Post by starlight on Sept 3, 2013 3:04:16 GMT -5
The midafternoon sun is shining. Probably. Down here under the thick Everfree canopy, the sun only penetrates from time to time when the trees and the plants are in a good mood - something which Lunar Eclipse most definitely is NOT. "Starlight. Starlight! Hang on!" the night-blue unicorn mare calls out to her small daughter, who had nearly disappeared among the bushes! The little filly is much less afraid here now after meeting 'that nice zerbo lady', and besides, what can go wrong with Mama right there? Getting lost, that's what. Starlight pulls up short in a familiar clearing. It looks just like the one she first met Zecora in... of course, so did the last three. "...um."
Zecora is aware that most of the forest feels familiar. She, however, is familiar with it because she has walked its darkest shadows and climbed its greatest heights. She knows it like she knows herself, and though both are quite labyrinthian, the paths are always there for you. Today, they lead her just where she wanted to go at just the right time: right in front of Starlight, as she turns around to check whether she came out of *that* knot of trees, or *that* one. She looks down at the foal with a gentle smile. "Ah, Starlight! Just who I wanted to see. And you've brought a guest for me!" She looks up at Lunar Eclipse and bows to her. "It is good to know that ponies of the sunlit land still brave the dark to find a helping hand."
Starlight was looking back to her mother and didn't see Zecora appear, per the zebra's usual ways. The little unicorn walks right into Zecora's leg, then hops back in surprise! "AAH!-" she shrieks, stopping quickly when Zecora speaks and she sees who she's run into. But that's enough to bring Lunar running at top speed, viciously clearing a path with her magic! "STARLIGHT! WHAT-" and Lunar is brought up short, seeing that whatever her daughter shouted about she is now hugging instead of running away from. "Mama! Look! This is Sakura! I told you I could find her!" Starlight gushes, displaying her usual propensity with names. Her mother coposes herself, looking a little embarrassed about meeting someone at a run, especially someone who might take offense at the plants she damaged. "Um. Hello there. Sakura was it? My name is Lunar Eclipse, and... I think I may need your advice." The blue mare offers a hoof.
Zecora doesn't look offended in the slightest! Plants here usually grow and fall and are crushed as the paths of fate desire. Unfortunately, there is nothing that easily rhymes with that, so Zecora cannot explain. "Advice is my forte, and thanks are my only pay. My name is Zecora, and there is no need to fear. As dark as these woods are, there are only friends here." As if to emphasize this, she smiles down at Starlight and wraps a single hoof around the young unicorn, beaming at the foal's unbidden kindness.
Starlight trots back and forth in place and grins. Lunar clears her throat. "*Zecora*. I beg your pardon. Thank you so much for the kindness you showed my daughter -" ("she's my mama!" Starlight whispers to the zebra, completely unnecessarily) "- but I'm afraid that isn't why I asked her to bring me to you. Is... is there somewhere we can talk? Or we could go back to Maple Street, and... I'm so sorry to intrude! What was I thinking, perhaps this is a bad time! It's just... her time may be running out, I'm... not sure what to do." The mare falls silent, a look of deep concern etched on her face in all-too-common lines. It isn't obvious whose time may be running out; certainly Starlight seems to be perfectly healthy. The little filly trots up to leand against her mother. "Aw... don't be sad, mama! She's not gone after Moonshadow yet." Lunar winces.
Zecora's face quickly draws itself into a fine line. Her eyes narrow and her mouth draws tight. The gravity of the situation, somehow, has impressed itself on her without it even being fully divulged. "It is only a little ways to my home; better to speak there than while we roam." Wordlessly, she nods deeper into the woods. "Trust you must give while a trail I blaze. Every step taken here is its own little maze." And, bidding them to stand next to her, she guides them through the woods as she did Starlight, to her brightly-lit and exotic (though still friendly looking) tree house. "Enter, please, and be my guest. I find it easier to work in this place of rest. There is tea and cots to lie on. If this is as serious as it seems, I may need to work till dawn."
