This was all wrong.

Strider quickly took a few steps back to brace against a tree as three Shadows moved towards him. They were being oddly cautious after he put down five others, and they were moving to surround him as much as possible.

The moment they were spread out enough for his tastes, he lunged for the one on his right, flared wings flapping hard to propel him towards his target. He twisted to avoid a tendril launched at him, and dug his hoofblade deep into the creature, tearing upwards and burning a large section of the Shadow away as the blade sliced through it.

He watched the Shadow roar and crumble from the flames, then directed his attention to the other two. A quick conjuration in his head brought flames to his free hoof, and he threw the ball of fire at one of them while rushing the other. One went down, the other followed with a clean cut across what probably counted as the Shadow's head.

He took a moment to take a few deep breaths to steady himself, stepping towards the lure he'd set off. The black ball of magic pulsated and let off waves of arcane energy, rich with the spirit of its creator, Princess Luna.

This was completely out-of-character for Wild Shadows. All of his previous experience said so! Shadows were slow, aimless creatures until a pony, gryphon or what-have-you gets close. Then they zone in and try to consume them and make another Shadow. They never worked together, they never formed tactics!

He braced himself as the underbrush began to rustle again, the familiar whisperings and hisses of Shadows getting louder as they all got closer. He turned to face them, only to hear more coming from behind him. His ears swiveled to track the ones behind him while he readied his weapon for the ones closest to him.

More sounds could be heard, on his right and on his left. A minor feeling of panic rushed through him when he realized that he was surrounded now, and he rapidly began to think about how he could even things out.

The answer came in a quick conjuration of a ball of fire. Instead of throwing it, he held on to it and aimed it to his right, spewing flames at the underbrush and setting the greenery and a few trees ablaze. He hoped this would be done fast enough to make dousing the flames out a small issue.

He quickly repeated the action on his left side, just in time to see six Shadows rushing towards him from his front. Another eight were coming from behind, just seconds later. A series of tendrils reached out for him, and he firmly beat his wings to one side, dodging to his left just inches from getting cut up and ensnared by one of them. A quick swing of his hoofblade deflected another one.

He took a brief instant to gauge those coming from behind him. They were moving fast, far too fast for what was normal. He had to adjust. A few more firm flaps of his wings brought him near one of the walls of fire he'd created, his free hoof quickly forming another ball of flame for him to use. He pulled more from the untamed wilderness around him. More energy, more magic, more power! The lure was too close to his targets, but he had to risk it.

Trying to put as much distance between the lure and the impending explosion, he tossed the ball in an upward arc. It landed directly behind the first six Shadows, the flames erupting outwards in an explosion that vaporized all of them...along with the lure.

"Dammit!" he barked as he ducked and dove to the side, away from a tendril aiming for his head.

He was starting to feel the strain. His body was running hot already, and small aches were welling up in his limbs from his magic use. Even though he was surrounded by a vast wealth of naturally occurring magical energies, there was always some part of the caster that went with the spell itself, and his body wasn't responding well to it.

He quickly took stock of the new batch of Shadows coming his way. Twelve more? It hadn't-oh. Right, he was using the flames to funnel the ones from the sides into one opening or the other.

A quick glance to the other 'entrance' to his semi-open area confirmed that they were out to surround him. They were being more cautious now, far as he could tell, trying to keep their distance as they circled around him more.

He readied his hoofblade and steadied himself, then lunged at the first twelve, dodging and weaving between swipes of tendrils and small dark magic bursts.

He ran on his hindlegs while using his wings to make small adjustments and quickly move around his opponents, but even then, there were too many for him to dodge around. A sharp slice across his left foreleg began to spread through his limb, his charge briefly disrupted by a Shadow he hadn't fully accounted for. Just as quickly as the burn began to course through him however, something deep inside of him canceled it out.

Two more slicing sensations prompted him to move and move quick, two more tendrils cutting across his side and his cheek, the last one having been aimed for the center of his head. He rushed into them and cut clean through two of them, then lunged for three more, hacking away until there was nothing left of them but a dissipating puddle of darkness on the ground.

