Chapter 45: Kindling
Manehattan: June 2028
In the Parliamentary Square of Manehattan, tens of thousands of ponies stood, singing and chanting slogans. Tents were sprawled all along the pavement, and the smell of cooking smoke from grills filled the air. On this warm, sunny day, the protest almost resembled a cookout, but for the chanting and picket signs. The protesters often accosted stock traders, businessponies, and police officers walking along the streets next to the square. Everypony wearing a suit was subjected to a barrage of questions and comments.
“How are you making so much money in a recession?”
“You’re either with us or against us!”
“Spare some change?”
Twilight Sparkle sat in the meeting room at her Royal Palace, which was a few blocks east on Celestial Street from Parliament and Parliamentary Square. The western window gave a good view of the crowds.
“There might be ten, maybe twenty thousand today,” said Twilight.
“Perhaps even more than that, if you count the ones in the financial district protesting the banks,” said a tall, lanky stallion with a silvery mane and golden coat, named Shiny Diamond. “They recognized me on my way over here and wouldn't let me pass, and one tried to assault me, but thankfully I had my security.”
Filthy Rich, who sat at the other end of the table, laughed. “Well, they sure don't like me, either! Not an inkling why, though; my Barnyard Bargains stores offer the most affordable goods in all of Equestria! My business is up in this bad economy since ponies need a place to shop that won’t hurt their pocketbook.”
Twilight Sparkle smiled. “Your stores have certainly done a lot to help the poor.”
The other Council members nodded. Twilight said, “Now, let’s get down to business of fixing the economy, so that all of those protesters can get good-paying jobs. Diamond Tiara is late, but we can start without her. This meeting of the Equestrian Economic Council has now come to order.”
The composition of the EEC was now quite different than at its inception years ago. Twilight had removed the Oranges, Jet Set, and Upper Crust from the council pending the outcome of the corruption and treason charges against them. Twilight had added Silver Spoon, a mining magnate; Diamond Tiara, a corporate conglomerate head; Shiny Diamond, the CEO of Pursuit Bank; a mare who managed the biggest port in Baltimare; and a stallion who ran a large farming cooperative in Manesas. With each of them representing distinct sectors of the economy, Twilight Sparkle felt that they all could brainstorm ideas for ending the recession.
“Our fields are barren once again,” said the farmer stallion. “We need another subsidy or else even more small farmers will go broke. I propose—”
Suddenly, the meeting room doors burst open. A scowling Diamond Tiara stormed in, her normally light-pink coat drenched in red paint.
“This is an outrage!” she yelled. Everypony blinked in surprise.
“What is it, Diamond Tiara?” asked Twilight Sparkle, summoning a wad of paper towels for Diamond Tiara to clean up with.
“Those ‘protesters’ doused me in red paint. They said it was the blood of all of those homeless ponies who’d died on the streets, since I don’t allow them to squat on my property,” said Diamond Tiara mockingly, tilting her head backwards in disgust as she wiped off the paint.
Diamond Tiara owned several businesses, including Tiara Realty, a large construction and real estate development firm, and Tiara Entertainment, which owned high-class resorts and casinos in Manehattan, Las Pegasus, and Applewood. She also held stock in many other corporations. Though Tiara’s personality was abrasive and caustic, Twilight Sparkle felt that Tiara’s tourism and real property businesses gave her a hoof on the economy’s pulse, and such insights made her a valuable Council member.
“That’s terrible, sweetie!” said Filthy Rich, running over and patting his daughter’s head. “Daddy knows how you feel; those ponies harass him, too.”
“Not like this!” Tiara whined. “This paint is just the final straw. My fine restaurant on Lunar Boulevard has had a twenty percent drop in revenue since this ‘Encampment’ started in April. None of my regulars come in anymore. The stink from these bums’ unwashed, filthy manes has filled up the store from a block away, like a foul, noxious cloud of poison. And none of the tourists are coming into town. They don’t want to see the sights when the square is filled up with tents and garbage.”
The ponies on the council nodded as Tiara spoke.
She sighed, wiping her forehead with her hoof. “And now, my assessor has said that, if the Encampment keeps up, the rental space value in the Tiara Tower could plummet by millions of bits. None of my rich tenants like Maestro Octavia, Photo Finish, or Bray Z want to look out their windows and see an eyesore on Parliamentary Square.”
The CEO of Pursuit Bank said, “I agree with Miss Tiara. The Encampment is a stain on our fine city. My banking business isn’t materially affected by it, though some stock brokers and investors have been harassed on their way to work. These ‘protesters’ have even walked onto the trading floor of the Manehattan Stock Exchange to disrupt traders. The markets have closed early for two days in a row. The Encampment has long gotten its message out. This has turned from a democratic protest into a public nuisance.”
“These Encampment ponies are so dirty and rude, they make my Barnyard Bargains shoppers look like royalty,” Filthy Rich laughed.
“I’d love to give them mining jobs so they could leave the square,” said Silver Spoon. “We just found another coal seam in Azurica: west of Dodge, out in the Palomino Desert. I’ll need at least two thousand miners for that alone. But those new mining regs mean that Secretary Fluttershy has to approve it, and apparently the coal has too high a sulfur content.”
Twilight Sparkle shook her head. “I apologize. Parliament passed that law over my veto. I can’t quite go over Fluttershy’s head, even though I’m—”
“A princess,” said Diamond Tiara. “And a Princess should exercise power befitting her role. She should keep the mining business going. She certainly shouldn’t be bossed around by a pony who she herself appointed...”
Twilight suppressed a giggle as she wondered if the bossy Diamond Tiara recognized the hypocrisy of her statement.
“...and she certainly shouldn’t let a tent city fester like a tumor in the heart of the capital,” Tiara added.
Twilight shrugged. “I understand your frustration, Miss Tiara. But those protesters are exercising their freedom of assembly. The red paint and a few isolated scuffles aside, they’ve been vastly peaceful and law-abiding. That square is public property free for general use, including camping. I can’t just kick them off; it would be undemocratic. I might be Princess for life, but I’m not a dictator.”
Everypony chuckled.
Diamond Tiara still frowned, and opened her mouth to speak again, but Filthy Rich held up a hoof at his daughter.
“What about a compromise?” he asked. “One that respects their right to protest, but also respects my daughter’s business?”
Twilight nodded. “I’m open to suggestions.”
Filthy Rich said, “I keep my stores clean and tidy. Every evening, the janitors come mop and buffer the floor, and the stockers restock and straighten up the shelves. This Encampment has been on the square for two months straight. Make them leave for a few hours each day so that the streetsweepers and maintenance ponies can go in and pressure wash the pavement and pick up all the trash. That way, it doesn’t stink as much, and it’s not as much of an eyesore.”
Diamond Tiara nodded vigorously. “That’s the least you could do, Princess Twilight.”
Twilight smiled. “Okay, I think that strikes a reasonable balance. I’ll put out the announcement that the square will be cleaned from seven to nine this evening, and every evening thereafter.”