Starlight trots along with Zecora. Lunar follows behind, keeping pace well enough but quiet for the length of the short journey, withdrawn into her own thoughts. Starlight whispers to Zecora, still with a small child's inability to whisper quietly enough for the adults not to hear, but her mother shows no sign of noticing. "Um... There was this filly, Dime And Danger, I think, and, and, she had all these black blotches! All over her hooves and wings - she's a pegasus! - and she said that she was, um. Real sick. Like. Maybe gonna die sick. Like my brother. But he didn't die from sick. It was a train." That was the line where the three of them cross the threshold into the warm, flickering light in Zecora's home. The lifting of the gloom seems to wake Lunar up. "I, what? Oh. Yes. Tea would be lovely, thank you so much. I should explain, but... have you ever heard of Icarus Syndrome?" Lunar sits where offered; Starlight immediately hops onto Zecora's bed and snuggles down in the exact spot where she had been the last time she was here.
Zecora's nose dips down just enough to brush Starlight's ear when she mentions her brother. When they get inside, Zecora immediately gets to work, fussing with herbs and her pot. The bed is warm! Perhaps it remembers Starlight? The sight draws another smile from Zecora, who brings them both the tea she promised. The smile remains, but her eyes grow thoughtful and melancholy when she speaks. "This disease is known to me; long and terrible is its history. Those who had it were said to be cursed, for they were few in number and impossible to be reversed. In Whitetail Wood lives the Miracle Mare, as a sister to the bard lodging there. This case is known to me, but finding its cure takes more than a moon or three."
Starlight sniffs the tea. To a little one, it's kind of bitter. She wrinkles her nose but sips it anyway, listening to the adults and watching them with big shiny yellow eyes. Lunar's eyes, almost identical, widen at Zecora and are filled with hope which quickly drains away: "You know her? That's wonderful! That means that you know just what I've come to talk to you about, and... have already given it a lot of thought. You... you *don't* have any answers, do you?" Lunar sips her tea, floating the cup with her magic, then puts it down suddenly. "I'm a pharmacist, Miss Zecora, not a doctor. When Miss Dancer came-" ("Danger!" Starlight interrupts.) "No, dear. Dancer. Diamond Dancer. When she came to my pharmacy looking for medicine, she told me about her situation and... she broke my heart. I've been reading everything I can about Icarus Syndrome, and... frankly, there isn't very much at all, at least not past stage three. Starlight was so impressed by you I asked around town a little, and was told that you were an apothecary and a magician.... which for all that I'm a unicorn, I'm not. I was hoping maybe you might have a suggestion or even a cure, but... I'm afraid I've wasted your time. I'm sorry. Come along, Starlight." ("But mama-") "NOW, Starlight." Lunar, clearly embarrassed, begins to head for the door. Starlight follows her reluctantly, looking back at Zecora.
The sensation of her leg being held by a hoof is probably enough to stop her at the door. "Wait," Zecora says, and adds no rhyme to it. Somehow, it just makes her exotic voice all the more forceful. "Little is known and less is sure, but do not give up hope of finding a cure. Your good heart is plain, and I will help or Zecora is not my name. There are yet things to try, but a certain answer? I cannot lie. A waste of time it cannot be, when a pony's life is the quandary. Stay awhile and talk with me. Where one has failed, the answer will come from two, or three."
Lunar pauses, feeling the hoof and also a lot of mixed emotions. With uncharacteristic wisdom, Starlight looks up at her mother and says, "Come on, Mama... it can't hurt to just TALK to Miss Zakora, can it?" Lunar sighs, then turns around and returns to her seat. Starlight does likewise, giving Zecora a big grin before hopping back onto the bed and making another ickface; the tea didn't suddenly taste better! Lunar looks away for a moment and rubs her face, then meets Zecora's eyes. "I... you're right. Of course. I'm... so sorry, my manners are all over the place today. Really, ever since I met the little filly. I'm not sure why she... affected me so much. But she has." The mare picks up her mug with magic again and sips. "Let me... let me tell you what I found. According to the latest research I could find, Icarus Syndrome is primarily a vascular degenerative disorder with a comorbid neuropathy. There's research from a Doctor Withers that suggests low air pressure can trigger cascading early apoptosis... " and she goes on like this for some time, laying out the technical and scientific aspects of the disease to the best of her ability to understand. Which is fairly impressive; Lunar Eclipse turns out to be quite a smart pony, and more than a little obsessed. By the time she finishes, the tea is long gone, and Starlight has gone from bewildered to bored to very quietly napping, curled up in the middle of Zecora's blankets.
