Chapter 46: Inundation
Mareicopa
A copy of the Mareicopa Monitor floated in Pumpkin Cake’s magic. The giant headline screamed, “UNREST ROCKS EQUESTRIA,” and the front page picture showed Rich’s Barnyard Bargains ablaze in Hollow Shades. The articles told of protests and riots in Manehattan, Hollow Shades, Baltimare, and elsewhere. Nopony had been killed so far, though dozens of police and activists had been injured, some seriously.
Pumpkin sighed. Equestria was going downhill. She had thought that ponies would settle down after the end of the Great Racial War, as historians now called the conflict between Equestria and the Second Kingdom alliance. However, their anger had boiled over. Though Pumpkin had always sympathized with that small farmer in Hollow Shades whose land had been stolen, was it really constructive to burn down a store and put lives in danger?
Pumpkin agreed with a couple of the Encampment’s aims, like ending corruption and cronyism, but to her they mostly seemed like a bunch of lazy bums in a tent city. In her opinion, most of them didn’t want to work, but still wanted the government to give them handouts like ‘free’ homes and ‘free’ healthcare. Of course, none of it was actually free; it would be paid for entirely by hard-working ponies like her. In Manehattan, she’d heard some of them advocate for a ninety-nine percent top marginal income tax rate. Why should she even work if they’d just take everything she earned?
Of course, Pumpkin still carried the Alicorn Charm with her, and without it, she couldn’t do as good of a job. She was talented in magic by herself, but casting the intangibility spell thousands of times a day for hours on end would be impossible without assistance. Ponies like Pound Cake no doubt wanted her to ‘give back.’ But if she did have any obligation to Equestria, she thought, hadn’t she already met it?
She sighed as she stood out of her chair. Back to work. As she walked into the lobby of the Phase Healing clinic, shouts filled the air.
Outside the glass double doors, hundreds of angry ponies and donkeys held picket signs and shouted, “Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!”
About a dozen ponies armed with machine guns stood in the lobby, all members of the Mareicopa Militia. No patients were in the waiting room.
“Hello, Pumpkin Cake,” said Nurse Redheart, who stood along with Walkabout, Vinyl Scratch, and the militia. “I heard about a protest planned here for today, so I called in your guys to help secure the clinic. Hopefully these guns won’t be necessary. I haven’t seen protesters so angry since this building was an abortion clinic. We don’t want a repeat of Hollow Shades.”
“Don’t worry, PK; we won’t let them torch your clinic!” Militia Sergeant Vinyl Scratch proclaimed. Her stallions all nodded. Since much of the militia was composed of members of Club Copa, Pumpkin had appointed Vinyl to a commanding role.
Pumpkin smiled. “Thanks, guys. I appreciate it. I hope there won’t be bloodshed, but it’s nice to know I have some support in this town.”
“You have heaps of support in this town,” said Walkabout. “Think of how many patients you’ve healed these last two years. Think of how we freed those hostages. These ponies outside are just a loud bunch of bogans.”
Pumpkin nodded. “Still, I think I should talk to them. They’re scaring away my patients. This is Phase Healing’s biggest branch, and we’re bleeding thousands of bits in lost revenue every minute that they’re outside.”
“Should we come outside with you? Walkabout and I work here, after all,” said Nurse Redheart.
Pumpkin shook her head. “No thanks. I think they’re only angry at me. But I appreciate it.”
“Stay safe, yo,” said Vinyl Scratch. “My guys will be right in here; just holler if the mob gets rowdy and we’ll come out.”
“And I’ll be within cooee, too, if you need me to zap any of ‘em away,” said Walkabout.
Pumpkin smiled. “Sounds like a plan. Wish me luck.”
Pumpkin teleported outside, hovering in the air with levitation above the crowd. They gazed up at her, and then they booed and hissed.
“Murderer! Murderer! Murderer!” they shouted.
“Come down here and face us!”
They held signs with pictures of a young earth colt on them, which said, “R.I.P. young Groundswell, age seven, died thanks to Pumpkin Cake’s greed and negligence.”
“Let her speak,” shouted a pony at the front of the crowd, who Pumpkin recognized as the father of the young child who’d eaten the rat poison. “Let’s hear her defend her cold heart.”
They all quieted down and glanced up at Pumpkin Cake.
“I’m sorry to hear about that young colt’s death,” she said.
“Liar! Do you even know his name? You left him to die!” the father shouted. The crowd booed at Pumpkin.
She frowned. “It’s not my job to save every single pony’s life. I do my best. I run a business that cures cancer and delivers babies. I do charity care on Fridays. I freed thousands of earth ponies and pegasi from a death camp right here in town. Yet you call me a ‘murderer?’ You should be calling me a lifesaver.”
“You don’t do enough!” shouted the father. “You need to save everypony in need of your spells, regardless of ability to pay.”
“I read in the Tall Grass Grazer that you secretly have the Alicorn Amulet,” said a teenage stallion. “You’re an evil sorceress! Use your magic for good.”
“Work for free, and don’t be greedy. Earn a small wage to subsist off of, and that’s it!” shouted a mare. Ponies clapped at her statement.
Pumpkin shouted, “If I had to work for free, I’d just quit working and lie around collecting handouts like all of you!”
“Then we’d pass a law! The Encampment will provide universal healthcare, and then you’ll have to save ponies for no charge. It’s your duty. They need your spell more than you need money!” the father shouted.
“Work for free! Work for free!” the hundreds of ponies shouted. One of them threw a bucket of red paint onto the clinic wall.
“This is the blood of dead ponies who couldn’t afford healthcare!”
As they shouted, images came flooding back to Pumpkin Cake’s mind. She recalled Trixie ripping her from her family in the Sugarcube Corner cellar, taking her to Sweet Apple Acres and forcing her to work for the unicorns, since it was her ‘racial duty’ to be an unpaid farmer. She recalled Trixie keeping her locked up for months, subjecting her to horrible tests and research, again because of her ‘duty’ to the unicorns. And now, all of these ponies outside of her clinic, speaking of her ‘duty’ to the poor, were demanding the same of Pumpkin that Trixie had: abject slavery.
If these ponies had the power, they’d force her to endlessly cast spells on every single patient who would die otherwise, which was millions of people the world over… so she could never rest, in their eyes. Every second of joy, relaxation, or free time that she kept for herself was another dead body they’d blame on her. After all, if they could justify making her work eight hours a day, why not ten? Why not twenty-four? Maybe they’d make her take drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine so that she’d never need to sleep. In their minds, or in Pound’s mind, nothing Pumpkin did could ever satisfy her obligation to society that she’d incurred merely by being born with a magical gift. It was a debt that could never be repaid. These ponies spoke of Pumpkin’s greediness? The true greediness resided in their own twisted morality of servitude which demanded limitless amounts from her.
She would never be enslaved again. Ultimately, she owed zero ‘obligation’ to anypony but herself: to enrich her own life. Anything else would only ever lead to her suffering, just as it had during the Racial Wars.
“You’re dismissed!” she angrily shouted. “Go back to Manehattan! You’re not welcome in Copa!”
“We live here! It’s our right to protest,” said the father. “We’re not leaving until you pledge to quit charging money for your services. We’re peaceful ponies!”
Another two ponies threw red paint towards Pumpkin, who turned intangible to avoid it, and it splattered all over her walls instead.
Pumpkin scowled. She believed in freedom of peaceful assembly as much as anypony, but these protesters were anything but peaceful. They wanted to destroy her livelihood. They took up the same mantle as the looters and arsonists. How long until throwing red paint no longer satisfied them, and they threw gasoline on her clinic and burned it down like Barnyard Bargains? What if those buckets were already mixed with gasoline? Come to think of it, she thought she might’ve smelled some. These protesters had to go before they did something dangerous.
The front of the clinic glowed a blood red, but not from the paint. The picket signs and buckets flew away from the storefront as the protesters clung to mailboxes, benches, and anything they could to stop from falling away from the Phase Healing clinic. Hundreds of earth ponies, donkeys, and unicorns flew through the air for about fifteen meters down the street in all directions, swept away by a gravitational tsunami. They screamed in terror, ‘falling’ until the anti-gravity of the clinic was too far away to affect them anymore, and the true gravity of the earth pulled them back down. Since they were already so close to the street when Pumpkin had cast the gravity spell, they only fell a short distance, so nopony was injured.
