A Diplomatic Visit

by Evilhumour

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

"You know, I'm still kind of surprised that you're all so accepting of this whole thing," Thin-Tall said as the group relaxed in the living room a little later, some still eating from the lunch the two Apples had made. There were a number of sofas and large chairs scattered around the living room, though there wasn’t any table which made it a bit odd for a few of them to eat. To their relief though, Slice and the wolves had explained it was fine if they made a mess. "I mean, ponies and meat don't usually get along."

Applejack shrugged, holding her salad plate with a hoof. "Some species are natural carnivores," she said. "Ah don't usually eat it mahself, but Ah must say, that fish Swift-Pad offered us back home was pretty good. Hay, mah dog Winona has ethically sourced meat in her food. So does Opalescence," she added, gesturing to Rarity.

"My cat," Rarity explained to the odd looks she was getting.

"And I take care of animals for a living," Fluttershy added. "A lot of them are carnivores or omnivores, so they need meat. It wouldn't be natural to force them not to do it… though I won't feed them any of the others that live with me."

"That is only reasonable," Swift-Pad noted, sitting in one of the chairs.

Rainbow Dash grinned. "As for me, I love fish. Wish it was easier to get back home."

"I've… well, fish is the most I've ever eaten, but it was good," Twilight added. She was half-tempted to mention her human friends and their eating habits, but resisted.

"Same here," Spike put in. "Dragons are omnivores too, even if I rarely get the chance." He gave Twilight a light look with the wolves snickering.

Twilight raised an eyebrow back at him. “It’s not my fault the only meat in Ponyville is what’s sold in pet stores,” she said. “And I am not about to demean you by making you eat dog or cat food.” She gave him another look, and whispered directly into his ear, “Even if you did like what they had on the other side of the mirror.”

Spike blushed as he pulled away. “I… okay, I get your point.”

Finally, they all looked at Pinkie, who just shrugged. "I won't eat a named animal, but fish is fine. Gummy’s gonna need some eventually too." She retrieved the small gator from her mane, prompting a few surprised looks. Then her mane drooped a bit. "Still don't know where all those rumors about me and meat cupcakes came from though…"

"I do," Rainbow Dash said. "It was one of those jerks from the PVE after you didn't fall for their line of roadapples."

At that, Pinkie's mane stood bolt upright. "Those… meanies‽" Her eyes almost looked like they had flames in them. "Those meanies…"

While Fluttershy tried to calm her down, Slice looked startled. "Ya have them in yer town too?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Applejack said. "Granny ran 'em off when they came pokin' around our farm once."

"What did you do to attract their attention?" Maxilla asked curiously, sitting next to Swift-Pad on the same chair. Twilight had noticed they hadn’t left Swift-Pad’s side; maybe it was to help stake their claim better? She wasn’t sure, though she would try and ask Maxilla later on.

"Mah little sister is friends with Zecora," Applejack said. "She's a zebra who lives out in the Everfree." She ducked her head. "Which… is a big part of why Ah was always creeped out by her an' how she acted, until Apple Bloom helped us realize she was really a nice person. Also because we didn't realize she even was a zebra at first until Twilight pointed it out."

Twilight nodded. “It helped when I explained some of the differences in behavior between zebras and ponies afterward,” she said. “The first time she came to town after Spike and I moved down there, we saw her digging at the ground a bit.” She gave her friends a look. “I’m the only one who knew that doesn’t have the same meaning for zebras as it does for ponies.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at her. “Well, ‘till you said somethin’, Ah thought she was just an odd-colored pony, an’ to us, diggin’ at the ground’s a sign of hostility. How was Ah supposed to know that zebras dig at the ground to say they want a drink?”

"So it was less her species and more her behavior that prompted your fear of her?" Thin-Tall said. "That is far more reasonable than I expected." The words from an Equestrian were left out, but Applejack could tell that's what he meant anyway.

Applejack nodded. "She's a good friend now though. Helped us through more than a few issues since then, an' Apple Bloom goes out to visit her whenever she wants. 'S long as she's got her chores done, of course."

“That’s only fair,” Slice n’ Dice said. The farming mare was now much more at ease around them than she had been, smiling at Applejack. “Farmin’s a lot of work, and it’s how ya make a living, after all.”

