Normals
Race Theory
I would love to say that we live in an equal society, where the measure of a pony’s mind and spirit marks their status.
Some ponies say we do.
There is the press, the popular sciences, the big name journals. Newspapers and publishers and distributors. They all marvel at the state of our society, the advances in medicine and civics that have come so far in the past century.
I myself, as a mare, couldn’t vote, not but a mere forty years ago. And now a mare sits on every branch of the government. So of course, we have come far. There are advances made.
But our society is not equal. There is oppression. But it is an oppression so total, so complete, so ingrained, that the average pony cannot perceive it. It is perfectly horrid–if all are blind, none know that they cannot see.
There is, of course, the argument of Cutie Marks. To each pony, their talent. To each pony, their station. It is an ideal excuse to oppress others, to point out that their destiny is summed up, in whole, by the small symbol on their leg.
My own cutie mark is a set of scales. I discovered at a young age my talent for finding the truth, for seeking the truth, and it appeared. As such, I went into law.
Contrary to what you’d think, I enjoy my profession as a lawyer. I help ponies to help themselves, I try to give what aide I can in determining what facts rule their lives. All cases, no matter how seemingly insignificant, all boil down to a case of what is true.
I even have my own firm. A small, independent thing, with only myself and a single Servant, but it is nice to know that I am dependent on nopony. That I can make my own hours.
Sometimes I think these things and am shocked at how privileged I am.
Mother thinks I’m crazy, when I talk about this. She is happy with her life.
Let me tell you a bit about my childhood.
I went to a primary school, and a grade school, and a middle school, just like every other foal. However, when I was younger, we lived in the outer districts, close to the deserts. There were not a lot of luxuries afforded to those who worked there, and no Servants for anypony, but we had enough.
To make a long story short, there was only one school.
At school, I had several friends. Most of them were Normals, but there were also a few Pegasi. The outer districts needed Pegasi stationed to defend the colonies, and to provide security for the scientists and mechanics who maintained and operated the mining equipment.
True to the tenants of friendship, I had many friends at the school, all of whom I knew quite well. But I also had two friends, who were closer than my other friends. Friends who I could rely on, no matter what.
Steel Driver was a Normal. I still talk to her, today. She lives in one of the Eastern districts, I forget which one.
But my other friend, surprisingly, was a pegasus. She was named Fall Feather. I didn’t think much of it at the time, after all, I was only a child! I had never been exposed to newsvids or any such nonsense. All I knew was that I had two friends.
We would always sit together, always talk together. Swap stories, share secrets. I was certain that we would be friends forever.
One day, I asked my mother if I could have a slumber party. “Mooom.”
She was at the kitchen, making breakfast, I think. “Yes, honey?”
I couldn’t have been older than ten. “Can I have a couple friends over?”
She smiled knowingly at me. “Oh, dear, of course you can. These are those two ruffians you’re always telling me about? Fall and... Steel?”
I nodded. “Well then,” she replied. “As long as their parents both agree, we can have them over tonight!”
I was so excited, I remember hugging mom by the waist, thanking her profusely. That day, at school, I told my friends, and they were both as happy as I was! I don’t think I had ever been more giddy in my short little life.
School passed by quickly. When it was over, mom came by to pick me up. “So, what did your friends’ parents say?”
“Steel’s talking to her parents right now,” I replied, “but Fall’s dad already came by and says he’s gotta meet you first.”
She nodded happily. She was so oblivious. “Of course! Lead the way.” So I led her through the halls of the school, to the main classroom.
The room was empty, except for Fall and her dad. He was a larger pegasus, and was still wearing his regulation armor.
I trotted happily into the room, but mom stopped in the doorway, paling a little. “O-oh! good evening, officer. Was there trouble at the school?”
Fall’s dad was a nice guy. His eyes lit up and he cracked the biggest smile. “Trouble? Oh, no! I’m just here to pick up my little filly and send her off to her first sleepover!” He picked up Fall from the desk she was sitting at and hugged her tightly.
“Daaaad!” She whined, smiling. “You’re embarrassing me!”
“Oh alright, you little scamp. I’m going to have to talk to this nice mare right here for a bit, then I’ll let you have your fun. Go out and play.”
Fall leapt to the ground, spreading her wings. Mother flinched, ever so slightly. “C’mon, let’s go on the jungle gym!” she shouted. I happily complied, bolting to the door with her.
“P-Preface!” My mom shouted.
I stopped at the door. “Yeah mom?”
“Uh...” She shifted her eyes, nervously. “Be safe.”
“Okay!” Then I left.
I have no idea what my mom and Fall Feather’s dad talked about. Really, I don’t. All I remember is playing around with Fall on the jungle gym.
But when she came out, she wasn’t happy. She looked... scared. Relieved, and scared. If that is a thing.
