What If: Chinggis Khan had Ponies in his Horde?

The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in human history. Led by the noble Chinggis Khan, the Mongols and Tatar peoples brought prosperity, religious freedom, and a Pax Mongolica to much of the Old World. The Mongols were known for their prodigal skills on horseback and even today, are well renowned for their near-sacred devotion to the horse. What many people don’t know, however, is that it wasn’t just horses that aided the Mongols to victory. Many forces from other worlds were eager to partake, if not be active participants of the Mongolian Empire, most notably some familiar hoofed friends most of humanity was acquainted with at the time. The leader of the Mongolians during this golden era of their civilization was a man named Chinggis Khan.

Chinggis Khan (born Temüjin) was born sometime in the year 1162, near the modern-day city of Ulaanbaatar, which is present-day Mongolia’s capital. He was born allegedly grabbing a blood clot in his fist, which was a sign from the gods that he was to become a great military and political leader. Other than this bit of information, not much is known about Temüjin’s early life, other than the fact that he was sold to a notable family at the age of nine to be wed to a chieftain’s daughter. The marriage could only be enacted once Temüjin was 12 years of age. A bunch of other bizarre things happened to Chinggis during his formative years, but arguably the most interesting to our tale is something that the then-teenage Temüjin had experienced when he was around 14 or 15 years old It was almost like a dream...

1177 CE: Tayichi'ud encampment, somewhere in the Mongolian Steppe.

It was a clear night on the beautiful Mongolian Steppe. The many mounds and flatlands glisten with light due to the moon’s radiance. While the night’s radiance would normally elicit a sense of calm and serenity for most people, for Temüjin, it was nothing but sheer terror. A few nights prior, the young lad was ambushed by a Mongol tribe that once was friendly with his clan, the Taychi’ud. The exact reason for this tribe’s abandonment of Temüjin’s family is unclear, but some believe that it had something to do with a dowry agreement for one of Temüjin’s half-sisters. Regardless, the boy was held in a cangue. A cangue is a torture device where one’s head was confined to a square box. The opening in the center was large enough for the prisoner to breathe and eat, but not large enough for a head to slip through. While this kind of punishment is cruel and unusual by today’s standards, it was quite commonplace in Eurasia up until the early 20th century.

For a young child of 15, the cangue must have been extremely traumatic. Imagine being forced to crouch in an uncomfortable position for long hours, if not days, unable to move your neck! The Taychi’ud people had to ensure that Temüjin was confined in this manner. Perhaps the lad could be sold as a slave to the highest bidder? A ransom to his father? The possibilities were endless for Temüjin’s fate! Where things would get interesting is that none of these options were ever pursued, since a mysterious benefactor freed the boy and gave him a new purpose in life.

There were two guards tasked with watching the future conqueror, Kokoongke and Bedes. Both of them were fierce warriors, both skilled with the sword and bow, and would much rather be out riding in the steppes hunting prey than guarding a virtually harmless child on behalf of a warlord. Nevertheless, much gold was at stake for their service, so the two did their duty with the utmost intent.

“Water…I need water!” Temüjin cried to his captors, hoping he could appeal to their common humanity. It had been 36 hours since the boy had anything to eat or drink, and it looked like he was in the throes of death.

“No way, son of a whore! You must learn your place as the vermin you are!” Bedes exclaimed, grabbing his whip and striking the boy across the face, making the welt on his face swell even more.

Kokoongke laughs, and takes out his jug of water to drink, doing so slowly and torturing the poor boy. There was plenty of water to share with Temüjin, but when Kokoongke was finished, he began to spill the water onto the floor slowly in an act of pure psychological torture. Drop by drop the water spilled, making the boy’s salivary glands excrete saliva which spilled out of his mouth uncontrollably.

“You want water, drink like a dog!” He says, spilling out the last drops of water tantalizingly close to Temüjin, before being absorbed easily by the long stalks of grass surrounding everyone. The two guards were laughing, clearly inebriated on fermented mare’s milk from the night’s festival beforehand, and had no remorse or sense of regret for their actions.

This would be their first and last mistake. While the guards did not know yet, a very powerful force was on their way to bring the justice of the Night to them for torturing a poor child. A few minutes after the two Taychi’ud guards were done laughing, they felt a sheer force of terror behind them. Bedes turned around, and could not sense anything, or even see anything.

“Bedes, my friend, what ails you? I felt the same force of terror you did and did not react. It must be our drinks acting up.” Kokoongke says in a patronizing way. He always did feel his brother in arms was more susceptible to fear, and always made it a point to rub this in.

“I don’t think so, Kokoongke. This force…it was menacing. I couldn’t sense it, but it felt like death itself was staring me in the face!” Bedes doubles down on his suspicion.

How right he was! Above all of them was an alicorn as black as the night, who had happened to be flying overhead. She noticed that a young child was being confined by two cruel humans, and decided to take matters into her own hooves. Who was this alicorn who would bring havoc to all of Eurasia?

Her name was Nightmare Moon, and she came prepared. Landing covertly behind the tent of the two Tartars, she uses magic to slowly but surely loosen the bolts on Temüjin’s cangue. Neither of the guards noticed the slight change of the bolt’s tightness, but Temügin immediately caught on.

