The trek back was spent in silence... Long... Awkward... Silence.

Cookie, Pansy, Clover, and the others I only knew in passing kept to the sides of the cart as two stallions pulled. Words were quietly exchanged occasionally, but never more than a few sentences at a time.

Chancellor Puddinghead, if I remembered her name right, sat wrapped in her blanket, observing the thawing world with wide, innocent eyes.

I wasn't so sure how the mare led the Clans...

Commander Hurricane grumpily sat with her forelegs crossed. The cloak she had been given had slipped off and fallen onto the bench she sat on.

Starswirl, surprisingly, pulled a book out of his own cloak and had busied himself studying its pages. From what I could see, whenever he turned a page, it was full of arcane sigils and glyphs. The meaning of which were lost to me.

But worst of all... Was Princess Platinum.

The mare kept silent, it was true. But she kept impatiently glancing in my direction, clearly wanting to start another conversation. She fidgeted and squirmed in her seat, took her cloak on and off, unable to find a comfortable position.

Her impatience and constant observation made me extremely uncomfortable myself. As I walked, I couldn't help but think how I was walking and moving, trying to act as 'normal' as possible. But that almost caused me to trip a few times so I quit doing that.

In the end, I just did my best to stay away and ignore the mare.

It was at least noon by the time we returned to the camp. By then, what remained of the windbreaks were merely sad, mostly melted clumps of snow that couldn't stop a small foal much less a blizzard. The fire, which had been roaring through out the night, had finally been put out. The air was warm enough that I was beginning to sweat under my Cragodile hide vest.

While we had been out searching, Tia had not been idle. More wood, both the broken remains of carts and lumber taken from now dead trees, were stacked neatly nearby the charred pit. Several gangs of Ponies were looking over what intact carts they had found, fixing whatever they could and scraping what they could not. With the exception of a crowd of Ponies gathered around a few crates, the only other Ponies present were those who were clearly injured in some fashion. They laid on blankets that had been set on the ground.

The eyes of the four Ponies in the cart were wide.

"Y-You survived four of those things with just these Ponies?" Platinum stammered.

"N-no your Highness." Clover replied, her voice hitching. "I believe many of them are still out searching for survivors and supplies."

"Ah... I see..." Platinum hummed, tapping a hoof nervously on the side of the cart.

I leaned over and whispered to Cookie.

"I'm going to go find Tia. I'll introduce that idea of yours before the discussion begins." I whispered.

"Go ahead. We'll take care of these Ponies." she replied, equally quiet.

I nodded and turned away, towards the crowd of Ponies around the crates. I suspected that Tia was using them as a table to organize everything.

As I approached, I did indeed spy Tia, but she was merely listening to two Ponies argue the finer points of something I had no context for.

I did my best to be as unintrusive as possible.

"Tia may I have a word with you?" I asked quietly.

"Please." she said thankfully. "Excuse me, but I think I need to stretch my legs for a moment." she told to the organizers, standing up to leave.

Several Ponies nodded, but the two passionately arguing didn't even notice.

Tia followed me off to the side, so we could have some privacy.

"Do you want the idea first or the weird news first?" I asked.

Tia blinked in confusion.

"Lu... Isn't that phrase supposed to be about 'good news' and 'bad news'?" she asked.

"I honestly can't think of any better description." I shrugged.

"Okay...?" she sighed. "Um... The idea first I suppose."

"While we were searching, Cookie raised a good point to me... If the Windegos feed on strife and war, how long will it be until there are no more Summers?" I asked.

"If that book was right, and if last night was anything to go off of, probably not long at all..." Tia conceded.

"Exactly. The tribes can't keep fighting like this. Cookie's idea was to unite all the tribes into a single tribe... A single tribe lead by you..."

"ME?!" Tia exclaimed suddenly, her voice echoing off the nearby scenery.

"Shhh!" I hushed. "Calm down!"

Tia looked sheepish, smiling at the Ponies who had looked over at her outburst.

"Ok sure, single tribe I can understand... But why ME?" Tia whispered.

"Why not you? You've already done the hard part in getting the tribes to work together!" I pointed at the group of Ponies we had left at the crates, all three of the tribes were represented and present. "All we have to do is formalize it and make it permeant!"

"... I'm not too sure I'm thrilled about this Lu." Tia admonished.

"That's why I'm telling you now, so you're not surprised if Cookie brings this up." I replied.

"I see..." Tia sat on her haunches and nervously tapped her hooves together. "And that's the idea right? What could be stranger than that?"

"Uh... Funny story actually..." I looked away, rubbing at a crick in my neck that had developed suddenly. "You see those four Ponies we brought in on the cart?"

"Uh... Yes?" Tia replied, not exactly sure where I was going with this.

"Those are Chancellor Puddinghead, Commander Hurricane, Princess Platinum, and the court wizard Starswirl. We found them all under a shield being cast by the wizard."

"Ok I'm with you so far."

"So..." I trailed off, unsure how I was going to tell her this part. "The first thing Platinum asks when she sees me is about the name 'Nebula Glow'."

"... But that's-"

"There's more." I interrupted, hoping I wasn't being rude. "The second thing she said to me, was to claim to be my Aunt."

Tia's jaw dropped.

"But- But she- But Mom- But-" she stammered.

"I know." I put a hoof on her shoulder, trying to ground her back in reality. "I wanted to get to you before she did. I don't know if she's telling the truth or not, or even if the mare is still sane at this point, but this is a discussion that needs to happen with her."

Tia gaped like a fish for a few moments, before she pulled herself together enough to reply.

"I- Yes... You're right." she finally agreed. "Give me a moment, you've dropped a lot in my lap..." she started to fan herself with a hoof, taking deeper breaths as she did so.

"I'm sorry, Cookie brought up the idea before we found Platinum."

"No, you're fine Lu. These are both things that I needed to be aware of... Although their timing leaves much to be desired."

"On that I'm in agreement." I nodded.

Silence fell as Tia calmed down.

"What's she like? Platinum I mean." Tia asked after a few minutes.

"Other than seeming a madmare? No idea. But she kept watching me as we brought her back."

"How about... Similarities?" Tia asked, gesturing at her own face.

"I- I think she has your and Mom's cheek bones. But you'd remember Mom better than I would."

"You have those cheekbones too you know."

"Do I? I wasn't sure, it's been a while since I've looked into still water long enough to look." I replied, sitting down as well to rub my face with both hooves.

Tia snorted in amusement.

"Yes Lu, yes you do." she grinned mischievously.

We fell back into an easy silence, merely enjoying the momentary respite in the chaos we had suddenly found ourselves in.

"Alright Lu, let's get back into the fray."

Next Chapter: Chapter 90 The Memories Part 49 Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 43 Minutes