Prince Sugar Hoof of Equestria

Small spiders, created from rock and life magic crawled along my body and the room. Treants stood to the side, diligently carving and enchanting more of them.

"Set them to the desert, every home needs one." I ordered.

I'll test these spiders in the desert, make any adjustments I need to, then send more of them to the rest of the world. I'll be the first to know about everything that happens. Nothing will surprise me.

It dawned on me as I scrambled to gather the materials I'd need. I'm a healer, not a fighter, I can't guarantee the safety of Equestria. I can't even entirely guarantee safety to Gilded Spear or Birch. If I want there to be peace, the world must learn to both fear and respect Equestria.

"You'll all need a handler, I suspect. We'll need to keep this whole business under the radar." I said to the spider. It did not respond of course.

I forced the spiders off of me and left the treants to their work. I won't be able to just openly display the spy network I'm building. I'll need to hide it, and what better place is there to hide something, than in plain sight?

"one hundred treants per settlement, four settlements in the desert, four hundred treants all together." Birch listed off out-loud. "Magically enhanced soil for farming, water purifiers, and some enchanted food for gifting." He finished. "They'd be foolish to prefer the storm king after this, master."

" I still don't think it's enough, Birch." I said, doing a horrible job at acting. I cleared my throat before continuing, hoping that it would give me some more confidence. "Infrastructure is important for any nation, and as such, I feel it is important to provide some... services. A postal service and medical care, specifically." Okay, I acted more convincingly there.

"What did you have in mind?" Birch asked, pulling out parchment and quill.

"Have a clinic built in every settlement, I'll pay for the cost, of course, begin growing some medicinal herbs and refining them into proper medicine." I dictated as he wrote, "Make the walls from stone, guard them well, and send ten treants to run each one."

"Yes, master." He said, signing the paper.

"The same for the postal service, have a post office built in all the settlements, send some guards to keep it safe..." I paused for a second, "Build one here above ground too, and don't worry about running the post offices, I'll summon some fairies to do that."

"Master, the treants will have no trouble running these institutions, the fairies are unnecessary." He said, acting a bit odd.

"I know the treants will do their jobs perfectly, but certain jobs require... daintier hands." His eyes widened as I finished. "Look, just don't worry about it, alright? Everything is going according to plan."

"Are you certain you want him here, Princess?" Celestia's secretary, "Perhaps Sugar Hoof should," She stopped to think of a reason. "Stay out of such important matters and get used to his new responsibilities as Prince." She gave a nervous smile at the end.

"The nobility and the griffon delegates are interested in meeting him." Celestia said as the two of them continued walking down the hall of Canterlot Castle.

"He's been a prince for a day, Princess. I urge you reconsider." The secretary begged.

"The delegation from Griffonstone only agreed to this meeting to see him. And as he's our main defender, I need him here, so he can understand and learn."

"Yes, Princess."

Birch sat in his chair in the throne room, a look of despair on his wooden face. The room sat empty and dark, even the beautiful lights had been shut off. No sound could be heard beyond the odd clicking that came when Birch closed his hands.

"Daintier hands..." He looked down at his own hands, his large, strong, wooden hands.

He covered his head with his hand as the scene played over and over for him.

I would have o keep this hidden, so I carved out a room myself, not a very big one, we didn't need a lot of space. I had been summoning fairies, and didn't quite know how many I'd need. One turned to two, two turned to four, four turned to eight, and so on and so forth. They need to run the desert postal service so I'd need quite a few at least.

They were even smaller than I was, and I was awfully small. Each had fair skin, with many different colors for their hair, eyes, clothing, and wings. This was expected, there would be slight changes here as well, back home, every fairy looked identical, all red headed and wearing an orange dress. I could only hope that they maintained some level of loyalty as they did back there. Their wings fluttered as they rose from the ground, yawning and stretching from new life.

"Can you understand me?" I asked them collectively.

"Yes, Sugar Hoof." They replied groggily, filling the room with high-pitched and raspy voices.

I figured I would have to start off similarly to as I did with the treants. My horn lit as I grabbed ahold of the fairies, my magic easily overwhelmed them and they froze.

"Fairies! Hear me and obey! From this day forward, you shall be postal workers, couriers, and mail deliverers!" The spell fell after I finished, filling the room with green sparkly smoke.

"Yes, master." They said as they rose again.

Picking one out from the crowd, I pulled her closer to me, "I'll need you to be in charge of them, as my spymaster."

"You can count on me!" the fairy said as I began going over what I would need her to do in regards to the spy network.

Inside one of the caverns most luxurious bathhouses, treants surrounded Gilded Spear as he was given a full-body massage. It wasn't easy to convince him to take it, but I insisted. His back, forelegs, hindlegs, hooves, neck, and head were rubbed and tended with all the gentleness one would handle a new-born kitten. Thanks to the warmth of the room, and the dim lighting, Gilded was having the most relaxing time of his life.

Another treant stood to the side, holding a tray of desserts, cheesecake being the focus, and a tall glass of fruit juice.

"Gilded Spear, may I ask you something?" The treant holding the platter asked.

"Of course," He said wistfully as he enjoyed the tension leaving his body, "Ask me anything."

"What do you think of the master? And don't be afraid to answer honestly, he's ordered no harm to come to you." The treant asked, preparing another slice of cheesecake.

Gilded Spear's smile shot away as he was not expecting that kind of question. "To be honest, he's... well, he's great when it comes to magic, I'll give him that much. And he defended me when that manticore attacked back in the Everfree forest." He said before fed another slice of cheesecake.

"You and the master... you're friends?" The treant asked slowly.

"Yeah, I guess we are, to some extent." Gilded said, swallowing his desserts.

"What do you mean?"

"Sugar Hoof is closed off, not just to me, to everyone. Even Birch is kept away."

The treant grunted in agreement as more treants began preening and cleaning his wings.

"You and the master talk all the time though."

"About magic... or politics, I don't even really know anything about him."

In the corner of the bathing room they were in, a small carved spider watched and listened. My initial test was a success, the spider could hear and see perfectly, I even had the lights dimmed to test their ultra-vision. Not only that, but the spiders could be used as a looking glass, allowing for me and my fairies to use them for espionage.

I looked around the room and noticed that all the fairies that hadn't left to become postal workers were busy spying through the insects, leaving me to think of what Gilded had said.

There's an entire desert worth of creatures that now depend on me, a war could start any day, I'm expected to attend royal events, and there's still more magical research to do. I simply don't have time for such matters. I can barely afford the time it takes to get to relax with him when I can.

I slinked out of the hidden room and made my way back above ground to prepare for the meeting with Celestia and the griffons.