Chapter One

It seemed that this was going to be one of those days in Ponyville, to the ponies living there as they saw all of the Bearers of Harmony walk into the Golden Oak Library early in the morning. As the case was, they had somewhat reasonable reasons to worry as Princess Celestia had mentioned that she was going to not only see Twilight but Mayor Mare and Cheerilee over something as well.

“So,” Applejack said as she walked in, the last of her friends to do so while Twilight paced back and forth. “What is it this time?”

“I dunno,” Dash said as she shrugged, leaning against the wall. “But I’m guessing mildish trouble?”

“It would make sense, dear,” Rarity said as she listened to Twilight muttering something under her breath. “I am sure whatever it is that Princess Celestia has in mind is not too serious, as she would have called us to Canterlot if that were the case.”

“Try telling Twilight that,” Spike grumbled as he brought in plates of pancakes for everypony, with three large stacks for Twilight, Celestia and Pinkie.

“Spike, this is the first request that Celestia has asked me to do as a Princess,” Twilight snapped out of her pacing to address the young dragon. “What if I do something wrong? Or I already did something wrong? Or-”

With a pop, a magical presence filled the room. “My dear student, you have done nothing wrong,” Princess Celestia said softly, smiling to the ponies around her. “I just have a simple request for you, but first, two questions; have you been reading the newspaper and are those Spike’s pancakes?”

“Er… yes?” Twilight tilted her head, wondering what this was about. She hadn’t noticed anything really alarming in the paper, so what was Princess Celestia talking about?

“Oh good, I have not had them in ages,” Celestia said with zeal, moving to the breakfast table where the rest of her friends were sitting down and enjoying the meal that Spike had made. Pulling a chair out for herself, Celestia made herself right at home beside Dash and Rarity who quickly came to treat the princess as an equal among the table. As Twilight joined them, Celestia turned her attention to her while slurping in a pancake to Rarity’s cringe and Dash’s amusement. “Have you paid any mind to the business section of the newspaper?”

Twilight frowned as she forced several pancakes down her throat before shaking her head in the negative. “It doesn’t really interest me, Princess, so no.”

“A shame,” Celestia aid, shaking her head. Before Twilight could react at the negative response, Celestia continued. “Most papers do not cover international news in much detail or even at all, and the business section had the only real mention of it so far.”

“Of what?” Twilight asked.

“There is to be a diplomatic trade ratification between Equestria and one of her allies,” Celestia responded in a calm note. “All that I am asking of you is to meet with this diplomat and show him around Ponyville later on.”

“I guess I can do that. When he is coming?” Twilight blinked as she began to create a mental checklist.

“Later today, if I am not mistaken,” Celestia said while staring straight into Twilight’s eyes. “Again, my dear student, all you need to do is meet with him, show him around Ponyville for the day after and then accompany him to the capital so we can all sign the papers tomorrow.”

“But… what if I say something wrong to him? Or if I do something bad?!”

“Not to worry as the diplomat was chosen for their patience and understanding, Twilight,” Celestia said as she soothed her student’s worries. “He understands that you are new to the process and he is going to be gentle with you, as I have been told by his superiors. Just be mindful of what you say and I am sure that everything will be okay.”

“I notice that you did not mention a name, your highness,” Rarity raised an eyebrow as she lifted a forkful of a delicate cut pancake to her mouth.

“You are correct,” Celestia bobbed her head as she answered the statement. “This is part of the lesson I wish to impress on you Twilight. Prepare for what you can and learn how to adapt to what you cannot. As he has been traveling for a long time, he will be more than likely be tired and wishing to have a good meal prepared.”

Twilight paused, going over what she was presented about her new guest. “But since I don’t know who he is, I don’t know what he would like to eat… So I should talk to him while Spike makes us lunch?” Twilight asked tentatively, to which Celestia smiled proudly at her.

“Exactly, Twilight,” Celestia placed her fork and knife on her empty and clean plate before using her napkin to wipe her face. “A very necessary tactic to learn is how to properly manage the events around you to your own advantage, even when you are caught unprepared.”

“So princess,” Rainbow Dash asked, leaning back in her chair. “What’s to stop this joker from doing something like that to Egghead here?”

“Nothing, and I actually expect it as he is spending time here in Ponyville to do some positive public relations.” Celestia responded. “Now if you will all excuse me, there are a couple more ponies I need to speak with before I return to Canterlot.”

With an unneeded bow from everypony, Celestia teleported away, leaving the the rest of the mares to their own devices. Pinkie Pie left to plan a Welcome to Ponyville Party for their new guest, Rarity went off to freshen up, Fluttershy went to tend to her animals and Rainbow Dash decide to take a nap while Applejack went back to take care of her chores and Twilight started to prepare for their own new guest.

Apple Bloom whistled as she trotted down the path between the farm and the Everfree forest. It had been a bit since her sis had come home and told her about this new fancy guest that was coming in. She was then asked to go deliver some stuff to Zecora before she could go back and play with her friends. So she had gone through the forest, given Zecora her stuff, spent some time with her and then headed back home.

She was curious about who this new pony visiting them was, and she wondered if she and the girls could learn new stuff to gain their cutie ma-

“Excuse me, little one?” A gruff voice with a low rumble called out from behind her, causing her to jump. “Don’t turn around just yet, little one.” The voice behind her chuckled softly before clearing his throat. “Just tell me, if you would please, if this is the path to Ponyville. I have business to deal with Princess Twilight.”

Tilting her head at the weird request, she pointed with her hoof to the branch in the dirt path. “Just go down there and ya’ll be in town in no time.”

“Thank you, little one,” the stallion behind her chuckled, with him walking closer to her oddly. She couldn’t hear the sound of his hooves on the ground and he smelled really weird too.. “My name is Swift-Pad of High-Leap Pack.”

Mulling the odd name over in her head, she turn to ask him about this pack thing when she saw him and her legs began to tremble.

“You-you’re a wo-”

“A wolf?” Swift-Pad asked with a lopsided smile. “How very astute of you, little one.” Lowering himself down, the wolf looked her in the eyes. “What else can you see of me?” He spoke gently with a core of amusement in his voice, causing her to blink and really think of what he was asking her.

“Yer… yer not tryin’ ta eat me,” she said slowly, taking a step backwards.

“That is correct,” he nodded his head while keeping his body low to the dirt. “I have my own stores of food in my packs here, so you need not worry about that,” he said, winking a golden eye.

She let out a laugh at that, feeling a bit better near him. “Yer funny,” she said and without thinking, she held a hoof out to him. “Ah’m Apple Bloom.”

He took it gently in his paw and shook it, a smile on his face. “It is nice to meet you, Apple Bloom, but why are you out here in this forest alone?”

“Ah was just done visiting Zecora the zebra to give her some stuff,” she said, looking at the weird stones wrapped around his coat. Maybe it was something like Zecora’s potion brewing…

“I see.” He let out a loud hmm, tapping his chin with his paw which had stones tied around it. “Would you mind an escort home, since our destinations are in the same direction?”

“Sure,” she said with a smile, remembering what Applejack said about safety in numbers. Her eyes went wide a bit as she walked alongside him. “Ah’ve got ta warn ya, my sis kinda leaps to wild thoughts at times an’ she might think yer a danger or something.”

“A good point, little one,” he replied with a sly smirk on his face. “What do you suggest I do to prevent your sister from reacting poorly?”

Apple Bloom tilted her head in thought before saying, “Ah’d think it’d be best if Ah told her about you.”

“Sounds reasonable, little one,” he tipped his head, causing a few of his carved stones around his face started to bounce. “Please, lead on.”

Applejack let out a tiny sigh as she did another circuit of the farm’s border while attending to her chores. She was certain that her little sister would be safe but still, a nagging voice in her head was telling her that something bad could happen to her or that this diplomat fellow would run into Apple Bloom and some horrible mess would spring up.

She knew her sister was not that bad alone and she was showing Apple Bloom a great deal of trust to let her go alone into the forest, but she couldn’t help worry about her sister…

“Hiya sis,” her sister’s voice boomed at the edge of the path, waving her hoof at her eagerly.

She was about to call back when she noticed that Apple Bloom wasn’t moving. “Is everything okay sis?”

“Yup, just talking ta Swift-Pad, that new fancy guest that ya spoke about before,” Apple Bloom said with a smile, turning her head to the side to look at Swift-Pad, most likely, before turning to face her again. “Uh, sis? Can ya promise not ta freak out?”

“Why would Ah freak out?” Applejack frowning, starting to move towards her sister.

“Because I saw how the little one reacted to me, I felt it would best to give you some warning,” came a voice from the side, from a place she couldn’t see in the forest. “I trust that one more aged would react more responsible than one so young, and your sister already was an shining example.”

“Thanks mister…” she said, tilting her head to tell her sister to move along, really not trusting somepony that wasn’t showing his face. Her sister was being really stubborn for some reason, staying put. “Ya mind coming out so Ah can greet you properly?”

“I would prefer your word, Applejack,” the odd rumbling voice spoke again. “But I do believe actions speak more than words, yes?” A light chuckle came from the forest as somepony began to walk out of-

“Apple Bloom, get behind me now!” she shouted as she saw the wolf step in front of her sister, already pawing at the ground as she prepared herself to knock it away.

“Please Applejack, if I wished to harm either you or your sister, I would have had ample time to do so,” the wolf said, lowering itself down to the ground with a smile on its face. “I am Swift-Pad of High-Leap pack, and the chosen diplomat of the Packlands.” It - Swift-Pad, stood a bit taller and started to walk towards her.

Letting out a snort, Applejack kept her eye on the wolf while at the same time watching her sister who let out a big sigh and then facehoofed before starting to trot over to her.

“If y’all really are the diplomat-” Applejack started to say before her ear flicked as she felt the air starting to twinge, just like when-

Throwing herself flat, she saw the rainbow blur of her friend smash into where the wolf was standing. She had her eyes open in time to see it open its eyes wide with surprise before some of the stones around its neck started to glow, surrounding the wolf with a translucent bubble. Rainbow Dash slammed into it, causing the material to press inwards. Her hooves were inches from the wolf's face before the bubble compensated for her and pushed her away violently, sending the pegasus careening in the direction of the Apple Family barn.

Applejack was already running towards her friend when she noticed the grey mass moving with her.

Turning to cut him off, she glared at the wolf that just hurt her friend.

“What d'you think yer doing?” she snorted, trying to stare him down.

“Going to help your friend, what do you think?!” he snapped back at her, anger and worry clear in his face. “Being semi-responsible for injuring a foreign citizen is a serious matter and I must make sure she will be okay!”

Applejack pulled back in surprise, her ears catching one word in particular. “‘Semi-responsible’? You’re the one that knocked my friend clear across the sky!”she snorted, keeping her back to the barn where Dash was.

“After she tried to attack me, mind you,” he growled it out, pawing the ground in a way that made something inside of the earth pony flinch. He then shook his head, composing himself before speaking in a much calmer tone of voice. “Please, allow me to help your friend, Applejack.”

Applejack's frown didn’t leave her face but she moved to the side, allowing Swift-Pad to dash past her.

Following the wolf into the barn, she spotted him hovering over her downed friend. He growled angrily, more to himself, before biting his lip and moved a paw over the rainbow-maned head.

“What are you doing partner?” Applejack asked tensely, still uncomfortable with this predator near her helpless friend.

“Healing her with my magic,” he answered, voice tight with concentration, putting the paw on her head. A set of stones along his body, hidden previously by the fur, started to glow as Swift-Pad continued to pass his paw over the mare's head.

After a few second, the wolf moved his paw away and stumbled a bit to the side as Dash let out a groan. “Uggh, worst nap ev-AHHH!” she shouted, spying the wolf right next to her, jumping into the air. “Wolf!” she shouted pointlessly before pulling back into the air for another dive attack.

“Whoa there Dashie!” Applejack shouted, jumping in front of wolf. “He just healed you up, and Ah-”

“After he knocked me across the sky!” Dash yelled back.

“You attacked me, and my protective runes kicked in,” the wolf muttered, still staggering. “I had to use all of my healing runes on you, and I had to even to dig into my personal energy to make sure you were good.”

“Wait, what?” Dash blinked in confusion, looking at the wolf.

“Wing fractures, that if not tended to quickly, could have turned into permanent disfigurements.” Swift-Pad leaned against the side of the barn, panting heavily. “Along with a whole other host of problems - I suggest you check with your local doctor because that took a lot out of me and my knowledge of knitting wings back together is woefully incomplete.” Applejack blinked at the sudden change of tone, but as she turned her head to see where Swift-Pad was looking, she saw Apple Bloom peek inside. “Still… are you okay, Rainbow Dash?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” the mare answered, frowning as well. “Thanks?” she asked awkwardly, unsure of what exactly was happening. “You good?”

“Just a bit tired; one of the drawbacks of using one's own energy to fuel their magic,” he flashed a weary smile at them, which Applejack noted showed no teeth. “I will just need to eat something and I will be fine.”

“Well, Ah know that Granny Smith was baking some apple pies when Ah left to visit Zecora; are they ready sis?” Apple Bloom turned her head to smile hopefully at Applejack.

“Sure are, but Ah think that Swift-Pad here needs to head off ta Twilight, right?” she asked, turning her head to the wolf beside her.

“You are correct, Applejack,” he nodded his head, speaking a strained tone to hide how exhausted he was. “I thank you for your offer Apple Bloom and I suppose I will have to try an apple pie another time.”

“Wait, you’re saying that you’ve never had an apple pie before‽” Apple Bloom almost shouted before racing over to tug at the wolf. “You’ve got to try mah granny’s apple pie ‘cause they’re best in the whole world!”

Swift-Pad blinked before flickering his ears and smiled playfully at her. “I suppose I could try some, if your sister does not mind?”

“Sure, go tell Granny we’ve got some guests…" Applejack answered, still keeping a wary eye on the wolf. “Why don’t ya go get your friends too? I saw them head on to your clubhouse.”

“Okay!” Apple Bloom beamed before dashing off, leaving the mares alone with the wolf.

“Okay, care to ‘splain what all that nonsense was about?” Applejack frowned, staring down Swift-Pad who was leaning against the side of the barn again. “Ain’t you got to be with Twilight soon?”

“That can wait; I am not going to pass up an opportunity to do my job, Applejack,” he replied patiently.

“I thought you were here for some sort of business thing, wolfy,” Dash said, keeping her eyes trained on the wolf.

“The trade agreement is the least important part of my business in Equestria, Rainbow Dash.” The wolf rolled his head around to look up at her. “Of my three objectives in your country, that one has already been more-or-less dealt with and we just need to officiate it with their Graces. My two primary goals here are to do good public relations - which has been proven countless times to be best done with the young ones - as well as properly evaluate the latest Grace Equestria has been blessed with and determine what lessons she will need to learn.”

This got two reactions from the two mares.

Rainbow Dash responded with some confusion to the term "Grace" and Swift-Pad simply replied, "You call them princesses. I suspect we'll go into detail over that later once everyone has come together."

Rainbow Dash then reacted with amusement to the thought that Twilight Sparkle possibly needed more lessons.

Applejack, on the other hoof, focused on the former part and how he was openly admitting to using tricks to influence how her little sister thought of him.

"It's nothing sinister," Swift-Pad explained as soon as she asked him about it. "The young ones don't have the same outlook on life the older ones do."

Applejack nodded curtly, remembering how Ponyville reacted to Zecora every time she came to town before Twilight and Apple Bloom had shown she wasn't much different than they were, by offering a different point of view.

"You're not lying," she said after a moment, much to the wolf's intrigue. She simply smiled at his curious head-tilt. "I'm sure you'll learn more about things in Equestria later down the line."

Swift-Pad accepted the playful barb with good grace.

Chapter Two

As the two mares and one wolf walked through the farm, Applejack looked over the wolf again and used the walk to examine their foreign visitor closely. If he noticed her scrutiny, he either didn't mind or was aware that they had every right to be cautious around him.

His coat wasn’t ragged and wild as she thought it would be; it was a short and well kept grey coat. He had a saddlebag on him, with strange looking stones sewn into the edges of it. They were fairly large, with odd things scratched into the surface, the shapes almost perfectly uniformed.

“So, you guys have magic?” Dash asked, keeping pace with them in the air.

“Indeed we do, Rainbow Dash,” he replied, shaking his head to loosen out a necklace of smaller stones. “I am a Rune Caster, able to channel my inner magic through the proper runes. These around my neck are my protection runes, simplistic enough for any novice to create.” He paused, holding out the dull stones in his paw. “In somewolves’ case as mine, we are able to influence how strong they are and leave it on as a back burner if they are talented or have enough storage and energy runes. I had left mine on a far higher degree than I generally do in civilization after trekking through the Everfree Forest and neglected to lower them once I found the path to your farm, Applejack.” He then flicked his eyes back to Dash, dropping the necklace of runes back into his fur. “I am sorry that my lack of action and thought caused you harm.”

Something felt off to Applejack the moment he said that, how it was phrased was odd and show a mixture of honesty and dishonesty at the same time.

“It’s no problem,” Dash scoffed, shaking her head in her usual self-amusement. “Ya probably needed them at max anyways to deal with a mare as awesome as me.”

“Yes, clearly I forgot to properly calibrate the rune to account for your level of awesomeness,” the wolf said quickly, with a smirk running across his face and a chuckle in his throat.

“Huh?” both mares looked at him, confusion clear on their faces.

The wolf stumbled in his step, a rush of red running across his face.

"Oh, wait, was that an attempt at a joke?" Applejack asked, going over the words in her head.

Rainbow Dash looked confused.

"My apologies," Swift-Pad replied. "I've forgotten how Equestrian humour differs from other species’."

"Keep the scientific and magic lingo out of it and I'm sure you'll make much funnier cracks next time," Applejack said with a smile.

"Thank you, I shall keep that in mind."

"I don't get it. What'd he say?" Rainbow Dash asked, flying over to the farmer. Applejack shook her head.

"Relax, sugarcube, it's not important," Applejack said, giving her friend a nudge.

"That term you used, what does it mean?" Swift-Pad asked.

"Sugarcube? It's just something Ah tend to use with friends when referring to them," Applejack said.

"Or else she does it to cover up the fact she forgets ponies' names," Rainbow Dash said with a grin, which earned her a smack from Applejack's hat.

Shaking his head with a chuckle in his throat, Swift-Pad turned his head to look at the house and the stallion standing in front of it.

Applejack trotted ahead and called out a greeting to the stallion. He responded in kind before looking at the wolf.

“Heard there was a visitor in town,” the red coated pony said evenly, not taking his eyes away from the wolf.

Applejack stole a quick look at the wolf to see how he was reacting but he seemed indifferent to the whole matter, with no real expression on his face. Turning back to the pony in front of her, she asked, “Did Apple Bloom tell you?”

The stallion shifted the grain stalk in his mouth to the other side before answering, “Eeyup. She then said she'd go tell her friends and ran off.”

Applejack nodded her head before turning to the wolf again and waving him over. “I see. Well, this here is Swift-Pad. He will be joining us for lunch. This is my brother, Big Macintosh.”

Swift-Pad cracked a smile before padding up to her brother, holding out a paw. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Eeeyup,” Mac took the paw with his hoof and shook it. “Granny and the girls are waiting to meet with you.”

“It will be my honour to meet with them,” the wolf replied. “May I come in?”

“Eeuyp.” Big Mac said, walking into the house with Swift-Pad right behind him, with Dash flying in past her, causing Applejack to snort.

Walking in quick, she was able to catch the looks of surprise on the fillies at seeing Swift-Pad sitting at the kitchen threshold.

“So ya weren’t pullin’ mah leg, Apple Bloom,” her granny said, eyeing the wolf and looking at him up and down. “Yer a skinny one; sit down and Ah’ll fix you right.”

Swift-Pad raised an eyebrow at this but smiled at her, showing none of his teeth again. “You are a very gracious host, Madam Smith,” he said as he shook off his bags and placed them in the corner of the room. He then turned to the Crusaders and asked with a goofy smile on his face while lowering his head down so he was on eye level. “May I sit down here, little ones?”

“Sure ya can,” Apple Bloom said happily with Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle both sharing uneasy looks. “These are mah best friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle and we’re the CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” she shouted, causing the wolf to fold his ears backwards. Apple Bloom then blinked in confusion and look at the other two fillies. “Hey, why didn’t you do it?”

“Uh, Apple Bloom, I know you said he’s a wolf but...” Scootaloo trailed off with a look of concern in her face that what she was about to say would be rude.

“It is fine, little one,” Swift-Pad said as he shot a playful look at Rainbow Dash. “You did much better than her, after all.”

Rainbow Dash let out a groan, face blushing at this not so friendly reminder.

“What, what did she do?” Scootaloo asked, leaning in close to his face, any fear forgotten in the wake of news about her hero.

“She was just a bit overeager to protect her friends, a very good thing in proper amounts, little one,” he said as he shifted into his chair before shaking his head and hopping out of it to settle into a position on the floor. “Never did get used to chairs, to be fair.”

“It’s alright,” Applejack said as she tried to help her granny with the pies, only to get swatted away and told to sit down.

“Ah hear that this will be ya first apple pie, ain’t that right Swifty Pad?”

“Yes it will be, Madam Smith,” Swift-Pad said as her granny began to serve up slices of pie to each of them with the fillies and Dash eating with gusto. The girls she could excuse for being young and Dash for being Dash but she knew Granny had taught her better and waited for the guest to take the first bite.

She saw Swift-Pad cut a reasonable size piece of his pie and lift it to his mouth. Almost immediately, his face bulged, but he managed to force it down his throat.

“How did ya like it Swifty?” Granny asked while Swift-Pad was very clearly trying to keep it from making a reappearance over the table.

“It was certainly an experience I will not soon be able to forget.” Swift-Pad chuckled, his face starting to turn green. “And I cannot believe I have forgotten to do this, I need to go wash up. If you will excuse me for a moment or two.”

“Ah’ll show you the way, partner,” Applejack said as she stood up and showed him to the far bathroom which he slipped into and moved towards the toilet. “Ya going to be alright, sugarcube?”

“Ye-yes,” Swift-Pad said while gulping loudly. “You may lea-” That was as far as he got before he started to retch into the toilet bowl. Wincing in pain, Applejack fetched him a glass of water and presented it to the wolf.

Plucking it out of her hoof, Swift-Pad drank it and let out a whine, resting his head against the counter of the sink. “Thank you for that, Applejack. I did not know the apples would upset my stomach so drastically.”

“It’s okay,” Applejack said in a concerned tone. “You sure yer gonna be all right? ‘Twasn’t nothin’ wrong with our cookin’, was there?”

“Nothing of the sort,” Swift-Pad replied as he shifted onto his paws. “I know that other wolves of my pack do eat apples but I suppose that it just did not agree with me.”

Applejack’s ear flicked, the phrasing he used bugged her but she couldn’t place her hoof on what was wrong. “Come, let's get back to the table, the others must be wonderin’ if yer okay.”

“Agreed, and...” his ears perked up and gave her an eager look. “Applejack, I am wondering if I may do something with your sister and her friends.”

“What kind of thing are ya talking about?” Applejack frowned, snorting.

“A simple matter of cultural exchange,” Swift-Pad said. “I wish to try and share some of my own food with the young ones.”

“What kind of food?”

“Fish,” he replied. “I would not bring anything else as it could create some issues while I am here in your lands.”

Applejack blinked and thought about it for a moment. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen fish being eaten before - hay, even Fluttershy fed them to some of her animals. Without seeing anything wrong with it, she stepped to the other side and let the wolf go into the kitchen where her little sister was.

Chapter Three

Stepping back into the kitchen, Applejack saw that the fillies had left the table and were inspecting the wolf’s saddlebags, with Scootaloo poking it with her hoof. Annoyingly, Dash hadn’t had the sense to stop the fillies from doing this.

Before she had a chance to lecture them, Swift-Pad let out a loud snicker and called out to them. “I see that my belongings caught your eyes,” he said, dropping low to be on eye level with them again.

“Eh, yeah,” Scootaloo said, sharing worried looks with Sweetie and Apple Bloom. “You’re not mad, are you?”

