"Did you see her Twilight? Did you see... Zecora?"
The fear in little Apple Bloom's eyes was palpable, and Twilight Sparkle just couldn't understand why. She'd looked out the window at the figure that the ponies were all so terrified of, and it didn't look all that scary to her. Maybe a tiny bit unnerving, but not enough to warrant this kind of reaction.
"Apple Bloom!" Applejack exclaimed. "I told you never to say that name."
Even Applejack seemed scared, and she didn't seem like the type to scare easily. And yet this unassuming hooded figure had done it. This all seemed so preposterous to Twilight. Her nature made her want to understand, but it just wasn't adding up.
"Well, I saw her glance this way..." Twilight said.
"Glance evilly this way," Pinkie Pie added. Twilight opted not to dignify that with a response. Sure, the look may have been a bit sudden and a smidge intimidating, but she didn't think there was anything evil about it.
"...And then a bunch of you flip out for no good reason," Twilight continued.
"No good reason?" Applejack interjected, the displeasure clear in both her face and her tone. "You call protecting your kin no good reason? Why, as soon as my sister saw Zecora ridin' into town, she started shakin' in her lil' horseshoes."
"Did not!" Bloom insisted, although the shakiness to her tone did her argument no favors.
"So I swept her up and brought her here..." Applejack continued, paying no heed to her sister's denials.
"I walked here myself!" Bloom insisted to the emotional wall that was shaped like her big sister.
" For safe keeping," Applejack finished, proud of herself for being so responsible.
"Applejack, I'm not a baby!," Bloom pouted. "I can take care of myself!"
"Not from that creepy Zecora," Applejack chided, unwilling to be shaken from her stance.
"She's mysterious," Fluttershy chimed in.
"Sinister," Rainbow Dash added.
"And spoooooky!" Pinkie said.
Twilight groaned. She couldn't believe how ridiculous her friends were being. It was almost like they were...
"You're all being really racist right now," Sugarcoat suddenly spoke up. She had somehow gone unnoticed until now, but nopony could miss her after that declaration.
"Racist?!" Applejack exclaimed. "No way! I ain't no racist, and neither are any of us!"
"You're looking at someone who's different from you and judging them based on superficial, mostly physical qualities without even trying to get to know them first," Sugarcoat explained. "Racist."
The ponies were agog. Such an accusation was unheard of in Ponyville, a town which proudly heralded the union of earth pony, unicorn, and pegasus as equals.
"But...she's a witch!" Applejack insisted.
"She's a zebra," Sugarcoat said. "There's barely a difference between zebras and ponies."
"But look at those stripes!" Rarity cried. "So garish!"
"Not helping your case right now," Sugarcoat said.
"We're not..." Rainbow started, then groaned in frustration. "Twilight! Help us out here!"
"Actually, I agree with Sugarcoat," Twilight said. She waited for her friends to finish that unison gasp that always managed to impress her before she continued. "I mean I wouldn't call you racist, but more insensitive. Zecora is different than you and I, but that doesn't mean we should hide from her and assume terrible things about her. We should get to know her and learn about what makes her different. In fact, I think I know just the way to do it."
~~~~~~~~~~
The sun began to set on Ponyville as the day's celebrations came to a close. Twilight couldn't have been more proud of her new hometown. With help from Mayor Mare, the town's first Cultural Awareness Day had been a whopping success. There had been a bit of shock amongst the townsfolk when Zecora was introduced, but by the time things were wrapping up, many of the ponies in town had warmed up to her rather well. Even the Flower Trio, who had probably been the most vocal about their nervousness relating to her, were speaking cheerfully to her by the end of the day, happy to learn about the various flowers of the Everfree from her wise mind.
"This has been fantastic for our town, Twilight!" Mayor Mare said. "And you organized it practically all by yourself!"
"I guess I just have a knack for organizing," Twilight responded.
"Well neither of us will ever forget that after today!" Mayor Mare said with a smile.