He turned and readied himself again, taking a few steps back to give himself some room. He'd gauged their apparent maximum range, but they were still too unpredictable...he had to drag this out. He had to learn at least a little more.

Zecora felt the blood rushing to her head, but that failed to become a concern. This was a daily sensation for her, all a part of her meditation. A calm mind, and a calm body...balanced atop a fairly narrow wooden stick. One could only wonder how she managed the likely acrobatic feat to get herself in that position so high off of the ground, but that was her secret.

Her concentration was broken only when she felt something abnormal outside of her home. She had become so attuned to Everfree Forest, living within it all this time, feeling out the dense woods and finding so many new ingredients that one could not find back in the Zebra Nations naturally, most of the things she worked with now had to be imported for a rather high price back in her homeland, most of them being natural luxuries for their cost.

Of course, being a Druid helped in these matters, something she kept quiet about even to her friends in Ponyville. She had no doubt that she would never get another moment's peace if Twilight ever came back and discovered the kind of nature magic she could perform. Her secrets weren't meant for common pony ears.

Yet, she could feel it being used a minor distance away. She could feel the shift in the air from a large explosion, and the pain of plant life as their lives were rapidly snuffed out by an all-consuming flame.

Someone was burning her forest. With arcane magic, no less!

'A Battlecaster, perhaps? No, the concentrations of magic I've been feeling are far too weak for such a warrior,' she thought to herself while folding her body to one side quickly, flipping up off of her staff and quickly grabbing it in her hoof as she landed on her hindlegs. 'Equestrian Rune Magic then...likely a servant of the crown. I suppose whoever it is should be confronted!'

She set her staff against the wall carefully and grabbed her cloak, slipping it over herself and securing it around her neck. She could feel foreign energy in that same direction, quickly being snuffed out, and rushed out of her home.

'Regardless of their reasons, they are burning my forest!'

He lunged at the final Shadow and ducked a swipe at his head with another tendril, having adjusted to their fairly clumsy methods of attack by now. Sure, they had really far reach, but they seemed incapable of attacking with more than one tendril at a time. Lucky for him: if they'd been able to spawn even three at a time, he'd have been forced to run, and running to Ponyville with Shadows chasing him simply wasn't an option!

Before he could truly relax though, he turned his attention to the burning underbrush and trees on either side of the small field. The crackle of the flames had died down somewhat, but regardless, the destructive nature of the fire was still spreading. If he had taken much longer, it would've become uncontrollable. Sadly, it'd been a necessary risk, as far as he was concerned.

The smell of burnt wood and charred greenery filled the air, giving it a semi-sweet tinge marred by the burning sensation of the smoke itself. He sheathed his hoofblade and rushed around to the sides of the spreading flames while uttering incantations in his head, his wings spreading and lashing in strong slicing arcs that sent arcane winds through the trees and underbrush, cutting them up and blowing the flammable refuse away.

It took time and no small amount of effort on his part, but he'd managed to create a barren area around the flames so they couldn't spread any further, or at least, he hoped they wouldn't. Sometimes, wind could be fickle and unpredictable.

With the fires taken care of to the best of his current ability, he quickly took stock of his surroundings before taking the time to check his injuries. The cut he'd taken on his left foreleg didn't look so bad, he was bleeding some, but not an alarming amount.

No, the burning pain he felt in his side was far more concerning. He liked to think himself a rather hardy pony, especially compared to the lifestyle he used to lead, and he could deal with a significant amount of pain and suffering before caving, but that wound felt deeper than he was comfortable with.

Sure enough, he could tell at a glance that the cut to his side was far more serious than the other two. The attack had cleaved straight through his armor as if it were rice paper, the damage to his armor being clean and shaped almost exactly like the tendril that had struck him. Beneath the damage to his uniform, there was a significant pouring of blood, and he resisted the reflexive urge to place his hoof over the wound.