“Why would I be? A curious mind is a good thing; it shows interest in new things which is always good to see in the young. Do you not agree Applejack?” he turned his head towards her before looking at Granny Smith. “I thank you for sharing your food with me; may I do the same as well?”

“Go right ahead,” she said. “But just what’re you plannin’ to make?”

“Some fish, madam,” Swift-Pad said as he stepped around the fillies to reach into his bag and pulled out a skillet that was larger than the saddle bags. “I hope you will all be willing to try some.”

Scootaloo looked like she was about to say something when Rainbow Dash let out a shout. “Oh yeah, it’s been ages since I’ve had some!”

“Wait, you’ve had fish before Dash?” Scootaloo asked, looking up at the mare.

“‘Course I’ve had it,” Dash said, smiling at the filly. “Gilda ate it all the time, she offered me some once and I developed a taste.” She then frowned and kicked the floor. “Of course, it costs a lot of bits and it’s not something I can get myself that easily, not the good stuff anyways.”

“Well, the ones I have are from the Halifax region and I am sure you know how good they are,” Swift-Pad as he pulled out some fish from the bag, catching Applejack’s eye. “I see-”

“Halifax region?!” Dash shouted before glomping the wolf with a squee in her voice. “Oh man, that’s the best!” Rainbow Dash only began to realize what she was doing after everyone in the room wasn’t able to hold back thier laughter anymore and saw Swift-Pad giving her a bemused look. “Uh, sorry about that.”

“You were excited, I accept your apology,” the wolf said, causing Applejack to raise an eyebrow. “Now if I may cook the fish?”

“Oh yeah, of course,” Dash flew off the wolf and looked sheepishly at the floor while Swift-Pad walked up to the stovetop and began to study the dials. Mumbling under his breath, he placed his pan on the stove and started pulling some other ingredients out of his pack.

Rainbow Dash watched in fascination as he carefully set up a container of fish fillets, a small tray-like pan, and a few other things before frowning. “Hmm… must be running low on flour,” he mused. “Pardon me, but do you have some flour I could borrow?” he asked Applejack.

“Plenty.” Applejack ducked over to one of the cupboards. “Here you do.”

“Thank you.” Accepting it, Swift-Pad poured a small amount into the tray, before laying one of the fillets into it, giving the entire thing a light shake, and flipping the fish over. Once he was satisfied, he shook the fish, sending some excess flour back into the pan, and set it on a rack over a second tray-like pan.

Now the skillet was hot enough, and he added a small amount of… some liquid, Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell what, and a dab of butter. Keeping the pan moving until the foaming stopped, Swift-Pad lay the fish into it, making sure to keep it moving for a short while, then stepped back. “Two minute, then I flip, give it another two minutes and that fillet is done,” he remarked as he began dredging the other fillets. “Between the flour, canola oil, butter and time, that will give it a nice crisp crust. Then a few seasonings on top and it’s ready to serve.”

Applejack nodded approvingly. “You’re really good at this,” she remarked.

“It’s one of my favorite fish dishes,” Swift-Pad replied as he worked. “There are a variety where I come from, but this is one of the easiest that involves actual cooking.”

Several minutes later, there were eight plates of fish ready, all lightly fried and with a dab of lemon juice added over them. “There,” Swift-Pad said as he served them. “What do you think?”

Rainbow Dash dug in eagerly, her wings twitching at her sides. “Man, that’s great!”

Scootaloo looked a little hesitant, but took a nibble herself. Her eyes widened, and she began eating more. “Wow!”

“‘s good, huh?” Rainbow Dash commented.

Scootaloo nodded. “Yeah!”

Rainbow Dash smiled. “You’re certainly having an easier time of it than I did that first time… I don’t like to admit it, but I actually got sick the first time I had fish. ‘Course, I’m pretty sure that was because it didn’t get cooked quite right or somethin’… Gilda didn’t look too happy when she actually had it either. But we managed, and the next time, it was great. And this? This is wonderful.”

Scootaloo looked up from her plate. “It certainly is,” she agreed. “Thanks, Mr. Swift-Pad!”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it,” Swift-Pad replied, turning his head towards the other fillies. “And how are you fairing?”

“It’s different?” Sweetie said, tilting her head as she chewed the food in her mouth, with Apple Bloom looking uncertain. Big Mac was being silent in his opinion, Granny was still chewing her food and -

Applejack blinked as she realized she hadn’t taken a bite yet. Stabbing the fish with her fork, Applejack broke off a piece and brought it into her mouth.

“Huh,” she said, blinking and taking another bite of the fish. “Ain’t that bad.”

“A polite thing, good cook and he’s good with kids,” Granny said, eyeing the wolf up and down. “Do you have a she-wolf friend back home?” she asked, turning her head towards Applejack, causing the mare to wonder what her gra-

“GRANNY!” Applejack shouted, blushing as it suddenly hit her.

“Well,” Swift-Pad said distractedly, his eartips red. “While I do appreciate the gesture madam, I do have sort of have someone back in the Packlands.”

“Sort of?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s… complicated,” Swift-Pad said nervously, ducking his head low. “Very complicated.”

“Ah, I see,” Rainbow Dash grinned, flying over and elbow him in the side. “Got multiple wo-” she trailed off when she noticed the looks she was getting from everypony; the all too interested looks of fillies and the annoyed glares from the adults. “I mean…”

“No, and as I said, it is complicated,” Swift-Pad, shifting on his paws before he started to pack his belongings back into his bag while wrapping the pans in coverings. “In any case, I should be on my way towards her Grace Twilight.”

“Aw, you have to go now?” Scootaloo pouted. “You’re so cool, almost as cool as Rainbow Dash!”

“I thank you, little one, and I will see you all tomorrow morning again when I visit your classroom,” Swift-Pad said, giving them a wide smile.

“You’re coming to our class tomorrow?”

“Yes,” he said, leaning down low. “it is part of my mission here and it would be my pleasure to meet all of your friends.”

“Cool!” Scootaloo’s eyes widened with a smile on her face. “Can’t wait to see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” the other two girls echoed her feelings before talking to each other as they walked out of the kitchen with Swift-Pad looking outside.

“Now I just need directions to the town,” he said out loud, walking over and tapping the windowsill as he peered out the window.

“Hey, I’ll show you the way, Swifty,” Rainbow Dash said. “You can tell me some cool places to get fish and junk.”

“I thank you,” Swift-Pad replied, tipping his head. “And you as well for allowing me to share your food and mine.”

“Shucks, it was our pleasure,” Applejack said, walking over to shake his paw. “And I’m mighty sorry about the whole thing at the start.”

“I accept your apology, and it was understandable,” he said, shaking her paw before tilting his head at Rainbow Dash. “Please, lead on.”

Chapter Four

“No problem,” Rainbow Dash said as she flew out of Applejack’s kitchen through the window with Swift-Pad leaving through the door. “Come on, Swifty, let’s go.”

Walking alongside the flying pegasus down the farmway, Swift-Pad was acutely aware of how quiet the pegasus was being with his ears twitching as she kept opening her mouth as if to say something, only to halt herself. Swift-Pad recalled what he had studied in his packet about her Grace and her friends and was keenly aware that this was atypical of her usual behaviour. He began to recall what was discussed as well as what he knew of her, with a few ideas bouncing in his head. Before he could actually ask her what she wished to know, the mare banked in the air to land beside him and coughed asking him, “Say, Swift-Pad, how much do you know of Griffons?”

“A fair deal,” he told her truthfully while he began to get an inkling of what she was asking. “Why do you ask?” He tilted his head, raising an eyebrow at her.

“No reason,” she quickly denied, shaking her head. “Just that I’ve heard some junk from Gilda and all and I was just curious if all that kinda thing was true or not.”

“Do you mean the tremendous financial debt that their nation owes, Rainbow Dash?” he asked, causing her to pull back in a wince.

“I thought she was always kidding about that garbage,” the pegasus said, kicking a pebble down the pathway. “So I guess that stuff about you guys having no weather team is also true.”

“Yes,” he said as he felt her take off back into the air, indicating that she was at ease or working to make herself at ease. “And despite my times in your lands, the sight of one of your kind never ceases to be an interesting one.”

“Heh, not that often you get to see an awesome pegasus like me, eh?” Rainbow grinned as the conversation shifted to something more comfortable.

“That is certainly one of looking at such things. Not that I have not seen Equestrian weather patrols before from the Packlands, but they are always careful to stay on the correct side of the border.”

“Yeah, well, it’d be kinda stupid of them to drift over where they aren’t supposed to go,” Rainbow Dash replied. “It’s one thing to overfly a patrol zone over a town like Ponyville that’s nowhere near any of the borders, but a weather pony has to know to respect local airspace.”

“Especially since some of our more powerful rune wolves have contingencies that makes things interesting if they cross over,” Swift-Pad allowed himself a grin and low rumbling chuckle. “Always interesting to see them try to fix their ‘mistakes’ when they keep getting blown back into your lands.”

Rainbow Dash snorted, no doubt imagining stubborn pegasi trying to correct the weather to no avail before she let out a groan. “It doesn’t help that some ponies seem to think that we pegasi control all the weather in Equestria. That’d be too much work! Everypony would have to be pegasi for that to even be possible!”

“One tragic constant in the world in the lack of clear education of how the world does work,” Swift-Pad said somberly.

“Hey! I was done learnt my lessons proper,” Dash insisted in an overly exaggerated thick accent, before sticking her tongue out to show she was joking. Not that she still didn’t get the stink-eye from a couple of Ponyville farmers that the two just happened to be passing that seemingly had no issue with a wolf like him walking by.

“I can see that truly, Rainbow Dash,” he told her, causing her to frown. “I do not jest; you are refreshingly aware of the world beyond Equestria.”

“Hey, I may be a small town pony, but I do keep my ears open,” the pegasus said defensively. “Besides, you can’t get to be weather captain anywhere in Equestria without hearing about some things.”

“It does you a world of credit from what I have seen in the past from other captains of the weather,” Swift-Pad said as they began to cross into town square with the cobblestones refreshingly cool and smooth under his paws. “Now all I need to do is find her Grace Twilight Spark-”

“SURPRISE!” Before he could properly react, Swift-Pad found himself wearing a party hat holding a cupcake, and staring at the pinkest pony he had ever seen, surrounded by several other ponies also wearing party hats and smiling at the prospect of another Pinkie Party. Whatever the reason might be. “Welcome to Ponyville, Mr. Wolfy-wolf! I’m Pinkie Pie! What’s your name?”

“Swift-Pad,” he said slowly as he began to remember the warnings on her folder.

“Hi, Swifty! You don’t mind if I call you Swifty, right? Anyway, Swifty, I saw you walking along beside Rainbow Dash here, and thought to myself: ‘Pinkie, I bet that wolf could use a party!’ And naturally I agreed with myself, because parties are great, and since I never saw you before, you must be new, so I decided to throw you a Welcome to Ponyville party! Of course I had to throw it together really fast because I only just saw you, and I have no idea how long you are staying in Ponyville. When’s your birthday? What’s your favorite flavor? Are you related to any Timber Wolves? I hope not, because Timber Wolves are kinda nasty and mean. Not that I’m saying that you are nasty or mean or anything, because you’re with Rainbow Dash, and Dashie likes to hang around awesome ponies and griffons… and awesome wolves too, I guess. Except Gilda turned out to be not so awesome I suppose. Anyway, how are you doing today?”

“I’m doing very well, miss Pie,” he said slowly as he pieced together what she said. Turning his head around to take in the ponies around them, he said “I thank you for this party you threw together at the last moment.” Taking a sniff of the cupcake, he could smell that it was vanilla, with carob frosting and licked his lips out of instinct. “I have heard that you were inherently good at guessing other’s favourite flavours, but I always placed that to flavoured edition.”

Pinkie Pie giggled at the joke and with a smile said “My editions are always flavoured!” She tilted her head to encourage the crowd to come closer which put him into work mode.

“Hi…” a timid pony began. “I’m Carrot Glace... Pleasedon’teatme!”

Carrot Glace promptly got a hoof upside her head from her friend. “He’s not going to eat you, Carrot! Pinkie wouldn’t throw a party for him if he was going to do something like that!”

“But the newsletter said…” Carrot Glace said meekly.

“Are you still listening to that PVE nonsense?” the other pony lectured with Swift-Pad doing his best not to react at the mention of the Pony Vegan Environmentalists, slightly hoping that more senior diplomats of his nation could get those individuals labeled as a radical species and lifestyle supremacist movement instead of a harmless organization without any borders for their self imposed missions. “Wolves never eat other sapients! It’s one of their oldest laws, from what I’ve read!”

“You’ve got to stop listening to those PVE meanies, Carrot,” Pinkie agreed. “They don’t like anypony that isn’t a pony, and that’s just not right! I mean, sure, we all made that mistake with Zecora, but we learned to be better than that, right?”

“I guess...?” Carrot Glace nodded hesitantly. “But their pamphlets are so convincing…”

“Those individuals spend equal amounts of time pushing their views on other as they do trying to convert others into their beliefs,” Swift-Pad said, cutting into the conversation. “Their favourite methods, along with others of their kind, are to the extreme in that they force conflict where they can claim to be the victim in the eyes of misinformed authorities.”

“You mean like those idiots that are always trying to set up picnics at the bottom of any two hills near the Packlands’ border, and then complain about how the uncontrolled weather from the Packlands washed them out?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Yes,” Swift-Pad said as he sat down, with more of the ponies seeming to get more comfortable with him. “And the Equestrian border guards have issued more than one complaint and fine towards the Packland weather teams.”

“But you guys don’t have any weather teams,” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“Exactly,” Swift-Pad said with a grin as everyone began to realize what exactly what was happening and was laughing at the incompetence of the guards. “To be fair,” he said after the laughter began to die down. “Not all of them are so empty minded, just a slightly alarming number that rose in the ranks near the border. Thankfully, there are enough guards that do have level heads on their shoulders that do their best to make sure those fines and complaints do not actually leave the border between our two lands and cause unneeded political turmoil.”

“Eh, enough of this boring political stuff, we’ve got a party to enjoy,” Rainbow Dash said with the other ponies agreeing.

“Here you go, Swifty!” Pinkie Pie said, holding the cupcake on her hoof with perfect balance. “Go ahead and take a bite.”

Smiling to himself at the good reception he was building with these ponies, he leaned forwards with his mouth open to take the cupcake when he heard the sound of two more ponies walking nearby.

“-d I’m still worried that something will go wrong when the guest arri-WOLF!” a voice shouted before something heavy slammed into his side.

Author's Notes:

This chapter was brought to you by both Anon, Tangent and myself.

Chapter Five

Swift-Pad did his best to roll into the blow and get onto his paws but before he could react further, he felt himself lifted into the air with his magic seemingly out of reach.

“Don’t worry everypony, I got this!” a voice shouted, with the purple bubble looking very similar to some of the pictures in his folders. Already he was struggling to reach his runes to free himself, as the same pony said “Back to the Everfree Forest with you.”

“Wait, Twilight! Stop!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she suddenly dropped in between them. “He’s a good guy!”

“And he’s the diplomat you’re supposed to meet, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie added in, causing Twilight to pause in surprise, her magic canceling out abruptly with Swift-Pad having no chance to properly prepare himself for a landing. Pushing himself upright from the dirt, he was about to defuse the situation when Twilight’s magic grabbed him again and lifted him upright.

“Oh my gosh! I am so so sorry! I didn’t mean to do this to you! I didn’t know you were the diplomat guest we were expecting! Princess Celestia didn’t specify because she wanted it to be a surprise, but it never occured to me that you might resemble a wild predator we have! Not that you are a wild predator, I mean. I just knew you were coming today, but when I came out to meet you all I saw was a big scary wolf that I thought was from the Everfree! I am so, so sorry for attacking you!”

“It is okay, your Grace,” Swift-Pad interjected, causing her to pull back with her eyes still wide in fright. “I accept your apology, your Grace as you did not know the situation properly.” he said as he shook his coat, causing his more loosely tied runes to rustle faintly with a few sounding like they needed to be refastened, while he quickly glanced around to judge how the crowd was reacting before turning to his current charge who seemed about to fall into one of her warned panic attacks.

“Still, I am so sorry for everything I did,” she said in the same quick ramble as before with Swift-Pad wincing at the fact that the notes on her foreign education was correct on the pessimistic assumption instead of the optimistic ones. “I don’t…”

“As I said: It is okay, Twilight,” he said, cutting her off before she could babble on more as before. Seeing that she was unnerved by the sudden rise in his voice again he flashed her a smile with teeth but not with his fangs, and asked her in a softer tone. “If you may lead the way to a place I could freshen up, I would greatly appreciate it.”

“Well, darling,” the other pony besides Twilight spoke up, causing Swift-Pad to turn his head to see her stride up to him, recognizing her as Rarity, another of the Bearers. “We could always take a detour to the local spa as it does wonders to calm my nerves.”

Swift-Pad smiled at the suggestion, seeing the offer as it truly was, a means to delicately discuss the entire situation in private.

“An excellent idea, miss Rarity,” he said, bobbing his head and moved to follow her, with Twilight opening and closing her mouth a few times before she joined them, clearly trying to think of how to fix the matter by her own means.

“Thank you, mister…” Rarity left the question hanging, making Swift-Pad realize he had yet to introduce himself to his charge.

“My name is Swift-Pad,” he said in a soothing tone and taking care to not signal out Twilight for her lapse in etiquette.

“An interesting name,” she said, glancing over to the alicorn with a concerned look on her face, clearly trying to help her friend. “Don’t you think so Twilight?”

“Er, yes, yes it is,” she chuckled in uncertainty, still clearly troubled by her previous actions. “How did you get such a name?”

“By my pack elders,” he chuckled, using some of the Equestrian based humour in this situation. Unfortunately it seemed that the joke was lost on them and he saw he needed to explain himself further. “As per custom in the Packlands, we are named after a trait our elders observe in us. For me, it was my ability to move swiftly on my pads when most of my littermates were all fumbling about.”

“That’s an interesting method of naming yourselves,” Rarity said while looking at Twilight, who was nodding her head but keeping quiet. The unicorn bit her lip for a split second before she schooled her face. “As you may not know, we tend to have something called the name dream.”

“To where expecting mothers have a series of dreams that inspires the name for the foal as it tends to have some tie their special talent?” Swift-Pad said causing Twilight to snap her head to look at him in surprise.

“That’s a mostly personal, private mare matter,” she said slowly, looking at him in the eyes. “How do you know about them?”

“I have been working with Equestrians for a while now and my educators have taught me a fair deal about your society,” he told her which she began to digest in her head, trying to determine if it was something he should have known or not.

“I see…” she said slowly, eyes darting to side with a blush on her face again. “Again, I am so sorry for what I did.”

Swift-Pad could not help stop his ear from twitching at this comment, making him wonder if her Grace Celestia had taught her anything and how naïve she truly was. “As I have said before, it is fine, your Grace.” He said in his most politically calm voice. “And thank you, Rarity, for this detour, it will be very useful.”

“It is not a problem, darling; you can freshen up after all,” Rarity said, causing Swift-Pad to prod his memory. He had an inkling of what a spa was, but it had been a while since he had last heard the term. Looking over his coat, he saw that it was dirty and he then remembered what he’d read about Rarity in his folders and quickly pieced together what she was indicating.

“I appreciate your offer but,” he paused mid-step as he thought of an escape to being subjugated to the inner workings of the spa when he heard the rustle of his rune stones and let out a small sigh of relief. “I must fix my rune stones before I can even think of participating.”

“Well, I’m sure I can help you with that, Darling,” Rarity stated, going into full dealing-with-a-reluctant-little-sister mode. “After you’ve had a bath and a good brushing.”

“Actually, no, you cannot,” he told her as he stretched his neck out to show the runes around his throat. “A fair deal of my runes need to be removed in a certain order as they are overlapping and the whole procedure can take a fair amount of time and I do need to focus on fixing the string as it is a delicate procedure to thread the needle.” He winced internally as he spoke of tailoring in front of the tailor.

“Which should give us plenty of time to talk. I’ll just book us for an extended session to cover the required time to take care of your runes. They do look quite lovely on you. I’m sure that if you explain what needs to be done with them to Aloe and Lotus, they can either help you or leave you the required time to do what needs to be done with them. And I can help you with the strings, unless it specifically has to be done by your own paw - I am familiar with the idea of sympathetic magic after all.”

Biting his tail internally, he knew it would serve his mission better if he agreed to these measures and Rarity seemed to be a good buffer for her Grace Twilight to get more at ease with him and possibly have the start of the dialogue between the two. “While it is tradition that a rune wolf like myself handles their own rune maintenance, it would be incredibly rude of me to just dismiss such help out of some personal reservations about others attempting to groom me.”

“Well,” Twilight said caustially, looking at Rarity for support. “If it makes you really uncomfortable, we can just ask Aloe and Lotus to give you a pass on any procedure that you’d rather do yourself or use an alternative method.”

“If he must,” Rarity consented, relenting from her push to get the gentlewolf diplomat properly cleaned and groomed to her vision.

Flicking his head upwards, he saw that they were in front of the place in question, and with what he hoped was a barely audible grumble, walked into the spa.

“Greetings, Rarity!” Aloe and Lotus said together as they saw their favorite customer come in. “Is this a group session then?”

“Why yes it is, Darlings!” Rarity confirmed. “Aloe, Lotus, this is Swift-Pad, the diplomatic guest from the Packlands. And of course you both already know Twilight. Swift-Pad, these are Aloe and Lotus. They own and run the Ponyville spa. If you have any special requirements, or if anything makes you too uncomfortable, be sure to let them know, and they’ll personalise your session to suit your needs. They really are dears.”

“That would be most appreciated,” Swift-Pad replied.

After a somewhat brief discussion with the spa owners, a mutually agreeable session was planned out, alleviating many of the worries Swift-Pad had been experiencing. The ponies had even been amenable to experiencing a bit of cultural exchange involving cleansing and grooming techniques, which allowed him to escape the experience of being repeatedly soaked in uncomfortable amounts of water.

Before too long, the three were settled in for a good cleansing curry brushing to rid themselves of their grime, loose hairs, and any pests they may have picked up. But first, Swift-Pad had to remove his packs and his runes. Following the owners to a place where he could reliably leave the papers that were needed for the meeting tomorrow as well as the gifts for their Graces without worrying about them, he returned to the girls talking to each other with Rarity speaking words of confidence to Twilight which was good. Flashing them a smile, he saw the prepared sheet laid out for him and felt the attention of the room on him as he began to remove his runes. Deciding to start with his neck, where his shield runes were, he tapped into the runes around his paws that allowed him greater flexibility before he reached for the protection runes and slid them off of his body. Placing the long string of the still empty protection-based runes down on the sheet, he could see that a few would need to be outright replaced and even without his crafter’s glasses with the high detail fold-away lenses, he could spot the cord was fraying and he would need to replace it sooner rather than later. He then moved onto the runes along his hind legs that boosted his speed as well helped increase his endurance before doing them for his forelegs, examining them each time he placed them down while making mental notes of what he had to fix and touch up before he let out a sigh as he reached for his head and slid off the ones that aided his eyesight.

Immediately, he began to squint, the abrupt change always causing a small headache for him and being the main reason why he only took it off when he was going to sleep or had to repair them. Forcing his eyes open as not to alarm his hosts, he moved to take the ones off of his paws, following the ingrained route of the runes that eased walking around before he slid off the ones that increased his dexterity and flexibility and placing them down with the rest of his runes.

He gave his body a shake, feeling particularly exposed without his runes, before he sat back down with Rarity and Twilight, the former looking at him closely and the latter eyeing his runes. Twilight clearly wished to examine them closer but knew better than to actually touch them without his permission.

As the attendants came to start this spa treatment, Twilight coughed loudly, turning to him and saying, “I must say, I have never seen anything like those runes before. I mean, I’ve read something about them, but only about the few that unicorns had made, and I see a lot more here than just those that I’ve read about.”

