Applejack Through the Ages

by Paradise Oasis

Deliberations

The grand senate hall of Fort Rainbow Dash was an impressive sight, filling the stunned Candy Apple with awe as she trotted through the twenty foot tall bronze doors. Dwarfing the paltry government buildings that had once stood in Canterlot, the massive Megaron stretched out before her like some massive subterranean cavern deep within the earth. The walls were decorated with mosaics and frescoes of the great military triumphs of old Pegausopolis- some, Sugar could clearly see, had been lifted from the old Pegasus ruins dating from before the days before Equestria. Looking skyward at the barely- visible ceiling, Sugar could have swore she felt water droplets coming down upon her head.

"Do you gals have a leak in here?" Sugar asked, suddenly starting to shiver. "And why's it feel so cold all of a sudden?"

"That's not a leak, nor is it a draft you're feeling in here." The margrave pointed a hoof towards the ceiling. "Take a good look up there, and you'll see what I mean."

Sugar Apple looked skyward, and saw what looked like wispy clouds drifting around near the ceiling. "Wait, what the hay is all that?"

"Sugar, this building is so massive that it has it's own atmosphere separate from the outside." The margrave replied proudly. "Thanks to slight residual Pegasus magic,there are always clouds and mists moving along the ceiling and walls, and it has a tendency to shower when a debated between senators gets heated."

Sugar Apple only nodded her head in silence, as the other mare lead her to a seat high in the gallery. In the chambers below, Apple could see ponies gathering in the seats on either side of the massive, circular chamber. It was easy to make out who represented what, as the common senators of the plebeian class filed in on the left, and the proudly dressed acherons of the patrician ponies filed in on the right. the Margrave herself took a seat on the elevated throne at the far end of the chamber. And after a bit of ceremony, it wasn't long before the deliberations were under way.

"Most honorable Margrave, most noble representatives of the senate, we are here today to discuss a most dire plague upon our lands." A peach colored earth mare declared, standing up from her seat and trotting down onto the chamber floor. "The human race, a simian skurge upon ponydom, that must be driven back to the world from wince they came"

"Say, who's the windbag, makin' all that noise down there?" Apple asked the Pegasus sitting next to her.

"Oh, that's Lady Lambaditsa, the most powerful mare in the Plebian house." The other mare whispered, rolling her eyes. "She's been ranting on the human issue for weeks now, trying to drum up support for her anti-humanoid crusade."

"As we had been discussing before the honorable margrave's arrival, these hoofless newcomers are a parasite that will prey upon our lands, and reduce us to slavery! It has only been a generation since we freed ourselves from the terrible yoke of the tyrant Grogar, do we so quickly wish to reduce ourselves to such depredations again?"

Several of the older mares in the senate, from the same generation as the margrave, nodded their heads in agreement. It was then, that an angry-looking earth pony from the Patrician side stood up, launching into an angry tirade against the plebeian pony.

"Oh, so we are supposed to attack, without provocation, a species that has done nothing to us?" The white mare with a pink mane snapped back, her dress fluttering in the natural breeze that existed in the senate chamber. "Have we degenerated to the level of the goat tyrant, attacking the innocent in our own paranoia?"

This new mare spoke with reason and logic, a trait that reminded Sugar Apple of... well, she really couldn't remember who it reminded her of. Still, she liked this calm and reasonable senator better than the other one, with her wild paranoia and rantings. The world needed more leaders like this Patrician pony, the state things were in right now.

"Patrician Paschalitsa, are you not aware that this barbarians keep our kinds as slaves, working them to death as the goblins once did to us?" Lambaditsa snapped back, stamping her hoof as she glared at the other senator. "The goblins once kept ponies as slaves, too. And did we welcome them with open hooves?"

"We have documented evidence that their work animals are not sentient, but rather primitive brutes lacking in the spark of intelligence." Paschalitsa replied, trying to keep her voice in check from the other senator's unusual level of aggression. "The humans do not keep sentient Equines as slaves."

Now they're blamin' each other fer stuff, and callin' each other names! Sugar Apple groaned inwardly, shaking her head at the petty argument. I thought this was supposed to be an open forum for healthy debate?

"Leave it to a horsemasterist to reduce an equine's value based on level of intelligence, following a fanatical dogma that leaves no room for love or toleration!" Lambaditsa yelled, fingering the horsemasterist medallion around her neck with her hoof. "Have you no compassion in your heart to help these poor enslaved creatures?"

"Why you miserable, idol worshiping Ponygan!" The Patrician mare spat on the white marble floor, feeling she had dirtied her mouth by uttering that foul word. "Only one of the few remaining followers of that miserable dead religion, would have ordered an attack on the local human community in the honorable Margrave's name! You disgrace this entire assembly with your mad xenophobia!"

So it was Lambaditsa who ordered the attack on our village, not the margrave. Sugar Apple thought to herself, eyes narrowing as she watched the senate floor erupt into a huge argument between the pro- and anti-human factions on either side. But what could that shifty mare hope to gain by driving the humans out?

As she watched the factions bawl and argue with each other endlessly, she thought about how much easier such decision making had been in Equestria. There were leaders who everyone obeyed-wither they were heads of families, or princesses who were heads of state- trusting that their judgement and decisions were best. That's how things had been run on the farm and in Ponyville (at least, that what she thought she remembered) How did anything ever get done with all of this endless chattering and debating, how could ponies govern themselves without the ability to make quick and decisive choices?

"All of you, enough!" The margrave slammed her armored hoof onto the ground, bringing the entire chamber to silence. "This human debate has gone on for far too long! Lambaditsa... Paschalitsa... since the two of you are so hung up on the human issue, it will be the two of you who are sent to observe these creatures for yourselves, and discover their intent and level of hostility."

"But my lady,"Paschalitsa protested. "We know so little about their ways. We will need a guide who understands them, and knows where to look."

"And there's no way I'm trusting a human guide with my life!" Lambaditsa spat in contempt. "I do not wish to end up a helpless slave, myself!"

"That is why I have brought the two of you a Pegasus guide, who is in this very room." The margrave announced, her eyes going straight up to the gallery. "One who has voluntarily lived among the humans for some time, and can show you firsthand what they are like."

And it was at this point, that Sugar Apple realized why the margrave had been happy to see her, and why she had been so eager to bring her in on the debate. With a sigh, the Pegasus mare prepared herself for the haredest part of this personal mission yet...

Comments

[Aatxe360]

The white mare with a pink mare snapped back,

...with a pink mane...

Supar Apple groaned inwardly,

Sugar Apple

Interesting arc so far.

[Aatxe360]

A little odd that Lambaditsa didn't get punished for usurping the Margrave's authority.

[FleetlordAvatar]

This will be interesting to see.

[Leave a Whisper]

I've seen Lambaditsa, but not the other one