Friends On The Other Side

by Mr101

Prologue - Freedom

Friends on the other Side.

Prologue - Freedom

Princess Celestia sat on her throne, listening to the usual nobles who would attend the day court and waffle on about their petty little problems and how they should be given this, that and the other. She was used to these kinds of demands. The noble who was talking, a stallion named Money Bags, would always claim there was never enough bits to fund the private sector. The sector he primarily ran.

“And that, my Princess, is why I believe we should divert more bits to the private sector,”

“Yes, thank you, Money Bags,” Celestia replied. “We shall see what can be done.”

The stallion nodded, seemingly content for the time being. As he sat down, a mare stood up and delicately coughed to clear her throat.

“I would like to, once again, bring forward the matter of the working ponies who are still—”

“Oh, not this drivel again,” Money Bags interrupted.

“Please, Money Bags. You’ve had your turn, please be respectful to the others,” Celestia said sternly.

“Apologies, your majesty,” Money Bags grumbled

Celestia raised her brow at him as Money Bags held back a sigh that threatened to escape his lips. He turned his attention to the mare and gritted his teeth, “I apologise, Lily Swan.”

“That’s fine, Money Bags,” Lily Swan replied with a glare. “Now, as I was saying...”

Celestia shook her head softly as the court listened to Lily’s request.

Sometimes I wonder if this is a court of nobles or a foal’s playgroup...

---

“But the private sector has more than enough bits!” Lily yelled.

“Poppycock!” Money Bags retorted. “You and the miserable bit benefit scroungers have got more than enough!”

“No, they don’t! And how dare you call them bit benefit scroungers, you cad!”

“It’s the truth! And how dare you call me a cad, you… you… hagfish!”

Celestia sighed. The two ponies had suddenly broken out into a loud argument the minute Lily had suggested cutting some of the funding to the private sector and diverting it to urgently needed benefit funds. It started off with reasonable arguments; Lily Swan had tried to defend her suggestion, but Money Bags immediately denounced it. Then all tartarus broke loose.

“You stupid-minded, old, wrinkled wind bag!” Lily snorted.

Money Bags spluttered at her insult, “W-what did you call me you… you… ass!”

Several nobles gasped at his retort. Then, like a dam breaking, the entire courtroom burst into a large argument between both the side defending Lily and the side backing Money up. Celestia sighed once more before rearing her head up.

“Enough!” she bellowed in the royal voice, quickly quieting the ruckus, “I think it’s best if we all adjourned for a break, does that sound fair?”

The nobles grumbled and nodded in agreement before they started to pour out of the throne room. Finally, Celestia was on her own. She sighed and flopped against the throne and rubbed her temples.

“I need some air…”

She rose up from the throne and headed towards the balcony, stepping outside to overlook the gardens. However, something felt off about the air, the way the wind gently blew over her body just felt... wrong. Celestia closed her eyes and concentrated her magic. After a few moments her eyes shot open and she stared into the garden.

“So… it’s starting… just like I knew it would,” she muttered, allowing a small smile to appear on her face. “Then… it is good that I have planned for this day.”

Celestia was about to turn around and head back inside when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. She saw the group of colts and fillies that had arrived earlier on that day on a school trip to visit the palace and smiled to herself. The group spotted her, and she giggled as they waved at her excitedly. She looked over to them and returned the wave.

---

“Look, Miss Cheerilee! It’s the Princess!”

“What’s that, Sweetie Belle?” Cheerilee replied doubtfully before she looked up. “Oh! So it is!”

Twenty or so eyes turned to see Princess Celestia looking down on them with a smile on her face. The foals giggled when she waved towards them.

“Wave back, everypony,” Miss Cheerilee smiled.

The group began to wave frantically at Celestia who was more than happy to wave madly with them. After a few seconds more, Miss Cheerilee eventually shooed the giggling class away but not before waving to the Princess herself. The Princess waved back to her before turning and heading back inside the palace.

“Okay, as we are nearly done. I want to finish our field trip here, in the world-famous Canterlot sculpture garden!” Miss Cheerilee announced.

