," protested the indignant foal, "I left on my own, Az was just..."
"Hush," Applejack commanded. "Az, you oughta be ashamed of yourself! What if you'd been put under a curse?"
Before the situation could escalate any further, Twilight butted in with her own two cents.
"You guys, there's no such thing as curses!" The studious mare exclaimed. Rainbow Dash quickly flew down even lower, flying right at her while going through strange blue flowers.
"Well, that's interesting to hear coming from Miss Magic Pants herself..." The blue pegasus said, tapping Twilight on the horn with a forehoof.
"My magic, real magic," The purple unicorn continued, "comes from within. It's a skill you're born with."
Again, explaining why you could have saved us some trouble a few weeks back when Trixie came to town... Azure thought to himself, but continued to say nothing.
"Curses are artificial, fake magic," Twilight continued. The cyan colt briefly wondered if he'd ever heard about any sort of curses that came out of spell books, but he couldn't think of any. "It's conjured with potions and incantations; all smoke and mirrors meant to scare. But curses have no real power, they're just an old pony tale."
Azure blinked a few times.
"Well, that's...one way of putting it..." the cyan pony responded.
"Just you wait, you two," Applejack finally stated, "You're gonna learn that some pony tales really are true..."
The cyan colt briefly wondered if this was how his family members felt about his fixation with Nightmare Moon. The only difference between that and this was the ominous shadow in the moon. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose in irritation.
"I can't believe any of this..." he thought aloud to himself. "The others, I can understand, but Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy...they really should know better."
"Why them, Azure?" Twilight asked.
"Remember that incident a few weeks back after I got out of the hospital, the one where I had that scratch on my face?" Azure continued. "I noticed that when she glanced over at us, her eyes were yellow, just like the Shadow Ghouls' eyes were."
"But nothing happened," The purple mare responded flatly. This time, the cyan unicorn sighed, and as soon as he did, she immediately lit up in realization. "Oh..."
"I didn't see her do a thing that could be considered bad..." he continued. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go blow off some steam. I'll revisit this whole thing later when the others aren't paying attention, because this whole situation is ridiculous."
"..." The mare seemed honestly at a loss for words, and her face showed it.
"Twilight?"
"Doesn't this day seem...strange, to you?" The purple mare asked. "I mean, you're not attacking things, the others are making you look completely rational and I'm actually agreeing with you more than usual about a crisis..."
"Of course," Azure responded. "Hey, maybe you should come with me. We are on the same side, after all."
"We're going to have to do this first thing tomorrow morning before the others wake up..." Twilight responded. "If they knew what we were going to do, they'd freak out..."
The cyan unicorn couldn't hold himself from laughing.
"Yeah, Twilight, now I'm scared..."
"Wha-why?" The studious pony asked, looking concerned.
"We're about to work together without arguing with each other for five minutes first..." Azure smiled, and Twilight returned the smile. "See you then."
The two ponies parted ways there in the forest, though both unicorns completely failed to notice the blue leaves Zecora spoke of. The leaves in question were not on those of trees, but rather at their feet as they trotted right along through blue flowers...
--------------------------
It wasn't until night that Azure could finally return home. He had to run for several kilometers, freegallop like a colt possessed, and even meditate for at least an hour before he could finally say he got all his frustrations with his friends out of his system. He laid back on his bed, feeling completely tired and having just gotten cleaned up in the shower.
"You'd think after what Virid said, they'd try to treat other ponies right." Azure thought to himself. "Yeah, Zecora's not a pony, but she looks like one to me."
The cyan colt pulled the covers over himself and went back to staring at the ceiling.
"I really hope that once we get through tommorrow and talk to her for the first time, the rest should fall into place..."
With that, the colt fell asleep, resting his head upon the pillow and drifting off...
