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// Y E L L O W 
// Story: Branching Paths 
// by TCC56 
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The Everfree welcomed Fluttershy into it - at least as much as it could welcome a pony. Even to her it was a grudging allowance, built up to from years of living beside it and caring for its denizens. That she kept to the narrow path worn by zebra hooves helped, steering her wide of more static threats and letting the mobile ones know her intentions. 

Zecora's hut was occupied again, having been left unattended for months during her adventure to Farasi. But now the shaman was back, having returned the week before and passed through town with barely more than a hello. She had been as distant and as quiet as ever - up until yesterday, when she had sent a letter for Fluttershy to join her. 

As she approached, Fluttershy's first instinct was that Applejack might have been the better choice. Zecora was obviously packing up, her hut surrounded by boxes carefully stacked and full of her possessions. 

"Um, hello? Zecora?" Fluttershy craned her neck through the half-open door.

Inside, Zecora was carefully loading a straw-packed crate with glass bottles. The voice drew her attention away from the task with a smile. "Ah, dear Fluttershy! Thank you so much for stopping by." She waved the pegasus in, taking a few last moments to seal the crate up. 

"Of course, Zecora. Thank you for inviting me." Fluttershy couldn't help but frown a little as she looked around the barren hut. "I… guess you're really leaving, then. Back to Farasi?"

"My newfound duties require me there," the zebra intoned before slightly blushing. "But I also seek my friends, to be fair."

Without hesitation, Fluttershy hugged Zecora. "No pony would hold that against you. But we will miss you after you're gone."

Smiling back, Zecora nodded. "And I, you."

Fluttershy immediately keyed in on the rhyme and lept to complete it. "Oh! I was going to say that too!"

They both descended briefly into laughter before Zecora broke away and motioned for Fluttershy to follow. The pair left the hut behind, following a barely-existent trail out into the wild Everfree. Each minute that passed pulled them further from what scant bits of civilization and safety sat within the woods, taking them deeper into the morass of trees. All around the Everfree watched them - it didn't interfere, didn't approach, but there was no mistaking that the forest itself was observing each hoofstep with the wary caution of both stalking predator and skittish prey.

In the small depression of a dried-up creekbed, Zecora stopped. She waited for Fluttershy to draw up beside her and then motioned vaguely forward. "Lead us," she solemnly said.

Fluttershy frowned in confusion. "I don't understand. I--I don't even know where we're going. I was just following you."

Zecora motioned again. "Your heart knows."

The pegasus closed her eyes and listened - both to the woods around her and to her heart. A trickle of water ran a few dozen yards to the left, where the creek had diverted to over decades of time. A bird's nest was being built overhead - no eggs yet, but there was the scratch of a nuthatch layering material in a bolthole to prepare. A cockatrice was sleeping in the bushes nearby, waiting out for the cooler night where its eyes would be sharper. A pull - west. 

Fluttershy moved without speaking, following that pull. She didn't need to open her eyes as she walked - the sounds of the Everfree was enough to guide her hooves safely. Zecora followed behind, silent and placing each step in the print Fluttershy had made. 

That pull guided her out of the creekbed, past a manticore's den, down a rise and-- 

Fluttershy opened her eyes when she felt a warmth that was in her heart rather than on her skin.

There was nothing there. At least, nothing visible that was different from the rest of the woods. The thick verdant canopy above blocked out all but a scant few rays of sunlight that dappled the forest floor. Mighty trees grew all around, both straight-backed elm and gnarled firs. Mushrooms sat in the shady parts, bedding down in mulch from a hundred autumns' worth of leaves. 

But that stood secondary to Fluttershy's senses. No, she locked in immediately on what was missing. 

"...Quiet," she whispered, as much to herself as it was to Zecora. But it was more than quiet: the air was unnaturally still, lacking wind or birdsong or the chittering of a thousand woodland critters that should have populated the place. It was dead silent. After a moment's panic - for silence so often meant a nearby predator - Fluttershy flicked her ears and listened harder. "This is…" She hesitated, unsure of her own evaluation. "It's like the forest is… respectful? This feels like we're inside a temple." 

Beside her - to the left and slightly behind - Zecora nodded. "Reverence for a place bereft of tooth and claw. 'Tis here that every creature basks in awe."

Fluttershy wrinkled her brow. "So where are we?"

"The heart of the Everfree," Zecora solemnly intoned. "The place I knew where we must be."

