For many, the word ‘prison’ brought up a plethora of images, such as a tiny room, bars, a metal toilet, and getting shanked in the yard or on said toilet. The showers should not be mentioned, for obvious reasons.
Magnus had no such problems at all. His room was perfectly fine, thanks to Brilliant’s quick thinking. He had everything he needed right where he was, except for the freedom to move around wherever he damn pleased. Being locked up, however, presented some minor problems.
During the day, everyone slept soundly. As a day creature, though, Magnus occasionally woke up during the day. That was a problem when he had to use the bathroom. While there was a bathroom further down the hall in the basement, he had to pull a string which was tied to a bell on the first floor so that someone could hear him. During the day, no one was awake.
As the cell door was old, so too was the uncomplicated lock. It took Magnus less than five minutes to pick the lock with the help of a fork. Thus, his bathroom situation was solved. However, he only broke out once, not wanting to make Celestia lose trust in Brilliant.
Boredom was never an issue either. Brilliant had a well-stocked library, containing just about as many books as Twilight had. While some books were old and fragile, some were new, and some of them were even about magic. As the days passed by, it became obvious to everyone that Magnus’ interests revolved around everything about magic. He read and trained in the techniques he read about, while also practicing his magic conditioning exercises. Sadly, most of the spells he read went above his head, but he got the general gist of them, as well as being aware of his own shortcomings. He just wasn’t strong or knowledgeable enough. To remedy this, what he really needed was time. And books. Lots of books.
Eventually, he managed to keep to the normal night time hours after a few days, was fed three meals a day, some fruit in between if he wanted a snack, and he had visitors almost constantly in the form of Brilliant, All Star, Power Chord, Copper Nut, Winter Wind, their wives and girlfriends, and the children. He played card games with some of the ponies around his own age and indulged in some music, both his own and the ponies. The children came to visit several times each day, playing peek-a-boo at the cell door, and to mess with the kids, Magnus would hide from them, either under the duvet, behind furniture, or simply hide right at the door and then jump out and shout “BOO!” It got the children laughing and fleeing with screams of delight every time.
Some of the older ponies in the family also came to visit. While it could be considered to be idle talk, it made Magnus feel less imprisoned and more normal, as if he was just seated somewhere and they were acquaintances coming over for a chat. As the days passed by, Magnus came to see the ponies less as strangers.
While he never said so, he truly appreciated their efforts in making his imprisonment appear invisible. While he had visits, the door was never locked, always being left open. To Magnus’ own effort, he never left the room while they were there; Princess Celestia had trusted Brilliant and her family to look after him, so he remained inside to avoid them getting into trouble.
There was one pony who did not come visit him.
He heard it from Brilliant first; Camellia was severely distraught. She was depressed, blaming herself for Magnus’ imprisonment. While she was not the one who threw him in jail, it all started with her, if one followed the trail back far enough. Ultimately, she was not the one to blame—Magnus himself was. His anger, coupled with his frustration over the situation, was the main culprit.
Brilliant spoke with him, as did Camellia’s parents. While Magnus was not ready to forgive her, he agreed to think about it, and when the time came to forgive, he would approach Camellia about the situation.
Princess Celestia also came through on her promise. There wasn’t even a mention in any paper after the alicorn’s visit to Hollow Shades—no pictures, no interviews, nothing. There were, however, plenty of letters sent to the different newspapers from Equestrian citizens expressing a variety of opinions. They ranged from ponies who had no trouble with a human being related to Equestrian nobility, to fire-and-brimstone speeches about how Equestrian nobility was in decline, and how the monarchy should take action. Magnus wasn’t concerned and neither was Brilliant. A lot of hot air from hot air balloons, as she put it. Most ponies were decent ponies and the Equestrian nobility were more business ponies than actual old-time high society wastrels.
The investigation into Magnus’ assault was also carried out by the town guard captain of Hollow Shades. After several interviews by the journalists present, Brilliant and her family, and also Magnus himself, the assault was declared an accident. The pony who knocked Magnus on the head with the camera had been listening at the door, leaning on it, and when the door opened, he had fallen right on him, accidentally knocking Magnus on the head. With the investigation concluded, Magnus was given one extra day in prison.
After seven days, Magnus was released to start working to pay for the items he destroyed.
