Chapter Six - A Pony, a Zebra, and a Ghost Walk Into a Forest
The morning was an eventful one.
The sun rose on time, shining its bright light over the hamlet of Ponyville. Ponies awoke in their beds, the last vestiges of their pleasant dreams fading quickly from their memory. Ditzy Doo crashed into her mailbox as she left her home.
Yes, it was an ordinary morning in Ponyville. The inhabitants of Twilight’s castle, however, were not having an ordinary morning. It had all started when Twilight’s alarm shrieked out its daily cacophony.
Two minutes before the clock struck seven, Starswirl floated up through the floor of Twilight’s bedroom. Normally he would not have intruded on a young mare’s privacy, but he was a ghost now. Ghosts intruded on bedrooms all the time. Usually with the intent of terrifying their occupants to the brink of insanity, true, but that’s beside the point. Starswirl believed the social etiquette relating to the privacy of bedrooms to not apply to ghosts.
Floating up into Twilight’s bedroom was his first mistake.
The reason Starswirl had floated up here was a simple one- he was bored. As a ghost, he wasn’t capable of sleeping, so had the entire night to fill. Unable to interact with the world, he had quickly grown bored. When the sun rose, he had finally had enough of it and quickly went to go awaken Twilight in the hopes that she would provide some entertainment.
He had passed his hooves through her in an attempt to wake her up, but it failed to produce the desired result. She had merely shivered and pulled the blankets tighter around herself.
When that failed, he attempted a ghostly classic- moaning. His ghostly moans echoed ominously throughout the room, their eerie quality surprising him.
When that had failed, he gave up on the idea of waking Twilight and resigned himself to a few more hours of boredom. He sat in the corner, attempting to come up with something to do until Twilight woke up.
Staying in the room was his second mistake.
The alarm clock went off. Starswirl, having never encountered an alarm clock, screamed in fright. The sound of her alarm mixed with the sound of a stallion’s screams woke Twilight up immediately.
Twilight, still with the fog of sleep shrouding her mind, was confused as to why an elderly stallion was screaming in her bedroom. Frightened, she started to scream as well.
Downstairs, Spike screamed from where they had left him the previous night.
Breakfast was awkward, for a few reasons. First and foremost, the morning’s incident was fresh on the minds of all involved, and everyone involved avoided speaking of it.
Secondly, Spike was unable to see Starswirl, and was skeptical about his existence. Each time Twilight spoke to the ghost, he wondered to himself whether or not she was unwell.
Thirdly, Starswirl was unable to eat any breakfast, due to his ghostly nature, and stared at Twilight with a jealous look as she finished her hay bacon.
“So, I was thinking today I would bring your journal with me as I went about my errands,” Twilight was saying between mouthfuls. “You should probably get to know the town if you’re going to be spending time here.”
Starswirl nodded in agreement, unable to tear his eyes away from the hay bacon.
“We might want to see about bringing you to Zecora, too. She might be able to do something to help you.”
Starswirl’s ears perked up. “Zecora? Now that’s a zebra name if I’ve ever heard one.”
“Do you know a lot about zebras? As far as I’m aware, there wasn’t much contact with them back when you were still... erm, alive.”
“I spent a year studying zebra magic in their homeland. An odd people, if you ask me. Still, it’s hard not to like the Stripes.”
Twilight sputtered and dropped her fork. She coughed a few times, trying to dislodge the piece of food that was stuck in her throat. “You... can’t say that word, these days, Starswirl,” she said when she composed herself.
“What word? Stripes?” Twilight nodded. “What should I call them, then? Bangles?”
“No!”
“Witches?”
“No!”
“Then what should I call them?! Sheesh!”
“Just call them zebras!”
“Surely we can still call them Skunks? Some of those potions they brew smell bad!”
Twilight facehooved.
“...I’m just saying, I don’t see how it’s offensive. We called them that all the time back in the day. No one complained.”
The two were walking through the Ponyville market. Well, Twilight was walking. The journal in her bag allowed Starswirl to float beside her.
Twilight was ignoring Starswirl as he ranted on about how things were back in his day. The subject matter was upsetting, to say the least, and she would look crazy if she tried talking to him in public. She kept her mouth shut.
Applejack’s stand was easily one of the most busy in the marketplace. A throng of ponies milled around it, hoping to get the freshest and ripest Sweet Apple Acres apples they could. Twilight still wasn’t sure why apples were so well-loved in Ponyville, even after all her time there.
She quickly made her way around the crowd, doing her best to avoid Applejack. She didn’t want to talk so soon after what happened last night.
They made it through the busy marketplace and emerged at the other side. The streets here were quieter and less busy.
