“Wow. What a gorgeous day,” Twilight awed at the exemplary state of the town as she traveled down the road. The entire town had come out to clean up after the heavy rains, and their work definitely showed. Everything looked pristine and new, right down to the dirt.

“Rainbow Dash must have gotten up early for once and cleared all the clouds away,” Spike remarked as he rode atop Twilight’s back. “Think Gilda’s rubbing off on her?”

Twilight shot the drake a sly, incredulous look.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Ugh. Well obviously they’re rubbing off on each other,” he emphasized with a lewd gesture, “but I meant with good behavior and stuff.”

“I know. I was just giving you grief,” Twilight teased. “But I couldn’t say. I don’t know Gilda well enough to make that kind of assertion. It’s just as likely that the mayor gave Rainbow an earful over what little damage the town did take and she was just trying to avoid another lecture.”

Now it was Spike’s turn to look incredulous. “Rainbow. Lectured? Seriously?”

“She might be the Element of Domination, but you don’t get put in charge of an entire town if you’re a complete pushover. Mayor Mare has to have some way of getting ponies to do what she wants.”

“Like controlling her paycheck?” It was the only possibility that made sense to Spike. He’d met the mayor a few times already, if only briefly. Try as he might, he had a hard time seeing any standard scolding of the speedster ending in any other way but said speedster usurping the mayor’s seat and using her face as a throne.

Twilight clucked her tongue. “There are a few levels separating them, but yes. Rainbow might be the local weather manager, but she still has to answer to the government if she wants to get paid. Good job on putting that together, Spike.”

Spike puffed out his chest in pride. “See. I pay attention when you ramble about boring stuff.”

“Oh really? And here I thought you were just tuning me out by focusing on my butt?”

“Hey! I can multitask,” he countered defensively. Both he and Twilight had a laugh at that. “Uh, Twi?”

“What is it, Spike?”

“Where is everypony?” The little drake gestured around the vacant town.

Twilight looked from side-to-side, her ears swiveling this way and that for any kind of disturbance. There was nothing. The town was dead silent. The only exception was a single tumbleweed that brazenly tumbled through the town square.

“Is it some sort of pony holiday?” Spike asked.

“I don’t think so. The mayor sent me a list of all local holidays and we’re not due for a while.”

“Does my breath stink?” Spike belched out a small puff of green flame. The sound, by virtue of being the loudest, echoed eerily off of the nearby buildings.

Twilight’s nose wrinkled. “No more than usual,” she said in good humor. Then she felt Spike tense as he pulled his limbs close. Even his anus clenched in fright at whatever thought had just popped in his head.

“Is it… zombies!?”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “Uh, not likely.”

“Not likely,” Spike repeated uncertainly. “But… possible?”

“No, Spike. Undead are the product of necromancers meddling with forbidden magic. Those kinds of things only happen out in the sticks where they can do their experiments unnoticed.”

“B-but, what about the E-Everfree?”

“A fair deduction, but no. The Everfree is too wild, even for a crazy pony. Too many predators are drawn to dark magic for a necromancer to safely cast, at least not without drawing unwanted attention. Not to mention you can literally see Canterlot in the distance.” Twilight pointed out. “Any necromancer stupid and lucky enough to try and succeed could probably be sniped by Molestia before she finishes morning tea. Also, even if there were zombies, and the wild magic alarm had somehow been circumvented, I’m pretty sure we’d have heard the screams of ponies being torn apart by now.”

Spike relaxed and finally unclenched his butt. “That’s good to hear.”

“Psst.”

Twilight and Spike looked around in search of the mysterious sound.

Pinkie poked her head out from the open door to Sugar Cube Corner. “Twilight!” she stage whispered loud enough to be heard the next street over. She then pulled back just as the pair looked in her general direction. “Spike!” the ponker poked her pink head out once more before quickly ducking back. “Over here!” Her hoof beckoned them over while hanging down from the doorway. “Come. Here. Hurryyy! Before she gets you.”

