An Enthusiastic Walk
A heavy silence lingered over the Everfree. Nothing but the faint sounds of insects permeated the faux twilight caused by the massive trees and the sheer entanglement of plant life that blocked most of the sun from reaching the forest floor. It was a near darkness, broken by but the few stray rays of sunlight lucky enough to happen upon some small opening in the mass of green, giving some faint light to the near-perpetual penumbra of the woods.
Few things dared break the silence of the woods. Even the animals that called the place home that were out and about, be they hunting or foraging, did not break the silence as they did so, as if they had an unspoken agreement, that doing otherwise would be a herald of great and terrible things.
The hooded figure calmly walking upon the shadowed ground was no exception. Her steps were completely silent as she skillfully traversed the rugged terrain. Not a single cracked branch or disturbed leaf marked her passing as she ventured deeper into the dark woods.
As she passed by one of the stray rays of light, the midday sun illuminated the features beneath the brown hood. The black and white stripes of her coat showed her to be a zebra. And the ceremonial golden bangles around her neck and hanging from her ears showed her to be a shaman, one of the fabled witch-doctors from far-off Zebrica.
The zebra took in her surroundings with careful experienced eyes, knowing far too well the dangers the forest held, but also the bounty it contained. Her eyes glimmered with excitement as they fell upon a small particularly shadowed corner of the woods. Growing underneath a fallen tree there were several neon-blue mushrooms covered with pink polka-dots, something she had never seen or heard of before.
A smile graced her lips as she hurried towards her newest find. She had heard the tales, of the great bounty and vast menagerie of unknown species contained within the great green expanse known as the Everfree forest. By the spirits, that had been one of the main reasons to motivate her journey to the great forest in the first place! But, even so, Zecora had not been prepared for the reality of just how diverse the magical fauna and flora of the Everfree truly was!
“Hello, little mushrooms in the gloom; I wonder, will you be an ill or a boon?” the witch-doctor mused out loud as she approached the odd-looking spotted mushrooms, her left hoof already moving towards her saddlebags in order to get a container for her newest sample.
She had been living in the vast forest for little over two weeks at this point, and yet had already found twice as many new and undiscovered species of plants and fungi as the days she had spent within the woods. And when you took into consideration she had spent a good half of her first week setting down the protective wards and totems around her hut in order to safeguard her living space it all became all the more mind-boggling!
Truly, this expedition had been a marvelous idea, even despite all the hassle it had been to traverse from her homeland to the kingdom of the ponies. Just thinking of all the undiscovered magical reagents, all the new salves and remedies that could be made, it filled her heart with joy and excitement.
After carefully sealing the container with her prize, she proceeded to place it into her saddlebags, quite happy with today’s first find. Just at that moment, a deafening crack shattered the silence that had been reigning in the woods. And as all the creatures upon the great forest stilled at this violation of the silence, a loud bestial roar shattered it utterly.
Swiftly storing away her newest discovery, Zecora did not waste a single moment before drawing her trusty staff from her back and taking a ready stance. She recognized the roar. A manticore. And while the winged-felines were nowhere near as bad as one of the star-beasts that roamed the deep woods, that did not by any means mean the large feline predator was not a danger to be respected.
Staff at the ready, she narrowed her eyes in the direction she could hear the predator rushing towards her. Quite loudly, she may add. Which was odd, especially since the great felines were mainly ambush predators. The fact this new interloper was all but trampling all the underbrush on its path as it rushed towards her was most definitely abnormal.
A fresh youngling without hunting experience, perhaps?
The next moment her musings were sadly proven inaccurate, as a fully-grown manticore blasted out of the underbrush. Easily weighing more than five hundred pounds, and at least ten times the zebra’s size, the beast was a prime specimen of its breed.
This could prove challenging. Zecora decided as she prepared herself to dodge the beast’s initial lunge in order to whack its snout and dissuade it of the validity of adding zebra to its menu. She would have to devote her whole focus to this, lest she end her journey far too prematurely. Her path would not join that of the spirits yet if she had anything to say about it!
But it was not to be. Rushing past her awaiting form without so much as glancing at her, it dove into the deep overgrowth past her with as much speed as it could muster.
“What?” she found herself asking aloud, quite confused by this unexpected turn of events. That response was reinforced even further by what followed immediately afterward.