Dozens of pegasi still hovered in the air, unaffected, along with a few unicorns who self-levitated. That was, until Pumpkin turned off the spell. Walkabout came out of the clinic, and zapped some of the stragglers down the street. Vinyl Scratch and the Mareicopa Militia members burst through with rifles slung over their backs. At the sight of the guns, the remaining protesters fled.
“And stay away! We don’t wanna use these!” Vinyl Scratch shouted.
The militiaponies smiled as they congratulated each other on a job well done.
Nurse Redheart walked outside. “Time to go back to work, Pumpkin Cake?”
Pumpkin returned to the sidewalk. “As soon as all my patients come back. They were probably scared away by the protest, but I have a monopoly on intangibility. They’ll be back soon.”
Redheart shrugged. “Hopefully. I just pray that our business doesn’t suffer from this bad publicity over that dead child, and now from you shooing away picketers with an anti-gravity spell.”
Pumpkin responded, “Like you said, better safe than sorry. It was that or risk my clinic being burned down. Those ponies should realize that if I did what they wanted, if I only helped others for free, I’d basically be like the farm animal sharecroppers that they always cry about. I’d never own the fruits of my own labor. I thought they were against all that, but they’re just a rowdy mob of hypocrites like their friends in Manehattan.”
“A rowdy mob, huh?” asked Vinyl Scratch, grinning. “I have major experience with mobs, from running raves all the time. I’m good with hyping up crowds, getting them to listen to me. What if me and some of my ravers went to Manehattan to try to talk some sense into the Encampment? I mean, like, we wouldn’t bring our guns or anything; just our voices.”
“I would be willing to travel to Manehattan as well,” said Professor Fossil, who had just arrived on the sidewalk. “Somepony a little wiser and with more experience, like myself, should try to persuade these hot-blooded youngsters like your brother at the Encampment. I know some like-minded students at the university who could also make themselves heard.”
Pumpkin nodded. “That’s a good idea. I think we all have some goals in common, like ending corruption and stopping cronyism. And if we had no more princesses, I wouldn’t be upset. It’s mostly the welfare nanny state that the Encampment and us disagree on. Try to talk them out of it.”
Vinyl Scratch and Professor Fossil nodded.
Starswirl Peak
At the foot of the new Starswirl Mine sat the large mining town of Wolford. Wooden shacks had sprouted up from the valley like mushrooms after the rain, hastily constructed: several nails still stuck out of planks. The muddy streets were covered in dog paw prints. As the sun set on the Northwest, ending a long workday, Diamond Dogs stopped at taverns to drink and at brothels to satisfy other needs. As a nomadic people, the Diamond Dogs traveled to wherever the gems were, building boomtowns until they went bust. The newest was Wolford, and all ten thousand of Equestria’s diamond dogs now lived here.
Alpha Rover sat inside of a shack near the outskirts of town, slightly up the mountain slope. From here, he could help to administer the town below, and the mines above. Mounds of paperwork sat on his desk: building permits, maps of newly-discovered veins, another letter from Emperor Zaporizhia demanding the Diamond Dogs’ monthly twenty percent tribute payment. Rover shook his head and put his paws up on his desk. Maybe he could just claim that one of his colleagues had eaten his paperwork, so he could get out of doing it.
In the two years since Equestria had surrendered Starswirl Mountain to the Diamond Dogs, Rover’s mining business had been booming. The Magical Mining Mares had only extracted a fraction of the vast wealth within the mountain, and there were still an estimated 10,000 carats worth of gems inside.
The lights in the shack flickered and dimmed. Rover sighed. “Not again!” he exclaimed.
He glanced off towards the southeast, where the Coltumbia river flowed out into the western ocean. The giant Coltumbia river dam stood high in the mountains, producing hydroelectric power for Tall Grass and Savanna. Well, allegedly. In the last two years, many of the technicians and engineers had fled to Equestria. Zaporizhia had tried bringing in engineers from Zebrica, but they were incompetent. Zebrica had few rivers of its own; almost all of its power plants were coal-fired. There was a steep learning curve, and in the meantime, many of the components had become worn out and needed replacing. The dam now only provided power about half of the time, and rolling brownouts were imposed.
Rover sighed, stood up, and walked over to open a cabinet. Inside was a candle and a set of matches. He fiddled around with his paws, trying to grasp the small match between his toes until he got it just right. He held the matchbox in his other paw, and attempted to strike them together. A small sliver of smoke rose from the match, a brief spark lighting on the end, but then it flickered out before he could bring it to the candle. The smell of phosphorus and failure filled the air.
“Why we pay twenty percent tribute if power go out all the time? Why we pay if it rain so much?” he demanded, shouting to nodoggy in particular.
At least he hadn’t dropped the match. He’d almost burned the floorboards a few times. But at least the soggy, rainy wood wouldn’t easily spread the fire. The weather had always been drizzly in the Northwest, but after the last of the pegasi weather teams had fled to Equestria, it had been raining so much that Rover thought that somebody had turned on a sprinkler full blast. The smell of wet dog in Wolford was nearly unbearable, and the riverbank of the Coltumbia had swelled.
He pulled out another match, finessing it in between his toes once again. Then, he finally struck the match, a flame flickering. The remaining bulbs in his cabin went out. A loud rumbling filled the air, and the ground shook, causing him to drop the lit match before he could bring it to the candle.
“Damn it!” he shouted. He sighed and retrieved a mining helmet from the cabinet. He didn’t like using them, since the bulbs were expensive, but it was better than darkness.
The door creaked as he walked outside to investigate. As spotty as the power was in Tall Grass and Wolford, full blackouts were rare. But sure enough, the lights in Wolford were now entirely out with the exception of lanterns, mining helmets, candles, and the crescent moon above. Off in the distance, the normal orange glow in the sky from Tall Tale’s lights was entirely absent. The dogs started howling at the moon out of both instinct and frustration. Rover sighed. He supposed that he should go down into the village and try to calm his people.
He walked down the mountain trail, damp pine needles mushing beneath his feet, the smell of wood smoke from newly-lit campfires filling the air. Crickets chirped and owls hooted. Two miles stood between the mining administration shack and Wolford.
As he walked, the sound of rushing water filled the air, droning out the crickets. Rover thought it was odd. As a dog, his hearing was superb, but as a miner who’d worked with explosives for years, his hearing was damaged, and it evened out to where he had hearing like a pony’s. From the trail, he normally could never hear the river. But now, it grew louder and louder.
He rounded another trailbend as the howling grew louder still. Some of the candles and campfires in Wolford went out. Rover’s ears perked up as he wondered what was happening. He got down on all fours and left the trail, jumping over logs and ducking under branches in the woods, taking a shortcut.
As Rover bounded down another hill, now just fifty meters from the entrance to Wolford, he suddenly found himself splashing into rushing, frigid water. He could normally swim just fine, but the current carried him away until he grabbed a tree trunk. He hugged it tight enough to make Fluttershy proud, and lifted himself out of the water and back onto the dry hillside. When he looked back at Wolford, he gasped.
Water rushed through the streets of town, knocking over buildings. Frantic dogs stood on roofs, howling at the moon, howling out for somedoggy to come save them. But no dog could. Most of them could swim, but the current was so rapid that it swept them away. One large greyhound yelped as a wave slammed him against the side of a busted building, impaling him on a broken beam.
“Run! Jump! Swim! Seek higher groundsies!” Alpha Rover commanded. His shouting was drowned out by the deluge in the town. Rover soon had to seek higher ground himself, as even the hillside he stood on was consumed by the rising tide. He rushed all the way up the mountain, above the administration shack and the mine entrances, which now also flooded.
Finally, the water level receded, and Rover walked back down, careful to keep his distance in case another deluge was forthcoming. He spent the rest of the evening too wired up to sleep, merely waiting for the water level to fall enough to where he could survey the mines and Wolford.
Early the next morning, as the sun peeked out from behind Starswirl Peak, Rover surveyed the mines. The tunnels and shafts were full of water. The support beams had collapsed. The Coltombia river dam had fared no better, as a giant hole now stood in its concrete side, and water poured out along the river’s route, now ten meters above its usual bank.
The entire southern half of Wolford was underwater, now at the new water level of the Coltombia river. In the rest of town where the water had receded, no buildings remained: just thousands of planks and dead bodies scattered about. Miners, workers, husbands, wives, sons, daughters. Dogs he knew and loved: all dead.
