//------------------------------// // Lessons // Story: Cards of Finality // by SwordTune //------------------------------// Accept and Learn One of the first things to test the power of the Two Sisters was a breaking of Equestria's ponies. Many lords and ladies used to independence and self-rule chose to live apart from the new Equestria. Peacefully, but away nonetheless. What geographers today call the Badlands was once lush and green and flourishing with life. The Sun and Moon feared an attack from the south, many years later. The Old Empire, as they had called themselves, was expanding. Some ponies near the border even elected to leave and rejoin their kin in the new lands. It was, quite reasonably, an expanding sphere of influence that could divide the continent. The first action was to create a defined border further south that would keep the two lands safely apart. The Two Sisters did not, in fact, demand repatriation of those who had left Equestria, but demanded more lands in the south as compensation. Thousands were evicted from their homes to move farther and farther from Equestria. It does not take long for ill will to fester when homes and families are involved. And the leaders of the Old Empire began to hear whispers, that they would not be free if the two alicorns sat on the throne. These same whispers reached the ears of the Sun and the Moon and what they heard was a threat to their nation's security. Make no mistake. Equestria invaded the Badlands, turned its land to waste. The books say Equestria defended freedom and security, which is not incorrect. But it was wrong. The Old Empire was smaller in military than Equestria, and relied on guerrilla tactics and escaping through their dense forests. So pegasi put their military culture to the test, creating the first traditions that would give rise to the Wonderbolts. The only mission was to pollute the Badlands with a magical toxin that stripped the leaves off the trees, thus cutting apart the guerrilla forces. Have you seen anything like it? In your world, through the portal? The cheif adviser to the Two Sisters said, if I remember correctly and I do, that "I [Minister Blitzer] don't think it is wise to pursue military action as the only action against the encroaching enemy. To do so would be suicidal. And to send some seventy or eighty thousand young stallions into the Badlands was an extreme risk, with an extreme cost." I was astonished to see this reality. This one, out of all the outcomes. Equestria didn't know what it was fighting. The Sun and the Moon were both wrong in their assumption that the ponies of the Badlands wanted to return to Equestria, and the Old Empire never made their intentions clear to Equestria. A seven year war, over ten thousand killed or injured on each side, and we were all fighting blind. We went to war blindfolded. Any military commander, who wants to be honest to the mirror, will admit that they had made mistakes during their application of military power. The wrong choice has killed ponies without reason, their own or the enemy's, through mistakes and errors of judgement. And it will happen, there is never a time where that does not happen. But a single commander can't destroy nations. We say to learn from our mistakes. And generally we do, though it might take two tries or three tries, hopefully not four or five. Like everything else, there's a learning curve. There's no learning curve when you wield the Sun's magic. With that energy, one mistake and you destroy nations. ============================================================= Empathize with your enemy When Caller Divine rallied his followers the Crystal Ponies expected a war of debate, arguing the merits of teachings and texts as scholars always do. Thus it was a shock when the entire marketplace was closed down by armed monks, and pyres were built wherever there was room. He wrote, on that very first day, his only intention was to destroy the word of Hammer Heart, and over time their faith would be cleansed. Yet the sun set on fanatical followers and their pyres of books, burning with the dying cries of her defendants. Caller Divine saw their beliefs feared, not loved, by the Crystal Empire as the burnings continued. "They will kill us," were the words of fearful priests and monks, who barred the doors to their houses and places of worship. Those words alone almost justified a true holy war. "Future disciples will never be safe if we don't break our oaths now." Many priests spoke these words to their herd more and more as the weeks of pyres turned to months. They thought, with the utmost certainty, that they were on the brink of war. But within those herds, some of them had family who followed Caller Divine. "I don't believe that," they said at one time or another to their herd leader. And that took bravery, to empathize with the enemy among allies. "I think there's still time for him to back down." These ponies, who had family following Caller Divine, understood what the other side wanted. He was