Long Distance

by Ezn

Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Melvin lugged his heavy suitcase full of glass jars off the ship and onto the dock, looking around disdainfully as he did so. He'd heard a lot of excited chatter about the Lunar Republic, some of it from ponies he halfway respected. While he'd been careful to keep his expectations characteristically low, he was nevertheless disappointed at the state of Port Welcome.

"And I thought Hoofington was a dump," Melvin whispered to himself.

As he carried his suitcase out of the docks and down the town's main road, he made a few keen observations. The town was clean, if only because it had barely been around long enough for anyone to have the time to dirty it up. There didn't seem to be many places one could go for entertainment – unless one had a fondness for the elegance of scaffolding and the diligence of hard-working builder ponies, and Melvin didn't.

Builder ponies. Builder ponies, shopkeeper ponies, farmer ponies and sailor ponies. Melvin noted with that the town had an overabundance of earth ponies. This made sense to him, as no pampered unicorn would choose to live in such an underdeveloped hole and very few airheaded pegasi would care to live so close to sea-level.

"This place isn't even finished," Melvin remarked to himself. "Although that could be a good thing – fewer buildings mean fewer awful buildings."

Eventually, Melvin came to shop 16A – the place that was, under Melvin's care and guidance, to become the first international branch of Dragonfire Delivery. He had to give White Noise credit for getting a shop right in the middle of town – or rather, he would've had to give White Noise credit for that, if Port Welcome had been a town worth being in the middle of.

Melvin sighed. Perhaps you're looking at this the wrong way round, he told himself. Instead of looking at this town for what it is, perhaps it would be wise to see it for what it has the potential to become – under your guidance. It has the potential to become dreadful (well, even more so) under anyone else's.

"Are you Melvin the dragon, sir?" asked a dapper earth pony with a neat moustache.

"Yes, that's me," replied Melvin, regarding the new arrival with some interest. "Are you from the town planning committee?"

"Yes sir," said the pony. "I have come to present you with the key to your boss's new shop."

"You've got excellent timing," Melvin complimented. "I only just arrived in town."

Melvin presented the earth pony with his identification document, at which the pony nodded and motioned towards a key hanging around his neck. Melvin detached the key and opened the door with it.

"Thank you," he said to the pony. "I like your style. Your name?"

"Correspondence, sir."

"I think I'll call you Corr, for short. Have a good day, Corr."

"I will, thank you sir. I wish you the same."

Yes, Melvin thought. I can work with this.

***

The Moonchaser set down anchor at the docks of Sibwashie's hometown of Molaro in midmorning.

"Thank you again for agreeing to take us here," White Noise said to Ocean Glider. "I mean, I know it's quite out of your way, and I'm sure a trip back to Port Anchor could've been far more profitable."

"Nothing would have ever been 'profitable' about my little business if you guys hadn't saved me that night," Ocean replied. "Thanks again – especially to Sky. Besides, you guys weren't my only passengers on this trip – and hey, maybe I can even find some zebras who want to go to the Lunar Republic!"

A round of hoofshakes and promises to stay in touch later, the travellers and Ocean went their separate ways. Ocean would need to restock the Moonchaser before setting sail again, but it was unlikely that the four would see each other again for a long while.

"Come, I will show you around," Sibwashie told his friends, smiling widely. "A few things seem to have changed since I was last home, but it looks like it's still very much the same Molaro I grew up in."

The two ponies followed their friend out of the docks and into his town, looking around and sniffing the air as they did so. Sky Wave noticed a dryness in the air and was also struck by the town's lack of trees. Staring up at the sky, she couldn't see any clouds.

The town's buildings had been designed in a fashion that blended traditional Zebrican solidness with Equestrian flair. The squat, round buildings were made of tightly packed dirt, topped with clean, carefully-woven thatch and beautified with Ponyville-style painted wooden window frames and hanging signs. A few of the more recent-looking structures had even experimented with tiled roofs.

Sky asked about this, making sure to end her question off with "it's very nice, of course".

"Because this is a port town, we are more in touch with Equestria and the rest of the world than inland Zebrica," Sibwashie explained. "The builders and architects who grew up in this town developed a fascination with the exotic designs of your ships and your pastel-coloured wood."

"It's certainly a nice gesture," said White Noise. "All this town needs now is a marble tower or two, and I'll feel right at home."

Sibwashie balked at the thought. Like most zebras, growing up in a town of single-storey buildings had not prepared him for towers and skyscrapers, and he had been happy to leave them behind in Equestria.

