In the scars of war

by l3ladeRunner

Prologue: Politics and consqunces

 
Prologue: Politics and consequences

Cantorlot official parliament hall

“We will not stand for this anymore!” Ambassador Richthoofen, Princess Luna’s top adviser and official representative, exclaimed as he banged his hoof onto the table.

Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes coldly. “My dear ambassador, if you ever want any sort of power, please control your temper.” The ambassador turned completely red, but controlled himself and took his hoof of the table. Celestia looked coldly at her sister sitting at the table. “What do I owe the “pleasure” of your company Princess Luna? Has the high snobs something they want to take up, but are too afraid to ask?”

Luna glared back with even colder eyes than her sister and said: “This has gone on for too long. As my adviser said we can’t stand this anymore.”

“Can’t stand what my dear sister?” Celestia asked. “What’s so important that you have to pull me away from my royal duties?” Ambassador Richthofen snorted silently, but the Princess didn’t care. “Surely this could‘ve waited?”

Princess Luna eyed her sister even more. “We have tried to get an “audience” for almost two full days.” Her voice started to rise. “We can’t tolerate your tyranny anymore! You are keeping the populace down, while holding back important information.” She stood up and banged her hoofs on the table. “We demand that you publish the latest election results!”

“The results are still being processed.” Ambassador Cobbletroot, Princess Celestias official representative, said smoothly. “We are not ready to publish the results yet.”

“Not even after two full weeks?” Ambassador Richthoofen asked sarcastically. “In the last four elections the results were published only four days afterwards. You are obviously holding them back to hide the fact that you lost the election!”

“Protest!” Ambassador Cobbletroot exclaimed. “That’s a direct insult to her majesty! We will not…” And so they kept on bickering.

In 1003 of the Equestrian summer sun calendar the concept of “Democracy”, was introduced to the pony world.

It was the colt, Silver Speech, who proposed the idea: “What if everypony could have an influence on how Equestria was governed? Wouldn’t it be fairer if everypony could have an impact on what happened in Equestria?” He called this new concept democracy, taken from the star tongue word “demokratica” which meant “rule of the ponies” and his many speeches were heard far and wide. He wandered Equestria trying to gain followers, but no pony listened to him at first. Everything should happen as it always did, with the princesses taking the decisions. After all, they knew what was best for every pony and they would always rule the land with mercy and fairness. But as time passed, Silver Speech got more and more followers. Some shared his vision of a united ruling form, some wanted power, some were cranked on how some decisions made by the princesses had affected them in a bad way and others were just interested in seeing how democracy would work on Equestria.

In the summer of the same year, the concept of Democracy was first introduced to Princess Celestia herself by Silver Speech personally.

He told her: “By democracy, it simply means that the individual has the greatest influence on their own life and that  institutions exist, which make it possible for all interests to be freely discussed and presented on equal footing in order to establish a solution. A democratic society is ruled by a government chosen by the people itself, after the interests of the people.”

 She was both intrigued and frightened by the idea. The idea sounded really good in context, but from all her long years of existence she knew that it could go horribly wrong. She asked for some time to consult her sister about the idea, and they would make a decision together. For three entire days they discussed back and forth, with the entire equestrian population waiting eagerly. On the dawn of the fourth day, the princesses emerged from their chambers to address their decision on the royal balcony. All of the Cantorlot populace were gathered beneath it and everypony from the neighbouring towns had also come to see this historic event. When the two princesses finally emerged on the balcony they were met with tremendous applause and cheer.

It was princess Celestia who took the word and she said what almost everypony had wanted to hear: “My loyal subjects. After three days of discussing this vital issue, we have come to an agreement.” Everypony held their breath. “We have decided to try this new form of ruling called democracy. From now on everypony has something to say about how Equestria will be governed.” Cantorlot itself almost shook from the applauding, cheering and hurrahing.

