Eq Renaissance Part 2 (Ed)

    Mid-morning light was filtering down through the thick canopy of the Everfree forest.  Most of the diurnal creatures beneath its leaves had been stirring since the first light of dawn.  Zecora had been up just as long.  She was listening to their cacophony as she strolled along barefoot underneath the boughs.
    The air was thick, humming with the vibrations of a million chirping insects.  Birds on the wing flitted down from the branches and snatched the larger ones straight out of the air.  Other birds sang.  They weren’t the same songs that Zecora had memorized all those years ago in a forest far away, but they were pleasant nonetheless.  There weren’t many mammals in these woods, at least not as many as in her own forest, but she did see an occasional nattering squirrel or two.  Other creatures, rarer and monstrous, could be heard off in the distance.  The insane buzzing of a nest of stirges warned her of their presence, and she hiked a wide circle around the dead, hollow tree where they roosted.  Right at the edge of her hearing, probably many miles away, a leucrocotta was cackling, and begging for help in a poor imitation of human speech.
    Zecora was returning to her little house in the woods.  She had spent all morning gathering food.  Nuts, berries, small sour fruit.  She'd be spending this afternoon fishing for her supper in the creek way out past the other side of her hut.  Contrary to popular myth, forests, and her childhood jungle, are very poor places to find sustenance.  Food was actually very scarce.  There were many other things that she would rather be doing.  Studying, for example, or preparing lessons for her new student.  It took most of her day simply to find enough to eat.
That had been the way of it when she first immigrated to this forest.  It had been hard.  Then the people in town, thanks to Twilight and her friends, began to accept her visits.  Now things were back to the old way.  Zecora couldn’t go into town any more.  It was too dangerous; she didn’t dare.
    She didn’t even dare clear out a portion of the forest to make a patch for a garden.  This place had a powerful magic of its own, and Zecora would rather work with it than against it.  It was really her only hope.
    It was fitting that Zecora had thoughts of her current danger as she was approaching her home.  She was just inside the edge of a natural clearing, one the forest had made for itself, when she heard the noise.  There was something in the air.  It was no bug or bird, or anything else natural.  She heard the roar of air blasting over rippling cloth at unnatural speeds.
Zecora stepped out into the clearing and looked up into the clear sky.  She saw it, a bright white speck against the deep blue void.  It was circling above the woods, searching for something, searching for her.  It stopped dead in its path, hovering high in the air.  She had been found.
    It started to drop.  It seemed to grow in size as free fall brought it closer.  Zecora dropped her woven baskets onto the ground.  Her day’s food spilled out into the long grass.  She wouldn’t be needing them today.
    Princess Celestia landed on her two feet with a heavy thump at the the end of the meadow.   She bent down close to the ground, her legs having absorbed the impact.  When she stood back up straight, she bent upwards slowly and methodically, with an air of terrible determination.  She always made an effort to appear regal, even when doing un-regal things.  It was a very old habit.  Zecora was her only audience, and Zecora was unimpressed.
    Celestia’s long, magical hair drifted behind her and to her left.  The wind was blowing in the opposite direction.  There was a long pause as the two sorceresses sized each other up.  There was a small smile on Celestia’s lips that didn’t escape Zecora’s notice.  A lone crane-fly flew in between them.  It had flown through a spider-web, and now was dragging a strand along behind itself.  It was glowing gold in the morning sun.  There was silence.  The birds had all stopped chirping; they had fled on instinct.
    “What have you done with her, you bitch?” Celestia asked.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Zecora replied.  Zecora had taken Twilight on as a student.  She had made love to her.  But as far as she knew, Twilight was perfectly safe at home in her library, so the answer was technically true.
    “You lie!” Celestia yelled.  She was unaccustomed to yelling.
    “If you want people to tell you what you want to hear, fly back to your castle where your servants are near.”
    Celestia started walking in a bee-line straight for Zecora.  The hem of her long white gown swished through the tall grass.  “Where is she?”
    “I do not know.  I only see her during her lessons, and she is not coming for her lessons today.”  Now Zecora smiled.  Celestia was approaching fast.  “But she’s always so eager to come to her lessons.”
    Celestia’s face dropped.  “I can smell your stink on her, you witch!” Celestia cursed.
    Celestia struck Zecora across the face with the back of her hand.  The mere passing of her hand through the air was louder than the cracking of any bull whip.  The force of the blow was more then enough to lift Zecora off of her feet, and send her flying backwards across the meadow.  She rag-dolled as she hit the ground, still tumbling backwards.  She flew into the forest then collided with a tree with her back, sideways, then fell to the forest floor with a choked gasp.  A large patch of bark fell on top of her, the exposed living wood of the tree bare where she had hit it.
    Zecora couldn’t breathe.  The wind had been knocked out of her lungs and they burned.  She had expected violence.  Celestia had moved even faster than she had feared.  Zecora knew she was outclassed.  She struggled, despite the pain, to stand back up.
