Beginnings
Looking out of the window, Clover still had a hard time believing what she was seeing. A short while ago it would have been unthinkable for earth ponies, pegasi or unicorns to get together under any kind of pleasant circumstances. And now, here they were, working together. She watched as unicorns used their magic to help lift the planks of wood, rising them high for the pegasi to take hold and fly over to the tops of the new houses. And once there the earth ponies took possession of them, getting to work with that famed building skill they had. All three tribes, united as one. It was a dream the young mage never thought she'd see in her lifetime, and certainly not in the lifetime of her mentor. A small came to her as she considered that bearded old stallion she cared for so much, but the smile faded when she remembered too that she was unlikely to see him again. Still, there was more important things to see to besides dwelling on the past, and so she turned to look upon the meeting hall she was in. It was nothing special, just a newly-made bare room with a large table in the middle, but she had no time to criticise, as a voice could be heard from the next room over. "Alright then, let's get to it!"
The door opened, and after just a moment five others entered. Clover moved forward to go to the table, keeping her eyes on all who came here. Princess platinum, representative of the unicorn king, the one to whom she was personally in the service of. Commander Hurricane, fearless leader of the pegasi, dutifully followed by the significantly less confident Private Pansy. Last, but certainly not least, there was Chancellor Puddinghead, accompanied by her secretary, Smart Cookie. All took their respective places at the table, allowing a few seconds of silence before finally speaking up. And by speak up, that of course meant all three leaders trying to be the first to speak at the same time, as per usual. Realising this, they silenced themselves all at once, eying each other to try and wait for the right moment to speak again. This, naturally, occurred several more times, until finally, and with much exasperation, Clover cleared her throat, gaining the attention of all others. "If we're struggling just to decide who speaks first at these meetings, we'll never get anything done."
All the others knew she was right and so, after looking somewhat sheepish for a moment or two, the first of them, Commander Hurricane, took off her helmet, setting it on the table before looking over to her fellow heads of state. "Alright then. How's the exodus coming along?"
Puddinghead beamed as she pointed to the window Clover had been looking out of earlier. "Going pretty great, friend! After we sent scrolls back to the old land, all of our people started flooding into this new place! I mean, sure, it took a while, but hey, that's what we get when we've only just figured out the route to get here."
Smart Cookie arched an eyebrow as she looked to her leader. "Ma'am, with respect, I think that's more a case o' yer maps not bein' too...well...good."
Puddinghead gasped at her aide. "I'll have you know my maps are wonderfully made! I just, you know, ran out of crayons for a few bits."
All of them had to resist the urge to roll their eyes, and as such Princess Platinum, in a desperate bid to change the subject, added her voice to the matter. "Well, I'm sure they'll appreciate all the space this new land has. And speaking of which, mayhaps it would be best if we started sending out scouts to survey our new home?"
Hurricane took on a somewhat smug look. "Way ahead of you there, Princess." She gave a quick nod to her subordinate, and Pansy quickly stepped closer, producing what appeared to be a large piece of rolled-up parchment. Hurricane took it, unfolding it upon the table with all the other ponies eagerly looking to see what it was. Instantly, they recognised it as a map, with lots of crudely-written notes about various nearby geographical features like mountains, rivers and so on. Getting up from her seat, Hurricane placed her hoof squarely on the middle of it. "My scouts are good at their job, and they've been out there trying to see just how far it goes since they got here."
The Princess looked up to her pegasi counterpart with curiosity. "And their verdict?"
Even Hurricane looked awed by the answer she gave moments later. "Big. And I mean really big. Just to give an idea..." Pansy gave her a second, smaller parchment, and after unrolling it the Commander placed it just to the side of the larger map. All could see it was a map of their old homeland, and they recognised too that it was utterly dwarfed by the land they now inhabited. A quick glance would even have this new domain as being at least ten times the size of where they'd come from, and that was just the parts they knew of. "So to answer your curiosity, it's this big," Hurricane concluded.
"Still miss our old home though," Pansy quietly said to herself. Before long she realised that all the rest were looking to her, half-surprised by her words, prompting her to seem hesitant about it all of a sudden. "Oh! Not that I'm saying it was wrong for us to leave or anything. It was all too cold for us after all. It's just...it was home."
Unsurprisingly, words like those created a shared sense of wistfulness among the six, with Sweet Cookie slowly nodding in agreement. "Yeah...it's sad ta see it go." A small smile came to her. "Ah remember this one tree outside our family home. Used ta play on it when ah were a yung'un." She sighed. "Guess...ponies won't climb up it no more."
