Curse Uncured

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     At first, Zora resented the change of staff that moved her from her home in Missouri and placed her in a desolate location down in Texas. While she pretended that the adaptation was smooth and no problem for her, on the inside: she was dying. With her fair complexion, she just burnt to a crisp outside during the summer months. The only good that came from the ungodly temperatures was having an indoor arena that was partially buried into the ground, made of thick stone, so it stayed cool even in the summer. On the other hand, the winters weren't so bad. Snow? Hardly ever. 
     Aside from the weather, the change of personnel really had Zora's hair turning grey prematurely. The best part? No Jarin Jackson: chaos incarnate. However, a one Tequila Brannon, instead, was a constant bother. She was always trying to get Zora to go to parties with her. Always wanting her to help her with her batshit crazy horses. Always getting more of those horses like she was a collector. How the woman had any money was a mystery to Zora. She just wanted to be left alone. She had so much studying to do for her University exams, she didn't have time to play Pretty Princess Dressup and clean all the stalls out, feed the horses, exercise the ones in for training, etc. 
     She was really at her wits end with Tequila when...she just stopped coming around. Zora knew she was pregnant (again) but that hadn't slowed her down any (despite what Zora had told her). But then...just like that, she was gone. She had been talking about finding the dad of the baby and that was the last she knew about it. Zora, being Zora, pretended it wasn't really any of her business what Tequila decided to do with herself. But she did find herself hoping that she was okay, at the least. Wherever she was. 

     The new kind of quiet fell over the stable. The hustle and bustle of a mid-week afternoon still stirred about. With a distinct lack of a "Zooooe Zooooe!~" or a "Heeey, sugar!~". It was kind of nice. The kind of nice Zora was settling into. With every new boarder, Zora made sure to give them the same greeting and short tour of the place, hoping the next wasn't another blonde ditz. 
     She was getting too comfortable. She even offered to help out one of the newer boarders that was getting into western. She seemed like a nice girl. Timid, maybe, but nice. She had a nice-looking horse that didn't seem like it was actually insane. Sure, Zora thought. Sure, she could give one hour of her time she now wasn't spending on trying to tame a Tequila-horse with terrible ground manners not to rear and bite - instead, she could do some good around the barn with her time! 

     Once a week, the barn brought in the livestock from the surrounding fields to check cattle, move herds, tag calves, etc. It gave the stable a unique opportunity to get horses acclimated to working with or around cattle. This week, they could even separate out the older calves that made for great practice for the working cow horses. Zora offered to help show the girl the basics or at least get her horse around the cattle to see how she did. No problem! Zora had a younger horse slated to get the same kind of experience; one of the newer horses Justin McBride boarded there. Win, win. 
     And then, all at once, the calamity returned. The familiar sight of chaos and disorder. No sooner did the girl's horse see the cattle and instead of spooking like most would think a horse being exposed to cattle for the first time would do - no, the buckskin mare sprinted after the cattle like a ravished wolf! The reins were ripped from her rider's hands and away they went! ZOOM!
     Zora's mount did his best to clear out of the way! He flipped his head up and scooted! Zora was quick to get him under control out of instinct but she was locked in a state of PTSD. A god. She got away from the Jarin kid. The absolute source of chaos. And here it was, following her again like a curse. More crazy horses. She couldn't escape it. She was cursed. 
     "Uh-!" She snapped out of it the best she could, trying her damnedest to salvage anything and pretend like this wasn't some unbreakable curse looming over her head for eternity, "S-so! Find the one with the number 1 on its side! And well, uh- see if Trixie can move it for you!" All while the young lady still had to get a hold of her reins and gain some kind of control. "Just-! Yea, just kind of keep her under control!" she called.  "...if you can..." she muttered quietly. 
     Maybe they were both cursed. 
     

(821 wordcount)

tldr;
Zora thought she was safe away from Jarin and Tequila out of the stable
nah, Zora, you're still in some kind of version of hell 

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Remember when I did tradigi stuff?? Pencil sketches, scanned in and digitally colored? Well, I still have a couple lingering around that went unfinished for a while. -checks notes- This one is a couple years old :''D Time flies <//3 

But here it is! I had the perfect opportunity to go ahead and get it finished up! Chucking it into the show for grins and giggles because why not. Let's get the girls some ribbons for their "fun" day out. Trixie really likes cows. I'm sure it all went just fine. Eventually. 

Zora just: "...are there no normal people left on this planet??" 


You should grab a couple of characters and "torture" them through the Home Grown Show III - Combo Nation too!
For all your chaos needs~ 


Zora/Mark/Jarin/Tequila/Justin/Art © Drasayer 
Georgie/Trixie © decors 
No specific refs for ponies or people
Brick and wood textures from Procreate brushes~ 


Procreate/Photoshop CS6