//------------------------------// // Improving the Pack // Story: CCC-To Find Her Place // by Fresnor //------------------------------// Dear Twilight Sparkle, Selene, and the other princesses, It’s always interesting what you can find in the most unlikely of places especially when you aren’t even looking for it. Take that underground complex I mentioned falling into in my last letter, I would have never expected to find out that it was used to research and implement things from a lesser used branch of magic. The entire place was used as a staging point for some vagrant in creating golems to further his plots of world domination. Yes you heard that right; his plans were well documented in his research notes with his first target being Equestria due to its weakened state after losing Luna. That there says how old the place was and nothing came from his efforts as the being in question was assassinated by his own servants. After looking everything over I believe he may have been able to actually pull off an attack at first, but he never would have been able to hold any ground he wasn’t near as the golem designs were flawed. While some things could be attributed to age, after going over the research journals I found it revealed a drastic flaw in that the golems were only able to follow instructions to the letter and had no ability to actually think meaning that the larger the group of golems got the less effective they would be. This would have been remedied by having live leaders giving out instructions to correct their actions but that would mean he would have had to give power over them to those that killed him. Seeing as I have already taken notes of anything that interested me in the journals I will be sending all of it with this letter as well so apologies to Spike for how much I will be sending. Unfortunately I won’t be able to send a copy of my notes along but I don’t think that’ll be much of a problem since Twilight enjoys doing her own research. It’s not like she’d want to be able to compare notes with someone that was able to see the golems in action or anything. After that little adventure I’m going to be taking a bit of time doing something a bit less stressful. I’ve learned about a diamond dog pack that is having some troubles in the area and I think that I’ll be going out to check on them. It may not just be them having problems as I’ve found that they usually aren’t completely innocent about such things. Considering the reactions I’ve had from other packs it should make things much easier to get them to listen to me and being an outside party will allow me to negotiate between all parties that may be involved. At the same time I’ll be able to find out what they may know about some other things I’ve been looking into as they once had some connection with the kingdom I had found remains of. Your Friend, Flarenza I chuckle as I try and imagine Twilight’s reaction to the teasing as I send off the letter and journals that I retrieved from that underground complex. “I probably shouldn’t have done that as twilight is going to have it out for me whenever I see her again, but it’s not often that I find magic that she isn’t well versed in. Of course the other princesses will probably also have it out for me if Twilight goes into one of her little fits. At least she usually comes up with something ingenious when she’s in one of those moods even if she does end up driving everyone around her crazy with worry.” Packing everything away I turn towards my current destination and admire the architecture of the place. Whatever could be said about diamond dogs choices in living spaces were put to shame by the beauty of the fortress that this pack found themselves in. From what the other races around the area knew this pack had always been here as none of them had any clue as to when they first settled here. This had me optimistic as a pack that had been around this long was bound to have a lorekeeper of considerable knowledge. “I wonder what exactly had is going on with this pack that has those around it worried. It has to be bad if I can’t get a straight answer out of anyone in the area.” I had been observing the place all morning and I really couldn’t see any problems from my vantage point which pointed to something less obvious. I had been hoping for some clue on what was going on before involving myself in their affairs but it seems like that was too much to hope for. Sighing to myself I make my way down to the entrance of the fortress and wonder how much of the place is underground. I ponder that and a few other minor questions as I make my way down since this is the first full pack that I’ve heard of to have much of any living space above ground. The guards to the fortress watch me warily as I approach and I keep my hood up just to see how they react. “Halt! No entry without approval of pack Alpha!” The guards bar my way from entering which amuses me as I know they’d change their tune if I reveal myself. “Well how would I go about getting the approval of the Alpha?” My question seems to throw them off a bit as it wasn’t the expected response. One guard turns to the other questioningly. “Um, how does she get permission?” The other guard just shrugs before the two just look toward me again and shout. “No entry without approval of pack Alpha!” I just shake my head as they show the usual level of intelligence expected from diamond dogs. “Well do you think you could get someone that could answer the question?” Unfortunately their ability to think outside the box isn’t the greatest. “No entry without approval of pack Alpha!” Well there goes any hope of getting in without revealing myself. It’s rather annoying how diamond dogs always seem to want to serve me whenever they find out what I am but rarely are they intelligent enough to actually be much help. I let out a sigh as I reach up to pull down my hood but am stopped by a shout from inside the fortress. “Doggonit you two, I said escort visitors to me to see what they want and only turn away those that look like a threat!” I am surprised by not only how well the speaker’s grammar is but also by the voice being from a female. I watch as the female diamond dog marches out of the keep to berate the two. This is unusual as I had never