The Pony Dialogues

by Knowledge

Also Sprach Ei Rikr 1.1: A Hermits's Warning (Revised)

Written by: Knowledge
Edited by: Knowledge and Rewrite

Summary of the Prologue:

Three travelers take shelter in a mountain cave. Andrea tells Sophia about her parent Ei Rikr's tragic past while ze loudly mourns said past out in the rain.

Ei is an ancient horsefly (changeling) who became blind when ze discovered Sophia as a foal abandoned in a patch of blue flowers.

Andrea is a mature buffalo warrior and current Queen of the Forest who feels indebted to Ei Rikr despite the horsefly being partially to blame for the atrocities committed against her people.

Sophia is a unicorn filly who cannot feel emotions due the blue flower's curse.

After a night sleep, they plan to continue their search for the land on the other side of the Neverending Forest where Ei Rikr's sibling should be living.

Author Note: This chapter was written before the prologue, so it will once again describe each character, but this time with more detail.

--------------------------------------Mountain cave overlooking the Neverending (Everfree) Forest----------------------------------------------

"You beautiful star! Would you still be happy if you hadn't us upon whom to shine?" proclaimed Ei Rikr the horsefly in a grandiose manner of the priest sheeps as ze emerged from a cave upon a modest mountain. Though Ei could not see the light, ze could feel the bright light shine brightly upon zir black chitin. "It is a beautiful day again, Sophia."

"You say that it is a beautiful day every day, Ei, rain or shine" came the flat, emotionless voice of Sophia, who stood behind the genderless horsefly. To their right emerged the powerful Andrea, Queen of the Neverending Forest, wearing a triangle-fractal-patterned shawl. Andrea said nothing.

Sophia had a salt-and-pepper coat and a black mane. Her brown eyes always spoke of the utmost critical objectivity. Upon her muzzle lay a small pair of reading glasses, which were a gift from her parent Ei Rikr. The group had brought a few books, which Sophia had read multiple times already. Upon her shoulders, the filly wore a square-fractal-designed shawl, given to her by Andrea who wore a similar one.

"Well, that is because it is always true!" declared Ei Rikr.

"You are blind, you could not know how beautiful the day is," retorted the daughter without a hint of emotion entering her rough voice.

"You wound me, Sophia. You are right that I am blind, but I have seen the morning enough in my life before my blindness to know that if the sun is shining this brightly in the morning, it must be a beautiful day. So far it has shined brightly for ten days straight," Ei explained to zir daughter. This started their regular battle of wits where words were thrown between them like boxers would throw punches. Andrea could hardly conceive of why they would desire to leave this forest and live among civilized peoples when they already had enough stimulation between each other sufficient for an entire village worth of conversation.

Well, except when Sophia became contemplative. Then the filly would just watch what interested her and think intensely without talking for hours. Andrea like to think the filly's had somehow combined Andrea's skill of silent observation and Ei Rikr's ability to prolong philosophical conversations indefinitely into her own thinking style.

"We better get going," commented Andrea, interrupting their little back-and-forth. This made the other two stop in their regular morning bickering to hear if Andrea had any more to say. Seeing their focus on her, she felt necessary to add some more. "I cannot know what it means. We could be in a different region."

Ei Rikr and zir daughter both stroked their non-existent beards in deep thought. The horsefly was the first to speak.

"Perhaps, we will finally reach the end of the Neverending Forest?"

"And what would that mean?" Sophia asked critically.

"Open plains and perhaps civilization," Ei responded. Zir wings buzzed in optimistic joy.

"If we are looking for civilization, I suggest searching for a river when and if we exit the forest," added the buffalo.

"Why?" inquired the salt-and-pepper filly.

"People tend to build their villages on the rivers. It would be the most efficient way to civilization," Ei Rikr explained on Andrea's behalf.

"Which direction do you suggest?" the horsefly asked, rubbing zir bright white fangs with a black chitinous hoof.
The buffalo merely pointed, unhelpfully for the blind horsefly. The filly followed the cloven hoof and saw an expanse of forest with something very notable about it.

"That is a fire," said the filly plainly.

