“Hello, this is Twilight Sparkle and I”—the radio crackled and the words became a stream of garble—“today, I have two special co-hosts with me, Seville Orange and Gosling, both of whom have promised to behave themselves.” Twilight’s wry sarcasm somehow could be heard, carried over the radio waves themselves.
Hunched over his tea, Sundance listened, eager for news.
The radio squelched a bit, squealed, and then the signal came in clear. This time, it was Seville Orange who spoke. Sundance hadn’t paid much attention to radio politics, preferring music or radio adventure serials, but it was time to grow up and understand the world. Paradox would only come to the barony if there was a working radio, which was the reason they had one in the first place.
“There is no denying that things are bad,” said Seville, his smooth voice somehow overcoming the static, the crackles, and the pops. “But when things seem to be at their worst, there is no excuse for us to not be at our best. Today, I wanted to speak with you about the good things that we have. I wanted to remind you of what we’ve gained through our adversity, because I feel that those things are important to remember.”
Hardly a sound was made in the dining hall, save for the slurping of tea. Sauerkraut Pie was taking a well-deserved break after cooking and baking most of the morning. Eggplant and Acorn sat in the corner together, resting their elderly bones while listening to the radio. Lemongrass showed surprising attentiveness and didn’t appear bored, not even in the slightest.
“Right now, everypony, everyone, we’re all focused on the awful things that are happening, and for good reason. Fillydelphia has fallen into anarchy. Baltimare is a powderkeg just ready to go off. The food shortages in Manehattan caused by the rail workers strike has left the residents a bit testy. It won’t stop raining in Vanhoover and Las Pegasus is baking with record high temperatures. I mention these things, because they are on everyone’s mind. These events affect all of us, in some form or another, no matter how far removed we are from them.”
“Yeah, how about that rain?” Prince Gosling’s smooth, buttery voice was made for radio and every ear in the room pricked to hear his honeyed words. “One-hundred and thirty-one days of rain, and it doesn’t show signs of stopping. Weather wizards dispatched to Vanhoover are baffled.”
“So,” Seville continued, “with all these things in mind, I will attempt to bring a little sunshine into your lives.”
“Hey, Seville, you cuttin’ in on my wife’s job?”
“Well, your wife seems to be a bit too busy shining the sun on Las Pegasus and not on Vanhoover, so yes. Yes I am, Goose. You need to talk to her about the lousy job she’s doing.”
There was laughter on the radio, and also in the dining hall. Hollyhock and Express Delivery both chuckled together. Sundance smiled, but did not laugh. He wasn’t sure he understood the purpose of making light of the situation, but he was certain that it was done to cut the tension a bit, though there were probably bigger, better, far more important reasons.
“You know, Seville, you could probably stand to give your wife a chat as well,” Gosling said. “We Equestrians aren’t exactly friends—”
“Hey!” Twilight Sparkle’s outrage sounded real.
“—so she needs to pick up the slack so we’ll all play nice.”
During the pause that followed, Express Delivery said, “Seville and Goose are relatable, ‘cause they say what we all wish we could say to the princesses. I like hearing them carry on.”
“Right now, we are beset on all sides by our enemies.” Seville’s voice competed with the low static crackle of the radio, but it was a voice you wanted to hear, so it was easy to make the effort to listen. “We have enemies within and without. There is our Great Enemy, but I do not feel like wasting time speaking of him, because I feel that he gets far too much credit. It is too easy to blame him for the evils we do ourselves. With every awful thing that happens, it is somehow our Great Enemy who is to blame, as if this somehow absolves us of our own wrongdoing.”
“Well said, Seville.” Twilight’s praise was accompanied by an ear-twitching squeal.
“I am here today to tell you, our greatness as a nation comes from our Great Enemy. Not just him, but every other trouble that we face. We are a great nation because we have great enemies, great troubles, and great foes that cause us grief. Without them, without these troubles, we would be nothing.”
Swallowing some tea, Sundance gave careful thought to Seville’s words, uncertain if he believed them. Unlike the tea, this seemed like a hard thing to swallow, like bitter medicine that burned going down. If it was true, it was painful truth, the kind of truth that nopony wanted to hear, the sort of truth that offered no comfort, no relief.
“Mariner’s attempted coup shook us from our complacency.” There was a brief pause as Seville allowed these words to settle in. “It showed the cracks in our system. A great many issues were revealed, brought into the light. Many, myself included, saw it as proof that Equestria had gone stagnant. I am here today to tell you, Mister Mariner did you a favour. Look at the sweeping justice reform we’re seeing. Yes, I know, everything feels bad right now, but things are changing. These changes take time. Periods of transition are inherently unstable.”
