What If: Chinggis Khan had Ponies in his Horde?
Chapter 1: Temüjin's Nightmare
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!”
What If: Chinggis Khan had Ponies in his Horde?
Chapter 2: Nightmare's Mongolian Adventure
Temüjin was lost for words. He didn’t know what to say, or even how to emote his thoughts at this juncture in time. He had so many questions for this… “alicorn”, but he was mostly trying to wrap his adolescent mind around the fact that he was flying in the air! The steppes that Temüjin was so familiar with looked so minuscule and humbling from above, and it almost brought a tear to the teen’s eye.
“I said, Temüjin, you can ask me anything, are you alright, young one?” Nightmare Moon asks him, cocking her head behind her to see if her new passenger was feeling well.
“Yes, noble mare, I am feeling alright, and I do have some questions.” Temüjin replied, which put the moon alicorn at ease.
“Please, Temüjin, call me Nightmare. While I am a princess, we are not in my domain, and…well I find you to be an interesting person, so I don’t want you to grovel all over me. We are equals!”
“Alright… “Nightmare”....Question number one: “WHAT ARE YOU!”
Nightmare let out a hearty chuckle and then began to explain herself.
“Well, I am an alicorn. Alicorns are a lot like the “horses” you are familiar with here, but we have wings and a horn. Oh, and we can use magic!”
Temüjin took a minute to process this information, and then had a follow-up question for Nightmare Moon.
“Well…you might not know this, Miss Nightmare, but when I was a boy, my uncle was a trader on the Silk Road, and-”
Nightmare Moon interrupted him with a gentle tap of her wing.
“What’s a “silk road”, young one? Is it a road made out of silk? That sounds really cool if it is said and true!”
Temüjin placed a hand on the mare’s neck and proceeded to stroke it in a sense of patronization, but also to humor her.
“No, my winged friend, although it would be cool for a whole road to be made out of silk. The Silk Road is a trade network that stretches all the way from China, past the Steppes, into Arabia, and all the way to the Western Lands! What I was trying to get at is that since my uncle was a trader, and went to places all around the world, he heard many different stories and legends from other races as he sold his wares. One such legend he recounted to me from Arabia, where the locals say their holy man flew to the heavens on a winged horse. Are you that horse of legend?”
Nightmare Moon looked at Temüjin seriously and then grinned. “No…I am afraid not because I don’t even know what Arabia is. I am from Equestria. Now, I don’t know if this place you call home is connected to Equestria or not, because I am not entirely sure how I got here…but that’s beside the point. I assume you have more questions, and I am happy to answer them!”
Temüjin took a minute to think about what other questions he could ask this alicorn, and then alerted her with his next query.
“You said that you would help me conquer the world. Why would you say that? I don’t even want to conquer anything! I wanted to be a tradesman like my uncle!”
Nightmare took an awkwardly long time to think about how to respond to this direct query, but she finally takes a deep breath and answers: “Because I sense the rage in you, Temüjin. I think that you have the innate potential to not only conquer but to rule justly as well. Obviously, a human cannot do this monumental task on his own, and considering how poorly your fellow Mongols have been treating you…it would bring karmic justice to the world to rule them! I have a few grievances of my own, and since I cannot exercise them in Equestria, perhaps I can help somebody else with theirs?”
“H…how do you know I have rage?” Temüjin asks further, a bit curious as to how this alicorn came to such a conclusion.
“I can use magic, remember? The magic I specialize in involves all domains of the night, which happens to include dreams and the subconscious. As soon as I was flying overhead and saw you suffering, my horn lit up, and I immediately empathized with you…I have been dealt my own lot of crap in my life, and while now is not the time for me to elaborate on that…perhaps I can help you deal with yours? Imagine! Temüjin! An empire no civilization has ever before seen or will see again! I can do this for you and more!”
The idea fascinated Temüjin, but he was not completely sold on this concept yet. Why would somebody trust a winged talking horse that claims to want to help you? It seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? Well, he did have one more question, so why not?
“Okay…Nightmare. Before I agree to conquer all four corners of the Earth with you, I have one more question. You are clearly a noble and valiant mare, and I would be honored to ride with you across the world, but…I don’t have an army! All the great empires in history were manifest with legions and legions of men, let alone steeds to carry them. As much as we both want to exert justice on the world…you are but one… “alicorn”! How exactly are we going to do this as a two-person team?”
