//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 : Welcome to Equestria! // Story: Welcome to Equestria! The second part of the Origin of the Rom. // by De Writer //------------------------------// The second part of the Origin of the Rom I was awakened by Nore gently nuzzling me behind the ear and a donkey like me has BIG ears! She was still beside me, snuggled up close. That was an amazingly good feeling for an old donkey like me. She saw that I was waking up and whispered in my ear, “Good morning, Love. Welcome to the land of the living. You were sleeping like the Dead.” I took a deep breath and slowly realized that I had forgotten to breathe during the night. Again. To cover my embarrassment at being caught, I double checked that I was still casting a shadow and replied, “I see that you wore your headstall, your Freedom, you call it? All night.” Nore stated Firmly, “I will never take off my Freedom, except to clean it or to replace it. Being Freeborn, you might find it hard to understand that none of us can be comfortable without wearing something on our heads. “We all wore the headstalls of the Slaveborn from the day that we were foaled. The bit and lead-ring ruled us for our whole lives until you set us free. The Freedom has no thing left by which another can rule our lives again but it leaves us the comfort of having a stall on our heads as we have since foaling.” She shuddered all over for a moment. “Being without a Master is hard. There has always been a Master for us, before. When we were cast out, due to the famine and drought, being Masterless was worse for us than the hunger and thirst.” I nodded thoughtfully. “I remember how, out there in the desert, on the first day that we met, you all tried to give yourselves to me, simply because I was, in your eyes, Freeborn.” Nore stroked my neck with the side of her head and pointed out, “There was more to it than just that, Marchhare, my love. You chose the lives of a band of cast out slaves over the very substantial profit of gold that you would have had by passing us by and trading your food and water to the Godolphin’s Court. We saw what you were giving up to save us. We wanted to give you something too. All that we had was ourselves.” I returned the nuzzling as I told her, “I was giving it to you as a gift. I wanted nothing from it but to save you, if I could.” Nore’s eyes teared a bit as she answered, “You turned down our gift of ourselves most gracefully. You insisted on pulling the caravan. When some of us were too weak to walk, you pulled us in it too. Then we realized that you were not eating or drinking your share to be sure that we got to safety. We finally realized how important our lives and freedom were to you. “At the last, Dear, you were too starved and thirsting to go on. You found that shady ledge and laid down. We saw you di … take your nap. Then we truly understood that to you, our freedom was worth anything, even life itself. “We did go on without you.” She sniffled, “It broke my heart to leave you there, but at least it was the gateway to the Lake of Paradise. I wanted to stay by your side then, but you did say that you hoped that the Lake would be many years away for me. “We found Sha Ja Shehan, the Spring of Salvation, that saved us all, just where you told us it would be. There, we rested and tried to do the best that we could of our skills to honor the Gift of Freedom that you bought us at such a cost.” I flicked an ear in amusement and inquired, “Cost? Taking a nap and waking up feeling good is a cost? Catching up to you and being treated like royalty is a cost? You proposing to me and us getting married is a cost? “If that is your idea of cost, I don’t think that I ever want to stop paying it.” Soberly, Nore replied, “To rejoin us you turned your back on something wonderful. You may not remember it, but you did.” I rejoined, “It could not have been that wonderful if it did not have you, and I mean both you and the rest in it.” Quietly she answered, “If you had found us only a little later, Love, we would have been there with you. Saving us, even with your not eating your share, was a near thing.” I stretched and changed the topic. “Not eating? We need to remedy that. Let’s get up and rustle up some breakfast.” Rom, sitting quietly at a distance, said, “We have already made breakfast, Marchhare. It is waiting on you and Nore.” Getting up, I remarked, “See what I mean about getting the royal treatment? Breakfast is ready and I did not have to make it!” Nore whickerd her amusement and joined me. The others had found yet another new recipe for the Ka'Chek flour ground from the travel cakes that they had already made of nettle, sorrel and clovers. They were thin flat sheets of dough. The basic sheet was rolled around several different fillings. I was especially fond of the ones made with berries in the filling. To wash them down, a hot, dark infusion like a strong tea was present in quantity. The huge ancient trees of the Sunset Mountain highlands surrounded the glade where we now were camped. I caught the others, all of them, giving the trees almost reverent stares from time to time. It slowly dawned on me that the trees, glades, meadows and pools of this pass came pretty close to their notion of the Lake of Paradise. It was Sando who gave that a voice. “This Equestria of yours, Marchhare, is amazing to us. No place in the Godolphin’s lands or the deserts about them is like this at all.” He sort of nickered in an embarrassed way and went on, “What need of a Paradise after we die when we have this, here and now?” I was paying more attention to the cloud formations moving in overhead. I knew that the Cloudsdale Weather Authority was going to put a good deal of rain, both surplus from other projects, and planned water storage in these mountains. To those who understand such things, those clouds were an impressive feat of engineering. I took the moment to point them out to my friends. “See how the clouds swirl in what looks like long rolls? Each of those is a transportation vortex. The swirling not only moves the clouds where the guiding pegassi want it to go, it keeps the rain from falling. When the cloud vortex gets where they want it, they can adjust it to let the rain fall exactly where and at the rate that they want.” Rom looked up at the clouds in wonder. “I see FIVE of those vortexes. Is that right? Those clouds are actually being moved by those flying ponies that you told us of? Amazing.” It was Sando who suggested, “It is a pity that they cannot spare some for Gyptia. They could save so many lives if they could.” I observed, “True. That would be an international diplomacy thing, though. The Princesses would need to order it and before they could, they would need the approval of Gyptia and the Godolphin. Such things often take a long time and are complicated to do.” Looking up at the clouds, Nore observed, “I have never seen clouds so thick and heavy looking. Will they let the rain fall all at once?” I laughed gently. “No, Dear. This much water would cause floods down the mountains and out onto the plains. The pegassi controlling it all will drop the rain slowly over a period of weeks, so that it will soak in and be stored in the ground and plants here in the mountains. That way, the water will come out to the farming lands slowly, exactly when and how they want it for the best crop management.” Phappa, the big brown blacksmith with a white blanket spotted with darker brown, pointed, “I see them! There they are! The flying ponies! They look almost like birds from here!” Sarel, the dappled gray weaver of the group pointed to something else. “Look at that! There is a small tendril from the bottom of the space between the second and third vortexes headed our way! It has four of the flying ponies guiding it!” They were getting close enough to recognize. They were Ground Nest and his gang of vandals. Their tendril was spinning opposite to the transportation vortexes. The gang of them like to cut open expensive wagon covers on donkey traders’ carts and drench the trade goods. They think it’s funny. Being one of those traders, I don’t. I called, “We have rain coming in! Rig the caravan for rain!”