A Strange New Pony in Town

by Dark Dienen

Chapter 9

“...So if I understand your words as truth, you were seeking to try and be some kind of sleuth?” Zecora asked, a curious eyebrow rising as she spoke.

Twilight could only grunt in the affirmative, the alicorn wincing occasionally as she continued to massage her head with a hoof. As usual teleporting too much in a short period of time, along with teleporting two extra bodies, was rewarding her efforts with a foul mood and a throbbing headache.

Zecora’s hut was a place Twilight had often liked to visit since they’d become friends, and not just because the zebra was a source of excellent tea either, although it certainly didn’t hurt. Zecora was one of the few individuals in Ponyville who she could sit down with and have long winded conversations, about almost anything, and not feel like she was giving somepony a lecture that they didn’t want to hear, as they both shared a common passion for learning and acquiring wisdom.

Another reason she liked to visit was that Zecora had experience and a knowledge of the wider world that nopony else in Ponyville did, which more than once Twilight had found an invaluable asset when tricky situations arose. For instance, the zebra could often look at problems and issues she was facing from a different viewpoint, and thus provide solutions that Twilight herself would’ve never seen or considered; their putting an end to Trixie’s short tyranny over Ponyville attested to that.

Its was kind of funny then that Xarzith, the current anomaly she was struggling to make heads or tails of, had gone and lead her to the zebra’s hut, just like so many of her other mysteries, predicaments, and quandaries had before.

“You could say that,” she sighed eventually, gingerly removing her hoof. Her head still hurt, but Zecora’s remedy was starting to help. “Initially I only wanted to observe him from a distance, just to see if any of his behavior suggested something in particular that out of the ordinary-”

“I think Twi’s just got her tail in a knot about this,” Spike spoke up from beside her. “Ice hasn’t tried to hurt anypony, and he hasn’t done anything bad as far as we know either,” he snorted into the air. “So his horn’s kinda funny looking, so what?”

“And I’m the one who thought he was related to Sombra, right?” she asked, drawing a scowl from her assistant. Twilight groaned and exhaled. “Spike, we’ve been over this. This isn’t about whether or not he’s done something, and it’s not about his physical appearance either. It’s about how somepony who we want to call our friend isn’t being honest with us,” she said flatly, frowning and giving him a sideways look. “Honesty is one of the foundations of a good friendship, and unless Xarzith has something... unpleasant to hide, he should be willing to be honest with us about himself as his friends.”

“Yeah! And if he’s not willing to be honest with us, then I’m not sure I wanna call him my pal,” Rainbow Dash put in, the pegasus folding her front hooves. Unlike everypony else, she’d chosen to seat herself on the floor and enjoy Zecora’s fire.

“So this conversation does not go amiss, let us just be clear on this,” Zecora said, setting her own tea down and flicking her gaze between the pony and dragon opposite. “You are sure there is something your friend is not telling you, and this something you both believe you should know,” the zebra put a hoof to her chin. “My question of you is why is that so?”

Twilight ground her teeth. “Because he’s our friend and-”

“To be a good friend you must be honest, that you have already said. But does that mean that to be good friend you must be like a book, everything open to be read?”

Twilight blinked and glanced over at Rainbow Dash, seeing the pegasus’s expression match her own. That… wasn’t something they’d actually stopped and thought about.

The zebra continued. “Twilight, Rainbow Dash, If I may be so bold as to say, I’m not sure you’re looking at this the right way,” she said, drawing odd looks from both ponies, and prompting a hidden smug look from Spike. “Have you considered that your friend is not hiding himself from you, but rather waiting for the right moment and figuring out what to do? Or even perhaps that he doesn’t tell you his stories out of fear, worried about letting somepony draw near?”

Twilight threw her hooves up. “But we’ve all tried our best to be nothing but friendly. Why in Eque-ow!” she winced as her headache flared up again.

“Um, what I think she means is why would he be afraid of being honest with us when we’ve all tried to be welcoming,” Rainbow finished for her, Twilight nodding her thanks. “I mean, the hay, Applejack’s been letting the guy live with her and her family. Doesn’t that say anything?”

“Your words I do not doubt, but you should know that it is one thing to be honest with a friend, and another thing for your honesty not to offend,” the zebra replied, continuing to face them while a hoof rose and pointed over at a section of her hut’s wall.

Following the hoof with her eyes, both Twilight and Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but blink in confusion; as far as they could tell Zecora was pointing at one of her drying ingredients, or perhaps a book that adored one of her shelves.

A moment later though their eyes realized what the zebra was actually pointing at, and Twilight splayed her ears back against her skull, while Rainbow felt herself deflate like a punctured balloon. Zecora was pointing at a small hook that was fixed on the wall, the black cloak she’d used to wear when visiting Ponyville hanging on it.

