“Hello everypony.” Shining Armor spoke coldly as he approached the podium set up in one of the Royale Hotel’s ballrooms. Before him sprawled dozens of reporters from outlets all across Equestria. The evening sun streamed through the high windows, bathing the rather plain room in shades of warm orange. It wasn’t quite the press room back in Canterlot, but it served its purpose. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice.” His blood ran ice cold and a knot formed in his stomach as he took a deep breath. The flashbulbs of the cameras aimed at him, ready for his public self-execution. “I’m sure everypony has heard the rumblings of what happened in Appleloosa earlier today. I’m here to clarify the events.” He looked down at the paper on the podium, the one he and Twilight had spent a few hours crafting before she had to leave again.
The press murmured and roiled with anticipation and theories as he paused. He had to take this all in, because there was a good chance this was going to be it for him. There would be calls for him to resign, and they would be right to make those calls. Would the princesses defend him? He hoped so, but he knew that might make them look bad.
“This morning in Manehattan we experienced severe ration shortages across the city. We were not prepared for the amount of refugees pouring in not just from the countryside but from other cities as well.” He swallowed his pride and let the first lie fall out of his mouth. “I took matters into my own hooves. The Princesses are busy enough with so many other problems and they left the Royal Guard in charge of dispensing and collecting rations, so I took initiative. I instructed outposts to collect an extra round of rations from certain towns and settlements that have exceeded their production quotas to help shore up our own reserves. One of these towns was Appleloosa. Lieutenant Rubicon was dispatched with a contingent of guards to ensure the safe transfer of goods. According to the report issued by Lieutenant Rubicon, which you’ve all been provided with abridged copies of, the citizens of Appleloosa refused the order, a pony in the crowd threw a rock at the guards and an altercation followed.”
“You mean they killed ponies!” A reporter from the crowd shouted.
“Regrettably, yes.” Shining Armor let out a deep sigh, one that wasn’t for show and he felt deep in his soul. “We’re still gathering the names of all of those that were…mortally wounded in the altercation. They will be available to you all as soon as we have them. I want to extend my apologies to not just those hurt or worse in this situation, but to their families and Equestria as a whole. The Royal Guard was never meant for anything more than operation inside of Canterlot and wherever the Princesses went. These new expanded responsibilities all across Equestria have stretched not just our numbers, but our nerves thin as well. These are not excuses, as what happened in Appleloosa is inexcusable, but they are the facts. We will be launching an internal investigation into what happened so we can develop a comprehensive retooling of our protocols in the field so this doesn’t happen again.” He took another deep breath. “Questions?”
—-
“Will you be stepping down as the Captain of the Royal Guard?” One of the reporters’ voices came through the crackling speaker of the radio following Shining Armor’s call for questions.
Sweetie Belle sat on the couch right next to the radio, her eyes studying the beat up little machine as the voices dribbled from the speaker. Apple Bloom was in Appleloosa, so she was hoping to hear a little assurance that one of her best friends was alive and okay, but not even Shining Armor knew it seemed.
“If the Princesses ask me to, absolutely.” Shining Armor responded to the question stolidly. “Stepping down in Equestria’s current situation without a replacement immediately available or without direct orders from the Princesses themselves would only lead to more chaos in the ranks of the Royal Guard. I aim to help bring stability back to Equestria, and walking away would only serve the opposite goal.”
“Oh Sweetie Belle, turn that depressing racket off.” The heavily accented words of Cookie Crumbles came from the kitchen. “I don’t need to hear about more death. Nopony does.” Her mother barked annoyedly.
Sweetie Belle didn’t resist or argue, she reached out with a hoof and switched the radio off. The device sputtered in appreciation as it was mercifully shut off. The filly then let out a little sigh and hopped down from the couch and wandered over to one of the windows.
Beyond the window, the streets of Baltimare sprawled out to the horizon. They were put up in an apartment near the city’s historic harbor. In fact, if she went to one of the other windows, she could look out into the Horseshoe Bay where even this late in the evening, fishing boats would still be coming in and out of the harbor. That was one of the things she was still getting used to about living here: eating fish. Back in Ponvyille her dad fished for a job, but all of his catches went elsewhere because there was no market for them in Ponyville. They ate the waterbound creatures rarely then. Here in Batlimare the warm waters of the southern Celestial Sea made them a staple.
The reliance on the sea also left them mostly independent from the rest of Equestria. They still had grains and other crops come in, but it wasn’t as much as cities like Fillydelphia and Manehattan needed. Fishing here was an industry, one that bounced back quickly after The Event.
Even now her mother was frying up some kind of fish in oil on a pan. She could smell the thick acrid smoke coming off of it, a sign that dinner was probably being burned again. No one had ever accused the mares in the family of being good cooks.
That used to be her dad’s thing.
