My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S1/E09 Bridle Gossip



"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..."

"Written by Amy Keating Rogers"

Taking a walk through Ponyville, Twilight discovers her friends and neighbors hiding from Zecora, a mysterious zebra who lives in the Everfree Forest, visits town about once a month, and is rumored to be a witch. Twilight is skeptical, as is Applejack's kid sister Apple Bloom, who decides to tail Zecora and see if the rumors are true. Applejack and the rest chase her down before Apple Bloom gets herself in trouble, and confront Zecora at the edge of the Everfree Forest, near a patch of blue-flowered vines. Zecora cryptically warns them "Those leaves of blue are not a joke!", then retreats into the forest. The other ponies are convinced Zecora is trying to put a curse on them, but Twilight is equally convinced curses are nothing but superstition.

The next day, however, Twilight and her friends are afflicted by a series of bizarre ailments: Twilight Sparkle's horn becomes limp and covered in blue spots, sapping her magical powers; Pinkie Pie is rendered practically mute after her tongue swells hugely; Rainbow Dash's wings become turned upside-down, leaving her unable to fly straight; Rarity's mane and pelt become long and shaggy, like a sheep-dog's fur; Applejack becomes shrunk to only a few inches high; and Fluttershy is embarrassed to find herself speaking in a deep, masculine voice.

Twilight tries to ignore her friends' insistence that this is part of Zecora's curse and find a rational explanation for their condition, dismissing Spike's suggestion of looking in a book on "Supernaturals". Apple Bloom, who blames herself for what happened, wanders off to find Zecora again (with Applejack hiding in her sister's tail-hairs). Once they discover the Apple clan members are gone, the other ponies rush to track her down. Apple Bloom easily ditches her not-so-big sister, and the ponies' various impairments make finding Apple Bloom in the Everfree Forest harder than usual.

The gang eventually regroups at Zecora's hut, and things start looking suspicious enough that even Twilight is convinced Zecora really did put a curse on everyone, and is now plotting to make stew out of Apple Bloom. They confront Zecora, spilling her brew in the process, and demand to know what happened to Apple Bloom.

Turns out she's right behind them, safe and sound. Twilight's original guess was right: there was no curse. Their condition is the result of exposure to the blue-flowered vines they were standing in earlier, which are actually "poison joke", a magical plant with a weird sense of humor. Zecora was actually working on a cure, out of a copy of the same book Twilight had earlier rejected: it seems Twilight had misread the title of "Super Naturals", a book on natural home-remedies. With a lesson in not judging a book by its cover doubly-learned, Zecora offers to mix up a new batch of the poison joke treatment for the grateful ponies... once they convince the other citizens of Ponyville that Zecora is not only harmless, but actually quite friendly, allowing her to buy the last few ingredients she needs in town. Now a welcome member of the Ponyville community, Zecora gladly allows the Ponyville residents to use her remedy for themselves.

