The Scroll of Exalted Ponies

Staying the night in the exceedingly humble pilgrim dormitory of the temple, the circle departed the next day for the north.

Rose still seemed shocked at the order she had been given. The circle didn’t quite understand, but as they flew towards the north-west Rose tried to explain: “Has any of you heard of a barbarian warlord known as the Bull of North?”

“Isn’t that the barbarian who led some ice-walkers tribes against the realm’s vermilion legion and whipped them out?” Cash suggested, having heard of the story some years ago while still working as a traveling merchant.

Rose nodded, adding that the bull was a dawn caste solar who exalted so far north that no wyld hunt caught wind of him in time to stop him from raising an army.

“So wait, this bull is a solar? Hmmm… well that actually makes a lot of sense come to think of it” Red noted, recalling the stories she’d heard among other mercenaries of the battle four years ago. An entire realm legion, over six thousand ponies-at-arms, along with all the magical weapons a realm legion usually brought to bear: Essence artillery, jade warstriders, magical armor for the unicorns… all of it defeated by a single Solar and a horde of barbarian ponies armed with nothing but their hooves or weapons made of mammoth bones?

“Sounds legit” Shimmer said, nodding. The story certainly fit the legends she had been told by her elders of solar battlemasters in the first age.

Rose sighed: “Less than three hundred realm soldiers survived the battle of futile blood, but that wasn’t all of it. The bronze faction had, at the time, made a convention of the Bull in order to stop the Bull. All three members, all elders like the one Sullen Hoof faced today, were slain by the bull… and unlike our assassin today they weren’t trying to be subtle about it and the bull still took them all down”

“I don’t see the problem. He’s a kickass Solar and your boss says that he knows this mind fixing charm” Red said, feeling a strange kind of kinship with this Bull pony Rose was describing.

Hanging her head low, Rose sighed again then looked up at Red: “It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s me. I don’t want him to kill me, and so far the bulls only known interactions with sidereals have been of the killing sort”

“Well if you’re with us I’m sure it’ll be all good” Red said with a smile, genuinely looking forward to meeting this warlord.
After several hours of flight the question of exactly where the Bull was located came up. Rose said that the gold faction had put astrological blockades in place on the Bull so scrying for his location wouldn’t work – to prevent bronze faction assassins finding the Bull that way – but this also meant that the circle would now have to ask around to find the warlord the old fashioned way.

“Can’t be too hard. Considering the rampage they pulled off there should be a trail of destruction to find” Cash noted.
“It’s been a few years since they were active – we can probably just ask around at a trading post. There should be merchants who’ll know where they are” Shimmer noted, asking Sully to look around under the cloud for a trading post or merchant town.

As Sullen Hoof looked for a good spot to gather information Shimmer flew her cloud along the Avarice river. Speaker found the sight of the river strange, as his old home – the hunting lodge – wasn’t that far from the river. As the cloud passed over the Bien lands Speaker sighed and tried to spot the village he had lived near, but by the time they flew by that it was getting too dark to see the ground properly.

Further west, near the point where the Avarice river merged with the river of tears, Sullen Hoof noticed a vast canyon opening up to the south of the Avarice river. In the canyon were a series of natural stone pillars, with houses built on top of them – and the faint flickering of torches and lamps revealed that there were bridges connecting the pillars. What had really caught Sully’s charm-enhanced eyes was the number of ships docked on piers built on the south shore of the river, the docks again being connected via bridges to the houses on the canyon pillars: “Trading post!”

Shimmer made the cloud descend, landing on the shore to the great surprise of the few drunken sailors out and about at the late hour.

“We should find a place to sleep here. Anyone who knows anything is probably asleep by now” Shimmer noted.

On one of the canyon pillars which had quite wide mesas as it turned out, the circle found an inn with room for all of them. The next morning the circle split up, looking for information. The plan was to meet back at the inn at noon.