"But the Tree of Harmony, it was--"

Zecora shook her head before Fluttershy could finish. "Placed by Starswirl, long ago. It was meant to impede the forest and disrupt its flow. A heart, it could never be - but to understand that, you don't need me."

Slowly, Fluttershy nodded. "Yes, I… I think Starswirl said something like that after we rescued the Pillars from Limbo." Her mind worked over that knowledge. "The Tree of Harmony was meant to contain and control the Everfree, so the heart…"

"Is the place where we must start," Zecora completed. She stepped away from Fluttershy's side, walking reverently to one of the trees in the grove. It looked no different than the rest - a twisted and bent evergreen that was likely tall when Celestia's mane was pink - but Zecora went to it with an unerring sureness. Reaching up, she snapped a small twig off with her hooves and offered it to Fluttershy. "Swallow, but do not chew," she advised, "It is essential to eat the entire yew."

Instantly Fluttershy's well-versed mind went into overdrive, grabbing from dozens of animals nursed to back to health. Yew: taxus baccata medium evergreen flat short needles red berries favorite of waxwings berries safe seeds poison leaves poison sap poison elastic softwood desirable for woodwork no known antidote purge immediately useful for repelling insect infestation highly allergenic during spring poison poison poison

Intellectually, Fluttershy knew that the amount required to put her in danger was a lot more - that little green twig would probably make her feel sick but it wouldn't permanently harm her. The fear was still there because she was being asked to willingly eat poison. 

But Zecora was giving it to her. 

It was her friend. 

She trusted her.

Fluttershy closed her eyes, took the tiny sprig into her mouth and swallowed it whole. 

Only one pony breathed in the solemn silence of the grove - Zecora patiently watched while Fluttershy clenched herself tight and awaited her death. 

It didn't come. 

After a minute or so, the pegasus' muscles started to untense and she opened an eye. Despite her fears, Fluttershy was indeed still alive. 

"Feel," Zecora commanded gently.

Fluttershy tried to - tried to relax herself, eyes closed and reaching out to the Everfree around her. Nothing was any different than before: still the reverent silence, still the vague impression of something beyond pony keen. 

But… no, wait. Fluttershy tilted her head slightly. There was a difference. When a whirl of breeze came by, it wafted through her coat rather than pushing against her. The distant feel of wary eyes sat differently - appraising rather than fearful. 

She let it sit for a minute more, opening her senses up to the world around her and taking it all in before Fluttershy ventured a guess. "There was a cat once. She didn't have a good first owner and was mistreated before they brought her to me. For the first week, she hid in the corner of a closet and wouldn't leave. I had to push food and water into her with a stick. It took three weeks before she came out during daylight hours, and almost two months before she would let me near her. She was afraid of everything, but once she relaxed enough to let you close she was the sweetest, most loving kitty I've ever cared for." Fluttershy reached out, touching a hoof to the trunk of a nearby pine. "I feel like… like the forest is that cat. And it's just decided to trust me enough to take a piece of fish."

Zecora nodded, a slow smile coming to her face. "The forest's heart is something you now carry - and with it the Everfree, of you, is now less wary." She placed a hoof over Fluttershy's heart. "You, it recognizes as its own and bids you welcome. It…" The zebra stopped with a frown. 

Instantly, Fluttershy broke out into wild giggles. "Nothing really rhymes with welcome, does it?" 

Zecora laughed, too. "The Everfree needs a guardian and my time is at an end. It chose you for this solemn duty, my dear friend." 

Fluttershy's eyes darted as she made the connections. "Now you're going away, so it needs another. It needs me." 

"You already protect the fauna and you know the flora." Zecora smirked a little. "In the words of your friend Treehugger, you have the correct aura."

The pegasus hesitated. "But what does that mean? What would I do?"

It was a question Zecora was ready for. "As you have always. Care and kindness have ever been your creed, and you would not see the wild exploited by short-sighted pony greed. In you, I have great faith that I need not worry about protecting this place." 

Fluttershy shuffled slightly, scuffing her hoof on the forest floor. "Before you go - you'll teach me more about the Everfree? What I'll need to know?" A nod was her unrhymed reply. "Then yes. I'll do it. I'll do my best to protect them all." 

Her acceptance was answered by Zecora's kind smile. She motioned, and the pair slipped away as the Everfree opened up a path for them.