Renaissance Pony

by Dafaddah

The Colony

Starswirl the Bearded was using magic to hoe a row in the colony’s little garden plot. The sun provided a pleasant warmth on his withers as he did a little weeding. There was abundant forage and grazing in this green land far from Equestria and Earth, so the garden was mainly for special treats from home, something to spice up the hardy but bland diet of the dozen inhabitants of the colony.

They were sure to have a special meal soon to celebrate Candy giving birth to her second foal. All-in-all, he felt rather helpless during such events. Aknu and Oya took care of helping the mares deliver. He was superfluous in such proceedings and knew it. Here in the garden he could at least be useful.

He adjusted his straw hat to keep the sun out of his eyes, and moved leisurely on to the next row. He was in no hurry. After all, the whole purpose of the colony was to give them time. Starswirl still thought it amazing that such a place could exist, where over four years could pass by while clocks in Equestria moved ahead by mere minutes.

After the initial rush of his becoming a pony and arriving in Equestria, time had seemed to fly by as he discovered the joys of being a unicorn magician and rediscovered those of being young again and full of vigor. Still, he had to admit that often he dearly missed so many of the simple joys of being an old man in the company of friends. Working the earth in this garden, he felt almost as if he had returned to those days at the Château de Cloux, in France. Soon, Count Melzi would come out, with Mathurine his cook in tow, to scold him once more for having forgotten the hour and delaying the midday meal. These were dear friends that he had abandoned on his deathbed, and could never meet again.

As he looked down at his pony forelegs tears began to fall. It had been a while since he had had one of his ‘human’ moments. With the royal princesses at home in Equestria, he had no-one... nopony... with whom to talk when melancholy set in. Old fool! he berated himself. This is exactly what you asked for, you have only yourself to blame! He dried his tears with a foreleg. What if one of the other should catch you like this? They all look up to you. For shame!

Starswirl gazed around him. The garden, much like the rest of this world Celestia had found for them, was so quiet. There were no other inhabitants of this land, pony, human or otherwise. The only voices to be heard, ever, were their own, and the colonists had yet to discover any animal larger than a rabbit.  

He took a deep breath, then another. Just as he had regained his composure he heard the sound of galloping. A thin grey unicorn mare with a chestnut mane arrived and skidded to a halt literally inches away, standing partly in a row of green beans.

He quickly put on his ‘happy Maestro’ smile, but it faltered as he read the grim expression on her muzzle. “What is it, Oya?” he asked.

“Oh, Maestro, it’s Candy. She’s... miscarried.”

He felt a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach, and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Where is she?”

“In her cabin, Maestro,” replied the young mare.

Without further delay, they galloped back together.

They arrived just outside the cabin that was home to the family of the earth pony Candy Apple and Head Wind, her pegasus husband. The colony’s five little foals were playing together outside and stared wide-eyed as Starswirl and Oya rushed in.

Inside the simple single room dwelling Aknu attended Candy, as she did all expectant mothers in the colony. Candy slept in her bed as Windy looked on, worry drawing lines on his otherwise youthful face. He looked up at Starswirl as they entered and could not prevent a brief look of resentment from flashing across his muzzle.

“How is she?” asked Starswirl.

Aknu spoke, her eyes never leaving her charge on the bed. “As well as can be expected for such a late-term miscarriage. It was very hard on her, but she’ll recover. There were no complications and the afterbirth just expelled normally,” replied the golden brown mare.

“That is fortunate,” said Starswirl, “for her and for our mission here.” One of the recurrent nightmares he had was of somepony being hurt. They were a mere dozen in the colony, and the only recourse available would in effect separate that pony for years of subjective time. So he had a strict policy that families would either stay together or return to Equestria together. The colony was comprised of three such young families and one lonely old stallion, himself.

“Why, Maestro?” asked Candy’s husband. “Why didn’t the spell protect our... our little filly? Why?” There was anger in Windy’s voice.