The group entered a large garden with long hedges and stared in awe at the many status that lined the pathway of the area.

“Miss Cheerilee, what’s that one?” a young colt asked.

“That one there, represents ‘Friendship’, Button.”

“Oh, oh!” a filly cried, running to another statue, “What about this one?”

“That one, Pinchy, represents ‘Victory’.” Miss Cheerilee replied.

Scootaloo gasped as she stared in awe at the statue, “How cool would it be to have that for a cutie mark?”

“Cool, if you were actually victoryful at somethin’,” Apple Bloom replied.

Sweetie Belle blinked and giggled, “That’s not a word!”

“What are you, a dictionary?” Scootaloo scoffed.

Miss Cheerilee stamped her hoof, gaining the three filles attention, “Girls! Now this is a really interesting statue.”

Cheerilee pointed to a statue nearby and the group walked over it it as she continued to talk.

“What do you notice about it?”

“It’s got an eagle claw!” Apple Bloom cried.

“And a lion paw!” Scootaloo added.

“And a snake tail!” Sweetie Belle finished.

“It looks like a video game boss!” Button exclaimed excitedly.

Pinchy rolled her eyes and giggled, “Trust you to say that.”

“Can anypony tell me what it’s called?” Miss Cheerilee asked the class.

The group chattered among themselves and tried to think of what the creature could be called, however, no one knew what it was and they gave up guessing.

Cheerilee smiled and waved a hoof over the statue, ”This creature is called a draconequus. He has the head of a pony and a body made up of all sorts of things. What do you suppose that represents?”

The group were quiet for a short moment as they tried to figure out what it represented.

“Confusion!” Apple Bloom cried.

“Evil!” Sweetie Belle shouted.

Scootaloo shook her head at Sweetie Belle, “Chaos!”

“It’s not chaos, you dodo!” Sweetie Belle stuck her tongue out at her.

Scootaloo glared at Sweetie Belle, “Don’t call me things I don’t know the meaning of! And it is too chaos!”

“Is not!” Sweetie Belle argued back, pressing her face against Scootaloo’s

“You’re both wrong!” Apple Bloom snorted, jumping on top of them.

As the three started to fight, Miss Cheerilee rolled her eyes and walked over to the three, using her hooves to separate them and scowled at them.

“Actually,” she started, “in a way you’re all right. This statue represents ‘Discord’, which means a lack of harmony between ponies. In fact you three have demonstrated discord so well…”

The three fillies looked up at their teacher with smiles.

“...that you’re each going to write me an essay explaining it.”

The three looked down, slightly embarrassed and upset as the other fillies and colts snickered behind them.

“Stupid blank flanks,” Diamond tittered.

“Now let’s go, and I don’t want any more fighting.” Cheerilee said, giving the three a quick look at the end of her sentence.

As the group walked onwards, the three fillies began to argue once more in hushed whispers.

“It’s confusion!” Apple bloom glared at her friends.

“Evil!” Sweetie Belle whispered.

“Chaos!” Scootaloo hissed.

“I said no more fighting!” Cheerilee snapped.

Unbeknownst to anypony in the group, the statue began to crack from the right leg up and along the body. A deep laugh rumbled from within as the crack reached the statues neck before it stopped suddenly, there was a silence that hung over the area before the statue wobbled slightly.

“Are you kidding me?” a voice grumbled from within.

A light tapping came from within it, as if someone was wrapping a knuckle against it.

“Just… hold on,” the voice said to no one in particular.

The sounds of footsteps faded away before coming to a stop. There was a brief pause, the area becoming quiet again. Then, the footsteps suddenly grew louder and increased in tempo followed by a loud bang that echoed inside the statue, as if something had collided with it. The statue rocked slightly as a pained whine escaped from it.

“RIGHT!”

The footsteps faded away before they returned and the sound of something heavy was dropped onto the ground with a grunt. The footsteps began to walk away again before stopping.

“Fire in the hole!” the voice shouted.

A low rumble sounded as something exploded within the statue, causing it to gently rock back and forth. But nothing happened.

