Helper Monkey

by Moonton


Chapter 7 - Bridle Gossip, Day Two

Once the pair had returned to their tree-home Msaidizi had wanted to immediately start on his retaliation scheme, but (as Zecora gently but firmly reminded him) responsibilities came first. Things purchased in Ponyville were unpacked, sorted and put away. Fresh water was brought in and firewood for the night was chopped up. The latter task took longer than Msaidizi would have liked, as the wood axe was built for equines, and thus was too long for him to use one-handed but too short to use with two. Still, he managed.

As the afternoon began to turn into evening and the sun began its slow descent to the horizon, he finally found the time to enact his plan.

Unfortunately, there was another problem, which was learning to use a quill.

“Uhm, could I have another piece, miss?” he asked sheepishly, holding up a sheet of paper covered in ink splodges.

Zecora tutted, but handed over another piece all the same. “Your touch must be light, for your words to take flight” she instructed. “Press too firmly, you’ll spill the ink. Then your work will really stink”.

With exaggerated care Msaidizi tried again, slowly dipping the quill into the pot of ink and bringing it to the paper. He gave a sigh of relief when it didn’t immediately spit ink everywhere, and slowly he began to write. “Dear...” he said aloud, before stopping and looking up. “Who’s the leader of Ponyville, anyway?” he asked.

“Mayor Mare” Zecora answered, absentmindedly. She was busy brewing something with the wood-wolf flowers she’d picked earlier, and didn’t bother to turn around to answer his question.

“Okay, a mayor. What’s their name?”

That question made Zecora pause for a moment. “Mayor Mare” she repeated, sounding amused as she turned around.

“Okay, so the mayor is a mare” Msaidizi pressed on, still clueless. “But what is her name?”

Now she just laughed. “That is her name!”

Msaidizi then looked at Zecora incredulously. He opened his mouth, and then shut it again. “Sorry” he said, “But just so I’m absolutely certain. The name of the mayor-“

“Yes…” Zecora prompted.

“Who is also a mare-”

“Go on…”

“Is Mayor Mare?” He paused again, and then said “Really, miss?”

Zecora laughed again. “Well, no” she admitted. “I do not really think so. I’ve overheard her called that once, but to truly think that would make me a dunce”. Her smile fell to a little as she shrugged and went back to her work. “And as you can expect, this assumption I’ve not had the chance to correct”.

Yes, I can imagine” Msaidizi thought to himself, remembering the events of the day. “Every month, I swear, some pe-ponies”.

He kept these thoughts to himself though, outwardly he was rather relieved. “I’m glad she’s not actually called that” he said aloud to himself. “If she was, it would just raise further questions”.

After a moment, he put the quill down to the paper. ‘Dear Mayor of Ponyville’ he finally wrote. Then ink spilled out across the page, covering the words. Msaidizi sighed, and got up for another sheet.


That night, Msaidizi had another dream. This time, he dreamt he was sitting at the table of a fancy restaurant, with low lighting and tasteful (not to mention expensive-looking) wooden furniture. The carpet and drapes were a deep rich red, and the table was covered with a simple black and white chequerboard tablecloth.

Oh dear, this again” he thought. “I hope this isn’t going to be a nightly thing”.

A ghost in a tuxedo came up to the table and handed him a large menu, while another poured him a glass of something red. Msaidizi took a sip, and found it surprisingly palatable, fruity but quite dry. “Wine” he suddenly thought, the word dropping into the forefront his mind like a rock. “That’s what it’s called. I think? Maybe”.

As he took another, larger sip, the lunar princess appeared in the seat across the table. It didn’t feel to him that she had suddenly appeared, rather it felt like she had suddenly always been sitting there. “Good evening” she said.

Surprised, Msaidizi both spat out his drink and attempted to push his chair backwards. Unfortunately his muscles seemed to receive mixed signals, and he ended up falling out of his chair and spitting wine all over his face.

“Art thou quite well?” she called down, sounding more amused than concerned.

With a groan Msaidizi got back up, wiping the drink off his face. “Yes, fine thanks!” he snapped. Then he remembered just who he was talking to, and added in a softer tone “Um, I mean, your highness. Sorry, but could you not just show up like that? I nearly had a heart attack”.

“Oh? And what wouldst thou prefer?” The princess asked, now casually leaning forward and sipping from her own, suddenly-always-there glass.

