//------------------------------//
// part 2 
// Story: My little Zebra 
// by Uncle Knot 
//------------------------------//

To my most excellent and admirable Princess Celestia, my 10,354th letter in the 862nd YR

How do I sum up the life of my little zebra, from the time I adopted her on a dragon egg quest to the day she was returned to her tribe.  She tortured me with her incessant questioning until I taught her to think before talking by insisting on speaking in rhyme.  It became a game for us, and it brought us much joy.  Yet it was a game she was unwilling to let go of and how she berated me for falling out of sync.  

I still remember the day she got her cutie mark, and how it embarrassed her that I didn’t have one.  I had to take her out to Fillydelphia to show her that most ponies do have cutie marks.  Finally at ease with her cutie mark, she wanted to know its significance.  But what really bothered her was an inner longing to return to her homeland.  

I did not know this at first, and please note it was always my insistence that someday she would go back to her homeland.  To quell her agitation, I used magic to build her a home in the Everfree forest.  She had always disliked the brightness of Star Swirl’s house and did express a desire for her own place.  She was happy at first, but wanted to furnish it with her own stuff.

What do I know of what a little zebra would want?  

So, after contacting Halter Zeppelin again, we set out on another expedition to the land of the Selous tribe.  Halter had a bigger air ship this time, so our journey was a lot more comfortable.  We were also joined by Bits Riddenbucker, a pegasus of exceptional aerobatic skills, who provided us with scouting on our long journey.

Bits Riddenbucker ambitions included some type of air circus.  This has some merit and I am happy we are pursuing this.  But what I didn’t like about him was the way he looked at Zecora, or even worse, the way she looked at him.  Halter chided me for my jealously, and admittedly so.  I started to see that my little Zecora was growing up, and I was out of step.  

I did not know how out of step I was until after we linked up with the Selous zebra tribe.  They were outraged that I had not married Zecora off, before she had gotten a cutie mark.  Apparently this is their practice, for cutie marks are not seen here as a good thing.  Yet her knowledge of healing potions for teeth so impressed that she quickly won them over for the loss of teeth is seen as the first step toward death.

This knowledge made her the most eligible mare, and she was pursued by many.  Bits rose to all challenges, and was made an official member of the tribe, but he didn’t win Zecora’s heart.  She fell for another, the younger brother of the chief of the Selous tribe.  I feel confident that her future is here and left her with strong warnings to do her very best.

It was a very difficult thing to let my little zebra go.  The tribe gave me many interesting masks to take home with me.  I wanted to burn them, but Halter convinced me to put them into Zecora’s now abandoned home in the Everfree forest.

Sincerely, with all my humor, honesty, kindness, generosity, and loyalty, Sum-po-neigh Knot Yew.