//------------------------------//
// 3 - Future Worries 
// Story: Queen of Equestria 
// by BlackWater 
//------------------------------//








Las Pegasus. A city that, in spite of the implication of its name, was not just for pegasi. It was founded by pegasi who wanted a bridge town for dealing with the other races. Much of the architecture incorporated the special magic of pegasi cloud buildings. None of it, though, was constructed in such a way that a non-pegasus would have trouble traversing it.
“Achoo,” Fluttershy sneezed gracefully upon entering their creaky inn room once more. She hung her butterfly-patterned scarf on the hook near the door before walking over to the kitchen area.
It was a bright day outside but very chilly. The sun almost struck noon and everything was sparkling with the myriads of bright colors the city had become known for. Public sentiment was not as cheery, though. Cloudsdale had the greatest population of pegasi in all of Equestria for good reason, but Las Pegasus was next. The last census had shown nearly fifty-five percent of all residents being pegasi, which was quite disproportionate when compared to most other places throughout the land.
It would make sense, then. Feelings over the recent destruction of Cloudsdale would run highest here. The information Twilight was getting from Chrysalis was painting an even bleaker picture. Perhaps the world of politics and public affairs was not the most favorite of Twilight’s old interests, but it was looking as if that would be all that her life would become. Sadly, it made sense. She was the Queen of Equestria. It was hard to rise a complaint without sounding like she just wanted to quit her job.
And, of course, that would never happen. She promised the princesses before they left. To say nothing of her foundational care and concern towards the ponies of Equestria.
-ection, Chrysalis finished explaining from her chair she was sitting on in the city hall while reading an array of documents that Twilight had told her to procure.
Wait, Twilight began backtracking mentally. She put down the hayburger she had been eating in the private inn suite on the outskirts of the city. It had been a chore just to secure a place where she could stay before officially entering the city and being swamped by all the citizens within. Repeat that.
Brooding again? Chrysalis teased. Her lackadaisical attitude towards the seriousness of the situation was silent testament to how much she failed to care. Twilight was the only thing that mattered in her world. That and the well-being of their small hive, of course. I said that in addition to the massive influx of refugees boarding with known relations here in the city and thus breaking the limits of public services, five days ago there was supposed to be a local election.
Election? Was it put on hold? Twilight inquired.
The changeling waved to a pony who walked by. He looked to be a secretary of some kind, but he also appeared absolutely terrified by the sight of the changeling. Only the presence of one of the hall clerks working with her kept him from running for help. The wave Chrysalis gave him made him get out of there even faster, which only amused the changeling into a buzzy snicker.
Yes, Chrysalis confirmed. The standing mayor and city council was given an emergency extension of office due to the crisis. The power to do so was established centuries ago and given to the discretion of the city council. Therefore, it was all legal. The mayor is a unicorn, though, and his popularity plummeted long before Cloudsdale.
Twilight bit her lip at the thought. She found out earlier that the city council had also generated some public distrust after passing a series of controversial allocations of public funds. The council was comprised of five unicorns, four Earth ponies, and only three pegasi. That didn’t help matters when two of the Earths and all three of the pegasi had backed polices with majority public support only to be repeatedly crushed by the unicorns and other two Earths.
The standard method of public action was thus stonewalled. The resulting unrest, with no means of a diplomatic response through city governance, could boil into a riot. Tens of thousands in Las Pegasus were demonstrating pointlessly to a local government that had just made itself unaccountable to its own population. In other words, the only thing left to start the fire was the spark.
Canterlot’s resources are drained, Twilight recalled. I've ordered all guard resources to finding our enemy. The rest of Equestria has poured their emergency funds into maintaining the medical and food supplies for the camps. There’s not enough left without Las Pegasus using its own resources...
Manehattan could send the aid, Rainbow Dash suggested. She was perched up on the top of an apartment building inside Las Pegasus. It was near the western city square. The cool breeze made her wings shiver and fold closer against her body. Fall was supposed to be setting in, but it was anypony’s guess now what was going to happen with the weather. Cloudsdale was gone, which meant that local weather teams would have to manage something without the big weather factories to back them up.
Symbols of a hundred kinds were visible on signs of demonstrators below. Rainbow leaped off the roof edge she was on and began a gentle glide over 30th West Street. She always could read ground conditions better during flight. The symbols started to catch her eyes and she recognized a few.
Uh, Twi, she called in to her queen again.
