Bridle Gossip

Bridle Gossip is the ninth episode of the first season of My Little Pony Friendship is Magic. In this episode, Twilight Sparkle and her friends encounter Zecora, a mysterious zebra who lives in the Everfree Forest. The title of the episode is a play on the phrase "idle gossip".__TOC__
==Development==
According to old notes by Amy Keating Rogers, Spike's nickname for Twilight Sparkle was originally "Droopi-horn".
==Summary==
===Hiding from Zecora===
 Twilight Sparkle and Spike go for a walk in Ponyville's town square but find it completely deserted. Pinkie Pie hurriedly calls them over to Sugarcube Corner, where they find Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Apple Bloom hiding from a strange hooded creature named Zecora milling around the center of town. Twilight identifies Zecora as a zebra from "a far away land". The other ponies express their fear over Zecora's recurring visits from the Everfree Forest as Pinkie Pie sings a short song that profiles her as an "evil enchantress".
===Zecora's warning===
 As Twilight Sparkle challenges her friends' assumptions about Zecora, Apple Bloom slips out of the bakery and follows Zecora out of Ponyville. The ponies soon notice Apple Bloom's disappearance and leave the house to find where she went. They spot her a short way into the Everfree Forest just behind Zecora, who warns the ponies about "leaves of blue" before retreating deeper into the forest. Standing in the middle of a patch of blue flowers, Twilight's friends taunt Zecora and continue to speculate about her "lame curses" while Twilight dismisses it as myth. With Apple Bloom atop Applejack's head, the group leave the patch of flowers and return to Ponyville.
===The ponies' ailments===
The next morning, after a bout of nightmares about Zecora, Twilight wakes up to find her horn turned limp and covered in blue spots. As she searches the library books for a cure, Spike finds a book called Supernaturals that appears to identify her malady as a curse. Twilight rebuts the assessment, but her friends soon arrive with their own mysterious ailments: Pinkie Pie's tongue is spotted blue and swollen, Rainbow Dash's wings are upside-down, Rarity's coat and mane are matted and overgrown, Applejack is tiny, and Fluttershy speaks in a deep, male voice. Each of them blames Zecora's magic for their conditions.
 Apple Bloom, who remained unafflicted and carried Applejack to the library, blames herself for the ponies' ailments and ventures out to find Zecora, though not before Applejack jumps secretly into her tail. Upon realizing the two are missing, the group surmise they have gone after Zecora and head for the Everfree Forest to search for them.
Just as Apple Bloom enters the Everfree Forest, Applejack reveals herself in her mane and orders her to turn around. Apple Bloom refuses and places her sister on a tree branch before continuing on to find Zecora. Rainbow Dash crashes into the tree soon after, allowing Applejack to attach a makeshift harness to Rainbow and steer her as she flies further into the forest.
===Confronting Zecora===
 Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity arrive at a hut and, looking inside through a window, see Zecora mixing liquid in a cauldron and speaking in an unknown language. After Pinkie gets Fluttershy to sing her song for her, the group overhear Zecora mention Apple Bloom aloud, leading Twilight to second-guess Zecora's intentions. Rainbow Dash and Applejack then crash through the door and fly haphazardly around the interior, wrecking the room and spilling the contents of the cauldron onto the floor.
Inside the hut, the ponies confront Zecora and accuse her of causing their ailments with a curse. As Zecora angrily condemns their intrusion, Apple Bloom appears at the doorway and chastises the ponies for jumping to conclusions. She and Zecora explain that they had been preparing a remedy for poison joke, a blue poison ivy-like plant that inflicts joke ailments on anyone it touches, including those of the ponies. When Twilight asks where to find the cure, Zecora shows her a copy of the book Spike found earlier, whose full title is Supernaturals: Natural Remedies and Cure-Alls That Are Simply Super. Twilight apologizes to Zecora and asks if she could make another batch of the remedy. Zecora consents but says she needs an herb from Ponyville, which she hasn't been able to get because the shops are always closed.
===A luxurious bath===
 The ponies escort Zecora back to town, where Twilight reassures the fearful townsfolk. Later, as the ponies bathe in the Zecora's herbal remedy at the spa, Twilight reflects how, as a book, you should learn who someone is on the inside instead of judging from outward appearances. One of the spa ponies asks Zecora for the recipe of her "luxurious" herbal bath, and the ponies find themselves cured of their ailments.
==Quotes==
:Twilight Sparkle: What? Where is everypony?
:Spike: Is it some sort of pony holiday?
:Twilight Sparkle: Not that I know of.
:Spike: Does my breath stink? [belch]
:Twilight Sparkle: Not more than usual.
:Spike: Is it... zombies?!
:Twilight Sparkle: Uh... not very likely.
:Spike: Not likely... but possible?
:Applejack: The Everfree Forest just ain't natural. The plants grow...
:Fluttershy: Animals care for themselves...
:Rainbow Dash: And the clouds move...
:Applejack, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash: All on their own!
:Rarity: [faints]
:Applejack: Apple Bloom! Hush and let the big ponies talk.
:Apple Bloom: I am a big pony...
:Pinkie Pie: Well, I heard that Zecora eats hay.
:Twilight Sparkle: Pinkie, I eat hay; you eat hay!
:Pinkie Pie: Yeah, but I heard it's the evil way she eats hay.
:Zecora: Beware! Beware, you pony folk! Those leaves of blue are not a joke!
:Applejack: Good gravy, girl! What's wrong with you?!
:Fluttershy: [deep male voice] I don't want to talk about it.
:Spike: This is hilarious! Look at all of you. We got "Hairity", "Rainbow Crash", "Spitty Pie", "Apple Teeny", "Flutterguy", and... I got nothin'. "Twilight Sparkle"... I mean, seriously. I can't even work with that.
:Rainbow Dash: I'll bet we'll find a cure to this curse at Zecora's place.
:Twilight Sparkle: It's not a curse!
:Applejack: I agree with Dash. We'll go to Zecora's and force her to remove this hex.
:Twilight Sparkle: It's not a hex, either!
:Rarity: Oh! OH! Pinkie, what are you doing? Ah, really. Aah! You ever hear of personal space?
:Pinkie Pie: Nopth.
:Applejack: Stop right there! Turn around right now, missy!
:Apple Bloom: No.
:Applejack: No?! You can't ignore a direct order from your big sister!
:Apple Bloom: Hehehe. Sorry Applejack, but I'm the big sister now.
:Applejack: Apple Bloom, you come back here right this instant! I'm gonna tell Big McIntosh on you! Aw, pony feathers.
:Zecora: How dare you! You destroy my home, destroy my work, then rudely accuse me of being a jerk?!
:Twilight Sparkle: I...I... I'm so sorry, Zecora. I had the answer the whole time, if only I had bothered to look inside.
:Zecora: Maybe next time you will take a second look, and not judge the cover of the book.
:Pinkie Pie: Oh my gosh! I never realized how horrible it is not to be able to talk! I love talking so much that I couldn't talk anymore and my tongue was all "eeeeeeehhhh". It was the worst! Don't you agree, Fluttershy?
:Fluttershy: ...Yes.
==Gallery==
==References==
ar:شائعات طريفة
de:Ein fremdes Zebra
es:La Apariencia no lo es Todo
fr:Apparences trompeuses
id:Gosip Kuda
it:Chiacchiere e Pettegolezzi
ja:ゼコラの呪い
ko:무시무시한 소문
pl:Końska plotka
pt:Rédea nas Fofocas
ru:У страха глаза велики
sv:Tyda skvallret