Chapter 10: Changing One’s Stripes
Pinkie Pie was positively bursting with excitement, a party for a real live prince! She'd pulled out all the stops she was allowed to pull without those nice ponies with shiny, metal suits showing up. Not that she had a problem with them or their shiny, metal suits, she actually wondered about having a whole party based on shiny things, but Twilight kept saying 'Pinkie, royal guards showing up is a bad thing!' which was weird, because she was a princess now and you'd think she'd like those guys more, but she apparently doesn't! Maybe that shiny object party was a good idea after all, but for now she had one to throw for the pony she'd first seen dropping from the sky like a piano!
The balloons were arranged in simple, but recongizeable patterns, the cake was fit for a prince, or a king if she ever saw one of those! Besides that Sombra guy, but he didn't seem to like cakes very much, all 'rrrrgh, crystalllllsssss!' all the time! The snack table was an h'ourdourve table and the streamers were the shiniest she could find, which might go great for that shiny things party! OOH! Maybe she could have crystals at the shiny things party, then Sombra might stop being such a grump too!
But, for now, where was Prince Blueblood...?
She, some ponies from town, and Zecora were all gathered in the latter's hut, decorations set up for a surprise party sure to knock his royal socks off! Barring the question of whether or not he had royal socks, or any socks at all, there was no sign of the guest of honor! She was sure this was the right place, Big Macintosh even said Blueblood was going to the forest. She couldn't think of much that a suuuuper important pony like him would want to do out in the woods, so maybe he thought all of the forest around Ponyville was part of Everfree Forest, and he was in town to see Zecora! Maybe she was secretly a Zebrican princess and he was here to sweep her off her hooves to become a pony princess too! So he was going to Everfree to find Zecora! Only, he didn't seem to be showing up, and they'd been here for hours...
Well, at least Zecora seemed to be having fun with the guests, though she didn't seem sure about having a party in her hut at first. Pinkie'd Pinkie Promised they wouldn't touch anything she uses for potions and she'd clean the whole thing up afterward, so Zecora'd agreed, but it this was supposed to be a party to welcome the prince after he'd gotten all banged up falling from the sky, which seemed like a really weird way to travel! Where was he?
---
Darkness. Familiar, but not in the way an old friend or a favorite dish is familiar, this was more neighbors-making-too-much-noise-again familiar, the sort he wished he could sever ties with and forget about.
Again, Blueblood’s ears hadn’t left him -good thing, as even the most handsome stallion in Equestria would look very odd with no ears- and he heard noises. Hoofsteps, rapid and panicked, scraping, scuffling, panting. It didn’t sound so much like dog panting this time, more that of a tired pony. He opened his eyes, no spell from Princess Twilight to keep him still. Or block out the massive waves of pain rolling through his body. His face was pressed against the cold dirt, as was the rest of him that wasn’t also crushed tightly under a tree. He could still feel all of his limbs, but he was almost sure there were broken bones.
He wanted to feel smug about having ‘called it’, as it were, but he was in a rather troubling situation at the moment. Besides, the only one around to boast to would have been Screw Loose. What’s she doing, anyway? He peered around as best he could, trying to catch sight of her. When it occurred to him to look in the direction of the noises she was making, he saw her frantically digging. Why am I not surprised?
“H-hey,” he tried to call out to her, voice hoarse, straining to speak, “Hope you got,” he coughed loudly, tasting royal blood, “g-got what you were looking for out here.” She stopped digging and looked at him, and for the second time, he could swear she was ‘aware’ again. He wasn’t even sure how to describe it, just a deep-seated hunch, a gut feeling that she wasn’t completely in dog-mode at that moment, her eyes wide and worried.
That she still whimpered like a scared pup didn’t make things any clearer for him, however. “F-found what you were looking for,” he repeated, “I think I might have, at least,” he added, defeated.
He had gotten what he initially set out to get, right? Yes, he would have used magic had he not had difficulties with the pain in his head when the tree started falling, but he still saved somepony’s life, he was fairly sure. They wouldn’t call him a self-absorbed fop now, that was certain! Ohh, yes, he’d be the Heroic Prince that gave his life to protect some country mare, and a poor mental patient at that, why he’d be…
Wait.
