I could swear that the forest changed by a good bit. I mean, its technically always changing--trees and plants growing and all that--but I really did feel like the paths and vines of the forest were constantly taking new places. It was like a weird plant-based exchange program.

Now, you might be wondering where I'm going with this. Honestly, so was I. To be brutally honest, I was just starting to get nervous at the time. So yeah, rambling.

Why was I so nervous you might ask? Well, that's easy. According to Nightmare Moon, we had three hours. Three hours until daybreak. Soon the sun would rise, bringing about the bright, phenomenal light of day with it. And frankly I don't think the Everfree Forest sounded like a very good place to have a panic attack.

Maybe I was overreacting. Three hours was technically still a lot of time left for us to find another place to rest, especially considering the progress that I had hoped we had made in the past nine hours of walking. Nonetheless, I couldn't help but find myself counting the seconds, continually glancing up when I was sure that neither Nightmare Moon nor Chrysalis were looking towards me. The ever dimming moon, the stars losing their clarity little by little, and sky's loss of color from its wonderful pitch black into a dull and melancholy dark blue. Small details like that seemed to just pull a pit deeper and deeper down at the bottom of my stomach.

By now, I was almost certain that Chrysalis could notice these emotions of mine, seeing as I was the one tensing on her back. Nightmare Moon was probably starting to suspect something as well. She would glance back at me every so often, never really long enough for me to see much from her, but just long enough for me to notice.

Two hours. 59 minutes.

-------------------------------------

1 goddamned hour! At this point, I was actually hoping that the sun would come up already. The stress that I felt, paranoia eating away at my mind as the sun grew ever closer, was killing me. I just wanted to get it over with already rather than continue to feel like this. All I could do was mentally shout at myself.

'Calm down Jeremy. You're overreacting. Your absolute craziness has probably reached an all time high by now, and Chrysalis is probably ready to kick you of off her back and question your behavior. You need to be calm. Just... let your mind drift... and take a deep breath...

In...

Out...

In...

Out...

... It's not FUCKING working! I-'

"Sir Jeremy?" Nightmare Moon called, causing me to flinch at the sudden sound of her voice through my thoughts. I paused for a moment, forcing myself to speak. I just had to answer. Simple enough.

"Oh. Um, yeah?" Mediocre job, but it would do. Looking to Nightmare Moon, I noticed the look of concern that she had been giving me, an eyebrow raised in worried suspicion.

"Are ye feeling well?" I felt a small part of my mind buckle at the question. I ignored it and moved on as best as I could.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" Seriously? 'Why does she ask?' I think it was pretty obvious why she asked that, yet I still said it? I have to say, my mental capability is much less functional when I'm stressed. A lot like when I was trying to get the keys from that guard on the day of Chrysalis and Nightmare Moon's escape. Wasn't really thinking with all the crayons in the crayon box, if you know what I mean... that was a horrible metaphor, I'm an engineer for gods sake. You would think I would have gone for the tool box angle. Or something about blueprints. Come to think of it, I could probably have worked in something about meters on a measuring stick-

"Your skin seems pale and sickly." Ah. Yeah, that figured. My own anatomy would end up being the biggest piece of evidence against my assurances.

"Oh. Umm. I'm just... a little sick?" That came out more like a question than a statement. I was so tempted to slap myself for that. Thankfully though, and much to my surprise at that, Chrysalis butted in before I could make my situation seem any worse.

"I'm not particularly sure about whatever logic he may be trying to put together here, but I think that we should just indulge him and get it over with." How so very kind by her standards... "Nightmare Moon, go find him something to drink. We'll stay here until you return." She stopped her walk as she said this, instead just taking to looking forwards with an exasperated expression on her face.

Nightmare Moon wavered for a moment as she looked towards Chrysalis. Then, she glanced at me for another minute or so before ultimately nodding and heading off into the brush without us in an effort to find water. It was little more than a few seconds after she had left Chrysalis turned her head to look at me, her eyes narrowed in what I thought to be suspicion. Yup. She had definitely noticed.

"I'm going to be honest with you, so listen carefully since I'm liable not to do that too often." She quietly hissed, poking my forehead with one of her fore-hooves. I mentally took note of how surprisingly flexible she was to be able to do that while I was on her back, despite the fact that she had an exoskeleton, and rubbed the place that she had so 'gently' poked. "For the past few hours, you've been panicking for whatever reason, and I want to know why."

