After more than a thousand years of comfortably occupying the throne, Celestia has more than a few enemies. Every month, they gather to plot her downfall and commiserate over their past failures. For those fed up with the status quo and ready to see a change, the E.O.P. has ever been a home and respite against the slings and arrows of dull, predictable government.
Today, a new pony joins their ranks.
Equestrian Political Satire- Be warned! There will be discussions, debate, civil disagreement, and beer. Sweet mercy, there will be beer.
Cover art by our beloved iisaw.
Spanish translation by Spaniard-Kiwi
Chapters (1)
This was cute, funny, and very much a fun read this morning. thank you very much for writing it. Snark and humor, and I like the way you painted everything. From the little jabs, to the rest.
7740698 I'm really glad you enjoyed it. Political satire is always a bit of a danger.
-Chessie
Excellent work. :)
7740743 this was tasteful, fun, and very fun to read. You didn't misalign anything, just run it from a good standpoint, and enjoy the take for what it was. No message, no angle, just what it is, and it shows.
7740793 Awww, if you think that was fun, go read Starlight Over Detrot! That's way more awesome.
7740795 May have been the hardest part, since I have some SERIOUS political opinions.
-Chessie
This was an absolute excellent read, and it wasn't until right before the reveal that I clued in on the twist!
The only niggling thing I could say against it, and I must stress that this is scraping the bottom of the barrel to try and come up with some constructive criticism, was the bit in regards to "M.E.G.A". It felt like one too many winks and nudges for what was otherwise a clever "wink wink, nudge nudge" reference joke.
Other than that tiny criticism, I found it excellently written and was left in that strange feeling of thinking a story was ended at the perfectly correct place, but still craving more of it.
7740856 I'll admit, I didn't write this in a vacuum. The joke wrote itself. Eldritch horror nobody thought would win suddenly becoming leader on a campaign of Making Equestria Great Again? It was simply too perfect.
-Chessie
Loved it, it was very refreshing and just cute.
Thought so. Really, expect Celestia to be a head of opposition almost from the very start.
7740818 Almost everyone does, but this carries none of those tones. So my hats off to the EOP. Which was far better acronymed that the neighsayers open equestrian platform, they never got anywhere.
It really is the correct answer to the question of, "Why do we keep doing things the way we've always done them when that clearly isn't working out?" Because so far, we haven't found a better way to do them, but as discouraging as that might seem, we're going to keep trying new ideas just in case one of them works.
7741753 Or waiting until everything explodes (as it has so recently done) and THEN trying the new idea. I think Celestia has a similar method.
-Chessie
For some reason even though I should really not have been suckered I was suckered. I'm a big fan of the Celestia-in-disguise subgenre and this one still snuck in under my radar - her personality was sufficiently divergent from the typical Celestia portrayal that I didn't recognize her. Well done. :)
I really need to remind myself: Any character with a sun/light based name is either a Royal Guard or Celestia. I keep forgetting this rule.
Awesome! Quite a delightful read, and you made the feature box, too! Yay!
Absolutely fantastic! I only wish you would expand on it rather than a one shot!
7741782 I was actually worried I'd diverge her too far, but I think Celestia is a consummate actress and this is completely believable.
7741899 Much fun as that might be, Starlight Over Detrot takes top priority. It will, however, be done this year and once it's done I intend to expand into writing other things. Political satire may be on that list.
7741881 Oh! Neat! I didn't notice that, but I'm glad!
7741837 Well, of course. I mean, I thought Sun Spots was far enough from 'Sunny Days' or any of the other variants that it might not be entirely obvious. Of course, I went out of my way to call her 'Spotty' or 'Spots' as many times as possible and only introduce her as 'Sun' at the beginning.
-Chessie
I knew what the reveal would be, it was just a matter of timing.
7741987 Aye, I suppose I didn't conceal it too heavily. This isn't a Starlight Over Detrot level mystery where we're a million words in and almost nobody has figured out who the main villain is, yet.
-Chessie
The thing I like about this is that the story doesn't forgot that the ponies live in an adventure world which makes a lot of the forms of government we use a struggle to implement with the all of the chaos. I also like the fact that yes old Sunbutt has the best interest in mind for everyone and one day she'll get that vacation.
Kinda figured the "Twist" from reading the description, but still fun to read all the same. I'd like to read Ink Blot's story, i think. It would be an interesting discourse on political thought and how it can both succeed and fail. Is it based on an actual book you know of, or something you came up with more or less off the cuff?
As for Celestia's disguise, I always imagine her as being an Earth Pony before she was an Alicorn in my head-canon, so I'm going to guess that's what she went with. Luna would be the Pegasus if she ever decides to "join" the EOP and add more fuel to the bonfire of badmouthing her sister and herself. It would probably end up being a private joke between them.
7741997
I didn't come into it expecting any level of mystery, so don't think it reflects negatively on your writing ability.
I saw the title, I was pretty sure Celestia was going to be a member.
I read the description, I thought Celestia was going to be the new member.
When the story focused on Ink's perspective, I was somewhat unsure, because I was initially expecting Celestia to be the main character.
Once Sun Spots was introduced, everything else was flavour. It was a good flavour.
7742216 I wrote it in about 24 hours in a fit of pique. It's not really BASED on anything at all. Same as Starlight, it came mostly off the cuff.
-Chessie
7741997 The real enemy is yourself... except when it's not. (so profound and mystical)
Oh god, just the title is giving me flashbacks to She who shall not be named's story about the anti-Celwstia society...
For those who might agree, I offer this for consideration: I actually am a scientist. Now think of me in charge.
Oh, you've changed your opinion already?
Welcome to the machine. It lives on the dark side of the moon between us and them.
