First Journal entrie
Dear Princess Celestia
Howldy my name Is Running Ear Coyote, but everypony calls me REC.
I'm writing to you because in a round bout way a friend of mine said to. Prancer (said friend) said I should keep a Journal of my hauls across Equestria. I'm a Wagoneer hauling goods from town to town. Because bout every time I see him I have some new weird story to tell. Also I hope you're a better reader than I am a writer. This will probably be rather disjointed journal entries.
Well after the last time I saw Prancer I found this Stationary shop in Canterlot and went in to see bout getting a journal and quills. I'm looking at travel journals and the old Unicorn running the shop, Hopper was his name came over got me a talkin' asking me what I was wanting to keep a journal for. I told him bout my work and one of the misadventures I'd had. He was fascinated by the story and said that You would enjoy it, and that you loved getting letters from your ponies.
He asked me about my magic abilities, looking at him quizzically I said what magic do earth ponies have beside the basic grasping magic?
He says, Come on my boy I can see you are not just pony, but half pony and half coyote. You hide your coyote side well, but to me you stand out like an apple tree in the badlands. The tawny hair with gray in it, the black tip ears and tail, no pony has had a scruffier tail like yours, and the canine fangs your trying hard not to show when you speak.
Earth ponies have a lot of magic, not as showy as the Pegasus's or flashy as the Unicorns have, but they have it. Coyotes are very magical, more Astral plans magic than physical magic but coyotes have magic. I can see you have developed your magic abilities. What can you do?
OK, I can feel where living things are around me when I work my hooves into the ground. Just any living thing touching the ground I can tell where it is from me. I also can travel through others dreams. I spend a lot of my own dreams in others dreams. One reason I like being on the road, the fewer around me, the less likely I am to visit there dreams. And I'm not very good at it but if I push at it I can push life into plants making them grow faster, or bring them back from near death.
Very Good my boy. I think I can teach you another earth pony spell. One not many know any more. Which is a shame, its a very hoofy spell.
Grabbing a scroll and leading me out back to a court yard behind the buildings. Hopper takes me over to a flower box pointing to the dirt in it he begins telling how to work a sending spell. You have to think of the pony or any other creature you want to send the scroll to, OK? Not of them in a place, but Just them, not where you think they would be, or what they would be doing, extras like that can mess up the spell. Just think of them and only them, the spell will send the scroll to them. Lifting the scroll in front of me, using a hoof to dig a small hole. He placed the scroll in the hole and covered it with dirt, placing both fore hooves into the dirt over the buried scroll and concentrating the scroll appeared in the air in front of me. See my boy easy. I didn't see his horn glow when he did it. Then his aura covered the scroll before it fell, and his horn was glowing again.
I ask why didn't you're horn glow when you sent the scroll? Aahhh good eyes my boy, I didn't use unicorn magic to send the scroll. I used Earth pony magic. Earth Pony magic mostly involves dirt and living things. I push the magic out through my fore hooves. I asked does that mean you're hooves glow when you use earth pony magic? Hopper looked at me a moment with a cocked head, You know I don't know. You have to get you're hooves in to the ground so you can't really see if they are glowing or not. Again good observation my boy. Now cocking my head, You mean no pony has ever checked to see if their hooves glow when doing Earth magic? He answered well not that I ever heard of. You might keep an eye on it and see if you're hooves glow, but remember you can't split your concentration or the spell won't work. Later if you get better with magic working you may learn how to split your concentration and do a couple things or even several things at a time, BUT don't push it. It can take a lot to do that.
Over the next hour or so he got me to where I could send the scroll to him. Once I got to where I could think of just Hopper and push power down my fore legs it was easy. I had problems at first of trying to think of Hopper in the garden and the spell ether wouldn't send the scroll, or ended up someplace else in the garden. I think Hopper had the scroll spelled with some kind of finding magic now. Because he always knew where it ended up if I missed.
Then I ask him how am I to send a scroll to a pony I have never met? He said that to send to somepony I only need a strong mental image of them. He ask me some questions about you, and says I have a strong enough mental image of you to be able to send to you. We'll see.
After teaching me how to send scrolls he took me back into the shop and to the journals again. Pointing out different journals and there abilities. I didn't realize Journals could come with so many addons. Well I ended up getting a self copying journal that copies itself to another journal anywhere in the world. so you put one in a safe place and keep one with you. Hopper also set it up to make a scroll copy to send to you, or anypony else. I was looking at quills that don't run out of ink as long as its ink bottle has ink in it. He pointed out that, that quill could also be used with a larger quart size bottle of ink instead of the smaller ink well bottle. Talk bout Up sales, I didn't really understand the meaning of the phrase till that day. When I went to pick up the quill and bottle, Hopper held up a smaller stick looking thing. Hopper said but for you I think you would be better with one of these, It is easier for non-unicorns to use and has its own ink in it, there called Pens. I think the extra bits were worth it, I have come up with other uses for writing tools for work.
As he was ringing me up. I asked was it wise to leave the store unattended to teach me the spell? I mean it took well over an hour to do. Somepony could have come in and walked off with something. Hopper said it didn't matter, he has the store spelled to know if somepony comes in. That if somepony tries to steal something most of the inventory is spelled to tell him if its leaving with out being paid for. And if he couldn't help them he has a spell to tell his grand daughter to go down and help them. I think he's been doing this a while.
You know now that I wrote all that explaining how the spell works, I realized you probably already know all that. But it was fun learning it and retelling the story of learning it.
P.S. Hopper said that even though you read every letter you get, that you don't always get to answer them back. Well please answer this one at least, that way I know I did and can get the scroll to you.
Your Pony
RECoyote
Author's Note
This is meant to be rough and harder to read. Its a Journal of a pony just keeping track of his days, and just starting to write.
Ponyknows he may get good at writing.
