After a couple of windy days with showers of rain, I woke up to a glorious day of sunshine. It was a Sunday and it looked to be quite a hot day too, so there was no need for my suit and shoes today. I left the house to start my calm and peaceful Sunday when I looked around to see nopony was out, all the doors and windows were closed and I spotted a tumbleweed blowing across town, it was the perfect setting for a ghost town.

Apart from one strange looking pony that was digging at the ground and was dressed in one brown coat, covering the whole body and head. I was curious to know who that was and see if she was a visitor or something. I trotted on over to greet the pony if she was one.

"Hello there, are you visiting?" I asked.

It didn't reply.

"Well, the least you can do is reveal yourself so that I know what you are."

Soon, the hood was lifted down by a hoof to find...a zebra!

"A zebra? I didn't know Africa existed in Equestria." I said in confusion.

The giggling confirmed that it was a she, "The name is Zecora, brave one. But I am not here for any fun." she greeted.

Oh, I guess Zecora is a poet and I didn't even know it.

"I'm Bond Racer and fun? Oh wait, you mean you're doing something busy?" I pondered.

"Yes, I am looking for a herb for my brew, you don't have the herb I need, do you?

"I'm afraid not, I hope you find it."

I then walked further on and into Sugercube corner as I could hear several voices.

"Just look at those stripes, so garish." Rarity said.

"Hey there all of you." I said to them, "Before you ask, she's a zebra."

"A what?" everypony gasped except Twilight.

"A zebra and her stripes aren't a fashion choice, Rarity, they're what she was born with." Twilight stated.

Rarity gasped and fainted in her own way.

"Born where?" Applejack asked, "Ah've never seen a pony like that in these parts, except her."

"Well, she's probably not from here and she's not a pony. My book says that zebras come a far away land, but I've never seen her in Ponyville." Twilight explained. "Where does she live?"

"That's just it, she lives in the Everfree Forest" Applejack said nervously.

Suddenly, there was a loud clash of utensils coming from the kitchen.

"Spike!" Twilight yelled.

"Uh, sorry." Spike said quietly.

"The Everfree Forest just ain't natural, the plants grow."

"Animals care of themselves." Fluttershy added.

"And the clouds move..." Rainbow Dash added in.

"...all on their own." all three finished, with Rarity fainting again.

"Pfffft, hahahaha! Stop it you all, you're killing me with these jokes!" I exclaimed in fits of laughter.

Twilight didn't seem amused by it all though. Spike was right. she really does need to lighten up.

"And that wicked enchanted Zecora has minions doing her evil uh stuff." Pinkie exclaimed, "Why, she's so evil, I wrote a song about her."

"Please, not another one of your pointless songs, Pinkie." I sighed.

"Here we go." Dash said, rolling her eyes.

After a moment of her random singing, she finished in a strange monster pose.

"Wow catchy." Twilight said sarcastically.

"It's a work in progress." Pinkie said.

"This is all just a lot of gossip and rumours. Now tell me, what have you actually seen Zecora do?"

"Well. Once a month, she's comes into Ponyville." Dash said.

"Then, she lurks by the stores." Rarity added.

"And then, she digs at the ground." Fluttershy finished.

All the while, Twilight responded to each answer with total sarcasm. Once again, I found it hard not to laugh.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry to find this all funny, but how's any of this bad?" I asked, "Maybe she comes to town for a visit."

"Yeah, maybe she's just tryin' to be neighbourly." Applebloom added who I just realized was with them too, I need glasses.

"And maybe she's not lurking by the stores, maybe she's just going to them, lurk free, to do some shopping?" Twilight thought.

"Yeah, everypony likes to shop. Ya know what ah think-" Applebloom than got interrupted.

"Applebloom, hush and let the big ponies talk!" Applejack told her.

"Ah am a big pony." Applebloom muttered as she walked off.

Well, that was rude, AJ. I thought to myself.

"What about the digging at the ground? You gotta admit, that is weird." Dash said.

"What if she's digging for innocent creatures?" Fluttershy worried.

"I'm sure there's an explanation for everything that Zecora does." Twilight assured "And if anypony were actually brave enough to approach her, she or he would find out the truth."

"Well ah'm brave enough, ah'm gonna find out myself." Applebloom said quietly as she opened the front door when nopony was looking. I was however, but I didn't think to stop her as it wouldn't help anything.

"You ponies are being ridiculous." Twilight yelled.

"Well, I heard that Zecora eats HAY!" Pinkie Pie replied.

"Pinkie, I eat hay, YOU eat hay!"

