Twilight arrived at the waterfall the night before the meeting had been scheduled. Using her magic, she started a fire a few yards from the edge of the pool, sitting by it for a few minutes until she was warm enough. She removed her saddlebags, setting them nearby. She removed some sticks and canvas from the small cart she’d been pulling, setting them up nearby before placing her saddlebags inside.
Before entering the tent, she looked around and, when she had confirmed that nopony was watching, removed the cloak and the binds that kept her wings tight to her body. As before, they hurt when she stretched. It was a dull ache, and not nearly as severe as it had been before.
“I hope nopony comes by while I have these out,” she said as she stepped inside the tent and lay down. “That would be difficult to keep quiet.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twilight awoke soon after dawn, though it was hard to tell exactly what time it was. The morning sunlight had been diffused through a thin layer of clouds, though it was still bright enough to shine through her tent. She groaned and stretched her legs and wings, still groggy from her slumber. She rubbed her eyes with her hooves, and looked around. The meager fire she’d begun the night before had gone out, a thin layer of frost covering the coals. The water, likewise, had started to freeze around the edges She shivered, wrapping her wings around her, as she cast a spell to warm up the area around her. She tied her wings back against her body and replaced the cloak on her back.
The meeting had been set for just after sunrise. Now all she had to do was to wait for the others to arrive.
Twilight was not good at waiting. As was the case not so long ago when the map sent Rarity and Applejack to Manehattan, she grew bored. As such, she started cleaning up her camp site. She dismantled her tent, placing the sticks in the cart before folding the canvas and placing it on top. She did, however, make sure the fire was still going strong.
Fortunately, the first of the other two advisors arrived just when she had finished packing everything away; there was no need to look around for something to do while waiting. When the tent was packed into the cart, Twilight turned around to see a pegasus mare with a bright yellow coat (though most of it was covered by the black and silver armor she wore) as she landed near the fire. Her mane was long and straight, striped with purple and white. Just like when she had encountered Smart Cookie and Princess Platinum, this pegasus reminded her of Fluttershy.
“Good morning,” Twilight said. “You must be Private Pansy.”
The yellow mare, caught off guard, stumbled at the introduction. However, she regained her balance, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She held her legs, however, tight against each other, knees unbent. If Pansy’s personality was as much like Fluttershy’s as her appearance was, then Twilight guessed that Pansy’s stress level was pretty high right now.
“Hello,” she replied, rather quietly.
“You look tense. Are you all right?”
Private Pansy lowered her head a little, turning her gaze from Twilight. “Y-yes. It’s just... It’s hard for me to meet new ponies.” She stopped talking, and there was silence for a few moments before Twilight spoke again.
“Is it a kind of nervousness that your mind can’t thinking about, sometimes to the point of being frozen in place by the fear of what might go wrong?” Pansy looked at Twilight, shocked that she was able to guess correctly right away. Twilight smiled and continued. “I have a friend back home that’s the same way.”
“So, you won’t tease me or anything horribly mean like that?”
“Not at all. You can relax around me .”
“That’s a relief.” The pegasus’s legs relaxed a little, and she smiled. She looked around. “I was told an earth pony would be joining us. Where is she?”
“She’s probably still on her way. The sun just came up, after, and they can only travel as fast as their legs can take them.”
“Oh.”
“In the meantime, we can get to know each other a little until she comes.”
“That sounds lovely.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It wasn’t long after this that Smart Cookie, cart in tow, turned a corner and was able to see the waterfall in the distance. She unhooked herself from the harness and went around to the back, rummaging around to find the map she had packed, the location of the waterfall marked where Clover had indicated a week and a half earlier. She looked around at her surroundings and packed it away again.
“I hope that’s the right waterfall. There ain’t another one for a good while.”
Following her gut, she hooked herself back up again and kept walking toward the waterfall. It had been a long journey from her little village, but she pressed on through her legs’ exhaustion. Soon enough, she got a glimpse of what looked like a tent and two ponies sitting beside the waterfall. Relief flooded over her, renewing her energy.
