Diplomacy of The Domain
Techorse series: #21
By Spirals95
It was about one in the morning at Canterlot Castle, and the entire fortress built into the mountains of Equestria was at rest. Most of the guards had retired to their barracks to get their sorely needed sleep for another day of watching over the imposing structure, and those who had the fortune of living close by in the city had the luxury of sleeping in their own beds at home instead. Princess Luna had decided to spend this night watching over the city itself, leaving the castle for a few hours to return at dawn. This left her fortress a quiet place for the night, where, for the most part, there wasn't a single soul awake. Only one individual had gotten up at this hour and had slipped past the remaining night vigil to get into the kitchen.
Princess Celestia had managed to work her way into her castle's large kitchen after using an invisibility spell to sneak past her own guards. She didn't want a soul to see what she was about to do. As the large white mare stepped gently across the plain tiles of the kitchen floor, she reached a granite-top counter which was completely clear of objects except for one irresistible thing. A giant neatly stacked and absolutely luxurious pile of dark chocolate fudge brownies, baked just that afternoon by the royal chef, sat underneath a solid glass display bell jar.
Each of the bricks in this pyramid of chocolate confections was cut to large 4 inch by 3 inch rectangles, and was at least 1 inch thick. The princess turned her long neck to take a glance behind her, just to make sure no one else was in the room. Although her crown was back in its display cabinet, she was wearing a pink silk bathrobe, with matching slippers to mask the sound of her hooves on the ground. It would be embarrassing to be caught like this out in public, but it was past midnight, so the ruler could care less about her less-than-royal choice of night outfit.
Returning her attention to the goodies in front of her, the alicorn cast a small but forceful spell to gently remove the glass lid from the container. The glass jar was moved just a short way over to the side, and Celestia lowered the lid carefully, the very tip of her horn sparking with light. Once the lid was down safely on the counter, she removed her front legs from her slippers and started to work away at the sugary treats.
At first the princess was simply eating one bite at a time of the chocolate goods, but eventually the addicting nature of the brownies had her stuffing them into her mouth almost whole. After polishing off half a dozen, the princess began to realize just how dry her throat was becoming from all the brownie particles clogging it up. She moved away from the counter slowly, chocolate now at the corners of her mouth from the feast, and stepped over to the stainless-steel refrigerator nearby. Her hair still flowing despite the lack of breeze in the room, Celestia was careful not to trigger the light inside the refrigerator by pressing the latch on the top of the door with her left hoof. She then used a telekinesis spell to remove a half-gallon carton of milk from the icebox, and stepped back. Bringing the carton to her lips, she tilted her neck back and started draining the milk in large sips to satisfy her thirst. Suddenly, her eyes widened in horror as the click of the kitchen's electrical switch was heard, and the entire room was lit up in an instant.
"Oh, it's you my lady!" said Captain Arbiter with relief in his voice, removing his hoof from the light switch in relief, "I heard sounds coming from the kitchen and thought we had an intruder!"
Princess Celestia turned to face her captain, and casually put the half-empty carton of milk down on the counter next to the brownies. She had a good look at Arbiter, and realized his choice of clothing during the night was just as ridiculous as hers. Arbiter wore not only a red flannel cape, but also had a matching-red nightcap with a large silver puffball at the end. If wearing a cape to bed was supposed to make the pegasus look tough, the nightcap surely canceled out the effect.
"What are you doing out of bed?" he questioned, walking closer to the princess, "If you were hungry, you could have simply asked Jools to bring you something, he's got the night shift tonight."
"Being able to get my own snack is a perk of being royalty, Arbiter," said the princess, a bit annoyed Arbiter was demanding she stay in her room.
The pegasus simply smirked and replied, "Is drinking directly from the carton another perk of royalty?"
Celestia smiled with embarrassment at the fact that Arbiter had seen her drink milk from the carton, before sighing and saying, "I've been having trouble sleeping tonight, there's something on my mind."
Arbiter turned his head to a nearby stove, and looked at the ceramic teapot on it with his one good eye.
He suggested, "I'll make us some tea. If you need to tell me something so that you can get to sleep, your majesty, I'll listen while we have a cup."
Soon the two were seated in a small parlor outside of the kitchen area, enjoying a nice steaming cup of decaffeinated black tea. The parlor had a few large bay windows on the walls, but no artwork or any other kinds of decorations. The tea cabinet, circular marble coffee table, and the large fluffy blue couches that made up the seats for the tables were the only pieces of furniture in the room.
Arbiter took a relaxing sip from his teacup, using his front hooves to pick up the china. After setting the cup back down on its saucer, the pegasus pony ruffled his feathers before relaxing in his seat on the couch.
"What's been keeping you awake, your majesty?" he asked.
Although Arbiter's job wasn't to be Princess Celestia's therapist, he knew his job was to protect her, and he included protecting her mental health along with her physical health.
Celestia tilted her head up from her tea and answered, "Arbiter, ever since Twilight Sparkle and her friends uncovered my brother's kingdom behind the old castle, I've been trying to encourage its special ponies to visit the rest of Equestria as they please. Sadly, from reports I've been getting, not a single pony has dared to leave the domain, save for Limpwing."
Arbiter smirked softly at the name, thinking about the aspects of Limpwing he enjoyed seeing the most.
"Now that my sister has returned to Equestria, I've been able to be a little less worried about being viewed as a tyrant,"
continued the princess, "But I'm concerned about what the citizens of The Domain think about me. I want them to realize that I only want what is best for them, but they still seem to be very afraid of what I might do to them if they enter Equestria. They're scared that they might be viewed as worthless because of how different they are."
"Maybe you could send a few diplomats to ensure the citizens that we mean no harm," suggested Arbiter, "I'm thinking that if you did that, the ponies of The Domain wouldn't see you as so cold and distant."
Princess Celestia looked up from her tea and said with a smile on her face, "Arbiter, are you volunteering?"
The white stallion froze for a moment as he realized he'd just signed up for a diplomatic mission. He could refuse if he wanted to, but he really wanted another chance to see Limpwing again. Rather than admit this though, he pretended to have no interest in his own idea whatsoever.
"You would send me, a stallion with a scar and an eyepatch?" he laughed, "You don't want to scare them! Send somepony who looks a lot less like a soldier and more like a friend."
"I'll send Twilight Sparkle then," decided Celestia, turning her neck to look out the window, "she was the first to discover The Domain, along with Techorse."
Arbiter's remaining eye looked down in contempt. Arbiter couldn't stand the fact that Techorse was going to be the center of attention again while he had to sit in the castle.