“Ah yes,” he said as one of the ponies began to work on his coat, keeping his attention split between her and his runes. “Unlike your kind, not all wolves have the potential for some form of magic, and even those of us that do require some form of focus to bring it out. As our innate arcane abilities are limited, naturally we have expanded our knowledge of the tools we use that enable us to work magic at all. That is why, when we are young, we are instructed to try and copy the beginners’ sets to see if we have any mystic potential. Once we know enough, those that can work with the runes are encouraged to experiment a bit with crafting our own in order to expand our knowledge as a whole. Of course, at first, these experiments are properly supervised. We don’t really start truly independent design work until our masters are satisfied with our skill and even then, there are strict guidelines of what we can and cannot do.”

He paused and chuckled as he recalled the past. “Then again, more than enough of the youngsters proved themselves capable of magic by trying to craft and tap a rune beyond their capabilities. Which is why not all the runes that were designed by the ancient masters were all that beneficial; some were made no other reason beyond to trip up younger, eager pups that were overreaching their abilities.”

Leaning over, he traced two symbols that looked near identical. “This one is meant to allow one to control lightning and this one,” he said, eyeing the symbol he’d made and recalling the time he had crafted it, “will cause the rune wolf to send a quite sizable amount of electricity through their body with a loud noise to signify that it had been used.”

“You sound like you are speaking from personal experience there, Swift-Pad,” Rarity purred with Swift-Pad blushing, his ears folding back slightly with a low rumble in his throat.

“I am sure we all did something foolish with our magic when we were young,” Swift-Pad said, glancing to the sides.

“I, ah…” Twilight blushed. “I once cast a spell that let me enter a book as an illustration, but I had forgotten to memorize the part of the spell that reverses the process. If Spike hadn’t seen me on the page before putting the book away, it might have been a long time before anypony found me…”

“Well darlings, if you Pinkie Promise not to tell a soul,” Rarity began with Twilight and the attendants quickly performing the ritual, Swift-Pad copying them a moment later. “I once, after getting my cutie mark, tried to find some gems and listened to my magic blindly. Needless to say, as a result of this, I received a very strict lecture of why it was wrong to take things that belong to others. Even if they did hide them in a box buried under a bush just beyond their backyard.”

Swift-Pad could not help himself from laughing loudly at this, only to let out a yelp as he felt the brush along his back reach a particularly tough knot.

Twilight giggled briefly at Rarity’s story, then looked at Swift-Pad in alarm when he yelped. “Are you alright over there?”

“I am fine. The brush just hit a tangle.”

“Oh, okay then. And again, I am ever so sorry for my misunderstanding in the town square earlier…”

“You are truly a blind pup thrown into the hunt,” Swift-Pad said, shaking his head before standing upright. “We need to talk, Sparkle,” he said tersely. “In privacy.”

Twilight was clearly spooked by his sudden change in tone, moving to stand before she was aware of it. Walking over to the office, Swift-Pad stood inside waiting for Twilight before closing the door.

“You truly are completely ignorant about the world beyond Equestria, are you not?” he asked sharply, preventing any chance for her to muddle around the issue.

“Er… I read some books on Griffonstone…” she began with Swift-Pad snorting.

“Which are more than likely out of date or written by Equestrians for Equestrian audiences with little to no input from actual griffons or those who live in the area,” he spat, his eyes hurting him as he tried to keep his eyes on hers. “In any case, the answer is clearly no, your Grace.”

“I’m sor-”

“Please stop saying that,” he was fighting the urge to growl at her, remembering his training. “Something that your mentor should have told you, at the very least, is that for us wolves, we have slightly different views on making amends. For a majority of the time, we are out together where trust with each other is essential if we are to have enough food for the winter and the pack to survive. That means when one makes a mistake, we have to know that they learned from their error and will not repeat it again. So they only apologize if they are sure that they will not repeat their mistake and we can trust them again. To add onto this, it is only accepted if the apology is believed to be honest. Furthermore, when a matter has been resolved, it is considered horribly insulting to bring it up again as it implies that the transgression was forgiven too easily, that they did not know what they were forgiving, that they were unaware of the entire matter at paw.”

“Oh my gosh, I had no idea, I am so so…” Twilight stopped, gathered her breath, and thought for a moment. “I apologize for not taking the time to become aware of other cultures surrounding Equestria. I assure you that I will take the time to do so, but it may take me a while to acquire the necessary information.”

“Completely expected and I do accept your apology,” he said, easing his glare. “That was why I was selected for this mission; as to be as your instructor of sorts into the complicated mess that is foreign affairs. Come, we should head back to your friend lest she becomes worried.”

“Before we go back, may I ask you a question?” Twilight sounded hesitant again and Swift-Pad was wondering what she was mulling over in her head.

“Of course; this is what I am here for,” he said as closed his eyes, doing a mental check in his head to see if he still had the medicine in his pack for his headache and resolved to put the runes that helped with eyes back on as soon as he can.

“Why do you keep on calling me, and the other princesses, ‘your Grace’?” Twilight asked and Swift-Pad had to wince; of all things she had to ask, she had to choose one of three impolite things to talk about in conversations outside of a strict student/mentor relationship, which they had not quite established yet. As well as explaining his nation’s official religion to a secular citizen who more than likely had never heard of the concept was going to be a challenge.

Chapter Six

“That is a… delicate matter,” Swift-Pad began, blinking to ease the tension in his eyes. “What brings it to mind?”

“Well, honestly, you’re the first po-person I’ve ever heard use that particular phrase to refer to us,” Twilight replied carefully. “So I was wondering why.”

Swift-Pad licked his lips, wondering how to properly explain this matter to her. “To many outside of Equestria,” he began, moving closer to her so he did not have to strain his eyes. “And a few within, the alicorn tribe is viewed with great regard due to their preternatural abilities, even to the point of worship.”

“Worship? As in gods and religion?” Twilight sounded aghast. “That’s… why? I mean, I’m certainly no god, and I don’t ever want to be one. Being worshipped like that is just…” She trailed off, her eyes widening as she began to realize what she was saying and what she almost said. Her mouth opened for a moment before closing, showing that she’d almost repeated her previous error but caught herself in time. “As I am Princess Celestia’s former student, I know that she personally dislikes that notion as it drives a wedge between her and every other pony, and I happen to agree; I’m not against the idea of worship in general, but personally being the subject of it makes me feel… uncomfortable, to say the least.”

“That is your prerogative,” Swift-Pad replied. “Regardless, that is what we believe and to be honest, her Grace Celestia is not our goddess, but rather her Grand Grace of the Moon.” He bowed his head reverently as he spoke of Her.

“You mean Luna?” Twilight asked with his ear flickering in anxiety. “You worship her?”

“Yes and no; it is a bit complicated,” he told her, sitting near the door. “There are different schools of thought concerning her Grace Luna. For instance, there are those who believe that she is the flesh-and-blood embodiment of the moon itself as those who believe Celestia is that of the sun, Mi Amore Cadenza of Love, and you of… well those of that school of thought are not sure yet as they have seen so little of you.” He paused for a moment, tilting his head to the side.

“Others believe that she is the same Luna from a thousand years ago, while a divergent group say that she is the original Luna having been reborn in a new body from her Grace Nightmare Moon, and the latest in the cycle of their incarnations. There are also a number who believe that there was once a Luna but she fell during the battle between the Sun and Moon a thousand years ago and this is simply a puppet that her Grace Celestia has installed for her own reasons.” Twilight cringed at that one, and he couldn’t fault her.

“There are also those who reject that her Grace Luna was ever an alicorn as we hold more reverence for the moon than the ponies of Equestria did.” He paused again, reviewing his thoughts for other main religious views on her Grace Luna.

“Yet another group believes alicorns are merely those who were blessed by the original spirits of the sun, moon and love to be those spirits’ representatives in the world, granting them the traits they now bear and making them immortal. And these are the just the major religious views that I can recall for the Packlands alone, not taking into account the unique views held across the world. All in all, I cannot say which is right or wrong; just that many believe their own ways and tend to agree to disagree on the matter.”

Twilight looked contemplative as she considered his words. “That is… an interesting way of looking at it,” she said slowly. “How do you think they would react if they heard what I know about Luna’s past?”

“That depends on what you would have to say,” Swift-Pad replied. “Though I expect that many would not appreciate hearing anything negative against Her, and that is the only sure reaction I can predict as I mentioned before, we wolves hold the night in very high regard.”

“And…” Twilight flashed him a look of concern. “And would it be wrong of me to ask of your beliefs of Luna?”

“Yes,” he replied.

Twilight nodded. “In which case… I’ll start by saying that Luna is one of my friends, and I have a great deal of respect for her.”

“As should all; regardless of her origin, she is akin to her Grace Celestia at the very least and should be treated with the same minimum respect that her Grace Celestia receives.” Swift-Pad then gave her a lopsided smile. “Also, in the future, I would like you to keep in mind that talking of religion, along with politics and species in polite conversation, are divided topics that can easily degrade into heated and ugly arguments, and one must be very careful when discussing them.”

Twilight nodded. “I’m very much aware of the politics aspect of it. I saw more than a few debates on the matter turn ugly when I was allowed to attend certain meetings alongside Princess Celestia when I was still her student in Canterlot. Of course, at least some of those had as much to do with a clash of egos between participants as it did over their differences in political opinions.”

“That is a common problem around the world, but it does get easier with experience,” Swift-Pad agreed, pleased to see that she wasn’t completely new to all of this.

Twilight smiled. “Princess Celestia has said as much,” she said. “And since she’s had over a thousand years of experience with it, I can understand why she has as much patience with such things as she does now.” She paused for a moment. “But going back to Luna… I’ve actually read the journal she and Princess Celestia kept back then, with their permission. I’ve witnessed some of the past through the aid of a potion that my friend Zecora gave me. And I was there when Nightmare Moon escaped from her prison, and when Luna was freed soon after. And some of my friends and I were there for her to help her adjust to how things had changed so much in the thousand years that she was away.”

Swift-Pad looked at her curiously. “That is interesting to hear,” he said. “You are certainly entitled to believe she is the Luna from the past, of course.”

Twilight shook her head. “I know she’s the Luna from the past,” she said. “The same Luna who ruled alongside Princess Celestia even before they got their Cutie Marks, who helped defeat Discord and King Sombra, and who later fell under the sway of evil and was changed into Nightmare Moon… and then turned back when my friends and I used the Elements of Harmony to purify her and rid her of the dark magic that had held her under its sway for so long. We saw her turn back into her original self, and how Princess Celestia forgave her for everything.” She swallowed. “There has always been just one Princess Luna,” she said. “And I will never forget how happy Princess Celestia was to finally have her sister back after a thousand years.”

“And once again, you are entitled to believe that her Grace Celestia did not manipulate anything to help ensure that the individual you met seemed to be her Grand Grace of old,” Swift-Pad said a bit more firmly with Twilight pursing her lips together before she tipped her head slightly downwards.

“I suppose we will need to agree to disagree on this matter until we meet with her tomorrow?” Twilight finally said with Swift-Pad smiling at her choice of words.

“Indeed,” Swift-Pad said as he placed a paw on the handle, opening the door. “Shall we rejoin your friend and this facilities’ treatment?”

“That sounds good,” Twilight smiled as the two left the office, with Swift-Pad’s eyes widening as he noticed Rarity near his runes, holding up a few as she was seemingly studying them. The attendant near her coughed loudly, with Rarity dropping the rune as a blush ran across her face.

“I am terribly sorry for prying, but with my own work with gems and minerals, especially for decoration on the outfits I create, I couldn’t resist taking a look to see what kind you used to make your runes,” she admitted. “I would have asked you personally, but I am afraid my own impatience got the better of me.”

“I accept your apology,” he said, flicking an ear as he sat down, examining his runes with a quick glance while the attendant went back to work on his coat. “You work with gems and minerals on a regular basis?”

Rarity nodded as he applied the string of runes that helped his eyesight, the pain around his eyes easing away. “My magic led me to a large supply of gemstones when I was but a filly and I used them to decorate some costumes I was working on, earning my Cutie Mark for it. I’ve been fascinated by them and their different properties ever since, and I use them in my work all the time - the same spell I unconsciously used back then helps me to find more when my supplies run low.”

“In the Packlands’ mines, that would be an invaluable asset to have,” he told her. “It takes a great deal to find these special materials for our runes and anything to ease the burden would help greatly.”

Rarity beamed. “I know of a few special kinds myself; I am not sure if we can make it across our two different fields of magic, but I am sure Twilight would be willing to aid you. Especially as you have been so much more polite and understanding about things; I once met a group of miners who were utterly rude, demanding my help without so much as a ‘please’ and making some rather unpleasant threats if I did not aid them. But, as I said, you are nothing like them.”

“Thank you for those kind words,” he flicked his eyes at Twilight who seemed to be thinking of how to achieve such a feat and weighed an idea in his head. “And…” he looked up at the attendant. “I do not mean to be a bother but I need to get my packs.” Standing upright, he walked over to where his packs were being stored and retrieved the gift prepared for Twilight. Walking back over to his host, he placed the gift down in front her. “I was supposed to give you this later on but I see no issue in doing so right now.”

Twilight took a look at the book in front of her and placed a hoof on it. “There is no title…”

“To the untrained eye, perhaps,” Swift-Pad replied. “If you look carefully, you will find it written in my language. Besides that, our rune instructors tend to trust us to understand that this book is meant to teach young rune wolves how to craft runes and use our magic, not to look impressive or waste ink on needless flourishes. You will not find another book like it in Equestria as we had kept it restricted from leaving our lands. We trust that you will keep its secrets safe.”

“Of course,” Twilight nodded. “I will keep this book safe and ensure that no other copies are made from it. I thank you for such a precious gift and...” Her eyes went wide and what was described as her panic face began to appear. “I don’t have anything for you, I-”

“Need not worry about as it has been taken care of by those in Canterlot,” he said, causing her to take a few deep breaths as she calmed down.

“Right…” She took another deep breath and looked at him. “I’m glad to know Princess Celestia thought about such things ahead of time. Though I still wish she’d told me about it, and your arrival, before just this morning.”

“As do we all but we do not always get the chance to properly prepare, so it is good to get practice in these easily controlled situations.” Swift-Pad said.

Twilight shook her head, with a smile on her face. “That is almost exactly what Celestia told me this morning.”

“It makes sense; she did establish most of the foundation of diplomatic interactions after all,” Swift-Pad said. “It also makes sense that her Grace would act as she did; she is well known for her love of teaching, and I believe that even if you are now an alicorn, she still remembers your time as her student with great fondness and is desiring to teach you more, albeit in more subtle ways now.”

Twilight looked thoughtful for a moment. “I can certainly believe that,” she said. “She’s always seemed happiest when she was helping a student, no matter where she was.”

Swift-Pad gave her a curious look; he could sense she was holding back some detail there, but he chose not to ask just yet. Perhaps she would offer the information in time. Looking to one side, he could tell Rarity also seemed somewhat confused by her friend’s remark, but like him, she was choosing not to ask about it then. For now, all he could do was sit back and experience this spa treatment.

Chapter Seven

Twilight was examining the runestones that Swift-Pad had left on the towel, noticing he was no longer squinting when he placed the ones back around his head which meant that at least some of them were either for amplifying or healing his vision which was an interesting footnote. Some of the runestones were incredibly small and each of them had an etching on them that appeared to be uniform to another of the same design.

“I was admiring how precise and intricate the details on your runestones are,” Rarity commented. “They really look quite striking on you. You must present quite a dashing figure to the ladies back home.”

“Er, yes,” he said, shifting a bit. “One has to be precise in their runecrafting for them to work.”

“Does the size of the rune or the runestone matter?” Twilight asked, longing to pick one up for research but everything was telling her it would not go over well.

“Yes and no,” Swift-Pad said as the attendants began to usher them to the massage room with Twilight lifting the sheet holding his runes to carry the precious stones with them. “The larger the rune you make, the more magic you must invest into it. Of course, you will get a much larger effect from the large rune than the small one but then the logistics of having such a large rune come into effect. You will need to,” he paused as he hopped onto the massage table, with Twilight placing the sheet of runestones onto the nearby countertop as she and Rarity joined him on the adjacent tables. “You will need to carry a large runestone and spend a lot of time investing magic properly into the rune on it, but it is very obvious opposed to the smaller one that you can hide in your fur, and just not practical. It is mostly done for practice or special cases, such as my packs that have special runes that allow extra space.” He shifted on the table, slowly spreading himself out the full length with his ears flickering.

“Small runestones, on the other paw, requires a lot of focus and practice to get the rune correct. Even the smallest mistake can make the runestone worthless. One jolt of the paw, one small spasm, one moment of distraction can ruin weeks if not months of work. However, with smaller runestones, there is less magi-” he paused as Quake walked into the room, with his body tensing up before he relaxed himself. “That needs to be stored so you can have more runestones on you. And that is just one type of runestone; with the proper knowledge you can chain a set of runes into something more powerful or helpful. For example, the runestones I wear on my paws allow greater dexterity that enables me to work on my runes with greater precision.”

“Like how the ones you wear on your head help with your eyesight?” Twilight asked with Swift-Pad wincing and rubbing his paws together.

“You noticed that, did you not?” he said, ears to the side of his head. Both Twilight and Rarity nodded their heads with the wolf letting out a sigh. “Yes, my eyesight is not the best, and I must use special runes to correct it,” he admitted with a soft whine. “My name could easily have been Trouble-Vision if not for my elders noticing my quick and steady movement that was brought on by me needing to be careful because of my poor eyesight.”

“Is there anything else you can do for your eyes?” Twilight asked.

“Beyond wearing permanent glasses, no,” he said with an echo to his voice as Quake began his massage on Swift-Pad’s back. “And I am not too keen on wearing them, to be honest.”

“Any reason for that decision?” Rarity asked.

“For the most part, it has to do with convenience,” Swift-Pad explained with his ears flickering around in delight. “It is very hard to keep them on my head when I’m running. Wolves tend to have a very active lifestyle, and I am no exception despite my duties.”

“That makes sense,” Twilight said as Lotus began to rub her back while her twin sister did the same for Rarity. “It would be very impractical to have them when you are running around, even those that you can wear with a chain.”

“Exactly,” Swift-Pad said. “And the runes I use for my eyes take very little magic to maintain so I don’t need to own a pair of glasses beyond the one I use when crafting my runes.”

“Still, wouldn’t it be good to have a pair in case you didn’t have your runes?” Twilight asked him.

“Yes, I suppose I should do so, but the timing has never reallybeen in my favor, with me needing to be other places and finding a specialist and-”

“You’ve never made an appointment for it, have you?” Rarity asked with a raised eyebrow, as Aloe’s hooves moved to her sides.

“No… not so much,” Swift-Pad admitted reluctantly while murring under the care of Quake. “I’m not exactly pleased in how I look with glasses and have been putting it off for a very long time. I suppose… I really should have an appointment one of these days, but I just haven’t been able to encourage myself to do so.”

“You should still go to one; I believe that we have one in Ponyville that wouldn’t mind a walk-in,” Twilight said, with the wolf seemingly flinching at her words but he smiled at her.

”I thank you for such a suggestion,” he said, still hesitant and it dawned on Twilight that Swift-Pad wasn’t that much older than them and he was being vain about his appearance, acting like a colt that didn’t want to wear glasses because it made him look bad. Seeing him act this way helped her see past the whole dignified nature that the wolf presented and Twilight had to stop herself from laughing at the sheer ridiculousness of it all.

“That’s marvelous,” Rarity said with a smile on her face, clearly enjoying her massage. “Why don’t you show Swift-Pad the way after we’re done here, Twilight? That’s if you do not mind, Swift-Pad, of course.”

Swift-Pad’s ears flicked and Twilight saw that he was trapped in this decision.

“That is a wonderful idea,” he said with hint of a whine in his voice. “And perhaps you can show me more of the town while we go there.”

Twilight smiled. “I’d be honored,” she said.

“Then - ah! - it is settled.” Swift-Pad leaned his head forward as Quake continued to work on him, and Twilight silently promised herself that she’d make sure this went well, even if he was reluctant.

Some time later, the two were in the waiting room at the optometrist's office, Rarity having excused herself to return to her shop, and Swift-Pad couldn’t help fidgeting a little on his chair.

Nearby, Twilight was studying one of the pamphlets available to read, and shuddered. “I’m glad I’ve never had this kind of problem,” she muttered to herself.

“Oh?” Swift-Pad glanced over. “What kind of problem, may I ask?”

“Well, any vision-based ones, really,” Twilight said with a sigh. “Of course, even if I had, my ascension would have fixed them…” Her ear flicked. “Makes me wish doing that was a lot easier for some ponies.”

“Your friends, I presume?” Swift-Pad asked.

“Well, them and some others… I can’t help but wonder what Equestria would be like today if Starswirl the Bearded had become an alicorn, it would be so amazing if he was still around so I could actually meet him!” Twilight’s eyes sparkled, before she sighed. “Of course, some would take better to it than others…”

“That is true,” Swift-Pad noted. “And some would undoubtedly use such a change to feed their own ego and sense of superiority.”

“I know,” Twilight agreed. “But still… I can’t help but picture what it would be like if somepony like Granny Smith were still around centuries from now, able to tell ponies and non-ponies what it was like here when Ponyville was first being settled…”

“She is certainly a wise one,” Swift-Pad said. “I can understand why you would want somepony with her years of experience and expertise to stay on this plane where they can help others.”

Twilight nodded and was about to say something more, when the door opened. “Next!”

“That will be me, I suppose.” Swift-Pad rose from his seat, and headed into the back, leaving Twilight by herself. She continued to flip through the pamphlets while keeping an ear out for if anything went wrong. After about an hour and a half had passed, the door opened again and Swift-Pad emerged, somewhat frazzled but with a pair of glasses perched on his snout.

“Remind me again why I agreed to this?” he asked Twilight grumpily, his dignified manner all but gone. Despite it, Twilight felt that they were actually bonding better as friends now. “And why I was not warned ahead of time that they would be putting liquid in my eyes in the course of examining them?”

Twilight shuddered. “If I’d known about that, I definitely would have told you,” she said before smiling up at him. “How are your eyes?”

“Well, I still have two of them. And I’m pretty sure that they’re my own…” he grumbled before giving her what she could now tell was one of his practice smiles that were strikingly similar to Celestia’s smiles. “But I can see properly now and it doesn’t hurt to have those runes off. And it is nice to have a bit of my magic sources cleared up,” he said with his ear flicking, although it was low and his tail was drooping. With a sigh, he said “I should have done this a very long time ago and I thank you for encouraging me to do so now.”

Twilight bowed. “You’re very welcome, Swift-Pad. It is the least I could do for a friend.”

He gave her what she thought was a real smile now and said, ”I am honoured to be counted among them, your Grace.”

“Please,” Twilight smiled at him. “I respect your view of alicorns, but as my friend, you really don’t need to call me by any sort of title.”

“Very well, Lady Sparkle; is that better?”

She was about to tell him no when she noticed the grin on his face and how less clipped his voice was and she suddenly knew that he was joking with her.

“Only if I can call you Mister Swift-Pad?” she asked, causing him to chuckle.

“I suppose that is a fair trade, Lady Sparkle,” Swift-Pad said, dipping his head towards her. “Shall we continue outside so you can show me more of your fair town?”

“That sounds fine to me,” Twilight said as she opened the door for them and stepped outside.

Chapter Eight

As the two of them walked out of the optometrist's office, Twilight began to point out more of the town to the wolf beside her while he did his best to adapt to wearing his new glasses.

Twilight felt herself becoming more at ease at his presence and mannerisms when all of a sudden she heard a soft gasp from up ahead. Turning her head down the street, she saw Fluttershy staring at them, her eyes wide and clearly fixed on Swift-Pad.

Twilight was worried that her easily frightened friend would be scared, when a moment later there was a sudden blur and she found herself flipping head-over-tail as Fluttershy rushed past her.

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh,” she exclaimed repeatedly. “You’re so… fluffy!”

Swift-Pad gave her a bemused look. “So I am,” he noted. “And you would be…”

“Oh, I’m Fluttershy,” she introduced herself. “It’s so nice to meet you, Mr. Wolf.”

Swift-Pad gave her another of his practiced looks. “It is nice to meet you too, Miss Fluttershy.” He bowed. “I am Swift-Pad of the High-Leap Pack, ambassador of the Packlands, here to discuss trade ratification with Their Graces.”

