The Everfree Forest was not a place many ponies ventured into, and definitely not at night. Most ponies were not, however, armed with the might of the moon and the magic of an ageless Princess. With her horn sparkling blue and purple like her dark flowing mane, Luna stomped through the thick growth ahead of her. Conjured winds pushed aside any vines or branches they could. Any they couldn't force aside were cut to pieces by a swirling mass of curved moonsilver blades, which bent and cracked like sharp metal whips, slicing all before them. The dense flora on the forest floor tried to stop her movement, but her hooves tore through it easily thanks to her magically increased strength.

The rush of letting a small bit of her raw power loose, without having to restrain herself to avoid hurting other ponies, was exhilarating. She had been longing to do this since coming back to Equestria. It was dangerous, risky, and perhaps a little stupid to make so much of a spectacle in this place, but that was the main reason she loved it. It also meant she didn't go down the path of brooding she tripped into so easily. Here, now, she could instead focus on simple, concrete obstacles being cast aside with her power. None of her emotions could compare to the feeling of the thick ground yielding before the trampling of her hooves. Besides, if anything did come at her, that would make the whole affair simpler. Fighting was half the reason she was here.

Her heart was soaring so high that she almost didn't notice that one creature remained in her way. Straight ahead, she saw a pony-shaped figure standing in front of a bent, gnarled tree. The tree had been carved into a crude dwelling, with a simple wooden door and open windows, from which emanated an eerie green glow. Strings of bones and bells rattled loudly in the wind, with large, colorful masks completing the tree’s decorations.. The figure stood upright in the doorway of this tree and held two bubbling bottles in its hooves.

"What is all this commotion?" an angry, accented shout came forth. "Stop or I shall unleash my potions!"

The Princess of the Night made her way into the clearing. Her blades stopped spinning, but they continued to sing with the vibrations caused by their fluid metal. She reared back on her hind legs, stretched her wings out to full length, made sure her jet black crown could be seen prominently, and pointed a menacing hoof at the offender.

"What?" she demanded in the Royal Canterlot Voice. The wind picked up speed and force. "We are the moon, the stars, and the great dark void which lies between them, and we suffer not such feeble threats! Who art thou to tell us to halt!?"

"I am the occupant of this humble hut," the other retorted, managing to stay on her hooves despite the buffets of air, "and you have disturbed my slumber with your noisy cuts!"

"Thy hut and thy body are in our way! Remove them, insolent wretch, or prepare thyself to face the conse—"

Princess Luna stopped, dropped to all four legs again, and stepped forward to get a better look. As she thought, it was a zebra. They were intelligent and much like ponies in their manner, so Luna decided a less-intimidating approach might be better. She folded her wings and dismissed her spells. The swords appeared to melt back into the moonlight itself, and the winds died down to gusts, then to a light breeze. For her part, the other set down her potion bottles. The two regarded each other for a few moments.

"We know thee," Luna said, without any magical amplification this time. "It was thou who filled the heads of the little ones of Ponyville with terrible tales about us during the Nightmare Night past."

"My name is Zecora," she said calmly, "and I know you as well. What brings Princess Luna to this place where I dwell?"

”That is not thy business,” Luna responded. “While we are somewhat displeased with the difficulties we encountered that night, we bear thee no further ill will. Forget our threatening outburst.”

“I did not know you would come back, and I did not mean my performance as an attack...” A cloud seemed to pass over Zecora’s eyes, and her strange voice became heavier. “This may seem an odd request, but will you come in for a moment and rest?

“For what possible reason would we desire to enter this place?” Luna shot a disapproving glance at Zecora’s house.

“Because the longer you stay outside a stranger,” said Zecora, turning her dark gaze carefully all around the empty clearing, “the greater the chance of bringing monsters and danger. Please come in, before they return with all their kin."

"Thou fearest them and not us?" Luna asked, maintaining her rigid and regal bearing.

"I fear them, you, and much more, but if I let my fears rule me I would never leave my door. I am not without my defenses. I simply seek to avoid conflicts using my other senses. You are more than capable of defending your own body, but my skills at defending mine are relatively shoddy. For this reason my enchantments keep my presence hidden, but only if no one attracts attention unbidden."

”Very well then,” Luna acquiesced. “Because thou wouldst apparently be endangered by our refusal, then as a representative of the dual crown of Equestria to a foreign ally, we accept. Please allow us entry."