"... I have no idea what your talking abou-"

"Don't forget which one of us can sense lies and emotions. Now then, start explaining." The seriousness on her face would have been enough to make even the most hardened of criminals break. Then again, I wasn't a criminal--I think--and I was pretty much used to her 'serious' persona. If anything, the only thing that made me nervous was that the sun was soon going to start to come out into the sky and we weren't moving.

I spared a passing glanced to the sky again. The night was slowly beginning to become enveloped by light as the moon began to lower across the sky. That cursory glance, I found, was clearly a mistake as I looked back to Chrysalis and noticed the expression on her face shift. She had probably felt the spike of emotion in me when I had looked, since she was now searching the skies for whatever I had 'seen'.

"... What are you hiding?" She asked suspiciously, slowly bringing her gaze back down to me. As I opened my mouth to spout another lie out of almost reflex, though it was obvious to both her and I that it wouldn't work, fate had decided that it had seen enough of this train wreck.

Took it long enough.

Under consideration of the fact that fate could really screw me over if it wanted, lets just pretend I never said that. God knows I've jinxed myself plenty of times by now.

"Sir Jeremy, Chrysalis, come hither, swiftly!" I flinched at the mental calls of Nightmare Moon, once again being scared by her sudden intrusion into my mind. I really needed to work out some way for me to figure out how to know that was coming. This wasn't good for my blood pressure.

"What is it?" I heard Chrysalis return to Nightmare Moon through the mental link. I hadn't realized that this was a three-way conversation. So yeah, that was brilliant. Because I definitely wanted the changeling who had just been questioning me to be inside my head now.

"We have discovered something that may prove to be of great interest. Both of your presences are asked for, immediately!" I wouldn't really say that she was asking, per se, more demanding, but I thought nothing of it. Besides, this could prove to be good news. It was already good in that it took Chrysalis' attention off of me, if even for a moment, so hey I'd take it.

"Alright Nightmare Moon, we're heading towards you now." I... 'thought' back? Well, it had seemed to work, seeing as the presence of Nightmare Moon quickly left my mind, along with that of Chrysalis. The two of us, as such, were left in a bit of an awkward situation as we stared at one another.

"... Don't think this conversation is over yet." I couldn't help but to smirk ever slightly at this small victory, Chrysalis already starting to walk deeper into the brush where Nightmare Moon had gone. As we did so, the forest's canopy grew to be thicker, enveloping the two of us in an even greater darkness than we had been in before. Even the small portions of light that were beginning to draw forth from the skies above were almost completely blotted out.

Chrysalis stumbled for a moment, a confused look on her face as she glanced back to me.

If I had to guess, my sudden feelings of glee threw her off by just a bit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Truly, I could only wonder as to the sudden change in condition as Sir Jeremy had shown. As I glanced around my left and right, I found myself continually recalling the paleness of his being. How every time I would look back to him, he would seem to be in worse condition than before.

How was I to respond to this? Had the scratches that he had gotten in our trek allowed for some form of infection? Perhaps it was the water we had earlier given him? Or the berries? There simply had to be something that we had done wrong. Something that had risked the health of our savior, Jeremy.

Our friend, Jeremy.

I would repeat that word over and over in my mind, never ceasing to find joy from the thought. To have found a friend in Sir Jeremy was to find a friend at all. Nopony had previously attempted to become my companion during my time as Princess Luna, least of all during my reign as Nightmare Moon, who had not simply wanted something in return. Yet he was willing to do so for nothing in return. Less even! Even now, as I continue to numb his ever growing pain despite the distance that had grown between us two, I continued to sense an odd sensation of unwillingness. It was faint, but it was as though he was unknowingly telegraphing to me that he did not feel it correct to allow me to 'waste' my ever so limited amount of magic upon him. Perhaps all the time I had spent communicating with him through his mind in our incarceration had left a residual effect of sorts.

Nonetheless, I could not lose him, my one true companion, so soon after the several centuries of perpetual loneliness and misery that I had felt. I could feel my slightly weighted pace quicken, my resolve empowered as I sought out whatever I could to assist Sir Jeremy.

I would not lose a friend. No matter the cost.

However, I cannot ignore the odd feeling that accompanies the thought of my companion. Alongside joy, I could also feel guilt, sadness, and for some reason an emotion that I could not identify so easily.

It was odd, but not unbearable.

Passing by yet another of the large and corrupted trees of the Everfree, I paused. For just a moment, there had been a break in the usually constant forest. This was not something that would naturally occur in this place, what with its chaotic nature, so suffice to say that I grew curious as to what I had seem.