“Get back here you huge pile of fur!” a tiny yellow-coated filly roared as she appeared from the exact same spot from where the manticore had come. She could not weigh forty pounds soaking wet and was less than half the size of Zecora. And yet, that did not stop her as she chased after the fleeing predator. Her teeth flashed a bestial smile that would be far more at home upon the fleeing manticore as she rushed past the flabbergasted zebra far faster than most grown ponies could. Her large red bow flapped wildly upon her equally red mane while the sheer speed of the tiny filly only added to the surreal image of it all.
Zecora stood there unmoving, staff at the ready, for a moment longer. The oddness of what had just transpired robbed her of action due to sheer incredulity. She stared at the place first the manticore then the filly had disappeared with very perplexed eyes.
She blinked once, then twice, before she finally shook off her surprise and confusion. Turning her muzzle towards her saddlebag, she glared at it. Or more accurately, glared at the unknown mushrooms now contained within said saddlebag.
“Well that was quite rude; your answer did not need to be so crude!” she spoke to the colorful fungi. That quite clearly had some very powerful hallucinogenic properties, if the very brief contact with her hoof had been enough to cause her to see this completely crazy scenario.
Letting out a very aggravated sigh, the zebra replaced her staff upon her back. Shaking her head, she chastised herself for her own carelessness, touching an unknown reagent with her bare hooves due to her excitement of a new discovery! Her master would have her hide if she knew about this! And rightfully so!
“Well, this is quite the conundrum; hopefully with some work, it is something that can be undone,” she mused, already considering the best way to try and make an antidote. If not to cure, at least mitigate the effects of whatever was affecting her until it left her body.
“Greetings, wise one,” a melodious voice asked from behind her. Startled at not hearing anyone approaching despite how keyed-up her senses currently were, Zecora swiftly turned around as her hoof once again darted toward her staff, only to immediately relax upon seeing that the new interlopers just so happened to be two more fillies.
An orange-coated pegasus politely gave her a nod of greeting, and a white-coated unicorn was addressing her while bowing in the exact same way a fellow shaman would do upon meeting another of their kind. Clearly, the little fungi was not done playing its tricks on her. “Apologies for our intrusion, but would you have perhaps seen a yellow-coated filly pursuing a fleeing manticore?”
“Greetings little one, you are quite polite; Alas I fear your friend has escaped my sight,” she cordially answered while gesturing to the point where the filly had disappeared back into the woods. Politeness should always be answered, after all, even if the one offering it was but a figment of one’s own imagination.
The young unicorn let out a tired sigh, before bowing her head slightly. “Many thanks, wise shaman. But while I would love to stay and have discourse with you, I fear we must hurry after our companion lest she do something regrettable.”
“Think nothing of it, little one; at times there are simply things that must be done,” she replied to the very polite hallucination. A bemused smile was on her lips as she wondered what her subconscious could be trying to tell her by choosing the form of small pony fillies to appear before her.
She had yet to visit the pony settlement at the edge of the forest. While not yet at worrying levels, some of her stockpiled supplies could do with some topping off. Perhaps she should fix that in the near future.
“Many thanks, until we meet again,” the filly promptly said before darting towards where Zecora had pointed, her pegasus friend giving the zebra one more nod before imitating her unicorn friend.
The shaman watched them go with a bemused smile on her muzzle for a long moment, before shaking her head as a small laugh escaped her lips. Turning back to her saddlebags one more time she happily proclaimed.
“Well, little spore; at the very least you are not a bore!”
As she rushed past the underbrush, dodging and weaving the falling branches that her prey was leaving behind in her wake, Ganondorf could feel her fanged smile grow with each step she took. She was getting closer.
That was an undeniable fact. No matter the very respectable speed the manticore was keeping as it ran away, the distance between them was getting smaller and smaller with each moment that passed. The beast really should have known better than to try to deny its betters!
A gradual lightening of the penumbra of the woods as the chase continued told the small filly that they were approaching a clearing. It was an excellent bit of news, considering she was almost upon the manticore. Some clear space for their little tussle so that they could fight properly would be more than welcome!
And even better! As they both rushed into the clearing it immediately became clear that there was a very respectable rocky hill at the end of it, neatly cutting the manticore’s main avenue of escape!
Din was smiling upon her this day!
However, she would have to pay attention to not allow it to simply fly away. She really could not remember if this particular creature was fully flight capable or simply used its wings to glide and boost its jumps. The great cat’s wings did look too small to lift it off the ground, but the same was true for all pegasi, and that never stopped the winged ponies before. So until proven otherwise, best to think her prey could escape to the skies and plan accordingly.
Getting ready to pounce should that happen, Ganondorf watched as the panicking manticore roared in distress, head swiftly moving one way and then another while clearly weighing its options. Whatever the creature planned to do, it had best decide fast, because the yellow-coated filly was but one bounce away from tackling it.
