Bridle Gossip

Dear Princess Luna..

Since I'm so close, I was trying to do two a night and all.. another night where I may be lucky to just get this done. Was going to work on it a few hours ago, boom, headache, fell asleep watching Family Guy, woke up watching the same episode of Family Guy, hours later. Headache still here but not as bad as earlier, so I'll try to persevere.

Also, as part of my 'endgame' plans, I think I'm going to use all the things I've learned to compose a farcical piece about an ancient battle in the Ponyverse, mixing my long love with various wars with my new-found affection for the Ponyverse. =]

Anyways, we begin with Twilight wandering through a ghost town version of Ponyville, complete with tumbleweeds. Ponies shut their windows and drag their kids inside as Twilight approaches. Pinkie eventually calls her into the Cake's bakery, where all the other 'mane 6' are gathered. Pinkie says they are hiding from 'her' and points to what we know is Zecora. The others get scared and Twilight doesn't see what the big deal is.

You weak minded fools! She's using an old Jedi mind trick.

Twilight tells them she saw Zecora glance that way, and they all flipped out for 'no reason.' Applejack gets upset and apparently thinks Zecora eats little kid ponies, as she defends her fear and prejudice as being that she was just saving Applebloom. Applebloom says she didn't need saving, and implies Applejack is embellishing the details.

"Uh, I walked her on my own, big sis, and you were the one bawlin' because Zecora was comin', not me!"

Zecora pulls back her hood, revealing her stripes. Twilight identifies her as a zebra, Rarity calls her stripes 'garish' then faints when Twilight says zebras are born that way. Applejack wonders where Zecora was born, saying she's the only zebra around Ponyville. Twilight says they live in some faraway land and asks where Zecora lives. As we know, it's the Everfree Forest, and Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash are freaked out because in the Forest, the plants grow on their own, animals take care of themselves, and clouds move on their own. Rarity faints again. Twilight is not impressed with her friends' racism.

"No wonder we Canterlot ponies consider Ponyvillians to be hillbillies..."

Pinkie Pie hates her so much she wrote some song about Zecora. Applejack is shaking in terror as Pinkie sings.

She's an evil enchantress

She does evil dances

And if you look deep in her eyes

She'll put you in trances

Then what will she do?

She'll mix up an evil brew

Then she'll gobble you up

In a big tasty stew

Soooo.... Watch out!

Twilight is still not convinced Zecora is some evil entity, and asks them what crimes Zecora has actually done. Rainbow says once a month she comes into town, Rarity says she then lurks by the stores, and Fluttershy says she then digs at the ground.

"Oh, no, Rarity! She," *shudder* "w-window shops????"

Twilight is definitely not convinced, and Applebloom also joins her in trying to defend Zecora. Applejack pisses off her litle sister by telling her to 'let the big ponies talk.' Applebloom sulks off into the corner, then sets off to talk to Zecora after Twilight tells her friends if they were brave enough, they would have already talked to Zecora and found out what her deal is.

Applebloom's bravado is short lived, as she panics at seeing Zecora, but still is brave enough to follow after Zecora. Twilight is still arguing with her friends and Applejack finally sees Applebloom is gone, and they panic and set out after her. Applebloom follows Zecora into the Everfree Forest, but her sister and co. catch up to her. Zecora turns, and tells them to: "Beware! Beware, you pony folk! Those leaves of blue are not a joke!" Every pony sans Twilight and Applebloom starts yelling 'Oh, yeah?! So's your old man!' style comments at Zecora.

"Beware? You're gonna 'beware' my hoof upside your jaw!"

Twilight is still not convinced, and we see them all gleefully playing in blue leafed plants. Twilight explains that curses aren't real, "My magic, real magic, comes from within. It's a skill you're born with. Curses are artificial, fake magic. It's conjured with potions and incantations; all smoke and mirrors meant to scare. But curses have no real power, they're just an old pony tale." As she's talking, Rainbow is mocking her, and Applejack says Twilight will get what's coming to her, and not to dismiss 'old pony tales.'