“That thing there once hide my strips from sight, lest I wanted to give somepony a fright,” she said as she turned back. “Now, to show my stripes might’ve been the honest thing to do, but I did not because it often scared ponies like you.”

Twilight chewed her lip. “That was only because those ponies didn’t know what you were really like. They just… jumped to conclusions,” she said, unable to stop herself looking away.

Zecora chuckled and nodded. “Perhaps that is true, but for a time ‘those ponies’ included both of you,” she leant forward and placed her hooves on the table, her shimmering blue eyes leveling with the alicorn’s own. “But I am not the source of your present ire, that source would be our mutual friend, Ice Fire,” she said, her voice taking on a more serious note. “Now, it is not my place to say what a princess should and should not do... though I will still say this to you; just because he is tight lipped about his history, does not mean you should fear him and his mystery. Let us say that yes, Xarzith perhaps has secrets he does not wish to tell; though if I were you, as somepony he wants to calls his friend, on these I would not dwell. As your little assistant has said, what harm has he brought to you and your town? Are there any real reasons for you to fear when he is around?”

A smirk played across the zebra’s muzzle as she leant back in her chair, this time taking up her tea in her hooves. “Besides, If you are afraid of secrets as dark as the Everfree, then you should know our friend Xarzith has nothing on me.”

Twilight let out a shaky breath and stared at her hooves; as much as she wanted to deny it, Zecora’s words did make her feel somewhat guilty.

Maybe she had once again gone and let her curiosity get the better of her. Just like she had with Pinkie Pie and her Pinkie sense, she had in a way allowed herself to become lost in her hunt for answers, and in doing so had forgotten that she was dealing with a pony she called her friend, not just some old text to be understood or some ancient artifact to be studied.

“I’m guessing he told you something, didn’t he?” she said finally, the words leaving her muzzle as part question and part statement as she looked up again.

Zecora smiled and nodded. “He came to me looking for leaves and herbs, but also for somepony to hear his words,” she shrugged. “I, like him, know how some ponies can be, so he asked for some personal advice from me.”

“And… what was that advice?” Twilight asked tentatively.

“He is not a zebra, but he has something akin to stripes. He wished to know if he should just take his cloak off, or how to tell when the time was right,” Twilight frowned in confusion, which Zecora seemed to find amusing as she promptly started laughing. “You may want your answers from me, but to know the truth you will just have to wait and see.”

Twilight just grumbled and rubbed her aching temple. If there was one weakness she admitted having, it was patience. She hated waiting.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Ugh, just why would a pig enjoy rolling in this stuff?” Xarzith growled, the stallion trying, once again, to shake the sticky Everfree mud from his hooves.

The pony wasn’t entirely sure how far into the forest he’d actually gone, but judging by the sudden change of the ground from mostly firm soil to virtually all mud, it must’ve been some distance from the edge that bordered Ponyville. He figured that the firmer soil meant the surrounding weather was under the control of the pegasi, and now that there was only mud… well, that meant that the amount of rain was subjected to the will of the clouds, not Ponyville’s set schedule.

The Everfree weather was kind of like the north in that regard; once you got past the outer edge of the Crystal Empire, a grassy field could suddenly turn into a snow-covered plain caught in a blizzard, with nothing but a hoof’s width of middle ground dividing the two.

Snorting at the thought he continued on, though now making sure that he was watching where his hooves landed.

Truth be told he was more then glad that Zecora hadn’t asked him about why he’d headed further into the forest. She was definitely somepony he’d be happy to call a friend, and it had been a relief to finally be able to talk to another pony who understood his position, but this… he wasn’t sure how she’d react to the idea of something like this.

Ponies always reacted badly to things with sharp teeth, and he doubted zebra’s were much different.

He chewed the bottom of his lip as he walked, his mind reflecting on the conversation he’d had with the zebra. Just how was he supposed to go about what Zecora had suggested? She’d said flat and simple that his fears about being unwelcome in Ponyville were unfounded, and that was a tempting thought to believe, but whether or not it was actually true was still up for debate in his mind given how some ponies in other towns had reacted.

Sure, Ponyville made itself out as a place accepting of anypony and everypony, no matter what color your fur was. Pinkie Pie was like a giant neon sign that advertised that fact. But what about somepony who wasn’t all pony, and who’d gone out of their way to blindside the town for weeks. Would they be so readily accepting of somepony like that?

He huffed and shook his head, a cloud of mist leaving his muzzle with the action. “You can think about that stuff later scale-brain, you’ve got other things to worry about right now.”

Eventually, after some more time spent wandering through the Everfree, Xarzith’s hooves came to stop as his eyes spotted what he’d been looking for amongst the trees, his mood brightening a little at the find.

