//------------------------------// // Chapter 12 (Bridle Gossip) // Story: My Little Pony: Friendships are Magic // by professor space n time //------------------------------// "So let me get this straight, all of the town locks themselves in their houses each time this Zecora comes into town just because they think she's and evil enchantress with no actual proof?" Asked Amara. "But we have proofs!" said Pinkie. "Saying she does normal things like eating hay and walking on an 'evil' way isn't proof of anything, no, wait, it does proof something. You all are a bunch of paranoids!" Amara said. "We're not." grumbled Rarity "If she means no harm why does she always come to roam the town in that way, why does she dig holes on the ground and what's with those horrible, horrible stripes!" Amara stared into her with disbelief "Ok, I-I don't even-, I don't even know where to start. First of all, are you all dense? she roams the city maybe because every store and building is closed and she's tries to find a place that's open, even the Hospital is closed, which is a very serious crime by the way, so what if she gets hurt and comes into town, will you leave her to bleed out on the middle of the street? Second of all, digging holes has nothing to do with her being evil, fillys dig holes with no reason, and if it was related to something sinister, why do it in the middle of the street of a town? if your into some big scheme you would probably keep it secret. Third and most important what you said about her stripes is pretty racist, that mare is a zebra, she was born like that and she deserves the same amount of respect as everyone of us." "A zebra?" Asked the girls unison, Twilight and Amara looked at each other and shaked their heads. "Zebras have one the biggest and most rich cultures on the planet, they exist as a singular tribe subdivided by multiple different beliefs and traditions, all unified by an attitude of camaraderie and their shared belief that all life is important and connected, they care for each other and as they can't use magic they have developed advanced shamanic techniques and medicine, their country, Zebraica is home to some of the most complex and diverse ecosystems, they export fruits, fabrics, silk, and are one of the main producers of coffee, apart from Coltombia, they also are producers of cocoa." Twilight recited in a formal tone. "Thanks Twily. I have met many zebras in my life, good people, very kind, caring and emotional, when I first visited them they recieved me not as an outsider or a superior but as if I was one of them, part of the tribe, a pity that it was such a short visit." "Ya' may be right about some things, but that doesn't mean that she's an angel." Applejack replied. "Neither am I, neither are you, neither anyone, well maybe Fluttershy could get that title." Fluttershy hid her face between her hair as she blushed. "Look I know that you're scared, it's normal to be scared about the new and unknown at first glance, it's one of the primal instincts of preservation that have kept most species alive, but we're not wild animals, it isn't right to hide here and ignore the mare that's out there like she was some dangerous beast, and what you're doing is worst than that you are judging unfounded and slandering that poor mare, if the non-biased things that you say are true the poor thing may not have had contact with anypony in years, can you imagine that kind of loneliness? these visits may be the only form of socialization she has, maybe after this she goes back to the Everfree to spend the night cold and afraid of the creatures that lurk there, or maybe not, but that's not the point, the point is that you can't judge the book by its cover, and in your case you haven't even gotten a good look at the cover, you judge the book just by looking at the window of the shop across the street." Amara turned around and started walking towards the door. "Where do you think you're going?!" Asked Rainbow. "I'm going to talk with Zecora and see if I can help her with whatever she needs." "You can't do that!" yelled rainbow. "Oh really? and who's gonna stop me?" Amara glanced at everyone on the room except Twilight, Fluttershy and Apple Bloom. No pony made a move, Amara turned around once more and walked outside. As she walked down the street towards the hooded mare she had a realization, she was proyecting two shadows, Amara stopped for a moment and stared to the two dark copies of her holey silhouette trying to guess which was hers and wich was her, she turned her head around to find most of the girls staring at her, Amara gulped and restarted her walk, she had something to do right now. "Excuse me ma'am, do you need any help?" The mare turned around and took off her hood, she had a squared off muzzle, dull blue eyes that lacked eyelashes, beautiful light and dark grey hair, her neck was surrounded by five golden dzilla neck rings, she also had two big golden earrings. The two mares just stared at each other for a moment "Hello, my name is Amara, wellcome to Ponyville." Amara offered her left hoof, which Zecora shook and then gave her a hug. "Mwei batiha obe lenoru." Zecora said with a smile on her face. Amara chuckled nervously "Please give me a second, my farasi is somewhat outdated, uh. . . Odal ilowa ho bai, malaler a'ai?" Zecora chuckled "Not bad. Meeting you does make me very glad, my name is Zecora." "It's also a pleasure Zecora, and about what I asked earlier, can I help you with anything?" Amara asked kindly. "Why I'm glad you're asking, I'm in search of one most peculiar herb, but everything is closed and everypony is disperse." Zecora said. "Ther's a store down the market street with a big orange sign they might have what you need." Amara commented. "Yes, I've seen it, but it's always closed down no matter when I come to town." Zecora replied shrugging. "Oh, this was the part of this conversation I feared reaching." Zecora looked at her confused, tilting her head to the right. "You see, the reason for everything being closed and everypony hiding is. . . you." Zecora's confusion became deeper "W-What? But what