Union Axis
"Sin, you need a new dinner set."
"No, Uppity, I don't."
"Awww, come on! You've only got, like, two plates and two cups!"
"I know, that's because there are only two guys who live here."
"That doesn't mean you can't have more dishes! What if you have company and want to feed them?!"
"Dammit mare, get off my back already!"
The last few days had been... different for Sin.
His first mistake was not helping Spike secure his own bed. Which prompted the drake to acquire the assistance of Twilight Sparkle to help him move a new one from one of Ponyville's local shops. Uppity had been dropping hints here and there about the matter, but Sin was in no mood to waste money on such trivial things he'd never have a practical application for.
What use was a couch to him?
The second mistake was not pushing the lavander mare out the door when the two had seen each other and started to give small tips about what all decorations could, and the following was quoted: "Liven the place up a bit".
Now here he was, sitting on a nice tan and green couch with simplistic swirl pasterns, looking down at a glass coffee table which stood ontop of a brand new green and tan swirl pattern rug... Lot's of green and tan swirling, he noticed, arguing with Uppity about more domestic necessities.
Sin thought he had more than enough, Uppity thought otherwise. How that was remotely possible was beyond him! He had a table, a dinning set, a freaking bath mat in the bathroom, candles, lamps a plant... he had a fucking plant in the corner. If that wasn't the epitome of 'let's see what other needless junk we can fit in here', he didn't know what was.
Of course he stood against it all, but he was still healing from the thrashing he gave that tree a few weeks ago, so getting rid of this crap was beyond him for the time being.
Except the plant, once alone, that thing was trashed.
Uppity gave a frustrated sigh, the two had been arguing all day about this. Sin was much more receptive and and coopertive than he was before, but he was still an ass hole. An ass hole who'd hadn't gotten any significant alone time in the better part of a week. The first few days with her around were nice, nothing sexual happened, but they did cuddle and he allowed for more affectionate expressions. After the third day? He desperately needed to find a nice hole to crawl into for a good month of solitude.
"Don't you think you're being a little unreasonable here?"
Sin didn't think so, he thought he'd tolerated her advice well enough. If she was anyone else, he'd have thrown her out two days ago. Though, he decided to end the argument and ask about something else. She was an attorney who argued law for a living and he was a politician with a love for conflict, the battle would never end until one of them died... probably.
"I'll think about it, anyway, you've been spending a lot of time reading over those letters lately. I take it your brother is still trying to build that case against Protector?"
Uppity groaned and went into a tangent about the subject. Despite the changeling attack, Cupid had continued her anti-suicide crusade and even got the support of the former Occupy Canterlot kids. They'd taken advantage of the crisis, declaring that it was brought about by the same magic that brought the Windigos, though instead of giant ice horses brought about by conflict, it was a swarm of changelings come to punish the indifference and strife that ponies have for one another in Canterlot.
Sin furrowed his brow and gave Uppity a disbelieving stare, uncertain if she was being serious or not.
He asked to see the letter, but the DA refused his request, becoming very defensive of the parchments. It confused him, but also spurred his desire that much more to see. He asked again a little more forcefully, and again, Uppity refused; taking the papers in her magic and levitating them away from him.
Sin, seeing his chance, lunged forth and flapped his wings for extra jump and caught one of the letters in his fetlocks. "Sin, no!" Uppity cried, reaching out with her magic again. To her shock, the stallion was unaffected and so was the letter.
"I love dragon scales." He quipped before scanning to page with vigor. He'd only gotten a few words in before Uppity tackled him and tried to wrestle the page away.
"Sin, please do -ugh- not read -grrr- this." She begged, trying to wrestle the page out of his hooves. Her words and desperation only incurred farther drive from the oaken pony. Why was she so hell bent on him not reading it? He wanted to know, he needed to know. His injuries were still healing, but they were well enough to over power the orange unicorn.
Having subdued her in a rather... compromising situation, the stallion quickly read over the letter, his face growing more disturbed as he read.
If the letters were correct, than not only was everything she said true, but the collectivists he'd spoken against a few months ago had come back in full force, declaring the pony sisters incompetent rulers who weren't fit to lead the country, and that their "tyrannical regime" needed to come to an end, letting the ponies lead themselves in democracy.
Are these fucktards for real? Sin asked himself, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Why didn't you tell me about this?" He whispered, disgusted with himself that he hadn't seen it coming.
Uppity sighed from beneath him and tilted her head up to look at him. "Because I know you and you'll end up trying to stop it."