“Preface, time to go sweetie.”
I jumped off the bars. “Okay mom! Come on, Fall!”
“O-oh, no, Preface dear,” mom stuttered, “Fall is going home with her father. I’m afraid she can’t come to sleep over tonight.”
“Aww...” Fall and I chorused in unison. “Sorry, Fall. Maybe next time.”
“Yeah...” the pegasus filly trudged back to her father. He looked hurt, but didn’t express it in his actions. He did his best to console his daughter.
That night, Steel stayed over for the sleepover. It was nothing eventful, just normal sleepover stuff. We missed Fall, though.
A few months later, Mom got a transfer position at one of the more central districts. Looking back, I think she might have applied for the transfer, after realizing I was friends with a pegasus. Hell, I bet if I bugged her about it, she’d admit to it.
I didn’t miss my friends, though. Thanks to the wonders of the Ponynet, we talked every night. I had only begun to see the newsvids, then. The propaganda that our government gave us, reinforcing the standards of our society.
There was one in particular I remembered, it showed an army of pegasi, marching into the wastes. Standing above them, on a platform, were several Normals, all saluting them. There was a big caption, saying “A Noble Cause!”
These things confused me, a bit. Sad to say, I slowly began to accept their message. Fall’s dad was a trooper, right? He was a national security officer. Perhaps all pegasi were?
Thankfully, I did not tread far down this road.
But maybe it would have been better if I had.
Steel had already gotten her cutie mark. Fall and I were anxious about it. We were both already thirteen years old, and we had no idea what we wanted to do with our lives!
But that night, I got a vidcall from Fall Feather. It was late at night, right as I was about to go to bed, but I picked up. “Hey, Fall. It’s kinda late. What’s up?”
The filly on the screen looked... scared. Very scared. She wasn’t in any area I had seen before, and her face was very close to the screen. She kept glancing around, to see if anyone was watching. “Preface!” she whispered.
My brow furrowed with concern, and I devote more attention to the screen. “Fall, are you alright? What’s happening?”
She gulped. “Preface, I got my Cutie Mark.”
Despite myself, I smiled. “Hey, Fall, that’s great! Why is that a bad thing?”
“No, it’s not great, Preface!” she cried. “It’s not a sword or a shield or a book of strategies or anything. It’s a candle.”
Now, all of the preconceptions I had about Pegasi were thrown into the air. “A candle? I thought pegasi were all, y’know, fighting or action or sports cutie marks.”
“I know, I know!” she was almost crying now. “But, but I don’t like any of those things! I like making candles!”
I was worried for my friend, but I was happy that she had found her talent. “Hey, that’s great! Why does it have you worried?”
She gasped, a short sob escaping from her lips. “Th-they’re not gonna let me make candles, Preface! They’re gonna send me to fight!”
I blinked. That was crazy! Why would they send a pony out to fight, when she’s clearly good at making candles? “Fall, you just have to explain to them what your Cutie Mark means. I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding. You’ll be the first pegasus to have a candle shop!”
She cried out, mournfully. “No, Preface, no, you don’t get it! They know what it means, they don’t care! They-“
She stopped, and abruptly looked behind herself. When her face returned to the screen, her eyes were wide, and she was scared. “P-Preface, I’m gonna talk to you later. I have to go!”
“Fall! Wait! Fall Feather!” I shouted.
It was no good. Her call disconnected, and she was logged off a few moments later.
The next day, I called her. Her personal line was disconnected, so I called directly to her residence. Her father picked up the phone. His smiling face fell slightly as it saw me. “Oh. H-hello, Preface.”
“Hi Mr. Feather,” I replied. “Do you know where Fall is? She seemed like she needed help last night.”
“Last night?” He asked. “When did-“ he paused, his eyebrows shooting upwards. “...Oh. She called you.”
“...Yeah. Where is she?”
“Oh, I’m so sorry, but Fall left to go to training.” He forced a smile. “My little girl, a demolitions specialist! Who’d have thought, a grenade cutie mark!”
“Grenade?” I asked. “No, Mr. Feather, it was a candle, not a-“
“-IT WAS A GRENADE!” he shouted. “A grenade! Nothing else!” His face was distorted in a sorrowful agony, and tears were streaming from his reddened face. “She can’t call you from training. Please, just don’t bother her.”
I was floored. Never talk to my best friend again? Preposterous. “But-!”
He hung up.
This is absurd, I thought to myself. I have to know what happened to my best friend, or die trying. I will not be allowed to blindly follow what I have been told to follow!
It was then that my cutie mark appeared on my flank. I was so mad, I didn’t even notice.
I didn’t see Fall Feather again for many years. The only time I saw her again was when I was in law school, at one of the central districts.
