My Brave Pony: The Heart of the World

by Scipio Smith

The Gates of Utica

The Gates of Utica

The pony party – not that kind of party, Pinkie – spent the night at the watering hole, resting under the shade of the trees, lulled to sleep by the gentle sound of the water lapping at the shore. Slightly less gently lulling had been the sound when Fluttershy’s eel friend decided to croon her a lullaby of hoots and hisses, but Fluttershy had managed to gently let him know that that wasn’t really necessary, but thank you for the kind thought, and he had gone away again and let them all rest with no hard feelings on the part of anybody.

It was a peaceful night. It was, perhaps, the most peaceful night since they had left Equestria; almost certainly the most peaceful night since Raven had appeared to Twilight and urged her to turn aside from her course of seeking the Heart of the World. There was nothing to trouble them here, not even the injustices of the Most Ancient Empire which they could not correct.

Why then, did Twilight, alone amongst all her friends and companions, sleep so poorly?

The answer was obvious, to Twilight herself at least: it was because all their troubles were her fault, while the solutions to those troubles had come from her friends. Twilight had led her friends into the trap at Cirta, from which Spike’s quick-thinking and ingenuity had freed them; that escape had then seen them cast out into the desert without food of water, a perilous place from which they had been rescued by Fluttershy and her natural affinity for animals, not by anything that Twilight had done.

Twilight was not proud, or at least she tried not to be proud. She didn’t need to stand supreme amongst her friends, she didn’t think that she was better than them, it didn’t bother her that there were things that they could do better than her. But this was her quest. This was her journey. She had decided to come her, she had dragged her friends on this adventure, and so far all she had done was lead them into problems and then relied upon said friends for solutions.

It was not proud to think that that was wrong of her. At least, Twilight did not think it was. She thought, rather, that it was her conscience revolting against the irresponsibility she was displaying.

She would have turned back, except that Ace was right about them being in more danger if they did that. She still might turn back, once they reached Utica and were, hopefully, given enough supplies to make it back to Equestria.

Perhaps, anyway. She still wanted to find the Heart, she still wanted to find a way to contact Lightning Dawn and Krysta, but at the same time… she could not help but think of Celestia’s warning to her, about the tales of Dawn Starfall and Sunset Shimmer, both of whom had sought the Heart of the World never to return. Knowing what she now knew about the perilous land in which the Heart was thought to reside, Twilight could not help but consider the possibility that they had both died long before they reached their destination. Perhaps the reason Celestia’s searchers had never found any trace of Sunset Shimmer was that she had ended up as bleached bones lying in the sand somewhere, dead of dehydration or heatstroke. Perhaps Dawn Starfall had rotted away in the dungeons of some dragon lord, or worse, perhaps she dwelt there still, chained and bound, wasting away on stale bread and water or whatever the zebras of Grevyia fed their prisoners.

Was that to be their fate, too? Was that the fate to which Twilight had condemned her friends by leading them here?

Or was there yet some way that she could save them?

What ought she to do now?

Thus preoccupied by so many thoughts that whirled about her brain like a buzzing hive of bees, Twilight lingered for a long time awake, lying in the darkness with the moonlight shining down upon her. She didn’t know if she would have been able to confide in any of her friends or companions even if they hadn’t been asleep-

“The hours lengthen onward, Twilight; why do you lie awake tonight?”

Twilight’s eyes opened. Zecora was also still awake, sitting up, looking at Twilight with an experienced eye, her voice gentle and as soft as the breeze that cooled the air tonight.

Twilight rolled onto her front and sat up, too. “What are you doing awake?” she asked, softly, so as not to wake the others.

“In the desert there are many dangers, it is best to keep watch for strangers.”

“That doesn’t mean it has to be you,” Twilight replied. “I… should have thought of that.”

Zecora shook her head. “You take the wrong approach, if you for every issue yourself reproach.”