Speaker and Shimmer cased out the local craftsponies, the town of Felubic having a lot of small ship-maintenance workshops to service merchant shipping that came down from the north via the river of tears. Speaker figured that the craftsponies would know what new ships had just arrived from the north. After some decidedly suggestive flirting from Shimmer the two exalted ponies got all the information they needed from an apprentice who apparently was quite lonely.

Heading to the docks Speaker and Shimmer found Cash and Red already there, talking to the captain of a merchant ship. Well, Cash talked to the captain. Red was having fun hoof-wrestling with the burly sailors and beating them effortlessly – and it wasn’t even noon yet.

Seeing the sailors cheering for Red and her current opponent, a bulky and gruff looking mare, Shimmer perked an eyebrow: “Well that’s a new thing”

“What is?” Speaker said, looking around in the inn. There were musicians playing flutes over in a corner, lively banter and lots of drinking and singing all over the place, combined with a hoffful of servants trying to skirt around the many costumers trying to serve food and ale.

Shimmer pointed at the sailor mare that Red was hoof-wrestling with: “In the west mares aren’t allowed to be sailors. Heck, most places don’t even let us on ships…”

“Wha- why would they do that? Fishing and shipping is nine tenths of everything you can do in the west, so why would you limit yourself to only half of all ponies to work on your boats?” Speaker wondered, trying to wrap his head around the logistical headache that such a misogynist gender policy would entail.

Smiling, Shimmer calmed Speaker: “It’s the storm mothers of the west. They are the gods of the storms we have back home. They’re very ugly, jealous and will wreck any ship they come across that has a mare on it prettier than them… which is all of them. The cultural misogyny came naturally with that, since mares can’t work on boats out of fear of losing the ship”

Speaker wasn’t really sure what to say to this revelation, but he was certain that if he ever met a storm mother he’d have words with her. Shimmer just kept on smiling, shrugged and approached Cash.

It turned out that the merchant that Cash had been buying drinks and flirting with, a haughty looking stallion in very a very utilitarian captain’s uniform, had passed a trading post on his way down the river of tears manned by the Bull’s underlings. With this information the circle left on a new cloud heading north, following the river of tears.

The weather quickly became noticeably colder as the circle flew north. Around evening it was so cold that the circle had to find somewhere to quickly purchase warmer clothes. Luckily the circle was able to reach the trading post that the captain had mentioned before the last rays of light disappeared, although as the circle barged into the large riverside house that was the trading post they did look quite frosty. In the common room they had entered sat a dozen or so other ponies, all dressed in warm furs and other forms of thick northern clothing, all of them minding their own business.

“Careful, northern ponies are well known for being hostile to strangers” Rose warned the circle.

Behind a counter of thick wood, bathed in the flickering glow of a big roaring open fireplace in the middle of the trading post and tavern, an inn-keeper gave off a hearty and cruel grin as he spoke to the circle in a notable northern accent: “Ah, southings – can you hold the heat?”

Looking around while shivering, it quickly became clear to the circle that this ‘trading post’ was as much riverside inn and tavern as it was a trading post. The inn-keeper, a tall stallion wearing a very nice looking fur coat, gave the circle a pensive look: “If you want room and board I need coin first, no farting around”

“Wow, such northern hospitality” Shimmer quipped, speaking in old-realm to avoid the inn-keeper understanding her.

Through his charms Cash instantly knew that the inn-keeper was weary of the circle because they were all strangers to him – foreigners who could not be trusted to do honest business. With a tiny whiff of essence and a smile on his lips, no small feat considering how cold Cash was, the silk-dressed pony approached the inn-keeper: “Come now, we’re just staying for the night. How about you heat up something for us to eat get us something to drink, then we’ll part on good terms in the morning”

As if by magic the inn-keeper smiled and nodded at Cash, accepting the few coins of silver Cash flung at him, quickly bringing out some steamy broth and very nice honey-mead to the circle at their table.

