//------------------------------//
// A Country on the Eve of War 
// Story: Nothing Will Stop Our Destiny 
// by Historicalbrony 
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Canterlot, 1939. 

Foreign Minister Twilight Sparkle watched from her window as the ambassadors of Europe ran to and fro between the gleaming towers of old Canterlot. There was a sense of general alarm and chaos across the old capital as the news hit that Hitler had just declared war on Poland over the disputed claims in Danzig. Twilight Sparkle was preparing to receive the German ambassador to Equestria, Fritz Wallinberg, to formally convey the protest and anger of the Equestrian government. She certainly was not relishing the prospect of meeting the old Nazi. He, like so many other Nazi diplomats, did not seem to respect the old rules of diplomacy. At formal diplomatic dressing downs, he often behaved rude and contemptuously. The man knew only his ideology, and nothing of compromise. 

In many ways the Nazis scared Twilight Sparkle. She feared them because they seemed to be so consumed by hate, so consumed by ideology, so consumed by a fanatical cult of personality. It was as if some of them were men possessed by this demonic force, so strong that any hint of free thought, or personal ethics, was eviscerated by the sheer hate and fanaticism that was Nazi ideology. She had been to Germany before, she had seen some of the Nazi rallies, and she knew, the Nazis were nothing to play with.

What was worse was that the hatred, fear, and fanaticism of Nazi Germany had begun to seep over onto the Equestrian continent. Twilight worried on an almost nightly basis about the kings of the Dragon, Griffon, and Draconqui realms. She feared their growing friendship and ties with the Fascist menace across in the human worlds. She feared that they may still be tempted, by the promise of total power, by the fruits of conquest. She feared that the war of humanity may come to haunt her own continent, haunt her own people.

Most of all, Twilight had come to fear for the future of her country. She silently reprimanded Rainbow Dash and her weather brigade for making today such a rainy, stormy day. It only further filled her heart with fear.

Twilight Sparkle was no stranger to the world of diplomacy; indeed, at this point she was a veteran. After her ascension to the title of Princess, Celestia bequeathed her the title of Foreign Minister. She told her that the lessons she had learned about the power of friendship and understanding would serve her well in her dealings with the human world, and with the other nations on the Equestrian continent. The humans had just concluded their First World War, and the world which Twilight knew as a child and as a young mare was already beginning to change. The calamities of her years as a young unicorn in Ponyville had begun to catch up to the government in Canterlot. The citizenry no longer trusted Celestia to wield power unilaterally as she always had done. 

It was the Princess Cadance who was the first to speak out. It was her Crystal Empire that had been threatened by annihilation by the attacks of King Sombra, and it was she who had watched first hand as the Princess Celestia once again delegated her responsibilities to Twilight Sparkle’s clique. For her, it was the last straw. She had already watched as her husband-to-be had struggled in vain to keep the forces of Chrysalis away from the Capital, only to fail to see his own fiancée trapped by the cunning tricks of Chrysalis, who proceeded to wear away at him psychologically by disguising herself as his fiancée. She had waited and waited for Celestia, in her oh so eternal wisdom, to rescue her from her dungeon. Surely, she thought as she languished, surely the Princess will not be fooled by this changeling. She had been wrong. Once again it had been Twilight Sparkle, the young mare who had once been her charge, and whom she loved as a sister, who saved her and the Capital from the clutches of the changelings.

She heard in horror and disgust after her wedding with Shining Armor, how Princess Celestia had fallen head over heels for the tricks of a changeling! Far from trying to stop the imposter Chrysalis, she instead had lambasted Miss Twilight for her very correct suspicions! 

At that point she said to Twilight “Perhaps the Princess’ judgement is failing her in old age”,

To which Twilight quickly hushed her by saying “You know that sort of talk is treasonous Cadance.” 

And indeed, at the time it was quite treasonous indeed, and so Cadance bided her time. But when Sombra threatened to seize her beloved Crystal Empire, her homeland, her people, and when once again she found the Princess Celestia asleep at the wheel, she had had the last straw.

