Two days later – Ponyville; 7:15am

Zen has lived in Ponyville for the last two days, and stays in a building he’s built himself; the sudden construction of the odd structure was… both strange and odd. The building was a sleek black color that had a lustrous shine to it whether the sun or any form of light touches it. The building had no visible windows, the roof was dome-shaped and had four rectangular pillars that had smaller domes on them with each dome having one pipe coming out; the pillars’ domes seem to swivel around and almost looked like they were constantly scanning the surrounding area – a small animal would be spotted twenty meters away and would be watched vigilantly, this includes anything in the air for twenty meters. The building was ten meters high, and ten meters by length and width making it symmetrical from all sides, with there being two entrances; the front entrances were a pair of sliding doors that were sealed by a second pair of doors that were as solid and strong as the building’s walls, the other entrance was a tunnel that sloped to a slant with a giant metal door that opened vertically.

The building was built just thirty meters from the Spiral Tower, out in the grasslands north of Ponyville. There was no defined pathway but a dirt path that was used frequently by Zen; nopony has visited the odd structure, but mostly because signs were placed saying it was still under construction, and this was proven from the loud noises coming inside.

Inside the building itself, a room that connected to the outside and the inside the building was made as a sort of entrance or clean room – those who step in are scanned and sprayed of outside germs – before opening to what was to be the main foyer. The foyer had stairs that directed to two paths upstairs, and had four doorways that led to different parts of the building – the left path was the living room which was connected to another room, the game room; the right path was the dining room which was connected to the kitchen which was also connected to the path under the right staircase; the path under the left staircase led to indoor garden, and was also connected to some stairs to the basement.

The second floor had three rooms on the left and right hallway and two rooms on the third hallway, and had an elevator to the third floor. Two of the rooms on the left hallway were guest rooms with the third final room being Zen’s, the rooms on the right hallway were each labeled – Workshop, Map Room, Fabricator – the final hallway had two rooms, the Archives on the left and Display Room on the right.

The third and final floor was one giant room; the Observatory, but was still under construction and was mostly bare. The basement was the current focus of today, as noise could be heard from below… and music. The basement were actually two levels; the first were a series of four rooms in each corner that were connected by doorways and halls – rooms were, the Aura Chamber, the Laboratory, Storage, and the Garage – with a tele-pad in the center that sent anyone to the floor below… the floor Zen was at.

This floor was the Training and Simulation Room, here Zen practiced and did simulations of varying scenarios… right now Zen was practicing with his katana in its second form. Music played in tune to the attacks from the dummies and drones that came from the floor, walls, and ceiling, the room’s terrain changing to make things challenging. This didn’t defer Zen the slightest as he dodged and flew by the different attacks before slashing and hitting the drones and dummies, making them deactivate and putting up another tally on Zen’s counter.

This continued for awhile until, the training stopped, followed by a beep; the music ended and the voice of Jiule was heard. “Zen, Lady Twilight is here to see you; she wants to visit Sugarcube Corner and came to see if you like to come with her and Spike,” said Jiule.

Since Zen moved here, Twilight has visited Zen’s place but has never gotten inside yet. “Tell her I’ll be out soon; open the Garage’s door for me.” Zen stood in the center of the room was teleported to the first basement, until he made his way to the Garage and exited the building through there.

Zen then went around his home and saw Twilight with Spike sitting on her back, the duo spotted their uncle and approached him. “Hello Uncle Zenny, I was wondering if you like to come to Sugarcube Corner and eat some breakfast; I know you don’t eat for sustenance, but I thought you try some of the baked goods they have there,” said Twilight.

“Yeah, they even got crystal cupcakes – cupcakes with gems in them!”

Zen nodded toward the invitation and joined his niece and nephew. “I’d love to join you, let’s get a move on now.”

Soon the three made their way into Ponyville… when something felt off, the town was oddly quiet and that spoke volumes considering the residents that live here – both before and after Twilight’s arrival. There was nopony outside, and everything was completely silent, the group stood outside of Sugarcube Corner with the doors closed.

“Is it some sort of holiday?”

“Spike, what kind of holiday involves them all stay indoors? They got to be somewhere?”

“My scanners say everypony is inside their homes and various establishments… but for what reason I don’t know,” said Zen, contemplating behind the strange – well stranger – behavior of the townsponies.