"On second thought," he said, looking back up at his leader, "I'd like to go with them, if possible. I can offer some comfort to the residents by assuring them that our forces will only be used to protect them and their property."
"If you insist, Arbiter," replied Celestia, fairly aware of her captain's nature, "but there will be some rules as to how you're going to have to behave on the mission. I don't want to hear any reports of jail time threats from either Twilight Sparkle or Techorse."
Arbiter smiled as gracefully as he could and answered, "What? You don't trust me?"
The princesses' stern look gave the answer, making Arbiter regret saying that almost immediately. He knew that he wasn't going to like the restrictions the princess placed on him for this trip. But it was all worth it if he got another chance to see Lieutenant Limpwing again. After the princess and Arbiter had finished their tea for the night, he bid her goodnight and headed back to the castle's barracks to sleep.
As he walked down the darkened hallways of the cliff-side fortress, Arbiter thought carefully about what he had gotten himself into. He didn't really understand why he felt so strongly about another visit to the temporary leader of The Domain, but he did know he now had a mission to fulfill. Remembering that it was past midnight, Arbiter realized as he walked back to his bed that today was now his birthday and he'd have to work through it, a big disappointment. Still, wanting to remain tough, he maintained a smirk and kept his pose in a tough, dominant position. Tomorrow would bring the challenge of not using threats to bring the new ponies around, and that would be difficult enough for the captain.
The morning came six hours later, and Ponyville was blessed with only having a few clouds in the sky that day. No extra rain was needed for quite some time, so most of the weather pegasi had taken the day off to enjoy the warmth of the spring weather. Most of the towns' residents were outside either working or playing in the warm sun and the cool breeze. However, two of the residents were indoors today, engaged in an epic struggle for the fate of a distant outpost. Twilight and Techorse were in the library that day playing a round of Techorse's favorite board game, Cooperation Castle 2. Techorse was down to his last miniature on the map, a metal-cast figurine of a small earth pony standing on a powder keg with her front legs. Twilight magically shook a small cup filled with dice, and rolled the plastic cubes out over the floor where the two were playing the game. The results of the dice made her smile.
"Well, I just took out your demomare!" she said triumphantly, "good game, Tech."
"Yeah, that was fun!" He said, removing his piece from the pile and returning it to the game box with his front leg, "thanks for playing with me."
"I love playing board games with you!" she said, smiling at him, "Want to go get some lunch downtown? It's a beautiful day out there."
Techorse looked out of one of the library's windows and answered, "Sure. We'll go to your favorite place. Just make sure that Spike is ok with us leaving him here all by himself."
"He'll be fine," said Twilight knowingly, "Spike's probably just going to lounge around in his bed all afternoon as usual on weekends."
After finishing with cleaning up the game, the two headed out for the small café Twilight enjoyed getting a flower sandwich from, and headed downtown through the busy streets. Once they were in the center of town, they saw the various store owners selling goods to passing ponies, including Applejack, who was trying to sell a fresh bushel of her newest breed of apples to a passing customer. Bon-Bon and Lyra were trying to get an order filled for a pan of brownies from Pinkie Pie, who was much too distracted by the activity in the square to pay much attention to her friends. Once they got to the café, Techorse found a table for Twilight and himself, and they sat down together to order lunch. Behind them, a stallion with a newspaper was busy listening in on the conversation.
"I forgot to say this earlier," started Twilight, as she browsed over the menu, "but I just read a really great biology book this month about the various animals living in Equestria's mountains."
"That's interesting," said the colt across from her.
His ever-useful robotic arms extended from his saddle to pick up the other menu laid neatly on the lunch table, "Those animals are dangerous if they end up here in a town, like that time the schoolyard got attacked by a magma salamander!"
The waiter came around to the two, interrupting their conversation. Twilight ordered her daisy on white, as she always did at this restaurant, and Techorse went for the special of the day: grilled carrots and peas mixed in with pasta.
Once he had left with their orders, Twilight picked up where she had left off, "Anyways, it was interesting learning about what makes those animals attack ponies. There's usually a trick to making them calm down before they can cause any harm."
"I might have to read this book sometime," Techorse said, thinking about how he could use the information to avoid a future fight with a creature.
The stallion at the table behind them put down his newspaper, knowing he'd found the right ponies. He introduced himself,
"I knew I'd find you here, Techorse."
The two looked back to see who had mentioned Techorse's name, and saw Captain Arbiter sitting there, with a completely new look they weren't expecting. He had lost his cape for some reason, and his wings, which were usually concealed by the black or blue capes he wore, was now plainly visible. Arbiter still had to wear his eyepatch of course, but he now wore a black pinstripe hat on his head, which covered his gray mane hair well.
"Hello Arbiter!" said Techorse, trying to be nice, "How did you know we'd be here?"
He smirked in response and answered, "You and Twilight always come here for lunch the same time every week. You're both very predictable ponies."
Twilight nearly blushed in embarrassment at this statement of how boring she and Techorse had become, but she knew it was true; they always ended up going to the same restaurant on Saturday for lunch.
"So what are we in trouble for now?" asked Twilight jokingly, "Did you wake up and see a reminder to torture us on your to-do list?"
The comeback hit Arbiter like a brick, but he shook it off and said, now frowning at her, "No, as a matter of fact, Princess Celestia has sent me here to go on a special mission with you. That's why I'm wearing this atrocious hat and I've lost my cape and sword. I'll explain everything once we're done having lunch."
After the meal, the three headed back to the library to prepare for the trip. As soon as they were inside, Arbiter removed the tacky hat Princess Celestia had made him wear and put it on a nearby coat rack. Spike was still sleeping soundly in his bed despite it being past noon, and Twilight rolled her eyes when she saw him chewing on the corner of his pillow in his sleep. Once she had checked on her assistant, she went back downstairs in her tree home to find Arbiter and Techorse already discussing the important assignment the princess had for them.
"So what is this special mission anyways?" asked Techorse, "Seeing as Celestia sent you, Arby, I'm assuming we're going to have to fight some monster or stop some plot."
The captain shook his head, "The princess told me that the citizens of The Domain have not yet started to visit Equestria despite their right to do so. We think they might still be afraid that Princess Celestia is going to punish them for either being different, or for defecting from Equestria. Since both you and Twilight Sparkle are the most familiar with The Domain, I've been sent to help make peace."
"You, make peace?" scoffed Twilight with a twitch of her right ear, "That's a good one, Arbiter."
"That's why I'm without cape and sword," he explained, a little irritated from the insult, "the rules of this trip are that nopony can bring any weapons. Techorse will have to leave his battle saddle behind."
"That's fair," said Techorse.