Twilight and Spike shared a curious look. Neither knew what was going on, so they both shrugged and decided to follow. Given that this was Sugar Cube Corner and not Carousel Boutique, they felt relatively safe in entering the building without performing a quick scan of the room. The lights were off inside the bakery, with only the natural light bleeding through the closed blinds for illumination. Shapes moved in the darkness, but the pair’s eyes were still adjusting.

“Pinkie. What are you doing alone in the dark?” Twilight asked, starting to become seriously concerned. Spike was already on edge, and a bunch of ponies jumping out for a surprise party had a high probability of making the drake wet himself all over Twilight’s back.

“Oh, I’m not alone,” Pinkie answered cheerily and lit a candle, showing that the rest of the mane six and Apple Bloom were also huddled in the room.

“Okay then,” Twilight said, starting to fear it was going to be one of those days, when the planets aligned for the specific purpose of giving her a headache. “What are you all doing here alone in the dark?”

“We’re hidin’ from… her,” AJ intoned in dread. She directed Twilight to a window on the opposite end of the room, where a single hooded figure could be seen.

Twilight stepped forward for a closer look through the curtains. Spike, having already dismounted, cuddled close with AB for reassurance. All of them huddled close to catch a glimpse of this mysterious creature. The figure beneath the beige cloak resembled that of an earth pony mare. Something shiny glistened around her hoof and, though she was too far away to see clearly, something seemed off about her exposed fur. Whoever she was, she was digging idly at a random spot in the middle of the dirt road. Then the mare turned to face the bakery, sending all into retreat from the window, lest they be seen; all, that is, except for Twilight, who regarded the lot of them with bemusement.

“Did j’ya see her, Twilight?” AB asked, apparently holding onto Spike more tightly than he was with her. “Did j’ya see… Zecora?”

“Apple Bloom!” AJ hissed. “Ah told ya never ta say that name.”

“Well, I saw her glance this way,” Twilight admitted skeptically, now trying to parse out the clues from her friends’ strange behavior.

“Glance eeevilly this way,” Pinkie insisted.

Twilight pushed her away. “And then all of you flip out for no good reason.”

“No good reason?” AJ repeated in disbelief as she pulled AB close. “Ya call protectin’ yer kin no good reason? Why, as soon as mah sister saw Zecora ridin’ into town, she started shakin’ in her little horse shoes.”

“Di-i-i-i-id no-o-o-o-ot,” AB argued as she was shaken about.

“So Ah swept her up ‘n’ brought her here,” AJ concluded her tale by tossing the filly onto her back like a sack of potatoes.

Spike watched the filly’s manhandling and thumped his fist to his chest in solidarity. The little ones knew well the burden of being picked up and thrown around by the bigger folk. Proving his point, he offered no resistance as Fluttershy seized the opportunity to pull him against her plush body for a cuddle. Draped over him, at least she had the decency to smell as nice as she felt.

“Ah walked here mahself,” AB protested after returning Spike’s gesture. “And Ah’m not a baby. Ah can take care ‘f mahself.”

“Not from that creepy Zecora,” AJ warned.

The others all nodded and voiced their concerns about how creepy this mysterious mare was. Zecora was apparently sinister, spooky, mysterious, and other words that basically meant they really didn’t know anything.

Twilight’s patience was wearing thin, so she took another look out the window. Conveniently enough, Zecora pulled down her cloak’s hood, revealing black and white striped fur and a Mohawk mane. She also had gold hoop earrings and gold anklets on her right front hoof. “That’s a zebra,” she deadpanned.

“Just look at those stripes,” Rarity said in disgust. “So garish.”

“Zebra! Z.E.B.R.A,” Twilight repeated, stressing every letter in frustration at her friends’ ignorance. “Zebras are supposed to be striped. That’s their natural fur pattern. It’s what they’re born with.”

Horrified beyond measure, Rarity theatrically fainted, falling to the wood floor with a thud. “… ow.”

“Born where?” AJ asked. “Ah ain’t never seen a pony like that in these parts. ‘Cept… her.” She shuddered.