“Who else should I blame?” Twilight demanded, before clapping one hoof over her mouth as she realised how loud she had just been.

Zecora smiled at her. “These others will not easily waken; they are too weary, and cannot from their rest be taken.”

“You’re saying they’re too tired to be woken up?” Twilight clarified.

Zecora nodded silently.

“That’s… yeah, you’re probably right about that,” Twilight agreed. She frowned, as she looked at the slumbering forms of Rarity and Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy, Pinkie and Spike and Ace. She sighed. When she spoke again her voice was softer. “But seriously, who else should I blame? This was my quest, my choice, I encouraged the rest of them. On whom do the failures rest, if not me?”

“Some might take such things in stride,” Zecora said. “And blame their difficulties upon their guide.”

Twilight shook her head. “I know that this isn’t your fault. You didn’t cause any of this.”

“To speak true, neither did you,” Zecora pointed out.

“That’s different,” Twilight said. “You wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me.” She paused. “Once… once we get to Utica, do you think we should turn back for home?”

Zecora did not reply. She did not even keep looking at Twilight. Rather she turned her head away, and looked out across the waters of the lagoon.

“Zecora?” asked Twilight.

“I… will lead you to my home,” Zecora said. “But once there you may have to continue on your own. It is not for me to tell, which path you should take for all to be well.”

Twilight frowned. “Zecora…what is the problem? Why can’t you go home? What… what’s waiting for you there?”

“The future is not mine to see,” Zecora said. “But I doubt that it will be nice for me.” She smiled, as though she had just made a joke. Twilight found it a pretty bad joke, and in very bad taste.

“You don’t have to…” she began. “Nopony here would ask you to…”

“Did not your strange friend Lightning Dawn, make such a sacrifice for everyone?” Zecora asked.

Twilight couldn’t help but smile. “I’ve always thought of assonance as getting the rhyme wrong.”

Zecora snorted. “Twilight, this is the only way; no other road, in this my choice you cannot sway.”

“Is there no way you can escape?”

“Perhaps I might be shown mercy; but I would not rate the chance likely,” Zecora responded.

“Why not?” Twilight said. “Your people… I accept that I don’t know them but at the same time I can’t imagine that they can be cruel, if they produced you.”

“No, they are not cruel in general,” Zecora said. “But what I did seems to them most terrible.”

“What did you do?” the words slipped out of Twilight’s mouth before she could stop them. I’m sorry, you don’t need to tell me, I had no right to ask-“

“Twilight Sparkle, why have you come?” Zecora asked. “Chasing this legend so far from home?”

Twilight hesitated for a moment. “For love,” she confessed.

Zecora nodded. “And we would do many things for love; as foolish as some of them later prove.” She looked at Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, get some rest; tomorrow morn we leave this refuge nest.”

Twilight nodded, and lay down once more and tried to get some sleep alongside her friends.

It was difficult. Her conversation with Zecora had not actually assuaged her thoughts nor answered her questions, in fact to some extent they had only given her more questions to ponder.

However, the fact that she had questions to consider didn’t actually alter the fact that she was tired, so tired, just as tired as everypony who lay slumbering about her, and so eventually Twilight drifted off to sleep.

“Twilight.”

Twilight opened her eyes. She stood… she stood in Ponyville once more. Just outside of Sugarcube Corner, in fact.

And standing beside her was-

“Lightning?”

Lightning Dawn turned his head towards her, and smiled. He had rarely smiled, but when he did smile there was something rather wonderful about it.

He looked exactly as she remembered him, so tall and powerfully built, with that mottled effect upon coat like he was made of marble. And his eyes, those eyes of burnished gold looking right at her.

“This… this is a dream,” Twilight murmured.

“But does that have to mean it isn’t real?” Lightning asked.

Twilight stared at him for a moment, before she closed her eyes and stepped forward, nuzzling at his chest, feeling him crane his neck down to embrace her.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered, and perhaps she hadn’t realised just how much she had missed him until she said it, because all of a sudden she had tears in her eyes and they were streaming down her face.

