Friends in High Places

by Wheller

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Something about Whitetail Wood bothered Surprise. The forest didn’t feel right, almost as if there was some unnatural presence within the trees.

“Master?” Surprise asked.

“I feel it too,” Zephyr said simply. “Keep your guard up.”

Surprise nodded, and kept her eyes open and glancing around, she stopped when she noticed the opening of a small cave off to her left. It was so insignificant, so unimportant, yet it was different than the surrounding landscape, it provided enough of a distraction. That was when they struck.

Out of the trees, some twenty ponies clad in riot barding and carrying police batons in their teeth. Etched into their helmets was an equilateral triangle pointing downwards, the personal symbol of Prince Maelstrom.

“Cultists of Chaos!” Zephyr exclaimed. “I should have expected my sibling to have tried such a trick, but he sends only you? Pathetic!”

Surprise had the chain knife out and in her teeth; she revved it threateningly as the chaos cultists closed around them.

“To arms Surprise! Leave none left standing!” Zephyr called out. Surprise needed no further encouragement. The Pegasus pony charged into a group of cultists, slashing at their faces, their riot barding did not come close to providing the protection needed against a tool designed to cut through steel plates. With one fell swoop, Surprise had dispatched three chaos cultists. Off with their heads! She mused to herself, gleefully swinging her knife as more and more cultists threw themselves at her.

Something was wrong, Surprise knew that chaos cultists were devoted to Prince Maelstrom in the same way she was devoted to Prince Zephyr. They would gladly give up their lives in his service, just as she would give up hers for her master. But this was ridiculousness, they knew that they stood no chance between her and her chain knife. They knew that their riot barding was not sufficient to protect them, and yet they were haphazardly throwing themselves at her. It was almost as if...

It was almost as if they were a distraction.

Surprise turned to try and warn her master, but when she did a police baton struck her face, knocking her off balance and down to the ground.

Zephyr turned to look, and that was when he was hit by a bolt of magical energy. A powerful stunning spell that sent even him to his knees.

The riot barding clad ponies had knocked the chain-knife from Surprise’s mouth and were holding her down to keep her from interfering.

Two ponies clad in robes bearing the upside down triangle of Maelstrom trotted up to them. One was a unicorn, a deep shade of purple wearing a hat and cape over her robes. The other an earth pony, with a grey coat and a bright orange mane, but what stuck out most was his eyes, they matched his mane, sure, but they were not the kind of eyes she was going to forget.

“The Great and Powerful Isabella wonders how you like her stunning spell?” The unicorn asked.

Prince Zephyr did not give her the satisfaction of a response.

“Oh? Quiet one, are we? Perhaps you would like another?” Isabella said, hitting her master with another spell.

Zephyr grunted in frustration as he struggled to get to his hooves, he was not able to, otherwise this “Great and Powerful” Isabella wouldn’t be so smug.

“Enough!” the earth pony said. “Prince Zephyr, for the slaughter of the Dream Valley Settlement, I hereby sentence you to imprisonment! I, Adamus Montana Ulan, under the authority invested in me by my Master, Prince Maelstrom, do so judge!”

“Fool,” Zephyr spat at him. “There is no prison built that can hold me forever!”

“Built?” Adamus Ulan mused at him. “Certainly not, that’s why we’re not building a prison for you. Bella? If you would please?”

“Watch in awe! Of the stupendous magicks of the Great and Powerful Isabella!” Isabella said loudly in her showman’s voice.

Surprise struggled to get up, but with thirty or so ponies holding her down, she found herself unable.

Magic began to pulsate between the three, and in a flash of brilliant light, Zephyr was gone.

“The Great and Powerful Isabella has imprisoned him!” Isabella cried out triumphantly.

Static began to crackle about Adamus Ulan, as he adjusted. Surprise watched in terror, Isabella had actually succeeded; she had sealed her master away inside him!

Adamus Ulan stepped over her, grinning madly at her.

“I will remember you, and your face! I will hunt you down and I will make you pay for this!” Surprise spat at him.

“Oh, I don’t think you will, because that’s the beauty of it all, you can’t hurt me without hurting your master in the process,” Adamus Ulan claimed triumphantly.

“You’re bluffing!” Surprise spat at him.

“Maybe,” Adamus said, cocking his head to the side, impersonating her master in order to mock her. “But I don’t think you can afford to take the chance.”

He reared up and brought his hooves down hard upon Surprise’s face. She knew nothing but darkness.

...

Zecora had wandered several days along the long road until it again reached another fork. Although, this time, it was more accurate to say that it just curved, because the road did not continue on the straightaway. Rather, it ended and a dirt path heading into a dark forest took its place.

What Zecora desired most was seclusion, with the death of Cherries Jubilee, and her encounter with the traveller’s caravan, the last thing she wanted right now was to be disturbed in her time of grief.

She wandered into the forest for several hundred metres and picked a spot to sit down, she gathered wood for a small camp fire and started it, she sat back and she began to meditate, using her shamanistic training to help put her at peace.

“Zecora?”

Zecora opened her eyes. She had succeeded. Standing before her was an extremely confused looking earth pony, with a dark red coat and a blonde mane. Zecora smiled at the spirit of Cherries Jubilee as she stood before her.

Cherries Jubilee frowned at her. “Zecora... you can’t do this. I know you’re upset, but I’m dead. You need to let go and move on with your life. I know why you summoned my spirit here; you want to bring me back. You can’t.”

Cherries Jubilee trotted over to where Zecora was sitting and sat down next to her. “I’m at peace, Zecora. I can’t come back.”

“At peace, I am not! Without you... I am lost,” Zecora said. Tears were forming in the zebra shaman’s eyes; they dropped off her muzzle and splashed onto the ground silently.

Cherries Jubilee wrapped her foreleg around Zecora’s shoulders.

“I know it’s hard,” she said. “I’d like to tell you it gets easier, but that would be a lie. I know what it’s like to lose someone too, my condition? It’s genetic, my mother died the same way I did, and I was just a little filly at the time. I carried that around with me for the rest of my life.”

Cherries Jubilee wiped the tears away from Zecora’s eyes and gave her a smile. “The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant. And we definitely added to your pile of good things. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Zecora nodded in affirmation, causing Cherries Jubilee to smile. “I love you Zecora, never forget it.” She said, she planted a kiss on the zebra shaman’s lips, and then with a smile, she faded from view, forever.

She had been right. She added that to her pile of good things.

Now Zecora had to start a new life for herself, she looked around the forest and figured that this was as good a place as any.

Yes, she would be building her home here.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

So now that we're up to speed on why Zecora calls the Everfree Forest home and where Monty and Trixie's ancestors figure into things, it's almost time to wrap things up.

[Apocalypse Pony]

So that's how she came to Everfree