//------------------------------//
// You're... what? Huh? 
// Story: Fox Tales 
// by jademaehara 
//------------------------------//

“His name... is Sifr No Mae.” 

The clock ticked. The fire crackled. The candles flickered. Spike yawned. The five mares facing Twilight and Scootaloo were silent; their eyes wide, their jaws dropped.
“Umm…” Scootaloo looked up at Twilight. “Mom, I think you broke them.” Twilight sighed as she hugged Scootaloo a little closer.
“Don’t worry,” she said softly. “They’ll recover soon. We’ll just wait.” Her voice seemed to break the spell in the room as Rarity’s eyes returned to normal and her jaw slowly shut.
“A… herd?” Her voice was quiet. “Darling… you’re really joining a herd?” Twilight smiled and nodded.
“With… four other mares?” Another nod. “And this… Sifr stallion?”
“Who is Scootaloo’s father. Yes Rarity.” The white mare gave a small nod, and then her horn lit up, and Twilight and Scootaloo found themselves flying across the room and into the waiting forelegs of the marshmallow pony.
“Darling, I’m so happy for you!” Rarity’s voice snapped the other mares in the room out of their daze, and Twilight and Scootaloo found themselves buried under another four ponies as they hugged the unicorn and pegasus.
“Umm girls?” Spike said after a minute or so of hugging. “I think you might want to let them go. Scootaloo looks like she’s about to faint.”

After apologies has been given for nearly crushing the young pegasus, the mares returned to their pillows and settled themselves down once more. All except for Pinkie Pie, who started to bounce around the room.
“Party! Party! Party! Party! Part…” She was abruptly silenced by a haze of purple magic, before being gently levitated over to her pillow.
“Pinkie, I know you’re excited, and I promise that you can throw lots of parties because of this.” Pinkie’s eyes widened as Twilight’s magic dissipated. “However, for now, I’ve got a lot of explaining to do, so let's just talk, ok?” Pinkie nodded her head rapidly.
“Okie dokie lokie!” Twilight gave her a grateful smile and then turned to the rest of the girls.
“So, that’s my big secret,” she said. “As I said before, I’d like it very much if you could come to Canterlot with me tomorrow to meet Sifr and the others, and then stay for my birthday and the wedding. For tonight though…” She stretched out and lay down on her cushion. “I’m happy to answer any and all questions.” Rainbow’s foreleg immediately shot up.
“Is this ‘Sifr’ pony the fox dude who walks on two legs?” Twilight rolled her eyes once more.
“Yes, Sifr is the ‘fox dude’ you’ve heard of,” she said patiently. “Officially he’s the pony in charge of security when important ponies visit the palace. Unofficially… well, it’s a long story.” Surprisingly, the next foreleg that was raised came from the yellow pegasus sitting next to the stairs.
“Umm… what species is he?” Fluttershy asked quietly. “I’ve seen pictures of him, and I’ve never seen any other creature that looks like him. I know he has ears and a tail like a fox, but…” Twilight smiled once again.
“You won’t find anything else that looks like him because he’s the only member of his species on our entire planet.” Eyes widened once again at Twilight’s proclamation, but she continued.
“I guess now’s a good time to tell you how I met him,” she said. “And how he arrived in Equestria in the first place.” The mares all pricked their ears forward as Twilight took a deep breath.
“It was about six years ago,” she began. “Princess Celestia was about to close the day court for the afternoon break…”

……….

