The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 9 -- Future Perfect

by shysage

Chapter 29, Bully Culture

Falling asleep, I was kind of leery about what might happen, especially after my string of bad dreams last night... Still, I was about as close to Shysage as I could get, and, well that's just so comforting to me. I did fall asleep.

Shysage nudged me awake maybe a few hours later. Cel (Princess Celestia), Lu (Princess Luna) and both their Twins were standing behind Shysage. "Summer, we need to do some late night Canterlot Recording" Shysage said gently, almost whispering.

Well, I was sleeping ok up to that point. Still, I got up, and we all headed down the hall for the room that was the Filia and Fiona Twin's bedroom. The four red-heads were asleep in the library with the rest. We were soon inside.

But we could talk in here, and Cel spoke up as soon as the door was closed. "Mom, dad, I apologize for waking you both up. There is a crucial chapter for your record that we absolutely need to cover. It is best that we talk this through privately, and I don't think we will get that opportunity beyond tonight."

Of course, we had no intention of arguing with Equestria's Princess. But even more, the mother in me sensed that Cel needed this to happen, and to happen now. She needed to tell us. Shysage and I, we would do anything to help our girls.

Lu had paper, ink and a quill, I suspected she would be taking rough notes for Shysage and I. This was fine; I am terrible with Shysage's clip thing. Actually, I was not even sure where it was.

We all laid on our bellies in a circle. Cel (Princess Celestia) let us have a few minutes to wake up the rest of the way, and she was clearly deep in thought. It was clear though, that this would be very difficult for her, for both of them. Our girls were trying not to cry. Cel started putting some words together.

"Mom, your dream was amazing, and fairly accurately covered the basics of both the falling apart of Princess Twilight's circle, as well as the take-over of Equestria by Eschate Zumulus and Phantasma."

Well, she got this far, then she started weeping softly. This continued for a while... Cel kept talking.

"But Eschate Zumulus didn't bring Equestria down. That had already, largely happened..."

Cel had to stop and cry, and Lu moved, taking her writing stuff with her, and laid on her belly next to Cel and cried with her. The two of them cried together for a little while. Cel tried to start talking again.

"I am not even sure where to start...

"Dad, do you remember that stallion that kicked you across the Library lobby? By the next evening, Shining Armor had him in jail. Lu and I met with him the following day.

"Well, he brazenly admitted that he would do that to you again in a heartbeat. He was defiant. He was adamant. He wasn't sorry for the pain he caused you at all..."

Lu picked up here. "We talked to him for a while, trying to help him see how his actions affected you. He simply didn't care... I have never..." My sensitive girl just cried...

Cel just sighed...

"I asked him why he had done that. He repeated all the things I guess he told you. He was visible angry as he explained, and Shining Armor actually called two more guards into the jail cell at this point, just in case.

"After his rant was done though, he said, a little more quietly, that it was a matter of conscience. He said that's why he did that...

"Dad, you taught us to value convictions. I didn't understand this angry stallion, and why you, of all people, should so enrage him. But if he was following his convictions, I don't know... I guess I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt..."

Princess Celestia of Equestria started crying...

"Dad, I made a mistake, and all Equestria paid... I warned that stallion that hurting other ponies would only hurt Equestria... His anger so offended me... I ordered him released, and I quickly left, and of course Lu followed.

Princess Celestia of Equestria was sobbing... "I'm so sorry..." She said this over and over as she cried...

...

After a few minutes, Shysage asked gently "Cel, how..."

Cel tried to calm down, but was still speaking through tears...

"A number of years later, this same stallion did the same thing, to another stallion who said stuff we guessed he didn't like. It was a month maybe before we even found out what happened, and Shining Armor tracked him down in Manehattan, and again had him in jail in Canterlot a few days later.

"What happened was basically a replay of what happened to you... He was arguing with another stallion, and ended up seriously injuring that other stallion. And when we talked to him, he was angry, he was completely uncaring and unapologetic. And again, he said it was a matter of conscience.

"And hearing all this, I was having a hard time not being angry myself. I wanted him in jail for a long time, until he learned that other ponies are as important, just as valuable as he is.

"But he had a defence advocate who walked up at this point...

"And you need to understand that the legal proceedings here in Equestria are open and transparent. The first time we released him, that was recorded, and that information was readily available to anypony else interested in legal proceedings within Equestria.

