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Date One - A Trip to Sugarcube Corner1,042 words
Date Two - Hot Stuff1,045 words
Date Three - Lowering the Bar1,080 words
Date Four - A Flight to Remember1,072 words
Date Five - Striking It Rich1,188 words
Date Six - What The Duck?!1,358 words
Date Seven - The Will to Succeed1,068 words
Date Eight - The Deepest, Darkest Date1,182 words
Date Nine - Pet Peeves1,196 words
Date Ten - It's All Relative (Guest Chapter by Eakin)1,091 words
Date Eleven - The Scent of a Stallion1,130 words
Date Twelve - Just Hanging Around1,100 words
Date Thirteen - Lepidopterrifying1,154 words
Date Fourteen - A Royal Pain in the Aft1,238 words
Date Fifteen - Check, Please1,134 words
Date Sixteen - A Vision of Loveliness1,341 words
Date Seventeen - A Jarring Experience1,143 words
Date Eighteen - Roomhates1,144 words
Date Nineteen - An Affair to Forget (Guest Chapter by Jondor)1,240 words
Date Twenty - An Instrument of Destruction (20th Date Double Sized Extravaganza!)2,228 words
Date Twenty-One - The Captive Heart1,385 words
Date Twenty-Two - The Flavor of Defeat1,170 words
Date Twenty-Three - Rottomaton1,824 words
Date Twenty-Four - Cruisin' For A Bruisin'1,480 words
Date Twenty-Five - A Quiet Night In (Guest Chapter by BronyWriter)1,239 words
Date Twenty-Six - A Moussed Connection (Guest Chapter by Seether00)2,257 words
Date Twenty-Seven - Blue Belles and Green Mushrooms1,158 words
Date Twenty-Eight - Closed Encounters2,357 words
Date Twenty-Nine - Fan Fiction1,177 words
Date Thirty - Smother (Guest Chapter by Eakin)1,512 words
Date Thirty-One - Unreported (Guest Chapter by Eakin)2,282 words
Date Thirty-Two - Things Better Left Unsled1,309 words
Date Thirty-Three - Oh, Deer 1,602 words
Date Thirty-Four - Speed Dating (Guest Chapter by Metool Bard)1,694 words
Date Thirty-Five - Batmare Ends (Guest Chapter by BronyWriter)2,727 words
Date Thirty-Six - Come With Me If You Want To Love1,931 words
Date Thirty-Seven - Savings and Groan2,079 words
Date Thirty-Eight - Disenchanted1,208 words
Date Thirty-Nine - Terms of Ensnarement1,533 words
Date Forty - Lightening the Mood1,271 words
Date Forty-One - Adding to the Problem1,469 words
Date Forty-Two - The Cold Shoulder1,267 words
Date Forty-Three - Movie Scars1,443 words
Date Forty-Four - Love's Just Not In The Cards1,619 words
Date Forty-Five - The Right End of the Wrong Stick (Guest Chapter by InquisitorM)1,798 words
Date Forty-Six - Full of Hot Air1,291 words
Date Forty-Seven - A Secret Affair1,368 words
Date Forty-Eight - Halt, Criminal Scum (Guest Chapter by Georg)2,542 words
Date Forty-Nine - On The Ledge Of Disaster3,412 words
Date Fifty - Tact and Harness (Guest Chapter by Skywriter)2,512 words
Date Fifty-One - The Laws of Attraction2,131 words
Date Fifty-Two - Takes A Licking...1,331 words
Date Fifty-Three - Join the Horde!2,181 words
Date Fifty-Four - Love's The Best Policy2,163 words
Date Fifty-Five - Un-Appetizers2,794 words
Date Fifty-Six - Let's Talk About Sects1,672 words
Date Fifty-Seven - Rolling With The Punches2,477 words
Date Fifty-Eight - Deviating From The Program3,083 words
Date Fifty-Nine - You Can't Spell 'Now' without 'Ow'3,086 words

Date Sixteen - A Vision of Loveliness

It was pleasantly warm in Zecora’s hut, and several small braziers hanging from the ceiling were filling the air with clouds of pungent smoke. Blinking, she fought to keep her eyes from sliding out of focus as she peered at the zebra through the haze. “Zecora, are you serious?” she said.

“Your dates may be getting worse, but it’s not a love life curse!” the zebra said, reclining on several large pillows and allowing her eyes to run the length of the teacher’s body. “If stallions cannot get you there, perhaps your heart cries for a mare.”

Cheerilee dropped her eyes, clasping her hooves tightly together. “But, I… I just don’t know,” Cheerilee said, biting her lip. “I mean, I experimented with mares in college, but, well, my family is so… traditional.”

Zecora took down a gourd and worked a small cork out of the hole that had been drilled into it. Rising from the plush cushions, she pulled two small stoneware cups from her cabinet. Humming, she poured the contents of the gourd into the glasses. “Excuse me for being blunt, but did the mares slake your want?”

Cheerilee swallowed hard, feeling the blood rushing to her face. “Well, yes,” she said, forcing the words out. “I, um, enjoyed the company of both stallions and mares.”

Zecora turned to look over her shoulder at the teacher, giving her a knowing half-smile.

“Quite a lot, actually!” the teacher blurted before covering her mouth with her hooves.

