Twilight's life used to make sense. There used to be a sense of order to it, a sense of purpose that drove her forward. There wasn't a day that went by that she didn't have a meticulous plan laying out what she would be studying and how long she would be studying that thing. The filly knew with every day that passed that she would be in front of those judges, pass that test, and join Celestia in her School for Gifted Unicorns. Everything in her life was telling her this was the case. Twilight's parents and brother encouraged it, she grasped the nature of magic faster than any other filly or colt her age or even older, and the filly had a drive to read and a passion for the subject that was simply intrinsic to her very being. The young unicorn's whole life led her to that moment.

Then it just stopped. The tugging, the prodding, the encouragement, the determination, the threads of destiny itself were cut from the tiny pony right in the testing room, shutting down her magic entirely as confusion and despair slowly overwhelmed her. Something dreadful happened to Twilight four days ago. There is an inherent rhythm that all ponies share with each other that they aren't even totally aware of. Its a rhythm that can lead the entirety of Canterlot into song at the slightest provocation some days. That internal harmony, that drive to fulfill their individual destinies for the greater good of all, Twilight wasn't connected to any of it anymore. She felt like she lost her place on the music sheet and no matter how she tried to catch up with the symphony going on around her, the young filly couldn't find where she fit in the song anymore. Twilight was a dissonant note in the melody, an unwanted spice in the dish, a cog in the machine that fell out of place.

Now that Twilight was outside of the harmony of ponykind, its harmony was jarring for her. They weren't making their own decisions. Not really. They were following their path that was laid out for them, calmly following the tugs of fate as surely as a well trained dog on a leash. What was worse, Twilight felt naked without her own proverbial leash on herself. In a sick way she wanted that tugging sensation back. She wanted to claw her way back to that point where she failed, and fix it so she never lost contact with this intrinsic force that gave her life meaning. Without it, the world Twilight was in felt so alien, an expanse of directions with no map to guide her where to go. It had taken her four days to even come up from her room and give her racing thoughts a reprieve. Twilight needed to learn more about this dissonance that she felt. She needed some guidance, anything that could help her relieve this feeling of being utterly alone in a sea of ponies whom were all connected and happy. Even Twilight's own parents and brother were part of this collective herd, and she could tell they felt something was wrong with her now. Somehow they could feel Twilight was separated from their harmony as well as the filly did.

It felt even more obtrusive after Twilight had stepped out into the streets of Canterlot under Celestia's morning. Ponies seemed to notice her more than they did before. Twilight was something out of place to them, the little unicorn didn't move with the same rhythm they did. There was something wrong with her. Fillies snickered at Twilight as they walked by, brandishing their new cutie marks on their flanks like a badge of pride, and looked upon Twilight's bare coat with derision that only children could summon for each other. Their leader Bitter Berry made a pass near Twilight, bumping into her, stopping Twilight with a hoof as she whispered in her ear.

"Hey Blank Flank, heard you choked big time at your test the other day. I guess that's to be expected from a dumb little unicorn that can't even use her defective little horn. Should have been born a dirty earth pony instead. Then at least you could do something useful with your life, like playing in the mud, or growing fruit for us real unicorns."

For the first time in Twilight's life, she considered killing a pony. As that smug brat sauntered off, laughing with her friends, she considered all the ways she could do it. A simple sharp object aimed straight for her jugular, a direct magical attack, poison, all of it sounded just lovely to her. Still this isn't why she came outside today. To many complications if she actually went through with such a thing. Worst of them being she'd never be able to research this dissonant feeling she had and how she had become disconnected from the other ponies.

Twilight had left with a plan to research this phenomenon at the library, to find a solution for it, but the stares, whispers, and the words of Bitter Berry were draining her of her will. She felt so pathetic, a filly who would never get their cutie mark, a failure whom couldn't even fulfill her own destiny. No wonder they whispered about her she thought. What else would a herd so in tune with each other have to talk to each other about except the one that didn't belong.

Then Twilight began to pick up on the word Zebra, and the name Zeb, and It made Twilight raise her head quizzically. Walking some distance away was an ancient Zebra that looked as sullen as he did wrinkled. His skin was so loose on his rail thin body that it looked as if he were wearing a morbid costume instead of his actual flesh. Twilight could tell looking at him that he had once been a physically powerful Zebra, and his thick frame still hinted at untapped strength beneath those old bones. Her eyes trailed over to his decrepit flanks, and she saw where he had disfigured himself all those years ago. Old scar tissue rested where his cutie mark once was, a patch of angry pink flesh where fur had once been, stretched and faded with time. Theories surrounded why he had scorched off his own cutie mark were always spoke in hushed silence, and she never cared to listen to them as a foal since he scared her so much. Now however, the old stallion caught Twilight's eye in a whole new light. Something was off with how he moved about the crowds and grunted at ponies when he purchased various strange items. He wasn't a part of harmony's rhythm, just like Twilight herself wasn't.