“That an’ the rodeos Ah compete in,” Applejack told her. “Ah’m actually the ten-time rodeo champion of Ponyville.”

“Really!” Slice n’ Dice looked very impressed.

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash put in. “And she placed in the top four in every single event at the Equestrian Rodeo in Canterlot a while back!”

“Ya done the Apple family proud there cuz,” Slice n’ Dice said with a grin on her face.

Applejack ducked her head. “Thank you,” she said. “‘Course, Ah let mah pride get the better of me after that - didn’t want to come home because Ah hadn’t actually won any of those events, an’ Ah felt like Ah’d let the whole town down.”

“Why in the world…” Big-Cheer trailed off.

“‘Cause Ah’d promised Ah’d win the big prize money so we could fix up Town Hall after one of the local pegasi - a real sweetheart, but kind of a klutz - had a little accident with some storm clouds an’ damaged the roof, then hit one of the support beams an’ knocked that down,” Applejack said. She shrugged. “We all forgave her, of course. But we still needed funds to fix the damage.”

“So what did you do?” Little-Growl asked.

“Ah went to work at a cherry farm for a while to try and earn the money that way,” Applejack said. “Until mah friends came after me and convinced me Ah didn’t need to run away from mah problems an’ that Ah should have just told ‘em everything.”

“You learned well then,” Swift-Pad said. “As I have told her Grace Twilight, it is important that you learn from your mistakes, and you have clearly done so.”

Applejack ducked her head. “Yeah… an’ Ah got a new friend out of it too. Miss Cherry Jubilee was mah boss when Ah stayed at her farm, an’ she an’ Ah still write back an’ forth when we get the chance.”

Little-Growl looked at her, suddenly very impressed. “Cherry Jubilee? I know her! We met at one of the big market events down in Dodge Junction, back when we were still trying to sell our products in Equestria, and she was about the only pony who didn’t freak out over us or our stuff! Didn’t buy any of it either, but she was very nice to us, and said that the only reason she didn’t buy anything was because she didn’t have anyone working for her who’d use it and she didn’t want to see it go to waste. And she was willing to sell to us, unlike a lot of the others there.”

Applejack grinned. “Small world, idn’t it?”

“Sure is, Applejay,” Slice n’ Dice said before giving Applejack a closer look. “Ah know Ah mentioned that ya work on ya farm yerself with ya brother and little sis, but Ah can tell that yer Earth Pony magic has been actin’ up ever since ya got here.”

“Yeah… yeah, it kinda has,” Applejack admitted. “Ah felt more awake than Ah have in ages.”

“Now hear me out,” Slice said raising her hoof. “Ah know yer getting that Apple Itch, so here’s what Ah’m thinkin’. There’s plenty demand for vegetarian farmin’ in the Packlands and Ah know there some packs out here that would love ta have an Apple farm workin for them.”

Applejack hesitated. “Ah… Ah don’t know.” She looked down. “Ah got responsibilities back home. An’ not just the farm - Element of Honesty and all that. Besides.” She looked Slice in the eye. “Granny’s great and all, but Ah’m the closest to a Ma that mah little sister has now.”

“Well now, the work on yer farm back home, that won’t be an issue,” Slice said, looking at Tall-Thin. “Part of our agreement was the eventual adoption of mah parents into the clan as submembers. Not full packmembers but still can call on the rest of the pack for help. Ain’t no pack won’t do that fer ya, or at least no pack Ah’d suggest ya go to.” She then stood up and began to pace a bit. “That Element mumbo jumbo, Ah can’t say but Ah’m sure yer friend there could.” She tilted her head towards Twilight. “And for the last part, about yer sis. Well, ain’t no reason she couldn't come here or ya could go back ta visit her during the off seasons.” Slice turned her head back towards Applejack. “Ah know this is a lot ta think about Applejay, but ya do realize that this would be the golden apple for ya. Ya get prime land to grow yer apples with ain’t no one trying to muscle ya out and ya get to start yer own farm. Ain’t no more than an Apple can ask for besides for family and ya’d have not only yer family back in Equestria and me, but these galoots too.” She directed her head towards the trio of wolves. “It’s still yer call; Ah can help get it going but yer the one that would need ta decide.”

