"Um...ah..., good! Eh heh. Are you a...are you a guest of Princess Celestia?"
The creatures shook its head. "I am afraid not. I do not know how I ended up here."
Twilight kept flinching at the voice of the creature, but felt no evil intent from it. It sounded very...intellectual.
"I...I see. Well um, I'm Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia. How long have you been here? How did you wander into the castle?"
"A long time. I-" The creature stopped himself and thought.
I can not just say I came from another world. From what that book told me, this kind of thing is not usual. I will keep it a secret for now.
"I am from a faraway land in Equestria called Runeterra. Many do not know of that land. I have come from my people to represent ourselves. I asked the guards for access and they were escorting me until one of the guards was interrupted by another group of guards. They spoke of private matters and I may have wandered off a bit too far."
Twilight's eyes widened. A new race! And I thought it was a rogue, ugly minotaur or something or even an alien. Ha! No, that's something Pinkie would think of.
"Oh my! It's so nice to meet you mister..?"
"Just Nasus is fine. Apologies for not introducing myself earlier."
"Oh no it's okay, Nasus! Here let me take you to the Princess. She'd love to meet with your hand of diplomacy!"
"I'd love to as well."
As Nasus and Twilight walked down the large spacious halls lined with marble, passerby's gave many different glances. Some of surprise, some of terror, some of awe, some of spite. Guards passing by were prepared for any sudden action by the curator. Though with the presence of Twilight nearby, the guards trusted her to settle the abnormal situation of the large creature before them. After a few minutes, the two arrived at a very large set of double doors. The guards at either side blocked Nasus with their halberds and demanded Nasus's own halberd. The curator calmly obliged and put forward his weapon. The halberd was captured in the magic of one of the guards only for him to topple down onto the ground along with a gasp.
"It is heavy." Nasus said.
The guard grunted agreeably and took it down the hall, sweating and struggling the whole way. The other guard took his position again and nodded. The doors started to swing slowly open. The doors revealed a very large room lined with large stained glass windows that illuminated the bright white marble walls. Nasus confirmed what the stained glass depicted as to what he read in the tome.
So it is true.
At the far end of the room was a throne. The throne was guarded by two other grey guards, contrasting these ones from the white ones Nasus saw earlier.
Different ranks perhaps?
Twilight started forward and Nasus trailed behind. The princess smiled at the sight of her protege but it faltered a bit when she saw the large intimidating creature near her. A curious expression took her face as they drew near. She looked to her student for an explanation. Twilight bowed. Nasus followed.
"Princess Celestia, I want to introduce you to a representative of a new race that traveled far from his homeland to establish diplomatic relations with us."
Nasus spoke. "Greetings Princess Celestia. I am Nasus, the Curator of the Sands and I represent my people of Runeterra. I hope you shall accept us well, your highness."
The princess, surprise on her face at first, grew a warm smile.
"Hello Mr. Nasus. I will gladly accept your race with open hooves. I...was not aware that there were still unknown races in Equestria."
"It is a large land, your highness, and please, just Nasus is fine."
"Indeed it is Nasus." Celestia smiled. "I hope to get to know you and your race better through time."
"Of course. May I say that I read a great deal about you but I never knew how beautiful you looked with only looking at illustrated pictures."
Celestia laughed heartily. "Charming! I hope to be good friends Nasus."
"As do I, Princess Celestia."
"Well then, it's getting late. I insist you stay for the night and talk about each others race over dinner!"
"I shall accept that offer, thank you very much, your highness."
"I'll have somepony to escort you. And please, Celestia is fine with me."
"Wow that went great Nasus! I never knew you were this knowledgeable about diplomacy!" Twilight happily said.
"Diplomacy is just a fancy word for showing respect to other kinds and establishing a friendship with them. All should act like this"
"You're also very philosophical! I'd love to get to know what your people are like!"
Nasus blinked. "All in due time Ms. Sparkle."
"Just Twilight is fine with me Nasus. Consider us friends!" She smiled.
"A pleasure, Twilight."
The servant in front of them stopped after a few minutes.
"Here we are dearies! This will be Mr. Nasus's room. Now I know how hard it is to get to the dining hall from here so take this map." The servant held out a stretched hoof with a piece of paper on it. Nasus carefully took it with his large hands.
"Thank you Miss..?"
"Just call me Honeydew dear! Now ring the bell near your door inside if you need me, okay?"
"Yes of course, thank you very much Miss Honeydew."
"Oh you must drop the formalities! You are our special guest! Okay I need to go now! Ta-ta!"
As Honeydew was walking away, Nasus spoke.
"Would it be alright if I could check out some books from here Twilight?"
"I'm sure it'd be fine with the Princesses."
"Ah yes, princesses. Where are the other two? I have not seen them at all."
"Well Princess Luna is asleep. I'm sure you know why, but she should be waking up for dinner, er, her breakfast. Princess Cadance is out on a trip. I'm sure you'll meet them eventually. Well, after dinner let's go to the library!"
Then it struck Twilight.
"SPIKE! I gotta go! See you at dinner!"
Twilight raced away. Nasus tried to say something but it was unheard.
"Spike?"