Seven days had passed since the Miracle at Canter Pass and eight since the Pact of Strangeness, or simply the Strange Pact. With tensions cooling, all ponies unhappy with the tribes living together made the unspoken agreement to put up with one another, at least for now. Since then, mares and stallions alike had begun the long process of turning their camp into the foundation of a new town, if not a city; which, of course, required a steady supply of lumber from the nearby forests.

Out of cautious or respect for Discord's territory, the ponies decided to take the forest to the east first rather than the south. And it was here that a mixed bag of equines did their daily toil, cutting down the trees to fasten them into building material.

An earth stallion named Jack Lumber whipped his brown brow as he finished sawing one side of a tree trunk flat. A noise drew his attention away from his work, glancing over his coworkers as another tree came down. There were a good three dozen stallions mixed in with a few of the stronger mares, divided among eight different trees.

Jackbar, as his friends called him, had no trouble with the pegasi. He was no soldier and had no family grudge with the flying equines. They helped make the trees fall the right way, kept the skies clear for work and their knowledge of weapons transferred well to most tools for this job. An honest day's work would have these and another set of logs done.

It was the unicorns he couldn't help taking issue with. It wasn't hard to guess why, looking down the line towards where the horned ponies worked. Two pairs of unicorns worked on two logs, each duo doing the work of a half-dozen ponies, their horns cutting down and sculpting the wood much faster than the other groups and with much less effort. While heavy "physical" lifting wasn't a natural talent for the race of mages, their levitation and teleportation spells took care of most disadvantages.

The other groups could saw and whittle with all their hearts, but unless one of them had an outright talent for woodwork, the unicorns would always be a bit ahead of them.

It was easy to see how these proud magic users were so easy to detest, the earth pony thought with a scowl.

*Plop!*

Jackbar and his team jumped back from the tree trunk as it suddenly "opened" like it was a case opening long ways with the "top" lifting high into the air. The wood cutting ponies all stared as a green mane with blue strips poked out, followed by a snow coated mare.

Lily Frost looked around for a second. "Ah, close enough," she decided casually as she stepped out, her cloak doing nothing to hide the collar on her neck. With a simple kick from a hind leg, the log closed shut without a seam to be seen. Charming as ever, she smiled at the workers. "Carry on, just a mare passing through. Sorry to disturb your work," she greeted, trotting off without another care in the world.

"...Jack, was that Her?" another stallion asked curiously.

"Yeah, yeah I'd say so, Brun Broc. That's the Mare of Discord, Lily Frost," Jack answered with a mystified tone, never taking his wide eyes off the retreating figure, heading west towards town.

"She certainly seems happy with things," Brun noted with some level of lecherous jealousy.

"...Let's get back to work," Jack murmured.

Meanwhile

"Well, you're in a much better mood."

"Oh, bite me, Lumen," Clover said, unable to keep a smile off her snout as she walked with the noble unicorn through the growing town of partially constructed frameworks for homes.

It was decided that there would be four government buildings: One for each race, all relatively near the shared fourth in the middle. It was designed as a mutual sign of unity, that they wouldn't just divide the settlement into one section for each species. It was also for trust, making it difficult for any one tribe to attempt an attack on another tribe's seat of power and impossible without alerting the third. Of course, the current priority was creating housing for all the ponies.

"I believe that is outside my range of interests," Lumen returned with a tug upwards on his lip. "But in all seriousness, Silkdial was worried when you stormed off a few days ago. You and Starswirl don't normally fight."

"Oh, I'm still mad at him," Clover informed with an eye roll.

"You still think he's wrong about that?" Lumen asked discretely, visibly concerned for her.

"Oh, he's right, Count, but for all the wrong reasons."

Both of them turned to see familiar manes of red and green coming their way. "Look what the Chimera dragged in," Silkdial remarked with a smirk as she motioned to her fellow mare.