Nopony was around to see the act besides Screw Loose herself, who communicates mainly in BARK.
“…”
DAMMIT!!
He wished he could have shouted that, but it hurt more and more to use his throat as time passed. Luckily, thinking cost him nothing. Maybe I deserve this? I wasn’t the nicest pony before, though I’m not sure this quite balances the books. Perhaps it was that I started this for entirely selfish reasons? Sure, now that I can actually see her, I don’t anything unpleasant happening to this pony, but when I was back in the hospital? Glory-seeking, all glory-seeking. I wanted to elevate myself by playing hero, be nice just to improve my reputation. Auntie told me a long time ago that good things should be done out of empathy and compassion, not just to be recognized for them, despicable, just-
As he was depressingly used to by now, his thoughts were interrupted. This time it was the mare who’d gotten him into this mess, if only by accident, dropping the rose, the healthy-looking, inexplicable, fresh-as-the-day-it-blossomed rose, near his face, looking down at him and panting. Her psychotic grin looked almost forced, her eyes all but pleading in silence.
‘Please don’t die.’
He tried to smile at her, and was pretty sure he succeeded, because her expression brightened ever so slightly. Look at you, he thought almost enviously, more the hero than I’ve ever been and you probably won’t even remember this the next time you’re burying things among the trees. Are you really trying to save me at this point? Not willing to leave somepony out here alone? Nothing you want to dig up or bury right now, if only to dig up again later? There’s no reason for you to stick by me, I’m not going to say ‘just kidding’ and slip out of here, no one will find me in the woods just outside a backwater town in the middle of the night, the best I can hope for is to bleed out or something before that bat pony finds me trapped here. The most brutally honest thoughts were often the crushingly depressing ones, he found. Puns intended.
Blueblood closed his eyes, hearing Screw Loose shuffle her hooves quickly, stamping about as if trying to keep him awake with the noise, paired with desperate whimpers. He was still conscious, of course, he just couldn’t look her in the eyes anymore, it was the exact opposite of watching a pet’s last moments and just as painful.
Bad night. She was having a bad night, things were bad and it was night, so she was having a bad night. Things were nice just a little bit ago, she’d been rolling around on the ground like she loved to do when she smelled Peppermint Friend again, but it smelled like he was under a tree! That was silly of him, friends don’t go under trees, so she tried to dig him up, and that had been nice! He even came by to say ‘hi’ while she was digging him up, and that was nice too, but when she dug him up it wasn’t Peppermint Friend at all, it was a flower! She guessed it must have been a piece of Peppermint Friend, so she tried to give it back to him, but he just looked at himself. Then things got bad, and it was a bad night. Peppermint Friend was under the tree again, but even more of him this time, and he was going all quiet, she didn’t like Peppermint Friend being quiet, it felt like he was gonna be quiet forever soon and that was really bad, so she was having a really bad night!
Help!
Help!
She needed help, someone to come help Peppermint Friend, now, he was going to die!
She set all four hooves firmly on the ground, gathered her voice in her chest, raised her muzzle high, and howled, as long and as loud as she could.
Blueblood’s eyes shot open. Was that… Her? He was pretty sure even timber-wolves didn’t howl like that, he half-expected to see an actual canine of some sort standing over him with it’s teeth bared. What he saw instead, somewhere in the distance past the madmare’s hooves, was a white blur, followed by other blurs. They were getting closer as he heard a familiar voice, that muscle-bound pegasus he’d run into earlier in the day.
“It came from over here, I think I see ‘em!”
Screw Loose called for help, and it seemed to work. It was a pity the prince felt himself fading now, of all times. He wanted to smirk and ask, as nonchalantly as possible, if any of the newcomers wanted an insanely resilient rose. Probably would have sounded too much like a come-on anyway.
---
Darkn-Oh, for goodness sake!
Blueblood willed himself to very quickly sit up, open his eyes, and take a good look around, he’d had quite enough of this drifting in and out of unconsciousness business.
The first thing he noticed were the sights and sounds of startled ponies in the hospital, but that he was at least not wrapped in bandages this time.