Before I knew it, I found myself pushing aside the several layers of brush that limited my view through the opening with my forehooves, so as not to divert any of my magic away from Sir Jeremy. My eyes narrowed as I attempted to gain a better sight of what was ahead of me.

What I saw shocked me, for a lack of better words. However, parallel to this shock, I felt a slight sense of excitement, a smile coming to my face as I realized what was in front of me.

Before me was an oddly shaped and slightly wilted tree, its branches seemingly stretched and bent into elegant curves rather than the sharp angles of the many others that surrounded it. Its roots pronounced themselves from the ground, showing off its size and sturdiness even further still. It was a healthy brown, yet oddly dreary at the same time, with dark green leaves and a size that was nearly double that of the other forms of foliage surrounding it. What had made it especially interesting though were the holes that had been shaped into it, revealing a hollow inside to the great tree. Candles were visible through these openings, their short-reaching lights adding only slight visibility to the interior of the tree's hollow insides. Finally, a red oak door was seemingly built into the trunk of the tree and allowing for the entrance of ponies of all shapes and sizes.

To many other ponies, this would seem like the simple eccentric abode of somepony in the forest. To me though, I saw more than that. I saw a shelter for myself and my companions.

Swift as the stars, I quickly opened a mental link with the other two accompanying members of my party.

"Sir Jeremy, Chrysalis, come hither, swiftly!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took no more than a couple of minutes for us to reach the alicorn, and by then we could clearly see her 'hiding' behind a bush. She was glancing over the top of the plant every so often, apparently not having yet noticed us.

Oh, and by 'hiding', I had meant that she and her mane could easily have been seen behind the brush by any pony who might have happened to pass by, flowing back and forth ethereally and quite easily showing itself over the green with its midnight blue. It was amusing yet rather tedious to watch. For such a 'powerful' being, she certainly had the tendency of acting like an inexperienced foal.

"Nightmare Moon? What are you doing?" Jeremy asked, clearly struggling to withhold a laugh at the sight that was before him. Nightmare Moon quickly shifted her gaze towards us, Jeremy's voice having finally alerted her of our arrival, and smiled before gesturing for us to come over to where she was. I rolled my eyes before reluctantly doing as she had asked and moving to her left. As I stood there though, she continued to gesture at me to get down.

I was not going to lay on the ground next to her. At least, that was the plan until she put a hoof on my back, just behind where Jeremy sat, and forced me down. I let out a small grunt as my underside hit the floor, looking towards her with narrowed eyes which she so promptly returned.

I could hear Jeremy's chortling clearly through our silent debate, him having found it amusing for us two to be acting like this. His chortling was cut short however, much to my thankfulness and slight confusion, as he was then put into an oddly thought filled moment of silence.

"Is... Is that?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Geez. These two would never quit would they?

When Nightmare Moon had told us to make our way over to her, I certainly wasn't expecting to see a crouched and, rather poorly hidden, Nightmare Moon. I also hadn't expected her to force Chrysalis into a similar position to her side, the two now staring daggers at one another.

The fact that they didn't notice that I was still much more easily visible over the brush, since I hadn't made an attempt to hide and I'd been on Chrysalis' back, was beyond me. I figure they were too distracted with abhorring one another to really care to notice me, and personally I didn't really mind for now.

I continued to chuckle at the sight as I looked over the brush, trying to see what had Nightmare Moon so worked up.

I found myself staring blankly at what I saw, never possibly having imagined what was before me at this moment.

"Is... Is that?" I found myself mumbling as I stepped off of Chrysalis' back. I hardly slowed down as I made my way past the small collection of bushes the other two had been hiding behind, looking over every detail that I could see of the small tree house while a small sense of hopefulness tingled at the back of my mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis watched on in confusion as Jeremy began to circle around the tree, looking it over and under in his own attempts to confirm his suspicions. Though the two mares were less than aware of the purpose of his actions, Jeremy could feel a sense of giddiness building as he quickly realized just what Nightmare Moon had found. Or, if they were fortunate, who she had found.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Ha! What are the odds?" I silently exclaimed, my lips curving into a smile as I looked back to Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis. I was probably making an absolute fool of myself, if the expressions of confusion on the two's faces were anything to go by, walking around a single tree like a mad man possessed. I couldn't really care less at this point though.

"Is the shelter satisfactory, Sir Jeremy?" My smile wavered for a moment as Nightmare Moon sent over this thought to me. Once more, it took me by surprise.