Pound Cake was lying down inside of his shady tent, his wings sprawled out, his sleeping bag the only cushion between him and the paving stones below. The night was soon to come, and he was exhausted from a long day of speeches and chanting in the square.
For two months of protesting, little had been accomplished. The parliament had only passed a few minor bills before adjourning for its summer recess. They gave a farm subsidy to the small farmers in Manesas and Neighbraska, approved a public works project in Baltimare for a single new dock, and banned cigarette companies from radio advertisements. Though these were welcome laws, much remained to be done. Equestria needed to tackle corruption, build a strong military, and provide a welfare safety net before Pound would ever be satisfied. Only when ponies felt safe and secure would peace prevail in Equestria and worldwide. When ponies were destitute, fearful, addicted, and greedy, wars broke out. Cities seceded, like Cloudsdale and Mareicopa. Ponies died without food, water, or medicine, or they were killed... like his parents. But he and the Encampment would provide a better world for a peaceful future.
He sighed as he gazed out through the opening of his tent. He hoped that these protesters would stay through the summer recess, even in the sweltering heat, and be there when Parliament reconvened in August. The protest couldn’t afford to lose momentum or dwindle in numbers. At least five thousand of the protesters were homeless and had nowhere else to go, but the rest had homes and might get protest fatigue. Pound himself was beginning to feel it after two months, and would have loved to sleep on a nice cloud or cushy bed instead of a sleeping bag on the pavement. But his convictions were comforting enough.
An announcement came over a megaphone.
“Attention, occupants of Parliamentary Square. The plaza is due for its daily cleaning. Please vacate the premises by seven o’clock. You may return in two hours. Thank you.”
Pound’s head jolted off the concrete. He rushed outside. Ponies stood around in confusion, and the usual line of police stood around the square, no apparent change in their demeanor. Some ponies thought the announcement was a prank, and made no effort to leave. Only a few dozen complied. Pound, though, recognized the voice on the megaphone: a police sergeant who he and Rainbow Dash had often spoken to. The stallion, named Sergeant Cuffs, had always disliked for the Encampment. Though the gathering was technically legal, Cuffs tried to find every excuse that he could to dispel it.
He had argued that the Encampment should be shut down for public safety, since a crime wave of petty theft and vandalism had started since the protests began. However, Rainbow Dash pleaded directly to Princess Twilight, who had conceded that there was no way to know if the spike in crime was due to the Encampment in particular, or just due to the bad economy in general. After that argument failed, Sergeant Cuffs started requiring the Encampment to fill out lengthy permits every day that they remained on the square, but the EFA had lawyers who could easily navigate the paperwork.
Now, Sergeant Cuffs was trying a new tactic. The plaza had to be ‘cleaned.’ Pound hovered in the air above the hundreds of tents and thousands of ponies who slept in them, or who walked around as the day drew to a close.
The tents were a bit ratty and torn from months of being outside, but the tents weren’t being cleaned, just the plaza. The protesters’ colorful, intricate chalk drawings of labor symbols, landscapes, and slogans covered the pavement like tattoos, and hardly a space was bare. But that was okay; normally, children would doodle with chalk on Parliamentary Square when nopony was protesting on it. Trash was scattered around on the ground in random places, but nothing excessive: only a couple hundred aluminum cans and snack wrappers. The protesters normally picked up after themselves. After all, they had pledged to live on this square until Parliament passed their laws, so why wouldn’t they keep their own temporary home clean?
To Pound Cake, cleaning the plaza was just an excuse to get the Encampment to leave. Oh, sure, the sergeant said that they could come back later, but then the cleaners would come back the next day, and then their cleaning would take even longer. Pretty soon, they’d be
‘cleaning’ the park all the time and the protests wouldn’t be allowed. Pound knew exactly how this worked.
So did Organized Labor, Hoops, Dumb Bell, and Rainbow Dash, who met in the large official EFA tent at the center of the square, standing around a picnic table inside.
“I say no way we leave,” said Hoops. “They’re just trying to kick us off!”
Organized Labor nodded. “They use this same tactic at the factories in Fillydelphia for strikebreaking. The factory managers cooperate with the police and send in firefighters with hoses.”
“We can’t let that happen here,“ said Pound Cake.
Rainbow Dash solemnly nodded. “I didn’t want it to come to this, but we need to stand our ground. They can clean around us all they want, but none of us are moving our tents. Go let them know, you guys.”
The clock had struck seven, and a dozen ponies held brooms and walked onto the northwest corner of the square. They swept reeking garbage out of the way, and clouds of dust and dirt rose into the air. After the orders had percolated down from Pound Cake, ponies had stayed with their tents on the square, but they stood out of the way and allowed the cleaners to do their jobs. But the activists still talked to the cleaners, though.
“We can clean our own plaza; this is our home,” ponies would object.
Others would beckon, “Come join us! You deserve better than a minimum wage street sweeping job!” The janitors ignored the protesters, just trying to work.
It went on peacefully but tense like this until the janitors reached the first row of tents. Their supervisor, a scruffy old pegasus stallion, pointed at the tents.
“Clean under ‘em,” he grunted. The other janitors obliged, and four of them grabbed a corner of a tent and lifted it up. Nopony was inside. Another janitor swept the dirt, gunk, and grime out from beneath it. A second pony came by with a power washer and sprayed down a jet of water. The pavement turned from dusty grey to white as he did this.
“Next one, keep it goin’; we don’t have all evening,” he implored. The team continued to another tent, but found a young unicorn mother and her two children inside.
“I ain’t budging!” she declared. “My kids are asleep for the night and you’re not waking them up! I’m homeless, and this tent is my only shelter!”
“Shut up, lady,” the cleaning supervisor scoffed. Janitors walked over to the four corners to lift up the tent, but the mare levitated the ponies off the ground when they got close.
The crowd cheered at this mare’s act of defiance.
The supervisor sighed, shook his head, and flew over. With a quick flick of his hoof, he whacked the mare’s horn. It didn’t cause pain, but it did stop her levitation spell, so the four janitors continued as if nothing had happened.
This set off the crowd, particularly the ones farther away, to whom it looked like he had just punched a poor, single mother in the face. They booed and jeered, and wrenched the brooms, mops, and buckets from the other janitors. Wood from the handles cracked and splintered, and buckets of soap and water splashed all over.
A young stallion threw a punch at a janitor, who had tried to wrench back his mop. A hoof fight broke out.
“Please, stay calm, everypony,” Rainbow Dash implored over the megaphone. But by now, scuffles between the cleaning crew and the Encampment had started all over the plaza.
“You are unlawfully assembled,” Sergeant Cuffs declared over the megaphone. “Protesters will all vacate the square immediately. Those who remain are subject to arrest.”
The crowd booed and jeered, as the police line slowly started tightening on all four sides of the square.
Rainbow Dash and Pound Cake hovered near the center of the square, about ten meters up, observing the showdown.
Pound Cake turned to Rainbow Dash, expecting her to make another announcement. Paddy wagons had arrived on the streets around the square. There would be a mass arrest that would spell the end of the Encampment. But Rainbow Dash said nothing into the megaphone. Pound Cake desperately wanted her to encourage the protesters to stand their ground. Almost a minute passed, with the police noose tightening around the crowd. A fire engine arrived on the scene as Pound predicted that the police would use fire hoses on them.
