//------------------------------//
// Phase I 
// Story: Earning Freedom 
// by Daxisle 
//------------------------------//

  





Phase I







Spike awoke to some gentle prodding in his side. He lifted his head from the book he'd fallen asleep on last night and asked what was going on. Fluttershy yawned lazily and told him that everypony had fallen asleep during their search of the library for any clues on how to defend the Crystal Empire.

That was all the drake needed to hear. "Oh yea." he yawned, looking down to find small bits of drool upon the tome he was reading. "Oops."

He looked at the timid pegasus, chuckled and closed the book, pretending he knew nothing about it his own contribution to the pages.

Yesterday was a lost cause of speaking to the residents of the empire, the Crystal ponies. Somehow, they'd all managed to survive one thousand years of "disappearance" after Sombra had hidden the empire away, which was amazing but not really a concern. What was a concern was the fact that each and every Crystal pony they spoke with had some kind of collective amnesia. Nopony could remember what had happened, or even who they were.

The mare keeping the library wasn't even sure she worked there.

Regardless, they'd need to find something soon. Cadance's magic was the only thing keeping that shadow thing, which turned out to be Sombra's fell shadow, at bay. When the alicorn of love finally gave out from exhaustion, her protection spell that encompased the empire would also give out, leaving the ponies to the shadow's mercy.

And it didn't take a genius to figure out what a tyrant like Sombra had planned for them.

"Did you guys find anything?" Spike asked, cracking his neck as he approached the others. 

"Not yet." Pinkie chirped, leaping an impossible height and grabbing a random book from one of the higher bookshelves. 

The library was an amazing display of collective books and tomes. Massive enough to hold at least fifty thousand collections of literature and more. The whole thing colored in a mix of blues all through out, giving it a calm and pleasing atmosphere.

The entirety of the empire was truly magnificent, the architecture was extremely beautiful and unique, holding to the name sake but keeping the rustic aesthetics of olden times Equestria. The only thing that really stuck out was the Crystal Palace, a major spire in the very center of the city that towered above the rest, bathing the entire center in a mix of white and indigo light that reflected off of it's pristine face.

Though, if Spike had to point out one little thing that irked him, it was how everything had an aversion to being round. Seriously, it was like every thing that should have had some kind of rounded edge was just pieced together by obtuse angles to gain a similar effect. It wasn't too distracting, but he'd be lying if he said he didn't notice it.

Sighing, the drake returned to his own search, hoping to find something soon. Cadance wouldn't last much longer, and with Shining Armor unable to use his own magic, thanks to the shadow, when the pony tried to buy them all more time to escape, he wouldn't be able to help her at all.

Spike picked up a book and started reading, it would really help if he knew what he was looking for, but all any of them knew was they needed "something about how to protect the empire", as if that wasn't vague enough. Still, it did give him time to try to connect another dragon scale to a bolt. Sombra was now magical in nature and could be hurt by the scales, if they found nothing else, at least he'd have one last ditch effort to stop him.









Sin lay on his so called bed, staring up at the ceiling and contemplating Discord's words from last night. He was still in shock over not only what she was accused of, but the fact it was the closest pony to him, Uppity.

That was assuming what the draconequus said was true though, but why would he lie about that? Matter of fact, when had Discord ever really lied to him? Not once, now that he thought about it. Everything he said was either too vague to interperate at the time but made sense later or was one hundred percent factual.

Still though, Uppity? The mare who'd garnered his love and affection? She was the pony who'd betrayed him? Why? What did he do to deserve that?

'Mistakes were made, obviously.'

Obviously, assuming Discord was telling the truth. If he was though, what would he do? Sin wasn't sure how he'd react when he saw the mare again, just thinking about her made him feel sick to his stomach.

'You made the mistake of having friends, of allowing others to get close to you. Did you really think, with all of your experience, that it was a good idea?'

Sin frowned. Ever since he'd been thrown in this cell, he could feel something... wrong with his head. It wasn't subtle, it wasn't slow and he didn't know how to fight it. He didn't believe in objective morality, but he did have his own moral standards. Standards he constantly thought about breaking and finding himself more and more okay with it the more he thought about it. The inner critic giving a few pointers here and there as to why it was stupid to have the standard in the first place.

His mental facilities were going, but he could still think clearly enough to know that they were. What was bad was that he could only sit in a silent terror that a continually shrinking part of his mind screamed at him to address. Maybe it was the shock of being put into such a limiting space with no hope of release? Maybe it was a resentment for the Trotski? Maybe it was even a little bitterness towards Celestia. Certainly it had to do with Discord's accusation. He wasn't sure, but he felt something in his mind slowly eroding. Something very important to who he was.