A small pack of sopping wet and soaking dogs, mostly women and children, stood in the center of town, crying, howling, and sobbing, trying to find the bodies of their loved ones, rummaging through whatever pitiful scraps remained of their belongings.
He approached a dachshund mother and her small pup. “Where every doggy?” he asked her.
The mother sobbed. “It’s just us.”
In a fit of rage, Rover stood on his hind legs and howled. He cursed the careless Zaporizhia, he cursed himself, and he cursed nature which had taken his people from him. Without his pack, he was now the alpha of nothing, the top dog of a worthless pile of rubble.
Manehattan: July 2028
Pound Cake hovered above Parliamentary Square, surveying the Encampment with a pair of binoculars. Bulky Biceps hovered next to him.
Tens of thousands of people now stood in the square. It was so packed, that pegasi had to hover just to make room for non-flighted participants. Protests had spilled out into the surrounding streets, where thousands more marched daily to the financial district for anti-banker rallies. The Encampment was Equestria’s largest-ever popular movement, growing everyday.
Not just ponies participated. Many donkeys, cattle, and sheep from farms in upstate Neigh York and Whinnsylvania had come to demand the passage of antidiscrimination laws. Given the Encampment’s egalitarian focus, the EFA welcomed the sharecroppers. After all, the top earners in Equestria weren’t just greedy, they were also speciesist. The oligarchs were almost exclusively ponies like Filthy Rich or the Oranges. In Pound’s mind, they’d gotten to the top by stepping on the poor and the farm animals who they employed as wage slaves.
On the edge of the square, lines of riot police stood, separated from the protesters by both metal police barricades and makeshift protester barricades. The Encampment had piled old tires, dressers, and mattresses in between the street and the square, to block the police from coming onto the square. Every few days, clashes erupted between police and protesters, but the Encampment managed to hold on every time.
Over the last few weeks, hundreds of protesters had been arrested, most of them released without charges. Hoops and Dumbbell had been detained three times each. Even Bon Bon and Lyra had spent a night in a lockup for ‘performing concerts without permits.’ Though the demonstrations had remained largely peaceful, police and protesters had been injured from scuffles.
The prior week, the Encampment had its first death: an elderly protester had suffered a heart attack after being tear gassed. Shortly thereafter, a local trial judge who had sentenced ten convicted rioters to five years in jail was found shot to death. The murder remained unsolved, but the EFA insisted that it was unrelated to the Encampment. That judge had been tough on organized crime, and had recently given life sentences to some gangsters in the Manehattan Mafia. Pound believed it was a typical mobster hit job. The Encampment had even held a small candlelight vigil for the murdered judge.
Despite the occasional brawls, all of which Pound believed were police-instigated, the EFA had tried to keep the Encampment peaceful. Alcohol and drugs were banned on the square under local laws, and even though the police could hardly enforce it, the EFA policed themselves. They didn’t want the nation perceiving them as a drunken rabble. The EFA had also confiscated weapons from protesters: knives, brass hooves, slingshots, pellet and BB guns, and even a couple sawn-off shotguns. The armed protesters had claimed that they needed weapons for protection against police, but both Pound and Rainbow Dash knew that the second that somepony started shooting, Twilight Sparkle would send the national guard to break up the Encampment. Pound was honestly shocked that she hadn’t already. Maybe she feared a backlash.
Near the EFA tent stood a large makeshift stage. Atop it, one of Starlight Glimmer’s “cutie mark revivals” was underway. Pound Cake understood those who wished to be markless, but he’d rather keep his mark. He might have to do the sonic rainboom again someday. Hopefully, someday, peace would reign in Equestria and he could beat the sword of his jetwing cutie mark into the plowshare of an equals sign. But not yet; Starlight Glimmer was being a bit premature.
Almost all of the thousands of farm animals at the Encampment had received an equals sign mark as a statement against discrimination. However, only about two percent of the Encampment ponies had given up their cutie marks, though that figure was slowly growing. Most ponies that Pound talked to had no intention of doing so. Even he wasn’t so sure about his plowshare goal, because he really enjoyed flying, even in peacetime. Among Pound’s friends, only Hoops and Dumbbell had become markless.
Starlight Glimmer stood on the center stage, a chorus of farm animals and ponies behind her braying, bleating, and mooing in excitement. Onstage, a giant glass container stood, holding hundreds of cutie marks. Cutie marks could never be destroyed or permanently changed, but they could be separated from their owners indefinitely as long as they were kept sealed.
“Everypony, everydonkey, everycattle, are you ready to be Equals? Are you ready for your cutie mark--or lack thereof--to no longer define you?” called out Starlight Glimmer, a giant smile on her face. She motioned out with her hoof over the masses who had gathered.
“More than a mark!” the crowd responded.
Glimmer continued, racing from one side of the stage to another, “We are all one people, and we will only find true joy in our similarities, not our differences! Differences only divide and cause wars, whether it’s a difference in race, or species, or wealth. But we all have the same souls, the same drives, the same neurotransmitters in our brains. We all were born once, we all will die someday. Only together, when we join together in collectives, can we be at peace. Let us all achieve the one, same goal that all sentient creatures share: to be happy and fulfilled in life! We will make Equestria into a cutie markless, moneyless, stateless society. But we can only do so if our flanks are all identical!”
“Make us the same!” the crowd responded.
“Who is my first volunteer?” asked Starlight Glimmer.
A muscular, cinnamon earth stallion climbed onstage. His cutie mark was a picture of a plow.
“Tell me your name, good sir.”
“Name’s Plowpusher,” he said. “I used to plow fields in Manesas. I loved it so much, but… now I’m unemployed, thanks to the Second Duchy taking all those jobs with their mechanical tractors. What can I do? I can’t just change my cutie mark; once it’s there, it’s there for good!”
“Then step onto the Square of Sameness and be made whole again!” Starlight Glimmer proclaimed. She pointed to a blue-taped square on center stage, three by three meters. The stallion stepped in, and his cutie mark flew from his flank like a dead leaf blown from an autumn tree, swirling in the magical wind. It flew into the giant glass container of other marks, leaving behind an equals sign.
“Now your talent is the same as ours: to help our community be happy and whole!” Starlight Glimmer proclaimed, grinning as she pointed at the equal sign.
“He is equal!” the crowd responded. A giant smile erupted from Plowpusher’s face.
Pound Cake turned to Bulky Biceps. “It’s like he’s reborn. It’s awesome,” Pound said.
Biceps chuckled. “Awesome for him, if he wants to lose his muscle tone and be a wimp.”
Pound shrugged. He could see both sides of it.
Next up was a pegasus obstetrician from Mareicopa Medical who Pumpkin Cake had put out of a job with her foal farms. He was up to his ears in student loan debt, with no way to repay it. Starlight Glimmer promised that in the Warehouse society, there would be no debt, as money wouldn’t exist. The doctor’s cutie mark flew off of his flank. Pound wondered what Doctor Stable would say about a pony without a cutie mark in medicine practicing anyway. He would probably say that it was as dangerous as a foal farm.
Finally, there was a sixty-seven-year-old unicorn painter. She was tired of painting and wanted to do something else in her twilight years, but her cutie mark told her to keep painting. This was in spite of a severe case of horn arthritis that caused her pain whenever she used telekinesis for repetitive motions like brush strokes.
“Be free of your mark’s compulsion!” Starlight Glimmer shouted, as the old unicorn limped into the blue tape square. The mark flew off.
“Now you are free!” the crowd responded. The old mare fell to the floor, crying tears of joy. Pound wondered what Lyra and Bon Bon would have to say about an artist giving up her creativity.
“Artistic expression is like a sneeze: when it has to come out, there’s no stopping it,” he remembered Lyra saying.
Starlight Glimmer shouted. “You have seen these marks removed with your own eyes! Come, join the Warehouse and become an Equal; you need only step in the Square of Sameness. We now have a commune right here in town!”
Ponies clamored onstage, and the magic scrubbed their marks clean like rain erasing sidewalk chalk drawings. For blank-flank farm animals who entered the square, their flanks were consumed with white flashes, and they had marks for the first time in their lives. Cheers and shouts of ecstasy rose from all people onstage.