“Thank you Princess. We appreciate your intervention in this matter.” The two ponies bowed low in front of their monarch. Celestia returned the bow with a nod of her head.
“Go in peace, my little ponies,” she said in her soft, regal voice. “My blessings upon you.” The large doors swung open as the two ponies departed, before slowly closing once more. Celestia let out a sigh and turned to her advisor.
“Kibitz, are we done for the afternoon?”
“Yes Princess.” The pale unicorn jotted something down on his parchment before rolling it up and sliding it into his saddlebag holder. “The next meeting is not until 6pm.”
“Excellent,” Celestia replied, elegantly standing from the throne and stretching her legs out. “That gives me time to…” A low sound made her stop and cock her head slightly. Kibitz’s ears pricked forward as he looked around.
“Princess, do you hear that?”
“Yes,’” Celestia replied absently. Then quietly, to herself, “It can’t be…” The sound increased in volume, enough now that the guards were beginning to react and look at each other. As the volume increased so did the pitch, and Celestia’s eyes started to widen.
“Guards, evacuate the throne room immediately!” She strode down the steps and began charging several spells as the guards ran towards the door. “Kibitz, seal the door with the emergency magic seals. It is not to be opened until I give the all clear, is that understood?”
“But, Princess…”
“Now my little pony!” The sound had almost reached deafening levels as Kibitz ran through the slowly closing doors. He turned to see a flash of light surround his monarch. Just before the doors closed he caught a glimpse of gold surrounding Celestia and a large shield at her side.
“My Princess…” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the doors closed with a bang. “Activate the emergency seals! No pony is to dispel the seals until I give the order! And somepony find Captain Aegis and have him rouse the rest of the Royal Guard!”

……….

Celestia stood in the centre of the throne room; her gaze fixed firmly on a glowing ball of light that had appeared just as the doors to her place of governance had shut. There had been a reason that she had had Canterlot castle built in this place, on the side of a mountain. In essence, a final defence measure. If all else failed, not much could survive a trip down the side of a mountain surrounded by thousands of tons of rubble. Her taiyou armour surrounded her like a second skin; the light plate armour having been crafted to commemorate her ‘victory’ over Nightmare Moon by a Neighponese smith nearly a thousand years ago. Imbued with her own defensive spells, she knew of no weapon in Equestria that could pierce it. Floating on her left side was her sonne schild, a large round buckler emblazoned with a fiery sun. It had been made at the same time as the armour by Waffen Meister, a stallion from old East Germaneigh who had declared it his last, most exceptional work. No direct offensive spell, bar one from Celestia herself, could ever hope to penetrate it.

As the ball of light in front of her brightened, and the sound grew even more piercing, Celestia hefted her weapon. This was of her own making, created from the very source of her magic, and containing the tiniest fraction of her own soul mixed with a portion of her mothers’. A spear, blazing white, carved with intricate motifs down the shaft and ending with an elongated leaf-shaped blade. Unbreakable, unstoppable. When it was created, Celestia had named it Caelestis Phalarica, or in standard Equestrian, Divine Lance. It was now pointing directly at the rapidly expanding ball of light as it hovered in Celestia’s magic.
“Why now…” she muttered to herself. “Why after all these millennia… I thought Mother closed the portal permanently…” As she spoke, the screaming noise suddenly stopped, and there was quiet. She braced herself slightly as the ball of light rapidly expanded before a bright flash stole her sight for a millisecond. A bang echoed through the throne room along with a sudden vibration as a small shockwave passed over Celestia. The flash faded and her sight returned, revealing a creature that she wished she would never see again kneeling on the floor in front of her.

Bipedal. Smooth skin. A blonde mane. Two long, orange-brown furry ears standing proud of its head. A thick-furred tail, much thicker than that of a pony, of a similar colour that faded into white tips. Clothes of black and red covered the majority of its body as the stallion (male, Celestia reminded herself) slowly rose. His piercing green eyes focused immediately on Celestia and the weapon she held, and the Princess felt a drop of sweat form on her brow at his gaze. The eyes moved away and looked around the throne room as his tail flicked around. Celestia took a step forward; a new shine enveloping the spear as it moved with her, along with her ornate shield.
“We do not know how thou hast arrived here,” she said, utilising her Royal Canterlot Voice for the first time in a century. “But thou art unwelcome. Leave, and we shall allow thee to go unharmed. Stay, and face thy death at our hooves.” The male slowly, lazily, turned his head to meet Celestia’s gaze as his ears flicked. His eyes shifted once again to her spear and shield before falling once more on her, but he made no move. Celestia, not wanting to lose the initiative, and not wanting the trickle of fear she was feeling to show, took another step forward.
“What say you, Kitsune?” That brought a reaction, as a small smile passed across the face of the creature standing in front of her. He shifted his feet slightly, and Celestia took a step back in surprise. Where his hands had been empty, they now held a glowing green bow with an ethereal string; two dark red arrows already nocked and half drawn.
“Avatar.” The Kitsune’s voice was light, cheerful, with a serious undertone. “Bring it.”