--------------------------
Azure Courage woke to a new day when sunbeams hit his face. He groaned and rolled inelegantly to his right, and was surprised to find the impact completely de-winded him, and it actually hurt a little more than normal. He tried to wrestle his way back to his feet, but for some reason, he felt sluggish, more so than he usually did. The feeling worsened when he realized he likely overslept.
"Agh, overslept...at this rate Twilight and me won't be able to do what we gotta do..." Azure grunted to himself. "C'mon...body...work with me...I know it's the morning..."
The colt groaned as he finally got back to his feet. Confused as to why he felt his legs lightly vibrating under his body weight, he looked down, and gasped at what he saw.
His ribs were showing, and he could see bones somewhat clearly under his fur and skin. The unicorn quickly made a beeline for the bathroom so he could get a look at himself in the mirror, hampered by the fact his body was trying its hardest not to implode on itself.
"Oh...sweet mother of Celestia..."
Azure's brown eyes went wider than dinner plates at what he saw. At least part of him wanted to laugh, but the other part was so confused and afraid that he wasn't even sure what to make of it. Though he didn't feel the part, his body looked as though he hadn't eaten for days if not weeks. The muscle mass he'd built up over the years appeared to have been stripped directly from his bones. His legs were as spindly as deer legs and he generally looked...scrawny wasn't even able to describe it.
"...Guess I'd still better head to the library..." Azure thought. "The heck happened to me...? I felt fine last night..."
He closed his eyes and tried to think to himself.
Stay calm, Azure, "leaves of blue are not a joke" doesn't sound like a curse...And she was saying "beware"...I didn't see anything that would indicate a spell was cast, no smoke signals from the Everfree while I was out... The colt opened his eyes, and began limping towards his front door, his body already rejecting the fact he was standing up. I need...to get...to the library...
Deciding to forgo being physical whenever possible, Azure used magic to open his front door, lock it, then he began the slowest sprint of his life to the library, aiming to find out what had happened with the others.
"Darn...spindly...legs...!"
--------------------------
Normally, it would have taken Azure Courage anywhere from seven minutes to ten minutes to run the distance between his home and Twilight's, but in his unexpected condition, it took him a total of twenty-five minutes to do so. When he arrived, he could see pandemonium: the door appeared to have been knocked in, and there were a few impact sites around it, like something hit it. He could see shelves upon shelves of overturned books through the doorway, and he could see a couple of the other ponies gathered.
By now, Azure was out of breath and barely able to walk straight, but by some miracle, he was able to get ever closer to the door.
"It's a curse, I tells ya!"
The voice sounded familiar...yet very high pitched. Azure blinked.
"Was that...Applejack...?" he wondered aloud, the curiosity fueling his reserves just one last time for him to charge forward. The instant he crossed the threshold, the others took notice of his condition, and there was a collective gasp.
"A-Az..." Rainbow Dash sounded horrified. "Is...is that you?"
Azure looked up, so he could see what exactly was the cause for concern. Rainbow was caught in a stepladder, and there was something wrong with her wings. They looked...inverted, to say the least. He looked over to see a miniature Applejack, who was perched on her little sister's back, and cringed when he saw it. Rarity looked more like a dog than anything now; her fur, mane, and tail having grown to an abormally shaggy appearance. Twilight's horn was limp now, and covered in blue spots.
To his surprise, Pinkie hadn't yet said anything, but as soon as Azure caught sight of her struggling to say something coherent, he understood why. Her tongue had blue spots on it as well, and with every word she struggled to speak, she blew raspberries due to her tongue being swollen.
"I can't even stand like this..." Azure fumbled as his legs nearly gave out on him. It was only now that Azure could see who hadn't yet been affected: Apple Bloom, and...
"But Fluttershy..." Twilight analyzed. "seems just fine!"
"Yes, there doesn't seem to be a thing wrong with her," said Rarity, not looking at anypony, not that she could with her hair the way it was. Fluttershy appeared awkward as the focus went onto her, away from his own emaciation.