Then they heard some whispering and some quiet “Hey, over here.” and “Twilight, over here.”; they turned to see Pinkie with her head inched out the bakery only to bring it out, and have her snout poke out. “Get in before she finds you,” said Pinkie, whispering.

“Before who finds us?” Twilight’s question wasn’t answered until grabbed Twilight and Spike with Zen following behind. The door closed behind them by Applejack, and Twilight examined the room and found all her friends and Applejack’s little sister, Applebloom in the room, huddled together. “Okay… Can somepony explain what’s going on here?”

While the girls talked to each other, Zen decided to introduce himself to somepony he hasn’t met before; a small yellow filly with a red mane who wore a pink bow stared up at him with big orange eyes. Zen gave a similar look as he softened his harsh glare to simple bored gaze in return to the curious pony’s look.

“Are you that tall scary-looking thing I’ve been hearing about?” asked Applebloom, her accent strong.

“If I said yes, what would you do?”

“I’d say howdy; name’s Applebloom, Mr...”

Zen knelt down and shook the filly’s hoof, with a strong grip but weak enough not to hurt her. “Zen, and I assume you must be Applejack’s little sister by chance.”

The filly nodded and smiled back at Zen, soon the attention was focused back to the girls just as Pinkie was finishing singing some sort of tune. Zen checked what they were seeing outside and scanned the entity outside. The being outside was a zebra, a female one by the likes of it that was currently making a small hole in the ground.

Zecora… hmmmm…

“Who is this Zecora?” asked Zen.

“Wait, how’d you know her name, we didn’t tell you her name yet?” said Applejack, confused.

“My scanners give me a detailed bio of anyone see within first encounter, just one look and I have any data that I can manage to gain from you. Now who’s this Zecora?”

The girls explained to Zen about Zecora – her being an evil enchantress, all the strange things she done – with Twilight saying everything their saying is hogwash. Zen gathered this information, and came to the same conclusion as Twilight… with a slight difference.

“Have anypony here met her or a zebra personally before?”

Everyone shook their head, never meeting a zebra once in their lives, which concluded Zen theory. Since Equestria is mostly consisting of ponies and a sparse few minotaurs, the other races don’t communicate often with Equestria when it comes to their citizens, with only the countries rulers ever making contact. It doesn’t help that zebras are very secluded creatures, though that raised the question – why is there a zebra in the middle of Equestria, this far from any of their tribal grounds?

Then Zen noticed something… off, and realized someone was missing; taking a closer look her saw the door was open and Applebloom was absent. Everyone was busy deep in discussion, rambling back with each other, not noticing that the young filly was gone. Taking matter to his own hands, Zen stepped out and checked his map; Applebloom was tailing the one called Zecora back into the Everfree Forest.

“Where art thou going my maiden,” said Zen, mumbling to himself. Zen followed Applebloom vanishing into the darkness of a nearby alleyway.

Everfree Forest; 8:45am

Applebloom had followed Zecora deep into the forest until she was reaching a part of the forest she never knew about; a field of blue flowers before her but oddly enough Zecora followed a predetermined path that avoided the flowers. She was about to follow by trotting into the flowers when suddenly she was stopped and lifted under her belly, looking up was Zen who had her under his arm. He was standing on the flowers but didn’t seem to worry too much about crushing some of them, or when Zecora turned and spotted them… and those behind the two.

“APPLEBLOOM!” Applebloom managed to swivel her head around and spotted her sister and the others following behind. “APPLEBLOOM, COME HERE THIS INSTANT YOUNG LADY!”

“Beware, beware, for those flowers are no joke!” Zecora repeated this a few times until she vanished into a sudden fog. The group reached Zen and Applebloom… but were standing in the field of flowers.

Applejack started to argue with Applebloom, and have her on her back, soon the group left the forest a headed back to town; Zen was left alone standing among the flowers, gazing at the beauty of them… but the hidden danger behind them.

This… might be a problem…

Zen decided to follow Zecora, having her under his radar still; for awhile he managed to stay undetected until he came upon a structure. The building was similar to Twilight’s treehouse, but it was smaller but more stout in size, with several Zebrican masks and various other trinkets strung upon its branches.

