Silver Spoon Adopts a Naga

by Halira

Chapter 12: Stern Lectures

Silver watched as Spoiled Rich walked into the room. Silver's primary dealings with Spoiled over the last few years were in regards to Spoiled being the head of the school board, but the mare had managed over the years to insert herself into various committees and groups throughout town, and as such managed to hold some level of influence in many different aspects of Ponyville life. When Diamond took full control of the family business she hoped to force her mother to be nicer by putting her on a well-defined allowance far below what Spoiled was accustomed to having. With less access to free money the snobbish pony was forced to rely more on her interactions for influence rather than her pocketbook. This somehow had the exact opposite effect Diamond had been intending, since Spoiled seemed to double-down on bullying.

Spoiled scanned over everyone with her eyes, lingering on Diamond longer than the others before turning her attention to Cozy Glow. "I was told, very rudely I might add, that you wished to see me?"

"Oh golly, yes!" Cozy replied. "I wanted to talk to you about your reports about the naga in town. Tell me, do you recall what you said on your last report?"

Spoiled's expression went blank. "I don't at the moment. I write many reports about many things throughout the week. I'm a very busy mare."

Cozy nodded along. "Of course, I know you have soooo much to do! Let's make things more general then. You see Sisstet over there? I'm sure you must be on a first name basis with him, being required to check in on him regularly for me; can you tell me what kinds of toys he owns? You don't need to be extremely specific. You can say things like action figures, balls, toy weapons, and so on, you get the gist."

Silver suppressed her smirk as she watched a bead of sweat run down the side of Spoiled's face. "I- I don't really recall that either. I tend to tune out such small unimportant details. I wasn't aware I needed to actually report on what he was engaged in playing with at the time of my visits."

"I see…" Cozy replied with a disappointed looking frown. "Let me jog your memory a bit. In your last report to me you stated you engaged our young naga friend in a game of chess, and found him an skilled opponent for his age. Is chess not something you consider a toy?"

"Oh- yes, of course!" Spoiled blurted out, glancing over at Sisstet quickly and back to Cozy. She was visibly sweating now. "Well, since it is a game enjoyed by many nobles of all ages I don't really label it as a foal's toy."

"What'sss chess?" Sisstet asked in confusion. It made Silver want to hug him even more.

"The game we played the other week," Spoiled hissed through the side of her mouth.

"But we never-" Sisstet began.

"Hush while the adults are talking. Stop interrupting!" Spoiled ordered.

Cozy tilted her head. "Oh my! It seems he doesn't remember that, and you don't remember that either. We understand though, we can't expect immature kids to remember everything in detail. Here's another question for you; can you tell me some details about Sisstet's home? I mean, you've been there soooo often that you should be able to tell me a lot about it."

Spoiled chewed on her lip. "It's primarily underground."

"Great! Now tell me about the living room and Sisstet's bedroom," Cozy said encouragingly.

"It's all in my reports… I think they are far more thorough in their descriptions than what I can tell you off the top of my-"

Cozy stopped smiling and glared. "Cut the crap, Spoiled Rich. I know you haven't been doing your job. I'm just shocked that you're continuing to try to lie to me when it should be obvious that I'm aware of your lies. It's a shame. I thought we were friends, but honesty is a very important part of friendship, and you aren't being honest with me."

Spoiled stepped back a step. "I-"

"And don't get me wrong," Cozy continued. "I get that you enjoy the perks of having authority. I too enjoy living in a castle, enjoying luxuries, having servants to command whenever I please, and the ability to completely ruin anycreature that crosses me…"

Spoiled gulped.

Cozy hopped down again from her couch and advanced on Spoiled. "But there's a few key differences between you and me. I actually do the work that I'm supposed to be doing! I'm also perfectly content having everycreature I work with happy. If they're happy then my place here is secure. When they aren't happy then I'm not happy, because then my place isn't so secure anymore. I'm about to have to deal with some unhappy kingsnakes because of you."

Spoiled settled her hooves in place and stuck her nose up again. "You can’t dismiss me, I’ll resign first. I never found this position to be as fulfilling as I originally hoped."

Cozy smiled. "I think dismissing you will be a start. Although you are free to resign first. I can't really stop you from doing that."

