//------------------------------// // epilogue: her cutie mark didn't even glow // Story: the Logical Solution // by Mica //------------------------------// “This—” Sunny Starscout tapped the glass of the museum display case. “Is the device which split Equestria and led to the genocide of countless innocent lives.” [1] Canterlogic Prenatal Technologies Device. c. 150s A.T. (after-Twilight). Metal, silicon transistors, and plastic. “And these here…”—she pointed to the posters in the next case—"…are the marketing tactics that Canterlogic used to trick earth ponies into believing unicorns and pegasi were a threat to them.” Sunny stood before a crowd of half-asleep elementary school kids. A mix of earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns—the first class to be fully integrated at Maretime Bay Elementary. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Now Equestria is together again, the Canterlogic Device will be remembered as the most destructive instrument of pony genocide in recorded history.” A young earth pony colt with a long, well-kept mane and long eyelashes, standing among a cluster of fillies in the front, raised his hoof. “Yes, Cherish? Yes, you, Cherish Brighthaven.” “My great-grandma worked on the Canterlogic Device. In the R-n-D part, I think. She’s really smart so they named our neighborhood library after her. But then after you became an alicorn and Equestria got united again, they took down her name and put your name instead. And Grandma was sad. Why did you take away her name?” Sunny let out a sigh of moderate frustration. “Because…your great-grandmother worked for a company, and on a device, that caused the death of countless innocent babies—disproportionately non-earth ponies. Like all your friends over there, there, and there. Dead.” “I told her that. But she said that all she did was what the company told her to do. And that it was just society that got bad, and the company provided what society wanted.” “Well, I think you and your great-grandma are mistaken. Just like all of you kids and grownups. You’ve got it all wrong. Canterlogic wasn’t just responding to ‘what the society wanted’. I cannot disagree more. Canterlogic created the demand. They launched an insidious propaganda campaign, lobbying government agencies to enforce mandatory abortions and sterilizations. They suppressed the truth that nopony had any magic, lying to the public that they carried dangerous infectious diseases, to force us to hate pegasi and unicorns. What we think of as ‘society’ was a carefully orchestrated indoctrination by a corporate empire. And everypony fell victim. Even the ponies at Canterlogic itself. Like your great-grandma did. She followed. Without stopping to question, like we are today by visiting this museum.” The fourth grader bit his quivering lip. Sunny realized she had raised her voice in the quiet museum, and covered her mouth many seconds too late. “If my great-grandma didn’t question, does that make her bad?” Sunny recovered her “teacher” voice. “Everypony makes choices out of fear, one time or another. Myself included. We all make mistakes. Whether you think that pony deserves a second chance, that’s for you to decide.” “But is she bad or not?” One of the fillies standing by young Cherish turned to him. “Did she go to jail for murder?” “No. She didn’t go to jail at all. She still gets Winter Wishday cards from the mayor.” “Then I don’t think she’s bad.” The young colt cleared his throat. “My great-grandma’s in a nursing home now. She can barely walk or hear me, but we can play checkers together. Even if she was bad in the past, I don’t think she could ever be bad again.” “Miss Sunny, is smoothie break gonna be soon? And where’s your alicorn form?” “Yeah you promised us you’d make us each our own custom smoothie. With heart sprinkles on top. And then you’d alicorn up for us.” “Yeah I thought I was gonna see alicorn Sunny.” “This is boring…” The kids began to clamor. One kid pulled up a cell phone photo of alicorn Sunny to entertain his classmates. Sunny raised her hoof to speak. “Like I told you kids…I can’t turn into an alicorn whenever I want, it just appears at the right moment. But that’s a great lesson you kids should learn. Sometimes you can’t make great things happen at will. Sometimes great things have to come to us. Those are called miracles. “You are all miracles conceived from Harmony. You. You. And you. Everyone of you. Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. To think that two-thirds of the miracles in this room would have been dead just one generation ago. Because of this machine. Killed.” That last word echoed on the glass display cases. “Do you know what it’s like to die?” Sunny continued. “Let alone be killed, smothered in your own blood? I saw my father die when I was 19. And even when he died of natural causes. It was NOT pretty.” The young colt couldn’t hide it anymore. He was in tears. “And as long as pre-natal genetic screening can be used for such evil… the only place it should ever belong is here. Unplugged, and in a museum.” Sunny paused to recollect herself—she became more impassioned than she thought she would be—then calmly ushered the children to the next exhibit—more old propaganda posters drawn by Canterlogic depicting evil, pointy-horned beasts they called “typical Bridlewood unicorns”. Sunny just stood in front of the glass. She didn’t give her prepared speech about how Canterlogic would take advantage of earth ponies’ forced isolation to print false posters claiming unicorns were evil. It seemed that would have been an anticlimax. The kids were also completely quiet after Sunny’s last speech about miracles—perhaps they were too naïve to understand her. By the fifteen-minute-mark, the conversation recovered to small talk among the kids about what’s for lunch and trends on PonyGram. Sunny caught a glimpse of her reflection in the display case glass. Even after giving that impassioned, inspirational speech to the young foals— —her cutie mark didn’t even glow.