"Fluttershy? Are you okay?" The purple mare asked, trying to get to the bottom of it. The yellow pegasus only looked away. "Is there something wrong with you?" Now she nodded, hesitantly. "Would you care to tell us?" She looked away again, a sign that she did not want to. "So you're not going to tell us?" Again, she nodded, all without saying a word. "Yes, you're not, or yes, you will?"
Fluttershy attempted to shake her head no, but faster than Azure's eyes could track, the miniature farmer pony was on the table next to her, aiming to put an end to the speculation.
"Good gravy, girl, what's wrong with you?!" Applejack exclaimed. Now the pegasus realized she was backed into a corner, and evidently, did not see any way she could get out of this without talking about it.
"I don't want to talk about it." The voice was clear, masculine, and definitely not Fluttershy. The voice was so unfitting Azure had to hold on to something nearby so he wouldn't completely lose his balance.
So all of us save for Apple Bloom were affected...and...wait, wasn't there some strange-- Azure tried desperately to get his train of thought chugging along again.
Spike snorted in laughter, breaking out in a full-blown fit a few moments later.
"This is hilarious! Look at all of you!" he exploded.
Darn it, derailed again!
"We got..." he motioned to the shaggy Rarity, "Hairity," Now to the helplessly caught Rainbow Dash, "Rainbow Crash," The tongue-swollen party pony, "Spitty Pie," Now the bit-sized Applejack, "Apple Teeny," Now he motioned to him, "Azure Stickly,"
The nickname he picked out for him nearly drowned out the "Flutterguy" name he gave to the poor pegasus whose voice got tampered with, and he made a mental note to himself.
Mental note: find out what did this, throw Spike into it... Azure thought to himself, angrily, And at this point, I don't care if it's a curse.
"...I got nothin'..." Apparently, Twilight's name wasn't easy enough to work with to give her condition a strange name. "Twilight Sparkle...I mean, seriously, I can't even work with that."
The laughter that followed sounded almost alien to Azure, but Twilight was definitely laughing in a sarcastic manner.
"This is no joke, Spike," Twilight scolded, as her horn flopped around more, "Now start looking for more books so I can find a cure!" With a half-hearted groan, the baby dragon went off to do as she asked. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash was struggling to get out of the step ladder. Azure could see now her wings were definitely just messed up from their placement alone. He wasn't sure if the wings were supposed to be rooted like that...
Eventually, the blue pegasus was able to dislodge herself from the ladder.
"I think we'll find a cure to this curse at Zecora's place!" she announced as soon as she was airborne. Now that she was, Azure winced again when he realized her hovering looked just about as broken as Ditzy Doo's was.
"It's not a curse!" The purple mare quickly leapt on the defense, saying the words so quick and going over to Rainbow's location so fast that it almost appeared that the force alone blew the pegasus back into another wall, where she once again crashed.
"I agree with Dash!" This was Applejack, still with a very noticable height problem and southern accent, "We'll go to Zecora's and force her to remove this hex!"
"It's not a hex either!" Twilight argued.
What kind of curse or hex would cause somepony's friend to start laughing? Azure thought to himself. Plus, Apple Bloom had been there with us, and yet she doesn't look--
Apparently, the mares decided that now would be the best time to argue, once again cutting into the colt's thoughts and making it impossible to hear his own thoughts with all the tumult the bickering was causing. Azure sat down and began pressing his spindly forelegs against his ears, trying his hardest to shut out all the voices, while he did something rare for him: trying to think things through.
It wasn't always his first instinct, but considering his instinct was telling him that the zebra did not mean any harm right now, he couldn't do much else but think, but the girls were all arguing and made it impossible for him to think for two seconds about all the things that had happened over the past twenty-four hours.
Leaves of blue...zebra lives in Everfree Forest...the leaves aren't a joke...there's got to be something she had been trying to tell us but we couldn't hear her over all the other stuff--
Too caught up in his introspection, Azure felt himself be lifted straight off his rump by...of all ponies, Fluttershy, sent flying back into an empty bookshelf.