“Well, I don’t know! Maybe some bells, or something? Or just a ‘tinkle tinkle tinkle’ noise? Don’t just... appear!”

The princess chuckled softly at Msaidizi’s exasperation, but stopped when she caught his expression. “Yes, of course” she said, attempting to mollify him. “We apologise. We shouldst be more considerate”. A tuxedoed ghost came back to their table, and the princess’s horn began to glow a cerulean blue. A similar glow surrounded the menu card, and (to Msaidizi’s amazement) it floated over to the ghost’s hand. “Two salads, we think” the princess said to it. The ghost bowed to her, then turned and walked away.

More magic, I’m guessing” Msaidizi thought. “Seems useful, at least. They don’t have thumbs, after all”. He cleared his throat, and said “Sorry, your highness, is there something you wan-“

To business!” The princess boomed, cutting him off. She pulled a pair of silver half-moon glasses from somewhere and delicately placed them on her muzzle, and then leaned on the table with steepled hooves. “Now then, my little non-pony, hast thou completed thy task?”

Msaidizi swallowed nervously. He had expected this question to come up, but he after the events of the day he hadn’t been looking forward to it. “Well, yes, your highness. I went to Ponyville with Zecora, just like you said”.

The princess leaned closer. “And how did events transpire?”

“Excuse me, your highness?”

“’What happened’, we mean to ask”.

“Oh, well” Msaidizi rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “We... we went shopping, had a little walk around” (the look of undivided attention she was giving him was unnerving) “and then we went home.”

Feeling that perhaps wasn’t enough, he added “It’s a lovely looking town, by the way “.

“And didst thou meet the locals?” The princess pressed on, leaning in closer still. “Anypony in particular? Perhaps one of six certain mares?”

“One of six- oh. Um, would one of those happen to be Twilight Sparkle?” A simple nod confirmed that yes, he was thinking of the same six ponies as her. “Oh, well. Er, yes”. He took another sip to buy himself some time (his glass didn’t seem to be getting emptier, not that he noticed) and eventually said “I did meet them. The purple one was… nice”.

The princess stared at Msaidizi for a moment longer, then gave a dazzling smile and leant back with satisfaction. “Good” she said. “We art pleased with thy efforts”. She grabbed her wine glass in her telekinetic grip and in victory drained the liquid in one fell swig. “It is good to see thou making friends”.

Msaidizi winced. He **really** hadn’t been looking forward to this. He briefly considered just lying to the princess, but decided against it. While he may avoid trouble now, it probably wouldn’t be long before she discovered the truth (if her dream-powers were anything to go by) and then he could be in even more trouble.

“We didn’t, um, make friends, exactly”. Msaidizi winced again as the princess turned her gaze back onto him. “We went to town, and they all sort of, well, hid. And then on the way back, they-“.

He hesitated again, as the look she was giving him had gone quite dark, but when you’ve jumped off a cliff there’s nothing you can really do except fall (and perhaps hope for the abolition of gravity), so he cleared his throat and he pressed on. “On the way back, the six I think you’re talking about said… some things. They may have also, er, thrown rocks?”

The princess’s expression didn’t change, although a muscle did start to twitch under her left eye. They sat there in silence just long enough for Msaidizi to feel like he should say something, when she suddenly asked “May we see?”

“I’m sorry, your highness?”

“Thy memories of the day, we mean. May we see?”

Msaidizi didn’t know what she meant at all, but he was too relieved that she wasn’t angry to inquire about it. “Well, I don’t see why not, I suppose”.

The princess tapped her hoof on the table twice. Two ghosts approached the table, holding a large silver-rimmed mirror between them. They set it down next to her before standing to attention at either side. “We thank thee” the princess said to Msaidizi, before leaning and tapping the mirror with her horn. The glass rippled like liquid, swirled, and then changed. To Msaidizi’s amazement it began to show the events of the day from his perspective, as if a camera had been behind his eyes.

“I’m glad you asked me first” he managed to say. “Because the fact that you can do that is terrifying”.

The princess rolled her eyes and waved a hoof across the mirror. The images on it began to speed up, minutes and eventually hours moving by in seconds. Occasionally a sound came from a mirror, tinny and echoing as if a long way off. The sound of footsteps, a snatch of birdsong, now and again a word or two. The princess’s eyes darted to and fro, seemingly managing to take it all in despite the speed. Also on occasion she paused the mirror and her eyes darted between it and Msaidizi, no doubt making some internal judgement. When the actual confrontation appeared on it, the princess looked quite annoyed at first, but then she put a hoof to her mouth and giggled.

