The Park: 11 Votes
“Might as well see what’s goin’ on over by the park,” Kestrel said, already trotting in that direction. “The other things’ll still be here by the time we’re done. This commotion might be on its way out.”
“I very much doubt that,” Tumbleweed said, falling in by her side. “Ponies don’t give up the soapbox that easily when they got a crowd starin’ at ‘em.”
While it certainly wasn’t a packed crowd, there were enough ponies gathered around the entrance to the park to start spilling out into the street, and a couple of police ponies watched the scene from the edges to make sure a riot didn’t start. Kestrel and Tumbleweed strolled up to the back of the twenty or thirty ponies gathered around the central figure, and Kestrel was merely thankful that the speaker had found a box to perch herself on. Though she may have been disguised as an earth pony, Kestrel still had a pegasus’ height, and that made seeing over the taller ponies in front of her all the more difficult.
“The capitalists are strangling Hoofston!” the mare shouted, waving a book in her teal magic. “The factories they built on the other side of the city are slaughterhouses that abuse foals for cheap labor and easy profit! Griffons and zebras, they immigrate to Equestria looking for a better life, and in the end, the greed of the likes of the Apple Family and Rarity Belle swallow their children and spit out the bones! There are creatures—ponies included—who are maimed and murdered every day in these deplorable factories by rich pigs who don’t care about them!”
The crowd murmured its disapproval, and the light purple mare raised the book above her head. “This abuse of power by the rich and wealthy has to stop for the good of the common pony! The best and brightest thinkers from across the sea have debated the crushing poison of capitalism at length and proposed a solution! A utopian state where everypony is equal, where there are no rich and no poor, where ponies and creatures work together for the common good! There are no foremares, no tycoons, no bourgeoisie lording over and exploiting the suffering of the working class! We can achieve a perfect and equal society—and it starts with all of us!”
Tumbleweed scoffed and shook his head. “Politics,” he muttered, eyeing the mare disapprovingly. “Everypony in Equestria’s got an idea on how to fix ‘em, and everypony in Equestria thinks their ideas are better than any others.”
“I’ll say,” Kestrel murmured back. “Equestria’d be better off without any of that shit.”
“See what I mean?” Tumbleweed asked, a teasing smile forming on his muzzle. “That’s called ‘anarchy’, my dear wife, and there are ponies who think that’s better than anythin’ else out there.”
“I don’t care much what it’s called or what ponies think is best, so long as it don’t bother me none. That’s all I want; to be left to do what I want.”
“You can blame the poison of civilization for takin’ that away from us,” Tumbleweed said. “Though I don’t think Equestria’s gonna let us campaign on changin’ the system.”
“They let her talk,” Kestrel observed, pointing at the mare.
“Yeah, only ‘cause they know ain’t nopony gonna listen.” He pointed to the restless crowd, which already had ponies shaking their heads and walking away to find something better to occupy their time. “Looks like our aspiring revolutionary has lost this battle.”
Sure enough, the purple mare bared her teeth in frustration and started waving the book more frantically as her crowd started to leave. “Where are you ponies going?!” she called out to them. “This is a serious matter! If we don’t do something and take a stand, then the capitalists are going to only grow stronger! Soon they’ll own everything—even your children! We have to fight them now if we want to establish an equal society!”
“The Princess will never let that happen,” a stallion in the crowd shouted back at her. “Besides, we don’t need anypony preaching griffon ideas. We’re ponies, and nothing’s better than the Equestrian way of life!”
“This book wasn’t written by a griffon!” the speaker retorted. “This is Marex’s finest work! Read it, it’ll open your eyes to the corrupt world we’re living in!”
“Yeah, sure.” The stallion snickered with some of his friends, and together they walked away, laughing at the mare’s expense.
As the last of her gathering finally disappeared into the square, the speaker growled and threw her book against the ground in frustration. “Sheep!” she shouted at them as they left her behind. “You are all sheep waiting to be sheared! You sit in your pens fed processed oats thinking this is all there is to life, when there’s an entire green field to frolic through just outside the doors to your slaughterhouse of ignorance!”
Kestrel shook her head as the mare fumed on her box. “Come on, Mulberry, let’s check out that museum or somethin’,” she said, already starting to turn away. “That was entertainin’ enough.”
“Not yet,” Tumbleweed said, and Kestrel saw the corner of his lip curve in that way it did when he had a plan running through his brain. “Come on.”
Kestrel blinked as he started walking toward the speaker. “Really? This whole town and that’s who you want to talk to?” But when he didn’t stop or respond, she could only sigh and trot after him, her mind already writing off the conversation to follow as a waste of time.
