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// CHAPTER TWENTY: A History Lesson . . . in the Future! 
// Story: The What and Whatiful Who 
// by cosby7 
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	“You know, I used to love Revolutions.” They had only been amid the “Celestial Revolution” exhibit a couple minutes, but Doctor Hooves had already started in with a lecture. “Back when I was young and naïve.”

“Trixie has a difficult time believing that was ever the case,” she said with a snort.

“Everything's got a start. Even me. Mind you, that was a very, very,” he stopped to do a quick calculation in his head, an act which seemed to scare himself, “very long time ago. But it's true. Back when I was starting out. Revolutions always seemed like such fun. I remember the Kizbooms had a revolution based entirely around their craftsman coming up with a new way to manufacture cheese. If you ever get the chance to try some cheese from the Kizboom Revolution, do not miss it!”

Trixie nodded and made a mental note to immediately forget whatever that weirdo had just said.

“The best revolutions, the ones with new ideas, art, technology, people . . . it's incredible! So much,” his hooves came tight together and then exploded outward in illustration, “new energy! It's like a regeneration. It's still the same society, but new and different and full of potential, ah, love it!” But then he stopped and the roguish smile he wore vanished. He stood, staring in despair at an exhibit case. Inside were many objects, all foreign to Trixie. One looked like a helmet with a hole and sort of harness for a unicorn horn. Another appeared to be a metal back brace that was made to fit over a pair of pegasus wings, but each tip ended in a sharp hook or spike. There were many more strange objects in the case that Trixie could do nothing but puzzle over. She could see the anatomy of them, how they might fit on a pony, but how they might be used escaped her completely. Only one object in the case gave her the spark of fearful recognition she needed to understand: A little metal necklace. With aching slowness, she reached to her neck, touching its copy. “But the more I saw, the more often 'Revolution' just became another word for 'War.'”

It was clear from the exhibit, stretched wall to wall of this second level, that the Celestial Revolution was not one of the revolutions Doctor Hooves considered best. There were no paintings. There was no art of any kind. The few dioramas Trixie found all depicted battlefields. It was an odd thing to see re-enacted with tiny figurines; pony fighting against pony and other creatures besides. What dominated the room more than anything else though were just the things Trixie had found missing from the floor below: the Princesses.

Framed newspaper clippings decorated the walls, but the headlines made no sense. 

“Celestia the Betrayer!”

“Equestrian Ruler Convicted!”

“Princess Luna Demands Sister's Surrender!”

“Captain Shining Armor Begins Militia Recruitment”

“FIGHTING STARTS!”

The headlines, intermixed liberally with posters and advertisements, spurning ponies to action, told the time line. What came to be known in history as the Celestial Revolution had all started when Princess Celestia had instituted Equestria's first penitentiary. It was crazy, but it seemed to Trixie like Ponyville Penitentiary had actually been the place where everything had started. Of couse, it was not nearly so large at the time, taking only a small portion of the Everfree Forest, but, small or not, its mere institution was an event that shocked all of Equestria. Jokes had been made about the Princess “banishing” those who committed some innocuous crime, but the Princess had always been a just and kind ruler and never one so draconian as to take quite so direct and firm a hoof in punishing supposed lawbreakers. In truth, it was not needed. Equestria was a peaceful land and ponies were a generally peaceful race. Celestia's subjects were good and loyal. Even so, the prison came and ponies started being taken away.

According to the records on display, it was eventually discovered by six ponies, the Princess's own champions, known to history only as the “Wielders of Harmony,” that the prison was a sham. Celestia had been abducting ponies under false pretenses to run experiments on them. The nature of just what these “experiments” entailed were strangely never revealed. Some papers claimed they had evidence that it was to maintain the Princess's youth and power and others claimed to have an anonymous source who knew she was creating a personal army. Either way, the Wielders confronted the Princess, but, even then, they trusted her and did not want to fight. She murdered each of them and escaped to parts unknown.

During this time, Princess Luna took rule over Equestria. The papers claimed that, by necessity, Princess Luna brought the kingdom under a rule of unprecedented militarism. Captain Shining Armor called ponies from far and wide in establishing a militia to fight back and defend themselves against the rogue Celestia and the army of still-loyal, though some said they were enchanted, ponies she had taken with her. For the first time since ancient history, weapons were manufactured. All of Equestria waited with bated breath for Celestia to make her move.

