//------------------------------// // Let's talk politics // Story: After The War - Luna Aeternal // by Scorched Earth //------------------------------// Luna Aeternal Human Capital Dark side of the moon Luna watched as Twilight and her companions left the room, then she turned to The First Citizen. Middle-aged, already balding man looked at her with expectations. Guess he wanted her to break the ice on the matter. "We need to find a compromise." She usually isn't this blunt, but she knew from experience that humans preferred to get straight to the matter. They lacked fitness in foreing politics, mainly because until 5 years ago they didn't even have foreign politics. Their Ministry of Foreign Affairs was still trying to find a good way to organize it. So far it gave it's ambassadors rather great leeway, giving them broad goals they needed to complete but left details to them. "And why would we need that?" The First Citizen asked. Damn it, now she was forced show her cards if she wanted to get these negotiations to go anywhere. She had fallen into his trap. If she didn't tell why they wanted this compromise, she looked like a fool. And revealing the truth would give all the advantages to him, since she wouldn't be able to know what he got in this game. "Our and our sisters power is threatened by internal instability." She realized she could gain some lost ground by pointing out human internal problems. "And so is yours. We are aware that there is increased demand for more living room down on the planet. You wish that we increase the size of The Zone. We have told you, that such action is tiring for us and takes time to accomplish. We are, however, worried that our subjects might see the increase of The Zone as a weakness. Thus, we believe can come to an agreeable compromise." "This for that game, huh?" The First Citizen said, cocking his head. "Fine. Let's be honest here. We got our own problems. Some people think we stopped too early and that we should use our military advantage to coerce you to accept our demands. However, I am aware of your own problems. Your reign relies on your subjects believe that you can protect them from everything.” Luna gave sharp glare at The First Citizen, before nodding. That was sadly the truth of it. If ponies could not trust Royal Princesses to protect them, they might once again isolate themselves into three tribes. “Yes. If we submit to your... request once more, it might spark an internal strife. It might seem we are paying a tribute to you for peace. So far this... relationship has been very once sided. We feel that we need something from you, a gesture of goodwill that you too are willing to work for this peace.” The First Citizen stared at Luna. Luna maintained her own gaze, knowing that the other was trying to intimidate her to drop the subject. After a tense while, he turned away. “I am not sure what I can offer to you. Many war criminals you want are highly respected heroes to us. Arresting and handing them to you would be problematic for us. Furthermore, to conduct a fair trial we would need to grant you access to our military records, which I hope you understand is not excatly high on our 'what we can offer' list. Without a fair trial, handing them to you would seem like betraying them.” “We are aware of this. If you could give us anyone, no matter how small, and accompanying evidence required for fair and just trial it would help us greatly. Then there is another matter, which I hope we could agree on.” “Oh, and what would that be?” “War reparations from Operation Schorch Earth. The attack caused enormous amount of pony lives, as well as major loss of industry. It is especially those behind the attack we want to put on trial. However, if you could publicly admit that the attack was wrong and agree to pay us reparations from the attack, it would help the peace considerably.” “How so? It would sound like it would be a bad deal for us.” “Consider this: our government becomes more stable, the government that actively seeks to maintain the peace. It would also allow us to start healing the wounds from the war. It would also help you, allow you to distance from the government that caused the attacks. Instead of being continuation of the government that started the war, you could be the government that rebuild the peace.” Luna looked around the room, seeing several previous The First Citizens staring down on her from paintings. “Also, it would help pro-peace groups. Right now your government is in turmoil due to peoples confusion. Was the war righteous, or was it carried out on false pretense? Was the war won or lost? Admit that the attack was wrong, give us the criminals behind the attack and we will expand the zones. You could be The First Citizen who strengthened the peace, but also gave your people more living room on the surface.” The First Citizen stroked his chin thinking about the possibility. On the other hand, Princess was right. Relationship had so far been defined by humans having upper hand in military, thus able to make any demands they