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// Conference 
// Story: I Was Once a Fool But Then the Communism Bus Came and Drove Me to Salvation 
// by GermanBrony_12 
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The sun shone brightly on the great Crystal Union, illuminating the chaos within its borders. Day and night, ponies hurried about in a desperate search for Our Friend and Liberator, Cadence, who, just a few days prior, had vanished from the palace.

 Far from the reaches of the sun, however, a conference was being held in the Assembly Hall of the Equestrian Populace, where high-ranking unicorns of the Friendship Council of Parity, often abbreviated as simply “FCP”,  would convene every so often to alleviate the suffering of everypony in the nation. 

Now, a catastrophe had come about, terrifying all and decimating their will to continue in life, a thing few wished to do sans Cadance. It was imperative that action be taken to return her to safety.

After a brief clopping of hooves, the unicorns had settled down in their assigned seats, which formed a perfect semicircle around the seat of the council’s head, Chancellor Neighsay. As was the tradition, he raised a diamond mallet via levitation, and, with a single, solid strike, silence was brought to the hall. 

The conference began with the usual introduction of issues, of which only one was to be discussed: the presently fruitless search for Our Friend and Liberator, Cadence. As of yet, only earth ponies and pegasi had been drafted for the search, as all unicorns held the collective belief that it was unethical to force creatures of extraordinary elegance to participate in labour-intensive endeavours, making conscription of unicorns against their  morals and thus inconceivable. However, the searches had revealed nothing so far, and all but a small group of eligible ponies had already been conscripted, making every attempt seem more and more futile. At this point, the only viable solution was to institute conscription of unicorns.

The mere suggestion of this was entirely outrageous, as was evidenced by the violent cries of the unicorns as they began to assault anypony that seemed to hold a differing opinion. In but a moment, the council had descended into a mad brawl, each unicorn desperate to ensure that the ponies of the Crystal Union kept their rightful liberty, but at last, the assembly returned nearly to order after Chancellor Neighsay had defeated a dangerous tyrant amid the group and frozen time to call the others back to their initial state. 

With the session resumed, the unicorns finally held a civilised debate, though unfortunately a few members were a bit too quiet, and their friends sometimes found themselves having to shout to remind them what level of volume was necessary. In the end, the committee reluctantly decided that it was best for the nation that all ponies, unicorns included, be made eligible for conscription. 

In addition to this, one member suggested that instead of aimlessly thrusting ponies into the wilderness to perform solitary searches, they be collected and placed together in groups for a more effective search. The others were quick to agree, however, now there came a new question: should unicorns be grouped with only unicorns, or should other ponies search alongside them?

The council switched sides in its unanimous support of one option several times before finally agreeing that the other ponies would be able to investigate more effectively with the assistance of unicorns by their side, resulting in the closing of the meeting. Chancellor Neighsay sent off the members of the council with the final task of finding unicorns to replace those that had been lost during the recent discussion, and in another moment, the great chamber was empty.

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The FCP was quite quick to act when it wanted to be, and as it was an emergency, the latest decisions were almost immediately enacted, roughly two thousand ponies being selected by raffle for the search. By the end of the day, everypony chosen had been gathered at the city centre and organised into search parties of three ponies each: one unicorn, one earth pony, and one pegasus. Each group was sent to search a different region of Equestria, some sent to locations beyond Equestria to ensure that Our Friend and Liberator, Cadence, would be found.

One of such groups was a set of friends from a central province of the Crystal Union: Hoofheim. The three comrades had been united on this team by chance and ordered to investigate the Tenochtitlan Basin in hopes of finding their leader. As were the other groups, the three were supplied with equipment fitting their mission and sent on their way the following morning.