“Sweetie Belle, dear.” Her mother’s plaintive voice pierced the smoke that was now pouring out of the kitchen in thick black waves. “Use some of my bits and go get some fresh fish and take it to Canola down on the third floor.” That was code for ‘I messed up dinner again. Go make somepony else do it.’ It was more common than not and only made Sweetie roll her eyes.
“Okay mom!” Sweetie Belle stood on her hind legs and pried open the window. A rush of cool fall air pushed into the apartment as the smoke her mom’s cooking produced exited. The filly then went about gathering the bits her mother had mentioned and an old saddlebag she could tote the fish around in. Then she left the apartment.
Their home was on the tenth floor of the building, the only lifeline to the bottom floor besides way too many stairs to count was a rickety old elevator that always felt like it was one bad day from being out of service forever. Lucky for her the creaky thing was already on her floor, no doubt from a neighbor recently getting home, so once the door opened she stepped in and hit the button for the ground floor.
The interior of the elevator car was about what one would expect for the machine that was teetering on unreliable. Deep pockmarks from magic discharge littered the metal walls and on the inner doors she could still see teeth marks where the doors met. Then there was the blood stain on the floor that somepony had tried and failed to fully clean. It had become easier and easier to ignore over time, but it still made her stomach churn. None of that made the stairs the more appealing alternative, though. She would stick with the murder-box over ten flights in an unlit stairwell.
As the slow contraption made its way down the shaft, her mind wandered. Mainly they wandered to the bits she now held in her bag. Bits were a commodity these days. Everypony mostly used bartering or they used ration coupons as currency. Most ponies had been separated from their wealth during and after The Event and it’s not like Equestria’s financial institutions were back up and running. The Royal Mint had been in Canterlot, so no new bits would be in circulation until they could build a new one. So the question stood in the filly’s mind, where did her mother get bits? Had she traded some of their ration coupons for them? That was probably it, but she wondered how much one coupon went for these days.
The elevator dinged and the damaged doors slid open. Sweetie Belle trotted out of them and through the little lobby of the building and into the wider city beyond. The sun was still over the horizon, barely, and bathed the city in shades of purple and orange. Street lights flickered on as the seconds passed, getting ready to light the streets for the ponies who might be around at night.
Several unicorns trotted by the filly on the sidewalk, and every one of them shot her a worried glance and gave her a wide berth as they passed by. They didn’t see the broken stump of a horn hidden beneath her curly mane and they thought she was an earth pony, and they were scared to even look at her because of it.
They didn’t know. They didn’t know the weeks she spent tied up in the clubhouse deep in Sweet Apple Acres, her mind filled with the same hate-filled commands the rest of them had. They couldn’t know. They didn’t see a horn or any deformities that now accompanied one, so they thought she was one of the ponies they had collectively wronged. Maybe they thought she hated them like earth ponies and pegasi seemed to hate unicorns these days.
The assumption that she wasn’t what she actually was kept her safe enough to walk a few blocks to the market. Ponies kept out of her way or shot her wary glances at every small encounter, even the ponies hocking their freshly caught fish would try to keep their conversations to a minimum with her, and they usually reduced their prices too.
Sweetie Belle wandered towards the little market, but along the way something caught her ear. It was a voice intoned with passion and zeal that she hadn’t heard since well before The Event. It instantly drew her towards it, down a street she usually wouldn’t take to a park filled with close to one-hundred ponies. Not just ponies, unicorns. Lengthened legs and muzzles, sharp teeth and sharper horns dotted every single attendee in the crowd as they all stared towards a hastily erected stage in the middle.
A unicorn paced back and forth on the stage on long light gray legs. A dark gray, almost black, mane was slicked back on top of his head but the hairline didn’t quite reach the long spear-like horn that sprouted from his head. The mane was accompanied by a similarly colored full beard that had white streaks through it. A pair of fiery green eyes looked out over the crowd as his booming voice enveloped the park.
“Where is our help?!” He asked ruefully as he slammed a hoof on the wooden stage beneath it. “The earth ponies are given whole towns with enough land to farm and live on! The pegasi are given free reign of the sky, they are even given Canterlot, or what’s left of it, to do with what they please!” A wave of angry mumbles swept through the crowd at that. “Where does that leave us? In the cities! Starving! Reliant on them, the ponies who hate us for something we could not even control, to feed us! They would rather we starve!”
Sweetie Belle looked around to gauge the reaction to that. Ponies all over were nodding their heads in agreement or passionately yelling that they felt the same way. She knew it wasn’t like that, not really. The ponies out there didn’t hate unicorns, they were just scared, right? Who wouldn’t be after The Event. They just all needed time to heal.
“Who is this guy?” Sweetie Belle tugged on the leg of a mare next to her and asked. The mare gave her a curious look, but evidently shrugged it away.
“He used to work for the government, I think.” The mare responded. “His name’s Neighsay. He’s been giving these speeches in all of the big cities.”