"«Sibwashie!»" cried a familiar voice, shaking him from his thoughts. "«That you, bro?»"

The travellers turned to see an excited young zebra colt gallop up to them. He was wearing a pair of slick-looking sunglasses and a huge, goofy grin. The two features contrasted greatly.

"«Yes, Walene, it's me,»" Sibwashie replied, running over to meet his younger brother. "«It is good to see you again.»"

"«Mom and Dad are going to» FLIP OUT «when they see you! Who are these ponies you're with?»"

"«Friends from Equestria. I will introduce them to you.»"

Sky gave White a nudge with her elbow.

"He says he's going to introduce us," White whispered to her.

"Oh."

White Noise and Sky Wave smiled awkwardly at the newcomer, who looked them both up and down a few times. Sibwashie nudged his brother and whispered something into his ear.

"Welcome to our humble town, travellers from afar
My name is Walene, and I'd like to ask who you are," he said to the ponies, giving a small bow.

"White Noise," said White, extending his hoof. "Business-owner."

"Sky Wave," said Sky, also extending a hoof. "Part-time aerial performer."

Walene met both Sky and White's hooves with his own two forehooves and shook them both in a comical manner, causing Sibwashie to let out a chuckle under his breath.

"«Let's go now,»" Walene said, turning to his brother. "«You've kept Mom and Dad and the rest of us waiting for over a year already.»"

One hastily whispered translation in Sky's ear later, the two ponies and two zebras were walking down the dusty town pathway through the town and towards Sibwashie and Walene's parents' house. The two brothers chatted amicably in their own language, but many of the words they used where unfamiliar to White, so he didn't try to translate them for Sky.

Once they arrived at the house, Sibwashie rapped a hoof across its newly sanded wooden door. He was greeted by an older zebra mare, who blinked at him a few times, and then embraced him with a cry of joy.

"«Sibwashie! My son, you're home!»" she cried.

"«I missed you, mother. Also, I have brought friends from Equestria. Would you mind hosting them?»"

Sibwashie's mother's smile grew even broader as she released her son from her hug and caught sight of Sky and White.

"It would be an honour and a pleasure, for it is indeed my duty, dear son
To ensure travellers are well-treated and think fondly of us when their visit is done," she said, smiling widely.

Sibwashie couldn't wait to tell his family about all the new Equestrian words he had learnt since his last visit.

***

Sibwashie's family house was an L-shaped structure, made up of three distinct hut-shapes joined together by hallways. His parents and younger brother lived in one, his older brother lived in another with his wife and child, and the third was used as a lounge and dining room for the whole family, but only on cold nights.

That evening was not cold at all, and it was under the stars, in the family's yard where Sky Wave and White Noise experienced a traditional Zebrican dinner for the first time. And hopefully not the last! Sky thought afterwards.

The meal was made up of various different types of grasses, flowers and leaves, which, at first glance, weren't very exciting. They were arranged very artfully, and White Noise didn't scoff at them as he had scoffed at grazing before, but what really made them enjoyable were the spices and herbs that Sibwashie's mother had added.

Sky had wolfed down three bowls of the stuff, all of which the zebras were happy to give her, in keeping with their custom of hospitality. She thought the food was so nice that she asked Sibwashie's mother – whose name was Baleni – what her secret was.

"My recipe is a cherished family heirloom and a sworn secret between parent and child
Giving it away freely, even to a good and noble pony, would be an act most reviled," she replied.

Sky felt a little bashful after that.

Young Walene cleared away everyone's plates, and the family and their guests enjoyed after-dinner cups of tea.

Sibwashie's older brother was named Inkirenlo, and his wife was Juweni. They had a very young daughter named Ponli, who had been creeping closer and closer to Sky as the dinner went on.

While White Noise and Sibwashie's father, Makena, were in the midst of an in-depth business discussion, Sky felt a tiny hoof on her left wing.

She looked down and the hoof immediately retracted, jerking back to cover Ponli's face. Sky smiled at this and extended her left wing slowly.

Ponli flinched again as Sky's wing started to move and took a few steps back, before covering her face with her other forehoof as well. Oh no! Sky thought. I hope I haven't scared her.

"It's okay," Sky reassured Ponli, using her softest voice. "It's just a wing. It won't hurt you."

Ponli slowly removed her hoof from her face and stared dumbly at Sky. She was too young to know any Equestrian, so she had no idea what the older mare was saying, but she could feel no menace in her words and could detect only kindness on her face.

