The next morning seeming to be quite the quiet one as Twilight and Rainbow Dash were just happily eating their breakfast together along with Spike, the two mares turning to talk to each other every so often, while the young dragon looked to them both and smiled a little, glad to see that they both seemed to be more relaxed and less stressed then they had been over the past few days.
The young dragon sighing slightly as he caught the other twos attention a moment later, "So you two are planning to go back up to Cloudsdale again today right?" he asked as both Twilight and Dash stopped talking to each other and turned to face him, the two mares nodding back to him in reply.
"Right, if I'm going to finally start being the Princess that I said I was, then the pegasi up there will just have to get used to seeing Dash and I there a lot more often, whether they like it or not," Twilight simply stated with a confident expression as Dash nodded in agreement and Spike doing the same in return, although he seemed to have a slightly anxious look on his face as he still was a little unsure about how things would go for them from here.
"I know it'll take some time before the pegasi from Cloudsdale actually see me as their ruler and trust me as such, but we'll just have to work through it I guess," the Princess added with a slight shrug of her shoulders and smiled reassuringly to the young dragon, while he just sighed and nodded in reply, feeling that they still had quite the fight to go before things would start to improve for both the little town of Ponyville and for the floating city above it.
"Hey Twi, you think Applejack and the others would be free today?" Dash asked changing the subject and catching the attention of her marefriend as Twilight turned back to her, shrugging her shoulders in reply.
"You'd have to find that out for yourself Dash, but what for?"
"I was just thinking that maybe we could finally all spend some time together since we had to leave instead the other day," the pegasus explained with a small smile formed on her lips, as Twilight looked back to her with a slightly raised eyebrow in response, staying silent and having a feeling that Dash still had more to say, letting the cyan mare continue a moment later.
"Plus..." she paused as she bit her bottom lip and hesitated for a couple of moments, before she sighed and spoke in a lower tone, "They will all probably be wondering what's going on with Lightning Dust and the pegasi that are working for her right now," she added as she thought back on when she last saw their close group of friends and seemed to cause Twilight to do the same as she soon nodded her head slowly in reply.
"They most likely will be wondering just what's going on at the moment, and what we plan to do from here," the Princess agreed as she thought Dash and her should go and talk to Applejack, Pinkie pie, Fluttershy and Rarity. Just to catch them all up on all that's happened recently and what is going to happen in the near future for their plan and for both Ponyville and Cloudsdale.
Spike just looking back and forth between the two mares as he seemed to be thinking for a moment or two, before he soon lifted his head a little and was about to catch Twilight and Rainbow Dash's attention again, but instead a sudden flurry of loud commotion alerted them all and caused them to turn to the front door as they could clearly tell that all the noise was coming from outside. The three exchanging looks of confusion and concern to one another, before they all quickly decided to leave the library and see just what was going on and what was causing such an uproar.
The three quickly running into the town together to where they heard all the noise coming from, soon seeing just what was causing such a racket as they all halted in their tracks and widened their eyes in surprise upon seeing the residents of Ponyville all gathered up into one big crowd, some fighting to keep others back as on the other side of the town market was the group of pegasi that had been working with Lightning Dust, while they were all being held back by the royal guards, trying to keep the ponies of the town safe, as the pegasi looked like they had full intent in attacking the poines at the moment.
Twilight instantly looking worried as she looked back and forth between the two groups of gathered ponies and pegasi, as the they yelled and insulted one another it seeming like an all out battle had somehow suddenly broken out amongest them all, while the guards were desperately trying to stop the two crowds from getting to each other right now.
"Twilight!"
The Princess heard a familiar voice call out to her, as she and the other two looked to where the voice had come from, seeing Applejack and Fluttershy quickly running over to them, while they turned to the two and gave them both worried and puzzled expressions as they soon stopped and caught their breath.
"Just what is going on here?" Twilight asked Applejack and Fluttershy as they all glanced over to the roit that seemed to be going on at the moment.
"We're not entirely sure how it all started, but what we do know is one minute everything was fine, and the next...those pegasi just came out of nowhere and started violent fights. It was like all out war had suddenly broken out before the guards were able to separate and hold back the pegasi, leaving other residents of the town to do the same to the ponies that were trying to fight back against them," Applejack explained as they all could see that the guards were beginning to struggle as the pegasi would roughly kick and head-butt them fighting to be let go and free to attack the ponies of the town once again. Unfortunatly there only being a few pegasi guards that could hold off the pegasi while they were hovering in the air, however a couple were soon becoming overpowered by the army of pegasi.
