//------------------------------// // 25 - Change // Story: Queen of Equestria // by BlackWater //------------------------------// The ponies of Equestia need a leader to rally around. Has this not been obvious? For thousands of years-” “The past has no bearing on the truth of reality!” another pony interrupted. “You’re asserting that-” “Is it not the case that in the two-hundred thirty-second year of the reign of-” “History is just as vulnerable to interpretation as the present! You’re twisting-” “Leadership is useful but should never be exonerated on a throne! Las Pegasus would not have been saved from internal collapse if not for Queen Twilight but that’s exactly why-” “ENOUGH!” Marigold Summit slammed a gavel he had been given as the official mediator. “If we cannot have an ordered discussion that rises above a foalish shouting match then so help me I will adjourn this negotiation and force all of you to keep coming back until you act like this is more than a schoolyard at recess!” An aide beside him at the large round table offered him a bottle of water. He anticipated it was needed after Marigold had run out of breath. Apparently, though, even the mediator was too annoyed to bother with it. The court here in Canterlot had been up and down in turmoil ever since the coup. Of course it had been. Coups were not good for keeping things predictable. The room here in the west wing of Canterlot Castle was large enough to accommodate the many members of the royal Equestrian court – dwindled as they were after some members had been jailed. As warm and inviting as the soft hues of the room décor were, nothing could save the tumultuous mood. Marigold Summit was a professional mediator. He had been picked by an outside selector who had been agreed upon by a neutral agent which all disgruntled parties of the court decided could only be trusted if picked by three more levels of abstraction. The result was a highly qualified pony that nopony knew and therefore had to, of course, be highly qualified for the job. Redundancy was magic. “We’ve been at it for four days already,” complained Iron Bit. “I will not concede a single point until all political prisoners are-” “They are not political prisoners, you braindead slug! I still have scars from their direct attack-” Sandy Skies countered with a fury. “PONIES!” Marigold shouted out again, his patience miraculously being restored. “All parties present have agreed on a plan. We are to go over this plan point-by-point. As mediator, it is my job to make sure we stay focused and come to a resolution. It has already been conceded by all opposing parties regarding the issue of jailed individuals that their status will not be involved in the negotiation. This is your own agreement. It may not be risen for discussion until the grace period so agreed upon for this specific issue.” Two other unicorns that were ready to return insult, returned to their chairs. Marigold continued. “Thank you. Now, let’s resume the negotiation over Point Nine: lawful actions of the throne over the court.” “Break!” Iron Bit called. Blue Moon didn’t like the look on the stallion’s face. And it had nothing to do with his personal disagreement over the pony’s politics. A couple of the other ponies around him were giving each other glances. Something was up. When Blue Moon looked to Morning Glory’s face, she appeared to catch it as well but gave him an uncaring look in return as Marigold confirmed a scheduled break for restroom and refreshment. It took a good minute for all of the ponies to filter out of the meeting room’s heavy double doors. As soon as Blue Moon reached the fern-dense picnic area at the castle’s northwest walled garden, he found Morning Glory. She was giving a group of her party underlings an uplifting if perhaps unjustified update of the proceedings. She was not easy to pull away from them but Blue Moon was too worried to wait. He pulled her into a room back inside the castle, adjacent to the garden and separated only by thick glass walls. “So dramatic, Blue,” Morning rolled her eyes. “You act as if the court chamber were on fire.” “It may very well be!” Blue Moon frowned. “You saw that back there, didn’t you? They’re planning a walk out on the negotiations.” “What makes you think that?” she asked, still with no concern. “Oh please, Morning,” he groaned. “I’ve been doing this for over thirty years. I know when somepony gets to the fifth hour and promised someone they wouldn’t go a minute longer. When Iron Bit mentioned the ‘prisoners’ we all knew it was over.” “So?” “You can’t be serious,” Blue Moon stepped back. The pieces were falling in place and he didn’t like where that left him. He could see it with the self-satisfied smile working its way onto her face. “I’ve put up with a lot of your trash over the years and now I finally get some sweet relief,” the mare laid back into a plush lounge chair. Being an observation room for the garden, there were a couple of oversized seats and a bar stocked exclusively with