About Paper · 10:05pm Aug 16th, 2012
One of the little details I'm most proud of was making sure that the only two choices for Luna's letter was either (that new fangled) rag paper or (the horribly out of date) papyrus. The intermediate tech level that Europe went through (starting in the 1st or 2nd centrury BCE) was the development and perfection of parchment. Parchment is the cured split and treated skin of an animal, most commonly goat, sheep, or cow. Vellum, the highest quality was made from the skin of calves and comes from the same root word for veal. The finest grade of writing material may or may not have actually been developed and used during the Middle Ages. It was called uterine vellum and was made from the skin of an aborted calf. That's pretty yucky for a lot of humans. For Equestrian ponies such materials would be the moral equivalent of a book written on human skin. While it would not surprise me if there were gryphon books made of these materials only mad or evil ponies would use parchment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchment
I always love trying to work out how a completely herbivorous race would develop technologically. So many of our things come from dead animals, or were developed from things that used dead animals. I am so happy to find out that you also enjoy these musings, it makes me even more eager to read more of your story.
291622
I can see there being a good story about a cultural misunderstanding about parchment. Maybe a tribe of Zebras compose sacred biographies of the dead written on parchment made from the deceased. Kind of an alternate approach to mummification. Ponies freak out but in the end learn a valuable lesson.
Maybe they think they found the Poninomicron or something.
291663 Surely it would be the neighronomicon