His suit was even clean!
Still, of those present, Nurse Redheart, Screw Loose, the guard stallion in the white shirt, and the absurdly-muscled pegasus, only Screw Loose, who was sitting like a normal pony, tail not so much as wagging, didn’t look as though she’d seen a windigo. The insane look he had been getting used to was replaced with a warm smile.
The prince hopped off the bed, brushing imaginary dust off his shoulder with a hoof. “I may require some filling-in, what exactly transpired in the last… However long it’s been since I was last here, I suppose?”
The hospital security pony was the first to respond. “Yesterday, you and I went looking for her,” he nodded to Screw Loose, who nodded back at him, “you apparently found her first. Bulk Biceps here,” he indicated the brawniest pony Blueblood had ever seen, who smiled proudly, “found you incapacitated in the forest. Twice.”
Bulk didn’t look as proud now, contrition clear in his bulging face. “I-I saw you by a tree just after we talked, but that,” he averted his eyes fearfully, voice dropping to an extremely masculine whisper, “thing came after me.”
The bat pony? Scaring off this lumbering brute? They might actually be as dangerous as I’ve sometimes thought…
Bulk went on, sounding more enthused now. “But later, I saw these two” he pointed at Redheart and I-still-haven’t-asked-his-name-have-I? with a hoof, “out in the woods, looking for you! We looked for hours, but when we heard the howling, we found you under a tree.” His ears drooped. “Hurt bad.”
The prince made a point of looking at his own uninjured form, not a hair out of place, before returning his gaze to the rest with an inquisitive head tilt, eyebrow raised.
Redheart chuckled. “Do you know Miss Zecora? She came by this morning, while we were trying to stop Pinkie Pie from throwing one of her parties in the injury ward again, and saw you lying on one of the beds.” She looked away. “It was, I mean, y-you were…” Shaking one’s head was a logically dubious way to clear one’s thoughts, but it seldom seemed to fail. “Well, she gave us a potion and insisted you drink it right away. After some inventive use of a funnel and crazy straws by the very pony we’d been trying to throw out for an hour, and you were good as new!” Redheart giggled, looking faintly envious. “I don’t know what grows out where she lives, but the plants must be brimming with magic for her herbal remedies to work like they do.” Her expression soured. “Not that I’d want to go running through Everfree to get them, of course, I don’t know how she does it!”
Everfree, he thought, of course I’d wind up there sooner or later. “Is that where this herbalist lives, the forest full of ravenous beasts and assorted mockeries of reason?”
“Uhm… Yes?”
Whether those present understood that should strike them as odd or not didn’t seem important right now, so he gave a curt nod. “Thank you for the care, but I must be going.” The others nodded, he headed out the door, and about halfway down the hall, he heard Redheart’s voice.
“Yeeee-OUCH!!”
He spun on his hind hooves toward the room, only to see Screw Loose, a big, silly smile on her face, sprinting towards, then past him, the security stallion and Bulk Biceps in hot pursuit. Trotting back to the doorway to make sure somepony wasn’t just murdered and Screw Loose was even more insane than she appeared, he cautiously popped his head in to see the nurse addressing a large, red bite mark on her flank with a hoof, repeatedly mouthing ‘ow’ while wincing. Her face matched the bite mark in hue, eyes widening when he cleared his throat, looking slightly abashed himself. Hoping Redheart hadn’t just contracted rabies from a mental patient, a question he probably should have asked a little sooner sprung to mind.
“Excuse me, but might you know how exactly one might go about finding Miss Zecora?”
---
Having a special talent to always find what one is looking for is nice, Blueblood thought as he reviewed the instructions to reach the trail to Zecora’s tree-hut, but in a place like this, a little direction is welcome, to say the least. He had decided on grabbing a bite to eat at some local diner and found the hayfries here were delightful! It seemed as good a time as any to stop and rest, gather his courage as best he reasonably could for what he was about to do.
His first plan to that end was distraction.
