A Little reminder:
Recording Quartz (RQ): Historian/Sociologist
Firm Marble (FM): Journalist
Flame Ruby (FR): Political activist/Maid
Jewel Joy (JJ): Civilian
Crimson Cut (CC): Officer
Lasting Marble (LM): Teacher
Pitch Perfect (PP): Singer
Golden Claw (GC): Griffon immigrant
Special Ore (SO): Earth Pony immigrant
Lord Yellow Pyrite (LYP): Farming Landlord
Lord Polished Gem (LPG): Mining Landlord
The Distant Past
Once again, the Crystal Palace was shining in its new glory. All the citizens of the kingdom could see the splendor of the Crystal Palace from miles away. Inside of it, the King Swift Rise and the Queen Amor Candente have just come back from their Honeymoon on the coast and they were enjoying themselves in their room (having a surprisingly simple design with just a bed, two chairs and one table with a small library on one of the walls; it looked more like the room of a normal citizen rather than the room of a noble) with some staff members already starting gossips about how the King and the queen were preparing themselves already for a successor. Others said that the king hated foals, there were some rumors that the king preferred to work while others that the queen saw the Crystal Guard as his King's lover (common gossips), but what was truly known, was that during the honeymoon the regents of the Crystal Kingdom still managed to control their territory miles away from their Palace. How they did that was another mystery that the journalist and historians would try to tear apart for the rest of the Crystal history. Inside the Palace, the maids were cleaning up the room of the new couple and they couldn't stop gossiping:
"Well, I honestly like this new king, way more ordered than the previous ones and he always treat us with respect. He doesn't remember our names but at least he acknowledge us as important. I've never been treated like that in my life."
"You're completely right Dusty Pearl, and I've never seen the guards being so well behaved. Do you remember before, during Sombra's time? When they were so brutish and savages? Now they call us madam, they never flirt and they always do their job when they're supposed to. And let's not talk about how handsome they are now..." - At this all the maids started to dream with some of the guards and their handsomeness.
"Alright ladies, you can dream if you want, but keep working." - Said the Boss of the maids.
"Yes, Madam Flame Ruby." - responded all of them.
A while later, the maids went to clean the Throne Room, since the royal couple was out to open one of the King's new buildings. The maids were among the ponies who has seen the most changes inside the Crystal Palace, from King Loving Garnet to King Swift Rise, the maids has seen them all and they've detected how every king acted inside the palace (who they treated with, what they chose to do and their next step in the administration of the kingdom) and so far Swift Rise was their favorite with the good payment they got and a better schedule and working conditions.
During all of this working and gossiping the door was knocked, the maids quickly silenced themselves and focused on their work while waiting for the door to open. When it opened, a guard entered the throne room. He looked cool and collected, his armor shined like the sun and it even looked comfortable to wear. The guard looked around and after looking he decided to talk to the maids:
"Good morning ladies. I'm searching for the King so he can approve this Bill, the Congress has finally given its decision on the new law he proposed and all it needs now to be done and it starts it's application is for him to sign this."
The maids looked at him with a piercing glance, it was quite clear that he was hiding something, but their job was to clean the Palace and keep it ordered with the help of the butlers, not to indulge in politics. Finally, after a few seconds of waiting, Flame Ruby spoke:
"I apologize, but the king has left the palace with his wife to buy a few garments and other items in preparation of the possibility of a royal descendant, if you desire, you could wait here for when he comes back or go search for him in the markets".
The guard looked at her, he nodded and thanked her for her services and left. After he left the maids asked Ruby if it was a good idea to tell what was the king doing, at which she simply replied that it wasn't a secret of state (the guard probably was the one holding that) and everything inside the castle was always kept in secret among those who lived inside of it, a lesson she herself learned when she started to work there. Shortly after that, the mares restarted the gossip, now talking about the king wanting to change the name of the Crystal Kingdom.
