• Published 26th Jun 2013
  • 14,432 Views, 674 Comments

Unwell - HazamaBrony



Twilight Sparkle struggles to balance a new relationship with Rainbow Dash and her mental illness.

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Muckraker

“Hold your horses, I’m coming,” I grumbled as the knocking at my door continued. Who in Equestria would be so insistent on seeing me this early in the morning? It was only… I glanced at the clock sitting on my fireplace mantel. Fine, so it was a little past eight. I guess that wasn’t too early for some ponies, but I had just rolled out of bed. I had been up late last night trying to discover what had worked the guard into such a tizzy.

I pushed a stray lock of yellow mane out of my eyes with a cream colored hoof in frustration. Unfortunately, I had been largely unsuccessful last night. Not that I was surprised. The guard tended to be tight lipped about giving information to reporters if they didn’t have to, and the reputation of my employer didn’t really make them more obliging.

“What?” I said curtly as I swung the door open.

To my surprise, there was one of the guards I had spoken to last night waiting for me. “Come with me, Muckraker,” he said, and began to march away.

Now, that might fluster a normal pony into following him unprepared, but I had lots of experience with ponies, and the guards in particular, trying to bully me. “Am I under arrest?” I asked.

“No, but—“ The guard started to say before I cut him off.

“Then why should I go with you?” I asked, sticking straight to the point.

The guard hesitated. “I’m not supposed to tell you anything. The captain doesn’t want you to twist it into one of your slanderous articles.”

“Well, if you don’t tell me, the article is going to be ‘Guard Attempts to Pull Journalist from Home; Refuses to Answer Why.’ Do you think the captain would like that? By the way, what’s your name? I need to know who to set the public against.”

“Fine, fine!” the guard said, with just a touch of panic tainting his voice. “A pony that we arrested last night has requested that you help her procure a lawyer. I’m just supposed escort you to the guard station, okay?”

“But—“ I started to protest, but then I stopped. I wasn’t exactly used to doing charity, but something told me that I might get a good story out of this. After all, this sounded like it would give me insight into what happened last night. Heck, there were rumors going around that the tyrant herself had made an appearance, so even if that turned out to be false I could just claim ‘unverified sources.’

Of course, I needed more than rumors that Celestia had been here. And even if this turned out to be a dud, I could just leave that pony to the whims of the court system.

“Fine,” I said. “Let me get my reporters kit.”

The guard nodded, looking relived that I hadn’t caused any more trouble. A minute later, I had my stuff ready to go, and without another word, the guard and I turned and began trotting towards the guard station.


My first thought when I entered the visitor’s room was that the mare in front of me looked like she had been put through the wringer. Half of her face was swollen, and when she spoke I could see she was missing one of her teeth. Next to that, her messy mane and cracked glasses didn’t even look that bad.

“Yellow Journalist, right?” she asked, and I stiffened in response.

“Not anymore,” I said, my tone frosty. “I had my name changed to Muckraker. It fits much better, now that I’m at a respectable paper. Just like the intrepid reporters of old, challenging oppression and corruption wherever it shows itself.”

The red mare snorted. “Is that why you guys are always writing anti-Celestia articles? You see yourself as some sort of crusader for truth?”

“That’s exactly it. Now, if you have something to say besides insulting me and my newspaper, I suggest you say it before I leave.”

“Wait! Don’t go!” the mare yelled, trying to jump up, but being held back by her shackles. “I didn’t mean to insult you! In fact, after last night, I believe that The Canterlot Times is right! Celestia really is a tyrant.”

The guard in the corner of the room let out an audible growl at this, but I wasn’t paying him much mind. “And what happened last night?” I asked, sitting down and giving the mare an apprising look through the glass separating us. “Let me guess, guard brutality?”

“I wish. The mare that did this has been ‘punished,’” she said, and I could practically taste the sarcasm in her words.

“Perhaps you better start at the beginning. First, tell me your name,” I said, grabbing my notepad in my magic.

