Interlude- A pony of two herds
Greetings, my pony brothers. I am most pleased with this rare chance to share my wisdom with you all. I spend little time around my own kind, and instead prefer the solitude of the rolling fields and vasts forests. The wilds of Ponyland are my home, and it is through that life which the spirits of nature guide me. For I am Wigwam, sworn brother of the buffalo tribe, and the bridge between the world of civilized ponies, and the world of the wild.
Not a day goes by that my services aren't needed; there is always some foolish earth ponies who cut down trees in a sacred grove, or a bunch of beavers who unwittingly built a dam in the middle of a river that is a pony citadel's water supply. I am often called to arbitrate disputes between wild animals and pony, or pony and nature spirit. For I understand the wilds better than any other pony. For the wilds are a part of me, in a way on other pony can boast.
There are times, to be sure, when I cannot resolve a matter by reason. My tomahawk is stained with the blood of those who could only express themselves by violence, and I fear it will taste the blood of many more of that ilk. Nevertheless, it is my hope that one day such violent actions will no longer be needed. Then a generation of young ponies could once again know peace- something that all agree was worth fighting for! But until then, brave ponies such as myself would just have to accept some extreme ponies will never learn.
My life has always been one mixed with both order and chaos, with joy and sorrow. As a newborn, my true mother and father had abandoned me on the gentle rolling plains of Appleloosa. A tiny newborn foal, wrapped in a haggard green blanket, left exposed to the open elements so the wild beasts could finish him off. But in their great kindness and wisdom, one of the great buffalo tribe of the plains rescued me from oblivion, adopting me in as one of their own.
In his great kindness, Chief Thunderhooves took me in, and sat me at his table as if I were one of his own young. I was fed and cared by the tribe, and the treated me as if I were a buffalo myself. They taught the ways of the wilds, and the lore of the spirits. I stampeded with my buffalo brothers and sisters across the sacred grounds many times, forming friendships with the bison my own age that I will cherish all the days of my life. My foal-hood was a happy one, running as free as the winds over the opens grassy plains. But there was always something deep inside me that always felt... apart. That no matter how well the tribe treated me, a part of me always felt out of place, as if I didn't belong.
"You are as my own son." Chief Thunderhooves told me. "You may resemble our noble pony friends, but you have the heart and courage of a Buffalo." I took heart in these words, joining the war parties to patrol the head lands when I came of age. But while my tomahawk did fell many a goblin raider from the north, my eyes beheld creatures that I resembled more then my buffalo brethren. These ponies walked like me, and talked like me. They spoke of the same dreams and desires I had, and the females awoke stirrings in me that years of the tribe's girls had failed to do. Oh, the mighty chief might have been correct about my having the heart of a bison, but the soul deep within was that of a pony.
The time had come, to rejoin my own kind. The bison I had called father was unhappy to see me go, but reluctantly admitted I had to return to my own kind. At first, I became the tribe's representative at the trading post, but soon I answered to the siren call of my ancestral home of Ponyland. Oh, the forests and streams, the mountains and rolling hills... something deep inside me had long yearned for these lands, and I galloped wild and free across the wilderness of Ponyland. But my own tribe, the ponies... I could never live as they do, cloistered up in their citadels for protection, as artificial and silent as a tomb. I soon realized I was no more at home amongst the ponies, than I was amongst the bison.
Finally, the great and glorious queen of Dream Valley took me in, appointing me to speak for her herd before the great council of tribes. In this way, I found my true calling. A child of two worlds, now I speak before the buffaloes for the ponies, and before the ponies for the buffalo. Then my life totem- which my fellow ponies call a cutie mark- appeared upon my flank. Teepees, the dwelling places of the bison tribe, symbolize how my home is amongst both of my two families. It brings me great joy that I can be a voice for two worlds. But I still felt alone, separated by a gulf that existed between both of my families.
Then, when I least expected it, a new pony found her way into my life. A lovely mare, an educator of foals from an age long past, suddenly came into the Dream Valley herd. Like me, she was an out-of-place stranger in a strange land. Like me, she had no place to call home in an unfamiliar world. We found happiness in each others' hooves. We made for ourselves the family that we both needed, and it made our lives feel truly complete. My dear, Sweet Cherilee. You are my sweet pink flower, and my great strength when I have none.
The other ponies at the castle... few of them understand me. They think the feather headdress I wear makes me chief amongst the buffalo, and they sometimes ask me to make strange howls and do war dances. Do not my pony brethren understand the culture of the buffalo who raised me? And my buffalo brothers react to me strangely when I eat meat, and do not understand how I can spend long periods of time inside a stifling castle, away from the beauty of nature and the open lands. Both sides understand me completely, yet neither side understands me at all.
I am a pony of two herds- both bison and equine, yet neither. I wish I could learn why my blood family abandoned me, why my mother and father didn't want the infant colt they had left to die. But perhaps it's for the best. I have my own family now, and it is a family of my own choosing. My sweet little teacher, and our own two little ones. They are the greatest treasures in my life now, they are the only ones who truly understand me.
And woe to those who would ever dare to try and take them from me.