//------------------------------// // Chapter 39 // Story: New Beginnings // by Hiver //------------------------------// My quill drew another line on my paper as I relaxed on the grass, my side against the tree, a icecream cone floating next to me and a bottle of low alcohol cider sitting in the grass next to me as I watched a unicorn walk past down the street, making use of one of the last warm days before it starts to get cold again. “What are you doing? You have been putting lines in that thing for over a hour.” Thunder Cloud asked as he dropped down from the branches of the tree above where he had been relaxing, landing in the grass. I shrugged and noted down a pegasus that flew past at rooftop level, “Just doing some light research. I'm curious about the population ratio between the three major pony subspecies.” Cloud tilted his head in question, “...How many of each tribe pass by?” “Something like that, yes. So far, I have fifty three unicorns, twenty pegasus and ten earth ponies. Is that a normal population ratio?” The Pegasus shrugged his wings and sat down on the grass, “Well, Canterlot is a unicorn city. Make sense there is more of them around. I mean, there are plenty pegasus and earth ponies as well, but yeah, mostly unicorns. Cloudsdale is almost completely pegasus with a handful of unicorns and there are a ton of smaller towns with almost completely full of earth ponies.” I frowned at that, “...Why? Why are things more mixed up? Do the subspecies look down at each other?” Cloud frowned and then shook his head, “No... not since the unification at least. But in general each tribe prefers to live in different places. We Pegasi prefer to live among the clouds. You unicorns have no idea how great it is to sleep on a cloud. Besides, we like being able to move from place to place.” he explained before he shrugged again, “Well, my family have been in Canterlot for a long time. But in general, you know?” I nodded in thought, “And unicorns and earth ponies?” He snorted and settled down on the grass, “How would I know?” Hmming, I nodded, marking off another earth pony that walked past. If I was going to do this study fully, I would need to visit several cities and outlying villages. Possibly spending a week in each and in different spots for each city for a proper statistical spread. All for some idle personal curiosity of why I was not seeing more earth ponies. Or I suppose I could ask somebody at the castle, that kind of information should be registered in the tax department. If I could get access to it in any case. So either go through massive amounts of paperwork or spend months doing field research. I put my quill, ink and paper back into my back. Nope, not doing either of those. That's why I'm never going to be a scientist. I might like the collection of data and I might be curious, there is no way I'm going through the effort needed for a real, actual, scientific result. I would also be surprised if nobody have done this kind of study before, I could likely just look it up in the library. Cloud knew I didn't start out as a unicorn. He had been as surprised as Swift but I did have a note from Princess Luna and Princess Celestia to help confirm to anyone I told about it that it was true. Even then, it took quite a bit of convincing but it did mean I didn't need to watch what I said around him. Floating my ice cream over for a lick, I frowned at it, finding it melted already. Damn it. I floated it over and dropped it into a nearby garbage can instead of trying to deal with the mess.. Uncorking the cider instead and taking a sip, I frowned at it before very carefully casting the cooling spell with a minimum amount of power behind it, chilling it before taking another sip. Much better. Cooling was much, much easier than freezing... I could do freezing now, but it was still tricky. Just cooling also didn't need that much power behind it and as such, even if cast wrong, would not make it go boom. “So, what's up?” I asked the pegasus as I corked the bottle again. He yawned, “Not much. Heading to Cloudsdale tomorrow... need to do a test to regain my basic weather license.” “...Weather license? I thought you were going to be a guard? You went to weather school?” Cloud shook his head, “Nope. But I did go to flight camp which teaches the basics and grants you the basic license. You need to renew every few years to be allowed to work weather in a emergency. Sometimes a storm gets out of control and they call in everyone qualified. Besides... all pegasus guards need to have their basic weather license. For the same reason.” I nodded, “Ah... Well that make sense. I kind of wish I could visit Cloudsdale, it must be a amazing sight.” “You can.” “What? But it's made from clouds!” He nodded, “Well, it is. But as long as you are inside, the clouds are compacted so anyone can stand on them.” he said explained, “How else could we have things inside? They would fall straight through!” ...That made a lot of sense... “Besides,” he continued, “Unicorns can use cloud walking spells.” “I'm not the best at magic though. But that is something I really need to look into.” I answered with a grin, “That would be so awesome!” Cloud stretched his wings before relaxing again, “Cloudsdale is pretty great. I did finally get around to reading that book of yours by the way.” “How was it?” “Awesome. I'll finish it tonight I think and pick up the next one before heading out tomorrow.” “Glad you liked it.” He nodded, “That Death Island was a great idea. Can't wait to see if they manage to destroy it. Have you started writing the next book?” “The third and last book is not started yet.” I said with a shrug, “It's not long since I released the second so I'm taking a couple of months to just relax and write some other stuff, practice my magic and such. Clear my head, you know. “Cool, cool.” I liked writing different things after a while. Might throw together some actually fully original short stories. Then a thought struck me about something I read a while ago, “Say... when in Cloudsdale, think you could pick me up a bottle of rainbow?” “Rainbow? Sure I know a place that sells them for parties, why?” “I'm curious. Never seen liquid rainbow before.” According to the book, they were actually drinkable even if it also said they didn't taste good. I just wanted to see what a bottled rainbow looked like.