//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Lessons for a Benevolent Tyrant // by Hustlin Tom //------------------------------// In the three hundred years since the day Princess Celestia had declared herself divine, innumerable events had taken place. The ancient Solar Cult was established, and universal suffrage was realized. Equal rights and pay for all, regardless of race or gender, was developed. Canterlot, the great and golden crown jewel of the Equestrian state, was constructed on the mountain face directly above where the Princess had fallen and appeared before her subjects. Learning and Science dominated society, and the first universities sprang up in the growing cities throughout Equestria. Resources were bountiful as the state found new and more advanced ways to mine, farm, and capture moisture from the clouds. The Princess had become not only sole ruler and protector of Equestria, but was also the direct commander of all armies and self-appointed High Priestess and godhead of all worship. All laws, whether judicial matters or religious edicts, and media had to be approved by her first before they could be circulated to the masses. In time, the Princess looked down from her great and mighty Olympus of marble and gold, and she found the nation to be good. Her sister’s vision was realized; she had created a perfectly efficient state with her own touch of moral piety that made everyone equal under her eyes and the eyes of others. However, a sickness overtook Princess Celestia even in her moment of triumph; not one of the body, of course, but one worse still; a sickness of the mind. All those years she had spent trying to change ponies’ hearts by calling herself a god, she had become very skilled at maintaining her noble lie. She was so masterful in her art of illusions, however, that as the ages wore on, she had started to believe her own stories. The entire world could be just like her nation, she thought; never at war, never hungry, or ignorant ever again, and all under her guiding benevolent rule as god of all races. On that day, she decided to rename the nation of Equestria. On that day, the Solar Empire was born. Her first act as Empress was to take the fertile lands of the southeast. From there, she would take her armies to the shores of the Furia in the Far East, from which she planned to seize the great minotaur city of Labyrinth. The armies of the Solar Empire marched for almost three months before reaching their destination. The megalopolis that was Labyrinth was not like any equine city; it was a maze of streets and back alleys that ran in any and all directions. It was split into two halves; the lower section which lay near the sea, and the upper section which was built vertically up a nearby cliffside. Roads and homes were stacked into the cliff face, running up almost the entire half mile height of the mountain wall. The rich lived in the cliffside homes overlooking the tranquil Pacifica, while the common folk lived closer to the base and nearer to the ports. Residents to the city included earth ponies, Zebharans, and the occasional Griffonian trader, along with the Minotaurs themselves. The Clan fathers and mothers of the minotaur race called up great warriors for themselves; all those who were versed in the ancient and traditional combat forms were called into service to defend the Great Maze, as their ancestors had affectionately called their city. Fifteen hundred in all answered the call, and they marched out to meet the force of three thousand unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. Even outnumbered two to one, the Minotaurs would have very likely won the battle that day, had not the Empress taken the field. Summoning her powers over the natural world, Sol Invicta caused the very earth to groan and yawn open as a great mouth, and the fields quaked and trembled as nearly a third of the Minotaur forces were devoured by the ground beneath them. The skies became full of thunderous storms and strong gales, and lightning broiled down from the heavens, striking only wherever a Minotaur stood, leaving ponies of either side unscathed. After a mere thirty minutes of battle, the General of their forces surrendered the city over to the Empress' control, so as to avoid an all-out slaughter of any more of his young bulls, and he and his forces were indentured to the service of Sol Invicta, until they could either defeat her in combat or accomplish a task of great importance to her, as the warrior customs of their herd stated. Less than two hundred of the Minotaurs who entered that battlefield still stood at the end of that day, so thorough was Sol Invicta’s victory at Labyrinth. In the span of but a summer’s time, the Solar Empire had nearly tripled its territories, and with this Sol Invicta was most pleased. This story of our Princess and her nation would have been very different from what we know of it today, had not one stallion felt he was compelled to act by his moral conscience. That stallion was one named Starswirl, or as he was more commonly known, Starswirl the Bearded. He was a traveling scholar, a seeker of knowledge wherever it could and would be found in the four corners of the world, and in time he would be numbered among The Fifteen, the greatest ponies to ever walk or fly above the lands of Equestria at any time. His and the Princess’ destinies would once again become intertwined for many years to come, for the good of all ponykind. At the time of the first anniversary of the foundation of the Solar Empire, Starswirl was returning to Equestria from one of his