The three little fillies, known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, peered in through the knotted wood window of the hut that was Zecora's. Our three little head were all squished together in the small space, kind of like a s'more with ponies instead of we'll marshmallows or chocolate. Maybe a metaphorical s'more? Hmm how would a s'more made of ponies even taste? I leaned my soft marshmallow head back, eyes unfocused. Hmm maybe we could get cutie marks in making pony marshmallows.

"Pst"

"Pst"

Hmmm...? I focused my clear green eyes upon the yellow filly next to me. Apple Bloom. I bet she'd have a peppery flavor, with maybe a sweet strawberry after taste. I shook my head, my pink and purple soft curls brushing across my nose. I don't know where some of these ideas came from. I've never even had a pepper before. Daddy said I was too little to try peppers yet and Rarity always made this really funny schrunchy face whenever peppers were mentioned. I figured they must be an acquired taste that that fizzy liquid Rarity tries to hide, I know it's supposed to be only for grown up ponies but one day when she was making ub-ube- urgh really fancy new dress for Miss Fleur, I snuck into the cellar and I tried some. It was not good. That fizz made me cough and the flavor was nasty. I suppose Rarity typically mixes it wih orange juice but I couldn't understand how even that could mask that flavor. I shook my head, knocking my ear against a sagging branch, I was getting distracted again.

Apple Bloom turned her horizon orange eyes on me, 'sh'ing me and pointing into the window. Something was happening. Before Zecora had been just stirring her pots, one pot stirred with a front hoof and the other pot was stirred with a back hoof. That zebra was crazy flexible, when I had asked my big sis about it before Rarity said Zecora practiced something called yoda I think. It was a funny sounding word.

Zecora thouh had just finished stirring the pot though with her fore hoof, we could see from here a bubbly orange mixture that threatened to overflow. Her grey and black muzzle leaned down taking a deep whiff of the stuff, I wrinkled my nose just imagining the stench of such a colored mixture. But Zecora seemed satisfied.

[i]" This brew is for the unicorn colts,
Made to make both dolts."[/i]

I wondered what the word dolt meant or what unicorn colts Zecora meant as she turned back to the other pot, this one just contains a watery, dark brown liquid. I actually thought it looked a lot like the tea that I had to make for Rarity and Miss Fluttershy.

[i]"And the study aid,
Why, it seems to have strayed"[/i]

We watched as Zecora frowned, the black striped wrinkled into even more frowny faces. She turned from the brew, apperently a study aid, and searched her shelves, knocking a bunch of the tiny and colorful jars aside. I like those jars, not a single one was the same, kind of like ponies or snowflakes.

[i]"No, no this can not be,
My herbs I need, have seemed to disappear?"[/i]

I scratched my head I wondered how Zecora could come up with such rhymes on the spot. Maybe she had a secret book full of zebra-y rhymes. Or maybe she had a bunch of words and their words just floating around in her skull and all she had to do was wonder what the rhyme of wor and all the words wold pop up like on one of Twilights calculator machines.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo pushed me down, as Zecora ran out of her hut, her herb gathering satchel flying behind like a one sided wing. Apple Bloom and I kept watching the bushes, their leaves still fluttering, where Zecora had disturbed the forest with her flight. Of cousre I just used flight as a fancy word for running, Zecora couldn.t actually fly, she doesnt have any wings. I glanced over at Scootaloo. Now she couldn't fly for another reason. I didnt know why though, maybe it was the same reason. I noticed as I was pondering, another fancy word, yay, that Scootaloo's violet eyes were staring elsewhere. I tried following the direction she was looking in. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle would call it the line of sight but I don't see a line. My eyes, roaming looking for what Scootaloo could have seen or the magical line, noticed the door was open.

I bounced up, ready to show off my discovery to my two friends. They werent behind me. I felt those little pink butterflies start to wake up in my tummy.