“Well that was a nice change of heart, what did you do to him Cash?” Sullen Hoof wondered as he breathed in the warm vapors of the bowl of broth in front of him.

Cash smiled: “Made him think I’m a local. Rose was right; ponies from the north don’t like strangers, more so than most other places – but they’re very open to the ponies they do trust. Now, warm yourselves while I try to find out if anyone here is selling furs… Speaker, you can make us something with some furs right?”

“If you get us enough, sure” Speaker said absentmindedly, being busy with slurping up the warm meaty bread broth in front of him.

Cash quickly wolfed down his meal and cased the establishment, then sat down at another table. A short while later he returned having apparently acquired three dozen bear and wolf pelts… for free.

“Wait, for free?” Sunrise said in disbelief.

Cash explained that for the gracious ‘gift’ he had in turn informed the merchant he had talked to about the village further down the river that Cash and Speaker had saved from slavers a few months ago, who on Speaker’s instructions had begun to collect and sell the herbal ingredients to maiden tea: “I told him of the business opportunity he might find there – in return he gave me the furs as a gift, plus he’d need the room on his boat for the tea herbs”

“From complete stranger to trusted business advisor in just a few minutes. Impressive” Shimmer said, nodding at Cash.
“With my charms? I’d expect nothing less” Cash said, smiling greatly.

Speaker worked the furs over the night, producing six sets of warm and oddly stylish fur coats the circle. Cash wasn’t sure about the exact style that Speaker had made them in, since Speaker had made them in the first age style that he remembered well… problem was just that that style had gone out of fashion so many times over the last several thousand years that Shimmer wasn’t even sure that it had ever been in style, despite Speaker’s reassurances that it had been… once.

Clad in dubiously stylish but undeniably warm clothing, the circle inquired with the locals to where the Bull was located. This turned out to be slightly more tricky as the inn-keeper had at least been used to strangers even if he hadn’t been friendly to begin with, but again Cash’s social charms proved invaluable as he was able to find a pair of hunters who, after some essence-based smooth-talking, bragged about how much the Bull’s quartermasters had paid for the meat they had sold them a few weeks ago. With this information also followed the rough location of the Bull and his forces, and so the circle sped off – with Speaker napping as Shimmer flew the cloud, him having worked all night on the warm fur coats.

Around noon Sullen Hoof announced that he could see a large army camp out on the tundra down on the ground. It was a huge tent city, with Speaker guessing that there was at least capacity for some two or three thousand ponies down there, although it wasn’t that easy to see due to the snowfall that was blanketing the camp.

At the cloud’s cruising altitude there wasn’t much bad weather, but it was quite cold. As Shimmer made the cloud descend towards the camp the circle found themselves flying down into a mild snowstorm. The visibility quickly deteriorated to the point that Shimmer had to rely on Sullen Hoof and his sensory-enhancement charms to safely guide the cloud.

The issue of guiding the cloud quickly became a moot point, as suddenly two nets shot up through the cloud and caught Sunrise and Cash, yanking them down through the cloud with great force. Seconds later, just as Red and Sullen Hoof had brought their arms to bear to defend themselves, two other nets shot up from under them. One caught Shimmer and pulled her through the cloud – the cloud quickly dissolving… leaving Red, Speaker and Sullen Hoof to fall from the sky. The other net missed.

“Shimmer!” Speaker shouted. He couldn’t see a thing and he was falling to his death. This was not how he had thought meeting the Bull would go…

Suddenly a net came from bellow and entangled Speaker. It pulled him down much faster than he had been falling, the ground soon becoming visible as it came closer and closer uncomfortably quickly. It also became clear that the net was being reeled in via a thick rope attached to the net.

The net was suddenly swung around, translating the downwards motion to intense horizontal motion, but it also began to slow down and after a few rotations around whatever had been reeling him in. Fairly dizzy, Speaker was dropped to the ground where the net released him unceremoniously into a pile of cold snow.