"Lily Frost, it's good to see you again," Count Lumen addressed with a smile, raising a polite eyebrow at her collar. "I'm almost certain that is your idea."

"Guilty! But he enjoys it," Lily answered with a grin.

"I'm cautiously curious about how that all works," Silk grumbled as she glanced away.

"Oh, probably less complicated and more interesting than you're imagining," Clover remarked dryly as she smiled at the returning sacrifice. "Hello, Lily. Glad to speak with you again," she commented knowingly.

"Clover, any interesting news to deliver to your senior?" Lily asked greedily.

"You're not even a year older than me," Clover reminded flatly as she rolled her eyes. "Princess Platinum has settled down with King Bullion here to keep an eye on things and her. Chancellor Puddinghead is busy with Smart Cookie figuring out what crops to grow and where to set them up in the future-"

"How is the poor thing?" Lily interrupted in concern.

"...The good kind of burying herself in her work? She's not trying to forget or ignore what happened, I just think she's trying to move on. I think he helped with that," Clover stated uncertainly

"I'm fairly sure," Lily agreed with a relieved smile before glancing at the bemused faces of Silk and Lumen. "So, has our dear Count invested in any Silk yet?" she teased.

"We did it one time!" Silk shot back instantly as Lumen sighed.

"Obviously not," Clover affirmed with a helpless shrug. "Buuuut, I know that the Commander IS busy with Pansy. A lot."

"...When you say busy...?" Lumen questioned with a scrunched brow.

"I think both meanings apply," Clover confessed with a light blush.

"Business and pleasure. I approve," Lily said cheekily.

"I still can't believe you didn't at least get a better cloak before coming back," Clover remarked, eyeing the Mare of Discord's old brown cloak.

"Clover, do I look like some prettied up royal pet?" Lily asked blankly.

"...You're saying this while wearing a collar...?" Silk questioned under her breath.

"Well, not right now while in the pony," Clover jabbed with a smirk.

Lily kept her face for a moment before bursting into snickers. Silkdial and Lumen traded confused looks, but they didn't question it.

"In any case, it looks like the town is coming along nicely," Lily remarked as they started walking again.

"It'll still be a while," Silkdial remarked cynically. "Even with everypony working together, which they're not, wattle and daub can only be made and dried so fast."

Lily hummed, pretending not to notice how more and more ponies were staring at her with varied emotions.

"That said, Smart Cookie is very happy with the progress. With any luck, the necessities for Fundony's future will be dealt with before the fall, let alone winter," Clover explained, everypony shuddering a little bit at the prospect of winter again, and all the terrible Windigo-based memories that brought up.

"Fundony?" Lily repeated as she raised an amused eyebrow.

"The name some have taken to calling it: The town marking the founding of a unified pony nation," Lumen supplied.

"You think the creatures of the world will ever stop using their species in their place-naming conventions?" Silkdial asked dryly.

"Probably not, mostly," Clover answered thoughtfully. "After all, it's an easy way to establish what settlement belongs to what race and it's not like it's hard to modify most names to fit a change in ownership. Like all the places founded by Alecater the Great: Alecatria, Alecoltria and Aleclawria," she listed off.

"Regardless, Discord will love it, I'm sure," Lily commented fondly, ignoring how several ponies stopped what they were doing; Some glaring or just staring at her and others doing the same to the groups eyeing her.

Lumen and Silkdial shifted a bit at that, an awkward silence coming over the group.

"That bad, eh?" Lily Frost questioned, unphased by the atmosphere but not smiling anymore.

"I wouldn't say bad," Clover spoke up without worry. "Come on, camp's just up here."

Lily almost laughed as she realized that the Royal Tent, shared by the leaders of all three factions, hadn't been moved. In fact, it was right in the large and guarded circle in the middle of the construction, closed off by humble and thin walls of wood. It was more marking for the space than an actual defense; A space that would be the future sight of the building for inter-tribal meetings. To her approval and no doubt Discord's, the guards stationed around were a mixture of earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi.