Twilight didn't have any sound reason to want to talk to this zebra, much less follow him, but this feeling of sameness with this decrepit old Zebra was a feeling she couldn't just ignore, not when she felt so disconnected from the ponies around her. Out of everyone in this crowded street, she had a feeling that this Zeb was the only one who was truly qualified to answer her questions on what was going on with her and where to go from here. Her thirst for knowledge was well known for being unquenchable, and she did not see this instance as any reason to make an exception. She resolved to tail him, as stealthily as she could, and find the opportune moment to speak to him directly.

To the untrained eye, it looked like the old Zebra went about buying the strangest things from various stands and shops. Strange dried up herbs here, lightly glowing leaves there. The stranger plants and herbs he had acquired were off to the side of a booth or quite literally under the table, and nearly always these transactions were done with non ponies. I recognized some of the ingredients as items used in particularly advanced potion making, the kind of potions that required months of prep time just to create an vial of the desired material. However, for every one I did know there were others that made me take notes to find out about later. He wouldn't just take them either, he inspected them, smelled them, looked at them with magnifying lenses, even tasted in certain cases. He was inspecting each and every herb, spice, and plant as if he were a jeweler looking over the cut of a jewel. These items were not standard issue material for these booths, they were set aside specifically for him. Maybe plants he couldn't grow on his own location? Ingredients that required specific environments that he wasn't able to supply?

Rarely did he speak to these merchants. Most exchanges that Twilight watched were near silent grunts that the filly probably wouldn't have noticed save for the subtle movements of his head and neck. They didn't haggle on prices or anything so obtuse as that, the arrangements had clearly already been made long before he had arrived at the various stands and shops. Each visit took less than a minute at the most, yet he did not appear to be in a rush. This Zebra was moving with the practiced ease of routine, lightening his pouch of his bits with each new transaction. He hadn't seemed to notice Twilight yet, but she suspected that the Zebra was aware of the little pony following him and either decided he didn't care, or was luring her into a trap while expertly concealing the fact that he knew she was there.

Twilight was mesmerized with the care he took with each new ingredient he purchased. There was no careless shoving into a pouch or reckless handling of the substances, each one was handled with a practiced and steady hoof that only shook with age when they were being used for walking. His own youth and vitality seemed to return to him whenever he handled the growing collection of supplies he was gathering up, like he could summon up the stillness of his younger self for just as long as he needed to inspect the things he needed too and move on. After that point he was like a rickety bundle of dried wood attempting to walk down the street from inside of his own baggy skin. Even through this frailty that his age brought however, he had a sense of strength, cunning, and sharpness of mind that none would contest.

Twilight felt her heart beat as two guards approached the Zebra. They looked highly suspicious of the ancient stallion, and although Twilight was too far away she could hear enough to know they were demanding to look in his bag. Zeb looked irritated, but resigned to the unwarranted search, clearly used to such inspections. To Twilight's mild surprise, when he revealed the contents of his bag, it did not resemble the vast assortments of ingredients he had been buying, but rather a wild bouquet of flowers. Twilight edged closer to the three and managed to catch some of what they were saying.

"They are flowers for my late loved ones,
Would you deny an old Widower a gift for his wife and sons?"

The guards looked decidedly uncomfortable now, and with a curt nod they let him pass into the dingier sections of canterlot that Twilight's parents told her not to go into, and with the Guards standing idly by the vague entry way to the place, she didn't think she'd be able to slip in unseen. Not that she was forbidden by the government to go into a primarily non pony area, but the guards would surely ask questions, and her family wasn't exactly unknowns in Canterlot. She was surprised she had managed to follow this far without too many heads turning even. She needed a distraction, something to grab the guards attention and get them away from their positions and let her go through undetected. The first smile she had in days crossed her face as she thought of a juvenile spell she read in her brothers prank spell book, one that would work wonders in this instance.

