"I must say, Miss Zecora, that this tea that thou hast served us is unprecedented in its taste!" Nightmare Moon told her temporary host through the wooden door that separated them. "Even the royal chef's brew would seem like nothing more than flavored water in comparison." She happily took another sip of the drink that she held within her magical grasp. She could just barely notice Chrysalis roll her eyes from the other side of the room, taking her own indifferent sip from her serving of the drink.

"Why thank you, Nightmare Moon. If you like, I'll be out to serve you more soon." Nightmare Moon's smile grew even greater as she heard this. She found herself almost instinctually nodding her head vigorously at the prospect of receiving more of the delightfully tasting brew.

"Oh, yes, we would be most thankful for that, Miss Zecora. But, we do believe that it would be best for thee to finish thy treatment of Sir Jeremy before thou dost so." Her tone of cheerfulness took a slight turn as she mentioned her injured friend, growing to be one of a much more concerned nature.

Chrysalis' brow raised as she noticed this shift, directing her sight to the door of the room that Zecora had taken Jeremy into soon after the three had arrived and Jeremy had explained their situation.

Jeremy, though he had never mentioned his injuries to Zecora, had been dragged into that room by his zebra friend quite some time ago. Zecora had given him quite the piece of her mind about properly treating his injuries if they were to heal correctly, as well as the stupidity of him trying to hide them from her when she could practically see him squirming in place.

Jeremy, of course, insisted he was fine. And he continued to insist up until the moment that Zecora and Nightmare Moon gave one another a shared look of understanding. He barely had any time to react as Nightmare Moon levitated him up off of the floor and into the room as Zecora had directed, Zecora smiling smugly to him as she did so.

' 'Tis for your own good.' Nightmare Moon had told him as he gave two a look of annoyance. The last thing Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis had seen of him for what would be a substantial amount of time was him rolling his eyes, grumbling to himself in defeat.

That was over an hour ago. Now, Nightmare Moon was beginning to grow worried for her companion. Chrysalis though had simply been laying near one of the corners of the room for quite some time, sipping on the tea that Zecora had so kindly served her every once in a while as she rested there with an extreme sense of boredom.

"You have no need to worry so, for there is not much left to go." The zebra reassured through the wooden door. It was at this point that Chyrsalis jumped in.

"Is there any particular reason that Jeremy has been so quiet then?" Chrysalis asked, blankly breaking her silence as she took another small sip from her drink as she turned her attention to the door as well.

"She took off my clothes! This isnt exactly the least embarrassing thing that I've done in a while!" Both Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis blinked at this.

"And why, pray tell, does it embarrass you to have no clothes?"

"I don't exactly have fur to cover myself, you two..." Another blink from the two mares. Before they could process the meaning behind the words, however, Zecora provided her own two bits to the conversation.

"There is little reason for you to feel degraded. After all, this was not the first time I have witnessed you naked."

"Not helping."

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

I was able to save my pants, but my dignity? Well, that probably wasnt going to be coming back any time soon.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a sigh as I turned my head away from the door, putting my focus back onto the room I was in and who I was in it with.

After Nightmare Moon and Zecora had so kindly 'asked' me to let Zecora do her thing, they had been more than willing to put me into this relatively small and stuffy room where Zecora would normally treat sick or injured ponies that would come to her, or at least wander over here. Mostly the latter though. Some ponies should not try to act brave.

The room was, like I said, small. I sat on single wooden chair which, at the moment, I was currently straddling as Zecora circled the bandages around me my chest. There were only a few things that were actually in the room that were of particular importance: A long table with a cover strewn over it, a few unmarked ingredients for Zecora's potions and brews, and a couple of lit candlesticks placed near the wall. Thankfully, the candles were just far and dim enough to not cause me any real issues.

I shivered as one of her particular movements caused the odd green medicinal cream that she had put on me before the bandaging to shift, its cold and clammy texture giving me goosebumps. I pushed it off as much as I could and melded to Zecora's careful touch as she continued to gently tend to my injuries.

