Bridle Gossip

"I am sure there's an explanation for everything Zecora does, and if anypony here were actually brave enough to approach her, she would find out the truth."

- Twilight Sparkle

Bridle Gossip is the ninth episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, season one. In this episode, Twilight and her friends encounter a mysterious zebra, named Zecora, outside of Ponyville, who is rumored to be a witch.

Episode summary
Twilight and Spike arrived in Ponyville one day to see the town completely deserted. While they wonder what was going on, they were urged by Pinkie Pie to hurry to the Sugarcube Corner snack shop before "she" gets them. Inside, they meet the other ponies, who are hiding from a strange hooded creature named Zecora. No one really knows what she was after seeing her remove her hood (Twilight pointed out that she was a zebra), or why she passes by once a month, digging at the ground and lurking around the stores. However, they do know she resides in The Everfree Forest, which its self-preserving environment was almost alien to Ponyville, and perhaps all of Equestria. Pinkie even came up with a song describing Zecora as an "Evil Enchantress". She was still working on it.

While Twilight tried to rationalize her friends' wacky suspicions, Applejack's little sister, Apple Bloom, decided to see Zecora herself near the forest. Before she had a chance to get near her, her sister and her friends stopped her while driving Zecora away. The zebra returned to the forest, giving them a brief warning: "Beware, beware you ponyfolk! Those 'leaves of blue' are not a joke!". On their way back, Twilight tried to differentiate her magic with the so-called "curses" that they think the zebra was allegedly using. She believed that these were just an old pony's tale. Applejack only warned her that some pony tales are true.

Before they left the forest, they unintentionally trotted across a small field of blue flowers.

During the night, Twilight is dreaming about Zecora and her friends saying how evil she is.

The next day, Twilight woke up, after recalling everything her friends were talking about the strange zebra. As she brushed her hair, she was shocked to see her horn all speckled, soft, and rubbery. She frantically searched for a book, any book, to find a way to fix this, or at least know why it happened. There was no useful information. Spike showed her a book called "Supernaturals" that she may have overlooked, but she said that there was no need to even open it because it involves superstitious or non-realistic tidbits; overall useless. Her friends were not too happy about their sudden ailments either, as they met once more. Pinkie Pie's tongue was so swollen it was always hanging out of her mouth and had blue spots on it, and she couldn't speak without spitting. Rainbow Dash wings were inverted, preventing her from flying properly and constantly crashed. Rarity's mane was all messy to the point that she couldn't even see or walk through it. Applejack had shrunken in size. And Fluttershy had a deep male voice. Spike laughed himself silly at the ponies' expense, giving them all various nicknames (respectively, Spittie Pie, Rainbow Crash, Hairity, Appleteeny and Flutterguy) except for Twilight Sparkle, as he couldn't immediately think of a proper nickname for her rubbery horn, while they tried to find out how this all happened. Save for Twilight, everyone concluded that Zecora had "cursed" them and so they decided to confront her in the forest in hopes of finding a cure. Meanwhile, Apple Bloom, the only one not "cursed" and believing that she herself was to blame for this mess, went ahead to find the zebra herself. Upon realizing this, the ponies set out in search of her. (At this point Spike finally managed to think up a joke-like nickname for Twilight Sparkle: Twilight Flopple.)

When they finally reached Zecora's hut, they saw her mixing a strange concoction in her cauldron, similar to Pinkie's song. Twilight insisted that there was more to this occurrence, until she overheard the zebra mentioned Apple Bloom. Thinking that Zecora was preparing a soup to eat the younger pony with, Rainbow Dash and Applejack barged in while the other ponies followed suit in a rescue attempt. Ironically, Apple Bloom arrived from behind them and said that she was assisting Zecora with gathering ingredients. They both revealed that the brew Zecora was making was a remedy for poison joke, a poison ivy-like plant that causes "laughable" results to anyone who touches it. They were never cursed, but were affected by the blue plants, and were too stubborn to heed Zecora's warning the previous day they faced her. The cure was from one of Zecora's books, one similar to what Twilight saw in her library, but she didn't bother looking past its weird title. It turned out that the "Supernaturals" in the book's title meant, after opening it, natural cures that were simply... "super". After apologizing to the zebra for the terrible misunderstanding, they all returned to Ponyville to use the remedy (via bubble bath), explaining to the other ponies about Zecora in the process.

They learned that there was more to a person than just their appearance, and that Zecora was not the scary character they had previously believed.

Major events

 * Zecora is introduced in this episode.
 * Twilight Sparkle and her friends get "cursed" by poison joke, but are cured in the end.
 * This is the first time Rainbow Dash is called "Rainbow Crash".

Quotes

 * Applejack: The Everfree Forest just ain't natural. The plants grow...
 * Fluttershy: Animals care for themselves...
 * Rainbow Dash: And the clouds move...
 * Applejack/Fluttershy/Rainbow Dash:  All on their own !
 * Rarity: Ohhh! (faints)


 * Pinkie Pie: And that wicked Enchantress, Zecora, lives there doing her evil... stuff! She's so evil, I even wrote a song about her...
 * Rainbow Dash: Here we go...


 * Twilight: (After hearing Pinkie Pie's song) Wow... catchy.
 * Pinkie: It's a Work In Progress...


