Fizzlepop's Past

by milesprower06

Hindsight

Author's Note:

Disclaimer:
This story has now been bumped to a Teen rating, due to events in this chapter that had not been considered when I had started.

I would also like to profusely thank fellow reader and writer Level Dasher for spending over three hours with me, assisting me with Zecora's rhyming couplets.

The Journal of Friendship
Entry 1, by Princess Twilight Sparkle

Every book has to have a beginning, and I suppose that this one falls to me.

Today, my friends and I made one of the most momentous decisions since we've known each other. We returned the Elements of Harmony, powers we've held since we first met, to the place they were created, the Tree of Harmony in the Everfree Forest. There, they will restore the Tree to its former glory, and keep the supernatural magic of the forest contained.

This decision wasn't easy for any of us, but I like to think making it together made it easier overall. It also wasn't just us. Discord, while no doubt still mischievous, is still making steps and strides to becoming a good friend, and as he grows, he endeavors to see that we as friends grow with him, through frankly unique ways. Zecora was a great help as well; her magical potion allowed me to look back and discover the origins of the Tree. Were it not for her, I don't believe we would have discovered the steps that were necessary to protect it.

I hope this first entry, and those that will no doubt follow, can paint an undeniable picture of the magic of friendship, and all the likely and unlikely places that it flows from.

---

Fizzlepop walked with her right leg wrapped around her aetherial staff, keeping pace with Soapberry as they made their way on the southeast path through the Everfree Forest as the late afternoon sun broke through the thick canopy.

As heavily forested as some of the surrounding area of Foal's Peak was, Soapberry had never seen vegetation this thick. The mythos of the Everfree Forest faded the farther you got from central Equestria, but there were still ponies from far and wide that believed Ponyvillians were daft for settling so close to a supernatural area. Accidents were rare, but perhaps that was because not many came into these woods unprepared.

"Somepony lives in here?" Soapberry asked her daughter as they stepped over a branch. Fizzlepop made a mental note to prep another crew to come and clear the path to the Castle of the Two Sisters, pretty much the only task the E.U.P. did in here, and otherwise let the forest be.

"A zebra mare who hails from Farasi. She's a talented herbalist and potionmaker. Some years ago, she gave Princess Twilight a potion that allowed her to look back to past events; events that she was previously completely unaware of. I'm wondering if she can now do something similar for me."

Soapberry wasn't sure why going back 20 years was so important to her daughter, why she felt like they couldn't just start over. She was deeply afraid it was because she had been resenting her all this time, and she didn't know how to let it go. Perhaps it had been a mistake to come over here so quickly, instead of easing into it.

The pair of ponies sidestepped a cluster of blue-petaled flowers, and went around a gradual right bend, and an immense, hollowed out tree appeared through the treeline. All manner of bottles hung from the branches, and a few wooden masks were leaning against the roots. The fact that it had been hollowed out didn't seem to affect the health of the tree that much. Despite the outward appearance, the light coming from the windows was warm and inviting.

"Homey." Was Soapberry's single-worded impression.

The door opened, and out stepped a slender zebra, light gray coat contrasting with her dark gray stripes. She had large gold earrings on both ears, and gold rings around her neck and down her left front foreleg. Her mohawk wasn't all that dissimilar from Fizzlepop's, save for the striped alternating colors as it went down her head and neck. She saw the approaching pair of ponies and immediately smiled.

"Miss Berrytwist, what a surprise, to see you here before my eyes!" She greeted, ushering them towards the front door.

"It's great to see you again, Zecora. This is my mother, Soapberry Breadnut." Fizzlepop replied, introducing Ponyville's newest guest. Zecora nodded at her.

"Meeting you is quite a treat, won't you two please have a seat?"

Soapberry stepped inside the tree right behind Fizzlepop, and marveled at what was inside. All manner of jugs, bottles, bowls, and plants lined the walls, save for an overhang where a noticeable bed was. More masks hung from the ceiling, and in the center of the room was a giant cauldron, atop a pit of glowing embers. The cauldron was currently full of a glowing, bubbling green liquid.

