The Battle of Hearth's Warming

by XMark

The Warning

September 23, 1032 BCE

"You must be joking." said Princess Platinum, her nose up to Starswirl.

She was lounging on a bench in the throne room, surrounded by Earth pony servants and unicorn nobles. A servant held up some grapes in his teeth by the stem and offered them to the Princess, who ate one off the bottom. The Unicorn King was in a far corner of the room, lying down in a bed, awake but staring at the ceiling, almost completely oblivious to his surroundings.

"Have you not heard a single word I have spoken?" said Starswirl, holding his anger in check. "We must begin a search for a new land immediately!"

The Princess chuckled softly. "Darling, you spend far too much time with your head in the clouds. Are you sure you're not a pegasus?"

The nobles around her laughed as if on cue. The Unicorn King made some gurgling noises and farted.

Clover stepped out from behind Starswirl, walking towards Princess Platinum until her guards moved in front of her. "We tracked the stars and triple-checked the data! We even triple-checked the checklists for checking the data! You can't argue with facts! The Earth is tilting, and we're gonna be a whole heck of a lot more north than we were before!"

Clover felt Starswirl's magic gently tugging her back. She walked back and sat on the floor beside Starswirl, still staring angrily at the Princess. The Unicorn King drooled.

"I'm quite sure we can weather a chilly winter or two." said the Princess lazily, eating a couple more grapes. "Start a good fire, maybe put on some clothes. I see none of the dramatic problems you predict. And really, is that any reason to leave our entire kingdom behind?"

Starswirl shook his head. "I believe you are underestimating the severity of this problem. As you can see already, the chill of winter has reached us a month earlier than we expected. It has happened earlier and earlier for more than a decade, and the change is accelerating. Need I remind you that one extra month will also mean a further extra month awaiting the end of winter?"

"Starswirl, dear, I can't for the life of me figure out why my father would always heed your advice. Perhaps his mind had already started to slip long before we noticed. Starswirl, this is the real world. What does someone who spends all their time around dusty old books know about how things work in the real world?"

Clover could not restrain herself now. "In the real world you have to EAT! How in the hoof are you going to eat if you can't grow FOOD?"

"The Earth ponies will just have to work a little harder. They could use the work. They've grown lazy lately."

Clover sputtered angrily. "Are they going to move the sun? I'm sure you're aware that nobody can move the sun!"

Princess Platinum waved away the servant with the grapes, and turned back to Clover. "We can negotiate with the pegasi to put some extra hours into cloud bursting if it comes to that. Now, I don't quite like the tone you are giving me. If that is all you have to say, then begone. Be a dear and shut the door on the way out."

"But..." Clover started, but Starswirl was already storming off toward the door, so she turned and followed him.

The Unicorn King shouted "Squishy bubbles!" for no apparent reason, to nobody in particular.

"I should have expected that." said Starswirl after slamming the door shut behind him. "This kingdom is run by fools. They will not see reason until it is far too late. If our leaders will do nothing, then we must inform the pegasi and the Earth ponies."

"Will they listen to us? You know we aren't exactly on friendly terms with each other."

"We have no choice in this matter." answered Starswirl. "We can only hope that the facts will speak for themselves."

As they walked away from the throne room, Clover saw the Earth ponies from last night preparing for their journey back home. She turned to Starswirl. "I can go with them, try to get an audience with the Chancellor."

"Yes, that is a good idea. And while you bring the message to the Earth ponies, I will attempt to get in contact with Commander Hurricane of the pegasi."

-

Smart Cookie yawned and stretched, feeling sore all over. She had slept on the cold, hard stone floor of the unicorn castle. Unicorn hospitality at its finest. Her travelling companions all looked equally sore, but at least the unicorns had let them rest for the night instead of sending them home in the cold night, as bad as the accommodations were.

"Ma'am, we're ready to leave when you are." said Banana Split, the large yellow Stallion who had loaded and unloaded their wagon full of food.

"Yep, let's roll out now."

"Wait!" came a voice behind them. They turned and saw a unicorn mare wearing a hooded cloak. "I'm coming with you!"

"Beggin' your pardon?" said Smart Cookie.

The unicorn walked up to them and extended a hoof. "Pleased to meet you, I'm Clover the Clever. You can just call me Clover."

"I'm Smart Cookie. Y'all can just call me Cookie. Now tell me, why would a unicorn want to hoof it all the way from Unicornia to Palomino with a bunch of Earth ponies?"

"I need to talk with the Chancellor. I have a very important message for him."

"Well, I ain't gonna say no to another travelling companion. Just warnin' you that it's a full day's trip. It'll be past nightfall when we get there. Yer dainty little unicorn hooves up for the trip or are we gonna have to carry you?"

Clover stomped her front hoof down. "Dainty little... you don't even know me! I assure you I can handle a day's walk. I am not one of those hoity toity nobles."

"Let's get on walkin' then. I reckon we'll get to know each other plenty on the way there."

