S3E5: Magic Duel
Season 3 Episode 5 – Magic Duel
Town Hall, Ponyville
The Agenda:
1. Dealing with the aftermath of 9 Trixiedor. [ ]
2. LONG TERM – Achieve reconciliation in Ponyville. [ ]
“So,” Mayor Mare said as she neatly tucked the sheaf of paper into her saddlebags. "What brings you Saddle Arabians here to our delightful little town?”
“Coup attempt against High Sultan,” the two horses – Maret’aism and Maret’ansir, or something along those lines – replied as they carefully loaded the diplomatic documents onto their camel caravans. “Request additional arms for Royal Guard to defeat rebels.”
“Ah. I see,” the tan pony answered, nodding condescendingly at these desert ponies and their quaint little struggles.
“… though from looks of recent events in Ponyville, maybe we should have gone to Cheighna for help instead,” Maret’ansir continued, immediately wiping out the smug look on the Mayor’s face.
Any retort from either the gray-maned mare or Deputy Mayor Lyra Heartstrings was immediately silenced by a grunt from an approaching Royal Guard. “Her Highness will now receive you.”
Princess Celestia sat in the middle of the spacious atrium, her muzzle buried in the latest piece of administrative parchment. “Apologies for the delay, Mayor – or perhaps, Mayors is the more correct term in this case.”
Lyra gave a grateful curtsey. “You are too kind, Your Most Gracious Highness.”
“In any case, I am most pleased that the Coup of 9 Trixiedor has been solved without recourse to Royal Intervention,” the alicorn continued in a monotone as she scribbled on another piece of paper. “In any case. Do state your business.”
“The Coup could not have been pacified without the help of Ms. Twilight, O Merciful Princess,” Mayor Mare bowed deeply. “I almost feel ungrateful for having to ask for more Royal aid to help stabilize the political situation in Ponyville.”
“If Your Highness can give something prestigious to us, something that would elevate us above the other Equestrian cities,” the unicorn suggested, “I’m sure the process of political reconciliation can proceed much more quickly.”
Celestia frowned slightly as she levitated over a cup of tea, eyes fixated on another gilded supplication. “You mean you want Ponyville to be made the host for the next Equestrian Games.”
“Well… yes, Your Majesty.”
The Mayor and the Deputy lowered their heads as the Ruler of the Sun slowly sipped her tea.
“Originally, Baltimare was going to be the host for this year’s Equestrian Games,” the Royal voice stated after some while. “But I think that honor shall be taken away from them, given their inability to control the proliferation of dangerous magical artifacts.”
Yes! “Oh, we praise you, we thank you; O Princess of the Sun!” the two ponies cried out, prostrating themselves before the royal benevolence.
“Arise, both of you.” Mayor Mare thought she saw the faint hint of a smirk on the Princess’ face, now unobstructed by administrative duties. “I am most grateful to the both of you for dealing with the myriad of disasters that befell your town, as well as taking care of my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
“Be sure of this: Ponyville’s faithful service shall not go unrewarded.”
*
Outside Ponyville Library, Ponyville
“You know,” Lyra Heartstrings reminded Mayor Mare pointedly. “If it wasn’t me who suggested to Princess Celestia that she give the Equestrian Games to Ponyville…”
“Urgh,” Mayor Mare rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Fine, fine; you get to oversee the Sports and Leisure Department and make the preparations for the Games.”
The lime-green unicorn smiled. “Thanks, Ma’am- ”
“Psst!”
“Huh?” the two ponies turned in the direction of the noise. “Ms. Sparkle?”
“Hey, Mayors!” The bookish mare was at the door of the Library, beckoning them to come in. “You have to help me, now!”
Not in any position to refuse a heroine of Ponyville (for the nth time) the two politicians followed Twilight indoors. The purple pony bolted the door as soon as the three of them were in.
This was highly unusual. “Is there a problem, Twilight?” Lyra cocked her head.
“You’ll see soon enough,” the unicorn said as she rummaged around the stack of paper on her desk. “Spike! Tell Snips and Snails to stay where they are!”
“Snips and Snails? The schoolcolts?” Mayor Mare inquired.
“This,” the purple pony thrust a piece of paper into the politician’s hooves. “Read it!”
Snips,
dOn’t thinK we’ve ForgottEN who HELPeD triXie start her ReIGN of Terror over ponYVILle. We WIlL PUNISH ALL traITors to eqUestRIA.