Vinyl Scratch and some raver friends, Professor Fossil and some students, and about two dozen elderly ponies from Mareicopa retirement homes all stood about thirty meters away from the stage. In all, the Mareicopa group numbered roughly three hundred.
For the first part of the day, they had marched around Manehattan with signs that read, “No freebies!” and “Work for a living!” This had gotten them jeered at.
“You used public roads to get here, didn’t you? That’s a freebie right there, hypocrites!”
“Some of us are disabled and can’t work; thank you very little!”
So, the Mareicopa group had switched tactics. Instead of going out with signs, they decided to talk to the Encampment ponies one-on-one and debate them.
“Having a good discussion is far better than shouting meaningless slogans, jeers, and insults. I encourage my students to do the former, not the latter,” Professor Fossil had noted.
So before and during the Cutie Mark Revival, the Mareicopans had been talking to ponies in Parliamentary Square.
Professor Fossil was talking to a group of three young communications graduates from Neigh York State University who were mired in student loan debt and couldn’t find jobs.
He said, “Though you believe in free college tuition, let’s stop to think. We just saw a young doctor give up his cutie mark on that very stage. Presumably he will stop paying his student loans and go live in a commune. Were college tuition state-funded, who would have to eat that cost?”
“The government,” said one of the students. Professor Fossil shook his head.
“Uh… the taxpayer,” said another. Professor Fossil grinned and nodded.
“Yes. Is that truly a wise thing to subsidize?” asked Professor Fossil. “The Encampment is for conserving our environment, yes? For renewable energy? Then why should we be spendthrifts and waste fiscal resources?”
“We shouldn’t, but that won’t happen very often. Most students will end up taking careers in whatever their degree is in. The state will get back its money in taxes from them. It’s an investment like a stock or bond, like a public road or bridge,” said the third student.
“Not to sound glib, but judging by your employment difficulties, is a communications major such a wise investment?” asked Professor Fossil.
“It will be, once Parliament passes laws to help us get to work,” said the first student.
Meanwhile, Vinyl Scratch was talking with an older earth mare, whose cutie mark had been replaced by an equals sign.
“So this Glimmer is trippin’,” said Scratch. “Her goal is a moneyless, stateless, markless society, right?”
The mare nodded.
“I want a stateless society too, yo. Having no government would be boss. But you can’t have a markless society and have a stateless society, too. It’s like tryin’ to rave and chill out at the same time,” said Vinyl.
The mare laughed. “Don’t be silly. Of course you can have both at once! Our Warehouse is already like that: both stateless and markless.”
Vinyl nodded, lighting a cigarette with her magic. “So, like, what happens if a pony in your commune wants to get his cutie mark back?”
The mare shook her head and smiled. “Oh, we’re all so happy with how we are; I don’t think that anypony would want to turn back! You should really join us.”
Scratch shook her head. “I like being a DJ. And you didn’t answer my question. Just assume for a sec that somepony is mental or whatever. Cray-cray. He wants his mark back even though it’s s’posed to be ‘so great’ not to have one. He walks up to that big glass bong thingy with a mallet to smash it and get his mark back. What would you do?”
The mare chuckled. “We’d stop him, of course!”
Vinyl paused for a moment to take a drag on her cigarette. She asked, “Who, like, specifically would stop him? What person?”
“Whoever was there.”
“What if the mad dude snuck in at night?”
“We’d assign a commune member to be a guard.”
Vinyl turned her head sideways. “Would the guard have a weapon?”
The mare nodded. “Of course, because what if this crazy pony tried to overpower him?”
Vinyl Scratch chuckled. “So what you’re telling me, is this guard would be just like a cop. Like a state.”
The mare shook her head. “Not at all. Anypony in the commune can be a guard who wants to. It’s not the same thing as the police.”
“If it wubs like the bass and it thumps like the bass, then it’s the bass. If it enforces like the fuzz and has weapons like the fuzz, then it’s the fuzz,” said Vinyl Scratch.
“And you broke up that protest in Mareicopa with gravity spells and guns!” a young stallion, who was passing by, accused. “We heard about that, DJ Pon3. I used to like your music because I thought you were cool, and a champion of free speech, taking a stand against draconian copyright laws. But some champion of free speech you are, stopping a peaceful protest.”
Vinyl shrugged. “The gravity spell wasn’t me. Ask Pumpkin Cake about that. PK was having like, a panic attack or something. I didn’t support her action; I wanted to let those protesters stay as long as they were still peaceful. As for the guns, I didn’t ‘break up’ anything with a gun. Me and my buddies just walked on the sidewalk, carrying guns. Mareicopa is an open carry city. We didn’t point at the protest or shoot ‘em or anything, but those dudes all ran. If a pony wants to run just from seeing a gun slung over my back, they’re trippin’ on shrooms or LSD or something.”
“I actually agree with guns,” said the markless mare. “They’re the great force equalizer between the proletariat and the bourgeois. A rich mare with a gun and a poor mare with a gun are a lot more equal than if each just had their money and no guns.”
The three ponies continued their debate until a disturbance broke out behind them. A middle-aged pegasus mare with an equal sign cutie mark was arguing with her young daughter, aged no more than ten, grabbing her by the scruff of her neck.
“Come on, Strikey. I said, come on! I won’t ask you again, young lady. This is just like when you got your measles vaccine; it’s to protect you from a disease. It’ll only hurt a second and then it’ll all be over,” the mother urged, trying to get control over her child.
“Mommy, I don’t want my cutie mark taken! I just got it last week!” the young white-coated earth filly with a red mane whined. She glanced with nervousness at her cutie mark, a picture of a baseball that matched her coloring, as she flailed around with her hooves.
“And the mark is wrong,” said the mother. “You’ll never be a pro, Strikey. It’s a one-in-a-million chance. Hitting a homerun in little league proves nothing except that cutie mark magic is a curse, the joke of ponykind. How can a pony know at age six what she’ll do for the rest of her life? I didn’t know until I was in college, and you already have that mark? Don’t make me laugh. Even if you do get into the majors, then you’ll be an overpaid sports star while everypony else starves in the streets. You’re not better than anypony else, little lady. That cutie mark needs to go.”
Vinyl Scratch turned around, her eyes narrowed. “Yo, you’re taking your daughter’s cutie mark away from her? That’s way past uncool. You can’t tell her what to do with her life!”
“Be quiet,” the mother snapped. “This is none of your business. She and I will live in the commune together, markless. Or would you rather her be motherless instead?”
“I’d rather you not abuse your own daughter!” Vinyl Scratch shouted. Her horn illuminated and she ripped the filly from her mother’s mouth, placing her atop her own back. Strikey wrapped herself in Vinyl’s neon blue mane, trying in vain to conceal herself from her mother.
“Kidnapper! Kidnapper!” the mother screamed.
“CHILD ABUSER! You can’t take a little filly’s cutie mark! I WON’T LET YOU!” Vinyl Scratch called back, her horn illuminated as her sound-projection magic amplified her voice.
After hearing her, dozens of Vinyl’s ravers cheered and hollered, pumping their hooves in the air.
“You go, DJ Pon3!”
“Show that evil mom!”
Brawls and scuffles in the crowd broke out. Some of the Equals pushed and shoved the ravers. But the ravers, who’d snuck alcohol onto the square, smashed beer bottles in half, attacking back against the crowds.
The mother lunged at Vinyl Scratch, but in a flash of light, she teleported away, taking Strikey.
Pound Cake shook his head, watching the melee. As the night fell, ravers and the Equals duked it out all through Parliamentary Square. Starlight Glimmer grabbed the microphone and appealed for calm, but the shouting, screaming, and sounds of breaking glass drowned out her words. On the perimeter, the police slowly advanced past their own metal barricades, towards the makeshift tire and furniture barricades of the Encampment.
“Such violence is unacceptable. The Encampment will be disbanded,” Sergeant Cuffs called out over a police megaphone. “You will all leave Parliamentary Square immediately or be subject to arrest. This is your final warning! Resistance will not be tolerated!”
“This square belongs to the people, and we patrol it ourselves!” Starlight Glimmer shouted over her microphone. “Equals, detain the Mareicopa agitators! Any police officers who dare set hoof on Parliamentary Square will lose their cutie marks!”
Pound Cake jolted. Starlight Glimmer was going to start taking cutie marks from ponies against their will? Wasn’t that a bit extreme? Even the police should be able to make that decision for themselves, Pound thought. But perhaps she was just making an empty threat so that they wouldn’t break up the Encampment. Either way, he and Rainbow Dash would have to talk with Starlight Glimmer over what sorts of tactics were acceptable to use against the police.
