“—and after the Battle of Yorktown, the British were powerless in America, and that was the last major battle. The United States of America soon became an independent nation,” Neil finished. “Any questions?” Luna had remained quiet the entire time, preferring to save her questions for after the lecture. Neil was obviously at least passingly knowledgeable about the subject, but he was certainly no scholar.
“Yes, I do have some questions,” she began, but Buzz interrupted, “Hold on a few minutes—we’re going to lift off and get on our way to Columbia now. It might be a bit rough for the first few seconds. Hold on to something.”
Neil was already in his seat, and so was Buzz. Luna wrapped her forelegs around the nearest protrusion and braced herself as best she could. The lander began to shake, and a dull roar sounded from beneath her hooves. ‘That must be the ‘combustion rocket,’ they spoke of,’ Luna thought. The roar intensified until she couldn’t hear anything else, the sound waves shaking her to her bones.
Then, as Buzz began to take the LM off the lunar surface, the vibration increased as the rocket went to full power and it fought against the sparse atmosphere of the Moon, the lunar gravity, and the lander’s mass to begin its trek upwards.
After it had gotten several dozen yards off the surface, the roar diminished, as did the vibration. “Right,” Buzz said in relief. “We’re clear of the Moon, Houston, and en route to Columbia.”
“Copy, Eagle. En route to Columbia. We’ll inform Collins of the recent developments in more depth as you go. Houston, out.”
“Eagle, out.”
Now able to hear her own thoughts (faster than any other mode of transportation it might have been, but it was certainly louder as well), Luna recollected them and then asked, “Why is it your country resorted to violence to free itself of the injustices you described? Surely there was another way.”
Neil shook his head. “I’m going to say this straight up, Miss Luna. Humans are not the most pacifistic species. Since the beginning, our species has had conflicts within it. And we tried, we really did. First, there was peaceful protest. Then, there were official complaints to the government of England. Lastly, there was not-so-peaceful protests. Still, the English government refused to even address the grievances we set forth. So, the only option after that was force.”
“I see,” Luna said thoughtfully, relaxing her hold on the lander. “And you said your government was a democracy?”
“Close. It’s a democratic republic,” Neil corrected. “But yes, it’s similar. We hold elections for our officials. What kind of government does your nation have?”
“’Tis a diarchy,” Luna said. “Two equal rulers, each with their own spheres of responsibility. Or rather, it was. One of the two rebelled against the other and attempted to usurp the kingdom. She was banished. Now the kingdom—“ She caught herself, managing not to say, ‘I suppose,’ or something to give away her own banishment, “is a monarchy. The leader hasn’t given power to anypony else yet—the rebellion was quite recent, as these things go.” Oh my, but thinking of Equestria in both the abstract and the present—without her—was hard.
Neil cocked his head in confusion. “Did you just say ‘anypony?’” he asked.
“Yes,” Luna said cautiously. “Is that not the proper term of addressment?”
“Well, no,” he replied, grinning slightly. “The correct term would be ‘anybody.’ As you can see,” he spread his arms and wiggled his fingers for emphasis, “We’re not ponies.”
“Ah, I see,” Luna said, filing that tidbit away. “Would the other terms of address then be ‘some...body,’ and ‘everybody’?”
“Got it in one,” Neil said with a smile, pointing one finger at her. Luna just stared at the finger. What was that supposed to mean?
Neil’s smile faltered, and he glanced between her nonunderstanding gaze and his finger. “Oh!” he said in sudden understanding. “It’s how humans point to others,” he explained. “It’s implying, I’m talking to or about you. Alternatively, it means, you have a point there.”
“I see,” Luna allowed. Those appendages would be so much more useful than hooves for manipulating objects, no matter how nimble the hoof.
“I would bid thee continue with thy country’s history,” she said formally. “’Tis most interesting, and filled with conflict.”
-----
“WHAT?” Luna’s bellow shook the LM almost as much as the engines had. “Thine country kept slaves and dared to call itself a land of freedom?” She huffed, “Such a nation deserves none such title.”
Neil sat down heavily. “Well, yes,” he admitted. “Our country was once a slave-holding country. Many of the Founding Fathers tried to abolish it, but the landowners in the South relied too much upon it for their livelihood, and so it remained.” He grimaced. “As you can see, it soon led to problems.”
“Another war,” Luna answered sadly. “Tell me, for such a ‘free’ nation, how many wars has your country fought?”
“Umm...” Neil glanced at his hands, mouthing words as he counted on his fingers. “Nine—one of which is going on right now.” He checked with Buzz, who confirmed his figures with a nod.
“And so many in... how many years?”
“About two hundred,” Neil said, wincing.
