//------------------------------// // SBGGPP: Chapter 1 - A Kingdom in Dispair // Story: Sweetie Belle's Guide to Global Pony Politics // by Solaris Vult //------------------------------// 6:00 AM. 2nd of Aquiline. 1612 APR. Central Equestria. Province of Canterlot. Canterlot Castle Royal Chambers. Celestia trotted in circles… “Luna… Luna…” She muttered to herself, “I’m so sorry, Luna… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… I’ve ruined everything…” She spared a quick glance out the window… Canterlot still shone in the morning light, gold and silver and marble… Ponyville though, the library was little more than a burnt stump, half the cottages were completely flattened, her eyes, even from all these kilometers away, could make out the husks of ponies starving in the streets, forced to eat grass and wild hay. “What would you have done… Luna… I’m so sorry… I didn’t want to… Luna… Luna… Luna… I need to do something, I can’t watch this any longer… And it’s all my fault, I wish I could fix it… Luna, please… Luna… Luna…” Her voice trailed off, she had long run out of tears, she had long lost her voice, she found it harder and harder to move the sun and moon… “I don’t want to, please don’t make me, please, Luna… I can’t do this anymore… Luna, what would you have me do? I can’t let him keep doing this either, I’m to blame. For everything, for you… Please… Luna… My ponies, they’re… They’re… Luna, help. Please help me… Luna...” 7:00 AM. 3nd of Aquiline. 1612 APR. Central Equestria. Province of Canterlot. Mount Canter Mines. Black Star walked into work that day, as she had for the past six years, in the Mount Canter Mines. The entrance, the rock-floor polished smooth simply by the near-constant stream of earth ponies and unicorns doing their work, hooves wearing the stone flat, welcomed her every day, save for the occasional holiday where she didn’t need to walk through those enchanted iron gates. Her hooves clipped and clopped against the rough stone floor. A group was leaving the mine as she entered, manes, tails, and coats coated so thickly in dust and debris that it was nigh impossible to make out their colors, just dirty greys and browns and blacks. The tunnel branched off in all directions, marked with old wood signs that helped workers navigate the tunnels, she trotted down the north-facing tunnel number three and started to walk downward. Cheap glass or quartz crystals were stuck into the walls, minor enchantments, to provide light or clear air, marked every few meters, many were cracked or missing, and the air they provided was noticeably stale.  The sounds of hammers, picks, shovels, and spell casting drew closer. “Black Star, thank Celestia, alright, I found something here, looks like a kind of ore, no idea what it is though…” Limestone Pie spat out the sledgehammer she had been cracking the rock wall with, a unicorn was jabbing blades of magic into the wall, telekinetic force cracking the stone. “I thought you grew up near a quarry?”     “Rock farm… I know gems and crystals, this is an ore, and it doesn’t have any crystal formations on it,” Limestone growled.     “Yeah, yeah, hang on,” Black Star pointed her horn at the rock, a shiny speckled mess of gold and black, after just a few seconds she replied, “Chalcopyrite, copper, and iron mostly.” With that, Star took a step back as Limestone smashed her hammer down hard on the stone, cracking it into tiny splinters, the other unicorn pulled up a shovel and started to dump the rock fragments into a wooden cart, dust now coated Black Star’s mane and tail with all the fragments kicked up, she had a hard time breathing. Black Star touched her horn against the other walls, “Hmm, iron-nickel in this general direction, low-concentration though… Some pitchblende too…” She pulled out a stick of chalk from her saddlebags and marked an X on the wall.     “Why does Celestia need all this crap, doesn’t Canterlot already have enough gold and copper…” Limestone muttered as she slammed down on the marked wall, cracking the rock open, “Like, my sister is over in Ponyville, cooking cakes, while my family is struggling to pay my other sisters’ tuitions at school, and here I am breaking rocks open, working hard to support my family, while that ungrateful little… Ahh!” She brought her hammer down right on the crack in the wall, the hammer’s head went flying while the wooden shaft splintered in fragments. “Damn…”     “Limestone-” Black Star was about to say something, then the crack the earth pony had just hit started to grow, crawling upward, spidering outward along the cleavage lines of the stone walls and roof… “Shit shit shit! Get out!” The unicorn raised her horn, and pulled the other two ponies with all her strength, it nearly knocked her unconscious, then the roof came tumbling down, fragments of rock as large as a full-grown stallion pounded into the ground, Black Star lept to get out of the way, then horrible pain hit her in the leg. The other unicorn muttered, “Collapse, at least it was just a small one, is everyone ok?”     “Fine here…” Limestone muttered, “Black-” She paused.     “M-My leg…” Black Star managed to squeak out, she didn’t dare look, all she could feel anymore was the stabbing pain up by her flanks.     “Run! Get a medical unicorn!” Limestone yelled to the other pony in the shaft, then staggered to her hooves to pull the rubble off Black Star. Half an hour later, the medical unicorns arrived, but… Blood was everywhere, Limestone was growling under her breath and crying, and Black Star lay motionless, her rear legs missing. 2:00 AM. 4th of Aquiline. 1612 APR. South-Eastern Equestria. Province of Las Pegasus. Town of Sire’s Hollow. The sun had just set when the ponies ran into the cave, the mare had been awoken by the shout of a stallion, soon, before she realized what was happening, pain erupted in her back as she was hit with hoof-sized stones, she swooped down, trying to fly away, but she had dived too low, and crashed into the ponies, they beat her with clubs and sticks, she screamed a shrill screech, but it did nothing but make the pain worse, she felt something in her wings crack, “Death to the nightmare!” That shout rang in the mare’s ears as ropes were tied around her legs and muzzle, she was dragged, kicking, from the cave… The town’s lights glowed in the distance, the moon was rising, deep red, as it had every night for seven long and terrible years now. In the middle of the town stood a stallion on a podium, the mare was dragged to his hooves, he shouted a long and crazed speech, much the mare did not understand, her ears still rang from the shouts, her wings still hurt from the beatings. “Soon, by our own hooves, us loyal followers of Celestia’s divine grace will bring peace to this realm, blighted by the shadows of the nightmare!” The preacher’s speech ended with roaring applause, “As Celestia, our sun, our guiding light wills it, so shall it be!”     “Sol Ave!” The cry rang out through the town center, “Sol Ave! Sol Ave! Sol Ave!” The ponies in the town all wore white cloaks, on their flanks were the symbol of the sun, the preacher held a torch in his magic, his cloak billowing in the night wind, underneath that cloak his cutie mark was actually what was shown on the outside, a burning sun… “Burn the witch! Burn the heretic! Burn the bringer of nightmares!” The preacher shouted.     “Sol Ave!” The mob shouted, louder and louder. The mare’s bat-wings had been broken, she couldn’t escape… Now, she was tied to this post, doused in oil, surrounded. The preacher thrust the torch into the mare’s underside, and she screamed as the mob cheered, the flames quickly spreading across her whole body. Ash rose into the sky, blotting out the bloodied moon, to the rising cheers of the mob. This wasn’t the first fire lit in that town, and it would not be the last, the mare had seen smoke rising from this horrible place before, she remembered her mother, running, hiding her in the shadows of an old tree as the ponies ran after them, she remembered her father, and the spear that ran through his heart, and the smell of ashes on the wind the next night, a horrible night, she did not dare sleep that day… Now, she just wished that the pain would go away. 10:00 AM. 4th of Aquiline. 1612 APR. Eastern Equestria. City of Manehattan. Southside District. Coco sat in the alley, the sun was high in the sky, and for once it was warm, not that it helped much, but it was better than sitting out in the cold, she leaned down to try and nibble on the shoots of grass and weeds growing between the cracks in the concrete, they tasted awful, but for nine months that was all she had eaten, what she wouldn’t do for a lily or rose to chew on, she tried to sneak into a garden last night but was chased off, that old mare had even called the police on her! Coco just curled herself up, Celestia damn that Prince and his ‘reforms’... Celestia damn that Tirek beast too! There was no work to be found for an earth pony without magic, at least she rested knowing she wasn’t alone, she had seen hundreds of magic-drained ponies begging in alleys, just like her, but the unfairness of it all still stung. A stallion passed, “P-Pease sir!” She cried, but the stallion ignored her… She huffed, but at least he didn’t kick her, or worse… Another pony passed, then another, then another, but they couldn’t spare a single bit… After hours of that, she gave up begging for today, and simply dug through the trash for something of value, or at least something to drink, it hadn’t rained in two days, she would be lucky to survive the next week at this rate, but she didn’t find anything other than ants and roaches…     “C-Coco?” Coco’s eyes opened wide, that voice! That voice!     “R-Rarity?” Coco was on the verge of tears, she couldn’t believe it! Rarity was alive! She was alive! Thank Celestia she was alive! She ran in for a hug.     “Ummmmm… Coco,” Rarity said carefully, “Come to my apartment, you’re filthy… I can help you take a bath…” 1:00 PM. 4th of Aquiline. 1612 APR. Central Crystal Empire. The Grand Crystal City. The princess sat on her throne, armor gleaming silver in the light given off by the sun through the crystal castle. A guard walked in, he bowed low, and dare not look the princess in the eyes, not now, not on this day… “Your majesty, Princess Cadance, everything has been prepared for you.”     “Thank you, Flash Sentry, leave me…” The princess’s tone was calm and almost kind, but it chilled the stallion to the bone, worse than any blizzard. The stallion did not respond, he simply bowed and marched swiftly out of the way as the princess stood and walked out of the throne room, he did not dare look her in the eyes. Cadence walked quietly past the windows, she did not want to look outside, she did not want to see the snow, the ice, or the dark clouds ahead, white and black… Those colors had been burned into her mind, all they gave her now was sorrow. Outside it was always the same these days anyway, ponies were hiding in their homes, under heavy blankets, unicorns casting charms to warm themselves, others were on the streets, buried under snow, fighting over warm spots, or the last scraps of flammable material. The guards muttered as she passed, they thought she couldn’t hear them, but her hearing was as sharp as ever, “I found another one last night, poor colt had been frozen to the bone, I pulled him off the street but his fur and skin stayed behind on the ground... I- I don’t want to talk about that….”     “We need another shipment from the Homeland, shouldn’t Celestia be doing something for us, the food stocks just seem to get more and more empty every year. “And if we don’t get potions and talismans, even just some more blankets or wood, a lot more ponies are going to die this winter…” Cadence ignored them, she had given up hope for this place long ago… She walked downstairs and trotted out of the castle, the cold air blasting her like a dragon’s fire, chilling her to the bone, but she suppressed her shivering, she resolutely ignored the cold… She walked down into what had once been a beautiful garden, but now every flower had long died, every tree had been turned to ice, had the guards not worked day and night to shovel the snow, it would have long been buried by the storms that shook the castle every day. There, in the middle, stood a solid opaque crystal box, about as large as a pony, Cadence had to resist the urge to open it, she knew what was in there already, she just wished… On the crystal there had been engraved “Here lies Shining Mi Amore Armor, Slayer of The Dark Lord Sombra, Liberator of the Crystal Empire, Grand Martyr.” Just behind this crystal grave there stood an altar, atop which were the dull and dead remnants of the Crystal Heart, pierced by Sombra’s horn, a fragment of which still lay deep within the diamond the heart had been fashioned from, no pony dared touch it in all five years it had rested there, not even the snow dared touch it… Cadence simply glared at that hated fragment, she did not move for hours, even as ice crept up her hooves and built around her horn… It took the guards dragging her back inside by force to save her from a frigid death. 4:00 PM. 5th of Aquiline. 1612 APR. Central Equestria. Province of Canterlot. Mount Canter Mines. The stallion, Braeburn, had a two-hundred-bit cigar in his mouth as he read the newspaper, just some crap about Manehattanites complaining about their ‘homelessness’ and ‘unemployment’ crisis, those lazy bums should just get jobs… He paused, he could hire them, but then he would need to pay them, and he couldn’t afford that, he was having a hard time just keeping those sacks of bones in his mines working, perhaps lowering their wages was in order, that should get them working again… One death in his mines and they stop working for half an hour, he couldn’t have that, they wouldn’t dare pause for a second. He caught a glimpse of a pony outside, for a moment he ignored it as he considered the potential profits he was envisioning, he might actually be able to own a home in Canterlot. Then, he caught another glimpse outside, and he actually got up and threw open the door to his administrator cabin. “What are you doing out here! Get back to work!” He shouted. One of the mares, Lime something, stepped forward, all the ponies had painted black stars on their chests and flanks, “We don’t work for you anymore, we quit! We’re not going to stand for another death in these mines!” “Who gives a damn about a single pony! Now get back to work or I’ll make sure you never find employment again!” The mine’s guards were getting twitchy, marching up and pointing their spears at the mob, but they didn’t back down, the two just stared at each other for several minutes, then something in Braeburn snapped, “Guards! Arrest them!” The guards descended on the workers with their spears and swords, expecting them to get scared and surrender, they did not, they stood their ground and fought back, and the guards learned that armor and swords can only do so much to ponies with tools and spells designed to break the hardest rock. 12:00 AM. 7th of Aquiline. 1612 APR. Central Equestria. Province of Canterlot. Town of Ponyville.     “Alright now class, please be quiet…” The excited foals all quickly went silent as their teacher walked in, they had expected Cheerilee, instead, a new pony, dressed sharply, a pair of glasses on her eyes, her mane well-brushed, purple with a sky-blue stripe, her lavender coat neatly groomed, she looked less like an elementary school teacher and more like some important business mare, at least the foals seemed to think so, she had almost a Canterlot Nobility air around her, but the way she acted was nothing like what their parents had told them how nobles acted, she seemed nervous but kind and not at all snobbish. “I am Starlight Glimmer, and I will be your new history and magic teacher… Please, sit.” The foals did so at once, “Hi Starlight!” some of them replied, waving. The mare’s eyes seemed, angry? Sad? Some mixture of the two, when she saw what some of the foals were wearing, most of the foal’s saddlebags were torn, some made of hay, some made of sticks woven together… The foals flinched, thinking they were in trouble, but then the mare just sighed and pulled out a book. “I’m sure your previous teacher taught you all that stuff about Hearths Warming, the founding of Equestria, the three tribes, and all that ancient history, correct?”     “Umm yes, we were on chapter five, talking about Princess Platinum building the castle in the Everfree…” Glimmer just raised a hoof, “I see… Well, I’m going to be teaching you something else, something I think is much, much more important for you ponies to learn, especially now in these days… Who is the oldest of you?” She paused. One filly raised her hoof, “Ooh, that would be me! I’m, umm, six, I’ll be turning seven soon!” The mare nodded, “Then I take it you don’t know what Equestria was like eight years ago?”     “Umm… N-No…” Glimmer gave a sad sigh… “Alright… Let me read something to you, I couldn’t get copies to share with you, thanks to the EEA’s guidelines on general education for your level, so I got my copy from home…” She propped open the book, “You see, one thousand and seven years ago, Princess Celestia banished the horrible monster, Nightmare Moon, to, well, the moon… I’m sure you at least know that much?” Most of the colts and fillies nodded, “Well, seven years ago, Nightmare Moon returned, the magic holding her soul to the moon broken, and she attacked Canterlot, seeking vengeance for her banishment, destroying six ancient magical relics called the Elements of Harmony to prevent her from being sealed away again… After that, Celestia flew off to confront the Nightmare before she destroyed all of Canterlot.” Glimmer’s horn glowed and cast an illusion spell, showing recreations of the events, Starlight had not been there to actually see it, at the time she was still trying to put together that tiny little village, but she could guess what happened… “Celestia had no choice but to destroy Nightmare Moon, completely… I do not know why, but Celestia retreated back to Canterlot Castle after this, and has never been heard of since…” Starlight frowned, “Since Celestia refused to see anyone following the Nightmare’s destruction, she appointed Prince Blueblood as her Royal Representative, to deal with all matters of politics in her stead, he says he has been doing his best to bring Equestria out of the current economic depression we are in… Not that I really expect you to know what any of those words mean, but it is important.” 9:00 PM. 9th of Aquiline. 1612 APR. North-Western Equestria. City of Vanhoover. The click-click-click of the typewriter echoed through Sweetie Belle’s apartment, “To my dear sister, Rarity, I’ve been doing fairly well so far in Vanhoover, I don’t know where you are right now, but I hope you get this letter someday, I’m going to use a dragon to send it, so let us hope that the magic can find you… Regardless, my birthday is coming up soon, only a month away! I wish you were here, seeing your sister as a fully-grown nineteen-year-old mare. I’m thinking about going into politics, the mayor of Vanhoover seems like a kind enough mare, I hope to apply as a secretary in a few weeks, hopefully, I can start fixing some of the problems up here, I want to start working on the economic problems up here, there’s tons of griffons and reindeer living in this city, but they’re pretty much stuck in the slums, it’s not fair that they’re treated so bad just because they’re not ponies, when I get a chance to I’m going to talk to the mayor about that. I wonder what it’s like where you’re living, if you’re anywhere near where I am, you should totally visit someday, I know Equestria’s really changed since I was a filly… PS. I heard something about a bunch of miners going on strike went down near Canterlot a few days ago, I hope everypony involved is alright.” The mare finished typing her letter before rolling it up in a scroll and tying it with some twine, she was about to put it on her desk when she heard the mailmare outside, something slid through her door, and she trotted over to collect it. She lifted the newspaper in her minty green magic, the headline taking her by surprise. “Celestia’s making a public announcement!” She rapidly read through the article, and then grabbed her suitcase, letter, a good pile of bits - a recent inheritance from her late father, locked the door, and rushed as quickly as she could to the Vanhoover train station.