"Your damn right I will." He declared, re-reading the note once more for the sole sake of stroking his own irritation.
Uppity groaned and lay her head on the floor, muttering how she wanted him to fully recover before rushing off to engage yet another movement against the crown. Sin just shrugged, he'd done more difficult and dangerous things while in worse shape than he was now.
"Yea, that's the point." The mare grunted, craning her head once again. "You've been lucky so far and I don't want you to push yourself so much you can't recover."
"Meh, I'll be fine."
Again, Uppity dropped her head to the floor. "Stallions."
"Quiet mare, I'm contemplating." Sin said dismissively, thinking about what all needed to be done. First off, he'd need to find out the pony or ponies responsible for the protests and calls for the end of the monarchs. If the same ponies from Occupy were present, they'd recognize him immediately. No intelligence to be gained there, most likely. The same could be said for Uppity. The collectivists were dealing heavy handedly with the matter, and they'd probably remember him too.
Was it Sickle? The one who lead the initial occupy for his own ends against Celestial? He'd seem the type, manipulating the masses for his own ends, the current instability and public opinion the crown was facing was more than ample breeding ground for descent. Fucking communists, never let a good crisis go to waste...
"Um, Sin?"
"Yea?"
"Would you mind... getting off of me now?" The stallion looked down and realized the position the two were in. All things considered, he should be extremely embarrassed and uncomfortable. Especially with where his... neathers were currently pushing, but he honestly wasn't. Still the request for personal space was something he always expected from others and gave it in kind.
He slowly stood up and removed himself from her, a slight blush taking his face. No time for embarrassing social discrepancies, he needed to get to Canterlot.
Her embarrassment forgotten, Uppity tried to stop him, but she knew better than to put up too much of a fight. Sin had been out for a good debate for a long time now, and this was the perfect excuse to draw blood, figuratively speaking of course. Working at the mill was physically exhausting and the mayor's office placated him well enough, but they just didn't scratch the itch that analyzing someone's political ideology, arguing it, ripping it apart infront of their friends and family, and shoving it down their throat and sending them running home crying did.
"Okay, fine." She groaned, finally giving up. She gave him a soft smile and a quick peck on the lips. "I know I can't stop you, but just promise me you wont push yourself too much, alright?"
The Federalist gave her a knowing smirk. "I make no such promises."
Uppity gave a him a playful prod in the side before he left to pack up and head to Canterlot. He didn't have a lot of money, but it should be enough to get a hotel for a few days. Hopefully, he could figure everything out and have this whole matter finished before three days time.
It was starting to get late, the Ponyville express stopped running after seven o'clock, the two of them would need to get to Canterlot ASAP. Uppity left for the library to pack for herself and would return when she was ready. Once his cloak was secure, along with his saddle bags, a knock came from the door. Sin answered and was a little surprised to find Macintosh standing on his doorstep, looking a little miffed about something.
"Umm, what's up, Mac?"
"Spike was s'posed ta stop by tonight fer cards. Didn't show up, figured he was here." The apple pony replied.
Huh, that was odd.
"Sorry dude, Spike's not here, he always goes to Twilight's after work for dinner."
Mac nodded and explained that he'd already stopped by and nopony was home. That was a little odd, but Sin didn't have time to think about that now. Spike and Twilight were probably out having dinner somewhere.
Mac decided he was probably right and asked what all he had planned. "Why are ya all dressed up fer? Headin' out a town?" Sin explained the situation, checking the clock occasionally to keep track of time. To his surprise, Macintosh asked if he could tag along to Canterlot.
"You sure you can go? Annabelle and your family might have a few things to say about that."
The stallion's irritated scowl deepened. "Ah love mah family n' all, but ah'm jest wantin' tah ferget 'bout the farm fer a spell. Reason ah wanted you n' Spike fer cards tonight."
Sin could respect that, he could empathize with needing to get away from those you considered loved ones. Once Uppity returned, the trio made way for the train station. There was no time for Macintosh to grab anything, so he decided to go without.
The Canterlot train station was abuzz with more activity than usual. Though it wasn't with the happy faces of locals come to meet and greet long time friends or family, but a swarming mass of one collective political voice, denouncing the rule of the Pony sisters. Tents and stands had been set up all along the platform, the dozens of ponies present clearly taking another occupation.
Sin was a little shocked at the display, the typical civility demonstrators in Equestria for their discontent was none existent now. The unquestioningly peaceful rhetoric was now muddled with violent calls to action should demands not be met, cursing all alicorns and even a few wooden polls with white and black pony dolls of Celestia and Luna hanging by the neck on a rope.
