I trotted along the path towards the one common trail into the Everfree Forest. Applejack and McIntosh had spent most of the morning saying goodbye, as if they would never see me again. The farm still felt like home, but leaving the little town of Ponyville had taught me just how big Equestria really was.
The forest reached huge branches up and over the path, and seemed to clutch at the darkness like a filly with their favorite doll. I shivered as I passed under the first branches, expecting something to leap out and attack me. Each step of my hungry, ground-eating pace took me deeper and deeper.
Memories of many times, where I visited Zecora to learn potion making, poured through my head, but I didn't relax, or start to hum a tune. It was one thing to be reassured, and quite another to call out and tell everything in the forest that I was alone.
The trail opened up on my left, and I could smell the flowers before I could see their blue petals. "Poison joke." The surrounding forest had dropped to silence, and I couldn't sense birds or any other critters nearby. It wasn't because of a predator that the Everfree was still here. I walked into the field of blue, almost luminous flowers. A gap in the canopy above let beams of bright sunlight down.
I walked into the middle of the clearing and lay down among the large flowers.
"Clever. If there was anything hunting you, it would leave you alone rather than chase into there." Stirring the sizzling vegetables with a wooden spoon, I kept both ears cocked on Apple Bloom.
"Ah thought that. But it was also soothing and calm." She looked so longingly at the wok that I resolved to give her some days off from her joke.
I splashed in some soy sauce. "Any other jokers there?"
"No. You are still the only pony I have ever met like this." She looked so exasperated with the fact.
"Well, we aren't exactly common." Lifting out a bean, I sampled the taste of it and nodded. "What happened next?"
I rolled to my back and reached out to one of the big flowers. It bent down until it brushed my nose. A dusting of pollen tickled inside my nose, and I barely managed to let go of the flower in time to sneeze.
Movement on the edge of the clearing stole my attention from the flowers. I sat up and studied the cloaked figure who walked into the field of poison joke. Slightly larger than most ponies, the figure stood proud and tall, and almost completely in the darkness of their cloak.
I watched as one of the stranger's hooves lifted a touch, then rubbed at the dirt. Jumping up and standing, looking at them, I repeated the gesture that was a how the zebra greeted each other. "Zecora?"
When Zecora flipped back her hood, I spotted the big grin on her face. "Greetings and well met Apple Bloom, glad I am to be seeing you so soon." She moved through the poison joke, barely disrupting the flowers, until we could hug.
"I've only been gone a week." I squeezed Zecora, then slowly let her go. "And while Joker is—is busy, I have my own task." Having spent years in proximity to Zecora while she taught me, I knew she wouldn't reply unless she didn't want to hear. "I hate lemons already."
Zecora turned and gestured to her hut, letting me continue talking while we walked. "He said I should find a way to be able to live with my joke, and he explained why it was important I could. So this is my quest. I identified two ways to bypass the joke itself, although while I have solved one, it isn't very effective."
I walked along beside Zecora in silence for a little bit, in case she wanted to ask anything. Eventually, I continued. "So I have a concoction from Princess Twilight that will let me coat really small things and stop them turning into lemons. I thought it would be wonderful and be what I needed, but there is no flavor, and it isn't really that easy or cheap to make."
"Into my brain you wish to peek? It be my knowledge that you seek." Zecora looked proud of her gag, and I had to roll my eyes, but nod. "To my home we must turn, for the solution you are to learn. There are many herbs and potions to try, so come on, Apple Bloom, don't be shy."
We continued along to her house, and showing the proper respect to the spirit masks, I followed her inside. The ritual was repeated inside; bowing to each of the masks, I lifted my hoof up and touched it to my chest.
"You remember well what I taught, a good student as you aught." Zecora walked around her hut, and the fire still burning under her big cauldron flared brightly with soft, blue light. I barely even saw the gesture she had made to cast the flash powder into the flames. "What you seek is the spice of sour, it will teach your tongue not to cower."
I followed Zecora, ignoring the little party trick with the fire. "Spice of sour? What's that?" I knew the moment I said it that Zecora would not outright tell me. I should have known before I said it. Taking a deep breath, I ignored the half-grin on Zecora's face. "You know, but you want me to learn."
"In this room is the knowledge you need, but a lack of focus will cause time to bleed." I knew the moment Zecora swapped to using rhetoric in her rhymes, that I was not going to get more out of her, which is why I almost missed the important bit. "So search through herbs, spice, and berry; from jungle, forest, or prairie."
Glancing at Zecora, I could see a smug smile on her face. I knew that last phrase held some important information, and focused my search down. Looking along Zecora's shelf, I ignored the books on using leaves, or flowers; Zecora had pitched her rhyme around berries.
"You can keep talking about that if you want, but I am eating." I served up just one plate of dinner, assuming that Apple Bloom would be content with her lemons. "How did you work out about Scruffy?"
I watched Apple Bloom reach into her pack and pull out a lemon. The look of satisfaction when she bit into it still puzzled me. "I was actually going to get to that soon." She chewed on the lemon, an expression of bliss covering her features; she was really enjoying it. "Are you going to listen, or are you going to complain all the way through?"
"Oh, I was thinking of complaining, but if you insist…" I trailed off, and saw an exasperated smile on Apple Bloom's face that almost matched my own. "I still can't believe you actually remember all her rhymes, let alone Princess Twilight's technobabble."