He was about to step into the perimeter of the building when he felt the wind around him change and something whizzed toward him. Quick reflexes later he grabbed a potion that was flung at him, when he grabbed another one, and a third was heading right for him. Time seemed to slow for Zen, storing both potions into his data storage, he grabbed the final potion when it shattered and spilled its contents all over him, the second it touched him it created a loud hiss, the liquid attempting to eat through his suit.

Zecora stepped from some nearby bushes, expecting the fight to be over; Zen stood there until all the liquid slowly dripped off him, leaving the suit unscathed. Zen shook off the remaining liquid and gazed down at Zen, though as usual his emotion was hidden by non-expressive looks. “Who are you; I don’t recognize a being such as you?” asked Zecora, her tone serious.

“I may ask you too, but pleasantries first – I am Zen, Royal Adviser of Equestria; I was with those other ponies who were finding the young one you saw earlier… sad to say that they stepped on Poison Joke.”

Zecora had a surprised look before it shifted to intrigue. “I will not ask why you do not melt away, I will ask how you know such a strange flower, I do not remember seeing you walk here before?”

“I… came to this forest a long long time ago; I know a cure exists, but I know it can only be cured once it happens. I ask that you help them when that time comes… even if they do overreact.”

The zebra rubbed her chin in thought, but accepted these terms with a small smile. “I see no problem with such a request, all I ask is a simple favor. I would like some tea with you when you are not busy.”

“I have no problem with that. Well, it was nice meeting you-”

“Zecora, my given name is Zecora.”

“Zecora...” Zen stood there, but turned back to the direction of Ponyville but before he left, he knelt down and brought back the two potions from his storage and gently placed them on the ground. Leaving without a single noise, he melded into the darkness and vanished, Zecora watched with interest before picking her potions and walking back into her abode.

The day later – Ponyville, Zen’s Compound; 10:00am

Zen busied on his fabricator, waiting for something to finish 3-D printing when the perimeter sensors started to blare about someone within the perimeter. Deciding to see what it is through one of the sentries cameras, he saw the Mane 6 with Applebloom and Spike, the girls stood outside and seemed to be fine.

Heading out of the room, Zen reached the lobby of his home and stood before the entrance doors. “Jiule, open the doors,” said Zen.

Soon the doors opened up, and the group entered the building; Zen heard the news about the whole Poison Joke incident, them finding – and assuming the kidnapping of Applebloom – wrecking Zecora’s place, and getting cured at the spa. The group found out Zen knew about the Poison Joke and that Zecora had the cure, but the reason why he never told them was still a mystery.

Twilight was present during the construction of Zen’s compound, and helped making sure nopony was in the area, and used her magic to bring some resources for him to use. Why would Zen not tell us about those flowers… Well we did trot on them, so I think it would have been late for a warning but still, he could have told us in advance instead of thinking Zecora did all of this.

“Whoooa, this place is biiiiig!” said Pinkie, her voice echoing in the emptiness of the building.

The girls took a look around at the large but slightly empty lobby they were in, the lobby sparse with little decoration, other than the carpeted staircases, a chandelier with strange red crystals on each of the ten spokes. There was one particular decoration that stood out – above the doorway of the entrance was a large engraving of an eye, the same eye that was seen on Zen’s helmet.

The eye stood out the most, something about it gave off the same warning signs in Twilight’s mind – danger. Her small observation was stopped when she heard steps from upstairs, turning around everyone saw Zen coming down the stairs.

“Hey Zen, we know the deal you made with Zecora! Why the heck did you not tell us about those flowers?!” shouted Rainbow.

“Now now Rainbow, there must be a perfect explanation for all of this… but I’m curious too; how come we weren’t told about those awful Poison Joke flowers?”

Zen finally came down the steps standing before the group, something felt off about him that usual… it was then Twilight realized it, and every ounce of her wanted to hit herself and Zen. Don’t tell me he planned this!

“Uncle Zen… Did you do this as another life lesson, again?” asked Twilight, her eye twitching.

The girls, and Spike were confused until Zen crossed both his arms, and seemed to do something odd – he covered one gauntlet on his helm’s transparent surface, and had the other covering his mid-section where his stomach would be. What came next made everyone back up a little except for Spike and Twilight, having seen Zen like this for a few rare moments in the past… it was both a pleasant sight and frightful moment; Zen was laughing.