pastries. “The smaller groups loyal to the alicorns came under my wing during the coup. Why wouldn’t they? We needed to survive and now they’ll have a position to enact their policies. Golden Dawn will be the ruling party after this. Your mealy-mouthed Equestrian National Party didn’t become the big coalition you thought it would. Even Equestrian nationalists sided with me when you considered giving concessions to the Freedom and Fairness party just days before it was found out they bribed officers to join the Blue Guard in the coup. I stayed true to my beliefs – no concessions now or ever – and now Golden Dawn has come out ahead.” “If they walk out then it will be bloodshed in the streets within a week!” Blue Moon tried to keep from panicking. “They may have minority support throughout Equestria, but that will just encourage them to use lone wolf methods to terrorize the public into whatever concessions they want. At best it will be underground hit-and-run for-” “Exactly!” Morning growled and got back up from the seat to stomp the floor. “These ponies are sick monsters! If we sweep them up now then we’ll have maximum public support and minimal contest at trials. Squander it in a fake negotiation for constitutional reform and ponies will die. Ponies that don’t have to die.” “Ponies will still die if you let this happen. The only difference is that this is the way you end up in control!” Blue Moon felt his own temper bleeding away as well. The tile beneath Morning Glory’s hooves felt warm. The sun was casting light over it through the windows but that was not the only reason. She felt her own warmth radiating outwards, connected to her special talent. Her emotions just made it stronger. “I grew up doing this too, you know,” she scowled at him. “You can’t manipulate me the way you did North Star. Your solution would have you in charge and innocent ponies would die because of it. There’s no escaping this. Nopony can stop it. Not even Queen Twilight. These are evil ponies, Blue Moon. They will kill and destroy no matter what path we take. I choose the Path of Harmony. Loyalty to the alicorn goddesses. Honesty to the ponies of Equestria. Generosity to every being pony or not. Kindness to all and especially those hurt by the evil schemes of these madponies. And Laughter for the days of joy we will share in peace under Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, Supreme Leader of Harmony, and our beloved Queen of Equestria.” Blue Moon frowned, feeling empty inside. “You even have your speech prepared…” “I had hoped to serve my princess and goddess Celestia until the end of my days,” Morning finally cooled a few degrees, a sad look flashing across her face. “But I will honor her request and love Twilight as I did her. Nopony will threaten her or my ability to serve her. Not even if I have to go through you, Blue Moon.” “Celestia?” the stallion’s mind froze for a moment. “Wait! Request? What are you talking about?” Morning Glory flushed herself of her heated feelings, heat literally radiating away from her body as she did so. She gave a short turn to look out the window. Her group was safely out of view but she waved to a gardener who was passing by. “She’s a thousands year old goddess, rocks-for-brains. Of course, she has more than a few contingencies. A wise pony would. And she’s wiser than anypony alive. Golden Dawn is one of those contingencies.” “She knew about the coup?” “No,” Morning looked him dead in the eyes. “She would have wiped them out. All of them if she knew what their plans were. She only suspected it was possible certain ponies would revolt against Twilight. Worst case scenario, all loyalists and Elements besides the Queen die and I smuggle Twilight out of Equestria for her own safety.” The stallion sighed, sitting down where he had been standing. He had long suspected Celestia had a special practical side to herself that she never showed. It was painful to know just how in touch with reality she really was – to the point of considering fatal scenarios like that and planning for them. “The Royal Guard is supposed to-” “Princess Celestia knew the Guard had traitors in it. The new Captain was one of the few she knew she could trust but she also knew better than to trust every contingency plan to a single pony. Especially if that pony was in a position where she could die early and be of no help later.” “I guess this means there will be no convincing you,” Blue Moon looked at her, suddenly tired. He had fought long and hard to prevent the dissolution of the court. The coup had deepened the divide, though. This time it was too deep for him and he had lost too much support to challenge Morning once the negotiations were over. Knowing now how close this mare had been to Celestia was the final straw. He hadn’t been able to read her moves before it was too late. “I hate politics, Blue Moon,” Morning stated flatly. “That’s why I wanted the throne restored and the court dissolved since the day I became a legislator. There’s