Reaching back, he unbuckled the black straps that held his saddle in place, and the device slipped onto the hardwood floor of the library.
The young inventor was impressed with his previous enemy for being willing to give up his trusty sword for a peace mission. Having to give up his gadgetry for a day to see this happen was well worth the trade. Hopefully the peaceful nature of the mission was going to mean some improvement in Arbiter's nature.
"If that's it, then we're almost ready to go," said Twilight, "I'm going to pack a few books on the recent history of Equestria to show the ponies of The Domain just in case they want more proof that it's perfectly safe to come back."
Once she had secured the reading material, they all left the library and headed for the outskirts of Ponyville to make for the Castle of the Two Sisters. Techorse made a quick stop to pick up some money from the local bank branch, and secured it in a small canvas bag around his neck. Once he returned to his friends, he realized that he was feeling rather odd about not wearing his saddle, and wondered what he was going to be able to do without it. He kept telling himself that not using the gadget for a while would be good for him, and tried to keep his mind off of it. Before he and his friends could leave town for The Domain, they were intercepted by a very curious Pinkie Pie, who had noticed them trying to leave Ponyville without saying goodbye to her.
"Hi! Where's everypony going today?" she asked, jumping in front of the dirt path that led out of town.
She wasn't going to move without getting an answer.
Knowing this, Arbiter pushed aside Twilight and Techorse and answered, "We're about to leave town Miss Pie, to go to The Domain. Twilight is going to assist Lieutenant Limpwing in getting the ponies there to return to Equestria."
Pinkie Pie jumped up and down with her eyes closed, "I want to go to! That sounds like a lot of fun!"
Twilight didn't think her friend would be trouble on the trip, but it might be a little risky to bring her along anyways, so she said, "We're only going to be talking to them, Pinkie Pie. I don't think you're going to find much to do."
"You think it'd be boring?" she asked with surprise, halting her jumps.
"Of course it's going to be boring, it's a peaceful mission," grunted Arbiter, "and I'm going to have to do this on my birthday too."
Pinkie Pie heard those words, and her pupils dilated in delight. She squealed out a question to the pegasus pony, "Today is your birthday, Arby?!"
"Yes," he said, grumbling.
Pinkie Pie shrieked with delight and ran away laughing from her friends. She was off to plan a great birthday surprise for Arbiter.
"Great, now somepony else knows how old I'm getting," he mumbled in disgust.
They continued their hike for Oldcastle while back in town, Pinkie Pie rushed back to Sugarcube Corner to begin preparations for her big celebration of Arbiter's birthday. The pink cartoonish blur of speed passed Rarity in the streets, blowing her curly purple-blue hair into her face.
"Slow down Pinkie!" she said, "You're going to get yourself injured."
Pinkie Pie actually listened to the advice, and slowed down to a comfortable trot, backtracking to reach Rarity. Applejack noticed the two talking from across the street, and momentarily closed her apple cart to join them.
"I'm just so excited I've got another chance to throw a great party!" she said cheerfully.
"Well that's great, darling!" said Rarity, pushing her last curl back into place, "What, or should I say who, is it for?"
"It's for Arby!" she said.
Applejack and Rarity's mouths fell open in shock.
"For ARBITER?!" asked Rarity with contempt, "Why in Equestria would you want to throw a party for a disgusting stallion like him?"
"Why not?" asked Pinkie Pie, tilting her head in confusion.
Applejack cleared her throat and recovered from the shock before interrupting, "Well for starters, Pinkie Pie, he tried to chop off Techie's head!"
"So?" she asked,"Techie isn't bitter."
"And he also tried to feed you to a purple worm!" added Applejack.
"I can forgive that," giggled Pinkie Pie, “besides, the worm didn't really know any better.”
Rarity then thought of something she was sure would change Pinkie Pie's mind, "But worst of all, he attempted to make Fluttershy be his trophy wife! Oh, the poor mare would have been forced to bear his likely just as violent foals! In fact, Arbiter still tries to get Fluttershy to date him every chance he gets.
Why in Equestria would you want to help somepony like that?"
Now Pinkie Pie's heart was conflicted. On one side of the debate, Pinkie Pie really did not want to pass up the chance to exercise her skills in cake baking and party throwing. But on the other hand, Arbiter had done this to Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie never let another pony toy with Fluttershy if she had anything to say about it. It all came down to whether or not Pinkie Pie was willing to forgive Arbiter for the way he treated Fluttershy.
Eventually she responded, "Nopony deserves to miss out on their birthday party just because we don't like him! I'm sure Fluttershy wouldn't want me to make Arbiter have a sad birthday just because of his weird crush on her."
"It's a little more than a crush…" muttered Applejack, scratching the ground with her hoof.
"Even so, if I'm gonna be known as the party pony of Ponyville, I have to do it!" she said, turning around and walking away, "You two will see it my way eventually!"
Rarity and Applejack looked at each other and frowned, knowing they had failed to talk her out of it. Whether it was fair or not, Pinkie Pie enjoyed celebrating others' birthdays, even if she didn't like the pony himself. It was very hard to get her to hold a grudge.
Meanwhile, miles away at the old castle, Twilight Sparkle got herself ready to cross over to The Domain with her companions. The hole in the gray stone wall behind the crumbling fortress stood open and waiting. Behind it would be a very large challenge for her, getting an entire country to see Princess Celestia as a caring leader. The unicorn pony knew the citizens were going to be heavily biased against coming back into Equestria due to all the propaganda Prince Darkmatter had fed them over the years.
"This is it," said Arbiter, turning his neck.
The sound of vertebrae straightening sickened Twilight slightly as the older stallion fixed his posture, "Let's go make us some new citizens."
The three walked through the hole in the wall slowly moving from what they believed was one world to the next. When they stepped out into the sunlight, the township of The Domain was actually almost exactly the same as how they left it. The obsidian black castle in the distant was still steaming as it used a special coolant system to vent the intense heat the black stone generated into the air around it. Below the castle where Prince Darkmatter lived before he left on his trip to find his brother, was the small town known as The Domain. No smaller than Ponyville, the village was home to hundreds of inhabits who deemed themselves special and not fit to live in Equestria. They were all afraid they were going to be hunted by Princess Celestia if they dared to step through the wall Twilight had just passed through. The friends saw Limpwing standing with two of her guards at her sides, both gray pegasus ponies with bronze armor covering most of their bodies.
"Hi Limpwing!" said Twilight, walking up to her new friend, "How have things been going here in The Domain?"
"Not bad," she answered honestly, "It's been stressful keeping a tiny country together by myself but we've gotten along."
Looking behind Twilight, Limpwing took a step to the side and addressed Arbiter, "Captain."