Equals started detaining the ravers from Mareicopa, wrenching broken beer bottles from their hooves and tying them up with tent cords. Some of the unicorn ravers teleported away, while the pegasi flew into the air. The police heeded Starlight Glimmer’s warning, and didn’t advance past the tire barricades. Instead, they loaded tear gas canisters.
“FIRE!” shouted Sergeant Cuffs.
Pound’s eyes widened. Tear gas was flammable. And with all of these tents...
Half a dozen canisters flew into the square, releasing their white, noxious fumes. Ponies coughed and wheezed all over. One canister landed right next to a tent, bursting open in a shower of sparks. The tent caught fire. EFA pegasi rushed over, dumping buckets of water, as Rainbow Dash flew off into the sky to retrieve a raincloud. A young stallion ran out of the tent screaming, his fur ablaze.
“Fight fire with fire!” Starlight Glimmer shouted.
Dozens of the Equals, who wore gas masks, grabbed empty soda and beer bottles, filling them with propane from the barbeque grills and portable generators around the square. They tore up rags and placed them inside, igniting the tips. They lunged dozens of molotov cocktails at the police, scoring direct hits on several. Officers put up their riot shields to protect themselves. One wasn’t so lucky, and rolled on the ground, trying to put out the fire which was consuming his uniform.
The battle continued for an hour, as the police fired tear gas, bean bags, and rubber bullets into the crowd, who responded with molotovs, rocks, and sticks. Pegasi flew around, trying to quench the flames that had consumed more Encampment tents.
Dozens of rioters rushed onto the streets to confront the police. Unicorn officers turned half a dozen of them into frogs. The others dispersed. A line of eight bulldozers lumbered down Celestial Avenue, marked with Manehattan PD insignia. They honked loudly, smoke billowing from their stacks, flanked by officers who stood atop them and hung from the sides. When they were twenty meters away from the Square, a single earth stallion stood in front of the lead bulldozer, wearing an EFA shirt. When officers tried to approach him, he swung at them with the wooden end of his picket sign, which he had sharpened to a point.
“You won’t demolish the Encampment! I won’t let you!”
A police unicorn turned him into a frog. The officers all got back on the bulldozer, but he wouldn’t hop out of the way. Either he refused, or didn’t yet realize he was temporarily a frog and had to hop instead of walk, but the driver couldn’t see him. His green body was crushed under the treads. The Encampment booed and hissed at the bulldozers. A volley of ten molotovs flew from the square and from pegasi towards the lead bulldozer, setting it alight as the police jumped from the sides, their bodies ablaze. The crowd cheered as the dozer’s fuel tank exploded and it burst into a fireball.
Inside the Manehattan public library, a few blocks away from the Encampment and the riots, sleeping bags were sprawled out in the aisles. Hundreds of books covered the floor, and were out of order on the shelves. The water fountains were covered in green mold and mildew. Banana peels, apple cores, and soda cans spilled out of trash cans onto the floor. The library had been in use by the Encampment for about a month, ever since Parliamentary Square had run out of room for tents. The librarians, janitors, and other staff had long left the library, leaving only the homeless and the live-in Encampment inside.
On the top floor, there stood a large book club meeting room, with the tables and chairs cleared out. Vinyl Scratch, Professor Fossil, and a dozen of the Mareicopa crowd stood on one end of the room, while Starlight Glimmer, Hoops, Dumbbell, and a dozen of the Equals crowd stood on the other.
Behind the Equals group stood twenty ravers, all beaten and bloodied, their hooves, wings, and horns bound. Their flanks all bore equals signs. Behind the Mareicopa group stood young Strikey, the baseball still adorning her flank. She sat, sobbing quietly.
“One for twenty is more than fair. Give me back my daughter,” said Strikey’s mom, who stood next to Starlight Glimmer.
“Yes, give us Strikey, and we’ll give back the ravers and the cutie marks,” said Starlight Glimmer.
“I don’t see any cutie marks with you,” Vinyl Scratch scoffed. “Where are they?”
Starlight Glimmer held up a hoof. “They’re hidden in this library, between the pages of some of the books on the shelves. Once I’ve removed young Strikey’s cutie mark, I’ll tell you where to find those books. Open them, and the cutie marks will fly back onto the raver’s flanks.”
A neon-green maned, black coated raver named Wubby objected, “We had fifty Club Copa regulars here. I know them all by name; it was my job to keep track of everypony on our bus.”
Wubby held up his wing, counting the ravers off on his feathers. “There’s seven of us standing here with Vinyl, and twenty tied up cutie-markless with you. Two were killed in the fights, three are in the hospital, and the cops arrested five. Where are the other thirteen?”
Starlight Glimmer smiled. “Ten of them remained on the square, where they’re helping us fight off the police. Though they hated having their marks removed, they hate police brutality even more, and formed a temporary alliance with us after the bulldozers came. Your ravers are actually quite good brawlers; I’ll give them that. Go outside, and when you open the books, their marks will still fly all the way back to them, no matter how far away they are.”
Professor Fossil chuckled. “That does rather sound like some of the ravers. I suppose that story is plausible.”
Vinyl Scratch nodded in agreement. “They love the mosh pits. But there were thirteen that Wubby mentioned. How ‘bout the last three?”
Glimmer explained, “Thumping Beats, Zippy Tune, and Subwoofer decided that they liked being cutie markless so much, they’d come live in one of the Warehouses. They were each in their thirties or later, and were tired of a special talent telling them to take drugs and party every night instead of settling down, having a family, and contributing to the community. With the marks no longer plaguing their flanks and blinding their brains, they finally realized how empty their lives in Mareicopa had really been.”
“I don’t believe you, yo; those guys were dedicated partiers. There’s nothing wrong with havin’ fun every night,” said Vinyl Scratch, sparking up a cigarette.
“You can’t smoke in here! Not in front of my kid; that’s child abuse,” Strikey’s mom protested, throwing her hooves in the air.
“Yeah, well you were going to take her cutie mark away, so you’re one to talk,” said Vinyl Scratch, condescendingly blowing smoke into the air.
“And kidnapping a child is a felony, DJ!” Hoops shouted. Dumbbell nodded.
“I’m sure that if it were a more common spell, taking a pony’s cutie mark against their will would also be illegal, akin to aggravated battery or rape,” said Professor Fossil.
“It’s worse than rape!” Vinyl Scratch shouted, scowling as smoke poured from her nose. “You’ve taken away their entire reason for being alive! And this whole stupid trade of yours is sketch as hell. I give you Strikey, and then you take her cutie mark, and only after you’ve destiny-molested her do you tell me where these books are with my buddies’ marks? How do I know that you aren’t lying?”
“It is suspicious, indeed,” said Professor Fossil. “I am a time traveller, so what if I cause a self-sustaining time loop? If we accept the deal, and it works out, then I will travel back to this exact spot five minutes from now, and tell us to accept the deal. If not, and there is no future Fossil here, we will know not to take the deal.”
Everypony nodded, except Hoops and Dumbbell.
“Wait, I’m confused…” Hoops started. “You won’t take this deal unless you from the future tells yourself to take the deal?”
Fossil nodded.
“But then, I mean, how would you know to take the deal in the future, unless you took the deal first without telling your past self to take it?” asked Hoops.
Starlight Glimmer said, “That is rather confusing, come to think of it. I haven’t studied them extensively, but from my understanding, time spells can’t alter past events from what we already know them to be.”
“Yeah, now even I’m confused, and I’ve seen him use the spell before,” said Vinyl Scratch, scratching her head.
“It’s true that time spells can’t alter past events,” said Professor Fossil. “But past events can be self-caused.”
“How do you know?” asked Dumbbell.
“From experience. I’ve bet on quite a few Chupacabra games using tips that I’ve gotten from my future self. Then, once I have the money, I go back and tell my past self that the bet was successful so that I’ll make it in the first place,” said Professor Fossil.
The ponies on Starlight Glimmer’s side of the room all reeled.
“That’s cheating! You’re taking money from ponies who bet you!” shouted Hoops.
“FRAUDSTER!” shouted Dumbbell.