……….

“Woah, time out!” Twilight paused and her brow furrowed as Rainbow spoke. The pale blue pegasus held up a hoof.
“Why did he call Princess Celestia a… what was it? Avatar?”
“Yes,” Twilight said, taking a sip of her fresh cup of tea. “To us, Princess Celestia is an Alicorn. A pony with the traits of Earth ponies, Pegasi, and Unicorns. That is also true of Princess Luna and Princess Cadance. However, even though the three of them are Alicorns, they are totally different to one another.”
“How so darling?” Rarity piped up. “I know they have different cutie marks and are skilled at different types of magic, but one pegasus is the same as another in terms of species, correct? How are the three princesses any different?” Twilight chuckled quietly.
“Well, to start with, Cadance wasn’t born an Alicorn. She was born a pegasus and became an Alicorn when she found her talent. Plus she’s only a few years older than me, whereas both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are much, much older.” The other mares nodded in understanding.
“Ah ain’t never seen Princess Cadance, but ah’ve heard she’s quite the looker,” Applejack said. Twilight smiled.
“She is,” she said softly. “And she plays a very important part in the story. We’ll get to her later.”
“So… Avatar?” Rainbow prompted. Twilight nodded.
“Right. So Cadance is different to Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, and even though they are sisters, the two princesses are also really different from each other. The biggest difference being that Princess Celestia is an Avatar, and Princess Luna is not.”
“Ok, but sugarcube, what in tarnation is an Avatar? Y’all ain’t told us yet.” Twilight sighed before taking a deep breath.
“Right,” she said, looking around at her friends. Scootaloo had drifted off to sleep along with Spike, so the six mares were the only ones awake as the fire continued to crackle in the hearth.
“To tell you everything about Avatars and Kitsunes would take all night, so I’ll give you the short version, ok?” Nods all around. “Right then.” She cleared her throat.
“Avatars are rare. Really rare. Like, take all of the millions and millions of creatures on our entire planet, and you’ll literally have no chance at finding another Avatar. What’s important though is that any creature could be an Avatar. So it could be a pony, a griffon, a minotaur, even an ant. Any creature has a chance at being born an Avatar. It also doesn’t run in families. Princess Celestia’s parents were not Avatars, and as I said, neither is Princess Luna. With me so far?” More nods, although the one from Rainbow Dash came a little after the others, and Pinkie’s nod was so enthusiastic that Twilight wondered if she had even been listening.
“Now, a long time ago, an Avatar who lived a very long life realised that there were other beings like him, and he set about finding them. After a few of them had been found, they started calling themselves Avatars. That’s where the name comes from.”
“So they weren’t known as Avatars from the start?” Twilight shook her head.
“Like I said, they were many different creatures from many different places. Now, very quickly they found out that whilst most Avatars were good, friendly and peaceful, there were some that were bad and wanted to harm other creatures.”
“That sounds… mean…” Fluttershy lowered her face a little, allowing her long, pink hair to fall forward as she gazed down at the floor. Twilight nodded.
“Right, so the good Avatars wanted to stop them. The problem was that there were so few Avatars that if even one of them was hurt, or even killed, it would be really bad. And the bad Avatars didn’t think twice about killing their own. So, the good Avatars created an entirely new species; one that had a lot of power to help them fight the bad Avatars, and were also not limited by numbers since the Avatars could create more. They called members of this new species ‘Kitsune’. Still with me?”