But then, Pound realized: Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell them to break the law directly. Just like she had sent Pound, Hoops, and Dumbbell to go tell the protesters to not move their tents. As the chairpony of the EFA, she needed to maintain plausible deniability and look good in the public eye. But Pound Cake wouldn’t let this protest be crushed, or the dreams of the impoverished masses along with it.
He grabbed the microphone from Rainbow Dash’s hooves and shouted, “Stand your ground! Don’t let the police move another inch! This is our square, not theirs!”
The crowd cheered. Ponies punched and shoved the police. Glass shattered as ponies threw empty soda and beer bottles. The riot shields clanked as tin cans hit them. Ponies ripped the shields from their hooves and whacked them on the heads. The fire hose turned on, but a pegasus swooped in and slashed it with a knife. A police van burst into flames as an orange-coated unicorn lit it ablaze.
“BURN IT DOWN!” he shouted, cackling maniacally.
“Cops go home! Cops go home!” the Encampment yelled.
The clashes continued for ten minutes, with the police firing tear gas and pegasus officers attempting to swoop into the square, but with activists holding them back. Finally, off in the distance, Sergeant Cuffs motioned away. The officers pulled back to the opposite streets as the Encampment whooped and hollered.
Pound Cake smiled as the tents and protesters remained.
“We’ll never leave this square ‘till our demands are met!” he shouted.
Everypony cheered.
Hollow Shades
“...and the police, outnumbered and outfought, drew back to their original lines, on the outside of the streets leading up to the square. I think it’s clear that they can use more force if they want to, but the police really want to avoid any bloodshed or rioting in Equestria’s largest city. I spoke to Sergeant Cuffs this morning, and that was the impression that he gave me. Either way, the Encampment has won this round. This is Maron Destreet reporting from WMNE in Manehattan. Back to you, George.”
Inside a small hut in Hollow Shades, Hayseed Turniptruck and dozens of his extended family members clapped, cheered, and hollered, throwing their hats up into the air. The radio on the rickety wooden table shook as they stomped their hooves.
“Yeah! Us little folk really can make a difference!” Hayseed’s uncle Verl shouted as he sat on a tatty old recliner, a beer wedged in between his rolls of belly fat.
“I’ll say. Boy howdy, they sure dun showed them pigs who’s boss!” his cousin Jaysee whooped, waving her cowboy hat in the air.
Turniptruck himself was elated and ecstatic, as he popped the top on his fifth beer of the night. His clan had been listening to the radio broadcast live from Manehattan like they would normally watch a Hollow Shades High School hoofball game, or like they would normally celebrate the completion of a successful harvest at his old farm.
His farm…
“Hey... hey gang!” Hayseed shouted.
His kin all looked towards him.
“I ain’t been… I ain’t been right for three years. That Filthy’s Barnyard Bargains don’t belong on my land, do it?”
They all shook their heads.
“That was my turnip farm! It had been in my family for ages! And they just took it from me with some eminate domain whatsit… he stole it! Plain and simple!”
“Yeah!” his clan shouted.
“And their predatory pricin’ has put dozens of mom n’ pop places out of business!” Cousin Jaysee said.
“Well what the heck are we doin’ sittin’ around here listenin’ to the radio fer?” Uncle Verl shouted. “Let’s go take it back, just like them Encampers took back their square!”
Everypony cheered and hollered.
The dozens of Turniptruck family members rushed out of the shack, going into the barn outside and retrieving torches, lanterns, and pitchforks. They rushed out into the road, running into the city of Hollow Shades proper.
“We’re havin’... a good ol’... fashioned Barn razing!” Uncle Verl shouted, panting and struggling to keep up with the running crowd.
“Everypony to the Barnyard Bargains! Everypony to the Barnyard Bargains!” shouted Jaysee at the top of her lungs.
Ponies clamored out of cajun restaurants, piled out of apartments, and thronged out of movie theaters to join the large, angry crowd. The town’s minority of pegasi and unicorns soared through the sky and teleported along the streets, and the ground of the small city shook with the earth pony rage. After crossing through the town center, they continued on the road to the outskirts, where Turniptruck’s farm once stood, and where Rich’s Barnyard Bargains had now taken its place.
As Filthy Rich had predicted, it was quite a busy store in the impoverished city, but that didn’t stop the crowds from gathering around it with torches and pitchforks.
The greeter, an elderly earth pony with a blue vest, said, “Hi, welcome to Rich’s Barnyard Bargaaaaah!” screaming in shock at the crowd armed with torches and pitchforks.
Opportunistic looters ran ahead of the angry mob and zipped through the doors, shoving through confused shoppers trying to flee. They ripped radios from the racks, plucked produce from the produce bins, and stole stuff from every section of the store.
An announcement came over the intercom, “Cleanup on aisle five! Aisle six! Aisle seven… just clean up the whole damn store already! Everypony get out of here!”
A cardboard sign which proclaimed “Barn Busting Deals!” was punched through by an angry mare as she grabbed a giant six pack of paper towels from a shelf. She ran back out through the door and held up her prize above her head like a gold-winning athlete. A journalist snapped a picture.
“I’m cleanin’ up some spiiiiilllls tonight!” she shouted, her wide buck-toothed smile glinting from the camera flash.
The looters rushed out with their loot, smiling and hollering, as employees and regular shoppers clamored out the door, trying to blend in with the looters, lest the angry mob attack them for supporting Rich’s Barnyard Bargains.
By now, the ponies armed with torches and pitchforks had arrived. They threw giant kegs of beer and bottles through the windows and doors of the store, and threw torches to ignite them.
“Alright gang, let’s sing it, you all know the words!” Jaysee proclaimed.
“Yeeeeehaw!” Hayseed Turniptruck called out.
The crowd sang,
“Raze this Barn, raze this Barn,
One, two, three, four
Together we can raze this Barn,
One, two, three, four.
Pour the gas, start the blaze
Watch as it goes up in flames
Don’t kill or harm the ones inside
We only want the Barn alight.”
Ponies in the crowd doused the storefront in gasoline, drenching the wooden and brick sides as they threw torches and cigarette butts onto it. The last of the panicked employees and shoppers escaped through the front doors, loading bay, and fire exits as flames now lapped at every corner of the building.
“Raze this barn, oh, raze this barn
One, two, three, four
Together, we can raze this barn
One, two, three, four
Watch as smoke fills up the air
Take away our every care
Fuel the flames and watch it burn
Filthy hopes his store’s insured.”
The roof had collapsed in on the inferno as ponies posed for pictures outside. Once the fire reached the home and auto section, it was all over: tires, oil, dry lumber, and other flammable parts ignited. A small explosion burst through the corner, though nopony was there to get hurt. A mare with a fiddle skipped around, shredding on it for an hour as ponies danced do-si-do’s. A few of the fillies and colts even roasted marshmallows close to the blaze.