Cheerilee wasn’t used to speaking this frankly about her love life to any pony. She was really only here because Pinkie Pie had off-hoofedly mentioned that she must have picked up a curse somewhere along the way. At the time, Cheerilee had laughed it off, but that night, she’d been unable to sleep. Alone, in her cold, empty bed, she’d tossed and turned. Visions of evil enchantments filled her mind.

She’d told herself several times over the next few hours that she was being silly, but the image just wouldn’t leave her. When she finally did fall into a fretful sleep, her dreams were plagued with warlocks and devils, all bent on stopping her from meeting Mr. Right. As the light of the dawn crept into her room, she dragged herself out of bed and into the shower, vowing to visit the only one that seemed to know about such things: Zecora the Shaman.

As was usual these days, the trip had been as trying as possible. A recent storm had downed trees along the normal path, and Cheerilee had been forced to fight her way through the forest’s dense foliage, losing her bearings a few times and getting more than her share of cuts and bruises from the vast tangled mass of uncontrolled growth. Swearing, she’d wondered if her curse was beginning to spread farther than just her relationships. Finally, she’d stumbled onto the correct path again and within minutes she was knocking on the zebra's door.

Zecora had nodded sagely as Cheerilee outlined her problems. The teacher struggled at the beginning, trying to keep things clinical, but as the zebra listened, Cheerilee found herself pouring out her feelings. When the shaman had taken them seriously, she’d nearly cried with relief. Feeling something halfway between foolishness and hope, she sat as Zecora consulted several texts, searching for signs of poison or other spiritual maladies, but to no avail. Zecora pronounced her free of curses, but then probed into different, less comfortable areas of Cheerilee’s psyche. Through pointed questions, the zebra was bringing long-buried emotions and desires to the surface once more.

Replacing the gourd’s stopper, Zecora re-hung it and handed one of the stone cups to Cheerilee. It was filled with a deep red liquid, shot through with lighter bands of bright pink that seemed to glow faintly with their own light. Cautiously, Cheerilee sniffed the curling steam that rose from it. She couldn’t place the aroma, but it reminded her of open spaces and adventure. It smelled bold. "What is this?" she asked, swirling the liquid in her glass.

"Oh, it is what my mother serves to guests who have a case of nerves," Zecora said, smiling. "A draught that's used to calm the spirit, so that when truth speaks, you will hear it." Zecora tipped her cup back, draining it. "I'd asked for her to send some and it's just arrived from my homeland.

"Well, it smells heavenly!" Cheerilee said, watching the variegated liquid as it continued to slowly spin in her glass. "I guess I got lucky this time."

“When you take a second glance, you’ll find things are rarely chance,” the zebra said, sitting down next to Cheerilee. Leaning in close, Zecora smiled. “Yet this is only what I’ve guessed,” she said, taking a sip of her drink. Cheerilee gasped as Zecora ran a hoof lightly up her leg. “But we could put it to the test…”

As her heart began to pound and her hooves began to tremble, Cheerilee covered her nervousness with a long pull from the small cup the zebra had given her. As the silky liquid slid down her throat, she felt her muscles relax and the tension begin leave her. The flavor was wonderful, somehow warm and cool at the same time, and tasting of honey and berries. Draining the stone cup, she placed it on the nearby table and turned to take in the sultry zebra who’d become so forward all of a sudden. She’d never really realized how beautiful Zecora was before.

“You know,” Cheerilee said, relaxing as the liquid seemed to spread its glowing warmth through her, “I just might take you up—”

And suddenly, they were kissing. As Zecora pushed her down on the cushions, Cheerilee twisted her hoof into the zebra’s wiry mane, pulling her in closer. Cheerilee felt her heart begin to race again as she ran her other hoof along the sleek, muscled body.

As Zecora began to nip playfully at her neck, Cheerilee laughed weakly. “I’m an idiot, Zecora,” she said. “It’s so obvious! I can’t believe I didn’t think of this.”

Zecora ran her hoof down Cheerilee’s stomach, smiling as the teacher shivered. “The right path isn’t always clear,” she said, nuzzling the teacher. “Your heart will know…”

~~~

“What happened here?” Twilight said, waving her hoof in front of Cheerilee’s face and grimacing as it failed to change her glassy expression. Twilight frowned as a long line of drool that had been dangling from the teacher’s mouth finally broke off, dropping into a bowl that Zecora had put down on the floor with a wet plop. The alicorn gently poked and prodded the teacher, examining her many scrapes and scratches for signs of infection. As she ran her hoof down the mare’s stomach, Cheerilee trembled again, and her mouth turned up in a slight grin

“She must have been in quite a rush,” Zecora said, shaking her head as she felt Cheerilee’s brow. “I found her tangled in some brush. She trampled plants with psychotropic powers. The visions will have her for many more hours!”

Twilight fished out a spellbook from her pack, leafing rapidly through it. “Oh, there’s got to be something in here to cure this!” she muttered, her eyes a blur as she scanned each page quickly. Twilight looked up suddenly as the teacher gasped and her breathing quickened. “Poor Cheerilee!” she said, burying her face in the tome’s dusty pages once more. “I just hope that whatever she’s seeing isn’t too terrible!”

Zecora ran a hoof through Cheerilee’s mussed hair, trying to smooth it into place. “Soon, reality will be replacing whatever horrors she is facing. I’m sure she’ll be quite pleased when she has her life back again.”

Author's Note:

For keam

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