2 Months Later
The Transversal between the Paradise Street and the Shining avenue was known for being the most populated area of the whole Garnet District of the Diamond State in all of the Crystal Empire:
It was visited during the mornings for the markets, bustling with seller offering items that could only be found there in the whole world (from TVs to food) and it was all legal. From mothers looking for house items of food to the house, to new visitors from other lands (who would later stay to live among the Crystal Citizens) desiring to have a chance in their life and be successful in anything.
It was visited during the noon for all the business ponies and delegates that would come here to lunch after having a hard day. Ponies, minotaurs, griffins, zebras and now changelings were always coming to rest from a hard day at work, talk with other work partners and would later go back to their work to proceed with their day.
It was visited in the afternoon for younglings of any kind, desiring to play now that school was over and they wanted to enjoy the rest of their day playing with other kids. Earth and crystal ponies played ball with minotaurs, zebras, dragons, Diamond puppies and nymphs. Pegasi played with griffons, dragons and changelings who could make the best moves in the sky. Unicorns would make tests of mental strength with changelings. All the species's younglings would be playing in the street while the KP would make sure that they didn't got into anything dangerous.
It was visited in the night by those workers that wanted to hang out with their partners and make one or two parties before going to bed. Normally they would go to bars to drink until they couldn't drink anymore or it was the time to leave, either way, it was just to relax and have a good day.
And in one bar in particular, there were 3 griffons (two males and one female), 1 [male] minotaur, 3 ponies (one crystal pony, one pegasi and one earth pony) discussing a few things that have just recently happened.
"I still don't understand how could we lose that battle!" - Said the female griffon, this one in particular had the head of a harpy, - "we had numerical superiority and tactical superiority. We surpassed you 4 to 1. Just... why?"
At this, the griffon besides her just told her very calmly. - "Look, I understand your concern, but if you look at it, you never had a chance."
The harpy Griffon looked at him with a glare that could kill anyone, thankfully she was drunk enough to not be a threat to anybody but the glare was still worrying. At this moment, a Crystal pony decided to proceed with the conversation.
"That's true, you had too many generals that acted very disorganized (never in touch with each other) and we had the technology superiority. Just a few of our cannons and a good electric storm and we got rid of your most dangerous warriors (who also decided to directly charge at us). Just be glad that the King decided to give amnesty to anyone willing to live under his rule."
"In other words," - said the minotaur, - "you were screwed from the beginning. Golden Claw was just being kind to you." - But the harpy, wanting to have the final word, decided to criticize something from the golden griffon.
"That reminds me, how come you're acting so weakly?, if you were grown in my tribe, you wouldn't have survived the first test of maturity." - In that moment the Griffon looked at her with a venomous glare and responded with an icy tone that made all the other drinking partners shiver in fear.
"I had to survive in the tundra for 1 year just as the first step of adulthood and my second step consisted in going to an enemy tribe and steal one of their treasures and I will remind you that my clan has 10 steps for adulthood." - The harpy melted in fear at the look of the griffon that (outside of this city) could very easily belong to a chief tribe. - "I came here searching for a good life for my tribe, but to love here we had to accept the rules of the city and so we did. Don't you ever dare to criticize me or my clan for what we had to do." - After hearing that statement (and to her surprise), Golden Claw became as joyous as he was a few seconds earlier and started to ask about that new species (changelings they were called) and what they were supposed to be doing here, this made the harpy realize that perhaps there was something else to this place and perhaps she picked well in asking forgiveness to her tribe. Perhaps, there was nothing else to fear now that they were living here.
In that moment, the door was opened and 3 Kingdom Protection units entered the bar. They started to scan the whole bar and then went close to the crystal pony that just talked to the harpy. During all of this, she saw the looks in all of her new partners in her new life and she saw the same look in their faces: Fear.
The police officers asked the identification papers to the crystal pony and he gave them to the officers. The harpy saw how everybody (including Golden Claw) avoided glances and didn't dared to look at the officers or the pony and this left her perplexed, for never in her life she saw so much fear in such strong warriors. What could this officers do that they could instill so much fear?