This time, only three of the mares nodded. Rainbow sat there looking confused, whilst Applejack scratched her cheek with a hoof.
“So…” Rainbow said after a few seconds. “Princess Celestia… created the fox dude?” Twilight sighed and banged her head softly on the cushion she was laying on.
“No, Rainbow, she didn’t.” As the blue pegasus opened her mouth to speak again, Twilight cut her off with a raised hoof.
“Look, this is really complicated, so don’t worry, ok? I’m trying my best, and I promise that you’ll understand it at the end. And if you have any questions, you can ask me, or Sif when you meet him, or even Princess Celestia. Just trust me, it will all make sense eventually.” Rainbow nodded, looking relieved.
“Y’all keep calling these Avatars ‘creatures’, not ponies,” Applejack said suddenly. “What happened to them, if there ain’t any of ‘em around now, ‘part from the Princess of course.” Twilight thought for a few seconds.
“Well. no-pony really knows,” she said. “And to be honest, that’s a good thing.”
“Darling, why is that a good thing?” Rarity asked. “Based on what you’ve been saying, shouldn’t everypony know where they are in case they are attacked by one of the bad Avatars?” Twilight shook her head.
“That’s the problem,” she said quietly. “There are hardly any good Avatars and Kitsunes anymore. Something happened, a long time ago. That’s why Princess Celestia and Sif reacted so badly to each other. They each thought the other was bad. Princess Celestia thought that Sif was working with the other Avatars and had been sent to either kill or capture her. Sif thought that Princess Celestia was like every other Avatar he had heard of; that she suppressed her subjects, was cruel, and was taking advantage of ponies by pretending to be an all-powerful Goddess. All of that… because there are so few good Avatars and Kitsunes left that the chances of two of them encountering one another is ridiculously small. And in a true battle between an Avatar and a Kitsune, there’s only going to be one winner. The one who is still alive at the end.”

……….

Celestia dropped the remnants of her shield; her faded magic no longer able to hold the weight of the mangled shard of metal that had once been a pony’s pride and joy. Ethereal light bled off her rent and torn armour, spells that had held together for a millenia unravelled and destroyed in minutes by the creature that now stood before her, his bow raised, an arrow nocked. Her weakened legs finally gave out and she collapsed to the floor, trying desperately to keep her spear aimed at the Kitsune in front of her. After a moment, it fell, and clattered to the ground as her magic gave out completely. Tears fell from her eyes as she looked up at the Kitsune, hatred filling her gaze.
“Why?” She managed to croak a single word as she stared at the Kitsune in front of her. He looked back at her for a few seconds before sighing, and slowly lowering his bow. It disappeared a moment later, once again in an eye-blink that Celestia missed.
“An odd question to ask, for an Avatar.” He began to walk slowly around the throne room, taking in the stained glass windows, the fine stonework, the throne itself. Celestia tried to keep her eyes on him but she barely had enough strength left to turn her head.
“Most of your kind would be pleading by now.” The Kitsune continued to talk as he walked. “Offering bargains. Threatening revenge. Promising riches. The concept of ‘why’ never occurs to them; so deep-rooted is the idea of your superiority over all other races, that you just couldn’t comprehend that a simple Kitsune could possibly be a threat to you and your rule.” He stopped in front of Celestia, and squatted down so he could look her in the eyes.
“The ‘why’ is simple,” he said, his voice lowering. “To stop you. To show the population you control that you are not a God, or an all-powerful being. To free them from you, because you and your kind are evil. That is why.” He slowly rose back to his full height and turned away.
“Not that I expect you to understand of course,” he said, walking towards the throne. Celestia remained silent. “Now, I have a deal to offer you.”
“A deal?” Celestia whispered, closing her eyes, her brain churning as she finally began to understand what was happening. And how wrong she had been. The Kitsune stopped roughly in front of the area in which he had initially appeared, and turned back to Celestia.
“In a moment, I’m going to open those doors,” he said, indicating towards  the sealed doors behind him. “I’m letting you decide if you want to be here. In my experience, Avatars are not treated well by the people they’ve enslaved when they’ve been knocked off their pedestal.”
“And… if I decide to not be here?” Celestia could feel herself weakening as her power somehow continued to drain away; the light from her spear dulling slightly as her magic sought desperately to heal the internal damage she had suffered during the fight. The Kitsune shrugged.
“Then I’ll open the portal to wherever you choose,” he said. “Unlike your kind, I don’t kill indiscriminately. In fact, I don’t kill at all, even when it is deserved.” He looked at Celestia as she closed her eyes, seemingly deep in thought.
“Well? Your decision Avatar. Stay, or leave?” Celestia’s eyes slowly opened, and she looked up at the Kitsune.
“Was it Miko or Tama?” The Kitsune suddenly went very still; his wandering tail freezing as his ears flattened slightly.
“What did you…”
“Your mother,” Celestia interrupted, her confidence in her new assessment of the situation increasing exponentially after seeing his reaction. “Was it Miko, or Tamamo No Mae? You definitely aren’t Yuki’s child, she made it very clear she didn’t want children. If Miko was your mother I’d expect your fur to be a lighter shade but there’s always a chance your father was particularly dark-furred. On the other hand, you match Tama’s fur colour almost perfectly, and she did say how much she was looking forward to starting a family one day.” The Kitsune was silent for a few seconds.
“I take back what I just said.” The bow appeared in his hand once more. “I don’t know where you heard those names, but after what you just said, I can’t let you leave here.” An arrow flashed into existence; unlike the previous blood-red arrows, this one was an oily-black.
“My arrow, or the mob.” Celestia smiled weakly.
“Well, that confirms it,” she said softly. “Tama always did have a flair for the dramatic.” She felt the last of her magic drain away, and something in her body let go, but she didn’t take her eyes off of the figure standing in front of her, his bow raised, the arrow aimed at her chest.
“Greetings, son of Tamamo No Mae,” she said as she tasted blood in her mouth. “My name is Helios Solis Celestia, daughter of Theia Euryphas and Yparion Stellios, who served as the personal diakonos to Hesiod Nyx, and who gave his life to ensure the safety and escape of the three surviving Inari from Oraboruk.” Her eyes closed as she lost the strength to keep them open.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered as her vision darkened. “I should have asked you your name first.” The last thing she felt was a soft touch of warmth on her shoulder. And then, nothing.