Luna’s mouth flopped open. “That’s.... that’s a war roughly every twenty of your years! How hast thine country survived?” Those numbers... simply boggling. Before she had—before, there had not been a war for over a century. And even that had been a small matter, quickly settled.
Buzz defended, “We’re far from the worst offenders. We’re actually pacifistic, when you consider that of those wars, all of them but the Civil War were provoked by outside action threatening our nation. If you look at Germany and France, they’ve been fighting nonstop for the past 70 years, almost, and it shows. Especially Germany.” The two humans shared a glance laden with meaning Luna couldn’t decipher.
“Whatever dost thou mean?” she demanded.
“Well, there were a lot of small conflicts between the two countries about a century ago, during Germany’s founding, but 55 years ago, a huge war—we call it World War One—erupted, mainly on the front between the two. France won, but humiliated Germany afterwards.
“Then, only 20 years later, Germany had been overtaken by an extremist faction led by a dictator named Hitler. He started another war and conquered France, but was eventually beaten. By the end, Germany was hardly functioning as a country. It was actually broken up into two countries—East and West Germany. The US and her allies run West Germany, and, well, others run the East.”
World War? Luna’s brain fixated on that thought. To think of a war large enough to embroil an entire planet—and the ‘One’ in the title. That meant there had been more than one. How had humans ever survived as a species if they were constantly killing one another?
“Whom are these others you speak of?” she asked.
Buzz and Neil once again shared a look, with even more hidden meaning this time.
“Well—“ Neil began.
Buzz glanced at the control panel. “Hold that thought, sorry, but we’re docking, and I need to concentrate.”
“We’ll tell you later, then,” Neil acquiesced gratefully. “We’ll introduce you to Mike Collins first. I’m sure he’ll love ya!”
A few minutes of inopportune silence ensued as Buzz began to dock with the Columbia. With a clunk, the two connected, and Buzz checked the seal manually, then swung up the hatch.
“Welcome to the Columbia!” he said, with a grand sweeping gesture.
In the hatch stood a third human, this one not dressed in the heavy white suits, but rather a blue undersuit. He stared for several seconds in shock. His first words were:
“Aw, hell. They really weren’t kidding.”
Neil, Buzz, and Luna all burst out laughing at the sheer bewilderment contained on his face.
nice way to prep luna about human nature and love collins reaction to seeing luna for the first time aint no space sickness in this place lol
ending is hilarious
I wonder why the above quote was even necessary in that paragraph, the Revolutionary War was one of the few times that we were both completely in the right, and tried everything possible to settle peacefully. Surely Luna isn't suggesting that she would have had a problem if the Crystal Ponies declared their independence from Sombra. And why is slavery and racism such a big deal to her? Ponies were the same way before Hearth's Warming.
Heh... That ending is amusing. Probably what my reaction would be in his place. Anyway, this story series has been sitting at the very beginning of my 50+ Read Later list... so yeah. Finally got around to reading it, and I am not disappointed. In fact, I am impressed. I think it is slightly unrealistic for them to just lecture her on US history from the getgo on, at least, without noting that they have SOME kind of reference material at the very least. I'm definitely going to look forward to more of this. Especially Luna giving the brief of her origins and country. Great options for hugs/d'awws.
Wow. Luna has some hard lessons about Earth history ahead of her. I'm afraid of how she'll react to some of the atrocities in history, the one connected to WW2 the most obvious shocker for her. Although I imagine her answer for 'how did the species survive' will be answered by the first person who can give her an answer of the approximate global rate of human reproduction, not counting the annual death toll. That'll blow her mind.
Also, loved that last line.
3972158
If I had to guess, I would say Luna passes off the pre-Equestrian era as a time of ignorance. Even Spike said there was no harmony, only hatred. I think perhaps it shocks her that America was a slave nation because of the liberal ideals Americans espoused. If the US is supposedly such an enlightened nation committed to freedom, why then does the barbaric practice of slavery remain? That's just my take on it.
Anyways, I look forward to seeing how they try to explain communism to her. I can also see her joining the anti-war movement when she sees people in the US as appalled at the bloodshed as she is.
3972635
You know there are ponies, a species that are naturally herborvorous and gentle if left alone, unlike humans that are omnivours that had to fight for not only food, but also survival. They are on a planet whose enviroment they can control unlike our world where it can be peacful and viloent at the saem time. In addation, Spike said their was conflict, he never said there was war. So there is a reason for Luna to be shock as even pre-equestria war could amount to nothing compare to humans as their is little information and since it is a child show, they are stated to being not as bad.