He had no potions, and even if he did, it'd been far too long already, the potion would have a minimal effect. He needed to get back to Ponyville quickly and get himself patched up, before the blood loss became serious. Survival 101: treat wounds as quickly as possible. Being caught in untamed wilderness with an untreated injury is asking for it!

He gave a cursory glance to the cut on his right hindleg, barely even noticing it compared to the other two. The cut was shallow and barely bleeding at all. If anything, it almost looked like it was starting to heal up already. He shifted his weight a bit to make sure nothing important had been hit without him noticing during his adrenal rush, then did the same for his left foreleg. They were both fine. He sighed in relief.

He evaluated the small clearing carefully, and headed in the same direction he'd come from. However, the familiar sound of hooves clopping over grass and dirt reflexively made him brace and shift into a combat stance.

He prepared himself for it being anything from a pony to some other variant of Shadow, but he was surprised to find a zebra running at him through the trees. He couldn't fully make out her face from under her hood, but the stripes all over her body were a dead give-away, along with the way she moved.

He pushed himself up onto his hindlegs and prepared to fight as she skidded to a halt mere hooflengths away from him, doing the same herself. A sharp pain made him wince in discomfort, his side throbbing in protest. He did the best he could to ignore it.

She seemed to take notice of his pain, and lowered her guard just a little, looking him over from beneath her hood. He'd definitely been in a fight. With what she wasn't entirely sure of yet, but there was a lingering feeling of wrongness about the entire area. Something that clashed with how the rest of the forest as a whole felt.

When she saw the burning trees in the background past him though, she glared back at him. "You intrude and destroy this home of mine? That is not fine."

"I...what? Wait, you're a Zebrican native?"

"What would bring you to that conclusion? You may perhaps be suffering from confusion."

He shook his head and relaxed a little, motioning to her with a hoof. "Only Zebrican Shamans speak in rhyme like that. Keeps your minds sharp if I recall, and it forces you to think ahead about the things you say to others."

She went silent for a moment or two, then nodded once, relaxing just slightly. "A sharp mind is a proud title to bear, much like the prestige behind the armor you wear."

"No arguments to the contrary there!" he said, at least a little proud of his on-the-spot rhyming. He motioned to the fires while dropping down to all fours again. "I did what I could to stop the fire from spreading. I assume you live in this forest? Not many people I can think of that'd want to do that, aside from a Zebrican. Or a Changeling."

She slitted her gaze and looked him over once more, then stepped back and dropped to all fours as well. "I cast off my shackles of tradition. Now why have you set fire to my home, Vesari?"

He fumbled with his words for a moment, the sudden shift of her speech pattern ever-so-slightly jarring, but moreso he was alarmed by the fact that she realized he was a Vesari. He quickly shook his head and forced a smile.

"I'm sorry, I think you're mistaken. I'm just a Moori, a Night Guard! Royal Messenger, to be specific."

"Then what are you doing in this forest? Setting fire to it? You were sent here to investigate something important, and you got into a fight, judging by those wounds. Such a task does not suit a Royal Messenger."

He looked down to his left foreleg, then shrugged. "Eh, just a territorial manticore-"

"I sense no manticore within half a mile of this clearing, and I feel a foreign magical energy lingering here. Negative, offensive to my senses. You are lying," she said, stepping closer to him and pulling her hood down, looking him in the eyes sternly. "And you are trying to avoid explaining why a Royal Messenger is conducting an investigation within the Everfree. Alone, and a mere Moori, or so you say," she stated, leaning in towards him more. "Try again. Unless you expect me to believe a mere Moori pegasus could take on a manticore on his own?"

"My training is quite extensive, you know." he muttered, but he was well aware this mare saw right through him. Any normal individual might actually buy 'manticore attack', but she'd gotten a sense of the forest. He was fairly sure it'd be impossible to really hide what happened. "...Have you seen anything odd in the forest, lately?"

"You are evading my question again."

