Prince Sugar Hoof of Equestria

The teleporter had been set up in one of the rooms in Canterlot Castle, allowing easy and quick travel between there and the caverns of the desert. As I entered the clean marble building, a unicorn or earth pony mare greeted me, her name was Raven Inkwell, but her hair was blocking where her horn would be so I couldn't tell what race she was.

"Good, you're finally here." Raven said, clearly nervous. "The delegates arrived a few minutes ago, please, follow me." She said, quickly trotting down the hallway.

I followed behind her but took the time to marvel at the beautiful decorations in the castle. It had not changed much since my last visit, but I was always to nervous to truly get a look at anything. The halls had runner carpets going down in dark pink hues, and fresh lavender hung down from wall sconces, filling the room with a delightful scent. Raven stopped at the entrance to one of the dining rooms and ushered me inside.

The dining room was quite spacious and had a large square table in the center of it.

"Ah, there is the young prince now." One of the griffons turned around to look at me. He was a fit and young griffon with light gray feathers and bright yellow eyes. He was finely dressed too, making me thankful with the knowledge that I was not the only one dressed up.

"He's barely even a foal." Another griffon said, this one a female with light blue feathers and cyan eyes. She wore a blue dress with pearl earrings.

I hadn't thought how I would introduce myself, I probably should've thought of that before I arrived. Not knowing what to say, I said, "Greetings," and nodded my head before moving over to the Equestrian side of the table.

Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, Prince Blueblood, and myself all sat opposite the two griffons.

Princess Celestia sat with her practiced smile, looking as regal as ever. Cadance looked happy to be there, but confused mostly. Princess Luna looked uninterested, and Prince Blueblood looked like he had more important things to do.

"Well, now that we're all here." The male griffon said.

"Yes, let's begin." Celestia said precisely.

"Bandits threaten the border between Equestria and Griffonstone, and no mercenaries will take the job due to how many bandits there are." The delegate explained. "They stick to the roads to rob travelers and passers-by, but we doubt they will stay there too much longer before they search for richer scores."

"You mentioned number, how many bandits are there?" Celestia asked.

"Reports say there are twenty-two, but there could be more." The female griffon answered.

"The plight of commoners is none of our concern." Prince Blueblood said.

The griffon didn't look upset at his words though, "When they grow tired of robbing travelers, they will move further into Equestria or Griffonstone, Equestria is wealthier and has more things to steal."

"But Griffonstone has less guards, and will be easy pickings." Blueblood countered.

"Where are these bandits located?" Princess Cadance interrupted, causing the delegate to pull out a map.

"We've heard reports of these four locations," He pointed to four locations on his map, "being used as safe houses."

"I'm sure we can spare a few guards." Cadance offered, looking up to Celestia.

"We will see about sending some guards to help." Celestia said. "Though it is unusual that you'd bring this matter to us instead of solving it yourselves. Surely there were many griffons who were against the idea."

The male delegate looked away for a second in thought. "Our army is too busy with the east to come back and handle such an insignificant threat." He was lying, something was up.

A mare wearing a black dress with an apron entered the room carrying two trays, one with finger foods, and the other with tea and enough tea cups for all of us. Castle staff poured the tea into the cups and in a few seconds, we all had a cup.

Celestia sipped from her cup happily and said, "Speaking of the east, have you given any thought to our trade offer?"

The female delegate straightened in her seat and said, "We would like to accept the offer, If you send us food, we'll send you steel."

Celestia and Luna were pleased at this outcome.

I finally spoke up, "Is there a lack of fertile land in Griffonstone?"

The delegates did not like my question, and I could see some sweat forming on the male's feathery brow. "Griffonstone is a beautiful country, but with the expansion into the east, we're..." He stopped and looked down in thought. "experiencing difficulties with developing farmland."

I had heard enough, "I shall send guards to clear out the bandits." I said, snatching the map with my magic, much to the confusion of everyone there.

"We were discussing—" I stopped him there.

"Farmland, yes, this meeting can carry on without me, I'm going to round up those bandits." I hopped off my seat and darted out of the room without a second word.

Everyone stared at the door as I left.

"Well, he's a fire brand, isn't he?" The female delegate said.

"You have no idea." Growled Princess Luna.

Back in the caverns, Gilded Spear waited for me by the teleporter. He had spent the last few hours being treated like royalty by my treants so I could get him out of the way while I worked on the spy network.

I entered the room from the teleporter, "So how'd it go?"

"There are bandits attacking travelers on the border between Griffonstone and Equestria, I volunteered to get rid of them." I explained the situation.

Gilded looked confused, "Griffonstone asked for help? Usually they'd let the bandits do what they wanted before risking showing weakness. Griffons are too proud for that."

He followed after me as I left the room in a hurry. "You suspect something is up, too?"

"It does seem a bit strange." Gilded agreed with uncertainty.

"The way those delegates told it, there are twenty two bandits in roughly four locations, I'll take one hundred treants, twenty five per location."

"You're not going to hurt them, are you?"

"Gilded, they're bandits."

"Princess Celestia would want them brought to justice, to serve their sentence, she wouldn't want them dead."

I rolled my eyes, "Fine, I'll take them prisoner." I slowed down a bit but kept going anyway, "For all the good it will do."