Cadance had gone to speak with Princess Luna, who agreed with her that Celestia’s judgement seemed to be failing her. Luna had always secretly held democratic, republican ideals. She was rather inspired by the examples of the Americans and the French, who had thrown off monarchs in the name of democracy and the power of the people. She had long hoped that she could serve as a check on her sister’s power, but the recent failures of her sister’s leadership had led her to realize that there needed to be further checks and balances on the power of the throne.

Indeed, Luna had come to realize that it was time for the people to have a say in their government. Celestia, however, begged to differ, and when Luna broached the issue with her she strongly declined any role for a representative body in the country. Little did she know that power was already slipping out of her hands. The people had already lost confidence in her divine judgement, all that was needed now was the spark to ignite their anger.

Cadance provided that spark. She was the princess who was not willing to take no for an answer. She was the princess who had suffered and languished in a dungeon for Celestia’s incompetence, and her people were the ones who had felt the threat of enslavement from an old tyrant as the old princess stood idly by, delegating the task to her student. 

Cadance lit a fire across the nation. She went on a nationwide speaking tour, stirring up dissent and anger wherever she went. She demanded the formation of a democratically elected parliament which would share power with the alicorns. The people soon came to love her and her common touch, coming to know her as the “people’s princess”. Cadance crafted a powerful narrative of a princess who had abandoned her people to some of the worst calamities ever seen, either because she was too careless, or too weak, to stop them. She claimed that the princess’ wisdom was beginning to fail her, and that she was no longer the omnipotent, all-knowing ruler that she once had been.

And yet there were some who still whispered in the background that Cadance was increasingly becoming a puppet for Luna, a mere stalking horse for her ambitions. Some people even whispered that, in the quietest halls of Canterlot, Luna continued to plot against her sister’s power, indeed, against the very monarchy itself. The name of the “Lunar Republic” began to be whispered in the political and diplomatic corridors of Canterlot, as the high officialdom and old elite watched anxiously as Cadance went around stirring up the flames of popular discontent. 

In the end, the people had their Parliament. They had it through massive nationwide rallies and protests, and even perhaps from the threat of violence. They were victorious because, when push came to shove, the Royal Guard of Shining Armor would never attack the people of Equestria, and because Shining Armor was well known to support his wife’s political plans.

The Parliament was essentially meant to function as a secondary partner in government, advising Princess Celestia of the opinions and needs of her people. In the Parliament, there was meant to be freedom of criticism and immunity from prosecution. No parliamentarian would be prosecuted for anything said within the chamber. However, the cabinet, or as they were colloquially known, the “Ministry Mares”, was to remain solely accountable to the Princess. The Parliament could pass laws, but in order to be enacted they would have to be signed by Celestia. Of course, only women could vote or be elected to the parliament, as it was well known that male ponies did not have the temperament necessary for rational thought or governance. 

Celestia was still wise enough to know when she needed to placate her population, and this was indeed one of those times. And so she made a great show of cooperating with Parliament, signing many of their laws into effect, and allowing them to raise critical questions of her and her ministers. This led to political dissent in Equestria beginning to die down. The stability which the 1920s brought to the country only helped this general good feeling. A new balance had been found in the country, and most people were content enough to keep it. 

But there was no doubt that the country was changing. When Twilight Sparkle ascended to the title of Foreign Minister, she was determined to bring Equestria out of its isolation. And indeed, through the lessons she had regarding friendship and general social relations, she proved more than up to the task of fulfilling this objective. But the end of Equestrian isolation brought with it other changes which Twilight Sparkle could never have predicted. For the end of isolation also brought with it the spectre of international capital, with its towering skyscrapers and conspicuous consumer goods. For a society as traditional and peaceful as Equestria was, these changes proved offsetting, and indeed, for many, upsetting.

To be certain, Equestria had always had its metropoles. Manehattan had always been relatively commercialized, and the skyscraper was nothing new to its residents. But the scale of wealth which international finance brought to Equestria in many ways proved far more upsetting to the social peace of the country than any economic event which had preceded it. 

