Destiny
A pony sat next to Twilight on the bench. They were about the same age, both in that awkward teenage phase when their limbs seemed slightly too long for their bodies, and even their furry coats couldn’t quite hide the occasional bout of acne. They were both unicorns, and both brushed and prepared as the well to do of Canterlot preferred. About the only difference between them was their cutie marks, and that while Twilight was purple, this mare was white.
“You’re…” Twilight’s brow furrowed. “Rarity, right?”
“Yes,” the other mare said. She paused, and seemed confused in her turn. “Have you met me before?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
A silence hung between them. “But, you’re Twilight,” Rarity said. “I mean, that’s your name.”
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. “Have you met me before?”
“No.” Rarity gave a small shake of her head. She had a bit of an accent, Twilight noticed. She sounded rural, adding a twang to the end of her words. It contrasted sharply with her proper makeup and preparation. “To be perfectly honest, I’m not even sure why I came here. This is my one day visiting Canterlot without my parents about. There are all sorts of places I should be going. And I don’t tend to favor parks.”
“I don’t like this park either. The one closer to the palace is much nicer.” Twilight looked off into the distance. There was a duck pond, and some fillies playing with their mother on its banks. In the distance, a group of stallions were playing with a frisbee. “It felt right though.”
“It has a certain charm,” Rarity agreed. Then she reached into her bag. “I made you something.”
Out of her bag, she pulled a mane clip. It was decorated with jewels, depicting one large star, surrounded by five others. “It’s your cutie mark.”
She handed it to Twilight, and Twilight put it in her mane. It clipped neatly behind her left ear. The stones blended in with her hair, and the end result was not exceptionally gaudy or eye-catching. It looked good, but simple. Something she might wear every day. “It’s very nice. Did you make it yourself?”
Rarity nodded. The two sat in silence for a time.
“The stars will aid in her escape,” Rarity said.
Then, she left. And Twilight was alone on the bench.
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Oh its getting even better!
"...and she will bring about nighttime eternal."
..... WAIT WHAT, but like how!?!?? Is Luna entering the dreams of the Mane 6 and telling them things at night? Would Luna even know about the whole thing saying that she would escape? When I was reading this story, I was under the impression of it Luna just talking to Twilight, not much if anything else being different, well other than what Luna influence has on Twilight of course. But having Rarity meet and this whole chapter really, could mean well anything. While ideas of what was just brought up with last chapter can certainly exist in cannon and could be that way to some degree at least, now I am wondering if the world is worse than cannon, or different in other ways to make it separate, since clearly things are not going the same as cannon.
Oh and thanking for updating, I was worried that this was a dead story, and this story is very interesting and just got so much more. Can't wait for the next update!
8033712
That would depend rather heavily on Celestia's origins. Was she born an Alicorn, and if not, what was her tribe? Was she born in the time of warring tribes, or perhaps during Discord's reign? I think it's letting Celestia off the hook too easily to simply assume she was a tribalist because she was raised a tribalist and has spent the previous two centuries trying to undo all the damage she unintentionally caused (or, at the very least, allowed to happen under her watch).
Well... these last 2 chapters.... mind buck just a bit...
"surrounded by give others"
...Oh, "five"?
Well. ...Huh. That was... curious. And interesting. :)
Was Rarity in an onscreen dream I'm not remembering, or did Twilight meet her offscreen?
8033930
Although few among what became known as The Council had wanted to move against her, the former Princess's increasing radicalization had left few other options. While most lay the blame for the so-called "Equality Decree" at the hooves of her latest student who had enjoyed such a great deal of access to the deposed ruler, others have pointed out that her corruption had begun some considerable time before.
"I believe my Aunt has a good heart," said newly-crowned King Blueblood, who has, thus far, rejected the death penalty for his predecessor, "It's such a shame that she allowed herself to misled. Had she accepted a son or daughter of the nobility as we had recommended to her, things might be different. But alas, not. Such a shame."
The trial of the fallen Princess and her student by The Council is expected to begin next week. The verdict is, as yet, unknown, but many among the Council - including His Majesty - have expressed desires to see the two treated leniently, despite their crimes.
Great two chapters. I wonder if this is headed towards some climax now; the Destiny chapter and skipping to age 14 is arguably the first real indication of there being an overarching plot beyond various lessons for Twilight. Will she cross paths with other friends, I wonder?
YER SO KEWL :)0
8034127
Cue wide spread revolt against the corrupt, unicorn supremacist oligarchy who would try and overthrow an insanely popular leader for trying to make things better for non-unicorns.
8033984
I think that answers that question.
8034245
They've taken control. They can now control the narative, and play up any flaws they want to. I really don't think you understand much about despotic regimes. There's a reason there hasn't been a revolution in, say, North Korea.
