Was it normal, for the streets to be so empty?
Under Sombra's rule... there had been an exact time and place assigned to everypony. A time to work, a time to shop. A time to teach and a time to learn. A time to sing their praise towards the palace and another which took place in the evenings, which had apparently been more of a lullaby. And with that schedule drawn up and fully understood, just about everypony would always be found in their designated place at the ordered time, excepting the ones who'd been a little bit late and thus effectively reassigned themselves to the laboratory.
She hadn't been able to get rid of all of it, for some of the set hours had a basis in common sense, with only the punishments emerging from cruelty. Work hours, shopping hours, school hours: most of that had survived, along with the desperate surge of fear which hit whenever a crystal pony realized they were on the verge of being late, with the secondary meaning of that last word not quite forgotten. So right now, flying over the light-scattering roads... yes, there was a chance the streets had originally been meant to be so empty, because it was work time for many, along with learning time for the youngest. (And she was still working on getting rid of the texts Sombra had dictated, with the exception of copies she was saving for the library and Canterlot Archives, because even crimes against history needed to be on the court record.)
But there were more shops opening every week, and with the tightest time restraints lifted, a few of the crystal ponies were beginning to venture out with the intent of at least finding out what it was like to consider using them, although she was now starting to wonder if that was because the restoration of that portion of the capital had created something which had come across as a virtual order. But still... it meant that even if there weren't ponies visibly heading towards the shops, she was guaranteed to find a number working within.
So she flew over the capital, heading for the central shopping district, keeping her focus on the empty streets. And there were times when it seemed as if she heard things from below: little gasps which preceded the closure of a window or the slamming of a door. When she'd originally sped away from the palace, almost fleeing from desperate praise wearing the constantly-slipping mask of honesty, she could have sworn she'd heard a brief explosion of sound at the main gate, something like a snort of surprise exhaled with six times the normal force -- but she'd been moving at speed, it hadn't registered as a threat, and so by the time instinct allowed knowledge to fully pass through, she'd already been too far ahead to truly consider doubling back. She'd probably just startled a few Guards, armored mice reacting to the shadow of a crownless hawk.
And if that had been it, their reaction wasn't unique.
[/hr]
"Hello!" Cadance beamed as her field carefully closed the sparkling door. She was keeping her voice pleasant, with her volume low enough that it wouldn't drown out the little crystal bell set just above the top of the frame, still ringing its tiny alert of her presence. "Oh, isn't this just a beautiful little shop! What do you sell here -- oh, cordials!" So many crystal decanters, with a full spectrum of liquids adding their own shifts to the rainbow-filled light. "Yes, that's right, I did say production could begin again! And you're already back in business, just a mere two moons later. It's quite impressive, really, especially given the variety you've already got in stock. I suppose there must have been a true demand motivating such a fast revival, Miss -- Mister -- um... excuse me..."
She looked around again. A complete lack of ponies met her gaze in every way.
"...does... anypony work here?"
Silence proudly stepped in and tried to provide an equal opportunity answer.
"...hello?"
Consistency seized the throne, and Cadance went through a brief moment where as far as she was concerned, consistency could have it. But she rallied quickly.
"I... um... just wanted to talk. To whoever runs this beautiful shop. Somepony must work here, right? Or maybe -- you just stepped out and left the door unlocked, because... well, it's not like anypony ever stole..." Not under Sombra's rule, at least not more than once. "So maybe I should just wait... until you come back, and..."
...if there's nopony here, then who am I talking to?
Cadence repressed most of the sigh, then looked around again. There was a closed door behind the sales counter, presumably leading to a storage room. And while the display cases and shelves were, at most, translucent, the door and counter were mostly opaque, which meant --
-- actually, now that she was looking directly towards the counter...
She carefully trotted forward, being exceptionally cautious in her movements and keeping a constant proprioceptionary eye on her wings: crystal ponies were, on average, a little smaller than those from Equestria's three main races and even with that size difference factored in, the aisles were still exceptionally narrow ones. It took ten precise hoofsteps against tone-sounding floor, with a pause to let the music fade from each, before she began to hear the too-fast breathing.
It was hard to glance down behind the mostly-opaque sales counter in a gentle manner. But she tried.
"Hello?"
The iridescent green fetal position ball of pony trembling against the rose base, finally visible as more than a shadow, said something. Between the near-whisper, vibration, and the fact that the mouth was tucked into the body, she couldn't figure out any of the content. It could have been a greeting. It could have been a gasp. She was desperately hoping it hadn't been a prayer.