The KP units told the pony to go with them and he moved without making any type of rebellion (no running, fighting or even a few words), he just moved and went on with them. The griffon managed to look a dreading apathy in the pony as he went on and once she looked at the officers, they just looked at everyone in the bar, they apologized for the inconvenience and wished them a good night. She hoped that once everything was sorted out she would see again that pony.
She never saw him again.
The Crystal Mountains
Two weeks later
Sombra was, for the first time in his life, feeling despair. He had no horn, no followers, no army and now he was even losing his supply of food. He needed the last ingredients if he wanted to recover his power. But then, what?
What he once considered a weakling has managed to topple him over and over. All of what he had has been destroyed, and now he was completely alone, he would rather be back in the court of Loving Garnet or (better yet) dead to be in this position. All he could do now was cry, for he felt lost. What could he gain by recovering his magic? Nobody in the kingdom would want him back. All because of that traitor, not even Pure Diamond was such a scumbag. He could feel his laughter, mocking him, how dare him to mock the great Sombra, savior of the Crystal Kingdom? Nobody could do that, nobody would ever do that, nobody will do that.
No, he would come back and once he were back, he would erase him from history. He would erase his name, he would erase everything he ever did, he would erase anyone who dared to oppose him and he would make sure that there were no one that could even remember Swift Rise. Nobody would ever know who was Swift Rise, the Crystal Kingdom would be back to him and once he were back, their citizens would be glad that he decides to show mercy on them.
Sombra packed his stuff, and then he departed to the north, the frozen tundra where nothing ever came back from there.
The Present
Sometime between the breaks
One of the pony researchers went to the bathroom and scanned the place with magic. Once he was sure that the place was safe he decided to use sound proof spells and reinforce the doors so nobody could break in, then his eyes glowed green and his horn shone like an emerald.
My queen. - He said in a mind connection.
- Yes my servant? what have you discovered that it requires for you to give me your report ahead of time?
- I have found some records about an ancient king that the history of the Crystal Empire has forgotten.
- Why should I care for some death pony?, what has he done that could be important to us?
- I found a treaty among Changelings and Crystal ponies signed by your mother and said king.
...
- My Queen?
- Name.
- Sorry?
- What was his name?
...
I order you to give me his name! - As soon as the Changeling Queen gave the order, the changeling in the bathroom felt a strong pain in his head. This was weird, the queen was always so collected, this was unusual.
- That's not all, we also found a color film that shows said king having a wedding with amor candente, in that film I saw a-
- Give! Me! His! Name! - The Pain came back and it was 10 times harder, he almost fainted for how big were the punch like induced pain he just got, but he managed to recollect himself and told her what she wanted to know.
- Swift Rise. King Swift Rise.
...
- My Queen?
...
- I apologize for disturbing you, I'll try to-
- No, keep watching that film and gather as much information about him as you can.
- My Queen?
- I'm going there with the best the hive can offer.
- My Queen!?
- Once you feel my signature, reveal yourself and tell Princess Cadence about my visit, any future problem will be payed with luxuries to both you and your family. That is all.
The connection was lost and the changeling, accepting his fate, decided to go back to the conference and watch the rest of the film.
Conference room
Everybody was trying to recover from what they just watched: the crystal kingdom was once ruled by a tyrant that made his citizens happy. He was a totalitarian but wasn't authoritarian. He repressed his citizens but didn't destroyed their life. He actually brought progress to the kingdom through political moves that even today would be considered taboo (in example: coming to power through a coup d'etat, the violations of Sapience Rights, the creation of political parties and giving power to the military among other things). He was a very interesting character that required further investigation.
The Griffons were having it hard, while the king that supposedly gave the griffons the bases to become into the empire they are now did existed, he was anything like he was portrayed in the books: He wasn't a wise king who decided to embrace the griffons into his protection, he wasn't a protector of the individuals lives, what was truth were the militarization and how he had powerful military command. A lot of changes would have to be done in order to give a good information to the griffons in the kingdom (like changing how history was given and what were the philosophies that could be brought through Swift Rise).