"Yeah, but I heard it's the EVIL way she eats hay."

"Hey! Where's Applebloom?" Applejack asked.

"The door's open." Fluttershy pointed out.

"She went outside!" Rarity cried out.

"And Zecora's still out there!" Rainbow Dash added into the fear.

"That silly lil' filly! I told her to stay put!" Applejack said.

Every pony began running out the door, hastily. Twilight started for the door too, but before she left, she spoke to Spike. "Spike, you stay here in case Apple Bloom comes back."

"Will do!" Spike replied as she headed back into the kitchen.

We then left Sugarcube corner and out of Ponyville, making our way into the Everfree Forest. It wasn't long before we spotted Applebloom and Zecora who I saw earlier but the others didn't know I spoke with her. They ran into the blue flowers, I was about to go in myself, but my alicorn instincts told me not to, so I stood back.

"Applebloom?" Applejack yelled.

Applebloom gasped and looked back at us.

"You git back here right now!" Applejack shouted.

"Beware! Beware, you pony folk!" Zecora exclaimed. "Those leaves of blue are not a joke!"

"Y-you keep your creepy mumbo-jumbo to yerself, ya hear?" Applejack exclaimed while picking up Applebloom.

Every other pony agreed with Applejack, standing against Zecora, except Twilight.

Twilight sighed. "Oh brother."

"Beware! Beware!" Zecora warned for the last time as she disappeared into the mist of the jungle.

"Yeah, back at ya, Zecora! You and your... lame curse are the ones who better beware!" Rainbow Dash continued to fight back with words.

"And you! Why couldn't you just listen to yer big sister?" Applejack asked Applebloom.

"Ah...ah..." Applebloom tried to say something.

"Who knows what kind of nasty curse Zecora could have just put on you?"

"Just like in my song!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, singing her song.

"You guys, there's no such thing as curses!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Well, that's interesting to hear coming from Miss Magic Pants herself." Rainbow Dash responded.

"My magic, REAL magic, comes from within. It's a skill you're born with. Curses are artificial, fake magic. It's conjured with potions and incantations, all smoke and mirrors meant to scare. But curses have no real power, they're just an old pony tale."

"Just you wait, Twilight." Applejack replied in an eerie mood. "You're gonna learn that some pony tales really are true."

I stood still and looked around, as coming here in the forest gave me an idea that I could go and check up on Trixie and see how she's doing, Twilight saw me standing still as the others began to leave through the blue flowers.

"Are you coming, Bond?" she asked.

"Not yet, I'll be back in town later, I can fly out of here in case anything goes bad." I replied.

"Okay, we'll meet you again tomorrow." Twilight then left the forest with the others.

I then turned around, flew up and began to look for Trixie's home that I built several days ago. Spotting the big area in the forest, the house was there and it was in a strong condition when I built it. I flew down to outside her house and noticing it was sunset, I had to double time the visit so I could get back to Ponyville before night time when the forest becomes more menacing.

"Hello, are you home, Trixie?" I asked.

I got no reply, until I spotted a note on the door.

It said the following:

Greetings to anypony who finds this house. Unfortunately, I am not at home right now as I am away on a job search all over Equestria. I will be back soon when I have a job, so come back another time.

PS, if you see this, Bond Racer, I still love you.

Trixie <3

I was disappointed to find that she wasn't home, but it was good to know that she had faith in changing for the better whilst being herself and that she still loved me which made me feel warm inside. I then flew up and headed on back to the town into my home, noticing that it was beginning to go dark. Heading on in to my home, I went straight to bed and began to fall asleep, thinking back to all that happened today.

Waking up the next day, I went out and over to Twilight's library to see how she was doing. I walked on over and to my surprise, I saw the other five mares present along with Applebloom and I gasped at how they were looking on closer inspection. Twilight's horn was wobbly with blue dots, Pinkie's tongue had grown too big and was spitting everywhere, Rarity's body was covered all over in a wrinkly mane, Applejack had shrunk down was carried on Applebloom's back, Rainbow Dash kept crashing into walls, but Fluttershy looked normal to me, but I can tell that she didn't feel normal.

"What is it, Fluttershy? Is something wrong?" I asked her.

Fluttershy shied away until she said, "I don't wanna talk about it." in a very low monotone voice.

We all opened our eyes wide, before Spike burst out laughing.

"Haha, this is hilarious! Look at you six, we've got harirty, rainbow crash, spitty pie, appletini, flutterguy and umm...I got nothing." he said, looking at Twilight.

"I've got one, Twilight flopple." I said randomly.

Spike and I then started laughing again.

