The Princess that Equestria Always Had

by rillegas08

13: Strings of Tension

Princess Platinum and Twilight Sparkle watched the blue pegasus stand at the edge of the cloud, looking between the two opposing tribes.

"What do you think he's doing up there?" the gray princess asked her purple adviser.

"I think he's deciding which tribe to confront first," she replied as Commander Hurricane took to his wings and headed toward the unicorns. "And it looks like he's made a decision."

"Wonderful! Just what I needed right now. You wouldn't want to use that teleportation spell to delay the ensuing argument, would you?"

"I'd better not. The commander would just see that as a sign of retreat and declare victory by default."

"Not to mention lauding the act over us for the rest of our lives." Platinum sighed, the blue pegasus coming ever closer. "Well, wish me luck."

Hurricane stopped in front of them, hovering just beyond the edge of the mountain ledge where the delegates of the unicorn tribe stood firmly.

"I didn't think I'd see you so soon, Princess."

"Likewise, Commander."

"And you must be Clover the Clever. Private Pansy's told me about you."

Twilight stepped forward a little."Hello, sir," she said. "It's an honor to meet one of such high rank."

"Clover, what on earth do you think you're doing?" Princess Platinum asked, stepping in front of Twilight and facing her.

"Being polite, Your Highness. This is the first time the Commander and I have met, after all."

Hurricane chuckled. "And already you've made a better impression than our dear princess here." He spoke the last phrase with a tone of sarcasm, then his face hardened. "All right, enough small talk. Let's get right to the point. Platinum, I could arrest you right now for trespassing on territory that belongs to Pegasopalis of the Pegasi."

Princess Platinum scoffed. "Arrest me? The sky belongs to you, not the land, does it not? Even if it did, this land first belonged to Unicornia, and you cannot arrest the sovereign leader of her own country!"

Hurricane smirked, scoffing. "You named it after your own tribe?"

Princess Platinum returned Hurricane's scoff with a glare. "So did you!"

"I had the humility to name it after both my tribe and my tribe's ancestor."

"Only because they're the same name."

"If I may interject..." Twilight began.

"Hoo boy, that climb's tough," said a heavily breathing Chancellor Puddinghead, interrupting Twilight. She removed her big hat, wiped her forehead with it, and replaced it on her head. "I couldn't help but notice you two talking about naming something after yourselves. Oh, hey," she said, noticing Twilight, "you must be Clover. Cookie's told me a lot about you!"

"It's nice to meet you too, Chancellor," Twilight responded with a smile.

"Did you name it something else?" asked Princess Platinum, choosing to ignore the exchange between the earth pony and her adviser. "Anything's better than 'Pegasopolis'. Ugh, such a gaudy name."

"Hey!"

"I sure did! You're all standing on Earth!"

There was a moment of silence as the pegasus commander and the unicorn princess looked at each other.

"You named it after your own tribe as well," said Princess Platinum in disbelief.

"No, my tribe was named after the ground. There's a difference!" Twilight's mouth turned up into a slight smile and she stifled a giggle.

"Why would you name it after the ground?" wondered Princess Platinum. "That's almost as bad as the Commander's name. Why not just name it Dirtville?"

"I almost did! Are you psychic?"

"All right, this is taking too long. You're both under arrest for trespassing on Pegasopolis territory, and Clover gets a warning."

"You're trespassing in Unicornia!"

"Its name is Earth!"

This went on for several minutes, each leader presenting the same arguments and counterarguments against each other and getting nowhere.

"Wait a minute," Hurricane said suddenly, "we've just been going in circles. I say there's only one way to settle this dispute: on the battlefield!" he exclaimed, punching one hoof into the other.

"Resorting to bloodshed so soon, Commander? How barbaric. Clover the Clever?"

"Ye-- hey!" Twilight was about to speak, but was interrupted when she was lifted with Princess Platinum's silver aura and held over the edge of the ledge in front of Commander Hurricane, her face a mere leg's reach away from his. "Uh, hi."

"Throw this brute in the dungeon, Clover!"

"What dungeon?" Twilight asked. "There's nothing here!" If the grey princess heard her, she didn't show it, instead preferring to argue more with the blue pegasus and the cream earth mare. Twilight frowned as she looked at and heard the three fully-grown ponies acting like foals. She couldn't help but think of the feuding families of the Hooffields and the McColts a few months before. For all the things that's changed the last thousand years, she thought, some things never seem to. I've had about enough of this.

Suddenly all three tribe leaders were frozen in place. Twilight had cast the same spell she had used on the Hooffields and the McColts a few months before, and it predictably had the same effect: catching its victims by surprise, leaving them unable to speak long enough for Twilight to get a word in edgewise. It was less taxing, however, as she had only frozen three ponies instead of two large families.

"Do you three do anything but argue? All three tribes discovered this area independently of each other. Maybe we're meant to share the land, to use our individual talents for each other's benefit, but that's not going to happen if you refuse to let it happen! I've been in this situation before, stuck in the middle of conflicting opinions and a lot of hate. Ponies refused to see the merits of their opponents instead of staying calm and trying to fix the issues they had with each other!" By this time, Smart Cookie and Private Pansy had approached the mountain's ledge.

"I agree. Let's all calm down," said the tan mare. "Phew, that's a climb."

"That's what I said, too!"

"I vote for calm."

"Now then," Smart Cookie said before Twilight could speak again, "I expect you three to sit tight while the three of us advisers come up with a way for us all to work together."

That wasn't in the Hearth's Warming story, thought Twilight. Then again, there's a lot most ponies don't know about what happened a thousand years ago.

---

"This ain't workin'."

Smart Cookie's words, though accurate, felt like gross understatement.