"Lieutenant," he said back, nodding.
Going back to Twilight after the small exchange, Limpwing continued, "If we're going to get our ponies to cross over into Equestria, we're going to have to teach them that the outsiders want them back. I was thinking that a day of you and Techorse using the services of our ponies would make them feel more comfortable."
"That seems reasonable," agreed Twilight, who took a large book with a black cover out of her saddlebags.
Floating it in front of Limpwing's face, she said, "I also brought a few texts on the recent history of Equestria, just to prove our government's done more good than bad."
"Sorry Twilight, but most of the citizens are indoctrinated like crud into ignoring your books," she said, trying hard not to smirk, "they won't read that, so you might as well just give your books to the guards. We'll give them back after the day."
Twilight frowned, but turned over her textbooks and saddlebags to the guards. If they were useless to the mission, she might as well lighten her load. Limpwing then dismissed the guards, who seemed to eyeball Techorse suspiciously as they left the team of four. Apparently they were still rather angry about the burns they had gotten from the inventor earlier in the year.
"Ok, so where should we start?" asked Captain Arbiter, stepping forward to look Limpwing in the eye, "Perhaps we should split up into two teams, consisting of me and Limpwing, and Twilight and Techorse."
Twilight wrinkled her nose in disgust at Arbiter botching his grammar, and his pursuit of spending time with Limpwing. The blue pegasus pony caught on to this, and suggested, "Actually Arbiter, it's probably better if Twilight and I go together and you and Techorse hang out. This mission was originally just for her after all."
"Very well," grunted Arbiter, taking a step back from Limpwing.
"Then let's get started!" said Techorse, "Come on, Arby, let's head downtown."
He nodded and followed the green colt off to find something to do. This left the two mares together to plan on how they were going to win back The Domain.
"We can start by going to the north part of town and introducing you to the residents," Limpwing said, "hope you're able to deal with some of our ponies though."
Twilight smiled, "I'm sure we'll get along."
The two walked into the town, and Twilight scanned the village to have a look at its architecture. The homes were made out of red brick and had thatched roofs, each was two stories tall and could probably suit a family of four. Sometimes a shop made out of a different material such as concrete or wood could be seen amongst the buildings, but the color scheme definitely featured hot colors, a large difference from Ponyville's pinks and blues. The residents of The Domain popped in and out of their homes to do their shopping or sell their products, and Twilight couldn't see any real differences between the behavior of the residents and those of Ponyville.
However, that soon changed when she started to look at the appearances and habits that the residents had. She saw a tan coated unicorn pony with a small dent in his horn, something that could have been easily fixed with corrective surgery in Fillydelphia's hospitals. There was a magenta pegasus who was half submerged in a tub of glass marbles, swearing that her new marble therapy was going to be a huge success someday. Limpwing's damaged appendage helped her to fit right in with these special ponies, who weren't really deformed or strange in comparison to everyone else, just very unique in their own ways. To these ponies, who had found themselves to be awkward or different had escaped from Equestria early in life, The Domain was a safe haven where they could just be themselves and not worry about judgment.
Twilight Sparkle stopped in front of a home, whose owning couple had stepped out into the daylight. The husband was an earth pony with a yellowish coat and long black mane, and his wife was a silver pegasus with visible knots in her cyan colored mane. Both of them had a small silver ball tied to the ends of their tails.
"Hello, I'm Twilight Sparkle, from Equestria!" Twilight said to introduce herself in a friendly manner.
The two ponies looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes before talking to Limpwing instead.
The wife, Sterling, asked her, "Um, Miss Limpwing, is it ok for this Twilight to be here?"
Limpwing nodded and assured them, "Twilight's here to talk to anypony who will listen about how great life in Equestria is. We're hoping you guys can start getting out of The Domain more to socialize."
"Why don't you come in the house then?" said the husband, Refiner, "We were going to go get a drink together, but I guess we can talk for a while instead! Great to have company, y'know?"
Limpwing and Twilight stepped inside the townhouse to have a conversation with the married couple. Twilight learned quickly that these two were considered special for their brand new invention, the silver ball they were wearing on their tails. Some tail jewelry had caught on in Equestria before, but never something as simple, nor heavy, as a ball of precious metal threaded through the tail.
"So you see," said Sterling, explaining their concept to Twilight, "we're planning on making the silver sphere thing a trend in The Domain."
"That's very nice," said Twilight, trying not to be rude but wanting to hint at the spheres being too heavy, "In fact, I'm sure the silver spheres might just catch on in Equestria, if our tails can hold them up!"
Limpwing nodded, hoping that her being an authority figure would help her citizens to agree. But they frowned and looked nervously at each other.
Finally after a minute of silence, Refiner said, "We can't go back to Equestria! Princess Celestia would dissolve our marriage and lock us up for failing to get a license with her first."
"What?" gasped Twilight with horror, "Who told you that?"
The stallion walked over to a nearby bookshelf in his home and quickly picked out a large black book. Returning to the table, he set down the rather impressive printed material and asked Twilight to flip through it. Not wanting to ever pass up a chance to read something new, Twilight read each page eagerly. Her happy thoughts about reading were soon fading away as she read all of the nasty stories written within.
This was obviously a book of propaganda written by Prince Darkmatter to indoctrinate his citizens that Princess Celestia was evil and would do terrible things to any pony who dare cross her. Twilight got halfway through the book when she came across a chapter titled "The Fate of Ponies Who Question Celestia's Tax Codes." Rather than have a descriptive text, Prince Darkmatter's artists had drawn a lifelike two-panel cartoon of Princess Celestia. In the top panel, Celestia was looking down with a demonic grin on her face at a small male earth pony, who was wearing a blue handkerchief around his neck. The doomed colt was sitting on a pewter colored tray, and was looking up at Celestia with tears and guilt in his innocent orange colored eyes. In the bottom panel of the illustration, the pony had disappeared entirely, but a very obvious clue to his fate had been left in. Princess Celestia, her eyes now closed, was patting her lips with the blue handkerchief.
Twilight took in all of the information and realized that Darkmatter had demonized Princess Celestia even more than Equestria had demonized Luna. It would take a lot more than smooth talking and kindness to convince The Domain that everything was just a misunderstanding.
"First of all, Princess Celestia is not a cannibal," said Twilight to Refiner, "this was all just a big lie told by Prince Darkmatter. He was mad that Celestia had banished Princess Luna to the moon and wanted to make her seem evil to his citizens."
"Even if that's true…" said Sterling, "what makes you so sure you haven't been brainwashed by Celestia?"
