274. Letter From Home
Twilight sat on the hill outside the Crystal Empire, underneath the big tree, and mentally prepare herself as she handled the letter from Tirek. The rest of the gals gave her some space so she could do this alone, and so she could take as much time as she needed.
Which turned out to be a LOT of time, because she was NERVOUS!
It had been years since they’d spoken, and Twilight felt horrendously guilty for not writing him since she came to Equestria. Him or any of her other friends back home, for that matter. Which admittedly, weren’t very many, but still.
She took a deep breath. It was now or never, and Twilight was as ready as she was ever going to be, so she let a raspberry light glow around her horn as she—
Oh, she was still in pony form. It had become so second nature at this point, that she hadn’t even noticed. Maybe it wasn’t a big deal or anything, but she decided to transform back into her dragon form before she opened the letter. Just felt right.
She let a raspberry light glow around her horns as she unsealed the letter, the words falling off the page and onto the ground in a circle around her before glowing with a bright neon light; as Twilight suspected, this wasn’t just some letter, it was a direct communication spell.
Twilight was transported into a mental realm, back home in the forests of Zebrica. Felt a little odd for Tirek to choose this place to represent their conversation, but then Twilight laid eyes on the dragon in front of her, and tears glistened in her eyes.
It wasn’t Tirek. It was a dragon about half-again the size of Twilight, face worn with age but her smile was no less gentle than it ever had been, her white scales shimmering radiantly and the black stripes across her body looked striking as always.
It was Zecora.
Twilight burst into tears and ran to Zecora, the elder dragon catching Twilight in her arms and wrapping them and her wings around the purple dragon, who felt so small in Zecora’s embrace. Twilight didn’t know what to say, she just whimpered and blubbered as she buried herself in Zecora’s arms.
“Everything will be okay, Twilight,” Zecora said sweetly, and hearing her voice again for the first time in years made Twilight cry even harder. She knew that she missed Zecora, but she didn’t realize how much until just now.
“How do you know that?” Twilight whimpered.
“I don’t,” Zecora chuckled. “But it’s my duty as a mom to tell you that, and to make sure it happens.”
Twilight laughed at that. She appreciated both the honesty and the compassion of that statement a lot. It was pretty much exactly what she needed to hear, or maybe she just needed to hear something from Zecora.
Twilight took a few moments to just let herself cry, and to let Zecora comfort her. If Twilight ended up being half as good a mom to Spike as Zecora was to her, she would be really proud of herself. After a few moments though, she dried her eyes and got ready to get down to business.
“So where’s Tirek?” Twilight asked. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy to see you, I just was expecting to see him.”
“Tirek got really flustered when he got your letter,” Zecora giggled, and Twilight snorted. Yeah, that sounded just like him. “He got very nervous about answering, so I answered instead. I miss you too after all.”
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said instinctively.
“Don’t apologize,” Zecora shook her head. “Everyone back home supports your journey, Twilight. We’re all waiting to see you again, but no one is rushing you. It will take far more than just time to weaken the bonds you have with your family.”
Twilight got choked up again and averted her gaze. She’d had enough crying to last her a lifetime quite honestly, so she took a deep breath and fought back the tears.
“I’m sorry I didn’t write,” Twilight said, and once again Zecora shook her head.
“As I said,” Zecora sat next to Twilight and draped a wing across her back, the scenery around them changing to a cliff over the ocean that Twilight used to go to all the time as a kid, “we all knew you needed time. We struggled with your absence in our own ways, me, and Tirek, and Chrysalis among others, but we knew you would reach out eventually.”
“Well, Chrysalis shouldn’t hold her breath,” Twilight said flatly, making Zecora chuckle.
“Fair enough,” she nodded. “Though speaking of reaching out, I know I’m not Tirek, but since I’m here would you like to talk to me about what’s troubling you?”
Twilight sighed and hung her head. The answer was ‘yes of course’, but there was a lot to tell her.
So she figured she may as well start with what was going on in the Crystal Empire.
Zecora dragged her claw down her face as Twilight finished her story about the dragon prison in the Crystal Empire. The elder dragon took a deep breath and arched her back, groaning tiredly under her breath before drawing herself up.
“Oh Shining Armor,” Zecora said disappointedly. “Does he know what’s going on?”
“No idea,” Twilight shrugged. “I haven’t talked to him.”
“But what’s important is that you don’t know what you’re supposed to do,” Zecora said.
“I have NO clue!” Twilight blurted out desperately. “I really need some guidance.”
Zecora was quiet for a really long time. Agonizingly long.
“Zecora?” Twilight squeaked, and Zecora sighed and smiled sadly at her.
“I wish I knew what to say,” Zecora hummed. “I wish I had a perfect answer for you that would tell you everything you need to know, but I don’t. I don’t know what we should do either.”
