Looking for Answers Among the Green {Zoro}

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight peered through magnification lenses, her brilliant violet eyes looking particularly owlish. she blinked several times before reaching up, plucking a leaf from a nearby tree and studying it closely. It looked... off. Rugged, not at all well cared for in the slightest. Its greens looked all over the place, as though they'd just spread naturally instead of with the care and consideration that trees normally showed. In short, it looked like a tree from the Everfree forest... except worse.

Twilight sighed, lowering her hand and letting the leaf flutter to the ground. She walked over to a brand new backpack that set against a tree. The Tenebrae staff had been remarkably forthcoming when it came to providing Twilight with research gear. All she'd had to do was fill out a few request forms and they provided her with everything she asked for. They also strongly suggested that she consider applying for a job in the library, but nobody had insisted so far. That job offer did nag at the back of Twilight's mind, since she did love libraries and this one could certainly use a good librarian. However, she had more pressing concerns at the moment, and they were mostly all around her.

The girl paused, squinting up into the trees. She thought... she thought she'd heard something. Just up there. She squinted, reaching up to adjust the lenses. The sudden perspective shift made Twilight flinch, but she was at least used to magnification lenses by now. Yes, there was definitely a bird's nest up there. Great. now she just needed to get up there without using magic and figure things out.

Frowning, Twilight followed the tree branch to the trunk. She soon located the tree, standing, well, among other trees and looking wholly unspectacular. Sighing, Twilight adjusted the magnification lenses, making certain that they weren't going to get in the way. Thus settled, she approached the tree. The purple haired girl stared up at it. She rubbed her hooves together and jumped, attempting to grab hold... and missed. Blowing out her lips in frustration, she tried again, her fingernails scraping at the bark. Yet she slid down, landing hard on her rear. Grumbling in frustration, Twilight brushed the debris off her jean shorts, adjusted her hair back into its ponytail (the irony was not lost on her, no), and attempted another leap. She managed to grab hold of the branch, to her great relief. Letting out a sigh, she began swinging her feet up, trying to grab hold and get further.

"Well," she said after several failed attempts, looking up at the branch, "this is going well..."

[Deleted]

Any normal person wouldn't be walking around after the complete and utter beatdown Zoro had suffered before coming here. But then, Zoro wasn't a normal person. It was true that he didn't have any special powers, but his willpower was a force to be reckoned with. The black suits and their doctors had told him that he should stay in the hospital for at least a month, given the severity of his injuries, but the moment they'd left him alone, he'd been up and out of that odd, white room. They'd also made the mistake of leaving his swords with him - otherwise he would have been on a warhunt for his prized possessions. The moment he'd gotten out of the building, he'd picked a direction and started walking. His head still ached and his... well, his everything felt like jelly, but that had never stopped him before.

Eventually, the swordsman hit the forest. It wasn't like any forest he'd ever seen - the place was so plain. There weren't any weird patterns on the bark and the leaves weren't some vibrant color. It was slightly off-putting, and it just upset him more. His memories were hazy, but he remembered that he was supposed to be somewhere with enormous, striped trees. And bubbles. There had been bubbles everywhere. This wasn't that place, whatever it was called. He was supposed to be protecting someone, but he couldn't remember who.

Maybe if he went through this forest he'd find out where he was. The logic made no sense, but a lot of things didn't make sense right now. So Zoro had stomped off through the trees, hacking and slashing at any branches or plants that happened to be in his way. He worked off most of his frustration in the first five minutes, and then proceeded to spend the next hour focusing on figuring out how much his strength had decreased, working on his techniques, and - unbeknownst to him - walking in a giant circle.

Eventually, he picked a different direction to walk in, clearing any brush that got in his way with a simple stroke from Wado. He had no idea how long he'd been walking, but he was starting to wish he'd brought food with him. As he absentmindedly walked along, he noticed something hanging from a tree branch. He almost kept walking, but the vibrant purple caught his eye, and he stopped, blinking as he realized it was a person. A girl, in fact, who seemed to be having considerable difficulty climbing the tree she was hanging from. 