wanted. That aggravated the pony population, risking the war. On the other hand, admitting that the attack was wrong could also fuel those groups who though that they were too depending on ponies maintaining The Zone. Public opinion was like a flag in a wind. One moment it blew to one direction, then to another. It also had a memory of a goldfish, whatever the goldfish was. What a nice mess his predecessor left him with... “Reich und Gott, why did I ran for this position... Why there are never easy answers for anything. I would need to talk to Council of Districts, but I think I could sway them to admit that the attack was a war crime. I think I can abuse old laws that were never abolished, like ban of OSWMDs...” “The what now?” Luna asked confused. Humans and their acronyms. “OSWMDs, Orbit to Surface Weapons Of Mass Destruction. I think I can pass asteroids as one. With little trickery I can remind them that if we can't uphold our own laws, how can we expect you ponies to keep yours. Besides, that particular set of laws doesn't speak against who the weapon is used, only that it's use is banned.” “Hmm, that is a good start, at least. Sooner we can begin to have population to accept the peace and cooperation, sooner we can get back to our peaceful lives.” “I doubt there will ever be peace like before. We are on the surface now. No matter what happens, the fact remains: we humans are there to stay and we occupy an area that used to be a pony area. It will take centuries for such grievance to die, if ever. There are stories of our nations holding grudges for thousand of years.” “It is sad, but we have seen during our long life different grudges to die out and be forgotten. Do not let your limited lifespan limit your views, there is still hope for our people. The fact that we both stand here, talking on how to prevent a disaster from happening, is a proof of it.” The First Citizen gave Luna look of disbelief before bursting in to laughter. “What is so funny?” “I'm just thinking, were you a human you would probably be in my position right now! Hahaha, the public would just adore you! Hehee...” Luna shook his head. Humans and their strange thoughts. Still, it was a mighty praise, despite not being presented as such. He acknowledged her leadership, even if it was done from human point of view. “Anyway, war criminals are out. Unless you can bring me something, let's say, a proof that one of them is conspiracing against the state, I can't do anything. It's like, let me think... Oh, right, let's say I wanted to take your assistant who was with you for a trial. Miss Sparkle, that was her name? Yes, let's say one day our ambassador came and demanded her head for war crimes. What would be your answer?” “We would deny such request. I assume you are in same position, our criminals are your heroes, correct?” “That's what I said. I can't touch them without definite proof that they are doing something wrong now. Untill such time, I'm afraid that they are out of either ones reach. I admit, I am not thrilled of idea of giving them to you, but peace requires sacrifices.” “I can respect that. We are happy already that you even accepted to meet us, to listen our grievances. You are clearly seeking peace with us, not war. We cannot understand how some would wish such.” “That would be a block called 'Humanity First', bunch of assholes. I get their platform, humans first and human survival and all that, but where I draw a line is when they start shouting their bullshit about human supremacy over everything else. If we were so supreme, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.” The First Citizen shook his head. Damn idiots were drumming up support to restart the war. He wished he had the old power to simply ban and crackdown on problematic parties, but since they were technically part of the same party, he had little room to move. Cracking down on them could be seen as “cleansing”, which in turn would make every other block oppose him. “However... why would we need to worry about that? Why should we be worried off your governmental stability? Perhaps it would beneficial for us, having your people interested fighting each others rather than us?” Luna was shocked that he would even suggest this, but realised the hidden meaning. The First Citizen wanted a good excuse to maintain his current policy, something to use against his enemies who undoubtedly would use such argument. “Would you rather deal with the devil you know, than with a devil you don't know? Furthermore, should something... happen... to me or my sister, there is no guarantee that The Zone can be maintained.” “Is that... a threat?” The First Citizen said with a raised eyebrow. “A warning.” Luna answered with the best poker face she could muster. “Very well. Let's discuss the possible size of the reparations if the Council agrees to pay them. How much do you want, or need?” “Machinery. Lot and lots of machinery. Manehattan was one of our main industrial centers. Our railway system is still badly damaged and our industry is still trying to recover. We are going to need expertise and equipment to restart our industry. Furthermore, I am hoping that you could help us set a nationwide communications network.” “A communication network?” “Yes. Monsters are now much more active and we cannot always act fast enough. Our attempts to regain control of the weather have also been hampered by our inability to warn other areas of sudden changes. If we could contact far-off lands before a disaster hits them, they could prepare and work to prevent the disaster.