seen a female actually being in charge of guards of a pack before, and not only that I suspect she may actually be the Alpha. I take a moment to look over her red fur and note that she seems to be of a rarer breed of diamond dog than those that usually are wandering around. I am even more surprised by the ice blue color of her eyes when she turns them onto me. “I’m sorry about the welcome but these idiots just can’t seem to get anything right no matter how many times I tell them. Ugh, all that effort to learn about the world so I can challenge my father and take over the pack and this is what I have to deal with.” I consider the implications of this before answering. “Well that is an admirable goal, but from what of seen of diamond dogs packs it’ll probably take you years to make any progress, especially for one of the few female Alphas that I’ve ever heard of.” She lets out a sigh in agreement as she waves me into the fortress. “Yes and that only compounds the problem. When they aren’t slacking off they are constantly challenging me trying to take over all because they think females are weak. The few that agree with me don’t really have that much power within the pack and the changes I’m pushing for go against so called ‘tradition’ which means even the loremaster is against me.” I wince at this as I know that the loremaster is often seen as the second most powerful dog in the pack and being on their bad side is never a good thing. “Sorry about ranting at you but it’s just been a long month; anyways I am Ruby, Alpha of the Bloodstone Pack, and who might you be and what business do you have with us?” I think about what she is doing and actually feel sorry for what she is going through. At the same time I understood a bit of why she is doing this as I was planning to do the same thing myself even if the reasons are a bit different. Seeing as having help would make things go much smoother I decided to do what I could to help out. “Well my name is Flarenza, and I initially came here looking for information that your loremaster may hold, but I think I may actually be able to help you at the same time.” The Alpha cocks her head to the side in confusion. “Flarenza huh, that name sounds familiar for some reason. But whatever it is you are looking for it’s doubtful that the loremaster would even tell you, and also what do you mean you might be able to help me?” She looks at me in suspicion while I just try to brush the question off for now. “Oh it’s just something that I’ve picked up when dealing with other diamond dog packs. It strikes right to the heart of the traditions most packs hold but it’s something I try not to abuse without a good reason.” Ruby still doesn’t look entirely convinced at my explanation but doesn’t press any further. “Well I guess it can’t hurt to try whatever it is you have planned. It’s not like he can hate me any more than he does now.” She then motions me towards a door leading deeper into the fortress which I assume leads to wherever the loremaster is. “So what plans did you have for this pack anyways? Considering how the guards out front handled things I can guess a bit of what you may be trying to do.” She sighs at being reminded of the two boneheads at the front gate. “Yeah they have something to do with it. It’s all part of why I left the pack to see the world as most diamond dogs are either incompetent, stupid, or just plain lazy. I wanted to make it so that we could actually compete with other cities in trade and other areas. To do that though the pack needs to be taught how to do things without having to be told to do it and to actually be more creative. I mean look at this place, this was all made by diamond dog paws yet you wouldn’t know it by looking at us now.” I take a closer look at the places we are passing and can see a bit of what she means. I can see images of diamond dogs in some of the carvings and it obviously wasn’t recent work either. In fact on closer inspection I actual see a couple faded images of timberwolves as well. “Hmm, I can see what you mean. Most diamond dogs I’ve seen can barely even do simple carvings let along something of this quality. In fact the last one that I’ve met that had much of any skill was only able to write words into stone though he was very good at that.” She just nods sadly about this when we come across a door that smells faintly of parchment and mold. Upon opening the door we find an aging diamond dog poring over a pile of scrolls and doing what looks like recopying them. He doesn’t even look up at our entrance before he starts speaking. “So the pretender returns once again with a stranger now? I highly doubt that they’ll have anything of interest to say no matter how strange the smell.” I can tell that this is the loremaster as they often are the smartest dogs of the pack and usually the only one with any real education which is passed down from one to the next. Oddly enough he seems to be alone despite his age as I would have thought his future replacement would have assisting him so as to learn what is needed. “You know as well as I do that I won the challenge for Alpha fair and square. Just because it goes against your so called traditions doesn’t make it any less so. I never wanted to be trapped in this room listening to whatever brainless oaf happened to be in charge at the time when I could be improving the entire pack!” I’m starting to see the source of their animosity with each other though I wonder how things would turn out if I wasn’t here. I watch as the two continue arguing as if I wasn’t there in a way that feels almost rehearsed, probably having done this many times before. I decide to step in before things get even more off-track than they already are. “I’m not sure exactly what is up with you two lovebirds but do you maybe think we can get onto something more productive than just screaming at each other like a bunch of unicorn nobles?” My voice breaks the two out of their conflict though they seem surprised at my words, especially Ruby. “Oh eww, he’s old enough to be my great-grandfather and what do you mean by unicorn nobles?” The loremaster is much less affected by my words though. “As if I would even think of being with somedog like her. The loremaster is traditionally supposed to stay