Resting the dull side of his sword on his shoulder, Zoro approached, glancing up and arching an eyebrow as he hesitantly asked, "... What are you doing?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

"What? Who said that?" asked Twilight. She twisted her position as best she could, craning her neck to look over her shoulder at the source of the sound. She nearly lost her grip when doing so, and had to scramble to keep it as best she could. Her fingernails scraped bark, letting it fall about her hair, several chunks of dirt and debris landing among the purple. Still, she somehow managed to just catch a glimpse of Zoro, mostly the hair.

"I'm doing research," insisted Twilight, completely serious and with only the slightest hint at strain. She shifted again, swinging her body and attempting to throw her leg up onto the branch. This accomplished a lot of nothing, save for making her swing like a pendulum upon the branch, rocking into place. Well, that and another load of bark fell from the tree, landing near Twilight's mouth this time. She blew out her lips, spitting and attempting to dislodge what had gathered there. Sighing, she shifted her grip, and this time, lost it, landing hard upon the ground.

Wincing, Twilight turned to look up at the young man.... who had green hair, and what appeared to be weapons of some kind. "You wouldn't happen to be some breed of orc, would you? Because most of the creatures here don't have hair like yours," she paused, "I only have mine because I'm a unicorn."

Said with the utmost sincerity, of course.

[Deleted]

Zoro watched with mild amusement as the girl flailed about, clearly struggling to climb the tree. He didn't do a lot of tree-climbing, but it couldn't be that hard. He also didn't understand how anything she was doing qualified as research. Didn't people research inside? "What kind of research? Looks more like-" The green-haired teen cut off, cringing as the girl lost her grip completely and dropped to the ground. 

Hesitantly, he inched a bit closer. He wasn't entirely sure who this girl was or what she was doing, but maybe it was just an act to get him to lower his guard. Maybe she was working with those black suit guys. Though... none of them had such a normal hair color. Well, normal by his standards, but still. He would just have to be careful. 

The swordsman frowned when the girl asked if he was an orc. What was an orc? "You mean like a giant? Hell no. I'm not even a half-giant either," he scoffed, rolling his eyes as if that was common knowledge. He wrinkled his nose as he addressed the issue of his hair color. "Besides, my hair is normal where I come from. Everyone's hair here is... plain."

Zoro glanced up in the tree, wondering what the girl had really been after. He almost missed the comment about why her hair was purple, but when his mind registered what she'd said, he blinked, slowly lowering his gaze to stare at her like she had flowers sprouting from her ears. Arching an eyebrow, he cocked his head slightly to the side, his confusion clear on his face. A moment later, he seemed to come to a conclusion as some of the confusion faded, and he asked, "Oh, so you mean, you ate a Devil Fruit and you can turn into a unicorn?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight kept dusting herself off and trying to straighten as best she could. Thankfully, there wasn't all that much to take care of; the last thing Twilight wanted was to sit there picking at herself for several hours. Far better to pay more attention to the strange,  green-haired creature. She studied him closely while he offered explanations, or something closely resembling explanations, to his predicament.

"I wouldn't have guessed giant, seeing as you're not exactly that tall," Twilight pointed out. Sure, the creature was taller than she was, but he was hardly the size to be considered giant. Twilight tucked her legs under and wobbled to her feet, using the tree behind her as something of support. Her eyes flicked toward the tree branch though, wondering how exactly she was going to get there to study when she couldn't even get on the bottom level. Her eye naturally fell back toward the green-haired creature.

"What? No, I didn't eat a devil fruit. I mean that I actually am a unicorn," Twilight explained, gesturing at herself. She paused, looked down, and chewed her lip. "I've obviously been enchanted, as everyone else has," she paused for a beat, considering, "did you say Devil Fruit? What's that? Besides, you know, the obvious."

She looked at him, her curiosity momentarily overcoming her goal. Momentarily; she knew she'd still have to try and collect more data one way or another.    

[Deleted]

Zoro shrugged nonchalantly as the purple-haired girl brushed off the giant thing. "Well, isn't that what orcs are? It's slang for giants, right?" He really didn't know, since he'd never met a giant before. Or... had he? He couldn't remember. But the word 'orc' wasn't something he'd heard before. He'd just opted for what seemed like the next closest thing. "Unless orcs are fishmen. But even then, fishmen look... fishy, so no." 