Zecora waits patiently through the entire spiel, dropping a few herbs into her constantly simmering pot. Contrary to expectations, it lets out a belch of fine, pungent spicy aromas. One can *taste* the Neighara sands, or the shores of Bitaly, through the smells. Zecora absently but affectionately drapes a blanket over Starlight when she begins to doze, and pulls out a few books to leaf through them, glancing up only when Lunar is done talking. "There is much that medicine mundane can perform, but the cure for Icarus Syndrome will leave many forlorn. A mixture of magic and medicine we require for circumstances so dire. Two things I have found, yes, three may yet work: the Viola Aubergensis, petals of Arcanaxis Blue, and the bark of the World Tree; all we cannot shirk."
Starlight wriggles a bit and snuggles into the blanket when Zecora covers her, prompting a pause in the medical recitation and a look of deep affection from her mother. When she finishes, Lunar listens intently to Zecora... and suddenly leaps to her hooves! "There's a-" Lunar knocked her tea flying! But catches it with her magic before it hits the ground... and reinserts the tea into the mug before putting it down carefully. Nopony knows how to deal with accidental spills quite like the laboratory-owning mother of a small curious child. "Ahem. There's a way, then? How do we get those things? Wait... did you say the World Tree?? That's... a myth, isn't it? Or just a kind of ash tree?" Starlight squirms and mumbles something in her sleep, then emits a tiny filly snore.
Zecora breathes in, long and slow, and lets it out in a long, reluctant sigh. "Truth becomes myth when mixed with time. Much knowledge of the Old World is gone; an insufferable crime." She turns and looks directly at Lunar. "The rule of Discord was not in Equestria contained. In many other lands his distortion reigned. Yet tyranny fell and seasons passed. Where knowledge died, *life* did last. The World Tree grew eons before Discord's hell, and many pieces were shaved off before it fell. To spawn other magic trees were these shards' pleasure, or artifacts of power we cannot measure. To find them is a feat, one we two perhaps will never beat. No, 'tis a hope so vague we should lay it to rest, and put more practical answers to the test..." And yet, there's a note of reluctance in her voice, and the way her gaze drifts to the side. If anything can cure an incurable disease, it is a piece of pure, creative magic like the World Tree once was.
Lunar listens, frowning briefly at the proliferation of rhymes before she puts it out of her mind and pays attention to the content. "So... there's hope... but only if we find... an impossible ingredient? Are you quite sure? It's so far outside the kind of medicine *I* know, I can't tell... but if it's impossible." She falls silent for a moment. "I ... don't know what kind of ponies could go on a quest like that. Certainly... not me. I, I have my shop, and my daughter to take care of, so... are you sure there's no other way?" Lunar sighs. But then, "What about the heroes, mama? Or, or... Diamond Dancer herself?" Starlight, suddenly awake, pipes up - and gets Diamond's name right. A sign? The mare, startled, looks at her daughter. "Heroes, Star?" The little one nods. "Uh huh. Like Miss Fluttershy. And Miss Rainbowdash. And, um..." - she looks at Zecora - "... the Library Princess."
Zecora nods once, bringing out a book and laying it in front of Lunar. It is a picture of a great tree, towering over a forest made to look as grass before the tree's vastness. "If anypony can tell where the Tree's sons remain, it will be the Princesses fain. There is much to sift through, lies and true. Many reports of such things come straight out of the blue. We cannot simply ask a pony to search for a shard. Anything can happen, such a journey is a wild card. I see only fog and deceit, and my knowledge is hardly complete. But I will look day and night, for saving ponies is my heart's delight."
Lunar listens and nods... and then without warning grabs Zecora's front hoof in both of her own! "Are you sure? Are you POSITIVE? Is this the only way? If it is, we have to. We HAVE to! -" (Starlight stares at her mother, shocked. "M... mama?") "- Tell me! I don't care what it takes! We'll go to the ends of the world if we have to! We've GOT to save him!" ... him?... Uh oh.
Zecora seems almost unflappable. Or perhaps she's just dealt with so many rowdy patients she's used to a little shouting. "As I said, two more ingredients may do the same, and they are easier by far for us to claim. But the World Tree's roots touched the earth's soul, and its results are guaranteed to make Diamond whole." She gently lays her hoof over Lunar's. "To me slips of the tongue are almost unknown. Yet in your haste something secret was shown." She tilts her head, very gently to one side. "Please tell me. Who is 'he?'"