Speaker quickly found himself being shouted at by northern ponies in a language he didn’t understand at all, the northern icetongue, while quite a lot of crude spears were also being leveled at him. As the world around him stopped spinning Speaker saw that the rest of the circle was being detained similarly, several dozen spear-wielding and fur-clad pony-looking beings having surrounded each of them, although it was difficult to tell from the poor visibility given by the snowy weather and the cold wind.

Cash shouted something in icetongue, and half a second later there was the sound of a pony being clubbed over the head followed by Cash yelling out in pain. Speaker sighed and reminded himself that Cash really needed to learn a defensive charm or two…

Suddenly Red roared and with a twisting motion swiped away the spears around her so hard that all the spear-tips bent. The large amounts of essence needed for such a powerful and precise blow caused Red’s anima to flare, the golden light piercing the heavy snowfall surprisingly clearly and with a forcefulness that for a brief moment cleared away all the snow.

Speaker instantly heard all the spears drop in Red’s direction, followed by more shouting in icetongue. Of course! If this was a camp lead by a solar warlord the soldiers would obviously respond positively to other solars!

“Everyone, flare your animas!” Speaker shouted, hoping that the others would hear it, as he willed his anima to ignite and wreathe himself in harmless but exceedingly shiny golden flames.

Around Speaker he could see the dim outlines of more golden animas flaring, plus a silver-blue anima. This elicited even more shouting in icetongue, but this time some of it was by Cash. The shouting quickly stopped after that, the circle gathering together.

“So… what did you say to them?” Sullen Hoof asked Cash, not having understood a single word that had been said.
Cash shrugged: “That we’re solars and that we’re here to see the bull, at least that’s what I think I said”

“Since when could you talk icetongue anyway?” Red wondered.

Cash smiled, patting Red on the shoulder: “Linguistic charms my friend – learn a language in ten seconds flat. Used it back when I talked to those hunters in case you didn’t notice”

A pony mare clad in crude but thick furs strapped to her approached the circle. It was difficult to see her face, and her voice was muffled by the furs tied around her to keep her warm, but she motioned for the circle to follow.

The circle was led into a large circular tent-hut made of mammoth bones and covered in multiple thick fuzzy pelts and hides. Inside the yurt a small fire burned, around with dozens of exquisite swords, shields, suits of armor and other strange but expensive looking trinkets, and in the middle was a throne wrought of ornately carved mammoth tusks and the skulls of various many-eyed monsters plus a half-dozen pony skulls lying at its base…

On the throne sat a dark-grey coated pony stallion bigger than Speaker, with thick legs and hooves, a shaggy coat and a long grey mane tied into multiple braids. The stallion’s face was grim with a thick grey beard that grew into his mane, and he bore the marks of having fought many things with many fangs and claws, and on his head he bore a – by the standards of the hundred kingdoms – plain golden coronet with a sunburst icon on the front. It was the Bull of the north, and while it was clear this solar exalt was physically old then his body was taught with bulging muscles and strong-looking if not worn hooves and wild unshorn fetlocks.

“Speaker, this is how I’ve always imagined a solar warlord” Shimmer said quietly, blushing at the sight before her.

Cash was about to bow and introduce himself and the circle to the bull, but the Bull interrupted him as he began to bow his head, speaking in a strange northern dialect of OId-Realm: “If you are solar you bow to no-one but Celestia”

“Very well. My name is Cash Charmer, exalted of the solar eclipse caste” Cash said in old realm, standing tall and resplendent.

The Bull let out a brief chuckle: “A wordsmith, good – I have need of one like you”

“Let us not get ahead of ourselves – we are not here to join forces” Sunrise quickly pointed out, her old-realm having a very formal pronunciation.

The Bull gave Sunrise a derisive snort, the breath of the solar puffing out of his nostrils like a thick fog.