“ “Interesting idea, and when you present it that way something that public could accept. Our own hardship makes them more agreeing on idea of preventing hardship on anyone else. Besides, those storms are hitting The Zone too. So the anti-pony groups can't object to it either. Very good.” Once again, despite not saying it Luna could hear that The First Citizen approved her leadership. Despite not saying it, he had been testing and trying to see whenever or not Luna was a good leader. She could only hope that she had passed whatever test the human had subjected her. “For now, shall we have a dinner? I shall send message that your assistant may rejoin us.” “If she wishes. I have no desire to force her. She is a well respected friend of ours.” “Very well, I shall contact sergeant Smith and inform him.” The First Citizen picked up his PDA and typed something into it. Then he waited for a moment. Machine beeped and he scowled. “That is... interesting. It seems they have left District 1 and heading to District 7. Sergeant Smith says that your assitant was interested in daily live of humans.” Luna gave a small snicker at this. Twilight and her endless curiosity. “Yes, that sounds like her. Well then, it seems it shall be only two of us.” “So it seems. Please follow me.” The First Citizen rose and gesture towards the door. Luna stood up and followed him. Despite being a scheming politician, he had sort of hidden intelligence that Luna respected. After all, trough last 6 years he had managed to keep his people in check and somehow, with help from Princess Luna and Celestia, managed to create a situation where starting a war could ruin both sides economy, leading to economic powers to oppose the war. As everyone knew, when you could only lose from war, nobody wanted it. The best part was that he had managed to do this and still somehow keep his support. He had essentially torn down human superior position and made two sides equal. Except in military. He maintained that “if this whole thing blows in our face and the war does begin, I want to make sure it's my species who stands on the mountain of corpses.” Luna could respect that. Seek peace, prepare for war. She remembered the early days of hers and Celestias rule when they had maintained the same attitude. Interesting creatures, these humans were. So much potential, yet it seemed like the world hated them. During the meal, Luna decided to bring this up, for unspecific reasons. Partly because she enjoyed talking with someone who didn't fear her because of her past as Nightmare Moon, partly because she was interested. It saddened her that despite her efforts during the war, so many feared her. Some of the meanest even suggest it had been her, attempting to bring Nightmare Moons hidden army and conquer Equesteria. Of course, such words were not spoken aloud, especially around Celestia. She tented to explode in anger when such idea was proposed, altough suprisingly nobody had been banished or killed yet. So far worst they got was few months in a hospital.. “There is something that has been made me wonder... Your people, they are not really that different from us ponies. You have so much potential, one only need to look at this magnificent feat of engineering to understand it. Yet, it seems like you are experiencing disaster after disaster? What is like this before The Great Cataclysm?” The First Citizen stopped the fork that was moving towards his mouth and seemed to think for a possible answer. He lowered the fork and had this thoughtful appearance on his face. “I can't give you absolute answer for that. I personally belief that it's the struggle that drives our people. Whenever our live settles in conformable routine, we grow lax. We regress. Yet, the greatest innovations of humankind have come through struggle. We struggled against the weather, our buildings became strong. Throughout our history, mankind struggles against something, creating new ways to counter the hardship we encounter. Some say it's the will of Mother Earth, to make us a species worthy of her by making us able to conquer every challenge. I think that's the fundamental difference between our species. Your species flourishes in harmony, ours in struggle. When you were faced against advisory stronger than yours, you were hard pressed to simply cope with the sheer challenge it presented. Contrast us humans. When our opponent turned out to be the entire world, we took upon ourselves to relocate here, to turn what was few shacks and farms into a great nation. Do not take me wrong. We are not