The race which benefitted the most from the commercialization of Equestria was the Earth Ponies. At first glance this may seem surprising to the reader, but acknowledge of Equestrian would tell us that it had always been the earth ponies that had led the way in Equestrian innovation and in Equestrian commerce. It had always been the earth ponies who had to rely off their own work ethic and enterprising nature in order to find their way in society. After all, it wasn’t as if they had magic or wings to make their life any easier, no, everything an earth pony had, had to be earned through one’s own hard labour, or through one’s own wiliness and commerce. Most often, it was a mix of the two. 

The nouveau riche earth ponies, most exemplified by the wheeler-dealer Flim Flam Brothers or the publishing empire of the newspaper magnate Filthy Rich, existed rather awkwardly alongside the older, more aristocratic, unicorn elite. Indeed, the relationship between the nouveau riche earth ponies and aristocratic unicorn elite was often fractious, such that they rarely lived together in the same neighbourhoods, or even indeed, in the same cities. Whilst Canterlot was the abode of old titled unicorn elite, many of them working in the more prestigious rungs of the public service or diplomatic corps, or perhaps in the fashion, fine art, or culinary sectors of the country, Manehattan and Fillydelphia were the abode of the commercial earth ponies. 

And with the arrival of international high capital, it was the entrepreneurial earth ponies of Equestria, concentrated in Manehattan and Fillydelphia, who reaped the most benefits. And it was increasingly the old unicorn elite who felt that history was starting to pass them by.

But they certainly weren’t going to go down without a fight. Much of the unicorn elite were used to running the country and setting the trends for the rest of population, and they weren’t going to give up that control to what they saw as a bunch of talentless, uncouth upstarts. Many of the unicorns felt like the earth ponies were beginning to step out of their place, and indeed, look beyond what was their proper station in life. They were especially antagonized when Commercial Spark, an earth pony who had made a fortune over the course of the 1920s selling new consumer goods such as telephones and vacuum cleaners, decided that she would open up her new corporate headquarters right in the middle of downtown Canterlot. To do this, she bought out an old wine and liquor store, and began to build what was to be the tallest building in Canterlot, standing far higher than any of the buildings of the Equestrian government, and most importantly, higher than the royal palaces of Celestia and Luna. Commerical Spark hoped that by building her new corporate HQ in the national capital, she could have better access to the institutions of government, thus allowing her to lobby the parliament and royal family more easily. She was hopeful that this would give him a competitive edge over other businesses on the market.

But Commercial Spark was not only interested in the competitive benefits which a Canterlot HQ could offer her. She was also interested in the prestige. She wanted to be the first pony to ever build a skyscraper in the national capital. Even more importantly, she wanted to be one of the first earth ponies to ever ‘crack’ the national capital. She believed that by building the first skyscraper in Canterlot, she could earn the respect, admiration, and deference of its primarily unicorn citizenry. Like many of the nouveau riche, Commercial Spark yearned for the acceptance of the high-class, cultured circles of Canterlot. 

But that was not an acceptance they were about to give her willingly. To them, she was an upstart attempting to impose her way of life (that was commerce, wheeling, and dealing) upon their cultured, sophisticated, and conservative home. She wanted to bring the modern world to Canterlot, commerce to the unicorns, but the unicorns wanted neither of these things. The unicorns wanted the world to remain as it always had been, a world where their titles counted for something, and where earth ponies kneeled in deference to their magic. Because the fact was that commerce and international trade was changing the country that they once knew, and it was changing it so fast that it was leaving them behind.