“O-oh!” Fluttershy bowed back. “It is an honor to meet you, Ambassador Swift-Pad. And my apologies for my earlier behavior, I hadn’t realized you were from the civilized packs when I first saw you.”

“All is forgiven, Miss Fluttershy.” Swift-Pad told her. “Those of my pack and our other non-wild kinfolk are considerably less common in these lands than our non-civilized cousins, so I can understand the error. It is hardly the first time such a mistake has been made today, even.”

Fluttershy gave him a smile back and then did something odd. She began to make growling sounds which caused Swift-Pad to pull back in open surprise before he started to make similar sounds towards her.

Further back, Twilight blinked as she got to her hooves, but made no move towards the pair. She could tell that Fluttershy knew what she was doing, and while she was curious as to what they were saying, she had no intention of interrupting them and inadvertently causing offense again.

Finally, the two had finished speaking, and Swift-Pad bowed to Fluttershy with the wolf walking back to her and Fluttershy confidently walking away. Twilight turned her head and said, “I didn't know Fluttershy knew your language.”

“I was just as surprised,” Swift-Pad admitted with an easy-going smile on his face. “I have only encountered a pawfull of ponies who could do so in my time. However, it would seem your friend is one of those few who was aware of my people’s ways of life. Impressively so, I might add.”

“You learn something everyday,” Twilight said with a smile of her own.

“And a day when you learn something new is a day well used,” Swift-Pad added in, his tail wagging quickly. He then turned his head to the side and gestured with his paw. “Care to lead on? I still would like to see this town, Lady Sparkle.”

“Right, “ Twilight said, pointing off to the side. “There’s the Quills and Sofas shop, run by Davenport...”

It was much later in the day when the two of them finally arrived at the Golden Oak Library, with Twilight feeling she had a much better understanding of what was expected of her in the future. Swift-Pad had proven a skillful teacher so far; he had been showing her how important body language was as well as how impactful a few words could be when used right, especially as some of the ponies in the town had seemed nervous at his presence at first. But the wolf had kept his entire appearance looking completely harmless and offering praise and compliments to ease their worries. He had also kept silent a few times and stood behind Twilight, subtly nudging her to speak in his place and after a few false starts, she had put his examples on saying the right things to good use, and when Swift-Pad’s reflection was visible on the nearby windows during these moments, she had seen him nod his head in approval.

It was also very reassuring to know that she could actually do this whole princess aspect, even if it was on a much smaller scale than what Princess Celestia did, which made Twilight slightly less worried about the future.

Pausing before the door, Twilight lit her horn and pulled it open, calling inside. “Spike, would you like to come and visit our guest, Swift-Pad of the Packlands?”

There was barely any pause before Spike hurried into the room, a smile on his face. “Hi Twilight, hi mister Swift-Pad - wow, you really are a wolf. Cool!”

Swift-Pad chuckled, leaning low to look Spike in the eye and said, “I see that you are a dragon of excellent taste, young one.”

Twilight couldn’t help herself from snorting and rolling her eyes, amused at this little self-prompting but she could tell it was part of who Swift-Pad really was, not just the public persona he normally put on.

Spike grinned at the praise before stepping back from the door, with an arm outstretched to let Swift-Pad walk in. “Welcome to the Golden Oak Library, mister Swift-Pad; supper is almost ready.”

“Thank you, little one,” Swift-Pad said, tipping his head again before turning to face Twilight who quickly caught on and directed Swift-Pad to his guest room while showing him around the library, with Swift-Pad asking a few questions and looking at a few titles with some interest. A little while later, once he had placed his bags into the guest room, he rejoined her in the main room, this time carrying a small satchel with him and clearing a space in the middle of the floor.

Twilight frowned, wondering what he was doing until she saw that the bundle held some specialized looking tools. Swift-Pad flashed her a lopsided grin and told her, “I felt that you would like to have some experience with runecrafting with somewolf that has been trained before I am gone.”

Twilight jostled in surprise before she smiled and said, “That would be wonderful; thank you, Swift-Pad.” Twilight reached into her pack for the book he had given her this afternoon and opened it to the front page.

“Now,” Swift-Pad told her as he brought out a small batch of stones. “The first thing to remember is that runecrafting is both an art and a discipline akin to meditation, and needs a balance of concentration and thought to achieve the results. I have seen others who rushed themselves in their carving while channeling the magic, and the results were… at best, nothing happened. At worst, they were explosive, to say the least.”

Twilight nodded. “Unicorn magic is similar; if you don’t know what kind of spell you’re aiming for, either you’ll get nothing, or you’ll wind up with an uncontrolled magical surge that could result in almost anything happening. And some are worse than others.” Her ears flattened a bit. “I had one when I was a little filly and was so badly startled that I couldn’t control my magic. Luckily, Princess Celestia was nearby and saw the flare, and was able to reverse all the effects afterward… I’m just glad nopony was hurt by it.”

“It sounds to me like that was a case of something beyond your control triggering an accident rather than the result of recklessness,” Swift-Pad replied. “As such, it was not truly your fault, and so is not to be condemned.”

“That is very kind of you to say, but that sudden loss of control still scared me, especially what happened to my parents during the surge…” Twilight sighed. “For a long time after that day, I had nightmares about what might’ve happened if it hadn’t been reversible, or if somepony else had been hurt for real because of me. I spent so much time learning more focus and control after that to keep my power in check to make sure those nightmares would never become reality...”

Swift-Pad laid a paw on her shoulder. “This still bothers you to this day, doesn’t it,” he said with concern in his voice.

Twilight nodded.

Swift-Pad smiled at her. “It is good that you understand the consequences of losing control, but you need to remember, you cannot let fear rule your life. If you do, you will not think clearly. But this does not mean you should not be wise and cautious.” He looked distant for a moment, then turned back to her. “A teacher of mine once had similar advice. He told me that he tried to always act out of love, not of fear. And that it was a good piece of advice, because every time he forgot it, he managed to get himself into trouble.” He managed to look amused, though still serious at the same time.

Twilight gave a light giggle, then smiled at him. “Thank you, Swift-Pad. I needed that.”

“It was my pleasure,” he said, giving her a short bow. “Now as to the first lesson,” he said as he lifted up a blank stone. “You remember the rune I told you about before?”

“The one that allows you to control lightning?” Twilight asked.

“Yes,” he said as he leaned over, flipped a few pages and tapped a drawing on her book that looked like a spiral with two lines jolting out of the end of the tail. “This is the symbol you will be drawing, that will cause you to be able to control lightning,” he then pulled out a blank piece of paper and drew the image in a matter of seconds. “You will want to be careful, and not to add anything else,” he said as he added in a small third line. “Or…”

“I will shock myself and cause a loud alarm?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow, and could already tell how young wolves would make that mistake as it was very minor.

“Exactly,” he said as he turned back to the first page and showed her an image of a straight line that had a semicircle at the top. “This will cause a small light to appear. And this is what we normally start with.”

“I can see why; there is very little complexity to it,” Twilight said, looking at the image and memorizing it. She then turned her head to see Swift-Pad hold his tools in his paw and begin to carve into the stone with practiced ease, his body glowing a light green before the magic flowed into the stone.

He then turned to face Twilight and placed the tool in her hoof and a stone in her other hoof. “Your turn,” he told her and leaned back.

“But how am I to infuse it with magic?” she asked him

“Concentrate on the stone, gather your magic from within and push it into the stone while you are carving it,” he told her in a soothing tone.

‘What if I make a mistake?”

“Then you make a mistake,” he said with a grin sliding onto his face.

Twilight frowned at him but did as he’d said, holding the stone in her hoof and the tool in the other one. She was aware she could use her magic to make it easier but it simply didn’t feel right to do so.

Holding the stone as steady as she could, she started to replicate the simple rune as best she could although she wasn't sure that she was getting the scale correct. She also had to focus on channelling just enough of her magic into the stone without going too deep, a task that was proving trickier as the stone seemed to be drinking in her power faster than what she was prepared for.

Closing off the strand of magic, she looked at the stone in her hoof, comparing it to the one in Swift-Pad's paw. She opened her mouth to ask how she would activate when he simply said, “Concentrate on it and if you got the rune correct, it will work.” Holding up the stone in his paw, it gave off a faint green glow before a clear light appeared over Swift-Pad’s head.

Twilight turned back to her own stone and focused on it, feeling the power she had placed inside it. She saw her stone glow purple for a moment before a jolt of electricity ran through her coat. Jumping in surprise, she turned at the laughter coming from Swift-Pad’s mouth.

“If you were a student of a runemaster, you would have been given your own book and set of lines to copy over and over again,” he told her as he leaned in closer and tapped the stone in her hoof. “You did not complete the curve here; you see?” Twilight frowned, leaning in, but she could not see what he was talking about. Swift-Pad then reached to the side and pulled out his other pair of glasses. “Here, put these on.”

Twilight did as he instructed, the lenses automatically fixing themselves to fit her eye prescription, and stared at the stone. Swift-Pad then tapped a few of the extra lenses down over the front of the glasses. Blinking as her eyes readjusted, Twilight could see a fragment of unchipped stone, a hairbreadth’s distance from the two points.

“That’s it?” she asked in surprise. “That little bit?”

“The smallest act can set off a chain reaction that topples an entire mountain,” Swift-Pad replied. “Or in this case, the slightest error can result in failure. But sometimes, you learn more from failure than from success. And in this case, you have learned to be more careful with your work.”

Twilight nodded. “I understand,” she said carefully. “And… I guess it’s a good thing you told me this now and not when I was still a unicorn, because I probably would have reacted so poorly that it would have ruined relations between our lands for decades.”

Swift-Pad looked at her curiously. “What do you mean?”

“Back when the Crystal Empire first returned, I… I had to help save it,” she said. “Part of it involved getting through one of King Sombra’s traps. He’d made it so anyone who went through a certain door had to face up to their worst fear. I overcame mine… I was afraid of failure, and of disappointing Princess Celestia. And even before that, there was an incident where I thought I was failing her and wound up panicking so badly over what would happen that it… well, it didn’t go well. But with the help of my friends, and of Spike, I made it past both incidents. And I realized that I didn’t have to be afraid of failing.” She quirked her head. “Or at least, to not let that fear control me.”

“Then you have gained much wisdom,” Swift-Pad told her. “It sounds to me like you have already learned from that first perceived failure, and from facing your fear of it later on.”

Twilight smiled at him gratefully.

Then she handed the carving tool back to him, wincing. “Ow…”

“Splinter in your frog?” Swift-Pad asked.

“Yes, actually,” Twilight told him, turning her hoof up to study it carefully, and then lit up her horn to grasp the splinter and pull it out, setting it aside on the table.

Swift-Pad nodded as she did this. “I have that problem too occasionally, with my paws,” he told her, wiggling his paw. “Most of us do it if we aren’t careful.”

Twilight pressed her hoof against the floor, and was relieved when she felt no pain this time. “I can understand,” she said. “Splinters in the undersides of our hooves aren’t something that happens that often with us, but it’s known enough that I’ve learned how to handle it if it does.”

She then stared at his paw, and her eyes lit up. With an excited look on her face, Twilight drew herself together with her horn glowing. She seemed about to cast a spell when she caught herself. “Excuse me a moment, Swift-Pad, I will be right back.” With that Twilight had teleported away, leaving Swift-Pad and Spike staring at each other in confusion.

Spike let out a sigh, shaking his head. “I don’t know what she’s doing and I’ve learned not to ask anymore.”

“That seems… prudent, considering what we have heard about Ponyville.” Swift-Pad gazed down at the young dragon, and looked like he was about to say something more, when there was suddenly a loud pop and Twilight was back in the room.

“So-Pardon me for that,” Twilight said, a hoof scraping against the floor. “I needed to take care of something.” She flashed Spike a smile. “How soon is it until supper is ready?”

“It’s ready now Twilight,” Spike said, waving them to the kitchen, “I made a mixed salad with fish.”

Twilight blinked in surprise that Spike had made fish, but she kept her mouth shut as Swift-Pad seemed to believe that this was planned as he said, “That sounds wonderful and if you will excuse me for a minute or two, I will be joining you back down here as soon as possible.” Swift-Pad eye’s had darted to the window, the night sky already beginning to show.

“Why, where are you going?” Twilight asked.

“As to what we were talking about before, this is something important to my faith,” he said as he began to climb her stairs. “If you wish, you may join me.”

Twilight did not need more than that to follow him up to her balcony wthi Swift-Pad leaping through her tree's branches to the very summit of her library. When she reached the spot, she saw Swift-Pad standing still for a moment, staring at the moon before he threw his head back in a howl.

It was a loud, powerful noise that startled her, by how much depth he put into it, the sense of longing he put into it. He then threw his head back again for another howl and Twilight thought she could hear an echo, or a reply, to it. Then, as Swift-Pad dug his claws into the tree branch and let out an even louder and more resounding howl, Twilight felt a bit odd, as if she was suddenly trespassing into something private and she should look away.

WIth a thud, Swift-Pad landed down next to her with a soft smile on her face and tilted his head down at her. “Thank you,” he said honestly.

“It is no problem, Swift-Pad,” she told him. She waited a few seconds before she asked the obvious. “What did those mean or is that one of those improper questions?”

“Those howls are our way to pay respect to the moon,” Swift-Pad replied. “The first is to welcome the moon as it rises into the night sky, while the second is to call out to our packs and those not of our packs to share the new night, and the last one is to share our love and devotion to her Grand Grace, Luna.”

Twilight licked her lips, uncertain in how she should respond to that but the answer came to her just as quickly. She had asked a question and she had got an answer; that was the best she could do. “Thank you for sharing this with me, Swift-Pad.”

“It was my pleasure, Twilight,” Swift-Pad said. “Shall we go eat?”

Twilight nodded, and the two headed down.

Chapter Nine

Twilight let Swift-Pad lead the way down the stairs, and as the wolf padded ahead of her, she hoped what she had asked for would arrive soon - she had never given Rarity any real room to worry about something important like this before.

They both moved into the private dining room where Spike had used the fine china she wasn’t even aware she owned to serve dinner, with the fish salad smelling wonderful. If Spike was a pony, Twilight was sure he would have got his cutie mark in cooking if not for the multiple other things that he did so flawlessly.

“Thank you, young one,” Swift-Pad said before she could, the dragon beaming with pride. “Supper smells wonderful.”

“It’s nothing really,” Spike said although he beamed with pride at the words.

“Spike, remind me to set you up for some lessons in the future because as good as you already are, I cannot begin to imagine how much better you will be once you have more proper teaching,” Twilight said with complete honesty to her number one assistant.

“Twilight,” Spike blushed at her words, looking off to the side. “Come on, let’s eat, okay?”

“Yes, let us,” Swift-Pad said as he picked up the fork next to his plate with some difficulty that Twilight caught almost immediately. He was clearly well used to it but it wasn’t his normal manner of eating and Twilight was briefly wondering how he normally ate before she realized he was giving her a look that told her she hadn’t started eating yet and had been staring at him. “Is everything okay?” he asked her, with a look of concern on his face.

“Yes, just… a little lost in thought there for a moment,” Twilight said with a blush. “I do that from time to time.”

“Understandable from one as educated and intellectually curious as you,” Swift-Pad said with a casual nod of his head that still made Twilight smile. He then gave a nod to Spike as he continued to eat his meal. Twilight mimicked what he did and she had to admit, Spike had really outdone himself tonight.

They fell into a quiet dinner, making small talk with each other as Twilight kept an eye on the door, wondering when she would get here as she knew she was highly skilled-

Knock knock

Smiling to herself as she rose from the table, she quickly went to the front door to see exactly who she was waiting for.

Thanking her friend, she took the box back into the dining room where Swift-Pad’s look of confusion quickly changed into honest surprise. “Oh Twilight, I cannot-”

“I insist,” she said placing the gift in front of him. “After what you gave me, it is the right thing to do.” He was about to protest again when she pressed onwards. “As my new friend, please take this.”

That seemed to do the trick; the wolf accepted the package from her, elegantly wrapped of course, and gave it an appraising look. He began to unwrap it with care and let out a soft gasp as he saw what was inside.

“This is… this is too much,” he said with awe and even more surprise in his voice. He lifted the gloves out of the box and ran his paw over the velvet fabric, lined with small strands of silver that seemed to be like the night sky. It was a more than appropriate guess that it was the intent due to the single gem infused in the center of each glove; a gem that seemingly reflected the face of the moon outside. “I do not know what to say, Twilight.” His voice caught as he was genuinely taken back by the thought behind this gift.

“You don’t need to say anything,” Twilight told him with a smile. “I knew that you had some issues using your tools and Rarity and I took a guess that you would value the moon greatly, so that was the idea I suggested to her. The fact you like it so much is enough.”

“I will honour this gift always,” he told her solemnly, placing them on his paws and letting out a low mur of contentedness at how well they felt. “And I will definitely thank Rarity for making it. I am certain that other rune wolves such will be eager to commision her for such gloves once they see them.”

Twilight knew that Rarity would be overjoyed to hear his thanks, but even more so that he would be spreading word of her abilities to his fellow wolves.

“Perhaps you could thank her tomorrow morning before we leave for Canterlot?” she offered to Swift-Pad. “I’m not sure of the exact schedule, but we should have enough time to drop by for at least a few minutes.”

“There should be more than enough time for it,” Swift-Pad said with determination. “The train will not go until I am aboard.”

Twilight blinked in surprise but said nothing to it, filing away the information. Instead she tilted her head back to the table so they could sit down and continue their supper. They had a busy morning tomorrow after all, and they would need to get to sleep as soon as possible.

Some time later though, Twilight found herself lost in thought as she lay in her bed. Despite knowing they had an early morning, Swift-Pad had accepted a light dessert of tea and simple cookies that Spike had prepared in advance, and Twilight had found herself practicing creating the light rune on sheets of paper for half an hour afterward before Swift-Pad indicated she could try and use a stone again.

Twilight had taken the tools in her hooves and begun to try and recreate the rune on the stones the wolf had provided her. Despite her practices with the paper, however, she’d found herself being jolted every single time. Swift-Pad had given her a few pointers how to better hold the tools and informed her it was fine for her to use her magic, both for holding them and to power his specialized glasses to inspect the stone if the rune was complete or not.

Finally, after nearly twenty minutes of work, she had managed to create a rune that didn’t shock her and instead emitted a purple light that was a match to her own magic.

Swift-Pad had praised her for doing it and told her her next task as practitioner of rune magic would be replicating the rune until she managed to do so without too many failed attempts. It would have to wait until tomorrow though as it was getting late and they all needed to get their rest.

At that, they had all departed for their rooms for the night, with Twilight taking her working runestone with her. Even now, she could feel the magic stored within it and she found it was a simple enough mental outwards reach to activate and deactivate it, as like any other low level spell. As she drifted off, she smiled at this new school of magic that she had just started on.

Twilight shook her head as she reached for the alarm clock that was going off, struggling to wake herself up. She could hear Spike’s grumbling as he waddled across the room, heading downstairs to make breakfast for them. When she’d caught up with him, she found Swift-Pad at the bottom of the stairs, letting out a wide yawn before making his way into the kitchen.

“Hold up, hold up, I’ll make the coffee,” Spike grumbled as he hurried after the wolf, who backed out of his way with a bemused look on his face.

“Brave dragon to chase out a wolf before he has had a chance to eat,” Swift-Pad muttered as he licked his lips and shook himself fully awake.

“Spike’s pretty brave when he wants to be,” Twilight said with a yawn of her own. “I’ve seen him stand up to a pack of teenaged dragons who were… well, unpleasant enough that I really, really hope they weren’t representative of what most dragons are like.”

“As with all youths, they are headstrong and poor thinkers,” Swift-Pad shook his head as he blinked. “Full of the belief that nothing can harm them and they can do anything. One would hope that they learn better with age and experience.”

Twilight nodded. “I certainly hope so, given what they wanted Spike to do to ‘prove himself a real dragon’.” Her face turned sour at the memory.

“Might I ask?” Swift-Pad said cautiously.

“They were trying to get him to smash a defenseless phoenix egg.”

The wolf diplomat’s hackles immediately stood on end. “They did… what?” he growled. “That is one of the most abhorrent things I have ever heard in my life!”

Twilight nodded. “Spike refused to do it though, and afterward we took the egg back home for safekeeping since its parents had run off. He and I eventually found a new phoenix family to raise the little guy after he hatched though.”

“Then all ended well,” Swift-Pad said as he calmed himself. “Still, that they would have asked him to do such a thing in the first place… had Dragon Lord Torch discovered them acting in that manner, he would have punished them severely.”

“Dragon Lord?” Twilight asked.

Swift-Pad nodded. “The wolf packs don’t often deal with the dragons, but we have met with their leadership on occasion. The Dragon Lord is the ruler, and he is a reasonable if not traditionalist leader.” He then tilted his head to one side. “Do you happen to remember their names?”

“The main one was Garble,” Twilight said. “There were some others, but it’s been a long time, during the last big dragon migration before my brother’s wedding. I don’t know if they ever said their names.”

“In any case, I will pass this along to my counterparts in the Dragon Lands; at the very least this Garble and his cronies will now face some punishment for trying to harm an endangered animal.”

Twilight smiled at that. “Good.”

“Coffee’s ready,” Spike broke in as he stuck his head out. “And I’ve got breakfast cooking.”

“Thank you, Spike,” Swift-Pad said as he and Twilight headed for the table and their much-needed caffeine.

“Have you, by chance, encountered other older dragons besides these teenage ones?” he asked, once he’d taken his first drink.

Twilight nodded. “Two of them. The first had started a hundred-year-nap in a mountain near Ponyville, and we had to get him to move along because his smoke was causing a great deal of trouble for all of Equestria. Fluttershy was the one who finally convinced him to go, after she… well, scolded him for his behavior. The other one was living in the Everfree, and I admit he had a genuine problem with us - Spike didn’t realize his hoard belonged to someone and was… well…”

“I had a little snack,” Spike broke in from where he was cooking. “I was lost, tired and hungry, and I didn’t know any better then. It was a mistake, I admit it.”

“That is something a lot of adults have great difficulty in doing, admitting your faults,” Swift-Pad said as he fixed his glasses.

“Yeah.” Spike focused on his cooking for a moment before he continued. “I’ve learned a lot since we came here. It’s been a trial-and-error thing, of course, and it didn’t help that not many ponies know a lot about dragons. Hay, I didn’t find out we grew from hoarding until it happened to me.”

Swift-Pad turned to him in surprise. “You have experienced Greed Growth?”

“Yeah, and I about lost my mind from it because I didn’t realize what it was doing to me,” Spike said with a grumble. “Good thing Rarity was able to bring me back to my senses.”

“It is indeed,” Swift-Pad said. “One thing my people have learned is that the greed-induced growth spurt you experienced is not the same as a dragon’s natural growth. While some do induce it willingly, they typically wait to do so after they have undergone their natural transition into a more mature state, and have better control of themselves.”

“Really?” Spike looked at him in surprise before turning back to the stove and taking up the food. “That’s a relief to know. What else can you tell me about dragon maturity?”

Swift-Pad accepted the plate from him before continuing. “In time, you will enter a biological state that dragons refer to as ‘the molt’, which will last a day or so and end in your undergoing a metamorphosis into a slightly larger form. During this metamorphosis, you will develop your wings, and your fire will increase in strength and intensity. However, you must also take care during this time, as the scent of a molting dragon attracts roc birds, and you will have little ability to defend yourself until the process is complete.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Spike said as he settled into his own seat. “Thank you, Swift-Pad.”

“You are welcome, young one,” Swift-Pad replied.

“...once that happens, you will be staying indoors,” Twilight said before taking another bite. “I’ve heard of rocs, and they’re very dangerous. And…” Her tone softened. “And I don’t want to lose you to one, or to any other predator.”

Spike blushed. “Ah, Twilight…”

“You’re more than my number one assistant, Spike,” Twilight said. “You’re a part of my family.”

