Suggestion for animal travel: Imaginary Pony Friends

Very rough draft.

Cinnamon the Rabbit has a new topic of discussion: Imaginary Pony Friend

Cin: Excuse Me! Can’t you lackwits see that I’m working! Go away, or I swear I’ll stab your pony in the heart with a carrot…A DIRTY carrot!

You: What? I don’t have a pony?

Cin: Fine, have it your way. Whatever little, imaginary mount you envisioned, they just got a horrible look of pain on their face, took three steps and died. Can you picture that? How about a bloody rabbit that might look like me crawling out of their insides?

You: What the hell? Are you testing bounce weed for Jumper again? I told him that last batch wasn’t right. He was tossing in fairy dust and using mummy wrappers to hold the doses.

Cin: Really? Man, I have to get some of that.

You: I’m so confused, can we start over?

Cin: Fine. Let’s start at the top, and then you trot on over to Jumper and tell him the bad rabbit needs his medicine.

You: I’m totally fine with that.

Cin: Ok. You know how the two-legs are all going ape shit about riding horses? It’s causing problems in the familiar community. Who can keep up with the things? And to make matters worse, since the mages all have ponies now, they aren’t keeping up the enchantments for a lot of the spells that make familiars fast. So, unless you feel like being stuffed in a saddlebag all the time, you should help me figure out this work-around my old master suggested.

You: Fine, what do you need done?

Cin: This is technical shit, pay attention. The two-leggers are using magical tack and saddles to control the horses. And worse, breeding better horses. So, any solution has to take those things into account. I think I have a way that I can modify your familiar collar to accept some illusion magic, and beam it into your brain, making you think you have a mount. If it works, you’ll be able to keep up with a mage on a horse.

You: I don’t like the way you say “You.”

Cin: Someone has to test it. But first, I have another problem for you to work on. I got excited after eating too many carrots, and let slip to Spot what I was working on. You know Spot, lovable, but not a lot upstairs. She grasped the idea of ‘Imaginary Pony Friend’, and missed the rest. Then she told all the other animals and now they are going crazy wanting me to make them imaginary friends. For the spell to work, I need it to match the image in their tiny brains. So go talk to all of them and find out what they think their friend will look like.

You: Talk to all the animals in camp, meet their imaginary friends, and report back.

Cin: And leave the bunny alone! Very important you stress that.

You: Got it!

Cin: Take your time, this is delicate work. And don’t forget to talk to Jumper!


This would let animals simply mimic current horse mechanics. They could breed a horse, use tack and saddles. Just no one can see their IPF, which in most cases is good since some would be terrifying.

I wrote this up quickly. I can also work on all the dialog and responses from the animals in the town if you'd like.