“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.