"Where?" asked the horsefly. Zir daughter directed her blind parent with a guiding hoof.

"That must be someone! I will go ahead, you two meet me there," Ei Rikr proclaimed loudly. The morning birds flew from their trees in fright at the sudden sound.

Thus Ei descended the mountain alone by wing, leaving the cave, zir daughter, and the Forest Queen behind. Following the general direction indicated by zir daughter and zir sense of flame, Ei Rikr fell upon a thatched-roof structure emitting smoke through a chimney at it side.

The filly went back in the cave to get the books, not quite sure what to expect today. Smoke could mean a lot of things. In her experience, usually bad.

The filly picked Essays on Pessimism by Soap N. Hower, the cleanest and most cynical of the Hippopotamuses, to read on her way to the fire in the distance. Andrea offered to carry some of the other books in a saddle and indicated that Sophia could read them upon her back.

If the horsefly could have seen zir surroundings when ze was descending the mountain, ze would have seen a colorful village full of even more colorful ponies not far from the mountain they slept in last night. The reason the two others had not seen the village was that the cave and walk up the mountain was on the opposite face of the mountain than the one facing the village.

-------------------------------------------------Hermit's Hut-----------------------------------------------------------

Zecora the hermit had just finish making a fire for her pot. Now she was at her table where she was trying to find of what some new Everfree herbs were composed of when she heard a sudden thump on her roof.

"Who has interrupted this delicate process,

For if I were not careful, there would be a mess?" inquired Zecora. She rhymed because that is how she learned Equestrian.

Zecora heard another soften thump this time in front of the entrance of her hut. There she saw a species she had not seen since she left her home country.

"Sorry about that, I did not know you were busy potion making," apologized the ancient horsefly in Equestrian as well. This took a moment to register in the bug's brain. "Ancient Equestrian, I haven't had a chance to really speak this language in over a millennium."

Taking a moment to dust off, the scholar finally introduced zirself. "People call me Ei Rikr. Sorry for barging in. I am still not quite used to flying blind."

"Welcome Ei Rikr, one of the great ancient schoolmasters of the Academy," Zecora reverently replied in Zebrican. She was glad to finally have someone with whom to converse in her native language. "My name is Zecora the Wanderer. It is because of this wandering that I have ended up here on the opposite side of the world."

"Glad to meet you, Zecora," said Ei as ze entered the hut, mindful not to accidentally run into anything. The horsefly had to admit, ze was not expecting to meet a zebra this farm from their continent. They were not known for travelling, but then against Zecora did introduce herself as a wanderer. There are always exceptions to everything, the horsefly thought zirself.

Zecora knew she ought to feed her guest, so she extended her neck so that the horsefly could take a bit. Despite Ei's blindness, ze could sense the movement and happily accepted the offer by injecting a bit of green flame into her. The green flame quickly went to the zebra's head, loosing her inhibitions to hold onto energy. With common zebra-horsefly pleasantries out of the way, they began their dialogue proper.

"I remember you, Ei Rikr," Zecora remarked.

"You do?"

"Yes, I saw you as you were saving the sheep of Fleece from the Lupens of the Roamen empire fifteen years ago. I tagged along your refugee caravan before going on my own into the fabled Neverending forest. I only saw a glimpse of you standing with your students, but I had been told of you when I was but a child."

"They speak of me in Zebrica still?" the horsefly asked bemused.

"We of Zebrica still mourn the loss the horseflies on the South Continent in ancient times, and you were quite famous in our lands as one of the few remaining of their number even before you had your vacation in our lands three centuries ago," Zecora explained. There was no need to go into detail of what 'famous' things the ancient horsefly had done during this historic vacation.

"You probably know why we had to take to the forest," Ei Rikr sighed.

"The wars," Zecora assumed. Changing the subject, the zebra asked about the horsefly's blindness.

"I lost my sight a decade ago. As you know, this has greatly weaken me, so I can no longer fend for myself as I once did. I cope by travelling with my friend Andrea.”

Zecora understood. Any zebra understands the difficulties of their horseflies. They were family in her land after all.