“My name is Blood Work, and this all started a few weeks ago…”


It took more time than I would have liked to get all the information out of her. Several times I had needed to steer her back on topic after she got caught in a rant about how evil and crazy Twilight Sparkle was. But after all was said and done…

“Well,” I said, pondering how to best spin everything I had learned. “Thank you, this has been very… informative.”

Actually, this might just be the biggest scoop I had ever run across. Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn that had saved Equestria at least twice, was hiding a history of mental illness? And Celestia was trusting her with our countries’ most important defense? That alone would sell a lot of papers, and, more importantly, tarnish Celestia’s reputation.

But that that wasn’t all, not by a long shot. Celestia had trampled all over all sorts of rules, laws, and regulations in her haste to cover this up, not to mention letting a prisoner be assaulted right under her muzzle. If a captain of the guard did that, the masses would be screaming for his resignation. But since it was undeniably Celestia breaking all those rules, this might just wake some ponies up to the fact that she wasn’t as benevolent as she seemed.

“Right, so what I need in return is for you to get me a lawyer. Preferably a good one.”

I nearly jumped at the sound of Blood Work’s voice. “Right,” I said. “I actually can’t do that.”

Blood Work looked like the ground had fallen out from under her. “But—but I need you to!” she cried. “I used the last of my bits to bribe that pharmacy tech! I don’t have any money left! You owe me now, for giving you this story!”

“Yeah, you probably should have mentioned that you wanted me to get you a lawyer at the beginning. But don’t worry, I may not be able to, but my boss has more than enough money to get you one of the best.”

I left out the fact that he might not want to associate with somepony as obviously guilty as this pony, or the fact that if he did overtly give her a lawyer, all claims to neutrality would vanish.

Blood Work looked like she bought it, though. “Okay, as long as I get one. I don’t want to rely on some public defender.”

“Very well, then I’ll catch the next train to Canterlot. You should hear back from us in a few days or so,” I said, turning to take my leave.

“Thank—thank you,” Blood Work said, looking as if the words caused her physical pain.

‘Don’t thank me yet,’ I thought, but I only said “You’re welcome,” aloud.


The train ride to Canterlot was uneventful, but that just gave me time to go over what I would do next. I could have gone straight to the boss, but he liked it when an employee took the initiative to investigate a story before coming to him, so I had a bit of leg work to do.

For starters, I wanted to find out more about Blood Work. In a case like this, it always helps to determine if you want to name your source by name, or if you should keep them unidentified.

It barely took me a day to round up as much information as I needed on her. Apparently, she left quite a mark on Canterlot University records, both in terms of accomplishments and punishments. Not to mention all the teachers and other faculty that she interacted with.

The second thing I wanted to do was actually verify that Twilight Sparkle was actually nuts, or if publishing this story would lead to a swift and decisive rebuttal. I mean, we would probably have to issue an apology Sparkle one way or another, but an apology for violating her privacy would just strengthen the credibility of our article in the eyes of the public. Conversely, an apology for getting the facts wrong would make us laughingstocks.

To my disappointment, this proved to be much harder than digging up dirt on Blood Work. Twilight had been so much of a recluse that everypony I talked to at the university only knew her in passing.

The biggest nugget of information I could get is that one of the teachers thought that she may have been using salt licks, but he didn’t have any proof.

It looked like I was going to have to use her little escapades with her doll in Ponyville as proof, but that should be fine. It did fit into what Blood Work had told me.

In any case, I felt like I had enough information that the boss would be satisfied.


“Come in,” the boss said after I knocked on his door. He was at his desk, which, as always, was covered in papers and potential articles. Say what you want about the boss, he always worked hard.

“Ah, Muckraker, I was wondering when I would hear from you,” he said. “Apparently, you’ve been as busy as a bee lately, snooping around the Canterlot University campus and missing out on stories in Ponyville. I had expected to hear from you after that commotion a few nights ago, but…”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. Truth Seeker, my boss, was a little intimidating, but I was more scared of letting him down. He had really took me under his wing, metaphorically, not literally. He was really touch shy, even for a pegasus.

In any case, he was the one that had suggested I change my name to something more respectable. He himself had done so after exiting from the guard.