Nightmare Moon once again turned her head towards the lad, not with a look of concern or anger, but with a devilish grin.
“You can leave that part to me, boy. I might be able to help in that department…assuming that my magic is stronger tonight. My magic is strongest at the full moon, which is tomorrow, I think? As I told you before, Temüjin, I am a princess and a pony princess at that. I will provide you with legions of ponies that your army can use for transport, or even offensive purposes! AH- I am a fool, I didn’t tell you about my world, Temüjin, care to listen?”
Well, he was astride her, thousands of feet above the steppes, so he didn’t really have a choice in the matter.
“Sure, Miss Nightmare. I would be honored to hear about your home.” He replied kindly.
Nightmare Moon began to descend slowly, noticing a free, uninhabited area in the steppe, where nobody could be seen for miles.
“While I might be nocturnal, Temüjin, humans are not. A growing boy needs sleep, and since I am an alicorn of the night, I would gladly facilitate this for you. Besides, I make pretty good jasmine tea!” Nightmare says, slowly gliding down towards this empty area. After a few more minutes, Temüjin jolts back atop Luna, not expecting the landing impact to be that hard. Galloping a bit more to slow down at a normal rate, Nightmare Moon slowed down to a complete stop, before using her magic to gently lift the boy off of her.
“Leave the lodging to me, young one. I can conjure a tent for us.” And with a mere flash of her horn, a tent big enough for two people (or ponies!) appeared in front of them, fully configured.
“Woah…this is a very impressive talent, Miss Nightmare!” Temüjin says, entering the tent, seeing that a medium cot has already been configured for him.
“Drink tea before you sleep. It’s not caffeinated, so it will only relax you. You haven’t had any nourishment in days!” Nightmare says, using magic to spawn a teakettle and two porcelain cups, using this uncanny ability, she pours a cup of tea for the young man and hands it to him.
“It’s very hot, Temüjin, so don’t drink it all at once!” She says with a smile, as the two of them sit down inside the tent and drink their tea in serenity.
“This tea is really good, Miss Nightmare!” Temüjin says, sipping it slowly and letting the aroma of the jasmine calm his nerves.
“Well of course it is! I made it with my own hooves! Now…about Equestria. It is a vast land, filled with magic and mystery. While there are beings that inhabit the land that is not ponies, I only know about our kind. There are a few different kinds of ponies: Earth Ponies, which strongly resemble the “horses” of this realm. The only difference is that they can talk! Pegasi are just ponies who can fly, and some of them can fly really fast! Unicorns…well they are like the Earth Ponies, but they have a horn on their head that allows them to cast magic! All three of these different pony breeds rely on each other for the society to function, and-”
Temüjin gently taps Nightmare’s barrel with his hand, since he has another question.
“Hold on, Miss Nightmare. What about alicorns? You are one, but are there any other alicorns in this place?”
Nightmare hid a frown, but she tried to remain diplomatic with the boy because he doesn’t deserve to know about her trauma.
“Well…there is one other alicorn in Equestria. My older sister Celestia, who is the pony princess of the sun, in contrast to me being the princess of the moon. She…well let’s just say we didn’t agree on much, and I decided to take a vacation! Still not sure how I got here, though, not that I am complaining. Now…get some rest, and in the morning, I will help you conquer the world!”
Temüjin finishes his tea, and climbs up into the newly conjured cot, tucking himself in, he can’t help but ask one more question to this mysterious mare who saved him.
“I have one more question, Miss Nightmare. I…I really enjoyed riding with you. Am…am I allowed to do it again?”
Nightmare could not help but hug the boy with all of her might.
“You are the first being, pony or human, to ever say that they enjoyed spending time with me. I would be honored to act as your personal steed…although I am going to need to figure out how to blend in better with the locals…”
“You don’t have to blend in, Miss Nightmare…because we are going straight to the top!” He whispers into the mare’s ear, before letting go of her and trying to fall asleep.
“I like you, boy.” She whispers, letting go of him and watching the moonrise as the teenager in her care falls asleep.
“This child will conquer the world, and I will bring it to him on a platter! If I can’t take Equestria…I’ll take this world instead!”