//------------------------------//
// viii 
// Story: "Loyalty" Begins With an L 
// by shortskirtsandexplosions 
//------------------------------//

    Hours later, Rainbow Dash was flying low over the treetops of the Everfree Forest bordering Ponyville.  The stars hung high above as she glided past the leaves and branches of the landscape below.  Rainbow Dash was calm, and yet she couldn't relax too much.  As much as she would like to hold her wings straight out and let the breeze carry her, the wind simply wasn't strong enough to grant her such a wish.  She had to carry herself, to flap her wings every couple of minutes and keep the easy glide going strong.  The very moment she let go of herself, she could go crashing violently into the forest.

As a pegasus, Rainbow Dash had this knowledge ingrained into her mind.  However, on this particular evening, the entire exercise weighed heavier, gave her breath a more desperate tempo and pitch.  The anxiety of the previous day was still there, only now she was sweating it out of her pores, forcing it out, squeezing it out like she might burn calories during self-imposed Wonderbolt practice.

It occurred to her that even if she did join the Wonderbolts one day, nothing would equal the amount of input she had applied with her constant calisthenics.  If the world was a fair and balanced place, she'd become queen of the skies.

With flaring nostrils, she gazed lethargically at the world below.  She saw something glinting in the moonlight, something alive.  Arching an eyebrow, Rainbow Dash pivoted her wings so that she circled around a tiny clearing in the middle of Everfree.  There was a pond glittering with the reflection of a thousand stars, and situated along the edge was a familiar figure.

Not one to abandon curiosity, Rainbow Dash flapped her wings, hovered, and levitated down until she squatted by the equine's side.  "Uhhh... Zecora?  What's up?"

The zebra in question looked over her shoulder from where she stood with a wooden pole and a silken line cast into the waters.  She smiled, her teeth shining pale and bright in the moonlight.  "Good evening, Rainbow Dash on the fly.  Most surely you can see the stars in the sky."

Rainbow Dash blinked.  She stared directly up, facehoofed, then uttered, "Yeah, I get that.  What I meant to ask was: why are you fishing at this hour?"

"Why else would anypony wish to fish?"  Zecora smiled and returned her gaze to the line.  "To bring home a most delicious dish."

"Heh..."  Rainbow Dash shook her head and plopped down on her haunches.  "I guess it's true what they say about leading a horse to water, even a striped one..."

"Perhaps you find it strange that I do this at night," Zecora remarked, casting the line farther into the pond.  "Not all creatures seek food when it is bright."

"Yeah.  But zebras are from the desert and all, so I figured you had a thing for sunlight."  Rainbow Dash blinked, then scrunched her face up in thought.  "Come to think of it, why would a desert equine be fishing in the first place?"

"Not all of the Zebrahara is rocks and sand," Zecora replied.  "There happen to be many swamps and lakes in my land.  However, plants and fruit are still very rare.  So often we turn to what the waters have to spare."

"Yeah.  But..."  Rainbow Dash gave the pond a sickly look and struggled to keep her lunch in.  "Doesn't it amount to eating meat?  That's—like—totally gross."

"That is your opinion, to which you're entitled."  Zecora flexed her neck and relaxed where she sat.  "I assure you, it is not my desire to have your feathers riled.  Ponies see meat as a consequence of strife.  For zebras, it all falls within the circle of life."

"Heh.  Well, thank goodness there're no laws against eating fish around here..."  Rainbow Dash nervously scratched the back of her neck.  "Or against grabbing for them past sundown."

"You have a penchant for stating the obvious and being coy with it."  Zecora smiled back at Rainbow Dash.  "Could this be the only reason for your random visit?"

"No, I was... I was just flying and I saw you and... and..."  Rainbow Dash bit her lip.  With a sigh, she squatted down and rested her chin on a pair of folded hooves.  "How do you do it, Zecora?"

"Hmmm?"  Zecora cocked her head aside.

Rainbow Dash hesitated slightly, then blurted, "How do you live around so many... so many non-zebras in the middle of a country that's unlike the place where you were foaled, and yet you do it so confidently?  If I flew out into the middle of the Zebrawanda—"

"Zebrahara."

"Yeah, that—and, like, tried to pull off my Wonderbolt training and all the other stuff I do normally, only around a bunch of zebras who didn't understand me, I'm pretty sure I'd lose my mind."

"Ah, but you assume that a journey like mine is lacking in wit."  Zecora winked and gave the line another shake.  "As a matter of fact, I came to a place such as this to find it."

"Huh?"

"A life that doesn't change is hardly worth living.  I've explored the world to see all that it is giving."

"Don't... Don't you get lonely, though?"  Rainbow Dash asked.  "There are no zebras around here..."

"You concern intrigues me greatly."  Zecora's eyebrow arched.  "Has something been troubling you lately?"

"So what if it has?"  Rainbow Dash ran a hoof through her mane.  "I don't think I've given you enough credit, Zecora.  You believe in what you believe in, and you stick to it.  You hang out here like a hermit, and..."  She fidgeted.  "It's... It's like you're forever loyal to yourself, or at least something you believe in."

"Every search for truth requires a degree of proof."  Zecora said with a nod.  "I must finish questing before I can start digesting."

"But for how long?"  Rainbow Dash stammered.  "So many ponies call me brave, but here you are doing your own thing... and by yourself.  And it's gotta be really tough—and frightening—Zecora, to be doing one thing for so long while surrounded by a bunch of ponies who... well... who are all so different from you."

"Every soul is different, my little pony."  Zecora turned to look steadily at her.  "And each life's dream and philosophy.  If I obsess all the time over the worries of the rest, how will I ever put my own creed to the test?"

Rainbow Dash blinked at that.  She fiddled with the grass on the edge of the pond.  "Yeah, okay.  But... But it still seems like such a lonely way to go about things."

"All journeys take courage of great magnitude, but they need not entirely end in utter solitude.  After all, if I had not embarked upon catching fish, I would not have summoned you to this moment of bliss."  She smiled sweetly upon saying that, her eye shining with something electric.

Rainbow Dash slowly smiled.  She got up and suddenly darted into the nearby woods.

Zecora watched, craning her neck and squinting into the shadows.

When Rainbow Dash returned, she had a long wooden stick with a string of moss tied to the end of it.  She sat beside Zecora on the edge of the pond, tied a dangling piece of grass-root to the end of the mossy fiber, and dipped it into the waters.

"Rainbow, I fear that might not properly catch you a bite."

"Well, that's just the thing about living differently," Rainbow Dash said with a drowsy smile.  "What's the harm in trying, huh?"

Zecora smiled.  A chuckle escaped her lips.  "You are full of surprises, my winged friend.  I’m glad that we’ve had this moment to spend."

"Back at ya, girl."  Rainbow Dash smiled and gave her "fishing pole" a shake.  "So, what's this I keep hearing about a lake house?"

"Huh?" Zecora merely blinked at her.

Rainbow Dash shrugged into the cool breeze of Everfree night.  "Eh, it was worth a shot.  Still, it's gotta be hard to blush through those stripes of yours."

Zecora laughed, and a pegasus' giggles joined her.