Their groups stood in front of the entrance, four steely eyed guards looking them over. Two were bronze armored earth ponies, flanked by a pegasus and a unicorn in similar dark grey and silver armor respectively.

As advisor to the Unicorn Princess and three members of Asterordo, being granted entry should have been a given, more or less.

"They're expecting you. Welcome back, Lily Frost," The pegasus greeted with a small, barely there smile as his compatriots nodded. All of them glanced at Lily, or her collar, but that was beyond being a given.

"Hold!"

They all stopped in surprise as they turned and saw the approaching figure of a blue pegasus soldier, with half his face covered in scars.

Lily couldn't help smiling slyly if she wanted to as the stallion marched up towards them with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Lieutenant Rolls Arcus," Clover greeted awkwardly as he stood just outside of what could be considered personal space..

'The Ugly Lieutenant,' Lily remembered in amusement.

He didn't look at her, keeping his gaze firmly on Lily, who waited patiently as he turned to the guardponies. "I need to have a word with this one," he spoke with finality.

Lily was pleasantly surprised by the scowls he got for his effort. "That's entirely at her discretion, Lieutenant," one of the earth ponies answered evenly.

"Are you defying me, Soldier?" Arcus questioned icily, despite his tone never changing.

"Lieutenant," Lumen spoke up with a scowl, the pegasus sub-commander turning his ire on the horned stallion. "I'm very sure you're aware that the Centracustos of Fundony does not answer to you, only the Commander, the King and the Chancellor," he reminded firmly.

"This does not concern you, High Horn," Arcus retorted, glancing to the silent pegasus guard that was pretending to ignore him.

"Oh really?" Arcus visibly twitched at the condescending voice, as a dark grey pegasus stepped out of the encampment. "Cause, if it doesn't concern Asterordo, it must concern just the Mare of Discord."

"Private Gust," Arcus addressed reluctantly as the guards all briefly saluted Gust.

"Warrant Officer Gust, actually," Gust informed with a touch of smugness. "Turns out, socking you in the snout got me nominated to be in charge of organizing this mixed division to guard our leaders."

"I should have had you flayed and imprisoned," Arcus retorted, glaring death at the offending pegasus.

"And break tradition?" Gust retorted daringly as the group of unicorns watched him curiously…or, in Lily's case, approval. "Or are you actually going to say I didn't deserve that?"

Arcus's ire seemed to quell a little there. "No, Pigeon Role applied," he admitted, something close to regret passing over his eyes. "Regardless, Warrant Officer, your temporary authority here doesn't overwrite mine in desiring to question this mare, as she is outside your grounds still."

"I don't think you're actually allowed to take in anyone that isn't a pegasus though," Clover commented in a half-hearted, observant tone as she scratched her chin.

"Then it is fortunate I am not detaining her, merely questioning her nearby," Arcus remarked pointedly, almost making Clover wince…almost.

"You'd be right," Gust continued civilly. "BUT! She's expected inside, now, and she technically doesn't fall under any of our jurisdiction," he informed.

"I'm not sure I follow," Arcus admitted with a raised eyebrow.

"He's stating, Lieutenant," Lily spoke up as she trotted up beside the Warrant Officer, "That I don't belong to any of the three tribes now. I belong to Discord. Meaning that, as far as the laws are concerned, I'm essentially a visiting dignitary from the Strangelands."

Arcus stared at her, as if willing her head to be severed, before glancing back to Gust for confirmation. "That about sums it up, yeah," Gust admitted with a shrug.

The scarred pegasus stood his ground for a moment longer before turning to walk away.

"Well, that was unpleasant," Silkdial remarked with a sigh of relief.

"Good to see you've healed up, Gustzilla," Lily Frost remarked.

"Save the teasing for...whatever you call Lord Discord in private," Gust requested with a good natured eye roll before motioning the unicorns inside the walls.