Spoiled sniffed. "Very well then, I resign, effectively immediately." She then turned to leave.

The pegasus kept smiling. "Tell me, how many little positions like this one do you have?"

Spoiled froze.

"A few, right? Well… hopefully nocreature here spreads any gossip about your abysmal job performance," Cozy continued. "But what they do in their free time is up to them."

The snob turned back around. "This is slander!"

Cozy shrugged. "Only if it isn't true. You may be going now, but there's one other matter I need to address first."

Spoiled laid her ears back. "What is it? I have better things to do than be subjected to your-"

"I just need you to take your guest badge off," Cozy said while pointing to the badge hanging around Spoiled's neck. "Tea Time, will you be a sweetie and please remove that from her? She is no longer a guest in this castle."

Spoiled's eyes went wide and she tried to hold the badge against her chest, but it vanished and reappeared around the upraised hoof of the unicorn servant. "But how am I going to get out of here?"

Cozy shrugged. "There are safe paths to navigate when leaving. Not the same one you came up, but there are safe paths. You'll just have to figure them out. Don't worry, none of the security measures are lethal, this is the Castle of Friendship after all. Do mind the statue at the end of the hall. You can be on your way now. If you run into trouble the guards will eventually find and remove you. Have a pleasant day."

"B-but-" Spoiled stuttered.

Cozy raised a wing. "Guards, get her out of here."

Before anyone could remove her, Spoiled turned and exited the room in a rush.

"She isn't going to get hurt, is she?" Diamond asked worriedly. "I know she can be a royal pain, and deserves to be taken down a peg now and then, but she's still my mother. I don't want anything really bad happening to her."

Sisstet grabbed onto one of Silver's forelegs and she sat down and pulled him close to her.

Cozy Glow shook her head. "Nah, only her pride. Most of the spells are designed just to knock intruders unconscious, and they aren't painful. Starlight would never install any sort of spell that would actually hurt anycreature. She'll search around for the way out, inevitably get knocked out, and the guards will come dump her outside. We even have a patch of mud outside specifically to toss her in because landing in mud is a softer landing than landing on hard dirt- if a bit more messy. You don't even have to worry about the gossip. I wasn't lying that I can't control my servants' gossip, but they're well trained enough they know better than to talk about what goes on in private meetings. I will be speaking to other ministers about her though."

Silver didn't know how to feel about what happened to Spoiled. She wanted Spoiled to get what was coming to her, but this felt petty and cruel. She didn't even get to speak her mind to the rich mare.

Cozy sighed. "Anyway, now that the trash has been taken out we can wrap up our other business. Silver Spoon, it seems the princess is going to be trying to fulfil your request. That isn't something I agree with, but she supersedes my authority. Plus, if anything goes wrong it's on her, not me. That makes me perfectly happy since it has no negative impact on me whether your request is successful or a failure, and I'll do what I can to see you can adopt him as a result. I make no promises that it will happen, only that I will make a full effort at it. This will take some time before a final decision is made, months."

"What do we do until then?" Silver asked.

"In the meantime I will temporarily grant your request to be a caregiver," Cozy answered. "I am personally going to be looking into your accusations of neglect, instead of going through an agent. I'll also personally be checking in on you in a month's time- if things haven't gone badly with the kingsnakes first- to make sure you are properly caring for him. I'll also be looking to recruit a fresh agent who I can trust to do their job to monitor him and his former guardians. Perhaps I'll talk to Fluttershy about doing that."

Relief washed over Silver upon hearing that she'd still have custody of Sisstet. She wished Cozy would be more reassuring about Sisstet would be staying, but she supposed she preferred honesty over false expectations.

"If there's nothing else you need to discuss, you may be on your way," Cozy concluded.

"Good luck with everything," Diamond said with a smile. "Come by Barnyard Bargains tomorrow, I'll give you a one-time seventy five-percent discount on all your purchases made tomorrow so you can help make Sisstet feel at home."

Silver smiled back. "Thank you, that's very generous of you."

Diamond chuckled. "It's no problem. I'd like to just give you presents, but I can't just be giving stock away. The staff will have your coupon noted when you arrive." She then sighed. "I'm supposed to be going out with my parents to a restaurant tonight. I can already tell you Mother is going to be insufferable after what just happened. I'll probably need to give Rumble a big discount at the store in anticipation of how she's going to treat the wait staff."