His laughter was a mix of someone who’s gone mad, but combined with his voice it sounded distorted and artificial, but nothing about his laugh was false. Zen was many things, but he was a touch cold in first encounter, but manic was the side of him you didn’t want to be with when alone. If you had to define someone who lacks the ability to give empathy, and was brutally cold and calculated, but lacked the mental capacity to be considered stable… then Zen was the perfect example, and more.

“Ahhhhh… Yes; I did know about the Poison Joke but instead of warning you and your friends, I thought having your friends see this and experience it yourselves was better than simple advice and warnings. While it was a tad manipulative, a life without risk is one without experience – you can’t avoid everything, rather you go through it or around it, but in the end you’ll learn it or not.”

“You mean to tell us you pretty much knew my sister was fine, Zecora wasn’t evil, and that the Poison Joke did this to us! WHAT KIND OF PONY WOULD TEACH THIS TO SOMEPONY, OR ANYONE THAT MATTER!?” Twilight and Spike each avoided answering – Twilight rubbing her legs, while Spike whistled – the two having been through this but rather not mention their separate experiences when it came to Zen’s brutal but honest teaching methods.

“Indeed...”

“But how come you weren’t affected?” asked Pinkie.

“The suit protects me from… ‘outside forces’ this includes any form of virus or infection, numerous weapons, and any magical and aura-based attacks. I’m not invincible per-say rather just more prepared; I am vulnerable too, nobody is invincible,” said Zen. “But I don’t think the rest of you need a lecture right now, I think I should do some form of apology… How about a meal?”

Twilight sighed and convinced the girls to eat at Zen’s, soon everyone was led to Zen’s dining room while Zen – and Applejack and Applebloom – prepared to make some food. The girls and Spike decided to converse with one another about many things, but mostly the topic of discussion was directed at how it was like living with Zen during her youth.

“Really, Zen had you go through that because you tried to use this fabricator of his?” asked Rarity.

“Isn’t that a little… too much,” said Fluttershy.

“I suppose, but I don’t think trying to replicate one of the weapons he had blueprinted and use it in an experiment was a smart move back then,” said Twilight, rubbing the back of her head.

The girls shared a laugh, Rainbow for once found the idea of Twilight using one of these weapons Zen could make, and thought it was some sort of scientific device, luckily that guard was fine… though he now goes through therapy nowadays.

“Suppers up!” Applejack with Applebloom came to the room with some prepared food, Zen came along shortly lifted a big pot, the smell from it enough to make even Fluttershy drool.

“Hey where’s the rest of the food, this can’t be all you made?” asked Rainbow, seeing only the pie Applebloom was carrying, and the platter Applejack had.

Zen then put the pot down, and from his palms came digitized bits that slowly formed the remaining plates of food, each appearing on the table and before everypony.

“That’s a real neat trick you got, you’d be handy during trips if you can store stuff while keeping it warm still.”

“Thank you for this meal; let’s eat!” shouted Spike, digging in.

Soon everyone began to eat, Zen while keeping his food minimal, did eat but sparsely mostly sitting there and gazing ahead of himself. Usually you think he was spacing out, but he was receiving a message from Jiule right now.

Sir we’re receiving some strange activity from the north, its not much to go by… but something is definitely there. The same is with several other spots… I think your remaining other half of your weapons are these spots, but they’re too weak to pinpoint an exact location, just estimated areas of where they are. It’ll take too much time to search these areas, but I think if I scan these areas a bit carefully it’ll take a few years until then.

The weapons… every time I regain one of them my power increases, but… something else happens. A piece of me seems to return, but not a memory… rather… something… over time it goes by unnoticed but now its becoming more and more known. It started off with an itching feeling, then headaches would occasionally happen.

“Hey, Mr Zen are you alright, you looked all spacey and stuff,” said Applebloom, chewing on a piece of an apple.

“Applebloom, no talking when eating.”

“Don’t worry I just had something brought up to me by Jiule.”

“Really… but I don’t see anypony here?”

“Jiule’s the VAI that makes sure that all my facilities are working; she’s the one who’s been with me from the beginning before I met Celestia.”

“So she’s your older sister?”

“I wouldn’t call myself a sister, rather… a caretaker or assistant would be a better description.” Rainbow and Pinkie started spit-taking at the same time when they took a glass of water, when Jiule started to speak. The others laugh at their incidental shock, Zen watching with slight amusement while Jiule was a bit confused about their reaction. “Is something the matter? Was it something I said?”