"Thank you for the assistance, Um, Warrant Officer?" Lumen repeated questioningly as they were led in.

"Means I'm in charge until Hurricane says I'm not," Gust explained with a smirk. "And it's our pleasure to make Arcus's day a bit worse when possible."

"I see the table is still here," Lily commented curiously, seeing the table that every official meeting with Discord had taken place at.

"We think he made it immobile...and possible indestructible," Clover commented sheepishly before turning to Gust. "You struck the Lieutenant?"

"Pigeon Role," Gust repeated with a touch of malice. "Your commanding officer ever sends you on a suicide mission or leaves you to die for whatever reason and you make it back alive? You are allowed to hit them, just once, in the face without consequence."

"I like this tradition," Silkdial said with a surprisingly pleased look.

"Is that really okay?" Clover asked in concern as they reached the tent.

"Well, I don't know about you wingless types, but it's made even pegasi of the worst sort hesitate to just discard their subordinates," Gust answered cheekily as he held the tent open for them.

The horned quartet found themselves in a large open middle of the tent with three areas, one on either side and one in the back, where each leader was welcome to stay. In the middle was a large, circular table with a hollow center. A more blatant attempt to wordlessly show equality, Lily wasn't aware of. By the empty plates being taken away, it was used for both meals and discussions. Along the fabric walls of the tent were more guards, standing vigilantly.

"Ahh, Clover, Asterordo, good of you to make it," King Bullion greeted amicably from the chair closest to the rear of the tent, his eyes shifting to Lily. "I see Discord finally let you off your leash for a while," he commented in jest.

"You make it sound like I was given a choice, King Bullion. Poor thing practically had to push me out the door," Lily Frost retorted charmingly.

"Of that, I have no doubt," Clover muttered before turning to the guards stationed at the two side-sections. "Could you both inform the others we're here?"

"Don't bother, we heard," Starswirl said with a yawn as he exited with Princess Platinum, along with a few scrolls. "I am never going to readjust to these living hours," he remarked with a scowl as he blinked some sleep out of his eyes.

"For once, I am in agreement with you," Platinum commented as she sat by her father.

"Not our fault you slept five hours in the day and another five at night," Silkdial remarked to unicorn sorcerer.

"Haha, Silk," Starswirl murmured as he cleared his eyes and blinked, going even faced. "Clover," he greeted neutrally.

"Starswirl," Clover returned in the same tone.

"Sarded," Lily stated blankly with a raised hoof.

Platinum face-hoofed in response to that as her father chuckled, while Starswirl turned to her in surprise. "Ahh, that was you I heard Lily. Happy to see you back, I suppose, but we really didn't need to know that."

"I was referring to the master-student relationship between you and Clover," Lily corrected, getting a grunt and scowl from Starswirl. "But also yes. And I'm not the only ones," she added on, looking to Hurricane coming to the table.

"I haven't the slightest idea what you mean," Hurricane retorted bluntly.

"And Pansy isn't resting in your room?" Clover asked blankly, before covering her mouth with wide eyes as everypony stared at her.

"I taught you so well," Lily whispered with a giggle to Clover's groaning dismay

"You took your time to get here, Lily Frost," Hurricane commented to change the subject.

"You knew she was here?" Platinum questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"One of the pegasi guarding the logging teams reported her return," he answered, eyes still on Lily.

"Yes, well, new town and all that," Lily Frost commented as Puddinghead came out of her section, "Which I hear is...your aide's...doing?" Lily trailed off as she and everypony else gave the Chancellor odd looks…namely for the saddlebag on her side overflowing and overstuffed with scrolls.

"...Smart Cookie is horrid at keeping her work organized when she's planning," Puddinghead explained with a sigh, getting sounds of understanding.

"Really? She seemed pretty tidy to me, Chancellor," Clover commented curiously.

