//------------------------------//
// July 19th, 2012 
// Story: Sovereign Objection 
// by hahatimeforponies 
//------------------------------//

"Celestia, I have had the most trying day!"


"I'll say, you look atrocious, Luna. Why don't you join me and tell me about it? I was just having some tea before bed."


"I have been up all day dealing with this. If I am to be of any use in the coming night… very well! Bring me… the coffee."


"I knew it wouldn't be long. Come sister, tell me what's bothering you."


"It is my vote, sister. I am tempted to give up on pursuing it already."


"Oh, now that won't do. What's been so difficult?"


"With the assistance of an aide, we attempted to pursue the process through the internet."


"It is useful for some things, it turns out."


"However, we could not complete the process as I lacked documentary evidence of my identity. A right lark! Documentary evidence. My identity has been obvious to all for centuries!"


"I suspect that people would be disinclined to believe you without it. Here, I have an ID card of my own." Produced from the air as if summoned, Celestia passed it to Luna as she hunched over the table.


"I see. Mildly perturbed as I am that all citizens are assigned a number, I am surprised that yours is not simply '1'."


"Now that is part of ensuring a measure of equal treatment. For security reasons, CID numbers are randomised with a checksum digit. The anonymity of the number ensures true random selection for things like jury duty, and protects people from discrimination in things like welfare and education assessments. And being random makes it harder to guess a valid number, which makes identity theft harder."


"Identity theft? Like a changeling?"


"Not quite. Stolen personal information can be used to make fraudulent purchases, it's a serious crime."


"What a perverse future this is where new methods of theft have been invented."


Celestia chuckled. "Anyway, I could theoretically lean on the right people to give myself a special CID number, because after all, I'm not exactly going to be selected for a jury or assessed for food assistance, but I didn't want to. I think it would send a bad message if I was to bureaucratise myself as first citizen of Equestria - and let's be honest, if that meant you got number 2, we might just have another Nightmare Moon crisis on our hooves."


Luna smirked for the first time all day. "Suppose you may be right, sister."


"Anyway. You needed a CID number and didn't have one."


"Yes. In order to complete the process, I had to obtain this number - which meant I had to see the local magistrate. How foolish I looked, arriving at the address under moonlight to find the courthouse closed!"


Celestia did her best to contain her giggle.


"Most inconvenient - and of course, this is why this issue was delayed for so long. Our conversation where you first enlightened me that I may have the capacity to vote was months ago, if you'll remember, but for much of the time since then, our schedule of performative statesmanship and my dreamwalking studies have been so dense that there simply has not been the opportunity! To stay awake so long into the day would mean the total sacrifice of the following night's work."


"Contrary to popular belief, civil servants are in fact people, and do have families to go home to."


Luna huffed. "Regardless - after all this effort, we finally find a day to attend this bureau, only to be told that we lacked documentary evidence of our citizenship! The nerve, to tell me that as far as the law was concerned I was a stateless alien!"


"That must have been the bravest civil servant in Equestria."


"It is well that my aides accompanied me on this endeavour, or else there may have been an incident."


"That is why the CINS office has reinforced glass on the counter."


"Sins office indeed."


"No, C-I-N-S. Customs, Immigration and Naturalisation Service. It's the government agency that handles citizenship matters."


"I was told that I had to provide them with either a 'birth certificate', or else prove that I had been resident in Equestria for the last five years! Even if there was a documentary certificate of my birth, it would be in a museum by now, if not crumbled to dust! Any fool with two eyes can see who I am, and yet this clerk insisted on taking me for a ride."


"Unfortunately, dear sister, this is equality under the law. They weren't playing a trick on you, they were simply doing their jobs."


"So now we have been trawling through archives and negotiating with magistrates attempting to fix a problem that could be solved by merely pressing a button on their blasted machine that forges the cards."


"There is another way - but it's… not the most convenient."


"Anything would be better than trying to make the sinners' office see sense."


"We could grant you citizenship by an Act of Parliament."


"That's… possible?"