Applejack still looked rather hesitant. “Can Ah have some time to think about it?”

“Sure.” Slice smiled. “Take all the time ya need.”

“Thanks.”

“So… just how little is yer little sister?” Slice asked curiously.

“Ain’t got her Cutie Mark yet,” Applejack said. “She an’ her friends are almost the only ones in Ponyville their age without ‘em, an’ they’ve been tryin’ pretty much everything they can think of to get ‘em. Call ‘emselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders.”

Slice shook her head. “Still haven’t figured out that it’s a personal thing an’ they’ll come to it when it’s right?”

“No matter how many times we tell ‘em,” Applejack confirmed.

Then she looked at Twilight and the others. “Um, if’n you want to say somethin’, you can. Ah don’t mean to hog the conversation…”

Twilight smiled. “It’s okay,” she said. “We don’t mind.” The others nodded along with her.

“So, just how many of these Crusaders are there?” Maxilla asked.

“Three,” Rarity said. “Apple Bloom, my little sister Sweetie Belle, and their friend Scootaloo.”

“Who’s practically my sister, just like you and your boys here,” Rainbow Dash added.

Thin-Tall nodded. “And we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“An’ our cousin Babs is actually one too, but she’s head of the Manehatten branch,” Applejack added.

Slice smiled. Then she suddenly looked startled. “Oh shoot.”

“What?” Applejack asked.

“Ah just remembered, we’re expectin’ company this evenin’,” Slice said. “There’s a weekly bonfire, it’s a thing we do where some of the locals drop by an’ hang out an’ chat an’ tell all kinds of stories an’ generally have a good time. Ah’ve volunteered to hold it here almost ever since the boys an’ Ah got this place up an’ runnin’, but we still need to get some things set up for it.” She looked at the group. “Yer all welcome to join us, of course,” she said.

Twilight smiled. “I’d love that,” she said, and there was a round of agreements.

Suddenly, Pinkie was almost in Slice’s face. “Does this mean it’s a party‽”

Slice nodded. “You betcha.”

“Woohoo!” Pinkie’s mane was suddenly looking poofier than it had when they’d arrived, and she had a very eager look on her face. “Where do we start‽”

Slice looked somewhat startled, until Twilight gave her a calming smile. “Parties are Pinkie’s specialty,” she explained. “It’s how she got her mark.”

Slice smiled back. “Then Ah’d be dee-lighted to have yer help,” she said. “Ah just need ta get some of the food ready; Little-Growl, ya think ya can help her out?”

“Oh, absolutely!” Little-Growl looked at Pinkie eagerly. “Right this way!”

The two headed towards the kitchen, Pinkie pronking along after him, and Slice watched them go with a smile. “Eager filly, ain’t she?”

“Cuz, you just got one of Equestria’s best bakers and party-planners to work on this for ya,” Applejack said. “Ah guarantee, this is gonna be a night to remember.”

---

That evening, the big clear yard in front of the barn was full of wolves and others, all gathered around a big bonfire with plenty of tables of food around, and everyone was happy. A couple of the wolves had been surprised to see ponies besides Slice around, but when she’d explained, they’d accepted it. Now, one of the wolves was standing in front of the others, and everyone was listening to him in fascination.

“So there I was,” the wolf said. “Right on what I thought was Big Raze’s trail. And wouldn’t ya know it, but it turns out my tracking skills had me on the wrong path. I thought I was going to catch me the biggest and fattest wild boar, the one that no wolf had been able to bring in since it started causing trouble for everyone. But instead, I followed that trail right into a hole in the ground, and WHAM!” He clapped his paws. “A tail full of quills, right in the kisser. I tell you, I have never been so embarrassed in my life.” He chuckled. “Learned my lesson about bragging about my tracking skills that day, that’s for sure!”

One of the other wolves chuckled back at him. “Well, that’s what you get for letting your mouth write checks your snout couldn’t cash, Far-Tracker!”

Far-Tracker chuckled again. “Yeah, yeah. And to top it off, I heard that porcupine making some kind of noises as I left, and I’d almost swear he was cursing me out!”

Twilight glanced over at Fluttershy, but thankfully her friend didn’t seem bothered by the story. Then again, she does understand the cycle of life better than a lot of us, she thought.