"Back off!"
One pegasus yelled as they landed a painful kick to a guard's gut, while others roughly pushed him out of the way, as he hunched over trying to recover and endure the pain, so that he could still help to protect the ponies of the town like they had been told to. Luckily another guard quickly coming to take over the fallen one, but it was clear to see that the pegasi from Cloudsdale had the advantage here.
"Twilight what do we do?"
Spike asked as he looked to the Princess with a worried expression, Twilight looking back to him with the same expression, as it was obvious she was in no way prepared for something like this to suddenly happen, glancing to Dash, while she looked back to her with an anxious expression, clearly she being unsure of what they could do to stop all this. Before Twilight turned back to look at the two crowds and tried to think for a moment, taking a deep breath and letting a more confident look form on her face, calming herself as she knew she had to get a handle on everything right now before it could get any worse than this.
"Should we ask Princess Celestia to come and help?" Dash asked as she was clearly unsure of what to do at this moment in order to stop all of this, however Twilight quickly shook her heard and denied the pegasus's suggestion.
"No, it would take too long the situation could get much worse before the Princess gets here, and besides..." she paused as she narrowed her eyes and nodded to herself looking to the two crowds of ponies and pegasi again, "I'm their ruler so I should be the one to stop all this before anypony gets hurt," she stated before glancing back to the other four, as they all seemed slightly worried for Twilight, however Dash soon just sighing and nodding her head in reply, the others doing the same a few moments later, while the Princess gave them all an encouraging expression and then turned to make her way over to the two crowds of shouting and struggling ponies and pegasi. Standing inbetween them both as she took another deep breath and shifted her eyes back and forth seeing that neither of the two crowds had really taken any notice to her just yet.
However that not lasting for very long as Twilight looked back and forth between the two crowds, before taking an authoritative stance and closed her eyes, opening them a moment later and suddenly raised her voice to catch the attention of all the ponies and pegasi gathered around together.
"Everypony listen up!"
She shouted almost instantly causing for most of both the ponies from the town and the pegasi from Cloudsdale to all quiet down and turn back to look to her, only a few still mumbling words under their breath as the guards all seemed to breathe a slight sigh of relief as they didn't have to struggle as much since the pegasi were now luckily being distracted from fighting to get to the ponies it seemed at the moment.
"Just what has gotten into you all?" Twilight asked as she gave them all a serious expression, clearly waiting for an explanation from at least one of the two crowds as to just what was going on right now, and was hoping to get some answers on how this had all suddenly happened.
The ponies seeming to be the first to speak as a couple of them stepped forward and caused Twilight to look back to them in response,"We apologise for all this trouble Princess Twilight, but we promise you that it wasn't us that caused this, these pegasi from Cloudsdale just came out from all directions and started to attack us out of nowhere," one of the ponies from Ponyville explained to the Princess as they bowed to Twilight before glancing back to the crowd of pegasi and glaring to them slightly still.
"We didn't do anything to provoke them at all," a second said as they all nodded in agreement.
"That's right we didn't do anything to do them," a third spoke as they caused the crowd of pegasi from Cloudsdale to all glare and bear their teeth at them in response, as the mare that had been left in charge of them all chimed in and cut off Twilight before she could say anything at all.
"You took everything from us! You made our friends and family leave their home and loved ones," she stated in an angred tone as all the other pegasi nodded in unsion, causing the ponies from the town to all turn and answer them back a moment afterwards as they were clearly not having this turn around onto them.
"We didn't take anything from you, and we didn't make those pegasi leave Cloudsdale, they chose to leave and come to live here in Ponyville instead,"
"Only because you manipulated them into thinking we were the ones causing all the trouble that led to the feud starting, when in fact you were more to blame than we were!" the mare in charge of the pegasi raised her voice as it was clear that things were quickly spiraling out of control yet again as Twilight was sure it wouldn't be long before the two crowds began fighting to get to one another once again while the guards and other townsfolk would have to struggle to hold them back.
And so before things could go back to how they were a few minutes ago, Twilight sighed and then raised her voiced, catching the attention of all the ponies and pegasi and causing them to look to her again, "That's enough from all of you!" she yelled speaking in a much more stern tone and narrowing her eyes as she also seemed to be more strict at this moment. The ponies from the town all seeming taken aback, and bowing their heads a little as they had never really seen their Princess looking this cross before now, causing them all to stay silent and waited for Twilight to continue.