Lunar shakes her head. "She. I said 'she'." Nope. "I thought you said we needed ALL of the ingredients? Maybe we should just... um..." The mare trails off as she meets Zecora's deep blue gaze. That question is not going to go away. She works her mouth wordlessly for a moment, then suddenly bursts into tears! Starlight hops off the bed and over to her mother, putting her little hooves on Lunar's seated haunch and looking up at her with frightened eyes. "Mama? Are you okay, mama??" Lunar slowly composes herself and smiles through the tears at Starlight. "Y... yes, dear. I'm okay. I'm... okay. Miss Zecora, I'm so sorry... I... didn't even realize how much Diamond Dancer reminded me so much of my son. Moonshadow. Who... there was an accident, you see... I... two years ago, his father..." - and Lunar breaks down crying again. Starlight hugs her mother and stares at Zecora, silently begging the zebra to FIX this, this wound that never healed, and which keeps getting *her* hurt too.
Zecora nods gently. Starlight mentioned a train, and now Lunar his father... but Zecora is nothing if not patient, and she will not open up an old wound just to see it fester again. She looks down at Starlight with a sorrowful frown. There are some hurts that all the herbs on earth cannot heal, and mysteries the cleverest rhymes will never unwravel. Some things can only be... endured. She reaches out with a hoof, and with a sisterly tenderness, rests gently against Lunar, murmuring comforting words in her native tongue. There's no need to translate: their gentleness and cooing cadance brings the meaning across clearly.
Lunar Eclipse gets ahold of herself, but slowly. "I'm... so s-sorry. I. I owe you an, um, ex-explanation. Two years ago, when I was still living outside Dodge Junction with my husband Sunshadow and my ch... children..." - she takes a deep breath and emits it in one long, juddering sigh - "... one morning, Sunshadow went into town on a s-supply run, the same as he did every week... but there was an accident, the train... a little too fast, Moonshadow, my son, he slipped on the platform..." Lunar closes her eyes and weeps quietly. Starlight watches her, a slightly confused look on her little face. "Um. Daddy came back. He was real sad. He said Moony wasn't never coming home. And. Um.... mama's been crying ever since. I miss him too, mama..."
There are no words or rhymes from Zecora, at least not for now. What can even the wisdom of the world say to calm a grieving mother? She is a quiet and understanding presence, laying her hoof over Lunar's until she gathesr up what she wants to say. "Were there a way to breach the line of life and death, I would seek it till my final breath," she whispers. "But such things are beyond our scope to know, and there is no way to see until the final blow. Know there is a purpose behind every heart's beating, whether long and full or short and fleeting." She looks down at Starlight and, sighing, gathers her close too. "Know that you are separated only for a little while. Where one has gone, all soon follow in file. Weep not overmuch, for you *will* meet again, and joy everlasting will overcome all pain."
Starlight ignores the fact that Zecora is hugging her, but only so she can focus on her mother. A few moments pass, and Lunar calms down and takes a deep breath. "I'm... so very sorry. Thank you. I didn't mean to... unburden myself like that. I think you may be the first pon... one I've talked to about this other than Starlight and Sunshadow since it happened. I... um... am terribly embarrassed. By any chance do you have a tissue on hoof? I stand by what I said, though... I want to help Diamond Dancer. She... she, um, deserves it. And maybe it might help us, too." Lunar smiles at Zecora. It's the first time she's smiled today - possibly in a long time - that wasn't at Starlight and was a real smile instead of politeness. Starlight smiles too, happy to see her mother cheering up a bit, but gives Zecora an oddly cynical, distant look. At least one of these ponies didn't believe all the talk about meeting again.
A tissue she wants, a tissue the mares gets... coated in a special mixture designed to reduce irritation and swelling, helpfully enough. Zecora catches Starlight's strange little glance, but does not comment on it. "The hoofed kind are made to be caring," she murmurs. "Against death itself love and friendship make us daring. Do not apologize when you shed a tear. It is when they don't fall one has cause for fear." She returns to the book with the picture of the World Tree on it and gives it to Lunar and Starlight. "Stay as long as you please, but when you depart, this book may help you be at ease. It contains much knowledge I've gathered from afar, and could spark an idea to help our rising star."
Lunar nods and takes the book. She neglected to bring saddlebags, but a little awkwardness on the way back to Ponyville proper isn't going to be a big problem. "Yes? Yes. I think... yes. Thank you, Miss Zecora. For everything. I'm so glad I, um, came to meet you." Lunar stands and balances the book on her back, then makes her way to the door. "Come along, Starlight." The mare looks back and smiles at Zecora again, then is out the door. Starlight just sits and watches her mother prepare and step out, then trots up to Zecora. The little filly gives her another one of those long looks so much older than her years, then beams. "Bye bye Miss Zakora!" She hugs the zebra as tight as her little legs can manage. "Um. And. Thank you for helping my mama." There's no doubt this time. She didn't mean the book. "Starlight!!" Lunar's voice calls from outside and a short distance away. Starlight hops in place, startled, and is just a foal again, who flashes a grin at Zecora and with a flick of her tail disappears out the door and onward to home, with her mother.