“So,” Far-Tracker was saying. “Anyone else got anything they’d like to hear about?”

Rarity raised a hoof. “Um, pardon me, but…”

“Yes?” the wolf asked.

“Well, I was wondering about your name.” Rarity tapped her hooves together. “The good ambassador told us about how your people have their names chosen, and I couldn’t help but be curious about yours.”

Far-Tracker chuckled. “No problem, little lady,” he said as he walked towards her. “See, back when I was a pup, I always had a keen sense of smell. One day, I caught this scent, slipped away from my mom, and started following it. That scent led me all the way to the far side of the village, and eventually, I found the source - one of the tastiest-looking roasts I’d ever seen. And I was hungry, so I kind of helped myself.”

Rarity gave him a look. “Let me guess, the owners caught you?”

“Right on the button there, miss. They weren’t too happy and called in my folks and one of the Elders. I had to do some work for them to pay off the debt and make up for it when I got older, but in the meantime, the Elder was impressed with my tracking skills, so he named me Far-Tracker.” He blushed. “Which is another reason I let my skills get to my head every now and then, like the day I tried to track Big Raze.”

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Know the feeling,” she said.

“What about you?” Spike suddenly asked, gesturing to Big-Cheer and Little-Growl. “We heard your brother’s story earlier, but not you guys.”

Big-Cheer flicked his ear. “It’s no big thing in my case,” he said. “Pun not intended. “But I was always a little bigger than my littermates, and I had a near-constant smile on my face. So they named me for it.”

Little-Growl nodded. “As for me, I… uh… I was always kind of the type to try and show I was better than the others. So one day, when this big wolf came near us, I jumped out and tried to give him the biggest and most threatening snarl I could.” He looked abashed. “It turned out I wasn’t as good at it as I thought I was. He heard that tiny little growl and started laughing. And then I found out he was one of our pack elders, and he named me Little-Growl.”

There was a round of chuckling, and one of the other wolves spoke up. “And of course, his brothers never let him live it down.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Little-Growl muttered, but he was smiling as he said it.

The other wolf chuckled. “You know, it’s always entertaining to hear these things, no matter how small they might seem at times,” he said. “Of course, some of us have some really good stories about how we got our names." He grinned. "Heck, I love telling the story of how I got mine."

"So we've noticed," one of the others grumbled, but good-naturedly.

The first wolf stuck his tongue out at the second, then turned back to the group. "And it's only fair to say this in advance - if you start laughing while I'm still talking, you absolutely do not have to apologize to me for interrupting. Almost everyone laughs when they hear it, and it makes me happy when they do, 'cause it's really funny."

Pinkie and Rainbow Dash looked eager, so the wolf continued. "I was still pretty young, maybe a month old or a little more, so I had my teeth in by then, but not my name. Now, you've probably been told that one of our biggest rules is that we don't hurt children. Any wolf who does is exiled from the Packlands immediately and permanently." He bared his teeth. "Well, one of those law-breakers decided to come back anyway, and attack the mate of the wolf who exiled him. He came to our den, and was closing in on her... and on a couple of my younger litter-mates who'd been napping with her."

Fluttershy squeaked in horror.

"I, on the other paw, was wide awake and on the other side of the den, behind some of our stuff. And I'd always been high-spirited, so I kind of opened wide, charged him and... went right for the seat of the problem."

Pinkie's eyes widened, and she immediately began giggling, while Rainbow Dash grinned even wider. "Oh man!"

The wolf grinned. "Yep. Bit him right on the backside, and he let out a yell that'd curl your fur. Turned straight around and ran out of the den, smack into another couple of wolves who'd seen him heading our way. They took him into custody, and... let's just say he's not a problem anymore." He frowned for a moment, before smiling again. "After that, they figured I'd earned my name. Wanted to call me Butt-Biter."

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie both fell over laughing. Rarity was clearly amused too, but was trying to hide it behind a hoof, while neither Applejack nor Spike were trying to hide the grins on their faces. Even Fluttershy was smiling now.

