4: The Mongrel Lands
The caravan’s next stop was the Mongrel Lands, in the southwest. Princess Zecora ruled there, and it was by far the most fractious part of Unicornia. Mostly because it was the only part where non-unicorns lived. Other than Rainbow Dash. The buffalo had been driven there when Unicornia was settled, and when the Donkey Emigration came, they’d been allowed no further than the Mongrel Lands either. When the Diamond Dogs were found and forced out, they’d ended up there too. And the zebras from the south could go nowhere else when the Dry Times had scorched their grasslands. There were even a handful of griffon immigrants.
“So… I don’t have a lot I’m supposed to do in the Mongrel Lands,” Dash told Due Respect in the carriage. They were skirting the San Palomino Desert, which meant she could get out and fly sometimes, but it was just so hot that even she was happy to stay out of the sun. There weren’t any clouds around to make shade with for the caravan, unfortunately. “Princess Zecora’s never given any indications about how she feels about me, and the desert doesn’t make a lot of stuff the Heartland wants.”
“Mmmm,” said Due Respect noncommittally. “You may find it useful to spend some time in court, then, simply observing. Any court has some similarities that could prove… Ahem.” He cleared his throat and looked up from the dossier he was reading. “Never mind. Sitting and watching is not your preferred mode of operation. Well. To put it simply, the griffons are suspected of attempting to stir unrest in the Mongrel Lands, and the Heartland desires to coordinate a response with Princess Zecora, above the usual run of trade agreements and border issues. Exactly what manner that coordination may take is currently fluid. Much of my work here will be simply determining what Princess Zecora wants and is willing to do to get it, in that aim. Your non-unicorn status may be helpful to her, indicating Princess Twilight’s openness to other types of Unicornian citizens, or may be viewed as an attempt at pandering. Thus, I will present my credentials up front and attempt to discern whether it would be useful to present you to the court as well.”
Dash leaned back and pffffed out a breath. “If she has a set of wings hanging on her wall, I’ll send my regrets.”
“If I should see any, I shall be sure to not introduce you,” Due Respect agreed.
Dash blinked. “I was kinda kidding there. You think she might have some?”
Due Respect shrugged. “It is possible. Do recall that it was Princess Tiara who had the wings in her throne room - a symbol of power and strength, of unicorn might, to combat the reality that she herself was almost entirely powerless. Princess Zecora is a half-breed. Her unicorn magic is known to be unimpressive in and of itself, a deficiency she remedies with the use of traditional zebra magics. This is a matter of some controversy, and she has retained her throne by the use of force thus far. There have been several serious challengers to her rule who were stronger unicorns, but lost due to her use of unconventional magic. She may well have chosen to adorn her courtroom in similar symbols of power and strength, to enhance her mystique. And so, indeed, should I see any wings hanging on her walls, I shall seriously reconsider introducing you at Princess Zecora’s court.”
Dash shook her head. “Geez. If she has to fight like that, I’m surprised she even wants the job.”
Due Respect shrugged again. “Power is attractive in its own right, Countess. Many ambitious unicorns want it for nothing more than to have it. We shall see what Unicornia’s most enigmatic ruler reveals of herself.”
***
Princess Zecora’s palace was built along the banks of a river. It wouldn’t have been anything special back in the Heartland, but in the dry Mongrel Lands, it was clearly an important location. There wasn’t really much life out there that wasn’t near a river, other than sparse cacti, dry bushes, and vultures. The farms along the riverbanks were the only green Rainbow Dash could see.
And it was hot. In the wide-open spaces between towns, Dash had been able to fly if she wanted, but without so much as a cloud to rest on, that quickly turned into an exercise in overheating. And so she was reasonably glad to go into the adobe building and get underneath the white tiles of its roof. She and the rest of Due Respect’s traveling party had rooms in the palace, since they were officially representing the Heartland.
Due Respect went off to go present himself at court, and Dash settled in with the rest of the Scooter Pilgrim series. She hadn’t gotten through much of it once she started helping Rose Quartz, and it had all been packed away for the long hike from Rich City to the Mongrel Lands. So she had plenty left to read. All day, as it turned out.
Due Respect finally came to Dash’s room after dinner. He had to tap her on the shoulder to get her attention; she was just getting to a chase scene. But she set Scooter Pilgrim aside for him.
“I’ll be presenting you to the court tomorrow, Countess,” he told her. “Princess Zecora has bedecked her throne room with no few grisly trophies, but in a distinctly egalitarian way.”