..........

There was silence in the room once more, as the five mares opposite Twilight all stared at her with a mixture of shock, horror, and in one case, a stuck-out tongue and googly eyes.
“Pinkie, what are you doing?”
“Whaaat?” Pinkie shut her mouth and giggled. “Everypony else was staring at you so I thought I’d join in!”
“Are you tellin’ me, that the stallion y’all be marryin’ soon, nearly killed Princess Celestia?” Applejack stammered, preventing Twilight from replying to Pinkie. “And… y’all are just… ok with that?” Twilight sighed.
“I know it sounds like what Sif did was bad,” she said softly. “But trust me on this. Celestia would have killed him if she had been able to.” Rarity opened her mouth to say something but Twilight swiftly continued.
“To protect us, she would do anything. That includes killing somepony she thought was a danger to everything on Equus. In the end though, the whole situation turned out to be quite different.”

……….

Celestia awoke with a gasp as awareness came flooding back to her. She frantically tried to raise herself from her current position laying on something incredibly soft, but found a hoof blocking the way.
“Shhh, calm down Princess. Everything is ok.” She heard the comforting voice of her personal physician a millisecond before his grey-bearded, blue-furred face entered her view.
“Take it easy.” The Chineighs pony lowered his hoof and pressed a wing against Celestia’s forehead just below her horn.
“Bones? The throne room, my ponies, the Kitsune, I need…” She was cut off by the same wing slapping her on the nose.
“Celestia, calm down,” Ma Koi said, frowning at Celestia’s casual use of her personal nickname for him. “Like I said, everything is fine. If you would just stay put for a little, I’ll call Captain Aegis and Mr Kibitz for you and they can explain what has happened in the past hour.” Celestia slowly nodded.
“It’s only been an hour?” she asked, settling back down onto the mattress; taking a second to look around, she realised she was in her own bedroom, with two guards standing either side of the doors. Ma whispered to one of the guards who nodded and slipped out of the room, before the elderly stallion turned back to Celestia.
“An hour since the doors to the throne room ceased to exist at least,” he said, taking a wooden tongue depressor out of his medical bag. “Now, say ‘ahhh’.” Celestia rolled her eyes as she opened her mouth and allowed Ma Koi to poke around. He nodded and removed the length of wood. Rummaging around in his bag he pulled out a small penlight and turned back to Celestia.
“Remarkable,” he said softly as he shone the light into Celestia’s eyes one after the other, his remarkably dexterous wings making light work of the task of holding the miniature torch.
“Āiyā. Not a single injury remaining,” he mumbled as he dropped the penlight into his bag. “Whatever magic he used is far in excess to what any of our unicorns could manage.”
“Bones, please stop talking to yourself and give me a summary of my current health if you would.” Ma Koi frowned once again.
“Fine,” he grumbled, sitting back on his haunches. He cleared his throat.
“By the time I was summoned, Nurse Chapel had compiled a list of your injuries. I won’t go into them, but suffice to say, they were sufficient to kill a normal pony many times over.” He sighed.
“She was crying, Celestia. She couldn’t do anything for you. Her magic was somehow being reflected when she tried to do anything more than scan your injuries. We brought you in here, hoping that your own healing abilities would keep you alive for long enough for us to call the rest of the Royal physicians.” Celestia was silent as Ma Koi shook his head.
“That creature… I don’t know what he did, but I do know the results.” He looked up at Celestia. “The reason Nurse Chapel’s magic wasn’t working was because of the large amount of foreign magic already in your system. That magic not only kept you stable; it then supplemented and amplified your Alicorn healing abilities to such an extent that the damage done to you was healed, in full, in less than an hour. Normally, I would have given you a 50-50 chance of survival, followed by at least a month of recovery. Instead, you went from almost dead to perfect health in an hour.” Celestia nodded slowly.
“And the Kitsune who did all of this? Where is he now?” Ma Koi snorted.
“I’m a doctor, not a Royal Guard,” he said. “Ask Captain Aegis. Last thing I saw as we were bringing you here was the Captain and twenty Royal Guards surrounding him.” At that moment, the doors to her bedroom opened, and Captain Aegis walked in, flanked by another Royal Guard and Kibitz, who trotted over to Celestia.
