Pony Express: Friendship is Cultural Exchange! Wednesday, period 1

[locointhecoco]

"Hihihi, everypony!" Pinkie greeted as the students gathered by the portal for class. "Today we're going to the wildest place in all of Equestria: The Everfree Forest!"

This was said with full spooky voice, and waved front hooves for maximum effect. The portal sprang to life behind Pinkie and she led the way into what . . . honestly mostly looked like an ordinary forest.

"The Everfree Forest is a place like no other in all of Equestria," Pinkie explained as they walked down a rough, but otherwise pretty idyllic path between overgrown, vine draped trees. "In here, there are basically no rules. No pony instructs the animals on how to behave. No pony controls the weather. It's --" Pinkie tilted her head thoughtfully. "Okay, so it's kind of a lot like the human world, only with manticores and basilisks and timberwolves and things."

There was a howling in the distance, as thought to prove Pinkie's point.

"We ponies are used to being in charge of pretty much everything in Equestria, so we find it pretty scary when we're not, I guess. So most ponies won't even come into the forest. Which is what made it the absatutely best place for my friend Zecora to make her home!" Pinkie stopped in front of a low branching tree with a door in the front, draped in what looked a lot like African masks. Pinkie knocked on the door, and after a moment, a gray and white zebra wearing gold jewelry stepped out. "Everypony," Pinkie said, "meet Zecora! Zecora, this is my class! They're all humans from a world called 'Earth'." She blinked. "Mostly."

"Welcome, students of Fandom, to my humble hut. I would say Pinkie has told me much about you, but. . . ." She trailed off with a smile and a wink at Pinkie. Pinkie giggled.

"I've told you plenty!" she said, waving a hoof. "See," she said to the students, "when Zecora first came to be living here so close to Ponyville, my friends and I -- and all the other Ponyvillians -- were terrified of her! We'd never seen anypony even remotely like her! It took a bit of an adventure, and some help from my friend Applejack's little sister, for us to realize that even though she's different from us, she's still super nice and duper smart and a great friend!"

"Ponies in Equestra don't much like 'different'," Zecora explained. "So Pinkie tries to warn them when your visits are imminent."

"But Zecora didn't have any trouble with the whole idea of 'humans' at all!" Pinkie said. "She's very open-minded."

"If you have questions, you're welcome through my door," Zecora said, smiling. "Or you may take a walk, if you'd rather explore."

"Just watch out for the blue flowers," Pinkie warned in a sing-song. "Those are no joke!"

Then she flopped over on her back, giggling.

Comments

Sign in!

[locointhecoco]

For a walk in the woods

Re: Sign in!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy Li

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[that_oldsaying]

Alluka Zoldyck

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[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Dipper Pines

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[yogurtvore]

Blue Sargent

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[thegc161kid.livejournal.com]

Alex Mack

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[omgnochecksyet]

Eric Bittle

Listen to the lecture!

[locointhecoco]

All about friendship and not being afraid of folks who are different! Which admittedly basically everyone at Fandom gets a crash course in the first moment they arrive

Re: Listen to the lecture!

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy was getting a sinking feeling about this whole class. She'd come to Equestria (naively) believing that it was some kind of happy pony utopia, only to discover that it very much was not. Class differences among the ponies, colonization, and now...racism? Sure, it wasn't a perfect earth-analogue, but if you thought she'd missed the way Zacora was coded African, you were crazy.

Funny how poorly the ponies had dealt with the two different groups that appeared to be minorities.

Visit Zecora

[locointhecoco]

The inside of her hut is decorated in more masks, with loads of potion making supplies and a giant cauldron to boot!

Re: Visit Zecora

[spin_kick_snap]

"Excuse me, Ms. Zecora?" Kathy asked, tapping on the door and coming inside. "Do you have some time to talk?"

Re: Visit Zecora

[locointhecoco]

"Just Zecora, no 'Ms.' please," Zecora said with a smile. "And I have time for even the human ponies."

Re: Visit Zecora

[spin_kick_snap]

"Thank you," Kathy said, offering her a smile back. "That's very kind of you. As is letting a whole class into your house to poke around. Would you mind telling me about some of the things you have here?" She looked around at the masks. "Are these art, or do they have some kind of, umm, cultural significance, or...?"

Or were they just decorations used as shorthand to convey 'otherness' by writers?

Re: Visit Zecora

[locointhecoco]

"They are not part of my potions, no," Zecora said. "We zebras use them only for show."

Yeah, probably that. Points for not going with a monoculture, show, but come on. . . .

Re: Visit Zecora

[spin_kick_snap]

"Potions?" Kathy asked, looking with interest at the cauldron. "What kind of potions do you make? I don't think I've heard of any ponies who use potions in their...magic, or whatever."

Explore the forest

[locointhecoco]

The forest is full of interesting spots, including a broken down old castle and even a magic pool or two! But you really do want to watch out for those blue flowers, unless you want to be hilariously afflicted by a practical joke.

Re: Explore the forest

[buzzkillcaptain.livejournal.com]

Dipper had his journal out and was furiously taking notes on everything as usual.

Talk to Pinkie

[locointhecoco]

She may or may not be playing with those masks.

OOC

[locointhecoco]

Re: OOC

[spin_kick_snap]

Thank you so much for choosing classes to call out the weird power structures and various -isms that exist in Equestria! YOU ARE GIVING MY GIRL THOUGHTS AND FEELS AND I LOVE IT.