“I really hope those are the others I’m s’posed to be meetin’. My legs are dog-tired. Hey there!” she finally called out, and the other two turned and stood up to face her. Clover took the forefront, while the bright yellow pegasus stood farther back, partially hidden behind the unicorn.
“I’m glad to see you had a safe journey, Smart Cookie.”
“Thanks Clover, but you can just call me Cookie if you want. Smart Cookie’s a mouthful to say, if ya ask me.” The tan mare shrugged off the harness. She looked around at the ground, surprised. Around the fire, the grass was green as usual, and the edge of the water stood still at the shore; however, a few yards away from the fire in a perfect circle, the grass was white with the morning’s frozen dew, and the edge of the water had no ice built up.
“You got some sorta heat spell goin’ on here? It doesn’t feel any different, but it certainly looks it.”
“I did cast one earlier, but it might be wearing off. Here, let me cast it again.” Twilight touched her horn to the ground and cast the spell. Immediately the air around them was warmer, and the frost around the edge of the circle melted. She cast a second spell, a barrier spell to keep the heat inside the barrier longer.
"Mmm, that's warm," Private Pansy commented.
"I'll say it is," retorted the tan mare. She looked at Twilight with an odd expression that indicated skepticism. Twilight didn't notice, however.
"All right, let's begin this meeting with what we know for sure, facts with no interpretation behind them. The world is getting colder: it's the middle of the summer months, and there is an abnormal winter approaching."
"This cold weather is makin' it harder and harder to grow enough good to feed everypony. Earth ponies across the country have started coming to our chancellor, saying that they've been pushed to their own little district in markets. Some are even being accused of stockpiling their own food before selling it to everypony else."
"Star Swirl the Bearded and I noticed the food stalls were set apart the last time we were buying supplies in town," said Twilight, who then turned to Private Pansy. "What news do you have, Pansy?"
"Oh... we pegasi can't do anything to help."
"Why not?" asked the earth mare, who had grown slightly indignant, although not noticeably. She wanted to confront her about whether is was truly because they were unable, or if they just didn't want to, but had the presence of mind not to escalate the situation by accusing somepony of something they weren't responsible for.
"It's not because we don't want to, if anypony was wondering... there's nothing we can do to control them. All the clouds and snow we clear are never gone for more than an hour. They won't listen to us."
Twilight and Smart Cookie were taken aback, though Twilight recovered more quickly. It was never mentioned in the legends, but it made sense. The pegasus ponies had controlled the weather for a long time, but the clouds made by the windigoes must be different from natural clouds in such a way that pegasi couldn't control them.
"I can demonstrate, if you'd like."
The other two mares looked to the sky, which indeed had grown more overcast as they'd spoken.
"How do we know there ain't a bunch of pegasi up there ready to push the clouds back?" asked Smart Cookie. Twilight gave her a stern look, and she hastily added, "Just makin' sure we're not being naive, Clover. Not accusing anypony of anything."
"A demonstration could be helpful, Pansy," Twilight said to the yellow pegasus with a smile. "Go for it."
Private Pansy crouched low, the launched herself into the sky toward the clouds, much faster than she usually did. Pansy preferred to flutter or hover to flying, though she could go faster. As a filly she'd enjoyed going fast, but as she grew and joined the Pegasus Air Corps the thrill of going fast was gradually replaced with the expectation to. It was then that she'd started to flutter when not training, and when she started enjoying the world she'd passed by before.
Now, however, another expectation was placed on her: to prove that there was nopony hidden among the clouds, and had pushed herself as if she was once again in one of the speed training exercises. Private Pansy could have flown up and bucked a few clouds, but the way Smart Cookie had said that bothered her. Smart Cookie had suggested something that neither she nor her commander - nor any of the other pegasi, for that matter - had even thought to suggest the week before. She certainly lived up to her name.
