Of course, nothing involving so many people and issues so close to the heart could possibly be that simple.
Mother-dog couldn't necessarily speak for all of her pack, and there were various details to try to get settled before they became problematic, so a meeting was set for noon, at the willow-tree where I'd gotten sucked into the tunnel. Both she and the Mayor insisted that I be there. There was a mild discussion about where the pups should go in the meantime, but since I wanted there to be no hint of any coercion for the meeting, I argued they should go with her for now.
I tried explaining to Cheerilee, "Maybe they'll just leave and not show up - in which case they're no longer a problem. Or maybe they'll show up and everything will be hunky-dory, in which case there's no real problem. Or maybe they'll try to show up and kidnap everyone there - in which case I'd rather you were somewhere safe, and weren't anywhere near the place."
Cheerilee pointed out, "She came into my house. I don't have a place I feel safe anymore."
"If not here... what about the school, and your students?" She gave me a dirty look, but didn't argue further. I wasn't happy about where our conversation left off - but it would be a lot easier to try to mend hurt feelings than to stage another rescue operation.
Downstream from the willow, the creek was running low - half the water was still draining down into the tunnel. A few relatively discreet guards waited on the path to Ponyville, while Safe Guard accompanied the Mayor and I.
At the appointed time, momma-dog appeared, along with all four pups - and a large male dog, who carried a spear rather than a staff. He walked right up to me, looked me up and down, and huffed. He glanced at momma-dog, who nodded, then back at me. "So. You wove words that kept Amethyst alive, got her let go." I nodded agreeably. He huffed again. "Don't look like much."
I smiled benignly. "Truth is more important than appearance. Perhaps I could tell you the story of the Test of Bone and Test of Blood." He hunkered down, looking nonchalant but with ears perked attentively, so I told him the story.
I got a couple of chuckles out of him, but when I was done, he gave me another look. "Fancy words about fancy words. I could eat you and words would not stop me."
My mind revved into rapid gear, and I decided that Chekov might not be a sufficient demonstration... but, perhaps, I had a unique opportunity to try something rather more spectacular. "Words might not - but the power of the truth behind the words might. Pick a demonstration, something impossible for me to do from this spot, something I cannot do without magic."
He looked around, and as I'd hoped, gestured at the hole in the side of the stream. "Water in tunnel annoying."
My smile got wider. "Very well. Would everyone please step away from there, please? ... Thank you. Okay. Let's see if this works. Three, two, one..." There was a nice choomf sound, a thud felt in our chests, a sudden cloud of dust - and the small explosion had sealed the hole closed.
It had occurred to me that I hadn't actually seen the message sent by BLUE WELLS, and hadn't actually written the message yet - so at least in a sense, I still had the free will to choose to write something in the future that would affect my present... such as burying an explosive and timer in a particular spot.
The diamond dog was giving me a much different look than he had a few seconds ago. (As was momma-dog, and the Mayor and Safe Guard. Fortunately, the pups didn't seem to have minded the noise.) I just might have looked a little smug. "Are you hungry? I'm hungry. What's your favorite fruit?"
He was looking at me cautiously, but answered, "Blueberries."
I nodded, and calmly recited, "Three, two, one..." He managed not to wince as the countdown finished. I added, "Look behind you."
I had noted, as the diamond dogs had not, that just after the explosion, a lunch basket drifting down from the sky on a small parachute had landed behind them. When he lifted the lid, inside were some blueberry pies. His gaze flickered from me, to the pies, to the streambed, and back. "If you can do that... why didn't?"
I sighed a bit, and settled my bulk down onto the grass. "It's complicated. I may be able to do almost anything - but I can't do everything. There's a... cost, I'll call it that, for such tricks. I've recently paid that price for something else - so, I can still do six impossible things before brunch. Like get some ponies and some diamond dogs talking to each other, and to take each other seriously. Would you care for a slice, Mayor?"
A cow who could do magic, including summoning edible food out of thin air, was enough of a wild-card to make both the Mayor and the Alpha a bit cautious around me - so, mostly, I let them talk. I was a great believer in the power of talking, and only had to clear my throat a few times when they started heading off on tangents.
Meanwhile, momma-dog, who it seemed was named Amethyst, had nothing more to do than I did, so she took the pups out of their basket, set them on the grass near me, and kept an eye on them as they crawled around and investigated the place.
She made sure she had my attention, and pointed at the small crater. "Can. Teach?"
I nodded, keeping my own eye on the quartet as they sniffed and tussled. "Almost anyone can learn - but almost no-one is willing to learn. Um... I'm guessing you mine a lot of different gems, and there's different tricks for different types of gems." She nodded affably, and picked up John by the scruff from gnawing on Paul's leg, before dropping him back onto the grass. "Imagine trying to teach someone those tricks, when they don't even know the difference between quartz and diamond. You have to teach them things that seem boring and dull and useless, before they know enough to learn the more interesting and useful stuff."
She considered that for a long while, occasionally flipping a pup onto their back to tickle their bellies. Then, "Will. Teach?"