 * Twilight: Now what exactly have you actually seen Zecora do?
 * Rainbow Dash: Well... Once a month... she comes into Ponyville.
 * Twilight: (sarcastically) Ooooh...
 * Rarity: Then... she lurks by the stores...
 * Twilight: (sarcastically) Oh my!
 * Fluttershy: And then... she digs at the ground.
 * Twilight: (sarcastically) Good gracious! OK. I'm sorry...


 * Apple Bloom: You know what I think?
 * Applejack: Apple Bloom! Hush and let the big ponies talk.
 * Apple Bloom: (under her breath) I am a big pony...


 * Pinkie Pie: Well, I think Zecora eats... hay.
 * Twilight: Pinkie! I eat hay! You eat hay!
 * Pinkie Pie: Yeah... But I heard it's like the evil way she eats hay...


 * Twilight: (sarcastically) Maybe Zecora cursed my hair... (gasps; shocked) Or she cursed my horn!


 * Spike: What if you're wrong, Twilight? What if this really is--?
 * Pinkie Pie: (swollen tongue muffles speech) A CURSE!
 * Spike: A "purse"? How could it be a purse?


 * Twilight: (responding to Fluttershy's nods/shakes) Fluttershy, are you okay? Is there something wrong with you? Would you care to tell us? So... you're not going to tell us? Yes you're not, or yes you will?
 * Applejack: Good gravy, girl! What's wrong with you?!
 * Fluttershy (Male voice): ...I don't want to talk about it.


 * Spike: This is hilarious! Look at all of you. We got "Hair"-ity, Rainbow "Crash", "Spittie" Pie, Apple-"teeny", "Flutterguy", and... (looks at Twilight) I got nothin'. "Twilight Sparkle"... I mean, seriously. I can't even work with that.
 * Twilight: (laughs sarcastically) This is no joke Spike!


 * Rainbow Dash: I'll bet we'll find a cure to this curse at Zecora's place.
 * Twilight: It's not a curse!
 * Applejack: I agree with Dash. We'll go to Zecora's and force her to remove this hex,
 * Twilight: It's not a hex, either!!


 * Rainbow Dash: It's time to 'pony up', and confront Zecora!


 * Rarity: (reacting to Pinkie Pie looking through her hair) Oh! OH! Pinkie, what are you doing? Ah, really. Aah! You ever hear of personal space?
 * Pinkie Pie: Nopth.


 * Applejack: Turn around right now, missy!
 * Apple Bloom: ...No.
 * Applejack: 'No'? You can't ignore a direct order from your big sister!
 * Apple Bloom: Sorry, Applejack, but I'm the "big sister" now...


 * Pinkie Pie: (referring to Zecora's chanting) (muffled) She stole my song! She stole my song!!
 * Rarity: "She stole your song"?
 * Twilight: Pinkie, that doesn't sound anything like your song.
 * Male-voiced Fluttershy (since Pinkie Pie can't sing her song): She's an evil enchantress and she does evil dances and if you look deep into her eyes, she will put you in trances then what will she do? She will mix up an evil brew then she will gobble you up in a big, tasty stew. So... watch out.


 * Twilight: Scary-looking masks, confusing incantations, and a great big bubbling cauldron? Everything is pointing to Zecora being... bad. Or... what if Zecora's just making soup (watches Zecora through window).
 * Zecora: The perfect temperature for ponies, I presume. Now, where is that little Apple Bloom?
 * Twilight: Or... What if she's making "Apple Bloom Soup"?


 * Rarity: You made me look ridiculous!
 * Male-voiced Fluttershy: You made me sound ridiculous!
 * Pinkie Pie: (muffled) You made me speak ridiculous!
 * Twilight: You ruined my horn!
 * Zecora: How dare you?! You destroyed my home, destroyed my work, then rudely accused me of being a jerk?!


 * Apple Bloom: Did those silly fillies get into your head? You know there's no such thing as a curse.
 * Twilight: Apple Bloom, sweetie. You can't just stand there and tell me that this isn't a curse.
 * Apple Bloom: This isn't a curse.


 * Twilight: (Reading Zecora's book) "Supernaturals: Natural remedies and cure-alls that are simply... super "


 * 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 AAAAAAA! It was the worst! Don't you agree, Fluttershy?
 * Fluttershy (Back to normal): ...yes.

Gallery



 * Complete image gallery for Bridle Gossip.

Trivia

 * The title is a pun on "idle gossip" as well as a reference to a "gossip's bridle" (also "scold's bridle" or "brank"), a medieval punishment and mild torture device, used on women who were nagging excessively or were otherwise verbally abusive or unpleasant.
 * Fluttershy's deep male voice is provided by character actor Blu Mankuma, best known for the voice of Tigatron from Transformers: Beast Wars.
 * The line, "The horror, the horror..." from the 1979 war movie "Apocalypse Now" is heard once again. The original use of this line was in the book Heart of Darkness, and described the way European men treated African men and women during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
 * Amusingly, the ailment Rarity is affected by makes her closely resemble a Komondor or Puli, two Hungarian breeds of dog with matted locks of fur.
 * Pinkie Pie's huge hanging out tongue ailment might be a reference to Frazzle, a red monster who always had his tongue hanging out, from Sesame Street, or the Pokemon character Seel, a water pokemon creature who also had his huge tongue always hanging out.
 * Spike calls Rainbow Dash "Rainbow Crash" on account of her clumsiness, even before this was revealed as an insult to her in flight school.
 * Spike also calls Applejack "Appletini" which is a type of cocktail served at bars and restaurants.
 * Twilight uses her horn to brush her hair, though for the rest of the episode and right after she brushes her hair, her horn is useless.