However, the chase had to be put on hold as a far louder, and very annoyed-sounding roar answered the manticore’s. The great feline immediately crouched low to the ground, scorpion tail beneath its legs as it tried to look as small as possible as the earth trembled as something quite heavy moved.
Her eyes darted towards a large cave entrance that was neatly half hidden away by the shape of the rocky hill. Ganondorf felt her eyebrow rise in interest as what looked like silver light shone from inside the cave. The source of it immediately became apparent as with several more tremors that caused the manticore to whimper, a very large bear-like creature emerged from the cave’s mouth.
The creature’s fur shone as if it was a starry night, giving out a faint silver light. Correction, Ganondorf mused as she tilted her head to get a better angle upon noticing what looked like constellations upon the big bear’s fur, its fur was a depiction of a starry night! How curious! The bear was easily over twenty feet tall, with some very respectable claws and fangs. And it was sporting the very annoyed and angry glower of a heavy sleeper that had been forcefully woken up before they should’ve been.
As its red eyes fell upon the whimpering manticore and the madly grinning filly, it was painfully apparent that the huge bear was pissed. And as it took a step towards them that caused the earth to quake and let out a loud and very annoyed roar that caused birds to start flying away in panic for miles, it was clear it was not above venting its annoyance upon those that had dared to disturb its sleep.
Din truly was smiling upon her on this day!
With a smile so large to basically occupy her whole face, Ganondorf sent Din a quick prayer in thanks. And as the star-bear roared once again, the tiny filly roared back in kind as she rushed past the terrified manticore and straight towards the beast that was larger than her family’s barn.
Dodging a massive claw slash that uprooted several trees, Ganondorf crouched low for a moment before borrowing from the Kid’s book of tricks and jumping on the attacking appendage. Using the massive limb as a foothold to jump further upwards she climbed the great beast and got closer to its roaring maw.
Dodging the star-bear’s second claw as it sought to squash her as if she was a fly, the wind of the blow caused her mane and the bow upon it to flutter madly every which way. Ganondorf kicked off the beast’s shoulder in order to deliver a very respectable blow right to the creature’s brow.
Falling back to the ground upon her hooves, Ganondorf felt her smile grow even larger as the great beast simply took two steps back, shook its head, looked back at the beaming filly, and roared in anger.
Star-bear could take a blow, awesome!
Ignoring the open-mouthed manticore all but frozen at the sidelines, or the two other fillies rushing into the clearing, the yellow-coated filly charged back toward the gargantuan bear with another roar of her own. The star-bear roared in kind once more before likewise charging at the filly, the earth quaking with each of its steps.
All the while, a smile never left Ganondorf’s muzzle. Her day was most definitely looking up!
“Of all the harebrained, reckless, moronic stunts you could’ve pulled! Why by Nayru’s eternal wisdom did you think that fighting an Ursa Minor was an acceptable idea?!” Zelda furiously asked as the three fillies approached the ruined remains of a once mighty castle.
“Ursa Minor?” the Wielder of Power couldn’t help but ask, interest more than piqued as she emphasized the last word while completely ignoring Zelda’s chastisement. For, if she knew anything about how the stuck-up scholars did things when giving their fancy names to stuff, there being an Ursa Minor most definitely meant there was also an Ursa Major somewhere!
“Why do I even bother?” Zelda asked herself, resting her brow upon her hoof in exasperation at the devil may care grin Ganondorf was sporting.
“Beats me! The Kid learned to just live with my antics lifetimes ago!” the yellow-coated filly truthfully replied with a shrug of her shoulders, gaining an annoyed groan from Zelda for her troubles. “So, back on topic, is there an Ursa Major then?”
The star-bear had been a really fun tussle, after all! Therefore, having a friendly fight with a bigger version of it was a very appealing proposition for the yellow-coated filly!
Sighing once, Zelda shook her head before restarting to walk.
“Yes, there are Ursa Major,” Zelda simply replied, tone of voice resigned. “And before you ask, they just so happen to be at least five times the size of the one you attacked. But they are exceedingly rare to find, even for a star beast.”
“Something to look forward to then,” Ganondorf joyfully stated, a huge smile on her muzzle. “Will have to try and track one down when I have some free time. Or perhaps I could simply wait for Teddy there to grow up. Star-bear has some spunk, so a rematch when he is bigger could be fun!”
“Teddy?” Zelda asked while giving Ganondorf an odd look, causing the Wielder of Power to huff in slight annoyance.