more intrepid journeys. It was nearing the midyear, Empress Celestia had returned victorious in triumph to Canterlot, after the winter months spent in Labyrinth. Starswirl was on the outskirts of Baltimare, merrily making his way towards a local inn that he had made his hub over many years of traveling. Trotting from the west towards the city, Starswirl looked to the north along the road to see a small cottage with a young stallion gardening in front of his tiny home. Behind the cottage lay a small plot of land from which the pony cultivated his crop, tomatoes. “Good morning, my fine lad!” the elderly pony exclaimed, meaning every word of it. “Oh, hello.” The young pony replied rather flatly. “I was wondering if you could help me, young colt, but what year is it?” The colt wasn’t sure if the old pony before him, dressed as strangely as he was in his odd cloak and pointed hat with jingling bells, wasn’t a soft-minded resident of the Hall of the Elderly just up the way, “It’s the Year of our Lady 301. Don’t you know?” “I couldn’t really be certain in all honesty; I’ve traveled many months in uncivilized lands and rather offhandedly invented a means of traveling the many strings of Father Time’s fabric. I really should keep a calendar with me at all times for that reason alone!” “Rrrright,” the young stallion said, becoming more convinced that the old geezer in front of him was a kindly madpony. “If I could just bother you a tad longer, young colt, could you tell me what I’ve missed in the last fifty or so years? A traveling pony rarely hears of home, and he deeply welcomes any good news.” The young stallion sighed, “The rains come, the crops grow, what point is there in asking more of our Empress?” “Empress?” Starswirl asked, completely taken aback, “Who is this Empress? What are you talking about? Hm?” “Empress Celestia, of course. Sol Invicta? Bringer of Light and Life to all who worship her Eminence?” “Empress,” Starswirl murmured to himself. He looked back to the stallion with a firm gaze, who took several timid steps back toward his home. The young pony was growing more and more nervous, and it was becoming especially evident to the old unicorn, “I noticed that you are cautious around me, but it’s not just because I’m a stranger, is it? Be honest with an old pony; what’s really happening in Equestria? What are you hiding from me? What's wrong?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the stallion said with a rush of frantic nervousness, “the world is perfectly fine as it is! I swear I’m not a heretic!” He broke down into sobbing shamelessly at the hooves of the old pony of learning, “Please! Don’t take me away! I’m one of the faithful! I would never maliciously question Sol Invicta’s benevolence!” The old unicorn conjured a wooden stave from the aether, and with it he lightly rapped the earth pony on the head with it. The young stallion looked up at the strange old pony in confusion, and he saw a twinkle in Starswirl's eyes. “I never thought I’d see the day when a strong young lad like you would cower in abject fear of an old colt like me.” He slowly nodded to himself, “These are strange times indeed.” “Please, don’t turn me in,” the young earth pony whimpered. Starswirl sighed with exasperation, “For the love of the sun and stars, I’m not going to turn you in to anypony anywhere!” The earth pony looked to him, surprised, “You’re not?” “For what crime would I turn you in, Master?” “Basil, sir.” “Master Basil, what sin is so egregious that you would be carted away without proper trial or evidence?” “Capital crime,” Basil whispered quietly, “A crime of heresy. I began to doubt her Holiness when I prayed for my produce to grow well in the summertime, and it did not.” “And what is the average sentence for such crimes?” The young colt shuddered, “Reeducation by the Solar priesthood, or the dungeons.” “I see,” Starswirl muttered darkly, “Well, it seems I’m needed here at home at last. Long have I been both teacher and student, and now it seems I’m due to take on my most promising pupil yet.” He looked down to Basil, and firmly commanded, “Get up. You need to be looking your finest, so stop shoving your face in the dirt.” Standing up, the bewildered Basil asked, “Why? What for?” “Isn’t it obvious? You have a complaint about Princess Celestia’s performance as deity of ponykind.” The old unicorn pointed in the direction of Canterlot with his forehoof, “We are going to go lodge a complaint!” “What?!” Basil yelled, “You can’t just..I mean, she’s..She’s the Empress, for Celestia’s sake! We’ll be executed for treason for just arriving unannounced, if her very gaze does not incinerate us first!” Starswirl, who had already been in the process of walking down the road, turned to look back at Basil, “Why? Has she really grown that cold and spiteful in these last couple of decades? Then it seems dear Tia is truly overdue for my counsel!” Basil gasped, “You just blasphemed! Empress Celestia needs no counsel; she’s perfect!” “Oh, believe me Basil, Tia’s horseapples stink just as much as the rest of ours do. In fact, I’d suggest you avoid any of the palace lavatories after the cooks have served Zebharan cuisine; it tends to upset her innards greatly, no matter how much she tries to deny it.” Basil gawked in sheer dumbfounded panicked horror at the old unicorn. “Now then,” Starswirl pointed to his left, and to Basil’s surprise, he realized that he was no longer outside or anywhere near his home. He stood in a large ornate washroom made entirely of polished marble, “Wash your face; you’re about to be in the company of royalty!”