Zecora is aware that most of the forest feels familiar. She, however, is familiar with it because she has walked its darkest shadows and climbed its greatest heights. She knows it like she knows herself, and though both are quite labyrinthian, the paths are always there for you. Today, they lead her just where she wanted to go at just the right time: right in front of Starlight, as she turns around to check whether she came out of *that* knot of trees, or *that* one. She looks down at the foal with a gentle smile. "Ah, Starlight! Just who I wanted to see. And you've brought a guest for me!" She looks up at Lunar Eclipse and bows to her. "It is good to know that ponies of the sunlit land still brave the dark to find a helping hand."
Starlight was looking back to her mother and didn't see Zecora appear, per the zebra's usual ways. The little unicorn walks right into Zecora's leg, then hops back in surprise! "AAH!-" she shrieks, stopping quickly when Zecora speaks and she sees who she's run into. But that's enough to bring Lunar running at top speed, viciously clearing a path with her magic! "STARLIGHT! WHAT-" and Lunar is brought up short, seeing that whatever her daughter shouted about she is now hugging instead of running away from. "Mama! Look! This is Sakura! I told you I could find her!" Starlight gushes, displaying her usual propensity with names. Her mother coposes herself, looking a little embarrassed about meeting someone at a run, especially someone who might take offense at the plants she damaged. "Um. Hello there. Sakura was it? My name is Lunar Eclipse, and... I think I may need your advice." The blue mare offers a hoof.
Zecora doesn't look offended in the slightest! Plants here usually grow and fall and are crushed as the paths of fate desire. Unfortunately, there is nothing that easily rhymes with that, so Zecora cannot explain. "Advice is my forte, and thanks are my only pay. My name is Zecora, and there is no need to fear. As dark as these woods are, there are only friends here." As if to emphasize this, she smiles down at Starlight and wraps a single hoof around the young unicorn, beaming at the foal's unbidden kindness.
Starlight trots back and forth in place and grins. Lunar clears her throat. "*Zecora*. I beg your pardon. Thank you so much for the kindness you showed my daughter -" ("she's my mama!" Starlight whispers to the zebra, completely unnecessarily) "- but I'm afraid that isn't why I asked her to bring me to you. Is... is there somewhere we can talk? Or we could go back to Maple Street, and... I'm so sorry to intrude! What was I thinking, perhaps this is a bad time! It's just... her time may be running out, I'm... not sure what to do." The mare falls silent, a look of deep concern etched on her face in all-too-common lines. It isn't obvious whose time may be running out; certainly Starlight seems to be perfectly healthy. The little filly trots up to leand against her mother. "Aw... don't be sad, mama! She's not gone after Moonshadow yet." Lunar winces.
Zecora's face quickly draws itself into a fine line. Her eyes narrow and her mouth draws tight. The gravity of the situation, somehow, has impressed itself on her without it even being fully divulged. "It is only a little ways to my home; better to speak there than while we roam." Wordlessly, she nods deeper into the woods. "Trust you must give while a trail I blaze. Every step taken here is its own little maze." And, bidding them to stand next to her, she guides them through the woods as she did Starlight, to her brightly-lit and exotic (though still friendly looking) tree house. "Enter, please, and be my guest. I find it easier to work in this place of rest. There is tea and cots to lie on. If this is as serious as it seems, I may need to work till dawn."
Starlight trots along with Zecora. Lunar follows behind, keeping pace well enough but quiet for the length of the short journey, withdrawn into her own thoughts. Starlight whispers to Zecora, still with a small child's inability to whisper quietly enough for the adults not to hear, but her mother shows no sign of noticing. "Um... There was this filly, Dime And Danger, I think, and, and, she had all these black blotches! All over her hooves and wings - she's a pegasus! - and she said that she was, um. Real sick. Like. Maybe gonna die sick. Like my brother. But he didn't die from sick. It was a train." That was the line where the three of them cross the threshold into the warm, flickering light in Zecora's home. The lifting of the gloom seems to wake Lunar up. "I, what? Oh. Yes. Tea would be lovely, thank you so much. I should explain, but... have you ever heard of Icarus Syndrome?" Lunar sits where offered; Starlight immediately hops onto Zecora's bed and snuggles down in the exact spot where she had been the last time she was here.