Silver grimaced. "Good luck with that."

Diamond shook her head. "It will be okay if I give him enough of a heads up and tip the staff well for putting up with her insults. It wouldn't be the first time. You go take care of Sisstet. I'll worry about my mother."

"I'll see you both later then," Silver replied. She then looked at Sisstet. "Come, climb on my back, and we'll go downstairs. Twist will be wondering where we are at, and we still need to make your room ready and find you a bed. Say goodbye to Diamond and Minister Cozy Glow."

The young naga climbed into her back as instructed and coiled himself around her barrel. "Goodbye, Diamond and Minisster Cozy Glow."

"Have a pleasant day. Just follow the stairs down to the ground floor, don't forget to place your badge up to the doors," Cozy replied, then turned to Diamond. "Okay, I'm assuming you have the paperwork detailing these imports you're interested in-"

Silver exited the room, and proceeded to the stairs. She used her badge as instructed at the stair door before passing through. Sisstet kept firmly constricted around her.

"What happenss if they say no?" He whispered to her.

It took her a second to respond. "We are going to assume they aren't going to say no."

"But what if?"

"It won't happen. Princess Twilight will make sure of it," she answered firmly.

---

When they finally made it back home she found piles of boxes in the living room. Along with the book that Discord had given her.

"Twist?" She called out as she bent down to let Sisstet slither off her.

Her wife hurried to them out from down the hall, looking exhausted. "Hi! Sorry about all the clutter. I didn't realize exactly how much stuff I had packed into the office over the years. I didn't have anywhere to put it all yet, and just took it out here for the moment. The room is pretty much clear, and there's supposed to be a bed getting delivered in a little while. I was just dusting things up while it was mostly empty."

Silver looked around at all the boxes. "What is all this stuff?"

Twist walked over to one box and opened it. "Mainly posters and fliers for old promotions at the shop that were left over. We always made more than we needed and it just seems to have piled up. It's mainly trash. I'll have somecreature come haul it all away to be recycled. A very angry filly with a cart came and dropped off that book for you a little while ago."

"You already ordered a bed?" Silver asked in confusion. "When did you have time if you worked this morning and did all of this?"

"I have a regular customer that's a shift manager at Quills, Sofas, and More. I made arrangements with him while I was at work," Twist explained. "It won't be a really fancy bed, but it will be a suitable foal's bed along with two pillows and a basic quilt and sheets- I think he said they'd be in light blue. I'm also leaving my desk and chair in the room so Sisstet has some other furniture."

She grabbed her wife up in a tight hug, and gave her a big kiss. "Thank you! I love you so much! You're the best!"

Her wife chuckled. "Anything for you, Silv. I love you too. By the way, I'm officially on vacation for the week starting now. Bonnie complained about the sudden announcement I was going on vacation, but after she heard why she got over it. She wishes us the best of luck and says hi to Sisstet."

Silver gave Twist a gentle smile. "You seem more okay with this than you did last night."

Twist looked over at Sisstet. "I had most of the day to put it into perspective. He's different, but not that different. I mean, thirty or forty years ago ponies would have hysterics over the idea of adopting a griffin or a changeling, and now nocreature would get upset about that. We'd even considered adopting outside our species before this, and the princess's family adopted a dragon. Naga are just less familiar to us, but I'm sure they're no worse to raise, and just as deserving of love. You know him well, and I trust your judgement. I still need to get to know him, but if you think he belongs here I'll probably end up feeling the same."

Silver beamed, but then she recalled an important bit of news and her smile and ears dropped. "Um...about him being different. I may have underestimated how different he actually is. You might want to sit down for this."

Twist frowned and sat. "What is it? Does he have some sort of disease or disability?"

"No…" Silver said slowly. "It's just that I kinda-sorta just found out he's actually a kingsnake. He didn't know either."

Twist's eyes went wide. "Kingsnake?! As in big as a house and can eat a pony whole kingsnake?"

Sisstet slithered over to Silver and she pulled him into a hug before meeting her wife's eyes again. "Yes, although I promise you that Sisstet would never do such a thing. I'm a firm believer in nurture over nature."

