“Your last piece of business, princess…” The cream-colored unicorn mare levitated the scroll before her royal majesty, the Princess of the Sun.

“The foreign-envoy may enter now!” The earth-pony guardstallion blared to the pair of unicorn guards that stood at either side of the great golden doors to the alicorn’s fair hall.

Celestia scarcely had the chance to glance over the scroll before her eyes, when the doors slid open almost silently. She eagerly glanced up, over the edge of the scroll and down the long, red carpet that ran the full length of the great hall. Never before in all her uncounted years had she ever heard of Cervidae, let alone seen one and now, she grew anxious. What did this curious creature from far away lands look like? Where did it come from? More importantly, why did it seek contact?

The first glimpse the majestic Princess of the Day received was of its cleft front hooves, two points at the end of either lithe, tan furred leg. Hooves, we have that much in common at least… She sighed in relief, internally anyways. As the creature tiptoed forward, and yet more of the being came into sight, she was in for quite a shock. For all intents and purposes, she may as well have been looking at a pony! A rather tall, peculiar pony, but nonetheless something not all that dissimilar…

Its skull was far narrower than a pony’s and atop its head sat a large set of curious horns that split and branched like the limbs of a tree. She noticed then that it had no mane to speak of nor a tail in the traditional sense of the word, just a short thing that flicked about every now and again, as it curiously looked about the equally foreign environment it had found itself in. Finally, after darting its eyes to and fro at every object within – including the guards themselves – the two small, dark brown eyes of the creature locked with those of the princess’ violet eyes atop her dais and he – yes, she was sure at that moment, it was a ‘stallion’ – froze in trepidation.

“Welcome.” Celestia called soothingly, before beckoning him with a hoof, “Come closer.”

His hesitation vanished with what seemed to be a bow of his head, as he slowly began to walk closer toward her raised position. Rising from her seat, the princess slowly made her way down the steps to the base of her throne, as did the Cervidae made for the same spot, though from the opposite end of the hall. When they were finally no more than a half-dozen paces apart, the two paused in unspoken consent. He bowed his head low, before rising once more, to look into the princess’ eyes. It was strange for her, few stood at her eye level. However, right now, the equally dark, furless nose and eyes of this foreigner did so, his ears, gently twitching to take in the sounds of the nearly silent long-hall.

“I am Placid Lake.” A singsong voice startled the princess somewhat, seeing as his mouth did not move.

“What?” Was all the stunned mare could stammer as she lifted a golden-clad hoof in apprehension.

It was then that a flutter of wings, on a point half way up his left set of horns, caught her attention, drawing her gaze. The small, mottled, gray bird bobbed its head once in recognition.

“Please forgive my familiar, I did not mean to startle you.” The mocking bird ‘spoke’ in a trilling voice.

Celestia glanced between the bird and the ‘stallion’s’ eyes, before asking the most obvious question…though perhaps not very tactfully?

“Why is a bird speaking for you?” She finally composed herself, returning her hoof to its proper place upon the floor.

He merely tilted his head slightly, somewhat unsettling his companion. “Why do you live in a forest of stone?” The trilling voice of the mockingbird only serving to amplify the intended irony of the question.

Celestia couldn’t help herself but to smile in modesty. Today was to be a learning experience. Yes, even after countless centuries, even the placid, unchanging monarch of the sun can be caught unawares…

“I…we,” She corrected herself as she glanced to the side, speaking to her cream colored assistant, “…we will be taking our tea in the garden this afternoon.”

“As you wish…” The small mare nodded to the sun goddess immemorial.

Placid Lake’s small, brown eyes bounced back and forth between the two sisters. Luna for one, was handling the situation well, considering how shocked the ‘stallion’ had been upon her arrival, only to nearly belly down in submission upon Celestia introducing her as her sister and co-princess of the realm. The princess of the night, spoke calmly to him, easing him up from his terrified position…

For his part, he was unused to interacting with high-does – the leaders of their order. Indeed, he could remember his trepidation at first meeting Dancing Leaf – the eldest doe in all their forests. Indeed, her antlers seemed to stretch onward into oblivion! This, Placid Lake, or rather his familiar, explained to the two sisters, drawing interested gazes from them both.

“…You see, bucks and does largely live in separation, as do most bucks from each other. Only does sometimes come together in large groups.” He explained through his familiar, only to notice the princesses’ agog glances intensify.

“These bucks and does you speak of…what do they mean?” Luna asked curiously, some of her older tone and inflictions sneaking through; drawing a brief, unacknowledged glance from her elder sister, however, Placid Lake did not seem to notice either.

Placid Lake stopped for a moment, blinking as if the answer were so obvious that he found it difficult to put into words…

“Bucks are males, such as myself; does are females such as yourselves.” He stated plainly, as if confused that it even was worth mentioning.

“Ah,” Celestia nodded in understanding, mirroring her sister, “We ponies use the phrases stallions and mares for the same.”

Placid Lake stood silently, internalizing this fact, not quite sure what to make of it at this time?

“Do continue, I am very interested in hearing of this Dancing Leaf…”

“Of course.” The buck nodded, “I met her first when she came to my grove for the first time the last falling of the leaves…”

“What, pray tell is a grove?” Luna inquired with a raised brow.