"I can't give you any details! You think I'd do this because it's fun? I'm here on orders! I've already royally screwed up just by letting myself be seen by you! If it were any other place like Canterlot, I'd have knocked you out and taken you to an associate to have your memory of the last few hours wiped." he stated firmly, wincing a little as the pain in his side flared up.

She leaned to his bad side and took a look at the wound there, shaking her head. "That seems serious. Come with me," she said, turning and motioning for him to follow. "I can treat you at my tree hut. Then, you can explain yourself. If you try to do as you said, not that it would work," she stated simply, pulling her hood back up. "I will kill you."

He had started to walk along with her, but he froze in place for a moment at that. Her body language was...strange. Normally ponies gave off signs, subtle signs of muscle tension when threatening someone's life. A peaceful lifestyle made it difficult for one to threaten to take the life of another without having at least some subconscious reservations. It repulsed the modern Equestrian.

She had no such reservations, as far as he could tell. Either that, or she was a very, very good actor. He sensed no fear from her either however, so he didn't much want to press his luck. Something about her casual confidence in herself intimidated him, like there was something just under the surface that he couldn't make out.

"Alright," he said finally, the pain in his side flaring up with every step, forcing him to limp a little with his left hindleg. "Do you happen to know what time it is?"

As they walked away, a single Shadow behind a tree watched them closely, a wide smile appearing on a near-featureless visage. It waited until they'd both completely left the area, then began calling more Shadows to itself in silence, all of them swarming over it and giving it further shape, becoming one with it.

Soon, a tall alicorn-sized Shadow stood among the dense foliage, its entire body writhing and molding itself into the shape of a pony proper, shrinking and compacting itself until it was only the size of a little filly. Its fur was black as the night, draconic eyes shining with a sense of mischief tempered by a kind of curiosity only a child could display.

"What a pair of interesting ponies!"

Almost noon. She couldn't believe Spike had managed to delay her for that long! Well, okay, that wasn't really accurate. It was more like going two days without a shower had kind of made her forget just how relaxing a shower could be, and she'd lingered a little too long. She couldn't help but be a bit embarrassed by that; taking forever in the tub was Spike's thing!

Not that she really faulted him for it or anything. She remembered how long it used to take her to clean under his scales when he was a baby, that was one of the first things she'd taught him how to do so she didn't have to spend hours scrubbing away! Dragons don't sweat because they have scales, PSH! They just sweat under the scales!

Ugh, she was getting distracted. Upset too, couldn't forget upset, and over nothing at that! She had to remember to keep her guard up within the Everfree Forest, something that should've come as naturally as breathing to her by now with her visits to Zecora long before staying at Canterlot for a year, but her mind felt so dulled and lazy....

Strange sounds could be heard all around her, but she paid them no mind. She remembered Zecora's advice, that as long as she remained wary and on the path, she would be unlikely to run into trouble. Unlikely, but not impossible...which was where the 'wary' part came in.

Guh, she was really scatterbrained right now. She was thinking in circles!

Who could blame her though? Not like she didn't just have some sort of fever dream...nightmare...THING! She wasn't even sure of what to call it anymore. It had felt so real....

She paused as a deep sense of fear sent chills through her body, from the tip of her tail to the tip of her horn. She let out a quivering breath and kept on going down the path, ignoring the feeling that she was being watched after a quick look around herself.

The constant aches and pains didn't help any, either. She felt so worn-down all the time without having to do anything, she could've sworn that her body was just taunting her alongside all of her other issues. She couldn't down aspirin like candy every day, so as far as she was aware, she just had to deal with it.

With her mind going every which-way, it seemed to take a lot less time than usual to reach Zecora's hut. Strange, she didn't think she was walking that fast.

"Maybe I should be scatter-brained more often....!" she muttered to herself, peering through the front window as she approached.

She was surprised to see someone else inside of the hut, looking directly at her through the window for the briefest of moments. She spotted Zecora rummaging through something at the end of her bed, and lightly knocked on the front door to get her attention.