"It's… a little bit of a legal adventure, but I regret to inform you, sister, that you are a walking constitutional crisis. Every step of your return to the role of Princess will be legally fraught."


"Huzzah."


"It will also be complicated by the Tyrian-led government in Parliament."


"The Tyrians are still around after all this time?"


"The makeup of the current Parliament is a can of worms for another time, but to keep things brief, yes - the Tyrian Party is by and large the same organisation as was founded in the 17th century, and is the oldest extant political party in the world. They're also still a conservative party led by business owners, landlords and nobles. Which means, for us now, that they don't like change."


"I see…"


"In particular, what they don't like about you returning to full Princess duties is that they still don't like the Right of Sovereign Objection. All governments have a degree of contempt for it, but the Tyrians especially don't like it, because usually when something goes to referendum, it doesn't go their way."


"If their proposals are so unpopular that they are consistently rejected, why do they get elected to the position to make those proposals in the first place?"


"That's also going to have to go with the rundown of modern Parliament. It's complicated."


"Very well."


"The point is, what they're afraid of is having two Princesses who can exercise Sovereign Objection over bills. Even if it were to be amended such that we would both need to object to send a bill back, they know that we trust each other, and we'd back each other up. It would be functionally identical to each of us having our own Objection. What's more, they…"


"What?"


Celestia chuckled quietly. "Your reputation is getting around, Luna."


"Reputation? What do you mean?"


"Your disdain for performative formalities, your obliviousness to the norms that have ossified around society in your absence. You approach every situation with the kindness of a child, and without the baggage of a millennium of difficult mistakes. They hoped you would be naive and easy to persuade - some even hoped that you'd represent some radical return to the ways of the past - but instead you are… disarmingly compassionate. And that scares them."


Luna blinked incredulously. "Why would compassion scare them? Why would they be more afraid of my perspective than yours? We are of the same."


"I've been thinking some more about what you said about The Created World. They know me - and maybe they think they can control me, the same way they did all those years ago. You never fail to surprise them, and some people fear what they cannot control."


"Put that way, it sounds like we are once again surrounded by the selfish and wicked."


"Regrettably, sister, power attracts such people. Which is exactly why we have the Right of Sovereign Objection - and why they don't want you to have it."


"I would be lying if I said this did not redouble my resolve to obtain it, then."


"Of course. It'll be a difficult road to get there - but we have time."


"Perhaps when the makeup of Parliament changes!"


"I… wouldn't count on that. All of Parliament is primarily concerned with economics, not the daily affairs of Princesses, or matters of process. But you are right, we can afford to be patient if needs be. Don't worry about it, I can set this in motion in the morning."


Luna nodded, and gazed over her coffee silently for a minute.


"Something still eating you, Luna?"


Luna took a breath, and paused to compose her words. "A few weeks ago, I encountered something while dreamwalking. Usually this does not disturb me. The realm of dreams is that of unfettered consciousness - hopes, fears, desires and biases, unfiltered. Incoherently intense. Traumatic nightmares, spirit journeys…" She smirked, looking over the rim of her coffee. "Fantasies of the flesh."


"Your open mind does not come from nowhere. I'm aware of this."


"I must say, tastes have become considerably more adventurous in the last thousand years. Anyway, the nightmare I encountered belonged to a zebra, residing in Galloway, in the Shetland Isles. He was on trial in a language he could barely comprehend, with an army of other angry zebras trying to bang down the doors to the court. He kept signing papers and handing them to the judges, only for them to burn in front of him. It is only now after being in the citizenship office that I realised what those papers were - they were the same forms being brandished at me."


"I see."


"Dreams are rarely conclusive, but that is a fairly firm indication that this unhappy fellow was also struggling to be recognised as a citizen. But curiouser and curiouser still was that this dream was occurring during the day."


"You were dreamwalking during the day?"


"My sleep was disturbed that day so I decided to put the time to good use."


"I think that may have been the Pride parade."


"What is that? A festival of the nation?"