"I'll prove it by trying everypony's hobbies and products in town!" said Twilight, smiling, "could you agree that logically if I was brainwashed by Celestia or had a spell on me, I'd never want to do anything out of the ordinary?"
"I guess we'd have to agree," said Refiner reluctantly, "but there's a lot of ponies living in The Domain. You'd better get started now."
Limpwing went to the door of the home and opened it for Twilight, then thanked the young couple for talking with them. Twilight headed out the door and started looking for residents engaged in their odd activities.
Meanwhile, Arbiter and Techorse had found themselves in a labor-oriented section of town. Arbiter had entered a local brewery to sample the odd drinks concocted out of various plants indigenous to the area. Techorse in the meantime had found a large shop with a gigantic metal chimney sticking of the top of it. A small sign featuring a gray anvil hung out front of the simple wooden door which marked the entry to the shop. Figuring he would have a look inside the smoke-emitting store while Arbiter had a drink, Techorse opened the wood door with his front leg and walked inside.
The large, open area in the building was clearly designed to dissipate heat. Granite tiles on the floor led up to a large oak workbench, behind which was a large brick oven heating coals to hundreds of degrees. A few anvils sat on the floor in front of this furnace, and a large cherry-wood rack on the wall provided dozens of tools. An older and somewhat overweight unicorn pony worked in this shop. His aquamarine coat contrasted by his gray mane hair and oversized handlebar mustache. He held with his magic a large metal mallet, and was pounding with nice even strokes on a large pitchfork held on one of the anvils. The metal of the farming tool still glowed a soft orange from the heat, and sparks flew from it every time the hammer landed.
Techorse walked up to the bench and watched the elder work with curiosity. He'd never been to a blacksmith's shop before, so watching a pony make tools by hoof instead of machine was new to him.
Eventually the unicorn finished with the fork and placed it on a cooling rack before turning back to the young stallion. A bright smile came to the old pony's face.
"Well would you look at yourself! I don't get many youngsters in my shop! How can I help you, son?"
Techorse swished his tail with excitement, "It's nice to meet you. I've never seen anypony make tools like this before. I mean, I knew blacksmith shops existed still, but I thought they'd be rare."
"Some things are best made the old-fashioned way. I suppose you're more into machine-pressed tools." said the smith, coughing from the thick air in the store.
"Actually, yes, I'm in the business of machine-produced gadgets," he answered honestly, looking a bit away in embarrassment, "my name's Techorse after all."
"Well ya might be able to make tons of fancy contraptions by machine, but you can't make a decent tool without a good hammer and anvil!" argued the shop owner, "And you certainly can't make one without me, Forgemaster."
Techorse smiled somewhat in agreement, knowing the older stallion didn't really want to insult him, he just had a lot of pride in what he probably did his entire life. Thinking over what Forgemaster must be able to make, Techorse remembered something important, and untied the bag of money from his neck. He'd traded his Equestrian bits for Limpwing's domainmarks earlier, and the bag of square coins hit the table gently.
"Can you make me something for this?" he asked, smiling.
Forgemaster squinted at the bag and carefully opened it with telekinesis. Dumping the contents on the table and sorting out the three sizes of coins with a hoof, he counted the value of the currency quickly and realized the amount that Techorse had dumped on the table was enough to pay for an entire set of tools, not just one. The blacksmith knew he could easily rip off Techorse by simply telling him the currency was worthless, given that he was an outsider and had no idea how much the money was worth, but he preferred to be trustworthy than wealthy.
"This is quite a lot of marks you have here," he said slowly, "large orders take a long time to make, maybe even a few months. I sure hope you've planned ahead what you want."
Techorse opened his eyes in surprise at the generous exchange rate Limpwing had given him, and said, "I just want one thing. Can you keep some of the extra if it's a custom job and you deliver the finished product into Equestria for me?"
Forgemaster paused for a moment, then simply asked, "Well son, what did you have in mind?"
Twilight was sitting neck-deep in a tub full of glass marbles, and she felt a sensation in her left ear that made her suspect one of the marbles had gotten in it. She tried to keep a smile on her face, but felt as if the weird therapy wasn't doing much to help her relax. Of course, unless she used the services of enough of the ponies in town, they'd never believe that she wasn't a spy for Princess Celestia.
"Enjoying the marbles?" snickered Limpwing, having a laugh at her friend's expense.
"Not really…" she muttered through a gritted smile.
"That's too bad," answered the pegasus.
She jumped into another tub of the glass spheres, scattering stray orbs on the ground.
Settling down into the sub, Limpwing pulled her flight goggles down over her eyes and crossed her front legs in back of her head, "See Twilight, you're doing it wrong. You're sitting up and not letting the marbles support your weight."
Twilight looked behind herself at her pink and purple striped fantail sticking up above the marbles. Shifting her weight back on her hind legs, she eventually rested her back on the marbles. It actually felt surprisingly relaxing to have the marbles resting her spine. The look of relaxation on her face let Limpwing know she'd been listened to.
The inventor of the marble therapy came over to the two with a bucket of steaming water, and poured the hot liquid into each of the tubs, warming the marbles.
"So, do you think my therapy would sell in Equestria?" she asked hopefully, picking up a few of the stray glass spheres off from the ground around Limpwing's tub.
"Absolutely!" said Twilight, letting out a sigh as the steam fluffed her mane, "This will make a really great addition to Ponyville's spa!"
Limpwing added, "See? Equestria really wants The Domains' citizens. Why don't you visit Equestria sometime?"
"I'll start tomorrow!" she answered eagerly.
Twilight thought to herself, "Great! We've got our first citizen back. Now if only there was a way to convince the others faster. But I guess a case-by-case basis is better than nothing."
Closing her eyes, the unicorn sank further into her soothing spa bath.
On the other side of town, Techorse had finally managed to drag Captain Arbiter away from the bar he was visiting. The owner was getting angry at the number of free samples Arbiter had demanded from him, and it took all of Techorse's strength to keep the stallion from simply beating up the owner and taking his stock.
"We're here to make the citizens think we're friends, not criminals, Arbiter," he said angrily as they walked away from the shop, "can't you see that?"
Arbiter replied, "I can't see why they can't give a person with my rank a couple of free drinks. You'd think they would understand pleasing me would mean they wouldn't have to be afraid of Celestia's guards."
Techorse rolled his eyes and looked around for something to change the subject. He noticed a pegasus mare selling some hiking supplies, and a path behind her that clearly led up into the mountains.
"Let's go for a walk through the mountain ranges while we wait for Limpwing and Twilight to get done with their mission," he suggested, "we can argue about this later."