If you have any ideas that don’t involve me kicking out the city council and the mayor to govern myself, then I’m totally open, Twilight deadpanned. She kept tearing pages from a binder next to her lunch plate. Pages full of useless ideas she had drafted that wouldn’t work. Manehattan will take too long.
Bad news and bad news, Rainbow frowned and banked hard at an intersection to follow another road. It was even more packed with ponies below. Which do you want to hear first?
Twilight skipped the small talk and simply reached into Rainbow’s mind through their connection. The symbols on the signs. Some of them were from local weather control groups. The local weather ponies were out there, which meant they were stopping weather duty for the city. Some had signs declaring an end to all weather until emergency aid was released by the city. Others declared strikes in response to the city’s newly passed financial cuts to all weather teams. Rainbow was hearing the chants, and thus so did Twilight.
“No weather pay! No rain today!”
The alicorn queen slammed her head on the table, narrowly missing what remained of her hayburger. Was the city council insane? Did they really think they could survive without weather support on top of Cloudsdale’s loss? Then it hit her and her face drew back up. Those seven ponies on the council were probably Elite party members. Only those who had been directly involved in the coup had been jailed so far – not all members of the party, which had ponies spread throughout Equestria.
“Twilight,” Fluttershy walked up to her mare’s side and hugged her. “It’ll be okay.”
“Maybe we should flip a coin on that,” Twilight deadpanned.
Chrysalis focused. Her mind was having a hard time keeping up with the speed that her queen’s was now moving at. Even with her experience as a former hive queen, Chrysalis was surprised. Twilight was too strong now to give in to any feeling of helplessness or failure. Unless she saw it as an inescapable destiny-
“Do you require further documents or services, ma’am?” the clerk pony interrupted her thoughts, a hint of nervousness still on her face. Chrysalis waved her off, which she gladly responded to with some expression of having other business to attend to. The mare left as if her tail was on fire.
Twilight’s mind was fifty steps ahead in a game of mental chess. She was already figuring out how to handle Las Pegasus. Chrysalis pinpointed the small amount of despair that still clung in her mind. Every time the queen tried a new approach it led to the same place. Removing the local government to release aid in one form or another. That meant taking direct control, which the Elite party in Canterlot was already blaming Twilight for. Blaming her as a tyrant obsessed with power. Las Pegasus was simply her next victim.
And those ponies were here. Inside Las Pegasus and on the streets, surrounded by other ponies ready to riot. If they took control of the situation, things could get ugly. Sure, it was unlikely. But Twilight hadn’t anticipated a planned coup either. It may be true that the queen could have majority support overnight, but if the local Elites had any plans or countermeasures, there could be serious trouble.
Chrysalis had no issue with trouble.
The tall black shape shifter stood from her seat, which was a tad too small for her anyhow. She raised a hole-ridden forehoof and looked at it. Green electricity snapped around it with the smallest effort of magic. With Twilight as her queen and also as a lover, she had more power than she had ever dreamed of. That was all that mattered to her. She could destroy any pony – or any city – that threatened that. To her, the issue was clean cut and she voiced as much.
You have all of the information and preparation you need, my queen, she broke into her mare’s worries with brutal clarity. The mayor and the city council are guilty of conspiring against the public welfare. Put them in jail like you did in Canterlot and take direct control.
I would be a tyrant, Twilight argued with abhorrence. She knew the path she had already started on. It had been only because of a coup before, but would this end with Las Pegasus? Or would all of Equestria lose the system of government that had presided over it for a thousand years?
A savior! Chrysalis countered proudly.	We can even vacation at the best spots in the city while the local teams take care of the weather. All happy and smiling too. Right, Pinkie?
Sounds wonderific! Wish I could be there! the pink pony managed to exert her bubbly glee over the hivemind even though she had been hospitalized in Canterlot from severe exhaustion. She smiled even while laying in her medical bed.
Maybe the others knew how much of a big decision this was for her but didn’t feel it in their hearts as she did. The best option she could think of to preventing total collapse was by her appointing a new city council with public input. She was not so naive to miss the fact that it could be seen merely as her assigning puppets and she would lose popular support. Or perhaps the Elite infiltrators in the crowd were positioned specifically to determine which names for office came up. Considering the turncoat strategy they had used-
Consarnit, Applejack broke in. Just do somethin’ already. We can fix the problems as they come. If they come. No more waitin’. Just doin’!
“Ugh,” Twilight groaned in frustration. She broke at that and gave in. “Fine! You’re right. I shouldn’t worry about potential future outcomes so much that it paralyzes me. I need to handle problems as they come,” she exclaimed and got up from the table with a strong posture. Perhaps some more of Chrysalis had rubbed off on her or perhaps she was just remembering a past lesson she had already learned. “But if I’m going to do this then I’m going to do it big! Shy, get my crown thingy. We’re going to take over a city and I’m going to do it-”
Rarity finished her line over the hivemind.
