So, remember the zebra that saved Boco and me in the Everfree Forest the other day? Well, it turns out that her people have their own special brand of magic. While Black Mages use Mist to perform their spells, and unicorns manifest the energy through their horns, zebras can brew magical potions with different plants and materials to perform all sorts of amazing magic! I got to see Zecora’s brewing skills work firsthand today!
Even after having Tranced and fought a bunch of monsters, I was completely unprepared for what her potion was able to do!
...
The day started off really sad though. We were near the edge of the forest, assessing the damage to Fluttershy’s cottage. The Pegasus in question was off at the local spa with Rarity, and probably for a good reason. I don’t think she’d be able to handle what we were doing. Her friends insisted that I stay at Sweet Apple Acres and rest, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that.
The manticore that destroyed her home was after me. It hadn’t targeted her or any of her animals. It wanted to kill me. So it was my fault that all of her little pets were injured or dead, and it was my fault her home was ruined. I wasn’t about to sit and let someone else clean up my mess.
So the few of her friends that had the stomach to do so and I went to work trying to clean up the ruins of her tree home. The tree itself looked to be dying, which after being ripped in half anything would, so I didn’t think it would matter after a while how much work we did. But I held my tongue and kept working on picking up planks of bark and carrying them to a pile of burnable objects outside the house.
Twilight Sparkle handled all of the extremely heavy objects, her telekinesis working wonders for the job. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I swear she kept staring at me while my back was turned. I figured she had a lot of things to ask me, especially about my magic and the thing I’d called a Trance. But she kept quiet the whole time, probably not wanting to bother me while we were working.
Applejack handled gathering up all of the living critters and moving them a safe distance away from the decaying home. If the tree collapsed on itself, anything inside would at least be horribly injured…at least the size of most of the pets, anyway. She also took care of…cleaning away…the not-so-alive critters. I could see that it really hurt the ponies to think about all of Fluttershy’s fallen pets.
I’d already mourned them as much as I could. My Trance was my mourning. And besides…they were just animals after everything was said and done. I’d seen entire towns razed to the ground by Bahamut and never shed a tear. Maybe that was an unfair comparison, but it was true. So while the ponies struggled with their emotions while cleaning, I did my job without hesitation.
Ever since the attack, with the exception of listening to my story, Rainbow Dash had been scouting over the Everfree, checking to make sure no other wild animals were thinking of attacking the town. She kept watch for us while we worked, not wanting us to get ambushed in the midst of our work.
Pinkie Pie took the liberty of…well…being Pinkie Pie. Her being there with her air of happiness helped lighten the mood a lot. I could see why her friends loved her, because she always had a smile on her face. Even considering what we were doing at the time, she never lost her morale. Her friends took more comfort in her presence than I did, but it did help me ignore the fact that I’d almost died in that tree.
We worked well into the evening, cleaning up just about all of the debris we could see. And then it dawned on me that I had no idea why we were doing it. It seemed kind of pointless at the time.
“So why did we do all this work?” I was the designated burn-pile-igniter, so I did my job without question. Once the pile was blazing, I decided to find out what our efforts were getting us.
Twilight Sparkle cheered, “Zecora said she had a potion that would fix Fluttershy’s cottage right up! She told us we’d need to get rid the trash for it to work.” She nodded at the pile of burning wood and glass.
Applejack chimed in, “I figured we’d go ahead and lay the poor critters to rest while we was at it.” She pointed a hoof toward the forest, where tiny mounds of dirt had been dug up and replanted. She’d dug every last pet a separate grave…
Rainbow Dash swooped in out of nowhere and cheered, “She’s on her way! It looks like she’s carrying a lot of junk with her…” I was reminded of how the zebra has helped me out of the hole in the forest floor. She had huge packs of random objects strapped to her back like a pack mule.
A sudden thought crossed my mind. I felt like I was being burned alive as I considered a horrifying fact that I’d been too ignorant to think about.