"I can move it, see," said Sky.

Sky moved her wing in and out, only twitching it at first, but slowly building up to the point where she was gracefully extending and contracting it. Ponli had removed her hooves from her face and stood mesmerized by the movement.

"I won't mind if you want to touch it. Go on."

Sky slowly extended her wing towards Ponli's tentative forehoof. The child looked at her for a moment, and then reached out towards the wing and gently laid her hoof against it. Ponli smiled at the softness of the wing's feathers, and Sky couldn't help but smile with her.

"She has never seen a pegasus pony before
We do not get that many on this shore," said a soft voice to Sky's left.

Sky smiled at Juweni and said: "Well, I guess we don't get too many zebras in Equestria either. But, if you don't have any pegasi, then who controls the weather?"

"Zebrica is a dry, warm country, without many clouds or very much rainfall
Griffons take care of farms and our magic changes the seasons, but that's all."

Sky remembered overhearing Sibwashie and White's numerous discussions about magic, and the nuances of and subtle differences between internal unicorn magic and zebra alchemy, but she had never understood very many of the words they used, or been particularly interested in the subject as a whole.

Winter Wrap-Up in Fillydelphia was her favourite event of the year. Sure, they used magic to wrap up winter in Canterlot and Manehattan, and there had been a drive to start doing the same there, but Sky was glad that nothing had yet come of it. Why let the unicorns have all the fun? she had always thought.

A little to the right of where Sky was daydreaming, White Noise was still deep in conversation with Makena. Their conversation had started with Makena asking White what had brought him to Zebrica, but had soon evolved into a discussion about business practices and the potential Dragonfire Delivery had to completely change the world.

"It's a shame you have to use dragons to make your message fires
The only ones I've ever met have been uncouth vagabonds and liars," Makena said gravely.

"Oh, don't worry about that," White quickly retorted, slightly taken aback. "All the dragons in my employ are diligent workers, and fine, upstanding members of society. Many of them previously served as personal assistants to students of Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."

Makena hrumphed thoughtfully and nodded ever so slightly.

"I will admit that I have only ever met one dragon, who lived in a cave
Living in cities and towns may teach them the right way to behave."

A niggling voice at the back of White's mind reminded him of an article in the Canterlotian he read a few months prior. It had been about a large dragon who had illegally entered Equestria and decided to take a nap on the top of a mountain. If not for the brave actions of a group of ponies from Ponyville, his slumber may have covered Equestria in smoke for a century.

That sort of uncaring, thoughtless self-centeredness didn't fit well with the picture of what a dragon was like that he had in his mind, and he didn't like to think about it. This, of course, wasn't helped by his group's recent encounter with a malevolent dragon, or Salty Seadog's story.

And I'm going to be waltzing right into dragon territory – scratch that, dragon ancestral homeland – with two friends and a bunch of questions, he thought nervously. It probably won't even take more than a week to get there...

Meanwhile, Sibwashie and his mother and younger brother were talking about the formers experiences in Equestria – especially the ones he'd had in the past two weeks or so.

"«The mayor of Bridleburg said WHAT?!»" asked Walene in disbelief, leaning in to hear the story better.

Sibwashie chuckled at his brother's exclamation and repeated the mayor's words. Walene's eyes grew ever wider as Sibwashie's story progressed.

"«Oh my!»" said Baleni worriedly. "«I'm not sure I want to hear any more of this – you've certainly managed to get yourself into some nerve-wracking situations, Sibwashie. Please be careful about that sort of thing.»"

"«It's alright, mother,»" Sibwashie assured. "«If I hadn't come out of this adventure unscathed, then I wouldn't be here right now, telling you this story. My job as a diplomat is going to necessitate me going into dangerous territory, you know.»"

Baleni sighed and gave Sibwashie another look of concern, before making him promise that he wouldn't do anything unnecessarily dangerous, which he did.

Little Ponli tugged at Sky's wing.

"I think she want to see you spread your wings and fly," said Juweni.

Sky noticed that something was off about Juweni's speech. Where's the second part of the... oh.

She suddenly remembered being briefed about this sort of thing by both Sibwashie and White. "When a zebra wants you to respond to them, they will usually begin a rhyming couplet, and it is your duty to finish it," she had been told.

Her mouth went dry. Gotta think of something, gotta think of something! What rhymes with sky? Die... no, that's horrible! Pie... no, zebras don't eat pie... or do they? Spy... no... try... lie... fly... uh... sky... Yes! Sky, that's it! It's even in your name, idiot!