"Ow...!" he groaned. Meanwhile, he heard Spike snicker.
"Sorry..." The yellow pegasus responded, still with the deep, masculine tone in her voice. Azure flinched and tried his hardest not to laugh at how it sounded coming from her.
"Rarity's hair!" Rainbow blurted out, and Pinkie began to inspect the offensive locks, much to the white unicorn...dog...thing's displeasure.
"Oh...! Oh! Pinkie, what are you doing?" Rarity protested as the pink earth pony stuck hoof and face into the hair. "Ah, really...aah! Haven't you ever heard of personal space?!"
"Nope..." The pink mare sputtered through her tongue.
"Okay, I just started paying attention," Azure groaned, trying to force himself back on his feet despite the fact his body was a lot weaker now, "What's going on...?"
"Apple Bloom is gone, too!" Twilight cut in, completely ignoring Azure's comment.
"I bet they went after Zecora!" Dash said, still hovering in a pitiably broken manner.
"Well, we better go find them," The studious pony said, throwing a brief, if somewhat hopeful, look in Azure's direction. "C'mon, everypony, let's go!" She began to lead the others out at a fast trot.
"Oh dear," Rarity said, trying to move forward. However, Pinkie was standing on one of her locks, making it impossble for the shaggy-haired pony to even move. "Oh, this is so unseemly..." The party pony released her hold, with the white unicorn making a squealing noise as she nearly fell forward. Azure began to walk as fast as he could, though his weakened body was already crying for rest by the time he made it to the door from his position.
"Hey, a little help here?!" Rainbow Dash pleaded, scraping along the ground while flying upside-down.
"Oopsie!" Fluttershy said, still in that unfitting-as-Celestia man voice that couldn't possibly pass for a curse no matter how much the others wanted to believe it, "Sorry..."
Azure turned away so that he wouldn't be caught laughing, only to see Rainbow fly into the door above and slightly in front of him, with an "Ow!" punctuating the impact. After recovering from this, she quickly flew out of the library.
Paying no attention to the others behind him, the cyan colt began to follow where he could see the others running to. Rainbow Dash was still flying in a broken fashion, trying to keep up. Pinkie and Fluttershy, running out after him, quickly got ahead, and thus Azure urged his weakened body to speed up, hoping he could catch up to the others before they completely left him behind...
--------------------------
"Really, girls? Really?!"
To say Azure Courage was in a bad mood was only a slight understatement. Right now, the pony was livid. First, he was ignored when Zecora first showed up, then, he was scolded by Applejack during a particularly topsy-turvy day. Fast-forward to next morning, and now he was a stick, weakened to the point that Fluttershy bumping him hard could lift him off his feet. With a crisis now in full force, the ponies had completely left him behind. He was now lost in the Everfree Forest, and almost completely out of breath.
If a bird so much as tried to nest in his mane, it'd probably cause him blinding pain. He wasn't sure if the others had managed to find Zecora's place yet, but he was hoping somepony would find him, rather than something. He'd hoped that the purple mare could try to talk some sense into his friends, considering he wasn't there to back her up at all.
The cyan colt slowly walked around, trying to keep his ears open for anything that might hurt him so he could try to find a spot to hide from it as soon as possible.
"I can't fight a punching bag in my condition let alone any monster!" Azure exclaimed, looking around. "This really sucks!" He snapped at a loose rock with a forehoof and sent it flying, but the impact hurt him a little. "Ah, darn it all!"
Hobbling about on three legs, the pony moved around, trying desperately to find his way back to where he could see the others again. Eventually, the pain in his forehoof dulled down and he went back to weakly trotting along.
"Az! That you?" The voice was distinctly young. Azure snapped his head up to see Apple Bloom, with a set of filled saddlebags, on her sides, practically running towards him. "Ya shouldn't be out here like that! Something's gonna get ya..."
The cyan colt withheld himself from blinking and being mad for the moment.