I hadn’t seen Boco since I left Fluttershy’s house for dinner at Sweet Apple Acres! I hadn’t seen his feathers or heard his ‘kweh’ in almost two days! My mind started to race with thoughts that in one of those mounds of dirt could be Mr. 33 and 111’s beloved pet! I could feel the sadness start to swell in my gut as I considered that I had failed Boco’s original owners when I promised to care for him!
And I felt like an idiot when I heard the comforting chirp of the baby chocobo as it darted from the edge of the forest with a giant vine of berries trailing behind it. It took everything I had not to leap up and dive at the little yellow bird. I was so relieved to see him that I probably would’ve cried if I had tears. But…when did he go to the forest?
Not long after he bounced cheerfully onto my shoulder, Zecora came trotting from the darkness of the woods with her extremely heavy-looking pack strapped firmly around her. At the top of the pile of junk sat a large black pot suspended on two iron stands. With a seemingly strained grunt, the zebra undid her harness and let all of her luggage crash to the ground in a heap.
She smiled at each of us in turn and sighed, “It is good to see you are all okay. Perhaps the forest shall stay behaved today…” She glanced back at the edge of the woods as if expecting something to happen.
“With the forest the way it is, I don’t see why you’re still living there...” Twilight lowered her gaze to the pile of random objects, scanning its contents carefully.
The striped mare scoffed, “It does not matter how bad the beasts get; to my hut they will never pose a threat.” Her constant use of rhymes started to throw me off. It was like something straight out of a child’s bedtime storybook. “If you would be so kind as to assist me Twilight, I need this pot placed over the pyre’s light.” She nodded at the giant pot still standing on its iron legs.
With a nod, Twilight wrapped the container in her purple glow and lifted it over the fire, placing it firmly on its legs over the burning debris. I could see the pot start to scorch and develop a red glow. Without wasting time, the zebra began to toss assorted plants into the pot. In one swift motion, she pulled a large jug of water from the bottom of the heap and dumped the entirety of the liquid into the pot.
With a loud hiss, the concoction immediately began to boil. The scent of carrots filled the air, and I could see a smile growing on the zebra’s face. Once steam started to flow from the mixture in thick clouds, she began to snatch random objects off of the pile and toss them in. Her movements were fast enough that I had a hard time keeping up.
I saw large gemstones go flying into the boiling mess. There were giant cloves of a glowing blue plant that Zecora used a plastic buffer to pick up. I caught Boco’s vine of berries out of the corner of my eye go flying in. The little chocobo chirped in protest of its lost bounty. A bunch of other stuff went into the mess until the whole pile was gone save for a large wooden stick. The zebra picked it up firmly in her muzzle and approached the white-hot iron pot.
“If you would be so kind Rainbow Dash, I could use some altitude and be done in a flash!” Zecora mumbled around the stick, looking at the cyan Pegasus with stern eyes.
Taking the hint, Rainbow Dash happily obliged. I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again the two of them were floating in the air, the Pegasus holding the zebra in place as she stirred the now-sweet-smelling concoction. After just a few moments of stirring, the two landed softly just in front of me.
Looking right into my eyes, she chuckled, “Now my little magic master, a little extra heat would make this go oh-so faster.” It took me a few seconds to interpret what she meant, which made me feel all the dumber when I finally figured it out.
“O-okay...” I hopped from my seat and stepped right up beside the burning pot. The flames licked my body, but it didn’t hurt. My clothes protected me from the fires. Being a Black Mage, the elements didn’t really affect me like most others. Placing my hands to the base of the pot despite the ponies’ protests, I shouted, “Firaga!”
The entire pot burst into large orange flames, the iron quickly becoming white-hot all over. After just a few seconds, the concoction began to boil over. Zecora quickly tapped me on the shoulder, which I interpreted as a sign to stop the flames altogether.
With another small breath I shouted, “Blizzaga!” The flames under the pot immediately vanished, replaced by a thin coat of frost on the remaining wood.
The zebra applauded my work before scooping up some of the mixture into the jar she had carried the water in before. She sighed, “Very good mistah Black Mage, you are quite powerful for one your age. If you all would care to follow me, you will be amazed to see Fluttershy’s tree.”
