//------------------------------// // 4-6 // Story: Heroes Never Die // by Shimmerist Ari //------------------------------// Ari’s first and only real move in this kind of situation was to tell the SSP. She was already a little shaky about it since they were busy. It wasn’t yet time for them to focus on Ari and the ponies had many, many battles in front of them already. The big thing among the ponies right now was the weaponization of eminent domain seizures. One state decided to build a massive highway to nowhere straight through a pony commune that had formed. They effectively took the houses of thousands of ponies in an attempt to break up their communities and scatter them to the winds, hoping they’d ‘reintegrate’ to capitalist society afterward. If the ponies didn’t manage to fight this one off, the nation would be covered in useless highways where their homes used to be within a few years. So she wasn’t surprised when ultimately they said it’d be cheaper to just pay the fine. As for public opinion, they could use this to their advantage later. They wanted the local government to seem negligent for phase two. Ari had something to publicly rail against now. Not that you’d need much framing for that. It just bugged Ari how adamant the town seemed about keeping the town filthy. There had to be something going on at this point. She was musing about this in the secret darknet forum and got an answer. R>Of course something’s going on. Your whole county is just a project being run by Blackrock. They’ll clean it up once they’ve run down the value and bought enough land. And the mayor would have to be in on it. “Well if the mayor’s getting bribed that will make phase two easy.” Ari reclined in her chair and then thought better of that statement. “Oh, who am I kidding? It won’t change a Shim-damned thing.” ANot yet. We don’t want to yet. Ari wasn’t supposed to directly talk about R>But what you did was good. This is ammo. I want you out there decrying this to everybody who will listen. Not right away, but transition into talking about Blackrock’s ‘Safe Housing’ initiative. And if you can think of any other way to make them shoot themselves in the foot go ahead and take it. Ari got a big smile on her phase at praise from Ragnarök. Validation from any pony made life worth living but from him, it was the highest. She rocked back and forth in her chair before standing up. That defeat suddenly felt like a victory. When she walked out of her office smiling and humming, the others took notice. A ton of people were hanging around here today. She’d gotten the whole crew worked up about this, energized like a hundred other people, and then… Crushed. But now that she was thinking about it, even that was good. The other Shimmerists seemed to be coming here to feel better. Or at least be near somebody else wallowing in the same misery. “Did the SSP say they were going to sue?” Dresden was the one who asked but everybody sat up to hear the answer. “Um.” Ari licked her lips. Everybody wanted her to say ‘yes’ and she wasn’t sure how to square a no against her smile. “No.” And then they went back to being depressed. “I kind of liked cleaning up all the garbage,” Pamela muttered, looking down at her feet. “I don’t get why they stopped us.” “Some Karen drove by in her Escalade and said ‘not in my back yard’ or something.” Ari shrugged away the notion. “But that doesn’t matter. I’ve already come up with another plan.” Nobody seemed too on board with plans at the moment. Even Pamela rested her cheek on a hand and frowned as she asked. “And what’s that?” “I’m not sure if there’s a point in any other plans,” said Dresden, “if the government is just going to shut us down.” Getting her gang on board with this would be good practice for doing it in front of a general audience, Ari decided. She put her hands in her pockets and got up on a coffee table. “Now, I know we don’t all have the same political views, ponification aside,” said Ari. “But let me ask you all this: Is there even one person here who doesn’t think the local government is trying to screw this town over at this point?” Not one person ventured an objection. “It’s clear the local government doesn’t care about us. So the only question is who are they doing this for?” “Capitalism!” Pamela answered right away. “What?” “You always say it’s capitalism…” “Well. Yeah. But more specific.” “Um.” “Blackrock,” Dresden answered. “Exactly! Everybody else is so caught up with ‘magic this, magic that’ that they forget about our actual enemies. The mass evictions that the governments and corporations aren’t just not doing anything about but openly encouraging.” Ari turned to one of her followers, David. “You’re a great example. Evicted from your home and forced into paying damn near everything you make to Blackrock in rent. And it’ll get much worse with Blackrock moving to take over security.” “So you think that’s what this is all about?” Dresden asked. “They want to get everybody scared enough to let Blackrock fence them in?” “That’s just the beginning. They’ll set up special administration zones to control those neighborhoods eventually. They’re already trying it in one town up in Main, something I’m sure all the experts will see as a huge success. They’ll try to do it down here before long.” She could tell a lot of them were worried and many more increasingly incensed. Two great emotions for your followers to have. “That’s great, but until they legalize ponification there isn’t much we can do about it, is there?” Dresden asked. “Oh, there is! We can start getting political. But we need support.” Ari returned to the battlefield later that day. She hadn’t realized just how much popularity her stunt brought in despite failing. “Hey, hey! It’s Ari!” Somebody shouted when she got near. “Nohands is back!” She wished they’d chosen another nickname for her… even if that was her old Twitter handle before getting banned for her speech not being free enough or whatever. “Hey!” Ari called out to the gathering crowd, keeping her hands in her pockets. “Why the hell did they take away the dumpsters? What’s their problem?” “What are we doing this time?” Another asked. It already felt like she could get these people to cooperate… not nearly enough for the next phase but maybe to swing a local vote. “My church is just handing out food today,” said Ari. “No crazy stunts yet.” Everybody grew restless. Seems Ari typecast herself as the crazy stunt girl. “We should protest!” one of them suggested. “Sure. Why don’t you give the mayor a standup routine instead?” Ari asked. “I’m not sure which one will make him and his Blackrock buddies laugh harder.” “Then what the fuck should we do?!” “I’d do literally anything to not be standing