All three of them were disturbed by the crowd that greeted them, but the oaken Federalist had to put a significant amount of effort to keep his temper in check. Part of him wanted to smack the shit out of the protesters and yell at them for how stupid they were being, but the fact they were advocating violence would only work in his favor. He could already think of six arguments to use against it.
Sometimes, you just had to let your opposition do your work for you.
There would be no real point in speaking to them now, anyways. It was a frenzy mob that fed off of it's own emotional self righteousness, he'd need to use this time to create some kind of descent. Nothing big, but subtle differences for eventual division.
"Macintosh!" A voice shouted over the chanting. Sin looked up to find a bandaged Rainbow Dash flying to the trains, looking particularly irritated. "Boy, am I glad you're here, are you seeing all of this? They're saying Celestia and Luna aren't good princesses and that we should out them!" The prismatic mare declaired motioning to the crowd.
Sin motioned for the rest of them to push past the crowd and head to the castle.
Once the chanting was a distant blob of sound, Sin and Uppity looked at Rainbow and asked how long this was going on. She didn't know though, she'd just gotten cleared to leave the hospital, so long as she didn't walk on her bad legs, anyways. She was covered in a few bandages, but most of them looked more precautionary, save her legs, which were in casts.
"I don't get it, Celestia's an awesome ruler, those ponies are just lucky I'm in these casts." Rainbow grumbled, giving a scathing glare back at the train station.
Sin could admire her spunk, but he knew that her violence would be vastly outdone by the mob's. They were just looking for a reason and he didn't need her giving it to them. Granted, it would make the whole ordeal easier to dismember if the mass was observed in a display of open aggression... maybe being peaceful about this wasn't the only way to go? He wouldn't have to hurt anyone, but he could-
He stopped the thought there. What was he doing? That's not how he did things, making others hurt each other for his own gains. The fact he was considering it was a little disturbing, but he figured it was just his own irritation getting the better of him.
'It's not like you haven't done it before...'
That wasn't true... when had-
'How many times have you used Shade's insanity in combat for your own ends...'
Furrowing his brow, the Federalist couldn't deny that he'd done that quite a few times actually. That wasn't really the same though, he'd used the insane pony's already manic attitude to help others. That made it alright, right? The consequences justified the means.
'Even against Spike, when he was on a horror rampage...
Sin shouted internally, stating that it wasn't his doing. Shade did it of his own accord, but he didn't do anything to stop him either. He ended the inner conversation there, it was making him more upset than he already was. He hadn't heard from the critic for a week and it was being less than helpful now. He couldn't afford to have his emotions cloud his judgement now, what he needed was some answers and Celestia should have them.
All throughout the walk, the troop passed no less than seven dozen areas that were under some kind of reconstruction or repair. The streets were marred by holes and magical scorch marks. Buildings were missing bits and pieces of blasted marble and other building material. Sin knew the city was besieged, but he didn't know it was this badly damaged...
The castle gate was in much the same state as the train station, filled with a crowd of dozens of ponies demanding the removal of the crown as the primary authority of the land. However, unlike the train station, a compliment of riot guards stood outside the gates, weapons at the ready for any conflict or clash. Another difference was a counter protest by another sizable group, praising Celestia and Luna, decrying the separatists as malcontents who knew nothing of the difficulties of ruler-ship.
Uppity gained the four ponies access in and they made way for the main chambers. Sin took special note of the beefed up security numbers, clearly Celestia thought the protesters were more dangerous than he'd originally anticipated.
Finally, they'd reached the main chambers. The guards denied them access, saying that the Solar court was already holding audience, but Uppity quickly pushed past them and opened the door.
Sin's eyes shot wide as he beheld the ponies inside.
Celestia was present, with her assistant Raven as always, and Luna as well as two nobles he didn't recognize.
But what drew his attention was the six ponies standing before them. Cupid Protector stood glaring up at the sisters with the dark green pony, Sickle beside her. He turned his attention to Sin and Uppity and scowled, clearly remembering the both of them.
"Ah, well, well. What do we have here?" Asked another another pony, an elder and familiar tan coated mare asked with faint amusement. Sin suddenly felt his stomach drop as her expression turned mischievous, the angry red unicorn beside her and the yellow earth pony also giving him a glare. The reactionary Trotski ponies he'd helped escape Trottingham... "Hello, Goliath."
Commander Hurricane... Fuck.