If his eyes weren’t betraying him, there was something akin to a clearing a little walk off the beaten path, but deep enough in that it was hard to see if you were just passing by and not looking for it.

After taking a quick look behind for privacy sake, Xarzith promptly began pushing his way through the bushes and ferns towards it, the stallion taking a mental note of how many steps from the path it was.

Emerging from the forest into it, he quickly noted that the clearing itself was nothing special to look at; no secret mass of berry bushes, or anything else that might suggest Zecora used it in her foraging. It was just a spot in the forest where for some reason or rather the trees hadn’t grown as densely together as the rest... though judging by a few pokes of the ground, this had meant that there was more dry ground and undergrowth then mud, something which admittedly did please the stallion. After a quick walk around what he figured could be called it’s extremity, just so he knew for certain that it was big enough, Xarzith removed his saddlebags and quickly got to work on making the necessary changes.

Where the Everfree had previously been almost silent in the midday sun, save the calls of a few birds and the occasional movement of an animal, it suddenly became filled with the sounds of tree trunks being sliced in half and sent crashing to the forest floor, the stallion freezing the copious amounts of water in their trunks before making it burst outwards. Each tree that he fell was then physically rolled out against the edge of the clearing, and stacked two trunks high against the surrounding trees, creating a makeshift wall between the clearing and the forest outside. Tree by tree, the clearing became more and more pronounced and hollowed out, allowing more and more light to seep into the previously shadowy forest.

Despite how easy it was to bring the trees down though, the pure amount of them that needed to be felled, and then stacked out of the way to hollow out the space, made the task far more labour intensive than he’d initially figured. By the time the last one had been moved aside and stacked like the rest, the stallion would honestly admit his muscles felt like they had molten metal running through them, a feeling which was rather rare given his body’s nature.

Exhaling, and with his coat covered in a combination of sweat, mud, and bits of tree bark, Xarzith at last sat his rump down on one of the clearings newly created tree stumps, eyes running over his efforts as he allowed the cold Everfree air to cool his sore legs.

The formerly barely-a-clearing was now completely free of any standing trees, the lack of which had created a space covered only in small plants and alike that would’ve easily fit a standard sized house, and more then likely could’ve been seen from the air a good mile away.

“Well it’s crude, but it should be more than big enough,” he murmured aloud, rubbing his hooves together as he looked around it. “Hmm, big enough, far enough away from Ponyville, easily seen from the sky... tch, just hope Rainbow doesn’t catch sight of it,” he smacked his head and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, as if she’d be managing the weather this far into the forest.”

Shaking his head free of the thoughts, the stallion got to his hooves and approached the middle of his newly created space. One last thing to do before he could head back to Ponyville.

Eyes closed and horn glowing, he began to pull all the ambient moisture from the surrounding ground, forest, and air together before him, the tiny droplets of water seeming to dance as they floated towards the clearing center along the lines of magic. Once he’d gathered enough, the rough equivalent of a small water tower’s worth, Xarzith willed the water to change shape and freeze, the former ball of swirling water taking on the appearance of an elongated crystal before being frozen solid.

Happy with his work, and now once again panting from effort, the stallion lowered the newly shaped chunk of ice to the ground. By his reckoning it stood just a little taller than the surrounding trees, and would no doubt last for at least a few days, what with the cloud cover and the pure amount of ice.

“Well it’s not perfect, but it’s definitely one of my better attempts,” he grinned to himself, wiping his brow and giving the chunk of ice a once over. “She’ll see this thing for sure.”

He chuckled as he turned and headed back towards the forest, his thoughts about how he’d deal with Ponyville and it’s residents for now forgotten. It’d be good to see each other again.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………...

“Okay, do you admit now that you blew this all way, way out of proportion?”

Twilight huffed as she heard Spike speak, the dragon’s words accompanied by the shutting of the library door behind them. He’d made his feelings about her actions known the entire walk back from Zecora’s, and until he got his answer it seemed he wasn’t going to let up his assault.

“Alright, Spike. I’ll admit that I may have allowed my judgement to be skewed by my curiosity,” she replied, turning to face him. “But can you at least understand why I acted like I did?”

He just folded his claws and gave her a look.

Twilight groaned. “Spike, I know that I got carried away. I fully admit that, but I only did because I felt Xarzith was hiding too many things from us to be trusted,” she said, snorting and pointing a hoof at him. “And I stand by what I said earlier, Spike. Honesty is one of the foundations of a good friendship, and as much as you like him even you have to admit there’s a lot he keeps to himself.”

For a long moment the two of them just stood and glared at each other, before Spike exhaled and looked at the ceiling. “Twilight, do you know where I eat when I’m called away to Canterlot by Celestia?”

