“How bad is it, captain?” Robin Hoof, Lady of Trottingham, asked.

“It could have been worse, most of the damaged buildings can be repaired within weeks, but it’ll be months before we can rebuild the castle wall that was obliterated,” Cloudy Sunset replied.

After the Gem Fido war and the knighting ceremony, she had returned to Trottingham and joined the local guard, as the weather patrol work didn’t really amuse her after what she had seen and done. In just a few months, she had risen to captain of the guard, having earned the respect of her comrades after single-hoofedly locating and beating five bandits. Three of them were former members of the Merry Mares, who had decided to continue stealing and living as outlaws even after Robin Hoof regained her rightful place as the Lady of Trottingham from Bruce Mayne’s hooves.

“At least Havoc got rid of that twin-headed dragon. Tirek and Discord only cared about stealing magic, but that one could have done terrible things while we were too weak to even move,” Robin Hoof said.

“All in all, we’ve been lucky. I didn’t know you had met sir Havoc before, Lady Hoof.”

“It’s a long story. He helped us defeat the old sheriff, but he had to leave soon after, and then he joined the war. During his stay here he assumed a pony form to better blend in, so that’s why only a few ponies know he lived here for many months. Keep this information secret. It wouldn’t be fair to blow his cover so he can’t come back and resume his normal pony life if he ever wishes to.”

“Yes, my Lady.”

“Oh, another thing. Do you know Diane, the baker?”

“The castle’s party planner? It’s hard not to meet her.”

“That title is self appointed and she should have asked for permission before deciding to hide confetti and balloons all over the place. Anyways, she and Havoc are very close friends. Should you ever need powerful magic, ask her. She has a magic amulet that managed to nearly knockout Tirek.”

Emerald Sword paced around the hospital’s waiting room, unable to stay still. His wife had kept it hidden from him for all of the war, so he had returned home to find her in an advanced stage of pregnancy. He had been very happy when she revealed it to him, but now he felt more scared and nervous than ever before. To make things worse, he still had to hear news about Canterlot regarding Tirek. For all he knew, the magic-stealing centaur could appear in the Crystal Empire anytime now. Since the whole guard was in high alert so Tirek wouldn’t catch them by surprise, none of his friends was there with him. He had been ordered not to join the rest of the guard while his wife was giving birth, because he would be too distressed to be an effective soldier. Only Gavriila, Lord Drogur’s wife, had decided to keep him company, and he couldn’t guess why she would do that. He had barely exchanged a few words with the diamond dog in all the time she’d been around, but he couldn’t really refuse an offer from someone as important as her.

“I’m not familiar with pony birthing,” she suddenly said, dropping the fashion magazine she had been reading for the last hour. “Just how long does it take?”

“Between 30 minutes and 3 hours,” he quickly replied. He had done his reading to know what to expect.

“Now that I think of it… Just how do you give birth to a unicorn without the horn harming you?”

“I think baby horns are soft and harden a week after they’re born. I’m not sure, crystal ponies have no horns.”

“It’s so strange, how much help you ponies need to create more of your kind. Doctors, magic to lessen the pain, hours in a hospital, and the mortality rate! When I gave birth to my first one, it took me only half an hour and I did it alone. I would have attacked anyone who got too close. It was painful, but nothing out of the ordinary. The other two were the same.”

“Lucky you. Why did you decide to come with me? You don’t even know my wife.”

“Boredom, mostly. Everyone’s worried about that magic stealing monster, seeing someone worry about something else entirely is refreshing.”

“So you aren’t worried? For all we know, he could have destroyed Canterlot and be about to attack us.”

“Of course I’m worried, but there’s nothing I can do so why waste my time whining about it?”

Emerald Sword found himself agreeing with her. They didn’t exchange any more words until a nurse called him. Gavriila left the hospital at the same time Emerald Sword entered the delivery room.

Blueblood sneered. For the last five hours, he had been going over the reports written by the medical team who treated Celestia’s humans. His team of unicorns had gathered them and done their best to heal the injuries caused by their fight against Discord, but many were suffering… ailments that had no known cure. Things had gotten better after Tirek’s defeat, as Discord himself had undone a lot of damage, but some things not even him knew how to fix.

To top it all, he hadn’t even had a chance to take a bath after crawling for hours through the least dignified streets of Canterlot.

A polite knocking on the door to his office snapped him back to reality. “Come in.”

Princess Cadance walked in, looking none the worse for wear even after losing her magic and then being sent to Tartarus. “Good evening, cousin,” she greeted. Although they weren’t related, they had been good friends during foalhood, and they often used cousin as a nickname for the other.