The minotaurs were also having it hard but not because of the historical differences, but because based on the film and the documents they now had in their hands, apparently Swift Rise made a better constitution than them. The Constitution made by Swift RIse was almost flawless (from the political system, to the electorate, to the defense of the rights of sentient beings, it covered a lot) compared to theirs. This meant that they now had to create a new constitution based on this and those could take so long to make and implement that it was already too bothering to think about, and that's not even covering how the public will react at all of this decisions.
But the ones that were taking it the worst were the ponies.
All this time they thought that Tyrant kings were like Sombra: opportunistic oppressors who would destroy the lives of anypony who even dared to challenge their rule while using black magic to control the population, all of that while destroying the lives of its citizens. Swift Rise was like that but not the way they expected him to be, they hadn't expected him to bring progress, they hadn't expected that he would create a system that would allow him to stay in power but that would perfectly work under any other circumstance, they hadn't expected him to be an ancestor of Princess Cadance. So far the equestrians had noticed the hints (The Queen was Amor Candente and she had a daughter before Sombra taking over her throne and the movie shows that Swift Rise married her), but the information that solidified Swift Rise as an ancestor to Cadance didn't sit well on the monarch, she was trying to avoid making a fit for she didn't wanted to be related to such a monster. The ponies (Shining Armor, Celestia, Luna, Twilight and her friends) had to split their time between calming her and trying to digest all of what they had saw and they had to debate on what to do with this information, should they show this film to the world? The Ponies were very sensitive, how could this affect them? They didn't knew, but before they could make a decision, the recess was over and the movie proceeded.
Movie
The Stadium is crowded with civilians making a dance at the rythm of a song, the scene moves to a parade of guards and soldiers marching on the streets. This guards all had their respectives weapons: Soldiers had swords, spears, shield gems, sword gems for long range fighting and saddlebags to carry first aid hits and food among other goods. The Guards had their typical Shield gems in their chests, Sword gems in their forelegs and specialized horseshoes. During this parade, the King (wearing a white armor) was also in the parade and he was being followed by his generals (who were wearing black armors). The parade was followed by the civilians who were using musical instruments as they were marching.
"During two weeks and ending each 5th day of the 7th month of every year, a numerous acts, parades and inaugurations are celebrated in both the capital of the kingdom and the new cities surrounding it. It's the Week of the Motherland, an innovation promoted by the government under the name of the new ideal kingdom."
More marches are shown as well as guards saluting the citizens (ponies, griffons, minotaurs, diamond dogs and dragons) while they were saluting as well, the scene switches to a statue being uncovered and the journalist taking photos at it.
LYP: "It was the exaltation of the heroes of the motherland." - He said as he was moving his forelegs to exaggerate what he was saying in an almost monotone voice.
FM: "It was a fully political party."
CC: "I saw it well in the sense of celebrating the glories of the nation."
JJ: "It was about having pride of being part of the Crystal Kingdom, pride for the flag, pride of the founder of the kingdom, pride for this and that."
The King and Queen, surrounded by generals, are entering into a stage while an announcer is speaking: "The King Swift Rise is entering into the Crystal Stadium, followed by his wife, the queen Amor Candente, and the members of his ministry to enter into the festivities of the Week of the Motherland." - Numerous ponies, griffons, minotaurs and dragons started to march in front of the King while saluting him by extending their arms to him (except the earth ponies and unicorns who couldn't because of their walking cycle. Meanwhile, griffons and pegasi extended their wings to make their salute).
"The great parade is begun by the thousand troop elements who're marching in their sport uniform". Then the scene cuts to the students dancing in the stadium like it was shown in a previous scene, the marching was continued with some fireworks. Suddenly the observers are transported to the rooftops of the city where it can be seen from above the march done by the civilians.
"For a moment, The Crystal Kingdom looks like it were transformed into a big parade."
A Pony is seen transporting a flag with his mouth while the mares are marching in uniforms.
