“Sometimes I wonder what my life could be like if I did not have to worry about politics. Probably a lot simpler.”
- Star Swirl the Bearded
Eventually, Celestia had calmed down enough that she could make her way through the palace and back into the Senate’s wing. She felt like she was making good progress on tracing Star Swirl’s path, with corroborating documents revealing that Clover and her party had been hot on his hooves. That meant that the path she and the rest of the unicorns had followed was likely a good analogue for Star Swirl’s own. But whether he had stopped somewhere along the road, or gotten to Equestria before them, she still wasn’t sure. And of course, why he had left in the first place was still a complete mystery. Even so, pondering these unanswered questions was something she found infinitely more comforting than confronting the eminently addressable concerns of the country. Addressable, at least, so long as she could get the two ponies sitting at the table with her to agree on anything.
“And so what?” Pensive yelled, his normal composure gone. “We sell the whole farm to your voters? We don’t have nearly enough bits in the Treasury for that kind of entitlement. The package prices by the market rates, and those will have to be good enough!”
“You’re distorting the market though!” Ink yelled right back with equal force. “How can we expect prices to properly reflect demand when the government is just buying everything in sight? There need to be assurances that the rate paid will be fair.”
“Oh, sure, I’ll make a little allowance. And then what? You can’t even promise me that your ponies will vote for it!”
“They’d vote for it if you and your party would stop making this whole thing personal!”
“You think that I’m the one making this personal??”
“Alright, SHUT UP, both of you!” Celestia interrupted, angrily banging her hoof on the table. Any more of this and she would have to look into something a sight stronger than tea to go with her lunch. “We’re not getting anywhere if we just go back to a shouting match. We are going to get this measure passed, no matter if we have to stay up all night. Understood?”
Ink, who was sitting on the table’s left side, nodded in agreement, though the tinges of red in her cheeks still hadn’t subsided. Pensive, seated across from her, was showing signs of the strain himself, with that haircut of his now mostly in tangled disarray. Even so, he nodded along too. The width of the table between them had been intentionally chosen, and Celestia was very thankful for it now. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it had come to blows at some point.
Pensive found his voice first. “Rest assured, Your Highness, that at least one of us is committed to that effort, one hundred percent. If everypony would just get on board, we could be out of here in an hour.”
Celestia saw Ink gape at that statement, and wind herself up for another impassioned retort. She cut in herself before it could come.
“I don’t doubt the sincerity of either of you. It is understandable that tempers should run high in a situation like this. But surely it isn’t hard for us to talk this over calmly.”
It looked like perhaps they were ready to take another crack at it. “Now, Ink, it was your senators who bucked the last vote, so clearly you’re the one who wants things changed. What are your requests?”
“Well, just to be clear,” Ink answered, raising a judicious hoof, “I think that the bill is probably just fine. But the rest of the party does need some additional language to lessen the impression that the rural districts are being trodden over by Canterlot again.”
Pensive sneered. “If you can’t speak for the rest of your members, then perhaps you could bring us somepony who can. If your party doesn’t vote along with the measure as written, then clearly you’ve got some problem with it.”
Ink took a deep breath, and then went right on as if the comment hadn’t been made. “The structure of the reforms are extraordinary, and disruptive to the normal agricultural supply chains. Farmers cannot be expected to agree to such a radical system without some incentives. Now, it’s been a bad year. We wouldn’t have to break the bank for something like this. We just need a fair and reasonable pricing system so that nopony can claim that they’re being defrauded out of their honestly earned bits.”
“Thank you,” Celestia said, giving Ink a reassuring smile of thanks. Goodness, it was like training dogs trying to keep these two in line. “Pensive, how much leeway do you have on the language of that section?”
“Some,” he admitted. “You have to understand the nature of the situation in our cities though. Store shelves are going empty, and prices are rising. Ponies expect action, and they’re eager to find somepony else to blame when things go badly. I hear a lot of that anger directed toward the farmers these days, and it will not go over well if we give the impression that the producers are getting a sweet deal out of this.”
