Reign of the shy-pony

by The_Swedish_Horror

A few months later...

A pale pony dressed in orange and ill-fitting prison clothes was slowly making her way across the courtyard of the Baltimare High Security Prison, a forgotten and desolate place in the generally peaceful land of Equestria. Fluttershy had been transferred here from the Canterlot Jail almost immediately after her arrival because of the damages on the latter complex from the flood.
This facility had only two prisoners, one of which was the former usurper of the throne. The other was a strange, reddish horse that looked like he (or she for that matter, it was really hard to tell) was carved from a single block of wood.

Fluttershy had already spent a few months here, rotting away in her cell. For the most of time she was lonely, but almost everyday she got visits from her friends, of which Rainbow Dash was the most frequent. The shy pony was amazed and delighted that her friends apparently still cared for her, after all she had done. But she also felt a bit guilty... No, rather very guilty. How could she ever become so drunk with power and behave so terribly? How could she try to steal the throne from the rightful ruler of Equestria? Fluttershy was indeed very ashamed. Her actions had forever placed her in the company of villains like Nightmare Moon and Discord.

For the time being she had to go out for fifteen minutes and walk around in the courtyard. It was early in the morning and quite chilly. The autumn was on its way and most of the geese had already migrated southwards. The pony shivered in her thin prison scrubs. How she wished that she was home in her cottage with all of her little animal friends... How she wished nothing of this had ever happened.
"Please... let me go back inside..." she whispered to herself. "Please, let the guard open the gate..."
But the guard at the bar gate didn't even look at her. He was preoccupied with lighting a hoof-rolled cigarette, fumbling with the paper and dropping half of the tobacco on the ground. There would be fourteen more minutes in this gloomy courtyard.

* * *

Princess Celestia was sitting on her throne. The almighty alicorn was at peace for the moment, silently sipping on a cup of lapsang suchong and browsing in a newspaper. There was an article about Fluttershy in the paper and below her picture Celestia could read:

"The face of evil. Fluttershy, the deranged and incompetent tyrant ruler of Equestria, was widely known for her cruelty. She ordered her elite troops, the Pegasus Brigade of Death and Destruction, to blow up the railway in an attempt to murder princess Celestia. Before she was deposed in a glorious revolution she destroyed the ancient castle of Canterlot in a terrible flood. It is believed that Rainbow Dash, a formerly well liked flying hero before she was corrupted by Fluttershy's evil, was instrumental in the flooding of the catacombs. Thankfully nopony was killed, despite the dictator's murderous intentions."

The princess put her cup down on the table in front of the throne. It was a plastic garden table with one leg missing. Since the flooding her economy was virtually nonexistant and Celestia had to put all of her taxpayer's money into the rebuilding of Canterlot. She had also been forced to double the taxes for her subjects. There was not a penny left for her to put in the royal piggybank.
There was a knock on the door to her throne room. Since the castle had been utterly destroyed Celestia had moved into Applejack's barn, which she now insisted on referring to as "the throne room".
"Please enter," she said.
The door swung ajar and her younger sister appeared. Princess Luna, the real one and not one of her many doubles, was unusually early this time. She was not a pony that appreciated the early mornings and she seldom showed up before dinnertime. She looked tired and worn out.
"Ah, my dear sister... It's always such a pleasure to see you. In good health, I trust?" Celestia said with a grin.
"Mmm..." Luna nodded.
"Good, good... there is still some tea left if you want it."
"No, but thank you for your kind offer. I am not thirsty enough to enjoy this beverage. I will very soon be going to bed. I have been awake all night..."
"Of course."
"...managing the budget. We will be be completely impecunious in about a month."
"Ah, so we're going to be broke? Then we'll take another loan from the Crystal Empire. I'm sure Cadance will understand about the precarious nature of our financial situation."
Luna looked down into the carpet. Her ears were pinned.
"But dear sister... How are we ever going to repay her? This project will swallow all of her money too and it will take us many years to complete. How will we be able to even pay the interest?"
Celestia scratched her magical, flowing mane. Her gilded crown that went lost in all the turmoil had been replaced with a cheap copy made from aluminium cans.
"That's simple, little sister... I have a plan. We are not going to use this money to rebuild the castle right away... Instead we will use most of it to pay the interest so that Cadance will think that she'll eventually get more money back than she lent us. Word will spread and soon everypony will want to throw their money at us in hope of getting more money back. Of course we will use that money too in the same manner..."
Luna rubbed her chin with a baffle expression on her face.
"I am not completely following your logic..."
"And the pile of money will grow and grow and grow..." Celestia said with a cunning twinkle in her eyes.
"And what will happen then? How are we going to pay them back after we have borrowed all this money? Pray tell, dear sister!"
"That's the beauty of the plan. Once we have all the money we will change it to Griffonian dollars and then we'll devaluate the Equestrian bits by printing a lot of paper money. The ensuing inflation will eat away all our debts like a swarm of parasprites."
Luna couldn't believe what she just heard. Her sister was planning to scam her subjects for money!
"But Celestia! That plan is both immoral and unjust! It will ruin the lives of thousands of ponies! Perhaps millions."
"I know that very well... But I am desperate, Luna... If I could, I would do anything else. But I see no other choice. If we don't do this little scheme our great castle will never be rebuilt... As I see it, the money that they will lend us is probably money that they can do without... mostly. What is a few billions of bits worth compared to the history of Equestria? Canterlot was the castle of the old unicorn nobility and I refuse to let it go the same way as our ancestral home... The home that we both destroyed, may I remind you."