“What’s she got against eagles?” Dash asked, straight-faced. She knew the word; she couldn’t have grown up under Princess Twilight’s tutelage and not picked up a big vocabulary.
Due Respect acknowledged the joke with a brief eye-roll. “Princess Zecora has a number of skulls hung upon her walls,” he said. “Among them are unicorns, griffons, Diamond Dogs, and what I presume are zebras by the lack of horn. Some of her courtiers are of the opinion that the skulls are used in some form of zebra magic, giving her an advantage over challengers in her throne room. Others advance the theory that she wishes to remind her subjects that anypony, of any species, dies, in the ultimate display of even-hoofedness.”
“So what’s she like?” Dash asked.
“Very reserved,” he told her. “After the formal court presentation, I met with her Minister of Finance, Little Bits, to discuss trade relations between the Heartland and the Mongrel Lands. They would like to trade more, but there simply is not much that comes from these regions that is in high demand in the Heartland. And there is no way to get the food the Heartland grows out here without a massive and expensive haulage process.”
“So this is gonna be a pretty boring stop, huh?”
Due Respect shook his grey-coated head. “I would prefer that it was. The Minister of Finance is no fool. She knows that hers is a poor land. If I can offer a favorable tax policy, all to the better, but no great trade boom is likely in any regard. But details matter, and so it took some few hours to discuss everything with her.”
He glanced around to make sure the door was shut, and then his horn glowed with a privacy spell that lit up the walls briefly. Once that was done, he turned back to Rainbow Dash. “I then met with her Minister of Security, a mare named Rattlesnake. We exchanged certain information of national import, not least of which was my report on your actions in the Crystal Empire, and the efforts of the griffons to disrupt Unicornian unity. Minister Rattlesnake acknowledged an increase in griffon activity within the Mongrel Lands as well. There are some griffon immigrants, usually political refugees fleeing unsurvivable feuds in their own land, but lately some unfamiliar griffons have been spotted, and not just talking with other griffons.”
Dash shook her head. “They’re coming a heck of a long way. I mean, either they have to fly all night and hide all day, or they’ve gotta circle all the way around Unicornia to spy here. A griffon trying to walk through the Heartland wouldn’t make it far.”
Due Respect made a quiet mmm of acknowledgement. “I suspect they are using ships to head for the zebra lands to the south, then moving up from there. Griffons in search of glory would not be unduly bothered by a long sea journey. In any case, their agents appear to be trying to encourage local unrest, urging the non-unicorn population to revolt. Some loyal Unicornians have reported their claims. They suggest that a successful non-unicorn revolt would lead the unicorns to abandon the southwest, leaving a multi-species kingdom behind, and that Unicornia would have no interest in retaking the area.”
“... Do they really think that anypony’s gonna be that stupid?” Dash asked. “Like Unicornia’s gonna just let a quarter of its land go. Have they even looked at maps? Blueblood could do it himself without even using his army. Just dam up like four rivers and the whole southwest would go from ‘dry’ to ‘dead’ in a couple weeks.”
Due Respect raised an eyebrow archly. “I was not aware that Princess Twilight shared strategic planning sessions with you.”
Dash hehed. “We kinda play war games on her big Unicornia map sometimes. She figures all her generals and stuff are trained in how wars are fought and were fought before, but I don’t know any of that stuff so sometimes I come up with ideas they don’t. The whole southwest is a crummy place to defend. There’s lots of downsides to messing with the rivers like that, but if it was to keep Unicornia together, yeah, it’s the easy way to win.”
“An interesting pastime,” Due Respect said. “And naturally she presents you with different scenarios?”
Dash nodded. “Oh, yeah. One time she had us both start with a whole bunch of pegasus units, and I actually won starting with the southwest that time. I had my pegasi pull clouds from the ocean and water a big corner of the Mongrel Lands, and then it was way more productive and defensible.”
“Good to know,” Due Respect said. “In any case, that is the message the griffon agents have been trying to spread. I suspect word has yet to reach this area about the failure of the griffon attempt to cripple the Crystal Empire, so the local agents may still believe that their plot is continuing undisturbed. And it is still possible that a griffon invasion effort against the Empire would distract Unicornia’s attention long enough to make disrupting control over the southwest into a viable possibility. Even if the new griffon ruler failed to take and hold any new territory, they would account it a victory to cause Unicornia to lose its grip on the Mongrel Lands.”
