Twilight once again checked the table of contents, the book floating in front of her in a gentle telekinetic glow. She was once again left with disbelief and confusion; there was barely a mention of the topic that interested her.
“For a book literally called ‘The Three Tribes’, it is really uninformative.” The alicorn grumbled. While the book described in great detail the feats of pegasi and unicorns, the earth ponies were barely mentioned. The powerful, sun-moving magic used in times before Celestia had entire chapter dedicated to it; while it was called ‘the ancient magics’, it was focusing first and foremost on unicorns. Pegasi got their own chapter dedicated to their heroic efforts to bring weather under control after Windigos left Equestria, praising their ability to control clouds and manipulate winds, and also describing their valiant effort in protecting others from monsters roaming the land back then.
However, there was almost nothing on earth ponies. There was theoretically an entire chapter about them, but the more Twilight focused on it, the worse it seemed. There was a lot of general praise; ‘their farming skills fed entire Equestria’, ‘famine became thing of the past’, et cetera.
But no details on what their magic actually did. Twilight knew now, since becoming an alicorn, that she was far stronger and more resilient then she used to be. But that wasn’t all; earth ponies also had an innate bond with earth, in some way. Pinkie Pie’s family owned a very successful rock farm, and the ability of Apples to grow almost anything was legendary.
Twilight knew Applejack would help her to understand this new part of her. They already did some training in controlling her newfound strength, and one day they would move towards training other earth ponies abilities.
However, as much as her friend was very helpful, Twilight always felt that she could learn things easiest with a good book in hoof. Of course, some things you just couldn’t find in books; like friendship!
But most things could be found in books… unless it’s details on earth ponies, because then written knowledge suddenly becomes much less useful. And these weird omissions underlined even their amazing strength, barely mentioning it here and there. Just few days ago, during training with Applejack, Twilight bucked a huge rock apart; and yet all the books said was ‘a hardy tribe’ or ‘their bond with nature makes them resilient’.
Well, Twilight decided, if her own library isn’t going to solve the problem, she will look elsewhere. After all, Canterlot Library was huge, and the underground archives were vast. Very few books couldn’t be found there, and Twilight had no doubts that a short journey to the capital wound solve all the mysteries.
“Forbidden?!”
A normal pony would shout, but Twilight would never do such a horrible thing in a library. Instead, she voiced her surprise in a normal voice, unlike her quiet and respectful one she always used while in Canterlot’s library. “What do you mean, forbidden?” She added in a quiet whisper.
“By decree of Princess Celestia, no research about earth ponies can be published without her approval. And her approval on that matter is very rare, indeed.” The old librarian mare answered, shaking her head. “There is a section in the archives where such rejected research is stored, but it is not accessible to anypony without the approval of Princess Celestia herself.”
“Horseapples.” Twilight cursed quietly. “It seems I will need to ask her for permission, then.”
“Oh, of course not, Princess. You are her personal student, and also a royalty. You have already been granted access to the entirety of the Archives.” The old librarian smiled at the sight of the usual spark of knowledge in Twilight’s eyes, and she passed a key to the alicorn. “This will unlock the doors to that part of the archive. I hope you’ll find what you’re looking for, Princess.”
“Thank you. And please, call me Twilight. I’m still the same filly you always knew.” Twilight answered, looking at the key. It was old, but didn’t seem too worn out. Twilight used many keys in the archives during her studies, and this one looked barely used in comparison to most. Was research on earth ponies that unpopular for some reason?
“Of course, Princess.” The alicorn took a second to process the answer before she groaned, and the old librarian chuckled.
Twilight didn’t waste any time and got to reading immediately upon reaching the bookshelf she was looking for. She missed Spike for a moment, but her assistant was helping Rarity with some project and she didn’t have the heart to ruin his plans for the day. Still, she was perfectly capable of taking notes and doing the research herself, even if a little slower. And books have almost never failed her.
What she found, however, quickly killed her inquiring mood.