"Good now I know you all don't get along, but just what is fighting like this going to prove? What will it change?" the Princess asked as she caused the ponies of the town to all exchange glances for a moment, while the pegasi from Cloudsdale all just looked to Twilight with glares now in response.
"Well maybe it'll finally make these ponies see that we aren't just going to back down, and let them continue like we're the ones at fault here and they are all innocent, when really they were the reason for this feud starting in the first place," the mare in charge of all the pegasi stated as it seemed like they had finally decided to act and show that they weren't going to back down and sit around any longer. While the ponies from the town just glared back to the pegasi and rolled their eyes a little in response.
"I mean sure the whole welcoming act was nice and all, but these ponies never liked the fact that we had come here, and some of you clearly wanted us to all leave and never come back," the mare added as she looked back to the ponies of the town and caused some of them to just glare back to her in response as it was now slowly becoming clear that instead of being afraid of these pegasi some of the ponies definitely seemed to hold more of a grudge towards them as well.
"Maybe that's because all you ever did was cause trouble for us while you were here," one of the town's ponies said as they caused for the pegasi to all bear their teeth and narrow their eyes in a threatening manner, while some of the ponies stared them down, other townsfolk stood in-front of them and held them back from getting too close much like how the pegasi were all still currently being held back by the royal guards at the moment.
While the two crowds argued with their voices soon growing in volume Twilight looked between them both, and within a few moments she started to noticed how alike the pegasi that had been working with Lightning Dust, and the town's ponies that seemed to be fighting back really were.
'This is the first time I've really noticed it but...it seems like the pegasi following Lightning Dust weren't all that wrong about some of the towns ponies, after all I can tell now that the ones arguing back really do look like they have a certain hatred for the pegasi as well. Maybe some of the ponies from Ponyville really are just as bad as some of the pegasi from Cloudsdale,' Twilight thought as she sighed a little, noticing how much like the case with Dash, the pegasi who all wanted revenge were ones that mostly kept to themselves and so were pegasi that the cyan mare didn't know all that well. It seeming like the arguing ponies from the town were pretty much the same as them to Twilight at the moment.
"You see Princess!" the mare in charge of the pegasi called to Twilight, bringing her out of her thoughts and causing her attention to be brought back onto her instead as the Princess looked back to her and the other pegasi, "The ponies of this town will never be willing to change and try to get along with us, so why should we do we have to?" the mare asked with a serious expression while her voice had an even more angred tone to it now than it did before, as things were clearly escalting quickly at the moment, not giving Twilight all that much time to think and try to reason with the pegasi so that another fight wouldn't start. However it seeming like she didn't really need much time as she soon just sighed deeply and lowered her gaze a little while doing the same with her voice.
"Because I've seen how you can do just that," she stated causing the mare in charge of the pegasi to widen her eyes a little and looked slightly puzzled as she seemed unsure of what Twilight had meant, but stayed silent as the Princess soon just continued on since she could see that the mare wanted her to elaborate on what she was saying, and not wanting to interrupt at the moment luckily.
"Since I've come here and started living in Ponyville I noticed that there are a lot of pegasi living here that most likely chose to leave Cloudsdale back when the feud started, and yet there have been almost no problems with any of them and the ponies of this town getting along, in fact they all seem to get along perfectly fine. So I know that all the ponies in Ponyville can learn to get along with the pegasi from Cloudsdale," Twilight explained as she looked over to the crowd of towns ponies and knew some of the pegasi in the crowd had come from Cloudsdale and yet had been welcomed into the town and had never really seemed to have found any troubles with the ponies since. As she knew it was definitely possible that every pony in the town could learn to get along with the pegasi of Cloudsdale, it could just maybe take some time as all.
The mare in charge looking like she was about to say something in reply, however Twilight cutting her off before she could get anything out at all, "And I've also seen how pegasi from Cloudsdale can do the same with the ponies in this town, after all I still remember back when Dash was a lot like all of you and really seemed to hate the ponies of Ponyville, but now she has close friends here, and has grown more comfortable to living down here with me, then she sometimes does when she is up in her hometown along with all of you," she stated as she glanced over to Dash and saw the cyan mare soon look back to her and just smiled slightly in return, Twilight smilining back to her before looking to the crowd of pegasi again.
"And if she can swallow her pride and learn to get along with these ponies who she at one time despised, then I really don't see why you can't all do the same," she added as the pegasi all glanced to one another for a few moments, one or two of them mumbling under their breath amongest themselves, while the mare in charge of them all still just glared back to Twilight and gritted her teeth slightly before she replied in a lower tone.