“What? What is it?” Msaidizi asked, craning to see. The princess pointed, and he realised that the ponies (sans the little one) had been standing in poison joke the whole time, the sparkling blue pollen liberally dusting the bottoms of their legs. “Oh dear. That’s not good.”

“Neigh” the princess agreed. “But far from fatal. Perhaps we can call it ‘just desserts’”. She tapped her hoof on the table again, and the mirror’s surface rippled once more before turning back to normal. The two ghosts either side of it bowed then carried it away.

“We will not lie, we are disappointed” the princess said. “Not with thee, thy actions have been exemplary given the circumstances. No, we feel the fault lies with Twilight Sparkle and her friends.” She harrumphed and added under her breath “And Sister said this was going to be easy…”

For a little while they sat in silence, both deep in thought. Msaidizi cleared his throat, and asked “You’re not going to… do anything, are you, your highness?”

The princess raised an eyebrow. “And why wouldst thou ask us that?”

“Well, it’s that that-“ he paused, searching for the right words. “We don’t really have many friends, your highness. I know I’m in no position to make enemies. And I think that, I don’t know, the ponies might not be too happy with Zecora if you were to punish them or anything…”

His voice petered off under the princess’s gaze, Msaidizi suddenly feeling a little stupid. “I don’t want to cause a fuss” he protested.

The princess held her gaze, the eyebrow kept high just long enough for the silence to become awkward. Then it lowered, and she smiled. “That’s very kind of thee, to think that way” she said softly. “A little cowardly, perhaps-“

“Hey!”

“-but kind, all the same. Very well then, we shalt not interfere”

The princess’s ears perked up, as if hearing a sound Msaidizi could not. “Sadly, it seems that our meal will have to wait. If we are correct in what is to happen next, we trust thee to do what is right. Do not be the one to disappoint us this time”.

Around them, the restaurant was starting to swirl and the details turn fuzzy as Msaidizi began to wake up. “Wait, already?” he exclaimed. He didn’t feel they’d talked nearly long enough. “Don’t I get to ask more questions first?”

“Neigh. Perhaps another time, but not now” The princess said, her voice definite but not unkind. Blackness began to creep in around the table, and soon it and her were swallowed by it and Msaidizi was left in the dark. “But I don’t understand what you want me to do!” he wailed.

Just before he fell into the unconscious nothing between waking and dreaming, the princess said something to him, so close and quiet that she might as well have been whispering in his ear.

“Just be thyself”


The next day was business as usual for Zecora and Msaidizi. In fact, by the zebra’s standards it was something of a lazy day. While basic chores were tended to no trips were made into the forest, and before the morning was even half gone the pair founds themselves simply lounging around with nothing important to do at all. Zecora was kicking back with tea in one hoof and a dog-eared book in the other, while Msaidizi was working on his cloak (and only occasionally pricking his thumbs).

For the six mares from Ponyville, however, the next day was anything but usual. Each of them found themselves struck with sudden, strange afflictions, each one embarrassing in its own way.

Twilight found her horn covered in blue spots and (in defiance of biology) floppy.

Rarity’s normally perfectly-groomed mane and tail became so frazzled and knotted that if she could actually see herself in a mirror, she would faint.

Rainbow Dash’s wings had been flipped upside down, giving her all the aerial control and grace of a sick trout caught in a hurricane.

And so on for all six of them. All of them were shocked, and all but Twilight thought they knew who was to blame.

“It’s a curse ah tell’s ya! A curse!” declared the (now less than a foot tall) Applejack.

Privy to all of this was Applejack’s little sister Apple Bloom, who couldn’t help but feel that she was to blame. After all, it was her following Zecora and her kooky-looking minion that led to the (possibly curse laden) confrontation in the first place.

So, with the bravery and determination that the young so often possessed, she decided that she would march right up to where the zebra lived and fix everything.

If it is a curse, maybe saying sorry and asking nicely will get Zecora to stop” Apple Bloom reasoned. “And if it’s something else – maybe some weird Everfree sickness – she might know a cure for it. She does live there after all”. She chuckled to herself, and then mentally added “And maybe then Applejack will stop being such a scaredy-pony about her...