***
The moon had just risen over Hollow Shades as the small group came into town. Magnus walked alongside the cart pulled by some of the stallions while Brilliant and some of her family were passengers. Brilliant entertained the children with stories and minor magic tricks while the parents spoke. Copper Nut and Winter Wind pulled the cart, talking with each other.
Their little journey into town had a combined purpose; visit the stores to refill the pantry, and for Magnus to begin his work.
After arriving in town and parking the cart, the mares and stallions took their children shopping. Brilliant began to walk, heading away from town square with Magnus following her.
“A little bat-winged bird told me that you found some work that I can do, Brilliant,” Magnus said as they wandered past houses, heading deeper into the forest. As his warden, it was up to Brilliant to find a job for him, part of her duty as highest ranking noble and judge.
Brilliant nodded. “I spoke with some ponies around town, and found a job that you can do. It may be menial, but it is necessary for our little village’s economy.” Brilliant took the next right, leading them further into the forest. “Tell me, what resource from Hollow Shades do you think is most valued for our town’s economy?”
Magnus didn’t even have to think. “Lumber is a sure bet.”
“Correct, Hollow Shades is mainly a logging town. There are two different logging businesses in Hollow Shades; Blackwood Birchbark and those he employ take care of the western part of the forest, and Conifer Moss and her employees operate in the eastern part of the forest.”
“Sounds like cause for competition.”
“Oh they are. Always bickering while on the job. But at the end of the day, they become just Blackwood and Conifer, go home together, make dinner together, and eat together. They married thirty or so years ago.” Brilliant laughed. “Always knew their quarrels hid something else.”
The road they walked on led them by houses on the ground and in the trees, and slowly the amount of houses became scarcer until there were none left, only the road. At the end of the road stood a large two storey square building, looking nothing like a home, but something like a mix of a wooden office building and a warehouse. Several wagons stood outside, alongside axes and large saws, and next to the house stood several stacks of logs, cut and ready to be sawn. Some stood under the roof to dry.
“This is Blackwood’s office. He should be waiting inside for us,” said Brilliant as she opened the door once and strode right in.
The inside had a simple reception desk by the window, a few hallways leading elsewhere, and further in the back stood several other desks where ponies—mostly bat, but also a few of the other tribes—sat working with pen and paper and typewriters.
The receptionist, a short bat pony mare with rather oversized glasses noticed them. “Hello, Brilliant. He should be waiting for you in his office,” she stated cheerily. Brilliant thanked her and moved on down one of the hallways with Magnus in tow.
They made just a few steps into the hallway when a bat pony stallion with a few greying hairs and a steaming cup of coffee hooked on his wing claw came out of a room next to them. He had a short buzz cut, a cropped tail, a red and white chequered shirt, and a huge double bit axe for a cutie mark. To top it all off, he had a very deep brown coat, dark red hair, and a face that looked as if it was cut out of solid granite, the no nonsense kind of facial expression.
Brilliant smiled at the stallion. “Good evening, Blackwood.”
“How do you know what kinda Luna-damned day it is?” he almost snarled back, walking straight past Brilliant and Magnus, not sparing either of them a glance.
Magnus looked after the stallion, and almost had to laugh at the greeting he gave them. Not quite like other ponies, but different, in a refreshing sort of way. As for Brilliant, she chuckled at him.
“This is Magnus, my relative, remember? He’s here for the job I spoke with you about.” She turned and walked after the bat pony.
The bat pony, Blackwood, stopped, turned around, looked up at Magnus, showed no significant facial expression, and sipped his coffee. “Looks like a wuss,” Blackwood stated, turned around and began walking.
Magnus wasn’t about to simply let those words fly. “Oh, good. Guess I’ll fit right in then.”
Blackwood stopped, and Brilliant covered her mouth to suppress a surprised giggle. Magnus could almost hear the sound of rusty hinges as the bat pony slowly turned his head to stare at the human with narrowed eyes.
“What did you say?” Blackwood hissed.
“I said,” Magnus casually crossed his arms over his chest, “I’ll fit right in.”
Blackwood’s eyes narrowed even more. “Ku velki duul thaross, ka suta ba’el ta, Brilliant!” Blackwood rasped in a language Magnus hadn’t heard before. Whatever he said, Brilliant didn’t like it.
“Don’t you ~thaross~ him, Blackwood,” she said angrily, stepping in front of the bat pony. “And you said he would get the job, so bursa, lus meri tei bel!”
