Star-Swirl wrote of Princess Platinum’s reign as ruler of Precia with great interest. It is not known whether he actually showed himself throughout this. It can’t be denied that Star-Swirl was no lover of politics and court life.
Though his bizarrely intricate details suggest he was definitely a direct observer of events that embroiled.
It’s somewhat difficult to make certain.
In any case, Platinum was seen as a most able ruler. Her late mother’s popularity was a great jump-start to her ascension but she soon proved she was not only born from Queen Silvia but also learned from Queen Silvia. Her wit was incredible, her compassion spectacular and her generosity unparalleled. While arrogant as far as her skills were concerned, she believed it was every noble’s duty to ensure that all under their domain lived safely and comfortably as far as it was it their power to make it so. The Bayleaf Crown Ward, one of the most famous charity organisations in Equestria, was founded by Platinum and her inner circle. Whenever frugality was necessary, Platinum would economise first on herself, eating sparsely and simply and wearing only a small silver coronet and had Clover set up tailors and dyers guilds in the region so that she and the court didn’t have to import rich fabrics.
During any period of financial peril, she looked for any alternative to raising taxes.
Unfortunately, this led to several military perils. Trade routes came under attack from pirates or rival states and her attempt to find precious metals for trade brought the unicorn kingdoms into conflict with a new threat.
The Diamond Dogs.
Precian knights were famously skilled and determined but Diamond Dogs have been known to utilise a fruitful and somewhat ironic strategy, baiting. Lying in wait for the ponies to explore the mines, looking for gemstones, they would spring from their hiding places and attack swiftly where the knight’s armour would weigh them down and their broadswords were far too ungainly for the tight tunnels. Many mining parties and their guard were massacred and the finances of Precia grew ever more imperilled.
Platinum was trapped. Now that Precian ponies had died, giving up on claiming the mines and raising taxes would be political suicide. The mines had to be taken and the dogs had to be driven back.
Somepony had to accomplish such a feat and, as usual, Platinum could think of few better ponies than herself.
Leading a crack team of knights and mages, Platinum and Clover struck out into the Diamond Dog mines. Their first attempts were met with success but as was in her nature, success made her bolder.
Deeper and deeper they ventured in to subdue the last foes on their domain until the full strength of the den swarmed them.
Platinum fought fiercely but was eventually knocked down by the malachite mace of a Diamond Dog Alpha and swarmed.
Precia would have lost their great Princess that day and the dark ground would have swallowed her body forever.
If it weren’t for a young stallion in splendid golden armour who regrouped the ponies at arms and struck back harder and fiercer than ever and rescued their Princess from certain death, Platinum waking up in his forehooves.
The knight removed his gilded helm and bowed.
A handsome face greeted the Princess, a young flax-yellow stallion with a thick, curly, tawny mane and beard and the most dashing smile one might see on a knight of his age.
His name was Auric d’Orunguile, Duke of Tritifer.

Auric’s bravery saw him personally honoured by Platinum in court as the battle’s spoils had very much been rich, even if the state of the battle had soured. Clover suggested that, now that the Diamond Dogs were more aware of just how harsh unicorn retribution could be, they could negotiate with the den leaders. Auric however insisted they could, and should, be wiped out or at least driven out of unicorn territory altogether.
Platinum thought long and hard. She did not want to lose Auric’s favour as quickly as she had gained it but Clover was rarely ever wrong. She eventually decided to meet both half-way and send Auric to launch a full attack only on the packs that had actively left their dens to attack civilians. Auric vowed he would accomplish such a feat within the season.
It was then that Platinum was given most troubling news.
She was expecting relatives.
Her cousin, Queen Lye of Galderland, north of Precia. She was the granddaughter of King Ferric’s elder sister, Calamina who married King Ethan-Hyle and whose son, Pewter, married Lady Tritolila of Cryne, a vassal state of Marchion.
She came to the Precian court, not having sent an invitation, news of her coming from Sleeping Dog.
Platinum hurried to prepare suitable proceedings for a visit from her family, Clover mentions being worked off her hooves.
Lye entered and immediately declared the forces of Precia called to arms to retake Galderland from usurpers.
Clover described with bafflement.
‘She seemed completely unaware she was in the palace of a princess. She stormed in, barked orders, and was set to storm out just as she had entered. And when Platinum called them back to explain, Lye appeared affronted. Dare I say it, she did not look at Platinum as if she were an equal or even a royal. She honestly seemed surprised to see her wearing the crown.’
Lye had to be told that Ferric and Galena were long dead, Woolsey was gone and the land had seen near-total chaos before Platinum had been crowned Princess of their family’s lands.
Clover gathered information from Sleeping Dog and related past events.

