Entry 001: Remembering your History
Dear Diary,
Dear Journal,
The doctors at the Nursery have informed me that it might help with my, unique views on the world. If I got them out on paper as I’ve declined any form of psyche treatment beyond the mandatory tests of the Shadowbolt Program. I don’t trust anyone, not deep down. So forgive me for being blunt in a “private” document that I’m sure will open to anyone with a will to. I’m not mad mind you, I’m going to work for the ponies that don’t exist, spying and betrayals of trust are par for the course. But I understand family is important too. So where do I begin?
I grew up on the far side of the Equestrian empire in Seaddle, that rainy metropolis. In the NW corner that most colts and fillies can point to on a map but haven’t been to if they live in the shadow of Canterlot. To be fair, other than a school fieldtrip that took us to a session of the solar court, I’ve never seen much of the capital myself. Even before the prevalence of trains ponies that live on the coasts don’t make it inland far save to visit family.
The same is true for royalty. Princess Celestia never made it to Seaddle for a Summer Sun celebration as our weather crew had a hard time with all constant rain. Hard to worship the sun through 1000 feet of rain clouds after all. I did get to see Princess Cadence when she was a teenager doing a good will run through the kingdom. Getting as many ponies interested in serving the crown when the guard applications from our region were low. Seaddle is one of those places in Equestria that never has anything terrible happen. No natural disasters. We get along with the Seaponies in our harbor. Griffons that live in the Old Growth Forests are small in number they would rather trade for meat than hunt even the portliest of the Earth Pony. Even the Diamond Dogs and Minotaurs from the Unicorn Range weren’t any trouble if they made it as far as us North of Vanhoover. But there, on the border of the western stretch of the Crystal Empire there are woods still untamed by Earth Ponies. Fae like zones that seem to shift and move with the seasons. The Everfree fascinated me because it was just as strange but at least it stood still. You could plot it on a map and go back to it, even if the contents shift around a bit once inside.
Not so with the Wild Woods of Seaddle, it was there I made my living and earned my Cutie Mark. Not wanting to head south for work with my tinkering parents, I opted to stay on the edges of civilization. Land was cheap and no one cared if one more Earth Pony lived off the land provided I paid my taxes as a citizen protected by the crown. But as little expected of Earth Ponies little was taken. I made a living harvesting mushrooms from the rain drenched loam of the land. I grew rather good at it too. Saving up enough bits to build a cabin on the edge of a longer stretch of woods I could venture in on good days and collect my fungal treasures. In time learned from my fellow outliers and books what plants were good to harvest and what would kill me if I so much as licked them. Earned a Sea of Grass Certification and made house calls to those too sick or old to make it to the hospital. Though not so ill that a true doctor would be necessary. The children would call me a Witch Doctor, even got some offerings on Nightmare Night. Stories that they had heard tall tales from the older fillies and colts. But I was content, I was helping ponies for little more than some company on a lonely night and warm plate of food. Unicorns, up until the Fall of Equestria had a strangle hold on the Medical Field. The vast majority of them working here are further proof of that. Unicorns charge like they’re able to, but I can understand that, I’ve seen what they have to eat to maintain the levels of magic they cast. And while the corruption of the noble bloods was still felt here on the West Coast it is nowhere near as deep or vindictive as in the capital.
The thing I collected the most of: mushrooms. The volcanic soil churned over centuries by receding glaciers from the Crystal Empire after Sombra’s fall left a land fertile, rivalling that of the Ponyville basin it’s self. Combine that with a steady fall of rain from the Sea of Storms you have the perfect environment for the Kingdom of Species second only to our own to flourish.
An interesting side note: mushrooms have long strands of roots called mycelium. They soften dead wood and other compost making pathways for other plants to grow and nourished like earthworms in a garden. These mycelium can span up to 100 hooves underground and many miles in diameter for each mushroom depending on the species. Having magical tuteledge myself, but I theorize that part of what gives Earth Ponies their dominance on land when it comes to growing things in places with fertile soil is the ability to sense this network and manipulate it to some degree. Mushrooms being far more prevalent a kingdom of creatures second only to Animalia that we ourselves occupy with all other sentient creatures. Which begs the question: in each transference from one kingdom to the next we go from simpler creature to more and more complex, would it not make sense then that there is a Kingdom that acts as a go between us and the Plantae Kingdom?