“Good evening, Cadance. You should be resting, why are you here?” he coldly asked. He had yet to forgive her for marrying Shining Armor instead of him.

“I can’t, not after all that’s happened. I need anything to take my mind off of it, so I thought that I could help you with your work.” She knew how he felt about her, but she couldn’t see Prince Blueblood as anything other than a close friend, maybe even a brother. She didn’t love him in the same way he loved her.

“I’m almost done here,” he replied as he resumed his work. Then, after a few seconds, he looked back at her and added: “But it’s been a long time since we’ve had an informal chat. Could you brew some tea while I read the last few reports?”

A few minutes later, they were drinking tea on Blueblood’s balcony and catching up. Blueblood wasn’t impressed to know that she practically managed the Crystal Empire single-hoofedly while Shining Armor was out trying to keep order all over Gem Fido: he knew she was capable of that and much more. He hadn’t realized how much he missed talking with Cadance until now, and she seemed to be having fun too.

“So that’s why your exports of ewe wool dropped!” he exclaimed when she revealed that she’d been forced to allow diamond dogs to use ewe as livestock so they had something to eat. “I take it they’re not…”

“Of course they aren’t sapient!” she said, eyes widening. “They aren’t like goats or sheeps, I would never let diamond dogs eat people!”

“Well, I’ve been told that pony meat is a delicacy for them. Maybe you could change the penal system. I’m sure they’ll find your most distasteful criminals quite tasteful.”

“I would feel deeply offended if I didn’t know you don’t mean any of that,” she said as she shook her head and neck, the rest of her body remaining still. “Making a carnivore race fit in with ponies has been a challenge, and I don’t know if we’ll ever manage to get rid of that gap between our species.”

“Unless we start eating meat. I’m quite certain I read about a tribe of flesh-eating pegasi who raided unicorn settlements back in the days of the three tribes.”

“And I’m pretty sure you read that in one of those books written by unicorn supremacists a thousand years ago.”

“Well, I think I remember the same book claiming that pegasi laid eggs, so you’re probably right.”

“Anyways, I’m sure we’ll eventually find a solution. I have high hopes in the development of a plant-based meat substitute. A full department of Canterlot’s University has been at it for months already, and the results look promising.”

“I know about that. Maybe in a few years we’ll have something edible that won’t make diamond dogs whine about the foul taste.”

“I never claimed it to be a short-term solution. Still, we wouldn’t have even thought about it if not for one of the humans talking about how they have something similar in their world.”

“Ugh, humans. You’re so lucky to be living in the Crystal Empire, you don’t have any of them as neighbours.”

“I don’t know why, but I’m not surprised to learn that you don’t like them.”

“Of course I don’t like them. Most of them are very dangerous, and some of them insane. They claim to come from a world with technology far beyond ours, but so far only a few have shared some of their knowledge, and most of it was only marginally useful. And if that wasn’t enough, a lot of them seem to feel an unexplainable hate towards me.
Auntie Celestia’s plan of having them all living here under control is good, but it’s not enough. Judging by these reports, Discord went all out to defeat them. Discord, the Lord of Chaos, had to go all out to defeat only the humans who live in Canterlot. We have here, what, one fifth, one third of all of them? What would happen if they all decided to band together against us?”

“Well, we have the Elements.”

“We have the Elements,” he repeated, sarcastically. “Six powerful items that can only reach their full potential when used simultaneously by their wielders. What will happen the day somepony wises up and kills one of the five wielders who live in Ponyville without any kind of protection or combat training? At least Twilight Sparkle is resourceful and quite powerful, but what about the others?”

“I see you’ve thought a lot about this. What do you think we should do?”

“First, we need to learn more about the humans. We must study them, and get them to share their knowledge by any means necessary. Imagine what our armies could do if everypony had weapons like the ones that some of them wield, or how much better our hospitals would be.
Our second step must be to locate as many of them as possible and deal with the evil ones. The others would be allowed to continue their lives, but under certain rules like the ones here in Canterlot.
Lastly, we have to ensure that this influx of superpowered individuals stops. Things are bad enough already, if the number of humans were to double or triple the whole world could be in danger.”

They kept talking for a few minutes until Cadance began yawning. “Well, I think I’m ready to go to sleep now.”

“Goodnight, cousin,” he said as she slowly got up. “And congratulations,” he added, making her freeze.

“How did you know?” she asked, her smile gone from her face.

“I only had to pay attention to all the hints in the way you move and behave. I wasn’t completely sure, to be honest, but you just confirmed it,” he answered while grinning. “I assume your husband has no idea.”