"I really should be asking you the same thing. The others left looking for you..." Azure said. "They're going to find Zecora's place before long..."
The filly's ears wilted just a little.
"Uh-oh, I think I'd better get back..." Apple Bloom said. "C'mon, I'll take ya to her!"
"Did she tell you what was going on...?" Azure asked, weakly stumbling after her.
"Course she did, I told her what happened to ya'll, now we gotta get movin' before they get there first so we can explain things..."
"Sure...now mind telling me what she told you?"
--------------------------
Twilight Sparkle didn't want to believe it, but after what she'd witnessed in the past few minutes after entering the Everfree Forest, it looked like the majority of her friends were right: Zecora was an evil sorceress, and she had been about to eat Apple Bloom! The smaller Applejack had somewhat gotten control of the near-flightless Rainbow Dash, and had heroically crashed her all around the zebra's home, upsetting anything in her path. The whole time, the zebra had been uttering something in a foreign language. At least, until Rainbow Dash, now without a rider, began sailing about randomly, spilling the cauldron onto the floor.
Zecora's reaction did not help her case any.
"No! Ponies, you know not what you do! You've gone and spilled my precious brew!" the zebra scolded, using that same rhyme scheme from the preceding day. The studious pony was having none of it.
"We're on to you, Zecora," warned Twilight. "I didn't want to believe you cursed us, but the evidence is overwhelming!"
"You made me look ridiculous!" added Rarity.
"You made me sound ridiculous!" said Fluttershy, still sounding as masculine as all the other times she'd spoken today.
Pinkie sputtered something completely incoherent, not that it wasn't hard for Twilight to figure out what she was trying to say.
"You ruined my horn!" The purple mare finished.
"How dare you!" the zebra raged, completely indignant at the accusations. All the evidence pointed to them, so in the unicorn's eyes, all Zecora was doing was spouting denials. "You destroy my home, destroy my work. Then rudely accuse me of being a jerk?"
"You put this curse on us, now you're gonna uncurse us," Rainbow said, wearing the muzzle that Applejack had put on her to try and steer her properly.
"It is unwise to venture down this road," Zecora continued to speak with her poetic speech, "Your actions will make my anger explode!"
The unicorn, along with her friends, had shrunk back when she spoke her warning, but Twilight could not come this far only to get defeated now.
"Where is Apple Bloom?!" the purple mare demanded, stepping forward and proceeding to do something she never thought she'd do...but then again, seeing as how Azure wasn't here to do it, she lowered her head and went in for a headbutt, but Zecora defend. The pony and zebra pushed against each other--
"Zecora! I think I found all the things ya asked for..." This was a familiar, feminine, and young southern-accented voice.
"Ah, darn it...we were too late," And an exasperated-sounding male voice. All heads turned, and Twilight felt her mouth hang agape at what she saw just outside the door to the hut.
It was the stick that had once been Azure Courage...and a perfectly safe Apple Bloom, who appeared to have her saddlebags on her, which seemed to be filled up with...something.
"Az?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding just as confused as Twilight felt. "How'd you get here before...?"
"I didn't...you all left me behind..." Azure looked around from outside the cabin, as though he didn't want to set foot into it straight away. "Uh...wow...heh..." He looked so amused by the sight of the six ponies' handiwork that it was hard for Twilight to refrain from running up and kicking him. He shook his head, applied his forehoof to his face, and looked up with an almost exhausted look on his face. "Who's the reckless one now?"
"This is not the time, Azure," the purple mare spat in annoyance.
"I'm fine," Apple Bloom assured, stepping a little further into the cabin while Azure rested by the door. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Because Zecora is an evil enchantress who cursed us and was gonna cook you up into soup!" The conviction in her voice was no less than what she felt was necessary. All the evidence pointed to it. Zecora had sent Apple Bloom out for ingredients to her own soup in which she was the main ingredient!