"Because you should know that we aren't all like Rainbow Dash," she said causing Twilight to widen her eyes and seem a little taken aback in response, however she soon just sighed and nodded in reply.
"I know, but like Dash you all would like to reconncent with your loved ones that left Cloudsdale for Ponyville right? So in order to try and have a better relationship with them couldn't you try to just start afresh and be at least willing to get along with the ponies in this town, for both theirs and your own sakes?" she asked as she gave a look of understanding to the mare and tried to make her and the other pegasi see that putting all that happened in the past behind them and actually trying to start anew with the ponies of Ponyville could actually prove to be beneficial to them all in getting them to have a chance to make up with their friends and family that had left Cloudsdale back when the feud had first started.
The pegasi all seeming to be thinking for a few minutes as some of them whispered to each other again, causing Twilight to look hopeful as she was glad that it looked like the pegasi weren't going to completely deny what she had said and luckily they actually did look like they were thinking it all over while a few of them turned to glance to the other crowd of the towns ponies and obviously some of them catching the eyes of a couple of the pegasi that had left Cloudsdale amogest them, and their expressions slowly started to change.
However Twilight's hope was soon dashed as the mare in charge shook her head and caught the attention of the Princess a few moments later, "Don't go saying things like that, pretending like you understand us, because you don't. You know nothing about us!" she yelled as she beared her teeth and glared daggers to Twilight, looking like she was about to make a move to attack the Princess, but two guards seeing this and luckily they both came over and quickly held back the mare, stopping her from hurting Twilight. While the lavender mare looked surprised as it seemed like she wasn't expecting the mare to sunddenly leap at her, stepping back slowly as the mare struggled against the two guards who were holding her back and not allowing her to get to Twilight no matter how much she fought against them.
"You don't know anything about us!" she repeated over and over again while she was being kept back by the two guards still, a fire of hatred burning behind her eyes, as Twilight recoginzed that look as the same one that the mare would give the ponies of Ponyville. She sighed a little and just smiled to the struggling pegasus in return a few moments later.
'Have I really made her hate me that much, or is she just directing all of her anger on to me?' she questioned to herself as she hung her head a little, before she soon just softened her expression and looked back to the mare again, "You're right, I don't know anything about you all, but...I would like to. So can you maybe help me understand you all a little better?" she asked as she caused the mare to widen her eyes and stop struggling for a few moments, however the guards holding her back still, standing their ground just in case the mare went to try and attack the Princess again. Twilight walking closer to the mare as she seemed to have a very uneasy and almost confused expression while she turned her head away from Twilight and gritted her teeth together tightly as she looked like she was almost at war with herself at the moment.
However before Twilight could make another move towards the mare she heard her name being called out and looked around only to have her lavender eyes widen at the sight of seeing Princess Celestia soon approaching them all as she came flying into Ponyville along with two guards following close behind her, landing in the town market between the two crowds and a little a ways away from Twilight right now.
"Twilight, just what is going on here?" the elder Princess asked as Twilight turned her attention on to Celestia as did everyone else, all the ponies from Ponyville bowing their heads and the most of the pegasi from Cloudsdale doing the same while others were too surprised by everything that was going on right now to react in the same way it seemed.
"Princess Celestia why are you here?"
Twilight asked as she quickly came rushing over to the elder Princess and looked to her with a bit of a concerned expression as she wondered why Celestia had suddenly shown up like this in Ponyville, but soon guessing just why she was here as she glanced over to where Spike and the others still stood and caught sight of the nervous and worried look on the young dragon's face at the moment.
"One of the guards from here came to tell me that you were in trouble and needed my help," Celestia simply explained as it was obvious that she was still quite confused as to just what was going on in the town at the moment and why all the ponies and pegasi were gathered up into two crowds and why some were being held back by either the guards or other ponies from the town right now.
Twilight looked back to the mare being still held back by the two guards and sighed a little as she looked like she still had a very uneasy and angered expression on her face at the moment, while it was clear that she and the other pegasi were also confused as to just how to react to what was going on right now. Twilight just turning back to Celestia as she soon hung her head low and looked to the floor with an ashamed expression on her face.
"I'm sorry Princess Celestia, but...I've let you down," she stated in a low tone as she caused the elder Princess to widen her eyes and look surprised as everyone else did, while Twilight just bowed her head lower and apologized once again, "And I've let everypony here down as well," she said biting her bottom lip and cursing herself as she felt like she had failed not only Princess Celestia as the one she looked up to, but also both the ponies of Ponyville and the pegasi of Cloudsdale as their ruler.