“Does Zecora live in one of these houses?” Starswirl asked, gesturing to the nice houses on the side of the street.
“Zecora doesn’t live in town,” Twilight explained. “Her house is in the Everfree forest.”
“Ah, that nice forest that surrounds the capital? I spent a lot of time there in my youth. I used to explore and watch the forest grow with each passing season.”
“Um... the forest isn’t as nice as it once was.”
“Come now, it’s only been a thousand years. How bad could it be?”
Twilight bolted down the path, ducking under low-hanging tree branches and jumping over fallen logs as the manticore chased her through the woods.
“Faster!” shouted Starswirl. “Run faster, unless you want to end up like me!”
“I’m running as fast as I can, Starswirl!” she shouted back, agitated.
“Use those chicken wings of yours!”
“That’s racist, Starswirl!”
Twilight relaxed as the tea warmed her and soothed her tired muscles. “Thank you, Zecora,” she said to the zebra across from her.
Zecora smiled. “You are most welcome, dear Princess. I am happy you arrived without much duress. The Everfree seems darker of late. It is good you have not met a gruesome fate.”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked. “Has something been happening?”
As the two mares spoke, Starswirl was floating around the room, examining Zecora’s collection of herbs and potions. He recognized a few, yet most were completely unknown to him. He passed his hoof experimentally through a bottle of green dust, and it emerged out the other side with a green tint.
“The timber wolves howl longer this season than last. It troubles my sleep, as they go on long after the day is past. But before I continue, a question seems fair. Why is there a hoof floating in air? ”
Twilight followed Zecora’s eyes. Starswirl was looking at them, one hoof green and, Twilight assumed, visible to all.
“Starswirl, if you don’t know what it is, don’t touch it!”
He looked down, sheepish.
“I’m sorry, Zecora. This is why I came here. This is going to sound crazy, but... do you know anything about ghosts?”
Zecora took a sip of her tea. “Zebras have stories of many a ghost and ghast. However, I’ve never seen one in the past.”
“Oh, that’s a relief. Most of my friends already think I’m going crazy. I’m glad I have you on my side, at least.”
Zecora nodded.
“We were wondering if you’d be able to help us? See, he’s linked in some way to this book,” she removed the journal from her bag, “and we were wondering if you’d have any idea how to free him?”
Zecora shook her head. “I would love to help, good Twilight. But with ghosts, I know not what is right. ”
“It looks like we’re stuck with each other for the time being, Princess,” Starswirl said.
Twenty four hours ago, Twilight would have been thrilled. All she could manage now was a sigh.
“...Hurrah.”
As the pony, the zebra, and the ghost spent the afternoon drinking tea, a pony entered the woods north of Hoofington. He was dressed in winter gear, despite the warm summer weather, and had on his back a bag full of exploring tools.
He was one of the few adventurers who dared enter The Madmare’s Cage.
As he neared the Cage, he felt the air around him getting colder and colder. His winter clothing seemed to do nothing to block out the chill, and he shivered. He reached a point in the path where the snow began to fall, and stopped just short of entering. If he took one more step, whatever event that caused ponies to never return may happen to him.
He steeled his nerves and stepped forward. The snow started collecting on him as he walked, stopping briefly every few minutes to shake it off. It only got colder and more snowy as he got closer to the center of the kilometer-large circle of cold.
He stopped just a hundred metres from the center when he heard a voice. He looked around frantically, eyes surveying the snow for the source. He heard it again.
Come closer.
The voice wasn’t coming from around him, he realized, but from within him. He shook his head frantically, as though he could dislodge the offending thoughts from his mind. “Get out of my head!” he shouted into the sky.
We’re going to be best friends. Just come a little closer.
He did.
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YES! It's great!
This is awesome please update soon!
5656691
But... I just... updated ten minutes ago?
Please, give me time to write other stuff as well! You won't regret it.
So, did Clover swallow a Windigo or something?
5656701 I'd be more apt to say its exceedingly rood, given it is rather true that twilight seems to rarely use her wings if at all.
its seems meant as more of a crude remark then any possible attempt at seeing her as a lesser which given the time he grew up in seems extremely unlikely for those like him to alicorns.
5656806
I don't really like that definition. You don't have to have ill-intent for something you say to be racist. Whether you mean it in a bad way is irrelevant when you say things that are racist.
Wohoo! Forever stuck togther!