“Fine, you got me. I am pregnant. Only you, Celestia and Luna know.”

Blueblood sighed. “I guess it’s time I stop being an idiot about you and Shining Armor, now that you’re going to be parents. See you tomorrow, Cadance.”

“Until tomorrow, Blueblood.”

Attila Sarois breathed in relief. He was one of the many non-ponies who had been in Canterlot just when Tirek decided to attack. Luckily, the demon centaur wasn’t interested in diamond dog magic, so he and the griffon diplomats had been largely ignored. However, Discord had magically trapped them inside a hall so they wouldn’t “try anything funny”.

He had gone all the way from his warren to Canterlot only because the princesses had insisted on him meeting some important ponies. It was just his luck that Tirek had attacked on the same day. To make things worse, he had been forced to share the with a bunch of angry and distressed griffons who had no sympathy for his kind.

He was the first to run outside when Tirek was finally defeated and Discord’s seal was dispelled. He didn’t mind all the chaos and damage caused, all he wanted was to breath fresh air and get away from the incessant bickering of the griffons. At least there had been no yaks with them. Things could have gotten really ugly.

He was so deep in thought he didn’t notice he was walking towards someone else until he hit something big and hairy headfirst. “Huh?” he mumbled, snapping out of confusion to see a yak staring at him.

“Pay attention, dog!” he shouted. “You make me mad!”

“I’m very sorry...” he began, cursing his luck. Then, he remembered the yak’s name. “Earl Macchruim. I was deep in thought.” As he said so, he inched back so he could dodge the yak’s massive horns if he charged.

The yak snorted. “Be more careful next time.”

Attila briskly walked away before the yak changed his opinion. There was a reason why diamond dogs never raided Yakyakistan for slaves, even though it was a small and isolated nation. Yaks were incredibly stubborn and aggressive, so they were too dangerous to use as slaves. Even griffons seemed tame in comparison, especially after clipping their wings and cutting their claws. Nobody bothered yaks, not even dragons, since Yakyakistan didn’t have gemstones or anything that could interest the firebreathing giants.

However, with half of Gem Fido now under control of Equestria, dragons might consider Yakyakistan an easier target to hunt for meat. Furthermore, the resurface of the Crystal Empire made Yakyakistan and Equestria be neighbors, no longer divided by a frozen wasteland. The fact that Earl Macchruim had traveled all the way to Canterlot as an envoy could only meant that yaks were reconsidering their isolationism.

“At this rate ponies will say everyone instead of everypony,” he thought aloud, amused.

Gwar was bored. Before leaving to lead his armies, his father had ensured that Granite Back would manage without him around. Now that Gwar was the Alpha, he struggled to find something to do to keep himself busy everyday. More often than not, he would end up spending hours in the warren’s library, which was woefully incomplete by Equestria’s standards. He’d never realized just how uncivilized and barbaric his home looked like compared to Equestria until he went to Canterlot. Virtually everypony in Equestria had been schooled, while he could count how many diamond dogs knew how to read and write in Granite Back with just one paw. Drogur had moved them from his house to a public building that had been previously occupied by slaves, so they could at least claim to own a public library. He was wondering how much it would cost to have some books shipped to the warren when he felt something tugging at his tail. When he turned, he found a young pup looking at him.

“Alpha Gwar, what you do here?” he asked.

“I’m reading, young one. Is it the first time you come here?” Young diamond dogs didn’t usually talk to the Alpha, but that was mainly because Alphas were threatening and pups preferred to deal with adults lower in the hierarchy.

The pup nodded. “Keeper Julius never lets me enter. Too young, will break things, says he.”

“Be careful with the books and I won’t have to say the same thing.”

“What is reading, Alpha Gwar? Dogs only sit and look at books, I don’t understand.”

Amused by the pup’s curiosity, he answered his questions. He wanted to know how it worked, why would anyone ever want to do something like read or write, and many other things.

“Can I learn read and write like ponies?” he eventually asked.

Just before saying yes, Gwar realized that there was nobody in Granite Back who could teach pups. The only dogs who knew their letters and numbers were those who needed them for their job, and they were taught by the Keeper. However, the Keeper’s job was already too demanding to expect him to be a teacher for all of Granite Back’s children. On the other hand, he did want to have a task to keep himself busy.

“Come tomorrow at sunrise, bring any other pup who wants to learn, and I’ll teach you all.”

‘Let’s see how this works out,’ he thought, ‘I may even have to hire some pony teachers and start building a school in a few weeks.’

Author's Notes:

As you can see, I didn't write much during August. I decided to focus on some secondary character before starting a new arc.