//------------------------------// // Is Friendship really that Magical? Part 2 // Story: My Little Pony: The Zecora Tales // by Comet Burst //------------------------------// Zecora stared uncomprehendingly at the gray pegasus mare as she fluttered above her. It wasn't because of her eye, which somehow was looking up at her mane while the other one was fixated upon her. The mare wore a small blue cap, indicating she was a mailmare, along with a large red bag. In her extended hoof was a chocolate chip muffin with a bite taken out of the back. The mare held it out, smiling the whole time. Her gaze was one of friendliness, but before long her smile began to falter as Zecora just stared at the mare. "W-What's wrong?" the mare asked timidly, "Don't you like muffins too?" A sharp nudge at Zecora's side snapped her gaze away from the mare. She spun her head to see Spiro elbowing her and he cleared his throat. Zecora stared at him for a second before realizing what he was indicating. "Oh, uh, yes I do!" Zecora almost shouted to the mare. She took the muffin from her hoof and looked back up at her. "If I may ask, who are you?" The gray mare's smile returned rather quickly and she flapped her wings a little faster. "My name's Derpy!" she yelled to Zecora, "I'm the town's mailmare and proud mother of my daughter, Dinky!" Zecora stared at the mare for a bit before responding. "Derpy?" she asked unsurely, "Are you sure your name isn't something like Harpy?" Derpy looked down at Zecora with a confused expression on her face. "No, it's Derpy," the mare said slowly, "At least, that's what it says on my birth certificate..." The two ponies shared some confused looks at each other for a few seconds before Spiro butted in. "Ahem, why don't you tell her your name?" Spiro asked to Zecora, "Not doing so would be rather lame." Zecora shook her head and smiled to Derpy. "Please forgive me of my absent persona. My name is Zecora." The zebra held out her hoof to Derpy when a surprised snort came from behind her. "Oh, making more friends already, huh?" came Colgate's voice, "That's really cool! I mean, you just met me and we only talked for, like, half a minute maybe, but I see you met Derpy. She's really sweet and friendly, so you two will get along just fine! I know because I'm good friends with her and she has the most adorable little filly you just have to meet!" The minty blue mare, who Zecora had left to rant by herself, appeared in the corner of her vision, smiling widely and unnaturally close to her face. The zebra yelped and backed away from the mare frantically, trying to regain some personal space. Colgate just smiled at her and continued with her fast paced talking. "Derpy's a really sweet mother, as I'm sure you will find out on your own. Her eyes are a little different, but I think that only makes her more special. Even her cutie mark is unique! Have you ever met a pony who'se special talent had something to do with bubbles? Because I never had until I met her and--" Colgate stopped there and breathed in deeply, giving Zecora a second of peace before she continued. "I just had an awesome idea! You remember how I said that there was a search party for Thunderlane? Of course you do, and Derpy here was the leader of one part of the group! In fact, she was the one who found him and helped get the plants off of him. She should come with us to find Thunderlane!" Derpy, who had been silent the whole time, turned to Zecora with a quizzical look on her face. "You are looking for Thunderlane and the strange plants? I thought princess Celestia's student was supposed to do that..." "Derpy!" Colgate shouted before turning and wrapping her hoof around the gray mare, "She is Princess Celestia's personal student!" Derpy's eyes shifted to Zecora, who stood there mutely, and a look of understanding crossed her face, something that kinda creeped her out. "Oh, that makes a lot of sense!" Derpy exclaimed as she rushed over to Zecora, "That's why you're here, to see those strange squiggily plants?" Zecora shifted uncomfortably before speaking. "Um, yes, that's why I am here, but I would like to finish this before next year. So if I may, will you two please let me go my way?" Derpy tilted her head to the zebra while Colgate's smile began to falter. "But how will you know where to go if nopony shows you the way?" Zecora opened her mouth to say something, but a small purple claw snapped her muzzle shut. "We would be delighted if both of you could help us!" Spiro interjected, "Now, let's find this Thunderlane..." He paused and turned to Zecora. "... Without a fuss," he pointedly added. Zecora shook her head free of Spiro's claw and glared indignantly at the little dragon before both Colgate and Derpy trotted up and smiled. "Come on, Zecora. It'll be fun!" Colgate said. "Yeah, it'll be an adventure, just like those Daring Do books!" Derpy squealed happily. As the two mares began to trot off, Zecora glumly hung her head and followed behind them, still glaring daggers at Spiro. "Don't ever talk for me like that or you will be sleeping on a mat," she growled. Spiro rolled his eyes