Dash grinned. “So whatcha gonna do? Sneak around and hunt down some griffons and make ‘em squawk?”
Due Respect gave her a droll look. “That is hardly my forte, Countess. And, I regret to say, the security plans of the Mongrel Lands are not a subject for casual conversation, even in a secured room. Nor, for that matter, are they a subject you are well-suited for yourself. Your shining aerial displays are rather distant from cloak-and-dagger counter-espionage.”
“I can be sneaky if I want to,” grumbled Rainbow Dash, but without heat. “But there’s gotta be something I can do, right? I mean, I can’t let you have all the fun.”
“I assure you, Countess, I will be far from ‘having all of the fun.’ The bulk of the activity taking place involves Princess Zecora’s own agents, and I am myself not privy to their operational details. But, after your presentation tomorrow at court, I will be meeting with Minister Rattlesnake again. Perhaps we will find some way to make use of your talents. You are, after all, very good at making very visible displays.”
***
The throne room had a low ceiling, unlike the dramatic high arches Dash had seen in the Heartland, the Crystal Empire, and the Rich Lands. The windows were open gaps in the walls with shutters that could be drawn, instead of being covered with glass. That left plenty of space for air to blow through off the river, offering what cooling was available. Dash appreciated that much.
The skulls on the walls were everything Due Respect had said. A variety of species were represented, both equine and non-. He hadn’t mentioned the dragon skull, though. Just a little one, but still, pretty cool. And they were all laid out on the walls weirdly. Dash couldn’t tell if it was magic, or just meant to look like it was magic, but either way, weird.
Princess Zecora sat on her throne, shrouded in an ornately-embroidered brown cloak. Her zebra heritage was easy to see; she had faded stripes on her flanks and her short-trimmed mane alternated white and grey stripes. Due Respect was in front of Dash, providing the introductions.
“Princess Zecora, I present to you the Lady Rainbow Dash, Countess of the Imperial Sky, Lady of the Wonder Bolt,” he said briskly, then stepped aside.
Rainbow Dash stepped up. Since Due Respect presented her, the next response was supposed to be from Princess Zecora acknowledging her, but the zony on the throne was simply sitting there, regarding her. Dash waited an uncomfortably long time, then raised a hoof. “Uh… hi?”
That cued a reaction. Princess Zecora leaned forward. “So. Twilight Sparkle’s creation has left her court.”
Dash tilted her head. “Well, yeah. Your Highness. She said pegasi are supposed to move.”
The zony sat back again. “And you will mother a great many pegasi, then. Will the Heartland abide a winged race to live among them, when they will not suffer stripes nor claws nor even my humble donkeys to share their land?”
“That’s what Princess Twilight wants me to do, yeah,” Dash agreed. “The whole ‘mother’ thing is still kinda weird to me, though. But maybe if they get used to pegasi, they’d be okay with non-ponies too?”
Princess Zecora regarded her, and just said, “Time will tell.”
And that was that.
***
Dash went out into the town around the palace after that. She didn’t have anything else she needed to do and didn’t feel like sitting around reading all day, so she figured she’d go wander around and see what the town was like. She never got to go out in the Queen’s City without guards around, so just walking around was still pretty cool and new. Having a bunch of non-unicorns around was really weird.
There were donkeys walking around, who looked like, well, gray, knobbly-kneed, ungraceful hornless unicorns. A Diamond Dog had an outdoor stall, but he was curled up on top of it taking a nap. There were more unicorns than anything else, yeah, but them not being the only race around was different. Nopony seemed to realize there was anything weird about her, either, and that was really different. They were used to going around with weirdos, so they weren’t paying attention to her.
It wasn’t a really big town, though, mostly laid out along the river, and then it was just farms beyond there. A blacksmith did minor metalwork repairs, a bunch of stores for hats and cloth and food and stuff, a school, stuff like that. She went up and down the street twice to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. The only place that wasn’t kinda boring was the saloon. The Queen’s City didn’t exactly have one of those, and Princess Twilight probably wouldn’t have been real thrilled with her going to visit a bar, but she was exploring, right? And she’d write up a report and everything.
Rainbow Dash pushed her way through the swinging doors and looked around. There was an old piano with nopony playing it, a bar with a polished stone top, a bunch of heavy-looking tables also made out of stone, and creaky wooden chairs, and a dartboard on the wall. And the bartender and patrons, too. The bartender was a brown-coated unicorn stallion in a vest. He gave Dash a long look, then pointedly looked back down to the glass he was cleaning with a rag.