"Sounds like a good idea," began Sky, her polite smile growing a little too wide, "I really like... the sky!"

Juweni smiled and nodded ever so slightly, and Sky breathed an inward sigh of relief. Juweni then announced Sky's offer to the rest of the table, and they all started looking at her expectantly. White motioned for everyone to steady their cups and mugs with their hooves, lest they be blown away by Sky's take-off.

"Lights, please!" White asked, motioning for Walene to turn off the outside light, which he did.

The group was now illuminated by the light of the full moon alone and would be able to see Sky's performance. There was silence as they let their eyes adjust to the darkness.

Sky breathed in and out, trying to relax. Being careful not to disturb anything on the table, or any of the zebras around her, she got to her hooves, spread her wings and lifted off, shooting up into the star-filled sky.

The whole town of Molaro spread beneath her as she ascended. She could see the little mud-and-wood houses, the few zebras who still roamed the streets after dark, and the cheery lampposts and porchlights that gave the town a warm glow.

Remembering her audience, she stopped herself before rising too high and swooped back down into their view, performing a slow corkscrew as she did so. Sky smiled nonchalantly as her mane flapped about her face while she turned.

On the last corkscrew, Sky tilted her head up and went into a series of loop-de-loops – an old classic. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her spectators. Ponli was especially transfixed by her flying, her pupils tracking Sky's every movement.

Sky slowed and straightened up. Flapping her wings to stay in a hovering position, she twirled around and around. One of her hindlegs moved to the side, the other stayed rigidly beneath her, and Sky spun around in the air, as if balancing on the vertical leg.

The dry air made her eyes itch, and she closed them for a moment. There were no tall trees anywhere near the house, so she wasn't at all worried about colliding with anything.

Once Sky had finished her impromptu performance, she landed gracefully next to the table and was immediately engaged by an energetic Ponli, shouting her head off excitedly in baby-Zebrican.

"She says that that was wonderful, and she wants to see more
But it's already long past the time I should put her in bed to snore," Juweni translated.

Sky smiled at her newest little fan, and she smiled back, reaching out to touch Sky's wing again.

"Wow, Sky Wave, that was a really excellent display
Where-ever did you go to learn to fly that way?

"None of the griffons I've seen here do those kinds of twisty-turny moves,
Their flight's complete purpose-driven, like zebras are on our hooves," Walene said excitedly, displaying a greater command of Equestrian than expected.

Sky blushed and told him and little Ponli (even though she couldn't understand) about her dancing lessons during her summer vacations in Cloudsdale. They listened attentively, and even their respective parents appeared interested.

"It sounds like this dancing has taught you patience and discipline
Perhaps a grounded version would be good to enroll our daughter in," said Inkirenlo.

"I'd recommend it!" Sky replied.

After realising that it was long past Ponli's bedtime, the ponies and the other members of her family soon found themselves yawning and discovered that it was possibly just a little bit of time past their own bedtimes as well.

Makena and Baleni offered Sky and White sleeper couches in the common room of their family hut, which the ponies gratefully accepted. They were perhaps not the most comfortable beds in all of Molaro, but they were free of charge and given out of a spirit of hospitality the ponies did not wish to offend.

***

"White," whispered Sky. "Psst – White? You asleep yet?"

"No," came a flat voice from the other side of the room.

"Uuh... me neither," Sky replied, shifting under her duvet. "Everything's so strange here – I swear there's a different smell to the air and everything."

A very soft sniffing sound came from White's couch. "Hmm. You're right."

"If things are already so strange and different here in Zebrica, imagine what it's going to be like when we finally get to Dragonia?" Sky mused. "Do they even have towns and cities there? I don't know that they do."

"My research shows that most dragons in Dragonia live in caves in the rocky mountains. They have no need for artificial buildings, apparently. Their caves suit them just fine, and if one isn't too their liking, then they just find another one. It's a very... different sort of society."

"Sure sounds like it."

Neither pony wanted to voice their real concern: whether or not it was actually a good idea to continue their journey to Dragonia, given all they had recently learnt. They'd been through a lot together already, too much for them to just turn back without completing their quest – the quest that had started as White's quest alone, but was gradually becoming shared by all three. But Dragonia was largely uncharted, and their safety would be entirely in the hands of dragons – dragons they may not be wise to trust.