"...please look up?"
Reluctantly, the body uncurled just enough to let her see the jawline: a stallion, and an exceptionally small one.
"Princ --" and he stopped.
He was breathing far too quickly, and she -- seemed to be on the verge of matching him. She hadn't felt her own pace shifting, didn't know why it was happening. But the sudden urge to weep... that she understood all too well, and far too much time passed as she fought it off. Sparkling grey eyes watched the process without blinking, or comprehension. But fear... fear stocked every shelf, and there weren't enough cordials in the Empire to make it go away.
"Talk to me," Cadance said. It had not been an order. To her own ears, it had sounded like a plea.
The little head shook, almost tucked back in.
"You heard the Decree," she helplessly said. "Everypony did, didn't they? I hate the Ear, I hate just touching it, but it works. You know what I asked for. There has to be something you want to say about -- well..." Her volume was dropping. "...you're affected by the new laws more than a lot of ponies. Your product was banned for... a long time. You wouldn't have this shop under Sombra. You wouldn't..." Be. "...have this new opportunity. But it's hard to make a perfect change. Maybe I made the taxes too high. A minimum age requirement for purchase could have been the wrong idea, or that age is too low, or I should have added more years... I don't know, and part of that is just because I've never sold this sort of thing. But -- this is your business. You must have some ideas about what the government should and shouldn't do with it, just because it is yours. When it comes to the new policies, it puts you in a position to offer --" and it was so hard not to swallow before saying the words, it was becoming so hard to talk at all "-- honest criticism."
He breathed, and just barely.
"So -- please..." And with that, pleading had become begging. "Talk to me. About those policies, which I know you're aware of, or you wouldn't have been able to open at all. What could I have done better? Is business good just on word of mouth, or should the palace be doing more to let ponies know you're out here? Does your tax burden feel too high? You -- you have to have an opinion..."
And based on what resulted, his only expressed opinion was that breathing was becoming harder by the moment.
Her next move -- the last move it felt like she could make at all -- was done on instinct, and she didn't realize it had been a mistake until much later. She trotted around the counter. She slowly lowered herself to the floor, about half a body length away. And she tucked herself into the smallest bundle of life she could manage to become -- which, even as the smallest of the alicorns, left her too much larger than he was, something which blocked out the symphony of rainbows to cast a looming shadow...
But in that moment, all she felt was that it was the last thing she could do to make herself into less of a threat. Wings still at her sides, head low, facing partially away from him, with her horn partially covered by an awkwardly-positioned foreleg.
"...please?"
Silence, but for that too-fast breathing.
"I..."
No, there was one thing she could say, the thing which had worked with Jasper, if only for a moment. "...I give you an exemption from the Decree. Long enough to tell me why you won't use it, because... there have to be things you wanted to say, you must have wanted to say some of them when he was still here and... he's gone, he's dead, and..."
...I'm not him.
Please... please don't make me into him...
The words were a whisper. But they were words.
"You -- you said --"
Her head came up. Eyes which had begun to brighten due to freshly-coating moisture started to lighten from within. "Yes?"
"...that if we could only say something nice... not to say anything at all..."
Feathers trembled, her tail vibrated, her entire body seemed to be trying to collapse in on itself --
"-- and I... I obey..."
She had never learned how to teleport, despite all of Celestia's attempts at instruction. Never managed to master the feel, and part of that had been from a subconscious refusal to surrender sky and ground for even the most momentary experience of the nothing that was the between. But she found herself outside the cordial shop without being entirely sure how she'd gotten there, with no memory of the transition, and for the briefest of moments, she thought she'd done it. Right up until she heard the final crash from the impacted display cases she'd pushed aside during her gallop.
She stood in place, trying only to breathe, letting the tears come to their own natural conclusion. It took some time. And then she moved towards another shop.
Then another.
And another...
[/hr]
It was an old joke, and one she'd never found particularly funny, let alone seen any truth lurking within. But Celestia had been the one to casually mention it, during a talk about bad assumptions, battle tactics, and the disasters which came when the two combined. Cadance had asked her if she had any which came to mind immediately, and after an extremely visible sorting period, the eldest of the alicorns -- no, elder, for at the time, there had been but two -- had said the words.
'Well... for starters, I thought there was no way a minotaur could be faster on the ground than a pony. And it turned out they are. Over a very short distance.'
She'd been surprised, and more than a little disbelieving: it was the latter which had gotten into her response. 'How?'
And Celestia had ruefully smiled. 'They... have less legs to sort out.'