"Public employees are obliged to march. Who isn't marching must stomp in celebration."
In the roofs a bunch of ponies are seen stomping to congratulate the mares.
FM: "Those from the Ministries had to go on white silk clothes AND the private industries that liked the government also made their workers to go on white silk clothes as well."
LPG: "That's why to many important figures, marching in the week of the Motherland was just another invention of Swift Rise to indoctrinate the civil conscience of the citizens of the Kingdom."
The King is looking at the streets from above.
LYP: "One of those days, I agreed with Doctor Well Care when, watching the marches, he said 'Apparently it's easier to militarize the civilians than civilize the military'."
Colts, fillies, hatchlings (both dragons and griffons), pups and young minotaurs, all of 16-18 years old, are watched marching, the music starts to distort.
CC: "I think everybody liked that kind of parades and the schools prepared very well for those kind of parades."
The young ones are now marching in military uniforms.
LYP: "The week of the motherland was a mandatory thing for the students who disputed against other schools with their music bands, they competed to see who had the best music bands or something like that. We in the underground went against it, we even tried to sabotage one of those parades and we got clubbed by the very students."
The students are watched from above marching, the scene is switched back to one of the unicorn colts (of about 16 years old) using his magic to touch a drum. The scene ends with a 4 year old colt marching happily while the music completely distorts.
The scene goes back to the King, who's being followed by a Changeling queen, a diamond dog wearing a crown and a dragon using royal garments.
"Swift Rise likes to be surrounded by other rulers during this celebrations and show them the firepower of his Military Forces, equipped with systems that revolutionize the way of making war."
A machine flying through the air is shown throwing something to the ground, when said thing touched the ground it exploded. A group of ponies are shown charging a big stick held by two wheels, the ponies cover their ears and the stick quickly explodes on the top, sending the charge through the air (Twilight would later remember them as the cannons that Pinkie tend to use for her parties). The Guards are shown shooting with their Sword Gems to the frontier along other heavy guns. The kings are shown to be very surprised at this.
"And each night is met with an emergency drill of attacks to the Crystal Kingdom."
FM: "The attack drills were a sight to behold, a great attraction."
JJ: "Everybody where on their houses, you had to turn off the lights."
FM: "When Sirens started to sound, they announced that the government has found an enemy trying to invade the kingdom whether through air or land and anyone who was outside must find cover."
JJ: "You couldn't even light a match because that was forbidden."
FM: "You couldn't even light a candle because that was anti-Swiftist." - He then started to laugh at this.
JJ: "You would hear sirens making WAANNNNNGGG, and all that stuff, for all of us that was like a movie." - She said smiling.
FM: "And the sirens you heard weren't close yet."
JJ: "And the plains would pass"-
FM: "And the reflectors would shine the plane as it passed and you would hear the cannons."
JJ: "They moved like if they were light attacks."
A big amount of weaponry starts shooting to the air, once the shooting finishes the announcer started to speak: "The sirens pass and the drills are done. Just another event in the Week of the Motherland".
LYP: "Who would try to attack the Crystal Kingdom? What they were trying to prove with that? By the way those planes passed so low to be reflected, it looked more like a circus act." - He started to smile at the ludicrousness of it. That was a complete farce.
Once again, the citizens are shown marching through the whole kingdom.
"Definitely, the militarization is part of the celebration of their nationalism, but the sirens weren't for nothing."
LPG: "I still want to know what were his tricks, he always knew what was going to happen."
"The notice is done by Stray Stone (the Speaker of the Ministry of Interior) who, with his elegant voice, decides to announce the event that changed the way the kingdom moved."
Stray Stone is shown in a locutor room talking to the mic.
Stray Stone: "An invasion attempt from Sombra's forces has been thwarted by our military. The Ex King Sombra tried once again an attack to recover the throne of the Crystal Empire by using many griffon tribes, dragons and other species that were loyal to him", - he then started to smile and proceeded, - "The Crystal Army, led by our King Swift Rise and with the help of his generals, managed to stop his forces swiftly and with the total use of our firepower."