Everfree Forest, Zecora’s Hut; 11:10am

After the Poison Joke incident, Zen made his promise and visited Zecora for some tea; the two were currently talking with another about their past lives – for Zecora she had to stop speaking in rhyme, as it tired her sometime during their conversation, while Zen had to shorten the parts of his past that involved mostly him.

“My my, I did not knew you met the head chieftain of the Zebrican Tribes back those days; I heard stories from the elders of my youth that the head chieftain of that time befriended a wandering warrior from Equestria… it was one of the reasons why I came to this land,” said Zecora, sipping her tea.

“That can’t be the sole reason you came here?”

“I did come here for another reasons; I myself am a traveler who wishes to improve my potion making, and learn the lands outside my birthplace. The Everfree Forest is known for its mysterious and deadly flora and creatures, it was because of this I was able to know what to use to make the Poison Joke cure.”

“I’m thankful for that, while the effects were mild at best, it wouldn’t be good if they’d believe you were the one that did it to them.”

Zecora nodded in agreement, while her first meeting with the Mane 6 started with skepticism and mistrust, they started to trust one another after Applebloom sneaked off to Zecora’s to prove she wasn’t an evil temptress.

The two continued drinking their respective tea when Zen heard something… familiar; a buzzing noise could be heard above of the two and when Zen gazed up, he saw the most terrifying thing from his past. Buzzing in Zecora’s hut was a colorful pest, a parasprite; Zen with a quick movement grasped the pest and crushed it one clench of his gauntlet.

Zecora saw what happened and check her home and surroundings, after making the area was clear of the damn things, she returned back. “This is not good, parasprites this far from the deeper parts of the Everfree! I’m sorry but I have to make sure those pest do not eat my supplies; I would recommend you return back to Ponyville, if there is one then there are more close by.” Zen agreed as he left to head back to town; on the way back there, he could see smoke and panicked screams in the distance.

Appearing above the clock tower near Fluttershy’s cottage, Zen saw in the distance a massive swarm of the bugs not eating the produce and food but the buildings themselves. Not hesitating at the slightest Zen unsheathed his weapon and morphed it into the duel-wielding form, and with both weapons he charged into the parasprite infestation.

Ponyville, Town Square; 11:15am

Twilight with the help of some of her friends try to fend off the swarm of parasprites, after enchanting them to stop eating all the food, they now have their focus directed at eating the town itself. Many ponies panicked and ran away or into each other, shopkeepers tried to keep their homes and shops from the pests, and all of it was happening on the day Princess Celestia said she was going to visit.

“Where is Pinkie!” shouted Rainbow, trying to swat the bugs.

Rarity and Fluttershy tried their best to contain the pests in the town square while Applejack and Rainbow try to take out as many they could spot. Twilight used her magic and zap as many of the things they could see while Spike tried throwing various objects and swatting them with a bug swatter. Most of the town also tried to repel the small invaders, but every attempt ended with the various objects they use to be eaten and multiple them ever more.

“This is hopeless, these things will eat all of Ponyville by the time the princess comes here!” Spike was about to swat another parasprite until he found his swatter to be chewed on.

Suddenly a blur moved by the group; the blur started to slice and cut the parasprites into ribbons as only puffs of color remained. The blur slowed down to reveal Zen, his hits causing the pests to explode into puffs of dust, nothing to remain.

Zen stopped before Twilight and the others, keeping his weapons to the side. “I would ask why there are so many parasprites but I’ll assume one of you found one and assumed it was friendly,” said Zen.

Fluttershy slowly raised her hoof; Zen saw and made his focus at the swarm of bugs that devoured the town like a glutton in a buffet line. Both of Zen’s weapons glowed ominously before bursting in flames, ready to tear anything into pieces.

“We can’t have a single one to survive… but I want to know why they’re eating the buildings – parasprites only eat any form of food or vegetation?”

“That would be my fault; I thought using a suggestion spell would help but it seems by removing their interest on food, they started eating everything else.”

“Well let’s hope it won’t get to bad, luckily I can manage if they haven’t multiple more than a day.” Zen swiped his weapons in a cross motion, eviscerating a group of the bugs in one move.

“Actually… they kinda grew over night...” said Twilight, smiling sheepishly. Zen slowly faced Twilight, his pupils blank and empty – the look was enough to bring shivers down her spine.

