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// Mage or something else? 
// Story: Wizards Quest for Ponies 
// by Jacob Ellinger 
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As I walked through the woods I came upon a path well worn by hooves. It was a sign that I was getting close. I could spell the scent of burning wood in the  air and see a dim light through the brush further up the path. I waved a hand dismissively as I canceled out the spell I had set up to begin with. Besides I had already accidentally made the person or persons whom I was about to meet very suspicious as it is and having some kind of floating ball of magic heading toward them might make things worse then it already was.

I could see the hut I had spied before in the puddle clearly now. I stopped and looked around to make sure no one was going to sneak up on me before  stepping up to the door of the hut. I made a fist and raised my hand to knock, But just as  my fist was about to strike the dull green wood of the door I stopped.
"no need to knock, the door is unlocked" came the voice from inside
I should have known a mage or whatever it was  could sense a magic force as strong as mine. I tried to make myself as presentable as possible. I straitened my collar and tidied my cloak and quietly opened the door. The first thing I noticed was how warm the room was. After being outside for so long I was a little numb and it was nice to be next to a fire. Presently this fire resided under a massive cauldron of some kind. it was  black and rounded at the bottom with three feet each ending in three toes. I almost laughed at how story book it all was.

The door closed behind me, startling me into a jump. I quickly turned around but saw nothing their. It was at this moment that I realized that I could not see anyone in the room yet I could feel  them. their magic was a bit primal and unlike any witch I had ever known. 'warlock maybe'  I thought to myself  but remembering back to that voice it sounded female and as far as I could  remember I had never met any female warlocks. No if anything whoever it was, was definitely something closer to a witch. 

"I did not mean to startle you, I only seek shelter and maybe  someone to talk to." I looked around the small house but neither saw saw nor heard any sign of the women or thing that lived there.
"you say you are a friend and yet you could be one to pretend". 

'How Odd' I thought. 'was she rhyming intentionally?'. It did not matter  I was becoming increasingly more distraught at having to talk to a disembodied voice. furthermore whoever it was was good at masking there life force or I would  have sensed them directly, but as it was I could  only tell that they where close but not in what direction they where. 
I weighed my options. I could start shooting a dispel spell randomly in hopes of hitting the person and forcing them to show. But then I would  lose any chance at actually gaining any willful help.  I immediately put that thought out of my head. The second option was to continue chatting with whoever was in the room and to convince them that I meant no harm.  But that meant they could just sit sight preparing some kind of massive spell and disabling me or killing me outright before I could act. But that was why I was getting so service in the first place. I thought for a moment and decided that the voice was nonthreatening. 
I sat down and crossed my legs, both knees cracked loudly but without any pain. 
"look" I said as disarmingly as I could "I have come a very very long way to get here. I am sorry I have bothered you and whatever you where doing, but one wizard to another I ask you if you would be willing to simply answer a few questions and I will be on my way. I don't think I would have  come all this way to hurt someone I have never even met do you?"

I waited in silents for a while, I began to wonder if I should just up and leave when I blinked and in that quick of a motion there she was. I screwed up my eyes trying to understand the  thing I was looking at. It looked kind of like a pony from the ones I had seen but colored  like a Zebra. though I had no way of knowing if the stripes went all the way down the body of the being as she  . . .yes I decided the face was distinctly feminine . .was covered in a dark cloak much like my own.

"you are something new" She spoke. 
'she must being doing it for a reason "uh new?" I said stupidly.
"yes you, you are new, for I have never seen another creature that looks like you . . do" Said the Zebra pony.

I thought about it and it made sense. There probably where  no humans  here and so I guess her description was not exactly inacurite.

I gave a disarming smile but it had the opposite effect that I had intended. the Zebra pony stepped back with what I thought was a look of disgust. I decided that I might as well give her as much information about me as sI could before she got a chance to ask me to leave. After all though this land looked a lot like the show I so loved, it was still just another dimension and  did not necessarily match in every aspect the knowledge I had obtained about it from said show. For one the moon did not look exactly the way it had looked in the show. But most surprisingly; though admittedly logical thing about this whole place was how nothing looked cartoony. I mean sure the Pony Zebra had the same proportions as the ponies in the show, but her coat was  covered in fine short fur, she had more then one  dimension to her. it was not flat colors or shading. The fire made everything in the room give off moving shadows with depth and clarity. 

Rather then make any more mistakes in whatever way culturally I might be doing I went with the  basic facts. no smiling, no jokes, just the facts. "My name is Nicolas Flamel and I am a wizard, I come from another world in another dimension, my species is called Human. I have come here because I am very old and I have seen many things but it has become boring and so I have come to this land for adventure."

I continued to explain how I had come to be here, how  I had cast the spell to open the gates to oblivion, and as I told more of my travels the Zebra Pony became visibly more relaxed and  even stopping me to ask questions every now and then. I had come to the understanding that she herself was much like a wizard though closer to a herbalist then a wizard but not quite what you might call a witch. In the end I just decided she was lightly magical but highly knowledgeable on many aspect of magic.  

After I finished my story she held out a single hoof and I took note that her stripes did in fact go the length of her body. "You may call me Zecora, and I am glad to know more about ya". 
I stood up and took her hoof in my hand, it was a strange sensation touching a living being from the realm I had dreamed of coming to, it was almost magical for lack of a better word.  I was grateful that the common gesture of a han- hoof shake was the same as in my home world. I shook Zecora's hoof and smiled widely. Zecara's face took on the same look as before. 

I let her hoof drop and sat back down. The  room had filled with silents again. Zecora rubbed her other leg nervelessly.
"Zecora . . " I said comely. "why do you get frightened when I smile? do you not smile in this land?."
The stripped pony sat down and started digging a hole in the dirt floor with her front hoof but finally she spoke.
"This one knows, you eat the flesh of other souls . . ." She let the statment drift in the air without ever making eye  contact.
Finally it clicked! She must have saw the canines in my mouth and deduced that I was a meat eater.
"Oh" I said frankly "you mean because of my teeth. Well yes I have eaten meat. But in my world animals do not talk, they do not have sentience like you or I. And  another thing. I am not a meat eater, I eat plants too. In fact if you would be so kind to let me have a bowel of whatever you have cooking I would  love to show you" 

Zecora stood up and made her face level with mine.  I locked eyes with her and stuck out tongue and  crossed my eyes, then we both started laughing loudly.  By the end of the Night we had both eaten our fill and I had given Zecora a few dried herbs I had taken with me for her hospitality. She was more then excited to have the opportunity to try some new potions with them. I explained to her how each one was used in  my world and what kinds of properties they each contained. In the morning she drew me a map of the  trails she  had made over the yeas and gave me  directions to the nearest town and I was  ecstatic because it was the first name I had heard since being here that I actually recognized from the show. Before I left she gave me a few helpful notes on some  of the basic potions and plants you could use in the area as well as a helpful warning about some of the more dangerous things in it.


And with that I was off to the next part of my adventure.