And so it was with whispers, snarks, and glares that they watched Canterlot’s first skyscraper be built to its completion in 1927. With it, came not only Commercial Spark, but hundreds of her corporate staff from Manehattan and Filldelphia. Quite soon, these uncouth earth ponies were beginning to overrun the old city of Canterlot with rude, obnoxious behavior. For these were not wealthy or sophisticated ponies, these were ponies who had often grown up in small towns like Ponyville, or in the sleepy neighbourhoods of Manehattan and Fillydelphia. These were ponies who knew nothing of high culture and manners. They swore, drank heavily, had terrible taste in art, worse taste in wine, and no taste at all in architecture. To the unicorns, they were ruining their beloved capital.

What was worse was how Commercial Spark was attempting to take over Parliament and lobby the royal family for special favours in order to give her a competitive edge. To the unicorns, this was a totally unacceptable corruption of government, one that had never been seen in the past. To them it seemed, Commercial Spark and her ilk had no values whatsoever, no ethics, and certainly no self-control.

And so, after a year, many of the unicorns were no longer willing to stand for the change which the earth ponies were bringing to Canterlot. It all started when a few young dandies ended up vandalizing the lobby of the corporate HQ on a quiet night. The next morning, the police began to investigate, and slowly but surely, over the course of the week they began to arrest the young dandies. But to the other unicorns they were merely polite, proper-blooded young ponies with a sense of dignity regarding their city. And for many of the unicorns, it was the last straw. Massive protests around the skyscraper turned into riots which engulfed the national capital over the course of 5 days. It was about more than Commercial Spark’s skyscraper, it was the anguished howls of the unicorn race, which felt it was losing out in the new Equestria. 

And the old families were still powerful enough to control parliament and the royal family. Eventually, the old families had their way, much to the resentment of the earth ponies. Parliament passed the Canterlot Architectural Ordinance, which was signed into law by Princess Celestia. This law ordered the demolition of the Canterlot skyscraper, and forbade any building in the capital to be taller than the royal palaces. The unicorns were to have their city back; Canterlot was to become an island of tradition in a sea of change. But the episode had been just one flashpoint in social cold war that was beginning to take root in the country. Earth ponies and unicorns were beginning to once again view each other with suspicion.

But the old lights of friendship held, for now. The races of Equestria remained wary of a complete disconnect from one another, mindful of what had happened the last time the races of Equestria went to war against one another. But there was no doubt that the fabric of Equestrian society was beginning to be stretched.

When the Great Depression hit, it proved particularly hard on the Pegasi. Certainly, every sector of the economy was affected by the drying up of international investment and consumption, especially from the human world. But perhaps the hardest hit were the Pegasi, as they relied upon the government for most of their employment. However, when government tax revenue shrunk in the midst of the Great Depression, one of the first things cut by the government was the weather factories. Thousands of pegasi were laid off as the parliament signed into a law a bill that severely curtailed both the number of rainbows that would be produced and the diversity of weather which Equestria was to see. Considering that the rainbow factories were almost completely reliant upon government consumption and contracts in order to function and turn a profit, the new bill proved disastrous for them. 

The pegasi had been screwed by their own government. They had lost out because they neither had money like the Earth ponies, nor influence like the Unicorns. They were working ponies, and their relationship with the government was a symbiotic one. Since their main industry was the weather industry, and since the main regulator of the weather in Equestria was the government, the pegasi were by far the race that were the most reliant on the whims and good graces of the government in Canterlot. What proved even worse for the Pegasi was that, even when government consumption of weather started to pick up again, jobs were not being added back the rainbow factories. Rather, the rainbow factories began to learn to make more rainbows with fewer workers, thus increasing productivity but having catastrophic effects for unemployment among the Pegasi population.

Among the Pegasi, this led to an increasing militarization in what was already a relatively violent culture. Soon enough, a job in the army became one of the only viable jobs for thousands of young pegasi. But many of the young pegasi who ended up enlisting were angry, resentful, and ill-disciplined. Whilst they were undoubtedly loyal and patriotic to their country, this was certainly another trend that boded ill for the future.

It was this changing, increasingly unstable society that confronted what were soon to be the global diplomatic crises that would change the course of history. It was this changing society that was about to enter a war that would forever change it, and every other nation which entered it. This was the Equestria that would go to war.