Over a very short distance: she'd never been able to picture that. Two legs versus four: it didn't make any sense to have two win.
And over a very long one...
He was in excellent shape: that had been obvious at the very first glance. Muscles everywhere, with many of them being used to support more muscles. But that was in the upper body. The lower had visible strength, but not as much of it -- and during anything approaching an extended run, had the task of carrying all that muscle mass around for the duration.
He wasn't panting when he came around the corner, hand using a newly-placed street sign (written in Equestrian, planted for the benefit of those six -- seven tourists) for a pivot point, swinging his entire body around without losing speed. But he was close to it, and the sweat flowed down his body, outlining those muscles in rivers of frustration.
"Found you!" His pace began to drop as he approached the fountain, desperate (and, to her, low-speed) run starting to slow into a more normal walk, at least once she took the strangely hard hoof impacts out. (The road held against them, and threatened to do so forever.) "One set of wings in the whole red-tinged Empire, one alicorn out of three in the world -- the only thing easier to spot than you should be a red cape, and I've still been chasing you down the whole damn morning! Couldn't get in to see you yesterday, couldn't make your Guards understand that anyone would want to see you, and then you went right over my horns..."
She slowly pushed herself upright. The crystal fountain was... actually, she didn't want to think about what must have gone into that beauty right now, much less the orders required to bring it forth. But the water had been pure, and tears needed recharging.
Her face was dry now, but for a damp snout. But the tracks were still worn into her fur, they made her reluctant to fully face him -- and so she turned away.
Or it could have been something else.
Still... certain things remained visible from the back.
"...what the buck happened to your mane?"
She almost smiled. Instead, she quietly said "You're not the one I wanted to notice," and refused to turn.
He was getting closer. His breathing was somewhat labored. "Most of yesterday, part of the morning, trying to get to you without charging the palace. Doing it the right way because I figured that somewhere, you had to have a Guard who'd at least wonder why I wanted to see you so badly. To stop you -- and it's too late, it's way past noon by now and it's too red-tinged late..."
The fountain... was one of many, each beautiful in its own different way: the only thing they had in common was the horror which had inspired them. Every distinct district in the capital had a central fountain, and all of them had seeming rust at the base. (It didn't change the taste of the water, at least after she told herself that for the sixth time.) Cadance hadn't gone far for this one, had remained in the primary shopping district, the only pony on the streets at all. Because...
"...do you know what you did?" Iron Will demanded, and the words kicked against her flanks.
It felt as if it was taking an effort to keep her eyes open. "They're hiding," she softly replied. "They're all staying out of sight, as best they can. So if the Guards try to find them, summon them to the palace so they can speak with me, they might have a chance. Some of them are better at it than others. Maybe a few have secret cellars or cubbyholes from his days, hiding places which -- never worked. But they also felt they had to go to work, or school, so they went, and... maybe there's a channel of communication, something I don't know about. The magic for the Ear might not have come from nowhere. Lesser spells, passing the word from building to building, or just a single brave pony, trying to gallop ahead..."
He charged.
He had been behind her. And then he was in front of her, before she could truly reconcile the movement, recognize that movement had even taken place. But two legs had moved at a short-burst speed which four could not match, and now he was standing there, great breaths going in and out through widely-flared nostrils, hands clenched into fists. And she couldn't move.
Lost within his shadow.
"YOU -- BUCKING -- IDIOT!"
Muscles gleaming. Arms motionless at his sides. But hands vibrating, and eyes focused into an anger she'd never seen...
"...what?"
"Do you know how I found you?" Another shout, but not as loud this time: there was enough room left in her hearing for echoes, and some of them almost resembled the sounds of hooves moving across crystal floors, muffled by walls. "I followed the trail of fear, Princess! Every little refractor you made collapse in their own store, that one mare who was still shaking behind the tree in her garden, and I don't even want to think about what would have happened if you'd gone into a school! I told you! You can't give them an --"
She... had meant to try a school next. The instinctive honesty of children --
"-- it takes one pony!" She didn't know where the volume had come from. She could only hope there was more of it. "One pony to talk, one pony who honestly criticizes me and has nothing happen! One so that everypony else can see it's safe! That pony is somewhere in the Empire, they have to be, maybe galloping ahead to -- warn... They can't all be -- somewhere, one pony, Mr. Will, one pony who isn't -- isn't..."
"...broken?"
His knuckles were going white.
" -- I... I didn't say..."
