//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Wild Stallions // Story: Icon // by ReifuTD //------------------------------// I followed Icon down the dirt road. My legs were getting tired. I have been walking more than I can remember. Because of this he was several feet ahead of me. He passes by an old blue stallion, the stallion had a graybeard to his withers and wore biggie overalls over his hind legs and a straw hat atop of his head. He was chewing on a strand of wheat. Icon turns to the stallion, “Mister do you know where the trading outpost is?” The old stallion took out the piece of wheat from his mouth. “About a mile or so that way.” He pointed up the road. “Think you,” Icon tipped his hat at the pony. The conversation gave me a chance to catch up to the blue pony. I was sweaty and thirsty so when I did reach him I pulled out a canteen from my saddle bag and begun to drink. “You look exhausted,” Icon turn to me and smiled. “They say we ponies are built for walking, but today I’m having my doubts,” I sighed. Icon smiled back at me, “You get used to it.” I looked around, beyond the fences I could see fields of hay grass growing being whipped around by the wind. It didn’t take us long to reach the trading outpost. It was a simple wooden structure with three rooms. The first room or main room had goods displayed out for sell. The second room was a common room for travelers to rest or even sleep. All that room had was some blankets and some mats. The third room was the outpost keeper’s personal room. Slightly better than the common room by the fact that it had a thicker mat on the floor, a dresser with a lamp and a few decorations. The pony working at the outpost named Growlily was an earth pony mare not quite young but not quite old either. Her coat was orange with cream colored hair. If one examined her closely they could see that the sensitive whiskers on her face were jet black. The mare’s Cutie Mark was a black lily prom. It should be important to note that the lily on Growlily is a reverse lily. Instead being orange with black spots it was black with orange spots. A possible sign of nonconformity or a rebellious streak. Flowers usually means a gentle streak or caring nature. Given that this is a reverse flower the opposite could be true. But any number of interpretations can be given to a Cutie Mark. The best way to find the meaning is to talk with them. “You must be Growlily,” I introduced myself, “Icon Starsketcher, My publisher should of have sent you a message? “You’re from the Cutie Mark Science Society,” Growlily replied, “Hard to believe it’s already been a year. Got the short stick this time?” I pointed at Emo, she had her face in a shelf examining some items that were covered in dust. She gets some dust on her nose and sneezes throwing up more dust. “She’s new and the new ones always get this short stick, unfortunately I took her underneath my wings so I get the stick too.” I told the counter mare. “They should be coming back around tomorrow,” Growlily said, “You can stay in the backroom over there for the night.” “So where are you from?” I asked casually. “From?” The mare replied. “You can’t be from here, this is the middle of nowhere,” I answered. The counter mare gave me a glare. “I wouldn’t call this place nowhere!” She snaps. “You’re from one of the tribes aren’t you?” I realized. “Tribal pony?” Emo’s ears perked up. She walks over to me and Growlily. “You don’t look any different than a normal pony?” “That’s because there is no difference,” Growlily tells her. “I didn’t mean to offend you,” Emo said astutely. “It’s not your fault,” Growlily sighs, “Sometimes I can be more defensive than I should be. I sort of chose to be in both worlds.” “How that end up happening?” I asked. “Suppose I just wanted more,” Growlily answered, “I walked around the outside world for a few years. After a while I wanted to return to my people. But living amongst the town ponies made it so I couldn’t acclimate back with them. Sitting up this outpost was a compromise of both worlds.” “What are your people like?” Emo wondered. Growlily sighs, “I suppose you would call them simple.” “Simple?” Emo repeated. “Yeah simple is a good word,” Growlily nods her head, “Do you know how ponies used to live?” “In herds that roam the planes,” Emo answered. “And what did they eat back then?” Growlily asked. Emo squinchs her face as she thinks, “Grass I suppose, straight from the ground.” “You see that’s the point,” Growlily points out, “What is the point of civilization when any pony can simply live by stepping outside of town in live off of the grass they find there for the rest of their lives.” “So your people abandoned civilization?” Emo asked. “They live like they feel like they should,” Growlily answered, “Like the sheep or the cows they roamed the land grazing off of any plans they find. Sleep huddled together