"This stallion's defense advocate pointed out, that according to our legal proceedings, this case was exactly the same as the last case, and so he said we had to let the stallion free, because that is exactly how we had handled it the last time...

Princess Celestia cried...

"In spite of what he had done... Again... We had to let him go... Again..."

Princess Celestia cried a while more...

I think Shysage rapidly figured out where this was leading. After a few minutes, he asked softly "Cel, couldn't you reverse the precedent that had been set?"

Princess Celestia, crying a little harder, tried to explain this.

"According to Equestrian law, it would take the Council of Princesses in order to reverse the precedent that I had set..."

Well, Shysage and I both knew... A Council of Princesses takes all living Princesses...

Princess Celestia cried a while, before she could go on, but I think Shysage and I both had realized... Still crying, she said simply this...

"But, Princess Twilight wouldn't... couldn't..."

I think we all cried together a little while. This legal issue happened at the worst possible time, after Princess Twilight and her girls had unraveled... Princess Twilight would be a wreck, and probably not even want to leave her Castle... And this was probably also the main reason for this late-night Canterlot Recording session...

Princess Celestia tried to go on.

"Six months later, this same stallion did the same thing. He viciously assaulted another pony, with whom he disagreed, a mare this time. We had him in jail, and another defense advocate had him out again the next day...

"The next month, we had two more cases like this. We could arrest them, but that precedent... Once the pony said 'matter of conscience', we had to let them go. And by now, I guess more and more ponies that deserved jail time, realized there were magic words...

"This whole process just snow-balled... Within a year, our jails were packed, and the guards spread all over Equerstria, whose job it was to protect Equestria's ponies... They didn't even know what to do anymore... Our guards knew their hands were tied, so they usually did nothing...

Princess Celestia of Equestria was crying hard...

"The rule of law evaporated in Equestria... A lot of innocent ponies got hurt... And we couldn't... There was just nothing... We just couldn't...

"And these bullies and bad ponies seemed totally uncaring that their actions were hurting a lot of other ponies, and destroying Equestria, too... They just... didn't... care..."

Cel and Lu both just cried a while...

...

Shysage asked quietly "And let me guess... Sometimes it was religious reasons, sometimes philosophical, sometimes ponies just blamed everything on what happened to them when they grew up... But they learned the magic phrase..."

Cel looked at Shysage with an almost incredulous look. Shysage explained to me later that the Equestria Girls world was running headlong down this same path, when he left it anyway.

Well, Cel clearly wasn't done. "Well, dad, I have no idea how you knew that..."

Shysage just quietly said something like "...nothing new under the Sun..."

Cel was clearly thinking though, then she continued.

"Well, there was a lot of all of that. But I guess, having decades to think all this through..."

Cel stopped, and tried to not cry before continuing.

"I have watched Equestria, well, from birth, I guess. And as a kingdom, we slowly grew over time. But, during all that time, it was just a lot of hard work, even surviving the next day... Everypony knew they had to do their part to help preserve Equestria. There was such a clear understanding that Equestria was the result of all of us working together.

"We really didn't need much of a written law, because we all worked together to preserve the kingdom, to preserve the way of life that we all enjoyed... and depended on...

"But in the last few generations, that all changed...

"As the population of Equestria mushroomed as it had, a growing number of ponies were growing up in our cities, and found it a lot easier to make it from day to day. I don't know, maybe they had more time. But I guess this whole process removed them from how much work it took to preserve the life we all shared. I don't think they valued Equestria, and the sacrifices it took to build the everyday life they experienced and enjoyed themselves.

"In the last few generations, well, before all this, our written law mushroomed too... It had to... We had to spell out things that were always just assumed to be wrong, for many generations...

"For over a millenia, our ponies just went out of their way to take care of each other... Now, we had to have laws to stop them from hurting each other... It was heart-breaking...

Equestria's Princesses cried together...

...

Wiping away tears, Cel sighed, then she kept going.

"Especially early on, it was clear to both Lu and I, that the vast majority of the stallions we put in jail, they were simply bullies, who somehow derived joy from hurting other ponies. It was Equestria's job to protect everypony else from them. But we increasingly had to turn these bullies loose...