“That’s because zebras come from Zebrekastan, one of the countries on the dark continent,” Twilight lectured, her ire only growing when the others gasped at the mention of ‘dark’. “It’s not as bad as the name suggests, and I doubt she,” she gestured out the window, “is either.”

“Not so bad?” AJ argued. “How can you say that when she lives in… the Everfree Forest?”

Twilight pursed her lips. “Okaaay. I guess that would be pretty unnerving. But the dark continent is full of all sorts of wild magic. She probably knows some tricks to make it more livable.”

“Does that mean she knows how to be a necromancer?” Spike asked, adding to the atmosphere of fear as Fluttershy gripped him all the tighter.

“Although that would be more plausible, given what we were discussing earlier, you’re not exactly helping, Spike,” Twilight growled in irritation.

The drake just giggled at the tiny bit of power he now exerted over these adults and shared a grin with AB.

“So what exactly have you seen Zecora do to justify this behavior?” Twilight demanded of the others. “And it better be good. Because I’m having a hard time figuring out how a bunch of grown mares are brave enough to take on a full grown dragon one day, but puss out at the sight of a foreigner doing…” She trailed off. “Random digging? I don’t even know!”

“PONIES OF PONYVILLE!” boomed the striped mare in a striking likeness to the Royal Canterlot Voice. Tremors could be felt running through the ground and even caused many baubles on the shelves to nearly fall to the floor. “TREMBLE. TREMBLE WITH JOY. TREMBLE WITH DREAD. FOR ZECORA THE SORCERESS HAS GRACED YOUR TOWN WITH HER PRESENCE!”

Once her asshole stopped clenching, Twilight took a long, drawn out inhale, and then released her breath with a slow and steady exhale. She hung her head low, and watched as her friends all seemed to fuse together into a singular mass of petrified pony. “I don’t know what I was expecting. But at least that wasn’t as stupid as I had feared.”

“See! SEE!” AJ demanded, now fully vindicated as the blob disintegrated into its original components. “Ah ain’t no pussy. Zecora’s jus’ creepy as fuck!”

Twilight, however, wasn’t ready to fully concede the point. “Hmm. I’ve never actually met any zebras before. Equestria doesn’t have a lot of contact with them, so I haven’t read that much. I know we’ve never gone to war, so that’s something.”

“That ain’t exactly encouragin’, Twi,” AJ informed.

“Perhaps, but that’s not the point. You’re the ones who made the original claim that she’s scary and implying she poses some sort of threat, so the burden of proof is on you.”

“You heard what she said,” RD spoke up. “She told us to tremble with dread. That’s what she always says when she comes by. How else are we supposed to take that?”

“She said to tremble with dread and joy,” Twilight corrected. “It’s probably a customary greeting that just doesn’t translate well in Ponish.”

“Well,” Fluttershy spoke up quietly. “Actually, she’s…”

“I’m still waiting on that evidence,” Twilight intoned, not hearing Fluttershy at all.

“First time she came to town, about seven months ago,” Pinkie began. “I was just bouncing around, minding my own business, when I spied, with my little eye, something shiny. Naturally, I crouched down low in prime pouncing position, jumped, and grabbed it with my teeth,” she explained, sounding all too pleased with herself. “Turns out the shiny things were those anklets Zecora has on her, well, ankles. And she just blows up in my face!”

“It’s true,” RD affirmed. “I was flying overhead at the time, and there was a literal explosion. Fire, brimstone, and a spooky face screaming at poor Pinkie. ‘How dare you.’ ‘You shall be punished.’ The whole shebang. Freaked me the fuck out.”

“I wet myself,” Pinkie added.

Twilight had finally calmed. As much as ponies prided themselves on their civilization and enlightened outlook on life, they were still animals that tended to spook easily. Bad first impressions, she’d once read, tended to have a much worse impact on ponies than other races. “Okay. So I’ll admit that this is some plausible evidence to be wary of the stranger. However, I still have my doubts that she’s as bad as you all seem to think.”

