//------------------------------//
// Ponies 
// Story: Exile 
// by Forceful Will 
//------------------------------//

	
Coral Vellum sighed. “I’m telling you Windshear, I heard something, and we’re going to check it out.”

Windshear always seemed to take perverse pleasure in belittling her.“Well, Coral, I didn’t hear anything, and you know Rugged’s just humoring you.” He laughed. “I’ll bet half my bits that there’s nothing out here but us and your imagination.”

Coral snorted. If she hadn’t insisted on looking herself, she knew Windshear would have just flown around the campsite for a few minutes before pretending to have searched and found nothing. He was lazy and arrogant, but all too necessary a companion for the expedition. Still, he might be right about this. There hadn’t been anything dangerous in the area except for the mushroom spores, and that hadn’t been so much dangerous as annoying. Ahead of her, Coral could see the reflection of her light spell on the quicksand pool they had passed around earlier in the day. “Fine then, we can go back in a minute; I don’t see anything...” Her voice trailed off as she saw a figure on the opposite end of the pool. She could tell it was equine, but there was something wrong about its hindquarters. She opened her mouth slightly in surprise and was about to tell Windshear to look when it spoke.

“What are you?”


 * * * 


Jinx’s eyes widened in surprise. Across the pool of quicksand were a pair of equine far different from any he had seen before. One, a pale blue stallion, had wings on his sides, and the other, a pink-colored mare, had a glowing horn atop her head. They seemed surprised to see him, but more surprised than confused. The blue one took to the air and flew over the quicksand to hover a few yards away from Jinx. Tilting his head to the side, he said, “What do you mean? We’re ponies, and you’re a zebra. Did you hit your head or something?”

“Windshear!” the pink mare chided, “it’s more than likely that any zebra this far south haven’t seen different types of ponies in centuries! This is incredible.” She raced along the side of the pool and said, “Wait just there; it’s absurd to talk to each other from across the quicksand.”

Jinx frowned. “But what about the spores—”

“Spores?! They only grow in the eastern half of the forest. Didn’t you know that?” The blue pony eased himself to the ground next to Jinx and extended a hoof. “Name’s Windshear. Have you really never seen pegasi or unicorns?”

Jinx eyed the hoof suspiciously. What did the “pegasi” expect him to do with it? However, it seemed that introductions were in order, so Jinx inclined his head in a slight nod. “My name is Jinx, of the northern plains tribe.” When he looked up, the hoof was still extended. Windshear awkwardly lowered the hoof, frowned slightly, and shrugged. Wings seemed to allow for more expressive body language as well as flight.

Slightly out of breath, the unicorn skidded to a halt on the other side of him. “Coral Vellum, but you can just call me Coral; everyone does.” She beamed at him. “Really though, this is just fascinating. This means the pre-Equestrian era records were accurate! Do you know what this means?”

Jinx was completely baffled. What was she talking about?

Windshear groaned. “It means you’re going to give us all a history lesson and talk all our ears off. Can’t that at least wait until we get back to camp?” He gestured back the way they had come. “It’s just on the other side of the quicksand here, not more than a hundred yards or so, but a little ways off the path.”

Jinx was still slightly nonplussed, but as Windshear turned to go, he fell into step behind him, with Coral on his side. Jinx asked, “Why aren’t you camped in line with the trail anymore?”

Coral answered, “Well, once we were clear of the fungus-filled part of the woods, it made little sense—let alone irresponsibly destructive—to create an artificial clearing for us to sleep in when Windshear could easily find a natural one not far from our path just by flying up for a few minutes.”

Windshear looked back at them. “Well, it’s not that simple, but it beats hauling any plants we can’t use for fuel or food out of the area.”

Coral continued, “It’s much easier on the horn too. Magic is wonderful, but it can’t do everything.”

Jinx tried to take all of this information in, but it was still a lot. “I know about some magic, but nothing I know of could be used to create this path, or the clearings before.”

Coral said, “It’s a combination of telekinesis and teleportation that I developed as my graduate project at the School for Gifted Unicorns. I just grip the objects and send them Outside.”

Jinx frowned. “But we’re already outside.”

Coral excitedly began explaining, picking up speed as she went: “Everything we can see is inside space as we know it: you, me, the trees, the air, the water. But when somepony teleports, they go Outside for a fraction of a second before they come back Inside somewhere else. It’s like—”

Windshear coughed loudly, and looked over his shoulders to roll his eyes at them. “Don’t try to think about it too hard. No one but her really understands it, and unless you’ve got an invisible horn on your head it doesn’t even matter.”

Jinx had thought he understood how magic worked from the shamanistic studies, but he had only understood a fraction of what Coral had been talking about. Of course, it was obvious she had magic he didn’t simply by looking at the light shining from her horn. Light without fire would certainly be a useful thing to learn, and he would have to see if it was something he could do later. At least he now knew that he wouldn’t be trapped in a spore-induced sleep anymore, and these ponies seemed friendly enough.

As they reached the end of the trail, Windshear turned off to the right, and Jinx could see the glow of a campfire from between the trees. Coral said, “Oh right, you need to meet Rugged. He’s in charge of the expedition, and I’m sure he’d love to learn about where you’re from as much as I will.”