Zecora eased open the door to her home and stood aside to allow Princess Luna to pass. As she walked inside, the she gave a curt nod to her host, then peered around curiously. The green light came from the colored fire of a boiling cauldron in the middle of the house's single room, along with of the same color, placed at regular intervals along the walls. Most of the smell came from the cauldron, giving a sharp, tangy flavor to the air, like a shot of over-ripe juice, beneath which hid a mixture of melting wax, smoke, and exotic powders. Neatly arranged and labeled shelves of reagants, herbs, tinctures, and other sundries, dominated the walls. More masks also adorned the interior. Each one was unique in shape, color, and exaggerated expression. They ranged from pure rage to absolute calm, from uplifting happiness to teary despair. All of the masks cast long, flickering shadows with burning green eyes and mouths across the room.

The occupant of the tree hut soon followed, shutting the door tightly as she entered. She gently tapped her guest on the shoulder, pointing toward a stack of silk cushions in the corner, then she sat down on one already lying in front of her pot. Luna levitated a pillow off the stack and placed it a respectable distance away, facing Zecora, then sat down.

Outside, eyes of all sizes, shapes, and colors quietly peered out from the darkness. Most contained some mixture of hunger, anger, and malice, but they kept their distance.

"Thou asked us what brought us here," Luna spoke up, scanning the trees carefully for any real threats. "We must keep our own counsel on that matter, but we can say that we had not a hint that thy home was here. This fact raises a troubling question. Wert thou aware of the magical nature of this path? ‘Tis one of the ley lines that bind the world together. Thou must surely have chosen this spot deliberately, but we did not think any being without innate magic could do so."

"Magic is a skill that can be learned," Zecora said as she picked up a ladle from a bucket of water and doused out the flames beneath her cauldron. "It is simply that most who try end up burned..."

As the bright, green fire diminished, a dim, white light started to take its place. The stars in the Princess's mane twinkled, but they shone as if through a shroud, lending a wispy and ghostly aspect to the room's ambiance. Zecora took great interest, and smiled for the first time as her previous anger fully passed. She said a foreign word that Luna thought she vaguely recognized.

"What didst thou say?" she inquired. "It sounded like an old word for 'terrible'."

"The word I said was 'Raahanda'.’ In my native tongue it means ‘great awe’.”

"We may recall a form of that language," Luna said, resisting the urge to scoot her cushion closer, but failing to resist having her ears perk up. "It was not spoken by zebras in our time, however. How did that come to pass?"

"Hundreds of years before my birth," Zecora explained as she began to scoop out samples of her brew, and carefully poured them into red glass bottles, "the Arabian horses dreamed to conquer the earth. They spread far and wide, but as always, their empire fell due to pride. In the future I can tell you much more, but for now I would rather offer a drink, and a question, than discuss ancient lore."

"Oh yes," Luna said, reluctantly putting aside her questions for the time being. "We could not help our curiosity. Whatever thou hast to spare would be appreciated."

Zecora got up and approached a shelf labeled "Drink" in the Arabic language. A clear pitcher full of sparkling water was held out to Luna. While she gratefully received the pitcher in her hooves and downed a small gulp, she took a moment to glance at the rest of the signs, and recognized some. "Poison", in particular, caught her interest. Avoiding conflict indeed. The Princess offered the pitcher back, and Zecora took the same amount of water before passing it over again. Luna was greatly pleased with herself for having guessed the proper protocol correctly.

"So," Zecora said between drinks, "how much do you know about this frightful wood? The travel plan you seem to be using is less than good."

The Princess felt like she should have been angry at these words and many more that had already been spoken. Her temper was certainly already on edge tonight for several other reasons, but it didn't stir. She gazed thoughtfully around her odd surroundings and wondered why that could be. Is there some magic here? I probably would have noticed that, but it is possible. Does it matter? She is being kind enough for a stranger, and I shall be gone soon. There is no reason to worry.

"We must admit, we know less than we probably should. Nevertheless, we are powerful. Few things in this world could stand before us."

"But why trouble yourself with dangerous fights when I can show you a safe path on which to alight?"

Luna scoffed and turned her head toward the windows. None of the things she saw looming there were the least bit frightening. "The more dangerous the dangers, the greater the need for us to confront them. We are here to protect our subjects from the horrors that have sprung from this place, not to sneak and hide."

"That is a very noble cause, but it is not the monsters which give me pause. There are innocents in this forest too, and they may be put in great peril by you."