Well Sweetie Belle had never heard of him, and she was by the radio most days while her mother was doing whatever work she could find. There were rabble rousers, of course, unicorns all over who felt they were getting a raw deal and sometimes that led to riots. Was this the pony that was causing them? She looked around to make sure she had an exit just in case. More ponies coalesced behind her by the minute and had made sure that she couldn’t just back away.
The best she could do now is hope this didn’t get out of control.
“I’ve heard stories from all across Equestria!” The stallion, Neighsay, continued. “Unicorns who went out into the world, who dared venture from the cities where we’ve been imprisoned and tried to help the earth ponies in the fields! They were scorned! They were turned away! They were attacked! Numerous tales of good, kind-hearted unicorns who only wanted to help not just their own kind, but all of Equestria, being struck down for having dared enter a town where our kind wasn’t welcome!” The crowd erupted yet again at the anecdotes he provided. Neighsay raised a hoof to quiet them and eventually the crowd acquiesced to the request. “I know, I know! It’s appalling!” He took a deep breath before continuing. “That’s why we must create our own towns away from these wretched cities where they want to keep us! The princesses don’t care for you, they don’t care for me! They put us here! They keep us here with no plans or vision! We must reclaim towns now long-since abandoned and build farms that feed unicorns. Where we are not only welcome, but we are the masters of the fields and the weather because it is beyond obvious that now our so-called ‘friends’ of the other races are not able to look past what we are or what we may have done! If they will not allow us to integrate, then we! Must! Separate!”
Shivers shot up Sweetie Belle’s spine as the rhetoric received yet another roar of approval from the crowd. How could so many ponies believe this? Just as the unicorns were consumed with guilt over what happened, the others were consumed with fear. She was sure that with time and understanding, this could be fixed! They had come together as Equestrians too many times to be split apart by this.
This wasn’t what her sister saved the world so many times for.
This wasn’t what Rarity died for.
“Do we have any earth ponies or pegasi in the crowd tonight?” Nieghsay asked. There was a rumble in the crowd as the ponies looked around. “I know, probably not. If we do, please send them up here! We must understand their point of view!”
“I got one here!” A pony, the mare who had told Sweetie who the stallion was, shouted. An aura of magic surrounded Sweetie Belle and lifted into the air above the throng of unicorns. All eyes turned to her as she was moved forward. When one aura faded around her, another gripped her and propelled her forward.
The filly struggled and protested, but the ponies didn’t listen. She focused, willing the magic she no longer had to work and break her out, but all it got her were barely visible sparks pouring from her mane. The eyes of the unicorns, which usually were filled with guilt and worry when they looked at her, were now filled with a mix of vitriol and resentment. A few of those magical grasps squeezed her tight enough to force the air from her lungs. It took her less than a minute to be placed on the stage right beside Neighsay.
“Tell me—” Neighsay gave her no chance to adjust as he rested a hoof on her back and spoke to the crowd more than herself. “—why do you hate us? Why do you fear us? We’re not those monsters anymore, we’re just ponies. Just like you.”
Sweetie’s heart raced and she could feel the sweat dripping down her face. She didn’t talk much, not anymore. Usually it was just short answers to her mom or telling some vendor at the market what she wanted to buy. She hadn’t said anything more complicated than a few words to another pony since she last spoke to her sister. The thought of talking not just to Neighsay, but to everypony here, was terrifying.
‘What would Rarity do?’ a little voice in her head asked. She wouldn’t be frozen up here, no. She would stand up for the ponies who needed help. Rarity and her friends would defend harmony, just like they always had.
“I-I don’t hate you.” She finally stammered out as she planted her hooves firmly on the stage and steadied herself. “I’m not an earth pony either!” She yelled out to the crowd, her voice quavering with every syllable. She reached up and parted her mane, showing the broken stump of her horn hidden beneath.
“A tragedy.” Neighsay recovered from this revelation in an instant and changed gears just as fast. “This is what they do to us! To foals! They break our horns either with their hooves or they make us break them with their words and actions!”
Sweetie Belle started to shake a little more. Not from fright anymore, no, from anger. Every single thing he was saying was sick and wrong! He was just saying this to make ponies angry and for what? She didn’t even know but it just made her more angry. She opened her mouth to speak, to berate him and the crowd and extol the virtues she had learned about so intimately from her life in Ponyville.
Nothing came out.
Hot tears streamed down her face as words failed her. She tried a few more times to say something, anything. Something that would make the Elements of Harmony proud, that would unite the races and bring Equestria back together again. All the crowd got was a pained sob instead.
Sweetie Belle fled from the stage, angry with not just herself but everypony in the park as well. She had needed to say something in defense of the earth ponies and pegasi of the world, and they had needed to hear it. Neighsay had needed to hear it too, but who was she to tell them? She was just a broken and displaced filly, just another unicorn in a sea of them.
A deep inexorable sadness returned to her heart just as an overwhelming anger bubbled in the heart of Baltimare.