A trio of Diamond Dogs were sitting around a table, lapping something from bowls. Most of the tables had unicorns at them, quietly drinking. A donkey and some kinda big thing with horns were sitting at a corner playing a card game. Nopony was fighting. Dash was kinda disappointed about that part. Saloons in the Mongrel Lands were supposed to have brawls going on like all the time according to all the books. Well. All the interesting ones.
Dash took a seat at the bar. The bartender slid her a glass without looking, the glow from his horn barely visible. She looked down at it. It had some kind of pale amber liquid in it. She shrugged and tried it. In the ‘picked it up in her teeth and drank it down’ sense.
One second later she was down on the ground choking. Her throat was on fire and something incredibly foul was clinging to her tongue. There was a burning feeling down in her gut, too. It was like that time she’d tried some super-hot peppers that some ambassador had brought to court, but worse. Her head was spinning.
The bartender leaned over the bar. “First time tryin’ blue agave mescal, eh?”
Dash spluttered, coughed, and managed to get back onto her hooves. She didn’t figure there was much point to denying it. “Uh, yeah. That stuff… what the hay is it?”
“Mescal,” he said, taking the glass back behind the bar. “You ain’t from around here. What are you?”
“I’m a pegasus,” Dash said, still rubbing her throat. “From the Heartland.”
The bartender didn’t react much to that. He just started wiping out the glass. “Lot of you moving in?” he asked blandly.
“I’m the only one there is,” Dash said. She wanted to put it more awesomely, but her throat was still on fire and she was feeling really funny.
“Only one? Tough to do that,” the bartender observed. “What happened to the others?”
Dash took a few deep breaths, and it seemed to help. “They’ve been gone like a thousand years. Princess Twilight found a way to bring one back. Me.”
“So you’re a thousand years old?” the bartender asked. “Never drank in all that time?”
Dash snorted. “No, like, she did stuff with genetics. You never heard about history?”
The bartender shook his head. “History’s not much of a priority around these parts. Most folk are busy with today.”
Dash looked around the bar again. “Busy?”
The stallion nodded lazily. “Busy. Want another?”
Dash winced. “Got anything that’s, y’know, not on fire?”
The bartender cracked a smile at her. “You took your shot. I reckon you can order down from there.”
***
Due Respect must have been incredibly mad at her in the morning. Rainbow Dash couldn’t imagine any other reason why he would be casting a spell to make her head hurt, her mouth taste like a whole bunch of things had crawled into it and died, make her eyes blurry, and make her in general feel like she’d crawled out of a grave at some point. He wasn’t saying anything, just standing and waiting for her to get up. He seemed to have surrounded himself with a painfully bright halo, too.
“Good morning, Countess,” he screamed at her. She thought. She whimpered as his voice echoed in her head for at least ten seconds. What the hay happened?
In fact, that seemed like it might be important to know. “What happened?” she croaked. Her own voice boomed just like his did.
He cleared his throat. It rang in her skull worse than thunder. Thankfully, he lowered his voice. “I believe you have educated yourself on a topic that Princess Twilight prefers to ignore, Countess. I am uncertain as to the details, but you put on a rather impressive show and seem to have made a new friend.”
“I am awesome,” she reminded him, even though she was feeling the diametric opposite from awesome at the moment.
“Indeed,” he said. “And from the fraction of your performance I witnessed, I suspect a number of others would agree. Also reckless and well-nigh suicidal, based on the reaction from the griffons at the court. The hen in the air with you seemed to be impressed.”
“The hen?” Dash asked. Her head still hurt, but her eyes were starting to clear up, and her ears were getting back to a normal range.
“The proper term for a female griffon, yes,” Due Respect said. “After your aerobatics came to an abrupt end, she carried you back to the palace and said, quote, ‘Tell Slash I believe it, and she is not such a dweeb after all.’ I don’t suppose you recall meeting her?”
Dash groaned and rubbed her head. “I remember I went into a saloon, and the bartender gave me a glass, and… then it all kinda went blank.”
Due Respect gave her a slight smile. “You passed the local initiation ritual, then. Blue agave mescal is quite potent.” He cleared his throat. “I would prefer you had brought a guard with you, however. While Princess Twilight may be pleased to learn that one of her hypotheses has been validated, she will be less pleased to know that you went out drinking alone.”
“What’d I validate?” asked Dash. “And… oh, thanks.” There was a large glass of water by the bed, with a pitcher next to it. She drank the glass in one go.