He stared at her. Stared down. She wasn't used to that, not from anypony -- anyone -- other than Celestia. And it felt like his height was the least of it.
There was silence for a time, and it seemed as if there were more hoofsteps within it. Approaching walls, and perhaps even windows. There might have even been a quartet nervously proceeding down the road, but she decided that was probably somepony in that general direction who'd just left a window open.
"No," the minotaur finally said. Back to a normal speaking level, at least for now, and his hands were beginning to relax. "Maybe that wasn't what you were going for, at least verbally. Afraid, that could have been it. Scared, sure. But broken was somewhere in there, at least for your mind. Princess, I know what you want to do. I can't be mad at you for that, and -- I'm not, whether you wanna believe it or not. But I've been charging around for hours, following your trail, seeing all the little refractors who dropped in your wake. I know you hate that, I know you're trying to stop it, and that's what all this is supposed to be about. But you made the wrong decision, and you're following up on bad with worse."
"I'm their Princess." It was the only protest she seemed to have. "I have to be the one who --"
And he cut her off. With a raised hand, a snort, and a stomp of his left hoof.
"Yeah, maybe it could happen that way," he shrugged. "One pony says something and nothing happens, so all the others feel they could try to speak. Or... they figure that pony's working with you. Being a, I'm pretty sure you're familiar with the term, stalking horse. They don't talk, they read off a script, and the boldest ones, they'll see it and talk -- and that's how we identify and get rid of the boldest, ain't it?"
The gasp went into her wings, straightened her tail. "I -- I wouldn't! He would have, but --"
"-- they don't know! But it's what they're thinking about, Princess! Because they were slaves, they were slaves up until two moons ago, and slaves learn every trick the masters have to find the ones who might rally the rest into trying for freedom! Sombra was pretty damn good at what he did, wasn't he? Held off the other two, even beat them back if you believe some of the oldest stories, forced a thousand-year stalemate because there was a chance that when he showed up again, he wouldn't have to worry about them any more. One Tartarus-freed expert at being a dictator, along with being a bucking master. They've got a lot of reasons to be afraid, Princess, and yeah, they're putting it on you. He ain't around, so it's going to you, isn't it? And you don't want that, because you aren't him. But they can't see it, and they can't hear it, because you talked yesterday and do you know what those words were?"
Her wings flapped, brought her up to his eye level and maintained the hover. "They were freedom! To speak! The most fundamental freedom, the deepest right there is!"
He was staring at her again. She did her best to give it right back, and found it more difficult than she ever could have imagined.
"This is kind of a longshot here," and the tone was conversational. "But hey, there's a chance, so why not? So -- you ever met a mare named Fluttershy? Yellow fur, pink mane, three butterflies on each flank, probably a really pretty pony if you've got the eyes to see that sort of thing and I can't get the hang of it full-time, name's kind of what you might call indicative of her personality, at least what I got to see of it --"
She blinked. "Fluttershy? How do you know --"
It got a deep, bitter laugh out of him. "Seriously? Small continent we've got here, huh? No matter what the geography tries to say. But I know she's never told you about me, because you didn't know me at all in the garden. So... she's the pony I had to give a refund to. Because she showed up at my little session, listened to my words, and -- she took the wrong thing from it. One thing, and just kept flying with it. Now, I've reworked my lecture since. Done what I could to keep it from happening again. And because I gave the wrong words to the wrong pony at exactly the wrong moment, and they were my words, part of what happened with her is my fault. I'm not gonna deny that. And I'm thinkin' the same thing happened with you."
Fluttershy -- attending an assertiveness training seminar? She had known the mare exactly long enough not to see it.
"But y'know something? I ain't taking the whole blame on that one." He spread his arms as his eyes rolled slightly: an injured air of deliberately false innocence. "Because yeah, it was my words that triggered her mistake. But she's the one who kept making it. I talked to some ponies on my way out of town, I told you that yesterday. They said her friends were trying to warn her. Trying to pull her back. But she had her words, even if they started as mine, and they just kept going around and around in her head because she'd convinced herself they were the only solution. Taking up more and more space until there was pretty much nothing else left. My fault for giving her something bad she could listen to -- but hers for not listening to anypony else. And I rework my material, come all the way into the North to do my good deed for a lifetime, and guess what?"
He leaned closer. His voice dropped. The oddly-silly tie fell away from his broad chest.
"The Ancients felt like doing a little goring today, because the first part happens again!"
She wanted to pull back. She would not.