“Princess, it’s so good to see you awake,” he said, his calm exterior clearly under threat from the joy and worry Celestia could see in his pained expression. “We had feared…”
“I’m fine Kibitz, thank you,” Celestia said, leaning over and briefly nuzzling her personal advisor. “Right now however, we have a very important matter to resolve. Captain Aegis, your report please.” Aegis paused for a second before losing his stalwart posture and slumping slightly.
“Princess, first of all, please forgive us for failing to protect you,” he said quietly. “We failed in our duty to…”
“Captain Aegis,” Celestia said sternly. “It is the Royal Guard’s duty to follow my orders without question. My orders were to keep the doors sealed and let nopony into the throne room until they were opened. Did you allow anypony into the throne room from outside?”
“No Princess, but that…”
“Did you attempt to enter the throne room yourself?”
“Of course not Princess, but we should…”
“Then Captain Aegis, I fail to see where you have failed in your duty to me.” Celestia smiled at the head of her Royal Guard. “Rho, no more of this. Please. Tell me what happened after my… altercation.” Rho Aegis nodded, regaining some of his bearing.
“We were waiting outside of the throne room, as per your orders,” he began. “I had ordered the deployment of the Guard throughout the castle, and had the on-duty contingent with me. We also had the six battlemages maintain a shield perimeter around the entrance to the throne room. A good thing we did, as about 15 minutes after the seal was activated, the doors… well, they just disintegrated. I’d never seen anything like it. One second the doors were there, the next… dust in the wind.” Celestia smiled.
“Very poetic Captain,” she said with a hint of cheekiness. Rho Aegis reddened slightly and gave a slight cough. “Please, continue.” He nodded.
“The first thing we saw was the creature…”
“Kitsune,” Celestia interrupted. “Members of his species are called ‘Kitsune’.”
“The Kitsune,” Aegis corrected himself. “When he saw us, he said, ‘There has been a misunderstanding. Your Goddess is hurt, but I have helped her and she will recover quickly. Take her somewhere comfortable.’. That is when we saw you on the floor behind him. I will admit that I was so angered by what this… Kitsune had apparently done to you, Princess, that I attempted to subdue him immediately.”
“I take it you weren’t successful?” Aegis snorted.
“If you define having my magic reflected back at me and finding myself pinned to the floor as ‘not successful’,” he said, to which Celestia giggled. “However,” he continued. “The Kitsune did not attack any of us or interfere as the doctor and nurses moved you out of the throne room, and made no attempt to leave the shield I had the battlemages erect around him.” Celestia nodded.
“I understand.” Taking a quick look around the room to make sure that Ma Koi had left, she gracefully rose from her prone position and regained her full height in front of the captain and the other ponies in the room. Spying her regalia and crown hanging from the ponyquin in the corner of the room, she floated it over and attached it to the various points on her body; the crown being the last piece of the ensemble to fall into place. A brief flash confirmed that all the pieces were locked in place and she turned back to Captain Aegis.
“Where is he now? I assume you placed him in the dungeons?” Rho Aegis shook his head.
“Princess, I wish he was. I wish I could have locked him up there and waited for your recovery to deal with him. But…”
“But…?” Aegis sighed.
“Whilst he was quite peaceful and made no aggressive moves towards us, he was less than responsive to our… suggestions that he accompany us to the dungeons. Therefore, I assigned 2 battlemages and 6 guards to accompany him at all times. He did agree not to leave the castle, and also to stick to the less populated areas as suggested to him by the guards.” Celestia sighed.
“Well, he seems reasonable at least,” she said. She smiled down at her Royal Guard Captain. “Thank you Rho. You’ve done well, my little pony.” She looked around the room. “As have you all. Now, I believe I should reintroduce myself to our visitor. Our first meeting was plagued with misunderstandings, and led to the current situation. No blame is to fall on him, as I was the one who threatened and attacked him first. I promise you all that it will not happen again. This Kitsune is a relative of an old and dear friend of my mother and father, and once we have laid some ground rules, he is to be welcomed to Equestria for however long he decides to stay.” All the other ponies seemed a little shocked at Princess Celestia’s announcement but they all bowed their heads in acceptance.
“Now,” she said, her horn lighting up. “Let us find our errant guest then, shall we?”