I may go so far to state it would be comparing a early Galdiator Matchs to a Roman War, and not the matches that Hollywood try to give off as the truth. I mean the actual fights where death is very rare since the older the gladiator live, the more money they can make off them. There was a reason why lion eating hertics were popular. It was the only moments there was blood instead of the gashes in battle.
Well good job in the story, keep up the good work.
Saying flat out that we're violent to me sounds like "heads up, killing isn't exactly uncommon".
Also, tell me someone drops the world population bomb.
3972158
3973025
While it is true that the three tribes were racist and distrustful of each other and from the sound of it there were fights over the ever decreasing amount of food taking place, under no circumstance did unicorns start whipping earth ponies in order to make them work faster to grow food, nor did Commander Hurricane have an earth pony village slaughtered in order to gain their resources.
Despite the tensions and mutual hatred of each other, all three tribes treated the members of the other two pony races as ponies (admittedly ones they wanted nothing to do with) and not as 'things'. Once you start thinking of people as things, you've set yourself down a very dark path. It says a lot about the three tribes that all of them separately believed that discovering a new, greener land was a better idea then fighting amongst themselves for what little remained of their homeland.
This when compared to 'People living in a city that my holy book deems holy on the other side of the world don't worship the same god that I do, death to the heretical swine!' was the diving force behind hundreds of wars worth of holy wars.
Oh gods, wait until Luna discovers human religion. That's going to be FUN!
eee politics
Luna is going to cause so much trouble. You don't even know.
Balance of power? Mutually assured destruction? I can move the moon. There is a third superpower now.
3973340
I think your taking the play to be a far more accurate historical representation than it really was. Remember, this was something that foals were meant to watch, and in some cases even participate in. Perhaps I'm just projecting Earth history onto Equestria, but I believe most Earth Ponies lived as serfs. Those who didn't were cowed by the idea of the Pegasi messing with their weather, or the Unicorns messing with the night/day cycle.
It's a four day trip.
3973404
Not to mention all the hell that's going to be raised when someone goes on TV and says "Sorry Christians, the Pagans were right. Power to the moon Goddess!'
Like beating an angry bear with a stick.
3973404
3974000
I can move moons, my sister can move suns.
Yeah, I think Equestria just went a lot higher on the 'Do Not Disturb' scale.
Should tag this as a sequel, dude. I only discovered this from the popular stories box.
A bit simplistic retelling but it would take hours to explain the intricacies of the global and internal politics and economics that led to both the Revolutionary War and the War Between the States. Furthermore, I think I'm right in saying that, to this day, historians are divided as to the real facts of these events. Too much has been clouded by time, nationalism and the inevitable fact that the dominant tale is always that of the victor.
Just to let you know that it took a couple of hours for Eagle to fly to Columbia, although they wanted it done as quickly as possible, so as not to tax the life support and power systems. I'm sure that, with an unanticipated 'passenger', they would have tried shave off even more time to the rendezvous and docking!
>hurr. we be soviets, we be evil greater than nazis. durr. now you die, kapitalist swine!
3974000
well, at least she's a tangible proof of her own existence. and she's awesome and kinda cute.
Neil Armstrong isn't quite accurate when he says that all U.S. wars other then the Civil were due to outside threats to the U.S. The U.S. was the aggressor in the Mexican-American War and Spain was not threatening the U.S. before the Spanish-American War.
I love it!
3973025
Wow. Those ancients were sure hardcore.
Unless you’ve suddenly changed the setting from the last two then take off the bloody crossover tag; this is an AU, not a crossover.
Man, this is extreme culture shock.
3973570
Yes, but I figured for the sake of continuity that it shouldn't be constantly mentioned every and any time it comes up. It's short enough that this wouldn't cause any significant problems, so it's best ignored after acknowledging it.
Much like accents one doesn't know how to write.
3974494
Well, but both had pretexts for which the President and Congress could pretend such, with incursions into Texas for the Mexican-American War, and the loss of the Maine for the Spanish-American War.
While not really outside force, someone not a student of history could see them as such.
3977093 Good argument, but probably the wrong comment.
3977102
Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed!
3971826 that is a good legitimate answer. Thank you
Not bad. Not bad at all. Unfortunately, a few points I can't just let slide.
Oh, historical revisionism, how I love thee. Certainly, the British government could have handled things better, but the Revolutionaries were hardly without fault, as appears to be indicated here.
Principality. It's ruled by Princesses, and unless you establish some lore whereby there is a higher office above them that they refuse to ascend to, for whatever reason, then it's a Principality. Co-Principality, technically, seeing as how there were two Princesses.
*Ahem* War of 1812. Oh don't get me wrong, you had reasons for starting it. Quite probably, those reasons weren't even exaggerated all that much. But 'pacifism' sort of implies interacting in a peaceful manner. 'Isolationism' is a much better fit to what America used to do, as Britain, Mexico, and the Native American tribes would all agree that America was significantly less than 'pacifist'.