"She organizes it after she's done, just not in the process," the leader of the Earth ponies stated tiredly. "And she's the only one that can sort her messes out in a timely manner."

"Times like this, I deeply appreciate being able to live in cloud houses," Gust commented wryly.

"Warrant Officer, is there something to report or did you feel the urge to escort them here for no reason?" Hurricane asked evenly.

"Commander," Gust saluted in respect. "Your PiC wanted to have...words with Lady Lily Frost here," he explained professionally.

"...PiC?" Lily Frost asked curiously.

"Problem-in-Command."

Lily Frost jumped as the answer was said in sync by the Commander, the Princess, the King, Gust, the Chancellor, Starswirl, and a few of the guards.

"...Coming from a mare that has spent the last week in the very private company of Lord Discord, let it be known, that was disturbing," Lily Frost commented in bewilderment.

"Speaking of whom, when is he arriving?" Puddinghead asked curiously.

Lily regained her cool and smiled mysteriously. "My dear stallions and mares...what makes you think he is not already among us?" she asked ominously.

Everypony went very still and very silent at that. As if avoiding a predator, they all began to slowly study their surroundings without making a sound. The guards all glanced at one another, trying to remember if they remembered that soldier standing next to them this whole time. Starswirl took it upon himself to look inside his hat while Lumen looked inside his cloak. Puddinghead tapped her saddlebag and Platinum looked ready to jump away in panic. Hurricane just scowled as he looked over everyp-

"Commander, you forgot your helmet!"

Everypony snapped their head to the side door and saw Private Pansy standing there with the piece of armor in hoof. She seemed to shrink away nervously as the eyes all stared at her.

"...Oh please, merciful sard, no," Hurricane commented, suddenly looking green.

"That's not Lord Discord, Commander," Gust informed with a small, easy going smirk. He blinked as everyone gave him pointed looks. "I'm not him either!"

"Then how do you know that, soldier?" King Bullion asked curiously.

"He's this beam right next to me," Gust answered, tapping the wooden support structure twice.

"Hey, watch the merchandise!" Discord scolded as the beam twisted, or rather untwisted, with the sound of a kazoo and shrunk to reveal the Draconequus himself. Several guards moved to avoid his tail as he took flight, while Hurricane took a breath of relief and Platinum seemed to revel in the Commander's lost stoicism.

"What happened?" Pansy whispered to a relieved Hurricane, who attempted to wave her off while gratefully taking his helmet as she reluctantly went back to rest.

Discord eyed the grey pegasus curiously, fiddling with his beard. "How the blazing apeiron did you figure that out?"

Gust shrugged casually. "I've had to stand watch in here a few times with nothing better to do than count little things: colors, nicks in the table, rocks, how many beams there are."

"I'll have to keep an eye on you, Gustzilla," Discord remarked thoughtfully before grinning at the rest. "Hope you didn't all miss me too much!"

"I did!" Lily answered cheekily amongst the sea of blank stares and eye rolls.

"Of course you did, Lily," he acknowledged playfully, ruffling her hair and pulling a blue and green candy cane from said mane. "So, how goes the town founding?" he inquired knowingly.

"You already know everything, don't you?" Platinum questioned in annoyance.

"No, but I can guess a lot of it, but guesswork doesn't build nations," Discord remarked sagely before looking thoughtful as he peeled off the blue strand of the candy cane and began to slurp it off like it was noddle, "Well, it can, just not a good lasting one."

"Right...," Puddinghead acknowledged with a sigh, wondering if the treat was tasty or not. "Well, the first houses will be done within a week from today. If everything goes according to plan, everypony should have a roof over their heads in three months."

'Considering Pegasi can make cloud houses very easily, they're probably only making houses for the earth ponies and unicorns,' Discord mentally deduced, keeping most of the boredom off his face.

"They won't be great roofs, but they'll get through winter," Hurricane noted, apparently choosing to ignore the blue noodle's existence even as Discord finished slurping it up. "Our food supply, plus what we can gather on the land so far, should last until crops are properly established."

