Chapters O’ most gracious and cordial Princess Celestia, my 9,978th letter in 831st YR
What a marvelous thing it is to fly, the pegasi are most fortunate to possess this ability. I am writing you from the gondola of a flying ship, at an elevation of 3000 meters, traveling over the Morogoro area, following the Rufiji River, with the Mbarika Mountains to the south west. I will send this letter using the usual means once we land, since fire is ‘verboten’ aboard the air ship. Our investment in Halter Zeppelin’s device promises to bring new lands and resources within our reach. Halter is a bit long winded and pompous, and coming from me that should scare you. As you know I have commissioned this expedition in my quest for another dragon egg. The air ship has remained in visual range with an ideally mated pair of dragons, and while winds sometimes push us off course, we have luckily remained close enough to maintain contact.
With water and oats, my little zebra, recovered. She was full of glee about the airship, and (I presume) questioned us about everything for we didn’t know her language. She bonded to me quickly, and calls me Knotty or papa, since she had trouble pronouncing ‘uncle Knot’. Taking care of a child is not my forte, as you well know; however, Halter thinks me a natural (and really doesn’t have any time to provide care). She introduced herself as Zecora; I hope my sound based spelling of her name is accurate, although Halter finds it a bit simplistic.
Zecora seems to have excellent night vision, and prefers the dark, so Halter ‘commissioned’ her as night watch lookout, which renewed her joyous glee. I do enjoy her serious outlook and commitment to learn, and already she is beginning to understand much of what we say. She has also been helpful with some of the locals (as we did search for her tribe). The Grevy tribe would not take her, and the Selous could not find her immediate clan, besides, she seemed to prefer my company. So I have decided to adopt her, she has proven to be a good assistant.
Unfortunately our dragon egg quest is a bust. An unexpected storm forced us far away from our dragons and out to sea, thus we have lost them. Zecora was amazed at the endless water. We are returning to Star Swirl’s house, where I will continue Zecora’s studies, with an emphasis on herbs and remedies, which she has an excellent nose for. She will have need of them when I return her later to the Selous tribe. Of course I must return her; she would stand out even more than I do. Think of her as a potential ambassador to the zebras.
Sincerely, with all my humor, kindness, loyalty, honesty, and generosity, Sum-po-neigh Knot Yew.
To my most excellent and admirable Princess Celestia, my 10,354th letter in the 862nd YR
How do I sum up the life of my little zebra, from the time I adopted her on a dragon egg quest to the day she was returned to her tribe. She tortured me with her incessant questioning until I taught her to think before talking by insisting on speaking in rhyme. It became a game for us, and it brought us much joy. Yet it was a game she was unwilling to let go of and how she berated me for falling out of sync.
I still remember the day she got her cutie mark, and how it embarrassed her that I didn’t have one. I had to take her out to Fillydelphia to show her that most ponies do have cutie marks. Finally at ease with her cutie mark, she wanted to know its significance. But what really bothered her was an inner longing to return to her homeland.
I did not know this at first, and please note it was always my insistence that someday she would go back to her homeland. To quell her agitation, I used magic to build her a home in the Everfree forest. She had always disliked the brightness of Star Swirl’s house and did express a desire for her own place. She was happy at first, but wanted to furnish it with her own stuff.
What do I know of what a little zebra would want?
So, after contacting Halter Zeppelin again, we set out on another expedition to the land of the Selous tribe. Halter had a bigger air ship this time, so our journey was a lot more comfortable. We were also joined by Bits Riddenbucker, a pegasus of exceptional aerobatic skills, who provided us with scouting on our long journey.
Bits Riddenbucker ambitions included some type of air circus. This has some merit and I am happy we are pursuing this. But what I didn’t like about him was the way he looked at Zecora, or even worse, the way she looked at him. Halter chided me for my jealously, and admittedly so. I started to see that my little Zecora was growing up, and I was out of step.
I did not know how out of step I was until after we linked up with the Selous zebra tribe. They were outraged that I had not married Zecora off, before she had gotten a cutie mark. Apparently this is their practice, for cutie marks are not seen here as a good thing. Yet her knowledge of healing potions for teeth so impressed that she quickly won them over for the loss of teeth is seen as the first step toward death.
This knowledge made her the most eligible mare, and she was pursued by many. Bits rose to all challenges, and was made an official member of the tribe, but he didn’t win Zecora’s heart. She fell for another, the younger brother of the chief of the Selous tribe. I feel confident that her future is here and left her with strong warnings to do her very best.
It was a very difficult thing to let my little zebra go. The tribe gave me many interesting masks to take home with me. I wanted to burn them, but Halter convinced me to put them into Zecora’s now abandoned home in the Everfree forest.
Sincerely, with all my humor, honesty, kindness, generosity, and loyalty, Sum-po-neigh Knot Yew.
To my generous Princess Celestia in the 878th YR (year of thy reign), my 10,547th report
According to your instructions, I shall report on recent improvements with rail service. What a marvelous device these trains are and how they open new possibilities for transporting heavy freight to places overlooked by generations past. Generations we both remember well. It is near nine hundred years since we started our correspondence, and we still do not have answers to all our riddles. Yet, with this new device of train service, the need for answers becomes all the more crucial, let recent events at the Stone farm serve as an example.