“Sorry sir, but this is about the commotion in Ponyville, and it could be the best story of the year,” I said.

The boss arched an eyebrow over his piercing blue eyes. He ran a hoof though his golden mane, as he always did when he was thinking. “All right, I’ll bite. What happened that night?”

It took me the better part of an hour to explain everything that Blood Work had told me, but by the time I was finished, the boss had gotten up and started pacing the room, the light from the sun scattering all over the room as it hit his white coat.

“Yes, I can see how this could be big. If we come at if from the right way, we can make it look like Celestia knowingly sent a dangerous individual to a rural town ill equipped to handle her,” he said.

“Yes, and it gets better. We can interview other ponies with this… A.C.M.S., and point out that Twilight has essentially been getting a free ride as far as help goes. That way, we can accuse Celestia of playing favorites and ignoring other ponies that needed help,” I replied.

“Even better, go interview some families that have lost family members to mental illness. ‘If only our dear John Doe had access to the level of help that Twilight Sparkle did, he might still be with us.’ Something like that should really tug at the heartstrings.”

“Right,” I said, making a mental note to myself. The boss really did have the best ideas, even if some ponies might find them a little distasteful.

But the end justifies the means when it comes to getting the truth to the public.

Right?

“So, shifting gears a little, is this Blood Work trustworthy?” the boss asked.

I winced a little. “Well, yes and no.”

The boss gave me a critical look. “Explain.”

“Well, if we do a little bit of digging, I’m pretty sure that everything she says will check out.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” the boss said, his tone firm.

“Right…” I said, trailing off. What the boss really wanted to know was if we should actually name her. Not doing so would weaken the story a bit, but if we did name her and she did something idiotic, that would hurt the story even more.

“Well?” the boss said, raising an eyebrow. “Just tell me what you’ve learned about her, and I’ll decide what to do.”

“Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Blood Work manages to both be a really smart pony, as well as one of the most idiotic ponies I have ever met.”

“You might have to explain that one to me.”

“Well, her work in the medical field has been amazing. According to teachers and researchers at Canterlot University, she would come up with the most radical theories, and most of the time they would be correct. And she never got lower than third place when it came to competitive exhibitions, no matter what discipline of science they were in.”

“Okay. So how is she stupid?”

“She utterly lacks common sense. I mean, for crying out loud, her grand scheme to discredit Twilight Sparkle was to walk into a pharmacy, bribe the clerk, and hope to Tartarus that she didn’t get caught. If the pony she tried to bribe hadn’t been so hard up for money, she probably would have been arrested in minutes. Not to mention that it took the last of her money to do that, so she doesn’t even have enough for a lawyer, yet she still feels entitled to the best of the best.”

“So, in short, if we do publicly support her, she’s likely to say something stupid and make us look bad,” the boss surmised, rubbing his chin.

“Not, just that, she’s likely to turn public sympathy to Twilight. She really hates the tyrant’s student.”

“Any idea why?”

“Well, it’s actually obvious to anypony that does a bit of digging. You see, was a bully back in school. Probably still is, but… anyways, she was really nasty. Like, drove some students to different schools nasty.”

“And how did she get away with it?” the boss asked, sounding surprised.

“Because of all the praise she was bringing to the school. Like I said, she always placed really well in exhibitions, even when she was young, so the schools that she went to were willing to look the other way. They didn’t want to throw dirt on the golden girl. And that lasted until Twilight Sparkle showed up. Suddenly, she wasn’t the best of the brightest anymore.”

“Ah, I see. So, suddenly, they stopped looking the other way when she got in trouble.”

“Right. She found herself in a lot of trouble and blamed it squarely on Sparkle, without trying to change her behavior one bit. Needless to say, she got expelled later, but somehow she managed to cover it up. Possibly by threatening to reveal how much the school had covered up of her deeds.”

“Wouldn’t that harm her reputation?”

“Like I said, she is sort of stupid when it comes to thinking about the consequences of her actions. In any case, the Canterlot Charity Society contest was supposed to be her shot back to the top. I guess she just sort of lost it when she saw that Sparkle was entering it as well.”