Sugarcoat watched as Twilight left the mayor's side and walked towards her. She had mostly kept to herself during the festivities, although she did particularly enjoy hanging around while Big Macintosh while he was helping build some of the stands.
"So this was a success, huh?" Twilight asked, giving Sugarcoat a grin.
"Sure," Sugarcoat said, her tone noncommittal. She looked to the largely-grinning Twilight with a raised brow. "What?"
"We agreed on something!" Twilight said proudly. "Without you having to point out what I could have done better! Isn't that great?"
"You have a piece of spinach in your teeth," Sugarcoat said before walking off. Twilight groaned, then headed off to the nearest restroom.
I sense a disturbance in the Force...
Heh!
Sugarcoat's response to the latest episode should be something to behold, if you're still doing this a hundred or so days from now.
That Sugarcoat. Just can't win with her.
OH MY GOD SOMEPONY FINALLY SAID IT. (Lol, I just meant show-wise)
What people don't know is that I ship Roseluck and Zecora, shhhh...
Sugarcoat, I know I've said this a lot, but I love you.
6487933
I'm starting to feel that Sugarcoat is smarter than the princesses.
Oh, I wonder what will happen in Canterlot Wedding.
Oh, Sugarcoat. Always killing the mood.
The SugarMac shipping has been tripled...
I'd like to point out... again... that the whole 'racism' thing doesn't really work. From our POV, the idea that zebra = african = negro makes sense because we know the context, but the ponies don't even know what a zebra is - all they see is a pony who's painted herself striped for some eerie reason. This is less "white person shocked to see a black person in their white community" and more "person shocked to see a person covered in body paint in their community where nobody does that".
Add to that the fact that Zecora lives in a place grown ponies fear to thread, wears a hood obscuring her face, and acts in a threatening manner, and maybe the ponies can be pardoned for being wary of a stranger without accusations of racism.
"Acts in a threatening manner", you ask? Well, rewatch the scene where Zecora is shown, and notice how she scratches her hoof against the ground. Horses do this when they're angry and want to show that they're ready to fight, to intimidate their opponent. Zebras, however, routinely have to dig for water in their normal environment. Zecora was probably just getting thirsty, but everypony else thought she was trying to pick a fight.
The more you know.
I'm glad you didn't leave it at "omg, racist" stuff that lots do. I'm mean, Sugarcoat defined something not racist and said it's racist. Glad you're not dumb like some people.
6488058 I'm sensing that as well.
6485536
Since there doesn't appear to be one yet, I have formed a group dedicated to Suger Coat. With your permission, I would like to make this the first story posted to it.
6488449
Fine by me! Although
my new waifuSugarcoat does actually have a group over here!6488457
Awesome, wasn't aware of that, or I wouldn't have founded one myself. Oh well, no harm done.
Well then, let's just wait until Winter Wrap Up. I'm sure Sugarcoat won't even have to say anything...
Who am I kidding, it's Ponyville we're talking about. Of course she will.
The Sugarcoat and Big Mac shipping.
It must happen.
I think you've created a monster.
6488799
Hahaha, nice. Wonder what she'd say about Hercule
6488961 She'd say something like:
Something like that.
This story is really good. You should write more of it. /Sugercoat
The shipping is strong with this one
The use of the word 'racist' is actually rather odd in pony stories, given that as humans we use the tern relating to people of the same species, but merely of a different ethnicity, skin colour, or far less often differentiating between Caucasoid, Mongoloid and Negroid. The equivalent that often gets used in FIMfics is tribalism, and then racism used for actual different species. Of course, even that term might get muddied up when you consider zebras and donkeys are supposed to be genetically related to horses, and given that a lot of people like to think hippogriffs exist in MLP, presumably zebras, donkeys and ponies can successfully interbreed fertile offspring.
And I just realised I went off on a complete tangent, soooo...huzzah, more SugarMac!
Okay, hands down, this is the best chapter if only because Sugarcoat just came right out and pointed out the unintentional racism.