After her father had died, Lye had first been married at the peak of marehood to King Viridius III of Marchion, the present King Cerulean’s late brother, converting to Agneism in the process. The marriage only lasted a year before Viridius died of dryditch fever. Childless, Lye returned to Galderland where her Agneism made her unpopular with the fiercely Mirianist populace and while she was able to earn favour with the local aristocracy at first, her real problems began when she became smitten with Lord Sailenstone of Dweamoor, the most influential and handsome of the Galderlandish nobles, alienating her from most of her allies.
The marriage was not a happy one. Sailenstone was both vicious and adulterous and Lye was accused of similar practices with many Agneians she had at court, some of them actually murdered in broad daylight by Sailenstone in a jealous rage. The couple separated after her first childbirth and many rival lords went after Sailenstone who went back to Lye to plead forgiveness and, by extension, sanctuary. Lye forgave him, realising that there was no honourable way to end her marriage, and hid him at Sprengenholm Castle which ‘mysteriously’ exploded while Lye and her fellows were at a social gathering. Sailenstone wasn’t in the castle at the time but was found strangled to death in the topiary garden outside. Lye and her chief supporter, Earl Marlbright of Calcary Isle, were the top suspects in the act and so Marlbright abducted Lye, took her to Calcary Isle and impregnated her (Whether she was raped or had planned this from the beginning remains uncertain depending on sources. Her two-year old filly, Bismuth, escaped the castle but suffered horrific scarring and a crippled hind leg having climbed and fallen from a burning tree near her bedroom window.)
The local Mirianist lords of Galderland, calling themselves the Callune Circle led by Lady Moray Eel of Brynestrand and Abbot Stirling of Kirk-Thistledge, put Calcary to siege. The Callune Circle had kept Bismuth safe under his protection and placed her on the throne, declaring Lye and Marlbright’s right to the throne forfeit. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne (She wrote to her daughter numerous times but received no reply. It was Lye’s firm belief that Moray Eel intercepted the messages but it seems equally plausible Bismuth had disowned her mother for the part she may have played in her injuries) she fled Calcary. Hearing of this, kinbeasts and bannersteeds of Lady Tritolita, Lye’s late mother in Cryne, journeyed to Galderland to support her cause, taking Marchion’s interests with them. Though, notably, the Crynean troops bore their own banners and marched behind their own lord declaring his own right to Lye’s throne.
[Note: Three months before her flight, Marlbright had attempted to ask aid from the Kingdom of Boulea but had instead been imprisoned and died under torture. Lye received a message from Boulea containing Marlbright’s horn, right eye, lips and ‘something else’.]
So now, with nothing to her name and a country full of ponies who wished her dead, Lye had come to the home of her grandmother to not so much plead for Platinum’s aid as command it.
It was pretty clear for the average observer that Lye and Platinum weren’t going to get along.

Her supposed story of how she ended up here put Platinum in a very difficult position.
Lye seemed humble enough and could be kind to those who supported her but was highly antagonistic of the Mirianist regime in Precia and insisted that Platinum must address her as ‘queen’ while seeing the necessity to address Platinum as ‘princess’ as unnecessary. She spoke to others in Platinum’s company as if she weren’t in the room nor would ever hear of what was said and whenever she would speak of ‘my country’, ponies realised she didn’t necessarily mean Galderland but Precia. At one notorious scene, Lye got drunk (Something she did not often do and some witnesses claimed she had drunk next to nothing, making the cause of which quite ominous) and slapped Clover across the face when the Lady Minister uttered a Mirian blessing to a foreign visitor. When Platinum moved to protect her friend, Lye shook her by the shoulders, throwing off her crown and tearing her ermine cape, bellowing at the top of her voice ‘Confess, wicked filly, that Blessed Lye is a truer, wiser and holier queen than thou art!’. After this, Clover had Sleeping Dog watch her quarters and take note of any pony who entered and what they were overheard talking of.
What was more, her implication in the murder of Lord Sailenstone hadn’t actually been proven false, though Lye had denied it utterly. When Platinum received a letter from Moray Eel asking to meet with them to discuss Lye’s actions, she sent Clover to the northern marches, trying as far as possible to keep such a thing secret from Lye.
Moray Eel behaved courteously and respectfully towards Clover and Platinum and addressed the circumstances. Despite his unpleasant character, Sailenstone was still a very important noble of Galderland and his murder had to be punished if not by Platinum then another representing Precia and its rule or Galderland would be forced to treat Precia as an enemy. Moray and her circle did not have sufficient solid proof but word of mouth and so Clover promised she would act as soon as she was sure of one side or the other.
Moray added that the foal queen Bismuth was proving unable to safely govern Galderland and various disasters from famines to plagues to the Crynean invasion had severely debilitated the state. She promised that in the event of Lye’s punishment, Galderland would concede to vassalhood under Precia.
Months later, Clover returned to court with a silver casket, bearing the seal of the late King Viridius III, found at Calcary Isle which she’d paid a visit to with Sleeping Dog on their negotiations in Galderland. Inside were a series of letters, written in hoof-writing similar to Lye’s and addressed to Earl Marlbright and dated months before Sailenstone’s murder. Letters of love, praise, ribald jests and most notably curses upon Sailenstone, declaring he needed to suffer for what he’d done to her.
A trial was set up and the evidence presented. The trial was a short one. Lye had little defence, insisting the letters were forgeries. Clover presided over the persecution and Platinum was called to judge.
Lye was declared guilty but soon afterwards Clover and Platinum met the Callune Circle and made a compromise with a treaty. Lye would be held in Precia in comfortable residence but would never set hoof on Galderlish soil again and would never have contact with any members of her family or in-laws. The treaty did not require Lye’s signature.
The hastiness of the trial and convenience it brought Lye’s accusers is a source of debate. Many historians present Lye as an innocent victim of Platinum’s megalomania (Indeed the ‘mainstream’ histories around the Founding suggest this was something Platinum did a lot of purely for enjoyment though rarely bring Clover’s name into it)
The influence Clover had over the trial cannot be ignored. There was nothing Clover wanted more than Lye, if not punished, at least in their control.
Looking at the solid evidence, it seems likely that Clover and Sleeping Dog had arranged the entire thing without either Lye’s knowledge or Platinum’s. Clover’s memoirs dictate that Platinum originally wanted to help Lye or at least protect her (And keep in mind, Clover rarely flattered her princess on paper. She spoke well of her but when Platinum made a mistake, Clover would not ignore it.)
In truth, the trial was nothing more than a political exercise. Platinum needed to remind Lye who was in charge and Clover had delivered the means. Moray Eel and the Callune Circle had shown respect and offered generous terms to Platinum that would benefit Precia a great deal. Lye had done neither. She needed to be chastised suitably. If Lye made amends and became a more loyal and able ally of the court then Platinum would agree to aid her.
Unknown to Clover and Platinum, this ‘chastisement’ would lead the Unicorn Kingdoms to war.