“A death threat.” Even the amateurish collage of newspaper fonts was enough to send shivers down the tan pony’s spine.
“Vigiliante justice,” the purple unicorn stated grimly. “Snips brought it with him when he asked me for help. Now it might just be some stupid schoolfilly prank- “ the serious tone in her voice indicated otherwise – “but it’s still a serious problem that the Government needs to deal with.”
“That’s right,” Lyra Heartstrings nodded gravely, putting a hoof to her chin. “But still, I think it’s important for Ponyville as a whole to have a frank discussion about the whole experience of Trixie’s Coup… ”
“Maybe ponies will be more accepting if we all discussed this in the open?” Twilight suggested. “Like in a Town Hall meeting or something?”
“A Town Hall meeting?” The bespectacled politician couldn’t help but chuckle inappropriately at that suggestion. “Have to say, that’s a great way for not achieving anything at all!”
The savior of Equestria and Ponyville pursed her lips in displeasure.
“Oh well. No point in not trying, I suppose,” the Mayor quickly added.
*
Town Hall, Ponyville
TOWN HALL MEETING
Mayor Mare and Deputy Mayor Lyra Heartstrings Presiding
TOPIC: THE PONYVILLIAN REACTION TO THE COUP OF 9 TRIXIEDOR
“Now, first things first, fillies and gentlecolts,” Mayor Mare opened with a lecture. “We’ve received disturbing reports that some of our citizens are receiving threats based on their so-called ‘collaboration’ during Trixie’s Coup of Ponyville. That is wrong. Nopony should be taking the law into their own hooves. If you have a problem, please take it up through the official channels. We will be dealing with this kind of behavior with the utmost seriousness.”
“Hear, hear!” Twilight Sparkle, sat in the front row, yelled out and clapped to the approval of the rest of Ponyville’s citizenry.
“All the same,” Lyra now took control of the microphone, “the Government understands that some of you might feel wronged during Trixie’s Reign of Terror over Ponyville, and want to find answers as to why it happened – hence this meeting, where we’re going to figure out what it means to have ‘collaborated’ with the dastardly Trixie regime.
Any suggestions?” the lime-green pony turned towards the assembled multitude.
A wrinkly hoof shot up from the middle of the crowd. “Ahem – back in the good old days when I was a little foal,” a raspy, aged voice reverberated around the packed atrium, “we ponies used to enter into the homes of bad officials and physically beat them up: nopony ever ruled us badly back then! I tells ya, had we given that Trixie a good ol’ beating, she wouldn’t have been able to take control of Ponyville!”
An uncomfortable silence as Lyra gingerly retook control of the microphone. “Uh… that’s quite an interesting contribution from our citizens,” she mumbled. “So let’s interpret it like this: anypony who didn’t engage in active resistance against Trixie bears collective guilt for what she did to Ponyville. Any comments?”
“Shall we have a show of hooves to see who’s been a collaborator, then?” Mayor Mare drove the point home.
Slowly and unwillingly, Ponyville’s citizenry raised their hooves, Twilight, her friends, and the Apples excepting. Mayor Mare also kept her hoof down, reasoning that her time in jail during Trixie’s regime counted as ‘active resistance’, of sorts.
“Yeah. A stupid idea from a stupid pony,” the lime-green unicorn muttered off-hoofedly, using her free hoof to muffle the microphone.
“Well, thank you for your opinions.” Mayor Mare received the microphone from her Deputy. “But as you can see, I think such a definition of ‘collaboration’ is… too broad to be of any use, it seems. Does anypony else want to contribute?”
Another hoof went up. “Alright, the mare over there,” Mayor Mare pointed as Lyra teleported the microphone over to the prospective speaker.
“Oh, thank you Mayor… Colgate here… I was thinking: maybe we could define a ‘collaborator’ as somepony who didn’t resist occupation in any way they could? I mean, like for me I closed my shop for the duration that Trixie was in power… so you could say that I wasn’t a collaborator at all!”
A snort from a few rows down. “Please. You just ran out of nitrous that day!”
Colgate twitched. “Well, the result was the same!” the pony defended herself vehemently. “At least I did my bit in convincing Trixie to leave, Shoeshine!”
“Sheesh, Col’; ponies still have to live under a dictatorship!” came the fierce retort. “You’re crazy if you think destroying everything was any sort of an answer to Trixie!”