“What a load of road apples,” Hollyhock muttered as she squeezed her newborn.
“Shush,” Sauerkraut Pie said to the muttering mom.
“The old systems are toppling”—a screech interrupted what Twilight had to say—“right now we’re still picking through the rubble as everything comes tumbling down. Whatever comes next, whatever replaces what we have now, it hasn’t been thought of yet. It hasn’t been conceived. We’re stuck picking through the ruins until we decide how to rebuild.”
“We’re not helpless though,” Seville said, his voice somehow both stern and kind. “Look at what we’re accomplishing. New technologies are discovered every day. Equestria has not had a period of growth like this one, ever. The influx of immigrants has brought new ideas, fresh perspectives, and along with our own brilliant minds, we’ve seen tremendous advances in all of the sciences, from social to industrial. Yes, some of those advances have unleashed a plague of problems, but I say that these problems, these troubles, these are fertile ground for more growth.”
“That doesn’t put bread in my kids’ mouths,” Hollyhock mumbled to nopony in particular.
At that moment, Sundance became aware of… a gap. A divide. He couldn’t put it into words, he had trouble just conceiving it in thought, but there was an awareness, a concept that it didn’t matter how hopeful things might be, all that hope was dulled by empty bellies. The radio broadcast, as good as it might be, as hopeful as it tried to be, didn’t feed hungry mouths. It was something, something that society needed, but it wasn’t enough, and Sundance at that moment understood how a pony might grow resentful of this sort of Crown-sponsored optimism.
Hopeful words were not a roof over one’s head.
“You might be asking, what has a constant state of conflict done for us?” It was Gosling who spoke, and the question piqued Sundance’s interest. “I’ll tell you. The past decade has seen technological advances unmatched by anything that’s come in the thousand years of Equestria’s history. New advances in medicine, in technology, we’re in a whole new frontier of discovery. Yes, I am fully aware of what the war has cost us, and the price paid by our troops, but even that has been beneficial. Replacement prosthetics are in a state of rapid advancement. We can even manufacture new wings that allow pegasus ponies to fly. These are good things, great things, even if we had to sacrifice much to get them. Future generations will benefit.”
Losing a wing was something every pegasus feared, and Sundance’s thoughts took a turn for the morbid. With all manner of awful images filtering through his mind, he finished off his tea in a single gulp, plunked down his teacup, and thought about eating a somewhat stale tea biscuit, the last one on the plate.
“We have to become more forward thinking.” Twilight’s words were tinged with sibilent feedback that popped like hot grease in a skillet. “I understand how difficult that is, especially right now. Things are getting better, even though it feels like everything is getting worse. The transition is tough. It is difficult to strike a balance that makes everypony happy. If we look at the situation in Manehattan, the rail workers strike happened because we gave those workers more freedoms, more rights, and we guaranteed them the right to collectively bargain. Now, these workers are asserting their rights, and there is no food coming into the city. I ask you, do you want the rights of these workers stripped away?”
“Twilight, that could be taken in the wrong way—”
“How so, Seville?”
“It almost sounds like you’re saying that you brought this on yourself with your wants.”
“But I’m not trying to say that at all.”
“That might be the case, but it could be misconstrued that way.”
“Point taken, Seville.”
Sundanced gawped, stunned into a slack-jawed daze. Had somepony just corrected a princess on the radio, with all of Equestria listening? He was fast to recover, and quick on the uptake. Was this planned? Scripted? Were the radio hosts winging it or was every word carefully chosen, and every interaction planned? Sundance couldn’t be sure, but there was something immensely satisfying about the fact that somepony had taken a princess to task. Eyes narrowing, Sundance’s suspicion blossomed, and he began to wonder just how much the radio controlled or otherwise influenced public opinion—especially Crown-sponsored radio programs like this one.
And then, Sundance wondered, could he do the same?
What if he somehow had the resources to broadcast?
He could tell others that there was hope to be had… a new life to be lived.
Something that was almost a plan germinated in the folds of his mind.
Listening to the radio wasn’t getting anything done. While a part of him wanted to keep listening, another part of him wanted action, to do something. Anything. He needed to go find a quiet place so he could do some thinking, which was hard to do without flying. There was some baroning that needed to be done, some plans that had to be made, a future to secure.
He had to find a way to offer some hope to the world.