“Our groves are our charge, the portion of the forest that we are responsible for…the trees that we tend, the land we sing to, the animals we commune with…” The two sisters looked on with rapt fascination, until Placid Lake glanced upward to the sky, “What is he doing?”

Immediately the two princesses looked upward to see a light-blue pegasus clearing a rogue cloud from the otherwise clear sky.

“He is a weather-stallion.” Celestia answered, only to receive a curious glance from him, “His job is to manipulate the clouds and regulate the weather. There are hundreds of ponies like him across Equestria.”

Luna noticed his surprised appearance almost immediately. “Do none of your kind have wings?” Placid Lake shook his head in response, “How then do you regulate your weather?”

The tiny bird squawked indignantly when the buck abruptly tilted his head. His upturned eye looked apologetically to his familiar, before turning back to the regal sisters.

“We do not.” He answered simply, clearly somewhat shocked by this revelation.

“You do not control your weather?” The two sisters exclaimed in unison.

“Until now, I did not think such a thing was possible.” He murmured, watching the pegasus with both envy and curiosity, “The weather of our groves does not need regulation. We merely seek shelter when storms brew.”

“Your forests run themselves?” Luna blinked in disbelief, Placid Lake nodded.

“Sister, that sounds like the Everfree…” Celestia turned briefly to her younger sister.

“It does.” She nodded, turning to the foreign creature, “Are there any of your kin in the Everfree forest?”

“None that I am aware of.” He shook his head, “Though until not long ago, we did not know this land existed…”

“That makes me wonder, just how did you learn of Equestria?” Celestia finally asked.

“Dancing Leaf mentioned a…stallion? One that stood nearly as tall as her, with whom she spoke.” At the last part of his statement, he looked rather surprised.

The two sisters glanced at each other, venturing an unspoken guess as to who it was that he spoke of, before turning back to their guest.

“She spoke with him?” Luna wondered aloud, “As in, spoke without a familiar?”

Placid Lake nodded. “Indeed. I was most surprised by that myself. We rarely speak without our familiars, for our voices’ carry magic. Our words are spun of power.” He blinked as if he still were not sure of what he spoke, “Yet, according to her, this outlander knew of the voice and though he spoke different words, words of stone and of melted earth. I believe that he called it ‘metal’.”

“Yes, I suppose that is one way to describe metal.” Celestia meekly chuckled into her hoof, drawing an interested glance from him.

“Metal is made when a pony takes certain kinds of earth and makes it very, very hot.” Luna explained, “Once it glows white hot and flows like water, it is no longer stone, but refined metal, ready to be made into plows, axes, spears, anything its creator desires…”

“So the hard, yellow shells that your ponies wear are metal?” Placid Lake correctly assumed.

The two sisters nodded. “One kind of metal, yes.” Luna stated plainly.

“How many kinds are there?” He wondered in surprise.

“Many.” Celestia informed him, “Dozens, with uses beyond count. Some are hard, some are soft. Some shine like the sun…”

“…Others are dark as the night.” Luna said with a grin.

“Such a thing is hard to believe…” Placid Lake folded his legs to lie on the ground, looking somewhat pale.

The diarchs promptly joined him, mirroring his appearance, before Celestia offered him a hoof in comfort.

“Could you tell us of this power your voice holds?” Celestia suggested, hoping that a distraction would be all that his mind needed to relieve him.

He simply nodded, appearing thoughtful for a moment, as he decided where to start.

“In the time before Dancing Leaf, all fauns are taught that we came from a land not of our great forest, beyond the mighty mountains and from across the seas…” He sighed, readying himself for a rather long, explanation, “It was here that we shared the land with another race, one with not four legs, but two. It was from they that we learned the voice. Tall, lanky things, with flat faces and without fur to keep themselves warm, they used their voice to weave the fur of other beings into a fur of their own, without harming the creature. Without claw, nor horn, they had no defense from the predators of the forest, so they used their voice to speak to the animals and listen to their warnings…” He grinned then, as if he were about to tell a great joke, “It was one fateful day that a buck saw a wolf attacking this poor creature and took pity on it. Using his antlers, he drove off the beast. Now, at this point, our kin were little better than the animals that we shared the forest with. However, in thanks for saving him, the creature gave to the brave buck a name and taught him the first words…

“Thus our two races became good friends. Eventually they would teach us the language of the voice and with it, we would become the shepherds of the forest. Then, one day, the animals of the forest fled in panic as smoke rose from it’s edges. Others of their kind, vicious and with dark hearts, began to burn the forest and cut down our sacred groves. It was then that our fellow, two legged druids smuggled our forebears out of the forests and off to the shores that we now know.

“How they managed to walk over the water has remained a mystery. However, upon seeing the ships of your herds, I suspect that is how they accomplished the task…”

The two sisters looked nervously at each other.

“What? Did I say something wrong?”

“No.” Celestia shook her head, “Its just that we too know of these…creatures which you speak.”

“You too know of the stewards of the woods?” Placid Lake’s ears perked up.

“We do.” Luna nodded solemnly.

This confused the buck, which then looked toward the elder mare. She too held her gaze toward the ground. Finally, she looked up, her violet eyes hard, yet sad…

“Ponies long ago wrote similar tales of our own exodus from the lands beyond and of the strange creatures that lived there. Especially of the Contradiction Creature…

“Humans…”