“I don’t know, lad, and I wish I did.” He looked at Candy’s sleeping form. “Can she hear us?”

“No Maestro. I have given her the sleeping root, along with a healing spell to help her womb contract. She will not awaken before tomorrow morning,” said Aknu.

“Well done, child. You, Oya and I have much that we need to do. Where is the...” He could not make himself say the words with the stillborn filly’s father there in the room. He started to move towards the cradle at the foot of the bed, over which a cloth had been placed.

Windy rushed up to him, eyes wide and ears low. “What are you going to do to her... to my daughter?”

“Hush lad.” Starswirl placed a hoof on his shoulder tenderly. “We need to establish why this has happened. It is the only way to avoid such occurrences from being repeated in the future. We will treat her with dignity. Had you chosen a name yet?”

Windy’s ears drooped low and tears began to drop from his muzzle. “Zenith,” he whispered. “We were going to call her Zenith.”

“Then we will bury her, under the large tree where we hold meetings. When Candy has recovered from her ordeal, of course.” He gestured to Aknu. “Please bring Zenith. We will go to my cabin. I assume Glide is with the foals?” This was a safe assumption as Aknu’s pegasus mate was the only adult of the colony missing, along with the five young ones that had been born since their arrival.

Aknu nodded.

“Scotty, could you stay with Windy and Candy for a bit?”

“Sure, Maestro,” said Oya’s earth pony husband.

The three unicorns exited the cabin, Aknu levitating a small bundle before her.

The four cabins of the colony formed a rough square. Celestia had said they would have no need for defensive structures on this world, but placing them so made everypony feel better. Starswirl’s cabin was immediately clockwise from Candy and Windy’s. He opened the door and the two mares followed him in. He had only one table, and gestured for Aknu to place her burden there.

“Does anypony have any idea why she miscarried?” he asked. Both mares shook their heads. “Then we will have to do an examination and autopsy of the deceased foal.” Oya visibly winced, while Aknu’s color paled. “I know this is difficult, as you are both mothers now. I will do the autopsy myself. I would ask you each to examine the foal and see if you can draw any useful information.”  

Aknu gulped and approached the table. Starswirl looked away as she uncovered the dead foal. “The Fetus is in the range of three hundred days. Pegasus female. It is well developed enough to have survived early delivery. There are no obvious defects. It...” Aknu’s ears fell. “She would have been such a pretty filly.” She examined the the foal’s eyes and mouth, and felt along it’s ribcage and abdomen. “There’s nothing abnormal that I can detect.” When she stepped away from the table, she sat on her haunches and hid her face in her forehooves. “I have done this many times before, and could keep detached. But this time, I..” She shivered.

Oya gave her a gentle hug, and then went to the table in her turn. Her horn glowed. “Forgive me, little Zenith,” she whispered. She stood before the table. Zenith’s body glowed and levitated into the air as Oya made her examination in silence for several minutes. The body descended back to the table and the glow ceased. “This foal had a rather small heart, which appears to have stopped working several hours ago. I cannot tell if this was the cause, but I could not sense any other abnormalities.” She covered the little body up. “Did she expel the afterbirth?” She looked at Aknu, who nodded and went back to the table.

There was another lump in the cloth package that Aknu had brought. Together the two mares unwrapped the placenta and umbilical cord. Aknu felt along the cord. Starswirl’s ears rotated forward as he heard her indrawn breath. She passed it to Oya, who levitated the umbilical for a few moments with her eyes closed, and then let it slowly fall to the table. She glanced at Aknu and nodded.

Oya spoke. “There is no doubt, Maestro. Zenith’s death was the result of the combination of two unfortunate occurrences. First, she had a rather small and weak heart, and secondly her umbilical cord is twisted far more than the usual three times, and seems to have developed a partial obstruction. One or the other and a foal might survive until birth, but the both was just too much of a challenge for the poor filly.”

“How sure are you of this?” asked Starswirl gravely.