“Right…” the boss said, closing his eyes and running a hoof through his mane. “From what you’ve said, we shouldn’t name her. Some other papers might put two and two together, but for now let’s keep her a ‘trusted source.’”

“And about getting her a lawyer?”

The boss grinned. “You never actually promised to help her. That said… if we can get the public to sympathize with our ‘trusted source,’ even after other papers have revealed her, then we can give her the money for a lawyer. Make ourselves look good in the process.”

“Right,” I said. This was pretty much what I had expected.

“Muckraker, my boy, you did well,” the boss said, still grinning. “When we’ve finished, Celestia and Sparkle won’t know what hit them.

Author's Note:

All right, here it is: the last chapter of Unwell, but not the last of my story, as you can tell.

The sequel, titled ‘Unwell: Recovery,’ should be up in a month or two. I want to build up a bit of a buffer before I start posting anything, so keep an eye out for it.

See you all then!

Comments ( 110 )

will there be a notification when the sequel is uploaded?

5544577 Because some ponies/people even in -this- reality just looooove to stir shit up. Actually a decent example is in the story itself, with the explanation of how Blood Work 'got away' with being a bully.

But I do know for a fact that Celestia HAS been running the country, etc. etc. and more than likely has plans on plans, and can be seen playing "the long game." in this. (That or I'm overly reading between the lines.) And has more than likely experienced such folk like that in the past. .. quite a few in fact, over the course of a millennia. And will more than likely have a way of not only protecting herself and Twilight, but spin it in a positive light. And in short, drag it out to the point where "Truth" and "Muckraker" will be doing nothing but at the end of their career. Finding the truth in the pig pens, since no-one else will ever hire or believe them again.

... Well, at least I hope so. :twilightsheepish:

i have a bad feeling this is not gonna fly over well for muckracker and truthseeker. like at all. though it all depends on how celestia reacts or if she has a plan to preempt them.

5544577
Well to answer your question with another question, why do we have tabloids? The problem is that people, or ponies in this case always want to look for the worst of people and spread their beliefs onto others. And sadly people like this as nothing sells more papers then scandals, rather then the news. I mean look at the War in Iraq. Everyone wanted to demonize the war, but few would even report it was over when the last of our troops returned home before the resurgence.

Think all the good news reported, write them down and look how many good news are reported. I won't ask you to do the bad for it would forever to write. I can think of a few never reported, with the biggest is research have been made to use stemcells to be able to repair soldiers legs with 40% loss are now able to serve the military again to name one.

5544577 it can be surprisingly easy to turn the public against a public figure. these guys would normally just be flailing in the wind, and whatever personaly grievances they have with celestia are probably just that, personal grievances.
however fiery words can ignite others. and ponies would know about that smarty pants incident. while most would dismiss it as stress if they learn about her issues......... applejack might be a good indicator. ignorance is toxic. and equestria does not have the web to either help further the poison, or realize someone is talking outta their svinctor.

5544549
I will tag the sequel as a sequel to this story, and I’ll probably put a small notification at the end of this story just to let you guys know.

devas #8 · Jan 24th, 2015 · · 2 ·

5544577

How is Celestia a tyrant?

She's in charge and she's immortal.

Really; that's it. In any society, you're gonna have huge, divisive issues which split the population into different factions (see: pro-life vs pro-choice, family values vs marriage for everyone, pepsi vs coke, etc etc vs yadda yadda yadda).

Democracy deals with these kinds of issues by giving everyone a fair chance at power, and making it so that no one can stay in charge forever.

In Equestria though? If your opinion is different from the Princess', then you're shit outta luck.

Because Celestia is a nice person, she doesn't persecute the opposition; but that means it's out in the open, and can do things like try to get more power outta her (much like the English nobles did with the king through the Magna Carta).

And Celestia may be nice, but I'd be extremely surprised if her moral judgement is correct 100% of the time; and whenever she fails, no matter how rarely she does so, it's going to bite her in the ass, because people can go "look, look! She screwed up and isn't absolutely infallible! This means her judgement is flawed about "INSERT CAUSE HERE"! She's a horrible person for not "FURTHERING CAUSE"".