But this isn’t a science report, it’s supposed to be a personal recounting of my past, forgive me. I am most passionate about my work and have devoted a great deal of my life time to it. At any rate, it was on such a collection day that I ran into trouble. After serious upheaval with Princess Twilight rebuilding the Twin Sisters Castle in the Everfree. Quite a few monsters ended up displaced by encroaching civilization. I don’t blame her, species displacement is part of expansion. But it’s what lead a hungry manticore to my neck of the woods. One that hadn’t seen anything meaner than a stubborn warren of bunnies that didn’t want to wake up for Winter Wrap Up. Caught unaware, I was eating my lunch and the predator didn’t disturb a leaf as it stalked me. It stayed in the tree branches on the Wild side of the woods. It was smart enough not to try and catch my unawares on the ground where I would have felt it slinking towards me through the Earth. It wasn’t until I felt a horrible wrenching on my hindquarter that I knew I was horned.
I don’t. . .remember much right afterwards. The world went white for a time, I didn’t feel any pain. Until I was shook like a rat and thrown into the side of a tree when me rear leg refused to come loose in the creatures maw. By pure dumb luck the creature had bitten into my scapula instead of the joint keeping my limb intact for a moment. I did start to feel cold, my life blood pouring out my blank flank on to the ground near a Fae ring. Fae rings being these odd circles of mushrooms that often grow near trees in moist climates. Shock was setting in I noticed the particular species I was bleeding all over was Discord’s Devious Dervish (Confusae Circumvisi Mycondoiz), a poisonous mushroom to avoided at all costs. A few gills from under the cap smeared on food or steeped in tea enough to stop a raging Minotaurs heart dead cold. Vision failing I smeared the mushroom on my bleeding leg and flopped over toward the manticore getting ready to finish me off.
I figured, “If I’m going down, I’m taking this overgrown pussy with me!” Unfortunately I did feel the creature bite my leg off. Its horrible raspy tongue lapping up my blood as it chomped straight through my scapula bone. Just as I was passing out I could hear the thing hack and cough on my limb in its craw as it fell over dead. Interesting side note about the Dervish: it is an excellent coagulant. Small amount smeared on someone with a clotting disorder like Hemofillya will cause their blood to gel on the site of the injury. I didn’t know that at the time but I had plenty of time to research how I wasn't dead while laid up in the hospital while my stump healed. As it turns out the creatures death was neither quick nor quiet. It wailed for miles and the weather ponies found my body near the predator, its tongue and lips as black as Princess Luna’s flank. They hauled me back and while it bankrupted me getting better it wasn’t like I could continue as I was with only three legs.
I got a chance to meet fellow crippled ponies. Pegasi with only one wing or no wings after having to amputate because they were shot by Mirror Travelers with guns. I have met Unicorns from the Shire Isles with stumps or holes for horns and their plight was horrible. But when you’re an Earth Pony, and have had your hooves on the ground your whole life.
There is no ignoring having 3/4 ‘s the information coming in. I’m not saying that they have it any harder or easier than me. I can’t even imagine what losing magic must feel like, that telekinesis being handy and all, doubly so if your Talent was tied to it. While they would need a hoof up to the clouds, Pegasi can still walk amongst the clouds. I always figured that ability was tied to their wings but not so. But we Earth Ponies feel another Sense through the frogs on our hooves, and too my surprise I found each frog felt things differently. Front ones were good with fine detail, holding and sensing density and temperature. While the rear were better at feeling force, balance, and gauging stride for locomotion. And now I was a pony that couldn’t walk, couldn’t work, and had a Cutie Mark associated with murder and suffering.
Discord’s Devious Dervish is pretty obscure, only an avid of mushroom hunter would know that it’s a death mushroom. But the sickle with the poison drop behind it is sure to give away that I’m a pony of less than pleasant destiny.
I’m not mad mind you, I had been a loner before, and would remain so. But when visited in my dreams by a Goddess in Nightclad armor. Asking me if I would be willing to serve a higher purpose while remaining true to my nature how could I refuse? Ugh, I’m being summoned for exercise time. My trainers seem to think that my portly body is a result of my deformity and inaction. Not so. There’s a reason I worked on the pie eating contest and bit contributor when it came to the Running of the Leaves. I’ve always been fat, and have no problem with it. Most mares like a svelte or muscled stallion and that is not me. Not that I think many would find me attractive on three legs even if I was cut from marble instead of marble cake.