The unicorn and earth pony took a seat on small wooden stumps that doubled as stools on one side of the table that was halfway across the room from the cauldron.

"So, Zecora. I'm hoping you can help me out with a little situation we have. I read in Twilight's friendship journal that you had a potion that could let you see into the past?" Fizzlepop asked. Zecora nodded.

"For Twilight to see the past in motion, she took a sip of a special potion. But the exotic brew took concealed dark magic Alicorns can wield."

"Well, I certainly don't have that kind of magic. Could you, perhaps, tweak the formula so we can take a look back? And not to historical events, but more personal memories, not clouded by years and years that have passed."

Zecora got up, took a book down from the shelf, and began flipping through the pages.

"In Twilight's case she had to see, occurrences from history. But for you, Miss Berrytwist, I'll make a brew that can assist."

To Soapberry, it was immediately apparent that the zebra did indeed do this for a living, as she took down berries, powders, and herbs down from the shelves with barely even looking. She gathered everything into a large mortar and pestle, constantly looking back at her chosen page in the book, and ground all of the ingredients into a fine powder, before adding water to make it far more fluid. She poured what was in the mortar into a ceramic jug, added more water, and corked it before giving it a few good shakes to make the mix quite final. She popped the cork off, and slowly poured the dark blue liquid into a smooth wooden cup, and set it down on the table in front of them, before turning back to the bottled ingredients on the shelves.

Fizzlepop lit up her horn, lifted the cup up to her snout, and took a couple sniffs before putting the tip of the cup to her lips, and tipped it up as she began to gulp it down. By the time Zecora turned back to the table with a jar of honey, Fizzlepop had finished the entire cup, and the zebra's eyes widened.

"Miss Berrytwist!" She said too late in alarm as Fizzlepop returned the empty cup to the table. "Perhaps I should have said as such, but what you just took was way too much."

Fizzlepop glanced down at the empty cup then back at Zecora.

"I thought you were making a second one for her."

"You took the potion with such great haste, I was going to add honey for taste. That cup wasn't just for you, a sip was for your mother too."

"Well, sorry about that, but when is it supposed to take-"

Fizzlepop stopped mid-sentence, taking in a soft gasping breath before the whole of her eyes went a fiery white. Soapberry was so startled she almost fell out of her chair.

"All we can do now is wait, she'll see her past at any rate."

---

Fizzlepop felt her entire body tingle as the setting of Zecora's hut looked like it was sucked through a hose, leaving her in a sea of black. When she blinked her eyes, however, the setting had changed, and she found herself sitting on the same stool in the middle of a very familiar looking forest. She glanced behind her and saw a town. Her body wouldn't stop tingling, but everything felt so familiar.

She stood up, continuing to look around. She rubbed her ears with a hoof, then began to hear giggling. She turned around, and saw three young unicorns; two fillies and a colt. The colt had a sky blue coat, and the fillies were minty green and a dark orchid. The trio was passing a ball back and forth among themselves as they all trotted down the dirt path into the forest.

An overwhelming sense of dread overcame the mare as she immediately broke into a gallop to chase after them.

"No! No wait, come back!"

---

Zecora and Soapberry watched with bated breath as Fizzlepop sat there, her eyes maintaining that brilliant white glow. She slowly stood up and looked around cautiously.

"Can she hear us?" Soapberry asked Zecora softly. The zebra shook her head.

"Miss Berrytwist is now deep in her mind, untangling the threads of what she had long left behind." Zecora replied.

Soapberry continued watching her daughter cautiously as she slowly turned back to the door, ears flicking as if they heard something. Her breathing slowly quickened as her eyes widened.

"No! No wait, come back!" She cried out.

Taking off like a shot, she burst out of the front door and raced through the trees at a full gallop. Briefly stunned at what had just happened, both the zebra and earth mare gave chase out into the Everfree evening, Zecora quickly grabbing her saddlebags that hung next to the door.

---

Even at a full gallop, FIzzlepop could barely keep her eyes on the trio of unicorns as they trotted down the forest path, passing the ball back and forth. Her heart pounded against her chest with fear. She had to weave and dart over branches and trees that would appear in her path all of a sudden, and that prevented her from keeping pace with them.