Spike blushed again before turning back to his food, clearly uncertain as to how to reply. The silence began to stretch to slightly awkward levels when Swift-Pad coughed and brought their attention back to him. “In any case, Lady Twilight, I believe we should go over today’s agenda,” he said with his voice becoming firmer. “We will be attending to the school for roughly thirty minutes, and afterward leaving directly for Canterlot so that I may meet with her Graces Celestia and her Grand Grace Luna to conclude the ratification of our diplomatic trade arrangements.”

“Thank you for informing me,” Twilight replied. “I was unaware that you had plans to visit the Ponyville schoolhouse.”

Swift-Pad nodded. “I have met a few of the young ones already when I was at your friend Applejack’s home yesterday, and I believe they are quite looking forward to meeting me again.”

“You met Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, that was them,” Swift-Pad replied. “I am not surprised that you guessed, seeing as they are the sisters of two of your friends and Scootaloo is quite close to a third.”

Twilight nodded her head, though slightly disturbed in how well he knew about their family connections. “That’s correct,” she said with Swift-Pad giving her a knowing look. “Is there something wrong, Swift-Pad?” she asked him.

“You are curious to how I know all of this, are you not?” Swift-Pad said.

“I was, kind of,” Twilight admitted.

“In two cases, it was through simple observation,” Swift-Pad replied. “I met Apple Bloom when she was on her way home and we crossed paths, allowing her to lead me to your friend Applejack’s farm. They referred to one another as sisters in my presence. I also saw how your friend Rainbow Dash interacted with Scootaloo, and it was rather clear that the young one idolized her.”

Twilight smiled. “That she does,” she said. “Scootaloo’s been obsessed with Rainbow Dash for as long as I’ve known her.”

“And young Sweetie Belle… while I have not seen her interact with Rarity, the information was included in my folder on your friend. I was given enough information to avoid causing trouble on matters, including identifying some family members of the six of you.” He blinked slowly. “Though I will admit that they do not contain everything on those I was to meet. For instance, your folder informed me that you had a young dragon companion, but not of how the two of you came to be living and working together. Might I ask how this came to be?”

Twilight looked a little disturbed about the mention of information and folders, but shook it off. “How much do you know about the entry exam for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns?”

“Only that it involves written tests and demonstration of magical capability,” Swift-Pad said. “I have not been informed of the specifics of these tests.”

“Well, at least some of the tests are…” Twilight took a deep breath. “To hatch a dragon’s egg. I don’t know where they get them from, or how. But I was asked to use my magic on one, despite it being incredibly resistant to magic. I was on the verge of giving up when… well, you remember what I told you about how I was badly startled by something, lost control of my powers and had a magical surge? That was when it happened, and it made the examiners levitate, turned my parents into potted plants, and hatched the egg, turning the dragon inside into a giant.” She sighed. “Luckily, Princess Celestia was able to undo all of that, except for the egg - it stayed hatched, but the dragon inside shrank back to normal size for his age.” She looked over at Spike with a smile. “And I’ve been taking care of him ever since.”

Swift-Pad looked at them both with surprise. “I see.”

Spike coughed. “Yeah, and Twilight’s great… not that I haven’t wondered about where my egg came from, but Princess Celestia hasn’t told either of us yet. I’ve always kind of figured she found it somewhere and took it to keep it safe because the dragons who laid it were… well, gone.” He looked down a bit, but then turned back to Twilight, his face lightening as he did.

“I will have to ask Princess Celestia next time we meet,” Twilight said, tapping her fork against the plate. “In any case, I think we should get going to the schoolhouse if we want to be on time to go to Canterlot.”

“That is an excellent point, Lady Sparkle.” Swift-Pad rose from his seat. “Shall we be off then?”

It didn’t take the three of them long to reach the school, and to introduce Swift-Pad to Cheerilee, who had already been informed about him when Celestia was there yesterday. He bowed politely to her, and was surprised when she bowed back. “It’s an honor to meet you in person, rather from a distance,” she said.

Swift-Pad looked a little confused. “You have seen me before?”

“I was out shopping while you were exploring the town yesterday,” she explained. “I saw your little meeting with Fluttershy.”

“Ah.” Swift-Pad nodded. “Yes, our interaction was a pleasant surprise.”

“Quite.” Cheerilee smiled. “The students should be here soon, and I feel I must inform you that a few of them are… excitable individuals.”

“As are most pups when they are introduced to something new and exotic,” Swift-Pad agreed. “In fact, I suspect I have met the ones you speak of - the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’?”

“Yes,” Cheerilee agreed with a sigh of relief. “They’re good kids, just exuberant.” Then she looked disturbed. “There are also… well, I hate to speak ill of anypony, but at least one of my students has a tendency to be rather unpleasant to most others, and while I would never speak out against friendship, I regret to say that one of her classmates is very close to her and tends to follow her lead in that way most of the time.” She frowned. “I hope that you will not hold their poor behavior against the rest of us.”

“I have encountered many who have a poor view of those who are different from them,” Swift-Pad replied. “So long as they confine themselves to words only, so shall I.”

“And if they don’t?” Cheerilee asked nervously

“Then I shall have words with their parents about their behavior,” Swift-Pad replied with a wide grin that showed off his sharp teeth.

“It may not do you a lot of good,” Cheerilee said with a sigh. “One of their parents happens to be head of the school board, and is the reason her daughter gets away with so much. Fortunately, her father is far more reasonable, and I would recommend speaking to him rather than his wife.”

“I thank you for your information; it is always a good day when I can rely on words instead of my appearance, that is what diplomacy is all about, after all.” Swift-Pad gave her a more restrained smile.

“We all enjoy when people can use their words instead of resorting to other means,” Cheerilee said with a sigh. “It would make things so much easier if certain students didn’t resort to… more physical ways of settling disagreements.” She looked uncomfortable at the thought. “I do my best to intervene before it gets that bad, but I can’t be everywhere at once.”

“As is the case with any parental figure that has to look over a lot of young ones; I do know that I was young once and was not the most…. forward thinking pup,” he let out a chuckle that Cheerilee shared. “But in any case, I think we have spent enough time outside.”

“Of course, of course.” Swift-Pad nodded and followed her in, with Twilight and Spike right behind him. The four walked into the room to find all the students already in their seats, and headed to the front.

When they were in position. Cheerilee raised a hoof. “Now everypony, I would like to introduce mister Swift-Pad of the High-Leap Pack,” she said as she stood next to the wolf. “He’s come from the Packlands to Equestria for an important diplomatic meeting with the Princesses, and has also agreed to meet with us here.”

Looking around the room at the assorted students, Swift-Pad observed them one by one. He recognized Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, of course, the three all smiling widely and clearly happy to see him. Other students were looking in awe, a few seemed rather calm in their seats, one with a recognizably zen look in his eyes, and at least one was doing her best to hide an expression of sheer terror. Her fur was standing bolt-upright, though, and he could see the slight trembles in her legs.

Only one is a good sign, he thought to himself as he settled himself into a much more relaxed stance. “Hello young ones,” he said, keeping himself lower to the ground as not to loom over them and trigger any prey instincts in them. “As your teacher said, my name is Swift-Pad. While I am here, I thought it would be best if I were to pay a visit and let you get to know more of me and my people. Please,” he gave a smile that wasn’t too wide and hid his teeth. “If you have any questions, I would be most interested in hearing them.”

The colt with the zen look raised a hoof, and when Swift-Pad nodded in his direction, he began to speak. “Are your people related to the old Dire Wolves?”

Swift-Pad blinked in surprise. “To whom?”

“The Dire Wolves,” the colt said. “My folks told me this old legend once, ‘bout how when the old tribes left their homes and came to Equestria, these huge Dire Wolves moved in behind them to protect that land until the day the ponies returned. ’s not a common story, but there are a few of us who believe.”

“Ah.” Swift-Pad nodded. “And you are?”

“Snails.” The colt blinked slowly. “Short for Snailsquirm.”

“Well, Mr. Snails, I must admit I am not familiar with the legend you speak of, but it sounds like an interesting one that I shall have to look into when I have the opportunity.” Swift-Pad looked at him carefully. “Furthermore, the Packlands are in a different direction from where the pony tribes once migrated from.”

Snails shrugged. “It was worth asking when I had the chance.”

“Quite, young one.” Swift-Pad looked around. “Anypony else?”

A young colt that had a similar look on his face to the other colt raised his hoof and asked, “Do you eat animals Swift-Pad?”

Swift-Pad couldn’t help but wince at his bluntness. “We are meat-eaters,” he admitted rather quickly to quell the damage. “But only non-sapient creatures, such as fish.” He left out the hunts the packs did yearly as they wouldn’t understand. Despite his words, he couldn’t help but notice that the scared pink filly was looking even more nervous.

“Mister Swift-Pad?” Apple Bloom asked while raising her hoof. “How did you get your name?”

Swift-Pad smiled at this. “In the Packlands, it is tradition that one gains their name based on an attribute that best suits them. The elders of my pack observed that I was able to move swiftly on my pads when most of my littermates were still fumbling about, and so named me for this ability.” He then chuckled. “Most try to gain a favourable name but they are not always lucky. There is a rather large wolf back home, the size of your brother. He is one of more solid members of my pack and on the front line when there are issues with other packs.” He chuckled a bit more, drawing the students into his story. “He was named due to the sound he made when he was a pup and was being groomed by the elder watching over us at the time, and he would love nothing better than to forget the story of how he got it… but it’s hard to do so when your name is Giggle-Snort.”

There was a round of loud chuckles at that, and even the nervous filly cracked a smile. So did Cheerilee, though she was trying to hide it behind her hoof.

When the students had calmed down, one of the smaller fillies in the room raised a hoof, and Swift-Pad gestured to her. “And you are?”

The filly smiled brightly. “I’m Dinky!”

Observing her closely, Swift-Pad smiled back. “Yes, yes you are.”

There was another round of giggles before she could speak. “Mr. Swift-Pad? Do you like muffins?”

“Well, I’ve never met one I had any trouble with,” Swift-Pad said, and Dinky giggled.

After that, the entire atmosphere was relaxed and the rest of the students were more at ease asking him simple questions. Some were easy, such as did he have any siblings, which was that he had litter-mates as the equivalent to siblings. Others were a bit more difficult to answer, such as the filly who asked if there was any special someone back home for him. That question he danced around with all the skill his training gave him, and he could practically feel Twilight’s eyes on his back as he did so. Inwardly, he couldn’t help but be relieved it was her who was present and not her Grace Mi Amore Cadenza, due to what he knew of her special talent. She would be able to get an answer from him in no time, and he really wasn’t ready to give that information to anyone.

For that matter, he still wasn’t sure of what he felt himself, and he was not about to bring others into the matter until he had personally resolved it to his satisfaction.

Finally, Cheerilee announced that time was up, and while there was a chorus of groans, she turned to Swift-Pad. “Thank you so much for your time, sir.”

“It was no problem at all, miss Cheerilee,” Swift-Pad said as he rose, and raised a paw. “Thank you all for giving me your time, young ones, and I hope you enjoy your day.”

With that, he, Twilight and Spike headed outside, and his ear twitched as he heard Cheerilee announcing it was time for recess now and the students all getting up from their seats to head for the schoolyard.

As the three crossed the grounds themselves, Swift-Pad heard a set of hooves rushing up from behind him, and he turned to see the pink filly who’d been so nervous coming to a halt. “Yes?” he asked.

The filly was still looking a little wary, but she was also clearly trying to calm herself. “Excuse me, Mr. Swift-Pad? Can I ask you a question?”

“I believe you just did, but you may ask another,” Swift-Pad said, an amused tone in his voice.

“Thank you.” The filly looked shyly at him. “I was wondering-”

“Diamond Dazzle Tiara!” a loud voice suddenly interjected, and the filly’s eyes widened. In an instant, Swift-Pad spun around to see a thoroughly unpleasant-looking mare, her coat a darker shade of pink and her mane a two-toned purplish shade. Her snout was curled upward, and she had a dark look in her eyes. “What do you think you’re doing? Get away from that animal this instant!”

Swift-Pad’s own expression darkened, and he moved himself into a protective position between the filly and the mare. “And you are?” he called out.

“None of your business,” the mare retorted. “Now get away from her before I call the Guard on you!”

Swift-Pad did his best to control his temper, but this mare was making it very difficult. He was about to say something more, when someone else spoke up in his place.

“Mrs. Rich.”

Swift-Pad glanced to his side to see Twilight walking forwards, Spike on her back. She did not look happy.

“Did I just hear you threatening the good ambassador?” Twilight continued, her voice firm but clearly angry. “Because if I did, I might have to call the Guard on you.”

“P-Princess Twilight!” The other mare suddenly looked just as nervous as the filly had been. “I… I had no idea you were here!” She glanced at Swift-Pad. “And I had no idea you were keeping such distinguished company, sir.”

“And it shouldn’t matter,” Twilight countered. “Swift-Pad is here on important diplomatic matters, and I expect you to show him respect. For that matter, I would expect you to show respect to any visitor to this town, regardless of why they’re here or whether or not I’m with them. Have I made myself clear?”

“Of-of course,” the other mare stammered. “Absolutely, your highness.”

“Good.” Twilight watched as the other mare turned and hurried off. “That was not something I expected to have to deal with today,” she said as she let out a sigh, the tension visibly flowing from her.

“Indeed,” Swift-Pad agreed before turning around to see a look of relief on the young filly’s face. “Are you all right, young lady?”

Diamond Tiara nodded. “Thank you,” she said. “Both of you. I’ve never seen anyone stand up to my mother like that…”

“It was our pleasure,” Swift-Pad reassured her. “In my land, young ones are always to be protected from threats, regardless of blood ties between those involved.”

Diamond smiled at him. “Still, I… I really appreciate it.” She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “Um, can I still ask what I was going to before?”

“Go right ahead, young one,” Swift-Pad said.

When she had asked and gone off, Twilight and Swift-Pad turned and headed away from the schoolyard, the two and Spike silent for a few minutes. Finally, when they had gotten far enough away, Swift-Pad turned to her. “You handled that very well,” he said.

Twilight’s face flushed. “I just did what I had to,” she said. “I will always stick up for my friends when I can. And...” She looked down. “I know she’s caused trouble for some of her classmates before, but Diamond Tiara was obviously scared when she saw her mother. How could I not help you protect her?”

Swift-Pad chuckled. “Besides that, you handled yourself with poise and dignity,” he said. “In that moment, you truly were as you should be: a Princess of Equestria, who acted with a firm hoof and yet relied on words to get your point across. And you kept one of your subjects safe in doing so.” He looked at her, a firm smile on his face. “Children are one of our greatest treasures, regardless of where they come from, and you stood up for her.”

Twilight smiled back at him. “Thank you, Swift-Pad.”

Then the two headed off toward the train station, Spike still riding on Twilight’s back and looking thoughtful.

Some distance behind them, three little fillies were discussing what they’d seen, and looking toward Diamond Tiara in a new light.

And even further back, Cheerilee had seen the whole confrontation, and had tears of happiness in her eyes. “Oh, Swift-Pad…” she whispered to herself. “Thank you, and Princess Twilight. Thank you both so much.”

She could only hope that this experience would truly affect Diamond Tiara, the very student she’d had to warn the wolf ambassador about, for the better.

Chapter Ten

As Twilight walked with Swift-Pad to the train station, she could make out some sounds but it didn’t make sense to hear them unless...

“Swift-Pad, are those my friends?” Twilight turned to face the lopsided grinning wolf who dipped his head.

“I was informed that her Grace Celestia had made some arrangements to have your friends join you during your visit in Canterlot as to ease the anxiety,” he said, and Twilight let out a small snort at this decision. One one hoof, she didn’t appreciate Princess Celestia acting like this behind her back but on the other hoof, she deeply appreciated it as she could see herself becoming stressed which wouldn’t help anypony.

“I will have to thank her for this,” Twilight said as they climbed onto the train platform and went to greet her friends. “Hi girls!”

“Hi Twilight,” they said in unison before they greeted Spike and Swift-Pad just as warmly.

“How is everyone doing today?” Swift-Pad asked them.

“Ah’m fine sugarcube,” Applejack said. Next to her, Pinkie Pie giggled out her own cheerful response, and Fluttershy nodded before she began letting out little growls at him, which Swift-Pad happily acknowledged with his own.

When they’d finished speaking, Rainbow Dash let out a happy sigh. “I’m always up for a free trip to Canterlot,” she said. Next to her, Rarity gave the prismatic pegasus an exasperated look.

“As for me, I am doing quite well, thank you,” she said.

“Ah, Rarity,” Swift-Pad, turing to face her. “I must thank you for your gift last night.”

“It was nothing, dear,” Rarity said, brushing away the compliment.

“What is he talking about, Rares?” Rainbow Dash asked with a frown as they took their seats.

“Yesterday, I went to Rarity to commission a pair of gloves to help improve his dexterity when he was crafting his runes,” Twilight explained. “She delivered them to us last night while we were having dinner.”

Applejack nodded. “Like those runes you had on that kept Rainbow Dash from knockin’ you six ways from Saturday?” She tilted her head. “Ah didn’t know you made those yourself.”

“It is the way of all Rune Wolves,” Swift-Pad replied. “Very rarely do we ever use a rune that was originally crafted by another, and then only if there is no other option at the time.” He tapped a spot on his saddlebags. “For instance, the runes on this are set to expand the dimensions within the bag as well as set the temperature within. The combination is beyond my own current skill level, so I went to a much more experienced Rune Master to have it crafted.”

“Can’t ya just copy the runes on the bag and learn them yourself?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Copying the form of a rune is one thing,” Swift-Pad replied. “But we must infuse our runes with magic as we are carving them, and the more complex the rune’s shape is, the harder it is to infuse it during the carving process. Also, the Rune Master who created this set hid most of the more complex ones under this common one, so I cannot see what they all look like without disrupting the entire rune spell and I do not want to explain to him how I unwittingly undid all of his hard work.” He gave a weak chuckle as he tried to keep his balance on his seat.

“Gotcha,” Rainbow Dash said, sitting back.

“Twilight herself has started the practice, with some work with the light rune,” Swift-Pad added with all attention back onto her.

“Really Twilight?” Rarity turned to face her.

“Yes and it’s really hard,” Twilight said with a nervous laugh. “I got shocked a lot last night.”

“Care to explain that sugarcube?” Applejack asked.

“Well it takes a lot of work to make a correct rune and and when you mess up it kind of zaps you,” Twilight said.

“Oh my,” Rarity said. “That sounds terrible!”

“It wasn't that painful,” Twilight said. “Really, it’s not!” she quickly added at her friend’s disbelieving look. “I’ve had worse shocks from the static that built up after I was walking on a wool carpet.” She then turned to Swift-Pad who had a clear look of discomfort on his face. “Are you all right?”

“I do not have the best balance on trains, to be honest, Lady Twilight,” he said with a growl as he shifted on the seat. “I do prefer walking for a reason.”

“That’s understandable,” Spike said. “It’s hard for me to walk all the time so it’s easier for me to ride on Twilight's back.”

“That, and you have to take more steps to go the same distance that I do,” Twilight reminded him. “I don’t mind though. There were times I had to do the same thing when I was young.”

Spike smiled gratefully up at her.

“Quite,” Swift-Pad contributed, having settled himself against the window. “Our young ones can have the same issue back home. It is why patience is a required trait for those who are to escort them around.”

There was a round of nods from the others in response, and then a moment or two of silence.

“So Swift-Pad,” Rarity finally asked the wolf. “Have you been to Canterlot before?”

“A few times, though this is the first time I have taken a direct train ride,” he said, shifting his body as he struggled to keep his balance again as the train shifted ever so slightly. “It tends to have more… chances for incidents to occur.”

“What do you mean,” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.

“There are organizations that tend to view those that are not ponies to be a dangerous threat that needs to driven out,” he said with a well hidden snarl that she almost missed.

“You mean those PVE idiots?” Rainbow Dash snorted. “Buck them.”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight turned to look at her friend in shock.

“Dashie’s got a point about those meanies,” Pinkie spoke up. “They’re all kinds of jerks who like to make non-ponies look bad. I’d never throw them a party.”

Twilight could barely process that there were ponies whom her party loving friend would actually refuse to throw one for. “Just who… and what is this PVE group, anyway?”

“Pony Vegan Environmentalists,” Applejack spoke up. “We had a couple of ‘em varmints drop by the farm a while back when they heard ma little sis was hanging around with a zebra. Granny gave ‘em what-for and told ‘em never to come back.”

“Ah,” Swift-Pad nodded. “This would be the Zecora your sister mentioned when she and I first met yesterday?”

“Exactly,” Applejack said firmly. “They’re a bunch of pony-supremacists,” she explained to Twilight. “Say that ponies should just be for ponies, and that all the others should just go away and stop existin’. An’ they send out their pamphlets and things in the mail to try an’ make everypony else think their way.”

Twilight looked at her in shock. “How can anypony… that’s disgusting!”

Applejack shrugged. “Scary thing is, some ponies actually listen to ‘em.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash added. “None of us take ‘em seriously though. Only reason I ever keep some of their pamphlets is to use ‘em for chimney starters.”

There were a lot of odd looks at that, and she shrugged. “What? I need something to prime the charcoal with when I’m grilling carrots or hayburgers.”

“I didn’t know you even had a grill,” Twilight said.

“I’m a mare of many talents,” Rainbow Dash said lightly as she put her front legs behind her head. “Dad actually taught me how to do a lot of that stuff back in the day, so I like to get it out every once in a while.”

“Entertaining as this digression into Rainbow Dash’s cooking ability has been, I think we have gotten off the point,” Rarity said. “Twilight, darling, have you really never heard of that horrific hate-group?”

Twilight shook her head. “I knew there were ponies who didn’t like non-ponies, but I had no idea they were that organized. And whenever I did hear somepony being nasty about it, I usually just avoided them so as not to cause a scene.”

“Well as a leader, you will need to keep an open ear and eye to the world around you to see how things are,” Swift-Pad opined.

Twilight stared at him and shifted in her seat before she finally spoke. “Swift-Pad, what do other people think of Equestria?”

The question seemed to catch Swift-Pad off guard with the wolf suddenly looking away from her. “That is a delicate question, Lady Twilight,” he said, shifting uncomfortably. “Perhaps it would best wait until her Grace Celestia-”

“Please, Swift-Pad,” Twilight interrupted him. “You alone have an outside viewpoint and as your student and friend, it would help me learn more about my duties.”

He let out a sigh before he turned to face her. “If you wish to know, Equestria is viewed as… an unintentional bully.”

“I’m so-I beg your pardon but I am very confused to how that is the case,” Twilight said, catching her slip in time but still very surprised by his statement.

“Well to start off with, what is the one resource that you Equestrians hold a monopoly on that the rest of the world cannot do without?” he asked her while turning his face to the window.

Twilight turned to look where he was staring and, as her eyes drifted to Celestia’s sun, she gasped.

“You’re talking about Princess Celestia withholding the sun?” she asked in shock. “She’s never done that or would.”

“And the moon before her Grand Grace Luna appeared,” Swift-Pad tipped his head. “And while it is true there are no records of Grace Celestia withholding the day and night from any nation, the fact that she could is always present in the back of the head of every diplomat and every deal done with Equestria,” he added. “How can any nation hope to survive if they suddenly find themselves without the light of the day or night sustaining their lands because of a slight against Equestria?” He then let out a sigh, moving upright. “In addition, most of the world views ponies as being very... bombastic about their nation’s ideals and views towards others regardless of situation,” he said before giving her a steady look. “You know of the region you call Appolose, right?”

“Appleloosa,” Applejack corrected. “And if’n yer talkin’ about the dispute we had with the buffalo, we settled that matter a long time back.”

“It shouldn’t have been a matter in the first place,” he huffed at her. “That region was for years their sacred stampeding grounds, and ponies simply moved in and claimed it.”

“Because they didn’t know it was already taken,” Rainbow Dash spoke up. “And I told them they should have moved those trees out of the way once they found out.”

“That first part is a lie,” he snapped before turning to face Twilight. “Twilight, I do believe if you consult any world map made outside Equestria, you would have seen that region was never part of your soil until these ponies tried to claim it. And to claim such land, you would have needed to see if anyone else owned it which can be done by checking with the International Border Organization. If this were any other nation invading another, you would have seen numerous groups demanding their exit for this illegal settlization. As this was Equestria, the rest of the world was hesitant to get involved and I suppose your actions helped de-escalate the situation to where the buffalos share their land with those settlers.”