His thoughts were interrupted by a louder than normal uproar from outside. He chuckled and shook his head, they were still going strong, most likely would for a good few weeks, and that was if there wasn't any blood shed. A high possibility if even a quarter of those protesters holding up signs were willing to follow through with them.

Part of him hoped they wouldn't, he hoped that they would wise up and either leave the country, form a commune or abandon the idea all together. But another part of him wished they'd put their money where their mouths were. It came from a bitter place, but the Federalist wanted to see the shock and horror on Celestia's face when she found her guard crashing with "her little ponies". Blood would spill, many would likely die, and he could take great satisfaction in giving a silent "I told you so" to her with a knowing smirk.

It wasn't all that different from what he planned to do in the Federation. Giving warnings, telling others what would happen and taking joy as everything fell into place as he said it would.

Why didn't others listen to him? He was a smart pony, right? Usually when he thought and said something was going to happen, it did. So why did so many not care to hear his words?

'Because ponies are very stupid and hubris-tic creatures.'

Ain't that the truth? All well, he was stuck here now, it wasn't his problem. Oh he wanted to get out and get some much deserved vengence against that cunt: Hurricane, but that wasn't going to happen. He wasn't going to ask any of his friends to risk their own freedom to help him escape, they'd be the first suspects. No, he'd need to find another way out.

A few hours of time passed and the pony slowly came to accept his fate. Oddly enough, he wasn't as much of a mess as he was last night. He felt really depressed this morning, he even contemplated swallowing his tongue to end his life, but his inner critic stopped him, saying that he should see if he could wait it out. And as the morning dragged on into the afternoon... his depression quickly gave way to apathy. Part of him was kinda looking forward to prison life, a sick and twisted part, but a part he knew he'd need to embrace sooner or later to survive. Sin wanted to cut loose for once and just beat the living shit out of someone, he wanted to hurt them, to break them and make them subservient to him.

'It's what you've wanted all along, Sinbad.'

That wasn't true, but the more time he'd spent in the cell, the more he was beginning to believe it. Something was changing inside of Sin's mind, he knew it was there, twisting and turning his thoughts of non-aggression and voluntary association into a inverted version of themselves. Logic that had no business being used working in tandem with his darker emotions made it feel okay though, but what was left of his rational brain screamed at him that it wasn't.

All the same, though. His logical and virtue based brain would serve more as a liability in prison rather than an asset. That much he couldn't deny, as wrong as it may have been, he needed to embrace the anger and the hate he'd repressed for so long. He'd need to embrace his own madness if he wanted to survive.

'Good, I'm so happy you're coming to see that.'

The stallion felt calm, serine. As if he'd finally figured out the meaning to all things, and answered every question he'd ever asked. Blissfully, the time ticked by and he waited for whatever for the time that Celestia would come down to speak with him, for whatever reason she would have. He didn't know how he knew, but a small grin played at his lips as the thought of giving her the speech starting with "i told you so".

And just as he'd finished the thought, he heard the door to the dungeon open and close. The chatter in the cells next to him coming to a dead silence as a calm clop of steps echoed closer and closer. 

Sin didn't even need to look, he knew who it was.

"Sin." Celestia said, her tone authoritative and commanding.

Sin maintained his position, laying in bed with his hooves behind his head, relaxing casually. "Let me guess, what I told you would happen has happened." he lifted his head, grinning smugly. "And they've used my imprisonment as a means to make you look like a tyrant."

The solar alicorn didn't reply, but her face said it all. "Honestly, I don't know why you guys don't listen to me." he sighed making a thoughtful sound. "Am I retarded? Be honest with me. Am I retarded and just don't know it? I mean, I like to think I'm right, I've seen myself be right more often than not, but ponies still don't listen to me."

The words flowed so effortlessly from his mouth. All of his typical filters and need to maintain cordial relations were gone. What did he care if he insulted her? He was already going to the big house anyways, saying what was on his mind without fear of the consequence was actually kinda fun. He wondered if this is what it felt like to be Star Shade.

"No, you are not... of ill mental status, and you are right, they did exactly as you anticipated." Celestia replied, making Sin's smile grow.

"If you say I told you so, I swear upon my sun..." she warned. Now, as badly as Sin was allowing his madness to control his thoughts and emotions, he still had the good sense not to say those words directly to her face. 