"Well, from the sounds of it, you really are good friends with this zebra."

"Oh shut up." I called back through the door before mentally taking note of possible smaller forms of vengeance I could think of.

"How is it that you always cause me introspection with your companion selection?" That was a bit of a roundabout way to go about saying 'why do I choose such weird friends'.

"Look who's calling the kettle black." I returned with a chuckle. I mean, I chose for Zecora to be a friend of mine, and she wasn't exactly the most normal of ponies that I had met. Plus, she had happily chosen to be friends with me, and I wasn't particularly normal either by Equestria standards. The truthfulness of the comment seemed to have fallen on deaf ears though as I ended up giving a slight yelp from the bandages tightening around my bruised ribs.

She totally did that on purpose. I was sure of it.

"If you would not mind being lead, could you please raise your arms above your head?"

I did as she asked, sitting myself up straight as I put both of my arms up over my head. I hissed slightly as I felt a rather uncomfortable twinge come from my shoulder. Even with Nightmare Moon's magic, there were still some spots in particular that were a little more than tender.

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

When I had first caught a glimpse of my old friend's injuries, I had originally thought that tending to them would be a breeze. Though, the clear sight of these now gives me pause and distraught, as I notice just how my thoughts were so wrongly brought.

His very bones in disrepair, though not so easily seen with a gaze shared, and a trail of his pained affliction, shown by his blackened discoloration. It is a wonder that he could have made it this far, especially after being so horribly marred.

Even now as he moves, his pained grunts bring a stillness to my hooves. My old companion, for which even the simplest of kindness seems to have abandoned. To believe that the guards of the princesses could prove so cold, even from him I could barely believe what I was told. Or perhaps, though I do not wish to assume such a thing, it was the princesses themselves that brought this forth with a spring.

"Zecora?" Upon hearing myself called, I quickly returned from my thought filled state, a slight hope that, for this distraction, my friend would not berate. "Is everything okay?"

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

"...Yes, everything is fine. Though, I cannot help but think that my letting you go, and your getting hurt, gravely intertwine." As I turned to face again, I saw that she was holding a saddened expression. Her ears were pinned against her head as she looked down to the ground with a frown.

"What are you talking about?"

"... If I had been there, then perhaps of this issue, to you they would spare. Or if I had been more attentive, I would have at least known about this issue, giving the idea to assist you incentive. Or-"

"Woah, woah, woah! Zecora, you're acting as if you put me in that prison. Hell, if anything, I'm pretty sure that I'm the one to blame. Even if I cant remember exactly why, why else would I have ended up there?" Zecora didn't need to feel any guilt over this whole mess. That was the last thing I wanted her to deal with on top of everything else in this mess.

"... Perhaps, but-" I didn't even let her get to her rhyme before I cut her off.

"But nothing." Zecora's eyes were glued to the floor, not even willing a glance in my direction. Seeing her like this, I reached down with one of my two raised arms and playfully ruffled up her mane. It wasn't creative, deep, or anything like that, but it had shaken her out of her funk before. "Believe me Zecora, you shouldn't feel guilty about this. We both know it." I told her, giving her a small smile as I put my arm back over my head with the other. Zecora, fixing her ruffled mane as best as she could with her hooves, returned the smile.

Looked like it had worked again.

"Now then, are we done with the first aid or am I going to have to keep my arms up like this forever?" Another tug of the bandages by her and a wince of pain from me was all the response I needed to know that she indeed felt better. Though, personally, I could have gone without the pain.

I sat patiently as Zecora's forelegs circled around me, passing the bandaging from one forehoof to the other as she started to cover my uppermost chest in bandages. I shivered whenever the fur on her brushed up against me, but I didn't think anything of it. Zecora and I were, and are, good friends after all. Notice the emphasis there?