"Ponies, nearly half of my chaos is edible," Discord admitted with a deadpan, dropping the now only green treat back on and into Lily Frost's mane. "If hungry bellies become an issue, collect snacks from my lands."

"...No offence, but is it all entirely...healthy?" Puddinghead inquired cautiously.

"I'd say hearty, but yes, it's safe to consume as Lily will attest to," Discord informed, patting his tail on the withers of Lily, who nodded in answer while showing off her barrel for good show.

"Duly noted, Lord Discord. Luckily, a majority of our own is winter crops we've been using to survive the Windigos," Puddinghead mused tiredly.

"Which means onions, carrots, potatoes, spinach and similar crops," Lumen remarked with a groan from Platinum, Gust and Silkdial.

"Three weeks of nothing but carrots can't be good for you, I just know it," Silk muttered, rubbing her eyes.

'I know an ironically named hare that would beg to differ in about a dozen centuries,' Discord thought with a roll of his brain. Even if only he knew that happened, he still enjoyed it.

"Let's just say that our having an independent food supply is an achievable goal, with hopes for diversification and we have a fall back if needed," Bullion remarked diplomatically. "Unfortunately, we have a long term issue that isn't political, per say."

"I was wondering when we'd get to these," Discord mused as he hovered about, relatively eye level with the seated ponies. "What is it, holidays, monster issues? I think I would have sensed a disease outbreak."

"No, those aren't problems yet," Hurricane stated with a sigh. "The issue is currency or lack thereof."

"Oh..." Discord paused and realized what they meant. 'Oh, right. Earth ponies just barter everything, Unicorn trade gems by rough estimated value and pegasi don't even have a bucking economy. They build stuff out of clouds for Magic's sake and have a few specialists to deal with metal in their armor and weapons. Earth ponies give food to both tribes, while pegasi worked as protection and weather control, and unicorn used their magic to keep the days going and deal with miscellaneous issues their magic made easy. A conceptually sound but really shaky trade agreement that would have never lasted long term,' Discord thought to himself as he absently summoned his throne at the spot nearest the entrance, taking his seat with Lily dutifully moving to stand at his left.

All the leaders raised their heads and eyebrows at this, except Platinum who scowled ever so slightly. Silk and Lumen blinked at the change in mood, while Clover and Starswirl just looked on, curious of the God's intention.

'Celestia didn't get the whole Gold Bit thing in full swing until after Nightmare Moon, thanks to building the money hole known as Canterlot. Before that they bartered, and traded in gemstones. Buck, their own horseshoes sometimes! But, again, my mismatched prints are on that one. After my Reign of Chaos, ponykind's priorities were rewritten, at least for a while. Stability and cooperation took over in a desperate need to return things to normalcy. I wiped even the money-slate clean. In fairness, I was insulted by them trying to bribe me at the time,' Discord mused to himself, appearing deep in thought as a wry smile came on his face. 'Of course...the Gold Bit wasn't Celestia's idea. Not originally.'

"Clover, you're a clever mare invested into the preservation of this fine union and seem to be enjoying the taste of your own lip," Discord commented, glancing out of the corner of his eyes at the mare in question, who suddenly ceased biting her lip as all attention was brought to her. "Would you like to take the stage?" he offered, teleporting her into the center of the table.

"Me?" Clover asked in surprise as everypony looked curious at this change in speaker.

Except Starswirl, who shrugged, "I'm still your Master in magic, but I will freely admit that politicking and nation building aren't in my hat of tricks," he admitted freely. Arguments or not, he wasn't going to deny he had a student brilliant in more than one subject.

"If you have a suggestion, Lady Clover, you have our ears," Puddinghead encouraged, having heard fond things of this mare from Smart Cookie.

