"Commander Hurricane, I can't accept this," Homeshine said as she read down the letter, "It will look like some sort of bribe."
"That's why I had it approved by the War Council as well. See? Their seal is on it, too." Hurricane started to point, and then faltered, returning both wings to holding his cap in front of him. Standing at attention, he made a perfect statue. "It's my way of saying thank you. You see, your letter is what swayed The Council; I finally got to keep my commission. And most importantly, it's a way of saying ... I'm sorry." The statue broke. His shoulders sagged. The cap dipped. He looked down and off to the left. "I'd thought of everything as part of the war. I was engaged in combat with an enemy. I'd never thought of it as... anything else."
The tenseness was suddenly broken by Chancellor Puddinghead trying to shove an entire cake in her mouth. At one time.
And what's more ... she was succeeding ... somehow. Finishing the strange procedure with, "You followed the reffffipe perfectly!" But how was she even talking? She took a mighty gulp and went to grab another, which hovered in the air under Princess Platinum's magic, deftly avoiding being Eaten In One Bite.
"We prefer to slice the cake first! It gives less of a ... mess ... for the staff to clean up. Girls!" Princess Platinum directed the last at Celesta and Luna trying to replicate the feat by gnawing on the sides of other cakes. They had almost succeeded by the time their cakes rose several inches as well, putting all the cakes out of range.
Hurricane piped up, "And I thought I was hungry. You must have been worse off than we suspected."
Princess Platinum continued her explanation as if nothing at happened, taking the Chancellor's bizarre behaviour in stride, talking while slicing "At any rate, that's what I called you here for luncheon about. I thought we could have an informal chat before the official meeting. I've had a delicious idea I want to share with you."
"I like delicious ideas. And delicious cake." Unperturbed by reality, Puddinghead's slice quickly met the same fate as the other cake, while Celestia and Luna stared, transfixed.
"How do you do that?"
"Do Whafff?"
"Eat that way."
"Wha' you meem?"
Hurricane crossed his front hooves in front of him and leaned back in his chair. He wasn't getting involved in this.
Celestia and Luna were enraptured.
Homeshine head-desked, mostly to hide her giggles.
Princess Platinum continued to plow on on as if this wasn't happening. "My delicious idea to discuss, and I wanted to see how you two would take it before I submitted it for approval, was to make these two girls the overseers of the reunion project. They are the only ones who are members of all three tribes, and so are the most likely to be accepted by all three tribes' memberships."
Commander Hurricane responded nonchalantly, "Well, that's a splendid idea, but the devil is in the details. If you want them to be more than a figurehead then they're going to need some sort of power, and you're going to need to convince the tribes to give them that power."
"Well, you see, they already have a power. Show them, please! And then we shall have cake!"
They needed no more prompting than that! and the girls dutifully set the sun to 'about 5 o'clock or so', as they put it.
This time it was Puddinghead's chance to comment, "We could lengthen the day and grow more food. Or... could we start summer right now, and enhance the growing season?"
"And what power will they charge for this ... help? I know the Pegasi are adept at controlling the weather, are you asking for a similar tribute to control the sky? What are the terms?"
"That's just it!" Princess Platinum continued, "Nothing need be surrendered. This way each of us three contributes something to the others; protects something for the others. The Pegasuses keep the weather in check, the Earth ponies the resultant irrigation, Unicorns magic, and the girls everything else. We each do our part and receive the other two parts in trade. We all benefit from their gifts and the gifts of the other two tribes."
"But there's a lot more work to keeping the weather in check: logistics, wing-power, troop movement. Who's going to do that?"
"And a lot more work to farming than irrigation. Not to mention the baking and preparation, food storage... even if we had help with the planting and harvest- which we don't need; thank you very much!"
"You can still do the logistics, but if you need a bonus, as you mentioned, you can ask the girls to provide it. As long as you provide what you've always provided, the girls will provide theirs. The cost is what you're already paying; you simply get more benefits."
Commander leaned back in his chair in thought, saying only, "Hmm."
"And they can be a neutral overseer for any future dispute that arises between the three tribes! Since they are members of all three! You will still be the heads of your internal affairs. And any rulings made against you would be more than made up for with the increased benefits of being part of the alliance. Imagine controlling time itself!"
finally, Commander Hurricane leaned forward. "It's tempting; I will say that. I will, of course, have to submit it to the War Council for their approval."
"Of course, of course, we still have our meetings and all that. I wanted to seed the idea, so to speak."
"And seed you have," Puddinghead agreed, taking the opportunity to make a great lunge for a cake, grasping it it all four hooves ...
and dangling underneath it like a pinata, "A little help here?"