Back when I had lived with her, we had thought of each other as simple housemates. Nothing more, nothing less. And personally I was fine with that. Besides, it made things much easier. Like how she and I would take turns with the chores around the house, rather than leaving it all up to one person/pony. Dishes, housecleaning, laundry.

And speaking of laundry, I found myself glancing to the corner of the room where a pile of torn cloth and color that used to be a shirt lied. My pants had more or less survived everything, but my shirt? It was pretty much unsalvageable. It was too bad too, that shirt was specially made for me by a tailor in Ponyville.

"Hey, Zecora?"

"Hm?"

"Any chance that you have some spare clothing of mine that I had left here? The clothes I came here in aren't exactly useful anymore." As I felt Zecora finish wrapping the bandages together behind me, tying a small firm knot so they would be kept in place, I heard her hum in thought.

"... Actually, there may just be. Something that, in your rush to leave, you had neglected to see." I put my arms back down at last and watched as Zecora made her way out of the room without another word, likely to look for whatever article of clothing it was that I had left behind. This left me to wait for her in the room, alone.

Letting out a sigh, I crossed my arms over the backrest of the chair and laid my head down on top to try to make myself more comfortable. I took a few deep breaths, a sense of momentary bliss in the peaceful silence that surrounded me at the moment before I closed my eyes in peace.

It took all of about five seconds before I started wondering about stupid bits of random information, like questioning how the candles near the wall didn't just burn this whole tree down.

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

As Miss Zecora exited the room, a content look on her face, I could feel a smile forge its way to mine. I made to ask her how Sir Jeremy was, but by the time I had opened my maw to do so she was already in the next room over. The sound of shifting objects and opening cabinets audible were audible from where I sat.

I raised a brow at this odd event, looking towards the door that Sir Jeremy had been behind. My desire to see my friend was great, yet at the same time I felt it not to be correct.

During my rule as Princess Luna, many of the guards were proud, noble ponies, who felt that they should not show weakness if only for them to feel themselves of use. Sir Jeremy was similar in this regard. Throughout our trek here, he had always seemed to have that sense of overt independence to him.

To enter and see him now, while he was now even more vulnerable than I or the changeling queen had ever seen him before, I felt as though it would be more of a shame than a pleasure for him. It is for this reason that I stayed my hoof, content with simply watching as Miss Zecora returned with an article of clothing folded over her back as she went back into the room again.

As the door closed yet again, the sound of a sudden hum caught my attention. I followed the source of the noise with my eyes as the changeling queen, Chrysalis, watched me with a smug smile upon her face.

My eyes narrowed as I foresaw what would likely be an upcoming issue between us two.

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

Well. it wasnt the best piece of clothing that I had, but at least it was clean and comfortable.

As it had turned out, Zecora had been holding onto an old sweater that I had left behind since I had moved to Canterlot, keeping it in surprisingly good condition while I was away too. I never really wore it that often before, considering the fact that I didn't find much use for it in a warm place like Equestria where they literally gave you the weather schedules before it happened, but anything was better than nothing right now.

It was just a plain, gray coat. Not a hoodie, not a vest, just a coat. Granted, it didn't have a zipper or anything like that, but considering the fact that my only other option was to walk out of here shirtless, I wouldn't say that it's something that's too bad. Besides, considering everything else that had happened, it was more of sentimental value for me, and possibly her, than physical. It was the coat that I had come to Equestria in, after all.

It had taken some help from Zecora's part for me to put it on but it was more than worth it to have something covering me again. Granted, it didn't completely cover me, leaving the center of my chest and stomach exposed, but the bandages seemed to work well enough as an undershirt of sorts.

I leaned against the back of the chair and stretched out my arms, wobbling slightly as a sudden dizzy spell hit me like a bag of bricks. She looked at me with concern as I focused on trying to make the room stop spinning, but I waved her off, telling her that I was fine.

In fact, I was better than just 'fine'. Relatively speaking, I felt pretty great.