"Nightmare Moon, you have no idea how great this is!" I returned to her happily, turning back to the hollow tree in front of me. "This isn't just any house that you found. This is an old friend's house!"

"And how does that make a difference?" Chrysalis chimed in, causing me to flinch at her sudden intrusion to the mental conversation. Honestly though, there had to be an easier way for me too figure out who was in our mental conversations and when.

"You'll see." I answered before mirthfully making my way to the front door of the house as I did so. "Both of you wait out here for now. I'll call you when you can come in."

"What!?!" Chrysalis suddenly yelled as I futilely recoiled to the side in an effort to escape the sudden ringing in my ears. "You expect us to wait out here for you? How can we be sure that you'll even call for us at all?" Glad to see that she's as untrusting as ever.

Glancing back to her with a blank face, I gave her the one response that I could think of. One that I knew would both answer her question and annoy the hell out of her.

"You can't."

And with that, I knocked.

Seconds later, I could hear movement beyond the door, silently willing it to open as I once more realized just how short of a time there was before the sun finally rose. Fortunately, despite the twitching I was starting to feel as a result of my nerves, the door soon opened and graced me with a pleasant sight.

A small smile graced me as I saw my old friend, Zecora. Granted, she was currently rubbing the grogginess out of her eyes at the moment, but still.

"Do not take this as spite, but who has visited me this late at night?" She asked. Ah yes, her rhyming. Good to see that she still does that. A lot. Not that I find anything wrong with it, mind you, but its still pretty strange if you're not used to it like I am.

"Actually, its technically day, Zecora." Zecora's eyes shot open at the sound of my voice. She looked at me for a moment, her eyes wide and mouth agape in surprise, before shortly after gaining a much more cheerful and smiling expression.

"Ah, Jeremy, my old friend! It is good to see you to no end." The exhaustion that had been imbedded into her voice seemed to vanish within an instant. I could only chuckle at this admittedly heartwarming scene.

What? She was a really good friend, okay?

"It's good to see you too Zecora." I returned. "Mind if I come in?" In my head, I was mumbling 'please say yes' over and over again. I could already start to see the silhouttes of those ponies in torchlight again. I was starting to lose it.

"I think that I have showed, that you are always welcome in my abode." She replied before sidestepping to her left, gesturing for me to enter with a smile of her own. I was rather fast to accept her invitation, every fiber in my being screaming at me as though the sun was actively hunting me down.

As she closed the door behind me, I caught a glance of Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis. The two were still hiding in the bushes that I had left them in. They were both watching me, be it with annoyance or worry in their eyes. Just before the door closed though, I gave them a reassuring nod. Then, I turned my attention back to my host.

She made her way past me to one of the several rooms in the house. As for me, I simply glanced around the familiar tree that I had once roomed in. Its funny actually how some time ago, I would complain to Zecora that this place was way too dark for its own good, save for a few specific spots. Yet, here we are, that darkness suddenly seeming like the most comforting piece of scenery in the home.

"I am going to make some tea. Would you like to have some with me?" She asked from the other room.

"No thanks, I'm good." I replied, making my way to the center of the room where a simple mat had been laid. As was had previously been custom some time ago, I sat myself down on it. I had a little bit of a struggle, considering my injuries, but the pain was all but nonexistent thanks to Nightmare Moon's continued use of magic. Might I add, by the way, it was more than a little impressive how she was able to keep this going even now.

A minute or so of waiting later, Zecora made her way back into the room. A kettle of tea was held up by its basket-like handle within the zebra's mouth and a couple of cups were balanced on a small porcelain platter on her back. How she and many other ponies could manage to carry so many things at once, despite not having hands, was beyond me. Hell, let's not even get started on how they sometimes managed to hold things with their forehooves. I could barely keep pencils on my desk back in my old office, yet these ponies could seemingly scale up 70 degree inclines with no issues.

Placing the objects that she had brought back onto the mat, she took a seat as well before carefully pouring the tea into one of the cups and placing the kettle back down. She catiously picked up the now filled cup in between both of her forehooves and deeply inhaled its aroma before taking a small sip.

Shortly after, she looked towards me rather intently, an eyebrow slightly raising as she did so.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

She took a moment or two to respond, savoring her tea before finally swallowing and answering. "Though it is good to see you after a time that only Celestia knows, I must still ask, what has happened to your clothes?"

Oh. I had somehow forgotten about that. A quick glance at myself had revealed that, yeah, most of what I was wearing was torn, tattered, filth ridden and barely doing anything whatsoever to cover me. Luckily, Zecora hadn't noticed the discolored and swollen skin beneath my shirt, let alone my more thinly shaped face. The dark had its advantages, after all.