Neither Zecora's pleasant voice nor expression had changed, but suddenly Luna felt her face flush slightly, both in subdued anger, and in regret. Although her shoulders remained set proudly, she cast her eyes downward. "Thou saidst that we have done thee wrong on that account, and yet thou offerest us shelter and now guidance as well? We do not understand."

Zecora was silent for a while. Lost in contemplation, she mechanically finished pouring her mixture into the bottles, then set them aside. She stood on her hind legs over the empty pot, resting her fore legs on its cool edge. She was going to move it out of the way to be cleaned, but the last few trails of steam and smoke rising up from the bottom caught her eye. She watched each black and white wisp disappear into the air, then sighed, blowing the particles to wherever her breath might take them. "Qaratab," she said finally.

"What?" Luna raised an eyebrow along with her question. "'Sister'?"

"'Kindred spirit'. I saw and heard what happened on Nightmare Night, and it was hard to bear it. Even though things were put right, I regret spreading such fright. I saw each look on your face, from bad to good, and in them I saw a pony who stood where I too once stood."

"We do not know what to say to that," Luna said, and noticed a touch of sadness in her host's eyes. She suddenly realized that her own eyes might have showed the same thing.

"You asked. It is no matter. I simply gave my answer.”

Silence stretched out between the two equines. She is being quite forward and presumptuous, Luna said to herself. While she is obviously not a diplomat, this is still inappropriate and annoying. Still... Under scrutiny, it did seem like Zecora's calm exterior was hiding a great many things below the surface. It would only be natural for there to be some similarities. Her home is a thousand miles away, and mine is a thousand years away. She is right though. It does not matter. There is work to be done.

"We should depart soon," Luna broke the silence, but spoke with some reluctance. "Hath the danger to thyself passed?"

"Danger is never truly out of sight," the zebra said as her smile dimmed just a little bit. "But I believe I shall be safe for the night. There is some advice I must impart, before you go and depart."

"What is it?" Luna asked as she stood up, tipping her horn to Zecora and turning toward the door.

"Through this forest is a secret road," Zecora said, and got up as well, walking to the door and holding it open with her hoof. She bowed, then gestured outward with the other hoof. "It is a mile west from my abode. You will know it by a red-marked stone ring. Follow it, and to your destination it will bring. It is a longer but safer path, less likely to attract a monster's wrath."

"We thank thee," the Princess of the Night said, halting at the door for a moment. "This was a pleasant meeting, despite the initial circumstances. The stars will watch over thy dreams, madam Zecora."

"Alhaale, Princess," Zecora replied. A humble blessing to someone greatly respected, if Luna recalled correctly.

Luna stalked back into the woods. Zecora watched her go for a minute or two, then quietly shut her door. One by one, the green-flamed candles inside were snuffed out.

Luna, while keeping a watchful eye on the animals of the Everfree, looked to the west for a minute. She thought about the “safer” path, but decided against it. What safety was there in willingly ignoring threats to her subjects? In order to make this a proper patrol, she would have to cover at least half of it on hoof. She marched forward with determination, letting her unicorn horn guide her way.

Even with her mind alert and guarded, she still unwillingly gave room for part of it to wander away from her. At first, she thought of her meeting with Zecora. Luna wished she'd had time to ask the stranger more questions, particularly the ones about her language and history, even though the zebra didn't seem to relish answering them very much. She decided she would stop by again on the way back, and she would be more careful about Zecora’s safety then, hoping their conversation would go more smoothly as a result. At the thought of carefulness, however, Luna's mind jumped away to her last encounter with Celestia.

“'I trust you completely Luna,'” she said out loud in a mocking tone. “'Just take these six guards of mine to spy on you and report back to me and I'll be totally fine with you leaving to save my kingdom!' Yes, well, the sleep spell I used on them will last for at least a day, but I will be sure to send a letter about everything this adventure taught me about friendship when I am done. 'Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that it is a miracle that Equestria has held together for a thousand years without me. Thy faithful sist— yah!”

Luna yelped and ducked instinctively as a giant claw swiped where her head had been not a second before. She tucked herself up and rolled backward before a second claw attacked, then sprang to her hooves. She had just enough time to get a good look at her assailant before the third claw came at her.

The thing she had initially dismissed as an oddly-shaped rock was something else entirely. It was all claws, or things like them. Talons connected to razors, which connected to beaks, which connected to spikes, with nothing but glints of metal in the gaps between them. All of them moved as if they were the thing's actual limbs. The only sound it made was the harsh ring of sharp edges grating against sharp edges as it somehow came forward, using whichever appendages happened to be in the right spot to drag itself along the ground. It was... a claw golem? Why would one even make such a thing?