"I'll tell you later. The zebra's nightmare."


"Right. It had come to my attention that more of Equestria's citizens… denizens, are active during the night than before my exile. Certain establishments and manufactories remain open throughout day and night, requiring workers to serve at all hours. At first I was overjoyed that my moon and stars would have the audience I desired, but upon closer inspection, it seemed these were often unhappy folk. And indeed, upon walking through their dreams, it seems that many of them are not living that way by choice."


"And you wondered where your reputation was coming from."


"I believe this unfortunate soul is struggling with the same problem that so embarrassed me. Attempting to cajole the civil service into providing him the papers he needs, against the uphill battle of a nocturnal schedule. However, he is not a Princess. He is neither the blood relative of the Head of State, nor ordained with eternal life by cosmic power. He is merely a labourer, toiling for survival in a foreign land, and he has no one he can ask for an Act of Parliament to sidestep his issues."


"Unfortunately, that is equality under the law."


"But why is the law this way? This zebra is obviously suffering! He has made it into Equestria, why must he also worry for his ability to remain here?"


Celestia sighed. "I'm not sure I can give you an answer you will accept. My heart breaks for every suffering creature in our land, it really does, but we must balance the needs of all."


"What need can possibly counterbalance this poor soul's anxiety over whether he has the right to remain on these shores?"


Celestia put a hoof to her mouth for a moment. "I have two answers for you. One is cold, the other is ugly. Which would you like first?"


"You only have cold and ugly answers? Ha. Very well. Let us begin with cold."


"Simple economics. Everything has a value controlled by its supply and demand. In times of plenty, prices fall, in times of stricture, prices rise."


"All very well and good when you talk of the price of apples and vases, but of people?"


"It's true! When there are more people seeking housing than there is supply, housing becomes more expensive. When there are more people than jobs, wages fall."


"Why would you not simply build more houses and employ the surplus labour to build them?"


"But that's not up to us, Luna. If housing becomes unprofitable to build, then they don't get built, and getting Parliament to approve more public housing… listen, this is a whole other subject, it's way too complicated for now."


"I do not appreciate being told when something is above my comprehension, sister."


"Do you want the ugly answer or not?"


Luna inhaled. "Sister. You are losing your temper, and… so am I."


Celestia also inhaled. "You're right. We're both tired."


"Satisfy my curiosity before we depart for sleep, at least."


"If you're sure."


"Very sure."


"The ugly answer is that ponies won't accept them. Many communities are scared of change. Not everyone is as open-minded as you. If we opened our borders to any and all who wanted to come and stay, I would worry for their safety."


"Ah. So this is about borders again."


"I suppose it is."


"I worry you are underestimating the heart of the Equestrian people."


"It's not me. There's a whole circus of charlatans who find an easy target in blaming all of society's ills on things that people don't understand, and top of the list of things people don't understand is creatures from strange places. I cannot say for certain whether these fear merchants are the cause or the product of this neophobia, but they do everything they can to perpetuate it."


"Why are they allowed to spread their message when it is so clearly harmful?"


"Because the ability to speak one's mind freely is one of the values modern Equestria is built on. Feudal Equestria was a place where saying the wrong thing to the wrong person could get you killed, and a precondition for society to advance was the guarantee that that could no longer happen, even if what you say is upsetting."


"Preaching fear and distrust is obviously more than upsetting. By your own admission, it is affecting policy. And heavens above, I wouldn't hold death over them, but something must be done."


"I know, Luna I just… can we pick it up another time? This conversation has… so many branches. We could be here for hours chasing down all of them."


"Alright."


"You know Luna… even if it is exhausting sometimes, your desire to understand everything is admirable. I wish I still had that boundless curiosity."


"Whyever would it leave you, sister? Such inquisitiveness is how we arrived upon our ascension, after all."


"The tree of knowledge bears much fruit that is poisoned with lies, secrets, or just… things you never wanted to know. And I have been unluckier than most in my harvest."


Wordlessly, Luna circled the table to embrace Celestia in a hug.