Clover squirmed a bit under Hurricane's expectant stare, but ultimately took a breath to calm herself. "As you all know, gems can be a bit cumbersome to deal with due to being heavy and in massively variates in size and shapes. A failed reform of Queen Gultha was to instill a gold-based money system to supplement our gem-central economy."

"Yes, yes, and it was shut down by her wiser brother, King Aurum," Platinum reminded with a scowl.

'Hehe, Celly and Lulu's precedent for a diarchy. Granted, those two co-ruled because the older one was infertile. Which was that again? I think I was dealing with the dragons around then,' Discord wondered in his head.

"Princess, you are well aware that it is a common misconception that King Aurum ended his co-ruler's policies because he disagreed with them," Clover reminded with a polite but stern tone.

"True enough, Clover," King Bullion interjected curiously. "But my ancestors did cease the project due to not having enough gold in the mines to properly keep up with the value of gems," he pointed out.

"Which brings us back to the issue of an inevitable Unicorn Plutocracy," Hurricane pointed out with a deep breath, almost like a sigh without losing his composer.

Platinum raised an eyebrow. "I am honestly impressed you have knowledge of that word, Commander, given your lack of economy," she praised honestly.

"I'm honestly surprised that word exists already," Discord commented in idle interest. "History and vocabulary aside, you were saying, Clover?"

"Thank you, Lord Discord," Clover nodded to him in appreciation. "This is true, the current value of gems versus gold leaves much to be desired. Which means either getting a lot more gold or..." Clover paused for dramatic effect. "A cheapening of gems."

"Bahaha!"

The sharp laugh came not from the unicorn princess but from the pegasus Commander, who smirked with a snort as all eyes rested on him. "Pardon my outburst, but I refuse to believe that you unicorns would ever willingly devalue your precious stones," Hurricane commented knowingly.

"I'm afraid I must agree. No offense, King Bullion, but your ponies are strangely attached to them," Puddinghead commented warily.

"None taken. More to point, I could never justify such an edict. The nobles would be in open rebellion for robbing them of their wealth in a roundabout way," Bullion replied knowingly.

"Forgive me, My King, but I never said anything about you lowering the value of gems," Clover informed with a knowing tone.

Everyone went still at that, in utter confusion mostly. "I hope you're not implying that...another power is seeking to hold such a ruling over our heads?" Platinum asked pointedly while intentionally not looking towards their landlord.

Discord scowled. So did Lily. He probably should attach her leash to his throne from now on, just in case.

"No, Princess, nothing like that. What I believe will lessen the value of gems is the same thing that made them so precious in the first place: The Law of Scarcity," Clover informed sagely. "Master, could you please cast the Miner's Sight spell?"

"What are you playing at?" Starswirl wondered suspiciously. Getting no answer, he shrugged while his horn lit up. Pointing it at the ground, a golden and circular outline formed on the floor, just big enough for a pair of fillies to stand on. "Now, let's see wh- HOLY MAGICAL STAFF SARDING WINDEGOS IN A VOLCANO HAT!" he exclaimed, causing several ponies to lean back in surprise. He looked up, right at Discord. "Did You Do This?!"

"It's been like that for over a century now," Discord answered with an eye roll, absently writing that down mentally. 'Volcano Hat, eh? I can work with that.'

"Starswirl, whatever are you babbling about now?" Platinum asked in exasperation.

Starswirl looked between her, his viewing portal and Discord several times before his eye twitched. "Sard it all!" he exclaimed shooting another beam of magic at the circle, expanding it across the whole floor.

"Beards, I will stab you if we start to fall through!" Gust warned as it spread under his hooves, encompassing most of the ground within the main part of the tent.

Bullion, Platinum, Lumen and Starswirl continued to stare with slack jaws at the floor, while everypony else looked confused. Minus an amused Lily Frost, bored Discord and a proud Clover.

The light brown of the earth swirled into a darker, almost mud like color. And dotting said brown was dozens upon dozens of glowing orbs…all different sizes, many different colors and several overlapping each other. It was like a beautiful light show.