no warmonger or lunatic. He wrote, in a letter to his sister, that he feared his good intentions had created a revolution that would "tear the fabric of the empire apart." But he needed his following, and as devout as they were, Caller Divine understood that his ponies expected a firm hoof against the teachings of Hammer Heart. He had swore to them with his rhetoric to stomp out corruption in their faith, and knew his followers would burn him with the books before they let him end the pyres. "He just needs to assure his herd," one pony said, whose brother had ripped apart his own copy of Hammer Heart's journals to join Caller Divine. "If he can make us disappear and tell his ponies that he secured their faith, he would choose that option over burning ever last Hammer Heart loyalist." There was, I think, a moment of empathy between the leaders, despite their differences. Those do exist. Caller Divine ultimately understood that he simply needed to be rid of the loyalists. Following some controversial, and obviously unfounded, rumors of hidden manuscripts written by Hammer Heart, he distracted his herd during a week of fanatical fervor. Houses turned inside out, streets torn apart for hidden tunnels, just so the loyalists could leave the Crystal Empire unmolested. In the anarchy seven died, all burned by fanaticism, so that three hundred and twenty-seven (and their descendants) could leave and freely practice their beliefs. Somewhere in the caves of the frozen north, they still pray. Would you believe me if I said I don't know where they are? ============================================================= Seeing and Believing are both often wrong. In the Badlands, before the Equestrian troops invaded, a watchtower along the border of the two countries spotted movement in the trees. The watcher sounded the tower's alarm and the garrisoned forces of about thirty ponies rushed out to meet the intruders. They found no pony, only spears and slings and dragon scale shields buried in holes and hidden in bushes. The report said "Princesses Celestia and Luna, the enemy has made their move against us. I [Commander Onlook] believe we need some peaceful action to prevent further aggression. To go into the Badlands with no peaceful way of leaving would be, in my professional opinion, the most foolish this this nation can do." The Two Sisters thought another thing; they thought the enemy would not be so bold as to militarize the border, so they disregarded the report almost entirely. Three days later, a storm rolled over another tower, neighboring the one attacked before. The lands darkened, and even the trees seemed to shrink away from the winds that moaned like the song of a whale. Rain battered the walls, and in the flashes of lighting, a watcher noticed something in the trees. "Unusual activity: Beginning on GRID line 2023 at 0200 hours, arriving at GRID line 2101 by 0230 hours." The commander of the tower brushed it off as nothing; young stallions were always green and jumped at the sight of their own shadow if they think it moved. One watcher recorded "unnatural and magical sparks that appear deliberately concealed within the lightning". In any event, no equipment was ever found after the storm. By the time the tower had completed an evaluation of their situation, the Princesses had already taken action based on the preliminary reports. Do you understand this, Princess? The commander tried to correct the early mistakes of the watchers, "they were too green for their own good," he wrote, but it fell of deaf ears. Equestria formed a war council against the Badlands on a single belief that the Old Empire was determined to increase hostilities. A belief that was fundamentally flawed. There were no weapons found during the storm. And even though after the war the recovered papers of the Old Empire confirmed that the Badlands had prepared a series of testing strikes on the border, it also reveals no executive order was given to attack on both the given days. Is that ridiculous? Yes. No. The Two Sisters believed the first attack was a fluke, but thought the second one was a threat and believed the Old Empire intended to wage a prolonged conflict. In reality none of that happened. The Old Empire wanted to test the defenses at some point, true. The first attack was action taken by a captain or commander preparing his battlefield, expecting an engagement at some point at that watchtower. The leaders of the Old Empire never wanted an large-scale invasion. Neither side want war. But it happened anyway. We had a predisposition about the enemy, believed them to be evil, and then saw events so that it supported our claim. No matter what happened all we saw was what we wanted to see, because we set out to look at things with a single, paranoid point of view; the belief that the Old Empire planned to reinstate control and oppression over Equestria was as ridiculous as it was captivating to the ponies of Equestria. But sometimes what you see and what you believe both aren't true.