He frowned when the girl insisted that she was a unicorn. That... well, maybe she had hit her head? She did seem kinda weird. The idea that everyone was enchanted was laughable, though. And, in fact, Zoro did laugh. Heartily. "Enchanted? How? That would mean that magic is something more than card tricks and cheap parlor tricks," he snorted, shaking his head. "Besides, I'm no different than I was before. I even kept my swords when I showed up here." Magic - if it was real - would have messed with that, right?

It took a second for Zoro to remember that not everyone here knew what a Devil Fruit was. Frankly, he didn't know all of the specifics either, but he could probably give a rough explanation. "Well... they're fruit." Genius, Zoro. Genius. "They're... cursed or something? People eat them, and they get special powers, but they can't swim afterwards. Something about the ocean hating them?" Zoro shrugged, scratching the back of his neck. "I don't know. I never ate one, so I never really had to know all the specifics."

It was fairly obvious that something in the tree kept attracting the girl's attention. Shading his eyes with his free hand, he squinted up at the tree, trying to figure out what the girl was looking for. "... What's up there that you were trying to get anyway? I don't see anything."

[Twilight Sparkle]

"I've never heard the term orc used to describe a giant before," said Twilight, shooting a quick glance to Zoro again. "I suppose it might be one from... wherever you're from."

Twilight had already come to terms with the fact that most people were from lands way outside of Equestria. in point of fact, it seemed that most of them were... well, she didn't want to think about that. Especially not when she had other things to consider. Case in point: devil fruit, fishmen, and an insult to her very gift.

"Hey!" she said, whirling to face Zoro. Hands flew to hips and a dangerous look came into her purple eyes. "Magic is so more than card tricks! Magic is... it's... it's great! My special gift is magic! That's what I do! It's what my cutie mark represents and...and... and it's important, okay? I just can't do any here because of whatever brought us here. It... it took my magic. Left my hair though," she muttered the last bit, blowing out her lips. She crossed her arms over her chest and couldn't help but look slightly offended and very frustrated. She'd practically kill to get her powers back at this point, to be honest.

And he said something about swords... again? She looked to him, her gaze shifting back to appraising for several seconds. The Devil Fruit at least sounded somewhat normal, well, as normal as things from back home ever got, really. She sighed again, turning to look up for a moment at the mention.

"I want to see what the birds look like," she said, realizing how lame that sounded. She shifted her feet. "I'm trying to gather information about the various flora and fauna of the area. It seems that they're different here than they were back home, and I'm thinking that with closer study I can begin to determine the differences and maybe start to recalibrate my magic and slash or figure out how to get us home."

She took a deep breath, flushed, and looked back at the tree, "But I can't climb, and I can't teleport anymore, so...."

[Deleted]

Zoro shrugged. Frankly, he wasn't really sure what orcs were. Maybe there were different names for things in... wherever she was from. Clearly it wasn't from here, but it wasn't from where he was from either, or she would have known about Devil Fruits.

He blinked, leaning back ever so slightly when the girl spun around and went off on him about magic. The swordsman was confused, to say the least. He'd only ever seen street magicians and performers, but the stuff she was talking about sounded more like she thought magic was a power of sorts. Well, if she was from a different world, maybe it was. Raising his other hand, he opened his palms - well, only as best he could with his left, he still had his sword in hand - in a silent gesture of apology and meaning no offense. "Sorry. I guess that sort of magic isn't around where I'm from." He was still doubtful, but... you never knew. Maybe magic really was a thing.

Zoro arched an eyebrow when the girl finally explained what she was after. Birds? Glancing back up, it took him a minute, but he could in fact pick out what looked like a bird's nest nestled high in the tree's branches. A slight frown furrowed his brow as he absentmindedly listened. She... well, she actually had a good reason for doing this, he guessed. It was sort of like how he surveyed his opponents before fighting them - the more you knew about your situation, the better.