I can’t just go about doing things in the hopes I’ll be recognized for them, if only because any good will gained will likely be tarnished should anypony discover that’s my only real goal. He wasn’t exactly pleased with himself, about it, either. Princess Twilight, and presumably the other Element Bearers as well, all earned their places in the memory of the populace by doing something, didn’t they? Twilight’s aims were almost always noble, or at least understandable. Going temporarily insane over wanting to turn in a project on the given deadline that may only have existed in her own head, at least if that project was for Princess Celestia herself, made some degree of sense, he thought. One didn’t just leave one of the two most important beings in the world, she who raises the sun, waiting, afterall.
…When’s the last time she sent me to do something, again? Perhaps I should return home, see if she needs me for any-
No. He would not back out of this.
It’s not backing out, it’s just making sure I’m not doing anything to irritate the most powerful pony in-
If she wanted his attention, she probably had at least a dozen ways to get it, she was no doubt informed of what happened the day he soared over the edge of the city and Luna probably told her about their talk in the hospital. Even if she wanted him for something right now, she didn’t seem to be using any of that ‘all-powerful’ alicorn magic to snap him to her in a blink, so he wouldn’t worry. Not that I’m sure she can do that, but still. He wanted to thank the one who saved his life, that would be his goal right now, whether anypony credited him for it or not!
After finishing his meal, he’d walked through town, paying no mind the variety of odd looks he was getting or the increasingly loud whispers as he approached Everfree, something in the back of his head agreeing with whatever they were probably saying about him never being seen again after today. He marched straight into the forest, not letting himself hesitate for a single step, knowing he’d likely slow down, stop, turn around, and flee if he did.
But then, contrary to even his most optimistic expectations, he encountered nothing at all on the way to the zebra’s home, not even distant noises or rustling of bushes, it was almost as if this wasn’t one of the most dangerous places in Equestria. Still, not one to question such good fortune, he picked up the pace until a tree with colorful bottles and masks on the exterior came into view. Trotting up to the door, he gave his mane a flip, cleared his throat, raised a hoof to knock, and was startled by the door swinging open, a zebra adorned with a saddle bag and gold rings on her neck, an ear, and a foreleg looking just as surprised to see him.
Both scrambled back a few steps before trying to compose themselves for introductions.
“Pardon me-“ “I-it seems I see-“ “I came here to-“ “Can I help you?”
Both remained silent, awkwardly staring at one another, Zecora looking like she was working out a riddle in her head. Blueblood cleared his throat again, speaking in the sort of voice he’d use when asked to speak at the most important of Canterlot events; a bit louder than his usual speaking voice, but gentle of tone and brimming with that ‘I’m royalty’ feeling he got when listening to Celestia speak in the day court. “Good day, Miss Zecora, I understand you recently happened through town at a time in which I was in need of medical help and offered an elixir of some sort to mend my wounds, and I wish to extend my sincerest gratitude.” In a rare sight for anypony aside from one of the princesses, the prince bowed, horn low enough that it pointed well at the floor.
Zecora, her face a faint indication of what may be black and white and red all over, opened her mouth and closed it a few times. She found words again and her blush luckily died away when the unicorn’s head was raised enough that she could look him in the eye.
“That you are well, I’m pleased to see,” she said with a smile, “but you need not come to Everfree.” She was truly loathe to turn away company, even after Pinkie Pie's gathering just yesterday, -which she thought he was supposed to attend as the guest of honor?- but she didn’t want to risk a trend of having to save ponies’ lives to have them visit her.
The pony prince shook his head at this. “I must insist, the potion you gave, apparently at no charge, must have been difficult to produce at the least, no?” He was guessing, but it sounded right, powerful things don’t often come easily. “Let me repay you, I-“ he fumbled for whatever money had been brought along in the coat he was wearing, but Zecora held up a hoof, smiling.
“I need no payment, Majesty, well-being is my charity! Ill ponies visit now and then, and each of them I call a friend.”
