//------------------------------// // Escalation // Story: Friendship is Revolution // by ultiville //------------------------------// "Twilight, dear, are you sure this is wise?" Rarity's walking next to her towards the stairs, despite the question. "I have to do something! I don't know why these humans don't like me, but I have to try to fix it. What kind of Princess of Friendship am I otherwise?" "An uninjured one?" Rainbow offers. "Come on, Rainbow, I'll be prepared, they're not going to hurt me. Besides, Rachel's there." "Well, we're coming too," Rarity says, "give me just a moment to put on something nice. You should too." "Rarity! This is no time..." Twilight pauses and thinks, "actually you're right, this is totally the time." Rarity grins and floats a dress over to her. "Try this one." The outfit is two pieces, both a crisp white: a long skirt, shaped somewhat like that on her gala dress, and a jacket. She's relieved to see the skirt is long enough to cover her hindquarters to human standards. "This isn't nearly as colorful as your usual, Rarity," she says, putting it on. "Well, the other outfits are more me," she replies, "but I felt you might need something for serious occasions. Human business attire is frightfully drab, but apparently that's how they feel it should be. Though I have to admit, the lines are very nice." Rarity's put on a similar outfit, but hers is jet black, contrasting with her alabaster coat. Twilight has to admit they look quite the pair, each dark where the other is light. "Rainbow Dash," Rarity says, "won't you put on yours?" "Nah, I'm good." "Humans expect this of you, Rainbow," Twilight says. "They think only animals go around naked." "Yeah, well, seems like half of them think we're all animals already," Rainbow scowls, "and the rest like us anyway. So I'm just gonna stay naked and awesome." Rarity sighs and Twilight rolls her eyes, but she knows any further argument would just be stalling. She takes a deep breath. "Ok girls, let's go talk." Twilight has to admit, to herself anyway, that prospects don't look especially good for reconciliation. The support crowd has grown since the morning, which she supposes is good, but mostly just means both now stretch down off the sidewalk in opposite directions. The leading elements are exchanging seething glares, and sometimes words, across the line of police officers led by Rachel. There's a plastic tape across the sidewalk that keeps a narrow space clear, just wide enough for two humans to pass each other. The whole rest of the sidewalk is taken up by the crowd, and the noise here at street level is significant, if not deafening. Rachel sees the three ponies come on to the street and gestures frantically to her fellow officers, then rushes over to Twilight. "What are you doing here? You know they're," she gestures to the larger group, "all protesting you, right?" "Of course. I want to talk to them and reassure them that I don't mean them any harm." "Twilight, they aren't afraid of you, they're angry and bigoted! Ugh, I kind of thought that whole 'always talk to them first' thing was an exaggeration." "Of course not, why wouldn't I?" "Because they hate you!" "Well they aren't going to stop if I hide from them, are they?" "I don't think they're going to stop no matter what," Rachel sighs. "Look, I can't stop you, and I wouldn't if I could. But I know crowds like this, and I don't think this is going to go well." "We know," Rarity sighs. "I have to try," Twilight says, "look, there are reporters over there." On the opposite side of the street, several news crews are hastily moving their cameras to get a shot of their conversation. "Even if I can't get through to any of them, people will see me try. It's all I can do, Rachel." "You could stay inside and let us keep you safe," the human grumbles. "Until when? Do you think they'll go away on their own? We lost the vote. We're going to have to bring people around and try again. Might as well start now." Rachel sighs and lowers her head, and steps back. Twilight can hear her talking into her radio, and the police push their cordon out a bit to make room for the three ponies to stand in. Twilight steps up. The noise of the crowd is quite loud here, and only seems to have grown overall - her allies are silent now, but the others are yelling their slogans louder, though with no real coordination. "Please listen everyone!" Twilight yells. Her voice barely clears the noise, and even the first rows, who she's confident can hear her, ignore the request. Frowning, she opens her wings and takes to the air, hovering slightly above the heads of the crowd. She siphons a bit of magic from her shield to amplify her voice, just slightly. Rainbow Dash takes to the air as well, hovering beside her. "Everyone, please!" Even the small bit of amplification is apparent, and the crowd quiets down for a moment, apparently out of sheer shock. "Thank you. Now, I don't know why you're angry, but I'm here to introduce myself and I hope we can be friends!" The noise level increases again, with an awful lot of laughter involved. Twilight is quite confident it isn't the good kind. She feels horribly unprepared. She didn't have a speech ready, she hadn't even thought