"I heard what you said, yes," Cadance told him. "And I found some inspiration in it, because you're right. They were slaves, and in their hearts, they still are. But if I just find that one pony --"
"And now we've got the second part!"
Those couldn't be hoofsteps, could they? Perhaps his own two were just tapping, so fast and so close...
"You listened to me once, and you got the wrong words, somehow," he snorted with frustration. "Plus those words are all you wanna hear. But you listened to me once -- so let's go for twice and see if something else sinks in. Princess -- Cadance -- you tried to solve a problem with the problem. You gave them an --"
And from well below both their eye levels, "...Princess?"
They both glanced down.
Cadance had never seen Lapis trembling so fast, and that was being compared against a depressingly large collection of experience. The blue coat was breaking up light in vibrating waves, sending assaults of fearful prisms into the water. "It's... it's going on three now... the Cabinet... your budget meeting... I had to... I'm sorry, I am, but I..." She risked the briefest of glances at the other party. "...um... I know that if you want to speak to... to... that's your choice, and I don't want to make it seem like I would ever... or interrupt... but it's nearly three, and the Cabinet... they...
"Lapis..." There were no words which would calm the little secretary. There never were. And yet she still tried. "...you did the right thing in coming out to find me. The budget meeting is important." Because there was a chance that her one brave pony was there, although that required a wince hard enough to let the force shove aside a lot of prior sessions. And as far as interruptions went...
"Mr. Will?" Cadance continued. "You may have noticed my having spoken to you. Face to face. Eye to eye. With both eyes. And that, along with several other, more physical clues, might suggest that I'm not Fluttershy. Now if you truly want to pick up this discussion later, feel free to drop by the palace. We may have dinner. In fact, we might start having it up to nine times. For now, I have a budget meeting to attend. One where I'm hoping my Cabinet will be honest with me, and criticize the proposals. Lapis, I'm going to put you in a field bubble and fly you back with me: it'll be quicker, please don't be afraid of it. Good day, Mr. Will. Until we can call it a good evening --"
"-- what are you so afraid of?"
The words had been oddly soft, as gentle as her own, far too careful to have emerged from such a rough body...
The question went in. It went deep. And it landed in a place where if she was very lucky, she would never have to think about it again.
"--or you could just get on the train. Your choice, really. Please don't forget to submit your invoice. Good day, Mr. Will."
She took Lapis into her field, blue on blue, trying to ignore the soft gasp. Got a little altitude, turned towards the castle...
The minotaur spoke, one last time. She mostly ignored it, and flew.
"...Princess?"
"What is it, Lapis?" There was no point in confronting her about having spoken without criticism, either, although Cadance supposed somepony could have said something about the lack of attention to detail in nearly missing the crucial meeting.
"...he... he just..."
She waited.
"...you heard him... didn't you?"
"Yes," she calmly said, and dodged a thermal.
"...he just said you were being stupid..."
"I know."
"...and you just... you..." She heard the little mare swallow. "...the Cabinet meeting... you're..."
"We'll get there on time."
"...you're not going to like this..."
[/hr]
The light reflected off the conference table, scattered throughout the meeting room without hitting a single refractive coat.
"So they're all sick," Cadence repeated. The words were calm. They had to be.
"...that's what they said. And that they'd be happy... to try and reach a make-up meeting tomorrow... or even late tonight..."
Let me guess. Steadily, "After nine?"
"...but they didn't want to get you sick."
The twelve-hour crystal flu. There could have been a medical journal article in that, if the disease had just actually existed.
"One pony," Cadance evenly said. And that pony hadn't been in her own Cabinet.
"...Princess? Is there... one pony you want me to... summon?"
"No," Cadance said, and tried to keep the weight out of her words. "Not a one." Because they won't come to me of their own will, and they're afraid when I come to them, when it's one on one, when they don't have numbers or any way to support each other, when the one who might speak is isolated...
No. I'm not beaten yet. Sombra's not going to win. Because there's the strength of one, and there's so little of that left, after everything he did --
-- but there's another kind of pony strength...
[/hr]
She looked at the Ear, and desperately hoped it would be for the last time. Reared up, brought both forehooves down on it.
"I'm sorry, everypony," an entire Empire announced on her behalf, "because I know this is going to disrupt everypony's evenings, and dinners, and the late work shifts, and -- everything. But this is an emergency, and that means I have to issue one more..." The words seemed oddly bitter in her mouth. "...Princess Decree."
The roads took a deep breath.
"Everypony in the capital is to gather in front of the palace by seven tonight. Everypony."
A long pause.