The zebra stood up and glanced over to the stallion for a moment as he tried to get up, muttering something to him while waving a hoof at him before walking towards the door. When it opened, Zecora seemed wary for just a moment until she realized who it was. Her face lit up with a delighted smile and she stepped aside.

"Twilight Sparkle, so nice to see! Please, join us within my tree."

She didn't hesitate, especially since she didn't recognize the stallion sitting on a small stool next to Zecora's alchemy table. She saw his limbs wrapped in bloodied bandages, a welling concern pushing her curiosity aside.

"Oh, wow, are you alright?"

Before he could answer, Zecora spoke up for him. "He is fine, fine as can be! He stumbled across an irate manticore you see."

Twilight quickly looked him over, and winced at the patch of blood soaking the bandage on his side. "That looks really bad. Then again, most guards can't take on a manticore alone without a weapon. Even then it's pretty dangerous, or so my brother says."

He chuckled a little and shrugged. "Well, I was just fast, is all. Plus, hoofblades are a standard part of the uniform."

"Fortunate he was, that I was near," Zecora said, closing the door and walking over towards him, sliding an empty bottle off the table and into her hoof. "Despite his injuries, he showed no fear."

"Should've seen 'er!" he said, motioning to Zecora with a small grin. "Loud flashy sounds and some loud alchemical explosions, and suddenly the manticore's running scared!"

Zecora eyed him with her back turned to Twilight, just glancing at him sharply out of the corner of her eye, before turning to walk to her cauldron to fill the bottle with the mixture she'd been cooking up.

She didn't like lying to her friends like this, but she'd become accustomed to it. Clearly, so had this stallion, judging by how smoothly the lies rolled off his tongue. He made it that much easier for her.

"Indeed, simple methods can bring them down, all to save a Royal Messenger, scouting for the crown."

Twilight tilted her head a little at that. "A Royal Messenger in the Everfree? That's strange."

"Hah! That's what she said," Strider muttered, nodding in Zecora's direction as the zebra returned to place the bottle down next to him on her alchemy table. "But, yeah, it's kinda strange. I'm one of the faster fliers, Royal Messenger and whatnot, so Princess Luna asked me to do this since some other scouts have reported strange sightings out here."

That caught Twilight's attention, the lavender mare perking up a little. "Strange sightings? Like what?"

He hummed a little in thought, looking her over closely before recognition dawned in his eyes. "You're Princess Celestia's student, right? I suppose I can talk about it with you. Not like Zecora isn't already aware."

"Indeed, it's difficult to go on a gathering spree with dangerous Shadows stalking the Everfree," Zecora said, taking a seat at her dining table, closer to the entrance of her hut. "Please, come join me, my lavender friend! It's been far too long; our friendship is on the mend!"

She had to admit, it'd been a long time since she'd really spent time talking with Zecora, so at first her friend's rhyming confused her. It took just a moment longer than usual for her words to register, but when they did, she happily took a seat across from her zebra friend.

"Sooo...strange creatures? Shadows? What do they look like?"

"Well, they usually look a little like ponies," he tried to explain, silently endeavoring to give as few intimate details as possible. "But they're pony-sized black blobs, pitch-black in color, with beady white eyes. They tend to mindlessly go after people once they've been spotted, and try to engulf their prey with their own bodies to consume them. Kind of like acidic slimes."

"Wait, they're native to Equestria?"

"Well, no. Sometimes they get gryphons, minotaurs and zebras too, really they can crop up just about anywhere. For some reason though, they tend to stay away from more populated areas. They usually flock to less tame environments, like the Everfree Forest. You know, places where nature isn't regulated."

She pondered on that for a moment. "I've...nngh," she tried to say, only to try to work a dull ache out of her neck. "I've never heard of them before."

Zecora took a quick note of her friend's pain, and walked over to her table to grab a single small vial, and a larger potion bottle, working to ladle some of the brewed painkilling potion into both of them.

