//------------------------------// // Chapter Three: On Korea I // Story: The Sorrel Mare // by NorrisThePony //------------------------------// Co-Ruler of Equestria and It’s Colonies, HRH Princess Celestia --- I’d like to preface any remarks I make on this subject with a personal remark, citing my immense pleasure at being approached by somepony intent on publishing a novel about Staff Sergeant Reckless. Since I’ve known her, I have made it part of my royal duty to ensure her contributions to her duties--both within Equestria and back at her home--are treated with the dignity and respect befitting them. This has aligned me with her often enough that I consider her a dear friend and a shining example of what ponies in and out of the Royal Guard should aspire to be like. I first met Reckless not long after she first arrived in Equestria. I will spare you the details and the magical pontificating therein, and cut right to the main question of where exactly Reckless herself was arriving from. You see, Korea is nowhere in Equestria. It is outside it, apart to such an extent that it does not exist in any capacity we can reasonably explore and visit. Anypony who has met and spoken to Discord at one of the Grand Galloping Galas may have some idea what I’m rambling about. Reckless arrived in Equestria confused, and injured. Lacerations upon her back and sides, which were promptly treated without much trouble by the Palace’s first responders, though Reckless herself seemed quite confused by their presence and her own. It seemed that some force outside even my understanding had plucked the sorrel mare from one location, at one moment, and placed her directly into our own sphere of relevancy. I detected the magic signature almost immediately, and when I flew to the infirmary I caught my first glance of Reckless. Her proportions differed slightly from the ponies tending to her. She seemed taller, legs longer and snout more pronounced. Compared to her colourful peers (particularly myself!) her coat was restrained in pigmentation, a simple shade of reddish-brown besides the white blaze across her muzzle. She did not speak a word of Ponish. She learned it quickly, though. She was frightened and confused, but when her wounds had been healed she was receptive to new information and adapted quickly. After a week, she was able to comprehend the basics of our speech and it thusly became clear that her silence was one of ignorance promptly corrected. The magical signature flowing through her was unlike anything I have seen. Outside Equestria in make-up. This is why, when she told me she’d never heard tell of myself, or Equestria, or ‘ponies’, I had little reason to doubt her. She instead spoke of a place called 'Korea.’ A nation that Reckless described as mountainous in some places, flat and prairie like in others, and wracked with strife and war the like I have not heard described before. Reckless told me of weapons the soldiers in this nation used... Of explosions and bloodshed and chaos the like Equestria has scarcely seen in comparison. When she spoke to me of these things, I did not have to look hard to see the ghosts hiding behind her gaze. After she had acclimated to the basics of Equestrian social customs and speech, I saw to housing her in Ponyville, which is a chosen favourite of mine for peaceful locals with just the right amount of unpredictability to them. I figured Reckless would enjoy her time there, and I hope I was correct. It was only a matter of time before she came back, though, intent on joining the ranks of the Royal Guard. An endeavour I had been expecting, anticipating, and eager to see through expediting. We spoke again then, and the subject inevitably returned to Korea. Time had passed, she had grown to accept Equestria as her home in that time. Yet still, when she reminisced of her time in those snowy mountains, I could see the shadows of old battles playing through her amber eyes. It’s a subtle look, and most ponies wouldn’t have noticed at all. But at the risk of being needlessly ambiguous... if you know, you know. I suppose there’s a part of Korea always there, in Reckless. It’s my hope that Equestria can be a kinder home to her. I feel as though it is a kinder place with her within it.