"The first Decree will still be in effect."
She dropped back to floor level, and waited for the last scream to fade away. It seemed to take far longer than it should.
And now...
...now, it'll be the herd.
Uh. Oh.
This is going to be messy.
FUCK YOU, YOU FUCKING CUNT. LIKE HELL YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE ME POST A FUCKING NEGATIVE COMMENT
FUCK OFF YOU DON'T CONTROL ME.
(ʰᵒʷ ᵃᵐ ᶦ ᵈᵒᶦᶰᵍ?)
*facepalm* Faust damn it, Cadence...
Shining Armor, PLEASE call your wife's foolishness out in front of the entire populace. I fear nothing else will serve to open her fool eyes.
Iron Will, please be (relatively) gracious when (nor IF, WHEN) Cadence extracts her cranium from her rectum, apologizes to you, and gives you a proper commission to stick around the Empire for the next decade or so. Your services will be very much needed, in more ways than one.
Oh wow, she really hasn't figured it out yet. The poor dear is gonna make this way worse before it gets better. Kind of a running theme throughout your stories, at least if I'm remembering right.
obligatory negative comment hereEstee, updating a story twice in two days? I...I think I read about this somewhere. Revelation, probably.
Onto the story. Really, there's only one thing to be said.
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/03/6a/db/036adbd4e3625a67aa85db3a130f3427.jpg
Oh Cadance... I hoped you of all ponies would know what they say about good intentions.
I figure that Shining Armor is on his way to Ponyville to get his LSBFF and her number one assistant and their friends to come to the Empire to help before Cadence does something really crazy to try and get the crystal ponies to understand that they don't need to fear her.
Oh boy...
Now you've done it...
To be fair, what Cadence is trying to do is the right thing.
Problem is that the Crystals are too fucked up. Trying to help them is just going to trigger their programming.
She's an alicorn now, she's immortal. She needs to wait a couple generations for this shit to wear off, then rule THOSE ponies.
This entire story can be summed up in one clip.
Well, if nothing else, Cadance can be confident that she's doing a good job with the cordial sales. Or, you know, fear still grips that pony's heart in an unrelenting vise. One of the two.
Still, I think I understand just what she's afraid of. I may be reading too much into it, but I think I see it.
In the meantime, I'm going to dread whatever happens next. It will not end well, and hilarity will most certainly not ensue.
Not once, but now twice, you've surprised me. I never expected you'd ever continue this one of all fics. What brought this sudden surge of inspiration to write for THIS story of which no one clearly has anything nice to say about?
...So, why am I supposedly supposed to post only negative comments on a story I've not even read yet? The premise sounds interesting, and it explains why they reacted to Cadence the way that they did in part two of the season 3 two-parter, but I'm not seeing a negative so far...maybe this'll change when I find time to read it?
Your take on Iron Will is one of the most uniquely satisfying one that I've ever read!
"there has been an exact time"
"had"?
7241251 Oh, I think some of the ponies in this generation could start moving in right direction. It;s just that Cadence is going about this in the wrong way. Like, completely the wrong way.
Iron Will is best minotaur.
Cadence is really unlikable in this. Iron Will is great though.
For someone who wants to be criticized, Cadance is pretty resistant to criticism.
Cadance, for buck's sake... Stop giving orders!!!
oh goddamnit.. tell me she is not that bloody stupid please tell me she is not that stupid...oh the jedis are gonna feel this one.....
There are some things you just can't take 20 on.
There's two kinds of tyranny there Princess... the lack and the force of choice. There might not be a difference at first glance, but ... if someone is *forced* to make a choice, it's even worse than having none, especially from the perspective of someone who's been on the receiving end of the former.
7242353 It certainly makes the fear worse, doesn't it?
Especially because the choices he probably forced them to make were stuff like "does your family go mining in the crystal caves for the rest of their lives or do I just execute them in front of you?"
7241620
If you can't politely ask them. If you can't show them. If they won't make the first move no matter what soft and gentle ploy you use, being honest and earnest and all but begging on your knees... then what's left? They're suspicious of anything. Even if you bribed them they might believe it's to flush out dissenters, which is something Iron Will touched on, no less.
That fact alone invalidates almost every 'nice' way of trying to accomplish what she's doing. Fear and paranoia turns all subtle plans and overt niceties on their heads, because it is illogical and unreasonable. If she used outsiders to show them how to do it they'd just as likely believe they're shills or she won't harm flesh-and-bloods. Trying to make their only option be 'get over this, let me prove to you nothing bad will happen' is... basically, all that's left.