a purity in our alicorn goddesses that the politics of the court only taints. Clever politicians will always be able to manipulate the ponies of Equestria. The court was only ever a dangerous sham and the coup was the inevitable climax of the illusion. The creation of the court was like the dropping of a fragile glass and the coup like the breaking of its fall.” “You called me dramatic,” Blue Moon bit out but did so without any strength. “Your blind zeal for imagined purity will hurt more than yourself. Ponies shouldn’t live by the dictate of a single ruler. They deserve freedom.” “Don’t pretend you care about autonomy or that your broken system is some ‘pragmatic’ solution to pure but ‘sadly impossible’ idealism. If you cared so much about self-determination then you would have been protesting with the ponies in Baltimare against oppression of the public by the police. You would have been doing what Twilight did in Las Pegasus and restored control to the common pony rather than the local Elites. You’d cry the descent into tyranny even as you re-establish the rule of the Elites, hidden once more to avoid scrutiny and obtain plausible deniability behind a puppet court.” “Tyranny is exactly what this will become with enough time. Freedom can only be obtained when power is released from the crown.” “And only their queen can keep the politicians from legislating it away.” Blue Moon cracked the faintest smile. The old routine was like a reminder of his younger years with her and others like her in the court. “We’re wasting our time. As nostalgic as it is to do this with you, I know it will go on forever and yet end nowhere.” “Will you give me grief?” the mare narrowed her eyes. “In the response statements to the walk out? No,” he decided. “I will make my case against dissolution should it be proposed.” “It will.” “Then I shall,” he responded and then turned to leave. “I’ll let you enjoy yourself with your triumphant coalition. I’ll likely be called before you to give a response, so I will prepare. Afterwards, I’ll mourn. For hundreds of years I failed to save.” “What should I do?” Fluttershy flapped her wings almost timidly. “Zap them with lightning bolts!” Rainbow Dash grinned. Fluttershy gave her “the look.” “Oh, c’mon. You know I’m kidding,” Rainbow giggled. She flapped on a lower altitude to ensure her companion would not be uncomfortable. “Give them lots of hugs.” The animal lover gave her a flat-browed expression this time. “Go back to Canterlot!” called out a pony from below. “We don’t want you here!” Rainbow Dash could have sworn Baltimare was a much nicer place last time she visited. But then that might have been when she was a filly and her parents were taking her on an official tour where everypony was paid to be nice. The protest and counter-protest going on below was nothing of the sort. Fluttershy was pulled to the side by her fellow Element when some small object was thrown up at her. A water bottle, as identified by Rainbow’s quick reflexes and keen flying eye. She had also seen the pony who threw it but didn’t zap him due to her queen’s orders not to react unless to protect a pony, which she just had. “Do we have to stay here?” “Twilight said to stay with the crowd. So that’s what we do,” Rainbow pulled Fluttershy again to avoid an object. This time she pulled her around the corner of some awning on the second story of a building facing the street. It was some sort of bistro by the looks of it. As much as she would have liked to give the offenders a piece of her mind, she was also eager to leave. Playing rough in tumble was not what she had in mind after Twilight accepted her for the other pony she always wanted to be. If only Equestria would give her the opportunity. Hey, Twily, Rainbow began, looking to the east where her love was discussing details with Storm Sword. Any chance you get somepony else to ensure public safety over here? We can’t deploy the Guard without mass support, which I’m trying to get. The mayor has been bought by the Baltimare police. It’s not like Las Pegasus where the Elites controlled them. The Elites are the police here so I can’t trust them to ensure the safety of the protesters on 74th. I need somepony I can trust. “Then I reckon it’s a good thing I came down here,” a familiar accent called over to Rainbow Dash from one of the bistro’s balcony tables two ponies distance from her. The orange mare was laid back in the chair, wrapped in her favorite denim jacket, and tipped her hat to her blue pegasus friend. “AJ!” Rainbow’s mouth was open in surprise. Surprise! Twilight chuckled from across the city. I thought it’d be better if you were surprised by your relief rather than counting the seconds until she got there. “I’ll take it from here you two, so don’t worry your pretty little head, RD,” the apple farmer gave a wink. “Haha,” Rainbow faked while Fluttershy hovered over to give their friend a warm hug. “I have to say,” Applejack remarked while returning it. “It’s a heck of a lot warmer