For a moment, he was at a loss for words. She knows I’m the prince, probably heard it from those that brought me in after the tree fell, and doesn’t even suggest she’d like some kind of compensation? Come to think of it, if she’d wanted boatloads of grateful bits, and I might well have provided them, all she’d have had to do was remain at the hospital until I awoke, but this! This is…
His concentration, or lack thereof, must have shown on his face, because the most generous miracle worker he’d ever seen was waving a hoof in front of it, sounds of a rhyme not fully heard -this was the point at which he noticed she had been speaking in rhyme- reverberating in his ears before he blinked rapidly, snapping to attention. “P-Perhaps I could help you somehow,” I can’t just depart without having at least tried to repay somepony that saves my life out of genuine compassion alone, “pay for the ingredients used, or” he slapped a hoof to his face, talking quickly, “of course, the nurse said you find them out here, I could help you find more, I’m rather good at finding things!”
Paying no mind to the hint of desperation in his voice, Zecora looked away, eyes focused on nothing in particular as she raised a hoof to her chin in contemplation. The thick-shelled nuts that made up the bulk of that healing potion wouldn’t be growing anywhere within safe walking distance for weeks, but she had an adequate store of them that wouldn’t be going bad for several months. Still, if he was offering to help her, some companionship might be pleasant while gathering components for other things, she could use more of the Mentha Peppers that mixed well with milk to make a cool, spicy, strangely delightful-tasting beverage. The path they normally grew on should be clear around this week, the beasts that normally stalk the area most likely still not returned from… Wherever it is they go when that region is quiet every so many weeks.
Looking Blueblood in the eye, she smiled. “If in repaying a favor you wish to persist, there is a way you can assist.”
His face lit up without help from his horn.
---
Repaying the kind alchemist that had saved his life by walking through Everfree moon-banished Forest to pick up white-and-red-striped peppers was proving astoundingly easy. Thusfar, there had been no monsters, no murderous plants, no magical anomalies, no rifts in time and space, no trapdoors to Tartarus, no nothing. Not even pesky insects to buzz about where they walked! They even had time to make pleasant conversation, though their voices were low so as not to tempt fate.
“So,” Blueblood pondered aloud, “not that I mean to complain, but why is it we’ve not run into any manner of snarling, voracious monstrosities as of yet?”
Zecora chuckled. “Not everywhere in Everfree, wait beasts that long to taste po-ny.”
Such a distinctive way of speaking, he thought. “Well, I suppose not every inch can be brimming with claw and fang, they’d likely devour each other were that the case.” He stepped over a pale root that looked suspiciously like it might have been part of a ribcage at some point. “Or, is that what happened…?”
She shrugged a little, paying no mind to what may have been a dead… Something as they walked. “To tell the truth, I do not know. It may have been, some years ago, that with beasts this place did overflow, but today…” She looked around slowly as her sentence trailed off for a few seconds. “In peace we go.”
She does it so naturally, and always quite quickly, little or no time to compose her rhymes. I wonder… “Then as we’re walking here, there is nothing we should fear?”
She nodded, smiling for a moment before blinking a few times, glancing at him as though she wasn’t sure she’d heard him right. Quietly fearful something had indeed found them, he only returned her inquisitive look, which she quickly put away and returned to the path. “The things that stalk this neck of wood, for now haunt other neighborhoods. I know not where it is they go,” she nodded toward the next batch of the peppers, “but it’s a chance to reap what nature sows.”
She notices rhyme, he pondered, moving toward the plants they’d been gathering, the striped vegetation growing in a row along the path, but not her own, perhaps? Once more. “Then as long as we walk this path, we need not fear those creatures’ wrath?”
She blinked at him again as he picked several of the peppers at once telekinetically, tucking a few into each of their saddle bags. He’d insisted that he do the gathering, both for fear of something lurking in the grass just barely out of sight, waiting to sink poisonous fangs into unwary veins, and because it seemed the least he could do was ensure neither of them had to exert much effort when they might need the energy to run for their lives should something come after them after all.
Her apparent confusion became a hesitant grin. “I won’t say there is not a doubt, but for now, they should be out.”
He returned her smile, and her rhymes. “Then what are all these tales about? Of horrid beasts and brutish louts?”
She smiled wider, a faint shine in her eyes that telling him she didn’t speak with others who rhymed very often, and rather enjoyed it. “That may sometimes be the case, but not constantly will you be chased. There are many dangers in this place, but not always are we face to face.”