Zecora's nose dips down just enough to brush Starlight's ear when she mentions her brother. When they get inside, Zecora immediately gets to work, fussing with herbs and her pot. The bed is warm! Perhaps it remembers Starlight? The sight draws another smile from Zecora, who brings them both the tea she promised. The smile remains, but her eyes grow thoughtful and melancholy when she speaks. "This disease is known to me; long and terrible is its history. Those who had it were said to be cursed, for they were few in number and impossible to be reversed. In Whitetail Wood lives the Miracle Mare, as a sister to the bard lodging there. This case is known to me, but finding its cure takes more than a moon or three."
Starlight sniffs the tea. To a little one, it's kind of bitter. She wrinkles her nose but sips it anyway, listening to the adults and watching them with big shiny yellow eyes. Lunar's eyes, almost identical, widen at Zecora and are filled with hope which quickly drains away: "You know her? That's wonderful! That means that you know just what I've come to talk to you about, and... have already given it a lot of thought. You... you *don't* have any answers, do you?" Lunar sips her tea, floating the cup with her magic, then puts it down suddenly. "I'm a pharmacist, Miss Zecora, not a doctor. When Miss Dancer came-" ("Danger!" Starlight interrupts.) "No, dear. Dancer. Diamond Dancer. When she came to my pharmacy looking for medicine, she told me about her situation and... she broke my heart. I've been reading everything I can about Icarus Syndrome, and... frankly, there isn't very much at all, at least not past stage three. Starlight was so impressed by you I asked around town a little, and was told that you were an apothecary and a magician.... which for all that I'm a unicorn, I'm not. I was hoping maybe you might have a suggestion or even a cure, but... I'm afraid I've wasted your time. I'm sorry. Come along, Starlight." ("But mama-") "NOW, Starlight." Lunar, clearly embarrassed, begins to head for the door. Starlight follows her reluctantly, looking back at Zecora.
The sensation of her leg being held by a hoof is probably enough to stop her at the door. "Wait," Zecora says, and adds no rhyme to it. Somehow, it just makes her exotic voice all the more forceful. "Little is known and less is sure, but do not give up hope of finding a cure. Your good heart is plain, and I will help or Zecora is not my name. There are yet things to try, but a certain answer? I cannot lie. A waste of time it cannot be, when a pony's life is the quandary. Stay awhile and talk with me. Where one has failed, the answer will come from two, or three."
Lunar pauses, feeling the hoof and also a lot of mixed emotions. With uncharacteristic wisdom, Starlight looks up at her mother and says, "Come on, Mama... it can't hurt to just TALK to Miss Zakora, can it?" Lunar sighs, then turns around and returns to her seat. Starlight does likewise, giving Zecora a big grin before hopping back onto the bed and making another ickface; the tea didn't suddenly taste better! Lunar looks away for a moment and rubs her face, then meets Zecora's eyes. "I... you're right. Of course. I'm... so sorry, my manners are all over the place today. Really, ever since I met the little filly. I'm not sure why she... affected me so much. But she has." The mare picks up her mug with magic again and sips. "Let me... let me tell you what I found. According to the latest research I could find, Icarus Syndrome is primarily a vascular degenerative disorder with a comorbid neuropathy. There's research from a Doctor Withers that suggests low air pressure can trigger cascading early apoptosis... " and she goes on like this for some time, laying out the technical and scientific aspects of the disease to the best of her ability to understand. Which is fairly impressive; Lunar Eclipse turns out to be quite a smart pony, and more than a little obsessed. By the time she finishes, the tea is long gone, and Starlight has gone from bewildered to bored to very quietly napping, curled up in the middle of Zecora's blankets.
Zecora waits patiently through the entire spiel, dropping a few herbs into her constantly simmering pot. Contrary to expectations, it lets out a belch of fine, pungent spicy aromas. One can *taste* the Neighara sands, or the shores of Bitaly, through the smells. Zecora absently but affectionately drapes a blanket over Starlight when she begins to doze, and pulls out a few books to leaf through them, glancing up only when Lunar is done talking. "There is much that medicine mundane can perform, but the cure for Icarus Syndrome will leave many forlorn. A mixture of magic and medicine we require for circumstances so dire. Two things I have found, yes, three may yet work: the Viola Aubergensis, petals of Arcanaxis Blue, and the bark of the World Tree; all we cannot shirk."