Nevermind the fact that perfectly good decisions can sometimes look like failures from those not in the know or to the general public who doesn't have expert opinions at its disposal.

5544720

Addendum: I don't actually believe Celestia is a tyrant.

She probably does a perfectly good job of managing Equestria, and unseating her from power would probably hurt more people than it would help; I'm just showing how she might get a huge opposition force.

Muckraker... ugh, how is that a respectable name?

But the end justifies the means when it comes to getting the truth to the public.

For a given value of 'truth'. How can someone be so certain they're trying to expose the public to the truth while at the same time pondering how to spin said truth to get them to think what they want?

Idiots...

...aaaaand shit is going down.

I liked the story but not the ending i hope they get banished in the sequel

You know, somehow I think that a glorified tabloid piece is probably going to be less than effective against a politician with over ten centuries of dealing with cretins under her belt. They have the doll incident, which can be safely blamed on Discord induced PTSD, and a juicy bit of sensationalism.

Of course, if they really wanted to show that Celestia was 'negligent' for letting a mentally unstable pony bear an element.. They really need to talk to Pinkie Pie. I can see the articles now "Pinkie Pie - Earth Pony or Discord's Love Foal?"

And I look forward to Blood Work eventually getting interviewed by one of the news papers and bitching about how Muckracker 'promised' her a lawyer. I fully believe she's petty enough to sabotage herself just for revenge, again.

5544829
The important part you're forgetting is that everyone in ponyland is really, really gullible. Like, really gullible. They'll eat it up and react like AJ to a man. Betting on it.

5544844

The average pony also has the attention span of a gold fish. I'm sure they'll eat it up and then be distracted when Celestia starts jingling her keys for their amusement.

5544853
Fair point. Of course, by that point the embarrassment and public mortification is already caused.

It's really hard envisioning an Equestria that doesn't have free healthcare or poor mental healthcare. Nothing about Twilight's medical stuff seemed to indicate better than normal help because of her status either.

Seems kind of fitting in with the whole "generosity and kindness being fundamental cosmic virtues" thing, too. Making anyone pay for the privilege of not just being left to die of whatever is very unlike Celestia.

I like this Muckraker guy.

Hope to see more from him.

Well this has certainly been a brilliantly done and interesting ride. I eagerly await and look forward to the next instalment. Best of luck with it! :twilightsmile:

5544577 Hay, ponies are a diverse enough bunch. Even Equestria is going to have its Rupert Murdoch. Evidently, we've just found them.

5544728 Understandable, especially here on the internet were the average gut reaction to a lack of democracy seems to be tyranny. It's a pretty annoying false dichotomy. Once again, a better educated and informed public seems to be in want of.

Well, this is a logical stopping point for volume 1 (old show biz saying "always leave them wanting more")
On the other hand, back in the 70s I waited over a decade for the sequel to 9 Princes in Amber & then it turned out to be The Guns of Avalon -the lamest book in the series. Oh well, "when you're hot, you're hot" & right now, you're hot, so here's hoping

just hope I remember to check up in a month or two then

Okay, so now it's gone from a lie story of rainbow dash dealing with loving Twilght dispute her handicap, to a news political scandal story?
Hum, guess it could work, but I'd read the story Winter Bells (sequel to past sins) before going down this route

Once again the "bad guy" here has no idea what they are about to unleash, the anticipation of how badly this is going to turn out for poor Muckraker is really great. I have a feeling Celestia is in no mood to be "understanding" with ponies attacking her student, and will take things more personally this time that in the past, add to that Rainbow Dash's reaction to some newspaper dragging Twilight's name though the mud. Is Muckraker going to become intimately acquainted with a set of cyan hooves? And of course lastly Bloodwork didn't try to just discredit Twilight she tired and succeeded in making her have a breakdown, which could have blossomed into a real disaster had Twilight not be found so quickly. Causing a pony as powerful as Twilight to become mentally unstable risks countless lives, national security, and the creation of terrifying magical phenomena. if ponies come to realize the real extent of what might have happened, Bloodwork will be remembered as a complete monster in the history books.