“Maybe the humidity loosened the grip?” He thought to himself as he tried to pull his head out of the cangue. He tried to be discreet, but when a cangue is made out of wood, it is destined to creak and make loud noises. Just as Temüjin thought he had pulled his head out fully, the two guards noticed he escapes, and quickly drew their swords to apprehend him.

“You bastard. Get back here! Our general will have your head on a spike!” Bedes said with indignation as Temüjin began to run like his life depended on it. He focused on nothing other than running away from the encampment, however, he was quickly being chased by the two guards, who happened to have mounted their steeds to try and gain the upper edge on the boy.

“We’re going to get you, Temüjin. If you surrender now, perhaps our Khan will show you mercy. You are a boy, after all.” Kokoongke said, trying to coax the boy into handing himself in. Temüjin had no intention of doing so, but he was quickly realizing that he was going to get captured; that is until a voice spoke to him.

“Child, up ahead there is a riverbank with water two meters deep. Dive into the water, it will save you!”

The voice sounded quite commanding, but maternal at the same time. Regardless, Temüjin was terrified.

“Who the hell are you? Why am I hearing voices?!” Temüjin cried in despair, trying to figure out who this mystery voice is.

“I will reveal myself in due time. Save yourself first, boy!”

The voice replied. Normally, Temüjin wouldn’t do anything rash, but since he was afraid of being killed, he decided to listen to the voice’s advice, and when he saw that the majestic steppes briefly ended due to a river a few meters beneath him, he dived immediately into the water.

“Ugh, this is how I am going to die. Jumping into a river that may or may not have enough water to catch my fall!” Temüjin thinks to himself mere moments before impact. The two Mongolian horsemen did not want to sacrifice their noble steeds to catch this child, so they spurred them back towards their camp.

BLAM! Temüjin hit the water, and he was relieved that it was deep enough for him to not have broken any bones! He quickly swam to the other side of the river and dragged himself out of the freezing cold water. While he couldn’t see the horsemen that were chasing him, Temüjin did hear ungodly screams and a massive burst of midnight purple light piercing skyward.

“Huh, this is new. Never seen this before, although I did see the Northern lights one time with my mother near Lake Baikal. It was a majestic sight to behold, indeed!” Temüjin wonders what the source of the light could be. He sat there on the riverbank in awe, watching the light slowly fade away, before quickly spying something flying towards him in the distance. At first glance, it looked like a bird, but as it got closer, Temüjin got a bit scared.

It wasn’t a bird at all! It was much, much bigger than a bird. It looked like a horse, but it wasn’t a horse. For one, horses aren’t purple, and they don’t have wings and horns! The mare landed a fair distance away from the adolescent, looking him in the eye. Her mane reflected the cosmos itself. Even with all of these crazy things, the aspect of this mystery horse that enticed the boy the most is that she was fully clad in battle armor from head to hoof!

“Oh my stars! This must be a dream! Why is there a winged horse in front of me?!” Temüjin wonders, before he is astonished.

“You are not dreaming, Temüjin, son of Hoelun. I am quite real, and I am going to help you conquer the world!”

Temüjin wanted to scream and run at the same time, but he did neither of those things. He had to act brave, and he approached the alicorn hesitantly, and she approached him with the same hesitation.

“Alright then…who, or should I say WHAT are you?” He asked the winged unicorn.

“I am more than happy to answer these questions. But first, it seems that you people ride ponies places? I am quite intrigued by this, and I wish to try it for myself. I give you permission to climb atop me.”

Wait…WHAT? Temüjin was well versed in horseback, as was any Mongol boy his age, but for a horse to explicitly ask him to mount her seems…odd.

“Tell me who you are, noble mare, and then I will do as you wish,” Temüjin replied diplomatically, trying to not seem like a pushover.

“My name is Nightmare Moon. I am an alicorn. I was the one who saved you from the cangue. I cannot stand and watch a child suffer a cruel fate, so I…intervened on your behalf. That is all you need to know for now!” The alicorn stomped a hoof, trying to grab the young boy’s attention.

“Come, mount me! I assume your ponies cannot fly, correct? Then you are in for a treat!” Nightmare Moon replied. Although she could have easily used her magic to force the lad atop her, she allowed Temüjin to pull himself atop her, carefully grabbing her cosmic mane to balance himself.

Gently tapping the mare’s barrel, Temüjin is quite interested to see what this magical horse can do.

“Saddle up, child. Things are going to get out of this world!” Nightmare proclaimed as she began to gallop across the steppes in a manner familiar to the young boy. On and on they rode for several minutes before Nightmare decided to spread her wings.

“Are you ready, boy?” She asks him. Not really knowing what he’s about to get himself involved with, he nods his head, and Nightmare spreads her wings. With two powerful flaps, they are thrust into the night sky, and Temüjin is holding onto the mare’s mane for dear life. A few more flaps and the two of them are comfortably flying above the steppes, amongst the clouds.

“Now…Temüjin. As we are away from any further human detection. Ask your questions!”