“Earth ponies have much greater strength then the other two tribes; however, as everything in nature, this must be balanced. In this case it is apparent that their strength is limited by an intellectual weakness. As our physical superiors and mental inferiors, it is therefore natural that serfdom is a perfect solution to our coexistence in society… Who wrote this, this garbage?” Twilight had a lot of respect for books, but whoever wrote this was so wrong she couldn’t even imagine how he would come to this conclusion. She checked quickly; apparently, this was supposed to be published a little over five hundred years ago, but Celestia put her hoof down and sent it to archives instead.
“This book is based on documents published beforehoof by great minds in the fields of medicinal science, and my personal research which, to no surprise, only confirmed the theories of the past despite resistance from less educated parts of academia…” Twilight stopped reading. The pure ego radiating from this book reminded her of Trixie. She put that book away, on top of four others she found earlier. Each of them was similarly revolting.
The amount of reasonably written books she found until now was limited to one; and while ‘Of Reforms Absolute of the Farming Society’ was actually an interesting read (if old and hard to understand at times), the author admitted that as a unicorn he had a limited amount of information available and was hoping that either he or others would continue his research. Judging by the fact that this book was almost nine hundred years old – and was only kept together by powerful preservation spells – Twilight had a feeling that wish remained unfulfilled.
She came to a conclusion that not taking Spike with her was a blessing, after all. She really didn’t want him anywhere close to books like the ones she was now reading; if anything, it only made it more obvious why Princess Celestia decided to stop them from being published.
“Focus, Twilight.” She said quietly to herself. She was a scientist, researcher and librarian herself. Surely there was something here, something that would shed light on this weird veil of mystery. Earth ponies were one third… actually, weren’t there more earth ponies then pegasi or unicorns in Equestria? Twilight realized she didn’t actually know that. And what about thestrals, or crystal ponies?
The questions were piling up, and no answers were forthcoming, although she managed to find some interesting information among these books. While almost all of them were full of obvious mistakes, and the rest had more speculation and admitting the need for further research, they had one thing in common.
None of these books were written by earth ponies. Most of them were written by unicorns, with occasional pegasi author or co-author.
Twilight had a bad feeling about this all. The mystery only grew deeper, and instead of answers she was finding only more questions. Faced with such unusual situation, Twilight decided to use her trump card.
There was one pony who always had all the answers.
“I almost forgot about that law. I think it’s been over five decades since last time somepony tried to publish these things.” Celestia said, slowly sipping her favorite tea. She and Twilight were currently alone in the room, bringing back many wonderful memories. They used to spend time together like this a lot more before Twilight moved to Ponyville, but even now her mentor would always find time for her former student.
“I just can’t imagine how anypony could come to such wrong conclusions, let alone try to publish them!” Twilight was slightly agitated and gesticulating widely; she had great respect for written word, and seeing so many books in the wrong was a personal insult to her. “Earth ponies are not inferior, or anything like that!”
“Of course they aren’t, Twilight.” Celestia calmly answered, still slowly drinking her tea.
“Why would anypony write something like this, then?” Twilight pointed out to the book she brought with her. “I just can’t understand it!”
“I am very glad you can’t. It means I succeeded at my goal.” Celestia answered, slowly putting the tea away with satisfaction.
“Your goal?”
“I wanted to eradicate works like these.” Celestia explained, pointing to the offending book, “And ensure that no one would ever think that earth ponies are in any way worse than pegasi or unicorns.”
“But why would anypony even think that in the first place?” Twilight was still confused.
Celestia did not answer immediately, taking a moment to consider her words. “Tell me, Twilight, do you remember how our society worked prior to the first Hearth’s Warming Eve? “
“Of course! There was a strict division between pony tribes, with pegasi being soldiers and raiders, unicorns moving the sun and earth ponies farming!” Twilight proudly answered. “There were actually further subdivisions, for example among pegasi…”
“That is correct, Twilight.” Celestia softly interrupted her student with a smile. “Now tell me, how did the education system work back then?”
“The education system?” Twilight tried to remember, but to her surprise (and shame) she found herself unable to recall any answer. She panicked a little internally; she had a top grade in school when it came to history, and especially late warring tribes era, how could she not remember it?!
