The hooded zebra led me down a hidden path away from the middle of the town. More towards the outskirts where many a field was located. It was quiet, and almost isolated from the chaos among the flowers and other plants here.
“...Are you ready to see the truth?” he asked.
I nodded my head. It was now or never. “I didn’t go through all of this just to give up and quit now. Show me what you want me to see.”
With a wave of his hoof, the zebra scattered a powdery substance into the air. From that, I was able to see a holographic recording of...wait. Was that…?
It was a monochrome memory. Sets of them to be exact. The first one displayed the history of the landscape. Pony explorers traveled from all over to visit this land and exchange their knowledge for goods and services.
“Do you know of this, young Drive?” the zebra asked.
“I do, in fact. The transcontinental exploration had taken place over the course of the last one-hundred years. It was how me mum and dad met. She’s a unicorn from Trottingham--an explorer herself.”
Naturally, as ponies and zebras started to come into greater contact with one another, crossbreeding was inevitable. Soon, there was an entire flourishing generation of halfbreeds. Pony-zebra hybrids that had the magical abilities of both races. It seemed like a beautiful thing, right?
Well…
“That’s when things got bad,” the leader added as the memories changed.
It displayed many purebred zebras that had become envious of the halfbreeds. Those who had the abilities of both species combined into one? It was downright mental! To them, it was a threat to their own safety.
So they formed a council about fifty years ago. A roundtable of sorts. South Zebricans agreed that halfbreeds or “halfers” were too powerful and would eventually conspire against them at some point in the future. To avoid taking any semblance of risk, they struck by night. They rounded up each and every single pony-zebra hybrid, and put them in captivity.
Before any of the regular zebras became aware of what had happened, they were all fed lies and misinformation about how they had abused their magic for personal gain. In ways such as committing theft, arson, and foalnapping. The South Zebricans were--understandably--put off by this and they all rallied against the halfbreeds.
In the end, they were all subjugated and forced into slavery under the Zebras of this region. Forced to work long, unrelenting hours. They toiled away in fields: Essentially forced to work on farms for what seemed like forever. No matter the conditions. Scorched heat, frozen temps--they didn’t care. Why? Because they knew that pony-zebra hybrids could withstand the elements better than they could. Sadly, it didn’t stop them from catching the occasional cold. To which they simply used another in their place until they were healed.
Next, those who spoke out against the leaders of South Zebrica were put into dungeons. The very same ones that I had seen before. Some were even left to die and made out to be an example for others to follow. No sympathy whatsoever.
But lastly, and probably most importantly, the true reason behind all of this: To extract halfbreed DNA to bring back the Father of All Monsters Grogar himself.
Their children, children’s children, and all relatives were born directly into this system that kept them down with no way of escape.
And there I was, able to witness it all.
“...I see. So this explains it all,” I turned to look at the zebra cult leader, “The attack on me friends. The various monsters like Leviathans and Mimics poppin’ up. All so you could bring back some arsehole bastard that’s supposed to be dead?!”
The zebra finally revealed his face. A burned, scarred mug with both of his eyes permanently shut. “...It’s too late for us. The ritual is almost complete. Zecora and her folks from Farasi have taken this land back fair and square. By now, I can already foresee most of our own troops falling.”
My body tensed up, and I almost gagged. It took me a moment to spit out exactly what I wanted to say because of the sheer disgust that welled up within me. “W….wait...wait a minute what?!” I stomped my hoof and took a step towards him. “You mean to tell me that you knew we’d be here to take you all down?! Is that why you’re so...uncaring right now?!”
No response whatsoever. Instead, the zebra started to trot backwards through the field. “...You catch on fairly quickly. But as I said, my time is up. You must follow the path you have set for yourself, Flash Drive. This land...and all of Equestria will bend to the will of the victor…”
SWOOSH!
“WAIT--” I shouted, but it was too late. With a violent gust of wind and a flash of light, the zebra completely disappeared. As if he had called upon souls from Tartarus itself to take him away.
No...that couldn’t possibly be the case...could it?
Moments later, I heard violent, thunderous hoofsteps approach from behind me. Followed by an exasperated amount of breath.
“There you are. We need to talk, now.”
Damn. How did she manage to get all the way out here?