A few tense moments passed, before both Zecora and Apple Bloom broke out laughing.
"Et tu, Sparkle...?" Azure calmly said, sounding only slightly sarcastic.
"Oh, Twilight," the small foal chortled, "did those silly fillies finally get in yer head? You know there's no such thing as a curse..."
"Apple Bloom, sweetie, you can't just stand there and tell me this," she motioned to her friends, who were lined up right next to her now, "isn't a curse."
"Oh, please, let me do it..." That reckless unicorn cut in, hobbling into the cabin on his spindly legs with Apple Bloom quickly trotting by the lined-up ponies. "This whole thing with us being like this...isn't a curse..."
"If you will remember back, the words I spoke were quite exact," said Zecora. At this point, Twilight's memory immediately whisked her back to when she had said what she had before all this started happening.
"Beware, beware, you pony folk! Those leaves of blue are not a joke!"
"It was a warnin'..." Apple Bloom cut in.
"I had noticed it during the chase yesterday, but in the chaos that followed, it slipped my mind. I hadn't thought about what was on the ground...at our hooves..." Azure said, as though he were reading the headlines. "I had avoided it at first since I had followed Apple Bloom, but when a certain somepony decided to throw me through the air, I landed headfirst in the stuff..."
"We all walked right through it except Apple Bloom since she was riding on Applejack's back at the time. It's called 'Poison Joke' and it...well, it turns you into a living joke." The cyan colt continued. Twilight felt herself become embarrassed as she considered what she and the others had done...and what they'd said about him. She looked to the others, and remembered that her horn and Pinkie's tongue were coated with blue spots. "When you all left me behind, I wandered about, lost, and that's when I'd found Apple Bloom, unhurt, with those ingredients she's carrying now. Speaking of which, the cauldron? Yeah..."
"If I didn't know better, young colt, it would appear you like to gloat," Zecora intervened, no evidence of malevolence in her smile.
"Well, this wouldn't be the first time..." Azure's eyes looked away, and seemed to be focusing on something else. Twilight really wanted to know where the mistake was made here. The fact that Azure was right the whole time was bad enough, but the last two days had been...absolutely backwards.
"But what about the chanting?" Fluttershy asked, sounding just as lost as the studious pony felt.
"And the creepy decor?" Rarity added.
"Treasures of the native land where I am from," The zebra began, looking to two knocked over masks behind her and Apple Bloom. "This one says hello, and this one says welcome..."
"Not welcoming at all, if you ask me," the white unicorn stated, looking toward them, or trying to, through her shaggy fur streams.
"The words I chanted were from olden times. Something you would call a nursery rhyme."
Azure looked away, clearly mumbling something to himself.
"And the cauldron wasn't for me," Apple Bloom continued, having set aside the . "It was for all these herbal ingredients." She went over to a podium and toward an open book, Twilight following her over to the picture book which had pictures of the ingredients. "The cure for poison joke is just a simple old natural remedy. You just gotta take a bubble bath!" The younger sister was holding her coin-sized older sister in one hoof now.
Twilight glanced over the pages, not understanding how she could have missed such a thing.
"But I tried to find a cure in all my books and couldn't find anything," she questioned aloud. "What book has this natural remedy?"
Zecora walked up, shutting the book.
"Here is the book, you see," the zebra said as she did the above action, "Sad that you lack it in your library."
"Actually..." Twilight said, her ears folding down. If she didn't already feel ashamed of her conduct, she certainly did now. "I do have this book, but I didn't look inside because the cover was so...weird..." She regained her memory of a book she'd forced Spike to throw aside earlier, as the zebra re-opened the book on the table. "Supernaturals: Natural remedies and cure-alls that are simply...super." The only one that didn't look embarassed was Azure, but he didn't have a reason to be other than being seen in the condition he was in. "I...I...I'm so sorry, Zecora," She'd gotten caught in the moment and fully realized it. "I had the answer the whole time, if only I had bothered to look inside."