"It's not technobabble. Princess Twilight knows what she is talkin' about, and Ah happen to like Zecora's rhymes." I couldn't believe Apple Bloom could lie like that, given the popular notion of her sister. When I looked shocked at her statement, she continued. "Well, I like some of them. I don't know why I can always remember that kinda stuff."
"Did you know your drawl gets thicker when you are flustered?" I couldn't resist the poke at her countryisms.
Apple Bloom looked ready to boil over. "Poop eater!"
"Only when I'm a plant, but a fair observation. Why don't you go suck on a lemon?" Both of us held in our giggles for nearly ten heartbeats, and then both broke out laughing together.
"Snail food."
"Sour puss."
"Lunch."
We tossed insults back at each other for a few moments before regaining our composure. I proved I could keep my trap shut by shoveling food into my mouth.
The howling snapped me out of my study. At the exact moment I heard it, I knew it was the howl of a timber wolf. Safe as I was in Zecora's hut—guarded by the spirit masks—the primal fear of a predator that everypony possessed was hard to deny.
I slipped a bookmark into the old tome, closed it, and got up to investigate. Meeting at Zecora's side, we both looked out the hut's window. Outside, the timber wolf we had both heard was standing at the edge of the clearing, and in the shadows of the trees, more could be seen.
"Ah've never seen 'em this close before…" The pack melted from the treeline, revealing six big wolves. Green, glowing eyes seemed to focus on Zecora and I, and I felt frozen with terror.
"This isn't good!" Zecora's voice shook, and it was one of the rare moments when I heard her speak without rhyming. The big wolves prowled closer and closer, and one was just about to pounce—coiling its back legs—when a new growling started from right beside the hut.
I watched while a new timber wolf stalked out. This one was bigger than the others, better fed, and familiar. "S-Scruffy?!" We both said the name at the same time, and the only indication we got that we had guessed right was Scruffy's tail wagging a few times. As Scruffy interposed themselves between us and the wild wolves, I watched the pack back up.
"Scruffy!" I raced outside, ignoring Zecora's attempts to stop me. As I ran up beside Scruffy, the world seemed to slow down. I watched as the lead wolf of the wild pack started to run forward, eyes locked on me.
Like the magic of an alicorn, Scruffy reached over at the charging wolf and plucked them from the ground moments before they reached me. A toss of Scruffy's head sent them flying away into the forest, yelping. "Yeah! You rock, Scruffy!"
Speaking around my mouthful, I used my magic to point my fork at Apple Bloom in an accusing manner. "It's a mating fight?"
"Ah didn't know that!" She blushed and hung her head, but she must have realized I wasn't going to push, because she took up recounting her tale where she had left off.
One by one, Scruffy dealt with the other timber wolves. It was amazing to watch. The last one, however, seemed to be too quick for Scruffy. I watched the remaining wolf dodge Scruffy's attempts to grab them, but I was confused at the wolf apparently ignoring Zecora and I.
Zecora finally reached my side, and the world went black.
I couldn't see what was happening, but I knew why I couldn't see: Zecora had covered my eyes with her hooves. "What're you doing? What're they doing? Did Scruffy win?" I tried to shake loose for just a moment, but Zecora proved to be quite strong.
"To see these things you are a bit young, but Scruffy's victory will not go unsung." Zecora pulled, turning me away from whatever happened with Scruffy and the other timber wolf. Once back inside the hut, Zecora freed my eyes, but dashed to close the shutters on the windows.
"You're sure Scruffy was alright?" I looked at my former mentor with as serious face as I could summon, only to have Zecora blushing and trying to hide a smile, but she did nod. "Well… okay…"
"So Scruffy is a bitch? Huh!" I finished scooping up the last of my dinner, while Apple Bloom stared at me aghast. "What?"
"That word isn't a nice one!" Apple Bloom, I realized, may have had a bit of a sheltered life.
"It means 'female dog.' " I could see skepticism plain on her face. "Oh come on! You can remember all these little details, but you have never studied Equish?"
I saw her musing things over in her head. "Well… It might mean that, but Ah still ain't usin' it!"
"But it's the right word!" Wiggling a little, I felt two kinds of full with the seeds inside me and a good meal too. "Anyway, what did you find?"
"About Scruffy?"
"No." I lifted a hoof and smacked it against my forehead. "About whatever these berries are Zecora wanted you to investigate?"
I ran out of books, but then I noticed a small, hoof-written notebook crammed into the middle of the row. Reaching up for it, I heard the strangest noises coming from outside. Lifting the book free, I turned to look at the window, and saw Zecora peeking outside. "What're they doing?"
"This is something I have never before seen, Scruffy is sprouting with leaves of green." Zecora quickly closed the window again the moment I showed interest in trying to peek. "Your search has brought you a wealth of new knowledge, that book is my own, a journal I acknowledge."
That perked my interest right up, and I started with the first page. It was almost as dry as the other books had been, but it was full of descriptions about plants in Zecora's homelands. I started to flick, skipping most that I saw—because they weren't berry bushes—but at last my hoof stopped flicking on one particular entry. "Synsepalum dulcificum. Miracle berry?" I read about a plant with slightly waxy leaves, and plump red berries.
"A sweet, tangy berry that when consumed makes sour things sweet?" I couldn't believe the description, and looked up at a blushing Zecora, her head pushed partway out the window. "This is it! Native to—to your homeland. Berry, prairie. This is what you meant?"
Zecora pulled her head back in and nodded. Her blush wasn't fading, however. "Y-Yes Apple Bloom, this is the berry, and it does indeed grow on the—"
" 'Prairie.' You used that rhyme earlier."