"I told you so." He replied with a wry smirk. Hey, just because he had the sense didn't mean he planned on using it. Fuck her anyway, she put him in a cage. Her calm mask broke, it was for just a split second, but that split second of indignant anger was worth whatever he'd just given up to have her come down here. Or so he wanted to think.

"I was going to come and offer you a plea deal." She said, making his smile waver just a twinge, "however, it appears you would rather rot in the cage you loath so much."

A silence passed between the two, Sin contemplating what he should say next. She didn't sound like the offer was off the table, but by the same token, what would he have to give up this time? What display of submission would she demand of him for her offered 'freedom'? How many hoops would need to be jumped through?

"I guess so." He finally replied, craning his head to look up at her. His leg, outside of his control, slowly reached up to his goggles and pushed them up from his head so he could look her in the eye. His stare must have been terrifying because Celestia's stoic gaze turned wide eyed and made her step backwards. He replaced the lenses to their proper place and laid his head back down, basking in the reaction.

'Well done.' His inner critic complimented.

He didn't know why, but Sin took great pleasure in the praise. So much so he giggled about it a little as he heard the solar princes hooves clank and calmer on the stone floor in full retreat from him. 

Sin sighed and he went back to blissful relaxation. Not caring about anything felt so good, it felt so right. All of these years, he'd been using his imagination, running over scenarios and outcomes for the purpose of determination of the best course of action. Stressing himself out in an attempt to sway events that were outside of his control. 

'It is silly, isn't it?' 

It was, it really was such a waste of energy and time. Why bother plotting and figuring things out anyways? What point was there to in expending so much for a future in which he had so little control? On some level, he knew Discord was right, that Uppity had betrayed him and sold him out. One would think the revelation would make him resentful or angry, but all the pony felt was a disturbing amount of acceptance. 

He began chuckling just thinking about it, how stupid was he to invite all of that stress into his life? It was so much easier not to care.

As the inner critic continued to praise his revelations, Sin felt the unfamiliar sting of tears fill his eyes. The final bastion of his sanity pleading for him to stop. He knew he should, that this part of his mind was right, but he was done. He was done with the stress, done with having his honor and regard for his friends used against him, done having his trust abused and, most of all, he was done trying to find happiness in others.

Sin's quite giggling slowly started to loose out to silent sobs as the mania turned to a heavy depression again. It felt like his mind was tearing itself in two, and he was already tired of it. 

Why? Why was this happening to him? What did he do to deserve this? This wasn't him, this wasn't what he wanted, when did he hurt anyone? When had the Federalist ever caused undue pain onto others?

Why did the one he love hurt him? Did he do something to her? Why didn't she tell him about it? Did she have a reason? Did that reason even matter?

Sin turned over and curled up, waiting for sleep to take him again. All he could think about was the mistakes he'd made, and how he wished he could have avoided them. He wished he'd never met Uppity, he wished he'd never gone with Shade to Canterlot for his trial, he wished he'd never embraced his emotions. And as the mental and emotional exhaustion finally overtook him, the last thing he thought was that he wished he'd never come to Equestria.









"I have sent out for the earth ponies you have requested, Macintosh." Luna said, looking contemplative. Rainbow rubbed her sleepy and puffy red eyes, occasionally dozing off at the small table hidden in one of the Lunar war rooms. Mac, as tired as he was, was driven by adrenaline and thirst for both action and knowledge. At this point, he couldn't help but grab the next scroll or document and read over the different kinds of philosophies and derivatives of collectivism.

The apple pony smiled, looking down at the numerous texts and scrolls he'd been studying. Communism, for all of it's alien concepts, was actually a very well written philosophy. Putting the good of the collective as the ultimate focus for the good of the individual, and in a lot of ways, it made sense.

Complicated and more in depth though it was, it basically boiled down to the idea that the collective was only as good as the sum of its parts and the role of the individual for the optimization of the collective. Not in slavery sense, but in the sense that the individual should want to be the best that they can be so the collective could be the best it could be. As all ponies are at their best when they are with a purpose.

Within the ideology, Mac found great agreement. He'd initially thought that communism was a bad thing, that it was just a bunch of ponies who wanted to control everything and every pony, but that wasn't entirely the case. It's main goal was to establish a quality of life that Capitalism and Imperialism could not. To destroy poverty, hunger, and all forms of hierarchy that could lead to things like war, slavery -including wage slavery- fat bureaucracies, unfair wealth hoarding that could be used to benefit society, and circumstances and issues that could readily be pointed out through out Equestria.