Again Aknu and Oya looked at each other. This time Aknu spoke. “It is almost a certainty. This twisting of the umbilical cord is a condition that is all too frequent. On the other hoof, the small heart is quite rare. Neither are likely to be caused by the application of the Amniomorphic spell. You might still wish to do an autopsy, but I do not think it will reveal anything more than what we already know.”

Starswirl breathed a sigh of relief. “You are both mothers because of this spell. Do you still trust your future foals to it?”

“Absolutely Maestro!” said Aknu. She rubbed a hoof over her bulging belly. “I am the first unicorn to have given birth to a pegasus, and I will trust this third foal of mine to the spell. And the next one after that, and all the foals I might be blessed with in the future."

“And I am the first unicorn to have given birth to an earth pony and I wouldn’t give up my little Jolly for anything in the world. Maestro, our faith in the spell is still strong,” said Oya.

Their assertion of support for the Amniomorphic spell eased the burden on his own heart, and so did being relieved from having to autopsy the foal’s corpse. He gave them a sad smile. “And now, I must go inform Windy, and Candy when she wakes up, as to why their foal was stillborn. I will also construct a casket for Zenith. She deserved no less. Could you prepare her so that her parents can see her beauty before they say their goodbyes? I have clothes in the linen closet and distilled water under the table to finish cleaning her.”

They nodded their assent, and he went to do the hardest task he had known as leader of the little colony.

Leonardo was painting a fresco in Santa Maria delle Grazie church. He had decided to experiment with various paints, trying to find a better way than having to paint wet plaster. For a perfectionist such as he, not being able to constantly and minutely improve his work was a great frustration. There had to be a better way!

He looked at the segment he had been working on: a red cloak. Even as he worked, the pigment began to run down the wall onto the dried surface below it. He grabbed a cloth to prevent it from damaging the work already done, the blood-red paint staining his hands. He tried to wipe them, but his efforts just seemed to spread the paint all over his hands. Soon it looked as if he had immersed them in blood. He cursed, turning to get a clean cloth, and noticed he suddenly was no longer in the church.

He was in his workshop, a corpse before him ready for dissection. He knew he had to move fast. The corpse already stank and either it would quickly become unbearably rank, or the local constabulary would come to take it away before he could complete his dissection. He worked quickly, relying on his memory to be able to accurately sketch later what his careful incisions exposed.

It was messy work, and he already had blood on his hands. He went to pick up a bone knife on the table next to the corpse, but it slipped from his hand. He bent down to pick it up and dropped it again. For some reason he just could not grasp it! He tried with his other hand, with no better result.

Leonardo rose, and was blinded as the evening light coming in through the window struck his face. He looked down but shadows hid his body. Something was wrong with his hands. He tried to feel one with the other. Both were like bloody rags, flailing helplessly. He lifted his arms before his face and saw only mangled flesh where his hands used to be.

How could this have happened? His hands were his life! Without hands he was not an artist! Without hands how could he paint? How could he sculpt? In desperation he brought the bleeding masses closer to his eyes. In the midst of the ragged gobs of rent flesh he saw... not broken bones, no, something else. He saw...  hooves.

A weight pressed against his chest. He looked down and saw the body of dead foal in the crooks of his arms. It was Zenith, her eyes were open, vacant with the emptiness of death. Poor child! thought Leonardo. Sadness overwhelmed him. Poor child... Something caught his gaze, and he looked down at the foal’s thin fragile limbs, clutched to its tiny barrel. Her forelimbs ended not in hooves, but in two small perfect baby hands. Leonardo screamed in horror and...

… Starswirl woke up with a start, breathing heavily, his heart thudding in his barrel, his coat damp with sweat and fear. Before his muzzle he was holding up his forehooves. He closed his eyes, and let his heartbeat slow, before he opened them again. There they were: his hooves.

He caused a small bright light to appear magically above his head, and examined his forelimbs, as his breathing slowly returned to normal. My salvation and my nightmare, he thought. There was only one thing to do when he became like this, something that he had done so many times in his life as a man: when the weight of the world and the expectations of others became too heavy to bear, he wrote in his notebook.