Mudckraker is having a very bad idea. Challenging Celestia is one thing but using her faithful student's mental issues to attack the princess is probably going to end badly.

Yep , that's tabloids alright. These guys don't just go to the lowest one can go , they actually try to dig once they are there.
Celestia MAY be technically a tyrant , but she is a fair , kind and competent one. And that's a lot better that a incompetent , unfair and corrupt anything else in my opinion.
Plus , well , it's not like they can just ask the Elements to select another bearer. (and Twilight did her job rather well to begin with.)
In short ? Celestia be like "Deal with it !":trollestia:

And that's the dark side of freedom of the press. There should really be a peer review system or something, for example, the news can only publish something if a rival news network confirms it as accurate. Keeps the power to censor news out of any one group's hands, and also keeps the press honest and objective. Some valid information would be lost, and the press would be slower, but it would be a huge step forward in cutting down on the flood of biased and just plain untrue crap we deal with on a regular basis nowadays. What use is the news if you have to constantly fact check it for yourself?

5545754 Actually Celestia is the ideal form of government. An immortal benevolent dictator that works tirelessly for the good of her people. I doubt that eternal night would have actually affected her much, but it would have hurt all her little ponies so she went and banished her own sister to the moon for a thousand years. A tyrant is a dictator that only cares about what they want and often get it at the expense of their people--like Discord. Ultimately the difference between a tyrant and a dictator like Celestia is that a tyrant takes from their people, while Celestia gives everything she has to help hers. Mortality is essentially the only reason a dictatorship isn't best for the people, because eventually you'll have to replace the dictator, and then replace that one, and so on until you eventually end up with a tyrant.

5545928
The other reason is that you'll be forever living your life according to the shape a millennia-old relic laid down, with no real influence on law or policy besides begging for it and hoping that your lord and owner plays along. Sic semper tyrannis, yo.

Tyrant really just means "rules without being elected." It's from the Greek term for the ruler of a city-state. Anything that isn't a Republic is a tyranny, strictly speaking. Everything else is flavouring.

I look forward to the next story almost as much as I enjoyed reading this one! Please put a post up on this story when you get the next one set up.

...
I hope Celestia shows these little FUCKERS TRUE TYRANNY

THEY SHALL BURN FOR ETERNITY IN THE CORE OF OUR SUN!

Damn it... things are looking really bad already for Twilight in the sequel, and now Celestia too.

I can't wait to see it. This story was great, so I expect great things for the sequel.

I... Uh, read the entire thing in pretty much one sitting, after seeing that this was marked complete.
Well, one sitting isn't right, but one day.
Anyway.

That last chapter was infuriating. I got riled up at those reporters,, That's... I got nothing. Can't wait to see where that will go.

The characters were solid. Well, Blood Work seems a bit unstable, but, given the circumstances, I'll let her be. I would like to point out that I can't see Celestia doing what she did here at the end, but that's personal preference. After all that had happened, reading how Celestia punished Blood Work for her actions, it was good.
I like your take on the mane 6; And you had me laughing when RD went to 'Shy for relationship advice. That entire scene was so hilariously awkward, but, Fluttershy couldn't let a friend go unnoticed, she's too kind for that.

Following Twilight and her problems... From a characterization view, it all makes sense. She does act consistently throughout the fic, including the development. What I mean is, we did not only get a description of the symptoms, but it was followed up in the story. And, much of it lines up with the show. :twilightoops:
The chapter where we followed Twilight was downright creepy. How she continued exponentially loose any regularity in her thoughts. I could fav' for that chapter alone, but here there's so much more.

Rainbow feels very much like herself in this. She cares deeply for those close to her, and does what she can to keep them safe and happy, sometimes disregarding putting thought into what she's doing.

So yeah. There's a ton of other stuff worth mentioning, but comments written at 5:45 AM can only make so much sense.
Have a thumb, fav' and watch!
:twilightsmile:
M

ShitshitshitshitshitshitshitSHITSHIIIIIIIIITTTTT:twilightoops:

I fucking hate reporters....