Fortunately Donald Trump saw through the thinly veiled disguise named Hillary Clinton.
This was rather amusing.
7742376 Actually, in reality they are both heads of the same beast.
7742371 Science: Great for telling you how things are, very bad at telling you how things should be and how to do things.
Logic: Great at evaluating data, but cannot tell you anything without axioms.
Thanks for this! Perhaps when you have the time and inclination, you can expand upon it. Perhaps with Luna/Nightmare Moon's POV as there was a brief reference to her in the story. Or reveal the existence of the E.O.P. to the other princesses? I would be intrigued by Twi's reaction!
7742469 Both science and logic make TERRIBLE moral compasses.
Because, by extension of both to their ultimate endpoint, it doesn't matter at all if someone blows up the entire universe since all matter and energy will eventually chill to just barely above absolute zero.
Science and logic dictate that nothing has any meaning. Meaning itself is a delusion of a mind searching for that which does not exist to validate itself.
V-GER found that out when it asked itself, "Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?"
basementrejects.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/star-trek-the-motion-picture-vger-v-ger.jpg
Then it fused with a dude in what could be described as a metaphysical orgasm, lol.
7742516 Science and logic, in and of themselves, don't make a good basis for a moral system. They can lead to good places to start, though, and they can help develop those systems.
What you said there strongly reflects nihilism and solipsism.
There are plenty of other possibilities and...I believe you've missed them entirely.
Certainty is the first sign a person is wrong.
-Chessie
I can't tell if this is a reference, but it makes me sad.
Quite a nice cast of OCs for a oneshot. This was a very pleasing read.
7742516
That's what I said.
Where else is one going to get axioms? From philosophy! And one would hope for dictating policy, Pragmatism would be one of the primary influences
.
7742576 Just so.
It is not my logic that is flawed, Mister Spock, but your presumption of my axioms!
Sprocket and Joint are best ponies.
I loved this to an extent I cannot explain
Celestia is in my opinion the most fascinating MLP character for this reason.
You really set up a great atmosphere for her place as a ruler and individual.
Silverback leadership. Anarchist rule. A true Democrat. A technocrat. And a libertarian. *Look up silverback gorilla*
I am slightly miffed however that you neglected to showcase two distinct liberal-conservative economic policy dichotomy supporting characters for your libertarian to get mindfucked by, also needs a Republican to give a foil to your Democrat, and I mean the proper Greek kind not the US kind... You represented some level of socialism under Celestia's blatant socialist diarchy.
Though to be honest Celestia's rule pre-luna comes across in most fimfics to be something more akin to a fascist autocracy...
Also no mention of rule through Religious fanaticism- which has been time tested as one of the most hardy ruling methods, best enacted WH40K style.
No Communists either? I mean common man...
No military dictatorship V for Vendetta style?
You had time to waste, WASTE on technocrats and anarchists..
Would have thought you would better flesh out the politics...
Though I suppose this was more of a punchline story than a true political satire...
Self-relfection only comes when everything you think you know is shattered. Ink Blot should take a look at our world to see how many systems have risen and fallen due to being exploited or just not working as well as they did on paper. In particular, the results of a "free-market economy" during America in the 1920's.
7741997
It still made it from. I mean as soon as I saw 'Sun Spot', 'Pink Mane', and 'Ivory Coat', it was all she wrote there, but being in on the joke made it all the more amusing, really.
Fun little story. There really is something to complain about in Celestia's policies, though: any government which apparently had no plan B if "trust in fate bringing 6 element bearers together" tanked and the cost of failure was inevitably utter disaster [1] - all sorts of possible utter disasters - seriously needs to rethink its emergency planning.
Logically, shouldn't Dapper have been a Nightmare Moon loyalist - at least until she was beaten?
I wonder if Joint and Sprocket's problem is that they live in a magical universe: possibly any machine that gets complicated enough develops its own personality regardless of programming. Perhaps what they need to do is teach the Machine about friendship first. (In other words, Susan Calvin probably couldn't help)
[1] Watch the season five finale again if you want to argue the point.
7742815 Do, please, feel free to write a story based on these characters or on a similar situation. The big reason I didn't go after any of those political movements or any deeper into the politics themselves was that this wasn't about politics in the strictest sense of the word. The story was about reminding ourselves of the human or rather equine faces behind the people we frequently vilify in the course of political exchange.
-Chessie
Oh Ink, you sly dog, you! Do go and yell her of your ideas under the moonlight. I bet she'd like that
I like this story. Somewhat predictable who she was by the character tags, but good nonetheless. Loved the name and personality, all of them. Would like to see more of them, indeed
I have to admit I din't see this coming. Such a delightful and heartwarming story. I would really love to see more of the EOP in the future! <3
Perhaps Moon Butt could come in as a new member?
Other than sensual/sexual references, this wasn't too bad. I kind of felt some measure of support for Ink Blotter... for a while, anyway. Mostly because his efforts had gone to waste and Celestia didn't seem to care about it.
That was a fantastic read. In so many ways, it is everything a one-shot should be and more.
7743701
When his efforts were to result in hurting the poor to benefit the rich, I feel no sympathy for him.
7744100 Oh they were? 0.o I didn't get that.
Nice story. Brings up a few interesting thoughts about life in Equestria and a fun little satire of politics in general.
7741997 Eh, you got me. I didn't realize until they arrived at the castle, but everything added up at that point
7744100 7744165 I don't think you QUITE sussed his intentions there, but then I suppose Equestrian libertarians are a less...virulent...variety than the kind in the real world.
-Chessie
I kept trying to guess which one of them was Luna in disguise.
Everybody else has pretty much said what I was going to, so...
* Insert Witty Comment Here *