3972158
I didn't see anything about racism, but Luna certainly had every right to be shocked by the idea of slavery.
Pre-Equestrian Ponies apparently lived in three seperate, but interdependent, nations. Both Pegasi and Unicorns may have looked down on Earth ponies, but neither attempted to claim they _owned_ them. And of course, even if they did, they certainly weren't trying to claim to be the 'land of the free' whilst they did so.
3979814
Remember, this is simply Neil showing American History as he knows it-- and he's not a history professor. He's going to actually be just as informed as an average Joe today, which is why there are errors and generalizations. If you asked someone on the street, would their answers be any better?
And 'Princess' is simply a title. In all but that, they're queens, for princess implies you are the heir to a kingdom, but they actually rule the kingdom at the moment. Therefore kingdom, not principality.
3982728
I'll grant you the history; American history is so propagandised it almost deserves quotation marks - especially when the British are involved.
However, your assumption regarding the term 'prince' is grossly inaccurate. 'Prince' derives from the Latin 'Princeps', meaning 'First' - it was used during the Republic to denote the 'First Citizen'. A 'Principality can well be a nation entirely independant of a Kingdom - look at Liechtenstein, and Monaco.
As well, Andorra is a co-Principality - it is one of the few real-life examples of a Diarchy.
Finally - a royal nation is named after the highest office it contains. Therefore, within Equestria, if the rulers are Princesses, it is a Principality. If they held a higher title, the nation would also hold a different title - likely 'queendom', due to their feminine culture.
The two examples I can think of, whereby a Prince of X (with X being a sub-national region) came into being, was when an independant Principality was incorporated into a Kingdom, the heir to the throne assumed the title to both pacify the locals, and reinforce their subservient status - this is also why the French heir was styled the 'Dauphin'. Equestria not being a subject nation, this clearly cannot be the case.
So, do please be consistent - either the Princesses hold the highest office in Equestria, and therefore rule a Principality, or it is a king/queendom, and they are refusing/unable to ascend to that position for some reason.
Awww man, I keep favoriting each story in the series but then not seeing the rest until well after they're posted, since I don't get any updates about the sequels. Oh well, at least I found it now, and got 3 chapters too!
3982984
In that case, the last creature to have the undoubted title of king was Discord-- and given his legacy, it might well make sense that they refuse to step up to the same office he once held.
3986966
Except that would require them to officially recognise Discord as the legitimate ruler, and king, of Equestria. If they abolished the office of 'king', then Equestria ceases to be a kingdom, and I really don't see them making it so that anyone who defends Equestria from Discord is technically committing treason.
Although...
I suppose if you _really_ want it to be a kingdom, you could have them pull a Gondor. This would make the Princesses regents of Equestria, whilst waiting for a legitimate heir to appear. Discord being, well, Discord, I doubt that would happen, so the Sisters get to rule as they were elected by whatever was left of the nobility.
However, Celestia can not then become Queen of Equestria, except by overthrowing the old regime... which she couldn't really do, after the whole Nightmare Moon thing, without appearing to lose all integrity.
3987161
Of course, this really fails to be an issue in this story; why are we even debating this? Past that point, it's academic and holds no bearing on the plot for the foreseeable future.
3997523
Abuse of titles is something of a bugbear of mine - and this is a _really_ common one. With most franchises, you can find a titbit of lore tucked away somewhere which explains why a Princess is ruling a Kingdom, but so far as I am aware, we have nothing similar so far in FIM - yet this seems to be forgotten by most authors.
As to why we're still arguing over it? I claimed you were in error, and you disputed that fact. If your mistake was as simple as using 'rouge' in place of 'rogue', I doubt we would be arguing at all.
3982984
In some stories I've seen it explained as their parents are the proper King and Queen, and that they are off somewhere involved cosmic/interdimensional shenanigans while their daughters run their country. Though that obviously lacks any support from canon sources.
It is also referred to as a Realm, within canon. How would that interact with the title of Princess?
lol hummmm
Wonder how Nightmare Moon will take that
I laughed
6004071 Same
lovin the story so far, even if i'm behind.
Ehr sorry about that... but the Eagle did NOT have any seat.
The crew was standing all the time while flying it.
[On the multiple day mission two hammock would be placed inside for the astronaut to sleep]
Those scientists are only gonna feak harder when Luna tells them about having the same animals they do.
As a lover of history and ESPESCIALLY the Apollo missions, this story is gold!
Yikes. I can only imagine how much Luna will love the US supported coups in south america...