5544577
Take a look at those truther guys and their infowars movement--this pretty much looks to me like the Equestrian equivalent to them. Tabloids are nothing against that lunacy.

Looking forward to the sequel.

5547491
Yeah, I'd agree. This isn't just a tabloid looking for a cheap jump in readership, those guys have an agenda. There's something more there.

5546571
Alternate character interpretations are fun like that, aren't they? Just plausible enough that it could actually work, without changing too much in practice.

The chapter where we followed Twilight was downright creepy. How she continued exponentially loose any regularity in her thoughts. I could fav' for that chapter alone, but here there's so much more.

It's not really all that close to how psychosis feels like, but it does the job at establishing that she isn't quite in her right mind at the moment.
...as an addendum to that, I really don't recommend staying awake for a week straight without getting something to help with insomnia issues because "you'll have to fall asleep eventually." Worst week ever.

I'll be looking forward to the beating these two get.

5545254

Agreed. I find the problem with this sort of aspect of a story is that is is takes a far too human perspective on the reactions of ponies to a being who has ruled them on her own for longer than many moderns countries EXISTED, (let alone however long before that).

I think the only story I have ever read that comes close to really dealing with it, however, (save canon itself, in places, wherein they all fall apart and immediately look to the nearest princess when Celestia and Luna disappear) was Princess Celestia Hates Tea, of all things, because that level of near-blind hero-worship is more what you'd be expecting from a society that has been benevolently ruled into a near-utopia by a single leader who has lived at least ten times as long as any human. In any case, what it WOULDN'T look like is a modern human society with its attitude to government and media.

The fact that someone actually has an illness worse than the flu already makes this not quite "standard issue" Equestria. Just go with it, everyone.

5547662
The concept of an absolute ruler that has been around forever is hardly foreign to humans. Most royal governments ruled by "Divine Right". In other words, God said they are in charge. And God isn't wrong. The general public in those situtations is typically uneducated and has no knowledge of history or other forms of government, and the poor literacy rate means that, to most of the population; the ruler has never made a mistake. Is in fact incapable of making a mistake. So when someone discovers their rulers are imperfect... you get the kind of bitterness that make these reporters think they are doing the right thing.

Here in earth, democracy changed that. Instead of the rulers just doing their thing, now every little mistake and flaw is broadcast to the world in HD as competitors try to make their opposition look bad. We have our leader's humanity shoved in our faces on a daily basis. It's hard to be disillusioned so harshly when you've been that way practically since birth. Not sure where I was going with that... I'm sure I had a point.

Love the apparent trust in the papers. It kinda reflects the public's point of view in real life when newspapers get involved with stories.

I like how Muckraker digs up dirt on Blood Work beforehand instead of just quoting her directly, however skewed his views may be he really does a good job.

5548255
The problem is that instead of being a Divinely appointed ruler Celestia, at least to most ponies IS Divine.

5544753 Isn't self delusion grand?

“My name is Blood Work, and this all started a few weeks ago…”

Blood Work has got to be the BIGGEST bitch for getting the media, especially an anti-Celestia one, involved! :flutterrage: :flutterrage:

Ugh. Sleazy reporters? Not sure if I even want to read the sequel regardless of how excellent this story was if I have to read about such underhanded tripe... Though i probably will anyway. :p

5560799
If you reread your comment you will notice that you essentially claimed that PTSD and other similar disorders (in your mind) are not proper mental disorders and only used by attention seekers, as if you have the capacity or education to make such an assessment.

So yes, you are very much ignorant and a douche. Add to that a sprinkling of Dunning Kruger, as you don't seem to understand how wrong you are.

DF

Fun little story this.

I had honestly expected less "reasonable ponies reacting mostly reasonably to Twilight's revelation" and more "Twilight's crazy! AAAAAAARGH! And everythings on fire for some reason!" along with the story being a lot darker.

After the almost completely painless way TS and RD's relationship got going, as well as the mostly reasonable reaction of her friends, the last bit threw me for a loop. And when I say "painless" I mean compared to how it's usually handled in fiction as well as how badly something like that can get handled IRL.

I certainly look forward to the sequel. Thumb up, favorite, etc

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