Prompt · 8:47pm Jan 13th, 2015
The crowd massed outside the castle, yelling angrily and bearing signs that read things like 'Down with the Alicorn Master Race!' 'More Princesses=More Tyranny!' 'What Are You Not Telling Us, Celestia?' 'Lives Are Not to Be Used for Tests!' 'A Life in Ignorance is No Life at All!' 'Why Are We Kept in the Dark?' 'Destiny is Not Set in Stone!'
"Please," The Captain of the Guard called, magically amplifying his voice. "If you would just clear the streets and go home. There is no need for anger or threats."
"We want Celestia!" One pony yelled.
"Yeah! We want answers!" Another yelled.
"Princess Celestia is busy!" The captain said. "There is no reason for you to..."
"Busy? Maybe she's training another princess!"
"Or erasing more of our history!"
"Maybe reforming Tirek to fight a hypothetical threat!"
"I heard she's trying to make an army of alicorns to take over the world!"
At that, the crowd got really worked up and pushed against the wall of guards, nearly breaking through and sieging the castle.
"Those are wild, unfounded rumors!" The captain said. "Who told you those?"
"I did."
The crowd parted reverently as a pair of large stallions carried a wizened golden pony wearing a brown cloak and hood. He lifted his hood to reveal a ratty white mane and eyes thick with cataracts.
"My name is Goldstein." He said, his voice aged but strong. "For ninety-three years I served this great nation of ours and have recently discovered that it has begun to rot and decay. How many threats have nearly destroyed us? How many historical events has our esteemed leader only now revealed? How many creatures we have not known about appeared? How many princesses have rose to power? How many lives have been toyed with in the name of Celestia's agenda? How many powerful artifacts have been hidden from us? How much have our beloved rulers kept from us? Clearly the age of alicorns has long since worn out its welcome! The time has come for a new age, an age where ponies will rule themselves and not answer to rulers who keep secrets and interfere with ponies' lives! It is time...for revolution!"
A resounding cheer came from the mob at the word 'revolution'. The captain was dumbstruck.
"They can't actually be buying the senile geezer's horseapples, can they?" He said to himself.
Suddenly, an orange streak shot out towards the crowd.
"All right, Grandpa, your rabblerousing days are over!" Flash Sentry said, grabbing Goldstein's arm. "Tell your mob to leave and we'll take you to a nice loony bin..."
"He's attacking Goldstein! Get him!" Somepony yelled.
The crowd immediately surged on Flash and began beating him savagely. The captain groaned. Flash was always like that; it's a wonder he passed guard training. And to think ponies thought he'd marry Princess Twilight...
"That's enough!" Goldstein ordered the attackers. "We've made our point; we don't need to kill anypony. But this was just the beginning! If peaceful methods will not work, we will use violence! If we are attacked, we will answer in kind! Remember: suffering is not everlasting!"
With that, the crowd rumbled away, vanishing surprisingly quickly.
'Typical.' The captain snorted. 'One little thing changes and everyone gets all up in arms. Everything's fine in Equestria, why do we need to change anything?'
He and several other guards walked over to the bruised and bloodied Flash.
"Flash, you idiot..." The captain sighed. "Take him to a doctor."
High in her room, Celestia had seen the whole thing with a worried eye. She looked over at her bookcase, which contained several powerful spellbooks and unabridged history books. Se hoped this whole revolution nonsense would blow over in a little while, but she still made a mental note to increase guards and to look into this Goldstein fellow...
Wow, pretty nice story. Those are all good points and the army of alicorns is something i was not thinking about it.
2720612
The tricky part is trying to avoid making this black and white, because this sort of thing never is. Celestia's not evil, just too deep-seated in the ways that were when she first rose to power, that her subjects are children she needs to guide and protect, not wanting to realize her 'children' have been able to look after themselves for millennia.
I'm thinking next might be Twilight trying to calm them with 'This is my destiny and I'm happy' only to have people question Celestia's tests, how she hasn't done anything leader-like, and maybe ponies accusing Celestia of isolationism and racism, because Saddle Arabia is populated by horses, whereas we've never seen any kind of ambassadors from zebras (who were unknown to the ponies and still are), griffons, dragons, Diamond Dogs, etc.
2720635 I think so. Probably Celestia thinks more of the results and don't think that much about possible casualties.
About Twilight, i think that Celestia actually cares for her, but the problem is that she overlook the rest of the Mane 5, because they are not her students too.