* * *

Fluttershy was sitting on a chair in her cell, surrounded by guards with their weapons aimed at her while the prison's barber were clipping the feathers on her wings with a pair of scissors. It was a standrad procedure with pegasi-prisoners and parrots alike. If the feathers were cut short she wouldn't be able to take off and fly away.
The pale pony was not at all amused by this and she felt humiliated every time they did it. The wings of a pegasus was a very important part of its appearance and she didn't like it when ponies she didn't trust were handling them. She also thought she looked like a chicken with her feathers clipped.
"Now, my fair princess, we're done with this little wingie..." the barber said with a chuckle.
He was an old, white-maned pony with a bowtie and thick glasses. His mane was thin and combed over the baldness of his head. Fluttershy frowned at him.
"And now we'll have a look at the next little one, ho ho ho..."
Fluttershy stretched out her other wing without a word. For a brief moment she fantasised about grabbing the scissors and stabbing the old fool in the eye with them. Of course she would never do such a thing. She was not a violent pony but when pushed too far even she would snap. And that was why the guards were needed.
"Heh, I'll sure miss the sight of you when you're out of here," the barber said and adjusted the dusty old glasses on his snout. "The other one is not nearly as interesting as you. He never says a word and of course he have no cute little wings so I don't get to trim him. I hope to see you soon again after your release from prison."
"Release? What are you talking about?" Fluttershy asked.
"Oh, haven't you heard? You're about to be released from prison tomorrow. I thought everypony around here knew that."
"No... I didn't. Why has nopony told me?"
The guard pointed his spear at Fluttershy.
"That's because nopony likes you! Now shut your mouth! Fraternizing with the staff is strictly prohibited, you criminal scum!"
"Wait! Why are you clipping my wings if I'm about to be released?!" she yelled and tried to pull her wing away from the barber.
"Hold still, please! Whopsy daisy!" the barber said as he slipped with his scissors and cut her right in the flesh.
"OW!!" Fluttershy cried as she felt the sting of pain in her wing.
"Shut your mouth and keep still!" the guard screamed on top of his lungs. "Or else I will terminate your release!"

At that precise moment Fluttershy's eyes turned dark with rage. She hated that guard. Hated, hated, hated him... Hated his arrogance, his cruelty, his unjustness and the way he treated her. She felt the rage flow through her body like she was burning up inside. She wasn't scared of him nor his colleagues. She wanted to throw herself at him and bite his throat like a panther. But she didn't. She just remained still and vowed to listen carefully for a chance to hear his name, look him up in the phone book and then calmly set his house on fire.

* * *

Twilight Sparkle was enjoying a cup of coffee in a small café in Baltimare's harbour. She liked the city, although it was very different from Ponyville. She and her friends had moved here since Fluttershy's transferal to the high security prison. There were two main reasons for this; one was that it would be much easier for them to visit the poor pegasus this way and the other was the severe criticism that Twilight had received from the townsponies for her handling of the situation. She had done all she could do to prevent the disaster at Canterlot, but for some ponies this wasn't enough. A persistent rumour claimed that she was the one responsible for the flooding of the catacombs. Now she just wanted to lay low for a while.

Twilight turned a page in her book about Pegasi Behaviour and Physiology. It detailed the subject of how pegasi were different from unicorns in matters of body language because of their wings. The wings were the windows to their souls. If a pegasus's wings suddenly became spread out it was a sign of excitement. That was interesting, Twilight thought... She had to immediately put this theory to test.
"Rainbow Dash?" she asked.
"Yeah?" Rainbow answered from across the table.
"Think of something that arouses you."
"What?!"
"You know, perhaps a stallion... or mare, for that matter, that you have a crush on."
Rainbow Dash looked at her in disbelief.
"Why?" she asked.
"I want to see if my theory is correct."
Rainbow Dash gave her a suspicious look.
"No, I won't fall for that... Sounds like some kind of prank to me," she said.
"It's for scientific purposes only," Twilight assured and grabbed her quill and paper.
"Hah, I don't buy it! You can't trick me that easy, you sneaky egghead."
"Okay then... I can always try my theory on Fluttershy."

* * *

Meanwhile, but several days of travel away, two ponies were trotting along a pier in a small harbour north of Vanhoover. The oldest of them wore a naval captain's hat and he had a white beard and a pipe in his snout. The other appeared to be some kind of bureaucrat. He had a necktie and glasses.
"Are you fully familiar with the precise nature of our plans now, captain?" he asked.
"Arr."
"Good... Discretion is a virtue in matters like these, as you can easily understand. In times like these we must carry out our duty with utmost diligence and without unnecessary misunderstandings. I believe my economical assistant has explained the financial details of our little excursion?"
"Narr," the captain said and shook his beard.
The bureaucrat immediately opened up his briefcase and gave the captain a huge wad of freshly printed bills.
"And you will get the rest when the package is delivered to its destination. I have already spoken with the admiral and he has agreed to let us proceed without further delay. So your back will be fully covered once this mission is underway."
The captain gave him a broad grin as he browsed through the bills.
"Arr, did ye bribe him too?"
"No. Admiral Horsestvensky is not a pony whose loyalty can be bought with money... No offense, of course... He is a trusted friend to our cause and he understands the importance of this mission. He knows the hoped outcome of this plan and he fully supports it..."
"Garr... And what's that? What's the hoped outcome?"
"A new regime of Equestria. One that is not riddled with incompetence on all levels of command..."

Comments

[Seether00]

Wait, another coup attempt? Uh oh. And Celestia's plan is bad. That is what Germany did after WW1 and we all saw how well that went.

[The_Swedish_Horror]

Yeah, now that you mention it I can clearly see the resemblance... It is indeed an awful plan

[batran]

You hate tyrants until you see i t from their perspective

[Divine Path]

Ah, I did not see this chapter.
Oh, the tabloids! Wherefore can they not die?
'T'would seem things will go well for Fluttershy...and retribution shall be bestown upon the guard.