"My folks," the wolf said with a big grin, "Weren't too thrilled by that and managed to talk the elders into giving me a different one that would still be based on what I'd done. So they bent the rules a little and picked the sound that other wolf made when I got him." He grinned. "And that's why my name is Aargh."

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie's laughter was even louder now. Several other wolves snickered, and even Twilight couldn’t help herself, laughing along with them.

“Ah,” one of the others said. “Now this is what I call a fun time.”

“I’ll say,” Rainbow Dash said. “You guys have got some great stories.”

The wolves beamed at her comment, before there was a small “harrumph”, and a griffon gave her a look.

“What about you?” she asked. “I hear you ponies get some interesting stories about how you get those little butt-marks of yours.”

Rainbow Dash looked at her. “Yeah, we do,” she said. “Hay, I got mine for breaking the sound barrier!”

“Really?” the griffon said snidely. “Then why don’t you prove it?”

Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Are you kidding me? One, it’s night, and I don’t want to get in trouble for making enough noise to wake up half the country. Two, I’m pretty sure this counts as weather magic, and here in the Packlands, I’d need permission to do that before I tried. So no, I’m not gonna show off right now.”

“What’s the matter?” the griffon taunted her. “Too chicken?”

Rainbow Dash’s hackles rose. “No, I’m just smart enough not to do the kind of things that would get me in trouble outside my homeland.”

“Chicken,” the griffon snapped. “Chicken, chicken, chick- awwwk!”

The awwwk was the griffon’s startled reaction as a thin, tasseled tail almost cracking itself like a whip against the their backside, before the gargoyle that tail belonged to stepped up and put his face right in the griffon’s.

“She is respecting the laws of this land, so back off,” the gargoyle said. He then turned to Rainbow Dash, and bowed. “Begging your pardon, but if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s people who try to goad others into misbehaving.”

“‘S all cool,” Rainbow Dash said. “And thanks.”

"My pleasure," the gargoyle said. "Except for that one incident with Maxy here earlier, you and your friends have been a lot better behaved and less prejudiced than most Equestrians I've met, and from what I heard your princess saying afterward, she at least had a personal and understandable reason for reacting like she did, rather than sheer blind prejudice." He turned to Twilight and held out his hand. "The name's Caplan."

Twilight gave him a nod. "Thank you for understanding," she said as she accepted his hand and shook it.

“You’re welcome.” The gargoyle sat back down. “So, getting back to where we were before miss cranky here spoke up… who’s got the next story?”

“May I?” Twilight asked.

Caplan nodded. “Be our guest.” He gestured to the other people gathered around.

“All right.” Twilight took a deep breath as she stepped up towards the bonfire. “You may know me as a princess of Equestria, but the truth is, I used to be a normal - relatively - unicorn.”

There were some surprised noises at this, and Twilight nodded. “When I was just six years old, I applied to enter Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Due to an event at the entrance exam, I gained my Cutie Mark for magic and became Princess Celestia’s personal student.” She paused for a moment. “About fourteen years later, Spike and I moved down to Ponyville, where I met the ponies who’d become five of my closest friends. Together, we were able to unlock the powers of the Elements of Harmony and defeat a terrible threat to Equestria and the world, and we’d go on to use that same power to defeat another dangerous threat.”

She paused again briefly, before continuing. “More recently, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna sent me a book that had belonged to their teacher, Starswirl the Bearded.” She saw the gargoyle’s eyes widen in surprise. “In it, there was a spell he had started, but never finished. I cast it myself, in an effort to understand it, but in the process… I messed up. The spell affected my friends, switching around their Cutie Marks, and each of them started trying to do what their new marks represented.” She bowed her head. “I thought I’d ruined everything, until Spike helped me figure it out. I went out to find Fluttershy, and helped her find the part of herself that she’d lost so she could help another friend who meant so much to her. And one by one, we brought each of them back to their true selves.”

She saw Swift-Pad listening in fascination, and continued. “Finally, once all of my friends were themselves again, we went back to my home, and with their help, I figured out how to change Starswirl’s spell. And by using it, by creating a brand new magic that linked into my special talent and tapped our bonds of friendship, I ascended and became an alicorn.”

There were even more surprised noises at this, and Twilight smiled. “Since then, I’ve been learning my new responsibilities as a Princess, and more recently, your ambassador has aided me a great deal in learning even more that I didn’t know. For all that he’s done to help me, I am proud to call him my friend.”

