From The Field Desk of Lean-To

From the Field Desk of Lean-To, Royal Expeditionary Ambassador of Equestria, PhD.

Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,

I could hardly stand to wait the proper amount of time needed to gather data before composing this letter to Your Highnesses. My team's journey into the newly discovered lands of Centropi has revealed a most exciting discovery - a new species of pony! Or, at least, they share many traits with us ponies, but, well…just see the attached artistic renditions of a few I’ve met!

They call themselves Equutaurs. They are quite the exotic race, possessing strange and vivid colorations and a variety of insect-like traits. Not like the Breezies or Changelings we are previously familiar with, however; they possess neither overlarge wings and tiny size nor hard outer carapace and shapeshifting abilities. It is more like the soft countenance and striking patterns of a moth or butterfly. Stranger still, they have six legs! The foremost pair are rarely walked upon, although I have seen it done; they keep their head and upper torso bent upright, using their forelegs much as a young dragon might use his hands. I was equally intrigued that, unlike other pony-esque races we have encountered, these share similar divisions to our species: earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn, after a fashion.

The “earth ponies” (they call themselves Tenders) have neither wings nor horn, although they do sport a pair of flexible antennae. The one whose appearance I have recorded for this letter is Glamour, one of the first Equutaurs I encountered. She has a rather…bold-tempered personality, but she is a decent enough host. She appears to find great disdain in our “inefficient” lack of a third pair of hooves, making the occasional snide remark when I have to stand three-legged to hold something, or write with my mouth. I am proud to say that my team and I have handled ourselves with proper decorum, although there was a very small row between Glamour and Dust Devil that we had to quell last Thursday. Something about the proper way to encourage growth magic – yes, much as earth ponies, the Tenders have a talent for tending the land. Plant care doesn’t appear to be Glamour’s particular special talent, but that doesn’t stop her from having an opinion on it. Have no fear, my lieges, no serious strains on our relations resulted. (And Dust Devil has thoroughly apologized for the pie that became unfortunately involved.)

The “pegasi” are strange in that their wings are as lacking in uniformity of shape as the variety of moth and butterfly species they resemble. These Gliders work with the weather and sky animals, although they also seem to share an ability to coordinate with insects. It is quite a sight to see: swarms of butterflies in formation, blowing clouds across the sky at careful command. The Glider I’ve shown here, Mothby (pronounced “Moh-th-bee”) is a very friendly sort and has been teaching me Glider cloudbusting formations. He seems quite taken with my pegasus ability to make especially sharp turns, but the larger wings of the Gliders make for much more efficient wind-makers. Mothby is going to show me his moth training facility tomorrow; I am quite excited and am certain my allergy to pollen won't be an issue.

Lastly, and in some ways most uniquely, are the “unicorns”, here known as Crafters, presumably because a large majority of them are tasked with magically creating the tools and materials used by other Equutaurs. Earthen Spell is a sweet-natured pony – excuse me, Equutaur – and very helpful in our studies. She is shown here demonstrating her spell for creating an ore-locating orb. When asked why she did not simply create a spell that could locate the ore directly, she made the very valid point that this would require a Crafter to be on hoof anytime somepony needed to find the ore, whereas the orb could be used multiple times by anypony. Crafters also possess the antennae common of their race, but with a unique “twist” – aha, pardon my pun. They are born with their antennae twisted into a spiral, with the two larger flagellum at the tips bonded together. This somehow allows them to manipulate magical particles in much the same way as the alicorn material of a unicorn’s horn. Both parties have agreed to allow the other to study their unique ways of doing magic.

If there are alicorn equivalents in their culture, I have not met one, but they do have a Princess, so it is possible that she will prove to be the missing example. The locals tell me she is responsible for purifying the air, which baffles me – and yet such a large task does seem befitting of an alicorn’s power, as per your highnesses’ examples.

I am pleased to say that despite some early difficulties, communication is going well; Tongue Twister had some difficulty with the translation spell. Their language sounds quite backwards…I apologize, that sounds awful, what I mean to say is that it literally sounds as though they are speaking our language backwards. Tongue Twister assures me this is not actually the case, but the comparison somehow made it easier to apply the spell on ourselves that allows our gracious hosts to understand us.

Overall, they are a peaceable race, hospitable and helpful if a bit puzzled and/or patronizing at times. Opinions on our lesser number of limbs have ranged from sympathy, as if we were the victims of a mass racial handicap, to a sort of thinly-veiled disdain (see Glamour), but mostly there was only general confusion. Considering our own reactions to them, I suppose this was a fairly-exchanged emotion. They do possess ignorance on some matters (they seemed to find it quite suspicious when we claimed your highnesses’ duties of directing the sun and moon – as if the great orbs could move on their own volition!), but considering some of the mysterious details of daily life that they themselves have claimed, we are moving forward in an attitude of equality and mutual exchange of information.

I am to meet with their leader, Princess Sfeera, in a few days. I will be sure to update you as our venture progresses.

Signed,

Your loyal servant,

Lean-To

P.S. A intriguing note - the centropi seem surprised that we made it to them unmolested by somebeasts called "gorgons"? I will write on it when I learn more.