Problem is they had one more way out: Inaction. You said what she's doing is the wrong way, even though it's the only way left - it's just the wrong people to use it on. If it's actually the wrong way, do you know of the right way in this specific situation?
Holy crap you posted a new chapter! What!? Two chapters! <---- My exact thought when I saw this on the front page.
Love what you did with this story direction. Shining Armor taking off was hilarious. Then there's the cliffhanger on this chapter... discord would be proud. =P
Thank you for the two updates! Two years passed and this one was definitely one I remembered. Hopefully we get the see the ending!
Oh Katydid, you should listen to the bull, he has some experience in this matter. I find it a bit funny that she is being so bullheaded about this.
She really needs to take a step back, forget about The Lie, and listen. But she's in too deep now, the only recourse is to dig deeper until she comes up on the other side.
Maybe the herd mentality will get then to speak up, more likely it's just going to make things worse.
Poor Wife!Horse, her Husband!Horse ran out on her and she's just trying so hard but it's too soon. She'll work it out, but there'll be pain for everyone involved while she does.
I'm not posting a negative comment.
I hope Lapis is a smart pony and heard enough to make sense of things.
Wow, I love how trying desperately not to be a dictator is gradually turning Cadance into a dictator.
Oh and, um, you're a butt. Your butt is dumb. You are a dumb butt.
I'm glad you chose to continue this.
Just pretend I said something negative and witty.
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Good Intentions...Is not she the construction contractor whom Celestia placed in charge of Tartarus' roadways?
Estee, I feel like there's an important question that might be overlooked here. What precisely are the odds of there being absolutely no members of the Equestrian press corps in the entire Crystal Empire, at any given time, hoping to get a hit piece on Auntie Celestia's little nepotic imperial puppet governor?
The thing is, Iron Will's wrong. Just look at America's slave history and what you find is, as long as there's been slaves they've been figuring out ways to escape. The Amistad, the underground railroad, and all sorts of other ways and means.
Sombra was extremely powerful and very highly skilled, yet Celestia and Luna knew what he was doing. How? Most likely: escaped slaves.
You might be able to get a small group to go full Stockholm Syndrome, but the larger the group, and the worse the ratio is, the less likely it is. And we're talking about a fairly sizable city here.
It's beyond unlikely and fully into impossible that not one is willing to brave the waters first. History is literally littered with examples, with both good and bad ends, that prove this time and time again.
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High, and approaching 100%. The big story was the freeing of the Empire: the reintegration and day-to-day restoration weren't interesting enough to keep reporters around for. (Remember, the Equestria press tends towards the sensationalistic and tabloid.) There was also nowhere to stay: the hotels are just reopening now, and expense accounts tend to be restrictive anyway: you'd basically be asking someone to move to the Empire, or hoping a native would send material for free. And communications typically move at the speed of ponies, which makes it very hard to file stories in a hurry.
Yes, tourists are now slowly starting to arrive, but everypony who comes off the train is still passing through customs. It makes it easy to track just about every non-native you've got, including those from the Fourth Estate. Cadance also tends to draw a little less attention than the sisters: for Murdocks, the central intent is going after the palace and for the pro-Diarchy press, there's a focus to the worship.
They'll show up in time -- but the time is "not quite yet."
Admittedly, if they heard a rumor that Cadance or Shining were cheating on each other, you just might get a new source of sonic rainbooms.
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This puts me in the awkward position of quoting myself -- but as this is a 'verse, there are times when it helps (to make things that much worse). The following segment is a flashback moment from A Mark Of Appeal.
Incidentally, that's the only time we've ever directly heard from him. Mr. Sombra, he dead -- and let him stay that way. But the shadow lingers...
Part of the implication I wanted (and probably failed) to come across in that scenelet was that Sombra was using mind-influencing magic on the populace at whatever he determined to be need. Magic grants a few extra tools, and he went with every one available. Yes, there was resistance, there were attempts to fight back -- once. These are the ponies who were left.
Throw in a little of North Korea and the other, more successful despots. Add that to the herd mentality lurking in the back of the pony brain, waiting for its chance: once a population is forced into line, it's somewhat easier to keep them there. And the local version of the Empire starts to emerge.
7245518 I haven't read any of the other fics you're referring to. So, I read it as though only the show's canon was being used to establish anything at the start. And from the show all we know of Sombra's enslavement is that it appears he needs to use those helmets to provide continuous mind control - which makes sense since he'd need to be conducting the battle rather than just sitting there maintaining a spell.