-with style!









Rarity adjusted the sleeve on her long purple overcoat. It was still chilly enough for her to keep it on in their study here at the castle. Normally, the combination of the fire and Spike’s warm embrace could eliminate the need of insulating clothes. However, she wasn’t of the mind to be held by the dragon while they had a special guest in the room. Especially not after that embarrassing affair in the square.
The orange unicorn with off-white hooves adjusted his large glasses. His orange-reddish mane was a horrid mess by Rarity’s standards, but his blue cloak had some clever style. It was rather close to the sort of thing Twilight might like. Somehow, it reminded her of the dress she made for Twilight years ago for the Grand Galloping Gala.
“You’re quite in luck,” the stallion gave a soft smile, like one not accustomed to being useful. He patted the tall pile of books next to him on the fireplace rug where he also kept warm. “I happened to be reviewing the subject in light of recent events in Equestria.”
“Thank you for coming, Sunburst,” Spike appreciated, his somewhat deeper voice still recognizable to the pony who had seen him before as a much smaller dragon during the Equestria Games. “We may not be there in person to help Twilight, but maybe we can do the reading for her.”
“I am not sure,” Rarity raised a forehoof to her chin and turned so her other flank now faced the fireplace behind her, “how much this will help. They are just some dusty old history books, no?”
The male unicorn smiled some more. Apparently he was amused at the idea of a necessary lecture. “History is what made us who we are today. Understanding the past is how one can understand the present and the future. Ponies of centuries past have faced the same problems we face today, albeit with different names and dates.”
“We were hoping for something...relevant to what’s happening,” Spike interjected.
“O-of course,” Sunburst fumbled for a second and then slipped a book into his magical grasp from the middle of the pile. “Perhaps we should start with the issue at hoof then. The Twenty Hours Coup of Canterlot, as it is being freshly chronicled, was not simply an isolated event of the modern era. It is one detail of an entire line of history going all the way back to the formation of Equestria. The Elite party, as it is now called, was formed almost entirely from members of an older party that fell apart some three hundred year-”
“Perhaps a smidgeon of summarization is in order,” Rarity suggested gently and brushed her mane aside with a hoof. She needed to reposition already to warm another part of her chilly neck. Perhaps she should have brought her scarf in from the foyer, since her coat was leaving her neck cold.
Spike nodded and took note of Rarity’s warmth issues.
“Hm, uh, yes, um,” Sunburst mumbled and his eyes darted around as he mentally tried to find a way of assembling the vast knowledge into a concise form still useful for the rulers. “You know the tale of Hearth’s Warming?”
“Of course,” the dragon and mare both answered in unison. They had both enacted parts in the Canterlot pageant, after all. It was, for the most part, a fond memory.
“Well,” Sunburst turned sheepish. “The truth is far less romantic than the tale of Hearth’s Warming. The story is true to an extent but also exaggerated since the ponies involved were not, in fact, the leaders of the three pony races. They were merely common citizens with the exception of the pegasus leader, who happened to be a capt-”
“Sunburst,” Spike calmly insisted while trying not to laugh in good nature at the stallion’s coltish joy he appeared to be experiencing with the tangent. “What’s so important about Hearth’s Warming to what’s going on now?”
“S-sorry,” Sunburst apologized. “Despotism.”
“Excuse me?” Spike’s face was blank.
Rarity frowned and looked to the desk across the study where Spike’s scarf laid.
“Despotism,” Sunburst repeated with another adjustment of his glasses and the opening of yet another book beside him. This time he hovered the book to Spike. “It’s a most persistent form of government when obscured rather than obvious. Monarchs can be points of public rage, but put an oligarchy behind them to pull the strings and you end up with a very secure means of 'swap-the-puppet' government.”
Spike read the cover title of the book. The Shadow State of Unicornia by Clover the Clever. His eyes widened. The author…
Sunburst continued as Rarity retrieved the scarf at the desk with her magic. “Technically, despotism has always existed as a matter of fact in Equestria. Publicly, the concept was ended with the formation of the Equestrian Council that drafted laws the princesses could only veto through an approved process. However, the power behind the curtains had always existed and was only given a more official space within the council. The modern iteration of that power would be the Elite party and its many non-party alliances.”