“...When exactly did young Fluttershy find them?” asked Zen.

“Ummmm well… you see… sometime in the afternoon yesterday… I think,” said Fluttershy.

Zen kept his gaze on Twilight, but changed it to look at the parasprites. This is going to be harder than I thought. Right before Zen was about to strike, he heard… music?

Some distance from them was Pinkie who began to play polka music with various instruments, at first Twilight was about to retort but saw the desired affect – the parasprites started following Pinkie. With the parasprites now distracted, Zen unsheathed his weapons as they both coalesced back into his massive katana. The others followed Pinkie and the parasprite parade while Zen decided to follow behind from a distance.

Once they were far from Ponyville the group saw Celestia’s escort arriving with her on her carriage, landing some distance from them. Celestia stepped off and approached Twilight and the others, noticing the strange parade with Pinkie in the lead. Twilight started to explain to Celestia about a few things when Celestia mentioned her visit. “Oh yes my visit, sadly I that has to be postponed for another time; something has occurred at Fillydelphia, and needs my assistance. It was nice seeing you again Twilight...” Celestia was about to take her leave when she saw Zen, standing under the shade of a tree; motioning for her guards to wait, she approached Zen while the group watched from a distance.

“You know what those things are Celestia – you can’t had forgotten about those famine-making pests, now can you,” said Zen, his arms crossed.

“Of course I wouldn’t forget, those things had nearly ruined our food supplies, we were lucky enough to lure them lower south… It seems something has caused them to come up north,” said Celestia, in a hushed tone.

“Or rather, something forced them to go north; I don’t know about you, but I feel something’s coming… something… ‘chaotic’.”

Celestia knew what Zen meant, and he wasn’t getting out anytime soon, but Zen was right, something was indeed causing the parasprites to come north… and they couldn’t lure them back south last time… they needed a permanent solution. “I’ll handle the ones at Fillydelphia.. you handle the ones here.”

Zen watched Celestia leave, her chariot vanishing in the distance; slowly he faced Pinkie who had stopped playing her music while the parasprites flew about, aimlessly. He clenched his clawed hand, small bits of liquid shadow slipping from his hands like flames from a torch. I’ll deal with this… permanently…

Several moments later – Outside of Ponyville; 12:00pm

During the repairs for Ponyville, Applebloom wandered off after she helped her siblings with the cleanup. The young filly was exploring outside of Ponyville as the usual stores and places she goes to were currently under repairs and weren’t safe for a small foal like her. Applebloom was trotting under a path of trees when she heard something; facing where the noise was coming from, it sounded… off – the noise sounded like the cracking of fire, but she couldn’t see any signs of smoke, either by sight or smell.

Where’s that fire coming from?

Exploring the forest she wandered into, Applebloom trotted past some trees until she came upon some dense shrubbery. Moving the shrubbery aside, Applebloom took a peek through the shrubs and saw something… horrifying.

Piled up were the burning small bodies of the parasprites, the bodies being engulfed in black flames… but what was most terrifying was the one responsible for something this horrible. Zen overlooked the flames, his stature showing little care for the quick and easy departure of so much life. Grasped in one hand was the burning body of one of the parasprites, but oddly the body didn’t burn but rather was consumed by the flames, bits and pieces seeming to ebb away to nothing, leaving no ash or anything… absolute nothingness.

“What’s… he doing...” Applebloom was so terrified, she didn’t notice the twig she stepped on; realizing her mistake, Zen stiffened up slightly, but before he could face where she was, Applebloom ran from the scene. Instead of turning around, Zen continued to stand where he was, already knowing Applebloom was behind him. Zen gazed at the pile until all of it vanished to nothing – the spot where the pile was devoid of everything, as grass would never regrow there again.

Zen left the area, returning back to his abode with, as he repeated a mantra to himself.

“I am who I am… and I am… what I kill… I am who I am… and I am… what I kill...”

And what I kill, I become – and more.

Author's Notes:

Two episodes in one chapter; Zecora finally meets Zen (and the Mane 6), and the parasprite plague have finally happened. It also appears we may have a few clues about what may occur in the future... Chaotic?... Energy signature in the north?... Problems down south?... Mystery after mystery.

Welp no time to dally - for on the next chapter: Its somebody's birthday... though what about Zen's?

Thoughts: Zen
Twilight Sparkle
Applebloom