Probably
mid-afternoon by now
Scrivener passes plain clay cups filled with what smells like blackcurrant tea to Sunset and I, while Lightning Dust is walking around the large yurt and looking at things.
"Ask her why aren't there more unicorns?" Lightning Dust looks around with a raised right eyebrow at Sunset's question. "And.. pegasi. I just asked because she's a unicorn."
"You could just ask me yerself, gurul."
Still got an accent, but it's less strong. I'm going to assume that she's switched languages.
"Oh."
Scrivener smiles at her. "I'm the tribe's scribe, dearie. Learning other folks' languages is part o' the job. Now, where are-" She levitates a map out of a chest and floats it over to us before unrolling it. "-yuh all from?"
After a second or two I spot the valley we're in, but the scale isn't anything like large enough to encompass Equestria's territory. Sunset studies the map, then lights up her horn to cause a glowing point to appear.
"If we're
here now, we came from-"
Another glowing dot appears, this one on the other side of the tent just in front of Lightning Dust.
"-over there. The other side of the northern pole. Our history says that our ancestors came from-"
Scrivener's eyes widen. "The Exodus!"
"-here-. Yes, exactly!" Sunset smiles. "Understandably, we don't have particularly good written records of that period of our history. I'm sure that our historians would be very interested in reading yours."
"Ah. Reading?"
"Yes, your history books." Her face falls slightly. "You do..
have books, don't you?"
"Ah… Yes, a few. But most of our history is kept in the spoken word. We move around too much to carry with us things we don't need to live."
"Oh yeah." Lightning Dust nods. "I totally get that."
Sunset appears to be having some difficulty with the idea. "… Okay. So… Our history says that the three tribes were fighting amongst-."
"Three tribes?"
"Unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies."
"Well I don't know about
that. Our history says that the ole unicorn and pegasi were more internally unified than that. No tribes, just a breed, all together."
"Yes, that's-. You mean, earth ponies were divided into tribal groups?"
"I can't say fer certain, y' understand. I only know the groups who
didn't go with the chieftain. Honestly, we mostly thought that the whole lot o' them died. How is et that they survived?"
"Ah, short version? Given the choice between working together and dying in a frozen wasteland, they made the smart choice."
"Golly. I think that maybe our history's a bit hard on 'em. Now, you wanted to know why there aren't all that many unicorns around?" Sunset nods. "Simple, really. When Princess Platinum decreed that the unicorns were leaving, they all
left. Not alla them wanted to, but they knew that there weren't going to be enough left to lord it over us." She leans forward slightly. "And we're not above stickin' the hoof in, if you know what ah mean."
Sunset nods uncertainly.
"The pegasi were an army. They got an order, they went. But the tribes…"
"Some tribes just disobeyed Chancellor Puddinghead?"
"Chancellor? What's a chancellor?"
Time to contribute. "From Cancellarius, meaning a court usher or guard."
"Puddunhead was no' a guard. That is, she probably
started as a guard, but by the time she led the Exodus she was Chief of the Tribes. But a lot of the tribes -particularly the ones who weren't settled in any one place- didn'a want to leave. No' permanently, anyroad."
"They disobeyed their chief?"
"The Chief is Chief at the sufferance o' the tribes. Most thought it was just a hard winter, or the pegasi being
decks."
"'Decks'?"
Scrivener widens her eyes. "
Decks. Making a whole pestle o' snow and droppin' it on us. So some tribes left and some tribes stayed, an' when the weather got bettar, we though we did the right thang."
Sunset takes that in, then nods. "So there aren't many unicorns or pegasi because almost everypony who stayed was an earth pony, and there would only be enough non-earth pony genes for a few foals a generation."
Scrivener nods. "Unicorns usually work as scribes and history-keepers. Pegasi work as scoots."
"That sounds
boring." Lightning Dust tosses her head dismissively. "If you're still here after thousands of years then you've clearly 'scooted' it all
before."
"And…" Scrivener looks up at me. "What breed are
you, big fellah?"
"That's… A complicated one. Short answer: if you shove enough magic from all three breeds into one pony, they get really powerful and take on the traits of all three breeds."
"Are there a lot like you in this.. 'Equestria'?"
"Currently,
five, but we're working on increasing that."
Sunset coughs and then clears her throat.
"
She's working on increasing that. But the main reason why we're
here…"
Sunset nods. "My special talent is magic, and-."
"And mine's flying fast and kicking tail."
I stare levelly at her. "And perhaps in future you'll remember to focus that aspect on enemies of the state, not its greatest heroines?"
"-
AND I've always been interested in earth pony magic. But in Equestria, earth ponies don't really..
do anything? There's a small effect when they grow plants, but it's far less than a plant-growing unicorn would be able to do with
their magic. I was hoping that some knowledge of how earth pony magic worked survived-" She looks over to the chests. There aren't a lot of them. "-
here."
"Oh, it surely
has. Earth pony magics are just the thang for
lacertomancy, floramancy, geomancy and hex breaking. We've a journeyman lacertomancer with us now, if'n you want to meet him."
Sunset blinks, then
smiles excitedly. "Lacertomancer?"
"Aye. Making themselves right strong and tough, yeh ken?"
"And.. they're a 'journeyman'?"
"It's like you seid; your special talent is magic. Mine is remembering things. All earth ponies know the basics o' the craft, but I dinnae think you'll be wanting
that. You'll be wantin' an expert. We dinnae have one o' those with us now, but we've got a journeyman. He's been makin' himself useful all summer, then it's off tae Rijekograd for the wrestlin' season."
Sunset perks up. "Great! So what can he do?"
Scrivener stands and walks around to the entrance of her yurt. Then she sticks her head outside.
"He's strong. Let me jus'-. Ah, there's the fellah."
Sunset looks sceptical, but gamely gets up and follows Scrivener's gaze. "Strong? I'm not.. sure…"
I get up and go to see what the fuss is about.
Outside, a single thickset stallion with a dull green pelt and grey mane and tail is pulling a cart. The cart is far taller than him, and has multiple thick wheels-. No, rollers, in order to keep the colossal weight of the thick trunks it's carrying from causing it to sink into the ground. That weight…
I could pull it, but any normal pony wouldn't be able to move it an inch. And he's pulling it without much difficulty at all.
Interesting. I wasn't sure how 'realistic' Cheerilee pulling a house was, but if this is something that earth ponies can do…
Sunset eyes him
hungrily. "That's
exactly what I'm looking for. What's his name?"
"We mostly call him 'Buckface'. Hey, Buckface!"
'Buckface' looks our way-.
Ah, 'Buckface'. Yes.