Fossil shrugged. “I’ve merely provided the second half of a willing transaction. Were I not to, the pony who made the losing bet with me would still make that losing bet, but with somepony else. I trained for years to learn this time spell. Why not enrich my own life?”
The two sides had an intense debate over the ethics of time spells for the next five minutes, at which point Vinyl Scratch glanced at the clock.
“Alright, the deal’s off; it’s been five minutes and no future Fossil,” she said.
Starlight Glimmer sighed, her head hung low. “I was afraid that you’d say that. I’ll have you know that I fully intended to honor our agreement, as ‘fraudulent’ as it seemed. I’m a mare of my word, not some cheater like you, Professor, but when you live by fraud, it stands to reason that you would see everybody else as fraudsters, too… Of course, I never said anything about what I would do if you didn’t accept.”
A blue glow surrounded Strikey and Professor Fossil as Starlight Glimmer levitated them off their hooves, towards her side of the room.
Vinyl and other unicorn ravers lit up her horns and tried to pull back the ponies, but they still continued levitating towards Starlight Glimmer.
“Get ‘em back!” Vinyl shouted, motioning with her hoof towards the opposite end of the room. Her earth pony and pegasus ravers rushed over to grab Strikey and Starlight Glimmer. But when they reached them, they found their hooves couldn’t touch them.
Starlight Glimmer smiled. “Trouble grabbing ahold? How do you think that I get those marks into the giant glass container without opening it and letting the other marks fly out? Intangibility.”
Vinyl’s jaw dropped. “But… but…”
Glimmer laughed. “What, you think that Pumpkin Cake is the only pony who knows that spell? No. She’s not unique. Nopony is. When I’m in power, nopony will be. I have my magic only to bring about a stateless, moneyless, markless society. But ultimately, at the very end, not even I will retain my skills.”
She set Fossil and Strikey down and removed their marks, as the ravers on Vinyl Scratch’s side remained powerless to stop her.
Starlight Glimmer concluded, “I will not allow Strikey to be separated from her mother. I will not allow your fraudster professor to continue his schemes and swindle the public. I will allow the rest of you to flee from here with your marks intact, but only to serve as a warning to Pumpkin Cake. Should she try to interfere with me, the Equals, or the Encampment, she will lose.”
The Mareicopa Militia scares away protesters from Phase Healing. The Diamond Dog camp is flooded. We see some more protests in Manehattan with fatalities and injuries rising.
QUESTIONS
-Was Pumpkin right in shooing away those protesters, or was she interfering with their right to express themselves? Does their philosophy really seek to 'enslave' her?
-Did Alpha Rover get his just desserts? How about his tribe? What caused the dam to break, was it just the perfect storm of too much rain pressing on a dam in disrepair, or was it perhaps a sabotage act as part of Zecora, Zarek, and Berry Punch's plans?
-Was Vinyl Scratch right to take Strikey from her mother? Is cutie mark magic actually the joke of ponykind? How can a pony be expected to know what he will do for the rest of his life at such a young age as we see the fillies and colts get their marks in the show?
-Do you believe Starlight Glimmer that three of the ravers decided that they liked being markless and wanted to join her?
-In a fight between Starlight Glimmer and Pumpkin Cake, who would win?
TRIVIA
-The "Coltumbia River Dam" is based on the Columbia River dam in Washington state.
-Looks like the 100th episode completely dashed my portrayal of a couple of the characters in Brother Against Sister. Good thing this is an AU story! 
ADMINISTRATIVE
I think it's obvious by now that I'll go a bit over 300k words for this story. Please forgive my earlier estimate for being inaccurate. I still am done with the vast majority of the story, so it won't go on for too far after that.
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END! END!!!!
I'm sorry but this story has gone on for WAY too long. Even when the war is over, everything is acting like creeps, jerks, OoC folks, and no peace is ever maintained. It's just violence and per stupidity with them.
Forgive me, but I prefer a peaceful solution than all this madness.
Also, Starlight Glimmer is an idiot. She will be the next to go.
Nice chapter!
Mostly good, but that 'original sin' bit doesn't match anything in Equestria.
You've been making these societies as allegories and amalgamations of human societies, and that's fine, but I don't think making ponies more Christian contributes to the story. You don't need a concept of original sin to be anti-abortion.
6097907 Equestrian society as portrayed in the story has always been rather secular, and that continues to be the case. In fact, I think that Nurse Redheart is the only pony who is explicitly stated to be religious due to her affiliation with St. Prancis hospital. Some ponies do have Christianity like religions in my headcanon, but they're nowhere near as prominent as they would be in real-life places like America. (I think I broke it down by percentages in a different post someplace) Given that, I agree that the bit about original sin might clash with the rest of the story, now that I think about it. I'll go ahead and take that part out.
You're right about abortion not being a solely religious issue. There are plenty of secular arguments to make against (or for) abortion, I'd say.
6097690
Thanks!
6097580
All things in their own time. I do have quite the ending in mind for this story, one befitting a story so long and tumultuous. I think that you'll really like the ending I have planned, and it is coming soon, I promise.
I am always looking for constructive feedback on my story. Might I ask who you believe is acting out of character?
Also, to be fair to the characters, very few of them outright want violence. They almost all want a peaceful solution to Equestria's economic and social problems. They just disagree with each other to the point where they don't see a peaceful solution, and see violence as a last resort.
-Pumpkin harmlessly used a gravity spell to prevent what, in her mind, was quickly escalating into an attack on her clinic, and the militia's guns were all for show and never intended to be used unless they were attacked first.
-Pound Cake has tried to keep his protest peaceful, they confiscate alcohol and weapons from their co-demonstrators on the square so that things won't escalate. He's clearly upset when the tear gas and molotovs start flying, and definitely upset when Starlight Glimmer starts taking cutie marks away from ponies against their will.
-Twilight Sparkle has yet to crack down on the Encampment because she respects their freedom of speech but she understands that she does need to keep a lid on it so that things don't get out of control. The Manehattan PD only moved in once they saw no other option, and once the ravers and Equals started descending into drunken brawls.
-Vinyl and Starlight both arguably are instigators in this chapter: Vinyl when she kidnaps Strikey and Starlight when she takes away Strikey and Fossils' cutie marks against their will. Neither of them were really doing it just to be violent, though, and I'd say that they each saw what they were doing as being consistent with their own ideologies.
Starlight Glimmer she properly knows more spells and I wonder if she still has her cutie marm
6098419 she does still have her mark so that she can cast the spells she needs to in order to bring about her markless society. Unlike in the show, here she is open about the need to keep her own mark. Some people might have seen her as a hypocrite, but then they never would have joined her group of Equals. So the way the mane six brought her down in the show wouldn't really work in this story.
The Ravers have a good point there. Having one's mark taken against their will is like rape... or having your fingers or toes amputated against your will: it's part of them, and only they should be the ones to make the decision to join or not to join the Equals.
-Pumpkin way over-reacted with that gravity spell, but given her history I could understand how she would react so badly. Yes, their philosophy would enslave her, it's almost like the philosophy of a couple dozen yahoos waving signs is poorly thought out or something...
-Alpha Rover got his just desserts, and I found it delicious. Considering his tribe took part in terroristic attacks against civilians in Manehatten and elsewhere, they deserved it too. I suspect sabatoge, a well maintained dam wouldn't just break after only a year or two, even if the electrical equipment failed (to be fair, I'm basing this on Fallout New Vegas).
-Pass on the Vinyl taking Strikey, that one is just too hard. Cutie marks can be a curse depending on how you think they work. In this story they have a compulsion element, in which case on balance I think they would be a curse. I've always figured cutie marks give you a magical boost in the area of your special talent, but no mental compulsion to practice it, in which case they would not be a curse.
(How can a pony be expected to know what he will do for the rest of his life at such a young age as we see the fillies and colts get their marks in the show?) I've been wrestling with this question for years. Some cutie marks seem to be a surprise to their bearers, is destiny just handing them out? If so, does destiny have a good understanding of future employment trends over the next 50 years? If not, shouldn't most ponies have cutie marks in being a rockstar or an athlete or something, because that's what most ten year olds want? (would explain Hoops and Dumbell).
-I actually believe Starlight Glimmer, why would she give over 20 but not those three, and I doubt she would have so much insight to raver lifestyle that she could come up with such a good excuse on the fly.