"Come on Slowpoke! "

I turned away from the empty space, towards the voices. My fellow Crusaders arleady noticed the open door. I felt slightly disappointed that I didnt get to point it out fist but I got to give those bothersome bugs in my stomach a dose of insecticide and grinned at my friends. I never should have eaten caterpillars in the first place. Doing my best Pinkie Pie impersonation I bounced over to the gapping maw of the door. I only tripped once, and luckily for my I wasn't injured since my friends were kind enough to serve as cushioning. I loved the thoughtfulness of my friends, they were the bestest!

"SWEETIE BELLE!"

I detanglaed myself from our pretzel like group hug. I sure did love my friends. Yessire. I grinned agt the kind of scowling faces. My smile drooped slightly...did I do something wwrong? Then I realized, they were still tangled! I wrapped my white hooves over Scootaloo's orange, wondering how'd she look as a white and black Zebra filly. I heaved as hard as I could and with Scoot's amber wings buzzing I managed to get Scootaloo free from Apple Bloom.

Scootaloo dusted herself off and Apple Bloom, while plucking twigs out of her mane , took charge again.

"Come on! We don't know when Zecora will be back and Ah want to look at them potions!"

We all tumbled in through the door way, Scootaloo hovering on top of our heads so we could all fit aat once. We jumbled over to the pot containing the orange mixture. It actually didnt smell that bad. Kind pof did smell familair. I couldn't place it but It reminded me of the school building. I noticed next to the kettle black pot on the little wooden stand stood some already bottled concotations.I looked at the mixtures, their bubbling continuing even inside the vials. I wondered if Zecora had bottled them when I was thinking so hard.

I peered through the bubbly glass, watching as one of the bubbles slowly rose before it reached the surface and popped soundlessly. I peered up again at the orange Pegasus and my yellow earth pony friends.

"Do you guys think we should deliver these? I bet it would say Zecora a lot of work and Twilight would know who they go to! She knows everything!"

I felt pleased with my idea and excited at maybe seeing the bottles in some sunlight.

"Yeah! That sounds good...maybe we could get a speedy delivery cutie mark!" Scootaloo's wings started buzzing even faster then before and a wide grin crossed her face like the chicken that crossed the road.

We each we grabbed a vial, luckily for us there were three bottles, one for each of us.

We reached the Golden Oaks Library in record timing, we had left Scootaloo's scooter just on the edge of the forest so after galloping through the dark forest, hollering and singing about bottling and delivering, it was some song Apple Bloom picked up from her older brother apparently. Something about bottling lightning or some such nonsense. We tumbled into the blue wagon, and Scootaloo kicked our helmets off the handlebars and onto our heads. Mine landed backward and hung low over my right eye, a field of blue clouding my vision. When I straighten the helmet I saw Apple Bloom catching her with those strong white teeth she got from eating so many apples. Before Scootaloo could even checked if we had buckled our helmets or were sitting secure she wizzed towards Ponyville, straight as the crow could fly. Once we were into Ponyville though our path resembled more that of a drunken crow. It took us mere minutes, I think, to reach the library. I managed to get out of the cart first, not bothering to unable do the fastener on my helmet. I dizzily headed straight up on the door and accidentally knocked my head against it instead of knocking. Scootaloo isn't too good about thinking about her passengers sometimes.

The door opened almost immediately, while I was still leaning up against it. By that time all three of us fillies were at Twilight's door and before I could say anything Twilight snatched the vial out of my mouth.

" Thank Celestia it's here. I asked Zecora to whip me up a study potion for my meeting between Mayor Mare and the visiting dignitaries tomorrow."

Twilight grinned at us, her mane had that frazzled look again. I figured a studying aid thingy could and hopefully would help her. Using her magic she popped the cap off and swigged it all down, it hadn't even been five seconds since she opened the door. I heard Apple Bloom sift behind me.

"Wait a sec, didn't Zecora say it was the other potion that was the study aid?" Apple Bloom started, looking worried.