He got out of bed and slowly clip-clopped over to his writing stand. Locking his legs in place, he levitated a quill, opened his notebook, and re-read the tiny script that crammed the first page.

These notes I write to posterity in the hope that they will be of use to future generations of ponies and will help them understand who I am and the things that I have done. There is indeed a certain degree of hubris in such an undertaking. However, leaving aside the call of my admittedly well inflated ego, I have a genuine desire to reach out to both those who, like myself, yearn to discover the underlying principles of magic and matter, and also those average ponies, who simply wonder about the world around them and how it has come to be so.

It will surprise many that my story does not start in Equestria. Many have heard the rumour that I was born and raised in a foreign land. This is the truth, but only the smallest part of it. For I wish to make it clear to all, I Starswirl the Bearded, was not born a pony, but on another world, from which I was brought here by Princess Celestia on a mission to save my race. I was born a human, in the year of my people’s reckoning 1452, and my name was Leonardo daVinci.

In particular, this notebook documents events starting on the day on which I conceived of a way to unite all Equestrians: the Amniomorphic spell.  However, I must warn the reader that many of the dates listed herein will be forcibly of different calendars as the events they describe have happened in other worlds where the flow of time is much different, and where in the span of a day in Equestria, they might experience a thousand years. In such instances I perforce use a local calendar of days and years to avoid any confusion.
 

He skipped ahead a few pages

… so from my student Clover I learned of a family of unicorns who had developed spells to create perfect chimeras, that is to say animals that display features of two lineages that normally cannot interbreed. I had also previously learned of another clan that had the magic to make it possible for a almost any barren mare to conceive and carry to term a foal. It was my plan to combine these two spells to allow a mare of any pony tribe to conceive and bear a foal of any tribe: unicorn, pegasus and earth pony. My objective was nothing less than the unification of the pony tribes into a single race, thereby making of them a single herd, Celestia and Luna’s herd...

He paged through the notebook, coming to a particularly significant date.


The second day of the tenth month of the Year of the Sisters’ Reign 1103, founding day of the colony.

Today, with the blessing of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we begin a grand and terrible experiment: with a herd of ponies, two from each tribe (not counting myself), we will attempt to verify and refine the function of the Amniomorphic spell. My companions will be three couples, each one of mixed tribes. I was surprised to find the unicorn mares Aknu Star and Oya Dawn were ready not only to become my assistants in the administration of this spell, but also to become mothers themselves! Both had fancied stallions of other tribes, and along with another mixed tribe couple that had sought Celestia’s blessing, they volunteered to become the first families to carry foals under the influence of the Amniomorphic spell.

In this enterprise, Celestia has granted us an incredible boon: she will send us to a world where we can build a colony and safely undertake this experiment for as many years as we deem necessary, and when we return to Equestria only a few hours will have passed.

Never in my life has a prospect presented such possibility of gain for so many, at such a potential cost to so few. These young ponies who join my cause have only just met me, yet still they entrust in my hooves their welfare and even that of their future offspring. Their bravery humbles me, and guides me in our preparations, for if all goes well, we together will have perhaps saved not only Equestria, but also the people of my own world, the Earth.


He paged to the last entry, and began to write.


The twelfth day of the eleventh month of the fourth year of the founding of the colony.

Today was sad one as the second pregnancy our earth pony mare Candy Apple ended in a miscarriage. We were able to determine the cause and it was unrelated to the Amniomorphic spell, but still this tragedy has dealt a great blow to the happiness of our little group. Perhaps it was unrealistic for us to expect no setbacks in our great experiment. Nevertheless, had the foal survived, it would have been the sixth foal brought to term under the spell: a pegasus born of an earth pony. We feel that the basic principle of the spell seems to be functioning admirably well. But only one more generation of births will prove that the spell’s effect continues and is successfully inherited.