The yawning mouth of a pitch black cave in the mountainside came into view, and panic began to set in.

"Stop!!!" She screamed out at the fillies, to no avail. She saw the mint-coated filly lose her magical grip on the ball and it bounced and vanished into the blackness of the cave, only for a towering, glowing, semi-transparent bear to come sauntering out with a threatening growl. He stood up on his hind legs, and raised his front right paw as he readied to swipe it down on the dark orchid filly, the only one who had not turned and ran.

"No!!!' Fizzlepop screamed, leaping up, hoping to reach the bear before his strike.

---

Even with the adrenaline pumping through her, Soapberry's age was catching up with her, and she was having considerable trouble keeping pace with Zecora, who in turn couldn't possibly hope to keep pace with a physically fit E.U.P. commander in her prime.

"Stop!!!" They heard Fizzlepop scream as she disappeared over the crest of a short hill ahead of them. They were quickly approaching a swampy area, and Soapberry motioned for Zecora to go on ahead. The zebra pushed up the hill, and she stopped at the crest. Soapberry saw the look of alarm on her face as she started to hastily dig through her left saddlebag.

"No!!!" She heard her daughter cry out, before something on the other side of the hill growled back. There was a splash, knocking of wood, and a snarl. Pushing herself to go a bit faster, Soapberry reached the crest of the hill next to Zecora, and her heart crept up to her throat when she saw that her daughter had unwittingly began to tussle with a living bundle of branches, sticks, and twigs in the shape of a wolf in a shallow swamp. She was desperately swinging at the creature with her staff. She connected with the chin, and the supernatural creature reared back in return before bursting forward in an aggressive charge, knocking the staff out of her grasp before tossing the unicorn over to the bank, and was on top of her instantly, snarling, and came down on her, jaw wide. It sunk a sharp wooden fang into her right shoulder, and the pony screamed in pain.

"Fizzlepop!!!" Soapberry cried out.

Finding what she was looking for, Zecora stopped Soapberry's adrenaline-fueled rush down into the swamp, lit a trio of hoof-held dancing star alchemy bombs, and quickly lobbed them at the attacking timberwolf. The first one connected with the creature's head, causing him to release the hold his teeth had on Fizzlepop, before exploding in the shallow shore of the pool, sending water skyward. The second hit his backside as it snarled at the additional intruders. It detonated in mid air, showering it with smoke and sparks. The third found its mark, wedging itself between the creature's 'ribs', and detonated, vanquishing the timberwolf and sending sticks and splinters in every direction.

At the same time, Zecora and Soapberry rushed down into the swamp, splashing through the water to the other end of the pool, where Fizzlepop was currently trying and failing to roll over onto her hooves, her body having been showered with splinters, her mind still trapped in the potion-induced hallucination. Zecora quickly came down and put a stop to the unicorn's movement, holding her as still as best she could as she looked over the bite wound.

Soapberry's throat went dry as she looked down at her daughter writhing on the shore as Zecora struggled to keep the wound out of the murky water. It was bleeding profusely; the bite had broken her coat, tore through muscle, and had possibly even reached bone. Even with the undoubtedly blinding pain, still the potion's effects did not let up. Zecora quickly dug back into her right saddlebag and came out with a cloth bag tied with string. She loosened the string, and carefully tipped the bag over, spilling yellow powder over the open wound.

"Crushed yarrow leaves will stop the bleeding, but it will not last. Come, we must get her help, and we must do so fast!"

---

Fizzlepop lay on the ground, her right shoulder in blinding pain. The ursa had managed to land a bite before vanishing into thin air. She turned and saw the young filly laying a short distance away, her horn now broken and sparking weakly. She reached out for her futilely with her left leg.

"H-How long until it grows back?"

Comments

[Wing]

Oh snaps. :3 This is juicy!

[Level Dasher]

The pair of ponies sidestepped a cluster of blue-petaled flowers

Yah, definitely wanna stay away from those.

Phew, not bad with that chase/fight switching. Glad I could help with the couplets; that one you didn't show me was pretty good!