The fire department arrived, but they merely stood by, not wanting the angry crowd to target them. An hour later, the store was reduced to a blackened, charred heap on the ground. The crowd sang one last refrain of their song in celebration.
“Raze this barn, raze this barn,
Yes, we did
Together we sure razed this barn
Yes, we did.
Hayseed’s family owns this land.
It’s theirs, now Filthy understands:
Hollow Shades don’t want his store
He’ll never come back anymore.”
Baltimare
On the west side of the port city of Baltimare, there stood several abandoned warehouses, apartment complexes, and other buildings. Even before the recession, this area of town had been depressed and run down, but now, more buildings stood empty than ever before.
But one large abandoned factory warehouse brimmed with ponies, donkeys, cattle, sheep, and all sorts of hoofed creatures walking in and out, carrying sacks, carts, and other items along with them through the giant bay doors.
Inside the huge warehouse, makeshift shacks made of empty wooden crates stood in two rows, alongside either wall. Tarps were draped over gaps in the crates to form the doorways, and people walked in and out of them. Hundreds of such crate huts filled the massive warehouse.
Jolly Doodle Donkey trudged along, pulling a cart full of potatoes behind him, the wooden cart creaking just like his aging back. His once-acerbic, cranky demeanor had left him. He had a grin on his face and as jovial of a skip in his step as a donkey could be expected to have at age seventy.
The giant announcement board stood on the far end of the warehouse. Once reserved for shipping and arrival information, it now served a different purpose.
“Tonight’s Dinner: Fried Potato Friday”
Of course, he figured. It was such a clever pun; why wouldn’t there be fried potatoes every friday? It hadn’t been any different for the last two years, after all. He brought his load into the center of the warehouse, where the salty-smelling potatoes were sizzling above a fire. Hundreds of grinning people waited patiently in a line, while a lone donkey wearing a white apron and a chef’s hat fried up the potatoes.
Matilda... Jolly caught himself thinking, but then stopped. The donkey wasn’t Matilda, of course. She was gone. It would be nice after the coat dyeing, he thought. Solid white would be far from the brown coat of his former wife. No reminders left.
A mare’s voice came over the intercom.
“Attention, Jolly Doodle. Please report to the processing department.”
Jolly’s long, droopy ears shot up. He left the potato cart with the cook, racing over to the opposite side of the warehouse towards a small, attached office. He knocked on the door.
“Come in, Jolly.”
Jolly entered the office and sat in a chair before the supervisor. A newspaper on her desk showed pictures of unrest in Manehattan and Hollow Shades.
“Good afternoon, Jolly,” said the supervisor.
“Afternoon.”
“You’ve been out into the city during your expedition today, yes?”
He merely nodded. He was a donkey of few words.
“So is it true? Has the Encampment spread to Baltimare?”
Jolly spoke in short, gruff sentences. “Yes. There’s lots of tents near the docks. Makeshift homes, like ours in the warehouse.”
“So from what you’ve seen, are they all homeless, or just protesting?”
Jolly shrugged. “A mix of both, I guess.”
The supervisor nodded. “Regardless, they all want a better life. They want an egalitarian Equestria without oligarchs, with true equality. I welcome it, but they can’t make these huge changes by themselves. They need our magic so that everypony...er, everybody... can truly realize their dreams.”
Jolly glanced down at his flank. His gorgeous flank displayed what donkeys normally could never receive: a cutie mark. For his entire life until a few years ago, the former Cranky Doodle Donkey had been rather aimless, whether in his love life, home, or career. He’d switched jobs and moved from town to town. Marrying his sweetheart Matilda had only temporarily parted the clouds of his lifelong depression, as she’d left him after a severe argument.
But then, after moving once again to Baltimare, he had been given a cutie mark. He discovered his special talent: to be just as useful, just as wanted, and just as vital to the community as the ponies were, to have them love and respect him just like a pony.
Everywhere else in Equestria, ponies and zebras looked down on donkeys, sheep, and cattle for not having magic or cutie marks. They were called common farm animals or ‘farmies’ and treated as second-class citizens for that deemed disadvantage. Some donkeys were successful despite pony racism—usually entertainers like like Bray Z or Heehaw Fanque—but most farm animals could only find ‘jobs’ on farms. They often received no pay other than grassland to graze and a roof over their heads, where they were never seen as equals to the ponies who ran them. This sharecropping wasn’t technically slavery since that was illegal, and sharecropping was voluntary, but in Jolly’s eyes it might as well have been slavery. The only jobs for cows and sheep were to be milked for milk, or sheared for wool. “Know your place,” they were always told.
To some farm animals, it was the easy life, and they enjoyed not having any responsibilities. Donkeys and bulls had it far rougher than sheep and cows, since they had to do manual labor with their muscles; they couldn’t just stand around letting their follicles or mammaries do the work. Jolly had always despised the farm life, and he had always wanted something more: a real job, a professional career. But ponies’ prejudice had always stood in his way, and he was never hired for more than menial jobs like dishwasher or delivery pony. If he were to apply for an office job, for instance, he’d be going up against ponies who had cutie marks to prove they were good file clerks or secretaries. What manager would hire a markless donkey with no experience and no magic?
In the Warehouse of Baltimare, though, he had been accepted and given a job like everyone else. He was now a trader: bartering in Baltimare for crops that the Warehouse didn’t yet grow on its own. Never in his life had he ever been so happy, and like all the others, he had changed his name after being reborn from the magic spell to grant him a cutie mark. Like the fairytale wooden puppet, he had become a real boy. He smiled as he glanced at his cutie mark, the exact same as the five hundred other Warehouse residents of all different species: a black equals sign.
The supervisor smiled and asked, “Jolly, will you do me a favor? Tomorrow, go to the Baltimare Encampment and tell them about us, about our mission. Tell unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies… but most of all, tell your fellow donkeys what we have to offer here. Our government can save them from the ponies’ bondage of bigotry, from nature’s bondage of having no cutie mark, and give them what they deserve.”
Jolly hee-hawed, a wide smile on his face. “Yes, Starlight Glimmer.”
The Encampment refuses to budge. Hayseed and his clan burn down Rich's Barnyard Bargains in Hollow Shades. The Encampment is joined in its struggles by the Warehouse, led by none other than Starlight Glimmer! (If you're confused about how she works out with the BAS canon, please see the trivia section below.)
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
-Should Pound Cake and his group have budged from the square to allow cleaning, or were they within their right to freedom of assembly to stay there as long as they wanted? How can this be balanced against the economic hardship that they're causing Diamond Tiara's business?
-Should Hayseed's clan have burnt down Rich's Barnyard Bargains?
-Now that Starlight Glimmer's mission covers not only taking away cutie marks from ponies, but also giving equal sign cutie marks to the 'farmies,' is your opinion of her in this story different from the opinion you made of her in season five premier?
-Given what Cranky/Jolly has now informed us about the position of farm animals in Equestria, basically sharecroppers paid in housing and grazing rights, how do you feel about Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres? Is she doing a good thing by providing those cows and sheep with shelter and grass in exchange for wool and milk, since it's a voluntary exchange and those farm animals wouldn't have that choice if not for her (Pumpkin Cake's answer)? Or is Applejack merely working to perpetuate an oppressive system of workplace discrimination and exploitation in Equestria whereby the only viable career 'choice' for a cow is 'living milk factory' (Pound Cake's answer)?
