Zecora is coming to market today

So Applejack tells Apple Bloom, stay away!

When the filly tries anyway, she's quite quickly caught

And AJ sends her right back home at a trot.

Though I have the actual plot line derailed,

We'll push right on through with an alternate tale

Of how Applejack learns about stripes, fur, and skin--

And how little they're worth next to what lies within.

So sit yourself down please, and read to the end

About how an earth pony got her zebra friend.

It's not all in rhyme, though; don't give in to gloom

But after this dear God I am not putting two zebra characters in a room together because GOOD LORD SO MUCH RHYMING; WHAT WAS I THINKING AAAAAHHHH! Er, I mean...

But new personal rule: JUST ONE ZEBRA PER ROOM.

A/N: Special thanks to Rated-R PonyStar for providing me with much-needed editing / pre-reading / input.

So yes as you may have guessed this is a rewrite of the season 1 episode Bridle Gossip in which I take the starting point and go wandering off towards the same general destination by an entirely different route.

Art for this is from Alfa995, the guy who runs the Ask Nightmare Moon HQ Tumblr.

I initially got the idea from this picture by the artist Elosande