Not three weeks earlier, the three tribes had begun living together amicably enough: Commander Hurricane and Private Pansy formed a forward operating base among the clouds and kept a watchful eye on the; Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie started building a homestead in the clearing and divided the land into small sections, where they planted different crops and tested different fertilizers; and Princess Platinum and Twilight made their home on the ledge, and Platinum had requested Twilight to harvest some of the jewels and test them for their magical capacity and their value. When the earth ponies and unicorns asked for rain to water their crops or sunshine to let them grow or to examine the luster of a gem, the pegasi obliged. When the earth ponies harvested some crops, they shared them with the pegasi and the unicorns to test the quality of the new produce.

Slowly, however, tension had grown. Hurricane and Puddinghead had confessed to their advisers that they believed the unicorns were merely playing with rocks and therefore weren't doing enough to earn the food or fair weather they had been requesting. When Smart Cookie and Private Pansy had brought these concerns to Twilight, she had agreed that since it was unnecessary for her and Princess Platinum to raise and lower the sun and the moon each morning and night, it seemed like the unicorns weren't doing enough, and had admitted that the unicorns would be most useful in the long term once they'd figured out the capabilities of each gem. Cookie and Pansy had brought Twilight's response to their superiors, who at the time had seemed discontent but sated.

Now, the three advisers watched their leaders argue with each other once again. They used the usual arguments, calling each other names and refusing to listen to each other.

"What can we do?" asked Private Pansy. "There's got to be something to get them to stop."

"We've tried everything we can, Pansy," replied Twilight. "I don't think there's anything else we can do but wait for things to blow over." It's times like this that makes it hard for me to hide what I know to be historically true.

"I don't like waiting." Out of the corner of her eye, Smart Cookie saw Private Pansy rub her nose with her fetlock. "Now, now, Pansy," she said calmly, as a mother reassuring her crying foal should, "no need to cry. We'll figure somethin' out."

"I'm not crying, actually."

Smart Cookie and Twilight looked over at Pansy, and immediately looked up.

A thick cover of gray clouds had formed above the tops of the mountains, and white spots dotted them as snow fluttered down. The wind had picked up a bit, and one by one snowflakes bit at all three ponies' noses.

"Snow..." Twilight said softly. She knew there was no sense in delaying any longer; history was waiting to be made.

"All right, now what are we going to do about this snow?" Smart Cookie asked her companions.

"Like I said before," replied Twilight, "all we can do is wait for things to blow over. This storm's only going to get worse. Have either of you found a cave these last few weeks?" The earth mare and the pegasus mare confirmed that they hadn't. "Then start looking for one. There's got to be one nearby that we haven't discovered yet that we can take shelter in."

"What makes you so sure?" asked Cookie, looking at Twilight with a cocked eyebrow.

"You're going to have to trust me, Cookie. The time will come when you understand why."

Smart Cookie harrumphed. "If you say so, Clover. Come on, Pansy. Let's go find that cave."

The two mares hurried off to find the cave Twilight had insisted was there, and it wasn't long after that enough snow had fallen, unnoticed by the three tribal leaders, thick enough to reach the tops of their hooves. Chancellor Puddinghead dug her hoof into the newly fallen drifts, formed a ball, and threw it at Princess Platinum. It splattered on her muzzle, and Commander Hurricane couldn't hold back a hearty laugh. Platinum gasped, speechless. The moment passed, however, and Platinum's eyes flared with anger as she used her magic to form two snowballs of her own, projecting one at each of her opponents. Hurricane barely had enough time to dodge the attack. Puddinghead, however, was looking down at the snow, and took the projectile in her shoulder.

"Wait a minute," asked Puddinghead suddenly, looking up at the other two, "where did all this snow come from anyway?"

"It's not us," Hurricane responded right away. Controlling the weather was the pegasi's responsibility, after all, and he knew everypony would blame him first. "We've been on the ground since before there even was any."

"I don't know any spells to change the weather," Princess Platinum replied in kind, "and even though Clover studies under Star Swirl himself, there's nothing that suggests either of them know such spells either."

It was at that moment that Smart Cookie and Private Pansy reappeared through the growing storm, galloping towards the others. Visibility was quickly decreasing.

"Commander! Puddinghead!" called out Smart Cookie. "The storm's gettin' worse!"

"Tell me something I don't know!" replied Puddinghead.

"There's a cave not too far from here we can take shelter in! And no arguin' about bein' stuck with the other tribes! Let's just survive tonight first!"

A sudden gust of wind blew, bringing more snow that settled around them. All six ponies covered their faces with their hooves and turned, facing away from the wind. Commander Hurricane landed.

The snow continued falling as five ponies made their way to the nearby cave. The sixth, however, remained: since the snow had started falling, Princess Twilight had stood still, watching the scene unfold. Many thoughts crossed her mind during the altercation, but one had become increasingly prevalent at the front of her mind: a single line from the pageant she and her friends had put on in Canterlot not too long ago.

"'And so the paradise that the ponies had found was soon lost, buried beneath a thick blanket of snow and hard feelings...'"

Author's Note:

All right, now that all three tribes are back together, we're back to only one perspective.

You may have seen the blog post about this chapter. Yeah, it was tough putting all the pieces together. Thanks to everyone for their patience during this brief hiatus.

Comments

[Amethyst Blade]

[StarzGecko]

Let me guess... The cave is were the Tree of Harmony we'll be one day?

[vampnyx]

I can't wait for the next chapter!

[rillegas08]

7219345 Glad you like it!

[Maze Tail]

Can't wait for the next chapter now we are getting somewhere. finally at the cave yay

[sakuralovelight]

hope to read more soon

[vampnyx]

When is the next chapter coming out?

[Mlp Kitty]

This story is SO good! Keep writing!