The party of Earth ponies walked out the front gate of the castle. Smart Cookie and Banana Split were pulling the wagon, and Clover followed behind.

There were a couple of inches of snow in the streets of Unicornia, already heavily marked with wagon tracks and hoofprints. The city streets were nowhere near as busy as usual, though. The unicorns they passed all seemed to be in a hurry to get to their destination and out from the cold. Smart Cookie looked back and saw Clover walking behind the wagon, back from the other ponies.

"Hey, back there!" she called out to Clover. "Come on up here!"

Clover trotted up to the front. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothin'. You just looked a little lonesome way back there. Why don't y'all introduce yerself?"

"Oh! Well... I'm a student of Starswirl the Bearded. You may not know of him, but he's an advisor to the King on matters of magic and science."

Smart Cookie laughed out loud. "I bet the King ain't takin' much of anyone's advice these days."

"In his compromised mental state, Princess Platinum has taken over his duties. She's practically the Queen already, in everything but official title until the King passes on."

"So you're connected all the way to the top, huh?"

"Not really. The Princess seems to think that shmoozing with the nobles is more important than dealing with the problems our kingdom faces. She has no interest in our magical research."

"Unfortunately, things ain't that much better with the Earth ponies." said Smart Cookie. "Puddinghead ain't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed."

"Puddinghead?"

"The Chancellor. Just a little nickname we all give him on account of he loves to stuff his face with pudding. He ain't nothin' but a unicorn puppet. He don't care one bit about us regular Earth ponies. Not as long as the unicorns keep him rich and fat."

Clover nodded. Despite Cookie's words harshly criticizing the unicorns, she knew enough about the political situation to see that it was all the truth, and she could never be truly offended by honesty.

They approached a guarded checkpoint on the outskirts of Unicornia. Two pegasus guards approached them, spears at the ready. Smart Cookie stopped in her tracks. Clover followed. She hadn't traveled outside of Unicornia before and had no knowledge of what to do at border crossings, so she decided to remain silent and follow Smart Cookie's lead.

"State your business." the guard said brusquely.

"Returning from this week's food shipment." said Cookie.

The other guard flew behind the wagon and motioned for one of the ponies to open it. He looked around inside, then nodded to the first guard.

"Never seen you leave in the morning before." said the first guard, eyeing both Clover and Cookie suspiciously. "And what business does a unicorn have in your company?"

Clover began to speak. "I have a..."

The pegasus guard shot her a nasty look that silenced her. "I was not addressing you. The Earth pony will answer my question."

Cookie shifted nervously. "I don't rightly know. All she said was that she had a message for the Chancellor."

The pegasus looked back at Clover. "And what message would that be?"

Clover opened her mouth, but wasn't entirely sure whether she should answer or not.

"Hey! I'm talking to you! Answer the question!" said the pegasus impatiently.

Unprepared for the sudden interrogation, she stumbled over her words. "Oh... I... uh... my message is... welll.. we have to discuss the effect of the current weather on... uh... food shipments. From Palomino. To Unicornia."

"Well, just watch yourself." said the pegasus, apparently not even interested in her answer. "The roads are dangerous. Earth pony bandits are on the rise."

The pegasus guard turned back to Cookie. "We expect the unicorn back by next week's food shipment. Do you understand?"

Cookie nodded, and the guards let them pass.

"Are they always like that?" asked Clover when they were out of earshot.

"Yup. Well, a little worse today. I guess they don't see a unicorn travelin' with Earth ponies all that much."

They traveled for several hours along a snow-covered trail down the side of the mountain. As they traveled, Clover could clearly feel that the wind was picking up. Her cloak kept her warm enough, but she wondered if it would get worse. An hour later, fresh snow began to fall. She could now feel the wind even through her cloak. And on top of that, her legs began to ache. She began to breathe heavily and strained to move.

"You okay there?" asked Cookie.

"I'm great!" Clover responded with a fake smile.

Cookie giggled. "For a moment there I thought you were one o' them hoity toity noble unicorns who can't handle a good day's walk."

"Me? No! Definitely not! I'm totally comfortable."

Cookie rolled her eyes. Clover put her hoof to her face, and took in a deep breath. "All right! I'm tired and my legs are sore. Can I just ride on the wagon for a bit?"

"Honestly, I'm surprised you made it this far. Don't be embarrased or nothin'."

Clover crawled on top of the wagon, and let her aching muscles rest. Before she knew it, her eyes were closing, and she drifted off to sleep.

She was jolted awake when the wagon came to an abrupt stop. She rubbed her eyes and looked around to see what was the matter.

The wagon was surrounded on all sides by Earth ponies wearing dark cloaks, swords in their mouths. In an instant she knew that they were bandits.

Comments

[Regidar]

This idea... I like it!'
media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdqightXBN1rw5vzj.gif

[N8C8XX]

I defiantly will come back to this.

[Hydraex2]

I like this!

I give it a lick.