would I have to do with that?" "Well, everypony here thinks you're an evil enchantress, that you will hypnotize the first pony you find and then take them to the depts of Everfree forest and will cook them on a cauldron and eat them for dinner." Zecora bursted out laughing for several minutes until she saw Amaras ashamed and awkward expression "Wait, you're serious? how can they think that of a stranger? I am in no way a danger." "Ask them I was just walking down to buy some cookies and got dragged into Sugarcube Corner by my friends, talking about that. Twilight! please, could you come out here for a moment ?" the purple mare peeked out of the window and then came out of the building while dragging Pinkie Pie that was clunched to one of her back legs trying to prevent her from leaving. "Hello, you must be Zecora. Can I help you with anything?" "Twilight do me a favor, take miss Zecora to the herbalist's shop and force them to attend you two no matter what." "And what about you?" asked Twilight. "I'll go an talk to the mayor, because this is all outrageous! and illegal, very illegal. Also talk the girls and spike after Zecora gets the her she needs and try to make the talk to her and apologize." Amara turned around and headed towards the town hall. Twilight banged on the glass door and waited for an answer, she could see a stallion peek around the counter only to hide again when she saw the two of them. Twilight knocked again and again there was no answer, Twilight then opened the door. "You can't come in here!" the stallion screamed alarmed jumping into his hooves. "The door is open and the sign hanging from it says it's open, so I think we can get in here." Twilight said, the staliion din't seem less agressive "Relax, she just wants some herbs and then she'll be on her way." The stallion sighed ". . . ok, but be quick." Zecora quickly took three small pouches and filled them with some strange dry leaves of yellowish color that emanated a strong aroma of ash and sugar, she then put it in the counter next to some golden coins with a red crystal on the center. The stallion weighed the herbs and then took the coins, but stopped before putting them on the register "Wait, these aren't bits." "Indeed, they are the money of my tribe, the only savings that I have. Hope they are enough to pay the herbs I wish to buy today." The stallion stared at the coins for another pair of seconds and then shrugged, he put the coins in the register and gave Zecora five bits back as change. The two mares turned around and walked to the door and before it closed they heard the stallion say in a sincere tone "Have a good day you two!" Zecora had a smile imprinted on her face as they walked their way back to Sugarcube Corner. "what do you mean by 'I don't control this kind of things'? you're the mayor, your work is to keep order in this town." Asked Amara with a mix of confusion and anger. "What am I supposed to do? I can't force them to come out of their houses and talk to that zebra." Said the mayor with raised eyebrow and monotonous but strong tone, she was sitting at her desk, eyes darting between Amara and the documents she had to sign. "Yes, you can't, because that's not how you should do your work. What you should have done long ago was a town meeting in which you could talk about the problem, maybe invite Zecora so she could tell her story and voila! Problem solved." "Do you really thing that they would have dismissed so easily a rumour they themselves started." "With a figure of autority explaining it yeah, a pony is intelligent the mass is dumb, that's why they believe it on the first place. Somepony started the idea, maybe as a joke, maybe as a thought maybe some scared foal that saw Zecora working and missinterpreted it, doesn't matter. The rumour started to spread and as it travelled from mouth to mouth people's line of thought was 'if so many people talk about it and believe it, it must be true' and during the years it took for the whole town to convince each other to the level of hiding locked up in their homes when Zecora comes to town you did nothing." "I. . . I. . . oh my gosh. You're going to remove me from office, aren't you?" "For this? nah, although this situation is badly handled I can know that you didn't mean it, your emotions tell me so." "Oh Celestia i was scared for a second." "Not so quick miss Mare, I just said I wouldn't remove you for the thing with Zecora, not that I wouldn't remove you from office." "What?" she asked scared and nervous. "Both the hospital and police station are closed, pretty illegal, why do you allow it?" "Well, as everypony is locked up at home there aren't any crimes when Zecora is in town, the same with medic incidents, and the staff insists on locking themselves up, so-" "That's no excuse, you're the authority, you must follow the law and make sure everypony else does." Amara stared at her in such an intimidating way that the mayor was frozen by fear on her seat "but, I wont remove you, not yet, if I do I'll have to issue a lot of paperwork and help on new elections, which wouldn't be a problem if-" suddenly the lights flickered, Amara quickly and violently turned around to make sure her 'shadow' was stil on its place. The mayor, still frozen by fear didn't make any questions. "-if i didn't have a big problem right now that requires all of my time." "B-Big problem?" "Nothing that concerns you, what does concern you is that if you commit another of this errors you'll leave this office with a box full of your things as soon as I find out. Goodbye." Amara lit up her horn and dissapeared in a flash. She opened her eyes on Sugarcube corner finding the place fully decorated and full of ponies, the voices and emotions of many others flooding outside. Pinkie jumped in front of her and started rambling about how she had made that party for Zecora because she never got a 'Welcome to ponyville party', Amara ignored most of what she said as she smiled and delighted on the taste of the happiness coming out of the smiling zebra on the center of the room that was talking to the rest of her friends and some other ponies.