 “But only for two months.” Princess Luna picked up. “After the two months we will turn back to monarchy and see how successful the democracy has been.” This was met by a bit of hesitation, but then also a huge applause. “We need to prepare for this historic occasion, so we will have to wait for at least a month, for democracy to officially take effect.” The princesses went back into the castle followed by the sounds of thousands of ponies, all chanting the princess’s names.

They called in Silver Speech to present more of his thoughts on how democracy could work in Equestria. He was very pleased with how events had turned out and he immediately consulted the princesses. He said that democracy only worked if the two split up in two parties, opposite of each other. They had to have two different opinions and goals with Equestrias future. The two parties would then have a lot of representatives and they would then present laws and ideas to the people. The entire Equestrian populace then had to vote on who ruled the country more than the other party and which laws would take effect. The princesses were hesitant at first, but agreed in the end.

And thus the two political parties, The Solar Empire and The New Lunar Republic, were born.

The Solar Empire was led by princess Celestia. It followed the political philosophy called “socialism”.

The New Luna Republic was led by Princess Luna. It followed the political philosophy called “Liberalism”.

The two of them were opposites, where socialism wanted the government to have more power over the people and liberalism wanted the government to have less power over the people. Where Socialism wanted more attention to the individual worker, liberalism wanted more attention to the employer.

Silver Speech also made a party. He called it The Silver Speakers. He made it so that there would be more diversity in the parliament room, and that the ponies who weren’t either social or liberal had something to vote on. The Silver Speakers had an in-between-socialism-and-liberalism philosophy as Silver Speech called it, and both the princesses agreed that it was a good idea to have a party in between.

Each political party then had to have a size. This process took a long time, since Silver Speech hadn’t thought this far before. He proposed this: The government should have an odd number of seats in the parliament. He then followed up with the idea that the number of members should differ with how many votes each political party would get. The only members that would never change in a political party were the leaders; Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and him, and they would then choose their representatives among the populace. They all agreed on the idea, and Celestia proposed that there would be 123 parliament members. 120 would be chosen from the Equestrian population and the last three were permanent seats for the leaders.

They now had everything ready and the planning for the voting night could begin. All over Equestria big banners and posters were hung up. They all advertised for the event and the different political parties and their philosophies. Soon everypony started to talk about who they were going to vote for and why.

But quickly a silent taboo was made, that you don’t say your political opinion out loud, or at least not in public. Certain ponies found that offensive.

On the big day of the first equestrian election, everypony were filled with excitement and anticipation. A bigger event hadn’t been seen since Discords reappearance and that was years ago. Everywhere in Equestria the town and city halls had been turned into voting houses for the event and they were arranged with a lot of booths and a big glass container that the ponies could drop their votes in.

Nopony were able to do anything productive on that day, since everypony had looked so much forward to it. It had been decided that the voting were going to commence all day, since nopony would be working on the day. When the time had finally come to vote, everypony were making their way to their town or city hall.

Outside Ponyville town hall, the day of the first equestrian election

Twilight Sparkle and Spike were approaching the town hall with much excitement and anticipation. Neither of them had ever seen an event this big, and they were both anxious to see how everything went. They had both decided to vote on The Solar Empire. It was mostly because Twilight was Celestias student, but it was also because Twilight thought what Celestia said was the best for her and Spike.

“Hi Twilight!” A pink pony jumped down in front of her, startling her for a second, but then she recognised Pinkie. Pinkie started to speak indcredibly fast:  “Are you excited? Cause I’m excited. I’ve never been so excited, well beside the time with…”

Twilight smiled and shook her head a little and looked over her shoulder. Applejack, Fluttershy and Rarity were walking towards her.

“Hi Twilight.” They all said.

“Are you looking forward to the voting?” Rarity asked her.

“Sure I am.” Twilight answered. “I can’t remember when such an important historic event took place. What about you?”
“Off course we are.” They all said and laughed.

Twilight looked behind them. “But wait, where is Rainbow Dash?” She asked.