she'd have to give one, and certainly not under these circumstances. "Who wants to be friends with a machine?" Someone yells. "Or an animal?" "We're not animals," Twilight yells, though even she thinks her voice sounds thin and defensive, "we're thinking creatures just like you. I don't know--" "You're nothing like us, you belong in a cartoon! You've got no place in the real world!" "Take your witchcraft and go back to the devil!" "Where the hay did that one come from?" Rainbow Dash mutters next to her. "Please, I can explain everything," Twilight tries to start again, but the general roar of the crowd is back now, and she falters. "What the fuck is wrong with you people? Why not at least give her a chance?" Mary's voice rings out even over the din, at least from up here, and there's a moment of quiet at the front of the ranks as they process the challenge from their opposite human number. "Easy for you to say," a woman yells back, "I saw you ride in on that blue one!" "Yeah, I bet you want to ride it in more ways than that, slut" a man near her yells. Dead quiet seems to reign for a moment. Unfortunately, that's the moment in which Rainbow decides to make her indignation known. "What they buck is wrong with you people, that's our business!" She yells. No, she'd been wrong. This is dead quiet. Even Rachel and her police are staring up at Rainbow, mouths open. Mary lowers and shakes her head, and breaks the silence. "Oh fuck." Then everything happens at once. There's a huge roar from the anti-pony crowd as they surge forward towards the horribly outnumbered police and the other group beyond. Some throw down their signs, others tear off the posterboard and wield them as makeshift clubs. The police barely have time to react. A few manage to set their riot shields and ready their clubs, but several officers are caught off guard and bowled over. Their supporters roar back and charge themselves, and soon the police line has vanished into a roiling sea of bodies. Twilight's shield glows magenta around Rarity and Rachel, holding the crowd at bay, but it happened too quickly for her to help the other officers and now they're hopelessly entangled. She hovers stunned for a moment, considering what she can possibly do. Beside her, Rainbow's jaw is slack. The swirling melee has nearly reached Mary now, and Twilight grabs her in her magic and pulls her free, extending the shield. "No," she yells, "what are you doing? I want a piece of those assholes!" "They want a piece of you more, after what Rainbow said," Twilight yells back. "Why do they even care?" Dash says. "I told you to read up on human culture! They've never met another intelligent species before, and a lot of them think it's wrong just to love someone of the same gender! They think it's like if Applejack were having sex with Winona or something!" "It's not our fault they're bigots," Rainbow looks sheepish, at odds with her words. "Besides, you didn't really expect me to do homework, did you?" "Okay, I get you guys do this a lot," Mary says, looking uncomfortably down at the brawl taking place beneath her hovering feet, "but could we save the bickering until after the actual battle?" "You're right," Twilight sighs, "but I don't know what do to about this one, I can't break it up without losing the shield!" Below her, someone in the rear of the anti-pony mob isn't going to let distance stop them, and a large rock sails over the crowd, heading for the rear ranks of the pro-pony side. Twilight catches it in her magic and drops it on the ground. Around one of the police officers a cloud of tear gas is blossoming out, and fighters fall to their knees, but there aren't enough police still standing to really capitalize on it, and the fight is only growing as the two groups continue to flow together. She sees several humans lying motionless on the ground. "Ponyfeathers, this isn't at all what I wanted," she mutters, desperately thinking about what she can do to stop the disaster. Then she looks sharply up as Rainbow Dash abruptly soars higher, aiming for the second story of a nearby building. "Rainbow, stop," she calls, hurrying after her, "if you get much further, I won't be able to keep your shield up!" She's already nearly out of range of Rarity and Rachel, and has no choice but to grab and pull them along with her. Juggling three-body telekenesis plus four shields isn't trivial even for her, and she's feeling the strain in her horn now. Her once-pristine jacket and skirt are dark with sweat. "Rainbow, where are you going?" She calls. "Heads-up, Twi', I saw something in that window," Rainbow points with her hoof to the one she's flying towards. "What? What did you--" Twilight cuts off with a yelp as a powerful, pinpoint force slams into her personal shield. An angry ripple of magenta flashes in front of her, and she nearly loses it with the sheer energy of the impact. Weirdly, there's no sound. A moment later, just as Rainbow Dash barrels through the window, she realizes two things: the impact came from just that direction, and the force on the shield felt stronger than, but otherwise nearly identical to, the gunshot she stopped in the convenience store. Cursing, she puts on speed, and dives after Rainbow Dash.