"Great slithering shadows!" Zecora stumbled back, gasping with wide eyes.
"Heya, Zecora!" Rainbow Dash grinned from where she stood—sopping wet—in the front doorway to Zecora's hut. "Do you like cattails?!"
"Erm..." The zebra nervously trotted in reverse until she bumped into a table full of bubbling potions. "Do you mean plants of the lakeside kind or the appendage belonging to a feline?"
"I mean the former!" Rainbow Dash slapped a bucket full of rattling, waterlogged cattails onto the wooden floor. "In Cloudsdale, they're considered a delicacy, since the city hovers over a bunch of ponds and lakes." Rainbow Dash paced about, grinning idiotically towards the walls. "It used to be a rite of passage for teenage pegasi to swoop down, snatch these babies up on the fly, and then soar back up to Cloudsdale with the dessert in their mouths. When I was young, I was tired of waiting to show my stuff. So I dove towards the earth's surface at the tender age of seven. I got the cattails, alright. But I also got a major concussion when I slammed so hard into the face of Equestria that Princess Luna heard the echo from the moon."
"Uhhhh..."
"And, lo and behold, I dive into a lake and the smell of pond water brings back that somewhat aching somewhat awkward totally awesome memory!" Rainbow Dash leaned against a wall with a tender sigh. She smiled at Zecora. "Isn't it sweet, having a brain?" Her water-slick hoof slipped. "Gaaaah!" Thud! She fell hard on her chest.
"Rainbow Dash, do lie still!" Zecora rushed over to her side. "Tell me, are you ill?"
"Nnnngh... I'd say that I've been 'killer sick' almost all my life."
Zecora extended her forelimb. "How many hooves am I holding up?"
Rainbow Dash glared at her. "Uhhhh... one."
"Simply a trick question." Zecora helped the pegasus back up to her feet. "Though, I'm still puzzled at your discretion. What inspired you to go foraging for plants around a lake, when far more edible foods the cooks of Ponyville make?"
"I dunno, I was just in the mood, I guess!" Rainbow Dash said as she trotted back over to the bucket, leaving tiny puddles of lake water behind her. "You know how it is, Zecora. One thing leads to another. At one point, you're having dinner with friends, then you're speaking to an absolute goddess, then your heartrate builds up, and then you race gravity into the surface of a lake to cool off!" She giggled, sighed, and giggled again. "Uhm..." She fanned herself, blushing in Zeocra's direction. "I don't suppose you have a cure-all for schoolfilly giddiness?"
Zecora slowly shook her head with a worried expression. "Cure you, I do not think that I can. I never tackle issues that I do not understand."
"Ahhhh... no sweat, Zecora." Rainbow shoved the bucket back outside where it emptied with a harmless sploosh. "I'm just in a crazy mood. Beforehand, I always had my darn atrophy to keep my excitement in check, but now's not the case. And being this bouncy and zippity-doody got me to thinking about the pony who got me to this place to begin with." She swiveled about and smiled at the zebra. "You, Zecora."
"Hmmm?" The shaman trotted back towards her potion table. "What of me, sky blue pony?"
"I wanna—I dunno—do something for you!" Rainbow Dash's voice cracked, "I wanna buy you a huge dinner or gather a bunch of rain clouds to water your flower garden or fly over Ponyville with a 'Kiss the Zebra' banner!"
Zecora chuckled breathily, then turned around to smile at Rainbow Dash. "No recompense of the sort is required. I simply wish to see your ailment expired."
"But that's not possible, and we both know it."
"I had hoped it would serve as inspiration for you to pursue a worthwhile operation."
"And I'm working on that! I totally am!" Rainbow Dash said. "Just... a litttttle slowly."
"Your lack of speed is certainly great, a prolonged desire to hesitate."
"If you really really believed that, then you wouldn't have helped me with this most recent brew of yours, would you have, Zecora?"
The zebra took a deep breath, saying nothing.
Rainbow smiled. "I wish to thank you for having faith in me, Zecora. It means a lot. It means an awful lot. What's more..." She chuckled, inhaling the musky air of the hut with a felicitous breath. "I'm raking in the bits and treating my friends out to dinner and getting closer to the... the stuff I love, and I owe it all to you."
"If it is another potion that you wish me to brew..." Zecora glanced over her shoulder. "...then several more pricey ingredients you must gather anew."
"Look, I didn't come here about that." Rainbow Dash waved a hoof. "I've got a good few days before I gotta drink that stuff again. And I'll have the stuff for you! I promise! I can afford it this week!" She gulped and stepped forward. "But I wanna pay you back! For realsies!"
"A zebra of my profession has no need for gifts or possessions."
"Ggggnnngh!" Rainbow stomped her hoof. "Darn it, you silly shaman! Will you just be selfish for once in your life?"
"You mistake my humility for having all generosity shunned. The truth is, I desire no gifts..." She fidgeted. "...but perhaps one."
Rainbow blinked, her ears perking up. "What? Name it!"
Zecora fidgeted, then eventually met Rainbow's gaze with her own. "Many months I spend alone in Everfree. I must admit, it is... fulfilling to have some company..." Her muzzle curved into a trembling smile.
Rainbow stared, then smirked back. "You got it, girl."