superior race. We have been, to be honest, in decline for last 3 millennial. Our numbers are barely holding up. Each and every disaster brings us one step closer to extinction. That is one reason I seek friendship between our nations. To save my species. We can't keep living here. One more asteroid and we are done for. We need to relocate to the planet as soon as possible, but we need to do it so that we don't need to fear our neighbors." Luna, despite trying to be understanding and seeking friendship, did not like the idea. It was one thing to hand areas to humans. It was one thing to have the entire human population to live practically next door. There was also the fact that his description sounded too much like they were creatures of disharmony, much like Discord. She wasn't sure if she could stomach the idea, even if she hated herself for thinking like that. It reminded her too much her succumb to dark magic thousand years ago. However, she had also seen human the human faces first time the stood under the sky without their suits. That expression of wonder and joy. Especially under the night sky, when they could see the moon. Even if ponies no longer feared the night, they didn't embrace it like humans did. To them, night was not time of nightmares and misfortune, but time of action, time when their protective home was on the sky, looking down on them. Time when the scorching sun and it's cursed energies could not hurt them, even if thanks to The Zone days were equally safe for them. Funny how a species that once tried to kill her, now embraced her domain more than her own species. "I hope your species can once live without The Zone. Being confined to small area is not really feasible and poses a risk for your kind. Even if I can maintain The Zone, there is no telling if radical group of unicorns would try to unravel the magic that upholds it." "Yes. However, The Zone is better than nothing. We can grow our own food, food that poses no risk for us. You learned the hard way that one." The First Citizen pointed accusingly. Luna shuddered. They had tried to feed human prisoners pony grown food, only for them to grow sick and suffer a painful death. Most of the prisoners died thanks to that. They had later switched to raiding human supply convoys for food. Not efficient, but it was far more ponine, or humane depending of point of view, to do than force them to eat poisonous food. Human food, when fed to ponies, simply tasted bland. As it did currently, Luna Aeternal didn't have any non-human food on it. "May I ask you of something?" The First Citizen spoke up. Luna nodded to him. "How come ponies consider you the 'weaker' of Royal Princesses, despite the fact that you move the stars?" "I do not understand your question? Celestia moves the sun. I move the moon and the stars. Clearly the sun is bigger and more difficult object to move, so it is natural that she is thought as the stronger one." "Yes, but aren't the stars just another suns, only millions of light years away? I mean, it would sound to me that you hold greater power by simply being able to move them over such great distances." "Oh, it seems you have wrong understanding of my magic. It's a quote different than simply moving them. It would be more correct that I adjust the planet, rather than the sun. Tilting the planet degree or two to one direction can bring entire new set of stars to the skies. Usually, I just adjust when their light arrives so that the order they appear on the sky changes." Luna said happily. Most ponies weren't interested on how the magic worked and she didn't miss that The First Citizen had assumed she was more powerful than her sister. "I see... well, not really. Our scientist have been working on understanding the magic for 3 000 years and best they got is 'stuff happens because magic'. It is clearly not meant for us. There is also how you move the moon. We do detect increased magical energies on the moon when we move over the night sky. However, as far as we know, we should also be visible during the day yet... somehow we never are. We rarely, if ever, see day time Equesteria from here." "Yes, you see, part of my duty is to keep the moon on the night sky. So each night I adjust it's orbit, moving it to it's intended position. You might have already noticed that, unlike in your pre-Cataclysm world, our solar system is centered around our planet, not around the sun. That's why us Royal Princesses are needed, to maintain the order of the solar system. In the past it took thousands of unicorns, who trained for their entire life, to do so." At this point The First Citizens jaw hit the floor and his fork dropped down. He put his head on his hands, seemingly shaken by some realization. "What is wrong? Did I say something?" "I... I just realized... If we had killed you... We might have caused the entire solar system to collapse. With nobody to regulate the moon and the sun, who knows what might have happened..." At this point Luna realized what he meant. She was even more glad she had witnessed the event that allowed