She felt Lightning’s breath upon her neck. “I am sorry, for that. I did what I thought was right, Twilight, I never meant to hurt you.”

“I know,” Twilight said, in between sobs. “I know that you… I know that you saved us, but at the same time… it doesn’t change the fact that you wounded me at the same time.” She screwed up her face into a scowl of misery. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, Lightning.

Lightning did not reply, he just held her close, his skin feeling warm as he pressed his body against hers, and waited for her to say on.

“I don’t know whether I should keep going or go home,” Twilight confessed. “I… I want to see you again, I want it so badly, but… I don’t have the right to put my friends in danger for… not even for you.”

Lightning still didn’t say anything.

“You could give me some advice, you know,” Twilight said sharply.

“If I tell you to go on then that will seem very selfish,” Lightning said. “But if I tell you to turn back… I, also, greatly desire to see you again.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?” Twilight demanded.

“What does your heart tell you?”

“I don’t know!” Twilight shouted at him.

Lightning did not appear offended by her anger, for all that he stepped back from her. Rather he looked as though he had done it simply so that he could get a better look at her. “Miss Twilight,” he told her. “When I came to your home, I was… lost, in many ways. Krysta would tell you that… the point is that you showed me a way. Your light illuminated a path for me to follow. When the time comes, I have no doubt that your inner light will be your guide, just as it was mine.”

Twilight blinked rapidly. “That… that’s really sweet of you,” she said. She grinned. “But it doesn’t really help.”

The smile did not waver from Lightning’s face. “When the time comes,” he said. “You’ll know what to do.”

The next day they rose, and over the next few days they made their way from the watering hole, across the barren and the arid sands, to Utica.

It was not an easy journey, but it was a lot easier than it could have been. Twilight felt confident in saying that there was no way they could have made it without having found the watering hole first.

As it was, having found the watering hole, they had a chance: for they each had water in their skins, cloaks to shield them from the harsh sun, saddlebags with supplies in them. They had lost the map, but Zecora was confident in finding her way; more confident than she was in her welcome once they got there.

They could not avoid Utica, even now. Their supplies from the cache at the lagoon would not last so long, in fact they had nearly run out by the time that they came within sight of the walls of Utica.

The land became a little less barren and arid by the time that they reached the town itself, surrounded as it was by the same sort of irrigated fields and farmland as Cirta had been, the lands that produced the food that fed the town itself, although these fields were worked by free zebras, not by slaves. On the approach to Utica there was not a tattooed face in evidence, nor a mask, nor a whip or a chain or anything of that ugly nature. There were only zebras, working hard, but working – so it seemed to Twilight – their own land, for the fruits of their own labour.

It was, to say the least, a much more comfortable sight.

The ramparts that defended the town were white stone, gleaming like marble in the light of the sun, and atop the walls the ponies could see, as they got closer, zebras patrolling, and ballistae mounted in the round towers that jutted out beyond the main wall. The gates of Utica were wrought of black steel, and loomed large above the ponies as they walked towards them.

As they neared the gate Zecora hesitated, pausing, silently waiting, staring up at the gate. For a moment Twilight thought her heart would fail her, but then Zecora strode forward with determination in her step, to bang with one hoof upon the black gate. The sound echoed upwards like the sounding of a gong.

“Open in the name of water and sand,” Zecora cried. “Here weary travellers before you stand!”

There was a moment of silence; and another, and another. The silence and the stillness stretched on as vast as the desert sands themselves, or seeming so. Then, with a great grinding of gears and hinges, the gates swung backwards, revealing to Twilight and the others the barest glimpse of a town within.

A group of zebras emerged from out of the chink in the gate, led by a tall and powerful zebra with a trio of scars on the right side of his face wearing brightly coloured feathers woven into his mane.