There was a mixture of cheers and playful hooting, with Maxilla giving her a pointed look. Twilight was confused for a moment before she realized what was being implied and chuckled herself before shaking her head. “I meant that he’s helped me learn more about the world outside Equestria,” she said. “Nothing more than that. I believe that Maxilla has sole claim on him.”

That caused further hooting and chuckling, with the two in question blushing and looking away from each other, before Twilight walked back to her position with another person walking past her to the bonfire.

A head popped up from further back in the crowd as she sat down next to Caplan. “Can any pony do this? Do something big and become an alicorn?”

Twilight shrugged as she turned to face the she-wolf. “Honestly, I don’t know. It’s possible - of Equestria’s four alicorns, two of them were born that way, while myself and Princess Cadance, who now rules the Crystal Empire with her husband Shining Armor, started out as different types and ascended. But there might be some further requirements that she and I met without knowing it, so I can’t say for sure. If there are, neither Princess Celestia nor Princess Luna have told me yet.”

There was a low murmur from the wolves who heard her comments before they turned back to focusing on the next story. Twilight, however, looked at Caplan and said, “I hope you do not find this impolite or prying, but I was wondering if you could tell me about your own homeland.”

Caplan smiled and nodded their head, and began to share their story while Swift-Pad watched from the side. Maxilla had sat beside the wolf, leaning into him. “Are you going to watch her the entire night, Swifty?” they cooed at him with Swift-Pad whining softly before looking back at them.

“I’m still on duty, Maxilla,” he told them, giving them a light lick along the face which made them squirm with delight. “This is still a very delicate political business, and as her teacher in such matters…” He shook his head. “Besides, she has displayed an honest and eager love of learning, no matter the source the knowledge comes from, and I find such a thing to be so very enjoyable to watch.” When they groaned and rolled their eyes, Swift-Pad leaned and whispered. “I take it as training for our future pups, Maxilla.”

Maxilla turned to stare him straight in the face. “Swift, you really mean that?” They sounded almost desperate for an answer.

“I do,” Swift-Pad said while rubbing against her, placing his scent on the she-wolf as they had been doing to him for the entire time they had been together. “You are mine as I am yours.”

Maxilla smiled widely before tilting her head to the side. “You can come closer Twilight, I only bite Swift-Pad here.” They then tilted their head the other way to reach over and tug on Swift-Pad’s ear to demonstrate with the wolf shaking his head before yelping a bit as his glasses went off his nose.

“I hope I am not interrupting too much,” Twilight said as she walked up towards the pair, watching Swift-Pad go search for his glasses before a spark of green magic went through the grass and placed the glasses back on the wolf. Twilight turned her head in time to see Maxilla’s horn vanish back into their head.

“Not at all, Twilight,” Maxilla replied before looking at Swift-Pad. “Mind getting me some of the cooked lamb, please? I think we’re going to need a bit of time here.”

Swift-Pad nodded his head before looking at Twilight. “Do you want anything? Some cider, some of the pastries that your friend made, anything?”

Twilight shook her head. “I’m good, thank you.” She smiled as he left the two of them alone.

“So what do you want to know about changelings,” Maxilla asked, their voice sounding a tad more masculine than it had been all day. Twilight couldn’t help but tense up slightly at the change and then winced at feeling this way before Maxilla chuckled. “Sorry for that,” they said back in their feminine voice. “Just slipped out.”

“It is alright,” Twilight shook her head. “And to answer your question… everything, really. After the invasion, I asked Princess Celestia about this, and she told me how she’d faced Chrysalis once before and sealed her away after she attacked the city of Trot, but until they exposed themselves at the wedding, Celestia thought she and her hive were still trapped in that volcano. That and what I saw of them during the attack itself, how they transformed, how they fed on love from ponies and how they sealed them in those cocoons of theirs... that’s really all I knew, before I met you.”