Clover felt that loss herself, remembering well all the days she'd spend reading her beloved books back in the old castle study, or going out into the countryside to seek out rare herbs for her latest potion experiments. They were good memories, and now tainted by the more recent memory of those same places now covered in eternal ice and snow. So, after taking a deep breath, she tapped her hoof on the edge of the table, causing the others to look in her direction. "Every pony who has come here has lost home, even family. We will miss, we will mourn...but we must also move forward. We cannot change was was done to the old homeland. Our strife sealed its fate, and even our recent reconciliation can't wind back that clock. The best thing we can do for our people is make them feel that this new life, this new land, will provide just as much happiness as what we came from."
Puddinghead bashed her own hoof on the table. "Hear-hear! That's the spirit!" Then her face lit up with excitement. "Oooh! How about a celebration! A big festival to mark the occasion of us all coming here?"
Platinum seemed enamoured by that idea. "Indeed! One does so miss the great balls and banquets of the old kingdom. To bring such festivities to our new home would be just the thing to get the people in a cheerier mood."
But Commander Hurricane seemed sceptical. "No tot douse the enthusiasm or anything, but a party of that size isn't going to be easy. First and foremost, we'll need food, and in case you haven't noticed we weren't exactly in a position to bring that many supplies with us from home." She grimaced. "Not that there was much in the way of food for us to bring in the first place of course."
Puddinghead waved her off though. "Pfft! There's no trouble there, Commander! We earth ponies have got you covered!"
Smart Cookie stepped forward, giving an agreeing nod to her leader before looking to the Commander herself. "It's true. Since we got here our farmers have been lookin' through the ground. They swear they've never seen such good tillin' soil before. Heck, we've already got some crops on the way. More than enough fer all o' us!"
Clover perked up after hearing that. "That's good news. After all the hunger we had to go through before, it's nice to know our new home can provide for us."
Upon hearing those particular words, Princess Platinum started to look somewhat less excited about the whole affair, as though her mind were dwelling on some other point. As the other delegates continued discussing the as-yet unmade party, she continued to gather her thoughts until, at long last, she spoke. "Clover, if I may ask...are they gone?" As soon as she saw her trusted second look to her, she continued. "The Windigos. Are the gone, truly?"
Once more, Clover found herself the focus of everypony's attention, and alas, it was for something she did not have a satisfying answer for. "I wish I could say that they were. Goodness knows they gave us enough grief. But the truth...is that there is a chance they may return someday." She frowned. "They'll always exist, even as incorporeal spirits. But if strife flares up between our peoples again, they will return, as powerful as they were when we last saw them."
Pansy smiled to her. "Well that's alright then. Ponies are all friends with each other now. There's no chance we'll just slip back into fighting after all we suffered from it."
Though she too smiled at the sentiment, for Smart Cookie it was a more short-lived feeling. "Ah wish that were the case, sugarcube. But the thing is...we don't know if that'll last forever. Sure, we're all good now, but what about tomorrow? Or next year? There's no guarantee ponies will stay good with each other all the way down the line. One day...we may split again. An' if what Clover says is true, we'll just be right back in the same ole mess we were before."
It was an unpleasant thought, nopony could deny that, but neither could they deny the truth of it. Though Puddinghead, bringing her voice to a whisper, certainly seemed to want to. "Um, maybe try not to bring the room down quite so much, Cookie?"
But Clover raised her hoof, showing to all her intention to speak next. "No, she's right. We need to do all we can to foster friendship between our peoples, not just for today, but for the future. Our plans here in this room are a good start, but we have to do more, and for a long time. We owe it..." Her ears drooped. "To all who fell."
There was a solemn round of nods after that, with all in agreement that they simply could not allow a repeat of the ordeal their people had just gone through. But then, before even a single other word was said, their meeting was suddenly interrupted by the opening of the chamber door. All turned to see that it was a young stallion, an earth pony, panting heavily before looking around the room to settle on Clover. "Apologies, Lady Clover."
Clover nodded to him. "It's alright, friend. What news?"
Composing himself, the new stallion started speaking more calmly. "You wanted to be kept abreast of strange rumours and murmurings, and I recently heard one. Word has it that some of the ponies sent out to find suitable settling land to the east have, well...started forgetting things? Others were sent after them and they found them with no idea of who they were or what they were doing there."
Platinum couldn't help but smirk as she looked to her closest friend. "Seems strange goings-on are just as prevalent here as they were back home. You'll investigate this, I assume?"
Raising her hood over her head, Clover gave a firm nod. "My mentor is gone, so for now...I suppose it's my responsibility to keep up his duties to safeguard us against malevolent forces. Continue the meeting without me." She turned to the messenger. "Lead the way."
The stallion nodded, and both he and Clover began to run out of the chambers, leaving the remaining mares looking rather nonplussed about it all. After a while, Puddinghead gave a quick shrug. "Well, looks like Equestria's gonna be a pretty interesting place to live alright."
Hurricane chuckled. "Oh, I don't think that was ever in question."