“Yeah, of course, that’s what all slaves say to justify- “
“All right, that’s enough, that’s enough!” Lyra yanked the microphone back from the budding argument, knowing full well how these things could spiral out of control. “I have to say, on a theoretical level I agree more with this proposal than the last one, but still, on a practical level this could still be problematic: hand- I mean, hooves?”
A majority – smaller than before, but still over half – raised their hooves.
“May I remind you that under Equestrian Law, collaboration with the enemy is an offence that can result in a charge under the Treason Act,” the bespectacled Mayor reminded in exasperation. “So may we kindly remind everypony that it’s not practical for the Government to open investigations into half of Ponyville’s population!”
“Well, how about this then!” a voice from the rear hollered out.
Mayor Mare squinted to see who was speaking. “Oh, Mrs. Cake!” she said. “Please, tell the assembly here what your proposal is about.”
The baker cleared her throat as she prepared to speak. “I must agree with Shoeshine in that the first priority of every pony is to ensure that she and her kin live safe and happy lives. It’s not reasonable to expect civilians to resist the enemy when we actually have nothing to resist them with!”
“I’m sure there are many ponies will agree or disagree with you, Mrs. Cake.”
“I haven’t gotten to my main point yet!” the rotund mare continued. “The point is that it should be the Government’s responsibility to defend Ponyville against invaders of any sort! So really, the only collaborators in this town were the bureaucrats who were helping Trixie in the administration!”
If that was meant to be a jab at Mayor Mare it wasn’t working. “I suppose that is a narrow enough definition, though I wouldn’t know because I was in jail all that time,” the gray-maned pony emphasized. “Maybe the Deputy Mayor might know better. Ms. Heartstrings, are you aware of any acts of collaboration within the Government?”
The lime-green unicorn shrugged. “They were questioning me all the time that Trixie was around. But as far as I can tell, the lights were still on and water still flowed from the kitchen taps.”
“Exactly!” Mrs. Cake insisted. “You see, you government officials should have shut down all the power and the water the moment Trixie arrived! Arrest all the collaborators in Town Hall!”
Too easy. “Umm… not to say you’re wrong, Mrs. Cake… ” the Deputy Mayor tread carefully. “But who is going to keep the power and water running in Ponyville while we suspend all the bureaucrats pending a collaborationist investigation?”
A pause.
“Nothing to add, Mayors,” came the abrupt response.
Mayor Mare flashed a faint smile of appreciation towards her Deputy. “Well, well!” she concluded. “This does seem to be a problem. The wider definitions of ‘collaboration’ implicate far too many ponies for anything useful to come out of it. The narrower definitions of ‘collaboration’ risk damaging our recovery from the Coup. I’m starting to think that any meaningful investigation into potential collaborators is going to be pretty impossible… ”
“Or maybe there weren’t any collaborators in the first place.”
Everypony’s gaze turned towards the unicorn in the front row. “Ahh… our resident scholar and heroine, Twilight Sparkle! We’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter.”
“Sure, Mayor.” The unicorn cleared her throat. “The way I see it, as much as we don’t want to admit it… Trixie’s coup was the legal successor to the Ponyville Government. After all, the agreement between Trixie and I implied that she’d take over Ponyville.”
Lyra’s eyes twitched. “Um, Ms. Sparkle… ”
“So really, the first time I lost, Ponyville was automatically transferred to Trixie’s rule!” the bookish mare continued obliviously. “So really, any obedience of Trixie was only obedience to lawful authority!”
“Twilight… ”
“So really, there’s no question of collaboration at all and we all should stop worry about it!” the unicorn concluded, folding her forelegs in satisfaction.
The rest of the Town Hall didn’t seem to think so, settling into a sort of passive-aggressive stillness. “Who gave you the right to negotiate with Trixie?” a voice from the crowd piped up.
Too late, the purple unicorn’s eyes flashed open in shock. “Oh, um… err… ” she stammered, realizing the trap she had fallen into.
“Wait, so if you negotiated a treaty when you had no power to do so… doesn’t that make you the collaborator?” somepony else asked.
“Ah… ehh…” A sweating Twilight silently gestured towards Mayor Mare. “Help me!” she mouthed.
It was no use. “Oh! Eh… ” the tan pony scratched her mane. “Well, uh, Ponyvillians… maybe we shouldn’t jump so quickly to conclusions… after all, the agreement with Twilight… erm... ” The legal contortions required were fast spinning out of Mayor Mare’s abilities.