"Soon after everything unraveled, most of our cities became very dangerous places. Once bad ponies realized there would probably not be any consequences, crime skyrocketed in our cities. This bully culture caused most ponies to flee the big cities, long before...

"There were exceptions. Dodge City especially comes to mind. That city was a safe place up until Eschate Zumulus and Phantasma came.

"I think the mayor of Dodge City realized what was happening, and where it was going. He immediately doubled his guard staff, and built a large prison.

"Any ponies that were brought in were quickly evaluated. If it was determined they were bullies or bad ponies, they were thrown in that jail, and left there.

"And any Unicorns that got put in that jail; they were severely warned that if they used their magic at all, their Unicorn horns would be broken. This certainly seemed barbaric, because it weakens Unicorn magic by maybe 90%... Under the circumstances though...

"And the condition inside that jail... It was just a bunch of bullies, packed together in the same cell... It seems that all bullies know is the 'law of the jungle', and, over time, many of the bullies got killed by a bigger bully... So, I guess that's how bullies work; they keep acting like a bully until somepony stronger steps in and stops them...

"The Dodge City mayor clearly ignored Equestrian law and current legal proceedings when he did that, but in so doing, he preserved the rights of the vast majority of innocent ponies in his town. The streets of Dodge City were safe, well, until Eschate Zumulus flew into town and their ponies fled..."

It was quiet for a few minutes, and Cel was deep in thought, and also fighting back tears.

...

"When Eschate Zumulus and Phantasma walked into Canterlot, Lu and I stood for Equestria before them. We couldn't fight them, of course, not just the two of us...

"But their take-over... They really did the realm a favor, and stopped what would have turned into a blood-bath, as Equestria's ponies increasingly turned on each other... Some innocent ponies, especially guards in Canterlot, were sadly killed by Phantasma...

Both princesses cried together again.

"But the vast majority of the ponies that got eaten were the same bullies that had brought Equestria down. As an appendage on Phantasma's side, I watched in amazement as bully after bully came up and complained to Phantasma, sometimes even challenging her, only to be quickly eaten or killed by her magic. Maybe she was just a bigger bully, I don't know. Well, it was clear neither monster had any concern for Equestria and our ponies..."

---

Princess Celestia of Equestria assumed a much more resolute attitude at this point.

"Dad, I have had decades to think this through. Even though I honestly was pretty sure Lu and I would die when Phantasma did, I always hoped we could fix..."

Cel and Lu cried together again. For Equestria's amazing two Princesses... Being able to start over like this...

Brushing tears away again, Cel kept going.

"Do you remember that day when we all went to the beach in that big White van in the Equestria Girls world? That afternoon, I watched some children build a house or something in the sand. As the children built whatever it was, they scooped a bunch of deep holes in the sand around them...

"The rights of the ponies of Equestria are like the smooth surface of the sand on that beach. When the surface is smooth, everypony has the same rights and privileges. This is the way it should be.

"But, in order to give anypony more rights, you have to get those rights from somewhere, which means taking rights away from other ponies around them. That's what happened in Equestria... That's what we were forced to do...

"Dad, we will not make that mistake, ever again. We believe in Equestria and our ponies. We will do whatever we can to take care of, and protect all... each one of them.

"And our ponies will just need to accept this... This whole approach has absolutely nothing to do with philosophies, religions or anything else. This is all about survival. We want Equestria to survive... And the way it was... It clearly could not, did not...

"The only way to keep bullies in check is for our guard force to be the bigger bully, who stops them. And we will do that, in order to preserve the rights of the other ponies around them.

"But that will be one of our primary roles, to protect the rights and privileges of all of the ponies in Equestria. There is, well, will be, no acceptible justification to give anypony more rights by taking away the rights of those around them. Period."

It was quiet for a minute, then Princess Luna said for both of them.

"Dad, sister and I have talked. We will never let this happen to Equestria again."

It was quiet for a minute or two. If anypony could pull this off, the two Princesses in this room could. I think Equestria was counting on that.

---

Still, what had happened in and to Equestria, really was a monstrous tragedy, perpetrated by a comparative handful... That was just so sad...

We were soon all weeping softly together, hugging tightly. We cried quietly for a while. For Cel to have carried that by herself, all these years... That must have hurt...

Still, both Cel and Lu had their Twins now. I think the future for Equestria looked a lot brighter.

We all fell asleep, in a circle together there in that room...

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