“Guys! Look!” Spike pointed out the window.

In a heartbeat, all had crowded around the glass to see what new terrors the strange zebra was unleashing now.

“Trixie?” Twilight gasped.

There she was, right in the middle of the road. The blue unicorn, oblivious to the town’s paranoia, had walked right up to the striped mare. Her mouth was moving, as was fairly normal with Trixie. Those inside couldn’t make out any of the words, but it still looked like the showmare was bragging about something. Then Zecora started talking back.

“What’s she saying?” Rarity demanded. “Does anypony know how to read lips?”

Twilight did her best to tune out her paranoid friends and focus on the mares outside. Trixie seemed to be perfectly normal, in so far as Trixie was capable of such a thing. She smiled as her hoof pointed in various directions. Twilight imagined the former performer giving directions while bragging about her knowledge of the town. Zecora’s movements weren’t as overt. Mostly she would nod and take advantage of Trixie’s pauses to say a few words.

Eventually Zecora moved more overtly, resulting in the others flinching back once more. She was pointing at Trixie’s collar, making the blue mare grow just a bit somber. Twilight could almost hear the flatulent sound of the blue mare’s ego deflating at having to admit what the collar was. Even so, they continued to converse. Things seemed to be going rather smoothly for several minutes as the mares’ secret audience watched with baited breath. Then Trixie pulled away, aghast at whatever she’d just heard. Zecora took a step forward, reaching out with her hoof, but Trixie just stepped further away, recoiling in revulsion.

Finally remembering herself, Twilight magicked up a quill and parchment and began fiercely scribbling everything that she’d just seen. This was a truly fascinating interaction.

Alas, the interaction was cut short, seemingly by Trixie excusing herself, and the two parted ways. Fortunately, or maybe it was just because Sugar Cube Corner was the loudest building in town, Trixie decided to head Twilight’s way; whereupon she was promptly yanked inside.

“Gah!” the blue mare yelped as she was thrown across the room and tied to a chair before her eyes could even stop spinning. She would have asked for clarification, with all the civility she felt this situation was due, but she was silenced by a ball gag being shoved in her mouth.

“Got her!” Rarity crowed as she tightened the nots on Trixie’s ropes. “She’ll not be going anywhere.”

“Mmmh!”

“You spoke to her, didn’t you,” Rainbow growled in accusation.

“Hmm?”

“What’d she say?” Pinkie asked eagerly.

“Hm hmm.”

“What does she want?” AJ demanded, frustrated that this blue bimbo was hindering their investigation into a possible threat by refusing to cooperate. “Talk, dammit!”

“Hrrrmmm,” Trixie growled.

“Is she feeling alright?” Fluttershy added timidly.

“You do realize she’s been gagged, right?” Twilight pointed out and turned a questioning look on Rarity.

Fashion horse blushed in embarrassment. “Sorry. Force of habit.” And she removed the gag.

“What is with you ponies?” Trixie demanded. “I haven’t done anything to deserve this!”

“You spoke to her,” AJ reminded with deadly seriousness. “That’s reason enough ta be suspicious.”

“Her? You mean Zecora?”

“Who else?”

“I don’t know. You ponies are all crazy!” Trixie bounced around in the chair, trying to loosen her bindings and pull herself free, but to no avail. Rarity’s knots were not the easiest to escape, at least not until fashion horse undid them herself.

Twilight finally stepped up, vowing to herself to be the voice of reason in this mad house. “Trixie. It would appear that Zecora the zebra has made a… less than favorable impression on this town. Now everypony’s too afraid to even go near her. You’ve seen the state of the town.” She gestured out the window. “So, how about you put everypony’s nerves at ease and tell us what you and she discussed.”

Trixie gave a heavy sigh. She’d never admit to it, but she was glad when Twilight could pull herself out of her own head space and be the voice of reason. Although, given present company, that wasn’t terribly hard. “Well, there I was, the Great and Powerful Trixie, just going through town, looking to do this week’s shopping, as any dutiful slave would,” she added with the barest hint of snark. “But low and behold, the streets are empty. Ponyville is a ghost town. Yet upon the horizon, there she is. A single-”

“Do we really need the theatrics?” Twilight asked, now fully fed up with this shit. Her answer came as a slap to the cheek by a well-groomed tail.