"For those of us not in the know, what is this?" Silkdial inquired, annoyed at being the only unicorn not grasping what was going on.

"It's a spell that lets you see the gems below the surface," Lily Frost informed with a grin.

"Oh...wait, what?" Silkdial did a double take as she looked down again.

"There's a fortune underneath the tent?" Gust summarized in surprise.

"If this vein density is sizable beyond this point, it might double our coffers. Or, perhaps, make the other two tribes as rich as ours," Platinum noted with a greedy yet mesmerized grin, before scowling in confusion at Clover. "But this would hardly be enough to reduce the value of gems."

"After a bit of field research with the help of my friends..." Clover trailed off sheepishly. "I've determined that the region granted to us by Lord Discord is rich throughout with a similar density of gems. Taking that into account and acknowledging potential empty areas, the supply of gems has been increased by a factor of ten, bare minimum."

Dead silence stretched over the tent. One of the guards dropped his spear in shock. Hurricane looked like he was questioning reality. Puddinghead was just staring at the ground, trying to comprehend how there could be enough riches here to make riches worth less.

Discord breathed deep in the disbelief filling the room.

"...Are you trying to imply that my precious gemstones are now...worthless?" Platinum inquired, somewhere between despair and rage.

"Well, they might be if we take the rest of Discord's land into the equation," Clover confessed thoughtfully. "Right now? I believe they'll go from being twenty-some times the value of gold to...five times gold?"

"...But that's only after ponies start digging them up," Hurricane noted with something akin to understanding.

"Yes, well, as amusing as watching rich nobles froth at the idea that their fortunes are worthless would be, it'll take a while for ponies to dig up enough of them for the gem value to fall," Discord acknowledged casually.

"Okay, um...tha-that's a lot to take in," Silkdial commented numbly, trying to process they might be too rich now. "LOT of gems."

"Well, look at it this way," Lily Frost commented with a smirk, grabbing everyone attention. "Gems might be cheap for us, but to every other pony and civil creature in the world..."

Platinum, Hurricane, and Puddinghead perked up as they realized that, just because the value of gem among Fundony went down, didn't meant it would go down elsewhere; Making them a potential minor powerhouse on pure economy in the near future.

Discord smirked as he watched the three leaders all thinking in similar manners. He didn't have an enemy to focus all of these ponies' issues at, buuuut reminding them of their potential power on the world stage was a good second place motivator for singular matters…like getting them to agree on a plan for their budding nation's currency.

One less boring problem he'd have to deal with, for now at least.

Speaking of which. "Now that we've solved our daily puzzle, tell me, leaders of Fundony: What's the public opinion on me?" Discord asked with an expectant grin.

Good or bad, this would be interesting.

Author's Notes:

Oi, sorry this all took so long. There was a bit of writing block, a good deal of research on my end for the houses and stuff, other obsessions, and a lot of RL issues. I've been sick, had family matters to deal with, and bed bugs can burn in hell.

But yeah, Discord is back and doing his thing with Lily Frost- the influencing the ponies thing, not the OTHER thing. Gust is back, Silk and Lumen showed up, and the ponies seemed to be a bit split on Discord. We'll figure out how bad next time. No Celestia or Luna though.....that's a first, I think, since the Miracle at Canter Pass.

The town got a name: Fundony! So many jokes, so little time.

And I build more on the Three Tribes, and based their economy on the trade system they had with each other. This also further explains why them joining was so hard in the first place. They are just three different subspecies, but radically different cultures.

Hope you all enjoyed this. Hope to have more soon.

PS About the Gems, this is kind of canon, to one of the books at least. It was mentioned that Platinum lamented the fact that her crown became worthless due to all the gems in Equestria. Since Discord only gave them that one area, which I'll have to put into scope eventually, I figured they'd be more devalued than worthless for now.