She shoved her puzzlement aside for now, instead darting forward to meet the third strike with a block from her sparkling metal shoe. It stung and the clang made her whole body shake, but it gave her enough of an opening to drive her other hoof into the ground with thunderous force. A wide crack opened in the earth underneath the monster. Not enough to swallow it, but it was enough to make it lose its balance, making the killing blows it had coming at her from both sides narrowly miss.

The Princess quickly took a few steps back, then began to summon energy into her horn. Concentric patterns of lightning formed around it, which she gathered into a crackling blue orb before launching it at the reeling golem. With a flash and a deafening crack of thunder, it was electrocuted. The air reeked of ozone as the various pincers, teeth, and hooks twitched and fell apart, leaving only a large, featureless metal ball they had been connected to.

“Huzzah!” Luna shouted and jumped on top of the remains. “My first of many victories in this strange new world! Oh, happiest of nights!”

Her celebration was interrupted by three beasts trying to stealthily make their way toward her, each from a different direction. One of them looked like a pony, another like a fox, and the last like a deer. A key difference, however, was that each was horribly mutated. The pony had a totally featureless face except for pincers and a maw where its mouth should have been, and its vertebrae grew out of its back and into fungal tubes made of bone. The fox had only three legs, two normal ones in front, and an enormous, muscular rear leg with protruding spikes all over it. Its head was covered with the same bony tubes as the pony's back was. The deer was almost normal, except its antlers were open at the tips and they were spewing out noxious green clouds of spores. Its eyes still had a glint of awareness in them, even through the milky, moldy green and white sheen that overlaid them. None of them made any sound.

At the same time, Luna felt a gap open underneath one of her hooves. The sphere had opened up in a jagged pattern, like a row of teeth. She took to the air in a flash, avoiding the mouth as it clamped back down. Hovering in place a safe distance away with her wings, she watched in annoyance as all but a few of the pieces of the golem reassembled themselves.

The fox leaped up toward her with the strength of its huge leg, but she gave it a powerful kick straight downward, smashing the earth and a few of its bones. Luna then stretched her front legs out wide, while her eyes sparked into shining white orbs. She swooped straight down, with an arc of purple-and-black-hued fire forming just ahead of her. As Luna landed on the fox-thing and drove it farther into the ground, the arc erupted, setting everything for several yards aflame. The first attacker was burned to a crisp, while the other three backed away from the explosion. She could sense some of the extreme heat surrounding her, but the fire itself parted around her body.

Gathering some of the fire back into her direct control with her magic, Luna charged out of the circle of fire, straight at the mutated pony. Several sharp attacks bit into her flank during the charge, but the pain only urged her on faster. She slammed the dark flames, and then her body, into her target. The maw snapped at her frantically, but even as it burned alive it emitted no other sound. She put an end to the chattering by piercing the thing's skull with her horn, realizing too late how foolish the attack had been. The beast stopped moving immediately, but a cloud of spores puffed out of the fungal tubes along its back as it did so. Luna couldn't avoid inhaling some of them, even though she coughed hard and beat backwards with her wings.

She turned around as quickly as she could during her stumble, seeing that the golem was some ways off, but drawing steadily nearer. More urgently, the former deer was running full-speed at her, with its fume-spewing antlers pointed straight ahead. She stood up on two of her legs again and drew her wings back as far she could. A blue shimmer appeared around them. Luna held herself steady to wait for the right moment. She almost faltered when that moment came, because in its eyes she saw nothing but terror, an odd thing for such an aggressive monster. She grit her teeth and forced herself to save the angst for later, gathering all her might into her wings and flapping them forward. An enormous blast of wind, with trails of purple and black smoke from the fire following in its wake, sent the creature flying straight into the other monster's claws. The golem ground the thing up quickly, drawing it in as it did so, toward the mouth that had reopened in the central sphere. The animal that used to be a deer did not even open its mouth to utter a noise, although the absolute terror in its eyes remained. The cloud of green spores the creature produced as it died were mostly taken in by the claw golem, the rest being blown away by the lingering breeze her blast of wind had stirred up.

Luna sized up her last remaining opponent. It was missing a few of its appendages, probably from her earlier shock to it. She guessed that a few more ought to do it - or one big one. The air around her horn grew hazy with heat and energy in preparation for her spell. Before she could release it, however, something small went flying through the air from behind her and into her target. It flew through a gap that her earlier attack had left in the mass of claws and hit the metal sphere with a smash—a glass bottle breaking. Claws, pointed beaks, teeth, and everything else crashed to the ground in rapid succession as the metal core was eaten up by sizzling acid. It could no longer advance, instead only managing to flail uselessly in place before it stopped entirely.