Zecora bowed her head. “Subedar Muttines-“

“Havildar Muttines,” he corrected.

“It is good to see your face again.”

“Would of your face I could say the same,” Muttines replied. He turned his attention away from Zecora and to the others. “Who are you, what are you here to do?”

“We… we’re travellers,” Twilight said, taking a step forward. “We were ambushed by the zebras of a town called Cirta and I fear that we are sorely in need of help and succour.”

Muttines regarded them all for a moment. Slowly, he nodded his head. “You’ll come with me as honoured guests,” he rounded on Zecora. “And you’ll go to a traitor’s rest. Bind her and then watch her close, a second time she’ll not get loose. Your evil done, you’ve had your day; justice at hand, take her away!”

“What?!” Twilight cried. “No, there must be some mistake, you can’t-“

“Twilight, still your tongue and be at peace,” Zecora said, “Leave my cause, and focus on your ease.”

Twilight stared at her. “You knew, didn’t you? You knew this would happen?”

“Forgive me, friend, for cheating on the rhyme, but I knew that I must answer for my crime.”

“Crime?” Twilight repeated, as the gates of Utica ground open before them, the hinges scraping as the black iron gates swung back. “What crime? What did you do?”

Zecora looked away from her, and said nothing more as a party of guards of Utica emerged with ropes and chains and a muzzle?

“Is that necessary?” Twilight demanded.

“Twilight, I beg you, let it take its course,” Zecora said, “or that I do this will be for no cause.”

Twilight frowned. She understood what Zecora was saying, that she was sacrificing for their sake and that they could honour her sacrifice best by… by allowing her to endure whatever punishment the zebras of Utica had in store for her.

She understood, but that didn’t mean she liked it.

Nevertheless, though she felt filthy, though she felt like a coward, though she was disgusted with herself, nevertheless she stood by and did nothing while they bound Zecora.

And nopony else did anything either.

“Come enter in, and welcome be,” Muttines said, oblivious to their misgivings or pretending to be so, “the lady of the town you’d best come see.”

The houses of Utica were square and boxy, built of stone that was a sandy yellow colour, made all the more so by the dust that lay upon the rough stone walls. Minarets rose above the humbler dwellings, their bulbous tips adorned with gold or silver that reflected the light of the sun upon them so much they seemed almost like stars shining in daylight. Many-coloured awnings hung above the doors and windows, keeping the worst of the sun at bay. The thoroughfare down which the zebra guards led the pony party was wide, and paved with solid slabs of sand-coloured stone, although so much dirt and dust and stone lay over top that the stones themselves were almost buried and at times it was impossible to tell there was a path at all, save that it cut through the houses. The road led straight from the gate towards the palace in the centre of town. It was not so large or grand as the palace of Mantle in Cirta – somewhat ironic, considering that Utica seemed like the larger town – but it was still an imposing sight, rising above the houses around it. The palace was as square as the buildings that surrounded it, but elevated upon an artificial hill, with a long flight of steps climbing up towards the building itself.

In the town bustled mostly zebras, but there were a few horses too, and some camels with bulbous humps upon their backs, southern buffalo with their proud horns polished, and elephants bearing heavy loads while bells jangled from chains about their necks. They walked or trotted or lumbered through the streets, their chatter filled the air as they passed one another in the street, haggled in the bazaar, called upon one another's houses.

It was through this town, and through the wide thoroughfare that passed through the centre of the town, that Twilight and her friends were led, escorted by the guards.

And it was through this town, and down this road that Zecora, too, was brought, chained and muzzled like a beast, with the warriors of Utica keep a special watch upon her.

"I gotta say, Twi, I don't like this," Applejack muttered.

Twilight knew exactly what she meant. This was poor repayment for all of Zecora's helps and service to them, and it would have been even more poor repayment to have allowed her to endure it without speaking up, and so she trotted forwards until she had drawn level with the Havildar, Muttines, who led the group along.