“Well now, that’s partly true,” Maxilla said. “Their hive was sealed away, but not the entire changeling swarm. From what our history tells us, the various Queens voted to break Chrysalis and her hive out as everyling thought then that Celestia had overstepped herself. That whole debacle is the main reason why we secluded ourselves and hid ourselves away from Equestria and other nations that would reveal us to them.” Maxilla then gave a growl. “Of course, now that she’s attacked Equestria and Celestia again and made a complete political nightmare for us normal changelings, everyling has regretted bailing her out.” They then paused before shaking their head. “Well, I say us normal changelings, but that won’t include me soon, considering I am going to have the Seal performed.”

“You mentioned that before,” Twilight started only to trail off.

“You’re curious to what it really means,” Maxilla said with Twilight nodding her head. “It means that I will give up all of my changeling abilities to be like this forever.”

“I can’t begin to imagine what that would be like,” Twilight said. “I… I lost my magic once, when my friends and I were facing Discord the first time, and it was a nightmare. Giving it up permanently...”

Maxilla placed a paw on her hoof. “Imagine you find someone you find someone you love so much that you want to be with them, someone that you care about so much you will do anything to be with them.” Maxilla leaned in with a soft smile on their face. “I can tell you are thinking of someone, aren’t you?”

Twilight blushed, but she knew she couldn’t lie to the changeling. “I did meet a guy once, not long after I became an alicorn, and I think I did have feelings for him, but… well, he kinda lives in another dimension, and I have my responsibilities here.”

“But you do see where I am coming from, right?”

Twilight nodded. “And I think… I think you’re a lot braver than I am,” she admitted. “I don’t think I could make that choice.”

“Well, I do have it a bit easier,” Maxilla tilted their head. “There is always doubt with someone you can’t really read emotionally.”

Twilight smirked at that and nodded her head. “So the Seal was always for this situation?”

Maxilla didn’t respond right away which left Twilight thinking about this further before she gave the she-wolf a serious look. “This wasn’t to help those like you, was it?”

“No, your highness, it wasn’t,” Maxilla admitted. “Originally, it was for one of two things. One; punishment, to cut us off from the rest of the hive if we’d done something the Queen would view as a betrayal, and to keep us from ‘infecting’ others with our ‘treacherous’ thoughts. Two, for much more nefarious purposes. Even though we are excellent spies, there were some who took it a step further, in order to protect themselves from magic that might dispel their disguises. As you can guess, they are completely undetectable and thus the ideal spy for us.”

Twilight shivered. “That’s… scary,” she admitted. “Scarier than what I witnessed during the invasion.”

Maxilla nodded. “Thankfully, that sort of thing’s almost entirely fallen out of practice, and it’s only a few of the Queens who would still consider it. Using it for the same kind of thing that I want, on changelings who want to be able to spend the rest of their lives with a non-changeling, only started happening a lot more recently.” Twilight nodded her head, with a silence building before Maxilla smiled. “Do you happen to know the significance of our holes, by the way?”

“I-no, I don’t,” Twilight replied as Maxilla pulled back the magic over their legs.

“They look similar to each other, don’t they?” Maxilla asked, holding their forelegs together.

“The very fact you said it means they aren’t,” Twilight said with a raised eyebrow.

“No, they aren’t,” Maxilla replied with a chuckle. “The ones on the front left are the same as my mom’s while the ones on my right are the same as my father’s. The ones on my hind left are identical to my Queen’s unique pattern, and the last set are my own random pattern, the one I’d pass on to my grubs if I had any.”

Twilight shook her head. “The more I learn, the more I realize just how much I still need to learn,” she said.

“Well my Swifty is doing a good job teaching you to ask the right questions,” Maxilla said, tilting their head towards Caplan who was talking with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. “Speaking of which, I think I need to go save him from those other rune wolves. Your friend Rarity made his new gloves, right?”

“Yes, she did,” Twilight said.

“She does good work.” Maxilla nodded their head with approval.

“She certainly does,” Twilight said, thinking back on the different dresses Rarity had made for her and their other friends. Looking over, she could see Rarity was talking to several wolves, no doubt already receiving orders. “She’s made dresses for me, and our friends… and even for Princess Cadance when she was getting married.”

“Really?” Maxilla looked interested. “I wonder if she’d be interested in making something for me and Swifty when we tie the knot.”

“I expect she’d be more than happy to do it,” Twilight said.

“Did she do the groom’s outfit then?”

“No, Shiny wore his dress uniform,” Twilight told her.