“Princess Twilight estimated that your biology would lend itself to extremely rapid intoxication, given your lower body weight and high metabolism, Countess,” Due Respect told her. “However, that same metabolism ought to ensure the resultant hangover passes rapidly as well.”
Dash didn’t bother refilling the glass. She just started drinking from the pitcher. “Ten seconds flat,” she said. And she was feeling better already.
“Good,” said Due Respect. “May I assume you have learned the consequences of drinking to excess, or will you require a guard’s escort?”
Dash snorted. “I’m too awesome to forget how awesome I was being. I won’t do that again.”
Due Respect nodded. “Duly noted. In that case, you may be pleased to know that your actions did inspire some positive results. First, despite you flying all over the sky, it appears that the locals are sufficiently used to griffons in the air that no attempts were made to seize you, as at no point were you jerked to a stop. If you wish to fly, it appears it may be safe for you to do so in this area.
“Second, you seem to have inspired a number of locals, as your multicolored etherealization provided many of them with the first view they ever had of a rainbow. Rainstorms in this area are rare, extremely intense, and short, drying out very rapidly afterward and leaving little chance to view rainbows. A number of questions were asked last night at court regarding you, and you would seem to have made a number of fans.
“And third, Minister Rattlesnake has come up with a task for you. Since you have already befriended one of the local griffons, in this case a second-generation hen by the name of Gilda, Minister Rattlesnake suspects you may be able to gather further information about griffon activities in the area. If you would be willing to take such a risk, of course.”
Rainbow Dash got to her hooves and started stretching, working the ache out of her muscles. “Danger is my middle name!”
“That hardly seems Lady Rarity’s style, Countess,” Due Respect said.
Dash laughed. “Okay, okay. Miriam is my middle name, but it’s Danger by adoption,” she insisted. “So what do I have to do?”
“Mostly, go meet your friend and see if she tries to recruit you. I would send guards with you, but given the circumstances - and given that you and Gilda will likely take to the air - that seems rather pointless. So do be careful, Countess.”
“Of course I will!” Rainbow Dash agreed.
***
It didn’t take much to find Gilda. Or, rather, for Gilda to find Rainbow Dash. There was only one flying pony, so when Dash left the palace via a window, a griffon with purple eyeshadow came right up to meet her.
“Hey, Slash!” the hen called out cheerfully. Rather louder than necessary, even. “How’re you feeling? Just a little bit hung over, maybe?”
“Nah, I’m cool,” Dash called back. “You’re Gilda, right?”
The griffon smirked. “So you remember something, huh? Not bad. That was pretty hot stuff you were showing off yesterday. You think you can do it again?”
Dash grinned. “Oh, anything I did yesterday, I can do at least twenty percent better sober. Uh… what’d I do, though?”
Gilda snorted. “That’s more like it. You were doing the craziest dives and fastest turns I’ve ever seen. And you told me all about taking on a squad of griffon soldiers. How much of that was true?”
Dash rubbed the back of her neck. The feel of something warm and wet bouncing off her flank made her shiver a bit. A severed claw. I am not a bad pony, she reminded herself, and it eased. “I did take ‘em on, yeah.”
Gilda nodded and held up a curled talon. “Respect! Hard to find a pony with guts. Taking out a real warrior? Heck, all I could find for my first kill was a freakin’ desert hare.”
“Your… first kill?” Dash asked. “You had more?”
Gilda laughed. “Do I look like I’m meant for gnawing chunks of cactus all my life? Yeah, first kill. Not a lot out to eat in the desert, but a couple of times a year I get my number called and I get a chance to find something more substantial for myself. First blood’s a pretty big deal for griffons, y’know?” She gave Dash a smug grin. “And after I dropped your drunk butt off, I went and looked up pegasuses at the school. You guys are badflank. Probably coulda given griffons a run for the bits in the air, judging by you. Where’d you come from?”
“The Queen’s City,” Dash said. “Princess Twilight kinda made me.”
Gilda whistled. “They’re not kidding when they call her the Madmare of Magic, then! She freakin’ made a pony? Are the rumors true, then? She’s gonna challenge all the other royals and make ‘em crown her Queen?”
Dash blinked. “... What?”
Gilda laughed. “Oh geez! I take it all back! That expression! You are a dweeb! You have no idea at all, do you? All right, all right. A dweeb who flies like a crazy chief, though. All right, c’mon, lemme see what you can do when you’re not sloshed to the gills.”