Rarity, now back with a comfy scarf around her neck and her flanks to the fire, was amazed. “Clover the Clever wrote about this?” she wondered in awe.
“Yes,” Sunburst nodded, as Spike looked through the book. “At least, the part of it that took place during her time. Clover was real and one of the greatest intellectuals of the time. Sadly, her work was intentionally ignored and buried. It exists in this copy here in the Empire – likely because the Empire had been sealed during the time the remaining copies were purged. I haven’t heard of surviving copies in Equestria and references to the work trailed off in records about eight hundred years ago.”
“What about Princess Platinum?” Rarity asked.
“She was made up.”
Rarity gave a dead-faced frown at that.
“Anyways,” Sunburst continued, “the Royal Sisters had only provided a veil to the oligarchy of the unicorn nobles who had arisen to power through the natural systems of economy set in place at the foundation of Equestria. The sisters did not do this intentionally, of course! Those economic systems had been in the charter of nationhood put to quill and signed by Queen Quick Silver, Marshal Marecus, and Chancellor Puddinghead before the arrival of the sisters.”
“Puddinghead was real?” Spike chuckled and flipped his spiney tail.
Sunburst couldn’t help a smile either. “Yes, though she was not the same pony as in the story of Hearth’s Warming. She was quite a bit more...competent than her popular portrayal.”
Hey! Pinkie Pie exclaimed upon hearing that over the hivemind.
The unicorn scholar proceeded, having not heard it. “Of those three ancient leaders, none had imagined the pitfalls of the charter. Or rather, they didn’t bother to address it. At the time, the chief adviser to Queen Quick Silver was indeed Clover the Clever, who had warned of the dangers of a renewed consolidation of power. That power would arise in only a few successive generations under the charter by the nature of their proposed systems of economy.”
“You sound kind of like Twilight,” Spike observed with a blank look.
“What Spike means,” Rarity shifted her eyes from the dragon to the pony, “is that we would like a more direct...interpretation.”
“My apologies,” the unicorn made a slight bow. “I’m not used to this sort of thing. To put it differently, the ponies all ran from the windigos, right?”
“Yes, dear,” Rarity patiently agreed.
“The windigos did come about because of a famine and the events surrounding it,” Sunburst confirmed and pointed to the book Spike held. “Clover recorded all of it. However, the famine was a result of a small group of unicorns that had risen to a position of despotism within the old world. Those unicorn families owned so much of the land that they began directly ordering Earth pony crop rotations to maximize profit, which-”
Sunburst noted the expressions he was getting and revised.
“Unicorns were telling Earth ponies how to farm. It went poorly. Famine,” he summarized and congratulated himself with their understanding looks.
“Then was Queen Quick Silver…?” Rarity guessed, tapping her chin once more.
The scholar nodded. “Actually, it had been one of her sisters who had been an old world despot. The other races would refuse to sign a charter with her because of that, so she relinquished the crown to Quick Silver, who was seen as the more trustworthy and relatable of the two. The despots were still around, but had to relinquish all majority rights to new land divisions. They had to start from scratch, but their new queen included land provisions and rules of market exchange that would favor them in the future.”
“Then the Elite party,” Spike concluded while closing the book, “are their descendants.”
Sunburst nodded. “It’s far more complicated than that, of course. But essentially, yes. I’ll write a more descriptive summary for your future reference. It may help with preventing future problems such as famine. Or perhaps with coping with public pressure, since more power has shifted from the backstage government to the crown after the coup.”
“Thank you very much for the trouble, Sunburst,” Spike gave his appreciation again. A sudden whim encouraged him to hug Sunburst as a form of thanks.
The stallion blushed at that. He was not so vocal and enthusiastic as the crystal ponies, but he had indeed seen Spike’s acts of valor in the Empire and saw his as quite heroic. Rarity bowed to him as well and gave her thanks, sans hug.
When Sunburst had left and taken some of his books back with him, Spike got closer to Rarity. “It’s already helped Twilight,” he reminded her, though they both knew through the hivemind.
“Her speech should be quite captivating now,” Rarity agreed. The context of the past would be something all of the ponies in Las Pegasus would be able to relate to even if the history was mostly lost to time.  “Perhaps knowing will also sooth her worries.”
Rarity didn’t have to wait to know the answer to that, since Twilight’s calmer mind had already become obvious over their connection. The white mare stopped thinking of it and leaned back into Spike in front of the study’s fireplace. This was the more effective means of heat capturing she had been waiting for. The dragon’s body soaked up the heat and radiated some back as well, making her feel…
“Divine, darling,” Rarity added and rested against her dragon.