The imprisonment, no matter how benevolent it was in practice, of an ardent Agneian royal was seen as a grave sin and act of tyranny to Marchion and its vassals. No fewer than three conspiracies were hatched by nobles around the marches of Precia, all of which were Agneian or at least allied with Agneians. All three conspiracies were uncovered by Clover and Sleeping Dog and a fourth, one that had actually assembled an army off the coast that would infiltrate the palace, was disrupted by Duke Auric who bombarded them with artillery from the hill. When Platinum invited Lye on a canter through the countryside, Clover and Sleeping Dog searched Lye’s room and found letters in her possession from various members of the ex-conspiracies. Hastily doubling the border guard between Precia and Marchion, Clover informed Platinum who prepared an investigation. Due to Lye’s room having no magic fireplace, she had to send messages either by bird or pony and both were intercepted on the borders. To their shock, the investigators found not just letters consenting and advising the ex-conspirators but letters for the eyes of King Cerulean of Marchion and the Granpastoris Lanitus in the Agneia See, urging them to take the war to Platinum, promising the unicorns of Precia would be behind her. All in Lye’s hoof-writing.
The legitimacy of the letters is still roundly debated but the Precian court was adamant that Lye was guilty of high treason in the Princess’s custody.
Clover brought the news to Platinum who had a lot to think about. If Lye was killed, Marchion would go to war. If not, more conspiracies would come out, Galderland would no longer consider Precia their protector and if the letters from Lye were true, Marchion would probably go to war anyway. A clandestine conspiracy was made. Lye would be judged, found guilty and executed. The warrant for her execution would not be shown, the crowd would simply be in too much of a frenzy with such serious accusations brought about her. Then, when she was killed, Platinum could deny signing any such warrant, her death seen as simply the result of political tensions overflowing which would then be brought down safely when the potential consequences became clear.
Lye denied every charge brought forth but none would defend her. She was summarily executed by beheading. When informed of the sentence by her counsellors, Platinum became enraged, decrying the counsellors for executing her cousin without her permission and promising she’d have all their heads in payment before Clover interceded and promised the court she’d reason with her. After two days, Platinum regathered the anxious court in a grieved state and apologised for her rage, insisting she was in a state of despair. The court in turn apologised for their haste and overzealous actions, swearing such a thing would not happen again and arranging suitable condolences and reparations for all of Lye’s family, in-laws and sworn friends, burying her with honours with traditional Agneian rites. Many Agneian monarchs heard of Platinum’s great show of rage and grief at hearing of Lye’s wrongful execution and were satisfied to believe, for one reason or another, that it was nothing more than a horrible misunderstanding.
But Cerulean was less convinced.
In any case, the conspiracies against Platinum had taught her that enemies would be many and come from anywhere.
For many years to come.

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And many would fail.

Indeed.