Gathering more of the oddly-colored plant, he chuckled, stringing together the words proving a challenge, but easier than he’d have guessed. “How exactly does that go? Is there a certain spell you know?”
She giggled. “I have been here for a while, I know the schedule for miles!”
“Schedules, of monstrous things?” He raised an eyebrow a little, grinning. “From things that crawl to things with wings?” I’m faintly proud of that one.
Zecora’s hooves just barely avoided tripping over anything as they went as she mostly focused her mirthful eyes on him. “I stay quiet and keep low, and their patterns get to know. When my presence doesn’t show, anywhere I’m free to go.”
“Anywhere at any time, roaming like the world’s all mine?”
“It’s really quite a life to live, if these creatures you’d forgive!”
He probably couldn’t have resisted beaming at this point if he’d wanted to, rhyming was surprisingly good, slightly silly fun! “I do salute your dominance, of all these silly beasts and plants, even if it’s mostly guile, that’s kept you unharmed all the while, for I too would prefer to flee, should those things come after me!”
The prince couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen somepony smile like Zecora was now, apart from maybe Vinyl Scratch right after their song had ended. “If one knows just how to act, not one horror they’ll attract, that is why they call it Ever-free, and that is why it’s home to me!”
Both sets of hooves stopping in their tracks as the last of the peppers were picked and packed, they looked one another in the eyes for a moment, grinning ear to ear, and laughed.
Thump.
Perhaps too loudly. They quickly turned their heads to see distant foliage shaking and falling to something large, and headed straight for them. Eyes not yet averted from whatever was coming for them, Zecora reached over to tap Blueblood’s chest with a hoof to get his attention, motioning the direction she intended to run and taking off, him swiftly following.
The two of them sped through Everfree, dodging low branches, jumping over ditches, and fortunately not earning the attention of anything else that might have come after them, if only because any such creature was likely fleeing the sound as quickly as they were. Not quickly enough, because the thundering steps and low screeches were getting closer, the shapes of the silhouette they were seeing suggested several long, serpentine heads. Most likely a hydra, Blueblood thought, heart hammering in his chest as he looped around a large tree trunk Zecora fled around, Great! Swell! Fantastic! I come out here to do the right thing and get chased by monster that can eat me about six times at once! Where’s the karma?! Aren’t I supposed to get some kind of break for being nicer?!
It was irrational and he knew it, but the things we think in desperate moments are rarely under our control. He would have used a spell or something as he zigged, zagged, and looped through the trees in an effort to throw the damn thing off his trail, but he couldn’t think of anything that would likely work on such a beast. Intangibility would just sink me through the floor if I’m not careful, teleportation could land me in a worse spot than I am now, I can’t possibly hit all of the hydra’s eyes with light orbs at the same time, thinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthinkthink!
He slid to a stop in relatively dark thicket when he noticed the cacophony of massive feet and crushed underbrush was eerily gone. Royal blue eyes slowly scanning the area, he realized he had just gotten himself into something arguably worse than being eaten by a hydra; he was lost in Everfree Forest.
Shouting would be easy, but would Zecora arrive to lead him back to the apparent safety of her hut, him able to get back to town from there, or would it just be a wake-up call for every hungry mouth within earshot? Standing still, shivering, he couldn’t even panic, there was nothing to point him away from likely threats, nothing to-Wait.
Slowly, Blueblood forced a grin. I am Prince Vladimir Blueblood. Glancing back at his now-sweaty and foliage-rustled white coat, he could still see the compass rose cutie mark. There is nowhere I cannot go, nothing I cannot find. I will get out of here alive, kick down the door of the nearest donut shop, stand on the centermost table, and boast of my triumph over these forsaken woods for all to hear and envy.
It almost sounded pretty convincing, really, so he set off in no particular direction, but it felt South-ish to him. He marched, not a sound to be heard but the grass beneath his hooves…
Until he heard music.