8034291
Unless Equestria has a free press that wont just parrot whatever the nobility tells them (especially it Celestia announced her intentions before hand so the everypony knew what her goals were). Its part of the reason IRL that the oumpa lumpa in chief his having such a hard time.
8034314
Right, because he's not willing to step on the media. He might not like them, he might not work with them, but he's not actively censoring them. If he was, believe you me, you wouldn't be hearing so much negativity about him. Does Blueblood seem the sort to respect the press, though? We're talking about a (presumably violent) transfer of power as a direct result of racism. There aren't the kind of people who inherently respect the rights of freedom of speech, and those rights are only protected as long as the government decides they're protected. After all, with all the cyber backdoors we recently learned the FBI has, do you really think they wouldn't be able to keep track and figure out exactly what was going on, and stop it before it went out? Blueblood and his council would have to instate a "political adviser" at each newspaper, but that wouldn't be much harder, honestly.
8034339
I was trying to make The Council a bit more ambiguous than the typical batch of power-mad bastards. They have no legitimacy beyond opposition to Celestia's recent agenda. One misstep and they could be the ones sitting in a dungeon awaiting trial. Move to fast and they upset their conservative base. Move too slow and their own radicals become disillusioned. It's possible that those two speeds overlap and they fall regardless of what they do.
8034433
Well yeah, but that's to internal politics, not a populist uprising. I absolutely see a group like that collapsing within a year, but not because the people rise up against them.
Well!... that's not... creepy at all...
Fluttershy, hug me!
t, oh sh
t, oh sh
t, oh sh
t!
Fluttershy: She comesss....
img08.deviantart.net/a519/i/2013/037/c/7/fluttershy_____by_xxbirthdaymousecrexx-d5u0dz5.png
Oh sh
8034246
I'm not seeing it, sorry. How?
8035063 the fact she's at a park while talking to rarity then when rarity leaves she's at a beach.
8035089
Bench.
Like, a park bench!
8035094 oh.
misread that. still i want to say that it was a dream she would likely not remember.
8034279 in Norway, where our labor union is pretty high, women stil get paid less then men. And that's on equal terms where the work is the same, the hours committed is the same and the holiday is the same. So if you have a argument that's saying women wants to have more holidays, I say that women today are just as capable to commit themselves in the labor department as men under equal protection. Oh and before you argue about childcare: in Norway we have something called: "daddies perm" witch allow fathers to take 3 month off to take care of their child, same as mothers. And both will get payed for their leave of absence.
8035089
Ah, I see GaPJaxie already took care of this, but thanks.
...Welp. I kind of expected Luna to have some influence on the dreams of the other Mane 6, but that's admittedly a bit creepy.
Nice that she arranged a present for Twilight though.
I'm happy this updated again. Great story.
Huh, it works both ways. Luna will aid in Twilight's escape, and Twilight's crew will aid in Luna's escape.
8034339 three things. One if the unicorns tried anything they would fall quickly to the other two thirds of the population. Two a free press means that unless you can censor through exucutions then you would still fail in controlling the masses. And finally three North Korea has a fairly small border which they can monitor and in what we know of the show equestria does not have a small easily patrollable border.
8038893
You don't need to execute them to be able to control them. Just look at ol' Erdogan in Turkey, he's got the press under his thumb. I don't really understand your point about the border and North Korea, you do know hundreds of people make it out of North Korea every year, right? And I'm not arguing that they'd be stable, I'm just saying you wouldn't see an immediate populist uprising.
8038908 A free press works by having people who can communicate with both the country as well as other countries which Turkish news doesn't. And North Korea is a good example of bieng easier to leave then to enter which enables the leader to control the flow of both information and people.
Woot! So happy to see more of this
8038922
Until very recently, Turkey had a free press. Then Erdogan squashed it in the aftermath of the failed coup, using the political leverage gained by defeating an armed uprising to perform acts that would have otherwise destroyed his career. If you were, say, removing a "tyrant", I'd bet you could get away with just as much.
Like I said- I'm not arguing that this would be stable. But you wouldn't see an immediate populist uprising against them. I think a group like this would be far more likely to fall into backstabbing(both literal and metaphorical) until they couldn't maintain control, at which point the country would collapse into internal strife until a strong leader was able to take over(Think France following the revolution).
8034314 For now, but if you look at it, part of the reason he's in power is because the last 20 years have seen a breaking down of bonds of civil society & trust in institutions and the media.
Thus, we can have an election where one candidate lies like crazy and a huge part of the population doesn't care. The lies can be called out left and right, and a huge part of the population doesn't care.