Naming had never been one of her strong points. But that didn’t give Miss Encyclopedia a reason to nitpick the name she gave her new starry sparring partner!
Any further discussion about star beasts and sparring were shelved for later though, as the three fillies turned a corner on the trail and reached the Castle of the Two Sisters proper.
“Huh, Sunbutt really let the place go,” Ganondorf idly commented, taking in the crumbled walls and collapsed towers. Her keen eye told her the holes and cracks had been caused by time and the elements of nature, not an attack by an enemy.
It truly was a sad fate for a once mighty stronghold, to fall to the ravages of time instead of blazing brightly in a final defiant stand against a worthy opponent.
“So it would seem,” Link confirmed, poking with a hoof a very unsteady-looking rickety wooden bridge that seemed to be the only way to cross the ravine separating most of the forest from the castle proper. The fact the light poke caused a rotten wooden board to crack and fall, all the while the ropes made some very unsafe sounding groaning noises wasn’t really encouraging towards the idea of using said bridge.
“Yeah, nope,” Ganondorf stated with finality after another moment of inspecting the bridge and deciding she wouldn’t send a bokoblin to cross it, much less herself!
“Agreed,” Zelda promptly replied, calculating the distance between their position and the far side before letting out an annoyed grunt. “And with all the wild magic in the air and my currently limited reserves, teleporting us to the other side would be an equal gamble.”
“Then we take the long way,” was Link’s simple reply to their statements, already moving by the side of the ravine in search of a place to go down. After but a few moments she found what a generous soul might call a path, with several places where one could grab hold of the rocks for extra stability.
Not that that discouraged the Wielder of Courage for even a moment, for as Ganondorf and Zelda had been inspecting the ‘path’, the little pegasus had already started to go down without a moment’s hesitation.
Trading a look with Zelda, Ganondorf once more shrugged her shoulders and followed Link. It sure as heck beat the rickety ‘bridge’, that was certain.
Update??! Seras said it best
Waiting on the scene where a poor little Shaman realizes what she saw was real and wishing that the schrooms were stronger
Hope to see the next chapter soon!!!
This is a great chapter with an early introduction to Zecora. Still, for a shaman, it seemed she could not sense who exactly those fillies are.
Hahahaha
Feral Appledorf is hilarious ^^
Writing Zecora is always hard, are you gonna make Ganobloom still see Zecora as a kind of mentor? Applebloom is an apprentice alchemist/brewer in canon.
I love that chapter title more than I want to.
Little disappointed we don't get much of Appledorf fighting the Ursa, but still a fun chapter. I love how Zecora just rolls with the "hallucination" when Sweetie Zel and Scootalink show up-- if nothing else, she avoided making a foal of herself!
I was just re-reading this story this morning so I’m glad your alive my friend. Happy to see this continue
Very enthusiastic walks.
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Indeed.
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I promise not to let it be even near that long again.
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Anything she may or may not have sense would be atributed to the 'srhooms.
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Agreed.
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Still considering it to be honest. I really like Zecora, so ways to get more of her are always a go.
Even if writing her well is pain.
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The title fits well, doesn't it?
And I considered, but in the end thought that writting more of the fight would just inflate the chapter needlessly since it would be just variations of what was already written.
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Glad to be back.
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She is even wearing a red piece of clothing for it!
Yay welcome back love your work.
This new chapter is great! I'm giving you six stars for doing a good job. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Didn't this story used to be like, much, much longer?
That was awesome!
I can just see Appledorf getting a reputation for her enthusiastic walks out into the Everfree, especially if she inadvertently chases some fleeing predator (or pack of predators in the case of timberwolves) out into the orchards and has to corral it back into the forest. Also....she's going to end up turning that ursa and manticore into skilled and experienced combatants if she does this regularly and routinely finds the same manticore. Heck, Scootalink may decide to join in on the sparring in time if Appledorf gets them to the point that they may be able to give her a bit of a workout.
Early introduction of Zecora is awesome, as she's a great character that doesn't get used nearly enough because of her verbal tic. I'm looking forward to her realizing that the three fillies were real and not a hallucination when she runs into them in town.
And the people rejoice, for there is a double update
You mentioned the Kid's old strategies, so clearly it'll go down in three while ramping up the complexity each time.
That was a joke. I should have known better, with how I commented on your depth of lore knowledge in the parent story.
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So Sweetie Zel and Scootalink knows Zecora is a shaman by a glance?
Well congrats Appledorf on making Zecora think she's higher than a kite. Also this very enthusiastic walk was excellently hilarious.