He then turned to face Rainbow Dash. “That was just a minor example of Equestria bullying its way in and doing what it wishes; you’re aware of why the other nations are so hesitant to do anything, right?”

Rainbow Dash frowned. “The griffons,” she muttered with Swift-Pad nodding his head.

“What do you mean by the griffons?” Twilight asked, feeling the need to calm herself down at hearing his allegations.

“Around a hundred and fifty years ago, there was a young griffon king by the name John that was being tutored in Equestria,” Swift-Pad said. “He was enamored by the Equestrian culture so much that he wanted to fix his own nations’ wrongs to match that of Equestria. Back then, it was somewhat acceptable for nations to conduct raids onto others; every nation did it, even Equestria despite her Grace Celestia’s continuous speeches to bring it to an end.” He gave them a sideways glance. “So this young king decided, over the screams of his advisers and her Grace Celestia’s own words, to sign an international agreement to bring raids to an end.” He let out a sigh and tapped the bench. “The bill was good in theory but he didn’t read past the first pages and missed how the restitutions would be handled.”

“What do you mean,” Twilight asked, leaning in closer.

“Every nation would be required to fine those who had participated in the raids and have the items they stole returned,” he said. “For most nations, this wasn’t an issue as they had not taken much and it was very easy to repay and return what was taken. For the griffons, however, this is where the issues began. They were a nation that had raiding as a cultural aspect of their society; it was a rite of passage into adulthood and how many former great griffon families rose to power. This money was tied deeply within their economy and before this bill had been passed, the griffon Eagle was the global currency and not the Equestrian bit. After this bill had been passed, all of the money that had any remote ties to being retrieved through raids overseas was frozen. This crippled their economy overnight and made countless families unable to even buy a loaf of bread as their bank accounts were being examined to see what parts were product of the raids and which were legitimate by the international debt assessment corp that was set up to deal with the griffon's finances as it was fairly substantial.”

“How much was it in the end?” Twilight asked, dreading the answer.

“I never said that they were finished,” Swift-Pad said coldly. “They are still going over the paperwork to this day despite countless demands from both the griffon government and her Grace Celestia to move faster. Every attempt to have specialists take over has been vetoed by other nations with grudges against the griffons.” He gave her another look. “The damage done to the griffons is immense. Their currency has been inflated to the point where dirt on the ground is worth more than their highest domination, most griffon citizens have crippling debt due to interest over the years and if or when they are finally allowed to use their bank accounts again, nearly all of them will be driven even further into bankruptcy as they will be forced to repay those whom their ancestors stole from. All because of this one griffon who was enthralled with Equestrian values, this nation was completely and utterly devastated, and is still reeling from this sole decision.” He huffed again and rested his head on his paws. “While her Grace took actions to prevent this from happening, many people are still uncertain if this was a deliberate act or not from her government to ensure Equestria will eclipse the former griffon kingdom. Regardless, once the damage was seen every nation changed to protect themselves. Diamond Dogs took to wearing collars to make themselves appear less threatening and wild, the minotaurs began sharing details in how to create their airships, the Saddle Arabians sharing their once private sword martial arts and we…” he trailed off with his ears flattening down. “We announced that we would never eat any creature that had been named; not that we ever did do such an act, but there were always rumours about it and our declaration was made to silence those rumours.”

“Whatever happened to king John?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Oh he suffered a mysterious fatal accident shortly after he signed that bill and his brother Gichard took the throne,” Swift-Pad snorted. “There was never any official investigation into his death and if the stories are true, there were celebrations when he died. But you can see why many other nations have a somewhat distant relationship to Equestria and view your nation as overbearing at times.” His ear flicked and he added, “There is also the fact her Grace Celestia has yet to deal with PVE as she is the sole person that can probably bring a halt to their action.”

“If she tried, she’d probably wind up with a revolt on her hooves,” Spike said with a snort of disgust. “‘Cause the way some of those nobles looked at me when I was living in Canterlot, they probably felt the same way but didn’t want to make it obvious.”

“That is correct, young one,” Swift-Pad said. “And more than likely why she has yet to make an official statement one way or another. If she speaks out against them, then there will be no end of accusations of her abandoning her citizens to side with outsiders and if she speaks for them…”

“Then she’d ruin any chance of ever making friends with any non-ponies in and out of Equestria?” Fluttershy said.

“Not only that, but it would put every pony outside of Equestria in danger,” Twilight said with slow horror dawning in her mind and it only grew deeper when Swift-Pad nodded his head in agreement. “She could have spoken out against them, even to say at the very least that she doesn’t approve or something, right?”

“For her, it is too late at this point,” Swift-Pad said. “Too much time has passed for her to act and now, I think, she is simply waiting for them to die off as she has that luxury.”

“...but I’m young enough to say something, right?” Twilight asked with hope in her voice.

“And naïve enough for it to be believable for you to only now learn of them,” Swift-Pad added with a smirk on his face. “And since it is the truth, it will be even more effective if you choose to speak out.”

Twilight just barely kept herself from doing something she knew she’d regret - for the sake of her dignity, if nothing else. “At any rate, I do have some other questions while I’m thinking about things,” she said. “First off… Spike, if ponies were acting like that towards you when we were in Canterlot, why didn’t you ever say anything to me?” The concern in her tone was obvious.

Spike looked up at her, and sighed. “Because it never went any further than dirty looks,” he said. “If they’d ever tried anything more than that, I’d have told you, but there’s no law against just looking at someone that way. Besides, it was mostly nobles who did that, and they look at almost everyone that way.”

“Spike… you’re my special little guy,” Twilight said softly. “I still wish you’d told me when it happened.” Her horn glowing, she levitated him closer and wrapped one leg around him.

Accepting the hug, Spike smiled up at her. “Thanks, Twilight.”

Smiling back at Spike, Twilight then turned to face Swift-Pad, “Secondly, what do you meant I can use my naivety?”

“It is known that you are new to the international stage and that of politics, and thus less aware of the norms and unspoken rules in place,” Swift-Pad said. “You are in the unique position to do what others cannot do as they would believe you did not know better.” Twilight blanched at that but Swift-Pad shook his head. “This is a good thing; there are strict rules and agreements that we all need to dance to and obey lest we send the vast machine that is international relations to the floor in a bed of chaos. You can do what you want without too much ruffled fur as everyone will believe it was you simply doing what you thought was right; another John move as it is known as.”

“Hopefully without somepony whacking you, Twi,” Rainbow Dash added.

Twilight gave her a dirty look before turning back to Swift-Pad. “I just hope I can actually accomplish something this way and not have everything blocked by certain self-centered individuals just because I am less experienced…”

“I do not believe her Grace Celestia would stand for that,” Swift-Pad reassured her. “She may not be as open about it at the time, but in the experience of myself and my fellows, she does tend to place her support behind those whom she approves of, and behind their efforts.”

Twilight smiled gratefully.

Some time later, Twilight could see that they were approaching the Canterlot station when Swift-Pad stood up. “Your Grace, I do believe we should freshen ourselves up before we arrive,” he give her a lopsided smile before looking at Rarity. “I do believe you have her regalia and the tools to aid her?”

“Princess Celestia personally asked me to pack them as we know our dear friend Twilight isn’t too keen on being seen as a princess,” she said with a smile on her face while Twilight simply pouted at that. “Now come along darling, we have some work to do.”

Still grimacing, Twilight followed her into one restroom as Swift-Pad went into another.

“Now while I would normally like to give you a proper princess makeover, I was asked to keep things a bit more simple,” Rarity said with a light smile as she pulled a couple bottles of shampoo out from her bag as well as few different style brushes. She then pushed some of the shampoo out and levitated it over to Twilight’s mane. “This shouldn’t take any time at all, Twilight, if we both act as mature adults.”

Twilight braced herself but nodded her head. “Just as long as you keep away from my eyes.”

“I have dealt with Sweetie covered in sap more than once; I know how to avoid getting shampoo in the eyes,” Rarity tutted as she began to lather Twilight’s mane and coat. Inwardly, Twilight winced a bit, but then calmed herself as she let her friend do what she’d been asked.

It was only a short time later before Twilight left the bathroom, her mane and coat brushed and shining to a respectful degree and her seldom used golden regalia settled onto her head. Twilight couldn’t help but steal a look up at her crown, the object feeling so awkward on her brow. Of course, this was only the second or third time she’d really had need to wear it, since she’d retired her original after the Element of Magic had gone…

“Are you prepared, your Grace?” Swift-Pad’s voice caused her to lift her head. The wolf now had his own coat seemingly well brushed and shining, with several of his runes sticking out from around his neck… which was probably on purpose as he usually had them hidden within his coat.

“Ye-yes I am and I thought we were being more informal with how we talked to each other,” Twilight said with a bit of a frown on her face.

“In private, it is fine for us to address one another by first names, but not in the public eye,” he said walking towards his seat. “It is not only improper but gives the media… improper ideas.” His face blanched at that and it took Twilight a moment to realize what he was saying.

“No offense, but that’s just… wrong,” she said, making a face. “We’re friends, but… well, I’m really not looking for anyone, pony or non-pony, like that right now. I’ve got way too much else to focus on to even start thinking about romance!”

“But weren’t you interested in that one- mmph!” Pinkie’s voice was cut off when Applejack stuck a hoof over her mouth.

“Regardless of what you or I think or feel, those in the news industry will interpret it as something,” Swift-Pad said dryly. “They rather tend to, shall we say, embellish. To make mountains out of molehills, all for the sake of sensationalism and better sales on their stories. There is a reason that the less ethical reporters are thought of as the lowest of the low where I come from.” He gave a disgusted snort before he replaced it with one of his diplomatic neutral faces that Twilight knew was meant to be disarming for ponies.

“So what do I need to do?” Twilight asked as she started to move to her seat only for Rarity to cough loudly and stopped in her tracks.

“Just smile and wave and walk as quickly as you can without running to the carriage waiting for us,” Swift-Pad answered. “The rest of you will be taken care of by the guards and discreetly moved into the castle.” He then flicked his eyes to Twilight. “Just follow my pace, your Grace, and everything will be fine.”

“Thank you, Ambassador Swift-Pad,” Twilight said, tipping her head forwards with the wolf smiling at her choice of words.

Chapter Eleven

“Relax, your Grace, breathe in and breathe out,” Swift-Pad whispered to her as they stood in front of the train door. “And keep still.”

“I’m trying,” Twilight whispered back, doing her best to stand straighter while performing her breathing techniques to calm her nerves.

“Remember, steady movements and stay by my side,” he continued to whisper to her. “Smile but do not show teeth. It is too unpredictable to do anything wider.”

“I remember,” Twilight whispered back a bit harsher than she intended but tellingly Swift-Pad didn’t apologize which meant he felt he would need to remind her again. She was about to restate that she knew what to do when the train began to slow down and she stiffened.

“You will be fine, Twilight,” Swift-Pad turned to face her. “Just smile and wave, and walk. That’s all you need to do, okay?” He flashed her a smile which actually did help her calm down.

“Thank you, Swift-Pad,” Twilight smiled back before she composed herself again and stared at still-covered train windows. “I think this is it.”

“It is indeed,” Swift-Pad stood up and took a deep breath in. “You can smell them outside.”

Twilight blinked and took a sniff of the air. “I can only smell my shampoo.”

Swift-Pad snorted at this, doing his best to hold it back but failing. “You did that on purpose, did you not?”

“I did nothing of the sort,” Twilight fired back.

“She couldn’t even think of doing this sort of thing,” Rainbow Dash added from the doorway that all her friends were standing in.

“Well it ain’t her thing to do, sugarcube,” Applejack chipped in.

“More like my thing to do,” Pinkie Pie giggled.

“You do your thing the best of anypony,” Fluttershy said with smile on her face.

“And of course, it is good to see you doing this thing,” Rarity added with a slight smirk.

Twilight was exasperated by this but saw that Swift-Pad was barely able to hold himself together at that point. “Are you okay?”

The wolf placed his paw into his mouth, struggling to hold back his laughter as he screwed his eyes shut tightly. He slapped his free paw against the floor as he let out choked yelps of laughter and shook his head. “I was not expecting to see wolf humour here. Thank you for that.”

“You’re welcome,” Fluttershy said over the confusion of everyone else before turning to face them. “Part of their humour relies on quick back and forth and they enjoy building it up until somewolf fumbles up and then they all laugh.”

“Once again, you prove yourself quite knowledgeable in regard to my people’s way of life, miss Fluttershy,” Swift-Pad said. “That is exactly right.” He then shook his head and lightly smacked his face before he took a breath and calmed his features.”Okay, I am ready; are you, your Grace?”

“Yes I am, Ambassador Swift-Pad,” Twilight said. At that Swift-Pad gave the door a light tap, and in turn the blinds were pulled back and the doors were opened. Immediately there were cameras being snapped and a thousand questions were being shouted at them, and had she not been warned to just walk forward, smile and wave, Twilight would have flinched. Instead, she did as Swift-Pad had advised, while subtly looking to either side to see the guards acting as their escort to the carriage that lay ahead. She saw Swift-Pad nod his head at a few reporters but not answering any questions that were being asked of him, even the more ridiculous ones. She mentally cringed at one, and sped up just a teense so they could reach the carriage faster.

Once they had settled in and the doors were shut, Twilight lit her horn for a moment to activate a sound-scrambling spell, then turned to Swift-Pad. “I am so glad you were there, and that you gave me the advice you did,” she said. “I don’t know if I could have handled them on my own.”

“It was no problem, your Grace,” Swift-Pad said with a smile as the ponies began to pull them away. “Sometimes, the best answer you can give is no answer at all.”

“That doesn’t make much sense, though I can kinda see the benefits of it,” Twilight said as she felt them take off into the air.

“It does help prevent any misleading stories,” Swift-Pad replied. “They cannot deliberately misinterpret your words if there were no words to misinterpret.”

“That does make sense,” Twilight said. “If it weren’t for you, I’d still be there talking to everypony and saying who knows what.”

“That is the worst thing you could have done,” Swift-Pad replied. “You should always be cautious to what you say. Less is better, though nothing is as bad as a mindless chattermouth or being a mute.”

“I see…” Twilight said carefully, trying to see if there was some sort of insult in his words before she remembered that this was her friend and mentor.

“It is a delicate balance that one must learn, and it does not help that it changes from situation to situation,” he added as he turned to look out the window. “For now, it is best to stay quiet in public.”

Twilight nodded. “I’ve got a one-way soundproof barrier around us, so we can talk freely in here.”

“To which I am grateful, your Grace,” he said with a smile. “For now though, I will again remind you that with your current experience, if you are to take a public stance it would have more impact now than it would later. With your perceived naivety and people's reluctance to counter someone who has her Grace Celestia’s ear...” He trailed off and looked at her expectantly.

Twilight perked her ears at hearing him say ‘perceived naivety’ but kept her mouth shut, which seemed to be the correct decision as the wolf’s smile grew wider at her. Instead, she looked out the window and saw that they were closing in on the castle’s chariot hanger, which had been decorated for their arrival. She could also see Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Blueblood and a few other ponies whose faces she vaguely recognized, though she couldn’t place their names, waiting for them.

Her attempt to recall their names was broken off when she heard light growling all of a sudden. Turning her head, she saw that Swift-Pad had shifted his body slightly at the sight of the ponies as if he was about to attack them. He then shifted out of it so quickly she almost dismissed it out of hoof. Doing her best to keep her wings tucked in as they were brought in for the landing, Twilight’s eyes went wide and she was about to ask Swift-Pad when he said, “Ladies first; only proper manners.”

With a faint blush on her cheeks and muttered thanks, Twilight took a few short breaths before she dismissed her spell and signaled that she was ready to exit the carriage. At her signal, the guard outside opened the door, standing by to let her pass.

Reminding herself to walk slow and steadily, she headed towards Princess Celestia, the mare smiling maternally at her while Luna had a more regal look on her face. Blueblood, she could see, was quietly sneering, and Twilight could definitely hear the growl of anger from Swift-Pad now as he came up beside her.

“Princess Twilight, Ambassador Swift-Pad, welcome,” Celestia said, bowing her head slightly.

“Please be welcome to our home, young princess, young wolf,” Luna said, dipping her head as well, looking warmly at Swift-Pad.

“Thank you, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna,” Twilight said, bowing her head as well, though lower than either of them had.

“You honour me greatly, your Graces.” Swift-Pad bowed deeply and it was clear that he was directing it towards Luna over Celestia, and he gave a dismissive look at Blueblood before he turned back to the princesses. “Your student was the most excellent host, your Grace. You have taught her well.”

“Thank you, but the praise belongs to Twilight alone,” Celestia said with her eyes briefly going to Blueblood and then back to the wolf with a near impeccable disappointed look on her face.

Blueblood glared at Swift-Pad before coughing and dragging attention back to him. “Welcome to the capital, your highness,” he said stiffly, making Twilight aware that something had gone off track. “I hope your travel was pleasant?”

“Ye-yes it was, thank you,” Twilight said, looking at Swift-Pad and Blueblood, and again wondering why they seemed so hostile towards one another.

“Your Graces,” Swift-Pad said, walking towards the Princesses. “May I present gifts from my nation?”

“You may, Swift-Pad, for I cherish the bounds of friendship our two nations have,” Celestia said as Swift-Pad pulled a scroll and a cookbook from his pack.

“Along with the trade agreement, please enjoy this cookbook as well,” he said as he presented them.

“My thanks, dear friend, Celestia said, levitating the cookbook over to herself with a smile on her face. “I suppose it is no secret that I love cooking and baking for myself?” she asked as she took the scroll in her golden magic.

“And for you, your Grace,” he said, turning to face Luna as he began to pull out a very large item from his bag. “May I tell you a story of our land that is a thousand years ago of the Grand Grace of that age and her request of the wolves?”

Luna gave him an odd look, but nodded. “You may, Ambassador.”

“A thousand years ago, her Grace came to us, proclaiming the need of a weapon,” he said pulling out a massive hammer that had countless runes engraved onto it. “Oh noble and loyal wolves, those whose love for my moon knows no bound, I face a grave foe and need a weapon to win the night, the grace of old proclaimed. O wise and beloved Grace, we shall craft you the most perfect weapon but we will need time to craft such a weapon fit for thee, the wolves told her. One quarter cycle of my Moon’s path is all that I have, for then I must face the great foe, she said. But the wolves bowed their heads in sorrow. It shall take us one full cycle, they said. One quarter to craft, one quarter to perfect, one quarter to shape its runes, and one quarter to meld them into that which you desire. Her Grace bid them her thanks, and left with a promise to return at the end of that time. But it was too long, for by the time they had completed it, they learned that her Grace had fallen, and the Nightmare of the Moon had risen, only to fall to her Grace Celestia and the Powers of Harmony.”

Luna had the slightest traces of a frown on her face as he held out the hammer, but nodded at him to continue.

“This is that weapon, your Grace,” Swift-Pad said. “Imbued with her magic and our most dangerous and powerful runes, this was to be her weapon against the darkness. Sadly, due to time, the true power of this grave weapon has been lost to the fog of the age-”

Luna cut him off as she lifted it in her magic and began to examine it, the hammer glowing in a perfect match to her own magic. “Toxin, thunder, blindness, gravitational force, sheer freezing, blinding fire,” she said as she turned the handle around in her magic, examining each rune with Swift-Pad’s eyes going wide at the entire scene.

“You-that, not pos-” he began to stammer in shock only for Celestia to snap a dome of light over herself, Luna, Swift-Pad and Twilight. There was a mild yelp from outside as Blueblood leapt back a tad, but Twilight quickly turned her focus back to her friend and her fellow princesses, who were looking at Swift-Pad with concern.

“Breathe, Swift-Pad, breathe,” Celestia was saying, rubbing a hoof up and down his back and making soothing sounds, and Twilight momentarily remembered how Celestia had done the same for her, more than a few times, when she was younger. After a moment, she pulled back as Swift-Pad threw himself low.

“You really are her!” he said in awe to Luna. “I beg your forgiveness your Grand Grace for never truly believing you. I was a stupid wolf for not believing the word of your return and-”

“Enough of this foolishness,” Luna snapped, rolling her eyes as she lifted him up with her magic, returning him to a proper standing position. “Neither my sister or I are divine creatures nor did we ever make the claim that we were.”

“But your Grace,” Swift-Pad began again only for Luna to hold his mouth closed with her magic.

“I was not finished, Swift-Pad,” she said sharply, eyes narrowed. “In addition, it was a good thing you wolves failed to craft this hammer in time as if I’d had it, I would have no doubt used it to either maim or kill my sister at the time.” She looked at the hammer again before placing it down. “Furthermore, it is good that I thought you failed me when I fell to the Nightmare. Had I not, the outcome could have been far worse.”

“You’re right,” Swift-Pad said, looking around a bit dazed. “If you had called for us, we would have come over the border and into Equestria to fight by your side and…”

“Equestria would not have survived if all the wolfpacks had fought by the Nightmare’s side,” Celestia spoke up. “I expressly forbid my own guards to get involved in our fight… but had your people’s ancestors joined in, that would have changed. And the results would have been disastrous.”

Swift-Pad bowed. “I suppose then, that the story I was told by her- by Princess Twilight of what she knew was the correct one,” he said as he looked back to Luna. “That you had been transformed by external forces, and purged of them after escaping from a thousand years imprisonment, thus returning you to your true self.”

“That is exactly correct,” Luna replied. She gave Twilight a look, and Twilight knew they’d be talking about that later.

“This will cause quite the stir when it is explained to my people,” Swift-Pad said quietly. “There are many schools of thought on what happened… though in this case, the ones who believed you were the same as the Luna we knew a thousand years ago will undoubtedly be gloating over being proven right.” He grimaced at the thought.

“That is my burden to bear, Swift-Pad,” Luna said quietly, placing a hoof on his shoulder. “Your kind was always loving of me and my night, yet in my jealousy I forgot about the wolves. I owe it to them to set matters straight and restore my honour with the Packlands.”

Swift-Pad seemed to swell at this announcement, staring at Luna before he leaned forwards and gave her a light nuzzle. “You are truly her Grand Grace of old, your highness. I am honoured to be in your presence.”

“It is I who am honoured, my dear wolf,” Luna said with a chuckle, returning the nuzzle and pulling him in close with her wing. “Now, I do believe we have certain roles to return to?” she asked with a grin.

“That is quite right, your highness,” Swift-Pad said as he stood. After a moment, Celestia dismissed the dome around them, and the four looked around at those who were still watching them in confusion.

“Auntie,” Blueblood spoke as he stepped a tad closer. “Is there something the matter?”

“Just a misunderstanding being cleared up,” Celestia replied. “It has been settled now, so we may continue.” Blueblood gave a snort at that.

“That reminds me, I need to check where it is hidden this time,” Celestia said as she glanced at both the stallion and the wolf, examining the scroll and pretending to ignore the death glares they gave one another, to Twilight’s confusion. After a few moments, the eldest alicorn let out an ah-ha and flexed out the scroll. “I am sorry Swift-Pad, but this article will have to be removed; you know full well I would never let such an extradition order go through, even in a trade agreement.”

“Of course not, your Grace,” Swift-Pad said with forced smile on his face, the lie clear as day. Blueblood seemed to be enjoying this which only made the wolf growl again. At his growl, several nearby ponies backed up, clearly scared.

“Why would you want an extradition order, ambasador?” Twilight asked.

“For him,” Swift-Pad said, glaring at Blueblood. “As his great-grandfather is unfortunately dead and he is the current heir to his name, we wish to have him brought back to our nation to answer for his dishonourable ggrrs actions.” Twilight couldn’t tell what Swift-Pad had said as he had shifted into his own native tongue but was able to guess enough.

“And as you wolves know, Princess Celestia will never send any of her ponies off to-”

“Ahem, colts,” Celestia coughed, dragging both of their attentions back to her. “We can talk later, but for now I believe we still have business to attend to?” She glanced around. “Shall we go inside, everyone?”

There was a round of nods, and they began to head into the castle. Twilight could see the two elder Princesses walking side by side, exchanging hushed whispers, before they suddenly separated.