“Always, darling,” Rarity informed sternly. “Never underestimate the value of drama in making a scene.”

Twilight was feeling too emotionally drained to argue and motioned for Trixie to continue.

“So Trixie approaches this stranger. Her features are exotic and her accent most strange. Trixie asks the stranger’s identity and reason for being here.” Trixie couldn’t keep the smile off her face as all the others leaned in, on the edge of their proverbial seats as she enthralled them with her tale. “The stranger introduces herself as Zecora. A zebra, she hails from far away Zebrekastan and has built a modest hut out in the Everfree.”

“I knew it!” Rainbow declared.

“Wait, so you weren’t sure, before?” Twilight asked.

Ignoring the peanut gallery, Trixie went on. “Trixie asks of this zebra: why? Is that not dangerous? Zecora, with confidence, says that she is a sorceress, and that only in the Everfree can she find the ingredients for her potions.”

“That’s a ‘yes’ on the evil enchantress,” Pinkie added, much to the annoyance of Twilight and Trixie.

“As Trixie and Zecora converse, the zebra from far off lands seems both sad and eager. Being so lonely for so long, speaking with the Great and Powerful Trixie is nothing less than a blessed oasis in the middle of the desert.”

RD scoffed. “Talk about desperate.”

“If Trixie has to keep dealing with these interruptions, then Trixie might as well stop!”

“Okay fine. Whatever,” RD replied with a roll of her eyes.

“Good. Besides, Trixie is not the only pony in our midst who has spoken with the alien mare.”

There were hushed whispers all around the room. Ponies were wondering what Trixie was talking about, and Trixie was living it up as the center of attention. Alas, her fun was not to last, for as most of the ponies questioned in hushed words, the quietest of them all saw her chance.

“I’ve spoken with her before.”

The silence was deafening. Faces of shock, hurt, and even betrayal had turned on the butter yellow pegasus. Already questions were forming in the minds of the mares. Just what had this seditious zebra offered that would make sweet, delicate Fluttershy sell them out? Sensing trouble brewing, Rainbow was stealthily moving to position herself between Fluttershy and the rest, should the worst come to pass. Then, as quickly as they’d flared, tempers began to drop the moment they all realized who it was they were dealing with. Recent encounters with dragons aside, Fluttershy was too much of a pussy-assed bitch to turn traitor.

“I live on the edge of the Everfree, so we’re kind of like neighbors,” Fluttershy explained. “Sometimes she makes potions and poultices whenever one of my babies gets sick. Makes them fit as a fiddle in no time. But we don’t talk that much, though. I’m not sure why, but she always gets a little uncomfortable whenever I start talking about my babies.”

“Fluttershy, darling,” Rarity began politely. “Well, don’t take this the wrong way, but…”

“Why the fuck didn’t ya tell us you was talkin’ ta her!?” AJ screamed.

Fluttershy promptly eeped and ducked behind Rainbow for safety.

“I think that answers that question,” Twilight deduced succinctly. “She knew you guys would overreact. Go on, Trixie. I’m enjoying how right you’re proving I am.”

Swallowing her pride, Trixie did as bade. “Zecora, the lonely traveler, asks for details of this, the closest town to her home. Trixie, ever the helpful one, offers her services as a guide, pointing out all the sights to see. But alas, such sights are of little interest when you have no pony to see them with. She tells of an unfortunate encounter with a mass of pink - a color regarded in her culture as an omen of great evil – tackling her out of nowhere and her less than gracious reaction.”

Pinkie began whistling innocently while Twilight pumped her hoof in victory at being proven right. So far, everything had a rational explanation, mostly boiling down to cultural misunderstandings.