"Um, Excuse me, sir?" Twilight ventured.

He glanced at her. "Would you have something of me, little pony?"

He was not speaking in rhyme. Twilight had a feeling that by not doing so he was patronising her in some way, but she had larger concerns at this moment, and in any case it made him a little easier to comprehend. "Yes," she agreed. "I would have something of you," she looked back towards Zecora. "Is that strictly necessary?"

"She is a criminal," Muttines replied.

"I can't believe that," Twilight declared. "There must be some sort of misunderstanding."

"There is no misunderstanding," Muttines said, his tone becoming a little sharper. "Her guilt has been known in this land for many years."

"Guilty of what?" Twilight demanded.

Muttines snorted. "There are things that we do not speak of to outsiders."

He tried to get away from, lengthening his stride so that he could walk on and leave her behind, but although she had to trot to keep up with him Twilight managed to keep level with the taller, longer-legged zebra. "Please," she said. "Zecora brought us here, knowing that she did so at grave risk to herself. She brought us here because our need outweighed any consideration of her safety. I cannot repay her for that simply by ignoring what you're doing to her. Please, there must be some way that she can be helped."

Muttines was silent for a moment. "You should be careful, little pony," he warned her. "The traditions of this land mandate that water and hospitality be given to the weary and lost… but not to our bitter enemies. You have come here in company with one who is accursed, her name forbidden. Take care, lest you be thought partners in her latest villainy."

"That's not possible because Zecora isn't a villain," Twilight responded. Her voice dropped, becoming quieter. "What are you going to do to her?"

"For what she has done there is only one penalty," Muttines said.

"No!" Twilight cried. She rushed ahead of Muttines, so that she could plant herself foursquare in front of him. "I can't let you do that. I won't."

"Be very careful, pony," Muttines said, in a tone approaching a growl. "You stand upon the edge of a knife."

"Then I will cut my hooves, or fall," Twilight replied. "But I will not abandon my friend to a cruel and undeserved fate."

Unfortunately, by this point they had drawn something of a crowd. This was the main road through the town, after all, and many creatures – zebras, camels, horses – were using it alongside the ponies and the zebra guards.

And unfortunately, it seemed that some of them still recognised Zecora, after all this time.

It started with whispers, with glances furtively stolen before them who stole the glances looked away again almost as suddenly. Then the whispers became louder 'Is it she? Is that Zecora? Yes, it is, here, after all this time!' Then they became so loud that they were not even whispers at all, but words angrily spoken in the Common Tongue and in the language of Quaggai, harsh words falling upon Zecora's head as she was led onwards through the street.

The words struck Zecora like weapons. This was her home, or at least it had been so; these were her people, her friends and neighbours once upon a time, and yet for whatever it was that they thought – they seemed convinced – that she had done they treated her not as an old friend but as a monster, an object of scorn and derision, a pariah. Twilight couldn't imagine how much it must hurt her, to be so berated, so reviled, so hated and despised by all. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to return to Ponyville and find that she was regarded with hostility, an unwelcome interloper. She couldn't imagine what it would be like, but she could see how it was hurting Zecora as her muzzled head drooped low to the ground, and her eyes grew heavy with sorrows.

As Twilight watched, she saw Zecora's dark orbs start to fill with tears.

"Stop it, please," Fluttershy begged. "There's no need to be so cruel."

Then someone threw something. It was a rotten cabbage, and it splintered as it splattered against Zecora's side, striking her hard enough to make the zebra's body tremble.

"Hey!" Rainbow yelled. "What do you think you're doing?" she had herself to dodge a mango thrown her way.

"Please, stop," Fluttershy implored the crowd. "She doesn't deserve this."

"Aren't you going to do something about this?" Twilight demanded of Muttines.

"Let the crowd have their sport," Muttines replied. "She has done worse, and deserves worse."