“Yeah, what she said… whatever she said,” Magnus agreed, despite having absolutely no idea what they had said.
Blackwood stared at Magnus, then at Brilliant. Letting out a heavy sigh, he said in a raspy voice, “Follow me.”
While they followed Blackwood, Magnus bent down and whispered to Brilliant, “What was that language?”
“Transylmanian, the original language of the bat ponies. All bat ponies speak Equestrian, but in Hollow Shades they also teach children to speak Transylmanian at an early age.”
“Okay, and what did he say?”
“That you had a big mouth and that he wanted to buck you. I told him that there would be no bucking, and that he should put you to work. Oh, and you should perhaps be a bit nicer to Blackwood. While he is the one giving you work here, he can also give you the worst jobs.”
Magnus simply nodded. It was best to stay on the manager's good side while at any job. Lip would get him nowhere, but he wouldn’t be a pushover either. A fine balance was needed.
Blackwood led them outside to a smaller shed, where the stallion picked up a large cloth saddlebag and a lantern and placed them in front of Magnus.
“Your tools. Go pick nuts,” said Blackwood.
Glancing down at the saddlebag and lantern, Magnus parroted, “Nuts?”
“Nuts.” Blackwood pointed a wing to the west. “Go pick nuts.”
“Alright, and where can I find nuts? Any specific type you’re looking for?” Magnus asked. He didn’t want to come back with just any type—there probably was a specific sort he would be searching for, and the tree the nuts came from probably grew at a specific place.
Covering his head with his wings, Magnus heard a strained growl and hissing come from underneath the wings, before they suddenly spread open again. “You’ll find nuts underneath trees, you absolute corkhead! Go pick black nuts in the forest!” Blackwood picked up a twig with his hoof and threw it after Magnus. “GO! SHOO! Return in five hours with the saddlebags filled, and you will go back and pick more until you return with the bag filled a second time before you are done!”
Easily dodging the twig, Magnus hurried on his way. “Eat shit, you grumpy old fuck! Screw balance!” he shouted as he ran down the western road, saddlebags slung over his shoulder, lantern in one arm and his other arm held out with his middle finger extended.
***
The walk through the forest was largely uneventful, save for the occasional bat pony flying overhead in the darkness. Occasionally he heard the screeching sound the bat ponies sometimes made coming from someplace in the forest. He heard some of the children in the castle made that sound when they flew around, hyped up on sugar.
The road was easy to make out in the dark, and while walking, Magnus came across a group of loggers at work. They had heard of him, and knew who he was. By now, the entirety of Hollow Shades knew that he was related to Brilliant, and they, like children, were curious, but far from afraid. After explaining his purpose in the forest, they gave him directions to a place they knew was a good place to find those mysterious black nuts. Thanking them, Magnus left, but only after getting a good look at how ponies cut down trees.
Axes were used, but also large crosscut saws that required two ponies to operate. First, they felled the tree. From there, a crew swiped across the log with axes, removing branches before finally cutting off the crown, and then they used chains and rope to manoeuvre the log onto a low but sturdy cart and hauled it back into town.
‘All done by muscle, no machines. I wonder, how would Equestria change if I introduced a few modern inventions?’ Magnus thought to himself while wandering through the forest. While it would be beneficial in the long run, somehow, the way ponies did things the old fashioned way appealed to him. No machines, no noise, just good old-fashioned muscle power.
“Christ, been here for… what, a few months and I’m already liking it instead of missing all the stuff I had at home. Wonder what the others are doing now…”
After reaching a fork in the road, Magnus headed straight into the forest, following the directions given to him by the loggers. The trees in this part of the forest consisted of tall spruces and pines, but also trees that looked like birches, but they were much taller and wider than the birches he had seen, and they had a dark brown colour instead of white. These birch-like trees were the ones he was looking for.
Holding his lantern up, he lifted the glass globe and began to focus his magic. His time spent incarcerated had earned him something new. With practice, failure, hard work, and help from the unicorns in Brilliant’s family, he had learned a new spell, one he was eager to try.
When his horn began glowing, he gathered up a sufficient amount of magic, cautious in the process. First, with his horn aglow, he began concentrating his magic as much as he could, feeling it, compressing it, holding it together. Then, he stared at the lantern’s wick, his intended target. Now came the tricky part.