……….

“So, you’re Princess Celesta’s personal student?”
“Princess Celes-TI-a. And yes.” The little purple filly raised her nose slightly and stuck a forehoof into the air. “I’m going to be the best and smartest unicorn ever!” Sifr smiled as he reached over and ruffled a hand through the filly’s mane; acutely aware of the six guards around him tensing slightly as the filly giggled and rubbed her head into Sifr’s hand.
“Well, you’re already the cutest unicorn ever. Can’t you be happy with that?” The filly blushed and pawed the chair she was sitting on with her hoof.
“You… think I’m cute?” Sifr nodded, before reaching his tail around and tickling her on the nose. Her face scrunched up.
“Aaa…. ACHOO!” The force of the unexpected sneeze caused the filly to fall backwards off the pillow she was sitting on  and land on another pillow that had, somehow, appeared under her to stop her hitting the floor. The guards blinked and looked at each other, whilst the little filly clambered to her feet.
“That was cool!” She trotted over to the pillow Sifr had sat down on and jumped onto his lap, putting her hooves on his chest as she stared up at him.
“How did you do that? You can do magic? Where’s your horn? Why can’t I see anything glowing? When…” She was quieted by Sifr putting a finger on her lips.
“Too many questions little filly.” The purple filly frowned and dropped back down to sit on his lap.
“My name isn’t ‘Little Filly’. It’s Twilight Sparkle.”