"The battle was as fast as a sneeze: Sombra's army came with 8.000 soldiers of various degree but with poor weaponry and a bad leadership while the Crystal Army had 2000 soldiers equipped with the best weaponry that the kingdom could produce and with a perfect coordination of the armies. It was a flock of sheep being sent to a pack of wolves."
Stray Stone: "And, as a sign of goodwill towards the other tribes that followed Sombra for necessity rather than loyalty, the King decided to give them amnesty on the condition of working for the kingdom." - His smile grew a bit more.
"The other tribes had to choose between subordination or being destroyed by the weaponry that reduced their number to 2000 in less than an hour. But that wasn't the only thing that changed that day."
Stray Stone: "In other news, the other kingdoms that surrounded the Crystal Kingdom (The Changeling Hive ruled by Queen Artemis, the Diamond Dog Tribe ruled by King Nerum and the dragon brethren of Julius II) have all decided to become a part of the Crystal Kingdom, under this conditions, the King Swift Rise has decided to change the name of the Kingdom to Crystal Empire among other things".
The King is shown signing a text, followed soon by the other kings and Queen who doesn't look too happy with the resolve, the camera shifts toward the generals who, with the exception of Golden Strike, look very happy with this new development.
"Through power, he augmented his subordinates and through fear he expanded his control to other kingdoms (The kingdom no longer went to the west coast and the feet of the northern mountains, but now they reached beyond the frozen tundra and touched the West coast. But to make sure that everybody got benefited from this, he promised that the diamond dogs would stay in their mountains, the ones who wanted/had to go to the city would be treated as equals and all the pups would be educated with the best the empire could offer. The Changelings would be fed with the power of the Crystal Heart (powered by the love of everybody in the kingdom) and they would have to work (any type of work) to make a living in their new home and, finally, the dragons would be a part of the new industries that the king was still designing (so the dragons became the new entrepreneurs of the kingdom)."
The camera looks back at the king Swift Rise who start to look back at the camera and smiles in victory. Then the scene fades to black.
The camera turns on again, the king is wearing his white armor and is being accompanied by his wife, entering a building.
"It's Gala Night in Equestria's Embassy of the Crystal Capital, Crystalium, The King Swift Rise receives the Condecoration of Harmony (the highest honor that you can get in Equestria) in it's biggest class".
An Unicorn is shown giving the medal to the king and putting it on his chest.
"The ambassador, External knowledge, put the medal on his chest under the gaze of the Crystal government. It's a ritual that he accepts and looks like he enjoys. Receive National or international decorations doesn't make him more endearing."
The King is looking at the swords and talking to other ponies in the embassy.
"The King it's still a distant character, more worried by efficiency and of low friends."
CC: "He was a pony of very little communication. That was one of his problems, sometimes you had to take the words out of him with pincers."
PP: "One of the ponies that took care of him, Solid Clay, once told me 'I can meet you up with him but don't touch him because he doesn't like to be touched' to which I said that I don't like to touch stallions," - he then started to laugh at his own joke.
FM: "He was a very shy pony. He was the kind of pony that when he got excited, he started to tear himself up."
The King is shown with a pregnant Amor Candente.
"He's married with Amor Candente, daughter of Loving Garnet and they're expecting a foal. 'Lady Love', as she's now known, accompanies her husband to official acts and make tours inside the empire."
The Queen is seen cutting bows and talking to the news reporters and other journalists.
"She is more talkative than her husband, but she doesn't have the voice of a concert singer. She leave a stelle of elegance wherever she goes as the Queen of the Empire."
The Royal couple is shown blowing off candles in a cake that has dolls of the two of them dancing, symbolizing their anniversary.
"King Swift Rise never misses the family parties"
The King is shown playing some sports with his, very few, friends and he's even shown a wearing swimming suit.
"He doesn't shy away from practicing sports and even swimming in one of the beaches."
A big airplane is soaring through the kingdom.