Arbiter sighed heavily, "I suppose I have nothing better to do."
They set off on the trail, and much to the disgust of the mare standing by it, Arbiter refused to buy anything from her. Techorse tossed her a few coins for a bottle of water to try and make up for his cheap actions. He then let Arbiter get ahead of him by a significant amount, not wanting to have to deal with his cranky nature for a while. The inventor might have forgiven him for his past crimes, but he really didn't want to try and make him behave in a way he wasn't really capable of behaving. Hopefully though, this walk would help him to calm down and not act so rude.
Most of the remainder of the day went by without much progress with the other ponies and Limpwing and Twilight were both beginning to get tired. Twilight also felt a little sick, she had eaten chocolate covered potato chips in an attempt to please another resident. They'd only managed to convince about a dozen individuals to visit Equestria in the upcoming week, and even then they still seemed unsure about their decision. Twilight was beginning to give up on her mission, and knew Princess Celestia was going to be disappointed.
The two sat on a bench in the middle of the town's square, watching the residents go by. Behind them was a large decorative fountain, which spewed water down several tiers before draining into a basin below.
"Hey, cheer up Twilight," said Limpwing to her companion, noticing her frown, "we did our best, and we've only had one day. It's probably going to take a lot of time to undo all the trouble Darkmatter has caused."
"I understand," said Twilight, looking down at the brick road beneath her, "it's just a little bit disappointing that we've spent so much time getting absolutely nowhere with these ponies."
Suddenly, and without any warning, a clumsy pony accidentally flew into the fountain, gaining the attention of the roughly one hundred ponies in the town square. The victim of the flying accident fell unconscious temporarily and fell helplessly into the fountain's water below. Luckily, the icy chill of the flowing water woke her up, and a light gray pegasus pony stuck her head out from the water.
"Oh, Derpy!" said Twilight with terror, "Are you ok?"
Derpy Hooves climbed slowly out of the fountain, and shook herself off of water, getting droplets all over Limpwing, who closed her eyes to avoid getting them hit.
The mare rubbed the sore spot on her head and turned her non-lazy eye towards Twilight, "Well I guess so, Twilight Sparkle. Didn't mean to crash into the fountain, but I got distracted again."
The ponies in the square had surrounded them and were attempting to comfort Derpy over her terrible accident.
"Are you going to be ok?" asked a colt.
Derpy Hooves replied with a smile, "I'll be fine, thanks!"
Noticing her misdirected eye, one of the mares in the crowd surrounding them said, "I haven't seen you around lately. Where do you live?"
Limpwing opened her eyes again, and hatched a plan quickly to help Twilight out with her mission.
She turned to her subject and said, "Derpy's not from The Domain. She lives in Ponyville with Twilight here."
Several of the members of the crowd either gasped or started talking to each other, trying to understand why a silly, crazy-eyed pony like Derpy Hooves could possibly be allowed to live in the same country as Princess Celestia.
"You mean…" said one of them slowly, "Derpy lives in Equestria despite her eyes?"
Derpy Hooves turned her head to him and answered, "Yeah, why wouldn't I live in Equestria because of my eyes? They've always been this way."
"Celestia doesn't hate you for your strangeness?" asked a concerned mare.
Derpy Hooves started laughing, "What? No! I've met Princess Celestia before, and she likes me a lot, even though I make a lot of messes around Ponyville. She's never called me strange."
Limpwing took the opportunity to nudge Twilight in the side with her more functional wing, giving her a cue to take advantage of the situation.
Twilight gained a beaming smile and began to address the residents as a whole,
"See? Derpy Hooves is a very special, loveable pony, just like all of you, and Princess Celestia accepts her for who she is. Prince Darkmatter spent a long time tricking you all into thinking she was evil because he was bitter that Princess Luna had to be banished using the Elements of Harmony. If you read the book I gave Limpwing here about the recent history of Equestria, you'll see that Celestia has felt guilty for years over the entire ordeal. She hopes that if you return to Equestria, even if you don't want to live there, she can forgive herself for everything."
"I'm going through the wall!" declared a crowd member, jumping up in the air.
"Let's show Celestia we're worthwhile!" said another.
Cheering and agreement seemed to be the theme of the citizen's cries, and they began the walk for the wall that had kept them separate from Equestria for years. Twilight and Limpwing looked at Derpy Hooves, who was dancing in place over the excitement.
"Derpy, you helped us get The Domain back!" said Twilight excitedly.
She gave the mailmare a big hug, and Derpy Hooves accepted it gladly. When they were done, they turned to Limpwing, who took one step back when she realized what they wanted to do.
"I don't do the big group hug," she said, chuckling with a bit of pride.
"Too bad!" said Derpy, tackling Limpwing with Twilight in tow and forcing her hold upon her.
Twilight's ears perked up as she remembered something.
"We have to go pick up the boys!" She said, "Any ideas where they might be, Limpwing?"
The lieutenant shrugged and answered, "Don't really know, but how hard could it be to find Arbiter with that eyepatch of his?"
A pegasus leaving for the wall turned around when she heard this and answered with a bit of anger in her voice, "I think I saw the colt with the eyepatch. That cheapskate went on my hiking path without buying any of my merchandise! At least his friend bought something."
Twilight tried not to laugh. She knew her coltfriend would try to make up for Arbiter being stingy.
"It certainly sounds like them. Thanks for the information!" she said.
The pegasus pony winked and said, "You're welcome! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to visit Equestria for a bit, just to say hi."
Derpy Hooves said to Twilight, "I have to go too. Glad I could do something to help!"
"All right, see you later, Derpy!" she answered, waving as her pegasus friend lifted slowly into the air to fly back home.
After Derpy had left, Limpwing said to Twilight, "I know where that mare's hiking path is. Let's go get the Captain and Techorse back."
As the two trotted along, Twilight asked, "Do you think they're having a good time?"
"Probably. It's hard to ruin a hiking trip if it doesn't rain," she answered.
Techorse and Arbiter had accidentally wandered off of the main mountain trail and ended up in a grassy plateau a kilometer from the known path. They looked around at the beauty of the mountains, and Techorse scratched at the dirt with his hooves, enjoying the experience of not wearing his saddle for once.
"You know, Arbiter," he said, "I know you don't like me very much, but I kind of wish you could be my friend."
"Why would you want me as a friend?" he asked, looking off into the distance, "I don't need any friends."
"But that's just it," retorted Techorse, "Everypony needs good friends, and as corny as this is going to sound, I think you wouldn't do all the things you do if you simply had more friendships in your life."
Arbiter wished he had a cloth to shove into Techorse's mouth, but he knew the younger pony wasn't going to be quiet until he had a decent conversation.