When she finally did, she was Princess Celestia no longer. From then on, she reportedly referred to herself as the “Celestial Empress.” Mysteriously, she reappeared with her army, just as Equestria had consolidated its forces. What was worse was that she had apparently spent her time unseen unlocking the Gates of Tartarus, bringing with her all manner of horrible grotesqueries. Princess Luna was forced to unite all the peaceful races of Equestria in a bid to defeat her sister. Battles were fierce and chaotic, as all manner of creature fought against one another. There were fewer papers present from the time during which the fighting took place. Trixie did not know if that was because these details were less significant to the museum's display or because fewer papers had survived from this time. Either way, it was apparent that the fighting went on for a long while. Long enough for many lives to be lost and for the landscape of Equestria, the land once founded for its fertility and beauty, to become scarred and barren.

Of course, the papers made no mistake about when the war ended. In the final battle, Princess Luna's united army attacked the Celestial Empress at her own base of operations: The prison where it had all started. Unlike centuries ago when Celestia had fought and defeated Nightmare Moon, the papers reported that it was Princess Luna who had justice on her side. By this point it was clear that the papers had devolved into blatant propaganda more than anything else. Even so, it was hard to deny the outcome when all agreed: While their armies fought, Princess Luna defeated and executed her sister, right where the former princess had killed the heroic Wielders. The revolution had been won and the tyranny of the Celestial Empress was forever at an end.

Except the wartime atmosphere did not end. By that point it was no surprise that the papers reported it as “Princess Luna Pushes Equestria Toward Further Prosperity,” but from Trixie's perspective the truth was all too clear. Instead of the militarism ending with the fighting, Luna's rule became only more dictatorial as time went on. Where once the land was free and prosperous, all effort from the end of the revolution onward seemed focused on furthering the advancement of technology. The same technology that began with the weapons boom of the war. Since the barren land would no longer yield any life, society turned to manufacturing all they could, all the way down to magic itself. The worst part was the Celestial Empress's former base of operations. At first the prison had been used to house the prisoners of war that were wrangled up across the land. In time though, the prison only grew, both in scale and influence. Once it was repurposed and renamed as Ponyville Penitentiary, more and more ponies started disappearing behind its walls, just as they had at the start of the conflict. Only this time, no pony seemed to notice.

Trixie walked along the wall with heavy steps, allowing herself to physically pass through each stage of the terrible history. How could so much have gone wrong while she had been gone? How could the Princess have really done all that? None of it made sense.

Upon finally reaching the end of it all, eyes wet, she spotted the Doctor. He stood only a bit away, but Trixie could see his brow furrowed in anguish as he beheld one particular display that dominated the room. When she walked over to join him, what she found truly shocked her. There, suspended behind glass, was Princess Celestia's beautiful golden tiara. It sat on a glass shelf, so pristine that it indeed seemed to be floating. Trixie had only once or twice had the opportunity to see the princess herself, but it could not be denied that the regal pony left an indelible impression. She could almost see Celestia's head beneath it, even now. There was simply no other place the symbolic jewelry appeared naturally in her mind. The placard above the case read “Celestia's Lie: The Ornament of a War Criminal.”

“This isn't right. None of it is,” Doctor Hooves muttered angrily. “I have seen societies crumble. I have seen unjust rulers betray their people. This is something else. This is a pageant, a show.” His anger grew as his rambling became more erratic. “Whatever we thought we corrected in the past isn't over yet.”

More and more often lately, Trixie had found herself at a loss for words. Rarely had this ever been a problem for the loquacious unicorn before, but something about the situations this pony put her in had a pronounced stupefying effect. Maybe it was all the unmitigated horror. “Doctor . . . hasn't this all happened? I mean, if we get the TARDIS, but . . . what can we do?” At that moment she felt well and truly powerless. It was not the kind of disappointment that came from missing an act and failing a show. It was not the kind of pain that came from the collar around her neck, sealing in all her magic. This was how it felt to watch one's entire world destroy itself and then be framed on a wall.

“No. Not today. Not to-this-particular-amount-of-time,” Doctor Hooves said with a calm fury. “I may have seen other worlds destroyed, but not this one. This is wrong. This one we can stop. And that's a promise!” The mad pony leaped back from the case. Trixie thought he was going to kick something over, break some of the glass, but it was enough for him to prance about triumphantly. She couldn't help herself. An involuntary chuckle escaped as she watched the fevered stallion jump around like a young colt.

“Trixie!” he yelled, finally stopping for a moment. “Ask me again!”

“What?”

“The thing! Ask me again what you said before with the question mark and the sad face!” That's it. This was all too much for him. He had lost it.

“Um . . . 'what can we do?'”

“Yes! That one! Ask me that! Do it now!”

“What can we do?”

That grin belonged on display in a museum. “We can be magnificent!”