twilightpony | Remembrance Of Things Pasture

Yesterday's rain did Ponyville a world of good. The greens are sharp, the leaves are perky, everything looks fresh washed, and the smell! The air smells of fresh grass! Fresh trimmed grass. I so want to go out to the pasture and gorge myself. But that would be bad. Instead, I went to the Everfree to visit Zecora. Far away from the siren call of the spring green pastures.

It was the usual grey and dreary atmosphere in the Everfree, no rain, especially none of that all too soothing drizzle Starlight Glimmer and I walked through last time. After standing around at the edge of the forest, testing the air and peering up into the gloom, I decided it was safe enough and I tread intrepidly down the forest paths to Zecora's snug oasis of zebra lore.

I had in my saddle bag a jar of Applebloom's zap apple jam to give to Zecora. Not only as a treat, but to show off Applebloom's mastery of zap apple jam making. When Zecora invited me in, I wasted no time in giving the jar to her. She put the jar up on a shelf and took down some things of her own to show me. She had managed to collect zap apples out from under the noses of the timber wolves, and in the usual Zecora manner, she'd extracted their medicinal properties.

She had made a paste to treat inflammation of the articulations, a tincture that smelled strongly of fermented apples and which corrects irregular heartbeat and fatigue, and an oil extract. She had used pungent rosemary oil to extract a lipid-soluble compound from homogenized zap apples. A sniff of that mixture jolts memory.

After tea I left Zecora's home with a vial, a bottle and short wide jar, each with a bit of Zecora's zap apple extracts in them. They're to give to Granny Smith, a gift from one specialist to another.