He shrugged a little and stood up from his seat, grabbing one of the pieces of armor he'd set on the floor beside where he'd been sitting so he could get to work fastening the armor to his foreleg. "That's not surprising. I mean, you're not really a monster hunter or a member of the Royal Guard, so you've probably never had much of a reason to learn about Chaos Spawn-class monsters or beasts."

Twilight moved to take a seat at Zecora's dining table, hmph'ing. "Are you questioning my scholarly pursuits?" she asked, looking over his armor for a moment before glancing back up at him. "I'll have you know I've managed to read more than three-fourths of the books in the castle's library!"

"Heh!" he chuckled, working another legging onto his other foreleg, before sitting down again and slipping the leggings onto his hindlegs next. "My point still stands. You didn't know what a Shadow was."

"I could've found out...." she muttered, rolling her eyes.

He stood up and started working on getting the rest of his armor on, frowning a little. "Hey, didn't mean to offend. Was just saying, is all," he muttered, slipping his helmet on, then working to try to get the main sections of his armor on. "Anyways, I'm here visiting Rainbow Dash, and I'm running a little late as it is, I think. I need to be heading back."

Twilight nodded a little, watching as he struggled a bit with his equipment. "In your condition? You sure that's a good idea?"

Her horn lit up and her magic took hold of his armor when reaching for a particular strap made him wince and hover a hoof over the wound on his side, his conscious knowledge of the rather open state of his injury conflicting with the instinctual desire to hold it in a primal attempt of checking and covering the gash up. He seemed confused for a moment before standing up again and standing up straight, waiting until she was done to relax and test the straps out.

"Well...thank you, Lady Sparkle! Didn't know you knew the intricacies of guard armor."

"My brother taught me how, and I helped him put his armor on back when he was just a recruit. Your armor's not all that different," she said, waving it off. "Like I said though, you're sure heading back alone is a good idea?"

Zecora walked over to her dining table and sat across from Twilight while he headed for the door. "A staunching salve to block bleeding pain will get him to Ponyville, right as rain."

He gave a quick nod to both of them. "Thank you for the assistance, miss Zecora. Lady Sparkle, it was nice meeting you! I should get going so I can get fixed up."

"Does Rainbow know you're out here?" Twilight asked suddenly, eyeing him closely. Something about him was off....

He froze for a moment, then shook his head quickly. "No, and I'd rather keep it that way, but I suppose she'll notice the bandages...oh well."

She leaned against the table with her weight resting on one foreleg. "Why wouldn't you want her to know?"

"Well, I just don't want to worry her, is all! You wouldn't want to worry your friends over nothing either, right?"

"I'd hardly call manticore injuries 'nothing'."

"I suppose, but to some soldiers it just comes with the job. It's not much of anything to me, not very different from gryphon claws, though the wounds tend to strike deeper when they land."

She narrowed her eyes for a moment, then shrugged it off. "I suppose. I'm sorry, I never asked your name? That was rude of me."

He turned more to face her and waved it off. "No worries! Name's Wind Strider. As I said before, very nice to meet you, Lady Sparkle! I hope to see you in Ponyville."

He blinked as Zecora stepped up next to him, holding out a bag containing the potion bottle she'd filled. She pulled the drawstring around the opening of it to close it up, then tied it around one of the straps on the side of his armor.

"Take this potion once every night, so your body will rest despite the manticore's slight."

He smiled a little at that and patted the potion resting against his side once, then left with a quiet click of the door sliding shut.

Zecora seemed to visibly relax now that he was gone, the mature zebra walking over to her seat again and slipping onto it. She glanced to Twilight, then smiled wide, motioning over to her friend. "Now that we have time, let us make this reunion sublime!"

Twilight, however, seemed lost in thought, her gaze locked on the door. If there was one thing Twilight was always bad at, it was hiding her emotions, and she was visibly getting more and more irritated. Eventually she stood up from her seat and paced a little back and forth, much to Zecora's mix of amusement and concern.

"What troubles you, my lavender friend? Tell me what has caused this pacing trend."

She was silent for a moment longer, then thrusted her hoof towards the door. "Why would he lie?"

"Hm?"