At the end of next month I am expected to return to Equestria to give Celestia and Luna a briefing on our status. In that brief hour I spend in Equestria, the colony will experience over fifteen years, and I will rejoin it just in time for the planned second generation. The thought of leaving all these youngsters behind sickens my heart, safe as the colony has proven to be. But this was the agreement Celestia insisted upon, so my hooves are tied. My only consolation is that Oya’s husband Scotch Pine, who will lead the colony in my absence, is a truly solid and dependable stallion, and one who has the love and respect of all the colonists.

My own state of mind can only be described as melancholy. The isolation of the colony has indeed given me the time needed to work on my systematic study of magic, but it has often been lonely work, despite the good company of Aknu and Oya. Understandably, motherhood consumes most of their days. How I miss my student Clover and his sense of humour.

I also dream of the days of my life as a human. How I miss my hands and the pure sensual pleasures of working, touching, caressing and feeling objects both living and inert. I dream of working stone or painting or sketching, of the feel of skin and the sweet touch of lovers.

Of late, these dreams have become disturbing as they mix images of my human and pony lives. I have nightmares of losing my hands, and this past night dreamt of hands on poor stillborn Zenith. Why? Do I fear that I am losing my humanity at last, that Leonardo soon will be nothing more than fading memories in the back of Starswirl’s mind?

Starswirl paused as he thought about the dream and what it meant. A few minutes later he resumed writing.

Upon reflection, there is another possibility. The tiny fists of infants have always fascinated me. The sight of them invariably brings joy to my heart. Why did seeing hands on the dead foal horrify me so deeply? Are hands evil? Or is this just a sign that I have come see a foal the same way I see a human child? Zenith was not a dead animal, she was a person to me, and my horror was that of seeing death rob us all of getting to know her and seeing her grow.

The ponies are beings with a soul and an intellect full of potential, of this I no longer have any doubt, so I weep at Zenith’s foreshortened life. In my life I have celebrated humanity, and seen it as the the very summit of both creation and beauty. Am I now ready to elevate ponykind to share that summit? Perhaps the body, or even the hands, are not what standing on this summit is about. Perhaps there is something about thinking beings that separates us fundamentally from the non-sentient animals, something the sapient hold in common: a brotherhood of the mind.

Now I bend my unicorn magical skills to building a coffin for a babe. The first our little colony will have seen, and something I build from human memory. We will bury her with the rites of the ponies, for they, like we humans, have ceremonies and words to blunt the pain and help the living to carry on.

Starswirl put down the quill and stared at the passage he had just written. “... like we humans,” he read aloud, and smiled.

“Old man,” he spoke to himself, “you will need to fetch some wood and nails.” Starswirl busied himself as dawn rose outside his single window, shining upon the few small cabins of their little colony, on this world for which they had no name.

Celestia and Luna reclined in the elder princess’ apartment.

“You’re so quiet, little sister. What is the problem?” asked Celestia.

Luna hesitated. “It is nothing, truly. And it is time to call forth Starswirl from the fast world.”

“Very well,” said Celestia, her expression serious. Her horn glowed a moment and Starswirl appeared before them. His cloak was rather threadbare, and his appearance disheveled as he bowed, making the sisters chuckle.

“You seem well, Maestro, although perhaps that cape has seen better days,” commented Celestia.

He looked down at the ragged garment. “Greetings, your majesties. I have been thinking of changing into my other one, the one with the elegant tassels.” He looked up and smiled.

“Yes indeed. From your expression I gather that our little colony is doing well?” asked Luna.

“Very much so. I am happy to report that the colony is now home to six healthy foals! All are growing prodigiously and are above average in both talent and intelligence, according to their parents, who may lack a certain degree of objectivity in these regards.” This last assertion made the princesses laugh.

“So far it sounds like any village we have ever visited!” commented Celestia.

