Stygian stared out the window of his train, the back of his throat thick with suppressed emotion. The mountains that hid Griffonstone from view retreated as the train dipped towards the plains that would return him to Equestria.

He lowered a tray table, took out a sheet of parchment and a quill, and began a letter:

Dear Princess Twilight,

I've found an excellent candidate for your project in the Royal Library, re-indexing and cataloging the non-Ponish texts in the deep archives. As you know, Glenda Griffon is a hard worker, and I've just spent two weeks getting to know her and testing her knowledge of both the Old Ponish and the Old Griffish tongues. She's also reasonably familiar with Old and Middle Yakyaki. She is absolutely gifted at learning new languages and would find no challenge with anything in the archives. I have no doubt she would jump at the chance to immigrate to Equestria, and it would be the greatest pleasure of my life to act as her local host and provide her with a bedroom in my Canterlot townhouse...

The End

Author's Note

Their courtship was long and had its rocky moments, beset by cultural and cross-species challenges and exacerbated by Stygian's many weeks and months on the road promoting and researching his books, but it had far more moments of love, of tenderness, of chats about good books over good wine. Three years later, they were married in a simple Canterlot courthouse ceremony (with Somnambula as Best Mare) and lived happily ever after.