Tropes (YMMV items can be found here.)
"Spike: This is hilarious! Look at all of you. We got "Hair"-ity, Rainbow "Crash", "Spittie" Pie, Apple-"teeny", "Flutterguy", and... I got nothin'. (aside to the audience) "Twilight Sparkle"... I mean, seriously. I can't even work with that."
 * Ad Break Double Take: "What if she's making Apple Bloom soup?" is repeated twice in a row.
 * Actor Allusion: Blu Mankuma played a jazz singer in 2012.
 * Arbitrary Skepticism: "Curses don't exist" said the magical talking unicorn to her talking horse friends and dragon assistant, in the land populated with dragons, gryphons, and manticores.
 * Aside Comment: When Spike is coming up with nicknames for the cast after the "curse" takes effect, he comments to the audience that he can't really work with Twilight Sparkle's name.
 * As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Zecora's pseudo-Swahili chanting. Word of God says they wanted to get someone who could do real Swahili for Zecora, but they lacked the time and budget.
 * Blinding Bangs: Rarity suffers from this after her coat and mane grow ridiculously long.
 * Breaking the Fourth Wall: An infamous animation error in the final shot makes it look like Pinkie Pie is staring at the camera. This was later incorporated deliberately.
 * Characterization Marches On: This is the first major appearance Apple Bloom has with her big sister, though the chemistry is somewhat different. Applejack is rather condescending and overprotective of Apple Bloom, who is ultimately portrayed as even more of an Only Sane Mare than Twilight, compared to her much more impressionable and hyperactive persona in later episodes, with Applejack being the voice of reason between them.
 * Comeback Tomorrow: Spike is unable to come up with a joke name for Twilight (Twilight Flopple) until she's left the house.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Twilight's horn goes limp and because of that she becomes incapable of performing something she takes great pride in her prowess and stamina in.
 * Zecora speaks mock-Swahili, wears African jewelry, has an African spiral design for a cutie mark, decorates with African masks, and is a zebra: an African species. Ponies are not allowing her to enter stores.
 * Double Aesop: Don't judge a book by its cover — even literally. Twilight was skeptical about the poorly informed negative assumptions about Zecora from the start almost to the end, likely along with any Genre Savvy viewers, but the book was slyly put in as something that made her (and potentially us) make the same sort of mistake all the same.
 * Dramatic Thunder: Subverted.
 * Fantastic Racism: Zecora is feared by the ponies of Ponyville, who close their shops and get off the streets when she comes to town once a month. Very slightly softened by the fact that the primary reason for this isn't because she's a zebra, but because she lives in a creepy forest and thus is thought to be a witch (in fact, only one of the mane cast even knows what a zebra is at the start of the episode). But while this is not really intentional, the "don't judge people by their appearance" lesson is given loud and clear.
 * Also, subverted with Twilight, who knows what a zebra is perfectly well and doesn't judge her based on that. It's how Zecora's actions appeared that tricked her.
 * Forced Perspective: Used to introduce the shrunken Applejack's new size.
 * Forgot I Could Fly: Inverted - Dash insists on flying around, when she could just walk and not have to crash into things or fly upside-down.
 * Gender Bender: Fluttershy went from a girl to a guy in one night.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: This is essentially "Getting Crap Past the Radar: The Episode", with events such as:
 * Spike's nickname for minimized Applejack: "Appleteeny" (which sounds exactly like Appletini).
 * Twilight's... um... "Poison Joke" infected horn.
 * The racism undertones concerning Zecora.
 * Glowing Eyes of Doom
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: The "curse" gives Fluttershy the voice of Tigatron.
 * Incredible Shrinking Pony: Applejack becomes "Appletini" (Apple-Teeny), as Spike puts it.
 * Magic Pants: Applejack's hat and rope shrink with her.
 * The Nicknamer: Spike gives all of the mane ponies nicknames to fit their embarrassing conditions.

"Zecora always speaks in couplets which do not help her reputation of being a witch."
 * After the girls leave, he manages to come up with "Twilight Flopple".
 * No Sense of Personal Space: Pinkie, when looking through Rarity's hair for "Appletini". Rarity even asks Pinkie if she's ever heard of personal space, to which she bluntly answers "nope!".
 * Not Helping Your Case: Despite how negatively people treat the cast's suspicions, Zecora did literally nothing to dissuade their suspicion until Apple Bloom cleared things up. If anything, she made herself even more suspicious.
 * Though on the other hand, Apple Bloom says that Zecora told her that whenever she came to town, all the stores "mysteriously closed", implying she didn't know why the ponies hid whenever she came to town and may not have had any idea they thought she was a witch.
 * Not Now, Kiddo: Apple Bloom gets this repeatedly from Applejack, much to her annoyance.
 * Not What It Looks Like: Almost everything Zekora does sends the ponies into a frenzy, albeit even mundane stuff like eating hay.
 * Not So Above It All: Twilight goes from being perfectly reasonable and scolding the others for being silly to thinking Zecora really is a wicked witch on remarkably little evidence.
 * Applejack is actually the most paranoid of Zekora, to the point she's actually trembling in fear from Pinkie's song (which even Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash respond to with bewildered glares).
 * Oh My Gods: This might also count as Getting Crap Past the Radar. The point were a "cursed" Applejack gets stuck in the Everfree Forest, Rainbow Dash crashes to save her. Which Applejack says "Thank Celestia."
 * Poor Communication Kills: If Zecora's warning had been a little less vague and cryptic, the whole ponies-thinking-you-cursed-them thing wouldn't have come up.
 * Rearrange the Song: "Evil Enchantress", Flutterguy jazz club edition.
 * Rhymes on a Dime:

"Applejack: Will somepony please talk normal?"
 * Lampshaded by Applejack of all ponies:

"Twilight Sparkle:....Catchy."
 * That Poor Cat: Heard when Rainbow Dash crashes into some bushes.
 * The Unintelligible: Pinkie Pie, who gets a swollen (and spotted) tongue
 * "The Villain Sucks" Song: Pinkie Pie's "Evil Enchantress" song.

"Pinkie Pie: I've heard that Zecora eats hay! Twilight Sparkle: Pinkie, I eat hay. You eat hay."
 * Vocal Dissonance: "Flutterguy", who, as seen here, has easily the deepest voice yet seen on the show, being voiced by black Vietnam veteran Blu Mankuma.
 * What do you mean, it's not haynous?:


 * Word Schmord: Twilight, waking from a restless night, dismissively mumbles "curses schmurses."
 * Wrong-Context Magic: Twilight denounces curses as impossible until affected by.
 * Zombie Apocalypse: Discussed by Spike when he starts wondering why the town looks so deserted.