While holding his magic together, he did as Brilliant had told him; reshaping magic into an element, in this case, fire. Converting magic to heat was tricky at best for a beginner such as him, even when he knew the formula. It was like balancing an acetylene torch; get the balance between the two gases right and it burned without problem, but get it wrong and bad things could happen. In this case, he needed to balance magic and the oxygen in the environment around him correctly.
But balance was hard, even when his will and mind was involved. The problem was his eagerness, and that he needed to control, which was difficult for a man who had dreamed of magic since he was a child. But Magnus had learned his lesson the hard way in the castle dungeon, and now he was ready to try solo for the first time.
After several moments spent adjusting the spell and balancing his magic, he unleashed the spell in a spectacular feat of flame the size of a burning match that lasted for an entire second. And the wick caught fire too.
“Five minutes doing this, and unicorns can do it almost instantly,” Magnus said as he stood up, lowering the glass globe and adjusting the wick while grinning. “Still, I am the only human who can do this!”
Now with a little light, he began searching for the elusive nuts. He found one quickly. It was small, about the size of an acorn, black and with a slight reddish-brown sheen to it. He quickly realized that the one he found was simply beginner’s luck. The nuts were hard to spot hiding among the moss and ferns, and only with the lanterns light bouncing off of them could he spot them.
With little else to do other than look for nuts, and not having brought his chaos-enchanted cell phone with him for entertainment, Magnus found a rhythm. Bored yet steadily he worked, eventually finding enough nuts to fill one part of his saddle bags after several hours of work. He realized pretty quickly that if he was to fill two saddlebags in one day, he’d have to pick up the pace.
***
Much later during the night, Magnus managed to fill his bags and returned to Blackwood’s lumber mill to offload his haul. The bat pony was not impressed; his stone-faced facade was ever present, and he spoke only a single sentence when he saw Magnus.
“Eat lunch and get back to work.”
And eat he did. Magnus doubted they had a cafeteria at the lumber mill, so he was smart enough to prepare some food before he left the castle. A few slices of bread with jam, an apple, and a bottle of delicious fruit juice would last him until dinner.
Later that night, when the moon was starting to descend, Magnus was searching through an area of the forest, deeper than he’d been in before. He could see no light from town or any other house other than the fireflies dancing amongst the trees, and his only company was the wind in the trees, the screeching from actual bats flying overhead, and the hooting of owls.
As usual, Magnus was ruminating about the various issues he faced while idly searching when he suddenly heard another faint sound, one that wasn’t from any woodland animal. Standing up straight, he glanced around, attempting to pinpoint where it came from, and when he determined the direction, he headed towards it.
After walking for a while and traversing a narrow stream, he could make out more clearly what the sound was; music. Flutes, xylophones, and definitively strings. He came upon a clearing that was lit by candles. On a stump stood an old-fashioned windup gramophone playing a calm and peaceful slow tune. But the music and the candles paled in comparison to the sight in the centre of the clearing.
A bat pony mare, diminutive in size, with a completely black shiny coat and a long mane and tail of darkest purple with streaks of blues, stood there. Her cutie mark was that of a pair of silver sparkling bat pony wings, its purpose first eluding Magnus to begin with. That changed quickly.
With closed eyes and a slight smile, the tiny mare flew effortlessly, her wings barely beating at all, yet still held her aloft with the barest of movements. Her forelegs and hind legs moved slowly, forwards and backwards, side to side, sometimes in various other motions that seemingly held no special purpose other than moving with the music.
Her graceful motions, her seemingly impossible ability to fly with the barest movement of her wings, was beautiful to watch. Fluttershy, demure as she was, was quite graceful when she flew. This little mare, however, was like a dancer in the air compared to Fluttershy. If Rainbow Dash was the epitome of speed in the air, then this mare was grace and elegance.
Then Magnus realized it. The music, her movements, her mark—this mare was a dancer, but instead of dancing on the ground, she danced in the air. It was like an aerial ballet. No unnecessary movement, no fumbling, only silent, balletic, delicate flying.
Magnus was stunned and spoke no words in fear of interrupting the mare. Instead, he slowly sat down on the moss to watch the entranced mare perform her dance. While no fan of ballet or its music, the sight before him was captivating. For a moment, he almost thought he’d come across a dancing fey in the forest.