before looking back at the zebra. "What was the task Princess Celestia gave you again? Was it to make some friends?" The trio of odd ponies had just made it to the town square when they hit another roadblock. This one was quite literal, since a crowd of ponies had gathered near the fountain to hear a pony play music. Zecora, who was not one for delays, found it quite irritating that both Colgate and Derpy had stopped and stood at the edge of the crowd. The two ponies were rather excited for some reason. Zecora herself had never been a big fan of music, mostly because she needed silence to meditate. Princess Celestia usually had Zecora accompany her to some concerts every year, but the zebra always found some way to meditate or study plants during them. Now that she was away from her mentor, Zecora could have just as easily walked away. Instead of doing so, Colgate spun around and grabbed Zecora by the shoulders, grinning widely. "Hey, I got another pony you should meet!" Zecora didn't have any time to react as she was suddenly pushed through the crowd of ponies. She didn't understand how Colgate was pushing her, but eventually Zecora stopped at the front line and saw the musician playing. She was a brilliant seafoam green unicorn who levitated a lyre with her magic. Her mane bore a striking resemblance to Colgate's, it having white and darker seafoam green stripes. The music she was playing was quite catchy, but to Zecora, it sounded like nothing but strings being plucked. The golden eyes of the mare eventually found Zecora and the mare smiled brightly. A few more strings plucked before the lyre was set down, causing the crowd to cheer and whistle for her. The mare smiled, but kept her eyes on Zecora. "Well, you're different than my normal selection of ponies," she stated happily, "Not that it's bad, but it's nice to see new faces." She held out her hoof to Zecora and smiled sweetly. "My name's Lyra. I see you met my twin sister, Colgate." Zecora spun around to look at the minty blue mare before turning back to Lyra. Gingerly, the zebra extended her hoof to shake Lyra's. "Hello, my name is Zecora. I was sent here to study some unusual flora." Lyra's smile remained unchanged as she shook Zecora's hoof. "Oh, I know all about that. I also know you are Princess Celestia's personal student, you met Derpy and you are on your way to meet Thunderlane." Zecora could swear she felt her jaw touch the grass before she remembered how to speak. "H-How did you know about that? Does word move here faster than a bat?" Lyra gave a small laugh before continuing. "Oh, no, nothing like that," she giggled, "You see, since me and Colgate are twins, I can sense things about her through our magic and vice versa. I felt her get excited through my magic and sensed exactly what was going on." The zebra just stared at the unicorn, utterly speechless for the first time in a while. Magic was something that, no matter how hard she applied herself to learning it, always did something so surprising under the right set of circumstances. It was almost impossible for Zecora to perform advanced spells that most unicorns learned in school, but this one unicorn could read her sister's thoughts if she chose to. Without realizing it, Zecora stood there dumbstruck when Colgate, Derpy and Spiro had joined the two. Lyra stood there, smiling uncomfortably and glanced to her sister's unimpressed look. "Lyra, you told her about us, didn't you?" she asked pointedly. "Well, I wasn't going to hide it from her, was I?" Colgate groaned loudly and went up to Zecora, trying to get her out of her stunned state. Spiro, however, was left alone with Derpy. "What is it about them?" he asked a little worridly, "Zecora looks like she saw a slug turn into a gem." "Oh, nothing aside from that's Colgate's twin sister," Derpy stated happily. Spiro narrowed his eyes at the green mare. It was easy to see she and Colgate shared quite a few features, making it absolutely believable that she was indeed Colgate's twin, but it didn't seem weird enough to make Zecora freeze like that. When Zecora finally came back down to Equestria, Lyra readily agreed to show the way to Thunderlane. He had come by earlier to listen to some music before taking off to the edge of the forest to keep track of the weird plants. Apparently there was also another pony there as well, one who had some previous experience with plants. While neither Colgate, Lyra or Derpy knew who it was, they knew she had worked at Sweet Apple Acres with the Apple family that resided there. Zecora didn't really pay much attention to the conversation that was going on, mostly because Colgate was rambling on, and was more focused on the task at hoof. She had to identify some strange plants which evidently grew only in the Everfree Forest and, from the endless retellings of Colgate, apparently it was either easy to get tangled in or it tried to wrap itself around ponies, indicating the possibility of a predatory species of plant. She shuddered to herself as she thought, but it probably wasn't anything that malicious. If anything, it was probably just a shrub of