    Too late she saw Celestia’s feet.  Celestia kicked her in the gut.  Zecora felt only pain and terrible nausea from the kick, and the weightlessness as she was again lifted into the air.  It was a higher arc this time, and she snapped through the branches of a tree before again pounding back down onto the ground.
    “Did you think you were safe?” Celestia asked her, approaching her crumpled body.  “Did you think you were safe in your precious woods?  Did you think that I have no power here?  Did you think that hiding here like some kind of animal would protect you?”  Zecora was struggling onto her knees.  Celestia towered over her.  “You couldn’t even protect your own lover.  Why do you think you would be any different?”
    Zecora sucker punched her.  Celestia couldn’t react fast enough to avoid it.  It was a lifting uppercut, straight to her chin.  Zecora was crouching one instant, standing tall the next with her fist high in the air.  The strength of Zecora’s blow was more then enough to send Celestia flying back into the clearing, but the angle of it instead simply flipped her backwards, driving her skull into the ground, leaving a crater a foot deep in the thick forest soil.  Zecora had the grace to let Celestia roll over and get onto her knees before she kicked her.  This time Celestia did go spinning end over end back into the clearing.
    Zecora stepped back into the grass to take a position at one end of the clearing.  Celestia stood up, literally trembling with rage.  Nobody had every struck her like this.  It was barely over a year ago that Nightmare Moon had dared to fight her, but that had been different.  That was her own sister.  Royalty.  Family.  This woman, this animal, this... thing, didn’t know its place.  It had stolen Twilight and now it had assaulted her.  The insult hurt worse than the swelling of her jaw or the taste of blood in her mouth.  Celestia was more determined then ever to make her pay.
    Celestia flew straight for Zecora, her toes just brushing across the ground.  Instead of running in fear, as Celestia expected, Zecora had the gall to meet her halfway.  Celestia swung her fist, a killing blow, but instead of meeting mortal flesh her fist hit the bracelets of Zecora’s blocking forearm.  Celestia expected that they had just been normal gold, some baubles, decoration.  Instead they had been imbued with magic.  The bracelets were unmarred, not even a dent.  Her hand recoiled in pain and shock, a single finger was broken.  It came as such as a surprise that she didn’t throw a second punch, but instead was forced to dodge a counter from Zecora.
    Celestia swung again, with her other fist, this time it was again blocked by Zecora’s bracelets.  Both women swung again, this time both punches connected.  Both of them went flying backwards, although the punches were not so powerful that they were knocked down.  Celestia’s feet dug furrows into the ground for several yards before she came to a halt.  Zecora swung her legs around as gracefully a dancer and landed on her feet in a fighting stance, ready for more.
    Zecora had once taught Twilight that Celestia held no power within the confines of the Everfree Forest.  It was true, after a fashion.  The only power Celestia possessed was that which she had brought with her from Canterlot.  If Zecora had any advantage, even the slightest, it was the the Everfree was her home.
    Celestia took a single step forward and stopped.  She looked down.  The grass was twisting itself around her foot and ankle, tying itself in knots.  She took another step forward and the grass was torn out by the roots, bringing up sod with it.  As soon as she placed the foot down again, more grass entangled her foot, and grabbed at the exposed roots of the first patch of grass.  Long thorny creeper vines that stretched nearly the full length of the clearing suddenly came to life and wrapped themselves around her arms, legs, and neck.  The plants grabbed at her gown and at her long flowing hair.  She snorted a brief burst of incredulous laughter and began to tear these too from the ground, before she heard the thunderous snapping.  Celestia turned and looked up.  An enormous tree, hundreds of years old, was tearing itself out of the ground to throw itself upon her.  It crashed onto the ground sending bark and moss flying in every direction.  Then it engulfed her, moving as fast as any animal.  Its branches became like tentacles, seizing her, attempting to stop her.  Even the littlest leaves and twigs became animated in their fight.  It tore at her bodice, ripping her gown and exposing her breasts.  Limbs tore themselves to shreds around her, leaving scratches on her formerly perfect white skin.  Little red beads of blood welled up along the length of them.
    “You think...,” Celestia shouted as she tore her way out of the mess, “that your forest...  can stop... me?”  Celestia emerged from the cloak of leaves, spitting in fury, one branch still grabbing at her wrist, to receive a powerful haymaker right to the face.
    “No,” gasped Zecora, as Celestia went rocketing back into the pile of branches and back out the other side.  “Only slow you down,” she added.  Zecora stepped under trunk of the fallen tree, now mostly denuded of its branches, lifted it up over her head, and hit Celestia with it right when she was standing up.  She connected right with the sweet-spot, where the trunk was thickest, right above the twisted knot of roots and dirt and large stones the tree had dug up when it pulled itself out of the ground.