And people to this day are still escaping North Korea. As locked tight as that country is, they still escape.
That's the thing about trying to force your will on others - no matter how strong your will is, their's never goes away. It's either impeded or stalled or the simply give it up out of resignation, but even when they've given it up it's still right there for them to take back again. The desire to be free is indomitable and there's always going to be folks who struggle against tyrants.
7242411 She did have the option to work with them. Seeing as they're eager to please but afraid of directly interacting with her, she could have mentioned offhand how excellent Iron Will's seminars are, and let their desperate brown-nosing drive many of them to enroll. Once they're in, hopefully some of them would get the point.
Really, though, the big thing that she needs to do is show them that she trusts them, even if they don't yet trust her.
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They brown-nose out of fear, not a desire to please her to see her happy. It's ingrained into them from their time under Sombra. If he was displeased in any way... torture, death. The ones who proved themselves useful got to live longer and go unmolested longer.
In their hearts I think they love her, but they only know force, and distrust kindness and patience as a trick.
Sometimes change has to be painful. But almost no one writes those kinds of stories. It usually ends up like in the show: Fluttershy is wrong about everything but by the end she's completely right and saves the day with the way she does things, even though it's entirely unrealistic even in a magical fairy-tale land.
If you want to get THESE people out of their shells in this generation you're going to have to boot them out and make them see again.
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A dictator running a country in the depths pof an arctic environment with habitability sustained by magic, with access to dark magic - sufficient to face up to two alicorns and NOT LOSE - had options available that the old slavers of America (or dictatorship like Korea now) didn't and don't have.
The aforementioned mind-cotnrol, city shields the way Cadance did, the severe environment killing anything that survived the others, combined with the relatively low population... Hell, we KNOW he was able to use mind-affecting magic because of the events of Crystal Empire, not least that which suppressed their memories. Why try to run when you know there IS nowhere to run, for the mere memory of it has been wiped from yoru mind? Heck, why not simply lay a curse (without, of course, telling anypony) such that anypony who even makes it outside the city borders without his express permission simply drops into an enchanted sleep - long enough for them to die of exposure.
Humans like - want, perhaps even NEED to believe (especially, it must be said, in American media) that The Man can't ultimately tell them what to do; that Freedom will always win. But there comes a level of overwhelming force that means you just CAN'T resist it. It is beyond what most mee human dictators have the reources to do, yes. But it exists. And as much as people like to want to believe otherwise, anyone can be BROKEN. And Somepony like Sombra, for whom there is NO upper limit to the horrors he was prepared to inflict to do that?
Making a reasonable extrapolation of capability from Sombra's knowledge of mind-control, and the way the Crystal Heart channels things, he might have been able to have found all the loudest protestors - be it actually spoken or in their minds (just search emotions for the one with the most anger and/or defiance etc) and taken them out, one by one, for public disembowlment and then pushed their memories of the their death into everyone else's heads.
How many people's horribly deaths burned into your memory, where you can actually FEEL how painfully they died, not in some abstract way, but as if you werethem, would it take before you starting doing what you were told?
I suspect the answer for most humans is, when you look past that sense that "well, I'm stronger than that" hyperbole everyone tells themselves, VERY few.
It is a wonder that the Crystal ponies only suffer from the issues they do, compated to what he could have done.
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With Iron Will, I wanted to give him a place beyond one-note, one-joke -- and as said above, he's now a very official part of the 'verse as a whole, even if we may not see him for a while.
One of the guidelines I used for writing him is that he's got at least some medical-level psychology training. I was tempted to introduce him as Doctor Will, but it's going on summer now, which means we'd be heading towards Julie Chen, and that just never ever ever works out...
Dang, this is falling apart. I feel bad for Cadence, but even more so for Iron Will
Damn. She is just dumb as a bag of shit.
7245518 Ah. From the ubiquitousness across the rest of the Continuum, I was expecting that Murdocks had infested nearly everywhere on the off-chance of getting an angle. Twilight is certainly on his radar, but it's good that Cadance has been able to run silent, at least for the duration of this scenario.
This has been a good story. Thank you.
I've noticed a typo:
Cadance's name only has one n.
Iron Will is mistaken if he thinks he can bull through he blindness of Love.
I feel like Cadence just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire
Is Twi descended from Sombra in this verse? Because damn.
mammals are socially the opposite of swarming insects: a group of mammals will make worse decisions than a single one.
you dun goofed
And she just keeps digging herself deeper...