“Princess Twilight, if you will walk with me?” Celestia asked, and Twilight looked at her in surprise. She’d been thinking about going up beside the older alicorn, but had decided against it, not wanting to be seen as less mature by the others around them, nor to interrupt Celestia and Luna’s discussion. But now that she was being asked... that was a whole other matter, and she hurriedly trotted up beside Celestia, while Luna backed away to give them space and positioned herself between Swift-Pad and Blueblood, who were still shooting dirty looks at one another.

As Twilight and Celestia went into a separate hallway, Twilight looked up at the mare who had for so long been her teacher, and clearly still had a few things for her to learn. Taking a few calming breaths, she asked, “Princess?”

Celestia smiled down at her. “Yes, Twilight?”

“What do you wish to talk to me about?” Twilight asked.

“Oh nothing; I just wanted to see how you are doing, Twilight.” Celestia said with a light chuckle.

Twilight arched an eyebrow. “I’m… doing,” she finally said. “I’ve gained quite a lot to think about since I last saw you yesterday.”

“Oh, do tell,” Celestia said in the same tone she had used whenever she had given Twilight a lesson.

“I did hear about this thing with the griffons.”

As soon as Twilight said that, Celestia's face fell.

“So it is true, isn’t it?”

“Depending on if what you are asking is true, Twilight,” she said, her voice tensing up just a bit.

“That they are being charged a ludicrous amount of money due to some poorly thought out international law?” Twilight asked. At her words, Celestia noticeably relaxed.

“Unfortunately, it is,” she said with a sigh.

“What about those who say that…” Twilight trailed off, unable to bring herself to accuse her mentor. Celestia, however, gave her a weary look.

“Twilight, I promise - I Pinkie Promise - that I am speaking truthfully when I say that I personally had no desire to see the griffon nation fall like it did,” she said. After going through the motions and speaking the necessary words, she sighed. “However, I cannot promise that there were not ponies in Canterlot at the time who would have been delighted with the results of King John’s actions, or had even deliberately influenced them in some way, out of sheer spite.”

“As in those who are in charge of their accounts?”

“Several of my… our ponies, make up a significant amount of those in charge but we are not the majority of that group,” Celestia said hotly with Twilight backing up in surprise. “I have pushed for years for them to finish their work with those in charge, but it seems time away from Equestria has left them with greater backbones. They no longer see me as the leader of the herd, so to speak, and thus have no reason to actually listen to me as I do not have any legal authority over them.” She sighed again, and for a moment, her eyes reflected every year of her millennia-plus of life.

“While normally I prefer to go easier on our ponies… in those cases, I wish I could bring myself to use a much firmer hoof at the table.” Celestia gave a brief grimace. “Aside from the legalities of me and thus Equestria intervening into other sovereign nation’s personal matters, the main reason I restrain myself then and on other occasions is because if I do not, I fear it may well lead to even worse problems down the road, for myself and for all our peoples, be they pony or otherwise.”

Twilight frowned at that before looking up at her. “Speaking of other peoples, what is the deal with Swift-Pad and Blueblood, anyway? He said something about Blueblood’s great-grandfather…”

“Ah, that.” A frown appeared on her mentor’s face. “Around a hundred years ago, Nobleblood, Blueblood’s great-grandfather, was part of an international team with the wolves to help determine if natural weather was better for agricultural farming or were our weather teams more beneficial despite the, quote unquote ‘unnaturality’ of it. It was to be a twenty year study, ten their way and then ten our way, using the weather from first ten years as the limitations we could do.”

“That sounds fascinating; how did it turn out in the end?” Twilight asked.

“There were no results; it didn’t even last a single day,” Celestia said. “Nobleblood, in all of his wisdom, decided to label the project “Weather Teams compared to a bunch of backwood hicks believing in having superior farming” or something just as inflammatory.” Celestia snorted angrily. “Needles to say, the wolves were outraged at this insult and demanded his arrest. He somehow managed to cross the border before he was caught and then placed me in a very difficult situation. Due to his crimes being an honour crime, it brought on a very specific sentence which is a fight between the two parties with just their natural skills and no magic allowed. Said fights almost always ends with one party dead and I would not put much faith in a pony defeating a wolf without any magic to support them.” Celestia shook her head. “Due to their laws, even though Nobleblood is dead, his descendants are still accountable for his crimes and they are willing to try nearly anything that wouldn’t start a war to get him into their lands to have their justice.”

“What would happen if he did manage to actually to win?” Twilight asked in a horrified, morbid fashion.

“Well, more than likely the wolves would claim that it was just one pack’s champion fighting him and other packs would have the right to challenge him. And they would continue to do so until one of them had actually killed him, or he’d defeated a representative from each of the packs… and then things would undoubtedly take a turn for the uglier if there are not cool heads around.” She looked at Twilight firmly. “So you can see why I have done my best to avoid such an issue. The only way to end the matter once and for all is if the wolves were ever to forgive Nobleblood’s family, which they will never do, or if Nobleblood’s line ever ends permanently for some reason, and I am not about to endorse ending it on purpose.”

Twilight nodded, and Celestia continued. “I will confess, if something does happen to Blueblood now, it would end the line, seeing as he comes from a line of only sons and has yet to sire any offspring of his own - not for lack of desire, but simply because most mares tend to not want anything to do with him after experiencing his rather abrasive manners and attitudes.” She then sighed again. “Needless to say, that incident complicated matters for us; once Nobleblood did what he did and I refused to turn him over to them, the wolves threw all of our ambassadors out of their lands and closed their doors to us. Since then, no Equestrian governmental figure has been allowed into their lands, not even myself. There are some who have advocated closing our doors to them in return, but I have refused to do so, seeing as how I feel they were very much right to be offended by his actions.” She paused for a moment at that.

“Since I have declined to let the wolves punish him or his descendents their way, and since our laws of free speech prohibit anyone from being punished for voicing an opinion, no matter how grave an insult it is to another, Nobleblood essentially escaped legal punishment for what he did. However, I did make him aware of just how disappointed I was in his actions, and I informed the wolfpacks of this at the time. Regrettably, that was not enough for them, so they have continued to seek extradition for his son, grandson and now great-grandson.”

“So sicing Rarity on him for how he treated her and then sharing the memory with the wolfpacks wouldn’t change their mind?” Twilight asked.

“If it were that easy, I would have sent them a copy of the memory of her scolding him at the Gala myself, Twilight,” Celestia said. “Though I do think they would have been most amused by it.” She looked contemplative.

Twilight nodded. “I’ll have to at least share it with Swift-Pad…” Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she smiled. “Thank you for answering my questions, Princess Celestia. I do have one more thing to discuss, but I believe we’ve kept our guests waiting long enough.”

“So we have,” Celestia replied. Straightening herself, she turned and, with Twilight at her side, walked out into the main hallway.

Within a few minutes, they had reached one of the dining rooms, where Luna waited at one end of the table. Blueblood had taken a spot on one of the long sides, at the end closest to the wall, while a tall, blue-maned stallion with a monocle stood beside him - Fancy Pants, that was his name, she suddenly remembered. She could also see a small group of reporters standing around the outskirts of the room.

Silently and subtly looking around, she noted that Swift-Pad had in turn chosen a spot on the opposite side of the table from Blueblood, and far closer to the head, which Twilight thought was no doubt so he could be as far away from the other male as he could, though she could also tell he had purposely left a seat between he and the elder princesses, for Twilight’s use.

“So Swift-Pad, how goes the hunt for this year for the High-Leap pack?” Luna asked as Twilight and Celestia finally entered the room.

Twilight could see Swift-Pad give a slightly surprised look on his face before he squashed it. “It goes well; we have brought in a good number of bucks in for this winter and we have plans for many more before the end of the season, your Grace,” he said with pride in his voice.

“It is good to hear; I have been meaning to plan a visit to the Packlands ever since my return as your ancestors were always very welcoming in the past,” Luna said.

“Yes,” Swift-Pad said. “I have heard the stories about such visits from the elders, your Grace.” He looked up as Twilight walked over to her seat. “Princess.”

“Ambassador,” Twilight returned politely. She waited patiently for Celestia and Luna to take their seats, before she and the others in the room sat as well. A moment later, a bell chimed, and then a number of waiters entered the room, each pushing a cart with a pair of covered platters on them. As she watched, Twilight saw that almost all of the ponies at the table were choosing the left side platters, which were revealed as a standard vegetarian dish when their lids were removed, while Swift-Pad had selected one from the right side, which held mostly meat. She was about to accept a vegetarian platter for herself when she saw what Celestia was doing and decided to order a mixed salad. That caught a few stares from the ponies but Fancy Pants simply chuckled and ordered the same for himself.

“So Swift-Pad, I know you are of High-Leap pack but do you know how Swim-Well pack fairs?” he asked the wolf.

“They do well; they bring in more fish as they have just launched several new fishing boats,” Swift-Pad answered.

“That’s excellent news,” Fancy Pants said with a light chuckle as he began to eat his fish salad. He let out a pleased sound as he bit into a piece. “Oh this is marvelous; you simply cannot get good fish in Equestria.”

“I recall Rainbow Dash saying the same,” Swift-Pad said with a nod of his head. “She mentioned it wasn’t easy to get ‘the good stuff’ here, in part because it was rather expensive.” He glanced over at Twilight. “That was an hour or so before you and I met, Princess, and not that long after I first came through the forest.”

Twilight nodded. “I can understand. And my compliments to the chefs, this is quite good.”

More than half of the ponies at the table were looking regretfully at their plates now; it took her a moment to realize that they wanted to try the same dish she and the other princesses were having for some possible political reason. If they ate the same, maybe they thought it would make them appear the same and thus lead to thinking the same? It was completely ridiculous, but at the same time…

Political logic, she thought to herself with a mental sigh. Sometimes I wonder if it’ll ever make sense to me.

“I do not see the big deal, if you ask me,” Blueblood huffed, interrupting her thoughts. “I tried it in the past, but as a pony, such things do not agree with me.”

“And yet, you have relished aquatic foods in previous events,” Fancy Pants told him with a slight smirk. “I recall how you quite enjoyed the shrimp toast that we had at that last meeting with one of the griffon ambassadors.”

Blueblood’s face reddened, but he said nothing more, just turning back to his salad, and Twilight mentally smiled at the blue-maned stallion’s actions. I’ll definitely have to share this with Rarity, she thought to herself. She could see the edges of a smirk on Swift-Pad’s face as well.

Deciding to ignore Blueblood, Twilight turned back to Swift-Pad. “I was not aware that the Packlands operated in the fishing industry,” she said.

“We operate in much of the alternative food industry,” Swift-Pad said with a slight twitch of his ear. “We cater to the nations that Equestria is incapable of meeting in terms of dietary needs.” That caused a number of frowns from around the table, but Twilight merely nodded in understanding, remembering her own past experiences and what he’d said earlier in the day. For a moment, she thought back to her trip through the mirror and how she’d found out about the human diet; she was lucky she’d managed to stick with a vegetarian menu for herself the entire time, but she knew full well where some of the other foods her friends there usually enjoyed had come from, and she could only imagine what some of the ponies here would say if they ever heard about it. Even if the animals over there were non-sapient, Equestria’s general reaction to an entire new species of meat-eaters would likely not be a pleasant one. She wondered what the wolves would think if they ever found out.

Forcing herself off that train of thought for now, she gave him a friendly smile. “I have heard some stories in how you manage your crops,” she said, causing everyone including both Celestia and Luna to look at her. “You use natural methods, no weather team right?”

“That is correct, your Grace,” Swift-Pad said slowly.

“I would love to see it one day; both your homeland and how your farming methods compare to ours,” Twilight said, doing her best to control her excitement at all the wide eyes she was getting, especially from Celestia. “If you think such a thing could be arranged, of course.”

“I,” Swift-Pad stammered, clearly lost for words at this unexpected turn of events. He looked at Celestia who seemed equally as surprised but was able to relax her face before anyone actually noticed. "I believe that it can be arranged,” he said, looking at her with interest.

“That’s wonderful,” Twilight said with a wide smile before taking a bit of her salad. “Mmm, this is just wonderful.”

Chapter Twelve

The rest of the dinner progressed smoothly from that point on; polite questions were directed towards Twilight and Swift-Pad, probing about how their lives were doing (to which she answered that she was doing fine), how their friends were doing, good as well though Twilight noticed that Blueblood shuddered when he heard Rarity’s name. She also saw Swift-Pad’s ear twitch at this, and had a pretty good idea of what he was thinking. Mentally, she promised to tell him about it as soon as possible.

As she continued her observations, she noticed that Swift-Pad’s ear flicked a bit faster when he was asked about his own friends, and wondered what that was about. Still, she decided not to pry too deeply as it was clear he didn’t want to say anything publicly.

Finally, as the meal drew to a close, Princess Celestia rose from her seat. “That was a wonderful meal, and I thank you all for attending,” she said. “And now, I feel we should adjourn for a short while. Ambassador Swift-Pad, Princess Twilight,” she said as she looked at the two. “The official signing ceremony will take place in one hour.”

“I shall be there, your Grace,” Swift-Pad said.

“As shall I,” Twilight added as she stood up and walked towards the door where Pinkie Pie was waving her over. Twilight wasn’t sure how she managed not to react to the sight but she did with what she hoped was proper grace and confidence. Stepping into the hallway, she found herself quickly dragged off into a smaller dining room where all her friends were waiting eagerly. Looking over the table, she could see trays of hayburgers and hay fries, along with assorted other items that Twilight thought the various nobles would refer to, rather snootily, as ‘commoner fare’. She could also tell that her friends had quite enjoyed them, judging by how much had been eaten already, and briefly considered joining in. Then she mentally shook her head - much as she liked what was there, she’d already eaten enough to satisfy herself.

“So how did it go, Twi?” Rainbow Dash asked eagerly, rocking in her seat as she put a hayburger on her Manechurian plate.

“Well enough,” Twilight replied as she sat down, giving Rarity a look as her friend was trying to levitate a brush and some mane products over to her. “Really?”

“A little touch up never hurts, darling,” Rarity replied with an innocent smile on her face.

Twilight shook her head in exasperation, but allowed the other mare to work on her.

“So tell us, how was it?” Rarity asked as she examined Twilight’s mane, with a few muttered surprises that seemed to bode well for Twilight.

“I could have done without one of the ponies being present, but on the other hoof, I think you and Swift-Pad will get along even better once he finds out about your dislike for the pony in question,” Twilight replied. “His dislike of Prince Blueblood is for very different reasons, but it’s something you two definitely have in common.”

“Ah can’t believe that varmint done got Swift-Pad annoyed that fast,” Applejack said before coughing after seeing Rarity’s pointed look.

“Actually, his dislike predates Rarity’s,” Twilight replied. “The wolves have had it out for his family since the time of Blueblood’s great-grandfather - he insulted them rather badly at one point, and since they haven’t been able to make him pay for his insult...”

“An’ they want to make his descendents pay?” Applejack asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Given the insult, I don’t blame them,” Twilight told her. “Besides, Blueblood offends them all on his own just by acting like himself.”

“Now that I cannot doubt in the least,” Rarity said. “But… just what did that stallion do? The other Blueblood, I mean.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “He deliberately called them ‘backwood hicks’ and a few other things, and they’ve been out for blood ever since.”

There was a round of startled exclamations, but Twilight raised a hoof. “At any rate, I’m hoping Equestria can make up for it soon, and I plan to personally take charge of that.”

Applejack harrumphed. “Can’t say as Ah blame them,” she said. “So, what else?”

“Not much else, I am afraid,” Princess Celestia said as she sauntered into the room and made a beeline for the leftover food spread on the table, already levitating a plate and adding a number of eyebrow raising items onto it. “Those dinners tend to be very stuffy and very little is actually said. I am also hoping I can trust you girls not to inform anypony that I am taking a small break from my diet,” she said as she added another box of hayfries onto her plate with a completely straight face. “Though I have to admit, I am very impressed you managed to get yourself an invitation to the Packlands. We have been trying to reopen our embassy for years to no avail and even Luna has been stonewalled in her attempts to set up a simple diplomatic meet and greet since she returned.”

Since Rarity had finished her work, Twilight bowed. “I think the fact that we’ve gotten to know one another helped,” she said. “I have… some idea of why they haven’t been willing to meet with Luna yet, but I’m not certain and don’t want to say anything until I am.” She considered. “As for myself, I have shown my willingness to learn and to respect the wolves’ culture, and that of others. At the very least, Swift-Pad knows that in that regard, I am nothing like the last several ponies who entered their lands.”

“And on that topic,” Celestia cast a glance at the rest of her friends and suddenly the atmosphere changed completely. “I suspect that all of you will be invited to join Twilight as well, being her close friends. While I am sure that Twilight will be given diplomatic immunity due to being a leader of another nation, the rest of you will more than likely not have such protection. So you will need to know their laws and customs to avoid any faux pas.” She turned her head towards Rainbow Dash. “If you do go, miss Dash, you will have to remember that they do not look well on weather manipulation or any basic cloud manipulation for that matter, which means you cannot buck any clouds or move them without proper approval from the pack-leaders who control that terrority.”

“Already had a talk about that with Swift-Pad the other day,” Rainbow Dash said. “I know to behave myself. Unlike those idiots who try to cause trouble at the border.”

Celestia simply nodded her head and then turned to Fluttershy but before she could even start, Fluttershy nodded in turn and let out a few small growls, prompting Celestia to blink in surprise.

“You know the wolf language?” she asked.

Fluttershy nodded. “I made a point to learn about it,” she said. “Swift-Pad isn’t the first wolf of the civilized packs that I’ve met. I found one of his people coming out of the woods near my home a long time ago, who had been on what he called a meditation journey. He taught me about their culture, and about the differences between they and the wild wolves.”

“Then you have a decided advantage,” Celestia told her. “I am pleased.”

She then turned to Pinkie Pie from the blushing Fluttershy. “To be perfectly honest, I am not certain what to say to you,” she said. “Quite frankly, you are so far different from any wolf I have ever met…”

Pinkie shrugged. “It’s all good. Swifty and I get along just fine; I think I confuse him, but then again I confuse most people. And yeah, I know I can be overwhelming - I have my good days and my bad days. So I think I can handle myself or trust the girls to stop me if I get too out of hoof.”

“Quite.” Celestia looked at Rarity. “In your case, I feel I should warn you, your special talent would make you very… desirable by the wolves.”

“So I have been informed,” Rarity said. “I would be delighted to make arrangements to help them find more of their desired minerals, so long as they ask politely. And may I assume they do not take kindly to attempted, er… allocation of their stones without making arrangements first?”

“That is correct,” Celestia said. “It would be wise to ask before so much as touching one.”

“I shall keep that in mind,” Rarity replied with a faint blush.

Next, Celestia faced Applejack. “As with Rainbow Dash, I will remind you that they do not look well on the use of magic in the growth of their crops, and ask that you not do so while there without any permission.”

“Only magic we really have in our crops is for the Zap Apples, and that’s all in the seeds,” Applejack replied lightly. “Rest of it’s done with just the sweat of our brows and the strength of our backs. ‘Less we have a surge, but Ah haven’t had that problem since Ah was younger than Apple Bloom.”

“Good.” Finally, Celestia turned to Spike and looked contemplative. “As with Rarity, I would advise you to restrain yourself around their gems.”

“Learned that lesson when Owlowiscious came to live with us,” Spike said. “And after seeing what happens if one of their runes goes kerflooey? Last thing I want is to bite into one of those suckers.”

“I’m surprised that one of Swift-Pad’s runes malfunctioned; from what I heard he was a rather comptent rune-wolf.”

“Er, it wasn’t one of his runes that malfunctioned,” Twilight said, blushing. “He’s taught me how to make some, and I messed up the first few times.”

“Really?” Celestia’s eyebrow raised at that and turned to look at Twilight. “I’m very surprised to hear that. They usually prefer to keep their magic, and certain other aspects of themselves, a secret from most outsiders.”

“He gave me a book about them,” Twilight replied. “I’m not allowed to share it or its contents though.”

Celestia’s eyebrow arched further. “You have been given a most precious gift then,” she said. “I am impressed, Twilight. It would seem that in just two days, you have accomplished more for our relations with the wolves than any other ponies I have known in hundreds of years.”

Twilight simply blushed at that, and felt herself starting to look off to the side before she remembered what Swift-Pad had taught her and brought her focus back to Celestia. “I am only doing what I feel is right; learning more about our neighbours and hopefully building better friendships. It is what you sent me to Ponyville to learn after all.”

Celesia just beamed at that and looked extremely proud.

“That reminds me,” Twilight said. “Speaking of our neighbors, do we have any kind of formal relationship with the Dragon Lands?”

Celestia looked at her in surprise. “Not really. We stay out of their way, and for the most part they stay out of our areas, except on rare occasions like the one you all had to deal with.” She nodded briefly to Fluttershy. “There’s never been a formal embassy with them because they just aren’t interested, and some have been downright hostile. The Dragon Lord has never sanctioned any of these hostilities, mind, at least not according to the few individuals we had opportunity to question.”

Twilight nodded. “Well, apparently they’ve talked with the wolves from time to time… Swift-Pad said he had counterparts there.”

“I am not surprised.” Celestia shook her head. “The wolves do tend to get along with other races better than we do… not for lack of trying on my part, of course.” She looked curious. “What brought this up?”

“Well, we were talking about the last few dragons Spike and I had met, and Swift-Pad got so angry when he heard what those teenage ones were up to… he promised to send word to his counterparts there so they’d tell the Dragon Lord, and then Garble and his cronies could be punished.”

Celestia looked thoughtful. “Ah, the incident with the dragon migration. Philomena was positively furious when she found out. I told her when Spike and I were writing back and forth about it,” she explained. “She’ll be pleased to hear about this.”

“Ah’m sorry but do we really have that bad relatin’s out there?” Applejack asked. “Ah know what Swift-Pad said, but… not that Ah doubt him, but Ah can’t believe everyone hates us for some reason or another.”

“The situation is complicated but every nation has had their own grievances towards us and others,” Celestia said wearily. “The yaks, for instance, withdrew into their own borders over a thousand moons ago, and haven’t communicated with the outside world since. They tend to be very… sensitive about almost anything, which is one of the reasons most nations have just let them be, rather than risk offending them. The dragons too have tended to keep to themselves, as do the diamond dogs and the griffon kingdoms. For that matter...” She pursed her lips. “We haven’t heard from the Hippogriff kingdom in a very long time. They were once friendly with us, but long before any of you were ever born, they suddenly recalled their ambassador, and there’s been no word since. Their ambassador did say it was matters back home and nothing we had done, but still…” She trailed off, a worried look on her face. “We will need to make a better effort into understanding what exactly happened and hopefully bring the world out of its isolationist mindset we are all in.”

“Well what about the buffalos? I mean I know how ticked off they were by us claiming some of their land, because supposedly we didn’t know it was already theirs,” Rainbow Dash asked with Celestia wincing.

“We are still trying to unravel that little tangle,” she said. “We have launched a full investigation into exactly how those land deeds were written up in first place, let alone sold to those settlers. There is some suspicion that it was done as a deliberate attempt at sabotaging both sides, but no concrete proof.”

“Who would want to sabotage our relationships with other nations?” Fluttershy asked nervously. “And why?”

“It could be any number of things. Old prejudices, simple egotism, attempting to keep alliances from being formed so they could have a strong position when they launched their own coup someday…” Celestia sighed. “Even simple malevolence towards others for no real reason, as horrifying as that idea is. Also, there have been many who have opposed us over the years and this would be a form of diplomatic revenge by making what other nations think of us true.” Celestia tilted her head to the side. “It could also be a genuine error in the paperwork.” She then tilted her head to the other side. “Or it could be someone trying to make a tidy profit in scamming unexpecting ponies. It would not be the first time such things have happened nor would it be the last.”

Applejack let out a growl. “An’ I know just the no-good-snakes-in-the-grass who’d do such a thing,” she said.

