zecora reference

here's a quick Zecora reference betcause iiiii have never drawn her. i'm going to be making some zecora x mane six adopts so i thought i would show what my zecora looks like lol.

i've made some REWORKS with Zecora and her story (which barely existed to begin with, and what does is now changed). Akua is still Zecora's kid, but she is NOT Zecora and Sassy Saddles' kid. Sassy Saddles has a new messy pile of shit to deal with that will make her wish that all she had was an offhand gay fling illegitimate child LMFAO

ANYWAY THIS IS ABOUT ZECORA! she is from Zebria (play on Zambia) and was well versed in plants in particular and their medicinal properties. she was daughter to the healer of the tribe, and learned most of what she knew from her. they were rather isolated compared to what we know of Equestria but they were happy living alongside temple guardians and nature.

Zecora left her tribe as a teenager, because all zebras in her tribe go on a several year long journey to gather knowledge, life experience, and learn independence. Zecora used this time to learn even more about medicine, traveling to neighboring tribes and lands to learn what they knew.

at some point she came across the first unicorn she had ever seen and was excited to learn more of the vast world he knew. they briefly had an exciting time travelling together and learning from each other, and that's how she learned about the vaster land of Equestria. she decided she would go, and even attend a college there to learn more about it and its properties. via scholarship and help from her friend, she was able to go to a college in Saddle Arabia. at first she wanted to be a doctor and then turned to environmental science due to her familiarity with it and the travels she would be able to go on and the taxonomy she would learn.

and learn she did. things that were beautiful and wonderful, but also things that were shocking and scary. they scorned Temple Guardians here in Equestria, even hunted them down and wiped them out. the medicine here was hard to get and doctors often only treated symptoms rather than the root of any given issue. strangest of all, they didn't live among nature, they had complex architecture and an army? but they also had so many beautiful sights, horses that could fly, many MANY unicorns, and princesses that did BOTH?

no such magic existed back in her land... they didn't need it. and for such a diverse land, the more she traveled Equestria, the more fearful looks she got. it was... confusing to say the least. but she remained positive in her studies up until she got pregnant during her final years. oops... too much partying. she was unsure of whether or not to go home, stay and finish college, somehow raise the child by herself as she studied... she decided to go home and have the child, then go back and finish her studies. to the shock of everyone, Akua was a unicorn, and nobody really knew what to do about it.

ultimately, Zecora decided to go back to Equestria and finish her final years of college and leave Akua to be raised by her tribe for the time being. it always took a village to raise a child, and she found it shocking how in Equestria it was often the duty of only the parents, sometimes even only one parent. all the same, it was heartbreaking to be away from her kid for so long even when it was for the greater good.

after she graduated, she and her tribe made the decision that it was best Akua live in Equestria so she could properly learn how to utilize her magic, as she was having magical outbursts that were disturbing the peace and no one to teach her how to use it. Hoo'far helped with this when he could, but ultimately he was always busy and traveling just as she had been once.

nowadays their life is relatively stable Zecora hopes to normalize herbal medicine and potions in Equestria, and dismantle the fear of monsters and nature that ponies seemed to have. the Everfree Forest is a goldmine of undocumented plants and she plans to figure out to use them and taxonomize as much flora as she can. she's rather well known in the botany field and has the qualifications to be a professor, but she likes keeping to herself.

Art (c) @stimpower