It sounds like, he thought, slowly trotting closer to the sound, carnival music, almost? Did monsters that used pony bones as toothpicks have carnivals? For the sake of his sanity, he severely hoped not as he drew closer and closer, breaking into a full gallop toward what he hoped were just horribly out-of-place circus-ponies that would, upon seeing his regal, only slightly disheveled grace, straighten up their idea of a tour, and immediately lead him out of Everfree, back to Ponyville where they’d have their… Whatever Carnivals are for. Then, he’d loop back to Zecora’s hut and, hoping she had an easier time escaping the hydra than he did, once more extend his thanks, go to the train station, leave town forever, and stick to the nice, cozy, if dull life he’d been content with up to a few days ago.
Perfect plan, he thought desperately as the trees blocked out more and more of the sun the closer he got to the source of the music, perfect plan!
Soon, it was dark as night. Night in Everfree Forest. He stopped dead, head whipping every which way in search of that far-from-cozy, but much more appealing area of an at least better-lit Everfree he had thoughtlessly disregarded in favor of clown music moments ago, but found only darkness any further than a few meters away. No, wait… He did see something else, a… A dull yellow thing. White. Yellow and white, and… Red, too? It looked a bit like a pony’s face, actually, the longer he stared, the clearer it got. It was a mare, the dull yellow her coat, the white her mane, the red her… Eyes? No, it was one eye, the other was, wait…
He shut his eyes for a moment in the hopes it would make it easier to focus when he opened them. It did, he could see her clearly now. She was actually quite pretty, her white mane was long, and fairly straight, looking a bit like Princess Twilight’s, only a little unkempt, right down to the streak if it were black and jagged. Her eyes were heterochromic, the right sclera was blood-red with a bright yellow iris, her left just the opposite. They’re a tad creepy, but absolutely beautiful… Purple eyelids, makeup? She had something red and yellow sticking out from behind her ears, too, but he couldn’t quite see-she was smiling. Yellow teeth. Wide. Grinning…
It was only now that he really noticed her facial expression, or that this sight had gotten much closer than the speck he’d been struggling to identify a moment ago. She was staring straight at him, those mismatched eyes gleaming with something like what he’d seen in every noblemare that ever tried to woo him, but a thousand times worse, her smile absolutely predatory. This wasn’t a mare, mares weren’t floating moon-banished heads drifting closer from the darkness, but he didn’t see a body anywh-she was close, too close, too close! Her muzzle was only inches away from his own -When did she get so close?!- he couldn’t move, couldn’t scream, she just smiled at him like he imagined the hydra had b-No! Hydras don’t smile like this, nothing in Tartarus smiles like this! A dozen terrified thoughts between willing himself to run like his hooves caught fire to desperate, silent pleas that she leave him alone raced through his head as her lips drew closer and closer to his, red-and-yellow eyes half-lidded, heart motionless in his chest, breathing stopped, and every vein in his body full of icewater, he shut his eyes…
A sound. He couldn’t make it out, but he dared glimpse his surroundings, finding them to be the better-lit area he’d previously found himself in, no sign of the dull-yellow mare to be found. His breath finally came back in ragged gasps, head swimming with equal parts relief and lingering horror, he dropped to the grass and cried.
Time passed ambiguously, whether it be to the way minutes fly when one is preoccupied, or some chronological anomaly related to this accursed forest itself. Eventually, Blueblood pulled himself together enough to remember he hadn’t actually died just a little while ago, if he even ran into that thing with the mismatched eyes at all. The noise he had heard and been drowning out with his own sobs was a little louder now, Zecora, apparently not afraid to call out to him at the risk of being devoured by something else finding her first. Shaking his head and smearing dirt across his face with a filthy hoof where there had been lingering tears, he decided against letting that happen, charging with not a hint of caution towards her voice.
Something must have been truly wrong with Everfree, because the source of the sound swung and swayed in direction even when he galloped in a straight line, but eventually he was rewarded with the sight of gold rings on a grey, striped body. Zecora smiled a little when she caught sight of him. “I think our task is at an end, let us return home, my friend.”
Smiling a bit himself, he let her lead the way back to her hut.