"I'm... willing to try." I frowned, judging how best to phrase this. "The ponies' Alpha of Alphas talk to many prophets, and oracles, and soothsayers, and fortune tellers - and they have lived long enough to be able to tell apart many true ones from many false ones. There is a... great storm coming, of sorts - one that threatens all alike, whether they are pony, or cow, or diamond dog, or any other species. Some of the winds of that storm have already started blowing - they might even be what nudged your pack to leave its former home to come here. I am trying to do what I can to prepare for it - but even if I could do six impossible things before every breakfast, I'm still not sure I can do enough to make a difference." I used my hoof to roll Ringo around a bit, and he happily, if toothlessly, fought back by gumming my hoof. "Any time ponies spend fighting dogs is time they can't use to prepare for the storm. Any ponies whose lives are lost fighting, are ponies who can no longer help prepare. So it's worth my time to try to stop such fighting before it starts."
"What. About. Dead. Dogs?"
"I would rather avoid those, too. I'm hoping... well, I don't know exactly when the storm will arrive - it may be tomorrow, it may be a generation from now. Probably somewhere between. Maybe only a diamond dog can come up with the idea that can head off the storm - so I'm hoping there's some way to convince your species to not only live in peace with the ponies, but to... contribute. But before that can happen... peace is a good start. Even if it's just peace between a single village and a single pack - it's something to start building on. And," I pulled my tail out of George's mouth, "if I do die before the storm comes - there should be someone else working on it. The ponies are doing their thing... maybe these four," I pursed my lips and blew onto Paul's nose, which set him blinking, "can help the diamond dogs work on things, however is best for diamond dogs to prepare."
After a few more moments, she got up, and went over to the Alpha, interrupting his conversation with the Mayor. After exchanging some words, she came back, and settled back into the grass again. She glanced at me, and said, "Come. Live."
"You mean... me, live with you?" She nodded, so I considered, my brow furrowing. "I'm... not sure that's the best idea." At her look, I hurriedly added, "That's not a 'no'. It's... me not being sure. I'm doing a lot of traveling lately, looking for ways to prepare for the storm."
"So. Travel. But. Live. With. Us."
"Um... another thing is, well... er... you know how when you found me and these four, it was in a house, and there was a pony there, sleeping?" She nodded. "Well, um, she and I, that is... we're kind of... livingtogether..."
Amethyst looked rather amused at my sudden tongue-tied-ness. She got up for another consult with the Alpha, and when she came back, suggested, "She. Live. Us. Too."
"I don't think she'd agree - she's the local school-teacher."
"She. Teach. Us?"
"Um... maybe. I'm still trying to get the local school to accept calves as students."
The Alpha and Mayor broke apart, and the latter trotted over. "We seem to have an agreement. They'll stay in their tunnels, and we'll stay out of them, and that should be that."
I winced. "Is that all? Have you made any arrangements in case that agreement's broken?"
"I don't see that it will be - we'll just post warning signs, and ponies will know not to go in."
"I can name at least three reasons that won't work: CMC Delvers."
From a nearby bush came a filly's whisper, "What's a 'delver'?"
Mayor Mare winced. "I take your point. Well, back to the negotiating... um, basket."
It was a long afternoon.
When suppertime approached, the two community leaders broke apart, with plans to resume talking the next morning. I commented, hopefully, "It looks like the two of you can keep going without me, right?"
They looked at each other, at me, and simultaneously stated, "No."
I saw an interminably long period of such boring talks stretching ahead of me - so I tried to head them off at the pass. "Let's cut to the chase. If - I guess I should say 'when' - a disagreement comes up, then you promise to try meeting and talking over the whole thing, before either group takes any sort of drastic or violent action. Right?" I got a couple of reluctant nods. "Then everything else is just details."
The Alpha grumbled, "Talking is just talking. Ponies will never say they're wrong."
The Mayor started to hotly object, but I cleared my throat, she glanced at the small crater, and fell silent. So I said, "They might say the same about you. But I bet you'll be surprised at how often simply laying out all the specifics of how both sides see a problem can let people find a solution."
"And if wrong ponies still won't say they're wrong?"
I shrugged. "Then, I guess, all you've lost is a bit of time." I glanced up at the distant mountains for a moment, at Canterlot perched on the side of one, then back down at them. "It would be useful if you could agree ahead of time that if you can't come to an agreement yourselves, to find a neutral arbitrator and abide by whatever they decided - but I doubt either of you would be willing to do so. You'd need somebody you could trust, who had a long history of fairness and honesty, with experience in this sort of thing, somebody who would be willing to rule against either side based on the merits of the case rather than the species of the litigants..."
The two of them did that silent glance-communication thing again, and the Mayor said, "You're absolutely right."
The Alpha said, "Agreed."
I perked up. "Excellent! I can draft a letter to the Princesses to be ready to settle things for you... uh... why are you shaking your heads? ... Aw, come on, I already have a job!"