Preview of the Next Story Arc of Be Human · 7:42am Jan 12th, 2013
Zadi absolutely hated this. She hated everything about this place. It was part of the reason why she took the chance to attend a college on Human-Earth when she got a chance. Because of all this crap.
Quaggaton. Ah, beautiful Quaggaton, the Jewel of the Southeastern Continent. Reputedly the cradle of civilization and the place from which the first alicorns sprung into existence before they moved across the Ethopic Ocean to the Northwestern Continent. The first university was said to have been built in Quaggaton. The Carta Manula, one of the most important documents in all of Alter-Earth, had been signed just north of the city. The ci—
Oh, who was she kidding? Quaggaton was a shithole that she was lucky had somehow managed to master indoor plumbing. If after twenty years human technology was still unavailable in large swaths of Equestria, it was magnitudes worse for Quaggaton, capital of Zebrababwe, the largest of the five nations on the Southeastern continent. Someone had once uncharitably compared the continent with Africa, but there was a key difference: people in Africa knew what an Aeu’ayra-damned phone was. And as she looked at the streets of an adobe-and-stucco “city”, she was deathly afraid she was going to get some infectious disease by staring at this shit much longer.
And the sad part is? I’m technically from this shithole. Zadi ni’Zecora, granddaughter of the Ambassador to Equestria. She’d been born and raised in Canterlot, and though technically a Zebrababwean citizen because of her bloodline, was also Equestriani due to birth laws there. Then, when her mother had become the Zebrababwean Deputy Ambassador to the United States, she jumped at the chance to study abroad. She never went back; the human world was so enticing that combined with being practically the only zebra not attached to the government on Human-Earth ensured a lot of doors were opened for her. She applied for, and got her US citizenship and a cushy job working for Amnesty International covering some of the potential issues that arose in human/non-human relations. And there was plenty of that to deal with.
But now, for the first time in her life, she found herself in the land of which she was supposedly a citizen by birth, a mere accident because of her relation to the Equestriani ambassador. Zebrababwean by blood, Equestriani by birth, and American by choice. So guess which one she wanted to ditch? And the truth was, she was very much about to, until the letter from her grandmother.
What I wouldn’t do to be in my apartment in Arlington right now. Maybe if she went back, there’d be time to make up with Jason. Maybe he’d come back and say leaving was just a mistake. Maybe he’d wa…. Zadi laughed bitterly at that last one. She was a wreck when it came to relationships. None of them had ever lasted save for Carlos, and she chose to end that one…only to find he would have been the one who stayed, especially since he ended up marrying her best friend, Bree. But Jason wasn’t coming back, just like Nick before him, or Alex before him, or Kyle before that, or….
She didn’t need to be here. She didn’t want to be here, in a land she technically belonged to but didn’t want a part of, in a land that needed to have a King that would at least plan to join the 20th Century sometime before the 22nd arrived on Human-Earth, in a land whose biggest exports were dust storms and knick-knacks that ended up in overpriced import stores like Pier One. In fact, the only reason she was in this shitbag of a nation was because of…
“Zadi, dear, what a surprise! My granddaughter, before my eyes! I’ve missed you so, my dear, dear heart, and for too long we’ve been apart.” An aged zebra mare, walking on all fours approached her. Despite her age, she held herself well and dressed in the finery of formal Zebrababwean attire, Zecora ni’Zadra went over and hugged her granddaughter. “Wengi baraka na wewe, mtoto wa punda, mtoto wangu,” Zecora said in the ancient Zebrababwean Swahili language a tongue Zadi noted had been used until someone in this shithole of a country decided that looking like backwards idiots wouldn’t do well on the modern stage.
Zadi sighed; it was going to be a long, long, long week. “Hello, Bibi,” she said, returning the hug.
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Now its time for a Zebracan story, with Zecora in it. I smell voodoo enlightenment in the future!
No matter how bad the Zebrababwean king is, he can't be worse than the ruler of its human-earth namesake.
Ouch, from the sounds of it that country needs to get into the 19th century, never mind the 20th.
Also, here's a question, it was established in the very first chapter of Be Human that Equestria does citizenship by bloodline and/or ethnicity, so how did Zadi become an Equestrian citizen by birth?
705308
It was conjectured by Twilight that Equestria is jus sanguis; she doesn't have that authority to declare it. Contrarywise, Zadi might be conjecturing that Equestria is jus soli (which, for a lawyer, is kinda odd, admittedly.) It's a moot argument anyway; she naturalized in the US and probably has no intent to move back to Alter-Earth.
For the record, Equestria is jus sanguinis.
705324
Ah, I see. I was just implying that Zadi's mother may have gone against tradition somewhat by marrying a pony, or that Celestia may have pulled some strings for her star-crossed lover's descendants.
705341
That is entirely possible as well.
705345
Also possible is that Zecora gained citizenship for herself and her decendants as a reward for some feat of heroics back during the FiM-era.