Ever so slowly, the music wound down and finally there was silence. Just as the final tunes faded in the silence of the forest, the little mare gave her wings a final flap, spreading them wide while slowly landing gracefully without a sound, eyes still closed.
Magnus, not having said a word or made a sound, decided that now it was okay for him to speak. “That was amazing,” he said, truly meaning it. However, the mare reacted differently that he’d expected.
Letting out a frightened shriek, she jumped in fright and sped into the forest quicker than Magnus thought she could fly. She was gone before he could even say another word.
Quickly getting to his feet, Magnus shouted, “Hey, I’m sorry. I just wanted to say how amazing your dance was.”
No reply came other than the hooting of owls.
“Aaaaaaand she’s gone… I should have said something sooner, maybe should’ve made some noise to let her know someone was coming. But nooo! More skittish than Fluttershy…”
Letting out a sigh, Magnus turned around to head back to his saddlebags and lantern. With time running out, Blackwood would not be happy, not that he was a happy guy anyway.
***
Of course, finding his way back to the saddlebags and lantern proved a bit more difficult than Magnus initially believed. He’d walked farther away than he thought, and after meandering the forest for a good half hour, he finally found his bags.
But time was running out, and even though he looked harder and quicker than before, he only had two hours left of daylight when he finally filled the bags and returned to Blackwood’s lumberyard. The workday was over and there was no one at the building, so all Magnus could do was leave the bags and lantern at the same shed Blackwood found them in, and hope that the stallion wouldn’t be all sulphur and vitriol the next day.
The walk back to the castle was largely uneventful, aside from a few bat ponies here and there watching him pass by and saying hello. Hollow Shades was quite interesting due to the town and its inhabitants being so different from the rest of Equestria, at least Ponyville and Canterlot. While both Canterlot and Ponyville was very colourful, near pastel almost, Hollow Shades was subdued in a Tim Burton way. Truth be told, the town reminded Magnus of the town near Dracula’s castle in Van Helsing, the one with Hugh Jackman.
And the fact that the town was so dark, so different from the rest of colourful Equestria gave it its charm, Magnus mused to himself.
***
“How was work? Decided to become a logger yet?”
Magnus glanced up at Power Chord, chewing his veggie lasagne, and gave the bat pony an unamused look. “Go eat sh—” The humans eyes fell upon the foals sitting next to him, playing with their food. “Something else, Power.”
Out of all the ponies in Stargard, Power Chord was one of a few ponies who would joke around about Magnus’ sentence. Both had somewhat similar sense of humour, with Magnus perhaps having a bit darker theme, as well as the occasional reference to human humour that no ponies understood.
“No thanks, granny’s lasagne is the best; won’t even go to a fancy place on Restaurant Row for something else,” Power Chord retorted and chuckled.
“Honestly, logging might not be my line of work, at least when that perpetual sore a—rear is in charge,” Magnus added.
A few coughs and muffled laughs came from the ponies around him.
“Oh, Blackwood’s not that bad,” said Copper Nut. “I once saw him and his wife in a restaurant in town. I’m all for cuddly talk, but they could make cotton candy out of thin air the way they spoke to each other.”
“And probably vinegar at work,” added Magnus.
As usual, conversation and laughter came easy, and Magnus also contributed by telling how his workday had gone. Turns out, picking nuts was the worst job the loggers could do, although bat ponies had an easier time finding them due to their great night vision.
Brilliant also told that she had spoken with Blackwood after Magnus left, and the next day he'd be planting the nuts in the forest where trees had been cut down, and sometime in the future, maybe fifty or sixty years later, the now fully grown trees would be cut to become lumber again.
“Oh, that reminds me,” Brilliant suddenly piped up, wiping her mouth with her napkin. “I spoke with Iron Tower today, the town blacksmith, and he told me he had some work that needed doing. I convinced him to take you in for work at his forge for four days.”
“Hmm, that fills up this entire week then. What about next week?”
“I just need to ask around a bit, I’m sure I can find work elsewhere for you. Hollow Shades might not be the largest town around, but there is always something that needs doing,” Brilliant replied.
Magnus nodded and continued eating dinner. Soon, his thoughts drifted to the strange mare he saw in the forest that night, the mysterious dancer. He wanted to know more about her.
“I saw something unusual in the forest today,” he began, picking through his food. “A mare, kinda young-looking, dancing in the forest surrounded by candles and with a record player.”