The two continued their smalltalk for a few more minutes, before it died down and they finally went to sleep.

***

White Noise had another strange dream that night.

He was standing in an empty room. The walls, floor and ceiling were plain white, and there were no windows or doors. The room was perfectly square, and White stood directly in the middle of it.

He blinked his eyes a few times, and the walls began to wobble. Ripples cracked along their surfaces, and White heard a sound – almost like flowing water, but with a slight, grating edge.

The floor beneath him turned green, and then blue, followed by red. The ceiling mirrored these colour changes. Before White knew it, the colours had spread to the walls, and the wobbling to the ceiling. The floor's wobbling knocked him off balance.

He crashed down onto the floor, and with an echoing TSSH, like the breaking of glass, a web of cracks appeared beneath him. The web grew.

Soon the whole room was riddled with cracks, and parts of it began to fall away. As more and more of the room shattered and fell in around him, the strange, water-like sound grew louder. It grated at White's ears, becoming almost deafening.

As the din reached its grew louder and louder, White thought he heard a voice, screaming through the room and penetrating his mind. The voice didn't say anything – it just screamed.

White awoke with a start.

Sweating profusely, he tried to recall what his dream had been about, but found he could not. This dream was even more difficult to remember than the last one.

His body still wracked with nervous shivers, White lay his head back down on his pillow and tried to get some sleep.

Just as White fell asleep again, Sky mumbled something indistinct and shifted on her couch uncomfortably. She was having a dream about flying through a waterfall.

***

A Zebrican breakfast, as it turned out, was just as good as a Zebrican dinner. It was also made of mostly the same ingredients, with a few eggs and some toast in addition.

"I am afraid that we zebra do not have as varied a diet as they say you do
But I have bought some eggs: traditional Equestrian breakfast foods for you two," explained Baleni.

"That's quite alright," replied White Noise. "Sky and I are in your country now – we may as well sample some of the local culture and get an understanding for how you do things here."

"As long as we don't have to rhyme all our words," Sky added.

Sibwashie chuckled under his breath.

"The most important thing that rhyming helps us learn
Is not to speak thoughtlessly, or out of turn," said Inkirenlo, speaking for the fifth time since he had met Sky and White.

"Oh, uuh," Sky began, suddenly feeling very foolish. "I... uh..."

Sky smiled awkwardly and continued eating her breakfast. Inkirenlo's silence and stoicism intimidated her, but she figured he must not have been too bad if he was Sibwashie's brother, and if he raised the delightful little Ponli. Still, he was intimidating.

Once breakfast was done with, White Noise and Sky Wave decided to have a look around town, in search of some supplies and perhaps some advice about travelling through Zebrica. They asked Sibwashie to join them, to which he replied that he would catch up with them in a little while.

Once they were gone, Sibwashie turned to his family. "«It has been a great joy to see you all again, dear family. But I was not planning to stay here for very long. The success of White Noise's mission relies on my mediation skill, and so I must depart with him when he is ready to go. I will see you again later on today, and then once more, upon our return from Dragonia.»"

Baleni immediately ran up to hug her son. "«We'll miss you, dear. Please take care of yourself»"

"«I will, mother.»"

Releasing her son, Baleni thought for a moment before adding: "«And tell that pegasus girl she's a good pony.»"

"«I will, mother.»"

"«Just don't go getting any ideas about marriage or something like that! She's not that good.»"

"«I won't, mother»"

***

Princess Luna stood alone on a deserted beach. She stared out to sea, gazing in the direction of Equestria, thinking of Canterlot. Dusk was coming to a close, and the time had come for her to raise the moon.

While her sister encouraged large audiences to gather around when she would raise the sun, Luna preferred a more discrete approach to her celestial duty. She stood alone to raise the moon, just as she had done many years before, in the dark courtyard of the old castle.

Luna closed her eyes and slowly rose into the air. The task of raising the moon employed a kind of magic more closely related to the innate, mysterious magic of the pegasi and the earth ponies than the carefully-studied spell-casting of unicorns. Luna would ascend with a few powerful beats of her wings, and the moon would ascend with her.

The moon peered over the ocean, and the princess returned her hooves to the sand and admired it. Given an initial boost, it would continue along its ancient path until it was time to put it to rest and let Celestia bring out the sun.

To any other set of eyes, the moon's silvery light alone would have been visible on the water, but Luna saw another light, made visible by her glowing horn. The moon basked the island in a soft, purple mist that wafted lazily along the ground. Cocking her ears, Luna fancied she could hear the plants growing around her.