This is for peace, she kept reminding herself, straining herself to go as fast as she could. Smart Cookie was mean, but I'm sure she meant well. She had to have. Come on, wings. Let's give this all we've got!
Back on the ground, Twilight and Smart Cookie watched the pegasus mare fly up. "I understand your caution, Smart Cookie," Twilight told her as they watched, "but next time try to be more subtle, okay? Private Pansy's the kind of pony to take comments like that personally, even though she might not show that she does."
Smart Cookie didn't respond; she only thought about what had been said by both of them as Pansy sped through the clouds. At the speed she was going, the air flowing around her wings pushed aside an area of the clouds smaller than the pond. Pansy changed direction, flying in a circle around the clearing she had made so that the hole in the clouds became much larger than the size of the pond they were meeting at. The sunlight shone through the clearing, reflecting off the gently rippling water and the thin layer of ice that had surrounded the edge. With the clouds gone, the sun's heat was able to pass through once again, and both mares on the ground smiled as Twilight dropped the heat spell to feel the sun's natural warmth.
"Well, I gotta give her credit. Any pegasus waitin' up there to recover the skies would have been too surprised to move away in time."
As Pansy fluttered back down, however, a single windigo peeked over the edge of the opening she had made, going unnoticed by Twilight or Cookie; it was simply too well hidden at that height. Down below, the mares could see the clouds begin to close again as the clouds on the western edge started to fill in.
Smart Cookie and Twilight were still looking up at the sky when Pansy landed, breathing heavily and wings drooping. The pegasus looked at the two. Smart Cookie's face looked confused, and Twilight's expression was similarly confused, although Pansy thought she saw a bit of fear showing through her eyes. Pansy followed their gaze back up to the clouds, which had begun to roll in faster.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Somethin's puttin' the clouds back. And thicker this time. What do you think, Clover?"
"Something's not right. I've seen pegasi put clouds in the sky, and whatever happening's up there is not how they do it."
"I'm sorry I doubted ya, Private Pansy. Though, this all's makin' me think. There might be a temporary solution that'll grow crops until we can figure out how to get rid of the winter weather in the middle of the summer."
"What would that be?"
"Two, actually. One is to have all the pegasi work together to keep the skies clear. It'd be long and hard work, seein' how Pansy here is breathin' and her wings are loose. The other is to have the unicorns cast heat spells like the one Clover's been usin' here."
"Or a combination of the two," Twilight said, forgetting for a moment that she was in the past, and that what she was about to say isn't what had happened. "Casting such spells would take a lot of effort, since they don't last very long without needing to be recast, and a larger area takes more effort than the small area I'm casting it on now. They would need to work together with the earth ponies to work out schedules that would allow for warming up the earth, raising the sun and the moon, and enough rest to remain functional long-term. With the unicorns also raising the sun and the moon, some may think that too much is being expected of them, and problems could arise from that new issue." As she spoke, the excitement of solving a problem slowly faded when she remembered that she was in the past, but she continued.
"On the other hoof, if the pegasi kept clearing the clouds over half of the country, like the cities and the roads, while the unicorns focused heat spells on just the farmlands, this would be a temporary compromise that benefits all three pony nations the most while also having the fewest disadvantages to each."
"Oh, I like that idea."
Smart Cookie put her hoof to her chin, then shrugged. "I got nothin' as good as that."
"Then let's put it to a vote. All in favor of this option, say 'aye'."
There was silence for a moment.
"Clover... what the hay are you doin'? We already said we were all in favor."
"Sorry! It just seemed more official that way."
They spent the next hour hammering out the details: when to set up the meeting of the tribes' leaders, where it would take place, and advising each respective leader the best ways to conduct the meeting. Once they agreed on the specifics, they adjourned and had lunch before heading off toward their respective homes. Yet, as each pony went their separate ways, there was one question that had been stuck in the back of Twilight's mind which she now brought to the front: If the three advisers had come up with such a good solution, how could it have gone so wrong?