Capitalism, using privately owned means of production and currency, tended to favor not hard work, but an ability to manipulate and convince the consumer and working class to ad here to the will of the wealthy and ambitious. Those with money often using less than moral or virtuous means in order to achieve their wealth, profiting off of harsh working conditions and with holding improvements for the working pony for the sake of profit and selfish gain.

The political and capital classes being the primary grievance for their power over the masses was another huge point of focus. Communists despised how a single pony could hold so much power, and found the potential for abuse unacceptable there in. It believed that one individual was no more or less than another and each should be represented equally through pure democracy and voting, allowing the working class to have the voice not as consumers, but as sentient beings with hopes, dreams, thoughts, desires, and an entitlement to a quality of life. Mixing economic, social and political power into one unit and giving each pony both a voice and a chance to express themselves with an impact, a real impact.

In short, Communism wasn't about pushing every pony down to a level of control, but lifting everypony up to a way of life where everyone was as happy as they could be. Not having to worry about if they would eat that day, or if they'd have a warm place to sleep or even if their landlords would come and drive them from their homes because they couldn't make payments for their homes. 

Equality and to be without rulers, hierarchies, or a the threat of those with power coming to take away one's livelihood.

To boil it down even farther: 
Capitalism favored innovation and advancement with self interest being the primary motivation and societal enhancement and progress being a side effect.
Communism favored innovation and advancement with societal enhancement and progress being the primary motivation, with self interest being the side effect.

It made sense why those whom allied with it hated capitalism so much since it epitomized the oppression of the working class by not only making them face constant threat of loss, but held a hierarchy of ruler ship in the work place via superiors who gave orders that could easily pressure the workers into subservience or face disenfranchisement in the work place, poverty, and hunger. The oppression of nature took away many choices when food and shelter were necessities.

And Big Macintosh Apple found the entire thing fascinating. He could see many flaws that didn't agree with his way of thinking, but he could appreciate the idea for what it was.

"When will the ponies git here?" He asked, setting down another scroll.

Yawning, the lunar alicorn informed him that a compliment of nintey earth ponies at least should arrive from Manehatten by mid day. The arriving ponies were agents of a the crown, guaranteeing their cooperation, but still unknown enough to pass as your regular, everyday worker that neither the Trotski or communists would suspect to be infiltrators. 

They wouldn't need to do much, all he needed them for was to stay on his side and use their support in order to be taken more seriously by the communists. Not as a pony ruling over those whom followed him, but as a pony who held influence enough to bring a token of almost a hundred potential supporters to their cause.

"I still don't get what you're trying to do here." Rainbow moaned, taking a long swig of cold coffee.

Mac smiled at her, it wasn't surprising, really. Rainbow Dash and he were alot a like, but also very different. Her mind was more focused on her own self improvement and interests in becoming a Wonderbolt and a fantastic flier. He'd always been more humble and economically inclined, handling the farm's finances and often thinking about why economics worked the way they did.

"You'll see." He said, stretching out his forelegs. Rainbow was nonplussed by his statement, but settled to huff and grumble to herself. He tried explaining the entire concept as he understood it to her a few times, but the mare's superiority complex and pride continually brought her back to the idea that she was to be seen as "equal" to a couch potato who never worked a day in their life under communism. It was a misrepresentation of the ideology, but it was also not entirely wrong to say that she had a small point.

Rainbow, like Macintosh, was a pony of meritocracy and drive. She didn't want to be seen as another face in the crowd, she wanted to stand out and be the best. Hard to be the best when you're a part of a system that declares everypony to be equal no matter what.

The stallion looked at the clock and stood up. "If'n ya don't mind, Ah'm gonna get some shut eye." Rainbow agreed and Luna lead each of them to a couple of rooms so they could rest. Once situatied, she informed Macintosh that she too needed to sleep and that one of her agents would stop by later to wake him up and give him a small briefing on when the train would arrive.

Macintosh nodded his thanks and laid down in bed, fighting the growing anticipation in his limbs. He'd need to be rested and with a clear mind for what was to come. The plan was simple, but it's exicution could easily become difficult if his influence and concern were called into question. He needed to be able to think and debate, and it was hard to do either while one's mind was clouded from being tired.









Sin found himself in an all too familiar place. He looked around the black void, expecting to see the younger version of himself once again, but as was with the first time, there was nothing. 

His mind was clear now, the feelings of inadiquacy, paranoia and manic glee were gone, and he was happy for that. Still, he did feel betrayed and hurt. 

'Sin.'

The stallion sighed and turned around.

There, standing before him, was two ponies this time. One the young colt he'd come to loath and despise, but the other was himself, yet, not. It was strange, like looking in the mirror, knowing it was your reflection, but seeing a dozen invisible imperfection. The only real difference was the stallion didn't have his eternal scowl, but an honest look of enlightenment.