Her plan prepared, she walked into the Everfree forest, determinedly not stepping on or touching anything and sticking to the path. Personally, she didn’t see why everyone kicked up such a fuss about the place, while the forest was full of mildly interesting sights (flowers; birds; a thick patch of weeds in the shape of a stag; an indentation in the undergrowth by the road, suggesting an animal had been lying there recently; etc) there didn’t seem to be anything particularly scary or dangerous in it.

The worst she’d encountered was in fact her now-diminutive sister, who had hitched a lift on her back all the way back in Ponyville and had then tried to lecture her into abandoning her quest and turning around. ‘Tried’ being the key word, since Apple Bloom had just put her on a tree branch and left her with a triumphant “Ahm the big sister now!” within a minute.

It wasn’t too long until she discovered a small path by the road, with a bamboo mailbox (of all things) next to it. Apple Bloom took this to be a good sign. While her experience of evil ponies and monsters was somewhat limited (being mainly from books; the odd radio play; and her own imagination) she’d never heard of one that received post before.

Following the path, she finally found what she’d been looking for. From the way ponies talk you’d think Zecora lived in a cave, with lava flows and skulls outside the door. Instead it was a rather quaint (if, admittedly, a little spooky) tree house that reminded her of the Ponyville Library. Albeit one that had zebrican masks on the outside and dangling potions hanging from the branches, but the comparison still stood. From inside the house Applebloom could hear Zecora laughing a long belly laugh, and she decided to peer into one of the windows to see why.

What Apple Bloom saw caused her to put her hoof in her mouth, to stop herself laughing as well and revealing her presence. The monkey thing was juggling apples with a wide if bemused grin on its face, while Zecora watching from the sidelines, laughing so hard she was gasping for air.

“I didn’t know you could juggle so!” Zecora managed to say, between gasps.

“I didn’t either!” Msaidizi said, trying to keep his eyes on the flying fruit. “I’m not sure if I can stop, actually!”

Huh. I thought his voice would be deeper or something” Apple Bloom mused.

So focused was he on keeping the apples in the air, that he didn’t notice he was steadily backing up to the wall. When he made contact with it he did so with slightly more force than expected, which caused some bowls and (here Apple Bloom let out a small gasp) some rather sharp looking knives to fall. To everyone’s surprise, Msaidizi managed to spin around and catch them with an “Oh dear!”, and before he knew it he was back the same was he was originally facing but juggling them as well.

The spinning steel caused Zecora to stop laughing, but she was finding it difficult to not smile. “Be careful!” she said. The knives began to impact with the bowls and themselves while in the air, creating a series of clinks, thumps and tinkles. “Desist with that stunt, or the knives you’ll blunt!” she said again, this time with more (although not much) authority.

Msaidizi didn’t, though. He had wanted to, but a little switch seemed to have been flipped in his mind, and he found himself stamping his foot along to his juggling. Combined, the sounds began to form a beat of sorts. “Blunt the knives, will I miss?” he asked with a laugh.

Outside the window Apple Bloom was grinning, as she knew what was going to happen next. She’d seen this sort of thing before. Zecora however, had not. “Msaidizi?” she asked, with the wariness of someone who may not know the future, but is relatively certain they aren’t going to like it.

“Blunt the knives, bend the forks!” Msaidizi began to sing.

“Msaidizi”

“Smash the bottles and burn the corks!”

“Msaidizi, stop!” Zecora protested, laughing again despite herself.

But Msaidizi didn’t, in fact he was now getting into his stride and singing loudly.

“Chip the glasses and crack the plates!” he roared.
“That’s what Miss Zecora hates!
Cut the cloth, tread on the-“

He hesitated for a moment, as if he’d forgotten the words, but he soon thought of a suitable one and started singing again.

“Cut the cloth, tread on the cheese!
Leave the peelings wherever you please!
Pour the milk on the pantry floor!
Splash the wine on every door!

Dump the crocks in a boiling bowl!
Pound them up with a thumping pole!
When you’re finished, if any are whole!
Send them down the hall to roll!”

With a flourish, Msaidizi turned back to the shelves and somehow managed to defy probability by perfectly throw the objects he was juggling onto them. The bowls neatly stacked with the apples in them, with the knives neatly placed beside. “That’s what Miss Zecora hates!” he finished triumphantly, before falling to the floor thoroughly out of breath.