-With the alicornium, Pumpkin will stomp Shimmer. Without it... on balance, I would say Pumpkin, way more combat experience. Unless Shimmer's cutie mark-stealing spell would affect Shimmer while intangible, even if her flank was inside a solid object. Then I think Starlight might have a real shot of beating Pumpkin.
6100541 Starlight Glimmer has only done voluntary demarkings up until this chapter. Taking the ravers' and Professor Fossil's marks is a risky change of strategy, as she could alienate a lot of potential allies by doing that.
Pound would agree that sometimes it's necessary for a pony to choose to be demarked, but I don't think he'd agree with such a spell being used against ponies who didn't consent to it, even the police or the ravers who fought in the drunken brawls.
Pumpkin would probably take a similar live-and-let-live attitude to her brother, maybe with a few differences. But now that Starlight Glimmer has demarked several of her allies, who knows how she will react to that. Judging by her reaction to the protesters at the clinic, I don't think she'll appreciate it in the slightest.
6102041 I think Pumpkin would've been wise to call in the official Mareicopa police rather than her militia to secure the clinic. The police would hopefully be better trained in crowd control, and could prevent another arson incident. In Equestria, gravity spells for crowd control isn't a new idea, but it's looked down on due to the potential for dangerous injuries. If a pony slams into the side of a building, that would be like falling from a great height. Pumpkin was lucky nopony was injured. The same thing with bringing out guns. That had the potential to turn into a shootout, and even though open carry is legal in Mareicopa, it might not be a wise idea. It reminds me of that recent Draw Muhammad protest that they had outside of a mosque in Phoenix (the city Mareicopa is based on, coincidentally enough) where a few of the protesters were packing AR-15's. I was just relieved that nobody got shot.
Compared to her brother and other characters, Pumpkin has gotten the short end of the stick sometimes, like with Trixie abusing her. In other situations though, she has been incredibly lucky. Sometimes sheer dumb luck. In addition to there being no injuries here at the protest, the foal farms themselves are another example. Recall back in Chupacabra Stadium what can happen if Pumpkin loses her concentration while midway through casting the intangibility spell. In two years, she hasn't accidentally spliced a foal or mother, and has made literally billions of bits. Oh, and in eighteen years, she's never spliced herself accidentally. Also, depending on how you look at it, Pumpkin is either very lucky to know the euphoria-inducing WINI spell and it's great that she's finally found something that makes her truly happy... or she's a hopeless addict trying in vain to cope with all the terrible things that have happened to her, and surrounds herself with magic and money to make up for her dead parents and her PTSD.
It's really feast or famine with her, huh?
-According to the show Life After People, the Hoover Dam would take 10,000 years to burst even if people stopped maintaining it entirely starting tomorrow. Obviously it's apples and oranges, but I'd at least give a dam like the Coltumbia more than two years.
-I base my take on the cutie marks judging by what we saw in Magical Mystery Cure. The mane six, when their cutie marks were switched around, were compelled to do what their new cutie marks were telling them to do, even though they sucked at it, and even though they were causing harm to the community. Perhaps that was an exaggerated example to fit into a half-hour time slot (just like everypony in town losing their cheery demeanor just because Pinkie hadn't been around for like, a day) but the point still stands that a cutie mark can sometimes be a powerful, counter-productive compulsion.
And I honestly think that the cutie mark magic isn't infallible, nor can it predict the future, other than what it thinks the bearer will be good at. It's like the sorting hat in Harry Potter. Fortunately, cutie marks are normally right. Sometimes, ponies might get special talents that are too narrow or perhaps aren't what they want to do, but they can find another job easily enough that they're good at. The Mane Six have day jobs that aren't exactly aligned with their cutie marks, but they do allow them to still use their special talents while doing those jobs. For instance, Rainbow Dash is shown to manage the weather, but given her special talent, she could just as easily be a professional racer, a sports coach, a cloud factory worker, or even a demolition mare.
Sports-related cutie marks are tricky. They are the most likely to lead to cutie mark angst, due to the reasons that Strikey's mother mentioned. In the case of ponies like Hoops and Dumbbell, they got cutie marks based on what they thought they wanted to do when they were younger. Hoops imagined he'd be a pro basketball player, while Dumbbell wanted to be a professional bodybuilder. As those are very competitive fields, they obviously failed. Now, could they have perhaps used those talents to be something "lesser," like peewee coaches, or professional movers, or basketball factory workers? Sure. But they are both very driven and rambunctious individuals, and I don't think they could ever "sell out" or "settle" like Rainbow Dash had to "settle" and be a weather mare. They wanted to be the best. So when Starlight Glimmer promised them both that they could be the best by being equal with everypony else and striving towards their common goals so that everypony could be the best, they took her offer.
-In my headcanon, the three ravers did want to stay with Starlight's group. She kind of handed them an easy way out of their cutie mark angst. There's a lot you could potentially do with a "raving" based cutie mark besides just being Vinyl's groupies: sound technicians, studio managers, pyrotecnicians, etc. Maybe those ponies weren't creative enough in their career choices and they gave up their search too easily. Or, maybe they truly were sick of their special talent and anything even related to raving and that whole subculture, and they only realized this once the marks were gone from their flanks. I'll leave it up to your imagination.
-Pumpkin does have the alicornium, but Starlight Glimmer has more than twice as much magic experience. Judging by her age in the show when we see her in season five, which was 18 years before the current point in BAS, she's presumably at least forty or fifty by this point in the story, if not older. What Pumpkin has in raw power, Starlight might possibly have in sheer variety of spells, discipline, and focus required to be a magician. But Pumpkin has combat experience and has been in actual fights, and Starlight Glimmer hasn't. As to whether or not Starlight's cutie mark removal spell would work on Pumpkin Cake, even if she were intangible, I'll leave that question unanswered for now
6102227 -Yeah, calling the police was clearly what she should have done, militias with machine guns as crowd control is also a terrible idea, but that whole scene with her flashbacks and fears was just awesome.
- I feel like we won't really be able to judge Pumpkin's mis/fortune until the end of the story. I do hope if she does get to be a tree, maybe she has enough juice to extend the spell to Fluttershy as well?
- You make a good point with magical mystery cure (don't forget Applebloom uncontrollably loopty-hooping when she got that disease). I feel like, based on the way everypony acted, everyone except Spike and Twilight (who were in the center of the spell) had their memories changed to think that the main 5 had always had those cutie marks. The main 5 weren't acting on magical compulsion, they were acting the way their memories told them things had always been. Remember Fluttershy gave up on comedy and almost moved back to Cloudsdale. However, the skills and experience didn't really transfer the way that memories did, which is why the main 5 were so bad at their talents.
- I agree that cutie marks can be fallible, and mistakes can be made, like the HP Sorting Hat (then again I always figured the Sorting Hat is mostly their for students who aren't sure, and the hat will put almost anyone into the house of their choice if they really want to be there. It would explain a lot of weird placements.) I think in normal, non-depression Equestria, there are a lot of ponies working as clerks, janitors, and marketing consultants who have cutie marks that have nothing to do with their jobs, but they aren't miserable. They practice their mark as a hobby in their free time, and they are content. Of course, those are ponies who have more difficulty keeping a job during a depression...
- Interesting that Starlight here seems to be impatient, moving towards her show version of forcing the cutie marks off of ponies, when she could still establish an independent voluntary, markless society. Has she ever given a cutie mark back? If not, what would it take for her to do so? (Also, that hilarious exchange with Vinyl and the equalist was based on the south park episode about hippies, right?)
- Age and treachery will overcome youth and skill, eh?
To be blunt, I don't take to a cult like that of SG's. People thought that Communism would be a perfect society, too. Look what happened to that. SG's only offer is to make everyone equal by making them equally... useless? Worthless? incapable? What's the proper word to use without sounding insulting to the victims of this... this... ideology?
- PC wasn't being fair to the protestors; after all, what about that father whose son could have been saved? And her outburst was triggered by bad memories, which is understandable, but...
- Rover got what he deserved. His tribe... I'm assuming children died, so no, they didn't deserve it. And in that light, I'm seriously hoping it wasn't intentional sabotage.
- My heart is with Vinyl on this, but her action to kidnap wasn't right. Nor was the mother's idea to force her infant daughter to have her cutie mark removed before she was old enough to make her own decision.