The crowd continued to yell, to jeer, to pelt Zecora with objects; they formed a huddle around the group, a huddle that the zebra guards showed no interest in dispersing for all that they acquired more of the character of a mob with every passing moment. Their faces seemed crueller now than they had a mere moment ago; their voices seemed harsher, their manner more dangerous. Twilight could not help but fear – but think – that Muttines meant to let the mob do justice for him.

Twilight wouldn't let that happen.

"Stop!" she cried, teleporting in between Zecora and the crowd upon the right-hoof side, and her horn flared with lavender light as she conjured up a shield around Zecora and her other friends. She raised her voice as the detritus the crowd threw struck her shield harmlessly and sloughed off the magical barrier to the ground.

"Please," Twilight begged. "Please stop."

Muttines' eyes were wide with a mixture of awe and anger. "You dare-"

"Yes," Twilight replied. "Yes, I dare. Because I know this zebra," she declared. "And when I first met her I, too, held hostility towards her in my heart. I didn't trust her. I didn't understand her. But when I tried, when I looked past the fact that she was different from me, when I opened up my heart to her I found that she was good and kind and gentle. I don't know what heinous crime you think she has committed, what awful offence you think that she has done you but I promise you, I guarantee, that she is not the villain you believe her to be." Zecora was shaking her head, but Twilight ignored her. She wasn't about to abandon Zecora, whatever Zecora might want. "She is my friend, and I cannot simply allow you to do what you like to her. I can't abandon her to any fate, no matter how cruel. I… I will not."

Muttines glared at her angrily, but before he could say anything in reply another voice, a female voice raised in anger, cut through the crowd. "What is the cause of this alarm? What in Utica has disturbed your calm?"

The crowd parted, and through their press strode two ranks of burly zebras, armoured in glimmering scales, moving the citizens of Utica aside. And in between the ranks of guards their came a tall male zebra, his mane styled in a great crest that added at least another foot onto his height, and a smaller female zebra with soft features, her name worn in ringlets adored with glimmering moonstones, wearing rings of gold around her neck.

She stepped through the crowd, and as her eyes alighted upon the captive Zecora her blue eyes widened, and the breath seemed to catch in her throat, and she took a step backwards as a single word escaped her lips.

"Sister?"

The town was silent, or at least the immediate area in which Twilight and her friends stood had fallen so. All the townsfolk of Utica, the zebras and the horses and even the towering, majestic elephants, had had their voices stilled. They bowed, genuflecting on their knees, and it was clear that they dared not raise so much as a whisper.

As for Twilight and her friends, well… if they were anything like Twilight herself then they were too speechless to say anything.

“Sugarcube,” Applejack whispered into Twilight’s ear, “my ears ain’t going from all the sand getting in ‘em, right? She did just say ‘sister’?”

Twilight nodded, although only faintly because it felt as though a faint gesture was about all that she could manage right now.

Sister? Zecora had a sister? Zecora had a sister who was apparently an important person in the town which Zecora would get in big trouble for coming back to? In the town where someone had been willing and ready to put Zecora to death with a minimum and fuss and bother? Something was… well, let’s just say that that didn’t make it seem as though they had a close relationship like the one that Twilight enjoyed with her own brother.

But on the other hoof… Twilight looked at Zecora’s sister, whom she would have judged to be the younger of the two, and she could not say that she looked angry or appalled to see Zecora. And it wasn’t just the fact that she had called her sister and not ‘you’ or ‘traitor’ or anything harsher than that. It was the way she looked, the way that she sounded, too.

Perhaps Twilight was reading too much into it, perhaps Twilight was looking for hope where there was no hope to be found, but maybe, just maybe, there was something between the two sisters that they could build on.

I mean, Princess Luna went insane and tried to cast the world into everlasting darkness and yet she still managed to reconcile with Princess Celestia in the end. I’d like to think that if that can happen then there’s hope for us all.

Provided we can stop Zecora from being killed, that is.