5656823 this is probable going into more political debates than most care for but, its been put in a spoiler should you wish to ignore and skip.
maybe but your classification would implicate many who's people have suffered and now use such marked terms as something more towards there friends.
simply defining it as its definition simplifies it and also have the benefit of making it less justifiably used to false extent to end/win arguments which sadly is an issue. To be rather blunt marking so much as racist allows it to be easily abused and could essentially make it a more of a "yeah sure" down the line, which sadly from much of what we see and hear now a day I fear is a disheartening prospect
5656902
If I'm understanding correctly, what you're saying in the spoilered area is that by calling such broad terms racist, it implicated those who've suffered in the past when they use terms others cannot? For example, the common usage of "nigga" in the modern vocabulary of so many people? No, that's not racist. African-Americans have suffered by the hands of people who used that word; they're simply reclaiming it. However, if I, a white person with no African heritage whatsoever, went around calling people that word, it would be racist, even if I was using it in the way they use it- as a word that shows closeness. I have no right to say it.
I don't think it would simply be 'rude' to say things that are offensive to others based on their race. By Starswirl calling Twilight's wings "chicken wings" (thereby calling Pegasi 'chickens'), he's insulting pegasus ponies, even though he doesn't mean it in an insulting way.
Really loved this chapter.
5656947 given that the word was used for offensive it would be correct, though you could also argue the opposite would be true as well (regardless if you are friends & mind)
I can see your reasoning but the use of chicken wings buts its seems a more individualized mark then a mark on race, more on twilights non-instictive use of a available option to help escape death then anything else. If it had been slandered on buildings of pegasus shops, homes or other it would be quite different then a dig at a potential foolishness in a life ending situation. this isnt a dig at the supperiority of alicorns or unicorns, its more a rude comment in her potential life and death event to her lack of conection with her flight side of her new pegasus heritage... as most would likely have atleast tried to fly rather than run.
(hmm you'd also think she'd try to teleport out of there either out of the forest or straight to zercora's would'nt you)
5657172
It had nothing to do with the fact she didn't instinctively use her wings. Obviously I didn't write this part well enough to convey this, but 'chicken' is a term for "pegasus" like 'Stripe' is for 'zebra'. "Why don't you use your chicken wings?' directly translates to "why don't you use your pegasus wings?"
My sides are in orbit.
5656707 i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/000/574/moar-cat.jpg
5657193 just didn't seem aggressive or intentionally hurtful, especially when he's worrying about if she's going to be mauled to death for me. it just reads more worried and irrated your potentially about to die, why aren't you using your wings, coming out as a more irrated dig by 1000 year or so old unicorn rather than intention slight on a person for there race or
heritage(heritage not quite applicable in this situation) after all he certainly didn't enjoy the afterlife to much.maybe a self serving thought about how this stupid flightless alicorn was probable going to get him stuck in the manticores stomach with her for the next 20 years... if his book survives that long? (are enchanted books by demons acid resistant... stands to reason they'd be fire resistant or proof)
5657292
Again, racism doesn't have to be intentional.
i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/413/624/8eb.jpg
5656739
"Clover eat a Snickers"
"Rrrauwrrrr?"
"Because you're a Windigo when you're hungry." *Hands Windigo a Snickers*
"Better?"
"Better."
*snorts*
old guys being racists. man, I never get tired of it.
5657679
Well, actually Starswirl isn't racist at all. Words like that change in their meaning. "Nigger" wasn't an insult a hundred years back. It was a pretty standard term. It only became one, once the situation changed and the word got tied to the old way to behave towards coloured people.
An even better example comes from the German language. Two centuries ago the normal word for "woman" was "Weib". Nowadays saying this word is closely tied to locking women in their traditional role, where they have to cook and obey their husband without questions. Todays normal translation for "woman", "Frau" was actually a title for an unmarried woman back then.
For Starswirl it could theoretically even be an insult to just call them zebra.
5657385 My thoughts exactly
5656947 5657292
Personally, as a black man, I honestly don't care if someone uses the word in the same way I do. It took some time for my white friends to get comfortable with the fact I make black-racist jokes and that they were free to do the same. The difference comes in at when someone, regardless of race, uses such words (any words, really) as an insult. It's not the word so much as the fact that I am being insulted, especially about something I can't help - as if they're putting themselves above me somehow to feed their limp ego. I have beaten a good number of asses over the years for this, but it all depends on context. For nigga, the word's pretty much become common lingo, or reclaimed as you astutely put it. You have to add other words to it to make it back into what it used to be. "Stupid nigger, black ass nigger." Etc. And then an ass-beating will commence. But just "Sup nigga?" is a friendly and endearing way to put it, showing suggested or mutually affirmed camaraderie.
So, while the word itself is not inherently racist, Starswirl did indeed mean it in a racist way, but without implied malice - simply that he's from an era when you used such terminology with people who were different, being mindless to the fact it was meant to constantly reaffirm their place beneath you. In short, Starswirl's just having an out-of-time culture shock. Still racist, just not intended to hurt. Trust me to know the difference, I've had to put up with stupid asses in white sheets already.