separate from the Alpha and even then rarely takes a mate.” I just shake my head at the loremaster as his attitude just feels wrong. “Right, as if a pack being united under their two leaders in such a way would be such a horrible thing.” This seems to hit him hard, and even surprises Ruby, and causes him to actually look angry. “So not only does the pretender bring in a stranger she brings in one that insults the packs traditions. Well there is only one way to fix a problem and that’s with my own paws.” I shake my head as he starts to advance on me threateningly and Ruby hasn’t yet recovered enough to do anything to stop him. I sigh and cast a spell to make me invisible while hiding my scent but leaving my cloak visible. Once done with that I levitate my cloak so that it looks as if I’m still under it as I slip out and lay down atop the table to observe. Soon enough the loremaster plunges his claws, or at least attempts to since the protections on the cloak prevent them from piercing, into my cloak to find that I am no longer there. “So not only did you bring in a stranger but also one of those magic using unicorn pests as well?” I shake my head at the loremaster’s reaction and drop the spell hiding me. I’m really getting tired of being called a unicorn, there has to be some other races that use magic as well that aren’t in hiding. “And hear I thought you were one of the more intelligent diamond dogs that I’ve met. Not everything that uses magic has to be a unicorn you know.” The loremaster doesn’t even turn towards me but Ruby’s jaw drops open in shock at my appearance as her pupils shrink to pinpricks. “Well it’s not like it matters much anyways when you aren’t going to be much longer be part of this world.” With that he spins around and attempts to thrust his claws through me again but is brought up short by my shield. The Alpha only whimpers at this and his eyes widen when he sees exactly what I am as well as what he just tried to do to me. “A H-h-h-high One?! Here?! I-I-I…” With that he promptly collapses into unconsciousness with Ruby just staring in shock. “Huh, it’s not often that they literally toss themselves at my feet. Usually most diamond dogs seem to stay conscious enough for me to ask them not to do that.” I turn towards Ruby who seems to have finally found her voice again. “The High Ones are actually real? But I thought they were only a myth to help remind us of the days when all the packs were united into a real country. Wait, you said your name was Flarenza? You mean those tales about the pony princesses having a pet High One were true after all?” I bring a paw up to my face at that last bit as this is something I hadn’t heard before. “Ugh, I wonder where that rumor started from. Sure I was friends with the princesses but I think Celestia would have preferred me being a pet after some of the things I pulled.” Ruby looks a bit shocked about that bit of news even more than before. “Of course once the loremaster wakes up again we can get to work on what you had planned as well as a few ideas I had as well. While I’m not here to stay for overly long since I’m trying to find my way home I do have some interest in seeing that the lives of diamond dogs improve. If they insist on throwing themselves at my kind as servants then I’d think they need to be at least intelligent enough to think for themselves and handle things without being hovered over all the time. Also, if they manage to start their own country without us being there then all to the better as well.” Ruby is too shocked to respond to that as this situation is far outside what she had thought possible before now. Once the loremaster woke up he threw himself at my feet in a subservient manner trying to apologize for his actions. It took months for him to finally get over what he did enough to actually assist in our efforts to improve the pack. Over the next few years we did everything that we could to improve the life of the Bloodstone Pack. The first thing that we did was set up a plan to teach the entire pack the basic skills that would be found in a school, especially the abilities to read, write, and do simple figures. Once we had gotten that set up we sorted out the dogs that had a higher level of intelligence than normal and taught them even higher levels of those skills as well as the more important skills of logic. All these efforts took a few years to implement which was all made easier with my presence as they all wanted to try and please me. Eventually everything was in place so that I was no longer needed and even now I could see the effects of it all as traders from further away than normal had started coming to the pack. I had even learned a few things from their ancient histories that helped point me in the right direction. Unfortunately this was in the opposite direction of where I was headed meaning that I had to travel back through Equestria once again. News from there was rather scarce out here but enough came through the traders that I learned that things weren’t going well in certain parts of it. There were rumors of another diamond dog pack out there that was getting extremely aggressive and that they even invaded a town on the border of the Crystal Empire. I was watching over the pups of this clan while thinking of all this when another thought came to mind. Maybe I shouldn’t have left Ponyville as soon as I did. There are still many things I wanted to tell Scootaloo and Selene but I just couldn’t bring myself to do so. I just hope that there is still time to do so. After making my plans to head back towards Equestria to deal with these issues I met with Ruby and her new mate to let them know of my plans. They, along with the rest of the pack, were sad to see me go but they understood my reasons. Looking in the eyes of the diamond dogs revealed something that had been missing before when I first arrived, a spark of hope. They finally had hope once again that they weren’t forgotten by those that came before them and that the rest of my kind would know that they were still waiting. I left the pack with much joy in my heart but that night things changed for the worst. That night Selene appeared in my dreams and without saying anything she wrapped her fore hooves around me and began crying.