Maxilla raised an eyebrow with a wry smirk. “‘Shiny’? Getting a little familiar with your fellow princess’s husband there, aren’t you?”

Twilight gave them an indignant look. “He’s my big brother, I’m allowed to be familiar with him!”

“Ohhh…” Maxilla blushed. “Oops. My mistake, didn’t know.”

“That’s quite all right,” Twilight reassured her. Then she grimaced. “I feel I should warn you, if you ever meet him, he may or may not react as badly as I did when I first met you… Chrysalis spent weeks disguised as Princess Cadance and feeding off his love while the real Cadance was locked up elsewhere, so he has even more of a reason to dislike her than I do.”

“We heard about that,” Maxilla said. “There were a lot of nasty rumours flying around about what Queen Chrysalis actually did, but we haven’t been told anything. Our Queens are keeping quiet and Chrysalis's hive has been detained while they and the Elders of the Packlands deal with her.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “She’s… here‽” Then she shook her head. “And detained?”

“Um, yes.” Maxilla answered nervously while looking at Swift-Pad more intently.

Twilight lowered her head for a moment, then looked back up at Maxilla. “I expect,” she said as calmly as she could, “That Princess Celestia will wish to send witnesses and testimony to any trial, in the hopes of seeing that justice is done. Would your Queens and the Pack Elders be agreeable to that?”

“I cannot make any promises for my Queen or the Pack Elders, your highness,” Maxilla said while taking a step backwards. “I am just a transit worker; I don't have any political clout. If you want to see if the Queens and the Elders would agree to such a thing, you would need to talk to Swift-Pad.” Their ears fell with a faint growl in their throat. “Which will have to wait until tomorrow as Swift-Pad has seemed to loosen up with some cider. Excuse me.”

Before Twilight could react, Maxilla had leapt past Twilight and swept Swift-Pad off towards the farmhouse with the two in a hushed conversation before Twilight’s view of them was blocked.

Shaking her head, Twilight went to find a place to sit down and try to calm herself. She was still there several minutes later when another figure appeared in front of her.

“Hey, Twilight.” Rainbow Dash grinned down at her. “Great party, huh?”

Twilight smiled up at her friend as she tried to clear her mind. “Yeah… yeah, it is.”

Rainbow Dash cocked her head. “Is something wrong?”

“Not wrong, just… trying to sort out everything I’ve learned tonight,” Twilight said.

“Egghead,” Rainbow Dash said teasingly. “Come on, the fun’s still happening!”

Reluctantly, Twilight let herself be swept back into the party. But the whole time, with all the potential consequences of what she’d just learned, she had one major thought on her mind.

I hope we can get through tomorrow’s meeting without something going horribly wrong.

Comments

[Sigmacipher]

I hope we can get through tomorrow’s meeting without something going horribly wrong.

As do I...but I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Earthpatriot117]

While the thing with twilight learning about chrysalis and the trial will certainly be tense and interesting,
I get the feeling of some foreshadowing involving the humans on the other side of the mirror. Xd

[Asolem2]

Twilight smirked at that and nodded her head. “So the Seal was always for this situation?”

Ohhh no, the Seal takes away every natural ability a changeling is born with, it's very similar to de-horning a unicorn, de-winging a pegasus or cutting the tendons of an Earth Pony's back legs

Twilight shook her head. “The more I learn, the more I realize just how much I still need to learn,” she said.

"I am the wisest mare alive, for I know one thing and that is that I know nothing" as quoted by Spliced Genome

“That’s quite all right,” Twilight reassured her. Then she grimaced. “I feel I should warn you, if you ever meet him, he may or may not react as badly as I did when I first met you

Now now let's be honest... he'll react worse

“We heard about that,” Maxilla said. “There were a lot of nasty rumours flying around about what Queen Chrysalis actually did, but we haven’t been told anything. Our Queens are keeping quiet and Chrysalis's hive has been detained while they and the Elders of the Packlands deal with her.”

She and her hive attacked the capital of a nation, said nation should have a say in the matter

I hope we can get through tomorrow’s meeting without something going horribly wrong.

Oh Twilight, you have lived in Ponyville for far too long to be making this ignorant about the universe's sense of humor