Speaking again in icetongue, Cash introduced the Bull to the circle, each showing their cast mark as Cash gestured at them. The Bull seemed impressed to finally see a full circle and he was quite curious at Shimmer, for he had never seen a lunar before.

“I can’t imagine that the silver pact hasn’t tried to make contact with you” Shimmer said, her old realm having an odd western pronunciation to it.

The Bull couldn’t answer, instead turning his attention to Heath Rose: “And what of this one? You fear me… you have been silent since you stepped into my yurt”

Rose didn’t say a word, instead trying to inch herself behind Speaker to hide from the Bull’s gaze.

“A mortal follower perhaps? One awed by your powers and now awed by mine as well?” the Bull quipped with an oddly mirthful grin.

Cash yanked Heath Rose up next to him, right up front of the Bull: “Not at all. She is a sidereal and has been quite useful to us. She’s simply afraid that you’ll mistake her for sidereals like the ones who previously tried to kill you at Futile Blood. We’ve had such an assassin come after us as well, but apparently the sidereals are divided on whether they want us solars to return… so not all of them are hostile”

The Bull got down from his throne and stood nose to nose with Rose: “Futile Blood, yes, I fought three strange ponies there who were not unicorns. After all his fancy magic fighting I ripped his legs off and hoisted him up on a pole to freeze to death, took three days. Fed his remains to bears, then I ate the bears. Were they sidereals as this one?”

Rose was visibly shivering, beads of sweat rolling down her forehead.

“I assure you, Rose is on our side. She even arranged a meeting with the gold faction Sidereal leader, and I’m certain that she could do the same for you if you’re interested. The bronze faction Sidereals are simply too caught up in trying to make creation work without solars to want to abandon their old schemes and plans”

Nodding ever so slightly, the Bull returned to his throne and called for a servant in icetongue. A young colt appeared in the tent moments later, hauling a big clay jug full of mead. Drinks were offered to all present and there was a brief moment of quiet.

“So, solars of the river province, why did you come to me?” the Bull inquired.

Red wanted to tell the Bull, but she understood neither icetongue nor old realm, and for once Speaker held his tongue. Sunrise explained their plight, how the gold faction Sidereals were certain that the Bull knew of a martial arts technique that could strike the magical lies and compulsions out of the circle’s minds.

The Bull found this quite amusing, both that the circle had found themselves victim to such underhoofed trickery, but also that these Sidereals with their strange magic fighting as he called it couldn’t fix the circle on their own: “Still, I will gladly help fellow Solars”

Having spoken, the Bull asked whether the circle wanted to have him simply use the technique on the circle, or whether he should teach one of them the technique, to which Red asked Cash to tell the Bull that she wanted to learn the technique – assuming that it was possible for her to learn it at all.

The Bull noted that such would take time, time that he honestly didn’t have that much of – for after his bought with the vermillion legion those years ago he’d been spending his time consolidating and simply maintaining control over the lands he’d conquered. He simply didn’t have the time needed to train Red…

“I think I can help with that” Rose meekly noted.

Rose explained that she knew a sidereal technique which could allow her to copy skills and charms very quickly. It was something used as part of Sidereal education to speed things up. The Bull wasn’t sure, but again Cash vouched for her. The process was surprisingly quick and quite shiny. The Bull sat opposite of Red, with Rose standing next to them with a hoof on each of their foreheads. Rose’s green caste mark flared and glowing bands of green essence coursed between the two Solars. An hour later Red knew a knew martial arts technique, having learned it purely via memory transfer.

“Well, what are you waiting for? Use it on us!” Cash urged.

Red shrugged and reared up as if to stomp Cash, but instead she lunged out with a lightning-quick and surprisingly gently hoof that barely touched Cash’s forehead. Cash then keeled over screaming, as snakes of golden fire erupted from his mouth and eyes as the lies within him were burnt away…

“Who’s next?” Red said, looking at the rest of the circle who, looking at Cash wiggling around on the pelts covering the floor of the Bull’s yurt, didn’t look that interested in going through with the mind-purge anymore.