“That would be Moonbow, Maestro and Light Pillar’s daughter,” Copper Nut answered quickly, looking up from his food. “Maestro is a conductor and composer who lives in town, and Light Pillar is the town’s dancing teacher. Quite a good dancer, from what I hear. Not too bad on the eyes either,” he finished with a grin, earning him a glare from both of his wives that promised he would be sleeping on the couch.
“You saw Moonbow dance? So few have seen her dance, only her parents have, and they praise her skills,” Winter Wind inquired enthusiastically.
“I hear she is a great dancer, just like her mother,” Free Flight said, eagerly continuing, “Somepony told me that she’s trying to get into the Equestrian Dance Academy in Canterlot, and there’s also a rumour that she might try for the Aerial Ballet in Cloudsdale.”
“She can try, but to be perfectly honest, I doubt she can get in; the poor filly suffers from terrible stage fright,” said Brilliant sagely before shaking her head. “Terrible loss; I heard from Light Pillar that Moonbow might be the finest ~Noctisieru~ in a century, and the filly is barely sixteen.”
Magnus nodded and swallowed his food. “Hmm, I believe the stage fright thing; I tried to be a silent spectator, but when I wanted to compliment her on her dance, I accidentally frightened her so much she flew away, leaving her record player behind. What does ~Noctisieru~ mean anyway?”
“Oh, it’s an old Transylmanian word from long ago. Loosely translated, it means ‘one who dances at night’. It is the traditional dance of the bat ponies, as old as the bat ponies themselves are. It’s said that it was a way the bat ponies used to show reverence to the night and the moon long ago. Soft movements like the moon slowly moves, calm and peaceful as the stars, and as silent as the night itself,” explained Brilliant, looking up at her family. “It almost sounds like worshipping, doesn’t it?”
A round of nods and agreement went around. Magnus nodded too.
“Sadly,” Brilliant continued with a sigh, “there’s so few bat ponies that dance these days. ~Noctisieru~ is almost a dying art. It’s a shame; I remember when I was a filly, so many bat ponies used to dance in the town square at night, at parties, and even at the Midwinter festival. You have to search a long time for a good dancer these days.”
“That’s sad; it was really something to see,” said Magnus, picking at his food. “But wouldn’t pegasi be able to learn it too? It is basically slow flying, isn’t it?”
“Oh, it’s a bit more than that,” said Silky Touch, seated next to Magnus. “We bat ponies fly differently from pegasi. Our flying is much more silent, slower, and due to the skin of our wings, we can catch air a bit easier, which makes hovering easier. Pegasi are faster than we are, and their wing bones are thicker, meaning they can withstand the stress of fast flying easier, while our wing bones are thinner. If we tried to exert ourselves like a pegasus, chances are we might break a bone. See?” Silky spread her wings, making them seem translucent against the light behind her. Her wings were covered in very fine, short hairs, and the blood coursing through her veins made her wings have a faint red coloration. Also, the bones of her wings were as thin as a pencil, making her wings seem like a hand with thin, long fingers.
“I see. Guess that means bat ponies might not be eligible for the Wonderbolts either then,” said Magnus.
Silky looked up and shook her head. “There have never been a bat pony Wonderbolt.”
Magnus merely nodded at Silky’s answer. Their bones might be strong, but they could also be fragile under the correct, or rather, wrong circumstances. And if they couldn’t generate the speed for flying fast, then everything was self-explanatory.
And the dancing also made sense when their wings were explained. Bats weren’t known for their speed, while a falcon in a dive could reach exceptional speeds. Even sadder, though, was the fact that bat ponies appeared to lose some of their culture, such as their dance. That fact also reminded Magnus about what Brilliant said to Celestia the day he was incarcerated, that Princess Luna fought for the bat ponies keeping their own law alongside Equestrian law, and that Luna wouldn’t let the bat ponies lose parts of their culture. Did this mean that Celestia might have once tried to ‘Equestrianize’ the bat ponies? Like Americanization did to the natives of America? Had the benevolent princess attempted to rob the bat ponies of who they were, their culture?
Magnus shook his head; no, Celestia didn’t feel or appear to be that kind of person. Still, it was over a thousand years ago and things could have changed. What was Celestia like long ago? Hell, what was the bat ponies like long ago?