“What is that which you seek in your journey, Ei Rikr?” she asked.

The horsefly could feel the sincere curiosity increase the energy flow from the Zebra.

"I seek a land not plagued by war where I don't need to fear that anyone will attack my daughter," Ei Rikr proclaimed.

Zecora's mood immediately soured.

"There is such a land," the zebra informed her guest. "But I do not suggest going to that cursed land."

"Why? What is wrong with their country?" Ei Rikr wondered confused.

"The land is Equestria, kingdom of the forever happy ponies. I had assumed you had come from there, which I why I spoke that ancient language earlier. They haven't experienced war or genocide since they been isolated from the rest of the world up here in the North."

"That sounds too good to be true," Ei Rikr replied skeptical.

"Oh, it is very much true, and what makes it true is exactly why you are better off avoiding their country," Zecora urged.

"Please, I need to know more about this land. If it is safe, I must bring my daughter there. If it is dangerous, I still must explore it in case my sibling lies in its borders," the horsefly pleaded.

"If I had to summarize what they were, I would say they are a people of violent innocence," the zebra began. This resulted in a curious click of the horsefly's mouth. "First, the ponies can barely tell ally from their enemy. If they do not understand what you are, they assumed you must then be unnatural and attack you. I have experience first hoof myself.

"Second, they are blind to the harm they cause to others. They are so self-absorbed in their own goals that they often destroy many things in the wake of accomplishing them. It is not uncommon for ponies to crash into people's homes or to run someone over with their cart without so much as batting an eye. What makes it worse is that other ponies harmed this way often merely forgive the injury instantly, and so the lesson is never learned. The wisdom of a philosopher who teaches the need to change and to love would be wasted on their innocent minds."

The energy feed was still going strong between Ei Rikr and Zecora as ze considered her words. The horsefly could sense the zebra's bitterness over her past experiences. Ei Rikr could not help but sympathize, but ze could not agree.

"I should at least try, if not for my daughter's sake, for your sake. What you describe is definitely bad if true, but you have become poisoned by resentment and bitterness. It would be the least I could do to show you that people can change and become more appreciative of the ways of the wise."

"Trust a horsefly to speak of the potential of people to change. This just shows your ignorance of the ponies. Changing is the last thing ponies do, and you will find that out soon after arriving in their lands. The powers at be won't let their little ponies change. I fear that you will die before your wisdom reaches the ponies."

Ei buzzed slowly in an expression equivalent to a sad sigh.

"It is probably the most I can ask," Ei Rikr stated. "My companions should be joining us soon."

As if on cue, Zecora and Ei could hear movement in the forest. Ei ended the feeding, letting the green flame in Zecora dissipate like particles in the void.

"'No ram has ever felt perfectly happy in the present; if he had it would have intoxicated him,'" Sophia quote in her cute approximation of a jowly old male philosopher voice, a reading habit she had gain from observing Ei's students.

"What do you think of my daughter? She is funny, isn't she, sitting on a buffalo speaking like an old chimp? I think she gain the love of any sapient being through pure adorableness. I am sure ponies will love her. She is their kind after all."

Zecora listened to Ei Rikr describe zir hopes for zir daughter, she walked to the entrance of her hut to see this filly reading from a collection of Soap N. Hower essays while riding on a buffalo's back.

"This little one is my daughter, Sophia, and the buffalo is Andrea, Queen of the Forest."

Zecora's eyes went wide when she noticed the blue dots on the child's head.

"That pony child has poison joke!" Zecora exclaimed.

Ei Rikr blinked zir blind blue eyes with their splotchy discolorations. "Excuse me, what do you mean Zecora?"

"See those blue dots on her forehead, they are a consequence of a blue flower. They change something about a creature, and in the case of your daughter, I fear, it has done something to her mind."

Ei Rikr lifted zir head as if looking somewhere in the sky.

"Is there a cure?"

"Yes, but I am out of it now. I will get some immediately. You will have it by the morrow," Zecora reported. Looking at the changeling closer, she noticed that ze was infected as well. Informing the horsefly of this, ze nodded in understanding. The zebra was surprised that Ei Rikr was not more enthusiastic.

"Why are you not joyous at regaining your sight and your daughters mind?" she asked.

Ei Rikr considered what ze wanted to say.

"I fear what will happen when my daughter regains her emotions. I want her to be happy."

Zecora understood the cruelty of which ze spoke but thought the horsefly was overreacting.

"A tantrum from such a small filly could not possibly be that bad," Zecora stated. "You will regret it if you don't cure her. Don't let her first emotion be at her last moments with you."

The horsefly didn't want to think about it. "Moving will be stressful. After I know she will be safe, I will free her from the disease that plagues us both."

She started gathering supplies for their trip. She got some concoctions to give to the spa shop and cosmetics store in the marketplace of a nearby pony village. Just in case, the zebra grabbed a few black vials for those she might meet in transit to their destination.

Turning away from the zebra, the horsefly addressed zir daughter.

"Guess what daughter," the philosopher greeted her. The black-and-white filly answered quickly and without a hint of enthusiasm.

"You met a fellow equine, fed on her, had a conversation in private about me, and convinced her to lead you to the nearest civilization," Sophia said to her happy-go-lucky parent.

The horsefly flew a little up into the air in a gesture of disappointment, which was lost on zir daughter, who could not interpret the emotions of anyone, even those of her parent.

"That is true. I am curious how you could guess that," Ei Rikr wondered.

Sophia went into her trademark contemplative state. Andrea patiently awaited what conclusions the young child would make.

"It is simple inferences based on my observations. She has bite marks on her neck, so you must have had a conversation with her. By the looks of it, she is already preparing to leave, which would make sense if you asked the zebra to guide us. I can also safely assume that she is doing that in order to bring us to our closer to our destination."

Ei Rikr stroked zir imaginary beard.

"Then how did you guess that we talked about you specifically?" the philosopher wondered.

The filly turned to her steed who rolled her eyes. Taking a deep breath, the filly answered.

"That was the easiest thing to guess. Like your morning binding to say it is beautiful, you always talk about me to new people," she answered finally.

Ei Rikr buzzed in a gesture of mirth.

"Figuring things out so fast is what makes you no fun," the horsefly jokingly criticized zir daughter before messing her mane with a loving, perforated hoof. "Plus, how are you going to make any friends if you don't even feign surprise at the news?"

Sophia did not react to her parents affection and went into a contemplative trance. After a long moment, she woke from it to retort.

"Are you telling me that I should be dishonest and patronizing to my peers just to boost their ego about how clever they aren't?" Sophia asked without even a hint of sarcasm.

"Ah, um... when you say it like that, it makes it sound bad," Ei Rikr replied with a facetious click of surrender. Then Ei Rikr had a sudden realization.

"But you didn't guess what I wanted to tell you. We are going to meet ponies!" The philosopher exclaimed, throwing a victorious hoof into the air.

Sophia blinked and then thought for a moment. Then she blinked again.

"Wow," the filly replied flatly, trying and failing to make a surprised facial expression.

Ei Rikr froze in zir victorious stance before falling backwards. Andrea, a protector of refugees and a queen of wilds, needed to return to her people soon, so motioned that they get moving even if that meant leaving the bug equine wallowing in the dirt.

"We should begin our move. I need to return later tonight. Hobbes fears Rousseau is convincing the others to revolt against me, and I want to be back before the other manticores buy his arguments," Andrea stated.

"You knew and you had the guts to feign surprise to me!" Ei Rikr exclaimed finally getting up. Zecora worried about the horsefly, but seeing as the other two were ignoring zir, she faced the buffalo.

"What is going on with the manticores?" Zecora asked curiously. She was naturally worried about the activities of her large predatory neighbors.

Sophia took charged of explaining for better or worse. Removing her hoofy-doofy notebook from Andrea's saddlebags, she read her notes on the situation.

"Hobbes and Rousseau are local manticores under the current leadership of Andrea, who beat the previous manticore alpha to submission. Hobbes welcomes their new matriarch as saving the forest from a kill-or-be-killed world of the old State of Nature. Rousseau went along with the change but after spending a lot of time talking to Ei Rikr, he began to believe that morality and dependence on technology has made the manticores weaker and less free," she read out loud.

Hearing this, Zecora decided to go back into the hut for a second putting things away and getting her small purse of tradeable herbs and medicines.

"I will lead you to the pony village. It is not far. I will warn that they only speak the old language there," Zecora told the newcomers. Andrea merely nodded. Except for Ei Rikr who opted to fly above their heads, they all started walking towards a nearby river.

"Let's see these ponies," Andrea encouraged.

They walked through the Neverending Forest passing by a swamp. Andrea was going to warn the group to stop, but it was too late. Dozens of small cragodiles and their mother emerged from their hiding spot in the dark water to attack the unsuspecting travelers.

"What is going on?!" asked Ei Rikr with no answer from the others.

Andrea let Sophia down and drew her Fractal spear. The spear looked like a normal one for it had a wooden pole with a flint tip on it. In actuality, it was much more. When activated the spear would grow smaller spears from its upper parts like branches. Those branches would in turn grown even smaller spears like twigs. This is power of Corvo's fractal technology which had been twisted towards war.

Andrea took the largest cragodile while Zecora attempted to hold the smaller ones by throwing potions that exploded upon breaking. The spilled fluids produce fumes which put near by targets to sleep. The small cragodiles were knocked out but the mother was too large for the potion to take affect.

Mother crag jumped at Andrea who dodged swiftly. While the cragodile was momentarily stunned from missing her target, Andrea stabbed it in the leg and activated her spear. The branches and twigs of the spear eviscerated the leg from the inside out. Andrea deactivated the spear, retracting the branches, and smoothly removed the spear from the permanently crippled leg of her prey.

The cragodile roared causing the party to freeze in apprehension. The swamp shook and suddenly a tsunami of water swept over them. When the party could see again (except for Ei Rikr, of course), before them arose the queens of this portion of the forest. They were Hilda, Haley, and Helen the hydra -- three people, one body.

"For crying out loud, what is going on?!" Ei Rikr screamed.

"Cragodiles and hydras are attacking," Zecora answered the horseflies question finally.

As she said this, the hydra sent its heads at the party. Andrea protected Sophia by turning her spear into make-shift umbrella of needle-like spears. The hydra did not find this very appetizing.

Zecora didn't have such a defense, and fear of death enveloped her mind as the serpentine head lunged for her, causing her to burst into hysterical tears.

"Why didn't you tell me we were in danger? Andrea, you at least should have told me so that I could put a stop to this before anyone got hurt," Ei Rikr said, standing in front of Zecora with zir horn glowing with a green flame not unlike a dragons.

Suddenly the magic spell that Ei Rikr was channeling burst, and a ball of green flame rose into the air. It started to shrink and die, but then like a vacuum it started to suck energy from its surroundings. The queens each were covered in little green flames which flaked off like it was shedding an old skin. These ‘flakes’ would then feed into the green sphere, growing it larger.

With her tears gone, Zecora looked amazed for a second before she became very calm. Then she looked around, watching what was going on. Everyone except for Sophia and Ei Rikr seemed to be burning and feeding the green glowing, growing flame above them. The injured parent cragodile had stopped crying and started covering its wound and crawling back to the swamp with as many children as it could carry. Andrea put away her spear and sat down. Ei Rikr and Sophia started having a conversation.

Then Zecora just stopped watching or thinking for that matter. She had only the faint sense of being guided by someone's hoof.

Author's Note:

Looking back, I forgot that Sophia had glasses. I might change that depending how I feel about it later, but it is not that important of an detail. Actually, I forget a lot of the details in this chapter which I fail to carry forward into future chapters. Going back has really helped me make things more consistent. I totally deserve all those dislikes that I have gotten in the past.

Comments

[goddamnAnimal]

the last sentence is a repeat, dude. just letting you know.

[Knowledge]

3926081
Thanks. I fixed it. If you see anything I should fix, I will take care of it immediately.

[Cakebomb]

When activated the spear would grow smaller spears from its upper parts like branches. Those branches would in turn grown even smaller spears like twigs.

What.