Well, my fort continues to chug along. (And I do mean chug. My FPS is down to like 15.) The zebra caravan has just come and gone... sold them a bunch of worn out clothes and cloud figurines. (Are zebras supposed to be okay with leather stuff? I went snooping in the raws and it said they aren't bothered by animal killing.) I also offloaded a bunch of extra chickens and ducks on them. From them, I took some drinks and raw food, some of their cut gems and raw glass, plus anything they had iron or steel for melting. (I wanted to be rid of all those worn clothes, especially the worn fleece stuff which you warned I couldn't pass off to the ponies.)
I have a bunch of copper that at this point I'm forging into horseshoes for the common ponies. I also have a ton of lead and silver I'm trying to figure out what to do with.
I have a cage full of kittens that's earmarked for the pony caravan. I may have to fill another cage before the it arrives. I just... can't slaughter the cats or dogs. I can slaughter anything else, just not them. In fact, I ordered some of the reindeer bulls slaughtered. (I'm mostly doing it for population control... I don't let the ponies eat the meat. I do use the bones and keep some for moods.) I've also built up a nice little herd of sheep, have a few llamas and alpacas.
Also, couple of small bugs I remembered encountering... turnips don't drop usable seeds. I remember bringing some turnip seeds on embark and planting them. They grew, and were eaten. (I think that's what those unidentified "seeds" I complained about earlier are supposed to be. Yes, I had the turnips forbidden from cooking.) Also, I've got carrot seeds and can't plant them. (Are they forbidden in tropical areas?) I also have cocoa beans growing, but no way to make more than regular chocolate since I don't have any sugar available. (Yeah, civ has cocoa beans but no sugar cane.) I need to make some hot cocoa and clear out some of those bags.
And thanks to some additional births, I now have a population of 247 ponies. 146 adults, 69 foals (more babies have grown up since I last bothered to report), and 32 babies. (Breakdown by caste- 91 Earth ponies, 81 Pegasus ponies, and 75 Unicorn ponies.)
I'm doing so well on the food (both raw and prepared) and brewed drinks I have enough to last for months. (I've actually begun cooking some of the plants that I have a ridiculous excess of.) I have more junk I plan to offload on the pony caravan, just hoping they bring me some interesting stuff.
You know, I don't think I've ever posted the name of my current fort (Glimmeringassemblies), the group (Starry Butterflies), or the civ (The Diamond Sister). I'm surprised I've not gotten bothered by anything more than the one werebeast and several attempted Diamond Dog thefts. (Did the zebras wipe out the local griffins or something? I know I've gotten some artwork relating to them fighting each other.) Now that I've posted that, watch me get sieged and all my ponies die.