---
Well, the prince thought as he and Zecora trudged back to her tree, Today has certainly been productive, but it leaves me wondering… They took some slightly arbitrary routes, but just today had reinforced his ideas of this forest being some kind of death trap, so he didn’t argue when they walked around a fallen tree four times before proceeding through a path under some arced trees that hadn’t been there before, grateful they at least didn’t have to run from anything. The walk was mostly silent, his friendly zebra guide focused on where they were going apart from muttering the occasional rhyming warning about the immediate area, so he had some time to think.
What do I do after this? Luna suggested I stay in town for a while, but for what? I can’t just loiter about hoping for an opportunity to do something outstanding -mad as Ponyville may be in that regard- I need an objective. ‘Hello everypony, I’ll be sticking around for a while, does anyone have an odd job I can help with so you won’t think I’m a royal ponce?’ No.
When they arrived at the hut, the saddle-bags full of Mentha Peppers were casually slung by the cauldron in the center of the room and the two politely bid one another good night before Blueblood started back toward town for the night, Zecora’s hut only having one bed and neither of them wanting to make awkward suggestions. It was about ten minutes after he’d left that Zecora remembered she had intended to offer him a drink of the brew she was going to use the peppers for, maybe let him keep a bag for himself if he liked, but charging out her front door and peering around as the sun began to set, he was already long gone.
She facehoofed. “This day took such a toll on me, I forgot my hospitality.” Chuckling a bit, she stared down the path back to Ponyville. “When next I see him now, I think, I’ll offer that pony a drink.”
---
Trotting at a brisk pace, Blueblood smiled, he was at last forming a plan. I could try playing the honest ‘hero’, everypony suspicious of my real motivations, or… He couldn’t help grinning as he remembered what Vinyl had said in the hospital, I could have some fun with this. It’s expected that I’ll act ‘snooty’, is it? I can use that, I think… He would indeed be ‘snooty’, within reason, he’d play the part of the bored royal just out to entertain himself by getting out of the castle for a while, asking, with a hint of regal disdain, if the local peasants had anything he could do to keep busy, maybe even make their meager little lives easier?
…Alright, that was a little too much, but I'll work on it. His ultimate goal of not being known as the world’s most conceited pony felt shallow, but was it wrong? Luna had broken down in tears remembering the way she’d been treated for things so far in the past the only one who could claim to really remember them had long forgiven her. He thought of Octavia, Fleur, Vinyl, all of them very cautious at first, maybe even Fluttershy had been expecting him to snap at her? He hadn’t forgotten her peaceful bliss that day in the garden, and still believed eliciting such a reaction from others was perhaps the most fulfilling thing he could aspire to do, even if everypony believed he was mostly just screwing with them for his own amusement.
It hurt, a little, though he wasn’t sure why. Trixie didn’t seem to know who he was right away, Zecora didn’t seem to care, Photo Finish and Screw Loose were both insane, so he trusted all of their reactions were at least honest and natural, unpainted by either his title or what they may have heard about him. He wanted more natural reactions, to be regarded as a pony, not a thing to be feared and dreaded like he were the spawn of Sombra here to make as many ponies miserable as possible.
On that note, Blueblood realized he probably had some apologizing to do to quite a few servants and lesser nobility when he returned to Canterlot, but for now, he had something important to do! Ponyville in his sights again at last, he clopped his tired hooves in the direction of the ridiculous building with the frosting and cupcake decorations, bucked open the door that hadn’t been locked, grinned triumphantly as he strode past the startled patrons, climbed up onto the countertop to the shocked confusion of the blue, swirly, pink-haired mare behind it, raised one hoof in the air with all the regal majesty he could conjure, opened his mouth to speak, and collapsed, having spent more energy than he usually did in a week in the last few hours alone. As exhaustion ate away at his consciousness, the world was sideways, his head most likely pressed against the floor at this point as white hooves approached him.
A fairly refined voice sighed, sounding faintly amused. “Oh, my. Whatever are we going to do with you…?”
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OH NOES!! Rarity ambush!! XD Or Redheart.
I love the interaction between Blueblood and Zecora, the rhyming was great.
OH GOD WAS THAT CARNIVAL CAT IN THE EVERFREE? *shudders*
7009117 I... I think it was. I'm scared
No, they only have carnivores!
I loved the rapport between Blueblood and Zecora... and it looks like Rarity will finally make a major appearance