River woke with a start. The sun was high in the sky. It was probably near noon. River was a heavy sleeper, despite the rest of the unicorns' complaints.

River was a grey unicorn with deep blue eyes and dark blue mane and tail. Her cutie mark was three blue zigzagged lines. Her dream was to master alteration in magic school like Star Swirl the Bearded had done. She had been to one of his shows, which everypony loved. Since then, River always longed to swirl water around her, grow plants, make a fire and make wind carry her around. She has attempted spells like that many times but never managed to cast them properly. At one time, she burned down her neighbour's house without knowing it.

River yawned and stretched. She crawled out of bed and put on her black cloak. She walked outside and saw her friend, Leaf Dew, at her potion stand in the market, which was quite close to where River lived. Leaf Dew was a brown pony with dark green mane and tail. Her cutie mark was a leaf, since she uses a lot of plants for her potions.

Leaf sold potions and ingredients. She was very good at brewing potions. She even created her own potions. One of them was that ponies who drunk it, could see the past for a few seconds but nopony would buy it, since she put it for like, a gazillion bits.

Leaf seemed to be arguing with a customer. River walked over to see what was happening. She was probably going to have to help her friend defend herself, if the customer would attack angrily, which wouldn't be much of a surprise, seeing the way she yelled at Leaf.

"The price for the healing potion is way too high!" Yelled the customer. Leaf looked around, uncomfortably and kept poking at the ground with her hoof.

"Says you." She muttered half to herself.

"What's your name?" Asked River when she came up to them. The customer glared at her.

"It's Daylia. Why?" She said sternly.

"Nothing." Said River with a small smile."Why do you need the potion so much anyway?"

Daylia hesitated at first, but then answered."My sister is very sick and I want to help her. It's an emergency but this..." She paused as she glared back at Leaf who poked the ground even harder now."This selfish pony, puts a far too unreasonable price!"River looked at Leaf.

"What exactly is the price?" She asked her.Leaf hesitated for a moment, staring at the ground.

"256 bits." She said, barely audible.

"See?! This pony is as unreasonable as an earth pony! Just forget it! I'll go and find another alchemist." Daylia walked off with her nose in the air.Leaf looked at River.

"Am I really like an earth pony?" She asked, looking for reassurance.

"Er…no! Of course not! You're a unicorn, and a great one too." River assured her.

Not many unicorns liked earth ponies or pegasi,but mostly earth ponies. Whenever it's time for them to share their crops to the two other tribes, they always keep at least half of it to themselves. River, though, was one of the rare unicorns who didn't think the earth ponies were doing anything bad. After all, they are the ones who grew the food.

"I'm going to go the river." Said River. Leaf smiled and River knew she was going to say the same, old, boring joke.

"Okay, River!" Like usual, she snickered at the joke, which she said since she first met River.

River sighed and rolled her eyes. She started walking towards the river. For some reason, she was always calm and at peace when she was near the river.

"Wait!" Yelled Leaf, running behind River and slowed down when she caught up to her."I'm coming with you." She told River.

"Don't you have sales to take care of?" Asked River.

"That can wait."

Before they got to the river, a cream colored pony with brown mane and tail ran in the road in crazy zigzags, yelling.

"An earth pony was found in the pegasi territory!" River and Leaf glanced at each other. The caught up to the crazy pony.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a minute." Started River."First of all, how can an earth pony be in the clouds? They don't fly, remember?"

"I think he must've hit his head and lost his mind or something…" Said Leaf hesitantly.

The pony glared at her. "That pony was an inventor and made some… mechanical-like wings. His tribe Chancellor somehow got hold of that information and ordered him tofly up there and spy on the pegasi. Or so I heard." He squinted his eyes and whispered "The pegasi found him. It's been very tense between those two tribes since then."

"Good thing we're not involved." Stated River.She looked at the cream "no longer crazy" pony. "How do you know all of that?" She asked him.He raised his chin in defiance.