her to create The Zone. If she and Celestia had been killed... she didn't even want to think of the consequences. "This is something big. I need to think about this. I need to inform people in the government, but I can't let the public know, not yet. This would cause chaos. Reich und Gott, this would be perfect against 'Humanity First'..." The First Citizen muttered to himself, thinking on how to react to these news. Then he seemed to remember something and turned back to Princess Luna. "By the way, would you know anything about sudden decrease of background magical radiation here on the moon? It happened about 14 years ago. For 1 000 years, we had a steady amount of background magic. it's currently theorized that it is what caused our bodies to reach positively to your magic." Luna froze, not sure what to say. Sure, I know. I was metaphysically trapped in the moon for 1 000 years after trying to plunge the world under an eternal night by blocking the sun. Did I mention I was batshit insane and evil during this time and I was only released 12 years ago? "However, 12 years ago there was sudden drop in it. We are not sure, but there was apparently something happening on the surface during that time?" "I am not sure. I would need to consult Royal Archives to be sure." She lied. The First Citizen seemed skeptical, but dropped the matter. Rest of the lunch was carried out in silence, with occasional idle chit-chat about the food and non-important stuff. After the lunch, there was a scheduled press conference for both of them. They were supposed to meet the representatives of human media, or at least those who had managed to gain permit to attend to the conference. She could only hope that nothing bad happened during the event. ---------------------------------- Canterlot Royal Castle Throne Room "Princess Celestia?" Captain Trixie Lulamoon (HERO OF EQUESTERIA!) approached Princess who was holding a court at the moment. "What is it captain?" Celestia asked, slightly annoyed by the sudden interruption. "There is something going on in the human embassy. I need a permission to take a squad to investigate it." Trixie had gained a lot of confidence since joining The Royal Guard and was good way towards gaining the rank of general. Her own insecurities, however, prevent her from gaining the rank. "Excuse my little ponies, there is something I must take care of. I will be back soon." There were mutters of discontent, but most of the ponies accepted the delay. Celestia took Trixie to an empty hallway. "What do you mean there is something going on?" Celestia asked, suddenly a lot more serious. When humans did something without informing them, it would turn in to a matter of national security. "I couldn't see it clearly, but I think they dragged a pony and a human there. Both seemed to be captured recently. I mean captured, they seemed to have been detained trough force. I didn't recognize the group that took them in. They lacked any distinctive markings. Furthermore, a quick roll call revealed that we are missing one guard. Private Jagged Dagger is missing. Furthermore, when I visited one the pubs, they said that one of the humans, Katherine Fast, had not been seen since yesterday. Normally she would be visiting the pub." "Maybe she went somewhere else?" Celestia offered, but she too was starting to get worried. This was not normal human behavior. Trixie, however, shook her head. "That would mean that she would have left Canterlot. Talking with her colleagues revealed that she didn't have permission to leave. There is only one pub in Canterlot that offers human drinks. She must have been the other prisoner." "What do we know about these two?" "Private Jagged Dagger lost her family during the war. They were in Cloudsdale when it was hit, his father died there. His mother was later in volunteer corps in Baltimare and was killed during the battle. He joined after that, served troughout the war. Was at one point in my unit. On personal opinion, I would have discharged him long time ago, but he had friends in command chain. Seems stable on the surface, but has problems. As for the human, I do not know. Some say she is a member of anti-pony organization, however, what little information I got contradicts with that. Seems to be friendly with nearly everyone on Canterlot. Regular at Swinging Cup, the pub I mentioned earlier. Knows everyone there." Celestia tough on the matter. On one hoof, Embassies were technically part of the land they represented. On the other hoof, this seemed too fishy to be passed on. Also, Captain Lulamoon (HERO OF EQUESTRIA!) had a knack on catching human dirty work, even during the war. "Very well. You have my permission. However, try to keep your distance. I do not want anything go wrong with the humans right now, especially since my sister is visiting them." "Yes Your Highness!" Trixie saluted and trotted to take care of her new assignment. Celestia returned to the throne room and apologized for the inconvenience. She hoped that for once, Captain Lulamoon (HERO OF EQUESTRIA!) was wrong.