“Of course not,” Celestia agreed. Well, so far things were going smoothly at least. But it wasn’t as though this was the first time that they had agreed to the necessities in principle. The details were always the hard part. Ink had a draft parchment worked up, her fourth so far of the session. She slid it across the table to her opposite.
“Preposterous,” Pensive said, shaking his head wearily. “There’s no way that we can get something like this through. This is a handout, nothing more.”
Ink didn’t flinch. “Well, there are other considerations. After recent events, there are quite a few members of my party who need some extra encouragement before they’ll go along with you and yours on anything.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pensive answered, summoning some of his usual haughty posture back. “And none of them should let their personal concerns get in the way of them doing their jobs.”
“Perhaps you should have thought of that before you called us all a bunch of dullards in the morning post.” That rosy tinge was returning to Ink’s complexion. “You couldn’t have honestly thought that you were going to make this process any easier with that comment.”
“Some of us simply needed to be reminded of the stakes of the issue in play,” Pensive scoffed. “The necessity of this measure is unquestioned. If everypony was taking this as seriously as my party and I, we would have had a bill before the throne days ago.”
There was a screech as Celestia’s chair slid back, interrupting Ink before things could fall down into what Celestia was sure was going to be another verbal brawl. What was it going to take to get these two to agree on something? Right now, she wasn’t sure if either of them was being deliberately obstructive, or if the tensions now bubbling to the surface just so happened to be arriving at the most inopportune time possible. Even so, it was about time for lunch, and perhaps some contemplation alone would put some sense into them.
“Well, I feel like we’ve had some constructive dialog here, at least,” she lied. “We can take a meal now, and hopefully get down to the details in half an hour or so.”
Both of the other attendees nodded briskly at that sentiment, though surely both of them knew that it was going to take a lot more than some chilled water and dinner rolls to smooth things over. At least neither of them had stormed out over the course of talks. Not yet, at least.
Celestia was just about to head back up into her tower when the door to the meeting room banged open, a nervous-looking guard striding into the space. That in itself was unusual, never mind the sudden interruption. “Your Highness, we have a situation,” he said, his voice low and professional despite his expression.
Instinctively, Celestia looked about for a window to see the sky, but in this interior room there were only candles to light the space. “Are we safe?” she asked.
The guard nodded. “The palace is fine, Your Highness, but we’ve received reports of a riot developing in one of the city’s marketplaces. Our scouts have confirmed it, and we simply wanted to be absolutely certain that you were safe.”
A riot? In all honesty, she probably should have expected something like this. Over food, no doubt. “Thank you for your concern. I’ll need the Guard to get a squad together. I’ll be going down to the square in ten minutes to see if we can get things defused.”
He nodded right away and hurried off down the hall, the clinks of his armour audible in the room until he was further away. Celestia took a look at the other two ponies still here, and a sudden idea struck her.
“You understand that this is the sort of thing that’s going to happen without action, right?” Pensive said from his spot at the table, not looking the least bit concerned. “All you need to do is get your party together, and we’ll have something done.” He looked up at Celestia as he gathered his things from the table. “My hopes go with you, Princess, though please do be careful. We need you more than ever in this difficult time.”
“Precisely,” she answered, giving him what she hoped was an unnerving smile. “But you’re right that this sort of thing is a natural consequence of the Senate’s inaction. That’s why I’m not going down there alone.”
The Guard had put together a sizable detachment for them, which was a good thing given that Pensive and Ink were along for the ride. Neither one of them was pleased about it, of course.
“I simply can’t say that I understand what help you expect from either of us, Your Highness,” Pensive said, wincing as the coach that they were riding lurched over a bump in the road. They were traveling well above the usual safe speed, with a squad of palace guards in front of them to clear the way.
“None,” Celestia replied matter-of-factly. “But I think that it will be good for the two of you to see first-hoof the consequences if we can’t get this measure through. Perhaps then I’ll be able to impress upon you the seriousness of the situation.”
“It’s not a matter of our understanding, Your Highness,” Ink put in. “It’s a matter of one of us being an obstructionist goat, and the other getting far too tired of losing all of her carrots.”