Luna turned, and for a moment she saw nothing behind her. Only with the mystical aid of her nocturnal eyes did she see where the bottle had come from. A thin, sleek cheetah crouched low to the ground, with bags and pouches tied around its midsection. Luna’s eyes widened when she realized that the cheetah was not yellow around its spots, but a grayish-white, and it seemed to have a ghostly second pair of eyes directly behind the first. The second pair she recognized.

“Zecora?” Luna called out. She remained in her battle posture, just in case.

“I have some things with which to aid, but first we should put out that fire you made,” the cheetah said in a low, tense tone, which was simultaneously Zecora's and not Zecora's. The sing-song rhyming pattern remained, but there was a second male voice that overlapped with hers. It seemed to Luna’s acute senses that anything with normal hearing would not have been able to hear both.

“What art thou doing here?” she asked. “I thought thou hadst remained back for fear of thy safety?”

She watched as the cheetah carefully and silently walked toward where her dark flames were still burning. Catching a closer glimpse of the profile, Luna saw the same spiral pattern on the hind quarter that Zecora had on hers. It had to be her, somehow. Luna decided to take the advice, since a black flame would probably not be a good thing to let burn here anyway.

“I shall put it out and save thee the trouble,” she said, and used her long, glowing horn to concentrate as much moisture as she could over the circle of fire. A tiny but dense blue cloud gradually came into existence. Luna flew over and landed on it, then proceeded to hop up and down gracefully, causing rain to pour out. With the springing effect of jumping on the cloud that pegasus magic gave her, the thrill of victory returned to her once more. She grinned wide and laughed, which caused a miniature lightning strike to fly out of the cloud along with the rain. Luna laughed more as a regular red fire sprang into existence next to her purple one. She pulled more water from the surrounding air into the cloud in response, expanding it and making it even more fun to jump on. Her laugh took on a slightly maniacal quality as rain poured over the two fires. Much of her royal dignity was lost during this process, but she didn't care in the least. If Zecora hadn't called out to her that the fires were out, she might have continued in this manner for some time.

“Thus does my legend grow,” she said triumphantly as she floated down to where Zecora waited. “I thank thee for thy assistance, my friend, though it was unnecessary.”

“You now call me ‘friend’?” Zecora sounded vaguely amused. “And when, pray tell, did the royal ‘we’ end?”

“Uh...” Luna trailed off and looked around awkwardly as her horn and eyes stopped shining. She still continued to beam even in her awkwardness. “Yes. There is no one else out here, so...”

A serene smile that was very reminiscent of Zecora’s spread across the cheetah's face, but it went away when Luna suddenly began to cough fiercely. Puffs of green gas came out along with her phlegm. Right about then her natural adrenaline also wore off, and she finally felt the gashes that had been dug into her side.

“Curses,” she said in between coughing fits. “I knew I should have been more careful. This is going to take days to heal.”

“Those would take weeks, bandaged and treated.” Zecora reached a paw into one of her bags and began to rummage through it. “And a cure for the poison is also needed.”

“Healing is one of the gifts which we of royal blood possess,” Luna explained, wincing and hacking. “I am particularly gifted in this area. I have suffered far worse poisons. Rest assured that I will not transform into a mushroom colony.”

“That is very impressive,” the cheetah said as she, or he, pulled a purple bottle out and offered it to Luna, “but it is wise to have a cure that is more aggressive.”

“Only if thou takest some as well. I am sure I am endangering thee with my coughing...”

“That is a good deal, we can tell. Let us drink, so the curse we may quell.”

Luna floated the bottle over to herself, pulled off the cork and drank a gulp of it. It tasted delicious, like fresh grapes and a touch of mint. She was about to ask if it was actually medicine, and not in fact grape juice with mint in it, when she noticed the burning sensation in her lungs almost immediately abated. Her cuts still hurt a lot, but at least now the wounds weren't being disturbed by coughing fits.

“Well,” she said, nodding her head, and floating the bottle back to its owner. “That was probably the most pleasant healing elixir I have ever had. I thank thee, madam Zecora.”

“It is an easy thing to produce,” Zecora said modestly after downing a gulp of the stuff as well. “I have plenty, as long as we are careful of its use. If it would not cause too much aggravation, would you reveal to me our destination?”