Still, I had come here for a reason, right? So the first thing I would have to do, unfortunately, would be to explain to my previous caretaker as to what had happened within the last few months after I had left her home. Fun.

"Heh. Guess I've got a lot to explain, huh?" She nodded. "Well... You know how I told you that you wouldn't have to worry about me when I had moved to Canterlot?" She nodded again, acknowledgingly, beginning to take another sip of tea from her cup. "As it turns out. You should have worried more." She didnt react, lowering her cup and looking towards me with raised a brow. I'm guessing she saw the fact that something would go wrong coming. I didn't exactly have a great track record of avoiding getting into stupid situations while I stayed with her, so I guess that shouldn't surprise me either.

"You see, I was... I kinda... oh to hell with it, I got arrested." Turns out, she wasn't expecting as much as she thought she had been. Her previously calm demeanor had all but disintegrated, replaced by one of shock as she suddenly spit out the tea she was drinking. Its also unfortunate that I could now say my clothes were torn, tattered, stained, and now wet. At least it wasn't hot tea.

I wiped off some of the liquid from my face and just took the moment to stare at the now wide-eyed Zecora. She and I stayed silent for a while, both having nothing to say at the moment, before finally, her agape mouth shifted back into a smile, much to my confusion. Even more odd though was that she began to laugh.

"My friend, that was a very good jest." She chuckled. "Truly one of your best."

She thought that I was joking? Actually, no, yeah, that made sense. Even the stupid things I had gotten into hadn't been bad enough to lead to me being arrested as the next logical jumping point.

Shaking the thoughts out of my head, I looked to Zecora seriously despite the fact that she was still chuckling ever so slightly. Okay, lets try for the more direct approach.

"Zecora, I'm being serious. I actually got arrested. I've been in the Canterlot dungeons for the past few months."

Her chuckling still didn't stop. Rather, it was further empowered by my statement again. "Heh. Forgive me for laughing, but I simply cannot see that happening. You always did enjoy the average hoax, so how am I to see this as anything but one of your jokes." To an extent she had a point, but damn it if I didn't need her to believe me. Luckily though, I had a sure fire way to convince her, and it was right outside.

Time for the most direct approach I guess.

I sighed as I stood from the mat and made my way next to the window. I flinched slightly as I could see the moon disappearing over the horizon. "Alright. I was hoping to do this out of good will, but I guess I have to do it just to convince you now." A smile still on her face, she rose a brow at me and gulped another sip of tea that she had probably taken as I was standing.

"Girls, you can come in now!" I yelled out the window. Zecora's smile disappeared once more, instead being replaced by an expression of confusion. No more than a few seconds later, as I leaned against the window, there was a knock on the door. Zecora looked at said door in silence, not seeming to really process what was going on. I shrugged at this, went to the door, and promptly opened it up while leaving plenty of space for those beyond it to pass me.

Zecora's eyes widened once more as she watched the two rather large beings, the sound of hoof steps filling the room as they moved off of the dirt floor from the outside to the wooden floor inside. As the two entered I closed the door behind them, a part of me giving a shudder as I saw small portions of sunlight begin to flood over the land.

"About time. I was beginning to think you were just going to leave us out there." Looking to Chrysalis, I noticed that she was glaring at me while Nightmare Moon was looking over the room from her position near the door.

"Didn't I say that I'd call you?" I replied, raising a brow and giving her a deadpan look.

"Actually, I more vividly recall you saying 'you can't' when I asked you how we were supposed to trust that that you would call us at all." Her glare growing in intensity, I rolled my eyes at her, not really as intimidated by this display of hers as she may have thought me to be.

"Yeah. Basically, I was telling you to trust me. Glad to see that went well." I could practically hear her teeth grinding by now. Yet, before she could retaliate, Nightmare Moon chimed in.

"Um, Sir Jeremy? Perhaps it would be best if we put our focus to the situation at hoof?" Nightmare Moon suggested, breaking us from our annoyed gazes to one another.

Looking to Zecora, I was prepared to explain this entire situation as I looked to her face of... indifference. Yeah, no, she had one hell of a poker face on at that moment. "Wow. You're taking this better than I thought you would, Zecora."

Her emotionless expression remained as she shrugged, taking another sip of her tea. "My emotions are simple to hide. Truthfully, I am screaming on the inside."