***
Hanging out with Gilda was awesome. Gilda introduced her to some of the other griffons in town, and they told her a whole lot about flying that she’d never found out herself. Like, she already knew about thermals and all the sciency how-it-works, but all that book education didn’t show her how to adjust her feathers in a turn to really grab the air just right to twist so sharply her rainbow trail looked like it was making an angle instead of a curve, or how to make an attack dive. And the books definitely didn’t teach her anything about how to fight in midair.
That part was pretty scary, actually. Dash didn’t have a beak or claws, and her teeth weren’t anywhere near sharp enough to hurt a lot, and she didn’t have any clouds around to use for lightning. But the griffons were just sparring, not really trying to hurt her, and after a while she learned how to put her hooves to good use instead. She couldn’t plant and buck hard, but she was faster and more nimble in the air than the griffons, and if she kept moving and hitting quickly instead of hitting hard, she could wear them down.
She kept her speed down, though. One night she had a nightmare about going too fast in a spar and cutting Gilda in half. She kept holding back the next day, until Gilda called her a dweeb, which she did a lot anyway, but this time she sorta sneered it differently and that was enough to get Dash to really come after her again. And Gilda seemed happy with that.
Flying all over town was awesome. It was like being in the Crystal Empire all over again. Everypony - and everydonkey, everydog, and so on - down on the streets waved at her instead of grabbing. Dash made up her mind that if she did have to spend most of her life being a mom, she was going to move to some little town where everypony would get to know her, where she could teach her foals to fly out in the open, instead of having to scramble for height as fast as she could every time.
There was one thing hanging out with Gilda didn’t do, though. And that was find out anything about spies or unrest or international intrigue or whatever. After the first few days, Dash sorta stopped thinking about that at all. Gilda wasn’t trying to break up Unicornia as far as she could see. Gilda was just, well, fun to fly with, and was teaching her a bunch of stuff about griffons and about flying. All her friends had grown up in Unicornia too, after their parents had all ditched the griffon lands during some sort of bloodier-than-usual internal fighting. They even took a sort of perverse pride in being from the driest, most inhospitable part of the country, on the grounds that it was making them way tougher than they’d be if they’d grown up with prey all over the place.
Rainbow Dash dutifully wrote up her reports for Princess Twilight - even the one about getting drunk - and put in anything she learned, but most of that was about flying or about griffon culture. She didn’t have anything to say about the griffons trying to upset the Mongrel Lands. In fact, from her flights, Dash thought everypony down below seemed more cheerful than when she’d first arrived.
Due Respect couldn’t tell her much about what he was doing with Minister Rattlesnake; he just urged her to keep working with Gilda and see if anything came up. He came back with a cut down his leg and a limp one day, but he wouldn’t say anything about how he got it. Dash had taken a bunch worse cuts from sparring herself, but she didn’t think Due Respect was a brawling kind of pony. But since he didn’t want to talk, she didn’t press him.
By the time the caravan left, Rainbow Dash hadn’t gotten anything done about stopping the griffons from attacking Unicornia. Due Respect seemed pretty satisfied, though.
“Sometimes, Countess, you have to let somepony else have a turn,” was all he said.
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Interesting! I like that it's always apparent that other things are happening outside of Rainbow's worldview. Seems more realistic.
5780290 I recognized three, one well hated Pegasus and Two Apples and I am still not seeing Fluttershy!
Wonder if they can stay friends this time...I'm sure nothing horrible will happen.
I certainly wasn't expecting this to update this quickly. I'm enjoying it immensely, though. Definitely looking forward to seeing what Blueblood's done with his region. This one probably isn't going to be fun for Dash, though...
When they said that the ponies making cameos would be hidden well in this story I just had yo find out. And by god some of them are ingenious that you do pass over them. Heck, some aren't given a more detailed description but you can figure it put if you slowly chain things together in a different angle. Either way, this story is off to an interesting start.
Right, forgot to ask about this line;
A variety of species were represented, both equine and non-.
Is the dash actually needed in this case to annunciate it?
*Clap, clap.*
Nice and subtle message in this chapter. Good work.
5784965
In this case, my understanding is that yes, it is, to signal that stated the other way, it would have been 'non-equine and equine.' It might be one of those style things like em dashes versus en dashes, where the AP manual and Chicago manual disagree, but I've always seen it as proper to leave the hyphen when you're severing a prefix from the word it would otherwise modify.
no spike!
also, zecora sat on her throat?
5788304 Thanks, fixed!