With a good-natured chuckle, as though the group hadn't wrecked her hut, the non-pony looked from joked pony to joked pony, saying "Maybe next time, you will take a second look, and not judge the cover of the book."
The lesson hit the purple unicorn like a train. Of course! Silver, a blind pony, she had judged because of his disability, and...he was connected to Azure. Twilight turned to the cyan colt, who hadn't said anything up until now.
"Az, ya seemed pretty mad back there in the Sugarcube Corner," Applejack remembered.
"Oh no, I wasn't mad, just...disappointed." Azure said. "It might have been something we all wanted to forget, but...I grew up with Virid. He said some pretty mean things to the non-unicorns here in this room. How he was ready to deem them worthless because they didn't have horns?"
Twilight blinked once, then twice. Pinkie sputtered something unintelligible, but it was likely something relevant.
"It was more or less the same thing here, just on a town-wide level," the scrawny pony continued, weakly walking around. "I was surprised to see you all were still ready to judge another. Like I said, leaving aside the stripes, she looks enough like a pony to me..."
The room remained completely quiet as Azure walked over to Twilight.
"...And, uh, one other thing about the Sugarcube Corner..." he continued. "How I'll 'attack anything if I had half a mind to'...apparently, I'm not the only one..."
The purple mare suddenly found herself wondering if she'd given Azure something he could fall back on during their arguments. She grit her teeth somewhat and tried not to think about that action as she turned back to Zecora.
"Zecora? Would you be kind enough to make another batch of the herbal bath?" the studious pony asked.
"Mix it up, I certainly will," Zecora said, apparently not dropping her rhyme scheme anytime soon. "Yet I am missing an herb from Ponyville."
"But whenever Zecora comes to town," Apple Bloom spoke up again, "all the shops are mysteriously closed..."
The purple mare looked back to her gathered friends, who were lined up (except for Applejack, who was hitching a ride on one of the others) close to the door.
"Oh, well...I think we can help you with that," she said, already mentally planning her next friendship report...
--------------------------
Azure Courage couldn't express more relief that this whole thing was finally over. When the "cursed" ponies finally returned to town to help out Zecora's case, as expected, they all ran home, a feat that left the colt disappointed, yet unsurprised. After all, even Twilight had been forced into believing the gossip in light of the "evidence". It took seven surprisingly calm ponies drenched in poison joke and needing a cure to convince the town the zebra that lived in the Everfree Forest was harmless, but the reward was double.
One, the group could finally be rid of their ailments. Two, Zecora could come into town and not be ostracized. The only bad part about this whole thing was that the cyan colt found himself in a place he suddenly realized was awkward as soon as he stepped inside: a co-ed spa in Ponyville.
Granted, the gender proportion was somewhat female-heavy in Ponyville; Azure knew this, but he wished the spa was segregated. It wasn't that he felt exposed around the girls at all, nor did they seem to feel exposed around him; he just honestly felt awkward at the prospect of being in the same pool of water with a mare, never mind...five. So, he was going to patiently wait his turn, which none of the mares seemed to object to, something Azure was grateful for.
"Miss Zecora," one of the twins that owned the spa said to the zebra overseeing the bath, "I would love to get the recipe for this bath. It's simply luxurious!"
And fast-working... noted Azure as he looked at his friends. They hadn't even been in the bath for more than ten seconds when it took effect. They were relaxing, a feat the colt felt entitled to do, but he wasn't about to tell a group of females that. There were two reasons for this: one, he wasn't that kind of pony; two, he preferred living.
"Applejack!" Apple Bloom called out for the miniature mare, clearly worried, and the male unicorn soon realized why: her sister wasn't with the others...because of her size, she probably might have drowned with the other five in there. "Hey, where's Applejack?"
There was a short panic among both the mares in the tub and Azure himself had to check to make sure she wasn't underfoot or underneath his bony body. He looked at his spindly forelegs, and prayed that his turn would come up soon.