at night. No buildings, no wagons, no luxuries. Just eating, sleeping and breeding.” Emo blushed, “They need to do something to pass the time,” I point out. Emo dug through her saddle bags and pulled out our camera. “You don’t mind if I take a picture of your Cutie Mark do you?” “Eikonphile,” I explained with a smile, “That’s how she got this job.” “I don’t mind,” Growlily nods her head. After a while we retired for the night. I laid down to get some sleep, I felt something nestled up against me in the dark. It was Emo smiling back at me. “What?” I asked. She kisses me on the lips. The next morning a group of wild ponies came to the outpost. All of them were earth ponies. Some of their kin were sick and they wanted to try to trade for some medicine. The ponies took jewelry out of makeshift saddle bags they had on their backs and traded them for the medicine. Growlily explained that these weren’t the ponies of the tribe that she was from. Her tribe didn’t even carry saddle bags. Apparently each side took their nomad lifestyle in a different way. Some kept nothing, some kept a few belongings in bags that they carried with them, others carried tents on their backs and would settle down in a place for a few days after pitching their tents. Icon and I took note of these ponies Cutie Marks. Most of these Cutie Marks were simple, a lot of triples. There were things like beads, rocks, plants, whether. Icon would say that ponies of simple minds or lived simple lives tend to have simple Cutie Marks. They said that they had their Cutie Marks in the Registry, we used the outpost’s copy of the regional Cutie Mark Registry Index to confirm. Icon also set with some of these ponies to ask them how they got their Cutie Marks. The most interesting story came from a colt named Stormchaser. Like his namesake he liked to chase after storms. One day he saw tornado touchdown and destroy half a field. His heart raced with so much excitement, a tornado appeared on his flank. The tribe told us that there were more of them waiting out in the planes and that they had some foals that just got their Cutie Marks within a year. So they led us to the rest of the tribal group. The tribe had about a hundred individuals. It seemed like the mares had one foal for every year after they became breeding age. There were a half a dozen foals who had gotten their Cutie Marks. I took photos of each of their flanks as Icon interviewed them. After he was done talking with the foals he sat down with the other ponies. This being the first time they ever talked to a Eikonpsychologist. We stayed there talking with the tribe until the evening. To my surprise as the sun was going down they cleared off a section of the grassland and built a campfire. It was about this time that the wild ponies took out some plants from their saddle bags. Icon and I was offered some of these plants. Icon took a little, I took a lot. The plants tasted bitter but also sweet. After a while I started feeling tingly in both my body and mind. “Are you okay?” Icon asked me. “I think there is something wrong with those plants,” I said my legs twitching. “Of course there is, you don’t think that they would have taken the time to pick and carry it with them if there wasn’t,” Icon smiles. “You can be an ass sometimes you know that,” I snapped at the stallion. I lifted my head up to look around and was shocked by the site of two ponies fornicating in front of everybody. I blushed and turned away. “They do that in public here?” I whispered to Icon “There isn’t really a private place to do something like that unless you want to walk away for a mile,” Icon told me. “I guess with the fire light hitting everyone’s eyes one could sneak off into the dark if they wanted to.” I leaned over and kissed Icon on the cheek. “When in Rome I suppose.” I stood up and showed him my backside swishing my tail back and forth. “But how about away from the fire? So we have the night as our cover?” Icon nods his head and I leads him away from the campsite. Over the next few days, we located three more tribes and registered down the new Cutie Marks of the foals. One of them was another earth pony tribe. This tribe being the one that Growlily came from. In some nearby woods we found some unicorns living like deer. A lot of them had different kinds of leaves and flowers for Cutie Marks. We managed to reach some nearby foothills where we found some wild pegasus using a local water fall to make clouds to sleep on. Their Cutie Marks were mostly whether based which was typical for pegasus in general. Icon told me that wild pegasus tribes can be the hardest to find for ground based ponies due to their ability to fly and to live on clouds. After a week we found ourselves back on the same dirt road we walked on walking to the outpost. We passed by an old blue stallion who nods his hat at us as we walked back to civilization.