“There was none.” Celestia answered her own question, interrupting Twilight’s train of thoughts with experienced ease. “Unicorns had a system of apprenticeship that allowed them to keep some of their population with at least a minimum level of education, but pegasi had very few scribes.”
“And earth ponies?” Twilight asked curiously.
“Being forced to work all day in the field does not leave one much strength to learn, sadly.” Celestia answered sadly. “And besides, the unicorns considered writing to be something unnecessary to simple farmers.”
“You mean that those earth ponies couldn’t write? Or read?” Twilight asked, shocked. That was horrible! How could anypony just withdraw the joy of reading from others?! “That’s horrible!”
“It was even worse back then, Twilight.” Celestia continued, her thought darkening as she remembered these ancient times. “Earth ponies weren’t even considered actual ponies by some of the unicorns and pegasi. Many thought of them as nothing more then intelligent animals, useful only to grow crops for others.”
“I don’t remember reading about it in history books.” Twilight tried to remember everything she knew about pre-Celestial era. There wasn’t much, with not many written records existing… and now she started to have a suspicion that it wasn’t just age that led to the lack of written resources from that era, but simply lack of ponies who knew how to write.
“I made sure it wouldn’t be there.” Celestia said slowly, carefully observing Twilight’s reaction to her words. This was one of the things she had to know, being a Princess, but it didn’t make it any easier to reveal. “I censored everything I could find in the first hundred years since me and my sister became rulers of Equestria.”
“What? Why?” Twilight only grew more confused, and more then a little surprised. Princess Celestia was censoring books? But why?
“Back when we took power, there were still strong divisions between pony tribes.” Celestia explained. “Earth ponies were poor and uneducated, and didn’t trust the other two tribes. They had many superstitions and were a hardy tribe, resilient to change.
Pegasi, on the other hand, had trouble adapting to not living only in the clouds; to them, descending to the ground for anything else then fighting or raiding was inconceivable, since it would mean lowering themselves to the likes of earth ponies. And unicorns were the only ones with real knowledge and also the most versatile magic, and refused to share it with those they considered to be inferior to them.”
“But you and Luna were alicorns! You had powers of all three tribes, how could anypony think that some part of you is… inferior?” Twilight barely managed to say the offending word.
“They didn’t. Instead most of unicorns and pegasi refused to believe we are, in fact, also carrying in us powers of earth pony tribe.” Celestia explained, shaking her head. “Unicorns had entire books explaining why earth ponies are inferior, and since me and my sister were obviously superior to them, we couldn’t be part earth ponies. The divisions between tribes were just too deep back then to simply ignore them.”
The circular logic in the ancient unicorn statement made Twilight’s head hurt. Earth ponies are weak, and Celestia is strong, therefore she cannot be part earth pony? What kind of thinking is that? “But you changed it all long ago. We no longer have this divisions between pony tribes.” Twilight pointed out, trying to understand this insanity.
“And how do you think I achieved that?” Celestia answered with a question. Twilight hesitated, and her mentor continued. “Most of the unicorn’s knowledge was not just useless, it was actively harmful. It took years for us realize that we won’t be able to create a better society just by trying to convince them; if anything, the mutual hatred between tribes was only held back by the three Founders, with others actively sabotaging it. And as more and more ponies got to know each other, many stopped fearing them. They understood that their differences are small and not important, and first cities of all tree tribes combined would appear.”
“But that’s good, isn’t it?” Twilight was still confused. Learning about others, forgetting old prejudice, it was all good!
“But it lead to violent backlash from those who opposed it. The old unicorn aristocracy, the elite of pegasi warriors and the hardiest of earth pony rebels were losing power with every passing year.” Celestia recalled these dark days with perfect clarity. “They started resorting to violence, attacking both other tribes and those among their own who ‘betrayed’ them. They would denounce us, saying that we do not deserve to rule Equestria.”
“Wait, denouncing you? But, but, but!” Twilight’s brain just refused to process the idea of ponies actively trying to fight Celestia and disobeying her.