"I'm right here, little sis," Applejack called out, now sounding normal, and as Azure looked, he had to refrain from laughing at the state the orange mare was in: stuck in a large cup, looking like a turtle on its back. "I ain't tiny no more!"
"Ooh," Rarity commented, moving around in the water a little, the excess streamers of fur gone from her body. "I have never felt so lovely in all my life."
This question forced Azure to wonder what it'd feel like when he got cured. After moving slow and being weak for the majority of the day, being immersed in the cure and being cured as a result would likely feel different to him.
"Oh my gosh!" Unfortunately, Pinkie was able to talk again. Then again, the male unicorn began to accept the motormouthing of the party pony as a reality, and actually had started to miss it. Now that her tongue was no longer swollen, she could speak once more. "I never realized how horrible it is to not be able to talk. I mean I love talking so much and when I couldn't talk because my tongue was all," she made a noise while demonstrating what exactly her tongue was like. "It was the worst! Don't you agree, Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy looked over to Pinkie, and, with her normal, soft and feminine voice, gave an affirmtive. The entire room went up in laughter.
Hopefully, after all that's happened, things will go back to normal, thought Azure to himself, remaining relatively close to the tub the whole time, sitting down. I was actually getting worried there...
"Hey Az, how come you aren't cured yet?" Dash asked, cutting into his train of thought again. However, since it wasn't particularly important, the unicorn-who still had a weak, spindly body, abandoned his introspection to repeat himself.
"I told you before," Azure replied. "I can wait my turn. I'm in no hurry."
"Why wait," Rainbow continued, and her face once again twisted into that look she'd given him on that one night in which he'd-- "You can just come bathe with us..."
The cyan colt faltered, physically becoming flustered. "Well...um..." He didn't want to be caught blushing here, not with so many eyes looking at him...
"Come on in, Azie," said Pinkie, apparently being completely oblivious as to why he was being so awkward. "The water's fine..."
"The water temperature isn't my problem..." Azure replied, still looking out of place, turning completely to them and sitting down.
"Shouldn't be..." whispered the blue mare, who was doing some kind of backstroke in the water with her wings.
The cyan unicorn opened his mouth to retort again, but all that came out of his mouth was a startled gasp. The next thing he knew, he was under water, and he could very clearly see multiple colors of hooves.
What the--who pushed me...? As soon as the shock wore off, Azure felt his joints start to crack, and he began to look at his submerged body. The bones vanished, once more hidden underneath the defined muscles he'd built up his whole life. He held his breath as his body "absorbed" the cure. With his strength coming back to him, he turned over underwater, just making out an amused-looking Apple Bloom having taken his place at the lip of the pool. Oh, oh Celestia, was I that weak just now?!
He remained underwater while the cure finished seeping through his pores and doing...whatever it did to rid him of the poison joke's influence. The instant he felt like he was cured, he decreased his buoyancy and reared back against the bottom of the pool.
Before any of the mares could realize what had happened underwater, he launched himself off the bottom of the pool, straight over Apple Bloom's head and sliding to a halt on his wet hooves a few moments later. He tried to process what happened, his mane obscuring his vision.
Okay, I got pushed into a tub full of mares by a filly... The cyan colt thought. Please let this be the end of the weird days...
"Why'd you push me...?" Azure asked aloud.
"Ya'll were takin' forever!" Apple Bloom responded, completely unaware of the colt's discomfort.
Right, she wouldn't know the implications and Applejack would kill me if I explained... the pony reminded himself.
"Well, now that I'm normal again, I'm just going to...assert my strength again. So, I'll just go work out until I feel like I can pass out..."
With that, the cyan unicorn began to tear out, hoping to Celestia, Luna, and any other applicable figures that would grant him good luck, two things were to happen to him.
One, that the cure was permanent even though he didn't just relax in the bath for a few minutes first.
Two, that none of the mares saw him blush before the small foal decided to take matters into her own hands.