Taking a deep breath and willfully choosing to ignore the feeling of fright, Speaker stepped forward. He didn’t even manage to say that he would be next before Red had gently struck his forehead. Searing pain from within erupted in Speaker and he too dropped to the floor, writhing in agony.

As Speaker came to he saw the rest of the circle undergoing or recovering from the technique, although Sunrise had apparently been sensible enough to sit down first so she fallen over. He felt… the same as before. He had expected to feel different. He had expected to see things that hadn’t been there before – but there weren’t anything on his circlemates that he hadn’t noticed before. Looking at Shimmer as she got up, the last fading vapors of golden fire trailing out of her mouth and eyes, Speaker saw nothing he hadn’t seen before: It was the same purple dreadlocked mane, the same beautiful blue eyes, the same cute face, the same two puncture marks on her throat, the sa-

Hold on.

Looking around at the rest of the circle, then feeling his own throat and wincing in pain as he felt two puncture marks as well, Speaker quickly concluded that he had somehow not noticed that they all had identical neck wounds. As this fact dawned on the rest of the circle, and as the brief panic that ensued died down after they had all checked that there wasn’t anything else they hadn’t noticed about themselves, the question was what these marks meant.

The Bull, looking quizzically at Rose, inquired if this explained why the circle hadn’t responded to his questions previously.
“Wait, what questions?” Speaker said, looking up from his examination of Shimmer’s puncture wounds.

The Bull said that he had asked about the wounds before asking why the circle had come to him, but none of them had answered. Rose added that similar questions back in Yu-Shan had also been ignored, with Rose having chosen not to push the subject after her initial inquiries.

“Hold on, you never asked said about that” Cash quickly pointed out.

Rose shook her head and jingled a large bit of jewelry that hung around her neck, well hidden in her fur coat: “I did. I can prove it if you want”

It slowly dawned on the circle that the wounds were part of what the Emerald and Ruby mare had hidden from them via her mind control. Speaker quickly finished examining the puncture marks: “They don’t make sense… they’re not near any veins and I never noticed any of us having any symptoms of being hurt”

Shimmer peered intently at the wounds on the solars around her, then she turned into her monster-pony form, the yurt bulging as all the ponies inside were showed up against the thick pelts that made up the yurt’s walls. Somehow maneuvering Speaker’s neck up in front of her face, Shimmer gazed at her solar mate’s wounds with her third eye while everyone else groaned and showed and called for Shimmer to shift into a more manageable size.

After few moments Shimmer shifted back into her usual pony form and declared: “Its essence!”

A short explanation later, the circle understood Shimmer’s revelation: The puncture marks were placed to tap into each of their inner essence flows, as evident by the wounds placement relative to their chakras.

“So… this deathknight has been what, draining us of essence? Wouldn’t we have noticed ourselves having no power to use our charms?” Cash wondered.

Speaker shrugged: “Maybe she used an anesthetic charm like mine and drained us in our sleep? Plus, we were under the compulsion never to notice or pay her any attention right?”

The Bull noted that he’d heard of similar injuries from those of his agents who occasionally clash with the Lovers forces. Rose seemed surprised at the mention of this ‘Lover’, while the rest of the circle wasn’t really sure what they were talking about, but Rose quickly explained that it was another Deathlord with a stronghold in a shadowland several thousand miles north of where they were right now.

“Either way, now we should all be fully equipped to return to Chung Do and confront this deathknight” Heath Rose declared, sounding quite pleased at the thought of getting away from the Bull.

The Bull smiled, revealing worn teeth: “Not so fast. I have given you all something quite valuable and powerful – I will expect to repaid that favor at some point”

“Of course, but honestly – what could you possible need? You’ve conquered vast tracts of land, you have your own army of icewalker ponies, all the loot from defeating a realm legion – what could we possibly offer?” Cash inquired, his icetongue having improved remarkably quickly.