"You guys don't even know magic... Come on, Rarity, back me up on this, magic is super special, curses are just parlor tricks! I mean, they're real, but also fake!"

That night, Twilight has restless sleep, haunted by her friends' racism towards Zecora.

Aww.

Twilight wakes up and walks over to the mirror, joking that maybe Zecora cursed her hair and starts brushing it. She then sees her horn is floppy and has blue dots.

+1 for unicorns, easier maintenance for their hair.

Twilight is of course freaked out. She goes through a ton of books trying to find a cure and finds nothing. Spike suggests something from a book called Supernaturals and Twilight goes off about curses not being real, and supernatural meaning 'hooey' like ghosts and zombies. Spike is a little upset, since he was just trying to help his master/friend and got yelled at for daring to suggest curses are real.

"I hope no one I know from Canterlot sees this, I'll never hear the end of it."

Pinkie enters with her tongue swollen and covered in blue dots. Rainbow tries to fly in, constantly smashing into the window, nearly breaking the wall, then finally smashing through the door. Rarity also arrives, her mane and coat are all curly and crazy looking. Applejack is shrunk, smaller than Applebloom (who doesn't seem to have been affected), and Fluttershy silently says she's been cursed.

Like Rainbow needs to be 'cursed' to crash into things..

 Fluttershy refuses to tell them what is wrong, but finally says she doesn't want to talk about it, with a very deep and masculine sounding voice.

Did they just alter the normal actress' voice for this, or get someone else to be 'Flutterguy?'

Spike is having the time of his life and starts laughing and mocking them.

Hairity.

Rainbow Crash.

Spitty Pie.

Apple Teeny.

Flutterguy.

The only one spared his insults is Twilight Sparkle, probably because he knows she would slam him against the walls if he mocks her poor horn. Twilight orders Spike to start looking for a cure, and gets angry when her friends call their predicament the result of a curse or hex. Rainbow and Applejack want them to go to Zecora's and force her to remove it, and they all start bickering.

Unfortunately, Twilight doesn't punish Spike in her usual, wall-flinging, fashion.

Applebloom thinks this is all her fault for following Zecora, and sets off to make things right. Applejack sees her leaving and leaps into her tail hair. The others notice Applejack is gone, and freak out, thinking they accidentally killed her by stepping or sitting on her, or that she's in Rarity's hair. Twilight notices Applebloom is gone too and figures they left to go find Zecora. They head out after her, and Spike stays behind to 'find a cure' although it looks like he was writing down his mockeries of them, as he is looking at a book with pony images, has a quill in hand, and suddenly comes up with Twilight Flopple.

"I don't remember sitting down, but what if I did? Oh, Applejack!"

Applebloom boldly charges into the Forest, and Applejack pops out to order her to stop. Applebloom strands her on a branch and continues on.

"I'm tellin' Big Mac on you! Well, I would, except I'd die trying to get to him."

The rest of the 'mane 6' arrive, Rarity trips on her hair and gets covered in dirt and debris. Rainbow is going out of control and smashes through the tree Applejack was on, and somehow ends up with her in her mouth. Applejack climbs out and fashions a bit and bridle for Rainbow and rides her, with mixed results as Rainbow of course can't fly correctly.

Applejack living out her lifelong dreams of riding the Rainbow.

The others reach Zecora's and spy on her through a window. They see her mixing something in a cauldron and speaking in a zebra/shaman dialect. Pinkie claims this somehow sounds like her 'Evil Enchantress' song and begs Fluttershy to sing it. She does so, scowling.  Twilight starts to think her friends may be right about Zecora, but she could just be making soup.

"Any complaints this morning? Who would complain? Not we! What's the matter with lumps of onion floating around your tea?"

Zecora tastes the mixture in the cauldron and says outloud its the 'perfect temperature' for ponies she presumes, and wonders where is Applebloom. Twilight freaks out, thinking she is making Applebloom soup.