"Practically for her life, at that." Chrysalis added, earning another quick glare from me. She just smirked though, not really caring that I was getting annoyed by her. If anything, I think she was proud of it.

I looked to my old friend and crossed my arms as I began to mentally look for the right way to explain this, obviously, concerning situation. "Look, Zecora, a lot has happened in the past few months. And I do mean a lot, as you can probably see." I gestured to two next to me. "But I don't want you to be afraid. I give you my word, these two are not what you may think of them to be."

Zecora took another sip of her tea, emptying her cup before finally setting it back onto the platter. With an almost trained elegance, she stood standing on all four legs once again and looked straight at me. Just behind those eyes of hers, I could see slight glint of annoyance. I recognized that look. It was a look that meant you were about to be thoroughly chewed out.

"I think that is clear, but as for my fear, I would say that it has every right being here." She began, sounding quite serious beneath her 'emotionless' and rhyming tone. "For you to say to trust the changeling queen and mare on the moon, how am I to do this so soon?"

"Zecora, I-" She interrupted me before I could get a word in.

"To expect such an upheaval from their evil?" Zecora's voice was beginning to raise, anger becoming evident in her tone.

"Woah, Zecora, they're not-" Yet again she interrupted.

"To simply misrule those that have been cruel!?" Okay, now I was getting annoyed, and by the looks of it, Zecora wasn't trying to hold back her anger anymore.

"Would you just-"

"So I question your word, for this is just absurd!" I could feel my own eyes narrowing. It was one thing to interrupt me so constantly, another to question my word, but as I glanced back to Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis, noticing hurt or angered expressions on their faces, it reinforced my thought that it was beyond anything for anypony to do than to so openly insult my friends. "Why should I trust her or she-"

"Because they're the ones that saved me!" I interrupted with a shout, completely throwing off and quieting Zecora before she could spew any further. I felt like it was poetic justice that my response ended up rhyming with her attempted statement.

A prolonged moment of silence passed between us all, not even the sound of the outside seeming to exist as we all just stood there, watching each other. Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis were now looking at me with an odd combination of confusion and thankfulness. Nightmare Moon likely from stopping Zecora's insults and Chrysalis from just shutting Zecora up.

I didn't really feel good about this though. Annoyed at her or not, I hated having arguments with my friends like this. Maybe it was just how I was raised, or maybe it was because of the fact that I had so few in this world, but it was almost impossible for me to stay angry at them for long/ It emotionally exhausted me.

I pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration.

"If it wasn't for them, I wouldn't be here right now." I finally said, breaking the silence. "Does that sound 'cruel' or 'evil' to you?" Looking back up to my old zebra companion, I noticed that her eyes closed in thought.

"... What crime did you commit, if to tell me you'll permit?" She finally asked, her voice coming out in a sigh.

"I wish I knew. All I remember is waking up in a small dark cell with Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis." Zecora opened her eyes looked up to me again, her gaze locked straight onto my eyes as she seemed to scan for any sign of my lying. After another moment of two of searching though, her eyes once again closing as she placed a forehoof over her face.

"I can see from your eyes that you tell no lies." She had a face of both exasperation and confusion as she looked between the three of us. "But why have you come if you are clearly on the run?" Ignoring the slight slip in her rhyming, likely from stress, I decided to explain.

"We got here by accident, honestly. Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis got me out of the dungeons about two days ago and we started traveling again last night. Nightmare Moon found this place and, when she did, I figured that you would be able to help us." Zecora held another moment of silence, moving for her tea kettle and pouring more of her cold, calming drink into her recently emptied cup before placing it down and looking towards us again.

"Since I am aware that you are going to persist, how would you expect me to assist?" By the sound of both the question and her voice, I could tell that she hadn't really leaned towards any particular decision.

"All we need is a place to rest until nightfall again." I told her. She raised a brow, grabbing the cup of tea with her forehooves once again as she took a seat.

"That is all? A decision to my call?"

"That's it, Zecora. I'm not going to ask you for anything extreme. Just a place to rest." She looked at me in silence for another moment or so before taking in a sip of her newly poured tea, her eyes once again closed in thought as she savored her drink. Finally, she gulped.

"Of the decisions that I have weighed, I have decided that you may stay." I let out a silent sigh of relief, happy that I wouldn't have to go out into the sun for another day, as well as the fact the three of us would have a safe place to rest. "After all," she added, a smile gracing her once again. "I cannot simply abandon my old companion."

I found myself smiling as well.

"Thank you."

Next Chapter: Chapter 8: A Friend Through These Walls [Here Again] Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours