The Pony Dialogues

by Knowledge

Also Sprach Ei Rikr 1.3 Rainbow Foalnapper's Dialogue (Revised)

Author: Knowledge

Editors: waterpear and Rewrite

Previous chapter summary:

Pinkie Pie greets the travelers in her typical manner. In an effort to edify the pony, Ei Rikr organizes a "game" between Andrea and Pinkie where the goal is to understand one another. At the end, Andrea leaves for the forest and Pinkie leads the remaining travelers into Ponyville.

Zecora went ahead to market to buy ingredients and sell her potions.

------------------------------------------Ponyville Market square--------------------------------------

"A potion for six bits

and at that price I sit!" Zecora said with finality.

She addressed this to a young stallion named Stage Up with a natural gray coat and a sleek, combed back mane before her. Stage up was makeup artist for the local Ponyville theater, but on the side he sold cosmetics. Zecora's anti-aging potions were a hit in the mostly female village.

The zebra held her potion bag on the edge of Stage's booth, bluffing that she would take these potions back. In truth, she couldn't afford not to sell these potions as they would spoil quickly. It was an irony of potion making that anti-aging potions don't age well themselves.

"Your rhymes won't work on me. Last week, I bought this potion for four bits a pop," the makeup artist replied.

"Last week, I just needed a few bits,

Now I need more for a new potion kit.

What is in the forest changes often

You should be glad I don't charge you ten," Zecora explained.

"If you are going through tough times, why should I suffer? Four bits or–"

"Hiya, Zecora! Whatcha doing?" Pinkie Pie interrupted innocently while occupying Zecora's whole field of vision.

Zecora sported a sage-like smile while silently quelling the disturbance of her inner peace. If Stage Up would have seen the zebra's face, he would have invited her to participate in local theater.

"What was that, Zecora?" Pinkie leaned her head up to the zebra's muzzle in order to listen more carefully.

Zecora continued to silently find her zen. She could see Ei Rikr with Sophia upon zir shoulders cantered through the marketplace without incident. It was fortunate that Pinkie had a unique emotional signature or Ei Rikr might have had a difficult time following her.

"Sophie, you done thinking yet?" the horsefly asked zir passenger. The filly took a moment to take in the crowd all staring with bated breath before giving a bored affirmation. "Pinkie is showing us to the market. Did you know that when I was just starting to walk around undisguised, I went to the town square and marketplace to philosophize with all sorts of people?"

Sophia had heard something about this before.

"Pinkie, are we there yet?" Ei Rikr asked.

Pinkie swirled around on her hindlegs in order to face the philosopher.

"Of course we are or how else could, silly changeling," Pinkie Pie said.

A pony could hear a pin drop after the mention of a 'changeling.'

The ponies of Ponyville had never seen a changeling before. Those who had noticed the bug pony walking through the street just assumed it was some strange species of equine bug. As long as a person was not associated with 'evil' like the Everfree from where monsters came or a villain out to hurt ponies, the townsponies were pretty chill. (The main exception were florists who would panic if a rabbit so much as crossed city limits.) Since changelings were associated with the villain Queen Chrysalis and the invasion of Canterlot, the ponies' flight or fight response activated.

The sudden influx of panic around Ei Rikr would have made a lesser horsefly become queasy and perhaps faint. Decades of maneuvering through war zones had inured zir to crowds filled with negative emotions.

"My name is Ei Rikr. I come from a distant land. This adorable filly is my adoptive daughter Sophia.” Ze indicated the salt-and-pepper filly next to zir. “We are moving here to live among nice, civilized, and tolerant people. Please take care of us."

"The monster kidnapped a kid!" a florist exclaimed.

"Changelings are finally infiltrating Ponyville. I warned you was going to happened," an elderly stallion from a balcony shouted.

"We should panic!" Pinkie Pie added, earning her a glare from Zecora. Several ponies started flailing their hooves in preparation to their weekly ritual of screaming and crying. "What? Panicking is fun and we know where this is all headed."

"No don't panic!

Ze won't attack," Zecora explained.

"The monster brainwashed Zecora. Does he know no decency!" somepony else retorted.

Ei Rikr clicked in an approximation of a sigh. After placing Sophia on the ground, ze flew above the ponies. Many were dazzled by the rising sun. Returning her zen by ignoring Pinkie's playful screaming, the zebra steeled herself for a familiar spell.

A large green ball of fire emerge from the horsefly and began to rise in the sky like a second sun. Ponies could not but calm down as their emotions turned off one by one. The more excitable of the ponies fainted; although, it could not be determined whether they fainted from fear or from having the fear drained from them. It was somewhat awkward for the changeling to use a spell designed to create a temporary demilitarized zone on a bunch of townsponies, but there were no ends to what ze would do for zir daughter.

As the spell took full effect, the philosopher gave a spur of the moment speech. Thus spoke Ei Rikr:

"Ponies, I come to you with a vision from the other side and warn you that in fearing 'monsters' you are doomed to become true monsters. I could feel your desire to have rid of a monster. If that desire were fulfilled, you would have left my daughter bereft of her only parent. You don't have to be these kind of ponies. You can overcome this current you who is afraid and unwilling to confront their 'monsters' for who they really are--people who love like you do.

"The path to the pony who has overcome herself is a tight rope between the familiar and the new. We are all on it and to cross it you will have to understand and you will have to change. Your understanding begin to cause you to change and your change begin to cause you to understand. This process will cause most to falter. Many you will find by the end you have fallen into a world you can neither understand or change. These fallen ponies are those who see 'monsters.'

"But it is not too late for us to cross. We who have seen the other side can guide you across the rope, helping you to survive the process dangerous process that this entails. Those who have fallen will often attack you, fearing you like you still fear me now. If you make it to the other side, you will in a world were there are no monsters because you can overcome anything."

The ponies who were still awake listened to Ei Rikr in silence. Whether they understood or not, the philosopher could at least be happy ze had averted a mass panic attack by distracting them. Ze was, however, concerned that the speech might be construed as pedantic. The philosopher did not pretend to know better than anyone else. Time had not given the horsefly wisdom, merely recognition of zir ignorance.

Descending to the ground, Ei Rikr rejoined Zecora and Pinkie Pie. Zecora felt subdued contentment that she finally saw the horsefly philosopher of which history books heralded as the wisest being in the world. Pinkie Pie surprisingly started laughing claiming to remembered some punchline.

Sophia put her left hoof to her lips and breathed in and then after taking that hoof away from her lips, she breathed out slowly while tapping the hoof on top Stage Up's shop table. The act was very nonchalant.

Zecora arched an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

Sophia blinked, interrupted in her contemplative observation.

"This act,” Sophia said, repeating the hoof gesture, “is one of the few things my parent does regularly while thinking. I think it is because ze is a horsefly. From what I can tell, they are very much focused on superficial aspect of behavior, rather than its purpose. For instance, when we are eating, Ei Rikr will making chewing motions even though ze is not eating food. I have formed a habit of performing some of this rituals while I think."

Zecora wanted to know more, but a rainbow blur passed by her and suddenly Sophia was no where to be seen.

------------------------Over Ponyville-----------------------

"Parent, some person has foalnapped me," Sophia called out in the common language of forest since she didn't know how to speak Equestrian. She did know how to read and write it though.

Ei Rikr's spell took quick effect, causing rainbow to land and reveal herself as a pegasus.

The rainbow pegasus placed the unicorn filly behind her. The foalnapper observed the green flames flaking off them into the sky towards some green ball of fire which was eclipsing Celestia's sun. The only ones left stand were the heroic pony, the filly, and the changeling, who was turning zir head side-to-side, listening for said filly. This should have really concerned her, but all it did was make her curious.

"You did something. What?" the pegasus said in Equestrian.

"Why did you grab my daughter?" ze asked, having flown to zir daughter's plea.

This confused the foalnapper in her calmed, exhausted state.

"To protect her from you," the mare declared as if she was some kind of professional hero.

"And what was I going to do to her that justified you protecting her from me?"

"You were going to feed on her," the mare said confidently.

The philosopher clicked in mirth despite the gravity of a foalnapping.

"I don't think you know much about my daughter, but what makes feeding on her wrong?" the philosopher wondered.

"It’s creepy, biting ponies and sucking on their love," the mare replied.

"First, we don’t suck on people’s love. It is a common misconception of those who have had little experience with my kind. In fact, we do not even consume love but rather energy. All living things need energy to live, and we just get it purely through the passions of others. Before you say this is parasitic, every living being does this to some extent."

The foalnappers face was the picture of confusion.