Twilight blinked. “Uh… with the princesses, I’d guess?” she replied as she lowered her hoof, now tilting her head in confusion. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Rather than answer her question, Spike just shook his head. “Twilight, most of the time I eat with the princesses. Don’t get me wrong here, I love what the palace chefs can do, but I’m a dragon, and there’s a place down in the lower market district that does excellent griffin cuisine,” he leveled her gaze with her. “What I’m saying by that, Twilight, is that when I’m in Canterlot I like to eat meat.”

Twilight did nothing but swallow.

She’d always known that Spike would eventually need to eat other things them gems, everything about his body said that loud and clear, but she’d never once thought that he’d already be doing it. And behind her back at that.

“Spike, why didn’t you-”

“Let me finish,” he said firmly, holding a claw up to silence her. “Now, this isn’t something I want to get out around Ponyville, because we both know how well that would go down with everypony,” he snorted into the air, a certain three triplets coming to mind. “But just because I don’t want ponies to know that I eat meat doesn’t make it a bad thing. For me eating meat is normal and natural, kinda comes with being a dragon. I just don’t want them to know because they’d react badly.”

He pointed a claw at himself. “So, tell me. Does not wanting Ponyville to know that make me untrustworthy?”

“Spike, you’re my assistant and virtually my little brother. Why would you think that?”

He threw his claws into the air. “Because that’s what you’ve been sounding like all day!” he snapped. “Twi, I don’t understand how, but you’ve got this idea in your head that in order for two ponies to be friends they need to know everything about each other. And that’s wrong! I never told you about eating meat because I wanted to keep it to myself.”

With that he walked past the statue-like alicorn and headed for the stairs, turning and shooting her a look only once he reached the top. “Just think about it Twilight. We all have things we’d like to keep to ourselves, and that probably includes you too,” he said with a growl, before disappearing from sight.

For a few moments, Princess Twilight, the usually level headed, know-how-to-respond-to-any-situation pony just stood there, feeling like a bucket of ice water had been poured down her. Honestly, she’d thought that Spike had been opposed to her actions because he liked Xarzith, so to know she’d probably been making him more and more uncomfortable with everything she did and said…

...Yeah, that didn’t make her feel good. At all.

She exhaled and shook her head. Trust was at the center of this mess; Xarzith didn’t trust her and her friends enough to open up, just like Spike didn’t trust anypony enough to admit to them that he ate meat.

Maybe… maybe Zecora was right. Maybe the reason Xarzith was so tight-lipped was because he feared what she and Ponyville would think. Just like Spike feared somepony finding out about his eating habits and reacting badly.

She stared at her hooves. How could she make it easier for him to talk? Not force whatever it was that he was hiding out of him, but to let him know that whatever he was hiding wasn’t something that would see him ostracized. That first step was obviously to have some idea of what it was he was hiding, and thus the second was to come to understand it, so their would be no need for him to be uneasy about opening up when he decided to, because the last thing she wanted was to have things go sour like her conversation with Spike had, but...

“But where to start?” she huffed, before her ears perked up, and she face-hoofed. “Ugh, it’s only been staring at you the entire time. Well done, Twilight.”

She Approached one of her bookshelves and began to run her hoof across it, eyes searching for one book in particular; the Crystal Empire might’ve only returned in recent times, so their wasn’t a lot of academic or scholarly material written on it yet, but the empire's own library had plenty of books on it’s own history, culture, and alike, even from the ages pre-Sombra.

A small grin crossed Twilight’s face as she found the book she’d been searching for, a pale purple tome with the seal of the empire on the cover. Admittedly, not a lot of those books had made it from the Empires library to being printed into sellable copies, but having a sibling and a sister-in-law on the throne did have it’s perks.

Smiling, she made herself comfortable on the floor and began flicking through the book’s pages, stopping when a certain two words appeared as a title chapter.

“Ice diamonds,” she murmured aloud.

Comments

[DT42]

It's back!

[The Infinity Doctor]

You're back!

[Dark Dienen]

6138485
6138436

YES AND SORRY FOR THE WAIT!

[The Infinity Doctor]

6138539 THAT'S PERFECTLY FINE, I KNOW HOW LIFE GETS IN THE WAY.

[REDACTED99999]

Normally when a ff doesn't update for months on end I unfavorite it... but I like this, and I especially like this chapter, so I'll forgive you ^^ just don't wait to long with the next update ;)

[TheGreatPandaKing]

6140029 You do know sometimes life can get in the way of updates, right? A death can happen or work can get busy...or depression can have its icey fingers around one's neck. It doesn't mean it's dead, just that the author needs time.

[REDACTED99999]

6997842 Of course. doesn't mean I have to like waiting months for new chapters. It ruins the flow for me