Author's Notes:

I'm sick today, peeps. So I'll be writing up a storm.

Regarding music: I'm sorry that I don't have any music for you guys to listen to. I'll try to make it a point to put music on the next one.

Celestia sat with Zecora as they drank herbal tea in the zebra's homestead deep within the Everfree forest. The zebra listened to Celestia's worries as she slowly sipped her delicious brew.

"I see..." she said quietly when Celestia finished. She set her cup down. "However, I'm not sure that's where Twilight may be."

In surprise Celestia tilted her head. "You mean, Twilight had not come by?"

Zecora shook her head. "No, she has not come this way. But there is something that I must say."

Zecora went over to her cauldron and stirred the concoction.

"There is a significant thing that called to me,

as you told your story of tireless grief.

It started with the exile of a pony, yes?

That started the reason your student left?"

Celestia nodded slowly as she processed the rhymes.

The zebra hummed in understanding. She added a few dead leaves and powders to the concoction.

"The clues you have told me point to one conclusion,

but you may not be seeing the solution.

Twilight was upset that Sunset was banned,

she wanted to see her; that being her demand.

You say the portal was unstable,

the whole mirror in sporadic disable.

But yet, you move it to a peculiar spot,

where Twilight often goes without thought."

Celestia thought on this. It was true the mirror was moved to the library from the artifact chamber. She sipped at her tea and listened to the cauldron begin to bubble.

Zecora was mixing the pot and small things of steam floated from the bubbling concoction. She added a small poison joke leaf carefully into the cauldron and a puff of blue gas erupted from it. It slowly made its way to the floor and lingered around their feet. Celestia wasn't a fan of this witchy stuff and shifted in her seat.

Magic came naturally to her and her people. But everything was different in the Everfree forest.

"The files, the schedule, the date.

It points to one thing that I shall not state.

With the portal and hints combined,

you shall see where I think Twilight resides."

Celestia was confused. She was not used to hearing people talk riddles and rhymes to her. And from what she understood, Zecora does not believe her theory is right. She turned to the zebra at the cauldron and sighed.

"I don't quite understand, Zecora."

The zebra smiled.

"Look to the fog.

I will show you things to clear the bog.

Your mind will click,

more or less in an instant."

Taking a green leaf from a jar, Zecora continued.

"Sunset Shimmer was once an enemy,

that is, she was Twilight's adversary.

But the princess showed her the way,

to the happiness that seemed so far away.

With laughter in her heart and goodness to share,

your daughter had wonderful friends to whom she cared.

Trying to make amends she passed through the broken mirror,

only to meet a fate that would make anyone shiver."

Zecora tossed the leaf into the brew and a green fog came rising out of it. It was shaped into Sunset with her friends but it soon changed to her being cast away by Celestia. The princess watched in awe. This was the strangest thing she'd ever seen. She kept her eyes glued to the fog that eventually disappeared.

"Being rejected by the one to whom she was raised,

hatred again filled her heart and set her eyes ablaze."

Another leaf was tossed in and an evil Sunset Shimmer appeared.

Celestia frowned. "I only sent her back to protect her from the evils of this world. It wasn't to punish her. And how do you know if she turned evil?"

Zecora tutted her tongue. "I sense things others cannot, your majesty. Let us move on and do not be hasty."

She cleared her throat and took another leaf from the jar.

"As we both know, Twilight was not too keen,

on the exile she had seen.

Wanting to break the mare away from her trap,

she argued with you on her behalf.

But your decision was final,

and her case was not settled.

You say she vanished around the circled date,

how could she if she could barely fly right and get past the gate?

The only way to go unseen,

by the guards that surveyed her actions without a blink,

she needed to have disappeared completely,

right on the castle floors that were beneath."

Another leaf, another picture. Twilight vanished from sight while the guards looked the other way.

Celestia sighed and shook her head. "She could've just used a teleportation spell."

It was Zecora's turn to sigh and shake her head.

"But you forget,

was not Twilight on a quest?

With sadness about a particular mare,

using magic would not get her there."

The way she emphasized there made Celestia's mind wire. There...Where could Twilight have gone that magic could not get her to her destination? She could have gone anywhere with magic. None of it seemed to make sense...

And then she knew.

"The portal!" she gasped.

The only place Twilight could have gone without teleporting herself was the human world. Using magic wouldn't get her there. She had to pass through the mirror because the mirror was the only passage way.

Celestia stomped a hoof on the ground. "But how?"

"I assume it was calculation,

the portal isn't completely broken," Zecora told her.

"But the portal is sporadic!" Celestia cried.

Zecora tilted her head.

"Everything has a pattern,

even things with a path that's uncertain.

Nothing can be totally random,

or there would be no absolute outcome."

Celestia didn't quite know what she was talking about right there so she ignored it. "Thank you so much, Zecora."

The ruler of Equestria zoomed off in a hurry, leaving the wise zebra satisfied in helping her solve the problem.