Twilight woke up the next morning with something smelling delicious. She slowly rose and wiped her eyes, still a bit sleepy. She looked in the direction of the smell and saw Zecora sitting down at a small table eating a breakfast made out of high quality ingredients and what seemed to be where the delicious smell was coming from. The bed creaked as the purple unicorn then got out of bed and walked towards Zecora and the food. Zecora looked in the direction of Twilight after she heard the bed creak.
“Good morning, Twilight Sparkle.” Zecora greeted.
“Good morning to you too, Zecora.” Twilight greeted back as she sat down to eat. She looked at the spread of food and began to eat. After a while Zecora pushed a piece of paper across the small table to Twilight. She looked at the paper and picked it up with her magic. She swallowed the food that was in her mouth and examined the piece of paper that was folded in half.
“That note is from the princess of the sun,
She left it here before her work begun.” the zebra said before she continued to eat.
Twilight nodded and unfolded the piece of paper. She knew that Celestia had written it in a hurried manner, meaning that she was running a bit late when she was writing it. She began to read the note:
Dear Twilight Sparkle,
I’m sorry that I can not see you off before you go today, but I assure you that everything will be fine. The letters to your friends have already been sent. Do not worry about them barging in, I have put up a special magic barrier that only you, Spike, Zecora, my sister, and I will not be affected by, though it’s only temporary it will dissolve at a certain time but until that time it will remain in effect. I have also sent a letter to Spike before hand as well, just for good measure. Before I forget, Luna wishes you the best of luck too. I hope you have a pleasant and safe trip to Ponyville.
The best of wishes,
Princess Celestia
Twilight re-read the letter again to make sure that she didn’t miss anything. She was relieved that there wouldn’t be any unexpected surprise by somepony. ‘Especially, this world’s Pinkie Pie. I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet.’ she thought.
She continued to eat in silence with Zecora. He eyes started to wander around the room. It was almost exactly the same to what her old room was like back in the castle in her world except for the clothes in the closet. Even though she normally didn’t need to wear clothes there were some occasions that she had to wear such things since she was the princess’s student. The only real difference was that instead of old dresses there were tuxes or vests hanging in the same basic designs or colors. Even though Twilight was pretty sure that this wasn’t going to be a dream that she would wake up from that really did it for her. She stared at the closet and its contents for quite a long long time until the sound of Zecora sliding more food her direction broke her concentration. She looked at the food and then at Zecora. She gave her a little ‘thank you’ smile. Zecora returned the smile and went back to eating the rest of the food with Twilight’s help too.
After a while they had finally finished eating.Zecora and Twilight relaxed for a bit after consuming such a big meal early in the morning. Zecora got up and made her way to Twilight’s bookcase reading through the titles of the books. Twilight, on the other hand, used her magic to put the dishes in an orderly fashion, and moved them and the table to another spot in the room. After she was done her eyes wandered around the room again until the landed on a clock. She saw the time and realized that it was definitely later than either of them originally thought.
“Hey, Zecora?” Twilight called. “When are we supposed to leave?”
Zecora gave her the time they’re supposed to leave. Twilight looked back at the clock and realized that they had almost no time.Twilight quickly fixed her hair and put her robe on. Zecora took the hint and started to get ready as well. Soon there was a knock at the door. Zecora calmly went to answer the door, Twilight on the other hand was slightly freaking out and hurriedly put the hood over her head so that the guard that came to get them wouldn’t see her. Zecora motioned for Twilight that it was time to go and the purple unicorn hurried behind them.
They were escorted onto their ride. The guard asked if they were ready. They nodded to the guard, and the guard gave the all clear to the fliers. They quickly took off and were in the sky heading towards Ponyville.
As they were flying, Twilight decided that it would be best to ask Zecora more about the counterparts of her friends of this world a bit more to make sure that they were more or less the same as the ones that she knows.
“Zecora?” Twilight whispered to make sure they would not be heard.
“Hmm?” Zecora responded.
“Can you tell me a little about the friends I/Dusk have in this world?” Twilight asked.
Zecora nodded her head ‘yes’ and began to tell about Twilight’s friends more in depth. As far as she could tell from what Zecora was telling her they were more or less the same as the ones from her world. For a moment Twilight looked past Zecora into the sky and thought, ‘I hope everything goes fine. Oh, what if I screw up and do something to make them hate me?’ Twilight mentally shook herself. ‘Calm down, these are my friends whether it’s this world or my my own. I’m sure things will work themselves out in one way or another.’ Twilight thought trying to keep a positive outlook on this situation. The fear of something going horribly wrong nagged her, but she just pushed that to the back of her mind for now.
She turned her attention back to Zecora who had stopped talking at some point after noticing that Twilight was no longer listening. Twilight gave the zebra an apologetic smile. The zebra smiled back and continued with the talk with Twilight asking questions every now and then. The conversation continued for a long time without the mares noticing that the sun had set and that they were steadily approaching Ponyville where everything could change for better or for worse.