"For example, have you ever gained strength from people cheering you on? Have you ever felt better when someone comforts you?" Ei Rikr asked.

The rainbow mare nodded her confusion subsiding.

"My kind would die if no one loved us or what we represented. Even equines would die if they didn't receive any love as children. As for my kind, some become lovers, some become parents, and even some become teachers. We only exist because their is hole your kind wants to be filled with your love. In my case, I was a teacher for most of my life, being a symbol of their philosophical quest. Now I am the parent to that girl you have foalnapped because you think me a monster. I trust you, if you want a monster, I can definitely fill that role, but as a philosopher, I can honestly say that wouldn't be wise."

The pegasus considered the monster option much longer than any other pony would.

"Ponies love me because I am awesome," the mare declare. "I don't have to trick ponies to feed myself. Why do changeling do that?” the mare asked. The spell had reduced her aggression significantly.

“When we live in society, we wear masks so people treat us better. I have a pretty good sense for these things, and I would guess that you are wearing a mask of ‘awesomeness’ because you believe that your peers will only love and respect you if they see you like that. In your case, you are wearing it for status and fame. In our case, we are doing it because we often have to disquise ourselves in order to survive.”

The pegasus decided she would have to think about that later, for she had more questions and was getting very tired at this point.

“Didn’t you cast some spell on this filly to convince her that you are really her parent?"

As was the original intent of the spell, the pony's thoughts had moved away from accusations to questions reflected a desire to learn more.

“No, I only adopted her when I couldn’t find her parents and she needed someone to care for her. I am her parent now, though I wouldn’t object letting her biological parents share in her if they were of kind and caring heart.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t take anymore and fell asleep.

The changeling turned to zir companions. “Despite being a pegasus, she is no lightweight. She withstood the calming spell for a long time with all that pep," Ei Rikr commented ruefully.

Sophia merely walked from behind the collasped pegasus to Zecora's potion bag with the intent to inspect them. Zecora swatted Sofia's hoof away from her things. Sofia just moved to the book bag that Ei Rikr had placed down by Zecora's saddlebag earlier and pulled out the encyclopedia to learn a little more about potions. The filly hadn't understood what had been said at all. It had been far too long for her since she had gotten to learn something new. Love of learning was the only thing her disease had left her.

"Thanks for bring us to Ponyville, Zecora. I understand you are busy. The green sun should last for twelve hours, so we will be safe on our own." Ei Rikr took zir left hoof, which was full of holes, to zir chitinous lips, breathed in, and then placed the hoof on the table. While ze tapped the hoof, the horsefly breathed out slowly.

"We will find Twilight," Sophia said "She could tell me more about being a unicorn and why they live on mountains."

"Why do you do that?" asked Zecora of the horsefly genuinely curious.

Ei Rikr blinked. Ze gave zir left hoof a self-conscious inspection. "That? I never gave it any thought. I just can't help it sometimes. I might be addicted."

At that, Zecora finally chuckled despite the green sun above her. There was a remarkable charm to the old philosopher that no history book could encapsulate. The weirdness at first looked foalish to her, but now it just made her want to cheer zir on. She said farewell to the two travelers.

On her way back to the forest, she thought about how much laughter was in the horsefly and how loyal ze was to zir adoptive daughter.

Author's Note:

Trivia:

Before editing, this chapter was awful. Reason forbids any of you get to read it.

Yes, I was trying to be very clever in my last line in this chapter.

Comments

[Diokno44]

The ones trying to overthrow Andrea are named Hobbes, and Rousseou.....please tell me Locke is gonna bring some sense to this

[Knowledge]

3582790

You will have to see. I have plans for the Andrea versus the manticores battle.

[skybest_92]

Does Overperson mean Human?

[Knowledge]

3770344
Person and Overperson, as far as I am concerned, are species neutral terms, but that is a good question. I do not hold the popular sci-fi or the modern theological idea that the end of evolution is humanity, rather I hold that everything alive is equally evolved, that humanity is not the most complex life form on earth, and that simplicity can be beneficial to a species' survival.

[Tadpole]

The only thing I don't like in this story are the grammar fallacies. But oh well, everything else is A-OK!

Also...

"Parent, some person has foalnapped me because she perceives you to be some kind of monster," called out Sophia.

I loved this scene. I'm just in the fourth chapter and Sophia is alterady my favourite character. I envy her intelligence...