Celestia was very pleased when the coach went over another bump just then, even though it jolted her a good inch or two out of her seat. It was bad enough sitting through one of their arguments in an airy meeting room. Outside, the bright buildings of Canterlot swept past in a blur, the wind whipping through the open windows and setting her mane aflutter. Up ahead, the sound of shouts and the thunder of hooves slowly became more apparent.
About a minute later, the coach came to a sudden, jarring halt. A guard immediately opened the door, signaling that at least the immediate area was safe. Celestia turned to her two guests before she left.
“I want the two of you to survey things, but try to keep back. As much as I want to make sure that you understand what’s going on, nopony will be served by either of you getting involved in any of this.”
By the looks that they gave each other, Celestia wasn’t entirely certain that they wouldn’t start a riot of their own if she left them alone for ten minutes. Even so, there was no point in her worrying about that right now. She had her own issues to deal with. She motioned to the guard outside. “Take me to a good survey spot.”
He nodded, and as soon as Celestia had stepped out of the coach the two of them took to the air, climbing rapidly up over the tops of the buildings in the street. In only a block or two the thoroughfare that they had been on opened up into a broad market square, and in that square Celestia could see precisely what the guard had been talking about.
The market square had the usual configuration of ones like it in Canterlot and indeed throughout the country, ringed by larger shops with a few smaller stands and carts in the middle where traveling merchants could set up. On a normal day the square would be bustling with consumers on their way through, some of them local residents going about their daily errands, and some of them tourists attempting to obtain some mementos of their time in the city. Today, though, that bright patter of hooves had been replaced by a cacophony of thunder, as looters stormed into the shops on the outskirts of the square and overran the peddlers in the center too. A few carts had even been set ablaze around the perimeter, spewing forth clouds of grey smoke that were beginning to climb up into the sky. The sight made Celestia’s heart sink to see such chaos and disorder in the normally peaceful city. And it was only going to get worse if nothing was done soon. Scenes like these would play out all across the nation, eventually tearing it apart just as surely as the Unicorn Kingdom before it.
Right now, though, she could take action to keep things calm. Looking back at the contingent of guards that had come with her, she picked out three, and sent the others back to keep watch over the two senators. Their group approached the square from the air, staying high in the hopes that they would be spotted by idle eyes on the ground. In this, Celestia was aided a great deal by her own physical size, plus a little bit of magic to manipulate the light of the Sun coming down onto the square. When she saw a few ponies down on the ground pointing, she gave the signal to her guards, and they dove toward the ground quickly, aiming for a relatively open spot on the east side.
The pegasi hit first, and quite hard themselves, each one moving the startled onlookers out of the way to make sure that the space was clear for her landing. That allowed Celestia to come in much slower, almost floating down from the heavens, wings outstretched and mane shining like the morning dawn. It wasn’t very often that she was forced to go for the shock and awe entrance, but this time it was a good tactic for bringing the tempest of the riot around her to a standstill.
When the dust had fully settled, Celestia addressed the crowd, using her magic to amplify her voice just slightly. “Citizens of Canterlot, is this any way for us to conduct ourselves? In times of need, is it not the Equestrian spirit that we bind ourselves closer together, in aid and in harmony, to ensure that all have their needs met? Tell me, who is responsible for this mess?”
It was a difficult thing to strike, the right tone of matronly benevolence with the solid iron of authority hiding just underneath it, but from the expressions of muted embarrassment that Celestia saw materialize on the ponies nearest to her, she sensed that she had at least gotten close enough. There was a parting of the crowd just in front of her, and a rough-looking unicorn was shoved out into the clearing, a couple of bruises in evidence upon his face. He offered Celestia a look of pained apology.
“Begging your pardon, Your Highness, but I am the proprietor of the shop just over there,” he said, gesturing behind to a narrow building that looked to be the focal point of the crowd. “My supplies ran out just this afternoon, so unfortunately I have nothing more to sell.”
Shouts arose from the crowd behind him as he spoke. “Liar! Thief! He’s just keeping it all for himself! Open up his storeroom, then you’ll see!” There was almost something of a gradient of enthusiasm in the crowd, with the accusations arising from the rear and shouts of approval coming from various directions, but the ponies around Celestia notably did not join in to any of the cries.