Zecora, for her part, did not reply. She continued to maintain the silence that she had put on like a cloak ever since they had placed the restraints upon her and borne her through the gates of Utica.

She looked away, and her eyes seemed to droop a little with what Twilight could only interpret as a touch of guilt. But guilt for what? Twilight was sure that whatever it was that Zecora had done it was nothing deserving of death, but as she watched out of the corner of her eye Zecora shying shamefully away from her sister, she began for the first time to wonder if their zebra friend might have done something.

If she had… if she had then it did not change the fact that she had voluntarily come back her for the sake of the ponies, and that was still something to be respected and admired.

“Sister,” the other zebra repeated. “Are you silent still? Will you not humble your proud will? That we should meet again seems fate, where has your road brought you to this date? Will you not tell me what brings you home? Why are you here, why have you come?”

“She came for us,” Twilight declared, bringing the eyes of the zebra and her attendants all upon herself. She flinched from their gazes, some of which seemed rather accusing. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Forgive the interruption, but if Zecora will not speak for herself then I would like to speak for her. My name is Twilight Sparkle, of Ponyville in Equestria.”

“And I am Sophoniba, Lady of Utica,” Sophoniba said, switching from rhyme into plain prose to address a foreigner. “How is it that you are acquainted with my elder sister?”

“She is our friend,” Twilight explained, “we have all come from Ponyville, where Zecora lives… or at least not far away.”

“My lady, these ponies have interfered with rule of law,” Muttines said, “to her fate they have prevented this traitor from being drawn.”

“You were going to execute her!” Twilight exclaimed.

“In accordance with the sentence she was given, to avoid which she has striven,” Muttines replied.

“Peace ho, good captain; upon your arguments place no strain,” Sophoniba said. To Twilight, she added, “What do you know of my sister’s crimes?”

“Nothing,” Twilight said. “Zecora told us that it would be… difficult if she returned here.”

“And yet you came anyway?” Sophoniba asked.

“It wasn’t our intent,” Twilight said. “We were… ambushed in the town of Cirta, and all our supplies were lost. We… we are in need of food and water and perhaps a little shelter and rest. Zecora told us that we could find those things here, and only here.”

“You beg the gifts of shade and water, whilst you in your ranks a traitor harbour?” spat Muttines.

“Peace once again, havildar, peace; Zecora shall suffer no release,” Sophoniba snapped, a touch of impatience entering her voice. To Twilight, she said, “You now defend her from my guards, not knowing what crimes she has committed.”

“I’m sure that whatever she has done it can’t be so wicked as to warrant a death sentence,” Twilight said.

“Do not be so certain,” Sophoniba replied. “This is not Equestria, our laws are harsher than you may comprehend.”

“I understand, but…” Twilight hesitated. “I feel as though I know Zecora well enough to say that she has a good heart, and would never commit any act so vile that it would warrant so stern a punishment. She didn’t have to bring us here. She could have left me and my friends to die in the desert, and she might have stood a chance on her own. But she didn’t. She brought us here at great risk to herself. Greater risk than she allowed any of us to comprehend, or we would never have come here. And for that reason… law or no law… I can’t just stand by and let you kill her.”

Sophoniba was silent for a moment. When she spoke her voice was soft, and exceedingly quiet. “I am… glad,” she said, “that my sister has found friends on whom she can rely. But why did you come to this land, Twilight Sparkle of Equestria? What brought you to our deserts so unprepared?”

Twilight did not dispute the fact that she was not prepared. She, too, spoke with exceeding softness. “The Heart of the World,” she murmured.

Sophoniba’s eyes widened. Her mouth opened, and hung open for a few moments. After some brief time, she spoke again. “We shall respect the sanctity of water and shade, come to the palace to receive mine aid. Guards, attendants, loyal friends surround us all; and bring us safely straight into mine hall. There we shall have yet further talk, upon this path you choose to walk. Come, every creature, follow on; make haste, lest all the hours of morn be gone.”