After taking a breath, Arbiter said, "Techorse, I lost an eye to a wraith when I was your age, my parents were always fighting while I was growing up, and I've been betrayed by others to win favor with authority. Through it all I've learned never to trust anyone. That's why I couldn't trust you, Razor, or anypony else for that matter. There's not a single pony in this world I can count on except for myself."
Techorse's heart sank as he understood that Arbiter's actions were his coping mechanism for his pain. The Captain's immoral behavior was the only logical answer to the sheer amount of betrayal and hatred he had received throughout his life. It didn't excuse his selfishness and bad attitude, but it certainly explained it.
A loud thud was heard behind the two, breaking up their conversation. Techorse thought it might have been a falling tree or something. But then he noticed that the "fallen tree" was breathing hot air down the back of his mane. Turning around slowly, Techorse came face to face with a brand new creature.
It was 20 feet tall, 30 feet long, and had to have weighed several tons. Most certainly a giant rhinoceros of some kind, the magical animal was dark gray in color, and had glowing red eyes. Stone plates covered the body of the animal, and a bright sapphire-colored horn, almost looking like a giant gemstone was pointed right at Techorse's neck. The tail of the animal was barbed with several sharp points, and the legs of the creature were covered in sharp lava rock. The animal grunted and began to scrape its front hoof on the ground.
Arbiter got a look at the fearsome animal and said slowly, "Techorse, don't make any sudden movements. Try to walk as slowly as possible to me."
Obeying the Captain's command, the young stallion slowly turned around and walked gently away from the creature. As soon as he was by Arbiter, the rhino's gaze diverted to the ground, and it began to noisily eat the grass in front of it.
"Let's get out of here," whispered Arbiter.
Techorse nodded and followed him back to where they knew the path was. Unfortunately, a spare canteen of water from an earlier hiker had been left on the ground, and since Arbiter and Techorse hadn't taken their eyes off the magical beast behind them, they didn't notice it in time. Arbiter tripped over the canteen, and shouted in pain as his head hit the ground. This attracted the attention of the monster, who gave a loud roar and began to charge at the pair.
"Split up!" shouted Techorse.
Running away from the charging monster in opposite directions seemed to be the best plan. The rhino couldn't possibly get to both of them if they did this, and it also offered a chance for one of them to get help. However, the monster seemed to have some sort of brain in its head, and chased Techorse to a nearby wall of stone. The creature now had its green victim pinned against the granite obstacle, and escaping to the sides would be very difficult without being impaled on the spiked tail it had.
Techorse stood up on his hind legs and sprawled in fear against the granite wall. He realized just how helpless he was without his trusty laser cannons, and wished he'd have taken some kind of self defense lessons. The rhino now lowered its head to point its horn down at his stomach, and he knew any second now the animal would run him through. But to his surprise, Captain Arbiter ran in from the side and underneath the creature's four legs, confusing it. Turning around in a full circle, the side of the creature's tail caught the Captain's rear, and he was flung into the stone wall legs first. After grunting in pain, Arbiter stood up on all fours in front of Techorse, bending down to try to look as menacingly as possible at his opponent.
"Arbiter, you can fly!" said Techorse with panic, "Get out of here!"
"I'm not letting this beast crush you!" he answered, looking back at him, "If anyone gets to do you in, it's going to be ME!"
Techorse's ears flattened, and he gave the Captain an annoyed look, who returned it with a classy smile to indicate he was being a jerk on purpose.
A large bolt of purple energy struck the creature in the left side of its belly, exploding in a large blast of purple energy, and it turned its head curiously to look at who had dared to annoy it. Twilight stood bent forward, her horn smoking slightly from the magic missile. Limpwing was at her side with her flight goggles and best war face on.
"Come on guys!" shouted Limpwing, "Get out of there!"
Arbiter grabbed Techorse with his front legs, and used his strong wings to fly him over to the others.
Dropping him off next to Twilight, Arbiter landed gently on the other side of Limpwing and asked, "What is that thing?"
Twilight answered, "That's a Stone Rhino. It was in that book on mountain creatures I was reading earlier. Despite its name, it's not a material based animal like the Timber Wolves. That rhino naturally grows calcium deposits all over its body to armor itself, giving the appearance of being made of gems and rocks."
"But it only eats plants, right?" asked Limpwing, hoping the rhino didn't plan on a four-pony dinner.
"Of course it only eats plants, but they're very territorial and attack intruders. That's why you should never stray from a hiking path, you never know what animals are out there," lectured Twilight, slightly annoyed by Limpwing's lack of knowledge.
The rhino got tired of hearing the ponies talk on, and turned to them, roaring loudly.
"Teleport us out of here!" said Arbiter, "I know you unicorns can do that!"
Twilight agreed and began to try and charge up her spell. Bright fuchsia energy accumulated at the tip of her horn, but something was wrong. Unfortunately, her recent poor nutrition choices had left her with a slight stomachache and a lack of energy to cast the spell. Twilight groaned and canceled the attempt at teleporting all four of them.
"It's no good. All that weird food I ate has made me too sick to teleport all four of us."
Limpwing looked back at the rhino, who had now lowered his horn and was going to charge again any second.
"Well if you don't have enough energy to teleport all four of us, how else can we stop that thing? We can't outrun it, and flying leaves you and Techorse stranded," she asked.
Twilight thought quickly as the monster started to run.
She said loudly, "I know! I'll use a low-power soothing spell I've used to help Spike sleep. If Techorse stays here and keeps me focused, I'll have enough strength. Can you and Arbiter distract that thing?"
Arbiter and Limpwing spread their wings and smirked at each other. They jumped in the air and began to fly around the rhino, who stopped his charge just 10 feet from Twilight and Techorse, and started to taunt the creature.
"Over here, ugly!" teased Limpwing, dodging a swing from a gigantic horn.
Her injured wing reduced her flying to a series of bounces in the air, but that was enough to dodge the blows.
Arbiter took this opportunity to land on the stone rhino's back and say, "I wonder if you'd make an excellent pet for the castle."
Limpwing played along while flying behind the rhino, "Probably not, Arbiter. He has anger management issues."
The rhino turned around to follow Limpwing, desperately wanting to flatten her on the grassy plains. Twilight and Techorse concentrated on him, and Twilight cast a small silky ribbon of purple energy. It swirled around the stone rhino's large head, and its eyelids began to grow heavy from the effect of the spell.
"Oh come on," said Limpwing, "you want to hit me? You'll have to try harder than that!"