Apple Bloom couldn’t contain herself at what she’d just witnessed, before she knew it she was on her back laughing so hard that she wouldn’t have been surprised if those back in Ponyville could hear her. Her mirth turned to nervousness however when she had calmed down enough to realise nobody else was laughing anymore.

And then she looked up, and saw the two faces staring out of the window her. Literally poking their heads out of the tree to look down at her, as the windows didn’t have any glass in them.

“Uh, hi?” Apple Bloom offered.


Discovery did not - as Apple Bloom had feared for a moment – lead to any sort of danger or peril. She was not promptly cooked up into any sort of stew, as Pinkie Pie’s singing would have her believe. Instead discovery led to a warm if wary welcome, including a complimentary drink and free pick of the fruit bowl.

Zecora was delighted to have a guest, if a little surprised at a small filly being in the Everfree by herself. Msaidizi seemed happy for the company as well, but during her explanation of her visit he kept looking at her with a slightly puzzled expression.

“-ahn Twilight’s horn is all floppy ahn covered in blue spots!” Apple Bloom finished. She looked down and rubbed her hoof into the ground nervously. “Ahn ah was wondering if you could help, Zecora. Ah don’t know if it’s a curse or a sickness or something, but ah thought that, you know…” She trailed off into embarrassed mumbles under the duo’s attentive gaze.

Zecora smiled at the filly and turned to Msaidizi. “What do you think, assistant of mine?” she asked. “Is this a problem that you can define?”

“Of course, miss” Msaidizi replied casually. She’d been teaching him about this sort of thing, after all. Plus he’d had the answer pointed out to him by a princess, in a dream, but he didn’t think he should let anyone know about that just yet. “It’s poison joke”.

“What’s that?” Apple Bloom asked, tilting her head slightly.

“It’s a magical plant. It’s a bit like poison oak or nettles, but instead of causing a rash it, well, does whatever it thinks is funny”. He caught the filly’s look of scepticism and shrugged. “No, I don’t understand how it has a sense of humour, but that’s what it does. If you’re short, it makes you freakishly tall. If you love to sing, it makes you mute, or gives you an awful voice. That sort of thing”. He looked to Zecora. “Er, that is right isn’t it, miss?”

“Quite correct!” Zecora confirmed with some pride. “Yes, indeed. So a cure you’ll need with utmost speed”. She picked up a piece of paper and wrote a list of ingredients on it, before passing it over to Msaidizi. “Luckily, this is not a difficult path. For the cure is simply a herbal bath”.

Msaidizi looked over the list, his lips moving silently. “Right, then” he eventually said. “This shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ll just go and get these”.

He grabbed a sack and began to walk out the door, and was surprised when Apple Bloom jumped up and began to follow. “Ah wanna help too!” she said.

Msaidizi looked to Zecora for instruction, and she gave him a nod. “Alright, then” he said to the filly. “Come with me”.

They walked a little while away from the back of the house in silence, until they reached a small glade. Looking over the list, he showed it to Apple Bloom and said “You find these three, okay?”

“Okay!” There was an awkward pause where both stared at each other doing nothing, and then Apple Bloom said “Uh, what do they look like?”

Msaidizi sighed. “Okay then, how about I just tell you what we’re looking for and you put them in the bag? They’re all common as muck, so it shouldn’t take long”. He looked at the list again and gave a description of the first one. “First, we need some hide root: Look for a bunch of round orange-red leaves sticking out the ground”.

A few seconds of searching later, and a handful of the scaly-looking tubers went in the bag. “Yah know, you’re not as scary as ah thought you’d be” Apple Bloom said.

Msaidizi rolled his eyes, but smiled all the same. “I hear that a lot" he lied. “Next we’ll want some unicorn’s folly. It’s got a spiralling stalk with a white flower on the end”.

“Ahm glad you don’t actually eat ponies, too” she continued.

“Who said I eat ponies?”

“Well, mah sister said you did”.

“And who told her? Oh, grab those dandelions, we’ll need those”.

This continued for what felt like some time, the pair working together quite effectively. “Have I met you before?” Msaidizi suddenly asked out of the blue. “I’m sorry, but you seem awfully familiar”.

Apple Bloom gave a nervous chuckle. “Uh, yeah. Me and Twist tried to catch you once, remember? We put this cupcake under a box, ahn then we got a stick ahn some string, and-”

“Twist, Twist… oh! You mean that one with the red hair? And the glasses?”