Twist glued her eyes to Sisstet and gulped nervously. "That still means he can get as big as a house. That means a castle would even have trouble holding him, and we don't exactly live in a castle. No matter how much we nurture him we can't change that part of his nature."

"He's nowhere near that big yet," Silver replied and pointed at him as if her wife was missing that point.

"How long until he reaches that size though?" Twist asked. "Foals usually go through growth spurts during puberty, but that's crazy. By the way, is that even the proper term? I feel like an idiot not knowing what to call him other than kid, and I've been trying to avoid being unintentionally rude by calling him the wrong thing."

Silver sat back and went into teacher mode. "The term the naga use for their young in general is really difficult for other races to say. The common practice is for other races to just refer to young naga the same way they would their own young. Since we are ponies it is perfectly alright to call him a foal." She dropped her lecturing voice as she continued. "And to answer the important question; I don't know. Sisstet, do you know?"

He shook his head. "I've never sseen a kingsnake, other than the princess."

That wasn't entirely true. He saw one every time he looked in the mirror, but Silver wasn't going to correct him on that. She instead turned back to her wife. "It will probably take a long time. We know dragons can get even bigger than kingsnakes, but Ambassador Spike, while big, isn't anywhere near that kind of size yet, and he's only a year or so younger than we are."

Twist didn't look that reassured, but she lifted her forelegs up and put them to her barrel and then away and back again, all while taking long breaths. "Okay, hopefully not something we have to worry about for a long time. I can deal with this."

Silver rubbed a hoof across the floor while looking down. "There is one more thing I needed to mention."

Twist groaned. "Silver Spoon, I am doing my best to see Sisstet as any other foal, and you are making this harder and harder to do that. What is it now?"

Silver hesitated, not wanting to upset her wife any further, but she needed to be honest. "There seems to have been a stipulation in the treaty with the naga that we are supposed to immediately give them back any kingsnakes we find among the ones living in Equestria. Cozy Glow seemed certain that not giving him to the kingsnakes could cause a new war with the naga. Princess Twilight says she'll try talking them down."

Twist's mouth hung open and she just stared for a solid half-a-minute before standing up and walking silently towards the kitchen.

"Twist? Where are you going?" Silver asked fearfully.

"I'm pulling out the rum and getting a drink. Then I'm going to sit and think for a while," Twist called back.

Comments

[Sigmacipher]

Does the treaty actually say Immediately or can this wait a bit until siset reaches puberty.

[Halira]

10366955
It isn't clearly worded on the timing, but the plain interpretation reads that way. Basically, Equestrians are not allowed to be raising kingsnakes, and that the kingsnakes need to be returned to the Clutch.

[Sigmacipher]

10366993 Plain interpretations mean nothing to a decent lawyer since, as far someone who was sitting in college courses concerning the subject as a sophmore in high school can tell, the spirit of the law don't mean shit if the word of the law wasn't violated.

Treaties are international contracts between two nations and this one doesn't have a due date on when Sisset need to be returned.

Crisis averted everyone.

[Halira]

10367035
Perhaps if they were on Earth and Earth's legal precidents and procedures reigned- maybe. Naga don't have laws and lawyers, they have an oligarchy with absolute unrestrained authoritarian power. While they will honor treaties, it is very important to note the kingsnakes legal system is basically how they feel about any given thing at any given moment, and how they phrase clauses in treaties will be much looser and less well defined as a result. They are also aren't accustomed to setting time periods on anything as it is typically a "we say something you do it now" society, and what few things that defined time frames in the treaty were hard enough for them to accept as necessary (those things will be mentioned at a later point in the story when the why's and how's of the treaty are actually gone over).

[Sigmacipher]

10367397
You forget Sisset himself is a kingsnake now seeing how there is more than one and the mutation is clearly random and not restricted to one family or bloodline, I'm guessing there are going to be rules involving how the kingsnakes interact with each other and now those rules come into play.

I'm willing to bet based on what you yourself said about the kingsnakes having leeway and the fact that Sisset is nowhere near ready to leave the nest so to speak that a deal can be worked out.

Of course that said this means putting Silver and at least one Kingsnake in the same room. LoL