The bird's nest wasn't too high up. It was maybe 15 or 20 feet off the ground, which wouldn't be a bad climb. But Zoro had other ideas. "It's not too high up. I could just cut that branch it's on," he said in a conversational tone, as if this was the best way to handle the situation. 

[Twilight Sparkle]

"You bet it's not," insisted Twilight, still unable to keep quite all her frustration at the comment to herself. She kept holding onto it even as she turned back to the tree, looking at the literal obstacle in her path. There didn't seem to be much chance of her managing to do anything by herself... but maybe this guy could...

could definitely not do that.

"Are you kidding?" she asked, looking at him, her eyes going wide. 'You can't--there are birds up there! That nest might even have eggs in it! That's why I need to study it! You'll---you'll destroy their natural habitat! You'll make it so that--that the birds will likely die or--or worse."

Twilight flung her hands into the air and waved them a few times before letting out a tremendous sigh of frustration. She rolled her eyes toward the sky, wishing fervently, and not for the first time, to just see any familiar sight drifting overhead. Something flying would be just plain awesome at this point. Of course, nothing did so, and instead Twilight had to look back down at this guy.

"Look, if you want to help, and... and I could probably use it, then you could either help me get up there," she pointed, "or climb up yourself and tell me what you see. This is really important. The more information I have, the more likely I can figure things out, and, well, get us home, maybe..."

Though even Twilight thought that going from studying birds to getting them home was a bit of a stretch.

[Deleted]

Zoro had the strangest feeling that he'd somehow insulted this girl. Was magic really that important? In his experience, strength was all he'd ever needed. Well, that and a healthy dose of luck. But maybe magic was like his swordsmanship - a point of pride for this girl. He couldn't imagine being somewhere and not being able to use his skill. 

Really, he turned to his swords for practically everything. Which is why he'd even suggested cutting the branch off in the first place. He blinked slowly when the girl seemed to wig out, shouting about how he should definitely not just start cutting things. It took him a moment to realize why. "Oh." He wasn't quite sure why that hadn't registered at first. 

He listened quietly as the girl offered her own suggestion. Turning his eyes back up to the tree, he sat silently for a moment, mulling over whether he really wanted to help. He didn't exactly have anything better to do, though. And he was pretty sure this tree wouldn't be too hard to climb. Sheathing his sword, he pulled all three swords out of where they were tucked into his haramaki, sheathes and all, and propped them on a nearby tree. "Watch those," he said, jabbing a finger at where he'd left his swords before taking a few steps back. Unlike the girl, he was going to give himself a running start.

Without another word, he ran at the tree. He only got about two steps up the trunk before he felt his foot slipping, and his arm shot out, grabbing the nearest branch. He'd gotten a few feet higher than the branch the girl had tried to grab, but he still had a ways to go. Reaching his other arm up, he heaved himself up, taking this as an opportunity to work on re-strengthening his arms. 

Climbing the tree wasn't as easy as he'd been expecting. Sure, he probably did it faster than most people would have been able to, but by the time he'd reached the bird's nest, his arms and shoulders were throbbing, and he had a sinking feeling that he might have popped a few of the stitches on his left shoulder. Regardless, he plopped himself down on a nearby branch without complaint, clutching the flimsy wood tightly as he leaned over, peering into the bird's nest and trying to ignore the sickening sense of vertigo. "So what am I looking for?" he called down to the girl, sparing a glance down to see if she was still there.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight let her words sink in for a moment, hoping that everything she said sank in to some degree. When Zoro started moving and insisted that Twilight watch his swords, she had a feeling that at least something she'd said or done had sunk in. She took a step back, trying to give him room to figure out what it was he was doing. She looked to the swords, staring for several seconds as though she fully expected said weapons to begin to do something all on their own. Strangely, that would have been acceptable to Twilight.

Instead, the guy ran at the tree. Twilight's head jerked up as he ran past her, and she turned as he sprang at the tree. Despite herself, Twilight felt a slight feeling of envy and genuine admiration for the act. She certainly couldn't do it, though she had to admit that she probably knew people that could. part of her was also seriously wondering if he wasn't showing off, just leaping at the tree like that.