You're gonna want to get used to that feeling
That remains to be seen
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Good to be back.
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Possible. But I can't guarante it from memory.
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Thanks.
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You may be confusing it with my other Zelda story: The Power of Freedom. Its at chapter 26 and over 160k words long by this point in time.
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Yeah, her finding out they are real will be fun. I love Zecora, now if only it wasn't so hard to write her well...
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Indeed.
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I didn't get the joke.
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Zeldabelle, or as Appledorf likes to call her Miss Enciclopedia, could tell that Zecora's golden ornaments are usually worm by shamans.
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Indeed.
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You're welcome
The key to Zecora dialogue is to make sure each half of each couplet follows the same rhythm in terms of syllable count and emphasis. Saying her lines out loud to make sure they flow well can be a big help.
In any case, glad to see this update. Looking forward to more, especially what Ganondorf finds for her next sparring partner.
I think it could be quite amusing if Applebloom/ Gannondorf wound up with the Ursa Minor and Manticore as pets given her strength I could see them respecting her as an Alpha lol As to the scene with Zecora that was adoreable! I will wager had she noticed their cutie marks she'd have had a VERY different reaction lol
Demon god-empowered filly attempts to skin battlebear constellation, more at eleven.
Woooot!
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Yeah, Zecora's rhyming makes her hard for most folks to write well, but she's such an interesting character that her lack of use due to that verbal tic is really unfortunate.
Well now, happy to see you back, always brightens my day when this and your other one are updated.
That was a good chapter.
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Yeah, but doing so while keeping things so what she says actually conveys what needs being said and not sounding like gibberish is hard.
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Bring them to Fluttershy's pet dates.
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Just another day in Ponyville.
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Fully agree.
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Good to be back, and happy to hear you enjoyed the chapter.
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Thanks.
Reality is stranger than mushroom trips
I mean, why not?
I like this story quite a lot!
Instant Hellsing abridged vibes
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It is a perfectly good name for a star-bear the size of a building!
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Thanks.
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Indeed.
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Pretty much.
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Honestly, Roosevelt was badass enough.
I wonder if it's a super mushroom or a poison mushroom
Especially you have to deal with him during the Super Smash Brothers Melee when he's at level 9 computer he's a nightmare to beat
I Wonder Could That Be the Ursa minor or the Big Mama
Wow two stories update you're on a roll man and also probably been pretty busy lately so yeah but anyway so somewhere in the forest it looks like another creature arrived pretty earlier in the episode Zecora basically looking for anything new until she saw the manticore but instead of charging at her he basically passed her running away from Ganondorf ( Applebloom ) and she was pretty confused why the creature ran away from a child and she also saw the other two Zelda and Link ( Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo ) and she felt like she was hallucinating a lot after that it looks like Ganondorf finally caught the creature but instead the Ursa Minor attacked him which he was so happy to have an actual fight but Zelda told him that they have and Urgent to take care of first with that they left the creature and went to the castle of the Two Sisters which unfortunately the bridge sees Better Days so they had to find another way I wonder what else are they going to find I guess we'll find out next time
Excellent chapter had a blast with this one. I’m glad you’re back. And ya IRL stuff takes priority over pony fiction.
Am I correct to assume that the title was in reference to TFS Hellsing Ultimate Abriged?
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Glad to hear you enjoyed the stories.
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Indeed, you would be correct in that assumption.
It lives! Thanks for the update and good job on the rhymes!
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Thanks, they gave me quite the headache so I'm happy to hear they turned out well.
Congratulations on the continued not-dead-ness. :)
Though sorry things have been tough; good luck.
And thank you for writing!
And Zelda questions why she hasn't killed or mutilated ganondorf and then remembered they are friends much to her charging and so maybe Zelda should start learning some disciplinary techniques to punish ganondorf Tsunade senju style aka knocking his lights out or throwing stuff at his sensitive parts when he is being particularly stupid.
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Thanks.
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Ganondorf probably would enjoy such rough treatment. So not that usefull.
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Fair enough but why randomly transforming him I to different animals once she learns some transformation spells. I just had a thought would pinkie some how know how to brew potions and make and sell bombs and other stuff for some bits and will the castle of two sisters be a dungeon with nightmare moon as the boss and maybe a almagmation shadow bolt as a mini boss.
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Fun idea. But NM is at the moon right now.
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What about my pinkie idea.
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Her knowing stuff would be very her. But selling it not so much.
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*encyclopedia. Also have a fun snippet i just thought off.