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While waiting in the Everfree Forest, Becky was stuck tending to Luna, who was exhausted, and Zecora, who was busy picking her ear. Of course, the conversation didn’t go as Becky would have expected.

“Mmm… I may be a mare, as I’m sure you can tell. But your fingers stroking up and down do pleasure me as—”

“Gawd damn it, Zecora,” Becky said through a muted laugh. “Don’t go and take what I taught you and turn it into a dirty joke like that. But come on. You said you might have a potion capable of healing us? What’s that all about? Isn’t that what started the topic of us opening up more capabilities for all of you or something?”

Zecora hummed another happy note as Becky trailed her thumb under one of the rings around the mare’s neck and then ran her fingernails behind the mare’s ear.

“Hmm, yes, my dear,” Zecora continued. “A simple concoction that I have brewed. One that will may have your injures flesh renew—damn it. You have me rather distracted. I wasn’t even trying with that one.”

Becky chuckled to herself and continued running her fingers over Zecora’s ear and over her scalp, letting the zebra mare deal with the distraction of her gentle petting.

“Yeah, well. At least it wasn’t a dirty joke. But, if we have time, do you mind if I pull you to the side for something? Not a lot of ponies that I trust, and… fuck… I’m not even sure if it will be worth the effort… But anyway. The potion?”

Whatever Becky was saying, Zecora was entirely tuned out to but also completely on board with her friend’s invitation.

“Pull me here, pull me there. With those hands, pull me anywhere.”

“Gawd damn it,” Becky grumbled, pulling her hand back.

“No-no,” Zecora quickly corrected herself, rolling onto her back, failing to grab Becky’s hand and pull it down to her chest to begin rubbing her again. “We talk of changelings, medicine, then sex, and now you want me focused on my potions, of which there are many types. But Becky, you must know when I am distracted, you cannot change the way I speak no more than you can change my stripes.”

For the time being, Becky was stuck with a depressed, sleeping Luna on one side of her lap and helpful Zecora take up the other side, who may, in fact, be able to help her answer some of the questions Redheart couldn’t. So, she gave in and returned to petting Zecora. The effort was low, but the was heavily amused by the mare’s effort, so the output was more than palpable.

“Fine, fuck’n suborn ass, bitch. Think you’re so damn cute.” She turned her head to look down and the grinning mare, slowly batting her brilliant, luscious blue eyes and her forelegs raised up, hooves relaxed, almost like a puppy begging for attention. “Gawd, I hate how adorable you bitches are… Fucking beat-box the whole thing if you have to. Just tell me already.”

Zecor grinned wildly as Becky’s hand returned to her chest, gently stroking her chest and rubbing her up and down over her belly, easily coaxing the desired information out of her.

Again, Zecora proves to be a difficult character to work with. Originally, what I was given looked like a run-of-the-mill zebra. Only, it was a zebra with three legs, no real tail to speak of, all the wrong stripes, no cutie mark, messed up eyes, none of that bling Zecora wears, and her mane had to be remade. I also didn’t like the muzzle she was given because the lips looked natroshis. Portions of her anatomy had to be corrected to, since she came out looking blocky for some reason… a really odd choice by the AI.

Regardless, I liked the idea of having her tail curled up between her legs to look more natural as well as to help protect her modesty, even though I’m sure something would have snuck through had any of that been rendered in before I added the tail. As for the jewelry, I didn’t make the rings look as uniform as I did in my last attempt, seen here >>3315144

A little cleaner, leaner, and cuter was what I was going for. Portions of the tail could have come out better, but I still struggle trying to portray hair fibers. Even some of the markings ended up masking a bit more of the texture than I wanted, but the layering effects of changing the color weren’t working with me the way I wanted, and this was the happiest medium I could find. Same goes for some of the shadowing I put in. I’d either lose the proper tone to match the lighting or give up texture and form if I went too far in either direction.

In the end, I still think this is a better product than my last attempt, and I certainly learned a lot from my previous projects.