Starlight wriggles a bit and snuggles into the blanket when Zecora covers her, prompting a pause in the medical recitation and a look of deep affection from her mother. When she finishes, Lunar listens intently to Zecora... and suddenly leaps to her hooves! "There's a-" Lunar knocked her tea flying! But catches it with her magic before it hits the ground... and reinserts the tea into the mug before putting it down carefully. Nopony knows how to deal with accidental spills quite like the laboratory-owning mother of a small curious child. "Ahem. There's a way, then? How do we get those things? Wait... did you say the World Tree?? That's... a myth, isn't it? Or just a kind of ash tree?" Starlight squirms and mumbles something in her sleep, then emits a tiny filly snore.
Zecora breathes in, long and slow, and lets it out in a long, reluctant sigh. "Truth becomes myth when mixed with time. Much knowledge of the Old World is gone; an insufferable crime." She turns and looks directly at Lunar. "The rule of Discord was not in Equestria contained. In many other lands his distortion reigned. Yet tyranny fell and seasons passed. Where knowledge died, *life* did last. The World Tree grew eons before Discord's hell, and many pieces were shaved off before it fell. To spawn other magic trees were these shards' pleasure, or artifacts of power we cannot measure. To find them is a feat, one we two perhaps will never beat. No, 'tis a hope so vague we should lay it to rest, and put more practical answers to the test..." And yet, there's a note of reluctance in her voice, and the way her gaze drifts to the side. If anything can cure an incurable disease, it is a piece of pure, creative magic like the World Tree once was.
Lunar listens, frowning briefly at the proliferation of rhymes before she puts it out of her mind and pays attention to the content. "So... there's hope... but only if we find... an impossible ingredient? Are you quite sure? It's so far outside the kind of medicine *I* know, I can't tell... but if it's impossible." She falls silent for a moment. "I ... don't know what kind of ponies could go on a quest like that. Certainly... not me. I, I have my shop, and my daughter to take care of, so... are you sure there's no other way?" Lunar sighs. But then, "What about the heroes, mama? Or, or... Diamond Dancer herself?" Starlight, suddenly awake, pipes up - and gets Diamond's name right. A sign? The mare, startled, looks at her daughter. "Heroes, Star?" The little one nods. "Uh huh. Like Miss Fluttershy. And Miss Rainbowdash. And, um..." - she looks at Zecora - "... the Library Princess."
Zecora nods once, bringing out a book and laying it in front of Lunar. It is a picture of a great tree, towering over a forest made to look as grass before the tree's vastness. "If anypony can tell where the Tree's sons remain, it will be the Princesses fain. There is much to sift through, lies and true. Many reports of such things come straight out of the blue. We cannot simply ask a pony to search for a shard. Anything can happen, such a journey is a wild card. I see only fog and deceit, and my knowledge is hardly complete. But I will look day and night, for saving ponies is my heart's delight."
Lunar listens and nods... and then without warning grabs Zecora's front hoof in both of her own! "Are you sure? Are you POSITIVE? Is this the only way? If it is, we have to. We HAVE to! -" (Starlight stares at her mother, shocked. "M... mama?") "- Tell me! I don't care what it takes! We'll go to the ends of the world if we have to! We've GOT to save him!" ... him?... Uh oh.
Zecora seems almost unflappable. Or perhaps she's just dealt with so many rowdy patients she's used to a little shouting. "As I said, two more ingredients may do the same, and they are easier by far for us to claim. But the World Tree's roots touched the earth's soul, and its results are guaranteed to make Diamond whole." She gently lays her hoof over Lunar's. "To me slips of the tongue are almost unknown. Yet in your haste something secret was shown." She tilts her head, very gently to one side. "Please tell me. Who is 'he?'"
Lunar shakes her head. "She. I said 'she'." Nope. "I thought you said we needed ALL of the ingredients? Maybe we should just... um..." The mare trails off as she meets Zecora's deep blue gaze. That question is not going to go away. She works her mouth wordlessly for a moment, then suddenly bursts into tears! Starlight hops off the bed and over to her mother, putting her little hooves on Lunar's seated haunch and looking up at her with frightened eyes. "Mama? Are you okay, mama??" Lunar slowly composes herself and smiles through the tears at Starlight. "Y... yes, dear. I'm okay. I'm... okay. Miss Zecora, I'm so sorry... I... didn't even realize how much Diamond Dancer reminded me so much of my son. Moonshadow. Who... there was an accident, you see... I... two years ago, his father..." - and Lunar breaks down crying again. Starlight hugs her mother and stares at Zecora, silently begging the zebra to FIX this, this wound that never healed, and which keeps getting *her* hurt too.