TRIVIA
-If you can't guess who Diamond Tiara is supposed to be channeling, well... you're fired! 
-Heehaw Fanque is a reference to Pablo Fanque.
-The choice to include a season 5 character like Starlight Glimmer might seem odd given my story's stated compliance with only season 1-3 canon, but I have included characters from later seasons before, like Peachy Pitt or that cameo by Cheese Sandwich. Just remember that since Starlight Glimmer hadn't been introduced as of Season 3, she essentially is equivalent to an original character like Walkabout. So please don't assume that anything in the show regarding season 5's version of Starlight Glimmer applies to this version of Starlight Glimmer. All we know about her right now is what we've seen in the story: that she is a unicorn living in Baltimare, is sympathetic to the plight of the farm animals, and has some sort of cutie mark magic spell, the workings of which are unknown at this point.
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- I am with PC here, or at least I want to be. I cannot, however, side with the rioting.
- Same thing. I am with Hayseed in that the land belongs to him, but the looting and the burning were unlawful, and could have hurt, if not killed, someone. I despite that he was taken advantage from, and I hate that Twilight is getting manipulated by the economic leaders, but violence and destruction aren't the way to do it. Not to say that my inner self isn't against Hayseed retaking the land, but the more mature side of me tells me that the rioting was wrong.
- I don't know. I still can't shake the idea that she wants control; after all, as it was pointed out, if she was serious about equality, she should have removed her own cutie mark, and the fact is she didn't.
- Hmm. There's been no problem with it as displayed in the show (thought naturally, the focus would be on the story rather than on such political matters). I think it's largely voluntary, and that the cows and sheep have rights too, only they never seem to use them. They don't seem interested in anything other than grazing. I'm not being racist here; I am against oppression. However, I've read a couple of stories (like... is it "Tending the herds" or something like that?) that largely quench the matter. If a cow or sheep wants public office, I have no problem letting them run, raise as much support as they can within legal rights.
A decade after Princess Celestia dies and names Twilight Sparkle successor, Equestria splits along racial and partisan seams. Various cities of Equestria declare independence and go to war.
and names Twilight Sparkle HER successor , unless she's literally changing her name.
Seams, what are they, a dress ? Partisan lines.
Various sounds like they are random, and inconsequential. Equestria's cites have declared independence and are at war.
6010943 Thanks for the advice! I'll make those changes
6010927 My story tends to focus on the darker side of Equestria that the show doesn't portray
I think farm animals do have full legal rights such as voting, holding public office, owing property, etc. At the same time, I also think that there is much discrimination against them in society and the economy due to their lack of cutie marks and magic. After all, if a donkey and a pony are applying for the same entry-level job, but one of them has a cutie mark on their flank to prove that it's their special talent, then who would you hire? The Warehouse aims to make everypony "equal" by replacing/giving everyone an equal sign cutie mark. Obviously, that might or might not actually work 
Also, I do need to caution you about the AU tag... for all we know, in this story, everyone is aware that Starlight Glimmer has kept her old cutie mark, but they justify it just like she did, by saying that she needs it to establish a society with no cutie marks. Perhaps she was more candid in BAS than in the show. It's a lot like how communists, even though their ultimate goal is a stateless, classless society, will argue that in order to achieve that, they do need to use the power of the state at first. Or like how nuclear weapons are the ultimate destructive device and the United States government claims that they don't want Iran or North Korea to have a bomb for the sake of peace, but also argue that having the weapons themselves leads to peace through mutually-assured destruction making wars between nuclear powers impossible.
I would tend to agree with you on the rioting angle, though I can certainly understand why those ponies are upset. Well, at least I sure would hope that I do, since I wrote them to be upset
6010992 Alright, I can understand that. Discrimination is outright wrong, but sadly is present even today (and everyone thought we'd have a perfect, spacefaring society by 2000 LOL).
Oh, right, the AU tag. Sorry for missing it. Okay, you score big time on that one. It doesn't mean that communist leaders don't like using power, or haven't used it against the people they're supposed to be helping and supporting.
To be honest, my heart goes out both to Hayseed and his family and to the Encampment. That doesn't mean that violence will solve the problem. After all, what will Twilight do once she hears that Hayseed "went back" on the "agreement" they forced on him? And the Encampment... that's a riot waiting to happen in her capital city. She can't just do nothing, at least from the view of her oh so loyal (notevenclose) cabinet.
Starlight Glimmer is a true opportunist, it seems... It's time for REVOLUTION!
Wouldn't it be funny if all Equestria fell into anarchy and another civil war, with only the independent cities/duchies like Canterlot and Mareicopa managing to stay out of it? In the end, only these free-thinking cities, already practically free of the Equestrian yoke, would carry on the torch of Pony civilization... After the dark side of Equestria presented in this story, I could easily accept such outcome...
6011132 I think the tendency to abuse power is definitely true, not just of communist leaders, but all leaders. I mean, look at the fine bunch that we have up in Washington
Twilight is definitely feeling the heat from all sides now, both from her council of businessponies, and from the ponies in the streets. What she does will now depend very much on which side makes its voice (and money) heard the loudest. Also, parliament definitely factors into the equation. The Party of Laborers is in power, and shares much of its ideology with the Encampment, but they generally have to ally with other parties in their coalition in order to pass legislation over a potential veto by Twilight Sparkle.
6011157 It's always possible, and it would be rather ironic if Canterlot, the city in which the violence first started back in The Trouble With Unicorns, remains relatively unscathed when all is said and done. If I were to take the story in that direction, I'm sure that such irony wouldn't be lost on my readers
Of course, don't discount popular sentiment in either Canterlot or Mareicopa. We've already seen that the Encampment has broad popular appeal, from the big city of Manehattan to the smaller city and outlying farms of Hollow Shades, to the commune in Baltimare. I'm sure that there's plenty of disaffected ponies in Mareicopa and Canterlot who would be willing to go to protests in solidarity with the Encampment in Manehattan. Occupy Wall Street and the Arab Spring protests were both international, and the recent anti-police brutality protests in New York had solidarity protests in London and Toronto.
What is going on with Luna? Is she dead or is she just doing her own thing? Also is the Crystal Empire helping Equstria at all. I would think that the homeless of Equetrians would go to the Crystal Empire to go look for a job or something. And good chapter.
6011224 Thanks, glad you liked it!
The Crystal Empire has the same sort of relation to Equestria that Mareicopa or the Buffalo Nations do. It's able to set its own laws and has its own leader (Princess Cadance) but it shares a common currency, economy, citizenship, and defense with Equestria. The crystal pony battalions actually fought along with the main Equestrian division in its fight to try to retake Mareicopa, and have participated in other battles, too. Along with Equestria, its economy is also suffering, since it is tied so closely to Equestria with trade. The Crystal Empire actually plays a much more significant role in the remainder of the story, so stay tuned!