It was at a parade. A platoon of Pegasi was marching through the streets, before being sent out to fight Blackshells in the Wastes.
I was already looked upon questionably for my willingness to talk to Pegasi, and treat them like I would Normals, but that could be passed off by being from the outer districts.
What couldn’t be passed off was when I saw my best friend, in a parade, about to head out to die.
She was just there, marching, her head hung. She didn’t say a word, but I recognized her immediately, even after all these years. I ran up alongside the parade. “Fall! Fall Feather!”
Her ears perked up in recognition, and she glanced at me. However, it was only a glance. As soon as she saw me she turned her gaze forward, her mouth tightening.
I was confused, and a bit hurt. “Fall! I haven’t seen you in ages! And now you’re going off to war?”
Still no response.
“Fall!”
“I’m not supposed to talk to you!” She whispered. “Please, Preface, just go away.”
I was very hurt, now. My voice cracked as I spoke. “But Fall...”
“No, Preface. I’m telling you.” She sighed. “Please, get back to your life.”
And she marched away.
A few weeks later, Fall’s platoon returned, with less than half of the ponies they left with. The Blackshells were driven back, but at the cost of pegasus lives. Not that you’d ever hear about their casualties in the news, though.
One of the dead was Fall. They didn’t even report it, they didn’t even tell anypony. Sweet Sun Princess, there wasn’t even a damn funeral. The closest we got was when I took a train to Fall’s father’s house. He got angry, and we both cried. That happy stallion, with the smiling eyes. Never happy again.
He lit a whole bunch of candles.
It was that day that I began to take my ideas and principles, and actually apply them in the real world. When I began to try and educate others on the terrible structure of our society, and do my best to rectify it.
My first major success was at the supermarket. A green Pegasus mare, out of her armor, walked about. She got no end of uneasy looks from the other patrons at the market, all Normals. When she went to get in line, I allowed her to cut me.
Everypony looked at me, even her. Hell, even the Servant working the register raised an eyebrow. It was bizarre.
Eventually, though, she accepted, and slowly stepped in front of me. An older stallion in the line got mad at her, waving a hoof. “Yyyou let that nice young mare stand in front of you, Pegasus! It’s your duty!”
She nodded, not wanting to attract attention, and tried to get behind me. I blocked her. “Oh, but I must insist. Please. Stand in front of me.”
“O-oh no I couldn-“
“Yes you could.”
“B-but my-“
“Stand.” I refused to budge. She meekly complied, and the old stallion gave me a look like I was a crazy pony. The rest of the line moved on without incident, but it was my first triumph.
That was how my little organization got started. A side project, operated out of the same office as my firm. The green Pegasus mare, Lessie Smiles, was one of my first volunteers. Mr Feather was another. Soon, we had two dozen members, and more than eight Servants.
For a while, we prospered. We got more bulk to our movement, got new recruits. One of the first Civil Rights movements since mare’s suffrage, and ponies began to recognize us, wherever we went. Some were furious, others were enthusiastic, but most were simply baffled. They had no clue what we talked about when we talked about ‘cultural blindness’.
I was ready to change that.
It was at one of the largest rallies we had ever done. At a large park in the primary district, we had a bake sale for Pegasus Rights. It was a simple genius–why would anyone get arrested for selling cookies?
Lessie was taking charge of most of the tables, and Mr. Feather was hoofing out flyers. I sat at a bench, munching on a cupcake, smiling stupidly at myself. What we were doing was working, and ponies were noticing.
I didn’t even notice the Servant in a dark suit, trotting up behind me.
There was a brilliant flash of light, and suddenly I was in a small waiting room.
I jumped, my eyes shooting around me like bullets. The walls were made of concrete, and there was no exit. Just a door to whatever this was a reception area for.
How do ponies even get in here? I thought. Hell, how did I get in here?
After a moment, I managed to calm myself down. Taking a few steady breaths, I gently pushed the doors open.
Inside was a large office, furnished with carpets, and a rather large desk. All of the walls, behind the paintings, were concrete and windowless as the waiting room, leading me to believe we were underground.
Seated behind the desk was an older-looking Normal stallion, who was laboriously writing on a scroll. He didn’t look up as I entered.
I was annoyed. If he brought me here against my will, he could at least be courteous. “Um, excuse me?”
No response.
“Excuse me! I was transported here against my will by some weird flash of light?!”
The stallion let out a long sigh, before raising his head and staring a me. “Yes, Miss Preface. Please, have a seat.”
I didn’t exactly trust what this seedy stallion offered me, but it was just a seat, and I didn’t want to appear foolish. I gingerly sat down, seated across from his at his desk.
“So, Miss Preface.” He smiled at me. “You have been busy, haven’t you?”