Trump can't move directly against the media now, but his past 2 years have been about laying groundwork for someone to do that; if not him, then perhaps a successor cut from his cloth. Regimes older than America have fallen from within.
8038922
8039094
This. Turkey is a perfect example of a country that was a functioning Democracy and has descended into Autocracy. Russia was making steps towards it, and then Putin came into power. Egypt had a chance, only the Muslim Brotherhood squandered it and then the military took over and...yea.
Institutions can be undermined until they lose power.
8039481
You'll notice in my post that I never said that we pick a leader who is "great", but one that is genuinely good, in every sense of the word. I think it's pretty clear that Celestia falls into that category. More than a thousand years of perspective will do that, I suppose.
I also notice that you keep trying to judge her situation by human standards. You're right, a president can't make huge, sweeping changes in one term, and often not in two. But if they had a hundred years instead of eight? Things would be very different, indeed.
You mention her being a "distant princess", but she's not trying to change something in some far corner of her realm, she's trying to change things in the capital, where she lives, and has lived for nearly a thousand years. No one's expecting her to change the world in a decade, but in four or five centuries? Yeah, she should be able to do a bit better than "they can read now."
And that's not even mentioning the catastrophic amount of authority she wields simply because of her popularity and her longevity. Her greatest weapon has never been her armies or her military skill, but rather her diplomatic abilities. She is, quite simply, the most skilled diplomat on the planet. If she wants something to happen, she's got the time and skill to make it happen.
And that's on top of the fact that the whole "racism" angle sort of falls apart when you remember that a significant number of the Canterlot elite are earth ponies. If anything, pegasi are the unrepresented minority in Canterlot.
8034127
8034245
8034314 I feel like you guys may be missing something: As far as we can tell the "unicorn nobility" controls one city in Equestria, and its not even the largest city. If the unicorn nobility actually overthrew Celestia based on local concerns, how many days would it take for trainfuls and blimps full of earth ponies with non-party cannons and pegasi from Cloudsdale to show up and knock Canterlot off the side of the mountain?
8040762
Perhaps more to the point, to Celestia's eyes, "Rule with the consent of the governed," doesn't just mean preventing herself from being overthrown. It means she is a genuinely popular ruler.
And she is! Who doesn't love Celestia? The unicorns know she's got their back, and she's always down in the mountain core doing something nice for earth ponies. Celestia loves all her little ponies!
8040783
Thank you!
8040762
That would depend a lot on:
- What the coup leaders try to do outside of Canterlot
- Which/how much of Celestia's agenda they try to roll back
- How popular her agenda was
- How important her role is for the functioning of the rest of Equestria
- How popular she is
- How popular The Council is in Canterlot
Coups can be very clean if the coup leaders are unified and don't rock the boat too much and they can be very, very messy if they are divided, the country is divided, and/or they try to advance radical change.
Long before there is any invasion of Canterlot, the other leaders of the country are going to be sending representatives to see who The Council is and what they want and whether they can work with them. They are going to want to meet with Celestia and see how she's being treated and what her side of the story is. And, since this is a medieval setting rather than a modern one, they are going to try to hash out a compact - probably a very complicated one - among all parties so that nobody has to die and everyone gets something that they want. This is where a lot of weird laws come from.
If they fail, a lot of ponies - including, perhaps, Celestia herself - die, Canterlot is wrecked and looted and it's inhabitants - including the Earth Ponies and Pegasi - are much worse off for it. It may or may not be better than The Council getting it's way, but it's very unlikely to be better than a negotiated solution.
8040806 That's a good point, Celestia does love her popularity. You could say she risks it by doing things like sabotaging galas where the nobles attend, but I have a suspicion that the day after the first Grand Galloping Gala, specialty newspapers throughout the lower city had front-page article along the lines of "Princess Celestia pranks snooty nobles at Gala, goes out and eats donuts with friends like an average pony."
8040867 That's a fair point. The rest of the nation, especially the earth ponies, have A)most of the wealth B)All of the food (since Canterlot is on a mountain with zero farmland) C) Most of the population, and D)Water from the Pegasi. On the other hand, without either the alicorns or the population of Canterlot, who will raise and lower the sun? If there are enough unicorns in other cities to do it, then the Equestrian equivalent of the Washington DC city council can pound sand. Otherwise, you're absolutely right, they'd probably strike a grand bargain. And I bet that grand bargain wouldn't exactly be focused on improving the lot of the ponies in Canterlot's undercity. Probably a big statement of unity and a tribal alliance agreement that promises to "finally give earth ponies a fair share," and results in more power and prestige flowing to unicorn nobility and the rulers of the big coastal earth pony cities.
Okay... no two ways to see something, just a dream?
...huh.
Well.
This certainly gets one thinking...
Hmmm...