“That’s right!” her laugh this time was more genuine. “Ah guess we didn’t really think it through, huh?”

“No, you didn’t” Msaidizi said, grinning faintly at the memory. “But I should thank you, they were quite tasty”. He looked at the list, and saw that they’d collected everything on it. “Okay, that’s the last one. Let’s go back now”.

When they returned to the hut, he saw that the door had been thrown open and that there were new voices inside. Angry voices to be exact, ones he felt he recognised. He thought it would be best if they waited outside for a bit, to see what would happen. But Apple Bloom had no such reservations (or just didn’t hear the commotion) and walked straight in.

“Zecora! Ah think ah’ve got all the things you asked for! …What in Ponyville is going on here?”

What followed next, as far as Msaidizi could hear, was an incredibly awkward mess of accusations and explanations. Apparently the six mares had crept up to the house, heard Zecora singing, and had (somehow) come to the conclusion that she wanted to cook Apple Bloom into soup. They were also saying that their afflictions were somehow caused by Zecora cursing them all.

It was clear none of them were very well read on Everfree botany. That, or they were all bigots. Hopefully the former.

Thankfully, Apple Bloom’s appearance seemed to have prevented a fight from breaking out. She and Zecora had shared a laugh at the ponies’ assumptions, and then they had explained to them just what poison joke was and how to cure it. To add the icing to this metaphorical cake, it turned out that Twilight Sparkle had a book containing the cure the whole time, but hadn’t even bothered to read it because she distrusted the name.

Literally judging a book by its cover” Msaidizi thought, mildly amused. “How fitting”.

The sound of hooves interrupted his thoughts. An agreement seemed to have been made inside, as everyone was now walking out. “-and then we can just visit the spa, and we’ll be cured!” he heard Twilight say. When she caught sight of him she came to a sudden stop, which caused the five other afflicted ponies to bump into her.

Him and they stared at each other for a moment, then Msaidizi cleared his throat and stiffly said “Good afternoon”.

“Oh mah Celestia, it can talk?!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Shush!” Twilight hisse at her, before turning back around to Msaidizi and smiling nervously. “Hello. Listen, we’re all-“

“It’s fine” Msaidizi interrupted. He thought he would be a little angrier, but really he felt more tired than anything. Apple Bloom's assertion that they weren't actually bad ponies (just silly ones) probably had something to do with it. There and then, he just wanted this whole business to be done with. “Let’s... let’s just get this over with, yes? Then we can talk”.

His reply seemed to have caught Twilight off guard. “Oh. Er, sure! Yes, that sounds great” she said.


The next few hours were ones of resolution. First Zecora, Msaidizi, Apple Bloom and the six other ponies walked back to Ponyville, nearly causing a mass panic. All it took was a few ponies shouting things along the lines of “They’ve all been cursed!” and “The horror!” and they all ran back indoors.

“Skittish, aren’t they?” Msaidizi commented drily. Nobody bothered to reply.

The group walked up to a house with many flower-boxes outside the door (Msaidizi remembered it as the one he and Zecora had loitered outside yesterday) and Twilight knocked. The door opened a crack, and she had a quick conversation with the pony inside. They were talking too quietly for Msaidizi to hear, but he managed to find out that the name of the pony inside was Daisy. After a few hushed words Daisy opened the door a tiny bit more, practically threw a plain paper bag into Twilight’s hooves, and then slammed it shut again.

After that, Rarity led them to the town square, to a building with a trio of pointed purple roofs and large windows. The alleged spa, according to the sign. The ponies inside (a blue mare with pink hair called Lotus Blossom, and a pink mare with blue hair called Aloe, sisters by the look of it) gasped at the groups’ entrance, but one quick explanation later and all of them (sans Msaidizi) were ushered out of the foyer by Lotus Blossom.

Msaidizi, for his part, would have been content to simply wait in one of the chairs there, but before he entirely knew what was happening Aloe had grabbed him by the shorts and dragged him into the room of his own.


“Oh, Miss Zecora?” Lotus Blossom said. “We’d just like you to know that your... er...”

“Assistant”.

“Yes, your assistant is being tended to by Aloe right now.” At those words, a hair-raising scream split the air.

“She says his back has, how you say? ‘More knots than a boating race’” Lotus Blossom elaborated.