“You know what? Screw this,” the voice muttered.

The sound of keys rattling echoed inside the statue, followed by the sound of a wooden door creaking open and shutting. A wooden door appeared in front of the statue and a creature that looked exactly like the statue stepped out, it slammed the door which vanished and the statue crumbled to dust.

“Should have done that in the first place…” he muttered. “Oh well, time to get to work!”

The creature yawned loudly and stretched, popping his back and grinned. He clicked its talons and vanished in a flash of white light.

Comments

[DavidPony]

.....this very first chapter tells me this is gonna be fun :D

[Bookworm Guardian]

Oh God, if they'd've done that in the show...

[Lag Incarnate]

I could imagine being a groundskeeper hearing that whole thing.

[Sunny Smile]

3498455

[Jake8765]

Ooh, Discord.

[jHooves645]

The footsteps began began to walk away again before stopping.

You accidentally put began twice.

[Rikkity]

Don't throw politics into your fics, it kind of throws me away from what I really want to be reading. So this gets a downvote from me.

[Mr Afro Pony]

3500608

What the hell are you talking about? This is about Fictional Politics in a Fictional World.

[Aesoporific]

I'm sorry to be all critical about this, but that first argument kind of struck an pet peeve of mine. If they're talking about diverting crown money or tax revenue of any sort into the private sector then it's no longer private sector. The definition of the private sector is that it isn't under government control, and if it received a significant portion of its money from the government then it's under government control.

Tax cuts or reduction of political restrictions, arguing that that they are burdensome to the point where they are restricting hiring and preventing ponies from founding the small and medium sized firms (like Pony Joe's, Quill and Sofa, Sweet Apple Acres, or The Carousel Boutique) that allow ponies to do what their cutie marks are telling them, would be a much better straw argument. After all, in this case straw man has a point, each one of these small firms that are created employs one (or a dozen) ponies doing something that they love essentially by definition, strengthens cities and towns by providing a reason for ponies to move from place to place, and benefits all by increasing the availability of goods and services and by exposing ponies to more happy ponies.

Conversely, Lily's argument about "working ponies" similarly strikes me as a miss. In reality, working people are rarely doing a job they love and one that is quite often more dangerous than they would prefer. That's the root of the issue of low pay coming a serious problem. Moreover, given how small known Equestrian firms are there's no way that they are anything but price takers. Quill and Sofa and Sweet Apple Acres can't go to a pony and say "you will accept 3 bits and like it" because there are so many other places to work it wouldn't be hard for that pony to find a place that needs someone and has 5 bits laying about.

Lily's concerns would work better with ponies that can't find work relating to their cutie marks. You saw unhappy the ponies were when their cutie marks were switched. What would happen if a pony had a cutie mark relating to something that couldn't be monetized at all? What if there were no jobs in that industry available in the region in which they live? They would have to work, but they would be required to work at something they hate. Add to that the fact that they would be worse at that job than a pony who had a related cutie mark. Arguing for funds to help those ponies, or more to the point to add requirements to Equestrian companies to support those ponies would work better.

That, I think, would work out so much better as an argument because both side will be correct:
Money Bags says: You're hurting ponies by preventing them from doing what they are meant to do, and making everyone worse off to benefit a relative handful.
Lily says: You're hurting ponies by not giving them the choice but to do something they were never meant to do, and letting ponies that are already hurting suffer even more.
Who's right? Well, they both are. The correct choice depends upon your values and loyalties as both making a change and doing nothing both hurt and help ponies and it's functionally impossible to predict what helps the most.

I know it was simply place holder argument to break Discord free, but it touched on something that I feel strongly about. So, yeah...

[Stalwartheart14]

3502642 this political logic is so good!!!

oh and i like this chapter, it makes me want to say "moar" but you just have to settle for "more" since it really wasnt that vivid. i can picture it but i dont know if anyone else can. (not to judge other's creativity)
you get a 8.5 out of 10

[Jdts7]

...That scene with discord......GENIUS

[Nightflight406]

3508281
If course. Discord is like, "funominal cosmic powers. Itty bitty living space."