The rhino lunged with his horn, and Limpwing simply flapped her left wing sharply to roll herself away from the blow. Arbiter was thrown off of the creature's rocky back, and grabbed a hold of his rear left leg. Unfortunately, this was the stone rhino's sensitive blind spot, and it reared up on its hind legs in surprise at the touch. Limpwing gasped as the giant footpads nearly landed on her, and the shake from the impact knocked Arbiter clean off the leg he was holding on to. Twilight managed to get off a few more ribbons, and the creature panted gently, its eyes half closed as it grew sleepy. It made one last attempt to hit Limpwing rather lazily with its front horn, and then, it slowly fell over onto its side, and with a large crash, the soothing spell had put it to sleep on the floor of the plateau. Without making any sound, the four friends just smiled and left the giant animal alone to take his nap.
Once they had gotten back to the town, they were walking in pairs, with Limpwing and Arbiter in the back.
She said to him, "You know Arbiter, you and I work together really well. If you want to do something together, you can swing by The Domain anytime you want."
Arbiter felt a tug inside of him, and he answered, "I think I just might, lieutenant!"
"Hey, we're both officers and all; you can just call me Limpwing," She said, winking.
"But don't call her Limpy!" teased Techorse. He received a nice playful kick in the rear leg for that.
Soon the three had bid goodbye to Limpwing and left through the hole in the ancient wall to return to Ponyville. Eventually they reached the library, which was darkened on the inside. Twilight opened the door with her magic, and ushered Techorse and Arbiter into the home.
Once all three of them got in, the light clicked on, and all of Twilight's friends jumped out from their hiding places.
"Happy Birthday Arbiter!" they shouted, springing the surprise.
The Captain leaned back in shock. Pinkie Pie had set up a nice surprise party for him, with blue streamers hanging from every corner of the library's ceiling, and a scrumptious looking vanilla cake sitting on the table along with dozens of glasses of Arbiter's favorite drink, ginger ale.
"You threw a party for me?" he asked, smiling genuinely at the touching idea.
"Yep!" said Pinkie Pie, who proceeded to blow a party kazoo in Arbiter's face, the paper end of the spiral favor tickling his muzzle gently.
Applejack stepped forward and said, "We might think you're a big lug, Arby, but you're our big lug. Nopony deserves to miss out on their birthday."
Rarity smiled and nodded in agreement.
She then remembered something and said, "Oh, Techorse darling, this wrapped package was here when we started to set up. It's for Arbiter, isn't it?"
"Yeah, that's his present!" he said, walking over to Rarity, "Can I give it to him?"
"Of course!" she answered, levitating the box over with her magic.
It was a long and thin box covered in yellow paper and wrapped with a big red bow. The tag on it said, "From Techorse, To Arbiter. Happy Birthday!"
Techorse slid the large package over to the Captain, who stepped up to the present and looked over how carefully wrapped it was.
"I don't need a present," He said, trying to reject the gift.
"But it's from your friend Techie!" said Pinkie Pie, "You gotta open it!"
Arbiter looked over the box, knowing that if he accepted the gift, he'd be admitting that Techorse was somehow no longer a rival to him. He seemed to continue to snub it, until Rainbow Dash got impatient with him.
"Just open the box, eyepatch!" She said with annoyance.
Arbiter took a deep breath, and then let it out before saying, "All right. I was going to save it for later, but I guess I'll open it now."
Arbiter tore at the wrapping paper with his front hooves, shredding the yellow paper and red bow slowly. Eventually, he revealed the white cardboard box underneath and took off the lid. Inside was the order Techorse had placed with Forgemaster. It was a brand new longsword, Arbiter's favorite type of blade, with a beautiful hoofcrafted hilt. The hilt was a traditional cross shape, with each bar of the cross curving slightly upward in a thick point. It was a bright gold color, with the handle of the hilt being a nice royal blue to match the wooden sheathe he preferred to keep his blades in. But the most prominent feature of the sword was the small circular carving on both sides on the center of the hilt, where the handle and crossbars met. In the circular area was a carving of an axe, an identical copy of the clasp Arbiter wore on his capes that displayed his cutie mark.
The pegasus pony looked over the sword with awe. He couldn't believe Techorse would get him any gift, let alone a sword when he had just earlier that year stabbed him with one.
"You got Arbiter a sword?" asked Pinkie Pie with a gasp.
Techorse explained, "I knew Arbiter collected swords, and I wanted him to have a custom one made by The Domain's own blacksmith. That weapon is one of a kind, Arby. There's a certificate of authenticity underneath the tissue paper to prove it."
The large pegasus pony turned to Techorse and said with a smile, "I'm not going to put this in a case, Techorse. I'm going to use it as my main sword once I've practiced with it for a while."
Techorse seemed rather shocked that Arbiter would trust a sword that he gave to him. But then he figured out that Arbiter was indicating he was going to make a conscious effort to stop trying to harm innocents. The blade had forged a small pact between the two of them.
"You still have one more gift coming up," said Rainbow Dash, "go ahead Fluttershy."
From behind Rarity and Applejack, Fluttershy meekly stepped forward. She was wearing a pretty green dress, and had put on her best makeup and hair decorations to look as beautiful as she could.
Walking up to Arbiter, she cleared her throat daintily and said softly to him, "Arbiter, I heard it was your birthday and… I know how much you've wanted to spend time with me. So I was thinking that, if you wanted to, I could go out to dinner tonight with you. If you aren't too busy, that is…"
Arbiter was rather moved by Fluttershy's offer to allow him to go out on a date with her. He had at one point had interests in being her husband. But now, it felt as if he had a different pony in mind that would suit his personality much better. So, he lowered his head a bit, and looked back out the door of the library towards where he had come from.
"I appreciate the offer, Fluttershy," he said gently, "nut… I'm afraid my interests are elsewhere."
This elicited a bit of surprise from most of the ponies in the room.
"So I'm free? I mean, so you don't want to date me?" she asked, looking up in surprise.
"I'm sorry," he said, "I have another pony in mind."
Fluttershy breathed a small sigh of relief, and sat down on the floor of the library. The friends then began to celebrate the Captain's birthday. Outside the library, the citizens of Ponyville were having conversations with the residents of The Domain, who for the first time in their lives felt like they could interact with outsiders without fear.
After a week had passed, the old hole in the wall outside of the old castle had been demolished by Celestia's private team of construction engineers, and a gate made of brass now served as a proper border between the states. Limpwing and Twilight had with Derpy's help made The Domain and Equestria accessible to each other, and they knew it wouldn't be long before the land simply became a part of Equestria altogether and sent members to the senate. But even if they didn't, new peace had been formed between many parties in that week, and peace is one of the most important things a pony can have.