The "Want it Need it Spell"

It was a relatively simple incantation, and had a stronger radius and intensity of effect the more magic you put into it. The spell would make an object of interest desirable and distracting to anyone who happened to be within the radius of the effect. She scanned the area and noticed Bitter Berry chatting with her friends, no longer paying attention to the lavander filly. The smirk grew wider as Twilight saw how she could settle two problems with one stone. She decided to focus on Bitter's bow tied at the base of her tail, something she'd not easily be able to take off especially with how it was knotted on there. It didn't even require a second thought before she reached for her magic. There was an anger bubbling inside her as she focused on her reaching for her magic, and it came much easier to her than it did at the test. The magic flowed much more freely into her horn, allowing her more access to it as she relished in her own anger and indignation. Peering up she saw her magic had taken on a reddish hue as supposed to its usual lavender. That was something she would need to look into, but until then she discreetly sent the magic over and infused the filly's little bow with the spell.

The effect was nearly instantaneous and stronger than Twilight had anticipated, and Bitter quickly caught onto every one of her friends and adults around her safe for some particularly magically resilient ponies getting swept up in the want it need it spell. They all began moving towards Bitter, and she was getting uncomfortable with all their leering glares at her tail, where the affected bow was.

"Uhh...why are you all looking at me? Hello? You're scaring me."

"Give me it!"

"By order of Celestia, relinquish it to us at once!"

"Come on Bitter, share it with me!"

"Share what!? Leave me alone!" Berry's voice cracked in the funniest ways as her fear peaked and she made a break for it.

Twilight snickered into her hoof as she watched the formerly smug filly run away in fear, drawing more attention onto the ribbon on her tail as she did so. It didn't take long before chaos ensued and a small stampede took off after her. Twilight never used that spell with that much power before, she didn't even think she could. She'd definitely have to look into this red aura she accidentally used. With the mob disappearing off into the distance and the delightful screams of that brat leaving her ears she rounded on her hooves and walked into where Zeb had gone, a new spring in her step from her little victory. That is until she bumped face first into what felt like a bony wall.

Her ears flattened against her head as Twilight looked up and saw Zeb looming over her. While he had looked tall in the distance, he seemed like a giant to her now that he was standing right before her, looking down at her with a glare that could freeze lava. As wrinkled and aged as his face was, his eyes were sharper than she had ever seen before, boring into her eyes as if he could stare directly into the filly's soul.

"First you spend your time following me.
Then you cast a spell with magic of disharmony.
What kind of pony do you happen to be?"

This was not a compliment, this was an interrogation. Twilight felt for her mouth to speak but she found herself struck speechless by the presence this Zebra was exuding. Zeb groaned and rubbed his temple with his hoof before turning and beginning to walk off.

"I suggest you leave this area while you can,
I hope your rash casting of disharmony had came with a plan,
cause if they find the one who casted that spell,
well lets just say what punishment would come even I could not tell."

"Wait! I have questions for you! Can I please ask you them Mr. Zeb?" Twilight was walking quickly behind the Zebra as she said this, trailing behind Zeb like a second shadow. He looked visibly irritated as he rounded on her.

"Do not speak my name as if you know me filly,
Now please, go home and leave me be!"

Rhyme, Zebra speak in Rhyme. It's a matter of mental discipline for them to be able to naturally convey their thoughts in that manner, maybe I should do the same.

"I seek a path to change my fate,
To forge a path anew.
I seek knowledge with great haste,
For a greater knowledge of potion and brew.
And for this knowledge I somehow trace
A path leading straight to you."

She fumbled with her words as she said it, fighting with her brain to get the words to fit together as she spoke them out to the Zebra. He stopped in his tracks and raised his eyebrow at this, further wrinkling his forehead as he did so.

"If you continue to speak only in rhyme,
you will have my attention and my time.
Now let us move, I have work to do,
involving the afore mentioned potion and brew."

Although Bitter Berry had suspected that Twilight had somehow been behind the spell that had caused the attack, she hadn't been able to prove it. Her tail to nearly be ripped off her rump from how ravenous the ponies had gotten trying to get her bow from her, and it hadn't been until strong unicorns had shown up onto the scene that they were able to dispel the spell and get the ponies to back off of her. The bruises and the bandages around her bottom, as well as the indignation on the filly's face had almost broke Twilight into a fit of laughter, but she had managed to use the mirth to make it look like she was upset at the accusations.