Let that be the end of it, a nigga has spoken.
Source: A happily colored man.
I remember the first and only time I did that with a mysterious voice. She took me... now I must obey the will of the Lady of Blood and Slaughter and plan the extermination of all mankind...
5658430
That pony's name is Alondro now, in your honour. It is canon!
5657214 The only Pegasus with chicken wings is Scootaloo.
... what in Sheogorath name happened to the cover art?
5656947 So when they call each other 'mutha fucka', that's also 'reclaiming' a term...
Sometimes, people make decisions based on rather dubious reasoning and certain aspects of 'culture' become self-defamatory.
It'd be like white people deciding to call each other 'honky' and 'cracker'.
5658432 DON'T DO IT!!!
SHE owns my name!
If you want to use it, you have to pay Her royalties (which I'll accept on Her behalf, of course)
5658568 aww I liked the previous one
5658758 sadly not ... well you could but the price is frankly far to high
When a ghost isn't the spookiest thing in a story, that means the story is really spooky. There might be a skeleton.
5659241
I forbid you from speaking about skellingtons! They are too spoopy and I'll have to raise the content rating to 'mature' if I let the comments get out of hand like that.
5659249
No, ur rong ther 3 spoopy. Should be matur already because of significant amounts of spook.
*Also thought you'd take that sort of like a troll comment, or a sign of disrespect, glad you didn't, i enjoyed the chapter.
5659317
Nah man, it's hard to insult me. You'd have to be really trying to insult me to get me offended, and even then I might not even realize. c:
I don't think princesses would let something like that to be near pony city.
5656947 I think a large part of the issue is you're using proper terms for the racial slurs. if you look at most racial or ethnic slurs they're some kind of corruption of a somewhat acceptable descriptive term, or a corruption of the name for their ethnicity. for the Polish, it's Polack, for black people nigger is a corruption of the work negro, meaning black in spanish, for the Japanese it was japs (or chinks, or zipperheads, both of those referring mostly to asians as a whole, but both insulting their almond shaped eyes) for Germans it's jerries (jerry), etc.
usually a racial slur is a corruption (or at least a malicious shortening or mispronunciation) of a descriptive term, not merely a term that could apply to some. sure, calling someone chicken-winged would be insulting if they had wings, but because chickens suck at flying even under the best of conditions. I could see calling zebras Stripes being insulting in the same way it would be insulting for me to call a black man a negro today, but I could also see calling one a "stripy" being the zebra version of the word nigger.
furthermore, the fact that you are struggling to come up with overtly racist terms (though the Stripes one works relatively well, but lacks the visceral oomph of a well-crafted insult, slur, or curse) tells me you haven't been exposed to all that much of it, which means that racism has at the very least been reduced in either severity or commonality (if not both) in your area.
I apologize for subjecting the readers of this comment to rather triggering words. I was merely using them as examples of real world racial and ethnic slurs for the author's reference, and their purpose in this comment is purely academic in intent.
5659348 Let me see if I can insult you...
Ahem- *Asshole mode engaged*
YOUR MOMMA's SO OLD, SHE MAKES DINOAURS LOOK YOUNG!
*Asshole mode disengaged*
How was that? I hope you don't need too much ointment for that burn...
Maybe it's just me but, I find it a little odd that Twilight hasn't contacted Celestia after finding a book that holds the ghost/spirit of one of the greatest unicorns in Equestria's history.
Just a shout out, like "hey found a book with racist old Starswirl's ghost in it. I'm gonna research more about it, but I thought I'd give you a heads up. Love Twilight".
I, am favouriting this work of lyrical art.
5656947 so does that make everyone who calls Scootaloo a chicken rasist?
5663394
Thanks! I'll fix that now!
Starswirl being racist made me laugh more than it should have.
Great updates!
5663460
Thank you! Comments like this always make me smile.
Well, every comment makes me smile, because I like attention, but these make me smile wider!
5663910
I knew it.
I love the interaction between Twilight and Starswirl over Zecora.
"Starswirl, you can't call them 'stripes' anymore, you have to be considerate towards zebras."
"Ok Twilight. By the way, which of these houses in town does Zecora live in?"
"Oh, we shunned Zecora to the point where she built herself a small hut in the middle of a deadly forest, rather than live in Ponyville, and we never worry about the fact that she's surrounded by timberwolves and manticores.... but, we never called her a stripe!"
Everyone is so upset about racism, just be more like these guys:
http://jeezescrist.deviantart.com/art/Hakuna-Matata-Russ-Norway-2013-364565805
Great story :) keep up the good work!
This is utterly fabulous! Wootwootwootwootwootwoot-etc-wootwoot...