Zecora nods gently. Starlight mentioned a train, and now Lunar his father... but Zecora is nothing if not patient, and she will not open up an old wound just to see it fester again. She looks down at Starlight with a sorrowful frown. There are some hurts that all the herbs on earth cannot heal, and mysteries the cleverest rhymes will never unwravel. Some things can only be... endured. She reaches out with a hoof, and with a sisterly tenderness, rests gently against Lunar, murmuring comforting words in her native tongue. There's no need to translate: their gentleness and cooing cadance brings the meaning across clearly.
Lunar Eclipse gets ahold of herself, but slowly. "I'm... so s-sorry. I. I owe you an, um, ex-explanation. Two years ago, when I was still living outside Dodge Junction with my husband Sunshadow and my ch... children..." - she takes a deep breath and emits it in one long, juddering sigh - "... one morning, Sunshadow went into town on a s-supply run, the same as he did every week... but there was an accident, the train... a little too fast, Moonshadow, my son, he slipped on the platform..." Lunar closes her eyes and weeps quietly. Starlight watches her, a slightly confused look on her little face. "Um. Daddy came back. He was real sad. He said Moony wasn't never coming home. And. Um.... mama's been crying ever since. I miss him too, mama..."
There are no words or rhymes from Zecora, at least not for now. What can even the wisdom of the world say to calm a grieving mother? She is a quiet and understanding presence, laying her hoof over Lunar's until she gathesr up what she wants to say. "Were there a way to breach the line of life and death, I would seek it till my final breath," she whispers. "But such things are beyond our scope to know, and there is no way to see until the final blow. Know there is a purpose behind every heart's beating, whether long and full or short and fleeting." She looks down at Starlight and, sighing, gathers her close too. "Know that you are separated only for a little while. Where one has gone, all soon follow in file. Weep not overmuch, for you *will* meet again, and joy everlasting will overcome all pain."
Starlight ignores the fact that Zecora is hugging her, but only so she can focus on her mother. A few moments pass, and Lunar calms down and takes a deep breath. "I'm... so very sorry. Thank you. I didn't mean to... unburden myself like that. I think you may be the first pon... one I've talked to about this other than Starlight and Sunshadow since it happened. I... um... am terribly embarrassed. By any chance do you have a tissue on hoof? I stand by what I said, though... I want to help Diamond Dancer. She... she, um, deserves it. And maybe it might help us, too." Lunar smiles at Zecora. It's the first time she's smiled today - possibly in a long time - that wasn't at Starlight and was a real smile instead of politeness. Starlight smiles too, happy to see her mother cheering up a bit, but gives Zecora an oddly cynical, distant look. At least one of these ponies didn't believe all the talk about meeting again.
A tissue she wants, a tissue the mares gets... coated in a special mixture designed to reduce irritation and swelling, helpfully enough. Zecora catches Starlight's strange little glance, but does not comment on it. "The hoofed kind are made to be caring," she murmurs. "Against death itself love and friendship make us daring. Do not apologize when you shed a tear. It is when they don't fall one has cause for fear." She returns to the book with the picture of the World Tree on it and gives it to Lunar and Starlight. "Stay as long as you please, but when you depart, this book may help you be at ease. It contains much knowledge I've gathered from afar, and could spark an idea to help our rising star."
Lunar nods and takes the book. She neglected to bring saddlebags, but a little awkwardness on the way back to Ponyville proper isn't going to be a big problem. "Yes? Yes. I think... yes. Thank you, Miss Zecora. For everything. I'm so glad I, um, came to meet you." Lunar stands and balances the book on her back, then makes her way to the door. "Come along, Starlight." The mare looks back and smiles at Zecora again, then is out the door. Starlight just sits and watches her mother prepare and step out, then trots up to Zecora. The little filly gives her another one of those long looks so much older than her years, then beams. "Bye bye Miss Zakora!" She hugs the zebra as tight as her little legs can manage. "Um. And. Thank you for helping my mama." There's no doubt this time. She didn't mean the book. "Starlight!!" Lunar's voice calls from outside and a short distance away. Starlight hops in place, startled, and is just a foal again, who flashes a grin at Zecora and with a flick of her tail disappears out the door and onward to home, with her mother.