//------------------------------// // Contact // Story: Zecora // by GJT_Productions //------------------------------// "Moon pies and nacho cheese-flavored chips?" "We eat what we want to eat, sister." "Just don't talk with your mouth full, like you do in the Oubliettes and Ogres club." "Whatever." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Princess Luna glares in irritation at older sister Princess Celestia as she uses unicorn magic to shove another moon pie into her mouth. Celestia chuckles a bit in response - it wasn't like she was criticizing Luna's choices of snack food. Sure, there was the occasional comment about a princess eating "commoner's food", but Celestia gently reminded them most of that "commoner's food" was something new to her, and besides it helped Luna adapt to the modern world. Celestia herself preferred her calorie-laden snacking more sophisticated, but to force Luna to act the same way would've been the same mistake. "Thou art here to watch the ceremony?" Luna asks Celestia, gesturing to the glowing screen in front of her. This screen was her access to Celestia's "magical security cam" used to monitor Twilight Sparkle's time in Ponyville. This night, however, it was turned on the efforts of Shining Armor and his companions as they traveled through the Everfree Forest to Zecora's residence. "Yes indeed, sister. I am as interested in the success of the mission as you are." Celestia replies stately, as if they were in a formal meeting instead of what was supposed to be a casual hangout. This kind of thing was still new to Luna, and Celestia had to meet the formalism half-way in order for Luna to be comfortable in the circumstances. After this, though, any pretense of formalism is dropped as Celestia sits on the long cushion beside her sister and begins herself munching the snack foods arrayed in front of them on a low table. Currently, the image on the screen showed Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor, Lieutenant Stratocumulus and Guard Upper Class Meadow Song travelling through the Everfree Forest... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEANWHILE... "Let's see, we should be close..." Shining Armor comments, looking up and back from the torch-lit map to the dark path again as his group is moving. "Sir, there's someponies ahead on the path!" Lieutenant Stratocumulus comments, speaking from his position flying slightly above his comrades. Immediately the group halts, and Shining Armor looks up the path over the top of the map. Sure enough, he glimpses the figures of two pegasi stallions side-by-side facing the trio ahead on the path, wings open and within a stone's throw of their destination of Zecora's residence. Shining Armor recognizes that their opponents of the Agents of Chaos have decided to provoke a battle here, but he and his comrades are ready. "In the name of Agent Snake and the chaotic one which he serves, we will prevent you..." one of the two pegasi stallions (later revealed to be Agent P1) begins threatening in a very serious tone, only stopping when the Guard stallions start chuckling (as do the two Princesses watching everything on their magic screen). "What's so funny? Stop laughing, this is serious!" the speaking stallion exclaims indignantly. "Sir, why are you glowing?" his partner asks in surprise. As the Guard stallions continue having a good laugh, Agent P1 looks down at a foreleg to see he is glowing a bright orange color - the generally unfortunate side-effects of the previous poison joke exposure! Mortified, he looks over at his partner, who is also glowing (a bright pink, in his case) and shares his mortified look, before both freak out, yelling in panic as they scramble back into cover and away from the area as fast as they can. Both the Guard stallions, and the Princesses watching remotely from Canterlot, have a good laugh at the expense of their enemy. "Should we... we go after them... sir?" Meadow Song asks when the stallions finally catch their breath. "No, no, it'll be easy enough to catch them now. If they were affected by poison joke, they won't have a way of curing themselves without risking arrest. Sure we'll tell Lieutenant Crispin about it, but as far as they're concerned they're trapped in the forest." Shining Armor reassures. "In any case, we still have a mission to finish." Lieutenant Stratocumulus adds, pointing toward the tree where Zecora was residing. Surprisingly, the commotion had not drawn her attention in any way, perhaps because of the hour they were visiting. "Well, regardless of whether she's awake or not, we have an obligation having come so far now. Straighten up!" Shining Armor affirms, the three stallions taking a moment to check that everything was in order. During this check, and the final approach, the two Princesses watching via their magic screen were rapt in their attention, using unicorn magic to shovel in mouthfuls of nacho cheese flavored chips without even turning gaze away. On the screen they see the three stallions stop in front of the door and Shining Armor knock on it, his privilege due to him being the ranking officer in the group. Shining Armor steps back, joining his two subordinates in standing at attention, as muttering in a language he doesn't recognize is heard coming from the other side of the circular door. Finally, it opens and the stallions see Zecora for themselves for the first time, the zebra quite clearly surprised at what she was seeing. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Stallions three, what at this hour can I do for thee?" she asks, giving the stallions the first taste of her seemingly-compulsory rhyme. This briefly throws the stallions off track, Shining looking at his subordinates in confusion, who only give shrugs back. "Greetings Miss Zecora, I am Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor of the Canterlot Division of the Equestrian Royal Guard, I and my subordinates are here on official business of Princess Celestia." Shining Armor begins to formally announce. "We apologize for the late hour of our visitation, but we had to travel all the way from Canterlot to get here." "What business does the Princess want of me? Does it have to do with the six fillies?" Zecora asks in reply, the Guard stallions quickly guessing the "six fillies" referred to Twilight Sparkle and her fellow Element Bearers. "Er, yes. Partly. It's tough to explain it standing outside in the dark, ma'am. We would like to come in and sit down, to explain things more fully than we could standing around out here." Shining Armor replies, trying not to trip over his words as he speaks. Zecora takes a minute to consider what exactly to do, while Stratocumulus and Meadow Song exchange glances once again, wondering if their efforts would even yield anything. Finally, though, Zecora pushes her door open wider - a positive sign to the stallions. "You decided to come all this way, so for the night I will let you stay." Zecora states - the stallions recognizing pragmatism had temporarily suppressed whatever doubts she might've had about them. "We thank you very much, ma'am. You two, follow behind me in." Shining Armor answers, first to Zecora and then to his pair of subordinates. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Due to their larger size, Shining Armor and Stratocumulus have to duck down passing through Zecora's doorway to avoid hitting the top of the circular opening. The two, along with Meadow Song, follow Zecora further into the confines of her tree residence, moving around the cauldron in the center (Shining Armor noted some marks it bore on the rim resulting from when it was flipped over by Rainbow Dash) to the opposite side from the one facing the door. "Still some battle damage, I see." Meadow Song comments, pointing to some items that still showed damage from the misguided break-in attempt Twilight Sparkle and her friends had performed. "Some damage cannot be repaired easily, as you stallions can see." Zecora sighs out as she pushes the door closed. "Perhaps you stallions would like some herbal tea?" "Should we sir?" Lieutenant Stratocumulus asks his superior officer, Meadow Song's curious expression indicating he also wanted to know the answer to the question. "I don't see why not. Go ahead, Miss Zecora." Shining Armor answers, hoping he was not repeating the mistakes of his sister and her friends. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While Zecora was preparing to stoke the fire that had went out again, the three stallions jockeyed for sleeping positions on the floor. It was at this point that the rapt Princesses watching remotely in Canterlot began speculating between themselves: "Will he tell of the connection? And what about those other two stallions?" Princess Luna asks of her older sister. "I don't know if Shining will say anything, Zecora may not ask about it. In any case, they still have the oath that needs to be delivered." Celestia gamely replies, not wanting to arbitrarily rule anything out yet. "Of course. Then our attention will be kept to this." Luna says, shoving yet another moon pie in her face before turning her attention back to the floating screen...