Twilight wasn't amused. "Oh haha!" she laughed sarcastically. "This is no time for jokes! Now Spike, start looking for more books, so I can find a cure."

Spike groaned while Rainbow Dash continued to pull herself out of a ladder she had crashed in to. Once she broke free, she spoke to Twilight while flying unbalanced.

"I think we'll find a cure to this curse at Zecora's place!"

"It's not a curse!" Twilight exclaimed, making Rainbow Dash crash again.

"Ah agree with Dash! We'll go to Zecora's and force her to remove this hex!" Applejack agreed.

"It's not a hex either!" Twilight argued.

"I don't care what you say." Rainbow Dash responded. "It's time to pony up and confront Zecora. Come on, girls; are you with me?"

"Ah am-pft!" Pinkie Pie spat.

"And I as well." Rarity added.

"Uh, I don't know. Seems awfully dangerous." Fluttershy gave her opinion, leaving Spike to only giggle again.

"How about you, Applejack?" Rainbow Dash asked. She looked over to where Applejack was supposed to be, but she wasn't there. "Applejack?"

"Pf-she's gone-pft!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

Rarity screamed. "Aah! Or somepony stepped on her!" She checked her hooves, causing every other pony to check as well.

"... or sat on her?" Twilight added. Every pony checked there too.

"Rarity's hair!" Rainbow Dash offered.

Pinkie Pie began searching through Rarity's hair. "Oh! OH! Pinkie, what are you doing?" Rarity exclaimed. " Ah, really. Aah! You ever hear of personal space?"

"Nopthe." Pinkie Pie replied, shaking her head.

"Applebloom is gone too!" Twilight cried out.

"I bet they went after Zecora!" Rainbow Dash responded.

"Well we better go find them." Twilight began walking out. "Come on ponies, let's go."

Pinkie Pie had her hoof on a strand of Rarity's hair, causing her to be unable to move.

"Oh dear." Rarity announced. "This is so unseemly. Auuuaah!" Rarity broke free.

Rainbow Dash was flying upside down on the floor. "Hey, a little help here?"

"Oopsie! Sorry." Fluttershy said, helping Rainbow Dash along with Pinkie Pie, which only caused her to crash again.

"Uh... Spike? Are you coming?" Fluttershy asked.

"Nope! Uh... gotta stay here and look for a cure." Spike answered.

I rolled my eyes and sprinted by Fluttershy on the way to the Everfree forest.

We arrived, already galloping into the forest with no hesitation.

"C'mon. We've got to get to Zecora's. Hurry!" Twilight announced.

We all then galloped into the forest and quick as we could, despite a few setbacks with Rarity tripping up and Dash crashing into trees. But most of us came across a big treehouse with strange decorations, this must be Zecora's home. Whilst Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, wondered what was going on, I walked closely and watched through a window to find Zecora standing over a cauldron, possibly mixing up something.

"Hmm, the perfect temperature for ponies I presume, now where is that little Applebloom?" Zecora wondered to herself.

I was confused by what she meant, but this freaked out the mares which was when Dash along with tiny Applejack found us, but crashed through the tree-door, messing up most of Zecora's home.

We went inside to see a lot of damage done and Zecora not pleased.

"No! You know not what you've do! You've gone and spilled my precious brew!" she exclaimed.

"We're onto you Zecora. I didn't want to believe that you cursed us, but the evidence is overwhelming!" Twilight stated.

"You made me look ridiculous!" Rarity added.

"You made me SOUND ridiculous!" Fluttershy emphasized.

With incoherent speech, Pinkie Pie joined in.

"You ruined my horn!" Twilight finished.

"How DARE you! You destroy my home, destroy my work. Then rudely accuse me of being a jerk?" Zecora responded, defensively.

"You put this curse on us, now you're gonna uncurse us." Rainbow Dash demanded.

"It is unwise to venture down this road. Your actions will make my anger explode!"

"Where IS Applebloom?" Twilight demanded and began shoving her head at Zecora's.

"GIRLS!" I shouted, realizing I couldn't take it anymore. "Can you stop all these accusations for a moment?"

"Zecora!" A familiar voice exclaimed. "I think I found all the things ya asked for." It was Applebloom, she had walked in and noticed the situation. "What in Ponyville is goin' on here? "

Applejack gasped. "Applebloom! You're okay!"

Applebloom smiled. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Twilight jumped in front of Applebloom. "Because Zecora is an evil enchantress who cursed us and was gonna cook you up into soup!"

Zecora and Applebloom began laughing, I joined in the laughter as well.