"I can't even use my horn right now, how could I cast a spell like that daddy?" She had even demonstrated as such by releasing pathetic sparks of harmonious magic, her eyes watering as she did so, pouting out her lip in the most pitiable way like she had practiced in the mirror before the confrontation started. Her ruse had worked perfectly too, as all suspicion was taken off of Twilight and went to others in the area who could have done it. As she hugged onto her father though, she chanced a devilish smirk over at Bitter Berry, who bristled at the expression in the most delightful way. Though Bitter would hem and haw that it was Twilight that was the culprit, none would believe her now. With all suspicion off of her, Twilight was free to leave early in the mornings to the non pony side of Canterlot.

Most non pony sections of Equestria were in various states of disrepair, and this one was no different. It wasn't from a lack of trying, though many ponies in Canterlot seemed to believe so, but rather from lack of ability to do anything about it. Most non ponies had no magic to speak of in their bodies at all, and the ones who did had negligible amounts at best. That meant they couldn't even handle a tool with their hooves like ponies, whom could exert a form of tactile telekinesis over an object they touch and it gave them the ability to manipulate it. Ponies tended to prefer using their mouths for finer tasks such as writing, but most of what they wanted to accomplish was easily accessible with their hooves. Donkeys, sheep, goats, and Cows, the majority of the non magical creatures whom took up residence in Equestria barely had dexterous enough mouths for tasks. Not only were they disadvantaged in this area, but the preternatural strength that all ponies possessed far exceeded their non magical neighbors. A reasonably in shape Pegasi was known to be able to lift near one thousand pounds with just their wings, which, on a non magical creature, would be far to fragile for such a feat. Earth Ponies had members of their kind that possessed frightful levels of strength, capable of shattering boulders with a mere strike of their hoof. This wasn't even taking into consideration the versatility offered by a Unicorns horn. Pile on top of all of these advantages the additional daunting prospect that Ponies have their talents and future occupations laid out for them by their own cutie mark, making them that much more qualified for whatever job that happened to be than their non pony counterpart.

The result of all these factors was a disturbingly high unemployment rate among non ponies. Most Cattle and Sheep had long since made feudal pacts with earth pony farmers, exchanging their wool, milk and anything else they could produce for shelter and protection from magical creatures whom wanted to eat them. The Earth Ponies became something of a ruling class in this regard, herding non ponies and running their everyday lives with impunity. The critters,as the Earth Ponies derogatorily referred to them as, were free to leave their various farms, but the dangers of monster attacks, general social stigma, and the lack of employment opportunities, kept the majority of them from leaving their lives huddled together in fields and in barns. While they were not technically "owned" by ponies, the living conditions of these non ponies whom spend their days living as virtual farm animals did nothing to assuage the idea of pony superiority in Equestria.

All this added up to Twilight having rather disgruntled stares from residents as she walked through their streets early in the morning. Seeing not only a Pony in their midst, but a freshly clean filly unicorn with a striking purple coat, reminded them of their own financial woes and living conditions. Zeb had vouched for her, so they didn't immediately harass her, nor would it do them any good to do so, but she wasn't winning any friends with the locals with her presence. No matter, she wasn't there to make friends anyway. She was there to learn everything she could from the Zebra. Her drive was revitalized further after the end of their first session ten days earlier. He spoke his words as if he had waited to say them his entire life. They sounded almost unbelievable, but the conviction in his voice and the seriousness in his eyes, along with just how old he looked, made every word he spoke radiate truth.

"I tell you the truth, I am thousands of years old,
I remember a time when Zebra were free and bold.
Then a chieftain made a decision without consulting us,
To form a pact with a Tree so powerful and harmonious
Many were happy with the surprise,
Finding their passions and talents they gained were worth the price.
I knew the truth, that the marks invaded our minds,
Telling us what to do, keeping our mind in binds.
I removed my mark the day it appeared,
I would not let my freedom be commandeered.
I wanted to save them, my own Zebra kind,
but they turned me away, and left me behind.
So I traveled the world, learning as I went,
and found a recipe written on a certain parchment.
I had thought it to be the recipe for Scorpan's Philosopher Stone,
Which granted eternal life and all the wealth you could possibly own.
Alas, this particular recipe was incomplete,
And while longevity was granted, it was youth you could not keep.
Each brew extends your life by thirty days,
And that's thirty days more that your body pays.
I am tired, and my bones ache for release,
Its time for me to go, Its time to get some peace.
With my last weeks on this world, I'll teach you what I know,
I care not what you do with it, I care not where you go.
Learn what you can from me, during this time,
For I tell you I still have all my knowledge as if I were in my prime.
In four weeks time I will breathe my last,
Lets hope, within that time, you are up to the task."

