The Yellow River Exploration

To my glorious and magnificent Princess Celestia, in the 603rd YR, my 7,240th letter

How wonderful for you that you found my last letter so humorous. Clearly that was not my intent; however, whatever floats our boat is indeed a good thing. My choice to stay with the Yellow River seems correct; it has taken us away from the area of many curious ponies. We are well provisioned as well as warned that little in the way of trade will be available to us before the zoo (sic) gorge and beyond that Baotou. The gorge contains three difficulties – the Tianqiao, Longkou, and the Wanjiazhai.

The river has an abundance of sandbars and again I am pressed into being the river serpent. The pulling is harder but the current is easier. The Wing sisters cannot always spot these sandbars from the air so our journey is haphazard at best. The gorge was a delight to view and Miss Broom complained that she didn’t have enough time to complete her ‘study’. I will not mention in any more of my letters what I learned from the guishi stone or where it is. For how do I say this? The stone requested of me to keep it's/her/his secret. That is not quite correct, I am allowed to share the secret, but only with those whom I should.

We resupplied in Baotou, where another delegation from Lanzhou greeted us. They escorted us by the riverside all the way to Lanzhou. At the cataract of Qinqtong they too showed mild appreciation of our air lift devices. I do not remember if the community of Wuhai was before or after Qinqtong, but Yinchuan certainly is. Calm Pass’s maps will clear up my confusion later. We have seen many more of the shaggy ponies in this area. They are a tough and nomadic breed, fierce and independent. At Lanzhou we were treated like royalty for we had done the impossible, climbing the stairs (or cataracts) of Caxia, Bapan, Yanquo, Liujia, Gongho, Lijia, and Longyang.

The river had been getting steadily clearer, but we were totally astounded by the clear waters of Lake Zhaling and Lake Eling. It was here I had to leave the ship and continue my search on hoof. Gentle Wing, Jelly Bread, and Brush Broom joined me for the last trek. We met few on this last leg, but those we did were shaggy ponies, and they were quick to extend friendly smiles. The high elevation of the plateau made our journey cold. Miss Broom found this most difficult and it showed. She didn’t try to paint the scenery, confining her few studies to drawings and sketches.

In this open land of rolling hills, we could not hide our presence from the dragon pair I was seeking. Alas there were not five finger black dragons. I directed the others back to a safe location and cautiously approached the pair. They were quite polite and invited me to go back and get my companions to join them for tea. I complied, because even if this was a trap, there was little we could do about it. After explaining the reason for our journey, the dragons were sympathetic, but unwilling to part with one of their precious eggs.

However, they became more responsive when the conversation turned to the guishi stone and its mysteries. For the answer to the riddle of the stone, they were willing to part with one egg. They instruct us never to return. Apparently we have traveled to the land beyond the ‘weaving’ and the ‘cow heard’. We are unsure what this means, but we know to retrace our steps carefully.

I look forward to your next letter as we begin our long journey back. Our expedition members deserve some small reward for their indispensable assistance. With all kindness, humor, trustworthiness, loyalty, and generosity, Sum-po-neigh Knot Yew.