"Right, let me get my pad..." she said, searching for the paper and pen. She soon found the pen tucked behind her ear and the pad shoved into pocket (she did have to admit that pockets were useful, and she fully intended to sing their praises to Rarity when they met again). "Okay, I need you to describe the birds," she paused, "or eggs, or whatever's in there. Do they look... happy? Colorful? Oh, and does the nest look well made? Like, did the pony assigned to make it do a good job or..." Twilight paused, the idea hitting her at the same time she said it: "did the bird actually make it by itself..."

[Deleted]

Zoro was starting to wonder about this girl's sanity. The frown on his face just deepened, and he found himself scrunching his face up incredulously as he turned to stare at the purple-haired girl. "... Are you serious?" he asked, a hint of annoyance seeping into his tone. If this girl was just messing with him...

"Horses don't make bird's nests. Birds make bird's nests." He had assumed that that would remain the same, regardless of where people came from. Then again, this girl was claiming to be a unicorn, so maybe it was some weird place where ponies flew and controlled the weather and were all happy-go-lucky, all the time. 

Yeah, like that was it.

Shaking his head, Zoro craned his neck, peering as best he could into the bird's nest. He could see a few eggs nestled within, but no adult birds in sight. "Uh... there's only eggs. They're light blue and speckled. It... looks normal? It's not super bright or happy or anything. It's kinda plain, really." Glancing at the nest, he stared at it, trying to work out if it looked like it had been made by something other than the birds. "The nest is messy. Like all bird's nests are. I'm pretty sure the birds made it themselves."

Frowning, he stared down at the girl taking notes. "... where are you from, anyway? I've never heard of anything but birds making their nests."

[Twilight Sparkle]

[about time someone started to wonder about Twilight's sanity. You wouldn't believe how many people take the "I'm a unicorn, everyone's a pony, why is the sky not being moved by pegasi?" thing in stride...]

"Of course I'm serious!" insisted Twilight, flinging her arms wide, waving them emphatically. "I need to research how this world operates. The more I understand, the better my chances of figuring out how to get my magic back."

Which, for Twilight, was her number one priority. Once her abilities were fully restored to her, she was convinced that everything else would begin to fall in line. If nothing else, being able to cast spells would surely be of use in figuring things out. She'd be able to teleport to difficult to get to spots, for one thing, not to mention levitation and all. But she couldn't dream about her magic, not now. There was research to do.

"Ponies make the nests," insisted Twilight, she made a quick note that they apparently didn't where Zoro was from. "It's part of Winter Wrap-Up, and we do it every year. I even tried once, though my nest was horrible," she paused, looking up the tree, "You're saying that one's a mess though? And that the birds are all... boring looking?" It pained Twilight to refer to them like that, and she was certain that somewhere Fluttershy was fainting in shock or protesting in her silently determined way. Plain nest, slightly messy... obviously constructed by birds... Twilight took it all down and stared at her notes. She flipped back a few pages, frowning. Yes, there was definitely a pattern here, and she was definitely not liking it.

"Hmm?" she said, spending half an eye to look up at Zoro. "I'm from Ponyville. Well, Equestria, technically. I was born and raised in Canterlot and moved to Ponyville after Princess Celestia told me to study friendship."

She tapped her pen to her mouth, considering. "Does the nest... does it look like nests where you're from? It looks, uh, normal, to you then?"

Because Twilight was really, really starting to think that she was the odd pony out here....

[Deleted]

Zoro just snorted and raised an eyebrow at the girl's emphatic response. She certainly seemed serious, but then... crazy people thought they were serious too. He wanted some hard proof before he was going to take anything this girl said seriously. "Right..." he grumbled, turning back to the nest and ignoring the girl's other comments about magic. He had other things to worry about.

He stared incredulously at the nest, wondering how the hell a pony could make a nest. They didn't have hands. How did that work? Did... did this 'magic' help somehow? Zoro didn't understand, and he wasn't sure he wanted to understand. It sounded terribly confusing and while he wasn't stupid, he wasn't the sharpest sword in the shed either. 