"You don't know me? I'm King Crystality's messanger, Scrollicle."River noticed his cutie mark was a scroll, while Leaf looked at him like he was crazy again.

"I don't think our king's messanger would announce things like that by running and yelling crazy in town." She told him matter-of-factly.

"She has a point, you know." Agreed River.

Scrollicle closed his eyes shut and sighed in despair, as if trying not to lose his sanity.

"Ugh! Just… look," He started, opening his eyes again."I'm still new to this job and this kind of information just, sort of, made me panic. Now if you'll excuse me, I still have some unicorns to inform!" He said before marching off towards the market.

River looked at the sky. Indeed, it seemed that the pegasi were planning nasty weather for the earth ponies, down the mountain. Fortunately, the storm won't affect the unicorns since they're in the mountains out of reach. River felt sorry for the earth ponies. Black clouds were swirling above the tribe. Lightning was seen and thunder was heard. River could tell it was windy because she could see trees almost toppling over and away.

"Well, that just proves that pegasi are sensible." Stated Leaf, a little tense at the sight of the storm below.

River simply kept staring at the village.

"I wonder why the Chancellor would command an earth pony to go in hostile territory. He should've known that such place is nowhere for his tribe ponies." She said in a tone that Leaf didn't like.

"Uh… what's your point, exactly?" She asked River.

"Leaf," River glanced back at Leaf. "Do you want to come with me to go pay a visit to Chancellor Serenity to find out what's going on?"

Leaf staggered at River's request.

"W-what?! You're willing to go down there? You seriously think you can just walk in ennemy territory like you belong there, speak to the Chancellor, to get information he probably didn't even tell his own tribe?" She added a comment meant to herself, but River still heard it."I'm starting to think even Scrollicle isn't as crazy as you."

River continued nervously.

"You don't need to come if you don't want to, you know. I'd just like to know if you're coming or not, that's all."

"No way! I am not coming!" Screamed Leaf.

"Well then," Started River. "I guess I'll be the first unicorn to actually know what's going on." River started walking away from Leaf, who stared after her desperately.

"Okay!" Leaf ran after River and quickly caught up." You win. I'm coming with you. Just let me stop at my place first. I need to pick some things up before we leave.

River smiled.

"Sure. Come to think of it…" She said. " We're maybe trespassing but it's not like they didn't."

They arrived at Leaf's house. When they got inside, River was taken by surprise of all the potions and brewing material everywhere. No matter how many times she entered Leaf's house, she could never get used to all of the alchemy material.

Leaf went to a table where a saddle-bag was lying. However, it was not exactly a "bag". It was more of straps to hold bottles. Leaf put it on and walked in the room, here and there, picking up potions, poisons and other creepy liquidy stuff. Then, she joined River at the door.

"Let's go." She said with an uncertain look.

They walked outside, and on the road. They noticed Scrollicle, who also noticed them. He walked towards them. "Well, you two seem to be doing something important. Mind my asking what you're doing?" He asked with curiosity. River and Leaf glanced at each other.

"Well..." Started Leaf, nervously.

"We're going to see Chancellor Serenity!" Exclaimed River. Leaf gasped in disbelief.

"River!" River looked at Leaf innocently.

"What? It doesn't need to be secret, you know." Argued River.

"Well what if he tries to stop us? Or even tell King Crystality?" Leaf whispered back at River.

"No, no, it's fine. I don't intend on telling anypony." He winked. "But do me a favour. When you come back, can you please tell me what you learned down there?"

After agreeing to Scrollicle's request, River and Leaf walked down the path, which led down the mountain and into the earth pony tribe. River's heart was pounding. She couldn't believe herself. But her curiosity got the best of her. Her and Leaf too. Time to find out if Chancellor Serenity is hiding anything.

Author's Note

This is based on the Christmas play, as you can see. I was listening to instrumental ancient-like music while I was looking at pony war pictures, on EQD. Then my brain went "ideaa!" over and over again. Anyways, hope you all enjoy it! And please don't be too critical, it's my first story and I'm still pretty new at this kind of stuff.