The Bull groaned: “I am dawn caste, I am the greatest military leader I could ever imagine – but I am no bureaucrat and such talents are rare to find among the barbarian tribes I rule over, and of the conquered ponies it has been impossible to find one that doesn’t turn to corruption or sedition when given a chance. I need help consolidating my holds: That’s what I’ve spent the last several years since defeating the vermillion legion doing, going from rebellion to rebellion, fending off idiotic invasions and wyld hunt incursions from Cherak”

“So, you need help with peacetime management. Fair enough, you’re a warlord – not a clerk, but we have our own trouble down in the hundred kingdoms: Rebel nobles, a plague spread by a deathknight. It’ll take time to wrap those things up” Cash pointed out.

Ultimately the circle agreed that for the time being they would simply owe the Bull a big favor, but the Bull did point out that as a more immediate issue the circle could help out with once they had the time would be up in Plenilune: “Some of the first conquests I made when I began to march out of the snow with my icewalkers was the Salt-spire League, but they renounced their oaths of fealty the moment my army moved on. I’ve sent Raneth, a twilight caste solar who came to me three years ago, to govern the league, but he’s effectively under siege from the slew of assassins sent after him by the nobles and kings of the salt spire cities that refuse to bow to him. Securing control of the Salt-spire League would gain me a steady source of income from trade in salt with the guild, and I need those funds to set up a proper government. Tribal ponies who only answer to their chiefs do not make good regional overseers and it’s difficult to motivate more educated ponies to work for nothing”

Impressed by the Bull’s knowledge of how to run a good government, and equally impressed by his admitting that he couldn’t actually do it himself, Rose stated that the gold faction would gladly lend advisors to the Bull, as well as oversee the training of the Bull’s minions with regards to proper managerial techniques”

“Just teach them to read and write first, that’ll make my life so much easier…” the Bull groaned.

Speaker perked up at the mentioning of such a desire for basic education: “That is something I think I can help with right here and right now”

The circle adjusted their fur coats and ventured outside, where the Bull somehow managed to call the entire army together with a single loud shout. The weather had settled ever so slightly, so the visibility was better, but it still wasn’t perfect. The Bull then shouted at the heavens: “And you wind spirits, knock it off or I’ll come beat you asses again!”

The weather cleared in an instant. The Bull commented that he had an ‘understanding’ with the local windigoes that they were to clear the skies on occasion for him, or else…

With clear visibility in the frosty landscape, the circle could see the full extent of the Bull’s encampment: It was massive. Well over a thousand tents of various shapes and sizes, although all in the same style as the Bull’s yurt. Next to the camp the entire army had assembled in an orderly rank and file formation so perfect that it brought tears to Speaker’s eyes. Stepping up in front of the mass of tribal ponies, all of which looked gruff, with wild manes and not a single shorn fetlock in sight, the Bull announced that a new Solar he had just met were about to give them all a brief magically enhanced lesson that he was certain they would all benefit from.

With the help of Cash writing the icetongue alphabet on a scroll and translating, and Sunrise projecting the letters up into the air using her ability to project essence-fueled illusions – a simple but visually stunning charm she had apparently only ever used as part of her sermons – Speaker was able to use his educational charm to teach three or so thousand tribal icewalker ponies how to read and write in a language he couldn’t even speak – all in just an hour or so. The Bull was quite impressed.

After explaining that the lesson would first properly sink in after a week or so, requiring an hour of daily meditation, the Bull thanked Speaker and said that he could only hope that Raneth would become as willing to help others once the Solar once again ruled all of creation. Speaker wasn’t entirely sure of what the Bull meant, but took it as a good thing.

Bidding the Bull goodbye the circle left towards Chung Do and warmer climates.