He'd never heard of Equestria, Ponyville, or Canterlot. It all sounded... odd. Maybe there was an island somewhere far off that he hadn't visited yet, but wouldn't someone have mentioned it? "Never heard of it," he shrugged. "Don't suppose you've heard of Shimotsuki Village?" It took a moment for the rest of her words to sink in, and he slowly turned his eyes to stare down at the girl, raising his eyebrows as he did. "... you went to study... friendship? Why?"

None of this made sense. At all. Zoro focused on what he did know: the bird's nest. "Yeah, it looks normal. The birds where I'm from make bigger nests, though. Mostly because they're bigger birds, but..." He trailed off when one of the birds flew over, landing on the edge of the nest and staring pointedly at the swordsman. The bird wasn't nearly as colorful as the birds he remembered from home, and it was much smaller than the ones he knew of, but it was still a bird. The black-and-white feathered creature stared at Zoro for a long moment before ruffling its feathers, opening its beak, and letting out a shrill cry.

And flying straight for Zoro's head. 

The swordsman swore, swatting at the air as he tried to fend off the suddenly-vicious bird. Apparently these birds were territorial, which in hindsight should not have been surprising. The bird dive-bombed him, and as Zoro leaned back to dodge, he felt his balance shift and his weight begin to drag him down. His arms shot out to grab the branch, but he missed, and a surge of panic flooded him as he felt himself fall. Twisting in the air, he bounced off of a few branches before managing to grab ahold of another large branch about a third of the way down. Of course, he'd only caught it because it had slammed into his stomach, but at least he wasn't falling anymore. Curling his arms around the branch, he huffed, trying to keep his grip even as he felt his arms protesting and his grip slowly slipping.

Eventually, gravity won, and Zoro resigned himself to the fact that he was just going to get out of the tree faster than he had been anticipating. He hit the ground feet first, letting his legs collapse as he rolled rather awkwardly and ended up sprawled on his back. Spitting out leaves and bark, the swordsman stayed where he was laying, staring up at the tree with a disgruntled scowl plastered on his features. "... well that was fun."

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Can't say that I have..." admitted Twilight, tilting her head slightly to the side, as though to jostle loose a few thoughts. It really didn't surprise her that she hadn't heard of Zoro's homeland; she hadn't heard of any of the homelands of the various people she'd met since arriving here. If anything, she would have been more surprised had Zoro suggested he came from Saddle Arabia or the Changeling Empire. As for his other question: "Because friendship is magic," literally, though Twilight did have some reservations about revealing the secrets of the Elements of Harmony to someone she'd just met, even if he did seem to be rather on the friendly and helpful side. Best to wait until she learned a bit more about the guy.

Plus, Twilight really didn't want to admit that part of the reason had been because she flat out sucked at making friends. She seemed to be doing marginally better here, but you could easily blame most of her friends for that. She even considered the possibility of adding Zoro to her evergrowing list of allies and friends. Gruff and slightly confrontational he may be, but he was also up in a tree pretty much because Twilight had asked him to.

Then the bird showed up. "It's probably not happy about you being near its nest!" Twilight called up, gesturing. "You'll want to-- do that," the last came as Zoro started to shift and wiggle. If Twilight had her magic, she might do something, and her brow actually crinkled as that reflex took over. After a good deal of nothing happened, Twilight instead moved to try and soften the eventual final blow. Her calculating eyes took in some leaves and such, which she hurriedly dragged, keeping half an eye on Zoro the whole time. She winced each time he connected with some part of the tree, not only in sympathy, but also partly in guilt. She knew full well why he had been up there, after all.

Her calculations wound up being more or less accurate, for all the good they did. Zoro's feet landed in the soft pile of leaves, which gave him plenty to spit out as he gathered himself up. He'd find Twilight standing over him, concern and guilt in her violet eyes. "Are you alright? You do look like a tough... swords...thing, but that was a bit of a---" the bird overhead made a loud noise, and Twilight looked up. "We'd better move, unless you want to go another round with her."

She bent over, grabbing for Zoro to help drag him to his feet. Suddenly getting out of the forest, or at least this part, seemed like a very, very good idea. She'd gotten what she'd came here for... and possibly then some.