“Trixie, with utmost humility, admits to this stranger that she is a slave. On top of being punished disproportionate to her crimes, Trixie has also been shoved up the asses of two giants so far. And worse, given the questionable ‘heroic’ status of Trixie’s mistress, Trixie fears these shant be the last.”

“What went wrong?” Twilight asked. “For a while there it looked like you two were getting along, at least to the level of a cashier and customer, but then you pulled away. What happened?”

Trixie pursed her lips and averted her gaze. “We… we began discussing zebra culture and Trixie asked why this mare would not only journey so far from home, but linger in such an unwelcoming place.” Trixie squirmed around, clearly uncomfortable.

“What did she say?” Twilight pressed.

“She… she is an outcast. Banished in all but name from her homeland for what her culture regards as deviancy.”

“Deviancy?” Twilight repeated. It was such an uncommon word. Of course she knew the definition, but it was so rarely used in the largely homogenous land of Equestria. Ponies were conformist by nature, but differences were rarely viewed as problematic in and of themselves. Most of the time, ‘deviancy’ didn’t even apply in reference to personal differences, but in experiments and theorems. “In what way?”

“She…” Trixie squirmed even more. “She…” Her volume lowered to almost Fluttershy levels. “Masturbates!”

The surrounding mares all gasped in horror, only for their voices to shift to befuddlement and incredulity.

“Uh, so?” Twilight asked, summing up everyone else’s feelings on the matter.

“Think about it, mistress,” Trixie said derisively. “She was branded a deviant and kicked out of her country because she masturbates. Think about that for a second.”

Twilight did not care for her slave’s tone, but she did give the matter its due thought. She thought, puzzled, and pondered, until the answer struck her like a slasher killer’s blade. “Hold on! This can’t be real.” She forced herself to laugh. “Are you actually suggesting that she-?”

Trixie nodded.

“Oh sweet, merciful stars, that’s horrible!”

“Can somepony catch the rest ‘f us up?” AJ demanded.

“Zebrekastan is basically what Equestria would have been under Nightmare Moon,” Trixie explained. “They’re not all celibate, but they’re super strict about how, where, and why they’re allowed to fuck. Self-pleasure is a pretty major taboo over there, so they sent her here to be with the rest of the ‘deviants,’” she said with air quotes in her tone.

Although she’d already reached this conclusion, Twilight was as shocked as the others. The reign of Nightmare Moon was a terrible tragedy that Equestria had barely avoided. It was the stuff of nightmares, a scary story to tell when you wanted to screw around with the foals. The idea that there was an entire country living that nightmare made Twilight just a little queasy, more so when she remembered that a piece of that nightmare was in their town right now.

“I guess that was why she was so uncomfortable,” Fluttershy blurted. “I never realized it until now, but she’d always start to look uncomfortable once I started talking about my babies and what I’d do with them once they were all better.”

“That’s right,” Twilight reminded herself. “I’ve made the assertion that all of this fear and compulsion to exclude Zecora was based on cultural misunderstandings. Although I hadn’t expected the truth to be this,” she shuddered, “terrible, I still have an obligation to the spirit of scientific inquiry to see this through to the end. So far all I’ve gotten are second hoof accounts. I need a statement directly from the subject in question to dispel any lingering doubts that I am right and all of you guys are just being silly. After that… maybe we can sell her into slavery or something. Whatever it takes to get her out of town.”

Author's Note

I had been hesitant to write Zecora for a long while, knowing my inability to rhyme would always be a hindrance. So, as I started writing, just to see what would happen, I decided to just drop the rhyming and see where the story took me from there. It’s turning out well so far, with our first encounter with another culture and the ponies’ reactions.

In the show, it really was nonsensical for 5 of the 6 to be so afraid of a stranger after the literal monsters they’d fought, but I’m pleased with the rationalization I came up with. Cultural misunderstandings and skittish ponies. I’m also borrowing a little from the now defunct Mentally Advanced Series, along with a few other references here and there. We’ll see how that plays out.

Tier 1: None at this time
Tier 2: Jake Nelson and Magetsu
Tier 3: Drake565