- I'm inclined to believe she's a liar. After all, in the S5 premiere, she said that ponies were allowed to make their own choice over whether their marks were removed or not, but then didn't give Twilight or her friends their own choice in the matter. -----
- Pumpkin. Her experiences have made her too ruthless, in a practical, stand-up fight. Of course, skill isn't everything... But I'd still go with PC over SG any day.
Also, what's happened with Hayseed and his bunch since they burned down the store? Did Twilight take any action yet?
6103246 Glad you liked the flashback scene; it was one of my personal favorite scenes in this chapter.
Based on what we know from the narrative, Pumpkin certainly has a ways to go to become powerful enough to realize her dream of turning into a tree indefinitely. Recall that it took all six elements plus Celestia herself to permanently turn Twilight into an alicorn, which should in theory be relatively easier than crossing entire species and Kingdoms (animalia to plantae). But yeah, hopefully Fluttershy gets to realize her dream as well 
Definitely agree with your point about there being something more to the spell that Twilight used in Magical Mystery Cure than just switching around the cutie marks. I would agree that it did at least alter the mane five's memories, but as for the rest of the town, that's harder to say since I don't think that anypony really asked any of them about that. At least, if I remember correctly; it has been over a year since I've seen that episode
I also agree that ponies might pursue their special talent as a hobby and work an unrelated day job to pay the bills.
I would say that Starlight has never given back a cutie mark, unless somepony in her commune was being troublesome enough to get themselves banished. In that case, I think that she'd just send them packing with their mark. Like Vinyl pointed out, it would be difficult to claim the existence of a stateless society with things like jails, so being banished from the warehouse is really the only thing they can easily do (or put them into a brainwashing room like the mane six)
I have seen that South Park episode before, though I didn't really base Vinyl's conversation on it, just on what I thought would be some funny dialogue. Matt and Trey are brilliant, though
Age and treachery are important, though so are youth and skill. I'm honestly still split somewhat on the issue of Pumpkin vs. Glimmer myself.
6103363 You could say "talentless," which is an insult in our world, but since these ponies have given up literally their special talents, it would be accurate to call them that. Somebody like Iron Will would probably call them "doormats."
Despite his somewhat pushy nature, I do think that at the end of the day, he was trying to get ponies to be the best that they could be. It's a shame that we haven't seen more of him in the show, and I was upset that he didn't come back for the 100th episode. But I do plan on having him make an appearance in this story before everything is all said and done... 
Pumpkin still has quite a few unresolved issues, clearly, as you would expect someone to grapple with PTSD for the rest of their lives if they'd been through what she had. That's why her "tree-topia" plan is so important to her, as it would mean that she would get to finally live in peace and joy, and it would last for thousands of years. But she's not skilled enough in magic to do that just yet, so at this point it's still just a dream. She's been able to take some of the pain away, at least temporarily, with the WINI spell, but I don't think that by itself is enough to heal all of the wounds. I mean, it's a magic spell, not a... um... more powerful magic spell!
There were young pups who died in the flood, definitely. It's stated that out of 10,000, only a couple dozen Diamond Dogs survived. If it were sabotage, that would make it an indiscriminate massacre the likes of the gas attack against the griffons.
Vinyl Scratch and Starlight Glimmer are two of the most dominant personalities on either twin's side at this moment, and each has entirely opposite political worldviews. When they clash, you can expect a battle of extremes
I think that SG almost always gives the choice to ponies of whether or not to become markless, in both this story and in the show. The only time that she involuntarily demarks somepony is if she sees them as a threat, or if demarking them could benefit her community. In the show, and in the mane six's case, she could see that they were clearly on a mission to "fix" her town, but she thought she'd turn that to her own advantage by turning six of the most respected ponies in Equestria into walking, talking billboards for her cause. In the story, and in the ravers' case, she demarked them because they were fighting against her commune members. She demarked Strikey because in her opinion, Strikey had to stay with her mother, who was in the commune, but ponies aren't allowed to live in her commune if they have cutie marks. She demarked Professor Fossil because, in her opinion, he was being a time-travelling fraudster.
I think my audience is evenly split on the matter of Pumpkin vs. Glimmer... judging from all three responses that I've gotten
Twilight Sparkle hasn't taken any action in Hollow Shades to resolve that situation yet. The mob burnt down the store, but then they settled down since they took out their target, so they're not still an ongoing threat... unlike the encampment in Manehattan, which is still ongoing and becoming larger and more uncontrollable by the day. As Manehattan is 20x larger than Hollow Shades and is Equestria's capital, I think that's eating up most of her time at the moment.
6108822 Alright, thanks for taking the time to make such a long response.
Ooooh. Let's hope the flood is not intentional, then.
I see your point on the whole demarking and kidnapping of the Mane 6. Not to say I approve, though. I still don't understand why they didn't resist, or try to escape whenever they were let out.
It's even?
I see. Manehattan. Sounds like someone lit the bomb fuse. The cops aren't going to have an easy time, and if they put the arrested ponies on trial (which they'd have to, in absence of martial law), those ponies essentially become martyrs. Twilight and her cabinet have a lot of shuffling to do, or else they're on track to a revolution.
I hope to see more protests not only aimed at filthy and diamond but also the alicorn leadership they repeatedly went behind the backs of there followers and now common ponys are paying the price (luna and twilights real crime was being caught in the act). Also did you purposely make it so that pumpkin is a realist (boarder lining on pessimist) while her brother pound is a well meaning but naïve protest organizer? I do see were hes coming from but if he were to achieve his goals whats the incentive to work? If you can just live of the government then why work or create at all. It doesnt seem like he nows how or wants to answer these questions. As for pumpkin can we really blame her? After being inslaved and expermented on would she really agree to being forced to heal everyone by force? Then whats to stop her from leaving equestia and to some ofter country if that were to happen? Yes she let the foal die but sadly those thibks happen there not fair or good but its likely the foal was already dead when the stallon left him to find pumpkin. Why didnt he go to a hospital? Then we have the protesters i do enjoy the hypocrisy they spout but this is common in many protests. I also enjoy the questions u ask at the end of each chapter that provoke discussion one that i think should be asked is when does a protest become an occupation?
6110757 Yep, I have intentionally made these differences between the twins' take on things, based on their life experiences and personalities. As much as their differing ideologies are driving them apart, their different personalities are also driving them to conflict.
He hasn't clearly stated it in the story, but Pound's answer to "why bother working" might be that ponies inherently want to work and pursue their special talents, due to their cutie marks. Providing ponies a safety net would ensure that if they unfortunately find themselves unemployed, or out of a house, or with cancer, or something, they wouldn't be broken. That, in his mind, would provide employees with more bargaining power with their employer. That is the common answer that social democrats frequently give, and I would say that is the closest to Pound Cake's ideology. (There are some differences, like his pro-military and pro-war attitude) Of course, this answer doesn't work if Starlight Glimmer succeeds in her goal of a cutie-markless society.
That sort of points to the hypocrisy. You're right that the protest is often hypocritical, and this is due mainly to there being so many different groups involved, each with their own ideology. In the Encampment, we have Pound Cake's group, the Equestrians For Action; we have Organized Labor's union, the Association of Steelworkers, Dockhooves, and Fabricators; we have Starlight Glimmer's group, the Equals. Depending on whether or not you consider them part of the protest, there's also the group from Mareicopa. Then, of course, we have all the homeless ponies and ponies unaffiliated with any group who live in Manehattan or elsewhere, who go to these protests just because it is such a big protest and massive social movement.
The stallion alleged that the ambulance wouldn't come to his house because he was poor and unable to pay, and he couldn't carry his kid because he had a bad back. It was kind of a perfect storm of events, but he has blamed Pumpkin Cake, and seized on the Encampment movement to lead a protest against her.
I'm glad you like the questions I ask at the end of the chapters.
They definitely do invite discussion and comments, and this is one of the most commented-on stories that I've ever written. In answer to your question, I think that a protest becomes an occupation when people or ponies stay someplace for an extended period of time and refuse to leave when asked by those who control the property (either the police, or the private property owner). So the Parliamentary Square occupants and the library occupants would be an occupation. Of course, occupations aren't always bad, and there is also the tried and true tactic of the sit-in.
You keep writing it as "equals sign" It's "equal sign". Also, how long until the national guard is called in at this point to wipe out Starlight and her cult anyway? She's been forcibly removing cutie marks. For Twilight, that would hit a nerve.
And how many countries are in what used to be Equestria now? I've lost count.