here!” “You think Blackrock has something to do with this?” That was the right question. “Hell yeah, they do!” Ari pointed to that guy. “Half of you were thrown out onto the streets by those bastards. And I’ll tell you this, they’re not done with their little power grab just yet. They’re not going to be happy just taking all the land away from us!” They were listening. They wanted something to be angry at. Normally… “No, this is all those damned horse’s fault!” Somebody had said what they’d been trained to. “It’s an alien invasion is what it is.” A good number of them made grumbles in agreement. Ari tried to remember the more vocal of them. “Oh, then I guess we should all be fine!” Ari spread the hoody open to gesture all around her. “I don’t see any ponies around here but I do see Blackrock putting up their fences and signs every three blocks. I’d say if you want to know why things suck look at who’s taking over because of it.” It silenced them a little, for now. Ari had to redirect that hatred and resentment. It had to be directed all at Blackrock, not the ponies. But at the same time, she couldn’t just come out and say she was a Shimmerist directly. She managed to keep most of them around to listen to her little speech about Blackrock’s plans, about the government bending over backward for them, and then she handed out food. Ari managed to get the respect of some of the other humanitarian groups and churches as well. They hadn’t really been properly organized before so Ari stepped up to more properly coordinate between them all. And she returned to these homeless camps nearly every day, delivering more speeches. She found that contrary to what the news and common sense would tell you these people weren’t totally lazy but desperate to do anything. So Ari mobilized the willing to do this and that around town, occasionally handing out pamphlets and putting up anti-Blackrock signs. Nearly a month of that passed, until finally her persistent watching of local bond measures and votes presented an opportunity. The mayor’s aide smiled happily. Another easy day. Another step towards real success. Once this proposal got approved it’d be straight to the top for everybody involved. They needed the town’s approval to give Blackrock the authority to begin building micro-apartments and set up a special administration zone where they controlled the utilities, the security… everything. Once set up they would become incredible engines of profit! All those poor, dejected people would work at Blackrock facilities and give all that money right back to Blackrock-owned stores and apartments. And those micro-apartments would be insanely profitable as well. What once housed ten people could now house a hundred, each paying just slightly less rent, once the proper deregulations were done. Owning just a few of those, as she would… And Blackrock had already done all the hard work for her. They rallied quite the support in the neighborhoods that mattered, the ones where they were already offering free security. Everyone here would vote yes. All she needed to do was make the rubber seal. “Alright. We’re going to vote on proposal D next.” The door opened. She stared in disbelief as a flood of people entered the room. They took up all the seats and there still wasn’t enough room for them. The hall had never been this full under any circumstance. These had to be people Blackrock sent to vote for the measure, right? They specifically made sure to keep this under the radar except in wealthy gated communities where the idea was popular. But these people looked so… so poor! The mayor’s aide couldn’t help but cringe at the sight of them. “Um. All in favor say ‘yay’.” The people who had already been there all echoed in chorus. The new people stayed quiet. She wished she didn’t have to say the next part. “And those opposed.” “Nay!” The room erupted in nays. They drowned out the yays five to one easily. But this couldn’t be happening. Blackrock already had millions invested in this fund. Hundreds of millions. The amount they would lose in interest from this alone… her career, no her life, would be over if this didn’t go through! “We’ll do that one more time.” She smiled. “Remember that yay means we approve the deal that will give safe and cheap housing to um… the lower class. And bring in a lot of money. Please take this seriously. So. Those in favor.” The same response. “Opposed.” She closed her eyes as the nays had it again, this time only louder. The mayor’s aide looked left and right. “That um… wasn’t supposed to happen.” “What?” “I’m sorry. But the vote was too close to…” The crowd was growing restless. “Um. I think we’re just going to approve the deal anyway.” She banged her gavel in a panic. “Excuse me?!” “You bitch!” And those fucking hobos were shouting and screaming at her. “Keep this civil!” She threatened. “I don’t even know if you people are real!” That only made them angrier! “Security! Call the police! Get these people out of here!” Ari strapped a spoon to her glove to take a bite out of her oatmeal as she eagerly awaited the news. “There you are you son of a bitch.” Mayor Hubert. A fat but well-dressed man. This was the closest Ari had come to seeing the guy in person. It was certainly her actions that flushed the rat out into broad daylight like this. “I can assure you that I in no way approve of what happened on Tuesday,” the mayor said. “The proposal was officially rejected by standard procedure. My aid has been reprimanded and was fired immediately after I heard what happened. Yet I want to stress this before we all lose our heads and things get even more chaotic: one low-level secretary having a panic attack does not a dictatorship make as some in the mainstream media would have you believe. I remain committed to protecting democracy. But I also remain committed to protecting the security of…” “Yep.” Ari pointed the spoon at the TV. “There it is.” Ari chuckled to herself. Another victory for Sunset Shimmer. Of course, they would just keep trying to do this again and again forever, so… “Ari!” Dresden threw the door open. “Did you hear what was going on downtown?” “What was going on downtown?” Ari glanced about, unsure of what to prepare for. “It looks like the town has suddenly decided to clean up the garbage,” said Dresden. “They emptied all the trash cans and put up dumpsters like what we were doing.” Ari put the spoon in her mouth again and thought about the implications of that for a good long while. “I don’t get it,” said Dresden. “Why would they start doing this now?” It took Ari herself some time to work out the answer to that. She swallowed her oatmeal and pointed her spoon at Dresden when it finally came to her. “I think war was declared.”