Zecora's medicinal treatments never ceased to amaze. Back when I lived with her I had seen her cure and relieve all sorts of conditions and illnesses. Though, about a good 40% of them were mine. Even now, as I stood painlessly in the center of the room, I couldn't help but to be impressed.

Soon, my focus finally came back, giving me a single, clear image rather than a blurred, multi-visioned mess. I shook my head once more to rid myself of the last of my dizziness before finishing whatever stretch I had been in the middle of. The series of loud clicks from my spine made it evident that I had long needed it.

I gave Zecora a nod as a silent thanks, smiling as I did so. A smile which she so happily returned.

"I take it that your new state causes you to elate?" Zecora asked, nudging my side with her shoulder.

"Gee, you must be a psychic. How'd you guess?" I replied with a lighthearted roll of my eyes. Of course, the response I received through the door was a little less than lighthearted.

"For Empress sake, are you just about done in there?" I swear, she is going to be the death of me. Or the very least, of my patience. "Now could you come out here already? I'm getting bored of having to insult you through a door. I much rather prefer to do it face to face."

Zecora and I looked to one another with raised brows, the sharing a look at Chysalis' behavior. Hey, at least she didn't seem too bothered by it, considering how she had first reacted when I introduced them.

"Geez Chrysalis, glad to see you care so much." I replied, reaching for the door handle and mentally preparing myself for what would likely be another one of our infamous 'wars of the wits'.

"Oh please! If you want 'care', talk to your friend for a while longer, I insist. Of course, you could always just talk to the other mare in the household. After all, she seems to care for you a lo-" The sound of something splashing and what seemed like glass hitting the floor rang through clearly, even past the door. I froze with my hand on the door's handle, both mine and Zecora's eyes widening. There was a moment of absolute silence, only interrupted by the periodic sound of dripping, as the two of us looked to one another. Looking back to the door, I took in a deep breath as I then started to open the it to the room the other two were in, expecting the worst.

Instead, I was given what was arguably one of the best sights I had seen in months,

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

My eyes narrowed as Jeremy started to burst out laughing as soon as he entered the room, that zebra friend of his, 'Zecora', quickly following suit. Meanwhile, just opposite of me, Nightmare Moon held a smug smile, and taking a sip from her tea as her horn lost it's glow and returned to it's previous state. I could already feel my teeth grinding as I noticed the challenging glint that seemed to float around in her eyes.

That mare had gall to transmute a glass of ice water above me and spill it onto my head while I was distracted! And now, there I laid, cold and wet with nothing but my burning fury to keep me warm as I looked to the three cackling fools before me in annoyance. The glass of the cold water that she had called forth laid flat against me on the floor where it had landed and miraculously not shattered.

Jeremy could barely get out a sentence as his laughter continued to plague him, putting one arm against the doorframe as he wrapped his other around his stomach. Though, I could barely register what sounded like him asking "What happened" between his fits of chortles and guffaws.

Granted, a small part of me felt impressed as I noticed that despite the condition that he had been in earlier, he was now laughing and bending forward with little to no semblance of pain whatsoever. But this feeling was quickly disposed of as my anger took over again, a part of my mind already formulating a plan of vengeance upon the night mare, and possibly Jeremy.

"... Ask her." I replied with as much venom in my voice as I could manage, pointing to the alicorn opposite of me. Both Jeremy and the zebra's gazes shifted towards her, giving her questioning looks as their laughs began to tone down to short chuckles.

Nightmare Moon placed her tea cup on the floor next to her, crossing her forehooves over one another as she looked to the two with a smile. "To be honest, I had simply commited one of the many 'pranks' that ye had told us of during our imprisonment. Do ye not recall?" She claimed ever so 'innocently' to Jeremy.

Chortling again, Jeremy nodded his head, looking to me with a raised brow though his smile had yet to fade.

"Yeah, I remember." I felt my eyes narrow even further as he said this, apparently siding with Nightmare Moon. Honestly, I don't know what else I was expecting. "Though, ice water is a bit much, isn't it?"

"Only if the victim is undeserving of such actions."

