Pliny on Pegasus Ponies · 5:45pm Nov 11th, 2015
Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus, 23-79AD): Roman military commander of the equestrian class, writer and naturalist. Author of the ten volume Natural History documenting the animals, vegetables and minerals of the ancient world. Tragically he got a little too close to his subject matter and was killed during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
He was also an early authority on pegasi. Not the singular Greek horse god, but a collective group of flying ponies.
Aethiopia generat … pinnatos equos et cornibus armatos, quos pegasos vocant.
Ethiopia produces … horses with wings, and armed with horns, which are called pegasi.
Alicorns!
Pegasos equino capite volucres et grypas aurita aduncitate rostri fabulosos reor, illos in Scythia, hos in Aethiopia.
I look upon the birds as fabulous which are called "pegasi," and are said to have a horse's head; as also the griffons, with long ears and a hooked beak. The former are said to be natives of Scythia, the latter of Ethiopia.
Source: Wiktionary
Several writers have suggested that he had their homelands the wrong way around here as everyone knows that griffons come from Scythia. Ethiopia was rather vague geographical term in those days, referring to the region south of the Sahara on the edge of the known world. More recent books on the fauna of Sub-Saharan Africa do not mention any sightings of such creatures. So it would seem the portal to Equestria has been closed for some time.
This is wonderful.
Well, their descendants may have lived on: perhaps the Saddle Arabian ponies and IRL Arabian horses have a common ancestor.
i591.photobucket.com/albums/ss359/Paladin-Zebra/tumblr_meoszfTXvP1r3emifo1_500_zps965dad57.jpg
I love it.
3535916 Luna: Celly! (waves history book) What did you think you were doing!
Celestia: It was a one-time fling. Honest. I didn't have more than three or four foals during that decade I took off.
Luna: Look at how many of them there are now! And you know what's worse?
Celestia: I didn't invite you?
Luna: (pouts) Yes.
That's a scrunch-nosed Twilight in ancient battle armor. My argument is invalid.
3536331 Because of their habit of wearing saddles? Twilight wore a saddle at Winter Wrap-Up, so maybe Saddle Arabia is in the cold northern wastelands?