“If you mean the pair who tried to scam your family out of their land, we’re keeping an eye on those two,” Celestia said. “While they are not staying honest, they are doing their best to keep from attracting too much suspicion, and we haven’t caught them attempting any land deals since they left Ponyville.” She gave the younger mare a look. “Distasteful as their methods may be, everypony has a right to make a living, and they have yet to actually break any laws that would warrant an arrest. At least, none that we can prove.”

“Selling false land deeds ain’t a crime?”

“We have examined one of their land deeds agreement and it does say in the fine print that these lands might not actually be available to be bought, they are to check upon them themselves and other little details that have protected them from prosecution. While there have been attempts to close some of the legal loopholes, including legislating size on the text so as to ensure it’s readable without requiring ocular assistance, they are very hard to get through.” Celestia snorted. “I once found a contract with two sets of clauses that were so small, they required our best microscopes to even know they were there, but as long as they were there, they were legal once the contract was signed. I have seen other tricks with contracts that were just as sneaky… though I am glad to say that we proved one of those in particular constituted fraud, since the first copy of the contract signed was the only copy they actually read, while the others were not identical. We were able to prosecute the one responsible, and see to it that justice was served.”

“Do you have to deal with that often?” Rarity asked.

“Constantly.” Celestia did not look pleased. “It is one of the least pleasant aspects of my duties, and one of the reasons I have an entire staff of lawyers to help with my work.” She then turned to Twilight. “You have some years to go before you are to begin your legal studies so that you can handle any legal matter. As of now, all you can do is advise our ponies, Twilight. If anypony tries to bring you a bill, law, prospal or any legal contract, no matter how beneficial or well intended it sounds, you are fully expected to forward them on to myself or my legal staff to handle until you have received the proper training.”

“Understood,” Twilight said, bowing her head and using her magic to retrieve the plate of junk foods Celestia had gathered for herself. “I’m sorry, Princess Celestia but as you said, you are on a diet and I would not be a good friend if I were to let you eat this. That and I think Luna would be cross with me if I were to let you do this.”

Celestia let out a nicker, but then shook her head in resignation. “Fair point, Twilight. But I must advise you, not all my diets have been equal. I once spent a year on what I called a seafood diet.”

“Oh?” Twilight looked at her curiously. “Any fish in particular?”

Celestia chuckled. “As I told somepony back then when they asked, my seafood diet was not as one would expect from the name.”

“Then… what was it?”

“It was actually a ‘see-food’ diet. I see food, I eat it.”

Pinkie Pie started laughing hysterically. “That’s genius!”

Celestia smiled at her. “I thought so too… but then I had to spend several years working off all the weight I put on.” Her expression turned more serious. “Regrettably, I think we have gotten somewhat off track. As I said before, I am very impressed with your progress Twilight.”

Twilight smiled. “I may be an alicorn now, but I will always have more to learn… and one day, maybe, to teach myself.”

There was a whispered “Egghead” from Rainbow Dash, but Twilight ignored it. “At any rate, thank you for giving me this opportunity, Princess.”

“The pleasure has always been mine,” Celestia told her. “I just wish more ponies I knew were as fond of learning and broadening their horizons as you are.”

Spike chuckled. “Yeah, some of Twilight’s old classmates certainly were like that… of course, I still think Twilight would have had more fun if she’d spent more time studying with some of them outside of school.” He blinked. “Speaking of, I don’t think either of us have been back to your old tower since we first came to Ponyville. I kept meaning to go back and straighten up the place, but what with one thing after another, I never had time.”

“I thought you would have already done that Twilight,” Pinkie Pie spoke up.

“No…” Twilight shook her head. “It never even occurred to me. In fact, I think I must have left out that copy of Predictions and Prophecies I was studying that day.” She looked at Spike. “Thank you for reminding me, I’ll get right on it… after we get done with today’s meetings.”

“I’d love to see it myself, darling,” Rarity spoke up. “If you don’t mind, of course.”

Twilight smiled. “You’re all welcome to come. It’s… probably more than a little messy though.”

“Eh, can’t be worse than some of the dorm rooms I’ve seen,” Rainbow Dash said. “Some of the guys there were real slobs… up until about ten minutes before room inspections, then they turned into neat freaks just long enough that they wouldn’t get tossed out.”

“As is always the case,” Celestia said with a weary sigh. “I remember visiting Blueblood’s room when he was younger, and it took all my self-control not to immediately summon every maid in the castle to come and deal with it.”

“Somehow, that does not surprise me,” Rarity said.

Fluttershy flicked her ears. “Zephyr was like that too…”

Twilight looked at her curiously. “Who?”

“My little brother, Zephyr Breeze.” Fluttershy ducked her head. “I… don’t like to talk about him much.”

Twilight blinked, then turned to Rainbow Dash. “Are you the only one of my friends without a brother or sister? Besides Scootaloo, that is - I know how you two feel about one another.”

“Yup.” Rainbow Dash nodded. “Only child growing up. Not that my folks didn’t want at least one more, but it just never happened. ‘S why they kept cheering me on and encouraging me so much - I was the only chance they had to do that kind of thing.”

Pinkie wrapped her front legs around Rainbow Dash. “Aww… I can’t imagine growing up without any brothers or sisters. I’ve got three! Two big, and one just a few minutes littler than me!”

Twilight blinked. “You’re a twin? But… I saw your family portrait! You’re the only pink one! So who...”

“Yuppers!” Pinkie nodded eagerly. “Marble’s a lot quieter and shyer and grayer than I am. Kind of like a mix of Mac and Fluttershy and a rock.”

Applejack chuckled. “You think Mac’s quiet now, you should have heard him back when we were younger. Couldn’t get him to stop talkin’ for nothin’, back in the days before Apple Bloom was born. There’s a whole long story there about how he finally learned to think before he spoke, but Ah don’t think we’ve got time for it now. Maybe later, after things are done here.”

“I’ll keep it in mind,” Twilight promised. “For now, I think I will just do what I came in here for and relax.”

“An excellent idea,” Celestia said with a smile and exited the room, though not before snitching one packet of hay fries from the plate Twilight still held. Watching her go, Twilight shook her head in bemusement, then turned back to her friends to chat some more.

Chpater Thirteen

After they had spent more time talking with each other, there was a knock on the door.

“Oh, it must be time for me to get back,” Twilight said, glancing around for a clock, just noticing now there actually was no means to keep track of time in this room. Using her magic to open the door, she saw a face she’d rather not have seen.

“You are correct, Twilight,” Blueblood said dryly, flinching away as he saw Rarity peering over Twilight’s shoulder, a disapproving look on her face as she eyed him. “Let us go and deal with this little show, shall we?”

“Er, yes,” Twilight said, feeling a bit off balanced by this but doing her best to carry on and try to smooth things with him and Swift-Pad. “I understand your reluctance to deal with the wolves but-”

“You know nothing,” he said snidely, looking down at her. “You might have some knowledge,” he raised a hoof to stall her friends from saying anything before he continued. “But let me guess, he told you of what my great-grandfather did and nothing else?”

“What do you mean, nothing else?” Twilight asked, concerned.

“Since then, my family has had to deal with the wolves constantly trying to have us brought to their lands to fight to the death over some backhoofed idiotic comment,” Blueblood snorted angrily. “We can’t apologize because they will not accept it and anytime we travel outside of Equestria, we have to be extremely careful as any misstep that would land us into prison would lead to them attempting to extradite us from that land. Aunt Celestia may not be willing to let them take us from Equestria, but other nations do not feel the same way about extraditions of foreign nationals.” He looked rather disgusted. “Which is most displeasing for me, given my own desires to see other parts of the world. Yet my enjoyment of such is greatly reduced by the fact that I have to look over my shoulder for possible threats the entire time!”

“I’m sure that it wouldn’t happen, I mean-” Twilight began before she was cut off.

“Of course it wouldn’t happen; it would bring the wrath of Equestria down on anyone foolish enough to do it,” Blueblood rolled his eyes. “But do you honestly think that Swift-Pad has Equestria’s best interest or the Packland’s interest at heart? He knew of that section that would be found and removed, yet he still tried to get it passed nonetheless. No matter what you think of him, he is acting for his people first.”

The words stung Twilight and she was forced to admit that he was right. It was uncomfortable to acknowledge that Swift-Pad had such ulterior motives and he might have been willing to use her if it wouldn’t be so dangerous for him to do so. It also made her realize that in the future, others would be willing to do so and they wouldn’t be handicapped by being her mentor.

“And miss Belle,” Blueblood looked past her and at the frowning unicorn. “As a member of the royal family, distant as I am, I have inherited a sizeable fortune and a number of lands and I have had far too many mares attempting to attract my attention in order to get their hooves into them. How was I to know you weren’t just another of them, when I had not been told of the identities of the six who brought my… other aunt back to us, until after that night when we first met?” Blueblood didn’t even let her respond before he continued. “And even if you were and are, does that excuse you for trying to seduce me without even trying to get to know me properly? As it was, I was simply enjoying myself in trying to lose another mare that got her eyes on me. I must admit, you lasted longer than most which is admirable in a sense.” He gave her a smirk at that.

Rarity did not look happy. “May I remind you that we barely said hello before you began acting like… yourself, and I hardly had a chance to attempt to get to know you?”

“I saw that look in your eyes the moment you got here for the Grand Galloping Gala so I knew what I was in for,” he shrugged his shoulders, his face becoming softer.

“Fair enough,” Rarity said, shifting on her hooves. “But I was hoping to see the true gentlestallion within, and not just the princely exterior… except you kept that side well hidden behind the airs of disdain, didn’t you?”

Blueblood looked rather uncomfortable at that. “Yes, well…” He looked around. “I believe I have said my part. Princess, shall we?”

Twilight nodded coolly, and turned to her friends. “I’ll be back later, girls. I’ll see you then.”

Once the door had closed and she and Blueblood were a little ways down the hall, she looked at him, her eyes narrowed. “First of all, I’m still rather irritated at you on my friend’s behalf.”

“And you are well within your rights to be so, but I stand by my decision,” Blueblood said stiffly. “She was interested in me mainly as a prince, at least at first, and I abhor those who see me as some prize to be won.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed even more briefly, but she restrained herself. “Second, Swift-Pad said nothing about your family’s poor relationship with the wolves, prior to our arrival here,” she said. “Princess Celestia herself explained the origins of this disagreement to me and what it meant for your family, and only after the ambassador expressed his… displeasure at seeing you. Of how Nobleblood purposely insulted their way of life in such a manner that they were determined to make he or his family pay.”

“I see.” Blueblood fell silent, as he and Twilight continued walking. Finally, they arrived at the main throne room, where the other Princesses, Swift-Pad and a number of reporters were waiting. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna.” He nodded his head towards them before looking at Swift-Pad. “Ambassador,” he said politely with the wolf nodding back. “I do hope we are not late.”

“Not all, your highness,” Swift-Pad said just as politely with Luna waving them over to the table where the documents were laid. “Shall we sign these, your Graces?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. Taking up a quill and her Royal Seal, she signed the papers, one after another, before pressing the seal into the paper beside her signature. Stepping aside, she let Luna take her place and repeat the process. Then, she signalled to Twilight, who stepped up beside her.

“Your own Royal Seal,” Celestia whispered as she hoofed it over. “I meant to tell you earlier, but with everything else that was happening…”

Accepting it, Twilight took a moment to look at the mark on its underside. She relaxed at the sight of her own Cutie Mark, then did as the others had, signing each document and sealing them.

Finally, Swift-Pad stepped up to sign and seal it.

“The ratification is complete,” Celestia said. “I thank all of you for witnessing this furthering step of progress between our two nations.”

“In addition,” Swift-Pad said, standing next to Princess Celestia and giving Twilight a look. “Her young Grace Twilight has extended her hoof and will be visiting the Packlands when I return home.”

There were more mutterings at this with pictures of Twilight being taken almost to the point where she was blinded before Luna raised a wing which attracted their attention. “That will be all for now,” she said.

Still muttering, the reporters all shuffled out, and the doors were closed behind them. Once they were gone, Celestia smiled brightly. “That went well,” she said.

“Quite.” Blueblood raised an eyebrow at her. “Well, now that my duties as witness are concluded, I must be off. Enjoy the rest of your day, Aunt Celestia. Aunt Luna. Twilight.” With that, he headed out the back door of the room.

“From what I heard, that went better than the other times,” Luna said, looking at Swift-Pad.

“No acknowledgment is far better than the other times,” Swift-Pad replied. “We hope that one day he can do better than his ancestors and proper amends can be made.”

Twilight was about to agree with him when she recalled what Blueblood had told her and rethought Swift-Pad’s words through his point of view. Unsure if agreeing with him would condone sending Blueblood away to his death, she said nothing and after both Celestia and Luna had not added anything to it, she felt that she’d made the right decision.

“Come along,” Luna said to the wolf. “We have a room for you to spend the night in while we prepare Twilight’s trip to the Packlands.”

“Very well,” Swift-Pad said, following her out of the room and leaving Twilight and Celestia alone.

“Shall we continue onwards with our discussion, Twilight,” Celestia asked with a smile on her face.

“Actually, I have to decline; I promised the girls I would show them my old tower after we were done here.” Twilight saw Celestia blink in surprise before she hid it with a smile.

“Of course,” she said. “I remember. And once you finish there, you might want to show them your old room in the castle, before we decided you and Spike needed more space and you moved out there. In fact, I think there are still some of your things in it that you forgot to take with you when you moved out...”

“Oh!” Twilight brightened. “Right. Wow, I almost forgot…”

Celestia nodded. “To be honest, I may have been putting off telling you.” She looked down. “I make a point of stopping in there every year or so, just to remind myself of what it was like back when I had a young student who looked up to me so. I am more proud of you than I can say, Twilight. But I can’t help but miss those days, when I felt truly needed by a young one.”

“Princess…” Twilight blushed. Then she quirked her head. “Do you… do that with any of your other old students?”

“Twilight, I must be honest.” Celestia looked somewhat saddened. “Before Sunset Shimmer, I hadn’t taken a personal student in at least two or three centuries, and the last ones before that cleaned out their rooms before they set out. Sunset though… after she left, I sealed her room off, and nopony has been inside since. And then, I didn’t think I could stand to take another pony under my wing, and risk the same heartbreak I felt from losing her. Until I found you. So eager to learn for the sake of learning.” She smiled. “You brightened my days in ways I cannot even begin to describe. And… and I’m keeping you from your friends, aren’t I?”

Twilight looked up and her and smiled. “It’s okay, Princess. For this, I don’t mind holding off for a few minutes.”

Celestia smiled back. “Thank you, Twilight. But I think it’s time you kept your promise to the others.” She straightened out. “I do want to talk with you some more though, before you leave for the Packlands. Would you mind joining me this evening?”

“I’d be delighted.” Twilight smiled up at her before trotting out of the room.

Nearly half an hour later, the six mares and Spike were standing outside the tower.

“Well, this is it,” Twilight said. “My second home away from home.”

“Second?” Rainbow Dash asked. “What was your first?”

“My old room in Canterlot Castle, which Princess Celestia reminded me about earlier.” Twilight looked at them. “I really need to keep better track of these things…”

“I’ll say,” Spike muttered.

Twilight gave him a look, before leading them up the stairs. “The door’s up here,” she said with a chuckle. “I hope they didn’t change the lock.”

“They wouldn’t have,” Spike pointed out. “Princess Celestia owns the building, remember? That’s why we got to stay here.”

“Right.” Twilight took a deep breath. “Just… it’s been so long, and I’m being a little silly about this, aren’t I?”

“What’s wrong with being silly?” Pinkie asked. “I’m silly all the time!”

Twilight smiled at her. “Yeah…” Unlocking the door, she opened it to reveal a large, multi-leveled room.

“Whoo-ee,” Applejack whistled as she saw the interior. “You weren’t kiddin’ about this place being messy.” Next to her, Rarity winced at the sight of all the dust and cobwebs.

“Well,” Twilight said firmly. “I’m going to do something about it now.” Trotting in, she looked around, and groaned. “Eeesh…”

Feeling a hoof on her shoulder, she looked back to see a smiling Fluttershy. “We’ll all help,” she said. “You and Spike don’t have to do this alone.”

“Thanks, Fluttershy.” Twilight smiled gratefully at her friend.

“Hey!” Spike suddenly exclaimed as he picked up something from the floor. “Here’s the present I was going to give to Moondancer! You know, back before we got distracted by Nightmare Moon and all.”

“Moondancer?” Rarity asked.

“An old classmate of Twilights,” Spike said. “She actually invited us to a party that last day, but Twilight was too preoccupied. That was the day she read about Nightmare Moon coming back, and then Princess Celestia sent us down to Ponyville.” He looked disappointed. “I was really looking forward to that party…”

Pinkie was suddenly in Twilight’s face. “You got invited to a party and you didn’t go‽” she practically shrieked.

“Pinkie, you know what I was like back then!” Twilight protested. “This was before I realized how important friendship was, and what I was missing out on!”

“Calm down there, sugarcube,” Applejack spoke as she laid a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder. “We’ll get this all sorted out.”

“Right. Right!” Pinkie had a firm look on her face. “Come on, girls! Let’s get cleaning!”

Then she dashed into the kitchen, dragging Rarity behind her. A moment later, there was the sound of a door opening, followed by a high-pitched shriek.

“Rarity!” Spike hurried in the direction of the sound, before Rarity materialized in front of him so fast she might well have teleported.

“Twilight,” she hissed. “There is something big and slimy and moving in your refrigerator!”

Twilight cringed. “I…”

“I’m on it,” Spike interrupted and headed back the direction Rarity had come from. Halfway there, he turned back and looked at Twilight. “I told you leaving those old mixtures in the back was a mistake.”

Twilight cringed again. “Okay, okay, you were right…”

“Mixtures?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I was working on a few experimental potions that needed to be kept cold until they were ready, so I stuck them in the back bottom of the fridge, behind the mayonnaise, next to the ketchup and to the left of the coleslaw,” Twilight sheepishly admitted. “With everything going on back then, I forgot all about them when we left Canterlot.”

A tentacle briefly reached into the room before there was another cry, this one unidentifiable, and then it dissolved.

“Thanks for finding the baking soda so quickly, Pinkie!” Spike’s voice said before he came back out. “Okay, creature’s gone. It’s safe to go back in there now.”

“Creature?” Twilight blinked. “Did you say… gah.” She shook her head. “I must have really messed that one up.”

“No kidding,” Spike said as he walked up beside her. “Either that or Discord’s been here. It looked like the sort of thing he might have done.”

A scroll popped out of thin air next to him, and he unfurled it. “Dear Spike… I resemble that remark. Yours truly, Discord.” He rolled it back up. “Well, he didn’t deny it.”

“Let’s save that for later,” Twilight said quickly, seeing as Fluttershy looked about ready to speak up. “Regardless of who caused it, be it Discord or me, it’s dealt with. Right?”

“Yep. The creature that lived in the refrigerator, behind the mayonnaise, next to the ketchup and to the left of the coleslaw, is gone.” He held out a claw to Rarity. “May I escort you back in?”

She nodded somewhat hesitantly, before the two headed into the kitchen again.

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Only you could remember where you left that thing, Twilight.”

“What?” Twilight looked indignant. “Am I the only one here who memorizes the contents of their fridge and where it’s all kept?”

“Yes,” a chorus of voices said.

Twilight gave them all a dirty look, then sighed. “At any rate, let’s get this place cleaned up.”

With that, the group set to work.

A few hours later, Twilight looked around. “Well, everything’s all set and livable again,” she said. “And if I weren’t getting ready to go on a long trip, I’d probably take a lot of this back down to Ponyville.”

“Mm-hm.” Spike nodded. “Actually, before we go…” He scooped up one item. “I think I ought to take this out to Moondancer.”

“That’s a good idea Spike,” Twilight said. “Um… if we can find her. I just realized, I have no idea where she lives.”

“Not to worry!” Pinkie’s face was suddenly in hers. “I can find anypony you like! Especially somepony who throws a party!”

“Great!” Twilight backed up a bit. “So, let’s get going!”

Once all seven were out and Twilight had locked up the tower again, she saw Pinkie sniffing the ground. Exchanging glances with the others, she trotted after her most eccentric friend.

Pinkie’s instincts led them to an old, dilapidated-looking house, and there were several cringes at the sight. Finally, Twilight knocked on the door, which half-crumbled under her hoof. Withdrawing it, she called out. “Hello? Anypony home?”

For a moment, there was no reply. Then, the door creaked open and another unicorn, wearing a pair of taped-up glasses and with her frazzled-looking mane tied up above her head, stuck her face out. “Yes?”

“Moondancer, it’s me! Twilight! Your old classmate? How are you…” A piece of the roof fell off right then, making her flinch. “Doing?”

“I’m trying to study.” The door slammed shut.

Twilight blinked. “Is it just me, or is she…”

“That’s not the Moondancer I remember. Not with that mood.” Spike looked up at Twilight. “I think we’d better go for now, but we’re not done here. Not by a long shot.”

Twilight nodded, then turned around to see Pinkie’s mane had flattened. “That’s one unhappy pony,” the pink mare whispered. “We’ve got to do something, and I mean something!”

“No kiddin’,” Applejack agreed.

“I…” Twilight began, a frown on her face. “I agree that we need to do something but right now out of the blue might seem a bit forceful or insincere...”

Pinkie’s cheeks puffed out. “But… she’s so unhappy!”

“I know, Pinkie. But we need to step back and think about how to handle this,” Twilight told her. “Remember how things got when you wouldn’t back down that one time, and Cranky got real mad at you?”

Pinkie’s mane flattened a bit. “Yeah… okay.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Applejack reassured her as she stepped up to the other mare. “Like Twilight said. But not right now.” She glanced up at the sky. “It’s gettin’ pretty late…”

“And I need to be back at the castle to meet with Princess Celestia, and then prepare for tomorrow’s trip,” Twilight said. “Let’s go.”

“That sounds wonde-” Rarity began only to cut off as a pair of wolves walked up to them. “Can we help you?”

“Lady Belle, Dash and Pie, miss Fluttershy and Applejack and sir Spike?” the wolf on the left asked while the one on the right reached through his pack.

The six of them shared a look before nodding their heads.

“On behalf of our nation, we humbly offer you an invitation to our land alongside her Grace Twilight,” the wolf said, while the other handed out a set of invitations. “We hope to see all of you very soon.”

There was a quick round of “Thank you”s, with the wolves nodding their heads in response before walking off.

“Well that makes things easy, don’t they?” Applejack said with a grin. “Ah think we need to talk to some folks ’bout squaring things back home for tomorrow.”

“Maybe Raven Inkwell?” Spike offered.

“Uh, who’s that and what do they do?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well, she is Celestia’s assistant and she handles this type of thing or knows who to talk to for it,” Twilight said with a shrug then looked at her friends. She was about to tell them that they really didn’t need to do this before she stopped herself. She knew that they would come with her regardless and if they were willing to put their own lives on hold for this sudden trip, then she could at least not disregard their decision so flippantly. “Thank you girls for coming with me; I know this isn’t something any of you have planned for and you do have lives of your own, so again, thank you for coming along.”

“It’s our pleasure,” Fluttershy said with a smile. “Besides, ever since Well-Hidden told me about his homeland, I’ve wanted to visit.”

“Yeah; this should be cool,” Rainbow Dash said. “I already put Cloud Kicker in charge of the weather bureau for while I was gonna be up here, I’ll just let her know I’ll be away longer than I thought.”

“Ah can get Mac to cover and if he ain’t up ta the whole work, he can always get som’ help,” Applejack said.

Rarity looked concerned. “I’m afraid I might have to simply close my shop for while I’m away,” she said. “Fortunately, I am quite caught up on my orders for now.”

“And the Cakes gave me a week off before we left this morning, so I’m good there,” Pinkie chimed in.

Twilight looked at Fluttershy. “What about you?”

“Oh, Harry can watch over things,” Fluttershy said. “Even Angel doesn’t like to misbehave when I leave a bear in charge, after all. And they both know to send for Dr. Fauna if there’s an emergency while I’m away.”

“Right.” Twilight shook her head. “I think we’d better get moving again. Spike, would you please help them find Raven so they can get everything home figured out; I still need to see Princess Celestia.”

There were several nods of assent before Spike led them off in one direction and Twilight left in another.