“There will be supplies offered,” Celestia said slowly, making sure that everypony present could hear every word. “If you came today to buy goods and there is nothing to be had, you can make your way up to the palace and we will see about getting you supplied.”
That would probably be enough to defuse the majority of the anger in the air. “But demonstrations and incitements such as these will not be tolerated,” she continued, putting quite a bit more of that iron into it this time. “The City Guard is authorized to ensure order on the streets of Canterlot, and they will not take kindly to rabble-rousers. If you have a problem, take it up through the usual channels.” The unicorn shopkeeper looked relieved to have heard that, and with the pronouncement made the crowd began to disperse. Even so, it would not take much for something like this to start itself up again. Perhaps this was the moment that she had been waiting for.
“In addition!” she cried, commanding the attention of the ponies in the square once again. “My sister and I are well aware of the situation that faces the country, not just the citizens of Canterlot here but also all of Equestria’s other cities as well as its smaller towns and villages. Make no mistake, we are in the midst of difficult times. Do not think that the leaders of our nation will react only with temporary solutions and wishful thinking. I want to let you all know that help is on the way.” She ended that pronouncement with a comforting smile, and it was good to see a few hopeful cheers spring up from within the crowd at that.
“In fact, I wanted to make sure that you know that Luna, your Senate, and I are one hundred percent together on this issue. As you’re all well aware, my sister is working hard on the problem of the weather, and I have the utmost confidence in her eventual success. Similarly, I have here today the intrepid leaders of our Senate, who are right now working hard on a relief package to ensure that a scene like what happened today need never repeat itself.”
She took a look over to the side street where her convoy had parked, and was relieved to see Pensive and Ink emerging from the crowd right on cue, each one basking in the adulation offered by the citizenry. Naturally they had overheard everything that she had said, and neither one could resist an opportunity to be seen by the public. Even the fact that they were taking the praise together didn’t seem to faze either of them one bit.
The two senators came across the marketplace with a squad of four guards around them, eventually uniting with Celestia’s group. Each one of them gave their own short little address to the crowd, for the most part hitting on the right themes of unity and hope, and most importantly assuring everypony that help was surely on the way.
As per usual, Pensive was quite a bit more long-winded than was absolutely necessary, which was even more impressive given the fact that he couldn’t possibly have had anything prepared, but soon enough they had wrapped it up, and the crowd began to disperse. Celestia and the two senators stuck around to shake a few hooves as the scene died down, but shortly enough the square was mostly empty, save for a few city workers that the Guard had brought in to get things cleaned up.
“Well, it would seem that I did get some use out of the two of you,” Celestia said, offering each of them a thankful nod. “I hope that you each understand the importance of what we’ve done here today.”
“Well, of course,” Ink replied, now even and relaxed, her shoulders down for nearly the first time all day. “Things will be peaceful for a while, and even more so once we get our measure passed.”
“I think so too,” Pensive agreed. Well, that was a start at least.
“Good,” Celestia said, letting all of the warmth drain out of her tone in an instant, and fixing the both of them with a steely glare. “Because I meant what I said about getting relief out to these ponies as soon as I could. And if I don’t have something on my desk to sign by the end of the week, you can bet that these ponies will know precisely who they should blame. Shall I repeat that?”
Their smiles wilted in an instant. “Perfectly clear, Your Highness,” Pensive said, coughing once into his hoof. “Ink, my friend, do you still have that draft recommendation for the changes you wanted in the pricing structure?”
“I’ll let you have it once we get back to the palace,” she said back, equally shaken, “though perhaps I can give you another one a touch more lenient, if you need it.”
Celestia left them talking there in the square. “Let them take the coach,” she told the guards, and they dutifully formed up into two squads once more, the pegasi around the Princess while the others stayed behind. Celestia took to the air at once, the warm summer sun feeling good on her wings. There was no doubt in her mind that those two fools would get themselves sorted out now. Even they knew that a Princess’ threat should never be taken lightly.