The ten days of study she had spent with the Zebra had been the most informative time in the filly's life. The books, the scrolls, the concepts he had to tell of were a wealth of restricted knowledge that was only cooperated with her various attempts to sneak into the restricted sections of Canterlot's libraries. This wasn't just history lessons or instructional's about potions, this was eye-witness testimony of history that predated Equestria itself. He had detailed information on Dragons that she had never heard a single pony scholar utter a word about. He knew of Disharmonious spells and encouraged experimentation with potion making. He had even been impressed with a brew she was working on that could would theoretically turn living tissue into dust. He would not give advice on improving it, rather he wanted her to hone it on her own.

Though he had been rather irritated with her presence at first, which had in part to do with his distaste for ponykind, he had grown quite fond of the little filly and the way her devious mind worked. It was on the tenth day that she had shown up to his store with a the first of many drafts that would eventually become her master checklist. The audacity behind the goals she had set for herself in the future after her studies with him were over had made him laugh harder than he had in centuries, so hard in fact that Twilight feared he'd keel over and die before the thirty-day mark.

"Filly, you are nuts."

"What no rhyme? I thought we were meant to keep this up all the time?"

"Just writing this list shows me you have guts."

They continued on their days, from that day going over every piece of information that the Zebra could think of being relevant, either in text or his own recollection. What he didn't have Twilight found on her own through her independent research. Zeb had lit a fire under her, a passion for disharmonious magic that he said he hadn't seen since his early days millenniums ago. Twilight grew bolder and more cunning by the day. When he had first met her she had been petty and passive aggressive at best, by the time the twenty-ninth day rolled around, he had before him a little mastermind whom had crafted the most ambitious plan he had ever seen. She was something that if he were even a little younger, he would have eagerly have drunk another swig of the imperfect elixir of life to see come to fruition.

During that time Bitter Berry had been looking to confront the little filly again with her friends flanking her. Her searches were in vain however, as Twilight was habitually nowhere to be seen. Twilight had her eyes on far bigger fish than a little bully like her however, and her constant snooping for Twilight was getting rather irritating. She chose a very simple untraceable potion to deal with the filly. All it did was rob her ability to sleep for three days and make her hear little auditory hallucinations. That's it, simple stuff in comparison to what she had learned from Zeb up till that point. The results however were highly amusing. Within two days Bitter Berry had forgotten all about Twilight, now it was her waking self induced hallucinations that were all she was concerned about. Though the potion had nearly run its course, her young little mind simply didn't survive the strain. She had gone from a snooty upstart Unicorn, looking down on everypony and creature in her presence, to screaming in never ending terror while being carted off to a mental asylum. Twilight almost felt bad for her. Almost.

"The Alicorn Amulet resides in some Pawn Shop Display? Tell me you are kidding, it is not as you say." His tired voice sounded so amused even through his final breaths, Twilight sat beside him, holding his hoof with her own as she gave him a sad smile.

"It is true,
I would not lie to you.
And with that knowledge, Grabbing it will be the first thing i do."

"It has driven many a pony mad, perhaps leaving it there would not be so bad." Zeb coughed after saying that, a bit of blood coming out of his mouth and onto his dingy coat. She held his hoof harder, staying strong and holding back her emotions as she watched him slowly fade.

"If anypony can handle it, it would be me, and I'll need all the strength I can get if I am to stand against Harmony."

He let out a weak chuckle and put a decrepit hoof up to Twilight's face. They both knew she had more selfish goals in mind besides that, but it had been his life ambition, so she felt the need to emphasize that goal on his death bed. With his elixir entirely gone, every ounce of strength had practically faded from his body. He was truly a Zebra living on the last seconds of borrowed time he had.

"In all my time in this world, I never had a foal,
Power and life eternal had been my only goal.
Now that I see you, as I fade away like this,
I think you're time with me has filled an experience I foolishly decided to miss...."

Twilight watched as the light faded from his eyes, and she took the time to close them gently with her hoof. She had a suspicion he had been lying to the guards about that, he had never mentioned them in all his stories and lessons. She had held out a vain hope that it was true however, that he had once had a family at one point. Knowing that he had not, and that she, somepony he had known for a mere thirty days, had been the closest thing he had to one, made her sadder than she cared to express. Try as she might though, she could not keep her own tears from flowing as she sat next to the body of Zeb.

"I'm about to have a kid of my own, in a strange little way,
And he or she will hear the tales of Grandpa Zeb one day."

Author's Notes:

Zeb is another Gen 1 villain for those of you who are interested. He's been heavily, HEAVILY altered for the purpose of this story.