Princess Luna and Twilight are technically equal in title and rank, though in practice Twilight tends to wield more power. Luna lets Twilight Sparkle run the economic policy of Equestria since she's a lot more familiar with modern economics than Luna. Both Luna and Twilight usually share in conducting war and foreign policy, since they're both in the meetings with Spitfire. Zaporizhia's threatening phone call to just Twilight was sort of an exception, since he guessed that Luna would never, ever, ever agree to surrender the cities, since Luna does tend to be more rash. That was why Twilight made the decision during the day, before Luna could object. I'm sure that Twi caught a lot of flak about that from Luna behind the scenes. But Luna also does make a rather good negotiator, which is why she often negotiates legislation with parliament. Luna is also exclusively responsible for raising both the sun and the moon, as she is more experienced in that sort of magic than Twilight Sparkle, and it allows Twilight to focus on the more intellectual tasks like economic policy. I can't say that she'll play a bigger role in the rest of the story though, sorry
Though the good news is that, once BAS is completed, I do plan to re-write a few of the chapters. It'll mostly be little things like removing passive voice, cutting down on wordiness, and taking out redundant exposition that I won't need once it's marked complete.*
But I also plan on fleshing out Luna's role as princess more. I regret giving one-half of the diarchy very little attention compared to Twilight Sparkle, and that's been a common bit of constructive criticism that I've received. Come BAS 2.0, Luna will play a larger role. That might not be for several months, though.
*After the story is marked complete, any new readers will presumably be reading it in a few sittings over the course of a week, rather than in many sittings over the course of two years as has been the case with some of my longtime readers. For instance, I think I've probably explained the mechanics and rules of Pumpkin's intangibility spell five different times in the story, because I felt some of my readers might need a refresher if it's been several months after they've read the chapter in which it was first explained. Intangibility is such a rare power both in the show and in other fanfiction and original works that there isn't really an accepted set of rules that I can lean on like there is for, say, levitation or teleportation. I've also gone into zebra demographics in the northwest coast more than once. These redundant explanations will be cut down to just one explanation in the rewrite.
I hope to see fluttershy in the next few chapters, while i dont agree with hows shes protecting the environment i do agree with her principles. i also hope to see more of filthy rich and his response to the burning of his store. Will we see more of equestia splitting at the seams with no unifing factor to hold them together?
Starlight glimmer is a horrible example of cimmunism or equality or atlest pure communism
Matilda. Not Mulia. Mulia was the Julia Childs knockoff who made the Moose Mousse.
6012158 Ah, thanks for the correction. I haven't seen that episode in a while, so I was going from memory. And I'll go back and write out the numbers, too.
Zap is childless, so his lineage would end with him.
6011334 Oh, a question I've forgotten to ask; what happened to the buffalo after the SK went down? I doubt Strongheart took to her father well after her tribe was butchered and he was declared a traitor.
Also sounds like Equestria is about to fall apart, or at least undergo a revolution or some major upheaval, which isn't good considering the threat from the Zebra Empire and for the rebels in the lands they took.
I have to admit, for the first time since the beginning of this story, I've become biased in favour of one twin over another. Maybe this is what you were going for, but since last chapter, I've found Pound Cake very annoying, mostly due to his misunderstandings of Pumpkin, claiming that what she's doing is wrong, that her medical procedures are dangerous, that her mining operation was harmful, et cetera, despite clearly being misinformed and unwilling to listen to her counterpoints. Despite Pumpkin's refusal to help that father, I saw the sense in a comment you made, that she can't be expected to travel all over Equestria helping anyone and everyone, and while her reaction to the father was a bit callous, the point still stands. Of course, this shouldn't at all be taken as criticism against the story, and I have to say, this combined with the Trouble with Unicorns is a good candidate for the best story I've ever read on this site, so please, keep it up!
6016851 Little Strongheart was able to consolidate power among most of the buffalo forces. Several of the ones loyal to Chief Thunderhooves had been slaughtered at Appleloosa by Pound Cake, which was a big embarrassment for him. He kept a small cadre of loyalists, but the rest sort of fell in line behind Little Strongheart after they realized that the Second Kingdom wasn't going to support them anymore. Mareicopa and Ponyville returning to Equestria meant that they were geographically cut off from the SK, and the new President Fancy Pants and Duchess Sparkler wouldn't really keep providing them with weapons and technology since there is a peace treaty.
So the buffalo now have to play nice with Equestria again, although with Appleloosa being destroyed in the war and subsequent rainboom, they at least did get their land back in that area as a sort of consolation. This will be explained in a later chapter when the buffalo appear again, but it doesn't really spoil anything for you to know it now.
And yeah, things definitely don't look good for Equestria, but remember that despite his claims to be a god, Zaporizhia is far from invincible...
6018071 Well, no. Hoping for an equivalent for the Battle of Yavin; even the most devastating empire is not invulnerable, and neither are its machines.
6018031 Wow, thanks! I certainly do my best and I'm glad you like the story and TTWU so much
My objective is to portray each twin in as fair of a light as I can, and present their absolute best arguments. Due to the growing differences in the twins' ideology, I think that most of my readers will eventually end up favoring one twin over the other, but which one they favor is entirely up to them and will likely match pretty closely with their real-life ideology. I personally have a favorite twin and one that I tend to agree with more, but it's not by much: more like 60-40. But this story is far from a vehicle for pushing any one particular ideology, even my own. My readers are free to agree with either twin on anything, and I try my best not to portray either of them as strawmen.
Pound tends to be distrustful of big business and oligarchs, and his sister now pretty clearly fits that definition. Though the foal farms might not be as risky as Doctor Stable says that they are, and not for the same reasons, there is still some risk, however small. For instance, we've seen in Chupacabra Stadium what can happen if Pumpkin loses her concentration and her spell is broken: anything that was intangible inside of something else ends up turning solid again, and fused into it. (Think "telefrag" in the Doom games) Since she tends to do dozens of births at once in a giant room, as it's a more efficient use of her time, that also means that one lapse of concentration or jolt to her horn could mean dozens of dead babies and mothers.
Thankfully, that hasn't happened yet, but it's always a possibility. I think that to most ponies, that is acceptable and the benefits vastly outweigh the costs and potential danger. But I would imagine that most of them don't even know that it's a possibility. Pound would argue that there needs to be heavy regulation, while Doctor Stable might argue that intangible birthing is "unsafe at any speed." Pumpkin would argue that any laws or regulations on the "foal farms" would make it more difficult for her to do her job.
I will later introduce sort of a plot thread that points out that there really isn't a "right" answer here, that it is the flaw of the human/pony condition that there is no one correct way to run things. People are jerks, and whether more power is given to the market or to the government, there will always be abuses and there will always be injustices.
Man, I wish I had gotten to this chapter earlier, it is short but a doozy. Pound's version of Occupy Wall Street differs from history because the EFA was smart enough to have a list of demands to motivate people, and an existing group structure to keep people organized. Of course, that in turn means his protest turned out pretty much as I expected.