I blinked at him. “...This is about the organization, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Miss Preface. You see-“
“I’m not shutting it down!” I practically bellowed. “I know what you ponies do with the Pegasi who aren’t suited to warfare. It’s sick. And it will continue without me.”
The stallion closed his eyes, and rubbed a hoof at his temple. “Yes, we are fully aware that you know all of these things, and have been doing your best to spread that knowledge to the public.”
I grinned smugly at him. “And that makes you angry, doesn’t it? Hah! I’ve beaten you!”
The stallion folded his hooves together, staring at me. “You haven’t beaten us, Miss Preface. You’ve merely started something far too soon.”
I blinked. “...What?”
“You are trying to liberate ponies, yes?”
“Well, yeah. Pegasi are-“
“That’s not what I asked, Miss Preface.” He leaned in closer to me. “It’s a simple question, and has a simple answer. Who are you trying to help. Pegasi-“ he smiled, “-or ponies?”
I digested this for a moment, trying to piece together what he was saying. “I suppose... I’m helping ponies... but, specifically pegasi?”
His smile faltered. “So I thought.”
“Well, who else would I be helping?”
He stared at me for a moment. “Miss Preface, I have here one of the pamphlets, that you have been hoofing out at your functions.” He held up one of the pamphlets, the green printing from our last event. “I took particular notice of your choice of words.”
“What choice?” I asked.
He cleared his throat, and began to speak aloud. “Ahem. There is, in our society, a perpetual blindness, to something so ingrained within us that we cannot even tell that it is evil.”
“Oh, you like that bit?” I asked. “It’s one of my favorites. Really sits with ponies.”
“Oh, yes,” he answered, “ponies eat it up. Especially because it’s true. There are things, wrong things, that are so woven into our way of life that we cannot hope to ever extract them. But, Miss Preface,” he tapped his hoof on the desk. “It is not just the Pegasi.”
“I’m sorry?”
“There is another ill act, Miss Preface, another injustice, that goes unnoticed by all who see it. Do you know what it is?”
These words shook me to my very core. “...no, I can’t say that I do.”
“How did you get in here, Miss Preface.”
I thought back to my sudden entrance. There was... a flash of light? And suddenly I was here! But, wait... there, before I was suddenly in here, was a...
“The Servants?” I asked.
The old stallion smiled, and nodded. “Yes, the Servants.”
I was dumbfounded. “The Servants?! But, but...” I thought to all I had seen of Servants my whole life. “But they’re barely even ponies!”
“How about a little history lesson, hmm?” The stallion leaned back in his chair, and continued speaking. “There are three races of pony, Miss Preface. A long time ago, they lived together equally.
“But the Servants, then known as Unicorns, had too much power. They could perform impossible feats, move mountains, change the heavens, with merely the power of their horns. And us? Us ‘Normals’? We were delegated to be farmers. Nothing more.”
I blinked. “Farmers?”
“That’s right. And the Pegasi? Well, they were just another type of pony, equally oppressed by the unicorns, but used as weather captains and soldiers. We were all under the rule of whatever one third of our population wished, merely because of a protrusion on their skulls.”
I thought back to the Servants I had known all my life. the docile, pliable creatures that filled the corners of daily activity. They could move things with thought, sure, but that just made them better drivers, better assistants... right?
“We, the Earth Ponies, were so oppressed, that we began to wage war on the Unicorns. Needless to say, we lost horribly. But not before turning to a drastic method of revolt.”
I was shaking in my chair now, the revelation about the Servants overtaking me. I was unsure if I wanted to hear more. “...What was it?”
He smiled. “You know, Equestria used to be green. And covered in plant life, with animals everywhere. Now, it’s just a barren wastes, lucky to produce minerals, and swarming with Blackshells.”
I couldn’t believe it. “That was us?”
But I had to. “That was us.”
He stood up, walking slowly across the room. “So, Miss Preface. Before you go about liberating everypony you fancy to, please think about the future. Being free from prejudice isn’t about granting rights, but healing wounds.
“And some wounds never heal.”
He pressed a button on the wall. “Never heal? Do you mean like-“
Another brilliant flash of light.
“-the Wastes?”
I was back on the park bench. Mr. Feather was there, and he instantly rushed towards me. “Preface! Are you alright? Where did you go?”
Lessie also moved up to me. “And what was that flash of light?”
I didn’t answer them.
I had a lot to think about.
The next day, I walked into my firm office. There was nopony th-
Scratch that. There was a pony there, just, a pony I never considered a pony. A Servant, dutifully performing his designated task of Tax Compiler.
I smiled, and trotted up to him. I reached into a pocket, and pulled out a cookie from yesterday’s bake sale.
I offered it to him. “Want it?”
He hesitated a moment. Then, gingerly, the Servant took the cookie, and ate it.
I smiled.