here than in Vanhoover. Still makes the gophers salt their burrows, though.” Fluttershy giggled. “Is that your saying or Fluttershy’s?” Rainbow joined in, setting her hooves to the floor of the balcony. The waitress serving the other tables gave them a curious look. Applejack kept a weather eye on the crowds below as they slowly moved down the street. On her way over, she had seen a police force moving down Rose boulevard. They would intersect when the protest passed the next two cross streets. She tested a flicker of her Void power in a hoof before giving Rainbow a shrug. “Don’t matter to me. In any case, you might want to get back to Twilight. Probably will need you for somethin’ else when she calls a public assembly.” “Like keeping her cool?” Rainbow joked and Fluttershy nudged her for it. “Yeah, okay. Just try not to over do it, huh.” “When have I overdone anythin’?” AJ grinned and headed for the stairs down. “’Sides, me and Twi have an idea now for how to open the void in reverse. Nopony will be gone forever.” Rainbow lightened at that. If it was true then maybe she’d get back those fizzy drinks AJ had accidentally sucked into the void when they had been practicing in Ponyville. “It won’t be popular, that’s for sure,” Storm Sword tapped her hoof on the table map. The point of her hoof was on 55th street, which served as the city’s oversized festival road. “You know how it goes. The situation is everypony’s problem and yet nopony’s responsibility. If we force a gathering then most ponies are going to blame us for shutting down the city.” “I don’t consider the temporary inconvenience to be a bad trade for saving the lives of innocents,” Twilight held to her decision. “Besides, there’s two thousand already on 74th. Some of them are strikers. I plan to end the problem with peaceful resolution. The police just want a bloody confrontation.” “If it goes bumpier than Las Pegasus then I cannot guarantee this barracks can get violent opposition under control. It’s a big city, Twilight. The Baltimare garrison was never designed to act as the local peacekeepers,” the heavily-accented mare frowned. She actually agreed with Twilight’s direction, but was less confident of the likely outcome. Twilight walked over to the map that was hooked on the command room’s stone wall. It would have been dark in here if not for the torches on the sconces. The lack of windows was intentional since the command room was located at the heart of the small stone fort. This place had been here for hundreds of years – serving as the starting point of Baltimare’s formation. She didn’t intend either the garrison or the city to fall apart. The unaccountable police had long seized control but were now taking matters so far that their power was about to break. The old papyrus map had been marked over a dozen times but gave an accurate display of the city and the plans of the puppet mayor. “Didn’t they know I’d be forced to get involved? Are they really this mindless?” “It could be a strategic loss,” Storm Sword offered before murmuring something to herself. “What?” Twilight turned back to her Captain of the Royal Guard. “A final rally for the rest of the Elites and their sympathizers throughout the land. Either they are dumb enough to be repeating the same thing city to city or they planned a failure here to get their remaining people to band together for a direct offensive. Likely on Canterlot Castle. Those are the two possibilities I think are most likely.” “What about creating lone-wolf-style attackers? I assumed that would be the dominant strategy after Canterlot and Las Pegasus failed.” Storm didn’t hesitate even a second at the suggestion. “In the failed locations, yes. And that may become the case here. But the remaining cities and rural areas are more likely to go the other route if they lose Baltimare. They would be brainless to keep repeating this when support has largely swung in your favor. Keep in mind that there are thousands of Cloudsdale pegasi spread all over Equestria now that are praising you as a hero for defeating the coup, bringing those responsible for Cloudsdale to justice, and now signing the creation of Pegasopolis. Baltimare will be in our favor as far a public opinion is concerned. We just need to choose the best methods of preventing ponies from getting hurt.” “You said the counter-protesters following the groups on 74th have advanced destruction spells?” the queen considered their options. “Yes. Not even this garrison is authorized to have spells of that grade and the police also have a couple of armored wagons they’re not supposed to. Bigger than the one in Las Pegasus.” Twilight hummed in thought. The destruction spells might indicate mercenaries and it was very clever of them to have two separate forces, each with significant power. Applejack’s Void magic could only handle one or another but not both. She turned to her special assistant, who was playing with a ball of yarn in the corner. “Chrysalis, have you ever wanted to be a dragon?”