"But his major passion is flying, during his free time, he flies a plane above the countryside in a Silver Plane that was given to him."
FM: "Swift Rise was a big fan of airplanes and racing in general. And Swift Rise, with his silver plane that allowed him to go very fast, would go sometimes from one extreme of the empire to the other in his plane 'The Silver Bullet'."
A Silver airplane is shown soaring in the air, piloted by a king that was using a pilot helmet, in the backseat, you could see a very frightened queen and the plane was being followed behind by Golden Strike and other pegasi.
A Magazine is shown, with the king in the portrait and, in this portrait, the king is shown as a brown coated pony with a dark mane and dark brown eyes, from what could be looked, he had a white armor with golden shoulderpads.
"This is one of the things that are mentioned in the very long article dedicated to him in the Life Magazine that has his face in the portrait."
Now more planes are shown soaring through the winds being followed by other pegasi, griffons, changelings and dragons. Many citizens are shown in an open space preparing for the show.
"He can be found in the Calmy Plains making races or air stunts with some pegasi that are more nimble to move around, always competing against his friend Golden Strike or Fast Flight, the new champion in air racing"
The Pegasi are now making air stunts (that Rainbow Dash would recognize as the first stunts ever done by the Wonderbolts).
"Each weekend, the citizens goes to the plains to watch the races and cheer for their favorite racer. The speed is imposed as the symbol of the time and the king, in his silver bullet, it's the incarnation of it."
The flyers are shown racing each other with the spectators cheering excited to see who would win this time, the excitement can be seen and felt by everybody who's watching the event. The scene fades to black.
The King is now crowning a beautiful, pristine mare and that looks quite happy of wearing the crown.
"The King also has another ritual, he crowns each year the queen of the military circle and later in the party, he dances with her."
The king takes the mare to the dance floor and starts to dance with her. Some foals also decides to copy the adults and start to dance with each other, but wearing a serious face, typical of the young ones of their age.
A Carnival is being celebrated by the citizens of the empire.
"The carnivals are an old tradition of the empire that is rejuvenated by the new king who promotes them on his favor."
FM: "The Carnivals in that moment were sponsored by everybody in the ministries endorsed them. Which then changed to an official party, indirectly endorsed by the regime."
The "queens" are shown in big float parades as everybody are celebrating the moment.
JJ: "They were fantastic carnivals, they were beautiful and one always had fun making those and then going through all the streets and avenues while everybody shouted 'over here, over here'."
RQ: "It was a time of rest for everybody, including those on politics and opposition who just wanted to have a rest from time to time."
A group of miners (ponies, diamond dogs and dragons) are shown taking out gems over and over.
"Another sound done, this time monotonous and boring, is the one made in the mines."
4th year of Swift Rise's reign
"The mining factory has now doubled its production in gems and now the empire is producing food (from fruits to vegetables) and electricity. Making the empire the first exporter of the world. The kingdom is recognized as the most successful and the one with the biggest progress in the continent."
New products are now being produced by workers of multiple species (ponies, griffons and changelings are the ones working the most).
"The new industries are now producing the products of high demand in the ever changing market but the empire is already marked as a port market: they export gems in exchange of other goods (like food that they cannot produce in the empire) with Equestria as its main importer."
The king is shown with construction workers talking about the building located behind them.
"The Empire, meanwhile, it's using it's resources to expand its infrastructure, the expansion for the electrical plant, the chemical plant, the nature department, hydroelectric plants or the like, progressively, the Crystal empire expands"
Crystalium is once again shown with new buildings.
"But the face of the regime it's still the capital, which has its buildings being demolished and rebuilt to keep the modernization of the country. The results of The New Ideal Kingdom are being used for publicity and expand the popularity of Swift Rise."
Audience
Twilight Sparkle and Cadence (primarily) were looking at Celestia and Luna with a very angered face while the latter were looking at the rest of the audience with an ashamed smile, now they had to figure out a way to explain why they were the biggest supporters of that dictatorship.