“Right here, Twilight!” An enthusiastic voice said from above. Rainbow Dash landed next to them in a swoop. “I just had some clouds I had to put in place, before I could take the vote.” She smiled in her strange way and said: “I definitely know who I’m gonna vote for, and that is…”

Applejack put her hoof on Rainbow Dashes mouth, silencing her. “Don’t tell us. Who you vote for is a private matter, remember?”

“Sorry girls I am just so excited!” Dash apologised.

“That’s okay Dash, we all are.” Twilight said.

They all started to walk over to the town hall, talking and laughing. They stopped at the stairs to the town hall, to step in line of ponies that were going in to vote.

Twilight looked at her friends. “No matter what happens we will still be friends, right?” Twilight extended her hoof into the middle of them.

“Always.” They all said putting their hoofs on top of Twilights.

One week after the voting the results were published:

The silver speakers: 17 % of the votes and 20 seats in the parliament, making it the smallest party, just like planned.

The New Luna Republic: 35 % of the votes and 42 seats, which actually came as a bit of a surprise to Luna, since she wasn’t as loved among the populace as her sister.

And finally The Solar Empire scored 48 % of the votes and 58 seats, making it the biggest and most influential political party in Equestria.

The next day, a big speech was held at Cantorlot by the three party leaders, about what would happen now. They stated that they would spend a week to find god representatives, which Silver Speech called politicians, and they were open if ponies wanted to be chosen as politicians. They were looking for well talking, smart headed and good ponies, who could represent the thoughts of the Equestrian populace.

The next day swarms of ponies had come to Cantorlot to apply for a job as a politician. The three party leaders had already chosen a good amount of politicians in the first week, so they didn’t need that many representatives. Actually Silver Speech had chosen 20 politicians already in the first week, so he didn’t need anypony at all. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna hadn’t chosen that many in the first week, despite Silver Speeches advise to do so, and now a week long session of pony interviews started. Each pony came into a room with Celestia, Luna and Silver Speech sitting at a table and then the pony had to present why they wanted to be a politician and how they wanted to help rule the country.

Sadly most of the ponies that had come to apply for politician ship didn’t even make it past the first question. They simply didn’t have the political spark that the leaders were looking for and only 1 out of 4 made the first cut. The entire first hearing lasted almost four days.

After the first hearing there was another one were everything was gone over in more details. This hearing lasted longer and more and more ponies didn’t know what they were going to do when they finally became politicians, and the number of ponies dwindled more and more. The second cut lasted for two full days and only two hundred ponies had made it.

On the last day of the week before the new equestrian government took effect, one last hearing was held. This time the three leaders went all out with their questions in the search of the best of the best. Only half of the remaining ponies made it and the best of them were chosen as politicians.

On the dawn of the week were democracy was officially scheduled to take effect, the three party leaders held a speech. They promised to lead the country with righteousness and the will of the ponies. Almost all of the equestrian populace had come to Canterlot to witness the government start and practically all of Equestria cheered, when Princess Celestia ended the speech with: “And now let’s rule this country together!” With those words, the first equestrian government immediately took effect.

Everything went well for the first two months. Actually so well that at the end of the two months, the government didn’t disband, but instead an election was being announced. The election proceeded as the first one, with everything going as it did before. This time the election results were different:

The Silver Speakers went down with one seat, The New Lunar Republic went up with three seats and The Solar Empire went down with two seats. Both the other party leaders congratulated Luna with the new results and Luna herself was very surprised and happy with them. The three party leaders decided that a new election would take place every year, on the day after the summer sun celebration. The parliament agreed to this, and the first real law from the new government was passed.

In the middle of the first year Silver Speech got the idea of writing down all the laws from the government. He called it the basic law. In the basic law, every law ever passed would be written down in it and every law that was terminated after it had originally been passed was erased from it.

After an entire year it was time for election again. Nothing changed from the previous two elections and after only four days the results were published. The only change was that The Silver Speakers had lost a seat to The New Luna Republic.

Now the second year of the new government began. This year was referred to as the golden age of democracy, because of the decisions made by the parliament. It was mostly The Solar Empire who got their law proposals passed since they were the biggest party, but The New Lunar Republic and the Silver Speakers also had a lot of things to say. The laws passed were beneficial for everypony and the equestrian democracy functioned perfectly.