"My books never said anything about zebras eating ponies, I hope this is all a misunderstanding so I don't have to apologize to my friends for doubting them earlier..."

Applejack gets Rainbow under control, for a bit, and smashes through the front door. Rainbow goes out of control and starts trashing Zecora's home by crashing into everything. Zecora starts yelling in her foreign tongue. Rainbow completes her out of control rampage by knocking over the cauldron. Twilight is pissed and claims the evidence has added up towards Zecora having cursed them.

"You morons barge in here, trashing my home in your fear?"

Zecora is not amused that they just trashed her home, ruined the brew she was making, and now are accusing her of being a 'jerk.' Applebloom arrives, and she and Zecora laugh at Twilight, who now believes in curses and that Zecora is evil. Applebloom and Zecora work to explain what is really going on. The blue flowers from earlier are 'poison joke,' the 'strange chanting' was supposedly a nursery rhyme in a language from olden times, the 'creepy decor' witch doctor masks are treasures from Zecora's homeland that speak 'hello' and 'welcome', and the cauldron was for the poison joke cure, all you need to do is take a bubblebath.

"A bath. Really? A bath was all we needed? So none of my friends took a bath today, that's... disconcerting."

Twilight wonders what book this cure is in since she couldn't find it, and to her horror, it is in Supernaturals. She explains she was too arrogant to look in the book, where inside the full title is Supernaturals: Natural remedies and cure-alls that are simply super.

"Wow, not only did I just make myself look like an ass, I now will have to deal with Spike acting up if he finds out about this..."

Twilight apologizes for her behaving like, well, Twilight, by not reading the book, which led to Zecora's home being trashed. Zecora says maybe next time she'll take a second look, and not judge the cover of the book. Twilight asks Zecora if she will make them another bath, she says she will, but needs an herb from Ponyville, and Applebloom says whenever Zecora visits all the shops are 'mysteriously' closed. Twilight says they can help with that.

The ponies at the flower/herb(?) shop freak out when they see Zecora coming and assume she cursed Twilight and co. Twilight knocks on their door and tells them they need to talk. We then see them at the spa, where they are all taking a bath together and get de-'cursed' as Twilight narrates her letter to Princess Celestia. Twilight says her friends and herself learned not to judge a book by its cover, even if someone looks unusual you should learn who the are on the inside, real friends shouldn't care what your 'cover' is and its the 'contents' that count, and a good friend, like a good book, is something that lasts forever.

They notice Applejack is gone, and freak out again, thinking she might be dead. Applejack hollers that she's fine, and back to normal, she was just in a little bucket-bubblebath of her own. The Spa pony asks Zecora for the bath recipe. Pinkie starts rapidly talking about how terrible it was being unable to talk and asks Fluttershy if she agrees, she says yes, in her normal voice, and the episode ends with them all laughing.

"Note to self: stock up on poison joke for future anti-Pinkie usage."

What I learned from this episode:

• Think how sad this must have been for Zecora, for months she had been coming to Ponyville  to buy supplies, and every time would find herself in a ghost town with ponies staring at her in terror from the windows. Not even Pinkie Pie, who claims to want to be everyone's friend, gave her a chance, instead helping spread rumors about her being an evil enchantress cannibal.
• Twilight went from calm and rational to just as crazy as her friends, all because her horn was floppy and spotted (pretty much aesthetics only, but understandable since it's a pretty big part of who she is) and she assumed Pinkie Pie's song had some factual basis in Zecora eating ponies. Applejack, Pinkie, and Rainbow clearly had the worst things done to them as they would have been forever affected by it, as Rarity just needed to get groomed, Twilight was still able to do magic (although maybe not as well as usual, we did see her using it to brush her hair though) and Fluttershy would just have a really awkward voice.
• The bit early in the episode about why the Everfree Forest was bad was interesting, as it suggests that almost anywhere else in the world the plants need ponies to grow them, the animals can't take care of themselves, and the weather requires full on pegasi intervention in order to operate.