"True." The glare I gave towards the human increased in intensity, which he seemed to notice quite easily. "... You know, I'm starting to think that you may not like me." He commented facetiously.

I simply gave a low growl in return.

"Alright, alright." He soon relented, finally giving in as he gestured for me to calm down with his arms. "I'll go get you a towel."

"And be quick about it." I added. The human simply walked off and waved his hand back at me.

"Yeah, fine, whatever. But you're drying yourself off!" The nerve of some beings. Though, I suppose that things would be much less entertaining if he didn't have that nerve to begin with.

-------------------------------------
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-------------------------------------

Jeremy let out a sigh as he crossed his arms behind his head and laid against them, silently enjoying the dark blissful corner that he sat against. Nightmare Moon and Zecora were conversing with one another, the two having found common grounds with one another as they exchanged tales from the older times. Some of these tales were nothing more than just stories passed down from generation to generation in Zecora's culture, and though others were being shown to be true as Nightmare Moon explained having lived through them as Princess Luna.

Chrysalis and Jeremy were both relaxing in their own silence, often glancing to the others and one another as they drifted off into thought. Chrysalis, a recently used towel laid loosely wrapped around her neck, occasionally looked between Jeremy and Zecora as a sense of curiosity ebbed at her.

Fight it off as she might, this sense kept returning to pester her more and more no matter how many times she would attempt to push it off. Eventually, after another 10 minutes or so of this annoyance of hers, she let out a silent sigh as she resigned herself to the relief of her mental stress.

"... Jeremy?" Jeremy looked to her again, raising a brow questioningly. "Not that I particularly care, but how exactly did you and Zecora meet?"

The sound in the room was quickly silenced as she said this, an almost disturbingly still atmosphere coming about as everyone's attention shifted to Chrysalis. Chrysalis quickly became uncomfortable with the situation, though she did not show it.

Jeremy and Zecora looked to one another in a shared gaze before turning back to Chrysalis again. Then, just as Chrysalis was beginning to regret her question all together, the two smiled and started to chuckle.

This brought about confusion from both Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis as they looked on at the odd scene, unsure of what to make of it. "What's so funny?" Chrysalis asked, growing annoyed at being left in the dark. Jeremy shook his head and smiled as he looked back to Chrysalis.

"Sorry, its been a while since either of us told that story. Lets just say that Zecora and I didn't exactly get off on the right foot, or hoof in her case, when we first met." Jeremy commented wistfully, stretching his arms outwards as he adjusted his seating position.

********************************************

"... Ugh. Note to self: Whatever it was that I did last night, don't do it again." Those were the first coherent thoughts that I had when I woke up that day.

I felt sore. I mean, really sore. The kind that a person would get after running a triathlon and swimming across the Hudson River after a three day diet. As to how I knew what that feeling was like, lets just say that my sister liked to involve me in everything stupid she did when we were younger.

I could only groan as I put my hands over my face, rubbing it up and down in an attempt to wake myself up from my groggy state and trying to go through my daily processes despite the fact that I felt so horribly. The usual really. Take a few deep breaths, rub my eyes, shoo away the bird that was tweeting near my ear, try to reach across the grass for my blanket...

If you can see what was wrong with what I said there, congratulations, you are officially faster on the draw than I was at the time. It took me a minute or two before I realized that I wasn't in my bed at home.

As my eyes shot open and I jolted up from the grass, all I could wonder was what the hell had happened last night.

I tried to calm myself down as best as I could, taking deep placid breaths in the place of my short, panicked ones. I figured that maybe I was dreaming.

I reached for my arm and gave myself a pinch but still found myself in the forest. So I did the next best thing. I reeled my arm back and punched myself in the arm as hard as I could.

The stream of curses and profanities brought about from pain that flooded the forest in that moment was a sign that I had realized I wasn't dreaming.