-Pound Cake should have led his ponies in a 2 hour march around the city and back to the square, I don't think RD was planning to tell the protesters to stay, because she is smart enough to know that is just playing into what their enemies want. Right to assembly has to be balanced against the needs of the community for the public space, especially in regards to long-term occupations. (Also, I like that Diamond Tiara played her Trump card.)
-Of course Hayseed should not have burned the store. I notice that when the EFA was peacfully protesting, he didn't lead his kin to hold a sit-in in the Barnyard Bargains, which was actually what he should have done. Once there was a quick bit of violence and looting, however, he jumped right on board. How many of those looters had shopped at the store many times previously?
-I was always somewhat sympathetic towards Starlight Glimmer. To me she is different from almost every other villain (except perhaps Crysalis) in that Starlight has a cause, and truly believes what she is doing what's best for everyone. I don't buy that argument that if she was sincere she would have removed her own cutie mark/told everyone about it. If she even could use her own special talent to remove her own cutie mark (probably like lifting oneself up by your own bootstraps), she would have been unable to equalize anyone else. As for why she hid it... I think it's useful to contrast Starlight and Trixie when Trixie took over Ponyville. Trixie had statues and banners put up of herself, and extorted goods and services from the residents. Starlight didn't give herself a title, she lived in a house the same size as everyone else, she didn't seem to have nicer things than anyone else, Starlight didn't seem to be motivated by glory, fame, or wealth, all she cared about was spreading her ideology. In this setting, the fact that she doesn't seem to be forcibly converting anyone (it would be hard to do that in the middle of a big city over a long period of time), I'm practically rooting for her. That said, I would not be surprised if over time, she becomes the Sunset Shimmer to Pound's Blueblood.
-I kind of think your description of farm animals is not to far off from how they live on the show, unfortunately. We only seem to see farm animals on farms, not in cities, we never see any calves or lambs in school with the Crusaders, I bet they are equal on paper but I think they do face a ton of discrimination, and it's a conundrum that seems impossible for anyone to solve...except for Starlight Glimmer. Discrimination is difficult to extinguish in the real world, and we all know really ours are just based on prejudices, not on facts. But in Equestria, where the many different races, and different special talents, really do affect people's ability to work jobs? Such a society would almost inevitably be a far more inequitable place for those who you could prove have less strength, skill, magic, maybe even intelligence than other races.
Oh, and I agree with Pound Cake on this one, provided Applejack is doing what you say she is. She could be profit-sharing the sales of milk, wool, crops that cattle help produce, etc, even if that would mean she gets less of a profit than her competitors, that doesn't mean it isn't the right thing to do. If you can't expect the Element of Honesty to take a stand, how could any other farmer do it differently? Heck, Applejack could be serving as moral cover for other farmers who are pressed to provide profit-sharing agreements with farm animals, since if a national hero sharecrops for food and shelter only, no one else needs to feel pressured. My only proviso is this: Remember that time in an early season Pinkie says high to a cow in town who stops by to get her favorite cupcake? If that cow is going to buy cupcakes, she must have bits, and from there I think there is a good chance Applejack IS paying her farm creatures in bits, which would obviously change my answer.
6021491 Spot on analysis. The Encampment is OWS but with an actual set of goals and a defined leadership. They're not just some folks camping out in a park; they're folks camping out in a park for a reason. So they're going to be a bit more successful, but also a bit more dangerous. In addition to Occupy, you can probably see influences from Euromaidan, the Arab Spring, and #blacklivesmatter. But how the Encampment resolves, well, we will have to wait and find out.
Heheheh... Diamond Tiara being Donald Trump was just too perfect to pass up.
I mean, they've got the same initials and the same monogrammed towel. And now that she's a grown-up mare, just look at her hair!
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i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/10/article-0-1950FEA200000578-243_634x450.jpg
I'd imagine that Hayseed's family has held many sit-ins at Rich's Barnyard Bargains, and have probably picketed the store dozens of times, but to no avail. I would've shown some of it, but showing just protests with nothing exciting happening at the end would make this story very long lol. The looters weren't necessarily part of Hayseed's family, but some of them probably did shop there. All of them were just being opportunistic.
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I definitely agree that Starlight Glimmer is the most compelling villain that we've seen in the entire show. The writers definitely got the message from everyone's feedback about Sombra having no character and no motivations other than cryyyyysssstaaaallllsss. Even an addict can be made interesting; see Jesse Pinkman in Breaking Bad for a great example. But no, our three-dimensional villain wasn't to come until S5. I would actually rate Cutie Markless as two of my favorite episodes of the whole show, just because of how dark and thought-provoking they were. So much so that I was willing to introduce a S5 character into my canon even though this is only S3 compliant. She was certainly far less self-interested than Trixie or Sombra, and did seem to legitimately believe what she was saying. I might have mentioned in another post how her ideology might be hypocritical, but no less hypocritical than certain other ideologies, like the US wanting to have nuclear weapons but keeping everyone else from having them, all for peace. As for the practicality aspect:
Who knows if her spell would work on herself but the show writers, though it's funny you should mention that. I actually remember that a couple of years ago, there was somewhat of a fanon controversy over whether or not unicorns could use levitation magic on themselves. My headcanon answer had always been "no," but in "Baby Cakes," Pumpkin Cake finally proved it could be done. In some of my earliest drafts of The Trouble With Unicorns, which was written in 2012 a few months after that episode came out, levitation magic was Pumpkin's main talent, rather than intangibility, though she could also use intangibility as well. But she was so skilled with telekinesis that she could fly.
Before TTWU was a story focusing on Blueblood's rise to power, it focused on 15-year-old Pumpkin Cake living in a 1984-esque unicorn kingdom in Canterlot full of censorship and totalitarianism, and a magical version of room 101. Sort of like Oceania/Eastasia/Eurasia, there was also to be an earth pony kingdom, and a pegasus kingdom (where Pound lived, and Pumpkin would sneak off and 'fly' up there to visit him). That's why Pumpkin is on the cover of TTWU even though neither her nor Pound appear in it.
I ditched the idea after I realized that the 1984 references would be way too blatant, and I had made Pumpkin Cake into a Mary Sue in that draft. She was way too powerful, and it was black and white morality. (Fascism is bad, mmkay?) Think Andrew from Chronicle meets an idealistic Danny Phantom on crack.
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Of course, Pumpkin is pretty damn powerful in this version of the story, too, but at least she has equally-powerful adversaries and rivals, and she's not unquestionably on the side of good all the time like she was in the original TTWU. The idea for "Room 101" did ultimately stay, and was transformed into Trixie's dungeon in Mareicopa.
Wait a minute... Trixie, Sombra, and Starlight Glimmer... how come all the villains are unicorns, Hasbro? What are you trying to say? When do we get an earth pony or pegasus villain?
Ah, I forgot all about that! Those early episodes had some interesting tidbits them. In that case, my headcanon is now that I do think that Applejack pays them in bits, but only when times are good and she can afford to give them a little bonus. Otherwise, we've seen her and her family be quite poor, and Granny Smith can't afford a hip replacement, their barn needs replacing every five episodes, etc. Back in her younger days, she might have been a good candidate for the sorts of ponies the Encampment is trying to help. But she is so stubborn and independent, that I don't think she'd ever take a government handout.