They stopped a few feet away from the mare, who had picked up her book and was carefully dusting it off with a sleeve as if she’d dirtied a work of art. “Come to mock me too?” she asked them, barely sparing the two outlaws a look out of the corner of her eye. “You don’t understand the land of opportunity you’re foregoing by kneeling before the fat cats and kissing their shined shoes.”
“I reckon we have somethin’ of an idea,” Tumbleweed said. “We ain’t much a fan of the Apple Conglomerates and Miss Belle’s little fashion empire either. It’d certainly be nice if somepony could do somethin’ about ‘em.”
The mare hesitated, frowning down the length of her muzzle as she tried to decipher the sincerity in Tumbleweed’s voice. “You… are?” she asked, turning to look at the two ponies with scrutinizing eyes. “Yes… It certainly would be nice if something could be done about the system we live in today.” After a moment or two more to study Kestrel’s face, the mare broke out a big smile and held her hoof out for Tumbleweed to shake. “Starlight Glimmer. I’m a member of the Equestrian Communist Party. Or, well, I guess I would be if the mayor would let me file its creation.” Her smile turned into a sharp scowl even as Tumbleweed reached out his hoof to shake hers. “The illusion of democracy and capitalism crumbles ever-so-quickly when you try to expose the faults inherent in the system and it responds with fear and stonewalling, revealing the corruption and lies it’s built upon.”
Kestrel blinked a few times, her muzzle frozen in some approximation of a blank half-smile. “I, uh… sure?”
“Don’t mind my wife too much,” Tumbleweed said, giving Starlight’s hoof a firm shake. “She’s often too busy with the foals at home to come out much and participate in politics. Yet she shares my same disdain for the rich and greedy gluttons that rule our society, denying their wealth to the common ponies of the world.”
Starlight seemed relieved to hear that, and her frown turned into a smile again. “Oh, finally. It is so difficult to find ponies with common sense in the southwest. I would rather be campaigning someplace in the northeast, like Fillydelphia or Manehattan, but the political bosses of places like Tammareny Hall run Equestria’s forward thinkers out of their districts before we can gather any popular support. The only way forward is with a grassroots campaign, but even that has proven difficult.”
“Why would that be?” Tumbleweed asked, feigning simple rancher naivety.
“Because while the civilized places like Manehattan crush my voice with litigation, threats, and gang violence, the barons and tycoons here in the south run the cities like their own personal fiefdoms.” Starlight sighed and rubbed her eye with her fetlock, letting a little exhaustion show. Kestrel had to wonder how many days in a row this mare had to have been on the streets championing her cause. “I’ve been chased from one city to another, fleeing from hired goons just to make my voice heard. The capitalists are afraid of the truth of equality, and so they do their best to crush me before the good ponies of Equestria turn the tables on them.”
“I’m assumin’ you must have some sort of plan to deal with their resistance,” Tumbleweed said. “A lone pony like yourself ain’t likely to last long without one.”
“I… have a few ideas,” Starlight admitted. “But finding the ponies to help me strike back at the tycoons is another matter entirely.”
Tumbleweed glanced at Kestrel, and she saw the little smile on his face. Starlight’s admission was as good an opening as any for him to work his charm over on her. “Findin’ the right ponies? Well, perhaps they’re right in front of you.”
“You?” Starlight asked, raising an eyebrow. “While I appreciate the enthusiasm, I think this might be too much for you.”
“You’d be surprised,” Tumbleweed said with a wink. “Trust us.”
Tumbleweed uses Sweet Talker (9) to convince Starlight to say more: Critical Success
Starlight took another moment to size Tumbleweed and Kestrel up again, and her lips pursed. Then she suddenly blinked in recognition. “Magic…” she muttered to herself. Looking left and right, she gestured to the bar across the square. “I see. Alright. You want to help? Let’s go talk someplace a little more private. I’ve got a plan to take down the Apple Conglomerates in Hoofston. If we can do that, then the call for equality has to get noticed across Equestria, and something tells me you two are more than meets the eye.”
Tumbleweed glanced at Kestrel, eyebrow arched in surprise. Kestrel could only look back with the same expression. “Well, Thistle?” he asked her. “What do you think?”
1. Agree. This could be huge, and the Apple Conglomerates, though certainly wealthy and powerful, are like to have more money in their coffers within easy reach than even the train robberies we’ve pulled off before.
2. Refuse. Tanglin’ with the Apple Conglomerates is just gonna get us killed. Starlight Glimmer can find other ponies to champion her cause; no amount of money’s worth pissin’ off a very powerful family.
3. Listen with the intent to turn her over. I imagine we’ll get a pretty nice ‘thank you’ bonus from the Apple Family if we tip ‘em off about this revolutionary tryin’ to cut their hooves out from under ‘em. Might be some of the easiest money we’ll ever see, supposin’ we don’t get double-crossed by ‘em.