some kind, completely harmless to anypony. The plant itself had probably changed to adapt to living in the Everfree, making it look alien to ponies. As she walked, she failed to notice the group stop, resulting in her bumping against Derpy's rear end. Zecora flinched at that and started to try and apologize before she saw something. All three mares were staring straight up, awe on their faces. Zecora followed their line of vision and noticed they were on the edge of the Everfree, but something else was going on. Something big. Shooting straight out of the forest was a series of black thorny vines. They thrashed about, winding themselves around each other and through the trees, slowly covering the green foliage. Near the tips of the vines, a black blur whipped around the vines, kicking them and tricking the vines into tying themselves into knots. A sky blue blur followed the figure as it circled the plant at impressive speeds before the blur stopped. When it did, the figure of a stallion could be easily made out. He glared angrily at the plants, watching to see how they would react before he grit his teeth and dove at it. The mares around Zecora gave a shrill scream, trying to tell the stallion not to go into the vines, but he didn't seem to hear them. Once he was below the treeline, Lyra, Colgate and Derpy's eyes got huge. "I don't mean to interrupt, but who was that and that plant is a what?" Zecora asked. Derpy's face paled slightly as she turned to the zebra, but Colgate spoke up first. "That pony was Thunderlane and those huge vines are the plant we found, just gigantic!" A rustling came from the forest, causing all the mares to turn to it. The vines shifted rapidly and seemed to get bigger, causing Derpy to let out a small yelp. As it did, a blur of colors shot out from under the canopy of the Everfree, flying in a large arc before heading straight for the group. The blur was a little difficult to make out, but Zecora could see the stallion, Thunderlane, hurtling towards them with another pony in his hooves. The two skidded to a halt in the dirt before Zecora could make them out clearly. Thunderlane was indeed of a darker coat with a sky blue mane and tail, but he was also strikingly handsome too. His gold eyes were filled with concern as he set the pony down before turning his attention back to the vines. Without a single word, he took off, heading back to the plant to fight with it again. The pony he dropped off, however, was a sandy colored earth pony mare with a richly colored red mane and tail. Her green eyes searched around before they found the group of mares, causing her to run over to them. "Lyra, Derpy, Colgate!" she shouted to them, "Get away from here! The plant reacted strangely to my medicine and is now trying to tear the forest apart!" "Roseluck?!" the three mares shouted in unison, leaving a very confused Zecora. Instead of wondering what they were going to talk about, or who the hay Roseluck even was, she turned to the vines and watched as Thunderlane kept fighting with the vines. He was good, but the vines were growing in number. Every time he kicked one back or evaded a swipe, more of them seemed to rise up out of the forest like the limbs of some mythical monster. Without thinking things through, Zecora left the group and charged at the vines, wanting to do something to help. Normally, she preferred to stay away from thing that were overly large and covered in thorns the size of trees, but some little voice in her mind told her she needed to help. Before she could stop and realize what she was about to do, a vine lashed out at her from the trees. The serpentine-like appendage whipped at her, but Zecora was already casting her magic. A series of tugs at her stomach told her it was working and, in a flash, several tree roots shot up from the ground and grappled the vine. A sense of accomplishment came over Zecora, but it quickly faded as the plant seemed to notice her. Several large vines erupted from the tops of the trees and streaked towards the zebra, who didn't have time to react to anything. With just a few feet until they collided with her, a strange green shield popped into existence and the vines slammed against them solidly, but were unable to reach Zecora. Spinning around, Zecora saw all four mares, Colgate, Derpy, Lyra and Roseluck, running towards her. The vines were none too pleased about the shield and shot towards the mares. Zecora tried to shout out to them, but the vines seemed to slow down as they were wrapped by a blue magical aura. Looking back at her friends, Zecora saw Colgate standing defiantly at te vines, her horn glowing. As Derpy took off and Roseluck stayed near Colgate, Lyra ran into the shield and started to yell at Zecora. "Just what the buck were you thinking?!" Zecora blinked blankly at Lyra before trying to say something. She was cut off, however, by a scream. Turning to the source of the noise, both ponies turned to see Derpy wrapped up in a vine, She wailed loudly again as Thunderlane frantically tried to fly over to her, dodging several swipes by a couple vines. "Help!" Derpy shouted.