The four ponies immediately fell in line behind the zebra. I hesitated for a moment, wondering just how she knew anything about me. From what I could tell, she hadn’t been to town since my arrival, so she wouldn’t have had a chance to learn anything about me.
Anyway, I followed them to the remains of Fluttershy’s house, where the zebra stood with her hooves planted firmly on the ground. She turned toward Applejack and asked, “Being a farmer I assume you are fine with some physical work. I could use a hole in the ground deep into the dirt.” She placed the jug of potion down in front of her, waiting for the pony’s response.
“Uh…sure thing, Zecora! How deep do ya need it to be?”
“Down to the roots of this pretty little tree. That is how deep it needs to be.” The zebra flashed her friend an apologetic smile, knowing that the task was not too easy to accomplish.
Without uttering a single negative comment, the farmer went to work on the hole. Twilight offered to help several times but was refused by the stubborn pony’s sense of working pride. The work went faster than I expected, because I barely had time to watch Boco’s little chocobo dance before it was time for Zecora to do her thing.
She tipped the jug over into the freshly dug hole and explained, “This brew is one of a restorative might. I suggest you hold your hooves firm for the following sight.” Almost as soon as she finished her rhyme, the earth began to vibrate wildly underneath us.
I never would have imagined something like what happened next in a million years. The entirety of what remained of Fluttershy’s cottage vaporized into the air, the smoke visibly sinking into the ground. All of her furniture and pictures hung in place, undisturbed by the removal of their anchor. The vibrations increased in intensity, sending those of us unprepared to our rear ends. The dirt around where the tree had been began to crack and split. And then, with an extremely loud popping noise, another tree identical to the old one rocketed from the earth.
The tree was identical to the one that had stood before the manticore’s attack. It was utterly unbelievable. I felt like my mind was about to melt at the sight of the completely restored home. Judging from the windows and doors carved into the tree, everything was in its rightful place. Everything except for the items destroyed in the attack, at any rate.
Zebra magic had the ability to fully restore any type of naturally standing organic landmark. I…was appalled. I didn’t have sounds to make at the sight of the tree. The dirt around it even took its shape and closed the cracks. It was as if nothing had ever happened.
Without saying a word, the zebra trotted into the house to await its owner. Boco followed her inside, equally impressed by her potion’s effects. The ponies’ jaws were on the ground, even Pinkie Pie’s. I guessed they probably weren’t aware of such powerful zebra magic either.
Eventually Applejack managed to choke out through her stupor, “I…guess I’ll…go get Fluttershy then…” With a disbelieving shake of her head, she trotted off toward the spa to retrieve her would-be-ecstatic friend.
The rest of us just stood basking in the glow of the newborn tree. I couldn’t get over its almost-perfect sheen.
…
So we spent the rest of the evening helping Fluttershy move her pets back into the house and get everything set up the way it was supposed to be. Then she baked us a bunch of daffodil-stuffed potatoes for dinner and we sat talking through the late evening. Most of us spent the time praising Zecora’s handiwork with brewing potions, while those that weren’t witnesses spent the time being informed of the whole process.
And now I’m lying on the couch again, filling in this entry, while the seven of the equines are silently sleeping in a heap on the floor.
That’s something you’d never see in Gaia. Humans—humanoids—can’t be together like that. They can’t be so close to one another without some sort of ulterior motive. At least, that’s what Zidane told me about the fake people we met on our journey. But here, it’s possible. Friends just gather in piles and sleep on top of each other like it isn’t anything special, for no other reasons than simply being friends.
I...kinda wish I was a pony. I mean, if I’m going to live here with them…then not being one will only make me an outcast. But then again, I might not live here. If it turns out that Kuja and I are causing the animals to go crazy with our Mist, then I’ll do everything in my power to get rid of both of us.
Even if it means dying. If we can’t go away while alive…then we’ll both just have to die.
And that’s all I have to say about that…