“However, here is the difference: two unicorn mares have produced between them two pegasi foals, two unicorn foals and an earth pony foal. The earth pony mare had one earth pony foal, and also had one pegasus foal stillborn, the only loss in our colony. We were able to determine that this was due to factors independent of the Amniomorphic spell.” The princesses became more somber at the news of the loss of the foal. “The overall performance of the spell is better than expected, and the colonists are willing to extend the experiment into the next generation. In that regards, I must ask if we can have a few more volunteers to join our colony, to provide a wider range of mating possibilities for the first generation.”

“This is very good news indeed, Starswirl, despite our grief for the lost foal. Please extend our condolences to the parents on your return,” said Celestia, then her face brightened. “We had anticipated this request might be forthcoming and have gathered from amongst the younger staff of the castle six unmated volunteers who are agreeable to spend a few years in the colony. They will be here within the hour. So, is there anything else you need?”

“Well, your majesty, I thought you might ask.” Starswirl produced a fat scroll from under his cloak. “I have listed a few odds and ends the colony will need.” He held the scroll before him and let it unroll, dropping all the way to the floor and tracing a path to the tips of Celestia and Luna’s hooves.

“I suspect I will have a busy hour,” commented Luna. She disappeared with the scroll.

Starswirl looked at Celestia, perplexed at Luna’s sudden departure.

“She is still upset at recent events, Maestro. It will be good for her to busy herself. Perhaps you should take advantage of the respite to visit your quarters. You can tell me about the colony and the colonists on the way.” Celestia waved towards the door. Starswirl bowed and followed her out.

With a loud pop, Starswirl the Bearded appeared in the space in front of his cabin. Behind him were six young pony volunteer colonists, and a literal mound of supplies. Before him was a truly unexpected sight: fully a dozen cabins, some of them quite large, and some two dozen ponies of all ages.

Five ponies approached, all of them of apparent age similar to his own. He smiled at them. “Dear friends, I have returned.” He saw Candy and Windy, Aknu and Glide, and standing alone, Oya. His smile faltered at the sad look she gave him. “Scotty would have been so proud to be here. As you can see, the colony has not been idle,” she waved a hoof to encompass the village.

Starswirl looked towards the hill with the ‘meeting tree’. Four grave markers stood below it, one showed a pictogram of a tree stump with an axe embedded: the cutie mark of Scotch Pine. He looked back over the many expectant faces. They were all so young!

Starswirl raised a hoof high and the crowd grew quiet. “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna send their regards and praise to all the ponies of this village,” he looked back towards the hill and its graves, “and their gratitude to those who have made such sacrifices for the benefit of all future Equestrians. You have all done very well!”

Starswirl looked on as most of the youngsters clopped hooves enthusiastically. Most had been waiting for Starswirl’s promised return for their entire lives. Some of the elders wept. He raised a hoof for their attention.

“Today we begin a new phase of our colony’s existence. We have brought with us the supplies to make this possible, a few treats to help celebrate this occasion, and also some new friends, who are joining our colony and are very eager to meet you all... as am I, for that matter!” There was laughter and the two groups merged, to much hugging, laughter, oohs and ahs, and not a few tears.

Starswirl looked at the gathered ponies, as the occasion turned into a welcome home party. A large banner to that effect was draped across the top of the expanded building that used to be his cabin. Ponies laughed, ate and talked as introductions were made, fillies blushed demurely and colts did their best to appear dashing. A few musically inclined colonists set up a band and began playing. Soon, many couples were dancing to the merry tunes. It was all so... human... and so pony.

Starswirl felt a tug on his new tasseled cloak. Looking down he saw a young filly of no more than six years. She bowed, and smiled up at him. Keeping a serious face, he bowed back formally, followed the youngster into the ring of dancers, and they danced to everypony’s amusement.

Starswirl gazed in wonder at all the faces, young and old, male and female, full of the joy of fellowship, and laughed. It was a timeless scene, a village festival no different than any he recalled from his days as a human in Italy or France. This is what it means to be a village, and hands or hooves changes nothing. These are my people. This is my herd!