She suddenly felt very tired. The princess was reminded that she had not yet regained all of her power. Raising the moon was getting easier, but it still took a lot out of her – a far cry from the ease with which she had locked it in the sky at her full power a thousand years before.

Her lack of power was also evident in the state of the purple mist. It was thinner than she remembered it being. Before, it had obscured the ground in an almost opaque fog, but on this night it was little more than a thin film, giving the sand a slight purple tint.

But it was something, and the people of the Lunar Republic were grateful for it. Everywhere she had been, she'd seen smiling faces and heard cheerful whoops, all in celebration of her appearance. Nopony was afraid of her, and everypony wanted to hear her speak and to compliment her on her beautiful night.

"My daddy says you make all the plants on our farm grow really really big!" a young filly had told her. "He says you do it with the moon!"

"THIS IS CORRECT, YOUNG ONE," Luna had responded proudly. "It is indeed with the MAGIC OF MY MOON that your LAND'S HARVEST is the most BOUNTIFUL IN ALL THE WORLD!"

The filly had been so excited by Luna's reply that she had run off to tell all her friends about her short audience with the princess. She'd been too excited to even say goodbye to Luna, but the Princess understood.

Later on that day, she'd received an overflowing basket of apples, pears, oranges and other assorted fruits from a stout shopkeeper with a luxurious moustache.

"Zis is a gift, your Highness, a gift for you!" he had said, his eyes twinkling. "But it is actually a gift from you. A gift from you to yourself! For vithout your powerful magic, fruits of zese sizes would not grow! I thank you, your Majesty, I thank you on behalf of all Lunar Republicans. For ze New Lunar Republic!"

Luna had heard a few grumbles of dissent among her government-hired bodyguards at the pony's parting words. Party politics was very new to her, and she wasn't sure she liked it.

Although the governor had conspicuously avoided mentioning the upcoming elections, Princess Luna had managed to discover that they were scheduled for less than two weeks after her arrival. Since she planned to tour the island for a month, she would be there for the election.

And I'll be here after the election as well, she thought to herself. I wonder who's going to get elected? Will Grain Harvest stay on as governor, or will there be somepony else? What if another party gets elected? I should ask somepony...

Princess Luna decided that she would need to pay the New Lunar Republic's head office a visit.

***

"We'll be spending most of our time on the open road," said White Noise, poring over his newly purchased map of Zebrica. "I'd have liked to have visited Shangora, or one of the other big cities, but none of them are on the way. In fact, there don't seem to be an awful lot of zebra settlements along the road to Skandar's Pass at all."

The map's crisp brown surface had been marred with a dashed red line leading from Molaro to a gap in Dragonia's formidable cliffs, known as Skandar's pass. Sibwashie had mentioned earlier that Skandar's Pass was among the only safe routes into Dragonia available to non-fliers.

"The stories tell us that the dragons chose their mountainous, isolated homeland out of a desire to be left alone," he had explained. "In the old days, dragons would swoop down from their nests to catch unsuspecting zebras. That's why there aren't many towns nearby – dragons may not eat zebras and ponies anymore, but the subconscious fear persists."

After stocking up on some necessary provisions at the local shops and bidding a long farewell to Sibwashie's family, the travellers set their sights upon the dusty road that would lead them to their destination. They set out in the middle of the afternoon, having timed their departure so that they would make it to a roadside inn a little while after sundown.

The three trotted along the road at a leisurely pace, staring across the flat plains that extended past the horizon. The long grass that grew on either side of the road swayed in the gentle breeze. To the north, they could just see the cliffs of Dragonia. The sun set behind them as they inched further north-east.

Comments

[nemryn]

Little baby zebra!
D'aawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

[TheLunarArmy]

great chap, 'ol chap.

[Ezn]

22145
I'm glad you're enjoying it!

44268
Yeah, there need to be more zebras in the show proper

[Literature]

There need be more babby zebras.

[LittleSallyDigby]

Between Twilight's monster problems and White Noise's freaky dreams since the hydra-cerberus incident, I can't help thinking there might be a reason nobody's ever tried severing their entire supply of magic before...

Sibwashie's family is pretty great. I like his mother; behind the language barrier, at least, she seems to be one of those no-nonsense Jewish mother types, which is amusing.

Oh, and Melvin seems... kind of creepy at this point. I wonder if the presence of a Princess on the island will calm down his apparent ambition or just increase it...