"Oh Twilight. Did those silly fillies finally get in yer head? You know there's no such thing as a curse." Applebloom said.

"Apple Bloom, sweetie. You can't just stand there and tell me this isn't a curse." Twilight replied, presenting the others' misfortunes.

"This isn't a curse." I said on Applebloom's behalf. "Besides, didn't you stop to think why I didn't go into the blue flowers and you six did? I had a bad feeling about the plant, but you all were being too stubborn about Zecora's appearance to notice that."

"He is correct." Zecora agreed, "If you remember back, the words I spoke were quite exact."

We remembered the words she said yesterday.

"It was a warning, about that blue plant, it's called poison joke." Applebloom explained.

"That plant is much like poison OAK. But its results are like a joke." Zecora added.

"What in the hay does that mean?" Applejack asked, still lingering on top of Zecora's head.

"It means this plant does not breed wrath. Instead this plant just wants a laugh." Zecora replied.

Applejack stood silent for a moment, trying to translate what Zecora had just said. "... Will somepony please talk normal?"

"I think what she's saying is that when we ran in to save Apple Bloom, we ran into the poison joke. All our problems are just little jokes that played on us." Twilight responded.

"LITTLE JOKES? Very funny…" Applejack replied sarcastically.

"Ok, fine. But what about the cauldron?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"And the chanting?" Fluttershy added.

"And the creepy decor?" Rarity joined.

"Treasures of the native land where I am from." Zecora looked over to the couple of masks that lay against the wall. "This one speaks 'hello', and this 'welcome'."

"Not welcoming at ALL, if you ask me." Rarity replied.

"The words I chanted were from olden times. Something you call a nursery rhyme." Zecora explained.

"But the cauldron... The Apple Bloom soup?" Twilight questioned.

"Lookie here Twilight. That pot of water wasn't for me, it was for all these herbal ingredients." Applebloom pointed to a nearby book that contained ancient recipes for cures. "The cure for poison joke is a simple all-natural remedy. You just gotta take a bubble bath!"

Twilight read over the book and continued to wonder. "But I tried to find a cure in all my books and couldn't find anything." She said as her horn continued to wobble. "What book has this natural remedy?"

Zecora walked over to the book and closed it, showing the cover. "Here is the book you see. Sad that you lack it in your library."

Twilight looked disappointed. "Actually, I do have this book, but I didn't look inside because the title was so... Weird." Zecora opened the book again, showing Twilight a page, which Twilight read out loud. "Supernaturals: Natural remedies and cure-alls that are simply super. I...I... I'm so sorry Zecora. I had the answer the whole time, if only I had bothered to look inside..."

Zecora chuckled. "Maybe next time you will take a second look, and not judge the cover of the book."

"Ain't that the truth?" I muttered.

"Hahaha." Applebloom laughed.

"Zecora? Would you be kind enough to mix up another batch of the herbal bath?" Twilight asked.

"Mix it up I certainly will. Yet I am missing an herb from Ponyville." Zecora accepted.

"But whenever Zecora comes to town, all the shops are MYSTERIOUSLY closed." Applebloom questioned.

"Oh, well... I think we can help you with that."

We walked on back to Ponyville with Zecora and once again, the other ponies screamed and ran for cover indoors. Twilight knocked on one of the doors, till a pony popped out. "Daisy, we need to talk." she said to her.

Soon, we were all at the spa where the six of them were all enjoying their bubble bath which got rid of their effects from the poison joke. While this was going on, Twilight readied her letter to Princess Celestia. "Dear Princess Celestia," Twilight spoke as they continued to bathe. "My friends and I all learned an important lesson this week: Never judge a book by its cover. Someone may look unusual, or funny, or scary. But you have to look past that and learn who they are inside. Real friends don't care what your "cover" is; It's the "contents" of a pony that count. And a good friend, like a good book, is something that will last forever. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

A well worthy lesson I say, quite a vital one too, judging by how I appear before showing off my randomness.

After their bath session, they all felt much better and happier as we left the spa. We gave Zecora a polite farewell and that we may see her again sometime soon. The rest of us then said our goodbyes before heading back to our homes. Quite an interesting two days it had been, one minute I was walking around a ghost town minus a Mexican stand-off and bar fights. Then the next, the six mares were all affected by the poison joke. Heading off to bed and wafting to sleep, I admit, I did get a lot of laughs today, but they were all meant to be harmless, they know that I mean well and that I'll always care for them.

So I guess in short, the lesson is this...book, cover, yada yada! Next Chapter: Viva Las Pegasus Estimated time remaining: 27 Hours, 39 Minutes