Twilight’s breaths became shallower and shallower as she realized that nopony could save her now-
“Hey!”
For the umpteenth time, everypony’s attention was suddenly grabbed by an interrupting pony.
“Are you kidding me?” Rainbow Dash shouted, angrily hovering in the middle of Town Hall. “You’re going to say that Twilight Sparkle betrayed Ponyville? Celestia, she just saved all of you ponies from Trixie!”
“Oh! Umm… yeah!” Lyra Heartstrings quickly fell into line. “Yeah! Celestia, what were you ponies thinking!”
The weathermare looked at the lime-green unicorn with some disdain. “You know what?” she pressed on. “Who cares? You go ahead and arrest Twilight with… whatever you were going to arrest her for! Let’s see how you ponies deal with the next monster that comes your way!”
That nipped the growing cacophony in the bud. Ponyville Town Hall fell back into silence, slightly ashamed of what they were planning to do. They stayed silent for quite some time, Twilight’s faint mews and hiccups punctuating the air.
Mayor Mare had to do something to stem this awkwardness. “So, umm… I think we all agree now that this task of rooting out ‘collaborators’ has been a bit of an own goal?”
No response.
“Shall we have a show of hooves for those who want to continue this investigation?”
No response.
“Well. So by the will of the ponies, let us drop the issue and never speak of it again... ”
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Trixie was obviously ruling the town of Ponyville on her own as supreme dictator. The better question should be, why was Deputy Mayor Lyra not actively involved in leading the resistence, and instead stood on the sidelines during the duel to decide Ponyville's future?
Legal? Ponyville didn´t belong to Twilight in the first place, so Trixie couldn´t have taken its government from her.
Trixie was lucky to get away. She did try to usurp the Crown's authority over a town.
4262860 Well that was sort of the point. Twilight was so desperate for Ponyville to get over the whole affair that she didn't consider that maybe she didn't have the legal authority to do that in the first place.
In any case, Trixie's usurpation of the Ponyville Government was justified because she had the super-powerful Alicorn Amulet. Might makes right.
herd animals are stupid
it takes so little to rile them up
wow man you're getting your google fu on a roll!
4264770
Read the author notes; we are herd animals too.
4266413 no "WE" are a mob but only to a certain size a pack at the smallest, a dozen people or so could reach things more rationally but herd animals will panic (i.e. goats, sheep)
mob mentality is what makes us really, REALLY vicious just think of canadians and their hockey
But that wasn't Twi's agreement with Trixe. Their only agreement was that whoever lost the duel would be banished from Ponyville. It had nothing to do with rulership over the town. Trixie just did that and without Twilight there nobody could stop her.
4269460 Eh, you can handwave that as the government looking for any sort of scandal or crisis to blow out of proportion to make it look like progress is being made.
4270171 Yeah but in the story it's Twi that says they made that agreement.
4270176 They probably forced her into it, or she's just playing along because she doesn't want Trixie to be captured when it was the amulet that made her do all those cruel things.
4270176 Well that's why Twilight wrote that the agreement was implied (might have been less clear elsewhere, for which I apologize). Of course you can say that implication doesn't mean legality and you'd be right... Twilight probably got a bit carried away in her haste to solve the problem.
Hey, has anyone read this fic?
Yes, Princess!
It seems to have a similar concept.
4274527 I read it when it came out. It's quite good (as with his previous similar fic), and I wish I could copy the Yes, Minister vibe as well as he does
4276205
Okay, question:
Could Twilight's new castle be considered an illegal structure because it was built without a permit?
And, can it be taxed by Ponyville?
You know, I never comment just to note that I'm marking something to read later... but I totally am.
I miss this story
5426907 Hey, sorry man... this year's just been a bit busy/difficult for me because of some major, major family issues, and also because of the protests in Hong Kong which you might have read about a couple months ago (and really only ended around 2 weeks ago). I'm also struggling through another another story so that's not helping things.
I'll be putting it as a priority on my New Year's 'To Do' list, though...
5429594
It's OK, I get that this is just a hobby and there are things much more important than writing about ponies, so you don't have to apologize, you'll get to it when you get to it, if it is going to happen, I just really do enjoy this fic.
Good luck with everything!
with all the political craziness this year, you should have lots of material to continue.