“‘Our'?” Luna said with a cocked eyebrow and a chuckle. “Hast thou now adopted the royal ‘we’ in my stead?”

“I must say no,” the zebra-turned-cheetah replied, laughing as well, “but I am too curious not to follow.”

“Hmm,” Princess Luna's face turned more serious. “I am not sure. I do not know precisely what I will find there, but some of it may be of great importance. Secret importance, to me alone.”

“If you find anything like that,” Zecora said firmly, “I promise it is nothing I will look at. Please be assured that I will never reveal what you have obscured.”

Luna was impressed by her vow, so she bowed her head in acquiescence. “Aside from the time of chivalry, it has almost always been guards or fellow soldiers following me on expeditions such as this one. A shapeshifting mystic zebra from another continent would be a welcome change, even if only for a brief time. Very well. Only remember that I shall hold thee to thy word.”

Zecora smiled, seemingly genuinely. Luna eyed her warily, but then began to lead the way forward. In deference to her companion's wish for a little more stealth, she agreed to rely solely on her agility to work around the strange and often-dangerous flora that barred their way, rather than on the more-fun route of blasting or cutting it away. They were mostly silent for the remainder of the journey, which took most of the night. Luna was silent because it gradually hurt more and more to talk, even with the medicine. Zecora was silent because her personality was slightly different from earlier. She was much more reticent, and when she had to speak, she spoke quickly, as if trying to get it over with as soon as possible. Questions and possible answers about the severe change in Zecora’s appearance and voice consumed Luna's thoughts, but she wanted to wait for a more comfortable time to ask. The prospect of such an interesting conversation, combined with the memory of her first conquest in over one thousand years—even though it had been small, and with unneeded aid—made her feel very light. So light that, whenever the terrain afforded them the opportunity, her wings reflexively lifted her up to travel a few feet above the ground. If she were alone, she may have added some pirouettes too.

In this spirit, she and Zecora finally came upon the misty chasm that separated the forest from the ancient palace. The rope bridge was still there, barely.

“Once we cross here,” Luna whispered, surveying the dark, mist-shrouded shapes of the ruins with a wistful look. “We shall be safe. Nothing born of darkness can cross this barrier... except for me. Or Nightmare Moon, I should say...” She shook her head, then flew across the gap. She looked back and noticed her partner wasn't following. The cheetah was stuck there, with a grim face.

“I have wondered why I could not pass like this,” she said. “Give me but one moment, and then I can cross the misty abyss.”

She set down the bags at her sides. Then she dug her paws into her neck and began to pull out, as if trying to tear her own head off. Luna gaped in horror and started to fly back. As the cheetah pulled, blood trickled from around its head. Its black spots also somehow trickled, only they flowed along the skin, up its body, and gathered at the face. The paws and fur turned fluid and did the same, until all of the cheetah's distinctive features had melted and gathered in an inky, swirling blackness on the front of its face... which then came off with a harsh, fleshy ripping sound. The body was instantly shaped like a zebra's again, and its hair was striped gray and black, with a spiked mane of the same colors, and the spiral mark on its side. The face was Zecora's, with no hidden extra eyes now.

Luna was speechless, so Zecora spoke for her.

“Many different forms and shapes,” she said with a little less happiness in her “normal” voice, “for many different storms and scrapes.”

The mask she now held in her hooves was small, shaped just right for her face. It was yellow with black spots, and white whiskers were painted onto its surface. Aside from holes for the eyes and mouth, those were its only features. Nothing appeared unusual or magical about it. She placed it inside one of her bags, where Luna caught sight of three more similarly-sized masks. “I needed stealth and speed for this task, so I chose to wear Baqir's mask.”

Luna also observed a bright ring of blood around Zecora's neck, on top of similar scars that would normally have been covered up by her jewelry, which she had evidently not brought with her. “Art thou well? There is blood around thy neck...”

“I do not feel that great,” Zecora said, frowning for the first time since Luna had met her, “but nothing can be done except to wait. In a minute the blood will stop flowing, and then you and I can get going.”

Luna waited patiently, thinking carefully about what to say. Before she could decide, however, Zecora's bleeding stopped, and she nodded that she was ready. Looking behind her as much as she could to judge Zecora's health, Luna began to make her way across again. The zebra tested the bridge with one leg and found she had no trouble. The frown disappeared from her face as she trotted across, joining Luna in her eager but careful crossing.