“Back then our rule was only based on our power and the fact that all three tribes were willing to listen to us.” Celestia banished the dark thoughts from her mind – or at least tried to – and explained, smiling sadly at the sight of sputtering Twilight. “In the end, we decided to act before Windigos could come back and freeze everything again.”
“What did you do?” Twilight asked, suddenly anxious about the answer.
“We banned them. All three groups were forbidden from organizing, their books confiscated, and many were arrested.” Celestia explained, omitting certain details about how exactly she and Luna achieved it.
“Oh. Well, that’s good! All these ponies were evil and deserved it.” Twilight declared with relief, as always fully loyal to her mentor.
Celestia winced. Maybe telling Twilight about the darker side of suppressing society would be a good idea soon. First so she wouldn’t try something like this herself, and second so she would stop almost-worshipping her. It was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable, with Twilight being not only an Element of Magic but a Princess herself.
Putting these thought away for a moment, Celestia continued. “There are still some ponies who think that one tribe is better then others, but they are a miniscule minority. Sometimes, one of them finds some old notes and tries to publish them again as their own research, but I just stop them every few decades and that’s it. That’s why this law exists.”
“Thank you, Princess! That explains everything.” Twilight internally sighed with relief. She knew Princess Celestia could explain this to her! It was so good to have such an amazing mentor as her.
They spent rest of the meeting discussing other things, and just enjoying their time spent together.
“Spike! I’m back!” Twilight happily announced, entering the library.
It was late evening already, and Spike was readying himself for sleep, but wasn’t asleep yet. “Good evening, Twilight.” The dragon yawned. “Did Celestia explain everything to you?”
“Of course!” The young alicorn answered, happily trotting into shower and getting ready to sleep herself. She hummed happily to herself; like always, her meeting with Celestia did not fail to improve her mood.
Spike was actually curious enough to ask her about it, before they fell asleep.
“Oh, that’s simple!” Twilight answered enthusiastically, explaining it almost word-for-word from memory. “I’m really happy it was all part of Princess Celestia’s plan, and not some archaic law causing problems again.”
“Huh.” Spike commented absentmindedly, thinking about what he just heard. “You know, this means you were right.”
“Hm?” Twilight asked, head already on a pillow.
“There are actually no books on how to use earth pony powers. I wonder how unicorn or pegasi parents who adopt earth pony children can teach them about it.” Spike wondered.
Twilight slowly rose from bed, looking at Spike with confusion. Where did this come from? “I guess they ask somepony for help? Why, do you know somepony like this?”
“No, I was just thinking… there aren’t many books about dragons, either.” Spike looked down sadly. “I wish somedragon would write a book for dragons like me.”
“But dragons are…” Twilight started, before suddenly stopping. They are what? Inferior? Less intelligent? Obviously do not know how to read and write?
“Maybe we should ask somepony to write a book for parents adopting earth fillies and colts?” Spike mused aloud, fortunately ignorant to Twilight’s internal chaos at the moment. “Or maybe you can write it? You will know a lot about being an earth pony soon, right?”
“…Maybe?” Twilight answered, unsure of her feelings for a moment. Instead of answering, she just hugged her number one assistant. “For now, let’s go sleep and think about it some other time, alright?”
“Sure. Goodnight, Twilight.” Spike answered, hugging her back, young dragon too tired to worry about things for too long. He fell asleep soon after.
Twilight, however, had much more trouble falling asleep. She came back to her discussion with Celestia time and time again. It felt like there was something missing in Princess Celestia’s explanation, but why would that be? It all made perfect sense.
But Spike’s words left a slight hesitation inside her. Sure, dealing with all these prejudiced books was a right choice, and these evil ponies back then deserved being arrested if they tried to attack Celestia.
But was there perhaps a better way to do things? Was she missing something?
And why was she now thinking about a school for dragons?
Author's Note
There are no easy answers, sometimes.
I always thought of Celestia as someone very wise, but also very old, and I can't imagine it not showing sometimes. Like her sticking to old solutions that are no longer necessary; not out of malice, but just because they were right and worked for few hundred years.
If there are people interested in it, I may write part three of this story one day.