I could only rub my now sore arm and grumble I looked around, hugging my gray sweater closer as a chilly breeze passed around me. I lived in New York, so, whatever forest I was in couldn't be too big. Hell, the fact that I found any forest at all was a miracle of its own.

I closed my eyes and pointed in a random direction, mentally hoping that I wasn't crossing the border into Canada, or something like that. Far-fetched? Yes. Had I done worse when I was drunk? My passport stamp from China could definitely help to prove that.

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

Yeah, I wasn't in New York. That had been proven painfully obvious after about two hours worth of walking. Plus, the sounds of whatever animals that were prowling through this forest didn't help either.

As a part of me started to mentally write out my own will, though thinking back on it now I wasn't sure if it was a joke at the time or not, I froze as I made my way into a clearing in the forest. There, in the center, was an oddly shaped tree that had door in it. And windows. And curtains.

Considering the other option I had at the time was to keep on walking and possibly be eaten by whatever the heck had been hunting me for the past 15 minutes or so, I'd say the decision I made to check to see if anyone was home was a pretty decent one.

Adjusting my sweater a bit, I made my way to the literal tree house and hoped that whoever owned the place was home. I knocked on the door three times before putting my hands back into my sweater pockets.

I wondered over who would lives this deep inside of a forest. I also started to wonder about the fact that they lived in a tree. And the fact that the tree somehow supported having a house being built into it without collapsing or dying. Or the fact that-

Look, there was a lot going on in my head at the time, suffice to say.

The sudden creaking sound of a door drew my attention, causing me to turn to face who was likely the house owner. I started talking long before I saw them, a part of me really just wanting to get out of there as fast as possible.

"Oh! Um, yeah, sorry to bother you, but would you mind telling me where I a-" I froze as I looked to who was at the door. Or rather, what. In front of me, instead of a person, like I was expecting, there was a zebra. A zebra.

I made a face as I looked to the striped hose and ran my hand through my hair.

"Did I end up in Africa or something? If so, I really am not looking forward to that bill." I grumbled before looking back to the zebra. I wasnt sure what it was at the time, but something about it just seemed off to me. For starters, it seemed much smaller than what I had thought zebras would be. Plus, some of its features were definitely off from what I had seen in photos, least of all being the jewlery it wore. I tilted my head in confusion at it, and oddly enough it seemed to be doing the same.

"... I take it you don't know where I am either?" I asked jokingly, rolling my eyes as I did so.

"Actually, I can answer you quite frankly."

"Oh, okay, that's gre-" I froze yet again, looking down to the zebra as it raised a brow questioningly towards me. "I-I'm sorry, did you just talk?" Stupid question in hindsight, but I was just hoping that I had been hearing things.

"That is likely what you perceive, so is there any reason that it is so hard for you to believe?" I was, in fact, not hearing things. And as I realized that, I soon was no longer seeing things. Or feeling things. Or tasting things.

The point I'm trying to get across is-

********************************************

"You passed out!?!" Chrysalis laughed out, a hoof slamming repeatedly against the floor as she kept glancing between Zecora and I. I rolled my eyes at this.

"Look, it wasn't exactly normal for zebras to talk back where I lived. If anything, I'd say that I reacted pretty damn appropriately." I glanced to Zecora and Nightmare Moon, the latter of whom was evidently trying to hold back their own laughter as they held a hood against their mouth.

"If to your story I might expand, do not forget the times I had to hit you with a frying pan." I blinked as Zecora reminded me of this. Look, it was a rough day all around and it took me a few tries to calm down.

Evidently though, that was the breaking point for Nightmare Moon, no longer able to hold back her laughter as she joined Chrysalis, who by now was practically rolling on the floor. Meanwhile, Zecora and I looked to one another and shrugged.

Its odd, but this wouldn't be the first time that someone had reacted to that story of ours like this. More like the twelfth?

Coincidentally, I think that's how many dents that frying pan has in it nowadays.

Next Chapter: Chapter 9: Time In The Yard [Here Again] Estimated time remaining: 13 Hours, 40 Minutes