“Well that sucks,” Twilight chuckled.
“I know,” Zecora laughed softly and rubbed Twilight’s back with her claw. “I will figure something out, just give me a little bit of time, okay? Because you’re right, we can’t simply stand back and do nothing.”
“So what do I do in the meantime?” Twilight asked, tapping her claws together.
“Try and relax,” Zecora said. “Find a way to process all this trauma you have been dealing with.”
“Oh pffft, I’m not ‘traumatized’,” Twilight scoffed and batted her claws, and then looked at Zecora who was looking back at her with the ol’ ‘mother glare’, that look a mom gave when she wasn’t having any sass, and it caused Twilight to shrink down and laugh awkwardly. “Okay, maybe a little.”
“You have been through a lot, Twilight Sparkle,” Zecora said. “But there must have been some good times as well. Tell me about them. Have you made any friends in Equestria?”
Twilight sat up straight and lit up like a beacon, beaming ear to ear as she thought about all her amazing friends and how excited she was to tell Zecora about them.
“Okay, I HAVE to tell you about Rarity!” Twilight said eagerly, tamping the ground like an excited puppy.
“I am very excited to hear about Rarity!” Zecora replied, eyes glittering like stars as she listened intently.
“Okay so I met this AMAZING mare named Rarity, and she was a Slayer and I know what you’re thinking but just hear me out…”
Twilight proceeded to regale Zecora with the epic tale of how she met Rarity in the library and fell in love, and then Rarity tried to kill her but it was okay cuz they made up eventually! Zecora was like ‘wow sounds like true love’ all sarcastic like but Twilight was like ‘nononononono you see cuz of her feelings for me she didn’t kill me, and then she went on this whole journey of self-discovery and is now helping me dismantle Equestria’s systemic bigotry’.
“She sounds like quite a woman,” Zecora said, stroking her chin.
“She is!” Twilight said with a gleaming smile, nodding effusively. “Oh! And I gotta tell you about Rainbow Dash and Applejack! And Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy!”
Twilight talked for what felt like hours, gushing about her friends and how much she loved them. About the times she sparred with Applejack and got all sweaty and gay, about how she rescued Rainbow by eating her that one time, about how Fluttershy took her in and dared to braved the outside of her forest for Twilight’s sake, about how Pinkie Pie embraced her even in her true form the moment she saw her, and about the party in the library where she really knew she was home.
Zecora was crying now, wiping tears away from her cheeks as Twilight’s brow creased in trepidation.
“Hey, are you okay?” Twilight asked concernedly.
“Of course,” Zecora laughed and nodded. “How can I not cry tears of joy when my daughter tells me about all these wonderful people she loves?”
Now Twilight was tearing up again, and she jumped onto Zecora and gave her a big hug.
“I love you, Zecora,” Twilight said happily, her arms wrapped tightly around her mom.
“I love you too, Twilight,” Zecora giggled, holding Twilight even tighter. “And thank you. I’m over a thousand years old, and this is the first time I’ve felt genuine hope in a very long time.”
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She had friends back home and Tirek is at least a decent enough person that Twilight feels guilty about not talking to him. Interesting...
All fo the above?
Not overly fond of her?
A story and a half in and of itself, and that's not even going into the Pristine Army shit you don't yet know about.
A little a lot.
Oh you are so heckin' gay.
Yeah, that's not an easy gimmick to use and I do NOT blame any writer who doesn't want to deal with it.
awww!
awwwwwww!
ouch, harsh words for bugwife.
twi can have a little trauma
wait that's not a treat at all
ah yes, rescue vore
awwwww
i'm very here for zecora mom
good
You gotta love those family reunions...
I feel like... if your gonna have Zecora in your story there needs to be an effort to rhyme. If not, why have her at all. Whats the point? Its me being me here but, you could have inserted literally anyone else and it would work. I guess its my pet peeve of this Fandom that using a certain character and not using them properly kills it. Zecora is best because of that certain trait; removing that removes the character it represents. I've read every chapter so far and liked them but this has been my only complaint to date. I know I'll get hated for this, but I just had to voice it out. Its hard to find zecora stories where a writer makes an effort or is lazy with her to not rhyme. But its your story and I just appreciate that everything else has been great.
10406384
i think this is a fair criticism, so i'm gonna just explain my reasoning for why she doesn't rhyme real quick
1. i think the idea that zecora is just her rhyming gimmick does a disservice to her character. her rhyming gimmick, like?? sucks. like even in the show it sucks. she deserved way better than to be a gimmick character created for a poorly thought out racism metaphor
2. zecora being twilight's maternal mentor is actually a holdover from earthsong's original au idea, and it's one i liked cuz again, i think she deserved better from the show itself
3. i have to write these every day, i just don't have time to come up with rhymes lmao
Chryssi being a mentor figure is still wild no me.