    Celestia went hurtling horizontally into the forest, crashing through several more trunks in the process.  They exploded into terrible splinters large enough to slice a mortal man in half.  Celestia was lost in the gloom of the trees.  Zecora couldn’t see her anymore.  She panted heavily a few times, then threw the trunk on the ground, still peering into the trees.
    She almost died where she stood.  She barely leapt out of the way before a torrent of dragon fire shot out of the woods and disintegrated the spot where she had just been standing.  It vaporized the fallen trunk, and the forest beyond the other side of the glade erupted into flame.
    Zecora ran.  She ran into the trees and kept on running.  She didn’t see how she had any choice.  She had hit Celestia with everything that she had, but Celestia only seemed to get stronger.  Zecora had no idea how much magic the woman was still holding back.  Zecora ran, dodging among the trees, hoping not to be spotted.  On instinct she jumped into a small depression behind a large stone.  Another burst of hell-fire flooded over the top of her, turning more of her forest into an inferno.  The hairs on her body singed from the heat.  As soon as it was over Zecora was up and running again.  This time perpendicular to the direction she had been running earlier, hoping the smoke would mask her presence.  She used her magic to ensure her feet made no noise.
    Zecora’s only hope, as she saw it, was to get behind Celestia.  Get behind her and hit her with everything before she could turn, turn and open that terrible mouth, and breathe that terrible fire.  She almost made it.  Zecora saw her standing there, her back turned.  Her gown was torn and hanging.  Her back was bloody and bruised.
    She almost made it, but Celestia turned at the last second and clobbered her with another backhanded blow, this time with her fist clenched.  It sent Zecora careening head first into a boulder only a few yards away.  After this, the fight was over.
    Celestia wasn’t finished.  She kicked Zecora while she was down, then landed a flurry of punches as she struggled to stand up.  Zecora held up her hands weakly, trying to block the blows with her bracelets, but Celestia was too strong, and too fast, and too determined.  Zecora was being beaten to a pulp between the stone and Celestia’s powerful fists.
    Princess Celestia grabbed the topmost of the golden rings around Zecora’s neck.  She pulled at it, and Zecora was dragged along the ground, clutching feebly at Celestia’s wrist as she was being half-choked.  Celestia stood her up again, grasped the ring firmly with her left, then slugged Zecora in the nose with an over-hand right.  Zecora’s damaged body was launched once more back into the depths of the woods.  The broken ring was still in Celestia’s left hand.  She looked down at it.  The force of the breaking had created enough heat to partially melt it at both ends.  Celestia threw it down on the forest floor in disgust where it started another small fire.
    Celestia marched herself down the path that Zecora had taken.  When she got to the point where Zecora was supposed to be, she wasn’t there.
    “Show yourself, witch!” Celestia screamed into the forest.  There was no answer.  “Where are you?  Are you a coward?  Are you hiding from me?”
    Hiding was exactly what Zecora was doing.  She had no other choice left if she wanted to stay alive.  Celestia had beaten her decidedly.  She was hunched over in a place that Celestia couldn’t find her.  Tears flowed down her black, burnt face from her tightly closed eyes.  She didn’t dare open her eyes, lest Celestia see her.  Zecora was using every ounce of her last remaining magic to stay hidden from Celestia’s sight.
    “Answer me!” Celestia screamed.  She turned this way and that, growing even more furious that Zecora had fled.  It only meant she would remain a thorn in her side.  “I’ll find you!  I’ll tear this forest apart to find you!”
    Zecora knew that was another one of her lies.  Celestia might be able to kill her, but she would never kill the Everfree.  If she could have, she would have done so long ago.  The forest was a blot, a mar, in Celestia’s eyes, on the map of her otherwise perfect utopia.
    “I won’t let you have her, witch!” Celestia shouted into the trees, knowing that somewhere Zecora was listening.  “Twilight’s mine!   She will always be mine!  Do you hear me?”  Celestia looked around in every direction, but she still got no response.  “DO YOU HEAR ME?” she screamed at the top of her lungs, as angry as she had ever been, her face broken and flushed.
    As if suddenly realizing she had just lost her normally regal appearance, Celestia quickly calmed herself.  With her palms, she dusted off the rags that now hung at her waist.  Blood was smeared across the white cloth, but she paid it no attention.  When she spoke again, she spoke calmly, as if knowing Zecora could hear her perfectly well.  “I’ll find you,” she said.  “I’ll find you and destroy you and everything you’ve ever done.  Twilight will be restored again, to the way she used to be, and it will be as if you’ve never existed.  You never should have challenged me in the first place.”
    Celestia bent her knees and then leapt into the sky.  She was gone in a flash, back to the palace to lick her wounds.
    Zecora remained.  She didn’t move another muscle until the darkness fell and the forest regrew itself around her.  Only then was it safe to open her eyes and creep forward through the darkness, taking great pains not to stumble over the roots or blunder into trees.
    She trembled with fear, her heart was breaking, she only hoped that Twilight would come out alright in this, wherever she was.