It is rather irrelevant at this point, as Applejack no longer has a cattle or sheep ranch, since she's a manager at Orange Incorporated. It's still an interesting moral question regardless, and I do like asking those at the end of every chapter to provoke discussion. Judging by my story punching far above its weight in number of comments, I'd say they serve their purpose
6023593 As soon as you say it, I'm already wondering why there aren't more stories of an adult DT as Trump. Poor gal has a severly thinning mane that she covers with a wig made of those endangered moles we heard about, she marries and divorces an endless series of handsome young stallions, and she's only on the business council because if Twilight didn't add her, Diamond was going to start demanding in papers to see Twilight's long-form alicornification certificate.
Classy DT, very classy.
The thing about these riots is they tend to spread, not just to Maricopa, but probably Canterlot, Cloudsdale, everywhere. For all of Sparkler's genius, Equestria is still Canterlot's biggest trading partner, and Canterlot would not be able to hold off the Zebras and the Diamond Dogs on their own, no city state can except the pegasi air cities, and they will starve without proper trade. Independent shining beacons of civilization surrounded by darkness are a great idea in fiction, but in practice they never last, think Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. Without a centralized military to defend everyone, as well as someone to make large-scale investments, all it takes is one bad actor like Zapp, or any future followers of his, to pick off city states piecemeal, while technology and infrastructure stalls out. If Equestria really does fall, all ponykind on the continent will experience a new dark age, and those "independent" cities will find they are pretty damn dependent after all. (I suppose Cloudsdale and others could literally move across the ocean to trade with ground nations with good economies).
Of course her ideology is hypocritical and terrible, but the fact that she even has a system of beliefs, rather than raw megalomania like Tirek or Sombra, makes her a much better villain. Thank goodness you cut off canon before season 5, I don't know how you would have handled Griffonstone. I hope Pinkie never figures out that the traditional Griffonstone scone recipe is probably some kind of meat pie.
The 1984-inspired story has been done quite a lot on this site, it's really hard to add something new to that kind of idea, I'm glad you shifted pace. Pumpkin is still Danny Phantom on crack though.
Yeah, your explanation of Daisy Joe makes sense, she was all excited to go into town to buy one cupcake, that was probably her monthly bonus or something, and it makes Applejack feel like she's one of the "nice ones."
I think the discussion questions are a hit, more authors should try them out if they want comments.
6023656 I might do the Diamond Tiara as Donald Trump fic idea. I'll call it "You're FIRED!" and use that picture I posted as the cover art.
Cloudsdale and Las Pegasus can move locations, but I definitely agree with you about Canterlot and Mareicopa somehow getting caught up in all of this, even though Canterlot is independent and Mareicopa might as well be. I responded to another comment about that, where one of my readers thought that they'd be sort of an island unto themselves. But they definitely can't defend themselves from the Zebra Empire, they definitely can't support their economies without foreign trade, and they can't stop protests from spreading to those cities without massive restrictions on civil liberties. Think of how many elite nobles live in Canterlot. I'm sure there's plenty of resentment there, and as soon as the lower class hears news of the protests in Manehattan, they might get out onto Founders' street and demand similar changes in the Second Duchy. Mareicopa is also similar, though it doesn't have a noble class, the city is effectively run by Danny Phantom on crack, with a spell that only one in a million ponies can cast but that thousands of ponies need to live, with a net worth of hundred of millions of bits, and her own private army. Pumpkin is to Mareicopa what Ted Turner was to my old hometown of Atlanta, and I'm pretty sure that some ponies might resent her for that, not least of which is an inattentive father with a dead son that he blames on her
I'm not sure how I would have handled Griffonstone. Perhaps I could make the case that Griffonstone is one of several different griffon states (in the same way that the ponies have Equestria, the Crystal Empire, whatever country Trottingham is in), and that the Griffon Empire is an overseas kingdom located on Zebrica. Though they do hunt and eat meat, that is shown offscreen because it's a kid's show. It's kind of like how we never see them engage in bodily functions, but we figure that it has to happen at some point.
But I like my idea of cutting it of at S3 a lot better
6023774 I'm am sure your Diamond Trump story will have class coming out of its ass.
Agree on the domestic situations caused in Mareicopa and Canterlot. I feel like Pumpkin may want to get that tree idea set up (and if the Equestrian government isn't around, who does she expect to be preventing her from getting cut down over the centuries?)
Griffonstone is actually really closely tied to Griffon mythology, they were supposed to have some homeland in the Boreal mountains, and that goat creature that stole the idol is based on a mythological race of creatures that warred with Griffons. I assume Griffonstone griffons do their hunting in the vast mountain ranges around the city. You notice how the entire city-state seemed smaller than Ponyville, yet it was in an enormous territory? Apex predator hunting ranges.
Normally I don't like to bash Twilight with the power of hindsight, but if she was going to assemble a council of rich ponies to advice her on the economy, one she listens to but doesn't have to follow, she really should have also had a labor council with Pound Cake and some union leaders, etc, to advice her on social safety net stuff, even if their ideas were ridiculous, it would help her public perception of being too beholden to the rich, and probably endear her to the ruling party in parliament. Right now she reminds me a bit of the Supreme Court in the 1930s, this lifetime appointee holding the line against a popular demand for a more progressive society (no value judgement there, it just seems to fit a historic parallel).
6024708 Were Pumpkin to "permanently" transform into a tree, it would only be permanent in the sense that it wouldn't require re-casting every so often, and would last indefinitely. But it could still be reversed voluntarily by the caster. Presumably, if Pumpkin was getting cut down, and she had the presence of mind, she'd turn back to a pony temporarily, find someplace else that wasn't getting cut down, rinse, and repeat.
Of course, her plan is highly uncertain to begin with, as it rests on her being able to cast an indefinite shape-change spell, one of the most difficult spells that there is (recall that it took all six elements of harmony to permanently transform Discord into stone). It also rests on her not getting bored of being immortal, even if she is under some sort of magical mind-altering spell like WINI the whole time. Those are two pretty big if's, and the second one is actually a major debate in the philosophy of religion (as well as the philosophy of the mind/brain). Would heaven (or a similar state brought about by brain alteration) really be such a great place or would everybody there eventually get bored, even of eternal bliss? If you don't get bored, what stops you from not getting bored? Are 'you' still 'you' if you don't have your ability to feel boredom?
Interesting idea about Apex predator hunting ranges. I'll bet they hunt goats or something.
I agree about Twilight, and I think that she's made a mistake by not including those labor and EFA leaders on her council. Though it is mentioned that Rainbow Dash holds at least some sway with Twilight. As they're both former Elements of Harmony and close friends, I'm sure that Twilight listens to whatever Dash has to say, and that Dash can probably get an audience with the princess whenever she wants. Pound Cake also could probably talk to the Princess on a regular basis were he so inclined, but he has shown that he wants her gone, or reduced to a purely ceremonial role like the Queen of England.
I got an idea for your story again. Want to hear it in PM?