Railroad expansion requires land, and J. P. Morgan has grabbed up a lot of it. While he seeks to bring benefit to all of Equstria, he can be short sighted when it comes to the common pony. Along a proposed route for a new rail line sits the Stone Farm, a patch of land owned by Mr. Granite and Mrs. Graphite Stone, and their only daughter Marble. Granite Stone has refuse again and again Morgan’s offer to buy him out. Morgan even offered a ridiculous price for the farm, but Granite and Graphite still refused.
So Morgan hatched a scheme to get the farm through their daughter Marble. He suggested, as I later discovered, to one of his employees, a rising executive, by the name of Key Lime Pie to sweep Marble Stone off her feet with parties, dancing, and song. The plan seemed to be working, Marble developed real feelings for Key. While Granite and Graphite Stone feared their desire to give Marble the farm after they passed on was furlong and meaningless.
However, something remarkable happened. Key Lime Pie developed real feelings for Marble too, and he warned the Stone family about Morgan’s plan. Marble felt that she had been foolish and had been made the fool. Morgan was furious; he fired Key Lime Pie on the spot.
It was at this point that I was drawn into this. In desperation, Morgan petitioned the powers of Equestria to condemn the Stone farm to gain a right of way. That petition came by me, instead of normal channels, perhaps because of Morgan’s insistence of speed or perhaps because I was known to have worked (in my official capacity) with Morgan before. After consulting with Morgan, and then the Stones, I almost had a complete picture, only Key Lime Pie remained. He was difficult to find, but find him I did, nursing his broken heart at the Salt Lick Saloon in Dodge Junction.
Being a loveless creature, I had no pity for Key Lime Pie, so I dragged him back to the Stone farm and demanded that he confess his true feelings for Marble. They were married within the week and the Stone farm will forever stay beyond Morgan’s reach.
Now, Morgan is furious with me, not much good that will do him. Please greet him warmly on my behalf on his next trip to Canterlot, and remind him that his competition with Rockerfilly is un-productive.
With all my generosity, trustworthiness, kindness, loyalty and humor, sincerely, your extra set of eyes and ears throughout Equestria, Sum-po-neigh Knot Yew.
To my courageous and enterprising Princess Celestia, my 10,945th letter in the 912th YR
It was correct of you to encourage a farm here, but how it grows and disturbs my peace. I find myself spending too much time there helping out and being neighborly. Star Swirl’s tree house is barely out of view of the farm. They had a bit of a hard time at first, waiting for their crops to grow, but some of their ‘young ins’ (as they put it) were resourceful and gathered food from the Everfree forest.
So I packed up and moved to the old place I had built for Zecora and just as I was settling in, guess who returned from far away. My little Zecora is back, reasons unclear, something about watching her grand colts and mares grow old. The zebras of the Selous tribe must age faster, and she hints that they may have learned to fear her because of the extended life she has now. She looks at me with new understanding of how I’ve been around so long and watched so many others pass on. So since I can’t stay there with her, I will use the magic to build myself a new home. You may ask why I can’t stay with her, and I don’t really know. Something about how she appears to be older than me, and yet acts as if I’m still her ‘papa’. It made me most uncomfortable, and I think she noticed it too. But I will make it a point to still take tea together.
As for my new house, I think I have found an ideal location, near a slow moving stream, an equal lateral distance from Zecora’s and Star Swirl’s houses, on the edge of the Everfree forest. The new location will roughly form a triangle, which should give all concern some privacy. For I have been in touch with Rockerfilly, (J.P. Morgan’s railroad competition), and she says she plans to open a rail line to this new farm land area. That will eventually bring a community here and it would be best if the new house for me was far removed from the expectation of a new town. But I will take steps as needed to protect Star Swirl’s home and the Everfree forest. There is the hint of a contest in the air about whether the town will pop out of the earth or the train line will extend its’ reach to here first.
I suppose expansion is necessary, every time I come to Canterlot, there is new growth. The old fortress has become a city and I worry that I will lose my way about town. Giving ponies a new location to live will relieve some of the growing pressures upon Canterlot, but I understand that both Manehatten and Fillydelphia are also facing growing pressures too. Indeed, part of their recent vertical increase in habitation is due to the competition in the steel industry, also between Rockerfilly and J.P. Morgan.
It was convenient not to transplant a tree to the new house location; instead I used a local bush. I wanted to test myself and my magic. Success was achieved using one of those small round bushes with white flowers and yellow petals, the type that attracts butterflies. I really outdid myself this time; I got straight walls inside with two stories. It almost looks like a normal house except for the bushy roof, at least not like Star Swirl’s tree house. I hope it will still produce flowers, but with the magic some aspects of the bush will surely change.
It is time to finish this letter, I must prepare for the next dragon migration. I’ll be doing this one alone. Any special color you want for the next dragon? I lean toward pink this time, there have been enough green, red and blue dragons. With all my kindness, loyalty, generosity, laughter, and honestly, Sum-po-neigh Knot Yew.