"He's lying about why he was here. Or maybe his job, I'm not sure!"

Zecora motioned for her to continue, her hoof idly rolling the small vial she had back and forth under her hoof.

"See, that armor he was wearing, it was way too heavy to be the armor of a Royal Messenger. Messenger armor's thinner and made of a much lighter and more expensive alloy that allows more high-end enchantments to make long-distance flight more streamlined," she explained, walking back over to the table and taking a seat once again. "That armor was thick-plated, like guard armor. It was meant to be taken into a fight, but not by someone that needs to maintain long periods of flight."

Zecora simply nodded to her again, smiling a little more. She was glad Twilight was piecing this together herself. She didn't like keeping potentially important secrets.

Twilight was on a roll now, her mind rapidly running through everything he'd previously said to her, that analytical nature of hers picking every little statement apart as much as possible. It didn't take her long.

"He seems a bit too muscled all over to be a messenger as well. Generally, messengers only train their wings while leaving their bodies lean and smaller than the average member of the guard. They become more streamlined than that. Not to mention I'm shocked that he got caught off-guard by a manticore and only came out of it with minimal injuries...no, he has to be lying!"

Zecora was almost grinning when Twilight finally looked in her direction again. She placed a forehoof on her own forehead, then smoothly ran it down her snout to her lips, breathing out softly onto it before making a motion as if tossing something gently aside.

Twilight recognized that gesture from many visits in the past. It was a simple motion, symbolic of casting off her verbal restrictions, her cultural requirements for her method of speech. It was only done for situations of great importance, where clear communication is paramount, or in the presence of close friends that you wish to relax with.

"Quite perceptive, though I don't think you would notice such things unless you were looking for discrepancies, for some reason," she said, then bowed her head. "I must apologize, but I knew the entire time that he was lying. I am, however, sure he could lie far better if he were not caught by surprise," she said, giggling quietly. "When I came across him, he tried that manticore lie on me as well. Needless to say, I saw right through it."

"Oh...well, why didn't you say anything?" she asked, brow furrowing in irritation.

"Because fortunately for him, I have great respect for the Princesses," she said, sighing a little. "And I am fairly certain he was being truthful when he said that his orders came from one of them directly."

"He said that?"

"Not exactly, but it is a fair assumption. One does not refuse to give details due to 'secrets of the crown' without saying far more than you intend," she mused. "But I believe he encountered something else besides a manticore. Likely many somethings."

She thought on that for a moment, before something occurred to her. "You mean those Shadows he mentioned, right?"

The zebra nodded once quickly, standing up to retrieve a couple polished wooden cups and a sealed bottle of water, uncorking it and pouring them both something to drink. "His injuries were likely due to their supposed 'odd behavior'. I have encountered them before, and I have never seen Shadows attack in a way that could leave such strange, clean cuts."

"So I was right then....I hate it when ponies lie to me like that! I'm Princess Celestia's student, why wouldn't anyone trust me with royal business?!" she half-shouted, banging a hoof on the table.

Zecora jolted a little at that, then looked to Twilight oddly. "You seem quite tense, my friend. Not just because of him. I saw you wince in pain when you rolled your neck. Here," she said, rolling the small vial over to Twilight while getting up from her seat. "A painkilling potion, in a smaller dose. It should take care of the problem."

She got up from her seat and went to retrieve her kettle and a few tea leaves, working to stuff them into a tea ball Twilight had given her a while back. "Now, just a small swig should do, so-"

She turned around just in time to see Twilight finish downing the entire vial. Her mouth hung open in surprise, while Twilight simply sat there, frozen as her eyes met Zecora's. She almost instantly knew she'd messed up, if Zecora's expression was any indication.

"Oh dear," Zecora muttered, walking over as Twilight nervously set the vial down. "You should perhaps lay down. Things, for you, are about to get profound!"

Twilight rolled her forehooves over each other anxiously. "I-I'll be okay, right?!"

"Very much so! You're about to be high as a little filly's kite, is all."