But late in the second year, things started to go wrong. Politicians from The New Luna Republic started to complain to Luna, about to many of the laws being passed not being beneficial enough to the liberals. Luna didn’t agree with them at first, but started to think they were right. The last five laws passed had only been beneficial to the socialists and it started to anger Luna. She spoke to Silver Speech, about stopping the support to the newest laws. But Silver Speech said his party had both social and liberal people in his party and he couldn’t control what each of them supported. Luna was a little angered, but looked forward to the new election, in hopes of gaining more seats.

During the last months of the second year, The New Lunar Republic was so angered, that they said no to everything The Solar Empire said. This was noticed by Celestia and she asked her sister what was wrong. Luna said what was bothering her and Celestia promised to take it into consideration. She tried to change the politics of her party, but that instead angered her own party, and she couldn’t do anything with the politics.

When the second year was over and the election began, everypony was even more filled with excitement than normal. The voting proceeded as per usual, but this time everypony was a bit grumpier than the other elections. The social and liberal people had been divided in society, and many didn’t get along very well anymore.

The results of the voting were as follows: The Silver Speakers had been reduced to a little under half size and most of the seats had gone to The New Lunar Republic. Now The Solar Empire and The New Lunar Republic were more evenly matched and they both looked forward to the new political year.

The third year was very good in the first quarter, and the laws passed benefited both socialist and liberals. But as time passed, The New Lunar Republic grew more and more angry again. Hate slowly grew towards all of the socialists and in the last few months of the year, the two parties were almost at verbal war. The equestrian populace were also uneasy, with the two party supports sometimes going into a full brawl. In the last few weeks before the election, hate was all that was in the parliament room and that meant that no laws were being passed.

At the election things got ugly. Many started to fight, others talked bad about the other party supporters and some even tried to destroy the vote box. With the results came the biggest surprise so far: The Silver Speakers had almost lost all votes completely. They didn’t have enough votes to get any seat, and so the only pony left was Silver Speech. The Solar Empire was still the biggest party, but The New Lunar Republic was catching up quickly.

The fourth year was the darkest time Equestria had ever experienced. Not even the reappearance of Discord could match it. The entire parliament was on the edge of war, and the only thing that hindered it was the wise words of Silver Speech, who had been chosen as parliament overseer. This basically meant that he had full authority in the parliament room and if anypony didn’t listened to his word, they were banished from the parliament permanently.

The worst part was that the princesses were very affected by this new turn of events. They were corrupted even by their own political parties that were supposed to represent them. They started to hate each other’s parties and even worse, their own sister. Through the year everything worsened, even coming to a point where a liberal pony was beaten to death by two social ponies. Two months before the election, Silver Speech ran away from Canterlot, trying to escape the horrors and guilt his idea had unleashed. It finally culminated two weeks after the fourth election, when Luna wanted the election results published…

“If those are the last words you have to say dear sister,” Luna stood up and so did Ambassador Richthoofen. “Then I will have to take the equestrian government by force. In the name of the equestrian people and The New Lunar Republic!”

Celestia jumped to her hoofs and galloped over to Luna and looked her in the eyes. “Luna, please stop this now. This is madness. If we unleash a full on war, everything we have ever done will be meaningless.” She tried to beg all she could, through her eyes and voice. But Lunas eyes were cold and could only change if she got the election results.

“Madness? It’s madness that you aren’t releasing the election results to prevent all this.” And with that she turned around and walked out of the room followed by her ambassador.

“Fine, go! I don’t need you anyway. I hope you wake up some time!” The door closed.

Celestia realised what she had just said to her sister. She sat down and started to cry silently, her head buried in her hoofs.

On the other side of the wall a single tear fell down Lunas cheek, it’s dripping sound echoing in the hall. She looked at it for a minute before she headed down the hall, heading for her own conference room, where her politicians were waiting for the result of the debate.
 
The equestrian civil war had begun…