"Who are you?"

'Who do you think I am?' The pony asked, his mouth remaining loosely shut.

"My inner critic?" He asked. The pony nodded. "You've been acting differently lately, why is that?"

'Because that's not me.' The critic replied, looking down at the colt who sat beside him. It wasn't crying any more, the child simply sat with his eyes half lidded, looking down at the ground. 'He's been tainted by something, and I've been silenced to your conscious mind.'

"Silenced?" Sin asked, furrowing his brow. The critic nodded.

'Do you remember the Alicorn of insanity?'

Of course he did, how could he forget that?

'She has begun taking hold of your conscious mind.'

The Federalist tensed up at the thought. How was that possible? She was just a figment of his imagination! The alleged "Alicorn of insantiy" wasn't real! His inner critic shook his head, stating that the being wasn't part of his imagination, or even part of his own broken mind. It was a forign entity, one the critic had been attempting to deal with for some time now.

"How is that possible? My Occlumency should hav-"

'Occlumency isn't a perfect shield, Sin.' Critic replied forcefully. 'It was developed against conventional magical mind alterations, whatever that thing is, it isn't conventional.'

"But, I saw Discord banish it!"

Again Critic shook his head. The draconequus didn't force the Alicorn from the pony's psyche at all, he'd simply drained her power and left her buried within the Federalist's mind to the point that emotional repression and occlumency could keep her in check. It was when he broke down and finally began to accept his emotions as things more than arbitrary feelings that his power to suppress her began to wane.

'That, and the fact your ability to control and repress your emotional state was the driving force behind your ability to keep others from penetrating your mind.' The pony sighed. 'That's why Occlumency came so easily for you compared to the other Senators, you were already knew how to shut things out of your mind, it was simply another technique to it.'

"And when I opened up to emotions I lost the strength of my Occlumency." It was a bitter realization, even more so since he was already losing what little control he had left. "Any ideas on what can I do to stop this?"

Critic's face contorted into a wince and he looked down at the colt and sighed. 'I don't want to say it, but the only way for you to stop this is to repress your emotions again.' He placed a hoof on the colts back. 'All of that progress you'd made, all of it for nothing...'

Sin wasn't sure what to make of that, he wasn't even sure he could repress his emotions again, not with how messed up his mind was right now. The other critic, the Alicorn, her influence was overwhelming. It felt good to no longer care, it felt good to just say whatever he wanted with no regard for the consequences. Plus, he'd probably end up going to prison, so there was that to deal with too.

'Then here is some motivation for you.' Critic lifted his hoof and a full sized image of Commander Hurricane appeared, her stance and smirk exactly as it was when she'd looked at him back in the throne room. 'You can't find her and make her pay if you're out of your mind, right?'

Sin felt his eye twitch, he wanted to hurt the figure, he wanted to make her pay for what she'd done to him. 

He decided that, at that moment, she would. The tanned pegasus would suffer for her treachery against him. Sin carved her name into his skull, his anger fueling his desire for control, revenge strengthening his resolve and will. That cunt was going to beg him for death before he was done, and he might consider giving it to her if she asked nicely enough. The non-aggression principal had not technically been broken on her part, but he'd be happy to make an exception for snitching.

Though, that raised another question. "How is she gaining this kind of control so quickly?"

The critic didn't reply immediatly, his merely stood with a look of disappointment and sadness, eyes trailing to the young colt a few times. 'You've lost hope.'

"Lost hope?"

'When you opened up your emotions, you became vulnerable not only in your ability to repel mental invasion, but also to your over all psyche.' He shook his head. 'In that, your mind was... very weak. You don't have emotional temperance like others do. Your hope was so small and fragile, yet it's what you had to rely on. Hope for the better life that is now denied to you at the almost absolute prospect of spending time in prison, for example. You believe Uppity betrayed you, leading to yet another hopelessness in a love you were developing. In essence, the very things you were afraid of, the reasons you'd emotionally shut down for, had come to pass.'

The Federalist nodded his head. He believed Discord and still did, but he was also sure there was a reason for his marefriend's unprecedented betrayal. She wasn't a bad sort, he was convinced of that much.

'It broke your will, and with that broken will, the Alicorn of Insanity grew exponentially in her influence.'

The stallion felt his ears hum and perked forward.

'You're being awoken.'

Another hum.

'For what it's worth,' Critic said sadly as he began to fade. 'I'm sorry for pushing you into this.'